I think Amazon should take blame too, no? I forget if there was a maximum character limit, but Amazon only allows Letters and Numbers in their passwords - which is a complete joke for a site that retains your credit card information. Amazon was one of less than a handful of sites that prevented me from using my NORMAL 32 character full ansi character passwords, chr(32) - chr(255), that I generate with a script from a regular typable phrase. Even a single letter used as an input will create:
ïêûõeÿë/j7V+åk+0ùé6`V!õk
(Of course slashdot is removing 8 of the ANSI characters) Apparently not only can't slashdot do Unicode it can't even support the normal ansi character set.
I'm pretty sure it was the reverse, neither Kirsten Dunst, nor Toby Maguire at 34 years old, wanted to go back to High School and pretend to be a 17-18yo.
Which begs the question why did we have to go over 10+ years before it's fully coming to light what a clusterfuck webdesign is. Completely ass-backwards to every other language one can program with. I'm not positive, but I bet I could layout a page with content and colors easier on a Commodore64 with Basic than trying to deal with HTML/CSS/JS and possible server-side controllers (PHP et al).
I know. It's completely ludicrous that CSS spec has never implemented basic inheritance or simple variable assignment.
Even a simple/basic web-page is likely to have an unholy combination of CSS, JS, PHP (or other serverside language) and some version of HTML.
The whole theory behind CSS is a bad joke. In no other program (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, etc) or programming language do you have this idealogy of complete separation of content from how it is displayed.
Imagine if you will, if HTML had never implemented the display of text outside of a tag... you could write clean "HTML"
if( $foo == "bar" )
____ [text][p]Foo is equal to bar[/p][/text]
else if( $foo == "foo" )
____ [text][p]Foo is equal to foo[/p][/text]
endif
Or even giving "$" or "#" over to a variable indicator.
Or use curly-braces if one prefers. With basic inclusion into the spec, you could easily support { } syntax as well as end-[logic Keyword] without necessitating Python's whitespace flow-control.
One would not need to be concerned on whether JS has been disabled (user-side) as HTML could of been a complete language, including logic and flow-of-control instead of being what we are most likely stuck with.
Worse still is Opera's silent update of the override.js file. You don't get prompted for the update, and there is no way that I can see to revert it back to a working copy. I've used Opera since 2000/2001, but in the last few years stability has gone out the window, and I can't rely on it at all. When a silent "overrides.js" update breaks html running on localhost that is a major f'ing problem --- considering that overrides.js is supposed to be site specific - and it damn well isn't.
I thought 3rd Edition was interesting; 3.5 not so much. Although if you looked at Feats in 3.5 (physical/combat ones) anyways -- many of the modifiers aren't much different than a 2nd-Edition Warrior with a weapon proficiency specialist (+2/+4). Where the system really loses it (completely) is all the compendium/sourcebooks that keep adding classes and additional feats. You wind up with every little insignificant thing becoming a "Feat"... which leads players to only focus on playing with and using abilities (Feats) that they have - instead of Role-Playing and being creative.
Every Special Maneuver does not need to be set in stone as a new feat, neither does there need to be countless classes and sub-classes. If WoTC was going to turn combat from AD&D's traditional 1minute turn, single-D20 roll to hit --- to --- hit/counter/parry/feat/etc/etc (extensive tactical combat, ala GURPS) then they really needed to do away with that single-D20 roll to hit and the concept of a passive THAC0. As it stands extensive customization of D&D's combat mechanics (or lack-thereof) isn't suited to a single D20 roll vs THAC0.
There's very likely a good reason why most other RPG's that weren't D&D-clones standardized on a basic system of stress-rolls, when the target of a stress roll is a task, or inanimate object - then you would have a target number to beat. Whereas when the target of a stress roll is a living-thing, then they get a chance to defend against your action - be it an attack or arm-wrestle or whatever.
There's many things WoTC did right in all of there various versions, but theres also many things they did wrong --- and no two people are going to agree on what exactly is right or wrong. Simplification of SavingThrows was good. Overpowered multi-classed characters was bad.
It's been a long time now, but if I recall one of the tenets of D&D was along the lines of "Less is More", and when the Game Rules and Regulations try to cover every minor variance you wind up with a broken system. WoTC threw that tenet out with the bathwater, and in the end you wind up with a System tailored for min/maxers instead of a System for RolePlaying.
Why bother? They're just reacting to Paizo eating their lunch. And have finally figured out that what the fans wanted was 2nd-Edition/3rd-Edition, which has been available as Pathfinder for what 3 years now (Aug.2009). Pathfinder Core Rulebook, $31.49, #4 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming.
