You've *gotta* be joking. Show me a chemistry lab that measures out compounds in ounces, and I'll eat my hat. Hell, the entire reason that metric/imperial FUBAR happened a while back is specifically because NASA still works in Imperial, while the ESA works in metric. Hell, even your average European car is built in metric.
Honestly, what kind of crack are you on??
Reading comprehension FAIL.
Next time, read the sentence before the (a) and (b) and you might end up sounding like less of an idiot. Maybe.
I would like to know why this is the case. Why is there no service out there that can provide backups for large amounts of data at a price that is competitive with using external hard drives?
Like Mozy (http://mozy.com/), you mean? The online backup service that has 250+ GB of my data on it stored without a peep of complaint? The one that costs $5/month/computer, definitely competitive with buying HDs?
Maybe you should verify that it is, indeed, not the case before going on a long rant about it. Just a thought.
Just popping in to say that your description of the Simpsons mod sounds a lot like Tribes from back in the day. It's amazing the amount of depth that a rocketpack (crazy jumping) and slow-moving projectiles (the Tribes disc launcher) can add to a game.
Some of your complaints are actually valid, but since you are so rude about them, it really nullifies any chance of anyone really being willing to resolve them. You seem to ignore, out of hand, any possibility that the developers might actually be open to suggestions (which in my experience they are.)
It pisses me off when they waste my time releasing something that sucks, that they *know* must suck (I don't believe for an instant that nobody on the entire Alien Arena team hasn't ever seen a decent game UI before), and yet there's this post on Slashdot saying, "hey it's awesome! Try it out! It doesn't suck!"
If the developers gave half a shit, they wouldn't have dropped that turd on the computer-using public. Showing this to a single person (outside the project) and asking them to do some basic testing would have caught the vast majority of the bugs I hit. They just don't care.
Make the fucking thing work, *then* ask me to try it out. I'd be a lot more receptive to it then.
(And that's ignoring the whole "every time I submit a bug to a open source project nobody ever reads them so I don't even bother anymore" factor.)
Keep in mind that you did this without even actually playing.
Yah, that would be because it does not fucking work. Maybe you missed that point.
"Galaxy" is an IRC client/server browser. I do agree that it sucks, but you don't have to use it.
If it sucks, why is it the default option? The thing most users are likely to see first? "Hey, I know! Let's make sure users see the crummiest thing we have first, before entering the graphically intense, super-fun, awesome video game!"
Is it some kind of test you're supposed to pass? "You are not geeky enough to play this game! You have not passed the Galaxy test!" Fuck that.
As for the "CLI" you got, that's the ingame console, which basically all games (Quake 1-4, Doom 3, ET:QW, UT 1-3, etc) have.
I understand that, but how come it shows up when I'm trying to enter a game? And not, for example, when I'm already in a game and hit ~? And apparently there was some secret formula I had to type in there to join, and hell if I know what it is, so.
You should have been able to get out by hitting "escape." If you didn't think to use "esc" you obviously haven't been using computers long enough to know that button's universally understood and respected function.
And if I hit escape, what happens? Jack shit. It just sits there, doing nothing. I gave it at least a full minute before giving up.
Look, the game has awful usability, terrible quality, and obviously the makers of it simply do not give a shit. If this is the *best* user experience they can offer, I'm saying no thanks.
SQL Server is so great you couldn't get access to it to work, so the solution is to totally embrace the server that was so hard to access in the first place and discard the open source solution that is easy to use?
That sentence is complete gibberish. I have absolutely no clue what point you're trying to make.
The point I was making is that WordPress is designed for MySQL, and therefore it's easier to configure with MySQL. Since I'm naturally a lazy person, and since I had to import MySQL data from another server anyway, I took the path of least resistance and set it up for MySQL.
I rarely do any development work on Vista as a result of the prior hassle, and don't know if they "fixed" this on SP1.
They didn't fix it because it's not a bug. You're supposed to do development in your user profile folder; that's why it's the default project location for Visual Studio, for example.
This is one of the cases where the developer ignorance/lazyness "tax" is passed straight to the customers in the form of broken apps when you get a forced upgrade.
That I agree with. The number of developers who will force their broken apps down your throat while blaming Microsoft for any problem they have is staggering.
Do I feel any compulsion to help them fix bugs in a game that I'll never play, or even look at, again? No.
Do I have any confidence that they give even the slightest shit about fixing bugs, since I saw approximately 50 of them in the first 5 minutes of running (or failing to run) the game? No.
Look, the "Galaxy" dialog beeps every time you click on anything. Copy and paste doesn't work. The text is an unreadable color-combination. The actual game presents you with a mysterious prompt (using a different unreadable color-combination) with absolutely no instructions how to play. For God's sake, it tries to install spyware. Obviously the people making this game don't give a shit. So neither do I.
I noticed that too. I also noticed that you can change the installation directory, as long as you have one of those input devices... What are they called now? Keyboards? Kids these days.
The point is that I don't know what to change it to, because I have no idea if it's a 32-bit or 64-bit application. You know, the thing that non-retarded installers, knowing which type of application it is, normally does automatically.
No shit Sherlock. Since we both agree that comparing apples and oranges is bad, maybe you should have done the smart thing instead and figured out the implication.
Maybe if you had just told me what the fuck you were getting at, then I wouldn't assume you're a idiot. Consider that next time. Idiot.
LAMP and Linux in general have the vast market share in the server market, where people making those decisions are educated professionals who need reliability and often understand security - unlike home users, obviously - and they overwhelmingly choose MySQL, PostGRESQL, or some other solution over M$ garbage.
No, people "choose" MySQL because that's what WordPress and Joomla and MediaWiki are designed to run on, and because all cheap hosting providers have MySQL and nothing else. I'm running WordPress on a Windows host, and I'm using MySQL simply because it's easier than fighting to get WordPress to talk to the SQL Server instance I have access to.
Of course moving to that Windows host was a total pain, since there's no (seemingly) no way to transfer data from one MySQL instance to another while preserving character sets. I really did enjoy having to manually fix dozens of ñ characters.
In any case, it has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of MySQL. (Well, not the software quality.)
Not only does the installer pick the wrong folder to install in, it tries to install a spyware toolbar for IE. (What is this, 2001? Seriously, guys.)
Then when you run the game, it presents a poorly-designed dialog in which you're forced to type a username. Well, fair enough-- then you end up in something called "Galaxy." Is this the game? I thought it was an FPS! All I get is unreadable green-on-blue gibberish. (I tried to copy and paste some of the gibberish, but of course copy and paste doesn't work.)
I refresh servers, it's impossible to sort by number of players. Oh and every time you click in the window, it beeps for some reason. Now my screen blanked and I'm looking at some kind of green-screen CLI or something? I have absolutely no clue what to do here.
I've yet to see any way of changing the screen resolution, putting the game in windowed mode, setting the controls-- hell I've been at this a few minutes and I've yet to see a single 3D model!
I tried typing "Run" into the green-screen CLI-ish thing, "unknown command." So I tried typing "play", and got "use STOPSOUND". WTF!
And now I give up. Congratulations, you've made Battlefield: 2142 look like a paragon of video game quality. Hell, America's Army 3 has a better user experience, and I've yet to successfully log on to it.
Just fair warning, if you let their crap-ass installer do its think it'll put the game on the root level of your C: drive. I don't know whether it's 32 or 64-bit, and since the installer's busted, I have absolutely no clue where to install it on my 64-bit Vista machine.
Quality work, as always, from the open source game front.
Have you heard of the concept of "bookmarks?" Seriously, man, you need to get a grip-- just do a "bookmark all tabs", put them in a folder named "read later" and you're golden.
Compared to what? It only competes with Lotus Notes and Groupwise, and both are gigantic turds. (Groupwise being several times better than Notes.) Evolution doesn't do half of what Outlook does, so that's a non-starter right there.
Active Directory is notoriously insecure.
If you say so.
SQL Server? You are joking right? Google LAMP and check out the market share.
First of all, SQL Server is a database server, LAMP is a stack of web development tools. Apples to oranges, comparing the marketshare between the two makes no sense. A better comparison would be SQL Server vs. Oracle and DB2. I can't find a recent study, but Wiki has this data from 2006: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database_management_system#Market_structure Given the data is old, but notice how MySQL is lumped into the "Others" category.
Secondly, LAMP means MySQL. Are you seriously suggesting that MySQL is technically superior than SQL Server? You might be delusional if you believe that.
Web browser - The FOSS solutions are clearly way superior here. I doubt there's any argument about this.
Yah, but IE has been advancing in leaps and bounds-- IE8 might still be inferior to, say, Firefox, but it's much less obviously-so.
Office - On 99% of the cases you're covered by OpenOffice. Some might say it's not as pretty/lacks features/etc. I have yet to see someone complain that they're not able to do their job with it.
Yah right. OpenOffice can't even do Normal View. And it doesn't have a useful Outline mode.
Yes, geeks who don't use office applications don't know the difference between Office and OpenOffice. For people who use office applications, it's obvious.
Mail client - Most people have already switched to web clients. For corporate users some might still use Outlook, but in my professional experience most don't use its enterprise features, so they might as well use Thunderbird or any other client.
See above. All the points about Office apply to Outlook as well.
Music player - Considering most users take the default the OS offers, I'd say even the worst media player on Linux is better to WMP.
We were talking about business software. WTF does WMP have anything to do with anything?
If you use SQL Server of Visual Studio for your daily work you're smart enough and knowledgeable to make the appropiate choice for a system (supposedly). But SQL Server is on the same class as Postgres and DB2 for most tasks.
And...? Is comparing it to DB2 supposed to be a point?
Besider, there's no way in hell you're running Visual Studio, Outlook, or SQL Server or a netbook unless you're into masochism.
Assuming you mean "besides" and "on a netbook", then I run Outlook and Visual Studio on my MSI Wind. It runs fine. Even when you're using the mini-SQL server they include with the web development package.
In fact, what makes you think *Outlook* wouldn't run on a netbook?
No. Sadly, pulseaudio exists simply to copy Vista. Vista introduced per-application mixers and apparently this is a Cool New Feature that everybody supposedly wants, even if it's a shitty implementation that slows down what was a perfectly working sound system.
And yet somehow Microsoft managed to add their Cool New Feature without fucking up their perfectly working sound system. I love it when Linux fans talk about how crappy Microsoft engineering is-- while at the same time they can't even come close to replicating it.
True; but that doesn't change the point that it's a good product, and it's been under Microsoft development for decades now.
Visual Studio: Only necessary because a base MS install does not provide any development tools, whereas Unix was designed to be an IDE in itself.
Update your FUD. Visual Studio Express has been free for like 4 solid years now. If you're going to spread bullshit, please make sure it's up-to-date bullshit, thank you.
Exchange/Outlook: IMAP changed to MAPI for lockin
If you think IMAP is even roughly equivalent to MAPI, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Active directory: LDAP and Kerberos ripoff
Again: you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Microsoft were so desperate to get on the netbook wagon, they forced OEMs to use XP - an OS which was officially dead - at knockdown prices.
This is one of the dumbest things I've ever read on Slashdot.
First: Microsoft didn't "force* netbook makers to put anything on their netbooks. If they were going to "force" it, why wouldn't they be "forcing" Dell to put XP on this box: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DNDWEA4&s=dhs Face the facts, netbook makers put XP on their netbooks because their customers demanded it.
Second: Forced them to use XP, as opposed to what? The non-existent fantasy version of Vista that Microsoft had made by elves that runs on netbook hardware? The netbook makers bought XP because XP is the only currently-supported Windows OS that runs on netbook hardware! DUH!
Thirdly XP isn't "officially dead" by any reasonable definition of the term.
And even XP can't really operate with SSD, and the netbook market has been skewed with netbooks with hard-disks, because "hard disks are better for you."
I like having a HD. It means I can put several movies on the HD at once, and watch them at my leisure-- my MSI Wind's like a portable DVD player with a 25-disk changer. It's utterly impossible, in your fantasy elf-world, that netbooks have HDs because customers (like Windows) demanded it?
Duh.
I looked for a "netbook" with SSD the other week in trawl of non-techie emporiums and I could not find one. All the netbooks I found were XP with hard-disks.
How do you know that your same company, with your same staff, would give you more reliable service on Linux? (Or Novell, or whatever?)
The problem you have is that your company has Microsoft infrastructure, and shitty admins. So you're making the connection: Microsoft = shitty. That's not really the case, though... shitty admins can make any software infrastructure behave shitty.
Slashdot Mirror
How did you manage to type 2 instead of a quote? Are you posting from a Commodore 64!?
You've *gotta* be joking. Show me a chemistry lab that measures out compounds in ounces, and I'll eat my hat. Hell, the entire reason that metric/imperial FUBAR happened a while back is specifically because NASA still works in Imperial, while the ESA works in metric. Hell, even your average European car is built in metric.
Honestly, what kind of crack are you on??
Reading comprehension FAIL.
Next time, read the sentence before the (a) and (b) and you might end up sounding like less of an idiot. Maybe.
Ok, so, in your crazy little world, "not compatible with an OS only a tiny percentage of people run" is the same as "does not exist?"
Nice rant, it's just a little wasted on the 99% of the population who run Windows and OS X.
I would like to know why this is the case. Why is there no service out there that can provide backups for large amounts of data at a price that is competitive with using external hard drives?
Like Mozy (http://mozy.com/), you mean? The online backup service that has 250+ GB of my data on it stored without a peep of complaint? The one that costs $5/month/computer, definitely competitive with buying HDs?
Maybe you should verify that it is, indeed, not the case before going on a long rant about it. Just a thought.
Not an employee, just a happy customer.
Just popping in to say that your description of the Simpsons mod sounds a lot like Tribes from back in the day. It's amazing the amount of depth that a rocketpack (crazy jumping) and slow-moving projectiles (the Tribes disc launcher) can add to a game.
Some of your complaints are actually valid, but since you are so rude about them, it really nullifies any chance of anyone really being willing to resolve them. You seem to ignore, out of hand, any possibility that the developers might actually be open to suggestions (which in my experience they are.)
It pisses me off when they waste my time releasing something that sucks, that they *know* must suck (I don't believe for an instant that nobody on the entire Alien Arena team hasn't ever seen a decent game UI before), and yet there's this post on Slashdot saying, "hey it's awesome! Try it out! It doesn't suck!"
If the developers gave half a shit, they wouldn't have dropped that turd on the computer-using public. Showing this to a single person (outside the project) and asking them to do some basic testing would have caught the vast majority of the bugs I hit. They just don't care.
Make the fucking thing work, *then* ask me to try it out. I'd be a lot more receptive to it then.
(And that's ignoring the whole "every time I submit a bug to a open source project nobody ever reads them so I don't even bother anymore" factor.)
Keep in mind that you did this without even actually playing.
Yah, that would be because it does not fucking work. Maybe you missed that point.
"Galaxy" is an IRC client/server browser. I do agree that it sucks, but you don't have to use it.
If it sucks, why is it the default option? The thing most users are likely to see first? "Hey, I know! Let's make sure users see the crummiest thing we have first, before entering the graphically intense, super-fun, awesome video game!"
Is it some kind of test you're supposed to pass? "You are not geeky enough to play this game! You have not passed the Galaxy test!" Fuck that.
As for the "CLI" you got, that's the ingame console, which basically all games (Quake 1-4, Doom 3, ET:QW, UT 1-3, etc) have.
I understand that, but how come it shows up when I'm trying to enter a game? And not, for example, when I'm already in a game and hit ~? And apparently there was some secret formula I had to type in there to join, and hell if I know what it is, so.
You should have been able to get out by hitting "escape." If you didn't think to use "esc" you obviously haven't been using computers long enough to know that button's universally understood and respected function.
And if I hit escape, what happens? Jack shit. It just sits there, doing nothing. I gave it at least a full minute before giving up.
Look, the game has awful usability, terrible quality, and obviously the makers of it simply do not give a shit. If this is the *best* user experience they can offer, I'm saying no thanks.
SQL Server is so great you couldn't get access to it to work, so the solution is to totally embrace the server that was so hard to access in the first place and discard the open source solution that is easy to use?
That sentence is complete gibberish. I have absolutely no clue what point you're trying to make.
The point I was making is that WordPress is designed for MySQL, and therefore it's easier to configure with MySQL. Since I'm naturally a lazy person, and since I had to import MySQL data from another server anyway, I took the path of least resistance and set it up for MySQL.
I rarely do any development work on Vista as a result of the prior hassle, and don't know if they "fixed" this on SP1.
They didn't fix it because it's not a bug. You're supposed to do development in your user profile folder; that's why it's the default project location for Visual Studio, for example.
This is one of the cases where the developer ignorance/lazyness "tax" is passed straight to the customers in the form of broken apps when you get a forced upgrade.
That I agree with. The number of developers who will force their broken apps down your throat while blaming Microsoft for any problem they have is staggering.
Would it kill me? No.
Do I feel any compulsion to help them fix bugs in a game that I'll never play, or even look at, again? No.
Do I have any confidence that they give even the slightest shit about fixing bugs, since I saw approximately 50 of them in the first 5 minutes of running (or failing to run) the game? No.
Look, the "Galaxy" dialog beeps every time you click on anything. Copy and paste doesn't work. The text is an unreadable color-combination. The actual game presents you with a mysterious prompt (using a different unreadable color-combination) with absolutely no instructions how to play. For God's sake, it tries to install spyware. Obviously the people making this game don't give a shit. So neither do I.
I noticed that too. I also noticed that you can change the installation directory, as long as you have one of those input devices... What are they called now? Keyboards? Kids these days.
The point is that I don't know what to change it to, because I have no idea if it's a 32-bit or 64-bit application. You know, the thing that non-retarded installers, knowing which type of application it is, normally does automatically.
No shit Sherlock. Since we both agree that comparing apples and oranges is bad, maybe you should have done the smart thing instead and figured out the implication.
Maybe if you had just told me what the fuck you were getting at, then I wouldn't assume you're a idiot. Consider that next time. Idiot.
LAMP and Linux in general have the vast market share in the server market, where people making those decisions are educated professionals who need reliability and often understand security - unlike home users, obviously - and they overwhelmingly choose MySQL, PostGRESQL, or some other solution over M$ garbage.
No, people "choose" MySQL because that's what WordPress and Joomla and MediaWiki are designed to run on, and because all cheap hosting providers have MySQL and nothing else. I'm running WordPress on a Windows host, and I'm using MySQL simply because it's easier than fighting to get WordPress to talk to the SQL Server instance I have access to.
Of course moving to that Windows host was a total pain, since there's no (seemingly) no way to transfer data from one MySQL instance to another while preserving character sets. I really did enjoy having to manually fix dozens of ñ characters.
In any case, it has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of MySQL. (Well, not the software quality.)
Not only does the installer pick the wrong folder to install in, it tries to install a spyware toolbar for IE. (What is this, 2001? Seriously, guys.)
Then when you run the game, it presents a poorly-designed dialog in which you're forced to type a username. Well, fair enough-- then you end up in something called "Galaxy." Is this the game? I thought it was an FPS! All I get is unreadable green-on-blue gibberish. (I tried to copy and paste some of the gibberish, but of course copy and paste doesn't work.)
I refresh servers, it's impossible to sort by number of players. Oh and every time you click in the window, it beeps for some reason. Now my screen blanked and I'm looking at some kind of green-screen CLI or something? I have absolutely no clue what to do here.
I've yet to see any way of changing the screen resolution, putting the game in windowed mode, setting the controls-- hell I've been at this a few minutes and I've yet to see a single 3D model!
I tried typing "Run" into the green-screen CLI-ish thing, "unknown command." So I tried typing "play", and got "use STOPSOUND". WTF!
And now I give up. Congratulations, you've made Battlefield: 2142 look like a paragon of video game quality. Hell, America's Army 3 has a better user experience, and I've yet to successfully log on to it.
Just fair warning, if you let their crap-ass installer do its think it'll put the game on the root level of your C: drive. I don't know whether it's 32 or 64-bit, and since the installer's busted, I have absolutely no clue where to install it on my 64-bit Vista machine.
Quality work, as always, from the open source game front.
Have you heard of the concept of "bookmarks?" Seriously, man, you need to get a grip-- just do a "bookmark all tabs", put them in a folder named "read later" and you're golden.
Especially since Safari's the one with the private browsing mode. I don't get the FF statement at all.
I wrote a blog entry just yesterday about Slashdot's completely ignorance of the term "staging server": http://blakeyrat.com/index.php/2009/06/slashfail/
Outlook is notoriously bad,
Compared to what? It only competes with Lotus Notes and Groupwise, and both are gigantic turds. (Groupwise being several times better than Notes.) Evolution doesn't do half of what Outlook does, so that's a non-starter right there.
Active Directory is notoriously insecure.
If you say so.
SQL Server? You are joking right? Google LAMP and check out the market share.
First of all, SQL Server is a database server, LAMP is a stack of web development tools. Apples to oranges, comparing the marketshare between the two makes no sense. A better comparison would be SQL Server vs. Oracle and DB2. I can't find a recent study, but Wiki has this data from 2006: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database_management_system#Market_structure Given the data is old, but notice how MySQL is lumped into the "Others" category.
Secondly, LAMP means MySQL. Are you seriously suggesting that MySQL is technically superior than SQL Server? You might be delusional if you believe that.
Web browser - The FOSS solutions are clearly way superior here. I doubt there's any argument about this.
Yah, but IE has been advancing in leaps and bounds-- IE8 might still be inferior to, say, Firefox, but it's much less obviously-so.
