The maintenance staff may be able to help in that area. Either by making it
more sensitive or installing a switch. Assuming, of course, that the professor
holds the hall most of the time.
I thought occupancy sensors had an override switch or something.
I'd RATHER have some annoying DRM short of malware that allows me to do what I
want with the software I have on my hard drives. I've had nothing but bad
experiences with Steam, and I don't want to continue them ever again.
The problem with Swfdec is it isn't fully compatible with everything. With
YouTube, I can get pretty bad, but somewhat workable usage. If it is a Flash
movie/game (.swf), I usually can work it with mixed success. If it's a Flash
video (.flv, YouTube and LiveLeak sites), I probably need to download it and
play it with MPlayer, which is good anyway since many YouTube videos I see get
taken down, and so I have a local repository of them.
But it is nice that Swfdec by default doesn't load and play anything until the
viewer wants to try.
It is nice if a website complains about my not having Flash, so it also quells
that.
And it's a wonder why they don't offer alternate pages a lot of the times for us that refuse to or can't use Flash. The alternate software like Gnash or Swfdec aren't fully compatible.
> At the same time though? I *really* wish the people who don't like either of
> the two "major candidates" would get out there and vote 3rd. party, rather
> than skipping the process. That's where I'm at right now, myself. I can't
> bring myself to cast a vote for yet another person following in the footsteps
> of Bush, but Obama comes from the typical crooked Chicago politician pool,
> screwed us over by not fighting the telcom immunity bill, and has professed
> ideas for public healthcare that I think aren't going to work. Both
> candidates are apparently fine with a continuation of the "Patriot Act" too,
> which tells me a LOT about them.
I will not cast my vote for who I feel doesn't deserve it, no matter how
popular they are. I hate this damn de facto bipartisan system we the people
run, and only perpetuate by telling people to go out and vote, and only vote,
and lack telling them to actually be freaking informed.
I've narrowed my vote to Barack Obama, Cynthia McKinney, Charles Jay, and Ralph
Nader so far. I am leaning away from Obama so far because of his pro-gun
control and his taking the fence on too many issues for security right now. So
far the candidate that I like the best is a tie between Jay and Nader. My
complaint with Jay is too few issues he's really solid on, and Nader is
slightly pro-gun control. Issues I have with McKinney are, admitiddely,
superficial since she wants to make e-mail spam a criminal act and the fact she
wants no nuclear power on top of being slightly pro-gun control.
And thank you for telling that Obama voted for extending the Patriot Act. This
is why that 4 hours isn't enough to actually eliminate the top choices of one's
vote by a quick 4-hour research session. Another strike against Obama for me.
However, I'm more concerned about myself with my state and local government.
Right now, I am the most informed about the federal government, and it feels
really crappy on my part. Cram time.
ISPs could monitor your downloads and cut you off.
I know my ISP does that. My parent works for them and my friend's brother got in trouble for downloading Photoshop (they sent a letter dictating that if they did it again their service would be cut).
Game reviews will never replace the actual experience with a game. I've found that I've absolutely hated games that had great reviews, even on Gamefaqs (I barfed at Bioshock). And then I've absolutely loved games that got bombed reviews.
And then most reviews have criteria I don't give two shits about (graphics, and if the gameplay is good enough, story can be neglected).
If I like a game that I've pirated, I will buy it. If I don't, I get more disk space. Simple as that. If the developers can't make good enough games, then they don't deserve my money.
Re:Major problems with Firefox 3 on Gentoo 2008.0.
on
Gentoo 2008.0 Released
·
· Score: 1
Yet I've failed at installing Ubuntu, but have had all the success with installing Gentoo.
WTF?!
And if that artist had a donation page, people who really liked the music would donate.
If the music sucks, it doesn't deserve to be exchanged my money and take up my hard drive space.
Those times are past us. Besides, have you forgotten the SNES? It had Doom on it. SNES controllers had not a joystick to be found.
Of course I remember SNES DOOM, that was the first version of DOOM I played. Now although the SNES controller has no joystic, it does have a very nice d-pad which is a heck of a lot better than WASD.
