Atari Announces an Official Portable 2600 System

Bill Kendrick writes: "Infogrames (the folks who now own Atari) have just struck a deal with another company to produce a 10-in-1 video game system based on the Atari 2600. It'll be joystick-shaped, plug into a TV set, cost only $20, and include games like Combat, Asteroids, Missile Command, and my favorite, Adventure! It won't replace my Atari 2600 Jr and 60 cartridges, but it's a step in the right direction!"

Comments

1st

[exedanni]

post

Atari and Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

While I have no doubt that Linux and/or NetBSD will find their way onto this system, I have my doubts as to whether such an underpowered machine has any purpose today.

The robustness of Linux is simply no match for the excruciatingly slow chipset that is being offered. For all the jokes that are made about Windows sucking resources from the most powerful systems, Linux has in kind increased its footprint with abandon. This does not bode well for any Linux user trying to run on this device.

What could possibly fit is DOS or OS/2, which are neither multi-process nor multi-user. Both of those features are the saving graces necessary to exist freely on the platform. Linux is just too slow and too big for it.

Funny, the same things that were jibed at Windows are the same things that are valid criticisms of Linux today.

Atari makes nice arcade machines

[ObviousGuy]

I really liked Stun Runner. The starter's voice was sexy.

CmdrTaco and dictionaries

[tps12]

This page was generated by a Flock of Uber Monkeys

"Uber" is not an adjective. It is an adverb that is wishing for something other than "Monkeys" to describe.

Re:Opinions

[Tarquin Sidebottom]

"What this gets at is that an opinion is a very personal thing to each individual. You hold the opinion that you are smart enough to tell others that theirs are wrong. That is certainly debatable."

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

Multiple uses

[Chardish]

The Atari 2600 - plays great retro games, and allows you to dial long distance phone calls for free on old hardware!

Next will come the Atari PBX Rewiring Utility ;) -Evan

Linux attracts both praise and criticism in major

[Anonymous Coward]

Some may accuse me of being a troll for what I'm about to write, but I can assure you that I am not. I am a systems administrator at a large PR firm in London, England. I am a big supporter of Open-Source and Free (as in freedom) software and have been responsible for moving all of our file servers over to RedHat Linux from Windows NT (I've even installed a few RedHat workstations around the place). In fact the only Windows servers we have left in the company are two Domain Controllers and an Exchange Server (realistically, does anyone know of a reliable email server that runs on a *nix platform?).

Recently, my company conducted a consumer survey for one of the large Linux distributions (I can't say which one). They surveyed around 3000 AB+ individuals from large cities around Europe (Mid to high income professionals between 20 and 35 years of age). These are the people that buy and use the most computer software, both in their personal lives and in their employment. I thought I'd share some of the results with you.

First the good news:

Around 40% had heard the phrase "Open-Source Software". Of these, around 80% "could accurately describe what it is", "were someway to describing what it is" or "knew it was something to do with Linux", which they knew was a free operating system.

Around 65% had heard the word Linux. 85% percent of these knew it was a computing platform. 60% knew it was free.

Here were some comments, which reflect common opinions held by those interviewed:

I like the penguin logo. It's cute and means that they [Linux people] don't take themselves too seriously" "I like the fact that if you say you use it, it makes you sound clever."

Next the ambiguous news:

Of the 65% of people who had heard of Linux, 50% said they would be "willing to give it a try" if offered it on the desktop at work, but only 25% would consider using it at home. 75% of people in management positions would be willing to consider rolling Linux out on employees' desktops, but only 2% of the same group would have it on their own desktop.

These comments cannot be classed as positive or negative: "I'd like to try Linux, but I'll wait until Microsoft Word is available for it." "Like many people in continental Europe, I am a Communist. Linux is my kind of operating system. Death to the USA."

Finally the bad news:

When asked which body part or area Linux was most associated with in their brains, over 80% of the respondents said "beards", 60% of these said: "dirty, straggly teenage beards". Around 75% of female respondents said they'd rather chew through their own leg than date a Linux user. Over half of the people surveyed who had met a Linux user thought that the description "obnoxious" was either "quite apt", "apt" or "bang on the money".

These were typical of some of the negative comments given: "Linux. Isn't that something to do with paedophilia?" "I much prefer Windows. Windows seems to work, whilst Linux....doesn't." "I had considered Linux, but when I tried to talk to people who claimed to know about it, they either patronised me profusely in an inane school-yard manner, or there was something kinda "serial-killer" about them. You know what I mean, they can't quite look you in the eye? Like they're really guilty about something." "Linux! Linux! Don't talk to me about f***ing Linux! [spits on the ground]" "I hate Linux and everything to do with it. It makes me sick to my stomach."

Re:Why?

[JimPooley]

Oh. Right. I don't worship at the altar of hideously outdated gaming systems which nobody in their right mind would buy at any price, and so I'm a troll?

The Slashdot Hive Mind strikes again!

burnin karma to post moderation of last comment

[phunhippy]

on my post...

Moderation Totals: Offtopic=1, Flamebait=1, Redundant=1, Funny=3, Overrated=1, Total=7.

Re:The Real Question is...

[sharkey]

Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!