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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au!news.apana.org.au!cantor.edge.net.au!news.mira.net.au!news.netspace.net.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!worldnet.att.net!newsadm From: David Walker <davewalker@worldnet.att.net> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy Subject: Re: Betting on Unix Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 21:54:55 -0600 Organization: Front Porch Press Lines: 72 Message-ID: <33013F0F.5861@worldnet.att.net> References: <5d3sr2$44n@nntp1.best.com> <E50rGo.K3n@nonexistent.com> <nLVF2tL@quack.kfu.com> <5daq9b$tck@usenet1y.prodigy.net> <32F90AEB.41C6@osf.org> <5dbapu$t1f$1@nntp2.ba.best.com> <5dd6g5$mg3@walters.East.Sun.COM> <5dfm2o$ef1@tbsnames.turner.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.146.67.220 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01KIT (Win95; I) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:158085 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2479 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:52743 comp.os.os2.advocacy:267377 Frederick Haab wrote: > > Nils Nieuwejaar wrote: > > [...] > MORE [...] (I try to conserve bandwidth!!} BRAVO!! As someone who used a soldering iron to get their first computer up and going, I've used (counting Windows 3.1 and Win95 as OS's, which technically, they're not!) 16 different operating systems! ALL of my (religious-type-fervor-favorites) have fallen by the way-side! Perhaps my compassion for an operating system is a jinx... I largely ignored the TRS-80/Apple II/Commodore 64 "discussions" in the '80's; my Commodore did all that I wanted it too, (and sometimes more! I pushed that beast with some 6502 code, and it jumped through hoops!) My PASSION came into play with the original Amiga: it multi-tasked in 512K!! Commodore, of course, had not a clue as to what they had on their hand, bungled the marketing, and my Amiga 2000 with its 8 Meg ram and 40 MB SCSI hard-drive (quite advanced for 1989) now reside in a back-room closet... I embraced MSDos 5.1 with Windows 3.0. Windows 3.1 was even better; no more of those annoying GPF screens. OS/2 2.0 came out; I gave it a try, and it came RIGHT BACK off of my hard-drive. I, was, however, forgiving, and again embraced an OS when OS/2 2.1 came out. I was even more enthusiastic when "WARP" was introduced, and preached the gospel according to Big Blue for quite a while. Unfortunately, IBM had the "Commodore Blues" (there may be a pun in there somewhere!), and shot itself in the foot as far as OS/2 is concerned. It's stable, fast, and technically vastly superior to anything MicroSoft has ever done. (Can you say "SONY Beta"?) I've been tinkering with Linux since the winter of 1993. As the size of my hard-drives ebbed and flowed, so did the installation of Linux on them. Then came the Fall of 1995... I'd finally purchased a Pentium. It came with 4-Meg ram and a 200 Meg Hard-drive. Windows 3.1 was installed, but I received a certificate for a "FREE" upgrade to Win95. I procrastated using the certificate for some four months, finally sending it in around November of '95. I, at that time, was still frustrated that "Big Blue" had fumbled so badly at the delay of the "Juggernaut's" ship date. I tried WIN95, and commented to colleagues that I was surprised that I liked it! It wasn't long before the honeymoon was over! I've become excrutiatingly tired of the "Running Windows for the First time" install screen! More annoying, to the point of HATRED, is the "Contact your vendor if this problem persists" dialog box. The upshot of this rambling diatribe is that I still maintain a cursed Win95 partition. I've been spending about 4 hours a night for the last 2 months tinkering with my Linux side of the house. And it's been FUN. I haven't had this much fun with my computer since I spent hours typing in the Basic code for a 6502 assembler for my Commodore 64. For me, Linux is fun... Win95 is work! But I can't get rid of my Win95 partition until I can perform tasks that are "no-brainers" on the Win95 side: WYSIWYG word processing/DTP, a relatively simple but not simple-minded database platform, and a "Quicken" like checkbook program. I'm three apps away from banishing Redmond from my computer forever! But I NEED those three apps... My two bits... Dave Walker (Happy Mardis Gras, y'all!!!) Systems Administrator/Programmer Merchants Adjustment Service 56 N Florida St Mobile, AL (334) 476-6666 FAX (334) 476-6669 davewalker@worldnet.att.net