First, a little background. I am a Windows user who has been using Windows since 3.1. I am not a programmer or a developer, I am a user. I process photos, use the internet, e-mail, write letters, play the ever important games and even use it to develop my comic strips. I am not computer illiterate and I use my computer with confidence and skill. Now with that said. I hate Windows.
Windows is what has always been around and I have always used it. I have seen the “Blue Screen of Death”. I have lost countless documents and information I have so carefully assembled. I have had a complete corruption of my hard drive by Windows. I have updated to new Windows products and found out that vital software programs that I use will not work. I have had to update my hardware to keep up with the ever-hungry latest version of Windows.
So what are my options? BeOS was great and easy to use, but sadly short lived and lacked applications. That leaves me with Mac or Linux. I like Macs but I hate the restrictions on hardware and the price. I have PC based computers already, so I checked out Linux.
The first dillemma that I faced is what company should I go with? As a Windows user I really never heard of the many different companies that produce Linux. I have heard of Red Hat and Mandrake (I saw it at Borders). I have read about them sort of on web pages, but since I never wanted to use Linux before I did not pay much attention. I wanted to find a version that was easy to install, I have heard the nightmares of having to configure all the hardware yourself. I read the web pages and decided to go with Mandrake. I really could not make heads or tails of the different distros.even in the reviews. I picked Mandrake because it seemed like an easy install. Why did I have to pick? Why no just go to store and buy what ever and it is the right one?
The install process was long but fairly easy (Thank God) but I was still confused a bit by the File System option. Which was is the best one? Which one is the most stable? Which one is fastest? I don’t want to make that choice. I had to stop and do some research online to find out which one I wanted to use. I never had to do that with Windows. What if I picked the wrong one? Would it taint my experience? What are KDE and Gnome? Which is better? Damn another stall; back to the Net to find out which is better. It seems most people are using KDE so I choose it. Argggg.. why do I need a root password?
OK now it was installed. I powered it up and booted Linux for the first time. I selected my cute use icon and put in my password and KDE booted up. It was nice.easy enough to use. Mount? I have used Mount when I used BeOS so I knew what that was, but my girlfriend did not. Why can’t the drives just show up like they do in Windows? I poked around and found out it was hard to do some things. I figured I would just have to get use to the difference and then all would be right as rain. I figured I would change some settings to make it more to my liking. Then I realized what the root password was for and I forgot it, damn!
Well, now I am up and I know my root password. It was time to get down and dirty. I wanted a good Word processing program. I loaded up Star Office and that was more than sufficient (It was the only one I knew about) but KDE office suite was OK too. It was nice to choose what office I wanted to use. I configured Mozilla because of what I read online. It too was very nice. GIMP was nice, everything was nice. Even though Linux did not have the selection that Windows did, I was satisfied with what was available to me. Then I realized that I really did not know what software was available to me. If I was not doing the research that I was on Linux in general I would be lost to what are good programs. I know nothing about Linux.
I did not see much about Lycoris. I think I represent the standard user out there. I see things in the store and I have the impression that that is the best version out there (Red Hat, Mandrake and what was on the shelf). I looked up Red Hat and Mandrake and choose between those two so I could buy it at the store. All the other reviews on other distros (am I using the word right) seem all to be the same… I looked for the easist for me at the time. There is too many versions out there with wierd names. BeOS was so easy to use it loaded right up and was beautiful…sigh.
I have Windows 95 on one computer and I have never ran an update on it (It is not on the internet) and it still runs as fine as it normally does. But it seemed to me that Linux is always evolving and updates are very common. This scared me away. I want the system to run fine with out me doing anything (maybe a security patch now and then.ack Windows). With Windows updates come once and a while (95, 98, 2000) but It seems that Linux is updating all the time and I got tired of keeping up. I just wanted it to work, no hassles, I am just a user.I do not know if the latest update is going to benefit me. What if I miss an important one? What if it fouled up the system. I guess I do not have the confidence with Linux that I do with Windows.at least I know what to expect. I am afraid of Linux. It requires stuff from me that I do not have, I guess. I just want to install it. It works but I do not have to do anything with it again for quite some time. I am not brave enough to explore it.
About the Author:
“I am a 32 year old Project Manager from Portland, Oregon and was a BeOS user (even tried my hand at program and failed). My hobby is catooning (“The Any Key“).”
Hello !
I’m user of computer. Not a developper.
So i begin to use computers with W95, and after W98 and 2000 and XP.
Better and better. I think XP is really reliable now, except from time to time,with a lovely BSOD…
Before XP were W98 and 2000, they crashed very often. That’s why one day i tried BeOS. Delicious. I stopped using it since i bought an Athlon processor. But in my secret dreams, i’m waiting for Openbeos…..
Please, Eugénia, don’t tell that BeOS is ended….
Well, i tried Linux Mandrake, which is really fine, but for a newbie without help, very difficult. But i will go on for one reason : freedom.
When i began with internet, it was a sort of paradise : everthing was free ( but not ecomically viable). Many companies shuted down.
But others, even bigger as never are trying to earn more and more money. This is not new. But these companies are willing to defeat piracy by authocratic ways : i’m afraid by the fact that RIAA, who defend his interest, and it’s normal, wants to enter in personnal computers, watching everything, deleting what she think to be her copyright and be quiet !
In France, nobody can enter my House without the authorization of a Judge. Without this authorization, any clue find in my house can’t be used against me a front of a court.
The Big companies want to bypass such a protection with the benediction of a law…
I can’t support it. Microsoft is taking the same way, it want to control your computer, the soft you will use ( if possible, a microsoft one, not others, wolves are eating each others)
Because these companies want to control my computer despite my civil rights, i don’t want anymore to support them by buying their products…
That’s the reason i go on with Linux. For about $100, i have an OS bundled with many free or very costless applications.
It’s not easy to use Linux when you are a newbie, but the internet is full of websites like OSNews providing help.
The RIAA problem is more complex. They are protecting the interest of artists, more or less directly… but in the end it is for the artists.
If they don’t want us to copy the DVD’s or CD’s, they have to protect them. If they can’t protect them, they have to hire more smart ingeneers, more smart than those who defeat the protection for free, or more than those who produce hardware/sofwares to copy what we want.
Individuals rights are the more precious thing we have after our life. Don’t let griddy people to overpass them…
I want more pinguins, more bees and more funny animals in our computers !
See ya !
never heard of QNX or AMIGA?..
bloody Linuxgeeks that does nuttin but curse .. scream and kick+ban u off IRC with a RTFM if u ask for help..True linux is very well documented.. but 90% of it is written it such a way that NORMAL USERS cant even understand it!
IMO 99% of the linux users is why I and a lot I know HATE linux!
I can’t support it. Microsoft is taking the same way, it want to control your computer, the soft you will use ( if possible, a microsoft one, not others, wolves are eating each others)
Microsoft wants to control the software bundled with Windows by the OEMs, and the restrictions (pre-DOJ) is that they cannot place something default that competes with any component of Windows (e.g. cannot load Norton Desktop default instead of Explorer).
forced slackware user that HATES LINUX!: IMO 99% of the linux users is why I and a lot I know HATE linux!
When I first started using Linux (Mandrake 7.1), the folks at #linux on both Dalnet and Undernet were very helpful and friendly…. most of them are, anyway. When I started trying out new distros, and tried Debian 3.0, I couldn’t have used it if weren’t for #linux on Freenode.
You have to ask people to help you in a voluteering way, not in a demanding way. Yes, I have encountered quite a lot of people that say RTFM, ignore them. They are just a vocal minority.
Hmmmm…. have you ever consider, BTW, to buy support for you Slackware system?
(Besides, I found most people that recieved RTFM are people that never actually read the instructions on the screen).
You said: 4 years ago the Mac may have been a better choice that PCs – it was faster, better, more better price/performance ratio etc….. but now things have CHANGED.
Yea, and things can change again. It’s highly likely that apple will be using either a new IBM Power4 derived processor (to be discussed in Oct. by IBM), or even switch to something made by AMD or Intel. Or some combination. There are rumors that Apple will make an x86 mac for education (could be just a start).
Motorola got Apple in a temporary bind and you shouldn’t just assume everything will stay the same. You know it’s easier for apple to enforce large changes like OS transitions, phasing out legacy hardware, processor switches etc.
I’m not an expert, but it seems like PCs in general are about to undergo some hardware architectural changes. 64 bit processors, hypertransport or rio, better PCI. Apple is taking a little too long, but they are just trying to get the next leap forward right because a mistake could really be bad at this point.
> Juanjo: What makes something easy or hard to use?
Exactly.
It takes my countless time to find my way through GUI progs, whereas I feel very comfy with command line tools… Question of education
> Digital Right Management is an optional feature.
It is, for now. But optional for who ? not for the user, but for the company streaming content and stuff and selling things.
another thing is DRM will allow the publisher to tell HOW to use the data, and whereas you are allowed fair use by the law the publisher can prevent you from fairly using it. that isn’t acceptable.
> You don’t have to see it if you avoid DRM-controled media.
Problem is soon (sooner as you might think), everything will be under DRM, and it won’t be optional this time…
Anyway people only see problems when it’s too late 🙁
> Ironically, you won’t be able to play DRM stuff on Linux if you want anyway.
Hmm, damn, can’t tell about this :^)
But fear anyway.
> WMA is a really good audio codec
won’t tell about quality, about half ppl tell it’s crap and half tell it’s good, as others.
My point is it’s not FREE (free as in speech), I mean if I come to encode my own music into WMA, I get bound to WMA, because the format isn’t free, so I can’t convert it to whatever other format I need. This is simply untolerable to me, as it’s still MY data, and I believe I have the right to achieve interoperability in anyway that suits me. That comprise converting away from the format the data is in. Else that would mean my data is not mine anymore, but the property of whoever wrote the software that reads this format.
> But the Mercedes isn’t more easier to drive as a current model of Honda.
I’d say Linux is a F1. F1 is powerful, but you need to learn how to control it. A driving licence isn’t enough.
Power needs control, and control needs knowledge.
Similarily, command line tools are way more powerful than GUI tools, but needs more learning.
> Your point? Nothing. Eugenia is a prime example of a XP user on old hardware.
But I’m sure she won’t tell XP runs as nice as BeOS on low end hardware
> Windows proved you DON’T to have a good product, technically, to win in the market.
Sure, when you already have 95% of the market :p
All you need to have is unfair practices to make sure others don’t get in play.
As for why windows became n°1 on the market, well surely it’s not coz it was good, better coz it was pushed by IBM (before they divorced from M$).
> You just have to give people what they want.
the correct way is :
You just make the people want what you give them.
> And currently, they aren’t complaining about how slow Windows or Linux is (only BeOS users are :-).
Of course, they didn’t try BeOS
> Paul Eggleton: But the MPlayer developers will not be told.
Well, feel free to tell them. If you don’t explain them they won’t find it :^)
> Valino:
> I stopped using it since i bought an Athlon processor.
You don’t have to. You just need a small patch to be able to BE again.
Don’t make hardware stop you !
> In France, nobody can enter my House without the authorization of a Judge.
> Without this authorization, any clue find in my house can’t be used against me a front of a court.
Right, and accepting the WinXP service pack 1 EULAgives Bill Gates exactly what the french law forbids. The right to get into you stuff whenever he wants.
That’s another reason to avoid XP.
> The RIAA problem is more complex. They are protecting the interest …
Actually they are more interested in protected Majors’ interests than small musicians ones…
That’s why DMCA SUXOR.
> If they don’t want us to copy the DVD’s or CD’s,
Here in France they found the solution.
Copying is still forbidden, but you pay taxes on blank CDs, just like you were supposed to pirate anyway.
This is totally unfair, but hey, again Majors’ interests first, users/consumer’s after 🙁
> forced slackware users…
SLACKWARE OWNZ :p
I don’t want nobody else. You’re the one for me …
I said: Also, used Macs are a very viable option for people sick of windows and MS. Buy a Blue & White G3 (a few hundred at best) and add a G4 card, load it up with a gig of PC100 RAM (literally 100 bucks these days) and a new fast hard drive (maybe an IDE card).
You said: Ahhh, what compeling reason is there NOT to buy an cheaper 2nd hand PC? Besides, if you are talking about US dollars, a gig of RAM isn’t a hundred bucks. (The prices I present to you is small OEM prices) 4x256MB Apacer RAM is close to $200. 2x512MB is around $200. (It is cheaper buying PC133 RAM, BTW).
My point was that if you are sick of windows or MS (for whatever reason), you can get a mac that runs OS X very well for not much money.
I just bought 2 sticks of 256mb for $28 a piece at http://www.otherworldcomputing.com. They have good prices on mac upgrades and good service.
In the other thread on the switcher interview, I gave a lot of compelling reasons why a mac is better than a windows XP computer (even if it’s not the best choice for every person or application). The most compelling reason is hardware/OS/application integration means less chance for conflicts and problems. And when there is a problem, I don’t want the runaround talking to Dull, then being shifted to MS, then to whatever 3d party provider had to provide the functionality I want (like editing video).
OSNews starting to feed crap…
Son there comes a time in every mans life when he must rise to “the test” Your time has come. Grow a pair! Get out there get some cd’s and trash your partition table!! Screwing it up can teach you alot too.
Nicely done, and i can relate to it in a way. At the time i was using w98 (i used win since 3.1) i finally got sick of it and tried Linux. I tried… Red Hat, Mandrake, Corel and.. another one, can’t remember right now… nothing worked, though i had a fairly common system, intel mobo, celeron CPU, only… out of the ordinary (if you want) was no floppy drive but a LS-120 instead. Like i said, nothing worked… So i tried BeOS (this was early 2000, though i had toyed with it in 99) and just fell in love with it. Till this day i use it (on my Athlon XP 1800+ and Epox KT333 mobo) and do all my daily tasks in it, yes, including browsing, with latest Bezilla or Stripzilla (Sergei and Arough have been doing a great job).
I keep XP on a partition, but for gaming only (i gotta let go of some work stress right?), for everything else i use BeOS.
Take care,
DaaT
http://www.beosjournal.org
P.S.: Hi François, Konrad
In your planet it is cool to run whatever OS you want. In the planet called earth almost everyone is running some version of Windows. Why ? Because there are tons of apps written for it, and the majority of the people using it are happy. If BeOS was SOOOOOOOO cool OS, why it died?? (Please don’t give me the MS practises bull please). The majority of people want Windows because that is what they know, and it works perfect with their AOL client. Dell, Compaq, IBM and other companies saw no potential on BeOS, that is why BeOS is dead.
The majority of you who hate Windows, I bet that your first computer was running some version of Microsoft Operating system, and your first Internet expirience was on a Windows OS.
If you hate Microsoft that much write an equal or better Operating System, or convince your boss to try something else. For now please quit bitching.
Georgios,
Hmm, maybe if you knew something about the history of how Windows came to be dominant in the market, you would not be such a Windows lover, or believe all the Windows propoganda…
WindowsXP has come a looooooog way to being a usable, ‘general purpose’ OS for the masses of workers. The problem is that it’s just that… general. It does nothing exceptionally well, unlike BeOS, which does Media very well. So it’s about using the right tool for the right job.
Personally I think that if everyone looks at computing through the same interface we all get brainwashed into thinking that it is the only way to do things, and that halts creativity. The best place right now in the computing industry that has any real creativity is the Gaming industry, which btw is larger than movies at 17B/year worldwide, and ALL the interfaces are different =)
So should I put my money where my mouth is? You bet… we think there is another way to do computing, and no it’s not because Windows sucks, or because we hate it, it’s because we want a choice and we think there are different ways of computing.
To learn more about it visit http://www.beunited.org
The majority of people want Windows because that is what they know
No dear. The majority of people just want to do things with a computer. They only know Windows because they have never seen anything else. And it’s not because Windows is better.
…I bet that your first computer was running some version of Microsoft Operating system, and your first Internet expirience was on a Windows OS.
So? Are you trying to say that Microsoft did invent the Internet? Sure for most of us our first experience of the Internet or whatever in the computer field was with a Windows OS. It is nearly impossible to buy a computer without Windows! My first experience was with a win95 box that crashed regularly every day. Should I be grateful for that tremendous experience?
As for BeOS, it may be dead, but the community is living, coders are writing as you say a better OS, there are new apps every day.
To: RAJAN From: W
W: – I spend more for a wintel than a Mac (not by much).
R: – And why is that?
W: Our IS department will only spec. one kind of computer hardware, one that is not bean counted down to almost nothing. You know the sub $1000 computers. They have shown over the years these cheap-o wintel computers require more support, from the IS department, than the higher cost computers.
———–Next topic———
W: – Upgrading becomes more of a hassle for my wintels and when you get in the “upgrading game” where do you stop and at what cost (not just dollars but software and firmware conflicts). Many of the upgrading experiences cost half if not more than what a new computer will cost.
R: Wait wait wait. Being a PC user doesn’t mean you always have to upgrade. Most PC users I know don’t have anything faster than a 300MHz processor. You only upgrade and spend money when you want/need it. And if you do it without wanting nor needing it, you are a pure idiot that can be controled by any company’s marketing campaigns.
W: You are correct on this point, which plays into my point. I loved to throw into the face of Mac users about upgrading issues when most of us really don’t. By the way you can upgrade hardware on a Mac.
———–Next topic———
W: – Out side of a solid CAD application, most of my computer needs are now being handle by Macs. In fact Macs handle them a lot better then my wintels. By the way, you can get solid CAD application for the Mac.
R: I can say DOS handle my tasks better than any other OS, and would be an fact as much as your statement. You give NO reason behind the statment. Whether it is cause by a better UI or better hardware etc.
And BTW, I would like to know what kind of PC are you comparing with your Mac? How much older is it to your Mac? What version of Windows does it run? 4 years ago the Mac may have been a better choice that PCs – it was faster, better, more better price/performance ratio etc….. but now things have CHANGED.
Besides, AutoCAD, which helds a near monopoly of the CAD business, plus having the best CAD package out there, 100 times better than its closest altenative I heard, is not available on the Mac.
http://www.autodesk.com.my/adsk/section/0,,1950242-1172274,00.html
W: If DOS handle your task better than any other OS, than more power to you. I used DOS for years with Word Perfect and AutoCAD.
Now why did I not give reasons??? Well because I did not want to bore everyone with my computer tasks. Now that your asking let me count the ways… well I don’t have time but let me give you just a sample…
When it comes to field research we use both digital and digital video cameras to document what we see. After wards we pour over these images and present the conclusions to the Management/Design team. Wintels even XP, can touch this! To upgrade my HPNT (two years old) would cost me about $1500 and we can use a little G3 iMac that runs circles around even the new HPXP (less than a year) software. My NT’s can run circles around my Macs when it comes to Meg/GHz and yet the G3 can do the job.
My teenage son comes home to do his schoolwork in his advance multimedia class because the wintel takes too much time and too many hassles to do too little stuff. Now many of his friends are still using our computers at home to do digital, video editing, and music editing for school and personal.
One more thing… the other big arrogance us wintel users have over Mac users are our lack of understands of software/hardware/firmware when it comes to a Mac. New wintel computers are now coming out with larger HDs, more memory, faster Meg/Ghz,,, and we think we are the best and we win! Do you think that Apple does not improve on there computers? This is why I believe your right and wrong when it comes to “things have CHANGED”. They have changed on both sides. Wintels are better than ever before and so are Macs. Why does this drive us wintel user nuts and we want Apple to go away. We all need Apple; we should want them to be better that wintels, because we all win.
Now your CAD comment just shows how little you know about the CAD world. I have learned over the years seven different CAD applications one of which is AutoCAD. I lived in AutoCAD for many years (3.0, 9, 10,11,12 version) and loved it and still wish my current CAD (UG 18) solid modeler had several of the things of what AutoCAD had at v9. However there is a far bigger world than just AutoCAD. I recommend you have a look around and you too will get beyond this application bias.
I have been using Linux for years and have ditched my Windows system almost completely (VMWare running Win98 so that I can fire up Xara and Photoshop every now and then).
The answer to your update concerns is to sign up with an update service such as that provided by Ximian. Once a week I fire up a utility which scans for package updates and installs them with no fuss and no need to reboot.
The only feature I’d like Ximian (perhaps in partnership with RedHat) to offer would be the ability to update the base operating system. By clicking a button, I’d upgrade from RedHat 7.1 to the upcoming RedHat 8.0. I have always bought my Linux distributions, I’d certainly pay full cost for this feature. It would be a win-win-win feature for RedHat/Ximian/customer.
I tried W95. Crashed a lot. Illogical GUI. Not VERY plug and play. Only runs on crappy hardware.
I tried Win98. same old.
I tried NT 4 and W2000. GUI still bad; still crashes too much; still crappy hardware.
I tried Solaris and IRIX (KDE desktop). Solid OS; GUI clunky and awkward; can’t afford machines. Not very plug and play.
I tried Mac OS 6, 7.1, 7.5.2, 7.6, 8.0, 8.1, 8.6, 9.0, 9.2.2:
More logical GUI than any of the above. DOES plug and play. Nice hardware. Crashes less than NT, but MORE that Solaris and IRIX.
Mac OS X: GUI SLIGHTLY less logical that OS less than X, but prettier. STILL plug and play– albeit scanner support lags. As rock-stable as other Unices. Multitasks better than Classic mac or Windows– you can do other things while the beachball/hourglass tick away.Perfect? No, but not the closest we’ve got. Can it break your software/ corrupt your drive? Sure. Any OS can do that. But I have spent less than 10 hours total on the phone to tech support since I started with Mac in 1989. That says something. I spend about 1 hour out of every 20 using Windows tech support though I consider myself an advanced user.
Other OS X advantages:
“Package” installation– drag to desktop to install most stuff.
No registry.
Best development tools of ANY OS.
NATIVE PDF support.
You obviously didn’t try them all.
<troll>Try BeOS
</troll>
Did you try AmigaOS, QNX, FreeBSD, ? Not talking about AtheOS and friends even, the full list must be 300 or 400. So don’t say you tried it all, please.
I grew up with DOS. Used Microsoft Windows from version 3.11. My main machine now uses Red Hat Linux. Every talks about usability by describing the looks of icons, font types, and color schemes but true usability is how efficient you can get your tasks done. DOS was great at getting things done if you mastered the command line. When I switched to Windows, it was very slow trying to get things done because I had to learn a new way of doing things. Instead of typing commands, I had to navigate menus. Linux gives you the power of the command line and a gui interface. Mac OS X is the same way. Why did I switch to Linux? Not for its great gui interfaces. <grin> Most of the popular gui interfaces are Windows knock-offs. I moved to Linux for security reasons. I am able to make sure my computer is as secure as it can be. Nothing can be 100 percent secure but at least with Linux I have control of how secure I want to make it. Microsoft Windows is less secure. Microsoft also makes you wait for important patches. Microsoft views its software as more important than your data. There is a probability that a criminal will not hack into my data but why take the chance. Where I live, there is a probability my area may get hit by a hurricane but should I act like a hurricane will never hit?
Choosing an operating system should be more complex than just going by looks or the tons of software. When will security become an import factor?
> When will security become an import factor?
When a way more dangerous virus than what we had up to now will break 80% the computers in some high developped country, leading to anarchy because 80% were running windows.
Security is a good point, and windows isn’t the solution for this.
Another thing is _technodiversity_. Just like biodiversity avoids species that are diverse enough to adapt to die, technodiversity would avoid all the computers to be broken at once because of a windows virus.
That is why alternative OSes are important, to maintain this diversity.
because while i did find your article whiney and obnoxious, you have a point. you and the hundred million retarded and ignorant people on windows have common goals. you want it all, you want it now, and you want nothing to do with getting what you want past flipping a switch. you deserve what you get with windows, but the rest of that is response to another article.
bottom line. if u don’t like it, get a mac. it does all the same stuff as pc, without the hassle. i’ve given it to 50 year olds with as much computer experience as that rock out in my garden, and they are surfing the web and typing and printing pictures out as if they know what they’re doing, cuz they do!
linux has stuff. you don’t have to update, but you might have to learn, just a litte. i know that learning kills you. it takes actually reading and comprehending, and that is way more than you’re interested in.
in the end, you’ll just pay me to do anything important on the machine, while you check your email and look at pr0n on the web.
quit whining, settle for your winblows crap. you deserve it.
…I wanted to answer this at face value.
“In your planet it is cool to run whatever OS you want. In the planet called earth almost everyone is running some version of Windows. Why ? Because there are tons of apps written for it, and the majority of the people using it are happy. If BeOS was SOOOOOOOO cool OS, why it died?? (Please don’t give me the MS practises bull please).”
It died for three debatable reasons:
1. No marketing.
2. No preinstallations on major manufacturer’s machines (and this one IS attributable to Microsoft, do the research about the HP deal that shipped with a BeOS partition, but without a BeOS option in the bootloader or any indication that BeOS was installed on the box).
3. Focus loss — after the apple deal fell through (you DO know that BeOS was in the race to become the next OSX, right?) they ported to x86 and started gaining momemtum…then refocused on Internet Appliances and alienated their developer community. That was the final blow.
Most of the people on this board are aware of all this, but you weren’t, so now you are.
“Dell, Compaq, IBM and other companies saw no potential on BeOS, that is why BeOS is dead.”
Again, do the research about the HP deal — they saw the potential in BeOS, but were hamstrung at the last minute by Microsoft’s licensing agreement and pressure applied during a Microsoft/HP meeting.
“The majority of you who hate Windows, I bet that your first computer was running some version of Microsoft Operating system, and your first Internet expirience was on a Windows OS.”
Actually, my first computer was an Atari 800, which booted in a few seconds and rarely crashed (when it did, I opened the back of the case, pulled out the memory cards, pushed them back in, and rebooted — this stopped the crashing for months at a time). I also visited many multi-user bulletin boards with it.
My first internet experience, however, was indeed on Windows…an IBM Aptiva. I still remember having to use someone else’s computer to get a copy of Winsock from Tucows, since the version of windows I had didn’t connect to the internet by itself. Remember those days?
“If you hate Microsoft that much write an equal or better Operating System, or convince your boss to try something else.”
Isn’t that what all the Linux, Amiga, NewOS, SkyOS, OpenBeOS and other people are doing? Then again, you don’t have to know how to write an OS to know that the OS you’re using doesn’t serve your needs. That’s why lots of us keep trying different operating systems, and keep debating them in public — and will do so until the perfect operating system appears (which will be…um…never).
“For now please quit bitching.”
No.
Just wanted to say I enojoyed your comments. Kudos to you Dave Owen.
Georgios:
…I bet that your first computer was running some version of Microsoft Operating system, and your first Internet expirience was on a Windows OS.
Manik:
So? Are you trying to say that Microsoft did invent the Internet?
Everyone knows that Al Gore invented the Internet! 🙂
I would say if you’re a simple home user who really doesnt want to get into the down dirty things of an OS but doesnt want to use Windows and certainly DOES NOT want to waste the money on a Mac. Lycoris is definitley the way to go. I personally use RedHat 7.3 but have installed lycoris and used it extensively and found it incredibly easy to use. No mount problems and it autodected my windows partition so i could keep windows installed and share files back and forth very easily.
“I have seen the “Blue Screen of Death”.”
Yeah … you mean a half decade ago ? Don’t tell me you saw a lot of those BSOD with 2K or XP, or I call you liar 🙂
“I have lost countless documents and information I have so carefully assembled.”
Yup. Misuse of computers can be dangerous. Regardless the OS. That said, I may understand Windows crunched your documents at least a half decade ago. With 2K or XP, again let me be sceptical… 😉
“I have had a complete corruption of my hard drive by Windows.”
Oh come on. You use Windows since 3.1 That mean at about 10 years of use. Take any Linux user and ask if they *never* has a corruption problem, in the past 5 years. You may found some, but we are talking about *computers* here. That mean machines builds by humans. That means failure *may* happen !
“I have updated to new Windows products and found out that vital software programs that I use will not work. ”
Uh ? Well the only reason I see is that you used very old 16-bits application, and then you switched to a NT Windows, which doesn’t support 16-bits. And for good reasons, the unstability of Windows 9X series is in big part do to the 16-bit support. So it’s a good thing they stopped that and fully moved into NT and 32-bit only Windows.
“I have had to update my hardware to keep up with the ever-hungry latest version of Windows.”
Yea. Guess what, it’s impossible to play Unreal Tournamenent 2003 on a Pentium 90 Mhz. You want to play this game ? buy a big PC and don’t put the blame on Windows. Why did you updated after all if the previous “situation” pleased you ? You choosed to update because you wanted the new stuff.
Pleeeaze stop putting the blames on others than you.
If you’re a simple home user, then you don’t need a powermac or powerbook. An iMac or iBook will be fine. The real price disparity between PC and mac is not the powermac. The consumer macs are at best a few hundred more if configured equally. If a simple home user has any intention of using a digicam, dv camcorder or mp3 player, the choice on the mac side blow all the third party stuff on the PC away and you only have to deal with one company (Apple) for tech support. You don’t get the runaround. That’s assuming you even need any help. I’ve never even had to call Apple tech support and I’ve had a Mac since 1984.
To all; note that the educational system in Oregon has been notoriously underfunded for several decades. The roads are in great shape however.
