The PC based versions of these streamers run on crappy web technology that quite often doesn't do well at exploiting the hardware acceleration features in PCs.
It may be far cheaper to buy the Roku than to beef up your HTPC.
THAT is another reason that spinny media is better. I can strip the DRM and use the most efficient playback software available. While Adobe is whining about clanlib, I can enjoy everything my GPU has to offer.
I've seen what those so called timely updates amount to. You're better off just buying a newer device. Fortunately, they are cheap It's still annoying though.
A smart TV is about the dumbest thing you could buy. You get the crappiest appliance tech for the cost of an actual PC (or worse).
MASH was on for 11 years and it nearly didn't make it to it's 2nd season. It was pretty much saved by having one single very well placed fan (some executive's wife).
It's a walled garden for morons because if you do anything remotely creative you will be called a pirate and your use case derided.
Macs are great at doing some narrowly defined things. They are like going on a guided tour in some really dangerous country. They are pleasant so long as you stay on the tour but treacherous otherwise.
If your data is in a non-proprietary format, it really doesn't matter so much how proprietary the decoder is. Ironically enough, this can even apply to proprietary game binaries after a long enough time.
Now something like "Game of Thrones" benefits from being available in an industry standard format. It makes for a nice slow moving target in terms of liberated decoders.
Some people are more demanding. A lot of those people read Slashdot. This demanding nature also includes the TV watching experience. Slashdot users are much more likely to be early adopters of things like Tivo, HTPCs, and streamers.
I would love to be able to liberate a Netflix show from the Netflix user interface.
A copy of the material that originated on DVD is still going to be better than any of those options. Many of those devices aren't "current' or feature complete. All of them depend on a constant and robust network connection. Many of them have interfaces that are just crap.
If you don't see Xian websites deriding everyone else including different types of Xians then you simply aren't bothering to look.
Hell, just the term "Christian" itself is used by obnoxious fundies to set themselves above everyone else. It's been hijacked to mean something other than Xians at large.
Get 4 different types of Xians in a room and give them some booze and the fur will fly sooner or later.
This should be obvious enough. If it is less than obvious, then consider that a side effect of the anti-intellectual inclinations of some branches of Xianity.
The rubes don't even understand what they're doing. They are actively discouraged from doing so. Can't imagine any Jewish rebel being proud of such an outcome.
Being a bit of a mail order junkie, I use them all the time. For the most part, they are all very reliable with the notable exception of the USPS.
The USPS does really weird things with parcels.
They will send your package on a 2 week vacation to the opposite coast and then send it back in your direction. Given my own personal experience with USPS versus everyone else, I would say that they haven't proven their case yet.
> Okay, so on what grounds would you reject that belief?
There are many conflicting propositions and no good way to choose between them.
Such propositions are largely irrelevant to my daily life. Outside of unproven notions regarding punishment after death, there's really no compelling reason to bother with any of them.
Pascal's wager must be considered for all religions, not just one you happen to elevate above the others.
No. In other words: he has no trust in things that haven't been proven.
Atheists require something to justify their trust. Faith in contrast requires nothing but wishful thinking. Atheists merely lack this "wishful thinking".
As a Unix user, I expect to be able to run any software I own on any microprocessor architecture I can manage to get my hands on. That's just the way that Unix is supposed to work.
If I get a PI, then I expect it to run all of my non-commercial software that has source code available for it.
Just comes with the territory.
mysql, apache, mate, firefox, slrn, mame, mythtv, gimp, sane, libreoffice, xbill... pretty much everything except my Loki and Steam games.
Slashdot Mirror
The PC based versions of these streamers run on crappy web technology that quite often doesn't do well at exploiting the hardware acceleration features in PCs.
It may be far cheaper to buy the Roku than to beef up your HTPC.
THAT is another reason that spinny media is better. I can strip the DRM and use the most efficient playback software available. While Adobe is whining about clanlib, I can enjoy everything my GPU has to offer.
Been there. Done that. Know better.
I've seen what those so called timely updates amount to. You're better off just buying a newer device. Fortunately, they are cheap It's still annoying though.
A smart TV is about the dumbest thing you could buy. You get the crappiest appliance tech for the cost of an actual PC (or worse).
Let us not forget the original Trek.
MASH was on for 11 years and it nearly didn't make it to it's 2nd season. It was pretty much saved by having one single very well placed fan (some executive's wife).
It's a walled garden for morons because if you do anything remotely creative you will be called a pirate and your use case derided.
Macs are great at doing some narrowly defined things. They are like going on a guided tour in some really dangerous country. They are pleasant so long as you stay on the tour but treacherous otherwise.
If your data is in a non-proprietary format, it really doesn't matter so much how proprietary the decoder is. Ironically enough, this can even apply to proprietary game binaries after a long enough time.
Now something like "Game of Thrones" benefits from being available in an industry standard format. It makes for a nice slow moving target in terms of liberated decoders.
I have 15 and 30 year old games that are perfectly playable under Linux despite being "evil and proprietary".
Most BD players these days are as cheap as dedicated streamers and have exactly the same apps that you would want from the dedicated appliances.
Some people are more demanding. A lot of those people read Slashdot. This demanding nature also includes the TV watching experience. Slashdot users are much more likely to be early adopters of things like Tivo, HTPCs, and streamers.
I would love to be able to liberate a Netflix show from the Netflix user interface.
We're not a herd of sheep here.
A copy of the material that originated on DVD is still going to be better than any of those options. Many of those devices aren't "current' or feature complete. All of them depend on a constant and robust network connection. Many of them have interfaces that are just crap.
...yes, quite.
A $60 appliance will get you Hulu+, Amazon, & Netflix. So you don't really have to fixate over whether or not desktop Linux supports Netflix.
It's not 2005 anymore.
I use Linux because it's not crap.
The freedom stuff mainly helps ensure that the platform will not be killed off by Microsoft.
Why not Windows? It's insecure crap.
Why not MacOS? It has too much of a "walled garden for morons" mentality.
Once again some idiot is confusing Linux users at large with RMS.
> I live in the South. This is Holy week. I have Christians constantly coming to my door to tell my about Jesus or, get this, switch to their church.
Offer them a piece of Matzoh and say that you're already covered.
> Seldom is there any thread about science that some athiest doesn't bring up creationists
and someone else will bring up the fact that the creationists are extremist nut bags even by Xian standards.
Not just "Christian shoes". Add some other religions into the mix. "Muslim Shoes" in particular would be an interesting test case.
If you don't see Xian websites deriding everyone else including different types of Xians then you simply aren't bothering to look.
Hell, just the term "Christian" itself is used by obnoxious fundies to set themselves above everyone else. It's been hijacked to mean something other than Xians at large.
Get 4 different types of Xians in a room and give them some booze and the fur will fly sooner or later.
Attendance doesn't equal performance.
This is true even in Xian doctrine.
This should be obvious enough. If it is less than obvious, then consider that a side effect of the anti-intellectual inclinations of some branches of Xianity.
The rubes don't even understand what they're doing. They are actively discouraged from doing so. Can't imagine any Jewish rebel being proud of such an outcome.
Being a bit of a mail order junkie, I use them all the time. For the most part, they are all very reliable with the notable exception of the USPS.
The USPS does really weird things with parcels.
They will send your package on a 2 week vacation to the opposite coast and then send it back in your direction. Given my own personal experience with USPS versus everyone else, I would say that they haven't proven their case yet.
They need more examples and plenty of controls.
> Okay, so on what grounds would you reject that belief?
There are many conflicting propositions and no good way to choose between them.
Such propositions are largely irrelevant to my daily life. Outside of unproven notions regarding punishment after death, there's really no compelling reason to bother with any of them.
Pascal's wager must be considered for all religions, not just one you happen to elevate above the others.
No. In other words: he has no trust in things that haven't been proven.
Atheists require something to justify their trust. Faith in contrast requires nothing but wishful thinking. Atheists merely lack this "wishful thinking".
Trust versus Faith.
As a Unix user, I expect to be able to run any software I own on any microprocessor architecture I can manage to get my hands on. That's just the way that Unix is supposed to work.
If I get a PI, then I expect it to run all of my non-commercial software that has source code available for it.
Just comes with the territory.
mysql, apache, mate, firefox, slrn, mame, mythtv, gimp, sane, libreoffice, xbill... pretty much everything except my Loki and Steam games.
Regardless of your dismissiveness, it is a scene that is self-sustaining. Nothing you do to try to engage in petty insults will change that really.
That's kind of the point of this whole article.
You naysayers are pretty irrelevant. This stuff will continue despite your attempts to be a big fat wet blanket.
There's plenty of following for classic games of all kinds.
This is why the entire emulator scene exists to begin with.
Sometimes, there's just no replacement for the original.
I've always been about pragmatism.
Free Software is immune from market pressures and inevitable destruction in much the same way a monopoly is.
I despise Microsoft products based on merit. I could happily use some 3rd option if the market allowed for it. It doesn't really.
The only company to survive the 90s bloodbath turned into a consumer electronics vendor.
Linux will continue on regardless of how much Microsoft or Apple or even Canonical wants to turn everything into a locked down tablet.
You are confusing the Linux community at large with RMS.