Re: windows future

[Rohit Patnaik <quanticle () gmail com>]

To be fair, Linux has come a very long way in that regard. I purchased 
an Asus Eee 900 with Linux preinstalled, and everything worked right out 
of the box. Flash, Java, OpenOffice, the works. It was a vindication of 
my view that the real obstacle to Linux on the desktop isn't the user, 
but rather the OEM.

With low-cost, low-power netbooks becoming more prevalent, OEMs are 
finding that the cost of the Windows license begins to take up a rather 
high percentage of the overall cost.  Therefore, many are preinstalling 
and preconfiguring Linux. At the same time, consumers are finding that 
application incompatibilities don't really matter for them, since the 
Linux equivalents are able to handle data coming from a Windows box with 
a minimum of fuss.

--Rohit Patnaik

Paul Schmehl wrote:
> --On Friday, August 28, 2009 09:32:45 -0500 lsi <stuart () cyberdelix net> wrote:
>   
> > The world will awaken from the 20+ year nightmare that was Windows,
> > made possible only by manipulative market practices, driven by greed,
> > and discover the only reason it was wracked with malware, was because
> > it had all its eggs in one basket.
> >
> >     
>
> That's crazy talk.  I hate Windows as much as the next guy, but there's a 
> reason they have such a large market share and it's not *just* manipulative 
> market practices.  Most people outside the insular geek world use computers to 
> perform tasks for them.  They think of the computer as a tool, and they expect 
> it to do the job they want without getting in the way or requiring them to 
> learn to count in hex.
>
> When someone else comes up with a system that has excellent graphics, runs 
> Flash and other things without complaint, and "just works" without expecting 
> them to lift the hood and diagnose problems, doesn't require them to install 
> all sorts of "extras" to have a working system *and* is priced competitively 
> with Windows, they will buy it.
>
> Macs are competitive with Windows in every category except one; price.  And by 
> price I mean the cost of walking into a store and walking out with a working 
> system.  Apple's biggest mistake has always been trying to "hoard" the hardware 
> market for their OS - the same mistake Sun makes - which drives up the price 
> and makes them less competitive.  Unix (really Linux mostly) is getting there 
> but still has a ways to go.
>
> I say these things as a hard core Unix user who loves FreeBSD.  There are many 
> reasons that I love FreeBSD and use it exclusively when I can, but things like 
> making Flash work are not for the faint of heart.
>
> It won't be the malware that will drive people *away* from Windows (if it was 
> they would have been driven away long ago), it will be the (dare I say it?) 
> user friendliness of a system *and* price competitiveness that will *attract* 
> buyers to it.
>
> BTW, your comments about crackers and ecosystems are several years behind.  The 
> current "technology" crackers are using to great success is social engineering. 
> Actually breaking into systems is almost passe these days.
>
>   

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