M$ to micro-manage your computer

[Calum]

yeah, but working around the password protection just keeps people using Microsoft stuff, what we need to do is say "fuck wasting my time cracking this piece of shit! i'm off to use some much better software that i can get for a lot less money!"

If the majority were not stupid, this is what they would do. Sadly, they constantly prove their moronity with every passing day. We shall see. Every tidal wave started out small, i suspect...

[psyjax]

I am soooo glad I own a Mac. Cuz' if this thing goes thrugh, throngs of windows user's will come to Apple.

I mean, Apple has a proprietary system, yet they openly reject DRM and embrace open source, they don't spy on you, are secure, user friendly, and let you do whatever the hell you want.

M$ is the antithesis to everything that Apple stands for. Maybe I'm a zelot, but I have been a fan since I heard Steve Job's insanely great speaches as a kid  

[willysnout]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
that's what everybody says, and that's why linux is not as widespread as it could be. M$ has such a market share that the installer and desktop need to look exactly like windows to get the morons hooked, regardless of what's going on under the hood. Of course it won't be full of spyware and all that shit, that will be the attraction.

People that find linux userfriendly these days are right, but they all took time to learn it. morons think they were born knowing how to work windows, and need something that panders to their inherent moronity.

I remember watching an ad a couple of years ago for a dot-com company called "I Won," which was a search engine and sweepstakes combined. The commercial had this guy saying he wouldn't use I Won.com because he didn't care whether he had a chance to win $10 million. As he was saying this, he broke down laughing and blurted out, "What do you think I am, an idiot?"

When I saw that ad, I turned to the other guy in the room and said, "Now I know this dot-com stuff is full of shit. I've just been told that unless I use someone's web site I am an idiot." What a way to get customers! Insult your way to riches!

But that's what so much of the dot-coms projected on TV. These ads all had the same plot. Some 20-something kid just off a skateboard making someone older and clueless feel old and clueless. The message was, "Do things my way or you are screwed." By the way, guess who got screwed? Guess who is bankrupt? Hint: Not me.

So ... I'm not a computer hobbyist. I do other things with my life, To me, a computer is just an appliance. I'm mad at Microsoft because their appliances are harder and harder to use with each "upgrade," and they spy on me, too. But I unless I dedicate my life to Linux, then I'm a moron.

Well, here's the deal. I just bought a computer six months ago. I was on a computer-every-two-years kind of track. But the fact is half the shit they sell doesn't work. One alternative is to look for stuff that works. Another alternative is to simply drop out, i.e., forget about the hot new wireless network, forget about the upgraded Palm Pilot, forget about the new "pads" they're talking about, forget about the digital camera or the video conferencing equipment, etc.

I've pretty much been in mode #2 since "upgrading" to XP not by choice. I was hoping to find an easy and cheap way out of this mess. After cruising around this web site I realize that what I really am is a moron. Thanks, kids, have a great conversation among your superior selves. See ya ...

[ June 25, 2002: Message edited by: willysnout ]

[voidmain]

Hey, he said it not me.  Kids?  Sure there are some kids on this site but many of us are at least "middle aged" and older.  I think psyjax had it right.  Since you are a moron you should have purchased something that even a moron can use.  A Mac. Maybe if you would have done a little research before making that purchase at Best Buy because that is what the kid just off the skate board sold you. Go to a Mac store and try one out.

[psyjax]

Ahem... Not to say that Mac users are morons mind you... tho many windoze lusers love to think so.

[voidmain]

I was joking and using his words.  I thought we were offering good suggestions as well.  He can take them or leave them.  It's not like we are "selling" anything, or "making any money" from all of our time on these forums helping people who ask for it.  Geez.  I thought your Mac suggestion was a very good one, and in fact I was going to suggest it if you hadn't.

[lazygamer]

Im 17 so I guess I count as a kid.  

[voidmain]

Yes, you would be considered "just off the skate board".

