Why I Hate Microsoft

[redshifter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickG Just curious, what operating systems are you guys using? Be truthfull...

WIN98SE WINME WIN2KSP4 pro WINXP pro, home, media center WINSVR2003 & datacenter, etc...
now if you'll excuse me i need to set up a sharepoint server.

 

[psychogentoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich My final argument for Linux is always uptime.

Its not unheard of to have a server that have over a years of uptime. One of our Solaris servers has over 500 days of uptime with heavy usage (shared hosting platform).

Then again, XP can't even tell you if the patch will require a reboot...it MAY require a restart?!?!? You mean you don't know?!?!?! What

 

[blip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah there is only one real problem with microsoft in my opinion, and it is not their problem: public ignorance (i hate to clarify but in case i'm not understood - i.e. you don't say DAP or even mp3 player, you say "is that an IPOD?". in the same, windows is not questioned by the ignorant public)

That is the core of the problem. Imagine if the average MS user switched over to Linux tommorrow without any additional trainning. There would be a ton of fubarred machines left and right. New security holes would rapidly be opened as commercial developers rushed to port their software. Other security holes would be opened by people who fail to update their virus or firewall protection against the growing number of malware and virus coders who are now writting for the most popular OS (Linux). Tech support lines would be crowded to the breaking point. Faced with so many options, the average user would freak out and configure their system in all sorts of stupid ways. We would have a truly massive mess.

By contrast, imagine if the average WindowsXP user was suddenly as knowledgeable as the average Linux user. Everyone would run a decent firewall and have up-to-date virus protection. People wouldn't fall for stupid schemes like e-mail viruses. Users would practice good, tidy computing practices (i.e. conserving memory, de-fragging their drives, updating device drivers etc.) leading to much better average performance on Windows boxes. Furthermore, Microsofts consumers would demand better accountability from the company forcing ever more stable, secure OSes in the future.

That isn't to say that Linux doesn't offer some definite advantages over MS. It is inherently a bit more secure and a bit more stable than even the best tended Microsoft box. (In my experience at least) And there is no question that it is much more configurable and flexible (I mean when was the last time you saw someone use Microsoft to...say... set up a DIY car MP3 player?). But a lot of what is wrong with Microsoft is simply that its average user is still at the "Dick and Jane" level of computer literacy.

 

[mjg]

I still say linux is a great resource, it's pretty awesome for what it is, but it's not a substiute or compeitor to microsoft on any market at this momment.
I won't ever say it's a waste of time, or a stupid endeavor, i myself run debian, slackware, and a few mandrake boxes over at my work. I've always been interested in using freebsd and linux, solaris what have you, but they just aren't going to be my main OS because i'm using alot of mainstream applications that still get no play under linux.

I think linux still has alot of growing up to do to ever be taken serious, and real developers producing non-open source commercial quality applications is going to be a prerequisite before linux is ever even witin competition of what microsoft offers as far as software.

 

[wallijonn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjg I think linux still has alot of growing up to do to ever be taken serious, and real developers producing non-open source commercial quality applications is going to be a prerequisite before linux is ever even witin competition of what microsoft offers as far as software.

Wouldn't you be describing Unix? I think that it rivals MS to a great degree, there are plenty of non-free packages out there that will do much more than MS ever can. But such people are workstation people instead of desktop people.

What's the price of Photoshop these days? And why can't I find a good book on The GIMP?

When it comes to uptime we are basically dealing with servers. Servers by their very nature may be run in clusters with redundancy - so comparing them to desktop PCs may be disengenious.

Corporate America may run a lot of MS at the desktop and workstation level but there is still room for Netware and Unix. Somewhere someone is still running VAX/VMS, TOPS, ...

When it comes to MS I say that gamers have really supported them more than the average Joe and Jane who probably don't want to spend $400 for MSOffice. By its very nature MSO is a Corporate America product.

What you have in the MS world is a fight between users who want everything for free and corporations which want to charge for everything.

Have you noticed that DVDs and music CDRs have dropped in price lately? Why?

I think Linux is being taken seriously by some people - the very people who are taking it seriously. (I know that's circular reasoning). I too feel that Linux newbies from the Windows world are watering down Linux and are a drain, if not at times nuisances. But before there was that shiny mp3 gui converter someone was doing each song conversion via the CLI, just as some are now doing DVD conversion at the CLI.

The problem with MS is that the user has to be protected from himself, in spite of himself. In Linux you don't get any second chances. That is a hard fact of life to swallow.

But it is all moot - the hardware corporations will go where the money is, where the biggest return on a dollar is, where there is the most profit potential. And MS is now that, just as consoles rule the gaming world.

 

[mjg]

wallijonn;
You missed by major point, of course unix is a rival on the server side, though it's not as much nowadays as intel is cheap as hell and windows servers are much more affordable then any sort of sun enterprise class 10k+++ server....

Yet, on the desktop, there is no competition whatsoever, come on man?? You really are telling me linux (say commercial distributions such as redhat) or even chipping away at their sales? It's marginal, and nominal still.

Though, i agree ofcourse alot of people, not even experts use it as a desktop OS, i'm saying it's not really hurting microsoft sales, and there isn't enough major development under any linux environment to have me encouraged enough to stick with it as a main OS.

(I got a kvm right here, i'm always ssh'd into sun box at my school, freebsd box there as well for doing programming and email etc... but at home, im running XP on a dual monitor setup, and doing most of my programming in eclipse or jbuilder. Yea, sure they are available on linux, but it's still not a conveniance for me to be running it.

OSX is a real sexy OS, and has alot of development tools i'd like, and gnu compliance, but i just cant afford one of them things. So, forl now, linux/freebsd is second priority for me.

 

[Stephonovich]

I'm not sure if this counts as derailing the thread, but hey, it's another reason to hate M$...

I was writing up a quick web page for my computer business (not sure if linking would qualify as advertising... I'll remove it if anyone complains - but really, you have to see the page to comment on it) tonight, and started checking it in IE6, since 90-something percent of computer users are running it.

Lo and behold, what looked beautiful (and XHTML/CSS compliant, I might add) in Firefox was horribly mucked up in IE. None of my beautiful PNG transparency was there! I did some Googling, and discovered that M$ has, for whatever reason, decided PNG transparency isn't important enough to be supported. They do, however, have a webpage with a massive script that adds support in. Yeargh. So, I find a .htc + .css method, implement it, and verify that yes, it works. But what's this? My custom bullets aren't transparent. Do a bit of source checking, and realize the images are being called from within CSS. IE only supports some of CSS v2. Wonderful. I give up on those and just make them GIFs, which works fine.

For an unknown reason, the giant HD picture in the middle (which, yes, is a PNG with transparency) worked fine, even before the hack. I've stopped questioning such things.

I just can't believe M$ is that callous, though, that they've spat in the face of everyone else and refused to adopt such a simple standard. They even admit it's a problem, and have a workaround! How hard would it be to slipstream a nice little patch into the next batch of Windows Updates? C'mon, guys, get with the program.

Rant aside, any comments on the page itself? Design/layout/content? This isn't supposed to be a massive page, just present some basics. I'm running a local ad, and reference this website. It's just so people can get a rough idea of prices and the like. The main thing I'm concerned about is the phone number - you'll notice it's using a hover tag when you sit over the word 'call' in the last paragraph. Is it too hard to find? Do you think most people can get it? The number is clearly displayed in the ad, so it's not like it should be all that hard to find it, but still...

 

[wallijonn]

The fonts looked better in IE (I opened the page in IE from FF) but the Pi logo is blocked. The tiles also are not the same size.

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn The fonts looked better in IE (I opened the page in IE from FF) but the Pi logo is blocked. The tiles also are not the same size.

If you mean the pricelist, yes, that's supposed to be a different size. I did find one potential problem in my source, and fixed it. It wasn't a problem here, but I think if your system defaulted to a different font, it could have showed up odd.

What version of IE/Windows are you running, BTW? I tried it on two different machines, but both were running WinXP and IE6, with all the latest patches. Showed up fine, though. I'll try Linux later, but I'm not anticipating any problems.

I've no idea why the fonts looked better in IE than FF. Perhaps there's some rendering option you have set in one of them?

 

[wallijonn]

mjg,

Yes, I agree with you. But no, I wasn't talking about paying for the OS, like RH or SUSE. I was talking about CAD/CAM type packages which run on workstations under Unix. I really liked Word Perfect over MSWord and wanted to try it on Linux but it just didn't work out right.

I also don't think that Linux will make any great inroads into MS's market for a few more years. MS seems to be pushing people away, though, as evidenced by their new tactic of renting you the OS instead of your owning a license (this will be in the future). They also seem to be strong arming Corporate America with their new license fees and threats of non support for older products. The major break will probably come with WXP64.

Once Longhorn comes out it may force more people to switch over to Linux because of the hardware requirements. That won't be for many years though as they will still support WXP32. I see a lot of people buying into the 64 bit hype and just shake my head - are they willing to change all their software? I won't be spending $400 for MSO64. Nor will I spend $200 for WXP64. I see my machine lasting another 3 years and I will not upgrade until dual 3G procs come out at $300. 3 years should just about be right.

I really have no problem with MS. I like them and use all their OSes. But I don't worry about security, viruses, trojans, worms or BHOs with Linux. I don't want to spend $100 for MSOutlook2003 so I use Evolution. With me it's a matter of economics, plain and simple. I bought WXP32 the day it came out. I won't be doing that with WXP64, anymore than I bought into the Prescott or the 915 or 925X. I got burned with the i815 (370) and D850 (423). I am a little more cautious now.

 

[wallijonn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich I've no idea why the fonts looked better in IE than FF. Perhaps there's some rendering option you have set in one of them?

Oh, most probably. I've set FF on W2KP to look almost as good as Ubuntu (using my fonts instead of the webpage's fonts). IE looked like it was using BOLD. I'm using W2KP with the latest updates and IE6 with the latest updates. The only thing I use IE6 for is for updates. I don't even trust Flash and Real Player. That stuff I'll use on Linux, though.

 

[viator122]

Stephonovich I think I see a layout problem on your page. The placement of the text across the top sort of clashes with the text column running down the right side. I'd move the column down farther. Also, I don't like that you have to hover your mouse over the word "call" to get a look at the phone number. I think at the bottom of the page you should have your contact information written out in plain english.

Also, what's "A+ certification"? I don't know and I doubt anyone who would need to pay for hardware installation would know either. You should clarify that.

I think you have a good start, here, though. I hope I don't sound too negative. You also might want to add more information and play with fonts and text sizes to give your page a fuller and more textured look.

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by viator122 Stephonovich I think I see a layout problem on your page. The placement of the text across the top sort of clashes with the text column running down the right side. I'd move the column down farther. Also, I don't like that you have to hover your mouse over the word "call" to get a look at the phone number. I think at the bottom of the page you should have your contact information written out in plain english. Also, what's "A+ certification"? I don't know and I doubt anyone who would need to pay for hardware installation would know either. You should clarify that. I think you have a good start, here, though. I hope I don't sound too negative. You also might want to add more information and play with fonts and text sizes to give your page a fuller and more textured look.

Yeah, I played a lot with that right block of text. I'll try moving it down. And as for the call hover, I wasn't sure about that either. I was mainly trying to obfuscate it a bit. I'm not sure if there's much of a problem with people/bots harvesting phone numbers, but just in case... anyway, I guess I'll take my chances.

A+ Cert is one of the most basic and rudimentary certifications available for computers. In real life, it means absolutely nothing, however, most people seem to be impressed by it. I have yet to see a computer repair place that actually explained what their certifications meant. Adds more of a mystique to have them so cryptic

Walli, they definitely should not be bold. Again, methinks it's your setup. I'll check tomorrow at my Linux class, with both XP w/ IE6, and Redhat (what we use there) with as many browsers as I can get.

 

[viator122]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich A+ Cert is one of the most basic and rudimentary certifications available for computers. In real life, it means absolutely nothing, however, most people seem to be impressed by it. I have yet to see a computer repair place that actually explained what their certifications meant. Adds more of a mystique to have them so cryptic

You learn something new every day. Who does the certifying?

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by viator122 You learn something new every day. Who does the certifying?

CompTIA. There's many other certs as well, which are, IMO, much better. I'm going for Linux+ and Network+ soon.