When I find myself in times of trouble, That Penguin Tux, he comes to me, Speaking Words of Wisdom, 'Format C:' And in my hour darkness, he is standing right in front of me, Speaking Words of Wisdom, 'Format C:' Format C:, Format C:, Format C:, Format C:, Speaking Words of Wisdom, Format C: And when the broken-hearted people living in the worlde agree, "Make us free of Windows!", Format C: You can use GNUparted, install Linux/Plan9/BSD, You know how the Wind blows, Format C: Format C:. Format C:, Format C:, Format C:, Sod it, install Linux/BSD Format C:, Format C:, Format C:, Format C:, Whisper Words of Wisdom, Format C: And when the night is cloudy, 'cos your CD's 'mapped from D: to E:, Rid yourself of Windows, Format C: I wake up to the Sound of Mandrake; Slack with LILO or GRUB comforts me, Speaking Words of Wisdom, Format C: Format C:, Format C: Format C:, yeah Format C:, Chuck that lousy Windblows, Format C: Format C:, Format C:, Format C:, Format C:, (Oh Lord) Make us free of Windows, Format C:44 responses total.
Lennon would be chuckling in his grave.
I am but not in my grave ;-) I installed Redhat Linux for my cousin who would frequently complain of viruses and all sorts of problems on Windows. I would have to drive almost 60kms to fix problems for him. So I finally decided to experiment with Linux on the desktop for him. Its been over two years now and he hasn't complained once since then. ofcourse, all he uses is the mail client and the text editor. My laptop is a dual-boot, Redhat Linux 9.0 and Windows 2000 Pro. Sadly, my ISDN Modem has no drivers for Linux and I use the webcam often while chatting on Yahoo. So I use Linux only when I writing something in Perl. :( Other than this, I'd be happy to get rid of windows. After I installed Norton AV on the laptop its become slower. I also need to install a personal firewall on the Windows coz I am paranoid. That means further slowing of my P-III 650MHz/128RAM laptop. At my workplace I have Windows XP on a P4 1.8GHz/128MB RAM. Its sloooooow. But I got only the XP license with my new desktop, so have to live with XP at the office. :(
Hmmm...as song parodies go, that's kind of lame.
hey gimme a break, first effort.
Waaaah! That was a bit whiney, wasn't it? I'll try to do better next time on both counts
I thought it was pretty funny.
As i penance (and also because i want to), thankyou other, sj2, and novomit
I think the 'Hotel California' parody that's in the Jellyware conference is one of the better ones I've seen.
There's a lamer who's sure, all that glitters is gold, and he's buying a stairway to Redmond When he gets there, he knows, if the comps are all hosed, It's Ctrl-Alt-Del, Reboot, then Reinstall Woe oh oh oh oh oh oh And he's buying a stairway to Redmond There's a sing on the wall, but he wants to be sure, Can't be bothered with dealing with these things, With Windows, there's no book, just a booklet with rings, That you know all those users aren't reading (Chorus) There's a feeling I get when i look to the West, And my spirit is crying for fleeing In my thoughts i have seen, protection rings, direct'ry trees but 64K's not enough, for segmenting (Chorus) And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune, Microsoft Inc. will buy US Fed Gov, But a new day will dawn, for those who stand long(), And the Forces of Darkness will falter And it makes me wonder, If there's a flaw in your big lawsuit, Don't be alarmed now, It's just some small change for IBM, Yes there are two paths - you can switch to C:, but in the long run, There's still time to move to SQL Drive heads are humming and then won't go, because you don't know, Bill Gates is forcing you to buy more Steve Ballmer's just a front man, just a yes-man, And he can go and piss in the wind And as we wind on down the road, Our drives much larger than before, There walks a marketeer we all know Who shines white light, whose system blows And Windows still grows lots of mould, ANd if you listen very hard, The truth will come to you at last, When all are one and one is all, Why buy a crock? just buy a Rolls, Woh oh oh, oh oh oh oh, And he's buying a stairway to Redmond
When Linux emulates MS Office and I can install it without losing my mind, I'll consider it.
Mandrake has such a thing. You can actually install Windows inside Mandrake and run all you Windows applications from inside, knowing that Windows can't talk to the outside and the outside cannot talk to windows. I may re-install Mandrake rather than SuSe just for that reason.
Linux is actually about as easy as Windows to install nowadays (doesn't apply to Slackware or Debian). There aren't as many Office Apps so many people aren't willing to bother making the switch, though.
No there aren't as many apps. Yet. And Linux is no harder to install unless you buy Slackware or Debian (even then, it's probably not much harder unless you "lose your mind" at a non-graphical menu). And no-one sells dual boot Linux/Windows machines because if they do, M$ revokes their Windows licence. And Microsoft isn't a monopolist? Yeah right. Maybe Charles Manson should get in touch with their lawyers and marketing people. Maybe they can convince everyone he's not a serial killer.
Mandrake & SuSe are both pretty easy to install, and come with OpenOffice which is mostly MS Office compatible.
Slackware is actually pretty easy to install now, but doesnt give you a GUI installer. You get full directions on screen though. havent used Debian in a couple of years so not sure how far their installer has come.
