> | As much as I dislike Windows, I can always count on Windows
> | coming back from this kind of situation. It will complain, run
> | scandisk, and come back up. You might have some application
> | files corrupted, but at least the OS will run.
>
> Sure-fire way to make Windows unuseable: Try removing the primary
> video adapter in a dual head system. Mandrake (via Kudzu) detects
> this situation and has you reconfigure X. That is a real show stopper.
>
> Also, I *have* seen Windows die completely after an improper shutdown.
> Rare to be certain, but it does happen.
hi,
here is my 2 Cents- experience :
I'm working now for about 15 years with UnixSystems, inluding Linux since
1994. Sometimes I have to do some jobs on Windos-boxes. Especially I have
to connect customer-winboxes to an Intranet/Internet.
You can believe it or not - in the most cases the winboxes wasn't able to
reboot after a really hardware-crash. Maybe, it was a powerfail, any
hardware-problem or whatever you want - I NEVER , I repeat here NEVER have
seen a situation, that a unix-system/linux-system was unusable after such
a so called hardwarecrash. But I have seen a lot of windows boxes, which
was not able to read anything after a real hardwarecrash.
Another, very important aspect is the following : if you have the
situation, that you have to do a reinstall, because somthing was getting
wrong, do that with linux and do that with windows.
You will get the following situation :
after rebooting with the install-CD linux will be able to see an existent
linux-filesystem, and you can use that. Trying the same with windows,
windows says, there was a old version of windows, but have a lot of
troubles to use that. In many cases, we lost some files completely. Not so
within linux.
If I have a fileserver, and that server crashes as a minimum of 5 times a
week, I cannot have a confidence in such a fileserver. In some cases the
filesystem does NOT recover completely. In the most cases any
hardwareregistration is damaged, and you can install it again.
Not so in linux.
As Anton says it in the right way - kudzu will detect it and recovers the
failure, but in windows you only have a Registration-system, which will be
praised as a "PlugnPray-System" but - the detection is ONE job, the
ability to recover is another job. And that behavior you can not find in a
sufficient extent in a windows-system.
For shure, it is possible to blow up windows with a lot of programs, which
can do that, but if you have finished all the necessary jobs to reach such
a matured system, you have a halve linux.
But only a halve. Because windows was not conceived as such an OS. It was
blowed up from a single-user-system to multi-tasking-system. Not a
multi-user-system. To try such a thing, you get the same as if you try to
repair your old car to get a new one-you will never get a new car on this
way.
Make a soap-bubble and blows in a breath. The soap-bubble will burst some
time. That's like windows.
What I mean here, is - the concept of windows was not designed for such
jobs. Windows have had a totally other structure and was only blowed up.
Unix have a long development-history. And linux wents into these steps.
There are a lot of developers and ideas around the world. And linux has
an open architecture. That's it, why linux is the solution of the future.
My personally thought is, windows will get the status of Novell within the
next 2 or 3 years.
To achieve the status of linux, windows would have to go to an open
source-project. Is anybody there, who can believe, that windows will open
the doors for all the world ?
For shure, it's very important, that the development within and around of
linux have to go on. New applications have to brought up to linux. The
installation-procedure of some applications have to become much more
easier. Especially standard-applications like
mysql-apache-php-"connections-to-office-packages". For example the
cennection to Staroffice or applix. So the "normal-user" can install such
environments in an easy way without running into troubles. To achieving
this point of maturity, there is a lot of development necessary. But then
we have the acceptance of the most computerusers.
Another very important point for developing things to make the life
easier, is to install an ISDN or ADSL-connection MUCH MORE easier. In the
moment, that is a very horrible job for a standard user, coming from
windblows or mac or whatelse. Perhaps it would be a useful idea, if
programmers,which are developing such applications, would think of about a
simple way with a simple GUI for a simpel-linux-user or a real
linux-newbie.
Hmmm .... maybe, that is somthing for mandrake-developers ?
Hans Schneidhofer
