Subj : Re: Which Linux for a beginning desktop? To : comp.os.linux From : chris Date : Sun Feb 27 2005 08:07 pm Mxsmanic wrote: > chris writes: > >> Wrong. > > A Mac generally requires no installation at all, since it is > preinstalled. Unfortunately, if you want any useful applications, you have to install them. > The same is true for many PCs delivered with Windows > preinstalled. Unfortunately, if you want any useful applications, you have to install them. > A fresh installation of Windows requires 20 minutes or > so, depending on the speed of the system. Wrong. I installed Win NT4 on to a 1GHz PIII this afternoon - 41 minutes and five reboots. > A fresh installation of Linux > or UNIX without a GUI takes about the same amount of time or a bit > longer. However, installation of X and a GUI under Linux or UNIX can > take a very long time indeed, since GUIs are extremely > hardware-depdendent and most open-source products aren't very good at > dealing with anything outside the most conventional configurations. Wrong. Installed Mandrake 10.1 on to the above hardware (after Windoze crashed twice in 20 minutes) in 31 minutes, including Open Office, Kontact, and a few development tools. Worked 100% STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX! >> That IS Windoze, you dummy! > > No, it's not. None of the things you describe is typical of Windows. You really are clueless. Perhaps you've never actually installed Windoze at all. >> Wrong. Typically 2 hours on the hardware available then. > > I installed Windows hundreds of times. Twenty to forty minutes was > typical, depending on the speed of the hardware (particularly disk and > CD drives). > >> And then you had >> to load the software, with all the endless reboots, patches, fixes, >> incompatibilities, and other Windoze crap. > > I never had any problems like this with Windows. You've never actually installed Windoze then, have you? > I have a lot of > problems like this with UNIX/Linux. Simply because you're clueless. > I have the numbers in front of me. Overall market penetration is 95%, > worldwide. As claimed by Microsoft. Bill Gates will actually tell you that Windows is an "operating system"! >> They don't use Windoze because it doesn't work properly and because they >> don't pay the MS Tax with every computer sold. > > They _do_ use Windows, but they just pirate it rather than paying for > it. No. I can't actually recall seeing ANY MS-based boxes in my last visit - except for the blue screen crashed ones at the British Airways check-in in Singapore. > Windows is easier to use than other operating systems, Not any more. > and there > are more applications available for it. Maybe, but that's changing. > This doesn't match any of the market profiles I've seen for Asia. Because you're looking at the data supplied by vested interests. > It's > difficult to get truly objective data, MS will give you all the "data" you could ever want! > though, and since Asia pirates > the commercial software and doesn't have to buy the free software, it > can be nearly impossible to know with certainty exactly what is running > on most machines. Wrong. You can't "pirate" Free/Open Source software, so they don't bother. The GPL allows them to copy disks to their heart's content, and that's what they do. The don't bother with the MS rubbish, because it doesn't work well enough. >> There has NEVER been any kind of MS-based >> governmental project in ANY western country that has ever worked >> properly. > > Most Western countries use Microsoft software every day. Because they've been "bought" by Microsoft. > I'm not sure > what you mean by "MS-based project," though. A good example: the British Health Service system - supposed to be in every Doctor's office, and connected to a country-wide database. The client computers "run" XP, with a crappy "bespoke" client application on top. The servers "run" Server 2003. The operating system level crashes of the servers and the client machines make it utterly unusable. There have been Hundreds of Millions of Pounds spent on this system, and it will never work. It cannot ever work. > Microsoft writes operating > systems, and Office suite, and a few server utilities and > compilers--that's all. Not much to base a "project" on. What else would you want to base a project on? You obviously have no clue whatsoever about real computing. Enjoy Windows. C. -- Everything gets easier with practice, except getting up in the morning! .