[Jocklad]

Booted up Windows 10 last night to watch a movie on Netflix.

10 minutes into the film.....BSOD......Crashed.

Booted into Linuxlite 3.4 beta and enjoyed the rest of the movie.

Is Windows to remain a viable Operating System.....?.

[torreydale]

Because of Microsoft's grip on business, they will remain a viable operating system for the organizations willing to maintain the installation.  Individuals who don't want high maintenance will continue to gravitate to Chromebooks, Macs, and Linux.

As time goes on, more and more of our computing time will probably go through a browser (like you and Netflix).  As such, Microsoft will continue to become less and less the must-have for personal desktop computing since Chromebooks, Macs, and Linux desktops all have very capable browsers.

It's a great time to be a Linux personal desktop user.

[ralphy]

Is Windows to remain a viable Operating System.....?.

Yayyy, ranting time  ;D

Windows is and it has been a viable Operating System; also expensive when it comes to businesses licensing - but it is considered and investment for many reasons. For once, employees are usually accustomed to Microsoft software and Active Directory is as good as it gets when it comes to managing networks deployments where Windows is prevalent. Microsoft has a massive grip on the Enterprise; make no mistake about it, therefore I do believe Windows will remain relevant irrespective the cloud trend and the SaaS explosion we've seen in recent years.

My personal concern about Windows is not instability; Windows has evolved to become a stable in my opinion, both clients and server versions. I'm not talking about maintenance or resources usage, I'm simply pointing out that it works and it works well in most cases, just like everything else in Linux or Mac OS X that works most of the time. Connect your toaster to a Windows machine and it will recognize it, download drivers and butter and make you some toasts.

It is an endless discussion and everyone has an opinion about it; but the fact is that it works for most people so Windows does most things right one way or another; irrespective the means the result is that it works for the vast majority. Just like Linux does... average users don't know that Linux is everywhere in their lives (DVD players, TVs, routers, switches, access points, phones, cars, nail clippers, the dog next door :P and it has gained some more attention over the years. I don't believe Windows needs to fail for Linux to succeed (it already has), each one has its own sweet spot. An old friend used to tell me that "Linux wounds in the Desktop space are self inflicted injuries due to the nature of free software and the easy forking. It is its beauty what makes it a mess and such a big mess what gives us so much of its beauty". That same person thought me the basics to deploy and setup Samba shares when I couldn't read or write a single line of code nor I had any experience with Linux. He helped me discover it and showed me there was yet "another way" but never forced me into Linux. Having been able to decide for myself what worked and what didn't for me, is what made me appreciate GNU Linux so much; it was never it's philosophy because I did not have any background experience with it and I was a poorly educated newbie (I still am :)  ).

The point is to use whatever works for you, friend. And don't abandone a platform just because it crashed on you once. You may find yourself running out of options before you find the "perfect OS". On a side note, I'm glad you were able to find an alternative that didn't crash and allowed you to enjoy the movie. I'm also glad to read that it was Linux the one which came to the rescue for you this time: Linux Lite! 

[Jocklad]

I just hope Microsoft never get into the driverless car market.

Can just picture on a motorway at 70mph.

Your car has developed an error and needs to reboot.  :o

[Jocklad]

Quote:torreydale It's a great time to be a Linux personal desktop user.

How True.

If I had not already invested in Malwarebytes premium for the pile of junk I would have wiped the drive.

.........................................

Going to stick my neck out here  :)

I can see Linux overtaking Windows for home use within ten years.

Reasons: Windows is expensive and unreliable.

              Linux is a much more stable platform and becoming much more new user friendly. Linuxlite is a perfect example.

              Apple: You would need a Lottery win to keep up with the hardware.

              Rant over...... :) :)

[valtam]

Will be interesting to see how the MS desktop environment and home user evolves in the coming years. This is indeed, a great time to be on the side of Linux, especially where ethics are concerned.

Sent from my mobile phone using Tapatalk

[Ottawagrant]

On the Linux note: One thing I would suggest to Jerry is to remind him that Windows 7 reaches end of life in January 2020. I would suggest that he release Linux Lite 5.0 in January 2020 instead of April. We are talking millions of people who did not upgrade to Windows 10. It's a once in a Generation opportunity. There are even a few million that still use Vista, & that bites the dust next month.

[bayoubooger]

On the Linux note: One thing I would suggest to Jerry is to remind him that Windows 7 reaches end of life in January 2020. I would suggest that he release Linux Lite 5.0 in January 2020 instead of April. We are talking millions of people who did not upgrade to Windows 10. It's a once in a Generation opportunity. There are even a few million that still use Vista, & that bites the dust next month.

Vista bite the dust before it came out, ugh!

[valtam]

Thanks Ottawagrant.

Sent from my mobile phone using Tapatalk

[trinidad]

Lots of misinfo...

Windows is actually gaining market share again, heading surely back above 90% of the market, and Linux in general, is losing market share dipping back below 2%. Really? Do we think Windows is going to fall to some massive Linux takeover? Silly.

Windows 10 is quite stable, much more so than its predecessors. There certainly are things you can do to eliminate most problems. Use the included MS Edge web browser, and purchase a Kaspersky full protection suite (around $80) and you're unlikely to have any problems at all. Many of the problems with video and so forth are caused by using other browsers.

Linux has come a long way, but simply put for most users it should be looked on as an auxiliary system to Windows, able to network with Windows, because that is generally the necessary case anyway. Linux development should certainly focus on all possible improvements to cross platform networking capability, or resign itself to a very minor future in personal computing.

As long as Intel, and other OEMs continue to contract with and design for Windows, the niche left for Linux will not grow much. Windows computing itself, even in the Enterprise end is headed for cloud arrays. That is the certain future of personal home computing. Login to access your cloud operating system for a monthly fee. The foundation of this is not ready yet (the underlying infrastructure of necessary cables and access providers and so forth) and though LTE networks are fun for cell users, they cannot bear the bandwidth of such an interactive business cloud software. Businesses and Institutions want to be rid of security concerns altogether and proprietary cloud computing is the simplest viable solution for this. I am a freelance network admin. and I get work because my rate is considerably below in house MS IT rates, and most of it lately is institutional, hospitals etc. changing out servers etc. because it's cheaper to deal with MS over the phone, rather than have an MS tech fly in from his beach house. The pressure on MS is from institutions and businesses, a market share they utterly dominate. One of my best friends is an HP medical software technician who deals with cutting edge lab equipment daily. He used to make service calls at $500 an hour. Now he gets a salary and gives out directions over the phone. Hardly ever leaves his beach house home office. Everything about computing is consolidating toward proprietary networks and server arrays, not expanding in other directions at all. An MS proprietary computing network is inevitable.

My server is Debian, and I am writing this on a Debian home PC, but I have a Windows 10 system at home, and a few in the office as well. I do all of my important writing and editing on my Debian stable computer, because I often have to deal with documents of over a million words and editing that size document is a more stable activity on my Debian system than in Windows. That said, I think Linux Lite is by far the easiest system for a new user to keep up with, and  quite functional for home computing, and that is why I recommend it to people who want get into Linux.

TC