My time is over :'(

[PBarnum]

I say, if the post is not in the loop (like 10 or 15 posts down the line) its dead.

 

[Jelly]

Maybe Linux is compatible with anything, if you just try hard enough?

 

[Thothie]

And I think Thothie (was it you, Thoth?) has already mentioned this before... but Linux O/S's are crappier than Windows... in that Windows is a corporate, high-profit PC operating system... and Linux is pretty much freeware (so their coders aren't motivated to make it safer against viruses, exploits, glitches, etc, etc).

Umm… No…. That most definitely was not me.

Linux is a vastly superior OS than Windows, code, performance, and construction wise.

It’s open source – so anyone of a neigh infinite number of coders can spot sploits/glitches/etc and provide fixes. Unlike Windows, where they have motivation to not reveal major exploits, due to the cost of distributing large fixes and testing for compatibility (which they often fail to do adequately).

Linux fails in three critical areas:
- Ease of use (this is changing as people make more sophisticated front ends over time)
- Hardware compatibility (not everything can be made to work with Linux, but this point too is improving over time.)
- Windows Compatibility (this is changing as more people manage to reverse engineer the closed source windows bits – although at the same time, M$ is adding more for their end of the battle. M$ pays the EU $3 million dollars in fines a day to keep certain portions of the internet interface closed source – which is illegal under EU law.)

The latter failing has actually come so far around, that some people I know have switched to Wine at work, because they’ve found the Vista system that their new desktops came with, is less compatible with their office software than Wine (which is pathetic beyond words can express), and the office doesn’t have enough legal licenses for XP to go around.

The reason most people use Windows? It comes with their computer.

Most people use the engine their car comes with too – it’s pretty much the same concept – it’s a lot of work to replace your engine, and you gotta know what yer doing, and it's time consuming. Most people don't have the time/know how to tweak their rods.

At the moment, M$ is actually losing massive amounts of cash on Vista by paying distributers to use it, they are being subsidized in this effort by Sony, Viacom, and other media companies who want the integrated DRM features. Without such subsidies, they couldn't even justify the expense as an effort to maintain their market share.

In addition they are taking desperate measures such as: Halo2 for the PC – DirectX 10? No, because not even M$'s own programmers can get that to work out on any modern system and the media protection - but is it Vista only? Yes.

In my case it’s primarily because none of the productivity software I use has been ported to Linux, and much of it is unstable under the various Windows shells/emulations, but I do have alternative Linux boots on all my systems, plus I keep a Knoppix disk around, in case they fail. Primarily I use XP - and Win2k, when I can.

 

[Blasto121]

I find the biggest reason people use windows specifically XP is for gaming, its just easier than using an emulation service. There was a linux version called lindows, was supposed to be a linux OS that ran and looked just like windows, even had the ability to natively run WIN32 applications, of course Microsoft promptly sued them to death.

I find it funny how much microsoft pushes for Vista, yet certain government branches refuse to upgrade to it, due to being such a resource hog and of course many other issues that come with it.

 

[Thothie]

Meh, I've found another reason why people use Vista: a lot of these prebuilt machines are rigged so you can't downgrade them. I've run into this problem working on other people's prebuilt's, and now on my own new laptop.

...also any laptop with the ATI X1200 graphics card. (Because, yes, apprently Microsoft now owns ATI, and by extension AMD - at least enough of them to get them to sabotage their own products)

So yeah, this laptop, like the other one, will be going back.

Pisses me off, this laptop is just friggen beautiful in every other way, and they have to go and sabotage the thing like that. Plus now I'm not sure if I can even find a laptop that can run XP where I got this.

 

[Blasto121]

hu zero fill the drive... thats what I did to get past those issues.

the UBCD is your friend