Do we really need more than two or three speeds to run/walk with? I mean, if one is so inclined, I guess they can get that gamepad. Or find a way to use analog movement while aiming the mouse. In any case, I fail to see how analog movement beats over a hundred usable keys AND full customization to said 100+ keys.
How do you run at 3 or more speeds using WASD? modifier keys. So how do you effectively use them with any comfort when you've got your left hand on WASD, and your right hand on your mouse. Sticky keys? Mousewheel?
That brings up another point, you may have 100 keys on that keyboard but you cannot easily and effectively use them all because one of your hands is on the mouse. How do you hit "\" when your fingers are on WASD. So truly you have no more than say 36 keys you can use effectively some of them being modifiers. Go with a YHGJ or other similar exotic control scheme.
And shouldn't games be designed so you don't need to be a three handed person to use 100 keys?
I had to get way too used to a different control scheme for every game with the PS2.
Why should every game control the same as every other. games differ on gameplay, game balance, speed, intended market, etc. Why should a third person character based platformer control like an FPS? Besides, it doesn't take long to get the hang of controls, they become second nature. Why not? It's just a different camera position.
Besides, maybe I want to pick up and play instead of play with clunky crap. PC = customization and control schemes that can be transferred over many games. Standardized controls aren't that bad, either.
You don't even need some of those. A standard keyboard has over 100 keys and replaces gamepads. Then the mouse replaces joysticks and, again gamepads.
ha ha ha ha ha ha, oh you must be joking, or else not old enough to remember the old days. Apparently I must be old to play old games from the old days. No, I am probably not old enough, but I have played old games with the same control schemes. Ageism doesn't win here.
There was a time when computers were expensive and not everyone was guaranteed to have a joystick.So devs put in keyboard controls...in action games. Which sucked, and even if you could control the game with a keyboard it wasn't optimal, or fun, or comfortable. Those times are past us. Besides, have you forgotten the SNES? It had Doom on it. SNES controllers had not a joystick to be found.
Besides, I've played those games. They are fun even with the keyboard only. It's normal once one gets used to it.
Now you might have a mouse for analog aiming, but what about analog movement. console controllers have two analog sticks, plus analog buttons. And these days they also have USB and bluetooth, for things like mice and keyboards. Do we really need more than two or three speeds to run/walk with? I mean, if one is so inclined, I guess they can get that gamepad. Or find a way to use analog movement while aiming the mouse. In any case, I fail to see how analog movement beats over a hundred usable keys AND full customization to said 100+ keys.
By the way, most PS1 and PS2 games allow fully configurable controls. Was that an Xbox you were making an example of with that "B button" Yes. And, yeah, right. I've played things like Ghost Recon, Ratchet and Clank, Ghost Recon 2, Splinter Cell, etc. None of them had controls that were 'comfortable'. They were clunky and disgusting. Now, Splinter Cell on Xbox had nice controls, and it had the best controls on PC.
I had to get way too used to a different control scheme for every game with the PS2.
When was the last time your Play station got a virus?
PCs may be notorious for viruses. That's if you don't keep them secure.
Besides, a PC game-only PC wouldn't have to worry about viruses if they never downloaded anything from the internet. Granted, even if they download stuff, it takes, what, under 20 seconds to scan a file? I've gotten a couple of game patches with viruses.
How much do you spend on your Play station's anti-virus software every month?
AVG, many FOSS alternatives, etc. are free as in beer.
You don't even need some of those. A standard keyboard has over 100 keys and replaces gamepads. Then the mouse replaces joysticks and, again gamepads.
When was the last time you had to install a game on your XBox?
Good point.
Or install drivers for your newest controller?
Never, since all mine are plug and play. When's the last time a wireless controller was standard with your PC and you had to buy extra things to make it so you don't have to use batteries?
PC: Mouse to USB, Keyboard to USB, headphones to headphone jack, microphone to microphone jack
360: Batteries to controller, trial and error making controller work since I didn't read manual, headset which I never use except on Live, batteries to trash after only 12 hours of straight playing then find more batteries. OR: Go to store, try to find a freaking charge pack, plug in controller, then plug in 360.
Or work through compatibility issues between your latest game and your PS3's GPU?
