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I can't understand why that OS ever became so famous
Because it's free and you get to see the source code 
cheers,
Chris Maunder (CodeProject)
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You can see the free code in Windows. That is, if you are familiar with assembler.
I vote pro drink 
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Will that be the only reason? In that case, I pass.
I've never worried about paying a (reasonable) price for software and/or OSes. And I don't care about the sourcecode of Windows, I have enough help using the MSDN Library.
Better to pay something for a product that is stable and written by a number of developers who know what they're doing, than using free stuff written by a huge number of kids who consider it 'My First Project'.
--
Alex Marbus
www.marbus.net
But then again, I could be wrong.
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I think Linux is quite stable as long as you install it with sufficient knowledge of your system and how to make things work. Like anything else, the fancier you get, the more likely it is that you'll hose it up.
The real problems that keep Linux from overwhelming acceptance are:
1) The lack of a standard, simple, and problem-free installation procedure. Each distribution does it their own way so you never know what to expect when you install a different dsitribution.
2) The GUI is TOO configurable. The only standard part of it is the underlying core (X-Windows). There are DOZENS of window managers available, and they all look and perform differently, and many times, even the most subtle differences can confuse the average home user.
3) It allows you to get too close to the commandline. Many people nowadays have been lulled into a semi-conscious state of awareness by the Windows desktop and its ease of use. The concept of being able to configure things outside the GUI really bothers a lot of people.
4) Hardware support is still sketchy (on a good day), and intimate familiarity with your hardware is a necessity if you expect to get everything working.
5) Most end-users don't give a damn about the source code. They want something that's pretty, fast, reliable, and automatically works with every piece of hardware in the known world (and any future piece of hardware that might be invented).
6) There's no games available for it. Face it people - until there's solid support from the game publishers (not the actual programmers, but the people that actually market the software), Linux is always going to be an 'also-ran" in the OS wars. The problem is that getting accelerated support for your video card of choice can be a problem since most of the video card manufacturers are less excited about Linux than they are about Windows since [typically] only gamers get the absolute latest and greatest hardware. If there's no drivers, there's no gamers. No gamers, no games. It's a chicken-egg thing.
7) If you still want to run your Windows programs, you have three choices - VMWare (commercial product), WINE (public development), or Lin4Win (commercial product - requires Windows 95 or 98). None of them provide the support for games that you need, but most of your productivity apps should run nicely. My personal recommendation would be Lin4Win.
8) It's hard to get a financial foothold as a Linux developer because the users are so accustomed to getting their software for free (WITH SOURCE CODE) that they're not likely to pay for (or endorse) your product. If there's no money to be made, then no commercial software will be made.
9) The news media can't cover Linux because nobody's really in charge. With Windows, we have Microsoft. With Linux, we have Redhat, SUSE, Mandrake, Slackware, Corel, Debian, Turbo, Gentoo, blah, blah, blah. While that can be a good thing, it's also keeping Linux in the closet.
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No, he means saur, as in dino. If anything on his machine is out dated, then it's his fault for not upgrading...
Christian
Secrets of a happy marriage #27:
Never go to bed if you are mad at each other. It's more fun to stay up and fight.
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I think that XP will not have something for me except UI changing. But I really like these changes... I will upgrade to it (I hope PIII-933/512mb will be enought  )
Btw, about skinning there: does anybody knows: will the console windows be skinned or they will have an old style? (They have an old style in beta 2)
With the best regards, Vitaly.
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You will have a choice between the new "let us make you more reliant on pretty little pictures and a dumbed-down interface", or the "classic" windows 2000 interface.
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I know about this choice, but in beta2 you will see the "old"-style console window even if you select new style... Have the situation changed?
With the best regards, Vitaly.
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I use RC2, and console windows are still "old style"
- Anders
Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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I expect to keep running Win98 at home for some time. The only way that I'll probably get WinXP is if I buy a new computer and I am forced to get it.
WillCodeForMoney
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Buy a new PC and be forced into buying XP? What braindead country do you live in?
Just buy the damn hardware and take care of the rest yourself.
Sorry, but that is just too much for me.
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So much that you're afraid to use your real name?
You're obviously not up-to-date on the fact that Microsoft has (for the most part) claimed that any Ccopy of Windows already installed cannot be used on any other computer (basically, the license belongs to the machineit's originally installed on). I don't happen to agree with that particular view, but I',m willing to bet that the original poster got win98 on the machine he's using now and most likely did not get a copy of the Windows CD with the machine. Indeed, manufacturers will not be shipping XP CD's with machines on which the OS pre-installed.
To the original poster, if you want to buy a new machine at a vendor, and they don't/won't give you a choice of which OS to install, buy your machine somewhere else.
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the only way that anyone will be forced to use that OS is if microsoft succeeds in its quest to takeover the pc industry. so much so that even hardware is succumbing to the demands of the OS. when that happens, go away and dont turn your back lest you turn to a huge lumbering block of salt.
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I to use Win NT/ws 4.0 in 1997y. Approx. a year i'm using win2000... I think, that installing Wxp will be a downgrade for me, for my job.
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Like the heading says, I think I’ll hold off till the first service pack has been kicking around for a while.
Ben Burnett
---------
On the topic of code with no error handling -- It's not poor coding, it's "optimistic" 
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