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

[Reese]

Stephen D. Williams wrote:
> I'm with Justin. 

Do you really think so?

> 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.

The original claim pertained to the complexity of XP systems and the
implication that they were just as, or more complex (time consuming)
to set up and keep running than a Linux distribution. I challenged
that claim. I named some example programs and if they are bad
examples, then they are bad examples. So what? Most Linux distros
are just now (within the last several years) coming up to speed on
some things, drivers for add-on hardware have forever been a bane.
But for all of its other faults, XP hasn't had a drivers issue that
was XP's fault, not like Gentoo users experience difficulty with
installation. Not like the Linuxes had drivers issues, when XP
was released.

Not that I'm a died-in-the-wool MS fan, I'd rather something more
BSD-flavored. YMMV.

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

Exactly. But XP versus Linux in a complexity test? Don't make me
laugh, it's a flawed, simplistic comparison. Like saying "Let's
compare OSX to Microsoft, or Redmond WA, or the United States."
You get the idea. OSX versus XP, XP versus Ubuntu v5, XP versus
Red Hat 7, XP versus Gentoo - those are valid comparisons.

> Windows has more apps, utilities, games, bla bla bla.  

Irrelevant.

> The reality right now is cost benefit relationships like:

That reality is also irrelevant to the original claim and its growing
list of arguments to the contrary.

Reese