I bought my iPad as an ebook reader. Kindle is nice for novels, but it's awful for textbooks.
However, just 10 minutes ago I was reading with my iPad outside and it popped up a warning that it was overheating, and I'd have to wait for it to cool down. It's only 75 degrees out!
It crashes constantly on my machine. Windows 7 64 bit. The very first time I launched it, it crashed, and when it restores the tab, it crashes again. I'm very disappointed with it, but I also understand it's a beta and will reserve judgment until the release.
I don't have to wait for pages to load so I'm getting to the point much more quickly.
The netflix app, at least on iPad, is pretty much just their website in a UIWebview element. Personally I think it's awfully slow and a pain in the ass.
They're late? You make it sound like this is a mature, stagnated market, while it really only started 4 years ago, and took off in 2008 with the release of the iPhone 3G and Android. The market is still growing, market share is rapidly fluctuating, and it seems like the perfect time to get into the game.
I don't understand your point. There is a baseline hardware requirement, but you can certainly make it better: better screen, more RAM, etc. It's true that device manufacturers can't reskin the whole UI, but they can certainly pre-load it with applications and a custom hub or custom tiles. Manufacturers can further decide on form factor (whether to include a slide out keyboard, etc.).
I feel this allows a great deal of latitude for manufacturers to differentiate their phones while maintaining a minimum level of expected functionality. I certainly wouldn't go for the cheapest if there was another phone with a larger, higher-res screen, better camera, and a slick high quality chassis.
Look at what Microsoft had to do to get print to PDF working in Office. It was originally included by default, then became an optional download because Adobe had a problem with it. Imagine what kind of objections Adobe would raise if they integrated it into Windows.
Right, the profit is ink, and newer printers support ink-hungry features like photo printing. I recently set up an HP with a tray for photograph sized paper. Of course they recommend you only use HP branded photo paper.
the number of things in the sys tray that keep asking me if I want to update
In windows 7 you have fine control over what gets to notify you in the sys tray
the number of simple apps that it misses that I can't get without having to pay for
There is plenty of freeware out there for windows as well. I'm not sure what your problem is with screenshots, but that's what snipping tool is for
bloated anti-virus/spyware you end up installing
Don't go with Norton/Mcaffe. They are indeed bloated and suck. There are a number of free anti-virus solutions which are relatively slim, including MS Security Essentials, AVG, and Avast
having to hunt around on sites for drivers that don't get found
Most drivers are found through windows update these days. If they're not there, Windows Action Center will usually link you right to the MFG download page. If not you can certainly go there yourself and download it. From my experience, I've had more trouble with missing drivers in Linux
Until Win7 gets the equivalent of apt-get and a similar size software repository, it's not yet there for me in terms of desktop use.
People who use windows don't want apt-get. Most of us prefer a GUI to a CLI. Also, the lack of software, free or otherwise, is not a problem Windows has. It might be nice to have a centralized location to find it, but that approach has it's own problems, and it's honestly not something Windows users are clamoring for anyway.
I just bought an HP Envy 14 for $1400 with a 30% off coupon to bring it down to $980. Compared to a macbook pro 15, it's over $1000 cheaper with better specs. Equivalent CPU, same RAM, faster graphics, SSD, better resolution. Of course there are more ports too, including HDMI and eSATA. Also throw in a backlit keyboard, slot loading DVD, aluminum enclosure, and dimensions that are lighter and just about as thin.
Also, there are plenty of free antivirus options out there, one of the best from Microsoft (Security Essentials). And I don't know why you would have to reinstall every 6 months. That just seems bizarre.
So from my perspective, you're paying $1000 for an apple logo and OSX. Not worth it for me.
then a while later installed Ubuntu. I used a theme similar to XP, she loved it, and my workload dropped about 90%.
I fought the same battle as you, and my solution in the end was to install Linux. I thought I was golden until she wanted a piece of software installed that her craft guild uses for accounting. Oh, and then there was the all in one printer she couldn't install. She was following the directions to insert the CD and wait for the installer to start, but "for some reason" it never came up.
These and other reasons drove me to re-install windows, but 7 this time rather than XP. I've actually had less support calls with 7 than with either XP or Ubuntu.
At this point, most devices have been updated to at least officially support Vista (and, by proxy, 7)
In general, yes that is true. However, printer and scanner manufacturers have been notorious with their lack of legacy support for Windows 7/Vista, let alone 64 bit versions. Sure, their new scanners and printers have full support and work fine, but if your printer is more than a few years old (released before Vista) you're very lucky if you 32 bit drivers which enable even half the functionality.
I wonder if this is a conscious decision by the manufacturers, who think you'll blame the OS for your problems, and that you're more likely to buy a new printer than convert to an entirely new OS. After all, the printer worked fine until you got a new computer! Honestly, that doesn't seem so far fetched to me.
If the student is capable of getting the answers right, what difference does it make how it's obtained.
This is the attitude of many of my classmates. Maybe it was how they were brought up, but they believe the most important thing is getting the answer correct. Given this belief, the most logical course of action is to memorize the solutions to problems, and then regurgitate them on the test. They do very well, granted, but come next semester it's like they have amnesia, as they ask very fundamental questions they should have already learned the answers to.
This idea that getting the answer right is just fine if your aspirations are to do everything that's already been done before. But remember, the most successful people and companies are solving problems that have never been answered. If your employees are looking up your business solutions on google, you're never going to be as successful as the ones who put those answers there.
And I guarantee you the companies and people finding these answers never had this mentality of "the answer is all that matters"
I started reading your comment imagining you as an old, gray man, hunched over a computer typing this out. Then I read that you stuck your information in graphing calculators and I realized "Wait.... I did that. Crap... I was in school 10 years ago too."
The sad part is 10 years later I'm still in school, and I bet some of my undergrads (I'm a TA) think of me as "old"
I'm sorry, you readily admit that you haven't used Windows in 10 years, yet you're making assertions about a version released 11 months ago. Where are you gaining this insight?
It has been a long time that I had to enter my root password in the gui for some software, and that was only for installation. And as such when expected.
That's the default behavior in Windows 7.
It it seems that many many programs routinely ask for privilege escalation. Often unexpected.
It seems? So you're basing these comments off of something, rather than blowing hot air? I would love to see some examples of these mysterious and unexpected UAC prompts. SInce you've never used Windows 7, I'm sure this will be a hard request.
And users do not even have to enter a password, they just have to click . Have them enter their password all the time and they would at least get more annoyed, and that may also cause software to be fixed.
What's the difference? So they have to click instead of entering "123" and you've slowed them down a 10th of a second. And seriously, this is the Linux user's solution to a user problem? Modify the behavior by making the UI a pain in the ass and pissing the user off? No wonder no one uses your OS.
However what it can not do is install and hide itself into some system directory, making detection and cleaning an infection much easier on Linux.
I'm sorry, root can do absolutely ANYTHING to a Linux machine. If a user is convinced (through way of enticing screensaver) to give a malicious piece of code root access, what exactly is stopping it from destroying the system? Also for most users destroying home is equivalent to destroying the system.
And that is not even looking at the many many security bugs that are still present in Windows.
Because we all know Linux is bug free
OS-9 had become a mess. Insecure, buggy, unstable, unmaintainable. So they started anew, and very successful.
If you had even bothered to use Windows 7, you wold know it's stable, fast, secure, and a pleasure to use. At least that's the general consensus. Of course you should actually, I don't now, USE the software before you critique it. I still can't believe you're basing these assertions from your experience with pre-SP1 XP
That's the difference between official repos endorsed and maintained by your distribution and unofficial third-party repos. It certainly doesn't make it impossible, nor is this the intent of the design, but it does ensure that a user who selects third-party repos is doing so at their own risk and has to take the intiative to make them available. That's still a damn sight better than the way things work on Windows.
Except the official repos don't contain every piece of software out there. I recently tried out the new beta of Ubuntu, and the very first piece of software I wanted to install wasn't in the repo (Opera).
So say I set a user up with Ubuntu, and tell him to only install software from the package manager. Well, he doesn't care about 99% of the packages in there anyway; he wants software_X which isn't part of the repo, so he searches on how to find it. He stumbles upon some instructions, enters his password happily when prompted, and is saddled with the same worm we're talking about today.
How has the package manager played any part in saving this user from himself? A package manager is only a form of security if it is the ONLY way to load software onto the machine, and as Apple is finding out it starts getting awful hard approving what software gets admitted
There's a significant difference there. Not the least of which is that a user has to go out of their way (often editing config files) to enable a third-party repo.
So the system is more secure because it's a pain in the ass to install new software outside of the distribution's repo, malicious or otherwise. Of course as I've stated above, it really isn't all that hard to install third party software outside of the distro's repo.
But as you point out seat belts only work if people use them, and if you remember, there was a lot of resistance to the idea despite the evidence that seat belts save lives. My grandmother refuses to wear one to this day because it's "uncomfortable."
If these people wouldn't change change their behavior if their lives literally depended on it. What makes you think they'll stick in their trusty repo garden?
And as DragonWriter pointed out, if users are taught to trust repos, it's only a matter of time until these users are directed to a "sexy celeb screensaver" repo of filth.
