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Interview with Tony 'Say No to Windows' Bove
An anonymous reader writes "XYZ has an interview with Tony Bove, author of the upcoming book, "Just Say No to Microsoft". From the article: 'With this book Bove intends to help readers rid Microsoft from their life- this is easier said that done, but it is certainly possible. The book goes on to list alternatives to the Microsoft programs on which people have become dependent and probably think they cannot give up.'"
From experience, any thing more than 11 steps is not worth it!
..... Should be on the lookout for flying chairs.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
The Army reading list
MS and Windows is not all Bad. Not to mention how much software is avaialable for special industry only on windows not linux or macs.
Most of us can't, and don't really want to "just say no". For example I have clients that are lawyers and doctors that are very happy with their windows software.
Stuff that isn't available in linux. The just say no or linux only group always propose stuff for you to get by without ms, but some of us need to do more then use word and excel, or don't want some custom jerry rigged solution.
Just Say No! ... to Microsoft
yeah, you can rid yourself of everything microsoft until some jerk offers video content exclusively in .wmv, and you really need to view it.
:(
and they don't take appeals, and you can't install linux/mplayer.
proper-fucked frownface
...a replacement for Microsoft Exchange. His only mention is how "...Microsoft designs its software products -- especially Outlook and Exchange -- to lock people into using it...". Until a good replacement is found for Exchange you will have a hard time prying it from the cold, dead hands of thousands of businesses worldwide...
(And I work in a shop where most of us do dev work on linux boxes... but we all have windows partitions for Exchange. So damn handy for scheduling meetings, knowing who is in and who is out of town...)
-everphilski-
I personally switched to Mac for my personal platform in '03. I love it, it's great, etc, etc, etc. But I still use Windows at work. And I think it's probably the best solution given the alternatives. It just seems that there are so many services that Microsoft provides that simply don't exist (in an easy to use manner any way) on other platforms. Things like Sharepoint, MS Project come to mind, but we also use countless programs that simply aren't available for other platforms. I understand that other platforms ARE possible for use, but is it really worth it? Anyone out there using another platform that never finds themself asking, "man, if I only had Windows?"
Mark A. McBride -- OmniNerd.com
I dont believe its about riding of Microsoft, I believe its about giving a fair chance for alternatives. Only with competition will the end user benefit. If Microsoft isnt the one that everyone is supposed to hate it would have been another company. I am not a fan of Microsoft either as I do NOT run any windows software at home, but it was because of Microsoft's so called "crappy software" that pushed the open source community to create these great alternatives such as openoffice.org, linux etc ...
GL HF!
1) It assumes there's a good reason for people to abandon MS. Security is close, but as we've seen with recent holes in Firefox/Mozilla, as other tools get popular, their security will come under attack, too. The price, perhaps, but 'free' versions of anything lack meaningful support, which kills it for a significant number of end users. Therefore, if there were a convincing reason for everyone to change (other than personal bias), this would be much more meaningful.
2) It assumes that it's the MS programs holding people back, when many desktops are tied because of third party software. For example, in my every-day job, I support dozens of workstations with Macromedia and Adobe software installed - neither of these run natively under Linux, and they run horribly under emulation. Yes, you can find replacement photo editors, but not really replacement video editors that are on par with After Effects, or replacements for Flash that have 95%+ installation base.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
Which will make being enslaved in the corporate underground salt mines that much more pleasant.
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
addict: hello
operator: how may i help you
addict: dude i dont think i can make it
operator: sir pls dont panic...what is the problem
addict: i need to see a blue screen
operator: sir why?
addict: ive been working all day and computer wont crash....im so tired
operator: well sir relax u may use windows for 10 mins...but then u have to switch back to the reliable os
addict: thank you....id kiss ur ring if you were here
I can understand if you prefer Linux to Windows or don't like Word or something (I **hate** Powerpoint), but the whole not using any Microsoft products for the sake of feeling alternative/rebellious is just really immature and annoying. Microsoft makes a lot of good software.
Read it again, that is for a PalmOne.
Okay, I've been using Macs since the 80s (yes, you read correctly) and have been exclusively on Windows from between 1994 - 2004 (I'm a J2EE engineer). Last year, I belatetly hopped onto the OS X bandwagon and the only thing that keeps my Windows boxes at home running are dozens of apps that I have accumulated in the last decade. I know that I could replace most of my apps with Mac apps, but sometimes they don't support my workflow or I cannot interchange. With that said however (and with this not supposed to be turning emotional ;-) I must concede that my Windows days are limited. It has already started with iPods, Cinema displays, etc.. and my next system for sure will be an G5 or G6 (whenever it'll be released) - I happen to know Unix very well, so OS X simply rules for me. Finally, with the video iPod a new era in online video is being spearheaded (see yesterday's /. thread on the topic) and Quicktime is going to be the future. That will allow me to distribute my little shorts to millions of iPods all over the world - something Windows is lightyears away from doing. Finally, on the development front - I'm already 1/2 the time developing on a G4 and hopefully Windows is going to quietly go away in the remainder of this decade.
Sorry I wasted the time on this one. Come on Slashdot, just put the Apple icon on the evangelism stories so I can skip em. This guy could care less about the crappiness of Microsoft, he just wants everyone to use Macs because they are 'cool'.
Sorry, 'cool' isn't a reason to scrap a whole infrastructure over. Avoiding Microsoft because their products are total crap and costs a boatload of cash to keep halfway secure is a much better argument, helped a great deal by virtue of being true. But this truly old school computer dork (I mean that in a nice way. This guy cut his teeth on CP/M for crissakes and he doesn't realize Microsoft produces crap?) goes out of his way to say quality isn't one of his complaints against the retards from Redmond.
Democrat delenda est
This reads like he stuck a bunch of Score: 3 Slashdot posts together and called it a book. Do I get a -1 Troll for pointing out that I've been writing Word documents to PDF, in both Mac and Windows, for a decade? Not sure why Tony Bove still can't manage it.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
What is it with people and their separatist movements these days? Is Microsoft Windows corrupting my soul? My hard drive, yes, but not my soul.
These 'alternatives' are probably adequate substitutions, but why change what works?
