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Re: Windows Sucks - AGAIN!

Roy Schestowitz wrote:

> __/ [ M ] on Tuesday 02 May 2006 19:33 \__
> 
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> 
>>> __/ [ Roy Schestowitz ] on Friday 21 April 2006 05:22 \__
>>> 
>>>> Every once in a while, especially while on vacation in foreign houses,
>>>> I receive a reminder as to why Windows is an _utterly terrible_
>>>> environment for work. Among the many perils that I had: O/S comes
>>>> incomplete and remains incomplete in most households, e.g. no graphical
>>>> toolkit other than paint.exe, no Web browser with something as
>>>> fundamental as the notion of the tab. Then come deficiencies such as:
>>>> 
>>>> -Only a single (virtual) desktop
>>>> 
>>>> -No clipboard stack. Copy something and say farewell to whatever else
>>>> you help. Forget about being about to copy 3 things and then spew them
>>>> out.
>>>> 
>>>> -Speed is terrible. It makes you re-evaluate the need for so-called
>>>> bleeding-edge hardware, which Linux rarely needs.
>>>> 
>>>> -Crashes. The modern Windows XP computer crashed on me for no reason.
>>>> It took no less than 5 minutes to restore and attain the same position.
>>>> By that point, the trail of thought was cut. Where is productivity?
>>>> Where has user confidence gone?
>>>> 
>>>> Anyone who chooses to use Windows for day-to-day use has my
>>>> commiserations. It is sad to think that many people out there are
>>>> handling businesses in such a poor environment. I have not even touched
>>>> the issue of security, among others. This is just q quick mental note
>>>> that I had to unburden myself of.
>>> 
>>> Some time ago, in the context of this particular thread, I mentioned one
>>> of my cousins losing Windows, which according to him, "crashed in a
>>> major way".
>>> 
>>> I have just received an E-mail from my other cousin (the second among
>>> the two households where I stayed):
>>> 
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>> | my computer  died...something about an imminent failure ...i'm goingto
>>> | loose all my  files...any suggestions?
>>> `----
>>> 
>>> That's the very modern HP laptop which I was using over there. It runs
>>> Windows XP. So both households had to cope with a major crash/wipe in a
>>> matter of just weeks and less than a fortnight apart. How's that as a
>>> Wakeup Call? I have not lost any files, not have I re-installed the O/S
>>> on my current machine since it had been set up in 2003.
>>> 
>> 
>> Are they doing anything obvious that would be a real windows killer, like
>> for example constantly installing and removing software?
> 
> 
> I suspect not. Very mediocre user is the latter (Debbie) while the former
> (Scott) is very 'app-savvy'.
> 
> 
>> The only reason I ask is that (touch wood) I seem to be able to keep my
>> windows box going, when all around me seem to be having problems of one
>> sort or another.
> 
> 
> I feel for your experience. While at highschool, my best friend kept
> reinstalling Windows. This happened _so_ many times per year. It was
> unbelievable. The guy was as competent as me when it came to computers.
> 

Ahhh but was he a fiddler, the competent one usually are :-) I suppose I
have something of a tendency not to stray too far from default setups.  

> I had Windows 95 running for years without any obvious quirks. I rarely
> had to reinstall 3.11 or 95, if ever. Out of the box is was and out of the
> box it remainder. And that, mind you, is when Windows was the best O/S in
> town. Mac OS ~7 was merely nowhere and it was only beginning to lag
> behind. Meanwhile, Linux was more of a territory for the adventurous; not
> for a guy in his mid-teens. I barely even heard about it and I had just
> one friend who used it. He now works for SAP, by the way... *cough cough*
>

A guy came over from the States about 10 years ago and installed linux. Seem
to me that you really had to know what you where doing, wasn't for the
faint hearted. I guess he must have followed the procedure the book
"Running Linux" talks about. Certainly took him considerable longer than 30
minutes to get it all set up. I am pleased to say Linux has come on a long
way from those days, and still seems to be motoring along.
 
>
http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6067340.html?part=rss&tag=6067340&subj=news
> 
>         SAP and Microsoft tune up for Duet
> 
>         Published: May 2, 2006, 6:28 AM PDT
> 
> 

Well I did apply the same principals to a Windows 95 box that I generally
apply to my Win XP box to keep it in good shape. However it didn't stop it
collapsing in a big heap one day, and refusing to reboot. So I nuked it and
installed NT version 4 over the top. 

>> Are you going to get them to install linux or are they not very keen on
>> that idea?
> 
> 
> I *un*intentionally left behind some Ubuntu CD's. I have a stack of these
> home. A couple of CD's are in her house, _somewhere_. I suggested that she
> finds it and then lets it boot. I can probably SSH to that machine and SCP
> all files from her Windows partitions onto my external hard-drive. Then,
> she can probably reboot and restore data from my side. I say "probably"
> because I'm not sure how fscked up her Windows filesystem actually is. Who
> knows what Windows did to the FAT or the partition table (does Windows
> have this notion at all?).
> 

Personally I would have *un*intentionally left behind some Kubuntu CD's
myself. I could be wrong, but I would have thought coming from a windows
background, they would have been more at home with KDE. 

One thing is for sure they are very fortunate to have a linux expert on hand
to help them out. Some of us have to find things the hard way :-).

Will be interesting to see if you convert them, and if you do, how they get
on with it.

-- 
Regards,
M

http://za1012001.googlepages.com/home

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