Enough already! (was: Re: MS Laugh-In)

Sellam Ismail wrote: I don't. I've been using Linux since the early 1.x kernels. I've found it to crash quite often. If you do certain things to prevent that, it crashes *MUCH* less. Linux is a great server, as long as it does a specific task, and that's it. If you make it do too much, it starts to suck. That's where Solaris blows it off the map. Not so. Ever just clicked repeatedly on the back arrow in Netscape 4.75? If you hit one of those pages that won't let you use the Back arrow to return, you'll lock the entire box. Netscape is garbage, yes, but it will still lock the box. It's not the user's fault. It's not hardware. It's Netscape being big, bloated, and horribly written. And, it's people saying things like "YOU did something wrong" that gives Linux users and advocates a bad name. How about finding out what they're running? How about finding out what they were doing at that time? How about finding out what hardware they have? Telling someone they did something wrong is unnecessarily harsh, and rather insulting. You never know... this guy could be very modest, yet know far more about Linux than you. I'm not saying this is the case, but it could be. Or, he could be looking for a little reassurance, and you just made him feel like an idiot, causing him to return to Windows, and forget about trying new things. Have some consideration. That's something I've found lacking in your recent posts. Why don't you fix your computer? Just because you have a brand new Dell does not mean that it's flawless. You could have some bitched hardware, or, as unloaded as it might be, your box could have some software issues. It's been known to happen, believe it or not. And I've managed, and maintained Red Hat 6.2 servers that were broken horribly. Red Hat doesn't solve your ills. And nothing is "obvious". He's given you no information to go on. I think you're jumping to a conclusion you shouldn't. Not in the slightest. In case you didn't notice, Windows is an OS. Windows9x is a DOS-based operating system, but an OS, nonetheless. Windows2000 is an OS (originally a VMS and OS/2 hybrid with NT, but an OS nonetheless). Linux is a kernel. The OS is based on the GNU tools. So, actually, if you want to be like that, Linux is not an OS. GNU/Linux is. People tend to find more problems when the situation is more common. The more you use something, the more you're going to find issues with it. The more popular something is, the more people are going to try to take it down. Think of the recent battle with the OpenBSD crew. They've been hawking their "no root exploits in 3 years" banner, and suddenly, people went after them. Picking apart their methods, their findings, and their process for fixing and releasing patches. It's not because they are bad at what they do. It's because they've shown they're strong, and people want to take them down. It's silly, but it's the case. And you can see this with plain ol' popularity. Yes, MS's practices are slimey. And they've been shown to the world like that. But, people fall for it. And that's their choice. I choose not to. Why would you make this guy feel stupid for trying out Linux? You should be praising him, and helping him along when he has problems. He's approaching it in his way. If he patches the hell out of his box, that's fine. I do it. And guess what? My box is pretty damned stable. All of my machines are. I keep an eye out for security issues, look for them myself, and patching is one way. It's a necessity if you're on the net, as well. Either you keep up, or you get rooted, and you're reinstalling every two days. And sometimes, people who preach too violently can miss the facts. Tone down your rhetoric, and turn on your brain. This guy wasn't attacking you, so why attack him. And to the original poster, my apologies for you having to endure this tirade. I applaud your efforts, and your willingness to tinker, and compare, and decide for yourself. -- Tim Harrison Network Engineer harrison(a)timharrison.com http://www.networklevel.com/