Tim wrote:
>>Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave. When did this become about what I do for
>>a living? And is it your common resort to tell people who question the
>>way things are done "If your not a developer then fuck off"? But if we
>>must, then I fill you in on a little secret - I'm a Java developer. All
I did not say that. I said, it is easier for a developer to see things
as they are, because they are working more directly with Microsoft than
the consumer is, who deals only with their Marketing department.
> If you take a look at the history of linux and the short amount of time it
> has been around they are leaps and bounds ahead of Microsofts developement.
> No one said that you had to be a developer to use the OS or get a lot out of
> it. If Microsoft developers were so savvy I doubt I would have about 30
> emails in my bugtraq folder about a worm that threatened to slow down the
> entire internet overnight. Also, when was the last time you had to PAY to
> upgrade your mandrake distribution to an entirely new OS? Last I checked it
> was something like $300 US to buy Windows 2000 Professional...
>
Well, you bring up a good point, Tim, but I am now convinced that this
guy is a troll, and it's the first flame I remember seeing on the Cooker
list the whole time I've been here, and probably only the second flame
attack made on me personally my entire life, which in all, isn't so bad.
There are people here that have been trying to explain to you
rationally. I have done this at least three times now.
Microsoft makes it look easy through marketing and money. You'd think if
Microsoft is actually spending their money on "innovation" rather than
just making more money, they wouldn't be quite as rich as they are today.
This is not an attack on Microsoft, just a way to point out some of the
differences between commerical and open source philosophies.
No one is forcing you to pay for upgrades to Mandrake 8, as Tim said,
but they will force you to buy XP, even when you don't want it. The
computer industry is counting on WinXP to fuel computer sales (yeah
right). You had pointed out that Linux is always in development, so you
know the answer to your own question already. If you don't like the way
things are done, you can always stay with Windows permanently.
That said, I think Mandrake would glady provide you with updates to 7.2
if they had the money and resources that Microsoft has. Not even
Microsoft provides updates to old operating systems, honnestly, so get
over it.
> How hard is it to pop in the 8.0 CD and click upgrade? I've had several of
> my less computer savvy friends try it and only had a few minor problems that
> were easily solved. If you think Microsoft is on a mission to have older
> versions supported you should read into their .NET policy... Once again I
> have to stress that a user can tar -xvzf source.tar.gz, ./configure, make,
> make install and have a custom built application built for their specific
> configuration. I'm sure if you thought this was too difficult for the
> average user someone could write a contrib program that would untar,
> configure, and make an app from a tarball fairly easily. Working with
> windows and linux both on a daily basis I wouldn't give up the advances in
> linux software for the .dll scheme windows has for anything. Anyone that
> disagrees hasn't spent hours in the registry trying to figure out why
> something doesn't work. =)
Again, Tim, you have made a good point. But this guy already argued that
it was wrong for Mandrake to "tie an application to the OS". Note: He is
just throwing that phrase around. It's not the same as when Microsoft
ties IE to Windows (but you see he's trying to make the connection,
because he thinks it's funny).
So on one hard he argues that this (compiling) is bad because an end
user will not want to do it (and I agree). But on the other hand, he
says that Mandrake shouldn't even provide upgrades to 8.0 so that people
won't have to recompile themselves, because that would be bad, too.
I am convinced of his many contradictions now and the fact that this
person was not looking for some real help, but for some laughs.
This will be the last email I send for this thread.
--
Sincerely,
David Walluck
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
