The Only Way To Beat Goliath!

[soundchaser59]

Attempting to compete in the market place with microshaft is futile and pointless. Best case they will buy you out and surgically alter your code until it is unrecognizable.

The only way, me thinks, to bring them down begging for mercy is to have an OS that is just as powerful and just as friendly for the majority of users, and then give it away free.

I'm no expert, but near as I can tell the state of Linux today is as close as Linux has ever come to reaching that tipping point. I've only been test driving Linux for almost a month now, and I'm to the point where I no longer need to dual boot, no longer have any need or desire to use Windows at home again. I've been able to figure out almost everything in Linux that I used to do in Windows.

It seems to me if people would just pay attention in school a little bit more, and start understanding this awesome technology instead of chasing down pokemon and fighting over the tv remote, Linux could already be leaving MS in the dust by now.

I'm glad I finally made the jump to Linux.

[vinnywright]

Hear! Hear! ,,,,,,,,,,been using just Linux for over 7 years now ,,,,,,,,, with no school (I was in my 40's when starting with it ),,,,,,,,,,well home schooled by the nice people @hear

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

...

The only way, me thinks, to bring them down begging for mercy is to have an OS that is just as powerful and just as friendly for the majority of users, and then give it away free.

I'm no expert, but near as I can tell the state of Linux today is as close as Linux has ever come to reaching that tipping point. I've only been test driving Linux for almost a month now, and I'm to the point where I no longer need to dual boot, no longer have any need or desire to use Windows at home again. I've been able to figure out almost everything in Linux that I used to do
...
I'm glad I finally made the jump to Linux.

It's always a joy to see when the light turns on in the mind of a newbie and they transform into a true Tux.

IIRC, a LiveCD install has been around since Knoppix introduced it more than 10 years ago. And, functionality comparable to or better than Windows has been around since KDE 1.0 Aplha, first available on SuSE 5.3 in September of 1998.

As a newly minted Tux, what you haven't been aware of are the horrendously unethical and/or illegal actions committed by Microsoft over the years. Just to get you going, research the lawsuit "Microsoft v Combs". There you will learn that your taxes paid for the development of Win95, that MS's "Technical Evangelist" were initially a bunch of hired guns, "digital terrorists", trained by James Plamondon to spread FUD in comment sections, and worse. You will learn that Walmart stocked its shelves with 250,000 (IIRC) Linux laptop selling for under $300 and which sold out in hours. MS told Walmart to stop it or their supply of Windows computers would get too expensive. The OLPC (one laptop per child) initiative to get Linux computers into the hands of third world children at under $100 each (funded by contributions) died when the MIT prof who started it sold out to MS. I could go on but there is not enough space on the servers supporting this forum to detail the dirt. Oh, Win95 and your taxes? Search for "Bill Parish" and "Microsoft Fraud".

I won't even touch on the "DOJ v Microsoft" trial except to say that MS received a felony conviction and lost the appeal. They snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat by pulling political strings getting Judge Jackson replaced by a hyphenated judge who let MS choose two of three "monitors" and house them on the MS campuses using the MS phone system and the MS campus network. Gates probably knew how many sheets of TP the monitors were using with each wipe. And, the trial resulted in two major effects: MS got a pardon for all illegal deeds done before the trial, MS retained control over how PC EOM marketed their products, which is why Linux wasn't competitively marketed by Dell or the others. However, Linux retailers have appeared who custom design and build their PCs/laptops and sell them with Linux installed. See System76 for example.

However, despite all that, Linux almost totally replaced Windows in just about every market (Hollywood graphics, banking, stock market (see London Stock Exchange crash), super computers, automobile controllers, massive mainframe virtual hosts, you name it), EXCEPT personal computers. When Joe and Sally Sixpack walk into a box store to find a PC all they see are those running Windows. They don't know any better.

However, like you, most are not stupid, just deceived. When their new computer crashes and they have to pay for the umpteenth time to get it fixed they usually go to forums to see if they can save money and fix it them selves. There they learn about Linux.

The sales of PCs are declining, but cracks are showing in the smartphone market as well. MS technical evangelist claim that the Linux market share is under 1%, and they point to windows centric sites that track the OS of visitors. I can point to DistroWatch, which shows that 45% of visitors run Linux and 40% run Windows. Back in 2004 Gartner reported that Linux had 4% market share. Four years later they reported it to be 8%. That's when the 1% claim first appeared in columns by Maureen O'Hara and Laura Didio. MS v Combs revealed that MS paid them to publish that story, which the MS TE's ran with to create the illusion that it was true and widely accepted by those "who know".

What is the current Linux market share? Impossible to know accurately. The Windows mono culture has only one retail sales chain so counting sales of Windows is easy. There are probably over a dozen Linux retail sales chains. And, while a Windows OS is locked to a single PC, one can legally install a Linux ISO on as many PC/servers as one wants or needs. Entire businesses with a few servers and dozens of workstations have used only one ISO to do all those installations. And, as a bonus, they find free support at websites like this, IF support is needed. Many small and medium businesses employ Linux certified support staff, if the owners don't do it them selves. Anyway, were I to guess I'd put the Linux market share at around 15-20% and climbing. Not bad, since except for System76 and similar vendor sales, Linux is installed by Windows users downloading it.

