Is Linux the greatest threat to Windows Vista?
By Justin Montgomery
There’s a bevy of journalists and users alike that are cocked and ready to fire away at Vista any chance they can get, but there’s one underlying variable that almost everyone seems to agree with. The various distributions of Linux most likely pose the greatest threat to Windows Vista overall- why you ask?
A synopsis by Renu Singh of IT Voir on the subject, pointed out the main reasons Linux has the most fuel to overtake Vista in the long run. Though it seems obvious, he points out issues regarding security, anti-virus, updating and the sheer cost saving benefits to using any kind of Linux. Since the days of only one or two operating systems has come and gone, Microsoft has some undeniable trouble on the horizon- it’s really no secret, even to them. Now that we have such a variety, it really comes down to a few simple aspects- overall cost of deployment in the long-term, and overall security during all aspects of usage.
When it comes to updating, Singh points out the fact that with Vista- it’s a matter of not only updating the OS, but also individual drivers, software, etc. "To update Adobe suite, user have to visit the Adobe web site. To update the drivers, one has to visit hardware vendors. Contrast to this, the update process of Linux is simple- the update package includes everything- the operating system, applications, support libraries, hardware drivers. All new versions are looked for and updated at one time."
The underlying benefit of Linux is of course the price, or lack of price that is. Not only is the OS completely free-of-charge, but all software is as well. There’s a slew of Open Source software readily available and waiting, with more and more coming everyday. In addition, there’s no need for pirated software and versions of the OS like there is with Vista, it can be replicated and re-distributed as necessary.
I’m a huge Open Source advocate, so of course this all rings true with me. Maybe you have a different opinion- maybe in your eyes Mac presents the greatest threat, but I think it’s hard to deny the future dominance of Linux.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
under 
Print This Post
Read more entries by Justin Montgomery.
Stumble It!
September 20th, 2008
another blog post on how linux is going to take over our desktops in the next ten years? unlikely.
the trouble is then, we all criticize microsoft for not implimenting built in antivirus, and top notch firewalls, and when they propose to do anything other than build a platform there is million dollar companies there with anti-trust lawsuites.
if microsoft was to be apple and create a closed developing platform, build hardware and not support billions of software configurations, bios’ chipsets, etc. I’m sure they could build a much more rock solid system than apple could. Why don’t I say match linux, if you actually use linux, it’s very difficult to use is as a base operating system, simply because it can’t do what you want.
sure you can word process, browse the internet, listen to music and run small scale 3rd party open source apps. but then again, If I ran Vista, installed only office 2007, and ran a browser, it wouldn’t crash.
September 20th, 2008
@above,
Mate let me make one thing with only office 2007 and a browser, you are still prone to all the wares(spyware, malware, other threats). We don’t face any of these am a person who is well accustomed to osx, linux as well as windows and there is no doubt that linux beats the other two in terms of security and peace of mind. The number of threats for a linux user is almost zero. Then again you might argue saying that the linux market is least. But if you know a bit of linux architecture, its extremely difficult to compromise the system. This will be the same even after 10-15 years.
Am not saying am pro liinux, there are some issues which has to be worked out (hardware support is one issue) but these issues are more due to the lack of support from the hardware vendor. And Vista!! well I don’t even want to comment on it!!
September 20th, 2008
@above,
Mate let me make one thing with only office 2007 and a browser, you are still prone to all the wares(spyware, malware, other threats). We don’t face any of these am a person who is well accustomed to osx, linux as well as windows and there is no doubt that linux beats the other two in terms of security and peace of mind. The number of threats for a linux user is almost zero. Then again you might argue saying that the linux market is least. But if you know a bit of linux architecture, its extremely difficult to compromise the system. This will be the same even after 10-15 years.
Am not saying am pro liinux, there are some issues which has to be worked out (hardware support is one issue) but these issues are more due to the lack of support from the hardware vendor. And Vista!! well I don’t even want to comment on it!!
September 20th, 2008
Linux is not going to take over the desktop. I doubt we ever get an OS that dominates the way Windows has.
It will grow. I’ve used it as my personal OS for a few years now. Once you actually use it for a while, the amount of crap you have to put up with as “normal” just to run Windows, it’s irritating as hell. I haven’t found one thing I can’t do with it. A bit more work in some cases, but for the majority of people, you have no issues.
There is absolutely no evidence that Microsoft is able to do anything “right”. What precedent do you have? Zune? Xbox?
September 20th, 2008
sorry to disagree with you “yawning”
i buy a few months ago laptop, i used linux for the last 2 years, search for one laptop without windows but cant find one at the time, so it came with vista
so i say, lets try it, besides i need to download the last release of ubuntu, so lets use vista to do it, and besides since i already buy it (forced to buy it) i will double boot.
