Re: what's the killer app for GNU/Linux systems?
Ron Johnson wrote:
> On 12/01/06 03:31, Masato YOSHIYA wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> 1) Kernel and libraries being stable for my numerical calculations,
>>> which allow me to forget about the existence of operating system. This
>
> Win32 belies that. It's been stable for 8 (possibly 11, not being a
> Windows developer) years. Windows XP will run 8 year old Windows 98
> apps with no problem. There are probably 11 year old Win 95 apps
> that will also run on XP.
This may be true, if you run XP as administrator. It is not true, if you
run it at an 'ordinary user'. Practically all the programs I ever cared
to use on XP could only be used as administrator (Mozilla's are a
notable exception). This tells about all how much M$ or programmers for
their OS care about security. (We all know that for security reasons it
is not recommended, even by M$ to run the machine from the administrator
account all day long).
At least I never managed to get Win98 programs to run as ordinary user,
nor most of the software that was especially developed for XP, like the
one that came with my DVB card, the one that came with my digital
camara, some maps that still can't be viewed on linux, etc.
Just my experience.
This contrasts to programs like aptitude and good programming practice
of gnu/linux, where programs that should work as unpriviliged user will
work, others will only work as root or sudo.
That's the reason, why I consider aptitude and the whole concept behind
it gnu/linux's killer application.
[To install a new software on that other OS is always more work/more
pain than running a simple 'aptitude install xxx', not even to talk
about later removing or upgrading it...]
Johannes
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