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Android / Windows 7 Dual Boot Netbook Disappoints

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the accepting-patches dept.

Barence writes "PC Pro has got its hands on Acer's Aspire One D250 with both Windows 7 and Google Android installed. Anyone who's played with an Android phone had better get ready for a let-down: Android is far from ready for netbooks. The review laments the lack of a proper Marketplace, the poor implementation of both the inbuilt browser and Firefox, and the general pointlessness of it all in its current incarnation as a quick-boot alternative. Yes, it will get better, but at the moment it's hardly going to lure people away from even Windows 7."

133 comments

  1. future by runyonave · · Score: 0

    There's always hope for the future.

    1. Re:future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is easy. The nigger comes out first because he robbed and killed the white man. He might still spraypaint the wall, but that is irrelevant because the white man is already dead and won't be coming out of the tunnel other than in a bodybag.

      You reason like a nigger -- nigger.

  2. People rarely try twice by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    [...] at the moment it's hardly going to lure people away from even Windows 7.

    Not only that, but it will give Android a bad reputation. And given that people usually stick with what they know and rarely (if ever) check alternatives, it might be a long time before they try Android again.

    Heck, Apple switched to a Unix core for their OS almost a decade ago and I still talk with people who think Mac OS 9 when they hear about Macs.

    1. Re:People rarely try twice by rumith · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not only that, but it will give Android a bad reputation

      Why? The masses aren't likely to even hear about this netbook should it be a commercial failure (which is most likely), and the techies know better than to expect a smartphone OS to work for netbooks. So if anything, this will give Acer bad reputation.

    2. Re:People rarely try twice by skgrey · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This makes me very sad. It seems lately with all of the press of Android that's being aimed at the "typical" (read: non-geek) crowd (especially that Droid commercial against iPhones), usability like this is extremely bad. My wife, a total non-geek, knows what Droid and the Android OS is because she found the commercial interesting. If she tried Android out on a Netbook and had a bad experience she wouldn't ever try it again.

      I've had a hard enough time getting her to use an iPod touch and now she loves it, but believe it or not she is doing INCREDIBLE with Windows 7 with little to no help from me, right off the bat. She actually said it was intuitive, and she is not a computer person in the least.

      Android needs to get their act in gear quickly, especially if they are going after main-stream, non-geek people, as these people won't be coming back anytime soon, no matter how much their geek husbands beg.

    3. Re:People rarely try twice by LarryRiedel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So which mobile phone OS (not Moblin or Chrome OS) will they be running on their netbook as an alternative?

    4. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lure away from a product that is not released yet?

    5. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      People tend to talk. Stuff usually lasts your generation + some of the next.

      Look at diesel engines. GM so farked up their implementation that everyone thinks they're slow, smokey, smell and can't start it the winter. Meanwhile Europe has 50+% diesel adoption.

      I STILL get people (and young people that don't even remember the 70s) that tell me diesels can't start in the winter. I ask them how they like my 1998 TDI that is sitting out in the parking lot and they're floored. I tell them that my previous car was a 1986 diesel. Anemic as shit with no turbo but I was getting 50 MPG before Toyota even thought of a hybrid. Not to mention I can run it on any heavy oil from JP-1 to the shit that comes out of your deep fryer.

      Anyone that has tried Linux in the past and found it too difficult has passed that knowledge on to their friends. "Linux doesn't do X" even though X was solved 3 years ago. Android has given a good name to Linux such that they don't know that it is. If Android screws up then someone big (as big as Google) is going to have to come up with another name for it.

    6. Re:People rarely try twice by Old97 · · Score: 1

      None. The whole point of this exercise is to address shortcomings in the main O/S and how its configured with the hardware. A more reliable implementation of hibernate or sleep will make this moot. Instead of shutting down and then waiting several minutes to boot the next time you want to use the computer, you'll just put it in hibernate or sleep mode and wake it up when needed. Windows hasn't been very reliable about doing this in the past, Once fixed, you won't need a secondary O/S for fast access.

      --
      Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
    7. Re:People rarely try twice by poetmatt · · Score: 1

      Lets see.

      From the complaint that's there, it sounds like simply fixing the market (aka enabling) will take care of 90% of the problems. this of course assumes customer firmware can make nice flavors of android for this purpose.

      meanwhile, I thought google was making their own chromeOS anyway, which wasn't a smartphone OS (as below).

    8. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahahahahah. .....ahahahahahahhaahahaa.

    9. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the shit? Why are you blaming Android? Android was never meant to be run on a netbook. Blame Acer for doing something boneheaded as this. Android should not be run on netbooks for the same reason you don't put Windows 7 proper on a Phone. It doesn't mesh well with the intended interface. Acer has been really fucking stupid in the netbook market lately. First with that piece of shit distro Linpus (I mean really Linpus) and now with Android. Acer is acting less like a coherent company and more like a bunch of slashdotters experimenting on a netbook to see if Android could run. Sounds cool but is commercially insane.

    10. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Android needs to get their act in gear quickly

      This doesn't have a damn thing to do with Android. Android was not made for laptop computers. Properly implemented on a cell phone, MID, or PMP, Android runs exceptionally well, is intuitive, powerful, and fun. Acer is the problem here. I don't understand why companies take something like Android or Linux and implement it so poorly as to be practically worthless. Seriously, if you're going to do it, do it right.

      Look at Apple, they took BSD and made it into something beautiful (not that it wasn't beautiful before). The implementation job they are doing is awesome. There is no reason at all why some other company can't do the same thing other than either gross incompetence or just not giving a shit.

    11. Re:People rarely try twice by CopaceticOpus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      True, an OS that takes many attempts and several years to get it right will never make it in the marketplace.

    12. Re:People rarely try twice by noundi · · Score: 1

      What the shit? Why are you blaming Android? Android was never meant to be run on a netbook. Blame Acer for doing something boneheaded as this. Android should not be run on netbooks for the same reason you don't put Windows 7 proper on a Phone. It doesn't mesh well with the intended interface. Acer has been really fucking stupid in the netbook market lately. First with that piece of shit distro Linpus (I mean really Linpus) and now with Android. Acer is acting less like a coherent company and more like a bunch of slashdotters experimenting on a netbook to see if Android could run. Sounds cool but is commercially insane.

