Not your father's Linux

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Drivers, drivers, drivers ...

Well, Chris! You have just demonstrated that it all comes down to my original point. OEM support.

Windows works on everything you throw it at because Microsoft has relationships with just about every OEM and chip maker out there.

What you and I can do (and what a professional systems administrator can do) with UNIX/Linux is quite different than what a consumer with no technical expertise can do.

Asking the consumer to install an operating system -- ANY operating system -- is fruitless. If they have to install it, they won't buy it.

Apparently, (UNIX and) Linux vendors are too busy fighting each other (and fighting off the "Redmondites") to pursue the potential of the mass market.

The choice these UNIX & Linux vendors are making is between selling tens (or hundreds) of MILLIONS of copies of Desktop Linux every year at very small profit margins on an unimaginable number of PC configurations or selling a few thousand big server installations and tens of thousands of small server and desktop installations on a narrow set of hardware configurations all with at margins which are lucrative compared to the time invested.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of hobbyists/geeks download and install Linux for free. It costs the hobbtyist/geek his time but it costs the linux vendor nothing.

Apparently, these Linux vendors have decided that since Linux is 'free' (under $50) to the largest portion of its existing customer base (geeks like us who CAN and WILL install our own OS), it is not worth it to them to pursue the mass market of consumers.

Until they change their minds, Linux will stay pretty much where it is. Yes, it will make some inroads in business but as long as most businesses employ regular people with no computing expertise, that growth will be very slow indeed.

Posted by: mwagner@...   Posted on: 09/22/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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