Hold up... I dont know a single computer shop that doesnt offer the choice of whether you want windows, linux or indeed nothing installed on purchase...
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Windows Vista for download (10 Viewers)
- Thread starter Martin
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Wow, that's a shockingly open minded post of yours, Paul.
Well, it's no secret that the market dictates the options the consumer gets. If you want to play lots of games, there's only Windows or consoles. If you want an alternative to Windows and you don't mind losing some choice of software, Apple would love your business. (At this point, Majed is going to shoot in with bootcamp, which allows you to dualboot Windows and Mac, but why would you pay for both if you can't do without Windows?)
Finally, if you want more control over your computer, there's linux. Or unix. Or many different kinds of POSIX-y operating systems that look a lot like linux and unix. Linux is by far the most widely adopted, so again it has the widest selection of software, and documentation, and technical support, and hardware support. If you can do without some of that, there's solaris or freebsd etc.
There are solutions for those who want to find them. Linux is used today by lots of people who are "ordinary computer users" and it has been for years. Yes, it's different than Windows and there are different kinds of problems with it. But then again Windows users have to deal with viruses and spyware and such, so it's not entirely careless either. So substitute one set of issues with another. I think most Linux users would say that their choice of OS gives them greater freedom, they feel more empowered.
The problem is people who are used to Windows, take one look at linux and say "that's way too wacky and complicated". Today's linux is not inherently more difficult to use than Windows, studies have shown this. If you take a person who's never used a computer, they will not find linux harder. It's just that with our Windows culture, anything non-Windows feels unnatural. And if you buy Windows knowing that if something breaks you call their support people (which I have personally never done), you can just as well get a support deal with linux as well, and then too you will have someone to call, in fact they would love your business. If you buy Red Hat Enterprise Linux for $299 you get a support deal with it. If you prefer the flavor of the month Ubuntu Linux (actually flavor of the last two years), you can sign up with Canonical for $250 per year for support. I don't know how this compares with Microsoft price wise, I've never paid for support myself.
Well, it's no secret that the market dictates the options the consumer gets. If you want to play lots of games, there's only Windows or consoles. If you want an alternative to Windows and you don't mind losing some choice of software, Apple would love your business. (At this point, Majed is going to shoot in with bootcamp, which allows you to dualboot Windows and Mac, but why would you pay for both if you can't do without Windows?)
Finally, if you want more control over your computer, there's linux. Or unix. Or many different kinds of POSIX-y operating systems that look a lot like linux and unix. Linux is by far the most widely adopted, so again it has the widest selection of software, and documentation, and technical support, and hardware support. If you can do without some of that, there's solaris or freebsd etc.
There are solutions for those who want to find them. Linux is used today by lots of people who are "ordinary computer users" and it has been for years. Yes, it's different than Windows and there are different kinds of problems with it. But then again Windows users have to deal with viruses and spyware and such, so it's not entirely careless either. So substitute one set of issues with another. I think most Linux users would say that their choice of OS gives them greater freedom, they feel more empowered.
The problem is people who are used to Windows, take one look at linux and say "that's way too wacky and complicated". Today's linux is not inherently more difficult to use than Windows, studies have shown this. If you take a person who's never used a computer, they will not find linux harder. It's just that with our Windows culture, anything non-Windows feels unnatural. And if you buy Windows knowing that if something breaks you call their support people (which I have personally never done), you can just as well get a support deal with linux as well, and then too you will have someone to call, in fact they would love your business. If you buy Red Hat Enterprise Linux for $299 you get a support deal with it. If you prefer the flavor of the month Ubuntu Linux (actually flavor of the last two years), you can sign up with Canonical for $250 per year for support. I don't know how this compares with Microsoft price wise, I've never paid for support myself.
Whilst it may be true that it has gone on since day one... The difference now is the absolute ease of getting these things... Today anyone can type in google and find the latest version of windows etc within seconds... The use of p2p, torrents etc has massively increased in recent years... everyones doing it...
It wasnt so long ago that these sites were hard to find or only those that were using the likes of usenet or irc channels had access to these things... Now its everywhere and incredibly easy....
It wasnt so long ago that these sites were hard to find or only those that were using the likes of usenet or irc channels had access to these things... Now its everywhere and incredibly easy....
Well firstly, as someone who is currently running Vista on my laptop... I think its very good... far better than the windows of today and for me not far off of using my mac... So, If it's not much better than the current beta... I for one would be happy.
Secondly, I would disagree, The difference between the last beta i ran for xp and the final release was in my view a large step
Secondly, I would disagree, The difference between the last beta i ran for xp and the final release was in my view a large step
Jeeks said:
Well, you are a happy Windows customer then 
I am a happy Linux user.
I guess it ends here, I am not going back to the problems I used to encounter on a weekly basis and I am not trying to convince you to change, it is up to you to try it or not.
I am a happy Linux user.
I guess it ends here, I am not going back to the problems I used to encounter on a weekly basis and I am not trying to convince you to change, it is up to you to try it or not.
Most including many here... Constantly feel the need to tell you that windows is shit... IE doesnt come close to firefox... etc etc etc...
When in reality, all of them have their positives and all are suited to certain users, but not others...
Personally, Linux is no good to me whatsoever... I dont use it, I also dont criticise it or force feed people that its crap...
Linux users tend to do this... Why... what is the need for it ?
As for happy windows user... Happy not all the time, But at the end of the day.. It does what i want and i have very few real problems and have never in my life had to call a support line of any type... So, yeah happy enough... As i also am when it comes to my Mac...