Thoughts about 'scary stuff'

["Bob Nolte" <bob.nolte@pc4u.com>]

Sometimes this group sounds like a bunch of religious bigots!

These comments are about the general sense of the responses
to Carl S' comments about 'Trustworthy Software'.

Sometimes I think it would be in Microsoft's best interests to make a list
of Linux users' groups available to the world. Has anyone stopped to
consider what a new member of this group might think about the level
of paranoia that wells to the surface here from time to time? Two thoughts
ring out...
     People ranting wildly about anything that MS does
     Lots of mail about things that don't work right in Linux

It's been a while since I saw a post by someone who sounded like they
are enjoying their Linux experience. This group needs to get its
medication back in balance.

I would wager that I could load up a box with Windows 2000 and keep
it running just about forever. Notice that I didn't say that I would load
any application software on it. AOL is being sued for $8 billion for messing
up a large number of the world's computers. Just wait until Linux grows
popular enough to attract crappy application software and the up time
on Linux boxen will drop dramatically. A few weeks ago someone said
they liked the gui Corel Linux load. If we want to attract new Linux users,
we're going to have to appeal to what they're used to seeing. Here comes
the bloat in Linux. You can't walk into a computer store and pick up a
$10 Linux program out of the bargain bin. Just wait till this crud hits
the Linux OS.

I could compare operating systems to kids in a family. You can love
each of them for their good points. Nothing is gained, and much is lost, by
concentrating on negative points. Ranting about MS while praising Linux
isn't going to get us where we want to go in terms of broader acceptance
by the general public. I've watched MS since its birth and am not paranoid
about MS at all. I sometime wonder if MS could organize a 1 car parade.

One final point. The level of technical knowledge of MS products seems
to be very low in this group. This may be due, in part, to the tendency
of Linux users to break out in hives when brought in close proximity
to a MS operating system. I would guess that quite a number of the
4700 members of this group have noticed this knowledge deficit as well.
I have run Linux for almost 3 years. I have run Windows since version 0
and know more about Windows than I do about Linux. I don't have a great
deal of trouble with MS products because I manage them correctly and
carefully. An experienced Linux guru probably could say the same thing
and have little trouble with Linux. Most of the people in the world aren't
experts with either OS and just want something that will do its job and
not aggravate them too much.

Anybody that's been to London, and gone to Hyde Park, has seen the
ranters waving their arms for their favorite causes. Let's keep this sort
of rhetoric at as low a level as possible in this group.

MORE PROFESSIONALISM and MATURITY!!!