Windows 7 has been out and about for little over a week now, and as it turns out, Microsoft's new baby is doing relatively well. That is, according to the figures by NetApplications: Windows 7 already reached the 3% mark this weekend, and is already closing in on the 4% mark.
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Member since:2007-02-17
Get a work-alike open source application.
OpenOffice can work with legacy MS Offcie files, and it spanks MS Office working with ODF files.
GIMP does just as good a job as Photoshop in editing raster graphics files.
And so on.
Edited 2009-11-03 05:45 UTC
Member since:2009-08-26
equivalent.
That's why the FOSS cult you follow is batshit crazy.
There aren't enough volunteer GPL programmers to provide equivalents for all the proprietary applications that exist. That isn't an opinion, it's a fact.
FOSS productivity != proprietary productivity
If you eliminated all proprietary software the economy would come to a grinding halt.
People have been bleating about open source for over a decade and yet there is still a massive lack of industry specific open source applications.
Perhaps you would like to volunteer your free time working on diesel engine calibration software? Well guess what most programmers don't either. That's why you have to pay them full time and then sell licensed copies of the software.
It's also unrealistic to expect all software companies to adopt open source business models when for most software the value is in its ability to solve a problem, not external services or support.
Pack up your soapbox and go home. Stallman didn't think out his ideology very well. He created it as a way of sticking it to proprietary companies and didn't care about thinking through its economic viability. The whole thing was created out of spite. He's probably surprised that it got this far.
Don't waste your youth following his open source cult. There are better movements out there that help real people and don't demonize the hard work of others.
Member since:2006-02-22
Get a work-alike open source application.
OpenOffice can work with legacy MS Offcie files, and it spanks MS Office working with ODF files.
GIMP does just as good a job as Photoshop in editing raster graphics files.
And so on. "
The answer question is not - use an opensource alternative application. Some people need Windows because they need to run Windows applications, custom Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, etc or even because they are familiar with Photoshop etc and don't have time to learn how to use the Gimp etc, when Photoshop works well.
Win 7 will sell because these people need to run Windows apps and XP will soon no longer be supported, it's 9 years old computing has moved on, XPs weaknesses are laid bare. I'm not using still using Wart Warthog are you? I'm pleased for you that Linux is all you need, it is for me at home, but at work although we are moving opensource we need Windows as well and I don't see this changing very soon.
The best advocacy for opensource, Linux etc is to show that it can do things better than Windows etc, and this involves some critical judgment as to when to deploy and where. A simple knee jerk reaction use openoffice etc is not good enough.
Member since:
2008-08-25
But how to run apps without XP, on a modern operating system?
With a virtual machine there is still basically an XP blob sitting between the app and the real OS, with all the problems of XP (insecurities, licensing issues etc).
The only two solutions I can see are:
1) Vista/7/2008
2) WINE (flaky)
When OS/2 takes over the desktop there will be no need for this discussion. Never broke compatibility from 1.xx onward.