Kelly wrote:
You shouldn't just copy Microsoft's press releases, you know.
On Friday, July 13, 2007 12:34 pm Tomas Larsson wrote:
No, currently Linux will never beat Windows.
Financially the chances that Linux beating Windows is low. It does
matter what is installed on computers for an OS when it was purchased.
Most people stick with what was sold to them.
Functionally Windows has less ability than Windows in a lot of aspects.
I often try to do things when on windows and realize that it does not
work for windows machines. (Changing runlevels, configuring the system
and realizing what you are configuring.)
It's to complicated, an average home or office user will never get it to
work.
As my observation above, things are easier with Linux to realize what
you are doing. I often have troubles figuring out how to set things up
with Windows. Running through tabs, finding out where the feature was
shuffled when moving from say w2k to XP.
So personally I would not recommend anyone, who isn't a geek to use it.
I setup a few systems with Fedora and gave them to people. They had no
trouble using the system. It was several months that went by before they
even asked me what the root password for installing a printer. The other
times they did not require a password since the system was rich with
software, games and system software at install time. The user just needs
to have it installed and they will be able to use it easily.
I have tried my self a couple of times to install and run Linux on desktop,
allways ended up with a no-go.
Possible to not be able to handle having software vs. having a stripped
down OS with not much to show. I usually install Openoffice and a
version of Seamonkey just to have something to be able to use.
Everytime I have ended up with bying full non-oem XP licence's instead.
I do run it on my servers though.
I have not bought Windows since w95 first was released. The OEM software
that came with the computer is all that was later used by myself.
I figure that the vendor of the computer struggled to get Windows
working so that is the best the computer could do with any other version
of their software License .
XP I can get up and running regardless of hardware in say 30 min's Linux
takes considerably longer time (days, weeks, months in some cases).
I have installed so many versions of windows on different machines using
the non-oem versions of software. (Work related, somebody else forked
out the wasted dollars) On many of them, I'd say over half failed for
not having the proper video driver, NIC or modem among other hardware. I
have even had Windows install software for hardware that did not exist
on the computer. My most recent problem was with Windows installing
Synaptics drivers for a computer that had no such devices. The result
was software using up over 90% of the CPU and making the computer run as
XP would run on an XT computer.
XP has basically everything, without hassle, extremly stable (basically
never crashes).
I would say that it detects hardware incorrectly, does not have drivers
for a lot of hardware. I had a few windows machines that it thought that
a barcode scanner was a mouse. The result was that the computer would
dump core and reboot when the barecode was scanned. Before the reboot on
error, it would have BSOD'd. Since Wondows changed actions on errors, it
rebooted and dumped core on every scan of the barcode. We had to use
comdisable to prevent the wrong detection on serial ports. It Crashes,
but it now reboots instead of blue screening.
Antivirus software is not an issue really. You probably
need it on linux as well, at least in the near future.
I hate to admit it but I run a few Windows computers without AV. I think
that what a user does and what the computer is allowed to do matters
more than just the presence of AV software. Either OS needs
vulnerability prevention software. I appreciate all of the effort put
into making Linux less prone to malware.
If you buy a preloaded PC, you probably have everything you need, for basic
home use.
It depends on Whether you bought it bundled with extra applications or
not. I don't think solitaire, IE Explorer and notepad is all a home user
needs to get by.
It is cheaper for most people to purchase a valid XP license than spending
hours to get a linux-box to work.
I started using Linux primarily since I bought a copy of RHL 5.2. I can
only imaging all the money I saved compared to the money that I would
have wasted on all sorts of software. Cheaper, I doubt. Keep that Valid
license.
Similar with Office, its cheaper to buy MS Office than spending time to get
Open Officce or whatever thay are called to work.
I have not had any difficulty with Openoffice being able to do whatever
is possible using Office except for database items. There is progress in
this area now and soon even that problem or difference will not be a factor.
You can easilly fool yourself with the pricetag on any software, but time
is monney, allways.
Regarding MS support, well, those few times I have been forced to use it,
it is very good.
The only time that I had to use it for XP authentication. Some numbers
were already distributed though the sticker reads the number that was
said to be used too many times. I hate to read off long numbers to
people who barely speak the same language that I am accustomed to.
Personally, however I don't like MS-Office especially MS-Word, I love
WordPerfect, but last time I tested it it was extremly buggy, anyone that
knows how it is today, with the latest version?
The last version of WordPerfect that I used was the demo which came with
RHL 5.2 that I purchased.
The reason that I heard WP failed to work in a lot of situations was due
to information regarding the OS specifics was not transmitted to WP
properly or Windows changed things enough with system items to make WP
work poorly. It is of course only what was rumored.
Jim
--
Of course there's no reason for it, it's just our policy.
