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I'd agree with vm's...so much easier. Although, current system is a triple boot (debian amd 64 bit, xp 32 bit, vista ultimate 64 bit). vm allows me to use debian amd64 vm, open solaris vm, openbsd vm when I need them. I mostly use the debian vm. I'm a debian guy, can't stand Ubuntu. I also use Debian pretty much most of the day, every day @ work. I personally think OpenSolaris is a better choice these days, and the support agreements with Sun are cheaper than what Redhat or Suse (Novell) offer too.
Linux has had its chance and it's a dying operating system now imho. OS X is kicking its a$$ big time on the desktop (as well as hurting Microsoft), Windows server is taking back the server side of things too. BSD is a better choice for server setups in many instances imho. Linux has far too many problems for it to ever become mainstream, and these problems are so deeply rooted it isn't funny:
1) far too many package management systems
2) far too many desktop environments
3) libc is broken imho. Very poor compatibility, and it makes Linux a ***** to develop for. That's why the major players won't touch it.
4) far too much choice in applications. You *don't* need 20 different browsers to do the same job. Better to have one uber application with lots of people working on it, than 20 smaller versions. It's diluted application development, and that is bad for the users, and bad for the developers, and ultimately, bad for the software itself.
5) X. Sorry, but it's a p.o.s.
6) far too many distributions. See point 4).
7) just simply unfriendly (to the average user) to use. End of story. All these people who say "yeah but I installed ubuntu for my grandma and she loves it" are full of it. If it breaks, if you're not around, grandma is stuffed. Try and find a Linux expert who you can trust to fix it? Not likely. Far easier to find a windows expert who can do the job.
8) consistenty in UI. Sorry, but it's a mess. An absolute mess.
I've used Linux for a good number of years, and it's gone downhill imho. I'm critical of Linux because it's the only way it's going to get better. It seems that those with the power to make changes won't. And they're the ones that will see Linux, which was a great idea, go slowly down the tube. Linux usage levels (on desktop and server) have been dropping the past 3 years. And they will continue to drop.
Dave
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