Good Linux Users Don’t Talk About Microsoft

by Rich Menga on Mar 10, 2009 | 63 comments

For this article I’d like to take a different direction concerning Linux. Is it all too typical on the internet to hear a Linux user go full-on zealot style and say, "YEAH! I use Linux! F**k Microsoft! You people are sheeple! Down with the status quo!" Blah, blah, blah, frickin’ blah. Nobody cares. It’s as if a Linux user can’t possibly say anything about the operating system he or she uses without mentioning Microsoft and/or what most people use for their personal computing and how it’s "wrong/bad/evil", etc. To those zealots, I say unto thee: Shaddup. You’re not helping.

Truly happy Linux people couldn’t care less about Microsoft whatsoever. Instead, they just get down to business and make things work. Whether it’s for desktop, laptop, media center use or what-have-you, instead of bickering about Microsoft they’re getting things done, which of course is what matters the most.

The good Linux users I know don’t even talk about Microsoft. Never will you see a "windoze", "winblows", "M$" or "Micro$oft" in anything they blog about. To note, those that do write those childish things are morons because as said above, nobody cares. You don’t see me calling Linux users tux turds, penguin poopers or GUI-challenged, do you?

Good Linux users tell good stories about the things they’re doing now, such as:

"On my 32-bit system I can now access all 4GB of my RAM. Now I don’t have to buy a new computer!"

"I’ve been able to keep my computer running for two solid weeks straight without a single reboot."

"I really like the Evolution mail client. I really like the iCalShare connectivity too!"

"I love the games I’m playing. Great stuff!"

These are the types of stories I like to hear. And yes, they’re out there on the internet. Sometimes it takes a little time to seek them out but they do exist. You can find happy Linux users that say nothing of Microsoft because it simply doesn’t matter.

At no time from these folks will you see, "Well I was using Outlook.. what a PIECE OF CRAP THAT WAS.. I HATE MICRO$OFT! Evolution rulez!!11!1 KDE! GNOME! (penguins.. tux.. uh.. no mouse.. yeah!)"

No, no, no.. stop. Just stop.

I suggest a new line of thinking for fervent Linux users: Cut the anti-Microsoft crap. Cut it completely out of your conversation. Cut it out of your spoken word, your blogs, your videos and so on. Why are you giving Microsoft free advertising? People don’t care about your anti-Microsoft opinions because they’ve already heard them a million times by at least a million other people, so you are not adding anything new or helpful to the conversation.

Tell us what you do with Linux. Tell us the apps you use. Tell us why you prefer specific Linux apps over others. Give us useful information.

Computer use as far as operating systems is concerned is to the point where people will use what they use because that’s what they’re used to. Windows people will continue to use Windows. Mac people will continue to use OS X. Linux folks their distro o’ choice. Yes, very obvious, but that’s the way it is.

Those who are interested in Linux want to hear about (duh) Linux, and not your anti-Microsoft point of view. So please, try and be helpful, because after all, all computers are sh*t.

And to Linux zealots, fsck you.

