Could Linux replace Windows If..

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

For me Linux doesn't give me anything I need so Cedega is actually a bad reason to switch.

But it removes one of the reasons not to switch, provided the game works anyway.

But as I've said, gaming is not the reason why I don't use Linux.

I have 4 desktops. Like I said, I do customize my GUI. 4 desktops = good for development

All of the multiple desktop tools for Windows that I tried suck. And explorer has no Window memory so every time you restart you have to reposition everything.

I don't use Explorer Have you tried Litestep? I'm loving it, been using it for years. Multiple desktops, full customizability, thousands of themes, etc.

Well they are up to 2-button mice now and I don't use wifi. I've never wanted more than 2 buttons and I'm not a fan of wireless, so these things aren't problems for me either.

Yea a friend of mine just bought a new G5 and it came with a mouse with a little nipple-scroll thing and two buttons on the side. I guess it's an improvement although it's still not as good as my Logitech mouse. And as for wifi, it's indespensible when you're on the road.

I've heard good and bad about the mighty mouse. Truthfully, the scrolling is pretty retarded, but they are more concerned with looks than functionality, always have been. Still, you could always plug your logitech in. I just have an intellimouse I've had for years, could use a new mouse really.

So wifi is really only important for their laptops then?

 

[Nothinman]

I don't use Explorer Have you tried Litestep? I'm loving it, been using it for years. Multiple desktops, full customizability, thousands of themes, etc.

Maybe years ago, not recently. I only have 1 Windows installation and I touch it like 4 times a year so I'm in no hurry to waste time customizing it. I did try bb4win a while back and while it wasn't bad I had some issues with multiple desktops and focus that I can't remember the specifics of right now.

I've heard good and bad about the mighty mouse. Truthfully, the scrolling is pretty retarded, but they are more concerned with looks than functionality, always have been. Still, you could always plug your logitech in. I just have an intellimouse I've had for years, could use a new mouse really.

I know I can use any USB mouse, but I'd have to get another mouse from somewhere and paying extra for a new one after I just paid $3000 for a new system seems stupid.

So wifi is really only important for their laptops then?

Depends on your setup. Wifi could be really useful for a desktop if you don't want to wire your house. A few years ago that same friend put a PCI wifi card in his mother's PC so she could use his Internet connection from other house. But most people using wifi use them with mobile devices, it sucks carrying around a cat5 cable and looking for a network connection all of the time.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I've heard good and bad about the mighty mouse. Truthfully, the scrolling is pretty retarded, but they are more concerned with looks than functionality, always have been. Still, you could always plug your logitech in. I just have an intellimouse I've had for years, could use a new mouse really.

I know I can use any USB mouse, but I'd have to get another mouse from somewhere and paying extra for a new one after I just paid $3000 for a new system seems stupid.

$3000?!?! What are you buying??? Quad G5?

 

[Nothinman]

$3000?!?! What are you buying??? Quad G5?

I think it was a dual, $2500 + more memory + apple care. Keep in mind that it was bought at CompUSA and was one of the just released models that's all PCI-X.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

$3000?!?! What are you buying??? Quad G5?

I think it was a dual, $2500 + more memory + apple care. Keep in mind that it was bought at CompUSA and was one of the just released models that's all PCI-X.

Well I understand more memory, that's the first thing I go for. 2GB or more. But apple care? Pfft, I don't need that. Just throw the thng away and get a new one when I'm done, right?

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: Malak

Originally posted by: Nothinman

$3000?!?! What are you buying??? Quad G5?

I think it was a dual, $2500 + more memory + apple care. Keep in mind that it was bought at CompUSA and was one of the just released models that's all PCI-X.

Well I understand more memory, that's the first thing I go for. 2GB or more. But apple care? Pfft, I don't need that. Just throw the thng away and get a new one when I'm done, right?

Well... if your can afford to pay 2500 dollars on a PC then having the applecare is actually a good idea. It's nice to be able to just get a replacement computer if something screws up.

After all the apple support and apple software is the only real reason to buy something like a powermac.

Trouble with Apples is that you can get a computer that is as fast or faster and just as high quality for about 50-70% of the price. Plus I think PCI express is better then PCI-X. I would suck to buy a bunch of PCI-X stuff only to find out they are obselete with the death of the PPC PowerMac.

 

[Nothinman]

Well I understand more memory, that's the first thing I go for. 2GB or more. But apple care? Pfft, I don't need that. Just throw the thng away and get a new one when I'm done, right?

It wasn't my decision, as I said it was my friend who bought it. And IMO a good warranty isn't a bad idea when you've already spent that much money.

Plus I think PCI express is better then PCI-X. I would suck to buy a bunch of PCI-X stuff only to find out they are obselete with the death of the PPC PowerMac.

It is PCI Express, I always get the two confused.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Well I understand more memory, that's the first thing I go for. 2GB or more. But apple care? Pfft, I don't need that. Just throw the thng away and get a new one when I'm done, right?

It wasn't my decision, as I said it was my friend who bought it. And IMO a good warranty isn't a bad idea when you've already spent that much money.

Plus I think PCI express is better then PCI-X. I would suck to buy a bunch of PCI-X stuff only to find out they are obselete with the death of the PPC PowerMac.

It is PCI Express, I always get the two confused.

Oh, ok. I know earlier Macs came with PCI-X, so I thought that wasn't tooo weird.

 

[LokeanSon]

Originally posted by: gsellis
OK, I have waited long enough for all of you to get it out of your systems. If you really want Linux to take over over Windows, start hoping that Mt. Rainer destroys Redmond. That is about the only scenario that had good odds that I could come up with. Next on the list was a asteroid impact

I can think of a more likely scenario... We enter into a prolonged global recession, or God forbid, a depression, and that could and very likely would, barring some miracle must have innovation on Microsofts part, be the beginning of the end for Windows.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: LokeanSon

Originally posted by: gsellis
OK, I have waited long enough for all of you to get it out of your systems. If you really want Linux to take over over Windows, start hoping that Mt. Rainer destroys Redmond. That is about the only scenario that had good odds that I could come up with. Next on the list was a asteroid impact

I can think of a more likely scenario... We enter into a prolonged global recession, or God forbid, a depression, and that could and very likely would, barring some miracle must have innovation on Microsofts part, be the beginning of the end for Windows.

Well... with the OSDL meeting there was a company called 'NeoWare' that was hired by large retailer to roll out desktop changes. They replaced around 20,000 Windows desktops with Linux desktops in a large retail chain. http://kegel.com/osdl/da05.html

Costs ended up being 1/4th of what it cost in Windows. The company saved as much money as it cost to open up a entire new retail outlet.

All stuff is done from central management. No user filesare stored on the desktop so to install Linux they forced a netboot on the clients that ran a script that formatted Windows away and installed Linux.

The future of Linux desktop in the business could be something similar to this.

For instance you have the 'Stateless Linux' project from Fedora/Redhat people. It should be in the next release of Fedora Core 5. As well as Xen and other neat stuff.

Basicly the goal is to run your desktops in a easy to manage way.

You'd have several levels. Some people would use X terminals. Other people would have 'fatter' clients that run similar to Knoppix. You do a read-only root that is booted and installed over the network and you use local disk space for user files and configurations.. then all that stuff is backed up. Then you'd have people that have similar things with laptops, but are setup to run seperated from the network.

The idea is that you could walk up to any random PC, grab it out from infront of somebody, toss it out the window, and then put a new one in front of them.. that would boot, install the OS, and then have the user log in and be like nothing ever happenned with no data loss or loss in configuration. All within a few minutes.

(with hardware that has good support by open source drivers this is dead easy, but you just can't take any random stuff and expect it to work so well.)

If they get all that running well and get good central user management setup then it would be considurably cheaper and easier to deploy Linux on a large number for desktops then Windows.

Customizability and central management is the key. X Windows helps with this, no licensing hell helps with this, virtualization technology helps, open source helps with this, disposable hardware helps with this.

But there are a lot of 'ifs' there and it's not going to help much for home desktop in the short term.

In the long term the idea is that people want to use what they have at work at home. People would ask about Linux compatability when buying computers and would ask about Linux compatability with games and such. It would give manufacturers and ISVs bigger reasons to support linux at home desktops.

 

[LokeanSon]

Drag - That's all good stuff, thanks for the link. IMO though, where the most advanced distros are today as far as useability on the desktop is more than adequate for a prolonged recession to spur adoption. Take that money that company saved, apply it across corporate America. Now take the 250 bucks a person saves by not buying windows on their computer(based on OS plus Office), that equals real savings in an environment where recession psychology is prevalent. That's the key to understanding the feasibility of the scenario I'm talking about, the psychology of buyers of any given product, including computers, changes fundamentally during a recession. What mattered before, takes backseat to cost.

Anyway, just a scenario. Time will tell, it always does.