[Gllug] [OT] while we're flaming anyway.. (was: Erratic Mouse Behaviour)

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Sun, 2001-12-09 at 20:49, James.Rocks at equant.com wrote:

> I am also terribly sorry if I misled anyone here ... I am a pretty damned
> good MS techie who came here with a relatively open-mind and a sincere wish
> to find out as much as possible about Linux (believe me I DO want to learn
> about Linux and I DO plan to use it as my primary OS if I can bend it to
> the various tasks I typically pursue). 

That's a good way to start out. I'd be surprised if you can't use it as
your primary OS - what sort of taks are you trying to get it to perform?

> Despite the fact that it is not the
> most popular viewpoint in such a forum I happen consider MS operating
> systems good and think that MS is a pretty good company & Bill Gates
> nowhere near the evil world dominating son-of-Satan some people seem to
> believe him to be. Having dealt with Mac & Linux evangelists in the past
> (as well as idiot religious zealots) I am well aware of the kinds of people
> I might encounter in this group (though I had hoped I might not) and it
> seems I was right.

Most people on this list are pretty reasonable most of the time.
Disagreements do occur, but that's par for the course anywhere. OS
preferences do bring out the zealot in all of use from time to time, but
I don't think that situation is much worse here than anywhere else.

As far as MS goes, I don't consider Bill Gates evil either. I do
consider him to be a monopolist, and in that sense, he is neither better
nor worse than any other monopolist. History has shown that the actions
taken by monopolists to preserve their monopolies are usually
deleterious to the interests of their customers, and again, I believe MS
to follow the rule in this case.

As far as the quality of the systems goes, it's as good as it needs to
be to sell. It makes no economic sense for any software company to put
effort into shipping code that's twice as good if it won't sell twice as
well - the quality of MS OS's is ruled by the fact that consumers
believe computers to be unreliable, and are using to accepting poor
quality goods. It remains true that if the quality produced by the
commercial software industry were seen in the automotive industry,
aeronautical or civil engineering sectors, the company directors in
question would be imprisoned for corporate manslaughter. This is not a
sign of "good products". However, this is endemic to the entire
industry, not just to Microsoft, and they should not be blamed for
simply reacting to the marketplace.

>From a personal perspective, I choose free software wherever possible,
as, in my experience, mature free software products exhibit better
relibility than any commercial equivalents.

> That does not (then or now) make me any more willing to
> put up with such stupidity ... there is no such thing as the perfect OS, it
> isn't MS, it isn't Mac and it certainly isn't Linux and I say that last
> with confidence because I actually do believe that in some respects Linux
> IS a superior OS to anything MS has yet to offer.

In the technical respects, Linux is IMO far superior. Microsoft have
invested far more heavily in the GUI, and this shows - Linux GUI's are
not yet as good, on the whole - though there are some areas of
brilliance. Pretty interfaces sell software to the masses - good kernel
architectures do not. Regrettable though this might be, it's a fact, and
the good and bad points of Microsoft's software are entirely a
reflection of the economics in the market. Personally, I believe that
the economic ties virtually gurantee that commercial software for the
mass market will *always* be poorly engineered and sloppily implemented
- this will change only if consumers stop buying it.
 
> I did not come here (join this list) to make friends (I have friends
> already) but to get helpful advice about Linux. A number of people have
> been extremely helpful and to them I am grateful but I am getting the
> distinct impression that I will soon be unsubscribing :-)

Don't be too hasty. It's not that bad here :-)).

Mike.


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