Warm greetings to GTALUG, Comments below. (apologies for the messy format -- due to ancient Microsoft Outlook Express...) Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "CLIFFORD ILKAY via talk" <talk@gtalug.org> To: <talk@gtalug.org> Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2017 7:04 PM Subject: Re: [GTALUG] Raspberry PI wifi problem
On 2017-08-23 06:11 PM, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
Hi all.
Making networking run on Linux desktops has always been IMO one of the reasons why it's not caught on. Stuff just shouldn't be this hard.
This is a red herring. The reason why Linux desktops have not caught on has nothing to do with the technical merits, or lack thereof. It's entirely a business decision. Microsoft and various hardware manufacturers, like Dell, have developed a vast ecosystem of VARs and other support resources. There are great financial incentives for I.T. support firms to promote the Windows ecosystem. There is no counterpart to Microsoft in the Linux world so there are no financial incentives for anyone to push Linux on the desktop. Microsoft and Dell cultivate relationships with VARs and funnel business their way. Who does that in the Linux world? No one. Which large and influential organization promotes Linux on desktops? No one.
If ease of installation has something to do with desktop adoption, Windows would have been displaced long ago. Microsoft has a tremendous advantage in the market because of the OEM relationships it has with hardware vendors. Most people have no idea how difficult or easy Windows is to install because they never have to do it. It comes pre-loaded on their computer. In corporate environments, there are many tools designed to make the mass deployment and management of Windows desktops relatively pain-free so the complexity of Windows installation and configuration is, again, hidden from people.
+1. I am a Windows XP "orphan" on a Dell 3000 PC bought in 2004. Working (slowly) to move to a new desktop PC running debian Linux as primary OS with Windows 7 (likely under QEMU) if needed for a Windows-specific app. My motivation in declining to take the easy route (moving to MS Windows 7 / 10) is a combination of bloody-mindedness and love of all things open source. In addition to the powerful arguments provided by Clifford I., explaining Microsoft dominaiton, here are three: 1. Another "iron grip" enjoyed by Microsoft is the MS Office product suite (and related web-centric stuff) that keeps much of the world shackled to the MS monolith. There really ISN'T any way to obtain MS Office functionality elsewere. For a business that does business with other businesses, lack of MS Office compatibility can be a big problem. I have had to ask more than one sender to provide a PDF, after they had blithely sent some MS-Office attachment or other to me. Scheduling meetings with other organizations that use MS Outlook, can be another pain for the Outlook-deprived Thank goodness for the PDF standard !! My plan in moving to debian Linux is to look for a good document editor that uses the PDF format as its native representation. And of course there is Open Office that (on Win XP at least) is ok, but hardly as slick as equivalent MS product. 2. Another stumbling block for a Windows user looking to "divorce" MS, is the need to choose a desktop GUI. Way too much ink has been spilt and far too many pixels lit, in unproductive linux desktop flame wars. Windows does away with all this productivity-killing confusion over choice of desktop. Here, in helping me clarify my choice of desktop software, is where GTALUG (again) provided enormous value. Some recent discussion around desktops "Re: [GTALUG] Desktop swap" has led me to add Fvwm (that uses X) as a first trial "minimalist" desktop, but still to order the debian Linux DVDs with LXDE. 3. If someone isn't using a cloud-based email IMAP hosting service, but instead using a POP3 / SMTP hosting service and keeping emails on local disk (as I am), dropping Microsoft Windows means converting the local MS-based email database to a new email client. Yes, Mozilla Thunderbird can import emails from MS Outlook and MS Outlook Express (but only when Thunderbird runs under Windows). But frankly, I have too much invested in my precious 1.5 GB of email history to trust the standard Thunderbird import function. So I have written my own C++ program to generate solid conversion integrity checking for the email database conversion. Call me paranoid. And this C++ program isn;t fiished yet. * * * * * * The existence of the GTALUG has become a great comfort to me, on this long road from Win XP to debian Linux. For example, because of GTALUG advice, I'm going to use bash instead of MKSH, I doubled the RAM on the new PC, and made other tweaks to the HW configuration, based on advice from GTALUG members. Presently I'm working with a distributor to get a quote on the parts for a do-it-your-self ATX mid-tower build. I hope to be soon booting up debian Linux on that new box. I'm sooooo looking forward to escaping from the MS stranglehold ... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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