Mikhail wrote:QUOTE (Mikhail @ Jul 12 2007, 02:47 PM) Every new MS OS had bad compatibility. It will grow. I remember the hate back when XP was released same for 2k for 98 for 95 for MS Dos 6 for MS Dos 5. I'm getting bored about this nonsens.
Use Linux or stop bitching. I can't hear it anymore /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />
Edit: compatibility and driver issues are mainly a problem of others not able to write drivers in time for their stuff they sell. It will get better. Btw every game I own which runs on XP runs on Vista as well.
Well, i couldn't resist putting my 2 cents in here:
Microsoft is about profit margins, marketing channels, P/E ratio, dividend yield and stock return to investors, it is NOT about making quality software or enhancing the already existing codebase. Microsoft is also the main pusher for faster hardware, it walks hand in hand with all major chip and peripheral makers.
Linux is about choice, compatibility and performance. It went astray sometime around development kernel 2.3, when the kernel binary interface was introduced. Also, since Linus is not the only one, who can veto something about linux kernel, many developers have many different ideas about how should certain things work and that's the main problem, as i see it: The changes take very long to implement, just follow some of the flame wars on the linux kernel development email list, it's a wonder those guys get ANYTHING done at all, a real testament to those few enthusiasts, like Alan Cox and Mad Dog.
The largest problem (or advantage, in my case) is the sheer amount of choice one has, when using linux. And i am not talking about different distros, i am talking about building your own, customized and performance optimized LFS system. You decide what goes in and what stays out. A trivial task for those of us who remember the hemoroids of HP/UX 9.2, AIX 3.x and SunOS 2.1 or for that matter Microsoft perversion called Xenix, but an impossible affair for anybody else, with "normal" life perceptions and sensitivites.
Mac is a good runner up in my opinion, the much hated Apple had enough brains to actually base their OS on some sensible design. Probably all those years spent by Steve Jobs working at NEXT are starting to pay off now. But, Apple is as much about profit margins and stock returns as Microsoft. They dropped the best thing that ever happened to them - allowing 3rd party hardware manufacturers to produce Macs, thus making Mac a commodity computing platform. Yes, they did increase their profit margins at the cost of having a smaller and more "exclusive" user base, which can afford the overpriced and underpowered intel based macs. Don't argue with me here, any G5 system will outperform any intel core duo/quad by at least a factor of 2 in it's throughput and sheer scalability.
Well, Apple was also smart enough to develop a mach kernel and sue it onto BSD compatible system, but they intentionally left out all the usefull things, that made up BSD clones so lovely to work with. Again, a marketing move, motivated by corporate greed and responsibility to shareholders.
We also have the high end SGI Irix and Sun Solaris, that pretend to support mainstream, but actually are optimized to work with respective OEM's hardware. It is not feasible for a home user to successfully run Solaris based OS, without having a formal SUN sysadmin education (self induced or aquired by actually participating in class) and having at least 5 years experience as a proper SUN admin at a site with over 300 workstations at least.
SGI is simply not able to run on commodity hardware, period. You want an IRIX, you've got to shell out a good quarter of a mil. for the hardware alone.
The rest of *NIX banazna, that pretends to play along with PC hardware, like SCO, TRU etc... doesn't support any new hardware, at the day of it's popularity it barely supported the required minimum... only certain ethernet cards, certain chipsets and MBs, it sucked when it came out and it's dead today.
The poor users are left without any choice today - Run Microsoft or don't use a PC. Those who can afford to buy a Mac are fortunate, but stupid, Mac OS X with latest kernel runs great on any commodity laptop. I am running 10.4.10 on my lenovo 3000 v100 and it works faster, then on a real Mac and the laptop costs less then 1k USD.
About peripheral hardware manufactures not being able to supply drivers in time for new MS OS releases: It's simple really, the WHQL certification costs money, the MS drivers SDK costs money, the legal costs of having to deal with microsoft bullcrap are too high for low-spec (thus general mainstream) OEMs in Taiwan and PRC, so they just wait until those fees go down and it happens when the new version of MS monstrocity comes out, that means, that drivers are being developed retrospectively, that's the delay in the majority of cases. Others, like NVIDIA and ATI (industry hi-rollers) simply cannot keep in step with all the compatibility breakage issues in new OS and are forced to reinvent the wheel everytime a new MS crap comes out.
So where does it leave our humble non-geek PC user ? Hm... with a head in a loo, eating MS feces, topped off with a good portion of marketing manure..... Quite a meal, ehh ?
Personally, i never bought and never will buy any MS product, they have enough money without me contributing to their bottom line. Actually, MS is an economy of scale all by itself, it dictates terms to goverments all around the globe and everybody else in the industry. MS is also a single largest contributor to US economy, for f*cks sake, not even Lockheed Martin or Texaco or Haliburton pay so much in taxes and legal fees to US, as microsoft does.
Case in point: When MS threatened to relocate it's HQ from US to some other country at the height of illicit competitive practices lawsuit, the settlement was reached the same day, settlement which favoured MS very much in it's wording and spirit.
So, everybody is stuck with microsoft for at least the next 50 years or so, at least until it will be renamed to something else.... Maybe Gazprom Software Services or Rosneftsoft or something similar..... I mean comon, if Chelsea is today owned by Russki's, the day when the rest of the global economy would have a heavy russian interest present in it isn't that hard to imagine or for that matter simply isn't that far away in the future.
Why did i spend the last 10 mins writing this ? I don't know, i guess i just wanted to give you guys my take on operating systems.... afterall, i have 20 years of slaving for IT industry under my belt. Maybe we can start a discussion or maybe i would find a similar spirited people here, with whom it would be interesting to debate the merits of current technological advancements.
Anyways, cheers and i am off to scouting again.... never can have too much practice doing that....