[GRLUG] Linux use

[Dagny Scott]

Training dollars aren't really an issue. From a basic user perspective
there's really no difference between Windows, Mac and Linux. If you were
trained on older versions of Windows, you might be more comfortable using a
basic Linux GUI like Xfce than you would be with a constantly-changing mess
that is a current Windows UI.

The issue is with software: there's a lot of specialized software out there.
As home users, we don't think about this issue, except sometimes with games.
I use practically the same software on Linux that I do on Windows --
Thunderbird, Pidgin, Chrome/Chromium, LibreOffice, GIMP.

But most companies have specialized software that they run, stuff that's
vital to their specific industry, and most of that will target whatever has
the largest marketshare (with the exceptions of a few industries, like
audio/video production, that run on Macs).

The only way I see any of this changing is specialized software moving to
the Web. We've already seen this somewhat with some CRM software moving to
the web, but this will have varying degrees of success depending on the
industry.

Dagny

On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 1:24 PM, Bob Kline <bob.kline at gmail.com> wrote:

> According to the same source, OS X has
> about 6% the desktop market.  Now that's
> based on BSD, which would transparent to
> most users.  So this suggests that Linux
> as much as anything lacks a marketing
> vehicle, and both Linux and OS X never
> got the $billions of training dollars from
> corporations that windoz got.  And of course
> people stay with what they know, so now
> breaking in to the windoz monopoly will be
> very tough.
>
>     -- Bob
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Bob Kline <bob.kline at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 12:30 PM, John-Thomas Richards <jtr at jrichards.org
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 08:38:42AM -0400, Eric Beversluis wrote:
>>>
>>> Regarding Linux on the desktop, that arrived (for me) in 1997.  I used
>>> to care whether Linux would take over Microsoft's monopoly position
>>> until I realized that I don't run Windows and haven't since 1997 (except
>>> when working for organizations that required me to use their PCs but not
>>> on my personal computer).  What do I care which OS
>>> [insert-business-name] provides for its employees?  I don't work there.
>>> Debian with OpenBox, vim, Kile, mutt, evolution, Firefox, and a few
>>> others is all *I* need to be productive.
>>> --
>>> john-thomas
>>> ------
>>>
>>
>> An OS needs a certain volume before
>> it gets commercial support, in the way
>> of drivers and package support.  I suspect
>> that the alleged small number of Linux users
>> is balanced by the fact that many of them
>> are IT professionals, and the stated growth
>> in non-desktop areas.
>>
>>    -- Bob
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by *MailScanner* <http://www.mailscanner.info/>, and is
> believed to be clean.
>
> _______________________________________________
> grlug mailing list
> grlug at grlug.org
> http://shinobu.grlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/grlug
>

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://shinobu.grlug.org/pipermail/grlug/attachments/20110826/e87d1973/attachment.html>