Hi list users, Googleing for an old post of mine, I stumbled upon a story that I posted to a mailing list six years ago. The story was on an authentic, real life experience in the line of popular windows vs linux discussions of that time. It was 2004, the season of SuSE Pro 9.0. I remember I received a lot of private mails off the list, from people finding the story very interesting. The story was in favor of linux so much that quite a number of them decided to try and even completely convert to linux after reading it. The story still can be found at http://www.mail-archive.com/full-disclosure@lists.netsys.com/msg13461.html, for the interested ones (beware, it's quite long) I am afraid I couldn't write such a story today, certainly not with the same amount of pro-linux enthusiasm. Six years ago I used to advocate linux among my windows-using friends quite a lot. I was not just plain enthusiastic but very successful in that regard too. Contrary to then popular belief, linux installations (suse in particular) were rock-solid stable and reliable, secure, yet simple to teach, learn, and everyday use. Is it so today? I am afraid not, at least at this particular moment in time. The rock-solid appearance is pretty much ruined. I experienced frequent dolphin crashes, plasma multi activity setup crashes, desktop effects crashes, device notifier crashes, etc... Yes, I admit I am at factory repo, but I was always at a factory grade repo, from the days of 7.x on. I even have crashes that lock up my comp in such a way that I can not ssh into it to clean the mess up. Kiss goodbye to the "linux-need-not-rebooting-ever" myth!!! All these locks happen on random, but on regular basis. And random enough that they can not be easily reproduced, so I simply don't know what to report most of the time. How about this: Dolphin just plainly disappears in front of my eyes, while not even having focus on its window!!! The worst thing is that I've got used to it, during six-year slow and steady process of criteria degradation (frog-cooking effect). It was only reading this old story that reminded me that it had not been always like that. Also, the simplicity is gone. With KDE4, so many new concepts and layers of complexity have been introduced. Every day on this list I witness a lot of confusion and lack of understanding of these concepts among users. Even the most experienced ones are often having troubles to get the point. How can one expect a total newbie to find his/her way through it? Solid base of GUI elements built up to a desktop environment in a consistent and intuitively comprehensible way is not there any more. Desktop, desktop icons, right-click, left-click, drag-and-drop, and all other well known GUI paradigms are now undergoing major redefinition process. Everything is being re-ingeneered, bottom up. Too many things doesn't work as expected, or the way they used to work. Users are forced to develop "new intuition". Today, I admit, I am reluctant to recommend opensuse to any of windows7 users. I don't do it happily any more. With opensuse of today, they simply have so many troubles that I can not help them with, and so many questions that I can not answer. Ok, security is still there. At least, in regard of computer viruses and malware. But, who cares for security when mere usability is in question? Besides, frankly speaking, they are remarkably more secure with their Win7 today then they were with WinXP back in 2004. One reason less to go converting. (Which leaves us with the total of zero, I'm afraid.) On my own, I am completely on linux/opensuse/kde4 side, without a doubt. All my comps, home and office, are linux, and that will not change soon. Still, a little critical thinking can't do any harm, I guess. Hope the list can bear this much rambling without starting another religious war. Thanks for reading, anyway. Best regards, ~rms~ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org