your second and third points are just plain bullshit... if i install a program in windows 7 that needs admin access, i get a popup box where i just click accept and the program installs
user files can be overwritten in linux, but good luck trying to infect any system file without a root password
if windows 7 were as secure as linux, you wouldn't need a virus scanner for windows either
the inland taipan (aka fierce snake) is the most venomous land snake in the world. black mamba venom is apparently the fastest acting though.
average quantity of venom delivered by a fierce snake is 44 mg and the maximum dose recorded is 110 mg a black mamba bite delivers about 100-120 mg of venom on average, with the largest envenomation on record being 400 mg
ok black mamba is probably more bad-ass, but maybe throw a black mamba and a fierce snake in your luggage just to be sure anyone taking it is fucked. just be careful when you take out your trousers though, because that would be a trouser snake i wouldn't want to mess with (especially after a trip in a suitcase).
re: "I'm still not 100% sure of where everything is, and what every directory is actually for"
have a look in the windows directory... do you know what everything in there does? you're probably aware that windows has a "hosts" file? talking about complex filesystem though... rather than finding it under "/etc/hosts" as in most linux distributions, in windows you have to go down to "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"...so which has the more complex filesystem?
your view of the simplicity of the windows filesystem is again due to your familiarity with it. if you have to teach someone who has never used a computer before, it is actually easier to help them get around the linux filesystem than windows, because everything is available from the one place; user files are all located under "\home\[username]\" and in nautilus (file browser) there are shortcuts to all the usual subdirectories like music and movies. linux was clunky once upon a time, but it has come a long way in the past few years.
ubuntu (or even debian itself) is quite possibly ready for family home computer use if there is little vested interest in the microsoft ecosystem already (reliance on adobe or autodesk products for example), such as a family's first computer where mom and dad don't rely on windows-only software like photoshop. internet, email, office, music, art/graphics and even games (including many windows titles with wine) already work well under modern linux distributions, and the experience needn't be bogged down by virus and malware scanners (combined with a separate fairly commonplace modem/router with firewall used for internet access, default security options are in almost all cases adequate) or constant fear of infection, particularly with either risk of kids being exposed to malware with porn-related payloads, or teenagers downloading content from risky sites or p2p networks that may include malware.
lucky for you the united states is becoming more and more socialist with each new corporate regulation, hired public servant, drug usage incarceration, debt ceiling increase, corporate bailout, obamacare payment, mortgage foreclosure, treasury purchase by chinese government, undeclared war, etc.
a corporation isn't a citizen, nor does it have the rights of a citizen... it has the rights and responsibilities of an organization, or a group of citizens (the same as any organisation, be it charities, not-for-profits, government, etc)
that's the reason why corporations (like most other organizations) shouldn't be taxed; because they aren't individual citizens. citizens that make a corporation (stockholders, employees, customers) pay taxes as individuals. taxing an organization is double-dipping by governments, and is impeding free market capitalism in supposedly capitalist nations.
simple (if politically unpalatable) recipe for economic recovery in the united states: - amend the federal reserve act and remove the authority of the fed to print money (inflation would basically stop right then and there). - abolish corporate taxes; people would be less averse to starting new businesses and hiring staff - reduce unemployment benefits (see next item before you judge this) - abolish personal income taxes; with help from lower unemployment benefits, people would be more encouraged to look for work, and unemployment would reduce - introduce a sales tax (similar to the goods and services tax in australia); people would be more likely to save money and control spending (don't be naiive in thinking spending would stop though, because without personal income taxes consumers would also have a lot more disposable income) - no overseas military, political and economic shenannigans - free market health and education without government guarantees artificially inflating prices - shrink government, reducing the cost of maintenance
will it ever happen? probably not before a massive economic collapse, if ever
john stewart takes the piss out of government sometimes
a moron like bill o'reilly wouldn't know his own dick from a cigarette, but i think he has entertainment value, not to mention how much of an inspiration he is... if someone as stupid as bill o'reilly can make it on prime time tv, literally anyone can achieve anything
a lot of people don't really understand android... yes android is linux, but its also not. android is a layer running on top of linux. you can infect your android device with a virus, but it won't infect the underlying linux kernel operation. android may be insecure, but android is merely an application layer with some kernel mods; the kernel is still secure.