A few years back, WoTC pulled ALL of their PDFs of the books for sale. Compare that to Paizo, if you buy directly from them they give you the hardcover AND the PDF.
Heck if we look a little closer at Amazon's top selling gaming books, many of the v3.5 books are still in the top 40 (#19. Players Handbook 3.5). It's also worth noting that most 3.5 D&D Books/Supplements/Modules can be used with Pathfinder with little (to no) modification at all. Thus all that money one might of spent on 3.0 and/or 3.5 wont be wasted.
Further, with D&D 4+ WoTC changed the OGL to severely restrict any other company from publishing supplements for D&D, whereas (again) Pathfinder kept the original OGL from 3.0/3.5 which allows ANYONE to create content for Pathfinder.
D&D was better before WoTC fucked it up, so we're going to reprint 2nd Edition as D&D Next and make a boat-load of money, since most long-term D&D fans bailed and switched to Paizo's Pathfinder.
Why was this even posted? Amateur Hour on Slashdot apparently.
We can't even hear the damned questions - just extended silence while Mearls listens to a question (apparently on the phone) that we can't hear..
It's not even a video, its an audio-cast with a static image embedded. And the whole damned thing cuts out mid-sentence at 10 mins.
I found the way GURPs handled Magic to be fairly interesting. Lower powered skills/magic could usually be used without Fatiguing the Mage - e.g a simple Fire Bolt might be able to be cast all day long (nearly). Whereas a FireBall or upper level magic would be more likely to cause Fatigue (fail the skill check to cast without penalty). When your fatigue was used up, I believe you could take physical damage from casting strenuous spells.
Usage of PowerStones and the very detailed Magic (item) creation system was also pretty decent. Granted GURPS in general has major flaws when stats go much beyond 14, but Gurps Magic was awesome. Warhammer FRP did something similiar, most cantrips didn't require a stress test - but while Warhammer had much more flavour to it's Magic and overall setting - the Magic System (and Magic Items, and magic creation) rules were pretty sparse or next to non-existant.
Why not just use a non-wireless router and a couple powerline adapters in an apartment building. It might be slightly more expensive, but if you only need to hook up a couple computers it would likely be worth it. You'd also have the option of putting in a wireless repeater/range extender in a given room for guests et al.
It was actually a valid question I thought. I didn't realize OO/Libre Office was so broken that it couldn't understand VBA. I don't see how any IT Manager could convince Upper Management to switch over from MS Office to OO/Libre when VBA is broken out of the box.
It is an existing Document Set, that I copied from Vancouver to Vancouver (OO) --- So that I could open pre-existing Excel.xls workbooks to see how Calc would handle them. With Further investigating, it appears Calc is attempting to Interpret code that isn't supposed to run --- Older versions of functions (backed up) before significant changes were made to the functions. So the interpreter is bailing cuz unused code has errors in it. As I stated the Script Editor was opening due to interpreter errors. When I would close the Script Editor, there is no way to manually re-open it.
"Edit Macros" - does not exist in the Tools Menu, or any of Tools' sub-menus.
The last time I used OO's Calc, 3-4 years ago, Calc couldn't even apply background colors to cells. SO I didn't proceed any further than that.
After deleting the "unused code/function" now Calc is choking on a simple Cells() query/assignment:
Public Function Toggle_Stat_Increase()
If (Cells(1, 1) = 1) Then
Cells(1, 1) = 0
Else
Cells(1, 1) = 1
End If
End Function
BASIC runtime error.
'1'
Type: com.sun.star.uno.RuntimeException
Message: unsatisfied query for interface of type ooo.vba.excel.XWorksheet!
Useless. Calc can't even handle a simple VBA script using If/elseif.
If Cell.Row = pBegin(0) Then
'Do Something
Elseif count = 1 then
'Do Something
Elseif count > 2 then
'Do Something
End if
ERROR: BASIC Syntax Error. Expected:,.
ALT+F11 doesn't open the Script Editor.
ALT+Q doesn't close the script Editor, when it opens Automatically when it can't understand valid VBA.
I can't actually find any way to manually open the Script Editor to access the code.
I don't see how this is remotely close to "ready for business".
Paying $100-$200 for an Office Suite only needs to save you 2-4 hours of time over the lifetime of it's license to make the purchase cost effective. I can certainly see losing far more time than that trying to troubleshoot problems that do NOT exist when using MS Office 2000, XP, or even 2003.
