Report Offensive Message
Firstly MS didn't make an OS they brought DOS
Dirty Operating System from a Sun programmer for peanuts re-badged it and sold it for a few Squllion $ and are still selling it. The entire thing was a reverse engineered poor copy of Inter Galactic Digital Research DOS Remember them?
M$ only became the default Business platform because they conned so many third party software houses into writing code to run on their platform with the idea that as every IBM PC was being shipped with Microsoft Software these companies would be silly not to produce software for that platform as it would cost them money, and yes that also included the Games Makers.
I also have to disagree with your idea that most of the Script Kiddies use Linux after all if you are not using Windows how well do you know you Virus or other piece of Malicious Code is going to work? Also if these delinquents where in fact using Linus they would have first hand experience of how to break the Unix & Linux based machines which run the Web and most Financial Institutions around the world. To date this hasn't happened in a major way mainly because the Kernel, Programs & User Files are kept separated on different partitions something not possible with any Windows Platform yet. Though a Windows Vista Server GUI built on top of SCO's Unix might prove an interesting challenge to the same Script Kiddies but because of the different ways that the different OS's work I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for an exploit to occur and even them it's likely only to be a minor exploit.
Do you remember the very first case of hacking that ever occurred? I do and it wasn't really hacking per say as someone foolishly allowed their Password to be used which allowed the few people in Melbourne Australis access to the Melbourne Universities Mainframe and then the rest of the worlds computers. At the same time that where given a copy of the Security Bible of the day because of the user rights that they had assigned themselves. All of this happened over 300 Baud Modems so there was such a high speed connection involved that they could do massive damage in a few minutes. Actually it took most several days to do as they liked and even then the companies adversely affected didn't do anything to stop these miscreants they just allowed them to play around and do as they please.
At the time there where no laws against Hacking and no way to enforce any Laws that where introduced as they had no means of actually tracking the perps. Well they could backtrack it to Melbourne Uni but no further from there. Even when they eventually got the dial up connections they had no way of actually listening in to the traffic and it took a very long time to find out what was actually happening. In the very first cases the Feds here charged people for accessing the Uni's computer without Authorisation but as they couldn't prove what they where doing with the Computer they got off with very light fines generally nothing more than a slap on the wrist and don't do this again which was no deterrent.
As I personally support & use both types of OS I also dispute your assertion that games play better on Linux. I'll agree that if they where written for Linux they will naturally work better but those ported to Windows don't work anywhere near as well on Linux as they do on Windows. The Graphics in things like Need For Speed Hot Pursuit are now very good and are what chew up most of the processing power of the Windows Systems that they run on. Granted if they where written for Linux they would work better but stuffing an emulator in between the OS & Game limits the ability of the system to work as well as it could so from that prospective I would say it's the other way around Windows plays games better than Linux does at this point in time.
Business on the other hand needs secure solid OS to work on that are reliable and there is yet not a single Windows Platform that meets these needs and then to add insult to injury M$ demands that costly CAL's or Terminal Service Licenses are purchased for any of their Server products which in most cases exceed to cost of the server product and in some cases the cost of the server as well.
This doesn't happen with either Unix or Linux though I'm sure that SCO would love to implement it in their system to make more money for the failing company that they are.
The only reason that 95 and then 98 where taken up by business so quickly and vastly was that it allowed them to get rid of the expensive well trained staff that they had previously and employ uneducated people to operate the computers. Back in those days it was an End Users Job to write a simple Macro or end the Financial Year in an Accounting Package not the job of an IT Specialist who had to drop their current work and do such demeaning work. Even then both 95 and 98 in all their versions where still running on a DOS Shell and where effectively nothing more than a GUI running on DOS, NT and it's offspring where a different kettle of fish but these where not heavily used by most business as they could do the same thing with 95 98 at half the cost to purchase and very little to keep working NT followed by 2000 was far more expensive and when XP came along Microsoft was selling both XP and 98 and 98 consistently outsold XP till it was dropped by M$ in an attempt to promote XP into the business environment with a Y2K Server applications and the expensive CAL's and Terminal Services Licenses.
When this happened I started to hear mutterings about some different platforms that business could use and as M$ has gone along in their merry way those mutterings have grown in both volume and number to the stage where many business are now looking for a viable alternative to Windows and M$ products in general.
But the Domestic Market is still embracing Windows and using it for all it's worth but as most of these are nothing more than Game Machines that collect a bit of E-Mail and do some On Line Banking with no AV programs in place and even less in the way of Spy Ware Protection after several peoples are sent broke because their home computers have been hacked and their Internet Banking details stolen I think even these people will start looking for something more secure rather than loose their homes and everything that they have worked so hard for. Once a couple of cases hit the media and they are nasty it will produce the need for change by either M$ or the Home User to something much more secure.
I'm sure that M$ will solder on on the Games marker but once the movement away from M$ starts that will be the beginning of the end for them and it will accelerate exponentially as time goes by. Business will be the first to go another way and then most home users and all M$ will be left with is something like a glorified X Box.
