On 2/1/08, Bob Blick wrote: > > All in all, we may have to lower the expectations when it comes to the > > commercial software packages. > > You are sounding quite the Microsoft apologist. > > Why should we lower our expectations? If I have to lower my > expectations, I'd rather use old software that works, or free software. Because I think this is the reality of the IT industry. The software (be it Linix or Windows, Oracle or SAP, etc) becomes overly complicated so bugs are inevitable. The profit margin of the PC hardware has eroded so that the quality is compromised, be it HP or Dell, Acer or Lenovo. The same goes to consumer electronics. Over-competition has compromised the quality. Compared to the other big software packages I use daily at work, Windows XP SP2 is actually the most stable one. I hate Lotus Notes. Mentor Expedition databases are huge and itself not that stable. Firefox does not work well enough either. So I am not really saying Windows are without problems. Actually back in the Windows 95/98 days, I did not like Windows. That was why I started to try out Linux back in 1998. But I found out Linux to be worse at that time so I kind of gave up Linux in 2002. Since 2004, I find Windows is getting better. So does Linux. So now I use dual boot. Xiaofan -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist