Image sells. Linux needs an image. Nothing wrong with rallying others to bring the same level of image to Linux.
Companies large and small have taken up the Open Source ideology and are carrying it further. Essentially it means that Open Source is surpasing closed source, and that is hardly a copying effort to accomplish that.
In the late 80s and early 90s innovation in software concept was so varied that trade journal computer magazines were released often 2 times a month and were packed with information, products, etc. Today we are hard pressed to find a 1/4" thick PC magazine issued monthly. This means that innovation is essentially dead. Most IP is owned by a few and it is hard to bring product to market. Everyone is simply copying everyone else. Few companies exist that existed back then. There's no real competition in software today. Some exists yes, but nothing like it was when the PC began its metoric rise in the 80s and 90s.
It's just your perspective is skewed by what you see today. Windows and OS/2 copied the Mac OS. The Mac OS copied the OS developed at Xerox PARC. Likewise with every other thing you see today; mouse, keyboard, monitor, graphics, memory, hardrives, cdroms, etc.
EVERYTHING IS A COPY OF SOMTHING ELSE. Why attack Linux then?
The issue you are encountering has nothing to do with Linux or Ubuntu. It has to do with how they configured and locked down your configuration. Linux keyboarding works fine. I doubt 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the population of the 50 million worldwide users have issues with Linux and their keyboard.
You don't install linux programs by typing strange commands into a text box. That's optional for those that aren't as visual and want to fine tune what is happening.
Most linux programs are installed via a program called synaptic. You load it, find the program, mark it, and click Apply. It finds everything it needs for you and does the install.
Another option is to download the.rpm or.deb file and double click on that. Let it happen.
It is nearly never required to type commands into a text box these days. But, say someone has already entered the command into a web site and you don't feel like typing. You can copy that text into the clipboard and paste it into the terminal window and hit enter. Couldn't be easier.
So, in reality, all the ways it can be done in linux are only bested (IMHO) by Apple's "drag to the applications folder" approach.
There absolutely is nothing even remotely resembling Open Source going in any Microsoft entity, subsidiary, or within Microsoft itself. Open Source was defined 10 years ago and Microsoft's efforts in no way even remotely resemble that definition.
Microsoft is trying to Embrace Open Source, to Extend it their direction, and then Extinguish it by making the real Open Source obscure and arcane.
We are smarter than this people. We do not want Microsoft involved in Open Source at any level for any reason, period. We don't want what we have created tainted by the beast.
If God wanted you to believe that he would have said that in no uncertain terms. As well, he would never need to manifest himself within himself. He would have said God is your universe down to every element that makes up an atom, etc. He never said that.
The reason people don't recognize that is because it isn't true.
Suffice it to say that we all should lead our lives following whatever path we deem fit for us and if that path follows a religious one then so be it. If that religious one turns out to be real and true then in the end, at the end of the universe, we will all realize it. That should be enough for you.
The Eggtropian view of the universe is that we were intelligently hatched from eggs after being baked in the inner workings of a blond nova. Once that baking was completed our atoms were squished inside a blue hole and we were then spewed into the bowels of some unsuspecting gnats and reborn as chickens.
Once you begin to allow one sort of view you must permit all sorts of views to be taught. The schools will have to give equal billing to Jesus freaks as well as Allah freaks, among others, such as Satanism, etc.
The Supreme Court ruled that cities/states, etc., didn't have the right to discriminate against religion any more than it would be allowed to support one religion over another. If the cities/states wanted to promote one religion it had to promote them all, as well as anti-religions.
Now, if this State decides that schools are to teach intelligent design they must also now teach my Eggtropia. Intelligent design isn't fact, it is faith. Faith is the belief of each individual and the level of that faith is the commitment of each individual. It is inappropriate for a government to force upon our children a faith that really is a subjective matter.
That law will be held unconstitutional. Legal challenges will begin immediately. Smart governments know how to stay out of this sort of debate. This tells us that those individuals that enacted these laws will not be in office much longer.
The problem with silverlight is that it is not a necessary product. This is proven year after year as we have not had a need for it, hence it didn't exist.
What silverlight is, is a monopoly corporation's attempting to nasty up the playing field by using their monopoly in one field to gain a monopoly in another.
It isn't bringing about new features or better programming. It's about the same with a little bit here different and a little bit there. Maybe it is good for programmers but the programmers only need make what the customers want and what we want is what we have.
It won't make them rich. They could sell their stock freely and wouldn't be rich. Just because Microsoft would be the owner of the stock doesn't mean that they'd be rich.
