Are they really still selling it? In what form? Last I heard, they were supposed to stop handing licenses to OEMs and quit restocking shelves or something.
I find it difficult to believe that MS would release this solution in any state that is less functional than what currently exists under Vista.
Oh really? I don't. Remember, this is Microsoft we're talking about here. Remember the disaster that appeared to be a backwards-compatibility feature for MS Office 2007 that should have let the user take stuff between MSOffce07 and MSOffice03?
If they can make people buy software that doesn't work, that's just fine. But they're not gonna see the increased sales needed to make up for Vista until they release some nice, quality software again. If they blow it with Win7, it's gonna be a major blow, but it could very well happen that in the time between the godsend of a beta and the release, Microsoft manages to break too much.
Ubuntu 8.04 looked pretty sweet, and seemed to be a good way to get away from Microsoft Windows. I spent months Googling how to partition a hard disk and dual-boot a computer. It worked very well; never had any major problems. Sometimes GRUB would break or something, but that was always easily fixed, and it probably always will be.:) After extensive Googling and talking with my Uncle (who knows a bunch about Linux), I finally installed on...I think the date was 3 January 2009. And it was beautiful. I'd been playing with Live CDs, but installing to my hard disk was such a great feeling.:D
Last night, I wiped my whole hard disk and let it install Jaunty using the default option. I have a 1.66 GHz dual core CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and 36 seconds from power button to login screen. I don't know if it's Jaunty's optimizations, the swap space that I've never used before, or the fact that it's sitting closer to the edge of the hard disk, but this is beautiful.
Makes me wonder why Microsoft doesn't do a feature freeze and focus solely on optimization, stability, and security for a version or two of Windows.
P.S.: I have learned a hell of a lot more about computers in the past three and a half months outside the classroom than I have in it. Linux is like a mini CS course, I think.
How newbie do you have to be to screw up a dual-boot?
Anyone with half a brain will do extensive Googling to make sure they know exactly how to do it. Anyone with two halves of a brain will back up their data, no matter how much Googling they've done. And anyone with three halves of a brain will get it right on the first try, anyway, since they read and understood enough documentation.
And once you get it right (or even close to right), future installations become a lot less stressful, because the worry of overwriting Windows isn't nearly as high.
That's the problem, actually. There are those who believe that piracy reduces profits. Ignoring piracy therefore equates to ignoring lost profits, which equates to not living up to what may still be known as the "American Dream".
The crowing on about Macs really makes me think of a home analogy: The Mac types have decided security comes from living in a gated community away from the "rabble". They pay to live in their special enclave, and figure the exclusivity keeps them safe. Over all, it does, they are a smaller target. However they are lax on their security because of this, they leave doors unlocked, valuable laying around and so on. However the security is all in appearances, it isn't real. Finally, someone decides to hit the community, and simply goes off road and bypasses the gate guard. They then have free run, because of the laxness of the users.
By the same analogy, Linux users moved some place where there was no town or civilized society of any sort, built their own community brick by brick, and the place isn't even on the map. But, they still aren't boneheaded enough to leave their doors unlocked. Linux users lock their doors using locks that they created, made their own latching systems to actually open the doors when unlocked, and know what their houses looked like when they left, so they can identify anything out-of-place when they return. Not only is it small, like the Mac community, but the people living there designed their own security into their customizable systems. The reward-to-effort ratio is just not high enough to justify even trying to get at the valuables inside, which may or may not be valuable to wherever the burglar came from in the first place.
In the future, please refrain from implicitly (or, for that matter, explicitly) equating communists with terrorists and/or enemies. They are nowhere close to being the same group of people.
The most common symptom was children skipping household chores to play games.
That is not a symptom of any kind of addiction. That is a symptom of chores sucking, as they have throughout history.
If children went out and played baseball instead of doing chores, it'd clearly be a symptom of children being addicted to baseball or outdoor activity, right?
Do they have a control group full of kids who willingly do their chores without being told? I'd be surprised if they found even one kid who enjoyed chores, much less a whole control group of 'em.
Yeah, way to go - pick the crappiest franchise on there and act like that's the sum total of what Hulu is.
Or, you could try just laughing at my post like you were supposed to. And maybe consider that I actually like the 2008 Knight Rider, though I do very much want to see the 1980s version.
I was hoping it was rather obvious from my post that I was being extremely facetious. What would you suggest I do in the future to make such things as facetiousness more obvious?
Reboot some XP user's computer with a live CD of Kubuntu 8.04.x. See if they can find their ways around.
I did this at school as an April Fools' joke. The only thing people noticed was that there was no flash player. Some people caught onto the fact that it was Linux. They all had no problem.
General users don't have an incentive to learn another OS, especially when Windows comes pre-installed by default.
Until they get a Conficker infection on their laptop while at school, and the quickest and easiest solution is you standing there with a live CD*, ready to wipe and reformat a hard disk at a moment's notice. Functional computer, minus one worm. Show them where to browse the Internet, where the IM client is, where the word processor is, and where the media player is, and they're pretty much good to go. If they need anything else, just have them ask you.
*I have no idea why I still carry my Live USBs. I think it just never crosses my mind to take them out of my backpack.
and gave them a tour of all the stuff Linux could do right "out of the box" and without costing a single cent, all of the educational programs and games, etc, they were floored.
They had a chance to explore yesterday and said they liked it so much better than Windows it wasn't funny. They regret not having switched before.
I've got a friend that I did a similar thing for. We later ended up using a Kubuntu live USB to rid his laptop of a Conficker infection and keep his computer functional. He has been loving his Linux laptop for about...*thinks*...a week and a half now. And I don't think he's switching back.
It's amazing what one little demonstration of everyday use can do. I'd like to see Windows do all the same stuff out of the box that today's popular Linux distros can. Bonus points if you don't break Windows Explorer during the demonstration!;)
With MS Office, there is an incompatibility risk in merely updating to the latest version.
Yep. My second-least* favorite feature in MS Office 2007 - some kind of "backwards compatibility" that is entirely, 100% useless. What good is a document saved as the previous format if I can't even edit it in the previous version of the application?
I seriously want to know who's bright idea that was and why they were not fired on the spot for suggesting it.
*My least favorite feature is the ribbons. Worst. GUI. Ever.
And record profits are bad when they're unreasonably high... Noone should make millions from doing a small amount of work, payment should be proportional to the level of effort required to do the work and should cease when someone stops working. In most other industries this is already the case.
Payment proportional to effort? Are you serious? So, say some musical artist is some kind of natural. He takes a couple days, writes out a song, practices for maybe three more days, and has it perfect. Ends up being absolutely beautiful. It's nothing to this guy. And then some other musical artist doesn't get an inspiration for a couple of weeks. He takes ten days to write out the final version of the song. He practices for a month before he can do it perfectly. There's some portion of the population that it just doesn't appeal to.
Seems clear that the first artist put less effort into making his work, and the second artist, who's quality of work isn't quite as high, has put in a lot more effort. So, who gets paid more? Would you really call the lower-quality work deserving of higher reward?
I would love to know what "higher values" are served by closing this trial like this, other than avoiding the irony of an RIAA incident getting spread across the Internet like a frickin' virus.
It seems like the precedent described in the link above is very clear on when you do and do not have a right to a pubic trial. This example of closure posted on/. seems to overstep these limits, I think.
A defendant under US law has a right to a public trial...except for when he suddenly doesn't!
Slashdot Mirror
Are they really still selling it? In what form? Last I heard, they were supposed to stop handing licenses to OEMs and quit restocking shelves or something.
Or is it still being sold in Netbook form?
If you tried, I bet you could probably integrate that into the bittorrent client somehow.
What use is an internet built entirely of clients?
Sharing pirated music, pirated Windows, Linux distros, and porn over Bittorrent?
That's the first use that comes to my mind.
I find it difficult to believe that MS would release this solution in any state that is less functional than what currently exists under Vista.
Oh really? I don't. Remember, this is Microsoft we're talking about here. Remember the disaster that appeared to be a backwards-compatibility feature for MS Office 2007 that should have let the user take stuff between MSOffce07 and MSOffice03?
If they can make people buy software that doesn't work, that's just fine. But they're not gonna see the increased sales needed to make up for Vista until they release some nice, quality software again. If they blow it with Win7, it's gonna be a major blow, but it could very well happen that in the time between the godsend of a beta and the release, Microsoft manages to break too much.
