The next question that follows.

Many Microsoft cyber warriors are obviously volunteer evangelists, who knows what is their motivation.

But, does Microsoft actually employ a room full of bloggers who roam the net making negative comments? The sheer unrelenting intensity of comment makes you wonder. And the same comments over and over. It does not matter how many times a GNU/Linux advocate points out that the command line is not required to install software or configure the system, someone always jumps in with a too hard because of command line comment. And do not bother with any retort about the Windows shell, it will be ignored.

In nearly every story of Linux on netbooks some clown will pipe up with "but Linux can't play games", as if anyone in their right mind would play 3d games on a netbook. And even with the new Nvidia Ion based netbooks the gamers will still only be a tiny percentage - and welcome to use XP (no one makes you change). Ditto the full version of Photoshop.

I also wonder how many Ubuntu baggers, who claim to be Debian or Fedora fans, are really just doing Microsoft's dirty work. If you start discussing anything deep or technical they usually stop posting or resort to ranting about nothing.

Calm, rational response is the only way to answer.

I know there's a script they use. So many comments have the same phrases, use a similar approach. There is another aspect of this cybercombat: We are allegedly outnumbered 89 to 1, yet we often outnumber them in the comment sections. What's up with that? Could it be the Linux percentage of the desktop is much larger than "almost 1%"? I have another theory (not that we are not larger than 1%). Windows users mostly don't know or even care what they are using. That leaves the Microsoft partners do defend their beloved income.

"Many Microsoft cyber warriors are obviously volunteer evangelists, who knows what is their motivation.?

As far as their motivation is concerned, I have this pet theory. A lot of these anti-Linux zealots happen to be "power users" and "Windows gurus". They know every trick, DLL and registry hack like the backs of their hands, and they sort of like their view from the top. They've got so much time, mindshare and (probably) money invested in the Microsoft ecosystem that these folks are firmly entrenched.

Now comes this (relatively speaking) new kid on the block in the form of Linux. It's fully capable of doing everything Windows does (and more), does it so much more efficiently, and doesn't cost a darned thing (in most cases). If Linux were to ever catch on and reach critical mass then these same gurus and power users would have to basically start over right back at the bottom of the learning curve with the rest of the great unwashed masses; plus, there's the possibility that all their time, money and mindshare was wasted on an inferior product.

Some folks' egos just can't take that kind of hit.

I have been using Ubuntu since 4.10. I have been using Debian and Ubuntu almost exclusively for about 3 years. I now use 8.04 LTS on my Dell 1420.

I work as a volunteer for a charity. I check and repair donated computers that are put into our store and sold at very reasonable prices. The computers are usually PIII 800 and above. Recently I put a computer in the store for $20 with 512 MB memory and a 10 GB hard drive with Ubuntu 9.04 installed. It ran fine on the bench but when they hooked it to a monitor in the store the whole video went bad. If this happens every time monitors are changed I sure can't recommend or use Ubuntu for the public.

Yes, I did try to reconfigure xorg which made things much worse. No, I wouldn't expect any of our customers to know how to reconfigure xorg. There might be solutions but there are no REAL WORLD solutions.

Earl

Eh, I try not to worry too much about it.

But then I think it's silly to prosthelytize either for or against an operating system anyway. Most of us are not going to change someone's mind about their desktop preference anyway. It's software, not a religion or political party. Choose what's right for you and let the technology stand on its own merits.

All I know is that I am just tired of every linux version being followed by the comment "Linux is finally ready for the desktop"

Well even a Newbie like me can Install Lenny without the Command Line and after you read a few lines you can even setup your Video drivers, had more trouble over the many Years with Windows and all the Money I spend on it.

Tow-three years back I was curios, what is free linux and the much hyped quote "Free as in beer". I tried knoppix and after sometime ubuntu.

Frankly speacking I am not a geek and want to use something which I can install out of box without using linux scripting or any customization.

My experience with Linux:
Knoppix got installed but was giving me some problem with sound card and wifi [deliberatly I have not mentioned my laptop brand/model here].
I was bit frustrated due tot the above I did not have a LAN cord which I can use to connect and then do some fix. I had to go back to windows to do the research. BAD ENOUGH

Then came ubuntu, live cd itself detected everything and I was statisfied and installed it. Everything was perfect, except volume was very low.

Now comes the real obvious trouble, I was not able to play many music and video file formats nor my favourite DVDs.

My question why is it so, it works on windows, Mac software why not on linux. I know what linux cult(sorry to use this word but linux geek should be proud of this) will say, legally they will say that these are propritery formats, so that's not free and can not be included in the free distribution. I agree totally with that because even this free is not charity just like google providing 1 GB of free mailbox space.

Other people will say you can use some packages and download them and it will work for all the music format and dvd, but that is illigal in some (read some as many) contries.

Other problem, ubuntu 7 worked on my laptop but when I installed the latest version, it did not recognized my graphic card and started in command mode, it was enough for me to stop then and there itself.

These days many OEM are coming up with pre installed linux machines, that's a good news, I have not used any till now but can you tell me whether all the avi, mpg etc which runs on windows will run on that?????

I also request the whole linux community not to taint windows but to improve linux distros, these days I am fiding that while opening some file, few distros hangs and I need to close them forcefully. Isn't linux going in the same direction as windows (leave cost factor here)

Lastly you should give windows at least the credit which made computers for everyone with it GUI front, apple guys may say we have better gui but that is another discussion in itself.

Also please let me know if microsoft opens its code to the community how linux guru will react? Are they going to embrace that as part of strong linux open community or will that also have same community support as open solaris.

Of course Microsoft has a perception management team and specifically targets Web 2.0 sites like Digg and Reddit. Some of this is outsourced as well. It is felt inside MS that the reason why Vista failed was that on Web 2.0 sites it became fashionable to bad mouth the OS, this turned in to group think and thus the OS failed. Seriously, that is the belief and there is at least some merit to it. Lets be real, Vista is just not as bad as it is painted.

Now contrast that to Windows 7; Microsoft have spent a lot of money manipulating user generated content sites to hype the OS. Let me tell you, it is not so much different from Vista but the perception is that is it much better. Again, lets be real, Windows 7 is just Vista with some UI tweaks and [b]much[/b] better marketing.

Watch for the talking points used, this is starting now but will be pushed harder after Win7 is released, I would expect "Windows 7 is the death blow to Linux on the desktop" will be a favourite.

I think it is poor form for MS to manipulate sites like Digg, there will be a backlash when the users figure it out.