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http://www.deanpugh.com Dean Pugh
Good post. I believe you should use the best of both worlds. I have a good quality machine as my main computer, which is running XP. I also have a spare machine that is set up with Ubuntu which I play around with and test things. I chose linux for our web servers and configured them to suit my needs.
Both sets of operating systems have their pros and cons, and I don’t see why some people side with Linux and refuse to use Microsoft for others. Linux has it’s fair share of naff software, but there are good replacements for every software available all over the web.
I personally prefer Linux as servers. I think that’s what their best at. People will disagree with each other, but everyone uses computers for different reasons, be it Programming, web design, graphic design, internet, gaming or just word processing, so everyone has a view on it from their angle.
Rich Hilton
Amen, brother!
http://www.jordandelozier.com Jordan
I use both, Windows and Linux professionally. I often blog a lot about Windows while at the same time I write many tutorials for Linux on a forum I operate. I think the reason most users migrate to Linux is A) it is free and B) because they are fed up with Windows and think Linux is better. This is the reason you get so much anti-MS from Linux users.
I have to say, there are certain things I dislike about Linux, Windows and Mac. I believe we hear the most gripe against Windows because it is the most used Operating System.
http://none David M
The reason Linux is not popular is the same reason why communism does not work. There is no profit motive with Linux.
Sorry Linux fanboys….Money talks, something else walks. You cant pay volunteers to write code….then they would not be volunteers.
The only way Linux will ever become popular is if there is a way for tens of thousands to make money off it…but then, that would defeat the original purpose of Linux, for nobody to be able to make money off of it. BTW, Red Hat employs 2200 people.
There is a critical mass for an OS where developers will write software for it. Linux is not even close to being there for two reasons. One, it would be easy to steal software with Linux, Second, not enough people use it to pay the costs of developing large applications….like the newer computer games.
It will always be the software for computer hobbyists…people who do know whats under the hood of their computer. Unfortunately, that’s as far as it will ever go because one needs to become a computer geek to use it.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being a computer geek and using a difficult OS. I admire the knowledge of people who know lots about computers. Just don’t expect people who are not like you to want to try Linux.
Let me know when you see Left 4 Dead or any other excellent gaming application written for Linux. Then I will consider partitioning a place on my drive for it and learning some computer code so I can spend hours and hours getting it to work right. Please don’t tell me you got your Linux working just right in an hour or two. Worse yet, don’t tell me a computer novice could do the same thing.

Don
You sir are the exact type of person this blog was about. you are just the flipside of the same damn coin. moron
http://www.deanpugh.com Dean Pugh
“Please don’t tell me you got your Linux working just right in an hour or two. Worse yet, don’t tell me a computer novice could do the same thing.”
So are you saying that XP or Vista on the other hand can be installed by a novice then? And that they won’t have any problems getting all the drivers to work first time?
The only reason this is an issue is because Windows is preinstalled on most machines and is ready to run out the box, where most people using Linux have to install it themselves.

Chuck
You got it. The novice user has NEVER installed Windows or ANY operating system. The “ease of installation” argument never makes sense. Most Windows users bought a computer with Windows ready to go. If they had to install their own operating system they would do without a computer altogether.
If they used Linux at work and bought computers with the same Linux for home use, they would know Linux rather than Windows.

