And if Congress legislates that in all email messages, the "From:" headers cannot be forged, THAT will stop SPAM. I'm certain of it. Just like this will stop caller ID spoofing.
That is why I see this as a more failed law then anything. The issue with this law is that it's trying to put it's heart in the right place, but this law will only effect calls from within the US. If your calling from outside the US then that law has little to no hold. Its like privacy laws online, the company is limited to the laws of where the hardware and company HQ is located. I see this often here in Canada. We have privacy laws that go above and beyond the US ones, but if I need to deal with a US company then my private information is protected only to the limits of US law, even though I'm in Canada at the time.
As the iPhone's market share numbers can attest. They've managed to make a device that does not require the Geek Stamp of Approval tm. for end users to feel comfortable purchasing. That means, as dzfoo points out, that these are specifically designed for end users. Since you are a geek, that means it was not designed for you. If you like it, I'm sure Apple will be happy to sell you one, but you are not the target demographic.
And the numbers can attest that Blackberry is the best selling smartphone and it didn't need to be locked down like the iPhone. It didn't need the 'Geek Stamp of Approval tm'. Its users are feeling comfortable purchasing it.
This whole topic is essentially a big whining fest. "I want to tinker with the iPhone, AND I want them to provide me support" It is perfectly acceptable for you to want it, but Apple is under no obligation to give it to you. After being a user of Apple computers for over a decade now, I can give you similar list of things I desired, but were never delived by other vendors (a decent version of MS office, functional Palm Sync client, stable and fully functioning Flash for mac, etc.). Those companies never decided that giving me what I wanted was important to them, and I just had to come to terms with that. I've learned to stop bitching about it and find alternatives if possible. If no alternatives exist I reassess how valuable those things are to me, and whether a different platform had a better cost/benefit ratio. No other platform ever did, although I seriously considered chucking Office 2008 in favor of virtualizing XP to run the Windows version of office, but I've made that calculation several dozen times over the years.
So instead of trying to let the publics voice be heard, you think its better to just be quiet and hope to problem will either be resolved by itself or quietly try to find an alternative? This is why they aren't getting fixed, its because of thoughts like that. If no one complains or they quietly find their own solution, whats truly broken or needs to be fixed? The problem isn't addressed. So the company really doesn't see a need to address anything.
I have my own gripes about my iPhone, but the positives outweigh the minuses, and no other phone I've seen comes close as far as what matters the most to me featurewise. If the cost/benefit analysis doesn't add up for you in favor of the iPhone, that is fine. I'd just appreciate it if you'd (and I mean "You" in terms of the complainers, not you specifically) stop trying to convince me that I need to care about what you want in a phone, or that somehow my math is wrong. Buy the phone that best suites you, suggest it to like minded individuals, and shut up already. Complaining to everyone that you can't have your cake and eat it too just makes you (again, not necessarily YOU specifically) sound like they are 9 and throwing a temper tantrum.
Again, your solution is just remain quiet, roll over and give up. This is the worst idea possible. You expect people to 'buy a phone that best suites you' but to do that, you need to be informed of the product which can't be done since you expect everyone to ignore the problems found in them and be quiet. This isn't something a 9 year old does and looks like they are throwing a temper tantrum, its what people need to do to let the problem be known and address. Or would you say that the Vietnam war protests were just a bunch a 9 years olds having a tantrum? Maybe all the nations complaining then going to war against Hilter was just 9 year olds throwing a tantrum because hey, he was able to do it let him and just be quiet or everyone quietly find their own private solution? Maybe the fighting the civil war was just 9 year olds throwing a tantrum because hey, they always were slaves and that suits some
like I said though, marketing stunt or actual lost phone, its still almost certainly an authentic pre-release version of an iPhone.
I'm not so sure if it's either a marketing stunt or an actual lost phone. With Apple products lately we see a lot of these articles that seem in the end to push the question on the public of if this is real, what would you want on it? Kinda like doing a crowd sourcing for R&D directions straight from your designed market. Why waste the time, money and effort of guessing what you think the public wants and instead get the public to throw the ideas so you can cherry pick from the public (like what themes came up the most often desired). Then you can just use the publics ideas as free R&D and cause a lot of hype for a coming up product.
1. Get a Bank or Credit Union that gives a damn. Investigate before you choose one. A good one will monitor your activity and shut it down and call you when something goes wonky (like charges from all over the place or charges from known fraudulent organizations). When it does go wrong a good one will either fix it quick or possibly give you provisional credit to get you buy until they do fix it.
Problem with this is, the ones that tend to give a damn are the smaller banks. And with those bank bailouts that the US Gov kept giving out only to the big banks has caused many small banksto go under. This leaves most of the power in the big banks, weakens to small banks and leaves most people with a lack of options and no longer looking for which bank gives a damn and more looking for a bank that won't completely screw you over.
Can you imagine if the auto industry adopted the same strategies used by Microsoft:
A: Sell new 2010 automobile
B: Release new 2011 version of same automobile (with LED widgets!)
C: Inform everyone who purchased the 2010 model that parts for their model will no longer be available after 2012.
D: Inform car dealers that they will not be allowed to sell used 2010 models.
E: Inform gas stations that they must use new nozzles at their pumps that only fit the 2011 models.
F: Sit back an wonder why people take cheap shots at your company and begin purchasing motorcycles.
G: File lawsuits against the motorcycle companies for restraint of trade and IP infringement.
I don't rag on Microsoft because they make a substandard product. I rag on Microsoft because they *force* their new products on their customers, and then treat those customers like thieves until proven otherwise. If I don't want to upgrade from Ubuntu 6, I can still download it and use it if I so choose, and I won't be accused of software piracy if I blow a system board and swap the drive into a new system.
Wow, just wow. I'm not sure where to begin with whats wrong with this post. Lets see, model 2010, 1 year later releases a newer model? Considering WIndows XP was released in August of 2001 and they are only officially stopping support for it on July 13, 2010 completely invalidate that comparison since 2001-2010 isn't 1 year. Vista wasn't even released until 2006, 5 years later... For C. you wrore that the 2010 model that they won't be able to use parts after 2012 again files in the face of everything since Office 2007 (the newest one) runs on Windows XP and was released 6 years later. This doesn't even consider that the new Office 2010 is also going to run on Windows XP... 'Inform dealers not to sell 2010 models'. You were able to buy Windows XP for years after Vista, and for quite some time without paying extra license... ' Inform gas stations they must use new nozzles, ect, again is wrong since Vista and Windows 7 allows backwards compatibilities and newly made software is still made to run on Windows XP (note the Office 2010 again)... If your going to try to make a comparison at least put a pinch of effort into it.
They could require the deployment of chipped banking cards.
And this is where most of the problem has been caused. The belief that if we put those RFID chips in our bank cards, theymustbecomesafer. The problem is, it's the chip that is the biggest security issue since its RFID it's 'always on' and more then willing to send it's information to whomever asks. The banks and credit card companies have invested millions, if not in the billions, of dollars into the technology and its a flop. A massive, expensive flop. And now they have 2 options. Fess up that it's a failed experiment and have very pissed off investors. Or, censor/intimidate anyone who wishes to publicly expose this as the failure it truly is.
I'm tired of people shoehorning the power-hungry x86 architecture into small devices. If there's one thing that Apple did right it's not using the Atom. The WePad runs Linux: there's no reason to stick with the legacy x86 architecture. Even Adobe Flash works on ARM (just not Flash 10 yet).
People still don't get it, however. The WePad thinks it can compete with the iPad with hardware features but will run Linux... which is a server or desktop OS. Apple didn't use their desktop version of Mac OS X on the iPhone, the iPod touch and the iPad for a good reason: portable, touch devices need customized interfaces otherwise it just sucks.
To start with, FTA:
The WePad, with its 11.6-inch screen, is powered by an Intel chip and relies on a Linux software basis which is compatible with Google's Android and all Flash applications
That means its using Linux as a basis, not the full blown OS. Kinda like how things like iPhone and iPad are running the iPhone OS, which is a mod of the OSX which just happens to be a desktop OS.
