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Re: Reasons to Switch to Linux


__/ [ Larry Qualig ] on Friday 24 February 2006 18:36 \__

> 
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/
>>
>> http://www.techdebates.com/people/william/
>>
>> The first among the two is a powerful brand-new 'tool' for convincing
>> peers and friends. It is concise and very visual.
> 
> I checked out the first site and it's pretty good. Most of the points
> are valid but if it were me (which it isn't) I would scrap the
> following:
> 
> Don't pay $300 for your OS. - Huh? Full retail price for XP Pro is far
> less and most people their OS "free" with their computer.


You mean scare quotes? As in 'free'? I agree that $300 is an overinflated
figure, but you could put Microsoft Office on top of the real figure. It's
vital to many long-time Windows users.


> Is your system unstable - XP isn't unstable but it is vulnerable to
> viruses which I suppose would make it unstable.


I strongly disagree. At work, I sometimes use other people's computers.
explorer.exe crashes far too frequently, even if "frequently" is once in 8
hours. I will not even bother to mention other components of the core.


> Save some energy - Not sure what this benefit is suppose to imply.


Me neither.


> Don't wait years for bugs... - Most home users don't encounter many
> bugs.


Remember that notorious freeze-after-delete bug? It took Microsoft many years
to fix it (at least 5). A collague of mine suffered from this very
particular bug about a month ago. We both had to wait for the frozen machine
to respond. This took about 15 minutes to recover. My colleague would have
assumed a fatal crash if I had not told her about this known bug. Thank you
very much, Redmond.

Speaking of that task we were doing at the time (experimental data transfer),
a transfer that takes 5 minutes in Linux (owing to multi-threading) took no
less than 2.5 hours in Windows. Then you come to wonder why Windows users
are unproductive...


> Restarting your computer all the time - Again... I'd be realistic and
> play towards the strengths of Linux. "Restarting your computer all the
> time" may have been true with Win95 and DOS but it very rarely happens
> nowdays. (Truth be known... I've definitely locked up my SuSE box far
> more often than the same system on XP. Most due to the fact that XP is
> fully setup and running and SuSE is still a work in progress to some
> extent.)


SuSE 9.3 at home:

  4:23am  up 83 days 10:37,  8 users,  load average: 1.00, 1.00, 1.00

Ubuntu at work:

 04:23:47 up 136 days, 19:47,  6 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Is that not decent enough?


> Fragmented - Seems sort of low-level technical talk.


Having to run scandisk.exe and defrag.exe is a joy. As I explained before,
this explains poor productivity. When I was younger, I would occasionally
leave my computer switched on all night. It was working endlessly mending
the troubled filesystem (FAT32).


> Keep an eye on the weather - What Windows user hasn't seen the exact
> same thing from the Weather Channel. They even advertise the thing on
> their network.


I agree. It's a moot point.


> Great Music Player - Most people seem pretty happy with iTunes or
> RealPlayer.


Ditto.


> I'd get rid of all this nonsense and focus more on free apps. Instead
> of lumping them all together in one heading ("Do you still need to
> install stuff") I'd break it up in to free graphics apps, educational
> software, productivity. Something that people can relate to better than
> "stuff."
> 
> IMO telling people that Linux is better because they won't need to
> restart Windows "all the time" and they'll be able to keep an eye on
> the weather doesn't make sense. It's like having the BMW dealer
> convincing you to buy a car because a BMW won't blow up in flames and
> has an ash-tray. So do other cars.
> 
> But convince me that the car will sacrifice itself to protect my family
> and it's a different matter. Explain to me how in an accident the car
> automatically turns on the hazzard blinkers, unlocks the power doors
> and disconnects all uneccesary circuitry from the battery to reduce the
> possibility of sparks and an electrical fire. Tell me how the phone
> will automatically dial for help and send the last known GPS position.
> That will get my attention better than him telling me that this car
> doesn't stall out all the time.


If that's a reference to infamous FUD, I will disagree with you yet again.
Linux is not a car with a manual gear. Linux has become a well-integrated,
user-friendly and reliable piece of software. When things do not work in
Windows (as often they don't), it is only technical friends or Windows
experience that save the day. Manual installation of drivers is not
guaranteed to work.


__/ [ Larry Qualig ] later added, on Friday 24 February 2006 22:23 \__

> --> Bad start: site is slow.  It has yet to respond and I've been
> waiting for at least 30 seconds.
> 
> I noticed that too but didn't say anything. I wasn't sure if it was the
> site or a temporary problem with someones/my internet connection.


The site must have been hammered by over 10,000 visits yesterday. Atop that,
it needs to serve many large images. Given that, one has to admit that it's
doing alllllll right. *smile*

Roy

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