Theme for 2008: Apple and Linux "safer, better, and cheaper to operate"
The strain due to the fact that most business desktops are locked into the Microsoft platform, at a time when both the Apple and GNU/Linux alternatives are qualitatively safer, better, and cheaper to operate, will start to become impossible to ignore.
The thinklinux image was removed from this article, and the server - the server was being slammed just for that image, we don't need that ;) If you want the image you can get it here: http://ftp.linux.org.uk/mirrors/ftp.gnome.org/teams/art.gnome.org/backgrounds/ThinkLinux_1400x1050.png.
From the preaching to the choir department: Tim Bray reflects that Apple and GNU/Linux will gain more ground on Windows in 2008.
Around our house we have only Mac and GNU/Linux too, and I completely agree that these platforms are "easier to install, less trouble to maintain, and more pleasant to use." Sure this is just my personal opinion, I have no stats or studies to back it up, but like I have said over the years - my opinion matters, get used to it!
Seriously, I have the pleasure of using Windows at my current day job, and I have used it in various other scenarios for decades now (since 3.1, including getting an MCSE in the NT4 days), so I am no stranger to it. I also get to constantly help my relatives, friends, and neighbors with their machines. I do not speak from complete ignorance.
I use a Mac because I feel like I get a very polished hardware product along with a great UI, and have my familiar Linux environment underneath (yes it's BSD, but you know what I mean). My kids and wife use Macs for the same hardware/UI and because they just work - there is very little hassle factor. There are things to nitpick over, sure, but they are generally minor.
The same is true of Linux. I don't have a Linux desktop (other than a server in the workout room that doubles as a desktop with KDE for watching podcasts and such), but the Linux server experience is fantastic nowadays. Yum handles it, I don't even hear about it, and the uptime for my machines is months to years (file servers, web/app servers, and the like).
Windows, on the other hand, as my experience has shown me, is a festering sore of crapola. Or as Tim puts it ". . . Windows boxes are mostly smoking, diseased, quivering heaps of goo."
Every time I have to go help someone with Windows I end up spending an average of an hour or two getting various malware detection programs installed (SysInternals RootKitRevealer, great tool BTW) and then getting spyware, trojans, and viruses UNINSTALLED.
And, if that weren't bad enough, how about all the supposed non malware CRAP that comes on, say, a new Dell. MusicMaker this, PhotoHandler that, PcCillin demo for 30 days, AOL, UseYourBurner, blah blah blah. I have to spend another 30 minutes with the unistaller and regedit/startup removal before I can get the CPU to calm the hell down and stop running all the nonsense in the background (one friend got a new Dell for Christmas, what a joy). Once the machine is "clean" come the updates. All in all it takes a lot of time to just get back to a basic working computer - and then it starts all over again in six months.
This year, thankfully, I succeeded in converting several of my friends and neighbors to Macs. The Macs have gone over great so far, and I have considerably less "hey Charlie can you help with" from the set that went that direction. I even went over to a few neighbors recently (who got Christmas Macs) and offered to help walk them through stuff, knowing they come from the Windows world. "Nope, got it, works great, love it." (One friend needed help finding the "uninstaller" for something, which on a Mac is move the app to the trash, done, but that was about it.)
So why is Windows still around? Well, deals with PC makers (that is your only choice when you buy a Dell, for the most part), the cost of PCs, gaming, the availability of software, and frankly Office/Exchange/Outlook.
Tim notes this in his article too, but I have been saying for several years that the MS hook, the reason Windows is still a player (at least in the business world) is Outlook/Exchange/Scheduling. Now there are alternatives that work pretty well, even Google for Domains (with gMail and gCal), but the "enterprise" set is still sold on Exchange. When one MS server gets in the building they seem to reproduce exponentially (and expensively).
All in all, I think Tim's prediction is spot on. More and more everyday non expert, and non think-they-are-an-expert, type people are discovering Mac, and to a lesser degree even Linux as a desktop (and Linux is getting a lot better in that department). I say that trend is welcome, overdue even (not just for those of us who were blathering about Linux 1997, and had been running it via 30 floppy disks for a few years before that), bring on the non-Windows world.
(Note: above "thinklinux" image cropped from: http://ftp.linux.org.uk/mirrors/ftp.gnome.org/teams/art.gnome.org/backgr....)
Comments
I challenge you - I believe
I challenge you - I believe you have forgotten what Linux is!
Linux isn't Apache, Linux isn't X, Linux isn't even the disk partition tool (parted).
Linux is the kernel! When you say statements like "I succeeded in converting several of my friends and neighbors to Macs." and "I use a Mac because I feel like I get a very polished hardware product along with a great UI, and have my familiar Linux environment underneath (yes it's BSD, but you know what I mean). " -- I say you have completely missed the point. You were unplugged from The Matrix on servers and you choose to go back in for the juicy desktop steak. Without technical leaders like you working on Linux Desktop - how do you expect it to get better?
You are right, people are leaving Windows. Just like people left IBM in the late 1980's to go to Compaq, Toshiba and others. Coke drinkers are going to Pepsi! Oh Boy!
Brand choice isn't what Linux is about: Sustained volunteer effort, Free and Freedom. Apple won't even let you run OS X on other hardware. Sorry, Windows isn't even that restrictive. And patents, litigation - Apple loves it.
I see Linux Desktop being nuked from orbit with people on the ground giving coordinates; Linux community isn't even going to try and keep up with Apple. Sex Sells and Sex Won!
Forgotten what Linux is?
Fair enough point that Linux is the kernel, to be precisely technically correct. I guess I when I said "Linux" environment, I could have better termed that "x86 Unix-y environment," that I agree with. But I think it is you who have missed the larger point - Linux is what you *use* it for in the sense that I was speaking.
To you, or anyone compiling their own kernel, or working with embedded devices, or tweaking file I/O and threads or what not, it's more about the kernel - true. Nevertheless, to 99% of users it's about what they run on it (sure they need the OS, filesystem, security, device drivers, I/O, etc, but that is the foundation, it's not the foreground task).
My point was about what I use it for, and that's what the "great aunt" or "neighbor" test relates to as well. When I constantly had to recompile my audio support with every kernel update, or rebuild Mplayer from source to get the codecs I wanted, or any number of other frankly annoying tasks from a USERS perspective - I quit using Linux on my x86 laptop. I still use it heavily for X86 servers, but even there the reason I use it is performance/security/open aspect along with the fact that it runs my Java apps, runs Apache httpd, runs my Sendmail, and so on - it's about more than the "kernel" in the big picture.
Apple has their own problems, yes, agreed (I hate a lot of the things they do as a company too - but I can often understand why they do them, such as the DRM crap in iTunes - whereas I also dislike Microsoft for a lot of their corporate moves, but their motive often seems a bit more underhanded [and because their products are not as good in my real world experience in terms of reliability and security]).
The bottom line though, is that my Apple laptop works really damn well, it has the UI polish I want, and the audio player works with the current kernel - and that kernel is also Unix based which makes my day to day development life a lot more productive. The "safer and better" part is accurate and applies, to BOTH Linux and OS X (and frankly also to other open/free BSDs, and other x86 unix offshoots).
Necropost about Linux v Mac
This is an old thread, I know, but just thought I would update it with the sentiment that I am now switching back to Linux for some desktop stuff: http://screaming-penguin.com/node/7621.
The "open" nature is important to me, and I have learned more and more about Apple tactics and approaches and been unimpressed. I still like Apple too, don't get me wrong, but something that is rock solid AND open is certainly better.
I ran Ubuntu for awhile. It
I ran Ubuntu for awhile. It is a really nice OS, but I used to get asked by the update manager at least every other week to install some update. And then some of the updates would still show up even though I installed them.
And then the nagging I got from the update manager over installing a codec for playing Windows Media Files. I really don't need my OS to nag at me about Open Source.