Windows 7 will kill Linux on netbooks -- NOT!!

[Christopher Browne]

On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Evan Leibovitch <evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> To anyone who was bothered by the ZD story "Windows kicks Linux to the
> curb", (http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=379) suggesting that the arrival
> of Windows 7 would close the window of opportunity for Linux on desktops --
> and specifically netbooks...

These sorts of tales don't bother me much at all.

To my mind, the fact that someone feels a need to write this
propaganda^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hstory in the first place is a
demonstration that there's some *un*truth to it.

The nature of news, these days, is more a mix of entertainment and
propaganda than anything that can be straightforwardly called "fact."
TV is particularly bad this way.

> I have sources that suggest that MS will want netbook vendors to pay 50%
> more for Windows 7 per system than they now pay for XP. And in return,
> they'll get a crippled version of Windows 7 that will only be able to run
> three programs simultaneously:
> http://www.liliputing.com/2009/02/microsoft-to-offer-crippled-version-of-windows-7-for-netbooks.html
>
> In other words, Microsoft may be playing its own part to keep Linux very
> much alive on netbooks.

I saw another story (which may have its own aspects of fable!) that
suggested a somewhat opposite view that seemed plausibly reasonable,
effectively that Vista's failure has pressed people towards Linux that
weren't *really* ready for the degree of change that a move to Linux
properly involves.

Using Linux well involves fairly different processes (cultural,
technological, social, and otherwise) than are involved in using
Windows well.  (A snide remark might involve the notion that "using
Windows well" must involve propelling through a window from a high
altitude; I'll dismiss that as pointlessly mean...)

Trying to migrate, and failing, due to a lack of preparedness, isn't
necessarily helpful to "Linux adoption by the wide masses."

But I'm in the "class" that isn't sure that attracting "wide masses"
of the mainstream is necessarily a wonderful thing.  I have
considerable sympathy for Tom Christiansen's observation:

    "Windows was designed to keep the idiots away from Unix so we
could hack in peace. Let's not break that."

The Vista project team seems to have gone out of their way to break that!  :-)

Of course, Apple has a considerable amount to answer for, too!  :-)
-- 
http://linuxfinances.info/info/linuxdistributions.html
Gilda Radner  - "Adopted kids are such a pain - you have to teach them
how to look like you."
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists