3 ms·

>Linux comes with Apache, Python, C/C++, Perl, AWK, sed, vi, emacs, and more. >Windows comes with Minesweeper. Erm... you can download for free compilers from

>Linux comes with Apache, Python, C/C++, Perl, AWK, sed, vi, emacs, and more. >Windows comes with Minesweeper. Erm... you can download for free compilers from Microsoft or the Visual Studio Express editions. Or you could get all of those above things for Windows. You get IIS with Windows. Why should MS bundle those into Windows and waste disk space for 99.5% of people who will never use it? BTW Ubuntu does not come with GCC. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=120421 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=120421 >It's always seemed to me that Microsoft almost actively prevented me from using my own machine. I couldn't get into it without buying more. Uhh what? We are not talking about iOS here where you need to pay $99/year for the privilege of developing. Can you elaborate?

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
> Erm... you can download for free compilers from > Microsoft or the Visual Studio Express editions. > Or you could get all of those above things for > Windows. You get IIS with Windows. Maybe you can now, but when I was getting into programming you couldn't. Things have changed, but consider a more recent example. I use a Windows laptop when travelling because I can no longer be bothered with the hassle of dealing with customer support who have no clue that anything other than Windows exists. If I have touble connecting to someone's hacked up, third-rate wireless internet, I'd better be using Windows or I'm screwed. But I use Open Office. Oh, look, Microsoft now has a docx format, and half the world assumes everyone else is running the very latest version of Windows, and Word, and now I'm being sent documents I can't read. At the time this started I checked, and I looked, and nowhere could I find any way to read or convert these files without paying for a new version of Word. Time and time again I have these problems, and when I do, they seem to be associated with Microsoft. I don't hate them, I just avoid them. Most of my computing pain in the past 30 years has come from them. And in truth I don't care, and don't think about them. I have better things to do.
- recoiledsnake 16y ago
  >At the time this started I checked, and I looked, and nowhere could I find any way to read or convert these files without paying for a new version of Word. You should have looked and checked harder. Word Viewer was always free. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=3657ce88-7cfa-457a-9aec-f4f827f20cac&displaylang=en http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=... >View, print and copy Word documents, even if you don't have Word installed.
  - RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
    Excellent - thanks. Oh, hang on, I'd still need to use Windows, which is a rare event for me. Still, nice to know I can use a Windows machine to read Windows files. Oh, hang on, I also need the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. I'll put that on the list too. And actually, this still isn't the point. There are still the "embrace and extend" issues I need to deal with, and the "interesting" interpretations they put on the standards, and the inter-operability issues raised. Microsoft is no longer the company they once were, but I've had so much grief and so much pain from dealing with their systems I just avoid them. I can't bring myself to care, or to waste the time. Which is why I won't bother replying further to this thread. I've answered the question, I've provided information, and explained my circumstances, and now I'm moving on to get stuff done. Without Microsoft.

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

> Erm... you can download for free compilers from > Microsoft or the Visual Studio Express editions. > Or you could get all of those above things for > Windows. You get IIS with Windows. Maybe you can now, but when I was getting into programming you couldn't. Things have changed, but consider a more recent example. I use a Windows laptop when travelling because I can no longer be bothered with the hassle of dealing with customer support who have no clue that anything other than Windows exists. If I have touble connecting to someone's hacked up, third-rate wireless internet, I'd better be using Windows or I'm screwed. But I use Open Office. Oh, look, Microsoft now has a docx format, and half the world assumes everyone else is running the very latest version of Windows, and Word, and now I'm being sent documents I can't read. At the time this started I checked, and I looked, and nowhere could I find any way to read or convert these files without paying for a new version of Word. Time and time again I have these problems, and when I do, they seem to be associated with Microsoft. I don't hate them, I just avoid them. Most of my computing pain in the past 30 years has come from them. And in truth I don't care, and don't think about them. I have better things to do.

recoiledsnake 16y ago
>At the time this started I checked, and I looked, and nowhere could I find any way to read or convert these files without paying for a new version of Word. You should have looked and checked harder. Word Viewer was always free. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=3657ce88-7cfa-457a-9aec-f4f827f20cac&displaylang=en http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=... >View, print and copy Word documents, even if you don't have Word installed.
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
  Excellent - thanks. Oh, hang on, I'd still need to use Windows, which is a rare event for me. Still, nice to know I can use a Windows machine to read Windows files. Oh, hang on, I also need the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats. I'll put that on the list too. And actually, this still isn't the point. There are still the "embrace and extend" issues I need to deal with, and the "interesting" interpretations they put on the standards, and the inter-operability issues raised. Microsoft is no longer the company they once were, but I've had so much grief and so much pain from dealing with their systems I just avoid them. I can't bring myself to care, or to waste the time. Which is why I won't bother replying further to this thread. I've answered the question, I've provided information, and explained my circumstances, and now I'm moving on to get stuff done. Without Microsoft.