RoyFokker >>The religion of free software is too strong in you. No matter what almost every modern laptop or desktop cannot take advantage of the bare metal of the hardware as well as Windows or Mac O
Not a religion at all, but I have read 2 bibles, in my life time, one really
is religion, and won't go into that here, the other, the title was :
The UNIX Bible ( or something like that ) so many years ago, I had
one, and read / studied it closely, unfortunately in my travels,it got lost,
but that is another story,
Any way, when I started using a PC, I all ready had my religion, but
economically , was not in a position to go out and buy a brand new
PC, at that time usually the Dos install floppies came with a
new computer, but in my case the PC I got at a flea market
had none,....it took me a while to figure out that is what I needed
to get it to boot, I finally did manage to get the thing to tell me,
"Please insert a boot disk",...and I did not have one, so I asked a friend
at work, one of the dispatchers in the office, was pretty "advanced" with
computers, in fact he did all the computer work for them,...any way he made
a copy of DOS 1.1 for me, so I could boot the PC,...I also got a book "Dos for Dummies",...the very first version,......
Trying hard, to shorten a very long story,... In a nut shell, religion no,
economic, and because at that time, there was next to nothing for
software available, even if one paid for it, my reason for wanting
the computer was ham radio, related,...and all the software or
"programs" either had to be written from scratch,...or if one knew
where to look, and whom, in my case, my dispatcher/friend/co-worker was my first contact, later fellow "hams", perhaps someone would share what they
had,... "open source", shareware,...
The problem with the "closed source", software, commercial and copy righted,
All to often it was far from efficient , and less the perfect, and can not easily
be modified, several times I have been greatly disappointed with software I purchased, and it falls short of my needs, and expectations,..fortunately
my friends, and new friends I was finding on the internet, and radio bands,
fortunately, when I mentioned, "this program I bought does not work well",
"name of program ?", after giving the name, the response, "Oh, you don't
need that,...here is a "batch script" that will do the same thing, and better,
and then I started learning how to write my own as well,and later
with qbasic, even more can be done.
... Nothing is
totally "free", to get the best, and most efficient takes a lot of work.
What is "best" and most efficient for some one else, might not be
the same for me, "closed source" commercial software, can not be
easily modified. One has to develop some kind of "reverse engineering"
program,...and that has been and can be done, but it is much easier just
to take what on friend has done and shares, if need be modify it , to suit
my needs,.....
I think maybe that give a rough description of what I am trying to say,...
not a religion, but a way of life, and matter of using what is available.
My first internet connection, I was lost, when I saw my first UNIX prompt,..
after the :
Fortunately ' help ' worked,... but any way , to shorten a long story,
not to long after , I realized I needed another book, and stumbled on
to the "UNIX Bible" , in a computer/software store,...it opened up
the on line world, and UNIX for me,..... 'Usenet" was "young" but,available and
I met some incredibly knowledgeable people, professors, and scientists,
all over the world,... most very friendly, quite happy to share information,
point me toward software, and open source programs that might be
use full, most developers are quite happy to have someone willing to try
their "program", or script,...etc,... it is all ways interesting to see how it
works on a different machine,...
Windows , was a big disappointment, I actually bought a brand new
PC, it came with a set of Dos 6 floppies, and the windows install disks,
.... but what a piece of "junk" the first MS Windows was, ,,,,total failure,
It was kind of "neat" at first, but crashed my computer with in a couple
of weeks, ....I re-installed Dos, but not the mal-ware ,MS windows.
And the PC kept working just fine, I could run my "ham radio" software, and get on line, browse, and I even started my first web site,etc,.. just fine, with out the "newest program", MS windows.
Even today, with modern equipment, my computers, using a BSD, or
the older Debians, run 100% better, then they did with windows on
them. They all (except 1 laptop, my boss at work bought me a brand new, acer aspire series, with Windows XP, and did not work well, after I installed "FreeDos" and over wrote the MS-malware, it did work excellent, my kind still uses it running Debian, today ), all my laptops and desktop, were bought
second hand, at a "hock shop", dirt cheap,... why so cheap ?,..they had Windows
on them, ran very slow, and like "crap", the only way to sell them is with a low price ...but since I know how to fix that,...Install a BSD or Debian,do a little
work maybe, with the drivers, etc,..and they run great,...
So any way, that is how I know nothing has changed with Windows,...
How ever, I do agree, on Mac If I was going to spend some money, and buy a new computer, and pay for the OS, UNIX or OS X would be my choice,...
OS X for UNIX Users
The power of UNIX. The simplicity of Mac
-----------------------------------------------------
There are already tens of millions of OS X users—consumers, scientists, animators,
developers, system administrators, and more—making OS X the most widely used
UNIX desktop operating system
The problem though, with OS X, and UNIX,...well "closed source",...
there is no such thing as a "perfect" OS, for me, to make the OS perfect
for me, I need to be able to modify it, to do that, I need to be able to
get or access the "source code",.. ......... The same for a Browser,
this new "Opera" browser, might seem wonderful,...but if it is "closed source"
how can any one, see for sure exactly what it is doing ?
But any way. it is not a religion , and even the so called "free softwae","open source", OS's and software
has a "price", it is NOT a religion.
It takes some work to make it what you want it to be, and most of
the time, all though many help full , and eager to help, friendly people try
to help, the actual work has to be done by the "operator", user or system admin,
This is because computers are all so different, even the same brand, model,
everything, can and do respond differently,.....often it takes trying one thing,
make a minor change, try again, minor change, Oh NO something went wrong,
major change,.... oops, let's start over,...over and over,.. but eventually one can
get the machine working, and "talking",.... it becomes like a very finely tuned
motorcycle,...or "hot rod",... mine "humms" and "purrs" like a cat,...if and when
it starts making strange sounds,..it is telling me something is wrong, the screen
out put as well, the machine tells us what is wrong, if we "listen".... But yes, I agree , if Open Source, "free software", etc, is to much work for some body, or they don't have the desire and time,or skill, then the best thing to do would be get OS x, install it, or buy a Mac,...
MS windows, forget it,...not worth wasting the time or money.
I wonder if they have this new "closed source" Opera Browser available
for Macs, and OS x ?