I have a blog that is notoriously pro-Linux and pro-FOSS. It helps when you counter an argument posed by these astroturfers by providing proof and links to sites that debunk that argument. In that case, astroturfing simply backfires.

For that purpose I have a database with links to counter most arguments. Research? I got one. Technical excellence? I got one. Innovation? I got one.

Ridiculing the SOFUD helps too. I've published a few posts on that one and keep them for reference when some dodo comes along and tries the same old trick. Just keep on bashing, it shuts them up, believe me.

Hans Bezemer

@Saurabh

Give Mandriva One a try. It might just meet your needs.
It's free, it has all the proprietary drivers in with it and it astonishingly easy to install.

The second part of the answer is this - a "vanilla install" (just an install from the Windows setup disk) of Windows will leave you with a largely unusable system. Many third party drivers and addons would be needed for the "full functionality" that you think of as "out of the box" behaviour for Windows.

Microsoft are a grubby bunch. They drag the whole tone of IT down to gutter level with their furious insistence on everything being on their terms.

"Richard Chapman said:
... There is another aspect of this cybercombat: We are allegedly outnumbered 89 to 1, yet we often outnumber them in the comment sections. What's up with that? ..."

They are probably busy rebooting their machines most of the time ...

GNU Linux is getting more and more popular, GNU Linux does not need promotion. But as long as more computers are not sold with Linux built-in the progression will be slow.

Lord Keynes, in the 1930's, understood the issue. Regarding economic issues and the quest for "enough", he said that in order for everyone to be rich, it was necessary "..to pretend to ourselves and to everyone that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still." Quotes from EF Schumaker's "Small is Beautiful," a book which perhaps should be distributed as part of the GPL!

Whew! We still haven't learnt after 80 years.

S

"this escalating silliness"

Silliness? Sorry, but if you *NEED* Autocad or Photoshop for your job, Linux is *NOT* an option. Yes, not everybody needs those applications, but that's another story. There are many things you can't do with Linux, or that if you can do, are very limited (e.g. video editing, watching TV, using proprietary formats required because of your job, etc...)

"needs are met by the tens of thousands of available Linux apps"

Regular people don't need millions of useless apps. They need just a handful of basic apps that do what they need. Give me Adobe Premiere, an application that can edit .psd files send from my customers, a driver for my DVB-T card, a nice DVB player such as DVBViewer (I don't want Totem or Kaffeine crap), and MS Office (no, I won't use OpenOffice to save .doc files with broken layout), give me *JUST THAT* and I'll use Linux to please you.

"That's a lot of effort against an insignificant OS."

It's not a lot of effort. It's just that many people disagree with such disinformation and want it to stop. If you like Linux, fine, but don't say anyone can use it. This is just not true.

"The one big thing I don't get is why anyone would be a fan of Microsoft"

Errrr...Maybe because it just works? I love my Vista computer and my familiar applications because I can do my job conveniently in a familiar environment.

"Is it billionaire worship, the idea that any random robber baron is worth worshiping?"

Not really. Who cares about Bill Gates? LOL...Now, I know *THIS* is important for Linux fans. They hate people who make money. Go figure...

"Microsoft hurts everyone."

Really?

"DRM, stifled innovation, collusion with hardware vendors"

They're a company, they're not a non-profit like ;)

"worldwide malware damage in the tens of billions of dollars every year"

Microsoft? Not virus authors?

"no real competition except Linux"

Microsoft's fault? BTW, Linux can't be considered competition with barely 1% market share, despite trying to convince it's desktop-ready for more than a decade...LOL.

@Earl - You sound like a perfect example of the subject of this blog post.
I think you're lying about how long you've used Ubuntu.So - you've never changed a monitor before then, because that is what you are implying.
Go astroturf somewhere else

@saurabh
for your first point the answer is rather simple a free linux distro can't pay for the licenses to distribute the codecs required for multimedia, however as a quick google would have showed you they are available and easily installed.
Secondly the OEM installed linuxes do have the necessary codec to play multimedia files.
Thirdly Windows didn create the first gui pc
Fourthly MS will never opensource windows and if they did the code is so bad I doubt many would bother with it

quote: Also please let me know if microsoft opens its code to the community how linux guru will react?

They will probably laugh themselves into a coronary, when they get to see the code.

That there's a subtle change in approach is obvious and I agree that we more frequently nowadays sees this "I love it and I wished I could use for more than a nice hobby". It's pretty close to what in other circumstances has been labelled "Master suppression techniques". What I also have seen though is how Linux users are becoming more confident and hence more shrewd in their responses.

I don't know if my own response is particularly shrewd, but sometimes I simply avoid defending anything even how ridiculous the claims are and answer something similar to the headline of this article: "Linux sucks, Windows sucks, but for my needs Linux sucks less". In other circumstances I'm referring to Linux as a set of tools: "this is what I need and these are my options, and as seen Linux does it more effeciently, if it doesn't meet your needs don't use it and choose something that does". My point is that those folks aren't interested in anything related to anyone's real computing but prefer to spin hypothetical claims, that might be true to some degree but in the bigger picture are quite irrelative. As [i]GregE[/i] wrote, the calm response is better, and for readers I suppose the honest ones will be able to easier pick up things like "this feature work great in Linux" or "this solution is both cost and performance effective" instead of gorilla growls.

Personally I don't care if 1% or 10% use Linux. If it is as healthy as today and yesterday with a fraction of the desktop market it's a solid product. In my home Linux stands for 3 of 5 systems, and the other two are one Windows and one BSD system. At my work it's 3 Windows and one Linux and one BSD. At work the number of Linux boxes could be higher and might become since several "Windows" tasks easily can be handled by a terminal server. We're only talking about tools, damn it!

...

Just a couple of thoughts concerning some questions here:

- for patent protected codecs feel free to buy Mandriva or Suse Linux, in case you don't want to or your concious tells you it against the law of your country to activate repositories with such content.

- many smaller but not inferior distributions give you as default by patent restricted codecs

- monitors, especially older CTR with less standard refresh rates, can be tricky to use with modern systems. I've had that problem in both Linux and Windows. The only issue I've ever had with a black screen in recent years is however with Windows, since a quite standard configuration of a Tyan motherboard and ATi/AMD integrated graphic card forced me to push F8 and choose VGA (800x600) until I got proprietary graphic drivers installed. There's a reason why Microsoft is "very generous" with the testing of Windows 7 (count the numbers running Windows 7 RC or Beta and you have a huge number of folks voluntarily hammering out flaws in the system; still some will encounter problem with the final product since the configuration options of hardware is numerous).

