* Posts by Maventi

272 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Jul 2014

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Update Firefox NOW to foil FILE-STEALING vulnerability exploit, warns Mozilla

Maventi

Re: Linux updaters

Wrong; existing Linux package managers work fine with free and proprietary software alike. The vendor simply hosts their own repository that the system updater (either Yum/DNF or Apt) uses. Vendor gets control, end user gets simplicity.

See Google Chrome for a great example of how this is done, and it works extremely well.

There is nothing worse than managing redundant update applications on any OS.

Microsoft delivers Exchange 2016 Preview

Maventi

Re: Share point

"...then it's actually quite brilliant."

Until it's time to upgrade. Or if you want to use any form of client that doesn't involve the entire MS stack of Windows/IE/Office. Or even upgrade the 'supported' browser to a new version only to find the plugins no longer work, and MS don't intend to fix it.

I came to the conclusion some time ago that it requires too many ducks to line up to be brilliant on a long term basis.

Microsoft: Hey, you. Done patching Windows this month? WRONG

Maventi

"It's a shame Linux doesn't have sensible and modular architecture..."

I hate jumping into this conversation, but a Windows fan stating that Linux doesn't have a modular architecture shows an unholy amount of ignorance in this industry.

Linux and many Unicies are about as modular as operating systems get. Windows by the same token is very monolithic. I'm not talking about labels we apply to kernels (micro versus monolithic kernel, etc etc), I'm talking about the OS.

Try building any popular Linux distro from the ground up using packages. It's easy and you get an incredibly granular level of tools and services. Kinda of like Lego really. It's so modular there are often many solutions to the same problem - hence the multitude of desktop environments available for example.

Install Windows and you get very few choices. Desktop versions only come with a GUI, and on a server you can leave it out. Install an application an it roots itself so deep into the OS that it's difficult to completely remove. For all intents are purposes it simply becomes a part of the monolith.

Given than this arose from a discussion on authentication systems, then Unix/Windows wins hands down for a modular architecture thanks to PAM. You can have a system authenticate against practically anything imaginable, it just needs a PAM module. Contrast that to Windows, where you get a choice between local accounts and AD (i.e. more Windows). That's it.

I'm not saying that AD is bad, in fact it has a huge number of merits. Central policies, reasonably logical directory structure, easy of deployment and administration. It is a known quantity to many folks and is largely predictable, has commercial support available if you need it and does cover a number possible use cases. Likewise for Windows clients, and the whole shebang is designed to integrate quite well with itself.

Many PAM modules and even Samba don't include account lockout policies as you state. Luckily 'nixes are so flexible we can choose to easily join 'nix hosts to an AD domain to take advantage of those. If it suits the use case involved then it's a great option. We get choice here too; any of LDAP + Kerberos, Samba/Winbind, PBIS or realmd can do this for us.

Don't want to run an AD domain? Then use Samba 4, or IPA, or build your own with any number of LDAP servers available. Or NIS if you are feeling oldschool. The key thing here is the option for choice; you can pick the right tool for any given job.

By contrast with Windows, the only choice for auth you get is more Windows. That's OK in many situations too; look at many corporate environments these days. There's a lot of stuff to tweak and the policy enforcement generally works very well. But more modular and flexible it isn't - it's designed that way! That's the point that was being made.

The day we can claim that Windows is more modular than Linux is the day I can install it on my broadband router. But I can't because it's completely impractical to do. And even if it weren't, we rely on Microsoft to set the direction as we can't easily get under the hood and modify it to that degree ourselves.

The moral? We have different tools for different use cases, and that's a really good thing. But let's not lose sight of what the real differences are, or ever pretend that any one platform can do absolutely everything the best way.

The roots go deep: Kill Adobe Flash, kill it everywhere, bod says

Maventi

"I'd also be quite happy to see the same sentence passed on Java; I'm an equal opportunities hater of shit technology."