Toby
“Please don’t tell me you got your Linux working just right in an hour or two. Worse yet, don’t tell me a computer novice could do the same thing.”
Well, yes, about an hour but that included the download time for Ubuntu 7.10, burning the CD, and installing on a new laptop. And I’d never used Linux of any flavour before.
Yaro
“The reason Linux is not popular is the same reason why communism does not work. There is no profit motive with Linux.”
Well, you better tell all the hundreds of companies out there these days that (Gasp!) make gobs of money off of Linux, including Google, IBM, Novell, and Red Hat.
“Sorry Linux fanboys….Money talks, something else walks. You cant pay volunteers to write code….then they would not be volunteers.”
And you’re foolishly going off the assumption that only volunteers are Linux developers. I’d actually have to say the volunteer developers are well outnumbered by corporate developers. IBM, HP, Novell, and Red Hat again are developers who get paid for developing for Linux. Hell, Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux gets PAID for it.
Your ignorance is astonishingly glaring all over this thread.
“The only way Linux will ever become popular is if there is a way for tens of thousands to make money off it…but then, that would defeat the original purpose of Linux, for nobody to be able to make money off of it. BTW, Red Hat employs 2200 people.”
Um… What? Whoever said that was the purpose of Linux? It’s not even a violation of the GPL to sell Linux. Stop readong the Rob Enderle and do some research. SuSE and RHEL are meant to be sold. The GPL says you can do this. You’re an idiot who seems to think that when Linux users and developers say “free” they mean price. Again, do some research or be prepared to be dismissed as a troll.
“There is a critical mass for an OS where developers will write software for it. Linux is not even close to being there for two reasons. One, it would be easy to steal software with Linux, Second, not enough people use it to pay the costs of developing large applications….like the newer computer games.”
I don’t understand how free (As in freedom.) software can be “stolen.” There’s also plenty of commercial software for Linux, too. As for computer games, I’d say that’s the least important thing to define an OS by far. As for not enough people using it…
Well over half the Internet is run off of LAMP stacks. The vast majority of supercomputers use it. Just because it’s not prominant on the desktop does not mean Linux is obscure. It just means that Microsoft has a monopoly. There’s an estimated 30,000,000 desktop users of Linux, and that’s actually a low estimate. There’s no “registration” for Linux so there’s no way to know for sure. I’d have to say outside of the desktop, Linux is an absolute killer in the market. Again, do research before posting comments and proving what an idiot you are. Oh, and, on the topic of video games, before you get all huffy and thinking Linux has no place in gaming, you either recognize that the majority of your dedicated servers (Including Left 4 Dead.) for online gameplay run on Linux… or get the hell off those servers.
“It will always be the software for computer hobbyists…people who do know whats under the hood of their computer. Unfortunately, that’s as far as it will ever go because one needs to become a computer geek to use it.”
It’s gone way beyond hobbyists. What you say would have been true 15 years ago, but you really need to stop reading the FUD and smell the reality. Linux is HERE. Linux is MAINSTREAM. Lots and lots and lots of businesses use it, the majority of the Internet is run on it, your GCI movies are rendered on it. That isn’t hobbyism. Again, you’re proving to be ignorant here.
And most everyone I’ve converted to Linux were far from computer geeks and did not have difficulties. You’re just spouting the overused FUD Microsoft used to spout off about Linux now.
“Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being a computer geek and using a difficult OS. I admire the knowledge of people who know lots about computers. Just don’t expect people who are not like you to want to try Linux.”
And there’s lots of people who do. My sister uses it, she’s not a computer geek.
“Let me know when you see Left 4 Dead or any other excellent gaming application written for Linux. Then I will consider partitioning a place on my drive for it and learning some computer code so I can spend hours and hours getting it to work right. Please don’t tell me you got your Linux working just right in an hour or two. Worse yet, don’t tell me a computer novice could do the same thing.”
Screw games. There’s so many more important factors for the importance of an operating system than games. And as I mentioned before, games like L4D have their mark on Linux in terms of dedicated servers. And several of your mainstream game houses do develop for Linux, Valve themselves are rumored to be interested in porting Steam and Source to Linux. And L4D, like any Source-based game, works perfectly in WINE.
Your entire post stinks of shilling, ignorance and stupidity. Almost all the stuff about Linux is either not true anymore, or never was true. What more bullshit are you goign to believe that you’re going to FUD with? Have you even used Linux? Are you about to say that everyone has to use the command line (Not necessarily a bad thing. CLIs are superior to GUIs. You take time to learn it (Maybe an hour or two at most.) and you’ll be able to outpace the average GUI-using monkey like yourself.)?
Seriously, just because morons like you never use it doesn’t mean that it lacks a real market. Outside the desktop market, Linux is beating the snot out of Windows in terms of stability, uptime, and, yes, MARKET PENETRATION.
David M (but a different one)
Just so nobody gets us confused – I neither know, am related to or agree with what this guy says except that he’s probably correct about gaming. I know as much about gaming as you can write on a cotton bud.
But when he asks me not to tell him I can get it working properly in less than an hour, he just proves he’s never done it. And getting a novice to do it? Well, I’d back the novice over David M (I stress, not me) anytime if it’s using mainstream distros with Live CD installs (I know, Live CD doesn’t refer to installability but it does seem to be a good indicator of how easy an actual install will be). And I have a bit of background on this – it’s part of my job to build systems
Just to add to the positives though, and forget David M the computer virgin (I suspect everything virgin) – I just discovered Docky recently. I had found Gnome Do a while back and while it was ‘interesting’ it wasn’t compelling. Docky is a better front end to Gnome Do and makes it fantastic.
EchoBravo
Tell that to Red Hat…you can’t make money from Linux…

http://www.johannes-eva.net/ Johannes
Thank you for this post, this in undeniably a good opinion!
http://n/a radeoflier
ok, agreed for the most part except that I get SO FRUSTRATED having to go to work and use Microsoft and then come home to “computing love” – so, if I only used Linux I can definitely say I wouldn’t complain about MS, unfortunately…
John Gault
Yes, functionality of the OS matters, I get it.
But there are many other differences between an OS based on free software and one based on closed source proprietary OSs.
Free software also means freedom from draconian digital rights management control by Microsoft. It means the right to store and use your data however you want. Free software is free to use and to redistribute. It is more ethical to use free software than to pirate Microsoft’s products. It is more economical to use free software than to purchase Microsoft’s products.
http://davenull.us davenull
I think that the thing that both sides of this “war” don’t realize is that there is actually very little of a fight on the side of Linux to gain use. Linux is mostly built on the thought of “Lets make this better, and hope people find a use”, and not “We need to gain market share!” People like to rally for the side they like in a conflict, real or imagined, and that explains the above poster bashing people who just like the software offered in a modern distro. And it also explains the “sheeple” word that the Linux right tends to use.
I have been using Linux and other *NIX systems for the last 3 years, because it interested me at first, and because I found that I can do so many things in a very logical and consistent way. I don’t hate windows, I have just found something better.
And as far as “money talks”, the reason that the Linux kernel has gotten to the state that is in today is not because it is done by a massive volunteer force alone, but the fact that companies like IBM had the insight that they needed to have an OS do things that it may not already have the ability to do, at a very low level. They thought long and hard, and came to the conclusion that they could hire a large coding force to modify and improve the Linux kernel, and spend less money that it would have taken to engineer around the limitations of proprietary operating systems. What that has done is taken the place the money goes. Instead of paying for a license to a piece of software, and then realising that there is a major bug in that software, then issuing a bug report, then waiting an indeterminate amount of time for a fix, they can simply make a patch, compile, test, and implement the solution. The save millions in the time saved by this approach. Now I am speaking strictly of the kernel, but the same logic applies to a good portion of the FOSS selection. GNU is almost purely volunteer based, and a good portion of the devs there are professional programmers, they have real jobs, and a portion of them depend on the tools that the GNU project offers. It is in their best interest to add a little bit of help into the dev pool. As a result, everyone else benefits too. The driving force behind FOSS developement is need, not money. A secondary force here is interest, the more interesting a program is, the more people use it, and the greater the chances of someone offering their time to improve it. Yes, RedHat has 2200 employees, but look at what they can do…
Also, on another note, the result of all the hard work put in by the devs of the various pieces of software the comprise a modern distro… I bought a new laptop, I booted to the Ubuntu install cd (it was the computers first boot) and installed it. Every single piece of hardware was working, wireless included, without me touching a thing. I installed my favourite programs over the next 30 minutes, and have not had to touch a single thing. No editing of files, no ‘coding’ other than my usual work, as the guy a few replies above me indicates that is needed. No downloading of drivers, nor worry about compatibility.
And finally, the one thing to remember, computer games are not the primary focus of *any* OS. I personally don’t play games, if you do, dont complain, that is not what an OS is designed around. (PS all of the source games run at the same frame rates on Linux with Wine as they did on Windows.) Linux was a hobby when it was started, not a product, and it keeps that mentality. The kernel devs make a tool, not a product, and that is why all of the hardware on my new, shiny laptop is run by a piece of software that is ~3MB, less than the spider solitare game that comes with windows.
So the success story that I have to share is this. I have a house run on Linux based OSes, I have a DVR, fileserver, a virtual machine server, 2 laptops, a few desktops, I have several hosted dedicated servers that I run many websites and services off of, and I have had only minor issues with any of them. I can browse to whatever sites I choose, watch any type of video file, watch dvds, edit photos and movies, write programs for CLI and GUI environments, and at the end of the day, I haven’t had to think about making any of it work.
