Not true, to a given definition of "userland". The Android kernel is installed, as is the full Android userland (UI, Dalvik, Google Play, you name it). When you plug it into a docking station, the Android userland goes away and the Ubuntu userland (Unity, GTK+, Nautilus, etc.) appear. The kernel is the only shared resource.
The same thing will happen as when you install Ubuntu Desktop on a machine with Windows 7- your Windows programmes will disappear. They are different operating systems- Android apps will almost certainly not run on it, and even if they did it would be very unlikely that you'd be able to simply install Google Play and go. As on a desktop, dual booting may be an option.
It is possible to run Linux (I've seen it done with Debian, but the principal should be universal) on Android in a chroot, using VNC to display the desktop environment. I see no reason you couldn't do this with the potential Ubuntu Tablet edition if you wanted, although obviously that's more technical effort. Google "Debian chroot" if you're interested.
What does that have to do with Linux? Simple your drivers are deep fried shit (thus showing that yes you DO need a stable ABI, if you didn't then your drivers wouldn't be getting crapped on so damned often) and your updates remind of Win9X in that they break more than they fix. Don't believe me? Step right up and take the Hairyfeet Challenge!
...
You take ANY user friendly distro, PCLOS, any of the *Buntus that has what a Linux users considers to be a normal release schedule which seems to be anywhere from 6 months to a year and a half, take the one from 5 years ago (because as a retailer I can tell you the typical lifespan of a PC now is 5 years) and update it to current using ONLY the GUI, just as the customer who has bought Linux for the first time would be expected to do.
What a load of nonsense. I stopped reading after these bits.
Drivers on Linux have been fine for years. The Nvidia binary graphics driver works better on my desktop's Ubuntu dual boot than it does on the Windows 7 one, and was selected by default when I installed it. I haven't had a wireless or sound issue since about 2008; they always work fine out of the box. Plug and play plugs-and-plays exactly as you'd expect.
Ubuntu releases regular as clockwork- 6 months for their "bleeding edge" release, 2 years for their stable release. It is trivial to update to the latest version with GUI only; open Update Manager (it pops up on it's own every time there's an update, otherwise it's right there in the menu), in the banner that says "New Version Available" click "upgrade now" or whatever the button is, let it do it's thing.
Linux has plenty of issues that prevent it breaking through into the mainstream, but you clearly don't know what you're talking about. Mostly they're to do with software compatibility; Linux netbooks were killed off by the number of people taking them back saying "it won't run Microsoft Office or The Sims, it's rubbish!", and the lack of native versions of certain industry standard software (Photoshop, AutoCAD, etc.) keeps it out of many offices.
But Linux is a zealous camp and insists on infecting people:( And now even Linux is stealing back clean-roomed BSD code that the BSD projects clean-roomed from GPL tools specifically to get away from GPL versions of same. How funny is that:)
Yeah, I hate it when people release code under the license they want, and then someone comes along and takes it off them, and releases the code under a completely different license! Really rude. If only there were a license that the BSD project could use which would prevent such terrible behaviour...
Or to put it another way (with less snark)- if they don't like people changing the license their code is under, they shouldn't be releasing it under a BSD license. That's basically the point of that license...
The image for Nexus 4 is a developer release- something for their army of coders to use to write applications and so forth. It is not necessarily representative of their "for the market" offerings, which they claim will all be purpose made, with Ubuntu pre-installed, in the normal fashion for phones.
Nexus 4 is higher spec than their claimed "low spec" requirements, if I recall correctly, but is not as powerful as their "high spec superphone" requirements, which seems to be aimed at hardware which isn't likely to exist until at least next year.
Do 30% of desktop users even buy Office? I can't remember the last time I saw a home computer with it on, instead of Open/Libre Office or whatever kludge comes preinstalled with an OEM Windows install. I'd guess that the number of desktops and laptops with Office installed is roughly identical to the number of machines used for business purposes, plus the number of people who are easily talked around by the salesman with a special offer in Currys.
It is a largely voluntary project. If you want your commercial application to work on Linux (presumably so you can sell it to new markets), that's your responsibility. You can either code it yourself, using the freely available body of WINE code as a base, or you can pay some specialist developers to do it for you. What WINE provides for you is free (in both senses) foundation and method for porting to Linux, as opposed to needing to start from scratch.
What WINE does not promise, as a project, is to do your development for you for free.
1) Logging is switched off in consumer vehicles- it is for testing only. Tesla switch it on for journalists after they were burned by a falsified Top Gear skit implying the car broke down when it didn't.
2) Basic user behaviour is that you pay attention to what the car tells you. The journalist stopped charging the car before it was fully charged for no reason. The car said it had 32 miles of range, and there were 60 miles left in the journey. He drove on past multiple charging stations, even when the car was giving him warnings. The car exceeded it's predicted range by 20 miles. He also drove the car around a car park in circles for a while hoping to run the battery down further.
This is nothing to do with "real world conditions". If I drive a petrol car around with no petrol in it, refusing to stop at petrol stations, and the car breaks down- that's not the car's fault.
Yeah, I hate how people from all over the world think that the capital of the United States is a more relevant use for the word "Washington" than one of the 50 states which shares its name! Those people suck!
Did you click on the two links I posted? They are per-citizen rather than per-household, but the principal should hold: - USA spent $11,041 per citizen in 2010. - The G20 average for 2010 was $16,110 per citizen. - Norway spent the most per citizen, at $40,908. - Of the G20, the countries which spent less per citizen than the US were South Korea ($4,557), Brazil ($2,813), Russia ($2,458), China ($1,010), and India ($226), several of which still experience crushing poverty.
So, to answer your question, yes- I can name many countries which spend more per household than the US.
No, Android is Linux. Not a subset- it runs on a full unadulterated Linux kernel. Get root access and install BusyBox and knock yourself out doing everything you ever wanted with Linux (CyanogenMod accommodates both of these things, and is undoubtedly the Android distro the OP would be using if they were installing Android on a Surface).
It is not GNU/Linux, however. I know we mocked RMS for many a decade about the GNU/Linux thing, but Android has actually made it relevant. Android is basically Java/Linux, to Ubuntu/etc.'s GNU/Linux.
But again, if the question is "find me a Linux-based OS for a touchscreen device", ignoring the market-leading touchscreen OS which is built on Linux would be a bit of a glaring omission.
The only countries which spend notably less are poverty states and failed states. If you (and Ron Paul) think the US would be better off with the tax/spend model used by Somalia, Burma and Turkmenistan rather than the model used by China, Norway and the United Kingdom, then you're going to need some fairly weighty facts to back it up.
Android is Linux. It may or may not be the Linux that you want or need, but if the proposition is "find me a Linux build designed for touch devices", then that would be Android. If the proposition was "find me a Linux build suitable for running a mail server", then Android would be a poor choice; but are you planning of using your Surface Pro as a mail server?
Secondly, the KDE Plasma Active GUI is designed for touch interfaces, and can be installed on any standard GNU/Linux distro. There's an Ubuntu flavour (Kubuntu Active) which comes with it preinstalled and ready to go.
As an answer to the question "Where can I buy a laptop which doesn't have Windows 8?", "Just buy one with Windows 8" is somewhat less than helpful...
Although seeing as we're on the subject, it does tickle me how many Microsoft fans are saying "it's no big deal, you can tweak Windows 8 and install one of dozens of 3rd party add ons to make it work like you want it to!" after years of saying "Linux is crap- who wants to spend time tweaking it and installing software to make it work how you want it to?". Not that Windows fans are a homogeneous group or anything like that, but it's still pleasingly ironic.
Make sure you pick a Windows laptop from that list, and you're guaranteed that it will work with Ubuntu (which, admittedly, is not a guarantee that it'll work with Debian, but it should be near as damnit considering the shared resources). No horrible WiFi driver nightmares for you.
Strange behaviour, really, considering they presumably don't want to exclude any customer who wants to give them their business.
My company has a big web portal, and we have a "supported systems" section which lists the various popular web browsers and, yes, OSs- no Linux on our supported OS list. But that doesn't mean we don't want your business- indeed, there's a footnote that says "your system will almost certainly work, but no guarantees". The only reason we have the section at all is because we need to guarantee our web portal will work for customers in order to sell it, and we need to provide phone support if it doesn't- and, well, you have to draw the line somewhere for full system testing and training for the support staff.
I have no programme icons on my desktop. That is not what my desktop is for. I use my desktop as a sort of interactive clipboard- it's where I put files when I'm reorganizing things, or files that I've just downloaded, or things that I've extracted from ZIP folders- all of which get deleted or moved when I'm done with them.
On Windows 7, all of my programmes are started from the Start menu using keyword search (with the exception of the 3 or 4 programmes that I keep pinned to the taskbar- essentially just Firefox, Thunderbird and the File Manager. My Ubuntu set up is essentially exactly the same.
Making the Start menu and keyword search facility big and obstructive and ugly is a sureire way of ruining my computing experience. That's the one part of the GUI that I really want my OS vendors to focus on improving. The actual windowing desktop functionality I just want them to leave the hell alone...
No, it really is as-in "foe". It's French for "false". The link you posted had the IPA notation at the top, if you know how to read that. Otherwise, Google for "how to pronounce faux" if you want a second opinion.
I'm not trying to defend the "invention", but this is an area of science I've never really thought about before so I have questions!
My understanding of this "invention" is that it is not a closed system. It is sucking in energy from outside of its system (lets say, in the form of solar PV cells for simplicity), and using this energy to squirt energetic photons out the other end in the form of microwaves (in very simplistic terms). The fact that the apparatus experiences thrust wouldn't violate conservation of momentum, if you take into account the interactions with the photons (received in and squirted out). I should also mention energy/mass equivalency, although I can't think exactly how that would apply.
I'm guess I'm wrong (almost certain of it); can you help me understand why?
These kinds of decisions are obviously going to piss off customers. But Microsoft clearly feels they are untouchable.
This will be the year of the "upset" IMHO. Ouya and Steam look set to overthrow the aging behemoths. I look forward to healthy competition.
Presumably the Steam Box will have similar traits as this- Steam does not allow the resale, lending or sharing of games, and some of the games sold through Steam are "always connected" games.
Indeed, you could say that Microsoft are looking at Steam's model and deciding to mimic it.
Slashdot Mirror
Not true, to a given definition of "userland". The Android kernel is installed, as is the full Android userland (UI, Dalvik, Google Play, you name it). When you plug it into a docking station, the Android userland goes away and the Ubuntu userland (Unity, GTK+, Nautilus, etc.) appear. The kernel is the only shared resource.
The same thing will happen as when you install Ubuntu Desktop on a machine with Windows 7- your Windows programmes will disappear. They are different operating systems- Android apps will almost certainly not run on it, and even if they did it would be very unlikely that you'd be able to simply install Google Play and go. As on a desktop, dual booting may be an option.
It is possible to run Linux (I've seen it done with Debian, but the principal should be universal) on Android in a chroot, using VNC to display the desktop environment. I see no reason you couldn't do this with the potential Ubuntu Tablet edition if you wanted, although obviously that's more technical effort. Google "Debian chroot" if you're interested.
What does that have to do with Linux? Simple your drivers are deep fried shit (thus showing that yes you DO need a stable ABI, if you didn't then your drivers wouldn't be getting crapped on so damned often) and your updates remind of Win9X in that they break more than they fix. Don't believe me? Step right up and take the Hairyfeet Challenge!
You take ANY user friendly distro, PCLOS, any of the *Buntus that has what a Linux users considers to be a normal release schedule which seems to be anywhere from 6 months to a year and a half, take the one from 5 years ago (because as a retailer I can tell you the typical lifespan of a PC now is 5 years) and update it to current using ONLY the GUI, just as the customer who has bought Linux for the first time would be expected to do.
What a load of nonsense. I stopped reading after these bits.
Drivers on Linux have been fine for years. The Nvidia binary graphics driver works better on my desktop's Ubuntu dual boot than it does on the Windows 7 one, and was selected by default when I installed it. I haven't had a wireless or sound issue since about 2008; they always work fine out of the box. Plug and play plugs-and-plays exactly as you'd expect.
Ubuntu releases regular as clockwork- 6 months for their "bleeding edge" release, 2 years for their stable release. It is trivial to update to the latest version with GUI only; open Update Manager (it pops up on it's own every time there's an update, otherwise it's right there in the menu), in the banner that says "New Version Available" click "upgrade now" or whatever the button is, let it do it's thing.
Linux has plenty of issues that prevent it breaking through into the mainstream, but you clearly don't know what you're talking about. Mostly they're to do with software compatibility; Linux netbooks were killed off by the number of people taking them back saying "it won't run Microsoft Office or The Sims, it's rubbish!", and the lack of native versions of certain industry standard software (Photoshop, AutoCAD, etc.) keeps it out of many offices.
