Deeply misguided commenter here.

That doesn't hurt my feelings, I resemble that remark.

I've confused people even worse, at more inopportune times, too.

This time of course it was about Linux more so than Windows and my suggestion that orgs that have always used Windows can make a significant step toward everyday Linux by first using Linux only for the internet and continue to use Windows for everything else.

Similar to the way small offices which had no early need for networking first got one dedicated PC for web use when they decided to start seeing what the internet was about.

It didn't matter what OS the isolated PC was running, it was handled not much differently than a fax machine, it might as well have been Linux but Linux was not made for Windows people at all.

Today desktop Linux is excellent for the internet at least, so might as well make that one step toward weaning away from Windows.

Back in the 1990's around here offices which were big enough for networking to be worthwhile had already connected their DOS machines so when they got Windows they used that to continue doing what protocol they were doing.

It was all over the place, you've shown some incredible details, I know some went from DOS to 3.1, others waited until 95, then some on 3.1 skipped 95 and waited until 98.

In the mean time the internet began to get popular.

Which is when plug & play LAN really came true for the mainstream small office whether they thought they needed networking or not. They may have a word processor on every desk but networking them for the first time was not going to happen if it required the services of some kind of professional they didn't already have on the staff.

After a while everybody wanted internet on every desk always on all the time which big companies were already enjoying. So they bought a lot of LAN cards, routers and cable and plugged & played. Sometimes needing professional help to get it sorted out afterward.

But we can be fairly old-fashioned and lots of our offices around the world still had a communication room where a DOS PC was in email service before any internet, and it was upgraded to Windows later. This was in there with the even more vintage facsimile unit and of course the traditional Telex machine for which the room was originally built. For some, the only suitable PC was a rubbish PC too, to add to the mix :\

But there's just something about communicating with the world that's a special condititon fundamentally.

I don't claim to be that accurate on networking details, I didn't deploy it much in my office until I could plug & play myself.

But for a while there I did have an old W3.1 box downloading MP3s even though it was not powerful enough to play them.

And experimented with W95's just not TCP/IP, didn't deploy that just wanted to see what people were encountering at the time.

I do remember it was the arrival of the 98 version combined with the dominance of TCP/IP, which first brought us to where it's like nobody's ever dreamed of a concept where all Windows PC's aren't on the internet at all times.

I know a little more but I just didn't want to go there since I'm no expert. My message was too long already, and I didn't even think very many people would actually try using only Linux when accessing the web from an otherwise Windows PC. But it works for me not much differently than having a separate communication room, only more convenient.

I hope my apology can be accepted for leading to such misinterpretation.

I recognized you were reading my message quite literally, but it was good to have a more detailed account of these vintage conditions from an experienced early adopter.

Quite a contrast to the vast number of small offices which only jumped on the bandwagon when it really took off, without any professional help at all.

It's worth it, it makes everyone less misguided.