Tanstaafl wrote:
On 3/14/2010 10:19 AM, James Knott wrote:
I have worked with computers for over 34 years. I have worked at IBM
providing 3rd level support for OS/2 and Windows. I have used Linux
for many years. In short, I have a lot of hands on experience with
Linux, Windows, OS/2 and other. I am speaking from years of actual,
real world experience when I state that many of the problems users
experience are due to shoddy software from Microsoft.
So what does any of that have to do with the issue under discussion?
That was in response to your claim of "fanboy"
Perhaps you can explain to me why my own personal notebook computer
(an IBM ThinkPad which is the only computer I own that has Windows on
it) runs Linux reliably but regularly locks up with XP.
Bad windows drivers - video being the first one I'd look at?
So, you're saying IBM doesn't know how to write drivers for their own
hardware? How is it that open source Linux drivers work fine?
Perhaps you can explain why another computer at work, running Windows
crashes or locks up.
Crapware? Old/buggy/outdated drivers? Soft FS corruption that hasn't
ever been fixed? Bad power supply or RAM? Lots of potential reasons.
I'll be happy to fix it for you - my rates are $100/hr.
While at IBM, providing support for a very large customer, it was very
often necessary to reimage a user's computer because the problems were
not fixable, at least in a reasonable time. Also, while at IBM, I had
users running OS/2 and Windows. With OS/2, I'd rarely see problems that
were caused by the operating system. Such problems were frequent in
Windows, even those the same applications (appropriate version) were
used. Why is that?
Again, I have never, not once ever seen Linux crash.
Then you are either extremely lucky, or don't really use linux that much
or do that much with it - or I guess you could be a liar...
I'm not saying it isn't good. I use linux on all of my servers (although
I've been toying with the idea of replacing them with FreeeBSD someday)
- I'm just saying it is built by people, and therefore imperfect, and
does occasionally suffer problems of bad/buggy drivers, kernels, s/w,
and yes, even the occasional bad hardware.
In addition to PCs, I have also worked on the old "mini computers", such
as DEC VAX 11/780 and Data General Eclipse, among others. Outside of
Windows, crashes, due to software, are very, very rare. Why is that?
I also know there's never been a viable virus for Linux, nor is
there likely to be one, due to the differences between Linux&
Windows.
That all depends. Most linux systems by default don't encourage the user
to run as root like Windows.
That is indeed a large part of the problem. A Windows user often has to
run as Admin to use many apps. This is due to deficiencies in Windows.
But, I guess this all depends on how you define 'virus'. There have been
a number of linux exploits that have resulted in lots of compromised web
servers.
I suggest you learn from the real world.
I do - that's where I live, unlike this fantasy land you seem to live in.
You might also want to read up on the Netscape vs Microsoft trial
about how MS claimed they couldn't remove Internet Explorer, because
it was part of the operating system, even though at the time it
wasn't. However, with the next version of Windows, it was embedded in
the operating system, in violation of good software engineering
principles, which then caused browser problems to become operating
system problems. Microsoft has not gained it's position because of
product quality. They got there by using illegal or border line
illegal methods, up to and including extortion to force market share.
There is a *LOT* of documented history of this. You might also want
to look at how they rammed OOXML through ISO as an example.
All of which is totally irrelevant to the issue under discussion...
Fanboism is a disease...
It is entirely relevant, because it demonstrates the why of the
problem. MS has never been about product quality, as all the faults in
their software demonstrate. I earlier mentioned OOXML. Read up on all
the problems (a real beaut is how they want the 1900 leap year bug to be
ISO standard) with it and how it was rammed through ISO. By doing so,
you'll get a better picture of how MS works and how it hurts the
computer industry.
If "fanboism" is expecting reliable, safe computing, then I'm guilty of it.
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