Should I switch?

[mhumm2]

Windows exiles

I hope you don't mind if I use your most excellent and concise description. I love it! Thanks.

mhumm2

[rms]

That would indicate that you do not have any exposed ports because either your router or your ISP is blocking them.

Of course. But I do know many people with just a ADSL-usb-modem-dongle and windblowse as the only OS who are frequently asking for help.

[SteveRiley]

I hope you don't mind if I use your most excellent and concise description. I love it! Thanks.

Feel free!

[perspectoff]

Unless, Linux really is an elitist OS for the initiated only.

That sounds like what a lot of illiterate people in the Middle Ages used to say about reading....

[rms]

That sounds like what a lot of illiterate people in the Middle Ages used to say about reading....

A lot of folks still think they can use/operate a complex machine without knowing or reading something like this. It is still Middle Ages in this respect.

[tek_heretik]

A lot of folks still think they can use/operate a complex machine without knowing or reading something like this. It is still Middle Ages in this respect.

I don't know where to start but I have to chime in...I find the user friendly Linux distros easy to use, if not easier than Windows, only a small portion of computer users are actually interested in the under-the-hood mechanics behind an OS, otherwise, they just want their computers to work, hence the hand holding attitude behind the design of Windows AND Mac, even most of today's BIOSes come with a flashy boot screen to 'hide' the cryptic machine booting messages (personally, I choose a slow and thorough boot without the splash screen, I WANT to see what my PC is doing). All that being said, another OS is just like learning another language, nothing is perfect in this world and EVERYTHING comes with 'warts', that is why I left the Microsoft sheep flock, was sick of the hand holding, the many 'warts' (don't even get me started on those, lol) and the built in OS spyware, my OS shouldn't 'phone home' for almost every single little thing I do. So I chose to learn a new 'language', but at least with this 'language', a fix is almost always a just a few seconds away in a search engine, I don't have to wait for some bloated service pack to install yet more hand holding (installing extra garbage and turning things on that I don't want or need) and change my EULA secretly behind my back (surprised Microsoft wasn't sued over that).

So if some people want to stay suckers and live in the McWindows blissfully ignorant world, so be it, I'll stick with steak and potatoes Kubuntu, even if it means the odd command line fix, which 99% of the time I COPY and paste from a forum post, lol, how is that for lazy! :eek:

Edit: I do agree with you about the Debian manual, it makes my head spin too, but that's Debian, it was created and is maintained by uber-geeks, thank God other people came along and built more user friendly distros using Debian as a base, in reality, the Linux world owes A LOT to Debian and it's developers.

[capt-zero]

tek_heretik,

Bravo!

capt-zero

[GreyGeek]

My problem is that I "USED" to know most of the ins & outs of Linux. Then I got old.
Now I recognize what I used to know by name only, but no details, after I get reminded of it.
I'm thankful for "easy to use" distros like Kubuntu.
If I appear to "know" anything it is because Google is easy to use.

[rms]

My problem is that I "USED" to know most of the ins & outs of Linux. Then I got old.
---

It's our common lot.

[GreyGeek]

Ya, but inside I feel like a tired 28 year old with mental fatigue!

[rms]

Ya, but inside I feel like a tired 28 year old with mental fatigue!

Surely, there must have been SOME things in anybody's life not deserving remembrance. So, oblivion is not a handicap actually i.e. for as long as one doesn't start forgetting important things, like umbrellas!

Sorry for OT.

[SteveRiley]

Ya, but inside I feel like a tired 28 year old with mental fatigue!

Uh, there's a pill for that

(Jerry, you really make it sooooo easy for us! Hehehehe)

[GreyGeek]

Surely, there must have been SOME things in anybody's life not deserving remembrance.

Ya, but my wife won't let me forget them! (Because she's right! )

So, oblivion is not a handicap actually i.e. for as long as one doesn't start forgetting important things, like umbrellas!

....

Now you tell me...

(I'm off topic too, I guess this thread is dead...)

[SteveRiley]

(I'm off topic too, I guess this thread is dead...)

You know, I don't think we worry too much about off-topicness around here. I like the balance we have: mostly topical, with the occasional variance that is the nature of being human.