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Windows 7: "The Linux Killer"
- iamdave 18y agoSo the argument here is that Windows 7 is a Linux "killer" because it's got high yield possibilities for netbooks. Is that what we're supposed to believe?
- astine 18y agoMaybe it should have been "Linux for the masses killer." I don't think there is anyone who thinks it will be kicked from the server realm any time soon.
- pwoods 18y agoYes well, all that Linux work and Now Windows 7 for Netbooks kills it. I guess I can retire as a wealthy opensource programmer as my work is now done!
- yan 18y agoI am so tired of the "X killer" meme, it really is the time to put it to rest. Has it ever proved true? Ever? What does it even me? Taking over market dominance? Completely eradicating from existence?
- gaius 18y agoNeWS didn't kill X11 and DPDF won't either!
- Anon84 18y agoMaybe the world would be a better place if it had... ;)
- mechanical_fish 18y agoIt's a figure of speech. When you refer to X as a "Y killer", what you are really saying is "the market has concluded that Y is a better product than X, and the guys who make X really want to change that". It has nothing to do with actual killing. Consumer products rarely get killed. [1] Most of them never live in the first place. The others go out with a whimper. They get gradually shuffled to the back of the shelf and are eventually thrown away in disgust. [2] What this article is really claiming is that Linux is now the OS to beat in the netbook market and that Microsoft is showing signs of recognizing this and trying to catch up. Of course, this is just a pundit's opinion at this point, not Microsoft's stated position. If you ever hear a Microsoft rep describe a future Microsoft product as a "Linux killer" it will be a big moment. That's as close as a marketer is likely to come to saying "we know you think our current product sucks". --- [1] As some have pointed out, the only company that routinely manages to literally kill successful products is Apple... which kills its own products by removing them from the market and replacing them with new models. E.g.: the iPod Mini. [2] Or eBayed, which is the recycling-conscious penny-pincher's method for throwing something away.
- nailer 18y agoIt means X is really strong. I feel good about Linux right now.
- zack 18y agoOh man, this is great.
- dotcoma 18y agoremember: we're gonna fuckin' kill google. and the fuckin' ipod, too, by the way. Ballmer: just shut the fuck up.
- mdasen 18y agoI'm not the type to say that Linux isn't good. I use it on a daily basis. However, if you're in a large enough non-tech firm, you know that there are people who really don't get tech. Any difference (even difference for the better) is bad. That will prevent Linux adoption. While I don't work in tech support, I'm the next office over from the ones who do and they'll face problems as silly as people thinking that their printer didn't need to be plugged in (to the wall) to print things or that you can un-send email. For many people you just can't change things without a lot of retraining even if it should be obvious.
- dcminter 18y ago"...they'll face problems as silly as people thinking that their printer didn't need to be plugged in (to the wall) to print things or that you can un-send email..." They're wrong, but there's no law of nature that says they must be wrong, and in fact I would contend that they are perfectly reasonable assumptions, not "silly." There's nothing that should be obvious about either of those examples.
- likpok 18y agoExactly. Iff you understand tech, it it obvious what to do in those cases. If you don't it is much like magic. You don't have a sensible baseline of how things should behave. So you make assumptions, and are occasionally wrong.
- rufius 18y agoI'd rather be running something not Linux on a laptop... and I do. I use it on the desktop, but its shite on the laptop. Awful wireless and less than stellar performance as far as battery life goes compared to Vista (and likely Win 7). Meh. All the OS's suck, its just a matter of choosing one that sucks the least for your use case.
- cosmo7 18y agoThe point that Linux enthusiasts become Linux realists is when they realize they are afraid to put their laptop to sleep by closing the lid.
- icefox 18y agoBingo! That is why for the past few years every laptop I have bought has OS X on it. The hardware works, in particular sleep suspend. Close the lid and it goes to sleep, open the lid and it wakes up in moments, not thirty seconds. On the desktop I run Linux, but for a laptop it is all OS X. Everything I do is c/c++, unix, or web related so working in OS X doesn't matter.
- parbo 18y agoMy Eee Pc 901 works fine with suspend/resume, both take just a couple of seconds. The only thing that sometimes fail is audio, but that is easily recovered. EDIT: With Ubuntu 8.10
- zack 18y ago"Easily recovered" translates to "minor pain in the ass" Lot of build up for the pain body, bro.
