If you are on the field and you must install windows for non-professional customers - you know that starting windows can be a pain. The reason is not so much windows itself - but how windows comes with a pc these days. First of all: you can choose your linux language at any time. You cant do that with windows. This means: many phone calls until you get the right language. 2nd Preinstalled windows always womes with crap soft preinstalled. 3th. You buy a pc but there is no useful software installed - compare that with Suse 10.0 or Ubuntu. 4th. Your pc is like a magnet for viruses whenevr you go to the internet
The only domains where Linux loses are a.: difficult to install new software b. not so many working sofware packages available c. bad support of ext files & multimedia in general: dvd / playing wmf files etc.
With OpenSuse and Ubuntu I think we now have a good availability of userfriendly linuxes. If we can fix the multimedia & install problems - Linux may get a lot of new users!
If you look at the desktop I think that linux is even easier than windows xp.
In fact, these days most companies have their main applications like ERP web based. So, the platform the client works on becomes less important. That's a serious saving. Why dont you just change to a thinclient or LTSP? Maybe you need a wordprocessor and a spreadsheet next to your webbrowser. Everything else can be done with your mozilla.
You may be right about the wax. I used the metal cases because they protect against electromagnetic influences. That was my major concern. There are loads of pc screens, pc's and the like here... Anyway, these cases will live as long as I don't throw them away. It may help to put the cd's first in a sealed plastic bag.
Thanks for your information.
Remember the days that cd roms where kept in caddies which were put into the cdrom reader. According to the guidelines this was a much better solution. Are these caddies and these special cd rom drives still available (new, not second hand) ?. Would be a market for professional users.
I use a miltary case, used for storing munition & bombs, for storing my floppies. Since these metal cases are waterproof (and so protect against dust as well) they can enhance the life om my valuable cdroms as well.
I'm sorry, its the BPI, the British counterpart of the RIAA. Its about European companies (directly or through a higher body) which force a company to change its price in favor of market stability.
This is one of the areas where EC doesn't joke with.
I payed about 90$. The original company (now owned by Fujitsu) doesn't sell to Europe anymore - only through European distributors. Its hard to find now - I had to order it from Italy.
Yes, I use it and I'm very happy with it. I can really recommend it if you have an already crowded desk. It's currently connected to my laptop on which I do all my development work.
Only disadvantage is that it is quite expensive.
Yep, I can confirm that story.
These days manufacturers rather decrease than increase the processor speed in new models. So its more than before possible to wait a year and buy a corporate model second hand. I bought myself three years a go a compaq armada m700 750 Mhz and I still use it 10 hours a day for Linux/Smalltalk development running two Smalltalks, two databases and a webserver. All replacement parts are widely available on ebay for this model. I think when it breaks down I buy another one. Since its made of a carbon alloy the case lasts longer. After three years of everyday use I don't see any sign of wear. I updated my wife's Toshiba Tecra 500 CDT (75Mhz) with some extra memory and I use it 15 hours a day as internet radio.
My father stays with M$ and everytime he buys a new PC, it goes slower thanks to the M$ that is able to program operating systems in such a way that you will need in 2 years time a 10GHz pc to do word processing.
On the other hand, who could ever imagine that all the C64's I bought for.50 Euro per piece are now in use as a webserver ? Maybe my father will ask me in 2010 to borrow my Linux C64 to do wordprocessing because his 10Ghz PC has become too slow.
Probably my 5th computer but the most usefull: it worked 8 (eight) hours on one battery charge. I used it at university for taking notes. I had computers with more impressive specs (amiga 1000, Sinclair QL,...) but with this laptop (which still works) I learned that PC's dont have to have incredible specs for being usefull. I just bought a Palm Vx. Probably for the same reason: unlimited battery life, light and very dependable.
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If you are on the field and you must install windows for non-professional customers - you know that starting windows can be a pain. The reason is not so much windows itself - but how windows comes with a pc these days. First of all: you can choose your linux language at any time. You cant do that with windows. This means: many phone calls until you get the right language. 2nd Preinstalled windows always womes with crap soft preinstalled. 3th. You buy a pc but there is no useful software installed - compare that with Suse 10.0 or Ubuntu. 4th. Your pc is like a magnet for viruses whenevr you go to the internet The only domains where Linux loses are a.: difficult to install new software b. not so many working sofware packages available c. bad support of ext files & multimedia in general: dvd / playing wmf files etc. With OpenSuse and Ubuntu I think we now have a good availability of userfriendly linuxes. If we can fix the multimedia & install problems - Linux may get a lot of new users! If you look at the desktop I think that linux is even easier than windows xp.
In fact, these days most companies have their main applications like ERP web based. So, the platform the client works on becomes less important. That's a serious saving. Why dont you just change to a thinclient or LTSP? Maybe you need a wordprocessor and a spreadsheet next to your webbrowser. Everything else can be done with your mozilla.
This is a very good idea. You can post this idea as a question to slashdot community.
You may be right about the wax. I used the metal cases because they protect against electromagnetic influences. That was my major concern. There are loads of pc screens, pc's and the like here... Anyway, these cases will live as long as I don't throw them away. It may help to put the cd's first in a sealed plastic bag. Thanks for your information.
Remember the days that cd roms where kept in caddies which were put into the cdrom reader. According to the guidelines this was a much better solution. Are these caddies and these special cd rom drives still available (new, not second hand) ?. Would be a market for professional users. I use a miltary case, used for storing munition & bombs, for storing my floppies. Since these metal cases are waterproof (and so protect against dust as well) they can enhance the life om my valuable cdroms as well.
I'm sorry, its the BPI, the British counterpart of the RIAA. Its about European companies (directly or through a higher body) which force a company to change its price in favor of market stability. This is one of the areas where EC doesn't joke with.
If the European Commission knows about this 'regulation', the RIAA can get a huge fine for their behavior.
I payed about 90$. The original company (now owned by Fujitsu) doesn't sell to Europe anymore - only through European distributors. Its hard to find now - I had to order it from Italy.
Yes, I use it and I'm very happy with it. I can really recommend it if you have an already crowded desk. It's currently connected to my laptop on which I do all my development work. Only disadvantage is that it is quite expensive.
Yep, I can confirm that story. These days manufacturers rather decrease than increase the processor speed in new models. So its more than before possible to wait a year and buy a corporate model second hand. I bought myself three years a go a compaq armada m700 750 Mhz and I still use it 10 hours a day for Linux/Smalltalk development running two Smalltalks, two databases and a webserver. All replacement parts are widely available on ebay for this model. I think when it breaks down I buy another one. Since its made of a carbon alloy the case lasts longer. After three years of everyday use I don't see any sign of wear. I updated my wife's Toshiba Tecra 500 CDT (75Mhz) with some extra memory and I use it 15 hours a day as internet radio.
My father stays with M$ and everytime he buys a new PC, it goes slower thanks to the M$ that is able to program operating systems in such a way that you will need in 2 years time a 10GHz pc to do word processing. On the other hand, who could ever imagine that all the C64's I bought for .50 Euro per piece are now in use as a webserver ? Maybe my father will ask me in 2010 to borrow my Linux C64 to do wordprocessing because his 10Ghz PC has become too slow.
Probably my 5th computer but the most usefull: it worked 8 (eight) hours on one battery charge. I used it at university for taking notes. I had computers with more impressive specs (amiga 1000, Sinclair QL, ...) but with this laptop (which still works) I learned that PC's dont have to have incredible specs for being usefull. I just bought a Palm Vx. Probably for the same reason: unlimited battery life, light and very dependable.