stupid users on a linux machine don't need antivirus... from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware "There has not yet been a widespread Linux malware threat of the type that Microsoft Windows software faces"... this is not merely due to linux users being smarter, as there are plenty of linux users who are just as ignorant of security aspects as their windows counterparts... most popular linux distributions come with security defaults that would protect even the most idiotic user from infecting the operating system, despite it being possible to infect user files. it's thanks to the way system file permissions are set by default, and also (in gdm anyway) a user can't login as root from the login user interface. also, any root function requires typing in a password rather than the overly simplistic (and widely ignored) click-through privelige escalation in windows.
btw i agree with your sig... although the/. mod system is also fucked
does dell offer linux on it's blade servers? if not, that could be an area they can improve on... if they can pull their head out of microsoft's asshole
re: "MS is just going to add a "Default to Desktop" option and a fucking start menu and 90% of the squeaky wheels will shut up"
yeah that's called windows 7
and what kind of unification is that? a start menu won't work on phones
i think what they are trying to do is unify as much of the codebase as possible to reduce development costs, but this unification has nothing to do with the user
the "squeaky wheels" you mention aren't microsoft's biggest worry... its the ones that aren't making a lot of noise and instead talking with their wallet by going with android, iphone, imac, ubuntu, etc. the silence of these lost sales should be deafening for microsoft... unfortunately i think it may be falling on deaf ears, not that i give a crap if microsoft's reign of doom ends
i think you're right that linux isn't all there yet for home use, but with reference to your original post, i think microsoft is facing the nasty uphill battle. it certainly won't fail even without 3rf party support. the only question for publishers like blizzard is at what market share they think they can make enough sales to justify a linux port, and apparently that point is within sight (possibly this year). if win8 doesn't pick up, the cost of migrating to the win8 ecosystem may exceed its benefits, with publishers opting to continue pushing sales for win7, and broadening their markets to mac and linux. depends on the app though (apparently there are differences in some low level canvas functions that might make things tricky).
your dad may not want to try different linux flavours, but he might think twice when his windows machine gets a virus or he can't find a setting in some obscure nest of dialogs. maybe he won't but different people have different tolerance thresholds.
re: "If he doesn't get the simplicity of Windows structures, how is he ever going to understand the arcane hodgepodge of *nix structure?"
windows is just as complex as linux, if not more so because it is full of dialogs rather than everything being available from a single command. again, the reason why most people (especially older people) feel that windows is easy and linux is just too hard is because they have grown up around windows. its the same as the lightroom/darktable comparison. if you accumulated all the hours that you have spent learing (and battling with) windows, you would find that they add up to a lot, and if you dedicated the same hours to linux you would be just as proficient (if not moreso because there is less to hinder you). most are reluctant to change because change is hard and our status quo rules. windows seems easy because we are familiar with it. i've read about how old people who have never touched a computer found linux (ubuntu in most cases) easier to get around than windows, and even old people who are somewhat familiar with windows xp found the latest ubuntu easier to work than windows 8 (not that i'm really saying much there admittedly).
re: "The one large strength of Linux in trying to gain acceptance is that there isn't A Linux"
there actually is "A Linux", and it is being taken advantage of en mass; the linux kernel. the kernel alone is where linux stands out in the crowd. the kernel is like a foundation that is strong enough to allow you to build just about anything on it, and can be used to make something massive, or make something that must take up very small space (such as in embedded). the linux kernel does all the work of hardware compatibility so that applications can be developed without worrying too much about what processor architecture you're using etc, so don't be confused by what you see on the screen. the flexibility of linux allows anyone to create their own user experience, and they have with many different flavors/distributions, but this is really a strength, not a weakness. if you are really complaining about too much choice with linux, then you need to sit back and think about what you really want, because you are free to try them all and they won't cost you a dime (except for downloading of install images). if you want ease of use, try ubuntu. if you want stability, try debian. if you want minimalist, try xfce, but there are many others that do the same. you can't really go wrong. this choice will ultimately lead to the success of linux, not its demise. linux is like the ron paul of the OS world... where other operating systems are ranting and raving about how good they are and trying to say or do whatever they think users want, linux is the underdog with a loyal and slowly but continually expanding fanbase that can only get bigger even when the others fail loudly. linux wont die and it will continue to improve. you can be sure of that.