Or had the ability to work through customizing graphics to meet your tastes?
It's also true that for the price of a microwave, I can get a nice laptop, that connects to the internet and all that. But it kinda sucks at heating food, doesn't it?
What? That makes no sense. Okay, it makes sense, but not in context.
There's a reason the Wii is selling so well, even though it doesn't even support HD graphics. People don't want something with internet, that can do their taxes, that catches viruses, that they can read their email on, or that has the bestest fastest hardware.
So I suppose Xbox Live is wasted since people don't want internet? I suppose people don't have PCs, but have Xboxes now?
They want something they can play fun games on, with other people, in their living area where the television is, on something that isn't the size of a desktop PC.
How big is a PC case? You do also realize that there are S-Video hookups, right? There's also other ways to hook up a PC to the TV. No monitor required.
And they want those games to work when they plug them in, every time. About the limit you can expect from a console consumer is blowing the dust off the cartridge pins.
The secret to stable PC gaming: Clean installations of Windows without viruses and other malware.
Are PC's more powerful? Sure. But there is a whole bunch of overhead that comes with the advantages of the PC over a game console that are just not worth it to the majority of console players.
So, customizable graphics, modding, (generally) free internet play, 100+ keys, a mouse, and fully customizable controls are not worth it? Their loss.
As far as I am concerned, they both have their pros and cons. PCs cons are major compatibility issues if you have borderline hardware, a dirty system, or old drivers. Drivers also have to be updated all the freaking time.
Consoles, on the other hand, seem to lose par with PC in terms of graphics after the first year and a half (unless they have super powerful hardware unavailable to the PC market). They also have forced control schemes like FPSs: Maybe I want melee to be 'right trigger'? But, no! It won't let me! It must be 'B', 'ri
Linux was developed by technical people for technical people. Until we can develop for non technical people we won't gain any ground. And his complaints are not so 90's , besides for ubuntu forums I still see forums saying to search google and then if they can't find an answer come back and RTFM. The thing about that is the community doesn't like people who appear to not know how to search, or appear outright too lazy to search for it. For some reason, they don't like repetition.
I just don't care. On LinuxQuestions.org, even if it is a very redundant question, I will answer it to the best of my ability, and THEN tell the person how I searched for it (if I did), like I went to the man pages, Googled it, did a forum search, or even install the program and tried to break it myself and then find a workaround in order to answer it. I find this a very helpful way to teach someone how to search. It's helped me tremendously the few times it has happened. If people on a forum flame me for my posting redundancy, I get discouraged to post, which could be an actual first-time bug (rare, but possible).
Oh yeah and Vista is the same as any other version of windows , the only thing is names and locations have changed a little and I do mean very little. Not to mention needing an update in hardware for so few, little changes. This might not be a problem for everyone to update their hardware, but I'd rather spend that money on other things (like video games:D). I might just drop my buying commercial games that don't support my hardware when I need to. I'd spend more money on blanks to burn mixed music CDs and Live CDs of distros when I want to.
I'll admit, though: I like Windows for games and for its notoriety for just working with me when I don't want to go through dependency hell with installing programs. And it's good for 3D since ATI needs better drivers for Linux. I like Linux because I usually do like going through dependency hell when time is not of essence, and I do like the command line backbone it has.
So, you are proposing the death penalty for mostly-innocent people that cannot control their attraction, just as a heterosexual and homosexual cannot control their attractions to the opposite and same sexes respectively?
Excessive user friendliness can also lead to bloat. Word, OpenOffice, Ubuntu... Those things are way too bloated with features I will never use. Ever. I only want the stuff I use, which consists of mainly command-line programs, a PDF reader, and a GUI web browser since TUI isn't supported by all websites. And, well, I do need a friendly way to download flash videos.
"Oh, words are hard sometimes to spell. Let's add in an autocomplete feature and make it user-unfriendly to turn off!" "Hmm... Gentoo's too hard to customize. Let's make Sabayon Linux so that the user has all of these things installed automatically!" (My first, but not necessarily current impression of Sabayon)
But, it's fine, as long as the programs I use don't change for the worse, I'm fine. I find my command-line quite user friendly since that is mostly what I use. I find clicking is slow and clunky for things like Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Settings... Give me a text file with configuration any day. Unless the programmers used bad programming practices and none of the keywords make sense. If I don't like it, then I don't use it. Plain and simple.
But, I would also like to point out that user friendliness=/=faster. Command line can be much faster for things like changing permissions, or perhaps even burning a CD, ripping audio off of a flash video, etc. because of tab completion (or fast typing skills). GUI, though, can be faster for copying files, if you are unlike me and have an actual file manager to click and drag things around in. But I will shut up as I have risked a false dichotomy between user friendliness and command line (and possibly GUI).
But I still hold to my stance that for the average user, surfing internet and e-mail, Windows works just fine. Sure, later down the road they will almost surely get infested with junk from the web, but then they either research and clean or they send it to someone to clean it for them. Or they blow their money on a new computer, or 'upgrade' from XP to Vista, or whatever I missed. I do highly agree that when you get to admin stuff, Windows sucks.
As for Word documents, not all libre word processors can read them. OpenOffice, can, but I don't have OpenOffice because of the size and bloat. I need to do my homework to find the perfect one for me that can open what I need. I've found Rich Text Format a dependable medium, even if it is a little heavy in size. Not that it matters as e-mail allows large attachments and hard disks offer sizes aplenty.
Choosing a FOSS operating system(/variant) is just like walking into a Starbucks and expecting to find a normal cup of coffee, or so I've heard.
That's pretty much what turns a lot of people away as they want ONE choice, ONE easy, simple choice. Windows offers that as they already know it. It's everywhere. No need to explore in order to open a Word Document, make games work, etc. I know I didn't know what to choose, so my first distro was Gentoo. So hard to install as it was 2005.0 at the time (better installer now). I finally settled with Debian.
Actually, I haven't heard of all three of those OSes. The only thing that I have used was Windows, a little Mac, and Linux (Debian, Knoppix, Ubuntu, Slackware, and Gentoo, currently use Gentoo). Solaris, FreeBSD, BSD, AtheOS, and some others were all I heard as well.
Slashdot Mirror
We don't. If you don't want to take the risk, you don't have to do anything.
The maintenance staff may be able to help in that area. Either by making it
more sensitive or installing a switch. Assuming, of course, that the professor
holds the hall most of the time.
I thought occupancy sensors had an override switch or something.
I've always wanted use an abacus. I kind of prefer a slide rule myself.
No, no, no! Fuck Steam.
I'd RATHER have some annoying DRM short of malware that allows me to do what I
want with the software I have on my hard drives. I've had nothing but bad
experiences with Steam, and I don't want to continue them ever again.
The problem with Swfdec is it isn't fully compatible with everything. With
YouTube, I can get pretty bad, but somewhat workable usage. If it is a Flash
movie/game (.swf), I usually can work it with mixed success. If it's a Flash
video (.flv, YouTube and LiveLeak sites), I probably need to download it and
play it with MPlayer, which is good anyway since many YouTube videos I see get
taken down, and so I have a local repository of them.
But it is nice that Swfdec by default doesn't load and play anything until the
viewer wants to try.
It is nice if a website complains about my not having Flash, so it also quells
that.
And it's a wonder why they don't offer alternate pages a lot of the times for us that refuse to or can't use Flash. The alternate software like Gnash or Swfdec aren't fully compatible.
> At the same time though? I *really* wish the people who don't like either of
> the two "major candidates" would get out there and vote 3rd. party, rather
> than skipping the process. That's where I'm at right now, myself. I can't
> bring myself to cast a vote for yet another person following in the footsteps
> of Bush, but Obama comes from the typical crooked Chicago politician pool,
> screwed us over by not fighting the telcom immunity bill, and has professed
> ideas for public healthcare that I think aren't going to work. Both
> candidates are apparently fine with a continuation of the "Patriot Act" too,
> which tells me a LOT about them.
I will not cast my vote for who I feel doesn't deserve it, no matter how
popular they are. I hate this damn de facto bipartisan system we the people
run, and only perpetuate by telling people to go out and vote, and only vote,
and lack telling them to actually be freaking informed.
