lunes, 14 de junio de 2010

Who uses Linux?

Many people go under the impression that they MUST use Windows 7 for their computers to work. After all, they reason, NOBODY uses Linux seriously. They believe that Linux is a system for Geeks, computer gurus, or immature people whose greatest interest in the world is to play with code while they lead their unproductive lives. As the penguin is the system of losers, these people CLAIM they will never touch LINUX.

I began suspecting Linux was more than I thought when I began a research on supercomputers and noticed that the five most powerful supercomputers run Linux, not Windows. In fact, in the world, very few of these impressively precise machines run on Windows...I guess that is because of the risk of the Blue Screen of Death.

Then I saw that Linux was the choice for servers, too. Later, I discovered that the US Army, Amazon, Wikipedia, and Google all run Linux. As a matter of fact, because of the hacking incident in China, Google banned Windows and made its employees either to run Linux or Mac... I bet you knew about that!

Finally, I realized that many mobile devices (cellphones, MP4s, etc.) and gaming consoles ALSO run Linux.

So, it turns out that most of us have been in contact with the penguin without even knowing about it. And no one has complained.

I wonder what the real source of recalcitrance toward using Linux in our computers is...

5 comentarios:

  1. Also:
    Sony
    IBM
    Boeing
    Merrill Lynch
    Remax
    People Soft
    Byte
    Cisco
    Credit Suisse
    Dreamworks (wow! This is a "little" one! With a total revenue of $162.1 million, it should be ignored, right? :P

    (source: http://www.mirabilis.ca/linux/linux-users.html)

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  2. True... And I did not mention that Linux powers 446 from the world's top 500 supercomputers...and that IBM chose Linux to run Sequoia, the most powerful supercomputer ever (to be built in 2011)...or that the first film that was produced running Linux was Titanic...and that Cameron's Avatar was also produced using Linux servers.

    No wonder why, according to The Register, Microsoft spent $421 million to fight Linux in 2002, hu?

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  3. $421 million to attack Linux??? If they used half of that money trying to fix Windows, imagine the monster quality that OS would get! But they chose to invest it attacking the penguin instead. That should give Windows hardcore fans a clue!

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  4. I agree with you; however, many people use Windows because they don't know anything about Linux. In fact, I discovered that Linux existed like a year ago when I was doing research for a university paper. This happens to many people because in high schools and universities all the computers have Windows and, unfortunately, many professors don't know about Linux, so, no one teaches the youngsters that they can choose the system they want. Therefore, people continue having problems with their computers and continue paying high amounts of money for the Windows licenses due to they don't look for alternatives, in most of the cases, because they think that Microsoft is like the "king of the world" of computers and, this ignorance make them loose time and money.

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  5. Emily S, you just hit the nail. Teachers must be, above all, critics. A conformist attitude slants the process of learning of students. Even though we (in theory) are not teaching "computer science", our practices perpetuate the paradigm. In other words, by accepting software impositions, we do teach students, indirectly, to be passive.

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