Col
M$ only became the default Business platform because they conned so many third party software houses into writing code to run on their platform with the idea that as every IBM PC was being shipped with Microsoft Software these companies would be silly not to produce software for that platform as it would cost them money, and yes that also included the Games Makers.
I also have to disagree with your idea that most of the Script Kiddies use Linux after all if you are not using Windows how well do you know you Virus or other piece of Malicious Code is going to work? Also if these delinquents where in fact using Linus they would have first hand experience of how to break the Unix & Linux based machines which run the Web and most Financial Institutions around the world. To date this hasn't happened in a major way mainly because the Kernel, Programs & User Files are kept separated on different partitions something not possible with any Windows Platform yet. Though a Windows Vista Server GUI built on top of SCO's Unix might prove an interesting challenge to the same Script Kiddies but because of the different ways that the different OS's work I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for an exploit to occur and even them it's likely only to be a minor exploit.
Do you remember the very first case of hacking that ever occurred? I do and it wasn't really hacking per say as someone foolishly allowed their Password to be used which allowed the few people in Melbourne Australis access to the Melbourne Universities Mainframe and then the rest of the worlds computers. At the same time that where given a copy of the Security Bible of the day because of the user rights that they had assigned themselves. All of this happened over 300 Baud Modems so there was such a high speed connection involved that they could do massive damage in a few minutes. Actually it took most several days to do as they liked and even then the companies adversely affected didn't do anything to stop these miscreants they just allowed them to play around and do as they please.
At the time there where no laws against Hacking and no way to enforce any Laws that where introduced as they had no means of actually tracking the perps. Well they could backtrack it to Melbourne Uni but no further from there. Even when they eventually got the dial up connections they had no way of actually listening in to the traffic and it took a very long time to find out what was actually happening. In the very first cases the Feds here charged people for accessing the Uni's computer without Authorisation but as they couldn't prove what they where doing with the Computer they got off with very light fines generally nothing more than a slap on the wrist and don't do this again which was no deterrent.
As I personally support & use both types of OS I also dispute your assertion that games play better on Linux. I'll agree that if they where written for Linux they will naturally work better but those ported to Windows don't work anywhere near as well on Linux as they do on Windows. The Graphics in things like Need For Speed Hot Pursuit are now very good and are what chew up most of the processing power of the Windows Systems that they run on. Granted if they where written for Linux they would work better but stuffing an emulator in between the OS & Game limits the ability of the system to work as well as it could so from that prospective I would say it's the other way around Windows plays games better than Linux does at this point in time.
Business on the other hand needs secure solid OS to work on that are reliable and there is yet not a single Windows Platform that meets these needs and then to add insult to injury M$ demands that costly CAL's or Terminal Service Licenses are purchased for any of their Server products which in most cases exceed to cost of the server product and in some cases the cost of the server as well.
This doesn't happen with either Unix or Linux though I'm sure that SCO would love to implement it in their system to make more money for the failing company that they are.
The only reason that 95 and then 98 where taken up by business so quickly and vastly was that it allowed them to get rid of the expensive well trained staff that they had previously and employ uneducated people to operate the computers. Back in those days it was an End Users Job to write a simple Macro or end the Financial Year in an Accounting Package not the job of an IT Specialist who had to drop their current work and do such demeaning work. Even then both 95 and 98 in all their versions where still running on a DOS Shell and where effectively nothing more than a GUI running on DOS, NT and it's offspring where a different kettle of fish but these where not heavily used by most business as they could do the same thing with 95 98 at half the cost to purchase and very little to keep working NT followed by 2000 was far more expensive and when XP came along Microsoft was selling both XP and 98 and 98 consistently outsold XP till it was dropped by M$ in an attempt to promote XP into the business environment with a Y2K Server applications and the expensive CAL's and Terminal Services Licenses.
When this happened I started to hear mutterings about some different platforms that business could use and as M$ has gone along in their merry way those mutterings have grown in both volume and number to the stage where many business are now looking for a viable alternative to Windows and M$ products in general.
But the Domestic Market is still embracing Windows and using it for all it's worth but as most of these are nothing more than Game Machines that collect a bit of E-Mail and do some On Line Banking with no AV programs in place and even less in the way of Spy Ware Protection after several peoples are sent broke because their home computers have been hacked and their Internet Banking details stolen I think even these people will start looking for something more secure rather than loose their homes and everything that they have worked so hard for. Once a couple of cases hit the media and they are nasty it will produce the need for change by either M$ or the Home User to something much more secure.
I'm sure that M$ will solder on on the Games marker but once the movement away from M$ starts that will be the beginning of the end for them and it will accelerate exponentially as time goes by. Business will be the first to go another way and then most home users and all M$ will be left with is something like a glorified X Box.
Col
Moderator Posted by HAL 9000
8th Jan 2007
