[rescue] Wooohhhooo XP -> 0 to BSOD in 12min23sec

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Fri, Oct 26, 2001 at 06:48:40PM -0700, Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez wrote:
> On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Kurt Huhn wrote:
> > I had a load of fun arguing exactly the opposite of what he said - which was
> > that GUIs make the learning curve much shorter, and result in higher
> > productivity.  Bullshit, I said.  GUIs like XP are a crutch, and don't
> > result in *any* type of performance or productivity enhancements.
> 
> The problem is that people have tried to "infantilize" computers during
> the last decade or so. A computer is a tool, not a toy and tools must be
> learned! Jeezzzz

Quality toys must be learned.  Just look at RC Airplanes, musical
instruments, cars, bicycles, etc.
 
> My opinion is that luna is to aqua what Windows 3.0 was to System7. Once
> again M$ will be able to get away with the inferior product, this is what
> I find disgusting.... plus the M$ rep quoted us the academic price
> for XP (not the professional version mind you) of around $200.00. I am
> sorry but I can get *BSD/QNX/linux/solaris almost for free, and their
> academic value is orders of magnitude larger than this piece of garbage.

My computer science department is eager to upgrade.  Blech.  In general
this is an extremely sickening trend.  People keep trying to force CS to
be career training.  Would the physisists put up with it if a physics
degree was only career training?

> I still think that MacOSX's got it right, has a consistent GUI for 1st
> time users, and a powerful OS under it. My recommendation is that if
> you are a 1st time computer user get MacOS, if you know what you are doing
> get Linux/BSD/Solaris etc, if you just want to make Billy boy ritcher then
> by all means but this piece of garbage. It took the M$ tech 2 days to get
> it running, thus at this point I don't think that XP is any easier to set
> up than a Linux box. Oh, and there is a $200 difference, so for that money
> I recommend novices buy a $50.0 book to get them started in Linux, and
> then the advantage of XP is gone (plus you saved $150 in the switch!). It
> seemed that M$ wants to push XP hard into academia, so they can force
> students to learn .NET, and they want you to pay them 200 buckaroos for
> the privilege. Scary thing is that some of our undergrads were excited
> about it, jackasses!

Only one got excited?  Consider yourself lucky.  Lots more are excited
here, including at least one of the staff.  

As to MacOSx, it probably will be far better.  I'd rather an SO
(assuming I get a permenant one) use that than Winblows.  But at the
moment does it really have everything needed?  I keep hearing reports
about rather major hardware support problems.  I'm assuming that DVDs
finally work, but what about CD-Rs, digital cameras, etc?  Also what about
software like iMovie and Final Cut?

> Where does M$ find these people? Our M$ rep seemed to be brainwashed or
> something, it was like he had some kind of personal infactuation w. Billy
> boy it was pretty scary..... Then he tried to convince us to switch from
> LaTeX to Office XP. At that point I stopped listened and I left in the
> middle of his sentence, what a waste of my time!

Hehe.  Classmates keep whining that I'm making them look bad when I hand
in assignments dashed together in LaTeX after they've spent hours working
in Word2k.  When will people learn that formating code and math are best
left to professional tools?  The only people I've run into at school that
use LaTeX are in the math department.


But, you said it yourself where MS finds those people.  They have a
personal infatuation with Billy G. and just show up trying to get jobs.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd