Microsoft’s Best Buy Lies About Linux Debunked

Published on September 7, 2009 in General by Rami Taibah

In an effort to thwart Linux sales on netbooks, Microsoft has started a training program at Best Buy to “educate” their “experts” on Linux. And true to their fashion, MS resorted to FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) and straight out LIES! However, Microsoft still maintains that Linux is not a threat to their market, they are just spending all this money to “help” people make an educated decision. Funny thing, is that they ended up promoting Linux.

Over here on The Linuxologist, we already debunked most of the general myths about Linux, however this one warrants its own response:

Linux-MS-FUD1

  • No camera support? What are we exactly talking about here anyways? Webcams? Or regular digital cameras? Doesn’t really matter, both work perfectly fine on Linux, and out of the box in most cases. If we are talking webcams here,  some webcams might require tweaking and hacking. But remember we are talking about netbooks where Linux is pre-installed at the OEM level, so all webcams SHOULD work. Regular digital cameras work also, they would act like any regular USB peripheral.
  • Most MP3 players sync perfectly fine with Linux. Microsoft doesn’t seem to know the difference between iTunes and MP3 player. iPod Touch can prove a bit tricky, but still Songbird among others provide good support. In any case, this is not Linux’s problem, but Apple’s and their draconian methods.
  • Printers work perfectly fine, whether through CUPS or a manufacturers driver. While anecdotal, I have blogged about my woes of getting an HP printer to work on XP. The same printer worked out of the box on Ubuntu
  • Limited software compatibility? Well if you are talking about software designed specifically for Windows environment, then yes of course it is limited! However there is NOTHING that you would want to run on a netbook that doesn’t have a suitable replacement.
  • No support for Windows Live services. This one really takes the cake! I wonder why Redmond? Still Messenger works perfectly fine through other clients  that are more superior to the bloated Live messenger provided by MS. I am not sure what they mean by Mail, but I am assuming its their web-based E-mail (hotmail), but it also works. As for Photo Gallery, I don’t have the slightest idea of what it is, but really who uses it? People seem to be on  Flickr or Picassa.
  • Who would even buy a netbook for gaming? Still, WoW (their example) works fine through wine and so do other high-end games. But I don’t know why one would do gaming on an 8 inch screen. Stick with solitaire.
  • Authorized support? Red Hat, Canonical? Hell even Novell?
  • Video chat works perfectly fine on Skype, Yahoo, and Live messenger (aMSN, Kopete…etc.) Gmail doesn’t yet support video or voice, but they are working on it. However, they do have a testing version (request here.) Not sure about other networks, but I am sure they work also.

Linux-MS-FUD2

Covered most of claims with the first slide but:

  • iTunes and Zune users might face problems because of Redmond and Cupertino’s monopolistic practices. Still Linux users found ways around these issues (wine, Amarok, Songbird…etc)
  • Quicken: Moneydance, GNUCash, and KMyMoney. Also, Mint and Quicken Online both work
  • Photoshop: Gimp (lets not get into that endless PS Vs. Gimp debate, remember this is a netbook, no serious work should be done on it)
  • Office 2007: OpenOffice

Linux-MS-FUD3

  • Regular updates: Yeah because updating is an exclusive domain for Microsoft! Because nothing says secure like an update once every second Tuesday every month ;)
  • Meets expectations: Already debunked!
  • Free downloads: Linux doesn’t need “free” security add-ons, the system is built from the bottom up to be safe ;) Oh, and the whole OS is free!

Linux-MS-FUD4

  • Funny how they were boasting that they update regularly, then use that same argument against Ubuntu
  • It doesn’t have to be clear, unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t have to reboot after every freakin minor update. Hell you almost NEVER need to reboot, and even when you do, you don’t have to do it immediately. The system doesn’t nag you about it either ;)

Linux-MS-FUD5

LOL, this one actually deserves its own demotivational poster. Share them with us. Be creative!

poster73206117

About

Rami Taibah the founder of The Linuxologist and a self proclaimed geek and Linux aficionado. This fall, he will be pursuing an MIMS degree at UC Berkeley, California. You can follow him on Twitter @rtaibah.

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  • http://twitter.com/rtaibah Rami Taibah

    Your story is similar to mine actually. But I wasn't fed up with Windows, but rather very eager to try Linux. The moment I got my hands on a Suse Linux CD, I popped it in, paying no attention at all to my Windows partition. Amazingly (to me at that time at least) it left Windows intact and gave me a dual boot….this was 2004, my life changed since.

  • ubuntu4life

    This is making me VERY angry…
    All those lies…

  • ubuntu4life

    This is making me VERY angry…
    All those lies…

  • ubuntu4life

    This is making me VERY angry…
    All those lies…

  • hans

    this only proves MS tremendous fear for Linux and her community. Chicken behaviour of a monopolist who knows she is selling junk to her customers. Only, nobody should know about it.
    Too bad. Linux proves everyday what kind of software junk Redmond sells.

    Ubuntu forever :)

  • hans

    this only proves MS tremendous fear for Linux and her community. Chicken behaviour of a monopolist who knows she is selling junk to her customers. Only, nobody should know about it.
    Too bad. Linux proves everyday what kind of software junk Redmond sells.

    Ubuntu forever :)

  • hans

    this only proves MS tremendous fear for Linux and her community. Chicken behaviour of a monopolist who knows she is selling junk to her customers. Only, nobody should know about it.
    Too bad. Linux proves everyday what kind of software junk Redmond sells.

    Ubuntu forever :)

  • http://annanta.com id1511758

    in certain points i agree with you but still Microsoft rocks. I have been using Windows Xp for long time and it delivers the best. Now just eager to install windows 7 when it is ready. :)

    • alexstubbins

      Than why are you on this website.

  • http://annanta.com id1511758

    in certain points i agree with you but still Microsoft rocks. I have been using Windows Xp for long time and it delivers the best. Now just eager to install windows 7 when it is ready. :)

  • http://annanta.com id1511758

    in certain points i agree with you but still Microsoft rocks. I have been using Windows Xp for long time and it delivers the best. Now just eager to install windows 7 when it is ready. :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Federico-Contreras/517374550 Federico Contreras

    >The ultimate game PC is a Linux box with either a GPU that works with Linux or a quad processor, with 2 processors rendering the graphics (hey its faster than the GPUs)

    I sort of agreed with you until I got to this line, clearly you've been drinking the koolaid way too long or don't play video games. 2 processors rendering graphics is NOT equal to even 1 older GPU, CPUs really, really suck at that. Where you got to this level of crazy is anyone's guess. On to the rest: Linux has no respectable modern retail games to speak of, or support for such (try getting steam games working, or eve … I mention them because I play them).

    Linux is great on netbooks (as long as you don't like to play games from gog.com, like I do, old games run fine and you can only play them if your netbook runs windows).

