I agree with you your point about not having to navigate traditional desktop software. I think that this is the way computing will go, in the sense that more and more applications will go online and having an open operating system like GNU/Linux that can run on many different devices with more or less the same programs will be the champ. I think this is true because GNU/Linux actually believes in open standards that will allow software and hardware to communicate across the vast array of devices that will be on internet in the coming years. This is something I don’t think MS is keen to. At least Mac has the OSX kernel that is running on all their devices (I think.) I can’t imagine a lean and fast MS program.

Plus, operating systems matter less and less to him. The VAR Guy spends most of his day in online blogging software — rather than navigating traditional desktop software.

Irrespective of what Microsoft does with Vista right now. Vista will soon be repackaged as Windows 7 and we’ll all be expected to “upgrade” again. Microsoft have already publicly stated Windows 7 will have the Vista kernel and driver model.

So Windows 7 will be Vista with a new name.

To add insult to injury Microsoft have also tried to scare businesses into upgrading to Vista by telling them they’ll encounter all the same incompatibility issues. Well it’s true they will. Because Windows 7 is Vista. So if you really want to use Windows, it still makes sense to wait.

Microsoft are not a progressive company taking us forward. Microsoft are a stagnant corporate giant who’s profits are generated from maintaining the status quo. Every new OS they produce is just a rehash of something older. There’s nothing new coming out of Redmond.

Time to move on and forget Microsoft ever existed I say.

A nix power user and a Windows power user a different beings. Even a MS programmer must unravel their twisted minds to understand something as simple as shell programming.

Don’t talk about Linux going mainstream like it is some kind of pop band. You can say a distro went mainstream but not Linux.

My socks run FreeBSD and your business uses Windows. That’s why my socks are fresh and your business stinks.

The crowds of people using “Linux” like it’s some kind of software trend are highly annoying. When I find the lot of you scurrying on the retarded web, be sure I’ll leave flame bait.

Fools…

I was so ready… Unfortunately, I had a career change about that time (returning to teaching) and scrambled to keep DOS/Lose ’95 systems running in my classrooms. Finally, I made the move because the damn things refused to run through a whole class without re-re-rebooting. I regret not having had the foresight to install GNU/Linux on my personal 486. If I had had a big enough hint and had not been over-worked, I would have thrived on GNU/Linux desktops in 1998. My computing life has been joyful since 2000.

I remember moving into an IT position in 2003. I sat down to a Lose ’98 system and easily crashed it by opening a few windows in a browser with word-processor active. In most classes students would lose a file before it could be saved. I switched to booting to GNU/Linux via EtherBoot and had no crashes for most of a year. Students loved the speed and reliability.

In many years of use GNU/Linux has given me only a few problems all of which had simple work-arounds. That other OS was a series of problems interspersed with brief periods of productivity. My only regret in going to GNU/Linux is that I did not do it earlier. Low density of geeks in my neighborhood is my only weak excuse. I guess it is human nature to keep banging one’s head against the wall if that is what one is so accustomed. I had an opportunity to consider UNIX on home-brew back in 1985 but the advent of the ready-made PC sucked me away. Nothing prevented me from catching onto GNU/Linux in the early 1990s but it just did not happen. I was ready for it.

Sure, Vista is bloated. And The VAR Guy loves the screaming performance of Ubuntu, and the polish of Mac OS X.

But our resident blogger believes NT did a LOT of good during the 1990s. Wall Street traders were LOCKED to expensive, proprietary, RISC Unix boxes. And application servers running UNIX/RISC cost a fortune. NT changed the game back then. And now, Linux is doing the exact same thing to Windows…

In short: The VAR Guy doesn’t see Microsoft as “all good” or “all evil.” The company has done a lot of good for the industry, but has also harmed/limited the industry in many ways.

Microsoft is a money-hole. The only reason they still exist is because they are ubiquitous. Yes, their products have a nice and friendly “look and feel”, but that’s because they’ve bought out all the competitors or copied those that are best of breed. Vista is nothing but a bad reimplementation of features found in Linux, *BSD and OS X. It is too bloated, requires too much hardware for what it offers, and is still a malware-magnet.

Any product that requires you buy “bandaid” solutions just for basic use is not worth your time or money, at any price!

Helpdesk: “Vista hotline, how can I help you?”
Customer: “My point-of-sale app that runs my entire business doesn’t run since I upgraded to Vista”
Helpdesk: “Ok, is it a Microsoft product?”
Customer: “No, it’s from MSCompetitor Inc”
Helpdesk: “Ok, you need to contact them and get them to make it work in Vista. Or switch to Microsoft Dynamics.”
Customer: “Oh, ok”
Helpdesk: “Thank you, come again”

Wow, rock on Microsoft.

I personally run Mac OS X and Ubuntu Linux (just like our resident blogger on this site, The VAR Guy). But I do hope MSFT gets Vista right because I think Apple needs healthy competition, and an aggressive MSFT will also motivate the Linux world. A motivated Microsoft — that competes fairly — is good for everyone.