No, Don't be sorry you have an OP and I respect that but in my personal experince this is just not the case for me.
Although I tend to just require what is needed to get the job done in my case an $80.00 pair of boots versus a $250.00 pair of Doc Martians which in my line of work died after 2yrs of everyday use.
same with computers that is why to me it makes more sense to get a well known brand of computer at the specs needed to get the job done not an Alienware eye candy cased machine.
specs for my computer are as follows:
Asus Mobo Intel Quad core CPU 4GB ram 1 TB HDD WD Nvidia 7800 Graphics card
15" flat panel
built from parts at Microcenter total cost to me : 600.00
is it the best no, however it will get the job done. and that is all that matters. yeah I could have got a Dell or an HP with the same specs for about 1,700.00 but why ?.
is it better no. and that is all I am saying not every one can afford the best but in most cases the best is some times not the best.
I know that won't make any sense to most folks and my logic seems flawed but these are my personal experinces.
Really, I do not think I mentioned a complete set of specs all I was saying is that Alienware is essentially using thier brand and unique shell and case designs to attain a higher price for a product that will be available from several other vendor offerings.
as you said you have to cut the specs some, but if computers go the way they always do the same thing some one pays $2,000 for now will be half that in 8 mos or so. so why rush to be an early adopter I would rather wait a generation or so for the product to become stable.
If ATI and Nvidia have taught us one thing, it is wait a generation because the first gens usually but not always have some flaws that could bite an early adopter in the ass so to speak.
and as I said it will drop in price and yes believe it or not others will offer it with better specs than what it is now for at least half the price large OEMs can and will prevail in that sense.
I Agree completely, in fact I can remember Instances in School were a lot of classes Social studies, Science mainly had a video taped shows that the teacher had recorded earlier in the week.
in fact on the screen it clearly said that it was okay to tape the program for educational or institutional use only and had to be erase by no later than one year after it's original recorded date.
and that was around 1984 or so when I was in Grade School in Nashville TN (Davidson County) at John.R.Bass Elementary School.
What the hell Happened to that ?.
man I have seen low but that is low MPAA can burn in hell they are taking away a great tool, I can't count how many times I was Happy to see we had a film on ancient cultures because like the History Channel they make it interesting.
students are more likely to learn when they are stimulated with an interesting televised presentation rather than a boring 23 pages of dry text.
Sure you can if you wanna play a hacked SNES game with Sonic Sprites lol.
it has been around for a while but I agree a legit Sonic game of the Era could only be had on the Game Gear or the Genesis or the 32x, Saturn, Dreamcast.
hell I bought all the sonics I could find for my Wii.
Nintendo, on the other hand, has stated on warioworld.com that it doesn't want to deal with the riff-raff.
Thats Because they did not want to suffer from poorly made games by third party developers that might ruin their brand name by people associating their name with poor quality.
That was the reason for the Lockout chips, however if you bought a license to develop for the platform and the game was of Descent quality then there would be no problems.
mainly the lock out chip was to keep unauthorized companies from ruining a good company name.
(this comes from reasearch I did on the web, google: Nintendo history pirates)
and thats just it, a long time ago quality shoes and boots could be had but in an age where companies are all about faster and cheaper you see more companies going over seas for their goods.
because a company there can get the product made with a lot less effort because workers there will work for a lot less than americans do and they have an abundance of the raw materials to begin with.
why do you think China, Japan, Taiwan, Ect are the numer one leaders in Tech and Automotive sectors ?, and why almost all companies buy from them exclusively ?.
Mod me down I do not care because I have worked for places like Walmart, Kmart, Dillards Ect and I know where and why they Aquire their goods.
Thats just it you have clearly said you use those shoes in a casual setting where as folks like myself "joe sixpack" use them in a more vigerous manner unloading trucks, walking miles at time in a warehouse setting, food service, postal carriers ect.
We are the ones that see the diffrence in shoes and I have owned Doc Martins that cost me a small fortune and they have not lasted me more than 2 yrs tops in my trade as Cable Tech doing installs in all kinds of weather hot, cold, rain and snowy conditions.
where as a $80.00 pair of boots made to same specs as a $250.00 pair of Doc Martins lasted the same amount of time so I can safely stand by my original statment.
over priced pair of shoes anymore they are no better or worse than any other laptop vendor, but some folks just gotta have the whole "Alienware case of coolness" thing going on.
just amounts to the same parts as Dell, Toshiba, HP, Apple Ect just in a pretty shell.
just like shoes no matter how much you pay for them be it $5.00 or $300.00 they all will wear out at about the same time anymore as most makers of these products out source to the same companies in the same countries.
That actually is a sound idea, If I had mod points I would add a +1 Interesting to your count.
I often wonder why Microsoft just does not break the cycle of trying new and worthless attempts at anti-piracy and just go the Unix style route ?, I mean after all there are a lot of Unix style things in Vista now why not just go all the way ?.
Like Apple does, sell the OS un-encumbered and make money off of tech support and selling software for the OS itself at a reasonable rate ?.
yeah I know people would still Pirate the software for the OS and the OS itself but if they used the same pricing scheme that Apple uses, they would still be competitive and Virus problems would still be there but at least with a Unix base Script kiddies would have to try a lot harder than what they do now to ceate a bot net or run a phishing scam.
Okay now that to me sounds reasonable but however my Opinion is that of an average user (Ya know "joe sixpack"), so it may not be as simple as all that but if I were Microsoft I would at least Explore alternative Marketing methods as the ones they are currently using have been proven to be massive failures for a good number of years.
the project is not dead after all I remember reading about this a few years ago.
Just hope that can get enough Interest together soon so we can have a nice open Graphics Platform to work with other than boring and slow but at well supported Intel Integrated Chipsets.
Just logged in to/. for the first time, I have been reading this Site since 2000. But to the question at hand when I first tried Linux it was Debian "Woody" after reading some articles on the net about Linux.
It lead me to Distrowatch.org which made me go "whoa" as I looked around and read the many reviews, viewed the numerous sites that each had their own version of the Linux Kernel (they seem to always make their own custom kernels) and a never ending array of Custom config tools and such.
I finally decided on a version calling itself "Ice pack Linux 1.75".
being on a Dial up connection, I placed an order for This linux distro with my debit card and 3 weeks later I got a package in the mail of 8 CD's all bearing the Debian Logo needless to say I was pissed off at first, then I thought well mistakes are easy to make in a large company knowing that a lot of companies distribute a lot of different brands of similar Items.
So I sent them an Email stating what the problem was and how to go about making an Exchange for the "Correct Version of Linux" that I had Ordered and they sent me an Email telling me that I had the correct version that I ordered and that "Ice Pack 1.75" was nothing more than a Re-named version of Debian Woody.
so after reading some posts on LinuxQuestions.org about people with similar hardware to mine, I found for the most part my Computer was supported all the way Except for the Modem that is (that when I learned a new terms Winmodem and softmodem) so I went out and bought a US Robotics 56 K external Hardware modem that plugged in to com port2 on my ancient P2 - 300 MHZ with 256 megs of ram and a 2GB hdd and a creative labs CDrom/sound card setup.
So the first thing I had to do was boot the computer from the CDrom no easy task even in the bios after finding it and enabling boot from cd option it would not boot the damn machine at all so after a week of trying to figure it out I gave up for a while and decided to give a rest and try again later on in the week.
while hanging out a freinds house and helping him upgrade his computers CDrom Drive to a brand new CDROM Burner drive he got a best buy for $149.99.
he asked me if i would like his old 24x cdrom and i said "sure, maybe it would work for installing Linux on my machine" and he looked at me said "Linux ?" and i started telling him all about it and he said "well it is just a flash in the pan like OS/2, it will never last long enough to worry about don't waste your time with it dude."
That's when I looked at him and said "well I would at least like to try it out".
so with that I took the cdrom drive he gave me and headed home.
when I got home that night I installed the new drive and got rid of the creative labs drive put the cover back on my PC and turned it on and booted in to windows 98se and Placed the Debian disc #1 in the drive and reboot windows after what seemed like forever the cdrom drive started flikering like mad and there was was a black screen filled with white writing wizzing by pretty quick and then a blue screen and grey screen with welcome screen and ton of lang options.
well needless to say it was a breeze to install until I got to the X Server setup part there were all kinds of options and tried each one till i got one that worked for me.
then i had to use a tool called vim to edit a file that X used for Configuring the itself to my video card a TNT Riva 128 and change the resolution from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768.
but after all that it just worked it was like the greatest thing I had ever seen it was fresh and exciting, my first Installation change was KDE and I spent days going through all of its options (which there seemed no end to) but I did not mind that as it was cool to play with.
I decided to invite my buddy over to look at my Computer and let him see a working installation for himslef thinking he would change his mind about it. Well he came over looked it over and I showed him all the stuff I had discovered and could do with it. he just sat there and said "where are the games at ?."
and for a
Slashdot Mirror
Actually to be fair I was not saying that the PSP was worse than the DS and DSI I was just saying do they not all fall in to the Devices catagory ?.
Hell I like all three of them ;), as a collector I appreciate the diffrences that all the handhelds bring to the history of gaming for better or worse.
becuase from these successes and failures comes more innovation in the gaming world and we can all appreciate that.
R.Morton
No, Don't be sorry you have an OP and I respect that but in my personal experince this is just not the case for me.
