Fun thread.

[Cyber Source]

wow, good thread.
  I could sum it up in one word......"Control". I am lucky enough to be 
in a position to always come across comparing Linux to windows. I also 
see many, many , many people disgusted with there windows boxes getting 
bugged up and eventually useless.
  So, your question is, what would keep a person in Linux like apps keep 
a person in windows? I think it goes way beyond apps. Control and virus 
protection are paramount in my view to keep anyone in Linux. If a 
person, for familiarity or whatever reason, wishes to stay with windows, 
then they should. The apps will come in time and as far as I can see, 
are no longer a reason not to go with Linux. The way we setup people 
with Fedora Core 3 and VMware running windows as a guest OS, windows 
itself has been reduced to an app, which, IMHO is where it belongs.

Eric Benoit wrote:

> I could have saved our school district 10,000.00 if only they had let 
> me ...and upgrading in the future could have saved them ...well who 
> knows.  There is a great deal of educational software being made for 
> linux ...and it will grow.  The troubles I have with windows is 90% of 
> my time that i could have spent making permenant feasible solutions to 
> there IT needs.  I just ghost windows machines these days ...it seems 
> to cut down on the time problem ...on the other hand people see me 
> busy ...if linux were the choice then they might speculate that I'm a 
> slacker ..thanks for keeping me busy Billy.
>
> Jesse Jarzynka wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 2005-01-05 at 15:07, Dennis Ruzeski wrote:
>>  
>>
>>> It's not what Linux can do, it's what Windows can't do-- Protect 
>>> itself.
>>> To show why I like Linux better, I mention things like msblaster, 
>>> nimda, mydoom, sasser, etc...
>>> Then I show them my CERT mail archives with about a 15:1 Windows to 
>>> Linux alert ratio and if I'm at my home, I demonstrate how easliy a 
>>> windows machine can be compromised.
>>> Lots of people are impressed with eye candy, so although I use 
>>> windowmaker, I also show them a prettied up gnome, kde, and 
>>> enlightenment environment.
>>> Then I give them a knoppix cd and say try it first with no commitment.
>>>   
>>
>>
>>  
>>
>>> As far as apps go, I like Openoffice (free vs. ~$300) GIMP, Blender, 
>>> Gaim, and k3b.
>>>
>>> --Dennis
>>>   
>>
>>
>>     That's exactly what I say. But more of what i meant was you show 
>> some
>> people OpenOffice, they say "I'll just download Microsoft Office", Gimp,
>> "I'll download Photoshop", get the idea? Even if they know Linux is more
>> secure, they'll keep Windows for the comfort factor. A lot of people,
>> while stupid, think that they shouldn't have to switch if they can still
>> download everything they want for free.     I have a kid in my class 
>> who brings his laptop in, and every morning
>> does his little virus scan, immediately followed by his ad-aware scan.
>> Spends about 20 minutes just cleaning it up. That just goes to show
>> people will deal with it, and maybe even feel better about it!
>>     Blender is a good one. While I haven't played with it. I've heard 
>> and
>> seen some awesome things from it. Isn't it ported to Windows though? I
>> also think mythTV is a cool one that's kinda standalone on Linux. Some
>> other cool things I usually mention are more dependable ripping. I
>> remember windows crashing and dying all the time while Grip, or DVDrip
>> just work fantastically. And also, ogg doesnt force you to download a
>> license to listen to them! Anyone ran into this little gem on Windows
>> yet? I also like all the tools that come with terminal. Ssh, scp, vi
>> (while on a server), locate, grep etc.
>>     I just like blowing people's minds when I show them my desktop, and
>> wanted to know if anyone could think of some other clever things Linux
>> can do that Windows can't, besides the obvious security issues. I think
>> for a lot of the "intermediate" users, until they see some eye candy, or
>> unavailable apps, they'll settle. Obviously the screensavers are a good
>> start!
>>  
>>