Hacker News Reader

That's awful.

I don't want come across as trying to convert or be rude, but what does Windows provide, both home users and businesses, that open source operating systems are unable to do?

As someone just kind of starting out, is Windows promising for future career building?

I understand backwards compatibly and larger selection of games, and that hardware manufacturers will provide software.

View on HN

Nothing really, except for mindshare. Turns out, that's a huge factor that sadly cannot be overcome that easily (especially for organizations with less technically inclined people).

If you look at the big IT stories around OSS (e.g. LiMux; in Switzerland there was a similar story in Solothurn), you'll find that the reason for those failures usually comes down to people refusing to give OSS the benefit of the doubt, often combined with incompetent project management.

Windows does not seem to be aimed at power users anymore, unless they are in a big company environment. You can manage which updates are sent, and when, if you have a Windows server distributing the updates. But that is overkill for small companies.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com