New Guy...

[Randy Rathbun]

On Sun, 12 Mar 2000, Dustin J. Decker blabbed:
> On Sun, 12 Mar 2000, Randy Rathbun wrote:
> > First, remember that as much as all of us would like, Linux is not the be all
> > end all OS. 
> I would agree with you - but I cannot.  The simple reasoning is thus:
> If it were just a matter of Linux not having the install base and critical
> mass that Windows does, my mouth would be closed.  But one cannot possibly
> ignore the monopolistic practices of Bill Gates and company.  Sure, there
> are more applications for Windows.  Sure there is what often "appears" to
> be more support.  But these reasons alone are not enough.  

I never said that MS WindowsXX was *perfect* and that I do not detest them. I merely pointed out 
that some things are not on
Linux. For example:

1. I do online banking through Quicken. There is no Quicken in Linux. There is
GNUCash, but it does not do online banking, therefore I must use MS Windows. 

2. I use my laptop to interface to a CCD camera which I have hooked to my
telescope ( you can see the pictures at
http://members.xoom/randyrathbun/astrophotos if you want. Some of them are
purdy nifty). The only software that currently interfaces to the camera
correctly runs under Windows. Yes, there are plenty of programs for the cam
under Linux, but they have a nasty bug in them - you can only capture images up
to 4.5 seconds. The Windows drivers that come with the camera exhibit the same
problem. Some guy wrote a driver for Windows that fixes this problem, but he
has not open sourced it. 4.5 seconds  is not long enough for astronomy
purposes.   

3. USB support. It is there, but it is not there quite yet. Still needs some
work, but looks like that problem will be licked in the next few months. 

Everything else I do I do in Linux. My Palm IIIx runs through Linux. My TV card
runs through linux. I edit my astrophotos in Linux (but I do use Macromedia
Dreamweaver to create the web pages, which is a Windows program - but I am not
tied to it. I just like the program a lot.) I do my astronomy sky plotting in
Linux. The list goes on and on....

Randy