Loading ...Like many people, I am trying to decrease slowly the amount of interaction I have with Microsoft products. I have a dual-boot system with WinXP Pro and Mandrake Linux 9.2, on which I use Windows probably 90% of the time (in Windows now, in fact). I have been happily using Mozilla Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox for some time, and use IE less and less, if at all (an article at Lockergnome gives good reasons to switch). I have downloaded OpenOffice.org, and will begin using it immediately. I still use Outlook, and that will be the hardest thing to get rid of, but I will try.
Why? Partly because I want to support open source, partly because of M’soft’s business practices. Also, I like options, and I want to be sure that we always have them. I’ll keep you updated on my babysteps away from M’Soft, and proprietary software in general.
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Shure, windows soft brings a lot of hassle using it.. So, opensourse projects stuff usually brings a little bit more headache — but it’s fully configurable via sourse code it is comleted with
So… Respect
As for me — I hate non-optional dummy blackboxes too.
[1] I agree. It’s worth the headache, because once you get it configured, you have lots of options, and usually good community of support, and no worries about licensing, etc. In fact, using Blog:CMS has inspired me to learn PHP, so I can modify it and start writing plugins.
re: Outlook, I use TheBat! for about a year now, with 20.000 emails in it, and.. it is way better than Outlook. Even free FoxMail comes pretty close to TheBat! capabilties
Highly recommend both!
That article on Lockergnome is fantastic–simple enough for non-techies like myself to understand, yet very persuasive. (Plus I have switched to Mozilla and agree completely with all the benefits.)
Shure, TheBat is the best.
So, the-Bat-makers are from the country named Moldova, recent part of Russia, 300km west from my hometown.
So… What do you think about russian programmers instead? By the way, most of them are gnu-license-way lovers, just like Nucleus team
[3] I downloaded Foxmail for windows, and it looks pretty good. I have just installed Mandrake 10.0 and I am very impressed. Do you have any experience with Ximian Evolution? It looks like a good Outlook replacement, with calendar, etc.