More Linux banter

[roosterbaby!]

I don't know how many of you read this- http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTI5OCwxLCxoY29uc3VtZXI=- but it's another what if Linux article for those interested in something other than windows.  I stopped reading Kyle's site long ago when his ego outstripped his interest.

[juxmw]

I think it's interesting that Ubunty is hyped that way .... when I say "hyped" I mean that everybody trying to switch to Linux or is writing an article about doing so, it is definitly Ubuntu going to be used.
I don't say that Ubuntu is "bad" (in contrast - Ubuntu caused a lot of good things in the Linux world) -  and I have installed it for a dozen times myself allready,  but there are other (more easy) distros out there.

[Bono]

In linux case hype is good. Hype brings more developers and users so for regular user problems will be fixed faster. My favorite OS is Debian so for workstations i prefer Ubuntu which is similar to Debian but it is focused more on workstation, while debian is more focused on server market.

If only OpenGL would be stronger then more people would adapt any type of distribution because they would be able to play games. Maybe in the future somebody will break Microsofts monopoly and there will be another  game API which would work on all OS-es.

[juxmw]

yes you are right - every hype concerning Linux is a good one in general, what I meant - I think it's a little bit sad, that everybody is talking about Ubuntu only ... there are other equal distros out there. But as you said - for Linux and the community in general it is a good cause.

[manwe]

the reason of that all people are talking about and about 70% of linux computers runs Ubuntu is obvious , first of all Canonical have money to support the community and force it to release on schedule , secondly and more importantly it does have a huge community and also it is mature so you shouldn't be worry about the support , and thirdly it's Server edition is free unlike the SLES or RHEL , I think those are enough to talk about it

[juxmw]

don't get me wrong - I do not have a problem with ubuntu (i have several installations and did some ubuntu training allready). I am just wondering WHY everybody talks about it all the time - yeahh you might be right ... the server is free, there is a LTS every 2 years and Marky Boy has enough money.
But i disbelieve that Ubuntu is market leader - to be honest, I think in Europe still SuSE is Nr.1 (but I don't know it for sure) - in the US it might be Fedora? Referring to distrowatch PCLinuxOS (a KDE Distro) is Nr.1., Ubuntu is Nr.2 ... anyway, it's ok as long people DO use Linux and talk about it

[manwe]

don't get me wrong - I do not have a problem with ubuntu (i have several installations and did some ubuntu training allready). I am just wondering WHY everybody talks about it all the time - yeahh you might be right ... the server is free, there is a LTS every 2 years and Marky Boy has enough money.
But i disbelieve that Ubuntu is market leader - to be honest, I think in Europe still SuSE is Nr.1 (but I don't know it for sure) - in the US it might be Fedora? Referring to distrowatch PCLinuxOS (a KDE Distro) is Nr.1., Ubuntu is Nr.2 ... anyway, it's ok as long people DO use Linux and talk about it

you're getting Distrowatch's results wrongs , PCLinux OS isn't the first distro at all !!!! , That's just Page Hit Ranking and nothing more , it doesn't mean that everyone who hits on that page's using that flavor plus take a look at this link http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major , just take a look at the order of distros  i also suggest you to take a look at this link http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS8454912761.html as well , although it's not that of recent survey but it's the most recent that I've found around the web , it's just eight months old 

[juxmw]

yeahhh i know - I tried to find Linux-concerning market figures several times for presentations. But it's really hard - Apache and Firefox are the only open source projects you can get user statistics for due to evident reasons. But nobody can confirm the amount of Linux installations out there. But .... there is  http://counter.li.org/

[manwe]

I wish for a day which no one uses Windoze anymore.

[nikolas]

Many IT professionals (not enthusiasts) including myself test and trial different Lin* dristros now and then, as they do with other operating systems - Solaris, BeOS, MacOS ... Some IT professionals have done this for decades and there's nothing fanatical about it.

Many IT pros have their own secret wishes and preferences of OS behaviour, architecture and performance, but they have to deal with what's the de-facto standard in their industry.

Speaking of Linux, first thing that crosses my mind is diversity of distros. It's good to have it as it brings innovation. However, it's good to have market leaders to be challenged with innovation. So I respect very much Ubuntu's success on the personal:desktop space, not a bit less then how much I respect Novell/SuSE's success on the enterprise:server space.

The good thing about Linux and OSS is that you could have the community-supported version of everything (so to speak) to use freely (according to licence).

I am very happy because all this enabled me to use:
- a full-blown enterprise-class server OS (CentOS) and a SOHO server OS (ClarkConnect Community Edition).
- a great technological platform for development of standard Web applications
- specialised distributions for particular use (for routers, firewalls, file servers, Internet kiosks, thin clients, mobile devices etc.)
and all that on different hardware platforms (x86, SPARC, ARM...)