I've narrowed my vote to Barack Obama, Cynthia McKinney, Charles Jay, and Ralph
Nader so far. I am leaning away from Obama so far because of his pro-gun
control and his taking the fence on too many issues for security right now. So
far the candidate that I like the best is a tie between Jay and Nader. My
complaint with Jay is too few issues he's really solid on, and Nader is
slightly pro-gun control. Issues I have with McKinney are, admitiddely,
superficial since she wants to make e-mail spam a criminal act and the fact she
wants no nuclear power on top of being slightly pro-gun control.
And thank you for telling that Obama voted for extending the Patriot Act. This
is why that 4 hours isn't enough to actually eliminate the top choices of one's
vote by a quick 4-hour research session. Another strike against Obama for me.
However, I'm more concerned about myself with my state and local government.
Right now, I am the most informed about the federal government, and it feels
really crappy on my part. Cram time.
State your source.
is there even such a thing as PCs with opensource BIOS?
http://openbios.info/Welcome_to_OpenBIOS
ISPs could monitor your downloads and cut you off. I know my ISP does that. My parent works for them and my friend's brother got in trouble for downloading Photoshop (they sent a letter dictating that if they did it again their service would be cut).
Game reviews will never replace the actual experience with a game. I've found that I've absolutely hated games that had great reviews, even on Gamefaqs (I barfed at Bioshock). And then I've absolutely loved games that got bombed reviews.
And then most reviews have criteria I don't give two shits about (graphics, and if the gameplay is good enough, story can be neglected).
If I like a game that I've pirated, I will buy it. If I don't, I get more disk space. Simple as that. If the developers can't make good enough games, then they don't deserve my money.
Yet I've failed at installing Ubuntu, but have had all the success with installing Gentoo. WTF?!
I just prefer backing everything up and then reinstalling everything. Much less painstaking, and I get to start out on a clean slate of a system.
Very nice, I think. Maybe for people who need their computer and can't forget some of the components, though, this isn't much of a viable option.
*runs off to make a checklist*
You could try, but it's up in the air if they would take any action. It can't hurt to try, no?
And if that artist had a donation page, people who really liked the music would donate. If the music sucks, it doesn't deserve to be exchanged my money and take up my hard drive space.
Of course I remember SNES DOOM, that was the first version of DOOM I played. Now although the SNES controller has no joystic, it does have a very nice d-pad which is a heck of a lot better than WASD.
How do you run at 3 or more speeds using WASD? modifier keys. So how do you effectively use them with any comfort when you've got your left hand on WASD, and your right hand on your mouse. Sticky keys? Mousewheel? That brings up another point, you may have 100 keys on that keyboard but you cannot easily and effectively use them all because one of your hands is on the mouse. How do you hit "\" when your fingers are on WASD. So truly you have no more than say 36 keys you can use effectively some of them being modifiers. Go with a YHGJ or other similar exotic control scheme. And shouldn't games be designed so you don't need to be a three handed person to use 100 keys? Why should every game control the same as every other. games differ on gameplay, game balance, speed, intended market, etc. Why should a third person character based platformer control like an FPS? Besides, it doesn't take long to get the hang of controls, they become second nature. Why not? It's just a different camera position.
Besides, maybe I want to pick up and play instead of play with clunky crap. PC = customization and control schemes that can be transferred over many games. Standardized controls aren't that bad, either.
ha ha ha ha ha ha, oh you must be joking, or else not old enough to remember the old days. Apparently I must be old to play old games from the old days. No, I am probably not old enough, but I have played old games with the same control schemes. Ageism doesn't win here. There was a time when computers were expensive and not everyone was guaranteed to have a joystick.So devs put in keyboard controls...in action games. Which sucked, and even if you could control the game with a keyboard it wasn't optimal, or fun, or comfortable. Those times are past us. Besides, have you forgotten the SNES? It had Doom on it. SNES controllers had not a joystick to be found.
