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| Top 5 Linux Myths |
| 摘自: www.osweekly.com 被阅读次数: 277 |
由 yangyi 于 2007-08-01 18:58:49 提供 |
(Column) - The sheer ignorance regarding casual Linux users astounds me to no end. While I'm not interested in pointing fingers, there is a lot of misinformation about the Linux community, and we will help to dispel some of these myths, once and for all. 1. Linux Users Are Cheap. Ah, this is one of my favorites. It seems that Linux users have long since been seen as cheap, despite the fact that so many of them in the States earn up to six figures. First, define cheap? Are we cheap because we choose not to buy brand new everything with every release of our selected OS? It certainly shines some light on why hardware manufactures have been less than excited to provide better driver support, doesn't it? The fact is that we choose not to buy because our OS does not require it. Obviously, like with any platform, if you are rendering video or something intensive like this, it helps to have the fastest hardware possible. But to simply purchase a new PC so you can zoom in and out of a 3D window a little faster seems rather silly to me. OS gloss in Linux can happen with extremely old hardware; unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Vista. So are we cheap or simply choosing to invest our money into something that will not be obsolete next year? 2. Wireless Vendors Do Not Bother with Driver Support Due to the Lack of Linux User Numbers. It's at this point that I could point out that a sale is a sale, but I won't. So let's examine these numbers, shall we? All over the world, entire governments are making the switch. Tired of paying Microsoft tax, they are ignoring Microsoft's tired rant about how Linux is violating patents left and right, and realize that these threats have never been backed up with public data. Smoke and mirrors, it's not just for magicians anymore. So considering the large number of international interest being generated daily, totally ignoring the thousands of Windows power users who are playing with Linux as well, does it not seem a little strange that these hardware vendors are not more interested in pursuing these sales even if they do not match that of the Windows crowd? It comes down to a couple of simple choices, which the smaller vendors ought to wake up and consider: would you like to be a tiny fish in a pond filled with fish just like you or a huge fish in a smaller pond where there are no other fish to compete against, despite the fact that there are thousands of users interested in what you are selling? Seems fairly obvious to me. 3. Linux Users Break Laws. Yes, I realize I'm about to start calling containers, codecs and formats. So forgive me now, as I do this for the greater purpose of getting attention from those who had no idea that AVI was a container. Many people out there honestly believe that you cannot create, watch or participate in video/audio formats without using Microsoft's protected format and other options like MP3. This is simply not the case. The fact is that there are open formats that use extensions like .OGG which support quality sound and video. Unfortunately, the bulk of the content producers in the market are using restricted formats, which certainly hinders any real traction with open source alternatives. Basically, you would be looking at OGG Vorbis for audio and OGG Theora, which is why .OGG is considered to be a wrapper much like we might see with .AVI. Anyway, I digress. The point about most Linux users breaking the law with the use of protected/restricted media formats is true depending on where you live. You see law is a fluid thing that varies from country to country, so in many, many countries, the idea of patent rights does not exist. 4. Linux Users Dislike Windows. Definitely not true, at least not with non-extremist users that is. I happily use their mobile platform, but do not care for their desktop platform. I even subscribe to a MS Exchange server instead of one of the open source alternatives. Why? Because in my case, it meets my needs without compromises. Therefore, if others feel the same way about Windows on the desktop, fine, more power to them. 5. Most Windows Users Who Try Linux Come Back to Windows. This is one of the worst myths, since there are so many distributions of Linux in the market. Back in 2004, when I was at Linuxfest Northwest giving a presentation on Linux and using a distro called Xandros, I was still a split user between the two OS worlds. Today, and for roughly a year now, I'm a full time Linux user. I'm hardcore now in the sense that this is the computer platform for me, but I still look at things from a Windows user perspective, which drives my other Linux using friends nuts sometimes. I'm an example of a Windows power user who has managed to switch completely without compromises. It's not easy, in some cases it means relearning what you thought you already knew, but in the end, you will find that knowing both platforms gives you a serious competitive advantage. 原文链接: http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2618&Itemid=449 |
