[TriLUG] Open Source Empowerment

Michael Thompson thompson at easternrad.com
Thu Nov 6 12:36:16 EST 2003


<rant>
I wonder if I'm using different versions of Windows 98/XP/IE????
(Different from the rest of the users on this list.)  Or maybe
I'm the only person in the world with functioning hardware?  I 
seriously doubt it.

I've been using IE/98 for years without many crash problems, actually
less than my Linux boxes, which is the desktop on all my systems
now, including work.  I now use Win4Lin to run any Windows apps I
might require.  My brother uses Windows XP at home, and OS X at work
for graphic design and comes home daily pissed off that his boss
hasn't gotten him a PC.  His Ti-book or whatever you call it crashes
Photoshop on a regular basis, as in 5-6 times a day.  He had to 
purchase a ~$150 OS upgrade just to get *printing* to work properly.
No too impressive for a company with a reputation for making graphic
design machines, especially when a company with a reputation for 
making s**t has an OS that allows him to edit the same files at home
with no problems whatsoever.  (And *NO*, the gimp is *not* a 
professional replacement for Photoshop, good for the standard user 
maybe, but not in the real graphic design world.)

My experience in the Windows world leads me to believe most (not all)
problems with Windows boxes have to do with irresponsible users, or 
just plain ignorance, which is just as dangerous (if not more) in the
*nix world.  How many Linux newbies run as the root user because they
don't understand how things are supposed to work?  I did the same 
thing for a little while until I did a little RTFM-ing and started to 
get an understanding of how the thing worked, but most people don't 
like to RTFM, they just want things to work and are satisfied if it
appears that everything is working.  The argument that "people should
take the time to learn to use their darn computers" may be correct but
it would be naive to believe that this will ever happen, with any OS.

M$ may own the patent on Evil(tm), but are we going to blame open-
source developers when Linux is more prevalent on 'civilian' desktops
and the number of un-patched and improperly configured machines on the 
net increases and start causing similar security issues?  (I know, I've
strayed off the 'crash' topic a bit...)

ANYWAY...  The point I'm trying to make is that it seems to me that 
while much of the M$ bashing may be correct, much of what I read here
on this list sounds more like FUD from people who don't actually use
or troubleshoot Windows/IE problems.  Don't get me wrong now, I choose
Linux over Windows any day but I wont let my personal prejudice 
convince me that dealing with Linux problems is any less frustrating 
than dealing with Windows problems.

And now I will go back to trying to figure out why Mozilla Firebird
keeps crashing and why Thunderbird will no longer load, and why gaim
will not unload, and why Evolution will only process my filters some
of the time and...

</rant>

--mike

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