Re: [Hampshire] Microsoft makes claim on Linux code

"Microsoft makes claim on Linux Code."

I have read some of the comments on this with interest. Knowing how code is
written I would be most surprised if there is no code in Linux which is not
in Microsoft Windows or vica versa. As is often the case what is a good
idea is often developed independantly and used by many people who have never
had any contact with each other.

The problem is with a dodgy American patent system which allows the
patenting of ideas rather than the patenting of mechanical inventions.
Which enables the sueing of someone who has the same idea as yourself if
they were not able to patent first.

I use both Windows and SUSE Linux and I can use both without to much problem
because of the way SUSE has attempted to provide a distro which would be
easy for Windows Users to use.

I first wrote computer programs in 1974 on automatic test equipment. I have
written programs in DOS which required writing the means to run eight
different printers on. Each printer had different command codes. I have
had also to write in the same programs the means to access CGA screens, EGA
screens and VGA screens. Windows 3.1 changed this. The programs I have
written in Windows using the windows API has enabled me not to care whether
an output display device is a printer or a monitor or a file. This ease of
programming is not available to me in Linux. I have a database of many
lines of re-usable code.

I tried Redhat linux in 1995 and found it (with my DOS background) virtually
unusable. The usability of Linux for those of us who are not good at
remembering command lines is very difficult. My early background is in DOS
which did things differently than Linux compounds this.

I for one welcome collaboration between Novel and Microsoft because in the
long term it will make the migration from Windows to Linux via SUSE a lot
easier.

SUSE 10.1 needs a powerful machine to run effectively some other
distributions do not. I have Ubunto on a 128MB laptop which I would not
dream of putting SUSE 10.1 on. But on a machine with 256 MB or more of
memory I will run SUSE because of the simularity of usage compared to
Windows.

I do a lot of things in Windows because I have the software to do it without
much thinking. I do not like the stability of XP nor do I like an
operating system (XP) which can happily write garbage to files on a hard
disk without giving the user an indication that this is happening.

SUSE makes it easier for me to migrate to the stability of Linux and if
Novel's deal with microsoft makes this easier still because of information
sharing I will be happier still.

There is a lot of things in Windows which would benefit Linux. For example
I can do hard disk backups in 5 minutes. I can retrieve damaged partitions
without much difficulty. I can retrieve files off partitions which have had
the MBR damaged. I do not know how to do these sort of operations in Linux
with anything like the same sort of ease. I watch Divx and Xvid films on
Windows. When I tried this on Linux I had to give up.

To install a program in Windows takes me no longer than 5 minutes. To
install into Linux can take me considerably longer.

I use Word Perfect as my word processor. It can do certain things which is
not available in Open Office. This ensures that I do not use Open Office as
my word processor. Unfortunately my copy of word perfect is for windows.

I make it a policy to do byte by byte checks on all DVD or CD's that I burn.
One never knows if one has a good or bad writable media. This is easy for
me to do in Windows. I have not been able to do this in Linux yet.

I have heard many stories how it has taken months to get a Linux machine
that the user is happy with. The windows desktop for many is usable from
the start.

I know several people who are able to do things in Windows and would find it
impossible to use Linux. Windows for better or worse brings computing to
the masses and as a result has enabled cheap machines because of the mass
production of computers.

Would it be more sensible to recognise that different operating systems have
their strengths and weaknesses instead of comdemming things out of hand out
of pure reflex. And to recognise that the thinking involved in using Linux
effectively is very different to that for using Windows effectively.



John Eayrs