Array ( ) 29.8% of XP users may move to Linux over Vista - Seopher.com


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Posted on Wednesday 1st of November 2006 at 05:43 in Linux

29.8% of XP users may move to Linux over Vista

Before I begin, let me qualify "XP Users" as tech-savvy XP users, the average person (like my mum) wouldn't know what Linux was let alone see it as a viable alternative.

Introduction to the experiment
For the past couple of weeks there has been a poll active on the front-page of this site asking users what they feel their best option is with Vista poking it's glossy head over the horizon. Clearly this vote was oriented around those of us who have an interest in remaining legal because pirates will crack Vista - that is an almost certainty - but for those of us who wish to remain legal have a crisis on our hands.

Personally I have no interest in Vista currently after playing with an underwhelming RC1 release and concluding that it's got Matrix Reloaded fever - special effects because you can, not because you should. It was an all too slow affair for my liking with a RAM footprint King Kong would have been proud of. I'm sure (nay, know) there are a lot of engine changes in Vista that aren't present in XP but I really don't care and therein lies Vista's biggest problem. I just don't care. It doesn't make me want to try it.

So, the question: What will you do when Vista lands?

The options:
- Upgrade to Vista
- Stay on XP
- Get a Mac
- Use Linux

The results
The quality of these results are open to interpretation as always because the sample is destined to have been affected by the overall opinion of the readership, so the figure open to trying Linux is probably less but the trend remains as an indication. The results were:

upgrade chart

As can be seen in the results the majority of (law abiding) users will stay on XP for the foreseeable future with 38.6% of the vote. However, 10.5% said they would probably convert to using a Mac, 21.1% showed confidence and declared an intent to upgrade to Vista while a strong 29.8% expressed an interest in converting to Linux.

Why is that?
Well it looks like Microsoft are doing themselves out of customers, with fellow users like myself jaded by the promises Vista made, presented in a rather underwhelming way. Combine this with the increasing popularity and user-friendliness of Linux (Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS) and you have the perfect weather conditions for a migration storm. I don't want my operating system preaching to me, nor holding my hand over every thing I attempt to do. I've got on quite well with XP over the years...

To be honest, I want a new operating system more for a change than I do for new features, XP bores me now and I don't see Vista being different enough to justify a move in that direction. Linux has plenty of choice and when the crossover point occurs where I could comfortably do everything I need/want to in a Linux distro, then I shall move because Microsoft is doing everything wrong as far as the user is concerned.

Your thoughts
What do you think about this? If you didn't get a chance to vote in this poll don't worry, another one is up now. Feel free to express yourself in the comments.

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Comments

Showing most recent 20 of 209 comments [View all comments]

linux is not for ordinary people and never will be
gb

Linux is a very good operating system for network and desktops which is used to some sort of networking. The main problem of Linux in terms of a personal computer user is the loading time is more than that of vista.

=====================
peter
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Peter1900

CORRECTION: I don’t have any problems with Ubuntu or Linux Mint
orgthingy

Ive started using Ubuntu in 2006 (It WAS the best linux Dist. ) but, Linux Mint is "better version" of ubuntu (because it’s based on ubuntu) and fixed many bugs, improved the security..etc and I have any problems with Ubuntu or Linux Mint (Mint, the best Linux desktop dist.) and Have all of the programs I need (Messenger, OpenOffice, firefox, filezilla, VLC and many programs) and even if they’re not available, I can use WINE (wine runs windows programs on linux) !

