Why Use Windows?

[Richard Wilson]

Vic,

You mentioned issues with the Cisco VPN Client -- I ran into some
similar issues with Fedora Core 5 and 6 -- a recent kernel update got
rid of a header file that the Cisco Client requires to compile...

I had heard that VPNC would work and have found that to be the case.  I
am still checking to see if Cisco gets their act in gear and starts
supporting the latest kernels again, but it's no longer a big deal.

The yum installer found vpnc packages for both FC5 and FC6 -- I can't
speak to Ubuntu, but I suspect that it's available.  One plus -- unlike
the Cisco VPN client, you don't have to recompile vpnc with every kernel
upgrade.

Hope this helps you -- if you'd like sanitized copies of the scripts and
config files I have set up, please contact me directly.

Sorry for the delay in responding -- I am way behind going through my
PLUG mail.

Richard Wilson
-------------------------------------------------
On Wed, 2007-03-28 at 14:44 -0700, vodhner at cox.net wrote:
> (Was:  Re: Update on VMs under Linux?)
> 
> Bill Lindley <wlindley at wlindley.com> wrote: 
> > Why run MS Word97 when you can run OpenOffice?
> 
> I don't run MS Word97 when I can run OpenOffice.
> 
> OpenOffice is not a replacement for MS Word.  They are two
> different applications with limited compatibility.  I use
> OpenOffice when I can, and Word when I have to:  mainly,
> when I am involved in an exchange of Word documents that
> won't render in OOo.
> 
> It will be nice when ODF becomes commonly used.  I'm trying
> to promote it, but sometimes it's like trying to pay for things
> in pa'angas instead of dollars.
> 
> For example, one of my sons is a student in ASU's BS in Nursing
> program.  One of his courses provides Word templates for
> submission of work; and requires totally rigorously precise
> formatting in electronically submitted coursework.  OOo (or
> Word97 for that matter) is not an option here:  no WYSIWTG
> (What You See Is What Teacher Gets).  He found Office 2007
> for Home and Student at CompUSA for $140, that's three
> licenses.  Not bad as a Cost of Not Flunking [TM].  Mom will
> use the other two licenses, so the cost is about $50 per.
> 
> This is equivalent to the strangle-hold that big textbook
> publishers have on schools, but less expensive.
> 
> If someone gives you a document with all sorts of graphics
> interleaved with text, and MS-specific fonts laid out to fill pages
> but not overflow, there's no way FOSS can fully break the MS
> encryption and render that document accurately -- as illustrated
> by the "behave like Word" sections of Microsoft's Office Open
> (sic!) XML definition.
> 
> Meanwhile, my wife is a Microsoft customer, pure and simple.
> She works with it at work, she wants it on her desktop.  She has
> bigger fish to fry than trying to straddle two sets of applications.
> 
> I am currently struggling with her new Vista laptop.  Microsoft has
> done it again:  a Vista PC apparently won't share files with an XP
> PC without installing special software on XP.  This is apparently
> just a trojan horse -- to install that software on XP, you have to
> do the whole "genuine" thing first, which I'd managed to avoid
> on the XP box to date.  But she wants to share between her
> desktop and her laptop, so fine, I'll risk a false-negative and cave
> in to the "genuine" requirement.
> 
> In the real world, Word is still Coin of the Realm.  Hopefully the
> hold will be loosened over the next 10 years, but don't count on
> people who work *with* other people to give up Word very soon.
> 
> And why else am I using Windows?  Because I switched from
> CentOS to Ubuntu, and my Cisco VPN client that I need for work
> does not install on Ubuntu -- some header discrepancy that I can
> probably fix with a little hacking, but haven't yet.  Other VPN
> solutions would be even more work to install.  So I have to boot
> over to Windows for VPN access.  Just like many other apps,
> this is something that works great *when* it works under Linux,
> but Just Works [TM] under Windows.
> 
> The old wide-eyed question, "why use Windows", gets a little
> old for people who have to deal with other people and the
> requirements of organizations whose primary focus does not
> happen to be breaking the Microsoft monopoly.  We should
> promote open standards and products wherever possible, but
> if someone is taking the trouble to dual-boot or use virtual
> Windows under Linux, we should probably give their
> intelligence the benefit of the doubt.
> 
> Vic
> 
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