Windows 2003 is a great Workstation 12250

On Thursday 29 September 2005 03:48, Dust stood up and spoke the following words to the mbuttes incomp.os.linux.advocacy...:

Why don't you Windows advocates give it a spin and check out what it's like to have a *real* operating system at your fingertips?

We could say the same thing about the anti-Gnu-Linux criticisms. Except that we know what they are based upon - i.e. being too lazy to read any documentation - and those are not quite valid reasons in technological design.

When you install Gnu-Linux, you don't need to line up the necessary drivers, since they are all installed onto the hard disk.

You only need to know what's in your system, and strictly spoken that's not even true, as most of today's Gnu-Linux distributions recognize the hardware and install the drivers right away.

Besides, what you Windows fans appear to overlook is that there are people out there who use Gnu-Linux for other reasons than frustration over Windows.

infinitely more powerful than Windows, but also because of the very UNIX design. I cringe at the thought that the hard disks - which are nothing other than the machine's storage facility - suddenly have to become enbreasties on their own with a designated alphabetic letter.

I also cringe at the non-free aspect of Windows, even where it crosses over from its license onto the dictatorial prescription on how I as a user am to interact with my computer and what I am to expect and not to expect from my computer.

If all you ever do is a bit of typing, then you need to buy a typewriter. If you want to watch DVD movies, then buy a DVD player and hook it up to your television set.

If you want to have a real computer, you need a real computer operating system to operate its hardware and interface with you.

For me, Windows does not cover that description. Windows is the perfect intermediary platform to keep a computer listed among the "no finer description available" appliances, next to your already purchased multimedia or communications appliances such as a cellphone, a TV set, a HiFi set, probably a Palm Pilot or similar handheld device and a typewriter.

UNIX systems are computer operating systems for serious computing needs, which as an extra offer all of the abovementioned, but feature far more purposes and usages than such household-style appliances.

End of story. ;-)

-- With kind regards,

*Aragorn* (Registered Gnu-Linux user #223157)