I have no experience with more than 2 channels in Linux because I only need stereo.
I'm not even sure they are multiple channels. I honestly don't know. I should probably read the manual. I did unmute a channel to make them work, but in windows, there are no channels listed. In the end it worked, and I mean, really, when do I need 2 output jacks, but I would think that the stock Dell configuration would have all the hardware working, which brings me to my next point.
I did actually look at thinkfinger and fprint. Messing with PAM terrifies me as its the one way I can really think of to utterly break my system if I do it wrong. That and I read somewhere that sometimes on Ubuntu systems, installing the fprint PAM module caused graphical sudo prompts to no longer appear, and a text prompt to occur on the hidden X controlling terminal. Ideally, Dell would have done this for me on the system that they built for Linux. But that's one issue where there are huge gaps in PAM functionality, and the tight integration in the Windows environment shines. I can have a fingerprint protected vault of passwords for any password dialog in Windows (this includes Firefox prompts). Granted, I'm not sure how it actually works, but its more convenient than a Firefox master password and probably at least as secure. Then again, I'm sure this could be done in a FOSS DE, but it might be easier once the fingerprint software gets out of the 0.x versions. Maybe someday for fprint since it seems to have a d-bus accessible daemon that runs in the background.
As for Windows slowing down, I've honestly never seen it. Maybe I maintain my systems well, but I've also never had someone come to me and say my Windows is running slow. Please help. Then again, anyone who would come to me for help I have already harped on mercilessly for installing those stupid little gadgets and toolbars that are pointless. Generally I get complaints about corrupted ntfs's, which makes me wonder about the stability of the windows ntfs driver. Then again, ntfs has enough nifty features that I'm willing to forgive if the occasional quirk when chkdisk is so easy to run.
Naive investors aren't informed. You have just declared that the Dow Jones is not an indicator of a properly functioning free market.
Besides, the stock market is smoke and mirrors anyway, and behaves in ways I would consider irrational, but that's just me, and I've never felt the need to try and understand it.
I'd love to hear from you what this 'crippled' functionality might be...
Ok, typo, 2 1/2
Non-functional fingerprint reader
Non-functional microphone array
Partially non-functional audio output jacks (the right one didn't work until by some magical combination of sliders and checkboxes it did)
Kubuntu has an QT out-of-the-box(TM) backup utility that can do pretty much the same as that of Windows XP SP2 Pro whatever(R).
Would that be the rdiff frontend that freezes kinit on KDE's startup if a backup is scheduled. I love not being able to launch applications for 30 minutes while a backup is running (yes I have experienced this). It brings not blocking the event thread with long running tasks to a whole new level. Also, not viable by your own reasoning, because I should read Linux as Gnome.
My dad can safely dual-boot XP with Ubuntu. He can browse the web with Firefox (with ad-block plus so he gets no adds in his face,flash, and a fake user agent so he can check his hotmail), sync his Windows PDA and MS Exchange stuff with Evolution. Can import and export PDF files with OpenOffice.org3, can do all he wants with MS Office 2003 that works with Cross-Over Linux as well as the MSOOXML import filer plugin for MS Office 2003, can play a game of Doom3 and Quake4 natively (my dad loves id-software games and guess what?; they all have Linux clients)
Sure, and I can have a virtual printer, just like in linux that exports PDFs. And you just listed the fact that your Dad uses a whole bunch of windows programs in linux, which means MS isn't going away. Also, if you Dad is dual booting, clearly some need isn't being fulfilled.
...("Why does it ask me to go find help online about what to do when I don't have internet?!") That is because Gnome is actually logical for the technologically impaired
The deficiencies of Gnome in regards to the technologically unimpaired have been well documented. Gtk+ tabs are my favorite example.
Wait... Is that Amarok2 because iTunes sucks balls?
Wait, Amarok2 was released. Intruiging...
Ubuntu 8.10 is up to the task
Sorry, its not released yet. XP is up to the task and it was released what, almost 8 years ago?
Sure, we can go back and forth about what deficiencies are, but ultimately, you will defend Linux and I will be amused, because I used to be the same way, hell, I even contributed a few patches, but in the end, it wasn't worth it for me.
The point remains that feature parity is hard. For instance, OS X and Vista (higher version) now have built in backup functionality while the best backup solution I was able to find for Linux was dar which, while nifty and easily scriptable, is shell only. Or, the fact that PowerPoint can output to multiple monitors. Speaking of MS Office, I find OneNote dead useful. Ironically, thats because I first discovered BasKet and realized OneNote works mostly the same, only its done better, but BasKet is in limbo from the KDE 3 -> 4 transition. That, and the fact that drivers aren't available for a tremendous amount of hardware. Sure, its great to say in theory, but do you think Dell or HP wants to foot the bill for improving an Office suite, hardware drivers, the graphics system, the desktop shell, and all the little useful tidbits that come with an operating system like hardware configuration utilities (this is where I think Linux has the hardest time) when it can rely on a multitude of partner companies to do it for them like Broadcom/Intel/MS which have specialized knowledge in the area. I don't think so, and it shows in their offerings. The reason I am so down on this is I myself actually bought the m1330 from Dell with Ubuntu installed, yet I have 3 1/2 pieces of outright non-functional hardware and wireless with almost crippled functionality on the machine purportedly designed for Linux.
Companies specialize, now more than ever, yet what you're suggestion is that an assembly company get into the business of OS design/implementation, and several large scale software engineering projects. It'd be great if it worked and I could have a viable alternative to Windows on PC hardware, but I've become to cynical at this point to think it will. In the meantime, I'll look wistfully over the fence at the Mac pasture where the grass certainly looks greener.
I think we are discussing degrees. The PC platform isn't going to be replaced by the Mac platform. It might erode to the Mac platform. PC-manufacturers aren't going to start jumping ship to Linux either until it works correctly in a dynamic environment. Dell has only just now started to not actively hide its Linux computers.
Microsoft going down means no more Windows. No more Windows causes massive Mac adoption
There, fixed that for you, I even threw in a typo correction for free. Wake me up when Linux can connect to unusually configured secured wireless access points flawlessly for 98% of existing hardware, the ability to use printers not manufactured by HP, and can actually use all those fun gadgets on a laptop, like the fingerprint reader/hdmi out/webcam/microphone. Nothing is more frustrating that trying to give a presentation and having the external output incorrectly sized. Call me crazy, but I'll take working over innovation any day (I'm looking at you KDE developers).
Sure, I'm parroting the same things people always complain about, but until their fixed, there are 3 options for most people
You are correct, and I'm fairly certain that is why all the protected output path technologies are coming into play, in order to preventexactly that. To actually take the dump, you would nee to decrypt something, at which point you have entered the realm of circumvention technologies.
Yes, everything is global warming's fault. Why, we should even blame those carbon-booted fiends for when everything is just right and we have nothing to complain about.
And here I think that clicking on the name of the parent folder in the navigation breadcrumb thing makes more sense. Clearly, people are onto something, since KDE's Dolphin does the same thing, were you can navigate to sibling folders just by clicking on the parent folder.
I love when the mythical middle class gets brought up. Strange how its always defined in such a way that it includes the largest voting block. I guess we have reached the stage of bread & circuses. The Visigoths will be coming soon.
Guess what? Consider that they are called states instead of provinces. That's the way the US was originally conceived. Unfortunately, the civil war put an end to that and resulted in an ever strengthening federal government that continues usurping duties that would realistically be better left up to the individual states.
Because every once in a while, I find one of those auto-start programs useful. For instance, the vast majority of the time, I want the last.fm thing to get out of my way and report my track plays. But then every once in a while I'd like ot use it.
Hahaha! I'm so tremendously amused. Why is it that when I plug an external monitor jack into my input, output automatically shows up and I am given the opportunity to configure ignore, clone, external only in windows. Why is it that windows can actually hide taskbar icons that I don't use. That and the built in gnome network management tools fail, and don't expose wireless connectivity options, even if the underlying driver supports them. Oh, and my personal favorite, clicking on menus. I love clicking on a menu, having it appear without icons. Then, when my mouse is just about to the item I want, all the icons whoosh in lke a second later, and I have to find whatever I was looking for again.
That sounds like a horrible idea. I believe it was Keynes who said
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
We could get nutjobs hardliner constituents trying to remove the people they voted for just because they made a legitimate re-evaluation of their position. Granted, most times its not like that, but still, I'd like politicians to be able to change their minds if they have a good reason.
It usually annoys me to, but I thought it a clever play on the word phone, and upon looking through their screenshots, it looks like it only appears once or twice.
I think the phrase win-win-lose is what you were looking for.
The users are happy, the IP holders are happy, the FOSS at all costs zealots go on a rampage against ubuntu.
bah, kubuntu network utility is garbage and doesn't interoperate with their implementation of network manager. Good lucking trying to switch an interface between static and roaming mode...
I have high hopes though for 0.7, as it can handle all of those things itself. Maybe there won't be a need for knetworkconf at all.
AIG is everywhere. Of those 300 million taxpayers I bet 250 million would feel pain if AIG went under, regardless of whether they ever had direct dealings with the company. I think its also a little naive to call a company "a sham" if it had sufficient assets to post multi-billion dollar losses in a single year.
Except, if the RIAA components were to fold, I think we could all go on living and a replacement would probably pop up overnight that was less evil. If AIG goes under, a whole mess of people on a whole mess of continents get royally shafted and the economy weakens even more.
Slashdot Mirror
I have no experience with more than 2 channels in Linux because I only need stereo.
I'm not even sure they are multiple channels. I honestly don't know. I should probably read the manual. I did unmute a channel to make them work, but in windows, there are no channels listed. In the end it worked, and I mean, really, when do I need 2 output jacks, but I would think that the stock Dell configuration would have all the hardware working, which brings me to my next point.
I did actually look at thinkfinger and fprint. Messing with PAM terrifies me as its the one way I can really think of to utterly break my system if I do it wrong. That and I read somewhere that sometimes on Ubuntu systems, installing the fprint PAM module caused graphical sudo prompts to no longer appear, and a text prompt to occur on the hidden X controlling terminal. Ideally, Dell would have done this for me on the system that they built for Linux. But that's one issue where there are huge gaps in PAM functionality, and the tight integration in the Windows environment shines. I can have a fingerprint protected vault of passwords for any password dialog in Windows (this includes Firefox prompts). Granted, I'm not sure how it actually works, but its more convenient than a Firefox master password and probably at least as secure. Then again, I'm sure this could be done in a FOSS DE, but it might be easier once the fingerprint software gets out of the 0.x versions. Maybe someday for fprint since it seems to have a d-bus accessible daemon that runs in the background.
As for Windows slowing down, I've honestly never seen it. Maybe I maintain my systems well, but I've also never had someone come to me and say my Windows is running slow. Please help. Then again, anyone who would come to me for help I have already harped on mercilessly for installing those stupid little gadgets and toolbars that are pointless. Generally I get complaints about corrupted ntfs's, which makes me wonder about the stability of the windows ntfs driver. Then again, ntfs has enough nifty features that I'm willing to forgive if the occasional quirk when chkdisk is so easy to run.
Naive investors aren't informed. You have just declared that the Dow Jones is not an indicator of a properly functioning free market. Besides, the stock market is smoke and mirrors anyway, and behaves in ways I would consider irrational, but that's just me, and I've never felt the need to try and understand it.
I'd love to hear from you what this 'crippled' functionality might be...
Ok, typo, 2 1/2
Kubuntu has an QT out-of-the-box(TM) backup utility that can do pretty much the same as that of Windows XP SP2 Pro whatever(R).
Would that be the rdiff frontend that freezes kinit on KDE's startup if a backup is scheduled. I love not being able to launch applications for 30 minutes while a backup is running (yes I have experienced this). It brings not blocking the event thread with long running tasks to a whole new level. Also, not viable by your own reasoning, because I should read Linux as Gnome.
My dad can safely dual-boot XP with Ubuntu. He can browse the web with Firefox (with ad-block plus so he gets no adds in his face,flash, and a fake user agent so he can check his hotmail), sync his Windows PDA and MS Exchange stuff with Evolution. Can import and export PDF files with OpenOffice.org3, can do all he wants with MS Office 2003 that works with Cross-Over Linux as well as the MSOOXML import filer plugin for MS Office 2003, can play a game of Doom3 and Quake4 natively (my dad loves id-software games and guess what?; they all have Linux clients)
Sure, and I can have a virtual printer, just like in linux that exports PDFs. And you just listed the fact that your Dad uses a whole bunch of windows programs in linux, which means MS isn't going away. Also, if you Dad is dual booting, clearly some need isn't being fulfilled.
...("Why does it ask me to go find help online about what to do when I don't have internet?!") That is because Gnome is actually logical for the technologically impaired
The deficiencies of Gnome in regards to the technologically unimpaired have been well documented. Gtk+ tabs are my favorite example.
Wait... Is that Amarok2 because iTunes sucks balls?
Wait, Amarok2 was released. Intruiging...
Ubuntu 8.10 is up to the task
Sorry, its not released yet. XP is up to the task and it was released what, almost 8 years ago? Sure, we can go back and forth about what deficiencies are, but ultimately, you will defend Linux and I will be amused, because I used to be the same way, hell, I even contributed a few patches, but in the end, it wasn't worth it for me.
The point remains that feature parity is hard. For instance, OS X and Vista (higher version) now have built in backup functionality while the best backup solution I was able to find for Linux was dar which, while nifty and easily scriptable, is shell only. Or, the fact that PowerPoint can output to multiple monitors. Speaking of MS Office, I find OneNote dead useful. Ironically, thats because I first discovered BasKet and realized OneNote works mostly the same, only its done better, but BasKet is in limbo from the KDE 3 -> 4 transition. That, and the fact that drivers aren't available for a tremendous amount of hardware.
Sure, its great to say in theory, but do you think Dell or HP wants to foot the bill for improving an Office suite, hardware drivers, the graphics system, the desktop shell, and all the little useful tidbits that come with an operating system like hardware configuration utilities (this is where I think Linux has the hardest time) when it can rely on a multitude of partner companies to do it for them like Broadcom/Intel/MS which have specialized knowledge in the area. I don't think so, and it shows in their offerings. The reason I am so down on this is I myself actually bought the m1330 from Dell with Ubuntu installed, yet I have 3 1/2 pieces of outright non-functional hardware and wireless with almost crippled functionality on the machine purportedly designed for Linux.
Companies specialize, now more than ever, yet what you're suggestion is that an assembly company get into the business of OS design/implementation, and several large scale software engineering projects. It'd be great if it worked and I could have a viable alternative to Windows on PC hardware, but I've become to cynical at this point to think it will. In the meantime, I'll look wistfully over the fence at the Mac pasture where the grass certainly looks greener.
I think we are discussing degrees. The PC platform isn't going to be replaced by the Mac platform. It might erode to the Mac platform. PC-manufacturers aren't going to start jumping ship to Linux either until it works correctly in a dynamic environment. Dell has only just now started to not actively hide its Linux computers.