    You can run emulators, but linux's wonky, per-application gaming peripheral support will make setting up your gamepad a pain the arse, if you get that far. Dos games work great, dosbox runs well on linux. Flash games run pretty well, the linux flash client is still a bit slower than the windows one (way to go adobe = ). Also, driver issues in linux ARE a pain if you have a newer machine (or even an older one) If ever see the words fglrx or boot my computer to a 640 x 480 desktop with no hardware acceleration after attempting a crazy thing like *changing screen resolution* or *getting my second monitor to work* or *getting accelerated 3D from my ATI9600 (THE OLD ONE)*, or have to type “sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg” into a command console I will throw my computer out the window.

    If your computer came with linux and you have a very narrow range of needs, then yes, you could potentially buy a computer with linux. If you like to work ON your computer and not WITH it, get linux. If you are a non AS3 programmer or an engineer and don't care that your applications have no design consistency, go for linux.

    If you actually need to get things done, are an AS3 programmer / designer, or like to play games, you should go with windows.

    You can go with MacOS if you're willing to give up games.

    It sucks, but that's the state of affairs (As of ubuntu 8.04, I'll give 9.04 a spin on my non-essential box soon to see if things game improved — I'm not holding my breath).

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Federico-Contreras/517374550 Federico Contreras

    >The ultimate game PC is a Linux box with either a GPU that works with Linux or a quad processor, with 2 processors rendering the graphics (hey its faster than the GPUs)

    I sort of agreed with you until I got to this line, clearly you've been drinking the koolaid way too long or don't play video games. 2 processors rendering graphics is NOT equal to even 1 older GPU, CPUs really, really suck at that. Where you got to this level of crazy is anyone's guess. On to the rest: Linux has no respectable modern retail games to speak of, or support for such (try getting steam games working, or eve … I mention them because I play them).

    Linux is great on netbooks (as long as you don't like to play games from gog.com, like I do, old games run fine and you can only play them if your netbook runs windows).

    You can run emulators, but linux's wonky, per-application gaming peripheral support will make setting up your gamepad a pain the arse, if you get that far. Dos games work great, dosbox runs well on linux. Flash games run pretty well, the linux flash client is still a bit slower than the windows one (way to go adobe = ). Also, driver issues in linux ARE a pain if you have a newer machine (or even an older one) If ever see the words fglrx or boot my computer to a 640 x 480 desktop with no hardware acceleration after attempting a crazy thing like *changing screen resolution* or *getting my second monitor to work* or *getting accelerated 3D from my ATI9600 (THE OLD ONE)*, or have to type “sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg” into a command console I will throw my computer out the window.

    If your computer came with linux and you have a very narrow range of needs, then yes, you could potentially buy a computer with linux. If you like to work ON your computer and not WITH it, get linux. If you are a non AS3 programmer or an engineer and don't care that your applications have no design consistency, go for linux.

    If you actually need to get things done, are an AS3 programmer / designer, or like to play games, you should go with windows.

    You can go with MacOS if you're willing to give up games.

    It sucks, but that's the state of affairs (As of ubuntu 8.04, I'll give 9.04 a spin on my non-essential box soon to see if things game improved — I'm not holding my breath).

  • cbemerine

    I hear you, but do not understand completely, based on you stating this:

    “I sort of agreed with you until I got to this line, clearly you've been
    drinking the koolaid way too long or don't play video games. 2 processors
    rendering graphics is NOT equal to even 1 older GPU, CPUs really, really
    suck at that. Where you got to this level of crazy is anyone's guess.”

    Am I to assume that there is little or no communication between the adapter
    card (GPU) and the systems processor (CPU) when outputting graphics? If
    that is the case, then a GPU on an adapter hooked to the display would be
    faster. However if very much communication needs to take place between the
    GPU and the CPU (which is still my understanding), than the bottle necks
    (either 8 bit, 16 bit or if you are lucky 32bit) somewhere in between (even
    on 64 bit systems) is going to be your limiting factor. I understand that
    the GPU by design is intended to offload processing from the CPU to the
    GPU's processor on the adapter card; but I have been led to believe that
    there is still significant communication over a smaller data pipe, between
    the CPU and the GPU on the Adapter card. I have also been told that even if
    the GPU is on the motherboard, the data path between it and the processor is
    smaller and thus becomes a bottle neck. Heck every datapath (even between
    northbridges and southbridges) is a bottle neck when it comes to doing
    anything internal to the processors.

    I have always believed that this bottleneck was significant. I have not
    written this type of code yet, but plan to in the near future on a Linux +
    Coreboot BIOS + Quad CPU (or more) box. I will be purchasing that this
    year. So once I start doing the C code, what you are saying, I might have
    more than one eye-opener. Sounds like fun.

    If what you are stating is fact, at least there are a number of GPU adapters
    that are compatible with Linux that I can make use of….

  • cbemerine

    I hear you, but do not understand completely, based on you stating this:

    “I sort of agreed with you until I got to this line, clearly you've been
    drinking the koolaid way too long or don't play video games. 2 processors
    rendering graphics is NOT equal to even 1 older GPU, CPUs really, really
    suck at that. Where you got to this level of crazy is anyone's guess.”

    Am I to assume that there is little or no communication between the adapter
    card (GPU) and the systems processor (CPU) when outputting graphics? If
    that is the case, then a GPU on an adapter hooked to the display would be
    faster. However if very much communication needs to take place between the
    GPU and the CPU (which is still my understanding), than the bottle necks
    (either 8 bit, 16 bit or if you are lucky 32bit) somewhere in between (even
    on 64 bit systems) is going to be your limiting factor. I understand that
    the GPU by design is intended to offload processing from the CPU to the
    GPU's processor on the adapter card; but I have been led to believe that
    there is still significant communication over a smaller data pipe, between
    the CPU and the GPU on the Adapter card. I have also been told that even if
    the GPU is on the motherboard, the data path between it and the processor is
    smaller and thus becomes a bottle neck. Heck every datapath (even between
    northbridges and southbridges) is a bottle neck when it comes to doing
    anything internal to the processors.

    I have always believed that this bottleneck was significant. I have not
    written this type of code yet, but plan to in the near future on a Linux +
    Coreboot BIOS + Quad CPU (or more) box. I will be purchasing that this
    year. So once I start doing the C code, what you are saying, I might have
    more than one eye-opener. Sounds like fun.

    If what you are stating is fact, at least there are a number of GPU adapters
    that are compatible with Linux that I can make use of….

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Federico-Contreras/517374550 Federico Contreras

    /// Am I to assume that there is little or no communication between the adapter card (GPU) and the systems processor (CPU) when outputting graphics? ///

    Yes, things have changed a lot in the real-time 3d pipeline since the days of software rendering (which is what you describe by saying 2 CPUs doing dedicated rendering). Video cards these days are powerhouses designed from the ground up to process SIMD-style moving MASSIVE amounts of data around. The CPU does send quite a bit of data to the video card, so much that they've upgraded the connection bus from the old AGP 8x standard to –> PCI Express 16x, but it still sucks compared to onboard memory, but that's another discussion.

