Windows usable, not fixable; Linux fixable, not usable

I'm a Network/Systems Administrator and I to support in a medium size company. My problem with what your letter writer is saying is that he chooses MS Bugs over other bugs.... "It's really just a matter of choosing whose bugs you prefer. I think Microsoft fixes more bugs faster because they have more resources to do it, so I choose Microsoft's bugs."...

This is fine to say if you're someone who only uses machines and not someone who fixes them. My biggest problem is that Windows is not fixable once the registry has gotten corrupt, even if the files are not corrupt the registry is Windows achilles heel.

For example if you have a problem with an application, for this example Office and you try the "Repair Office installation" and it doesn't work or you try "Reinstall Office" and that doesn't work, then you would try removing Office completely but that doesn't seem to fix the problem.

What do you do???? Re-install windows (BTW even the MS installer remover program doesn't always fix things). That's the problem I believe that is wrong with windows, once the registry is gone to crap there is nothing you can do, re-installing over doesn't do anything except 3 hours of work (Installing windows, then all the apps... and here we still use Novell so there's even more crap to install.... check all the settings... email, printers) the only systems that take a reinstall is the 95,98,98SE, ME doesn't like reinstall over current build. All NT based Windows do not take kindly to reinstall over current builds so that means a format/install of the OS, that wastes lots of time.

My problem with people who don't actually fix anything is that they don't understand that using Linux is more like using DOS in the respect of just needing to remove the app that is causing problems and reinstall only that app and everything goes back to normal. No having to repartition, format, app install, email, printer, updates, recover backup files, .......... the list can go on... oh lets not forget the most important thing to everyone except those who actually know how to use PC's use those freaking ICONS (dammit that p*sses me off more than anything.... ICONS ARE NOT IMPORTANT THEY ARE SHORTCUTS THAT'S ALL).

Anyway I do believe that Windows is a usable system but not really a fixable system, in contrast Linux is a fixable system but not as usable as Windows is... and I'm talking about the average user not people that know what to look for and for that matter look.

BTW I use SUSE Linux 8.0 and it works like a charm, when I have problems which I do and I'll admit to them but the fix time is reduced by 2 hours and 50 minutes (therefore 10 minutes max). Oh and Linux starts up and shuts down EVERY time exactly the same (takes the same time every time), no slowdowns not errors not problems, oh and I forgot one last thing, one service that doesn't load on startup first will tell you during bootup that it failed and it doesn't render your system inoperable.

Daniele Bastianello
Systems/Network Administrator
Thales Systems, Canada

Subject: All software has bugs

Your letter writer "Ground Hog" is badly mistaken in believing "All software has bugs" and "The more usability and features you add to your products, the more bugs and security holes you add to your products". This simply isn't true when software is written by and properly tested by competed programmers. Ground Hog's beliefs ARE true of Microsoft O/Ses, and much of the commercial application software available for Windoze.

Since the only reason these Bugs and security vulnerabilities exist is because of poor code, lazy programmers/managers and greed, you're now starting to see class action lawsuits to bring an end to companies getting rich by selling defective goods a.k.a. bug ridden O/Ses and software.

If any other company attempted to sell a product with 63,000 KNOWN defects, of which ONLY 10,000 will crash your PC and cause a loss of data, they'd have been thrown in jail years ago. But when you have enough cash to buy Capital Hill it's amazing how much you can get away with...

Mr. Ground Hog might find this link interesting reading:

http://docs.linux.com/article.pl?sid=02/03/09/1727250

Regards,

Randy Hubbard
Race-Tech Engineering, US µ