I do agree on other points you make tho.
You win by looking long term and making the right decisions. It's about the right kind of management giving vision to the right kinds of products. It isn't about selling stock at max value at the moment.
This is a short term outlook on "making sense". Even Gates looks 10 years down the road. What makes sense is to look 10 years down the road and see that Yahoo no longer exists and these guys are stuck with Microsoft stock still sitting below $30.00 a share.
They just become one more of the trillions of shares of Microsoft stock that's floating around.
The short term is instant gratification, the long term is renewed strength in a company owned and run by Yahoo.
Microsoft is absolutely using their monopoly, and everything that comes with it, to damage Yahoo to destroy it so they can just take the company.
This is very wrong and Microsoft should not be allowed to make it happen. It is a nasty tactic and they should be called on it by the big companies.
We know taking their search technology will kill Yahoo. We know taking Yahoo will kill Yahoo. Neither of these is what Yahoo wants, but they keep going after it. They are using their monopoly in one area to attempt to build a monopoly in another. They want to get this done before Bush leaves office.
If they don't kill it outright they have used their monopoly to greatly weaken it. They damage its' reputation and keep others from investing in it. Many people feel that buying Microsoft never got you fired, but if you worked for me I would fire you. Microsoft is being extremely manipulative in this move against Yahoo. It also threatens any public company because it is obvious that no one could escape the clutches of this sort of tactic if that is what Microsoft wanted. This is why we don't let a company become a monopoly and stay a monopoly. We should have broken Microsoft up and make them multiple separate entities. This is just a sad state that they still can't compete on merit and must steal other companies and their technology (in whatever way possible) in order to stay in the game.
I was comparing the near absolute absence of segfaults to the utterly common BSOD issues encountered in my field day in and day out.
I was pointing out that I use Linux for everything I do (please no more literal anal retorts). I haven't seen a segfault in so long, probably 2+ years. I've found myself installing Linux on more and more customers computers, and even with hardware I'm not familiar with I never see segfaults.
BSOD, right? Bill Sucks On Donkeys? No, you are too literal, in fact, probably too much so that you have other issues too.
BSODs are generally caused by faulty hardware and/or device drivers. Through hardware that is failing or through poorly written driver. Sometimes other causes.
Now, take that in context and remember that in posts on Slashdot.org we have little time to write a thesis to support people with issues with absolute literalness.
Most of what you suggest has already been considered and ruled out, primarily due to the fact that I'm working on machines that are from random people in the community with a lot of variety.
I have a notebook HDD in a USB enclosure that holds all my programs such as SP1, SP2, SP3, previously downloaded drivers (going way back to even the Win95 days), different packages, etc. This helps some...but...some machines just take X amount of time to do things...
I already copy off my HDD the open source products, the antivirus, spyware/adware removal tools, etc.
I've 23+ years in this field. Believe me, your suggestions are taken to heart but I can't agree with your conclusions. This is a nasty world of Windows we live in where the design of the OS is so poorly done with Windows that you have no choice but to put up with this stuff and the long durations required to complete it.
An hour to get Linux install, updated, and configured versus hours and hours to get Windows up to speed is a dramatic difference.
This information is incorrect for Ubuntu users. The errors are many and varied in this script. For instance, he states
BT_PORT=6883. BT_PORT=6883 will generate a script error.
He states: iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -dport $BT_PORT -tcp-flags RST RST -j DROP
The -dport is wrong. It should be --dport.
The -tcp-flags is wrong. It should be --tcp-flags
For instances he states: iptables -A INPUT -m state -state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
The ESTABLISHED,RELATED are unrecognized by iptables.
Obviously he was in a rush to get this written down and he didn't recheck his work. Maybe it works for older versions of iptables. It's hard to say why he wrote such a madly erroneous script.
On one of my old clamshell ibooks I found that Apple didn't actually secure the hard drive down with anything but a sticky material. After years of use it looks like the material became brittle and it was tough to remove. I attempted to pull the HDD by sliding it one way or the other and after a sudden release by the material the drive snapped forward and busted off some resisters. That was the end of the iBook. It was just poor design to essentially glue the HDD into place on those.
That is correct, yet it is what Apple was trying to do with the iPhone. If you did a jailbreak on the iPhone they were voiding your warranty. It was pointed out in a couple billion dollar class action suits that this is not permissible (to void a warranty if the work you did didn't contribute to damaging the actual unit).
