At Free Geek, we use Linux. And when people ask me why, I usually end up defending Microsoft.
I know that people pirate and copy Microsoft products all the time. And at many levels this is kind of done with a wink wink nudge nudge by everyone involved, including probably Microsoft themselves.
However, when you are running an organization, and you are producing computers, people can start asking questions. Which means, if you are installing Windows, make sure it is legal! If you are churning out lots of computers with pirated Windows, you will probably get caught. It doesn't matter if it is for charity.
Now, that does mean that you will be paying 200 dollars a license, and 400 dollars for a license of Office. This means that if you wanted to give out, say, ten computers with Windows XP Home Edition and Office Standard Edition, you would be paying 6000 dollars.
At Free Geek, aside from any philosophical ideas, we can't afford to spend 6000-10000 dollars a week on licenses for computers we are giving out.
I should have been a lot more clear in what I said, but then ironing stuff out is what Slashdot is for.
Basically I have just gone to netcraft and typed in the name of big big companies and organizations. Most of their webservers are running Unix or Linux. Many of these webservers are obviously not just serving static content, but are commerce sites and the like that are moving lots of secure data both ways.
I think we could use a lot more precise methodology, but I think my basic thesis, that Microsoft is a relatively minor player in the "heavy iron" department, despite the fact that they have years of dominance in the desktop market, is still true. It also still needs an explanation.
But that is still about 70% less than the desktop market. And they have had 13 years and much money to develop a market-dominating server product. And yet, it isn't just academics and software purists who are using Linux: (based on webserver results, which are of course not totally representative), it is companies and organizations like Paypal, Yahoo, Amazon, AOL, the usps, Ups, BMW, Rolls Royce, Boeing, Harvard, Yale, The Vatican, the Pentagon, and the White House that are all using Unix or Linux.
So why hasn't Microsoft managed to get anywhere close to the usage in the server world that it has on the desktop? It isn't because the above organizations are full of fanatic leftists who don't want to use a corporate product.
The biggest story on Microsoft is how they have lost the server market. Microsoft has had, for over ten years, a monopoly on the desktop. A generation has grown up thinking that Microsoft is synonymous with computing. Microsoft also has billions and billions of dollars to spend on research and advertising. With all of its name recognition and money, Microsoft has not been able to build a serious name for itself in the server market.
This is the type of statement that will generate a lot of comments on both sides: Unix people who say that any version of Windows couldn't be considered seriously at all for a server, and Windows people who will point out XP and Windows Server are now stable and secure enough for mainstream usage.
But the fact still remains, that if you check out netcraft, Microsoft products seem to place a far third behind commercial Unixes and Linux. For a company with Microsoft's name recognition and research resources to not be a dominant player in the server market after 30 years of business and over ten years of market dominance is a staggering fact in itself.
The press release was too fluffy, but the full article was a little too complex.
I guess my first question is, isn't a sample and control of around 20 people a little small? Especially since they are all coming from basically the same background?
As someone who uses computers semi-seriously, and who knows many people who use computers seriously, I wonder at what Microsoft is doing spending so much focus on the exact design of a sophisticated home entertainment center.
While Microsoft's good choices at picking and promoting a standardized user interface are certainly not to be overlooked, I wonder if it means that they are taking the actual guts of the system less seriously than they should. After Linux first showed signs of becoming popular, Microsoft quickly upgraded Windows NT into a passably professional server product (Windows XP). But if Bill Gates' big speech to the CES was about a home entertainment computer, I wonder if the company is going to actually think about making their server product more secure at all.
To me, this is like someone going in to buy a utility truck for work...and having the salesman spend all of his time explaining how the car stereo system works.
The ipod had a killer app. The ipod WAS a killer app. PDAs were gadgets searching for a purpose. The main purpose they found was making yuppies feel like they were leading busy, important lives. Gadgets can't survive forever just on the value of being an ego boost. And that is why, as you say, PDAs are passe.
I was going to say that I have been Microsoft free since March 2004. And then I looked down at my mouse, which has the Microsoft logo on it. They make a perfectly adequate mouse, I will say that much.
How are you going to fix it? Sure, there are people with the financial resources and job neccesity to have a back-up laptop. I am not saying they are for everyone. But consider the cost and time of replacing a laptop keyboard and a desktop keyboard. I can buy a desktop keyboard for 50 cents. How would someone find a replacement laptop keyboard? For your specific model and year? I guess if you have the financial resources to just have numerous back up laptops, and to fix them when they break, you can do that. But then, aren't you too busy relaxing in the hottub in the back of your limo, anyway?