"Now comes the real obvious trouble, I was not able to play many music and video file formats nor my favourite DVDs."

Have you successfully played a DVD or many music and video file formats out of the box on a fresh install of Windows XP?

Didn't think so.

if you have any problems to run DVDs in linux just type this in the terminal
" sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly "
Then miracusly every problem will be solved!
As a matter of fact I disabled totally the vista in my acer 6930 and i run exclusively ubuntu 9.04.
THE TIME FOR DESKTOP LINUX IS NOW!
I have already converted tens of "idiots" computer users to ubuntu and ALL are more satisfied there than in the crappy windows.
Do the same and you will see that the world is ready!

I know at least two people who do this paid by Microsoft. In fact they are paid by an ad agency which was in turn hired by MS.

What they do is register accounts with all kinds of forums and communities. Then they scan the net for everything pro Linux or against MS and do their part to spread FUD.

for the encrypted dvds type after the previous this "sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh"
Now everything will play amazingly.
The solutions are pretty simple sometimes even if you have to use the terminal that i use rarely.

I have been evaluating Linux distro's for about ten years and have found none that work very well. Yes, you can get Linux to work if you are a computer geek with spare time. Ubuntu is very popular, but hardly ready to run 'out of the box.' After the hassle with codec's for mp3 and mpg files; a hassle with 'no-audio' for an Audigy sound card; and the hassles with nVidia drivers that won't activate, I gave up.

Years ago, Linux would rarely crash, but WinXP would crash daily. Today, I find the opposite. For some reason, most distro's will just hang doing simple things. I would love to drop M$ and use only Linux but I doult that will be possible. Linux is difficult to use, has no 'OS' standards, lacks distro compatibility, and lacks working drivers for a lot of hardware.

For me, the best distro's are (1) PclinxOS, (2) Mint 7, and Puppy. Slax is also good but on pendrive, it has been unstable. Boot-up gets corrupted and fails. I am sending this comment for Slax; first bootup froze changing font size; wifi has disconnected twice before I could 'submit.' WinXP-SP3 sure works better.

The issue I have as a windows non-hater (I don't love it but it works fine for me) is how everyone who uses linux tries to shove it down everyone's throat (and then brag about all you have to do all day is comment on crap like this).

It's out there in the market in open play and it's still losing. I understand (and tbh don't care) that someday it may become the standard but at the moment the mass don't want it.

I use both but choose Windows as my main operating system because the fact is there IS MORE AVAILABLE FOR THE WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM than is out there for Linux.

Windows was there first and has become the standard which everyone has created applications for. Regardless of how amazing an OS is (or not) at the end of the day it's really the applications that people care about.

That was a classic, Saurabh. It is all there. I especially enjoyed that schtick about your not having been able to play your favourite DVDs and about hanging the system by trying to open some files.

Once again, I already pointed this kind of troll out way back here, as "the Schizophrenic", due to their simultaneously claiming to run and love Linux while bashing it.

It's exactly the same method employed by political trolls since forever. For example, there's the fundamentalist/ conservative who says, "I voted for Obama/ Clinton and I'm a proud supporter of liberal causes; now here's why the liberals are wrong about everything."

Old news. Which is why I got tired of talking about it myself.

90% of computer users don't need actually Windows or any Ms applications. I recommend especially families with children turning to Linux. I know what Windows OS using is all about - malwares, worms, viruses - these so called anti-virus programms can't help at all. Two years after installin Win Os your computer will really sucks. Now after using Linux Ubuntu i've found the difference. Ubuntu works fine, it's surely better than any Windows. I'm not gonna go back to Windows.

@saurabh
You state in your post that windows can play DVD's out of the box, this is not true. Windows almost always comes preinstalled and preconfigured from the producer, along with DVD software. Also, if you have installed Windows as many times as I have, you know that there is a lot more stuff that doesn't work correctly out of the box.
I use and like Windows 7 along with my preferred Ubuntu 9.04, but that is due to games and specialized software that people haven't made for Linux yet.

Is the first time, I´ve notice that with a Windows fresh install you can play DVD, music, movies. I think PowerDVD, WinDVD or other is required, or K-Lite Codec pack...

In Ubuntu is the same, you have to install the codecs.... as in windows.

Linux bashers always score

C/E

The main problem in my opinion is that people try linux thinking about windows or mac and they even try to compare them.

That's the whole point, if you don't want to configure your system and have it personalized just for you, keep on using what the mass uses.

People have more trouble using windows than any other OS the main difference is that any 8 years old kid knows how to fix it on the blue screen of death pops up. They are so used to see it.

Now, if a customer needs to change his monitor might be a problem never try it, because you will need to configure the X system, haha

cheers guys keep on using windows because it sucks and at least you can complain to someone. The microsoft who made it.

@saurabh,
"can you tell me whether all the avi, mpg etc which runs on windows will run on that?"
You can install VLC if you want to be able to play avi or mpg.
I also recommend the ubuntu-restricted-extras for media playback.
They can both easily be installed from the graphical interface available at Applications - Add/Remove.
HTH.

saurabh said: "Lastly you should give windows at least the credit which made computers for everyone with it GUI front, apple guys may say we have better gui but that is another discussion in itself."

If I understand your comment correctly I believe you would like to thank Xerox for the GUI. If you can, check out the video Triumph of the Nerds found here: http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=1978852 (not associated with them in any way) In it you'll see that Steve Jobs "obtained" the ideas from them but MS beat them to the punch on releasing it. Woz has repeatedly said that Jobs is not technical. He's all about looks, style and marketing. (there is some debate to how much is original given how much his products mimic a certain Brawn designer of past; draw your own conclusions) No matter what, looking at Apple stock and such you can say he is very good at selling and marketing.

So as you can see, most technology that both MS and Apple are using today was not created by them. they are marketing companies with Apple doing a much better job in that area. CoverFlow on the apple, bought and paid for. Their OS, has BSD in it. MS has a bunch of things in it which were "obtained" in a rather (how do I say this nicely?) immoral way in which very small start ups lost everything.

I could go on but I really do hope you watch the vide. Great history.

I think that the matter lies in our culture. In Stuart Mill's words, we are now in a dictatorship of the majority. To everyone,

a. good = expensive
b. nerds = bad
c. rich people = talented, hard working, etc. people
d. celebrity = to be worshipped and followed.
e. thinking = bad

Now, we have:

a. Windows is expensive -> it is good
b. Free/open source software is from nerds -> it is bad
c. Bill Gates is both rich and a celebrity -> he must be REALLY good
d. GNU/Linux is free -> it MUST be bad
e. GNU/Linux offers choice -> thinking -> bad bad bad

Thus, everyone buys in those propaganda, and no matter what we, GNU/Linux users, say, they won't listen. We are minority. They are majority. Dictatorship, of course, always hinders the development of innovation.