Although I tend to just require what is needed to get the job done in my case an $80.00 pair of boots versus a $250.00 pair of Doc Martians which in my line of work died after 2yrs of everyday use.
same with computers that is why to me it makes more sense to get a well known brand of computer at the specs needed to get the job done not an Alienware eye candy cased machine.
specs for my computer are as follows:
Asus Mobo
Intel Quad core CPU
4GB ram
1 TB HDD WD
Nvidia 7800 Graphics card
15" flat panel
built from parts at Microcenter
total cost to me : 600.00
is it the best no, however it will get the job done. and that is all that matters. yeah I could have got a Dell or an HP with the same specs for about 1,700.00 but why ?.
is it better no. and that is all I am saying not every one can afford the best but in most cases the best is some times not the best.
I know that won't make any sense to most folks and my logic seems flawed but these are my personal experinces.
R.Morton
I don't know the DS and DSI are selling pretty well and they are just devices aren't they ?.
R.Morton
Really, I do not think I mentioned a complete set of specs all I was saying is that Alienware is essentially using thier brand and unique shell and case designs to attain a higher price for a product that will be available from several other vendor offerings.
as you said you have to cut the specs some, but if computers go the way they always do the same thing some one pays $2,000 for now will be half that in 8 mos or so. so why rush to be an early adopter I would rather wait a generation or so for the product to become stable.
If ATI and Nvidia have taught us one thing, it is wait a generation because the first gens usually but not always have some flaws that could bite an early adopter in the ass so to speak.
and as I said it will drop in price and yes believe it or not others will offer it with better specs than what it is now for at least half the price large OEMs can and will prevail in that sense.
R.Morton
I Agree completely, in fact I can remember Instances in School were a lot of classes Social studies, Science mainly had a video taped shows that the teacher had recorded earlier in the week.
in fact on the screen it clearly said that it was okay to tape the program for educational or institutional use only and had to be erase by no later than one year after it's original recorded date.
and that was around 1984 or so when I was in Grade School in Nashville TN (Davidson County) at John.R.Bass Elementary School.
What the hell Happened to that ?.
man I have seen low but that is low MPAA can burn in hell they are taking away a great tool, I can't count how many times I was Happy to see we had a film on ancient cultures because like the History Channel they make it interesting.
students are more likely to learn when they are stimulated with an interesting televised presentation rather than a boring 23 pages of dry text.
R.Morton
Sure you can if you wanna play a hacked SNES game with Sonic Sprites lol.
it has been around for a while but I agree a legit Sonic game of the Era could only be had on the Game Gear or the Genesis or the 32x, Saturn, Dreamcast.
hell I bought all the sonics I could find for my Wii.
R.Morton
Nintendo, on the other hand, has stated on warioworld.com that it doesn't want to deal with the riff-raff.
Thats Because they did not want to suffer from poorly made games by third party developers that might ruin their brand name by people associating their name with poor quality.
That was the reason for the Lockout chips, however if you bought a license to develop for the platform and the game was of Descent quality then there would be no problems.
mainly the lock out chip was to keep unauthorized companies from ruining a good company name.
(this comes from reasearch I did on the web, google: Nintendo history pirates)
R.Morton
and thats just it, a long time ago quality shoes and boots could be had but in an age where companies are all about faster and cheaper you see more companies going over seas for their goods.
because a company there can get the product made with a lot less effort because workers there will work for a lot less than americans do and they have an abundance of the raw materials to begin with.
why do you think China, Japan, Taiwan, Ect are the numer one leaders in Tech and Automotive sectors ?, and why almost all companies buy from them exclusively ?.
Mod me down I do not care because I have worked for places like Walmart, Kmart, Dillards Ect and I know where and why they Aquire their goods.
R.Morton
Thats just it you have clearly said you use those shoes in a casual setting where as folks like myself "joe sixpack" use them in a more vigerous manner unloading trucks, walking miles at time in a warehouse setting, food service, postal carriers ect.
We are the ones that see the diffrence in shoes and I have owned Doc Martins that cost me a small fortune and they have not lasted me more than 2 yrs tops in my trade as Cable Tech doing installs in all kinds of weather hot, cold, rain and snowy conditions.
where as a $80.00 pair of boots made to same specs as a $250.00 pair of Doc Martins lasted the same amount of time so I can safely stand by my original statment.
R.Morton
over priced pair of shoes anymore they are no better or worse than any other laptop vendor, but some folks just gotta have the whole "Alienware case of coolness" thing going on.
just amounts to the same parts as Dell, Toshiba, HP, Apple Ect just in a pretty shell.
just like shoes no matter how much you pay for them be it $5.00 or $300.00 they all will wear out at about the same time anymore as most makers of these products out source to the same companies in the same countries.
R.Morton
That actually is a sound idea, If I had mod points I would add a +1 Interesting to your count.
I often wonder why Microsoft just does not break the cycle of trying new and worthless attempts at anti-piracy and just go the Unix style route ?, I mean after all there are a lot of Unix style things in Vista now why not just go all the way ?.
