When are you switching to WinXP?

[emthompson 0]

Originaly I just wanted to try it out so I did I dual boot with my 2000 pro. Well that was a bad desision. I ended up having to scrap 2000 becasue of some conflict stuff. SO I just switched to XP. I have been there since.

[Brian Frank 0]

A big problem with Linux is the massive number of individual distributions out there. Add to this the fact that you can make your own if you feel lucky, and you have an OS "running around like a chicken with its head cut off". There are more distributions than versions of Windows.

Another potential nail in the Linux coffin is the current development of the Darwin kernel for Mac OS X. Apple has embraced Open Source and the Darwin kernel can be run on x86. It's in development right now, but you can download it and (try to) run it on your PC. Like Linux or BSD. Darwin is supposed to be pretty close to FreeBSD.

I'm no prophet, but I'd say Apple has a better shot getting a wide spread adoption than Linux.

 

Red Hat, Mandrake, Storm, SuSe, LOAF, Turbo, Corel, Caldera, and just Linux itself are available.

 

Seeing as Apple is pretty big into USB and Firewire, it's not going to take forever to add support for new hardware to Mac OS X. I used to think Linux was pretty cool and all that, but there's just too much going against it to really be a viable option. I do not see Linux becoming a real desktop alternative to Windows unless there are some major changes. It's not user friendly, and I don't think many people are thrilled with spending more time, sanity, and obscene phrases getting something to work under Linux. Windows causes headaches, no question, but Linux just adds to the frustration.

 

If Microsoft wants to believe Linux is a real threat, fine. Microsoft isn't paying attention to the real enemy to Gates uber-geek throne. With Apple joining Open Source, I believe we are looking at the beginning of a very viable alternative to Windows.

[BladeRunner 0]

Do you honestly feel Microsoft don't know where their threats are?

Do you think anybody could 'sneak up' on Microsoft and release something that will kill their products over-night?

It's more than highly unlikely.

Microsoft have never taken Linux as a threat.

Sure a lot of organisations use it in the corporate place, I have a Linux Web Server and a backup Linux Mail server should my Exchange Server go wrong.

But all these promises from the Linux community about how they would hold some 40% of the home desktop market have become nothing.

Linux as it currently stands is not a valid alternative, period.

BeOS is not a threat, considering PalmOS have just recently bought the company for next to nothing and the purchase was simply for current Internet technologies, they have no interest in taking BeOS any further.

Could Apple be the next attempt at taking a market share from Microsoft?

Well it's possible and I'm sure Microsoft will have evaluated exactly what is on offer now, evaluated in which direction it is going and will have already decided if it is a threat or not.

If it is a threat, then expect similar technologies in the next Windows release.

If it isn't, then expect Microsoft to not even mention them - Microsoft have learnt it's a lot more simple to simply ignore and never mention than it is to simply attack an 'alternative' product.

Most of the time the MS rivals will quite happily shoot themselves in the foot.

We already have this situation with Linux, more flvaours than you can shake a stick at and now finding that modules created to run under RedHat Linux wont run under SuSe for example - so much for the x-platform world of Linux, suddenly you have to be running exactly the same flavour of the OS - kind of defeats the purpose of it all really.

 

Hystorically Microsoft haven't made that many mistakes despite what the Linux and the 'We hate Microsoft' communities have to say.

One of their biggest being their very slow entry to the Internet and more so the browser market.

However when they did hit that market and once the product had matured (IE 4.0) suddenly MS had the best product on the market, since IE4 Netscape has been unable to compete.

Are there any rival products to the MS ones?

Well ask MS, they might be a little bias, but if they are attempting to incorporate similar technology from a 'rival' product into their own then you can assume it is a true rival product.

[Intlharvester 0]

Re: Windows .NET (XP) Server

 

I'm currently running Windows 2000 Server (legally) which was upgraded from NT4.0. Since I don't feel like reinstalling everything, and have no plans to buy new hardware, it looks like I have to wait until the Server version ships.

 

Any guesses on when this might be? It looks like .NET will go through a couple more betas (Microsoft really wants to get this right or Sun will ream them), and then maybe a service pack before they are going to ship it with the OS. By my recongining, that means mid-2002, if not later.

 

I also somewhat fear core changes which would make Server less adequate as a workstation. For exmaple, are there any plans to drop DirectX support, etc in the Server version?