Operating systems / Best in "isolation"

I don't know how to state this, so I will blunder in -- I have been trying to follow this wide-ranging discussions about the woes of Microsoft products, of Linux, and so on. This may sound anti-Internet, but I see two themes in the back of these discussions -- 1. The need to be isolated 2. consumerism (or vender vs. user choice) For the first, with computers so widespread and the ease to communicate between users so prevalent these days, maybe we need the exact opposite -- for each of us to be isolated from one another and not see the other's toys. As I think Ernest recently said, he was happy with his first Commodore 64 until someone told him otherwise. If we would instead just cherish what we have, and <grin> otherwise sit in Dilbert-like mini-cubicles without the ability to see your neighbor, then we wouldn't know what we are missing... (For you software developers and hardware techs of yore -- did you complain about the software and hardware 20 years ago in the same fashion as I hear complaining today? I suspect so, it is just that we didn't hear it so often as we were isolated. But then again I can dream that it was better then...) For the second, I would like to think that our need to upgrade should be driven by *our* needs to fix something. I dislike it when the direction comes from the other end -- that is from the vender or developer telling me I must upgrade and/or replace something. When the needs are not truly user driven, then we are in a marketing situation only, and you know the group of people that is intended to benefit from that...it doesn't include me. I am not exactly thrilled with Microsoft products, and would rather not buy them. But then again BSD won't serve my family's needs. Just what is available as a viable alternative for the "average Joe"? Not much from what I can see. So maybe we shouldn't be using computers -- they aren't essential, after all <grin> -- societies flourished for many centuries before the present (and there is no promise that this society won't "die" just like others in the past have). Just pondering on a Friday -- Luddism and communism in the morning. Grins.. Have a good weekend everyone and simmer down. Cheers/TTFN, Kevin Anderson, Bismarck, North Dakota (where I can see the frontier, and there are unfortunately no PDP 8s or 11s in sight....) home: K9IUA(a)juno.com alt: kla(a)helios.augustana.edu