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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.
...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.
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.
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.
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.
just use the right codecs:r pmfind.net/linux/RPM/sourceforge/m/mp/mplayer-tru/ mplayer-codecs-essential-20040704-1.i386.html+qtml Client.dll+mplayer&hl=en
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:3aCwKM2vl0oJ:
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
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."
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.
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)
They act like drug dealers. They let people copy their software "illegally" for years until it became almost ubiquitous. Then they cracked down after everyone was already "addicted" to make huge profits.
Developers: We can use your help.
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
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
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.
This isn't necessarily the case - 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. I'll not read the book (applied those lessons a few ago;-) but an interesting appendix would be going with a Mac Mini. A breakdown of cost and software alternatives would be interesting from a ROI perspective.
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
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.
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.
Open-Xchange - The Beta Outlook connector is free. The stable version only costs $10.
Oh well, what the hell...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
As someone who has spent most of his life being diabetic, I have never needed my glucose meter to talk to my computer. My latest glucose meter, a One-Touch UltraSmart, has all the logging and information functions I need inside it, including some basic information on diabetic exchanges. My diabetic care team poke a couple of buttons on it, get the averages from the menus, and hand it back to me. *chirp* Done.
Before that, I had this nifty device called a diabetes logbook, with the optional "pen" attachment. Worked great for logging.