re: "People don't want to run a server, or manage code or databases, they want to watch crappy movies, play games, and listen to music"
its funny how the things that many people take for granted depend on technologies they may not even be aware of... more and more the crappy movies, games and music that people want are being streamed off the web, which requires huge datacenters full of (in many cases) linux blades. users pay to download content, and its often cheaper for the service provider to host the content on a datacenter full of rhel blades, so for online service providers it is more profitable to host on linux. i read @ http://www.securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/freebsd-operating-system-adopted-by-netflix-for-hosting-and-what-linux-needs-to-improve-on/ that netflix hosts on freebsd servers, but linux and freebsd share similar philosophies, and someday netflix may move to linux as well. consumers are often ignorant of what they are really paying
users don't necessarily want unified interfaces across devices though... mobiles and desktop PCs are so different that its like trying to say that aircraft should have the same controls as a car (or vice versa) which is clearly stupid because they are totally different, but that's how stupid the concept of unifying interfaces in mobile and desktops seem to many people
many people complain about unity and gnome3, but at least they are changes that remain in the realm of the desktop PC where they belong... microsoft's fuck up with their interface thing is just stupid way off the charts
i dunno what they thought was going to happen... i can only imagine that the microsoft leadership thinks that they are so powerful and that microsoft is so big that they can start moulding the market to suit what they want rather than moulding their products to suit the market... i think they will eventually be reminded of how fickle the market is and how dangerous it can be for even a large company to try to play god in the consumer space, because consumer sentiment is definitely not like a government bailout where you can be assured success even if you fuck up royally... consumers will just abandon in droves (which they are)
but we as consumers needn't worry... the good thing about free markets (which are admittedly hindered in the US by government intervention) is that someone else will always come in to fill any voids in market demand... if microsoft releases a turd of a product. the really good thing is that if there is a bit more of a swell in market demand for new laptops/notebooks without windows 8 preinstalled, it may help break the microsoft stranglehold over oems.
there has been a bombing in melbourne too, and also a botched asio operation (after which parliament temporarily suspended permission for asio officials to carry firearms). sorry don't have links but giyf
we're still a backwater country... in many other countries bombings, terrorism and widespread violence are commonplace
Slashdot Mirror
apk... little help here please :)
have you got any sources for you first claim?
your second and third points are just plain bullshit... if i install a program in windows 7 that needs admin access, i get a popup box where i just click accept and the program installs
user files can be overwritten in linux, but good luck trying to infect any system file without a root password
if windows 7 were as secure as linux, you wouldn't need a virus scanner for windows either
the inland taipan (aka fierce snake) is the most venomous land snake in the world. black mamba venom is apparently the fastest acting though.
average quantity of venom delivered by a fierce snake is 44 mg and the maximum dose recorded is 110 mg
a black mamba bite delivers about 100-120 mg of venom on average, with the largest envenomation on record being 400 mg
ok black mamba is probably more bad-ass, but maybe throw a black mamba and a fierce snake in your luggage just to be sure anyone taking it is fucked. just be careful when you take out your trousers though, because that would be a trouser snake i wouldn't want to mess with (especially after a trip in a suitcase).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_taipan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_mamba
you mean rape-n-scan macines
it is against the /. tos to RTFA, and it is a crime against humanity to post any comment that doesn't start a flame war
re: "I'm still not 100% sure of where everything is, and what every directory is actually for"
have a look in the windows directory... do you know what everything in there does? you're probably aware that windows has a "hosts" file? talking about complex filesystem though... rather than finding it under "/etc/hosts" as in most linux distributions, in windows you have to go down to "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" ...so which has the more complex filesystem?
your view of the simplicity of the windows filesystem is again due to your familiarity with it. if you have to teach someone who has never used a computer before, it is actually easier to help them get around the linux filesystem than windows, because everything is available from the one place; user files are all located under "\home\[username]\" and in nautilus (file browser) there are shortcuts to all the usual subdirectories like music and movies. linux was clunky once upon a time, but it has come a long way in the past few years.
ubuntu (or even debian itself) is quite possibly ready for family home computer use if there is little vested interest in the microsoft ecosystem already (reliance on adobe or autodesk products for example), such as a family's first computer where mom and dad don't rely on windows-only software like photoshop. internet, email, office, music, art/graphics and even games (including many windows titles with wine) already work well under modern linux distributions, and the experience needn't be bogged down by virus and malware scanners (combined with a separate fairly commonplace modem/router with firewall used for internet access, default security options are in almost all cases adequate) or constant fear of infection, particularly with either risk of kids being exposed to malware with porn-related payloads, or teenagers downloading content from risky sites or p2p networks that may include malware.
omg you're a socialist!?
lucky for you the united states is becoming more and more socialist with each new corporate regulation, hired public servant, drug usage incarceration, debt ceiling increase, corporate bailout, obamacare payment, mortgage foreclosure, treasury purchase by chinese government, undeclared war, etc.
a corporation isn't a citizen, nor does it have the rights of a citizen... it has the rights and responsibilities of an organization, or a group of citizens (the same as any organisation, be it charities, not-for-profits, government, etc)
that's the reason why corporations (like most other organizations) shouldn't be taxed; because they aren't individual citizens. citizens that make a corporation (stockholders, employees, customers) pay taxes as individuals. taxing an organization is double-dipping by governments, and is impeding free market capitalism in supposedly capitalist nations.
simple (if politically unpalatable) recipe for economic recovery in the united states:
- amend the federal reserve act and remove the authority of the fed to print money (inflation would basically stop right then and there).