Office - On 99% of the cases you're covered by OpenOffice. Some might say it's not as pretty/lacks features/etc. I have yet to see someone complain that they're not able to do their job with it.
Yah right. OpenOffice can't even do Normal View. And it doesn't have a useful Outline mode.
Yes, geeks who don't use office applications don't know the difference between Office and OpenOffice. For people who use office applications, it's obvious.
Mail client - Most people have already switched to web clients. For corporate users some might still use Outlook, but in my professional experience most don't use its enterprise features, so they might as well use Thunderbird or any other client.
See above. All the points about Office apply to Outlook as well.
Music player - Considering most users take the default the OS offers, I'd say even the worst media player on Linux is better to WMP.
We were talking about business software. WTF does WMP have anything to do with anything?
If you use SQL Server of Visual Studio for your daily work you're smart enough and knowledgeable to make the appropiate choice for a system (supposedly). But SQL Server is on the same class as Postgres and DB2 for most tasks.
And...? Is comparing it to DB2 supposed to be a point?
Besider, there's no way in hell you're running Visual Studio, Outlook, or SQL Server or a netbook unless you're into masochism.
Assuming you mean "besides" and "on a netbook", then I run Outlook and Visual Studio on my MSI Wind. It runs fine. Even when you're using the mini-SQL server they include with the web development package.
In fact, what makes you think *Outlook* wouldn't run on a netbook?
Since when is GStreamer or SDL or OpenAL part of Windows?
No. Sadly, pulseaudio exists simply to copy Vista. Vista introduced per-application mixers and apparently this is a Cool New Feature that everybody supposedly wants, even if it's a shitty implementation that slows down what was a perfectly working sound system.
And yet somehow Microsoft managed to add their Cool New Feature without fucking up their perfectly working sound system. I love it when Linux fans talk about how crappy Microsoft engineering is-- while at the same time they can't even come close to replicating it.
SQL Server: Forked from Sybase
True; but that doesn't change the point that it's a good product, and it's been under Microsoft development for decades now.
Visual Studio: Only necessary because a base MS install does not provide any development tools, whereas Unix was designed to be an IDE in itself.
Update your FUD. Visual Studio Express has been free for like 4 solid years now. If you're going to spread bullshit, please make sure it's up-to-date bullshit, thank you.
Exchange/Outlook: IMAP changed to MAPI for lockin
If you think IMAP is even roughly equivalent to MAPI, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Active directory: LDAP and Kerberos ripoff
Again: you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Bzzt. Thanks for playing.
Microsoft were so desperate to get on the netbook wagon, they forced OEMs to use XP - an OS which was officially dead - at knockdown prices.
This is one of the dumbest things I've ever read on Slashdot.
First: Microsoft didn't "force* netbook makers to put anything on their netbooks. If they were going to "force" it, why wouldn't they be "forcing" Dell to put XP on this box: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DNDWEA4&s=dhs Face the facts, netbook makers put XP on their netbooks because their customers demanded it.
Second: Forced them to use XP, as opposed to what? The non-existent fantasy version of Vista that Microsoft had made by elves that runs on netbook hardware? The netbook makers bought XP because XP is the only currently-supported Windows OS that runs on netbook hardware! DUH!
Thirdly XP isn't "officially dead" by any reasonable definition of the term.
And even XP can't really operate with SSD, and the netbook market has been skewed with netbooks with hard-disks, because "hard disks are better for you."
I like having a HD. It means I can put several movies on the HD at once, and watch them at my leisure-- my MSI Wind's like a portable DVD player with a 25-disk changer. It's utterly impossible, in your fantasy elf-world, that netbooks have HDs because customers (like Windows) demanded it?
Duh.
I looked for a "netbook" with SSD the other week in trawl of non-techie emporiums and I could not find one. All the netbooks I found were XP with hard-disks.
"in trawl of non-technie emporiums". Yah.
Ok, there's your A. Where's your B?
How do you know that your same company, with your same staff, would give you more reliable service on Linux? (Or Novell, or whatever?)
The problem you have is that your company has Microsoft infrastructure, and shitty admins. So you're making the connection: Microsoft = shitty. That's not really the case, though... shitty admins can make any software infrastructure behave shitty.
They have marketing power, but not technical excellence nor stable robust business grade software.
They don't? So... Exchange/Outlook, Active Directory, SQL Server, Visual Studio... those are all figments of my imagination?!
I suppose for all of those you can point out a "better" open source package.