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"...(it was Linux at home, windows at work, now Linux for both)."

That's my ideal plan but for many reasons it's been a long road for me and others I know.

In controlled environments where the outcomes are either narrow or clearly defined then money can be thrown at the problem to ensure that Linux penetration is 100%. Unfortunately, I'd hate to count the number of times I've seen this objective come unstuck for many reasons, thus an annoying residual of Windows installations remain.

Generally, it's not the lack of Linux applications that's the problem but more a mixture of compatibility issues brought about by a diverse range of hardware types and vintages thereof combined with either a lack of Linux drivers or the poor performance thereof - for instance the nVidia driver and Linux's native NTFS driver that's now old and leaves much to be desired (yes, I'm aware of Paragon's NTFS diver and I'm hoping that it will, in part, improve matters).

Also, ordinary users still have significant difficulties in installing Windows apps in WINE not to mention getting printer drivers to work. I don't know how many times I've heard "I tried to install the CD that came with the printer and it didn't work".

It would be nice to see the Linux community spend more time on these compatibility issues for if we could solve many of them then we'd see an upsurge in Linux usage on the desktop.

Even I haven't eliminated Windows completely. As far as I'm concerned this is now a high imperative given that Windows has morphed from being an independent operating system into a fully-fledged functional appendage of the Microsoft Corporation.




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