whatever allen
u just dont wanna believe anything i say for whatever reason u have
like i help u and u thank everyone but else for what i tell u lol
well dont worry i wont point u in the right direction anymore

Dave, you have helped me a lot which I've always thanked you. You're also one smart cookie and you surely know your stuff... perhaps more than anyone on this forum. It's just that you always get off on a tangent which leads to reasons why everyone should hate Microsoft. You smother the topic with it to the point that you no longer make sense. And then you get upset if someone doesn't agree with you.

Look Dave, I've taken criticism from you about FrontPage and other things but you know what? I don't mind because I learn from it and I don't take it personal... nor should you. I could say more about how you express yourself but I won't, at least not here on this forum. You, on the other hand, would probably like to say more about how stupid I am for what I do. If you wanna exchange some emails about this, I'd like that... it might do us both some good.

u know why i do that allen?
i have been trying to help ppl 4 a long time because i got a lot of help and still do get it and i always want to give back.

but also after doing this for a fair number of yrs my personal experiance is that when dealing with ppl using m$ products is that u need to be rather blunt and kinda rude so that they listen. Maybe i do that cause thats what it took 4 me to get it. Look at me & josh it was the same wayi had to **** slap the bejesus outta him too get him too listen anout validation ( lmfao sorry josh haha) but he secretly listened and checked it out.

am i a good writer? no
usuaullly when im writing on here im also doing 4-5 other things and im not worried about being gramatically correct of nicely formed paragraphs

one day allen, u will have moved on and u will be where i am at and u will understand how i feel right now.
and u know what? i dont know know everything, actually i dont know much but i am resourceful and i keep my eyes open. But most of all i have some experience under my belt. And ones experiences are just that, they are not the same as everyone elses but i have have been down the road and when i speak of something its because i have at least some knowledge of the subject. And like when i say something that i know about and u launch these big writings against me even though u dont have the info on it gets really frusterating.
this is also a terrible medium for me too communicate with though, in person i am a great speaker, **** i used to teach veterinary surgery & emergency critical care, i'm very comfy speaking in person but i hate typing and i usually come across wrong but u guys should know that as bad as u might take it, my intentions are always good.
just seems like u wanna fight everything i say (like josh used to do lol)

but even josh understands that i mean well, just my tempermate has grown short after fighting ppl all these yrs.
usually starts the same way to, someone having troubles and they use fp & u fight them tooth & nail for several months to get away, then one day they do and all is good. But its the same fight over and over, so that doesnt help i suppose


like i have said, i used to be in your shoes and i also used to support m$, i couldnt figure out why they were in all these monopoly suits but now i know.
u all think i just like to bash them and thats not the case but if i dont forcefully push it to u, u will never look at the other side and believe me u wanna see the other side. Someday u will track me down and say "**** dude u were so right about them"

am i wrong josh?
am i wrong bob?

this is why m$ is still so popular, everyones afraid to change (which is human nature in itself) but they dont even realize that they have become so paranoid from using ms products that they are afraid everyone else is the same. (cpnets fear of trying ff is perfect example)
but they arent and once u start using these things u really see whats going on.
or like josh says, that ms products tend to make his life easier. WHich im assuming is its intragration of its products (outlook, office, xp, ect....) BUT thats the EXACT cause of most all of puter related problems and vulnerabilities (the intregration of everything together, ms products)
which comes back to my analogy of the car stereo, meaning say the car is a made by ms and the stereo gets shorted out and it affects the whole car not just the stereo but if u had put an after market stereo in and it got a short it would just affect the stereo so the damage is limited.

so u i was afraid to try other products too but when i did it was great
heres some examples

os
linux plain azz smokes xp, in performance, reliability, eye candy, etc..., the only downfall to linux is that it doesnt yet support a lot of programs that run on xp, even though u can use wine or crossover office to run most of them.

browsers
duh, i think y'all can figure that 1 out

email client
mozilla thunderbird (free)
one of the biggest problems with virus' is outlook
i think thunderbird is every bit as good as outlook without worrying about attackers

office suite
open office, not as perdy but every bit as functional as office

those are the main ones so lets check prices

os
xp pro $299
xantos linux deluxe $89

browsers
ie $0
firefox $0

email
oulook express $0
Thunderbird $0

office suite
office pro $599
openoffice $0

i just dont see why u'd pay all that extra $ to have an unsecure puter.
not to mention how much those programs "spy" on u and report back to m$.
And while u pay all that $ to them, they cant even do adaquate updates.
ANd when u have a problem with there stuff because of there faulty coding, dont expect them to make it right, dig out your wallet and grab a cc or 2 cause they are gunna make u pay them to fix their problems.

its pretty clear to me

and i hear what ur saying allen but u need to reliaze that u may say something that leads me off on a tangent.

well either way, right now im really stressed got a crap load of work i been working 20 hrs a day to try and finish by the time i leave for xmas (tomorrow morning), i still need to shop, i still need to pack, i have like 100 emails to send out and see ppl. So i appologize if im extra grouchy today but i am.

2 wks without a puter will surely help me unwind
but u know i will have to be fixing everyone puter while im gone grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

anyways merry xmas too u all

Merry Christmas Dave... have a safe trip!

HOLY HALLELUJAH!!! (spelling?) So it aint just me!!! *kicks random large heavy solid things*

lol
nope
tempted to reinstall moms with linux, i wonder if shed notice?

Absolutely.


