He probably meant pirated Windows, but actually this description is even MORE true for Linux!

And just to prove it did exist this is the link to an article.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,13019030,00.htm

No, WINE isn\’t ready so most of these people will likely go back to their old M$ product within a few weeks as they try to get applications to work.

Either you did something wrong (which is hard to do because Wine\’s default config usually works fine) or you\’re using some really REALLY obscure software.

VirtualBox is the best way to run those windows apps.

Until windows users change their mind set and start using Linux equivalents to the windows apps they will never totally move away from windows. People that play any kind of games that run on windows are very stubborn about giving up their favorite games.

I am amazed at the number of people who are shown (not told… shown) that Linux is better and just will not make the switch to Linux. Usually the only way they are willing to make the switch is after their windows system is so messed up with virus and worms that they can\’t use the system any more because the bugs took it over. Meaning every time they turn it on it just starts doing whatever it wants and the only they can stop it is to turn it off again. I have seen a lot of windows system in that bad a condition. That is usually when they say install Linux for me.

For now, Microsoft has nothing new to fear in China that they don\’t already in the west. Once linux becomes as painless and easy to administer as Windows however, I think we will see the respective market shares reverse as Windows slowly looses out to a more flexible, powerful OS.

People have been programmed with the Windows way of doing things, so when a Windows person sits in front of Linux they do things like downloading .exe files off the Internet to install some Windows software. That\’s not because Linux is harder, that\’s because that\’s what they know in the Windows world.

If you gave someone a Windows machine who\’d never used it before, they *wouldn\’t have a clue* how to install things.

At least on Linux, they could see the \”Add software\” icon and install work it out with a little exploration.

Just because people have only ever known Windows, does not mean that it is actually easier.

-c

One bloke I used to work with would format his hard drive almost once a week and re-install Windows. This apparently kept it working fast and did away with pesky trial software installs and driver problems.

Just a few miles down the road on the other hand, is a new high school, who have made the decision right from the start, and I\’m talking before the first blueprint was even finished for the building, that they will be running entirely free/open software. Every computer runs Ubuntu or some variant of it, the art dept are teaching GIMP, Inkscape etc, OO is used for spreadsheets and word processing, the whole school, Open Source or bust!

This is happening more and more across the planet, we are seeing reports of schools throughout Europe and Asia starting up with or switching over to Open Source Software and Linux, this is how Linux will take hold of the desktop market and strangle it with all it\’s might. I know many admins who sit in IRC and on the forums, who get upset with young users logging in for help, but the fact is, they\’re being introduced to Linux and OSS at school, then getting their parents into it and they\’re in need of help.

Given another 3 – 5 years, most of these kids will have left school, most only really knowing Linux and OSS, possibly Mac, they are going to be the influential young worker, who tells their boss all about the free operating system and free software they were using at school, they are the ones who will be able to grab the ears of those who really count (Employers, board members, head masters etc.) and those who can really make the Linux movement bigger than ever before.

Combine all that with companies like Canonical and Red Hat who are getting more and more general media exposure lately, not just tech news, the recession driving companies to look for cheaper alternatives, police forces (Paris I think it was) and governments (Poland?) switching their entire operation to OSS, even the NZ government is starting to move toward open data (Thanks to Nat Torkington and a few others), so I reckon, \”the year of the Linux Desktop\” may never happen, but it\’ll likely be, \”the decade of the Linux Desktop\” instead, and I doubt we\’ll even really see it coming!

Anecdotally speaking, the install process of distros like openSuse and Ubuntu are comparable to contemporary Windows and OS X. Out of the box they are pretty rich in features and applications. Where people get bent is in the multimedia applications like itunes, WMP, etc. Here Linux is not as polished. Economies of market share gets in the way of companies spending the time and $ to develop versions for Linux.

While we like to point out the virtues of security and stability in Linux, the end user could care less. Yeah, sure no one openly admits to it but how many home users really practice secure computing let alone make the decision of choosing their OS based on these requirements?

The detractors of linux and Windows use lazy logic to argue their points rather than looking at root causes. There are legitimate points on both sides, we need to get past the bias.

I think it\’s time for MS to abandon the \”Pay for OS\” model and focus on their office and multimedia suites and LGPL their OS platform as a start. Naturally, it can\’t be done overnight but certainly within a few years.

Unless MS reaches crisis point, it\’s very unlikely they will ever make their OS free because there are too many millions / billions of $ involved. If they ever reach crisis point, it may already be too late – meaning droves of users have abandoned MS.

Take Internet Explorer and Windows Mobile for example. These were neglected until they were threatened or faced extinction. And, things are not getting any better with IE. Security problems keep mounting, with even governments advising discontinuing use of IE, and competitors keep growing and moving further ahead.

My experience with user adoption of Linux (Ubuntu or Mint) shows it\’s the less knowledgeable (mostly middle-aged) who cling to Windows. Those who adopt or are planning to use Linux are those who:

(1) are dissatisfied with Windows in some way,
(2) are younger users (teenagers mostly) who do not mind trying something different,
(3) like Linux for whatever reason, and …
(4) do not find Win 7 compelling enough to make it a necessity and to justify the $$$ to get full functionality.

As we have seen, MS tries hard to push adoption including the \”killing off\” of older versions. Prior to XP, it was easy as they sort of died a natural death.

So, for the younger generation of users, Windows may figure less in future usage as they were literally born into the PC and Internet era, and by natural consequence are generally more knowledgeable.

The number of users of Linux around me are growing, slowly but very obviously gathering momentum. Usually, the final push comes when XP or Vista does its \”thing\” – make their PC unusable, reach a state of irrevocable infection or just simply crawl slower than a snail.

I just got a request to install Ubuntu on one such infected notebook.