2004: Year of the Penguin? 427
houseofmore writes "The Toronto star suggests that things are looking good for the Linux desktop this year as more heavy weight commercial vendors get behind it, including HP, Novell, IBM, Sun and... Walmart. It also mentions Red Hat's plan to offer a new corporate desktop edition of their enterprise desktop sometime this year. The article states that more and more companies are considering (and) switching to Linux for their desktop due to expensive Windows licensing fees and high-profile security vulnerabilities."
linux at large conservative org - stop the press! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No mention of SCO... (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually what star sign is Linux?
Well, as can been seen here [externet.hu], Torvalds himself is not sure. Anyway, the problem also lies in selecting a specific birthday for Linux. Perhaps the most logical choice is the release of the first version, 0.10. Torvalds has this to say about that:
Judging from the post, 0.01 wasn't actually out yet, but it's close. I'd guess the first version went out in the middle of September -91. I got some responses to this (most by mail, which I haven't saved), and I even got a few mails asking to be beta-testers for linux.
Middle of September would indicate that Linux is probably a Virgo (August 24 to September 23), but it could also possibly be a Libra (September 23 to October 23). To decide between the two, I will need to do extensive analysis of Linux's character and disposition. Or I could just flip a coin ...
Re:I know how I feel about open source (Score:2, Interesting)
In reality, I suppose it depends on how you define "innovation." Many things Microsoft has done aren't exactly 100% innovative, either. A lot of their big money makers were brain childs of another company that MS either bought and took over, or started their own and improved on what was laid before them.
I think that if one were to compare which has brought about more innovation (of MS and Linux), Linux would still be at the forefront.
Slashdot, What have you done? (Score:2, Interesting)
Windows server offers a savings of 11%-22% over Linux in 4 out of 5 workload scenarios.
How can this happen?
Re:Training Costs (Score:2, Interesting)
My perception could be completely wrong, but most Microsoft Office users I know don't have a clue how to do anything but the most rudimentary document creation in Word, or the most basic spreadsheet creation in Excel. Couple that with the incompatibility problems we run into because we aren't willing to shell out $300/year/user to upgrade to the latest greatest Office Suite and the cost of retraining seems like much less of a hurdle.
It's taken a while, but MS's stranglehold on the desktop is finally starting to slip. OpenOffice is a good product, MS's upgrades are too complicated and too expensive and, most importantly, Linux is starting to make inroads with large vendors. All of these factors will help bolster the Linux Desktop and make the "chicken and the egg" problem work against Microsoft, rather than for them.
Same could be applied to Apple (Score:3, Interesting)
Mac OS has the "obscurity factor" BUT (and it's a big but) - it is commercially available and known for a very high quality/zero virus/low maintenance - hardware and software - Linux doesn't yet have a SINGLE company that has a commercially successful hardware line AND software line.
+ Macs can run Linux too - even better in some cases - which means one could potentially have a QUASI QUAD BOOT system
Virtual PC = Windows Variants
Linux = Linux PPC or YellowDog
Mac OS X
Mac OS 9
Heck older Macs even boot BEOS well.
**TROLLS - please don't put Intego's FUD trojan alert
Games (Score:5, Interesting)
I use Linux full time as my desktop, except for the two/three times a week I decide to play a game with some friends. Then I have no choice (winex doesn't work) to boot into Windows.
As a work desktop, it more than satisfies my requirements. Honestly though, as much as I'd rather not have to, I have to keep the Windows partition to play those occasional games.
I think that the 'year of the penguin' will come around whenever game companies really start shipping titles for Linux. I think it's ironic though that if a couple of the larger PC manufacturers actually started shipping Linux, that games would be available in short order, I'm sure. Of course, neither industry wants to make the first leap.
Re:Training Costs (Score:1, Interesting)
And what you neglect to mention is the loss of procutivity inherent in the use of Microsoft's offering.
I say this as a p!ssed off Word user who just spent 1/2 the day yesterday writing a Word manual and then spent the other 1/2 day rewriting it after Word ate it! Word itself corrupted 1 table and trashed 3/4 of the document! It was only a 30 page doc with maybe a dozen graphics! Why?
This is not an isolated incident: I have been using MS Office since Win 3.1 days and this has been a "feature" of every version of Office since I started.
So, really, the question for me is becoming: do I want to spend some time reformatting docs from other people or do I want to spend my time re-creating stuff that I've already done? Believe me, if OpenOffice or StarOffice is more reliable, I'm there!
