[balug-talk] Good Letter in San Francisco Chronicle Today

[Michael T. Halligan]

Ack. Pardon my many typos!

Michael T. Halligan wrote:
> Jeffrey Siegal wrote:
>   
>> On Oct 9, 2006, at 10:18 , Michael T. Halligan wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> I don't doubt that techies and reasonably intelligent individuals can
>>> use Linux on the desktop. However, if you've ever managed to go through
>>> the process of dealing with a towed car, or paying a parking ticket,
>>> only to watch our fine local government lose the paperwork, mis-enter
>>> payment information, an d then issue a warrant, you'd be rather
>>> frightened that these savants might some day have to use anything more
>>> complicated than Windows 95.
>>>       
>> This is so nonsensical I have to wonder if you are actually some kind 
>> of Microsoft shill.
>>
>> First of all, there is nothing inherently "simple" or even easy to use 
>> about Windows 95.  Its just old.    An old OS can often be MORE 
>> DIFFICULT to deal with, if that means you can't hook up a replacement 
>> printer or mouse or whatever, because the currently available devices 
>> do not have drivers for the old OS.  (Not to mention viruses, crashes, 
>> filesystem corruption, etc. that are a really, really big problem for 
>> Windows 95, even when compared to new versions of Windows.)
>>
>> Second of all, when someone is processing a towed car or a parking 
>> ticket, they're interacting with the (user interface component of) the 
>> operating system at all.  They're using some kind of custom 
>> application, generally a pretty thin layer on top of a database.  It 
>> makes no different in that case what operating system their data entry 
>> station happens to be using.
>>     
> So basically we're saying it would be a "good idea" to:
>
> - Replace a working, known system that their IT group understands with Linux
> - Completely rewrite all of their existing applications to work with the 
> Linux environment
> - Retrain all of their IT support people in an OS that is a 180degree 
> paradigm shift (Windows versus Linux)
> - Retrain all of their Programmers to write in languages they're 
> unfamiliar with (because I doubt, VBscript is not
> available in Linux)
>   
^^(because I doubt that VBscript is available in Linux)
> - Give all of their IT support & Programmers huge raises to stay 
> competitive because the Linux skillset is a lot more valuable than 
> equivalent Linux skillsets
>   
^^^^^^^^^^^^^windows skillsets



> That doesn't sound very cheap to me.
>
> Just because it can be done, does not mean we should. Just because some 
> of us have socialistic tendencies does not mean that a socialist 
> operating system really would be good for the masses.
>
> Talk as much smack as you want to about Windows (And I'll agree with 
> 99.99999% about it), Microsoft delivers it's customers a crystal clear 
> path. Upgrade the software, we'll support you for N number of years. You 
> will be backwards compatible for N number of years.   Linux does not 
> give you this. There's really nothing clear about Linux with it's 200 
> different distribution, 2 different major desktop systems) and two 
> different office suites, neither of which are 100% compatible with what 
> 99% of the world uses for their documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
>
>
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