OT: unix to Windows technology

[Xah Lee]

Dear unixers & lispers,

i've been using Mac for the past 19 years, and been a professional sys
admin or web app developers on the unix platform, since 1998 (maily
Solaris, Apache, Perl, Java, SQL, PHP). In june, i bought a PC (not
for the first time though), and made a switch to Windows, for the
first time, in the sense as a developer instead of just a casual PC
user i've been.

In the past month, i've spend about 5 hours a day digging into MS
Windows tech, in particluar, read over 200 Wikipedia articles in
detail related to Windows technology. (192 of them linked)

Here's a write up of the whole story, my experiences, including some
tech introduction to MS Windows from a sys admin or programer point of
view.

• Switching from Mac/Unix To PC/Windows
http://xahlee.org/mswin/switch_to_windows.html

Some slightly noteworthy subsections are:

• Removing HP/Compaq Software
http://xahlee.org/mswin/hp_bundled_apps.html

• Installing Cygwin Tutorial
http://xahlee.org/mswin/installing_cygwin.html

• Mac and Windows File Conversion
http://xahlee.org/mswin/mac_windows_file_conv.html

• Unix And Windows File Permission Systems
http://xahlee.org/mswin/file_perm_systems.html

• Introduction to Windows Scripting
http://xahlee.org/mswin/windows_scripting.html

Some articles (not shown above) are still work in progress, such as
VBScript tutorial and PowerShell tutorial. Hoping to complete in the
coming months or years.

comment & feedback welcome, esp if you are a Windows expert and answer
some of my unanswered questions on the page.

Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

 

[Kenneth Tilton]

Dear unixers & lispers,

i've been using Mac for the past 19 years, and been a professional sys
admin or web app developers on the unix platform, since 1998 (maily
Solaris, Apache, Perl, Java, SQL, PHP). In june, i bought a PC (not
for the first time though), and made a switch to Windows, for the
first time, in the sense as a developer instead of just a casual PC
user i've been.

In the past month, i've spend about 5 hours a day digging into MS
Windows tech, in particluar, read over 200 Wikipedia articles in
detail related to Windows technology. (192 of them linked)

Here's a write up of the whole story, my experiences, including some
tech introduction to MS Windows from a sys admin or programer point of
view.

• Switching from Mac/Unix To PC/Windows
http://xahlee.org/mswin/switch_to_windows.html

Some slightly noteworthy subsections are:

• Removing HP/Compaq Software
http://xahlee.org/mswin/hp_bundled_apps.html

• Installing Cygwin Tutorial
http://xahlee.org/mswin/installing_cygwin.html

• Mac and Windows File Conversion
http://xahlee.org/mswin/mac_windows_file_conv.html

• Unix And Windows File Permission Systems
http://xahlee.org/mswin/file_perm_systems.html

• Introduction to Windows Scripting
http://xahlee.org/mswin/windows_scripting.html

Some articles (not shown above) are still work in progress, such as
VBScript tutorial and PowerShell tutorial. Hoping to complete in the
coming months or years.

comment & feedback welcome, esp if you are a Windows expert and answer
some of my unanswered questions on the page.

Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

You just discovered PCs are cheaper?

The funny thing is that that is Microsoft's answer to the Apple Mac-PC
ads, they show people shopping for computers and just comparing hardware
and price as if this is some kind of breakthrough. But I understand:
they have no answer to Windows being such a nightmare and the Mac being
such a joy.

kt

 

[Xah Lee]

• Switching from Mac/Unix To PC/Windows
http://xahlee.org/mswin/switch_to_windows.html

You just discovered PCs are cheaper?

The funny thing is that that is Microsoft's answer to the Apple Mac-PC
ads, they show people shopping for computers and just comparing hardware
and price as if this is some kind of breakthrough. But I understand:
they have no answer to Windows being such a nightmare and the Mac being
such a joy.

well, i've been owning Macs for over the past 19 years. From a
dedicated fan thru-out the 1990s, to still fan in early of 2000s with
debut of OS X.

Mac prices in comparison to PC has gone up and downs. In the early
1990s for example, it is maybe 4 times more. Lowest is probably in the
mid 1990s, where 3rd party companies are licensed to producing clones,
and that happens to also be a period that Mac OS is the worst,
crashing few times per day, similar to Win 95 and 98. I think in the
early 2000s the price gap came closer, and since maybe 2005 it start
to increase again.

for someone like me, i've read all the pros and cons of Mac vs PC.
I've read, for instance, basically all MacWorld and MacUser mags in
the early 1990s until they become defunct. (and often MacWeek too) Not
to mention the huge amount of websites, especially in the late 1990s
where there are a number of high profile dedicated mac fan sites. I
also have often attended the yearly Mac World Expo, eagerly antipating
Steve Job's “O, one more thing...†etc... and etc and etc. As a
hyperbole, i've prob read more Mac vs PC argument from newsgroup users
combined. LOL

as to the price comparison... a better metric is value/price ratio. I
think, over the past 20 years, the value/price ratio of Mac compared
to PC, namely:

(MacValue/MacPrice)/(PC_value/PC_price)

is going down, starting with Windows NT 4, and going downhill quickly
with Windows XP, and Vista, .NET.

as far as SOFTWARE technology goes, Apple's falling lamer and lamer
from its 1990s mountain top of lisps and hypercards and desktop
publishing stuff. Microsoft Windows, starting from MS-DOS moronicity,
today, with its .NET, F#, PowerShell, is quite beyond Apple's
perpetual diddling with its prettification of OS X.

Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄

 

[Xah Lee]

a fried showed me this today:

http://xahlee.org/funny/Microsoft_eula.html

not sure which site originally reported it.

Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