The desktop wars

[Steven Pasternak]

Rob Brown-Bayliss wrote:
> On 6/19/06, Steven Pasternak <stevenp500 at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
>> We need advertising!!! Most people I've spoken to have never heard of
>> linux (or suse or fedora or debian etc.). If granny knew that linux
>> could bring life back into her WinME system, she would know to buy
>> redhat or suse or anything not windows and $400!
>
> Well, shw would probably go to the local big chain store and buy an
> overpriced name brand PC (dell, hp etc) that has windows installed,
> and not even know she had paid for windows.
>
> Mean while, the non grannies would "know" that changing to linux means
> their prinder or scanner wont work, and that they can't use email etc
> etc, and that know one ueses linux any way.
>
We aren't in the 1990's anymore. Firefox/Thunderbird are what many 
people use under windows, so there isn't really much transition there. 
OpenOffice works almost like M$, and even has file-format compatibility. 
A lot of printers and most chipsets work out-of-the-box, only without a 
million driver discs, and KDE/GNOME make for a comfortable environment. 
Except for zero out-of-the-box mp3 support (which is stupid - but is an 
entirely different discussion), which is simple to get (livna,rpmforge, 
etc.), linux is in many ways easier that windows to use.
> What we need is for the Dell's and Hp's to start actively promoting
> their PC's with linux, and not to charge more for the privilage than
> they do for their windows based PC's.
>
> Don't hold your breath
>
They are starting. You can buy RHEL4 from dell.com if you dig deep 
enough. Linux kills in the server market, but you are right. The biggies 
do need to promote linux a little more that burying it in the shop 
section of their websites.
-Steven