Re: What's wrong with Windows, and right with Linux?

["Aldo Solari [APS]" <SOLARIS@cicei.ulpgc.es>]

A few comments:

Erik writes:

] This  means  explaining   in  a  serious,  non-derogatory  manner
] precisely what  *is*  wrong  with  Windows.    

I have seen the mechanisms  causing  users  to  reject  the  general
commercial  framework (i.e.  scheme of action, marketing, prices, et
cetera) go well beyond faulty MS products (Windows, whatever).

* A thin (and  still  shrinking)  wallet  makes  it a strong reason:
Globalization of economy has led to many changes  among  which  .EDU
budget cuts are increasing (in Europe, at least).  In the US, as far
as  I know, there've been budget cuts as well.  This trend will keep
going in Europe  for  several  more  years  (till  all economies are
equalized - god knows how that's gonna be accomplished and how  much
it is going to cost).  In any case, there's little (or none, in most
cases)  money  to  buy  software.   And  less of all software with a
clown-like marketing  strategy  (Buy  Base  Module  and  if you want
Spectral Analyses buy Module 2 ...   and  so  forth).   Within  this
context,  there'll  be  an ever expanding nische to SEUL and similar
products.

Also, the grass root level (home users, alone, no hacker friends, no
ftp, no www, just a 'puter in a lonely flat in a huge city OR in the
deep  South,  Oklahoma  or  the  Rocky  Mountains,  etc.)  should be
considered:

* What's good with  Windows  at  a  grass  root  level ?: Well, aunt
Eulalia (who's a green parrot and likes to keep  track  of  how  her
roses bloom up bought herself a 'puter and her son explained how she
could  use  Excel  under  Win  3.x).   Sometimes,  aunt  Eulalia has
problems  and  calls  her  son  (who  comes  and  fix  them  up with
scandisk+defrag, etc.) but, all in all, she manages to switch on the
'puter, click on the Excel icon and keep a data base  on  her  roses
and  expenses  ...   Aunt  Eulalia  _doesn't_  (want  to) know about
lilo's, swaps,  configs,  resource  utilization,  benchmarks, speed,
cup's, ram, ppp connections,  patches,  modem-nukes,  whatever:  she
just  wants  to  write in Excel: Date, Plant 3, Rose 1 bloomed, etc.

In  fact, aunt Eulalia could migrate to SEUL if she puts a CD on the
CDROM and clicks on 'Install' and  can click again on the Excel like
icon.   SEUL  recognized  all   the   components   of   the   'puter
automatically.   If  she  had  a MODEM, it installed all drivers and
selected proggies for email,  chat,  ftp  etc.  Even a wordprocessor
and some other utilities which show  up  as  links  (icons)  on  the
desktop  which  the  SEUL  guys  had the good taste to choose.  This
could sound weird  but  it  imposes  the  greatest tech challenge to
'our' coders.  If a 7-8 years old child or aunt Eulalia can  install
SEUL, it will hit the entire world.

Cheeers,

    APS
    

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----
Aldo-Pier Solari <SolariS@CICEI.ULPGC.ES>, Fish.Res.Gr./ULP
Home-page:  http://www.ulpgc.es/usuarios/solaris/index.html
PGPKey ID: 0xFDD1FD36   --  IWillNotFailThoseWithWhomIServe
----
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