18-07-2004, 02:16 AM
HH glad to see that you agree with me on Mandrake. Redhat was a royal pain. So much stuff didnt work out of the box - mp3 players, video players, sound etc - but with Mandrake I havent had a single problem. For a savvy user it can now easily replace XP at a fraction of the cost. Over the weekend I wanted to burn some music to disk. I looked around the net for a Nero replacement for my DVD burners. As I was about to download a package I checked in my installed programs and found the exact software I needed preinstalled. Also I downloaded a documentary last week and tried to view it on my work PC - Windows. The latest media player couldnt find the correct plugins. Open the file at home and the video played perfectly. The other bit of software that kept me on Windows was MS Messenger. But since I have started using Aris Messenger I have a far better, more configurable client for MSN than ever before.
I looked at prices for XP today. Sorry no way can I justify paying that sort of money for XP and office when I can get Linux for the cost of a few blank CD's. However I can see that paying for Linux will eventually be mandatory - programmers cant live on fresh air and support contracts. But, I dont think we will ever pay the same prices that MS demands nor will we ever see the same bugs per dollar approach that we now expect from MS.
I looked at prices for XP today. Sorry no way can I justify paying that sort of money for XP and office when I can get Linux for the cost of a few blank CD's. However I can see that paying for Linux will eventually be mandatory - programmers cant live on fresh air and support contracts. But, I dont think we will ever pay the same prices that MS demands nor will we ever see the same bugs per dollar approach that we now expect from MS.