>It should be kept in mind that this is a LINUX list. Whether anyone
>agrees or not, there are a many people on this list who hate Microsoft
>or hate Windows, etc. Trying to enlighten them (assuming you think
>that's worthwhile) is a losing proposition; they've made up their minds
>and they don't want to listen, or they've heard all the arguments
>before. (That's what makes these arguments _religious_.) People are
>welcome to argue for or advocate Windows, but they're swimming against
>the tide. I'd advocate asbestos underwear for those who do. ;-}
>
>Paul
>
I have friends in college who I would not dream of trying to
pursuade to make the switch to Linux. Let me cite one of the reasons:
Many college and university web sites simply won't work without IE.
Yes, you can get some of the other browsers to do a pretty good job but
a poorly-written web site is just that. And I know that it is possible
to run IE from Wine, but that's not exactly beginner's stuff. I can't
get Wine to work right. I have one friend that has an XP laptop that he
uses for school. Open source programming got a foot-hold in his machine
in the form of Open Office first, then Firefox/Thunderbird and Opera.
He also has an older desktop running '98 that he has thought about doing
something more interesting with. Last time he was in my area, I sent
him with an Ubuntu cd set and a Knoppix 4.0 cd. He was fascinated, but
I haven't heard whether or not he wants to go that direction.
The bottom line is that I didn't get to that point bashing his OS.
I have been vocal about my feelings toward Microsoft, but I've tried to
keep it to the right audience, and I'm starting to mellow out on the
whole arguement. If this sounds hypocritical with some of my recent
posts, let me explain. When I said that XP as a guest OS on my Debian
machine is like a caged bird, I did not mean to degrade Windows by it.
What I meant is that most of the time when I tell people that I'm
running Linux, they react like, "Oh, what a shame. That computer could
be really useful.." They don't treat Linux as a "real" OS. I think
that to some of the people that I know, to see XP running WITHIN my
Linux desktop would be a powerful illustration that Linux is a very
compotent desktop-OS indeed.
Personally, I do not like Microsoft for the reasons that have all
been told so many times and then some. Do I use it? Yes, I do. Why?
Work mostly, and also stuff that I can't get working to a satisfactory
level under Linux. Do I believe Linux will get there? Heck, yes!
Until then, it will be a project to learn more about as I attempt other
things with it. (Thanks for the help with that, guys!)
Michael
p.s.- My household is about 95% Microsoft-free.
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