So, you're for no standards, no support and forgetting that anything of any entertainment value at all runs on either Windows, Mac or both. What exactly do you use your computer for? Email? Web surfing? Do you earn a living with it?
With Bill Gates and Steve Balmer ever-so-slowly divesting themselves of Microsoft, I expect to see Mac surge within the next 10 years. Linux however, will never be anything more than a hobby-toy. If linux were going to attract anyone other than anti-capitalists, it would have done so by now. Linux really began to surface in 1996; knowing that 90% of computer users out there still don't know what it is, means its pretty much a failure on many levels.
Actually, no standards is what Microsoft and Apple support when they introduce their own proprietary standard. Why else would there be a WMV or QuickTime format ? Are you aware Linux supports wmv playback ? You just have to download the right codecs.
Moving to Office Suites, why does Microsoft have proprietary file formats for it's documents and spreadsheets ? Which btw, when Open Office 3 comes out will be supported in Linux. I would've mentioned Apple's office suite, but for some reason they don't seem to have a very good one worthy of critiquing, much more even mentioning by name ?
The rest of your post. Anti-capitalist, yes, Oracle introducing it's Linux version of 11g ahead of the Windows version, Larry Ellison and Oracle strike me as anti-capitalist. So that would make Linux a failure, that the largest commercial database software product on the planet runs on it. And don't get me started on the differences between Oracle 10/11g and SQL Server 2005/2008. How about the http internet, that would be running on Apache web servers. You do know you can get Apache for free thru any one of the linux distros ?
Mac will not surge ahead of Windows. I don't see our IT department scrambling to use OS X instead of Microsoft or even Linux. If anything, the network admins use Ubuntu and Fedora virtual machines because they are free and open source. On a lark, a couple of the staff put PPC OS X in a virtual environment and ran it on PC's, but that was short lived, because OS X being proprietary just didn't have the flexibility of Linux. Now as far as servers go, an Apple Xserver, go configure one thru Apple, fully loaded & supported the price tag is $ 100K. How can they even compete with Sun, Dell, HP or IBM, do they even have a blade system ? And that is why Apple will not surpass Microsoft Windows, they refuse to compete and they shoot themselves in the foot on the issue. Fine for Apple they are doing just fine with iPhones and other things, but to suggest in the next decade they are going to surpass Windows, not with 7 % of the market share and a restricted deal that excludes hardware other than what they make. They are a niche PC. And a PC is exactly what they are, now that they run on Intel X86 platform.
From your post, you seem to be part of the 90% that have limited knowledge of Linux and therefore it is a failure for you. I know that sounds harsh and arrogant but I'm only relaying what I could gather from your post. It's not my intent to come off that way. To give you another example, you say Linux can't make money, yet some of the highest grossing films made in recent years have been produced using Linux. I can understand attacking something because it's a threat, but Linux is free for you to use the same as the next guy. If Linux charged you for the air you breathe, I could understand your attacks. But they basically have put software for you to use that does everything you need it to do for free and somehow they are evil and wicked for doing so. You and others begrudge Linux for non-support. Ask yourself what guarantee or support Windows or OS X provides ? If the monthly updates are your answer, for crying out loud, Linux goes better and provides those too and even more frequently. Same goes with applications. The other day a fellow LPSGer had a virus with her Windows OS. Where was Microsoft that day. She tried antivirus programs that didn't work. So for all her troubles, she had to reinstall Windows. As for Apple, yes, they stand behind their hardware so much that it took class action legal suits for G3/G4 and G5 logic board replacements for defective hardware to get Apple to stand behind that product ? So with iron clad guarantees such as that, I'd just assume build my own from the same 3rd party sources Apple buys their hardware from and take my chances that way ? Am I really on a different plane without a parachute because it runs on Linux ?
