Re: Question about the number of Apple users vs Mac users

["william strutts" <wrstrutts1@nospam.home.com>]

"Ernest" <ernestls@home.com> wrote in message
news:a7te7.19639$vW2.9019220@news1.sttln1.wa.home.com...
>
> No, I understood what you were saying, and I agreed. Linux can be
extremely
> tedious to use if you're not used to it. It can be hard to use when you're
> used to Windows (like I am.) I have mixed feelings on how this should be
> dealt with. I'm a network admin, and I would love to move Linux or BSD
into
> our office, on the server level primarily but I don't feel confident
enough
> in my mastery of it to take the risk of possible downtime while I learn. I
> know several admins that are in the same boat. Linux is different enough
> that a Windows person has to basically relearn everything to be able to
> administer it under pressure. If Linux is going to move heavily into a
> WinServer environment, should it be more WinUser friendly? My first
thought
> is "of course not" but at the same time, it would sure be easier to
> integrate into a server environment.

I have used Unix back in the 80's as a student programmer and even
then I found Unix to be unglamorous.  There were lots of *nicer* OS's
out there like VAX/VMS which were just as powerful and easier to
use.  I hate Unix's archaic command struture and its cryptic commands.
It is a lot of work to remember the nuiances of unix commands.
I used to create Alias's that were close to VMS command to make
life easier for myself.  I hated remembering the various switches
to commands such as LS.  The termcaps files on our BSD 4.3
was not very good and most of our Perkin Elmer terminals didn't
function properly on Unix.  Although I did have a liking for VI
and I used a version of it on a 6809 called TSEdit in OS-9.

> Yes, I agree, and after this whole code red worm business, I am even more
> exasperated with M$. I love how the news media describes the problems as
> "internet virus" or "internet worms" rather than Microsoft worms or
virus'.
> I have never understood how Microsoft was able to escape that label.
> Everyone knows that it's MS products that these bugs are designed to
> attack -why not call them what they really are -Windows problems. It's not
> Linux, or OS400, or any of the other network OS' that are being exploited
by
> these worthless virus writing scum.
>
The thing to remember here is that MS has 90% of the OS market
and hence most worms/virii are designed to attack it since it is the
dominant OS of the day.  If Linux were to become dominant, I am
sure hackers would invent some way to attack it too.  Right now
most of them use a Windows variant and are familiar with that.
I am sure that a portion of them have Linux installed but what is
the sense in writing a virus for Linux when the big news would
be in the Windows realm.

Linux is what I call a Not Ready For Prime Time OS. It has a lot
of growing up to do before it becomes a good OS for the average
user. Once Plug-n-play is fully functional, a good base of Hardware
device drivers are available and there is a really good installer and
standard Linux distributions agree on a standard place to put files,
Linux will be behind the installation curve.  I know the latest kernel
now has plug-n-play and USB support which will help in the long
run but the thorn in the side of Linux is that drivers are not available
quick enough for new devices.  If you have older hardware it a
good bet that there is a device driver ready for it.  I tried it out
recently and I got it to install fairly easily but it didn't recognize
many of my devices and it didn't recognize my NTFS partition.
The Caldera installer is pretty good but I don't think that the
x-windows interface is all that good in either variant of KDE or
gnome.  I have tried both.  Maybe if Apple were to port their
variant over to Intel based machines, we could see a real
revolution at hand. Until then, it will be second fiddle to MS's
Windows.
--
--
William R. Strutts - wrstrutts1@nospam.home.com - Whatever!

C'est moi!  http://www.facelink.com/wrstrutts

Just hacking away...

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