According to this piece in Slate http://slate.msn.com/id/2084727/, Flipping the Switch: Linux's new popularity may hurt Apple more than Microsoft, by Paul Boutin:
Business Week columnist Alex Salkever dropped the bomb last week that next year, "Linux should pass Apple in market share for desktop operating systems on computers."
Boutin's piece goes on to argue that Linux's growth in the consumer market comes in large part because of the price. A new Mac: $1,999.00, a new PC running Linux from Walmart: $298.00. If you don't care about Microsoft compatibility and aren't doing professional graphics work where you have to use Quark or Photoshop, then a new computer for $300.00 that let's you write, use the WWW, and other odds and ends is a good deal.
Could that price be a key to some of the access issues teachers worry about?
That is, what if a community college contracted with its local Walmart to get every student who needed a computer one from Walmart? I mean if the college bookstore isn't doing it, or the computer store on campus, why not encourage students to get the Linux machines and then train faculty to teach students to use things such as rich text format and html for file sharing?
Re: Linux OS set to Outsell Mac OS
Check out the $199 Linux PC's from Linare.
I'm wondering, though, about the quality of both the Lindows and Linare PC's. Will they hold up for a number of years? Seems risky at this point for a college to recommend them. Too bad a major PC manufacturer doesn't come out with an inexpensive PC with RedHat or Lycoris installed. Lycoris seems pretty user friendly. It's also an older distribution than Lindows (I, for one, would be more willing to try it).
Linux OS for teaching, blogging, etc.
I'd be interested in any insights/opinions/experiences any here have with different linux distros. I tried to install Mandrake 9.1 recently, but it didn't take (my box is a piece of junk). I've also got an ISO of Gentoo and some RH 9 disks lying about. I've also heard a fair amount about College Linux and would love some advice. Keep in mind, while I'm pretty good with computers generally, and am a quick study, I'm a total Linux doofus.
Re: Linux OS set to Outsell Mac OS
A friend of mine bought one of the $200 Lindows computers from Walmart to be a gateway/firewall some months ago. While I think he got rid of lindows and put RedHat on there, he said the box itself has held up without a problem.
Re: Linux OS for teaching, blogging, etc.
I'm no Linux guru. I have a RedHat server, but I'm hardly an expert.
Mostly, it would depend on what you want it for. For the desktop? Or for a server?
And, what kind of box is it? (cpu, ram, etc.)
Re: Linux OS set to Outsell Mac OS
That's good to hear. I was more thinking long term, though. Curious if they will make it a few years or not.
Sounds like a smart move switching to RedHat.
Re: Linux OS for teaching, blogging, etc.
I'd like to turn at least a portion of the computer I'm on now into a small linux/apache server, while I keep another harddrive as my desktop. I figure when I can afford a new computer, I'll consign this one completely to that job and use the new one for my desktop. This old thing is 800MHz/256M RAM. Plenty to handle linux, or so I'm told.
Re: Linux OS for teaching, blogging, etc.
Hey. Your box is not a piece of junk. It will run Linux great!
If you are going to run a web server, know that RedHat is pretty easy compared to some of the others from what I have seen. BTW: if you plan on running php and mysql, go head and select to have RedHat install them when you do the main install. Harder to do later on.
"into a small linux/apache server, while I keep another harddrive as my desktop"
Don't mean to be insulting, but I'm guessing you know that if your web server is running, you can't run another OS for your desktop. The webserver would have to run in the background on the same Linux installation. That's what I did for the first six months I ran Kairosnews. I'm not using it for my desktop right now, but RedHat works very nicely, and 9.0 is supposed to be even more desktop user friendly than 7.2 which I was running.
Re: Linux OS for teaching, blogging, etc.
Cough. I'll pretend I knew that. That was more in the realm of "I hope I can do this." I was hoping to run a linux distribution on one HD, and trusty rusty Win2k on another, and control the former with VMWare from the latter. You're right, though, of course. Now that I think about it, that won't work. Thanks.
Linux moron. QED.
Re: Linux OS for teaching, blogging, etc.
well, now that you mention vmware, that may be possible. most people just thinking about getting into linux don't usually throw that out there (lol)
vmware is pretty pricey, though.