Joined: Jan 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 274 Location: Ohio, USA
If your car worked like Windows « Thread Started on Feb 10, 2011, 11:24pm »
Someone posted this on a Star Trek forum that I belong to. I had to re-post it because I feel that the crowd here might just get a kick out of it.
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,
'If Ford had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill 's comments, Ford issued a press release stating:
If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash.........Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.
PS - I 'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call ' customer service ' in some foreign country and be instructed in some foreign language how to fix your car yourself!!!!
Re: If your car worked like Windows « Reply #2 on Feb 11, 2011, 12:46am »
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
how did the Macintosh get in this???
p.s. Macs run on any road Windows or Linux runs on so lol
Joined: Jan 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 274 Location: Ohio, USA
Re: If your car worked like Windows « Reply #3 on Feb 11, 2011, 2:57am »
I would like to have added a lot of stuff about Linux to it but it was a re-post of something the CEO of Ford said. You know how big business is, they tend to not pay attention to much that isn't also big business and M$ and Apple are definitely big business. Linux isn't big business and is seen by most of the computer world as what people who are cheap use (even though that's not true.)
Joined: Jan 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 274 Location: Ohio, USA
Re: If your car worked like Windows « Reply #5 on Feb 11, 2011, 12:02pm »
I think the fact that I'm here kind of implies that I don't sell Linux short. I'm well aware of the success of Linux in recent years. However, it's still a drop in the pond compared to Mac OS and especially Windblows. The problem is Windblows-dominated markets. PCs, laptops and netbooks have all been dominated by that loathsome OS. However, the day of the Linux tablet is at hnd. M$ hasn't had good luck with tablets. The iPad has been selling well, as have Linux-based Android tablets. And there's talk of more Linux-based tablets to come. A lot of people think 2011 is to be the year of the Linux tablet. I certainly hope so and I want to do my part by getting one when I can afford it.
« Last Edit: Feb 11, 2011, 12:03pm by scifidude79 »
Re: If your car worked like Windows « Reply #7 on Feb 11, 2011, 12:19pm »
scifidude79, It's kind of funny, really, Following computer history Unix came first, then Apple. Bill Gates visited Apple, stole their mouse driver, Got MSDOS for a song and rented it to IBM. Everything has snowballed from that until Linus Torvalds stepped in. I got on the band wagon with MSDOS 2.7 when I built my first computer, a Sanyo with 768k of ram and two 5 1/4" drives, no hard drive. We've come a long way baby.
I admit to being a tight wad, you have to be. Why should I pay over 100 dollars for a striped down OS when I can get the a better one for free.
You can get a full version of Windblows for under $100, as long as you don't mind the Home edition and you buy either an OEM disc or an upgrade disc at some online stores. But that's still way more than Linux. But I'll agree, I'm cheap like that also. But then I think I deserve some free software after some of the truly wretched software and operating systems I've bought over the years. I actually bought Windows ME when it first came out. *shudders* If you buy horrible software, you can't get your money back because of return policies, so every piece of free software I use is payback for Windows ME and the countless games that I've bought over the years that were so friggin' horrible that I played them a few times and then used the discs for Frisbees or coasters.
scifidude79, It's kind of funny, really, Following computer history Unix came first, then Apple. Bill Gates visited Apple, stole their mouse driver, Got MSDOS for a song and rented it to IBM. Everything has snowballed from that until Linus Torvalds stepped in. I got on the band wagon with MSDOS 2.7 when I built my first computer, a Sanyo with 768k of ram and two 5 1/4" drives, no hard drive. We've come a long way baby.
The really funny part is that Windows is still at least partially Unix-based, though good luck getting them to admit it.
scifidude79, It's kind of funny, really, Following computer history Unix came first, then Apple. Bill Gates visited Apple, stole their mouse driver, Got MSDOS for a song and rented it to IBM. Everything has snowballed from that until Linus Torvalds stepped in. I got on the band wagon with MSDOS 2.7 when I built my first computer, a Sanyo with 768k of ram and two 5 1/4" drives, no hard drive. We've come a long way baby.
The really funny part is that Windows is still at least partially Unix-based, though good luck getting them to admit it.
MSDOS was like working with the command line, you had to mkdir, etc to get anything to work. It all had to start somewhere and Basic was just an application for writing applications. LOL
« Last Edit: Feb 11, 2011, 12:35pm by beardedragon »
I might be able to find a better price if I googled but not by much mes thinks.
EDIT: Don't forget the Firewall, anti spy ware and virus protection you have to pay for on a yearly basis. I most likely spent more on that stuff for my wife than I did on windows XP Home.
Joined: Jan 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 274 Location: Ohio, USA
Re: If your car worked like Windows « Reply #12 on Feb 11, 2011, 1:06pm »
Sorry, I guess I should have been more specific. I wasn't talking about Windblows 7, I wouldn't touch that POS with a 60-foot pole. (with the exception of when I help my grandma with her PC, which is why I know I loathe Windblows 7) It was Vista & 7 and their compatibility issues that made me switch to Linux in the first place. I was referring to XP, the version that I use because it works with all of my software. I got a copy a few years ago for about $90, which you can still find at a lot of online stores.
I surfed the internet successfully with Windblows for over a decade with nary a need for a firewall, but different strokes for different folks. Plus, my DSL router has two firewalls built into it. I've only had two problems with viruses in my whole Windblows experience, the first was me doing something stupid, the second was after sharing a flash drive with my mom's computer that I didn't know was infected. However, I do have virus protection installed and I don't pay anything for it:
But I also don't let my Windblows install onto the internet very often. I prefer to use Linux for my online needs. I mostly use Windblows for 3D modeling and gaming. No matter how hard I try, (and believe me I have) I can't get some software to run in Wine.
Re: If your car worked like Windows « Reply #13 on Feb 11, 2011, 1:22pm »
My biggest problems with Windows is not the viruses, you can get free virus protection that works. It's the malware and and adware that gets tacked on with your cookies that grabs me by the, ahem, pardon the expression, balls. Yes, there are anti this and that for that as well. It just seems sad that this can go on in a world where Linux works to keep it from happening.
Joined: Jan 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 274 Location: Ohio, USA
Re: If your car worked like Windows « Reply #14 on Feb 11, 2011, 1:31pm »
That's basically why I just use it for games and 3D art. None of my games that run on XP require me to go online and the 3D art software I use is self-contained, so I have the internet disabled in XP. Besides, I don't need it. I have 3 Linux distros installed on this computer and each has my favorite web browser, Chromium, available.
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