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On 24/09/12 22:34, Rob Beard wrote: > Oh I know what you mean! :-) > > Where I'm working at the moment they use a mixture of applications for > CAD stuff, some use AutoCAD, others use a package called EdgeCAM and > some of the engineers use some Siemens application which I understand > is also available natively for Linux as well as Windows. That's NX I believe? It does have a native linux port. > > How I understand it, Linux is making inroads at the company but more > in the datacentres than on the local desktops. Still a couple of guys > at work have an interest in Linux and use it (not entirely sure how > much, I think it might be something that play with occasionally in > their spare time. > > Rob You're not wrong - basically, linux is heavily used by the technical, to do technical things. Network engineers, Google programmers, super-computer sysadmins, ISPs, telcos... all of these types use linux constantly to do their heavy lifting and linux has basically cannibalised an increasingly large percentage of what used to be the lucrative and fragmented Unix market. Servers and workstations, basically, only touched by the highly trained and the highly geeky. Everyone else just uses whatever shipped on their latest laptop of course (and who can blame them? normal people don't like configuring operating systems). The reason there will probably never be a year of linux on the desktop is basically just inertia. The ~1% of global linux desktops are usually the home computers of the technical types who use linux at work and any of their unfortunate friends and family who will doubtless end up being converted after one too many "can you help my computer has another virus" home support calls. Outside of IT professionals and hobbyists, nobody really cares enough to bother switching. Happily, my Mum insists on linux rather than windows on her main computer, and even for technical reasons. Sadly, said technical reason is that she prefers the version of Solitaire included with Gnome to the Windows version. Regards -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq