No. However, I suppose it is no different than the TCO of a coal power station or an older diesel bus that belches particulates every day. The external costs of those items include the number of deaths caused in people susceptible to pollution.
Well, not really, but I was. The voices are fading since I left the Borg in 1999. I worked for Microsoft for 12 years and over those years had Windows everything pumped into my blood. I started as an intern in 1987 supporting DOS and Windows 1.0. I worked my way from support, to testing, to developer support, into IT applications development, and finally as a web developer for Microsoft.com.
I started to get interested in Linux during the Internet boom. At the time, Microsoft was doomed because Linux was free and was going to take away all of Microsoft's revenue stream. I figured I'd get a head start learning skills that would keep me gainfully employed in the post-Microsoft apocalypse. Hmmmm....
Now, before you think that I am a hard-core Microsoft fan, let me convince you otherwise. When I worked at the company, I ate blibit burgers, religiously attended the company meeting, and faithfully spread the word that Microsoft was good. While I still have an enormous amount of respect for the company, I too am nervous about the massive market power that the company wields. That power needs some sort of check and balance. People need to have choices, otherwise there is little incentive for Microsoft to improve their products. That's now why I'm interested in Linux.
Now to the original question: What's keeping me on Windows? Here are some answers:
Drivers, Drivers, Drivers
Copy and Paste (CTRL+C and CTRL+V) works virtually EVERYWHERE - I have apps in Linux that SAY they support CTRL+C and CTRL+V but don't.
Two words: Keyboard interface (Well, in KDE and Gnome at least)
Microsoft Money (Quicken would cut it as a replacement - GNUCash doesn't for my purposes)
Microsoft Office
Windows 2000 and XP are stable, fast, easy to use, and secure (as long as you keep it up to date and firewall it properly - just like Linux)
Despite all of that, I am typing this message in KWord and will (hopefully) copy and paste into Mozilla to answer this post. I'm just about to throw out my commercial editor ($300 a copy) and replace it with VIM. The only thing holding me back is learning the VI keyboard interface - Still getting used to that. I'm learning Perl, Apache, MySQL, PHP, PostgreSQL, and a ton of other COOL stuff. I might even have a reason to get back into C++ programming, which I haven't done for years. And best of all??? I've spent only $24.95 to enjoy all of this. (Well, not counting the hundreds I've spent on Oreilly books)
But I'll probably always have Windows on my machine. For the foreseeable future, it is just easier to use as a desktop OS.
NOTE: When I say "Windows" I mean Windows 2000 or Windows XP. I'd be the first to admit that Windows 95/98/ME is a POS.
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No. However, I suppose it is no different than the TCO of a coal power station or an older diesel bus that belches particulates every day. The external costs of those items include the number of deaths caused in people susceptible to pollution.
I started to get interested in Linux during the Internet boom. At the time, Microsoft was doomed because Linux was free and was going to take away all of Microsoft's revenue stream. I figured I'd get a head start learning skills that would keep me gainfully employed in the post-Microsoft apocalypse. Hmmmm....
Now, before you think that I am a hard-core Microsoft fan, let me convince you otherwise. When I worked at the company, I ate blibit burgers, religiously attended the company meeting, and faithfully spread the word that Microsoft was good. While I still have an enormous amount of respect for the company, I too am nervous about the massive market power that the company wields. That power needs some sort of check and balance. People need to have choices, otherwise there is little incentive for Microsoft to improve their products. That's now why I'm interested in Linux.
Now to the original question: What's keeping me on Windows? Here are some answers:
Despite all of that, I am typing this message in KWord and will (hopefully) copy and paste into Mozilla to answer this post. I'm just about to throw out my commercial editor ($300 a copy) and replace it with VIM. The only thing holding me back is learning the VI keyboard interface - Still getting used to that. I'm learning Perl, Apache, MySQL, PHP, PostgreSQL, and a ton of other COOL stuff. I might even have a reason to get back into C++ programming, which I haven't done for years. And best of all??? I've spent only $24.95 to enjoy all of this. (Well, not counting the hundreds I've spent on Oreilly books)
But I'll probably always have Windows on my machine. For the foreseeable future, it is just easier to use as a desktop OS.
NOTE: When I say "Windows" I mean Windows 2000 or Windows XP. I'd be the first to admit that Windows 95/98/ME is a POS.