While waiting for my RH6 CD to arrive (Thanks Greg :-) ) I figured I'd write something to tide the good people over until I have the RH6 install to write about. If you're expecting Linux tips and newbie stuff here, you won't find it. Why? Because I'm going into rant mode...

As I've mentioned before, I'd first tried to get into Linux over a year ago, but a certain IRC user called "wwoods" lied and never sent me the hard drive he promised. My boss is mildly interested in Linux, but only the same kind of interest that you would have, if you saw a car accident on the other side of the road. A kind of morbid fascination, nothing more. He doesn't understand it, and hell, I don't either, which is what I'm working on. :) Is this headed somewhere? Well, yes, it is...

The company I work for is M$ based. I have to use Windows 98 which ranks as one of the most appalling bits of software I've ever had the misfortune of using. As a consequence I bitch about it a lot, much to the chagrin of the people I work with. One person in particular was making a joke about me hating Microsoft (which I do) and how I complain about its stability (or lack thereof). So I asked him, "Have you ever used any other operating system?" To which he replied "No", and the fundamental problem of Linux embedding itself into the majority market is illustrated right there. The people I work with, and 90% of other Windows users have never in their lives used another O/S, not even a Mac. In my time with computers I've used Macs, Unix, and of course my beloved Amiga. I may have all-singing, all-dancing games, and my flashy graphics, and my MP3's etc... but I'd go back to the Amiga in a heartbeat if I had the choice. But back to the plot...

The problem is these people sit and use Microsoft products and think, in the immortal words of Bruce Hornsby, "That's just the way it is", whereas the frontiermen, the founders of the brave new world, you and me my friend, realise that what Microsoft offer is a pathetic excuse for an operating system. It's a tired cliche, but it's true. If all you've ever eaten is bad apples, you have no idea how refreshing or how much nicer an orange can be. You just sit there with your bad apples chomping away, accepting things, and never realising that this isn't how things are supposed to be. The world doesn't know what a decent O/S is supposed to be. Windows has been spoon-fed to them since they were "babies" in the computer world, and they don't know any different. Mac users laughed at Windows 95 calling it Mac OS 87. Amiga users looked down upon Windows users (I should know, I was one of them. If it hadn't been for ID Software's bloody game Doom, I'd have stuck with the Amiga for a good while longer.)

Windows is a laughing stock... Of course, the scum of Seattle are the one's who are really laughing. They continue to foist garbage upon us, put out bogus engineered benchmarks comparing Linux and Windows NT, and laugh all the way to the bank as the population chants in unison "We are the Borg. Microsoft is our way."

My boss just won a copy of the full-blown edition of MS Office 2000. It comes with NO documentation, and he had to spend 70 dollars to buy a book to figure out how to use everything. He doesn't have a problem with that, until I pointed out that WordPerfect 5.1 came in a box with a manual the size of a small country. What utterly astounded me was the price of MS Office 2000. The full on business edition (I don't remember what inane title MS have put on it. You know what I mean. "The Small-Medium-Rare-Welldone home office business for left-handed hedgehogs edition") that comes on not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4, count them *4* CDs (now there's value for money!) has a retail price of $1300. Yes, that's right, that isn't a typo. $1300. I could buy a car for less than that! Compare this to the nearest Linux equivalent, which would be StarOffice, which, for the personal-edition, is available to you for the grand price of $0. Now I know those figures may be confusing, so let me go over them again just to clarify them. MS Office 2000 - $1300. StarOffice - $0.

If you want to get a business licence for Office 2000, it costs you $149. The only logical reason people will willingly pay out such a stupidly large sum of money (and my boss is impressed because it's licensed so it can be installed on a desktop AND a portable. WOO!) is because they don't know better. It's up to us, the Linux users, especially the Linux newbies (not that there is anything wrong with the Linux veterans) to inform people of the fact that an O/S can and more importantly *SHOULD* be stable. You shouldn't have show-stopping crashes. You shouldn't have to put up with obscure error messages, even in your own language. (True story. I have a scanner hooked up, and when there's an error with the software, the message is in French.)

Lately I've had a hellish problem involving Visual Basic 6 installers. I wanted one particular program. I installed it, and the said install rampantly overwrote an existing file, rendering 3 other programs unusable. The ridiculous thing is the NEW program worked just fine with the older version of the file... As soon as I can raise my 100 bucks for a real modem (Unless someone wants to send me an unwanted model, a 28.8 will do. I'm sure there must be somebody out there who has an unwanted modem, hell, a 14.4 will do! - I'm outta here, and Windows and Dial-Up Networking is history.

I know this rant hasn't exactly been focused, it's kinda bounced all over the place, but I just had to say it all. I've been raging against Windows since it committed suicide a couple of weeks ago. I've had nothing but problems. File requesters suddenly and inexplicably stop working. Programs that once worked now don't. (I had a database for my Magic the Gathering cards, yes, I play Magic) which also inexplicably stopped working claiming a particular DLL wasn't responding. In the end I had to download a 10 meg archive just to get the said file so I could read my card database. This morning when I got up, I sat down at the computer to check my email. (I never turn the computer off as I'm running the rather interesting Seti@Home program.) The system crashed. What did I do to crash it to a black screen of death? I clicked an icon. Yes, I clicked an icon to load my mailer, and the system crashed...

There is something fundamentally wrong with an OPERATING system that behaves in this way. Linus and the boys can code rings around the incompetent dick-heads in Seattle, and come judgment day in the DOJ trial, if Microsoft get bent over and shafted, I for one, along with a LOT of others will cheer wholeheartedly.

Rant over. You can all now wait with baited-breath for my first RH6 diary entry.