To Mr. Gering; Ignorance IS bliss, just forget about all this Lunix stuff and do your patriotic duty and buy Microsoft Windows XP. Windows XP is the largest… oops, I mean “greatest” Microsoft Windows program ever! You are a MANAGER, the mediocre Windows program was MADE for you. Leave the Macs to the artists and big spenders and that Lunix stuff to the propellor heads who work with… you know, technical things.
Also, make sure you buckle up before you start your engine, drive 10 mph below the speed limit for an extra margine of safety and give an extra 30 – 45 seconds at stops signs just to be sure.
“The majority of you who hate Windows, I bet that your first computer was running some version of Microsoft Operating system, and your first Internet expirience was on a Windows OS.”
Gosh, I sure hope this is not the case. I often get the impression that there are many 14 year olds making comments in these forums.
My first computer had 32K of memory and ran CP/M. My first internet access was using PC-DOS 2.1.
If you have not used another OS before you have no business making comments on it’s quality or suitability in comparison to anything more than a toaster.
//I’m not Australian. You know, unlike Americans, people do actually move overseas. You should try it, or are you part of the 93% of yanks without a passport?//
That’s me. Why the hell would I want to live in some other shittass country? Maybe we should buy Australia and turn it into a parking lot for the Mall of America. Hmmm…
//Or you who jumps onto osnews.com to whindge and cry like a sheilla because you can’t follow basic instructions.//
Ah, yes. The basic instructions that blow the hell out of an Excel spreadsheet, when trying to open it in Koffice or Open Office. I see your point.
//5 Bedroom house + 1 study, pool room etc etc, as you can see, it is a fairly large house.//
Sure it is. Really, I believe you.
//Thats humourous. Honestly, do yourself a favour and stick with Windows, otherwise you may find a function for that extra brain cell that is not already dead due to lack of use when trying to write a response to my original post.//
Uh…your original post was worthless shit, including a witless attack on my choice of career. I was just clarifying one of the points of your moronic tirade.
//Like “lets squeeze more performance by over clocking” and other wives tails. When you have a BSc, then come back and we’ll have a discussion.//
Yah, I really need to overclock the CPUs on the $40,000 DELL cluster I set up two months ago. Where’s those jumpers again?
//Already fixed it, and unlike you, I didn’t feel need to boast about it, unlike you who thinks you are the only person on earth who uses a computer.//
Er…yah. That’s it. I’m the only one in the world who uses a computer. Sensical response from someone who’s fried their jewels on the barbie once to often.
Now, shut the hell up, drink a Foster’s, and take a nice dip in your swimming hole.
The fact is that BeOS is dead, and Microsoft controls 97% of the desktop market. Microsoft didn’t invent the Internet, however it helped make the Internet popular. Alternative operating systems are good, but only for personal use. When you do business you will most likely use Windows desktop/server, or Unix/Linux for Web/Mail/Datacenter/Mainframe apps.
PS My first computer was an Amstrad 6128, but that was a toy computer (like the Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200 I owned )
I’m sure you’ve broken most of the rules for posting here, and I’m surprised you haven’t been banned yet.
This is NOT a forum for flaming Linux users, as you seem to think.
Please go back to your imaginary mansion and play with your amazing DELL cluster.
—
As for the real discussion: I’ve been using Linux for a year now as my _desktop OS_, and I have yet to encounter a problem that other Linux users haven’t helped me solve (like someone else said before: just be nice and ask politely, and ignore the few jackasses you encounter).
I have my eyes on BeOS though, since it seems like a good alternative (if only my favorite 3D modeling program gets ported ;-)).
Why bother with this incessant flaming, when you can look and choose for yourself which OS to use? If an OS is too hard for you to use, then don’t use it! It’s not impossible, trust me. 😛
Let other people do what they want, because if you’re really sure you’re doing what’s right for you, you wouldn’t bother telling it to everyone else every chance you get… And stop with the comments on spelling; it’s not, nor will it ever be, a good excuse for flaming someone.
Most smart people or people who have ever had windows crap out learned to make two partions, one for the OS and apps and another for Data, thus eliminating most all worries.
And the day you want to change your partition setup… On Linux ? Modify /etc/fstab, reboot, that’s it. On Windows ? Oh, sh*t ! The drive letters have been changed ! All my applications are f*cked up ! Now I must reinstall the whole thing !
And worse even. You don’t need to change your partitions to have problems. Say you have a C: partition named “System” and a D: partition named “Data”. Now you buy a second IDE drive (e.g. you need more space). You create a partition on it. Guess what letter it takes ? No, not E:. The primary partition of the second drive becomes D:. And your “Data” partition becomes “E:”. So again your setup is f*cked up just because your added a hard drive.
Clean and transparent system, you were saying ?????
Have you ever heard about dynamic volumes on Win2k/WinXP(Simple, Spanned, Striped) ? I think NOT! Did you know that you can mount an NTFS volume as a folder on an existing partition ?
RTFM
“Have you ever heard about dynamic volumes on Win2k/WinXP(Simple, Spanned, Striped) ?”
