I don''t know everything, and I''ve been using Microsoft all my life, but if a company made a truly superior product everyone would be using it. If Windows really did crash hourly and IE was garbage then why do million of people use them. And just saying that people are dumb and everybody who''s a master of computers hate Microsoft is no reason

I think that everyone is taking things too far. Every OS, development environment, browser, etc. is good at certain things. Linux and all of the other ix''s are great for running things like web servers. I would agree that the Microsoft OS''s are definitely inferior in that area. However, as a developer, I want to reach the largest possible market, which is about 99% Microsoft driven. Normal consumers don''t want to mess around with OS''s like unix and linux. Half of them can''t even figure out how to use MS windows with its Start button! So, the OS choice is (or should be) based largely on what you''re going to use it for. You want stable web/network servers? Use linux. You want ease of use? Use windows, or be, or the mac.

As for development, I think windows'' development tools are FAR superior to the tools used under linux and other unix variants. If I want fast code, up-to-date language features, and a really awesome IDE, I use MSVC 6. If I want rapid tool development capability, I use Borland C++ Builder. On the mac (on on the PC until MSVC 6 came out) I used Codewarrior. There are no command lines, and everything in those IDE''s is easily configurable. Code gets written faster, bugs get found faster, and in general it is a much more enjoyable experience using windows tools. Developing under the unix type platforms is, in my experience, a nightmare. Now, I haven''t used some of the brand new tools like Metrowerks'' development environment or the Borland compiler, so some of these things may have changed, but having to remember the proper syntax for the command line is absurd. You have to remember all of these different switches, you have to compile/link files in a certain order, etc. It''s a pain in the ass, and it slows things down. Then, after you''ve finally gotten you program to compile (because the freeware compilers still aren''t up to date C++ -wise) you run it and it says "Segmentation fault." Then, you go bug hunting for the next hour or two, inserting code here, removing code there...all of which is totally unnecessary. Is getting rid of that headache worth $500? Hell yes. In the time it takes for me to reboot my machine (because MSVC slows the machine to a crawl after about 20 builds, this is supposedly fixed in Win2k) and return to coding, my irix compiler *might* have finished compiling and linking.

I think that what the DOJ is doing is totally absurd--it has caused serious damage to the stock market, in addition to being un-american. Yes, Microsoft is huge and successful. Should they be punished for that? No. They were in the right place at the right time. They got to the mass market first, and offered a usable product at a reasonable price (cheaper than Apple). Soon, just about every company out there was using some form of Microsoft OS. If you were in Gates'' place, what would you have done? Would you have said, "Gee, we''re so big right now that maybe we should sit and wait for everyone to catch up." I doubt it--next thing you know, you''d be sleeping in a cardboard box because one of your competitors caught up faster than you were expecting them to.

There are something I definately don''t like about Microsoft, but then what they''ve done is amazing. They helped bring computing into the mainstream. Without that, things wouldn''t be the same today. Microsoft has used its position to drive the market, which I think has increased competition. If a product wants to survive and be successful, then it needs to have some serious effort put into it. Survival of the fittest means more benefits for us, the consumer. Is that a bad thing?

Summing up, my main point is that we need to stop all of this stupid bickering, and use whatever tools will help us get the job done faster and more reliably, be it windows or linux or beos or macos or MSVC or whatever. If we don''t use something, then it dies and is replaced by something better. That way, we are the ones driving the products, not the other way around.

Ok, this is just sickening.

This bickering is disgusting (although, the ones with not a clue can be rather funny.)

Saying Linux sucks, well, lets see. The two letters i have said most in my life... No.

Saying Windows rules.... Thats your opinion, and I will leave it to you. Quite frankly, I use both, and BeOS.

Saying IE or Netscape is better than blah, is childish, stop it. The DOJ doesn''t care if IE is good. It cares that it is illegal to do that, so just , and if you like IE open Setup.exe and install.

The particular thing about this is, whenever someone says Windows sucks, people are quick to jump to ''Linux sucks, it is for blah blah''. The thing I would like to know. Who ever mentioned linux? What if I think DOS, BeOS, or even some other little known OS like EROS (Extremely Reliable OS) is the best.

Windows 2000? It requires *minimum* 64 mbs of ram. I have had hard drives smaller. I will let you be the judge of that.

Now, stop the bickering, test out linux, see if you like it, then if you don''t, try out another OS. Using multiple OSes is better.

As far as DirectX. I have developed for DirectX, and many others have the same opinion as me. Quite frankly, along with the WIN API, it is the worst designed API I have ever seen. Period. Try another API and you will see. But I digress. The point is, the developer who ports, and makes easily portable software, is truly the master of all he surveys/programs/etc.

Thank you for your time

I personally like Eudora for emailing....

But I think the point is, MS does make good products. The OS might not be perfect, but it''s one of the best out there.

But then again, I cant say I like getting the cost of IE getting thrown in to the cost of windows. Maybe thats because I''ve never actually (directly) paid for a browser before...

Borland C++ Builder does rock for making tools and stuff that is..

ratman