Its Time For Windows Users To Switch. what do you think about this open letter

[qwijibow 0]

Ive just read this open letter...
http://www.networkworld.com/category/opensource-subnet/

I like it because its all facts, no opiniobs given without references to fackts to back them up.

it also decodes Microsoft's get the facts compain that attempts to confuse you with correct, yet irelivant figures...

example... number of securety alters from windows in a year = 70 somthing.
number of securety alerts from RHE = just over 100.

looks bad, but then they point out that how for windows, they are just alerting you about securety holes in the kernel, and internet explorer...

however for linux, the alerts are the the Kenrnel, Mozzilla web browser, Konqueror web browser, Firefox web browser, Mplayer DVD player, XINE vd player, KOffice, OpenOffice, the GIMP, several CD bruning utilities, several multimedia tools,

and most importantly... APACHE web server... the securety holes in Ms's web server alone would double MS's alert count.

basically, 6 CD's full of software, often, several porgrams for each task, like web browsing or DVD viewing.

The only thing I dissagree with, is for Gamers...
Gamers should switch to PlayStation or Xbox... every1 else should switch to Linux...

other than that, i think its a good letter.

what do you guys think ?

[vladimir1405241474 0]

yeah! Thats good! I was always thinking linux is better! Microsoft windows just has many security holes...thats what i dont like...Linux is much better in that case.The thing with the gamers is right...thats the only I thing I wish linux has more games...but thats not their problem.....

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

ok, Fine.My open letter to the linux community.I recently decided I was fed up, exhausted, and pissed off. Windows had to go. I cleared off a massive section of my hard disk, partitioned it, and began looking for a linux distro.Ah choices choices. There was red hat, SuSe, the Lindows people, Xandros, Lycoris, Debian, etc etc etc. After some looking, I decided to try Xandros. I had read good things in my search about the abilities of apt-get with debian distros, and Xandros seemed a desktop and user friendly version of debian to go with. I got a copy of Xandros 3 and began the install.The install was a synch, just about as easy as windows. I told it a partition, agreed to its terms, and let it go. A little while later, It told me it was readyI log in easily. Oh look! everything looks like windows. Like always, I like to listen to music, so I rev up XMMS and point it at some mp3s on another partition of my disk. Hmm...no sound.After a bit of hunting, I find a couple of possible places that might allow me to begin troubleshooting the problem. I know all the hardware is plugged in right inside the box, since it was working just an hour ago in windows. I try looking at my options, but none of them give me a clear button or set of controlls to let me make certain that linux is playing music out of my Audigy 2. Hmmm. I try and find help, but sadly...thats no help. Its jumbled, filled with technical data, and generally makes sure to let me know that the help file is freely distributable under the GPL. Why it was distributed in this shape to begin with, I will never know. Oh well, I will mess with it later. Time to go read slashdot. So, I fire up Mozilla, nicely installed by default and....can't connect to the internet. Interesting, but not unexpected since I have a wireless card connected by USB as my internet connection. I hunt down the driver CD for my card, and lo and behold it has a linux driver on it. YES! I open up the linux directory and double click on the file labeled INSTALL, nice and clear and in all caps. A dialogue box comes up on my screen and says simply, 'use make config first'. OK....I don't see anything labeled make config on my screen, but I remember hearing about linux liking the command lineSo, I copy the files to a directory where I have write access(because something deep inside tells me this is probably necessary), open up a terminal window, cd to the directory filled with the driver files and proudly type 'make config'Error, not enough specified, or some such.WTF. I try it again, same message that is completely unhelpful. hmmm. 'help make'Nothing usefull, try man -k make or info make instead.God damn it.I then see a readme.txt file and I open this with the GUI(die command line, DIE!). I scroll down to where it says 'installation instructions'. I probably should have done this first, but with a big file labeled install(which is what I would click on in windows), and the general GUI looking like windows, it didn't seem like such a bad idea at the time. So lets see, what have we here. Ah, I need the base PCMCIA drivers available online from sourceforge. Well, as soon as I have already installed the driver and gotten online, I will make sure to go online and get the driver. Thanks for nothing you POS.At this point, I have decided its not worth it. I haven't been able to play Mp3s or even get on the internet, and here I thought linux was made for networking. I don't want to go back to windows, but Linux stalled right out of the box. I sigh and walk over to my ibook and write this letter. And this is the point: DEAR LINUX COMMUNITY, PLEASE HELP US TO LEAVE WINDOWS, because right now, you are making it a *****.

[qwijibow 0]

lol.So you formated you disk and installed software without checking the hardware compatability..this is NEVER a good idea.always read minimum system requirements !the sound thing is in the control panel. under "sound"and its true that not all wireless cards are supported under linux,bet taking 2 minutes to read a hardware compatability list or look it up is worth a virus, spyware, adware, popup, crahing, rebooting free lifeOk guys and gurls... the lesson is... READ the compatability list, THEN switch ^_^or try the MAC... i like the BSD thing, but i dont like the mac hardware...the mac is just too muh of a fashon accessory.plus my mac using friends consider themselves "enlightened" for using the MAC.. yeah, lamo.

[whafizi 0]

yesterday, i wend to two irc channel. both are talking about OS. one is linux and othe other is windows. i asked them about stability. here is the answer;linux os run for some 64 days(average)windows 2k run for 5 months(average)i duno if they lied, but those are the fugures i got last night. anyone got any comments on it. it seems that win2k outdo linux in stability issue.

[qwijibow 0]

Yes, they Lied....

Linux Machines will run indefinatly.
you only need to shut them down to channge hardware...

However.. one flaw with Linux, is that its uptime counter will only count for about 4 years, then re-set's to zero.

so there are no proofs of linux machines running for over 4 years without a re-boot.

Nobody knows how long a Linux machine will run without a reboot...
after 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 years people need a new kernel to take advantage of new versions of web servers.

or after 8 years, processor technology has advanced a LOT, and people want to upgrade.

infact, if motherboards support it, You can take PCI cards out of a running linux box, and put other PCI cards in without a re-boot.

ask people on a linux forum about there greatest uptime, and why they had to reboot.
nobody ever says they needed to re-boot because of a crash, or memory leak.
its always a hardware requirement.

Have a look at the internet's top 50 Uptimes....
https://www.netcraft.com/monitoring-services/

ALL of them, UNIX varients... where's windows... nowhere to be seen, suck on that !

[jipman 0]

I'm sorry to say NO, as long as games do not run well on Linux or any other *nix. That's the only reason i'm still using windows.

[Herbert1405241469 0]

infact, if motherboards support it, You can take PCI cards out of a running linux box, and put other PCI cards in without a re-boot.

Generally it is not a good idea to play with hardware while the machine is on. I know I was having trouble with a hard drive freezing Win98 whenever it booted, so I decided to plug the hard drive in after booting was complete and I completely fried the drive (smoke, the whole bit ) I'm glad it was a POS drive, and I've learned from my mistakes... Just like they say to avoid static... DO IT

[ChronicLoser 0]

i don't understand why people who use Linux/firefox and any other non-Microsoft product insists on all Microsoft loyalists on switching. If you have something against Microsoft's products, so be it. You do not need to gather others into your rebellion gainst Bill Gates. Perhaps others simply like Windows despite the "security holes" everyone is stressing on. I am not saying I am absolutely loyal to Microsoft in any way...but I am confused on why linux users want to "convert" all windows users to other os systems.

[qwijibow 0]

They dont want to convert the world... its just an opinion / general advice.Personally, i like the way that the Linux community is small, and has a great ratio of expert hackers to newbs.Peronally, im very very greatfull that someone surgested Linux to me dureing a general rant about windows stability on a windows forum... i followed the advice, never went back.its more of a Spread the word, let people know there is a choise, and they dont have to chose spyware, virus scanners, disk defragmenting and re-boots.

[cryptonx 0]

linux or windows to hell with consoles ! PC games for ever ... and since 99,91% of games are releasd either for Windows Only or For Windows FIRST , I will not switch to Linux .and i will not replace the following :Paint Shop Pro 9 / Namo Webeditor / Maxthon / Winamp / Autocadfor crappy freeware applications , I agree OpenOffice is excellent , firefox isnt bad but still there's no replacement for PSP or Games , and plz dont tell me GIMP .. cuz i will die laughing

[qwijibow 0]

for crappy freeware applications ,

There's no FreeWare in Linux.
why would anyone chose Freeware over FOSS

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

Someone said I should check the hardware compatability list before switching. The point that I was making is that my hardware WAS compatible. If you bothered to read my post, I was sitting there, looking at some files that claimed to be a driver, and installing the driver was an exercise in frustration. If linux simply didn't support my hardware, then thats fine. I don't think OS's necesarily have to support everything, or even should. But the fact that I can have a driver, and have it be harder than double clicking a file to install, is just silly. And sad.

[qwijibow 0]

I meant Compatable with the linux kernel, not compatable as a reverse engineered hack on sourceforge.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

This driver was from the MANUFACTURER. It is possible that it still wouldn't work, but if you read my post, there was a different problem long before that came up. Specifically, that the driver required multiple steps to install, and executing those steps was non-intuitive and buggy.