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By Dan Lawrance It's all very well dreaming of a world where Linux takes over Microsoft. But, it's not going to happen, at least not in the way most people here seem to think. Linux is a wonderful system, and I've been using it for more than 5 years. But, on my main machine, I have NT and Windows 98. Why? Because I, like 100+ million others, like to play games, and use a decent word processor. Neither is possible under Linux, YET. I know about Wine, and the strides being made there, but what's the point of crowing about open standards and all the anti-Microsoft stuff we hear every day, when those same Open people have to then devote a huge amount of time duplicating and reverse-engineering what Microsoft have already done? DirectX is a fact of life, for instance, and it's going to take something a hell of a lot bigger than Linux to change that - and even if Linux had DirectX, it's never going to catch up to MS's implementation! Linux has a place in the world, and that is not the place that MS currently has a huge hold in - the corporate market. I hope and pray Linux continues to grow and develop, but I can see the day when a company (Red Hat maybe) has to deliver a corporate-desktop standard of distribution, and in order to do that they will have to change the way it's developed and delivered - which is of course against everything Linux people stand for! Linux must go its own way, and not try to ape MS. If the current development trends continue, we're going to end up with a cheap, tricky-to-install version of Windows 9x, although technically 'better' underneath. I think that would be a tremendous waste of what Linux could and can do. It currently delivers a superb, and free, web-serving platform (with Apache), and a useful, free tool for students, hobbyists and programmers alike to have UNIX to play with, develop for and learn on. It is also ideal for small and medium scale file-, print- and network service-serving, and that part of its market seems to be growing nicely. People aren't afraid of Linux any more, because they're seeing its name being mentioned in the press, and even distributions are apprearing on the front of popular magazines. But what most people want is to be able to pop in a CD from the local store and play the latest games, and churn out their posters, letters, whatever, in a friendly and consistent way that they can swap stuff with their mates, use the latest hardware straight away and so on - and MS is the only system where that happens now. Live with it. Linux does not have to attack MS, although it seems certain to need defence against MS. And hey, if MS has to change the way it does things to reflect a Linux-aware world, then great! Linus (Torvalds) won! The world for Linux is a very different one than for MS. Concentrate on making Linux a bit easier, better at what it already does, and by all means widen what it can do - but don't get all uppity about what MS is or is not doing. Linux is better than that. Ignore Bill, stick to Linux.  
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