On Wed, 2002-11-20 at 15:46, John Yanosko wrote: > They also want to listen to their collection of mp3s. They want to > visit web sites that make use of Macromedia Flash player and Java and > Realplayer and Quicktime and Microsoft Media Player formats. They want > their web browser to Just Work with their favorite web sites and not > have to deal with the politics and technicalities of non-standard HTML. > Of course, they can't even connect to the internet with the world's > largest ISP. > > And, increasingly, they want to browse their home smb networks, burn > CDs, watch DVDs without skipping and stuttering, and log on to their > workplace networks, all of which requires extra twiddling with Red Hat. Let's be honest here. With a default Windows XP install or retail pre-install, you can't listen to MP3s, use flash or java or realplayer or quicktime because most PCs don't come with those pre-installed and configured. The people that choose Red Hat (or any Linux distro), and if you use Linux, it is by choice, not because it was forced on you or came pre-installed on your PC, then you probably want your system to NOT do a lot of things that Windows does automatically. Things like automatically install browser plug-ins with 100 deep registry entries if you happen to click the wrong link, automatically execute malicious viruses and code while browsing or reading your e-mail, pay for an anti-virus program and take the performance hit and pay for a subscription to keep you anti-virus files up to date (McAfee and Symantec do this now). They don't want to be forced to "activate" their OS, and their office package, and promise never to move it to another computer. They don't want to pay twice or three times for every software package they use if they happen to have more than one computer. They don't want to hack the registry to prevent the MSN Messenger program from loading at boot, or to attempt to uninstall it. They don't want to agree to allow MS to install programs and make changes to their computer in the future, at the whim of MS, which may or may not result in a non-working system and lost data. They might not want to pay $1000 for a set of development tools, and pay for the new version every 18 months. They probably don't want to spend thousands on server programs like SQL databases, mail servers, backup programs, intrusion detection, and on and on. I'm not saying that people that use Windows want all those things, but that goes with the environment. Windows and Linux are two completely different worlds. I believe the people that choose the Linux way gain much more than they lose in the transition. Will Linux ever overtake Windows for the casual computer user, who knows. But as more people become computer savvy, they will be more likely to choose Linux. Best Regards, Keith -- LPIC-2, MCSE, N+ We drive on this highway of fire Got spam? Get spastic http://spastic.sourceforge.net -- Psyche-list mailing list Psyche-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/psyche-list
