Windows Genuine Advantage: Microsoft's KILL SWITCH

[worker201]

Not to mention that the driver database is terrible and almost all of my hardware in perticular my Modem doesnt work.

That's not a modem.  A modem is a piece of hardware that modulates and demodulates analog data streams.  Winmodems are by definition not modems, since they are only RJ-22 adapters, accomplishing the mod/demod stuff via software.  Makes them cheaper.

You gotta remember that 'cheaper' part.  Code takes a long time to write, but then you can sell it thousands or millions of times at almost zero marginal cost.  Hardware, on the other hand, costs money for every single unit.  And we all know that computer technology is purposefully undervalued in the US, right?  The producers are almost forced to use little tricks like this to stay competitive in a low-profit industry.

By the way, I think Linux's hardware support is phenomenal.  Considering that almost no company is writing drivers - they're all produced by some guy who just wanted his device to work.  Be honest - if you had to write your own drivers, how much hardware could you support?  Also, since chip design and circuitry is easy to reverse engineer, many developers use proprietary crap to discourage driver writers.  Many devices don't have Linux drivers because the original manufacturers went out of their way to make driver construction impossible.  The fact that so many have succeeded in a task designed to fail is awesome, and I salute the world of independent driver writers.

And a big "fuck you" to companies who impede Linux developers at every step of the way.  An extra large "fuck you" to Microtek - my Microtek scanner is the only piece of hardware I own that is completely unsupported in Linux.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

All my hardware works just fine ... in fact most Linux drivers are better than the Window$ drivers, they don't crash.

I think maybe long ago Linux was not as user friendly as it has recently become ... maybe konrad is misled by what he saw long ago ... try an ubuntu live cd ... it might help you figure out how far it has come ... user-friendly wise

[pofnlice]

Actually, Back to the "your mom" arguement.

I put SuSE on her computer, left a list of common commands and step by step instructions for what I knew she needed. It was a bout a 10 page little flyer type booklet. She dual booted and worked it fine, and mentioned she enjoyed how she was never being bothered by reboot requests, update requests, error messages or mystery shut offs. She admitted it was a bit to complicated for her liking, but for the overall performance she was quite impresses. Try it sometime, my mom is mostly just like everyone elses...It's all in your sales pitch.

IMHO
     It doesn't matter what ms does. It will continue to be the major OS distributed until one of the others makes a break through which makes them as dummy proof and as seemingly easy to operate as windows. People are lazy, in general they don't want command line, or to learn it, they don't want to know what a compile is, let alone do it. They don't want manual installs, typed code, terminals, script editors or even a kewl reputation as a rebel because you use one of "those" OS's. Most people want the Starship Enterprises computer. They want to talk to it, point at it and it just work. If it crashes a few times, well that's ok, as long as it's that easy. I hate to say it, but that is the reality of it. Part of that reality is MS will continue to get away with it for many years to come.

[worker201]

IMHO
     It doesn't matter what ms does. It will continue to be the major OS distributed until one of the others makes a break through which makes them as dummy proof and as seemingly easy to operate as windows. People are lazy, in general they don't want command line, or to learn it, they don't want to know what a compile is, let alone do it. They don't want manual installs, typed code, terminals, script editors or even a kewl reputation as a rebel because you use one of "those" OS's. Most people want the Starship Enterprises computer. They want to talk to it, point at it and it just work. If it crashes a few times, well that's ok, as long as it's that easy. I hate to say it, but that is the reality of it. Part of that reality is MS will continue to get away with it for many years to come.

I'm sure you're probably right.  And I really don't care what OS my mom uses - it's not my goddamm computer, so it ain't my problem.  I think there are people out there who should be using Windows.  A perfect world would be 20 OSes, 20 filesystems, 20 architectures, and 20 choices for every piece of software.  As long as the I/O standards were open, it wouldn't be a problem.

That being said, there is something bigger at stake here than what OS you like.  Microsoft's dominance in the OS market has had strong influences over the hardware market, the software market, the decryption standards, DRM, and hundreds of other niches.  It has even attempted to dictate how someone can or cannot use their computer.  And that's not cool.  I can imagine a future in which even processors and video cards are under Microsoft's thumb.  That's what we have to fight against.  Fuck morons who actually like Windows.  I don't even want to destroy Microsoft.  I only wish to contain them.  Strongly.

[Pathos]

this is why I don't do updates....no wga for me

[RaZoR1394]

See it from the bright side. At least we won't have all those zombies without updates roaming the net anymore. Those who really need Windows and the updates will know how to bypass this problem.