http://davenull.us davenull
Also, the best program ever, as far as any that I have used at home and work, is Linux only, and that would be .
Doug
Well put writer! I personally am a linux user but before all of you boo me, I am currently in school getting my A+,Net+,and Security+ certifications which revolves mostly around windows computers. On one hand I am put to a disadvantage because I cannot preform tasks on my computer the same way it is in class. On the other hand it is like being bi-lingual, I can preform those tasks on another machine with a different o/s.
We should not shun other users for what we don’t like, we should encourage them regardless. After all aren’t we all doing the same things (Surfing,Downloading,Word Processing,Games etc…). Some ways just seem easier for us individually.
I chose Ubuntu as my primary o/s about 3 years ago and man have I learned alot. Of course the reason I chose Linux is because I didn’t understand why I couldn’t do somethings in XP and I had my share of crashes. I now know that because of the aggravation for me it turned me to school and I am learning why those things happened the way they did. Hopefully this turns into a new career to help people with their computers (90% prolly have Windows). And if I can help any windows, mac or linux users I will.
Instead of debating open-source we should all think OPEN MIND.
P.S. Dave M- I got my 65yr old mother set-up and using Ubuntu in about 2 hours. She’s not very savvy with her computer skills, yet she has been using it for about a year and a half with no problems. She was using Family Tree Maker which we have not found a way to convert her old records in linux yet. (Gramps is a linux app that is supposed to allow you transfer files but doesn’t seem to work for us) But beyond that she loves it! She installs everything very easily herself with the package manager. She has even been using skype. If it hadn’t been pre-installed she would have never touched it! Dave- Linux can be a door way for some people.
Doug
Does anyone know if you can run any version of windows live? (without installation)
One thing that linux has is a bunch of distros that can run live. These have been very helpful for me in fixing home computers. Knoppix is one distro that boots live and allows FULL access to a HDD.
Example – if you had an error on XP machine like missing .dll and XP o/s would not boot, you could live boot knoppix enter machine and fix problem or recover lost password. I know there are other ways to do this but if your system won’t boot you could always insert your free Knoppix disk to access your HDD in the meantime.
If you’re a windows user this could definitely help instead of “use last good config” or “safe mode” boots.
A good app to use on both windows/linux is GIMP kind like a lite version of PSP or Adobe. You can import more than just photos and you can change size or resolutions to folders at a time by mouse rather than just files with typed commands.
http://linuxcanuck.wordpress.com LinuxCanuck
I agree and have sworn off taking the bait and getting sucked into mindless and self-defeating discussions re: Windows and my-distro-is-better-than-yours. Both do no good and promote the side that you are taking issue with, often at your own expense.
It is better to stay positive and write about what is good about what you use because it promotes your favourite OS/ distro and encourages new users.
Unfortunately too often, we let them rattle our chain and get off the message that open source or free software is fun, it works and it has something for most people which is exactly what they are trying to do.
When you write about other operating systems you are NOT writing about yours and you are promoting the competition simply by keeping the discussion going and getting headlines for them that they would otherwise have to pay for. They win on both counts.
http://www.ithinkless.blogspot.com Srikar A
Thank You Bro
Rob
I agree with this article that there are some linux users who take it to the extreme by focusing on attacking windows but unfortunately I also think the linux community as a whole gets commonly demonized. Do you really think that there isn’t fanboys of other operating systems? Seriously the community behinds OS X has some serious fanboys as does even Windows with users who like to spread ignorant FUD. That being said don’t just steroetype the entire linux community as some sort of anti-microsoft cult.
http://www.disruptech.com Paul Gaskin
No, Rich Menga, fsck you! I’m not a “Linux Zealot”. I’m a GNU user. And Microsoft can take their software patents and stuff them. M$ stinks!

