Linux Missed Opportunity

[bently]

Is linux a case of too little too late?

There has been allot of really nice distros of Linux out there...some commercial..like Lindows...some free...like Red Hat. However, during this time Microsoft has made progress in improving their OS. Look at how laughable it would be if FAT32 was used on today's large volumes, but microsoft had a better file system in NTFS 5.0.

I know that WinXp needs a steady diet of security patches, but it does seem to be more stable than win98. Bloated? Yes very...but, it can be trimmed down and set-up properly.

It's no secret that M$ takes advantage of today's processors and system resources like RAM and HD space.So, 2 gigs for the average XP install is BLOATED. But, 2 gigs for the system on an 80gig drive that I bought for $80.00, does not seem so bad.

What I am trying to get at is this...Microsoft I think is trying to quell Linux especially since it runs on x86 machines. Right now it looks like they are responding to the Linux and MACOS threat, by improving on stability and providing critical updates for security.

But, will Linux be a serious threat for long?

We here know that Linux is the superior OS.But,is it enough to keep the alternative OS revolution going, when M$ does seem to be making progress?

[Commander]

the calmness i feel when using linux can never be matched my windows.
and comparing to win2k, i wouldnt exactly call XP a progress.

>> But, will Linux be a serious threat for long?
one of my friends switched to linux and another will switch when he gets his laptop (this happened in the frame of no more then 4 months after i started to use linux).  i'd say linux is becoming a greater threat everyday, especially when people get smarter and see that instead of wasting 450 $ cdn on xppro, they can get something better for free.

[Refalm]

quote:bently: some commercial..like Lindows...some free...like Red Hat.

Wrong. Red Hat isn't free, it costs money. Their free version is called Fedora Linux.

Once and for all: Red Hat 9 is an old product. If you want the latest product from Red Hat, buy "Red Hat Desktop" or buy "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" (meant for servers) or download "Fedora Linux" for free.

Here's more information about migrating from Red Hat 7, 8 or 9 (which are old) to one of the latest Red Hat products:
http://www.redhat.com/solutions/business/migration/

[enjoijeff]

Ha. WinXP progress from Win95? Win95 and WinNT were both stabler and much more optimized for speed. I had my old as laptop running Win95 and it could run circles around a 1GHz with it's only I think it was like 133MHz... It ran smooth. I hate it when people install WinXP on their old computers... Do they not see how bad they're computer will be afterwards? How much that absolutely will not help.

Hey, though Microsoft did stop support on Windows 98 which was a good call. Get more people to buy Windows XP because they have a tiny problem with 98. More money, because Microsoft needs that so much.

I still think that Microsoft's attempts to getting into Graphical GUI is a pathetic attempts too... Oh and Longhorn or whatever doesn't look too promising either...

[bently]

Yea, one really wonders what exactly is going on with Windows and it's bloated overhead. Not to mention all the secrecy with Windows code...No wonder 3d party apps crash so much.

I like Linux because there are choices among the different distros.

Thanks Refalm....Thats right I was unaware that Red Hat went commercial, and Fedora was dubbed as the free version. In any case, if someone just had it up to here with Windows, and wanted to swith to an alternative, it's nice to know that we have some choices.

When I was a lad back in the Commodore64 days, I was brought up to believe that software should be clean and efficient...Then I met Windows, and my faith in the modern OS was shaken...But now I am starting to learn about Linux, and am finding out that M$ Bloatware is obsolete!

[zao]

quote:Here's more information about migrating from Red Hat 7, 8 or 9 (which are old) to one of the latest Red Hat products:
http://www.redhat.com/solutions/business/migration/[/quote]
Those products are also updated on http://www.fedoralegacy.org