Gosh, going back, but my experience seemed to be the opposite.
Anthing that had only 98/95/ME drivers was very problomatic to get working if XP didn't include generic drivers for it. This generally meant consumer based items, scanners, webcams etc.
Anything that had a 2000/NT driver was more likely to work (although not guranteed).
The problem was up until XP came out the majority of consumer PCs came with a version of 98(2nd edition or Me), so maufacturers had never really had to bother about the new driver model from Win2000, and of course most items become discontinued after 2/3 years so there was no justifiable reason why companys would update deivers.
Which is very similar to what seemed to have happend with going from XP -> Vista.
I've not used WOW, or installed it - either at home or at work so can't comment on how multi user would work.
My view is that "programs" should be split into clearly defined areas.
One area for "exectuables & resources" - things that would not change at all unless specifically patched.
One area for program configuration - this would mean "global" configuration that would affect all users on that computer.
And then user configuration & Data, which would belong to the user and could be changed by the user, (and would follow the user no matter which computer was used.)
Anything that the program changes itself, I'm not sure exactly what, but say for example tmp files should live outside these areas.
One can't help but wonder why any properly designed app for a multi user environment would want to do that.
Surely the ideal is to keep "programs" and "data" away from each other rather than combining them together.
Why did you buy 8 copies? Startcraft came with a "mini" client that you install on the other 8 computers.
Which meant you only needed one copy and one key.
Unless Broodwar changed that functionality.
I would suggest that as far as looks go, Win2000 was NT4 with WinMe user interface. Much the same way as NT4 was NT3 with the Win95 user interface.
Of course, under the hood 2000 was a big step up from NT4 with AD, GPOs etc etc.
I think 95 was the only one that changed the way the Windows UI worked in any major way - every other iteration seems to be "updates" (sliding menus, transparent windows, differnt task bar etc) to eye candy.
At the moment development cycles seem to be going Server -> Workstation+UI updates.
So, XP was built on 2000 server with an updated interface. Vista was 2003 Server with an update UI.
Also, what I thought was interesting during NTs initial development, the UI was outside the kernal. MS decided to bring it in as the performance was poor. With Vista they've sent the UI outside the kernal, and to begin with the performance is poor but hardware has caught up enough to keep things going.
I suppose you could argue it was palnned - if NT performance was very poor, it wouldn't have taken off at all.
But, if 10 million of each of those cars is sold over 40 years then would it be better.
And surely a fairly safe assumption that withing a mile or two difference they would get the same MPG, as he hasn't bought 8 uniquely designed cars.
Hello, just interested. If you drive on the right hand side of the road, shouldn't the exit lane also be on the right hand side? Or do you have to cross over the other side of the "highway"? Or maybe I suppose you come off on the left straight over a bridge?
Excuse the poor diagram - not sure if it will come out. R is the highway, B is a bridge or tunnel and r is the sliproad/deceleration lane.
But would you agree that me using say, "Linux", doesn't mean that I have to agree to the GPL, where as, say I use AutoCad I have to agree to their software licence, which is a legally binding contract?
I'm currently re-reading Imajica by Clive Barker. Prior to that I read Wizard's Bane and Wizardry Compiled from Baen then tried The Lion of Farside and put that down after a couple of chapters.
Further back from then, I was reading Moorcocks Eternal Champion series, oh and Harry Potter (make whatever assumptions you like about that).
I'm not talking about spellining mistaksdes or grammer or poor, punctuation. Of course these things slip through, even from the best publishing houses.
Bad writing is bad writing - poorly defined concepts, cludgy sentences, internally inconsistent, poor plot and poorly concieved characters etc etc.
I can of course have an opinion on a book, game, film, video (negative or poistive) without being able to make/create one without being "asinine". Also claimimg that something isn't "ad hominem" while in the same sentence calling them "stupid or unintelligent" seems very hypocritical.
But he wasn't talking about the GPL was he? He was talking about software licences wasn't he.
"A contract, on the other hand, is an exchange of obligations, either of promises for promises or of promises of future performance for present performance or payment. The idea that 'licenses' to use patents or copyrights must be contracts is an artifact of twentieth-century practice, in which licensors offered an exchange of promises with users: 'We will give you a copy of our copyrighted work,' in essence, 'if you pay us and promise to enter into certain obligations concerning the work.' With respect to software, those obligations by users include promises not to decompile or reverse-engineer the software, and not to transfer the software."
I don't think it is true - in the US at least there is an exepmtion in copyright for the "in the normal course of operation".
My understanding is that a licence is a contact - ie to carry on you have to accept the death of your first born son etc etc
The argument would be that the third party program copying part of the orginal program into RAM is copyright infringement as it's not in the normal course of operation.
Personally, I'm more from the Fantasy side. There are a couple of Authors there that are, if not well known at least mentioned in other places - Mercedes Lackey and Harry Turtledove being too that I know of, but having read their works from the library, I'll not be pursuing them.
Nothing I've read from it, has grabbed me and said "I must reccomend that to others" - yes some of the ideas are interesting "Wizardry Compiled", but the writing seems terrible.
I shall look at "freehold", but to tell the truth, the blurb doesn't hold me at all, just sounds like another "Space Opera" with it's own internal inconsistancies..
> mobile source of free, quality science fiction. Anywhere I have 'net, I have Baen.
You accidentily inserted the word "quality" in there.
Most of the Baen library stuff, is to put it bluntly, atrocious. No doubt there are some gems, but I've yet to read/find them. I would call it "throw away" science fiction.
Slashdot Mirror
Do they eat lichen?
Anthing that had only 98/95/ME drivers was very problomatic to get working if XP didn't include generic drivers for it. This generally meant consumer based items, scanners, webcams etc.
Anything that had a 2000/NT driver was more likely to work (although not guranteed).
The problem was up until XP came out the majority of consumer PCs came with a version of 98(2nd edition or Me), so maufacturers had never really had to bother about the new driver model from Win2000, and of course most items become discontinued after 2/3 years so there was no justifiable reason why companys would update deivers.
Which is very similar to what seemed to have happend with going from XP -> Vista.
My view is that "programs" should be split into clearly defined areas.
One area for "exectuables & resources" - things that would not change at all unless specifically patched.
One area for program configuration - this would mean "global" configuration that would affect all users on that computer.
And then user configuration & Data, which would belong to the user and could be changed by the user, (and would follow the user no matter which computer was used.)
Anything that the program changes itself, I'm not sure exactly what, but say for example tmp files should live outside these areas.
Rose tinted spectacles? XP was as bad for getting old drives working as Vista is.
One can't help but wonder why any properly designed app for a multi user environment would want to do that. Surely the ideal is to keep "programs" and "data" away from each other rather than combining them together.
Weirdly, startcraft came with a client program that allowed you to do exactly that- you only needed one copy of the game. No piracy involved at all.
Why did you buy 8 copies? Startcraft came with a "mini" client that you install on the other 8 computers. Which meant you only needed one copy and one key. Unless Broodwar changed that functionality.
I use it, it's a great bit of software. Its just the name "The Dude". They need to change it to a boring name.
Of course, under the hood 2000 was a big step up from NT4 with AD, GPOs etc etc.
I think 95 was the only one that changed the way the Windows UI worked in any major way - every other iteration seems to be "updates" (sliding menus, transparent windows, differnt task bar etc) to eye candy.
At the moment development cycles seem to be going Server -> Workstation+UI updates.
So, XP was built on 2000 server with an updated interface. Vista was 2003 Server with an update UI.
Also, what I thought was interesting during NTs initial development, the UI was outside the kernal. MS decided to bring it in as the performance was poor. With Vista they've sent the UI outside the kernal, and to begin with the performance is poor but hardware has caught up enough to keep things going.
I suppose you could argue it was palnned - if NT performance was very poor, it wouldn't have taken off at all.