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
Yes you are. Thanks for playing.

http://howto-ubuntu.com eli
I agree with the article. Whereas there are many linux guys who bash windows, it seems that there is something about the windows guys, something more hostile. I have noticed, which I could be wrong, that people defending windows to a linux zealot tend to be more hostile, and sure of their OS’s complete and utter world dominance. They seem to counterattack harder than the linux fanboy initially attacks.
Like I said, just my observations.
Old Medic
Puppy is another OS that will give you full access to boxes using windows. I’ve done most of my self education on windows products, and have just recently converted my main home computer to Ubuntu. After reading some of the articles & posts, I just downloaded Fedora and will give that a try. I think the next time my father needs me to fix his XP box, it will get replaced with Ubuntu (or Fedora)!
Saverio
As far as I’m concerned, both Linux and Windows are good for different things: I play my favorite games on Windows and I use Linux for the internet and everything else because it’s safer and more stable. As simple as that. And if I occasionally want to edit a video I’m back on Windows with Premiere because I like the app.
I think a complete PC is a computer with double boot setup
Pingback: Boycott Novell » IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: March 12th, 2009 - Part 1
Anonymous
Normally I would agree with this… but there’s on minor problem and a major reason why Microsoft is so hated:
Microsoft has declared war on Linux over ten years ago. They are still waging this war. They’ve secretly funded SCO’s litigation. They’ve sent out outright patent trolls in the hoped for some sort of “indemnification deal” so they can get their hooks on Linux. Steve Ballmer still calls Linux a “cancer.” How about the completely false Get The Facts campaign?
Why shouldn’t we talk about the one company that wants more than anything to bury Linux and all its proponents?
I am very happy with what I have with Linux, and I’m not going to let a twice-convicted monopoly try to take over my desktop and rip my beloved kernel away from me. You can claim Microsoft need not be discussed, but it’s hard not discuss a company trying to very hard to be discussed, especially when they’re trying to destroy everything that is not theirs.
And now they’re throwing patent traps at Linux in the form of Mono and Moonlight.
Call me a “zealot” all you want, but its because of guys who refuse to ignore Microsoft you still have Linux to use.
Microsoft deserves anti-Microsoft talk: They make shitty products, commit unethical and sometimes frequently illegal acts to destroy, not compete with, destroy, their competition.
Don’t want anti-Microsoft talk? Then find a way to make Microsoft not anti-Linux.
Anonymous
If I had anything good to say about Microsoft, I wouldn’t be very good at convincing people to switch to Linux.
You can’t pretend that Linux is not out there to compete with Windows, and that users can’t be persuaded into changing. A good Linux user knows how to make a convincing pitch to a potential user, because the strength of our open source communities lies in our numbers. Whether that pitch includes Microsoft bashing is all up the person making the pitch, and sometimes people respond very well zealous tactics.
Linux needs zealots to preach the good word because we don’t have millions of dollars to spend on advertising campaigns, slapping up billboards along the highways and hiring washed up comedians to star in commercials. Linux relies on the internet and word of mouth, and any slack therein will cause our numbers to dwindle.
If you’re not an active developer, get off your butt and enlighten the unwashed masses. Laziness is the reason Microsoft maintains the advantage.
Yaro
In reality, Linux itself is not positioning itself to compete. Linus Torvalds himself said he would care one way or another if Windows burned and died as a result of Linux.
He did half-jokingly said that the “destruction of Microsoft” would be an “unfortunate” side effect. But he was joking.
Interestingly enough, reality decided to follow after the joke, since Windows recently dropped under 90% desktop share and Linux is getting greater and greater numbers on the desktop that we can’t quantify because Linux lacks an official registration mechanism.
To say nothing of Linux strong presence to outright dominance in all the other markets.
But they’d still be developing for Linux even if only a handful of people ever actually used it.
erkaer
This article is… well, wrong.
“On my 32-bit system I can now access all 4GB of my RAM. Now I don’t have to buy a new computer!”"
Which is
1) Cloaked comparison to Microsoft Windows.
2) wrong
“I’ve been able to keep my computer running for two solid weeks straight without a single reboot.”
1) Cloaked comparison to Microsoft Windows.
“I love the games I’m playing. Great stuff!”
1) Cloaked reply to Microsoft Windows zealots’ arguments, and as such, a cloaked comparison to Microsoft Windows.
And so on. Just like these “intelligent design” people, who don’t mention thw word “God”, but it’s just obvious.
Fsck thyself, before commanding thy brother to do the same…

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
Your comment is… well, wrong.
There is nothing “cloaked” whatsoever. Thanks for playing.

DW
No, I think he’s right actually. None of those statements make sense except as compared to known shortcomings or complaints with Windows.
BauHm
I think you see this too much in a black-and-white manner…
When you consider how Microsoft has been (and is still) trying to push down alternative developments and how aggressive it tries to keep its position in the worldwide IT market – for example on the desktop sector – I can clearly understand that people who use and like Linux/Unix go out and tell the world what they think of Microsoft products or why Linux/Unix is better for certain tasks in their opinion, respectively.
What one should rather criticise is the way they do it: I agree with you that it often sounds quite profane and childish.
Nevertheless it is not wrong IMHO to advertise Linux products as a distinctive and in many cases totally competitive alternative to Microsoft products. And by doing so one automatically runs into the Linux VS M$ dilemma

