Linux Can't Kill Windows

nberardi writes "Infoworld is running an article in which the author claims 'Linux is established and has a niche that, as various pendulums swing, will grow and shrink. Show me charts and stats and benchmarks that prove Linux superior to Windows in every measure and I'll not argue with you. But no matter how much money and dedication is poured into Linux, it will never put a dent in Windows' mind share or market share because Linux is an operating system, a way -- and probably the best way -- to make system hardware do what it's told. But you can't turn Linux into a platform even if you brand it, box it, and put a pricey sticker on it.'"

Excellent Article!

[bigtallmofo]

Let's start with the unsensational headline of "Linux Can't Kill Windows", follow through the article to no rational arguments as to why this is, and ending with a "Stay tuned; I'll tell you all about it."

Seems like a well-thought out article that certainly wasn't created for the purpose of increasing impressions or generating clicks to advertisers on the site.

Re:Long term impact

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't read the article.

you must be old here.

Re:Excellent Article!

[leuk_he]

And /. and even you who read the misses the whole point he tried to make:

"here is only one platform that can stand toe-to-toe with Windows, and that's the combination of OS X and Java."

All the other part is a troll/ Sarcasiscally/flaimbait material to get your attention. In other words, excellent slash front page material.

Re:I disagree

[paulhar]

> What does branding it, boxing it and putting on a price tag, have to do with a tool doing a job?

Who? The editor?

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

It won't kill Windows. But it certainly will kill BSD. BSD is dying.

Re:Excellent Article!

[TripMaster Monkey]

All the other part is a troll/ Sarcasiscally/flaimbait material to get your attention. In other words, excellent slash front page material.

Mabye this is why I can't seem to get a submission accepted...I'm just not being inflammatory enough.

Re:This article is -1 flamebait

[Andrewkov]

Well, look at the bright side, at least we haven't seen this one before!

Re:If you want to RTFA, but give no ad click bonus

[Cronky]

Nice one.... Well nice bit of copyright infringement (??) anyway ;-)

Why should it try?

[thryllkill]

I watched windows kill itself on my buddy's laptop twice tonight.

I can't believe no one made this joke yet.

[Knights who say 'INT]

Step 1. Run Bochs or VMWare.

Step 2. Install Windows on [Bochs|VMWare] environment.

Step 3. Run it.

Step 4. kill -9 `ps ax | grep [bochs|vmware]

Step 5. Sing "tadaaaa".

Step 6. Skip the question marks and profit.

Re:Long term impact

[tm2b]

Who knows where Linux will be in 20 years?

It will be obsoleted by the Hurd. I would be more interested in the advancement of Free Software.

The first time I heard someone talking about how the HURD would kick every other Unix's ass was from RMS at a party... in 1990.

RE: Linux Can't Kill Windows

[Lehk228]

Linux Can't Kill Windows

I see someone didn't try to dual boot Fedora Core 2

Re:I think he's right

[ThJ]

What's this DLL hell everyone speaks of? I know what it would implicate, but I've never in my life had a DLL problem such as that in Windows.

Re:Long term impact

[Vinnie_333]

Who knows where Linux will be in 20 years?

It will be replaced by mentats.

Re:This article is -1 flamebait

[AllUsernamesAreGone]

Yet.

Give them chance.

Re:Excellent Article!

[millennial]

"Self-Contained" means that everything you need should be in the operating system. Like a media player, a web browser, an e-mail client, an IM client, a basic Word(Pad) processor, a notepad...

They're all integral parts of the OS, after all.

Re:Excellent Article!

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Down-time isn't predictable in Linux.

Re:Excellent Article!

[IWorkForMorons]

Buzzwords? Inflammitory headline with no real story? Maybe he didn't write it at all. [slashdot.org]

Even with the -9 switch?

[selectspec]

You can kill almost anything with the -9 switch.

Re:You should be optimisitic

[hepwori]

Most likely they will use the mouse as a slingshot and head back into the jungle.

Reminds me of this Onion article [iranian.com].

KABINDA, ZAIRE--In a move IBM offices are hailing as a major step in the company's ongoing worldwide telecommunications revolution, M'wana Ndeti, a member of Zaire's Bantu tribe, used an IBM global uplink network modem yesterday to crush a nut.

...

According to Ndeti, of the modem's many powerful features, most impressive was its hard plastic casing, which easily sustained several minutes of vigorous pounding against a large stone. "I put the nut on a rock, and I hit it with the modem," Ndeti said. "The modem did not break. It is a good modem."

Re:Excellent Article!

[sammy baby]

I think you have it slightly backwards - it's the articles that are usually trollish. The writeups should be highly credulous. Here's an example:

OMG!!! i just red that linus totally bitch slapped tridge, took his milk money, and called him a no skilz pozer! and the guy from bitkeeper wuz all like, ha ha, you suck!

Fun for the whole family.

Re:Excellent Article!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're also not being Roland Piquepaille enough.

Re:Long term impact

[hawkeye_82]

..... would kick every other Unix's ass was from RMS at a party... in 1990

My God!!! RMS was at a party???

No way

[Mr. Underbridge]

Doesn't this article give the feeling the author has no clue about what he is talking about and has just put together some buzzwords like scalable, self-contained to create a controversial article?

No, the problem is that you aren't being sufficiently proactive in shifting your paradigm to thinking outside the box like the author clearly has. What does scalability mean? I don't know, but I saw an IBM commercial about it during the Super Bowl, so I figure that qualifies me to write an article about it.

Re:Long term impact

[caluml]

You party with RMS? That's either cool, or very, very sad. :)

Re:I think he's right

[Anonymous Coward]

The 'stupid fundamentalism' being perpetuated by those 'ignorant crazies' whose primary drive is keep Free Software Free?

Those near-sighted bastards.....

It's happening...again...

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows was never going to kill DOS because DOS had all these applications and people already knew how to use them. In addition, users had to use different software and buy one of those mouse things that only Apple users cared about.

So, Windows will never kill DOS. It may gain a small market share of techno-geeks that just like playing with the newest toys, but, the majority of the market will stay with what they already know.

Oh, wait...

Re:Excellent Article!

[_xeno_]

Of course it is, but like all things in Linux, it requires a bit of effort to get working.

Just add "0 0 * * * /sbin/poweroff" to your Crontab, and then you'll get your daily downtime, right on schedule too! More dedicated users may want to write a custom script to directly tell the UPS to poweroff, thereby allowing for the expected corrupted hard drives and fscks.

Why Linux is necessary, example 138,749,374,937

[Simonetta]

I typed the above message into Microsoft Word 2000 in order to use the integrated spelling checker.
When I cut and pasted the text from Word to the Slashdot message text box, none of the apostrophes transferred correctly. All the "don't" and "won't" became "dont" and "wont".
Any operating system that makes its users look illiterate is doomed. It's just a matter of time.

Re:I disagree

[hey!]

That sounds like an advertisement:

Announcer: We're here at the Vigneswara Call Processing Center in Bangalore, India, where we've secretly replaced the customer service reps' Windows XP with Linux. Let's listen in.

Operator: Wow! That went completely smoothly.

Announcer: Did you know we replaced your Windows with Linux?

Operator: Impossible! Where's the bitter CLI taste?

Announcer (tapping the keyboard a few times): Right here!

Operator: Amazing! Can I work a third consecutive shift please?

Supervisor (shocked): they never ask for a third shift with Windows!

Re:I think he's right

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes Linux IS all about choice. . . unless you choose something other than what the "masses" use. Then you are ridiculed for your choice :)

"What, you use fedora core. . . why are you using such a dumb and bloated distro? You must be some noob moron who can't think for themselves"

"What, you use GENTOO!!! Man I guess you must be a glutton for punishment and some kind of stupid anal retentive nut job who likes to do everything in the most difficult and painful manner possible"

"What, you prefer vi over nano!!! Man what are you, some kind of idiot who's a glutton for pain!!??!!??"

Re:Excellent Article!

[dmaxwell]

Use /dev/random to generate the scheduling numbers and then we can really start getting that Windows feeling.

Re:User interfaces are important, though

[kaustik]

Well, from the looks of your website, perhaps you should have ran for the hills as well.

Re:Linux is the rebellion of the intellectuals

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Linux is the manifestation of Ayn Rand's 'rebellion of the intellect' projected in Atlas Shrugged.

I was surprised for a second to see what is half-correctly described as a "Communist" project in the role of something from Rand. Then I realized that you're correct. The strike doesn't need to involve a laissez-faire economy; it just requires a radical change from the corrupt status quo. If that's a change from a monopolized market economy to an open-source change of ideas, so be it. The strikers still refuse to work with the Old Guard.

The one thing they need now is the concept of "intellectual property." Companies today, e.g., SCO, go so far as to claim that IP cannot be voluntarily freed (remember "the GPL violates the copyright clause of the Constitution"?), just as those from AS tried to force Rearden to release his rights to Rearden Metal. Those from Galt's Gulch set up a system strongly based on private property; the OSS hackers have a system based on voluntary and unrecompensed donations to the community. It may be the opposite economy, but it's the same underlying idea.

When we see the blinkenlights of New York go out from the next Windows vulnerability, we will know that our job is done.