- nailer 18y agoThe point that Linux enthusiasts become Linux realists is when they realize it doesn't magically work on every computer, and buy something to suit. I hit the power button, choose suspend or hibernate. Later I hit the keyboard to resume, enter my screensaver password, and resume work. Edit: I play music and download files with the lid closed. So I don't want my computer to turn off when I do that. And OS X uses screensaver when resuming too - I own one.
- KevBurnsJr 18y ago"Windows Senior Vice President Steve Sinofsky showed off Windows 7 on his Lenovo S10 and said it used less than half of the netbook's 1GB of RAM." o rly? Only half the system's resources to sit and do nothing?
- andreyf 18y agoWindows Senior Vice President Steve Sinofsky... What do you expect from a guys with a title four words long? snicker
- hello_moto 18y agoThis guy is 4 times smarter than you. You should definitely check out his resume and his work. And perhaps if you're lucky, have a conversation with him to actually know how smart he is.
- mnemonicsloth 18y agoThis guy is 4 times smarter than you. I'm sure he'd be awesome if it was ever actually necessary to move Mt. Fuji. The fact remains, he works for Microsoft in this day and age. How smart can he be? (Maybe he just really likes their corporate culture?)
- andreyf 18y agoThis guy is 4 times smarter than you. Depending on the measure, probably many, many more times than 4. But it has nothing to do with his title, which is what I was poking fun at ;) The implication he wasn't smart because of his title was out of line, good call. I apologize. Since I'm sure he doesn't really care much about his title, I guess I'm making fun of the people at Microsoft who decided that motivating people with four-word titles is a good idea.
- hello_moto 18y agoIt's hard not to come with a very-long-title in an organization as big as Microsoft (last time I heard they have over 60k employees). I don't see the title as a way to motivate him. It's just to show where his position in the ladder. If you compare it with Google where things are messy for managers because they have way too many underlinks... then those long titles/ladders/levels start to make a bit of sense. Tagging doesn't seem to apply to corporate hierarchy (^_^).
- old-gregg 18y agoWindows job is to occupy about 128MB of RAM sitting in an invisible VMWare window, assisting Linux and OSX users at launching Microsoft Word to prepare that stupid TPS report every Friday.
- medearis 18y agoIf the issue is really the resource consumption of the OS, I'll believe it when I see it -- thus far every iteration of Windows has been more bloated than the last. Is XP still shipping on most low-power notebooks though? Not from what I've seen... From what I've seen, most "email, word and internet explorer" users are using vista and getting along OK.
- symesc 18y ago"The threat to Windows comes entirely from 'netbooks'" Do I really need to read any more of this reasoned argument?
- nailer 18y agoArticle already pointed out this is the biggest growth area in computing. But I gather you didn't read that.
- swombat 18y agoThe threat to Windows comes entirely from "netbooks" I stopped reading here.
- imgabe 18y agoIt seems like the Windows tax would have an even greater effect on the netbook market. People will pay a lot more attention to the difference between a $350 and $400 netbook than they will between a $1950 and $2000 laptop. Why spend 12.5% more when you can get Linux for free and still do everything you want?
- grouchyOldGuy 18y agoI also think that netbooks appeal to a different buyer too. Windows still has strong appeal to hardcore gamers, but no serious gamer is going to use a netbook for gaming. Firefox on Linux looks and feels like Firefox on Windows, so if all you want is web browsing, why not Linux? Why pay the Microsoft tax just to get IE instead? I'm sure Windows 7 will find willing buyers on netbooks, but a "Linux killer"? I don't see that. Netbook buyers are more utilitarian and value-concious, so Linux will continue to grow in that market.
- StrawberryFrog 18y agoSo Microsoft is planning to make software that's targeted at popular hardware? And then promote it? Is that supposed to be surprising?
- grouchyOldGuy 18y agoI have a dual-boot home-built P4 machine at home with a Logitech wireless multi-media keyboard. Under XP, the device functions as a standard 102-key keyboard. None of the extra buttons work (mute, volume adjust, etc.) Under Ubuntu, most of the keys work as designed (and this was autodetected during installation. I have not done any post-install customisation of the keyboard). I can mute volume, adjust it up/down, scroll windows with the little scroll wheel, etc. Nearly all of the extra keys work under Ubuntu that XP ignores. I could install the special software Logitech shipped with it to make those keys work, but it's slow enough already under XP without adding extra software to run. The machine is limited by motherboard design to a max of 2 GB RAM (which it has). Under Ubuntu, I very rarely see any page file swapping going on, but XP swaps frequently even with no applications open. Windows 7 better have superior memory and process management if they want to run in a low-RAM environment.