I'd say "no" to Microsoft but Windows is easy to use, fairly intuitive on the surface (fine-tuning it is a big hassle, I admit), and with XP it's finally stable enough for me to use day-in and day-out. I despise it as a development platform, I'm guess I'm a stubborn old UNIX kind of guy. Give me ANSI C and a dumb terminal, and I'll vi up some code for you. But for day-to-day productivity, gaming, websurfing, etc, I'll take it. I'm aware of its myriad shortcomings and MS's sketchville business practices, but the reality is that I need a Windows machine around. Too many things I do require one. There are a handful of web sites that just will not work properly in Firefox, nor even on my Powerbook. These tend to be sites that I find very convenient to use and have available. It may because the site authors have stupidly mated themselves to the Win IE platform. It might be worth it to your principles to boycott such a site, but my convenience > your principles. There is only one non-renewable resource in my life, and that's time. I just won't boycott a web site that saves me time and adds convenience to my life because I am teh hatez when it comes to MS. Sorry, guys.
"I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
Where did you get the idea that the book costs $199?
To be honest I have never heard of this guy, but that's alright, I am a sophomore in college... don't really know everyone who made programs on punch cards.
Either way, the guy seems to have such a big problem with MS products but never really mentions user error. I don't care what kind of OS you use, the problem is, most of the time, between the keyboard and the chair. He is also obviously some sort of mac fanatic, if you read the third page. He is fine with Apple controlling what people can use with a mac, because no one else has a problem with it. I don't see grandma complaining about MS's monopoly. Every time he mentions Apple, its always "superb design" or something fo that sort, but when it comes to MS, its "they suck because of this or that". I personally like XP. I also like Visual Studio. Hell, I even like Office. I don't see where this person feels its less productive to use Windows. He is making some sort of generalization based on HIS experience.
"Seriously, the easiest step, though costly, is to switch to a Mac. In one step you can be free not only of Windows but also of hardware that relies on Windows yet is not supported by Microsoft. You have one source for support -- Apple -- and less finger-pointing when something goes wrong." -- If someone thinks thats a good thing... you are indeed beyond help... Having a choice of parts or support is a good thing. I can go to my local store and talk to the guy I have bought stuff from for years and he can maybe give me a refund even if my warranty is void or whatever. I did like to see that from an Apple store.
My two cents.
The book isn't $199, it's 24.95.
For some reason, the add on the bottom about prices is for a Palm Tungsten E2 PDA.
Umm... shouldn't he be emphasizing that you're not powerless? There are alternatives... "Admitting" that you're powerless seems to encourage complacency.
I really wish that the Linux community wouldn't sink down to the level that Microsoft has reached. Releasing subjective papers on what works and what doesn't will not do anything for people except cause political arguments. Since most TCO and benchmark data is skewed one way or another, releasing whitepapers and books becomes irrelevant. Most budget managers and IT managers realize this. The people in charge (given that they know what they are doing) researches data from other companies. They ask questions like it worked for Company A so could it work for us? They do not look at opinions and unreliable sources. IMHO, this is one reason why Linux has not made it to the desktop - many companies are scared to move their user base over to a radically different interface. Not many companies have made the move, so everyone else is scared to jump first. They are not scared to move their servers over, since only a small handful of people interface with it - provided the services retain a high level of reliability.
Victory shall be mine!
The road map analogy came to me not long ago, as I fought the traffic on the Pennsylvania Turnpike crossing the state. It looks convenient on paper, if you're coming from New Jersey and want to bypass Philly on your way across the state. Considering the traffic in Philly, it should be convenient. But once you get on the turnpike, you can't get off unless you pay exorbitant tolls. The rest stops are overcrowded, and the service monopolies overcharge. The fast food is terrible, and the restrooms are disgusting. It's a form of highway robbery -- for most of the turnpike's length, you are stuck with two lanes and surrounded by speeding trucks, and nearly half of it seems to be always under construction.
Okay, I understand that analogies are illustrative. But a lot of people... even those who know how to read maps... the 2 hours saved is worth taking the turnpike for. Oddly enough, it's why most people that know better still use Windows.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
While I'm interested in reading what the guy has to say, I'm put off from reading the article because the designer doesn't want us to read it all in one go (presumably to maximise profits from advertising). This style of writing webpages has always pissed me off, and I just wish there was a Firefox extension that could fetch all 6 or whatever pages at once and display them in one go, thus solving the problem. /rant off
It is a red letter day! Obviously, the GP read the article, just messed up with his/her comprehension.
Awesome!
They have no precompiled binary for Gentoo??
No, it's only $16.47.
to make our lives easier? I mean Linux has come around to make it easier for user to work to an extent (I still don't see anything as friendly to computer newbies on the linux systems as windows, but it is getting closer and closer), but to go 100 percent away from Microsoft is almost unrealistic for most people. Remember most people don't even know that you can network iTunes for playback with out buying the songs. Nor do they know what a MKV is, what the different of an OGM and XVID is, or what TCP/IP settings are needed to use a VPN (the last one puzzled me for a couple days.. turned out I was given the wrong IP... from a tech guy)
Microsoft might be a monolpolistic company but for many people it makes their lives easier. I'd love it if they didn't have the same business practices as they currently do but let's not make our lives more inconvient.
This interview sounds like another ranting guy. But yes I don't support Microsoft wholy (I got my Windows heavily discounted from school, I don't use Microsoft Office at home (At work we get it through Compaq, so it's already paid for) but going insanely against them will not help save anyone. Apple would love to step up and set themselves up as the next Microsoft. I'm sure their a little piss with what Microsoft did (with grabbing Apple's own Windows style technology, that they in turn took from Xerox who took it from their programmer who created it), and if they could trade places they would love to be the next giant, and with their love of "Apple approved" hardware, I'm sure could find some ways to close off competition. (remember if Apple was in charge, ATI and NVIDIA wouldn't compete like they do now, each trying to make radical strives, nor would there be any other sound cards except for the one or two companies apple approves of)
Besides all his problems with Microsoft seem to stem from either hatred, or the fact that people who use Windows are stupid. (claiming never to get a virus on a mac isn't a small miracle, I never get virii on PCs... Why? Because I do the same shit he does. I have a anti virus program that has been completely dorment since installation, except when I actually test it, and it performs perfectly then)
Maybe I'm wrong but I don't see why this is "news", when a guy writes a book or something about this stuff, let's hear info about book, not his ramblings..
And my one quote from him?
But if there is a monopoly, let's get out the rocket launchers and take our shots, please!
advocating wholesale violence... tsk tsk.
I often think about switching away from windows but I keep seeing there is no need, and it's not really possible at this point.
Take for instance, the major tools you need to make a 3d model. Most people use 3dsMax and/or Maya, and Photoshop. You can't run those on Linux (at least well.) People can jerry-rig something, sure, but many creative industries require things to work. That's why most production houses still use Photoshop 7. It's stable. Don't even get me started with in-house tools that we use that require windows.
So, the major advantage to using windows is that it can be used for so many different things at the same time, (yes I'm aware that OSX and Linux have the ability to use different tools, but the support just isn't there yet.)
No offense, but most open source applications just aren't up to par with major releases from major corporations. Not yet, anyway.
"Lead my skeptic sight."
Why exactly should I get rid of Microsoft? I use their operating system on my primary computer although I use Linux at work as well as on my own server. I would not want to trade Windows for Linux, or Linux for Windows. Both need to co-exist.
The author of this news item says, I quote, "this is easier said that done, but it is certainly possible". So WHY exactly should I waste my precious time on trying to convert to something else when I see no need? I almost get the feeling that this dude wants a job at CNN and write articles about Bagdad Bob or something.
Get a grip. Microsoft is in a well-earned position. They fought over something that IBM had and they won. I can't say what's going to happen next but I certainly dislike people whining about its dominance too much. If you don't like the product, well, don't use it then. I don't see you driving around in an all new car that you totally hate before buying it.
Full Tilt
I hate to say it, but if you "Just say no to MS" then all you have left is the RIM and Palm platforms for PDAs. While Palm has an arguably better interface, it's stability leaves much to be desired. You're crippling yourself by switching away from MS alternatives for the PDA market. Palm just isn't reliable enough for the enterprise.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
As usual, it's all about the applications. People want things to "just work", and they don't care about software politics. That's the reason that Apple is only 3% marketshare -- people don't want to have to think about whether their software is compatible or not.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Aren't we preaching to the converted with these kinds of books? The people are earnestly capable of switching away from Windows are probably smart enough to do that on their own, and those that choose not to, probably also have good reasons for doing so (re: gaming). I just don't think the software is quite there yet for Grandma to use a Windows alternative without relying on some heavy tech support (often a family member). In a few years, the OSes will be there, but right now I really believe these books are premature.
If you read his book or my own online book you'll learn the many reasons to not use their software. It's not just about how bad their software is. They hurt the IT industry and therefore indirectly hurt you as users. They influence the creation of laws and who gets elected. They have a say in international policies.
I've found that most people say they're happy with MS software... until they try something else. When they learn what they've been missing they realize just how bad they have it.
Developers: We can use your help.
The damn thing got modded +5 Funny. Some people just refuse to believe that Microsoft makes good products I guess.
Eliminating Microsoft is a good way of increasing your computer costs.
It might be hard to see from the end user perspective, but it's crystal clear from a developer perspective. But don't take my word for it, take Joel's:
If someone's going to do a new application, it's much more likely to be a Windows application. If someone's going to offer technical support services, they're much more likely to focus on Windows support. If someone's going to make hardware, they're much more likely to focus on getting Windows supported first.
This all means if you're not using Windows, you're going to pay for it with time or money.
(Read the whole article at http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog00000000 51.html)
I hope you have a better goal in life than to not use MS products simply for the sake of not using them or hating MS. Use what works and what is easy, and concentrate on the things you find which are interesting and meaningful.
Aren't we preaching to the converted with these kinds of books? The people are earnestly capable of switching away from Windows are probably smart enough to do that on their own, and those that choose not to, probably also have good reasons for doing so (re: gaming). I just don't think the software is quite there yet for Grandma to use a Windows alternative without relying on some heavy tech support (often a family member). In a few years, the OSes will be there, but right now I really believe these books are premature.
:P
I had to check the date on this post. Seems like I've been hearing the same thing each time this comes up for the past 5 years. *sigh*
Tux is such a freaking late bloomer.
Prior to graduating high school (2002), I had never used anything except Microsoft Windows. Now, I use Linux almost exclusively. I say almost only because I play games occasionally and I have one class that requires(!) me to use Windows. A major concern of mine is that game developers will have to stop using OpenGL, making it far more difficult to release games on multiple platforms, reducing the chance of there ever being a Linux gaming market. Why? Because Microsoft is planning to reduce the performance of OpenGL in Windows Vista:
t ory/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000001
http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/cgi_direc
If you do not want Microsoft's strangle-hold to continue, you should be concerned about this.
But if you can't afford to dump your PC hardware, the easiest first step is to get a Linux distribution on CD and test it on your system. You can then install it if you like how it works. If you can't see yourself getting off Windows, at least try the various open source and commercial alternatives to Outlook and the rest of Office, because these Microsoft applications make your computer system more vulnerable to attacks than if you used alternatives.
The biggest step to take, and one that everyone will most likely take in the future, is to start using Web applications such as the ones developed by Google using Ajax technology -- Google Suggest and Google Maps are two examples .
Moving to Web apps will help, but as good and idealistic as this sounds (and believe me, it really is good advice), there's still the issue of:
1.) You have to have enough money to own a Mac (for the computer and to purchase software you need), or
2.) You have to have enough time and technical experience to set up Linux.
Other than those two mountains, yes, it's perfectly fine advice. I own a Mac, so I chose the "expensive" route with a PowerBook. It's worth every penny, but it cost a lot of pennies.
In any event, those are two different groups (techies and relatively wealthy people) that he's addressing, so without reading the book I can't tell if he does so effectively.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
It was a small company. Everyone had iMacs (the original flavor ones) and the servers are Macs. Inside the firm there wasn't any problem what so ever. Although, I have to admit, we used MS Office Mac. Other than that; all Apple. The only problem that I came across was sending Office docs to Windows users. You had to make sure you did a "Save as" and add the appropriate file extension. Because if you didn't, a Windows box wouldn't recognize the file as an Office doc and most users don't know to do a "rename" and add the extension. I didn't know this at first and my first assumption was that I emailed a corrupt file.
Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
Seriously, more thanyou would like to believe, it i simply because you are used to Windows.
I say this as someone who uses Linux at work every single day, it is the only OS on my laptop. And whenever I need to use windows for any length of time for some external project, I am constantly thinking "if only I had Linux..."
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php ?id=853
Enjoy
Mod parent down! This book is offered on Amazon for only $16.47 (not $199). The article advertises a Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld, which is obviously not his book, but an ad for something else.
