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I don't disagree that going NT based was a good move, I knew that NT was the better OS, but the lack of USB and DirectX were the main issues! I think when 2000 came out its version of DirectX was backwards compatible with NT.. can't remember. Basing 2000 on NT was an awesome idea, and I don't think XP has much over 2000 than a bit of an interface redesign and built in support for wireless.. still a good OS though. How did MS manage to screw up so badly after starting to head in the right direction!?

I have never heard of Neptune, here's an interesting snippet from a discussion at http://www.flexbeta.net/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t2363.html :

Well, actually Neptune was a lot more than just Windows 2000 with a different logon screen. This was orginally a developer's release for something that was supposed to be much better. Neptune was not canceled. All you have to do is browse through some of the court testimonials available on Microsoft.com and you can clearly see that. In addition, Neptune has a feature called Activity Centers. I am sure all of you have seen screenshots of them. If you haven't, click here. For some reason, people kept thinking that once Bill Gates became head of Windows that he canceled the project and formed Whistler, but that is incorrect. Neptune's ideas have been around ever since Cairo times (technologies that were originally destined for Windows NT 4, the Windows 2000), but they simply could not be relased because of their complexity for the time. So, after Windows 2000 was released, MS released Codename Neptune, which was the starter for all of the echnologies. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Microsoft deceided that they should tone down on the project and try to combine the 9x kernel with the more stable NT kernel. This is where Whistler (XP) came in to existence. As you can clearly see, MS used the login screen from Neptune for XP. Click here for a screenshot of the login screen from Whistler build 2250. Then of course, it went through beta and was perfected and Windows XP was released. All this time, however, Neptune was still being worked on. As time went on, MS used ideas like WinFS (a concept of MS's from 1993) and kept adding them to Neptune, jumping it from core to core (Windows 2000 --> Windows XP --> Windows Server 2003) until it arrived to where it is now: Core version 6.0. Yes, if you haven't guessed, this IS LONHGORN! Neptune is very much alive in Longhorn, as you can see, because one example is the Activity Centers that are integrated into explorer.

Sickening how Vista was hyped up so much and in the end was just a load of cruft and bloat :(

Otherwise, Firefox would look and work like it did 5 years ago, with great support for Web standards, but terrible usability.

Yes, OMG so unusable!

I'm guessing you didn't use Firebird 5 years ago.

Hell, the Firefox prefs on MacOS X looks damn similar to the preferences layout in Safari, or is FireFox also claiming to be driving UI standards on MacOS X as well...

It looks better now, and does match the style of System Preferences panes of OS X. But it's actually less usable to me in that they moved connection settings (the only setting I ever have to change, to use proxies) off the main "tab". Fortunately it remembers the last tab you had open, so only a minor hindrance.

Otherwise, Firefox would look and work like it did 5 years ago, with great support for Web standards, but terrible usability.

Yes, OMG so unusable!

I'm guessing you didn't use Firebird 5 years ago.

Hell, the Firefox prefs on MacOS X looks damn similar to the preferences layout in Safari, or is FireFox also claiming to be driving UI standards on MacOS X as well...

It looks better now, and does match the style of System Preferences panes of OS X. But it's actually less usable to me in that they moved connection settings (the only setting I ever have to change, to use proxies) off the main "tab". Fortunately it remembers the last tab you had open, so only a minor hindrance.

My submission yesterday had video, too. And a disturbing link with a horror movie... :)

What good is a leak. If nobody wants it?

This is a gross misconception and an attitude that is causing OSS to fall further and further behind commercial offerings from Apple and Microsoft. The fact is that millions or people want it! There are countless fan sites like Flexbeta, BetaNews, NeoWin, WinSupersite, PCWorld, ZDNet, and thousands more that are all breathless with anticipation of Vista. They and theirmillions of readers eagerly await Vista's release and the countless "innovations" that it will bring.

