quoting Cody Harris's missive of Saturday 07 June 2003 06:56 pm: <whack>
Mild rant alert! Please excuse. > >On Saturday 07 June 2003 05:07 pm, Cody Harris wrote: > > > Can someone come up with a few good reasons to switch from XP to > > > Linux? Someone wants to know the pros and cons and why he should > > > switch. > > > > > > -Cody Harris <chop> > >2. I have no hard evidence to support this theory, but my gut tells > >me that the hardware drivers in Linux are tighter code than in > >Windows. Linux drivers seem to offer better performance than the > >comparable Windows driver. You may be not entirely correct with these assumptions. Part of the reason that drivers for specific hardware under GNU/Linux work better than their Windows counterparts is simply that the code is written to the hardware, and to the kernel. Since nearly all of the "popular" hardware is at least in part Windows-centric; and since most manufacturers of hardware are at least partly beholden to the "W-Intel" oligopoly for their existence, as well as not wanting their 'competitors' to know too much about the architecture of the latest Whizbang 10000, they tell open source coders almost nothing about the actual architecture of the devices. The code is clean because it's the bare necessity to make the hardware work at all. Once it's improved and updated it starts becoming bloated like the drivers for Windows. To the point that features that are added are covers for previous features, and corrections for features that nobody wanted or used. Oh wait; aren't those features called *bugs?* Sorry. > >I speculate this might be because Linux is not a profit driven > >Operating System. This is significant. The driver writers are not > >faced with production deadlines. This allows them to take their > >time, test extensively, and tweak the code to the ninth degree. As a > >result the code is smaller and more efficient with less logic errors > >(bugs). I also speculate the Linux driver coders are doing it out of > >a labor of love. They have the hardware and they want Linux to be > >able to talk to it. > >3. From my very brief look into the Linux world and the Open ?Source? > >concept, the documentation for the kernel and the drivers are made > >public to everyone. This allows talented programmers from around the > >world to develop code that will integrate with another's code. It's > >a worldwide community of programmers all following the same > >development guidelines. The final code versions should be very > >stable given the thousands of users/testers. Windows will never have > >the ability to have this amount of extensive testing. > > > >Summarizing my main selling points are: 1) Linux code is better, and > >2) the Linux price is better. GNU/Linux distributors would dearly love to profit by their work. The premise that there's nothing hidden is a different scenario than not wanting people to actually _pay_ for the software the developers sweat blood over. They just don't usually insist on payment as often. Companies such as MandrakeSoft (totally GPL, meaning you can download a complete working distribution) offer something many people wouldn't have if they weren't here. i.e: An operating system that (usually) doesn't require the latest hardware, complete and self contained and production ready. Free; in both the "speech" (Libre) and the "beer" (Gratuit) sense. But they rely on a sense of fairness, honour, and a willingness to pay for value in others that; based on my 46 years of observation and analysis, doesn't exist in most human beings. "Human nature" in this case means that people won't pay for anything they aren't forced to. Not if it's "free." Yet. That paradigm is what's led the company to the brink of financial disaster as much as the "business model" (stupidity) of previous management. It's a conundrum that won't be resolved until we (the "community") all start paying what we can for what we get. Not everyone can afford to buy a box set, not everyone can pay an annual subscription to The Club, but almost all of us can pay something. The question is 'What's it worth?' to any of us. That's utterly subjective and I don't want answers, since "you" are the only one that needs to know. I've answered the question for myself, it's your turn. I'm still here. > >However, if you are dealing with computer illiterate people, a version > >of Windows is probably better since Windows development has evolved > >to make a desktop that is as human proof as possible. *Wrong.* I've helped people with absolutely no computer experience whatsoever start using their own first system, and I've always (since late 1999, early 2000) started them with Mandrake. Built them the box (or helped them do it, or showed them how to get a bare bones), helped them install the OS, helped them connect to the internet for the first time, made their default browser home page Google and explained why, and how to change it later and never _once_ have any of them wondered why (until much later) they didn't have trouble with infected e-mails. Or the BSOD/reboot/scolding because the operating system crashed but *you* didn't "shut down cleanly" messages they kept hearing about. They seemed to think that it was funny when they figured it out, and wonder why anyone would tolerate that behaviour from a machine. Or from software they don't really own but barely lease, with built-in permission to invite the 'owner' to snoop as part of said E.(verlasting)U.(surious)L.(icentious)A.(busiveness). My own kids learned to "coax Windows boxes" in school, but they learned to run computer systems here. Neither uses Windows at their mother's home. By choice. Theirs. > I think that's where someone should step in and make it usable to the > average non-computer literate person. It took my awhile to learn how to do > things. I think that could be solved with a little more automation and not > painstakingly doing everything. urpmi(sp?) is great, but what about someone > that doesn't know about it? Windows update if good because it says: "Here's > a list of crap that we think will make your computer better". Even if it > doesn't help. Of course, i'm saying this from experiance, so i'm most likly > wrong. How many of you that have had wives that didn't know how to use the > thing? That's what these lists are here for. newbie, expert etc. To help you learn how to do these things for yourself. You can automate updates if you like, or script an update alias that you just click on. The difference is that no matter what it says on the Windows update site they _are_ snooping. The Mandrake update tools aren't. examples of choices, not a complete list!: If you are running KDE; click the K menu task bar button, select "->What to do?", select "Administer your system", select "Download and install Mandrake security updates", type the root password and enter when prompted. Drag that icon to the desktop (copy here) and you'll save a few steps. Or right click the task bar, Add->Application Button, follow the same path as above and do it from there. Or from a terminal type: MandrakeUpdate and type the root password when prompted. Many ways. Choice, freedom, flexibility. _You_ decide! Not Microsoft. > PS: Sorry about spelling. A final note; AFAICR spelling checkers in any Microsoft applications that require them are tied to other 'premium' priced applications. Such as Office, Works, (?) etc., or you'll have to find one that will work without. There are free-ware spelling checkers for Windows, you just have to look. Try a Google search for one. Or you could just go here: http://www.sover.net/~whoi/Text2.html scroll (roughly 1/3 down the page) to the "Spellchecker Editbox" then download it and try that. It works in any Windows 'text editor,' including forms on web pages. I know it works 'cause a friend uses it where she works and raves about it. She says she could barely spell her own name otherwise. She may be a bit careless with the truth however. <g> That same site (Son of Spy Freeware) once had download links to older versions of wordpad and notepad that work with Windows up to Win2k I believe. May still have. The versions that still had a spelling checker built in I mean. Some of which should work in Wine since they're actually DOS apps at heart. For Mandrake (and other distributions that I've used) the hard part is deciding what dictionaries to install. The tools are there. Too many tools sometimes in fact, but that's a subject for another "rant." ;-) All of this last section was based on the assumption that you're bothered by your lack of ability as regards your spelling Cody, and that you wish you could do something about it. Besides learn to spell correctly, which isn't always a possibility for some of us. If you aren't then disregard it since it doesn't bother me either. I'm just being my usual "unhelpful" self. <g> > -Cody Harris Regards; Charlie -- Edmonton,AB,Canada Registered user 244963 at http://counter.li.org Mandrake 9.1 Bamboo (cooked) 13:03:36 up 26 days, 5:07, 2 users, load average: 0.28, 0.08, 0.02 Have you ever noticed that the people who are always trying to tell you `there's a time for work and a time for play' never find the time for play?
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