Re:running MS-Word on a Linux Machine (Score:3, Interesting)
1) OpenOffice.org [openoffice.org]
2) Crossover Office [codeweavers.com]
In order of preference
O'Reilly's Linux for Non-Geeks (Score:2, Interesting)
This is certainly a step in the right direction....
O'Reilly writes: Linux for Non-Geeks introduces you to Linux, without the technical jargon and advanced topics that you'd find in other books. You'll learn how to use Linux to do the normal, day-to-day computer stuff that you know how to do with another operating system, like connecting to and surfing the Internet, listening to CDs, playing with audio files, customizing your desktop, playing games, downloading software and fonts, printing, and more. Includes a complete installation of Fedora Linux on two CDs. [Full Description [oreilly.com]]
Re:gaaah. (Score:3, Interesting)
Words come easy - facts for Linux laptops (Score:3, Interesting)
Can (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Laptops (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Say it often enough, you will be right (Score:3, Interesting)
- Cost to the enterprise
Yes, the OS cost is insignificant compared to the other costs. However, the key market for Microsoft is the home and small-business market, where professional assistance is minimal and where the OS cost is significant.
- "Just work"
Windows 2000 needs a series of drivers to be installed before it will work with any exotic hardware. This typically means 5 or more reboot cycles to install a PC. Modern Linux distributions detect and configure most hardware as well as, and sometimes better than, Windows XP.
- "Linux is secure"
Any computer, small or large, can be cracked if it is not professionally managed, and often even if it is. The reason millions of Windows machines around the world are owned by worms is not because they have been cracked by experts, but because they are insecure unless specifically protected. The average time to infection of a new PC on the Internet is what... 5 minutes? How can anyone download the necessary patches in that time? Linux boxes are far more secure. I agree that this is a temporary advantage, but it's a real one and probably the most significant one.
- "Modest hardware"
Often because Linux applications are more portable. It's a circular thing: people choose more demanding hardware to run more sophisticated applications (like games). But this also pushes the operating system towards more complex hardware. A heavily used Linux workstation needs lots of RAM, but this is an easy upgrade. My Win2000 system is using about 450Mb of RAM and running not much more than a bunch of standard programs.
- Complexity and stability
True, the whole chain of Linux software adds up to a lot of lines of code. But I maintain that it's less complex, for two reasons. First, it's built up in layers and each layer is well-documented and modestly spec'd. Secondly, because each API is open and well argued, the whole is more stable. Windows applications tend to be much more monolithic: this makes them more complex.
To compare with making cars, modern cars are assembled from sub-componenents like entire doors, dashboards, etc. Cars used to be assembled from much smaller pieces. The larger the components, the more robust the car (and at one level, the simpler). Windows tends towards the 'make the entire car from scratch' model, while Linux tends towards the 'create subassemblies' model.
- Sufficient for common purposes
My observation is that at least 50% and possibly up to 75% of PCs are not used for anything more complex than browsing, email, playing sound and movies, p2p, and some simple games.
We have rolled out LTSP and Dekstops (Score:1, Interesting)
LTSP (Score:4, Interesting)
We are just finishing off switching over our computer network to Linux - but we didn't need to wipe windows off anyone's hard drive. Here's how we did it:
Here are the specs on the server. I have a better one being delivered soon, but this is the 'proof of concept' version:
The network currently supports 10 users, with usually 6-7 people signed on at any given time. We use Evolution as an outlook replacement, Open Office instead of MS office, and Mozilla for web browsing.
We have a pretty login screen with our company logo, and the face browser so you can click your picture to log in. Redhat's bluecurve desktop is great, and is a snap for any windows user to learn. The terminals start up WAY faster than windows ever did, and all the apps pop right up even on a pokey Pentium II machine. IN fact, my thin clients only have 64mb of memory and they work great too.
There were a few minor glitches or complaints about the UI, but in almost every case I was able to show the sales reps and employees how to get what they needed to do done.
So switching to linux CAN be done. The only drawback is when you've got windows apps that you have to use when there's no linux alternative. In our case, the accounting department makes extensive use of Quickbooks to handle our finances. We tried to emulate, use wine, crossover office, etc. but none of these solutions were either stable or robust enough to meet our needs. So I had to leave three boxes running windows so accounting can continue to use Quickbooks.
We also use our linux box as a Quake 2 server for lan parties after our weekly sales meetings! My boss is an older guy but he loves FPS shooters. The employees enjoy getting a chance to frag the pointy-haired guy every week :P