Poll: Will Linux Mint overtake Ubuntu and/or even Windows?

[Reorx]

Google has the resources... all they really need is the interest, desire, or inclination...

[Nexus]

3)The attitudes of a large portion of the Linux Communities (Since Chrome OS is Linux based) members will have to change. Many of us view Proprietary, and for Profit software as something "Bad" to be used as little as possible, others think it goes against the spirit of GNU and the FOSS movement and that it will limit creativity and growth of GNU/Linux based software. These are not an absolute truth, no one is going to make you or anyone else install proprietary software, the freedom of choice is still there.

I would pay for some games myself if I liked them, I would rather have native linux based then run it through wine anyhow.
I am a graphic artist, have been an artist all my life (painting and computer) well ok computer since the 90's, I won't pay for any adobe software, mainly because I perfer gimp over photoshop and inkscape over illustrator, but that is the only reason, and a personal choice, even when forced to use adobe on wondoze for work, I always install gimpers and inkscape on their systems to use that instead, more then they usually liked

But yup I would pay for it if it was something I wanted and it was good just to have it native.
Well thats my 2 cents tossed into the plate

Sam

I agree native would be better, but we'd have to have market share enough to become "worth the time" to the developers. The issue isn't Microsoft throws money around to have companies make things "Windows Compatible" is that well Windows has the market share. I know a few folks that work for one of the Major Entertainment Software groups, and they've flat out told the player base for one of their games they would really like to make a Linux/Mac native client for their MMO, the problem is meeting deadlines, when supporting multiple platforms. It's not that the can't do it, just the people demanding results within in a specific time frame don't always make this possible. Now I bet if Linux held 25-30% of the home market share, they'd get time that millions of potential customers which equals higher profits. The other issue is Microsoft has a much better support platform for developers, honestly it does, sure you can search online for a solution every platform has that. Microsoft will actually "rent" out people to help with issues...

[samriggs]

Ya thats true about the support, a lot of folks don't like looking for answers online, they want to talk to someone instead.
As far as money wise, that is true also, I had a run in with lexmark and needing a 64bit driver for one of there printers, they told me flat out there wasn't a high enough demand for them to make it so basically 64bit users were out of luck, I thanked them for the paper weight
They offered me 20% off for another printer, I told them not to insult me, why would I buy another one when they don't support them in the first place for 64bit drivers when a lot of other companies do, whether the demand is there or not. We now have epsons and samsungs instead both work great.
I have a 32bit lmde I use that lexmark for now so its not a total waste.
But yup demand demand demand, I want to get into android apps and live wallpaper as a part time income soon so I understand it's nice to make money, I thought of maybe making some games for linux eventually (can I make money off of them) I doubt it and I would almost feel guilty since it's all free and I would rather contribute to the community.
So I can see where the problem stands at least from that point.
Hopefully the demand will grow eventually to bring in more developers even if we have to pay for certain things it is still worth it.
How many will, thats another issue.

Sam

[lmintnewb]

Google should give a lil back. When you add up the gazillions they've saved taking advantage of nix. Though really, being in online marketing have had reason to study google intimately. Along with any other major player or platform out there. Google, is all and only about google. Just as big a sleaze as any other megacorp ... Really just as craptastic as M$ when you really get down to it.

Hope they are doling money out to linux devs and organizations supporting FOSS. Would just never be so naive as to believe they would be doing it for altruistic reasons. For the benefit of the masses. Google assigns a dollar value to each and every one of it's users. Every "free" service they provide to keep those users coming back to google. Hate em all ... M$/Binghoo, FB, Google, buncha others. They are all craptastic truth be told.

Thank goodness for the talent and generousity of opensource devs. Where would us commoners be if it weren't for all the things they've done and given the world ? Thinking up S creek w/o the proverbial paddle. Thinking paid for software couldn't hurt. But bottomline guess comes down to numbers. When there's enough linux users in the world. Up sprouts commercial demand for all things nix. An doors will have to start flying open for it. Does tick me off that craptastic corp vultures have managed to sit on the PC market as long as they have.

Might sound like a zealots attitude. But have to admit when you look at it. The struggle for people being able to communicate and work together. Sense of community and the free exchange of info. Could really be looked at as a spirtual battle between people fighting the good fight n corp greed n lust for control. Really am grateful for what all the opensource, gnu/linux people of the world have done. Looks like they knew/know a lot more about things that are really important ... than I ever have.

(after thought ) if you can figure out a way to make money from linux. Would say do it, more power to ya n don't feel bad about it. The GPL doesn't forbid it, even encourages people and gives them that freedom too. Stallman might've been the best thing the hippy movement produced, lol. Guy really must be a friggin genius with a heart of gold. On top of all the people who worked to push things forward.


lol ... sowwie, just came from a thrilling debate in another forum. After trashing a buncha pro M$ tards with their the only way someone can go in a corporate setting is M$ argument. I'm still wound up.