[choasforages]

dude, this guy was like expecting things from us. remember, we give help becuase we want to give help, not becuase we have a contract to help or its a god given right to ask us for help. being pissy about what advice we give is not nice. some actaully try to help. how many forums have you been on before. you ask a quenstion and see what people post and whether you like it or not. complaining about what advice is given is like looking the gift horse in the mouth.

[Calum]

quote:So ... I'm not a computer hobbyist. I do other things with my life, To me, a computer is just an appliance. I'm mad at Microsoft because their appliances are harder and harder to use with each "upgrade," and they spy on me, too. But I unless I dedicate my life to Linux, then I'm a moron.

Willysnout, you seem clever but you make too many commonplace assumptions.
Use what you like. Linux is not a company like those dotcoms, like Microsoft.

if you hate Microsoft but refuse to use linux then you can choose a no-longer-supported OS like solaris or Beos, or you can get a BSD, or some other "harder to use" specialist OSs, or you can buy specialty hardware and fork out a mint. a Mac is the cheapest option here i am thinking, with RiscOS, Solaris9 and so on all needing special CPUs to run.

As i said, linux is not a company. if you happen to see a linux advert it is because some company (probably IBM, hewlett packard, or possibly apple and sun in the future) are using their own money to make linux further their own ends. Those companies are not startups like your dotcoms, and International Business Machines are not going to go bust anytime soon. As far as i know they are over one hundred years old. I know for a fact they are at least 60 or 70 years old. I bet that's older than any poster here, and the point is, not only do they endorse linux, they advertise it.

If you want to go around saying you are a moron, then go for it. But YOU SAID IT FIRST. I put it to you that you have a guilty conscience.

If somebody here says that people are morons, it's usually because they are morons, either way it is ALWAYS a person's own opinion. If a company says in an advert that you are a moron THEN you have grounds for complaint. But NOT if somebody exercises their own right of free speech. That is what linux is all about. Free speech.

I am an advocate of free speech. This is why i believe that you should have the right to choose which operating system to use on your computer, a choice that at least one company would deny to you. It is also why i will stand up for any individual's right to call you or anybody else a moron, for any reason.

I suppose i might as well add that i am in no way calling you a moron, although i think that much should be obvious by now.

I look forward to reading your response, willysnout.

[willysnout]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
if you hate Microsoft but refuse to use linux then you can choose a no-longer-supported OS like solaris or Beos, or you can get a BSD, or some other "harder to use" specialist OSs, or you can buy specialty hardware and fork out a mint. a Mac is the cheapest option here i am thinking, with RiscOS, Solaris9 and so on all needing special CPUs to run.

I didn't say I'd "refuse to use Linux." I was interested in trying. But you known what? In addition to giving Linux a try, there are 20 or 30 things on my to-do list. I don't have time or interest in becoming a computer jock.

Here's how much time I was willing to put into it:

- An afternoon to get started
- Another afternoon or three to have everything working reasonably well
- No hardware or software disasters or condundrums that wind up being unsolvable by a reasonably intelligent, but non-sepcialized, person
- Some source of reliable support (which I'd have been willing to pay for) aimed at an intermedite computer user but NOT A SPECIALIST or programmer.

 

quote:If you want to go around saying you are a moron, then go for it. But YOU SAID IT FIRST. I put it to you that you have a guilty conscience.

I think if you look around this board you will find those who aren't dedicated to the most complex, all-consuming versions described as morons. The connotation being that if you want Linux to be easy, user-friendly and trouble-free, you're a moron. That's what I was reacting to ... the elitism of it all. I really detest snobbery and elitism regardless of where it comes from. And trust me, there's a shitload of it where I work. I was hoping this board might be different. Oh well!

 

quote:If a company says in an advert that you are a moron THEN you have grounds for complaint. But NOT if somebody exercises their own right of free speech. That is what linux is all about. Free speech.

Funny thing about free speech: We all have it. Me, too. I told you what I thought, and now you come back and say I'm a would-be censor. Not so. I am a critic. Those who dish it out need to be able to take it.