      Acer should have taken the easy road and just partnered with Ubuntu for a netbook remix integration. There's a huge community there already with enormous quanitities of contributions. Saying that Android was never meant to be run on a netbook means you have no idea how silly one entitys constrains are on FOSS code. It was bound to happen, unfortunately Acer is doing a really shitty move economically. Android doesn't sell itself, it has to be usable and good. Acer is just hoping for a free ride, which is just pathetic. And not because it's "business as usual", but because it's a plain bad move from all perspectives, including monetary. Ultimately people won't buy your product if it's bad.

      --
      I am the lawn!
    13. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heck, Apple switched to a Unix core for their OS almost a decade ago and I still talk with people who think Mac OS 9 when they hear about Macs.

      yes, and even here on Slashdot, the image many people have and portray of Windows is based on decade old Win9x. Sadly, people are set in their ways.

    14. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I know, right? Linux will never make it. Any OS with a paltry 60% of the server market (look for it, its in there). is hopeless. Might as well give up now. Especially these poor fools.

      Hell, anybody with low marketshare should just throw in the towel and quit wasting everybody's time, right?

      Oh...

    15. Re:People rarely try twice by skgrey · · Score: 1

      I probably should have clarified a bit so it made a little more sense, I wanted to keep my post fairly short and concise but I can see that I didn't get my point across very well as I re-read it and see the responses.

      Most of my friends (and some of hers) are geeks, and many of them talk about technology and have Netbooks. I should have specified that if she heard from geeky people that Android wasn't great, or tried one of their laptops, it wouldn't be a good thing at all. The old adage that there's no bad press doesn't apply in this situation, and my example was a microcosm of community and the way bad tech press travels in many circles, especially with Android advertising so heavily in the mainstream. And don't even get me started on how other companies could twist this around and use this to give Android a black eye.

      When I talked about Android getting their act in gear it was twofold; if they are going to try and be viable on a laptop now's not the time to start that unless they can do it right immediately (not sure if this is even on their roadmap), and it was also about squashing this kind of bullshit that Acer is doing! This is not the time!

      Android is in a very precarious situation right now - the last thing they need as they hit the mainstream is a black eye. I'm all for Android and Google. Great products and strong competition advance products and makes things better for all of us! Please, please make an iPhone killer; it will either make my next iPhone that much better or I will have an Android phone next.

    16. Re:People rarely try twice by ZosX · · Score: 1

      Huh? I've never had a problem since windows 2000 with hibernation or sleeping. I did have issues with windows 7, but the damned card reader driver wouldn't release. A proper driver fixed all my issues. In my experience hibernation in linux is basically like russian roulette. It has never worked for me, personally, but I kind of gave up trying a year or so ago. Wait a second. I'll try it in a VM on virtualbox 3.08....wow...it worked. Its about time. Wish the virtualbox tools would work under 9.10......

      --
      zosxavius photography
    17. Re:People rarely try twice by Old97 · · Score: 1

      I do and not just with Windows XP. Mac OS/X (10.4) had occasional issues restoring connections after wake up too. In fact with XP on our Thinkpads at work, freeze ups related to docking/undocking and hibernation are a daily occurrence.

      Whether it is a problem with drivers, background apps or the ACPI or any other problems, it is something that needs to be fixed. If hibernation and/or sleep are seen to be reliable they will be used more often instead of shutdown so the need for something like the solution Acer's tried will be unnecessary.

      --
      Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
    18. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, defensive little Wintard. Don't worry, I promise I won't pull Ballmer's cock out of your mouth.

      Only you can do that.

    19. Re:People rarely try twice by SchroedingersCat · · Score: 1

      Android was designed for touch screen interface - finger-friendly touch screen to be exact. No wonder it feels "clunky" using a pointer device like mouse/touchpad.

    20. Re:People rarely try twice by cmdr_tofu · · Score: 1

      Unless the netbook is successful, but people learn that the instant-on Android OS is unusable, ie an expensive non-feature. The last thing a new platform needs for marketing is a broken deployment,

    21. Re:People rarely try twice by Bungie · · Score: 1

      Any OS with a paltry 60% of the server market (look for it, its in there).

      From the article:

      "Forty percent of servers run Windows, 60 percent run Linux," he said. "How are we doing? Forty is less than 60, so I don't like it. ... We have some work to do."

      I just don't think that statistic is accurate...

      So every server is running either Linux or Windows? No one uses a variant of UNIX or BSD on their servers? They don't run anything else but Linux or Windows? Seriously??

      --
      The clash of honour calls, to stand when others fall.
    22. Re:People rarely try twice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, obviously Ballmer aka MonkeyBoy, while being immensely lucky to be Gates' college buddy, is an idiot. I was just using him to get the point across that even the mighty CEO of Microsoft who has every reason to ignore Linux and hope it goes away actually sees it as a legitimate competitor. The statement I was responding to saying that Linux had no chance in the marketplace was just ridiculous and the fact that Ballmer had this to say simply underscores how ridiculous a statement it was.

    23. Re:People rarely try twice by sowth · · Score: 1

      No, I think so many users insistence on MS products has to do with another slashdot story: The Science of Irrational Decisions.

      Professor Ariely describes some experiments which demonstrated something he calls 'arbitrary coherence.' Basically it means that once you contemplate a decision or actually make a decision, it will heavily influence your subsequent decisions. That's the coherence part. Your brain will try to keep your decisions consistent with previous decisions you have made.

      They are just stuck on Microsoft, and no argument or proof is going to change their mind.

    24. Re:People rarely try twice by sowth · · Score: 1

      Yes, MS DOS and MS Windows were such flops.

  3. whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can I put Ubuntu on this Acer machine?

    1. Re:whatever by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

      It's just an ordinary Atom netbook, with a special software load. There's a few different versions of the D250, I'm typing this on an XP-only version.

    2. Re:whatever by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      Yes. I used "wubi" to load kubuntu and install it. I can't recommend it, my guess is that straight Ubuntu would be better. My efforts to install a Linux from a USB stick were unsuccessful; the image wouldn't boot.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    3. Re:whatever by mister_playboy · · Score: 1

      I installed Ubuntu 9.04 from USB and it was fantastic. Install time is cut down to 6 minutes or so... very impressive.