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
Talk about a lame, tone-deaf argument. Sorry, but the vast majority of people aren't presumptuous enough to consider themselves memebers of these so-called self-appointed elite. This may be a surprise, but a lot of people don't consider artists and musicians, and multimedia professionals to be "better" than doctors, lawyers, and plumbers. You know, the people who are too busy WORKING to be worried about Hollywood celebrities and the quality of their parties.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
I'm not buying a book from a guy who thinks you can drive just as quickly across PA without using the turnpike. Yes, the turnpike can be a pain, but you just try getting from Philly to Harrisburg on US-322. He sure is right about the "give or take an hour" part: it takes three hours to make the trip, as opposed to two on the 'pike. And he's talking about driving the length of the state, so multiply that by three. It's going to take a nontrivial three extra hours to use the "scenic route."
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
My Windows 3.11 machine rocks all your lame asses.
Microsoft Project is the most widely used project management software that corporations use, and it's only available for one platform: Microsoft Windows. Not OSX, Not Linux, Not BSD, Not Sun, Not Palm, Not Amiga, etc. This means that anybody who manages work in a company *has* to use Windows. And yes, I know that Microsoft Project actually sucks for complex project management, and that there are better Project Management packages out there, but most of them only work for Windows also and they don't have the base or support that Microsoft has. Until that lock is broken, its going to be very hard for companies to switch.
Tristan Yates
It is fair game to complain about the costs of Windows, Office and other MS products because that leads to a costs vs benefits analysis of whether it is a better value vs the time and effort spent by the users and the administration costs than other solutions like Linux and OpenOffice. It is fair game to complain about the security issues with Microsoft's products because they have admitted as much that there are issues there and regularly release patches and advisories to address them and are making the ability to run as a non-administrator level user a requirement of software written for Vista to further address it. It is fair game to quantitatively compare the performance of Microsoft's solutions versus other vendor's solutions because, as long as the setup is fair and impartial, numbers don't lie and are a useful tool for comparison of applicability and value of a solution to your needs and hardware. It is fair game to talk of particular bugs and issues you have with Microsoft's products because they have a responsibility to support their products such that they work as advertised. It is even fair game to argue subjective points like ease of use and ease of administration of Microsoft's solutions versus that of their competitors because these are things that people from desktop users to system administrators use every day as an integral part of their jobs and have some responsibility for making things as easy and productive as possible for all involved in the enterprise.
However, what is not fair game is this view of Microsoft as evil and their solutions are never to be considered and you need to "Say No To Windows." Beware those who will tell you that Microsoft is evil, that it's solutions are never better suited to your situation and who will say things about the stability and performance of the OS that fly in the face of the millions who use it without such issues day in and day out to get their work done. There are people believe in Linux and opensource almost as a religion and suffer from the logical fallacy that, if Linux is as better in every way as they believe it to be, Microsoft can only be maintaining it's dominance in marketshare by some sort of evil trickery and vendor lock-in. You are not going to get the answers you need from these sorts of individuals - the corporate solutions will never get any consideration no matter how easy to use, easy to administer, fast, stable and secure that they get. I am still waiting to see a truly fair and objective comparison on Slashdot that takes all these things into account for various situations. That is an article I'd read and the book I'd buy...
Most of us can't, and don't really want to "just say no"
:(
Hmm... that "just say no" got a weird idea in my head, please forgive me if it's too silly.
*Ring!*
-Hello?
- Good morning! *big smile* We've come to share the Word of GNU, and his prophet St. Ignutius.
- Ah, you're the Linux' Witnesses, right? No, thanks.
- But, you don't understand, we've come to save your soul!
- That's nonsense, I've been running Windows and nothing bad has happened to me!
- Ah, but haven't you had to deal with your computer running slow due to viruses? It's the prophecy fulfilled!
- I said NO THANKS!
- But Windows is the Whore of Redmond!
- ARGH!!!! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!
- *gasp* THE DEVIL'S SPAWN! RUN!!!
(Inside the house...)
- Who was it, hon?
- BAH, Some Linux zealots.
(Outside the house, there's a mailbox, and the inscription reads: S. Ballmer and Family)
If you're looking at scrapping Exchange, or starting from scratch and you need to offer some of the functionality of Exchange, then these are great.
None of them are a drop-in replacement for exchange.
I'm looking at all of these in hopes of moving away from Exchange. Users want to continue to use Outlook the same way they do now. I can't put any of these in place and *guarantee* that they will have a happy time. I can upgrade this crud 5.5 box to 2003, and I *can* offer that guarantee.
This sucks for the following reasons:
I am probably going to be the only person who would have a chance at moving this company off Microsoft products, but Outlook is the clincher. This means that there will be another company running a crucial business service another 7-10 years on a Microsoft product.
I won't be the only person in the world in the position to replace proprietary crap with open software, but won't actually be able to do so due to labor contraints, the inability to handhold and retrain Executives, and the lack of convincing evidence to slap on the desk of the (gratefully) Open-minded Ops director.
There's not a singular OSS package that acts as a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Server Products (printer sharing, samba, mail, etc) in the same boring "just works" fashion. We get more configurability, but we also get more configuring to do.
I want to "Set it and forget it." From my desktop. Without having to install any additional software.
Here's hoping he can make up some more problems to "solve."
There isn't a "drop-in" replacement for exchange because the protocols are binary and not documented.
If you will be a little less lazy, there are Outlook plugins for both Kolab and OpenExchange that will let your users use the same client while you replace the server, they should not notice anything different at all.
But there is no way you are ever going to just replace the server and do nothing else. It is impossible - that is why the Outlook/Exchange combo is so horrible, it is not compatible with anything.
I am beginning to have my doubts. I hired a dozen graphic artists to build me an alternative internet ( I call it the AlterNet! Catchy, huh? ) so that i don't have governments interfering with the information flow. That was 3 years ago and all they have done in that time is doodle!!!!
Nice doodles, I guess, but not very useful.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
I have setup Suse Linux Open-Exchange 4.1
It's not an Exchange killer. It is cool but not good enough.
Until the shared calendar of these products is as easy to use as Exchange then none will prevail.
I hate Exchange but the shared calendar stuff works.
Open-Xchange - The Beta Outlook connector is free. The stable version only costs $10.
Oh well, what the hell...
Another OSS jackass telling me how to work instead of trying to understand the problems I face everyday and working to build software that fits these needs. No thanks, Windows works just fine for me.
Well, thank *you*, Mr. Sunshine, for just setting back anti-MS advocacy about ten years. Wow. Get rid of Microsoft, and I'll be asked to hang with a pack of soft brained, overpaid coke addicts. Swell.
I abandoned MS fifteen years ago. It's not such a dramatic thing. Of course at work I am still forced to MS's broken software and operating system (selected by a committee of IT bastards^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H experts, of course), but what can ya do there?
