Definitely not disagreeing about multimedia issues on Linux, but I would be interested to hear more specifics on what problems you have. My biggest beef was finding a decent, user-friendly video converter. No such luck until the newest version of HandBrake. Up until that I still primarily used windows for video conversion. Thanks to it, though, Ubuntu is one step closer to converting me as far as multimedia goes. What I do like in Ubuntu is the ability to play any kind of video format in MPlayer and just have it work, whereas in windows there is always the off codec or container that in order to play I have to download some mickey mouse media player made specifically for that one purpose that reminds me to "go pro" and buy the registered version every 10 seconds. So what I'm saying is that Linux has to potential to be a multimedia powerhouse if they can get their act together. Unfortunately Linus doesn't seem to care much about that in particular.
Nothing to get too excited about, but Microsoft's actions speak much louder than the naysayers who yak on about how Linux on netbooks was a total flop. Indeed it didn't take long for XP to dominate, but how many people actually think Microsoft liked using it to get the job done when they were already trying to axe it in favor of Vista? Fact is they had no choice. They aren't stupid enough to just ignore what could grow into actual competition for them, no matter how insignificant it might seem. The question is which will be the bigger threat to their continued dominance, Linux or XP?
In other news Nvidia executives praised windows vista as "the bestest OS ever!" and inconspicuously stuffed away protruding wads of cash in their pockets while a winking Steve Ballmer gave them a thumbs-up from the corner of the room.
MS is becoming quite the patent troll lately. I suppose it's a form of self-preservation. I mean, lets face it. Between Google and open source software they know their once-impregnable empire is going to be in trouble if they don't galvanize their defenses in any way they can. Personally I think they should focus on gaming. Oh wait, I forgot they are trying to patent the ever-loving crap out of that too.
Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out Steve. Oh, and don't worry about the vacant buildings. We'll have them remodeled and populated with open source developers soon enough. Heck, maybe Google or Apple will buy them from you.
Bandwidth caps and metered billing might sound agreeable to some people now, but you have to consider it will halt online video in it's tracks, just like the cable companies want. I'm always reading about how formats like dvd and blu-ray are supposed to be ultimately doomed because everything will be streamed or downloaded online, Adobe is bringing flash to TVs, etc. How can any of this happen with bandwidth caps and tiered pricing? Especially HD video? Cable companies feed us the online video internet apocalypse baloney, but it's all about protecting their core TV business and maximizing their bottom line. Oh well. Refusing to change with the times went really well for the recording industry.........
Odd that it took this long for this to get posted. I first happened upon that propaganda over a month ago when I was looking at an eee pc ad on newegg that linked to it(which either makes it real or one of the biggest trolls ever). The hilarious part is if you were to add "XP" to every instance of "Windows" it would make a pretty convincing anti-vista ad. When I think it over though, I could care less about Asus ditching linux on netbooks, considering the version that came with the eee pc was lousy IMHO. I'm surprised they would risk pissing off the linux fans, though, considering they make up a pretty big chunk of their customer base.
When I first got into linux I swore I would never become another anti-M$ zealot, but I start to see why there are so many. The way they smear my choice of OS and pull strings to make sure I have a pain of a time using anything but their product is a real thorn in my side. I just hope that with decent distros like moblin and ubuntu netbook remix it will make big enough comeback to make asus smack their foreheads and say "DOH!".
Very true. I have an almost 40-year old Casio 'pocket' calculator that is part metal but mostly plastic sitting right here on my desk. Still works just fine. Even when it was dropped and the casing broke a couple years ago it was easy enough to snap back together. The thing is 3/4 of an inch thick and uses 2 AA batteries, but it has an LED display so it can be used in the dark. Lol.
I agree. The linux versions sold on the Eee pc and aspire one felt cheap and thrown together compared to the distros they were based on. Netbooks shipping with Moblin or Ubuntu Netbook Remix would have much more success against Windows 7. Especially since Microsoft practically gave away XP home as a knee-jerk reaction to the new linux threat.
I also think that most of the returns weren't just because they didn't have windows but because they were expecting a full-featured laptop that was small and cheap. It's all about how they market the devices. Users don't complain that their phone doesn't run windows.
At least a couple times a week I see a new article by some journalist rambling on about how linux will never take off and we will all pay homage to Microsoft for the rest of our lives, but just look at the efforts being put into linux by some of the biggest players. IBM, Intel, Dell, and HP just off the top of my head. It seems to me like they all very much want it to thrive.