Agree if you refer to the browser plugin, which is where the big vulnerabilities are. Aside from that Java is actually a very useful platform, especially for cross-platform server apps.

Time to face the Apple Music: Spotify looks worried, and rightly so

Maventi

Re: "Apple certainly isn't going to"

"So you'll be able to get it on your PC and Android phone, not just on iOS/OS X."

Please don't recycle the ambiguous and outdated term 'PC'. It will be available on Windows is what this should state.

Long, sticky summer ahead: Win 10 will be with OEMs by 31 August

Maventi
WTF?

It's 2015 and MS is still able to justify charging over US$100 for a desktop OS? Sad times indeed.

There's a Moose loose aboot this hoose: Linux worm hijacks Twitter feeds for spam slinging

Maventi

Re: Except...

Further to Paul's reply, things like OpenWRT are fantastic for helping ensure we can sustain a better level of security (and features too) than any commercial router vendor cares to provide. I'd hate to see a world without such options.

EXT4 filesystem can EAT ALL YOUR DATA

Maventi

Re: RAID0?

Possibly, but just because loss is tolerable doesn't mean that corruption is. A system using RAID0 as high performance scratch volume may tolerate a complete outage (e.g. due to disk failure), whereas corrupt data could potentially go unnoticed until it breaks something further down the track.

So the fact that this bug only affects RAID0 doesn't really mitigate its severity.

Adjustments will be needed to manage the Macs piling up in your business

Maventi

Re: Yosemite and AD

"or cut out the middle man and don't have any Mac's! Why make life difficult!?"

For administrators or users? If you ask around, you might find that many users would prefer something other than Windows.

Diversity in technology is a damn good thing.

Maventi

Re: Open question

Second Zentyal, it's fantastic.

Microsoft: It's TRUE, you'll get Android and iOS apps in WINDOWS

Maventi

Sigh

Embrace

"To make this possible, Windows phones will include an Android subsystem..."

Extend

"...where an app can be written that takes advantage of the Android code but also the extensions that are right in the Windows platform to really delight Windows users."

It's a risk, but if this works out well for them then stage three will already be completed. History repeats itself (again).

I don't mind seeing a third player in the mobile market at all, but it does frustrate me that MS that can't comprehend participating in any aspect of technology without attempting total dominance over that sector.

If hypervisor is commodity, why is VMware still on top?

Maventi
Pint

Fantastic read Trevor, and totally reflects my own experience with all of those platforms! Pity I don't have such a way with words.

Microsoft to offer special Surface 3 for schools

Maventi

Re: Chromebook?

"So where the big saving?"

The big saving is in the sheer amount of time investment required to maintain Windows systems versus anything else in a school environment. Yes, Windows is great in corporate environments where you have AD, GPOs and all that to tie everything together, but I speak from real experience when I say that it all falls apart quickly in a school environment.

That stuff takes real skill, time and effort to keep ticking and maintained, but schools don't have the resources needed to do all this. Add to that the fact that any non-Windows clients simply don't play along anyway and it all quickly turns into a waste of time.

Teachers and kids just want to get on with stuff and this is where the simple stuff like iPads and Chromebooks absolutely shine. Throw in a bit of Google Apps or Office 365 (from experience both work equally well in this environment) and some low-cost endpoints and everyone is happy.

In every school I've worked with, Windows desktops and laptops take significantly more effort (and therefore money) to keep running properly versus pretty much anything else, despite the often low up front cost.

Midlife crisis, suck ingenuity? Microsoft turns 40; does the dad dance

Maventi

Re: what a lot of people..

Absolutely dz-105. Sadly we have Windows to thank for the mainstream mentality of accepting rebooting, reinstalling and slow down over time to be perfectly normal expectations.

Samb-AAAHH! Scary remote execution vuln spotted in Windows-Linux interop code

Maventi

Re: Several reasons

Hu-huh.

Last year a colleague had a Windows 2012 Storage Server box (supplied from HP I think) in his lab that we spent ages battling with. Our first impressions were that it was reasonable (worked good for storing VMware guests). Then we tried net booting a 'nix box off it and the fun began.

We really tried to like it but soon gave up fighting it and loaded up FreeNAS on it instead. If there was any performance difference it certainly wasn't noticeable and we had it running reliably in less than an hour.

Got $600 for every Win Server 2003 box you're running? Uh-oh

Maventi

Re: SIP server @AC

"So for Windows I would typically only have to download and run SETUP.EXE"

Which normally requires a GUI, a waste of server resources. Also, good luck automating that installer process!

"This is why Linux is so crappy to use."

No, it would normally demonstrate a lazy developer who couldn't be bothered packaging their product. However it appears that this is not the case for sipXecs as they provide a Yum repository (I'm assuming by the instructions above that you are using CentOS or RHEL), so it makes the whole process delightfully simple! Refer to http://wiki.sipfoundry.org/display/sipXecs/Installing+on+Fedora+and+CentOS

All that's been demonstrated in the example above is a little lack of appropriate experience between the keyboard and chair.

This way you use the same package management system that installed the entire OS and keeps it up to date, so it can take care of automatically updating sipXecs for you too. It all makes it much easier to track changes made to the host, easier to document the installation process and easier to automate. And time is money, right? :)

Maventi

Re: Over a barrel. @AC

"Quite - so much more difficult to support if you are installing 3rd party packages, "

Nope, just add the repo and use apt or yum to do the rest. Worst-case you get a tarball to unpack but it's still relatively easy to automate in most cases if need be.

On Windows the standard is using crappy binary installers making arbitrary and almost untrackable changes to the system. MSI packages are a slight improvement but still unnecessarily complex if you dare peek under the hood.

Third party software management is so painful on Windows that there exists an entire market dedicated to improving it. It's also the main reason so many corporate Windows shops stick with IE as a browser; it's to much work to try and manage anything that isn't built into the OS or made by MS.

Apple preps to DUMP crappy, sluggish iPhoto FOR GOOD

Maventi

Re: So does it *just* support iCloud? What about home NAS?

Decent NAS support would be extremely useful. I also don't want to carry GB's of photos everywhere with me, nor do I want them in some cloudy service.

Maventi

Given the comments so far, I'm wondering why Apple seems so bent on reinventing the wheel lately. They obviously haven't followed Joel Spolsky's advice (ref http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html).

Yosemite networking is still a pig, even with the 10.10.2 update. Networking worked just fine for years until Apple decided to implement an entirely new network daemon in Yosemite for whatever reason.

Now it seems it will begin all over again with Photos.

Rumours of on-premises software's demise greatly exaggerated

Maventi

Re: I had a problem and tried to solve it with Sharepoint

"Sharepoint is the place where anything ... will be available out of the box with 80% functionality, with the remaining 20% either being impossible or too cumbersome and expensive to bother."

Perfect summary of SharePoint. I used to be a fan many years ago until I learned the hard way.

The first thing is that there are tons of cheap or FOSS options to solve most problems that are no more effort to set up and much easier to customise. My second issue is that (at least in the past) SharePoint has also been way too reliant on MS-specific tech (broken IE HTML, ActiveX, Silverlight, Office) to be of any real use as a proper web platform, although later versions have improved somewhat.

'Linus Torvalds is UNFIT for the WORKPLACE!' And you've given the world what, exactly?

Maventi
Pint

Re: How bad is Torvalds?

@WatAWorld.

Actually, he's given us a kernel that is running on an immeasurable number of devices from embedded devices and phones right up to the majority of super computers. There are very likely far more running instances of Linux in total today than there are Windows PCs (and certainly phones).

Add to that the doors it has opened for hobbyists to tinker and create without any restriction beyond their own imagination; some notable examples include the highly successful Raspberry Pi and smaller projects such as OpenWRT. That's something we should be very thankful for. I know I am!

