"Hey, check this out!"
"What's that?"
"My new OS; it's totally secure, and guess what?"
"What?"
"It's free, dude; it's free!"
Haven't you at one time or another had a similar conversation with a friend of yours?
Chances are you probably did. With new open-source OS and different distributions of each Unix/Linus system coming out every couple of months, maybe every couple of weeks even, you probably did.
The idea is ok; I mean who doesn't want to have a cost-free operating system that is virtually untouchable by viruses, worms, or trojans? Plus, you get to run a whole bunch of applications on it. It's a good deal, no doubt about that.
I myself used Red Had and Mandrake for a while two years ago, and two months earlier I installed Ubuntu on my laptop and it proved to be pretty good.
What really pisses me off are hardcore Linux maniacs who keep attacking Microsoft software! It's really a turn-off to see someone attacking software that has been serving people for a solid decade claiming that Microsoft...
...is all about money. "I hate 'em, dude. They have a price tag for everything."
Really?! Well, that's news! When was the last time you ever got something for free? Look around you; no, don't; just ask yourself if you got the shirt or T-shirt or whatever you're wearing for free. I bet you paid for it. Software costs more than clothes.
...produces programs that suck! "The system is really slow, it's full of bugs!"
Ummm. That's a tough one, or so you think! Count how many machines run Windows and MS Office worldwide and then find out how many crashes happen. Compare the two and you'll find that the number of crashes compared to the total number of machines running Windows is getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller!
Open source is such a great idea and I like it, but I don't let myself get carried away and start wining about software that I've been using for more than 13 years (with rock-solid performance by the way) just because it's geeky and cool to hate Microsoft.
Just remember that not all people are tech-savvys like you guys. That's not too hard for you to grasp, or is it?
