MS Windows is now Install Once, Throwaway, was: Re: [FoRK] More iPhone analysis

[Stephen D. Williams]

I'm with Justin.  You mention toy or narrow versions of apps and imply 
that they are somehow equivalent to Linux "equivalents".  They're not 
the same level in either case.  Paintbrush is a child's toy pretty much. 
Windows Update only updates windows and doesn't install any apps.  
Neither compare to installing a typical Linux distribution that includes 
OpenOffice, drivers for just about every device, printer, etc., and 
grabbing a new app, say a 3D modeling, rendering, and gaming development 
system with about 20 characters that in the Windows ecosystem was a 
$2000+ software package.

 From a user's point of view, it's a whole other ecosystem.

Windows has more apps, utilities, games, bla bla bla.  The reality right 
now is cost benefit relationships like:

(Windows+MS ecosystem) - (installation headaches, malware headaches, 
protection from malware headaches, + cost and time for all of that)
vs.
(Ubuntu (to pick a good point)+FOSS ecosystem+commercial apps) - 
(occasional installation problems, low cost, learning curve, and - 
practically zero maintenance and rebuild, and near universal movement to 
game consoles for games)

However you want to put numbers to those two scenarios, for vast numbers 
of typical users, the latter is a far better deal, especially the first 
or nth time they have to rebuilt their Windows box due to malware or 
just general Windows cruftiness.  I now refuse to rebuild a Windows box 
for anyone.  If they have trouble, they can learn to use a restore disk 
or I'll convert them to Linux in 30 minutes, including download of 
Ubuntu.  For anyone with hardware more than 2 years old, the headache + 
the depreciated value of the hardware mean that the only economically 
viable options are: install Linux or buy a new installed Windows 
computer.  Or both to reuse the old hardware as an Internet terminal.

It is no longer worth fighting with Windows for most people.  For the 
few apps that people need in Windows, they should be using VMWare Player 
with a backed up WinXP/Vista instance, under Linux or OSX (or even under 
WinXP/Vista until they switch).  (VMWare Fusion Unity is slick BTW.)

Note that both need broadband to successfully install.  Windows actually 
needs it worse since it spends hundreds of megabytes on patches even 
with an installation CD and no apps.

sdw

Reese wrote:
> Justin Mason wrote:
>> Reese writes:
>>> Justin Mason wrote:
>>>> Stephen D. Williams writes:
>>>>> Just because you know how to get through all of the steps of 
>>>>> setting up an XP system doesn't make it easier by comparison.
>>>> +1.  People who are familiar with Windows forget how hard it was to
>>>> learn all its little foibles.
>>> Horse apples. Windows ships with Paintbrush, Linux with Gimp. [...]
>>
>> your point being that Windows ships with crapware suitable for 
>> generating
>> 16-color pixel art in the mid-80s, but useless in the modern era of
>> digital photography retouching?
>
> I'm very sorry but you seem to've forgotten the meaning of what you
> replied to earlier (and your reply to it), with it right there in
> front of you too.
>
> Reese
>
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-- 
swilliams at hpti.com http://www.hpti.com Per: sdw at lig.net http://sdw.st
Stephen D. Williams 703-371-9362C 703-995-0407Fax 94043 AIM: sdw