This is all dangerously off topic but it does invite a comparison in the way we think. We most of us on this list started using computers almost everything we wanted to run had to be typed in or loaded off a tape. The operating system was just a bare bones structure that you hung everything else from. This is one of the reasons they were not mass consumer objects. Now a computer is just that. Most homes have them. When Joe Bloggs buys his computer he does not want to spend hours finding and loading programs for what he considers to be the basic functions. Computers are now marketed as games machines and entertainment consoles capable of playing movies and music as well as writing letters etc. The list of functions is endless. Now I actually use, as I said, several other programs for music and video playback but I do not mind the Microsoft one being there. For most people it does exactly what they want and they make no distinction between O/S and program. Most people are surprised if a computer does not come with an Office suite of some kind which is why the big stores provide them all pre-loaded. This is what most of the people want. We spend our time playing around with computers in a different way so for us all this pre-loaded, switch it on and go stuff is not how we see it but we are a small community.Well Roy you might want everything coded into the operating system but I dont.
Therefore it does not matter to me that Windoze has a media centre and a Firewall and all that other stuff that I just switch off. Consider that the entry level PC these days is 2.4GHz Celeron with 512Mb RAM, 40Gb HDD, CD writer and a 64Mb Graphics card and an extra bit of redundant code makes little difference - unless I want to use it for something very CPU intensive or produce pointless benchmarks.
When I learned to drive my first car came without a heater, radio windscreen washers or wing mirrors. I had to add these myself. These days these items are hard coded to my car. Fine by me. If I don't like them I can change them but I can use the car 'straight out of the box'.
Besides I object to paying for substandard software, and you only have to look at the open software world to se what support and service means.
You don't have to. It is not compulsory to have a copy of Windoze. I have looked at open software and I have not been that impressed. Most of the office suites are pretty good and better than we have on the QL and they are free so they are great value for money. LINUX is getting easier to install and I gather that Lindows (or whatever they call it now) installs very simply but if that all became a mainstream system the support would crash around your ears because as soon as the less computer literate start running it the drain on the support system increases exponentially. While geek talks to geek support works but when geek talks to pleb both parties crash.
Fine for you to use open software but don't talk the less able members of society into using it. Some of the people who own computers and call us up at work are hopeless.
I use Windoze and QPC2. Windoze works most of the time. It does have the odd problem but 2000 Pro and XP are infinitely better than 98 ever was. Most of the software I run on the system is not M$ but shareware some of which is superb and has excellent support.
-- Roy Wood Q Branch. 20 Locks Hill, Portslade, Sussex. Tel: +44 (0) 1273 386030 fax: +44 (0) 1273 430501 web : www.qbranch.demon.co.uk
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