Google Dumps Microsoft Windows Company-Wide --

major bean wrote:

conifermtman wrote: Linux is far from a beta OS. I work for a company that runs a majority of its business on Linux servers. Heck even the French Police use it on over 5,000 desktops. Surely you are smarter than the French

Hrmmm...let's see...900,000 personal computers in the world and 5000 of them are the French police desktops. That would roughly be .005% (please notice where the decimal point is in that percentage). Hardly an overwhelming number. Sounds as if the French police decision might be an eccentricity.

The reason that Linux does not have virus problems presently is because all of the script kiddies are presently hitting the Windows OS. I wonder what OS that the script kiddies have on their laptops and desktops?

I use Linux, Solaris and OpenSolaris (Unix), Mac, and Windows. The flavor of Linux that I prefer is Linux From Scratch (LFS). It it fun to install a system from scratch, modify the kernel, and turn it into any flavor of Linux that I prefer (Debian, KDE, Gnome, etc.). If I am programming I use Unix or Windows. They are extremely useful learning tools, but if I want to use an OS for ease of use, productivity, and not be limited by the lack of applications, then I use Windows. Linux is useful as a bare-bones system and it is an intellectual symbol, if you need that sort of thing.

How much money does it cost to license Windows on 5,000 plus desktops along with anti-virus software? How much does it cost to do the same for Linux? Zero! In a rare example of French frugality this is saving them a ton of money. I wish our government would be more frugal with our tax dollars.

The reason why Linux does not have virus problems that Microsoft has is because everything is locked down by default. The same reason Google gave for getting off of Windows.

To say that Linux is just an educational toy is very misleading.

Plenty of applications are run on Linux everyday, like just about all of Google's servers and Wikimedia(the people who brought you Wikipedia). Everytime a person does a Google search it is running against a Google server. The Android phones and tablets are Linux. The new Google Chrome OS will be Linux based. I work with high end passive parallel processing columnar databases like Vertica where they charge license fees of $100K for just 1TB of storage. Most large commercial super computers run Linux.

I think many users can be very productive on Linux. Open Office comes for free and provides word processing, spreadsheets and other tools comparable to Microsoft Office for free. Firefox and Google Chrome both run on Linux.

One thing to remember is that anyone can download Linux for free and with Ubuntu you can try it out by running it from your DVD drive to see if you like it. [url=http://www.ubuntu.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]www.ubuntu.com[/url]

Wayne, I am aware that Apple created the microcomputer. But it did not catch the grass afire. That was what the media was hyping back in the late 70's and 80's: that everyone should get a computer. It would do everything: rotate your tires, mow your lawn, keep your daughters chaste, cook your breakfast, etc., etc. This went on all through the 80's and 90's. Sure there were visionaries who heard the distant drum, such as yourself (and maybe me?) who went for the promotion. But grandma did not buy herself a computer until it was a whole lot more user friendly. Windows provided that user friendlier gui. Sure Gates robbed Apple, but he also hawked it and the world bought his system.

conifermtman, the same argument. Consider what you are saying is the strong points of Linux. But, it is the underpinning, not the end user. Sure Linux is the choice for servers and such. But grandma is not going to use command line computing to see what is available on Ebay.

And consider the new flavors of Linux with a user friendly GUI, who are they emulating/immitating? Windows, that's who. And who is their target market? Grandma!
90% of the computers in the world run Windows. Is that 90% composed of servers, databases, and such? No, that 90% is made up of end users: Grandmas and Grandpas. Are they iconoclasts, eccentrics, intelectuals, geeks, or nerds? I think not.

And, by the way, the U.S. government does use Linux, from sea to shining sea.

major bean wrote: Wayne, I am aware that Apple created the microcomputer. But it did not catch the grass afire. That was what the media was hyping back in the late 70's and 80's: that everyone should get a computer. It would do everything: rotate your tires, mow your lawn, keep your daughters chaste, cook your breakfast, etc., etc. This went on all through the 80's and 90's. Sure there were visionaries who heard the distant drum, such as yourself (and maybe me?) who went for the promotion. But grandma did not buy herself a computer until it was a whole lot more user friendly. Windows provided that user friendlier gui. Sure Gates robbed Apple, but he also hawked it and the world bought his system.

conifermtman, the same argument. Consider what you are saying is the strong points of Linux. But, it is the underpinning, not the end user. Sure Linux is the choice for servers and such. But grandma is not going to use command line computing to see what is available on Ebay.

And consider the new flavors of Linux with a user friendly GUI, who are they emulating/immitating? Windows, that's who. And who is their target market? Grandma!
90% of the computers in the world run Windows. Is that 90% composed of servers, databases, and such? No, that 90% is made up of end users: Grandmas and Grandpas. Are they iconoclasts, eccentrics, intelectuals, geeks, or nerds? I think not.

And, by the way, the U.S. government does use Linux, from sea to shining sea.

Grandma should not have to touch the command line unless she wants to. Most 285bound users should be able to figure out how to install Ubuntu and use it with much help at all. As for the history of user interface design, it was not Microsoft or Apple that invented the graphical user interface (GUI), it was Xerox Parc in 1973, Microsoft, Apple and Linux have been improving on that concept ever since.

I am aware that Apple used the first GUI. But it was hardly what Microsoft subsequently developed. Pointing to all of the various branches of development of the computer does not negate the great achievements that Microsoft has done for the personal computer, the user, and inspiring the world to get "wired". Everyone else was envious, jealous. and petty.