Vista still struggling as Linux finds its feet

Cyrus_the_virus · 27-11-2007, 02:43 AM

Almost a year on from the release of Microsoft's Windows Vista, only 13 percent of companies say they expect to move all desktops to the operating system, according to a survey released this week. Furthermore, adoption of Linux continues to gather pace, with a particular emphasis on the desktop emerging.

A survey of 961 independently selected IT professionals found that 90 percent still have concerns about the migration to Vista, and 48 percent have not yet deployed Vista in any way. Forty-four percent said they are "considering" alternative operating systems--mostly Mac OS X, Ubuntu, Red Hat Linux, Suse Linux and Ubuntu.

But analyst Clive Longbottom of Quocirca advised caution when interpreting the figures. "Very few places are looking at Linux as a replacement for Microsoft," he said.

Longbottom disputes the widely held belief that users will find it easier to upgrade to Linux than to adapt to Vista's new GUI. "It does take a bit of time to find things on Vista, but most people do the majority of the transfer themselves and require less than an hour's worth of training," he said. And, while Linux might be free, there could be a lot of effort involved in transferring things like Word and Excel macros, he warned.

"Microsoft's big problem is not Linux, but the difficulty of upgrading desktops to Vista," said Longbottom. "Old hardware has to be checked, so Vista is a new-build, new-install solution," he said. Many users are waiting to see if Vista Service Pack 1 improves the situation, he said, and are worried about software compatibility. "Microsoft has done a very bad job of getting people to sign up to say their software is compatible with Vista."

Early results from the Linux Foundation's annual survey of Linux use indicate that, in those businesses and organizations that have deployed Linux desktops, just under 40 percent are running Linux on more than half of their machines. And, in most of these places, Linux is more common on desktops than servers--apparently contradicting the common belief that Linux is, and will continue to be, mainly a server OS.

Again though, Longbottom sounds a note of caution. Citing hard usage data of operating systems used to access popular Web sites, he said: "It's still less than 1 percent, after 15 years of Linux at the desktop--that's less than Vista has achieved in one year."

Other commentators are looking beyond traditional desktop systems.
"To be sure, desktop systems based on free software are coming along nicely," said analyst Glyn Moody, of Open..., "not least because people like [Canonical, the makers of Ubuntu] are working hard on making the user experience as good as Windows. But I think it's becoming clear that the desktop is turning into a legacy market of diminishing importance."

Three launches back this up, said Moody: "The Asus Eee PC looks likely to spawn a new category of ultra-small, ultra-cheap, mobile PCs. Windows can't match that: the cheaper the hardware, the greater the proportion of the price represented by the Windows tax." He also pointed to the Everex Green gPC TC2502, which is essentially a Web-based system running on GNU/Linux.

"Finally, if Google's mobile-phone stack, Android, takes off, we could be seeing hundreds of millions, or even billions, of Linux-based systems running Web apps, like the gPC, but not on a desktop," said Moody. "So, in a way, asking whether GNU/Linux will ever take a substantial share of the traditional desktop market is the wrong question, albeit a natural one; that's the past. What's much more interesting is the share of the future personal computing sector--Web-based systems, ultraportables, mobiles--and there it's clear that GNU/Linux is already well ahead."

Source: ZDNet

Few other related Articles:

Microsoft struggling to convince about Vista
IT execs still close doors on Vista, despite update
Businesses continue to avoid Vista
Microsoft's Service Pack fails to supercharge Vista

Torvalds On Where Linux Is Headed In 2008
Desktop Linux on the rise, Linux Foundation reports
Linux on the line: musings on the CLI / GUI flip-flop

naveen_reloaded · 27-11-2007, 11:49 AM

Dont worry give it another year..and a service pack..all will go ms way..

mediator · 27-11-2007, 01:07 PM

^^Thats the problem. They make false promises and deliver their products later than promised and that too without finishing their beta testings. As a result the OS needs service packs to somehow work on it !! Poor business and software engineering practices. Therefore it can't go MS way!

naveen_reloaded · 27-11-2007, 02:44 PM

When yöü are a international company,yöü need to meet certain deadliness...on which your company hangs.
Vista itself is 1 year delayed release...
Ms had no option to release it, ..
Anyway even if they had finished it,bugs are a part of any software...
And with hackers and programmers who are ready to break the os apart...its really a very tough job,and ms is carrying out in their style..
Call me a fanboy or anything, i dont care,
Vista will rock ,just be patient..

Cyrus_the_virus · 27-11-2007, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by naveen_reloaded

Dont worry give it another year..and a service pack..all will go ms way..

Why don't you give a read to the 4th article I have mentioned under other related articles?

mediator · 27-11-2007, 03:29 PM

Taking half a decade to develop an OS IMHO is more than enough and delaying it for another 1 year is an extremely bad practice. Companies may delay it for 1 month or 2, but a whole year?

