Keep in mind that XP requires activation, so unless something changes, you'll only be able to install XP so long as Microsoft keeps the activation servers alive.
I may be wrong, but didn't Microsoft get forced to make an extension or two to 9X end of support times? There are much more PCs around now than at the turn of the century, so a bigger user base, and more pressure for support continuing.
But with MS there are more users than fanbois. There is a much higher percentage of fonbois with apple and Linux.
Perhaps choices create more enthusiasm, thus there are more Linux and OSX fanboys. Windows is the default. With few exceptions, get a new PC get Windows in it.. Go home and see what doesn't work any more. Thus a lower percentage of enthusiastic Windows users in comparison to the application users who happen to use Windows.
Therefore slashdot is annoying, and everyone here still doesn't know what a vagina looks like in real life.
Using another distro. Well I use a number of them. I really like CentOS for servers and Ubuntu for Desktop.
They key is that things should be as easy as possible if you want more people to use them.
Why do you think attracting as many users as possible should be a major priority for Fedora? More sales? Higher visibility leading to more sponsorship? Ego boosts for the developers? Or none of the above. It's a free distro. Use it or not.
My statment has more to do with why should I use Fedora?
You shouldn't. In fact, run in the opposite direction any time someone mentions it. Stick with Ubuntu and Centos. And never give Fedora a second thought...please..
Come on.. You know the score as well as I do. Pick a distro, and if you don't like it, pick another one. Just like everybody Else. If you ware waiting for your gold edged invitation form Linus himself, you are in for a long wait.
Ubuntu is more friendly, CentOS is better for servers, and Debian is more "free", DSL, Zenwalk, and Puppy are lighter.
So why Fedora? What advantages does it have over other distros. I know this is likley to be flamebait for people but I have used Fedora, Ubunut, and OpenSuse for years. I haven't messed with Fedora for a while so a simple what does Fedora do better than others?
Absolutely right. Anything that Fedora does, other distros do too. For me, Fedora is a nice balance between stability and new versions of the various major packages. I like it, you may not.
For me? Not at all. I admit that I have a fondness of not doing more work than I really have too.
I have been using Linux for a long time and you have hit on one of the big problems with the mindset of many Linux users.
Why should I have to configure a third party repo? What do I gain over the way Ubuntu does it.
Flexibility. You get to choose the repo. You get to choose if you want to be running open source only stuff, or if you are happy with binary packages and codecs that Fedora does not officially support. Not a big deal for most, but still something that some care about.
Realistically, how long does it take to install a repo and type "yum install kmod-nvidia"(as I did about half an hour ago) and then reboot after Yum pulls in all the required packages. Is this any worse than having to enable the restricted repositories and then select your video card?
Why should I have to go through a lot of fiddling to get my video driver working?
You don't. One of the reasons for so many distros is that different people like different ways of doing things. Ubuntu automates many things, Fedora doesn't. Ubuntu is aimed at making as much possible with as little effort as possible, Fedora isn't. If that doesn't ring your particular bell, don't use Fedora. The distro makers cater to a specific group of users, and we tend to like the way it works.
Personally, I'm as much interested in how something works as I am in getting it working at all. There are plenty of choices. There is even a script called autoten available from one of the Forum users that automatically sets everything up for you with no more effort than clicking a few check boxes and a button.
Working well with a lack of effort is a good thing.
It's a matter of taste. Fedora is not the only distro. Pick one that fits.
At one point, I stupidly ran an update right before heading out to a meeting. I rebooted, and no wireless (I was using madwifi from livna, I think). oops. It was my own foolishness I guess, but still...
Easy enough to fix. Reboot and run on the previous kernel. If anything, the kernel comes out first and is accidentally updated, and then the wifi or video card drivers come out a bit later. Anything from hours to days. It happens to us all from time to time.
Why? Repeat offender laws are remarkably effective in normal crime control; what makes this different?
Repeat offenders are usually tried and convicted. Not just pointed out in the street and incarcerated. Three strikes in this case means three accusations and no more internet. Not three convictions.
I think you're backing up the A/C's point about people saying something is automatically artificial once they know Photoshop is involved. If there's anything in that pic that's real, it's the flag. Look at the fabric creases. There's no doubt about it.
Nobody is saying that the flag is not real, or that the person is not real. They are stating that the two elements were not in the same place at the same time.
Someone could have used a super sharp large format camera and taken two perfectly exposed pictures, but the fact remains that it was butchered by some clod who barely knew how to stick one element into another. Thus, obvious montage.
The only site I've seen using it is ITV.com and that's only for advertising...
No.. they also use it for streaming TV shows. Which is why I installed it on my PVR.. I watched part of an episode of Sanctuary for about three minutes before I got sick of the constant buffering. This was about 4AM. But I'm possibly spoiled by watching the BBC iPlayer stuff in flash. Very nice on my TV at the highest quality setting.
Lower quality (on the ITV site at least), heavy buffering, and jerky video. Why bother. Youtube has better quality.
What you don't get is that unless MS fully supports silverlight in Linux, that guy that has that website that uses silverlight will lose viewers.
What, all 2 of them?
Given that OS X still has higher desktop penetration rates than Linux, that's pretty much what it boils down to.
Where have you been the last few years? Web surfing by desktop alone went away ages ago. Think MIDs, phones, Set top boxes, game consoles etc.. as well as desktops. And before you get all excited about the 90% Market share.. remember that this is all desktop computers. Just computers. not computers and consoles and practically anything that can connect to the net.. Many business computers will never be used for surfing and watching silverlight movies, so the 90% market share starts to look much less healthy.. And don;t forget to add the people on dialup or slow restrictive capped connections. No streaming video for them either.. Suddenly, Silverlight's potential reach isn't nearly as impressive as thought.
What it actually all boils down to is that IE has been neutralised as the must support at any cost browser, So the days when Microsoft could say which codecs and technologies would take off are long gone. And unlilkely to return. All media is not dependent on Microsoft. Which is why there are plugins for more than IE.
Coming from Microsoft does not automatically mean the next de facto standard. I honestly don't know if I'll bother using the plugin when it comes out. Just as I didn't bother installing Realplayer when the BBC website stopped using it. I haven't seen much in the way of Silverlight content anywhere I'm interested in yet.
but I want something with a color screen at least (i know its too much to ask but oh well)
Give it time. How long did it take for the first LCD displays to be in colour? Even today many are not particularly colourful. Quality will go up and price will go down. It just takes time. E-ink is still in it's infancy.
The problem is not the nerd's time, but the perception of the MS users to whom said nerds show the suite. Startup time for OpenOffice programs directly conflicts with the assertion that wins OSS converts, that OSS software will better utilize existing hardware.
So.. My copy of Open Office starting in just over 4 seconds (timed Writer opening with my stopwatch just now) would be impressive I take it.. Not a particularly fast machine either. A 4 Ghz Athlon AM2 single core with 2 gig of memory running Fedora 9. I do use preload, so perhaps my doing what Microsoft do with Office and Explorer might be regarded as cheating in some sense.
No idea of how fast it starts on Windows, so it may be much slower there.
Do they seriously think their customer base will stand for behavior like that? Anyone who has ever bought a used game will cease to buy any games, new or used, by companies that try to pull this shit. Consumers don't like being raked over the coals.
About as much as they tolerate games with an install limit or DRM that can not be removed.. It isn't likely to be something that is mentioned on a big brightly coloured sticker on the box, and by the time you have got that far, it is too late. Can't take it back, can't finish the game..
Our Spiffy, Shiny, Radically New(tm) system that is horribly vulnerable to fraud isn't vulnerable to fraud because we will only be using it to do what the old and busted system was perfectly capable of doing! (Is there some aspect of this that isn't completely insane that I've missed out on?)
Yes..
Cushy jobs after the political career goes runny.
An app store would theoretically allow free apps, as does the iPhone app store. How are they different?
A repository (In Linux practice at least) is one of many software libraries accessed by a package manager They don't all have to be run by the distro maker. So third parties are free to set up their own repository and link it into the package manager without needing the distro maker's approval.
An apps store may allow free apps, but a repository only asks permission from the user.
For example. If I make an iPhone app to search and buy from the Amazon music store, Apple are entitled to refuse to distribute the app. They say what is and is not available. And there is only one store. So Apple get to decide what everybody can and can not run.(jailbreaking doesn't count)
If I make the same app for Linux, I don't need to get anybody's permission. I can set up my own set of repositories to make a package available for easy installation, or I can offer it to the distro run repositories, or a third party repository maintainer. The user gets to decide who they get their software from, and what is available not the distro maker..
Slashdot Mirror
It's Mobbs. Get it right or the Mapple zealots will be all over you.
Could this be a meme in the making?
Keep in mind that XP requires activation, so unless something changes, you'll only be able to install XP so long as Microsoft keeps the activation servers alive.
I may be wrong, but didn't Microsoft get forced to make an extension or two to 9X end of support times? There are much more PCs around now than at the turn of the century, so a bigger user base, and more pressure for support continuing.
But with MS there are more users than fanbois. There is a much higher percentage of fonbois with apple and Linux.
Perhaps choices create more enthusiasm, thus there are more Linux and OSX fanboys. Windows is the default. With few exceptions, get a new PC get Windows in it.. Go home and see what doesn't work any more. Thus a lower percentage of enthusiastic Windows users in comparison to the application users who happen to use Windows.
Therefore slashdot is annoying, and everyone here still doesn't know what a vagina looks like in real life.
Course not. Most of us haven't met you.
It certainly shows that their software renderer is fast and feature-complete enough to run fairly recent games.
For a very impractical definition of "run". I get a sneaking suspicion that marketing has been telling the techs what to do again.
This is the year of Linux on the iPhone!
With cut and paste?
Sssh! don't give the Dark Lord any ideas!
Which one.. Jobs or Ballmer?
Using another distro. Well I use a number of them. I really like CentOS for servers and Ubuntu for Desktop. They key is that things should be as easy as possible if you want more people to use them.
Why do you think attracting as many users as possible should be a major priority for Fedora? More sales? Higher visibility leading to more sponsorship? Ego boosts for the developers? Or none of the above. It's a free distro. Use it or not.
My statment has more to do with why should I use Fedora?
You shouldn't. In fact, run in the opposite direction any time someone mentions it. Stick with Ubuntu and Centos. And never give Fedora a second thought...please.. Come on.. You know the score as well as I do. Pick a distro, and if you don't like it, pick another one. Just like everybody Else. If you ware waiting for your gold edged invitation form Linus himself, you are in for a long wait.
Ubuntu is more friendly, CentOS is better for servers, and Debian is more "free", DSL, Zenwalk, and Puppy are lighter. So why Fedora? What advantages does it have over other distros. I know this is likley to be flamebait for people but I have used Fedora, Ubunut, and OpenSuse for years. I haven't messed with Fedora for a while so a simple what does Fedora do better than others?
Absolutely right. Anything that Fedora does, other distros do too. For me, Fedora is a nice balance between stability and new versions of the various major packages. I like it, you may not.
For me? Not at all. I admit that I have a fondness of not doing more work than I really have too. I have been using Linux for a long time and you have hit on one of the big problems with the mindset of many Linux users. Why should I have to configure a third party repo? What do I gain over the way Ubuntu does it.
Flexibility. You get to choose the repo. You get to choose if you want to be running open source only stuff, or if you are happy with binary packages and codecs that Fedora does not officially support. Not a big deal for most, but still something that some care about. Realistically, how long does it take to install a repo and type "yum install kmod-nvidia"(as I did about half an hour ago) and then reboot after Yum pulls in all the required packages. Is this any worse than having to enable the restricted repositories and then select your video card?
Why should I have to go through a lot of fiddling to get my video driver working?
You don't. One of the reasons for so many distros is that different people like different ways of doing things. Ubuntu automates many things, Fedora doesn't. Ubuntu is aimed at making as much possible with as little effort as possible, Fedora isn't. If that doesn't ring your particular bell, don't use Fedora. The distro makers cater to a specific group of users, and we tend to like the way it works. Personally, I'm as much interested in how something works as I am in getting it working at all. There are plenty of choices. There is even a script called autoten available from one of the Forum users that automatically sets everything up for you with no more effort than clicking a few check boxes and a button.
Working well with a lack of effort is a good thing.
It's a matter of taste. Fedora is not the only distro. Pick one that fits.
At one point, I stupidly ran an update right before heading out to a meeting. I rebooted, and no wireless (I was using madwifi from livna, I think). oops. It was my own foolishness I guess, but still...
Easy enough to fix. Reboot and run on the previous kernel. If anything, the kernel comes out first and is accidentally updated, and then the wifi or video card drivers come out a bit later. Anything from hours to days. It happens to us all from time to time.
Extremely lame. I don't have this damnable bother with Ubuntu.
Then use Ubuntu. If something as trivial as configuring a third party repo is too much work, you are going to hate Fedora.
Why? Repeat offender laws are remarkably effective in normal crime control; what makes this different?
Repeat offenders are usually tried and convicted. Not just pointed out in the street and incarcerated. Three strikes in this case means three accusations and no more internet. Not three convictions.
Search for "Fedora 10" on thepiratebay.org. Good seeders exist! SHA1SUM checks out; GPG sigs are good.
Or wait three days and get it from a more reliable source.
Maybe Microsoft hasn't met her price yet.
Not for want of trying.
I think you're backing up the A/C's point about people saying something is automatically artificial once they know Photoshop is involved. If there's anything in that pic that's real, it's the flag. Look at the fabric creases. There's no doubt about it.
Nobody is saying that the flag is not real, or that the person is not real. They are stating that the two elements were not in the same place at the same time. Someone could have used a super sharp large format camera and taken two perfectly exposed pictures, but the fact remains that it was butchered by some clod who barely knew how to stick one element into another. Thus, obvious montage.
The only site I've seen using it is ITV.com and that's only for advertising...
No.. they also use it for streaming TV shows. Which is why I installed it on my PVR.. I watched part of an episode of Sanctuary for about three minutes before I got sick of the constant buffering. This was about 4AM. But I'm possibly spoiled by watching the BBC iPlayer stuff in flash. Very nice on my TV at the highest quality setting.
Lower quality (on the ITV site at least), heavy buffering, and jerky video. Why bother. Youtube has better quality.
What you don't get is that unless MS fully supports silverlight in Linux, that guy that has that website that uses silverlight will lose viewers.
What, all 2 of them?
Given that OS X still has higher desktop penetration rates than Linux, that's pretty much what it boils down to.
Where have you been the last few years? Web surfing by desktop alone went away ages ago. Think MIDs, phones, Set top boxes, game consoles etc.. as well as desktops. And before you get all excited about the 90% Market share.. remember that this is all desktop computers. Just computers. not computers and consoles and practically anything that can connect to the net.. Many business computers will never be used for surfing and watching silverlight movies, so the 90% market share starts to look much less healthy.. And don;t forget to add the people on dialup or slow restrictive capped connections. No streaming video for them either.. Suddenly, Silverlight's potential reach isn't nearly as impressive as thought.
What it actually all boils down to is that IE has been neutralised as the must support at any cost browser, So the days when Microsoft could say which codecs and technologies would take off are long gone. And unlilkely to return. All media is not dependent on Microsoft. Which is why there are plugins for more than IE.
Coming from Microsoft does not automatically mean the next de facto standard. I honestly don't know if I'll bother using the plugin when it comes out. Just as I didn't bother installing Realplayer when the BBC website stopped using it. I haven't seen much in the way of Silverlight content anywhere I'm interested in yet.
It's their new marketing strategy.
Yes.. But it tends to run tight.
but I want something with a color screen at least (i know its too much to ask but oh well)
Give it time. How long did it take for the first LCD displays to be in colour? Even today many are not particularly colourful. Quality will go up and price will go down. It just takes time. E-ink is still in it's infancy.
.. and usable as emergency toilet paper in case you didn't noticed you had ran out.
Well.. they are usually pretty thin. A scraper perhaps?
The problem is not the nerd's time, but the perception of the MS users to whom said nerds show the suite. Startup time for OpenOffice programs directly conflicts with the assertion that wins OSS converts, that OSS software will better utilize existing hardware.
So.. My copy of Open Office starting in just over 4 seconds (timed Writer opening with my stopwatch just now) would be impressive I take it..
Not a particularly fast machine either. A 4 Ghz Athlon AM2 single core with 2 gig of memory running Fedora 9. I do use preload, so perhaps my doing what Microsoft do with Office and Explorer might be regarded as cheating in some sense.
No idea of how fast it starts on Windows, so it may be much slower there.
Read the article again. The display is about twice the sizr of the current e-ink displays, so 12 inches diagonal.
Do they seriously think their customer base will stand for behavior like that? Anyone who has ever bought a used game will cease to buy any games, new or used, by companies that try to pull this shit. Consumers don't like being raked over the coals.
About as much as they tolerate games with an install limit or DRM that can not be removed.. It isn't likely to be something that is mentioned on a big brightly coloured sticker on the box, and by the time you have got that far, it is too late. Can't take it back, can't finish the game..
Our Spiffy, Shiny, Radically New(tm) system that is horribly vulnerable to fraud isn't vulnerable to fraud because we will only be using it to do what the old and busted system was perfectly capable of doing! (Is there some aspect of this that isn't completely insane that I've missed out on?)
Yes.. Cushy jobs after the political career goes runny.
UK != racist America I know it's a difficult concept to grasp.
Sadly, in some sectors, not that far off. And before anybody wonders, I live here.
An app store would theoretically allow free apps, as does the iPhone app store. How are they different?
A repository (In Linux practice at least) is one of many software libraries accessed by a package manager They don't all have to be run by the distro maker. So third parties are free to set up their own repository and link it into the package manager without needing the distro maker's approval.
An apps store may allow free apps, but a repository only asks permission from the user.
For example. If I make an iPhone app to search and buy from the Amazon music store, Apple are entitled to refuse to distribute the app. They say what is and is not available. And there is only one store. So Apple get to decide what everybody can and can not run.(jailbreaking doesn't count)
If I make the same app for Linux, I don't need to get anybody's permission. I can set up my own set of repositories to make a package available for easy installation, or I can offer it to the distro run repositories, or a third party repository maintainer. The user gets to decide who they get their software from, and what is available not the distro maker..