Bill Gates may have said they "create great software" but that has
always been a sales pitch. I used to use MS products because I didn't
know any better. I thought XP was a great OS until I use it today, or
fix someone's computer that won't change there computing habits.

Now that I have used a truly great product, I can't believe how well MS
had the wool over my eyes.

Maybe if you had an idea and talked to those fine people at MS you could
claim some space on there ads that claim you are a piece of machinery.
You may be able to have the world laugh at you the way they laugh at MS
and it's actors on those ads.

The main reason I am a convert is quality. Quality is something MS has
never exhibited to the public from their DOS days. If you can't deal
with blue screens, lack of security, poor support, poor documentation,
and licensing designed to limit the competition as much as they can by
legal means, rather than a quality effort. It is time to learn the OS
that has no competition, /Linux.

/You may wonder about the No competition, so I will explain my view.
Downloads are numbers that don't define users. My one download has
multiplied several times over in the number of copies I have made and
installed. Because I teach the recipients of the copies I make, how to
use Ubuntu, I have yet to find them on this or any other list asking for
help. They know of these lists because I have told them about finding
support, and this group is the first one I mention to them. To be
honest numbers are only important to those that measure success by the
market share they sell to, and Ubuntu is not sold. Support for Linux is
growing, I believe, because the number of users that are making it known
to companies like Delorme, if they don't support Linux in the future,
they won't sell another copy of their product to them.

I don't see a use for VM myself, because I will only support the
companies that choose to support Linux. I don't care if they keep rights
to their developments they have spent man hours on. I will buy a
program ported to Linux, but won't buy in the future from a company that
fails to port to, and support their product on Linux, or fails to offer
support for their hardware on the Linux platform. If I want a piece of
hardware I first look on the box for Linux support. If it is a must have
in my book and the box fails to mention Linux, I go to their website to
find support. No support, No sale! I am through with Microsoft.