Anyway, I have stopped worrying about market share for GNU/Linux. I am content with its quality, and I am trying to start a small business to help people install GNU/Linux system at their home. Thus, as long as GNU/Linux remains minority, well, I have fewer competitors. So, go, spread more FUD (don't worry, my customers don't KNOW that they are using GNU/Linux).

Shoot I didn't know linux wasn't ready yet. My 6 and 9 yr old chose linux over windows based on games. The choice was Windows and a couple games or linux and download any of these games you want. My wife who is very computer illiterate uses it to check email and facebook.

So, who are we waiting for it to be "ready" for if it isn't 6 yr olds and the computer illiterate?

Marty

Saurabh:
We have seen too many posts like yours already and they don't bother us a bit any more. Your are a troll and all the problems you cited are nothing but fabrications.

I have been using Linux for over 10 years and used many different hardware with none of the problems you mention, at least not in recent distros.

Your post is not worth responding to, but I just wanted to let you know that Linux users (old and new) are past such lies. They know better than to believe what you said because they are actually using Linux for real. You pretend doing hit and run testing just for the sake of trolling. This tactic never worked and it wouldn't work even if you keep repeating it endlessly.

-Abe

First of all, let me just say that I've been using some flavor of Linux exclusively for many years now, and I can tell you that it is ready for the desktop, but *only* the desktop of someone who knows what they're doing. Let me tell you why, in no particular order.

1. Music support (MP3) and video support (everything from DVD's to many formats designed for Windows or Apple) that are missing because of legal restrictions. Easy to get around, but the first step is knowing that you have to do so, and the second is locating the "illegal" add-ons.

2. Support is missing for many WiFi cards. Fixing this is never easy (although it's better than it used to be).

3. Some hardware may require Windows. A while back I tried to get a printer working that required you to run a Windows program in the background (it used a proprietary driver). I managed to get it working smoothly with Linux, but it wasn't easy.

4. Things stop working, usually due to software updates and patches. This happens with Windows sometimes, too, but the solution is usually for the clueless user to download an EXE from the web and run it -- problem solved. In Linux, you can end up digging through a mountain of /etc configuration files, typing in a lot of mumbo jumbo on a command line, and even offering up animal sacrifices by the pale moon light (that last seems to work better than the other two). Simple upgrades can remove features without warning (how many people actually read the description of every change that is offered, and how many times does that description say "description not yet available"?).

Don't get me wrong, I prefer Linux. I like what it does, and the way it works. It puts me in complete control of the computer. I've learned to live with the frustrations (like when KDE, in an effort to become just as ugly and dysfunctional as Vista, released a broken "alpha" version labeled as a full-bodied release) and the problems, but an ordinary user wouldn't. My wife, the computer n00b, wouldn't know where to begin. Not even my high-tech teenage son would have the patience. He has better things to do with his time than the care and feeding of his computer.

Linux is not for everyone. It's for the DIY crowd, the techies like myself who can deal with it, and don't mind the occasional inconveniences.

While I really wish I could agree with this post I'm going to have to come out and say that Linux is still not quite ready. It's really really close, and every time I install a new distro most of the problems I had in the past have been taken care of and I run into a couple whole new ones.

Here's the thing, I am not going to complain about weird obscure software. I am totally with the author that most people don't need that high end stuff. The number of people who "need" photoshop to resize images, optimize them for the web and get rid of red eye makes my brain bleed. Photoshop is for high end image production, and that's where it should stay.

My complaints have to do with two simple phenomenon. 1 hardware regressions. I cannot count the number of times I run a version of a distro, wipe and do a clean install of a newer version (I will not upgrade because that makes this issue worse), and find that hardware that worked beautifully out of box before is now broken. It has happened with wireless cards, audio cards, web cams, and even video cards across more upgrades than I can count. This is not a minor issue, this is a HUGE problem, and because drivers are built into the kernel it's usually either an impossible fix, or well into crazy command line world to fix. I am fairly comfortable in command line and some of the driver fix stuff makes my head spin, so your average user is going to be plum out of luck. Windows does support FAR less software out of the box than linux. However 75% of the time if it doesn't work out of the box it's a simple wizard style installer and a reboot away from working. The other 25% of the time the supplier will just say "sorry, you're out of luck. Go buy a different printer/scanner/webcam/whatever. While annoying I honestly prefer that answer to a million tutorials put together by hackers that provide a glimmer of hope to users who don't realize till 3 days and 20 hours of actual work later that they lack the technical skill to make their hardware work, and have to go buy new hardware anyway. Call me old fashioned. This syndrome needs to be fixed.

Problem 2: General desktop performance. Linux is a great OS as a whole. Overall it runs much more quickly than windows. The problem is that "overall" word. Linus will not do multiple customized kernels, which I understand from a development hours standpoint. The people throwing money into the kernel have server businesses. Ok, so the server gets focus, which makes sense, and Linux is a KILLER server. W00t. Now I have installed it as a desktop and want to run Hulu on Flash in Firefox. . . Oh, well I'm sorry about that, but you see performance on that particular issue is a little. . . less than ideal. When I throw linux on a desktop I am always blown away by how wonderful the general system responsiveness is. There is very little overhead, and as an operating environment it blows Windows out of the water. Application performance, especially consumer application performance sucks. There is just no nice way to say it. Flash video performance is hideous, and my computer is plugged into my TV. Hulu is my cable. I have tried various tweaks to improve performance, I have tried running windows in a VM so I can at least stay booted into Linux, that kills performance as well. There is just no good way to get it to run. General Firefox browsing performance suffers similarly, though that is improving. OpenOffice loads more quickly in Windows, the list goes on. These are not obscure issues, with weird programs only a few people use. These are mainstream consumer program issues, and they are unacceptable. How long did it take before the linux desktop could properly do fullscreen flash video?

Every year these issues are less than the year before, but they refuse to go away entirely. They need to if we want to make real progress on the desktop. If someone like me to keeps trying to replace my windows desktop, and is fairly comfortable in the command line keeps going back to windows then the mainstream user sure as hell isn't going to make that leap.

In reference to

Tow-three years back I was curios, what is free linux and the much hyped quote "Free as in beer". I tried knoppix and after sometime ubuntu.

