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Guest
A few passionate people here seem to have a mission,
rather like the white shirt and backpack lads who
occasionally knock at my front door. Neither get paid
for their effort, but those very pleasant kids sell
their version of Heaven for ten percent of my income.
The online missionaries "sell" Ubuntu and get nothing
for it. I see the Linux advocates as a cross between
cult members and those who bought Korean cars in the 80s
and said "I saved $1,000 - these are great cars!"
Eventually, relentless pressure works - that's the
result of "relentless". PLEASE DON'T SQUEEZE THE... was
an uberannoying ad campaign for buttwipe named "Charmin"
by some imaginative marketer, but it was successful.
Unpaid missionaries for Ubuntu run equally annoying and
relentless unpaid promotions in this newsgroup, which
was intended to assist Vista users in resolving
transition issues. Why? Well, perhaps they drive Kias...
Nevertheless, I tried it. My new laptop boasts an
incredibly large (120GB) and fast (7200RPM) hard drive,
and it was an interesting process to set up dual boot,
install Ubuntu, and conduct a reasonably objective test.
I'm nothing special - a businessman who does business
planning and spreadsheeting, simple graphics, financial
analysis, and articles and books in my hobbies. I do no
gaming, and view movies only when traveling. Using
Vista, and excluding OS-specific utilities, I need
exactly 13 functions (i.e. "software applications") to
efficiently get my business and personal work done.
Another 8 nice-to-have apps make life easier and more
comfortable or entertaining, but aren't critical.
Using Ubuntu, I could find solutions for only 9 of my 13
mission-critical apps, and for 6 of the 8 nice-to-have
ones. Some hardware drivers (fingerprint, camera) were
simply unavailable, but I don't use them anyway. I
attended a Linux SIG meeting in the tech community near
my company, and people there agreed that I needed to
reduce my requirement or accept less capability. The
conclusion was that I should continue to dual-boot,
using Vista for those tasks that are not achievable
under Ubuntu. Parenthetically, the people at that SIG
generally liked Vista as an overall solution, and
considered Ubuntu as an evolving one that is mostly
applicable to tech-savvy people willing to make
operational compromises.
I conducted a fair test over more than two months, and
was helped by some true experts, many of whom are
software engineers and system analysts with advanced
degrees and lots of experience. All were technically
competent and pro-Linux/Ubuntu (and generally pro "open
source"), but none was a "missionary". The bottom line:
Vista does everything I need to do, and well. Ubuntu
does most of what I need to do, and well. Both are
stable and fast. Vista costs more, but does more. Some
of the "more" is mission-critical. I think my conclusion
applies to most PC users.
If you use Linux and are completely satisfied with the
applications available to you, you've probably shrunk
your requirements to fit the capability of Linux. It is
an excellent, but limiting, OS. Any Linux missionary who
argues otherwise drives a 1980 Hyundai that gets 45mpg
and never, ever, breaks.
rather like the white shirt and backpack lads who
occasionally knock at my front door. Neither get paid
for their effort, but those very pleasant kids sell
their version of Heaven for ten percent of my income.
The online missionaries "sell" Ubuntu and get nothing
for it. I see the Linux advocates as a cross between
cult members and those who bought Korean cars in the 80s
and said "I saved $1,000 - these are great cars!"
Eventually, relentless pressure works - that's the
result of "relentless". PLEASE DON'T SQUEEZE THE... was
an uberannoying ad campaign for buttwipe named "Charmin"
by some imaginative marketer, but it was successful.
Unpaid missionaries for Ubuntu run equally annoying and
relentless unpaid promotions in this newsgroup, which
was intended to assist Vista users in resolving
transition issues. Why? Well, perhaps they drive Kias...
Nevertheless, I tried it. My new laptop boasts an
incredibly large (120GB) and fast (7200RPM) hard drive,
and it was an interesting process to set up dual boot,
install Ubuntu, and conduct a reasonably objective test.
I'm nothing special - a businessman who does business
planning and spreadsheeting, simple graphics, financial
analysis, and articles and books in my hobbies. I do no
gaming, and view movies only when traveling. Using
Vista, and excluding OS-specific utilities, I need
exactly 13 functions (i.e. "software applications") to
efficiently get my business and personal work done.
Another 8 nice-to-have apps make life easier and more
comfortable or entertaining, but aren't critical.
Using Ubuntu, I could find solutions for only 9 of my 13
mission-critical apps, and for 6 of the 8 nice-to-have
ones. Some hardware drivers (fingerprint, camera) were
simply unavailable, but I don't use them anyway. I
attended a Linux SIG meeting in the tech community near
my company, and people there agreed that I needed to
reduce my requirement or accept less capability. The
conclusion was that I should continue to dual-boot,
using Vista for those tasks that are not achievable
under Ubuntu. Parenthetically, the people at that SIG
generally liked Vista as an overall solution, and
considered Ubuntu as an evolving one that is mostly
applicable to tech-savvy people willing to make
operational compromises.
I conducted a fair test over more than two months, and
was helped by some true experts, many of whom are
software engineers and system analysts with advanced
degrees and lots of experience. All were technically
competent and pro-Linux/Ubuntu (and generally pro "open
source"), but none was a "missionary". The bottom line:
Vista does everything I need to do, and well. Ubuntu
does most of what I need to do, and well. Both are
stable and fast. Vista costs more, but does more. Some
of the "more" is mission-critical. I think my conclusion
applies to most PC users.
If you use Linux and are completely satisfied with the
applications available to you, you've probably shrunk
your requirements to fit the capability of Linux. It is
an excellent, but limiting, OS. Any Linux missionary who
argues otherwise drives a 1980 Hyundai that gets 45mpg
and never, ever, breaks.