Let's put it differently: Those who desire to unseat Microsoft would (in my opinion, and I'm just one guy with one opinion) be smartest to not call people just getting their feet wet "morons." A better strategy might be for some intrepid group of people to collaborate on a web site or other means of helping NON-SPECIALISTS get weaned away slowly but surely.

But hey, there goes my idealism getting in the way again. Even among a group like this, the would-be "insurgents," the underlying spirit is nasty and hostile. Oh what the 1990s did to everyone!

quote:I suppose i might as well add that i am in no way calling you a moron, although i think that much should be obvious by now.

If you don't live in the suburbs, you should get the honorary key to the suburbs. You have honed passive-aggressive psychology to the high art of the toniest suburb.

Here's my bottom line: I've been so thoroughly turned off by this group of people that, like with the prior experiments with an Intel video camera that didn't work, an 802.11 network that didn't work, a Microsoft "wizard" to link an XP machine and a Win98 machine that didn't work ... that I just give up.

Microsoft sucks? Yeah, they sure do. But so do their opponents. I might not like Iran, but it doesn't mean I'm going to join Syria. See ya.

[choasforages]

well, a better way to get alot of help would be to list the names of everything attached to your computer. you ask us about alternatives to microsoft but don't give a list of hardware. with some of the alternatives most notably linux, some things work and some don't, i could easyly tell if something would work, wouldn't work, or be a bitch to get working

[Bazoukas]

As Void Man said, if you have done your research before spending $1500+ you could have bought a MAC.
  No you are not a Moron because you dont Use Linux, you are a Moron because you gave a good amount of money because a kid at the store smoked your ass.
 
   Besides take it from a guy that was using Windows all the time. Mandrake Linux and Red Hat Linux are VERY user friendly these days. Shit Mandrake and Red Hat even recognized my game pads.
  Windows 2000 didnt recognize my Sound Blaster 512(i think is the model) but Mandrake and Red Hat did.

  And about Instalation? Common give me a brake. It took less time than Windows installation.


    Just a side note....i was a psych major and now because of Linux I changed major to Computer Scence. Go figure :-D

[lazygamer]

quote:And about Instalation? Common give me a brake. It took less time than Windows installation.

This is because of more compatibility, less bugs, and much more optimized code?

[Calum]

quote:Originally posted by willysnout:
Funny thing about free speech: We all have it. Me, too. I told you what I thought, and now you come back and say I'm a would-be censor. Not so. I am a critic. Those who dish it out need to be able to take it.

That's a filthy lie. I voice my opinion just like you, and you come back and tell me a load of shit. I did not say you were a would be censor. You have let your own eagerness to get angry cloud your own intellect.

quote:
If you don't live in the suburbs, you should get the honorary key to the suburbs. You have honed passive-aggressive psychology to the high art of the toniest suburb.

i don't live in the suburbs and this statement is also a lie. You have totally misconstrued me if you think i am being passive-aggressive, you are probably misunderstanding me deliberately on your way over to the moral high ground.
 

quote:
Here's my bottom line: I've been so thoroughly turned off by this group of people that, like with the prior experiments with an Intel video camera that didn't work, an 802.11 network that didn't work, a Microsoft "wizard" to link an XP machine and a Win98 machine that didn't work ... that I just give up.

Microsoft sucks? Yeah, they sure do. But so do their opponents. I might not like Iran, but it doesn't mean I'm going to join Syria. See ya.

I changed my mind, you really are a moron, and i'm happy to voice my opinion on that.

Quite frankly you are very closed minded. You refuse to take any advice or allow any actual information to sink in while at the same time wasting your energy on the sentiment (real or perceived, mostly perceived) contained in the way the information is presented.

Quite frankly, if you don't want to use Microsoft stuff, don't use it, if you do, do. That's what choice is all about, but if all you want to do is come here and tell everybody what an asshole they are, when i have yet to see one useful post from you, then in my opinion, you should fuck off.