Besides, I've played those games. They are fun even with the keyboard only. It's normal once one gets used to it. Now you might have a mouse for analog aiming, but what about analog movement. console controllers have two analog sticks, plus analog buttons. And these days they also have USB and bluetooth, for things like mice and keyboards. Do we really need more than two or three speeds to run/walk with? I mean, if one is so inclined, I guess they can get that gamepad. Or find a way to use analog movement while aiming the mouse. In any case, I fail to see how analog movement beats over a hundred usable keys AND full customization to said 100+ keys. By the way, most PS1 and PS2 games allow fully configurable controls. Was that an Xbox you were making an example of with that "B button" Yes. And, yeah, right. I've played things like Ghost Recon, Ratchet and Clank, Ghost Recon 2, Splinter Cell, etc. None of them had controls that were 'comfortable'. They were clunky and disgusting. Now, Splinter Cell on Xbox had nice controls, and it had the best controls on PC.
I had to get way too used to a different control scheme for every game with the PS2.
When was the last time your Play station got a virus?
PCs may be notorious for viruses. That's if you don't keep them secure.
Besides, a PC game-only PC wouldn't have to worry about viruses if they never downloaded anything from the internet. Granted, even if they download stuff, it takes, what, under 20 seconds to scan a file? I've gotten a couple of game patches with viruses.
How much do you spend on your Play station's anti-virus software every month?
AVG, many FOSS alternatives, etc. are free as in beer.
How many controllers can you plug into your PC?
Lets see: Joystick, keyboard, mouse, gamepad, guitar...
You don't even need some of those. A standard keyboard has over 100 keys and replaces gamepads. Then the mouse replaces joysticks and, again gamepads.
When was the last time you had to install a game on your XBox?
Good point.
Or install drivers for your newest controller?
Never, since all mine are plug and play. When's the last time a wireless controller was standard with your PC and you had to buy extra things to make it so you don't have to use batteries?
PC: Mouse to USB, Keyboard to USB, headphones to headphone jack, microphone to microphone jack
360: Batteries to controller, trial and error making controller work since I didn't read manual, headset which I never use except on Live, batteries to trash after only 12 hours of straight playing then find more batteries. OR: Go to store, try to find a freaking charge pack, plug in controller, then plug in 360.
Or work through compatibility issues between your latest game and your PS3's GPU?
Or had the ability to work through customizing graphics to meet your tastes?
It's also true that for the price of a microwave, I can get a nice laptop, that connects to the internet and all that. But it kinda sucks at heating food, doesn't it?
What? That makes no sense. Okay, it makes sense, but not in context.
There's a reason the Wii is selling so well, even though it doesn't even support HD graphics. People don't want something with internet, that can do their taxes, that catches viruses, that they can read their email on, or that has the bestest fastest hardware.
So I suppose Xbox Live is wasted since people don't want internet? I suppose people don't have PCs, but have Xboxes now?
They want something they can play fun games on, with other people, in their living area where the television is, on something that isn't the size of a desktop PC.
How big is a PC case? You do also realize that there are S-Video hookups, right? There's also other ways to hook up a PC to the TV. No monitor required.
And they want those games to work when they plug them in, every time. About the limit you can expect from a console consumer is blowing the dust off the cartridge pins.
The secret to stable PC gaming: Clean installations of Windows without viruses and other malware.
Are PC's more powerful? Sure. But there is a whole bunch of overhead that comes with the advantages of the PC over a game console that are just not worth it to the majority of console players.
So, customizable graphics, modding, (generally) free internet play, 100+ keys, a mouse, and fully customizable controls are not worth it? Their loss.
As far as I am concerned, they both have their pros and cons. PCs cons are major compatibility issues if you have borderline hardware, a dirty system, or old drivers. Drivers also have to be updated all the freaking time.