1. just turn it on, and maybe i just get used to ready to go system, like with ubuntu (and my tv, cell phone, dvd,etc) countless screens, countless configuration options, take more to just turn on my new laptop that do a fresh install with ubuntu, even need to restart a few times just to reach the desktop, and god, it takes for ever to shut down.
2. finally reach the desktop, even at this point my hard disk keep hard working forever, never stop, taking down resources, slowing the response time, or maybe its natural slow. i make my rescue dvds, since cheap microsoft dont ship windows dvds this times. i plug my internet, not before shut down more useless windows, like trial antivirus, and get little confused since both windows and OEM software want to take care of my conecction.
3. then another pop up, that tell me i need to download and install a lot of critical updates, ok, lets do it i have a great internet speed conection, so not a big problem, i do it with ubuntu too. so download all this in the background.
4. start iexplorer, dont like it, has built in tool bars for a 3 company and have many text menu options,each one with submenus, that just get unpleased to me, go direct to ubuntu and start downloading the iso, i go out to dinner, the iso and all updates will take some time.
5. return, the iso was downloaded, not all the updates, where the iso is it? i open explorer (i hate it the most, its the worst) to open the usual folders, cant find it… go to iexplorer and reclick to download it again, it finish in a second, so the file its there somewhere. so try to find the file with the search files (i was wrong it was the worst) its the most unfriendly and unpractical software i have used, spend a lot of time and never could find the iso, i just give up, i was so frustated at this point.
6. i say tomorrow is anew day, so lets shut down and get some rest, i close iexplorer, and when do it, it gave me a critical error, just for closing it, with a fresh install, even office is not installed “yawning” so vista is crashing even with just browsing, not a big deal, not break windows, i shut down windows, tell me i updates will be installed and should not turn it off, i sure did not do it, i did not turn off my conputer for more an hour, thats the time to just install the updates and shut down windows, that was long, i could install ubuntu twice in the same laptop.
7. next day, try to downloading again the iso, dont work again, thats odd, i go and try to download opera, neither cant find the file and sure i select my own directory this time, so open it on the fly, thank god it work this time, i was to break the laptop in frustation, from opera download the iso without problems, burn it with some DVD recorder that came with the laptop since windows cant do it.
8. i restart my laptop to install ubuntu, to my surprise there was more updates to install, take another half hour, more or less, i miss the reboot and get to windows again, restart again, what???? more updates, is joking? again left it continue and when i come back i was in windows again, so in frustation i just hard shut down… sadly ubuntu cant repartition a NTFS when was not shut down properly, but who cares i will never use vista gain so let get the full hard disk.
9. never say never, months after giving up with vista, i put my rescue dvds to bring it to life, what a pain, for start the dvds dont work if you have not a NTFS partition, and nothing tell you that, just a number error without reference, have to found it in a forum that i need to partition my disk my self, not a problem ubuntu do it without a problem, and again the 1 and 2 problems i described, 3 days to desktop from the dvds, ok, just 6 hours after i discovered i need to partiton my hard disk myself, but thats a lot.
10. and why in god name, i return to vista, well, world of warcraft 10 day trial, i just want to try it, after saveral days of playing it at lowest resolution with serious frame rates lost, sometime unplayable, i start searching forums again, turns out that my laptop more than meet the basic hardware requirements, many point out to vista problems, after some proccess and services look up, and find out that the new audio driver in vista is in user mode, while in xp is kernel, some say its bogus, and it take more than 80% cpu and always were in virtual memory (pagefile) after a few minutes of play. lucky enough in a forum say world of warcraft could run in ubuntu, so i try this step by step, in half hour i was playing wow on ubuntu at highest resolution without my hard disk working all the time, flawless audio and smooth frame rate, so i will never use vista gain, i hope so.
September 21st, 2008
Mac OSX will probably end up coming from behind Windows at some point. Its becoming more enterprise friendly, is easier to use in many ways but is expensive.
If Apple released a standard desktop PC range with Mac OSX preinstalled, and in which you could upgrade graphics cards etc, it would probably sell by the million. At the end of the day, standard PCs with a Core 2 Duo/Quad these days aren’t that expensive, especially if a company like apple were to produce en masse.
I like Linux and all, but until hardware vendors come out with a lot of support, Apple needs to take a grip of the market by releasing a cheaper Mac that’s better than a Mac Mini.
September 21st, 2008
Apple isn’t going to release anything that impacts margin for marketshare. You won’t see the long desired model to compete with the currently $800-$900 PC.
How many of those 60% of the retail market $1,000+ Macs the faithful point to as dominance, never mind it doesn’t include direct sales numbers, would be replaced by the mid model?
Apple isn’t enterprise friendly. The server line is a joke, you can’t get any info on lifecycle for budgeting, and the strain of enterprise support would severely hurt them. Remember, they had to pull engineers off of Leopard to make the iPhone come out on time.
