On Fri, 6 Sep 2002 03:49:28 +0530 "Sameer Shinde" s2sameer@hotmail.com wrote:
On Wednesday, September 04, 2002 3:28 PM "Philip S Tellis" philip@konark.ncst.ernet.in
I can watch movies full screen, and if only I could get a pair of speakers in here, I could hear them too (my sound system is configured correctly).
Yours, Not everybodys.( atleast not mine even after trying sndconfig ) Such things doesn't happen in windows as the cards comes with ready drivers for it. You can plug-in dam any sound card in it & it works
That's not a merit of Windows or a demerit of Linux. That's the result of Microsoft's monopolistic stranglehold on the market. You can run "any dam" souncard in Windows because the vendor of that card ships drivers for Windows with it. How many cards can you plug into WinXP and run them without vendor provided software? BTW, some of the reputed hardware vendors are now shipping Linux drivers with their products, nVIDIA, for instance.
Again one biggest issue of Internal modems, they are not supported by linux ( although some but mejority of them are not)
<quote>There are many so-called "winmodems" available now. In fact, it seems that most PCI modems are winmodems</quote> This is from the Modems page of Linux hardware HOWTO and explains it all. Ever wondered why the price of an internal modem is a third that of external ones? It's because these modems depend on the OS to do the modulation/demodulation. Naturally, they'd like to depend on *Windows* OS for the largest consumer base. Not only that, they are also slow performers since execution in hardware is way faster than execution in software for the same algorithm.
Using internal modems is a conscious choice made by the buyer and almost always, he is aware of the cost difference between internal and exetrnal modems. He asks the vendors what the difference between the two is and the vendor bluntly says, "nothing"! That, dear luggers, is the effect of Microsoft monopoly. Even if, say, 30% of the Desktops had non-Windows OSes, the vendor would have known of the issue and cautioned the buyer. The more you use Windows the more harm you cause to yourself and the computer using community in general.
I agree that that X Windows is not the God of all GUI systems. Nor is MS Windows' GUI. Not the Mac either. Everyone of them has shortcomings. What hurts the most is that people use such generalized and derogatory words as "suxx" to degrade the efforts of brilliant programmers who are trying to make things better so that getting stuck into a monopoly is not as "easy" or "natural" as it is today. The word "suxx" has a really strong implication. I don't recall anyone saying "Windows suxx" in this thread.
This brings us to the issue of criticizing Linux on this forum. Indeed criticizing is positive but to what extent is some critique helpful? Do we have anyone on this list who's directly involved with the development of X or any of the Window Managers or Desktop Environments? The best form of criticism is submitting bug reports to the developers. That, dear users of Linux, is what makes you hope for improvements in what you get.
This list also has people who are newbies and are here to get a clue. What message do we send out to them when we make grossly subjective statements about some rough edges of a part of Linux? And what message do we send to them when we whine like losers against the monopoly that Microsoft is? Linux may not be the best OS. Rather it *is not* the best OS. But it is good enough for anyone who wants to break free from the monopoly - and I mean _anyone_ when I say anyone.