No, I am not going to read your article and I do not care about your TRUTH (well, actually, I went and skimmed a little of it - do not see how it is apropos of this particular discussion). Just add '.com' to the 2 references to go there - warning Ace is an extremely rightwingnut site that does not censor any opinions that they agree with - DU is a leftwingnut site that deletes inappropriate talk.

most of this thread is funny. we have blatant M$ haters Vs. M$ supports/others who have some common sense.

Imo i hate the hell out of Miscro$oft but windows is something that you don't need to think about.

Almost all viruses and other kind of crapware can be traced back to going to risky sites and shoddy A/V protection/firewalls (like Norton).

I have used Windows going on 14 years now. Until I started using windows XP in 2003 I wasn't really aware of spyware and what have you.

Since then I have installed Zone Alarm and have yet to see any spyware or viruses on my XP computer.

On my Vista computer I have never had a spy ware prog or virus ever. Once or twice I did get some rouge anti-spyware programs, but they were easy enough to remove.

Also, Mad Hatter, in response to your claims that Windows takes longer to install. Prey tell what were the system specs on that computer?

Because on the computers at the school I used to work for (Core 2 Duo/Mac Book Pro's [via bootcamp]) when I had a windows installation marathon it only took 34 minutes per computer to install windows and about another 5 to 15 minutes for drivers.

On my home PC's (3 XP and 2 vista, 1 CentOs), 3 of which were built by myself, only take 25 minutes for XP and 20 minutes for Vista Ultimate.

I have CentOS installed on another of my computers, and it took 50 minutes to install and lacks the functionality and ease of use of windows. The only reason I use it is because one of my private mmo gaming servers only runs on linux (no win bins D

I also have to agree with another post that was about gaming.

Linux has no/little ground hold what so ever in gaming circles.

I have actually yet to find a game that does support linux actually.

Let's see what else... OH, that part about WMP being crap.. what are you smoking, I want some.

WMP is just fine once you install either CCP (Community Codec Pack) or Windows XP/Vista Codec Pack.

All in all this thread is one huge troll fest, flame wars left, right, and center. While I do hate M$, I still use some of their products (though I dont usually obtain them legally [Windows, Word 2000, and Urban Assault excluded]).

Though I do have to agree with some of your points in the OP.

Windows does have certain security holes that other Os' don't. And the 360 does reek of design flaws.

As for your logic behind why there are so many viruses for windows and all that, your almost completely wrong, others are almost completely right.

Its a combination of the two opinions really.

Windows IS, this is a fact, the most popular OS on the market currently and Windows DOES have many security flaws.

The reason there are so many viruses, etc. for windows is because of that popularity and the amount of people that would like nothing else better then to see that shiny Microsoft headquarters building come crashing to the ground.

i could go on, but I think your Post Troll is probably so full it's ready to burst if it were to consume any more food....


EDIT:
Also, you say this is NOT a geek site?

Let us see:

1. People discuss in great detail about different OS', computer hardware, programming, software, and techy stuff in general
2. Many rants made by people such as yourself are here
3. Forums for tons of different programming languages can be found
4. Tech support for anything under the sun as long as its computer related

... this looks like a geek site to me.

CentOS isnt a good example. Its not a modern linux distribution (because its an enterprise grad solution, most of its software dates back to ~2006 - very stable but not very up to date). Therefore it lacks recent inmprovements with regards to video and network drivers.

First of all, calling people "unprofessional" when they are not here to defend their opinion speaks volumes about you, none of it good. Second of all, I have spoken to these people in real life, and I know they are successful and I know they are SMEs, so why would I dismiss their opinion based on something "Mad Hatter" said online? Third, I know what modularity is. Don't patronize me.

I think that <a href="http://notnews.today.com/2009/10/06/microsoft-windows-beats-all-in-security-tests/">this link</a> says it all. Yes, it's satire. But it's also true. Did you hear about the laptops capture early in the "War on Terror" and how the military announced that they would be easy to crack because they were running Windows. Curious how reprints of the article no longer mentioned Windows, I wonder what (or who) inspired the change?

And of course Microsoft developed a tool for police to be able to access your computer, fortunately it only works on Windows, because I can guarantee that stolen ones will show up on the black market in short order.

Did you know that 40% of the computers connected to the Internet are bots? Actually that's 50% of the Windows computers (50% may not be accurate, it maybe only 45%, as we don't know how many immune Apple and Linux boxes there are).

Botnets Running Rampant is the title of another article - again all those bots run Windows. Microsoft supports the Russian Mob quite nicely - you have to wonder if they are getting paid to do so?

And you have to wonder about Microsoft. They didn't arrange to backup the Danger servers, and now T-Mobile Sidekick users could loose their data.

Something to think about.

What choice does a gamer have. I know supposedly there's programs to make Windows software work on a ?Linux box, but they never work right and are Always a big hassle.,, Plus Linux can't keep up on the driver situation (last time I set up a linux box a few years ago there was 1 driver for SATA drives, and it didn't work).

Windows is a hassle enough, There's no way I'm going to something even MORE complicated!

There's also no way, I'm going to accept, "Just can't do that" on my computer. And the idiocy and cuteness that comes with MACs (lots of "Can't do that"), just makes me sick. Even if they eliminated the "Can't do that" stuff, I probably couldn't stand a MAC. Plus they cost 3 times as much (and you get less, poor ignorant Maccies) . . .

So now you know why people use Windows, it's NOT because we like it or we're mindless drones. It's because we don't have a choice!

Yeah but a few years ago we were all using XP which has *no* native SATA support.

Actually if you compare a Mac against a Dell, same specs, the prices are pretty close. If you get a Windows box that's 1/3 the price, it won't have the same capabilities.

As to Linux, 3 years is forever for Linux. Remember that Fedora, Mandriva and Ubuntu, the biggest Linux distributions have 2 releases per year, as compared to Microsoft's 1 release in 5 years (though there were 3 service packs). This is actually becoming a problem, as both the Kernel and the Distributions update so often that people can't keep up.

Yeah, well technology moves pretty quickly. I learned programming on an IBM mainframe using punch cards (early 70's). Thirty-six years later it's impossible to buy a single chip that's as slow as that mainframe. Centronics parallel ports, RS232 ports, ISA slots, EISA slots, PCMIA slots, AGP slots, MCA slots, CGA, EGA, Hercules, Plantronics, VGA, and on and on.

I guess that's one of the reasons that I'm so willing to abandon Windows. I bought my first personal computer before Microsoft released DOS 1.0. To me, Microsoft is a newbie, that got where it is by torpedoing the competition, not by producing a superior product.

Heh - check this out.

Not outside of the US. The apple store here just swaps the $ for a £ which is shit.

e.g. Macbook (the most basic one) is £749 - Thats $1186

specs:

You can get a Toshiba with an AMD Dual core, 17" screen, 3gb ram, An Geforce 8200, and 250gb hdd for £340.