Yaro
“Nevertheless it is not wrong IMHO to advertise Linux products as a distinctive and in many cases totally competitive alternative to Microsoft products.”
I respectfully disagree, and I’ll tell you why.
Except for gaming (Which is frankly a minor and stupid reason to dismiss something.) Linux can do everything Windows can do and much, much more. Enlighten me as to how it’d be wrong to push Linux as a viable alternative when Linux has… well… actually been a viable alternative since 2004-2006 for *non* technical users and since forever for technical users?
Hardware? I’ve seen Linux support way more hardware than Windows except for fringe hardware, which wouldn’t be well supported on ANY OS. What’s worse for the Windows vs. Linux debate for those on the Windows side is that Linux easily trumps Windows in the three categories out-of-box hardware support and sheer volume of drivers available in total for Linux and sheer amount of platforms Linux runs on, supporting that much more hardware as well (Windows runs on 5 architectures at the very most This is counting mobile versions. Linux runs on well over 200!)
Market? Quantity != Quality. But if I really must argue market, we must look outside the desktop/laptop market and into netbooks, servers, supercomputers, embedded, clustering, and system administration needs. Oops, looks like Windows hardly penetrates half those markets, and is getting slaughtered by Linux and other *nix operating systems in all those, with Linux being the dominant player in all of them. Sure, inside the limited desktop and laptop markets, Linux isn’t even close to a “present” alternative, even though the < 1% estimation is, IMHO, a gross underestimation of how many people actually use Linux on the desktop, since there’s no real way to determine just how wide an install base it has because 1. Linux is freely redistributable and 2. Linux doesn’t even request registration like shareware or commercialware. One can take a survey, but statistical sampling is still pretty unreliable, and frankly I think most statistics are BS used in propaganda anyway and can’t be relied upon to prove anything without actual evidence to back it up.
Quality? Linux definitely kills Windows here. Uptime, stability, lack of bloat, considerably superior design, and we have a better mascot to boot, not to mention a much, much higher uptime. Just because it can highly modular (With all sorts of drop-in replacements for just about every part of the average Linux distribution available.) Some call the sheer amount of choice a downside, but I respectfully disagree. Just like in Windows, Linux offers alternatives to its own software. No one is forcing the n00b users to use the alternatives or choose between them. Meanwhile the normal to experienced users can choose what works best for them. Linux, unlike Windows, doesn’t sacrifice everyone else’s choice for the lowest common denominator.
Support? Have you ever called Microsoft technical support and actually *tried* to get actual help with something? They’ve gotten notorious in the past decade for having less-than-helpful non-commercial support for the layman and its commercial support is is almost totally aimed at the enterprise tiers, and an almost absent community support system. Linux? So many vendors offer commercial support for everyone alongside non-commercial support, and there’s so many forums, IRC channels offered by both the distributors and the community. Linux Questions and the Arch forums have probably the best community support for Linux I’ve ever seen. (I’ve found Ubuntu to have semi-lousy community support compared to Arch or LQ. Oftentimes I’d have started a thread asking for help that wouldn’t even get a reply for weeks, and on #ubuntu, if the idiots don’t know how to fix your problem they don’t even acknowledge your existence.)
User friendly? That’s a myth. Were you ever actually born with the knowledge of how to use Windows? Mac OS X? EVERY OS no matter how “easy” it is has a learning curve. Revers the situation: If you grew up with Linux and then switched to Windows, people would be trolling WINDOWS as hard to use. Don’t tout having to learn something as the reason not to do it. Time is another factor altogether. If you dom’t have time to learn something, then that’s one thing, but learning it itself is not a bad thing and Linux often brings you skills you can take to the bank, I guarantee it, if you even decide to take the time to master it instead of just learning how to be an average desktop user. Command line? Don’t give me that crap. No one used to care if they had to use the command line until Mac OS and Windows 95 taught them the dirty lie that they should fear it and that using it is a Bad Thing. I’ll tell you righ tnow there are so manny things a CLI can do a GUI cannot do that GUI apologists always overlook, including full-out automated tasks. Once one learns the CLI, he can do things much faster than a GUI user.
Please, enlighten me as to how Linux is not a competitive alternative to Windows when it is in fact a competitive alternative to Windows?