- abolish corporate taxes; people would be less averse to starting new businesses and hiring staff
- reduce unemployment benefits (see next item before you judge this)
- abolish personal income taxes; with help from lower unemployment benefits, people would be more encouraged to look for work, and unemployment would reduce
- introduce a sales tax (similar to the goods and services tax in australia); people would be more likely to save money and control spending (don't be naiive in thinking spending would stop though, because without personal income taxes consumers would also have a lot more disposable income)
- no overseas military, political and economic shenannigans
- free market health and education without government guarantees artificially inflating prices
- shrink government, reducing the cost of maintenance
will it ever happen? probably not before a massive economic collapse, if ever
john stewart takes the piss out of government sometimes
a moron like bill o'reilly wouldn't know his own dick from a cigarette, but i think he has entertainment value, not to mention how much of an inspiration he is... if someone as stupid as bill o'reilly can make it on prime time tv, literally anyone can achieve anything
the unwillingness of americans to wipe their own asses is the real cause
you can't have a facility on LV426 without the map table... else how will ripley figure out where to put the blockades?
affirmative
ps... i so want one of those sentry guns mwahahaha!
you could put it on the floor and invite some friends to play twister on it
re: "statefully allow outgoing connections and their coresponding responses"
isn't that what NAT does?
a lot of people don't really understand android... yes android is linux, but its also not. android is a layer running on top of linux. you can infect your android device with a virus, but it won't infect the underlying linux kernel operation. android may be insecure, but android is merely an application layer with some kernel mods; the kernel is still secure.
stupid users on a linux machine don't need antivirus... from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware "There has not yet been a widespread Linux malware threat of the type that Microsoft Windows software faces"... this is not merely due to linux users being smarter, as there are plenty of linux users who are just as ignorant of security aspects as their windows counterparts... most popular linux distributions come with security defaults that would protect even the most idiotic user from infecting the operating system, despite it being possible to infect user files. it's thanks to the way system file permissions are set by default, and also (in gdm anyway) a user can't login as root from the login user interface. also, any root function requires typing in a password rather than the overly simplistic (and widely ignored) click-through privelige escalation in windows.
btw i agree with your sig... although the /. mod system is also fucked
does dell offer linux on it's blade servers? if not, that could be an area they can improve on... if they can pull their head out of microsoft's asshole
re: "MS is just going to add a "Default to Desktop" option and a fucking start menu and 90% of the squeaky wheels will shut up"
yeah that's called windows 7
and what kind of unification is that? a start menu won't work on phones
i think what they are trying to do is unify as much of the codebase as possible to reduce development costs, but this unification has nothing to do with the user
the "squeaky wheels" you mention aren't microsoft's biggest worry... its the ones that aren't making a lot of noise and instead talking with their wallet by going with android, iphone, imac, ubuntu, etc. the silence of these lost sales should be deafening for microsoft... unfortunately i think it may be falling on deaf ears, not that i give a crap if microsoft's reign of doom ends
i think you're right that linux isn't all there yet for home use, but with reference to your original post, i think microsoft is facing the nasty uphill battle.
it certainly won't fail even without 3rf party support. the only question for publishers like blizzard is at what market share they think they can make enough sales to justify a linux port, and apparently that point is within sight (possibly this year).
if win8 doesn't pick up, the cost of migrating to the win8 ecosystem may exceed its benefits, with publishers opting to continue pushing sales for win7, and broadening their markets to mac and linux. depends on the app though (apparently there are differences in some low level canvas functions that might make things tricky).
your dad may not want to try different linux flavours, but he might think twice when his windows machine gets a virus or he can't find a setting in some obscure nest of dialogs. maybe he won't but different people have different tolerance thresholds.
cheers
re: "If he doesn't get the simplicity of Windows structures, how is he ever going to understand the arcane hodgepodge of *nix structure?"
