Microsoft is reported to have included Red Hat and Canonical in its latest SEC filing, listing them as potential threats to their future solvency. SEC filings require companies to list all potential threats and major competition as a matter of law, so nobody is caught unawares when a company suddenly succumbs to competition from a previously unknown source.
Apparently, when netbooks came out of the blue and Linux was making massive headway on them before Microsoft could get their acts together and strip down XP to the point where it’d actually work on them, it rattled the behemoth and they realized that complacency leads to areas in which they are not dominant. The fact that they had to play a dirty game of catch-up just to make up lost ground proves how vulnerable they are in the realm of early adoption. As though their original stance on the internet — as being “just a passing fad” — wasn’t proof enough.
So, now that they’re admitting Linux is a threat to them, does that mean people will start taking their overtures of friendship with a grain of salt? Distrust of Microsoft has never gotten anyone in trouble, after all. Misplaced trust, however, most assuredly has.
I am kind of curious about this Red Hat. I am rather partial to the idea of Ubuntu, but have noticed that several of the computers I have looked at that are preinstalled with Linux, have Red Hat.
The community version of Red Hat is called Fedora, which you can get here: http://fedoraproject.org/
Otherwise, you’ll have to pay for Red Hat in a store. Buying Red Hat buys you not only their support, but also a few commercial software based tweaks for installing it in a corporate environment.
Overall, it’s not a bad distro. I don’t know that I like their RPM system more than APT, but I also waffle between Coke and Pepsi so hey.
I just installed Kubuntu last week and have been trying to play around with it to get it to do everything I do in Windows. Admittedly, I’m brand new to it and extremely used to the way Windows functions, but I’m finding Linux is a big pain in the ass to get anything to work properly. The only program I’ve been able to get working without a bunch of searching through forums is Firefox. Thus far, I’d say Microsoft doesn’t have THAT much to worry about. Yet.
Now I have to go back to figuring out how to get WoW to work in Kubuntu…
That’s far from my experience even with my initial install of Linux before I knew anything about it. Thing is, Firefox isn’t the default browser on Kubuntu, Konqueror is — which I personally find to be a superior rendering engine to Gecko, but a vastly inferior GUI. If you want Firefox out of the box, you should have went with Ubuntu instead — Firefox is the default browser, and I find GTK-based apps (like GIMP, Thunderbird, etc.) all work smoother and with less fuss under it. I don’t personally find a lot of use for QT-based apps (which KDE is based on), so I always install Ubuntu and add whatever I’m missing. And in every case, I find myself far more comfortable under Linux than under Windows, knowing that if something goes wrong, it’s not a black box — I can find out fairly easily what broke and use Google to figure out how to fix it.
If you have an ATI card, you will have headaches galore. If you have an Nvidia card, getting WoW to work is simply a matter of installing WINE, then running WoW under it — I promise you, it will “just work”. Some tricks I’ve learned over the past day, fiddling with WoW under Wine, include getting a keystroke repeater function of Ubuntu to disable itself when running WoW so if you’re holding down Q, W, E, A, S or D, it doesn’t make your character skip or jump. Since I’ve been working on three computers over the past week specifically to the end of getting WoW to work under WINE, I have very recent experience under my belt in case you’re interested in asking for assistance.
I installed Kubuntu because that’s what my coworkers use, and I’ve installed it in the office as well. I’ll need to be able to work on it, and it’s best to start with what all the people around me are using.
My initial install of Ubuntu in a dual-boot with Windows about a month ago failed, so I fixed my MBR and tossed the Ubuntu disc in a drawer. At coworkers’ recommendations, I tried Kubuntu, only to have it install and refuse to boot. I reinstalled Kubuntu AGAIN, and it finally worked, but I couldn’t get my dual-boot to work. I figured out the cause of the problem, and a third install went practically flawless, with both O/Ses working.
I went with Firefox because I’m used to it, pure and simple. I still can’t get the damned media player to keep my settings. About half of the widgets I’ve tried to add don’t work. With enough time, I’ll figure it out.
I’ve been a Windows tech for over six years now (XP, Server 2003, with a touch of Vista and 2008), and I’ve had various flavours on my home PC since 1998, so I’m pretty damned comfortable with it. I poked Linux with my index finger back in 1997, and thought it’s time to try it again. I understand that Linux has a completely different manner of functioning, so a lot of my reservations are just due to having to change my way of thinking. Thus far, I’m finding it slightly more difficult to find solutions for Kubuntu issues than Windows issues. Practice makes perfect!
Sadly, I have an ATI card (I detest NVidia almost as much as Sony), and I’ve already discovered how to update my driver and then recover Kubuntu when it killed the system. Fun! I’ll be checking in on your newer post about WoW and gaming on Linux!
I was light on the details in my other post, as unfortunately I didn’t think to take notes on what I’d done to get everything working on Sam’s computer.
I wouldn’t be surprised about Kubuntu being more difficult to find support for — when I first started into the Linux world I had KDE as my default desktop, but as soon as I felt more comfortable with it I switched to Gnome and, since Ubuntu, haven’t looked back. I only just installed KDE4 on this box, though I haven’t yet booted to it. I will soon though. And I do so love a good puzzle (which is why I get so much gratification out of playing with Linux to begin with!), so if you find you’re having problems with something, consider this blog a support forum. Between me, DanJ and CyberLizard (and Greg Laden pops his head in once in a blue moon), I’m sure one of us can figure something out for you.