I've been using MS since MSDOS 3, and Windows since 2.0 and I have been nothing but loyal to MS through thick and thin.

I never thought I would say it but I am about totally fed up with MS and Windows.. The games MS is playing lately with thier hidden spyware and privacy invasion is getting to me.. MS wants to control everything about your computer.. MS is getting as bad as Mac for christ sake. They are even funding arseholes like SCO and trying to kill the opensource world. Kind funny how MS makes plenty of software for Macs but they won't write so much as a single line of code for Linux.. Makes you wonder who they REALLY fear doesnt it?

Windows Updates.. Security Patches.. Is that to keep hackers out or keep MS in? It seems like you can't do anything anymore without Windows looking for an internet connection. You can't even search a local drive without MS looking to the internet.

Not to mention the fact that I have to reboot every stinkin time I install simple software.. It's redicules.. I mean MS has been at it for 20 years now.. You'd think they can make an OS like Linux that you don't have to reboot every time you do something simple. Instead of getting better it's getting worse..

Every plugin, every update, every install, almost everything else seems like it requires a restart.. Why is that?

I 'm not going to spend another penny on Windows or Windows software from now on. I'd rather spend my money on Linux software to promote development there. Hopefully one day Windows will be a has been.

I've been using Linux Exclusivly for the past year now.. Sure, it's got it's problems and I've got my gripes about certain things but overall I can't say it's been half as bad as windows has been lately.. It seems like everytime I turn around I have to restart.. Yet I don't ever recall having to restart Linux unless I am updating a kernel. Or when I choose to. Or when Mozilla locks up my system!
I've had to reboot my XP box at least 6 times today just for doing simple software updates and installs.

damn, i havent had to reboot any of my boxes in awhile. Windows xp shouldnt have to be rebooted 6 times a day. It's highly unlikely that windows is crashing, as opposed to a program crashing windows. You mention the same type of problem in linux, with the program mozilla crashing linux. As far as spyware goes, i recommend "antispy xp", Works like a charm.

It already sounds like you've moved from windows, so good luck.

Re mozilla crashing linux

That should not happen. Never should app that runs as non root user be able to crash entire system. If it happens, that is major OS bug that needs to be reported and investigated. I had some apps kill my KDE, or even entire X, but I could always ssh in from another box, kill offending app, and revert system back to normal.

Windowz wasnt crashing to require a reboot it's just that I'm sick of having to reboot everythime something changes.. It's redicules. Everytime I install an upgrade, or make a simple change I always get that dumb *** Windows must be restarted for these changes to take effect. Click ok to restart.. And this is not something new.. It's always been that way. With XP it seems to be worse than ever..

Mozilla still locks up solid on my Linux box. 99% of the time it's on flash but it has been known to just lock up. In most cases I can just kill it and start over. But some flash pages will lock it solid. No way to do anything. No shell access no nothing.. It's locked solid! The power switch is the only way out.. I don't know what does it. but Mozilla ia the only thing that has done it. I've never had anything crash on my system except Mozilla.. It's kinda wierd.. I just dissabled flash and I don't have the problem.. It's just annoying that I have to use my widows box for flash pages. They are side by side but none the less it's a pain.

what software did microsoft write for mac? Are you sure it wasn't just a port, or a peice of software made by a different company like adobe ?

I agree, i can't stand hearing about some peice of great software, going to their website and finding that htey don't offer a linux port. Then, if you have a friend telling you to get a specific peice of software, you tell them you're running linux, and they flip out saying "linux is stupid, just use windows dude" .

It's just annoying, i can't stand it, why don't they make any truely innovative software for linux?

There are tons of stuff written by MS for Mac. like Office, Money, Internet Exporer, all the way down to simple stuff like MSN Messenger.. You don't see them writing a single bit of code for Linux tho.. If they didnt basically have to (in order to have a reliable server) they would have never released Front Page sets to the Linux world either.. But since at least 2/3s of the servers on the inernet are a *nix os I don't think they had much choice..