And why wouldn't they? Their fates have been defined by Microsoft for two decades now. I can only imagine how enticing linux must seem to them. An OS they can mold into whatever they need it to be without having to pay licensing fees to anyone.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no anti-Microsoft zealot and I think windows is here to stay, but the mono-culture hit it's peak with XP. The biggest thing holding linux back from being a major contender is figuring out how to ween users off of windows, and Moblin is just the latest experiment on how it can be done. The next couple of years will be very interesting.
This is sounding an awful lot like what happened to the recording industry. Instead of changing with the times they are trying to fight the current, and it isn't going to accomplish anything except delaying our broadband future even more. Considering how long they have been screwing us over I really don't care how much of their profits go down the toilet over this.
This is not either/or. The cops did wrong, should be fired and subject to punishment for any laws they may have broken as well as civil lawsuits. The 4chan kiddies (or more likely, their mommies and daddies) should also be subject to civil suits. Just because the internet exists, doesn't give you the right to be a sick fuck. It also doesn't make being a sick fuck consequence free.
I agree. It's rather difficult to get over the death of your daughter when a bunch of feces-throwing monkeys on the internet think it's funny to send that crap. Why in the heck does anyone want to even see those pictures? And sending them to the family with captions taunting them? Are these people insane? Have they been watching anime porn for so long that it's messed them up in the head to the point that they have no sense of decency? It makes me want to puke.
I completely agree. The IT world has long needed some diversity. People like those who wrote conficker probably love microsoft and their de-facto standards to death.
The thing that bothers me is at least 90% of the time I see statistics on OS market share they only count the copies of linux that vendors ship with PCs. That is what puts it at the measly misleading 2%.
I'm sure a lot of you will argue about that being the only number that matters, but the number of actual copies of linux in use probably surpassed OS X a while ago, especially with the help of Ubuntu.
So why should microsoft worry about people putting ubuntu on a machine that shipped with windows anyway you ask? Well if they are liking ubuntu then they probably aren't going to pay for a PC with a windows license again are they? You have to look at this one step at a time like microsoft apparently is.
That is my 2 cents anyway. Feel free to trash it. Honestly I don't think it can possibly be just linux that microsoft is worried about. They have open source alternatives challenging them on just about all fronts. I only hope that other open source software is as successful as firefox, especially linux and open office.
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Definitely not disagreeing about multimedia issues on Linux, but I would be interested to hear more specifics on what problems you have. My biggest beef was finding a decent, user-friendly video converter. No such luck until the newest version of HandBrake. Up until that I still primarily used windows for video conversion. Thanks to it, though, Ubuntu is one step closer to converting me as far as multimedia goes. What I do like in Ubuntu is the ability to play any kind of video format in MPlayer and just have it work, whereas in windows there is always the off codec or container that in order to play I have to download some mickey mouse media player made specifically for that one purpose that reminds me to "go pro" and buy the registered version every 10 seconds. So what I'm saying is that Linux has to potential to be a multimedia powerhouse if they can get their act together. Unfortunately Linus doesn't seem to care much about that in particular.
Nothing to get too excited about, but Microsoft's actions speak much louder than the naysayers who yak on about how Linux on netbooks was a total flop. Indeed it didn't take long for XP to dominate, but how many people actually think Microsoft liked using it to get the job done when they were already trying to axe it in favor of Vista? Fact is they had no choice. They aren't stupid enough to just ignore what could grow into actual competition for them, no matter how insignificant it might seem. The question is which will be the bigger threat to their continued dominance, Linux or XP?
The department of homeland security should be all over that soon if they aren't too busy confiscating laptops at the airports......
FYI I was being satirical in case that wasn't already blatantly obvious.
In other news Nvidia executives praised windows vista as "the bestest OS ever!" and inconspicuously stuffed away protruding wads of cash in their pockets while a winking Steve Ballmer gave them a thumbs-up from the corner of the room.
MS is becoming quite the patent troll lately. I suppose it's a form of self-preservation. I mean, lets face it. Between Google and open source software they know their once-impregnable empire is going to be in trouble if they don't galvanize their defenses in any way they can. Personally I think they should focus on gaming. Oh wait, I forgot they are trying to patent the ever-loving crap out of that too.
Yeah, at the rate it's going Linux will become just like the metric system. The U.S. will be the only country not using it. Lol.
Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out Steve. Oh, and don't worry about the vacant buildings. We'll have them remodeled and populated with open source developers soon enough. Heck, maybe Google or Apple will buy them from you.
Bandwidth caps and metered billing might sound agreeable to some people now, but you have to consider it will halt online video in it's tracks, just like the cable companies want. I'm always reading about how formats like dvd and blu-ray are supposed to be ultimately doomed because everything will be streamed or downloaded online, Adobe is bringing flash to TVs, etc. How can any of this happen with bandwidth caps and tiered pricing? Especially HD video? Cable companies feed us the online video internet apocalypse baloney, but it's all about protecting their core TV business and maximizing their bottom line. Oh well. Refusing to change with the times went really well for the recording industry.........
Odd that it took this long for this to get posted. I first happened upon that propaganda over a month ago when I was looking at an eee pc ad on newegg that linked to it(which either makes it real or one of the biggest trolls ever). The hilarious part is if you were to add "XP" to every instance of "Windows" it would make a pretty convincing anti-vista ad. When I think it over though, I could care less about Asus ditching linux on netbooks, considering the version that came with the eee pc was lousy IMHO. I'm surprised they would risk pissing off the linux fans, though, considering they make up a pretty big chunk of their customer base. When I first got into linux I swore I would never become another anti-M$ zealot, but I start to see why there are so many. The way they smear my choice of OS and pull strings to make sure I have a pain of a time using anything but their product is a real thorn in my side. I just hope that with decent distros like moblin and ubuntu netbook remix it will make big enough comeback to make asus smack their foreheads and say "DOH!".
I suppose MS wants another monopolized industry to fall back on if Keith Curtis' theories turn out to be right.
Very true. I have an almost 40-year old Casio 'pocket' calculator that is part metal but mostly plastic sitting right here on my desk. Still works just fine. Even when it was dropped and the casing broke a couple years ago it was easy enough to snap back together. The thing is 3/4 of an inch thick and uses 2 AA batteries, but it has an LED display so it can be used in the dark. Lol.
I agree. The linux versions sold on the Eee pc and aspire one felt cheap and thrown together compared to the distros they were based on. Netbooks shipping with Moblin or Ubuntu Netbook Remix would have much more success against Windows 7. Especially since Microsoft practically gave away XP home as a knee-jerk reaction to the new linux threat. I also think that most of the returns weren't just because they didn't have windows but because they were expecting a full-featured laptop that was small and cheap. It's all about how they market the devices. Users don't complain that their phone doesn't run windows.
At least a couple times a week I see a new article by some journalist rambling on about how linux will never take off and we will all pay homage to Microsoft for the rest of our lives, but just look at the efforts being put into linux by some of the biggest players. IBM, Intel, Dell, and HP just off the top of my head. It seems to me like they all very much want it to thrive. And why wouldn't they? Their fates have been defined by Microsoft for two decades now. I can only imagine how enticing linux must seem to them. An OS they can mold into whatever they need it to be without having to pay licensing fees to anyone. Don't get me wrong, I'm no anti-Microsoft zealot and I think windows is here to stay, but the mono-culture hit it's peak with XP. The biggest thing holding linux back from being a major contender is figuring out how to ween users off of windows, and Moblin is just the latest experiment on how it can be done. The next couple of years will be very interesting.
This is sounding an awful lot like what happened to the recording industry. Instead of changing with the times they are trying to fight the current, and it isn't going to accomplish anything except delaying our broadband future even more. Considering how long they have been screwing us over I really don't care how much of their profits go down the toilet over this.
This is not either/or. The cops did wrong, should be fired and subject to punishment for any laws they may have broken as well as civil lawsuits. The 4chan kiddies (or more likely, their mommies and daddies) should also be subject to civil suits. Just because the internet exists, doesn't give you the right to be a sick fuck. It also doesn't make being a sick fuck consequence free.
I agree. It's rather difficult to get over the death of your daughter when a bunch of feces-throwing monkeys on the internet think it's funny to send that crap. Why in the heck does anyone want to even see those pictures? And sending them to the family with captions taunting them? Are these people insane? Have they been watching anime porn for so long that it's messed them up in the head to the point that they have no sense of decency? It makes me want to puke.
I completely agree. The IT world has long needed some diversity. People like those who wrote conficker probably love microsoft and their de-facto standards to death.
The thing that bothers me is at least 90% of the time I see statistics on OS market share they only count the copies of linux that vendors ship with PCs. That is what puts it at the measly misleading 2%. I'm sure a lot of you will argue about that being the only number that matters, but the number of actual copies of linux in use probably surpassed OS X a while ago, especially with the help of Ubuntu. So why should microsoft worry about people putting ubuntu on a machine that shipped with windows anyway you ask? Well if they are liking ubuntu then they probably aren't going to pay for a PC with a windows license again are they? You have to look at this one step at a time like microsoft apparently is. That is my 2 cents anyway. Feel free to trash it. Honestly I don't think it can possibly be just linux that microsoft is worried about. They have open source alternatives challenging them on just about all fronts. I only hope that other open source software is as successful as firefox, especially linux and open office.