Windows (or lack of)

[Rakesh]

Hi guys,

I've been Windows-free for almost 2 years now.

I have a Macbook for work and Linux-based desktop at home.

The absolutely best way I can see to reduce the security threat is....not to run WIndows.

Instead I see mandatory installation of security suites, crippling the machine its on with constant nagging updates all the time.

What am I missing out on? I do most stuff in a browser, my IDE runs on Mac/Linux and OpenOffice is Good Enough(tm).

I understand corporates thrusting Windows on their employees, but why is the consumer market also dominated by Windows?

Rakesh

[Emilis]

I can explain how it is in my immediate family circle and maybe that can be extrapolated further.

Starting with me, I use linux laptop for work and windows desktop for home. I find linux to be a much better OS for doing development than windows, however, being an avid gamer, I had no choice but to stick with windows at home.

I tried to switch my farther to linux on his laptop, however, he always finds some obscure application for his audio setup at home (borderline audiophile), which only barely functions under windows xp. It was just simpler for myself to leave him be.

My mom does not mind the OS, in fact, she does not even know what OS is. However she constantly switches between the desktop and farther's laptop and has trouble working with two different UIs. So now she is also using windows XP on desktop.

My sister is studying at the university and naturally has to write a lot of documents, Most people use MS office for that and interoperability between libre and ms office suits is just terrible. She also said, she prefers Microsoft one over Libre. As you might have guessed it, she is using windows now.

I convinced my cousins to try linux once. The very next day, they realised that most of the games that they play don't work under linux, they switched back.

My grandmother's computer is looked after by my cousins and they are less interested in computers than myself, and since they use familiar windows, grandma uses windows as well.

One of my colleagues at work actually likes windows 8. Everyone can have their opinion right...

Company actually has extremely terrible linux support for tools. I actually have to figure out ways to make things like VPN work myself, as IT support can't do it for me. So other colleagues, choose to spend time working on code, rather than fiddling with linux config files. As far as I'm aware, most don't have desktop computers at home, other than work laptop. And like my cousins, they are probably less interested in having linux at home, so their children are using windows on their computers.

tl;dr Linux has poor support for pc games, popular software suits and niche consumer applications. It is also unfamiliar to most users and therefore complicated to administer. Finally, most people have other interests than operating systems and windows fulfils their needs just fine.

[Fabrizio Giudici]

On Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:34:45 +0100, Emilis <emilis....@gmail.com>
wrote:

> tl;dr Linux has poor support for pc games, popular software suits and
> niche
> consumer applications. It is also unfamiliar to most users and therefore
> complicated to administer. Finally, most people have other interests than
> operating systems and windows fulfils their needs just fine.

Agreed. My further 2 cents is that Linux lacks also support for serious
photography (but even semi-serious), hence my personal need to use Mac OS
X. We can say that for most customerish activities, Linux has been a
failure, and after so many years I'm really annoyed about that. So no
worry that when you move out engineering tasks, people go either for Mac
OS X or Windows (IMHO Mac OS X is much better, but Windows has improved in
the years - excluding Windows 8 which is still a funny thing to me - and I
understand that most people don't want to spend big bucks for Apple gear,
or prefer enjoying a much broader gamma of products).


--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect @ Tidalwave s.a.s.
"We make Java work. Everywhere."
http://tidalwave.it/fabrizio/blog - fabrizio...@tidalwave.it

[phil swenson]

There are a handful of reasons why windows dominates for consumers:
- much cheaper than mac
- inertia
- perception that mac doesn't have enough software

I definitely wouldn't recommend linux for an average joe. Any printer
or peripheral you buy may not work with linux. Example: I bought a
logitech remote a few weeks ago - you simply can't configure it with
linux (uses silverlight as it's UI sadly). Winodws/Mac only.

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Java Posse" group.
> To post to this group, send email to java...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> javaposse+...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.