FC3 vs. Windows 2000

[Craig White]

On Fri, 2005-02-11 at 13:20 -0600, STYMA, ROBERT E (ROBERT) wrote:
> Dear Fedora Advocates,
>    My brother in law will be returning from Iraq
> in another couple of months and one of the things
> I am doing for him is to build him a computer.  He
> is not technically adept and his computer activity
> is pretty much limited to looking at his email 
> on yahoo and a little web surfing.  Sometimes he
> prints an email or two.
> 
> I am vacillating on building an FC3 machine or a W2k
> machine.
> 
> The advantages of the FC3 machine include no need for
> antivirus software.  Less problems with spyware. No crashes.
> and I can set up hosts.allow to allow me to maintain the
> machine remotely.
> 
> The disadvantage for this application seems to be getting
> the plugins for the browser in place.  Streaming video, PPS
> files, Java applets, sound files, midi files, etc.  HP provides
> a pretty good set of drivers for Linux so printing should work 
> well.
> 
> The question is:  Is there a small number of places I can go
> to load the bulk of the plugins a general user might want?
> 
> The alternative is to wait till he encounters something he
> cannot see and then go find and install the plugins one at
> at time.
----
All of the issues about plugins/java/mp3/multi-media are pretty much
covered at fedorafaq.org and I don't see them as any major obstacle for
using Linux.

The major obstacle that people have for choosing Windows or Linux or
even Macintosh is perception. Sometimes, there is the added influence of
those they know that 'think' they know something about one or the other.

I prefer to think that Linux, Macintosh and Windows are all tools and
like a tool, has its own strengths and weaknesses and no one system is
best for all people all the time. We can argue about which might be
better most of the time and that is obviously the subjective issue.

Looking at the bundle...If I buy the hardware to build a computer and
then buy Windows XP to install on it, I am lacking a suitable Word
Processor, SpreadSheet, Presentation program etc. I might download Open
Office for Windows and install it or I can buy Word Perfect's Office or
Microsoft Office. If I am going the 'free' route on Windows, the only
difference between my Linux computer and my Windows computer IS the
underlying OS.

The perception of software availability for Windows often drives the
decision. Of that there are only a few categories...barely sold and
often very cheap, massive amounts of 'security' utilities to fix OS
weaknesses, and vary expensive productivity software like that of Adobe,
Microsoft, etc.

Good luck

Craig