Look closely at my site's HTML source (view-source in Netscape Navigator/Communicator) and you will see that I'm using Windows 95 BUT I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT. I thinking of getting a Mac because although I like the sound of Linux I need a bit more experience of computers before I make the move up to a UNIX like Operating System.
The Lies:
I started to notice Microsoft's lies in
1995 before the launch of Windows 95. At that time I had nothing
against Microsoft and because of Microsoft propaganda and the biased press
I thought Microsoft was the best and I couldn't buy enough of their products.
This meant that I also had to continually upgrade my hardware to keep up
with the heavy demands this badly written software makes on my computer.
So back to the lies. Microsoft advertised
Windows 95 as a complete 32 bit operating system that doesn't require MS-DOS
which offers superior crash protection so if one application goes down
all the others will carry on as normal.
This of course is not true Windows 95 really
runs on top of MS-DOS 7 although it comes with Windows 95 and is installed
automatically. It is not true 32 bit operating system and all but the latest
releases have the old MS-DOS FAT file system. The crash protection also
has something to be desired. Add to that the fact that the Operating System
contains numerous bugs and you wonder how Microsoft get away with it.
Of course not knowing their lies at that
time and still quite a fan of Microsoft I went out and bought Windows 95
two days after it was released. It was the worst thing I've ever wasted
my money on. I started thinking about the alternatives.
The
Internet
After buying Windows 95 and the Microsoft
Plus pack the salesman convinced me to buy (another rip off) and installing
it on my PC (it was a Pentium 100 at the time with 16mb RAM - so more than
enough memory according to the 95 box) I was asked TWICE during Windows
95 setup if I wanted to install Microsoft Exchange and The Microsoft Network
(MSN) I said NO both times but when Windows 95 was fully installed there
was still icons for MSN and MS Exchange on the desktop I don't think they
understand the meaning of the word NO! At this early stage of Windows 95
if I remember rightly Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) was not included
with Windows 95 but it did come with the Microsoft Plus pack I was persuaded
to get. It was part of the Microsoft Plus Internet Jumpstart Kit which
I installed because I knew nothing about the Internet at that time and
wanted to have a look at an example of software used on the Internet. It
only came with Internet Explorer 2 which didn't support frames, animated
GIF's or other features Netscape 2 came with as standard MSIE 2 also didn't
support plugins.
As you may have guessed I discovered Netscape
when Netscape 2 was the current browser and Netscapes products have just
got better unfortunately the level of competition applied by Microsoft
has got higher. OK, so what have I got against competition?? Nothing. Not
fair competition that makes the choice better for people. But unfair competition
(Microsoft style) is DANGEROUS it has the possibility of killing off Netscape
which means Microsoft has monopolised another area of computing. Heres
how Microsoft have competed unfairly against Netscape in the Internet market:
Windows
NT - when a workstation is really a server
The approximate prices of these products
are as follows (1st half 1997):
Windows NT 4 Workstation : $319
Windows NT 4 Server : $809
So of course NT server is the better operating
system - NO they both use the same kernels. The only difference in the
operating systems is the Licence you get when you but it and a few changes
to the registry. To make NT workstation technically the same as NT server
all you need to do is make two changes to the registry and it will function
the same. Of course the terms in the licence make this illegal and the
unfair licience also says you can't use NT workstation as a server if it
could be accessed by more than 10 users simultaneously which is possible
if you're using it as a file server or a web server. So as they are basically
the same product what are you paying the extra for? The so called 'FREE'
server software which also has recently been discovered to have serious
bugs. So as people can't legally use other companies server software on
NT workstation it means than they need to buy NT server as they have to
pay almost $500 extra for the server edition most companies to save money
will just stick with the server supplied by Microsoft. This is another
blow to Microsoft's competition. One of Microsoft's competitors in the
Internet Web Server market is Netscape which means that Microsoft is attacking
Netscape on both fronts.
The
Alternatives
Mac OS
Linux
- a UNIX clone available for both PC's and Mac's as well as other platforms
Caldera
OpenDOS - Formerly DR-DOS a better alternative to MS-DOS
FreeBSD
- another UNIX clone
OS/2
The End
Piece...
Sorry about my choice of font. You're most
likely not going to be able to see these particular fonts as they are Microsoft
ones but as I'm scrapping Windows 95 altogether soon I though I might as
well get some use out of them. This page was created using Netscape Composer
- a component of Netscape Communicator 4.01. This page is best viewed with
Netscape Navigator or Communicator. Click on the Netscape Now button below
to download.