Look at that last sentence again. He doesn’t even have a clue what normal desktop users do/use! All he knows are the bullet points of KDE. How out-of-touch can one be?

And a *damn* fine one, for that matter!

Instead of fighting about copyright, it is much more important for me to have a stable, functional and understandable operating environment.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a Mac at home and have been putting all free time into Suse, (K)Ubuntu, Mepis, FreeBSD and various other *ix based distros – and can relate to the romance of free software and “free thinking”.
BUT -
Linux –
1. As a desktop for a non-techie is like selling a car in its parts – even though the parts are significantly improved over the last years – it still is not friendly enough for non-techies.
2. Linux – patches and releases are unstable and untested for the masses of combinations of things ‘that go wrong’. I have spent my fair share of time in the console after doing what was sold to be a simple functionality or security update – and really – this counts for all the distros I have mentioned – some just worse than others!
3. Linux – even though it seems much more fluent in resource use upon OS idle – it is obvious to me in compiling large programs in Java and C++, that the optimization difference (as a whole) between Linux and Windows in its use is much more subtle as apposed to a drastic earth shattering difference.
4. Linux packages and software (even for developers) seem to be better supported in the Windows world than on Linux… Yes I know this is a naughty statement – but you’ll find that to be very true on many occasions… e.g. MySQL GUI and developer tools on Windows vs Linux… (Had to throw this one out there for the trolls… here trolly trolly)

To summarize – I would love for Linux to be a stable and dependable OS and a true force in corporate desktop environment; I however cannot see it in my wildest dreams making any impact on Microsoft market share due to the above reasons (and more). Further – from a techie perspective, Microsoft (for the first time EVER)… is making my life a pleasure with the advent of .NET in that I have a best of breed language (Visual Studio still has issues unless you get the right plugins) and execution environment)…

This, coupled with its further building on the traits of XP, will strengthen Microsoft to the point where I really can’t see Linux making any inroads into corporate or desktop environment.

Gawie

PS: The mac task bar/kicker is shit. I have on numerous occasions got it acting really funky. M$ and KDE, for my liking, is much closer to what I expect from a taskbar as being the one point of interaction (instead of GNOME/Mac which is distributed over two areas)… everything in one place… one place to worry about whether your mouse if going over the screen edge, one place to configure etc etc.

Also, I know many answered you, but I have to tell you: Zeke, you are a moron.

It’s telling that Statscounter continues reporting Windows 2000 yet drops Linux. I’m sure the advocates will still claim victory and claim the totality of “other” is in fact “Linux”, but we all know that figure is full of Windows 98 systems, nerds disabling user agent reporting, and proxy users.

As for Windows 7′s revised taskbar, I have to agree that it doesn’t share too much in common with the NeXT/OSX dock model. It’s more like Quick Launch merged with the System Tray with added functionality to determine when and what a program is running. Its behavior definitely has the “Windows” feel.

Well done Zeke! You have earned Uncle Dicky’s Brass Ass of Class Award of Dubious Distinction in the category of Epic Fail. That you can (evidently) type and draw breath at the same time is nothing short of a phenomenal achievement.

They didn’t need to look at Windows 7; KDE4 ripped off VISTA. Which was released in 2006, after public beta and RC releases, and many leaked interface screenshots. KDE4 was released in January 2008.

“Microsoft tries and patent everything it gets it’s hands on.”

Compare and contrast to FOSS heroes IBM, whose championing of Linux (to help them sell very expensive consulting services) gets them a free pass, while their patent portfolio DWARFS Microsoft’s.

“Windows 7 still hasn’t even added Virtual Desktop’s”

Because ALT-TAB and the taskbar can do the job well on _one_ desktop.

“Did you even know that Microsoft borrowed the TCP code from BSD? So what about that?”

“Borrowed”? You can quite legally _take_ want you want from BSD-licensed code. BSD code is free to use in whatever way you wish as long as the copyright notices remain. There’s no legal or moral requirement to share improvements or changes, or even release the source again..

So Microsoft LEGALLY took stable, mature, well-tested and standard code and built a networking stack out of it. What exactly is the problem with that? Apart from the fact it’s Microsoft that did it?