Tell others how to get by on a no-Microsoft diet. They'll thank you when their systems act in a more regular fashion.
Nice choice of image there, Skippy. So you'll be able to set your watch by my smooth and non-sticky core dumps? Hey, we amateur commentators can deal in the scatological, too.
I was just pawing through the manual for my Alpine car stereo to figure out how to manipulate the equalizer;
Well, I have to give him that one. Third party car stereos are catering to the fuckhead contingent who need animated front panels and don't mind having to hit more buttons to save a radio station than it takes to target and launch a cruise missile from a submarine. I just get whatever high end audio system the automaker offers now. They're spendy, but I really don't need a 27 band graphic equalizer for one of the worst audio environments imaginable (a moving car). and they fit the trim of the instrument panel.
"It is obvious now that the Microsoft monopoly, which began sometime around 1983 and culminated with its dominance of most areas of computing by 1998, has created more problems for consumers than it has solved."
/. is a good place to peddle this kind of FUD, however.
No it is not obvious and probably not true.
Vote for Pedro
Nobody's *that* stupid. Even my copy of "Unix: the complete reference" didn't cost all that, and you could prop it up on sticks and live under it for a tent.
Pfft. My Apple IIe with dual 5.25" floppy drives owns your crappy Windows box!
This sig rocks the casbah.
I dunno, I seem to be doing pretty well running very popular karaoke shows on weeknights and weekends in a college town using an all-digital system entirely based on free software running on a notebook.
64-bit Ubuntu Linux starts things off, Enlightenment manages (very effectively) the desktop I run during the shows (part of the screen is shown on a big-screen TV so folks know who's singing and who's next; Firefox (!) does that display work), XMMS does a beautiful job (moving to amaroK for this purpose though; it's even nicer) playing both filler and karaoke music, crossfading smoothly between tracks and managing all the audio bits for me, SingIt runs the CDG karaoke lyrics, and my own home-grown Python code manages the singer rotations for me. Sure seems like more than Word and Excel to me.
Sure, I'm a "geek" and I know what I'm doing. No need for Windows on this machine.
Essentially out of the blue, two weeks ago my mother called and asked me if I could bring a Linux Live CD by next time I visit. She's sick of how slow her machine's getting. She's sick of constant root-level vulnerabilities being discovered and needing patching on her workstation. She knows all about not running spyware, about keeping the antivirus software updated, etc., but otherwise she's a polar opposite from me — she doesn't program, she just uses her computer for assorted "computery" tasks.
She's what you'd call a member of "the masses," and even she's ready to switch. It's not a question of "getting by" without Microsoft's software. It's a matter of people saying "holy shit this thing is so much faster / more stable / more useful without that Windows crap on it!" and realizing they've been fooled for years. I don't "get by" without Microsoft; I prosper without them.
And as an aside, plenty of specialized industrial software is still developed for and supported on platforms other than Windows. Show me a heart/vitals monitor in a hospital that runs anything from Microsoft on it. Visit HP's hardware testing labs and witness the Unix-driven measurement and control systems.
Read my stuff.
There's nothing about being a doctor or lawyer that intrinsically requires a MS operating system or software.
You're right to a point. Being a doctor or lawyer does not mean you need MS software.
But if you want to use one of the many of industry-specific, specialized software libraries, you might just have to run Windows.
... why we should get rid of Windows. So everybody has a choice.
I was going to say that I have been Microsoft free since March 2004.
And then I looked down at my mouse, which has the Microsoft logo on it.
They make a perfectly adequate mouse, I will say that much.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Before I get flamed on this, I just wanna point out that there is a big difference between being an advocate and being a fanatic against Microsoft. Now you want to tell people not to use MS because the corporation is a pig... ok fine. I can agree that Windows is a poor operating system because of all the patches and the fact that it is based off of DOS, instead of a rock solid, open solution like *nix. That said, do you really expect your average user that "Just uses MS Word to edit lists, or if the list has two colums, use MS Excel" to have any clue about using Linux? Granted that in recent months the Linux world has gotten mush easier to handle, for example Ubuntu 5.10 installs like a dream, with 3D acceleration supported out of the box! But to your average user in general, having config scripts everywhere is just not reasonable. Linux is not ready for the masses. Sorry. Not yet anyway. On the other hand you have Mac OS X, which IMO is a much more viable, and even preferred solution. "It just works" is so true. When you have the prettiest looking user interface of all time, and you build your own hardware (don't have to worry about drivers) and write your own software to work on it, not to mention a rock solid *nix base that's easy to use, then you have the perfect computing solution. Everybody is capable of running a Mac, and it has the perfect mix of *nix to make the geeks happy, and eye candy and functionallity to make anyone happy. OS X is your winner.
.. oh, of course .. i still have a bootable windows partition around, for those times when someone sends me something that won't run anywhere else (like today, trying to debug my matrix orbital LCD screen for the first time in 2 years), but for my personal productivity, enjoyment, hacking, study, and preference .. unix is king.
...
.. i can't think of one thing i want to do with a computer that requires windows. all my media is on linux, all my content-creation (i'm a musician) is on OSX, all my lifestyle-computing is on my linux machines, heck .. i even have a portable game machine on its way to me which runs linux. what could i possibly need windows for?
and not just linux either (though i have lots of linux in the house), but OSX too
for me personally, there really isn't any good reason to run windows these days. i just can't think of one. i've got everything i need in a computing environment, and not a bit of it comes from redmond.
i tend to think its a bit of a myth that one 'has to' use windows, also
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
And the worst part is that trolling got moderated insightful. If that isn't proof that the moderation system on /. isn't horribly broken, I don't know what is.
Why ? For me, "it just works", so why would I be interested in changing? Oh and yes, I've been a user of Linux and FreeBSD for over 4 years now, but I am still using Windows as my primary desktop platform. Use the right tool for the job.
Then how on earth to i run.... *clears throat.... Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobar, Dreamweaver, Flash, 3D Studio MAX or Adobe Premiere... PVR software, a decent media player
GAMES FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
Until software developers start writing every windows app that isnt an email client or office application for linux, then I'm sticking with windows. The rest? I hate Office, IE gets me down, and Outlook can get stuffed!
When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
Sorry if you think being an artist is about sipping seltzer in an underdecorated gallery while wearing a fez and flirting with the groupies while stroking your goatee, but I assure you that I've literally worked from dawn til dusk tweaking one image on the computer until it's just right. No, it's not work the same way construction work is work (I've done that, too) but it's a *kind* of work.
