First, what market are you talking about, the desktop or server market. They are differant and not one in the same. It is like "which is better a tractor or a car". Well now that depends if you are talking about driving an hour to work or plowing a field.
I generally like to think Linux is like the "Duck." The Duck is an amphibious vehicle that was used by the US Military, and is now used in tourist traps around the country. The point is the Duck goes on water and land, and keeps going and going and going. Ideally Linux can be the same in that it does both jobs well.
On the desktop, NT is pretty stable. Everyone's got horror stories, but for the most part it'll run for days or weeks just doing Word, Excel and IE. W2K is supposed to be better, and after a few patches - sorry, service packs - it will be. So stability is a drum the Linux community will not be able to beat much longer.
1) Not everyone has $5000 bucks to shell out for a "desktop" operating system. No "normal consumer" is going to pay $2000+ bucks to get NT over 98. Sure in the server market, maybe. But not (in your words) "On the desktop". Everyday forks (ie. people that don't work in the computer industry) can't afford to be spending that type of money so they can have a 60 uptime on Word97. They will either have to go with Windows98 (more then or likely) or with another OS like Linux or BeOS (less likely).
$2,000? W2K costs ~$350 outright or ~$200 for an upgrade. As to why the choose W9x over Linux or BeOS, I think that would change if WINE would get a bit better (anyone who already thinks it works great - please let me know how).
Desktop usability is largely subjective and people will argue until blue in the face about which is better. Same with extend and embrace over openness. Windows is now a network enabled OS. The implementation might be a kludge, but the GUI hides that to most desktop users. No clear Linux advantage here.
"desktop usability" have you checked out KDE, Gnome or Enlightenment recently? The Linux "GUI Desktop" can be tweaked out to look just like your kludge windows GUI, but with cleaner code and more stability.
Very true. But Windows is still easier (better usability). Windows is more intuitive, hey Windows ME (the new 9x rendition) will even sense when you are online and not using your connection so that it can automagically download security updates!
The "it runs on older hardware" is wearing thin too, at least on the desktop. Have you tried KDE or GNOME on a 486?
No. Have your tried building a linux router out of a 386? Have you tried building a W2K router out of a 386? Hrm, pay $500 of this cool looking Web Ramp ISDN router or spend $10 at a flea market and build a just as fast router from Linux?
Good point. Flea markets have good deals - I got a $350 Mac PowerBook for $30!
We have the choice, which is a good thing, but in practice the low end window managers don't realistically compete with Windows.
Have you checked out IceWM lately? I used it all the time on a 486 and it was a ton faster then Windows95 and Windows98 won't even install on it.
It isn't as intuitive though.
But no one can argue that the modularised and network transparent design of X is worse than the kernel level graphics of Windows and the horrific Terminal Server kludge, so that's one thing we can push. The ability to connect and disconnect both local and remote disks to your directory tree at will is another thing: no doubt that that's better than tying devices to C:, D:, etc
I have no idea what you talking about here. But for the record there is NFS that can mount remote drives, and oh yea there is a bunch of options you can tweak out so you don't get really slow access to remote media.
I think Derek was saying that he likes the fact Linux doesn't use drive letters.
I was pondering the question, and my responses dried up there. Hence the question.
I just think you are a troll. Learn some about CS and operating systems. Come back in a while when Bill doesn't have you under his voodoo magic.
Derek a troll? Nahhhh, to me it sounded like he had some good points, and also really liked Linux. It would be foolish to say Windows isn't the easiest, most intuitive OS on the planet - Linux is getting there - but it isn't yet. It took me hours to get my sound card and network working in Linux. How long in Windows? Maybe 15-30 minutes. Try Windows for awhile, you'll see what I mean.
Jack
Where is this question leading ?
What are the fundamental differences between Linux and Windows these days? I can think of graphics, which is totally different, and disks/mount points which are handled differently. With Windows becoming network-ed (albeit badly), what genuine differences does that leave for the Linux community to exploit?
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