I use Red Hat 9 currently. I'm exploring LSF.

From a programmers point of view, Windoze is PATHETIC with a capital P. (AND a capital A,T,H and so on)
Linux Unix prompt comes with all the compilers anybody would ever need. What does Windoze come with?
Nothing.
Software tends to crash in windows far more than Linux - how do you know that that Illegal Operation was not Windoze' fault rather than your code?

user-friendly: adj.

Programmer-hostile. Generally used by hackers in a critical tone, to describe systems that hold the user's hand so obsessively that they make it painful for the more experienced and knowledgeable to get any work done. See menuitis, drool-proof paper, Macintrash, user-obsequious.

from http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/U/user-friendly.html

not only that .... but when you do by the equivalent development tools ---->
1. your'e outta pocket >$5000 (more if you want msdn supscriptions, etc)
2. you still don't get access to all the functions in the MFC dll's ----> this is what sickens me the most ......
its to stomp out all the competition ......
e.g. (this was back a few years ago) ... but put Word2000 up against CorelWordPerfect 8.1 ...... Word2000 is about 2.5x the exe & residentual memory size but loads, performs, & (the rare part) -->is actually more stable than the competition........ causing Corel to start bundling WP8.1 with sub-par motherboard vendors, etc etc .... not to mention ... most of the 3,500 .dll's are never used in the first place & not very well documented (even in the 6 volume VC++6.0 RefLibrary ---well over 5000pgs)
& the over-documented MFC42.dll was so buggy ... it made the competition look bad in many other areas .......

nothing new hear though ---> they even still stomp out 3rd party applications just like in the Days of Dos1x&2 (when Defrag/Scandisk were developed by a 'now obsolete' company named quaterdeck) .... but when MS$ saw the flay in the FAT ... it was released in the very next version ......
Now its apps like SystemRecovery (which even "mimics" GoBack --or whatever the 3rd party utility was )

bottom line ----> theives who don't even relize the flaws in their own software until its already effected millions of innocent consumers ...... (the latency in finding those is from such a closed dev-community) <--- e.g. the blaster$wyrms & the .NET security flaws that existed for 9 months until anyone "in-house" even noticed it ..........

(in the voice of yo-siminy-Sam) butterflies is so stupid..........

What WM are you using? I use the latest version of GNOME, and it NEVER crashes unless I FILL the panel with stupid applets.

Use gentoo Emerge is the best thing since sliced bread. It's as simple to use as windows, AND it builds from source for better performance. It's searchable, automagically downloads and installs nearly every software package you can imagine. Gentoo and Debian are considered "advanced" distros, but I say once they are setup they are even easier to use than say Redhat, especially with emerge/apt-get. And setting them up is cake for anybody who knows how to read. Step-by-step installation instructions are on www.gentoo.org. Even Mac users can do it... maybe.

debian is next after slackware, and-- unlike mandrake-- i'll still use slack. gentoo later on... easy for you can always be hard for me, whether it's more advanced or more point&click. that's why it's now hard for me to help my buddy with mandrake 9.1, things are a bit different... if debian and gentoo depart from most common implementations in similar ways, i'll be staying with slackware indefinitely.

but at least i have a choice... cheers

ofcource all os have something to hide thats for the ease of the user but what scares me is if that "something" will do something I dont want it to (windows xp and all its services) like shutdown my computer cuz I have a cd-key that is being used. M$ has to much power I think

Response from Microsoft

11/5/2003 12:15:35 PM
Hello William,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Customer Service.

My name is Hamid, and I understand that you are experiencing difficulties accessing using your Windows XP after installing the file from ASUS Motherboard website. I realize your concern regarding this issue. I am Customer Service Representative, not a Technical Support Professional and my objective is to guide you to the appropriate area so that you can receive support.

In order to process your request further I will need the following information:

* Exact and complete error message.
* Problem Description: (A description of the problem you’re seeing helps us better understand what support will best meet your needs.)
* Product Identification Number (PID) for Windows XP:

To locate the 20-digit Product Identification Number (PID) for Microsoft Windows XP, please use the following steps:

1. Right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop.
2. Click Properties.
3. The Product Identification Number (PID) will be located in the "Registered to" section.

If the letters OEM appear in your Product Identification Number, your computer manufacturer is your best option for any warranty or no-charge phone support. What hes saying is....theyve sold the rights for another computer company to sell XP...just a copy of it, and doesnt want to use MS resources on HELPING YOU... next reason

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) often modify and pre-install Microsoft software on their computers to ensure compatibility and to take full advantage of your computer’s hardware. This means the OEM has the expertise on how your Microsoft software works on your particular computer.

can i get some more reasons (lies) not to help me. The following is a cut/paste from EVERY tech support ive recieved. automated support, fill in the blank emails. WHERE ARE MY BULLETS??

The link below lists contact information for most computer manufacturers:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...en-us;oemphone

William, I hope your issue with Windows XP system gets resolved and I look forward for your reply to this e-mail as soon as possible.

You can provide any additional information or receive further assistance for your issue by submitting a response via the Web Response Web Form at:

https://webresponse.one.microsoft.co...istedlist.aspx

You will need to sign in with your Passport ID in order to submit the form. Have a great day.

Thank you for using Microsoft Product and Services, i dont know how to use another....monopoly??? (yet)

Hamid
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

"Build Customer Trust And Value By Providing A Quality Experience The First Time, Every Time." may i disembowl myself now, or later.

Delighting our Customers is our top Priority. (rage building!!!)

they couldnt answer a help question on a window gone awry because i have an OEM version!!! BASTARDS!!

to the original writer of this forum; these MANY incidents are only some of the steam behind my switch. its a window!!! i cant close it...god help me, i have no power over a notepad with windows?!?!?


Problem Description: i downloaded the file nf2v116_wxp from the asus motherboard website
http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/ut...f2v116_wxp.zip

i noticed a little patch on my 18 inch flat monitor (1024\768@32 bit) which would go from white to light brown when my cursor would move over it. messing around with it, i tried to get rid of it and found out that it has a border, which i can stretch. so i stretched it out, maybe i could see more of it. it is a word pad/notepad document which is constantly being written to. i dont have much time left to write this email considering my ram is being consumed so fast. i havent even installed the zip file.
ill give you what i can and fast.
it shows up as gibberish in the wordpad, refreshes a new line of gibberish at around 5 lines per second, no idea how wide it is, but QUITE long for the vertical
right clicking yields some options; found view source code to show this;

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<!----
***** This file is automatically generated by Microsoft Windows *****
--------><HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"></HEAD>
<BODY
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none"
bottomMargin=0 bgColor=#004e98 leftMargin=0 background="" topMargin=0
rightMargin=0>
<DIV much much more you dont want to see

i tried to find out even where this file was coming from, but cannot either. i saved the driver which i did not unzip to install on a separate partition of the same HD. i will be contacting asus with the same email. thank you.

please reach me via my email (where yet another microsoft virus is plaguing my email)

I use linux because of Microsoft's conduct regarding privacy, distribution, and what you should be able to do with your computer. XP is the *nearly perfect* OS for most people. Having worked at the Best Buy tech bench, I can tell you that the Best Buy customer crowd just want things to work, and most of them don't care how or why it works that way, as long as it does. When something breaks down they don't know what to do and don't want to learn. They get angry and blame it on anything but themselves. Which is fine by me, I call them 'job security'. But things like this: http://www.microsuck.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml are the reasons I rarely use MS products. I use XP solely because I really dig Nero, and there are some games I really want to play without dealing with Wine variants. I use Linux for everything, rebooting a couple times a week to fire up XP so I can download the newest security patches and do a little gaming. If you use XP you should really check out the link above.

BTW, I get better framerates in Enemy Territory under Gentoo than XP.


AMD AthlonXP T-Bred 2100+ @ 2100 MHz
Epox 8RDA+ nForce2 mobo
1.0 GB DDR @ 172 MHz
GeForce FX 5600 256MB (non-ultra)
80 GB WD 7200RPM 2MB cache
16x DVD-ROM & 16x CD-RW

one (mybe two) word/s....

Open-Source

Doesn't bill have enough money?

I can tell you why most people on this list us Linux....

Satisfaction

That is the main reason I use Linux. I can do everything on Linux that I need. Do I keep XP on my system ..sure. The reason. There are programs I like that run on XP. I even have a Mac..Why because nothing runs video better than a Mac. How much do I use each system....

Linux.....90%
XP ...........5%
Mac..........5%

...if you want to know who uses Linux ask MS...most of their work is done in Linux then ported over to XP! Just like a lot of the industry. Do you know what MS's biggest fear is......Open source..why because they know they have a dead product. In the past 5 years Linux has come leaps and bounds. Windows has made good steps but it has been around for a while. Like any industry the problem with MicroSoft is it is a BIG company. Ideas take far too long to travel the corporate highway at MS. Implementation of a new idea has to go through several channels before it is funded. Open source isn't driven by money it is driven by passion. A new idea in the Linux community is on systems around the world before the same idea at MS has even made it down the hallways at Redmond. Linux has a way to go before you see it going mainstream but the real question you should ask isn't

why do we use Linux...

the real question is..

How long do you think it will be before companies that have hundreds's of computers get tired of paying $96 bucks for an OS on each workstation?

I use to work for a very large company and when we upgraded are workstations from NT to XP it cost a grand total of $3,000,000 world wide. Now..I figured we got a discount from MS for bulk buy and doing the math at $35 bucks a workstatioin that came out to be $385,000.00 just for the OS...nothing else. Now add in the price for XP office....Backoffice server...etc and MS is expensive for a company to maintain.

It won't be the public that puts Linux on the map it will be a big corperation. When Linux matures enough some large company will take notice and some CEO or the like will see that they can save a "ton" of money by going with Open Source. I will step off my soap box but just give it a thought. What keeps Microsoft pumping out products? There are more computers in companies that at home.

I have used linux for so long now, that I find it hard to use windows. So I use Linux because I feel handicapped in a windows environment.

I'll join the Linux crowd as soon as:
1) My serial mouse works on Mandrake 9.1.
2) My LAN works on Mandrake 9.1.

Yeah, it's damn funny.

One thing I've noticed is that Mandrake isn't as conducive as Windows to hotkey-users; on Windows, I set up my serial mouse using my keyboard in less than five minutes. On Mandrake Linux, I still for the life of me can't figure out how to configure it from the GUI using my keyboard.

Mandrake has problems with Serial mice? Odd... they're quite well supported by the kernel...

About your NIC what card do you have?

Links are in my sig.