Windows vs Linux [was: p2exe using wine/cxoffice]

[Sybren Stuvel]

Tim Golden enlightened us with:
> Well yes. I think the (only slightly) wider point I was making was
> that -- despite goodwill and several attempts on my part -- Linux
> still has not overpowered me with its usefulness.

I have yet to see any OS that overpowers me with its usefulness.

> Extending from this, where I am someone who's a competent computer
> user (indeed, a professional software developer of some years'
> standing) and who has honestly tried, it seems that switching to
> Linux is not quite such a no-brainer as people sometimes make out.

I think it's harder to switch for professional computer users than it
is for relative laymen. After all, you have to give up a lot of things
you've accumulated over the years. A newbie can just sit behind the
computer and click some icons, and will be happy when things work
properly.

> Just occasionally you read posts from people who say (synthesised)
> "The Windows command line is rubbish",

It is. Let me give an example. I have the following files:

SomeFileA.txt
SomeFileB.txt
SomeFileC.txt
.SomeFileA.txt.swp

That last one is a swap file created by VIM, because I'm editing
SomeFileA.txt. Now, if I want to use the TAB key to get filename
completion, and I type "Som<TAB>", the first "match" it finds is
".SomeFileA.txt.swp". What is that? I don't want a file starting with
".Som", I want a file starting with "Som".

There is also no proper terminal support in the "DOS" box, you can't
resize it horizontally, and the TAB key can only do dubm filename
completion (no smart option completion like only completing with
directory names after a "cd" command)

> "Windows crashes all the time"

Fortunately, no longer true. It is true that a problem in one program
has a bigger influence on your desktop as a whole in Windows that it
has in Linux, though, so the effect of a badly behaving program is
"felt" stronger.

> "All Windows machines are overrun with adware and generate spam
> willy-nilly".

Not all, indeed. There are _lots_ of Windows zombie machines, though.
Then again, when I was moving, I didn't pay enough attention to my
Linux box, was too late in patching a leak, and it started spamming
too.

> And you just wonder whether such people have actually *used* a
> properly set up Windows machine recently.

I have.

Sybren
-- 
The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a
capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the
safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself? 
                                             Frank Zappa