I'm so nice to my mum, that I kindly built her a Gentoo system from stage 1.;) She doesn't mind it, (especially since she doesn't have to fork out extra money for software). It did take a month for her to fully adjust though. She likes the fact that software is often easy for her to install (once she figures out what the name of the program is).
She has a ADSL connection with a static IP. I use that to remotely ensure her updates/reverse dependencies are all in order (until she is confident to update the software herself). I just give her a call first to make sure she turns on her computer and isn't using it.
I guess the thing she likes most of all however is how quick it is. She used to run Windows 98, and after that Mandrake, and is amazed how much quicker Gentoo made her system.
When very old hardware (2+ years) is phased out and no longer contains relevant performance-enhancing techniques, why couldn't video card manufacturers release the drivers (or at least portions of them) under the GPL?
If there are sections of code that cannot be redistributed, then let the free software communities fill in the gaps - even if that section inefficient. This would encourage new hardware buyers to purchase the brand that does this, since it will dramatically enhance the cards life expectancy.
But the name is already far too long! When I was talking to Microsoft tech support last year over a problem (which they were unable to fix since it appears to be a bug), they needed to know exactly which version of Windows I was using:
"Windows XP Service Pack 1 Upgrade Academic Retail" version. It's a mouthful.
That, Vs "Gentoo 1.4 x86 Stage 1 GNU/Linux". I just can't make it that long even when I try.:)
It's no wonder they don't support Flash on GNU/Linux systems - it's buggy as hell! I was a beta tester for Macromedia's GNU/Linux player (offered the opportunity after reporting so many bugs in FlashMX). Needless to say, many bugs never got fixed. My browser (FireFox) often crashes - and it's almost always due to a Flash-'enhanced' or Java-'enhanced' site. They should just enhance gplflash instead of making their own version, but they don't want to release the Flash specifications of new versions for quite some time after it's release (to give them an advantage over the competition).
Of course by that stage, most of the motive to develop a free software player is lost by the community anyway.
I believe it. When the cordless phone (sitting next to my PC rings), my cordless keyboard refuses to work. I also read somewhere cordless phones use 2.4Ghz, and have far greater signal strength.
I can't comment on the speed decrease of my wireless network yet, since I only connect to my dial-up router across the apartment (which is where worst possible location for the only phone socket happens to be located).
Although it's quite a distance to my WAP, I do have line of sight. I'm sure that helps quite a lot.
Actually, 802.11g can transfer up to 54Mbps (unless you don't have strong signal strength). But according to D-Link website 108Mbps wireless networks may be on the way in. I want...
"this is probably the biggest punch Microsoft has landed"
Don't you think maybe you are just a little too paranoid? I could understand this possibly being a problem for the WINE project, but I wouldn't expect it to go any futher than that. NTFS code wasn't leaked, and samba/vfat is probably already as good as it can get.
Although I don't generally use much much other than GNOME and a terminal... I think the 'Bookmarks' button (which presumably remembers commonly used folders the user specifies) comes from the mac.
Newer versions of Windows do have quicklinks to folders Microsoft says you will use frequently, but the next best thing to bookmarks is creating your own shortcut in one of those folders... Correct me if I'm wrong.
So let me get this straight... Windows ME beats Windows 98? Windows ME was the last Windows-based OS I 'upgraded' to before converting, and I can assure you it was much worse, in many many ways.
OpenOffice on OSX has fallen behind. They are only up to 1.0.3, when other supported platforms are up to 1.1
The installation process on the Mac is much harder than other platforms also. X11 (and a few other dependencies) are included in the download, making it a whopping 173MB! That's roughly 100MB more than Windows and GNU/Linux versions.
I'm certain if KOffice was ported better than OpenOffice on OSX, it would be a more popular choice for those looking for a free office suite.
Since when did being a huge Star Wars fan become a requirement for being a geek? I haven't even seen all the SW movies... I saw episode 1 and couldn't see what others saw in it.
Besides, now I don't even have a TV (although I do have a Jaton X-Media Dreambox attached between my 17" Hitachi LCD and my custom built PC running Gentoo on RAID across 4 HDDs)...
Oh well. At least I now have something for my new-years resolution, I suppose.:)
Check out www.whirlpool.net.au for a great ADSL price search engine. In the Melbourne area we have access to unlimited dowloads from IDXNet, OneStep Technology and Tel.Pacific for under AU$60, and TPG Internet will give you unlimited for under AU$50! Note that these are all 256/64, but for the price it's not bad.
My old monitor used to use an 85Hz refresh rate. When my parents brought a new computer it came with a 60Hz max refresh rate. I could tell the difference after just a few minutes of use (running office programs - didn't try games).
Then I went and brought an Hitachi 17" LCD. I couldn't believe how much easier it was on the eyes. I gave my previous monitor to my parents. They too could seriously tell the difference, and couldn't believe what a huge difference it made. Even though the screen wasn't as bright or clear as the new one, they rathered it simply for the higher refresh rate. I can't say I blame them.
FYI, AFAIK my eye sight is 20:20, but my mum wears glasses and can see very little without them. Not sure if she would be able to tell the difference if she didn't wear them though.
I was at the Royal Melbourne Show Grounds swap meet today, and saw a burner there advertised for $205. Not sure what brand it was, as I wasn't in the market for one. This is the cheapest I've ever seen in Australia though.
I don't know a thing about Solars (other than it doesn't support all my hardware), however I used to do a considerable amount of Java programming. I didn't mind Java, but some of the bugs in it just never seem to get fixed.
I think the reason some believe Sun in on SCO's side is because they used some pretty harsh language towards IBM regarding the licensing issues. Check out the Newsforge history, and see for yourself.
I remember around 1995 I went to a Melbourne Computer Expo. Every stall I went to had a pair of these JUSTer Active 75 80W speakers. They sounded awesome, and at just AU$80, I got myself a pair.
As you can see, my speakers and mouse are the odd ones out - both aren't made anymore but I'll never give them up (unless I get a bigger apartment which allows for a 5.1 speaker setup).
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I'm so nice to my mum, that I kindly built her a Gentoo system from stage 1. ;) She doesn't mind it, (especially since she doesn't have to fork out extra money for software). It did take a month for her to fully adjust though. She likes the fact that software is often easy for her to install (once she figures out what the name of the program is).
She has a ADSL connection with a static IP. I use that to remotely ensure her updates/reverse dependencies are all in order (until she is confident to update the software herself). I just give her a call first to make sure she turns on her computer and isn't using it.
I guess the thing she likes most of all however is how quick it is. She used to run Windows 98, and after that Mandrake, and is amazed how much quicker Gentoo made her system.
When very old hardware (2+ years) is phased out and no longer contains relevant performance-enhancing techniques, why couldn't video card manufacturers release the drivers (or at least portions of them) under the GPL?
If there are sections of code that cannot be redistributed, then let the free software communities fill in the gaps - even if that section inefficient. This would encourage new hardware buyers to purchase the brand that does this, since it will dramatically enhance the cards life expectancy.
But the name is already far too long! When I was talking to Microsoft tech support last year over a problem (which they were unable to fix since it appears to be a bug), they needed to know exactly which version of Windows I was using:
:)
"Windows XP Service Pack 1 Upgrade Academic Retail" version. It's a mouthful.
That, Vs "Gentoo 1.4 x86 Stage 1 GNU/Linux". I just can't make it that long even when I try.
It's no wonder they don't support Flash on GNU/Linux systems - it's buggy as hell! I was a beta tester for Macromedia's GNU/Linux player (offered the opportunity after reporting so many bugs in FlashMX). Needless to say, many bugs never got fixed. My browser (FireFox) often crashes - and it's almost always due to a Flash-'enhanced' or Java-'enhanced' site. They should just enhance gplflash instead of making their own version, but they don't want to release the Flash specifications of new versions for quite some time after it's release (to give them an advantage over the competition).
Of course by that stage, most of the motive to develop a free software player is lost by the community anyway.
I believe it. When the cordless phone (sitting next to my PC rings), my cordless keyboard refuses to work. I also read somewhere cordless phones use 2.4Ghz, and have far greater signal strength.
I can't comment on the speed decrease of my wireless network yet, since I only connect to my dial-up router across the apartment (which is where worst possible location for the only phone socket happens to be located).
Although it's quite a distance to my WAP, I do have line of sight. I'm sure that helps quite a lot.
Actually, 802.11g can transfer up to 54Mbps (unless you don't have strong signal strength). But according to D-Link website 108Mbps wireless networks may be on the way in. I want...
Since when was Solaris not UNIX?
I'm amazed Simon said that. IBM is the one fighting SCO (when people such as McBride suggested they could simply buy them out).
What did Sun do? Simply fork out the cash. Yeah, that's risky.
Yeah, but it got a score of 5!
More than 40Gb. To be exact...
1.4% of sorce code leaked, which is 600Mb worth:
x1.4 = 600
x = 600/1.4 = 428.5714 (in Mb - 1% of total Windows code)
428.5714 * 100 = 42857.1429 (in Mb)
42857.1429 - 600 = 52257.1429 (in Mb) = 41.2667 (in Gb)
A friend brought it on a trip to Hong Kong. :)
Although I don't generally use much much other than GNOME and a terminal... I think the 'Bookmarks' button (which presumably remembers commonly used folders the user specifies) comes from the mac.
