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Microsoft Windows costs $99

Uh, no. Where the hell did you get THAT idea?

Since Windows 3.1, there has never been a full retail version of Windows for $99. EVER. Windows 95 and 98 retailed for $189 - $50 more than the newest Mac OS. Windows XP Home Edition is $10 more than that. Now WXP Home Upgrade, THAT'S $99, however you still need a valid copy of Windows 98 or ME. (95 won't do.)

Given the existence of products such as MacOS, Linux, various flavors of unix, OS/2, etc., why should MS be called a monopoly?

Now you're just trolling. It's not illegal to have a monopoly; it's illegal to abuse a monopoly to squeeze out competition. Try looking up what Microsoft did to IBM with Windows OEM pricing in an effort to get them to stop developing OS/2.

Get your facts straight before spouting off bogus arguments.

Microsoft Windows costs $99

Uh, no. Where the hell did you get THAT idea?

Since Windows 3.1, there has never been a full retail version of Windows for $99. EVER. Windows 95 and 98 retailed for $189 - $50 more than the newest Mac OS. Windows XP Home Edition is $10 more than that. Now WXP Home Upgrade, THAT'S $99, however you still need a valid copy of Windows 98 or ME. (95 won't do.)

Given the existence of products such as MacOS, Linux, various flavors of unix, OS/2, etc., why should MS be called a monopoly?

Now you're just trolling. It's not illegal to have a monopoly; it's illegal to abuse a monopoly to squeeze out competition. Try looking up what Microsoft did to IBM with Windows OEM pricing in an effort to get them to stop developing OS/2.

Get your facts straight before spouting off bogus arguments.

Microsoft Windows costs $99

Uh, no. Where the hell did you get THAT idea?

Since Windows 3.1, there has never been a full retail version of Windows for $99. EVER. Windows 95 and 98 retailed for $189 - $50 more than the newest Mac OS. Windows XP Home Edition is $10 more than that. Now WXP Home Upgrade, THAT'S $99, however you still need a valid copy of Windows 98 or ME. (95 won't do.)

Given the existence of products such as MacOS, Linux, various flavors of unix, OS/2, etc., why should MS be called a monopoly?

Now you're just trolling. It's not illegal to have a monopoly; it's illegal to abuse a monopoly to squeeze out competition. Try looking up what Microsoft did to IBM with Windows OEM pricing in an effort to get them to stop developing OS/2.

Get your facts straight before spouting off bogus arguments.

1. They're expensive - 32MB = 40 (~$60) (not sure where you get $40 for 256MB the cheapest I can find is around $150).

2. 99% of Computers have USB ports at the *back*, meaning that you have to crawl around the floor to get the thing in. Floppy drives are (almost) universally at the front.

3. You need drivers. If you have to boot into DOS they stop working... For a similar reason they're not bootable, so you can't carry around a 'boot pen' to rescue systems the way you can a floppy.

4. They're not durable - electronics is too easy to break. If you get a floppy wet it'll usually keep working. If you get a pen drive wet then that's $40 (or $150) down the drain.

2. Mine came with a 4 foot extension and a cradle, which I've never used because 90% of the computers I work with are either customers with Dells or Compaqs or HPs; or ones I built, all of which have ports on the front.

3. Linux and Windows2k/XP both recognize mine just fine without any special drivers (although the linux systems do need to be configured right). You're right, they're not suitable for system rescue, that's what the mini-CDs in my wallet are for.

4. I've put mine through the washer twice, and it works fine. Try that with a floppy.

I'm not sure what your beef with USB drives is, but maybe you should try a modern one before you go bashing them. (I will admit I didn't like them when they first came out, but recent ones have improved a lot.)

You poor blind linux fanboy. Sure- microsoft has lost some contracts in the recent past. What you don't read on /. is that they have gained more office contracts than they have lost during that same time period. Relying on /. for your news about Microsoft is almost like going to al jazeera for news on Israel- you only get one side of the story.

And what was that crap about forcing people to buy a full Office license to get Outlook. Are you retarded?

People have posted links to 3-button mice already, including the cheap memorex and belkin mice and the costly perfit mice.

You can get ten three-button logitechs for $59.99 from CompUSA. You should get ten, because they are an endangered species.

I found these when I was lamenting the demise of 3 button mice. In despair I bought a 7-button logitech with scrollwheel. I never knew what I was missing. I will never go back.

The real challenge would be to find a ~$20 3-button optical mouse (for PCs, not Sun).

Hop your happy ass over here and get your 3 button mouse.

Don't always just look on the shelf, ask somebody.

-------

Motherboards for Athlon 64's are generally about $60 - $70 more, so there's that.

Plus whatever OEM Windows they ship with it probably costs more too.

See many other posts, the complaints are spurious at best, and their motive seems highly disingenuous (Apple has the #1 player and the #1 music service, and doesn't do business with CNet, a noted PC-centric company).

I mean, 6 hours of battery life, OK... last time I flew more than 6 hours, I could plug things into things. Let's see CNet bash some laptops for not providing 20 hours of battery life, eh?

Jogging? Whatever, man. I can't make mine skip if I try. See other posts... it's a spurious argument.

Expensive? Yes but so are many other nice things. No one complains about a $500 video card. I mean, to CNet that's a -1 of 10 thing at worst, and easily explained away by framing a review with the "ultimate gaming machine" or similar moniker. Face it, nice things are expensive. Yay, capitalism.

The DAT thing? Again, it's for listening to music.. I'm not aware Apple ever marketed it - or even mentioned - other audio applications for the device. That's like complaining you can't store high-res audio on a Palm Pilot.

Choice in online music stores? OK, half credit for having a point, but WMA is not choice any more than Fairplay... but Fairplay lets me use my purchased music reasonably, whereas all current WMA solutions are highly restrictive.

Flaws, please.. There's no pleasing some people.

I dunno if best buy would have these items, but they are certainly available. Lots of current motherboards come with either IDE or SATA RAID controllers onboard. Or you can pick up one of several PCI cards and add RAID-0 or RAID-1 storage to your PC.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=50199130
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=295058
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=50198865

I dunno if best buy would have these items, but they are certainly available. Lots of current motherboards come with either IDE or SATA RAID controllers onboard. Or you can pick up one of several PCI cards and add RAID-0 or RAID-1 storage to your PC.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=50199130
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=295058
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=50198865

I dunno if best buy would have these items, but they are certainly available. Lots of current motherboards come with either IDE or SATA RAID controllers onboard. Or you can pick up one of several PCI cards and add RAID-0 or RAID-1 storage to your PC.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=50199130
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=295058
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=50198865

I have an IBM KB-9910 too, and it's great. The only thing I don't like about it is the Windows keys--have to reach further for the control key, but all keyboards have those now. Oh, and I think I got it for $20(US) beat that. ;-P

Hmmm...at CompUSA, (yeah, yeah, I know: they suck) on sale for about $16 now, but sold out. The white ones appear to be in stock, and 80 cents cheaper!

I have an IBM KB-9910 too, and it's great. The only thing I don't like about it is the Windows keys--have to reach further for the control key, but all keyboards have those now. Oh, and I think I got it for $20(US) beat that. ;-P

Hmmm...at CompUSA, (yeah, yeah, I know: they suck) on sale for about $16 now, but sold out. The white ones appear to be in stock, and 80 cents cheaper!

1) DVI port.
I think its a good solution for Apple in the long run. I simply carry my DVI-2-VGA port in my Brenthaven bag made for my Powerbook. Its one extra thing to forget, so are the power supply, modem and ethernet cables... As a 3D visualization guy, I wish Apple sold their desktops with dual DVI instead of having the propietary ADC. If I where to use Macs to drive two displays or for stereo imaging I'd need one of those damn expensive DVI to ADC adapters(only $99.00). or ADC to DVI ($39.00). Depending on the invested display hardware and usage.

2) One button mouse trackpad
Although, I've complained to the Apple reps numerous times about the lack of substitution from the one button mouse for the desktop models when configuring machines from the online Apple Store, I can see why it isn't feasible to customize the Powerbook to be one, two or even three button trackpad. I simply bought an IBM optical mouse with a scroll wheel and leave that at work. Our chairman has the identical Powerbook I use, but he uses a smaller portable version. IBM optical mouse that works great. Just plugged it in and it works great

That's a good question and the answer is "technology media coverage sucks".

Far-out technology ten or twenty years from plausible implementation makes a much better story then technology that's appearing on the shelf today, which is drowned out by the marketing message and if you're lucky, some semi-meaningful buzzwords.

However, the electronic industry is actually quite good about converting technology into actual products. It just isn't talked about as much because it's so "ho-hum". Let me remind you that 2,400,000,000,000 bits that fit in the palm of your hand is something so amazing that you really can't even understand it in any real way.

Look into the technologies in current use for hard drive manufacturing, processor manufacturing, and the other such hardware you use day to day (including non-computer stuff). You'll find enough stuff to make a 1970's sci-fi author wet their pants. It just doesn't make good copy.

