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Wrong. Software was purchasd. Windows Academic pricing is quite reasonable.
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/programs/education/default.mspx

It looks like Microsoft engineers have been working with the NCSA and a beta version of Microsoft HPC server 2008 as part of a Microsoft marketing push for this software. The marketing pdf is here. Microsoft want to increase their foothold in HPC, it's a growing, high margin market.

Actually there are no CALs for this
http://www.microsoft.com/hpc/howtobuy/pricing/default.mspx

From the FAQ command line submission is supported, which to me sort of implies that there must also be a graphical submission method.

M.

I don't, but there's a lot of information at the home page. Including links to case studies for NASCAR, Daresbury, etc., etc.

Including FAQs. And, finally, the answer to the burning question: will it run Linux?

The application vendor is the best source for determining if your UNIX- or Linux-based application will run on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Note that Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack in CCS can take advantage of 32- and 64-bit versions of Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) on Windows Server 2003 Release 2 (R2), which may be required to run UNIX or Linux applications.

I don't, but there's a lot of information at the home page. Including links to case studies for NASCAR, Daresbury, etc., etc.

Including FAQs. And, finally, the answer to the burning question: will it run Linux?

The application vendor is the best source for determining if your UNIX- or Linux-based application will run on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Note that Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack in CCS can take advantage of 32- and 64-bit versions of Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) on Windows Server 2003 Release 2 (R2), which may be required to run UNIX or Linux applications.

I don't, but there's a lot of information at the home page. Including links to case studies for NASCAR, Daresbury, etc., etc.

Including FAQs. And, finally, the answer to the burning question: will it run Linux?

The application vendor is the best source for determining if your UNIX- or Linux-based application will run on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Note that Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack in CCS can take advantage of 32- and 64-bit versions of Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) on Windows Server 2003 Release 2 (R2), which may be required to run UNIX or Linux applications.

I don't, but there's a lot of information at the home page. Including links to case studies for NASCAR, Daresbury, etc., etc.

Including FAQs. And, finally, the answer to the burning question: will it run Linux?

The application vendor is the best source for determining if your UNIX- or Linux-based application will run on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Note that Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack in CCS can take advantage of 32- and 64-bit versions of Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA) on Windows Server 2003 Release 2 (R2), which may be required to run UNIX or Linux applications.

The new version of Windows Cluster Compute Server can work more like a traditional supercomputer, with MPI, batch scheduling, etc. While I haven't seen or used it yet, I've heard Microsoft talking about it for a while now, telling everyone how they finally have the tools more traditional HPC systems have.

WinXP, Nervous Pack 3 is approved for release as Win7.

Is that a fork of Service Pack 3 which is already available?

clicky

Restrict use of Safari as a web browser until an appropriate update is available from Microsoft and/or Apple.

Yeah, too bad there isn't a virtual desktop for XP

The account management page doesn't work either, the sections just sit on loading forever (why do they use scripting for this anyway?). Thus giving no way to, say, change your password.
Billing still works. Still no way to remove a credit card without adding another, though.

I'm not sure, but I think it's not the working directory that's really causing the problem here.
Check this
CWD on a recent system should be after system libraries, but "Directory from which the application loaded" is always first.
I think IE launches from the desktop for some bizarre reason.

Bad Microsoft! Bad!

Microsoft knows how fucked up this is, and attempted to correct it in 2000 SP4/XP.
HOWEVER, you may notice that "The directory from which the application loaded." is still first, and for IE this is bizarrely the Desktop.

UNIX folks, if having "." in your PATH scares you, imagine Windows-land where until recently, "." was in your LDPATH... right after whichever bin directory the executable was in, and before all system lib paths. It gets better, imagine if the single most Internet-exposed application on your system ran with LDPATH/LD_LIBRARY_PATH="~/Desktop: ..." by default.

I hope that paints a pretty clear picture of how bad this is. Windows users, God help you.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/

http://developer.apple.com/

Isn't that what MS XNA Game Studio hopes to accomplish. Let the little guys get back into programming games. Sure there's a small fee, but it's not much more than the cost of a couple games. And if you are really into creating games, it's a great way to get started.

They certainly do dominate the desktop as much as in any other country. And big OEMs (Legend, Lenovo, eg) preinstall legal copies of MS software, the same as they do in the US.

Since Bill had dinner with Hu Jintao, lots of deals have been made to licence MS software.