Its time for a rant! Laptops have always been popular, but over the past year or so, they have become very popular, especially among people who are more consumer technology oriented than computer oriented. I know that lots of people use and need their laptops. Some people have jobs as field engineers, etc. If I was one of these people, and I knew all of what I was getting into, I would have a laptop. But lots of people think they "NEED" a laptop so that they can check their e-Mail in the coffee shop. So when people ask me about laptops, I ask them: "So, if you have a laptop, and its powersupply, battery, screen (or other such part) breaks, what are you going to do?". They usually answer that they don't know, and I say I don't know either, but it is perhaps something to think about before you spend 1,000 dollars on a sexy accesory. Many parts of laptops, especially the battery and power supply, seem to be prone to failure, and unlike a normal computer, these parts are not interchangable (part of the reason for this is that many people don't realize that computers parts are interchangable, but think that their computer has a special "Dell" Hard Drive), so if you have a three year old computer with a dead or broken battery, you are going to spend a lot of time on e-Bay and a lot of money to replace it. Go, Fellow Geeks, and warn your less weary brethern of the true costs of buying a laptop.
That depends on what you mean by "beer". If you mean "fermented grain", then yes people have been drinking it a long time. If you mean hops, water, wheat and yeast, than not so long.
I don't understand what the hype about beer is. I have never thought to myself "I could use a nice, refreshing glass of wheat juice", so I am hardly about to think "I could use a nice, refreshing glass of rotten wheat juice". Beer tastes bitter and thick, and its alcohol content is so low that I have to sit drinking it til I feel a headache to get any effect.
The noodle, like the potato chip, probably was developed quite by accident: someone pouring water on some flour, or the like. Why has it stayed around?
I guess the most simple reason is that you can preserve noodles a long time. Compare how long bread takes to mold with how long noodles take to mold. Especially since noodles are smaller, and can be put inside a closed container easier.
Also, the process of cooking noodles also sanitizes them. In Chinese cuisine, normally most things (including plain water), are only served after being boiled.
I think there is plenty of evidence. People create CO2. CO2 creates heating. Heating creates hurricanes. That is evidence. What we don't have is PROOF that this is related to climate change. Getting "proof" with weather is very hard. After all, in science to get proof you have to do a controlled experiment. We can't do a controlled experiment with the weather.
Anyway, I do agree that it would be scientifically premature to say these are related to global warming. On the other hand, do we want to wait until we have total scientific proof to act?
Re:I just booted an old Pentium 100 laptop with 95
on
Windows 95 Turns 10
·
· Score: 1
For the average user, at home or business, 90% of a computer's use is going to be two things: internet applications, and word processing. (I just made up the 90% figure, but I am sure most readers will agree it sounds reasonable).
Notice that over the past 10 years, processor speed has gone from c 200 MHz to 2 GHz. Installed RAM has gone from 16 or 32 MB to 256 or 512 MB. So with a ten fold increase in these things (bus, harddrive, video RAM, etc, have all gone up similiarly), how much has the basic internet and word processing experience changed from the mid 90s? Not a whole lot. Word Processors have even more features, and web browsers have lots of multimedia, but the basic functions have hardly changed in ten years.
This makes perfect sense if you consider that the state religion of the United States is nihilism.
Once a goal is proposed (in this case, the goal is "nothing", since it is implicit, and doesn't need to be defended or explained), any methods can be used to achieve it.
If you are going to duplicate articles, duplicate articles, about, say, finding water on the moon, or Debian releasing a stable distro, or, people find a cure for cancer, or SCO finally going belly up.
Why subject us to the thought of ROBOTICALLY AMPLIFIED COCKROACHES twice? Or is this just for everyone whose mind blanked this out the first time?
I think 646 lbs is more along the lines of a Black Bear. Grizzly bears are much larger, almost the size of a polar bear. I believe that they weigh from 1000-2000 lbs.
Slashdot Mirror
At Free Geek, we use Linux. And when people ask me why, I usually end up defending Microsoft.
I know that people pirate and copy Microsoft products all the time. And at many levels this is kind of done with a wink wink nudge nudge by everyone involved, including probably Microsoft themselves.
However, when you are running an organization, and you are producing computers, people can start asking questions. Which means, if you are installing Windows, make sure it is legal! If you are churning out lots of computers with pirated Windows, you will probably get caught. It doesn't matter if it is for charity.
Now, that does mean that you will be paying 200 dollars a license, and 400 dollars for a license of Office. This means that if you wanted to give out, say, ten computers with Windows XP Home Edition and Office Standard Edition, you would be paying 6000 dollars.
At Free Geek, aside from any philosophical ideas, we can't afford to spend 6000-10000 dollars a week on licenses for computers we are giving out.
There are also Free Geeks in:
Olympia, Washington
Columbus, Ohio
Chicago, Illinois
Michiniana (Michigan/Indiana area)
Pennsylvania
Although all of them are less operational than Portland, though. But Portland is very very operational.
I should have been a lot more clear in what I said, but then ironing stuff out is what Slashdot is for.
Basically I have just gone to netcraft and typed in the name of big big companies and organizations. Most of their webservers are running Unix or Linux. Many of these webservers are obviously not just serving static content, but are commerce sites and the like that are moving lots of secure data both ways.
I think we could use a lot more precise methodology, but I think my basic thesis, that Microsoft is a relatively minor player in the "heavy iron" department, despite the fact that they have years of dominance in the desktop market, is still true. It also still needs an explanation.
But that is still about 70% less than the desktop market. And they have had 13 years and much money to develop a market-dominating server product. And yet, it isn't just academics and software purists who are using Linux: (based on webserver results, which are of course not totally representative), it is companies and organizations like Paypal, Yahoo, Amazon, AOL, the usps, Ups, BMW, Rolls Royce, Boeing, Harvard, Yale, The Vatican, the Pentagon, and the White House that are all using Unix or Linux.
So why hasn't Microsoft managed to get anywhere close to the usage in the server world that it has on the desktop? It isn't because the above organizations are full of fanatic leftists who don't want to use a corporate product.
The biggest story on Microsoft is how they have lost the server market.
Microsoft has had, for over ten years, a monopoly on the desktop. A generation has grown up thinking that Microsoft is synonymous with computing. Microsoft also has billions and billions of dollars to spend on research and advertising. With all of its name recognition and money, Microsoft has not been able to build a serious name for itself in the server market.
This is the type of statement that will generate a lot of comments on both sides: Unix people who say that any version of Windows couldn't be considered seriously at all for a server, and Windows people who will point out XP and Windows Server are now stable and secure enough for mainstream usage.
But the fact still remains, that if you check out netcraft, Microsoft products seem to place a far third behind commercial Unixes and Linux. For a company with Microsoft's name recognition and research resources to not be a dominant player in the server market after 30 years of business and over ten years of market dominance is a staggering fact in itself.
But shouldn't we also check in on the Chinese Central Bank?
The press release was too fluffy, but the full article was a little too complex.
I guess my first question is, isn't a sample and control of around 20 people a little small? Especially since they are all coming from basically the same background?
You mock me for calling Windows XP passable. One of the responders below chides me for not admitting that Windows NT was "professional" in 1996.
So do I average out?
As someone who uses computers semi-seriously, and who knows many people who use computers seriously, I wonder at what Microsoft is doing spending so much focus on the exact design of a sophisticated home entertainment center.
While Microsoft's good choices at picking and promoting a standardized user interface are certainly not to be overlooked, I wonder if it means that they are taking the actual guts of the system less seriously than they should.
After Linux first showed signs of becoming popular, Microsoft quickly upgraded Windows NT into a passably professional server product (Windows XP). But if Bill Gates' big speech to the CES was about a home entertainment computer, I wonder if the company is going to actually think about making their server product more secure at all.
To me, this is like someone going in to buy a utility truck for work...and having the salesman spend all of his time explaining how the car stereo system works.
The ipod had a killer app. The ipod WAS a killer app.
PDAs were gadgets searching for a purpose. The main purpose they found was making yuppies feel like they were leading busy, important lives. Gadgets can't survive forever just on the value of being an ego boost.
And that is why, as you say, PDAs are passe.
I was going to say that I have been Microsoft free since March 2004.
And then I looked down at my mouse, which has the Microsoft logo on it.
They make a perfectly adequate mouse, I will say that much.
How are you going to fix it?
Sure, there are people with the financial resources and job neccesity to have a back-up laptop. I am not saying they are for everyone.
But consider the cost and time of replacing a laptop keyboard and a desktop keyboard. I can buy a desktop keyboard for 50 cents. How would someone find a replacement laptop keyboard? For your specific model and year?
I guess if you have the financial resources to just have numerous back up laptops, and to fix them when they break, you can do that. But then, aren't you too busy relaxing in the hottub in the back of your limo, anyway?
Its time for a rant!
Laptops have always been popular, but over the past year or so, they have become very popular, especially among people who are more consumer technology oriented than computer oriented.
I know that lots of people use and need their laptops. Some people have jobs as field engineers, etc. If I was one of these people, and I knew all of what I was getting into, I would have a laptop. But lots of people think they "NEED" a laptop so that they can check their e-Mail in the coffee shop.
So when people ask me about laptops, I ask them: "So, if you have a laptop, and its powersupply, battery, screen (or other such part) breaks, what are you going to do?". They usually answer that they don't know, and I say I don't know either, but it is perhaps something to think about before you spend 1,000 dollars on a sexy accesory.
Many parts of laptops, especially the battery and power supply, seem to be prone to failure, and unlike a normal computer, these parts are not interchangable (part of the reason for this is that many people don't realize that computers parts are interchangable, but think that their computer has a special "Dell" Hard Drive), so if you have a three year old computer with a dead or broken battery, you are going to spend a lot of time on e-Bay and a lot of money to replace it.
Go, Fellow Geeks, and warn your less weary brethern of the true costs of buying a laptop.
That depends on what you mean by "beer". If you mean "fermented grain", then yes people have been drinking it a long time. If you mean hops, water, wheat and yeast, than not so long.
I don't understand what the hype about beer is. I have never thought to myself "I could use a nice, refreshing glass of wheat juice", so I am hardly about to think "I could use a nice, refreshing glass of rotten wheat juice". Beer tastes bitter and thick, and its alcohol content is so low that I have to sit drinking it til I feel a headache to get any effect.
The noodle, like the potato chip, probably was developed quite by accident: someone pouring water on some flour, or the like. Why has it stayed around?
I guess the most simple reason is that you can preserve noodles a long time. Compare how long bread takes to mold with how long noodles take to mold. Especially since noodles are smaller, and can be put inside a closed container easier.
Also, the process of cooking noodles also sanitizes them. In Chinese cuisine, normally most things (including plain water), are only served after being boiled.
In case the pictures are slashdotted, here is one:
Giant Squid Thing!
I forgot to close my tag. Sorry :(
There is no evidence that this is the case.
I think there is plenty of evidence. People create CO2. CO2 creates heating. Heating creates hurricanes. That is evidence.
What we don't have is PROOF that this is related to climate change. Getting "proof" with weather is very hard. After all, in science to get proof you have to do a controlled experiment. We can't do a controlled experiment with the weather.
Anyway, I do agree that it would be scientifically premature to say these are related to global warming. On the other hand, do we want to wait until we have total scientific proof to act?
For the average user, at home or business, 90% of a computer's use is going to be two things: internet applications, and word processing. (I just made up the 90% figure, but I am sure most readers will agree it sounds reasonable).
Notice that over the past 10 years, processor speed has gone from c 200 MHz to 2 GHz. Installed RAM has gone from 16 or 32 MB to 256 or 512 MB. So with a ten fold increase in these things (bus, harddrive, video RAM, etc, have all gone up similiarly), how much has the basic internet and word processing experience changed from the mid 90s? Not a whole lot. Word Processors have even more features, and web browsers have lots of multimedia, but the basic functions have hardly changed in ten years.
This makes perfect sense if you consider that the state religion of the United States is nihilism.
Once a goal is proposed (in this case, the goal is "nothing", since it is implicit, and doesn't need to be defended or explained), any methods can be used to achieve it.
Its all the same in the end.
If anyone wants a better explanation of what Free Geek does, read The Official Free Geek Web Page
Maybe that article just scurried over here when we weren't looking?
If you are going to duplicate articles, duplicate articles, about, say, finding water on the moon, or Debian releasing a stable distro, or, people find a cure for cancer, or SCO finally going belly up.
Why subject us to the thought of ROBOTICALLY AMPLIFIED COCKROACHES twice? Or is this just for everyone whose mind blanked this out the first time?
For maybe the 3rd time in 4+ years, I've seen an article about something the Bush Administration planned to do and thought "Hey! Thats a good idea!"
I think 646 lbs is more along the lines of a Black Bear. Grizzly bears are much larger, almost the size of a polar bear. I believe that they weigh from 1000-2000 lbs.