Okay, a few things besides the obvious "buy an eMac" if you MUST MUST MUST keep this machine:

* Max the RAM (which, IIRC, is 768M), but is getting more expensive since it's special voltage RAM for this line.
* Get a G3 CPU upgrade either new or used (G3 Upgrades are hundreds less than G4 Upgrades)
* A new video card, if you're still using onboard video. A Radeaon 9200 PCI is $80 from Compusa and probably be several orders faster than the onboard Rage Pro chip.
* Faster hard drive. If you're stuck on some old 5400RPM your perfrormance can suffer -- this goes in hand with the next thing:
* New IDE controller. The onboard IDE doesn't do DMA/66/100/133 and is a real dog performance-wise. Something new can give you a surprising performance boost.
* Ethernet controller. If you have to push the limits, can even think about a new ethernet controller that will have less CPU utilization. ... plus, if you do this and later want to move to a slightly faster machine like a Blue&White G3 , which can be had for as little as $100 in 400mHz/0M/0M configs, the RAM and video card will carry over.

It gets even worse... When wearing an organizer on your wrist isn't geeky enough, try this. Just take a look at one of those in store. They are *huge*!!!

Too bad you aren't a very smart BSD supporter. Learn to read and realize how stupid your response was.

I read well (I am a published author). I read the original post and my response. My response seemed perfectly reasonable when we live in a world where 7,200rpm hard drives can be had for $64 or even less if you want to play the rebate game. Most people have a few older drives kicking around anyway, so move a data cable and a power supply cable and you can install FreeBSD on a spare drive.

Since you can evaluate hardware compatability, speed, or stability of an OS when it's running under an emulator, what would you learn by such an effort? That grep and tar work the same under FreeBSD as under Linux?

Remember that Slashdot adds spaces, so you have to use hyperlinks: Anti-anti-page-widening-troll link.

I can't wait to have these start appearing in all sorts of Palm devices. The processors and screens of these guys have long caught up to the PC's of min 90's, but the sotrage capacities have been hovering around late 80's levels with the micro-drives being too large to fit in.

Yowza, you haven't been paying attention to the Palm market lately.

I'm listening to music on my Palm Tungsten T right now, from a 256MB SD card -- these are the static RAM cards the size of a postage stamp (although thicker). Right now, you can get these SDs for about $70, so this is pretty affordable. You can actually get 512MB SD cards, although they'll set you back closer to $300. I remember 40MB hard drives being pretty decent storage for a PC in the early 90s, so the static storage for Palmtops have certainly surpassed the early 90's PC.

Curiously, the cost curve for static RAM seems to be an inverse bell. The lowest cost point seems to be the just-less-than-the-maximum storage capacity, for SD around $0.27/MB. The maximum is over $0.50/MB, and anything below the second-to-best is between $0.40 and $0.50. I'm not sure why, but this strikes me as odd.

Help distribute the load.. go buy a box.
While it's installing, flip through the nice printed materials, apply decals to your car, or call up the technical support folks just to say thanks.

From article:
I would have connected more units together, but I ran out of USB ports.

Ummm. .... usb hubs is what he needs?

I bought my copy from CompUSA on Thursday of last week.

You can still see remains of them putting it on their online site here. Notice that the vendors available for software are Microsoft and RedHat. They have since corrected this blunder buy taking the products off this section.

I have been running RedHat 9 on my Laptop (Dell Latitude C840) without issue. Just a small problem with wireless cards not working that worked in RedHat 8.0 (aka LinkSys WPC11 Version 3)

The flyer inside the box telling you you need to apply errata for initscripts is rather nice. To bad RedHat didn't make it available on their updates.redhat.com ftp site yet.

you can buy the developer kit if you want to hook it up to your computer, but it works great just wireless, no computer or net connection necessary.

Basically they are saying why be stupid enough to wait 10 years for WiFi to finally be broad enough that everyone can buy one, just put it on a wide-area network so anyone can buy one today.

Probably they'll make a wifi one later for compusa crowd, but by making it wireless this Orb can be in Chiasso as well as compusa..

Couple this with a good card that does TV out, and you've got a go. I have one, it works great.

The hardware for a roll-your-own is still too pricey to make it worthwhile, as this card costs as much as a tivo, but that will no doubt change.

There's no reason you can configure a PC to do one thing and do it well. That's what I did with the media box I put this card in. Well, it does more than one thing, also works as a MAME box. Runs a P3 600, and has no problem recording TV in the background while playing Mortal Kombat.

I agree with doing one thing and doing it well, but it's also nice to only have one box sitting by your TV.

Sorry for all the compusa links... I found the card for 100 bucks and the case for 150, but I didnt feel like googling for better links.

Couple this with a good card that does TV out, and you've got a go. I have one, it works great.