Meanwhile, back in the OSS camp, people are saying insightful stuff like Gaim is more than adequate and RTFM. Microsoft IE sucks, yet it is still the dominant browser and I guarantee that at least 50% of today's Firefox users will switch back to IE upon the release of Vista. That is very telling but, people don't seem to be interested in the message.

People, like you, need to get a better attitude. They need to look at what Microsoft is doing and meet or exceed its capabilities. It is not enough to rest on your laurels while being pretencious and self important. Microsoft is charging ahead and is positioning itself to unleash ten years of its concentrated effort, en mass. Right now, OSS is rapidly slipping behind while people pound their chests saying; "but, we're more secure!". This is not enough to prevent you from being marginalized into obscurity by Microsoft, as if OSS wasn't obscure enough already.

How many of your relatives know what Linux is? How many of them know what Windows is?

Even though a nearly-identical story is being run on a number of online news sites (not just The Inquirer), I'm not convinced it's at all valid - none but one of them has a source attribution (the article on Addict3d points to a source on FlexBeta, but that goes nowhere).

I can't find anything in Sony/SCUS/SCEA media releases about it.

Nope. The windows in Vista are foggy.

Windows ME was like a 9x version of Windows 2000. It had the same icon set as Windows 2000 and actually had more "features". I remember running Windows ME on my PII 350 and I had not one problem with it. It would boot up to full load in like 20 seconds. Everything was snappy and it had alot of nifty things such as the new version of Media Player.

Am I the only person who didn't find Windows ME to suck ?

Microsoft was going to come out with Windows Tiger> which was actually another 9x OS. Im guessing they got over it and released Windows Neptune which was like a "consumer version of Windows 2000". But that became Windows Whistler or as we know Windows XP.

Google has cached the entire printed article, not just the first page. See:

http://www.flexbeta.net/main/printarticle.php?id=1 06

http://www.flexbeta.net/main/printarticle.php?id=1 03

Guess which choice is remembered? Bets this "minor " bug will not big fixed till release?

According to this, Google is. But I'm sure that's what you meant...right ?

As the review on Flexbeta points out, Google search is the default. I'm glad they did this as most(all ?) of the users will be doing this anyway.

Though this might change in the final release, if it doesn't, it'll be an open admission that Google is better, not that they don't acknowledge that now.

The site appears to be down...

Coral
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=s how&id=99">MirrorDot

(OK, there is NOTHING wrong with that link code :( MirrorDot URL:

http://www.mirrordot.com/find-mirror.html?http:/ /www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id =99 )

This article was entered as part of an article-writing contest with real life rewards such as a video card or DVD writers. This article is just written by some guy trying to win a contest, not by anyone influential. What he says is true, but obvious.

A Dozen!!! your lucky..all I get is a gray screen that says: Error An error has occurred trying to access http://www.flexbeta.net/main/comments.php?catid=1& shownews=13839. Sorry that we're not more specific about what the error is. To have no errors Would be life without meaning No struggle, no joy Boy that media preferance panel must have brough a bunch of his friends....maybe longhorn won't be so bad after all ;-)

But then Time Warner AOL Netscape etc. Inc. will sue Microsoft for patent infringment under the justification that using Foghorn for a windows product has completely damaged the reputation of their imaginary character, causing microsoft to go out of business.
Once Microsoft goes out of business, the current AOL will fail because they were never able to switch from IE->Netscape (despite the fact they BOUGHT Netscape).

Netscape will also fail (to install) preventing AOL from making the switch, dragging Time Warner down with them. The stock price will drop so low, that Steve Jobs will buy Time Warner, resurrect AOL, and instantly stop innovating because he no longer has competition and controls the internet connection of millions that he can direct to iTunes.com.

Hey...it could happen! hehe

I think it looks a lot more like Safari.

IE7: http://www.flexbeta.net/gsurface/ie7/ie72.jpg

Safari: http://www.unsanity.org/rosyna/imgs/safarirss.png

Pretty much identical. Actually looks like MS is trying to figure out how to organize the right area so it doesn't look like such a blatant ripoff.

So IE7's RSS support looks virtually identical to Safari's RSS support

Why am I not surprised?

I say fuck MLMagasine, use Wikipedia for Netscape's history and FlexBeta's article for Firefox history, since they at least have the facts, with a per-version history to boot

From : http://www.flexbeta.net/main/comments.php?catid=1& shownews=13318

How is it possible to have "a copy of Windows that did not have IE installed" ???

I would really like to know this, please post instructions ! :)

For fucks sake, is this really so important to be on the front page of Slashdot? I will probably be modded down for this, but anyway...

While Slashdot thinks it is important to post news about Microsoft backing away from a gay bill with a source of from a random blog, there has been GCC 4 released, Apple has been paying tech editors to praise iPod, they managed to put 200 Gbits on a holographic disk and ton more of real news that matters.

For fucks sake, is this really so important to be on the front page of Slashdot? I will probably be modded down for this, but anyway...

While Slashdot thinks it is important to post news about Microsoft backing away from a gay bill with a source of from a random blog, there has been GCC 4 released, Apple has been paying tech editors to praise iPod, they managed to put 200 Gbits on a holographic disk and ton more of real news that matters.

You can configure just about anything in Samba with YaST, are you sure you thoroughly checked out the Samba Server Module ?? There is even an Advanced section that has a drop down list of *every* possible setting for Samba. For further reading check out this article which covers setting up SLES as a Samba with LDAP controller (all by just using YaST) for Windows Networks.

What crap breaking down the page into a million pages. here is the printable link

http://www.flexbeta.net/main/printarticle.php?id=8 9

Here is the printable version of the article, I was still able to get this to load even though the rest of the site is slashdotted to hell:
http://www.flexbeta.net/main/printarticle.php?id=8 9

- Flexbeta (http://www.flexbeta.net/index.php)
-- The History of Mozilla Firefox: From Phoenix, to Firebird, to Firefox (http://www.flexbeta.net/articles.php?action=showd &showarticle=89) Flexbeta Home
The History of Mozilla Firefox: From Phoenix, to Firebird, to Firefox
Posted by Gsurface on 30 Mar 2005 - 22:41
Introduction

Firefox is not just a browser; it is a religion, a way of life some might say, and for others, like me, a great damn way of reaching the web without all the ugly stuff that comes with it. Firefox has gone a long way, from name changes to added features, to conquering market share off of the world's most popular browser. Firefox has reached millions via not just web, but also through newspaper headlines all funded by Firefox users themselves. Many of the current Firefox users have been loyal users since the bird's initial flight, and though Firefox has been in the wild now for quiet some time, there are plenty of Firefox users that have recently discovered this marvelous browser. The Firefox browser was previously known as Firebird and before that, Phoenix. While the name has changed, the concepts remain the same. The history of Firefox begins with an idea to make an already existing web browser faster and leaner. Originally dubbed Phoenix, the browser within a few years turns into a revolution, an escape for many from the constant security vulnerabilities from Internet Explorer. The story starts with Phoenix 0.1, and builds up to what we know today as Mozilla Firefox.

Phoenix 0.1 - 0.3

Phoenix 0.1
Firefox begins not as Firefox, but as Phoenix, which was initially made public on September 23, 2002. The Phoenix browser, which uses a large amount of the Mozilla code, was designed to be a lean and fast browser that loads in about half the time of Mozilla. The initial release was codenamed "Pescadero", which means fisherman in Spanish, with a build of 0.1. Phoenix did not feature an installer, rather the user had to download the file and run the executable. Though the menus were customizable, there wasn't much to add to the toolbar. The only items that were available were the home icon, print icon, a go button and a button to go to the Mozilla home page. Though still a baby, Phoenix had a lot to offer such as a download manager which IE did not contain. Looking into the preferences, Phoenix 0.1 had little options for the user (compared to newer builds). This initial build did not contain a Google search engine on the toolbar, but it did contain a popup blocker and tabbed browsing. Certain shortcut features such as writing the URL then pressing Ctrl + Enter to automatically enter the .COM part of the URL was not available in 0.1. Phoenix 0.1 did not include a sidebar, which in the second release the Mozilla team would implement it.

