Luke, you seem to be a sensible individual, so i think you know all the bad stuff about M$ and you just don't give a shit! There's no incentive for somebody like me or anybody else here to change yr mind if you are prepared to be stubborn. It doesn't mean one opinion wins, and another loses, just that we have different priorities.
ie: you don't mind paying for windows, even given the info listed above, because you've had an easy time with it, as far as usage goes. Also you don't mind upgrading to whatever M$ chooses to release next, which will be necessary because they won't continue to support XP after a year or two when some other "OS" gets released.
I on the other hand have a very proprietary laptop, and i enjoy trying to make linux work on it. The things i have got to work, i think are more stable than how they work in windows. that's only my opinion, but i think i'll keep my dual boot situation for a while yet.
May i just say though that a lot of options that could be included in a windows install aren't.
I have programs i would rather use than internet explorer and notepad for example, but they get installed anyway. It's irritating, but if one person gives a shit about it, another person may not.
It's similar to another situation that's ongoing in the world today (although the M$ row is not quite so drastic). Many people buy nestle products because nestle makes a lot of stuff and it is difficult to avoid buying their products. nestle are responsible for thousands upon thousands of infant deaths in third world countries, due to a ruthless marketing campaign which is designed only to make money by being directly responsible for the deaths of those poorer than themselves (
click here and
here to find out more).
The point here is that some people are very moved by this. they think of their own children and they abhor the idea that nestle could be responsible for this kind of sufferring in the name of the almighty buck, and some other people don't give a shit.
People are ultimately responsible for their own actions and whether it be something like genocide, or something as comparitively trivial like computer software, there will always be those people who are fanatical to their own detriment and also those who could not care less so long as their own ass is covered.
The only way for a government or corporation to turn a liberal democracy into a dictatorship is to encourage and nourish this self motivated apathy. That's exactly what Microsoft and nestle are doing. The thing that astonishes me the most is that when you tell people that they are self motivated and apathetic, they get very defensive. Guilty conscience i reckon...
It's funny how discussions about windows XP always get me talking about world politics...
[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]