Yes, bugs are part of every OS and I'm not talking about zero day exploits and hackers, but the basic working of an OS. And yet it comes with so many incompatibilties!!

I dont think file delete problem/bug, which shud have been resolved in alpha testing itself, is "really a very tough job, for ms to carry out in its style".

VISTA may rock. But then its successor will come and history will repeat and then people will say again, "Wait for one year and Vienna will rock..with hardware requirements like a deca-core PC etc", while Linux continues to progress further.

Neways full patience from my side!! I'm waiting while people continue to move away...

Cyrus_the_virus · 27-11-2007, 03:35 PM

The tech world has already pointed out that the fate of Vista is not going to be any different from the fate of Windows ME! MS has made good OS but Vista is certainly a failure as it's been over a year that MS has failed to kill the bad press about Vista and that just proves that's it's not going to get any better. I see a portion of Vista users ditching the SP1 and get the XP SP3 which proves a 10% rise in performance and certainly better and faster than Vista(Fanboy's, please don't be foolish enough to argue on this). Vista is a repetation of WinME

praka123 · 27-11-2007, 04:16 PM

I think M$ bribes popular hacker groups to stop making virus and malwares for Vista

afterall M$ is a marketing company unethical and go to any extent!Vista is a failure already although M$ showed their power by making major h/w vendors to use Vista as default OS.
i m referring to laptops esp in Indian scenario.

naveen_reloaded · 27-11-2007, 06:43 PM

I never found any incompatiblity issues..even if it automatically searches its database and shows the option avail for me.
For me vista is awesome..

goobimama · 27-11-2007, 06:51 PM

Vista will 'rock' only because people are forced to use Vista. And I don't mean the strapped to a chair with a gun to the head 'forced'. I mean, most PCs now come with Vista preloaded. Take for instance you can't install XP on a Sony PC.

Also, most people are used to XP so their next machine will more often than not be a Vista PC. This is the only reason why Vista will rock. Also ignorance prevails cause most people don't want to try something else. Vista will 'rock' only because of Windows having a large market share and not because of it's own inherent qualities...

azzu · 27-11-2007, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goobimama

most people don't want to try something else. ..

they dont want to try other Oses cause they r happy with it

rajasekharan · 27-11-2007, 07:11 PM

vista is just another ME for me . . crap o.s ,2000 and xp is the best of the lot . . especially 2000

goobimama · 27-11-2007, 07:55 PM

While you may choose to believe that Windows users are in fact happy with using it, in my experience with dealing with people, they are not. Constant problems, viruses, crashes all make up for a day working with Windows. Now most people will bear with all that as long as they can type in a few pages in Word and maybe do some internet work. But that doesn't mean that they are happy. For most part they are ignorant of the alternatives.

Also, If linux was a little more friendly when it comes to drivers and other such things, it would have stormed the world. Macs on the other hand don't come in the cheap range which a lot of people want. Mind you, ignorance is the prime cause of Windows being the dominant OS. Why else would two of my friends buy a mac, and five more say that their next computer is going to be a mac? I would hardly want my friends to have a mac as well so I don't force it upon them.

narangz · 27-11-2007, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goobimama

Vista will 'rock' only because people are forced to use Vista. And I don't mean the strapped to a chair with a gun to the head 'forced'. I mean, most PCs now come with Vista preloaded. Take for instance you can't install XP on a Sony PC.

Also, most people are used to XP so their next machine will more often than not be a Vista PC. This is the only reason why Vista will rock. Also ignorance prevails cause most people don't want to try something else. Vista will 'rock' only because of Windows having a large market share and not because of it's own inherent qualities...

I downgraded my laptop to XP Pro. XP drivers are not given by HP but zi found

And now I am back to Vista after using XP for two months. Vista Rocks(I am not forced)

gxsaurav · 27-11-2007, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goobimama

Also, most people are used to XP so their next machine will more often than not be a Vista PC. This is the only reason why Vista will rock. Also ignorance prevails cause most people don't want to try something else. Vista will 'rock' only because of Windows having a large market share and not because of it's own inherent qualities...

When XP came, people said it is bad & not many upgraded to it. But today XP rox, this is the same thing which is going to happen with vista. Give the app devs some time to come up with proper .net 3.0 apps

Cyrus_the_virus · 27-11-2007, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

When XP came, people said it is bad & not many upgraded to it. But today XP rox, this is the same thing which is going to happen with vista. Give the app devs some time to come up with proper .net 3.0 apps

So did people say the same about ME and it remained to be so.

narangz · 27-11-2007, 08:19 PM

^^Buddy, let the time come. You'll see

BTW- Have you ever used Vista? I mean without cracks/hacks?

