Planet Sillicon

Why Windows Will Rule Them All

By blog on Aug. 15, 2009.

This is just my take on the battle of operating systems…

I have a colleague who thinks Linux is the best thing since sliced bread. He talks about it with such affection, he says a lot that he thinks free source code, share ware, and that sort of thing is a beautiful concept. He think Linux is beautiful because it is written by programmers for programmers and other highly educated computer folk. I don’t doubt that there’s truth to what he’s saying, that the thought of people freely sharing their unique additions to software isn’t a great idea, but I hold no illusion, either, that this is ‘the way of the future’ and that Linux could potentially take over as the most widely used operating system.

My argument for this is based on one crucial factor. Game developers develop for Windows. Why do you think Mac has tried so hard in recent years to develop the image they have? They are the ‘funky’ OS, the one that people have been encouraged to go to if they’re creative, for movie editing and digital art. The reason in my opinion, is that Mac had to do something to set them apart, there had to be a reason why the lion’s share of games weren’t able to work on a Mac system, and that divide has only gotten larger in recent times. Linux is the same, it has to keep up it’s ‘by programmers for programmers’ image because that is the niche market where this OS can work. Already Linux has gone down this road, and has created a graphical user interface to compete with Windows, but that didn’t help them much. Even though it is free, even if you were paid to install it on your system, Windows would still win out because of the multitude of games, and many other software packages, that are designed for Windows.

On a personal note, I’m sticking with Windows because Linux is so damn ugly. To those who thumb their noses at Windows users, there are many of us who know our way around a computer, Windows users aren’t all meat-heads who don’t know how to work an OS!