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Really? Most people I talk with these days seem to agree that the proprietary OS is a liability.

by hugi 7y ago

andrewflnr 7y ago
It didn't kill them, though, which was my only point. I guess HN didn't think it was as funny as I did.
colejohnson66 7y ago
I’ve never heard anyone say Windows is a problem because it’s proprietary. I have heard that having to pay to upgrade is a pain because you (the company) have to budget for it. Even then, you would also need to budget for the downtime and time to verify that it works before deploying the update, and both those have to be done on Linux too (it’s why LTS releases are a thing). Anyways, Windows 10 may have its problems, but Microsoft the company is doing pretty well. Their stock is up about 50% this year (200% over the past 5). And that’s not to mention the fact that they’ve open sourced .NET among many other things.
- andrewflnr 7y ago
  I interpreted then as saying it was a liability to Microsoft.
pjmlp 7y ago
Outside HN and Reddit talks, most people I know don't even care about FOSS OSes existence, they just want something that they buy at the shopping mall and can use right away.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
  In fairness, I don't think most people care about the OS at all, FOSS or otherwise; they care that the UI is something they can use, and that their apps work. If you perfected WINE overnight, I'll bet you could sit 80% of the population down at a lightly-skinned FreeBSD box and they'd never know.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    I don't even think you'd need that for most of the population: it's been quite some time since the median user cared about desktop software[1]. I switched my parents over to a Linux Mint install a decade ago when I went away to college, and it lowered my over-the-phone tech support burden to zero overnight. I also had (non-CS but very smart) friends who switched to (ie dual-booted) Linux on their own after seeing how much better my system was than a Windows box. A decade later, one of them is getting her PhD in veterinary pathology and still dual boots, firing Windows up only when she feels like gaming. [1] My impression is that committed PC gamers aren't a large portion of the desktop user population, but I may be wrong.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
      I know a decent number of people who have That One Program that they've been using for 20 years and can't/won't leave. It probably varies by population group.

Really? Most people I talk with these days seem to agree that the proprietary OS is a liability.

by hugi 7y ago

Really? Most people I talk with these days seem to agree that the proprietary OS is a liability.

andrewflnr 7y ago

It didn't kill them, though, which was my only point. I guess HN didn't think it was as funny as I did.

colejohnson66 7y ago

I’ve never heard anyone say Windows is a problem because it’s proprietary. I have heard that having to pay to upgrade is a pain because you (the company) have to budget for it. Even then, you would also need to budget for the downtime and time to verify that it works before deploying the update, and both those have to be done on Linux too (it’s why LTS releases are a thing). Anyways, Windows 10 may have its problems, but Microsoft the company is doing pretty well. Their stock is up about 50% this year (200% over the past 5). And that’s not to mention the fact that they’ve open sourced .NET among many other things.

andrewflnr 7y ago
I interpreted then as saying it was a liability to Microsoft.

pjmlp 7y ago

Outside HN and Reddit talks, most people I know don't even care about FOSS OSes existence, they just want something that they buy at the shopping mall and can use right away.

yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
In fairness, I don't think most people care about the OS at all, FOSS or otherwise; they care that the UI is something they can use, and that their apps work. If you perfected WINE overnight, I'll bet you could sit 80% of the population down at a lightly-skinned FreeBSD box and they'd never know.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  I don't even think you'd need that for most of the population: it's been quite some time since the median user cared about desktop software[1]. I switched my parents over to a Linux Mint install a decade ago when I went away to college, and it lowered my over-the-phone tech support burden to zero overnight. I also had (non-CS but very smart) friends who switched to (ie dual-booted) Linux on their own after seeing how much better my system was than a Windows box. A decade later, one of them is getting her PhD in veterinary pathology and still dual boots, firing Windows up only when she feels like gaming. [1] My impression is that committed PC gamers aren't a large portion of the desktop user population, but I may be wrong.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
    I know a decent number of people who have That One Program that they've been using for 20 years and can't/won't leave. It probably varies by population group.