It still wins on compatibility and ease of use in many ares... I can't see it ever being toppled, however much I support linux.
Huh?
Compatibility? No.
Windows is not compatible with a damned thing other than Windows. That's it.
With Linux - Auto-detect windows installs, automatically asks you if you want to dual boot, automatically sets up a boot loader for you to dual boot.
With Windows - Overwrite MBR; no options; no care for other OS's installed; nothing.
Windows can't read/write ext3 without getting special stuff. Most modern distro's will automatically recognize and mount NTFS now days.
I agree with you windows is more popular; and more programs are written for windows - but windows itself is not compatible with a damn thing other than itself.
Originally Posted by
1. Capable of existing or performing in harmonious, agreeable, or congenial combination with another or others: compatible family relationships.
2. Capable of orderly, efficient integration and operation with other elements in a system with no modification or conversion required.
I don't understand all the hate on Microsoft.. I like linux and all, and I definately love my N900, but I also love Windows, Especially Windows 7, it's fast! Also the people who gets viruses on their computers are just a bunch of people that don't have common sense imo, if someone pays a little bit of attention + have a great Internet Security software (like Kaspersky) then they won't have any problems, last time I had a virus/spyware.. etc. well, Ijust can't remember when was that!
I don't understand all the hate on Microsoft.. I like linux and all, and I definately love my N900, but I also love Windows, Especially Windows 7, it's fast! Also the people who gets viruses on their computers are just a bunch of people that don't have common sense imo, if someone pays a little bit of attention + have a great Internet Security software (like Kaspersky) then they won't have any problems, last time I had a virus/spyware.. etc. well, Ijust can't remember when was that!
Crazy stories btw.. O.o
I absolutely agree. I love Windows 7 and can't see any reason for switching from that to any other OS at this point in time.
EDIT: Having said that I haven't used Linux on a PC for 3+ years so...tonight I'll be Wubi'ing to try it out.
Perhaps you missed the mid to late 90s, culminating in their antitrust investigation and conviction. Or perhaps their persistent and vague flap about software patents to try and drive people away from Linux? Or the 5 years where IE6 was dominant and MS did absolutely nothing to truly innovate, resulting in stagnation and tons of workarounds until Firefox improved enough to force them to release IE7?
There are very, very good reasons to not like Microsoft and no reason at all to trust them.
can I use it along-side windows??
I know its not the point but I've only just go into this and so far I'm struggling.
Sure, you can use it right alongside. The easiest way, if you already run Windows, to head over to http://wubi-installer.org/ and just download the installer. You can even uninstall it just like any old Windows app (from the add/remove panel) if you decide you want to take it back out. Ironically, even installing it this way, it's still a full-speed real copy of Ubuntu Linux running on your computer.
Linux is definitely not just for the geeks of the world.
Ironically, about a couple of years ago, my sister got fed up with Windows one time too many. She's the one I gave my old (broken kickstand) N800 to. She rather liked how Linux ran on the N800 and she knows I run a Linux on my own systems. So, she asked me where she could get it. I mentioned ubuntu and how she could run it live without installing over Windows, if she wanted.
The next day she gleefully pointed out that she tried it.. liked it and installed it. She is, by no means, a technical person. With the exception of some driver glitches (thanks, Acer.. jackasses) which I help her work around, once it's running she's exceptionally happy with it and even she points out that she doesn't want to go back to Windows anymore.
And my mom--the one that actually outright HATED computers for most of my life.. I got her a laptop that CAME with Ubuntu (A Dell 15-inch laptop) and it runs very well. She sometimes screws up a few things here and there (mainly her iPod that I'd gotten for her--less so Linux itself) but on the whole, compared to when she ran Windows on her first computer a few years ago, she's experiencing a LOT less headaches and she really seems to like her computer, now.
So yeah.. Ubuntu seems to have matured into an OS that can cater to the non-nerdy, non-geeky, non-technical of society just as readily as us goofballs.
I am a member of the AFT and not NEA. I have to say that there has never been "party line" on software that I have heard. The gratuitous chucking of rocks at the NEA is an easy cheap shot so the respondant took it. The reality of it is teacher's unions are not directive of their members. The members direct the organization. This is done by way of annual or triennial elections of officers.
What does this have to with Linux? Simply put it means that there is not a political bias toward Windows. There is an educational bias for Windows that runs from this thinking
"Education prepares our youth for the real world. In the real world Windows is what is used in the 90% of the installed computers. To properly prepare our students to function in the real world they will need to know their way around a Windows environment."
It is really that simple. It has nothing to do with Microsoft and everything to do with preparing students to use the installed machines in the real world. If Linux should become the dominant OS in the future I would hope that the educational establishment, and individual teachers, would provide ready access to Linux in the clasroom.
So then, how do you explain all those Apple II's and Macintoshes in schools all in the late 80's and throughout the 90's? Also, please explain "dominant?" Isn't Linux being used at least as much as Windows, even if people aren't realizing it? (Think everything from embedded OS all the way up to servers)
Please response in a 500 word essay form. Thank you.
Users tend to prefer Windows because it works with stuff they already know and use. I would like to convert a friend of mine to Linux, but for one thing she is addicted to computer games that require Shockwave.She uses graphics programs and isn't prepared to learn the Gimp.
The fact is that many Windows programs are more user friendly than Linux programs. i have tried very hard to convert people to Linux and generally they won't go for it. I myself usually run Win7 because it is better at most of the stuff I do -- text to speech and speech to text, for example.