Phoenix 0.2
The second release of Mozilla Phoenix, build 0.2, codenamed Santa Cruz, was released a few days after 0.1 on October 10th, 2002. Plenty of features were added to this new build including the sidebar, which allowed the user to view either their bookmarks, history, or recent downloads as a side window of the browser. Other enhancements were implemented including new options to the preferences section. Now users were able to disable Java and edit some tab browsing options. Phoenix 0.2 also introduced the ability to add extensions and themes to the browser.

The toolbar customization went through a huge overhaul. The user was able to add much more icons to their toolbar including a history icon, downloads, bookmarks, new window and a search bar. The search bar was for searching on the current page, dmoz.org, and Google, of course. Phoenix 0.2 was also marginally faster than 0.1, though it was very hard to notice the difference. Though some bugs were fixed in this build, the Mozilla team concentrated more on enhancing the browser and dedicat

- Flexbeta (http://www.flexbeta.net/index.php)
-- The History of Mozilla Firefox: From Phoenix, to Firebird, to Firefox (http://www.flexbeta.net/articles.php?action=showd &showarticle=89) Flexbeta Home
The History of Mozilla Firefox: From Phoenix, to Firebird, to Firefox
Posted by Gsurface on 30 Mar 2005 - 22:41
Introduction

Firefox is not just a browser; it is a religion, a way of life some might say, and for others, like me, a great damn way of reaching the web without all the ugly stuff that comes with it. Firefox has gone a long way, from name changes to added features, to conquering market share off of the world's most popular browser. Firefox has reached millions via not just web, but also through newspaper headlines all funded by Firefox users themselves. Many of the current Firefox users have been loyal users since the bird's initial flight, and though Firefox has been in the wild now for quiet some time, there are plenty of Firefox users that have recently discovered this marvelous browser. The Firefox browser was previously known as Firebird and before that, Phoenix. While the name has changed, the concepts remain the same. The history of Firefox begins with an idea to make an already existing web browser faster and leaner. Originally dubbed Phoenix, the browser within a few years turns into a revolution, an escape for many from the constant security vulnerabilities from Internet Explorer. The story starts with Phoenix 0.1, and builds up to what we know today as Mozilla Firefox.

Phoenix 0.1 - 0.3

Phoenix 0.1
Firefox begins not as Firefox, but as Phoenix, which was initially made public on September 23, 2002. The Phoenix browser, which uses a large amount of the Mozilla code, was designed to be a lean and fast browser that loads in about half the time of Mozilla. The initial release was codenamed "Pescadero", which means fisherman in Spanish, with a build of 0.1. Phoenix did not feature an installer, rather the user had to download the file and run the executable. Though the menus were customizable, there wasn't much to add to the toolbar. The only items that were available were the home icon, print icon, a go button and a button to go to the Mozilla home page. Though still a baby, Phoenix had a lot to offer such as a download manager which IE did not contain. Looking into the preferences, Phoenix 0.1 had little options for the user (compared to newer builds). This initial build did not contain a Google search engine on the toolbar, but it did contain a popup blocker and tabbed browsing. Certain shortcut features such as writing the URL then pressing Ctrl + Enter to automatically enter the .COM part of the URL was not available in 0.1. Phoenix 0.1 did not include a sidebar, which in the second release the Mozilla team would implement it.

Phoenix 0.2
The second release of Mozilla Phoenix, build 0.2, codenamed Santa Cruz, was released a few days after 0.1 on October 10th, 2002. Plenty of features were added to this new build including the sidebar, which allowed the user to view either their bookmarks, history, or recent downloads as a side window of the browser. Other enhancements were implemented including new options to the preferences section. Now users were able to disable Java and edit some tab browsing options. Phoenix 0.2 also introduced the ability to add extensions and themes to the browser.

The toolbar customization went through a huge overhaul. The user was able to add much more icons to their toolbar including a history icon, downloads, bookmarks, new window and a search bar. The search bar was for searching on the current page, dmoz.org, and Google, of course. Phoenix 0.2 was also marginally faster than 0.1, though it was very hard to notice the difference. Though some bugs were fixed in this build, the Mozilla team concentrated more on enhancing the browser and dedicat

Hah, I like how they used a bitmap for the screenshot. ;-p
http://www.flexbeta.net/images/googlex2.bmp

That's why it's usually good to look for a Printable Version link on the page. Yeah, you still have to get to the page once to find it, but then it comes up mostly ad-free and all on one page. Of course both versions seem to be Slashdotted now... :)

http://www.flexbeta.net/main/comments.php?catid=1& id=12312

Microsoft said that famous upcoming Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the sith was rendered on beta version in Windows 64 bit.

This means this operating system like a desirable option even in its beta stage was good enough to render a state of the art movie. The company called Jak Movies decided to go for Windows 64 bit since it was faster to render under 64 bit windows.

This version of Windows is almost ready to meet all the Athlon 64, FX, Pentium Four and Celerons which support it and this is just a start of the new marchitecture. Its interesting to know that such a massive project where actually done with Windows and its 64 bit beta version. Many of us is waiting for that movie for a long time and we will see what 64 bit windows software and tools powered with nice artists where able to make.

The last page of the Flexbeta article comments that it will be subscription-based as well.

Also, the time taken for the MSAS scan is a bit disconcerting (25mins 4secs

Compared to 4mins 27secs and unknown for AdAware.

Other than this, its nice to see that Microsoft is (seemingly) changing their game plan in the OS market!

Also, the time taken for the MSAS scan is a bit disconcerting (25mins 4secs

Compared to 4mins 27secs and unknown for AdAware.

Other than this, its nice to see that Microsoft is (seemingly) changing their game plan in the OS market!

For those who want to go straight to the charts.


SuSE vs Windows 2003 Performance

At 60 users SuSE has 2.5 time the performance
of Windows 2003 server.

Better security! Yeah, that's it!

wait a minute...

I have this huge hate for people that talk trash about Windows and haven't used it since Workgroups for Windows was in the stores. It's not about how much crap MS puts in to their Windows, and I'm not going to fight for how good/bad Windows is. My bigest thing is that it seems that every one is bashing Windows because it is Windows and no other reason.
In the article that I read from, http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=s how&id=76 the Windows ICF did prety damn well. I meen you can't expect every pice of software to be perfict. If you do well then you are just S O M F L. Getting down to it like I tell/have been told it's alot about the eye candy and use ese. If you have to block stuff manualy all the time then its not going to be popular with the newbies. This is at least a simple and mostly effective way to help cut down on Internet bull shit. Also like in another post, if MS said that your system is totaly safe then thats their name on the line. But if its "protected" then nothing that happens to you system is Windows fault.

but would it protect me from udp packets sent to tcp port 1? windows firewall would!

That's a mistake, really. I bought D3 when it came out and love playing it. While you can't use CD emulation cd software to pretend the cd is in the disk is a moot point, even trying to copy the cd doesn't work. {I've tried this with several programs and in linux using bit-for-bit copies, still never worked- let me know if i was doing something wrong.)

So I found a tutorial on the internet on how to effectively use a HEX editor on doom3.exe to essentially remove the software protection, or copyright (whatever it was called, I cannot remember)

You can learn how to run Doom3 on Windows 98 Systems (which is something you can't do normally) using this tutorial: http://www.flexbeta.net/forums/index.php?act=ST&f= 9&t=4091 or you can search google for that tutorial that allows you to play w/o the cd in the drive. (sorry I couldn't find a link for it, could someone kindly post it for me?)

Anyways, just because _you_ can't run the game without the CD in the drive is your own shortcoming and not the reason for pirating the software. It's just a justification for your act of piracy and don't try to delude yourself or others into believing that this is in any way a correct cource of action.

Besides, this is a minor annoyance to have a cd check of any kind. But havn't ID in the past, provided a patch that removed the cd check as a convienence factor for us? Come on.. just lighten up a little and do some hard work by hexing it yourself, or finding someone who can do it for you.

p.s. I've scanned those doom3.exe no-cd cracked files you can download, and they're almost all serial stealers that use a quick hash and send it off to somewhere on the net. Especially off p2p networks; they're usually worms etc.

--zoloto

13 Reasons to use firefox over IE

I think i once saw a page with like 100 reasons. But this covers the major ones.

Look at this picture:

screenshot

That's just ugly. The crappy graphical circular thing (I guess it moves to the music?). The badly-contrasted buttons with text RIGHT in the center between dark and light, impossible to read or decipher (thanks MS, for making my monitor look like it has glare on it, ALL THE TIME!) The useless empty space to the right with a .. album cover? .. at the top.

If they are trying to copy apple they need to just please give up .. they don't "get" it at all!

Indeed. I believe Microsoft made a pretty big mistake with the WMP 7 interface, so my first thought when I saw a screenshot of this thing was 'what an ugly piece of shit'. Seriously, having something that bloated, rivalling RealOne, could at last push me to try and find other players for my media.

Take a look at a comparison between what a lovely, no-nonsense interface WMP used to have, and what it is going to have pretty soon. Whilst I've never been a fan of the million-and-one ugly visualizations anyway, this is a great example of bloatware, with far, far too much being crammed into one piece of software, which should have a limited, defined functionality.

Why can't the default media player's interface be kept simple, as it used to be? Why does it have to take up the whole screen to be useable nowadays?

And does anyone know where I can find a decent media player for windows that supports all the formats of WMP10, but has the elegance of WMP6 (yes, I know about the 'classic' skin in WMP9 but will that be around forever?)? Mplayer, right? :-)

In the Word screenshot, they used the phrase "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog", which is wrong. The correct phrase is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", and contains all the letters in the English alphabet. Their phrase misses the letter S.

Many corporate cdkeys were locked out of the last sp2 build to try to fight piracy. The build would allow you to install the service pack but immediatly after login it would force the activation screen to you which you can not get around. Only solution was to format and install with a different key. More info here.

It seems a little ironic that the screenshots presented show-off all the best features of Windows applications.

Just about to agree to the EULA of Microsoft Office

Windows needs to be restarted to continue this installation

MS-Word asking you to register

Tell me again, why do we not use OpenOffice?

It seems a little ironic that the screenshots presented show-off all the best features of Windows applications.

Just about to agree to the EULA of Microsoft Office

Windows needs to be restarted to continue this installation

MS-Word asking you to register

Tell me again, why do we not use OpenOffice?

It seems a little ironic that the screenshots presented show-off all the best features of Windows applications.

Just about to agree to the EULA of Microsoft Office

Windows needs to be restarted to continue this installation

MS-Word asking you to register

Tell me again, why do we not use OpenOffice?

this pic for references to an install of wine.

Finally, for those who know lots about these things, on this picture notice how the on the right and bottom of the page the scroll bar and status bar are clipped. This is a bug in crossover office but is fixed in the latest wine, so they appear to have basically made a crossover varient and not even bothered merging the latest release of the offical wine in. poor.

this pic for references to an install of wine.

Finally, for those who know lots about these things, on this picture notice how the on the right and bottom of the page the scroll bar and status bar are clipped. This is a bug in crossover office but is fixed in the latest wine, so they appear to have basically made a crossover varient and not even bothered merging the latest release of the offical wine in. poor.

this pic for references to an install of wine.

Finally, for those who know lots about these things, on this picture notice how the on the right and bottom of the page the scroll bar and status bar are clipped. This is a bug in crossover office but is fixed in the latest wine, so they appear to have basically made a crossover varient and not even bothered merging the latest release of the offical wine in. poor.

This image mentioned in the article clearly shows lines that reference /usr/bin/wine in the winbridge.lst preview icon.

Combined with the link you give, if this is not a complete ripoff then they are at least building on the wine base code in some way.