Frankly speacking I am not a geek and want to use something which I can install out of box without using linux scripting or any customization.

My experience with Linux:
Knoppix got installed but was giving me some problem with sound card and wifi [deliberatly I have not mentioned my laptop brand/model here].
I was bit frustrated due tot the above I did not have a LAN cord which I can use to connect and then do some fix. I had to go back to windows to do the research. BAD ENOUGH

Then came ubuntu, live cd itself detected everything and I was statisfied and installed it. Everything was perfect, except volume was very low.

Now comes the real obvious trouble, I was not able to play many music and video file formats nor my favourite DVDs.

My question why is it so, it works on windows, Mac software why not on linux. I know what linux cult(sorry to use this word but linux geek should be proud of this) will say, legally they will say that these are propritery formats, so that's not free and can not be included in the free distribution. I agree totally with that because even this free is not charity just like google providing 1 GB of free mailbox space.

Other people will say you can use some packages and download them and it will work for all the music format and dvd, but that is illigal in some (read some as many) contries.

Other problem, ubuntu 7 worked on my laptop but when I installed the latest version, it did not recognized my graphic card and started in command mode, it was enough for me to stop then and there itself.

These days many OEM are coming up with pre installed linux machines, that's a good news, I have not used any till now but can you tell me whether all the avi, mpg etc which runs on windows will run on that?????

I also request the whole linux community not to taint windows but to improve linux distros, these days I am fiding that while opening some file, few distros hangs and I need to close them forcefully. Isn't linux going in the same direction as windows (leave cost factor here)

Lastly you should give windows at least the credit which made computers for everyone with it GUI front, apple guys may say we have better gui but that is another discussion in itself.

Also please let me know if microsoft opens its code to the community how linux guru will react? Are they going to embrace that as part of strong linux open community or will that also have same community support as open solaris.



Many, many years ago I tried fedora core2. By my standards at the time it was a beast of an os that just did not measure up to my standards and all the help i got was command line this or that. over the years i tried Linux here and there and finally toyed with the *buntu family, it worked for me, until i borked it by my own doing... in fact now that i think about it the only way i learned about windows, Linux, or BSD was by trying something that was above my level of knowledge and having to reinstall or fix the darn thing, but i found that i could either invest my time in (1)installing ubuntu (or any distro)and fixing the couple little hiccups or (2) installing windows, updating for a few hours, tracking down the drivers for my (not so) exotic hardware either way there's an investment of time and energy.



as far as dvd and restricted media playback, a little research will do you some good, as far as i am aware a vanilla windows disc does not include dvd or proprietary formats either, unless provided by your OEM there are programs like vlc etc. that will give you that ability (legally as far as i am aware) on both platforms!

wireless.... lets just say that a wide variety of cards are actively being added to distributions list of working hardware, if those venders would release even closed source linux drivers the world would be a better place,

as to whether OEMs add support restricted formats, that is up to them, dell adds in support for dvds and ... possibly others.

Not sure what you mean by (taint windows) 98% of us are only speaking from personal experiences that can be reproduced and has been documented.

if Microsoft opens its code in a truly free as in speech and beer way i will personally clean every bathroom and train car in grand central station from top to bottom with my toung! then afterwords I believe many of us would be cautious for good reason for a while then possibly embrace it first in pieces and maybe one day in whole. Certainly it could only benefit from this treatment from a coding standpoint. from a price standpoint it would stand to loose quite a bit of revenue mainly because they do not do all of their own tech support and to guarantee more frequent calls they would have to break everything by implementing new technologies every year or two.

long story short, that is not happening.

Well done Tom, it's like you followed a script to the letter.

Do you complain when Mac hardware or software doesn't work on Windows? Do you complain when Windows hardware or software doesn't work on Mac?

"In Linux, you can end up digging through a mountain of /etc configuration files, typing in a lot of mumbo jumbo on a command line, and even offering up animal sacrifices by the pale moon light" Uh huh. You must still be using Red Hat 5.0. Though having access to plain-text configuration files is a huge bonus for Linux; you can actually make tweaks and fix things.

Still whining about KDE4? so demand a refund. Did that deprive you of the use of your Linux PC? Only if you don't know about the dozens of other excellent desktop environments available at the click of the install button. When something breaks in Windows you have no options but to wait for it to be fixed, and you pay money for this 'privilege.'

Your 'ordinary users' don't install Windows, or new hardware, or try to fix things. Your 'ordinary users' only advantage with Windows is years of familiarity. Your 'ordinary users' should not be allowed to download and install random EXEs, that is insanely stupid. No version of Windows comes with a substantial set of hardware drivers, it's often a separate installation. And quite often a ridiculous one-- look at how many USB devices install their own USB drivers. USB is standard protocol and doesn't need special drivers. Dumb and it creates problems. Your 'ordinary users' need plenty of support to keep their Windows boxes functional. A well-setup Linux system is magnitudes more reliable than any Windows system, and much easier to support.

Windows is so evil and inflexible it's not funny. I had the bright idea to set up some family members with Ubuntu PCs running Windows in a virtual machine. Well guess what-- their Windows disks were not the full retail versions, but restore disks. I managed to install some of them in the VMs, but it was hellish. Stupid stupid stupid. At any rate they now have Ubuntu for Web surfing, email, and a lot of everyday tasks, and Windows for when they want to use some particular Windows application. I don't let Windows anywhere near any network.

Nobody gets you wrong, we understand perfectly. Kinda funny, I just read an article about "don't get me wrong...."

Well Carla, I'd say you hit a nerve. Rarely have I seen so many shills. Congratulations, I guess.

@ Anonymous
"everyone who uses linux tries to shove it down everyone's throat". Oh really? Do you mean making it available to download as apposed to making all other operating systems unavailable? Sorry, you've got your orifices mixed up. Linux is there for the taking. Windows is there to buy nothing else.

@ Pete
If you've done this, said this long before, why are you telling us.

Another winner. Read Mahfaan comment. I wonder if he represents people threatened by the distros he mentioned:

http://www.ubuntu.com/
http://www.pclinuxos.com/
http://www.linuxmint.com/
http://puppylinux.org/
http://www.slax.org/

He missed some great ones, of course.

I encourage service providers for Microsoft products and developers for Microsoft platforms to take a look at each of the above distros, ponder on the potential, and seize the bull by the horns.

If windows users had to install windows, it wouldn't be ready for the desktop either.

OK I just have to chime in on this.

