I've used Windows since version 3.11 and still use it. Not that many years ago this forum would've been filled with Apple people calling people running Microsoft products nerds. Windows was not a good multimedia platform up until fairly recently.AD80 wrote:Bah! Damn you Linux nerds with your secret codes and secret handshakes. Long live Windows!!
Windows has finally matured... but everything has a life-cycle. The direction Windows is heading is not something I feel is viable for the longterm. The entire nature of computing has changed dramatically, and I see Microsoft as dying off with things like the RIAA because they are trapped in their old business paradigms.
Linux sucks, but it has the most promise right now because it is a dynamic and complex chaotic organism rather than a monolithic centralized company. If you were on a trip across the ocean through uncharted seas, would you choose the Titanic, or a pack of speed boats all linked via communication?
I'd choose the speed boats. I could have my own vessel so that I wouldn't be forced to take the path that everyone else was taking. I could help contribute to the collective intelligence of the pack by reporting what I see, so that when one of us catches sight of an iceberg in our path, we can all instantly shift course.
Windows is great right now... but Vista approaches, and if you aren't a fan of Digital Rights Management you might begin looking elsewhere. If Linux isn't your thing, BeOS has recently been getting a lot more attention. There is YellowTab Zeta and Haiku has recently hired a full time developer.
There is a major conflict between two philosophies of computing... those that believe information can be forced to behave like physical matter through the use of legal mechanisms, and those that see the cheap cost of producing and distributing information as a liberation from the restrictions of the past.
I like Tracktion. I'd like to be able to use it on an open os where I don't have to call to ask for permission to use it. If people would rather port Traction to BeOS or some other open source project I know nothing about, please do so. But right now Linux is what has support for all my hardware and can run most applications I need. I just need to fill-in a few gaps, Tracktion being one of them.
If others also feel this way, keep replying to this thread so Mackie can see there is a market.




