In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Sat, 17 Jun 2006 02:23:44 +0100
<1465654.URlpqj1XNN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Why hasn't Linux made it mainstream on the desktop?
>
> ,----[ Snippet ]
> |
> | * Linux is more stable than Windows
> | * Linux is more secure than Windows
> | * Linux is easier than Windows to use
> | * Linux is a lot more versatile than Windows
> | * Linux doesn't have the same high system requirements that Windows
> | does
> `----
>
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/index.php?p=18
Because people like the status quo. If Windows is stable enough
for them, wotthehell. It's not like desktops have to stay up
24/7/365 (though it would be nice if they did).
In any event, Linux isn't more stable [*], the entire system
encapsulating it is -- and it may depend on the distro
one's using (and how adept one is at building it).
There's also about $50B of marketing money to consider.
How can Linux compete against a butterfly landing on a
perfectly-shaped female Asian nose (with a clingy outfit
to match)? Or a guy in an expensive moth suit? Or a
series of images flickering faster than the eye can allow
that show Microsoft Windows and tools doing what business
needs them to do, subliminally faster, better, cheaper,
more comfortably, more subtly, with brighter brights and
whiter whites, etc.
How much marketing money can IBM throw at the problem? Red Hat?
In any event, Windows is more secure than Linux, by at
least one (very biased, AFAICT) report -- and Windows
is a very open system; unfortunately the openings are
undocumented. But in theory an app can replace any DLL
it wants with its own copy, and affect everyone on that
system.
(In practice, of course, such things lead to madness.
But the Windows dominance is a form of madness anyway,
which has lasted almost two decades.)
[*] actually, it very well might be, but I for one would
have to research as to how many of the viruses etc. infect
the NTOSKRNL.EXE layer of Windows (most of them try to
sucker the user, or attack IE or various things at the
daemon level). In Linux, the kernel is usuallly somewhat
hidden; one has to compromise root and then mount /boot
(or find the blocks somewhere in an unmounted partition)
to even have a chance at cracking the user's Linux kernel
-- next time the user's system boots.
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Windows Vista. Because it's time to refresh your hardware. Trust us.
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