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Story: Longhorn and the Linux long-game

Posted by: Anonymous (Thursday 10 March 2005, 2:13 AM)

Microsoft have a big problem. If Longhorn is significantly different from previous versions of windows it will require training of users, and it may cause incompatibilities with existing windows applications.

This is the same problems as you would face if you switch to Linux. But Linux have the advantage of being free, giving the user full control of their OS and many of their applications. The GUI of Linux is also improving rapidly. A couple of years ago the development of the free desktop only was a technical matter. Today usabilty experts get more and more involved, the days of the "make it hard to show how smart we are" attitude is long gone. Usability is now cool. Currently Gnome, is a very usable desktop, and before Longhorn is out there will be two more releases of Gnome that will improve the usability of the Linux desktop even further. This means that an upgrade to Linux may be a better choise than Longhorn.

On the other hand, if Longhorn it isn't significantly different why should users upgrade? Most business users needs were covered allready in windows NT4, win2k made it a little more stable, winXP made it a little more beautiful, but I doubt that any of these upgrades gave the users any significant return of investment. The same will probably be true for Longhorn, and by now users know it.