Text 20763, 57 rader
Skriven 2006-09-09 11:33:32 av Alan Zisman (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 20753 av CHARLES ANGELICH (1:123/140)
Ärende: slowdown of late
========================
In article <22718$WIN95@JamNNTPd>,
 "CHARLES ANGELICH -> ALAN ZISMAN" <1:123/140> wrote:

 RF>>> The obvious discrepancy between Windows and other
 RF>>> platforms, is that there is much written solely for
 RF>>> Windows. Comparisons at that juncture are meaningless.

 AZ>> Although given the existence of free software such as WINE
 AZ>> which doesn't emulate Windows but provides a set of Windows
 AZ>> libraries allowing users on Linux, Mac OS X, etc to run
 AZ>> SOME Windows applications directly in those operating
 AZ>> systems, and of free emulation environments such as VMWare
 AZ>> Server and Player, comparisons become more meaningful.

 AZ>> Aside from the gaming experiences, it is more possible to
 AZ>> duplicate the Windows productivity experience under Linux
 AZ>> or OS X than many might assume.

 CA> Given the complexities and failure rate for many attempting to
 CA> use linux and the increase in cost for OSX again I have to ask
 CA> "Why?" (as in why bother).


Fair question... as you've pointed out in several other recent messages,
many/most users never fuss with the hardware/software that's on the box
that they buy, and for them, Windows + MS Office + their digital camera
software may just what they need.

But increasingly, the spyware plague is making online a dangerous
experience for these people... antispyware software remains much more a
work in progress and requires more user intervention than antivirus
software, and as a result, even when many people think they're
protected, they're becoming infested.

At my second-home, at Sechelt (about 30 miles (and a ferry ride) north
of Vancouver), I'm leaving an older laptop set up with Ubuntu Linux,
both for me and for my guests... My wife, who has a very low tolerance
for computers that don't 'just work' actually is reasonably comfortable
sitting down at it to check her email, etc.

I have a friend up there with a new Dell desktop running Windows Media
Center. I've helped him clean off spyware from it twice in the past
three months. (see: http://www.zisman.ca/Articles/2006/biv878.html for
an account of one of these incidents).

He looks at the Linux system with envy. From his perspective, it would
put an end to these recurrent infections.

I've been watching and toying with Linux on the desktop for nearly a
decade now... it's finally reached a point where I'm able to (with my
minimal Linux skill-set but willingness to tinker) get a system doing
pretty much everything I need... and it's close (but not quite there) to
overcoming what you rightly label 'the complexities and failure rate'
for many others.

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