Larger outfits may see better benefits from Linux but still, if the Linux world remains as fragmented and chaotic as it is, filled with idealists and people guided by principles rather than businessmen, it’ll be a hard time for Linux to “kill” Windows.

Firstly my friend. You seem like the narrow minded user/admin who has worked on both platforms with out opening your mind to the differences between the two. how many times have you had data loss on Microsoft’s OS or even Office as you had to point out? Then compare how many times this has happened on Ubuntu. Very stupid thing to point out I know but one of the key things on windows that we all hate/dread is the fact that it WILL go corrupt. There is no life span that you can pre-determine. Other than that…you can’t way the two up against each other while thinking about which company has the most money. Ubuntu is a very flexible OS that has saved me tons of money. If you have the brains to use it, and you’re comfortable with toying around..you’ll soon find that you can do way more on Ubuntu. Ubuntu server for example..when you install you can choose you server type similar to windows, but you can litterally build anything you want on there afterward without worrying about little nitty gritty things such as licensing. It’s cheap and cost effective and won’t let you down. Also it’s fully customizable. The only 1 thing I’ve ever heard when waying the two up against each other was “Yeah, but it can’t authenticate to Active Directory regardless of how you approach it. And even on that comment, after 2 minutes on google, I found 3 guides that works. I’ve tried them all. You need to be open minded. The war between Linux and Windows comes down to this…..Windows users feel they pay so their software owns..but in actual fact, that’s narrow minded. You need to think … Can I build a machine of the same capacity…using both? The answer, undoubtly is YES!

SHZWA!

“….Muhammad Fahd Waseem
February 13th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
@ aaron gooch: Yes, let’s dream of a world with just Linux. But yes, I have mentioned: it’s not happening any time soon.”

Linux will aventually own the shizet out of MS windows. And why is that? Well, mathematics.

Cheap + Reliable + UNLIMITED FREE SOFTWARE + lightning fast + reshapable = Awesome!

Where as MS Windows is

Same shite new packages + pretty pictures + same reliability as Ubuntu if not worse + you can expect the blue screen = Crap…. you do the math. Windows has the capital….ubuntu has ppl with the brain.

At the end of the day though, this is not just a war, this is a matter of opinion on the user and admin levels and a war of pride between the 2 software vendors. Also, ALL windows and linux admins will fight about this to the end of days as the IT Sector is a very competitive sector where as all of us want to out shine the other. My vote goes to ubuntu…Microsoft windows 7….bleh!

Vista might have been a failure for MS, but Seven is definitely going to be successful, and it’s going to put a lot of money into MS’s pockets.

Software quality is one critical issue for Linux. Although GIMP isn’t bad, it’s nowhere even near Daobe Photoshop, and the same applies to Inkscape in comparison to Adobe Illustrator. OOo is the only cross-platform app that could be called a qualified success, and despite tons of subsidies from Sun even OOo isn’t as powerful as MS Office. Let’s NOT speak about software for special purposes such as CAD (and particularly special CAD purposes such as construction of machines, furniture etc.) These are the territories in which Windows-based apps rule entire markets, where billions of dollars are turned over and millions of dollars of profit are generated every year.

Why, for the love of God, should successful software companies such as Autodesk, Adobe, MS etc. stop pursuing their successful and proven product lines to adjust their software to 20 or so different flavours of Linux? Ubuntu might be the most successful Linux version, but it isn’t even near a monopoly on the Linux market; and if it were, would it then be better to trade one quasi-monopoly (Windows) for another (Ubuntu)?

Windows is by far the most versatile operating system on the market; there practically isn’t any niche market where you don’t find more than just one or two different Windows apps that - unlike quite a lot of Linux apps - work really well.

Open-source software might gain more importance in fields such as productivity apps and communications but as most open-source software runs on Windows systems, too, it needn’t pose a threat to MS.

Yes, linux has many variants and a vast collection of softwares, but when it comes to real world they are limited. We can get replacements for many windows application and some can be run over wine, but many other software don’t have replacements for eg: VS.Studio, softwares those can burn programs into micro controllers etc, photoshop do run over wine but the results are pretty bad to neglect, there are lots more.. but still LINUX ROCKS..

Of course, ‘less software’ is perhaps the wrong term. ‘less quality software’ is more in line with what I meant. It is undeniable that while Linux does have good equivalents for many commonly used Windows apps, the quality is almost always marginally, and sometimes largely, lower - particularly when it comes to ease of use.

@ fjfr74: You should also know that WINE fails to successfully or easily handle many sophisticated Windows software suites, such as Office 2007 or Adobe CS4.