I have also written to Mr Scargill. I have tried to remain respectful, and in retrospect I did come on a bit strong initially.
Chris -------------------------------------------------- Hi Peter, Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Chris; and I work in second line support specialising in Microsoft based infrastructure built around Active Directory. I'm also a Linux user (at work and at home) and would like to comment on your Linux article on the fsb.org.uk website. It's great to see that the article title has now been changed to include the fact that it is an opinion. This is rather important ;-) I wonder if you are aware of the Ubuntu 'answers' support system. You can see it here: https://answers.launchpad.net/ This system allows users to direct any question they have about running the operating system to a volunteer group who will for *free* reply with a advice to fix the problem. I thought it might be beneficial to include this fact in your article. Currently it reads "Or you can choose Linux which is often free and then struggle with support (which probably won't be free)." I'd also be interested to find out what problems you had with Ubuntu discovering your Windows network 'out of the box'? When plugging in Ubuntu Feisty to a Windows domain, it seems to work fine for me! If you find the same, perhaps you'd like to edit the part of your article that reads. "Those installations of alternative operating systems which won't recognise my Windows network out of the box are immediately binned, those which do are given serious consideration" to reflect the fact that Ubuntu does. I find this paragraph a little confusing. "Linux enthusiasts have always had difficulty understanding why the average user would not want to get stuck in and "have a go" when it comes to making changes or installing accessories. For most small businesses, computers are a tool, nothing more. You don't expect to configure a hammer or sit for hours downloading and configuring updates to your CD player just to make it work. That pretty much happens with modern XP and VISTA-based packages -" Are you saying that Linux needs lots of updates etc? This is also true of Windows. I've lost count of the times I've had to install dotnet, java, flash etc just to get apps up and running. I wonder if you could clear this paragraph up for me a little too. "you simply cannot even BEGIN to compare the functionality of Open Office with Office 2007 - its not even remotely in the same league" It'd be helpful if you could point out which features are lacking in Open Office so that we can see where we are going wrong. There are indeed 'horses for courses', and of course in some areas Microsoft excels and in others Linux does. I just feel that you are in an extremely privileged position, and that your opinions could influence the buying habits of FSB users heavily. Given that your employment centre around Microsoft, perhaps it would be better for someone else to write and article about Linux who is not involved ? Thankyou for your time. Kind Regards Chris -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
