The reality, however, is that KDE and GNOME and all these other free desktops for Linux are years and years behind what is mainstream today.
Just because it took years for Windows to make simple improvements, doesn't mean the competition is years behind.:-)
Everytime I try out KDE I feel like I am trying to use Windows 3.0 again. It's really quite pathetic.
Evidently you haven't tried KDE lately.
I have a scanner and a webcam. Why can't I just load up a browser (or explorer or whatever you want to call it) and go to the scanner device and save an image? I can with Windows.
What makes that a feature? You might as well hammer a nail with a crescent wrench.
Why can't I ask the computer something like "how do I boldface the title" and have it tell me? I can with Windows.
Yeah, Windows is quite good at repeating the same obvious instructions to you in an endless variety of ways. Too bad you are stuck on a limb whenever you want to learn the unobvious.
I know the computer next door has a printer. Why can't I open the previously mentioned browser, find that printer and just start printing to it? I can with Windows.
Configuring a printer is not hard. Not to mention there are lots of other ways to interact with that computer next door (or across the globe) that Windows hasn't even thought of yet.
Why can't the popup menus adapt to the way I use them, prioritizing by frequency of use? That's how it works with Windows.
That's one of many areas where I'm very thankful that KDE is not Windows.
Why does KDE crash so often? I thought open source software is supposed to be high quality, emphasizing stability. Windows doesn't crash nearly as often.
I've been wrong before... but gosh, never amazingly wrong. What's your evidence that "the vast majority of people trust Microsoft and Bill Gates implicitly"??? I don't know anybody who does. And I'm not seeing too much gratuitous press favorable to MS these days, while the antitrust trial has been quite visibly the opposite.
Evidently MS has no sense of reality when it comes to its #1 problem: the company's public image is a total disaster. While most of us may use MS products, this is not because we trust them, but rather in spite of the fact that we don't.
I just imagine the vmware folks have got to be loving this. Sure MS can disallow some particular VM configuration, but that would only start a war they can't win. It's easy enough for vmware to change the virtual configuration, or give its users tools for changing it.
As for booting it native, my whole point is you don't have to. Reasons for using Windows are becoming less and less, and a VM will do just fine for those special cases.
So if the OS and other software is keyed to the machine, you can defeat the copy protection by using a virtual machine. It's already a pretty handy way to back up and share a complete installation, without the hassles of platform dependency.
Microsoft's new tactic will give their users yet another reason to install products like VMWare, and host it with an alternative platform such as Gnu/Linux.
You have a problem. Find another job, fast. You should have done that long ago anyway. Don't work on the project, talk about it or attend any meetings about it, or have anything to do with it in any way until you're gone. Then finish the damn thing and go from there.
... when a company is run by its lawyers. I ran into exactly the same thing, but in the form of an agreement I was asked to sign in return for stock options after I'd already been there a couple of years. I ended up turning down a nice wad of money, and shortly thereafter left. They just wouldn't budge the slightest in the wording of the IP agreement.
My take is that was all about gratifying some egos at the top level of management, who evidently wanted submissive employees more than good ones.
The problem with installing from someone's prepackaged binaries is that you have to wait for someone else to create them for your distribution, then you have to know where to get them from, and you have to hope that they didn't screw it up.
Many times a new version of some package comes out that I want to try, and it's only available as source code. What we need is a "universal" installer that can build a whole system or any of its parts from scratch, starting with downloading the source code.
Actually I already started a project like this, using Makefiles. Someday I'll find the time to get back to it....
Makes a lot sense to me. AMD has got to be thinking about what to do next. What kind of CPU does the market need that it doesn't have? One that can efficiently virtualize the x86 architecture, i.e., allow software like VMWare to be created without the performance hit. One that can compete in additional CPU markets like PowerPC and Alpha. One that make AMD into an innovator rather than a clone-maker. TransMeta has that kind of technology and talent pool.
A very successful commercial example of an online community, and one for
which I wrote most of the client software, is OKbridge.
OKbridge caters to serious players of contract bridge. Its appeal within
its niche is astounding, with many members who have bought a computer and
figured out how to get onto the Net just so they can join. Members create
partnerships, compete/kibitz/chat online, and meet in face-to-face tournaments
around the world. Marriages among them are common. Many world champions and
other famous personalities are regulars.
Back in the early 90's OKB was free, and the only client ran under Unix in
text mode. Now members pay around $100-200 per year for the privilege of
interacting with each other. Last I checked there were about 20,000 of them.
OKB does have free competition, including Yahoo and MSN Gaming Zone, yet
continues to thrive. It's little known outside of the bridge playing
community, and would have made an outstanding and instructive example for the
book.
I guess that's the price of progress. Too bad you can't get 2.88M floppies any more. But it's only a few more bucks for a CDROM, or a Zip drive, or LS-120.
What are you talking about? As I RTFA, I see nothing about the appeals court rendering a decision. All I see is a story saying the DoJ submitted their brief to the court.
My American Heritage Dictionary defines bias as "A preference or inclination, esp. one that inhibits impartial judgment; prejudice", and goes on to say "Bias has generally been defined as "uninformed or unintentional inclination". Clearly what matters is whether the judge formed his opinions from the evidence, or if they existed prior to the trial and clouded his judgement.
To claim bias based on the judge's expression of opinion after the trial is quite ridiculous. After all, it was his job to form an opinion.
I have volunteered at several nonprofits, setting up and maintaining networks, machines and software. Most of them are far too embroiled in real-life issues to take even an extra moment to think about operating system issues -- and if they are already using MS they will not want to switch. Also many funding agencies will routinely send them forms in MS Word or Excel format, and may require the same from them.
Nonprofits generally don't need technical training so much as knowledgable volunteer help. Their staff is overworked and far too busy to do the maintenance, even if they knew how. They routinely struggle with viruses and failing hardware.
What could work is for LUGs and other organizations to "adopt" some nonprofits, and set them up with file/database servers and database applications. Nonprofits are fine candidates for web-based or intranet applications, because they simplify maintenance.
As far as FNMA, I think the best you can do is discourage them from promoting the interests of a convicted monopoly. Go for the hardware donations, and try to drum up some action within the LUGs.
What's good about this news, assuming the new part is still SMP-capable, is you can put a couple of them into a BP6. This would be equivalent to running a pair of 533's at 100 Mhz FSB, which the 533's generally won't tolerate.
And of course some overclockability can be expected. I'll be interested to hear how much....
Slashdot Mirror
hunting down drivers on google and editing config files by hand was very educational, but not particularly speedy.
That's nowhere near realistic. I'm finding recent Mandrake releases, for example, much more painless to install than Windows. Everything is included.
of course you could just buy a machine with linux pre-installed, but then you get the choice of a dell latitude model X, or dell latitude model X.
Bull. Plenty of companies, including mine, will happily custom-build a Linux box for you with your choice of components.
I agree.
Just because it took years for Windows to make simple improvements, doesn't mean the competition is years behind. :-)
Everytime I try out KDE I feel like I am trying to use Windows 3.0 again. It's really quite pathetic.
Evidently you haven't tried KDE lately.
I have a scanner and a webcam. Why can't I just load up a browser (or explorer or whatever you want to call it) and go to the scanner device and save an image? I can with Windows.
What makes that a feature? You might as well hammer a nail with a crescent wrench.
Why can't I ask the computer something like "how do I boldface the title" and have it tell me? I can with Windows.
Yeah, Windows is quite good at repeating the same obvious instructions to you in an endless variety of ways. Too bad you are stuck on a limb whenever you want to learn the unobvious.
I know the computer next door has a printer. Why can't I open the previously mentioned browser, find that printer and just start printing to it? I can with Windows.
Configuring a printer is not hard. Not to mention there are lots of other ways to interact with that computer next door (or across the globe) that Windows hasn't even thought of yet.
Why can't the popup menus adapt to the way I use them, prioritizing by frequency of use? That's how it works with Windows.
That's one of many areas where I'm very thankful that KDE is not Windows.
Why does KDE crash so often? I thought open source software is supposed to be high quality, emphasizing stability. Windows doesn't crash nearly as often.
Huh? I think you have this backwards.
... is Fischer not playing chess online. Like how else could he get up a good game?
Moz .93 has managed to become my primary browser. It seems to be more usable and reliable than Netscape or Konqueror. And Opera is just not my style.
-- Rod
http://www.sunsetsystems.com/
Imagine what happens if these vendors all vary their own prices based on each other's prices. That could get amusing.
Dunno how the law works where you are, but in the US an offer accepted is a deal. Your wife would have been obliged to pay the 15 pounds.
Try Mozilla 0.8, provided with LM8. Excellent!
I've been wrong before... but gosh, never amazingly wrong. What's your evidence that "the vast majority of people trust Microsoft and Bill Gates implicitly"??? I don't know anybody who does. And I'm not seeing too much gratuitous press favorable to MS these days, while the antitrust trial has been quite visibly the opposite.
Evidently MS has no sense of reality when it comes to its #1 problem: the company's public image is a total disaster. While most of us may use MS products, this is not because we trust them, but rather in spite of the fact that we don't.
As for booting it native, my whole point is you don't have to. Reasons for using Windows are becoming less and less, and a VM will do just fine for those special cases.
Microsoft's new tactic will give their users yet another reason to install products like VMWare, and host it with an alternative platform such as Gnu/Linux.
Oh, and get a lawyer. Good luck.
Hernando de Soto was a 16th century explorer. As noted already, the link in the article gives no clue who Hernado is.
My take is that was all about gratifying some egos at the top level of management, who evidently wanted submissive employees more than good ones.
You'll notice that their own web site doesn't do this. Hypocrites.
Many times a new version of some package comes out that I want to try, and it's only available as source code. What we need is a "universal" installer that can build a whole system or any of its parts from scratch, starting with downloading the source code.
Actually I already started a project like this, using Makefiles. Someday I'll find the time to get back to it....
Makes a lot sense to me. AMD has got to be thinking about what to do next. What kind of CPU does the market need that it doesn't have? One that can efficiently virtualize the x86 architecture, i.e., allow software like VMWare to be created without the performance hit. One that can compete in additional CPU markets like PowerPC and Alpha. One that make AMD into an innovator rather than a clone-maker. TransMeta has that kind of technology and talent pool.
OKbridge caters to serious players of contract bridge. Its appeal within its niche is astounding, with many members who have bought a computer and figured out how to get onto the Net just so they can join. Members create partnerships, compete/kibitz/chat online, and meet in face-to-face tournaments around the world. Marriages among them are common. Many world champions and other famous personalities are regulars.
Back in the early 90's OKB was free, and the only client ran under Unix in text mode. Now members pay around $100-200 per year for the privilege of interacting with each other. Last I checked there were about 20,000 of them.
OKB does have free competition, including Yahoo and MSN Gaming Zone, yet continues to thrive. It's little known outside of the bridge playing community, and would have made an outstanding and instructive example for the book.
I guess that's the price of progress. Too bad you can't get 2.88M floppies any more. But it's only a few more bucks for a CDROM, or a Zip drive, or LS-120.
What are you talking about? As I RTFA, I see nothing about the appeals court rendering a decision. All I see is a story saying the DoJ submitted their brief to the court.
To claim bias based on the judge's expression of opinion after the trial is quite ridiculous. After all, it was his job to form an opinion.
Also if you mod something up as "underrated" then it appears with no comment (or retains the previous comment).
Nonprofits generally don't need technical training so much as knowledgable volunteer help. Their staff is overworked and far too busy to do the maintenance, even if they knew how. They routinely struggle with viruses and failing hardware.
What could work is for LUGs and other organizations to "adopt" some nonprofits, and set them up with file/database servers and database applications. Nonprofits are fine candidates for web-based or intranet applications, because they simplify maintenance.
As far as FNMA, I think the best you can do is discourage them from promoting the interests of a convicted monopoly. Go for the hardware donations, and try to drum up some action within the LUGs.
And of course some overclockability can be expected. I'll be interested to hear how much....