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Re: [News] Choose Windows, Double the Cost of Your PC

__/ [ Oliver Wong ] on Tuesday 18 July 2006 15:39 \__

> 
> "Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1482868.opyBExMr2D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Microsoft Landed On Us
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Windows XP Professional OEM - £98.08
>> | Microsoft Office (Small Business Edition) OEM - £157.74
>> | Paint Shop Pro - £67.85
>> |
>> | This yields a grand total of £323.67. In one fell swoop, I doubled the
>> | cost of the PC... I simply couldn't believe it at first; it seems
>> | illogical that to do absolutely everything I can do for free with Linux,
>> | in order to do the same with Microsoft, I?d have to spend twice as
>> | much.
>> `----
> 
>     Here I am, playing the role of the devil's advocate again...
> 
>     "everything [that] I can do for free with Linux, in order to do the
>     same
> with Microsoft, I'd have to spend [an extra 323.67 British pounds]". In
> other words "Everything Linux can do, Microsoft can do, except it'll cost
> an extra 323.67 pounds". That's probably not strictly true (there are
> probably things which work a lot better on Linux system than on MS
> systems), but rather than getting into that, I'd like to look at the
> converse: Namely "Everything that Microsoft can do, Linux can do, except
> 323.67 pounds cheaper." which I think is what the blogger meant to convey.
> 
>     Without XP, you're really limited in what kind of games you can play on
> your PC, for example.
> 
>     I've played around with OpenOffice, and it seems there are a few
> features here and there that are missing in Writer (or is it "Write"?)
> which are present in Word. If Writer has document revision tracking and
> annotation, for example, I couldn't find out how to activate it, so I
> assume it simply doesn't have it. I'll be happy if someone will correct me
> on this.


Personally, I avoid WYSIWYG whenever I get the chance. Not only when it comes
to documents, but also when it comes to Web design. There are better
paradigms that embed semantics and do all the layout work /for/ you,
dynamically rather than 'on the stop'. The overall results are better (smart
placements, hypenations, automated divbision and slicing, et cetera). That
aside, I also prefer Web-based software to desktop-side software. There are
plenty Open Source projects that make this a reality (yay!), for free
(yay!), and it even works from Windows (boo!).


>     I won't comment on PSP vs The Gimp, as I haven't used the Gimp enough
>     to
> make a fair comparison. Just a quick question though: does The Gimp support
> vertex art (as opposed to raster, or pixel-based art)?


I have used Photoshop and Painshop Pro for several years. I can do with the
GIMP what I used to do with PS and PSP and my productivity is increased
owing to the improved UI (or overall paradigm) that the GIMP sticks to. It's
less familiar to new users, so there's a worthwhile learning curve (a
tradeoff which is often overlooked).

As regards, vertex art, look at Inkscape, or even Xara Xtreme which has
recently initiated a GPL'd port. OpenOffice has some tools for vector
graphics as well, albeit they are very rudimentary.

Best wishes,

Roy

-- 
Roy S. Schestowitz      |   McDonald's Certified Sandwich Engineer (MCSE)
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