--- "J.Robert Suckling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This is an off subject post, > Windows is a toy operations system.
I think the original poster made the "can't buy Unix" disclaimer in hopes of avoiding responses like this. Insulting the poster's OS is not a good way of winning an argument. If you can't (or won't) answer the poster's question and you feel compelled to point out another way, insults will not win the day. Frankly, I'm not wild about Windows. There are many things that it tends not to do well. However, there is no operating system that anyone can point to that does *everything* well. Even though I don't care for Windows, here's a quick defense: 1. It's easy to use. 2. It supports a wider range of applications than any of its competitors. 3. It's a snap to install and setup compared to many other operating systems. 4. Many otherwise difficult tasks have easy-to-use "Wizards" that allows newer users to be productive. 5. It's incredibly stable (okay, so that one is dead wrong :) Okay, that's kind of a skimpy list, and if I did a little more research, I could come up with better examples, but the point is this: everything has a use. (yes, you can turn any of the above positives into a negative, but that is NOT the point of this email). Simply referring to Windows as a toy OS is not fair. Their are many language bigots out there who refer to Perl as a toy language because it doesn't have strong typing, its object-oriented features are kludgy, its Unicode support is spotty, <insert favorite complaint here>. Does this mean Perl is bad? No. It means that if you need those features, Perl may not be the best choice. Admitting that other tools may have merit is *not* saying that Perl (or Linux, or Unix, etc.) is bad. > What you want is a real operation system that will > empower you to go real computing. Today the system > of choose is called Linux. Really? Now, I like Linux, but let's face it, many would argue that it's not ready for prime time when it comes to the desktop. Here are some complaints: 1. The web browsers tend to be buggy (and that's the main reason many people HAVE a computer). 2. Office productivity tools are bloated (Star Office) or too simple and unstable(K-Office). 3. The most popular open souce database (MySQL) is not a database (it's more of a relational file system with an SQL interface). Unfortunately, it's rabidly defended by its supporters (it has appropriate uses, but that's beyond the scope of this email) 4. The second most popular database, Postgres, is just finally starting to come into its own and only time will tell if it's robust and scalable enough to compete with the big boys. 5. Groupware? What's that? Yeah, Evolution is, um, evolving, but it's not there yet. See those complaints? I still like Linux. I prefer it to Windows. Yet I have a Windows box at home and I have to use them at work. Just insulting whatever you don't like leads to a mindset where you can't evaluate that other ways of solving problems might have merit. Please, don't respond to this with a "yeah, but" email. If anyone does, they are missing the point. And because I somehow failed to address the point that I really wanted to make, here it is: when people ask questions, insulting them, their OS, their coding style, or flaming them is just going to drive people away. Cheers, Curtis "Ovid" Poe ===== "Ovid" on http://www.perlmonks.org/ Someone asked me how to count to 10 in Perl: push@A,$_ for reverse q.e...q.n.;for(@A){$_=unpack(q|c|,$_);@a=split//; shift@a;shift@a if $a[$[]eq$[;$_=join q||,@a};print $_,$/for reverse @A __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! http://auctions.yahoo.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
