Many people won't migrate to Linux if no drivers are available for their hardware, and many hardware manufacturers won't provide Linux drivers if there isn't enough demand for them. Ditto for ports of popular software titles (Photoshop) and games.
Mac OS X is probably the ideal UNIX-based system for newbies. Linux is nice (I've tried various distros and currently use SimplyMEPIS), but I've run into too many difficulties with hardware driver support, wireless network setup, and several other issues to recommend it to anyone other than the technically savvy.
"It wouldn't be so bad if every nVidia based product I have ever tried to use hadn't been DOA."
You're not alone. Earlier this year I ordered 3 various nVidia cards in a row, and they all either were DOA or gave me BSOD's every 5-10 minutes. Finally bought an ATI X1800 GTO, and I couldn't be happier with it. I don't care if the Linux drivers suck -
I need my normal desktop system to play MP3's and other various media formats which Ubuntu would not play out of the box. I need it to print photos with my Canon Pixma IP5000, for which there are no Linux drivers. I need it to display at the correct resolution of 1680x1050 pixels on my widescreen monitor, instead of a stretched out 1024 x 768. So don't tell me that I don't need any hacks to use Ubuntu as a normal desktop system. If I hadn't already solved most of my Ubuntu problems by trawling the online forums, I'd definitely buy this book. I may buy it anyway as a handy reference.
I want my hardware to "just work" with my OS. If that means using proprietary drivers for a particular brand of video card or printer, then so be it. I don't give a rat's ass about the licensing terms.
Linux will never overtake Windows on the desktop until and unless it can run the latest hardware as well as Windows can. And I guarantee that the vast majority of PC users out there are as unconcerned with the proprietary vs open-source driver issue as I am.
I've tried Linux at home numerous times - I want to switch, I really do - but I always end up going back to Windows because it has better drivers for my video card, printer, webcam, and GPS unit. Now I just use VMWare to play with Ubuntu from Windows.
As an amateur photographer and a big fan of Galen Rowell's work, I would say that Live's result is far more relevant than Google's.
Regardless of what search engine you prefer, it's usually best to search using more than just 1 keyword. I would have used '"Galen Rowell" photography', and you should have used 'Galen medicine' for instance.
History repeatedly shows that the more government tries to get involved, the worse things get.
So the environment was in better shape before passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts? Try doing some research on, say, the history of the Cuyahoga River in the 1960's.
Oh, and I guess you would like to go back to the good old days when young children could be put to work in dangerous industrial factories for 12+ hours a day.
Sure, government has its problems, but it also has its uses. One of the main reasons why government goes bad is because it gets taken over by zealots of any political persuasion, be they conservative, liberal, libertarian, or anarcho-capitalist.
What we need is a government run by pragmatic realists who choose solutions to recognized problems based on their effectiveness, rather than their conformance to some half-assed ideology. Unfortunately, such people usually have enough sense to not run for office, forcing us to choose between greedy power-hungry fanatics.
What should I do with a good submission from a reader with a reputation?
Post it. If it's good then I want to read it. I almost never take notice of who submitted a story. I just don't give a shit, and neither should anyone else, unless it's obviously spam.
If some people want to bitch and whine about the messenger, that's their problem.
Only a handful of stations are available in HD through my cable company (Time-Warner), and 99% of the content isn't worth watching. So I bought a plasma EDTV - it's half the price of comparable HDTV plasmas, and DVD's still look fantastic. As a bonus, standard broadcasts look better than they would on an HDTV.
Well, there's no accounting for taste. I like the Overture, and already own a case from Thermaltake (the Tsunami Dream) for my PC that is somewhat similar in styling. I think the Accent case you linked to is butt-ugly, though I like the Ahanix D.Vine and some of the Silverstones.
It explains why the nature of Free Software leads to a more userfriendly software installation setup for Linux distributions in general, as compared to proprietary systems such as the current desktop market leader.
Who wrote this article - Baghdad Bob? I use both Windows and Linux on a regular basis, and I like both of them. But software installation is one of the most horrible, frustrating deficiencies of RPM-based Linux distributions. Sure, if you stick to your distribution's official software repository you're unlikely to find yourself in RPM hell. But sooner or later you will need/want to install an application that is not available there, and then good luck to you.
About 10 years ago I worked as a research assistant on a study of tick ecology. During hunting season I had to travel to collection stations (where hunters bring in their deer to be registered, weighed, etc) throughout southern New England and collect all the ticks I could find from each dead deer with a pair of tweezers. By the end of each day I was usually covered in blood - fortunately I was never pulled over for speeding ("Honestly officer, it's deer blood! Where's the deer? Well, you see.."). I spent the next few months counting all the samples and segregating them by species and sex.
As one of the "endangered species people", I can say that we already knew that. Though it may be a minority opinion among this group, I think it's a waste of time trying to save the few endangered species that are facing extinction through no fault of humanity, or that are locally rare in some places but common as dirt elsewhere (gray wolves for example). And I would shed no tears at all if we deliberately managed to wipe out certain harmful species that cause widespread suffering and death (mosquitoes for example), provided we could do so without causing massive ecological damage that would end up killing even more people.
That being said, the majority of endangered species are at risk because of humanity. Yes, they're all going to go extinct sooner or later but that doesn't give us an excuse to deliberately hurry them on their way. Every person will die eventually, but that doesn't justify murder.
Well, I search in eMule all the time. I find it to be much easier and more efficient than scouring a hodgepodge of websites to find what I want. And I consider BitTorrent's lack of a search feature to be it's biggest flaw.
There's plenty of Windows (and Linux) software, much of it open-source and/or freeware, that I find to be extremely useful and practical. I don't give a damn whether or not it's pretty to look at.
And of course, the vast majority of popular, inspiring and non-boring computer games are available on Windows but not Mac or Linux.
Just for the record, I am not a Gates fanboy, I use both Windows and Linux (whatever's most suitable to the task at hand). I would use OS X if I had any good reason to, and if I didn't have to buy Apple's hardware to do so.
I went to see "Return of the King" on opening night. The experience was ruined by a trio of teenage jackasses sitting behind me who insisted on loudly making wiseass comments throughout the film, despite numerous demands from everyone else to shut the fuck up. One furious audience member actually poured his soda drink on them, but even that didn't deter them.
Out-of-focus projectors, shitty sound systems at too low/too high volume, exorbitant prices, loudmouthed assholes in the audience...the theater experience totally sucks.
The only reason I preferred seeing a film in the theater was the large screen. Up until recently I had a 20" standard TV - that's no way to watch a film like "Lord of the Rings". Now I have a nice big plasma EDTV to watch DVD's on, and I will never step foot in a movie theater again. Sure, it's not as big as a theater screen, but I sit much closer to it so it's effectively the same size. And it's always in focus.
So if aliens from another world ever visit Earth, they will be perfectly justified in killing us all off and taking over, since we will be so hopelessly stupid compared to them and thus unable to contribute anything meaningful to their society. And it will all be so very funny.
Slashdot Mirror
Many people won't migrate to Linux if no drivers are available for their hardware, and many hardware manufacturers won't provide Linux drivers if there isn't enough demand for them. Ditto for ports of popular software titles (Photoshop) and games.
Mac OS X is probably the ideal UNIX-based system for newbies. Linux is nice (I've tried various distros and currently use SimplyMEPIS), but I've run into too many difficulties with hardware driver support, wireless network setup, and several other issues to recommend it to anyone other than the technically savvy.
"It wouldn't be so bad if every nVidia based product I have ever tried to use hadn't been DOA."
You're not alone. Earlier this year I ordered 3 various nVidia cards in a row, and they all either were DOA or gave me BSOD's every 5-10 minutes. Finally bought an ATI X1800 GTO, and I couldn't be happier with it. I don't care if the Linux drivers suck -
I need my normal desktop system to play MP3's and other various media formats which Ubuntu would not play out of the box. I need it to print photos with my Canon Pixma IP5000, for which there are no Linux drivers. I need it to display at the correct resolution of 1680x1050 pixels on my widescreen monitor, instead of a stretched out 1024 x 768. So don't tell me that I don't need any hacks to use Ubuntu as a normal desktop system. If I hadn't already solved most of my Ubuntu problems by trawling the online forums, I'd definitely buy this book. I may buy it anyway as a handy reference.
Assuming an average song length of 3 minutes:
10 million x 3 minutes = 57 years
It's going to be a long, long time before it becomes "useless".
I want my hardware to "just work" with my OS. If that means using proprietary drivers for a particular brand of video card or printer, then so be it. I don't give a rat's ass about the licensing terms.
Linux will never overtake Windows on the desktop until and unless it can run the latest hardware as well as Windows can. And I guarantee that the vast majority of PC users out there are as unconcerned with the proprietary vs open-source driver issue as I am.
I've tried Linux at home numerous times - I want to switch, I really do - but I always end up going back to Windows because it has better drivers for my video card, printer, webcam, and GPS unit. Now I just use VMWare to play with Ubuntu from Windows.
As an amateur photographer and a big fan of Galen Rowell's work, I would say that Live's result is far more relevant than Google's.
Regardless of what search engine you prefer, it's usually best to search using more than just 1 keyword. I would have used '"Galen Rowell" photography', and you should have used 'Galen medicine' for instance.
So the environment was in better shape before passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts? Try doing some research on, say, the history of the Cuyahoga River in the 1960's.
Oh, and I guess you would like to go back to the good old days when young children could be put to work in dangerous industrial factories for 12+ hours a day.
Sure, government has its problems, but it also has its uses. One of the main reasons why government goes bad is because it gets taken over by zealots of any political persuasion, be they conservative, liberal, libertarian, or anarcho-capitalist.
What we need is a government run by pragmatic realists who choose solutions to recognized problems based on their effectiveness, rather than their conformance to some half-assed ideology. Unfortunately, such people usually have enough sense to not run for office, forcing us to choose between greedy power-hungry fanatics.
I don't see how being ruled by intrusive corporate overlords is any better.
Post it. If it's good then I want to read it. I almost never take notice of who submitted a story. I just don't give a shit, and neither should anyone else, unless it's obviously spam.
If some people want to bitch and whine about the messenger, that's their problem.The desire to get rich & powerful is what has driven most of human history, for better and for worse.
Only a handful of stations are available in HD through my cable company (Time-Warner), and 99% of the content isn't worth watching. So I bought a plasma EDTV - it's half the price of comparable HDTV plasmas, and DVD's still look fantastic. As a bonus, standard broadcasts look better than they would on an HDTV.
Well, there's no accounting for taste. I like the Overture, and already own a case from Thermaltake (the Tsunami Dream) for my PC that is somewhat similar in styling. I think the Accent case you linked to is butt-ugly, though I like the Ahanix D.Vine and some of the Silverstones.
In the end, it seems the only real winner after a hybrid purchase is the environment.
All of us depend on "the environment" for our existence. So if the environment is a winner, then we're all winners.
Who wrote this article - Baghdad Bob? I use both Windows and Linux on a regular basis, and I like both of them. But software installation is one of the most horrible, frustrating deficiencies of RPM-based Linux distributions. Sure, if you stick to your distribution's official software repository you're unlikely to find yourself in RPM hell. But sooner or later you will need/want to install an application that is not available there, and then good luck to you.
About 10 years ago I worked as a research assistant on a study of tick ecology. During hunting season I had to travel to collection stations (where hunters bring in their deer to be registered, weighed, etc) throughout southern New England and collect all the ticks I could find from each dead deer with a pair of tweezers. By the end of each day I was usually covered in blood - fortunately I was never pulled over for speeding ("Honestly officer, it's deer blood! Where's the deer? Well, you see.."). I spent the next few months counting all the samples and segregating them by species and sex.
And how is this different from all the open-source tools programmers can't use correctly?
Why can't most Linux/BSD/[insert OS of choice here] programmers get it through their thick skulls how to code software that a non-admin can use?
As one of the "endangered species people", I can say that we already knew that. Though it may be a minority opinion among this group, I think it's a waste of time trying to save the few endangered species that are facing extinction through no fault of humanity, or that are locally rare in some places but common as dirt elsewhere (gray wolves for example). And I would shed no tears at all if we deliberately managed to wipe out certain harmful species that cause widespread suffering and death (mosquitoes for example), provided we could do so without causing massive ecological damage that would end up killing even more people.
That being said, the majority of endangered species are at risk because of humanity. Yes, they're all going to go extinct sooner or later but that doesn't give us an excuse to deliberately hurry them on their way. Every person will die eventually, but that doesn't justify murder.
Well, I search in eMule all the time. I find it to be much easier and more efficient than scouring a hodgepodge of websites to find what I want. And I consider BitTorrent's lack of a search feature to be it's biggest flaw.
There's plenty of Windows (and Linux) software, much of it open-source and/or freeware, that I find to be extremely useful and practical. I don't give a damn whether or not it's pretty to look at.
And of course, the vast majority of popular, inspiring and non-boring computer games are available on Windows but not Mac or Linux.
Just for the record, I am not a Gates fanboy, I use both Windows and Linux (whatever's most suitable to the task at hand). I would use OS X if I had any good reason to, and if I didn't have to buy Apple's hardware to do so.
I went to see "Return of the King" on opening night. The experience was ruined by a trio of teenage jackasses sitting behind me who insisted on loudly making wiseass comments throughout the film, despite numerous demands from everyone else to shut the fuck up. One furious audience member actually poured his soda drink on them, but even that didn't deter them.
Out-of-focus projectors, shitty sound systems at too low/too high volume, exorbitant prices, loudmouthed assholes in the audience...the theater experience totally sucks.
The only reason I preferred seeing a film in the theater was the large screen. Up until recently I had a 20" standard TV - that's no way to watch a film like "Lord of the Rings". Now I have a nice big plasma EDTV to watch DVD's on, and I will never step foot in a movie theater again. Sure, it's not as big as a theater screen, but I sit much closer to it so it's effectively the same size. And it's always in focus.
They were right about Iraq, they're right about file swapping, their women don't get fat, and they make awesome pastries. So what if they can't fight?
So if aliens from another world ever visit Earth, they will be perfectly justified in killing us all off and taking over, since we will be so hopelessly stupid compared to them and thus unable to contribute anything meaningful to their society. And it will all be so very funny.
Remember what happened when the makers of a certain ship claimed that it couldn't sink.
It's intolerably slow running under Windows on my system (AMD 64 3000, 1GB RAM).