Windows at school, a student's perspective

[Francois Ouellette]

From: "Mike Newman" <presidentofthefuture-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
To: "tlug" <tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org>
Sent: Sunday, 27 March, 2005 4:54
Subject: [TLUG]: Windows at school, a student's perspective


> So my school (Centennial College) offers free ISOs of popular
> Microsoft products to all Information Systems students. So far I've
> gotten by just fine with Debian/Ubuntu, Mono, Java, GCC and WINE. Not
> bad considering how much MS has paid Centennial to set up a
> homogeneous curriculum (if it weren't for that one pesky Unix course).
> Anyway, I decided that it might be worthwhile to try some of my stuff
> on Windows (hey, I've heard that some people actually use it for real
> work!) so I head over to the department website to download my free
> copy of Windows XP. Then I find out that, in order to complete the
> download, you have to run the "authenticator," which comes in the form
> of...
> a Win32 executable.
>
> So it's a free copy of Windows for those who already own and run
> Windows. They've matched GNU/Linux on price, but have missed the mark
> on ease of acquisition. I can download and burn an Ubuntu ISO on
> practically any modern desktop OS. Is this really their best effort in
> getting me to switch from Unix? Where's their Live CD so I can try
> things out first?
>
> This student's conclusion? Windows is not ready for the academic desktop!

Everytime you touch anything from M$ there is a "catch", and it is usually a
program that needs to connect to their authentication web site.
>From a previous job for an employer who was a major M$ partner I have
received tons of "free" software kits but they were either all trial
versions with an expiration date or limited functionality, or those that
need "authenticating" otherwise they stop working after a while. Poisoned
gifts!

If they gave away XP people would only use it as an OS (if we can call it
that...) and install everything else open source so they would not make any
money on anything, which would miss M$ first objective: lock customers in a
system where they have to buy what they are told at a ridiculous price they
set, and have to do it every few years while having to upgrade your
hardware...

Viva Open Source!

  François Ouellette
<fouellet-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>





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