Ubuntu 8.04 looked pretty sweet, and seemed to be a good way to get away from Microsoft Windows. I spent months Googling how to partition a hard disk and dual-boot a computer. It worked very well; never had any major problems. Sometimes GRUB would break or something, but that was always easily fixed, and it probably always will be. :) After extensive Googling and talking with my Uncle (who knows a bunch about Linux), I finally installed on...I think the date was 3 January 2009. And it was beautiful. I'd been playing with Live CDs, but installing to my hard disk was such a great feeling. :D
Last night, I wiped my whole hard disk and let it install Jaunty using the default option. I have a 1.66 GHz dual core CPU, 2 GB of RAM, and 36 seconds from power button to login screen. I don't know if it's Jaunty's optimizations, the swap space that I've never used before, or the fact that it's sitting closer to the edge of the hard disk, but this is beautiful.
Makes me wonder why Microsoft doesn't do a feature freeze and focus solely on optimization, stability, and security for a version or two of Windows.
P.S.: I have learned a hell of a lot more about computers in the past three and a half months outside the classroom than I have in it. Linux is like a mini CS course, I think.
[Windows is] the universal corporate standard for a reason.
Because Microsoft has the world's best marketing department, a monopoly on the desktop OS market, and a userbase that refuses to think critically?
How newbie do you have to be to screw up a dual-boot?
Anyone with half a brain will do extensive Googling to make sure they know exactly how to do it. Anyone with two halves of a brain will back up their data, no matter how much Googling they've done. And anyone with three halves of a brain will get it right on the first try, anyway, since they read and understood enough documentation.
And once you get it right (or even close to right), future installations become a lot less stressful, because the worry of overwriting Windows isn't nearly as high.
That's the problem, actually. There are those who believe that piracy reduces profits. Ignoring piracy therefore equates to ignoring lost profits, which equates to not living up to what may still be known as the "American Dream".
I hope these penguins don't start hassling me about Linux.
They're penguins. It is in their nature to hassle you about Linux.
Heck, they're computerized penguins! There is no escape! >:D
Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. :)
Note to self: If it isn't serious, don't question the seriousness of either side.
Only 1.9 million PCs? Boooo-ring! Wake me up when it gets as big as Conficker.
The crowing on about Macs really makes me think of a home analogy: The Mac types have decided security comes from living in a gated community away from the "rabble". They pay to live in their special enclave, and figure the exclusivity keeps them safe. Over all, it does, they are a smaller target. However they are lax on their security because of this, they leave doors unlocked, valuable laying around and so on. However the security is all in appearances, it isn't real. Finally, someone decides to hit the community, and simply goes off road and bypasses the gate guard. They then have free run, because of the laxness of the users.
By the same analogy, Linux users moved some place where there was no town or civilized society of any sort, built their own community brick by brick, and the place isn't even on the map. But, they still aren't boneheaded enough to leave their doors unlocked. Linux users lock their doors using locks that they created, made their own latching systems to actually open the doors when unlocked, and know what their houses looked like when they left, so they can identify anything out-of-place when they return. Not only is it small, like the Mac community, but the people living there designed their own security into their customizable systems. The reward-to-effort ratio is just not high enough to justify even trying to get at the valuables inside, which may or may not be valuable to wherever the burglar came from in the first place.
Am I right?
In the future, please refrain from implicitly (or, for that matter, explicitly) equating communists with terrorists and/or enemies. They are nowhere close to being the same group of people.
Thank you.
The most common symptom was children skipping household chores to play games.
That is not a symptom of any kind of addiction. That is a symptom of chores sucking, as they have throughout history.
If children went out and played baseball instead of doing chores, it'd clearly be a symptom of children being addicted to baseball or outdoor activity, right?
Do they have a control group full of kids who willingly do their chores without being told? I'd be surprised if they found even one kid who enjoyed chores, much less a whole control group of 'em.
You are not alone. I, too, am quite impressed by the efforts of the programmers.
Yeah, way to go - pick the crappiest franchise on there and act like that's the sum total of what Hulu is.
