Art Alexion on 19 Jan 2008 10:37:52 -0800


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Re: [PLUG] One True OS


On Saturday 19 January 2008 12:08:44 W. Chris Shank wrote:
> I know first hand that forcing Vista on the consumer is driving  
> adoption of Apple at home. Of my little circle, I'd say 1 in 20 go for  
> a new Apple computer instead of a new Vista PC - it would probably be  
> higher if Apple was more affordable.

While I believe your anecdote, I am skeptical that it is representative.  My 
experience with friends who ask is that they buy (1) whatever is on the brand 
name PC that they get from Dell, Best Buy, etc., and (2) the hype.

It is the so-called "power users" and businesses with IT departments that are 
avoiding Vista.

On the other hand, Vista is indeed a potential gift from MS to Linux and 
Apple.  It's not just the hardware and stability issues, but also the changed 
interface.  For years, Gnome and KDE have tried to mimic the Windows 95-XP 
interface while at the same time adding innovative but unobtrusive 
enhancements. (If you disagree, look how much less windows-like window 
managers like AfterStep and WindowMaker are.)  From what I've seen of Vista, 
Gnome feels more XP-like, and this is an opportunity in a change resistant 
workforce.  Certainly OpenOffice feels more like Office 95-2003 than Office 
2007, and when an Office 2000 user is sent a docx file that 2000 won't open, 
I open it in Open Office and convert it for them.  Then I offer to install 
Open Office and associate it with docx files.

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