XP deadline matters little to business customers
The countdown is nearly over: Monday marks the long-awaited date after which PCs preloaded with Windows XP will no longer be available.
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MicroSoft just does not get
MicroSoft just does not get it. Neither does Apple for that matter. I think the time is fast arising that an open source OS is the next step, just like the Firefox browser is now. I think many, many users are fed up with OS's that consume more resources, require faster processors, and more memory but only provide a slightly "prettier" GUI in return. It would be different if either of these companies were interested in building an efficient OS, but they are not. They are only interested in driving the market for more expensive hardware which in turn lets them reap huge profits from resource demanding software which in turn requires even bigger, even more expensive machines, ad nauseum. Once an open standard OS becomes more widely accepted, then application software manufacturers will follow suit. Innovation, diversity, and competition will be restored and the whole industry will benefit enormously.An open source standard will
An open source standard will never be accepted. There are too many factors to this. With the open source liscencing as it is there are no patent or code protections and no hardware manufactuer wants to divuldge its trade secrets from open code (as this is the power not the hardware itself- especially for cheap hardware) Proprietary drivers are by their nature not going to work on anything that their creators do not want them to.There is no financial incentive to support hardware on opensource based systems as the software is mostly free. For a company that requires revenue from software that is not going to work. With no financhal incentive they wont put the money in
There is no "one standard" kernal and flavour and each one needs to have a program compiled and "optimized" according to the flavour of OS. This isnt like a DirectX system on Microsoft that everyone is expected to follow. Without something like that expected among the 5000+ flavours of Free operating systems each one almost having their own installation systems no hardware manufacturer is even going to bother spending the R+D to get it to work on everything. Without a fully functioned device driver that works on everything it will not work appropriately in this type of system
Finally Open Source people dont want a standard. Its all about customization and individuality. Even if this means complete incompatibility with everyone else. It is a statement of rebellion as much as a technological one. With that attitude prevalant to sometimes almost irrationality no company who is in it to make money can ever "cater to everyone" to achieve its needed sucess.