Agreed. This must be a slow news day. So far we have such insightful news stories as:
- Gambling company employees are crooked. (Now, I'm really disillusioned.) - Microsoft bought somebody. (Seriously? I'm falling all over myself to click the link ASAP.) - SGI is in financial trouble. (That's new...not. There has got to be something more interesting to read around here.) - The next version of Windows has security flaws. (Notify me when this is NOT the case.) - Netflix users enjoy convenience of watching movies that their leisure. (My craps are sometimes more newsworthy.)
Cue the story about Google being in favor of net neutrality mandates and lobby-supported senators being against it.
I'm not saying that I love Microsoft DRM any more than any other DRM. However, if I want to purchase mainstream music legally online, I believe it is the lesser of two evils. At least I can purchase music from multiple vendors. With ITMS, everyone is forever locked into a single vendor, and there is no competition.
ReactOS is still in ALPHA stage. It has a ways to go before a full release worthy OS
Granted. And I fully understand that software this complex takes serious time to do. I personally don't really understand why a full OS, instead of contributing directly to something like Wine. And here's why. Now, you have an OS that is fairly useless until it is very mature. With Linux, we can run a few Windows apps. But we also have a huge number of native Linux apps to run. With ReactOS, very few Windows apps will run, and you also have next-to-no native apps.
It's open-source, so the developer(s) giving his(or her) time to this can do whatever he wants. I understand that. I'm just digging here, trying to get some insight from someone about this project, and why it should be worth my interest, or if it's just some folks neat hobby, nothing more.
First of all, it's IrfanView, and secondly, why would I want to open pics for preview with something that can take a full minute to load?
Good points. The spelling I copied from the post I quoted. My mistake. And, I don't use Gimp for simple image preview either. I was trying to make a quick point. But to expand, on Linux I use "Eye of Gnome" (aka eog) for quick image previews. There are at least a dozen similar apps. For other more session-like image viewing, I use F-Spot. We also now have Picasa, though I still prefer F-Spot.
On Windows, well that's at work and I can't just install the kitchen sink. I use "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" for quick viewing of images, just because it's the default.
Now, aren't you glad I kept my original post short and concise?;)
As a side note, Windows 2000 compatible is more than enough. There are still very few XP only applications out there on the store shelves.
Perhaps few, but some few are very important. Take Windows Media Player 10. Only available for XP and won't run in Wine. This means if you buy a new non-IPod media player that is labeled PlaysForSure (the branded name for Media Transport Protocol) as most now are, you can only use it if you have XP, because you must have WMP 10!
with many applications working straight away (OpenOffice, Abiword, mIRC, Unreal Tournament, InfranView, PuTTY as some)
When I first saw ReactOS I was very interested, at the very least as a dual-boot for apps that won't run on my Linux desktop. But what runs on it is less than interesting. Take your list: OpenOffice - runs on Linux. Abiword - runs on Linux. mIRC - there are dozens of IRC clients for Linux, some of which are superior to mIRC, IMHO. Unreal Tournament - runs on Linux. InfranView - There are better options on Linux, IMO. The only reason I've ever used this app is because 5 years ago there were no good free image tools on Windows. Now, I even use Gimp on Windows. PuTTY - only necessary on Windows to get at ssh servers running on *nix. ssh is supported by so many things on Linux, not the least of which is the original openssh client.
So, I'm having a hard time seeing any reason to try ReactOS out. Could someone point out something that ReactOS can run that doesn't run on Linux, and doesn't have a better option on Linux?
Exactly true. This changes very little in terms of Gaim, or any other client for that matter. Gaim will continue to need to support both protocols, because some of their users will have an MSN account, and some will have a Yahoo account. This only really affects people who are still using the OEM clients - they won't have to run two if they want a presence on both computers.
I really wonder how well it will help that for many current users. If you stop using your MSN account in favor of Yahoo, how do you notify everyone who has you in their buddy list to add your Yahoo account?
But, for future users in particular, this is a very good thing. And I hope that the momentum this provides will move more users to these two networks and force AOL's hand, compelling AIM and ICQ to join in on the party.
Bingo. Game developers aren't interested in technology that will extend the life of games
Well, I actually RTFA, and the way I read it, this isn't like a game is going to magically improve itself. A developer will be able to add more complex algorithms to the game years after it was developed when hardware can support better graphics. The result will be a slightly modified, better-looking game.
