Linux loses to Windows in Germany

[Skybird]

German media report that the attempt of the government to switch it's offices, ministries and services from Windows to Linux, have silently failed. Since 2009 Linux was installed on according PCs, in order to save money for expensive Microsoft licenses. But the effort was tackled by technical troubles from beginning on. The networks showed to be haunted by serious malfunctions and problems in data transmission, which often brought data and document exchange to halts. Drivers for connected hardware were not available under Linux, and would have needed additional development costs exceeding the costs for Windows licenses. The acceptance of workers and secretaries for Linux, which was installed parallel to Windows since 2009, was very low, due to handling problems.

Today they reported that of all ministries, only the foreign ministry still had used Linux until today, and now has decided to give it up, which then would make all German governmental offices and ministries Windows-exclusive terrain again. Some stations will be switched back to XP, some other will be fitted with Windows 7. Linux now has officially been put ad acta.

[Feuer Frei!]

Microsoft Windows FTW!!!

[Onkel Neal]

Well, it only figures MS can do most OS things correctly. They are not as bad as people like to paint them.

[Catfish]

Hello,
i would agree that with WinXP things have changed for the better, however most older office workers in Germany were very reluctant regarding PCs at all, and when they were now told to switch from Windows to another system "OH MY GOD LINUX ??!! ... and my older MS mouse already has so much buttons !! ??"
I guess the german government did not spend too much money in training people for the new Linux systems as well.

That said i first used CP/M, then DR-DOS with its Graphic environment manager desktop GEM, and then OS/2, Windows, and Linux. From the desktop Windows always was a mere second, and all "improvements" in the Win Gui could be found on those others years earlier - copied, to say it directly.
"But Windows 95 has SAM mode !!" They never understood that you did not need this in OS/2, it all worked in internal virtual machines, without a reboot. Certainly also in Unix/Linux. The biggest joke was that Windows applications performed better under OS/2, than on an installed Windows OS versions of the time.

And then how MS took over the market e.g. in Goettingen where i lived.
Imagine an MS agent visiting a PC store:

Mickeysoft: "So you sell your PCs with either Win 95 or OS/2 ?"
Store owner: "Yes"
Mickeysoft: "How much do you sell, in percent ?"
Store owner: "Roughly 75 percent MS, 25 percent OS/2 but its increasing."
Mickeysoft: "As long as you sell or give away OS/2, we will not deliver any MS product to you any more."

I saw and heard that, indeed i was one of those store owners.
This is just to show how competition works, and why you do not get the good things in the long run, but mediocre crap. Thinking of Win 3.1 and Win 95 here.
It was only after XP that i really changed my home PC, and then only for games like Silent Hunter etc.. As soon as they produce sims for Linux, MS can rot in its own proprietary *.dll hell.

I bet most people complaining about Unix/Linux have no f** idea how it works, and where its advantages lie - from the console model (i mean even Apple uses this since - how long ? as "deskspace"), or virtual machines.
And make no mistake, in the internet Unix and Linux Apache servers rule, MS servers are far too slow for real heavy net traffic. It's ok for an intranet, but not for real speed data line relays.
I am running Win 7 now, and even this has not the functionality of the old OS/2, when it comes to work. But at least MS improves in making their GUI look like OS/2, after all they only had 20 years of time for that

Greetings,
Catfish

P.S: B.t.w. being administrator in Win 7 but not being allowed to change and even see all kinds of things, along with the impossible internal "order" of how they organized this ... Gaawwwwd And the policy editor still does not work properly, in a Win7 business LAN the user rights are a chore to manage, which often leads to ... astonishing results.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Catfish

"OH MY GOD LINUX ??!! ... and my older MS mouse already has so much buttons !! ??"
.

[Penguin]

Hey, we are talking about the german government, we know how foresighted they are!
When I hung around with US troops I got to know the 7Ps "proper planning prevents piss poor performance". Wise words!
I am sure they don't even know how to calculate software costs. No licence costs don't necessarily mean lower costs in the short/middle term. They underestimated the training and that a new software needs also extra support when it is running.
No driver support? It's also smart to check out what hardware is used in their systems before you migrate...

Also, one should never underestiminate the entrenched habit people have. I saw this when we tried to use OpenOffice to substitute MS Word for our pencil pushers. When a button is slightly different than they are used to, they are reluctant to use it. "Oh, it's broken, I can't work with it"

And I agree, Cat, a well-maintenanced Apache kicks any MS serves's ass any day!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Penguin

When I hung around with US troops I got to know the 7Ps "proper planning prevents piss poor performance". Wise words!

Do they teach you to count past six?

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Do they teach you to count past six?

Actually, they even spread rumors of an ominous number beyond the seven, some people called it "ait"...
I think the ait is a lie!

[the_tyrant]

You want to know why Linux failed?

think about your OS as your home or office
when you buy a new house, you can still use your existing furniture

however, moving from Windows to Linux is like moving into a new house, but you have to throw out all your furniture. And there is a 90% chance that you cannot buy the same furniture.

thing is, moving to Linux requires you to buy, install, and learn to use lots of new software.


The only OS that i believe has a remote chance of challenging windows is React OS. it is a rewrite of windows NT kernal. Too bad it get like no attention

[Skybird]

As I said, lacking drivers for existing connected hardwares and the costs to develope thembeio ng higher than the MS licence fees, were one reason why Linux failed to impress. The other most prominent reason was constant network bog-downs and disrupted data and document exchange.

[MaddogK]

Drivers for connected hardware were not available under Linux, and would have needed additional development costs exceeding the costs for Windows licenses.

Hmm, a ghost of one of my statements from another thread.

[kiwi_2005]

Linux though is a community of devs, testers anyone can add to linux. Linux is one massive OS mod and its free to anyone who wants to use it unless you want the fancy box/cds then you might pay $30 or so. You want to make 20 copies and give to your friends? With Linux No problem.

I don't think the Linux community would be all that worried. example: A crude example but an example anyways - SH modders v Ubisoft would the SH modders be worried that people are buying SH5 but not using their mods? Nope they would probably say their lost not ours. That's what Linux community are probably saying.

[MaddogK]

If you look at the EULA on some of the driver packs you'll see it's against the rules to reverse engineer the drivers, so developing drivers from scratch takes a few VERY talented programmers a while to write them (if they can without the source code). MS thought that one out, and bound some hardware mfr's with their own rules- they can't release drivers for anything but MS os's .