beware of the updates you install

I'll check. We had a pile of them at the last place I worked. We replaced them with Fostex time code digital recorders and ProTools type DAWs on laptops.

For me it is more economic than anything else. (I guess I'm a bad American because money doesn't give me a stiffie.) I build my own machines and I do not appreciate MSFT charging me over $200 for a crappy OS that only has one workspace. Windows is slow and not inspiring.

The Mac fanbois are the worst. I will agree about them.

If your IOS device detects you trying to read the files with a 3rd party app it will brick your device. You have to refill it. Major Pain!

Most games are written in Linux then ported to Windows. DirectX graphics are then required. If Windows didn't have the proprietary graphics library it would have died 10 years ago.

What Intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away.

Nagra makes a digital recorder the same size as the old magnetic machines.

I'm saying that Gates used OS/2 for his own WindowsNT, which was not as stable as the original. I still use OS/2, and have never had any but minor problems. I also run the new version, called eComStation.

You are way more likely to need to fork over some moola to get the answer with Win. The Linux ecosystem is not about generating profits; it makes computing fun again. I'm about to install a 64 bit Mint customized for Ham Radio on my friends old gaming machine. He is actually the one who pays retail for Windows.,

Creator of Microsoft? Gates helped write CPM, a little bit of BASIC. Quick and Dirty Operating System was bought pretty much turnkey. Since then it's been Bill and Steve as Mr and Mrs Pacman, gobbling up other people's ideas.

Nobody said that, did they? It is easier to keep a Linux box running, however. Ask anybody loving Android in their pocket or their PS3s in the video game room.

No, Swiftwater Bill had nothing to do with CPM.

Gary Kildall wrote CPM, over at Digital Research.

Bill and Microsoft were only about BASIC for some years, so common that for a while just about any computer you could buy had a Microsoft BASIC for it, many with it in ROM. Perhaps towards the end of that period they had some other languages to offer.

When the IBM PC came along, they apparently went to Microsoft thinking they put out CPM (I seem to recall one reason for this error was because Microsoft did have a CP/M card for the Apple II, their first foray into hardware), and so Microsoft sent them to Digital Research. Some foul up (the stories vary) sent them back to Microsoft, to ask them if they could make an operating system. That's when they bought QDOS from Seattle Microsystems, and turned it into PCDOS.

Of course, QDOS is said to be similar to CPM.

Michael

Not really, that's the frustrating part from my standpoint. You _can't get_ direct systems programming support from Microsoft, no matter how much money you spend.

I _like_ having a commercial operating system where I can call up on the phone and talk to some guy who has the source code in front of him and can track down exactly what is going on, and I don't mind paying for that service.

But Microsoft will charge you for support and have you talking to some guy on the phone who doesn't know any more than you do about what is going on inside the box... it takes many, many layers of escalation to talk to anyone who has seen the source.

I would MUCH RATHER be able to pay money and talk to an expert than deal with the catch-as-catch-can support that most Linux distributions have. But Microsoft gives me the worst of both worlds.

Apple is not so bad... it's difficult to get in touch with people who really know what is going on, but it's not impossible. It does cost money, but that's what money is for, to pay people to do things you can't or don't want to do.

--scott

No. Gates had nothing do with with CP/M, which was a a Digital Research product. He was famous for producing what today we would call "layered products" including a variety of standard BASIC interpreters for various operating systems (including CP/M and RT-11, the system that CP/M was crudely modelled after), as well as BASIC-in-ROM for a lot of systems.

Yes, Gates purchased SBC-DOS from Seattle Business Computing and resold it as MS-DOS. That's how free markets work.

--scott

Nicely done.

dave, this is not meant to be personal or adversarial.

I have many years' experience with computers, and used to be a programmer. I have never had any particular problems (other than a general "failure" of W2K, for unknown reasons) with Windows. It runs, it works, and I'm willing to put out the effort to make sure it's properly configured. (There are books on the subject.)

Please give me some /good/ reasons why I should dump Windows and Windows software, and switch to Linux -- other than "Linux good, Windows bad".

Preach it.

Sure you can, just open the box. Windows or Linux makes no difference :-)

Which are readily found in many instances by checking the logs.

Exactly.

Nor that they really care as long as a solution is available.

Trevor.

Or just as often umpteen solutions to no real problem :-)

Trevor.

Why I'd never buy an Apple device when there are lots to choose from that work with any system.

Trevor.

I specifically bought mine to use with a 3G wireless router in my car, to use the iPod Touch as a stream tuner. This was in 2009 and more elegant solutions were not yet available. I was astonished that you cannot drag and drop files and then offended by the idea I could never be superuser on my own bought and paid for ipod. I do know how to root it via USB or wifi, but why?

Fanbois love this kind of walled garden. Probably a juvenile complex or something.