windows is just as complex as linux, if not more so because it is full of dialogs rather than everything being available from a single command. again, the reason why most people (especially older people) feel that windows is easy and linux is just too hard is because they have grown up around windows. its the same as the lightroom/darktable comparison. if you accumulated all the hours that you have spent learing (and battling with) windows, you would find that they add up to a lot, and if you dedicated the same hours to linux you would be just as proficient (if not moreso because there is less to hinder you). most are reluctant to change because change is hard and our status quo rules. windows seems easy because we are familiar with it. i've read about how old people who have never touched a computer found linux (ubuntu in most cases) easier to get around than windows, and even old people who are somewhat familiar with windows xp found the latest ubuntu easier to work than windows 8 (not that i'm really saying much there admittedly).
re: "The one large strength of Linux in trying to gain acceptance is that there isn't A Linux"
there actually is "A Linux", and it is being taken advantage of en mass; the linux kernel. the kernel alone is where linux stands out in the crowd. the kernel is like a foundation that is strong enough to allow you to build just about anything on it, and can be used to make something massive, or make something that must take up very small space (such as in embedded). the linux kernel does all the work of hardware compatibility so that applications can be developed without worrying too much about what processor architecture you're using etc, so don't be confused by what you see on the screen. the flexibility of linux allows anyone to create their own user experience, and they have with many different flavors/distributions, but this is really a strength, not a weakness. if you are really complaining about too much choice with linux, then you need to sit back and think about what you really want, because you are free to try them all and they won't cost you a dime (except for downloading of install images). if you want ease of use, try ubuntu. if you want stability, try debian. if you want minimalist, try xfce, but there are many others that do the same. you can't really go wrong. this choice will ultimately lead to the success of linux, not its demise. linux is like the ron paul of the OS world... where other operating systems are ranting and raving about how good they are and trying to say or do whatever they think users want, linux is the underdog with a loyal and slowly but continually expanding fanbase that can only get bigger even when the others fail loudly. linux wont die and it will continue to improve. you can be sure of that.
re: "People don't want to run a server, or manage code or databases, they want to watch crappy movies, play games, and listen to music"
its funny how the things that many people take for granted depend on technologies they may not even be aware of... more and more the crappy movies, games and music that people want are being streamed off the web, which requires huge datacenters full of (in many cases) linux blades. users pay to download content, and its often cheaper for the service provider to host the content on a datacenter full of rhel blades, so for online service providers it is more profitable to host on linux. i read @ http://www.securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/freebsd-operating-system-adopted-by-netflix-for-hosting-and-what-linux-needs-to-improve-on/ that netflix hosts on freebsd servers, but linux and freebsd share similar philosophies, and someday netflix may move to linux as well. consumers are often ignorant of what they are really paying
users don't necessarily want unified interfaces across devices though... mobiles and desktop PCs are so different that its like trying to say that aircraft should have the same controls as a car (or vice versa) which is clearly stupid because they are totally different, but that's how stupid the concept of unifying interfaces in mobile and desktops seem to many people
many people complain about unity and gnome3, but at least they are changes that remain in the realm of the desktop PC where they belong... microsoft's fuck up with their interface thing is just stupid way off the charts
i dunno what they thought was going to happen... i can only imagine that the microsoft leadership thinks that they are so powerful and that microsoft is so big that they can start moulding the market to suit what they want rather than moulding their products to suit the market... i think they will eventually be reminded of how fickle the market is and how dangerous it can be for even a large company to try to play god in the consumer space, because consumer sentiment is definitely not like a government bailout where you can be assured success even if you fuck up royally... consumers will just abandon in droves (which they are)
but we as consumers needn't worry... the good thing about free markets (which are admittedly hindered in the US by government intervention) is that someone else will always come in to fill any voids in market demand... if microsoft releases a turd of a product. the really good thing is that if there is a bit more of a swell in market demand for new laptops/notebooks without windows 8 preinstalled, it may help break the microsoft stranglehold over oems.
there has been a bombing in melbourne too, and also a botched asio operation (after which parliament temporarily suspended permission for asio officials to carry firearms). sorry don't have links but giyf
we're still a backwater country... in many other countries bombings, terrorism and widespread violence are commonplace
sorry wasn't talking about note... i was talking about galaxy s2 and s3 (phones)
tablets are a bit harder to predict cos let people have them
...and yet despite all its flaws and whatever nokia is doing, it still sells like hotcakes
maybe i should patent that
or you can grab it off them and throw it against a wall, and then say "oh man i thought you had a spider on you"
smart