[Leaplist] Linux Advocasy: What they'll miss

[Chris]

Damien McKenna wrote:

> On May 8, 2008, at 4:42 AM, Fred Moore wrote:
>
>> How can everyone else enter your world?  I contend the problem *is*
>> windows itself.
>
>
> That's only part of the problem.


It's an OS that only genius users like yourself can use safely.
And that's the problem - it just shouldn't be that fragile. There
are core and fundamental design issues with Windows, not
the least of which are the registry - a nightmare waiting to
happen - it's just plain stupid to take a crucial part of the system,
then allow anyone and everyone to modify it haphazardly.

Windows is rife with isolation issues, all caused by their
"Throw the kitchen sink into the OS" mentality. Microsoft
was famous for certifying applications that were literally
unusable unless run as an Administrator. The list goes on
and on. Can a really savvy, brilliant and good looking guy
such as yourself keep a Windows system running? Sure.

But the users shouldn't have to be as savvy, billiant and good
looking as you just to keep a stable, safe system running.

>
>> No matter how crappy any application is if it can
>> corrupt the OS then that is the underlying problem.
>
>
> I've had Firefox take down a Ubuntu machine, completely locked it up  
> and a forced reboot was required to get it working again.
>
And I've seen Windows apps throw one last straw on the haystack
known as the registry and turn the machine into a doorstop. Notice
your Linux system rebooted? I'll also point out that Linux is pretty
hard to kill in that way. SSH from outside, and you'll find that
Linux is still sitting there, happily chugging away. Usually, it's X
that has gotten it's knickers in a twist, and yeah, I'll concede that
X still has some fragile spots - but none of them will corrupt your
machine, or break it.

>> You should be able to click any web site out there safely.   As for  
>> stupid
>> people who install crap from all over the place again.. an OS that out
>> of the box has no security to stop this crap is broken.    A friend  
>> is a
>> perfect example.  He and his wife never install anything.   But I
>> constantly assist him as his kids trash it..
>
>
> Then it is the parents' fault for giving their children such wide  
> access on the machines.  Even with Windows you can set limits on what  
> different user accounts can do, though I will say the restrictions 
> are  easier to manage on OSX.
>
Unfortunately, when those limiting mechanisms are part of
the problem due to the failure of MS to employee proper
isolation design, you're not gaining a huge amount of security.
At best, you might be protecting other users on the same
machine from prying eyes.

And again, with "It's the parents' fault." You know, the parents
are trying to keep up with their professions, get bills paid,
go to PTA meetings, go shopping, and juggle expenses - all
they really need is what they were promised in the store -
an appliance. These people have some vague idea that an
anti-virus is a good thing, but when they see the subscription
nag screen from the commercial AV that came with their
PC, they think it's like a utility - you keep paying every month,
just like water or electricity, but apparently it's still turned on,
because the little icon is still down there by the clock, so
they ignore the nag screen after a while, instead of paying
the subscription, and thank goodness, because Jimmy had
four cavities this time, and the tires are falling off the car.

You're demanding that everyone that buys a computer become
a systems and security expert. A) Not gonna happen, and
B) Shouldn't have to happen. Here's where the rubber hits
the road for me. Over the past four or five months, since
I've started my policy of installing and maintaining Linux
for free, my repeat business has fallen off - and my referrals
from satisfied customers have risen. I don't see the Linux
machines back every five weeks, having been slowed to
a crawl, or buried under pop-ups. Could I get the same effect
with Windows? Yep, but only with the level of education you
think everyone should have to have to even own a computer.

Cheers,

Chris