On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 06:08:01 -0800, nicedreams@gmail.com wrote:

> Why not Fedora? I spent a day looking for a suitable free OS to
> download. This one seemed to be suitable. I could have spent all year
> if I had looked at every option and flavour.
>

But you as the technician are *expected* to have a thorough knowledge of
the alternatives. That you only spent a day looking says something you.

If you really support open source, I would expect that you do take the
time and learn the alternatives. Especially if you want to be in the
field.

> Shortly, I hope to be a MCDST (MS Certified Desktop Technician). I need
> a justified opinon on this subject. I'd hate to be seen as one of
> Bill's buddies without a good argument.
>

So this is what it comes down to. You want some arguments as to why you
should recommend Windows without seeming like you are ignorant of the
alternatives.... "well, you know, I tried linux and it's just too
complicated for ordinary users."

Heck, my 70-something parents went from Win9x to Linux to OS-X without a
blink. I could't explain to them that OS-X wasn't really that much
faster, but that there really wasn't much of a comparison between a p-150
and a brand new MAC.

Linux is as easy to use as any other system for the basic user. The
installation requires a bit more knowledge, but to a tech it should be
trivial. The most technically sophisticated question you need to know is
if you use DHCP or fixed IP.... Windows assumes absurd defaults, then
blows up when systems are added to the mix.... Don't even get me started
on the non-sense of Windows XP, and its 'easy' GUI....

Casper Doppen wrote:
> Dear Josh,
>
[snip]
>
> - I have everything completely under my own control. I decide and
> control whatever the computer does or can do at any moment, and if
> unsure about something I can look into the source. I don't like OS
> behaviour unknown to me. Windows is too self-willed and stubborn for me,
> the OS tries to control me instead of letting me control the OS.
[snip]

Amen to that! And the MS-knows-better-what-the-user-wants-than-the-
user-himself is even worse with MS Office. Unfortunately OpenOffice
thought that it was a good idea to introduce some of the same
wizard-thinking into OO.
I say: Wizards are OK but please NO WIZARDS BY DEFAULT!
eg.: Installation asks: Do you want wizards with your fries?
Yes or No
If you hit "No" you still may use the wizards out of a menu.
If you hit "Yes" you still may disable all wizards later by means
of a menu item.

Another "gimmik" of MS-Windows which enrages me frequently is the
notorious redraw of windows and lists. Working on a list of tens or
even hundreds of files Windows never lets you stay on the file you
worked on last but it redraws the file list and you need to keep
pencil and paper notes on which file you touched last.
KDE keeps the last file marked and brings the view of the list back
to where I was. Takes a second longer to rebuild the list but saves
me a lot of hassle and saves MY time.

The two complaints I have about KDE is that (1) kpilot completely
sucks.
The last time I had to restore the addressbook of my trusty old
PalmIIIxe with kpilot I got either none of the categories back
or I had addresses double and triple in the PDA. If I want a
restore I want a restore and nothing else, especially I don't
want the empty PDA synchronized to the PC before the restore is
performed. Fortunately I still had a usable backup on an XP-box
with Palm Companion. Fortunately too that my old-old PDA needed
a hard reset only once in 5 years.
Please have a look into the backup and restore of PalmOne s/w.
That is functionality I would like to have copied into KDE. It is,
however not a MS product.

(2) Icon placement on the desktop used to suck with MS Windows.
It got better lately - now it sucks with KDE. I hope it will be
better with 3.4.

Kind regards, Eike

Eike Lantzsch, ZP6CGE wrote:

> Casper Doppen wrote:
>> Dear Josh,
>>
> [snip]
>>
>> - I have everything completely under my own control. I decide and
>> control whatever the computer does or can do at any moment, and if
>> unsure about something I can look into the source. I don't like OS
>> behaviour unknown to me. Windows is too self-willed and stubborn for me,
>> the OS tries to control me instead of letting me control the OS.
> [snip]
>
> Amen to that! And the MS-knows-better-what-the-user-wants-than-the-
> user-himself is even worse with MS Office. Unfortunately OpenOffice
> thought that it was a good idea to introduce some of the same
> wizard-thinking into OO.
> I say: Wizards are OK but please NO WIZARDS BY DEFAULT!
> eg.: Installation asks: Do you want wizards with your fries?
> Yes or No
> If you hit "No" you still may use the wizards out of a menu.
> If you hit "Yes" you still may disable all wizards later by means
> of a menu item.
>
> Another "gimmik" of MS-Windows which enrages me frequently is the
> notorious redraw of windows and lists. Working on a list of tens or
> even hundreds of files Windows never lets you stay on the file you
> worked on last but it redraws the file list and you need to keep
> pencil and paper notes on which file you touched last.
> KDE keeps the last file marked and brings the view of the list back
> to where I was. Takes a second longer to rebuild the list but saves
> me a lot of hassle and saves MY time.
>

Even worse with Windows, try copying a bunch of files into a folder. Then,
in the folder you're copying to, start editing a file or folder name. Don't
hit enter. Once the files have copied and the progress window closes,
whichever file/folder was copied last gets the name you were writing, NOT
the actual file/folder you were renaming. This bug is soon to be 10 years
old, hasn't been addressed yet. Like so many other bugs in Windows. What
does it tell us anyway? That object orientation is a concept lost on
Microsoft.


