How to Conquer the World for Linux 16816

snips

You're missing the point; XP is *not* "more than usable".

You run XP, right? Okay. Try this. Go into the control panel, add-remove programs. Remove *all* the applications. Anything that isn't included as part of XP itself. Now try to use your computer.

Can you do email? Yup. Web browsing? Yup. MSN chat? Yup. News? Yup. Balancing your checkbook? Nope. Development? Nope. Creation of "complex" documents? Nope. Creating a web page? Nope, unless you know HTML and use notepad. Spell checking? Nope. IRC? Nope. ICQ? Nope. Instant messanging with, say, the Yahoo protocols? Nope. Run a database? Nope. Create graphics? Sort of, but the tools are pretty crippled. Same for media.

Of course, while you're doing this, especially email and web browsing, can you do it *safely*? Nope, you don't have anti-hijack, anti-virus and similar tools, which you need to do this safely.

So yeah, if all you care about is email and web browsing, and it doesn't matter to you whether you get a virus or a worm, doesn't matter if your system becomes a zombie, used to attack other systems, send spam and the like, then sure, XP is indeed, "more than usable". Exactly how many people do *you* know that are satisfied with this limited set of functionality?

I know many folks who use XP, I know of *none* who have such low expectations. They want, even need, additional tools, such as word processors. XP doesn't include those. XP is *not* useful to those people. Some application - MS Word, for example - is, but that's not part of XP, isn't bundled with XP, XP simply will not let them do the tasks they need to do... XP is *not* a useful product.

By comparison, "Linux", properly, is the kernel; by itself, it is essentially useless. It needs a shell, applications, and the rest to make it usable. The difference here is that when you buy a boxed Linux distro, those things are included. Word processors. Databases. IM clients. Security tools. IRC apps. Media apps. Development tools. The list goes on and on and on. What you're buying is not a "potentially useful" product, you're buying a useful product. With XP, all you're getting is "potentially useful"... and that only if you're willing to foot the effort and expense of making it so... or buying a new system which includes it and a collection of things where someone else has footed the time and expense to turn XP into something useful.