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posted by
janrinok
on Sunday April 06 2014, @08:46PM
from the but-not-the-year-of-the-Linux-desktop dept.
from the but-not-the-year-of-the-Linux-desktop dept.
A recent poll by The Inquirer asked, "Which operating system will you use after Windows XP support ends on 8 April?"
Among respondents, 33 percent said they will move to Windows 7, 17 percent will stick with XP, 13 percent will switch to Linux, 11 percent will get Windows 8, and 5 percent said OS X.
So most will switch to Windows 7, but many would rather stay with Win XP without support than switch to Linux.
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Poll: More Will Switch to Linux Than to Win8
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A long-forgotten loved one will appear soon.
Buy the negatives at any price.
(Score: 5, Informative) by bucc5062 on Sunday April 06 2014, @09:11PM
The title of the story was a bit sensational so I had to check the article link and to be clear, it was a poll of Inquirer readers. That gives a little bit more perspective (and dang it editors, potential click bait to get people to comment? We're better then that /sigh)
It's like taking a poll on SN and reporting that over 80 of people polled prefer Linux to Windows. Perhaps true, but a little disingenuous. It would be great if more of the public was exposed to the best that Linux provides, but with Microsoft still retaining the Majority of desktop systems, I don't think the general public will be switching over any time soon.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 1) by kwerle on Sunday April 06 2014, @09:14PM
Editors, please edit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 06 2014, @11:53PM
Editors, please edit.
That happened. My title, as submitted, was
...and both you and the GP seem to be unaware of the limit on the length of article titles.
Poll: More Will Switch to Linux Than to Visduh8
-- gewg_
(Score: 5, Funny) by hamsterdan on Sunday April 06 2014, @09:25PM
" We're better then that /sigh"
You misspelled /.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Sunday April 06 2014, @09:28PM
To be fair, it's simply logical to stay on XP or move to 7. All your software will still work and the learning curve is minimal. A move to Linux or Mac requires a good deal more investment, be that money or time. Better marketing for Linux and less for Microsoft (you'll notice how low 8's number is....) does not alter that fact.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by jasassin on Sunday April 06 2014, @11:03PM
To be fair, it's simply logical to stay on XP or move to 7. All your software will still work and the learning curve is minimal.
I agree with you. I would love to run Linux, but the driver support doesn't work as well for me as Windows 7. I sincerely hope by the time Windows 7 EOL's there will be something more amazing than we can imagine now. The answer might be Wayland, but the problem I see is a whole group of buggy incompatible compositors. Maybe they'll have that all figured out by 7's EOL.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 07 2014, @12:14AM
I agree with you
I don't. After the final Patch Tuesday, XP should only be used air-gapped.
Expect a whole raft of exploits that are being held back to be turned loose shortly after the 8th.
You can expect to be another node on the latest botnet before you can turn around and spit.
Linux[...]driver support doesn't work as well for me as Windows 7
Stop buying crappy hardware from crappy manufacturers with crappy support.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by monster on Monday April 07 2014, @07:04AM
So your solution to bad drivers is going backwards in time to buy some other hardware?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 07 2014, @10:24PM
I assume that at the time the GP bought his kit, the reputation for a lack of support for that gear was common knowledge.
People who buy single-purpose gear then whine when that doesn't work outside those narrow bounds get no empathy from me--only scorn.
Standard practice to determine if the gear that has caught your eye is open/compatible is to take your bootable ISO with you to BuyMore.
Boot-to-a-usable-desktop media has been available all of this century. ...and even before. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [wikipedia.org]
(Anyone who isn't aware how far back KNOPPIX goes has been living in a cave.)
Indeed, this meme goes back to the Lose95 era. [googleusercontent.com] (orig[1]) [linuxjournal.com]
The ultimate form of this test is to use a doesn't-support-any-closed-code distro for that. [soylentnews.org]
That distro is called Trisquel.
[1] The significant text for your text search is Fall '95.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by monster on Tuesday April 08 2014, @07:11AM
Usually it's not so simple. When you buy new hardware it's common to go near the 'bleeding edge', at least in some components. Many times the hardware isn't supported at that moment, but gets a driver later (we have to assume it, Linux is a second class citizen for many companies, specially on consumer hardware). In those cases you are betting that your hardware will get the drivers you need, but you really don't know. If later the company decides to not support Linux properly you are screwed, but you had no way to know it before.
Also, company reputation for support is not always the same. Take HP, for example: Their old printers worked flawlessly with Linux, with many of them you could send a PS file to it and call it done. Then, new models arrive and the support is somewhere between defective and half-assed, like the HPLIP ones, or the drivers are crippled and don't support all the functionalities of the printers.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday April 07 2014, @12:59AM
To an extent, I agree.
You would be suprised how many people continue to run systems that are no longer under maintenance.
It is simply not that big of a problem. Win98 and Win2k is still in active use in some parts of the world. (In my day job my company sells software to these areas).
The anti-virus vendors will continue to support XP, because they will continue to make money doing so.
However, you make too much if the learning curve.
The people who use XP by and large did not install it themselves. (They bought it installed). If or When someone offers to move them to KDE and shows them that it works virtually the same way, without the need of virus checkers, they can instantly be as productive as they were with WinXP.
