Windows 7 vs. Linux
Computerworld's Preston Gralla has dedicated a series of recent blog posts to the question of whether Windows 7 could be "Microsoft's Linux killer."
"At the recent PDC, where Windows 7 was unveiled, Windows and Windows Live senior vice president Steve Sinofsky claimed that Windows 7 used less than half of the 1 GB of RAM on his Lenovo S10 netbook," Gralla wrote on October 31st. "Making the new operating system lightweight has clearly been Microsoft's goal."
On November 3rd, Gralla added, "ASUS CEO Jerry Shen says he plans to release versions of the Eee PC powered by Windows 7 in mid 2009, including touchscreen models. With sales figures showing that Windows netbooks already far outsell their Linux counterparts, this could be the nail in the coffin."
The next day, Gralla gave one more reason: "The return rate for Linux netbooks is at least four times as high for Linux machines as it is for XP ones for at least one netbook maker [MSI]… The reason? People find Linux too hard to use."
And today, Gralla looked at why Microsoft is pushing so hard. "Microsoft isn't just worried about ceding 30 percent of the netbook market to Linux," he wrote. "It's also worried that if people get used to Linux on netbooks, they'll consider buying Linux on desktop PCs… Microsoft sees Linux on netbooks not just as a niche market, but as a threat to Microsoft's desktop share as well."
For some other perspectives, check out these articles from The Guardian, PC Magazine, Bloomberg, and Datamation.
Comments
Comment from Adam
Time April 15, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Microsoft should worry. While windows may be easier (as compared to fedora and suse) it is still crap. Ubuntu is just as easy as windows with half the errors and no blue screen of death. It is more secure and can handle more resource intensive applications. Bottom line people will learn Linux and with that they will discover that in this world that is constantly changing and growing, there is no room for gates and windows! Myabe Windows would be better if Microsoft would open up the code for it, this would give its users a chance to fix errors that are over looked in the code that is written. (But that will never happen)
Comment from dasre
Time April 30, 2009 at 1:21 am
I downloaded it here http://rapid4me.com/?q=windows+7+linux , you may too
Comment from ciesar
Time July 3, 2009 at 1:26 am
What is not taken into account is the amount of Netbook users that end up swapping there the versions of windows that came with there PC for a Linux distro (and people who duel-boot) although it does have a point about Linux being hard to use for a DOS/windows OS user.
Comment from Someone
Time July 20, 2009 at 8:56 am
Linux market share is like, less than 1%. What is there to kill again? Can someone please tell me
Comment from truth
Time September 10, 2009 at 5:35 am
sorry to burst your fan boy bubbles, but windows 7 *IS* a linux killer. it won’t kill it completely, but it will take most of the market share from it. you’ll even find linux users migrating to windows 7.
windows 7 may use a bit more ram than linux, but nowadays ram is dirt cheap. windows 7 is very seamless, and smooth…even on older PC’s as long as they have enough RAM.
linux may still be the cheaper alternative for a server environment since you can get it for free or pay for only one copy, but for systems where many employee’s need a good workstation environment, and for desktop/laptop users, windows 7 will completely destroy linux except for the die-hard ‘cool factor’ fan boys of linux.
thinking ahead to the next version of windows, it will be even worse for linux because there’s not much else you can do to linux. linux is at a dead end.
Comment from CyberRat
Time October 21, 2009 at 11:52 pm
“thinking ahead to the next version of windows, it will be even worse for linux because there’s not much else you can do to linux. linux is at a dead end.”
Lol, might be dead end for you, but not for linux it self. Desktop goes slow, but on other systems it grows hard
Comment from mouseless
Time December 1, 2009 at 2:04 am
MS Windows (3.1 to 7 …) cannot be compared to a complete Linux distro because Windows contains so little. 20 mins spent installing Linux and the whole distribution is ready to go. 15 years with Windows and it’s still a mess. Who learns, Wins.
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Time January 23, 2010 at 9:55 pm
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Comment from kombi regulatoru
Time December 14, 2010 at 10:33 pm
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Comment from ozel guvenlik
Time April 5, 2011 at 11:43 pm
Most of notebook sellers, selling the models with Freedos. Not linux now windows. Why? Because this is cheaper than windows. You can decide to use windows or linux after using freedos (it\’s really hard to use for beginners).
Comment from rainmanp7
Time January 12, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Yes this information is very true. Also Include the fear of all open source applications and being able to run games on linux as well.