[DrGeoffrey]

I'm no expert, but near as I can tell the state of Linux today is as close as Linux has ever come to reaching that tipping point. I've only been test driving Linux for almost a month now, and I'm to the point where I no longer need to dual boot, no longer have any need or desire to use Windows at home again. I've been able to figure out almost everything in Linux that I used to do in Windows.

And when that realization dawned on the hive in Redmond, out came UEFI.

[vinnywright]

And when that realization dawned on the hive in Redmond, out came UEFI.

and now a new locked in raid that we(linux) doesn't understand,,,,,,,,,,yet.

VINNY

[GreyGeek]

Some retailers selling PCs with Linux pre-installed:
http://www.eightvirtues.com/

http://www.emperorlinux.com/

http://zareason.com/shop/home.php

http://laclinux.com/en/Start

https://www.thinkpenguin.com/

https://system76.com/

[soundchaser59]

I'm beginning to wonder why the huge academic environment down the street from me hasn't gone completely to Linux. Surely it can't be any more expensive to maintain and support than all the huge Windows contracts are. I'm amazed at how a campus referring to itself as the "Innovation Campus" is so bogged down in a mish mash of outdated MS software and a jungle of Windows support webs.

[Snowhog]

Because, outside of 'professional' Linux offerings (RedHat), the majority of businesses and organizations see "free" as being a "hobbyists toy"; not a real operating system. That's the mindset that is fostered by Microsoft to it's user base.

[woodsmoke]

The GrayMeister hit the problem with the post.

The real PROBLEM that "Linux" has ....for the casual shopper in WalMart is that it is...........FREE!!

And....... the casual shopping lady with two nine year olds in tow cannot "have the kids grab a "computer game" to keep them occupied while shopping.

Microsith got the news a loooonnnnggggg time ago... make an OS that really is....years behind the times but also relatively "rock solid" and then let THOUSANDS of other vendors make the software that HaS to be run on Microsith's software.

Notice that the boxes have "Operating System: Microsoft Windows ....and below it,.... Macintosh.

"People" just cannot get their heads around the idea that something that really is FREE as in Beer, can be "worth anything'.

And, they also have it in their heads that somehow the software and hardware have to be purchased together as a set piece.

And....why should they pay cash to a computer repair person to put FREE software on their expensive machine.

I just do NOT know how this hurdle will ever be well..........hurdled.... lol....

It will take someone who really does love Linux and that also has a huge amount of money as in a huge amount of money, to actually manufacture from the skin out a laptop and put them into box stores as a LOSS LEADER...

sad, but GG hit the nail on the head again...

BUT FOR SOUNDCHASER!!!! Yes!! another WUNNERFUL person who has seen the baleful stare of the Great Microsith..... Welcome to the club!!



PPS= there are OTHER distros who .....sniff mightly and then censor anyone who types the word Microshaft as just being.....well...you know..."behind the times".... aaaarrrrggghhhh


woodthumbsupsoundchasersmoke!

[GreyGeek]

The Only Way To Beat Goliath!

Because, outside of 'professional' Linux offerings (RedHat), the majority of businesses and organizations see "free" as being a "hobbyists toy"; not a real operating system. That's the mindset that is fostered by Microsoft to it's user base.

A year after I started working for the Ne Dep of Revenue their Unix photo system failed to boot. That system was used to photograph all incoming documents and saved them as compressed 50Kb jpg files, and indexed them. They tried rebooting but it failed. The system had been giving warnings for months, but clerks just ignored them. When the system hung they just power cycled. The IT staff tried to read the drives but didn't have the expertise. They knew I had a Linux server in my office and that i was using Linux to write software for inhouse applications. They brought the HD from the Unix system and I plugged it into my SuSE 6.3 PostgreSQL server. I brought up a terminal and used dd to create an image of the drive on my server HD as a text file. Then I used a text editor to scan for jpg files and extracted all but about 2% of the images. I also showed them what happens when you pull the plug on a Linux box -- nothing.

After they saw that display of Linux power the suits suits sent an IT guy, a Win fanboy who had been continually ragging on me about Linux, off to RH certification school to get certified in Linux When he came back he was Tux fan! The suits then told the IT to start replacing the 30 Netware servers with Linux as they aged out. The dev crew installed Linux and began learning it. Then came the discussion about what database to use to replace our FoxPro databases. I recommended PostgreSQL. They rejected that because it was "free" and there was no paid support. I told them that the free support online was as good as any paid support, if not better. They went with Oracle. The person chosen to be the Oracle admin soon ran into the fact that a support ticket to Oracle often went days unserviced and he soon learned that the best support was a free online forum populated by other Oracle users. For that mistake Nebraska taxpayers have paid additional millions for Oracle support. About a year before I retired a new governor was elected. The new assistant tax commissioner Only new Windows. 10,000 out of 13,000 state employees had to dump their non-MS software and licenses and replace them with MS products and licenses. Overall, the efficiency of operations was cut in half.