Anyway, my use for Windows is dwindling.. Slowly but surely I am finding new software that replaces my reasons for using Windows.. Basically the only thing I use it for now is for navigation software, Macromedia Fireworks, and to load/unload my GPS. That's really about it.. I can't remember when the last time I used Office was.. I've been using Open Office instead.. I use Linux for 99.9% of my email and web surfing. Iuse gFTP for my websites, gedit for writing scripts, Gimp for simple graphics edits, Thats really all I can think of.. My computers are tools to me I'm not a gamer at all. Hopefully soon enough I won't need to run 2 machines to get done what I want done.

well lets see here...


i replaced...

winamp with xmms
ie with firebird
outlook with ximian evolution
trillian with gaim
xchat with xchat :P
dialup networking with kppp
shell32 with fluxbox
photoshop and fireworks with css/html and low-end graphics with the gimp
notepad with vim



and... that's about it.

I still depend on wqindows for high end navigation software like Mapsource, Delorme, MapPoint, and GPS software like GPSpro and ezGPS.. None of these are available on Linux, or Mac for that matter..

I still can't replace Fireworks with Gimp. Or I cannot use linux for Cool Edit Pro digital audio.

Originally posted by Davros
[B]There are tons of stuff written by MS for Mac. like Office, Money, Internet Exporer, all the way down to simple stuff like MSN Messenger.. You don't see them writing a single bit of code for Linux tho.. If they didnt basically have to (in order to have a reliable server) they would have never released Front Page sets to the Linux world either.. But since at least 2/3s of the servers on the inernet are a *nix os I don't think they had much choice..

The Mac exisists today because of microsoft. If microsoft did not release an office version for the mac, it would be dead. It would have died well before an open source product could have replaced it.

They do have code for linux.. have you seen services for unix? It's like wine but for windows. You can install and run some linux programs on windows, as well as linux utilities. It took best in show a year ago at linux world. It's there to help system administrators integrate linux in to their windows networks.

Well even though diehard Mac users will refuse to admit it even if you show them on paper that MS has bailed out Mac more than just writing software.. MS Bailed them out financially as well as offereing them a product. Apple/Mac was done. In fact they were beyond bankrupt until MS bailed them out.

Bill Gates has no fear of Mac because he knows there is no way in hell they will ever replace Windows.. In fact he likes to have them around because they keep the 'Monopoly' theroys from turning into facts.

Linux however horrifies him. He knows damn well that if Linux stays on it's current path he's done.. It's almost there.. With a bit of fine tuning in the 'User Freindly' area Linux has allot of potential to take over, or at the very least paralel Windows. It's already more reliable than Windows. It handles memory better, It's a clean file system, its faster. But unfortunatly it still requires a bit knowlege and a bit more work under the hood to make things work than windows does. That is what scares people off.

MS does make emulators for *nix some software to run on Windows yes.. But I have yet to see them write actual code for *nix. If you know of any code written FOR Linux BY Microsoft I'd like to see it..

My windows server's havn't crashed, don't lockup or frezze! They may need a reboot which takes 3 mins every time there is a major update.

I think your looking into this too much. My XP Pro notebook hasn't been rebooted in about 11 days, it hardly has issues...

Perhaps it's the user!

At our agency, someone from MS came to talk them into upgrading the OS. They have a mixture of Windoze, *nix and Mac boxes and they wanted them to dump the nix and Mac boxes for XP pro.

The local Interurban train stopped for 10 minutes recently when one of the computers that was running Windoze crashed and burned. With the exception of the local NBC station, it made the news.

There's always this thing in my mind. I just suspect that in every Windows OS nowadays, there will be some delibrately hidden bugs and security hole. With this, mico$oft themselves will release a virus that attack these holes when they've new OS release, so as everyone will buy their new OS.

I reinstall Windows like every 3 weeks.


I am sick of it, yet this is the only one I know how to use. and this is the only one where games WORK!!! :D

Originally posted by anlene
There's always this thing in my mind. I just suspect that in every Windows OS nowadays, there will be some delibrately hidden bugs and security hole. With this, mico$oft themselves will release a virus that attack these holes when they've new OS release, so as everyone will buy their new OS.

