OFF: Virus alert (genuine)

[Andrew Apold]

>Fortunately for Micro$oft, they've managed to develop a business
>strategy in which they are able to sell bug fixes as "product
>upgrades."  Pay us $99 and we'll fix all the shoddy stuff we sold you
>last time.  Heheh.  Nice work if you can get it, and proof that the old
>adage of "there's a sucker born every minute" still rings true.  I'd say
>Micro$oft marketing, not their software, is "pretty damn good."

Some things are self-fulfilling.  Create something that all the "morons"
can use, and guess what, the "morons" will mess it up.  If you had a
system that required some intelligence to operate, then those most likely
to screw it up wouldn't be using them.  Thus they are more reliable.

Give in.  I was an Amiga developer.  The stuff mac users have been saying
to themselves these last 4-5 years, we said them, too.  It doesn't matter.
Develop for the largest market.

>Fortunately, I do not use M$ "products" on a regular basis.  A friend
>that does is always cursing at her system, which usually crashes several
>times a day.  On an unrelated note, the system I use on a daily basis
>(gromit) is about to pass the 140 days uptime mark (despite constant use
>as a FTP server when I'm not using it).  The last time it went down was
>actually due to flaky power in our lab (power interruption during a bad

BTW, You'd be surprised to know how bad the power in some major metropolitan
areas can actually be.  If you have critical stuff, get a UPS and get
clean power.  It's probably not the spikes so much as the mild low
semi-brownouts that hurt the most often.

>storm).  Similarly, a server for a project I'm involved with (and which
>also hosts several other projects) passed the 200 day uptime mark; the
>last time that machine went down was due to a hardware failure (hard
>disc + mainboard failure).  Both are Unix systems.  The M$-Windoze NT
>systems in our lab (ostensibly the more "reliable" M$ platform) rarely
>manage more than about 1 week of uptime between software-induced
>crashes.

>I have no objection to people using Micro$oft products, but, please,
>let's try and see it for what it is.  (And "pretty good" it ain't...:)

Really, it depends on what you're talking about.  Their office apps are
top-notch, they have no equal, period, now or ever.  And if someone
offers micro-emacs as a worthy alternative...  sheez.  Corel is
retreating to Linux becasue they can't compete.

Now, for every one of these, you have something like Microsoft Bob.
However, one of the leaders of the Microsoft Bob project went on to
found Valve and created half-life.  (shrug).




=============================
"To dwell within Samsara, however, is to
 be subject to the works of those mighty
 among dreamers."

 - Mahasamatman, in Zelazny's "Lord of Light"

Andrew Apold