Linux is ok, since its free, but how about a OS that saves you money?

[Al Klein]

Dan Evans wrote:

M$ Office generally works. Wow, what a thrill, in this day and age,
that we can wood process and do spreadsheets. Oh, and this wonderful
software package only costs about as much as a entire computer.
Again, what a thrill.

Ask the average user kenny is talking about how to get a count, on one
page in Excel, of all serial numbers in one column on another page
that have the digits '4567' as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th digits in a
16 digit number. They'll look at you as if you have 3 heads, yet it's
a trivial little formula.

Almost no one. Hell, in my experience, very few use Excel for
anything more than handy tool for formatting text into rows and
columns!

When Word is actually better at formatting columnar text (either with
snaking columns or tables, depending on need).

And, no, I don't really know Word or Excel very well, I just use them.

 

[Al Klein]

FWIW - WinXP's WordPad won't open .doc files created using Win98's
WordPad. Been there. . . tried that. . .

Access - same incompatibility.

 

[Bill Turner]

When it first came out it was a HUGE improvement over 95. 2k was a
HUGE improvement over 98. No difference in the situation - if they
come out with a huge improvement over XP, most people will migrate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, but those versions were plagued with problems and XP isn't. That's
the difference I was talking about.

If Vista really does have some advantages, fine. I'm just not expecting
much. We'll see.

Mr Bill

 

[Bill Turner]

The Ghost In The Machine wrote:

(massive, desperate snip)

At some point I'm hoping that Nautilus or Konqueror will allow
for the specification of criteria such as what one would find on the
'find' command, and present a list of the results, ready for
selection. Dragging and dropping the list would then do what
is necessary.

However, that's still more cumbersome than a simple pipeline.

(emergency surgery to remove glaze from eyes)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You're toying with me aren't you?

Mr Bill

 

[Bill Turner]

Yours seems to be named "I refuse to learn anything I don't already
know".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remove "anything" and replace with "useless things" and you are spot
on.

Mr Bill

 

[Bill Turner]

So you can click on 1,000 files faster than someone could type "mv
/somewhere/*.jpg /somewhere-else"? Do you often melt your mouse?

Even with the arthritis in my hands I can type that a lot faster than
you could find a folder, open it and click on a few files.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Ctrl-A is my friend. Drag what's highlighted. Drop it where needed.

2. No you can't. SuperMouse is my other friend.

Mr Bill

 

[Bill Turner]

FWIW - WinXP's WordPad won't open .doc files created using Win98's
WordPad. Been there. . . tried that. . .

Susan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I find that hard to believe but I have no particular reason to doubt
you either. Please post one for me to try.

Mr Bill

 

[Bill Turner]

Then you're the problem. Linux is legally available for free, Windows
isn't. If someone's giving something away for free, and you shoose to
pay someone else for it, that's your problem, not a problem with what
you bought.

As far as their not working, did you buy a car without learning how to
drive, then complain that it doesn't get you anywhere?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm the problem"? Geez, talk about blaming the victim.

I didn't just go out and insist that people furnish me with Linux
against their will, they practically forced it on me with their lies
about how wonderful it was, etc, etc. I use the word "lies" carefully.
I have seen so much pro-Linux crap over the years I still can't believe
it. I must say the recent "Linux is not Windows" article finally tells
it like it is. Finally: http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Mr Bill

 

[Bill Turner]

You're right again kenny.
It's very hard to compile in Linux.
Let's see.
Read what you need in the instructions and then:

./configure
make or make check
sign in as Root
install or make install
make clean or make distclean
Sucks that it's so hard kenny.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's see the equivalent in Windows:
1. Insert CD
2. Click OK
3. Have a beer.

Done.

Mr Bill

 

[Bill Turner]

Holy Smokes. Good answer 7.
Shows what a dumb **** you really are.
You never tried the handicap stuff.

Tweaking and googling is not something
this user wants to to.

Don't foget the the installs that require a terminal.

This type of person wants to click on a button.

Get off the weed, you self absorbed pig.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The above is a fine example of the failure of our educational system.
Never mind what he's trying to say, just look at the train wreck style
of writing. Sheesh.

Mr Bill

 

[dszady]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's see the equivalent in Windows:
1. Insert CD
2. Click OK
3. Have a beer.

Done.

You forgot:
Restart
Take a shit
Come back after reading PC magazine
Forgot to wipe
Skid into Mr. Bill Turner's chair
Realize the skid is in your 'tighty-whities'
Go back to Wipe
You see a figure of Bill Gates with a fistful of YOUR dollars in the
wadded up tp or maybe you are just 'seeing' things
Next:
The grim determination on Mr Turner's face as he gingerly lays the
"waddy" on the dining room table
He, the man we shall call Turner, cracks open a bottle(can) of his
favorite ale(ginger), setting it on the wadded up tp, being
oh-so-careful as to not let it SKID onto the floor
That task completed, his countenance slowly betrays a sly smile as...
Why?
For he knows NOW he shall have one on Bill Gates
Sticking it to the man
Even though you are The Man, Sir
The way life should be
Yes... The way life should be.

