Waaay back when I was still using dial-up, I tried alternatives to AOL, and they sucked. They had even more busy signals/disconnects than AOL, and I couldn't verify the lack of pop-ups because I couldn't get/stay connected long enough. This was a long time ago, and maybe the competition got its act together since then, but at that time many ISP's sucked worse than AOL!
I don't like PayPal, I don't trust PayPal, I won't use PayPal. Period. I'm also wary about paying per X pages. I can't guarantee I'd pay a flat fee per month, but at least that would be a known quantity. Whether I stay or leave will depend on the ads. I'm already leaving one site I used to frequent cause it spewed out pop-ups. My tolerence here would be lower because I post from work, and I don't want the boss to see 12 pop-ups as he walks by. If you keep the ads reasonable, I'll stay.
"Maybe I was hallucinating, but last time I was computer part shopping Windows OEM is only between $90-$150 while a Linux (Red Hat, SuSE, etc) were between $40-$150. When I factor in a price of a new PC and the bill comes out to $1000, $50 more dollars is not that much. Sure Linux can be downloaded for free but some of us do not have broadband yet and support still costs money."
The Linux CD's I've seen were $29.99 - $79.99. The high end is less than 1/2 the $189 price of XP. Also, you need to add the cost of M$ Office ($499.99), and Visual C++ ($200+ ?). Gcc is free, and I'm sure StarOffice is MUCH cheaper than M$.
My concern is that someone will try Linux on their new Walmart box, and discover that it has a LoseModem! They'll shriek at Walmart, and M$ will have a PR FUD bonanza!
The people would be thrilled with a $700 PC (350 for hardware, 350 for Windows), but if Dell/Gateway/CompUsa charges $350 for the whole thing, and Windoze costs them $200 [1], where's their profit margin? If any of these companies chose to pre-load Linux on their machines, their cost would drop from $200/machine to $79 [2] for 1 CD which they could copy as much as needed. Installation is no longer an issue. In a free market the vendor could offer Linux machine much cheaper than Doze machines, which would encourage users to try it.
[1] The amount is probably less, but since its per machine instead of one CD, M$ still loses in cost.
[2] I've seen RH CD's at $79. Most distros, including RH's low end, are much lower than that.
I don't know why you were modded "Funny", I would have given you an "Insightful". When I bought my current PC, Gateway gave me a choice between M$ Office, and Corel (at the time I was still mostly using Windows), and Corel was significantly cheaper. I strongly suspect that StarOffice will be comparable to Corel.
Personally, I've been happier with the informal support I've gotten from the Linux mailing lists/message boards than I was with Microsoft's "support".
Regarding viruses, a large problem with Windows is that Microsoft traditionally didn't give a $#it about security. They are only just beginning to give lip service to it, but that's all it is.
I've never used XP, so I don't know how fast/slow it is, but it's based on NT, and when I ran NT4 on a P2 350 with 64 MG RAM, it was slow. Linux ran much faster on my K6 450 with the same amount of RAM, even using its slowest desktop (KDE2).
Debian potato has an ancient, crappy version of Gnome, and no version of KDE. My attempt to upgrade to something from this century killed my X-window. Maybe I could have gotten it working, but my mom couldn't. Debian may have its good points, but it still sux for a newbie.
Price is still an advantage ($29.95 sure beats nearly $200 for XP). And while XP MIGHT be "stable enough" it's still as virus ridden as any other version of Windows. Last, but not least, Linux is "free" (meaning you're free to do what you want with it). You can't legally install Windows from your CD on your friends machine. You can with any Linux distro.
"Real" Communism, as I understand it wouldn't work either. Here's an example. Suppose I and my roommate agree to share our wealth. The problem is that I work 12 hours a day, and he's a lazy bum. If I'm forced to give this bozo half my pay, I'm going to quit my job. Then we'll both be broke.
I realize it's targeted at the WinUser, but can the power-user still do all the standard geeky, Linuxy things they're used to. I'd like to see a Linux that's simple enough for my mom (neither RH nor Mandrake quite does it), but still lets me fiddle if I need to.
My main question is whether these PC's really give you a choice. If they're standard PC's with LoseModems, anyone buying them for Linux will get royally PO'd at Walmart, and M$ can spin this into a high-profile win for them.
I'm also not fully satisfied with the user-friendlyness of Linux Distros. 1. RedHat - 7.1 worked ok, but 7.2 seemed to have trouble with my DHCP. 2. Mandrake 8.1 - booted to a "black screen of death" 3. Slackware 8.0 - my current distro. Had to work a little to configure my X-Windows. Minor nuisance for me, major hurdle for Joe WinUser.
I've also tried LFS, not so much from paranoia, just because I'd like my own distro, but I've hit some snags, including trouble subscribing to the list so I can ask questions (I get error messages from Listar). I managed to get a bootable system, but had no clue how to set up DHCP for online access:(
You keep saying that people aren't mature enough to handle total freedom. Well, guess what, the government isn't "mature" enough to be trusted with total control either. If you give them the ability to track you're every move, it WILL be abused. All governments, including ours, have a long history of abusing whatever power they have. That hasn't changed. You worry about safety from terrorism. That's a valid concern, but a rogue government could do more harm than a bunch of Middle-Eastern nutjobs. We DO need better security, BUT we also need to keep a very close and suspicious eye on the government to make sure they don't cross the line.
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Waaay back when I was still using dial-up, I tried alternatives to AOL, and they sucked. They had even more busy signals/disconnects than AOL, and I couldn't verify the lack of pop-ups because I couldn't get/stay connected long enough. This was a long time ago, and maybe the competition got its act together since then, but at that time many ISP's sucked worse than AOL!
they once had a Special High Intensity Training program. After I made a comment about it, I was in deep Special High Intensity Training.
I have no idea how many pages I view. I don't like keeping track of how many pages I view. It's not the big deal-killer, but it is a factor.
K5 has a very different look and feel than /.
/.
K5 pros: fewer trolls, posters seem fairly intellegent.
K5 cons: boring stories, heavy political, repetitious, posters less humorous than
I don't like PayPal, I don't trust PayPal, I won't use PayPal. Period. I'm also wary about paying per X pages. I can't guarantee I'd pay a flat fee per month, but at least that would be a known quantity. Whether I stay or leave will depend on the ads. I'm already leaving one site I used to frequent cause it spewed out pop-ups. My tolerence here would be lower because I post from work, and I don't want the boss to see 12 pop-ups as he walks by. If you keep the ads reasonable, I'll stay.
"Maybe I was hallucinating, but last time I was computer part shopping Windows OEM is only between
$90-$150 while a Linux (Red Hat, SuSE, etc) were between $40-$150. When I factor in a price of a new PC and the bill comes out to $1000, $50 more dollars is not that much. Sure Linux can be downloaded for free but some of us do not have broadband yet and support still costs money."
The Linux CD's I've seen were $29.99 - $79.99. The high end is less than 1/2 the $189 price of XP. Also, you need to add the cost of M$ Office ($499.99), and Visual C++ ($200+ ?). Gcc is free, and I'm sure StarOffice is MUCH cheaper than M$.
My concern is that someone will try Linux on their new Walmart box, and discover that it has a LoseModem! They'll shriek at Walmart, and M$ will have a PR FUD bonanza!
The people would be thrilled with a $700 PC (350 for hardware, 350 for Windows), but if Dell/Gateway/CompUsa charges $350 for the whole thing, and Windoze costs them $200 [1], where's their profit margin? If any of these companies chose to pre-load Linux on their machines, their cost would drop from $200/machine to $79 [2] for 1 CD which they could copy as much as needed. Installation is no longer an issue. In a free market the vendor could offer Linux machine much cheaper than Doze machines, which would encourage users to try it.
[1] The amount is probably less, but since its per machine instead of one CD, M$ still loses in cost.
[2] I've seen RH CD's at $79. Most distros, including RH's low end, are much lower than that.
I don't know why you were modded "Funny", I would have given you an "Insightful". When I bought my current PC, Gateway gave me a choice between M$ Office, and Corel (at the time I was still mostly using Windows), and Corel was significantly cheaper. I strongly suspect that StarOffice will be comparable to Corel.
"Who do I call if I have a problem with Linux? "
Personally, I've been happier with the informal support I've gotten from the Linux mailing lists/message boards than I was with Microsoft's "support".
Regarding viruses, a large problem with Windows is that Microsoft traditionally didn't give a $#it about security. They are only just beginning to give lip service to it, but that's all it is.
I've never used XP, so I don't know how fast/slow it is, but it's based on NT, and when I ran NT4 on a P2 350 with 64 MG RAM, it was slow. Linux ran much faster on my K6 450 with the same amount of RAM, even using its slowest desktop (KDE2).
Shouldn't it be spelled konquer? :)
Debian potato has an ancient, crappy version of Gnome, and no version of KDE. My attempt to upgrade to something from this century killed my X-window. Maybe I could have gotten it working, but my mom couldn't. Debian may have its good points, but it still sux for a newbie.
Price is still an advantage ($29.95 sure beats nearly $200 for XP). And while XP MIGHT be "stable enough" it's still as virus ridden as any other version of Windows. Last, but not least, Linux is "free" (meaning you're free to do what you want with it). You can't legally install Windows from your CD on your friends machine. You can with any Linux distro.
"Real" Communism, as I understand it wouldn't work either. Here's an example. Suppose I and my roommate agree to share our wealth. The problem is that I work 12 hours a day, and he's a lazy bum. If I'm forced to give this bozo half my pay, I'm going to quit my job. Then we'll both be broke.
I realize it's targeted at the WinUser, but can the power-user still do all the standard geeky, Linuxy things they're used to. I'd like to see a Linux that's simple enough for my mom (neither RH nor Mandrake quite does it), but still lets me fiddle if I need to.
I'm sure 2.4.19-pre1 is better than some release kernels *cough*greased turkey*cough*
I've never read Marx, but I've watched some of his movies. Oops, I'm sorry. You meant Karl Marx.
My main question is whether these PC's really give you a choice. If they're standard PC's with LoseModems, anyone buying them for Linux will get royally PO'd at Walmart, and M$ can spin this into a high-profile win for them.
If Walmart's computers work seamlessly with Linux, that will be great! Otherwise, it will be a PR bonanza to M$
I'm also not fully satisfied with the user-friendlyness of Linux Distros.
1. RedHat - 7.1 worked ok, but 7.2 seemed to have trouble with my DHCP.
2. Mandrake 8.1 - booted to a "black screen of death"
3. Slackware 8.0 - my current distro. Had to work a little to configure my X-Windows. Minor nuisance for me, major hurdle for Joe WinUser.
Not only that, but gnucash is well behind Quicken in both eye candy and features.
Spider Man came down with colds/flu all the time.
One option is to use one of the lightweight desktops such as Xfce (www.xfce.org)
I've also tried LFS, not so much from paranoia, just because I'd like my own distro, but I've hit some snags, including trouble subscribing to the list so I can ask questions (I get error messages from Listar). I managed to get a bootable system, but had no clue how to set up DHCP for online access :(
You keep saying that people aren't mature enough to handle total freedom. Well, guess what, the government isn't "mature" enough to be trusted with total control either. If you give them the ability to track you're every move, it WILL be abused. All governments, including ours, have a long history of abusing whatever power they have. That hasn't changed. You worry about safety from terrorism. That's a valid concern, but a rogue government could do more harm than a bunch of Middle-Eastern nutjobs. We DO need better security, BUT we also need to keep a very close and suspicious eye on the government to make sure they don't cross the line.