Hi,
My name is John and I've been a OSS user since 1994 and free of M$ products since 2000.
It's true. As I'm just a regular guy, it can be true for most people also. In regards to special software designed to only run on M$ platform... well if you *really* have to run it for your business or your own interests, there's nothing else to be said. For most though, this is probably not the case.
Either way, it really doesn't matter to me. I don't care if people are foolish enough to use Redmond's hacks. It their brainwashing - it's their money - it's their problem.
Despite the bullshit about OSS being difficult to install, configure maintain, my friends and I and the business people I have influenced continue to be quite happy being M$ free. I guarantee the same would be true for families and mom and pop businesses also.
As long as I don't get put on a heart-lung machine running M$ stuff, I say give the fools what they think they want. Let 'em suffer.
you most likely need more memory or even a new PC."
Is this guy for real?
morons. Give me 20 years and a few hundred billion dollars and let's see if the sh!t I come up with is as crappy as M$ or not. I would ponder, NOT!
"I like Windows XP". Yep, definetly worth the price, NOT. Only took em a 1/4 of a century. bout time.
I use M$, know why, I get my software at "deep" discounts.
Who are these idiots paying for MicroCrap? Lazy lazy lazy.
i have been doing this *computer stuff* for almost 10 years, now A+/MCSE/CCNA i took my college course i have worked in the real corprate world with all types of OS Novell NT 2K XP 9x *nix, and all in all windows aint bad. to be honest its pretty good the problem is the massive amount of shitty hardware with crappy driver support with third party apps coming out faster than sin and with with so many people using it along comes with so many flaws and security patches. if OS X was at the level of use M$ is then people would bitch about apple being shitty and how they suck wait till apple goes intel wait till apple dominates the market then we are gonna read how good M$ was and how we all miss it i run xp...im waitng for OSx86 com'on apple hurry!
Visit my Forums?
Ms is like kraft diner, you know it's bad for your health and there is much more out there to discover but it's so much easier than switching to that cookbook a.k.a linux
What we need in our open projects is some people who have degrees in industrial design, or have experience with commercial software design. No one cares what is under the hood, they care about stability, ease of use, and ascetics. You got to have all three to push a good product. When you open a Microsoft product out of the box, the interface is always professional, and clean cut, (mind Windows XP and it's dog). I mean, look at this. The bubbly looking icons are out of style, and why the hell do you have a smile face as the calendar button? You can say that you can change it to however you see fit, but the problem is that people don't change things, and base their opinion based on the out of the box experience. If you want to look professional, you will have icons with the same color tone that aren't so huge, and you will have icons that relate to what they do. Consistency is another must. You can't have a professional looking program without it. Sadly, I think Windows 2000 is the peak of user interface design with Microsoft, and if you want anything that looks good, and acts right, you will be going with Mac OS X.
Sig: I stole this sig.
I am not going to even read past the point where he implies that Knoppix is more than a niche.
There is 1 piece of Dive computer software for the MAC, none complete for Linux. All the others are Windows.
All Blood Sugar meters communicate with Windows, no MAC, No linux.
All Blood Pressure meters communicate with Windows, no MAC, No Linux.
(I'm talking consumer level medical devices, not hospitals here now. For hospitals, I don't know).
Since I have 3 pieces of software that require 1 OS, and all my other software will run on that same OS, hmm, it isn't rocket science here.
Actually, Maya runs very well under Linux - At my last job almost everybody (we're talking a couple of hundered TDs/Animators here) moved over to Linux from Windows. Photoshop was another matter though - although some people used it via Crossover Office, most people who had to use it a lot had a second machine just to run it on. There's really no serious alternative.
However I'm talking Post Production here. Now I'm back in the games industry I'm back on Windows again.
question: how many books will be sold?
PC Magazine Guide Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 , in paperback, at $16.49, added October 11th, ranks #90,125 in sales, as of 4 PM ET.
In fact, until its ability to import and export Office documents is at least as good as Office's ability to import and export files from older versions of Office, it's useless in a wide variety of situations.
.doc files. If OpenOffice's ability to import .doc files is only, say, "99% perfect", that 1% could seriously fuck me over. Say, if I inserted a page break at the end of a section which, on Word, ends 90% down the page, but when imported into OpenOffice, the table sizes in tables X, Y and Z in that section don't exactly match the sizes I set in Word, so instead of 90% down the page, it's 10% onto the next page.
.doc made in Word. If I edited it in OpenOffice, I'd probably have to tweak a bunch of things to make things look the way that they originally did in Word, in OpenOffice.
.doc import and .doc export features are 100% "perfect" (read: they do not change layout in any way, no matter how subtle), OpenOffice.org is, as much as I hate to admit it, 100% worthless to me.
I work, among many other things, on manuals. Long manuals. Long, long
End result: The document ends up looking unprofessional.
The problem is that the only way to [mostly] guarantee documents will look right (where "right" is "WYSIWYG") is to either:
A) Use NOTHING but MS Word from start to finish
B) Use NOTHING but OpenOffice.org (or another "alternative" (read: non-MS) word processor/office suite) from start to finish.
I deal with non-techies all day. They hand me a
These are NOT simple, long strings of text. They are complex documents with lots of formatting, tables, bullet points, numbered lists, etc. etc. etc... The chances of something subtle being "a bit off"-- say, if OpenOffice.org decides that the default border of a table cell should be 0.125" instead of 0.1", just to pull an example out of my arse-- are pretty large.
Then, making matters worse, after I'm done with the document, I have to mail it back to them. And they will open it in... you guessed it... MS Word.
So unless OpenOffice.org's
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Look what you did, I just spluttered coffee all over my keyboard. ;p
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
There are plenty of real reasons why the current Microsoft monopoly is harmful. Of course, you'd realise this is if you looked at the real world a bit. Software preferences are not 'ideologies' of supposedly equal solutions - software preferences come about due to genuine real-world issues.
But I'm a geek, it's taken me years to get to the point where I can invariably do things quicker on a Linux command line than in a Windows GUI and I *really* can't see the big "hooha" with Windows XP which I find bloated, patronising & totally unusable.
However, my definition of computing is not the same as a lot of people around me. My teenage nieces, for example, want to do their homework, instant message with friends, play a few games and listen to some music. Rightly or wrongly, they've grown up using PCs on the assumption they don't need to learn too much about them. Sure, they're plagued by viruses and spyware but, to them, this is a minor inconvenience compared to what they get out of their PCs.