Newer versions of Windows do have quicklinks to folders Microsoft says you will use frequently, but the next best thing to bookmarks is creating your own shortcut in one of those folders... Correct me if I'm wrong.
Later versions of windows are better.
So let me get this straight... Windows ME beats Windows 98? Windows ME was the last Windows-based OS I 'upgraded' to before converting, and I can assure you it was much worse, in many many ways.
OpenOffice on OSX has fallen behind. They are only up to 1.0.3, when other supported platforms are up to 1.1
The installation process on the Mac is much harder than other platforms also. X11 (and a few other dependencies) are included in the download, making it a whopping 173MB! That's roughly 100MB more than Windows and GNU/Linux versions.
I'm certain if KOffice was ported better than OpenOffice on OSX, it would be a more popular choice for those looking for a free office suite.
Similar story here. Except no CD-Man for me... I had Pacgirl! It was black and white. I also had DOS 6.22.
:)
I was real happy to get a 386.
I now run Gentoo GNU/Linux.
No doubt all geeks are familiar with this scream
:)
Since when did being a huge Star Wars fan become a requirement for being a geek? I haven't even seen all the SW movies... I saw episode 1 and couldn't see what others saw in it.
Besides, now I don't even have a TV (although I do have a Jaton X-Media Dreambox attached between my 17" Hitachi LCD and my custom built PC running Gentoo on RAID across 4 HDDs)...
Oh well. At least I now have something for my new-years resolution, I suppose.
I wondered what the hell was going on! Thanks dude.
Same deal here... under both GNU/Linux (source code) and Windows versions. I opened up the port on my firewall 4900, but it did nothing.
Someone will figure it out soon I hope, since there seems so little documentation available.
Check out www.whirlpool.net.au for a great ADSL price search engine. In the Melbourne area we have access to unlimited dowloads from IDXNet, OneStep Technology and Tel.Pacific for under AU$60, and TPG Internet will give you unlimited for under AU$50! Note that these are all 256/64, but for the price it's not bad.
My old monitor used to use an 85Hz refresh rate. When my parents brought a new computer it came with a 60Hz max refresh rate. I could tell the difference after just a few minutes of use (running office programs - didn't try games).
Then I went and brought an Hitachi 17" LCD. I couldn't believe how much easier it was on the eyes. I gave my previous monitor to my parents. They too could seriously tell the difference, and couldn't believe what a huge difference it made. Even though the screen wasn't as bright or clear as the new one, they rathered it simply for the higher refresh rate. I can't say I blame them.
FYI, AFAIK my eye sight is 20:20, but my mum wears glasses and can see very little without them. Not sure if she would be able to tell the difference if she didn't wear them though.
I was at the Royal Melbourne Show Grounds swap meet today, and saw a burner there advertised for $205. Not sure what brand it was, as I wasn't in the market for one. This is the cheapest I've ever seen in Australia though.
Macromedia tells you how to do it, but but it still requires PuTTY. I have to question how supported this configuration would actually be.
I don't know a thing about Solars (other than it doesn't support all my hardware), however I used to do a considerable amount of Java programming. I didn't mind Java, but some of the bugs in it just never seem to get fixed.
I think the reason some believe Sun in on SCO's side is because they used some pretty harsh language towards IBM regarding the licensing issues. Check out the Newsforge history, and see for yourself.
I remember around 1995 I went to a Melbourne Computer Expo. Every stall I went to had a pair of these JUSTer Active 75 80W speakers. They sounded awesome, and at just AU$80, I got myself a pair.
Nowdays, my system consists of:
Gentoo GNU/Linux 1.4
AMD Athlon XP 2100+
CoolerMaster Aero 7+ HSF
ASUS A7N8XDeluxe (nVidia nForce 2 based)
Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2x256MB & 1x512MB DDR-333 dual-channeled)
PowerColor Evil Master II Multi-Display Edition (ATi Radeon 8500)
Maxtor 60GB 2MB 7400RPM IDE
Seagate 120GB 8MB 7400RPM SATA (x2 in RAID)
Hitachi CML175SXW B 17" Multimedia TFT LCD
Pioneer 12X DVD
ASUS 52x24x52x
Enermax expensive as all hell PSU
Enermax FS-710 Aluminum case
Netgear WG311 802.11g network card
Logitech Cordless iTouch keyboard
Logitech TrackMan Marble Wheel
JUSTer Active 75 80W
As you can see, my speakers and mouse are the odd ones out - both aren't made anymore but I'll never give them up (unless I get a bigger apartment which allows for a 5.1 speaker setup).