eWeek hosts four articles regarding Linux on the desktop. “Linux Renews Desktop Bid“, “Linux Is Ready to Roll, With or Without Office“, “OEMS are MIA When It Comes to Desktop Linux“, “Red Hat Linux 8.0 Tops Desktop Class“.
eWeek on Linux on the Desktop
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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If you’re a Linux fan.
Nice to see some good mainstream articles. I think k_semler from the thread under the “Lindows OPen Letter” makes a good point though.
He/She says that you can get most software for free under Windows as well. So a company could really just switch to Open Office etc. They could keep using IE and Windows. Windows costs btw $30 and $50, not really much.
The only thing they wouldn’t get though is an Outlook style app like Evolution.
im not a big windows user but I DO use it, and see its benifits. Although last week I was searching for an mp3 decoder to rip wav’s from mp3’s. I had to download 5-6 programs and cracks, none of which worked (for more than 2-4 songs) I rebooted into my linux machine and had a burned cd in 30 minutes compared to the 3 hours I spent searching and trying to get a fully functional copy to decode the mp3’s with.
I am sure almost everyone knows of a totally free and fully functional decoder for windows, but I didnt, I did know that my linux distro was shipped with one though and it would have saved me time.
usually when something is free on windows it means that it works half assed unless you pay 39.99 or download the crack.
> Windows costs btw $30 and $50, not really much.
Huh? WinXP home edition is $170, WinXP pro is $260.Win2k Pro is $290, Win2k server is $780, Win98SE is $190, Win98SE upgrade is $100.
Shall I go on?
“I had to download 5-6 programs and cracks”
“usually when something is free on windows it means that it works half assed unless you pay 39.99 or download the crack.”
Any person using a crack is a thief. I suppose people using the crack are just ignorant to the fact that they are stealing, or they just don’t care that they are stealing. Some people don’t believe that it is stealing, but until they lobby congress to change the laws that they let slide into place they will be thieves.
How about the fact that most free pieces of software for Windows include spyware like Gator and other rubbish unless you’re willing to pay a kings ransom.
What happen to eWeek’s editors? 4 articles about Linux at the same time? Whoa. On the Office article, I actually found a lot of people, especially secretaries, using features only found in Office, and perhaps WP Office. openOffice.org is nice, but you should see the needs of your employees first. If they only use features available in OOo, go ahead, switch.
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Jim: Huh? WinXP home edition is $170, WinXP pro is $260.Win2k Pro is $290, Win2k server is $780, Win98SE is $190, Win98SE upgrade is $100.
He’s talking about the OEM versions. NOT the retail versions. Most users get their copy of Windows through an OEM.
Matthew Gardiner: How about the fact that most free pieces of software for Windows include spyware like Gator and other rubbish unless you’re willing to pay a kings ransom.
Gator only comes on software like KaZaa (or was it Brilliant?). Meaning: adware. Stuff like OpenOffice.org, mozilla, FreeZip, etc. don’t come with spyware. Only adware that never was available on Linux (except maybe for Opera and Netscape).
Moving to Linux can be very expensive, but after retraining, support cost couldn’t be higher than of Windows. In fact, it may be lower. Of course, you need a sys admin, but after configuring the systems properly for production work, the work’s done. The only problme comes from hardware failures. Sometimes there is software failures, but this can be point back to the sysadmin.
“How about the fact that most free pieces of software for Windows include spyware like Gator and other rubbish unless you’re willing to pay a kings ransom.”
Not many. Every application on my machine that is freeware, (which is every title on my Windows partition [except for the OS it’s self].), does not have any spyware. Even my P2P client, Kazaa Lite 2.0, has had all of the spyware removed from the application. I have burned all of my applications on a CD, and I pass it out to people that need sofware but do not want to pay any lisencing costs. They give me a blank CD (or $5.00 for my media), and I burn them a copy. Even if a spyware app does manage to “find” its way onto my PC, I have my firewalls configured so no information will get out.