I LOVE and use Linux every day at home. So does the wife. I replaced the OS on her computer a year ago and now she has not missed a single application (except for a few games). I bought her a Nintendo DS and that problem was solved.

I NEED MicroSoft Windows in order to make my living. I spend 80% of my working day "fixing" these broken systems that are infected with malware and the other 20% reading logs and reports about the latest "infections" coming down the road.

All of us in the IT community must do our best to keep MicroSoft alive. The world economy is at stake here guys! If they lose, so do the Anti-virus software people, the Anti-spyware people, and the poor folks in Nigeria (419), Europe/Asia/South America that are currently making a living off of the unwashed masses' credit history and gullibility.

So if some one tries to convince you switch to Linux DON'T DO IT!!!! Stay with what you are "comfortable" and "familiar" with. Keep using Adobe products and Internet Explorer! Oh and by the way, please get a copy of Anti-virus software (don't forget the annual subscriptions!), anti-malware (more subscriptions) and a PERSONAL FIREWALL (guess what, it costs every year too). All of us in the industry thank you, but please pay us in cash as your credit cards are probably useless.

If Linux is ever going to make significant gains in market share, the community needs to listen to criticism rather than write it all off as M$ FUD. While there are certainly pro-MS people putting down Linux either under Microsoft's employ or of their own accord, there are also a lot of real people with no agenda that have used or currently do use Linux and have problems with it.

To think that everyone that criticizes Linux is working for MS is just tin-foil hat insanity and can only stifle Linux's progress. This closed-minded, open-source McCarthyism is far more damaging to Linux and the community than anything the Microsoft trolls can do.

I won't even bother listing any reasons why I feel Linux isn't quite there yet, since I'll just be (probably already have been) written off as some evil Microsoft employee.

I've been an avid Linux user for over 10 years, and there are several recurring patterns in the propaganda for it. One is, whenever anyone has anything negative to say about Linux, they're accused of being shills, astroturfers, FUDsters, trolls, etc. The end result is censorship. I am a real Linux user, not a Microsoft shill. Really.

I love Linux, obviously. I hate Microsoft. But I have certain needs and skills that Linux works really well for. And I'm cool with not being able to run certain applications. I don't need them. I believe in Free Software, so I don't even run things like Flash, which sucks, but it's important to me not to support software which takes away my freedoms.

I've tried recommending Linux (Ubuntu in particular) to my friends, and in all cases but one it has resulted in them not only going back to Windows or Mac, but actually getting turned off by Linux which will make it much harder for me to recommend it in the future when it improves. There's been too many boneheaded interface bugs, hardware not working (especially printers), and applications they have come to depend on not being available. When this stuff happens in Windows or Mac, they take it to the dealer and say "fix it." Yes, Linux has great online communities, but ultimately, they have to figure it out themselves, and none of my friends have been cool with that. It's frustrating for me, because I see all the BS, viruses, and malware they have to deal with, but I'm trying to bite my tongue when I see that. I know there are trade-offs in our software choices, and I do think they've made the right trade-offs for them.

For now, anyway. Linux has come a long ways. I keep waiting for it to be ready, but I've been waiting for over a decade now, and I'm starting to lose hope.

@Aaron

"It's not a lot of effort. It's just that many people disagree with such disinformation and want it to stop. If you like Linux, fine, but don't say anyone can use it. This is just not true."

A lie is something that cannot be checked. Anyone can check for himself that a modern Linux distro like Ubuntu can be very easy to use. Lies cannot be validated, truth can. I invite anybody to check my statement about Ubuntu being a more than descent OS.

The only way to make identify what's true and what's not without any possible mistake is by thinking and experimenting, NOT by reading.

My advice : Read less, think/experiment more and you'll now the truth.

Thanks to everyone who made thoughtful, pertinent comments. As for the rest of you? A big thank you for validating what I wrote about! It was a truly impressive demonstration of responding with your scripted talking points, rather than responding to the actual article. Nicely done.

I won't argue about the home desktop, but a lot of people tend to use at home what they use at work or school, and Linux desktops aren't going into the enterprise until a couple of things happen: cost and support. Red Hat has fine support, but they are as expensive as Microsoft, so where is the business case to change? They dollar you to death on licensing and provisioning and anything else you want to do beyond a basic install. And we spent weeks trying to get help on a satellite server, but they refused when we wouldn't sign a contract that said they get paid whether it's successful or not. So we had to call in a third party. Scratch Red Hat. Suse is much less expensive to install and license, but their support isn't exactly stellar, and they do some stuff with their code that either isn't standard or doesn't work well, like having no way to add a new NIC driver during a network install to a new server! So if this much trouble occurs at the server level, where we're talking dozens to hundreds, what enterprise is even gong to try with desktops that could number in the thousands? Ain't going to happen. And as a result, people will keep windows at home as well...

Unimportant. I'm still going to stick with Linux.

It's interesting some of the claims made as to whay Linux suchs/isn't ready, for example the one about Photoshop not running on Linux.

In my day Job I'm a Windows Programmer (C# ASP.NET VisualStudio Toolset, MS SQL Server 2005 and 2008) the company I work for has the largest Fitness Training organisations as it's clients. We edit all of our Images using the GIMP on Windows, the GIMP provides us with all of our image editing needs, it even reads and edits any Photoshop files we get sent. We use Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and IIS, the entire Microsoft stack, in fact, and we have no need for Photoshop.

So lets scratch that little furfie about the lack of Photoshop being a drawback for ordinary Linux users, the lack of Photoshop isn't even a drawback for a bunch of Techie Windows users who make their living building Web applications for multi Million Dollar companies.

@Carla

You had a point, but this last comment of yours shows the little base for it. As usual with so many Linux advocates, yours is an emotional stance, rather than an intellectual one. You have been given no less than five comments providing reasonable insight on why Linux is not for everyone (while Windows or Mac actually are), yet you go again with that "scripted talking" criticism. Childish, to say the least.

You're definitely part of the problem.

Aleve, you missed the point just as widely as the rest. Where did I say Linux is for everyone? (And you actually claim that Mac and Windows are for everyone.) It's either an epidemic of reading incomprehension coupled with amazingly similar comments. Or it's astroturfing. It seems obvious to me which one it is.

@Carla Schroder

After reading the first 20 comments, anyone would forget what the article was about. Even I did. Anything related to OS turns into a flame war no matter what you do.

Victor J Kinzer said:
"There is just no nice way to say it. Flash video performance is hideous, and my computer is plugged into my TV. Hulu is my cable. I have tried various tweaks to improve performance, I have tried running windows in a VM so I can at least stay booted into Linux, that kills performance as well. There is just no good way to get it to run."