It used to. Back in the days of the original mac you had to have a special tool to open the Mac. You weren't supposed to be able to get your hands on one unless you were certified in fixing Macs.
Another really stupid idea is to buy a current computer with the BTX layout. Everything is switched around and few if any manufacturers provide motherboards that will fit in them. You have to buy a new case as well as a new motherboard when you buy the new Dell (based on the BTX layout) if you want to upgrade/replace the motherboard.
Dell and others created the BTX (no matter what anyone else tells you) to force you to stay with them for upgrades/repairs. The rest of the industry stayed with ATX which nearly all motherboard manufacturers sell.
Except remember to not install all of those language packs that you don't need during the install. It adds to the install time and provides you with nothing. Also, might want to cut out the extra printer drivers as that can eliminate the need to have one of the CDs during install.
I fix PCs and Mac computers. Even in the age of the g3-g4 the parts were exactly the same. Same video (with a difference in bios), same memory (exactly the same even as far back as the clamshell notebooks, same hard drives.)
The stuff is exactly the same, exactly.
But don't get too carried away. Even the Dell parts are exorbitantly high when priced against retail (not OEM) parts.
What happens is this. If you buy a retail part you can get the manufacturer to honor the warranty. Some people say OEM is enough because you save $20.00 or so on the parts. But this is not the same because they are generally warranted only through whomever you bought the part from, not the manufacturer. This means that if 1 day after the part goes out of warranty (which in cases such as Dell, HP, Gateway (never buy gateway BTW, cheap cheap internals and a total lack of responsibility towards the customers), Sony, etc) you can't get the part replaced. You can't go back to the manufacturer either. With a retail part the warranty is generally much longer (as in the case of memory it is generally a lifetime warranty), HDDs have a 3 to 5 year warranty, etc. That means that after 1 year, if the part goes out you still have 2-5 years even after you get the part replaced under warranty.
So, the rules are this. Pay the extra $20.00 and get the Retail part. Don't expect that a part one day out of warranty will be replaced. The parts from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc are OEM and only can be replaced by them (that's how they get such cheap prices to build such cheap computers). Most Retail parts have a long warranty sometimes even a lifetime warranty. And stay away from Gateway (eMachines is Gateway) as Gateway will not even respect and honor the wishes of a new owner of one of their computers and they will NOT permit you to move from Vista to XP. They won't provide drivers nor even one iota of help to get you working with drivers under XP. They appear to be in cahoots with Microsoft to deny you the choice of OS.
Don't let the "quality" moniker influence you under the Apple brand as they are using the same parts and often those parts are poor quality. The iBook G4 15" and 17" are a perfect example of this. The sunflower iMacs were another example and they had this stupid round motherboard with non-socketed CPUs. Yet, in all this the costs were extremely high.
I do fresh installs of Windows XP for customers. Even with a recovery CD one has a huge amount of time to commit to doing one.
For instance, the recovery can take about 45 min to an hour (or more). Then you have to clean all the trial-ware junk off it. Then install programs such as an antivirus, adware-spyware detection and removal tools, a real firewall, probably a replacement for the browser (Mozilla Firefox). Then because the computer can't do much more than browse the web without the trial-ware crap I install open office, google earth, pidgin, and a slew of other open source products. After that I have to spend the next two hours installing updates (install reboot, install, reboot, install, reboot, etc). Then of course you do the stuff that everyone else does--set up mail, copy over backed up data, etc.
With a regular install of XP you can skip the removal of the trial-ware crap but you still have to do all the other stuff mentioned above. And that takes hours.
With Linux it takes about 15 minutes to get the install done (that includes repartitioning the drive to dual boot with Windows, and the installation of those same Open Source programs. Then it takes about another 15-20 minutes to download the updates from on line.
From that you configure things just like you like them. Only with Linux it's more fun and the options are always free. I don't have to worry about paying some company money to add some nifty ability to my desktop. And I don't have to worry about virus protection nor about whether I have good firewall protection. Security is pretty sound unless you go opening up the doors to everyone and the way linux is designed it helps to protect you from yourself.
I say the winner for speed and capabilities goes to Linux, any day!
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Image sells. Linux needs an image. Nothing wrong with rallying others to bring the same level of image to Linux.
Companies large and small have taken up the Open Source ideology and are carrying it further. Essentially it means that Open Source is surpasing closed source, and that is hardly a copying effort to accomplish that.
