Why Linux isn't Mainstream

use IE7 beta ?, How could that correct an error ?
LOL

You cite "lack of real software" as your primary reason for staying with Windows. Real software? Say what?

All of my day-to-day work gets done with software that runs on Linux. There's "real software" all over the damned place that works excellently. I think that by "real software" what you really mean is "the specific, branded, outrageously priced software I already own because I'm afraid to try something new".

Besides, a lot of that software out there for Windows actually can be run on Linux, via WINE (sometimes with the help of Cedega, if it's a game) or Crossover Office. Both Photoshop and MS Office will run on Linux using either WINE or Crossover Office just fine.

"[i]Gimp is good and does much of the same thing as Photoshop but it does it all differently ? I really don?t have the time to re-learn it.[/i]"
That doesn't mean that there's no "[b]real software[/b]" for Linux. It means that you're "[b]real lazy[/b]" and will never accept anything at all but Windows. You just want Windows that works properly. Unfortunately, "doesn't work properly" is part of the definition of Windows.

"[i]OpenOffice really isn?t a clone of MS Office[/i]"
This is a complaint? What the hell's wrong with you? Yeah, this proves the lazy-not-software point I made above. How can you write this stuff without realizing how full of it you are?

"[i]Using a command prompt to run day-to-day applications is for the realm of dorks who will never kiss a girl (except the virtual one they built in their basement). Real people don?t have the time to memorize endless keystrokes to do what they need.[/i]"
Ad hominem crap like this doesn't make a valid point, and is completely irrelevant. Get a damned clue. There are Linux systems running in coffee shops for public use, and in the homes of grandmothers and young children, without issue. The GUIs provided for Linux work just fine for someone who isn't so indivisibly wedded to Windows that they absolutely cannot conceive of using a computer designed by anyone but Microsoft. The problems you have with non-Windows operating systems are [b]your[/b] problems, and not problems with the OSes. Hell, there are window manager themes for Linux that so exactly duplicate the Windows environments of the last decade or so that casual users don't even notice they aren't using Windows at first. Of course, the reason they aren't used more often is simple: once people get used to the options available to them with Linux, they realize that the Windows stuff to which they're so accustomed sucks.

"[i]Then there are the cutesy names they give to everything ? that have nothing to do with their function[/i]"
You mean like the "Start" button? "Windows Genuine Advantage"? "Access"? "Excel"? "PowerPoint"? "Visio"? "Fireworks"? "Dreamweaver"? "Outlook"?

Perhaps you should take another look at application name comparisons, like OpenOffice.org's "Writer", "Math", "Draw", "Calc", and "Base", all of which suggest their actual functionality, or GNU Image Manipulation Program (which is actually even more descriptive than Photoshop, let alone Fireworks). Linux doesn't have anything like WGA (thank goodness), but I'm pretty sure if it did that it would be named something like "Screw The User", not "Windows Genuine Advantage". How about the fundamentals? Why is there a Windows graphical user environment called AeroGlass, as compared with (for instance) the K Desktop Environment for Linux? How is that more descriptive and less "cutesy"?

Want a raytracer for Linux? Try Yafray (Yet Another Free RAYtracer). How about a mail server? There's the good old fashioned Sendmail (compare that with "Exchange"). There's a spam killer called SpamAssassin. There are email clients called things like Kmail, Gnumail, and Mail (yes, really). Linux has a newsreader called NewsReader (and Windows doesn't). How about the comparison of Acrobat Reader with Xpdf (a PDF viewer for X)? Let's compare names like "Nero Burning ROM" for Windows and "cdrecord" for Linux. Translate Tex to PDF with tex2pdf, and PostScript to PDF with ps2pdf, on Linux -- but don't bother trying to do either with software written for Windows. For optical character recognition (OCR), compare ClaraOCR for Linux with Recognita for Windows. Linux has text-to-speech software called VoiceText. Linux users can control the speed of CD playing with a program called "cdspeed". Perhaps for memory testing software we should compare "SANDRA" for Windows with "Memtest" for Linux.

Sure, Windows has some software that's better named than Linux equivalents, or named just as well as Linux equivalents, but I think in the majority of cases Linux software is better named for getting the idea of what the software does across to the user.

When you provide reasons for sticking with Windows that are less fatuous and more rooted in the real world, let us know. Until then, the "it doesn't run Outlook" answer that started this thread is a helluva lot more valid than anything you've said.

Like you, without the pretty and familiar pictures as authored by MS, he didn't know enough to proceed and was too f'ing lazy to find out.

Personally I got on with the linux command line. OK, it wasn't far off that for MPE/XL, DOS, CP/M, Nix and VMS, but you can't have everything.

So well in fact, it left me plenty of time to shag my virtual missus, have some virtual kids, get a virtual hole in my bank account and become a virtual grandad. Not bad for a dork eh?

What exactly have you achieved aside from gaining your MCSE.

The world is the thing outside your window not a bitmap pasted in it's frame.

Try and get out more.

So the consensus is I'm too lazy to learn Linux software. Sure. As my daughter would say, "Whatever."

I work a 40+ hour week where I'm somewhere between a technician and engineer for control systems (we actually use Linux from time to time, but not on the desktop), then work my second job where I'm self-employed (also pretty much a full-time job). And I'm in a band (play guitar half-way decent if I say so myself). What little time I have left I'd rather spend with my family and friends instead of re-learning how to do what I already know.

So that makes me "lazy." Gee, guess my priorities are all wrong.

Long ago in a corporation far away I started my little adventure with computers. Back then there were only terminals and printer/terminals. Busy people had three or five terminals in their office.

Then the graphical interface became popular. At first the only use that I had for a GUI was to open about five terminal windows and I would do my work as I had always done. That's still how I run VMS machines, when I get the chance to run them at all. I'm more comfortable with the text interface for Solaris as well, but I use graphical system administration tools about half the time in Linux.

Check out my TR blog regarding the latest Novell OpenSuse Linux. It's great. Read the Sept. 04 post on installation before reading the Sept. 05 post about installation problems. :-)

https://www.techrepublic.com.com/5247-6257-0.html?id=125261

If you have questions about running Linux then check out this site. I hang out there a lot and I use the same pseudonym.

linuxquestions.org

Every question about running Linux has already been asked and answered at that site. Just use the search feature.

Here are a bunch of other good sites providing information about Linux.

gentoo.org - Excellent documentation. Great distribution.

linuxhq.org - good portal to other sites like the Linux Documentation Project and kernel.org.

sourceforge.net and freshmeat.net - great sources for free and open source software.

rpm.livna.org - great source for Red Hat software package rpm kits.