> Does anyone remember what life was like before Microsoft? > I ALMOST got a Sinclair, then pondered the Texas Instruments offering at about the same time until I heard they were simply dumping their inventory to get out of the market. I was about to order a Commodore 64 until I saw I needed a TV to display it. I remember seeing a Mattel computer game package, with the claim "soon to be upgradeable as a family computer"! That was my first taste of vaporware, not to be the last be any means! I knew a person with a tRS-80, and credit him with first causing me to spark an intrst in computers as a business tool. My first real computer was an Electronic Slide Rule (analog computer with 3 potentiometers) sold by the Edmund's Scientific Company. It got boring real fast, but still interesting. My first digital computer was an IBM 256k dial-floppy 5.25" disk drive beast with a Color Adapter and a c80 display. I also got a 9 pin dot matrix wide carrigae Okidata printer! And the PC had a Hayes 1200 baud internal modem also! Not soon after I beefed up to 640k RAM and added a Qubie 10Mg Hard Drive. I never looked back. I did have IBM DOS 2.1, and remember reading all that geeky crap and not understanding any of it. Then things began to click as I started to play with the machine.
Gil > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Michael Madigan > Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 3:25 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [NF] Microsoft slips Novell another tenth of a billion > > > Does anyone remember what life was like before Microsoft? > > We had TRS-80, PET, Rainbow, Apple, Commodore 64, Timex/Sinclair, > Coleco, Osbourne, etc all mostly incompatible > > Of course different flavors of Linux is still Linux, but choice > is not always a good thing. > > Look at the people who chose DVD-HD, Beta, CED video disk > > Perhaps Linux is the best of both worlds, competition with > standardization. We'll see. > > > --- On Thu, 8/21/08, Vince Teachout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > From: Vince Teachout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Subject: Re: [NF] Microsoft slips Novell another tenth of a billion > > To: "ProFox Email List" <[email protected]> > > Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 2:52 PM > > Ted Roche wrote: > > > > Wow. Apparently I hit a nerve with you and Ed. > > > > Ted Roche wrote: > > > On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Vince Teachout > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > So you choose to starve to death? Hmm. Is this a case > > of Darwinism in > > > action? <g> > > > > > Why did both you and Ed take it to an extreme? You with > > starving, Ed > > with 1 movie? I have a working laptop that I need in order > > to do my > > job. It does what I need, and any change I make had > > better not hurt my > > ability to work. I'm in no rush to change, no do I > > have any real need > > to do so. I would like to change because I believe the > > principles of > > Linux are better than those of MS. > > > > > > > Do you have that trouble at the grocery store, too? > > Yes, I do. It takes me longer to shop if there's more > > choices. I > > compare labels, prices, and nutrition information. Why is > > that a problem? > > > > > Can't buy a car > > > because you're afraid the Volt or the Tesla is > > going to be a > > > game-changer in a couple years? Holding out for the > > Prius plug-ins? Or > > > for gas to hit $2 a gallon? (good luck!) > > > > > Can't buy Blu-Ray vs whatever the hell-it is, because > > format C is going > > to be a game changer in a few years? Gee, that's never > > happened. > > > > > When tea is on sale at the grocery, I can pick one one > > I know I like > > > and one I haven't tried before and I'm okay > > with that, even though > > > there are 60 to choose from. Sometimes I hem and haw a > > little. Would I > > > be happier with less choices? No. > > > > > That works for you. Good. I buy my tea in bulk at the > > coop, which > > works for me. > > > > > I believe that the Paradox of Choice is a great sign > > of a healthy ecosystem. > > > > > Yeah, and I never said I was opposed to choice, simply that > > I understand > > the problems with too many choices. > > And I definitely have a problem with no choice - aka > > windows. > > > > > We're shopping for a new stove, and we can buy a > > Kenmore or a GE or a > > > Westinghouse or a Haier and... they are all the same! > > Same burner > > > options, same color options, same features. There is > > no innovation, > > > and the only competition is on price. Quality stinks > > on everything > > > under $1K and the choices stink. We're going to > > take our time, do our > > > research, and buy exactly the right one we can live > > with for 15 years. > > > > > That is exactly what I'm doing with Linux, so why I am > > getting a load of > > shit for it? > > > > > The huge flaw in this assumption is that there is some > > Warranty of > > > Happiness. That MAX(Happiness) is the ultimate goal. > > Life is a series > > > of hard choices and compromises and tough decisions > > and then you die. > > > > > There is no flaw in this assumption (the Paradox of choice, > > I mean, not > > the stove) at all. It's simply an observation of human > > behavior, and a > > attempt to explain that behavior. > > > > > > > You want to be happy? Go belt back a couple on Friday > > night. You want > > > to have a solid, working, reliable computer system (or > > car, or stove > > > or partner)? That's hard. Takes work. Tough > > decisions. Suck it up and > > > deal with it. > > > > > > > > Attempting to do it, in my own, plodding, methodical way. > > By > > downloading distro, after distro, trying them, and > > comparing them. > > > > > Do you know what they termed the 3 percent? Winners. > > The 97 percent? > > > Losers. You get to choose which category you are in. > > > > > Do you mean like the winners who chose IPhone 2, or the > > winners who > > chose Beta, or the winners who chose Windows J++? > > And I DO get to choose my category, and I DON'T choose > > to define winner > > or loser based on what brand of Jelly, or OS, I choose or > > don't choose. > > > > > And an unfair test. How many of the people tested were > > starving to > > > death? How many of them were told they would be killed > > if they didn't > > > pick one? See! The study was biased! <g> > > > > > > > ? I see the <g>, but god as my witness, I don't > > know what the hell > > you're talking about. And again, with the starving? > > > > > worth it. What if they raised the stakes along with > > the choices? Five > > > bucks off a jar of jelly to choose from 30. How many > > people would > > > refuse free jelly? > > > > > Then I'd have to factor that in as well, when making a > > choice. > > > So, you lack sufficient motivation to choose a Linux > > distro. Perhaps > > > we can make it easier for you: pick from any one of > > the top 6 at > > > distrowatch. There? Easier? > > > > > No. I've been watching the distrowatch for over a > > year, and the top 6 > > keep moving. At one time or another, each of the current > > top 6 was not > > even in the top 10. > > > (Ha! Mandriva is 7th! Happier now?) > > > > > > > > At the time I started looking at Mandriva, it was 3rd. > > > > > > > Looked at another way, would you like to be in a group > > or 30 percent > > > of your peers, or 3 percent? > > I'm starting to wonder. I hear a lot of flack about MS > > "toadies", but > > it seems to me that if anyone dares step outside the Linux > > mainstream > > line of thought, they catch just as much flack. I still > > remember when I > > was stupid enough to state that Ubuntu didn't work for > > me. You'd > > thought I'd advocated killing Mother Teresa. > > > > The thing Ed said about a few flavors of Linux may be > > technically true, > > btw, but the vast majority of Windows users would have > > absolutely no way > > of knowing that. Especially if they read the blurbs on the > > Distrowatch > > page, where each proud Papa loudly trumpets how his distro > > is the BEST > > and fixes all the FLAWS in the other versions.... > > > > Anyway, I will eventually move to Linux, when I'm > > ready, and after I've > > made my own choice, in my own way. I just won't be > > stupid enough to > > mention it on this group, is all > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Post Messages to: [email protected] > > Subscription Maintenance: > > http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox > > OT-free version of this list: > > http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech > > Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox > > This message: > > http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are > > the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or > > medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for > > those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious. > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