Most people use email, web, maybe a writer and occasionally a spread-sheet. The learning curve on the opensource equivelences of these features is very low,
The learning curve for windows 7 is at least as high, and for Windows 8.x is much higher.
To this, you have to add that everyone, including your grandmother, has been through at least one totally new OS when they got their phone, tablet, or iPad. The days when people couldn't handle change are over. Its not Y2K any more.
In spite of Ubuntu's drive for a simpler desktop, KDE still is easier for nubies to learn than Gnome.
The only requirement is that someone install it for them, (same as it was when they bought the machine). Because, try as they may, the Distros have never gotten this to the point where is is guarenteed to work out of the gate.
The biggest problem is people like YOU. You are making linux seem way harder than it really is, and you are spreading the FUD farther than you think. You never called Microsoft for help. Why do you think you need a Linux company to hold your hand.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Sunday April 06 2014, @10:32PM
I think it is disingenuous because not many consumers are running Windows XP. For a consumer you receive your license and operating system when you purchase your device. You purchase a new laptop and you didn't so much as migrate to Windows 7/8.1, but just purchased a new computer. How many would actually go out of their way, or pay extra, to have Windows XP installed instead?
People will go out of their way to get Windows 7 installed versus 8.1, but not out of their way to get XP installed. That is entirely because of how terrible Metro and 8.1 is on a new system.
The real interesting numbers, which I believe are the bulk, are the decisions by the businesses. We all know a company or two that has dozens or hundreds of XP machines still in operation. Businesses can make bulk purchases of hardware and migrate the XP licensing repeatedly. I don't know a single business that has ever given Microsoft anything but the finger over that limitation of how many times an OEM license can be transferred from equipment to equipment either. In fact, I know plenty businesses with "pirated" installs to get rid of the GA and associated crap and they just put COAs in a folder kept someplace safe. I use a razor blade to cut them off the machines myself if I have to do so. Screw MS, they got paid money, and many IT techs I know feel the same.
Now that XP will truly no longer be supported, and it's getting a little ridiculous at this point using XP, those businesses are making a decision. I would have been sincerely surprised if businesses would have opted to use the 8.1/Metro disaster instead of the relatively well performing Windows 7 Professional. Not every desktop is a freakin' tablet Microsoft!
I would be willing to bet that *many* will be migrating to Linux. That's the natural consequence of embracing SAAS. The desktop is turning back into a thin client, and you don't need a full Win7 to be running a thin client just for remote desktop/SAAS operations. There are quite a few competitors in that space. Every flavor of Linux, Android, Google with Chrome OS, and Microsoft have operating systems vying for use on embedded systems and thin clients. Wasn't there a story recently about how Microsoft will be making their OS free for some systems? Probably a good bet that a Microsoft subscription to their SAAS services in the future will come with free licensing for the thin clients with a thin client targeted version of Win7/8.1
That won't hold true for every use case at the moment, but those use cases are increasing every day, not decreasing.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by iamjacksusername on Monday April 07 2014, @12:24AM
I have moved a lot of companies to 7 but I see a lot of businesses stripping away core infrastructure and going to SAAS. While some are
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 07 2014, @12:34AM
you receive your license and operating system when you purchase your device
That hasn't been true for me since 1992 (DOS 5.0).
Since my first box, I've picked up used gear and flogged it till it drops dead.
Gratis and libre software has been a godsend for me.
People will go out of their way to get Windows 7 installed
Not interested. My apps don't require a EULAware OS.
There are hundreds of millions like me.
versus 8.1
Not even at gunpoint.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday April 07 2014, @02:52PM
The biggest problem with XP's EOL is banks. Something like 95% of ATMs run on XP. A third of computers on the internet are running XP. Ending support only six years after the last computer rolled off the assembly line with XP is incredibly irresponsible of Microsoft.
And they lived happily ever after.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday April 07 2014, @10:43PM
While I agree with you on the EOL, I also submit that putting XP on an ATM machine was fantastically more irresponsible on the part of the banks.
Microsoft has always been Swiss cheese security. We all know this. That's why firewalls and ALG's are so critical. How on Earth can you justify all that cruft and bloat that only served to provide additional attack surfaces that absolutely should have been vetted before pushing an image into production?
A hardened security version of Linux would have been far more appropriate, and "fanboying" aside an impartial person would have realized that Linux was not being taken apart to find exploits nearly as much as XP. The objective choice should have been Linux with security experts paid to damn near cripple it from doing anything other than designed.
I would almost go as far as to say ATM machines should have had custom circuits and programming, but that may not have been economically viable. Putting together an industry group to spread the costs of development for a hardened Linux ATM version would have been viable.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday April 08 2014, @04:33PM
I also submit that putting XP on an ATM machine was fantastically more irresponsible on the part of the banks.
I don't think it was the banks, I think it was Diebold, who built them and chose the OS. Of course, after all the security problems Diebold voting machines have had, using Diebold seems irresponsible, at least now.
And they lived happily ever after.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday April 07 2014, @03:16PM
90% of users prefer Linux!*
*Disclaimer: we only polled crazy people.
:)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"