By 2015, I'm hoping to have my Cloud 2.0 business off the ground.
It'll be much like now, only with more Flash.
I'm a Leninist, you insensitive clod!
But Linux is a zealous camp and insists on infecting people :( And now even Linux is stealing back clean-roomed BSD code that the BSD projects clean-roomed from GPL tools specifically to get away from GPL versions of same. How funny is that :)
Yeah, I hate it when people release code under the license they want, and then someone comes along and takes it off them, and releases the code under a completely different license! Really rude. If only there were a license that the BSD project could use which would prevent such terrible behaviour...
Or to put it another way (with less snark)- if they don't like people changing the license their code is under, they shouldn't be releasing it under a BSD license. That's basically the point of that license...
The image for Nexus 4 is a developer release- something for their army of coders to use to write applications and so forth. It is not necessarily representative of their "for the market" offerings, which they claim will all be purpose made, with Ubuntu pre-installed, in the normal fashion for phones.
Nexus 4 is higher spec than their claimed "low spec" requirements, if I recall correctly, but is not as powerful as their "high spec superphone" requirements, which seems to be aimed at hardware which isn't likely to exist until at least next year.
Do 30% of desktop users even buy Office? I can't remember the last time I saw a home computer with it on, instead of Open/Libre Office or whatever kludge comes preinstalled with an OEM Windows install. I'd guess that the number of desktops and laptops with Office installed is roughly identical to the number of machines used for business purposes, plus the number of people who are easily talked around by the salesman with a special offer in Currys.
It is a largely voluntary project. If you want your commercial application to work on Linux (presumably so you can sell it to new markets), that's your responsibility. You can either code it yourself, using the freely available body of WINE code as a base, or you can pay some specialist developers to do it for you. What WINE provides for you is free (in both senses) foundation and method for porting to Linux, as opposed to needing to start from scratch.
What WINE does not promise, as a project, is to do your development for you for free.
1) Logging is switched off in consumer vehicles- it is for testing only. Tesla switch it on for journalists after they were burned by a falsified Top Gear skit implying the car broke down when it didn't.
2) Basic user behaviour is that you pay attention to what the car tells you. The journalist stopped charging the car before it was fully charged for no reason. The car said it had 32 miles of range, and there were 60 miles left in the journey. He drove on past multiple charging stations, even when the car was giving him warnings. The car exceeded it's predicted range by 20 miles. He also drove the car around a car park in circles for a while hoping to run the battery down further.
This is nothing to do with "real world conditions". If I drive a petrol car around with no petrol in it, refusing to stop at petrol stations, and the car breaks down- that's not the car's fault.
Yeah, I hate how people from all over the world think that the capital of the United States is a more relevant use for the word "Washington" than one of the 50 states which shares its name! Those people suck!
Did you click on the two links I posted? They are per-citizen rather than per-household, but the principal should hold:
- USA spent $11,041 per citizen in 2010.
- The G20 average for 2010 was $16,110 per citizen.
- Norway spent the most per citizen, at $40,908.
- Of the G20, the countries which spent less per citizen than the US were South Korea ($4,557), Brazil ($2,813), Russia ($2,458), China ($1,010), and India ($226), several of which still experience crushing poverty.
So, to answer your question, yes- I can name many countries which spend more per household than the US.
No, Android is Linux. Not a subset- it runs on a full unadulterated Linux kernel. Get root access and install BusyBox and knock yourself out doing everything you ever wanted with Linux (CyanogenMod accommodates both of these things, and is undoubtedly the Android distro the OP would be using if they were installing Android on a Surface).
It is not GNU/Linux, however. I know we mocked RMS for many a decade about the GNU/Linux thing, but Android has actually made it relevant. Android is basically Java/Linux, to Ubuntu/etc.'s GNU/Linux.
But again, if the question is "find me a Linux-based OS for a touchscreen device", ignoring the market-leading touchscreen OS which is built on Linux would be a bit of a glaring omission.
Is that worse than ignoring the cost and focusing only on the measurable good of government programs?
You pay for what you get, and you get what you pay for. The US does not spend more per household than other major economies. As a factor of GDP, it spends particularly little. If you exclude military spending (the US spends as much on the military as the next 10 countries combined), it looks even rosier.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/2010_National_Spending_of_the_USA_compared_to_G20.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending#As_a_percentage_of_GDP
The only countries which spend notably less are poverty states and failed states. If you (and Ron Paul) think the US would be better off with the tax/spend model used by Somalia, Burma and Turkmenistan rather than the model used by China, Norway and the United Kingdom, then you're going to need some fairly weighty facts to back it up.