      --
      Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law ::: Love is the law, love under will
  4. Editorializing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nice editorializing - "Even Windows 7?" Cheap shot - you can do better than that, Slashdot

    1. Re:Editorializing by Churla · · Score: 2, Informative

      Look, if we as a community can't even get some cheap shots in on the new OS how will we ever stay on "Big Steve's" Christmas Card list?

      --
      I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
    2. Re:Editorializing by kingduct · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Slashdot community doesn't pretend to be unbiased, and why should it? The important thing is that you, as a reader, be able to interpret and understand what others say.

    3. Re:Editorializing by megamerican · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Nice editorializing - "Even Windows 7?" Cheap shot - you can do better than that, Slashdot

      I don't think the editors of Slashdot can do any better.

      Just the other day they made it sound like Windows 7 was uninstalling google toolbar and iTunes but it turned out that Windows 7 reinstalled it after the update. The person who made that comment in the story said it was the best Windows upgrade he had ever gone through.

      If you had just read the title and/or summary it would seem like Microsoft was purposefully uninstalling competitors software when it wasn't even remotely the case.

      --
      If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
    4. Re:Editorializing by CannonballHead · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe slashdot should change their slogan to "opinions for nerds" then ;)

    5. Re:Editorializing by Churla · · Score: 1

      I openly dare you to substitute "Fox News" for "slashdot" and e-mail this to Rham Emanuel. Just to see how many watch lists you end up on ;)

      --
      I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
    6. Re:Editorializing by Churla · · Score: 3, Informative

      As a note from personal experience.

      Going XP 32 bit to Win 7 64 bit - The "export your files and settings" thing actually WORKS now. Fresh install, reinstall office and firefox, import the previous settings all worked flawlessly (including ALL my FF add ons...). Most painless Windows upgrade I can remember.

      --
      I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
    7. Re:Editorializing by recoiledsnake · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Opinion for anti-MS nerds" perhaps? There are plenty of nerds who aren't religious about hating "M$" and appreciate cool technology wherever it comes from.

      --
      This space for rent.
    8. Re:Editorializing by Killjoy_NL · · Score: 1

      Just go to Japan and eat this :)

      http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/10/21/microsoft.promos.win.7.with.bk.deal/

      They finally found a way to talk to me :)

      --
      This is the sig that says NI (again)
    9. Re:Editorializing by djtachyon · · Score: 1

      Maybe slashdot should change their slogan to "opinions for nerds" then ;)

      If Slashdot has to then Fox News has to as well! ;)

      --
      "What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it?" - Doctor Who
    10. Re:Editorializing by dangitman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nah, a more fitting slogan would be "Slashdot: Because we just don't care anymore."

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
    11. Re:Editorializing by BikeHelmet · · Score: 1

      Slashdot is diverse enough that we insult every OS.

    12. Re:Editorializing by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

      Maybe the submitter is an Android fanboy. "Android on this netbook is so un-perfect that buyers might decide to switch back to what's probably the best operating system they've ever seen before it." Yeah. Harsh criticism alright.

      Note: I'm not implying that Win7 is the best OS out there; it's just the best OS most people actually get to use on a general-purpose computer... with the compatition being earlier versions of Windows, Splashtop and now Android.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    13. Re:Editorializing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pro-MS nerd is an oxymoron

    14. Re:Editorializing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BTW, what's the perfect bizaro-slashdot, news-for-MS-nerds news site ?

    15. Re:Editorializing by badkarmadayaccount · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up.

      --
      I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
  5. I'm completely shocked. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who would have expected that a slipshod port of a system designed for one human interface mechanism would fail on another? They even left out important features, what could possibly have gone wrong? Does this mean that my plan to port Bash to my wristwatch will be unpopular in the marketplace?

    Seriously, though, this seems like completely unsurprising news. Just slapping dead-stock android on something(without even bothering to include features that are standard on smartphones, like the app mechanism), while giving no thought at all to the differences between a touchscreen and a touchpad, seems like an invitation to failure.

    1. Re:I'm completely shocked. by myrdos2 · · Score: 1

      Does this mean that my plan to port Bash to my wristwatch will be unpopular in the marketplace?

      I'd like to pre-order twelve, please. They'll be the perfect interface to my servers. http://static.hackitlinux.com/hackitlinux.com/imgname--server_in_your_pocket---50226711--images--PicoLinux.jpg

    2. Re:I'm completely shocked. by hitmark · · Score: 1

      iirc, google do not allow the android app marketplace, or their services app, one a android device that they have not certified.

      yep i know, it reeks of cupertino, but then the android head is a former employee of that place...

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    3. Re:I'm completely shocked. by kjart · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Windows Mobile has been widely criticized by forcing the desktop UI/OS model on a phone/handheld device, and rightly so. It doesn't take a genius to realize that forcing things the other way around wouldn't be a smooth experience either.

  6. Well... by rumith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I doubt that Google had netbooks in mind when they released Android. Keep in mind that they have announced ChromeOS to be their operating system for netbooks (and possibly over time more powerful machines as well), and it should be pretty clear that Acer's experiment had very low chances to succeed anyway. However, if ChromeOS and Android somehow use compatible app markets, that might be interesting...

    1. Re:Well... by cptdondo · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's a plot! Redmond is secretly paying off Acer to do this, so that they can give Android a bad rap and save Windows CE. I have proof but I can't take my tinfoil hat off right now....

    2. Re:Well... by sporkme · · Score: 1
      Google Blog announcing Chrome OS
      http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html
      Paragraph 5:

      Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks.

      It is arguable that this was included as a hat tip to the Acer deal.

      --
      FairTax baby!
    3. Re:Well... by sowth · · Score: 1

      Or Acer is using this to negotiate a better deal with Microsoft and doesn't care whether Android succeeds or not. I'm beginning to think Asus did the same thing. Why would they use such crappy distros if they were serious. I am not a big fan of Ubuntu, but it is far more polished than Xandros or apparently Android are.

  7. Awesome review! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the best review of Windows 7 so far! "Windows 7: It sucks less than Android"

    p.s. I upgraded from Vista (which I actually like and have been using since its release) last night ... so far so good.

