Re: [PLUG] Fwd: CG: Windows XP warning

[Fred K Ollinger <follinge@sas.upenn.edu>]

> "Friends don't let friends use Windows ..."
>
> Uh, I have to say something good here.  Windows made low-cost, generic hardware profitable for manufacturers.  This is the hardware that many run Linux
> on.  The alternative was more expensive, proprietary hardware made by Apple, Sun, etc., which is designed to run particular OSes.

They don't make (much) hardware.

I thought that Compaq reverse engineered the proprietary hardware then
sold it for less which opened up the cloning phenomenom. MS just rises
their prices over the years, and people don't notice due to falling
hardware prices.

> What is important to me is that the hardware market, and the availability of both Windows and Linux, gives me the freedom to choose.

Actually, if it were up to MS, Linux would be illegal. Balmer called the
gpl, 'unamerican'.

What MS did do is make a lot of people buy more hardware to keep up with
the steep upgrade cycle. I get hardware second hand.

So I would like to thank all the people who paid good money for the same
functionality over and over again, and especially those who bought the
Windows licenses which are _mandatory_ when buying an off-the-shelf pc.

It's on the backs of the good American businesses and consumers that paved
the way for my pc experience. MS only helped very indirectly.

I don't think all those who benefitted from the GI bill were too grateful
to Germany after WWII.

Fred


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