There is actually a piece of work being undertaken to normalise OS bigotry and zealotry. First iterations seem to point to beard length as a key determinant.
Joe Public can now buy a home PC suite for about UKP499 from retail multiples such as Tesco. "Serious" systems still need about UKP1000 thrown at them. UKP499 still equates to more than the monthly takehome pay of a full time worker on minimum wage, plus factoring in that scalding retinas in front of commercial TV isn't an alien concept, you'll probably get a responsive market.
This is an absolute boon. Given that (a) my employer already uses Solaris extensively and (b) there's next to no chance of Linux being deployed in anger in the next four or so years (bungee boss permitting), Solaris will be the next platform skill I'll be working on! Kudos to Sun.
Once I started working with NT OS derivatives, there was no going back to the flaky 9x core. In offering an XP Home derivative, MS have seemed to endorse that position.
Standard 'Dude recommendation: if you have 2k pro, don't upgrade. Rock solid, both as a productivity and a gaming platform. Patches? Annoying, by all means, but nothing you can't grab over a broadband connection.
I've got XP pro myself, on a laptop, and I've only had two problems with it - one caused by Deus Ex doing a naughty with my graphics card, and the other from Cygwin b0rking my swap file on uninstall.
LFD
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There is actually a piece of work being undertaken to normalise OS bigotry and zealotry. First iterations seem to point to beard length as a key determinant.
Joe Public can now buy a home PC suite for about UKP499 from retail multiples such as Tesco. "Serious" systems still need about UKP1000 thrown at them. UKP499 still equates to more than the monthly takehome pay of a full time worker on minimum wage, plus factoring in that scalding retinas in front of commercial TV isn't an alien concept, you'll probably get a responsive market.
This is an absolute boon. Given that (a) my employer already uses Solaris extensively and (b) there's next to no chance of Linux being deployed in anger in the next four or so years (bungee boss permitting), Solaris will be the next platform skill I'll be working on! Kudos to Sun.
Once I started working with NT OS derivatives, there was no going back to the flaky 9x core. In offering an XP Home derivative, MS have seemed to endorse that position. Standard 'Dude recommendation: if you have 2k pro, don't upgrade. Rock solid, both as a productivity and a gaming platform. Patches? Annoying, by all means, but nothing you can't grab over a broadband connection. I've got XP pro myself, on a laptop, and I've only had two problems with it - one caused by Deus Ex doing a naughty with my graphics card, and the other from Cygwin b0rking my swap file on uninstall. LFD