Jobs knows this. IT Directors aren’t going to breathlessly post in forums everytime the Apple Store goes off line hoping they can finally finish the budget. Can you see OSX betas?
None of this is a knock on Apple. Competing in high volume and low margin markets damn near killed them in the 90’s. If you can get your cultist customers to believe “Steve” doesn’t give them a choice at that price point because it would mean cheap peecee crap that will die in 6 months, and not to separate them from more of their money, cool. Don’t expect to see a netbook anytime soon.
They make a nice product that is not as wildly overpriced as pre-Intel. They have done absolutely stellar work the last 5 years and deserve all the accolades. Being everything to everyone is not their way and it’s hard to argue with.
Apple won’t do much in the way of the enterprise, Linux does have the best shot at bumping MS on the server side.
September 22nd, 2008
I think that Vista’s greatest threat is itself, since in many ways it simply doesn’t provide a compelling choice of OS.
It is unfortunate for Microsoft that the release of Vista has coincided with the renaissance of Apple and with Linux having reached a point where it is, for many, a viable desktop alternative. Of the two, it seems that Linux is the more obvious contender to fill the Vista non-adoption vacuum, but the growth of Linux on the desktop is likely to be at a gradual rate over a long period of time.
If Windows 7 proves to be another failure (and the early indications don’t look good), then the most likely outcome is that most people will remain on XP for as long as they can, and, when the issue is forced, many will then canvass their options. Whether or not any OS can dominate the way that Windows has remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely given the freakish confluence of events that led to such dominance in the first place.
Since Microsoft’s two cash cows (and only profitable products) are Windows and Office, a significant loss of Windows market share would be very painful for them. Microsoft is now a company in late middle age - there is a fair bit of flab, the vision isn’t what it used to be, and reaction times are slower. They aren’t going to die, but they are on the wane. Before Microsoft, the big bad tech company was IBM. IBM didn’t go away, but they are a shadow of what they used to be, and Microsoft is headed inexorably down the same road.
September 23rd, 2008
Hard to call Vista a failure using any known business criteria. I’m not a big fan of Microsoft, but until there is a serious threat to replace it in the Enterprise they will be getting serious rivers of money. If a business downgrades the desktop to XP and is still pay Microsoft a license fee.
While there are very compelling technical reasons to use Open Source in the Server Room, the business reasons fall flat.
January 16th, 2009
I just love reading all of you have absolutely zero clue. You take your own personal experience running an OS on a non-business laptop (Inspiron, HP from BestBuy, etc.). You then say that Linux will take over the world because of its “security”. One person goes as far as to make a claim that Linux is more secure than OS-X. How can an open-source product be more secure than a closed environment with packages that come from a single, and trustworthy source?
If you really want to beat Microsoft, then first you have to accept a fundamental reality. Free does not equal cheaper. It is fundamentally easier to operate a Windows environment for the average user. Support costs are radically lower for Windows users vs. Linux users. Your average user has no idea how to find files in a Linux environment. Linux has to come up with a more streamlined user interface, and a more standardized management UI.
Further to this debate is the concept that Linux is more stable than Windows. Let’s be completely fair on this point. Windows as an OS is an engineering marvel. It is fundamentally very solid (especially Vista). It is not the OS itself that is broken, but the literally millions of people who code poorly for the platform that break Windows. The majority of Windows issues are due to poorly written code (especially 3rd party drivers). The Vista launch would have been fantastic if vendors had bothered to code drivers for it on release (Tier 1 vendors had more than 18 months). The fact that literally anyone can go to Circuit City, buy a video capture board and it will run is amazing. You can’t do that on OS-X, because they are very strict as to compliance.
I am not trying to come off as a Microsoft “fanboy”. If the community really wants to “beat” Microsoft down, then be realistic, admit where the strengths and weaknesses are, and then play to those.
One great thing I love about Linux is its single source capability for updating every application. There is an example of a strength to exploit.
This fanboyism from the Linux camp is exactly what Microsoft (and others) exploit themselves.
January 19th, 2009
I agree with Trevor. Except for the part in which he says that MS is a trustworthy source… In my opinion since only they are able to access their own source code, they may hide some security threats on their software (due to marketing reasons) while in open source, everybody can look for those threats…
I am currently writing from a Linux machine and in my opinion most of Linux fans are arrogant or blind. Is it possible to compare Gnome or KDE UI with Win Vista UI? Ubuntu’s default UI is very very ugly and this makes us lose new users, how can we present a product with such an ugly interface? What actually we need is innovation… Firefox with the idea of tabs has gotten a lot of market share… OpenOffice is just a copy of an older version of MS Office (maybe office 1998 or whatever), maybe it’s time for OO developers to think about which new feature would make people interested on OO instead of just copying and copying. I think also that governments and organizations which use open source software should start hiring developers to help on the development of this software since they pay nothing for them…