Linux still largely invisible in the marketplace

[Kamran]

Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Rick Tomaschuk wrote:
> 
>> I travel a lot through the US and Canada and am frustrated that after
>> the last 10 years of working to promote Linux (it) is still largely
>> invisible in the market place especially when compared to the Apple 
>> and their pirated lookalike copy called Windows produced by the 
>> convicted monopolist Microsoft.
>>
> Hi Rick,
>
 >
<snip>
> 
> To people who see computers as a tool rather than useful in their own 
> right, the OS is far less relevant than the application. It's no 
> coincidence that in its most recent promotion campaign for Windows XP, 
> Microsoft emphasizes not the features of the OS but the range of 
> third-party apps that run on it (see www.windows.ca). Sure there are a 
> ton of apps in open source, but we're still at a maturity state where 
> most of these apps are more comfortable to people who like computers. 
> This may change, but maybe it won't and we'll just have to live with 
> that; it's not the end of the world. Linux may become more visible, but 
> that doesn't make it will be the best answer for all need. And inertia 
> is still a formidable obstacle.
> 
> - Evan
> 

The last paragraph says it all.  An OS is only as useful the 
applications it runs.  To the vast majority of desktop users a computer 
is just a tool.  As for the notion that flavours of Linux on the desktop 
are spreading like wild fire outside of North America nothing could be 
further from the truth.  Microsoft for the most part is content to let 
countries who can't afford to purchase their software pirate it at will. 
  I have been to countries where almost no one pays for Microsoft 
software and Microsoft is content to let this happen.  I doubt Microsoft 
would even sue a home user in North America for a pirated copy of their 
software.  The last figure I remember from CAST was that the piracy rate 
in Canada was something like %30.  Imagine if Microsoft was to start 
suing users in North America for illegal software.  I gather Linux on 
the desktop would jump in a matter of weeks to be a significant 
competitor to Microsoft on the desktop.  That's where the problems start 
for Microsoft because soon you'll have heck of a lot of people bothering 
companies to make drivers, apps etc for Linux.  Imagine what would 
happen in countries if Microsoft tried to actually make people, who can 
barely afford computers a generation behind what we use, pay for 
Microsoft software.  All Microsoft cares about is getting people hooked 
on their software however they can.  Furthermore Bill Gates is doing a 
great PR job in India.  He made the headlines a couple of years back by 
donating over $100 million USD of his personal wealth to India's poor. 
Yesterday Bill Gates announced that Microsoft will invest $1.7 billion 
USD over the next 3-4 years in India.  India, whose your daddy?  Next 
time you travel to some far off place ask the locals what they think of 
Bill Gates.  The best quote I heard was "He revolutionized the 
Internet/Computer World."

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