  8. no touch screen by czmax · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From the article:
    "Indeed, where Android's browser makes sense on a smartphone's touchscreen, it just doesn't translate here. The process of clicking and holding the left mouse button, while pushing up to scroll the page down, seems clunky and counter-intuitive,"

    Gosh, they took an OS designed for a touchscreen and tried a simplistic hack to make it work with a touchpad... and this isn't easy to use? Well, duh. This says nothing about Android and everything about the marketing folks that messed up.

    1. Re:no touch screen by unitron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I know they aren't your words, but it is "scrolling" as we know it that is counter-intuitive, at least to anyone who's ever seen actual scrolls, even if only in the movies.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    2. Re:no touch screen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm going to be modded to oblivion for saying this, but IMHO a large part of this is that Android is a open platform and Google doesn't restrict the use of the trademark.

      Android is a great mobile phone platform, but it's a crappy notebook platform. That's fine - the GUI which works on a cell phone doesn't work on a notebook - everyone (except maybe Microsoft who seems to insist that mobile phones should have a start menu) has figured that out.

      But because Android is an open source platform and because Google isn't restricting the use of the Android brand, vendors are putting Android on machines that are inappropriate.

      And that in turn really hurts the Android brand (and unfortunately Linux as well since it reinforces the idea that Linux isn't ready for prime time).

    3. Re:no touch screen by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

      They should have used a touch screen in the netbook. There are touch screen netbooks out there (dell latitude 2100 for one. There are touch screen replacement screens for other models if you wanted to hard hack a touch screen in). Acer should have just made a model with the touch screen as the display for the android netbook.

    4. Re:no touch screen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gosh, they took an OS designed for a touchscreen and tried a simplistic hack to make it work with a touchpad... and this isn't easy to use? Well, duh. This says nothing about Android and everything about the marketing folks that messed up.

      Wait...I thought Android was also designed for keyboards (you know the reason people hate the iPhone). Bunch of phones are coming out with physical keyboards (even the mysterious Droid...ooooh).

      So what is the excuse for scrolling being messed up...or is Android only so-so for keyboard devices.

  9. Here we go again... by nhytefall · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't this the same old story we keep hearing? This F/OSS OS isn't ready for primetime, etc, no better than Win xxxx ... Seriously, can't we do better as a whole? So what if one "analyst" at a tech website says it sucks. Everyone jumps on board... maybe try it out for yourselves, and exercise some independent thought for once?

    --
    0100010001101001011001 0100100000011010010110 1110001000000110000100 1000000110011001101001 0111001001100101
    1. Re:Here we go again... by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      maybe try it out for yourselves, and exercise some independent thought for once?

      This is slashdot. We don't do that around here anymore, you must be new here.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    2. Re:Here we go again... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You'll be lucky if we comprehend the summary, let alone FTFA.

    3. Re:Here we go again... by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

      You'll be lucky if we comprehend the summary, let alone FTFA.

      Wow, FTFA ? People are generally asked to (though seldom actually do) RTFA. I'm not sure what would entail FTFA.

      --
      Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  10. Holy vague summary batman by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I'm not really sure what the writer is trying to say with things like

    the lack of a proper Marketplace,

    Do you mean you can't connect to ebay, craigslist, or google shopping? What is a marketplace in relation to an operating system on a computer?

    the poor implementation of both the inbuilt browser and Firefox

    I presume this means built-in browser?

    and the general pointlessness of it all

    When did things need to have a point to be featured on slashdot? It wasn't that long ago there was a front page story here about running linux on the kindle. Though if you want a point in the general sense, try:

    in its current incarnation as a quick-boot alternative

    Because that is probably all the more point a lot of people need from it.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:Holy vague summary batman by FlyingBishop · · Score: 1

      The Kindle runs Linux. The impressive thing was setting up a chroot and installing Ubuntu in full on the device.

      It was also fairly useful, as it enabled certain features that you couldn't get off a normal Kindle.

    2. Re:Holy vague summary batman by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      Do you mean you can't connect to ebay, craigslist, or google shopping? What is a marketplace in relation to an operating system on a computer?

      App Store, I presume.

    3. Re:Holy vague summary batman by mypalmike · · Score: 2, Informative

      >> the lack of a proper Marketplace,

      > Do you mean you can't connect to ebay, craigslist, or google shopping? What is a marketplace in relation to an operating system on a computer?

      The capital "M" means it's a proper noun. It's referring to Android Marketplace.

      --
      There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
    4. Re:Holy vague summary batman by ZERO1ZERO · · Score: 0, Troll
      the lack of a proper Marketplace,

      Do you mean you can't connect to ebay, craigslist, or google shopping? What is a marketplace in relation to an operating system on a computer?

      It's kind of like the functionality provided by apt-get, but only you have to pay for everything. And it's shiny.

    5. Re:Holy vague summary batman by immortalpob · · Score: 1

      I presume this means built-in browser?

      No they meant "inbuilt browser", note the co.uk domain... not everyone speaks English like we do in America. Grammar nazi fail.

    6. Re:Holy vague summary batman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Incorrect. I'd say 90% of the apps worth getting are free. And all apps overall about 98-99% are free. I've only paid for a few, most notably the nesroid NES emulator on my G1. Unlike the user-unfriendliness of the command-line-based apt-get, the Marketplace is a point and shoot affair that doesn't require special keys or repositories to be added just to get an app.

      Be careful about spreading misinformation, it makes you look like a clueless idiot. Par for the course, I guess, for most of the cute little computer science weenies that permeate slashdot :)

    7. Re:Holy vague summary batman by dbcad7 · · Score: 1

      And the Win 7 Marketplace is where ? .. I knew what it was referring to, I just don't see the point of complaining that one OS doesn't have something when the other doesn't either.

      --
      waiting for ad.doubleclick.net
    8. Re:Holy vague summary batman by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

      Android has something called the Android Marketplace, which is an App Store analog. However, this specific implementation of Android lacks that feature. So it is valid to decry the lack of it and saying "lack of a proper Marketplace" is understandable if you roughly know how Android works. "lack of Android Marketplace" would've been a much better way of saying it, though.

      It's as if they sold a computer dual-booting Windows and Linux and the Linux they ship comes without a package manager. In fact, that's pretty much what they did as Android is fairly crippled without the Marketplace.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    9. Re:Holy vague summary batman by VGPowerlord · · Score: 1

      And the Win 7 Marketplace is where ?

      Here.

      Yes, that is a Microsoft site. No, it doesn't sell anything other than Microsoft products.

      --
      GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
    10. Re:Holy vague summary batman by sowth · · Score: 1

      Most of the apps in the "Android Marketplace" were free? They probably did come from apt-get. Apt-get has plenty of GUI front ends. I don't understand your "user unfriendliness" comment. You just tell it what you want. If you want to install the superkitten package, you would type "apt-get install superkitten" You only think it is hard because Microsoft marketing says so.

      Anyway, "user unfriendly" is a subjective term and varies depending upon the user. I had two strokes, and the constant pop-ups and nonsensical messages (among other things) of the MS/KNOME consortium is VERY user unfriendly to me.

      Funny, if they didn't require the "special keys", you'd claim apt-get was insecure and just anyone could root your box by using DNS poisoning.

      You only need to add repositories if your distro doesn't supply the program you want. If you wish to manually add programs, you put them in /usr/local. From what I have seen, this is what most source tarballs do by default.

      Just like if your Magic Marketplace(tm) didn't have what you want, you would... what? Oh, I see. You define the Magic Marketplace(tm) as what you want. Okay.

  11. I know we're supposed to be anti-MS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But can we at least *pretend* like we don't have biased noses sticking up in the air?

    "Yes, it will get better, but at the moment it's hardly going to lure people away from even Windows 7."

    1. Re:I know we're supposed to be anti-MS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was hard to lure me away from Windows XP, it will be even harder to lure me away from 7. I use Linux all day long at work. When I come home, I want to actually do things with my computer, not to it. Got tired of making things work under linux, so went back to Windows. XP is great, 7 is better. the tone of the commment "away from even Windows 7" was obviously written by someone with a.) their head up their ass who has not used Windows 7 or b.) Stallman's dick up their ass who has seen windows 7 and realizes linux is NOT going to compete on the desktop with that, not as it is, and not for the non geek.

  12. The burning question is... by westlake · · Score: 2, Interesting

    but at the moment it's hardly going to lure people away from even Windows 7

    From the reviewer's POV Win 7 Starter Edition looks pretty damn good.

    The burning question, though, is why anyone would opt against booting into Windows 7 in the first place. Cold booting does admittedly take about three times as long as Android...but waking from hibernation takes a mere 20 seconds, just five seconds longer than the quick OS.


    Windows 7 might feel a touch more sluggish than XP Home...but its refinement and ease of use come as ample reward, and importantly it suffers none of the aggravating limitations of its Google-powered rival.


    As it stands, novelty merely serves as a brief distraction from the D250's competent, but unremarkable charms. We still hope future updates will reinstate the marketplace and make more of Android's obvious potential, but there are much better netbooks available for less.


    The Verdict:


    Google's Android OS provides a disappointing distraction from an otherwise average netbook

    1. Re:The burning question is... by bill_kress · · Score: 1

      It'll be interesting to see if 7 can repeatedly enter and exit hibernation without going wonky. I know a few people said they could get XP to do that, but it really only worked on a pristine system and even then would fail after hibernating more than once or twice.

      I'd be even happier if their suspend worked reasonably well. My mac notebook resumes from suspend in just a few seconds (if that) and is always usable before I'm ready to use it--and when doing so it is 100% reliable when doing so no matter how many times you suspend/resume (in my 2-year history). It also has a pretty amazing hidden hibernate function that works so well you never know it's there--but some day when your mac is suspended, yank the battery for a few minutes and put it back in--it will magically restore from hibernation rather than suspend, but regardless it continues from exactly where you left off.

      Honestly, I know this is getting way too far O/T, but I can't believe I've never seen a video of a side-by-side comparison of Windows and Mac doing the standard things--booting up, suspend, hibernate, restore, low stress battery runtime test, high use battery runtime test, ...

      Since the cheapest mac beats every PC experience I've ever had in every one of those categories by a significant amount, you'd think that would make for a no-brainer advertisement.

    2. Re:The burning question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      XP always had problems sleeping and hibernating, but these functions work perfectly in Vista.

      I've slept and hibernated my Vista laptop thousands of times since I've bought it, without any glitches.

    3. Re:The burning question is... by westlake · · Score: 1

      I can't believe I've never seen a video of a side-by-side comparison of Windows and Mac doing the standard things--booting up, suspend, hibernate, restore, low stress battery runtime test, high use battery runtime test...

      You put your audience asleep.

      Without having proved much of anything really.

      There are just too many variables - in hardware, software, usage patterns, operating environments and so on.

      The simplest and cheapest way to extend battery life is with a heavier battery pack.

      The "instant on" browser needs "instant access" Wi-Fi or cellular.

      Which it may or may not get.

    4. Re:The burning question is... by fullgandoo · · Score: 1

      My experience on the Mac is approximately the same as on XP. Most of the time I don't have a problem in enter/exit hibernation on the Mac. But once in a while (a couple times a month), I can't get the login screen upon opening the laptop lid. Then I have to close the lid and open it again a few times before it works. And a couple times a year, I do have to cold boot when just nothing coaxes a login screen.

      Then, sometimes it also takes a few minutes for the wireless connection to get working and occasionally I need to cold boot for this to work (though this might be a problem with my router).

      Overall, same experience as when I use the XP (as far as getting in and out of hibernation is concerned).

    5. Re:The burning question is... by bill_kress · · Score: 1

      How do you usually convince the mac to hibernate? Usually you have to pull the battery or let it drain all the way--is there some trick I don't know?

      Also, you're right about it being different, but I have almost never seen a PC (out of dozens) that can stand more than 4-5 suspend/resumes or 2-3 hibernates, and I've never seen a mac (out of 5 or 6) that has a problem with it.

      I am fairly careful about not opening the lid until the light is winking though--I think I saw someone have a problem with closing the mac and opening it right away, so maybe part of it is that usage habit.

      Also--seriously--same performance? My mac is able to take keystrokes within SECONDS, like 2. The wifi is usually up and ready before I need it (5 seconds or so).

