After mentioning yesterday about people buying computers with Vista and then reformatting to install XP, the relative difficulty of installing operating systems was the next thing that occurred to me.

The main reason why people run Windows rather than other operating systems is because Windows comes pre-installed on their new computer and so they do not have to go through the relatively complicated process of actually installing an operating system and getting it to work with their hardware. At least that applies to those who buy computers with XP installed,, those with Vista installed who decide to revert back to XP still have the problem of doing the Windows XP install themselves or getting someone to do it for them.

In fact operating system installs are much easier these days than they used to be. There are a number of Linux versions that are just as easy if not easier to install than Windows XP is, and soonce you take into account that there is free software available for Linux that can do everything that your Windows software can do, switching from Windows to Linux is now becoming a more practical option for people than ever before.

Not only do you save yourself the cost of the operating system and all the application software that you would have to purchase for a Windows setup, Linux actually works better with the internet (since most of the internet is already running on Linux) and Linux also has far fewer viruses etc that target it compared to the huge numbers that target Windows.

Now that many people are deciding that Vista will not run their software and reverting back to XP, the number of people who are learning how to install an operating system themselves is growing. Having gone through the process of installing a relatively difficult to install operating system like XP, those people are far more lilkely to consider saving their money next time around and installing Linux instead. At least some of the graphical interfaces available on Linux operate in quite a similar way to what a Windows user would expect and at least all of the office applications, web related applications, and multimedia applications have free Linux software available that is a suitable substitute for the Windows equivalent. The main areas where equivalent software is lacking is in the area of games.

The move toward web based applications is also making the decision to switch to Linux easier since Linux integrates better with the web than Windows does and once you have your web browser open it doesn’t really matter what operating system it is running on as the web applications all run in the browser.

The falling relavance of which operating system you are running, the lack of interest by many software providers in patching their software so that it will run on Vista, and the way in which Linux installation is becoming simpler (including some hardware providers now offering computers with Linux rather than Windows installed) demonstrates that Microsoft’s reign as the top PC company is drawing to a close.

Tags: application software, equivalent software, free software, install, linux, Linux installation, microsoft, multimedia applications, operating system, operating systems, software providers, web applications, web browser