From - Wed Apr 17 01:30:28 2002
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Message-ID: <3CBD086E.8070503@open4success.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 01:30:22 -0400
From: Rex Ballard 
Organization: IBM
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Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux or Windows - your right to choose
References: <2533b807.0204141847.3a6ae712@posting.google.com> <3CBBA3AC.3080805@open4success.com> 
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Pete Goodwin wrote:

 > Rex Ballard  wrote in
 > news:3CBBA3AC.3080805 @open4success.com:
 >
 >> The consequences of Linux in the schools is significant.
 >>  Even  if the schools use a blend of Windows and Linux,
 >> each Linux  system can be used by up to 8 students/day,
 >> and depending on  their lab requirements, as many as 40
 >> students per week.  More  importantly, families who
 >> couldn't afford a computer with  Windows XP could afford
 >>  a surplus computer purchased at a  marketpro computer
 >> fair, or pawn shop, which couldn't even  think of
 >> running Windows XP, but can run Linux quite nicely.
 >>
 >
 > Well, can that sort of thing run Linux + X Windows + KDE?
 > Or Linux + X  Windows + fvwm?


Actually, these days, yse they can.  I picked up a Pentium 200, 
with S3 video card, 32 meg of ram, 10 gig hard drive, and CD, 
for about $150.  Compare this to the $1400 being charged for XP 
enabled machines when they first came out.

Such a machine wouldn't have much trouble with X Windows, KDE, 
and even StarOffice.

For $280 I could pick up an IBM 380 laptop.  Not real fond of 
1024x768 graphics, but it would also make a nice Linux machine.

For $400 I can have a machine custom built with a Duron 900 mhz 
processor, CD, floppy, 100 base-t ethernet, modem, 20 gig hard 
drive, and Sound.  Again, a nice little Linux machine.

For $700, which seems to be the "bottom price" for a bare bones 
XP machine, I can get an AthalonXP at 1700 Ghz, 60 gig hard 
drive, and 256 meg RAM, along with CD, Floppy, Ethernet, Modem, 
and sound card.  I can even get a 17" monitor.  All because I'm
not wasting all of that money on Windows XP.

 >> Suppose you had 10 Windows XP systems, and 30 Linux
 >> systems.  The budgets would be quite similar.  Linux
 >> would require more  effort for initial configuration,
 >> while Windows would require  more frequent maintenance
 >> cycles, including reboots,  reinstallations, and
 >> extensive system rebuilds.  The NT system  would require
 >>  even more support due to Microsoft's hostility to  3rd
 >> party software.  On the other hand, the Linux system
 >> would  require either new software, or WINE to run the
 >> older windows  95 software.
 >
 > Linux doesn't support all hardware, and neither does XP for
 >  that matter.

True.  I personally get frustrated at the lack of GA support 
for Firewire/IEEE 1394.  It's supported, but for the 2.4.4 
release kernels (RH 7.2, SuSE 7.3, Mandrake 8.1) it wasn't 
preinstalled.  I can get the PCI controllers to work, but not 
the PCMCIA card for my Laptop.

On the other hand, these had no trouble with the USB devices, 
and worked quiet well.  My son's Gateway Solo 1150 is still not 
supported (an odball orphan video card that was only used on a 
few machines).

But for the other 20 machines I tested, I didn't have any 
significant problems.  The IBM Thinkpads and Intellistations 
worked brilliantly, even with Mandrake 8.1 (8.0 didn't like the 
  TrackPoint mouse).  I haven't seen a recent version of 
Caldera, the latest I have was 2.3, but it seemed to work quite 
well on the older machines.

And WINE works quite well on nearly all of these.  Of course, 
you have to have a Windows 95 or Windows 98 license to run 
Win4Lin, since the Windows ME and XP licenses expressly forbid 
running any DLLs under any system other than Windows.  Vendors 
are scrambling like mad to get these older Windows 9x licenses.

 >> Linux probably wouldn't be ideal for all applications.
 >> For  example if you have a computer aided education
 >> package, such as  a math tutor program, you might not be
 >>  able to find a similar  version for Linux.  Conversely,
 >>  there are many programs and  applications for which
 >> Linux might even be better than Windows.

 > That's an understatement. There's a whole wealth of stuff
 > out there for  Windows. There is correspondingly less
 > stuff for Linux - simply because  Windows is the more
 > popular desktop system.

There are more of certain types of programs, which Microsoft 
considers unprofitable.  Furthermore, many of the applications 
used for computer aided education won't run under Windows XP, 
which means that even if Microsoft gives the stuff away, it 
won't help schools much.

Even most third party game software doesn't run very well under 
XP.  Flight simulator softwarwe seems to be one of those things 
Microsoft has decided to kill.  Microsoft's latest version 
works fine, but Wing Commander doesn't.

Older versions of Office, such as Office 95, Office 97, and 
Office 2000 don't like Windows XP either.  It seems that you 
have to upgrade to Windows 2000 (marginally functional) or 
Windows XP, with all it's new restrictions, to run Office under 
Windows XP.

And programs written in earlier versions of Visual C++, along 
with programs written in Borland C++, and even many Java 
programs, also don't run very well, if at all.  Microsoft 
expects you to use Visual Studio .NET, to create new applications.

I'm sure that vendors will come up with upgrade versions, for a 
fee, or incremental upgrades downloaded via the Internet, but 
it is now clear that Windows XP stands for eXPensive!!!



-- 
Rex Ballard
IT Architect
Leader in commercial use of the Internet and Open Source.
http://www.open4success.com