Just Need to Get This Out of My System

Microsoft is MicroSnot.

It's a complete pain - from my nose to my arse and beyond.

They will go down - trust me on this one. Their two profit-margin banging products are Office Suite and Windows. Different OS are getting better and better and they will soon take some consumers from Windows. As for their Office Suite, there are a lot of comparable counterparts out there. Once these go down, their profit margin will flunk. Can't wait to see that happen.

but people would have to get smarter to use the better OS.

recently i installed linux, and couldn't figure out how to get files from the floppy . and when i did, it didn't show the damn files. and it's all crazy. cause i think i messed up on the installation.

but anyhoo

%80 of people are like me.

Wannabe, if I remember right you installed RedHat 7.3, which is a fairly old version. Newer versions such as 8.0 or 9.0 are more user-friendly. I think Mac OS X is the solution for those that aren't smart enough or don't want to learn Linux/BSD, as it supports Plug-and-play and currently has more software support. With a base in BSD (Darwin I think) it will just help promote the change from DOS-dominant to *NIX-dominant.

DOS rules the home...*nix rules the web and (to some extent) office....

It's a shame the home is the bigger market. But the biggest thing Windows has going for it is it's user-friendliness (IMO). It's also got a pretty low learning curve, you have to admit....non-techie end-user's like this. Remember people pay for convenience.

Too bad it (MS) has nothing else going for it But if the *nix variants could be made as user-friendly as Windows is now, but still retain their incredible power and stability...

But there's always a tradeoff....unfortunately.

It is my understanding that most people are so used to Windows
and Office that when they see a different gui they get frustrated
because they are comparing.

When I started using Linux (RedHat) at 6.1, I even bought it (:P)
but I was in love. Yes it was different, even completely confusing
(at the time). But I remember sticking with it. Spending nearly a
whole week in minicom trying to get my Rockwell ISA modem
to work with PPP....and I finally did.

Most people would rather "Borrow" their friend/family's version
of Office then to get the then free StarOffice because they were
afraid of change.

Windows plain and simple is made for ease of use. For the
spectrum of the newbie to the trained. You try telling someone
that it would be easier to type in the command line to copy that
from the floppy and they'll tell you where to go and then point
and click.

I don't know if anyone has heard of Redmond Linux (they have a
new name now) This version was by far the closest thing to
windows around. It even ran a handful of C based apps that
were made for windows, File sharing the whole gambit right
down to the XP clone desktop background. Free! Nope I'd rather
spend $200 dollars on Windows.

Mac is no better. Charging for a minor revision?!? wtf was that?

I can only hope that Linux stays true...for the thinkers.