[LINK] Microsoft is dead

[Paul Brooks]

Craig Sanders wrote:
> until yesterday, i assumed that the same held true for multimedia stuff
> too, at least compared to linux (Apple has *always* been the best
> desktop OS for multimedia stuff). getting everything working smoothly
> under linux can be difficult, or has been difficult until recently. i
> just kind of assumed that it would be easy under windows.
>   
At the risk of uttering blasphemy, as with most things your experience 
may vary. In my case, under Windows, it did work fine.
When I received a shiny iPod for a birthday gift, I downloaded the later 
version of iTunes than what was on the CD in the box, and it installed fine.
Plugged in the iPod, and it connected, played, synchronised - all fine. 
Then I noticed iTunes had gone and duplicated every single blasted song 
and movie under its own directory tree, filled the disk and generally 
made a mess - not to mention requiring a RAM footprint and CPU cycles 
that would embarass an elephant while it was operating. I put this down 
to arrogant Apple software bloat, tossed away iTunes and loaded on 
MediaMonkey - which does everything an audio mediaplayer should.
Now MM doesn't support video, but clearly supports all the WinAMP 
plugins that do - so a few more minutes downloading WinAMP and the 
plugins, and MM now runs my entire collection, syncs to iPods, syncs to 
any other MP(x) player I want, and doesn't feel the need to take over 
all the machine's resources while doing its bit.

Total time wrestling with iTunes and discarding it - a couple of days, 
on-and-off.
Total time working on  iPod, MM, and video plugins to get it all running 
sweetly - about 20 minutes, not counting download times.
Requirement to edit background CLI or shell scripts, link scripts to 
buttons, and generally muck about with stuff no 'Joe Public' user would 
or should need to have a clue about - nil.

It all comes down to - what you're used to, and what you've put the 
energy into being familiar with. I've run linux (and other *ix systems), 
and can do a passable job with them. I'm sure I could get a Apple system 
running nicely too, but I have no need to - I spent more time playing 
'sysadmin' on the linux systems, and consequently less time being 
productive, than I do on the Windows platforms.
I'm sure all the linux advocates, Apple advocates, and even the 
remaining C64, Amiga and Amstrad mavens on this esteemed list have 
expended as much time and probably more becoming intimately familiar 
with their chosen platform, and can now say much the same thing about 
their chosen OS.

Now Windows has its frustrations, there's no doubt about it - but for me 
and my needs, Windows works, and I don't have a burning desire to spend 
my remaining minutes on this planet learning another platform as deeply. 
When I do, and Windows really pisses me off, I guess I will.

I learnt much the same lesson in a past life as a programmer 
designer/coder - you can write horrible spaghetti unmaintainable 
programs in any language, you can write beautiful  self-documenting 
modular object-oriented marvels in any language - its not about the 
language, its about the individual doing the writing.

Its the same with OSs.

    Paul.