The gd** MOTHERFING piece of fing S**T inbred cm gzzling gttr sl*t queen of them all: Microsoft.
Here’s the deal, Im using MS access 2k to enter product data. That gd** paperclip from hell pops up. It says that I can import data directly from html tables. I think “cool that paperclip has finally told me something usefull”. So I go suck down some price/cost lists to use for testing. I try to import it into MS Access and guess what? An error pops up: “Reserved Error: Reserved for future use.”
[Sarcasm]
I caused an error that hasn’t even been invented yet.
[/Sarcasm]
The table Im using is IE compatable and according to the documentation it should work. I spend a couple hours editing the html code trying to get it to work and every single time it throws the same error. Finally I find out that Access can only import the most basic, cut and dry html tables.
I have to write a pre-parsing program so that the parser in Access can import the data. I am not a programmer, but I can write this in Visual Basic in about an hour. Why couldn’t Microsoft spend that extra hour to do this?
I don’t normally get this mad over a simple little error like this, it was just the straw that broke the camels back. I’ve been the manager of this computer store for 2 or three weeks and all it is day in and out is dealing with Microsoft’s S**T.
They always do things half-arsed, in the next versions they should cut down on the number of features and just make the ones they have actually work.
Im switching to linux. Who else is with me?
If I had a nickel for every time I’d ever heard someone pissong and moaning about how horrible MS is and how they’re going to swith to linux . . . we’ll, I’d have a shitload of nickels.
And if I then had to give back a nickel for every one who actually switched to linux . . . I’d still have a shitload of nickels.
Welcome to the club… I still have Win2k installed on a disk, but that HDD is sitting in a stac bag on my desk (just waiting for tax season so I can reinstall it and use turbo tax)…
if you need any support, just ask and let me know where to email the answers to… if you need ISOs burned, gimme an address to fedex them to (I’ll even eat the cost to help another person move to linux)… I’ll try to check back to this thread to see if you’re interested… I would also suggest you check out MacOS, which I also like.
I recently switched to Mac OS X, and would never go back to Windows, though I do not do the sort of database design/programming that appears to the germane issue here.
I’m 59 with a few years of computer time.
I can make files and move files in Win-98.
I can go to and read message boards. Like SDMB
I don’t play online games.
I can find and download things like “Pop-up Stopper.”
I use my digital camera to put pictures on my computer and also get them up on a picture place.
I can find “msconfig” and keep unwanted stuff from starting up.
I can not write programs.
I don’t work in the computer field.
I am a bad typist.
I can copy and paste that <a hreif = url thang to get a picture to show on places that allow that.
Now … You are saying that I would be much better off not using MS and switching to linux?
I could have plug and play for new hardware?
To add an HD all I would need to know was how to change the jumper from master to slave and switch positions on the ribbon. It is that easy in linux?
There a easy to understand books on linux?
There are people like your selves who will spend hours on the phone with stupid people like me, helping them to figure out what the simplest tasks are in linux.
You are saying that it is a superior system and an easier system and that a person like me should be using, correct?
I would love to have a more simple system.
Easy to understand, faster, more intuitive to use.
It is as cheap as Win -98?
It runs aohell with just the insertion of the aol disc. Right out of the box?
It runs maps and books and … that are on CD right out of the wrapper?
If you all tell me yes and will furnish your phone numbers as a support staff, Why, I would love to switch. Which version should I go get at the computer store?
You are so sure of the great system called linux that you are willing to put your online veracity up to help me switch to the ease and security of linux?
okay. tell me where to get off… I mean, what to do…
Well, sure, lets look at how linux compares to your needs.
These are the only two issues where there would be any noticeable difference, in that under linux your need for both of those applications would be greatly reduced or non-existant.
Mandrake Linux has this, and I am sure other distros have similar functions as well. Heck, even my slackware detected everything on this Dell Dimension except the sound card.
Umm, you kinda need to do more than that to add an HD in Windows. You will need to partition and format the drive, same as in Linux. I will give you that the linux file system may be a bit harder to understand, but only because it is different and you learned MS’s first. The linux filesystem is very much more flexible in terms of how you can use your new partition. (Need a bigger MyDocuments folder? Then just mount your new HD as a folder under MyDocuments. Can’t do that in Windows, can ya?)
There are huge amounts of documentation on the web alone, and you will find that there are numerous helpful message boards and newsgroups as well.
Linux, becuase it is so much more configurable, is usually much simpler and faster than Win98. Definitely cheaper. (I have copies of about a dozen versions. I have not paid for any of them. Even if downloading 650MB iso images is a problem, you can get the install disks free with “Linux for Dummies” or many similar books.)
CDs can autorun. AOL has not yet released a version of their software for linux, although they claim to have one and there are third party dialers that you can install to connect to AOL. So, yes, this is more difficult, and software installation may be slightly easier and availabilty may be slightly better in the Windows world for the average user. Note that you probably had to learn how to install software when you first began using Windows as well. In most distros, it is not all that much more difficult.
On the other hand, almost any application that you could want (this especially true since we are discounting games) comes bundled with the OS. Can you say that about Win98? For almost any application that you run under Win98, there is almost certainly an equivalent app for linux, usually available for free, downloadable from the web. And if you have Windows apps for which absolutely nothing else will do, you can run WINE, a windows emulator that, again, comes bundled with every current linux desktop distro I know of.
I don’t understand the hostility that this issue sometimes generates. Software is a tool. If the one you are using is useful to you for doing what you need to do, then maybe switching isn’t for you. If you find yourself frequently frustrated by the limitations of that tool, then maybe it is worth investigating other tools. But don’t expect not to have to spend some time learning to use it.
I see the difference this way: Microsoft OS’s try to be all things to all people. Linux tries to be anything to anybody. Personally, “all things” includes way too many things that I don’t need for my personal tastes. My linux box runs only what I want, and does only what I tell it to. And yet I still spend a significant amount of time using Win98, because there are things that I find it useful for as well.
[sub](I work in tech support. I will learn the ins and outs of XP, eventually, but I will be kicking and screaming the whole way. But to each his own.):)[/sub]
I’m running Redhat 8, it recognized and automatically configured everything in my computer.
One more easy step in Linux. You’d need to add a line like “./dev/hda1 /mnt/c_windows vfat auto,user,umask=0 0 0” to a file in Linux.
There’s Linux for Dummies and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Linux as well as many other geared to the neophyte.
www.linuxnewbie.org is a great place to start. As for phone support, I’d guess that would depend on the specific version or distribution of Linux you were using.
Well, my suggestion would be to install it on a second partition or hard drive along with your OS now and see how you like it. I’ve only had it for a few days and after getting by a few initial problems, I’m really starting to like it. I would say our skill levels are in a similar range. I know more than the average person, but I’m certainly not a programmer.
For me, I’ve noticed it’s faster and cleaner. Since I’ve used various forms of windows up until now as you have, there a differences one needs to learn; however, I feel I’m getting the hang of it easily.
It’s free. I downloaded my version of Redhat from the Internet. Keep in mind it’s a heafty download.
You can always buy the distribution in a store. Redhat sells for around thirty to forty dollars.
I don’t use AOL, so I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say probably not.
Not sure. I’d probably depend on the software.
I’ll help you as much as my few days of experience allows.
If your computer can boot from CD, why not download Knoppix and try it out? It doesn’t install anything to your Hard Disk, so if you don’t like it you’ve lost nothing but the time you took to look.
If it appeals to you, I’d recommend Mandrake Linux as a good beginners distro…I use it myself.