      My XP machine doesn't even accept keystrokes for like 20-30 seconds after a resume from suspend, and then it's chunky.

      Perhaps you've figured out some trick to make it always hibernate instead of suspend and that's why you find the performance similar? I almost never use the hibernate feature (Which is another interesting point--my PC will suspend for about 5 hours, my mac for about 20...)

    6. Re:The burning question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Honestly, I know this is getting way too far O/T, but I can't believe I've never seen a video of a side-by-side comparison of Windows and Mac doing the standard things--booting up, suspend, hibernate, restore, low stress battery runtime test, high use battery runtime test, ...

      I've never seen side-by-side comparisons of common workflows in Windows and Linux either. Or Windows/Mac, or Solaris/Linux... etc. It's really a shame, because the proof is in the pudding. Some honest comparisons ought to make people on _every_ side a lot more modest, but no, we'd rather pretend to know what we're comparing things to rather than actually.. you know, use them or appreciate them for what they are. You can't be competitive if you don't understand your competition, and that always seems to haunt Linux, and to a lesser extent, Microsoft.

    7. Re:The burning question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vista/Windows 7 has the same type of sleep/hibernate system, called hybrid sleep, usually enabled by default unless hibernation is disabled. It does only kick in after a certain amount of time in sleep though, not every time. This makes the initial sleep action complete very quickly and parks the hard drive before you pack it into a case. then later it will wake up, write a hibernate file and go to sleep again.

  13. Bashwatch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually bash on a watch would be awesome if it supported wifi and had ssh (and didn't drain the batteries in a few minutes).

    1. Re:Bashwatch by doconnor · · Score: 1

      The old Fossil/Palm watch. I expect Palm based ssh clients would work on it. It didn't have wifi, or even bluetooth, but it had an infra-red port. That's wireless.

  14. Re:Serial-Killing Pedophile/Windows 7 Disappoints by megamerican · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It reminds me of watching Chris Matthew on Hardball.

    Anyone who criticizes Obama or supports the 2nd amendment is automatically a lifetime member of the KKK and believes Obama was born on Pluto.

    --
    If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
  15. Get out of town! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "at the moment it's hardly going to lure people away from even Windows 7."

    This fledgling OS won't lure people away from even the the latest, greatest incarnation of the most popular operating system of all time? Really?? Time to throw in the towel, Google.

  16. What I don't get by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What I don't get is the choice of BOTH OSes on this thing. If you read the specs this thing is maxed out at 1Gb, which makes it a poor choice for Windows 7, which most reviews I've seen set 2Gb as the "sweet spot" for that OS to really perform, and Android? WTF? A mobile phone OS? Neither choice makes any sense at all. If they wanted a "quick boot" like we see in certain motherboards they should have put an embedded Linux in a ROM and went that way.

    So to me this whole thing makes no sense whatsoever. Windows is being starved for RAM, and the Linux based OS is running on a platform it was never designed for, and which they apparently didn't bother to really tweak it for, although I doubt all the tweaks in the world will turn a phone OS into a Netbook OS. The only thing I can figure is some marketing genius got caught up in the buzz behind both OSes and said "Hey, if Android and Win7 have buzz, we can put out a Netbook with BOTH and get double plus buzz!" but as we have seen time and time again playing buzzword bingo usually ends up a giant can o' fail, as we can see here.

    --
    ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    1. Re:What I don't get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Further more, the review is extremely lopsided.

      For example:
      "Even that Android-friendly incarnation of Firefox is less than stellar. It does at least support Flash, allowing you to catch up with the latest additions to iPlayer or YouTube, but jerky, unwatchable playback completely spoils the show."

      Well, this is a problem with the hardware. There are tons of websites that talk about poor performance of Intel Atom when it comes to handling flash and other online video. Btw, where is the review about how these videos performed in Windows 7... hmm.. no mention

      "That would be disappointing enough, but then there's the conspicuous lack of the Android Market to contend with"

      So does Windows 7 has a Marketplace? Where is that?

      "It's an omission that immediately curtails Android's aspirations. Checking email and perusing websites is possible, as is using Google Apps, and while there are music and photo applications, these come as some little recompense since they also prove clunky and unsophisticated."

      This is so vague....

    2. Re:What I don't get by westlake · · Score: 1

      What I don't get is the choice of BOTH OSes on this thing. If you read the specs this thing is maxed out at 1Gb, which makes it a poor choice for Windows 7, which most reviews I've seen set 2Gb as the "sweet spot" for that OS to really perform, and Android? WTF?

      The install is Windows 7 Starter Edition. Two steps down from Home Premium.

    3. Re:What I don't get by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      It STILL doesn't change the "sweet spot" anymore than putting "Vista Capable" on the 1.8GHz Sempron with 512Mb of RAM I'm staring at right now makes it a good machine to run Vista Basic on.

      Look, we ALL know the score here, right? I mean we ARE all geeks and nerds here, hence the "New for nerds" tag at the top of the page. With nearly 15 years of experience I've had more than enough time with Windows OSes to know where the "sweet spot" is and the peril one is in for if they ignore it. For anyone that cares to know-Win98-64-128Mb, Win2K-runs on 256Mb but its "sweet spot" is 512Mb, WinXP Home Pro 32-Will run on 512Mb but hits the sweet spot at 1Gb, Windows Vista, anything less than 2Gb is painful and frankly IMHO unusable, and finally Windows 7, same as Vista, just less thrashing.

      Sadly I have a feeling we are all in for the same crap that went around when Vista was released, only it'll be Starter being abused by OEMs over Vista Basic. if you look at those specs I'm sure most here will agree that with WinXP, along with a decently tuned Linux OS like one of the mobile versions out there would make a MUCH better choice on this particular hardware than Windows 7, I don't care WHAT version they use, just as that Sempron runs quite nicely with WinXP Home and on Vista Basic it literally thrashed the hard drive to death. We all know MSFT's system reqs are bullshit, we all know that an OS has a "sweet spot" be it Win7, OSX Snow Leopard, or the latest Ubuntu distro.