Prior to this most recent "Script Error", the Interpreter was claiming a completely working script's if/elseif blocks weren't closed.
I've often wondered if it was the fault of the publisher. Given that when an author is new, they likely don't have much choice in the fact that their book will be edited. Whereas after Jordan was a bestseller of 3-4+ books, it would seem to me that TOR stepped back and gave him the green light for whatever it was he wanted to do --- as it would sell.
The whole series is deserving of a quality editor.
Book a minute SF/F are pretty humorous, even for series that I have completely read, like Robin Hobb's Assassin Apprentice+. Jordan's books up to book 11 are 'summarized'. The Jordan Book-a-Minute summaries are combined in this slashdot post.
No, but I do expect it will be as secure or even more than their MS WebMatrix downloads:
Downloads are stored in a MD5 hashed folder that matches the MD5 hash of the zip/installer.
Attempts to modify the file will trigger a re-download, MS-WebMatrix wont use the modified file.
Attempts to MOVE the file to a new hashed foldername that matches the modified file... again will not be used, a new download will be required.
So even if a "Malware" writer attempted any of those things, the folders and image itself will likely be stored in a WindowsImageBackup folder, that even the MAIN Administrator does not have access to. Those security settings/ownership cannot be changed without going through MULTIPLE UAC prompts, and there will also likely be a background service that runs on a trigger when anything related to the saved image is attempted. Such a service will also not be owned by the current user, or Administrator, it will be a SYSTEM level (or higher) level service.
Really? Joomla? Of all the CMS's Joomla is probably the worst to try and do anything with.
Joomla has an absolutely obtuse file-structure.
Joomla's templating system is awkward at best, requiring mixing ?PHP echo's and logic all over the place. As opposed to a clean PHP implementation that might just use a variable e.g. [div class="body"][?PHP echo $contentBody;?][/div]
WIth Joomla's obtuse file-structure, even simple components are scattered among multiple root folders and subfolders - as necessitated by Joomla requirements.
Adding and updating content in Joomla, takes much longer than most other CMS's.
Trying to find Joomla content in the backend is a nightmare, with "Articles" and Modules scattered all over the place.
Joomla refuses to load a "page" unless it is linked to a menu item. To work around this failure you have to generate a non-published menu, just to create links to articles, so that you can use those links within your existing content.
Joomla has no clean view of your content, e.g. Tree layout (see Concrete5 or ProcessWire). Your content is scattered.
Joomla has Plugins, Modules, Components that are collectively known as Extensions... Except many uses of a module is solely so you can place content where you need it to go. "Custom HTML" --- so it is effectively a custom article. Yet it cannot be listed alongside your articles.
Joomla is a really bad joke, that somehow has become one of the most popular CMS's.
I can't wait until we stop using it, and needing to support it.
I usually run the alpha's and beta's, Opera 11.60 beta, and Opera Next 12.0 alpha/beta. Unless it's a particularly bad release - which gets an update fairly quickly --- Opera generally only crashes when I have hundred(s) of tabs open and it doesn't manage it's memory well enough. When Opera goes over 3+ Gigs of RAM - if it hasn't crashed yet then you are better off closing a few tabs and restarting. Seems to be the only way to reset it's memory use.
Other than that, it's fairly stable for the most part. There's much less rendering quirks than there used to be. And Opera has the most customizable interface of any browser... it may even be the most customizable application at all.
That may not be a "selling point" for most, but I've given up on Firefox. I have tried to switch many times in the past when I was disappointed in Opera's direction and stability at times, but Firefox had far too many limitations and far too many plugins/extensions needed for basic functionality. The last time was a few years back now (at least) and there was still no way for FF to put Tabs on the left/or right; as well almost every interface tweak required a plugin as opposed to adding a small JS snippet or just changing an option in the config.
Renamed a few that conflict with cmd.exe and native windows binary commands, e.g. gSort.exe
AutoHotkey, which in many cases is more wordy for the same task that a CLI tool would be, but much easier to read the "code" after the fact. As well AHK can interface with the windows object model (like WSH, VB or PowerShell can); interface with GUI elements and almost all CLI type commands are built in --- the ones that are missing then you just use them directly from AHK and pass the output back. The latest version AHK_L and the beta AHK 2.0 has a procedural object model (similiar to JS not C++).
Then there's all the SysInternal CLI and GUI Tools
With Windows I have proper documentation instead of Man Pages that can't even be bothered to include an example of usage.