Oh, really? Not sure what you're talking about there,pal. You do mean using FlashPlayer10 on hulu.com, don't you? I've been using using PCLinux for over 4 years now, so I just had to check out hulu.com. Hey, there's a Saturday Night Live comedy clip! No playback problems. Oh, and by the way, to do full video playback, just click on the flashplayer icon provided, just like in Windows.

I have to use Windows at work. I have no choice. At home I do have a choice. At home, we run NOTHING but Linux and BSD. Anyway, thanks for the tip on hulu. I'm off to check out some more clips.

Carla,

This is not at all surprising. Entrepreneur shape their corporations in their own image. Some times this is good. Some times this is bad. Microsoft is a good example of an entrepreneur who is insecure, greedy, and lazy. This evaluation is based on Microsoft's actions as a corporation (I have never meet Bill Gates).

Microsoft holds 90 percent of operating system pre-installs. But it is afraid of Linux (and it was afraid of Netscape, and is deathly afraid of Apple). Why? Considering their market share, Linux should be a minor irritant. Instead you get things like the "Get the Facts Campaign", which was so totally ludicrous that they dropped it. But they dropped long after the damage was done - they made themselves a laughing stock with that campaign.

Another example is the "Laptop Hunters" campaign. Why is Microsoft so scared of Apple? Apple's market share is so small, that the company is only a pimple on the face of IT. True, it's an expanding pimple, but 6 percent? Why even dignify it with a response? Because they don't think they can compete with Apple. Heck, look at the Amazon top 100 list of computers. About the only ones that sell for more than $1000,00 are made by Apple. Microsoft doesn't think that they can deliver an operating system that will make a computer worth more that $1000,00 to consumers.

And then there's ODF support, or should I say lack of support. Microsoft is the only ODF implementer that messed up the implementation. It wasn't for lack of talent, Microsoft has talented employees. Microsoft is scared of ODF, because it can be used (in implemented by a company that isn't deliberately trying to break it) in a wide range of software. No Lock-In. Microsoft doesn't want this. They want people to use Microsoft XML (Microsoft calls it Office Open XML, but while it may be used by Office, it isn't Open since it's impossible for anyone else to implement). If they are using Microsoft XML, they are locked into Microsoft Office. They are scared that given the option, people will use software from other vendors. They are so insecure that they don't believe that they can compete in the Office Suite market without lock in.

Microsoft doesn't want component manufacturers to release their hardware specifications. If component manufacturers do release the specifications, another operating system might be able to use that hardware, and Microsoft doesn't believe that they can compete in the operating system market. So the company tries to avoid having to compete, but making it hard for other operating systems to use the hardware.

Microsoft is greedy. Why would a company sell a sub-standard operating system (Windows Vista 7 for Netbooks) and encourage people to upgrade? Who would produce six different versions of the same operating system, with different capabilities, using 99.99% the same source code, and prices ranging from $114.00 to $340.00? Greed.

Again, Microsoft is greedy. When they eliminated floppy disks as an install medium for compact discs the price of Windows increased, even though the install medium price dropped dramatically.

Microsoft is lazy. Why offer 6 versions of desktop Windows, and 4 or 5 versions of Server Windows, all of which use virtually the same source code? Often the only difference between versions is that one version has an artificial limit of some sort (such as number of users) while the next one doesn't. But it's easier to do that, than to design something that truly is different, with new features that would attract more customers.

Microsoft is lazy. Rather than producing the best operating system in the world, one that would have users beating a path to their door, they produce an operating system that is pedestrian, and then try to block anyone else from the market by exclusionary deals and "Marketing Bonuses".

And of course we have the Internet. Microsoft would rather pay trolls to trash Linux and OSX, rather than producing something that is so much better than Linux or OSX, that you'd be crazy to use either. They would rather use advertising money to "bend editorial views" than produce something that reviewers would love.

With the amount of talent that Microsoft employs, they should be able to totally blow away Apple, totally blow away Linux, and make users so happy that they'd be crazy to use anything other than Windows. They could do this. But they are too insecure, too greedy, and too lazy to do this.

And if they don't change, it is going to kill the company. Read their SEC filings, the company is in bad shape. Not as bad as GM or Chrysler, but unless something is done, the company is headed for deep trouble. The current management team is a large part of this, They were hand picked by the company founder, and reflect his views. Steve Ballmer is a good salesman. He might be a great salesman. But as a company manager, he's terrible.

So, yes. You get a lot of trolls. People who say, "I've been running Linux for 5 years, and it's really not that good," because Microsoft would rather encourage trolls, than make a great product. If you check the Apple news sources and blogs, you see the exact same sort of posts, stating that OSX just doesn't work as well as Windows, that it doesn't support the right software, that it isn't really reliable, etc. Whether it's Linux or Apple that they are attacking, all of these people are lying. The proof is in the targets. Microsoft thinks that Apple and Linux are dangerous. They don't think that the BSD based operating systems are, so they don't get attacked in the same way, or at the same level. They don't think that Solaris is dangerous either, and you'll note in the Solaris blogs that you don't see this sort of attack very much either. You will if they decide either BSD or Solaris is dangerous.

And it's a terrible waste. Because Microsoft, if it wanted, could produce something fantastic. They have the talent. They have the capabilities. They don't have the drive.

Until they get the drive, I'll avoid using Microsoft products, and I'll advise others not to. And when I see trolls, I'll fight them in the forums. I hate dishonesty.

Hello,
First, sorry for my faulty english, not my native language.

The person named "The Mad Hatter" wrote very interesting things from my point of view. Nice comment his.

All this scenarized FUD shows clearly in the "It's better with windows" Asus recent campaing. By a curious coincidence, a few days ago at "Computex" Taipei an Asus executive presented his apologies (to whom ?) for having put on display a Netbook runing the Google "Android" OS.

It seems that Redmond holds Asus responsible for having lauched tiny budget laptops with Linux preloaded and must apologize :
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9133813

Well, it was not Asus fault, of course. The fault lies on Vista, a much, too much greedy OS. Tiny budget laptops could absolutely not host Vista inside. Redmond had not other choice than finally unburry XP, althoug it was oficially dead.

Asus had a great idea : they invented the netbook : tiny, cheap, easy to carry. What do you do in a free market when you have a great idea : start boosting sales.
What were they suppose to do from Microsoft point of view ? Thats easy to guess : wait until Redmond had finally released Win 7 !
And certainly NOT launching cheap Linux preloaded things on the end user market.

Puting this kind of pressure on manufacturers, signing secret agreements with brands like Brother, Tom Tom and many others is not fair buisness practices and does not look like Redmond feels confident of his grip on the desktop market.

Redmond behaves itself like a compagny that can mandate what manufacturers are allowed to, and what not. They fix limits of what a is a netbook : no more than 10,2' screen, no more than 1 Go RAM.

If a strong guts manufacturer starts saying : STOP, enough with this Redmond dictatorship, things will start to change.

Maybe this contender will be a big brand like Google, Intel, Acer, maybe some less known like : Snapdragon.

Who will benefit from a open market ? : The end user. Of course when there is a true competition the consumer can choose between Windows OS, Linux, Android, Moblin .......More choice means products will bring us more value for money.

Hasta Pronto
Alejo

Alejo,

ASUS/INTEL did not invent the netbook. They commercialized what OLPC was doing as a charitable project.

"If anyone challenges this is assertion, the Linux "fan" trots out all kinds of edge cases proving that Linux is not for anyone but elite geeks: no Photoshop, no Autocad, no $obscure-bit-of-very-specialized-software used by eight or ten people."

Well, if someone learns graphic design or CAD or whatever it is a pitty that it would be limited to only one application. Do someone skills get stopped by an application program?

Sorry for my bad english.

How to explain this reaction? How about feeling cheated? When someone believed Microsoft to be the end-all and reality proves otherwise, reality bites.

Microsoft won't show there code and if they did we all would perfect it and the all would be good in the world of computing and there goes this silly blog. Linux are the rebels and microsoft the empire who will win. Good movie idea.

I've used Linux Ubuntu for 56 weeks now and have made conclusions - i'm not gonna go back to Windows anymore. Infact i've installed Ubuntu (5) and Fedora (1) to six old computers and gave them to relatives and friends. And price? What price? They had to pay 0 €. Nowadays i pay 10 € for UNICEF every month - i spend the money avoiding Microsoft software.

rich said:

"How to explain this reaction? How about feeling cheated? When someone believed Microsoft to be the end-all and reality proves otherwise, reality bites."

I was cheated for several years. I hoped "the new Microsoft OS will finally be stabile, easy and secure". It was always big disappointment (Win95, Win98, 2000, Xp), more, it was disaster after using MS OS some 1-1½ years. It was more or less blue screens, restarts, fatal errors, viruses though i used one of the best virus programms (Norton, F-Secure...).

So i addmit - i was fool. It's amazing how people are ready to suffer. I wonder why they wanna stay in "mainstream" - AND FEEL THE PAIN. I think that people think that using Windows and feeling pain is just "normal computing thing".

Windows is not for everyone.

You see, I have Used Windows from version 1.0 when a mouse could cost 80-120 US dls. down to Windows Vista Enterprise Edition. Now I am a proud tester of Windows 7, so I consider myself a Windows lover, but I have found it is just not ready for the desktop.

The main problem with it is you have to spend real money to put it to work. This includes an office suite, anti-virus, photo editing software, real games, and so on and on. You could expect to pay somewhere between 200 to 600 US dls for them.

Next problem is Windows won't let you do your work in a continuous fashion, no Sir. It will try and install a lot of patches, after which it will prompt you to death to restart your machine. Some other programs will do the same. Interruptions will be an everyday nuisance. Sometimes you may expect to reboot your box up to three times a day. Of course you could disable automatic updates, but it is not recommended --as a side note, some people consider updates a source of incompatibility problems and even a way to spy on you, but it is beyond this post to argument--.

Then, two or three times a year you'll have to reinstall it from zero, so you'd do yourself a favor by keeping safe all CDs that you received with every program you bought. It will cost you between 40-50 dls to have it reinstalled or you could do it yourself which will take between 4 and 40 hours.

Keep in mind that often you'll have to depend on more than one anti-malware product to keep your box relatively safe.

Besides, you'll have to keep your wallet open, for many of the programs you bought will eventually need to be upgraded at a cost. Expect to pay another 10-50% of the original cost.

One point of caution. DO NOT EVER, FOR ANY REASON, leave a youngster alone in front of a computer running Windows, same as you wouldn't leave a kid inside your car if you plan to leave it unattended. You could be exposing her/him to porn and other kind of threats, no matter how many protections you have installed.

Other than that Windows is a superb product but as I said before I think it's not ready for the desktop, and I wouldn't recommend it at this stage.

So, what are my options? you may ask. Well, I've been told there's something called Linux, which is used worldwide by companies as big as IBM and Google, and by lots of individuals as well, and it costs nothing, and comes in various flavors --I suppose there may be Entry, Home, Business and Enterprise versions--.

They say some places called LUGS will even install it for you at little or no cost, but you see, I am a Windows lover and I can't give you no further advise. You'd better google "Linux, Debian, Fedora, Opensuse, Ubuntu" (strange names, btw) for the product and flavors, and "The Blog of Helios, LUGS, Lindependence, Zareason" to get some advice and assistance.

Cheers.

Yes, there is a problem with sites like digg/reddit, because it's easy to manipulate them with mere trolls number. In Slashdot on the other hand, this is not as easy, because you need to contribute and have substance to be able to mod others, which reduces trolls number.

I'm also noticing a pattern of ex-softies blogging and writing books about supposedly "seeing the open-source light" bla bla ... and then the next thing you know is they talk about how wonderful Mono is.
Case in point is a book called "After the software wars", which I thought was written with honesty until it got to the nauseating Mono-pushing chapter.

I've been using Ubuntu since Feisty and it sucks. About 80% of the time I'm using my computer, I'm pissed off, since I spend 80% of my time trying to fix things and get Linux to work instead of actually using it. Nothing ever fscking works right. Ever. I would never recommend it to anyone. It is definitely, indisputably not ready for the desktop, and I can't believe how deluded someone would be to claim that it is. (Note: This is probably why no one actually uses it on the desktop. 1% market share ain't significant.)

My friends ask me why I use it and I say "I don't know. Someone got me to drink the kool-aid and now I'm too invested in it to switch back. Don't try it; it's not worth the effort."

My family asks me about Windows problems and I try to help them, but then I make the mistake of saying "Sorry, I can't help you anymore than I have. I don't use Windows anymore." They ask what I use, and I say "Don't ask." If it's this much of a nightmare for me, a technically-oriented engineer, it will be 100x worse for them.

If Canonical doesn't get their act together, my next computer will probably be a Mac.