The point I'm trying to make here is that I'm more than happy to tell people they have an alternative to using Microsoft software but that there is no point in dropping Windows *unless* they are prepared to invest a lot of time in understanding how to open up the *real power* of a Linux system. Yes, it's more secure than Windows and not plagued by viruses and spyware but you still need to *understand* Linux to get it into a secure state.
What's more important here is to push across the message of *open standards*, not necessarily *open source*. Most home users use MS Office because they get it for free from a borrowed or copied CD which, to them, is easier than downloading OpenOffice from the Internet. If those same users had to *pay* for MS Office, then the take up of OpenOffice would be far greater and, as a side-effect of that take-up, open document standards would be more widely accepted. Consequently, it's far more important to make people realise that by using any software with closed document standards, they are ultimately handing over their control of their data to commercial organisations who only care about making as much money as they can from their user base.
Ultimately, if things continue in the way that they are, Microsoft users will find more and more that they are having to *pay* for all of their software, possibly under a rental model that they have to contine to pay into to in order to keep accessing their information - this is why *The Microsoft Way* is so bad, especially when whole countries & communities are excluded from the global information exchange simply because they cannot afford expensive software.
This is the message that cannot be restated too many times and *must* be driven home to everyone who pays into the Microsoft business model - it's *not* a Windows vs. Linux argument but a personal responsibility vs monopolistic controlling vendor argument...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Step 1: Think of all the viruses you have gotten.
Step 2: Remember all the spyware that you got.
Step 3: Remember of all the BSODs you have gotten.
Step 4: Think of all the documents you have lost.
Step 5: Think of the countless white nights you have spent.
Step 6: Think of the time you have wasted.
Step 7: Think of the monopole that Microsoft has created.
Step 8: Think of the money that you have wasted.
Step 9: Think of the RAM that has been wasted without caching.
Step 10: Think of all the hard disk drives wasted through defragmentation.
Step 11: Think of the children!
And then....
Step 12: Install Linux
Yup...
The hip way to get your IP. No ads, ever.
If you *need* MS, you probably made a poor decision somewhere along the line.
It was a decision to use donated hardware whose manufacturer turned out not to want to cooperate with the free software community. What would have been a better decision at the time? Or can you get, say, a Windows scanner driver to work in linux or bsd for x86?
[Installing mplayer or another video player with pirated Microsoft codecs] works fine here. What problem are you having exactly?
Slashdot is hosted in the United States. Under United States law, Microsoft owns patents on the processes and copyrights on the binary code used in the decoders, and it licenses rights under those patents and copyrights only for use in Windows Media Player on Microsoft Windows operating systems and a few other select platforms, which do not include Linux or BSD for x86.
Oh, I see...does Red Hat Enterprise Linux lack meaningful support? Does Novell's SUSE Linux lack meaningful support?
Oh, maybe you mean that "free beer" software lacks meaningful support. After all, Red Hat and Novell only offer support if you pay for it. Maybe you're suggesting that paying a high price for proprietary software entitles the buyer to some support. So, let me check out support offerings for IE6 for Windows for folks who got a heat-sealed box at Best Buy.
Oh! Turns out that Microsoft charges $35 per support request!
Penny - plain text accounting
Games are moving to gaming consoles
Game console makers have historically given independent game developers a cold shoulder. Where are independent games moving?
I predict the vision of voluntary music payments for entertainment will work as well as the shareware pay-if-you-like it concept.
Why, oh why, didn't I take the Blue Pill?
the Mac Mini, which can be used with the former PC monitor and probably the keyboard and maybe even the printer - offers a cheaper than Wintel route for moving to Mac.
Not all proprietary apps have a Free alternative. If you use any proprietary apps on Windows, you'll have to re-buy them. (Analogy to how people complain about re-buying DVD movies on UMD for PSP.) If you cannot afford to re-buy them, or if the developers did not feel that a Mac port would bring in enough marginal sales to be worth paying programmers to make the port, you'll have to buy a PC emulator and a copy of Windows. And if it's a hardware device that's not supported by Mac OS X, then gosh help you.
Linux now has Knoppix and Mepis: live CDs which don't even have to be installed.
And which lock the CD drive while the machine is booted.
For 95% of the public that uses Windows, the majority of that public only uses email, a web browser, and an office document tool.
That must make me a 5 percenter, as I edit images. I'm already comfortable with GIMP in Windows, but Microtek hasn't released any drivers for my paid-for Scanmaker 4850 scanner; neither has the company released enough information to the SANE developers so that they can write a driver.
There are drop-in replacements for exchange:
Communigate Pro http://www.stalker.com/ is a drop-in replacement for exchange with minimal changes.
However, if I were to want a solution that blows exchange away, I'd look to:
Oracle Collaboration Suite http://www.oracle.com/collabsuite/index.html, which goes far beyond Exchange into voicemail, desktop sharing, and remote access. It's simply amazing.
It doesn't matter if there were 30x more bugs in Mozilla (there are NOT, btw). What matters is that not ONE OF THEM will take over your whole machine. IE is _not_ a web browser. IT NEVER HAS BEEN ONE. Internet Explorer is a _shell_extension_. There is a MAJOR difference.
;) )
A flaw in IE, is a key to dropping into the system and escalating priviledges. Case-in-point:
Just Friday I was in a large hospital, waiting in the surgical waiting room. They had 3 new PC's there for patron use.
The PC's were running WindowsXP SP2 and the latest IE with all the patches. The machines were "locked down" with profiles and custom IE configs (so no file menu, no desktop, no start button folders, etc etc.).
There was only an IE icon to click on.
(there also was no agreement to click through or 'terms of use')
Well, I didn't have one of my laptops with me. Or one of the USB thumb drives I keep in my consulting bag (puppy linux), or Knoppix cd, or ANYTHING.
I am sitting at a PC and have absolutely no tools with me to get work done (namely, I wanted an SSH shell into one of my servers so I could at minimum proxy through Putty to my own server to use Squid).
Ok, I can't download anything through IE. Right-clicking is also disabled, etc etc. I take it on as a challenge to get this machine in a useful state.
It took about 10 minutes to discover a flaw in IE (mind you, not a posted one--or one I have ever heard of on BugTraq or FD***). That allowed my to actually bring up an explorer type interface to peruse the file system. I also was able to get on the network to map network printers and access resources. I was able to bypass security to write to the filesystem through an old Win95 dialog trick. I thought "gee, here I am just toying around and I completely evaded what was intended on this box".