Mr. Bill Turner, you little fool. I like writing this stuff.

 

[Mitch]

Ever read the Mac bible? It makes programming for the Mac a bear, but
it sure makes upward (and downward) compatibility easy for the OS
designers.

And I'm not sure that isn't the way it should be.
The alternative is making the OS grow more complex and bloated. That's
one of the prime criticisms of Windows.

So Apple provides substantial resources and tools for programming;
there are supposed to be some very comprehensive pieces available,
making the basic work quite simple.

 

[Mitch]

If Vista really does have some advantages, fine. I'm just not expecting
much. We'll see.

I think you're right.
Almost nothing that I have heard about it yet refers to improvements,
just the flash and sizzle and some vague abstract comments.

 

[Dave Keays]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sure that will be his strategy, but it's a different situation now.
Win98 was pretty sucky and people migrated to XP in droves.

Nowadays, people are pretty happy with XP. Bill G will have to do some
pretty slick marketing to get people to move. I'm not interested at all.

Mr Bill

Somethings have not changed. We are paying the price for holes that have been in
the Windows architecture since the beginning.

Our reliance on graphics has only hurt us. How many times to we have to see
attacks to multi-media (GDI+, WMF, WMP, etc) to realize it's just eye-candy and
isn't worth the inherent risk?

Somethings have changed. Windows has gotten more secure but Linux has gotten
easier to use. If you want to see, try a live Linux distr like Knoppix or
install a newer distro like Ubuntu.

Windows user-friendly applications are almost duplicated by OSS. There are still
a couple of holes in the list but applications like OpenOffice, Gimp,
MediaMonkey, and Mozilla are almost identical to MS products today.

You may not be interested at all, but others are.

 

[Susan Bugher]

Susan Bugher wrote:

I find that hard to believe but I have no particular reason to doubt
you either. Please post one for me to try.

Can't - this is a text only ng. I uploaded one of the Win98 WordPad
files here temporarily:

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/ftp/PL2004-CDcover.doc

Susan
--
Posted to alt.comp.freeware
Search alt.comp.freeware (or read it online):
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search?q=+group:alt.comp.freeware
Pricelessware & ACF: http://www.pricelesswarehome.org
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org (not maintained)

 

[Dave Keays]

I would really like to bite on this one, but I don't have the time.
People remember, if you want the OS to control your computer then pick
windozs. If YOU want real control then Linux/Unix or some other new OS
(like I was looking at Plan9 the other day as one for the future).

Linux is nowhere near as difficult as it was just a few years ago. Try
picking-up a Knoppix distro off the web. You'll be suprised.

 

[Todd H.]

Linux is nowhere near as difficult as it was just a few years ago. Try
picking-up a Knoppix distro off the web. You'll be suprised.

This is true. It is MUCH nicer than it used to be. But I still don't
think I'd wanna retrain all my family members to reduce the number of
phone calls I get, and certainly it won't allow many of em to run
Quicken, Quickbooks, or TurboTax, so it rules Linux out straight away.

The only OS I want to support over the phone to any non-technical
family member is Mac OSX. Don't really have to worry about malware,
one automated update provides updates for all their internet facing
applications. No need to debug antivirus signatures downloading,
stepping them through keeping Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird up to
date, or the instant messenger clients, or enabling firewalls, etc.

Linux for all its merits still isn't THAT easy to use, and with
Windows you need to be WAY too security savvy to use it without
getting owned.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Lin=F8nut?=]

After takin' a swig o' grog, Dan Evans belched out this bit o' wisdom:

I'm on XP pro here with 1.5 gig RAM and an AMD64 3200+ and found it better
to not use WMP - how do you get more than one instance of WMP anyway? Not
that I've looked too hard, but I haven't been able to do it in recent
versions.

Oops. I think the fella that was showing me the multiple videos was
using something else (MusicMatch?).

 

[The Ghost In The Machine]

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Bill Turner
<[email protected]>
wrote

The Ghost In The Machine wrote:

(massive, desperate snip)



(emergency surgery to remove glaze from eyes)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You're toying with me aren't you?

Muhahahahaha....

*twirls mustacioes as he doffs black tophat*

And the 5:15 will be coming very soon now, Miss Nellie...oh,
wait, this isn't alt.fan.dudley-dowright, is it?

Seriously...I don't see what the problem is. But then,
I've been steeped in this stuff; it's possible a total
n00b will sit there, frozen to his cube, never thinking
of playing "click the mouse". (At least, such has been
one claim -- I forget from whom, now.)

In my school daze (early '80s) CLI was the only thing
available, even on the Apple; the Mac didn't come out until
'84-'85 or thereabouts.

So I'm not sure what a "normal" user might be in this context.

 

[The Ghost In The Machine]

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Bill Turner
<[email protected]>
wrote

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remove "anything" and replace with "useless things" and you are spot
on.

Mr Bill

I for one find pipelines useful. If you don't, well,
that's your perogative.