Yes, I understand what you and Byron says about the minority, however, I think people do not choose Linux as it is not supported by neither hardware nor software vendors. Even myself who edit with vi and can pretty much succeed with Linux installation on all computer have some problems and hard times figuring out how to get this or that hardware work on Linux. Even me use VirtualBox to run XP as there is no such convenient PIC development tool as MPLAB. But with all my experience Linux works much smoother after the installation hassle than Windows so for users I believe it would be better to get used to it. However, these things not going to happen without the support of the manufacturers. For example I am just setting up a site for hobby PIC users and it will never become a popular site without putting a huge amount of effort and even money on it. Nobody wants to use something that is not popular already and/or have no support on it at all. Now they may have to put a bit more money on supporting Linux, but tomorrow they may get even more money back on selling devices for the growing number of Linux users. BTW: Is not there a law against monopoly? Can't the government say that nobody is allowed to support only one vendor - that's the so called trust, isn't it? (When two companies make an agreement "I support you, you support me..." so virtually they have a monopoly position on the market). Tamas On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 1:16 PM, Xiaofan Chen wrote: > On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 8:01 PM, Tamas Rudnai > wrote: > > Not sure why a hardware manufacturer is > > interested on not to selling those devices to linux users - does it > matter > > for them who is paying for their products? > > That does not matter. > > But it matters if the money involved in supporting > the alternative OS is more than the money earned from the users of > the alternative OS. Unfortunately Linux has very few percentage > of users in the desktop market. > > It is a catch 22 situation. > http://forum.microchip.com/tm.aspx?m=338974 > > As to whether Vista is promoting Linux, I do not think so. It actually > promotes XP. For example, Asus is now providing Linux and Windows > on the EEEpc. But when I went to the recent SITEX IT show in Singapore, > most of the people are only interested in the XP version. Very few > people are interested in the Linux version. > > Xiaofan > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- Rudonix DoubleSaver http://www.rudonix.com -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist