3 ms·

I disagree. For vast, vast majority of cases, linux would likely do the trick these days. People would complain initially and, predictably, would complain again

I disagree. For vast, vast majority of cases, linux would likely do the trick these days. People would complain initially and, predictably, would complain again if new functionality was taken away from them. But that is just human nature. Lets talk reality. More and more applications users access live in a browser.. you technically could run the entire company on dumb terminals if you were so inclined ( and jobs were sufficiently.. in dire of automation, but for one reason or another human is doing those ). Windows is not needed for that. You could argue banking/finance with excel ( and there are some neat things Office introduced with 365 ), which is presumably why that sector is going to be locked in for a while, but then.. my last class at university, all kids were running google docs and they will be making decisions one day. I am not sure that bodes well for MS/Office/Windows. As for "accounting, customer management, CAD, printing, publishing, manufacturing, simulation, advanced reporting, large document processing, centrally controlled IT", you might be right, but somehow I doubt it. There is nothing magical about Windows. It is currently held by inertia and contracts, but even inertia ends eventually.

Havoc 2y ago
> my last class at university, all kids were running google docs Corporate use looks nothing like that. I was actually working in an accounting firm that tried to move people over to google sheets and docs. Took about a week for people to realise the sheets plan is utterly idiotic. Docs lasted about a month before even the “thought leaders” in charge of pushing the initiative went quiet. For casual use sure, but it’s no more replacing office than ms paint is replacing photoshop.
- Ancapistani 2y ago
  It depends on the company. Every startup I’ve either got uses Google Docs.
  - cobalt 2y ago
    were the business/marketing/etc people using docs too? At my last job, those people had office
  - Havoc 2y ago
    Startups do a lot of things different from big orgs
blastonico 2y ago
The problem is that there's no Linux. The Average Joe cannot download Linux from Linux.com. He will waste hours, maybe days learning about different distributions, window managers, packaging, etc. This is true even for experienced professionals. It's demotivating IMHO. There's a book named "The Paradox of Choice", it gives a good psychological overview of this topic. No distribution is ready to compete against Windows
- CaptainZapp 2y ago
  And... Here comes the perfect business opportunity for purveyors of Linux laptops. I know, they exist. But, If Microsoft really pulls off that shitshow (and even the mainstream press is not very kind about it) there could be a significantly large market for such offerings.
vidanay 2y ago
Every major CAD software that I'm aware of has its roots in Unix. I personally used AutoCAD on SGI and Sun hardware with Unix OSes. Give some market demand, they could switch back and support Linux
- timeon 2y ago
  AutoCad is already available on Mac, so is Rhino. Revit is not but ArchiCad is. Lot of these are .Net based and .Net is now more or less cross-platform.
  - not_your_mentat 2y ago
    AutoCAD for Mac lacks feature parity and has been known to break functionality in dwgs in my clients' workflows. Tool pallets get jacked up. IIRC, also problems with dynamic blocks. Your os is still a gatekeeper. I get the appeal of Apple products and the desire to work on a Mac and the rage of going back to Windows (Your file system uses backlashes? Your mount points use drive letters that can be hard codes into files, making resources unreliable users and devices that aren't mapped perfectly? Your files include a newline and a carriage return just in case you reach for the teletype machine? You did what to your start menu? My laptop battery just dies by default when I close the lid unplugged? The list goes on). Famously, life is suffering and you suffer differently (maybe less?) by going where your tools are (for CAD in AEC it's still very much Windows).

Havoc 2y ago

> my last class at university, all kids were running google docs Corporate use looks nothing like that. I was actually working in an accounting firm that tried to move people over to google sheets and docs. Took about a week for people to realise the sheets plan is utterly idiotic. Docs lasted about a month before even the “thought leaders” in charge of pushing the initiative went quiet. For casual use sure, but it’s no more replacing office than ms paint is replacing photoshop.

Ancapistani 2y ago
It depends on the company. Every startup I’ve either got uses Google Docs.
- cobalt 2y ago
  were the business/marketing/etc people using docs too? At my last job, those people had office
- Havoc 2y ago
  Startups do a lot of things different from big orgs

blastonico 2y ago

The problem is that there's no Linux. The Average Joe cannot download Linux from Linux.com. He will waste hours, maybe days learning about different distributions, window managers, packaging, etc. This is true even for experienced professionals. It's demotivating IMHO. There's a book named "The Paradox of Choice", it gives a good psychological overview of this topic. No distribution is ready to compete against Windows

CaptainZapp 2y ago
And... Here comes the perfect business opportunity for purveyors of Linux laptops. I know, they exist. But, If Microsoft really pulls off that shitshow (and even the mainstream press is not very kind about it) there could be a significantly large market for such offerings.

vidanay 2y ago

Every major CAD software that I'm aware of has its roots in Unix. I personally used AutoCAD on SGI and Sun hardware with Unix OSes. Give some market demand, they could switch back and support Linux

timeon 2y ago
AutoCad is already available on Mac, so is Rhino. Revit is not but ArchiCad is. Lot of these are .Net based and .Net is now more or less cross-platform.
- not_your_mentat 2y ago
  AutoCAD for Mac lacks feature parity and has been known to break functionality in dwgs in my clients' workflows. Tool pallets get jacked up. IIRC, also problems with dynamic blocks. Your os is still a gatekeeper. I get the appeal of Apple products and the desire to work on a Mac and the rage of going back to Windows (Your file system uses backlashes? Your mount points use drive letters that can be hard codes into files, making resources unreliable users and devices that aren't mapped perfectly? Your files include a newline and a carriage return just in case you reach for the teletype machine? You did what to your start menu? My laptop battery just dies by default when I close the lid unplugged? The list goes on). Famously, life is suffering and you suffer differently (maybe less?) by going where your tools are (for CAD in AEC it's still very much Windows).