Windows Vista is everyone's favorite tech punching bag, and not without reason. But the reviled operating system has some amazing potential and with some tweaks and a few utilities, you can do what Redmond didn't: make Vista great.
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Member since:2005-07-06
I understand big business, and lament the damage done to Be, Inc. by both the competition and the inability of Be's management (this is all as an example) to capitalize on a fine operating system and their hardware.
And there ARE choices still... some (good OS's) have been winnowed (BeOS, OS/2, AmigaOS, etc.) because of the behind the scenes (and up in our face) dealings of Microsoft with hardware manufacturers, but there will always be choices...
I only mentioned that bit as an aside because sometimes people just hate a product because of its maker, whether it is a good product or not.
I don't know... not trying to start an argument here. Being an OS enthusiast, as I am sure you are since you post here, I just like to temper bias (and I am not saying it isn't justified in some way) a bit. I really try to find something to like in every operating system.
Member since:2007-07-13
And there ARE choices still... some (good OS's) have been winnowed (BeOS, OS/2, AmigaOS, etc.) because of the behind the scenes (and up in our face) dealings of Microsoft with hardware manufacturers, but there will always be choices...
I only mentioned that bit as an aside because sometimes people just hate a product because of its maker, whether it is a good product or not.
I don't know... not trying to start an argument here. Being an OS enthusiast, as I am sure you are since you post here, I just like to temper bias (and I am not saying it isn't justified in some way) a bit. I really try to find something to like in every operating system.
Thanks for you considered post. Hopefully you saw in my post an admission that Windows can be good from a technical point of view - so I was trying to present some balance.
However, my main attempted point was about ethics and the fact that the fact you have a choice is due to fortunately circumstances. We could easily have had a past where choice was effectively removed - and may yet have a future where these choices are removed (due to undocumented proprietary formats, unsubstantiated patent threats made over the Linux kernel etc.). Choice is good, but we also must consciously choose to preserve choices.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:
2007-07-13
I am a Mac user... but I hold no dislike for Windows (or Linux, or any of the other operating systems) and I am glad there are choices.
Yes there are choices, but it nearly wasn't this way. Through unethical (and sometimes illegal) business dealings in the past Microsoft has progressively strangled true competition in the market. If it wasn't for the remarkable leadership of Steve Jobs Apple would still be in decline. If it wasn't for the ethics of Richard Stallman then Linux wouldn't be in as wide use (there would be no GPL to inspire others to contribute and advocate a spirit of liberty). Sure, there'd be traces of Unix and BSD out there but it would be a Windows-only world with Windows-only formats for the most part.
Windows itself is technically ok (although I find it relatively slow to so some operations; for example even XP is horrifically slow copying many small files using Explorer [relative to Linux], Vista was even worse but this has been improved in SP1 [but still sub-par to Linux]) - but don't forget that the goal of the parent company is to inexorably restrict your choice to variants of their products only. Keep that in mind when you laud the fact you still have some choice.