Just an Observation
 

I've realized, after "playing" at linux off and on for several years, it was time to make the jump all the way in. I started out with slackware 1.0, and have at random times run Caldera, RedHat, Slack, Mandrake, Suse..... the list goes on. As of this writing, I've completely repartitioned my hard drive, and loaded RedHat 9.0......... as a symbolic gesture of my freedom from MS Windows, I microwaved my Win2K install disc (for those of you who haven't tried this, do it (4 seconds, high power, with a disc you don't want/need, label down) ) Although, as a windows user, I find myself often frustrated with Linux, mostly because windows has killed my ability to use a command line, or do any system maintenance myself. This, in a nutshell is why I decided to make the jump, because occasionally, Linux just pisses me off, and makes me do something that can't be accomplished simply by clicky-clicky-clicky with the mouse. Thanks to all the developers and supporters out there who finally made me start using my brain!!

Smee

Great to hear! However, I'd say for most people to not try the Microwave trick without Parents permission/roomates/co-living being.

:D

Since this discussion is aimed at Newbies, I'll leave it here, but to let you know, I was tempted to move it to General as that's where similar discussions take place. If this thread starts to move in that direction, I'll move it then. ;)

Cool

I don't know if I'm strange in my views, but I'm not going to say that "I want to liberate the world from Microsoft". Sure, they need to be taken down a peg or a few hundred, but they are just a company doing what companies do - taking advantage of the situation in which they find themselves. I made the switch over to Linux completely by accident - I recently got hold of OpenDarwin on the cover of a Linux magazine in Spain. I installed it, discovered that it wouldn't boot and then discovered that I had not elected to install it onto the blank partition on the same harddrive as my Windows setup, but rather I had sloppily selected just the harddrive, so I lost my Windows too. Not that I actually had any software installed, I just might have wanted to at some point! Purely there for bad cosmetic reasons :D

Anyway, this post is not intended in anyway as flamebait, so don't bother flaming.

Not to worry,
I'm not in the habit of flaming, it annoys me and wastes resources.... and I agree with you on the MS front, they're just a company doing what companies do... making a profit, and doing whatever it takes to make sure they continue to do so. I've found that a lot (but not all) people who claim that software should be free usually mean that software should be free for them. But take these same people, and give them the oppurtunity to make a profit selling software, and they'd take it in a minute. I kind of straddle the fence on this one..... if it's free, I'll use it, but if you want me to pay for it, I'll do that to. Everyone is entitled to make a living, and I know I'd never perform my job for free because it's the "socially correct" thing to do.

Smee

Truthfully, I WILL pay for software. I don't mind if I even buy a piece of open source, if the price is right and it does what I want it to. I bought SuSE, and the manual alone was worth it. I have a problem with activation and, er, the whole big brother complex that MS gives me. I still use Windows, don't get me wrong... I've only been using Linux about two weeks (talk about a newbie!). But I love it. No BSOD. No bloated web browsers (god, I ADORE that). No messages from Norton that flipping notepad is trying to dial the internet. (why?!?!?!)

But mostly I like Linux because it's made me look at how my operating system really works. My husband and I built this computer ourselves, and between this and installing Linux, I've learned more than I have in two weeks than with five years of MS.

shoe

That sums up, more eloquently I might add, my statement that sometimes linux just pisses me off. and, for the record, I've only been "using" linux for about two weeks myself. Prior to this, linux was just something I played at, and when I'd find something I couldn't do, I'd flop back over to windows, and click away.

Smee