It does not happen every day that news related to computer technology - news we report on every day - makes its way to the headline news programs and newspapers here in my home country, The Netherlands. So when it does, I am usually on the edge of my seat, simply because it offers an interesting glimpse into how 'normal' people perceive our little world. The last few days, however, that casual interest has made way for something else - tooth gnashing irritation.
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Member since:2007-01-27
I agree that Thom is heavily overreacting. I've been searching the site of the Consumentenbond for any mention of Ubuntu or Mac OS X and I haven't found any.
I did find this article on the site Nu.nl:
http://www.nu.nl/news/1226269/50/Klachtenregen_over_Windows_Vista.h...
and I think it's reasonably fair.
What is wrong with evaluating alternatives, really? I think in this day and age people have an actual choice for their hardware and operating systems based on technical merit, application availability and ease of use.
I have personally created dual-boot systems or migrated operating systems for several relatives for the last few years and they are all reasonably happy about it, not to mention the total drop in support calls from them because Linux just keeps running indefinitely.
Edited 2007-09-11 15:40 UTC
Member since:
2006-05-04
The article cites that the organisation says the following: "consumers who have XP on their computer and who are happy with it, should wait before buying Vista". And then the article mentions that the organisation also recommends that consumers take a look at alternatives such as Mac OS X and Ubuntu Linux. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. It looks to me more like making people aware of alternatives instead of really proposing it as a solution for people who have compatibility problems on Vista.
Found the original article on the site of the Consumentenbond (Consumer's Union) itself:
http://www.consumentenbond.nl/actueel/nieuws/nieuws2007/153461
That article does not mention OSX or Ubuntu at all. So I start to wonder whether newspapers inserted those things to make the article more exciting (even though the Consumentenbond may want to make people aware about alternative operating systems... simply not as a solution for Vista upgrade problems)