((( Agora 100 linked as Music 152, by request )))
Linux is not easier to install than Windows, because Windows comes already installed on your computer (for 99.99% of all buyers). That whooping huge factor aside, yes, Linux is easier.
This response has been erased.
Re 18 - this is my fault; since it's filk, i asked for the item to be linked. after response 18. sorry.
This response has been erased.
Re #2: I'm running a Windows-free household, and doing just fine. RH 9.0 has a few glitches here and there in its implementation of Open Office (if you save your setup and log out with an open spreadsheet or PowerPoint-clone drawing, the window that restarts is a word-processor instead), but on the whole it is very nice. I'm playing with the formula editor just to try to capture some equations that I'm doing on paper - it is fun! Some things are not well-polished yet, but when millions of people have the full source you know it's not going to be long. Microsoft's days are numbered.
Let's see, Microsoft was incorporated on June 25, 1981, so today is somewhere around number 8,060.....and tomorrow will be around 8,061....
Before Microsoft's days are numbered, the apps that most people want will have to be made to run under Linux. I have some software that helps train you to learn other languages. It runs natively under Windows. You can tell people to use WINE or something similar but that takes a lot of know how, something that most users arent interested in. So I'd say that until more practical software is ported to Linux that the common user will really want, M$ is still on firm ground. Since most Linuces seem to be concentrating on the server side of business, it might be a while yet.
I'd say that most Linux distributions are targetting some odd niche, and there are a lot of odd niches and therefore a lot of distros. Distros like Mandrake and SuSe are targetting the desktop, and doing a great job. I'm currently playing with Mandrake 9.1 on my new computer and it's easy to install and quite elegant to use. Plus it comes with OpenOffice (major office suite), GIMP (photo editor which compares quite favorably to Photoshop), and a bunch of other stuff. Support for a lot of hardware, printers, USB stuff, cameras, etc. Maybe it doesn't have the thorough hardware & app compatibility, but I'd rather live with that sort of shortcoming than be prey to every virus which comes along.
The hardware compatibility problems have gotten a lot better recently. Used to be that you'd have to be careful of what kind of hardware you used with Linux, but now I find that I can install it with little problem on most PC's that I come across.
It installs and runs on most systems, now. If you have "weirdtech" hardware like video capture cards or scanners it can be a bit touch and go, though. My scanner worked great under RedHat 7.3, but since I upgraded to 8.0 it's never worked again.
Speaking of which, my new computer (one of those small Shuttle PCs) has the NVidia video, network, and sound chipsets. The video and sound worked fine with both RedHat 9.0 and Mandrake 9.1 installs, and the network started working after I downloaded the (binary-only) drivers from NVidia's website. I'm using it right now, having just gotten the network going!
The day that Linux is more dependable and cheaper than Windows is the day that businesses will start to use it. *Then* Microsoft will have a problem.
Guess what? Linux is cheaper, more dependable, and IBM is selling it all over the place. :)
Last I asked, IBM was not selling Linux for personal machines. Wal*Mart, on the other hand, *does* sell PCs with Mandrake installed, although I think only by mail order. (In the store, you can get them w/ blank drives and install your own OS.) They're about 300-400 USD, IIRC.
Then Microsoft has a problem!
Not so sure. I don't hear many commercials or ads touting the cheaper Mandrake PC's. If few people hear about it, then they won't get bought, regardless of its merits. A little more PR might be in order.
Re #30: would IBM selling Linux for PC's be influential? Wouldn't it be better if Dell and or HP started selling it? Maybe if IBM (and Toshiba) started distributing it in laptops. I don't know what IBM's ranking among Pc vendors is, but I gather they aren't that high up.
HP's Thai subsidiary now sells laptops and desktops with a Thai-language edition of Linux, subsidised by the Thai government. The story at [http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/systems/0,39001153,39129420,00.htm] mentions that "None of the large U.S.-based PC makers--HP, IBM and Dell--are known to sell consumer desktops or notebook with the Linux OS pre-installed."
This response has been erased.
Dell did sell desktop PCs with Linux, but backed off, apparently under pressure from Microsoft. They still sell servers with Linux.
You know, the idea that one manufacturer (of software) can threaten a retailer into not carrying the products of another manufacturer absolutely amazes me, and strikes me as profoundly un-American.
It's just the free market at work. Or so Republicans would have us believe. :>
That's why the name of the lawsuit is
The United States of America
versus Microsoft
It IS the free market at work, and it is an example of exactly why an unregulated free market is just about as bad as a totalitarian state, if not worse.
Why do you think that there's any difference at all between a truely unregulated free market and a totalitarian state?
One might actually have the pretense of being a non-corporate governed state. I suppose that pretense is essential to creating either, but the difference might lie in the nature of the pretense.
hi i have a mandrake 8.2 and a router, 3 pc's and a cable modem.Hmmm it's not a router it 's a switch lol . And i want to share my inet connection. How should i do it ? Dumb question i know but hey, i have been using linux for just 3-4 days now... and everything is so simple to understand in the man in you don't know the basics. 10x
Many home network switches have connection-sharing stuff built in but if your switch is just a switch you'll probably need to set up one of the computers to serve as a local gateway and do IP masquerading. There're almost certainly some excellent FAQs on exactly how to do this. I'd search for "IP masquerading" to find more info..
You have several choices: