Miscellaneous > Applications
apache win32 port
kjg:
quote:Originally posted by Gonusto:
Yea, I feel your pain. My parents ISP at home got raped in exactly the same way . . . OUCH!
-Gonusto
--- End quote ---
Yeah, Comcast bites, in my opinion. My email still isn't working right. Half the time I can't connect to the server, the other half of the time it tells my my password is wrong. So I enter the SAME password, and it goes through fine. If it weren't for the fact that the DSL in this area is run by SBC - which has an even worse record for customer service - I might consider switching. Oh, well, things could be worse. I could still be on AOhelL. At least the internet connection is pretty reliable, and there's always webmail...
Karen
voidmain:
quote:Originally posted by Karen:
Oh, great analogy! But, I don't think it's entirely accurate.[snip] To be more representative of the OS situation, you'd have to say that instead of just being in the front "splashy" bin, the $199 hammers are available at EVERY hardware store, and at MOST of them, they're the ONLY hammers available. The "better (and free) hammers in the bin in the back corner" scenario would only be found in a few out-of-the way, non-mainstream stores - and the consumer would have to know where to find them.
--- End quote ---
Very nice post (you could have installed Linux in that amount of time).
Actually I think I was pretty close. What you are trying to say is you can't buy a "tool belt" without a $199 Microsoft hammer preloaded. (-: The hammers themselves would be akin to the shrink wrapped software you find on the shelves. You can go into Best Buy and find both WinXP and Linux on the shelves, but you can't buy a computer (Toolbelt) without the MS hammer installed.
Also, you mention that the good (and free) hammers are hard to find. I guess you haven't seen my tag line. That's like having a hammer tree in your living room. You don't even have to go to the store. And if you pick an MS hammer off that tree you could end up in jail. On the other hand you are encouraged to pick as many of the good hammers off the tree as you like, free of charge, no strings attached.
Nobody has the advertising dollars that MS has and spending a lot of money on advertising is what made MS the monopoly that it is (along with some very shady business practices). They have *never* had a better product. Look at the Apple vs MS history. Or even the Amiga that you used to use (I worked with people who were more fanatical about Amiga than I have ever been with Linux).
Most (if not all) of the techology MS does have has been purchased, not developed in house. They go to great extents to stay away from standards bodies and to be as proprietary as possible. Linux happens to be the first thing that's come along that they can't buy out, take over, manipulate, bully, etc. And it's got them squirming. It's actually quite pleasing to watch.
And the market share is currently more like 94%-98% in the desktop market, not 80%, but I expect that to change drastically over the next few years. Big players are embracing it fully and more rapidly every day.
And I can't help but wonder what it was that drew you and others like you to a site called "fuckmicrosoft.com", especially not knowing that there are other alternatives? I have to assume it must have been some sort of frustration.....
Do me a favor and take just a few seconds to look over some screen shots of a couple of the more popular GUI systems available for Linux (yes you have a choice):
http://www.kde.org/screenshots/index.html
http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/
Does it look completely alien to you or look like it would be hard to learn to use? And there are boatloads (hammer bins full) of themes out there that can drastically change the look of either of these GUIs, or take on the look of other commercial GUIs. You can make KDE look/feel like Win*, and the first time you run it asks you how you want it to look and act, one of the options is Windows 98. On one of my machines I use KDE with the Aqua theme/style that makes it look very much like Apple's OSX. On the laptop that I am currently typing this message I am using a completely different GUI called WindowMaker because it uses a lot less memory and makes my Laptop sing.
[ February 08, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
voidmain:
quote:Originally posted by Karen:
If I could edit my posts, I would change this to say....
--- End quote ---
You *can* edit your posts. Click the ICON just to the left of the "" ICON above your message... The one of the pencil and paper.
[ February 08, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
kjg:
quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
Very nice post (you could have installed Linux in that amount of time).
--- End quote ---
You're incorrigible! But, just out of curiosity, how much space would I need for a Linux partition on my 'puter? I'm still not going to do it till I get my site development work done, my focus has got to be getting to the "place" where everything is working as intended, and I know HOW do do everything I need to do to maintain it. Still, I'm moving along at a fairly good clip, so it might be "Linux time" sooner than I originally thought
quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
Actually I think I was pretty close. What you are trying to say is you can't buy a "tool belt" without a $199 Microsoft hammer preloaded. (-:
--- End quote ---
Yeah, that's better. Glad you could read my mind well enough to figure out what I meant. You're exactly right - ALL the tool belts come with the Micros(uck)oft hammer preloaded.
quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
Also, you mention that the good (and free) hammers are hard to find. I guess you haven't seen my tag line.
--- End quote ---
Actually, I visited there yesterday and looked around. But, that's in this forum - and as you noted, I'm here because I'm already frustrated with M(acrobull)S(hit)'s products. How many people that aren't actively looking to change are going to come here? Just a few rabid MS supporters coming to troll the board, as far as I can see. I've heard one or two people mention Linux in general forums, but not many. And *I* wouldn't have found this place if somebody hadn't mentioned it in the DevShed MySQL forum. (Or maybe it was the PHP forum... one of them, anyway)
quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
Nobody has the advertising dollars that MS has and spending a lot of money on advertising is what made MS the monopoly that it is (along with some very shady business practices). They have *never* had a better product.
