Micro lathe

LOL. Why beat around the bush? May he burn in damnation. All else aside, it's just plain wrong to build a revenue stream on other people's FUD, and then *uck up while doing it. Symantec isn't much better, although I at one time thought they had bought out Norton's name and product.

It was more a curiosity than a desire to switch (IE doesn't run on Linux, you see), so I didn't commit much effort. It runs well enough on Linux to pull down patches, etc. but I can't see using it on the desktop. On topic, then, I could browse the web through X on the Windows machine, and remain completely safe. That's like using a wetsuit for a condom, though.

[Not completely OT, BTW. The Linux box was an experiment to test EMC, the RTLinux CNC from the nice folks at NIST. BDI didn't install the kernel correctly, probably because there was an old Debian install on that system. It saved the old filesystem, but trashed the old kernel and itself doing so. It's funny in a way, but I still haven't found the moxy to laugh yet. I keep thinking I'll try again by booting RT from the second disk, but found ArtSoft's Mach2 in the meantime and hence no need to mess with EMC. So now the Linux box has an updated kernel, and sits in a closet whining away and spinning its disks at full speed 24x7, whether I'm actually using it or not. About all it does now is serve up 200 GB of otherwise unused disk. ]

Symantec has bought Norton. The deserve each other.

Yup. Oh, and viruses are a real problem, not FUD. Grisoft.com has a great antivirus program which is free to home users, and is as good or better than the commercial ones. AVG antivirus, from

Well, I suppose. If I was running VirusOS of any variety, I'd certainly not be running IE and OE on it, because those are the most frequently targeted apps for malware.

Ouch.

I've been playing with ubuntu as a distro for a while now, it very much doesn't suck. Based on Debian but with newer packages, and a fantastic uncomplicated installer.

Too bad. AdAware and Spybot, Search & Destroy are killer apps, that do not pose any problems for the vast majority of users.

I have no problem playing WMV files through Firefox at all.

Sounds like you may have a lot of other issues going on besides adware etc.

Abrasha

That must be it. I have issues.

I meant "computer" issues. :)

I *do* have computer issues. It just burns me up that so much effort goes into creating and countering malware.

Don't be dissin' Microsoft.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Send your thank you notes to Bill Gates. If it weren't for the security holes, and the general crappiness of the OS and it's lame browser, there wouldn't be such a problem.

I can't wait for the entire Net to come crashing down one of these days. It will happen sooner or later.

Nobody listened to the warnings about NOLA. I think the same is true for the Net. Sooner or later it will happen, and not until it does are people going to get serious about fixing it.

Abrasha

Why not? They've been making crappy software for as long as they have been in existence. And getting rich of other people's ideas by using marketing techniques that are more brilliant then the software they make.

Just an example. I have just spend at least three hours trying to (unsuccessfully) share a couple of folders in an account on an XP Pro computer with another computer on my home network. I followed the exact procedure as I have many times before. It won't work. This won't happen on any other platform but the crappy shit from Micro$oft.

Microsoft Innovation -- An Oxymoron

Microsoft Innovation: "Copy and Conquer" MS: Innovator or Integrator? The Microsoft "Hall of Innovation"

You don't really believe that, do you? Windows isn't alone in having problems. Linux issues topped the CERT list for three years running, not just by a little bit, but with more than half the confirmed issues. The problem isn't one of systems or of software. The real problem is a whole generation of malcontents, lacking the talent to contribute usefully, expressing themselves the only way they know how: tearing down what others build. What message can you possibly get from adware that pops up to sell you adware blockers? They're a bunch of thugs. Nothing more; probably a whole lot less.

As for Windows, I'm quite pleased with it. OE works well enough, and IE plenty better than the alternatives. The open-ness is both a blessing and a curse, as was lowering the bar for development. If there really were better alternatives, I'll certainly join the rush to leave. As it stands, though, there isn't one.

I was thinking you were making some sense until I got to that part.

Have you ever taken a close look at the Mac's OSX?

Abrasha

I do like the glitz and polish of their offerings, and thought briefly about six months ago about buying a baby Mac to play with. And then I remembered regretting every Apple product I ever wasted a dime on, including a Mac II, Newton, and an early iPod. In any case, I doubt it can be compelling. Windows is king of the desktop, for better or worse, for one very simple reason: every best-of-class application runs on Windows, and I own and use quite a few of them. Very few of them run on the Mac. But, no, I don't know very much about OSX. What do you find compelling?

I don't spend a lot of time on it. I use XP here and 98 at home. No anti-virus, but both my ISPs catch virtually every one of those. I do use and online virus scanner from Panda occasionally. I run adaware and Spybot about once a month. And I use Firefox and Thunderbird. No major problems, and I'm quite active on the 'net.

Yeah, quite a bit different from the shoe boxes Windows users are used to. Their machines are so beautiful.

That one really isn't good for much, other than doing very basic stuff.

I had a Mac SE. Hated it, with that tiny build in monitor. You had to scroll sideways all the time too, in word processing, to see what you were doing. AND you had to get a proprietary Apple printer.

Frankly, I am in the same boat as you are. Several program I use do not run on the Mac. In my case that is trueSpace by Caligari, PhotoPaint and Draw by Corel (I hate Photoshop), and Vegas and DVD Architect by Sony (formerly by Sonic Foundry)

However, I could switch all of the programs to the Mac, if I were willing to get new software also and just get through it. That would mean though, that I would have to dedicate a major amount of time to learning new software, which I am not willing to do. Until of course, I get so fed up with Windows, that I throw the whole thing out on the street.

So what do I find compelling. Well, the design of the hardware is a major attraction for me. And dozens of my friends and colleagues, who are all in the design community in one way or another, all report, that they have none of the problems that I have. They claim never to have had any of the problems, that I commonly complain about.

Networking is a snap on the Mac, always has been. Security is built in from the start.

Abrasha

Ditto

Abrasha