Can you prove this without any weasel tricks like claiming that anyone who prefers Windows is ignorant?

So we're talking about business owners now and not IT professionals? My comment was about people who are forced to follow the rules of a client or employer, not people who make their own rules. If you have the option to choose your favorite tool, more power to you. Most of us are not so lucky.

Predictably, you missed the point and tried to twist it into a straw man for your Windows bashing.

Yes, intolerant. You cannot be right about an opinion, because opinions are subjective. In your opinion Microsoft products are garbage, and you have a few bullet points that justify your opinion. Not respecting different opinions, like those of the people who prefer Windows, is intolerant.

>.. And then consider that Musicians don't tend to be geeks, and ask yourself why so many of them use Macs? It's because they work. And because musicians can't afford to loose their work to a virus.

What rubbish. If anyone buys easily into trends, it's musicians.. and anyway, you can't talk about the entire freakin' music industry as if it's dominated by Macs. It's not.

Okay, I didn't read much of what was said (I tend not to pay much attention to fanboys). But anybody who says things like "Anyone who has a good understanding of operating systems in addition to Windows, generally won't use Windows" and "Linux driver support is far superior to Windows" as arguments for Linux should be instantly dismissed. It's not to say that there aren't quite a few very good arguments for Linux; they're just not these.

Why would the average user want to have an understanding of how operating systems work? Most people just want to get on a computer, use it, and get off. As far as I know, this is how it works with Windows (and Mac). It's possible with some tame versions of Linux too. Nobody wants to know what happening behind the scenes to allow them to do that.

Linux driver support is a far cry from superior. I don't understand how a rational person can come to the conclusion that it is. Do you realize that most Linux drivers are practically hacks because most hardware manufacturers don't bother to support linux (so the community has to do it themselves) and the ones that do write drivers so horrible that they break your system (nvidia and x server, anyone?)?

I don't get how Linux fanatics constantly complain about FUD when they are the worst perpetrators.

Have you ever tried to administer a linux or unix network? its hell. Windows server has it right when it active directory,and its management tools in my opinion.

P.S

re the results of the poll. 90% use windows. And the sum total of all other systems is less than half of the amount of users who said they used windows

Most of the techies I know don't use Windows. Won't use Windows. Except for gaming, which is a specialty application. As to drivers, I can pick up a copy of Moon OS and install it on most hardware, without the need to chase drivers. You can't do that with Windows.

So you can't say that those aren't damned good arguments for Linux. Now OSX has extremely limited driver support, but it's only supposed to run on Apple hardware, so driver support isn't an issue.


They wouldn't. The average user just wants to use their computer. And that's why OSX and Linux are superior. With Windows you need to know what it's doing - or you have to hire someone to fix it. With Linux and OSX, well, they just work.


I don't see how any rational person could consider Windows driver support to be superior. I've spent all too much time chasing drivers when installing Windows. I don't have to do that with Linux.
As to the community written drivers, I've found many of them to be superior to the drivers supplied by the hardware OEMs for Windows. Windows wireless drivers in particular have been an issue.
Oh, and of course there's some of the ATI video drivers, which appeared to have been written by an intern.

OK, so I get up, shower, eat, and open up my email client. Number 4 from the top is a Daniweb email telling me about the wonderful topics currently being discussed - here's the list:

* Prevent programs from saving to certain folder? in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Win7: To Migrate or Not to Migrate? in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Error Code 8024402c in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* connecting to localhost` in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Cant install any programs... Help! in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Windows 7 Regional Themes in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Hi every one in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* When I boot computer Error Appear. in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Add-on for Windows7 File Manager in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Laptop wont start.... in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Installing Ram Problem in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Hello everyone problem with audio on vista home in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Issues with moving from XP to Vista in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Vista + Fedora - Hibernate in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* windows 7 display driver in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* vista shared folders in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Ballmer Won't Call Google by Name in Interview in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* cd tray wont open.vista home basic in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Windows 7 Blue Screen in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* invalid boot.in file in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Icons on Desktop layered with another strange icon in ! Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Windows 7 Wallpapers in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* bad image in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Is the FSF shooting the open-source community in the foot? in Windows Vista and Windows 7
* My Vista became incredible slow in Windows Vista and Windows 7

Now quite frankly, this list is enough to make me want to puke. This site is supposedly for geeks. Well, real geeks don't run Windows. Real geeks don't run any Microsoft products, because we understand enough about operating systems and application programs, to know that Microsoft products are total, absolute, pieces of garbage.

Microsloth (my pet name for them, because their product delivery dates are so often late) is probably the least competent corporation on the planet. Let's take a look at some of their products:

1) XBox360 - the most badly designed game console ever.
2) Microsoft Windows 1.0 - 5 years behind GEM and GEOS
3) Internet Exploder 3 - the only browser with a file size limit on downloads, curiously it was set low enough that you couldn't download Netscape with it.
4) Microsoft Outlook & Express - the most advanced virus transmission tools ever devised.
5) Internet Exploder 6 - Totally unable to render standards compliant web pages.
6) Microsoft Office 2007 SP1 - the only ODF "capable" application that can't properly write ODF files. This one is particularly note able because 20 other applications can do it - but the biggest software company on the planet was too incompetent to manage to do it right.
7) Security - let's face it - no other operating system on the planet has the security problems that Windows has, because they all use a proper security model, while Windows uses something that appears to have been designed by a drunken Zebra. Oh, and for all those who claim that Linux and OSX will suffer just as many virus problems when they get popular, well you're wrong. Linux and OSX were designed securely from the ground up. Even Microsoft admits that Windows was not designed to be secure.

I could continue - but you should have gotten the idea by this point. Windows is a total and utter piece of garbage, designed by an incompetent corporation, which wouldn't be able to survive if it hadn't managed to turn a clone of another operating system into a monopoly position in the market place.

What you have to ask yourself is, what are you going to do if Microsoft crashes and burns? Their year end financials were not that good, and if the first quarter results end up being what I think they will be, there is a significant possibility that this could happen. Don't laugh. Think. Where was General Motors 6 years ago? Did anyone think 6 years ago that General Motors would end up in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection?

Oh, I don't think Microsoft will die this year, or the next, but you should start putting together an exit plan just in case, and you this is a good option, it will run on damned near any hardware you can through at it, and even autodetected my wireless card, and ran it, with no need to search for drivers. You won't get that from Windows.