Change of OS

[Guest]

Having seen the inside report of a Windows Kernel dev here as well as looking at things like Windows 8 and Vista, does anyone else think Windows will soon leave first place as the OS of most tech savvy computer users within the next 5-10 years? 

 

Granted a large proportion of computer users will still go with Windows as that is what they know a PC to run but looking at recent events with Microsoft, I believe that either a form of Linux or even modified Android will take pride of place on the PC. 

 

Your thoughts?

[Blade of Grass]

Well, to be honest, I don't think Microsoft will lose its hold as the most popular os in five years. Maybe in ten they will start losing some of their hold, and maybe in twenty years something better will come along.

But I think Microsoft will always have a presence in this industry.

[vkadurin]

Macintosh FTW ! Just kidding...yes, i think linux and ubuntu are the future. Microsoft are getting too hungry for money and will definitely star loosing market share.

[WhatARoaster]

Id like to see Linux take over, i prefer its user experience a lot more than windows.

 

I think the problem is the common computer user will be buying pre-built computers, which will no doubt come pre installed with windows til the end of time.

[SirReallySam]

I wish Linux would take over I really do, but honestly I  don't see it happening... Windows will live on as the "top" OS for at least 7 years...

[majorawsome]

I don't think so at all. Microsoft has really been pushing the bar. I hope they keep it up. People may say that Windows 8 is horrible, but I like it and I will keep using it.

[Oisin Maguire]

I though you GNU that Linux was taken over :-)

 

 

{sorry had to be done}

[AroundWayOtherThe]

MS will fight this one out; they won't go down easily. Maybe they'll start caring about this since it's been brought to peoples attention.

 

Linux is still seen as that crazy H4XX0RZ thing that only hyper power-users can understand or use (at least it seems that way from what I've gathered from my... less computer-literate acquaintances). Don't know when that will shift, but it would probably be far enough into the future that MS will have picked up its game.

[bradscoolio]

When all games become supported by Linux through steam I can seriously see my self migrating to it.

Then it's just a matter of what flavour :3

[Hyydrah]

I think Google will be up to something by then. Chrome OS was a great idea, and Android is thriving.

[IdeaStormer]

How can you only run one OS? I have VM's with different OS's for different uses and staying up on more than one major OS. Sure you might hate one OS over another but you really need to know more than one OS. I hate Mac OS but still use it from time to time because its a major OS so if you want to stay relevant in the computer field you need to look at many OS's, not that I would pay money for it.

 

Currently running Ubuntu v12.04 on my main work computer and it runs Win7 and Win8 VM's, a Debian Wheezy VM. The other work computer has an XP VM :(

[IdeaStormer]

Was just reading this and thought it might be up your alley WindSpeed

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/10/iss_linux_debian_deployment/

[zoltan]

The linux kernel and GNU/Linux operating systems have long taken over, with almost 1.5 million Android device activations per day, with everything running linux from everyone's wifi-router to parking meters, heart monitors, weapon systems, phones, smart TV's, etc... it's not even a point of discussion anymore whether linux or windoze has won... windoze has made the PC into an XBox, windoze is the de facto sales platform for games and less important other applications on consumer PC's. The enterprise IT world hasn't been using microstufft software for years, everything is free and open source there and based on linux. Windoze is only important for one thing: because game developers are not independant enough to develop for anything else than windoze on PC, but that will come fast.

[extremescouter]

Just thought id add my thoughts on this. Apple is doing well for the amount of computers they restrict themselves to. If Apple, which they will never, actually accepts Hackintoshes as a thing, they will see the use of there operating system raise dramatically. Many people, including me like the Mac OSX for productivity, but are just not willing to pay the steep "Apple tax".

[arkon]

I can almost imagine something like Chrome OS becoming very popular once web apps become more robust, actually.

[Carter]

Linux ftw. I. Just waiting for a few more steam games to be available, and then I don't see the point in paying £80 or more for windows when eg Ubuntu will be just a good for most things, and perhaps better in some respects.

[ProGearUk]

I will almost definitely be always staying with Windows It has been my go to OS since I have used a computer. I have had a mac and have only used them once or twice. Microsoft just needs to rethink its strategies to not lose business from the common people who aren't tech savvy. Most normal people will stay because of the fact that apple is just too expensive and hard to use. 

[Thibaudv]

I would love Ubuntu to be on top. It's awesome, it just needs some more apps instead of things you need to like program yourself and of course games (I mean the big titles like bf4 etc)

[Scia]

Mh, Windows for me atleast, is a necessary evil. I need M$ Office, I need progs like SPSS [There is a Linux version but quite buggy], and stuff like Illustrator. And of course, games. The Steam library for Linux isn't anywhere near compelet. [i hope publishers will follow Valve once the steam box is out].

 

If it wasn't for those programs, I'd not owning any M$ product what so ever. Unfortunately, it's not as complete as it gets yet. sure there are alternatives, but sometimes they just don't do the trick. I'd say, as soon as most of the productivity / games can be natively used on a few major Distros, you can kiss M$ goodbye.

[Carter]

But Ubuntu will be making their move into the mobile platform Industy soon, with a pretty much fully fledged distro running on phones and tablets, increasing populararity. And all Linux needs is more comparability with applications and there arnt many reasons for most to stay with windows.

[911^NEmeSis]

But Ubuntu will be making their move into the mobile platform Industy soon, with a pretty much fully fledged distro running on phones and tablets, increasing populararity. And all Linux needs is more comparability with applications and there arnt many reasons for most to stay with windows.

