We have three Windows machines in this house, and none of them were bought by me. All were from work. I have serious plans to never pay my own money for Windows ever. Via SF writer Geoffrey Landis comes this link to a site that collects information on living without Microsoft.
Please note that this is NOT an ‘anti-Bill-Gates’ site. Nor is it a ‘Linux Fanatics’ site. Nor is it exclusively devoted to Open Source software, because there are lots of proprietary alternatives to Microsoft software. We created Living Without Microsoft because the market dominance of Microsoft leads many non-technical people to assume that there really is no alternative to using its software. In many cases, there are real alternatives, and our aim is to help you find them
Good stuff. Check it out.
looks like israel is giving msoft the boot too: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1620&e=16&u=/sv/israeltosuspendmicrosoftbuys
My main workstation at home is a 1998 Pentium 350 Mhz running Windows 95. Yes, Windows 95. Maxed out on RAM, it’s tolerable. I’ll be taking the plunge into a Linux desktop in May or June of this year. I’m currently trying out Libranet (Debian-based Linux) on my work laptop in a dual boot scenario. Soooooo many productive apps that I’ll have to migrate my life from. I’m still using Lotus 1-2-3 R2 for my checkbook, as I have been since 1987, and I’m planning on continuing … /WDR, /FScrR, /RF,2 …
This will make the Win95 machine the one and only time I ever spent money on Microsoft software (well, via the MS tax).
I’m buying my mom a Mac later this year.