If you want to commit to this 2 year journey and blog here about how Microsoft or the alternatives are doing, leave us a comment. Writers who are Apple or Microsoft apologists are welcome. You do not have to agree with the prediction to write with us. All you have to do is write about who is using what and why.
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Hi, I’ve been writing about operating systems for years, and I like the idea of your blog here. I’d be happy to contribute a few articles here and there. Note that I’m mainly a Mac user at home, and mainly a Linux user at work, and I’m a linux/unix sysadmin during my day job.
I think 2011 is pretty ambitious, but it’s a worthy goal.
Who are the real cheapskates, Windows users with their ‘paid for’ software or Linux users with their ‘free’ software?
The more you look at it, the more it looks like the Windows users. First off, they do not buy Windows. It comes with the computer. They buy the computer and it is all installed for them, ready. Yes, there is a Windows tax, but, Windows users do not care about that, to them the idea of buying a computer with no OS is as absurd as buying a car with no dashboard. And the OS means Windows.
We all know that Windows is not that good at anything, not even surfing the web (viruses). If you want to do anything then that means more software – Office, Photoshop, accounts packages, games, whatever. Notionally this software costs money, but, do Windows users pay for it? In a corporate environment the software comes out of the IT budget, so that is of no consequence to the Windows user. At home the software generally is not paid for. Warez, cracks and hacks is the way to do it with Windows. Alternatively the option is to go without, to never use a decent graphics package or any other software that costs money. The third option – to pay hard cash for a shrink-wrapped box with a disc in it – is just not considered.
These same Windows users are also fairly obnoxious when it comes to the software they do use. Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange gets them all self important – they have more emails than you and only Windows Outlook software could possibly make their world possible. See, they are very busy!!! This busy activity can involve moving emails to little folders all day, replying politely to customers is way down on the list, it is more important to file their emails than reply to them. Again, this Microsoft Outlook excitement is also based on software that comes from the IT department, rather than paid for with hard earned salary. It is cheapskate, even if not seen that way.
Interestingly, this ‘must be Outlook’ thing goes out the Window as soon as a Blackberry comes along – they can forgo the huge package without even thinking about it.
When it comes to support, do Windows users pay? Nope! They get their mates to help them out. Then there are two of them trying to work out what the virus is, hacking around and generally wasting time. This is a slow process as Windows is not documented. You only have to choose the right snake oil – the stuff that promises to get rid of viruses to magically fix the PC.
Another area of cheapskate is how Windows users use their PC. They are still believers in the printed page and they squirrel their efforts away in MS Word. ‘Powerful software’ is how Office gets described, for the real power user… But, none of those Word documents is a true HTML document, you still need MS Word to view the .doc files. Anyone using Office, in particular Word, are really stuck in the nineties, the decade when MS ruled. The cheapskate Windows user hasn’t moved on from that, to write collaboratively online.
As for Macintosh users, there is a lot of upfront cash to get the Apple with some software. Sometimes an inheritance comes along for that, or daddy pays. Once bought though, that is it, end of expenditure, except for when the Mac is used by some freelance creative type. They can spend the money with Apple, MS and Adobe, having to do so if they don’t have an I.T. department.
So, the linux user. Spends no more than the Windows user and a lot less than the Mac user. But then, Macs have a shell prompt that still accepts commands, e.g. ‘vi’.
Hey! My roommate told me about this blog and she thought I might be a fit for it. I’m not employed by Microsoft, but I love their products! And I even pay for them. And I pay for other software products as well. You said you need more pro-Microsoft writers and I’d be willing to do a couple posts here and there. Let me know!
ed
I don’t work in IT. The closest I’ve come to that is freelance web design for a few sites while being a stay-at-home dad. My usual occupation is bus driver. At one time I was probably the only bus driver in the world running OS/2, and I’m sure I was the only one running Linux. I started using Linux almost nine years ago. Everyone thought I was out of my mind. I thought then that it would eventually take over, and still do. I’m not so sure it will happen by 2011, but I think it is inevitable nonetheless.
These days I have four computers, two laptops and two desktops, and everyone in my family uses Linux. The kids don’t care one way or the other about Linux or Windows. But their school is a different story. I recently donated a computer to my daughter’s kindergarten teacher. She initially refused to accept it because it had Linux on it and it didn’t have software from their approved list of programs. So, I installed Windows XP on it, and nothing else, and she accepted it. Their school is Windows-only with Office 2007, which their on line training materials say is far superior to that archaic Office 2003. Most of the curriculum teaching materials are just Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2007 how-to documents.
They recently rolled out Office 2007 district-wide while holding meetings discussing how they needed to lay off teachers, close at least one school, and cut programs. How many jobs could have been saved if they at least replaced Office 2003 with OpenOffice.org? At some point they will want to upgrade to Windows 7. There may be an opportunity to show them what Linux can do for their bottom line and their student’s educations. I hope this web site can give me ideas to help with that. I’d love to open their eyes to Linux.
I don’t know if you want the perspective of someone who doesn’t work in IT and is not an expert with computers, but I’d be willing to write from time to time if you do.
When I recently learned that ubuntu had appointed a new COO, I was quite optimistic that a big push would be coming to clean up the little useability nits that still stand in the way of ubuntu becoming mainsteam, as well as perhaps some enhanced marketing.
Reading today’s Slashdot article, I see that the initial impression by the Slashdot crowd of Matt Asay was not very positive. See –
http://interviews.slashdot.org/story/10/03/02/186206/Matt-Asay-Answers-Your-Questions-About-Ubuntu-and-Canonical?art_pos=8
I know that Slashdot can be a tough crowd. It seems like the major gripes were gaming and KDE, neither of which interest me very much.
Is Matt Asay’s appointment a good thing for ubuntu? I am still hopeful. Beth Lynn’s bet is not specific to ubuntu, but it seemed to be the most likely distro to push her over the finish line.
An interesting quote by mollog from today’s Slashdot discussion of OS/2:
“And people who believe that Microsoft will continue to dominate clearly don’t remember how it used to be that IBM dominated the market. IBM is still important, but it’s turn as being number one is over. Microsoft, too, will fade. Its importance as a operating system is waning as the use of computers becomes network focused. Even with all its experience with writing operating systems, and its dominance of the operating system market, Microsoft couldn’t make inroads into new markets such as cell phones and mobile devices.
“Microsoft is a one-trick pony and that trick is being upstaged by actors who are far better.”
Full article at: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/04/14/1548238/Is-OS2-Coming-Back