[ubuntu-uk] Want to create an advert for Ubuntu?

[Liam Proven]

On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 1:07 PM, Avi Greenbury
<avismailinglistaccount at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Liam Proven wrote:
>
> Attempting to recreate the sort of tone of your email

Works for me.
>
>> [1] it's immune to all viruses and spyware
>> [5] it reads and writes all Microsoft files and anything from any
>> Windows or Mac program.
>
> If you're going to be picky and pedantic, at least be correct. These
> two are patently incorrect[0],[1]. Claiming otherwise to anyone to whom
> those are important traits will only dissapoint them when it turns out
> that Linux/Ubuntu/whatever isn't the utopian OS they were sold it as.
> One thing I'd really like us to advertise on is honesty - the openness
> of bug reporting and the like, for example - and lying to get people to
> use the OS doesn't sit particularly well with that.
>
>
> [0] - Viruses for Linux/Unix abound. Go google. Sure, the OS is
> relatively safe from them but most users care more about their own files
> than their OS, and they've full write privileges to that. And all
> tutorials now appear to start with 'sudo' in any case. Making people
> believe that there are no viruses just means they'll think even less
> before copying and pasting stuff into xterm.

I am aware of a number of worms and a handful - a tiny handful - of
virus-like programs that have been demonstrated under lab conditions.
Out in the wild? I'm not aware of a single instance of a live Linux
virus propagating in the wild. If you are, do please share your
knowledge.

> [1] As for reading and writing all MS files and anything from any Win
> or OSX program, for obvious complete incompatibility AutoCAD and
> FruitLoops come to mind. OOo/MSOffice compatibility is still nowhere
> near good enough for one to just replace the other.

I have no idea what "FruitLoops" is. AutoCAD I can believe would be
difficult, but then, the only way to open an AutoCAD file is to have a
copy of AutoCAD, isn't it? IOW, 99.99% of Windows PCs can't open
AutoCAD files anyway.

I have in the past found ways to view the contents of plain .DXF
files; I would not be surprised if with some ingenuity, this could be
done on Linux.

I feel that my statements are entirely reasonable and acceptable
generalisations and I do not agree with your attempted rebuttals.

-- 
Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
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