Red Hat recommends Windows for Consumers

RH CEO on Home Users

[Nick_W]

Red Hat's chief executive has said that Windows will remain the right platform for home users, at least until Linux has had more time to mature

ZDNet Article [news.zdnet.co.uk]

Nick

[jamesa]

Very interesting.

And no mention of OS X, hmm.

[bakedjake]

And no mention of OS X

It can't run on generally available consumer hardware. You cannot go to the store and pick up enough parts to build a Mac OS X computer. :)

You have to agree with him. For most home users, Linux (and the UNIX derivatives) just aren't there yet.

[jamesa]

>> cannot go to the store and pick up enough parts

Yea but I don't think his 90-year-old father is going to do that either. ;) Not trying to start a holy war, just saying that there is a *nix that nailed the desktop and it's a much closer cousin than Windows.

>> You have to agree with him

It's a surprising comment coming from the Linux camp, but yep, it's true. Can't disagree at all.

[Allen]

I'm now using linux fully on my work machine and plan to start dual booting my games machine over xmas (got to clear off my second hdd first), and I disagree. I am successfully running linux in a desktop environment. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's certainly usable.

I only had trouble with the onboard sound and a problem where X crashed occaisionally, both were fixed by updating my BIOS.

If anything, one comment I would make is that perhaps linux distro's offer too much choice for the new user. During the installation procedure you are bombarded with options for different mail clients, browsers and the like, which new users may find confusing.

Other than that I feel that linux is a viable desktop solution, and getting better.

I also still use Windows on my laptop and games pc, but I can use many of the same programs as they are cross-platform. gvim for text editing, xchat for irc, firebird and mozilla for web and mail.

Allen