Free operating systems cost more than proprietary?

[MisterGaribaldi]

I've done clean installs of WinXP No SP, WinXP SP1, and WinXP SP2. I've also done clean installs of Vista No SP and Vista SP1. And, I've done installs of Win 7 No SP. For purposes of discussion, let's compare WinXP installs done late in it's life cycle as well as after Vista and/or 7 have come out, and also Vista after SP1 came out, and also after 7 came out, and lastly 7 as of the present time.

In every instance, the installation process is long and laborious, and if you don't at some point manually prompt it to check for new sets of updates, you will miss stuff. In all cases, doing all the updates requires multiple reboots and also multiple hours (essentially stretching all day long). It's insane.

Contrast that with pretty much any major modern Linux distro as well as Mac OS X. Worst case, you're talking 45 minutes, and that's with EVERY update.

[Bandit]

From professional experience converting to Linux desktop for the SME and large enterprise sectors is very costly and risky, the cost outweighs any benefits.And there there is the myriad of other hurdles and game breaker problems.

Currently this is the case. Until there are more viable & compatible solutions for *nix based systems commercial based system will rein.

[alphacrucis2]

Solaris is stable and secure, also nearly totally backwards compatible with older packages from itself as mentioned above. Perfect for server/business use. Plus Sun has very good support staff.

Has that been maintained since Sun is part of Oracle?

[Mait]

i've done clean installs of winxp no sp, winxp sp1, and winxp sp2. I've also done clean installs of vista no sp and vista sp1. And, i've done installs of win 7 no sp. For purposes of discussion, let's compare winxp installs done late in it's life cycle as well as after vista and/or 7 have come out, and also vista after sp1 came out, and also after 7 came out, and lastly 7 as of the present time.

In every instance, the installation process is long and laborious, and if you don't at some point manually prompt it to check for new sets of updates, you will miss stuff. in all cases, doing all the updates requires multiple reboots and also multiple hours (essentially stretching all day long). It's insane.

Contrast that with pretty much any major modern linux distro as well as mac os x. worst case, you're talking 45 minutes, and that's with every update.

+1

[KiwiNZ]

I've done clean installs of WinXP No SP, WinXP SP1, and WinXP SP2. I've also done clean installs of Vista No SP and Vista SP1. And, I've done installs of Win 7 No SP. For purposes of discussion, let's compare WinXP installs done late in it's life cycle as well as after Vista and/or 7 have come out, and also Vista after SP1 came out, and also after 7 came out, and lastly 7 as of the present time.

In every instance, the installation process is long and laborious, and if you don't at some point manually prompt it to check for new sets of updates, you will miss stuff. In all cases, doing all the updates requires multiple reboots and also multiple hours (essentially stretching all day long). It's insane.

Contrast that with pretty much any major modern Linux distro as well as Mac OS X. Worst case, you're talking 45 minutes, and that's with EVERY update.

For the purposes of this thread I decided to do an install of Windows Home Pro on a redundant PC I have here, it's an i5, 4GB Ram and a low end nVidia card. I started around 11.15am and it is now 2.10pm and the job is complete with the OS fully patched and MS Office installed and patched, I also loaded Adobe PS and VLC just for kicks.

[sffvba[e0rt]

For the purposes of this thread I decided to do an install of Windows Home Pro on a redundant PC I have here, it's an i5, 4GB Ram and a low end nVidia card. I started around 11.15am and it is now 2.10pm and the job is complete with the OS fully patched and MS Office installed and patched, I also loaded Adobe PS and VLC just for kicks.

No anti-virus?!


404

[KiwiNZ]

No anti-virus?!


404

ooops forgot to mention AVG added

[keithpeter]

ooops forgot to mention AVG added

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...ity-essentials

What do you think of these? I recently did a Windows 7 install for a relative and decided to rely on the MS security essentials.

My ancient quad core workstation takes about 45 minutes to just over an hour to do a complete install of 12.04 by the way. The time depends on the internet connection speed (it includes updates).

[KiwiNZ]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...ity-essentials

What do you think of these? I recently did a Windows 7 install for a relative and decided to rely on the MS security essentials.

My ancient quad core workstation takes about 45 minutes to just over an hour to do a complete install of 12.04 by the way. The time depends on the internet connection speed (it includes updates).

Microsoft security essentials are good and yes I will install it on folks PC's if approved.

[Paddy Landau]

First off, I am automatically suspicious of someone who refers to himself in the third person.

That is the way The Economist writes, so the author had no choice. Quite old-fashioned, perhaps, but there you go.

Now, I know there's little love here for Steve Jobs (or Bill Gates)

Oh, I don't know. Many Ubuntu users praise Apple products but cannot afford them (like me), and many enjoy Windows.

Seriously, if Ubuntu (and the rest of the bleeding edge distros) want to be taken seriously, stop making pretty UI's and start practicing some consistency.

True -- business people value reliability and stability over "prettiness". However, Canonical had to do something radical to compete on the TV, smart-phone and tablet side. If, having developed it, Canonical sticks with Unity, and concentrates now on stability and reliability, I think it has a chance. A small chance, but a chance nonetheless.