" The April 12, 2005 deadline passed Tuesday and Microsoft has followed through with its pledge to revoke the grace period that provided enterprise customers the option to postpone the adoption of Windows XP Service Pack 2. The update, which fortifies Windows with a variety of new security enhancements, will now be pushed to customers and has become a requirement to receive future upgrades.

In response to a chorus of widespread customer feedback insisting that SP2 could prove disruptive to mission critical applications, Microsoft made several support tools available that temporarily blocked the delivery of SP2 via Automatic Updates and forestalled Windows Update installations. "

This is a big brother company.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Wind...res/1113353314

There has got to be a Linux distro which is essentially a Windows XP clone in all

respects to the way the GUI is straightforward and visually obvious
respects to the way the hardware is detected and easily installed

yet never compromising security principles

and basic average joe user wants . . . . There has got to be some way of maximizing the most amount of new Linux and ex-Windows users in the least amount of time.

I understand Knoppix developers as well as those at
openoffice.org

are doing a pretty fine job at this, but this revolution can never be done sooon enough.

It would be simply arrogant to do otherwise.

Who has this mission statement?

Who is doing just that more than anyone?

And how are you doing it?

old and boring news

post this kinda stuff on a windows forum!

Why? If someone wants to use Windows XP they should use Windows XP, if someone wants to use Linux they should use Linux. To say that Windows is so terrible that Linux must be just like it to be useable is complete nonsense.

And that is absolutely not what I'm saying.

I'm just suggesting advocating and teaching Linux to even the people who are least likely to understand the advantages.

It's difficult to change all of a sudden for many.

Prediction: this will become "Linux vs Windows" - I have moved the thread to General.

I had thought I did originally post this in the General thread.

Anyways the lack of willingness to discuss this topic only furthers my cynicism of certain professed Linux enthusiasts all along, that in many respects, a lot of Linux developers and hardcore linux users, like to feel like they have some kind of esoteric cult of superior knowledge, that the layman won't understand and isn't suppose to understand, and so they won't take the time to encourage them . . .

studpenguin: is it to difficult to see that people like the command like?, its faster, its easier, its more consistent.

1) Linux hardware detection is 100% accurate, just compile in the drivers you need.

unless you mean hardware detection on install disks, in which case, use "lspci" and load the appropriate drivers by hand, you cant expect the install disk to do all the work.

2) if you want easy driver installation, why would you want it to be like xp? or any windows?!, i don't know about you, but i add in new hardware, then keep trying to get windows to recognize it, and install and accept the drivers, something that can take weeks (literally), in Linux, no more then 30 minutes to reconfigure the existing kernel, 1.5 hours tops to compile it all, 5 minutes (while doing something else) to install it, then just reboot (1.5 minutes, including BOIS time), then your all set.

if you want to make computer "usable" to everyone, get everyone a lesson in how to learn.

And seriously, as a newbie who is use to buying standard external hardware peripherals like a printer of a certain brand, an external CD rom or Rewrite, a scanner, a calculator, an audio recorder with a usb plug, a digital camera, an external storage device, . . . . what else?

A laptop to upload and load information with a usb cable, A joystick if you are gamer, a UPS surge monitor to shut down the computer in the event of a power outage . . . . .


, which all seem to come with a little CD with all the Drivers already tested and developed to work with Windows XP, is going to find

"just compiling the drivers needed" for god only knows what flavor of a linux distro, worth his time?

Please get real.

sounds like your problem is that vendors don't issue drivers with the CD's, then use windows.

then it sounds like you don't want to tell your computer what to do, which is in violation of what computers are for, in which case use windows. I hear longhorn will be even better if you like being told what you cant/can do.

Maybe not everyone needs to use or understand Linux. What is wrong with having a product which is harder to use and geared towards developers? Great artists don't use Crayola, Mozart didn't play the recorder. There needs to be a tool for people with a better understanding, who want to be able to tinker with the kernel if they want, or to do whatever other task the average person isn't capable of doing and probably never needs to do.

And then there needs to be a tool for the average user who just wants to plug in their computer and use it, for this you already have Windows and Mac OS.

Believe me I definitely do want to tell my computer exactly what I want it to do. No one needs some big corporation spying on everything about their "PERSONAL" computer's inner workings and blackmailing me into buy its products.

Yet I don't want to waste my time explaining things to my computer anymore than absolutely necessary and for those of you who think you are so special because that's what floats your boat,

then I have news for you,

you're not and never was and never will be.

So do you think all Linux Distributions need to be that way and only that way?

Not all distros are like that. You mentioned Knoppix, have you tried? How about Suse, or Mandrake(Mandriva)? There are distros out there that are like windows. Look around, try them, if you don't like them, help fix them or try another one. Choice my man, choice.

Why do you think linux needs to be similar to Windows?

Circular answer to your circular question

for those who need repetition

I think some Linux distributions need to be similar to Windows to recruit the most amount of Linux users and cause the most amount of ex-Windows users in the least amount of time.

Why?

Because Windows is a big brother company that is too totalitarian and too much of a vulnerable target.

Microsoft is Master Control in the movie Tron.