Puter" 101: Dual role in Linux 16644
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As has been noted, the desktop market, while large and lucrative, is *not* the whole, or even the majority, of computing. And, of course, all that's lacking is someone with the money to invest in...
I've mentioned Linux to people in the past. Computer professionals are generally familiar with Linux. I have yet to meet a non-techie who knows what Linux is. Some people think they may have heard of it before but aren't sure. Others ask me "I've never heard of them. What does the company sell?" It's basically futile telling people that Linux isn't a company and the product is given away, not sold.
Linux isn't anything new either. I remember friends running it in 1996 and in 1997 I bought a copy of RedHat to fool around with. I still have the RH box and CD somewhere. After 10+ years it is starting to make headway into the server market. That's because the IT guys are techies who are familiar with Linux. These same guys also have the ability to replace an existing *nix system with a Linux installation.
Huh. I guess I can agree that Microsoft is a "competent marketer". I don't know about 'maturity...
But it's a whole different story when you start talking about 400+ million desktop machines. The overwhelming majority of these people have no idea that Linux exists let alone what it does. Windows is all these people know and I have a difficult time coming up with a plausible scenario that's going to change any of this.
Don't misunderstand what I wrote. Technically Linux is a fine OS. But this isn't an issue of which OS is somewhat better in what categories. It's a matter of reversing a mbuttive breastal wave that currently has 400+ million Windows users. In theory there is nothing to prevent Linux from running on all these desktops. In reality I don't see anything that's going to change the current status-quo.