[Colchester] 2021 is the year of the Linux desktop

[Wayland Sothcott]

No really this time. I know we've been saying this for 25 years but two 
things have crossed paths.

Firstly Linux has got really really good. It's easy to install and use. 
It's very very capable. Few things even require windows any more and 
many that do run well under WINE or VirtualBox.

Secondly Windows has been getting worse at every update, some even 
destroy your files. It's impractical to continue on Windows 7 and 
Windows 10 is creating more and more problems for people. With a great 
deal of effort it's possible to do a decent Windows install but then you 
find your efforts get trashed on the next update or some program refuses 
to run because it does not like what you did to Windows. Why is Windows 
10 so difficult to network? Windows XP was pretty good at this.

There are more and more examples where the user is delighted with Linux, 
Mint in my case. It still bugs me that I can't run MS Access on Linux 
but then it's getting easier to re-write such things. Moving the data to 
MySQL is a good start. You can then write a new front end whilst still 
using the old one.

Yes we are at the stage where Linux is definitely a better choice than 
Windows, application requirements permitting. If all your programs run 
on Linux then you're better off with Linux.

What are your thoughts on this?

Wayland.