Obviously competitors have realized that it's worth it to come out with clone or me-too products much faster than they did in the past with the iPhone. This suggests to me that they'll be at least somewhat more successful than before in taking market share from apple.
I don't think it's as much of 'taking market share from Apple' and more of riding Apple's marketing campaign. The tablet market has been there for years but with little to no advertising. Now suddenly there is lots of advertising for the tablet market courtesy of Apple and this has made it a more hot business sector at the moment. Similar to a fad but one that can and might likely evolve.
Some people will do anything to get even more money. Its also possible that some of the Starcraft players are seeing a dead end of their time playing gaming professionally. As in they might not be that great at most RTS games, but amazing at Starcraft. And with Starcraft 2 coming along closer and closer, it might be the writing on the wall for Starcraft 1's viability. Cash out while they can and all?
More people still use a computer to use the internet then a smartphone. Main reason my friends do is because smartphones are expensive to replace when broken from an angry call/breakup on the phone or lost in the bar. So they get the cheap cellphones since they are cheap to replace in those incidents. Don't break a laptop/desktop in those kinds of anger fits or lose them in the bar.
So now instead of two incompatible codecs for HTML5 video, we will have three? Great!
The only way this will really take off is if Google starts serving up youtube in VP8 to clients that request it. I am not saying that options are bad, and its nice the Google has released this code, but HTML5 video is already hampered by competing standards and this doesn't help.
Well since Google does own Youtube.com which was the most used online video site that I'm aware of, and if they make all videos re-coded on site or equivalent to VP8, then this could get real interesting. A lot of weight there to throw around in the online video field.
...mater because accessing the web on mobile devices has become increasingly common.
But trends are showing that more cellphone providers are putting limits on cellphone data plans and the more limits pop up, the less likely people are going to be wanting to stream videos. This runs risks that mobiles will be less of a deciding factor for things like streaming video. Time will tell though.
If you have never had a hardware issue when installing Linux on a machine you must be very lucky.
"Most things work fine" people tell me, which is true. The trouble is that the chances of you owning something that doesn't work is relatively high. (There's probably something from my statistics course that explains why that is, but I have so far managed to suppress that memory.)
After having rebuilt a Mac with OS X, and rebuilt a laptop with Ubuntu 9.04, I was surprised at how smooth and the Ubuntu install was. Of course that was until I wanted to use my webcam with Ubuntu. These kinds of problems get very difficult very fast in Linux. When 9.04 first came out there was a dependency problem that meant that you couldn't easily get some webcams working.
To be fair, that problem is most likely sorted out now, and a non-Apple webcam would have needed a (very easy to install) driver on OS X as well.
The point is, Windows and hardware generally work very well.
Linux works very well with PC hardware too. Apple's hardware isn't an exact copy of normal PC hardware if I recall correctly (thats why you need to buy Mac versions of things like graphic cads). This means that you will need slightly different drivers (and your comment of a non-apple webcam tells me its a MacBook you installed Linux on). And while many (though not all) pc hardware vendors release Linux drivers, Apple on that other hand doesn't which makes it that much more harder.
According to 3 differentbrowser stat usage, Safari and Chrome are too tiny a market to consider. Which means its more likely to be a battle between Google/Firefox and Microsoft more then anything.
Totally agree. This is totally exemplified by dmesg0's comment above:
"By the way, I own nexus one, and with the right firmware (latest cyanogenmod with UV kernel), it's a great phone."
Do you really think that Apple would ever let it's users deal with something that nerdy? It's a totally different target audience. The iPhone/iPad is about simplifying things so much that the actual hardare gets out of your way. Android is more about tinkering and spec sheets and more nerdy goods.What nerd on earth would ever stand for buying a product with no RAM numbers given?.
And what specific parameter in any Linux installation error message is likely to point towards the CPU being defective? Most of them would be generic hardware-has-shit-itself errors (DMA failures, null pointer exceptions, hash failures) that could mean any of the cpu/motherboard/ram/psu/hdd are defective.
That would be the P.O.S.T. which your BIOS should be checking.
Once you buy and install Windows, and turn on the automatic updates, you're essentially done maintaining it.