By tolerating piracy for a few years, now they've got the market and can monetize it. Sure, there's RedFlag Linux, but it's just as much a minority (and server) enthusiasm as Linux is anywhere else.

My current work environment seems to be quite similar to yours. Although I do not consider myself a master, I'm definitely a jack of all trades. Fax machines, copiers, computer networks (Linux, Windows), Intranet sites design, etc.

How do I keep current? Just reading the manuals.

• Web design? w3.org / www.php.net
• Networks? Microsoft Support
• Copiers, faxes and other hardware? manufacturers' sites

This is honestly where i've learned all what i know now.

There's a compatibility, which works perfectly fine. I've been sending it to colleagues for a year now.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en

By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able to open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. The Compatibility Pack can also be used in conjunction with the Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003, Excel Viewer 2003, and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 to view files saved in these new formats. For more information about the Compatibility Pack, see Knowledge Base article 924074.

As opposed to buying a copy of XP from someone else for $150?

Rights to OEM versions of systems software are granted in the OEM License Terms. The OEM License Terms for most OEM versions of systems software do not grant downgrade rights. The exception is the OEM License Terms for the Windows® XP Professional operating system and the Windows Vistaâ Business and Windows Vista Ultimate operating systems, which grant downgrade rights. See the full text of the OEM License Terms for the specific downgrade rights.

Can you upload the list somewhere? I'd love to take a look since I'm not installing Vista any soon and I'm making a guide alas "100 Reasons You'll Be Speechless" http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/100reasons.mspx for clients insisting in installing Vista on their wooping Celeron Machines.

No it doesn't...

It is hard to compare directly, but let's try.

Vista Home Premium (it has media center functionality): In China (according to Microsoft), 899 yuan ( http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-news/?p=953 )

In USA: 239.95 usd ( http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/homepremium/default.mspx ).

Asking google for the conversion:

899 Chinese yuan = 130.628296 U.S. dollars

So, a product produced in the US costs 1/2 in a foreign country. Am I allowed to now purchase Chinese product and sell in the US? To find out if this is worth it, let's get a retail (not msrp) price on Windows Vista Home Premium. Amazon lists some prices (no, we don't want the "upgrade" edition):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013O54OE/ref=dp_cp_ob_title_1

This prices at 209.99 usd (although it claims msrp is 269.99).

All told, the Chinese version is considerably less expensive.

You might want to read this from Microsoft. In particular, take a look at the setting for DefaultFileTypeRisk

Yea apple spent most of the 90s with poor products and incompetent management. I never said anything about the older OS 7/8/9.

For what its worth Microsoft did the same thing before they started using NT for all their operating systems.

As bad as Windows 95 and Windows 98 were, they were still superior to the Mac OS versions out at the time. Not only did they offer preemptive multitasking but also protected memory, TCP/IP networking and full backwards compatibility.

I know you'd like to believe you have a point but you really don't even with the free downloads stuff, Microsoft hasn't really improved XP since SP2 came out and that was only because they had to. The stuff you can download from MS.com is minor insignificant crap like powertoys and Windows destkop search (which is horrible).

Microsoft created C# (IMO, one of the nicest programming languages ever made) and .NET. These opened up a whole world of new software developments.

Windows Media Player, Windows Media Encoder, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Defender, Internet Explorer, Visual C++ Express, Visual Basic Express, Microsoft Reader, Paint.NET and Virtual PC, among many more, are available for free. You can find even more if you visit the Microsoft Research site also. Clearly there is no shortage of free software being offered by Microsoft.

Someone needs to mod the post above me up. While this is /. and many profess to hate all things DRM there are some legit reasons to use it and there are places where value is added for both the consumer and the business. Unfortunately, and no people really aren't going to like this link, here are some examples where it makes sense. DRM, properly used, has great potentials and those who espouse that it is demonic by its very nature haven't much of a grounding in either business or reality.

I, personally, prefer content without DRM restrictions/additions from a consumer view. As someone who's owned their own business, though not a content creation business, I see the value for both businesses and consumers as a potential that isn't often realized in today's world. Right now DRM is more about restriction than about enabling. It should be about rights. (For instance, I strongly believe that if one purchases content such as a movie or music then they should have a right to create a backup copy, minimally, or have a viable way to replace the media should the device that carried the media fail.)

