Check out this excellent article on Desktop Linux. It's essentially unbiased - the author is obviously supportive of Linux (specifically Ubuntu) as better than Windows, but he still admits where Linux is not yet ready for the desktop - file compatibility with Microsoft Office file formats. This of course, is entirely due to Microsoft, and as more people move away from the closed "standards" to the international ISO standards such as ODF, this is getting top be less of an issue.
Anyway, this is an excellent article for anyone to read, whether you are happy with Windows or not (and who is happy with Windows?) Just remember that besides Ubuntu, there is also SuSE, which offers excellent Windows compatability, as well as enterprise support and server editions.
Running a business on desktop Linux
4 comments:
Until they address the compatibility issue, Linux will never break into the business machine market. Can you blame Microsoft for fighting the competition? I don't. I would do the same thing.
So would I, but not in the way that Microsoft has. I would probably make an open standard, invite everyone to use it, and make it actually *useful*, thus spreading it somewhat "virally". But of course, Microsoft has a long history of monopolistic strategy, and you can't really blame them, in a business sense, for leveraging that monopoly. It's just not nice though. :D
I don't know much about linux but I bought a Mac when I decided to upgrade my laptop to a new version and I haven't looked back since. Now I never get any of the problems that I used to have on Windows. If linux can do the same thing I don't see any reason why it shouldn't become a good replacement for Windows
You know, Mac is actually based on Linux! Underneath the UI there is essentially a linux/unix distro called "Darwin". So, Mac and Linux are very similar, just their GUIs are slightly different. I think it's time that people recognised that Mac and Linux are both extremely reasonable alternatives to Windows, and then we should see Microsoft starting to actually innovate in order to stay in the lead.
Anyway, that's my ideal world! ;)
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