OS survey

Sun May 29 15:16:08 MST 2011

-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us on behalf of Bryan O'Neal
Sent: Sun 5/29/2011 1:58 PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Re: OS survey

So I feel the need to counter the argument that windows is dominate
because software is written for it. Since most people here have heard
this rant a few time I will give the short version.

1) windows is not dominate because of the abundance of software.
Software is abundant for windows because it is dominate.

Chicken or egg?  

Windows primarily dominates because it comes installed on most computers as if it were an extension of the bios.  Vendors don't offer other options because there is no demand for other options.  Only an operating system that can act as a valid replacement has any chance of being able displace windows from this position.  This cannot be done by making a clone of windows, but by working to create applications that work the same on Linux as they do on Windows.  This would make windows itself merely one way to run a group of desired applications, instead of the only way.  Achieving this however, is a collective action problem and not something that I really expect to see happen.  Mind you there are some great applications out there that are platform agnostic.  Firefox and Open/Libre-office come to mind.  But for the most part applications are clustered around a particular operating system, with windows getting the lion's share.  This will probably not change.

2) windows is dominate because of advertising telling Suzy soccer mom
and Sally the sales manager she needs it.

The windows ads compete with Mac, not Linux.  PCs come from the store with Windows installed.  Macs come from from the story with MacOS installed.  Virtually no computers come from the store with Linux installed because consumers don't want it.  They want an OS that will let them run their software, not an OS that won't and instead lets them run software they've never heard of.  Nobody cared about betamax VCRs when everything from blockbuster came on VHS.

3) the advertising is effective because there is a profit motive to
making effective advertising.

The profit motive exists for bad advertising as well.  All advertising in fact, good or bad, is motivated by profit.  But just because you put out an add doesn't mean people are going to respond to it.  Contrary to what some would have you believe, most people are not sheep.  We do engage in rational ignorance, but we're notoriously difficult to keep fooling over and over again.  We have this nasty tendency to maximize utility regardless of the efforts of vendors to prevent us from doing so.  

4) it is a momentum game. Dominance begets dominance.

This is true.

It is also true that it really don't matter if Windows dominates on the desktop.

What does matter is that Microsoft has not been able to use their dominance in the desktop arena to achieve an equal dominance in other areas.  Microsoft has had a hard time of things in areas where they are not already entrenched.  In every emerging market for a computational device that didn't specifically need to run windows applications, Microsoft has failed to dominate.  Linux, in comparison, has flourished and is quite often the dominant player.  Linux lives and breathes on everything from cell phones to supercomputers, and not as a niche player either.

Once upon a time, Microsoft was the 800 pound gorilla, but not anymore.  Like IBM before them, they're no longer the default answer to every IT question, but are forced to compete and provide a compelling value proposition.  

Lee Reynolds
Tech Support Analyst Sr
ASU Advanced Computing Center
GWC-178

480.965.9460 (Office)
480.458.7434 (Mobile)

Have an A2C2 related question or problem?

Just send an email to the following address detailing
the nature of the question or problem and a service request 
will be created automatically:

support at hpchelp.asu.edu

On 5/29/11, Dazed_75 <lthielster at gmail.com> wrote:
> No problem, clarification is always beneficial to someone.
>
> On Sun, May 29, 2011 at 11:31 AM, Lee Reynolds <Lee.Reynolds at asu.edu> wrote:
>
>> I apologize.  I misunderstood.  I'm new to the mailing list and a little
>> too used to dealing with fanboys elsewhere.
>>
>>
>> Lee Reynolds
>> Tech Support Analyst
>> ASU Advanced Computing Center
>> GWC-178
>>
>> 480.965.9460 (Office)
>> 480.458.7434 (Mobile)
>>
>> Have an A2C2 related question or problem?
>>
>> Just send an email to the following address detailing
>> the nature of the question or problem and a service request
>> will be created automatically:
>>
>> support at hpchelp.asu.edu
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us on behalf of Dazed_75
>> Sent: Sun 5/29/2011 11:30 AM
>> To: Main PLUG discussion list
>> Subject: Re: OS survey
>>
>> 1)  If the link I provided is bad (probablt because I had alreadt voted
>> and
>> tried to strip the resulting URL to what I thought would work, just go to
>> http://www.betanews.com/ and scroll down to the story.
>>
>> 2) I did not, and would not, suggest stuffing a ballot box.  I was merely
>> making known that the ballot box existed.  Many of the people here still
>> use
>> Windows as a primary OS and would vote that way.  If anything I was trying
>> to ensure a valid result by making the survey known in an environment
>> where
>> it might not otherwise be known so that linux might get a fairer
>> representation.
>>
>> 3) Ballot stuffing is generally where one person votes multiple times
>> (possibly using other voter names):
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballot_stuffing .  I am not doing that.
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 29, 2011 at 11:14 AM, Lee Reynolds <Lee.Reynolds at asu.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>        Stuffing ballot boxes fools no one.  That's the kind of thing that
>> the RONulans do with online surveys, so often in fact that some informal
>> surveys have deliberately excluded Ron Paul from the list of choices so
>> the
>> culties don't have something to go click happy about.
>>
>>        MS owns the desktop because of applications.  Everything Suzy
>> soccer
>> mom wants to use runs on Windows.  Everything Dan the manager man wants to
>> use runs on Windows.  The way to break their hold is not by artificially
>> exaggerating the number of Linux users in online polls, but by developing
>> powerful applications that are platform agnostic.  When the day comes that
>> the majority of the software a person wants to use will run on any
>> operating
>> system they care to use, the playing field will be level and MS will lose
>> its entrenched advantage.
>>
>>        That being said, I'm not particularly interested in going after MS
>> just for the sake of going after MS.  Reagan once said that we would not
>> defeat communism, but transcend it.  That's pretty much how I feel about
>> MS.
>>
>>
>>
>>        Lee Reynolds
>>        Tech Support Analyst
>>        ASU Advanced Computing Center
>>        GWC-178
>>
>>        480.965.9460 (Office)
>>        480.458.7434 (Mobile)
>>
>>        Have an A2C2 related question or problem?
>>
>>        Just send an email to the following address detailing
>>        the nature of the question or problem and a service request
>>        will be created automatically:
>>
>>        support at hpchelp.asu.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>        -----Original Message-----
>>        From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us on behalf of
>> Dazed_75
>>        Sent: Sun 5/29/2011 10:24 AM
>>        To: Main PLUG discussion list
>>        Subject: OS survey
>>
>>        I think of http://www.betanews.com/ as a primarily Windows focused
>> site and they are re-asking what OS people use.  The story and voting is
>> at
>> http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Could-70-percent-of-you-be-running-Windows-7
>>
>>        Currently Linux is at about 7% and I thought some of you might want
>> to get a vote in.
>>
>>        --
>>        Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry
>>
>>        The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain
>> occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.
>>         - Thomas Jefferson
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry
>>
>> The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain
>> occasions,
>> that I wish it always to be kept alive.
>>  - Thomas Jefferson
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry
>
> The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions,
> that I wish it always to be kept alive.
>   - Thomas Jefferson
>

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