Microsoft vs. Open Source: Who Will Win?

[ekravche]

Some of my rambling may be off topic so read at your own discretion.

I think the main reason that windows evolved as it has was because of applications such as office, and the fact that IBM compatible PCs were cheaper than Macs, and the two were big competitors at the time that this was the case. Also there was more software for PCs than Macs. Nowadays PCs are mostly running windows, because the OS is very easy to use, it offers a nice UI, and runs most applications that a user can desire. Now MS is slowly moving into the server market as well, which used to be dominated by the *Nixes. The reason for this again is that MS offers a server solution that doesn't require many administrators to administrate the MS servers.

The one fundamental flaw in windows is that the more features that MS adds, the more holes their OSes expose to be taken advantage of by malicious users. This is the reason that caused me to switch from Windows to Ubuntu. Windows sucks when it comes to security, it really needs to be behind a firewall all the time, and even with that in mind there are still problems with viruses. Also MS products are expensive. A new business today is better off using Linux, because the OS offers all the necessary software a business may require free of charge.

The issues that I've experienced during my move from Windows to Ubuntu is migration. Not everything which is available in windows has a linux equivalent. Take for instance applications written with VBA that use COM objects. Such business applications will not run on linux.

The nice thing about having both Linux and Windows around is that both create jobs for people to maintain applications in both OSes. So having both is good for the the software economy since there is demand for developers, admins, etc in both OSes.

[arnieboy]

Well there's ton's of people that use the WPL; Windows Piracy License... Like the Indians... they're getting charged by M$ with 1 dolar for making legal their illegal Windows...

If the moderators dont take any action against the perpetrators of such statements, I personally will tear such guys to shreds. Moderators and others please take note.

[gravestone]

I don't think any one OS will win. I think the PC will die out as we know it today. Already we have hand held devices (PSP for example) that can do what a PC can do. In ten years, these devices will do what today's PCs can do plus more.

I also see more each day, a lot of applications are being moved to web server based apps. This means that your data is available on any machine. For instance I have my bookmarks on a server, and whatever machine I use, be it a PSP, laptop, PC, mobile phone, etc, I can access my bookmarks, and other data.

The war I think will be on the server platform, and that is where M$ has been trying to get their foothold.

[poofyhairguy]

If the moderators dont take any action against the perpetrators of such statements, I personally will tear such guys to shreds. Moderators and others please take note.

I thought this thread died. It didn't. I'm locking it so it will. Its a dumb thread, with dumb comments (not all, just some like the one quoted).