    /// If that is the case, then a GPU on an adapter hooked to the display would be faster. ///

    That's exactly what a dedicated graphics adapter is. It receives triangle data and base textures over the PCIE bus and then does magic with them. The triangle setup is not the hard part. It's the multiple passes of shading that will kill a CPU trying to do this (unless your meshes are very dense, then that will also kill your CPU).

    /// However if very much communication needs to take place between the GPU and the CPU (which is still my understanding), than the bottle necks (either 8 bit, 16 bit or if you are lucky 32bit) somewhere in between (even on 64 bit systems) is going to be your limiting factor. ///

    PCI Express 2.0 has dual 32 bit channels for each slot (I have no idea what that means, since it makes no difference to me what the data granulation is, as long as it moves quick enough) So in terms *I* can understand: Old school PCI moves data at 133 MB/s, AGP8x at 2GB/s and PCI express x16 at 4GB/s.

    /// I understand that the GPU by design is intended to offload processing from the CPU to the GPU's processor on the adapter card; but I have been led to believe that there is still significant communication over a smaller data pipe, between the CPU and the GPU on the Adapter card. ///

    You have been misled, the data pipe is now adequate for pretty respectably high end real time rendering as I described above.

    /// I have also been told that even if the GPU is on the motherboard, the data path between it and the processor is smaller and thus becomes a bottle neck. Heck every datapath (even between northbridges and southbridges) is a bottle neck when it comes to doing anything internal to the processors. ///

    This is also incorrect, I don't even know where you got this =) what a strange statement … you haven't been taking to programmers about this sort of thing have you? They get all sorts of weird ideas about how their computers work.

    If you solder the GPU into the motherboard, you would still be using the northbridge's PCI-e interface to connect it to the video card, the only thing you're changing is the physical interface between them. The GPU can be anything and thus can be quite powerful, of course not even the craziest OEMs have yet attempted to weld 4 ATI4890's in SLI mode into a motherboard. I suspect it is because the need for 1.5 kilowatts of peak power would cramp their style just a bit. Just look at a block diagram one day, no video card talks directly to a CPU (you can pick at that statement by bringing up system-on-a-chip and integrated graphics chipsets, but the fact is that even those are internally communicating with the rest of the machine via the internal PCIe bus built into that chipset).

    /// I have always believed that this bottleneck was significant. I have not written this type of code yet, but plan to in the near future on a Linux + Coreboot BIOS + Quad CPU (or more) box. I will be purchasing that this year. So once I start doing the C code, what you are saying, I might have more than one eye-opener. Sounds like fun. ///

    So you ARE a software guy! This explains why you have weird views about everything ;)

    /// If what you are stating is fact, at least there are a number of GPU adapters that are compatible with Linux that I can make use of…. ///

    ATI actually has a pretty good track record with drivers these days (release – day linux support through fglrx (shudder) … allegedly, YMMV).

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Federico-Contreras/517374550 Federico Contreras

    /// Am I to assume that there is little or no communication between the adapter card (GPU) and the systems processor (CPU) when outputting graphics? ///

    Yes, things have changed a lot in the real-time 3d pipeline since the days of software rendering (which is what you describe by saying 2 CPUs doing dedicated rendering). Video cards these days are powerhouses designed from the ground up to process SIMD-style moving MASSIVE amounts of data around. The CPU does send quite a bit of data to the video card, so much that they've upgraded the connection bus from the old AGP 8x standard to –> PCI Express 16x, but it still sucks compared to onboard memory, but that's another discussion.

    /// If that is the case, then a GPU on an adapter hooked to the display would be faster. ///

    That's exactly what a dedicated graphics adapter is. It receives triangle data and base textures over the PCIE bus and then does magic with them. The triangle setup is not the hard part. It's the multiple passes of shading that will kill a CPU trying to do this (unless your meshes are very dense, then that will also kill your CPU).

    /// However if very much communication needs to take place between the GPU and the CPU (which is still my understanding), than the bottle necks (either 8 bit, 16 bit or if you are lucky 32bit) somewhere in between (even on 64 bit systems) is going to be your limiting factor. ///

    PCI Express 2.0 has dual 32 bit channels for each slot (I have no idea what that means, since it makes no difference to me what the data granulation is, as long as it moves quick enough) So in terms *I* can understand: Old school PCI moves data at 133 MB/s, AGP8x at 2GB/s and PCI express x16 at 4GB/s.

    /// I understand that the GPU by design is intended to offload processing from the CPU to the GPU's processor on the adapter card; but I have been led to believe that there is still significant communication over a smaller data pipe, between the CPU and the GPU on the Adapter card. ///

    You have been misled, the data pipe is now adequate for pretty respectably high end real time rendering as I described above.

    /// I have also been told that even if the GPU is on the motherboard, the data path between it and the processor is smaller and thus becomes a bottle neck. Heck every datapath (even between northbridges and southbridges) is a bottle neck when it comes to doing anything internal to the processors. ///

    This is also incorrect, I don't even know where you got this =) what a strange statement … you haven't been taking to programmers about this sort of thing have you? They get all sorts of weird ideas about how their computers work.

    If you solder the GPU into the motherboard, you would still be using the northbridge's PCI-e interface to connect it to the video card, the only thing you're changing is the physical interface between them. The GPU can be anything and thus can be quite powerful, of course not even the craziest OEMs have yet attempted to weld 4 ATI4890's in SLI mode into a motherboard. I suspect it is because the need for 1.5 kilowatts of peak power would cramp their style just a bit. Just look at a block diagram one day, no video card talks directly to a CPU (you can pick at that statement by bringing up system-on-a-chip and integrated graphics chipsets, but the fact is that even those are internally communicating with the rest of the machine via the internal PCIe bus built into that chipset).

    /// I have always believed that this bottleneck was significant. I have not written this type of code yet, but plan to in the near future on a Linux + Coreboot BIOS + Quad CPU (or more) box. I will be purchasing that this year. So once I start doing the C code, what you are saying, I might have more than one eye-opener. Sounds like fun. ///

    So you ARE a software guy! This explains why you have weird views about everything ;)

    /// If what you are stating is fact, at least there are a number of GPU adapters that are compatible with Linux that I can make use of…. ///

    ATI actually has a pretty good track record with drivers these days (release – day linux support through fglrx (shudder) … allegedly, YMMV).

  • cbemerine

    You response was great. I loved the detailed comments. The end result is I
    am even more excited about the prospect of this type of coding down the
    road. It is not something I have ever tried to get paid to do. Simple have
    never had a reason. Better to leave that as a hobby, along with surfing,
    scuba and more.

    If I had the cash I would go out and buy it this weekend, sadly I have other
    obligations. So I will stick to working with OO PHP, Linux and MySQL this
    weekend as I had planned to do. I probably will be able to get that new
    system by Thanksgiving and can give it a go over the holidays. At least
    that will be good timing as I will probably have some time off at that
    time.

    Thanks for the information and the feedback. The last time I did any
    programming with a bus the MicroChannel Architecture was all the rage. That
    dates me, ouch. Seems like most of my jobs have not been straight
    programming positions except for the last few years and those were with
    higher level languages, specifically web development (LAMP more than .NET)

    I have irrational dreams of a building a production server farm from the
    ground up based on Coreboot, Linux and Cinelerra; with whatever languages
    and tools I need to throw in to get it all to work together. All open
    source, all fast, all free, except the hardware and my time of course.
    Nothing vendor-locked in, no worries about future dead ends. And if things
    go the way I hope they will, that same basic system should provide an
    excellent gaming platform, movie watching / Tivo type platform, etc… I
    really do not care if it runs any Microsoft games or not. They (Microsoft)
    are never going to develop games that will run in Linux without Wine, so why
    should I give another thought to them. Besides their gaming platforms seem
    to fail a week or month after the warranty expires. At least with my
    platform it should run for 10 years if I want. Replace a power supply or
    fan, no biggee. Its not like I even care to try to compete or anything,
    that is not the point of the effort for this, though there are some obvious
    applications where such a platform could not just compete, but surpass what
    they can offer, thanks to the open source and FOSS community. In fact I am
    more interested in the development tools/stack that would let a kid or
    teenager create their own games, backgrounds, scenarios and play with others
    via the Internet than I am with anything else.

    Back in those MicroChannel days, when everyone said you had to use a
    Macintosh to do anything with Video and sound; I was using OS/2 1.2 (thank
    goodness I did not get involved with OS/2 1.0) and the Audio Visual
    Communication software to edit and replay video and sound just fine. A
    friend of mine was using a midi connection/adapter and keyboard to mimic
    multiple instruments and build his own Orchestra all without a Macintosh.
    It was fun doing things others said could not be done.

    Today, there have already been movie productions designed, developed,
    created, coded and produced on 100% Linux platforms, so that has already
    been done. While I still use Windows for work and did last year. I have
    been 100% Linux at home for almost two years now. I just figured it might
    be fun to give a kid a very robust, very capable graphic platform with zero
    limitations for under $500. And see what they come up with. I know I can
    do that with Linux today, could have done this with Linux 3 – 5 years ago,
    with the right hardware of course. But if I have to purchase the GPUs, and
    based on what you have posted, my own efforts will bare out the truth of
    that; the cost will definitely go higher. Heck I probably can not get a
    quad core for less than $500. I know I can get a dual core for less than
    $400 running Linux and a Nvidia 2 or 3 year out of date GPU adapter as
    ZaReason sells that in a bundled package from their website now. (I do not
    blame ZaReason and System76 when they can not offer the latest GPUs as I
    understand that its the hardware industries current practices to release new
    products for Windows first, and only 2 – 3 years later offer anything to the
    Linux, Open Source community device driver wise…makes me recent that
    industry and not give them any of my money however) When the hardware
    device driver industry consistently releases their Linux, Unix and Macintosh
    device driver in the same calendar month that they release the Windows
    device drivers I will start supporting them again, but not before. The
    ZaReason PC w/ the Nvidia (6xxx or 8xxx) adapter was $399 if memory serves.
    So we can get a Linux box + GPU adapter for that price today. Not too
    shabby. How long have the 9xxx Nvidia cards been out and on the market.

    I am pretty sure that neither company builds their PCs with the coreboot
    bios yet, but have honestly not checked this to be sure. Coreboot is one of
    my must have requirements anymore. (If I have to write C code to turn
    on/off the fan at a different time I want to be able to do that. True
    story, the guys PC overheated because the BIOS ~ designed for Windows ~ did
    not turn the fans off/on at the correct times, thus the PC would
    overheat.) I only had to read about one incident to know that I did NOT
    want those kinds of vendor lock-in issues/hassles in my future. Which for
    me is a future deal breaker, though I admit the ZaReason box is very nice
    and the price would be hard to beat. Best of all since the ZaReason box was
    built with Linux from the ground up, you know with 100% certainty that you
    can run future versions of Linux on it without fear of Vendor lock-in
    preventing you. The opposite can never be guaranteed with any big box store
    Windows PC, especially when they do not offer Linux. Just say no and save
    yourself future headaches.

    If I can get a Coreboot enabled quad core processor w/ an Nvidia 6xxx
    adapter (not sure they have released the Linux device drivers for anything
    higher …8xxx or 8xxx yet) for less than $500, than watch out. Add in
    either Xen or VMS running underneath two or three different Linux distros,
    with solid development tools, on top. CMake, GCC, Qt and some others not
    only would I have a solid machine that could be used in a production
    farm(movie production), gaming platform(no need to Wine), but it would be
    like a DVD/Tivo on steroids. What processor does the cable company put in
    their DVD Recorders today, 200 – 300 mhz? I know they do not store the
    movies you record on the local hard drive anyway, but only on the servers at
    the office that serves your area. (Found that out the hard way when a
    hurricane knocked out power. When the power came back on and Internet had
    not recovered yet (It took them an additional 4 hours to get the Internet
    back up. Well I figured no big deal as I was catching up on a series and
    had recorded a couple of TV shows with the Cable company's DVR. Imagine my
    surprise when I could not watch the shows or any movies only because the
    Internet (via Cable) was not available. Up and till that point in time I
    thought the movies and TV shows were on the DVR's hard drive, not.) Get
    really crazy with this Linux box and add in a fiber connection (overkill I
    know) in addition to multiple 1000 Ethernet NIC cards and what might I be
    able to do from a home movie/video network perspective.

    Oh that's right, nothing because the Cable Internet company's deep packet
    inspection, bandwidth shaping software would throttle back my connection to
    something insanely low. I wonder what will happen in the future with
    Bandwidth caps?

    Well all this rambling has been fun, time for me to get back to the OO PHP.
    I am building a Model View Controller (MVC) framework over the weekend
    starting tonight with only PHP. No C++, no Java, no .net, no C (not that
    you would use that for this), no Python, no Ruby, no Perl, hopefully little
    or no JavaScript, and as little CSS as I can get by with, primarily just
    PHP. I am wondering how efficient I can make it, especially if I do not
    have to load in the normal large OO libraries that many of us use today.
    Why, for the fun of it (and a future project ;-) ). Fortunately some others
    have gone this route so I will not be the first or in completely uncharted
    waters. Probably add in some Xajax the jury is still out on that as I type
    this, depends on what I have time for. I plan to give it a MySQL back end.
    (Would add in MariaDB and PostgreSQL if I had time; after all if you are
    careful how you code it, PHP does not care what RDBMS is running under it.)
    If time permits, probably will not, I want to add in some Google Maps in the
    web interface for the fun of it. Down the road tie in FFMpeg, Tagging,
    Imagick, a little Regex, perhaps some OAuth (for interfacing with other
    social media websites) and proxy front end. Make sure my blogging
    environment is 100% PHP so when some weasel cracker finds a weakness (think
    lately with WordPress) I can patch it myself. It is nice to NOT be limited
    by your framework / CMS / libraries / platform / whatever-you-want-to-call
    it / someone-else-will-call-something-else.

    Later and thanks for the info.

