when I think it might happen [LWN.net]

when I think it might happen

Posted Nov 18, 2007 20:26 UTC (Sun) by sbishop (guest, #33061)
Parent article: Is 2008 the Year of the Linux Desktop? (Linux Magazine)

My wife runs XP, and I figure that it will stay this way until Microsoft drops support for XP
or her computer breaks, whichever comes first.  Then we'll decide whether to spend the money
required to run Vista versus Linux, and I think I know what the answer will be.

I figure that there will be businesses, schools, and other homes faced with the same question,
who will come to the same conclusion.  Hardware support is coming together.  How many other
people, like my wife, already run OOo, Firefox, and Thunderbird?  This is all starting to look
like a reasonable proposition to me, at least.

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when I think it might happen

Posted Nov 19, 2007 16:04 UTC (Mon) by heksys (guest, #41569) [Link]

I will love to see this debate!

when I think it might happen

Posted Nov 23, 2007 10:19 UTC (Fri) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]

It may not all happen this year, but it is happening.  I burnt an Ubuntu 7.10 CD recently for
a colleague and he really likes it - installed smoothly on a Windows box, detected all
hardware, and so on.  

To make this happen, can I suggest every burns a few CDs of their favourite Linux distribution
(Ubuntu, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, Fedora, SuSE - though personally I like Ubuntu a lot) and
encourages friends or family to install them on a 'second PC' - saves on the hassle of
antivirus and spyware on one Windows PC, and gets people into Linux.  Make sure your CD is
also live CD capable so they can just boot the live CD to try it out first.  And maybe install
Linux for them to get them over that hurdle if they are not techie.