      But sadly the OEMs are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole by pairing Atom, an in order CPU that gives you HALF the performance of a Celeron in return for lower heat/power/price. So this thing is a Atom 1.6Ghz, which equals an 800MHz Celeron. Is there ANYBODY here that thinks a machine that wimpy, starved for RAM on top, will be anything but lousy? Nope, me neither. XP on those specs is a decent, if not spectacular experience. On Windows 7? Bleech!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    4. Re:What I don't get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm running windows 7 x64 ultimate on my gateway LT31 netbook right now. I dual boot it with windows xp pro. Windows 7 is much snappier, and was much easier to install from a flash drive. My $.02

    5. Re:What I don't get by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      What I don't get is the choice of BOTH OSes on this thing. If you read the specs this thing is maxed out at 1Gb,

      it is claimed that it is the same hardware as the D250 (which I have) which means it is expandable to 4GB using the new 4GB DDR2 SODIMMs. Tested and working on D250. I'm hoping that the AOD250 software loads on my D250, which I put some low-latency DDR2 into (it's got 2GB, which it what it came with.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  17. "even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about Win7 by DoctorSVD · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sorry, but I think your "even Windows 7" swipe is silly. As much as I love *nix and like to poke fun at Microsoft (I grew up on SunOS, HP-UX, IRIX, and Linux), I find Windows 7 to be a delight to work with (I run RC1 at home on two systems, an old P4 system and a newer Core 2 Duo). I would love to see a good desktop version of Linux, but Gnome, KDE etc. are just not polished enough (yeah, yeah, Ubuntu is pretty nice and all, but the desktop is still klunky). As a developer I miss the power of the command line tools in the Linux development environment, but as a casual user (and casual gamer) I am really liking Win7.

  18. Acer tradition? by recharged95 · · Score: 1

    I call conspiracy as Acer is a traditional MS whore (builts hardware specifically for Windows, drivers suck on Linux, etc...).
    I would not be surprised if they did this Android exercise to show how great Windows 7 is as well as knock Android down a notch before WinMo6.5 (and Zune) comes out.

    1. Re:Acer tradition? by tech10171968 · · Score: 1

      Probably not but, then again, I wouldn't be surprised to learn you were not far from the truth. In fact, I've always had a BIG problem with how Linux has been implemented on these netbooks. It seems as if most of the OEMs just sort of threw any old thing on these machines, and that optimizing the installs for the machines was an afterthought (if they even thought of doing it at all). I have sort of a pet theory on why Linux on many netbooks was half-baked: my guess is that the manufacturers were probably looking to use XP (or some other flavor of Windows) all along, but the price point would have put the retail cost of the products over what they were aiming for. Someone gets the big idea to throw on Linux, using the OS as leverage; they knew that the last thing Microsoft wanted was to lose out on a potentially burgeoning market due to being caught with their pants down (Ballmer and company MUST have dominance in all things IT-related, not just desktops), And that MS would pull out the stops to keep anyone not named Microsoft from even gaining a foothold. Apparently, the ruse worked: XP OEM licenses (as we all know by now) were offered for a song. Everybody wins: the OEMs get their Microsoft OS for next to nothing, keeping the retail price at a reasonable level ; and Microsoft, in keeping XP around for just a little while longer, gets to use it as a stopgap measure until Windows 7 goes RTM and hits the store shelves. IOW, I believe Linux got used, and that there was no real commitment on the part of the OEMs to doing it right in the first place.

      --
      This space for rent!
  19. Re:"even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about W by sabernet · · Score: 1

    I'm just hoping the horrible issues I've had while playing Steam games(random bouts of lockup for a few seconds while my CPU has a seizure) or the extreme choppiness of the openGL viewport in Maya can be resolved with better drivers from nVidia. If not, I may need to switch back. Yes, it's miles above Vista and Aero Peek is an awesome feature, but still....these better just be growing pains or driver features(which I can understand on a new OS) and not some stupid attempt by Microsoft to screw with OpenGL or non-WinLive games.

  20. Obligatory... by jDeepbeep · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Perhaps Linux just isn't ready for the desktop. I'm sticking with Microsoft.
    :P

    --
    Reply to That ||
    1. Re:Obligatory... by cenc · · Score: 1

      The pointless MS astroturfing for win 7 seems fairly blatant around slashdot today. You would be like number 20 on this topic alone, that has not contributed anything other than to stroke MS.

      MOD these suckers!!!!

      --
      Living in Chile
    2. Re:Obligatory... by Toreo+asesino · · Score: 1

      Perhaps, just perhaps, you know Windows 7 isn't quite as bad as many anti-MS people would like it to be? Perhaps people actually like Windows?

      --
      throw new NoSignatureException();
  21. Nah, Nah, Nah. I can't hear you.... by westlake · · Score: 1

    Isn't this the same old story we keep hearing? This F/OSS OS isn't ready for primetime, etc, no better than Win xxxx ... Seriously, can't we do better as a whole? So what if one "analyst" at a tech website says it sucks?

    First impressions matter.

    Android as the "fast booting" Linux mini-OS had little to offer when compared directly to Win 7 Starter Edition installed on a mediocre entry level netbook.
    ______

    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack (3-User) $150 I believe this is a first for Microsoft.

    Upgrade from XP or Vista. 32 and 64 bit.

  22. Re:Serial-Killing Pedophile/Windows 7 Disappoints by jpcarter · · Score: 2, Funny

    It reminds me of watching Chris Matthew on Hardball.

    Anyone who criticizes Obama or supports the 2nd amendment is automatically a lifetime member of the KKK and believes Obama was born on Pluto.

    Good thing he's the only cable news personality to behave in such a manner.

  23. It'll be news when a netbook doesn't disappoint by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    Granted, the software on my G1 phone still isn't ready for prime time, but I believe anybody that is used to a real computer would be disappointed working on a netbook. They generally combine the limited battery life of a notebook with lack of screen real estate and optical drive of a PDA.

    Android really is effectively beta software. (Still haven't added Bluetooth Stereo profile?!?) The amazing thing is that they are charging people lots of money for phones based on this work-in-progress. By the time it has as much work put into it as, say, iPhone OS has now, it should be a much more satisfying experience.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  24. Name doesn't make any sense anyway... by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Android: An android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human.

    I suppose it is supposed to infer a humanistic or human centric intuitive interface.

    However it: Doesn't look like a human. Doesn't act like a human. Isn't a robot.

