Can Linux beat XP in homes yet or NOT?

[Srikanth Konjarla]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> Srikanth Konjarla wrote:
>> Interesting subject as always. To me, yes Linux beats XP/Vista etc. 
>> Last time i have run windowZe for business was NT4 (i go to customers) 
>> since then i have started running Linux on laptop (started with RH7.0, 
>> no dual boot either).
>>
>> But, for many out there it may not beat XP because there is no vendor 
>> stands behind "Linux" to support. Also, Linux has become very general 
>> term and i guess these days we gotta be specific about a Linux 
>> distribution (F7, Ubuntu, SuSE etc). If there is a vendor who is ready 
>> to pre install Linux (any distro) and extend it to full supportability 
>> while providing all the drivers (video, wireless specifically) then it 
>> can beat any OS (in my opinion OS X also).
>>
>> The question, who is gonna do that.
> 
> Maybe these are US-only links, but they are to PCs with RedHat and 
> Ubuntu factory installed.
> 
> http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/precn_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&redirect=1 
> 
> http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs 
Sun,IBM,HP also shipping RH,SUSE based Linux servers for quite a while. 
But, on the desktop side of the Linux, there is no vendor who can 
"extend" a supportable Linux. I have looked at Dell's initiative with 
Ubuntu Linux but i guess a user would have to contact Ubuntu forums for 
any kind of support. Also, Dell is not known to contributing any code 
that might augment the functionality of Linux or works better on their 
hardware with complete support of hardware. But, i guess it is a good 
start from Dell.

Most of the hardware vendors have a mailing list that is specific to 
Linux but when it comes to actual support they contribute nothing 
(specially Toshiba). This need to change for a big push into 
desktop/laptop market.

Srikanth
> 
> 
> 
> But, installing your own is trivial if the hardware is recognized by the 
> installer.
>