In the late 80s and early 90s innovation in software concept was so varied that trade journal computer magazines were released often 2 times a month and were packed with information, products, etc. Today we are hard pressed to find a 1/4" thick PC magazine issued monthly. This means that innovation is essentially dead. Most IP is owned by a few and it is hard to bring product to market. Everyone is simply copying everyone else. Few companies exist that existed back then. There's no real competition in software today. Some exists yes, but nothing like it was when the PC began its metoric rise in the 80s and 90s.
It's just your perspective is skewed by what you see today. Windows and OS/2 copied the Mac OS. The Mac OS copied the OS developed at Xerox PARC. Likewise with every other thing you see today; mouse, keyboard, monitor, graphics, memory, hardrives, cdroms, etc.
EVERYTHING IS A COPY OF SOMTHING ELSE. Why attack Linux then?
The issue you are encountering has nothing to do with Linux or Ubuntu. It has to do with how they configured and locked down your configuration. Linux keyboarding works fine. I doubt 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the population of the 50 million worldwide users have issues with Linux and their keyboard.
You don't install linux programs by typing strange commands into a text box. That's optional for those that aren't as visual and want to fine tune what is happening.
Most linux programs are installed via a program called synaptic. You load it, find the program, mark it, and click Apply. It finds everything it needs for you and does the install.
Another option is to download the .rpm or .deb file and double click on that. Let it happen.
It is nearly never required to type commands into a text box these days. But, say someone has already entered the command into a web site and you don't feel like typing. You can copy that text into the clipboard and paste it into the terminal window and hit enter. Couldn't be easier.
So, in reality, all the ways it can be done in linux are only bested (IMHO) by Apple's "drag to the applications folder" approach.
There absolutely is nothing even remotely resembling Open Source going in any Microsoft entity, subsidiary, or within Microsoft itself. Open Source was defined 10 years ago and Microsoft's efforts in no way even remotely resemble that definition.
Microsoft is trying to Embrace Open Source, to Extend it their direction, and then Extinguish it by making the real Open Source obscure and arcane.
We are smarter than this people. We do not want Microsoft involved in Open Source at any level for any reason, period. We don't want what we have created tainted by the beast.
Does anyone really think this is going anywhere? Does anyone even remotely remember Microsoft Bob?
Does anyone understand that people are totally unwilling to give up their security and control to anyone else, especially a convicted monopolist?
Does anyone not realize that there are so many other viable alternatives to switching to such a grossly incompetent idea as this?
Time to move on. Let's get some real newsworthy stories.
If God wanted you to believe that he would have said that in no uncertain terms. As well, he would never need to manifest himself within himself. He would have said God is your universe down to every element that makes up an atom, etc. He never said that.
The reason people don't recognize that is because it isn't true.
Suffice it to say that we all should lead our lives following whatever path we deem fit for us and if that path follows a religious one then so be it. If that religious one turns out to be real and true then in the end, at the end of the universe, we will all realize it. That should be enough for you.
The Eggtropian view of the universe is that we were intelligently hatched from eggs after being baked in the inner workings of a blond nova. Once that baking was completed our atoms were squished inside a blue hole and we were then spewed into the bowels of some unsuspecting gnats and reborn as chickens.
Once you begin to allow one sort of view you must permit all sorts of views to be taught. The schools will have to give equal billing to Jesus freaks as well as Allah freaks, among others, such as Satanism, etc.
The Supreme Court ruled that cities/states, etc., didn't have the right to discriminate against religion any more than it would be allowed to support one religion over another. If the cities/states wanted to promote one religion it had to promote them all, as well as anti-religions.
Now, if this State decides that schools are to teach intelligent design they must also now teach my Eggtropia. Intelligent design isn't fact, it is faith. Faith is the belief of each individual and the level of that faith is the commitment of each individual. It is inappropriate for a government to force upon our children a faith that really is a subjective matter.
That law will be held unconstitutional. Legal challenges will begin immediately. Smart governments know how to stay out of this sort of debate. This tells us that those individuals that enacted these laws will not be in office much longer.
The problem with silverlight is that it is not a necessary product. This is proven year after year as we have not had a need for it, hence it didn't exist.
What silverlight is, is a monopoly corporation's attempting to nasty up the playing field by using their monopoly in one field to gain a monopoly in another.
It isn't bringing about new features or better programming. It's about the same with a little bit here different and a little bit there. Maybe it is good for programmers but the programmers only need make what the customers want and what we want is what we have.
It won't make them rich. They could sell their stock freely and wouldn't be rich. Just because Microsoft would be the owner of the stock doesn't mean that they'd be rich.
I do agree on other points you make tho.
You win by looking long term and making the right decisions. It's about the right kind of management giving vision to the right kinds of products. It isn't about selling stock at max value at the moment.
This is a short term outlook on "making sense". Even Gates looks 10 years down the road. What makes sense is to look 10 years down the road and see that Yahoo no longer exists and these guys are stuck with Microsoft stock still sitting below $30.00 a share.
They just become one more of the trillions of shares of Microsoft stock that's floating around.
The short term is instant gratification, the long term is renewed strength in a company owned and run by Yahoo.
Microsoft is absolutely using their monopoly, and everything that comes with it, to damage Yahoo to destroy it so they can just take the company.
This is very wrong and Microsoft should not be allowed to make it happen. It is a nasty tactic and they should be called on it by the big companies.
We know taking their search technology will kill Yahoo. We know taking Yahoo will kill Yahoo. Neither of these is what Yahoo wants, but they keep going after it. They are using their monopoly in one area to attempt to build a monopoly in another. They want to get this done before Bush leaves office.
If they don't kill it outright they have used their monopoly to greatly weaken it. They damage its' reputation and keep others from investing in it. Many people feel that buying Microsoft never got you fired, but if you worked for me I would fire you. Microsoft is being extremely manipulative in this move against Yahoo. It also threatens any public company because it is obvious that no one could escape the clutches of this sort of tactic if that is what Microsoft wanted. This is why we don't let a company become a monopoly and stay a monopoly. We should have broken Microsoft up and make them multiple separate entities. This is just a sad state that they still can't compete on merit and must steal other companies and their technology (in whatever way possible) in order to stay in the game.
I was comparing the near absolute absence of segfaults to the utterly common BSOD issues encountered in my field day in and day out.
I was pointing out that I use Linux for everything I do (please no more literal anal retorts). I haven't seen a segfault in so long, probably 2+ years. I've found myself installing Linux on more and more customers computers, and even with hardware I'm not familiar with I never see segfaults.
BSOD, right? Bill Sucks On Donkeys? No, you are too literal, in fact, probably too much so that you have other issues too.
BSODs are generally caused by faulty hardware and/or device drivers. Through hardware that is failing or through poorly written driver. Sometimes other causes.
Now, take that in context and remember that in posts on Slashdot.org we have little time to write a thesis to support people with issues with absolute literalness.
Most of what you suggest has already been considered and ruled out, primarily due to the fact that I'm working on machines that are from random people in the community with a lot of variety.
I have a notebook HDD in a USB enclosure that holds all my programs such as SP1, SP2, SP3, previously downloaded drivers (going way back to even the Win95 days), different packages, etc. This helps some...but...some machines just take X amount of time to do things...
I already copy off my HDD the open source products, the antivirus, spyware/adware removal tools, etc.
I've 23+ years in this field. Believe me, your suggestions are taken to heart but I can't agree with your conclusions. This is a nasty world of Windows we live in where the design of the OS is so poorly done with Windows that you have no choice but to put up with this stuff and the long durations required to complete it.
An hour to get Linux install, updated, and configured versus hours and hours to get Windows up to speed is a dramatic difference.
This information is incorrect for Ubuntu users. The errors are many and varied in this script. For instance, he states
BT_PORT=6883. BT_PORT=6883 will generate a script error.
He states: iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -dport $BT_PORT -tcp-flags RST RST -j DROP
The -dport is wrong. It should be --dport.
The -tcp-flags is wrong. It should be --tcp-flags
For instances he states: iptables -A INPUT -m state -state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
The ESTABLISHED,RELATED are unrecognized by iptables.
Obviously he was in a rush to get this written down and he didn't recheck his work. Maybe it works for older versions of iptables. It's hard to say why he wrote such a madly erroneous script.
On one of my old clamshell ibooks I found that Apple didn't actually secure the hard drive down with anything but a sticky material. After years of use it looks like the material became brittle and it was tough to remove. I attempted to pull the HDD by sliding it one way or the other and after a sudden release by the material the drive snapped forward and busted off some resisters. That was the end of the iBook. It was just poor design to essentially glue the HDD into place on those.
That is correct, yet it is what Apple was trying to do with the iPhone. If you did a jailbreak on the iPhone they were voiding your warranty. It was pointed out in a couple billion dollar class action suits that this is not permissible (to void a warranty if the work you did didn't contribute to damaging the actual unit).
Don't worry about it man. I can imagine at least one reason you got -1 Troll rating (mostly due to the overzealous nature of most Mac users).
It used to. Back in the days of the original mac you had to have a special tool to open the Mac. You weren't supposed to be able to get your hands on one unless you were certified in fixing Macs.
Another really stupid idea is to buy a current computer with the BTX layout. Everything is switched around and few if any manufacturers provide motherboards that will fit in them. You have to buy a new case as well as a new motherboard when you buy the new Dell (based on the BTX layout) if you want to upgrade/replace the motherboard.
Dell and others created the BTX (no matter what anyone else tells you) to force you to stay with them for upgrades/repairs. The rest of the industry stayed with ATX which nearly all motherboard manufacturers sell.
I would love to hire trained chimps and pay them bananas to replace hard drives and RAM in computers. I'd make a fortune.
Except remember to not install all of those language packs that you don't need during the install. It adds to the install time and provides you with nothing. Also, might want to cut out the extra printer drivers as that can eliminate the need to have one of the CDs during install.
Boot with the apple provided OSX CD and install the OS onto your new hard drive.
And the parts costs is a different cost entirely to the transfer of the data from one drive to another.
I fix PCs and Mac computers. Even in the age of the g3-g4 the parts were exactly the same. Same video (with a difference in bios), same memory (exactly the same even as far back as the clamshell notebooks, same hard drives.)
The stuff is exactly the same, exactly.
But don't get too carried away. Even the Dell parts are exorbitantly high when priced against retail (not OEM) parts.
What happens is this. If you buy a retail part you can get the manufacturer to honor the warranty. Some people say OEM is enough because you save $20.00 or so on the parts. But this is not the same because they are generally warranted only through whomever you bought the part from, not the manufacturer. This means that if 1 day after the part goes out of warranty (which in cases such as Dell, HP, Gateway (never buy gateway BTW, cheap cheap internals and a total lack of responsibility towards the customers), Sony, etc) you can't get the part replaced. You can't go back to the manufacturer either. With a retail part the warranty is generally much longer (as in the case of memory it is generally a lifetime warranty), HDDs have a 3 to 5 year warranty, etc. That means that after 1 year, if the part goes out you still have 2-5 years even after you get the part replaced under warranty.
So, the rules are this. Pay the extra $20.00 and get the Retail part. Don't expect that a part one day out of warranty will be replaced. The parts from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc are OEM and only can be replaced by them (that's how they get such cheap prices to build such cheap computers). Most Retail parts have a long warranty sometimes even a lifetime warranty. And stay away from Gateway (eMachines is Gateway) as Gateway will not even respect and honor the wishes of a new owner of one of their computers and they will NOT permit you to move from Vista to XP. They won't provide drivers nor even one iota of help to get you working with drivers under XP. They appear to be in cahoots with Microsoft to deny you the choice of OS.
Don't let the "quality" moniker influence you under the Apple brand as they are using the same parts and often those parts are poor quality. The iBook G4 15" and 17" are a perfect example of this. The sunflower iMacs were another example and they had this stupid round motherboard with non-socketed CPUs. Yet, in all this the costs were extremely high.
I do fresh installs of Windows XP for customers. Even with a recovery CD one has a huge amount of time to commit to doing one.
For instance, the recovery can take about 45 min to an hour (or more). Then you have to clean all the trial-ware junk off it. Then install programs such as an antivirus, adware-spyware detection and removal tools, a real firewall, probably a replacement for the browser (Mozilla Firefox). Then because the computer can't do much more than browse the web without the trial-ware crap I install open office, google earth, pidgin, and a slew of other open source products. After that I have to spend the next two hours installing updates (install reboot, install, reboot, install, reboot, etc). Then of course you do the stuff that everyone else does--set up mail, copy over backed up data, etc.
With a regular install of XP you can skip the removal of the trial-ware crap but you still have to do all the other stuff mentioned above. And that takes hours.
With Linux it takes about 15 minutes to get the install done (that includes repartitioning the drive to dual boot with Windows, and the installation of those same Open Source programs. Then it takes about another 15-20 minutes to download the updates from on line.
From that you configure things just like you like them. Only with Linux it's more fun and the options are always free. I don't have to worry about paying some company money to add some nifty ability to my desktop. And I don't have to worry about virus protection nor about whether I have good firewall protection. Security is pretty sound unless you go opening up the doors to everyone and the way linux is designed it helps to protect you from yourself.
I say the winner for speed and capabilities goes to Linux, any day!