the word “hyprocrisy” springs to mind. as does the saying “do as I say and not as I do”.
On what basis are you allowed to publically declare you wish to smash up Microsoft HQ while typing on a Microsoft made Operating System? If you advocate a certain political stance surely you should embrace it and live it rather than just screaming it at the top of your lungs and forgetting about it when you leave the house.
Seriously, I don’t see how you can be anti-capitalist and violent about it, yet support the exact thing you are trying to resist by by buying such products.
If Microsoft did not have so much control over the production of computer systems, and allowed smaller companies to prosper, then we wouldn’t all need to use them. In a world were globalisation that has taken over, you cannot criticise someone for using a product to which there are no legitimate alternatives, no matter what their beliefs.
Off the topic I know but why do the boards seem to type & # 8 2 1 7 ; (without the gaps, cos otherwise it becomes an apostrophe) whenever you write an apostrophe. I find this quite confusing. any answers?
Louise: there is an alternative and it is a realistic one.
Linux. Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Developed under the GNU General Public License , the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone.
Ben: valid point about Linux. The only problem is, for people who aren’t that good with computers (me) it’s difficult to set up and it’s a total hassle to configure programs to work with it. That’s what I’ve found anyway.
May Day: what’s the point in protesting when there are so many different causes that noone knows what you’re protesting for anyway? Also, some people were protesting for stuff like more funding for public services… pretty stupid if you ask me, as the money spent on the 6000 or so police that had to be there could have been funding NHS reform.
HVD: The support for linux is phenomenal and it comes in the form of Online communities. Some commercial Linux distributions offer help over the phone but the majority of help comes from online. This can be in a number of ways. There are HOWTO’s and Documentations which can be found at lug.org.uk. I myself am the LUGmaster for South London plug.
LUG’s or Linux User Groups are a key way of getting help on any problem you have with Linux. It is focused around a mailing list but some LUG’s also have monthly meetings where talks are given on the latest Linux programs as well as basic things such as installing. The website above will give you more information on it.
Another way of getting Linux help is via Google or Deja. A wonderful thing about Linux is that it tells you everything that it’s doing and outputs into a logfile. If there is an error therefore you can open the logfile, copy the error and paste it into Google which will invariably come up with a 100 or so posts from people who have had the same problem and the solution to it.
Jane: From what I know you first used Linux a few years ago and granted it is very difficult to get into, but things have changed a lot since then and as an example you can now get a flavour of Linux called Mandrake Linux which has an install as easy as Windows. You just put the CD in and point and click the options that you want. It couldn’t be simpler.
With regards to software, at the moment, Linux developers are attempting to develop all the equivalent software that is used on Windows. For example, StarOffice is the equivalent of Microsoft Office, and KDE/Gnome/Sawfish are the equivalent graphical interfaces which are used in the Windows Operating System.
And that is only the beginning. Personally I don’t have a problem with Microsoft so my desktop machine is running Windows XP while my two other machines run Linux. However, if you did have a vendetta against Microsoft (which is the question in hand) then there is a realistic alternative and it isn’t as difficult as many claim it to be.