The hardware for a roll-your-own is still too pricey to make it worthwhile, as this card costs as much as a tivo, but that will no doubt change.

There's no reason you can configure a PC to do one thing and do it well. That's what I did with the media box I put this card in. Well, it does more than one thing, also works as a MAME box. Runs a P3 600, and has no problem recording TV in the background while playing Mortal Kombat.

I agree with doing one thing and doing it well, but it's also nice to only have one box sitting by your TV.

Sorry for all the compusa links... I found the card for 100 bucks and the case for 150, but I didnt feel like googling for better links.

Whereas Galactic Civilizations is just $39.95 across the board:

EBGames
Amazon
Gamestop
CompUSA

You can confirm this cost by hitting the CompUSA preorder site (ship date of tomorrow, feb. 25th).

http://www.compusa.com/promos/neuros/default.asp

Fairly expensive. But I do like the built-in FM transmitter. Also, I would recommend buying the 128MB unit, as the 20GB HDD will be available as a "backpack" that makes the 128 exactly the same (size, shape, capacity) as the 20GB unit. However, the 20GB unit can't be "downgraded" to a smaller, more pocketable 128.

(A link to "16x Pocket Colors Mini CD-R Media, 185MB / 21Min, 5 Pack" for about $5. You can also pick 'em up at Radio Shack, or Staples, or...)

I spotted one of these at CompUSA, although, now that I see the price, it is quite expensive. Very slick, though: all metal, with doors that are held closed with magnets like an upscale stereo. Now you just have to find room for the watercooling kit.

I don't know how they stand in relation to the GeForce 2 MX400, but I've seen the GeForce Ti4600, and the Radeon 7500 at my local CompUSA. If CompUSA has them, there have to be better cards out there. In any case, these would be excellent for adding a monitor to a computer.

I don't know how they stand in relation to the GeForce 2 MX400, but I've seen the GeForce Ti4600, and the Radeon 7500 at my local CompUSA. If CompUSA has them, there have to be better cards out there. In any case, these would be excellent for adding a monitor to a computer.

-*-*--*-*--*-*--*-*-

On sale now. Maxtor 60 GB 7200 rpm at CompUsa for 69.99

-*-*--*-*--*-*--*-*-

Actually, after watching the computer industry for twenty years now, I don't see this. You must not understand all of the issues if this is really what you believe.

Are you saying that Microsoft gained over 90% of the home OS market share by making a product that everybody hates?

Many people would love to have an alternative to Microsoft based products, but since many companies are afraid of moving into a product category that Microsoft dominates, that product does not get produced for alternative platforms or market categories.

Here is what you will find at CompUSA if you are looking for an Operating System. Here is what you see if you are looking for an Office Suit. There are alternatives, and if these alternatives start looking more attractive that what Microsoft is selling, they will take market share away from Microsoft. That isn't happening because people are still choosing Microsoft.

I still maintain that this is not a monopoly rent. Once the cost outweighs the benefit of choosing a Microsoft product, I can guarantee you that people will not buy from them anymore.

Actually, after watching the computer industry for twenty years now, I don't see this. You must not understand all of the issues if this is really what you believe.

Are you saying that Microsoft gained over 90% of the home OS market share by making a product that everybody hates?

Many people would love to have an alternative to Microsoft based products, but since many companies are afraid of moving into a product category that Microsoft dominates, that product does not get produced for alternative platforms or market categories.

Here is what you will find at CompUSA if you are looking for an Operating System. Here is what you see if you are looking for an Office Suit. There are alternatives, and if these alternatives start looking more attractive that what Microsoft is selling, they will take market share away from Microsoft. That isn't happening because people are still choosing Microsoft.

I still maintain that this is not a monopoly rent. Once the cost outweighs the benefit of choosing a Microsoft product, I can guarantee you that people will not buy from them anymore.

Nice try at a lame ass analogy. Unfortunately it really has no bearing of what is happening today with Microsoft.

Microsoft is not the only "farmer" in town. Head down to your local CompUSA and browse the Office Software section. I can see Office software from IBM, Corel, Apple, Alladin, and others. Some are priced just as high as Microsoft Office. If Microsoft were suddenly able to put all of these other software companies out of business and then decided to charge $5000 for Office, I can guarantee you that dozens of new software companies would appear and start selling Office software cheaper than $5000, and because nobody wants to pay $5000 for office software, these new companies would have alot of success.

So if Mr. Joe Corn Farmer decided he could charge whatever he wanted for crappy food, you can bet that some enterprising businessman would jump in and sell better food at a more reasonable price, and Mr. Joe Corn Farmer would have a short stay at the top. Thats how capitalism works.