Everytime I deal with Linux and need to do text manipulation it's a complete PITA : Escaping spaces, escaping escapes, escaping escaped escapes...in regex.
Windows comes with dozens of complete (UNICODE) FONTS (even more with Office) - not "free" fonts that might have a small section of the ANSI charset.
For the server, linux is working great. For a desktop OS "FREE" is not a selling point.
There very well may be "decent" opensource applications out there, but they are few and far in-between. Most (not all) that I have attempted to use are buggy, lack documentation and tend to have a slower turn around in development. Paying money for software that works is well worth your time.
Try using the extra search options for a laugh. I don't recall which search terms I used now, but frequently if you try to filter your results by date/time the actual number of results don't make any sense. E.G. the number of results can and will increase when you filter by "within the last year" (or similiar) as opposed to no time filter at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Server Market Share, based on hardware sales (excluding software licensing)
2012 Q1: Windows: 50.2%, Unix +Linux: 38.9% --- IDC
I think Amazon should take blame too, no? I forget if there was a maximum character limit, but Amazon only allows Letters and Numbers in their passwords - which is a complete joke for a site that retains your credit card information. Amazon was one of less than a handful of sites that prevented me from using my NORMAL 32 character full ansi character passwords, chr(32) - chr(255), that I generate with a script from a regular typable phrase. Even a single letter used as an input will create: ïêûõeÿë/j7V+åk+0ùé6`V!õk
(Of course slashdot is removing 8 of the ANSI characters) Apparently not only can't slashdot do Unicode it can't even support the normal ansi character set.
I know. Windows 8 will be $40.
I'm pretty sure it was the reverse, neither Kirsten Dunst, nor Toby Maguire at 34 years old, wanted to go back to High School and pretend to be a 17-18yo.
See: Tobey Maguire quits Spider-Man 4... after new script sends Peter Parker back to high school
Which begs the question why did we have to go over 10+ years before it's fully coming to light what a clusterfuck webdesign is. Completely ass-backwards to every other language one can program with. I'm not positive, but I bet I could layout a page with content and colors easier on a Commodore64 with Basic than trying to deal with HTML/CSS/JS and possible server-side controllers (PHP et al).
Even a simple/basic web-page is likely to have an unholy combination of CSS, JS, PHP (or other serverside language) and some version of HTML.
The whole theory behind CSS is a bad joke. In no other program (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, etc) or programming language do you have this idealogy of complete separation of content from how it is displayed.
Imagine if you will, if HTML had never implemented the display of text outside of a tag... you could write clean "HTML"
Or even giving "$" or "#" over to a variable indicator.
Or use curly-braces if one prefers. With basic inclusion into the spec, you could easily support { } syntax as well as end-[logic Keyword] without necessitating Python's whitespace flow-control.
One would not need to be concerned on whether JS has been disabled (user-side) as HTML could of been a complete language, including logic and flow-of-control instead of being what we are most likely stuck with.
Worse still is Opera's silent update of the override.js file. You don't get prompted for the update, and there is no way that I can see to revert it back to a working copy. I've used Opera since 2000/2001, but in the last few years stability has gone out the window, and I can't rely on it at all. When a silent "overrides.js" update breaks html running on localhost that is a major f'ing problem --- considering that overrides.js is supposed to be site specific - and it damn well isn't.
I thought 3rd Edition was interesting; 3.5 not so much. Although if you looked at Feats in 3.5 (physical/combat ones) anyways -- many of the modifiers aren't much different than a 2nd-Edition Warrior with a weapon proficiency specialist (+2/+4). Where the system really loses it (completely) is all the compendium/sourcebooks that keep adding classes and additional feats. You wind up with every little insignificant thing becoming a "Feat" ... which leads players to only focus on playing with and using abilities (Feats) that they have - instead of Role-Playing and being creative.
Every Special Maneuver does not need to be set in stone as a new feat, neither does there need to be countless classes and sub-classes. If WoTC was going to turn combat from AD&D's traditional 1minute turn, single-D20 roll to hit --- to --- hit/counter/parry/feat/etc/etc (extensive tactical combat, ala GURPS) then they really needed to do away with that single-D20 roll to hit and the concept of a passive THAC0. As it stands extensive customization of D&D's combat mechanics (or lack-thereof) isn't suited to a single D20 roll vs THAC0.
