Is your PC ready for Longhorn?

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Of course you would, my point is very clear and simple. I have security without my OS being tied to extreme hardware requirements. I have an OS that performs very well in an extremely hostile environment. My point is that I will not have to expend large sums of hard earned cash to obtain a level of security I have now.

Are you still with me? Or do I need to revert to 3rd grade speak to get my point across.

My Family (including my Grandmother!), my Girlfriend and many of my colleagues at work are now converted from Microsoft Windows to a Linux OS of one flavor or another. And no, many of them are not PC gurus, but they do understand the basic concept of security and stability AND they can read. I gave help with security and a few minor things otherwise all (except Grandma, I had to build her system from the ground up, but after 15 minutes she was able to perform basic computing functions.)

Now if you used SuSE Linux and switched to Microsoft Windows then that is your choice to become a slave to the upgrade / patch and reboot cycle. That is your choice to lose control of YOUR PC that YOU paid for. It would be YOUR choice to give up your computing freedom.

Now let's compare some things here...
For $79.95 +tax I get the following with SuSE
1 - A choice of many Office suites.
2 - Graphics Viewers.
3 - A choice of many E-Mail clients (all of which support PGP and are secure by design)
4 - A choice of web browsers (all of which have the tabbed browsing capacity and of which 90% have built in pop-up killers)
5 - Anti-spam software.
6 - Firewall / Security tools. (Umm the fire wall is installed and starts automatically by the way.)
7 - Many games to pass the time when I decide I have done enough work!
8 - Internet chat tools and clients (again I have a choice here...)
There is more but I am pretty sure I have made a point here.... at least I hope so.

Now for $299.00 I get
Windows 2000 Professional
1 - A defragment tool (Linux / UNIX doesn't need this by the way...)
2 ? Notpad
3 ? 3 Games
4 ? everything tied to the Kernel so as to create security issues out the wazzu!

For the same $299.00 I can get Windows XP (if I feel like losing control of my PC!)
1 - A defragment tool (Linux / UNIX doesn't need this by the way...)
2 ? Notpad
3 ? 3 Games
4 ? everything tied to the Kernel so as to create security issues out the wazzu!

So there is more to my point. Now to close my point off, I have 6 systems that are running Linux.
AMD Athlon 1800 ? 512MBDDR RAM ? Less than a year old
Pentium IV 2.4GHz ? 512MBDDR RAM ? 3 months old (Laptop)
AMD Duron 1.2GHz ? 512MBDDR RAM ? 1.5 years old
AMD Duron 700MHz ? 256MB PC-133 SDRAM ? 3 years old
AMD 300MHz ? 256MB PC-100 SDRAM ? 4 years old
AMD 233MHz ? 128MB PC-66 RAM ? 5.5 years old

All 5 systems are running SuSE 9.0 Professional. All 5 systems are performing flawlessly. 3 are production systems used for C++ and Java programming. One is a games system that I run Winex for Games and the other is my everyday system. And the laptop (the only pentium I own) is used for work at the office and when I travel.

That is my point. I am using the same modern OS on a wide range of hardware some of which would be hard pressed to run Windows XP or even Windows 2000. All of which
are secured by a multiple layer protection scheme (that was part of the CD package I bought no less!) that ensures I am safe from script kiddies. No one is safe from a serious cracker, not even me. But i am safe from all the stupidenss that I see Windows users fall prey to on a daily basis. That is my point.

Do I need to clarify more for you?

Posted by: MkIIISupra   Posted on: 02/18/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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