Any email, blog entry, forums post, comment, whatever ... regardless of subject, politics, sports, finance, real estate (crashing), sex, drugs, rock and roll ... any text communication that begins with "lol" is not worth reading.
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I've been fuming since MS deactivated my main desktop with "Genuine Advantage" most of a year ago. Tuesday night my Vista notebook downloaded five patches and installed them. Since then that computer no longer boots. I paid $180 for that license, it runs on one and only one computer, and MS fuckity-fuck fucked me for having had the stupidity to pay to alpha test Vista on my production machines.
I am worn out with Windows. I will put up with them forever in my consulting work, because there's no choice, but I'm switching to Ubuntu on my main desktop and on the notebook, and I'll blog here about how it goes.
12 comments:
Hey, I recommend Macs, too ;). Biased, though, obviously.
Amen! Sing it, brother!
I've been thinking about Linux myself for some time now. I've had "automatic update" turned off on my computers for quiet awhile.
By the way, glad I found you again. I read some of your stuff (Emerald Eyes, The Long Run, The Last Dancer..other stuff) years and years ago...immediately upon publication in some cases.
I enjoyed the last dancer....then waited....and waited...and waited..
Hopefully the wait is over...when can I get the AI wars?
When paying for software that patches itself into nonexistence, one has to wonder at the value of "It Just Works" and "Your potential. Our passion." as slogans. I have used every Microsoft OS since 3.1 and I still prefer Unix/Linux (any flavor) running with X-windows over any Microsoft OS. Even command-line is better then an OS the breaks when you open a standardized file it supports or start an application that was built for the OS.
As to my preference, I am loving Ubuntu 7.10 with compiz-fusion/gnome...you can make it look very cool. :)
Oh, and Mac are nice too. :)
I do feel bad for anyone who has to spend much time working on or paying for work to be done on a Windows machine. You have to give them (the customer) credit for keeping at it even in the face of upgrades that cost more then some computers out there. I do suppose that any Windows OS is still easier then most OSes to use but I do wonder at just how well Microsoft does in the market (I do, however, understand why it happened historically).
That's just my two cents worth...
DKM, love your work...thanks for keeping it coming.
What you get for being in league with the AntiChrist ...
Gotta love linux, gods gift to people who like their computers and hate viruses(real and imagined like Vista).
I've got bad news. I've used all three major platforms (Linux, Windows, and OSX) extensively for years, and I've been bit with the "automatic update breaks your shit" on every single one of them.
Also, as far as Linux goes, the truth is that if you want things to "just work" then Linux, which I use and love for other purposes, is not a good solution. Linux is a great platform for serving and raw computation. Also, the licensing terms and "box price" are obviously much better than Microsoft's. However, even with all the progress made with Gnome it is still the worst desktop on the market in terms of usability and stability. The biggest problem is the X window server which doesn't support many video cards very well, is hard to configure, and crashes occasionally. OSX is by far the least obnoxious operating system in terms of usability, although it kernel panics occasionally (not often, but more than linux or windows) so I have a hard time giving it marks for stability.
Brendan is absolutely correct. I use all three platforms extensively, and I am here to tell you they all have problems. The myth of Linux and OS X reliability is just that - a myth. It's no fun when the spinning beach ball pops up and won't go away. And Linux still lacks a truly professional level of polish, no matter what nerdy little fanboys say.
To be very honest, after years of actual usage and hands-on comparison, my considered opinion is that the most stable, responsive, versatile platform of all, better than OS X, better than Ubuntu... is none other than XP SP2 with NO EFFING PATCHES. Zero. None.
There is a certain level of expertise beyond the reach of most people... the level where you clearly understand the mechanisms exploited by malware. At that level, you don't need Symantec or McAfee or any other virus software running all the time, and still won't catch anything. Other than myself, I only know of George Ou who has reached that level. From that vantage point, all the complaints about Windows being virus-ridden are simply irrelevant.
Very happy with a Mac here. If you are switching to UNIX, why not go with a vertically integrated variant, that comes with sexy hardware and a single vendor to bring complaints to? Switched a few years back, and will probably never look back.
Sure, Ubuntu etc. looks neato, but think of the value of the time you save from not having to tinker with stuff...
Out of personal experience I'd say that the Windows 2000 with the first SP was probably the most stable platform I ever worked on.
I'm not expecting perfection from Ubuntu. But if it doesn't charge me for the privilege of disabling two of my computers in one year, I'll be ahead of the game.
I have a very heterogenous network of XP, Vista, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and OS X machines. Of them, OS X is my clear favorite, with Ubuntu a (surprisingly!) close second.
Good luck with it. If you need any help, you know you've got people you can ask.
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