🚀 go-pugleaf

James H. Rawlins (rawlins@cybernetics.net.net) wrote:

[my old stuff]

:     PLEASE NOTE: THESE COSTS ARE OVERSTATED BY 20% to 100% IN SOME CASES.
:                  ALMOST ALL EXISTING APPLICATIONS WILL RUN WITH THE SAME
:                  FUNTIONALITY AS BEFORE. A NUMBER OF UPGRADES ARE FREE.
:                  CHECK WITH HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE VENDORS FOR THE REAL COSTS
:                  INVOLVED.

[more of my old stuff]

:    PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU INSTALL LINUX, ALL OF YOUR CURRENT APPLICATIONS WILL
:                 BECOME WORTHLESS. FINDING EQUIVALENT REPLACEMENTS WILL BE
:                 DIFFICULT OR NONEXISTENT. IN ALL CASES THE CHOICES WILL BE
:                 DRAMATICALLY REDUCED.

[more stuff]

: Yes. Why did you post such absurd upgrade costs.   Costs are not an
: "opinion". Why did you leave out the real costs involved in 
: switching to Linux? It appears to me, that your intent is to
: deceive. I hope I  am mistaken about that. It is wrong to provide
: such misinformation to people.   If you want me to use Linux, be
: honest about what would be involved. Tell me the  advantages and the
: disadvantages. Tell me what you like about it not what you  dislike
: about another OS. By giving me such obviously inaccurate information,
: I  have to wonder, what else am I not being told?

: __________________________________

:       Jim Rawlins
:       rawlins@cybernetics.net
:       Charlotte, NC
: __________________________________

My answer:

As I POSTED CLEARLY, my figures were my OPINION.  I base them on
prior experience over time.
You are absolutely correct: most of your existing software will run
as is; you may not get the 32 bit capability inherent in Win95
(at least, not immmediately).  You WILL have to go to 16 MB and a
big (>500MB) hard drive if you want decent performance from the
same box.

I did overestimate *some* costs, in an effort not to underestimate.
perhaps I overestimated too much.  I know for a fact that the upgrade
from Virtual C/C++ 1.0 to 2 was $145.95, including a third party
DOS extender.  I know for a fact that the upgrade for Borland C/C++ 4.5
from Borland C/C++ 4.0 was 149.95.  I *suspect* MS-Foxpro is also
                                       ^^^^^^
                                       ^^^^^^
149.95 for an upgrade from 2.6 to 3.0.  Ad nauseum.  I was not
aware of any free upgrades; you may very well be correct.

To be fair, these upgrades did not necessarily coincide with my
hardware purchase; I try to keep all my professional software
upgraded to the best of my pocket book's ability.  I spent in
excess of $2000.00 alone on software upgrades.  I know that
from my tax records.

I'm making the assumption that at least some individuals have more
than just the basic set of software; I have MS-Office, MS-C/C++, Borland
C/C++, Zortech C/C++, MS-Foxpro, MS-Access PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPERS
EDITION, not the trimmed down shit you get on the Office CD, MS-Project
4.0, 386-Max (not needed for Win95 I think), and a host of driver
software for the scanner, Read-write optical, tape drive, etc.


As to advantages and disadvantages of Linux:  Please read my post
"Why I like linux", on comp.os.linux.advocacy.  In it I detail my
current viewpoint of Linux as compared to other OS's.  To summarize:

- Linux recognized ALL of my reasonably state-of-the-art hardware with
  NO problems once properly configured.  ESIX (an SVR4 distribution)
  did not.

- Linux never wrote to my pertiton table until I told it to.
  Contrasted to Windows NT, where it overwrote my partition
  table and required me to reinstall all of DOS and OS/2 AFTER
  I had to buy OS/2 Warp 3.0 in order to change the partition table
  (Windows NT was incompatible with OS/2 2.11)

- OS/2 Warp 3.0 MODIFIED my existing Windows 3.1 executable, patching
  it for its own DOS extender WITHOUT GIVING ME an option to override
  this decision.

I will endeavor to be more accurate in the future.  Thank you.

--

Dave (Goodbits) Goodlette                                        dhg@goodco.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Trust nothing as Gospel unless straight from God.  In that case,
be sure to check His ID.