There's very likely a good reason why most other RPG's that weren't D&D-clones standardized on a basic system of stress-rolls, when the target of a stress roll is a task, or inanimate object - then you would have a target number to beat. Whereas when the target of a stress roll is a living-thing, then they get a chance to defend against your action - be it an attack or arm-wrestle or whatever.
There's many things WoTC did right in all of there various versions, but theres also many things they did wrong --- and no two people are going to agree on what exactly is right or wrong. Simplification of SavingThrows was good. Overpowered multi-classed characters was bad.
It's been a long time now, but if I recall one of the tenets of D&D was along the lines of "Less is More", and when the Game Rules and Regulations try to cover every minor variance you wind up with a broken system. WoTC threw that tenet out with the bathwater, and in the end you wind up with a System tailored for min/maxers instead of a System for RolePlaying.
Why bother? They're just reacting to Paizo eating their lunch. And have finally figured out that what the fans wanted was 2nd-Edition/3rd-Edition, which has been available as Pathfinder for what 3 years now (Aug.2009). Pathfinder Core Rulebook, $31.49, #4 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Gaming.
A few years back, WoTC pulled ALL of their PDFs of the books for sale. Compare that to Paizo, if you buy directly from them they give you the hardcover AND the PDF.
Heck if we look a little closer at Amazon's top selling gaming books, many of the v3.5 books are still in the top 40 (#19. Players Handbook 3.5). It's also worth noting that most 3.5 D&D Books/Supplements/Modules can be used with Pathfinder with little (to no) modification at all. Thus all that money one might of spent on 3.0 and/or 3.5 wont be wasted.
Further, with D&D 4+ WoTC changed the OGL to severely restrict any other company from publishing supplements for D&D, whereas (again) Pathfinder kept the original OGL from 3.0/3.5 which allows ANYONE to create content for Pathfinder.
D&D was better before WoTC fucked it up, so we're going to reprint 2nd Edition as D&D Next and make a boat-load of money, since most long-term D&D fans bailed and switched to Paizo's Pathfinder.
Why was this even posted? Amateur Hour on Slashdot apparently.
We can't even hear the damned questions - just extended silence while Mearls listens to a question (apparently on the phone) that we can't hear..
It's not even a video, its an audio-cast with a static image embedded. And the whole damned thing cuts out mid-sentence at 10 mins.
My wife is laughing her ass off, saying over and over, that is so you that is so you.
I found the way GURPs handled Magic to be fairly interesting. Lower powered skills/magic could usually be used without Fatiguing the Mage - e.g a simple Fire Bolt might be able to be cast all day long (nearly). Whereas a FireBall or upper level magic would be more likely to cause Fatigue (fail the skill check to cast without penalty). When your fatigue was used up, I believe you could take physical damage from casting strenuous spells.
Usage of PowerStones and the very detailed Magic (item) creation system was also pretty decent. Granted GURPS in general has major flaws when stats go much beyond 14, but Gurps Magic was awesome. Warhammer FRP did something similiar, most cantrips didn't require a stress test - but while Warhammer had much more flavour to it's Magic and overall setting - the Magic System (and Magic Items, and magic creation) rules were pretty sparse or next to non-existant.
Really? Because a "quick-search" for DDR3 Laptop Ram on TigerDirect indicates 8GB modules (2x4GB) for $39.99, or $80 for 16GB (4x4GB).
Alternately, 16GB (2x8GB) modules for $119.99.
So, all countries where good Hockey Players come from too then.
Why not just use a non-wireless router and a couple powerline adapters in an apartment building. It might be slightly more expensive, but if you only need to hook up a couple computers it would likely be worth it. You'd also have the option of putting in a wireless repeater/range extender in a given room for guests et al.
*Chuckle* Ah, I got flamebaited.
Can't question Open Source on Slashdot, I guess.
It was actually a valid question I thought. I didn't realize OO/Libre Office was so broken that it couldn't understand VBA. I don't see how any IT Manager could convince Upper Management to switch over from MS Office to OO/Libre when VBA is broken out of the box.
With Further investigating, it appears Calc is attempting to Interpret code that isn't supposed to run --- Older versions of functions (backed up) before significant changes were made to the functions. So the interpreter is bailing cuz unused code has errors in it. As I stated the Script Editor was opening due to interpreter errors. When I would close the Script Editor, there is no way to manually re-open it.
"Edit Macros" - does not exist in the Tools Menu, or any of Tools' sub-menus.
The last time I used OO's Calc, 3-4 years ago, Calc couldn't even apply background colors to cells. SO I didn't proceed any further than that.
After deleting the "unused code/function" now Calc is choking on a simple Cells() query/assignment:
BASIC runtime error.
'1'
Type: com.sun.star.uno.RuntimeException
Message: unsatisfied query for interface of type ooo.vba.excel.XWorksheet!
ERROR: BASIC Syntax Error. Expected: ,.
ALT+F11 doesn't open the Script Editor.
ALT+Q doesn't close the script Editor, when it opens Automatically when it can't understand valid VBA.
I can't actually find any way to manually open the Script Editor to access the code.
I don't see how this is remotely close to "ready for business".
Paying $100-$200 for an Office Suite only needs to save you 2-4 hours of time over the lifetime of it's license to make the purchase cost effective. I can certainly see losing far more time than that trying to troubleshoot problems that do NOT exist when using MS Office 2000, XP, or even 2003.
Prior to this most recent "Script Error", the Interpreter was claiming a completely working script's if/elseif blocks weren't closed.
I've often wondered if it was the fault of the publisher. Given that when an author is new, they likely don't have much choice in the fact that their book will be edited. Whereas after Jordan was a bestseller of 3-4+ books, it would seem to me that TOR stepped back and gave him the green light for whatever it was he wanted to do --- as it would sell.
The whole series is deserving of a quality editor.
Book a minute SF/F are pretty humorous, even for series that I have completely read, like Robin Hobb's Assassin Apprentice+. Jordan's books up to book 11 are 'summarized'. The Jordan Book-a-Minute summaries are combined in this slashdot post.
So even if a "Malware" writer attempted any of those things, the folders and image itself will likely be stored in a WindowsImageBackup folder, that even the MAIN Administrator does not have access to. Those security settings/ownership cannot be changed without going through MULTIPLE UAC prompts, and there will also likely be a background service that runs on a trigger when anything related to the saved image is attempted. Such a service will also not be owned by the current user, or Administrator, it will be a SYSTEM level (or higher) level service.
Joomla is a really bad joke, that somehow has become one of the most popular CMS's.
I can't wait until we stop using it, and needing to support it.
I usually run the alpha's and beta's, Opera 11.60 beta, and Opera Next 12.0 alpha/beta. Unless it's a particularly bad release - which gets an update fairly quickly --- Opera generally only crashes when I have hundred(s) of tabs open and it doesn't manage it's memory well enough. When Opera goes over 3+ Gigs of RAM - if it hasn't crashed yet then you are better off closing a few tabs and restarting. Seems to be the only way to reset it's memory use.
Other than that, it's fairly stable for the most part. There's much less rendering quirks than there used to be. And Opera has the most customizable interface of any browser... it may even be the most customizable application at all.
That may not be a "selling point" for most, but I've given up on Firefox. I have tried to switch many times in the past when I was disappointed in Opera's direction and stability at times, but Firefox had far too many limitations and far too many plugins/extensions needed for basic functionality. The last time was a few years back now (at least) and there was still no way for FF to put Tabs on the left/or right; as well almost every interface tweak required a plugin as opposed to adding a small JS snippet or just changing an option in the config.
Renamed a few that conflict with cmd.exe and native windows binary commands, e.g. gSort.exe
AutoHotkey, which in many cases is more wordy for the same task that a CLI tool would be, but much easier to read the "code" after the fact. As well AHK can interface with the windows object model (like WSH, VB or PowerShell can); interface with GUI elements and almost all CLI type commands are built in --- the ones that are missing then you just use them directly from AHK and pass the output back. The latest version AHK_L and the beta AHK 2.0 has a procedural object model (similiar to JS not C++).
Then there's all the SysInternal CLI and GUI Tools
With Windows I have proper documentation instead of Man Pages that can't even be bothered to include an example of usage.
Everytime I deal with Linux and need to do text manipulation it's a complete PITA : Escaping spaces, escaping escapes, escaping escaped escapes...in regex.
Windows comes with dozens of complete (UNICODE) FONTS (even more with Office) - not "free" fonts that might have a small section of the ANSI charset.
For the server, linux is working great. For a desktop OS "FREE" is not a selling point.
There very well may be "decent" opensource applications out there, but they are few and far in-between. Most (not all) that I have attempted to use are buggy, lack documentation and tend to have a slower turn around in development. Paying money for software that works is well worth your time.
Try using the extra search options for a laugh. I don't recall which search terms I used now, but frequently if you try to filter your results by date/time the actual number of results don't make any sense. E.G. the number of results can and will increase when you filter by "within the last year" (or similiar) as opposed to no time filter at all.