Windows and Linux Are Successful: A Quick Introduction Into Success Metrics

There has been some debate over the success or failures of Linux on the desktop, mainframe, and in the server market. Linux has finally started to gain some traction, especially in the server market. As for the success of Linux on the desktop, there are all sorts of blogs on the topic.
Some blogs say that Linux is not ready, and some say otherwise. Some arguments are old, some new, and some are relevant, and some aren't. There are gorgeous Linux desktops and then there is the command line. Although the Linux desktop becomes more and more user friendly, it hasn't taken hold of the market the same way OS X has, and certainly not how Windows XP has.
It seems that Windows is successful and Linux isn't. However, I say that this is a mistake. To say this uses install base as the metric for success is to be ignorant on the goals of both systems. They both have achieved the goals of their authors.
The goal of GNU is to free one from usage of proprietary software, and the goal of Windows is to make money. Windows is now so strong that Microsoft can discontinue a successful product to force everyone one to purchase a lesser one. Despite the strong shortcomings of Windows Vista and the sheer success of XP, Microsoft has the audacity to push Vista.
The strength of Microsoft is really in that they have enterprise installations. People might not try to learn a new operating system on their own, but for a job they will. Since Microsoft can sell their product to pretty much any business, workers will be trained for their product. This causes people to purchase Windows for their home computers, something neither Linux nor OS X enjoy.
Linux was developed by a bunch of programmers who wanted to make a free operating system. Generally, programmers are geeks, and will take time just to learn something new. When they talk about technology, what they really say is, "Look at how neat this is." That's why there's so much confusions between geeks and everyone else. Geeks don't realize that people don't value the same things they do, and those other people need to understand that they might actually know something, they don't. (In fact, I use the word 'geek' as a way to relate to those readers who don't know much about the Open Source communities, the real term to be used is 'hacker,' but most people understand, "Evil person who causes all sorts of chaos electronically.")
The geeks succeeded.
GNU/Linux plays music and video, downloads, uploads, plays video games and Windows applications (really, this the only place where an application written for entirely different platform will work), email, browsing, and anything else you'd want to do with a Windows system. One is not forced to use Windows anymore, unless Wine cannot run that one or two vital applications. It's initiative that's holding many people back still, "Oh, the learning curve!" (That's Linux's greatest weakness--it requires initiative).
Now Windows is successful in that it earns Microsoft tons of money, and there's plenty of room to enforce this statement to dismiss even a ridiculous doubt. Linux is free and works.
Usually, when someone talks about success, they usually the context implies which is winning, and that's Windows, although Linux is beginning to gain some traction with the Asus EeePC, Dell Open Source line, Cononical's Ubuntu, and all the little upshot niche markets selling computers preloaded with Linux (usually Ubuntu). So, Linux may kill Windows, it may dominate, and it may be catching up.
Both Windows and Linux are successful because they both have accomplished their respective goals. Windows is winning, although that might not be the case in the future. If one wants to decided which is successful, one must examine the goals because software isn't written just because the author wants to make money. To assume so is either naivety or ignorance.

Linux and Hurricane Gustav: The Interdictor Project, HAM Radios and VoIP

Occasionally I'm given a privileged view into a clever project. Nowadays, technology can be put together very timely to produce something so useful. The end result is that I can listen to a broadcast of a piece of news I run across on HAM radio at my computer with no HAM radio capability.
Recently I was invited to participate in a project. Hurricane Gustav has been terrorizing the Southern coast and a project of information dissemination began. Several people combined HAM radio communications and Internet radio to make freely available information on hurricane Gustav who need it.
The Interdictor Project uses HAM radio to send VoIP data to various stations, and the signal is also converted to Internet radio format so people online may listen. I'd also imagine that received signals that are not sent by HAM radio are also converted to VoIP by the Interdictor station, but I'm also really fuzzy on the details.
Now this project recruits experience HAM radio operators to do the communication. I was asked to troll news sites for news on hurricane Gustav and mention them in an IRC channel when I come across something new. My idea was to add an RSS feed of Google News to one's favorite RSS client. That would allow for very comfortable and very quick notice of news events.
As I understand, when something new or an update is discovered, the HAM radio operators would then broadcast it and one could hear a duplicate on Internet radio. I'm not into HAM radios and so as I listen to the HAM radio communications on the Internet radio channel I peer a little into the HAM radio world.
Mostly there are just reports of wind and rain measurements at the various locations and time. Occasionally there is a call to clarify information, and a routine request to connect to certain monitor nodes if one is not in the hurricane Gustav area. The amazing thing is to see the clever use of technology for a noble task.
The picture is this: using RSS feeds, if I run across something important, I can mention it in a certain IRC channel. Then the HAM radio operators there will report it in their HAM radio channel which isn't analog, but VoIP. Then it's converted to Internet radio format and I can listen with amaroK to the HAM radio communications of the Interdictor effort to disseminate information hurricane Gustav, all with in the comfort of my own home.

Playstation2 Controller for an MS-DOS Game on Linux

I had one of those situations where you suddenly realize that the circumstances where just totally unexpected. One by one the pieces come together as one innocently adds or changes something until something nobody expects occurs.
Descent was a video game developed by Interplay a long time ago when MS-DOS ruled computer gaming. Back then, joysticks had those connectors to those game ports sound cards had. Then Microsoft developed DirectX and then it was Windows 95 to reign. Since Windows 95 basically was a front-end for MS-DOS while providing a lot of the missing functionality from what one would expect from a full operating system (memory management, etc.) The point is that DOS games for the most part can run while Windows 95 ran because the Windows 95 environment was very compatible.
Linux 1.0, a UNIX clone was released. Being a UNIX it was a very different environment than MS-DOS and Windows 95 (98, ME, 2K, XP, or Vista for that matter). Written by hackers, Linux was rapidly developed and then adopted by GNU as their official kernel. However Linux didn't get to enjoy the aggressive marketing and support of Microsoft and all the hardware vendors. The hackers had to write all their own drivers.
Windows 95 was supported in that all hardware manufactures write drivers for Windows and Windows users enjoyed the ease of installing drivers for Windows to use their hardware, but the Linux community grew and continued to develop drivers, as well as software.
Occasionally a new program would pop up that allowed compatibility: Wine, dosemu, dosbox, and so on. Then there was USB and other types of hardware support. Then some clever hacker wrote d1x-rebirth.
So, I install d1x-rebirth. I plug in my PS2 controller into my Radio Shack USB dongle and into the USB slot there. I launch the game and have some fun before I realize:
I'm playing an old DOS game on a UNIX with a controller for a non-PC, and the game was never coded to use USB nor graphics acceleration either.
It was a blast. Way to go Open Source!