[Ham-Computers] Microsoft Vista in the news

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

First, I couldn't care less about "free".  Nothing worth having is free, 
including freedom.  But you have just explained and compounded the problem with 
Linux.  By about two orders of magnitude.  It's far worse than I thought.  I 
have no idea what Linux-Y is but the terminology implies that there are other 
groups of many.  And then you threw in multiple GUI's.  You mention two but imply 
many more.  Assume there are ten.  Multiply those by 40 versions of the OS 
and you have 400 versions to sift through.  Then the implication of Linux-Y is 
that there are Linux-X and Linux-Z which brings the total versions up to 1200.  
Or maybe 12,000 depending upon how you figure it.  Forget it.  I wouldn't 
touch Linux with Slick Willie's Cuban cigar.

To answer your question, three.  On our Xerox DC230, 565 and currently 430 
printer-scanners.  They work OK but all I have to do is talk to them.  If they 
break, I call Xerox.

Also, since you brought it up, all of the email clients that run under Unix 
are Outlook clones.  Not used or usable here.  Too inefficient for handling 
high volume email traffic.

In a message dated 4/1/2007 11:06:14 PM Central Standard Time, jeffv at op.net 
writes: 
> WA5CAB at cs.com wrote:
> >The only reason Linux appears to be secure is that no hacker would waste 
> his, 
> >her or it's time to try to break into the 25 or 30 computers running that 
> >particular version.
> 
> careful making these kinds of statements.  There's a lot they share and 
> there are linux hacks.  It's just not that great a target right now.
> 
> It will be a bigger target as time goes on and more people get sick of 
> the Redmond Menace.
> 
> >After I got up to 40 versions to decide between, I said F-it
> and went back to NT.
> 
> How many did you *try*?
> 
> I'm not certain this is a valid complaint and here's my reasoning:
> The look and feel is generally provided by the graphical interface 
> (GUI), unless you're a command line guy.
> 
> The two biggest GUIs are KDE and Gnome.  To the best of my knowledge, 
> they will run on any linux-y distribution.  You can switch back and 
> forth, as well as to any of the lesser known ones.
> 
> Therefore, most of the distributions will look alike, at very least. 
> Some share package mgmt systems too, further narrowing down the field.
> 
> If you'd like to give it an honest shot, dl the cd image of Ubuntu or 
> Knoppix.  You can boot to it, get the feel of it, then shut it down when 
> you're done - never messing with your Windows installation on the hard 
> drive.  If you don't like it, you can use the cd as a coaster (like AOL 
> disks).
> 
> 
> It's not perfect, but it's stable.  It's also free.
> The browsers are not full of holes.
> The email clients are not virus catchers.
> There's plenty of eye candy, for those who indulge.
> It runs very well on older hardware.
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
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