My brother had a typical problem today. He purchased a computer with Vista. The night he bought it, he really liked it. All pretty, and gussied up with it's eye candy. But, Vista's like pretty girls back in the 50's. You can look, hoot and holler, and they'll even wink at you. But don't you dare try to do anything with her. She's not that kind of a girl. Back then, girls had there own version of "Cancel or Allow".
My brother found out that a very important program problem Vista shares with Linux; a lot of programs don't work on it. The one he needed didn't work with Vista.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work with Linux either. But, that may be turning around soon. According to an Evans Data Study, developers are shying away from developing programs for Vista. Instead, more programs for Linux are being developed. I'm betting my future endeavors on it.
A week or so ago, I wrote about a problem with Quickbooks needed for a small business. Quickbooks doesn't support desktop Linux, and most small businesses need Quickbooks. At least, that's what their accountants and advisors tell them. Rightfully so probably. Quickbooks is an excellent product, and the Open Source alternatives don't match the abilities. Not yet at least. Programs like GnuCash may eventually be super powerful, but Quicken and Quickbooks are the name to beat.
Hopefully, the Evans folks are right, and solutions for Linux are lining up as I write. Hopefully, I'll have my ducks lined up, and the IT suitors will be knocking on my door.
We did solve my brothers problem. I had him load VMware player on his Vista machine, use easyvmx.com to make a .vmx file, load a Windows XP version on, then load the necessary program he needed to work. So far, it's worked. I run XP on my Ubuntu laptop when I need to for school. It actually runs faster in VMware than it did natively. Go figure!
(Yes, I'm experimenting with Larger font size)
