Hi Nathan,
Based on figures from that article, there would be no software available
for Macs either. I'd suggest that Linux is far more prevalent than that
article shows, I know several people that have bought macbooks (because
they like the formfactor) that have some variant of Linux installed
instead of the apple OS. Apparently this is fairly common. 7 of the HP
desktops (out of 12) at work were shipped with XP but run UNIX/Linux. 6
laptops & netbooks (out of 9) originally shipped with windows are also
running UNIX/Linux. Admittedly, we are technical users so our stats lean
the other way to the average.
That said, one needs to look at the flipside and google 'hackintosh'.
Horses for courses - of course. If you're locked into the products and
need 100% compatibility for every last little bell and whistle, you're
locked in- simple as that, despite what the open document standards say.
I can settle for the 99.5% compatibility to save the $ (I can buy into
the home program from work for my own w7 machine, but there are 3 other
PCs that would need to be bought at retail).
That an Apple afoniciado would call an open source user's attitude
'elitist' broke my irony meter. :) A real belly laugh!
davidt
On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 07:06:51AM +0200, Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> In the real world, developers write software for the OS that people actually
> use.
>
> If you look here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
>
> You will see that Windows has a share of 86%, MacOS 7.25%, Apple IOS 2.8%,
> with Linux, Symbian, Blackberry etc. sharing the remaining 4%. So, despite
> the elitist attitude you display, that "market space" just is not very
> interesting unless you are a hobbyist or a charity.
>
> As for "great free software", I have tried Open Office as an alternative to
> MS Office and while its performance was acceptable (not great, acceptable),
> I am one of those people who lives in the real world and has to share
> relatively complex documents, spreadsheets and presentations with people who
> use Microsoft Office. Therefore, compatibility is key, and OO just does not
> deliver it. It may be 98% compatible, but I need 100%. Fortunately, thanks to
> my employer's Microsoft's Home Use Program I can buy the full MS Office suite
> for ?12.50 for use on my computers at home, both Windows and Apple. And
> Apple's verions of those programs (which are 100% compatible), Numbers,
> Keynote and Pages, are now available from the App Store at very reasonable
> prices, something like ?15. Life is good. Linux is a solution looking for a
> problem, at least as far as the desktop is concerned.
>
> Cheers,
> Nathan
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