Odd, I've mentioned this to several other people years back, and they agreed with me. :eek:

As "out there" as that seems, I've seen this quite a bit. A new version of windows comes out, and for some odd reason it starts acting funny. I observed this with my old Aptiva that ran solid on Win98 and it didnt start developing issues since I started patching it up from windowsupdate when we got the internet for the first time. The computer was 3 years old, and was only formatted twice. Since getting the internet and patching it up, it averages formats every 6-7 months. When I dont install these "updates" I dont see the issues.

Now that I'm on Win2k on my new machine, I've minimized the crap I install. The only things I keep updated on are DirectX, my drivers (from the manufacturere's sites), and audio/video codecs. Since doing this, my computer has been VERY stable. Minus me rebooting it due to tweaking, and working inside the case.

Whatever you do,dont upgrade to LONGHORN!!!!!

That is the ultimate spy OS!!!

The Dude :angry:

I have a better solution. Drop Windows, move onto Linux, and forget it ever existed....

We are in the slow and painful process of migrating from Windows 2000 over to Linux, it will take time, but its easily possible. After all, what good are staff if all they do are play games isntead of working all day?

Originally posted by ToaD
I reinstall Windows like every 3 weeks.

I am sick of it, yet this is the only one I know how to use. and this is the only one where games WORK!!! :D

It might be worth looking at the way you use Windows if you're reinstalling that often. As with any operating system you need to keep your thinking hat on when adding or removing software.

I just reinstalled XP on the wife's desktop as it'd slowly been pulled to bits with bad software installs, deletions and what have you. It's now running perfectly - just like my own desktop does after having been reinstalled well over a year ago (hard drive failure).

Be nice to it, and it'll be nice to you. ;)

Originally posted by ToaD
I reinstall Windows like every 3 weeks.


I am sick of it, yet this is the only one I know how to use. and this is the only one where games WORK!!! :D

Nope!

I play games on linux with a thing called wineX... it works.

Games like Max Payne 2 and battlefield and whatnot work... so I don't see the big deal.


akashik, a friend of mine put windows XP on a computer at his workplace, without any software, and NO internet connection, and he put office on it.

It works!
He had no problems what's so ever...

so yeah, windoze works if you install it and don't touch it...


People think XP is SO great because it actually works!

Yeah, its a HUGE improvment over older versions of windoze, I'll grant you that... but its still not good.

Bill is just setting everybody's expections down... WAY down... so they don't get disappointed.

Your used to crappy software... :D


A friends debian box:
uptime: 115 days.
Reason for shutdown: big power out, took out a chunk of our city.

Never slowed down, never locked up... :)
Reason

Yeah thats my main gripe about windows. I get great uptime but my computer gets slower and slower everyday as I install and remove programs and games.. I am not blaming it all on MS but its gotta be hard to code software correctly for an OS you can't get the source for.. I think that if windows went opensource and let communities make targeted releases such as XP Gamer Release and XP office and so forth you would see a huge performance increase..

Thats the thing about linux.. No matter how many people MS hires there will still be a larger amount of people working on Linux then windows because its opensource..

I think thats the main problem with MS is that no one really knows WTF its really doing so its gotta be hard to write apps for..

Originally posted by rescenter
I think that if windows went opensource and let communities make targeted releases such as XP Gamer Release and XP office and so forth you would see a huge performance increase..


windows will never go open source
if they do, there goes about 90% of M$'s income.
Also, we see more and more holes popping up in windows without knowing the actual code.
imagine the holes that will be found when the actual source is made public

Yes but also imagine how fast they would be fixed..

I run Linux and have Win4Lin installed with Win98 so I can run my DreamWeaver, Fireworks and use remote desktop for my windows server but it runs inside Linux.

Other than that I do not use windows for much of anything any more.

It is so nice not to have to reboot all the time no blue screens of death or fatal exception errors poping up, just keeps chugging along.

When something hangs I just pop the console screen up and kill the process.

Hows the speed for thw windows install. I have not run windows in linux since bosche..