Linux = Safe, free and swimming in open-source world

NOTE: I didn’t like the default "look" of mint, so I customized it with Gnome Art ones! screenshot (after customized) http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/9629/vistasucksap1.png

thanks, nice article
orgthingy

Just started using Linux Mint. First hand experience after trying Suse linux around 7 years back. Had a bad experience and messed up hard disk partition. Dint know what to do then and so formatted everything and installed 98 since that was the only os i knew. Recently saw a friend using ubuntu and was impressed. He asked me to try and i was not sure. Still gave it a shot and the new version of linux are really impressive. Almost guided tour during installation including partition. Further you can surf parallely even during installation which was like a dream. Best is it configures all by itself and does not keep searching like windows for device drivers. Except for my webcam all is working fine. Have maintained as a dual boot and will experiment more on linux to find out what more it can offer. Still a novice when it comes to linux, but then who says you cant learn even if its late.
Anand

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jackspar

Years ago, I opted to bail out on the MacOS when OS X came out. Real benefits aside, it felt like I would be upgrading all my software to take advantage of (mostly) eye candy. So I migrated to the dark side and started running XP. Now that XP is getting long in the tooth, I see Vista as yet another attempt of an OS maker to tell me how I should be working. I’m growing a bit tired of having to upgrade hardware just to run the basic features of a new OS.

Well, I have found salvation and it’s called Ubuntu. Probably too early for me to commit to being Microsoft free, but it’s looking promising. I haven’t booted into XP in over a week and the longer I go, the less chance I’ll ever go back to a Microsoft OS by any name.

If the stats in this article are accurate, I will delight in seeing the gallows being set up on the front lawn of Microsoft HQ for the geniuses who sold Vista as the next big thing.
Greg

well i moved from XP to Linux for much the same reasons as outlined above, i sue the Mint Distro and have no intentions of changing back over
craigy

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musiclover101

A silly little app to play music blue screened.

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Sriyani

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Sriyani

I have a Vista Home on an HP....runs real smooth...like it...no complaints...
Also run Ubuntu on home built system...fast....stable...hell to install some things..
Ubuntu is great, but any linux distro that doesn’t make installs easy is headed for failure..I waste a lot of time playing on a computer....normal people want a utility grade computer....that’s why they bought the hardware...
OLdusr

I used vista and at first it seemed cool but after about a month I wanted to smash my computer screen. Im now back with xp, but after reading alot of forums about os issues, im thinking of trying out linux.
xp guy

I have switched from XP to Mint, about 6 weeks ago, because of a few XP meltdowns. I still have a laptop that runs windows and I have MInt on my desktop. I have compiz running and have every application I would ever need (Skype, Picasa, openoffice, a PSX emulator for all my old games, and a few FPS’s). As I type this I am looking over at my old boring XP and tooling around with some of the Compiz tricks...it is very cool. I love the customizability of Linux.

Having used a ton of distros I found MINT to be the absolute best for me. Out of the box DVD, streaming video, and audio drivers. It just works.

I am certainly not a MS basher like a lot of the Linux nutjobs (hey they created a lot of jobs and put a lot of food on people’s tables). When it comes down to it I just was not willing to pay $200 for Vista home not really knowing what it was all about. With Linux I could try them out and they did not cost me a dime.

I will never go back.


LOVE MY MINTY FRESH LINUX

Wow I’ve read the comment made by Random(). Cool stuff!!! I
wasn’t even born in ’82 when you started to do programming. I changed recently to Fedora, and I like it. I like to program on it. Anyway I am a beginner and so there is a lot of way for me till getting used to it. What annoyed me with the latest version of ’’Windows’’ is that I have to change my PC in order to run Vista (I have a 2.6 GHz Celeron, 1GB RAM). This sucks because all i do an my PC is surfing on the internet, reading the mail and running some small applications. So my opinion
is this: Get rid of Vista while you can, reinstall your Xp back and put also a distro of Linux on your HDD. Anyway please
Random() if you have some spare time contact me at coss_cat@yahoo.com, maybe we have something in common to talk about, or on the mess you can use the same ID as the mail. Thank you. Have a nice day all of you!!!
Costin

Farhan spake;

"Vista now have a mind blowing Security system as well as a really Good Parental Control System. Also its graphical user Interface is much better then Linux, Mac and XP."

Dude, have you been in a cave your entire life or are you 13 years old?

