Sheep to be Sheared

My best friend makes a fortune providing you a service...and I do mean a fortune. He is 36, owns his own home...paid for mind you, and has more "big-boy toys" than I could ever hope to collect. Now, he's no Bill Gates or Micheal Dell, but he does ok. Day Trader? Drug Dealer? Lexus Salesman...? No, he fixes your computers, your Windows computers. He comes to your home when your 13 year old daughter downloads the latest 50 cent song and it contains a virus. He comes when you call him because your computer is running so slow it takes 5 minutes to just open a browser...and why does it do that...? Spyware. Your computer has become your enemy, it will not let you do the simplest things anymore, it owns you, not the other way around and my friend comes to your home to fix it...and in doing so, you have put him on the verge of becoming wealthy. I would like to take this time to personally thank you on his behalf. He would do it himself, but you see, he is a very busy man. Ninety percent of you run the Windows Operating System on your computer and he is having a hard time keeping up. A news article published the week of 5/13/2005 adds insult to your injury. Now, no one can dispute that the Windows Operating System is a security nightmare. My personal company suffered a nasty variation of bagle last year and almost caused me to go bankrupt...yeah, poor backup habits were to blame sure, but if the operating system did not give monsters like this an environment in which to flourish, it would be a moot point. Now about that article. Let me give it to you in link and then I will give you the down and dirty three line synapsis. [HYPERLINK@news.zdnet.co.uk] Pay close attention now, I am sure some of you will just gloss over this because you are used to being mistreated. Microsoft is going to SELL YOU a monthly subscription for virus and anti-spyware tools. To protect you from THEIR MISTAKES! Excuse the exclamation points...I hate exclamation points but this particular message merits many of them. My goodness, Al Capone could not have come up with a better swindle. Companies like Norton and Trend Micro have built multi-million dollar industries from Microsoft screw-ups but for Microsoft to actually start buying anti-virus companies and integrate their technologies into Windows, it's a travesty. And now for the sad part. You...Windows users, are going to follow the good shepherd Bill Gates and let him lead you to the shearing house. It's not wool he's shearing from you folks...it's your money. Now let me tell you what he doesn't want you to know. There is a simple way around this mess and not only do you no longer have to worry about these things, you pay either a fraction of the cost you paid for Windows or you pay nothing at all. Thousands of businesses and people every week are giving Linux a look. Linux is a free or nearly free operating system that looks and acts much like windows except it comes with most all the software included...stuff you have to buy separately with Windows. Have you priced Microsoft Office lately? It costs hundreds of dollars. OpenOffice, which comes with Linux does about everything MS Office does, and it is free. People like me have seen the writing on the wall and have taken the week or two it takes to actually learn Linux. We have not looked back. Here are the problems, and most of them are your fault. Many of you are too lazy or too apathetic to do anything about it. You would rather complain and risk your sensitive, valuable data than expend the small bit of effort it takes to make the change. Back to my best friend. He does not want you to switch. See, if you switch to Linux, he looses money. So, let's review shall we: For all the problems you will encounter if you continue to use Windows, for all the chances you take with your data, the time wasted and money spent on anti-virus tools, spyware tools, popup blockers and third party firewalls...you will do nothing. A free, simple and safe alternative exists to Microsoft Windows and you will still do nothing. That is pathetic. You really deserve what you get. My friend likes the fact that your choices border on psychosis. I'm sure when he finds out I have written this, he will tell me that I should have thanked you for putting his kids through college and affording him the opportunity to buy a home on Lake Travis. For the half-dozen of you that will actually pay attention to this, go to [HYPERLINK@www.PCLinuxonline.com.] A whole new world awaits you.