[samriggs]

lol interesting debate, it's giving me a good laugh here how wound up you are.
But it is true, it all comes down to the mighty buck, and I believe in giving back, I love opensource even did in my M$ days (if that even makes sense).
There are some facts though, servers cost money, programmers have to eat unless they only did it in there spare time and never see their wives and children, so in that case I don't mind programmers making a living off of their work at all, I love it when I see donations given to the mint to keep it up and running because it does take money to keep this going whether we like it or not. Right now I can't donate money or I would, but I give what I can (my talent for now) to help add to it hopefully. Thats what I love about open source is the willingness of everyone to chip in.
As far as the giants go, yup of course there in for the mighty buck, will google forget about the devs? if they don't they will find a way to make a buck off of them somehow, thats why they do what they do, I know to sell apps in android it cost $25 to register then they take 30% of all sales, they are making a killing of the devs in that market but is it worth it for the devs? Sure is to get 70% and only make it once and shove it up there and let google do the rest, just keep it updated and listen to the users.
I was a bit surprised at first to see they take the same amount as apple does but I guess that should not be such a surprise.

It's great to make a living off of something you love doing, but never forget where you came from and give back.
I would never want to see open source disapear because it should be there for the folks that can't afford it plus a lot of the best software ever made came from opensource
The love of doing because you want to instead of doing it to make a buck. (It makes all the difference in the world)

Sam

[SpawnHappyJake]

As far as overtaking Windows, I sure hope so! But in practice, it comes down to people who just take the default and don't try to improve. If it comes with Windows, they just use that. On a positive note, I know for a while Dell was offering to sell computers with Linux on them. I don't know if they still do or if it completely replaces Windows, or if they do a dual boot. The other poster was right, Linux is to Windows as FireFox is to IE. One is obviously much better, safer, and faster than the other, but the inferior one is the default and it takes people a while to realize they have the choice to use something infinitely better that is in fact free. Even some of the most computer-illiterate users have caught on and at least installed FireFox. Whether they strictly use it only or use it more than IE, maybe, maybe not. Same with a dual boot between Windows and Linux. Do they forget about Windows and only use Linux? Do they use Linux more than Windows?

To be honest, Mint is an off-shoot of Ubuntu. Mint uses Ubuntu repositories. Mint basically is Ubuntu. That logic makes it seem like Mint would always be second to plain Ubuntu. However, in the WINE forums, I was surprised to see a spike in Mint users.

There are a lot of people who say that Linux is overtaking Windows for private PCs, too

That's hilarious! I've been putting Linux on my private computers and one of the first things I head thereafter was:

They use Linux for servers and stuff.

The first quote seems so backwards from my perspective (meaning that from my experience it's non-private computers using Linux that should be the surprise, whereas private computers using Linux is the mainstream), but yes, the ratio of Linux computers to non-linux computers is much higher in the server world than in the non-server world. But as far as non-server business machines, I thought the average business wasn't bright enough to replace Windows with Linux, and mostly it's home computer users feed up with Windows that make the switch (servers have already been switched, or started out that way, so they don't count in that last situation).

I was told by someone that has a government job that the computer she uses at work takes from 45 min to an hour to boot. I said, "Just use a thumb drive with Linux on it. It will boot much quicker." She said that that would be illegal to do on a government computer. I need to go over there a whip them in shape .

Open source is the way of the future...as well as the present, at least for me. If something is open source, 99 times out of 100 the notion of the program working on some operating systems and not on others goes out the window! You just compile the program for whatever operating system you want it to work on.
No business can compete with a whole community behind an open source project. Anyone can see the source code, find bugs, and submit bug fixes, or at least report a bug. Anyone can add features. Sure, they might not be accepted by the dev team of the project, but they can host their own modified version. Just look at Linux distros.

Also, from a paranoid perspective, only if a program is open source can you know what it is doing. Although the probability is almost 0%, technically it is possible that Microsoft Word could be spyware sending information about you to some foreign country. You don't have the source code, so you can't check. Only if it is decompiled and thoroughly reverse-engineered (variables given sensical names, comments inserted, etc.) can you be sure it isn't doing anything you don't approve of.

Cheers,
Jake

[Reorx]

Found this (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp) and thought the thread might like some stats...

Enjoy/discuss...

[Angtagapagligt]

Linux goes straight up!

[lexon]

Only in our imagination or another life.
Just maybe in an alternate universe.
Might make a cheap Sci Fi movie.
Linux is good but not that good.
Software is evolving so fast, stuff like this will fade from view.
People today want to be connected, not working on the wireless device software.
That scares the Linux types.
I just picked up a Dell Streak 7. I wantt to be connected, not spending most of my time messing with the software.
There is another world outside the Linux world.

L

[Angtagapagligt]

Linux is good but not that good?
How do you explain than that it is the most used OS in the world (There aren't just PCs in the world)?

And you don't have to tell me that there is another world except of the Linuxworld. Sorry that my hobby and my job is settled in the IT. I have to aplogize that a real real life fanatic like you feels deranged about that. -.-

Edit:
And I just have worked on wireless drivers on Windows because it doesn't have them out of the box. Everywhere I installed Linux the wireless devices operate proberly. Don't know which laptop you bought.