The state of the PC and the modern business/home user

[NeedSomeAnswers]

@NeedSomeAnswers, I don't see how Mr Funky's and my statements you quote are in conflict.

well you seemed to be saying that Web apps are taking over from desktop apps, which i disagreed with i see it as more of a rebalancing, sorry if i mistook your meaning.

A quick Google and I've found plenty web-based Case Management Systems. I guess you don't research comparables in your business. Interesting... I'd bet your customers do.

Please dont try and suggest i dont understand the market my company operates in, trust me i know far more than you (unless you have happened to work in the same area as me for the last 8 years). There are 2 legal case management system out on in the UK market that i know of, neither of them are selling particularly well. Also the kind of tight integration you need with other legal systems and office productivity software is a lot easier to do with a desktop system which is why most Case systems are still desktop systems.

I don't think you understand the implications. Let me break it down.

I understand perfectly well thank you.

I am not in any way dismissing open source i am a fan of many open source application, what i am questioning is this idea that you have that because OS products maybe better (in some peoples opinion) and cheaper then gradually everyone will move to open source from microsoft.

If you look at the debacle that was Vista, even then Linux failed to gain major traction on the desktop in the corporate world. Companies just said we will wait for the next version.

What country are you from FireXtol ? i am willing to bet that the situation in your country is somewhat different than in the UK.

In the western so called developed countries Microsoft is deeply ingrained in company culture i will give you an example -

at a company i used to work for the switched out the perfectly functioning existing Novel groupwise email system, for Outlook at a cost of over £1 Million with few discernible benefits. (seriously the meetings are better and it looks a bit nicer but it still basically just an email system)

They mainly did it because all the major companies in there business sector use Outlook and they aspired to be like those big businesses.

Every company i have ever worked at either uses Outlook or moved to outlook while i was there, and for outlook you need exchange and a windows network environment.

As for the home user, you keep saying that people mainly use just the web now days but if i use my own family as an example, my brother mainly uses his computer to play games, so he cant move to linux. My Sister is a music teacher and has her keyboard and microphone connected to her computer, and my parents do a lot of printing and photography.

With Linux they would be lost as to even setup these peripherals, let alone things like routers. Also all these things already work on the windows PC so why would they change ?

I as someone who is interested in technology i am happy to learn new technologies even just for the sake of it, but most people are not.

Walmart, Chevron, General Electric, Ford, and AIG use Linux. Citigroup, ConocoPhillips, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Verizon, and Goldman Sachs use UNIX. 13 out of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies utilize *nix(the rest are either unknown or Windows, typically Server 2003). Would you still like to challenge the corporate acceptance of Linux/OSS, Mr Funky?

I will answer this one, my girlfriend has once (for her sins) worked for AIG. All there desktops are Windows. I would be willing to bet that every other company apart from google there has windows on the desktop. If you think Bankers for instance are goingt to install Linux on the desktop you are dreaming.

I dont dispute Linux in the server environment, and i expect that Linux will continue to grow in the Server market, and mobile market (where its probably strongest) it just the desktop were it still has a long way to go.

Can I just say how happy I am that everyone has started referring to me as "Mr Funky"?

I am glad that in a small way i have encouraged this honourific