Consoles, on the other hand, seem to lose par with PC in terms of graphics after the first year and a half (unless they have super powerful hardware unavailable to the PC market). They also have forced control schemes like FPSs: Maybe I want melee to be 'right trigger'? But, no! It won't let me! It must be 'B', 'ri
I just don't care. On LinuxQuestions.org, even if it is a very redundant question, I will answer it to the best of my ability, and THEN tell the person how I searched for it (if I did), like I went to the man pages, Googled it, did a forum search, or even install the program and tried to break it myself and then find a workaround in order to answer it. I find this a very helpful way to teach someone how to search. It's helped me tremendously the few times it has happened. If people on a forum flame me for my posting redundancy, I get discouraged to post, which could be an actual first-time bug (rare, but possible). Oh yeah and Vista is the same as any other version of windows , the only thing is names and locations have changed a little and I do mean very little. Not to mention needing an update in hardware for so few, little changes. This might not be a problem for everyone to update their hardware, but I'd rather spend that money on other things (like video games
I'll admit, though: I like Windows for games and for its notoriety for just working with me when I don't want to go through dependency hell with installing programs. And it's good for 3D since ATI needs better drivers for Linux. I like Linux because I usually do like going through dependency hell when time is not of essence, and I do like the command line backbone it has.
I did not realize this. Thank you for clarifying.
It could also be the problem with flash drives where they fail after so many writes.
I've killed 3 already in the past 6 months since I was an idiot and I ran programs off of it that weren't made for flash drives.
I'm kind of weary of a 160 GB flash drive where I didn't even get to use all of my 1 GB.
So, you are proposing the death penalty for mostly-innocent people that cannot control their attraction, just as a heterosexual and homosexual cannot control their attractions to the opposite and same sexes respectively?
Brilliant.
Excessive user friendliness can also lead to bloat. Word, OpenOffice, Ubuntu... Those things are way too bloated with features I will never use. Ever. I only want the stuff I use, which consists of mainly command-line programs, a PDF reader, and a GUI web browser since TUI isn't supported by all websites. And, well, I do need a friendly way to download flash videos.
"Oh, words are hard sometimes to spell. Let's add in an autocomplete feature and make it user-unfriendly to turn off!"
"Hmm... Gentoo's too hard to customize. Let's make Sabayon Linux so that the user has all of these things installed automatically!" (My first, but not necessarily current impression of Sabayon)
But, it's fine, as long as the programs I use don't change for the worse, I'm fine. I find my command-line quite user friendly since that is mostly what I use. I find clicking is slow and clunky for things like Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Settings... Give me a text file with configuration any day. Unless the programmers used bad programming practices and none of the keywords make sense. If I don't like it, then I don't use it. Plain and simple.
But, I would also like to point out that user friendliness=/=faster. Command line can be much faster for things like changing permissions, or perhaps even burning a CD, ripping audio off of a flash video, etc. because of tab completion (or fast typing skills). GUI, though, can be faster for copying files, if you are unlike me and have an actual file manager to click and drag things around in. But I will shut up as I have risked a false dichotomy between user friendliness and command line (and possibly GUI).
Can't argue much with that.
Write the book. I'd probably read it.
But I still hold to my stance that for the average user, surfing internet and e-mail, Windows works just fine. Sure, later down the road they will almost surely get infested with junk from the web, but then they either research and clean or they send it to someone to clean it for them. Or they blow their money on a new computer, or 'upgrade' from XP to Vista, or whatever I missed. I do highly agree that when you get to admin stuff, Windows sucks.
As for Word documents, not all libre word processors can read them. OpenOffice, can, but I don't have OpenOffice because of the size and bloat. I need to do my homework to find the perfect one for me that can open what I need. I've found Rich Text Format a dependable medium, even if it is a little heavy in size. Not that it matters as e-mail allows large attachments and hard disks offer sizes aplenty.
Choosing a FOSS operating system(/variant) is just like walking into a Starbucks and expecting to find a normal cup of coffee, or so I've heard.
That's pretty much what turns a lot of people away as they want ONE choice, ONE easy, simple choice. Windows offers that as they already know it. It's everywhere. No need to explore in order to open a Word Document, make games work, etc. I know I didn't know what to choose, so my first distro was Gentoo. So hard to install as it was 2005.0 at the time (better installer now). I finally settled with Debian.
Actually, I haven't heard of all three of those OSes. The only thing that I have used was Windows, a little Mac, and Linux (Debian, Knoppix, Ubuntu, Slackware, and Gentoo, currently use Gentoo). Solaris, FreeBSD, BSD, AtheOS, and some others were all I heard as well.