Linux Fails The Family Test BADLY! 2806

Robert Strunk

Insults? I see these insults daily from "Windows lovers" more than I see them from the "Linux groups", they are just bigger and in the form of things like TCO reports and System usage reports.

These same 3 or 4 clicks will also create all sorts of spyware on your system, as well as phone home to tell the company what you are watching. I have firewall logs that prove that many of the newer XP-centric Video codecs call home for DRM checking. Give me Open source any time, for windows or Linux, that way I can see that they will or will not phone home.

No, they just need to learn to use Google or other search engines properly to find what is needed for a specific program. Most programs have a list of requirements, and often include where the get the required libraries. You just need to 'read the readme file' or RTFM.

That is just bad programming by the web designers. I encounter them all the time. Ever try to look at a web site that is all flash using a reader for the blind? How about trying to traverse a major web portal in search of needed medications, but because of your illness flashing ads and other animations makes it too hard? I know people that come to me to find their stuff online because of the flash and the bad programming. It is the programmer and web-design teams' fault that this happens. It has nothing to do with IE, NS, Mozilla, Firefox or anything else. The choices made by the people designing, authorizing, and implimenting the websites are the problem, not the software.

Want to bet? Try opening a Word 97 document in Word 2003. Total garbage. Run the 'converter' supplied by Microsoft, still garbage. This is the SAME PROGRAM, from the SAME COMPANY, yet it is still garbage. No different than using Word 2003 and Open Office 1.9. I have found that the conversion is much better from OO1.9 to MSW2003 than it is from MSW2000 to MSW2003. The same holds true for the reverse. Nothing is perfect unless everyone is using the EXACT SAME software with the EXACT SAME version. This is why MS makes the choice to not make the newer versions backwards compatable when it comes to importing older formats. It drives their sales. OO has taken great pains to be able to import files from MSOffice, WPOffice, and many other Office-like suites. No other suite can claim the same thing. Many will convert MSOffice, and WPOffice, but what about the more obscure ones? Ever try to import a Lotus 1-2-3 (v2.x) file into Excell? It is easier to just re-key the spreadsheets.

Need something imported that OO can't currently import? Just ask for it. With open source, they will everything they can to make it for you. Ask the same of MS, and they want a few thousand dollars and at least 6 months. I have asked, so I know.

A converter not working? Then fix it. You have everything you need to edit the converter as part of the source package. Kind of like the engineering of a car. If the air intake isn't working right, then you open the hood and make the changes so it does.

A. Zander