  • cbemerine

    You response was great. I loved the detailed comments. The end result is I
    am even more excited about the prospect of this type of coding down the
    road. It is not something I have ever tried to get paid to do. Simple have
    never had a reason. Better to leave that as a hobby, along with surfing,
    scuba and more.

    If I had the cash I would go out and buy it this weekend, sadly I have other
    obligations. So I will stick to working with OO PHP, Linux and MySQL this
    weekend as I had planned to do. I probably will be able to get that new
    system by Thanksgiving and can give it a go over the holidays. At least
    that will be good timing as I will probably have some time off at that
    time.

    Thanks for the information and the feedback. The last time I did any
    programming with a bus the MicroChannel Architecture was all the rage. That
    dates me, ouch. Seems like most of my jobs have not been straight
    programming positions except for the last few years and those were with
    higher level languages, specifically web development (LAMP more than .NET)

    I have irrational dreams of a building a production server farm from the
    ground up based on Coreboot, Linux and Cinelerra; with whatever languages
    and tools I need to throw in to get it all to work together. All open
    source, all fast, all free, except the hardware and my time of course.
    Nothing vendor-locked in, no worries about future dead ends. And if things
    go the way I hope they will, that same basic system should provide an
    excellent gaming platform, movie watching / Tivo type platform, etc… I
    really do not care if it runs any Microsoft games or not. They (Microsoft)
    are never going to develop games that will run in Linux without Wine, so why
    should I give another thought to them. Besides their gaming platforms seem
    to fail a week or month after the warranty expires. At least with my
    platform it should run for 10 years if I want. Replace a power supply or
    fan, no biggee. Its not like I even care to try to compete or anything,
    that is not the point of the effort for this, though there are some obvious
    applications where such a platform could not just compete, but surpass what
    they can offer, thanks to the open source and FOSS community. In fact I am
    more interested in the development tools/stack that would let a kid or
    teenager create their own games, backgrounds, scenarios and play with others
    via the Internet than I am with anything else.

    Back in those MicroChannel days, when everyone said you had to use a
    Macintosh to do anything with Video and sound; I was using OS/2 1.2 (thank
    goodness I did not get involved with OS/2 1.0) and the Audio Visual
    Communication software to edit and replay video and sound just fine. A
    friend of mine was using a midi connection/adapter and keyboard to mimic
    multiple instruments and build his own Orchestra all without a Macintosh.
    It was fun doing things others said could not be done.

    Today, there have already been movie productions designed, developed,
    created, coded and produced on 100% Linux platforms, so that has already
    been done. While I still use Windows for work and did last year. I have
    been 100% Linux at home for almost two years now. I just figured it might
    be fun to give a kid a very robust, very capable graphic platform with zero
    limitations for under $500. And see what they come up with. I know I can
    do that with Linux today, could have done this with Linux 3 – 5 years ago,
    with the right hardware of course. But if I have to purchase the GPUs, and
    based on what you have posted, my own efforts will bare out the truth of
    that; the cost will definitely go higher. Heck I probably can not get a
    quad core for less than $500. I know I can get a dual core for less than
    $400 running Linux and a Nvidia 2 or 3 year out of date GPU adapter as
    ZaReason sells that in a bundled package from their website now. (I do not
    blame ZaReason and System76 when they can not offer the latest GPUs as I
    understand that its the hardware industries current practices to release new
    products for Windows first, and only 2 – 3 years later offer anything to the
    Linux, Open Source community device driver wise…makes me recent that
    industry and not give them any of my money however) When the hardware
    device driver industry consistently releases their Linux, Unix and Macintosh
    device driver in the same calendar month that they release the Windows
    device drivers I will start supporting them again, but not before. The
    ZaReason PC w/ the Nvidia (6xxx or 8xxx) adapter was $399 if memory serves.
    So we can get a Linux box + GPU adapter for that price today. Not too
    shabby. How long have the 9xxx Nvidia cards been out and on the market.

    I am pretty sure that neither company builds their PCs with the coreboot
    bios yet, but have honestly not checked this to be sure. Coreboot is one of
    my must have requirements anymore. (If I have to write C code to turn
    on/off the fan at a different time I want to be able to do that. True
    story, the guys PC overheated because the BIOS ~ designed for Windows ~ did
    not turn the fans off/on at the correct times, thus the PC would
    overheat.) I only had to read about one incident to know that I did NOT
    want those kinds of vendor lock-in issues/hassles in my future. Which for
    me is a future deal breaker, though I admit the ZaReason box is very nice
    and the price would be hard to beat. Best of all since the ZaReason box was
    built with Linux from the ground up, you know with 100% certainty that you
    can run future versions of Linux on it without fear of Vendor lock-in
    preventing you. The opposite can never be guaranteed with any big box store
    Windows PC, especially when they do not offer Linux. Just say no and save
    yourself future headaches.

    If I can get a Coreboot enabled quad core processor w/ an Nvidia 6xxx
    adapter (not sure they have released the Linux device drivers for anything
    higher …8xxx or 8xxx yet) for less than $500, than watch out. Add in
    either Xen or VMS running underneath two or three different Linux distros,
    with solid development tools, on top. CMake, GCC, Qt and some others not
    only would I have a solid machine that could be used in a production
    farm(movie production), gaming platform(no need to Wine), but it would be
    like a DVD/Tivo on steroids. What processor does the cable company put in
    their DVD Recorders today, 200 – 300 mhz? I know they do not store the
    movies you record on the local hard drive anyway, but only on the servers at
    the office that serves your area. (Found that out the hard way when a
    hurricane knocked out power. When the power came back on and Internet had
    not recovered yet (It took them an additional 4 hours to get the Internet
    back up. Well I figured no big deal as I was catching up on a series and
    had recorded a couple of TV shows with the Cable company's DVR. Imagine my
    surprise when I could not watch the shows or any movies only because the
    Internet (via Cable) was not available. Up and till that point in time I
    thought the movies and TV shows were on the DVR's hard drive, not.) Get
    really crazy with this Linux box and add in a fiber connection (overkill I
    know) in addition to multiple 1000 Ethernet NIC cards and what might I be
    able to do from a home movie/video network perspective.

    Oh that's right, nothing because the Cable Internet company's deep packet
    inspection, bandwidth shaping software would throttle back my connection to
    something insanely low. I wonder what will happen in the future with
    Bandwidth caps?

    Well all this rambling has been fun, time for me to get back to the OO PHP.
    I am building a Model View Controller (MVC) framework over the weekend
    starting tonight with only PHP. No C++, no Java, no .net, no C (not that
    you would use that for this), no Python, no Ruby, no Perl, hopefully little
    or no JavaScript, and as little CSS as I can get by with, primarily just
    PHP. I am wondering how efficient I can make it, especially if I do not
    have to load in the normal large OO libraries that many of us use today.
    Why, for the fun of it (and a future project ;-) ). Fortunately some others
    have gone this route so I will not be the first or in completely uncharted
    waters. Probably add in some Xajax the jury is still out on that as I type
    this, depends on what I have time for. I plan to give it a MySQL back end.
    (Would add in MariaDB and PostgreSQL if I had time; after all if you are
    careful how you code it, PHP does not care what RDBMS is running under it.)
    If time permits, probably will not, I want to add in some Google Maps in the
    web interface for the fun of it. Down the road tie in FFMpeg, Tagging,
    Imagick, a little Regex, perhaps some OAuth (for interfacing with other
    social media websites) and proxy front end. Make sure my blogging
    environment is 100% PHP so when some weasel cracker finds a weakness (think
    lately with WordPress) I can patch it myself. It is nice to NOT be limited
    by your framework / CMS / libraries / platform / whatever-you-want-to-call
    it / someone-else-will-call-something-else.

    Later and thanks for the info.

  • ronaldgibson

    Even thou there are some problems, Linux is way cool on my laptop, and my web server, and my Asterisk PBX phone server. I got two friends to try it, and they like it

    When they say MP3 players, they might mean ones that us MTP to transfer files. I found libmtp and that fixed it. The rest of them are like a flash drive. Some programs do crash, so I delete and reinstall, or reinstall from the application's website.

    A couple of years ago I could not get a Lexmark printer to work on Mandriva. No drivers for it. The people in the forums had this same problem.

    I tried Sabayon 5.0 and PCLinuxOS Gnome. The font size was too big, like 72pt and could not find a way to change that at the CD boot up. I did get Sabayon to install by guessing but some apps had that same problem with fonts being 72pt. I changed the fonts and the sizes on everything and still the same.

    I have been happy with Ubuntu Ultimate and Mandriva.

  • ronaldgibson

    Even thou there are some problems, Linux is way cool on my laptop, and my web server, and my Asterisk PBX phone server. I got two friends to try it, and they like it

    When they say MP3 players, they might mean ones that us MTP to transfer files. I found libmtp and that fixed it. The rest of them are like a flash drive. Some programs do crash, so I delete and reinstall, or reinstall from the application's website.

    A couple of years ago I could not get a Lexmark printer to work on Mandriva. No drivers for it. The people in the forums had this same problem.

    I tried Sabayon 5.0 and PCLinuxOS Gnome. The font size was too big, like 72pt and could not find a way to change that at the CD boot up. I did get Sabayon to install by guessing but some apps had that same problem with fonts being 72pt. I changed the fonts and the sizes on everything and still the same.

    I have been happy with Ubuntu Ultimate and Mandriva.

  • ronaldgibson

    Even thou there are some problems, Linux is way cool on my laptop, and my web server, and my Asterisk PBX phone server. I got two friends to try it, and they like it

    When they say MP3 players, they might mean ones that us MTP to transfer files. I found libmtp and that fixed it. The rest of them are like a flash drive. Some programs do crash, so I delete and reinstall, or reinstall from the application's website.

    A couple of years ago I could not get a Lexmark printer to work on Mandriva. No drivers for it. The people in the forums had this same problem.

    I tried Sabayon 5.0 and PCLinuxOS Gnome. The font size was too big, like 72pt and could not find a way to change that at the CD boot up. I did get Sabayon to install by guessing but some apps had that same problem with fonts being 72pt. I changed the fonts and the sizes on everything and still the same.

    I have been happy with Ubuntu Ultimate and Mandriva.

  • redcodefinal

    MS totally blow Linux out of proportion. It's loads safer than Windows and has a lot of software. Although it does have a pretty steep learning curve, It is a fine alternative for Windows. Boo on MS.

  • redcodefinal

    MS totally blow Linux out of proportion. It's loads safer than Windows and has a lot of software. Although it does have a pretty steep learning curve, It is a fine alternative for Windows. Boo on MS.

  • redcodefinal

    MS totally blow Linux out of proportion. It's loads safer than Windows and has a lot of software. Although it does have a pretty steep learning curve, It is a fine alternative for Windows. Boo on MS.

  • redcodefinal

    MS totally blow Linux out of proportion. It's loads safer than Windows and has a lot of software. Although it does have a pretty steep learning curve, It is a fine alternative for Windows. Boo on MS.

  • staffing321

    OK. you want Netbook, you can find easily through google.com please try. after that if you have any problem i will solve them first try.

  • time1236666

    Even software design specifically for the windows environment can be run on linux. Wine is a linux application that allows you to run almost any windows program in linux… http://www.winehq.org/
    I personally run alot of windows p.c games in wine. Granted my computer is really fast, but I can afford to make it that way because I don't have to drop a cool $200 bucks on windows 7
    http://www.spyadeal.com

  • time1236666

    Even software design specifically for the windows environment can be run on linux. Wine is a linux application that allows you to run almost any windows program in linux… http://www.winehq.org/
    I personally run alot of windows p.c games in wine. Granted my computer is really fast, but I can afford to make it that way because I don't have to drop a cool $200 bucks on windows 7
    http://www.spyadeal.com

  • time1236666

    Even software design specifically for the windows environment can be run on linux. Wine is a linux application that allows you to run almost any windows program in linux… http://www.winehq.org/
    I personally run alot of windows p.c games in wine. Granted my computer is really fast, but I can afford to make it that way because I don't have to drop a cool $200 bucks on windows 7
    http://www.spyadeal.com

  • YaroMan

    I already knew it was all bullshit. Microsoft isn't above this kind of FUD. I'll go through these and add my thoughts.

    No camera support? I personally only had to fight Linux on this once. And it turned out to be a hardware problem (USB hub wasn't enough for it.) rather than a software one.

    Most MP3 players. My opinion, the best are NOT the ones that use proprietary protocols to talk to their software. No. The best ones are the ones that not only support a wide array of formats (Which Zune and iPod do not.) but also mount as mass storage devices so you can use them from anything that uses the USB Mass Storage System (Which the Zune and iPod do not.) This not only allows you to simply use your file manager to put music on your media player, bu also to write some pretty clevel shell scripts. Most those that force you to use proprietary protocols through their software are products of either low-qualit companies, or monopolies/wannabe monopolies like Apple and Microsoft. A good Linux user would probably decide against getting an iPod.

    Printers. I can only really think of one brand that doesn't seem to have any printer support at all on Linux, and that's Lexmark. Since those printers are garbage anyway, we're not losing sleep over their lack of support.

    Limited software compatibility? This is the result of Microsoft believing people blur the line between their operating systems and their computers. Unfortunately for Microsoft, there's little to no software on Linux that is not at least an equivalent, and most cross into superior territory rather quickly. Never mind Linux has superb virtualization support, and WINE covers the vast majority of Windows software well.

    No support for Windows Live services. MSN messenger? We have so many multi-protocol clients on Linux and not one doesn't support MSN. Hotmail? We have web browsers and POP3/IMAP clients that can just as well support it as Outlook or Internet Explorer. The real question is what Live service would any Linux user really care about aside from maybe hotmail or MSN?

    Who would even buy a netbook for gaming? Point well made. Still. Linux is a lot more lightweight and has BETTER game technologies than Windows. It's not for a lack of game support at all. Still, netbooks are not even remotely suitable for gaming. Their hardware is far too limited (Too slow a CPU, lacking a high end GPU, not nearly enough RAM/hard disk space. This is hardly the fault of Linux, nor should it even be acknowledged as an issue on netbooks as that's not what they are meant for at all. You wanna game on the PC, get a PC.

    Authorized support? This was a huge festering pile of bullshit. LOADS of big name companies provide support for Linux. Not the least of which is IBM.

    Video chat. This must be a throwback to Microsoft's lie about video support not being in Linux. Skype, Pidgin, Kopete, need I say more?

    iTunes and Zune. As I said above. A company forcing you to use their proprietary protocols, is likely a scumtastic company that wants vendor lock in and to cut down on interoperability. Apple is actually worse than Microsoft here, as Apple is severely restrictive on their users.

    Quicken. I don't really use money apps, but there's plenty of money programs out for Linux. Lots. LOTS. And all of them beat their commercial counterparts.

    Photoshop. I'll pick it. The only features PS has that GIMP does not are features only PROS give a flying fuck about. Trust me. I have three professional graphics designers amongst all my friends. They've weighed in HEAVILY on this debate.

    Office 2007. Do I also really have to point out OpenOffice? And it supports a real open standard, not the fake one Microsoft got passed by the ISO through bribes and committee stacking.

    Regular Updates? Linux's updates sometimes reach the HOURLY. Linux definitely updates much more frequently than Windows, and it updates ALL its software, not just the software the distributors deem important like Microsoft does.

    Meets expectations. What a loaded term. Everyone's expectations are different. If Microsoft means the expectation that Linux is like Windows, they are correct. If they are inferring Linux falls well short of being a desktop OS, they're even more deluded then I thought.

    Free downloads. I'll approach this one different. NO OS IS PERFECTLY SECURE. NOT EVEN LINUX. And one of the #1 tips for a safe system: UPDATE YOUR PACKAGES AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. For discrete release distributions like Ubuntu,. most, if not all, updates ARE about security, with actual new versions of the software coming with the next distribution release. If it's rolling release like Arch, it'll be both security AND full new versions of the software. Also, we have free security and free software out the wazoo. Does Microsoft not even know what Linux is like?

    “Funny how they were boasting that they update regularly, then use that same argument against Ubuntu”

    Microsoft has a really sleazy metric about how to measure the security of software: The LESS security releases made, the more secure the system must actually be. Probably to try to spin their utter lack of security implementation around.

    “It doesn’t have to be clear, unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t have to reboot after every freakin minor update.”

    Microsoft doesn't even bother to try to make the system modular or online upgradeable. You practically have to restart the system every time you save a basic text file. Linux, unless you have a kernel update you're not rebooting. And that's fine with me.

    I don't like demotivators, but good point. Microsoft deliberately ignores the fact that distributors and upstream DO send security fixes out, GUARANTEED, despite that disclaimer in the GPL about warranties.

  • YaroMan

    I already knew it was all bullshit. Microsoft isn't above this kind of FUD. I'll go through these and add my thoughts.

    No camera support? I personally only had to fight Linux on this once. And it turned out to be a hardware problem (USB hub wasn't enough for it.) rather than a software one.

    Most MP3 players. My opinion, the best are NOT the ones that use proprietary protocols to talk to their software. No. The best ones are the ones that not only support a wide array of formats (Which Zune and iPod do not.) but also mount as mass storage devices so you can use them from anything that uses the USB Mass Storage System (Which the Zune and iPod do not.) This not only allows you to simply use your file manager to put music on your media player, bu also to write some pretty clevel shell scripts. Most those that force you to use proprietary protocols through their software are products of either low-qualit companies, or monopolies/wannabe monopolies like Apple and Microsoft. A good Linux user would probably decide against getting an iPod.

    Printers. I can only really think of one brand that doesn't seem to have any printer support at all on Linux, and that's Lexmark. Since those printers are garbage anyway, we're not losing sleep over their lack of support.

    Limited software compatibility? This is the result of Microsoft believing people blur the line between their operating systems and their computers. Unfortunately for Microsoft, there's little to no software on Linux that is not at least an equivalent, and most cross into superior territory rather quickly. Never mind Linux has superb virtualization support, and WINE covers the vast majority of Windows software well.

    No support for Windows Live services. MSN messenger? We have so many multi-protocol clients on Linux and not one doesn't support MSN. Hotmail? We have web browsers and POP3/IMAP clients that can just as well support it as Outlook or Internet Explorer. The real question is what Live service would any Linux user really care about aside from maybe hotmail or MSN?

    Who would even buy a netbook for gaming? Point well made. Still. Linux is a lot more lightweight and has BETTER game technologies than Windows. It's not for a lack of game support at all. Still, netbooks are not even remotely suitable for gaming. Their hardware is far too limited (Too slow a CPU, lacking a high end GPU, not nearly enough RAM/hard disk space. This is hardly the fault of Linux, nor should it even be acknowledged as an issue on netbooks as that's not what they are meant for at all. You wanna game on the PC, get a PC.

    Authorized support? This was a huge festering pile of bullshit. LOADS of big name companies provide support for Linux. Not the least of which is IBM.

    Video chat. This must be a throwback to Microsoft's lie about video support not being in Linux. Skype, Pidgin, Kopete, need I say more?

    iTunes and Zune. As I said above. A company forcing you to use their proprietary protocols, is likely a scumtastic company that wants vendor lock in and to cut down on interoperability. Apple is actually worse than Microsoft here, as Apple is severely restrictive on their users.

    Quicken. I don't really use money apps, but there's plenty of money programs out for Linux. Lots. LOTS. And all of them beat their commercial counterparts.

    Photoshop. I'll pick it. The only features PS has that GIMP does not are features only PROS give a flying fuck about. Trust me. I have three professional graphics designers amongst all my friends. They've weighed in HEAVILY on this debate.

    Office 2007. Do I also really have to point out OpenOffice? And it supports a real open standard, not the fake one Microsoft got passed by the ISO through bribes and committee stacking.

    Regular Updates? Linux's updates sometimes reach the HOURLY. Linux definitely updates much more frequently than Windows, and it updates ALL its software, not just the software the distributors deem important like Microsoft does.

    Meets expectations. What a loaded term. Everyone's expectations are different. If Microsoft means the expectation that Linux is like Windows, they are correct. If they are inferring Linux falls well short of being a desktop OS, they're even more deluded then I thought.

    Free downloads. I'll approach this one different. NO OS IS PERFECTLY SECURE. NOT EVEN LINUX. And one of the #1 tips for a safe system: UPDATE YOUR PACKAGES AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. For discrete release distributions like Ubuntu,. most, if not all, updates ARE about security, with actual new versions of the software coming with the next distribution release. If it's rolling release like Arch, it'll be both security AND full new versions of the software. Also, we have free security and free software out the wazoo. Does Microsoft not even know what Linux is like?

    “Funny how they were boasting that they update regularly, then use that same argument against Ubuntu”

    Microsoft has a really sleazy metric about how to measure the security of software: The LESS security releases made, the more secure the system must actually be. Probably to try to spin their utter lack of security implementation around.

