> LINUX: WHAT A WASTE OF TIME FOR DEVELOPERS !

Excuse me? I can take a 20 year old Unix program and compile it and have it work on Linux. Can you say the same about a 5 year old Windows program? Likewise, a Unix sysadm from 20 years ago would have no problems administering a Linux box. Now I don't know all that much about Windows, having given up on MS at about Windows 3.1 as they kept changing their OS interfaces so as to hide but not remove design flaws, but I suspect the only Windows administration skill that carries through from release to release is the technique of giving up and re-installing the OS after about 3 hours of trying to fix the problem.

The only reason developers waste their time keeping up with Windows is because Windows has the market share. A developer has only to keep up with the 3 or 4 most recent Windows releases to be able to sell to 90% of the desktop market. And user's are used to being told the same line, which they hear repeatedly "upgrade your windows to make it work." These days will soon be history. When the MS monolopy collapses there will no longer be 3, or perhaps 4, operating systems out there. There will be many more. Your lament above, that you can't fix the user's problem by telling him the same story he's heard before "upgrade Windows", will be heard far and wide. You're going to have to come up with a solution other than "everybody must conform!" At least when dealing with developing technology. (How many times has the DirectX "standard" changed?) It's the future, get used to it.

In the meantime, see freedesktop.org.