I think the point is Microsoft waits until most users aren't using a particular operating system before dropping support. Support for XP is going on 10 years now, and will go for 13 since proportionately many users are (and will be) using it. How many users were using Windows 98 in 2006?
This is opposed to Apple, who for example released secrity updates to 10.4 for only 4 years. Oh, and of course who dropped all future OS support for hardware produced before 2006.
A repository wouldn't change anything in this situation. It's incredible, but I guarantee you most people who installed this probably have heard that malware can come in e-mail attachments. My direct family is all aware of this, and how many times have I been called over to fix something because they thought it was "okay?" Another poster here related how his friend downloaded this very worm, despite the fact he thought it was shady.
So we have a situation where users are happy to install programs not just from an unknown source, but from a very likely unsafe source! Why? Who knows? They need to see that latests celeb sex tape or are waiting for an attachment and didn't pay close attention what they're clicking on.
So yeah, let's give these users a repo and tell them it's safe and they can only install programs from there. Oh but wait, now they want a piece of software that isn't in the repo, and again we're in a situation where users have to judge for themselves how legitimate a piece of software is; I've already demonstrated how that usually turns out.
The default UAC behavior in Windows 7 is to notify when installing programs and when programs try to change protected Windows settings on their own. The ONLY time I see a UAC prompt is when I install software. How is this unreasonable?
So instead of uploading and downloading my files to my mail server I can upload and download my files from drop box, which of course installs a nice little program to run on my computer and eat up 50mb or RAM.
Or do you complain that a netbook can't do something
My netbook can save files and print them. This is nuts and bolts we're talking about.
unless you go out and buy one and then the problem is resolved.
Capacitive styluses suck. The point has to be large, to emulate a finger. I have penultimate, and the palm rejection is passable, but not up to the level of what I'm use to with an active digitizer.
Besides, penultimate doesn't offer all the benefits programs like oneNote do, like note searching, aggregating, printing, sharing (you can e-mail, but it's sent in a png and not editable). If the only benefit is I look cool while taking (sub-par) notes, I'd rather pen and paper.
Slashdot Mirror
However, just 10 minutes ago I was reading with my iPad outside and it popped up a warning that it was overheating, and I'd have to wait for it to cool down. It's only 75 degrees out!
It crashes constantly on my machine. Windows 7 64 bit. The very first time I launched it, it crashed, and when it restores the tab, it crashes again. I'm very disappointed with it, but I also understand it's a beta and will reserve judgment until the release.
I don't have to wait for pages to load so I'm getting to the point much more quickly.
The netflix app, at least on iPad, is pretty much just their website in a UIWebview element. Personally I think it's awfully slow and a pain in the ass.
They're late? You make it sound like this is a mature, stagnated market, while it really only started 4 years ago, and took off in 2008 with the release of the iPhone 3G and Android. The market is still growing, market share is rapidly fluctuating, and it seems like the perfect time to get into the game.
I don't understand your point. There is a baseline hardware requirement, but you can certainly make it better: better screen, more RAM, etc. It's true that device manufacturers can't reskin the whole UI, but they can certainly pre-load it with applications and a custom hub or custom tiles. Manufacturers can further decide on form factor (whether to include a slide out keyboard, etc.).
I feel this allows a great deal of latitude for manufacturers to differentiate their phones while maintaining a minimum level of expected functionality. I certainly wouldn't go for the cheapest if there was another phone with a larger, higher-res screen, better camera, and a slick high quality chassis.
Look at what Microsoft had to do to get print to PDF working in Office. It was originally included by default, then became an optional download because Adobe had a problem with it. Imagine what kind of objections Adobe would raise if they integrated it into Windows.
Right, the profit is ink, and newer printers support ink-hungry features like photo printing. I recently set up an HP with a tray for photograph sized paper. Of course they recommend you only use HP branded photo paper.
the number of things in the sys tray that keep asking me if I want to update
In windows 7 you have fine control over what gets to notify you in the sys tray
the number of simple apps that it misses that I can't get without having to pay for
There is plenty of freeware out there for windows as well. I'm not sure what your problem is with screenshots, but that's what snipping tool is for
bloated anti-virus/spyware you end up installing
Don't go with Norton/Mcaffe. They are indeed bloated and suck. There are a number of free anti-virus solutions which are relatively slim, including MS Security Essentials, AVG, and Avast
having to hunt around on sites for drivers that don't get found
Most drivers are found through windows update these days. If they're not there, Windows Action Center will usually link you right to the MFG download page. If not you can certainly go there yourself and download it. From my experience, I've had more trouble with missing drivers in Linux
Until Win7 gets the equivalent of apt-get and a similar size software repository, it's not yet there for me in terms of desktop use.
People who use windows don't want apt-get. Most of us prefer a GUI to a CLI. Also, the lack of software, free or otherwise, is not a problem Windows has. It might be nice to have a centralized location to find it, but that approach has it's own problems, and it's honestly not something Windows users are clamoring for anyway.
I just bought an HP Envy 14 for $1400 with a 30% off coupon to bring it down to $980. Compared to a macbook pro 15, it's over $1000 cheaper with better specs. Equivalent CPU, same RAM, faster graphics, SSD, better resolution. Of course there are more ports too, including HDMI and eSATA. Also throw in a backlit keyboard, slot loading DVD, aluminum enclosure, and dimensions that are lighter and just about as thin.
Also, there are plenty of free antivirus options out there, one of the best from Microsoft (Security Essentials). And I don't know why you would have to reinstall every 6 months. That just seems bizarre.
So from my perspective, you're paying $1000 for an apple logo and OSX. Not worth it for me.
then a while later installed Ubuntu. I used a theme similar to XP, she loved it, and my workload dropped about 90%.
I fought the same battle as you, and my solution in the end was to install Linux. I thought I was golden until she wanted a piece of software installed that her craft guild uses for accounting. Oh, and then there was the all in one printer she couldn't install. She was following the directions to insert the CD and wait for the installer to start, but "for some reason" it never came up.
These and other reasons drove me to re-install windows, but 7 this time rather than XP. I've actually had less support calls with 7 than with either XP or Ubuntu.
At this point, most devices have been updated to at least officially support Vista (and, by proxy, 7)
In general, yes that is true. However, printer and scanner manufacturers have been notorious with their lack of legacy support for Windows 7/Vista, let alone 64 bit versions. Sure, their new scanners and printers have full support and work fine, but if your printer is more than a few years old (released before Vista) you're very lucky if you 32 bit drivers which enable even half the functionality.
I wonder if this is a conscious decision by the manufacturers, who think you'll blame the OS for your problems, and that you're more likely to buy a new printer than convert to an entirely new OS. After all, the printer worked fine until you got a new computer! Honestly, that doesn't seem so far fetched to me.
If the student is capable of getting the answers right, what difference does it make how it's obtained.
This is the attitude of many of my classmates. Maybe it was how they were brought up, but they believe the most important thing is getting the answer correct. Given this belief, the most logical course of action is to memorize the solutions to problems, and then regurgitate them on the test. They do very well, granted, but come next semester it's like they have amnesia, as they ask very fundamental questions they should have already learned the answers to.
This idea that getting the answer right is just fine if your aspirations are to do everything that's already been done before. But remember, the most successful people and companies are solving problems that have never been answered. If your employees are looking up your business solutions on google, you're never going to be as successful as the ones who put those answers there.
And I guarantee you the companies and people finding these answers never had this mentality of "the answer is all that matters"
I started reading your comment imagining you as an old, gray man, hunched over a computer typing this out. Then I read that you stuck your information in graphing calculators and I realized "Wait.... I did that. Crap... I was in school 10 years ago too."
The sad part is 10 years later I'm still in school, and I bet some of my undergrads (I'm a TA) think of me as "old"
Depends if you're hemorrhaging all over the operating room. 5 minutes could be the difference between life and death.
I'm sorry, you readily admit that you haven't used Windows in 10 years, yet you're making assertions about a version released 11 months ago. Where are you gaining this insight?
It has been a long time that I had to enter my root password in the gui for some software, and that was only for installation. And as such when expected.
That's the default behavior in Windows 7.
It it seems that many many programs routinely ask for privilege escalation. Often unexpected.
It seems? So you're basing these comments off of something, rather than blowing hot air? I would love to see some examples of these mysterious and unexpected UAC prompts. SInce you've never used Windows 7, I'm sure this will be a hard request.
And users do not even have to enter a password, they just have to click . Have them enter their password all the time and they would at least get more annoyed, and that may also cause software to be fixed.
What's the difference? So they have to click instead of entering "123" and you've slowed them down a 10th of a second. And seriously, this is the Linux user's solution to a user problem? Modify the behavior by making the UI a pain in the ass and pissing the user off? No wonder no one uses your OS.
However what it can not do is install and hide itself into some system directory, making detection and cleaning an infection much easier on Linux.
I'm sorry, root can do absolutely ANYTHING to a Linux machine. If a user is convinced (through way of enticing screensaver) to give a malicious piece of code root access, what exactly is stopping it from destroying the system? Also for most users destroying home is equivalent to destroying the system.
