>not quite ready to take the plunge
>in installing Linux. Probably in
>September.
I would like to chime in with the cheeky, near-dittohead "Wy not use Macs?" since I'm a big fan/user. Jobs isn't a money-grubber like Gates, but he still has a maniacal ego to soothe. The only Microsoft stuff I use is the "Free" stuff - IE and OE, and the moment I have to pay cold hard cash for them they go out the door.
What relationship is there between financial mentality and computing machinery choice? Give the masses lotteries; since even the most destitute could possibly become rich, they vote for the rich and favor policies for the rich since 'when' they win they don't want to pay a ton of taxes or have to share any of it. In computers you get the "everyone else uses it, I've gotta use it too to be compatible" mindset. The idea that Management would love to kiss off thier IS staff is at odds with the Mac experience; virtually every study shows them to have lower overall cost and higher "Return on Investment" (I put that in quotes because cooking the numbers to show how much money a computer will make you is a hillarious sham). It seems more like simple herd mentality. At least in the realm of computers, Wintel really does have an overwhelming market share. In finances, the standard social image (as seen in TV and virtually every other media) is one of households that are actually in the top percentage of income. The empirical data is false in this case, but saturation of the image is as ovewhelming as Wintel's marketplace dominance.
______________________________________ Derrick Fogle - the "Computer Guy" Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation Heartland Lions Eye Banks dfogle at mlerf.org - www.mlerf.org