[mythtv-users] Why Free Software has poor usability ?

Jason Antman jason at jasonantman.com
Thu Aug 7 18:33:21 UTC 2008


Coin_Graham at genpt.com wrote:
>
> Since we are holding M$ up as the standard of usability.  This Christmas I
> got a copy of Vista and a "Vista Compatible" video card.  The 2 didn't work
> together at all.  I'm sure I could've called M$ for $100/hr and they would
> gladly tell me it wasn't Vista's fault.  I spent hours troubleshooting just
> to eventually downgrade to XP.  Plugged the Video Card in and it worked
> fine.
>   
Since I stopped using WIndows alltogether, I've *never* had a problem
with backwards-compatibility of hardware, save for the time I tried to
install a shiny new CentOS4 on a twelve-year-old Compaq Proliant with an
ancient RAID card. Apparently, in seeking increased profits from
something (I guess the "Vista Compatible" mark), M$ seems to have given
up on hardware compatibility with even recent (still-in-common-use)
hardware.

David Brodbeck wrote:
> .
>   
> I dunno, Open Office is I think a classic example of "chasing 
> taillights."  They're basically trying to make a work-alike for an 
> obsolete version of Microsoft Office at this point.
>   

Why is it obsolete? I only use OpenOffice (thanks to both Linux, and a
year-long internship with Sun) and I have yet to try to do anything it
can't handle. If you're going to have a discussion about
productivity/word processor/spreadsheet applications, I think one of the
main points should be that there's only one common software suite out
there right now that pretty much refuses to allow full and open
compatibility with other vendor's products (regardless of any flawed ISO
standards might be based on it).

Just my 2 cents.


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