Forget Microsoft. Move on. Linux. (former MCP guy)

[Herbert Sauro]

You're a desparate guy!

Rationale to use Linux
=======================

- I can't afford paying for $199 for the license of an OS that's
arguably better thank Linux for each of 10 computers I have.

- I want to be free of Microsoft stigma, and of constant lockdown on
Microsoft products. The world is better than that.

- Linux runs .NET Reverse engineers in less than a year. That's
the power of the OpenSource!

- I want to be able to double click on a source file for ntfs driver
and build my own filesystem. Just for fun of it. And not sign NDA from
Microsoft. Open source gives me that freedom. I want to learn and to
understand. Linux is all open source available to download and it
takes about 15 minutes to compile the kernel. And make changes if you
wish. And sometimes I do!!!

- I can't afford paying $499 for an Office suite with at least 2
excellent Linux based free office suites floating around: OpenOffice
and KOffice.

- Unlike Steve Ballmer, I believe that OS software is a commodity, and
therefore is not worth paying for anyway. Most of the innovation is
coming from the Linux community: just look at freshmeat or
sourceforge. Where an average Microsoft developer writes anorther
FlexGrid or DataGrid, Linux folks build gnutella filesystems mountable
as a regular drive. I don't even know how to explain this to a
Microsoftie.

- I can't afford paying $$$ for the Visual Studio when there's at
least 3-5 excellent products in Linux: Eclipse IDE (sponsored by IBM,
but OpenSource), NetBeans IDE, KDevelop, Penta, Bluefish and others.

Replacing Windows with Linux
============================

I'm happy to say that it's been a few years I'm using Linux: at least
in my house, where the number of computers nears 10, I can safely say:
I'm Microsoft free! And that means that I just saved $199*10=$1990
dollars I would pay for Microsoft's XP licenses alone. Not to mention
all that crap that surrounds Linux is a lot of fun in a lot of ways.
First it gives you that freedom. No caps please Linus Torvalds is
a programmer, whereas Bill Gates is Chief (!) Software (!) Architect
(!). What a pretentious snob!

- Replacing home theater software

Linux comes with DVD/DivX/Video playing software bundled! You don't
have to download drivers, or codecs: Xine or MPlayer support 10 times
more codecs bundled than Windows Media Player. Believe me, these
players are better.
Hey, guess what: in Linux world you don't have to pay $$$ for an
ability to burn a DVD, or CDR. It's one command dude, dvdrecord (or
tens of GUIs).

- Replacing MP3 software

Linux has excellent tools for MP3 files.

- P2P

Linux has everything Windows has in terms of P2P + more!!! eMule,
eDonkey, BitTorrent, LimeWire, MLDonkey (powerful multi protocol sever
app, runs with or w/o GUI).

- Office

Like I said: OpenOffice, KOffice (all include stuff like Visio,
PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Project etc.)

- Development

Linux = 10*Windows

- Bluetooth/WiFi

Linux natively supports Bluetooth and WiFi. In addition !!! that
Microsoft/Apple bluetooth keyboard works on Linux!

- Security

What should I say. I don't have to pay $30/yr to McAffee: there're
virtually NO viruses on Linux. Linux is much more powerful in terms of
network security/configuration features (ipfilters in the kernel).

- Servers

Mail servers, SQL servers, anything you want. Linux has one price tag:
FREE.


Forget Microsoft. Move on. Linux.

 

[gnu]

Rationale to use Linux
=======================

- I can't afford paying for $199 for the license of an OS that's
arguably better thank Linux for each of 10 computers I have.

- I want to be free of Microsoft stigma, and of constant lockdown on
Microsoft products. The world is better than that.

- Linux runs .NET Reverse engineers in less than a year. That's
the power of the OpenSource!

- I want to be able to double click on a source file for ntfs driver
and build my own filesystem. Just for fun of it. And not sign NDA from
Microsoft. Open source gives me that freedom. I want to learn and to
understand. Linux is all open source available to download and it
takes about 15 minutes to compile the kernel. And make changes if you
wish. And sometimes I do!!!

- I can't afford paying $499 for an Office suite with at least 2
excellent Linux based free office suites floating around: OpenOffice
and KOffice.

- Unlike Steve Ballmer, I believe that OS software is a commodity, and
therefore is not worth paying for anyway. Most of the innovation is
coming from the Linux community: just look at freshmeat or
sourceforge. Where an average Microsoft developer writes anorther
FlexGrid or DataGrid, Linux folks build gnutella filesystems mountable
as a regular drive. I don't even know how to explain this to a
Microsoftie.

