Fear The Penguin
One might not think that Microsoft has much to fear from Linux, but the truth is that even with its challenges and varied user experiences, it’s user base made up of a very loud, passionate group of individuals.
This translates into what will hopefully one day, become a available support team for those who are wanting to get away from Windows, but are not really feeling like OS X is where they want to be at.
The fact of the matter is that Microsoft has nothing to fear on the desktop market at this time. And despite tremendous strides being made with distros such as Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS and OpenSuSE, the market has yet to shout loudly enough outside of the geek set or those who live outside of the US who have been introduced to it. And that is the mark, people need to be introduced to Linux when and if they are ready to be. While this has happened for some of us, the bulk of people out there who would do well with Linux have yet to even hear of it.
4 Comments
I Get By With a Little Help from my Friends | Chris Pirillo
August 31st, 2009
at 1:22am
[...] Fear the penguin! [...]
Dean
August 31st, 2009
at 4:33am
I think your wrong about a loud group of people being the user base. There’s a part of the user base that is loud, but they inevitably seem to be better suited for Windows anyway. Linux is usually either a part of a job, or a hobby and provides its own unique experience that the typical user isn’t looking for. In either case, people who are new to it are the ones who tend to be loud. This is particularly true when it comes to all the mumbo jumbo about “cool” factor of dumping Microsoft and the delusion the world can switch to open operating systems easily… or that it even wants to. Linux has a high turn over rate, so people new to it being loud just means that there’s always a neverending supply of loud (and misguided) people. Serious users, and well seasoned users, usually could care less than the Mac vs Windows indulgers.
The rule of thumb is that if someone uses Winblows Windowz Microshaft etc etc, as a way to talk about things, they’re probably running a dual boot machine with Windows on it and will disappear from the Linux community before long.
Marc
August 31st, 2009
at 6:15am
Actually, the arena that Microsoft should fear the penguin is not on the desktop, but on the mobile. Google phones are just in their infancy at this time, but Android, the Google mobile platform is linux based. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile has not delivered on the promise (nothing new there) and Apple has shown the world that a better mobile OS can be made but only allows it on their platform. Android phones are being released by many manufacturers and offer the capabilities of the iPhone for a fraction of the cost and available on more networks.
Windows is too embedded into the corporate environment to be overthrown on the desktop. While linux servers are not uncommon in the workplace I have seen comparatively few linux desktops in my years as a software developer… and most of those were on the desks of fellow developers and never on a managers desk. Personally, I have two desktops, one of each. Linux for development and Windows to be compatible with the rest of the corporation. Too many IS people don’t seem to realize that not everyone cares to be forced to use Windows and so many corporate applications rely on it.
Seeing that the desktop war is lost, we should focus winning the mobile war, and I am betting on Android to be the way linux comes to the masses.
Passive Penguin Defender ~ Windows Fanatics
August 31st, 2009
at 12:45pm
[...] Fear the penguin! [...]