On Friday 28 December 2001 09:49 am, you wrote:
> This list like to MS-bash. A lot. Be careful in your MS-bashing, though;
> they made most of the "tech revolution" possible. Without MS the tech
> industry as we know it would be much smaller (most of us wouldn't have jobs
> in tech), we would probably all be using OS/2 version 2, and MacOS 6 or 7
> would likely be a new product.
I don't have a job in the tech industry. Maybe that would change my
perspective. I never got to try OS/2 but I heard that it was well-liked by
its users. MacOS only runs on Macs (AFAICT) so that isn't something to help
me either (mainly because the macs are WAY out of my price range, maybe if I
could just write a check for a new G4 my perspective would change. Mac users
sure seem to like being Mac users).
> Not only that, but processor development would have been slower. We would
> all be using 486/Pentium processors right now. There would be no such thing
> as desktop 3D-acceleration. SGI and Sun would still be major forces in the
> computer industry. The Internet boom would never have happened. Linux would
> never have been developed. At least, not to the point it is now. It would
> have simply been considered a Unix variant (at best) or an entertaining
> graduate school project (at worst).
I was a fan of MS-DOS. Even (more or less) liked Win 3.11. I like a GUI
desktop, I just don't like icons "only". I guess I like to pretend I know
what is going on.
And when it comes down to it I miss my Commodore 128. And the sound on my
Commodore 64 wasn't too shabby (midi type I guess). And I could turn it on
and it was all set to go.
> We owe Bill a great deal. Does that mean I like the way his company does
> business? No. But I still respect him for doing something that most of us
> are very jealous at (whether we admit it or not), and that's becoming the
> richest man alive by creating demand for something that the rest of us
> decided we couldn't live without: computers. How many of you actually
> remember the pre-MS computer days? And not just Windows; pre-MS-DOS, too.
> Okay, stop it with the siezures and the coughing and the unpleasant
> memory-faces. *You* know what I'm talking about.
Ok. _I_miss_my_Commodore_128. I think if we were using them (& computers
of that era) we would still know Spam as that meat-like food and our time on
the internet wouldn't be spent closing pop-up ad windows. Years ago my
friend had an account at our local college on their Vax/VMS(?) computer and I
learned a little about email/gopher, etc. How many people know gopher as
anything but the little rodent today? And all the busy signals I get and
slowdowns? If half of the internet users really ARE just downloading porn
and such - that wasn't a problem at 320*200*16 colors.
And I can't really see the "me-too! AOL users" rushing to sign up for such
a service on a unix-based system. (Note: There are lots (_maybe_ even the
majority) of useful human beings that use aol. But....)
And I wouldn't have to throw away approx. 3 AOL cd's a week. At least when
they sent the floppies you could tape over the write-protect hole and
reformat it. I wish they would send their crap on cd-rw's - but I ramble.
> Personally, If I ever met Mr. Gates (or Ballmer or anyone else high-up at
> Microsoft) I would smile, shake hands, and thank them for what they've done
> for the world of computers. After all, if they had never shown up I
> wouldn't have the job I have. And I'm betting that a decent number of you
> wouldn't either. :)
I hear he is actually a nice man if you don't get in his way. But if you
get in MY way you will not get run over.
But like I said, I only have a problem with his OS's (& the last several at
that). I like the hardware and some of the games. And as for "unfair
business practices"(sic): If someone like me could see this situation
developing years ago, surely the companies crying foul today could have.
Brings to mind Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Not even a gazelle climbs into
the lion's mouth.
And I suppose if he wanted to he could have squashed/bought/sent to "Davy
Jone's Locker" the developers of "free software" if he wanted to. And not
being a fool, he probbably looks at it as good for the industry. After all,
if there really WAS no competition, then we would all be in bad shape. As it
is, well, it doesn't bother me. I don't expect to delete my Win98SE
partition anytime soon. I just don't see any reason to go any farther than
that. I saw a show on WinXP talking about all the problems (from Win98) that
had been fixed, they ought to give it away as a bugfix.
But this is a Linux forum! We should I suppose not even be discussing these
things. For that I apologize to the group and will keep silent on non-linux
issues.
> May God stand between you and harm in all the empty places through which
> you must walk. -- ancient Egyptian blessing
I like that, can I keep it?
Mandatory (Mandrake) Linux content: I've tried (I think) all the .mp3
players in Mandrake (8.1 Powerpack's) /multimedia/sound menu. Are there any
others in the Powerpack that aren't on that menu? Or any good ones that I
can download and easily install (newbie style)? I hate to admit it, but I
really like RealJukebox a lot and would like to find a Linux-based program
that is more similar to that than the "Winamp" type.
Thanks,
Wes Gregg
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Registered Linux User # 252649
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
