Linux is Dead...Yeah, Right

[Eric Portelance]

Our friends at MSNBC have posted a rather infuriating article on the demise and death of Linux as an operating system. They claim it's all hype and that the open source model has failed.

Being a firm supporter of Linux and the open source movement, I can tell you that this article is completely wrong. Linux is stronger than ever, with a great community backing it. It continues to make headway in both the server and workstation areas.

I'm not sure if anybody told the author of this article that many companies are now making the move to Linux, Disney being the latest one. If Disney can do it, it can't be all that bad, can it?

Read the full article here, if you wish to be brainwashed by the media.

 

[muckshifter]

Eric, you didn't read the "full" story...

A recent survey of 800 companies in North America and Western Europe found that some 40 percent said they were either using or testing Linux, according to the research firm IDC. With some 27 percent of the market, Linux is now the second most popular operating system for servers, supplanting the decades-old operating system UNIX; Microsoft holds the top spot.

Numbers like those have caught the attention of computer hardware makers. Last year, as the personal computer slogged through the worst sales crash in its history, Linux server sales jumped by more than 50 percent to $400 million, with IBM leading the pack.

“Linux used to be just a bunch of geeks trying to change the industry,” said Elizabeth Phillips, a Hewlett-Packard spokesperson. “Now Linux is becoming more mainstream every day.”

Linux is also shining brightly on the radar screens of software makers like Oracle, which is heavily marketing the latest version of its high-end corporate enterprise software which generates mainframe-like horsepower using “clusters” of relatively cheap servers running Linux.

However...

Linux has hardly made a dent in the desktop and home user markets. At PC conventions like this one, Microsoft’s Windows operating system still rules — with some 94 percent of the operating system market for desktops and laptop PCs, according to IDC. Despite its growing popularity among computer professionals, it’s still not completely “user friendly.”
“It’s for geeks,” said Faber Fedor, a New Jersey-based consultant who helps small businesses upgrade to Linux.

Enjoy!
Mucks

 

[Eric Portelance]

Bah, they're contradicting themselves anyway.

 

[muckshifter]

They would do ... MSN & NBC ... conflicts of interest.

 

[Eric Portelance]

Good point.

 

[Quadophile]

Will history repeat itself? I hope not!

Windows vs Linux, Betamax vs VHS. Although Betamax was a far superior format but masses adopted the inferior VHS Format.

Linux is far better than Windows. I just hope history does not repeat itself here.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Quoted by Quads: "Linux is far better than Windows".

If that was an exam question it would be followed by the word 'Discuss'.

Is Linux better? Depends on how you look at it really. If you're talking stability and advantages of open source movement being constant free upgrades and problem solving, then the answer is yes.

If you're talking user-friendliness I'd say the answer is a resounding 'No'.

I figure give it a little while and Mandrake 9.2 or something will probably supply drivers for most hardware and have a GUI that almost mimics Windows' user-friendliness.

At least I hope so

 

[muckshifter]

Amen, Flopps ... Amen.

I've given up again ... I never knew Linux could "crash" ... if you want the story, twist my arm.

 

[Quadophile]

Flops,

You are absolutely right, I meant the stability and also superb graphics. As for user friendlyness yes, it needs getting used to and at times difficult to understand the hidden features.

Mucks, if you won't tell us now, me and Flops are coming over to twist your arm. Let's hear it! Linux crashing? Never heard of that.

 

[wildone]

I tried my best for 2 and a half months to change to linux for my server ,and it just never happend ,wasted all that time ,finally gave up and in 15 min I had my server running on windows ,still useing the appache server .I crashed and thrashed linux alot during that time,both redhat and mandrake.It was not always a full crash and would still respond to telnet but you could'nt see anything on the systems monitor but a bunch of mixed up colors.I reinstalled it 8 different times before I gave up ,and I dont give up all that easily,you can even ask muck about that one.

P.S. Hows that overclocking going Muck?

widlone

 

[floppybootstomp]

Mucks: Go on then, pray tell :brow:

I had Mandrake 8.2 lock up on me once, I'd just started to use the inbuilt word processor and it just froze.

Forced a reboot and then the word programme worked fine....