Are you sure you're on the right website?
Android is Linux. It may or may not be the Linux that you want or need, but if the proposition is "find me a Linux build designed for touch devices", then that would be Android. If the proposition was "find me a Linux build suitable for running a mail server", then Android would be a poor choice; but are you planning of using your Surface Pro as a mail server?
Secondly, the KDE Plasma Active GUI is designed for touch interfaces, and can be installed on any standard GNU/Linux distro. There's an Ubuntu flavour (Kubuntu Active) which comes with it preinstalled and ready to go.
I think just standard Ubuntu. But the others are just a fully supported apt-get install kubuntu-desktop away.
I see you're channelling the disembodied spirit of Steve Jobs there.
"The device is the most perfect and intuitive design the world has ever seen. It's just that the users are using it wrong."
Not that it ever did Apple much harm...
As an answer to the question "Where can I buy a laptop which doesn't have Windows 8?", "Just buy one with Windows 8" is somewhat less than helpful...
Although seeing as we're on the subject, it does tickle me how many Microsoft fans are saying "it's no big deal, you can tweak Windows 8 and install one of dozens of 3rd party add ons to make it work like you want it to!" after years of saying "Linux is crap- who wants to spend time tweaking it and installing software to make it work how you want it to?". Not that Windows fans are a homogeneous group or anything like that, but it's still pleasingly ironic.
To make life even easier, there's also:
http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/
Make sure you pick a Windows laptop from that list, and you're guaranteed that it will work with Ubuntu (which, admittedly, is not a guarantee that it'll work with Debian, but it should be near as damnit considering the shared resources). No horrible WiFi driver nightmares for you.
Strange behaviour, really, considering they presumably don't want to exclude any customer who wants to give them their business.
My company has a big web portal, and we have a "supported systems" section which lists the various popular web browsers and, yes, OSs- no Linux on our supported OS list. But that doesn't mean we don't want your business- indeed, there's a footnote that says "your system will almost certainly work, but no guarantees". The only reason we have the section at all is because we need to guarantee our web portal will work for customers in order to sell it, and we need to provide phone support if it doesn't- and, well, you have to draw the line somewhere for full system testing and training for the support staff.
I have no programme icons on my desktop. That is not what my desktop is for. I use my desktop as a sort of interactive clipboard- it's where I put files when I'm reorganizing things, or files that I've just downloaded, or things that I've extracted from ZIP folders- all of which get deleted or moved when I'm done with them.
On Windows 7, all of my programmes are started from the Start menu using keyword search (with the exception of the 3 or 4 programmes that I keep pinned to the taskbar- essentially just Firefox, Thunderbird and the File Manager. My Ubuntu set up is essentially exactly the same.
Making the Start menu and keyword search facility big and obstructive and ugly is a sureire way of ruining my computing experience. That's the one part of the GUI that I really want my OS vendors to focus on improving. The actual windowing desktop functionality I just want them to leave the hell alone...
No, it really is as-in "foe". It's French for "false". The link you posted had the IPA notation at the top, if you know how to read that. Otherwise, Google for "how to pronounce faux" if you want a second opinion.
I'm not trying to defend the "invention", but this is an area of science I've never really thought about before so I have questions!
My understanding of this "invention" is that it is not a closed system. It is sucking in energy from outside of its system (lets say, in the form of solar PV cells for simplicity), and using this energy to squirt energetic photons out the other end in the form of microwaves (in very simplistic terms). The fact that the apparatus experiences thrust wouldn't violate conservation of momentum, if you take into account the interactions with the photons (received in and squirted out). I should also mention energy/mass equivalency, although I can't think exactly how that would apply.
I'm guess I'm wrong (almost certain of it); can you help me understand why?
These kinds of decisions are obviously going to piss off customers. But Microsoft clearly feels they are untouchable.
This will be the year of the "upset" IMHO. Ouya and Steam look set to overthrow the aging behemoths. I look forward to healthy competition.
Presumably the Steam Box will have similar traits as this- Steam does not allow the resale, lending or sharing of games, and some of the games sold through Steam are "always connected" games.
Indeed, you could say that Microsoft are looking at Steam's model and deciding to mimic it.