[GRLUG] Linux use

[John Wesorick]

At work, we are moving towards a 100% Linux ecosystem, both desktops and
servers. I have also had several friends ask me about installing this Linux
thing recently on their own, when I had preached to them years before and
they said they didn't see a point. At least 10% of the non-IT people at my
work have tried or use Linux at home. I don't think this is the year of the
Linux desktop, but we (Linux users) are making great strides. Besides for
the numbers, is there any information on where they came from? Are these
just devices sold with Linux installed? Does this include PCs that are
dual-booting? If not, which OS do they account for? etc, etc.

On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 1:38 PM, Dagny Scott <parsleyfirefly at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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