Windows ME Tour (fwd)

[warlord at MIT.EDU (Derek Atkins)]

Peter,

I'm sorry you had such a poor experience at the BLU meeting.  I must
admit that I wasn't there, nor do I regularly attend.  However, I
do advocate using Linux instead of Windows in _most_ applications.

For example:

	1) I do use VMWare to run WinNT in order to run M$ Office.
           The only reason I run M$ Office is because I require the
           ability to not only read but also write M\$ Office
           documents (to send to others who only run M$).

	2) Other than M$ Office (for which there is no reasonable
           alternative when you need to _write_ a M$-format file), I
           use Linux for everything else (email, www, news, composing
           letters, graphics, etc)

	3) Linux is MUCH more stable than any M$ product I've ever
           used.  Last time I had to reboot Linux was when I lost
           power.  The last time I had to reboot NT was when I tried
           to open a document and it didn't like it.

	4) Although you are correct that Windows has drivers for LOTS
           of hardware, Linux does a pretty good job, too.  Indeed,
           many manufacturers are starting to support Linux themselves
           -- a netgear ethernet card I recently obtained came with
           drivers for Linux!  Granted, you are less likely to be able
           to get Linux working on any random piece of hardware you
           pick up at a swapfest, however Windows might not work
           without the "driver disk" written by the hardware
           manufacturers.  Also, there are some classes of hardware
           which Linux such doesn't support (e.g. WinModems).
           However, there are projects to get those working as well.

Seriously, what OS you run is very much a matter of taste.  Actually
knowing that there _ARE_ alternatives to Windows is half the battle
that Linux is facing.  Do I personally care that you run Windows?  No.
Do I want to hear you grumble the next time Windows crashes on you and
you lose a couple hours of work?  No.

There is one perfectly good reason to run Windows: application
software that is not available on any other platform.  There are some
program that I have to (or want to) use that are ONLY available on
Windows.  This is why I run VMWare :) It came in very handy when NT
crashed the other day -- I didn't lose any work (because all my work
is done in Linux :)

My parents use windows.  I'd love to change them over to using Linux.
I take home Linux on my laptop and show it to them all the time.
Except my mom is clueless.  It took a while for my dad and I to train
her to select "Start -> Shutdown -> Shutdown" instead of turning off
the power switch.  But my parents use an accounting package for their
business, which is Windows software.  GnuCash isn't quite up to what
they need... yet.  Unfortunately my parents also use AOL, for which
there isn't a Linux equivalent either.  If it weren't for that, I
would certainly train them to use Linux.

So, use any OS you want.  Just remember that you DO have a choice.
Feel free to chose Windows.

-derek

"Peter Jon White" <PeterJonWhite at PeterWhiteCycles.com> writes:

> Having tried Linux, and especially after driving in to Cambridge to hear a
> presentation that had been billed as "how to run Windows aps under Linux" or
> something to that effect, and finding myself in a room full of programmer
> folks who seemed to enjoy slamming Microsoft rather than actually using
> computers to get work done, and being told be the presenter how sorry he was
> that he couldn't actually demonstrate using Windows aps under Linux,
> presumably because he didn't have the time to install "Office" under VMWARE
> or WIN4LIN, and having struggled in vain to find Linux drivers for some
> fairly mundane hardware that runs quite well in Windows, I'm inclined to
> ask;
> 
> Why would you think for one moment that anybody for whom the ease of use and
> ready availability of software that actually helps you get work done
> (without being a programmer) is important, would be the least bit interested
> in Linux?
> 
> I'm sure that Linux is just wonderful if you're running ahuge network orfile
> server or ISP. But the folks (like me) who just use computers to use a small
> business database, keep financial records for a small business, write
> letters, exchange email, etc. in other words the folks who use Windows and
> who might be interested in Windows ME, for whom a computer is a means to an
> end, rather than an end in itself, have no use for Linux.
> 
> So why would you waste their time, or yours for that matter? Unless this is
> just another opportunity to stand around smuggly and make snide comments
> about Gates & Co.
> 
> Peter Jon White
> Peter White Cycles
> 666 Mass Ave
> Acton, MA 01720
> 978 635 0969 voice
> 978 929 9654 fax
> www.PeterWhiteCycles.com
> >
> > Microsoft is coming to the shopping mall in your city to promote Windows
> > ME.  Many of us think that this would be an opportune time for Linux
> > users to show our preferred choice by showing up to hand out free Linux
> > CD's
> 
> -
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-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/      PP-ASEL      N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
-
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