If I switched to Linux today, and refused to buy games that won't run on it.........I won't get to play those games....... The last thing I am going to do is build my life around duties imposed by some random person on the Internet.
When you got to "some random person on the internet" I immediately thought of Satya Nadella. I guess you did not mean me to think him or similar control freaks cases in the mould of Cook, Gates, Balmer and Jobs. However I am not sure what person or "duties" you are referring to.
i'm stuck with windows because it'd be far too much work having to reboot any time i want to just play a game if i dual booted.
Have two computers. With so many people replacing their desktops with tablets you can buy a very good used desktop PC for peanuts (I have four). Use one just for Windows games and be ready to re-install when it gets malware. Keep your serious work, web surfing and data on a different PC under Linux.
I've got to give credit to Microsoft and Intel for making it easy to create a PC company. Intel produces a reference PC design, and a large number of chips. So, the design can get minor tweaks, for putting the design into manufacturing. So, you have to manufacture, sell, and provide warranty support for the PC. Today, manufacturing can be outsourced.....
I missed where Microsoft came in.
It was IBM who made it easy to create a PC company. When they introduced the PC they did not think it important enough (a passing fad, they preferred mainframes) to make most of the stuff themselves so they contracted it out. Intel and Microsoft were just two of those contractors. And IBM did not stop those contractors from selling the same stuff to third parties - other computer makers. So a cottage industry of PC clone makers sprang up using Intel chips and of course MSDos, among other things.
In fact Microsoft made things hard for those other PC makers - and still do - like charging silly prices and stopping them from pre-installing OS/2, Beos or Linux. Alan Sugar (of Amstrad) said of the price of Microsoft's software : "... as a computer manufacturer we are really a servant of Microsoft... the bill of material content of our computers, the highest price ticket item in there, is the royalty we pay them [Microsoft] to put Windows in the box"
Now people didn't WANT to replace their expensive PCs every other year
Agreed. When I considered buying first PC there was a choice between 286's and 386's. 286 was regarded as perfectly satisfactory for things like word processing, spreadsheets, and simple games like Startrek and Space Invaders. For example IBM wasted massive man-years getting OS/2 to run on 286's even though the 386 was aready around. It was assumed that 386 would only ever be needed by power users and servers and that the 286 (with minor improvements) would be the processor for everyone else for ever. The hardware was built like a tank accordingly. A bit like camera makers like Nikon make a camera line for professionals and a separate line for amateurs.
But suddenly the CPU race took off. One year's "professional" PC became the following year's entry level PC. After dithering between a 286 and a 386, I actually bought a 25 MHz 486 which was soon old hat anyway.
If the CPU race is still going I have lost interest; my 10 year old PC does all I need. My bottleneck is the speed of my internet connection.
When this [nanometer transistors] is ready for mass production, we're about to see a boom in computing that will make the 80s and 90s look like nothing.
No it wont, it will just make my system unit smaller, or rather the microchips in my system unit smaller. For which I don't give a toss because my system unit is already small enough to fit unnoticed in a corner under my desk, and can already do more than I need it to as a computer despite being over 10 years old.
If you are talking about microchips getting smaller (and cheaper) enough to be put into more and more things, then that revolution is already happening (or has happened already - credit cards for example); but I would not define that as "computing". So the processor in my credit card will be smaller, but it will still be a credit card.
PCs are edging their way back to being gaming, specialist, and business machines. They're not dying, just finding a more specialized niche. People who are predicting the "death" of the PC are off the mark. They'll decline to a point, then stabilize as a much smaller industry than in its heyday
Agreeing, a parallel is in music players. Back in the 70s/80s everyone wanted a "Hi-Fi" system with separate record player, cassete recorder/player, radio, amplifier and speaker boxes, including huge woofers if they had the cash and space. People had 10 % of their living room occupied by shelving and wiring for their Hi-Fi. Some enthusiasts still have such kit (often dedicating a whole room to it), and always will, but the general population has moved onto iPods and earphones.
we did cross an ocean from the other side of the world to participate in your defense
That Atlantic voyage must have been hell. Funny that the British are usually criticised for crossing oceans too much, in 1775 for example.
Nit-picking, the USA was participating in attack, not defence. Good job, as US troops are notoriously poor in defence (except for the airborne regiments) - not being well trained for it as the US military culture places a lot of weight on elan. OTOH UK troops are generally good at defence, being well trained for it (think of colonial outposts surrounded by hostile natives) and it is also part of their attitude. An example is the Battle of the Bulge - the only troops that held under the German attack were the US Airborne regiments and the British.
I imagine the old 8" floppies... were quite sturdy and reliable, at least compared to the crap 3 1/2" floppies I had the (dis)pleasure of using...... I rarely had these problems with the 5 1/4" disks I used years before.
Old computer equipmemt from 30+ years ago were built like tanks,
You are forgetting that 3 1/2" disks were also 30+ yo tech; I have never had any trouble with them. One of the reasons for their superseding 5.25" disks was that they were more robust. I still have 3 1/2" drives in two of my PCs and only last week pulled some data off a floppy that must have been written about 20 years ago.
Your problem may have been that later floppies and drives were made with poorer quality control, it being assumed that anyone still using them was cheap and not very particular. The floppies I have kept are all branded ones and pre-1995 or thereabouts.
Let's replace the computers controlling the nuclear launch system with ones from Lenovo! ROFLMAO! After all, just about every major computer component is made in China.
But the launch staff would be outsourced to India (or replaced by H1Bs).
For an elderly person, who only has a land-line and grew up when mail and checks were the only ways to pay for things? Who doesn't even grok what an "iTunes" gift card is, and has never had a need to figure that out? I could see them thinking this must be yet another newfangled way the IRS expects payment.
No, an elderly person who does not grok what an iTunes gift card is will not even know how to buy one. It is hard enough to get elderly people to pay by credit cards, let alone by anything newer. It is younger people who might regard iTune cards as currency, especially as cash is falling out of fashion among bright young things.
They stopped calling me after I told them to kiss my ass.
That is just a co-incidence; it would not stop them. In any case it is not always the same person or outfit calling you : there is more than one of them, you know.
It shows up in that the article is about Indians scamming Americans (who are mostly white). Having said that, Indians would point out that they are brown if anything, not black.
"Apple also updated its website to remember Jobs, creating a two-minute slideshow of his various keynote presentations and most famous audio clips on the one year anniversary of his death."
So we are remembering the one year anniversary? The fourth aniversary of the one year anniversary....... right? Also let us celebrate the third anniversary of the second anniversary, because by a happy chance that is today as well.
If a person is intelligent enough to perceive the need for a device, obtain the device and install the device
They will perceive the "need" when a salesman or ad persuades them that they need it. They do not even need to be aware that the device will be part of the IoT, only that they "need" a toaster or whatever.
They will obtain the device by pulling out their wallet. (Soon it will become impossible to obtain anything else.)
They will install it by plugging it in (have you never installed a toaster before?).
I don't know where you think intelligence comes into it.
Has anyone at the top of Microsoft figured that corporate suicide isn't an achievement they should be aiming for? They keep trying harder for it every year and eventually, with enough effort, will be proud recipients.
No they won't die. Have you never seen The Terminator, Westworld or similar films and stories about The Thing That Won't Die ?
Microsoft is that - The Thing That Won't Die. No matter how much it is whacked, or whacks itself, it just gets up again like a zombie with even more wounds spouting pus over anyone who goes near it and keeps on walking and trampling with empty eye sockets and flailing arms, just like in a horror movie.
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I am Kickasstorrents
If I switched to Linux today, and refused to buy games that won't run on it..... ....I won't get to play those games. ...... The last thing I am going to do is build my life around duties imposed by some random person on the Internet.
When you got to "some random person on the internet" I immediately thought of Satya Nadella. I guess you did not mean me to think him or similar control freaks cases in the mould of Cook, Gates, Balmer and Jobs. However I am not sure what person or "duties" you are referring to.
i'm stuck with windows because it'd be far too much work having to reboot any time i want to just play a game if i dual booted.
Have two computers. With so many people replacing their desktops with tablets you can buy a very good used desktop PC for peanuts (I have four). Use one just for Windows games and be ready to re-install when it gets malware. Keep your serious work, web surfing and data on a different PC under Linux.
You have a very narrow definition of phishing, it commonly includes sending people files pretending to be a trusted source.
So? Such files are generally malware that will only run on Windows.
Because of the Terminal.....You want Linux to become more mainstream? Get rid of the Terminal
You do know that Windows has a terminal? And Windows power users use it.
Windows has a GUI that does everything,
No it doesn't. You obviously never do anything more advanced.
No workable Linux drivers for my RME Fireface audio interface
Your what?? You'd better stick with Windows then. Have a nice day.
I've got to give credit to Microsoft and Intel for making it easy to create a PC company. Intel produces a reference PC design, and a large number of chips. So, the design can get minor tweaks, for putting the design into manufacturing. So, you have to manufacture, sell, and provide warranty support for the PC. Today, manufacturing can be outsourced .....
I missed where Microsoft came in.
It was IBM who made it easy to create a PC company. When they introduced the PC they did not think it important enough (a passing fad, they preferred mainframes) to make most of the stuff themselves so they contracted it out. Intel and Microsoft were just two of those contractors. And IBM did not stop those contractors from selling the same stuff to third parties - other computer makers. So a cottage industry of PC clone makers sprang up using Intel chips and of course MSDos, among other things.
In fact Microsoft made things hard for those other PC makers - and still do - like charging silly prices and stopping them from pre-installing OS/2, Beos or Linux. Alan Sugar (of Amstrad) said of the price of Microsoft's software : "... as a computer manufacturer we are really a servant of Microsoft ... the bill of material content of our computers, the highest price ticket item in there, is the royalty we pay them [Microsoft] to put Windows in the box"
Now people didn't WANT to replace their expensive PCs every other year
Agreed. When I considered buying first PC there was a choice between 286's and 386's. 286 was regarded as perfectly satisfactory for things like word processing, spreadsheets, and simple games like Startrek and Space Invaders. For example IBM wasted massive man-years getting OS/2 to run on 286's even though the 386 was aready around. It was assumed that 386 would only ever be needed by power users and servers and that the 286 (with minor improvements) would be the processor for everyone else for ever. The hardware was built like a tank accordingly. A bit like camera makers like Nikon make a camera line for professionals and a separate line for amateurs.
But suddenly the CPU race took off. One year's "professional" PC became the following year's entry level PC. After dithering between a 286 and a 386, I actually bought a 25 MHz 486 which was soon old hat anyway.
If the CPU race is still going I have lost interest; my 10 year old PC does all I need. My bottleneck is the speed of my internet connection.
When this [nanometer transistors] is ready for mass production, we're about to see a boom in computing that will make the 80s and 90s look like nothing.
No it wont, it will just make my system unit smaller, or rather the microchips in my system unit smaller. For which I don't give a toss because my system unit is already small enough to fit unnoticed in a corner under my desk, and can already do more than I need it to as a computer despite being over 10 years old.
If you are talking about microchips getting smaller (and cheaper) enough to be put into more and more things, then that revolution is already happening (or has happened already - credit cards for example); but I would not define that as "computing". So the processor in my credit card will be smaller, but it will still be a credit card.
PCs are edging their way back to being gaming, specialist, and business machines. They're not dying, just finding a more specialized niche. People who are predicting the "death" of the PC are off the mark. They'll decline to a point, then stabilize as a much smaller industry than in its heyday
Agreeing, a parallel is in music players. Back in the 70s/80s everyone wanted a "Hi-Fi" system with separate record player, cassete recorder/player, radio, amplifier and speaker boxes, including huge woofers if they had the cash and space. People had 10 % of their living room occupied by shelving and wiring for their Hi-Fi. Some enthusiasts still have such kit (often dedicating a whole room to it), and always will, but the general population has moved onto iPods and earphones.
I dispute that Ritchie is the father of modern computing.
The GP said "Ritchie is an undisputed father of modern computing", not the father. Seems there were several fathers.
I read the GP that wrong way too at first : "Father" is not a good analogy in the case of several founders.
we did cross an ocean from the other side of the world to participate in your defense
That Atlantic voyage must have been hell. Funny that the British are usually criticised for crossing oceans too much, in 1775 for example.
Nit-picking, the USA was participating in attack, not defence. Good job, as US troops are notoriously poor in defence (except for the airborne regiments) - not being well trained for it as the US military culture places a lot of weight on elan. OTOH UK troops are generally good at defence, being well trained for it (think of colonial outposts surrounded by hostile natives) and it is also part of their attitude. An example is the Battle of the Bulge - the only troops that held under the German attack were the US Airborne regiments and the British.
I imagine the old 8" floppies ... were quite sturdy and reliable, at least compared to the crap 3 1/2" floppies I had the (dis)pleasure of using...... I rarely had these problems with the 5 1/4" disks I used years before.
Old computer equipmemt from 30+ years ago were built like tanks,
You are forgetting that 3 1/2" disks were also 30+ yo tech; I have never had any trouble with them. One of the reasons for their superseding 5.25" disks was that they were more robust. I still have 3 1/2" drives in two of my PCs and only last week pulled some data off a floppy that must have been written about 20 years ago.
Your problem may have been that later floppies and drives were made with poorer quality control, it being assumed that anyone still using them was cheap and not very particular. The floppies I have kept are all branded ones and pre-1995 or thereabouts.
Let's replace the computers controlling the nuclear launch system with ones from Lenovo! ROFLMAO! After all, just about every major computer component is made in China.
But the launch staff would be outsourced to India (or replaced by H1Bs).
For an elderly person, who only has a land-line and grew up when mail and checks were the only ways to pay for things? Who doesn't even grok what an "iTunes" gift card is, and has never had a need to figure that out? I could see them thinking this must be yet another newfangled way the IRS expects payment.
No, an elderly person who does not grok what an iTunes gift card is will not even know how to buy one. It is hard enough to get elderly people to pay by credit cards, let alone by anything newer. It is younger people who might regard iTune cards as currency, especially as cash is falling out of fashion among bright young things.
Exactly. The first thing I would do is demand an explanation of what I owe, in writing.
They stopped calling me after I told them to kiss my ass.
That is just a co-incidence; it would not stop them. In any case it is not always the same person or outfit calling you : there is more than one of them, you know.
If you are capable of building a home, you should be more than capable of dealing with scam phone calls.
Let yourself have some fun and play along with these calls. A hobby for your retirement.
It shows up in that the article is about Indians scamming Americans (who are mostly white). Having said that, Indians would point out that they are brown if anything, not black.
"Apple also updated its website to remember Jobs, creating a two-minute slideshow of his various keynote presentations and most famous audio clips on the one year anniversary of his death."
So we are remembering the one year anniversary? The fourth aniversary of the one year anniversary ....... right? Also let us celebrate the third anniversary of the second anniversary, because by a happy chance that is today as well.
There is age descrimination in the tech industry too.
None in the film industry though. Debbie Reynolds is to be Dorothy in the next remake of the Wizard of Oz; you haven't heard?.
I don't use IoT, and I will never will. No need to share with external world room temperatures, door status or garden humidity.
Ha ha! You are wrong. I spent all last night watching your garden humidity level.
If a person is intelligent enough to perceive the need for a device, obtain the device and install the device
They will perceive the "need" when a salesman or ad persuades them that they need it. They do not even need to be aware that the device will be part of the IoT, only that they "need" a toaster or whatever.
They will obtain the device by pulling out their wallet. (Soon it will become impossible to obtain anything else.)
They will install it by plugging it in (have you never installed a toaster before?).
I don't know where you think intelligence comes into it.
Has anyone at the top of Microsoft figured that corporate suicide isn't an achievement they should be aiming for? They keep trying harder for it every year and eventually, with enough effort, will be proud recipients.
No they won't die. Have you never seen The Terminator, Westworld or similar films and stories about The Thing That Won't Die ?
Microsoft is that - The Thing That Won't Die. No matter how much it is whacked, or whacks itself, it just gets up again like a zombie with even more wounds spouting pus over anyone who goes near it and keeps on walking and trampling with empty eye sockets and flailing arms, just like in a horror movie.