I develop web sites/apps using Firefox, because I like the Firebug plug in, but it's silly to not test your work on the most recent version of the most popular browser - by far - on the market, isn't it?
Not everybody needs to care about that, which is the sole reason IE is so damn popular. Most people are not web developers and so do not need to test their web apps on every major browser--the average Joe doesn't know anything about that and just would rather use one browser. Why are you even bringing this up here?
I'm not poor, so I wouldn't buy a $200 laptop. Well done for finding a laptop which ships with Linux, though. It's less time consuming to get a Windows laptop and install Linux on it afterwards, though, should you wan't Linux. I'm a Windows-only developer, so such things don't interest me. Wake me up when there's a development environment as good as Visual Studio.net, and it's as easy to get well paid jobs developing using it.
That's your opinion. Again, most people who use computers don't program. Hell, I've been using Linux alone for almost 4 years now and don't know how to code or write websites/web apps. None of these arguments even matter with the average Joe.
We've come a long way from Win2K vs XP, to Windows vs Linux. I don't have a problem with Linux - some of my mates use it. I don't have a problem with activation. Currently it's not an issue because I'm using a copy of Windows the company I work for pays for via MSDN, so I can have practically any Microsoft product I choose, for free, but in my previous company, where we swapped hard drives in and out of different PCs all the time I frequently had to register/activate (whatever you want to call it) XP because the hardware had changed. It was a 2 minute job which involved phoning a freephone number. I've never felt particularly violated about it - should I?
I feel violated at the idea of having to ask a company for permission to use something I paid them for. If you bought a car, would you want to have to keep asking the car dealership or manufacturer for permission to drive the car again after a repair, an upgrade, or an engine overhaul?
I know it's a quick call or Internet thing, but what if they start saying "no"? They've been starting to talk about it. They may never pull the plug on it, but I would rather not have to trust the company to always say "yes". You don't know that they will let you keep activating it. Also, the system as it is assumes the person is guilty until proven innocent, as the WGA failures of the last year or so have been showing. The fact that it fails at all scares me.
You can't run the IE 7 on it, so you're stuck with the circa 2000 era IE6.
You could install Firefox or Opera, but you probably think that's just silliness.
You can't use ClearType or the Consolas font (yeah, I know you mentioned that but so what - it still contributes to a 'dated' appearance on my LCD monitor).
You can get the latter from the PowerPoint Viewer package.
No Paint.net, so you're stuck with Paint if you want a free graphics package (unless you're prepared to suffer the absurd nonsense that is Gimp) - no, I can't justify paying for a graphics package for the minimal amount of editing I need to do.
Not everybody thinks the
Loads of small things, really, but XP comes for free when you buy a new PC and I don't pay for the one I use at work.
XP is not free. It is figured into the price of the computer you bought. This is why the $200 Asus laptop uses Linux rather than Windows--it would cost more to sell it with Windows on it.
To willingly choose Win2K over XP is just ridiculous.
That's just your opinion. Mine, however, is that to willingly choose Windows over K/Ubuntu Linux is just ridiculous. But XP's activation and other privacy invasions (WGA anyone?) is what drove me away from Windows.
Kubuntu Gutsy runs great on my Pentium II (332 MHz, 160 MB RAM). Full KDE desktop and everything. Heck, I've even been trying the KDE 4 betas on it with success.:)
It seems to run better than Win98 on that same machine.
Ironically, it's those who didn't pirate their copies of Windows they are scaring the most. The legit users seem to be more interested in trying Linux. Of the three non-geeks I've converted so far, none of them were pirates, but they were more fed up with the privacy invasions than pirates were, since pirates will find a way around it anyway.
Oh, I understand. But to be honest, I have found the least dangerous way to do this is to just stick to Ubuntu's repos and Medibuntu. I just wish that adding Medibuntu was as easy as clicking on a deb file.
Yeah, but Automatix can be dangerous, and it's poorly-coded too. According to that site, it's full of bad assumptions (for example, what looks like an attempt to see if you're authorized to run a command with sudo assumes that sudo won't prompt you for a password twice within 15 minutes, which is a problem for me since I prefer to have it always prompt me for a password).
I switched to Linux because I didn't want to be forced into using Windows XP for this very reason (I was used to running an old version of Windows because I was a kid who kept getting secondhand computers). I did get a new laptop after switching, but I erased XP right away from it.
It still never ceases to amaze me how many people are panicky about this now that Vista is here. I mean, I saw Vista coming years ago! Sometimes I think I was the only one who thought ahead about "What if XP+1 is worse?" or "What would I do after Microsoft discontinues XP and I had to reinstall?"
I'm just glad Linux has caught up enough to allow three of my non-geek friends to make a full-time switch to Kubuntu.
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Shoe or furniture?
Don't you need to be root to do that? Let me see YOUR geek card.
The actual patch is here: http://www.kubuntu.org/
I know it's a quick call or Internet thing, but what if they start saying "no"? They've been starting to talk about it. They may never pull the plug on it, but I would rather not have to trust the company to always say "yes". You don't know that they will let you keep activating it. Also, the system as it is assumes the person is guilty until proven innocent, as the WGA failures of the last year or so have been showing. The fact that it fails at all scares me.
Makes me glad I use Linux because I only have half a gig of RAM in my main machine. :)
I don't think Windows will ever be ready for the desktop. It's got too many problems with spyware and viruses.
Or sodium chloride, for that matter.
But it requires Windows. Not everybody has that OS.
Kubuntu Gutsy runs great on my Pentium II (332 MHz, 160 MB RAM). Full KDE desktop and everything. Heck, I've even been trying the KDE 4 betas on it with success. :)
It seems to run better than Win98 on that same machine.
That's why some people use Linux. :) The latest Kubuntu (Gutsy) still runs great on my Windows 98-era machine, with KDE 3.5.8 and everything.
Ironically, it's those who didn't pirate their copies of Windows they are scaring the most. The legit users seem to be more interested in trying Linux. Of the three non-geeks I've converted so far, none of them were pirates, but they were more fed up with the privacy invasions than pirates were, since pirates will find a way around it anyway.
What about those of us who don't want to see Red Hat turn evil?
Oh, I understand. But to be honest, I have found the least dangerous way to do this is to just stick to Ubuntu's repos and Medibuntu. I just wish that adding Medibuntu was as easy as clicking on a deb file.
Yeah, but Automatix can be dangerous, and it's poorly-coded too. According to that site, it's full of bad assumptions (for example, what looks like an attempt to see if you're authorized to run a command with sudo assumes that sudo won't prompt you for a password twice within 15 minutes, which is a problem for me since I prefer to have it always prompt me for a password).
In Debian and Ubuntu, you can just contact them offering to package it. It's not that hard.
Yeah, because they are used to the computer only working for an hour, and only using IE.
I switched to Linux because I didn't want to be forced into using Windows XP for this very reason (I was used to running an old version of Windows because I was a kid who kept getting secondhand computers). I did get a new laptop after switching, but I erased XP right away from it.
It still never ceases to amaze me how many people are panicky about this now that Vista is here. I mean, I saw Vista coming years ago! Sometimes I think I was the only one who thought ahead about "What if XP+1 is worse?" or "What would I do after Microsoft discontinues XP and I had to reinstall?"
I'm just glad Linux has caught up enough to allow three of my non-geek friends to make a full-time switch to Kubuntu.
Ever heard of Nintendo? Last time I checked, Nintendo games didn't require Windows.
Business speak has a way of dehumanizing people.