Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, people should know. I'm just constantly depressed by the level of stupidity that Microsoft products seem to actively encourage.
A few weeks back I discovered that my son, 14 years old, who has used windows exclusively for five years, didn't even know what a sub-folder was.
I'd often wondered why he kept so many files on his desktop. Turns out he didn't even know it was possible to move them elsewhere.
Talking to some of his friends I have found that they also have a similar level of knowledge of operating systems.
Whatever happened to the idea that youngsters knew more about computers then their elders? It certainly was true when I was a kid, but these days it seems that if it ain't WoW, it ain't interesting.
sheesh people will figure out how to type in fedora mp3, or fedora faq into google.. its okay they will figure it out i promise Sorry, but you're wrong.
You and I could, because we know about such things. However you are labouring under the misapprehension that most computer users even know you need extra software to run certain types of files.
Thanks to the wonders of Microsoft Windows, many computer users don't even know about things as basic as partitions or folders outside 'my documents'. If you don't believe this, you obviously haven't spent any time working in tech support...
I'm sorry, but I highly doubt that a person "new to linux and uninformed of such things" would install linux.
Yes, and they never will until it becomes so simple that a person with little or no knowledge can do it.
This is what I'm getting at. Those people are in microsofts pocket, and will be until a fully media capable linux distro can be installed easily, without detailed knowledge.
People can, and do, install newer verions of windows who fall into this catagory. It's them, the ones who want to upgrade, that we should be attracting.
Yup, but would the aforementioned person new to linux and uninformed of such things know about this? I'm not disputing that repositories exist, its more that they aren't made seamlessly available.
The problem is that the desktop experience has become, thanks to the almighty Microsoft, (whose name we speak in hushed tones, lest they smite us with their stick of smiting), have defined the desktop as being a place where even a moron can get a decent experience with minimal work, or none, in some cases.
It's that we have to beat. It's ok for us technically aware folk to be impressed by the superior process scheduling of linux compared to windows (well, gets me hot), but a numptie is unlikely to even know such things occur, they're going to try and play an mp3, dvd, or video (with a non free codec), find that it doesn't work and give up in disgust.
This issue of not having media codecs other then the free ones is a real deal breaker for me.
Yes I know, they aren't 'free as in freedom'. Sad, but true. However, when I install desktop linux I don't want to fart about trying to find media codecs. They should be there, in the install, or immediately available via an obvious link once installation is complete. It should be a one click and done experience, has to be really.
Yes I could find them myself, but I'm not really the problem, since I'm pretty much addicted to linux for everything but desktop. I'll remain a fan, and live in hope of a decent out of the box desktop experience.
No, the problem is the vast numbers of techno numpties who won't use linux as long as it has this glaring hole in its out of the box state.
Mark me as troll if you wish, but this is a serious issue that the purists don't want to confront. In spite of what they beleive, ogg is not enough...
I seem to recall that napster was a minority sport until it got media attention, then suddenly everyone I knew was using it . I was at uni at the time, and probably unique in not knowing about filesharing till napster was being forced to close.
Microsoft wanted an ISO standard so they could still sell to governments who now require open standards (and the many who will do so in the future).
They used money and pressure on companies to get them to vote, and tied up the obviously inadequate procedures of ISO organisation until it agreed to do what they wanted.
So, they win, we lose, this decision will never be reversed, because to do so would destroy ISO's credibility in the wider world (not just this one issue, which many ISO using organisations still likely don't know about).
Now, ISO are trying to save face. This will work, because too many people have a vested interest in ISO not being discredited for it to fail. If failure is announced by the techie press, they will simply ignore it and carry on.
Yes it is applicable, even if in space, since it's earth controlled, built on earth, and orbiting Earth. If it were in another solar system, it might be different, although I suspect not.
It's much the same thing as an American warship still belonging to America once in international waters, and still being subject to US law.
I mean, how much can they seriously expect to make from a cut down chat client when there are a gazzillion billion and two chat clients already out there?
3d's been around for a while, and never gained widespead adoption.
People fundamentally can't be arsed to do anything else but stick on a movie, sit down and watch it. Goggles? sure, if all you plan on doing for the length of the movie is watching the film. As in, no eating, no going to the toilet, no talking to anyone else, or if at home, no pausing the film while you do other stuff.
All those activities mean 3d goggles might be lost or damaged. Also, I don't know about you, but paper goggles aren't that comfortable.
I've been using games as a way to relax at the end of a days coding for years. I started off by firing up Elite (on the bcc model B), and pirate hunting, or hunting down jiucy freighters and getting them to drop their cargo.
In later years this turned into an evenings doom, or CnC.
Nowadays it's X3, that's beside the point though The one constant theme has been that I play games to go from stressed to unstressed, or just to wind down if there's no stress.
I wouldn't pick an online game for that though, like a mmorpeger or somesuch, because you aren't god of your own little universe, and if you get the lags, or some asshat messing you about, you get stressed again.
If they back away from a lot of the complexity of Vista then they may indeed be able to match this year deadline.
The main problem with Vista was that they wanted to move everything forward, the desktop, the filesystem, security, the lot. That and they added no end of performance harming crap to protect rights holders, even when this is not their concern.
We all know what the result was.
If they produce a lean, fast, XP based OS with some of the features of Vista that have turned out useful but not hammered performance, then the job will likely be simpler, and thus shorter.
Slashdot Mirror
If you really object, you could, y'know, not install it in the first place.
I might give it a look, if only to get a handle on what all the knee jerk armchair reactionists are complaining about
Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, people should know. I'm just constantly depressed by the level of stupidity that Microsoft products seem to actively encourage.
A few weeks back I discovered that my son, 14 years old, who has used windows exclusively for five years, didn't even know what a sub-folder was.
