[CentOS] OT: linux desktop market share more than 1%

[Mathieu Baudier]

> We're just throwing blind assertions at each other, but since I don't
> want to go PC shopping just to pursue the argument, let's keep it
> theoretical.  Which do you suppose is a harder task:

Mac laptops have a big problem: they forgot to put the right mouse button...
(and the keyboard layout is slightly non-standard)

I'm personally quadruple booting (CentOS 5 / Ubuntu 10.4 / Mac OS 10.6
/ RHEL 6 Beta 2) on a Mac Book Pro when on the road.

This was the computer of my wife whose art academy only taught them
Final Cut and Photoshop, so she's "hooked" to MacOS and thus Apple
hardware (we are trying to ween her off, but she can't, no she
can't... sad story, don't let your kids ever touch this...)

The other day I had to make a demo of FLOSS Geographical Information
System (GIS) software (QGIS, GRASS, PostGIS, etc.).
I had prepared it on Ubuntu (because "multi-touch" touchpad is not
working on CentOS 5, and you actually do need a right-click).
PostgreSQL broke one hour before the demo, I could not
uninstall/reinstall it (sic!). Re-booted to CentOS, set up the stuff,
everything went smoothly, no surprise, did the demo (with an USB
mouse).
Try to setup such a complex software suite in one hour without a
package management system. Mac is not an option in such cases.

The harddrive broke after one year (minus two weeks: still under
guarantee, pfeew...).

BUT, I look cool when I sit in Berlin cafes with my laptop (although
it starts to look very old-fashioned, since it is two/three years old
and without "unibody enclosure")

Is this beautifully designed computer utter crap because it just has
one mouse button?
Is Ubuntu "broken" because you cannot play around with partitions as
robustly as with CentOS? (of course, I was responsible for breaking
the PostgreSQL: what killed me is that I could not reset it)
Is CentOS useless because people who really need (certainly for good
reasons) to run proprietary software such as Adobe CS or MS Office,
just can't?

That you found the right combination for yourself doesn't mean all
others are worthless.