The Alpha version of NT 4 and Windows 2000 release candidates could run x86 code fairly well. I do admit the Alpha was very very fast and ahead of its time so emulating x86 in Arm would suck goatballs but it could be possible.
Gnome has not supported BSD in a very long time. The one included with FreeBSD (Keep in mind I quit using it when 5.x came out) is heavily patched as Gnome only works with ALSA and not OSS and other weird Linux specific things. It is heavily patched to even compile yet run on non Linux platforms for these reasons.
I used to use FreeBSD and Gnome was becoming an annoyance back then. Gnome started doing things like dumping OSS for ALSA and using video standards taht only worked under Linux.
If you used Gnome 2.0 or 2.2 under BSD you are using a heavily patched version that grew more and more significantly different as Gnome matured. Sun called their gui the Java desktop as it was mere Gnome based for Solaris. I remember an interview with the FreeBSD team where they were clashing with gnome developers. The problem is KDE 4 was so aweful that many Unix users wanted to switch to Gnome as a result.
I have not ran FreeBSD in many years as I use Linux on a VM partition inside Windows 7 but it seems Unix is still more a server oriented platform anyway which is why I do not run it natively anymore. I do admit Gnome-Shell/Unity and KDE 4 is what made me dump Linux for good as my main OS so I am prejudiced agaisn't Gnome.
Complaining? Well if Google wants me or Dr. Spork to change they need to fix it is all he is saying.
I have been using Chrome more and more since so many slashdotters and reviewers claim how much better it is and faster. But UI annoyances is what keeps me from adopting. I like all 3 major browsers under Windows but dislike what Chrome is doing to the UI. Otherwise I do feel it is slightly snappier and lighter than Firefox, so I switched back to Firefox this week
What bothered me is Chrome's removal of the bookmars bar. Now it is hidden under the settings menu. I should not have to do this each time I want to go to a bookmark. Worse, they removed the Google search engine bar at the top of the screen. Now I have to hit delete on an url and type whatever I want or click new tab and then type it. Under IE 9 and Firefox I just type in the search bar.
Seriously Google, you are not saving space by removing these.
"I am starting to dislike progress. I need a drink."
I hear you. I had the unfortunate experience with using Fedora 15 with Gnome-shell last night. I just wiped the virtual partition and am installing Fedora 14 with Gnome 2.x for my unix web development. Sure I only have Postgresql 8.x and not 9.0.3 but I keep my sanity in the process.
All I have to say is thank god for competition with 2 other good browsers. IE 9 actually doesn't suck! It is stunning and fast and in the same league as Firefox 4 and Chrome 10. Competition is a beautiful thing. Issue I have is that Firefox 4 does not accelerate video on Linux so if you have Ubuntu or Fedora you are stuck with Chrome if you want a semi good browsing experience which is annoying.
VirtualBox and VirtualPC with FreeDOS. A poster told me that VirtualPC has Dos guest additions and I use VirtualBox for different operanting systems and do not know if it has a guest addition or not. Are they fully integrated like running a dos app in NT 4? No. But with the additions you can share folders between users and the FreeDOS has a native TCP/IP stack so it is network accessible.
Your users may have to save files to folders and drag them into the shared folders though. Sucks but it will work. Or get management to upgrade after seeing the complaints... ha ha ya right.
Get a copy of VirtualBox for Linux or Windows and fire up the ISO download. I doubt FreeDOS can read modern SATA drives so running it through a virtual machine is ideal. FreeDOS is the most MS DOS compatible OS. Not to mention with virtualbox you can share files with a shared folder. I do not know if the guestadditions for Dos are available as I use Linux under it but it is worth a shot for sure.
What is great about FreeDOS is it comes with a TCP/IP stack and gnu tools like gcc and a nice editor so you can at least transfer files and old files from the internet to it to have the old experience back if you want to run DOOM shareware for example
I will keep a copy of Fedora 14 because it uses Gnome 2 for my php/python web environment from VirtualBox inside Windows.
Gnome-Shell is truly truly aweful. Not even a minimize button!? Oh just drag the window title bar? Well Windows 7 has both. I can't find anything and one of the strengths of Gnome 2 was its simplicity and menus. They did a KDE and killed it!
Unity is ok for netbooks I guess. But it takes longer like 3x as long to do the same task and the interface gets in the way. My only question is why? What purpose does it serve?
Maybe for a iPAD tablet with a million little applets, but Linux doesn't have applets... infact all the gnome 2 ones are gone. I tried KDE 4 and I was ready to lose my mind! Linux has jumped back 10 years in my opinion and it is such a shame. I am going back to Windows. It is stable, more consistent, and does what I need with less effort. You can take that Linux back to the server room.
Sun donated large amounts of R&D and usability studies and the gnome folks just threw it out without thinking.
Ubuntu is not real stable like a traditional Unix and caters more to the eye candy crowd.
Try Fedora? It is stable enough like a real unix yet not very out of date. One issue is like Unity is that it comes with the crappy Gnome-shell. I use the outdated Fedora 14 in virtualbox from Windows 7.
It seems Linux steal shines best in the server room. You can install its role as a server very quickly with Anaconda which is awesome.
Not to sound snotty but why were you browsing the web on a server?
I gave IE 9 a test drive after it had excellent reviews from both Tomshardware and MaximumPC, as the first IE that actually doesn't suck. I never got these messages. IE 9 even has XSS protection. Out of safety I uninstalled adobe flash and pdf reader and made sure my patching was current when I re-imaged this computer before attempting to go onto the internet.
I use VirtualBox because I need some of these programs. The black edition of WIndows XP is very cool and 50% likely the one you will download will be contaminated. How many users are smart enough to launch questionable programs in a virtual machine?
1 and 14 seems right as many do not want to pirate. I hate pirating myself as for years did not do it until employers required experience with x,y,and z which costs $1200.
Most mom and pops including my parents now know not to click on random files and use Firefox instead of IE. The rest of the Windows users are offices which the boss wont let them install any other software.
In defense I would have to say at least there is decent anti-malware programs for Windows. I know of someone in my Linux Users forum who had a whole rootkit and backdoor fishing scheme going on stealing credit cards on his Novel SLED Linux server. Sure you can point and say that most of the viruses are for Windows but these Russian mobfia target Linux to do the actual phishing because most do not run any anti virus program.
Worse ClamAV only scans for Windows viruses and offers no real time protection.
I am a former Linux user for 10 years and uses Windows 7 almost exclusively now. I have not had malware in a long time... since 2004. I run Windows Update and I am careful running AVG or MS Security essentials. Windows can be very secure if you know what you are doing and run a modern version with updates set to go automatically.
Shoot I remember back in 2005... wow that long ago... when it had over 85% of the market. Firefox had 10%.
In slashdot, I remember writting things like use open standards when using CSS folks! I would get flamed back saying that is a pain in the ass as we work hard to make the page work in IE and then these Firefox zealots use a browser that breaks by using esoteric open standards no one cares about.
One comment even said I sucked because I doubled his work as he prefered to only make sure the site worked on IE. 2005 is very recent and not that long ago. Odd that broken IE html was standard and the web masters blamed our browser rather than their code as broken.
So yes, IE did win the browser battle and it makes me happy they lost round 2 with Firefox and now Chrome mixed with Safari and mobile media devices.
Chrome only has 10% of the market current but that is rapidly going up. I wonder if Microsoft feels more threatened by Mozilla currently? This is akin to IE for HP/UX only and not Linux, Irix, Solaris, or MacOSX (at first) because they had the biggest marketshare. Chrome is rising fast and from the research I did these past few days when I got a new computer when I picked a browser showed a lot of discontent with many Firefox users become Chrome users. I may end up switching. Either way I can not imagine anyone wanting to pay money for it. You might as well get Office as it is only $179 for home users and students.
For those bashing Google Docs you have to remember it is for creating simple documents for sharing and not for offices already invested in Microsoft technology. I would imagine Office 365 would drive me crazy even with full docx support. I used Google Docs in school and to share a few spreadsheets for expenses with family members. For work it is still all 100% office.
My gf used to do rescue operations in the military for downed aircraft. In one situation the plane was flying upside down and the pilot rammed the aircraft into the ground thinking he was going up at night as he did not know up from down.
I do not know if the sensors which show orientation were functioning properly or not as they are probably unrelated to the ones that froze up. My opinion is an electrical fault shorted the instruments as data from the flight show this.
This could of created haywire on the computer and instruments in the cockpit. One witness claimed he saw the aircraft fly down sparkling in pieces and fire. Most of the plane is intact on the floor with the exception of the cockpit. The storm was terrible and the plane was getting hit with lightning multiple times and everything from ice to the sensors to perhaps the wings of the plane as well. The thunderheads were over 50,000 feet which is very rare. The whole situation is bad and I wonder why the pilots didn't fly around these storms?
It has been cheaper than $100k for a while. Many H1B1 Visa applicants come in with 5 years experience willing to work for $45,000. It then becomes very difficult to negotiate $100,000 a year with management when all this cheap labor begging for the same jobs. CPA accountants from overseas are doing this now. Many laid off accountants are crying foul as an MBA CPA jobs are being advertised fro $35,000 a year. Why pay more when someone is willing to work for cheaper?
But back to the subject, why pay $300 more when a developer is willing to work without one? I think I.T. is still viewed as a cost center rather than an asset. As long as that is the viewpoint of management it does not matter how productive it will make you. It does not bring value to the bottom line so who cares?
"At my last job many of the people (down to administrative personnel) ended up getting second monitor"
This all boils down to management thumbing their noses at I.T. and feeling like those not blessed enough to be management. Sure, 2 monitors help productivity of certain staff but many suites and accountants wonder why you....(kid speak) hey why do the I.T. get the cool toys and not me. I am important and have an MBA.... bla. Then after everyone starts getting the monitors the accountants wonder why we are wasting money on cost centers that do not produce more revenue? So everyone losses them but the senior employees who got them first.
Zdnet a decade ago tried to do a cost analysis of a big monitor vs a small one on productivity. Most phb's were up in the air about it and refused to believe it would make anyone more productive. Back then they were much pricier. How can you measure productivity anyway? If you can't measure it then it doesn't exist according to the accountants who refuse to believe in the value of non tangible assets.
I love my 24 inch screen but sometimes I feel more productive on my 17 inch laptop..... as long as I do not run Eclipse.
I guess it boils down to finding the right kind of employer that values it's I.T. staff. It is all based on environment and the culture.
Most smaller businesses prefer to slap scripts together as that makes up 90% of sites out there. Medium to small business is where most of the jobs are at but I agree Java is nice for large scale projects. However, for my business I will start with PHP because I can scrap together something much faster. Once I grow and need scalability I will hire a CompSci grad to rewrite my internet app in Java.
It kind of reminds me of the suites who thought they were badass coders with MS Access/Visual Basic back in the 1990s. Great for custom forms or doing something specific to help a few employees out. However, the real boys came in later for a real solution. PHP is the Access/VB of the internet - minus the gui.
People who can not afford computers use internet cafes and many use their phones for net access (much cheaper than our mega telecoms in the US charge). Al jazeera is banned in Libya and I do not know if their television stations have been banned or censored in Syria. Al Jazeera until this spring is all over the middle east and was never filtered.
Slashdot Mirror
QA? Redhat already provided it. If it needed QA it would be called Fedora
Many places use Redhat and I had to downgrade to Fedora as 5.x is way too old.
The Alpha version of NT 4 and Windows 2000 release candidates could run x86 code fairly well. I do admit the Alpha was very very fast and ahead of its time so emulating x86 in Arm would suck goatballs but it could be possible.
Gnome has not supported BSD in a very long time. The one included with FreeBSD (Keep in mind I quit using it when 5.x came out) is heavily patched as Gnome only works with ALSA and not OSS and other weird Linux specific things. It is heavily patched to even compile yet run on non Linux platforms for these reasons.
I used to use FreeBSD and Gnome was becoming an annoyance back then. Gnome started doing things like dumping OSS for ALSA and using video standards taht only worked under Linux.
If you used Gnome 2.0 or 2.2 under BSD you are using a heavily patched version that grew more and more significantly different as Gnome matured. Sun called their gui the Java desktop as it was mere Gnome based for Solaris. I remember an interview with the FreeBSD team where they were clashing with gnome developers. The problem is KDE 4 was so aweful that many Unix users wanted to switch to Gnome as a result.
I have not ran FreeBSD in many years as I use Linux on a VM partition inside Windows 7 but it seems Unix is still more a server oriented platform anyway which is why I do not run it natively anymore. I do admit Gnome-Shell/Unity and KDE 4 is what made me dump Linux for good as my main OS so I am prejudiced agaisn't Gnome.
Complaining? Well if Google wants me or Dr. Spork to change they need to fix it is all he is saying.
I have been using Chrome more and more since so many slashdotters and reviewers claim how much better it is and faster. But UI annoyances is what keeps me from adopting. I like all 3 major browsers under Windows but dislike what Chrome is doing to the UI. Otherwise I do feel it is slightly snappier and lighter than Firefox, so I switched back to Firefox this week
What bothered me is Chrome's removal of the bookmars bar. Now it is hidden under the settings menu. I should not have to do this each time I want to go to a bookmark. Worse, they removed the Google search engine bar at the top of the screen. Now I have to hit delete on an url and type whatever I want or click new tab and then type it. Under IE 9 and Firefox I just type in the search bar.
Seriously Google, you are not saving space by removing these.
"I am starting to dislike progress. I need a drink."
I hear you. I had the unfortunate experience with using Fedora 15 with Gnome-shell last night. I just wiped the virtual partition and am installing Fedora 14 with Gnome 2.x for my unix web development. Sure I only have Postgresql 8.x and not 9.0.3 but I keep my sanity in the process.
All I have to say is thank god for competition with 2 other good browsers. IE 9 actually doesn't suck! It is stunning and fast and in the same league as Firefox 4 and Chrome 10. Competition is a beautiful thing. Issue I have is that Firefox 4 does not accelerate video on Linux so if you have Ubuntu or Fedora you are stuck with Chrome if you want a semi good browsing experience which is annoying.
Nah
The developers were jealous of the Gnome team after playing with Gnome-Shell.
VirtualBox and VirtualPC with FreeDOS. A poster told me that VirtualPC has Dos guest additions and I use VirtualBox for different operanting systems and do not know if it has a guest addition or not. Are they fully integrated like running a dos app in NT 4? No. But with the additions you can share folders between users and the FreeDOS has a native TCP/IP stack so it is network accessible.
Your users may have to save files to folders and drag them into the shared folders though. Sucks but it will work. Or get management to upgrade after seeing the complaints ... ha ha ya right.
FreeDOS is out. You need to run under a VM or an older PC. It is 90% compatible and can even run doom
Get a copy of VirtualBox for Linux or Windows and fire up the ISO download. I doubt FreeDOS can read modern SATA drives so running it through a virtual machine is ideal. FreeDOS is the most MS DOS compatible OS. Not to mention with virtualbox you can share files with a shared folder. I do not know if the guestadditions for Dos are available as I use Linux under it but it is worth a shot for sure.
What is great about FreeDOS is it comes with a TCP/IP stack and gnu tools like gcc and a nice editor so you can at least transfer files and old files from the internet to it to have the old experience back if you want to run DOOM shareware for example
I will keep a copy of Fedora 14 because it uses Gnome 2 for my php/python web environment from VirtualBox inside Windows.
Gnome-Shell is truly truly aweful. Not even a minimize button!? Oh just drag the window title bar? Well Windows 7 has both. I can't find anything and one of the strengths of Gnome 2 was its simplicity and menus. They did a KDE and killed it!
Unity is ok for netbooks I guess. But it takes longer like 3x as long to do the same task and the interface gets in the way. My only question is why? What purpose does it serve?
Maybe for a iPAD tablet with a million little applets, but Linux doesn't have applets ... infact all the gnome 2 ones are gone. I tried KDE 4 and I was ready to lose my mind! Linux has jumped back 10 years in my opinion and it is such a shame. I am going back to Windows. It is stable, more consistent, and does what I need with less effort. You can take that Linux back to the server room.
Sun donated large amounts of R&D and usability studies and the gnome folks just threw it out without thinking.
Ubuntu is not real stable like a traditional Unix and caters more to the eye candy crowd.
Try Fedora? It is stable enough like a real unix yet not very out of date. One issue is like Unity is that it comes with the crappy Gnome-shell. I use the outdated Fedora 14 in virtualbox from Windows 7.
It seems Linux steal shines best in the server room. You can install its role as a server very quickly with Anaconda which is awesome.
Not to sound snotty but why were you browsing the web on a server?
I gave IE 9 a test drive after it had excellent reviews from both Tomshardware and MaximumPC, as the first IE that actually doesn't suck. I never got these messages. IE 9 even has XSS protection. Out of safety I uninstalled adobe flash and pdf reader and made sure my patching was current when I re-imaged this computer before attempting to go onto the internet.
IE.
I gave IE 9 a spin and downloaded Vim and Cream. IE had a fit warning me not to install it.
I use VirtualBox because I need some of these programs. The black edition of WIndows XP is very cool and 50% likely the one you will download will be contaminated. How many users are smart enough to launch questionable programs in a virtual machine?
1 and 14 seems right as many do not want to pirate. I hate pirating myself as for years did not do it until employers required experience with x,y,and z which costs $1200.
Most mom and pops including my parents now know not to click on random files and use Firefox instead of IE. The rest of the Windows users are offices which the boss wont let them install any other software.
In defense I would have to say at least there is decent anti-malware programs for Windows. I know of someone in my Linux Users forum who had a whole rootkit and backdoor fishing scheme going on stealing credit cards on his Novel SLED Linux server. Sure you can point and say that most of the viruses are for Windows but these Russian mobfia target Linux to do the actual phishing because most do not run any anti virus program.
Worse ClamAV only scans for Windows viruses and offers no real time protection.
I am a former Linux user for 10 years and uses Windows 7 almost exclusively now. I have not had malware in a long time ... since 2004. I run Windows Update and I am careful running AVG or MS Security essentials. Windows can be very secure if you know what you are doing and run a modern version with updates set to go automatically.
Shoot I remember back in 2005 ... wow that long ago ... when it had over 85% of the market. Firefox had 10%.
In slashdot, I remember writting things like use open standards when using CSS folks! I would get flamed back saying that is a pain in the ass as we work hard to make the page work in IE and then these Firefox zealots use a browser that breaks by using esoteric open standards no one cares about.
One comment even said I sucked because I doubled his work as he prefered to only make sure the site worked on IE. 2005 is very recent and not that long ago. Odd that broken IE html was standard and the web masters blamed our browser rather than their code as broken.
So yes, IE did win the browser battle and it makes me happy they lost round 2 with Firefox and now Chrome mixed with Safari and mobile media devices.
Chrome only has 10% of the market current but that is rapidly going up. I wonder if Microsoft feels more threatened by Mozilla currently? This is akin to IE for HP/UX only and not Linux, Irix, Solaris, or MacOSX (at first) because they had the biggest marketshare. Chrome is rising fast and from the research I did these past few days when I got a new computer when I picked a browser showed a lot of discontent with many Firefox users become Chrome users. I may end up switching. Either way I can not imagine anyone wanting to pay money for it. You might as well get Office as it is only $179 for home users and students.
For those bashing Google Docs you have to remember it is for creating simple documents for sharing and not for offices already invested in Microsoft technology. I would imagine Office 365 would drive me crazy even with full docx support. I used Google Docs in school and to share a few spreadsheets for expenses with family members. For work it is still all 100% office.
My gf used to do rescue operations in the military for downed aircraft. In one situation the plane was flying upside down and the pilot rammed the aircraft into the ground thinking he was going up at night as he did not know up from down.
I do not know if the sensors which show orientation were functioning properly or not as they are probably unrelated to the ones that froze up. My opinion is an electrical fault shorted the instruments as data from the flight show this.
This could of created haywire on the computer and instruments in the cockpit. One witness claimed he saw the aircraft fly down sparkling in pieces and fire. Most of the plane is intact on the floor with the exception of the cockpit. The storm was terrible and the plane was getting hit with lightning multiple times and everything from ice to the sensors to perhaps the wings of the plane as well. The thunderheads were over 50,000 feet which is very rare. The whole situation is bad and I wonder why the pilots didn't fly around these storms?
It has been cheaper than $100k for a while. Many H1B1 Visa applicants come in with 5 years experience willing to work for $45,000. It then becomes very difficult to negotiate $100,000 a year with management when all this cheap labor begging for the same jobs. CPA accountants from overseas are doing this now. Many laid off accountants are crying foul as an MBA CPA jobs are being advertised fro $35,000 a year. Why pay more when someone is willing to work for cheaper?
But back to the subject, why pay $300 more when a developer is willing to work without one? I think I.T. is still viewed as a cost center rather than an asset. As long as that is the viewpoint of management it does not matter how productive it will make you. It does not bring value to the bottom line so who cares?
In 1999 a senior network admin or developer was worth that much.
I have not seen anyone get paid that much in a decade though. Outsourcing has really cut wages by a substantial margin in the last decade.
"At my last job many of the people (down to administrative personnel) ended up getting second monitor"
This all boils down to management thumbing their noses at I.T. and feeling like those not blessed enough to be management. Sure, 2 monitors help productivity of certain staff but many suites and accountants wonder why you ....(kid speak) hey why do the I.T. get the cool toys and not me. I am important and have an MBA .... bla. Then after everyone starts getting the monitors the accountants wonder why we are wasting money on cost centers that do not produce more revenue? So everyone losses them but the senior employees who got them first.
Zdnet a decade ago tried to do a cost analysis of a big monitor vs a small one on productivity. Most phb's were up in the air about it and refused to believe it would make anyone more productive. Back then they were much pricier. How can you measure productivity anyway? If you can't measure it then it doesn't exist according to the accountants who refuse to believe in the value of non tangible assets.
I love my 24 inch screen but sometimes I feel more productive on my 17 inch laptop. .... as long as I do not run Eclipse.
I guess it boils down to finding the right kind of employer that values it's I.T. staff. It is all based on environment and the culture.
Kind of what I was stating here.
Most smaller businesses prefer to slap scripts together as that makes up 90% of sites out there. Medium to small business is where most of the jobs are at but I agree Java is nice for large scale projects. However, for my business I will start with PHP because I can scrap together something much faster. Once I grow and need scalability I will hire a CompSci grad to rewrite my internet app in Java.
It kind of reminds me of the suites who thought they were badass coders with MS Access/Visual Basic back in the 1990s. Great for custom forms or doing something specific to help a few employees out. However, the real boys came in later for a real solution. PHP is the Access/VB of the internet - minus the gui.
People who can not afford computers use internet cafes and many use their phones for net access (much cheaper than our mega telecoms in the US charge). Al jazeera is banned in Libya and I do not know if their television stations have been banned or censored in Syria. Al Jazeera until this spring is all over the middle east and was never filtered.