    “It doesn’t have to be clear, unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t have to reboot after every freakin minor update.”

    Microsoft doesn't even bother to try to make the system modular or online upgradeable. You practically have to restart the system every time you save a basic text file. Linux, unless you have a kernel update you're not rebooting. And that's fine with me.

    I don't like demotivators, but good point. Microsoft deliberately ignores the fact that distributors and upstream DO send security fixes out, GUARANTEED, despite that disclaimer in the GPL about warranties.

  • YaroMan

    I already knew it was all bullshit. Microsoft isn't above this kind of FUD. I'll go through these and add my thoughts.

    No camera support? I personally only had to fight Linux on this once. And it turned out to be a hardware problem (USB hub wasn't enough for it.) rather than a software one.

    Most MP3 players. My opinion, the best are NOT the ones that use proprietary protocols to talk to their software. No. The best ones are the ones that not only support a wide array of formats (Which Zune and iPod do not.) but also mount as mass storage devices so you can use them from anything that uses the USB Mass Storage System (Which the Zune and iPod do not.) This not only allows you to simply use your file manager to put music on your media player, bu also to write some pretty clevel shell scripts. Most those that force you to use proprietary protocols through their software are products of either low-qualit companies, or monopolies/wannabe monopolies like Apple and Microsoft. A good Linux user would probably decide against getting an iPod.

    Printers. I can only really think of one brand that doesn't seem to have any printer support at all on Linux, and that's Lexmark. Since those printers are garbage anyway, we're not losing sleep over their lack of support.

    Limited software compatibility? This is the result of Microsoft believing people blur the line between their operating systems and their computers. Unfortunately for Microsoft, there's little to no software on Linux that is not at least an equivalent, and most cross into superior territory rather quickly. Never mind Linux has superb virtualization support, and WINE covers the vast majority of Windows software well.

    No support for Windows Live services. MSN messenger? We have so many multi-protocol clients on Linux and not one doesn't support MSN. Hotmail? We have web browsers and POP3/IMAP clients that can just as well support it as Outlook or Internet Explorer. The real question is what Live service would any Linux user really care about aside from maybe hotmail or MSN?

    Who would even buy a netbook for gaming? Point well made. Still. Linux is a lot more lightweight and has BETTER game technologies than Windows. It's not for a lack of game support at all. Still, netbooks are not even remotely suitable for gaming. Their hardware is far too limited (Too slow a CPU, lacking a high end GPU, not nearly enough RAM/hard disk space. This is hardly the fault of Linux, nor should it even be acknowledged as an issue on netbooks as that's not what they are meant for at all. You wanna game on the PC, get a PC.

    Authorized support? This was a huge festering pile of bullshit. LOADS of big name companies provide support for Linux. Not the least of which is IBM.

    Video chat. This must be a throwback to Microsoft's lie about video support not being in Linux. Skype, Pidgin, Kopete, need I say more?

    iTunes and Zune. As I said above. A company forcing you to use their proprietary protocols, is likely a scumtastic company that wants vendor lock in and to cut down on interoperability. Apple is actually worse than Microsoft here, as Apple is severely restrictive on their users.

    Quicken. I don't really use money apps, but there's plenty of money programs out for Linux. Lots. LOTS. And all of them beat their commercial counterparts.

    Photoshop. I'll pick it. The only features PS has that GIMP does not are features only PROS give a flying fuck about. Trust me. I have three professional graphics designers amongst all my friends. They've weighed in HEAVILY on this debate.

    Office 2007. Do I also really have to point out OpenOffice? And it supports a real open standard, not the fake one Microsoft got passed by the ISO through bribes and committee stacking.

    Regular Updates? Linux's updates sometimes reach the HOURLY. Linux definitely updates much more frequently than Windows, and it updates ALL its software, not just the software the distributors deem important like Microsoft does.

    Meets expectations. What a loaded term. Everyone's expectations are different. If Microsoft means the expectation that Linux is like Windows, they are correct. If they are inferring Linux falls well short of being a desktop OS, they're even more deluded then I thought.

    Free downloads. I'll approach this one different. NO OS IS PERFECTLY SECURE. NOT EVEN LINUX. And one of the #1 tips for a safe system: UPDATE YOUR PACKAGES AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. For discrete release distributions like Ubuntu,. most, if not all, updates ARE about security, with actual new versions of the software coming with the next distribution release. If it's rolling release like Arch, it'll be both security AND full new versions of the software. Also, we have free security and free software out the wazoo. Does Microsoft not even know what Linux is like?

    “Funny how they were boasting that they update regularly, then use that same argument against Ubuntu”

    Microsoft has a really sleazy metric about how to measure the security of software: The LESS security releases made, the more secure the system must actually be. Probably to try to spin their utter lack of security implementation around.

    “It doesn’t have to be clear, unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t have to reboot after every freakin minor update.”

    Microsoft doesn't even bother to try to make the system modular or online upgradeable. You practically have to restart the system every time you save a basic text file. Linux, unless you have a kernel update you're not rebooting. And that's fine with me.

    I don't like demotivators, but good point. Microsoft deliberately ignores the fact that distributors and upstream DO send security fixes out, GUARANTEED, despite that disclaimer in the GPL about warranties.

  • moo234

    agree with all of this, but:

    'Office 2007: OpenOffice'

    No way.

  • moo234

    agree with all of this, but:

    'Office 2007: OpenOffice'

    No way.

  • moo234

    agree with all of this, but:

    'Office 2007: OpenOffice'

    No way.

  • anthony47123

    If only Linux would see my broadcom wireless and then it worked immediately, I would be happy. MS Office, new version, STUPID, change for change sake.
    What can I do in windows that I can't in Linux……nothing.
    I also don't get stupid notices in Linux….can't find your firewall, cant detect your anti-virus…just tells me windows can't find what is actually running.

  • anthony47123

    If only Linux would see my broadcom wireless and then it worked immediately, I would be happy. MS Office, new version, STUPID, change for change sake.
    What can I do in windows that I can't in Linux……nothing.
    I also don't get stupid notices in Linux….can't find your firewall, cant detect your anti-virus…just tells me windows can't find what is actually running.

  • anthony47123

    If only Linux would see my broadcom wireless and then it worked immediately, I would be happy. MS Office, new version, STUPID, change for change sake.
    What can I do in windows that I can't in Linux……nothing.
    I also don't get stupid notices in Linux….can't find your firewall, cant detect your anti-virus…just tells me windows can't find what is actually running.

  • alexstubbins

    I hear ya.

  • alexstubbins

    I hear ya.

  • alexstubbins

    Than why are you on this website.

  • alexstubbins

    Than why are you on this website.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_INUJMBKZK64XLES6AGC5XFTW4E Sonic

    Here is a link to my contribution
    http://cheezburger.com/Reiden/lolz/View/4549826560

  • http://acnenomored.com/ acne no more

    Linux will always be #1 in my eyes

  • http://acnenomored.com/ acne no more

    Always use Linux!