pcplantdb

[John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

> My only regret is that
> Microsoft continues to play unfair with non-Microsoft
> development for the Windows platform (Firefox leaks
> badly and consumes a huge memory footprint in the
> first place, as do many third party efforts).

If one doesn't use Windows, this is a non-issue.
If one uses Windows...caveat emptor, they've made it clear how they play 
the game.

With user/desktop-friendly linux distros proliferating, maturation of 
sophisticated desktop/window managers such as KDE and Gnome, release of 
OpenOffice 2.0 (which trumps Microsoft Office in fully supporting the de 
facto international standard  Oasis OpenDocument format), best of class 
browser and mail apps such as Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird etc., all 
the basic necessities of desktop computing are covered.

If that's too scary, just get a Mac with OSX, which under the hood is 
based on an open source derivative of FreeBSD (called Darwin) and has 
native versions of the above best of class internet apps available to 
replace the still immature Safari and the occasional shortcomings of Mac 
Mail.  OpenOffice 2.0 is availabe too, though not native yet.

Either of the above will also take you almost entirely off the 
virus/worm/spyware/adware hit list, as most of that is Windows-specific.

John S.



--

John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Whole Systems Design Services
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net