Here Here GaryNg,

MS has always either swallowed a, viable, technology or somehow gotten the technology locked up in legal court cases, till the company could no longer survive.

Case in point: Stacker had a great memory management/compression technology - when it got stronger than what came with Windows, they attacked Stacker with court costs - stating that "Stacker" stole the code from MS. Now, I think deep inside MS' compression and memory management routines is actually code from Stacker. From what I knew, MS Windows even went so far as to not boot, install, or otherwise freeze, if it found that Stacker was being used in conjunction with MS products.

That, and many other reasons, is why I see the "openness" of Knoppix, and being able to walk away from all the MS crude that is going on. I have many products that come from MS, from the OS, to Keyboards, to Mice, development software, even down to the Internet and E-Mail I use. I am more than happy to simply walk away from all this "monopoly", as long as 1) Knoppix can support all the hardware/software I use, and 2) Knoppix can prove it is more stable and have less "leaks" than MS has.

I am still looking into the (1) part above, but I am possitive that Knoppix has number (2) down pat. From just using the Live CD of Knoppix, I am sure as Bill Gates has more money than anyone could ever spend, that Knoppix is far more stable and has less of the "security leaks" than Windows has ever wished it had.

As far as the "security" issues of MS, they have fixed most of the problems in Windows95 and Windows98, but have restarted with all the problems in Win2k, WinXP, WinME, etc... So, it appears that every time MS decides to release a new OS, they forget all the things they learned in the "security" realm from all the previous OS' they have released.

From what I see, MS seems to think, "hey, what the heck, we got'em, and we can't loose them" - I think not - I running to Knoppix !

Cuddles