Or, you could try just laughing at my post like you were supposed to. And maybe consider that I actually like the 2008 Knight Rider, though I do very much want to see the 1980s version.
I was hoping it was rather obvious from my post that I was being extremely facetious. What would you suggest I do in the future to make such things as facetiousness more obvious?
The only thing holding Linux back is familiarity.
Reboot some XP user's computer with a live CD of Kubuntu 8.04.x. See if they can find their ways around.
I did this at school as an April Fools' joke. The only thing people noticed was that there was no flash player. Some people caught onto the fact that it was Linux. They all had no problem.
General users don't have an incentive to learn another OS, especially when Windows comes pre-installed by default.
Until they get a Conficker infection on their laptop while at school, and the quickest and easiest solution is you standing there with a live CD*, ready to wipe and reformat a hard disk at a moment's notice. Functional computer, minus one worm. Show them where to browse the Internet, where the IM client is, where the word processor is, and where the media player is, and they're pretty much good to go. If they need anything else, just have them ask you.
*I have no idea why I still carry my Live USBs. I think it just never crosses my mind to take them out of my backpack.
and gave them a tour of all the stuff Linux could do right "out of the box" and without costing a single cent, all of the educational programs and games, etc, they were floored.
They had a chance to explore yesterday and said they liked it so much better than Windows it wasn't funny. They regret not having switched before.
I've got a friend that I did a similar thing for. We later ended up using a Kubuntu live USB to rid his laptop of a Conficker infection and keep his computer functional. He has been loving his Linux laptop for about...*thinks*...a week and a half now. And I don't think he's switching back.
It's amazing what one little demonstration of everyday use can do. I'd like to see Windows do all the same stuff out of the box that today's popular Linux distros can. Bonus points if you don't break Windows Explorer during the demonstration! ;)
Switching from WinXP to Win7 would constitute a jump in familiarity for them as big as switching from WinXP to Linux.
Do you assume here that the hypothetical Linux distro has KDE, or does this go for any Linux GUI?
Sorry, Microsoft gives the illusion of support, not actual support.
Just like they give you the illusion that you bought their software. You really just bought a license to use it. :D
No end-user has ever bought a piece of Microsoftware before. It's all licenses and EULAs and crap.
With MS Office, there is an incompatibility risk in merely updating to the latest version.
Yep. My second-least* favorite feature in MS Office 2007 - some kind of "backwards compatibility" that is entirely, 100% useless. What good is a document saved as the previous format if I can't even edit it in the previous version of the application?
I seriously want to know who's bright idea that was and why they were not fired on the spot for suggesting it.
*My least favorite feature is the ribbons. Worst. GUI. Ever.
With the ability to run Hulu, YouTube and others, the question of dropping your cable becomes a little bit more reasonable."
Really? Hulu? Are you serious?
You mean I can watch Knight Rider...WHENEVER I WANT???
Awesome! I'm sold on this now!
And record profits are bad when they're unreasonably high... Noone should make millions from doing a small amount of work, payment should be proportional to the level of effort required to do the work and should cease when someone stops working. In most other industries this is already the case.
Payment proportional to effort? Are you serious? So, say some musical artist is some kind of natural. He takes a couple days, writes out a song, practices for maybe three more days, and has it perfect. Ends up being absolutely beautiful. It's nothing to this guy. And then some other musical artist doesn't get an inspiration for a couple of weeks. He takes ten days to write out the final version of the song. He practices for a month before he can do it perfectly. There's some portion of the population that it just doesn't appeal to.
Seems clear that the first artist put less effort into making his work, and the second artist, who's quality of work isn't quite as high, has put in a lot more effort. So, who gets paid more? Would you really call the lower-quality work deserving of higher reward?
I'd like to see you justify that.
lol nice find! I'm usually pretty good about typos. >_
I guess it's not surprising that that one slipped through.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Public_trial
I would love to know what "higher values" are served by closing this trial like this, other than avoiding the irony of an RIAA incident getting spread across the Internet like a frickin' virus.
It seems like the precedent described in the link above is very clear on when you do and do not have a right to a pubic trial. This example of closure posted on /. seems to overstep these limits, I think.
A defendant under US law has a right to a public trial...except for when he suddenly doesn't!