This was originally intended as a comment to yesterday's post [April 25], but started to get too long, so I have posted it here.

I think the Windows vs. Linux debate is more complex than many Linux advocates might like to admit and Microsoft certainly won't admit anything. Lance will surely agree that I am an ardent Linux advocate; I have been continually pitching Linux to Lance for years and even helped him install Debian on a couple of boxes a few weeks ago. However, I also see value in some of the Microsoft offerings. For one, Windows does offer ease of use in certain domains that is not currently matched by Linux. Secondly, for the same reasons that a software ecosystem completely dominated by Microsoft is a bad thing, one dominated completely by Linux would also not be in the average computer user's best interest.

I use computers to develop software, keep up with current events, learn new information, communicate with co-workers, family and friends and even to play. Each of these tasks and others share many things in common, but each of them can work better in some environments than others. Linux provides a flexible, stable and customizable environment that is great for development, however it is not yet quite as easy to maintain for most users as Windows is. Windows provides a more seemless experience for business people and makes it easier for the average Joe to work with. Of course, the Linux community is working hard to overcome some of these remaining barriers and they're making good progress.

Much of the progress that the Linux community is making is partially and sometimes greatly influenced by the presence of Microsoft products. Developers with the mission of toppling Microsoft are donating huge amounts of time and energy to create applications in Linux that can compete with similar Microsoft products. If Microsoft products were all bad, there would be no need to duplicate this functionality. But, the reality is that these products are useful. This is not surprising since Microsoft copied many of the ideas found in their products from other products.

Over the last month or so, I have been using Linux again as my primary desktop environment. However, I have been annoyed by a number of issues that do not come up in Windows. For instance, I can't copy and paste in a unified way from any given X Windows application. In the old days, you would select text with your mouse by pressing the left mouse button and paste with the middle. This still works on most of the true Unix apps, but generally does not work correctly from Java apps or apps that have been ported to and are maintained in multiple operating environments (Windows and Mac OS 10, specifically). In many cases, copying using the old method will store the copied text on a different clipboard than CTRL-C, so when you paste, you need to keep track of which copy method you used. To make matters worse, I work with Unicode and Shift-JIS character encodings as part of my work. Support for rendering this type of text is pretty decent in most Linux apps these days, but copy and paste functionality for these codings simply sucks. Of course, it is possible that I just don't know how to do it right, but that is just the point. I shouldn't have to "know" how to copy and paste. It should just work.

Seemless integration of graphical applications is one area where Linux falls far behind Windows. Of course, the Unix heritage of Linux benefits from far better integration of text based utilities than anything within Windows, but for the average user, this is irrelevant.

I am happy to be back in a Linux environment, but I have yet to fully cut my dependance on Windows. For instance, I am still using Outlook for company email because it integrates nicely with the Exchange server here. I have heard that Evolution can also be setup to use Exchange, but the integration piece is partially commericial and is therefore not part of the Debian distro. Also, since I write web applications that are used primarily by users in a Windows environment, I have to have a way to test my work. Yes, I know there are ways to do much of this within Linux, but it usually requires purchasing third-party tools that emulate some layer of the Windows environment under Linux. I'd rather just use Windows. This is pretty easy with the help of a KVM switch.

Anyway, Linux has come a long way in a short time and will continue to improve. But, Microsoft has felt the pressure and is bringing more and more of its resources to bare against Linux. This includes marketing hype, but also true improvements to their offerings. Expect the OS world to heat up and continue to be interesting over the next few years.

As to the question of whether or not the new round of Windows servers actually have anything useful to offer... I will have to defer. .Net is mostly hype at this point and only time will tell if it was just hype or really has value. 11:41:57 AM    comment []