Yeah personally I am really looking forwards to Ubuntu for the mobile device. Just seems great and I hope it really does work well.

[Carter]

All that needs to happen is for one major developer to start releasing software for Linux, and others will follow. I'm pretty sure it's the future, especially with the negativity surrounding win8. On a more personal note, I like the idea of saving £80 on future builds

[swifty7]

God I hope it does happen!!!!  I would switch in heart beat.

[GoodBytes]

Ok, here is the reality of things. If you think that all companies, like Nvidia, AMD, Intel, and so on, are not on the same boat... well you live in a dream land.

A lot of products we buy, are riddled with bugs and issues, that are not fixed, because it doesn't affect 99.99% of the population. Nvidia has 0 optimization done on OpenCL, with the cleaver idea that CUDA will look more powerful. Sadly for Nvidia manager that came up with this idea, AMD is on the map, and their GPU massacre Nvidia OpenCL performance, bringing arguably to similar performance than CUDA.

AMD had a drawing bug that was only visible on tunnels where you have repeated textures. A lot of bugs and issues that many employees wants to fix and improve performance, but it's blocked, because it doesn't affect enough people to be an issue. Devs are the one that will do a work around in any case, if it's ever an issue. On Nvidia side, there is an input lag of 3 frames in Windows Vista and up drivers (not there in AMD graphic cards). The fix? Draw the window 1 pixel larger or taller than the screen.

 

Why is it like this?

On a product that you commercialize to sale, there is no need, or point to fix issues that no one will notice. Resources are better spent on new features, and larger performance boost.

 

Linux OS kernel is moving at incredible slow paste. It's doing a race between a racing car, and a can of tomatoes. But, Linux has the ability and luxury to fix this. Imagine if you had to buy Linux, let's say the same price of Windows. If you saw the list of improvements done into Linux kernel, would you rush out and buy it? Absolutely not. Because you will see 0 difference what's so ever. Maybe, at best, 1 specific program will start 1 sec faster. Yay? worth the money? No.

 

Vista is a perfect example of this. When Vista was released, and you ignored the people freaking out the lack of the Windows 9x old classic Start Menu, before anyone knew much of the OS. People were saying how Vista was nothing more than XP with a new skin and instant search, not worth it! Ignoring the fact that Vista had a list of new features but more for really advance users, and almost fully redone form scratch core, reflecting better the needs of modern security system, and hardware, dropping, in exchange, legacy support of many things.

 

Compromises needs to be done. This employee clearly had no work experience at other work places, because else he would know. And, if it a big problem, why didn't he apply at managerial pr project manager position? You can switch at Microsoft between roles. Microsoft has a an entire internal program with courses for this. This shows that this particular employee is the type that whine all day, has no idea of the big picture, too lazy to do any changes, or worst, does not stand behind his own words.

 

What do I mean by the "seeing the big picture"?

This is a classic situation where you have engineers bringing an idea or solution to a problem to managers, and managers refuses, and you have the engineers bitch and moan, saying how the managers on top of them are idiotic morons... blah blah blah... Snob fest all the way. They ignore the REASON for the rejections. Managers do a lot of analysis work. It might not show, but they do. They have paper work and reports to do, to give to it's superior. They are many reason why a project got refused:

 -> Too risky

 -> Bad allocation of resources that is more importantly spent on something else (ie: spend the next 6 month to improve an OS performance by POTENTIALLY 5%, when you can do 1 or 2 new features on the OS)

 -> Cost too much

and more.

The engineer, if he has an understanding of this, can tweak his idea, to make it better fit the companies resource limitation, and perhaps this time get approved.

 

Whining all day, doesn't get things done.

 

Id like to see Linux take over, i prefer its user experience a lot more than windows.

 

I think the problem is the common computer user will be buying pre-built computers, which will no doubt come pre installed with windows til the end of time.

Lenovo and Dell, both made or currently have Linux pre-build system with actually decent specs. The problem, is that no one buys them, so its pulled out, and try again in a few years later (or Windows only option is put in place)

 

Linux has many many many issues in order to be accessible to all, let alone enthusiasts. The problem with Linux is that it's not focused on the end user... whether it's a power user or not.

Important things are just forgotten or ignored. In many cases, the simplest things are a chore to do. Heck, xWindows font rendering engine is a joke compared to MacOS X and Windows. Programs are over filled with option with no sense of direction on whats important feature to have and features that can be dropped. No GUI guidelines. Folder structure is mess, where devs themselves don't know where to put things properly. Devices are identified as folders. And many many more.

 

You do have distro like Ubuntu which highly modifies Linux to bring order to things, And Ubuntu is hugely successful at it. But the Linux community bashes Ubuntu like if it was Windows Me, or some curse, which, I believe, blocks Linux from evolving, and developing at faster paste. And this creates a big problem when getting help. If you have Ubuntu, many instruction given, lets say you arrive in a forum where most people use Arch Linux, a lot of stuff you are given to fix your problem won't work, because your Ubuntu is highly modified, and things are different.

 

And for a simple fix, you have "If you use Dibiant you need to do..... now, if you use RedHat.......... If you use Debian.... if you use something else........ ". It's a pain.

 

Until this does not change, I don't see Linux gaining popularity.

 

 

Now,

 

As for Windows, Microsoft is doing a balance between power for advance users, and easy to use for everyone else. Some version of Windows is more power user, others is more friendly of use. Every version of Windows, Microsoft have features of both. It's just that some people decides to ignore the power user part and improvement, and just goes "Windows is becomes MacOS". Well.. what I can say.. stop ignoring things.