--- End quote ---
True, but I have to add, Linux and other altOS platforms could still be "out there" more than they are. Particularly in the arena where their best prospects already ARE - the web. You don't need a huge advertising budget. Web-based advertising is ultra-cheap these days. Some say that's because it doesn't work. I say it's because most of the advertisers have been too enamored of flash at the expense of content. They started putting up these flashing/animated/screaming banners that were so annoying that people started looking for software to block them. So then they started using pop-ups and pop-unders, which only served to annoy people even more, leading to things like Opera's ability to refuse all pop-ups.
Advertising fact: If people are looking to buy a broom, all you really have to say in your ad is "we have brooms" - believe me, if they're looking - even if they're just wondering if maybe they oughta look into buying a new broom - they'll see your ad. If they're not looking, no amount of flash or pop-up/under sneakiness is going to make them pay attention your ad. I even have a personal anecdote to prove it: When our refrigerator died, "all of a sudden" all the newspapers were FILLED with appliance ads! What great timing on the advertisers' part, right? Wrong. Those ads were ALWAYS there, I just never saw them because I wasn't LOOKING for a refrigerator. My brain just filtered them out.
(Sorry for yet another mini-rant. This is a pet issue with me - before I went into web-work, I spent nearly 20 years in marketing and advertising, and the amount of money people blow on ad campaigns that CAN'T and WON'T do the job they want it to do constantly amazes me.)
I've already thought of a couple of static banner ads that would grab the attention of anybody in the state of mind I was a few days ago (i.e., I've had enough of this crap, what else is out there) - and part of me wants to stop what I'm doing and produce them (I get distracted easily - it's a tendency I have to fight a lot!) for the benefit of the "community."
(OK, here's one of them - a screen shot of the "blue screen of death" with only the words "Resistance is NOT futile!" Would you click? More importantly, do you think a viewer who had recently encountered the BSOD would click? Of course, the page the click leads to is just as important. That's where you have to explain the easy GUIs and ease of installation in terms that won't scare off the "just looking, thanks" folks.)
quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
Look at the Apple vs MS history. Or even the Amiga that you used to use (I worked with people who were more fanatical about Amiga than I have ever been with Linux).
--- End quote ---
Yeah, having to give up my Amiga because I couldn't find the programs or support I needed still stings sometimes. (And we're talking 10 years!)
quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
And the market share is currently more like 94%-98% in the desktop market, not 80%...
--- End quote ---
My 80% was just a guess of share of computer users that are focused solely on "pounding in the nail" (the immediate task at hand) and would never think of looking around for different hammers as long as they've got one that works. After all (just for one example) I'm in that 94%-98% market share that MS *currently* enjoys, but they're not going to have me much longer.
quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
... but I expect that to change drastically over the next few years.
--- End quote ---
I do too. I think the convergence of a couple of factors makes this a great "window of opportunity" for alternative OSs - the fact that "big boys" are rebelling at the extortionist licensing and upgrade policies of MS, and the ever-increasing number of people deciding to put up their own websites. Front Page and other Windoze-based editors are not universally supported on web-hosting companies. The one I went with (small pitch here - www.pair.com) doesn't support Front Page on the basic accounts, (and even where they do, you have to specifically *ask* for FP extension support to be added) and doesn't support ColdFusion or ASP at all. Several of the other hosts I looked at charge extra for FP and ASP support. That kind of thing is going to drive a lot of people to start looking around at what else is out there, I think. That, and the fact that the hosts that DO support Windoze, or (godess-forbid-it!) actually RUN on an MS platform seem to be down a lot. (Gee, can't imagine why...)
--- Quote ---Originally posted by VoidMain:
[QB]Do me a favor and take just a few seconds to look over some screen shots of a couple of the more popular GUI systems available for Linux (yes you have a choice):
http://www.kde.org/screenshots/index.html
http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/
Thanks a lot. Do you know how hard it is to clean drool off a keyboard? <G> Still, as you noted, this entails researching and finding the window manager program I want to use, finding programs to do the things I want to do... all this is provided (at great cost, but with NO extra work required) in most Windoze pre-installs. The "extra work" - no matter that it's not hard work - just doesn't appeal to the nail-focused computer user who already has a functional (if not ideal) hammer in their toolbelt.
Karen
--- End quote ---
kjg:
quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
You *can* edit your posts. Click the ICON just to the left of the "" ICON above your message... The one of the pencil and paper.
[ February 08, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
--- End quote ---
Oh, geez. I thought that was the "post" icon! Thanks for the tip. I came ->|<- this close to committing myself to an Assisted Computing Facility...
http://www.satirewire.com/features/siliconpines/acf.shtml
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version