Windows 7 Beta did it (the version M$ gave away free)!

Still, I think that the way Winsows tries to be user-friendly is by hiding it's inner workings.

But when you try to do something more advanced than surfing the web or writing a letter, all that gets in the way and makes life very difficult!

For example Vista tries to hide it's FS structure so hard that it's almost impossible to figure out where your documents are! Even if all you want to do is surf the web and write letters, I think that it's a really bad idea. It just confuses people who understand it and keeps new people from understanding it by twisting it such strange ways (I think that this would confuse newbies even further).

And don't even get me started on trying to program fighting through all those layers of dumbed-down-ness! I don't think I would ever figure out how linking and libraries work in Windows.

I mean you can't even have a nice command-line compiler!

I'd like to see a Window$ machine change that much hardware without having to reinstall or tell M$ "I just did a major hardware upgrade and need a new license key so I can continue to use your <bleep> product."

I probably should've clarified in my previous post, my comment was aimed at M$'s GUI and their decision to make the entire operating system graphic and mostly mouse-driven. What do Window$ users do if their mouse stops working? Some can't work until they get a new mouse. They forget the big thing with letters is useful for more than typing their login password (if they have one).

I have no complaint about any of the GUIs for Linux. One of the great things about them is that there are choices. Several can be installed together and the user can say "I've been using KDE for a while. Today I'll try XFCE. No, make that FVWM2. WTH, I'll try both." I'm a Fluxbox fan myself but I keep KDE installed also. The other great thing is that they are still applications that run on top of the operating system and can be started and closed on an as-needed basis.

I started learning computers with a Commodore64 and later DOS5+Deskmate on a 12MHz Tandy 286. I kept my DOS-based machines running fast and efficient for many years by monitoring the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files and keeping them optimized. It's had a definite influence on my opinion that Window$ users are not getting educated enough. The fold out quick setup diagram don't tell anything. Newbies have to pay tech support to tell them how to open Task Manager, select the "Not Responding" app from a list and click "End Now."

Another amusing thing to me is how people are paralyzed with awe when I lean over their shoulder and navigate Window$ Explorer or M$ Word one-handed with a few simple keyboard shortcuts. I wouldn't know the shortcuts or be able to type fast and accurately, despite never having taken a keyboarding course, if I had learned with a mouse instead of a keyboard.

You are so-o-o right!

That may be so, but the 'advanced' user knows which distro(s) to install if they want the ability to get down & dirty!

Yeah sure, and just who are these professionals you speak of?

@dracolich, I had the same PC as you, I reinstalled it 3 times in 1-2 months. And I still mostly use keyboard shortcuts.

@{BBI}Nexus{BBI}: I am talking about the way thing should be. I am a professional IT expert so I might expressed my self badly. Professionals I had in mind are people that really know their stuff, something like preinstalled Linux-es or local Linux guru doing this for a living, just like all those installing and servicing Windows customers. But once installed, Linux does not need so much maintainance.

It's very nice the way Linux is modular.

Instead if the big blob of intertwined programs that you can't change that Windows users think must have to be built in to the OS, Linux is more like a collection of completely separate programs that all support each-other.

This means that instead of rebooting, just restart a single program!

And if something goes horribly wrong, it makes it easier to fix the problem instead of reinstalling like Windows.

Good point all the same, but seriously...if you can't figure out how to get *buntu installed on your machine, what are you doing with a computer? ("you" meaning "Power Users" (of any OS), of course).

It's not quite the same anymore, but I remember having to calculate disk geometry with a calculator to get OpenBSD installed years back...or Gentoo and LFS installs before that. I guess I'm being closed-minded, but I do not see how someone could fail to get *buntu installed properly today. I believe it can happen, yes...but I can't figure out **how**.

Based on my perception I really can't compare both.

Here's why. Combine

XP + VirtualBox + Gentoo/VMDK + Grub + Cygwin + UnixUtils + GNUWin32 + Netbeans + Java + Perl + Ruby + XAMPP + Drupal + VisualBoyAdvance-M + Desmume + DOSBox

... + Notepad++! -- crashes with wine only

Note that Gentoo can still run independently.

And what do you get ?

But with Linux you get all that for free and it's open-source!

I've learned alot by playing with Linux 'til it breaks and learning how to fix it! A complete re-install is so easy with Linux that it's just no big deal! And I can do it without losing all my photos, music, documents, e-mail folders and settings, bookmarks, even Firefox extensions! Just try that with Windows! Oh, waitaminute... don't try that with Windows. It can't be done with Windows.

One Linux fanboy to another: "I heard that if you play the Windows installation CD backwards, a Satanic voice commands you to kill puppies!"

The other fanboy replies: "It's worse than that! If you play it frontwards, it installs Windows!!"

-Robin

lol

Hopefully but you can't always make things work the way you want it.. just like with Notepad++.

Btw did you notice the Gentoo thing I posted? It's Linux too you know. That's one of my favorite distro :-).

Also, everything that I listed there except XP is free and most (if not all) are open-source.

Basically...

What's fun in Linux? Execution speed and control! The framebuffer console, konsole, vim, kwrite, *sh and cli utils.. and the *hackable* kernel. Syscalls that is. Now what do you think do I refer hackable to?

What's fun in Windoze? Explorer.exe, procexp.exe, directx, shared input handling, games, winamp and Notepad++. Viruses also as they become tougher and tougher. They're pretty good at challenging your skills just like Kido. .

<windows key*>->R->"CMD"->ENTER
Now you have command prompt that you dont need a mouse to use.


*its sick that the keyboard designers put a "windows" key on keyboards.

It does seem like a horrible idea to me. Why should a generic keyboard that works with everything have a logo of a certain OS on it's keys? Why not call it the Super key, which is what it really is (that is, it would say Super instead of having a Windows logo on it.

I also heard that MS requires the Win key to have a glossy round imprint wit the logo on it. I guess that's specially to make it hard to cover up