Who says they aren't going to charge you again for "Zelda 2008", allowing them to reap more profit out of old content? There is plenty of monetary drive for this technology. It is very similar to selling "Season 1 of 'I Love Lucy'" on DVD. This will be a way to take old content, package it in a new format, and make money off of it all over again.
And all this time I thought it was because the IQ of the average reader is somewhere between a starfish and saliva. Seriously, I've found more insightful comments on the bathroom wall of a gas station.
Of course, I have a family plan (2 people only, 2 lines) and I talked to my partner. The answer: he too had not received any of these calls, especially over 300 minutes per month of them.
"No, honey. I have no idea what these anonymous inbound calls to my cell phone could be."
Doesn't sound to me like T-Mobile is necessarily the cheat here.
Hmm, I don't know. 3-4 games per month sounds like an extreme. If I'm paying $300+ per year for a MMORPG subscription, that's more than I would spend on individually purchased games in a year. And I suspect this is true for the majority. Especially considering the rate of pirated games. With an MMORPG, game piracy is almost non-existant, whereas with the traditional PC game model, pirating of games is huge.
Hmm, it seems to me that some of the fault falls on Adobe, and not solely (or even primarily) the user. Adobe has modelled PDF specifically as a format that is a digital representation of the real document. Unlike other document formats, what you see in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader is exactly what you see when you hit Print. Much the way that user-interface guidelines dictate a one-to-one metaphor between the UI and the system, such as is exhibited by spatial file explorers (Macintosh, Nautilus spatial mode, etc), Adobe makes a one-to-one connection between the physical printed document and the digital version. When I hit print, I soon have the same exact thing in hand.
Adobe is specifically targetting users seeking this type of physical realism in a document format. They want the lawyers and doctors who need this type of document format, but whom don't necessarily have the most advanced computer knowledge, to buy their product. Especially since that market is much larger than the technical elite. You can't design a product around a target audience of technically ignorant, then fault the audience for their ignorance.
Software developers need to make software that works as the user expects it to work, not as what makes sense to a software engineer.
Perhaps China will start using Slashdot editors to proofread the English versions of official propaganda for spelling and grammar! That's almost like trained dogs!
Sure, Red Hat may have good room for growth. But that's not a good argument. If Microsoft were to completely stop growing their market today, they'd still have 50 times more market than Red Hat will probably ever have.
If Americans started to work for less, basic (and slightly simplistic, but still mostly valid for an approximation) economics says we would pretty much maintain the current standard of living, but only in the long term. In the short term, it just wouldn't work, because it only works if EVERYONE is working for the lower wages. The "early adopters" would be screwed until everyone else's wages went down by the same amount, at which point prices would also come down to meet demand. So the way to do it, as you say, is to start out by lowering prices a bit (revamping copyright/patent/monopoly law would be a reasonable start, though some would argue monopolies would help with this transition) and let that naturally be followed up with a lowering of wages, then rinse and repeat until we're competetive on a global scale.
Hmm, sounds complicated. I have a more simplistic idea for simpletons like me: I'm going to move my Bank of America accounts to another bank who employs solely domestic workers, and encourage friends and family to do likewise. If such loss of customers affected BOA enough, Bank of America would have to drops their fees to compensate to lure business back to them. But, then that would lower their profits forcibly accomplishing what you've detailed, right?
I f.ckin do not believe how you, u.s. people can ALLOW for such debate to even take place, such s.hit rule the agenda, and do not blow your congressmen's senator's ears off about the matter.
I f.ckin don not believe how you Europeans could allow monarchs to rule for a thousand years, with such s.hit ruling, and did not blow their ears off. We kicked the monarchy to the curb after a short 250 years, na-na.
Look, no offense, but you can't blame all of the U.S. citizens because our loony government has some questionable debates.
Not to mention that MSN search is the default search (and home page) in IE6.
It is one thing to be the default search for the IE sidebar, a feature I find very few people even know is there. But it is quite another to be the default search of a search bar in the default ribbon setup. I find that many people use Firefox's search bar, or the Google toolbar, as their default behavior to start searches.
But what could they use this time?...Standard search in IE7?
