Giving up on Linux...

[xyzzy at hotpop.com]

On Sunday 22 February 2004 1:12 pm, Jos Vos wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 22, 2004 at 12:52:16PM +0200, xyzzy at hotpop.com wrote:
> > I use Linux at work... I am a kernel hacker at work.  That is my job. 
> > Redhat 9 works for me at work because the motherboard is not completely
> > state of the art.
>
> Right, and state of the art MB's, notebooks etc. indeed do not always
> (completely) work.  So, unfortunately, we as Linux users have to be
> very careful when buying such hardware.  *Always* do some research
> *before* buying HW.

Thus, Linux stays as a hobbyist/hacker system for the desktop.

>
> Agreed: this shouldn't be needed, this is a bad thing.  But what is the
> real reason?  That is that some vendors don't care and/or have hidden
> contracts with M$ and/or are blackmailed by M$ or whoever.  This is the
> sad world we have to live in, but things are still improving, IMHO,
> so go complain to the HW manufacturers, tell them to support Linux,
> do *never* pay for a Windows license if you don't use it (i.e. ask
> that money back, which they have to do because of the M$ EULA), etc.

If vendors have hidden contracts or are being blackmailed by M$, what good 
would it do to complain to them about their lack of support for Linux?

>
> > However, even with all of M$ garbage, the bottom line is that their
> > garbage works on my system and Linux does not.
>
> Yes, and this is *not* because M$ is good and Linux is bad, but because
> those manufacturers have "close cooperations" with M$ and don't care
> (or are not allowed to care!!!) about Linux.

I didn't say anything about "good" or "bad" here aside from the pragmatic 
observation that M$'s OS works for me and Linux doesn't.

This is the crux of why M$ still has the stranglehold it has in the desktop 
market and will continue to for a good long while even if the Open Source 
solution is free.  Free, in any way, doesn't matter if it doesn't work.  From 
what I see here, M$ doesn't have anything to worry about with its desktop 
solutions for quite a while.

>
> --
> --    Jos Vos <jos at xos.nl>
> --    X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV   |   Phone: +31 20 6938364
> --    Amsterdam, The Netherlands        |     Fax: +31 20 6948204