3. Linux vs. Windows
There is a big difference between Linux and Windows. Linux is a
real free operating system while Windows is a product or goods
sold by Microsoft. Linux is designed by many software fans while
Windows is designed by the employees of MS. Linux is designed for
interests while Windows is designed for profits. Which one do you
like? I believe everyone will choose Linux certainly!
The success of Linux is the success of Internet. It is Internet
which gathers all the software fans around the world together.
Before that, it was impossible to have so many people work
together. Through Internet, fans can talk with each other. When
meeting difficulties, the problem can be published on Internet
within one minute. The answer can also be got in one minute. You
know it is good to share information in that way. It saves many
energy and time. It is also impossible for us to find another way
to take the place of Internet to gather fans.
There is an issue for that. Is it possible to develop good enough
software on Internet? Certainly! I can convert the question into
this one, "when you have a chance to select between two
kinds of work, one you are interested in and one assigned by your
boss, which one will you like to do?" Everyone would like to
choose the interesting one instead of a job. When fans work
together, they are enjoying their lives. Can you imagine how
creative their work will be? They do not feel tired and they have
many inspirations in their minds. A new program from Asia might
stimulate the one in US. He may jump from his chair and begin to
work at once because he believes he can walk far away along the
road. After finishing, he will give a response to the one in Asia
immediately. Then, a few minutes later, he will certainly get a
:-) or :-( . But it does not matter too much because they can
cooperate with each other to achieve their same goal soon. It is
quite different from the traditional software development.
Someone may argue that the interests of people sometimes cannot
last for long. Yes, but you only think of one hand of the
problem. The other hand is that there are so many fans! They are
fans firstly and secondly the number of them is large. If one is
gone (actually the possibility is small), others will accommodate
the change at once. I can ensure that the possibility of losing
interests in the fans is much smaller than the resigning
possibility in Microsoft. We can have a survey for it later.
The other issue is that there is no cost when developing software
on Internet. It is known that Microsoft spends more than
$300,000,000 on developing Windows 95. And the project last for
more than five years. It is also known that the release dates of
MS products are always postponed. What does MS get from that? MS
gets hundreds times of reward for it. MS can be satisfied
certainly. What do customers get from that? Pay a lot of money
again and use a much heavier and more stupid software. Does MS
care about customers? MS will do in this way continually. Who can
prevent it? Internet! It took only not more than one year to
develop Linux. Meanwhile, no any fee was spent on it. Someone may
say that there are so many people working, why do you say no
cost? You know all the people are not working but enjoying their
lives. It is just like swimming and dancing in spare time. How
can you compute the cost? If you use the software of theirs, they
are quite happy. That’s the reason of Internet! We are on
the way to say goodbye to Windows. At least, in the near future,
we will never pay for software because software is equal to the
word, free.