Begone Microsoft!
My current PC is a wheezingly obsolete P3 800 with 512 mb of RAM running Win98. I’ve been installing new versions of Windows on top of old ones since Windows 3.0. Thus, I have humungous amounts of clutter on my system (500 mb of DLL’s in Windows\System – some dating back to 1994!), and a system that is increasingly unstable.
A well written operating system wouldn’t lock up sometimes several times a day for no apparent reason. A well written operating system would clean up after itself when a new version is installed. A well written operating system wouldn’t require installing endless security fixes.
Most of my system crashes occur while using Microsoft products, primarily Outlook 2000 or Internet Explorer. I find it bizarre and annoying that I must keep downloading fixes from Microsoft to fix gaping and deadly security holes that should never have existed in the first place.
So, I’m getting a new PC (the old one will be networked to it) and will make as free from Microsoft products as I can. Yes, I can hear you Macheads and Linux wonks saying – why not chuck Microsoft completely, and you have a point!
But for now, the new box will run Win 2000 (the most stable of Windows operating systems) and – the real point of this – some seriously cool open source software. Open source is code maintained at large by hordes of programmers which runs on mutiple operating systems. Linux is open source, for example. Also, open source programs are free.
So, what I’ll be using on the new computer is:
Mozilla. The first open source web browser. Runs on PCs, Linux, Sun, and has an alpha for Mac OS X. Netscape uses Mozilla for their new version 7.0. I’m running Mozilla now and it is snappier and more responsive than Internet Explorer and doesn’t come with “features” that allow hackers to destroy your system unless you turn these features off.
Open Office Pioneered by Sun, now available as open source, Open Office is a full featured office suite. Word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Reviews have been quite positive.
Eudora An excellent mail reader (not open source but available in a free version) with more features than Outlook and none of the appalling security holes.
Are any of you using open source?