Right now I would say that I prefer DRM-free content because what is in use today isn't doing anything more than prohibiting what I know should be my rights. But, because I am not blinded by the sheeple mentality I do actually see that there is a benefit to DRM if used properly, implemented properly, and when/if the focus changes on providing actual value I may change my actions and take advantage of DRM as both a consumer and a business.

* Hide details that client code doesn't care about
* Expose details that client code does care about
* Consider building everything as event driven state machines
* For distributed processes, read http://research.microsoft.com/users/lamport/pubs/time-clocks.pdf
* WRITE TESTS FIRST
* No, I really mean it. WRITE TESTS *BEFORE* YOU WRITE "REAL" CODE.
* Design for the known specifications, only design to support expected spec changes if you're sure those particular spec changes will happen
* Break down the system into units cohesive within themselves, but not cohesive with other units. (Duh)

That's it, off the top of my head.

In this case, I guess what you need is a virtualizer like this , so you can install some old Windows in its virtual machine.

Obviously, sooner is better for actual use; but releasing it on June 30th would have been more amusing.

Yes WPA2 is supported in XP: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=662BB74D-E7C1-48D6-95EE-1459234F4483&displaylang=en This has been available since 2005. Simple Google found it. More FUD.

If he were to put all the mail addresses into a TO or CC field (and given what he is planning, he may be stupid enough to do this), and one of the recipients is on an unpatched Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, then he may produce a torrent of regenerated emails. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7B1FF109-092E-4418-AA37-A53AF7B8F6FC&displaylang=en The link above doesn't really explain the outcome of hitting this fault very well, but it is "interesting". The unpatched server regenerates the mail to all recipients again, repeatedly, about once a minute, until it is switched off or patched. And every single email appears to come from the original sender. http://www.nicva.org/index.cfm/section/General/key/190805DupEmails Cue lots of very very irate people telling you to stop spamming them - and there is nothing you can do directly other than identify the sender from the mail headers and try and persuade them it is their system at fault. I have seen this happen a couple of times to our customers, it isn't pretty. So, from a business perspective, this act could destroy customer relations rather than create them. Is that good enough.

While I'd be the first to agree that most software is of incredibly poor quality, this just so happens to be what the market WANTS, as evidenced by the huge success of Windows 95. Bill Gates simply realized this, produced a product that was good enough, and the market rewarded him appropriately, as is the natural way things work.

Since '95 Windows quality has improved, of course, but it's still focused around the needs of its actual users rather than what a bunch of smelly software geeks prefer in an OS (and those geeks are probably not running Windows anyway). You think typical Windows users give a rat's ass about how clean the API is?

On that topic, the reason Windows has a large number of APIs is because it keeps evolving, and improved APIs take the place of old ones. The reason old ones are kept around is for backwards compatibility, and to accomodate different people's choices of programming languages. When I need to write Windows apps, I use .NET, which contains the cleanest Windows API available, and is quite a nice platform in general, too. Perhaps you'll like its API for getting a directory listing.

I'm not saying we should upgrade older PCs to Vista if we don't need to (I haven't), but if XP is no longer availabe, Vista shouldn't be too much of a resource hog if the unnecessary eye candy is turned off.

I think an example of a "non security hotfix" would be something like the Daylight Saving time fix for Windows 2000 (in "Extended Support" at the time), which was only provided for those that paid for extended hotfix support. I think an example of "design fixes and feature requests" would be a Service Pack.

So Windows XP should be secure and usable as long as software is written for it. Since so many people will continue to use Windows XP, this shouldn't be a problem.

Windows 2000 started its "Extended Support" phase 3 years ago and I'm starting to see a few new applications not support the OS (e.g. Foobar2000 0.9.5, Photoshop CS3, free Microsoft goodies). I think this will be less of a problem for Windows XP because XP is used by many more home users than Windows 2000 ever was.

I think an example of a "non security hotfix" would be something like the Daylight Saving time fix for Windows 2000 (in "Extended Support" at the time), which was only provided for those that paid for extended hotfix support. I think an example of "design fixes and feature requests" would be a Service Pack.

So Windows XP should be secure and usable as long as software is written for it. Since so many people will continue to use Windows XP, this shouldn't be a problem.

Windows 2000 started its "Extended Support" phase 3 years ago and I'm starting to see a few new applications not support the OS (e.g. Foobar2000 0.9.5, Photoshop CS3, free Microsoft goodies). I think this will be less of a problem for Windows XP because XP is used by many more home users than Windows 2000 ever was.

