Comments on: Well, This Is a Bit Weird

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 08 May 2007 15:49:36 +0000

Microsoft has a history of stealing other people’s code and paying for it after they get hauled into court. To cover for their theft they usually make changes that break the code [see MS-DOS 6.0 and Stacker or MS-DOS 4.0 and Golden Bow].

They are not a suitable participant in the Linux world because they don’t follow standards. The Unix world, of whatever flavor, only functions because people adhere to the standards which allows people with disparate hardware to function in the same environment.

Novell has a habit of doing the same thing, forcing people to accept their specifications as standards, and buying up companies that can do a better job than they can with those specifications.

Linux is the future because of what Microsoft has not done with their product and what they have done to their users.

Dell needs to get back to basics and improve their quality control program. The current system of using customers as quality control for hardware and software is a real PIA. If you are going to follow that path, you can’t charge people.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Tue, 08 May 2007 07:03:00 +0000

Microsoft (possibly Novell as well; I don’t know) has a history of co-opting someone else’s product and “enhancing” it… locking people and companies into the Microsoft version rather than complying with standards. The result with Java was a lawsuit by Sun. The result with IE before the current version was a browser that displayed standards-compliant pages abominably. The result with FrontPage was a tool that generated web pages viewable only with IE. I do not see why any customer company would want to put up with that into the indefinite future. One major point of switching to Linux, for me at least, is getting out from under Bill’s big fist.

The hinges on my WinBook laptop have been trouble-free for a year now. Unfortunately, WinBook is now out of the laptop business; they switched to manufacturing HDTVs instead. “Nothing gold can stay,” as Robert Frost never said about computer equipment.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 08 May 2007 05:25:05 +0000

On the OS question, they seem to be going forward to supply their machines with Ubuntu, but are going to support Suse on other machines or for existing Novell/Windows systems that are looking for conversion.

My problem with Suse is that bit about purchasing server certificates. Not exactly the spirit of Linux.

I would mention that all of the hinges on laptops suck.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Tue, 08 May 2007 05:07:52 +0000

Read NTodd's latest Dell Hell post about his laptop. You don't want one of their computers, at least not their laptops, no matter what OS it has on it.