Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 02:54:20 -0700
From: Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [LIB] OS/2 on the 70CT

*MUST RESIST URGE TO FLAME*....

OK here goes ... I probably shouldn't even reply to this but I'll just briefly
(yea right ... heh) answer the points you bring up and leave it at that. I've
got neither the time nor the spare effort to have a flame war.

 
> >in what I thought was a forum dominated by technology and engineering 
> >professionals ...
> 
> You might respect criminals- I don't.

My problem wasn't with you slagging Microsoft and I won't get into MS being
illegal or not. My problem was, last I looked, writing in such a form,
especially without a point (you could have said 'I don't like Microsoft' and
backed it up with some facts), was not only rude, it was insulting to the list
as a whole. Hence my thing about this list supposedly being dominated by
professionals. I thought such language was limited to the script kiddy rooms on
EFNet. As such, you could argue that you're not respecting the list. You're not
calling us criminals are you? 


> >Linux over both OS/2 and Windows as it is actively maintained, has full 
> >support on the Libretto series of laptops and has no licence issues (not 
> >that I'm proposing that it is a solution for you).
> >
> 
> You can't expect anyone to take freeware seriously. 

Tell that to IBM, Compaq, HP, Intel, Dell, Novell ...


>If a person needs
> to who would he call if there's a support issue? 

If a person needs support for any other product who would they call? Not only
can you buy support plans for open source software from reputable companies (and
have a total cost of ownership still be lower than closed source software), the
'hacker base' - the free newsgroups, chat channels and mailing lists surrounding
open source software tend to be a lot more active than for closed source
software for obvious reasons. I had a problem with an open source 3D modelling
program (QuArK). I brought it up, cold, on a newsgroup and I downloaded a fixed
executable within 18 hours. You try that with closed source.


> For example- right
> now my newsserver is giving me problems. So I call earthlink to tell
> they have a problem. While the support tech is telling me to uninstall
> and reinstall Dial up networking (which of course didn't solve the
> problem- my computer works perfectly except for a few corrupted files
> which I got when I had bad memory) I asked him if they support one of
> the most popular operating systems out there- Linux. No he tells me
> they don't. 

Haven't you just proven your point incorrect? You said Earthlink wasn't
supporting Linux ... doesn't sound like their Windows support was much use
either. Besides, thats like only having ever seen Ford dealerships and telling
people never to by Mitsubishi because you can't get support when there's a
Mitsubishi dealership just over the next hill that you never go over because you
don't like that part of town.


>So what good does it do to have progressive operating
> systems if the very people that work on them only support one or two
> which ones are dictated, of course, by Redmond. The average joe will
> never be able to use what he chooses because the people that are
> supposed to fix them won't.

In my experience, on average those people who ONLY support Microsoft products
tend to NOT be as highly trained as those that support say Linux servers or
Netware servers, judging by the quality of contracted techs we tended to get
where I used to work and by looking at what it takes to get certified by
Microsoft, Novell and RedHat. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there aren't
good MCSE's around, I've also met some of those as well but YOUR experience just
showed that it isn't the presence of support that matters, its the quality. Once
you can get it of course (which you can). 


> Its as if every auto mechanic gets
> together and decides they're going to work on only one make of car.
> (For ease of support of course.) That they are only going to ALLOW one
> make. They are going to force everybody to drive a Ford.

Sounds quite reasonable if it's some place that just became a Ford dealership. 


> Sorry guys no
> more Corvettes.

Of course not. Take your Corvette down the road to the Corvette dealership.


> Of course now Earthlink is canned and I'll find a ISP
> that is more progressive and supports more than just windows and Macs.

Dunno about where you are but in the backwater that is the Australian internet,
all the second level techs I've spoken to know about Linux and can at least give
advice or put you through to someone who can, and quite a few know about OS/2
(and the first level techs put you straight through to the second level techs
once they hear anything that isn't a Windows or a Mac box). 


Basically it boils down to doing your homework and knowing what you're talking
about before you make generalizations ... oh and please, please, please use
language thats appropriate to the forum (or if its inappropriate at least
specify that it is in jest, if that is indeed the case and is not apparent
otherwise). Otherwise it just gets painful. I assume thats the case for the
other members of the list (or at least those who didn't just ignore or delete
the email on the first misspelling of 'Windows'), if it isn't someone else
please say something ...

*sigh*

- Raymond



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