Post by mikkh on Jan 1, 2010 10:57:02 GMT
Probably not in all honesty, but the gradual awareness that there is a third alternative behind Windows and OSX (MAC) will gather momentum I think.
Linux has two main problems, first there is the sheer choice of different 'distros' available, which on one hand is good if you have the patience (and time) to try them all out - but bad in that there is no standard format or common way of doing things. Apart from command line stuff, which most newcomers want to avoid anyway.
The second problem is people themselves. The average person is scared of change and loath to adapt to different ways of doing things. What amuses me though, is if it's put out by Microsoft, it will be gradually be accepted however big the difference. Windows XP has been around for nearly nine years now and still has a huge user base of people unwilling to make the change, either because of still using ancient hardware that won't run Vista or '7' or just from sheer stubbornness.
That is over simplifying it though, there are lots of other reasons which are mostly caused by a supply and demand market. Linux can do games equally as well as Windows, but if mainstream games never appear in a native format for Linux - then you simply don't get to play them. The problem being Microsoft's DirectX dominating the games market. if OpenGL is used for games, they run on Linux too, but the games manufacturers won't or don't see a big enough profit in converting the games to use OpenGL - which would run on both systems.
It wasn't so long ago that Microsofts Java VM ruled the roost, but now Sun Java is the industry standard and that is supported in all OS's. It would only take a similar move to OpenGL to fully open the games market to long suffering Linux users.
Windows people seem to get a slightly perverted joy out of running as much security software as possible and feel almost naked in Linux. You simply can't catch Windows targeted nasties in Linux, so you don't need an army of anti everything software running. To me that is a big plus, but it's turned into a negative by some Windows users!
Happy (Linux) new year everyone
Linux has two main problems, first there is the sheer choice of different 'distros' available, which on one hand is good if you have the patience (and time) to try them all out - but bad in that there is no standard format or common way of doing things. Apart from command line stuff, which most newcomers want to avoid anyway.
The second problem is people themselves. The average person is scared of change and loath to adapt to different ways of doing things. What amuses me though, is if it's put out by Microsoft, it will be gradually be accepted however big the difference. Windows XP has been around for nearly nine years now and still has a huge user base of people unwilling to make the change, either because of still using ancient hardware that won't run Vista or '7' or just from sheer stubbornness.
That is over simplifying it though, there are lots of other reasons which are mostly caused by a supply and demand market. Linux can do games equally as well as Windows, but if mainstream games never appear in a native format for Linux - then you simply don't get to play them. The problem being Microsoft's DirectX dominating the games market. if OpenGL is used for games, they run on Linux too, but the games manufacturers won't or don't see a big enough profit in converting the games to use OpenGL - which would run on both systems.
It wasn't so long ago that Microsofts Java VM ruled the roost, but now Sun Java is the industry standard and that is supported in all OS's. It would only take a similar move to OpenGL to fully open the games market to long suffering Linux users.
Windows people seem to get a slightly perverted joy out of running as much security software as possible and feel almost naked in Linux. You simply can't catch Windows targeted nasties in Linux, so you don't need an army of anti everything software running. To me that is a big plus, but it's turned into a negative by some Windows users!
Happy (Linux) new year everyone
but it will not be long until I install linux as well. I partitioned the hard drive deliberately to dual boot to linux as well, I am just going to read your reviews to see what distro you recommend it feels like ages since I have been online and do not know if I should just install mint again.
