john eayrs wrote:
> 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.
>
Is this a wind up :-) Just because you couldn't be bothered to learn the
powerful commands you think DOS is better!
> 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.
>
Please, stick with Windows, my blood pressure is rising reading this.
>
> I do a lot of things in Windows because I have the software to do it without
> much thinking.
Yes, I'm getting the picture, M$ has many like you and will make sure
your addiction is maintained. Shame as you will miss out on all the
ultra powerful free languages available to FLOSS users.
> 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.
>
Just because you can't be bothered to learn you are again missing out on
the flexibility of FLOSS. You can only do what M$ lets you do. We can do
everything available to Windows plus a million other things.
> To install a program in Windows takes me no longer than 5 minutes. To
> install into Linux can take me considerably longer.
>
Rubbish. Yum and apt takes minutes to install an application. You have
thousands of applications that you can download for free.
> 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.
>
Again, open your eyes instead of sticking with what you know.
OpenOffice.org has everything you could possibly want and it is FREE!
Thank you Sun Microsystems.
> 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.
>
If you download an ISO, it will have a checksum available. RTFM.
> 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.
>
What, after 16 reboots you mean? Knoppix is fully working in minutes
from a CD. Fedora works as soons as you logon.
> 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.
>
Linux is making PCs even cheaper. See One Laptop Per Child project based
on Fedora and $100-ish.
> Would it be more sensible to recognise that different operating systems have
> their strengths and weaknesses instead of comdemming things out of hand out
> of pure reflex. And to recognise that the thinking involved in using Linux
> effectively is very different to that for using Windows effectively.
>
No, we have used Windows and rejected it as poor quality software with
limited features. Have you heard about not using MS software until after
version 3?
I know this attitude is fairly common and is what M$ is aiming to
maintain. GNU/Linux FLOSS is already changing that attitude and this is
why M$ is buying in to SuSE to try and halt it.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Discover Linux - Open Source Solutions to Business and Schools
http://discoverlinux.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------
