i agree,
re: above
good point about the "why's it on a mandrake news list" thing, i suppose as you say, it's aimed at new and overwhelmed linux users who might be daunted enough to change back if they were given a (albeit shit) reason, maybe mandrake is perceived as something likely to be used by a lot of newbies, and probably it is.
Also who said that thing about systems all coming with C compilers? windows doesn't come with a C compiler, i don't think win2000 even comes with a compiler. X11 told me about a free C compiler for windows i think, but it doesn't come with the system, and why would i ever need it, when i have c compilers on my linux side already?
as for BASIC, there's bound to be basic compilers for linux and i am certain that there will be for some other unix. It's not a Microsoft language anyway, VB is though, it's been warped way out of hand, unlike the microsoft html and microsoft javascript thing, with BASIC, nobody told microsoft to stop it. They just took it upon themselves to fuck up a perfectly mediocre and noncompetitive language all by themselves.