Installing additional software is generally as simple as letting it install itself.
Every version of Linux, however, including Ubuntu, requires some expertise in configuration and management of the OS. It's not nearly as hands-off a system.
It's nice to have the source code to mess with, or to enhance. But if I have to compile a new piece of software just to install it properly the first time, that's when *nixen completely fail the end user.
Thinking Ubuntu is better because a copy of it costs less is a classic case of penny wise, pound foolish.
Total BS. I run a dual-boot system, Windows 7 and Ubuntu. Ubuntu recognized my wireless card at the beginning and every piece of hardware, including my wireless Logitech keyboard and Razer mouse with the single exception being my nVidia card (which after running the Updater and Hardware Drivers was complete and up to date without having to search online for anything). Windows 7 needed me to find wireless drivers (had to boot through Ubuntu to get those) and then had to hunt online for the nVidia drivers. With Windows 7 if I need a program I have to search online for what I need and figure out what is shareware, what isn't, what is still supported, what is malware, ect... With Ubuntu I open the Applications tab in the top left corner and click on the Ubuntu Software Center button at the bottom of the list and in the search box write what I need it to do and there are the programs I need and I know will work without hassle. Even codecs are easier on Ubuntu. Just type in something like mp3 and the first option is Ubuntu restricted drivers (which it mentions in the basic comments before I click on it how it's every codec I need) and beyond mp3's, also has Flash, Java, mpeg, avi, h.264, ect... With Windows 7 I need to hunt down some of those codecs.
Slashdot Mirror
Didn't mean to hit the Post Anonymously box...
And if Congress legislates that in all email messages, the "From:" headers cannot be forged, THAT will stop SPAM. I'm certain of it. Just like this will stop caller ID spoofing.
That is why I see this as a more failed law then anything. The issue with this law is that it's trying to put it's heart in the right place, but this law will only effect calls from within the US. If your calling from outside the US then that law has little to no hold. Its like privacy laws online, the company is limited to the laws of where the hardware and company HQ is located. I see this often here in Canada. We have privacy laws that go above and beyond the US ones, but if I need to deal with a US company then my private information is protected only to the limits of US law, even though I'm in Canada at the time.
As the iPhone's market share numbers can attest. They've managed to make a device that does not require the Geek Stamp of Approval tm. for end users to feel comfortable purchasing. That means, as dzfoo points out, that these are specifically designed for end users. Since you are a geek, that means it was not designed for you. If you like it, I'm sure Apple will be happy to sell you one, but you are not the target demographic.
And the numbers can attest that Blackberry is the best selling smartphone and it didn't need to be locked down like the iPhone. It didn't need the 'Geek Stamp of Approval tm'. Its users are feeling comfortable purchasing it.
This whole topic is essentially a big whining fest. "I want to tinker with the iPhone, AND I want them to provide me support" It is perfectly acceptable for you to want it, but Apple is under no obligation to give it to you. After being a user of Apple computers for over a decade now, I can give you similar list of things I desired, but were never delived by other vendors (a decent version of MS office, functional Palm Sync client, stable and fully functioning Flash for mac, etc.). Those companies never decided that giving me what I wanted was important to them, and I just had to come to terms with that. I've learned to stop bitching about it and find alternatives if possible. If no alternatives exist I reassess how valuable those things are to me, and whether a different platform had a better cost/benefit ratio. No other platform ever did, although I seriously considered chucking Office 2008 in favor of virtualizing XP to run the Windows version of office, but I've made that calculation several dozen times over the years.
So instead of trying to let the publics voice be heard, you think its better to just be quiet and hope to problem will either be resolved by itself or quietly try to find an alternative? This is why they aren't getting fixed, its because of thoughts like that. If no one complains or they quietly find their own solution, whats truly broken or needs to be fixed? The problem isn't addressed. So the company really doesn't see a need to address anything.
I have my own gripes about my iPhone, but the positives outweigh the minuses, and no other phone I've seen comes close as far as what matters the most to me featurewise. If the cost/benefit analysis doesn't add up for you in favor of the iPhone, that is fine. I'd just appreciate it if you'd (and I mean "You" in terms of the complainers, not you specifically) stop trying to convince me that I need to care about what you want in a phone, or that somehow my math is wrong. Buy the phone that best suites you, suggest it to like minded individuals, and shut up already. Complaining to everyone that you can't have your cake and eat it too just makes you (again, not necessarily YOU specifically) sound like they are 9 and throwing a temper tantrum.
Again, your solution is just remain quiet, roll over and give up. This is the worst idea possible. You expect people to 'buy a phone that best suites you' but to do that, you need to be informed of the product which can't be done since you expect everyone to ignore the problems found in them and be quiet. This isn't something a 9 year old does and looks like they are throwing a temper tantrum, its what people need to do to let the problem be known and address. Or would you say that the Vietnam war protests were just a bunch a 9 years olds having a tantrum? Maybe all the nations complaining then going to war against Hilter was just 9 year olds throwing a tantrum because hey, he was able to do it let him and just be quiet or everyone quietly find their own private solution? Maybe the fighting the civil war was just 9 year olds throwing a tantrum because hey, they always were slaves and that suits some
like I said though, marketing stunt or actual lost phone, its still almost certainly an authentic pre-release version of an iPhone.
I'm not so sure if it's either a marketing stunt or an actual lost phone. With Apple products lately we see a lot of these articles that seem in the end to push the question on the public of if this is real, what would you want on it? Kinda like doing a crowd sourcing for R&D directions straight from your designed market. Why waste the time, money and effort of guessing what you think the public wants and instead get the public to throw the ideas so you can cherry pick from the public (like what themes came up the most often desired). Then you can just use the publics ideas as free R&D and cause a lot of hype for a coming up product.
Then Uma Thurman would have never been found and she would have had a happy wedding and happy ever after from the get go.
1. Get a Bank or Credit Union that gives a damn. Investigate before you choose one. A good one will monitor your activity and shut it down and call you when something goes wonky (like charges from all over the place or charges from known fraudulent organizations). When it does go wrong a good one will either fix it quick or possibly give you provisional credit to get you buy until they do fix it.
Problem with this is, the ones that tend to give a damn are the smaller banks. And with those bank bailouts that the US Gov kept giving out only to the big banks has caused many small banks to go under. This leaves most of the power in the big banks, weakens to small banks and leaves most people with a lack of options and no longer looking for which bank gives a damn and more looking for a bank that won't completely screw you over.
Can you imagine if the auto industry adopted the same strategies used by Microsoft:
A: Sell new 2010 automobile
B: Release new 2011 version of same automobile (with LED widgets!)
C: Inform everyone who purchased the 2010 model that parts for their model will no longer be available after 2012.
D: Inform car dealers that they will not be allowed to sell used 2010 models.
E: Inform gas stations that they must use new nozzles at their pumps that only fit the 2011 models.
F: Sit back an wonder why people take cheap shots at your company and begin purchasing motorcycles.
G: File lawsuits against the motorcycle companies for restraint of trade and IP infringement.
I don't rag on Microsoft because they make a substandard product. I rag on Microsoft because they *force* their new products on their customers, and then treat those customers like thieves until proven otherwise. If I don't want to upgrade from Ubuntu 6, I can still download it and use it if I so choose, and I won't be accused of software piracy if I blow a system board and swap the drive into a new system.
Wow, just wow. I'm not sure where to begin with whats wrong with this post. Lets see, model 2010, 1 year later releases a newer model? Considering WIndows XP was released in August of 2001 and they are only officially stopping support for it on July 13, 2010 completely invalidate that comparison since 2001-2010 isn't 1 year. Vista wasn't even released until 2006, 5 years later... For C. you wrore that the 2010 model that they won't be able to use parts after 2012 again files in the face of everything since Office 2007 (the newest one) runs on Windows XP and was released 6 years later. This doesn't even consider that the new Office 2010 is also going to run on Windows XP... 'Inform dealers not to sell 2010 models'. You were able to buy Windows XP for years after Vista, and for quite some time without paying extra license... ' Inform gas stations they must use new nozzles, ect, again is wrong since Vista and Windows 7 allows backwards compatibilities and newly made software is still made to run on Windows XP (note the Office 2010 again)... If your going to try to make a comparison at least put a pinch of effort into it.
