[arachne] Alternative OSes - WindowsNT, Linux, BSD, etc.

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

Hi all,

since the discussion currently seems to be more about alternative
operating systems than about Arachne, I could not resist to add my
opinion.

First, I regard it as somewhat amusing that people who object to Arachne
becoming too large to fit on a single floppy disk do not mind using a
multiple-megabyte-monster like Internet Explorer or Mozilla on their
Loonix or Windoze machines.

And second, I find it rather hilarious that people who think that
WindowsNT is bloatware consider Linux as an alternative. The last time I
checked a typical Linux distribution comprised several CDs, or at least
one DVD, and would take up not mega- but gigabytes of harddisk space.

Even my DOSLinux distribution which only needed 23 MB at first has grown
to several hundred MB on my harddisk by now, and I definetely did not
install any unneeded packages. I do not know BasicLinux, but DOSLinux is
about as basic and simple as Linux can get, yet I needed at least 200 MB
even without Internet connectivity. That is definetely not comparable to
DOS and Arachne.

Last but not least I want to remind you that Unix is not a new OS. In
fact, it is almost as old as OSes can get without looking at really
ancient machines, the oldest that is still considered as "modern" by
computer scientists. Even so-called modern Unixes like Linux show their
heritage.

The original concept of Unix tried to shield the users from all nasty
aspects of the OS by letting a hired tech person, the administrator or
root user, handle them. Unfortunately, when Linus Torvalds wrote the
original Linux, he forgot to also code the administrator, meaning that
the typical Linux user also has to become administrator. IMO this is one
of the biggest problems with Linux.

Even after several years of using and upgrading my DOSLinux
installation, I still do not understand it like I understand DOS, and
I still run into trouble every now and then. There are even times when I
(please forgive my heresy) think that Windows might be better than
Linux.

From my experience, the people who like Linux also seem to like Windows.
Mathematically, this implies that people who do not like Windows do not
like Linux, either, and I found this to be true for me.

Once, I met a Linux fanatic who said that everybody should be forced to
use Linux for their own good. So I replied "Currently, most people are
using Windows because they think they are forced to use it even though
they do not like it, and they curse it because of this. Would you really
feel better if they would curse Linux instead?".

As I see it, everyone uses the system that he likes best. If somebody
decides to use another one for a certain task, that is also his
decision. If he finds that it is not up to the task, then it is also his
decision. Trying to convert somebody to a system that he does not like
is futile, and can only cause frustration.

Regards,

Udo

-- The DR-DOS/OpenDOS Enhancement Project - http://www.drdosprojects.de

-- This mail was written by a user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/
                  Arachne at FreeLists                  
-- Arachne, The Premier GPL Web Browser/Suite for DOS --

Other related posts: