A better idea might be a bootable DVD with said automated "dd" script. You'd probably want to have at least a combo drive in the thing anyway. I doubt the fresh install state would take up more than a few GB, plus when your image disk "mysteriously disappears" you're not out much, and you can easily fedex a new copy. Heck, you might even be able to fit it on a single CD if you're careful.
If the relationship is healthy neither of you should have to sacrifice anything.
Talk about immature! Have you ever even been in a real relationship?
If you have to be gaming all the time, as you say, it's time to grow up.
In short, fuck you and your mother. We are grown ups, the fact that we prefer Counter-Strike to football and budweiser or NASCAR doesnt change that.
And if you can't just do a little, then maybe you should give it up all together.
So in your opinion he should give up something that makes him happy just to keep getting laid regularly?
Try reading what he actually wrote. If you're an addict, even if it's an addiction to something relatively benign like gaming, it's a problem. If you can't just cut back and keep it under control, the only real solution is to give it up entirely. Alcoholics have been facing this choice for years, and nobody seems to think it's unreasonable.
This double standard makes my blood boil. If this was a mundane woman talking about how her boyfriend gets angry because she spends too much time gardening or knitting people would be telling her to dump him for trying to control her. But since this is a man who wants to play video games, you and people like you are telling him that he has to change, grow up, compromise, sacrifice; things that no one would suggest if he had a different gender & hobby.
Compulsive behavior that interferes with real relationships is bad, regardless of gender or the nature of the compulsion. Anyone who says different is an idiot.
He prefaced his "maybe you should stop gaming" with some pretty big "if"s. The only reason you're so pissed off is that you botched you reading comprehension check.
Maybe you should try reading my post, as I already addressed everything you've just said.
It becomes a situation where we have to make trade offs, would we rather have a whole lot of toxic material that isn't as harmful or would we rather have a little bit of waste that could be very harmful. Furthermore, the technology behind nuclear power plants today is much much safer then it was even 20 years ago. The plants are run much more efficient and the probability of a melt-down scenerio are far less, that is not to say it couldn't/wouldn't happen.
I agree, which is why safety isn't an arguement I use against nuclear power.
As for the toxic material, again you act like those are the only two possibilities. I say there's a third, and that the "alternative" energy sources produce less waste, and that waste is less toxic.
Furthermore, you may have lived somewhere that you were able to live off the grid but there are large portions of this country that just could not do this. Yes much of california, texas, arizona, new mexico, florida and a handful of other states could get away with this but states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Washington, Oregon etc could not live off the grid. MAYBE in the summer months, but there is no way that it could occur in the winter. The only solution would be to create vast solar fields in the states that get that sort of sunlight throughout the year but then you'd meet problems with other environmental groups who say you're destroying indiginous desert species. In essence the space, money and environmental ramifications of such a money are just too great to overcome.
That's why I said solar's problem is storage. STORAGE. It's not difficult to produce way more energy than you can use during the summer, even in some of the northern states.
I also said solar isn't the only option, just the one I'm most familiar with. There's also wind, hydro, tidal, geothermnal, etc, which as I already said are more or less viable depending on the region you're in. Yeah, solar's isn't going to work in Seattle, but tidal could, and I seem to remember there being plenty of wind the last time I was there. Hell, they could hook up micro-hydros to their storm drains and harness the power of their famous rain.
Additionally, we already ship energy around the country (like from Texas to California, for example), so that arguement looks a whole lot like a straw man to me.
The only solution would be a draconian one where we gave a specific ration of power to each citizen of the US... that isn't going to happen, sorry. We're a capitalist country that operates on capitalist prinicpals, if people don't like that they can choose to live elsewhere but the fact is we're all in on this because we [Americans] choose to live in this country. I don't mean this to be a troll against the environmental movement, although it may come off that way. I would just like to see people come up with solutions that are applicable to the world we live in. Would I like to see this utopian green world where there is no pollution and everyone breathes clean air and shit like that? Of course I would, but you have to operate within the manifold to enact change you can't oblitterate the entire system because you don't like it.
Maybe, instead of just dismissing the idea out of hand, you should try actually looking at the technologies that are available and thinking about how they might be applied in various scenarios. I think you'll find that they're a lot more viable than you give them credit for.
And draconian measures? That's just stupid. How about, instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, we give tax breaks to people who invest in alternative energy? I bet that would drive adoption pretty well, especially among those rich folk who want their tax breaks back. Production ramps up, prices fall, I think you see where this is going. No draconian measures necessary, just an administration with a real energy policy.
Additionally, we already ship energy around the country (like from Texas to California, for example), so that arguement looks a whole lot like a straw man to me.
Actually, all of that is verifiable by comparing the facts above, which you don't dispute, with the geologic record, which tells us things like how much carbon was in the atmosphere.
Sorry, but if you actually look at the science you'll find your criticisms have already been countered.
I think the big problem with nuclear power is that it isn't really "no emmisions". Yeah, a nuclear plant doesn't belch smoke in the air, and that's great, but it still produces byproducts and waste that are undeniably hazardous. Nuclear power would be a lot less unpopular if we had a real, viable solution to the nuclear waste problem (and no, Yucca Mountain doesn't count).
Another problem with you nuclear power folk is that you seem to think that nuclear is the only emmision-free power source. It isn't. I stick to talking about solar, because that's what I have personal experience with, but there are plenty of others, all of which are more or less viable for particular regions and climates.
As someone who has lived off-grid, with solar power, I feel quite confident saying that most of the arguements against its viability are total bunk. The only real problem solar has is storage, and I think that should be solvable with fuel cells.
The trick with Suse is not to install from source if you don't have to. If you want something other than what they provide in the release it can usually be found in.rpm form in various places, including the Suse ftp site (many of the developers have their own folders where they provide such things) and packman. Clicking on an rpm in Konqueror gives you and "Install using Yast" button. Must of the time if there are any dependency issues Yast will just ask you to insert your install media and it gets taken care of automagically.
Since figuring that out, the only app I've had any trouble with is mplayer, which required a lib that wasn't included (lzo). In those cases where you have to install from source for whatever reason, replace 'make install' with 'checkinstall' (included on the Suse discs but not installed by default). This will produce an rpm which you should then install as above.
Anyway, it was actually ease of use that drove me to Linux. I came to a point where it became obvious that I could either spend my time fixing my computer with Windows, or using it with Linux. I spend enough time fixing computers at work, so it was an easy decision. Of course, as always, YMMV. I had already been dilligent in my hardware purchases, so that wasn't an issue for me, though in all honesty I've had a lot more hardware compatability issues with Win2k than with Suse.
It has some of the CodeWeaver's stuff, but not all of it I think. IIRC Suse sells a seperate CD with full versions of Crossover and WineX. I think it's about $60.
I want a CD install. SuSE has an ISO that let's you play with it, but not install it.
ISO wastes a lot of bandwidth compared to an FTP install. If you really want to do the install locally, though, you could download everything from the FTP site and install it either locally or over NFS from the FTP install boot disk.
Also, there are plenty of places you can download Suse ISOs, just not directly from them.
I have to agree that SuSE's pretty much the best distro out there.
My experience has been that Suse has the best newbie retention rate, by which I mean that everyone I know who started out on Suse was using *nix primarily, and in some cases exclusively, within 2 years. Those that didn't stick with Suse have gone to Gentoo, LFS, or one of the BSDs.
I don't want to disparage the work done by the other distros, because I think it's all valuable, but all the people I know that gave up on Linux, or refered to it as a "Toy OS", were using other distros.
Yeah, once you know what you're doing Linux is Linux for the most part. I've stuck with SuSE because IMHO they've created a distro that's user friendly without being user limiting. That's a difficult balance to maintain, and they've managed to do so pretty consistently over the years.
before linux will hit the desktop we need a linux version of Windows Installer. RPM's don't handle dependancies!
My mother needs to be able to double click an a single downloaded icon and install the latest video driver from her KDE destop
Already there, years ago.
On Suse, since at least 8.0: Download RPM, klick on RPM in Konqueror, click on button labeled "Install using Yast", Yast takes care of any dependency issues (perhaps asking you to insert your install CD). I've only seen it choke once, on an obscure compression format the packman mplayer rpm asked for, which Suse didn't include because basically nobody uses it, with the possible exception of whoever built that rpm.
IMNSHO, Windows Installer blows goats compared to Yast.
From the article: "There were a few more posts in the "Fred is lying/hiding" vein, but most of those died out when the participants in the discussion saw that the sound system indeed should have worked."
He IS lying/hiding. Yeah, that was the hardware he used, but that wasn't his install target. He was doing the installs on Virtual PC, and who knows what it decided to emulate?
So, even though he revealed that hardware specs of his machine in the forums, he still hasn't revealed the specs of the actual install target. Now, whether he's intentionally being deceptive or just an idiot, I don't know. Either way, I'd say he's earned his flames. The simple fact is, if he'd installed directly on the harware it probably would have worked.
Is there anything wrong with him expecting support from the vendor? He did exchange money for a promise of support.
As a general rule you're right. This is a special case, though, and is probably outside the bounds of typical included installation support.
Receiving a "well it should work, but I guess you're SOL" for that money is not a particularly good value proposition.
It SHOULD work, it's a fully supported chipset. If he'd done the install directly on the hardware he probably wouldn't have had a problem. That's not what he did though, so that chipset wasn't his real install target, but rather whatever Virtual PC decided to try and emulate. I very much doubt that installation on Virtual PC is supported under standard installation support, and frankly, I think that's totally reasonable.
Additionally, since he chose to install on Virtual PC rather than directly on the hardware, I think it calls into serious question his intentions in doing his "review". It seems as if he was setting it up to fail, and that perception is only reinforced by the fact that he didn't include Virtual PC in his description of his hardware setup. Sorry, but the fact that the hardware target was emulated IS relevant, and his glossing over of that fact calls his credibility into question.
Except that he didn't install it directly on that hardware, he installed it on top of Virtuall PC, so who knows what his actual target sound device was, or if the problem was even with Linux at all?
All the hardware databases I've checked show full support for that device, so my bet is he screwed up on his Virtual PC configuration.
Um, except for about five lite-version proprietary applications from the Kompany. Everything else in SUSE (including Yast and Sax) is covered either under the GPL or an even less restrictive license.
So why would you need FIVE copies? One copy is enough as long as you don't install the proprietary apps more than once.
There are only 2 reasons to buy Suse Desktop over Suse Pro (which is cheaper): Crossover Office (so you can run MS Office, Outlook, and Lotus Notes), and the included 1 year of maintenance (vs. 90 days installation support with Pro). Both of those are per seat.
There are some other per seat things, like the full version of StarOffice and free Openexchange CALs which might be interesting dpending on your situation, but the 2 above are the compelling ones, IMHO.
I've never quite puzzled out what the SuSE Desktop Linux is intended for... The price is higher than the SuSE Server 8 package and way higher than the SuSE 9.1 Pro, which is a pretty good desktop OS at comparable price to the OEM version of winxp home..
It's intended for the corporate desktop. The added price is because it includes Codeweavers Crossover Office, so in theory you should be able to run MS Office on it. Suse Pro just has the base wine.
If you price a five user win2003 server, it is pretty much break even with the SuSE server price.
Why would you buy win2003 server for only 5 users? IIRC the basic Windows Pro versions can handle up to 10 concurrent users, does Win2003 offer any significant advantages in that small of a network? (I haven't used Win2003, so I honestly don't know)
Considering that you can get 5 copies of XP home (yes, that's not the "workstation" version of Windows, but still) for $500
Apples to oranges, dude.
The linked Suse offering is for the corporate desktop, so WinXP Pro would be a more appropriate comparison. If you insist on using WinXP Home as your basis for comparison, well, Suse addresses that market with their Personal edition, priced at $29.95 each.
In fact, Suse Pro still compares favorably to XP Home pricewise, at $89.95 each. One could even go for the Suse Pro Update version at $59.95, which is actually the full version of Suse Pro but with less printed documentation.
AND considering that XP is going to be more compatible with hardware than SuSE's offering
That's debatable. My experience has been that Suse has actually been more compatable with the hardware I've dealt with than Win2k or XP. That's purely annecdotal of course, but then your assertion is just "common wisdom", which isn't any better.
The problem is that for Linux to become mainstream, people shouldn't have to dig through loads of config files and have to spend days trying to get their sound to work.
I say you're just using the wrong distro. You're right, people shouldn't have to dig through loads of config files... and they don't!
I just built myself a new machine (Athlon 3000+, NForce2 with everything integrated but video, GeForceFX 5900 Ultra, DVD+/-RW) and installed SuSE 9.1 and the only things I had to "configure" were hostname, NFS client, and 3D support. The first 2 no mainstream user would probably care about, and all three were easy, "click the check box" opperations in yast. No digging through loads of config files, no text editor involved, and far, FAR simpler and faster installation and setup than Windows.
He bought a Linux distribution for as much money as Windows would have cost.
I dispute that. How much extra would he have to pay to get the same functionality on Windows as he gets *at no extra cost* with the Linux distro?
He has every right to complain, tell everyone what happened, and not be ridiculed, called an idiot, or accused of spreading FUD for doing so.
He doesn't have a natural right to not be ridiculed or flamed, but I agree that he, and others like him, should be granted that right by the community.
That's assuming, of course, that he is actually offering constructive criticism and not just spreading FUD. Strangely enough, most people who approach the community with a well framed question or polite, constructive criticism are well recieved. The people who get ridiculed or flamed are the ones who come off as whiney bitches who would rather rant and rave and make hollow, obscure threats regarding mindshare or the marketplace than arrive at a solution.
If you're one of the people who's been ridiculed or flamed, you might consider changing your approach. More than likely you brought it on yourself.
I think you're making some incorrect assumptions (and some correct ones too, this isn't meant to be flamebait).
First, AGP == graphics, not sound, and that seems to be a very different market.
The 2 mainstrean graphics card companies, NVidia and ATI, certainly do produce Linux drivers, though for ATI it seems to be more of an afterthought.
That said, the grandparent doesn't say what this "prefered mode" is, which is unfortunately typical of this sort of condemnation of Linux. At a guess, I would say it's probably 32-bit color depth. There's a very good reason why the VGA card doesn't appear to support 32-bit: XFree doesn't support 32-bit. Now, you can edit your XF86Config to say that the color depth is 32-bit, and it will pass that info on to apps that ask (usually Windows games running under wine in my experience), but it will really be 24-bit.
Given that this is a kludgy hack, and a lie to boot, it shouldn't come as any suprise that the vendors don't support this in their config tools. That would be false advertising, and these are, to some degree or another, for-profit companies who would no doubt be sued for the percieved claim of 24-bit == 32-bit.
The great-niece of Kasner who was 4 years old at the time her uncle died says that although Google has brought attention to the name, it has not brought attention to Kasner's work. Google was not using the concepts, but just capitalizing on the name.
So the great grand-niece, who probably can't actually remember the guy, is accusing someone else of capitalizing on the name. Oh, the irony!
Seriously though, I think this highlights the problem with the current length of copyright terms quite nicely. Yes, I know this isn't a copyright dispute, and it's a damned good thing! If it was, Google would be screwed, and for what? How would that "promote progress in science and the useful arts"? What has this chick done to advance Mathematics that entitles her to this payday?
A good leader is not always the same as a popular leader.
My dad was a prime example, back when he was a foreman for a commercial construction company. His crew didn't like him, but they respected him. While he was a bit of a slave-driver, and definately a perfectionist, his insistence on doing things right the first time meant their job was actually easier in the long run.
A direct quote from one of his crew: "Yeah, he's an asshole, but we get to go home early on Fridays."
Power grids, water control, irrigation, agriculture - all of these realms would just as easily benefit from the same application of technology and investment of funds and resources as any "8-million rounds per minute" gun system...
While I agree in principle, it's impossible to build these things in a war-torn region. Sadly, someone must win the war first, and for that they need weapons.
While a shovel can certainly be used as a weapon, I think we all know it's the guy with the gun whose going to win. Small wonder no one wants to be the guy with the shovel...
My point is, peaceful solutions can help prevent war in a region that has already achieved (relative) peace, but they won't stop a war in progress.
The world really does contain a very, very large number of petty-minded, truly dangerous, downright bad, rotten-to-the-core people. The world is home to people who kill for pleasure. It is a place where jealousy and the urge to own and control is so strong that outright genocide is attempted on a fairly regular basis.
You can't risk turning your sword into a garden hoe, unless you feel like sharing the product of your labor with the gang that lives down the road.
Exactly! This is the main arguement I always used against my anarchist/marxist friends. I've read The Communist Manifesto, and the world it describes is a beautiful utopia. Too bad it will never happen in the real world because somebody always has to be The Asshole, and there will always be enough idiots in the world to get him where he wants to go.
1. True, and the UN multilaterally opposed our unilateral actions in Iraq.
2. You mean "He tried to kill my daddy"? All the reasons that had any potential for legitimacy have proven just as false as the WMDs.
3. Anyone who believes Iraq has anything to do with the "War on Terror" is delusional.
4. Yes, there are al Queda connections in Iraq, but they were NEVER with Saddam's regime. Saddam and Osama have been bitter enemies since Saddam was paid by America to wage war on Iran, and neither are "forgive and forget" kinda guys. No, the al Queda connections in Iraq were with the Kurds; you know, "Saddam's own people" that he gassed, and we went in there to protect, and who were considered our allies during the invasion...
5. Violence is the last resort of the incompetent. -- Isaac Asimov
6. Actually, Mark Twain said it first, but how ironic that you should bring it up!
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A better idea might be a bootable DVD with said automated "dd" script. You'd probably want to have at least a combo drive in the thing anyway. I doubt the fresh install state would take up more than a few GB, plus when your image disk "mysteriously disappears" you're not out much, and you can easily fedex a new copy. Heck, you might even be able to fit it on a single CD if you're careful.
If the relationship is healthy neither of you should have to sacrifice anything.
Talk about immature! Have you ever even been in a real relationship?
If you have to be gaming all the time, as you say, it's time to grow up.
In short, fuck you and your mother. We are grown ups, the fact that we prefer Counter-Strike to football and budweiser or NASCAR doesnt change that.
And if you can't just do a little, then maybe you should give it up all together.
So in your opinion he should give up something that makes him happy just to keep getting laid regularly?
Try reading what he actually wrote. If you're an addict, even if it's an addiction to something relatively benign like gaming, it's a problem. If you can't just cut back and keep it under control, the only real solution is to give it up entirely. Alcoholics have been facing this choice for years, and nobody seems to think it's unreasonable.
This double standard makes my blood boil. If this was a mundane woman talking about how her boyfriend gets angry because she spends too much time gardening or knitting people would be telling her to dump him for trying to control her. But since this is a man who wants to play video games, you and people like you are telling him that he has to change, grow up, compromise, sacrifice; things that no one would suggest if he had a different gender & hobby.
Compulsive behavior that interferes with real relationships is bad, regardless of gender or the nature of the compulsion. Anyone who says different is an idiot.
He prefaced his "maybe you should stop gaming" with some pretty big "if"s. The only reason you're so pissed off is that you botched you reading comprehension check.
Maybe you should try reading my post, as I already addressed everything you've just said.
... that isn't going to happen, sorry. We're a capitalist country that operates on capitalist prinicpals, if people don't like that they can choose to live elsewhere but the fact is we're all in on this because we [Americans] choose to live in this country. I don't mean this to be a troll against the environmental movement, although it may come off that way. I would just like to see people come up with solutions that are applicable to the world we live in. Would I like to see this utopian green world where there is no pollution and everyone breathes clean air and shit like that? Of course I would, but you have to operate within the manifold to enact change you can't oblitterate the entire system because you don't like it.
It becomes a situation where we have to make trade offs, would we rather have a whole lot of toxic material that isn't as harmful or would we rather have a little bit of waste that could be very harmful. Furthermore, the technology behind nuclear power plants today is much much safer then it was even 20 years ago. The plants are run much more efficient and the probability of a melt-down scenerio are far less, that is not to say it couldn't/wouldn't happen.
I agree, which is why safety isn't an arguement I use against nuclear power.
As for the toxic material, again you act like those are the only two possibilities. I say there's a third, and that the "alternative" energy sources produce less waste, and that waste is less toxic.
Furthermore, you may have lived somewhere that you were able to live off the grid but there are large portions of this country that just could not do this. Yes much of california, texas, arizona, new mexico, florida and a handful of other states could get away with this but states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Washington, Oregon etc could not live off the grid. MAYBE in the summer months, but there is no way that it could occur in the winter. The only solution would be to create vast solar fields in the states that get that sort of sunlight throughout the year but then you'd meet problems with other environmental groups who say you're destroying indiginous desert species. In essence the space, money and environmental ramifications of such a money are just too great to overcome.
That's why I said solar's problem is storage. STORAGE. It's not difficult to produce way more energy than you can use during the summer, even in some of the northern states.
I also said solar isn't the only option, just the one I'm most familiar with. There's also wind, hydro, tidal, geothermnal, etc, which as I already said are more or less viable depending on the region you're in. Yeah, solar's isn't going to work in Seattle, but tidal could, and I seem to remember there being plenty of wind the last time I was there. Hell, they could hook up micro-hydros to their storm drains and harness the power of their famous rain.
Additionally, we already ship energy around the country (like from Texas to California, for example), so that arguement looks a whole lot like a straw man to me.
The only solution would be a draconian one where we gave a specific ration of power to each citizen of the US
Maybe, instead of just dismissing the idea out of hand, you should try actually looking at the technologies that are available and thinking about how they might be applied in various scenarios. I think you'll find that they're a lot more viable than you give them credit for.
And draconian measures? That's just stupid. How about, instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, we give tax breaks to people who invest in alternative energy? I bet that would drive adoption pretty well, especially among those rich folk who want their tax breaks back. Production ramps up, prices fall, I think you see where this is going. No draconian measures necessary, just an administration with a real energy policy.
Additionally, we already ship energy around the country (like from Texas to California, for example), so that arguement looks a whole lot like a straw man to me.
Actually, all of that is verifiable by comparing the facts above, which you don't dispute, with the geologic record, which tells us things like how much carbon was in the atmosphere.
Sorry, but if you actually look at the science you'll find your criticisms have already been countered.
I consider myself to be such an environmentalist.
I think the big problem with nuclear power is that it isn't really "no emmisions". Yeah, a nuclear plant doesn't belch smoke in the air, and that's great, but it still produces byproducts and waste that are undeniably hazardous. Nuclear power would be a lot less unpopular if we had a real, viable solution to the nuclear waste problem (and no, Yucca Mountain doesn't count).
Another problem with you nuclear power folk is that you seem to think that nuclear is the only emmision-free power source. It isn't. I stick to talking about solar, because that's what I have personal experience with, but there are plenty of others, all of which are more or less viable for particular regions and climates.
As someone who has lived off-grid, with solar power, I feel quite confident saying that most of the arguements against its viability are total bunk. The only real problem solar has is storage, and I think that should be solvable with fuel cells.
The trick with Suse is not to install from source if you don't have to. If you want something other than what they provide in the release it can usually be found in .rpm form in various places, including the Suse ftp site (many of the developers have their own folders where they provide such things) and packman. Clicking on an rpm in Konqueror gives you and "Install using Yast" button. Must of the time if there are any dependency issues Yast will just ask you to insert your install media and it gets taken care of automagically.
Since figuring that out, the only app I've had any trouble with is mplayer, which required a lib that wasn't included (lzo). In those cases where you have to install from source for whatever reason, replace 'make install' with 'checkinstall' (included on the Suse discs but not installed by default). This will produce an rpm which you should then install as above.
Anyway, it was actually ease of use that drove me to Linux. I came to a point where it became obvious that I could either spend my time fixing my computer with Windows, or using it with Linux. I spend enough time fixing computers at work, so it was an easy decision. Of course, as always, YMMV. I had already been dilligent in my hardware purchases, so that wasn't an issue for me, though in all honesty I've had a lot more hardware compatability issues with Win2k than with Suse.
It has some of the CodeWeaver's stuff, but not all of it I think. IIRC Suse sells a seperate CD with full versions of Crossover and WineX. I think it's about $60.
If a completely self-consistent Universe can be built on top of the axiom "God does not exist", then what reason is there to believe that God exists?
I want a CD install. SuSE has an ISO that let's you play with it, but not install it.
ISO wastes a lot of bandwidth compared to an FTP install. If you really want to do the install locally, though, you could download everything from the FTP site and install it either locally or over NFS from the FTP install boot disk.
Also, there are plenty of places you can download Suse ISOs, just not directly from them.
I have to agree that SuSE's pretty much the best distro out there.
My experience has been that Suse has the best newbie retention rate, by which I mean that everyone I know who started out on Suse was using *nix primarily, and in some cases exclusively, within 2 years. Those that didn't stick with Suse have gone to Gentoo, LFS, or one of the BSDs.
I don't want to disparage the work done by the other distros, because I think it's all valuable, but all the people I know that gave up on Linux, or refered to it as a "Toy OS", were using other distros.
Yeah, once you know what you're doing Linux is Linux for the most part. I've stuck with SuSE because IMHO they've created a distro that's user friendly without being user limiting. That's a difficult balance to maintain, and they've managed to do so pretty consistently over the years.
before linux will hit the desktop we need a linux version of Windows Installer. RPM's don't handle dependancies!
My mother needs to be able to double click an a single downloaded icon and install the latest video driver from her KDE destop
Already there, years ago.
On Suse, since at least 8.0: Download RPM, klick on RPM in Konqueror, click on button labeled "Install using Yast", Yast takes care of any dependency issues (perhaps asking you to insert your install CD). I've only seen it choke once, on an obscure compression format the packman mplayer rpm asked for, which Suse didn't include because basically nobody uses it, with the possible exception of whoever built that rpm.
IMNSHO, Windows Installer blows goats compared to Yast.
From the article:
"There were a few more posts in the "Fred is lying/hiding" vein, but most of those died out when the participants in the discussion saw that the sound system indeed should have worked."
He IS lying/hiding. Yeah, that was the hardware he used, but that wasn't his install target. He was doing the installs on Virtual PC, and who knows what it decided to emulate?
So, even though he revealed that hardware specs of his machine in the forums, he still hasn't revealed the specs of the actual install target. Now, whether he's intentionally being deceptive or just an idiot, I don't know. Either way, I'd say he's earned his flames. The simple fact is, if he'd installed directly on the harware it probably would have worked.
Is there anything wrong with him expecting support from the vendor? He did exchange money for a promise of support.
As a general rule you're right. This is a special case, though, and is probably outside the bounds of typical included installation support.
Receiving a "well it should work, but I guess you're SOL" for that money is not a particularly good value proposition.
It SHOULD work, it's a fully supported chipset. If he'd done the install directly on the hardware he probably wouldn't have had a problem. That's not what he did though, so that chipset wasn't his real install target, but rather whatever Virtual PC decided to try and emulate. I very much doubt that installation on Virtual PC is supported under standard installation support, and frankly, I think that's totally reasonable.
Additionally, since he chose to install on Virtual PC rather than directly on the hardware, I think it calls into serious question his intentions in doing his "review". It seems as if he was setting it up to fail, and that perception is only reinforced by the fact that he didn't include Virtual PC in his description of his hardware setup. Sorry, but the fact that the hardware target was emulated IS relevant, and his glossing over of that fact calls his credibility into question.
Except that he didn't install it directly on that hardware, he installed it on top of Virtuall PC, so who knows what his actual target sound device was, or if the problem was even with Linux at all?
All the hardware databases I've checked show full support for that device, so my bet is he screwed up on his Virtual PC configuration.
Um, except for about five lite-version proprietary applications from the Kompany. Everything else in SUSE (including Yast and Sax) is covered either under the GPL or an even less restrictive license.
So why would you need FIVE copies? One copy is enough as long as you don't install the proprietary apps more than once.
There are only 2 reasons to buy Suse Desktop over Suse Pro (which is cheaper): Crossover Office (so you can run MS Office, Outlook, and Lotus Notes), and the included 1 year of maintenance (vs. 90 days installation support with Pro). Both of those are per seat.
There are some other per seat things, like the full version of StarOffice and free Openexchange CALs which might be interesting dpending on your situation, but the 2 above are the compelling ones, IMHO.
I've never quite puzzled out what the SuSE Desktop Linux is intended for... The price is higher than the SuSE Server 8 package and way higher than the SuSE 9.1 Pro, which is a pretty good desktop OS at comparable price to the OEM version of winxp home..
It's intended for the corporate desktop. The added price is because it includes Codeweavers Crossover Office, so in theory you should be able to run MS Office on it. Suse Pro just has the base wine.
If you price a five user win2003 server, it is pretty much break even with the SuSE server price.
Why would you buy win2003 server for only 5 users? IIRC the basic Windows Pro versions can handle up to 10 concurrent users, does Win2003 offer any significant advantages in that small of a network? (I haven't used Win2003, so I honestly don't know)
Considering that you can get 5 copies of XP home (yes, that's not the "workstation" version of Windows, but still) for $500
Apples to oranges, dude.
The linked Suse offering is for the corporate desktop, so WinXP Pro would be a more appropriate comparison. If you insist on using WinXP Home as your basis for comparison, well, Suse addresses that market with their Personal edition, priced at $29.95 each.
In fact, Suse Pro still compares favorably to XP Home pricewise, at $89.95 each. One could even go for the Suse Pro Update version at $59.95, which is actually the full version of Suse Pro but with less printed documentation.
AND considering that XP is going to be more compatible with hardware than SuSE's offering
That's debatable. My experience has been that Suse has actually been more compatable with the hardware I've dealt with than Win2k or XP. That's purely annecdotal of course, but then your assertion is just "common wisdom", which isn't any better.
The problem is that for Linux to become mainstream, people shouldn't have to dig through loads of config files and have to spend days trying to get their sound to work.
I say you're just using the wrong distro. You're right, people shouldn't have to dig through loads of config files... and they don't!
I just built myself a new machine (Athlon 3000+, NForce2 with everything integrated but video, GeForceFX 5900 Ultra, DVD+/-RW) and installed SuSE 9.1 and the only things I had to "configure" were hostname, NFS client, and 3D support. The first 2 no mainstream user would probably care about, and all three were easy, "click the check box" opperations in yast. No digging through loads of config files, no text editor involved, and far, FAR simpler and faster installation and setup than Windows.
He bought a Linux distribution for as much money as Windows would have cost.
I dispute that. How much extra would he have to pay to get the same functionality on Windows as he gets *at no extra cost* with the Linux distro?
He has every right to complain, tell everyone what happened, and not be ridiculed, called an idiot, or accused of spreading FUD for doing so.
He doesn't have a natural right to not be ridiculed or flamed, but I agree that he, and others like him, should be granted that right by the community.
That's assuming, of course, that he is actually offering constructive criticism and not just spreading FUD. Strangely enough, most people who approach the community with a well framed question or polite, constructive criticism are well recieved. The people who get ridiculed or flamed are the ones who come off as whiney bitches who would rather rant and rave and make hollow, obscure threats regarding mindshare or the marketplace than arrive at a solution.
If you're one of the people who's been ridiculed or flamed, you might consider changing your approach. More than likely you brought it on yourself.
I think you're making some incorrect assumptions (and some correct ones too, this isn't meant to be flamebait).
First, AGP == graphics, not sound, and that seems to be a very different market.
The 2 mainstrean graphics card companies, NVidia and ATI, certainly do produce Linux drivers, though for ATI it seems to be more of an afterthought.
That said, the grandparent doesn't say what this "prefered mode" is, which is unfortunately typical of this sort of condemnation of Linux. At a guess, I would say it's probably 32-bit color depth. There's a very good reason why the VGA card doesn't appear to support 32-bit: XFree doesn't support 32-bit. Now, you can edit your XF86Config to say that the color depth is 32-bit, and it will pass that info on to apps that ask (usually Windows games running under wine in my experience), but it will really be 24-bit.
Given that this is a kludgy hack, and a lie to boot, it shouldn't come as any suprise that the vendors don't support this in their config tools. That would be false advertising, and these are, to some degree or another, for-profit companies who would no doubt be sued for the percieved claim of 24-bit == 32-bit.
The great-niece of Kasner who was 4 years old at the time her uncle died says that although Google has brought attention to the name, it has not brought attention to Kasner's work. Google was not using the concepts, but just capitalizing on the name.
So the great grand-niece, who probably can't actually remember the guy, is accusing someone else of capitalizing on the name. Oh, the irony!
Seriously though, I think this highlights the problem with the current length of copyright terms quite nicely. Yes, I know this isn't a copyright dispute, and it's a damned good thing! If it was, Google would be screwed, and for what? How would that "promote progress in science and the useful arts"? What has this chick done to advance Mathematics that entitles her to this payday?
A good leader is not always the same as a popular leader.
My dad was a prime example, back when he was a foreman for a commercial construction company. His crew didn't like him, but they respected him. While he was a bit of a slave-driver, and definately a perfectionist, his insistence on doing things right the first time meant their job was actually easier in the long run.
A direct quote from one of his crew: "Yeah, he's an asshole, but we get to go home early on Fridays."
Power grids, water control, irrigation, agriculture - all of these realms would just as easily benefit from the same application of technology and investment of funds and resources as any "8-million rounds per minute" gun system ...
While I agree in principle, it's impossible to build these things in a war-torn region. Sadly, someone must win the war first, and for that they need weapons.
While a shovel can certainly be used as a weapon, I think we all know it's the guy with the gun whose going to win. Small wonder no one wants to be the guy with the shovel...
My point is, peaceful solutions can help prevent war in a region that has already achieved (relative) peace, but they won't stop a war in progress.
The world really does contain a very, very large number of petty-minded, truly dangerous, downright bad, rotten-to-the-core people. The world is home to people who kill for pleasure. It is a place where jealousy and the urge to own and control is so strong that outright genocide is attempted on a fairly regular basis.
You can't risk turning your sword into a garden hoe, unless you feel like sharing the product of your labor with the gang that lives down the road.
Exactly! This is the main arguement I always used against my anarchist/marxist friends. I've read The Communist Manifesto, and the world it describes is a beautiful utopia. Too bad it will never happen in the real world because somebody always has to be The Asshole, and there will always be enough idiots in the world to get him where he wants to go.
1. True, and the UN multilaterally opposed our unilateral actions in Iraq.
2. You mean "He tried to kill my daddy"? All the reasons that had any potential for legitimacy have proven just as false as the WMDs.
3. Anyone who believes Iraq has anything to do with the "War on Terror" is delusional.
4. Yes, there are al Queda connections in Iraq, but they were NEVER with Saddam's regime. Saddam and Osama have been bitter enemies since Saddam was paid by America to wage war on Iran, and neither are "forgive and forget" kinda guys. No, the al Queda connections in Iraq were with the Kurds; you know, "Saddam's own people" that he gassed, and we went in there to protect, and who were considered our allies during the invasion...
5. Violence is the last resort of the incompetent. -- Isaac Asimov
6. Actually, Mark Twain said it first, but how ironic that you should bring it up!