Hackers don't usually ask for your permission...if the ability is there to use these tools, they hack to make use of them. I'm sure anyone who gets a virus doesn't knowingly ALLOW it to happen. That's the whole point of hacking - circumvent your security. If all the cool things you could do to the system once you were in weren't available, then hacking IE or outlook wouldn't be so popular. And because all of those things are possible - it makes it easier to hack. Flexibility begets vulnerability.


See answer above. In addition, you are a more saavy user than most...this has a lot to do with it too. YOU may not have security vulnerabilities like most people because you know how to counteract them. Most do not.


Google toolbars and extensions are all a part of the app as an extension - they run independant of anything on the OS. They are a part of FF - not Windows.

The whole security argument is a matter of architecture really. If you hack FF, you don't get access to all the cool things hooked into the OS. If you hack IE, you do because they are all hooked into it. That is a very simplistic explanation, but you get the basic idea I think.

Been offered for public use...MS still uses it for development

For about 4 months I told myself I was going to switch from Windows to Linux. I had had enough of the MS crap. So I used RedHat & Gnome. It was ok, I liked it but the things I hated about it were all the little things that didn't work. Things like cut & pasteing between apps. Some were compatable, some weren't. A lot of my favorite apps wouldn't run on Linux etc. There were enough little things to make it uncomfortable enough for me to abandon it as a workstation and go back to Windows for day to day operations. For servers...I LOVE LINUX. It's reliable, secure, enterprise level and cheap. My fileserver is running linux, I have an apache box for when I need to do PHP etc. But I can't bring myself to work on linux full time yet.

I have promised myself though that I will keep going back and trying Linux because the idea of free, well built, opensource OS's and apps REALLY appeals to me. And most of what I do doesn't involve ANY MS apps anyway except Windows. I don't use any office products, I don't use IE (I use FF), I don't use Outlook as my email client or newsgroup reader ( I use Forte Agent ) I don't FrontPage )I use Dreamweaver & UltraEdit), I don't use Windows Media Player, (I use ITunes) About the only MS app that I DO use is Visual Studio for doing .NET programming. And of course I play games on my Windows box...but other than that - there's little reason for me to use Windows. I'll keepo trying Linux till I am comfrotable with it - at that point I'll prolly kiss most of MS's products goodbye. Not because I don't like MS, but because there will be products as good or better for less money. Till then, Daddy Gates will get my $200 every 2 or 3 years for my new PC OS and my companies money for MSDN subscriptions...

u should take a look at xandros 3 http://www.xandros.com/
i was using SUSE 9.2 pro but im really liking xandros, it comes with crossover office 4 so most apps run and its got a unique file system that works good with windows. I guess its the most like windows without being windows, so its easy to crossover to.
So far im really diggin it!
i have a small partition with xp for those must have apps (ex flash mx 2004 pro)

redhats kinda boring, i dont think xandros is a sexy looking as suse but its pretty **** nice

for your windows games look at winex

what really gets my attention when using linux is how smooth and responsive it is.

reminds me of the difference between running a frontpage app and a well hand coded app, the differnce is there and very noticable.

but we are all so used to windows, kinda like getting used to rollerblades after growing up with roller skates

anyways y'all(practicing hillybilly verbage)
im out, everyone have a good christmas

and dont forget to download and try firefox

I was using RH - I think I'll tru SUSE next and then try your reccomendation Lofty.

Have a good trip - be safe

Godspeed Dave Skywalker...

*whispers to Bobum* When they were handing out The Force, Dave must have forgotten to jump in line...

j/k

I tried Linux as a desktop as well... Mandrake 9.1+9.2, as well as Slackware, Debian, RH, and there was another... *shrugs*... but Windows is just what seems to cause me the least amount of grief. Maybe it's because I don't run everything possible, install all kinds of novelty apps, and allow just anything to run from the browser... but I don't have any problems. I also use DW, Outlook 2003 (and the rest of the office suite), and some other windows apps, as well as play games...

Im an MS junkie at heart, and as much as everybody wants to just have free things as they usually also have a sorta twisted sense of entitlement, I (as a developer) like to be paid for my work, and realize that there are many many developers who spend alot of time creating, tweaking, and maintaining the code base of Windows... If I were them I'd want to be paid as well.

That's the way I look at it... its a PROFESSIONALLY DEVELOPED OS - it was not built by hobbyists. I do think it has it's place, just not in my network And sure as **** not on my desktop.

My problems with IE and FrontPage are limited probably because I'm more a meat 'n potatoes kinda guy. I don't use Outlook (I'm content with Yahoo mail) and have no need for any of the Office suites. And, because of the security problems with Yahoo's Messenger (I've read), I don't even use that. I just like the simplicity of a bare-bones operation (albeit with bare-bones results)... 20-30 years ago I was different.

That is one of the main reason I hesitate trying Firefox, I shudder at the prospect of running into complications. I hate complications. And, nobody, not nobody, can convince there won't be. I've been around the block enough times to at least know that. However I am convinced now that Firefox, being effectively isolated from the OS, would (or could) provide an extra layer of security. But, for the reasons stated, security isn't the biggest issue for me.

Secondly, I'd like to have as much wysiwyg functionality as possible. The reason? I want to write my articles, work on my books, not spend time learning the various codes. I'm only trying to learn enough coding to get me to a stage of being able to do some practical things. No, I'll never have a sharp-looking website but I've seen some website more plain-jane than mine doing better. I know most all the reasons tho, that which I need to work on.