Reply #36: Responses, in order to each point

[Deja Q]

1. You get it. Not a license that can be revoked whenever microsoft decides to end it. (SaaS, bloated TCO, et al)

2. yep

3. yep

4. Crapware is put into the windows PC to subsidize costs. They on computer news sites, seasoned writers will whine and whinny to get these removed by OEMs. THAT WILL NOT EVER HAPPEN, OR EXPECT TO PAY THE SAME PRICE AS A MAC... I sure as fuck wouldn't... I'd rather get a Mac...

5. Linux isn't as popular yet and no platform is genuinely secure. I tell the same thing to Mac zealots who say OS X is secure by default. Not quite in reality, they are...

6. true

7. true

8. The linux equivalent of "DLL Hell" - the wrong library version... not all linux app installs are as nimble as windows' either... OS X is better, but there is a slight inconsistency with some of their apps too

9. Assuming the host download site is valid... when I did Ubuntu 8.10, no problems... ditto for Fedora Core 10... SUSE Linux 11.1, however, had numerous problems, including a very eyebrow-raising issue regarding the hostname not being able to be set to my choice. I suspected foul play and immediately absconded.

10. Not yet. Remember, "free is not a business model" - until there's a paradigm shift, I will not use free the same way big companies currently do. People work shit hard to earn money. I will support them.

11. Wholly agreed.

12. The combined nature of open source and the GPL allow that. Nor do I like summary updates, for any platform. A new version might break an old app, and even with Ubuntu I had a couple apps that the managed app installer (I forgot its name, nor do I care any longer anyway) did not recognize OR update. Which included Cairo-Dock, and adding in its URL had Ubtuntu raising a potential security alert. Hey, shades of windows!!

13. Not true. Well, linux is a bit more robust, yes, but a video driver update will prompt a restart.

14. Well, NTFS was invented in the mid-80s after the Microsoft/IBM team-up for OS/2 broke down... and it's worse than FAT. But NTFS is not DOS-based. I know people prefer simple answers, but I prefer a reasonable amount of details: That way when Americans are told they're dumbed down, I can be an exception.

15. Arguably true.

16. Oh goody, more exploitation that most DUers would otherwise be angry at!

17. So Norton Ghost was committing illegal acts for an exorbitant cost all this time?

18. I already touched on licensing -- just think if MS pulls away the agreement and activates ye olde kill switch... companies would be paralyzed, with their IT management wondering "Huh? What's going on?"

19. Truism of everybody.

20. Good luck; more end users want brainless point'n'click shtick.

21. And with data privacy regulations (HIPAA, et al), sometimes administrators (like the one who absconded his job having locked out all the passwords, oops...) need to be kept out of private data too. Then again, sensitive data is offshored all the time so why would anyone truly care about your point 21?

22. That's because they hire increasingly incompetent people to slop their shit into a box. Vista was garbage, and their marketing hype will not convince me to get Bugbloat 7 at 50% off. But I digress; any platform, unregulated, will get big and bloaty. Apple keeps tightening and streamlining; I found it more snappier than even Ubuntu, on lesser hardware. (never mind vista shitsa). And 10.6 is said to really improve on things. In short, Apple seems to put in more control and qualified developers who are allowed the time to write and tighten up code. It's there for Linux, but its open source nature is suspect. (if virus makers can figure out closed- source Windows, you see, but now I digress again...)

23. Most Macs since 2006 also use the same Intel architecture... Before that they use the PowerPC (G4, G5...) and before that the Motorola 680x0 series, which IBM overlooked in place of the Intel 8088 for their original IBM PC -- they made a computer deliberately crippled in case it would overtake mainframes in popularity (distributed computing). if you mean MIPS, Alpha, PowerPC (RISC), I'm sure Linux is out there for those platforms too... I know IBM has a variant for its iSeries mainframe...

24. A plus, since people always beg and clamor for all using the same thing (which, BTW, introduces a big security risk. Homogeneity vs heterogeneity... something gets through the defenses, having a mix of platforms and structures makes malware spreading much more difficult. I thought people learned via Windows - being ubiquitous only increases the risk, exponentially...

25. Everyone can.

Oh, you did not mention peripheral compatibility... it's nowhere near as good as Windows, and OS X supports every device I've got. Even the newest Ubuntu did not support a few of mine... Looks like one of those happy-to-help not-really-sweatshop workers wasn't able to help us Epson scanner owners either... a five year old scanner, and Linux supports oodles of devices older than that scanner...