Author: Christophe Theron
Date: 20:53:09 08/10/04
Go up one level in this thread
On August 10, 2004 at 16:39:29, Peter Berger wrote:
>On August 10, 2004 at 01:17:55, Christophe Theron wrote:
>
>>On August 09, 2004 at 23:45:28, Eugene Nalimov wrote:
>>
>>>Is it really necessary to insult people who have opinion different from yours?
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>Eugene
>>
>>
>>
>>Where is your sense of humour, Eugene?
>>
>>From time to time the 1% of Linux users I represent have a good laugh at the 95%
>>Windows users you represent.
>>
>>Is this 1% hurting you as much as it hurts Gates and Ballmer? ;-)
>>
>>I understand why THEY are worried. But you?
>>
>>
>>
>> Christophe
>
>I guess if we really knew what was going on in the basements of most Linux
>users, it would be the Windows users who would have the final laugh.
>
>It is not the windows-bashing that can become annoying, it is the propaganda and
>the misleading information.
>
>My Windows PCs don't crash - never, and I have lots of them (only Fritz will at
>times). They were also pretty easy to install and setup. I admit that I am
>probably more knowledgeable than average PC users when it is about security and
>the like, but where is the fair comparison to the average Joe Linux user who
>somehow managed to install he OS, will of course be logged on as root, with no
>password, all network services running unpatched? Maybe he doesn't exist - OK,
>but then this only means that there just *is* no average Joe linux user.
The average user will not install and configure the OS himself anyway.
Let the average user do it with a Windows system and he ends up eaten alive by
viruses before the OS is fully installed and patched (it's not a joke, it's the
real, sad experience of using Windows today).
Let the average user install a Linux system and he will probably manage to do
it, but several things will not work as they should (maybe the video driver will
not be optimized of the sound driver will not be installed).
In both cases you need someone with some technical knowledge of the system. Not
necessarily an expert, just someone familiar with some common issues.
There are many people out there making a living from that: installing,
configuring and maintaining Windows systems. If Windows was so easy to install
and manage, these people would have to find another job.
>Whenever I talk with a happy Linux user with a mission I ask him a few basic
>questions on how he does this and that with his PC (concentrating on a few
>issues I had to face when I tried it myself). Once you show that you are not a
>complete ignoramus you will hear different stories - about the two weeks spent
>to get the video card running - the great features of the word processor ( once
>you studied the whole manual for a few weeks) etc.
I think you are mainly talking about things of the past here.
The real problem today is the lack of drivers for recent hardware in Linux. Most
hardware is fully supported, but the most recent devices sometimes are not
immediately supported.
So if you have a Linux box you must be very careful when you purchase hardware.
That's a pain, I admit it.
Now whose fault is it? Does it mean that Linux is inferior as an Operating
System?
>My favourite still is the one user who wanted to convince me that setting up
>Linux was way easier than Windows, though he unfortunately never got the sound
>to work ( mentioned much later in discussion ;) ) .
>
>While I used to do most of my work on Unix machines including years of system
>administration, and could probably go on for some time on things that are
>superior about it, I never felt fully prepared to deal with all this hazzle at
>home in my spare time, other than for the occasional experiment.
>
>Linux has obviously improved in recent years when it is about setup, and I toy
>with the idea to give it another try, but as long as the Linux users sound like
>missionaries, it is tough to trust them too much when it is about improvements
>made. I am still under the impression that everyone who really managed to reach
>a really workable system with Linux, is soo proud of himself and his
>intelligence, that he has to tell and pray to all the world :)
What happened for me is that I have tried Linux three times in the past. The two
first attempts were disasters and I concluded that the system was not ready for
serious use. Yes, Linux was shit AT THAT TIME.
My third attempt turned out to be completely different: I downloaded a 200Mb
distro (over a regular phone line thru a 56K modem!) and it worked like a charm.
I could really see all the work that had been done and that it had reached an
almost mature level (that was in mid-2002).
In January 2003 I switched to Linux on my main computer (RedHat 8 at the time),
but considered it as an experiment (I had Windows ME in the other partition).
It turned out I could do everything -or almost- in Linux. When there was
something I could not do with Linux, I managed to find alternatives (booting an
outdated version of Windows in another partition, or running this outdated
version of Windows inside Linux with an emulator like Win4lin or VMware).
So I never switched to XP. I switched to Linux instead, and I am glad I did.
Of course it's not perfect every day. But I have spent 15 years dealing with
problems caused by Windows and the fact that Microsoft has always placed market
lock-in over respect for their customers. Compared to that, the few problems I
have experienced with Linux are NOTHING.
Christophe
>
>Sorry for the OT, could't resist for unknown reasons.
>Peter
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