They could require the deployment of chipped banking cards.
And this is where most of the problem has been caused. The belief that if we put those RFID chips in our bank cards, they must become safer. The problem is, it's the chip that is the biggest security issue since its RFID it's 'always on' and more then willing to send it's information to whomever asks. The banks and credit card companies have invested millions, if not in the billions, of dollars into the technology and its a flop. A massive, expensive flop. And now they have 2 options. Fess up that it's a failed experiment and have very pissed off investors. Or, censor/intimidate anyone who wishes to publicly expose this as the failure it truly is.
Catnip is a minor sedative when ingested as a tea.
Long time users of meth will have some more health risks when being tasered, unlike a first time user as shown with these sheep.
Not to mention, not all drugs work the same between species, which is why your cat will get high as a kite on catnip but you won't.
I'm tired of people shoehorning the power-hungry x86 architecture into small devices. If there's one thing that Apple did right it's not using the Atom. The WePad runs Linux: there's no reason to stick with the legacy x86 architecture. Even Adobe Flash works on ARM (just not Flash 10 yet).
How did you get modded up? Linux runs on the ARM processor too, as noted on the arm.com website.
Oddly, the vast majority of the (millions) people who have bought iPhones don't appear to give a shit if there's no flash on them.
I call BS.
People still don't get it, however. The WePad thinks it can compete with the iPad with hardware features but will run Linux... which is a server or desktop OS. Apple didn't use their desktop version of Mac OS X on the iPhone, the iPod touch and the iPad for a good reason: portable, touch devices need customized interfaces otherwise it just sucks.
To start with, FTA:
The WePad, with its 11.6-inch screen, is powered by an Intel chip and relies on a Linux software basis which is compatible with Google's Android and all Flash applications
That means its using Linux as a basis, not the full blown OS. Kinda like how things like iPhone and iPad are running the iPhone OS, which is a mod of the OSX which just happens to be a desktop OS.
Obviously competitors have realized that it's worth it to come out with clone or me-too products much faster than they did in the past with the iPhone. This suggests to me that they'll be at least somewhat more successful than before in taking market share from apple.
I don't think it's as much of 'taking market share from Apple' and more of riding Apple's marketing campaign. The tablet market has been there for years but with little to no advertising. Now suddenly there is lots of advertising for the tablet market courtesy of Apple and this has made it a more hot business sector at the moment. Similar to a fad but one that can and might likely evolve.
Some people will do anything to get even more money. Its also possible that some of the Starcraft players are seeing a dead end of their time playing gaming professionally. As in they might not be that great at most RTS games, but amazing at Starcraft. And with Starcraft 2 coming along closer and closer, it might be the writing on the wall for Starcraft 1's viability. Cash out while they can and all?
More people still use a computer to use the internet then a smartphone. Main reason my friends do is because smartphones are expensive to replace when broken from an angry call/breakup on the phone or lost in the bar. So they get the cheap cellphones since they are cheap to replace in those incidents. Don't break a laptop/desktop in those kinds of anger fits or lose them in the bar.
So now instead of two incompatible codecs for HTML5 video, we will have three? Great!
The only way this will really take off is if Google starts serving up youtube in VP8 to clients that request it. I am not saying that options are bad, and its nice the Google has released this code, but HTML5 video is already hampered by competing standards and this doesn't help.
Well since Google does own Youtube.com which was the most used online video site that I'm aware of, and if they make all videos re-coded on site or equivalent to VP8, then this could get real interesting. A lot of weight there to throw around in the online video field.
...mater because accessing the web on mobile devices has become increasingly common.
But trends are showing that more cellphone providers are putting limits on cellphone data plans and the more limits pop up, the less likely people are going to be wanting to stream videos. This runs risks that mobiles will be less of a deciding factor for things like streaming video. Time will tell though.
If you have never had a hardware issue when installing Linux on a machine you must be very lucky. "Most things work fine" people tell me, which is true. The trouble is that the chances of you owning something that doesn't work is relatively high. (There's probably something from my statistics course that explains why that is, but I have so far managed to suppress that memory.) After having rebuilt a Mac with OS X, and rebuilt a laptop with Ubuntu 9.04, I was surprised at how smooth and the Ubuntu install was. Of course that was until I wanted to use my webcam with Ubuntu. These kinds of problems get very difficult very fast in Linux. When 9.04 first came out there was a dependency problem that meant that you couldn't easily get some webcams working. To be fair, that problem is most likely sorted out now, and a non-Apple webcam would have needed a (very easy to install) driver on OS X as well. The point is, Windows and hardware generally work very well.
Linux works very well with PC hardware too. Apple's hardware isn't an exact copy of normal PC hardware if I recall correctly (thats why you need to buy Mac versions of things like graphic cads). This means that you will need slightly different drivers (and your comment of a non-apple webcam tells me its a MacBook you installed Linux on). And while many (though not all) pc hardware vendors release Linux drivers, Apple on that other hand doesn't which makes it that much more harder.
According to 3 different browser stat usage, Safari and Chrome are too tiny a market to consider. Which means its more likely to be a battle between Google/Firefox and Microsoft more then anything.
Totally agree. This is totally exemplified by dmesg0's comment above: "By the way, I own nexus one, and with the right firmware (latest cyanogenmod with UV kernel), it's a great phone." Do you really think that Apple would ever let it's users deal with something that nerdy? It's a totally different target audience. The iPhone/iPad is about simplifying things so much that the actual hardare gets out of your way. Android is more about tinkering and spec sheets and more nerdy goods.What nerd on earth would ever stand for buying a product with no RAM numbers given? .
Many people here on Slashdot own a Blackberry, as do many others (it's still the number 1 selling smartphone.) Very few know its specs, nor are they listed on their website. Also note that the Droid (running on the 'nerdy' Android) is in 3rd place.
And what specific parameter in any Linux installation error message is likely to point towards the CPU being defective? Most of them would be generic hardware-has-shit-itself errors (DMA failures, null pointer exceptions, hash failures) that could mean any of the cpu/motherboard/ram/psu/hdd are defective.
That would be the P.O.S.T. which your BIOS should be checking.
And those work because they have the drivers built in without the need to swap hardware or anything.
Once you buy and install Windows, and turn on the automatic updates, you're essentially done maintaining it.
Installing additional software is generally as simple as letting it install itself.
Every version of Linux, however, including Ubuntu, requires some expertise in configuration and management of the OS. It's not nearly as hands-off a system.
It's nice to have the source code to mess with, or to enhance. But if I have to compile a new piece of software just to install it properly the first time, that's when *nixen completely fail the end user.
Thinking Ubuntu is better because a copy of it costs less is a classic case of penny wise, pound foolish.
Total BS. I run a dual-boot system, Windows 7 and Ubuntu. Ubuntu recognized my wireless card at the beginning and every piece of hardware, including my wireless Logitech keyboard and Razer mouse with the single exception being my nVidia card (which after running the Updater and Hardware Drivers was complete and up to date without having to search online for anything). Windows 7 needed me to find wireless drivers (had to boot through Ubuntu to get those) and then had to hunt online for the nVidia drivers. With Windows 7 if I need a program I have to search online for what I need and figure out what is shareware, what isn't, what is still supported, what is malware, ect... With Ubuntu I open the Applications tab in the top left corner and click on the Ubuntu Software Center button at the bottom of the list and in the search box write what I need it to do and there are the programs I need and I know will work without hassle. Even codecs are easier on Ubuntu. Just type in something like mp3 and the first option is Ubuntu restricted drivers (which it mentions in the basic comments before I click on it how it's every codec I need) and beyond mp3's, also has Flash, Java, mpeg, avi, h.264, ect... With Windows 7 I need to hunt down some of those codecs.
Mel Brooks got there first, with the blind servant's "reading material" in Robin Hood, Men In Tights.
Mal-2
Shown in this (bad) clip at 1:21.