Can Linux Pick Up Users Abandoning Win98? 491
Mark writes, "When Microsoft announced the end of support for Windows 98 and Millennium Edition on June 30th, there was a lot of talk of these users migrating over to Linux desktops. In the weeks since this announcement, there is a very noticeable increase of activity on community boards and blogs from newbies asking questions about switching over to Linux, and how would they support their new systems." According to OneStat.com, Windows 98 and Windows ME account for about 4% of the total PCs in the world.
and that word is "reinstall" (Score:4, Informative)
This machine has been sitting in a box for about 5 years, and as far as the time signatures are concerned, that rebuild was only about 7 months in. Office 2000 ran fine. Everything worked great -- I couldn't notice any difference with performance from my current Athlon machine when it comes to simple word processing and Web browsing. If I was ignorant to hotfixes and security, I'd be using this machine without any problems for many more years to come.
A simple reinstall of the OS -- as long as the disk is still healthy -- can stretch out the lifespan of any old machine, as long as you stick with the software of time, which isn't that much different than what Aunt June uses today.
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:3, Informative)
The switch from Win 95/98/Me to Ubuntu is easy...and free... you should try it.
familiar software will be the key (Score:3, Informative)
No distro I've tried so far is simple as 98 but the learning curve isn't steep if you use icewm. Distros like Vector and xubuntu are great on older hardware, and can easily be faster than 98. I really don't think the hardware support is so much of an issue anymore. IMHO the biggest headache is the software since anyone still using 98 is completely used to a particular way of doing things and any difference won't be easily tolerated. I converted my mum to OpenOffice (on windows but still gotta start somewhere) at her company since its free but damn that took some work. The temporary frustration in learning to get used to the differences though is far outweighed by the costs. They saved a small fortune on Office licences, and basically all they needed was Word and Powerpoint. Now think savings on office + antivirus, a faster OS and active support and convincing them to change from 98 might be a bit easier.
Re:No (Score:2, Informative)
http://reviews.cnet.com/4660-10165_7-6639061.html
Re:I would have said 'yes'...... (Score:2, Informative)
This one fvwm95 [sourceforge.net] would probably have been a better fit for her system. I've also installed enlightenment [enlightenment.org] on a lot of P2/3 class machines for people I think will be able to adapt to a new desktop.
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:3, Informative)
98's out, ubuntu is in (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:5, Informative)
Granted, I had to go install it myself - it would certainly make things much nicer to have a client ready to go in the distro's package manager.
Re:Yes but why would you want that kind of user? (Score:2, Informative)
As for getting them hooked into Linux - no chance! It might be free, but they have probably never heard of it, think that if it is free then there must be something wrong with it, and have no idea at all where they could get a copy of it, or what they would do with it if they did. JC, these people don't even have CD drives, much less DVD drives, and a free set of Ubuntu floppies can be obtained where?
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Yes but why would you want that kind of user? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:3, Informative)
Tarantella has supported Linux for a long time. Citrix has only ever done enough with Linux in order to not annoy Microsoft. There is no technical reason why Citrix couldn't have released a server product for Linux.
Re:Yeah, what do you suppose the situation is, tho (Score:1, Informative)
Their computers typically run untouched for years. They keep all the disks well organised. I can replace failing hard drives but the newer hardware isn't as good as the old hardware and I feel guilty every time I replace a part.
These people aren't stupid. The software handles their taxes, its simple, they learnt it. They are the best people to deal with (spyware people are the worst!). The support for the niche sofware is often small scale and very good (much better than any large corp support). Anyone deriding these people is suffering from a solipsism of technophilia.
Then of course there are the supermarkets run on windows 3.1...
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Upgrading boxes (Score:3, Informative)