You nailed it right there. If you look at IE 7 you see they have the search box like Firefox. Instead of Firefox's default search engine being Google, IE7 defaults to MSN Search. With 85% or more of the market satisfied to stick their default browser, what percentage will take the time to change their default search engine in IE7? I don't know the answer, but I'd bet it is less than half. I don't know about you, but I always use the search box (well, actually the similar Google Toolbar) to start a search.
And I think that Google knows it, too. Right at this moment, the Google homepage shows an advertisement for Firefox right on their home page! (only visible for non-Firefox users) And Google Pack includes Firefox. Yes, Google knows that Microsoft wants to leverage their monopoly by using IE 7 to drive searches to MSN Search, and Google must do everything they can to prevent it from happening.
In other words, the window is not resizable just like I said. A mode command just doesn't cut it. Use any term on *nix and you'll understand how a terminal should work.
Actually, I didn't realize that because your English is quite good. You don't need to be sorry. I was just trying to make a geeky wisecrack.
But, since you asked, I'll be constructive.
Are the Windows applications going to be built with the shell in mind or is this going to be yet another cmd.exe where you have to build your own stuff to do what you want instead of like *nix where you just pipe at your hearts content.
1) This is a run-on sentence (more than one sentence strung together). Better to break it up "...shell in mind? Or is this..." 2) It is a question (or at least part is) but ends in a period. 3) "hearts content" is posessive, so should read "heart's content"
I have also a hard time imaging using objects being easier to understand for normal admins and users. 1) "have also" - Although it is completely acceptable the way you wrote it, typically a native English writer would write "also have". 2) "imaging" should be "imagining".
Also, when exactly did the shell stop to suck and begin to be a good feture? The same second Microsoft made their own version? 1) "stop to suck" - a native writer would write "stop sucking" 2) "feture" should be "feature"
But, as I said before, you're English is quite good as a second language, and far, far better than my Swedish. So forgive my insensitive wisecrack.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. This must be a slow news day. So far we have such insightful news stories as:
- Gambling company employees are crooked. (Now, I'm really disillusioned.)
- Microsoft bought somebody. (Seriously? I'm falling all over myself to click the link ASAP.)
- SGI is in financial trouble. (That's new...not. There has got to be something more interesting to read around here.)
- The next version of Windows has security flaws. (Notify me when this is NOT the case.)
- Netflix users enjoy convenience of watching movies that their leisure. (My craps are sometimes more newsworthy.)
Cue the story about Google being in favor of net neutrality mandates and lobby-supported senators being against it.
I'm not saying that I love Microsoft DRM any more than any other DRM. However, if I want to purchase mainstream music legally online, I believe it is the lesser of two evils. At least I can purchase music from multiple vendors. With ITMS, everyone is forever locked into a single vendor, and there is no competition.
ReactOS is still in ALPHA stage. It has a ways to go before a full release worthy OS
Granted. And I fully understand that software this complex takes serious time to do. I personally don't really understand why a full OS, instead of contributing directly to something like Wine. And here's why. Now, you have an OS that is fairly useless until it is very mature. With Linux, we can run a few Windows apps. But we also have a huge number of native Linux apps to run. With ReactOS, very few Windows apps will run, and you also have next-to-no native apps.
It's open-source, so the developer(s) giving his(or her) time to this can do whatever he wants. I understand that. I'm just digging here, trying to get some insight from someone about this project, and why it should be worth my interest, or if it's just some folks neat hobby, nothing more.
First of all, it's IrfanView, and secondly, why would I want to open pics for preview with something that can take a full minute to load?
;)
Good points. The spelling I copied from the post I quoted. My mistake. And, I don't use Gimp for simple image preview either. I was trying to make a quick point. But to expand, on Linux I use "Eye of Gnome" (aka eog) for quick image previews. There are at least a dozen similar apps. For other more session-like image viewing, I use F-Spot. We also now have Picasa, though I still prefer F-Spot.
On Windows, well that's at work and I can't just install the kitchen sink. I use "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" for quick viewing of images, just because it's the default.
Now, aren't you glad I kept my original post short and concise?
As a side note, Windows 2000 compatible is more than enough. There are still very few XP only applications out there on the store shelves.
Perhaps few, but some few are very important. Take Windows Media Player 10. Only available for XP and won't run in Wine. This means if you buy a new non-IPod media player that is labeled PlaysForSure (the branded name for Media Transport Protocol) as most now are, you can only use it if you have XP, because you must have WMP 10!
with many applications working straight away (OpenOffice, Abiword, mIRC, Unreal Tournament, InfranView, PuTTY as some)
When I first saw ReactOS I was very interested, at the very least as a dual-boot for apps that won't run on my Linux desktop. But what runs on it is less than interesting. Take your list:
OpenOffice - runs on Linux.
Abiword - runs on Linux.
mIRC - there are dozens of IRC clients for Linux, some of which are superior to mIRC, IMHO.
Unreal Tournament - runs on Linux.
InfranView - There are better options on Linux, IMO. The only reason I've ever used this app is because 5 years ago there were no good free image tools on Windows. Now, I even use Gimp on Windows.
PuTTY - only necessary on Windows to get at ssh servers running on *nix. ssh is supported by so many things on Linux, not the least of which is the original openssh client.
So, I'm having a hard time seeing any reason to try ReactOS out. Could someone point out something that ReactOS can run that doesn't run on Linux, and doesn't have a better option on Linux?
Exactly true. This changes very little in terms of Gaim, or any other client for that matter. Gaim will continue to need to support both protocols, because some of their users will have an MSN account, and some will have a Yahoo account. This only really affects people who are still using the OEM clients - they won't have to run two if they want a presence on both computers.
I really wonder how well it will help that for many current users. If you stop using your MSN account in favor of Yahoo, how do you notify everyone who has you in their buddy list to add your Yahoo account?
But, for future users in particular, this is a very good thing. And I hope that the momentum this provides will move more users to these two networks and force AOL's hand, compelling AIM and ICQ to join in on the party.
Bingo. Game developers aren't interested in technology that will extend the life of games
Well, I actually RTFA, and the way I read it, this isn't like a game is going to magically improve itself. A developer will be able to add more complex algorithms to the game years after it was developed when hardware can support better graphics. The result will be a slightly modified, better-looking game.
Who says they aren't going to charge you again for "Zelda 2008", allowing them to reap more profit out of old content? There is plenty of monetary drive for this technology. It is very similar to selling "Season 1 of 'I Love Lucy'" on DVD. This will be a way to take old content, package it in a new format, and make money off of it all over again.
And all this time I thought it was because the IQ of the average reader is somewhere between a starfish and saliva. Seriously, I've found more insightful comments on the bathroom wall of a gas station.
"No, honey. I have no idea what these anonymous inbound calls to my cell phone could be."
Doesn't sound to me like T-Mobile is necessarily the cheat here.
Hmm, I don't know. 3-4 games per month sounds like an extreme. If I'm paying $300+ per year for a MMORPG subscription, that's more than I would spend on individually purchased games in a year. And I suspect this is true for the majority. Especially considering the rate of pirated games. With an MMORPG, game piracy is almost non-existant, whereas with the traditional PC game model, pirating of games is huge.
Next year is the year of Microsoft on the appliance.
Hmm, it seems to me that some of the fault falls on Adobe, and not solely (or even primarily) the user. Adobe has modelled PDF specifically as a format that is a digital representation of the real document. Unlike other document formats, what you see in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader is exactly what you see when you hit Print. Much the way that user-interface guidelines dictate a one-to-one metaphor between the UI and the system, such as is exhibited by spatial file explorers (Macintosh, Nautilus spatial mode, etc), Adobe makes a one-to-one connection between the physical printed document and the digital version. When I hit print, I soon have the same exact thing in hand.
Adobe is specifically targetting users seeking this type of physical realism in a document format. They want the lawyers and doctors who need this type of document format, but whom don't necessarily have the most advanced computer knowledge, to buy their product. Especially since that market is much larger than the technical elite. You can't design a product around a target audience of technically ignorant, then fault the audience for their ignorance.
Software developers need to make software that works as the user expects it to work, not as what makes sense to a software engineer.
If the government was commited to using Free Software as some believe it should, then the government or public could easily add a redact feature.
Although, for what it's worth, I thought the spacebar with insert turned off accomplished such a feat.
