Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 7th Apr 2009 07:26 UTC
Continuing the recently started trend at Microsoft to be a bit more aggressive towards the competition, Brandon LeBlanc wrote on the Windows Experience Weblog about why Windows is such a huge success on netbooks compared to Linux. Also, what is up with that story on AppleInsider about Microsoft offering Windows-7-to-XP downgrade rights? Is that really so special?
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Member since:
2006-08-18
Points from the article:
There’s a wizard to help with just about anything, so you’ll never need to go to the command line and manually configure things.
There are loads of GUI configuration utilities and wizards for *nix desktop environments, especially for KDE. Yes some things still need to be done via the terminal but it isn't like I haven't had to visit CMD.exe on occasion.
Techs all over the world speak Windows, which means it’s easy to get help either online or in person.
This is probably the only point that has any possible credibility, although I'll contest to any inference to a lack of online resources for users.
It’s easy to stay up-to-date since Windows releases updates, patches and fixes on a regular, predictable schedule. And you can set your machine to download and install them automatically!
What a bunch of crap. Not only do most modern distributions offer this but will also manage and update *all* installed software.
Windows supports nearly 3,000 printers, more than 700 digital cameras, more than 240 webcams and more than 180 digital video cameras.
There are thousands of FOSS and commercial printer drivers for CUPS. gPhoto2 supports over 1100 digital cameras. One man wrote Linux drivers for 235 low-cost webcams a couple years back and I believe it was merged in the kernel; this isn't even the total number supported but rather what one man contributed--heh.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/633/1047633/one-man-writes...
Windows supports the broadest array of PC applications and games.
Since its possible to run thousands of Win32 applications/games with Wine, Crossover, Cedega, and some .NET applications with Wine and Mono, shouldn't this fact also apply to Linux/*nix? This doesn't even take into account alternative options, such as a seamless terminal services client (a special patched rdesktop RDP client).
http://www.fontis.com.au/rdesktop
There’s more choice - 90+ partners ship Windows-based netbook PCs today, so you can get exactly the machine you want at exactly the price you are willing to pay.
Right, a significant factor why the Linux market on netbooks indeed eroded. That along with bundling garbage/poorly supported distributions that don't stack up with the likes of say Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE.
Most of all, though, I think Linux failed simply because it isn't exactly like Windows and is therefore essentially inferior just on principle in the eyes of the public because of the unwillingness to accept a learning curve. How do you compete with such ideology?
Edited 2009-04-07 14:39 UTC