HI guys, sorry it's been a while
I got a new job, i repackage programs for a living now LOL. Talk about a pain in the ass job! Anyway before i skip off topic. I'm a bit like Rogue in the fact that I've got a spare test box in work with visa on it (RC2) but it's nothing special and again I also agree that ubuntu and OO would be a much better looking and running replacement and it runs on 256MB! But there will be no noticible shift from MS-Linux for several reasons.
1), The monopoly, what other company can get spyware into their product installed without you permission and no one legal person bats an eyelid? Not to menton the daily calls home... maybe it records your keystrokes? screengrabs? who knows.......
2) Gamers. The core of the monster pc's (and thoes DX10 GFX cards). Sure WOW can run on linux but i doesnt' run as well. Linux is a cliche group too small for game developers to see money in it and the linux community prefers Open Source.
3) Support costs. Most linux varients are a nightmare for new users, I had a wireless card that failed to connect and dumped me to a terminal when trying to log in. No error message or nothing just dumped. Kinda like a BSOD. Trouble shooting linux is a nightmare. Then there is the retraining, vista is dfferent sure but its not that different, the fundementals remain the same, its more likly the tech stuff thats 'hidden' and will annoy us techies.
Short of every single person, buisness and school bootlegging vista and office 2007 theres never going to be a world without MS WGA, OGA, Spyware, IE flaws and security holes. If no one bought legal copies, MS might be force to realise that a product should be robust out the box, not 'run lame' till the next patch cycle. But i doubt that would happen, the gfx card, MB and CPU companies would still pony up their brown paper bags of cash to MS to release another flawed, resource hungry OS so they could peddle their wares.
If i get one more false positive on my XP my next pc's gonna be a I-mac........
"The strong survive, we will survive, f**k all the enemies we have got" - Ian Stuart
"Use you illusions let them take you where they may till you live and learn sometimes it's best to walk away" - W. Axl Rose
"Democracy is the illusion of equality. While one man is rich and another is poor there is no equality" - Adolf Hitler