Gigacore · 27-11-2007, 08:27 PM

@ gx.. and even the .net 3.5 is on its way

anandk · 27-11-2007, 08:34 PM

88 million sold. os mkt share, now 8%, expected to cross 10% soon. but yes, there are concerns IT biznesses have about the need to upgrade to vista ... but then, its just a matter of time, i guess. SP1 will make the difrnce in 2008 Q1.

Gigacore · 27-11-2007, 08:36 PM

^ wow what a news update bro

thanks

rajasekharan · 27-11-2007, 08:48 PM

its just gonna be another ME . . we will wait for win 7 gates

bikdel · 27-11-2007, 09:52 PM

Vista sux BIGTIME !! this months digit is enough for me to some to that conclusion :-P

all that is talked about in vista is the damn crappy AERO... remove that thing and lets compare it to XP and see how it lags :-P newer .NET frameworks are bound to work because its a new MS product

but thats no way to compare OSes....

regards
bikalp

praka123 · 28-11-2007, 01:55 AM

goobimamu said some nice points.but as he is with mac his one eye is donated to mac,else his post @ #13 is very nice

Most users are ignorant on alternatives,also they study that M$ is a gr8 company and we must use Vista,livemail etc to make M$ even more gr8.

I hope people knows that M$ is just a marketing company of cr@ppy products esp Vista.i am not flaming!this is the truth.

GNU/Linux needs a charity from OSS Using Companies:bring a full page add on last page of popular newspapers and websites about Why you must move to GNU/Linux and What is wrong with Microwsoft the company!

advertising is what lacks Linux from spreading.Well,OSS community may not be that rich to advertise on all medias and Linux is NOT made a news!while Vista launch and corresponding "news" advertisement made the name popular.
Linux distros dont quote the +ve things in GNU/Linux.
If those things are brought up and making compiz+Gnome Default,those newbie people who are for eyecandy with mac or vista will move to Linux i believe.

Krazy_About_Technology · 28-11-2007, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by praka123

If those things are brought up and making compiz+Gnome Default,those creep people who are for eyecandy with mac or vista will move to Linux i believe.

Mind your language plz.

praka123 · 28-11-2007, 02:48 AM

well edited,wrote in fast with anger

goobimama · 28-11-2007, 02:49 AM

@praka: It's not about eye candy dude. My linuxy cousin keeps bragging about the amount of eye candy that he has got. "My windows are wobbly", "My folders catch fire", "My ding dong spins round". All that doesn't amount to anything. Not I'm not saying that Linux doesn't have a good interface. Just that eye candy doesn't matter as much as productivity. Now when you mix productivity with eye candy, that's where everything clicks...

@krazy: kyaa yaar....

praka123 · 28-11-2007, 02:55 AM

Linux does helps productivity and the word productivity is subjective as with servers and most home users it is very Well usable.for proffessional using autocad,photoshop,corel etc Linux needs to get softwares evolved into the standards of those s/ws for win.although alternatives are there with Linux for those s/w i listed.

another area linux lacks in gaming arena,although it is not bcoz of Linux,but those gaming companies may not be cared to port their games to latest opengl standards for Linux.
and (u may be knowing that OS X benefits from OSS community for many softwares.)
and regarding eyecandy,you or I may not care!but Gnome+compiz is preferred by most Vista users who moved to Linux as Vista hyped about its aero cr@p!.
ya there are people who really cares.and reg eyecandy,Linux is customizable 100% which no closed source OS can achieve

mehulved · 28-11-2007, 02:59 AM

I agree with goobimama, quite a lot of those CF plugins are useless as of how they are now. But, a few of them if worked upon can become quite useful by integrating them into applications, creating applications which can use those features to enhance productivity.

goobimama · 28-11-2007, 04:14 AM

I didn't say Linux is not productive in it's interface. I wouldn't know much cause I haven't got the chance to use it extensively. But what I meant to say is, eye candy isn't everything which is what Compiz and Beryl is all about.

One question I'll ask again. I had asked it some time back as a new thread, but here goes: Who actually really uses Flip3D of Windows? Common. This one is a must. I've yet to come across someone who actually uses it on a day to day basis. Anyone?

gxsaurav · 28-11-2007, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by praka123

I hope people knows that M$ is just a marketing company of cr@ppy products esp Vista.i am not flaming!this is the truth.

According to me , the truth is that Ubuntu & Debian is made by Gibbons

....

Truth is something to which majority of population agrees to, this isn't the truth.

Quote:

GNU/Linux needs a charity from OSS Using Companies:bring a full page add on last page of popular newspapers and websites about Why you must move to GNU/Linux and What is wrong with Microwsoft the company!

How about leaving a choice to the customar?

Quote:

Originally Posted by praka123

but Gnome+compiz is preferred by most Vista users who moved to Linux as Vista hyped about its aero cr@p!.

Linux Mint 4.0 & Ubuntu 7.10 LiveCD refuses to boot here on my computer. So much for compatibility.