- I can't afford paying $$$ for the Visual Studio when there's at
least 3-5 excellent products in Linux: Eclipse IDE (sponsored by IBM,
but OpenSource), NetBeans IDE, KDevelop, Penta, Bluefish and others.

Replacing Windows with Linux
============================

I'm happy to say that it's been a few years I'm using Linux: at least
in my house, where the number of computers nears 10, I can safely say:
I'm Microsoft free! And that means that I just saved $199*10=$1990
dollars I would pay for Microsoft's XP licenses alone. Not to mention
all that crap that surrounds Linux is a lot of fun in a lot of ways.
First it gives you that freedom. No caps please Linus Torvalds is
a programmer, whereas Bill Gates is Chief (!) Software (!) Architect
(!). What a pretentious snob!

- Replacing home theater software

Linux comes with DVD/DivX/Video playing software bundled! You don't
have to download drivers, or codecs: Xine or MPlayer support 10 times
more codecs bundled than Windows Media Player. Believe me, these
players are better.
Hey, guess what: in Linux world you don't have to pay $$$ for an
ability to burn a DVD, or CDR. It's one command dude, dvdrecord (or
tens of GUIs).

- Replacing MP3 software

Linux has excellent tools for MP3 files.

- P2P

Linux has everything Windows has in terms of P2P + more!!! eMule,
eDonkey, BitTorrent, LimeWire, MLDonkey (powerful multi protocol sever
app, runs with or w/o GUI).

- Office

Like I said: OpenOffice, KOffice (all include stuff like Visio,
PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Project etc.)

- Development

Linux = 10*Windows

- Bluetooth/WiFi

Linux natively supports Bluetooth and WiFi. In addition !!! that
Microsoft/Apple bluetooth keyboard works on Linux!

- Security

What should I say. I don't have to pay $30/yr to McAffee: there're
virtually NO viruses on Linux. Linux is much more powerful in terms of
network security/configuration features (ipfilters in the kernel).

- Servers

Mail servers, SQL servers, anything you want. Linux has one price tag:
FREE.


Forget Microsoft. Move on. Linux.

 

[Thomas Scheidegger [MVP]]

- I can't afford paying $499...

- I can't afford paying $$$

maybe you should reflect on your "I can't afford".
Because in your world everything is for free,
your own job work will get worthless sooner or later....

 

[Michael Giagnocavo [MVP]]

- Linux runs .NET Reverse engineers in less than a year. That's

the power of the OpenSource!

Reverse engineers? Huh? Microsoft made it a ECMA standard so groups like
Mono had a wonderful spec to work from. Have an open source team do
something like .NET from scratch? THAT'd be something to see.

-mike
MVP

 

[gnu]

I believe that Linux and OpenSource overall has more continuity than
proprietary software. Companies come and die, but source kept in the
worldwide CVS tree of Linux and GPL projects remain open forever. So
far, Linux is the largest collaborative effort human civilization has
ever seen.

Typically innovation starts in the OpenSource, not at a proprietary
organization (ever seen a poor programmer trying to be smart under his
boss? with tight deadlines of crappy management induced projects like
supporting dying Windows OS? . The next lifecycle is when a
proprietary organization picks up a bright idea and invests into it,
advertises it. Some OpenSource projects managed to become wide known
even w/o any ads: Gimp, perfect replacement for Adobe Photoshop,
MySQL: excellent free replacement to Oracle or Microsoft SQL 2000,
Blender: 3d package, Samba, great replacement for Windows filesharing,
WINS etc... to name a few. The next lifecycle starts when the company
dies. And I don't want my digital archive to be in Word documents or
Excels then I want them to survive and be supported further,
without the dead company behind them.

Move on. Linux.

 

[gnu]

That's not right. And you perfectly know that. Businesses aren't
satisfied with off-the shelf products. Never. That's why they stay
businesses. And keep paying us, developers to develop products around
existing software and evolve. The fact that Ballmer missed somewhere
is that his own product: Windows has become a commodity, and isn't
worth $0.02 anymore. Have fun.

 

[Guest]

GNU, why are you wasting your time arguing with these Kids, it is an established fact - Nothing can replace Linux. Comparing Linux with Windows is like comparing a space-shuttle with a bicycle. I'm an MCSE, but have decided to move on to Linux... The freedom you have with Linux is uncomparable with Windows. Linux is capable of realizing wildest of my network configuration. I will go for Linux even if it cost more than Windows.

It is worth investing on Linux than on scrap microsoft technologies. Just compare how many vulnerabilities Windows have compared to Linux. If you purchase Windows, it will require you to patch it from head-to toe, what a pity...

Windows is for people who do not have anything in their head. Hail to the guy who created Blaster virus, I hope more will do the same and show this world the truth behind microsoft technologies....

regards,
Aishwarya