I'd often wondered why he kept so many files on his desktop. Turns out he didn't even know it was possible to move them elsewhere.
Talking to some of his friends I have found that they also have a similar level of knowledge of operating systems.
Whatever happened to the idea that youngsters knew more about computers then their elders? It certainly was true when I was a kid, but these days it seems that if it ain't WoW, it ain't interesting.
sheesh people will figure out how to type in fedora mp3, or fedora faq into google.. its okay they will figure it out i promise
Sorry, but you're wrong.
You and I could, because we know about such things. However you are labouring under the misapprehension that most computer users even know you need extra software to run certain types of files.
Thanks to the wonders of Microsoft Windows, many computer users don't even know about things as basic as partitions or folders outside 'my documents'. If you don't believe this, you obviously haven't spent any time working in tech support...
I'm sorry, but I highly doubt that a person "new to linux and uninformed of such things" would install linux.
Yes, and they never will until it becomes so simple that a person with little or no knowledge can do it.
This is what I'm getting at. Those people are in microsofts pocket, and will be until a fully media capable linux distro can be installed easily, without detailed knowledge.
People can, and do, install newer verions of windows who fall into this catagory. It's them, the ones who want to upgrade, that we should be attracting.
Yup, but would the aforementioned person new to linux and uninformed of such things know about this? I'm not disputing that repositories exist, its more that they aren't made seamlessly available.
The problem is that the desktop experience has become, thanks to the almighty Microsoft, (whose name we speak in hushed tones, lest they smite us with their stick of smiting), have defined the desktop as being a place where even a moron can get a decent experience with minimal work, or none, in some cases.
It's that we have to beat. It's ok for us technically aware folk to be impressed by the superior process scheduling of linux compared to windows (well, gets me hot), but a numptie is unlikely to even know such things occur, they're going to try and play an mp3, dvd, or video (with a non free codec), find that it doesn't work and give up in disgust.
This issue of not having media codecs other then the free ones is a real deal breaker for me.
Yes I know, they aren't 'free as in freedom'. Sad, but true. However, when I install desktop linux I don't want to fart about trying to find media codecs. They should be there, in the install, or immediately available via an obvious link once installation is complete. It should be a one click and done experience, has to be really.
Yes I could find them myself, but I'm not really the problem, since I'm pretty much addicted to linux for everything but desktop. I'll remain a fan, and live in hope of a decent out of the box desktop experience.
No, the problem is the vast numbers of techno numpties who won't use linux as long as it has this glaring hole in its out of the box state.
Mark me as troll if you wish, but this is a serious issue that the purists don't want to confront. In spite of what they beleive, ogg is not enough...
I seem to recall that napster was a minority sport until it got media attention, then suddenly everyone I knew was using it .
I was at uni at the time, and probably unique in not knowing about filesharing till napster was being forced to close.
This just in:
People on the internet 'steal' stuff they should pay for.
OOXML seems to be open, but it isn't.
You seem to have missed that there has been a recent change to the meaning of open.
It now means, 'whoever has the most money gets to be declared the most open'.
Microsoft wanted an ISO standard so they could still sell to governments who now require open standards (and the many who will do so in the future).
They used money and pressure on companies to get them to vote, and tied up the obviously inadequate procedures of ISO organisation until it agreed to do what they wanted.
So, they win, we lose, this decision will never be reversed, because to do so would destroy ISO's credibility in the wider world (not just this one issue, which many ISO using organisations still likely don't know about).
Now, ISO are trying to save face. This will work, because too many people have a vested interest in ISO not being discredited for it to fail. If failure is announced by the techie press, they will simply ignore it and carry on.
Yes it is applicable, even if in space, since it's earth controlled, built on earth, and orbiting Earth. If it were in another solar system, it might be different, although I suspect not.
It's much the same thing as an American warship still belonging to America once in international waters, and still being subject to US law.
How is their product even saleable?
I mean, how much can they seriously expect to make from a cut down chat client when there are a gazzillion billion and two chat clients already out there?
3d's been around for a while, and never gained widespead adoption.
People fundamentally can't be arsed to do anything else but stick on a movie, sit down and watch it. Goggles? sure, if all you plan on doing for the length of the movie is watching the film. As in, no eating, no going to the toilet, no talking to anyone else, or if at home, no pausing the film while you do other stuff.
All those activities mean 3d goggles might be lost or damaged. Also, I don't know about you, but paper goggles aren't that comfortable.
Are visits from other ISPs to comcast controlled locations also shaped?
For instance, if I am playing a game against someone whose hosting, and they are on comcast, are my packets shaped too?
Not the best example, could be ssh for instance, (far more likely for me), or any one of a number of reasons, none of which are didgy in the least.
I've been using games as a way to relax at the end of a days coding for years. I started off by firing up Elite (on the bcc model B), and pirate hunting, or hunting down jiucy freighters and getting them to drop their cargo.
In later years this turned into an evenings doom, or CnC.
Nowadays it's X3, that's beside the point though The one constant theme has been that I play games to go from stressed to unstressed, or just to wind down if there's no stress.
I wouldn't pick an online game for that though, like a mmorpeger or somesuch, because you aren't god of your own little universe, and if you get the lags, or some asshat messing you about, you get stressed again.
If they back away from a lot of the complexity of Vista then they may indeed be able to match this year deadline. The main problem with Vista was that they wanted to move everything forward, the desktop, the filesystem, security, the lot. That and they added no end of performance harming crap to protect rights holders, even when this is not their concern. We all know what the result was. If they produce a lean, fast, XP based OS with some of the features of Vista that have turned out useful but not hammered performance, then the job will likely be simpler, and thus shorter.