Like Apple does, sell the OS un-encumbered and make money off of tech support and selling software for the OS itself at a reasonable rate ?.
yeah I know people would still Pirate the software for the OS and the OS itself but if they used the same pricing scheme that Apple uses, they would still be competitive and Virus problems would still be there but at least with a Unix base Script kiddies would have to try a lot harder than what they do now to ceate a bot net or run a phishing scam.
Okay now that to me sounds reasonable but however my Opinion is that of an average user (Ya know "joe sixpack"), so it may not be as simple as all that but if I were Microsoft I would at least Explore alternative Marketing methods as the ones they are currently using have been proven to be massive failures for a good number of years.
R.Morton
I say ask the Romulans how to do it, they have been using lab created singularities to power their ships for hundreds of years.
they ought to know how to turn off a black hole.
R.Morton
I agree they have a Russian Distro called "Linux-XP" that is made in Russia so why not use that ?.
R.Morton
the project is not dead after all I remember reading about this a few years ago.
Just hope that can get enough Interest together soon so we can have a nice open Graphics Platform to work with other than boring and slow but at well supported Intel Integrated Chipsets.
R.Morton
So I guess that Will Wright's original plan to merge one day the Sims and Sim City in to an interactive paradise died the day EA bought Maxis.
That is very sad,oh Well I still have all of the Original Sims games to play still.
R.Morton
yeah I know but /. seems to alter any form formating when it I previewed it, all was fine then it went to hell after I hit submit.
Just logged in to /. for the first time, I have been reading this Site since 2000. But to the question at hand when I first tried Linux it was Debian "Woody" after reading some articles on the net about Linux.
It lead me to Distrowatch.org which made me go "whoa" as I looked around and read the many reviews, viewed the numerous sites that each had their own version of the Linux Kernel (they seem to always make their own custom kernels) and a never ending array of Custom config tools and such.
I finally decided on a version calling itself "Ice pack Linux 1.75".
being on a Dial up connection, I placed an order for This linux distro with my debit card and 3 weeks later I got a package in the mail of 8 CD's all bearing the Debian Logo needless to say I was pissed off at first, then I thought well mistakes are easy to make in a large company knowing that a lot of companies distribute a lot of different brands of similar Items.
So I sent them an Email stating what the problem was and how to go about making an Exchange for the "Correct Version of Linux" that I had Ordered and they sent me an Email telling me that I had the correct version that I ordered and that "Ice Pack 1.75" was nothing more than a Re-named version of Debian Woody.
so after reading some posts on LinuxQuestions.org about people with similar hardware to mine, I found for the most part my Computer was supported all the way Except for the Modem that is (that when I learned a new terms Winmodem and softmodem) so I went out and bought a US Robotics 56 K external Hardware modem that plugged in to com port2 on my ancient P2 - 300 MHZ with 256 megs of ram and a 2GB hdd and a creative labs CDrom/sound card setup.
So the first thing I had to do was boot the computer from the CDrom no easy task even in the bios after finding it and enabling boot from cd option it would not boot the damn machine at all so after a week of trying to figure it out I gave up for a while and decided to give a rest and try again later on in the week.
while hanging out a freinds house and helping him upgrade his computers CDrom Drive to a brand new CDROM Burner drive he got a best buy for $149.99.
he asked me if i would like his old 24x cdrom and i said "sure, maybe it would work for installing Linux on my machine" and he looked at me said "Linux ?" and i started telling him all about it and he said "well it is just a flash in the pan like OS/2, it will never last long enough to worry about don't waste your time with it dude."
That's when I looked at him and said "well I would at least like to try it out".
so with that I took the cdrom drive he gave me and headed home.
when I got home that night I installed the new drive and got rid of the creative labs drive put the cover back on my PC and turned it on and booted in to windows 98se and Placed the Debian disc #1 in the drive and reboot windows after what seemed like forever the cdrom drive started flikering like mad and there was was a black screen filled with white writing wizzing by pretty quick and then a blue screen and grey screen with welcome screen and ton of lang options.
well needless to say it was a breeze to install until I got to the X Server setup part there were all kinds of options and tried each one till i got one that worked for me.
then i had to use a tool called vim to edit a file that X used for Configuring the itself to my video card a TNT Riva 128 and change the resolution from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768.
but after all that it just worked it was like the greatest thing I had ever seen it was fresh and exciting, my first Installation change was KDE and I spent days going through all of its options (which there seemed no end to) but I did not mind that as it was cool to play with.
I decided to invite my buddy over to look at my Computer and let him see a working installation for himslef thinking he would change his mind about it. Well he came over looked it over and I showed him all the stuff I had discovered and could do with it. he just sat there and said "where are the games at ?."
and for a