> (2) Icon placement on the desktop used to suck with MS Windows.
> It got better lately - now it sucks with KDE. I hope it will be
> better with 3.4.
>

True, they change all the time.

--
Why do cats jump out of Windows? Because it sucks!

Oh, and what about the annoyances in Windows, zip files as folders, the
parsing of video files, that you have to hack the registry to get rid of
because they bring your state-of-the-art computer to its knees?

These things exist and are even more functional in KDE (like resting your
cursor on top of a movie file, watching a frame and listening to the sound
play), and they work quickly and without side-effects.

And what about copying a picture to a folder where there's a file with the
same name? A dialog with both pictures + statistics about them appears with
easy to understand choices. How cool is that? Some with sound files, only
here you have two player bars that you can use to listen to each file. How
cool is that? I tell you how cool it is: It kicks asssssss!

People keep saying, "Linux isn't ready for the desktop". Which desktop would
that be? KDE is a better, more user-friendly and more versatile desktop
than Explorer ever was. And that's a fact.




--
Why do cats jump out of Windows? Because it sucks!

Oh, oh, and what about Explorer, move some files out of a directory you're
working in. Start renaming a file or folder while it progresses. You better
have fast fingers or a slow harddrive, because if you're still typing when
those files have been moved, what you wrote will be discarded and the
original name restored.

Or try to rename a folder, and have Explorer tell you afterwards that you
can't rename it because some application is using the folder. And then it
reverts to the old name without giving you a chance to at least Ctrl-C what
you wrote. And 9 times out of 10 the "application using the folder" is
really Explorer itself, leaving a file locked because it's buggy as hell.
And there's only one cure other than a system reboot, which is, Task
Manager > Explorer: End Process > Run: explorer.exe. Pathetic.


--
Why do cats jump out of Windows? Because it sucks!

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 03:27:38 -0800, Josh wrote:

> I am a trained, experienced and qualified Microsoft technician.


Bull****. You're troll & have posted this crap in other groups.

Eike Lantzsch, ZP6CGE wrote:
> ...
> (2) Icon placement on the desktop used to suck with MS Windows.
> It got better lately - now it sucks with KDE. I hope it will be
> better with 3.4.
> ...

There was a bug with the placement
of icons at login which has been hunted
down and killed

If that is your problem, then you should
get happy with 3.4... if not, make a wish
with a detailed description of your desired
behavior: http://bugs.kde.org

RU,
Andreas

I may be a few days late in adding my two cents worth, but considering
that I work for a small university (with an equally small budget), I
feel I have a voice in this. I am responsible for maintaining the
computers and related technologies for the library. In order to meet
the needs of our users, I have designated several groups of computers,
each for different functions. A large portion is for the computer
lab. Two smaller groups of computers are for public internet access
and for our online databases (including our online card catalog).

Up until this past December, all the computers were running Windows
2000 with roaming profiles downloaded from a central server. A couple
months before that, however, the profiles would fail to download. A
quick search of the Knowledge Base on the Microsoft site told me that
this was a known issue with Win2K and that a patch was ready but would
NOT be released until the next Service Pack (which, I found out later,
isn't going to be an SP anymore, but that's another issue).

Since I have to run Windows in the computer lab because of various
software programs being used, I left those alone (for now). However,
there was nothing to prevent me from changing the other computers over
to Linux, which I did. Now, I have sixteen computers that I don not
have to worry about being infested with viruses, worms, or spyware.
Oh, I should mention that the workstations that access our online
databases have to be restricted to a select few domains, which is
easily done with the help of some free software.

Granted, I have to sit down and research how I was going to set up the
computers, and the necessary software, for the various tasks, including
how the desktops would look like. Once done, all I had to do was roll
up the files into a tarball and unpack them on the various machines.
Of course, that whole process is part of my job. Now, I have sixteen
computers that not only run Linux and are immune to the problems that
plaque Windows systems, but that the users cannot change do to
customization done on my part. Do the users care? Appartantly not,
since they're using the workstations (and Firefox, of course) without
any help or question whatsoever. Thus, I have plans for more use of
Linux in our library in the future.

So why do I use Linux? Let's see:

1) Immune to Windows vulnerabilities (including viruses, worms,
trojans, and especially spyware).
2) Freedom to customize the system to meet varying needs (workstations,
web servers, file servers, etc.).
3) Price savings in software.
4) Stability.

And the distro I use? Debian Sarge.