Windows 8 huge price hike!

I run more Linux/BSD systems at home than Windows (it's spelled with an ows, not oze - that's so 1990s and you're making yourself look like someone with a grudge and closed mind using it...). In fact I probably have 3-4x as many Unix installations (as xbmcs, PBX, servers, firewalls etc) than Windows. I am used to working on these at the command line - many are headless machines run on a virtualising server. My day job is project managing embedded Linux systems to production. I can work on device driver level code, compile kernels and get hardware working - I like to think I am an advanced *nix user....

Having said that, I use Win 7 as my day to day desktop, simply because the programs I want to use on a daily basis work natively and without problems and the desktop interface has less bugs/idiosyncrasies than any flavour of *nix & window manager I have come across. The problem with *nix is the mainstream application support just isn't there, and until it is, it will be remain in servers & appliances (where it is rather good) rather than being a mainstream OS. People - including me - will pay for that compatibility.
 
People trotting out things like 'I don't understand why anyone pays for third-rate software' aren't worth listening to. Talk to anyone who actually understands technology at a practical level, i.e. beyond a purely technical level, into end-user functionality and UX, and they'll not be the ones evangelising a single platform and wailing into thin air about past perceived corporate injustices.

I've got OSX, a few flavours of linux (OpenELEC, Mint), Windows 8 and Server 2012 at home, each with their own uses, each with the own weaknesses. None are inherently 'better' than any other, they are just platforms. All that really matters these days is, does the platform provide the applications you want?
 
Organnyx said:
The only thing that linux is short on is the ability to run some popular software - it's faster, safer and much easier to use than the execrable Windoze - I am utterly amazed that people spend a fortune on third-rate software. As for software companies not wanting to port their software for it, that's their loss - if it takes off as it deserves to, then people may still be happy to spend a fortune on software like Photoshop (and they'd have more in the kitty if they hadn't paid the ransom to the Gates empire........) The only reason for the preponderance of Windoze in the market is their sheer muscle and "dirty tricks" (Dell putting out laptops with Ubuntu as o/s? - we'll soon stop that by shoving the price of Windoze up for them) - that happened!

I've "made do" with the freebies that come with Linux for long enough that I'm quite happy without the "industry standard" programmes, that are often overpriced "overkill" for the jobs they are asked to do
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We get it you don't like windows.. Can we move on now?

Ms have just given dell a $20bn "loan", i don't think dell care too much about any rising software cost. Not that they were short of money to start with..
 
mid_gen said:
None are inherently 'better' than any other, they are just platforms. All that really matters these days is, does the platform provide the applications you want?
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Nail... head... hit....
 
arad85 said:
I run more Linux/BSD systems at home than Windows (it's spelled with an ows, not oze - that's so 1990s and you're making yourself look like someone with a grudge and closed mind using it...). In fact I probably have 3-4x as many Unix installations (as xbmcs, PBX, servers, firewalls etc) than Windows. I am used to working on these at the command line - many are headless machines run on a virtualising server. My day job is project managing embedded Linux systems to production. I can work on device driver level code, compile kernels and get hardware working - I like to think I am an advanced *nix user....

Having said that, I use Win 7 as my day to day desktop, simply because the programs I want to use on a daily basis work natively and without problems and the desktop interface has less bugs/idiosyncrasies than any flavour of *nix & window manager I have come across. The problem with *nix is the mainstream application support just isn't there, and until it is, it will be remain in servers & appliances (where it is rather good) rather than being a mainstream OS. People - including me - will pay for that compatibility.
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As a fully qualified MCSE I think you put that quite well. I've worked on all systems for many years, from vax to vme to does to Unix to windows. Unfortunately I still work regularly on vax and vme :( .
They all have their place, they all do certain things well. There will be no major change in the industry in the near future.
So all please stop OS bashing, like what you like and get on with what you use.
 
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VAX - there's a blast from the past! Does VMS still exist?????
 
Gr8Shot said:
Indeedy........
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Crikey - I did my 3rd year project at Uni writing systems level code (in Pascal !) on VMS and I'm 50 this year. That was when we had a whole 1 (yes - one) MIP VAX 11-780 to cover half a dozen departments of 50+ students each.

Kids these days... ;)
 
neil_g said:
i used pascal at college :gag:
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same here :gag: I wish it was C or c++. At least that would be useful now. Even fortran or java make a lot more sense
 
Ooo to listen to you all reminiscing.....LOL

I blooming hate them - mount dka100: blah blah blah

and yes we still work on systems running pascal......
 
arad85 said:
Crikey - I did my 3rd year project at Uni writing systems level code (in Pascal !) on VMS and I'm 50 this year. That was when we had a whole 1 (yes - one) MIP VAX 11-780 to cover half a dozen departments of 50+ students each.

Kids these days... ;)
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I'm 43, we had a VAX of some kind (known as qvc) and a gould (known as qgb). They both lurked in the basement and in the "computer labs" were VT100 type terminals. The VAX was terribly slow and people used to background stuff all the time (which didn't help, obvously). If someone backgrounded a load of builds from a single terminal, in a few minutes someone would appear from the basement wanting to know who had crashed the mainframe :naughty: (this did happen and it wasn't me!)

In my first year the comp sci part of the course was taught in Modula-2, a programming language that made Pascal look like a top quality development tool. If you read this page ( http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/foot.htm ) and go to the entry about Modula-2, it is absolutely correct.
 
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