CompUSA lists 115 available game titles. Surely some of those would be enough to satisfy you.

Head on down to your local CompUSA and browse the Office software section. You will find Office suites from Apple, IBM, Microsoft, Sun, ThinkFree, Corel, and others. Most cost less than Microsoft Office. Are you telling me that the only reason that 90% of all users choose Microsoft Office is because they are too stupid to find anything else, or they are too "entrenched" in the Microsoft Office way? Do you honestly think that 90% of all users are willing to pay nearly 5 times as much for Microsoft Office because the "won't change from thier norm if they can help it"?

Um, your posting might have been relevant at some point in the past but the iPOD has had Windows versions for quite a while - heck, you can even buy them at CompUSA here.

There's a $50 T-Mobile rebate and a $100 CompUSA rebate (good for the activation of any cell phone, if I remember correctly).

Everquest *IS* $10

As I recall, each speed increase turns out more frisbees than the last. 10x burns less reliably than 8x, etc

If you have a first-generation crappy drive, or use media that isn't designed for that burn speed then that's true.

theoretical maximum number of CDs they can burn

Yes, and HD's have a theoretical average number of hours before failure. So? All mechanical systems fail at one point or another.

yet to see a CD-R rated for more than 24x

You haven't looked recently, have you? Try here, or here, or here.

Plextor at least (apparantly) won't let you burn at a higher speed than the CD-R(W) is rated for

That's dependant on the software, not the hardware. I know you can turn it off in Nero, and probably most other CD burning software.

I'm not sure how long this will last

I'm somewhat actively looking for a laptop to run Linux, but I've found the various websites mentioned to be far from useful. It seems that laptop models change about every three months or so.

For instance: I looked at CompUSA selling an HP Pavilion zt1250. I haven't found any linux/laptop site which mentions this model. Not only this, but HP's website has no listing for this model at all, not even an historical reference.

I get the feeling that, as a general rule, by the time someone gets Linux up and running on a new model, that model is no longer being manufactured.

A lot of pages I find about running linux on a laptop tend to say things like: works great out of the box, except for sound, X, modem, network, and power management.

Toshiba's Satellite 1955-S801 has a 16" 1280x1024 display too, GeForce4 440 Go (32meg), etc. Unfortunately, like the Sony it uses an Intel P4 CPU. I gave up waiting for someone to make a decent Athlon laptop, gave my old Toshiba K62-333 laptop to my parents, and switched back to a custom-built desktop. Compaq's upcoming Presario 900 looks like the best bet, 15" screen, ATI Radeon graphics.

And how much will this premier office suite set you back? At compusa.com , it'll only cost $479.99 for the full Standard edition. And it doesn't come included with Windows XP. If you want to do the legal route, which is what everyone does in a business, right? On the other hand, KOffice and OpenOffice, are 1) free, 2) many times comes with the Linux flavor of your choice. And it's completely legal. And even if you wanted to use StarOffice 6, it's only $79.95 MSRP. :) You tell me which is the better offer. :)

We have several small shops that sell components cheap, usually about the same as pricewatch after you figure in sales tax, shipping, and all the other extras. I like buying from them because there is someone I can talk face-to-face with and return parts to. I can ask questions like "hey, how often do you get people returning brand X hard drives that are DOA".

Also, by taking my money to those shops I help make sure they stay in business, so as to not help those big shops that seem to get articles on slashdot a lot for various questionable business practices, as well as making sure the little shops are still around when I need a part "right now" not "in a few days, when we feel like sticking it in the mail".

I picked up a Kyocera QCP6035 phone for CHEAP ($100 at Best Buy) a month ago. They're discontinued now, I think, but CompUSA still has em for $150, and they're practically free with a new account with all the rebates they throw at you. It's an 8MB PalmOS 3.5 PDA and SprintPCS phone combo, and it's BEAUTIFUL. Great battery life (for now), great reception over my older Samsung and Sanyo Sprint phones, and the best part: the built in net connection.

The phone comes with Sprint's dialup service built in, and doesn't cost any more than normal airtime. For a poor college kid like me the cost is silly low and I can do AIM, SSH, VNC, web/email, IRC, and never have to go into the office ever again :)

The IRsync capability as well as being able to use it as a modem is nice. Biggest downside is the serial cradle it comes with, but I think they have a USB one you can buy now.

Yes, you can go into CompUSA and this Arm-powered windows PC. OK, it's a pocket PC, but it's in direct competition with Risc OS. It comes preinstalled/bundled with "Pocket Word", so, no you can't purchase a word processor for it (damn monopoly!).

Here are all the varieties of ARM processors supported under Windows CE and .NET