In reply to Why Windows is not yet ready for the Desktop
The fundamental argument about Windows vs. Linux will always remain, what I find amazing are the replies to Why Windows is not yet ready for the Desktop
The fundamental argument about Windows vs. Linux will always remain, what I find amazing is the stance taken by non-Linux users in the replies to your “tongue in cheek” post. This is sad, yet not surprising, as Windows is designed for idiots, by extremely intelligent people that make a lot of money from those idiots. So they have the right to be as rude as they can be, after all they paid for the privilege.
More to the point, I think as a both Windows and Linux (Kubuntu 10.04 presently) user, I am able to put a couple of things into perspective of the whole debate, regrettably I am not a Mac user, but I heard that it’s quite good in its own right, (now why would I want to say that MacOS is rubbish by not knowing about it? well, I am not an idiot I suppose).
Yes Windows is friendly and does work well for most of the planet population, there is a driving market behind it called capitalism and B. Gates has always been quite clear about his business model: Why would you want to give your software for free? Although it makes sense if you want to garnish your bottom line, it throws a lot of other ugly things into the picture, I shall no go there.
Yes Linux is friendly and does work pretty well for a minority of the people of this planet, there is a driving market called freedom of choice which does not generate as much money, rather, it brings a different kind of capitalism geared towards “services” and “support”, this is a model which is not really geared to cope with millions of potential idiots that cannot be bothered getting help to a perfectly valid problem (usually generated by themselves), “hit re-install instead”, that solves it.
Historically MS Windows was designed to be open (to clarify: open as “friendly” not open as “hackable”), work on a single PC with a printer connected to it, “Put a PC on every desktop in every home” (Bill Gates sometimes in the 80’s).
For that, Windows was good(ish).
Then the Internet came to the masses, seen as a “fad” by the very same B. Gates. That’s where it went wrong: Windows, by it’s very open nature is extremely bad for the web and thus, changing the engraved habits of millions of users that grew used to this freedom of movement, failed miserably and put Windows in the situation it is today: big, bloated and goodish(ish), think of the (failed) attempts of Internet Explorer to “acquire the web” with it’s non-standard compliant Browser engine, but I digress.
On the other hand, Linux, or Unix, from the very start, had always been designed to “network” and be a closed system that needed to be opened, which makes it a pretty good system to work on the Web as a matter of course, it is not as friendly as Windows and a bit less “idiot proof”, you needed to have a couple of brain cells interacting with each other to work with it, also, reading a lot of manuals were de rigueur, something hard to do and digest for most people.
I like Windows to do non-web stuff and things I cannot do with Linux; I like Linux and it is my OS of choice to do all the rest. Besides Linux is getting better and better; take a mid range piece of kit these days and you’ll find that pretty much everything’s detected and working straight from an install. Windows (7) does that also. Where Windows falls flat is, again, with networking. For example: I have an HP printer located on another Windows XP machine, Win 7 is able to see it but yet cannot seem to be able to install the driver for some weird and (not so) wonderful reasons, whereas (k)Ubuntu not only sees the said printer but installs and readies it without a fuss.
And what is this new attempt to redefine the wheel with Windows 7 new “network sharing”? What’s it called again?
Things I don’t like when I work on Windows:
- Lack of default middle mouse button paste (my personal pet hate, Yes! I am sure I can customise…)
- Independent windowing (e.g. does not need to close every subsequent child windows to see the parent)
- Post install reboots
- Drivers hell
- Lack of advanced command Line Interface (however there’s a power shell, but it’s not “true” CLI)
- Having to install an anti-virus
- Windows update, (by this I mean I don’t know what Windows’ up to), OK for idiots, not for me, sorry.
Things I don’t like when I work on Linux:
- Sometimes you need to compile some software sources (dependencies hell), and then it fails miserably which is a big waste of time.
- Lack of good Games, although I am not a “Gamer”.
- Vast choices of seemingly identical applications, some of them, frankly a waste of time
Windows Likes:
- You know if a program will work or not, if you can’t install it, then you cannot use it.
- Windows 7 seems to be fast and works well (emphasising “seem”)
- Good Games and lots of them
Linux Likes:
- No need to worry about dodgy websites.
- No need to worry about dodgy email attachments
- Most hardware works nowadays, without “drivers”
- Plenty of help on-line
- Safety
- Need a server? Got old hardware? No budget? Need to keep it legit? Use Linux OS!
- No DRM
To end this rather long comment, I would say that there is no “good” neither is there any “bad” OS, there’s a choice of OS’es and I wished that the Morons constantly slating one another just got on and the world would be a happier place, although I can understand if some of them are frustrated, after all they’re working on a OS designed for idiots.