Windows bashing was: Re: Voxin was: Re: Switching to Linux

[Kyle]

According to Littlefield, Tyler:
# I just thought I'd reply to the windows bashing since it's done by a guy
# I've seen make totally ludacris hardware suggestions and shove arch at
# people that probably shouldn't use it.

You obviously have me confused with someone else. In the real world
where I live, I built the computer I'm using to write this message, and
it serves my needs quite well. In the same real world,, the totally
ludacris hardware suggestions I have made, as you so elloquently put it,
have resulted in satisfied customers and no complaints. Furthermore, in
the real world where I live, I have only installed Arch Linux once, and
that was a portable install on a flash drive, because although I wanted
my client to start out with openSUSE, it wouldn't allow me to install to
the flash drive in a fullly portable way, insisting that I install GRUB
to the hard disk on my own computer, and giving me no easy to find
option to change it. So I put Arch on that flash drive and did all the
necessary installation procedures to get GNOME 3.6 running on it, along
with Packagekit to keep it updated and install additional applications
in a more simplified way. The point was to have a flash drive that would
run on any computer that can boot from USB, with the user's own files,
bookmarks, applications that are always in the same place, and a full
operating system that doesn't touch anything, even temporary files or
cookies, on the computer on which it runs. Currently Linux is by far the
best operating system to fill this need, and though Arch was certainly
not my first choice for someone new to Linux, it ended up being the best
for the job, as the client is unable to purchase a computer, and I
needed to provide much needed basic training involving the internet,
e-mail and other applications related to finding and acquiring jobs, at
as low a cost as possible to me, and at absolutely no cost to the client.

So what in the world did I do wrong here? Where have I forced you or
anyone else to use Arch Linux against your will? What hardware
suggestions have I made that you didn't like? What crime did I commit
against you that made you feel the need to personally attack me and the
way I do business, seeing as how you don't know me, and I know you in
name only, and only from this list? Perhaps I have every right to
personally attack you for the statement you make below, but I will use
my better judgment in this matter, although I do have a response.

# On another note, while I love Linux as a server and I use it all
# the time on my desktop, I'm not really sure that it should be used for
# end-users who just want a desktop. I guess it does offer him job
# security, though.

Actually, I had plenty of job security, had I wanted it, just removing
viruses, spyware and all other kinds of malicious and otherwise nasty
software from people's Windows computers, but over the years, Linux has
become less and less of an operating system just for geeks, and has
become quite a viable operating system for anyone. Major commercial
developers, including Valve, the company behind the Steam gaming
platform, are finally coming onboard, making more commercial
applications available for Linux operating systems. So this is not just
a generalization based on personal preference, as you suggested in
another post. So I made a decision to only support freedom operating
systems and software, such as Linux and its quite full and capable list
of available applications. My job is to give people the freedom to use
their computers, the freedom to share the applications they use, and if
they really want to get more deeply involved, the freedom to study and
adapt the underlying code to their own needs. And yes, this does give me
job security, not from all the extra technical support that you imply is
needed just to make Linux work, but because there will always be people
who want the alternative to the proprietary software that is put onto
the computers they purchase, whether they want it or not, especially
when I am able to offer a full suite of applications that are not time
limited trials, at a lower price than the major manufacturers, at least
when it comes to mid to high-end computers.
~Kyle
http://kyle.tk/


-- 
"Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?"
Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"