Those screenshots are far too dark. I can hardly see anything. Myabe I should adjust my monitor.
But, if 10 million of each of those cars is sold over 40 years then would it be better. And surely a fairly safe assumption that withing a mile or two difference they would get the same MPG, as he hasn't bought 8 uniquely designed cars.
Excuse the poor diagram - not sure if it will come out. R is the highway, B is a bridge or tunnel and r is the sliproad/deceleration lane.
|RR|RR| /r/ /r/
_______
BBBBBB\
------r\
|RR|RR|r\
|RR|RR|\r\/r/
|RR|RR| \rr/
|RR|RR|
|RR|RR|/r/
|RR|RR|r/
|RR|RRr/
|RR|RR|
Why would using an Amiga have anything to do with a mips processor?
Who buys crossover cables? Just make it.
Fair enough, I'm wrong.
But would you agree that me using say, "Linux", doesn't mean that I have to agree to the GPL, where as, say I use AutoCad I have to agree to their software licence, which is a legally binding contract?
They may call it a software licence, but it's not. Its a copyright licence. If it was a software licence, it would be a contract.
Just because a licence includes software, does not make it a software licence.
Or
The GPL is a copyright licence.
The GPL is not a contract.
It has no bearing on other software licences, that are contracts. (although dubious)
I'm currently re-reading Imajica by Clive Barker. Prior to that I read Wizard's Bane and Wizardry Compiled from Baen then tried The Lion of Farside and put that down after a couple of chapters.
Further back from then, I was reading Moorcocks Eternal Champion series, oh and Harry Potter (make whatever assumptions you like about that).
It explains the difference between
The GPL
And a Software licence (which is actually a contract)
Very good.
I have been roundly put in my place by your superior intellect.
I'm not talking about spellining mistaksdes or grammer or poor, punctuation. Of course these things slip through, even from the best publishing houses.
Bad writing is bad writing - poorly defined concepts, cludgy sentences, internally inconsistent, poor plot and poorly concieved characters etc etc.
I can of course have an opinion on a book, game, film, video (negative or poistive) without being able to make/create one without being "asinine". Also claimimg that something isn't "ad hominem" while in the same sentence calling them "stupid or unintelligent" seems very hypocritical.
But he wasn't talking about the GPL was he? He was talking about software licences wasn't he.
"A contract, on the other hand, is an exchange of obligations, either of promises for promises or of promises of future performance for present performance or payment. The idea that 'licenses' to use patents or copyrights must be contracts is an artifact of twentieth-century practice, in which licensors offered an exchange of promises with users: 'We will give you a copy of our copyrighted work,' in essence, 'if you pay us and promise to enter into certain obligations concerning the work.' With respect to software, those obligations by users include promises not to decompile or reverse-engineer the software, and not to transfer the software."
http://lwn.net/Articles/61292/
I don't think it is true - in the US at least there is an exepmtion in copyright for the "in the normal course of operation".
My understanding is that a licence is a contact - ie to carry on you have to accept the death of your first born son etc etc
The argument would be that the third party program copying part of the orginal program into RAM is copyright infringement as it's not in the normal course of operation.
Personally, I'm more from the Fantasy side. There are a couple of Authors there that are, if not well known at least mentioned in other places - Mercedes Lackey and Harry Turtledove being too that I know of, but having read their works from the library, I'll not be pursuing them.
Nothing I've read from it, has grabbed me and said "I must reccomend that to others" - yes some of the ideas are interesting "Wizardry Compiled", but the writing seems terrible.
I shall look at "freehold", but to tell the truth, the blurb doesn't hold me at all, just sounds like another "Space Opera" with it's own internal inconsistancies..
> mobile source of free, quality science fiction. Anywhere I have 'net, I have Baen.
You accidentily inserted the word "quality" in there.
Most of the Baen library stuff, is to put it bluntly, atrocious. No doubt there are some gems, but I've yet to read/find them. I would call it "throw away" science fiction.