I think an example of a "non security hotfix" would be something like the Daylight Saving time fix for Windows 2000 (in "Extended Support" at the time), which was only provided for those that paid for extended hotfix support. I think an example of "design fixes and feature requests" would be a Service Pack.

So Windows XP should be secure and usable as long as software is written for it. Since so many people will continue to use Windows XP, this shouldn't be a problem.

Windows 2000 started its "Extended Support" phase 3 years ago and I'm starting to see a few new applications not support the OS (e.g. Foobar2000 0.9.5, Photoshop CS3, free Microsoft goodies). I think this will be less of a problem for Windows XP because XP is used by many more home users than Windows 2000 ever was.

Support for Windows XP SP2 ends on 07-13-2010. http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean31
The "Extended Support" phase is scheduled to end on 04-08-2014 for Windows XP SP3. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-XP-SP3-Brings-the-Death-of-SP2-July-13-2010-85986.shtml

Yes, I too agree it must be *meant to be* confusing.... It is just the Microsoft Way. I think there are several amortization table calculations involved in the selection of the dates too... http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

Support for Windows XP SP2 ends on 07-13-2010. http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean31
The "Extended Support" phase is scheduled to end on 04-08-2014 for Windows XP SP3. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-XP-SP3-Brings-the-Death-of-SP2-July-13-2010-85986.shtml

Yes, I too agree it must be *meant to be* confusing.... It is just the Microsoft Way. I think there are several amortization table calculations involved in the selection of the dates too... http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

2014: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=3223

I've had excellent results with the Bluetooth Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 Supposedly an 8000 version was supposed to be released with backlit keys ala the Logitech G15 (wired) keyboard, but I haven't seen one for sale yet. I've tried several other keyboard/mouse combos, and they all cap out at about 6 feet. The Bluetooth setup, meanwhile, works from the next room, and the mouse is surprisingly responsive.

What do you mean, leaked?

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/licensing/researchkernel.mspx

It's not exactly SourceForge but it'll get you the source.

I don't know if that'll have the current MP scheduler though.

This pricing model would make sense; bandwidth is priced according to the actual laws of supply and demand, rather than whatever the ISP feels like charging.

That's why ISPs won't do it.

Because most customers are doing just fine the way it is. The customers getting 'screwed' are the ones that want to transfer 1000s of GB per month for 35$ flat rate.

If the ISPs ever actually switched to a supply/demand pricing model, with tiered bandwidth, guess what, the same customers that are moaning about getting 'screwed' now by throttling, are going to be moaning that their internet costs $1500/mo when they they run torrents at 25down:2up Mbps 24x7.

Meanwhile 'regular' people will be complaining because they don't understand their up/down ratios, why bandwidth costs more going in one direction than the other, why they had to pay $5 extra one month when they didn't do anything out of the ordinary.... except update windows to sp3... and according to the MS page, thats only a 97kb download.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=68C48DAD-BC34-40BE-8D85-6BB4F56F5110&displaylang=en#filelist

In effect: everybody loses.

Both pie charts have the same date, November 2007.

The list is compiled every six months. It takes a while for the results to be tabulated and validated. New results for May 2008 will be available soon.

The upper pie is based on the share of systems by operating system family. That giant pac-man shape represents the 85% share tux had in November. The Windows sliver represents 1.2% or roughly six or seven systems in the top 500 most powerful computers publicly known, for all versions of Windows.

The bottom pie is different because it represents the operating system family's share of processing power. Here you'll note the Windows systems have disappeared entirely. Usually this represents that the scarce Windows systems were in the bottom end of the range or older systems that are not maintaining a proportional share of processing power.

Since you're making the observation that the data is seven months old, are you anticipating some upswell in adoption of Windows among the HPC crowd, who are presumed to know what they're doing and be unswayed by political or marketing concerns? That would be remarkable. If the petaflop Cell processor supercomputer IBM just built called RoadRunner runs Windows I'll eat an original IBM punch card.

What's also remarkable is that Microsoft with its billions can't build and keep a few in-house systems high in this list just to build their HPC credibility and assist their marketing in this area - which they would dearly like to have.

Eben Moglen is supportive and obviously aware of the terms so I expect more details will be forthcoming. I have absolute trust and respect for both Moglen and Red Hat, what possible reason would they have to deceive us?

BTW, that sound you hear is Brad Smith dodging chairs.

Look at the prices for Micro$haft compilers and tools. They quickly run into the thousands of dollars.