Some good responses in here, but most of them (including the original suggestion that 7 will "kill Linux") are missing a crucial point. The platform is beginning to matter less and less as each of them are overcoming their shortcomings, and none of them are likely to ever "kill" any of the others. All three of the big platforms (Windows, Linux, OSX) are roughly equal when it comes to core functionality. Each of them will have their group of adherents and the niches that they fill a little better than one of the others. Now that the MS hegemony is broken, it's unlikely to be replaced by another, unless one of the major players really stuffs up somehow. A failure of that magnitude is not likely. OSS is too fluid and responsive, Apple is too conservative and has a tremendous stabilizer in the iPod/iPhone, and MS has deep enough pockets to absorb what would be catastrophic mis-steps for other organizations and is improving greatly on the responsiveness front.
Don't forget that this industry is quite young, and as things "normalize" for personal computing I suspect it will become more and more like the auto industry. Each platform will end up being more the same than different, and which one you use will become less and less a relevant question in and of itself. Just like no one argues about whether Honda will "kill" Peugot, and no one talks about 4x4's supplanting sub-compacts, these discussions will seem silly. You use the one that is clearly the right tool for the job, or lacking a clear winner, whichever one you happen to like better. This is the norm in virtually every mature industry, and I believe it will become the norm in computing as well. -QH- _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
