Long ago, I stopped being flabbergasted by folks who have no idea what their operating system is. Some, when asked, will respond “Microsoft” or “Word” or “Microsoft Office” (or just “Office”) or “Internet Explorer” or some random word/phrase based loosely on “Windows” or variation of whatever program they use most often, usually just whatever came installed on the computer when they bought it, and they’re usually obstinately vague about whatever version of that most-used program is. Most don’t know (seriously–I’m not kidding here!) any difference between whatever web browser or email client they use (not that they know what email client they use) and their operating system.
And they don’t really care, as long as things look familiar, they can type and mouse and click to get wherever their stubby lil brains can manage to go on the internet using whatever browser they have been trained however poorly to use (usually by default Internet Exploder, but more and more often now some other browser, installed by a friend or relative who is simply tired of being bothered by a naif who gets in trouble using Internet Exploder).
So who really needs “upgrading” to Microsoft’s latest-greatest OS offering?
Microsoft will claim more than 300 million installations of Vista since its release, but most of those are consumer PCs sold through retailers and direct distributors. According to a recent survey by ITIC and Sunbelt Software of more than 700 senior corporate executives, only 10 percent had deployed Vista on their desktops, whereas 88 percent reported Windows XP as their primary client OS.1
Most software and hardware works well enough with XP, and software that won’t you probably don’t really need anyway. WinXP 64-bit, for those who have made the move to 64-bit computers, is as stable as Win2K (M$’s best overall OS to date, IMO) and more nimble, less hardware demanding, than Vista. Not that Vista is a particularly bad OS, but why retrain for a new OS (with new, not always better and often more obscurantist ways of doing things) that is far more demanding of hardware when an existing OS is just “good enough”?
That’s probably one reason so many folks who’ve bought one of those new comps with Vista on them have called on techie friends or paid some tech to “downgrade” ’em to XP, and it’s certainly a big reason why nearly 90% of computers used in businesses still use XP. (Another reason many have downgraded or kept XP is likely just that they can’t handle the learning curve Vista requires them to climb–a learning curve that is in some ways steeper than simply switching to a modern Linux distro with a nice Windows-like GUI.)
I’ve long used (and recommended) many free software apps in place of costly and often less capable apps from Me$$y$oft and others, preferring to save money for those apps that can’t be replaced by free apps and that really deserve my $$. And yes, I believe hitting someone’s tip jar for writing a nice piece of code and giving it away is a Very Good Thing, but I’ve spent years avoiding Me$$y$oft’s strongarming, and now go even further. Yes, my decision last summer to make Ubuntu my primary OS on my main computer is working out nicely now, and I even lose a few CDs every month giving copies away to folks who need rescuing from Redmond. (Sometimes, it’s a Puppy Linux CD, though :-)) Sure, I still keep some copies of Windows available in VMs on this machine for reference, but since I can even run most Windows software easily with WINE or CrossOver Linux, if there’s a Windows program I just don’t want to do without, I don’t have to.
Upside of switch to (Ubuntu) Linux: Haven’t bought a piece of software since the switch and haven’t had to. Almost everything works at least as well as in Windows (see exception below) and some things better. No DRM crap, which means ripping CDs or DVDs (for archiving of purchased copies, of course) is easy-peasy: just a couple of clicks. Do that in Windows? Especially Vista? Not. Fast. Really fast. Required some learning of the Linux command line (OK, for most that’d be a downside :-)) to configure a couple of oddball hardware devices.
Downside of switch to (Ubuntu) Linux: my remote’s IR receiver (for the Hauppauge TV tuner card) is still not working. Sometimes need to reset sound config (in a GUI, so easy-peasy anyway) after a system update.
There were a few other lil glitches during the install/configuration stage, since this comp was a barebones/MPC slaptogether with some oddball needs, but getting this computer up to speed wasn’t as hard as two very normal XP installs done on bare metal in the same time frame. Learning curve on how to configure some of the oddball hardware was steep a couple of times, but enjoyable for me, overall.
So, depending on folks’ needs, more and more I recommend they at least give Ubuntu a shot. Heck, if all someone needs is to surf the web, do email, manage photos, music, video and office documents, Ubuntu can do all that sort of stuff right “out of the box” as well as or better than Windows on the average machine. Some oddball devices don’t work–yet–on Linux at all (like my USB IR sensor/remote or my Dad’s MagicJack–although MagicJack is working on the latter), but every printer or other “normal” peripheral device I’ve tried (flash drives, scanners, etc.) has Just Worked, and as well as or better–and more easily–than with Windows.
One weakness: setting up a “home theater” or “media center” PC isn’t as straightforward as with Windows Media Center 2005 or Vista Ultimate. MythTV, Freevo and LinuxMCE all have different approaches and different setup procedures and are all still kind of rough around the edges compared with Windows solutions. They’re getting there, and I really like the home automation approach LinuxMCE is attempting, but on solid achievements, I can only give the media center solutions in Linux a “C” grade right now. A “C” grade is good enough, but just barely. For the rest–doing browsing, email, running office and media apps, etc.–Ubuntu is as good as or better than any Windows I’ve used, from 3.0 through XP (with Vista use only on others’ machines… when they got stuck *heh*).
oish!..this post made my head hurt ..haha..Happy New Year hugssssssss from your friend in NYC!: and thanks for being YOU David!)