Re: [9fans] Help for home user discovering Plan 9

[Eris Discordia <eris.discordia@gmail.com>]

This thing about Windows updates, I think it's a non-issue. It's not like
updates are mandatory and, as a matter of fact, there's rather fine-grained
classification of them on Microsoft's knowledge base which can be used by
any more or less experienced user to identify exactly what they need for
addressing a specific glitch and to download and install that and only
that. Periodic updates of Windows are really unnecessary and can be easily
turned off. Cumulative updates (like the service packs), on the other hand,
are often the best way to go.

What seems to actually be the problem for you is that you don't like being
told there's a closed modification to your existing closed software. Well,
that's the nature of binary-only proprietary for-profit software. The only
way to get you to pay out of anything other than good will, which is a rare
bird.

P.S. On open/free software mailing lists and forums justice is often not
done to Windows, et al. Particularly, no meaningful alternative is
presented for carrying out the important duties Windows currently performs
for general computing, i.e. non-technical home and office applications
which combined together were and continue to be the killer application of
microcomputers.

--On Saturday, April 18, 2009 8:11 AM +0200 lucio@proxima.alt.za wrote:

>> The update/installation process in Ubuntu sucks. If you try something
>> using BSD ports or Gentoo portage, you can fine tune things and have
>> explicit control over the update process.
>
> I was specifically omitting BSD ports, as they are in a different
> league.  The point I _was_ making is that one readily sacrifices
> control for convenience and that Linux and Windows users and those who
> assist them have to accept second-rate management and pay for it (I
> should know, I can see it when XP decides to use the GPRS link for its
> updating :-(
>
> Enough reason for me to prefer Plan 9 (and NetBSD, but I can only get
> my teeth into so many apples), if there weren't many more reasons.
>
> ++L
>
>