Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 15:08:19 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jeremy C. Reed" <reed@reedmedia.net> To: chat@freebsd.org Cc: bulldog@fxp.org Subject: Re: Windows as opposed to Other OS's Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.43.0209131449320.26575-100000@pilchuck.reedmedia.net> In-Reply-To: <578B81DC-C762-11D6-AC2E-000393A335A2@earthlink.net>
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On Fri, 13 Sep 2002, Lawrence Sica wrote: > But that expensive mac hardware looks cooler ;). I agree. Last week I saw some Mac OS X powered system at CompUSA (in Mountlake Terrace, Washington). The monitor was a long LCD screen. The salesman said it was a 22-inch screen. It looked great. I noticed that when hovering over the icons at bottom made them slightly grow to show they are highlighted. I see that newer versions of KDE have that feature too. Now back to Bob's original posting about why people choose an OS or why they don't choose an OS. I choose an OS for several reasons: I can do what I need to do -- most of the time. It is fun to use -- part of the fun is learning new and different things. Maybe it may have problems or difficulties, but it is fun to resolve. I choose an OS where it is easy to track down errors; for example, if there is some strange, undocumented error (for example with a NetBSD boot loader message), I can grep the source and actually see what the problem is. I also choose an OS where I can easily customize it for performance and stability, or customize it for aesthetics and usage. (I have never used alternative window managers under a Microsoft Windows system yet -- other than with some free, closed-source X server or VNC with X.) For example, I thought the menus are often too wide in Blackbox window manager -- so I simply rewrote that part of the code to limit the menu width. I choose an OS that is easy to use from remote locations and various systems. For example, doing remote Windows administration can be quite tedious over a slow connection. (But VNC at 128Kb is fine.) In comparison, administration of Unix system over a 5Kb connection is quite fine. I also like choosing an OS that I can rebuild and easily redesign for my own needs; for example, I make bootable, live CDs that I use when teaching classes or giving presentations. Having open source available makes it easy to do. I see my answers are mostly based on "open source" versus "no source" instead of just operating systems' features. I rarely use Windows or Mac OS for several years, so I can't remember if any of their features that I really liked or now miss. I do know that I miss using a quality, graphical, desktop publishing software, like Quark Xpress under Mac OS. Jeremy C. Reed http://bsd.reedmedia.net/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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