It's damned if you do, damned if you don't

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Where did you get this?

I agree in general with your story, however, one point stuck out.

Microsoft, on the other hand, must make it?s operating system work with literally thousands
...
Linux vendors face the same challenge as that encountered by Microsoft ? but they make no effort whatsoever to insure that their operating system will work with whatever third-party components you buy.

I have to call it as I see it, that is one fud filled statement.

1) Linux vendors all have certification databases so you can check if your component is supported. Does not exist with Vista. Is your HP all in one supported? How about that 3 year old webcam? How about all the applications you have purchased? Except for blogs, it is currently a crap shoot whether they are all supported or will work (getting better, but not perfect)

2) Anything that worked before will continue to work (except for a webcam that was removed from the kernel source due to vendor)
I'd like for people to post examples of peripheral support that disappeared with Linux.

3) Microsoft does not certify any of it, it is up to the vendor to certify the 3rd party hardware/application.

4) Just like Linux vendors (more Linus+kernel team than the specific distro), MS does have to work at backward compatibility in it's new products, however, MS takes NO RESPONSIBILITY for 3rd party apps that don't work, up to the supplier. You yourself have defended MS from 3rd party apps that no longer work.

5) Redhat, IBM, Novel, Xandros, all of these vendors do NOTHING to ensure that what worked continues to work, only MS is the white night, re-certifying everything? I guess verifying the LAMP stack, CUPS, the most popular few K apps, etc is not done?

I would suggest that Linus and team do a heck of a lot better than MS at backward compatibility. That dot matrix cutting edge 1985 printer is still there, ready to work. As Adrian has stated, he is replacing hardware that obviously used to work with XP because it is causing flaky operation on Vista.

Your statement is an extreme case of facts not entered into evidence but stated as a de-facto known entity.

TripleII

P.S.

Posted by: TripleII   Posted on: 08/30/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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