Microsoft going down means no more Windows. No more Windows causes massive Mac adoption
There, fixed that for you, I even threw in a typo correction for free. Wake me up when Linux can connect to unusually configured secured wireless access points flawlessly for 98% of existing hardware, the ability to use printers not manufactured by HP, and can actually use all those fun gadgets on a laptop, like the fingerprint reader/hdmi out/webcam/microphone. Nothing is more frustrating that trying to give a presentation and having the external output incorrectly sized. Call me crazy, but I'll take working over innovation any day (I'm looking at you KDE developers).
Sure, I'm parroting the same things people always complain about, but until their fixed, there are 3 options for most people
Welcome to the way governments work, all the way back to Rome. Bread & Circuses...
You are correct, and I'm fairly certain that is why all the protected output path technologies are coming into play, in order to preventexactly that. To actually take the dump, you would nee to decrypt something, at which point you have entered the realm of circumvention technologies.
Yeah, that time they got malloc to work. Because that's totally all you need for a working OS.
Yes, everything is global warming's fault. Why, we should even blame those carbon-booted fiends for when everything is just right and we have nothing to complain about.
And here I think that clicking on the name of the parent folder in the navigation breadcrumb thing makes more sense. Clearly, people are onto something, since KDE's Dolphin does the same thing, were you can navigate to sibling folders just by clicking on the parent folder.
Fail! MSDN Instructions for enabling PAE
I love when the mythical middle class gets brought up. Strange how its always defined in such a way that it includes the largest voting block. I guess we have reached the stage of bread & circuses. The Visigoths will be coming soon.
Guess what? Consider that they are called states instead of provinces. That's the way the US was originally conceived. Unfortunately, the civil war put an end to that and resulted in an ever strengthening federal government that continues usurping duties that would realistically be better left up to the individual states.
No, I'm pretty sure you can just redownload the music as it becomes available on iTunes Plus.
Because every once in a while, I find one of those auto-start programs useful. For instance, the vast majority of the time, I want the last.fm thing to get out of my way and report my track plays. But then every once in a while I'd like ot use it.
Hahaha! I'm so tremendously amused. Why is it that when I plug an external monitor jack into my input, output automatically shows up and I am given the opportunity to configure ignore, clone, external only in windows. Why is it that windows can actually hide taskbar icons that I don't use. That and the built in gnome network management tools fail, and don't expose wireless connectivity options, even if the underlying driver supports them. Oh, and my personal favorite, clicking on menus. I love clicking on a menu, having it appear without icons. Then, when my mouse is just about to the item I want, all the icons whoosh in lke a second later, and I have to find whatever I was looking for again.
That sounds like a horrible idea. I believe it was Keynes who said
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?" We could get nutjobs hardliner constituents trying to remove the people they voted for just because they made a legitimate re-evaluation of their position. Granted, most times its not like that, but still, I'd like politicians to be able to change their minds if they have a good reason.
It usually annoys me to, but I thought it a clever play on the word phone, and upon looking through their screenshots, it looks like it only appears once or twice.
GWB is a social conservative. Some of us libertarians like to cringe when we think of him associated with the conservative name.
I think the phrase win-win-lose is what you were looking for. The users are happy, the IP holders are happy, the FOSS at all costs zealots go on a rampage against ubuntu.
bah, kubuntu network utility is garbage and doesn't interoperate with their implementation of network manager. Good lucking trying to switch an interface between static and roaming mode... I have high hopes though for 0.7, as it can handle all of those things itself. Maybe there won't be a need for knetworkconf at all.
Except AIG is paying through the nose in interest...
AIG is everywhere. Of those 300 million taxpayers I bet 250 million would feel pain if AIG went under, regardless of whether they ever had direct dealings with the company. I think its also a little naive to call a company "a sham" if it had sufficient assets to post multi-billion dollar losses in a single year.
Except, if the RIAA components were to fold, I think we could all go on living and a replacement would probably pop up overnight that was less evil. If AIG goes under, a whole mess of people on a whole mess of continents get royally shafted and the economy weakens even more.