Whatever we think of Linux, there is no way we can ignore the massive impact that it has had on the entire technology world.

Beer icon as Linus has certainly earned his share!

Windows XP beats 8.1 in December market share stats

Maventi

Re: Support is impossible

@David Lawton: Couldn't agree more. Those who ignore it and buy some bargain basement Windows laptop instead end up complaining about how slow/infested it is a year later, almost every time. And it still happens to this day sadly.

Internet Explorer 12 to shed legacy cruft in bid to BEAT Chrome

Maventi

What a mess

So Windows 10 will come with two separate versions of the same web browser? Add this to the already disjointed mix of different icon and theming styles and the whole OS is beginning to look incredibly amateur. And yes, I've spent plenty of time with the Windows 10 technical preview so I say this out of my own experience.

Microsoft have really lost their way since Windows 7. While in the last few years most Linux distros have become more polished and visually consistent, Windows has been heading in the other direction with 8 and 10. I really can't figure out how Microsoft can justify the retail cost of their OS these days given what alternatives are now available.

What's worse is that it's sad that most folks buying retail computers get no choice on the matter (except for Apple). Slowdown over time, eventual crashing and then complete hardware replacement as a result just seems to be accepted by most folks I talk to. As a result I try to steer them towards tablets and Chromebooks unless they have a use case that actually requires a general purpose machine.

Microsoft's dodgy new Exchange 2010 update breaks Outlook clients

Maventi
Coat

Re: Really?

But... but.. the anonymous marketing droids keep posting here to inform us about how Microsoft patches are properly regression tested to prevent this happening!

Ten Linux freeware apps to feed your penguin

Maventi

Re: Nice article

"BTW, IMHO there is really no email client as good as Outlook or email server as good as Exchange."

I find Outlook a terrible email client, but as far as native groupware apps go nothing else can touch it these days.

Maventi

Geany

Nice to see Geany featured; it's probably the best all-round text editor cum basic IDE I've used to date.

One year on, Windows 8.1 hits milestone, nudges past XP

Maventi
Pint

Re: more secure OS instead.

"Go on, enlighten us. Just don't try and punt the security swiss cheese known as linux as a "more secure" option...."

Well on the desktop we have OS X for starters, and those who care about security on their servers will be using something with a long-standing reputation for it - OpenBSD.

Everything your users ever need to know about BYOD

Maventi

Re: Really?

Couldn't agree more. Using remote Windows on a tablet is a really crappy experience and quite frankly is completely missing the point. It's often even crippled by Windows standards; things like visual effects are often turned off to conserve resources on the hosting servers so you end up with a cluttered interface that looks like it's straight from the 1990s. Sadly this only widens the gap between the corporate and consumer experience.

Oracle to axe over 450 jobs in Euro support centres – sources

Maventi

Re: If Oracle Want to Grow again.

Agree with the move to Postgres; I've been involved with several applications that have done just that. Not only was there a slight overall performance boost (around 10% if I recall) but Postgres is miles easier to deploy and manage, and there are no hassles with licensing.

As for the marketing droids above, MS SQL didn't even enter into discussion with any of the vendors concerned.

Google begins to roll out Lollipop to Nexus devices

Maventi

Upgraded the Nexus 5. Early impression are that Google seem to have done a very good job of polishing the old interface without creating jarring changes. The notification pull-down in particular is very nicely done. Top marks!

Patch Windows boxes NOW – unless you want to be owned by a web page or network packet

Maventi

Re: EMET

"This is a *good* thing."

Agreed. I also get to spend a lot less time evaluating 'nix patches as they are worlds faster to install and don't tend to break things. Faster evaluation, less reboots, less downtime, less time, less money, lower TCO. What's not to like?

Just don't blame Bono! Apple iTunes music sales PLUMMET

Maventi

I blame a combination of two things; services such as Spotify and also the rise of Android. iTunes limits you to Apple devices; if you own an Android or Windows phone then it's more of a hindrance than a help. Now that the former has a the lions share of the market, people are going to want something that plays nicely with their phone and their computer, regardless of brand. iTunes fails spectacularly at this.

I realise that iTunes songs are DRM free but that in itself doesn't make it any easier for the average non-geek to get their iTunes collection working on their non-Apple phone.

Contrast that to Spotify and the likes where platform is no boundary. It doesn't matter what mix of devices and platforms you use, nor if your taste in music suddenly shifts. Everything still works everywhere, as long as you pay your small monthly subscription. As much as I'm still a little wary of the whole 'customer owns nothing' approach, they have executed it well enough that I'm happy to play along for the time being.

Maventi

"...to be shared on all your devices and there is a huge catalogue of music you can find and download in seconds. The key factor is convenience."

Only Apple devices. It's not convenient for anything else and that may be part of the problem.

Ubuntu's shiny 10th birthday Unicorn: An upgrade fantasy

Maventi

Re: Meh!

I think their plan is to monetise support and provide things like the Orange Box as well. They seem to be getting pretty big in the OpenStack space and already have some pretty big deployments out there so I'd say there is some source of revenue there. Their concept for the desktop seems to be turning it into a unified endpoint platform.

Shuttleworth seems to be playing the long term strategy with Canonical, I guess a little like Bezos does with Amazon.

This is all speculation through observation though. And I am little offended by the AC. I pay for proprietary software where it works well. Ubuntu also happens to provide a great desktop experience at no cost, and like most Linux distros it's very modular which makes it extremely easy to customise for a variety of situations.

It's 2014 and you can still own a Windows box using a Word file or font

Maventi

Re: Windows 10, for those interested

"Like a web server for instance? - and guess what is the most common OS used by webservers is..."

Only a relative handful of web servers (depending on configuration) were affected so remember to keep that in mind. I entirely agree that it was severe for those affected, but we've got to keep the relative numbers in mind here.

Also note that using the market share logic, Windows is by far the most common OS on the desktop, a scenario where exploiting the kernel via a font rendering bug (as an example) is pretty damn serious.

Like I said, the severity totally depends on the use case in question. Don't let that prevent you from your cherry picking your facts though.

Maventi

Re: Windows 10, for those interested

"And in 2014 you can own a Linux box via remote shell script without user interaction - which is much worse than the above!"

Only if you have appropriate services listening on the network. All are terrible vulnerabilities; the relative severity of them depends on the use case of the system in question.

ONE MILLION people already running Windows 10

Maventi

An improvement over 8 but still a long way to go

I've been using the Windows 10 preview since a few days after its release and it really doesn't do much for me. My main gripe is the inconsistent UI feel; there is an enormous mismatch of UI elements and icons. Some are shaded, some are flat. Window borders and other elements are also inconsistent between apps. The flat look makes it hard to tell things like tabs apart and there are still plenty of remnants of the old classic UI (before Luna or Aero) mixed in there too.

It's still a vast UI improvement over Windows 8 but that's a pretty low bar to start with.

Admittedly a lot of Linux distros suffer from similar inconsistent UI elements too due to all the various UI toolkits in use, but at least they don't charge a small fortune for the privilege.

I compare all this with the OS X Yosemite beta and there's simply no comparison. Despite being a prerelease and sharing the same ugly flat look, at least it's stable by comparison and visually consistent.

On the plus side Windows 10 is reasonably fast and for those who use it as a primary OS it's certainly showing some promise since 8. It think it has a long way to go before it would really appeal to the Windows 7 faithful, but it's early days yet so I will wait to see what appears.

Windows 10 feedback: 'Microsoft, please do a deal with Google to use its browser'

Maventi

Re: Chrome,,,,YUK!

"It's funny how many mindless users don't understand Chrome is the best spyware ever written, one that users actually install themselves."

Not at all; unless you sign into it (easy to switch off) then it's just another browser. I personally prefer Firefox, but I've found that Chrome makes for an excellent IE replacement on business desktops thanks to its ease of deployment and management via GPO.

IE is a very ugly looking desktop browser (admittedly the TIFKAM version isn't too bad). I've spent a bit of time using the Windows 10 tech preview and it still looks ghastly.

One Windows? How does that work... and WTF is a Universal App?

Maventi

"Presumably much like Linux everywhere works"

Indeed it does!

"except Windows has the slight advantage of being entirely modular in design from the ground up versus the more monolithic approach of Linux."

This is an irrelevant (and debatable; see above) detail regarding the kernel itself. If it were significant then I'd be seeing Windows on things like my ADSL router instead Linux.

What is significant is that most popular operating systems built around the Linux kernel are entirely modular and built from the ground up using packages (e.g. RPM, Debian). This provides a level of modularity that Windows could only ever dream of and it makes software installation and patching a breeze.

The magic storage formula for successful VDI? Just add SSDs

Maventi

Re: I guess

Thanks for the link Nate! I have some experience with VDI and it's plain awful in my opinion, at least outside of a very niche set of situations. I completely understand the reasoning behind it, but in reality it's just an enormous workaround for a bunch of gaping architecture flaws in a particular desktop operating system series that is widely deployed in enterprises. If you don't believe me than just read through some of the VDI deployment guides to see what is actually involved in making it all work properly.

It's a classic case of attempting (and sometimes succeeding) to create simplicity by adding vast layers of complexity.

The sad part is it often results in an inferior experience for anything outside of basic office applications. Microsoft have done some clever things with RemoteFX to help with that but it still feels like a big hack.

For those who do really want to play in the DaaS space, build a decent Terminal Services/RDS setup and leave it at that - it's far less work, provides pretty much the same user experience and is much more efficient on server/storage resources.

Microsoft WINDOWS 10: Seven ATE Nine. Or Eight did really

Maventi

"Hiding file extensions is a major obstruction to educating users :("

File extensions are are something users should never have to worry about at all. How about reading file headers and not marking all files as executable by default instead? Seems to work well for other operating systems.

Unchanging Unicorn: Don't be disappointed with Ubuntu 14.10, be happy

Maventi

Re: 14.04

Agree - Unity is pretty slick these days. The workflow doesn't quite feel up to OS X standards yet but stock Windows 7 quickly feels archaic in comparison. I use all three every day.

SMASH the Bash bug! Apple and Red Hat scramble for patch batches

Maventi

Re: Because the flaws were very different

"Also releasing it Friday night made a lot of sysadmin happy, that night and the following Saturday, believe me."

So rather than get a hole patched as soon as possible, you would prefer to wait until next Tuesday?

I know a lot of sysadmins (and am one myself) and we are all much more concerned about the severity of the vulnerability rather than patching it as the latter is was a pretty trivial process. Sure it wasn't convenient, but it's always much better to have something ready immediately than risk cleaning up after a huge exploit.

I still fail to see any justification for downvoting what was simply a good explanation of the problem.

Maventi

Re: Because the flaws were very different

"Of course the long explanation was just a way to hide the fact the whole vuln management has been dreadful."

Sorry, what? It was a pretty useful and informed explanation! Where's yours?

Microsoft on the Threshold of a new name for Windows next week

Maventi
Pint

Re: Name not important

"Wait, is it the year of linux on the desktop? Again?"

No, that won't occur until after the year of Windows on the phone.

'Windows 9' LEAK: Microsoft's playing catchup with Linux

Maventi

"Virtual desktops are pretty much useless for boosting productivity compared to multi-monitor"

And when you are not at a desk? I personally find the two complement each other nicely when I'm docked or using an office desktop. When I'm traveling I don't normally pack an extra display with me so it's nice to be able to use multiple workspaces on the laptop.

