Re: To the OP: Wintroll FUD about alleged insecurity refuted

Aragorn wrote:
On Friday 08 December 2006 14:21, Gordon stood up and addressed the masses
in /comp.os.linux.misc/ as follows...:

Aragorn wrote:

*Note* *to* *readers:* The poster I'm replying to is obviously a clear
troll. However, since newbies are involved and other newbies might be
lurking, I will elaborate and refute the trolls claims below.
snip brilliant post....

Thank you! ;-)

Wow! Thanks for all that.....

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."
an American actor with Italian roots ;-)

I must admit the first real meetings I had with computers was in the early
eighties, just after the IBM AT had been released.

It will then probably surprise you all the more to learn that when I first
switched on a PC in 1990 in a school office where I was employed at the
time, I didn't even know what I was supposed to do next: start typing in
some programming language or turn the thing off again. It was a two-floppy
machine - I can't recall the exact brand anymore, but it could have been an
Olivetti - and it ran something called TurboDOS.

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ims/turboDos/

Later that same year, my dad's brother - who was an accountant - gave a
secondhand two-floppy XT clone to my dad for his birthday, along with a few
floppies and a copied and incomplete PC-DOS 3.30. My dad had never even
seen a computer up close - like I had until only shortly before - and so he
barely touched it at first, except for playing Space Invaders, which my
uncle taught him to start.

This was my real entry into IT, and within a few weeks, I already completely
mastered DOS and I was discovering sequential BASIC. After a few months I
was already teaching WordPerfect 5.1 to adults, both in Dutch - my native
tongue - and in English...

I bought my first own computer - a slimline Brother 386, worth some 5000 US
Dollars back then - late 1992. It came with DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0, but I
had already determined that I wanted OS/2 as my operating system, and so
when OS/2 2.0 became available for retail about six months later, I threw
DOS and Windows off the machine and got me an officially licensed copy.

I've used OS/2 2.0 and 2.1 for five years altogether, and I had in the
meantime also already made my first acquaintances with UNIX in several
flavors. Late 1997, I felt it was time for a hardware upgrade, and I had
actually hoped for a UNIX OS. However, proprietary UNIX was far too
expensive, and as I didn't have an internet connection, I had little to no
knowledge regarding GNU or the Linux kernel. All I knew about them came
from a sporadic mention in computer magazines.

Yet, coming from a 32-bit operating system, I didn't want to have to install
Windows 95, which still ran on top of DOS. Yet everyone did, and as
transferring files from one machine to another was a matter of /sneakernet/
for me and I needed interoperability with my friends, I settled for NT 4.0
Workstation.

Although I didn't use my computer a lot yet back then - I would boot up a
few times per week to as little as once per month - I didn't really have
any problems with NT. I also didn't care much for the idea of having more
than one OS on a computer.

Yet, after having read an article in a computer magazine late 1999 in which
they compared several GNU/Linux distributions and then coming into a
software shop where several of those distributions were sitting on the
shelves in shrinkwrapped boxes, I had a hard time trying to resist the
temptation of getting me one. I did put back the box the first time - I
was only there to buy an Encarta for my brother's Christmas - I did back up
from the cash register again and snatched
the /Linux-Mandrake/ /6.0/ /PowerPack/ box from the shelf and headed back
to the cashier.

The Mandrake box sat on my table for yet another two weeks - out of laziness
- before I decided to go ahead and reinstall NT and leave room for
Mandrake. There was no internet, no Usenet, no experienced person looking
over my shoulder. But I had read the manuals that came with the distro.

I managed to install it without a glitch. Well, not entirely without a
glitch as my X server was incorrectly configured: the desktop resolution
was higher than the chosen screen resolution but I managed to correct that
quite easily using the distribution's configuration tools. Back then,
those were pretty much just the standard RedHat 6.0 tools.

I dual-booted for about a month. I liked NT because it looked good - I had
Windowblinds installed and a nice background - and I originally didn't want
to get rid of it because I had paid a lot of money for it, and for Office
97. However, with GNU/Linux I had finally found a UNIX-style operating
system - which I had been wanting for years already - at an affordable
price, fully equipped, and with this great license that I fell in love with
right from the start, because to me, it embodied my own outlook on life.

I found myself booting up more into GNU/Linux than into NT, and after one
month - January 1st 2000, to be precise - NT refused to boot, despite the
Y2K updates and the latest Service Pack. And GNU/Linux ran happily as
ever...

About four months after, I got cable internet at home. I did everything
other people using Windows did: surfing, e-mail, IRC... It was all there. And then I realized that I needed another hardware upgrade, as my computer
- which had never been right from day one - was starting to act up.

And so for a brief moment - and it really was only a brief moment - I was
wondering whether I'd invest money again in Windows 2000 and a new Office
version alongside of GNU/Linux or not, as I was already quite determined
that I wouldn't give up on this great OS, and then I thought again of my
old principle: you only need one operating system. On top of that, my new
hardware was suitable for 24/7 uptime, and so it would be pointless
creating a condition that requires reboots - not to mention that Windows
itself required reboots.

Like I said, it was only a brief moment. My decision was easily made. And
I was able to open the documents made by Windows users, using StarOffice
(back then). And those who didn't like my choice of operating system,
well, too bad. Why would I need to fold to them?

I have never, no, never, not even for a moment regretted my decision or
longed for Windows ever again. After all, I've only used Windows for two
and a half years - 6 months of Windows 3.0 and 2 years of NT 4.0, excluding
the use of Windows at work, where it was not up to me, of course - and OS/2
for 5 years. And now I've been using GNU/Linux - a genuine POSIX OS - for
7 years already exclusively, and the more I'm using it, the more I even
love it.

And you know what I find the most striking? Back when I first installed it,
I didn't have an internet connection at home yet - as I mentioned earlier -
and installing happened via character mode-only menus.

Now, there are graphical installers that largely automate the process. Now
there is /udev/ to make the sysem hotpluggable. Now there are automounters
for those who want that. Now there is the internet and Usenet, even if it
means via Google Groups.

And then there are still people who dare say that GNU/Linux has a steep
learning curve, and who can't find this or that functionality, or who can't
get this or that peripheral - with or without the industrial-strenght-glued
"Designed For Windows Vista"(TM) sticker - to work, or who complain about
the lack of tools or software in GNU/Linux, when Windows needs third-party
drivers and third-party software to get it running, and third-party
utilities to keep it safe from malware and from its own poor design.

So anyone who is still Windows-horny - like many computer magazines and many
websites - and anyone who complains about GNU/Linux is an idiot. No more,
no less. They should be slapped into a coma with a Commodore 64.

;-)


Isn't that being a bit harsh on the Commodore 64 :) Perhaps you should of used a Vic20 to do the job
.

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