Perhaps China will start using Slashdot editors to proofread the English versions of official propaganda for spelling and grammar! That's almost like trained dogs!
Come on, show a little respect for dogs.
Sure, Red Hat may have good room for growth. But that's not a good argument. If Microsoft were to completely stop growing their market today, they'd still have 50 times more market than Red Hat will probably ever have.
I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurg...piracy.
If Americans started to work for less, basic (and slightly simplistic, but still mostly valid for an approximation) economics says we would pretty much maintain the current standard of living, but only in the long term. In the short term, it just wouldn't work, because it only works if EVERYONE is working for the lower wages. The "early adopters" would be screwed until everyone else's wages went down by the same amount, at which point prices would also come down to meet demand. So the way to do it, as you say, is to start out by lowering prices a bit (revamping copyright/patent/monopoly law would be a reasonable start, though some would argue monopolies would help with this transition) and let that naturally be followed up with a lowering of wages, then rinse and repeat until we're competetive on a global scale.
Hmm, sounds complicated. I have a more simplistic idea for simpletons like me: I'm going to move my Bank of America accounts to another bank who employs solely domestic workers, and encourage friends and family to do likewise. If such loss of customers affected BOA enough, Bank of America would have to drops their fees to compensate to lure business back to them. But, then that would lower their profits forcibly accomplishing what you've detailed, right?
I f.ckin do not believe how you, u.s. people can ALLOW for such debate to even take place, such s.hit rule the agenda, and do not blow your congressmen's senator's ears off about the matter.
I f.ckin don not believe how you Europeans could allow monarchs to rule for a thousand years, with such s.hit ruling, and did not blow their ears off. We kicked the monarchy to the curb after a short 250 years, na-na.
Look, no offense, but you can't blame all of the U.S. citizens because our loony government has some questionable debates.
Not to mention that MSN search is the default search (and home page) in IE6.
It is one thing to be the default search for the IE sidebar, a feature I find very few people even know is there. But it is quite another to be the default search of a search bar in the default ribbon setup. I find that many people use Firefox's search bar, or the Google toolbar, as their default behavior to start searches.
But what could they use this time?...Standard search in IE7?
You nailed it right there. If you look at IE 7 you see they have the search box like Firefox. Instead of Firefox's default search engine being Google, IE7 defaults to MSN Search. With 85% or more of the market satisfied to stick their default browser, what percentage will take the time to change their default search engine in IE7? I don't know the answer, but I'd bet it is less than half. I don't know about you, but I always use the search box (well, actually the similar Google Toolbar) to start a search.
And I think that Google knows it, too. Right at this moment, the Google homepage shows an advertisement for Firefox right on their home page! (only visible for non-Firefox users) And Google Pack includes Firefox. Yes, Google knows that Microsoft wants to leverage their monopoly by using IE 7 to drive searches to MSN Search, and Google must do everything they can to prevent it from happening.
In other words, the window is not resizable just like I said. A mode command just doesn't cut it. Use any term on *nix and you'll understand how a terminal should work.
Actually, I didn't realize that because your English is quite good. You don't need to be sorry. I was just trying to make a geeky wisecrack.
But, since you asked, I'll be constructive.
Are the Windows applications going to be built with the shell in mind or is this going to be yet another cmd.exe where you have to build your own stuff to do what you want instead of like *nix where you just pipe at your hearts content.
1) This is a run-on sentence (more than one sentence strung together). Better to break it up "...shell in mind? Or is this..."
2) It is a question (or at least part is) but ends in a period.
3) "hearts content" is posessive, so should read "heart's content"
I have also a hard time imaging using objects being easier to understand for normal admins and users.
1) "have also" - Although it is completely acceptable the way you wrote it, typically a native English writer would write "also have".
2) "imaging" should be "imagining".
Also, when exactly did the shell stop to suck and begin to be a good feture? The same second Microsoft made their own version?
1) "stop to suck" - a native writer would write "stop sucking"
2) "feture" should be "feature"
But, as I said before, you're English is quite good as a second language, and far, far better than my Swedish. So forgive my insensitive wisecrack.
Yes, do pipe to your heart's content.
cat comment|grammar-checker|spell-checker
I'm discussing it from MS's viewpoint
How did this post ever make it past the Slashcode filters?