[plug] Linux vs Microsoft

Wed May 8 07:32:19 WST 2002

James as much as I can appreciate your comments (come a long way since the 
card puch systems), this is the same scenario with the NOS (MS vs Novell vs 
Linux) debate.  The bottom line isn't who'll win but what works for the 
client.  One should not buy into a market because it has the largest share or 
Joe Blob down the street is using it.  Some clients have to be educated into 
making the right decision, this should involve a comprehensive report of the 
Pros and Cons or each product. If the major share holder of the NOS's cannot 
provide the solution then buy into the product that solves the solution.  In 
saying this if a client is looking for an inexpensive non proprietary OS 
utilising existing equipment chances are they may be willing to learn a new 
OS if the TCO is lower.  Client generally look at the bottom line ($$$) and 
then what they require, funny not the other way around.
What I tend to do is create a matrix of what the client wants to run on both 
their desktop and server.  From there we make the analysis of what is 
available on the market and in what OS is it available.  This will as always 
narrow the decision down to the correct OS.
This has been my experience.  

On Tue, 7 May 2002 21:17, James Elliott wrote:
> Hi all
>
> The might be some analogy between this operating system debate (Linux vs
> Microsoft) and the bids by various manufacturers to dominate the hardware
> market about 30 - 40 years ago.
>
> I am nowhere near as computer literate as most of you PLUGers, but I have
> been around computers for longer than some of you have lived, and witnessed
> something similar to the Linux vs Windows situation happen in the hardware
> arena - even been affected by it at the time.
>
> As even the youngies among you would know from your textbooks, "In the
> beginning there was the Mainframe ......"  The first serious attempt to
> capture the home market, the first commercially available personal computer
> was the Commodore, unless I am mistaken, and I am sure I am not (if you
> ignore non-commercial, research type devices).  Then the big boys saw that
> home computing was a popular market and not too far behind that came the
> small office demand - word-processors for lawyers' offices, etc.
>
> To choose from at the time, circa late 70's, early 80's  (I know because a
> friend and I had a mobile computer bookkeeping service - self-contained
> computer offices in vans) were IBM, Apple, NEC, in the lead and several
> others near behind.  Even when all using DOS you could not take a disk out
> of an IBM and read it in an NEC or Apple machine because of the differing
> computer architectures.
>
> This was a major headache for the clone manufacturers and for the component
> manufacturers (motherboards, sound cards, video cards, etc) - who was the
> best one to go with? ... where was the best potential market?
>
> A worldwide committee of 'cloners' formed and IBM were clever enough to say
> "if you guys want to copy all our stuff, that's okay - in fact we will
> license you to make the printed circuit boards and buy them off you instead
> of making them ourselves, and you can have cheap license to build
> 'compatibles' as well".
>
> Apple, like Microsoft, said "Copy any of our gear and we'll see you in
> Court".
>
> Who has the bigger share of the market place? - IBM and its compatibles or
> Apple?  NEC had a superior architecture to IBM, and also to Apple, but
> could see the way things were going to evolve and wisely albeit sadly, 
> chose to become IBM compatible, as did most of the other hitherto
> proprietary brands.
>
> IBM was the undisputed leader in PC's in the early days, cooperated with
> the market place and kept significant market share.  Microsoft is the
> undisputed leader in the current O/S  marketplace but will not let anyone
> else in and is charging as much as the market can bear - more in the case
> of some private users.  So in the long run, who will win, Microsoft or
> Linux? (Apple or IBM?).
>
> Just some thoughts of mine that I felt like sharing.
>
> James Elliott
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Anthony Jones" <ajones at clear.net.nz>
> To: <plug at plug.linux.org.au>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2002 7:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [plug] suggestion: PLUG 4 Schools
>
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > On Monday 06 May 2002 22:49, Arie Hol wrote:
> > > What happens when you have Linux established and operating successfully
>
> in a
>
> > > school, but all the parents of the kids at this school have Windows
> > > PC's
>
> at
>
> > > home.
> > >
> > > What happens when these kids move on to another school or educational
> > > institution (like uni)?
> >
> > I don't see this as a problem. Most of the Unix tools also work on
>
> Windoze -
>
> > this means that anything you can do on Linux you can also do on Windoze
>
> with
>
> > Cygwin, for example.
> >
> > Are you suggesting that we shouldn't be teaching people how to use Linux
> > because not enough people know how to use (and use) Linux?
> >
> > > Will they be capable of handling the change of software environment -
> > > it would be great for the kids if they can learn to use two operating
>
> systems
>
> > > and their respective software environments - but I think our kids are
> > > already under enough pressure with the current circumstances in our
> > > education system.
> >
> > The OS really makes very little difference. Windoze isn't really that
> > different in the way it operates to Mac or Linux. You are also
> > underestimating the rate of change of Windoze. M$ keep on releasing new
> > versions of Windoze which are totally different from the last. This
>
> requires
>
> > completely re-learning everything every 2-3 years.
> >
> > > What happens when the kids move out into the work force - will their
>
> Linux
>
> > > skills be what is required by their employers ? A great win for
>
> employers if
>
> > > they are running Unix and/or Linux systems - but maybe a loss for the
>
> kids.
>
> > Who knows what the future will bring. I would say that Unix has been
>
> around
>
> > for more than 40 years and Windoze has been around for about 10. I
> > suspect that in five years the computer world will be totally different
> > again (as
>
> it
>
> > has done in the last five years).
> >
> > > I do not condemn Microsoft totally - I think that there are many people
>
> who
>
> > > are now Linux devotees who may not have even been computer literate if
>
> it
>
> > > hadn't been for DOS & Windows. Microsoft needs to be brought back to
>
> sanity
>
> > > - they have become the "Ogre in the forest". They need a big, loud
>
> wakeup
>
> > > call and I believe that Linux will be that call.
> >
> > I do condemn M$ totally. They are rotten to the core.
> >
> > Anthony
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