> for that same $400 you spent, I was able to get a 60GB SSD for my desktop, and a diskless gigabit NAS drive with a pair of 3TB mechanical drives.....
Yet none of that is terribly portable.
It's a flash drive. You're not just paying for the capacity.
The SSD requires power. You can't just plug it into an OTG cable and turn your Android phone into the ultimate Archos replacement.
Plus "nearly the same size" just isn't good enough if you actually care about capacity. It's kind of like being almost pregnant. Your device is either big enough or not. "There is no try".
This is just a manifestation of the 19th century mentality that you should thank the robber baron for the job they have consented to give to you and that you should just accept any bullshit they heap on you and never complain.
It's just the current anti-labor mentality applied to personal technology.
Unless there are genuine state secrets lurking about the company, they really should have no right to be so intrusive. This is corporate feudalism at it's finest.
You corporate bootlickers are helping build a new Guilded Age.
The cult of anti-intellectualism has achieved new lows.
Backing up your photos is not a bother. There are a legion of tools that will make it easy and automated and will even ensure that your data is offsite. Doing it manually is also pretty trivial too.
You could simply have a directory called "Stuff I Want to Keep" and just copy that from place to place using the GUI of your choice.
Storage is big cheap and plentiful. Interfaces are shiny and happy. Most people could preserve their most prized data on the phones.
Again, the problem isn't preservation. The real problem is control. What you really have to worry about is Instagram changing it's terms of service or losing your phone on the train.
> Digital copies of pictures stored on cheap CD-R or floppy disks from 1990 will be barely readable in 2040
Anything I had of value in 1990 has already been taken off of it's original media. It's already replicated into several copies. Old data is pretty much by definition SMALL data so it can easily be replicated to the empty spaces of EVERY device you own (mobile or otherwise).
If anything, the problem is not "preservation". If anything, the problem is now that your data might live forever and also be out of your control.
Most of my grandmother's photos probably didn't make it to me.
On the other hand, digital photos are trivial to copy. If you scale them down, they are even trivial to scale and can fit on just about any consumer device with storage capacity.
Physical media only seems better because it was lucky enough to survive. Much like cultural artitfacts of an older age, it's simply what managed to stay around and not be forgotten. So it ends up making all old stuff seem better than it really is.
Physical media requires a much higher level of quality and preservation than what you can get away with in digital.
Simply being able to easily copy it gives digital the edge.
There are even new installers for old Loki games that follow this same exact "support yourself" model. All Valve or Blizzard has to do is get out of the way enough to allow the community to do it's thing.
Some power user for the random obscure distribution of your choice will gladly do the legwork for you if you don't put up legal barriers.
I have kept old dynamically linked binaries across distribution upgrades and moves to entirely different distributions.
The "problem" is not nearly as dire as some would like to make it out.
Windows installers have always solved this problem just by having free run of the system. Any deskop machine is no less a random collection of system files. Windows in truth is probably much more "fragmented" than any Linux because of this.
There aren't a myriad of Linux platforms. There's just one.
Every distribution is a collection of the same upstream projects.
On the other hand, Microsoft gaming APIs tend to change radically on each major release. Also, various combinations of hardware (like mobo+GPU) don't like to play nice with each other even under Windows. Companies put up with this because Microsoft has the majority of the market.
It has squat to do with technical considerations.
The same goes for Mac ports. It's all about the numbers. The number of potential customers.
You target Direc3D or GL or SDL or OpenAL.
All fixating on Ubuntu buys you is a set of releases that encapsulate a number of library and kernel versions.
Basic Unix tools will tell you what the game binary needs.
Most drafting is not done at an angle inclined to give you gorilla arms. You also have a nice large drawing surface for support.
ZERO thought has been put into the ergonomics of touch devices for real work as they aren't thought of as work tools by the people that actually make them (as opposed to fanboys).
Apple only targets a small subset of novice consumer users. It does that well enough but that gets unjustifiably projected to everyone. Microsoft is not just limited to one small segment. As others have said, they even have conflicting use cases.
Apple doesn't have to deal with any of that. They have chosen a much easier task for themselves.
Your response pretty much demonstrates you have absolutely no clue what is being discussed. So anything you have to say on the matter is pretty meaningless.
If you use the Noveau driver then you are giving up VDPAU.
If you are building a media PC then why the HELL would you give up free BluRay decoding? Otherwise you need to use brute force via the CPU and you've left the domain of "leftover hardware".
An Nvidia card and the BLOB driver redeems hardware that would otherwise be a doorstop.
If you have such a relic, why are you concerned with 3D acceleration? You can probably do much better in software. The most generic VESA driver available probably won't be a problem.
> Or just use an OS that actually works with modern hardware
Can you name one that better libre nvidia drivers?
Otherwise your post makes no sense in context.
If you are willing to use a proprietary blob, then you can just use Linux. You don't have to defect to some OS that probably doesn't have ANY libre drivers at all.
The problem with most DRM on PC games is that it breaks and prevents yo u from doing things that seem obvious. This includes simple things like playing the game without the CD or an Internet connection.
There's actually a tradeoff going on with Steam. It's not just some misguided suit deciding to add extra fail to a product that doesn't really benefit from it.
Slashdot Mirror
You're just a blithering fanboy that would drink poison cool-aid if someone at the Genius bar offered it to you.
"Enabling piracy" isn't even the mindset of a consumer.
It's the mindset of a thief.
The mindset of a consumer is to buy stuff to put on that drive.
> for that same $400 you spent, I was able to get a 60GB SSD for my desktop, and a diskless gigabit NAS drive with a pair of 3TB mechanical drives.....
Yet none of that is terribly portable.
It's a flash drive. You're not just paying for the capacity.
The SSD requires power. You can't just plug it into an OTG cable and turn your Android phone into the ultimate Archos replacement.
Plus "nearly the same size" just isn't good enough if you actually care about capacity. It's kind of like being almost pregnant. Your device is either big enough or not. "There is no try".
I paid $400 for my first 1G HD and also paid $400 for my first 500G HD.
This is just a manifestation of the 19th century mentality that you should thank the robber baron for the job they have consented to give to you and that you should just accept any bullshit they heap on you and never complain.
It's just the current anti-labor mentality applied to personal technology.
Unless there are genuine state secrets lurking about the company, they really should have no right to be so intrusive. This is corporate feudalism at it's finest.
You corporate bootlickers are helping build a new Guilded Age.
Don't say you weren't warned.
The originals are what should be modded funny.
The cult of anti-intellectualism has achieved new lows.
Backing up your photos is not a bother. There are a legion of tools that will make it easy and automated and will even ensure that your data is offsite. Doing it manually is also pretty trivial too.
You could simply have a directory called "Stuff I Want to Keep" and just copy that from place to place using the GUI of your choice.
Storage is big cheap and plentiful. Interfaces are shiny and happy. Most people could preserve their most prized data on the phones.
Again, the problem isn't preservation. The real problem is control. What you really have to worry about is Instagram changing it's terms of service or losing your phone on the train.
> Digital copies of pictures stored on cheap CD-R or floppy disks from 1990 will be barely readable in 2040
Anything I had of value in 1990 has already been taken off of it's original media. It's already replicated into several copies. Old data is pretty much by definition SMALL data so it can easily be replicated to the empty spaces of EVERY device you own (mobile or otherwise).
If anything, the problem is not "preservation". If anything, the problem is now that your data might live forever and also be out of your control.
Most of my grandmother's photos probably didn't make it to me.
On the other hand, digital photos are trivial to copy. If you scale them down, they are even trivial to scale and can fit on just about any consumer device with storage capacity.
Physical media only seems better because it was lucky enough to survive. Much like cultural artitfacts of an older age, it's simply what managed to stay around and not be forgotten. So it ends up making all old stuff seem better than it really is.
Physical media requires a much higher level of quality and preservation than what you can get away with in digital.
Simply being able to easily copy it gives digital the edge.
...which is the argument for having a $60 inkjet photo printer that also does double duty as a flatbed scanner.
It's not an argument for the 2013 version of internet cafes.
If you want something printed out now, you don't want to bother with Kinkos or Walmart or CVS or even this silly thing.
There are even new installers for old Loki games that follow this same exact "support yourself" model. All Valve or Blizzard has to do is get out of the way enough to allow the community to do it's thing.
Some power user for the random obscure distribution of your choice will gladly do the legwork for you if you don't put up legal barriers.
I have kept old dynamically linked binaries across distribution upgrades and moves to entirely different distributions.
The "problem" is not nearly as dire as some would like to make it out.
Windows installers have always solved this problem just by having free run of the system. Any deskop machine is no less a random collection of system files. Windows in truth is probably much more "fragmented" than any Linux because of this.
> It's the whole "free as in beer" thing, the geeks can't get over the idea that Canonical wants to make money
There a many ways to make money.
Not all of them are like the Roman fire brigade.
There aren't a myriad of Linux platforms. There's just one.
Every distribution is a collection of the same upstream projects.
On the other hand, Microsoft gaming APIs tend to change radically on each major release. Also, various combinations of hardware (like mobo+GPU) don't like to play nice with each other even under Windows. Companies put up with this because Microsoft has the majority of the market.
It has squat to do with technical considerations.
The same goes for Mac ports. It's all about the numbers. The number of potential customers.
You target Direc3D or GL or SDL or OpenAL.
All fixating on Ubuntu buys you is a set of releases that encapsulate a number of library and kernel versions.
Basic Unix tools will tell you what the game binary needs.
Most drafting is not done at an angle inclined to give you gorilla arms. You also have a nice large drawing surface for support.
ZERO thought has been put into the ergonomics of touch devices for real work as they aren't thought of as work tools by the people that actually make them (as opposed to fanboys).
Apple only targets a small subset of novice consumer users. It does that well enough but that gets unjustifiably projected to everyone. Microsoft is not just limited to one small segment. As others have said, they even have conflicting use cases.
Apple doesn't have to deal with any of that. They have chosen a much easier task for themselves.
Your response pretty much demonstrates you have absolutely no clue what is being discussed. So anything you have to say on the matter is pretty meaningless.
Calling you a mindless troll would be charitable.
Bullshit.
If you use the Noveau driver then you are giving up VDPAU.
If you are building a media PC then why the HELL would you give up free BluRay decoding? Otherwise you need to use brute force via the CPU and you've left the domain of "leftover hardware".
An Nvidia card and the BLOB driver redeems hardware that would otherwise be a doorstop.
If you have such a relic, why are you concerned with 3D acceleration? You can probably do much better in software. The most generic VESA driver available probably won't be a problem.
> Or just use an OS that actually works with modern hardware
Can you name one that better libre nvidia drivers?
Otherwise your post makes no sense in context.
If you are willing to use a proprietary blob, then you can just use Linux. You don't have to defect to some OS that probably doesn't have ANY libre drivers at all.
It could be "not that many" and still outnumber the Mac users.
> 3) Piss poor support for multiple displays, with a resizing bug that's been around for way too long
Why would this ever be a problem? This is something that should be transparent to applications.
What happened to this great multi-monitor support in Macs and Windows that's supposed to make Linux look so shameful?
That's funny because I have been playing that free demo that doesn't run.
I have been also been playing other games. I bought them because they were cheap and thus represented little risk even in the worst case.
Steam is less annoying DRM.
The problem with most DRM on PC games is that it breaks and prevents yo u from doing things that seem obvious. This includes simple things like playing the game without the CD or an Internet connection.
There's actually a tradeoff going on with Steam. It's not just some misguided suit deciding to add extra fail to a product that doesn't really benefit from it.