livecode on xubuntu 13.10

[Richmond]

On 27/12/13 05:24, Dr. Hawkins wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 9:48 AM, Richmond <richmondmathewson at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Round about the Balkans.
>>
> Ahh.  That makes more sense.
>
> Here, I figure they cost me less than MS or unix machines would if I put
> any value on my time (and probably even if I didn't).
>
>

Certainly the cost of ownership of a Mac or, for that matter, a machine 
running Linux
is less than that of a machine running Windows.

My parents, about 10 years ago, in one of those usual fits of "never 
trust your children",
went out and bought a Toshiba top-of-the-range laptop with Windows XP 
pre-installed;

[now, to be fair about Windows XP, if installed carefully, and then the 
whole system is
hardened by somebody who knows what they are doing, there should be 
almost no problems at all]

For 3 years father was running up and down the road to the "fixit" shop, 
on average once a month,
costing about 50 pounds and a lost 3 days everytime.

After those 3 years mother and father caved into to the badgering of 
their awful son.

Now mother and father have been running various recensions of Ubuntu, 
Xubuntu or Ubuntustudio
ever since. I fly over to see them every summer (which I did EVEN when 
they were running Windows on their laptop!!!)
and do a backup and install a contemporary version.

The guy in the "fixit" shop dislikes me intensely as he is earning some 
600 pounds (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
less a year.

Right beside me is my G3 iMac that I use for all my day-to-day stuff 
such as WP, internet browsing and Music;
as well as 3D modelling with antiquated versions of Bryce and Poser: 
running Mac OS 9.

Just installed Mavericks (Mac OS 10.9.1) in VMware (second attempt) more 
from a "let's see if it works" rather than
a great urge to work with it. But, should the great day come and I 
manage to have a "few spare bob" I will probably
buy myself a macMini that runs OS 10.9.

-------------------

However; here in Bulgaria I teach children, and have done for the last 8 
years; and they are generally more upfront
and direct, the value of lying not having got through to most of them 
yet. They all have Windows XP or 7 on their
machines, whether Desktops or Laptops (well, with the exception of a few 
I have 'misled'). Why do they have Windows?
Mainly because they and/or their parents are unaware of other operating 
systems (and no computer shop is going
to tell them about them if they know that they will lose revenue from 
people coming back with virused or blue-screened
machines), or if they are, are not prepared to try them because all 
their friend use Windows.

They also believe all the "merry stories" about Mac and Linux that they 
have been spoon-fed by Microsoft. But one should
not be surprised about that as the whole educational system here is 
geared to whipping people into "the" way of thinking,
rather than teaching them how to think critically.

Origal ideas round this neck of the woods are about as common as hen's 
teeth.

But then, show me a state education system that does much more than that
anywhere in the world.

Never, never underestimate the force of peer pressure.

-----------------

However, MacBooks and MakBook Airs have become fashion items.

The latest thing in Bulgaria is to buy one of these, scrub Mac OS X and 
install Windows 7!

To me that is just about as daft as one can get.

Richmond.