Top marks to MS for deciding to implement this.

Maventi

Re: Windows has had multiple desktops for bloody years

"But they have been absolutely shite. They're just hacks that hide specific Windows.

The built-in "hidden" multiple desktops are also unusable because they're almost like having a completely different login session."

Why is this downvoted? It's entirely true. When I was using Windows XP and Ubuntu side by side for a few years the fact that the Powertoy virtual desktops were a hack was painfully obvious. Some apps using strange window behaviours really didn't behave well with it either, such as ones that hide the taskbar icon when minimised.

I gave up on it entirely in the end, and I still use multiple workspaces in Ubuntu and OS X to this day. Even with multiple monitors it's an incredibly useful feature. It's nice to see Windows 9 including it properly and I don't care how long it's taken.

Maventi

Re: Meeeh

"Linux has a great, and brilliantly designed core, and given its royalty-free, which has allowed it to survive almost exclusively as the core that runs the Internet Of Things but guess what? Microsoft are catching up, FAST!"

The freedom aspect is primarily what has made Linux successful here - the 'royalty-free' aspect is simply one of many consequences of that. It's the fact that there are no restrictions on how you can use it, and that you can modify it in any way you like. If Microsoft are going to go anywhere of consequence in the IOT space they need to radically overhaul their licensing models and really let things go. They have taken a few steps in that direction over the years but I don't think they have the cojones to take it as far as it needs to be.

"Linux might always have the Free thing, but as we are now seeing, the vulnerabilities in IOT devices are starting to become a real problem, and when it comes to security, Microsoft have been leading the world for quite some time..."

I would argue that rushed implementations and marketing trumping engineering would be the bigger factors here. There are excellent security features in both Linux and Windows but it seems that most of these problems are due to these either not being implemented properly or at all in favour of development time.

Linux turns 23 and Linus Torvalds celebrates as only he can

Maventi

Re: 23 Years

"And still waiting for it to hit the mainstream."

On desktop PCs, yes. Otherwise it's one of the most prolific kernels out there today which is pretty incredible considering its rather humble beginnings.

"Which isn't a troll, but there always seems to be, from Linux advocates, the assertion that it will soon find its way onto more consumer desktops."

Not a troll - it's a sensible point, and I say this as a Linux advocate. I really don't think we will see any huge inroads on the desktop any time soon. I really don't mind that either, as long as there is still sufficient support to keep Linux viable as a platform. At the moment the situation isn't too bad, although situations like Adobe dropping Flash development (whatever you think of Flash, it's sadly a necessity for some of us) do make me twitch a little.

"Granted a huge part of that is the inertia that people have when buying a PC from, say, Dell or PC World that they use whatever is pre-installed. But Dell offered Linux (do they still?) as an option so I'd have expected more consumer penetration by now."

I wouldn't; every page on Dell's website displays "Dell recommends Windows", even when viewing their Linux offerings. It's pretty hard to compete when the incumbent OS vendor sponsors such messages. Dell really just offer it as a token - they probably fear that prompting it heavily would compromise their OEM licensing agreement with Microsoft. It's a sad state of affairs really - I don't wish for Windows to go away at all but I'd love to see its market share chopped back a bit so that we had a more level playing field.

That said I've purchased quite a number of Dell machines with both Windows and Ubuntu preinstalled and I hope that they continue to provide the choice.

I think it's almost ironic that Windows and Linux see somewhat inverse popularity between desktop PCs and mobile devices, despite Microsoft's persistence and marketing muscle. Maybe the year of the Linux desktop will also be the year of the Windows phone? ;)

"And yes, I appreciate this simple observation will undoubtedly attract a vast number of downvotes."

Not from me; you raised a fair point. However we are here in this thread to celebrate the very real success of the Linux kernel. Let's raise a glass to Linus and see that this continues long into the future!

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