a. The cost of the hardware to RUN XP is very small. While it may take more to run a FULL version of this OS versus a stripped down version of a linux distro, the overall requirements for XP are not very high if unneeded services are disabled.
b. i believe you meant x86 based chips, otherwise AMD and Via would like to speak with you.
c. so there are no problems with anything but Microsoft products? Do you really think that if a major bug is found in the FOSS, everyone that has an OLPC will just magically be able to fix it themselves? We are talking about products being used to educate, and this by very nature means a good portion of the users are not already educated enough to correct the problems, but would instead, rely upon someone else (a third party if you will) to develop the fix for them.
d. yes of course, because the only thing kids want to "tinker" with is the underlying OS, nothing else. And God forbid they want to "tinker" with something like making a.Net application and learn a skill that maybe, just maybe, might lead them to be able to get a *gasp* job in todays world.
e. uh-huh, because writing code to have a front end that works over the top of an OS is the domain of Linux only. Nobody could possibly know how to do so over the top of any other OS (like say a BSD variant that was named after a rather famous person...)
f. The "Community" is an ever evolving group of individuals. As some leave, others move in to take their place. Just because some will wish to not work on ONE OS, doesn't mean others might not wish to.
g. Maybe you need to comprehend something. The very idea of OLPC is to create a path to education. Period. If that means that they can simply write code for other hardware which meets ALL of their needs, I doubt they would have a problem with that. What this may actually do, is allow for a BETTER group of LOWER cost hardware simply because common components used throughout all product lines, across manufacturers would bring the cost of these components down accordingly. If you want to be able to run a mesh network, it is going to take a certain type of device. If that device is suddenly produced in greater volume, then the producer of said item has fewer costs associated with changeover of their production lines, thus the overall cost to manufacturer said item decreases, which is usually followed by a similar cost to acquire. It's called economics.
Now personally, I think that porting XP to the project is not necessary, however, the CUSTOMERS who wish to purchase the products, are asking for a specific set of variables, and if meeting these variables allows for the advancement of the stated goals of the project, then they should be pursued if possible without sacrificing the ability to meet the stated goal.
I run Vista on three homebuilt machines, four freshly installed older Dell machines, and Fedora on three other machines. (9 Beta on two). These are used by myself, and others without regard for buying certain components out of the box.
Vista, other than UAC being annoying for the first two or three days while you reconfigure everything, has been no problem at all. Getting drivers (for 64bit versions) has been no problem at all, running software (including a copy of MS Money 95) has been no problem at all other than downloading a few patches for certain games.
it seems to me, that the person you replied too is more likely the one to listen too.
As a person who consults with his small business customers almost daily, I can tell you that you are wrong.
I can cite examples from almost every organization i deal with where employess are using their CORPORATE email accounts for personal use.
From the secretary who gets weather alerts and school closing delays sent to her email so she can go get little johnny from school, to the president who gets his travel updates and stock tips hourly, it happens. And it happens a LOT.
Funny. My EIGHT YEAR OLD computer came with a pentium 4 2.8GHz, 1GB or RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro, and today, with nothing more than a RAM upgrade to 2GB, runs Vista Ultimate perfectly fine, including the "bells and whistles" like AERO.
The difference between my legacy computer and yours, is that I was smart enough to buy something that wouldn't be obsolete in a year, let alone 8, and I probably spent only twice as much to do so.
Thats the difference between people who want DISPOSABLE CHEAP computers, and people who want something worth a shit.
Same as it has been for decades or more with everything from cars, to homes, to consumer electronics.
Just because someone makes an uninformed or poor decision, doesn't mean everyone else does.
Let's complain about BETA software! Here's a better idea.
Let's complain about DEVELOPERS having bricked devices so they cannot test out the Apps they are you know....
DEVELOPING!
Tool.
His district is made up of large portions of the suburbs of Chicago, and also the area directly around a large government funded laboratory, Fermilab. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/IL14_109.gif How the HELL that equates to the more rural areas of Illinois is amazingly unclear. Oh, just because he's also got the swath that covers only a few people in a rural area?
not likely.
He was voted in by fermilab employees and liberal democrats in the chicago suburbs.
it's more amazing that Hastert was ever elected in this area than this guy being elected.....
what are the chances he'll get one with gOS and then try to get online support help from people on a linux forum that tell him to "just go install [insert favorite distro here]"?
Case & PSU $100 CPU $200 (for a really good one) Mobo $75 RAM $50 (for 2GB) HDD $100 (for 500GB) GPU $200 (for REALLY Good one)
throw in the peripherals and other junk for about $100.00 and you are still well short of the $1000-1500 mark.
And with the ability to buy a Quad-core dell with 22" monitor and all kinds of GPU for about $700 almost every month on some special or another.... I fail to see how this is true.......
except that it was Robert Johnson who sang about it, and Tommy Johnson who actually started it, and only later on did it become attributed to Robert Johnson.
Are those components necessary for surfing the web and sending / receiving email?
Seriously.
Why does the ability to run some eye candy that is basically unnecessary in all situations for the basic operations a large majority of users want, suddenly make something better?
I have an EEE, and putting Beryl on it, while possible, isn't something I, or again, a large number of users, are interested in.
I (and a lot of other purchasers) want to surf the web, check email, and occasionally communicate with others with this piece of equipment. All can be done on the EEE without need of any fancy 3d desktop enhancements.
maybe instead of just bitching to be in the "cool crowd" you could actually *gasp* do some research and see HOW that memory is used and HOW it is released as necessary....
Every time i see someone bitching about how they wouldn't want to have all of their RAM in use, my mind automatically tells me to ignore this person because they fail to understand even the most basic of computer fundamentals.
Unused RAM is wasted resources. Period.
I understand the concept of having a good memory scheduler that releases and allocates RAM quickly and efficiently as the needs of OS and applications change, however, to me, crowing that you have 2gb or RAM installed and only ever see 500MB of it used in your computer (regardless of OS) simply tells me you have too much RAM or improperly set up your system.
It's not Rocket Science to understand that anything stored in the RAM is exponentially faster access than something stored on disk of any kind, yet all I see are people bitching that "Vista uses up all of my RAM", yet they do not mention that it is doing so on purpose (whether it works optimally or not is again, another discussion) by preloading the RAM with what is most necessary for the most commonly run apps.
Is the Vista memory scheduler good enough to do this? That is another debate.
But don't bitch about something using memory to make the use of the computer (arguably) better.
Oh, and you can get Dell core2 Duo laptops for $500 all day long, with at LEAST 1GB of RAM. So don't tell me that they are too expensive.
(And you do know that you can turn of the "eye candy", the superfetch, the indexing, etc.....right?)
anybody who read the bugtraq submission of the flaws would no that google themselves responded with a comment that they knew they were using old version of the libraries adn that they were planning on updating them in the next release.
They also pointed out that this iss not BETA code, but merely a release of propsed code to allow potential devlopers to add their insights to the project on which direction the code should go on various portions.
The libraries have now been replaced (evidently) with the newer ones, which probably doens't mean a damn thing as there are no currently available public platforms running the software and won't be for a while.
I want Sony to give me money back for my "overpriced" laserdisc player i can now buy for $50. I want Toshiba to give me money back for the "overpriced" VHS recorder/player i can now buy for $50. I want Denon to give me money back for the "overpriced" A/V receiver i can now get for $200...
uhhh. Actually on a purchased Dell C531 low end system, I've had fewer problems on install with Both XP home and Vista basic than i did with Fedora 5, Fedora 7, and now Fedora 8.
Most of the "problems" were related to X and not actually "Linux", and I was able to correct them each time, but again, the "average idiot" would see that "linux" has more problems than "Windows" does.
And being someone who runs several Vista computers (all 64bit as well) on both purchased and built systems, and Fedora (and having tried ubuntu) on several other computers, I can honestly say that I have had fewer problems on install with Vista than Linux.
But the problems weren't insurmountable for someone with the ability to use Google and some basic knowledge. However, for everyday use by the masses, I wouldn't recommend any Linux distro over windows (especially XP)
Slashdot Mirror
blog pimping anywhere just screams loser.
in fact it screams more loser than Paris Hilton.
somebody who finally understands....
/.
amazing on
Are you feeling ok?
can you be a recent convert to formatting now? :D
a. The cost of the hardware to RUN XP is very small. While it may take more to run a FULL version of this OS versus a stripped down version of a linux distro, the overall requirements for XP are not very high if unneeded services are disabled.
.Net application and learn a skill that maybe, just maybe, might lead them to be able to get a *gasp* job in todays world.
b. i believe you meant x86 based chips, otherwise AMD and Via would like to speak with you.
c. so there are no problems with anything but Microsoft products? Do you really think that if a major bug is found in the FOSS, everyone that has an OLPC will just magically be able to fix it themselves? We are talking about products being used to educate, and this by very nature means a good portion of the users are not already educated enough to correct the problems, but would instead, rely upon someone else (a third party if you will) to develop the fix for them.
d. yes of course, because the only thing kids want to "tinker" with is the underlying OS, nothing else. And God forbid they want to "tinker" with something like making a
e. uh-huh, because writing code to have a front end that works over the top of an OS is the domain of Linux only. Nobody could possibly know how to do so over the top of any other OS (like say a BSD variant that was named after a rather famous person...)
f. The "Community" is an ever evolving group of individuals. As some leave, others move in to take their place. Just because some will wish to not work on ONE OS, doesn't mean others might not wish to.
g. Maybe you need to comprehend something. The very idea of OLPC is to create a path to education. Period. If that means that they can simply write code for other hardware which meets ALL of their needs, I doubt they would have a problem with that. What this may actually do, is allow for a BETTER group of LOWER cost hardware simply because common components used throughout all product lines, across manufacturers would bring the cost of these components down accordingly.
If you want to be able to run a mesh network, it is going to take a certain type of device. If that device is suddenly produced in greater volume, then the producer of said item has fewer costs associated with changeover of their production lines, thus the overall cost to manufacturer said item decreases, which is usually followed by a similar cost to acquire.
It's called economics.
Now personally, I think that porting XP to the project is not necessary, however, the CUSTOMERS who wish to purchase the products, are asking for a specific set of variables, and if meeting these variables allows for the advancement of the stated goals of the project, then they should be pursued if possible without sacrificing the ability to meet the stated goal.
i believe the problem is that you have already grown up, therefore you do NOT "spell" it this way....
i call BS
I run Vista on three homebuilt machines, four freshly installed older Dell machines, and Fedora on three other machines. (9 Beta on two).
These are used by myself, and others without regard for buying certain components out of the box.
Vista, other than UAC being annoying for the first two or three days while you reconfigure everything, has been no problem at all.
Getting drivers (for 64bit versions) has been no problem at all, running software (including a copy of MS Money 95) has been no problem at all other than downloading a few patches for certain games.
it seems to me, that the person you replied too is more likely the one to listen too.
Stop trying to make the writer look like an idiot.
That's his job to do to others.
Haven't you understood that "Journalism" isn't abou the facts.
It's about what the "Journalist" wants it to be instead.
Sheesh.
As a person who consults with his small business customers almost daily, I can tell you that you are wrong.
I can cite examples from almost every organization i deal with where employess are using their CORPORATE email accounts for personal use.
From the secretary who gets weather alerts and school closing delays sent to her email so she can go get little johnny from school, to the president who gets his travel updates and stock tips hourly, it happens.
And it happens a LOT.
Funny.
My EIGHT YEAR OLD computer came with a pentium 4 2.8GHz, 1GB or RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro, and today, with nothing more than a RAM upgrade to 2GB, runs Vista Ultimate perfectly fine, including the "bells and whistles" like AERO.
The difference between my legacy computer and yours, is that I was smart enough to buy something that wouldn't be obsolete in a year, let alone 8, and I probably spent only twice as much to do so.
Thats the difference between people who want DISPOSABLE CHEAP computers, and people who want something worth a shit.
Same as it has been for decades or more with everything from cars, to homes, to consumer electronics.
Just because someone makes an uninformed or poor decision, doesn't mean everyone else does.
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DYCWTG1&s=dhs
3.97 lbs and FULLY functional
Just because you don't have a good laptop for walking.
Doesn't mean some of us don't.
Dell XPS m1330
less than $1700.00
4.3lbs
and through EPP WAYYYYYY less than $1700.00
HERETIC!!!!!!
His district is made up of large portions of the suburbs of Chicago, and also the area directly around a large government funded laboratory, Fermilab.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/IL14_109.gif
How the HELL that equates to the more rural areas of Illinois is amazingly unclear.
Oh, just because he's also got the swath that covers only a few people in a rural area?
not likely.
He was voted in by fermilab employees and liberal democrats in the chicago suburbs.
it's more amazing that Hastert was ever elected in this area than this guy being elected.....
you get modded troll for the truth
only at slashdot.
now all of the good slashdot sheeple need to take their little pills.....
c'mon.
No balking.
what are the chances he'll get one with gOS and then try to get online support help from people on a linux forum that tell him to "just go install [insert favorite distro here]"?
based upon my experience? Pretty damn good.
hmmm
Case & PSU $100
CPU $200 (for a really good one)
Mobo $75
RAM $50 (for 2GB)
HDD $100 (for 500GB)
GPU $200 (for REALLY Good one)
throw in the peripherals and other junk for about $100.00 and you are still well short of the $1000-1500 mark.
And with the ability to buy a Quad-core dell with 22" monitor and all kinds of GPU for about $700 almost every month on some special or another....
I fail to see how this is true.......
except that it was Robert Johnson who sang about it, and Tommy Johnson who actually started it, and only later on did it become attributed to Robert Johnson.
Ahhh the irony of slashdot groupthink again.....
noooo....
/.
not possibly
not on
they never groupthink here......
Why does it need to?
Are those components necessary for surfing the web and sending / receiving email?
Seriously.
Why does the ability to run some eye candy that is basically unnecessary in all situations for the basic operations a large majority of users want, suddenly make something better?
I have an EEE, and putting Beryl on it, while possible, isn't something I, or again, a large number of users, are interested in.
I (and a lot of other purchasers) want to surf the web, check email, and occasionally communicate with others with this piece of equipment.
All can be done on the EEE without need of any fancy 3d desktop enhancements.
maybe instead of just bitching to be in the "cool crowd" you could actually *gasp* do some research and see HOW that memory is used and HOW it is released as necessary....
Every time i see someone bitching about how they wouldn't want to have all of their RAM in use, my mind automatically tells me to ignore this person because they fail to understand even the most basic of computer fundamentals.
Unused RAM is wasted resources.
Period.
I understand the concept of having a good memory scheduler that releases and allocates RAM quickly and efficiently as the needs of OS and applications change, however, to me, crowing that you have 2gb or RAM installed and only ever see 500MB of it used in your computer (regardless of OS) simply tells me you have too much RAM or improperly set up your system.
It's not Rocket Science to understand that anything stored in the RAM is exponentially faster access than something stored on disk of any kind, yet all I see are people bitching that "Vista uses up all of my RAM", yet they do not mention that it is doing so on purpose (whether it works optimally or not is again, another discussion) by preloading the RAM with what is most necessary for the most commonly run apps.
Is the Vista memory scheduler good enough to do this?
That is another debate.
But don't bitch about something using memory to make the use of the computer (arguably) better.
Oh, and you can get Dell core2 Duo laptops for $500 all day long, with at LEAST 1GB of RAM. So don't tell me that they are too expensive.
(And you do know that you can turn of the "eye candy", the superfetch, the indexing, etc.....right?)
anybody who read the bugtraq submission of the flaws would no that google themselves responded with a comment that they knew they were using old version of the libraries adn that they were planning on updating them in the next release.
They also pointed out that this iss not BETA code, but merely a release of propsed code to allow potential devlopers to add their insights to the project on which direction the code should go on various portions.
The libraries have now been replaced (evidently) with the newer ones, which probably doens't mean a damn thing as there are no currently available public platforms running the software and won't be for a while.
calling this dumb is a bit overkill.
it can be "free" if you have no or very low morals.....
torrents, the new shoplifting.....
I want Sony to give me money back for my "overpriced" laserdisc player i can now buy for $50.
I want Toshiba to give me money back for the "overpriced" VHS recorder/player i can now buy for $50.
I want Denon to give me money back for the "overpriced" A/V receiver i can now get for $200...
and on and on and on and on......
uhhh.
Actually on a purchased Dell C531 low end system, I've had fewer problems on install with Both XP home and Vista basic than i did with Fedora 5, Fedora 7, and now Fedora 8.
Most of the "problems" were related to X and not actually "Linux", and I was able to correct them each time, but again, the "average idiot" would see that "linux" has more problems than "Windows" does.
And being someone who runs several Vista computers (all 64bit as well) on both purchased and built systems, and Fedora (and having tried ubuntu) on several other computers, I can honestly say that I have had fewer problems on install with Vista than Linux.
But the problems weren't insurmountable for someone with the ability to use Google and some basic knowledge. However, for everyday use by the masses, I wouldn't recommend any Linux distro over windows (especially XP)