Yeah, I’ve heard about them, nearly had friggin’ nightmares about them. Just hope some stupid SOB hasn’t made a bootable disk dynamic and you get it and want to do something different with it. Don’t waste your time, pitch the bleepin’ disk in the G.D. ashcan.
hey pal
nice to see more people trying out Linux.
and i dont’ think u need be afraid of linux. I do understand why u feel that way, but there’s such a *huge* helpful community out here on the net, that most of ur problems would be solved right away. And as for the updates, i’ve installed RedHat Linux 7.2 and haven’t upgraded to 7.3 and i don’t see any immediate disaster because of this
. What i am trying to say here is that though there are so many updates out there, u could upgrade whenever u feel like it or whenever there is a *major* upgrade available (which is not very often). moreover u could always upgrade only those apps which u use often.
anyway we’ll always help u out (i am speaking for the whole Linux users community here
) if u need anything.
cheers
(and hail Linux !)
ES@GT }:)
“Have you ever heard about dynamic volumes on Win2k/WinXP(Simple, Spanned, Striped) ? I think NOT! Did you know that you can mount an NTFS volume as a folder on an existing partition ?”
30 years (or more) after invention real tree-like FS-s, M$ found way (with loud marketing names) to hide 50-year old roots if its FS (plain,letter-named volumes), and emulate in some way behaviour of intelligent FS-s.
No wonder that they still wish to replace it with DB -it can hide any crap under such layer. Less shame.
“On Windows ? Oh, sh*t ! The drive letters have been changed ! All my applications are f*cked up ! Now I must reinstall the whole thing ! ”
Oh hell ! when is the last time you used Windows ??? BTW this kind of trouble is fixed for YEARS now, at least from 2K !
And I suppose you get a lot of BSOD with XP too ? pfff ! sure …
This is one of the terms of posting your comments !
And ofcourse you all MS haters agreed to this term
“4. Despite popular hallucinations, OSNews is not an open source news web site. Mindless bashing at Microsoft or *any other* OS vendor IS NOT ALLOWED. We support Microsoft the same way we support Linux, BSD, OSX etc. We try to report equally on all OSes. We have had some Linux fanboys bashing at Microsoft on any Microsoft-related news story we had, even if their bashing had nothing to do with the actual news presented in the story they were commented on. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE and degrades the discussion quality on this web site. If you have a freaking problem with Microsoft, it is not our problem, and we do not want to hear about it. If your problem is related to the news story, by all means, DO discuss it. CALMLY. No bashing. No trolling. Just *discuss* it.”
How about software mirrored volumes and stripped volumes with parity (RAID 5) on the Windows 2000/.Net server family ? They are working perfect on my servers. And by the way run a disk I/O benchmark on a Windows 2000 Professional running on stipped volumes. You are going to see a major performance boost.
Don’t forget that the System Volume can not run on dynamic disks so the OS restoration with proper backup is a peace of cake.
Personally, I think the philosophy about using Win95 could be used towards whatever Linux system you use, as well. If it works well for your needs, don’t bother changing it.
If you’ve got a Linux distribution up and running, and it seems to be running fine, there’s no real need to keep updating with each kernel release. The only reason you’d want to keep changing is if you somehow find something running unstably, or if you keep adding/changing hardware. The major things that the kernel patches add is support for new hardware and maybe some minor (read, not major) bug patches.
Even if you do find a need to change some aspect of your Linux system, there’s PLENTY of documentation floating around the net to guide you through the change.
I’d implore you to have faith in the open source world.
I agree that Linux can be very difficult. But I’ve found Mandrake to be the easiest. I have it installed on my Dell along with XP.
There will still be a lot of choices. But that’s just setup. Install VPN? Install SMB? (yes). Do I need PERL or not?
But once it gets going, Linux is usable. I haven’t updated in months, but I can do the basics. I prefer Macs, but Linux is a good alternative to the dark side. I still have trouble installing some programs, and I have no idea how to rebuild the kernel.
As for window managers, I like KDE better than GNOME; I also like Blackbox.
I used windows because I felt I had to. I heard OS/2 was kinda like windows but more stable, so I gave it a go. I’m still with it (ecomstation) but I’m scared of Linux because it lacks the “Dos-like” approach.
If a simple “out of the box” solution came which didn’t require me to change dound card, video card etc, I’d give it a go.
I really, honestly and truly wanted BeOS to succeed. I wish that the rest of the computing industry could learn from what BeOS did right, as opposed to “Well, these people burned through a lot of money for an OS that wasn’t enough better that anyone noticed it.”
Right now I use Windows 2K. The apps I use are a browser, Word, Excel, Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. I run them on a dual CPU P-III that I built for BeOS.
I never use BeOS because the tools I needed were never there. Sure, there were word processors. But my collaborators needed things in Word.
Sure, there were image editor programs. But my publishers need things in EPS or Illustrator formats.
There never WAS a page layout program that would let me take a file to a printshop and just run the job.
Now that Apple has a real OS for the Mac, when dual 800s aren’t enough to do what I want, I’ll seriously consider getting a Mac.
And I’ll still wish that Be had hit critical mass. The thought of a Be-native version of Illustrator 10 just makes me go “sigh” at what could have been.