RE: Working with standards (was Re: Oops, forgot...)
I don't think you're going to have much luck with those entertainment games.
Most of the new ones depend heavily on DirectX and custom hardware drivers,
but I could be wrong. I play Windows games on my home computer quite a bit
so I'd be interested if you suceed.
If I might say about this MS-bashing, though, it seems to me that different
OS's have different places in life. Most people want to denounce what they
don't understand out of fear of change so they won't have to learn. This is
as true of OS's as everything else in life. The discussion I've heard here
seems well balanced, though.
Windows is well suited towards those who don't know much about how a
computer works or what it's components are and who are intimidated by a
command prompt. Also, Microsoft's enterprise products have an expansive
feature set that install relatively easily, but those features are often not
needed and can create security holes in the hands of the unwary (especially
when used outside the local network). As a network manager who used
Microsoft products almost exclusively for 5 years, what annoyed me most was
their licensing, but I didn't want to have to split my learning efforts
between multiple OS's (and I know I'm going to have to continue working with
Microsoft products). They otherwise did what I needed and more, but even
then I hated Linux detractors (even though I never worked with Unix) because
it just shows ignorance. Obviously, the reverse is true as well.
I'm happy to finally have time to start learning Linux. I really need a way
to solve some of the ugly scenarios I get into that require more
customization than I can get in Windows or that would be too expensive for
Microsoft Enterprise products. Not to mention, from my work in Corel Linux,
I came to love the KDE interface. Now I'm working in Debian to get more at
the nuts and bolts.
Other than licensing, Microsoft's big mistake was to put features in the
hands of ordinary users and untrained administrators that were too much for
those users to handle (a full version of IIS for example). From what I've
seen, those users might get quite a lot out of one of the friendlier
distributions of Linux, but most will still find Windows easier unless they
have someone to help them.
As with most things, it seems to be a matter of what is the best fit for the
situation and individual. In my humble opinion, anyways. Hope this wasn't
off topic.
Brad R.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Gilger [mailto:bjgilger@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 1:01 PM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: Working with standards (was Re: Oops, forgot...)
>From: "Hall Stevenson" <hallstevenson@mindspring.com>
>Finally, what I'm really interested in is the adamant MS-bashers and
>when they've last used Windows. If they're soooo against it, I
>assume they either never have or it's been 5+ years.
>
I'm not an "adamant MS-bahser", at least I don't think so ;)
However, I work for a company that is a "Microsoft Partner" so I use Win2k,
MSOffice, MS-SQL Server, VC++, etc. at work. I haven't found any reason to
bring it home.
I do tweak management just a little when MS Exchange or IIS fail. I only
mention (with a mischeivous grin) that it would be an inexpensive experiment
to install Debian on one server and let it run Exim (or whatever) and
Apache.
I run Sid at home and love it. The only machine at home that runs Win98 is
one that my grandson uses for edutainment games. My ToDo list incluses
getting WINE installed and running. If it supports his games, Win98 is
history.
Peace.
John
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