Feedback from a non-nerd I'm not a Linux nerd or any kind of computer or technology nerd. I have nothing against nerds; I just don't want to be one. Or even be thought of as a nerd. I migrated to Ubuntu Linux years ago after mounting problems with Windows XP and total frustration with the basket case MS Vista was. I build my own PCs from scratch with parts from Pacific Solutions and ENU so I need an OS that does not need to be installed and burned-in to flawless behavior by a team of computer engineering PhDs at H-P or Dell.
Windows may be great factory-installed but it is far worse than any Debian distro if you need to make it work well on a home-rolled machine. Windows refuses to support legacy hardware, probably the cynical self-serving trade-off Microsoft made with hardware vendors to get that special inside hardware info. Why should I junk perfectly good scanners, SCSI cards and printers to make Microsoft and their hardware partners richer? Especially when I don't need to. The non-free nVidia driver works right out of the box with no tuning, ditto all my hardware 15 years old or cutting edge. I have not had a problem with Flash since the Jaunty release, the 32- or 64-bit versions. I use them all the time to access and download music videos and audio files. Ditto the sound driver, which is more than could say for Vista. I don't do video games apart from passing time with solitaire or the like so maybe the gamers out there need to stick with Windows. In fact, given that a Linux strength is the superior security it offers due to the comparatively minuscule number of non-Windows machines making Linux less interesting to the dolts who write and deploy malware, I hope Linux never seriously challenges Windows' user base. Right now Linux seems to have the optimum number of users, enough to support a plethora of apps and drivers but insufficient to attract the mindlessly destructive. May it always be so! _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
