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Subject: Re: What will be the position of Windows in 3, 4 years in the future?

Author: Christophe Theron

Date: 13:42:55 12/05/99

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On November 30, 1999 at 09:13:30, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:

>Here i reply to my own message? Why?
>I"m using this linux program/unix program called Lynx.
>I have 20 lines or so. I DO NOT SEE HOW TO INSERT lines.
>Me as a programmer can not EASILY see how i insert a line.
>Lynx is heaven compared to linux programs. You need to
>read gigabyte of doc files and ask a lot of friends how to
>get things done before you can install it. I never ever tried
>to install my cable modem in linux i never even installed internet
>at my system. Linux is improving, no doubts about that,
>but what is more important in this world, something that works
>wel or something that works better and better yet the others
>improve faster? Same question as for computer chess engines.
>We can only see in the future how it unfolds. For now the
>Merced is gonna be an important obstacle. If companies like
>redhat can offer linux systems that are a lot more user friendly
>and more integrating things with a better compiler than or just
>as good as the visual compiler, then linux makes a chance to expand. As the
>world gets more computer expansion is there anyway, but i guess most important
>is relavite expansion: the % of the market you occupy.
>For now linux is getting used by f'ing freaks who need to spent nearly fulltime
>learning how to work with it.
>that is the main obstacle. Software is of course another point but that's a bit
>smaller points if linux users would be WILLING to pay for something
>the average linux user is either student like me or working at a university or
>learned during his university period to work with it. they don't want to pay for
>anything. that's the main problem for game developers.


I completely agree with you, Vincent.

Linux is probably very good, but it's very hard to notice ! :)

I have set up one of my computers with Linux, because as a professional
programmer I cannot afford to ignore it.

It was very hard to get it running. It was hard to get my video card working
properly. It was hard to get the sound card working.

I tried to get the MSDOS emulation working. It's one of the main things for me:
I want to get rid of Microsoft stuffs, but still need (at least for a while) to
run my DOS utilities.

I had to read dozens of docs, spend several hours, and finally I gave up.

Two days ago I had to change the motherboard on this system. Now Linux does not
work anymore. I can boot it from a floppy, but then I have no idea how to get it
working again.

Compare this with Windows (I'm still using good old W95B): I just had to reboot,
Windows noticed some changes on the hardware, made the appropriate changes, and
it worked in 2 minutes.


I'm planning to erase Linux from my computer and try it again next year. My
plans to port Tiger on Linux are delayed.


I'm very sad about this: I would really like to work on a non-MS platform. With
Windows I don't feel in control of my computer anymore (especially W98). But
with Linux it's even worse! I feel I don't control anything anymore. Each time I
have the smallest problem I know it's going to take hours to fix it.

And, on purpose, I don't want to spend the needed time to learn the OS. "Normal"
users will not spend all this time. So I want it to be easy enough to get wide
acceptance. At this time, it is FAR from being the case.


The less worse solution I have found to my OS problem so far is to stick with
Windows 95B (OSR2). It works on all my computers: 386sx-20 (5Mb RAM!),
486dx2-66, K5-100, PPro200, K6-2-300 and K6-2-450.

The problem with Microsoft is that you'll never get a reliable operating system:
you get a system that almost works, but has many bugs. When you want to fix
them, you have to get the next version of the OS, which is fatter, does not run
anymore on your computer (allegedly because your 1 year old computer is already
outdated) and brings a lot more bugs than what it fixes.

I don't want to be part of this crazyness. But nobody offers an alternative.


    Christophe



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