It’s so mind blowing that it tries to emulate Ubuntu’s and various other Linux distros security shell so badly that I have to turn off the security just to install programs thus leaving my system wide open--vista is counterintuitive. Let alone every time I try to run certain programs a stupid box pops up asking if I want to run as administrator. Jeez....friggin’ annoying.

I’m no fanboy of any OS, I just use what works for me. Give me speed for data crunching over eye candy anyday. I have an Nintendo for that.

I use xp virtually in Ubuntu with no issue (I’m not a gamer). Just for my last hold on for a genealogy program that I have used for years which will not run on Vista. I am slowly converting years of data to a php written genealogy program that I paid for. Yes, not everyone who runs "free" Linux distros are "pirates" in which MS has many of their programmers to believe.

Oh and btw, compiz-fusion runs circles around the vista gui if you need the eye candy for a fix. Like vista this will slow any Linux distro down as it sucks memory.

Vista came with my laptop and I’m saddened it will go in the landfill. I’m tired of paying for expensive beta software.
TheRev

I’ve used a lot of os’s and really, It is based on prefrence.The majority isn’t going to learn make file etc.

I’m sorry but you can curse the world until you are blue in the face but people don’t want to learn to compile their programs.

Now, I don’t have a problem with it and you may not but a lot of them do.They won’t switch and more than likely only use vista if it came with their new desktop/notebook.

Mac is very expensive, Not many will bother.Also, There is a def. lack of games.

Right now i’m using vista made with vlite.I’m doing fine and nothing is holding me back..

Stats are worthless to me.I’ll do what i have to do..


I switched to Linux Ubuntu 4 months ago and love it. I am really amazed how easy it is to use and it runs like a dream on my new inspiron 1520 notebook. The notebook had Vista preinstalled and i tried it on off for 2 weeks, well what can i say, the adds wasn’t wrong the WOW really did start when when i saw how crappy in ran on this powerhouse of a machine. Anyway, i am a happy with Linux and i plan on staying there.
Kirk

Wow these comments are longish.

I’ve been programming since 1982 when I wanted to code games - in z80 on a trash 80 model 1. I’ve tried lots of tools, but not everything.

I can say for a fact coding on windows is shit. 95/98 make for a terrible environment to develope code - the close program dialog box issue sucks bad. I switched to NT 4.0 in 98 after 98’s lackluster performance. At least when the program crashed the OS didnt...but I couldnt run winamp! go figure. A silly little app to play music blue screened MS’s "stable OS".

I went Linux only in 2000 with morphix 0.4. Morphix was great - it installs in 300Mb or so and has just one of the stuff you need. I dislike the larger distros with 10 of everything you dont need and multi gigabyte installs. Its like a bad episode of reboot.

Coding on Linux is killer. Mostly I’ve thought everything on Linux is killer. I’ve done stuff that used to not be possible in win. Right now I have a shell script (!) that randomizes desktop images & background, displays server uptime and a fancy clock. Total install size (excluding x windows and the basic os) is probably less than 1M! When was the last time you saw a 1M app for windows that could do all that.

I write games in C++ and quake C, database for my business. Really everything on Linux has been great. I encourage people to switch all the time. My wife even uses Linux from time to time.

Linux only for my main system lasted over 6 years.
What brought me back to win xp under dual boot? - 2 things...
1. Halflife 2...no matter what I cannot get this to run under wine - and I have a *Legal* installation!
2. Stupid ass nvidia drivers. I upgraded morphix for a webcam app - it needed new USB support. the new nvidia kernal wouldnt install. Why cant they just open source the damn thing?!
Random()

Linux is a pile of crap. That’s why no one is using it.

Some stats:

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=10


Morgan

I started using Ubuntu 7.04 then upgraded to 7.10. I went from windows 2000 which i was pretty happy with. Never really content with windows xp. Really annoyed with idea of vista. Seemed like MS taking advantage of people so I decided to try Linux once more and I am more than happy. Second reason to move away from MS is security. I am getting more concerned about identity theft etc and want the implied security of linux. MS software is just too big a target.
mac in edin


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