And that is not even looking at the many many security bugs that are still present in Windows.
Because we all know Linux is bug free
OS-9 had become a mess. Insecure, buggy, unstable, unmaintainable. So they started anew, and very successful.
If you had even bothered to use Windows 7, you wold know it's stable, fast, secure, and a pleasure to use. At least that's the general consensus. Of course you should actually, I don't now, USE the software before you critique it. I still can't believe you're basing these assertions from your experience with pre-SP1 XP
That's the difference between official repos endorsed and maintained by your distribution and unofficial third-party repos. It certainly doesn't make it impossible, nor is this the intent of the design, but it does ensure that a user who selects third-party repos is doing so at their own risk and has to take the intiative to make them available. That's still a damn sight better than the way things work on Windows.
Except the official repos don't contain every piece of software out there. I recently tried out the new beta of Ubuntu, and the very first piece of software I wanted to install wasn't in the repo (Opera).
So say I set a user up with Ubuntu, and tell him to only install software from the package manager. Well, he doesn't care about 99% of the packages in there anyway; he wants software_X which isn't part of the repo, so he searches on how to find it. He stumbles upon some instructions, enters his password happily when prompted, and is saddled with the same worm we're talking about today.
How has the package manager played any part in saving this user from himself? A package manager is only a form of security if it is the ONLY way to load software onto the machine, and as Apple is finding out it starts getting awful hard approving what software gets admitted
There's a significant difference there. Not the least of which is that a user has to go out of their way (often editing config files) to enable a third-party repo.
So the system is more secure because it's a pain in the ass to install new software outside of the distribution's repo, malicious or otherwise. Of course as I've stated above, it really isn't all that hard to install third party software outside of the distro's repo.
But as you point out seat belts only work if people use them, and if you remember, there was a lot of resistance to the idea despite the evidence that seat belts save lives. My grandmother refuses to wear one to this day because it's "uncomfortable."
If these people wouldn't change change their behavior if their lives literally depended on it. What makes you think they'll stick in their trusty repo garden?
And as DragonWriter pointed out, if users are taught to trust repos, it's only a matter of time until these users are directed to a "sexy celeb screensaver" repo of filth.
I think the point is Microsoft waits until most users aren't using a particular operating system before dropping support. Support for XP is going on 10 years now, and will go for 13 since proportionately many users are (and will be) using it. How many users were using Windows 98 in 2006?
This is opposed to Apple, who for example released secrity updates to 10.4 for only 4 years. Oh, and of course who dropped all future OS support for hardware produced before 2006.
A repository wouldn't change anything in this situation. It's incredible, but I guarantee you most people who installed this probably have heard that malware can come in e-mail attachments. My direct family is all aware of this, and how many times have I been called over to fix something because they thought it was "okay?" Another poster here related how his friend downloaded this very worm, despite the fact he thought it was shady.
So we have a situation where users are happy to install programs not just from an unknown source, but from a very likely unsafe source! Why? Who knows? They need to see that latests celeb sex tape or are waiting for an attachment and didn't pay close attention what they're clicking on.
So yeah, let's give these users a repo and tell them it's safe and they can only install programs from there. Oh but wait, now they want a piece of software that isn't in the repo, and again we're in a situation where users have to judge for themselves how legitimate a piece of software is; I've already demonstrated how that usually turns out.
If the user is hell bent on installing anything he wants on his system, no operating system will stop him.
The default UAC behavior in Windows 7 is to notify when installing programs and when programs try to change protected Windows settings on their own. The ONLY time I see a UAC prompt is when I install software. How is this unreasonable?
And if these users were on Linux they'd happily bang away their password when prompted.
Or is the iPad made of magical pixie dust
I believe the word "magic" made it to the stage more than a few times during the launch keynote.
So instead of uploading and downloading my files to my mail server I can upload and download my files from drop box, which of course installs a nice little program to run on my computer and eat up 50mb or RAM.
It's called GoodReader and it is hardly a hack.
Right, because a 9 step process isn't a hack.
http://www.gilsmethod.com/how-to-save-pdfs-from-the-web-on-your-ipad
Or do you complain that a netbook can't do something
My netbook can save files and print them. This is nuts and bolts we're talking about.
unless you go out and buy one and then the problem is resolved.
Capacitive styluses suck. The point has to be large, to emulate a finger. I have penultimate, and the palm rejection is passable, but not up to the level of what I'm use to with an active digitizer.
Besides, penultimate doesn't offer all the benefits programs like oneNote do, like note searching, aggregating, printing, sharing (you can e-mail, but it's sent in a png and not editable). If the only benefit is I look cool while taking (sub-par) notes, I'd rather pen and paper.