[opensource] Linux vs. Windows

[Ann Elliott]

>>
>
> I like clicking a link on a web site and it downloading the full 
> application in a self extracting exe that I can download and install 
> in under 1 minute.
>
My internet connection at home is dial-up. A brand new windows install 
requires several hours worth of (dial-up speed) downloads, with 
reboots. Corel has another hour or so of updates.  FreeBSD has packages 
and ports; the packages just take a "sudo pkg_add <package name>" which 
is no more complicated than a self-extracting exe. I tend to build off 
the ports instead for no particular reason other than that either way 
I'm not likely to have my program that night.

Anything really large, on the windows or BSD side, I download over a 
faster connection and put it on my flash drive or burn to cd. (I think 
I did download Open Office over dial up once; sharing the family's only 
phone line means that I have the internet only after 10pm until 
whenever homenet kicks me off, so it took about a week to download. A 
different time, I burned the whole package onto a cd and had it working 
that day).

-Ann