Originally posted by: pitupepito2000
I have no tolerance for microsoft, and I don't like their products at all. In my opinion they have blinded most users, and they are/have a monopoly that is growing at the expense of the users, which don't know how buggy their OS is.
Most of this is my opinion, so no need to get worked up about it. No flame war intentions, just my point of view, which is why I tried to answer your question from my point of view in my last post instead of just rambling on about how Microsoft isn't the enemy.
😉 As a mini-edit, I think this is getting kind of long and almost philisophical (in a non-n0cmonkey sort of way...), but may be worth reading if you get bored, want to argue, think I'm a guru, or think I'm a moron. But don't forget the intent of the thread people
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Most users don't care though. It's unfortunate, but most users want to get on a machine, run IE, download porn and play mah-jong online. We have atleast two main groups in computers: the computer freaks (you, me, and most of the people on this forum), and the users. The users don't care. We do.
Now, if Linux users and the media (I don't think this is Linus's attitude, but I could be wrong) continue down the path of Microsoft vs. Linux, Linux will use. I think the attitude should be closer to Linux for the consumer. It may be thought of as a small difference (after all, one of the reasons for battling microsoft is for the users), but it is an important one. The BSDs are typically built for the developers. They make an OS they want to use, if someone else wants to use it then cool. If not, oh well.
KDE has been making plenty of great products for the users. As well as Gnome, even if its inception was for a totally different reason. The technical aspects of Firefox/Mozilla are great (if you visitted my post in Software about firefox you know my reasons for only mentioning the technical side
😉), as are the many off shoots (Galeon, Chimera, and any others I haven't played with or heard of). Konqueror is getting better and better. Open Office is great (even if installing it on OpenBSD is a hack in and of itself). KOffice is good.
Debian's apt-get (despite my displeasure at recent experiences with it) is a good product. urpmi or whatever Mandrake is using can be good too, as well as YaST.
Kmail, thunderbird, and evolution are showing promise. I use thunderbird at home for my various mail accounts.
So what do we have for the user? We have an update utility or two, office programs (with varying Microsoft compatibilities), email clients, and decent guis for people to stare at and say SHINEY!
What is missing? Possibly nothing now. Redhat has put itself into the server market, so I don't see much as far as desktop use coming from them (beyond the general Linux stuff they are always working on, like gcc). Mandrake is on life support as far as companies go. Debian is caught up in freedom, and is really too religious in their views to be able to take on responsibility like this. Lindows just isn't worth the time for the average LINUX user. Slackware, well slackware is slackware. Gentoo is too developer/geek oriented. What's left if we ignore the millions of little distros out there? SuSE.
Novell had the market clout to push Linux onto the desktop at one time. Is it too late? Time will tell. But, if they can bundle the various software utilities and make a BUSINESS standard, we could see more Linux workstations within the year. Once it is in the business world, it will probably start trickling down to the average user.
If they could provide an auto-update feature, and enough crappy (for geeks) guis to do pretty much everything, like loading drivers, businesses might stop looking at it as Linux, and start seeing it as a viable alternative. If they partner up with the winex guys, they can help bring in a big boost in game performance and compatibility. What more does a user need? Uneducated users want simplicity, and I think Novell/SuSE has the power to give it to them.
Getting a systems vendor would probably be tough too. Dell probably won't do another Linux on the desktop stunt. I can't see HP/Compaq doing much of anything worthwhile. But now that I think about it, there is one company that might have the testicular fortitude to do it. Can anyone guess what those three little magic number might be? If you're old enough, you might remember hating them in the 80's.
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Where will this start? Not in the US. It's already started. The EU, asia, and various third world countries are already looking at Linux solutions. Why won't we (the US, sorry, wasn't thinking about the rest of you, I am an American after all
😉)? Lobbying. Too many congressmen receive big money bribes from big companies in the form of "grass root campains." But the foothold is coming. Application developers need to step in and make things better, smoother, faster, stronger. We need the 6 million dollar Linux! Wait, got my geekisms mixed up here. Ok, I think I'm back on track now. It's coming slowly, but in order to "beat" microsoft, I think people need to look at the users. They're as ready as they are ever going to get, but no one is waiting there with the candy to tempt them.
Common, you have to wait around for microsoft to release the bugs and you can't fix them. Also they are not interested in serving the end users otherwise they would have never released Winddows ME. Also they want to dominate the market so they can make the rules, for example if you go to the msn search website and you type "XFree86" it will tell you that it is very likely to return porn sites, and we all know what XFree86. That's why the last thing that I will do is buy an Xbox because I don't want to provide M$ the right to decide what is ok for me to run in my living room. Also I don't like all the security stuff that they say that they are implementing, which is just a way to make the companies feel more secure against copyright infringments. They don't compete fairly, and I am sure that they are deeply involved in the SCO scandal. That's enough for me, to dislike an OS and a company.
They are an American business after all
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You have to expect them to not play fair. That's what companies do. They get to the top by playing dirty tricks, and use any and every trick they can think of to stay there.
I personally don't like their business practices, or their products, but one of the things that turns me off to Linux is the "Linux vs. Microsoft" mentality. And I realize that it isn't the big developers that really portray this, but the media and plenty of the worthless users, but it still bugs me.
Well, going back to my original post question. thanks for the reply. I think, I will try some of the software, I am just not sure which one.
Well, to try SQL you'll probably need one of the OSes. Most people have used 2k and XP, but how many people really get a chance to play with Windows 2k3?
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Ok, I think that's enough rambling for this post. People might see my post and think I'm drag for a moment, but without so many spelling and grammar mistakes. And less of a worthwhile point too
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