Now, I in NO WAY loaded any new code or installed 'viruses' on the PC. I am certain, though, that the administration did not realize the PC's were that 'open'. Had they used Firefox, I would not have been as successful.
Bottom line, IE is a SECURITY RISK regardless of 'patching'
***Ok, Matt. I know you are reading this. I will drop you an email to give you heads up (and fair start
M$ Project 2000 (CodeWeavers)
CodeWeavers wine Compatibility Database (PR*)
gewg_
I'll let The Joy of Tech summarize this article's comments.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Say, if I inserted a page break at the end of a section which, on Word, ends 90% down the page, but when imported into OpenOffice, the table sizes in tables X, Y and Z in that section don't exactly match the sizes I set in Word, so instead of 90% down the page, it's 10% onto the next page.
What you're talking about is largely due to word-wrap errors. Those are just as likely to happen from one version of Word to the next or even from one computer to the next running the same version of Word, if they have different versions of the fonts or OS installed, as they are from the most recent version of Word to OOo 2.
The problem is that the only way to [mostly] guarantee documents will look right (where "right" is "WYSIWYG") is to either: A. use Microsoft Word from start to finish, or B. use another specific software package from start to finish.
If you're trying to make long manuals, where by "long" you mean 1,000 pages, I suggest a program that was intended specifically for print work, not a generic word processor that tries to be a jack of all trades and master of none. If something proprietary such as InDesign isn't your cup of tea, you might want to try using LyX from start to finish. LyX is a GUI editor for LaTeX, which was designed for bible-length documents. The live editor works in WYSIWYM (what you see is what you mean) mode, and it has a button that will do a page preview in TeX (which is all but guaranteed to be the same everywhere).
So unless OpenOffice.org's .doc import and .doc export features are 100% "perfect" (read: they do not change layout in any way, no matter how subtle), OpenOffice.org is, as much as I hate to admit it, 100% worthless to me.
If that's your criterion, then Microsoft Word itself is 100% worthless to you because it changes layout subtly between versions of Word, between versions of the operating system, between versions of printer drivers, between versions of fonts, etc.
With a bald, sweaty fat man throwing chairs at employees.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
is me.
...
Linux is not just about freedom and power.
It is about extending that freedom and power.
Encapsulating all.
Vmware, Win4Lin, Wine.
Now if only I could get round making PearPC work
Yes, and Domino is totally searchable, even the attachments. You can develop applications in it, and have them instantly browser-accessible. You can then control access to these applications. It replaces Access with a truly shared database/front end that is Webified. You can import the Access data and hack it into submission. This can be done in unbelievably short time. Domino is truly misunderstood, mostly because IBM has no idea how to market it, and never had. It's a lovely tool.
There are good reasons to need Windows. Voice dictation software for other OSs is crappy or nonexistent. The same is probably true of a lot of accessibility or alternative input software. And voice dictation is something I need. It's arrogant to presume that needing MS is a choice.
I think, you nobody can deny that some stuff Microsoft produces is quite good. I pretty much liked the Visual BASIC IDE and the DirectX 8.1 SDK that just stunned me: All the tons of example code both in C++ and Visual BASIC and the countless pages of detailed documentation that came with it.
But nonetheless I chose to dump Microsoft and use Linux instead. Because it's not about the technical side of things. Microsoft is a company that acts unethical. Think of software patents, DRM, Trusted Computing, FUD campaings against Open Source, their close-to-be-criminal business methods to fight rivals and potential rivals.
These are not the values I expect from a powerful company like Microsoft to represent. And that's why I'm not using Microsoft software.
Regards,
Dennis B. Schramm
Sigs suck!
Tony Bove' also has the distinction of developing the most elegantly packaged interactive multimedia CDROM title in the industry: Haight Ashbury in the 60's. He pioneered the concept of the "refillable software stash box", which is big enough that it takes up a whole cigar box of shelf space, and it holds a whole lot of ... refillable software.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
I had to live in both worlds, but since I had to rebuild every version of Windows from Worries for Workgroups upwards every half year or so to keep it operational I wnet for dual boot. Now WIndows XP has just died on me (bluescreening for no apparent reason) and guess what? That was half a year ago. I haven't bothered to fix it - I don't need it anymore.
As I'll be responsible for technology in some of the stuff that friends and I are setting up I'll probably stick with Windows for the desktop, but only with multi platform software on top of it (i.e. Gaim, OpenOffice, Skyp - although the latter one isn't exactly open). The advantage is that I can switch them to, say, Ubuntu without too much trouble, and document handling can be automated easily.
Now *that* is IT strategy IMHO..
Insert
Many of the open replacements have plugins for outlook to connect to them.. Users won`t notice the difference and you can always phase outlook out slowly..
Many of the users using outlook have moved between outlook, old exchange "inbox", lotus notes or whatever else as they move between companies, and should quite quickly adapt to a new mail program since 90% of the mail programs are very similar... People don`t complain when they join a new company that already has systems they`re not familiar with, so why should they complain if the company they`re at already changes over?
On the other hand, you can always give new users a new program and keep the old ones on what they already have.. Do the same with new hardware too, users will always want the new and shiny things and will expect them to be slightly different.
As for drop-in replacements for server products, virtually any linux distribution is suitable for that... And it truly is drop in, whereas with microsoft you need to install the os and then the additional server products seperately.
The "Set it and forget it" idea doesn`t work well with exchange, every exchange deployment i`ve seen required constant maintenence and had stupid requirements like every user needed to log out before the system could be backed up..
As for upgrading exchange, that`s also very problematic, i`ve seen upgrades between versions which went badly wrong.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
That's what all that extra space is for on monster.com/hotjobs.com/etc
Wanted: Somebody that knows GIMP
I am not sure you get "meaningful support" from proprietary companies either. If you do, it'll cost an arm and a leg.
Althougth enterprise redhat does cost, it doesn't cost much, and their support easily compares to proprietary companies.
if you throw it hard enough and at high angle, it flys through window, then crosses lower border somewhere at "google", then game area gets gray and nothing happens.
Rich
If enough people felt a real need to move away from Windows, they would; but time and again I hear from people who don't know of any major benefits to switch, and so don't bother. That's not laziness; that's intelligent use of time.
Give people a compelling WHY on switching, and the HOW will take care of itself. (Over time.) But while Windows is 'good enough', that won't happen.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Go for it.
:P
Just don't get caught with your dick in the cookie jar.