Arfa Daily wrote:

"msg" wrote in message
ernet...

Arfa Daily wrote:

snip

You know Graham, I've never been a Gates / MS / Windoze basher. A lot of
the flak that they take seems to come from people not liking the fact
that they tied the market up, and make squillions of dollars a day. OK,
so maybe there was something better than Windows just waiting to come on
the market, and maybe Gates and co did stop it by working to make Windows
the dominant OS worldwide, but looking at it the other way, it has got to
have done more to 'standardise' the world of home (and business)
computing, and to make it practical and affordable to the whole world at
large, than any other factor which has had an influence.

It is difficult not to want to respond to this post and I hope that other
folks do express their opinions in this thread (yet another o/s religious
debate), especially those with expertise and experience in these matters,
but I would like to make a few points (briefly);

snip
Geoff,

This discussion really merits in-depth analysis, and indeed there are ample
resources on the 'net addressing the arguments on each of your points, but
I'd like to pursue just a few of them a little further.

I don't really dispute any of these points Michael, but you are getting a
bit specific and specialised here.

Sorry, I should have interspersed my reply with some of your points which I
specifically tried to address from memory of your O.P.

I was talking in general about an
operating system that pretty much 'works out of the box' for the vast
majority of home and business users. It allows an average person who is an
average computer user rather than 'understand-er', to get excellent
functionality from something which, if you stop and think about it, is
actually an incredibly complex piece of technology.

Perhaps unmanageably complex in its current form; I remain a supporter
of the network computing model (thin clients for the average user) which
solve issues of software maintenance, client security, ease of use and
ultimately significantly lower total cost of ownership and operation.

Personal computers should not be allowed on public data networks without
being under the responsible aegis of a proven and responsible party, perhaps
licensed much like amateur radio stations. Unconnected PCs are free to
host as much malware as their owners care to tolerate.


I think that you would have to agree that without Windows providing a
standardised and user friendly platform, the use of the home computer, and
small business computer, would never have spread around the world like it
has. Nor would there be the huge raft of add-ons and peripherals that are
guaranteed to just work straight out of the box, and the price advantages
that that has brought with it, nor the unimaginably vast mountain of amateur
and professional software that having this 'universal' platform, has
spawned.

If not MS Windows, there would have been some other o/s; I always felt that
CP/M-86 and Concurrent CP/M-86 (multi-user and multi-tasking in some versions)
worked astonishingly well on the 8086 and could have evolved into a first-class
o/s. There were quite a few 8086 o/s candidates whose names have long since
vanished from consciousness that could have fit the bill, and as the x86
architecture advanced, Unix and the X11 GUI was poised to be the platform for
the future.

I know that a lot of people who think of themselves as 'experts', decry the
inclusion of e-mail and browser software in the OS, and declare both
Explorer and OE to be useless rubbish, but again, the fact that they are
there - and to all but the most picky of users, do what they should - has, I
think, done more than any other factor to promote the use of e-mail and the
internet to average people, who never thought that they would ever be able
to cope with such things. Lets face it, most regular Joes have difficulty
working their VCR or washing machine in detail, so it really is remarkable
that they have got to grips so well with a highly complex item like a
computer.

I submit that we all would have been far better off if this had not happened,
since the libertarian character of the Internet is under attack and is likely to
vanish in the coming years under new draconian rules in the various wars on
'terror', IP protection, identity theft, wire crimes of all sorts, etc., etc.
due to the escalating damage by armies of botnets, trojans, malware of all sorts
ad infinitum.

If 'Joe Blow' had only been allowed on administered systems (such as the old BBS,
timesharing services, private networks, etc.) and network clients, this predicament
certainly would not have happened in this fashion, and we would be more likely
to preserve our freedoms.

Even old grannies can do it, so that has got to say something
about the validity of the Windows platform, hasn't it ?

I have some experience in this area, and have found that Windows is far from
convenient or useful for many seniors, who can easily learn how to operate
other modern technology. These same folks use WebTV, Mailstations, and other
Internet appliances quite well, and I again submit that the network client
is a better choice for anyone who is not willing or able to technically
qualify and maintain a computer.