    At least Ubuntu is a philosophy and Windows can count and describes a feature.

    Of course what the hell do apples or Macintosh's have to do with anything I do not know.
    Of course they have they have the best name of the bunch (ignoring leopards and tigers etc)...
    I mean OS 9, OS X nothing more simple than "Operating System" + "Operating System" + 1

    1. Re:Name doesn't make any sense anyway... by DarthVain · · Score: 1

      Oops forgot a "=" rather than "+"

      a) I don't edit
      b) none of my programs actually work and I only comment in my mind.
      c) I don't care :)

    2. Re:Name doesn't make any sense anyway... by sowth · · Score: 1

      A Macintosh is a juicy delicious Apple. And no, juicy and delicious are not homosexual adjectives.

      (Sex) Android is what the Google executive asked for, but he only had software engineers, so a mobile OS was the best they could do.

      Windows on the other hand, is a generic name of an OS construct--depending upon if you count the GUI components and the browser as part of the OS. It is like naming a car "Steering Wheel" or an airplane "Wing" or naming a company after the CEO's penis. It's just silly.

  25. Re:"even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about W by Rockoon · · Score: 2, Informative

    I run plenty of steam games on Win7 RC with an 8800GT and have experienced absolutely none of your issues

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  26. Re:"even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about W by heffrey · · Score: 1

    Why don't you just run those command line tools on Windows?

  27. Re:"even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about W by sabernet · · Score: 1

    Good to know. You must be very happy indeed. Seriously, what's with the caps? Did I offend you? As for experiencing none of my issues(okay, so that is a little fun), I'm far from the only one running into issues of losing acceleration on hardware shading mode in the Maya OpenGL viewport.

  28. For people used to desktop OS functionality by alizard · · Score: 1

    I don't really see any reason not to go with a conventional Linux desktop any more than netbook manufacturers see any reason to go with anything but a conventional XP or Win7-lite install for their netbooks. Give me conventional desktop icons and a normal taskbar and the normal selection of Open Source apps, not giant icons to programs that don't do much and a handful of programs from a company repository that prepare the netbook for websurfing and not much else.

    The only important consideration is that the hardware drivers are available, just like on any other Linux installation.

    I blew off my "easy, fun" dumbed down Xandros desktop for Kubuntu on my Eee PC900 at the first possible opportunity.

    --
    Tech Public Policy stuff
  29. "alternate" desktops work well in the smartphone by alizard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    market because people don't have fixed expectations as to how a smartphone UI will look, feel, and act, and expect to have to dig through menus or the instruction manual to do anything over and above simply making a phone call.

    Netbooks look enough like "real" computers that people expect the UI to look and feel like a computer UI, not a smartphone UI.

    --
    Tech Public Policy stuff
  30. Re:"even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about W by DoctorSVD · · Score: 1

    I do use Cygwin occasionally, but it is slower than molasses and escaping of strings involving \ can be a nightmare. I'd be happy to learn of a better alternative.

  31. Once again... by Alex+Belits · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...a Windows PC company tarnishes Linux reputation by pre-installing something that is not Ubuntu on a consumer device.

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
    1. Re:Once again... by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "...a Windows PC company tarnishes Linux reputation by pre-installing something that is not Ubuntu on a consumer device."

      That's why we should discourage bundled Linux installs. No one gets it right, Linux users already know what they want, and most Linux installs are easier than installing Windows if the hardware is supported.

      What would be useful is to be able to conveniently buy prebuilt computers with no OS installed.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    2. Re:Once again... by Alex+Belits · · Score: 1

      Do you have some mental disease that reduces your reading comprehension to the level one should expect from a three years old, or are you intentionally distorting the point that I have expressed in the most unambiguous form possible?

      Everything would work just fine if they installed a distribution specifically designed for this purpose -- Ubuntu.

      --
      Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
  32. Re:"even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about W by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 1

    Try OS X. Apple managed to put a solid GUI on a *nix base a LONG time ago. you can pop open a terminal window and "bash" away any time you want. When I first saw OS X, I thought it would be the catalyst that provided inspiration to the Linux community, leading to a golden age of Linux interface design. Turned out, not so much. There have been improvements, of course, but progress is slow.

  33. lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It looks like Windows 3.1.

  34. Nipple user manual, anyone? by jonaskoelker · · Score: 1

    As we all know (right?), the only intuitive user interface is the nipple; the rest is all learned:

    http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2002/08/nipple.html

    Although... one can argue that a UI is intuitive by virtue of being easily learned, which it is by being similar to a UI you expect your users to already know.

    i.e. the Karmic UI will be intuitive (by my new definition) to Jaunty users. And (at least partially) to GNOME users from other distros.

  35. Fucking horseshit - counterintuitive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's not counterintuitive - that's EXACTLY what I figured out when I borrowed a friend's iPod touch, without ever handling one before.
    I touched the music button, just like a left-mouse click to me, and when I wanted to scroll, I "pushed" the content up out of the way so that new content would be visible below.

    This is EXACTLY the same behaviour as when you view PDF documents and want to scroll using the mouse - you "touch" (with the little hand) on the screen and "push" (slide upwards) to move the page in front of you.

    What kind of fucking dork reviews Android's browser and hasn't EVER scrolled through a PDF document ?

    This doesn't say anything about marketing folks or Android or anything else, except that the reviewer is biased or a complete ignoramus.

  36. Re:"even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about W by heffrey · · Score: 1

    I use http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/

  37. MS astroturfing on Slash by cenc · · Score: 1

    Do you guys not see the massive MS astroturfing going on in this topic, not to mention the original article?

    People please?

    Is slash getting a paycheck for this one?

    --
    Living in Chile
  38. Re:"even Windows 7" - no need to be snarky about W by sowth · · Score: 1

    The above poster was offended you weren't using his "one true" Operating System(tm).

  39. Off topic by smoker2 · · Score: 1

    Offtopic but interesting to me was an ad on the tv last night for a new laptop with windows 7 on it. Apparently the next big thing is being able to tile windows vertically. They called it "snap" or something stupid. Is this what we can expect from a new operating system ? A new name for an old concept that works quite well on every windows OS since 3.1 ? Maybe they should advertise "minimise" as a new way to rapidly expose your desktop - they could call it expose - no wait...