I bought the Fry's computer to run linux - and not a lame distro (whatever than means) but Red Hat 9 + freshrpms packages, and am doing multimedia stuff with it. BTW it's a AMD Duron 1100 CPU, for those who thought it was some via/cyrix type of thing.
I'm going to try xandros on it too, see how that runs. windows? well, I have an unopened copy of xp sitting on the shelf... naah, too little time, too much fun running linux - maybe I'll set up vmware and try out xp that way, if I ever have a bunch of spare time on my hands, but don't hold your breath.
yeah, I stopped by Fry's to look at the $229 linux box while I was picking up some other things, and decided to get one. It was running an obscure asian redhat 8.0 knockoff, which was for me merely proof that it could run Linux - so I bought the box, along with a 512 MB RAM module and took it home.
I popped in a spare GeForce 2 and LinTV video capture card and installed RH 9 - everything was recognized, and worked fine. After grabbing some extra packages from freshrpms, I was recording TV shows, playing Q3A demo, and generally having fun.
The box is surprisingly good quality. The chipset is all sis, video, ethernet, sound etc. I haven't had any trouble with it at all, except for one oddity - when you press CTL-ALT-BKSP, the machine shuts down - some weird BIOS thing I guess - but other than that, it's good piece of hardware for running a full blown linux workstation.
As for the Fry's crew, they were absolutely clueless about computers, and especially about Linux. It was sad, really - they had no idea what Linux can do.
Who gives a shit if its not free? Oracle isn't free either but a lot of business swear by their database, and run it on linux. Novell edirectory isn't free, but I run it on linux and it rocks.
Free is great, but it's just not practical to think everything has to be free.
This is good strategy - the Red Hat commando team strikes fast, while the IBM generals are assembling the tanks and heavy artillery for the follow on attack.
Surprise, surprise - clueless ravings from an anonymous coward... I suppose I wouldn't want anyone to know who I was either, were I to go around spouting such silly nonsense...
These microsoft heads crack me up with their smug assurance that linux will never threaten the near monopoly of microsoft on the desktop.
When one version of ms office can successfully read and write ms office files of different versions with absolutely no damage to the file or the rendering, then I'd think maybe microsoft is getting a clue.
Until then open, standard file formats are the only thing that makes sense. Your microsoft worship is a luxury you may not always be able to afford.
That is sad, you seem to be working with very dull people - perhaps they are all mcses, working on nothing other than microsoft-centric technologies. For them, linux is a threat, something best ignored in the hope that it will all just go away, so that they won't have to learn anything new.
I have done work for a number of companies over the past 5 years, and there has been one recurring theme: wherever you find the techies - programmers, sys admins, webmasters, etc - you find linux desktops in use, often under the radar to avoid the involvement of clueless managers who feel threatened by what they don't understand.
Fortunately for us, in these lean times, managers are having to start thinking about how to get the most bang for the buck, and maximize their IT investments. This has opened the door for linux somewhat, despite the fear and ignorance which motivates so much of the opposition to it.
I remember one large well known company where I worked as webmaster a few years ago. The inner circle of web techies used mostly linux or macs, because we were using what best empowered us to do our jobs. At one point an extreme microsoft-head manager took over and began a huge move in a microsoft direction, much to our dismay. One of his first moves was to switch our remote access server to windows nt. surprise, surprise, all of a sudden the mac and linux users could no longer connect from home. bad move. The microsoft tech support troops came around and fumbled and puzzled over our setups, making comments like "why on earth aren't you using ms windows?" and "why do you have to be different?" We tried all their suggestions and never could connect, so the company was forced to reinstall the old remote access server. This was some years ago, but the last I heard the microsoft-head manager had been canned, and things were moving back in a more sane direction.
The good news is that linux desktop trickle appears to be turning into a stream.
Is it just me, or has the quality of the trolls been slipping lately?
.doc and.pdf have not been an issue for years - I have been working with ms office files for some time using unix-based office suites - and when I send rtf files to everyone, even the ms office users can handle them fine.
and what is "MSHTTP"? is that some sort of special pee-cee only variant of http? In any event, apache rules the web, as we all know.
as far as a "proliferation of.NET apps" - who are you kidding? I've not seen one yet - although I've heard the usual blaring incessant hype about the coming of.net for some years now...
But of course - mozilla, aka netscape, has been my primary browser for years - well, to call it a browser is like calling an aircraft carrier a little boat. I use it for email, web browsing, newsgroups, and downloads of all sorts - and the occasional instant message, in a pinch.
I've looked at opera and wasn't really that impressed. I sometimes use konqueror.
I could run ms ie in windoze emulation, but why bother - I mean, what would it buy me?
It would doubtless be much much easier to go buy a $45 Geforce 2, pop it in there and install the nvidia drivers, than to muck about with trying to configure and install an old unsupported version of XFree just to use the ati card.
Wow - now this is even more interesting than the 3Dlabs announcement - sounds very impressive indeed - more features, plus it's open source, so I don't need to worry about having to run a certain distro or kernel.
An operating system being a unix variant has nothing to do with being text-based or not, since any modern unix in the past decade or so ships with a client/server, network-transparent GUI framework (X11) - while msdos, novell netware and as400, none of which even remotely resemble unix, are all text based.
mr gates claimed some time ago that windoze nt would be a "better unix than unix" but anyone who has compared the two environments would find a marked divergence of cultures, with very little in common between the two.
windoze "nt" owes more to ideas from vms, pc-lan networking and ms-dos than anything else. (Ok, got it? let's do a single-user version of vms, give it an ms-dos prompt and pc-lan networking, slap on a pee cee gui and call it "new technology"! - folks will love it!)
No, unix is a very very different beast from ms windows, vms, as400, novell netware, and other OSes - those who know the unix nature need no explanation.
But, for the newbies, I'll take a swing at it - this is a rough idea: 1. Unix has a multiuser, client/server design 2. In the Unix process model, init is the father of all processes 3. Each process has it's own protected environment 4. New processes creation is via fork, or fork/exec 5. Each process has a process id, a parent process, and a controlling tty 6. Processes become daemons by disconnecting from their controlling tty 7. Job control via nice, signals and foreground/backgrounding facilities 8. Each user has a unique user id and belongs to one or more a groups 9. There is a unique superuser with uid 0, not subject to normal limits. 10 Filesystem characteristics - quotas, hard/soft links, directory files 11 Files - The dir links inodes to filenames, inodes contain all other info 12 Filesystem layout - "/", transparent mount points, no "drive letters". 13 Overall filesystem hierarchy -/dev,/bin,/tmp,/var,/usr 14 Generally recognizable as either SysV or BSD 15 nfs is the native file sharing protocol, can also support ipx, pc-lan 16 Generally includes a mail delivery system, c compiler, and debug tools 17 Philosophy of many small tools from which to build big tools 18 Remote multiuser shell access via 'r' commands, telnet, secure shell 19 Remote multiuser GUI access via network transparent X protocol
LOL, these windoze cheerleaders are just too funny!
Well, for starters, just about anything beats windoze xp for flexibility, scalability, and usability!
And the way he calls IBM, Novell and Oracle "open sores hippies" - such ignorance would be funny if it wasn't soo sad, and truly sad if it weren't so funny...
Nope, inspired by minix perhaps, but not based on minix at all.
In fact, the fundamental designs of linux and minix were so diametrically opposed that torvalds and tannenbaum had a famous usenet thread about it. Tannanbaum, a CS Prof and creator of minix, basically thought linus was insane for designing a monolithic OS at a time when microkernel design was all the rage. Tannenbaum actually went on record as saying he would give Linus a grade of F for the design of Linux.
Ironically, minix is still an obscure academic toy, while linux has moved into the data centers of most fortune 1000 companies.
Yes, in the past it was customary for the microsoft pee cee fanboys to launch into yet another frenzied rendition of the monkey dance whenever microsoft drove yet another american company into bankruptcy -
But no, I don't think the ms fanboys are doing the monkey dance over this one...
Slashdot Mirror
The computer comes with a CDROM in the box along with the manual etc.
I bought the Fry's computer to run linux - and not a lame distro (whatever than means) but Red Hat 9 + freshrpms packages, and am doing multimedia stuff with it. BTW it's a AMD Duron 1100 CPU, for those who thought it was some via/cyrix type of thing.
I'm going to try xandros on it too, see how that runs. windows? well, I have an unopened copy of xp sitting on the shelf... naah, too little time, too much fun running linux - maybe I'll set up vmware and try out xp that way, if I ever have a bunch of spare time on my hands, but don't hold your breath.
yeah, I stopped by Fry's to look at the $229 linux box while I was picking up some other things, and decided to get one. It was running an obscure asian redhat 8.0 knockoff, which was for me merely proof that it could run Linux - so I bought the box, along with a 512 MB RAM module and took it home.
I popped in a spare GeForce 2 and LinTV video capture card and installed RH 9 - everything was recognized, and worked fine. After grabbing some extra packages from freshrpms, I was recording TV shows, playing Q3A demo, and generally having fun.
The box is surprisingly good quality. The chipset is all sis, video, ethernet, sound etc. I haven't had any trouble with it at all, except for one oddity - when you press CTL-ALT-BKSP, the machine shuts down - some weird BIOS thing I guess - but other than that, it's good piece of hardware for running a full blown linux workstation.
As for the Fry's crew, they were absolutely clueless about computers, and especially about Linux. It was sad, really - they had no idea what Linux can do.
mp3s and video clips -
Who gives a shit if its not free? Oracle isn't free either but a lot of business swear by their database, and run it on linux. Novell edirectory isn't free, but I run it on linux and it rocks.
Free is great, but it's just not practical to think everything has to be free.
Good call, and right as Linuxworld begins.
This is good strategy - the Red Hat commando team strikes fast, while the IBM generals are assembling the tanks and heavy artillery for the follow on attack.
Surprise, surprise - clueless ravings from an anonymous coward... I suppose I wouldn't want anyone to know who I was either, were I to go around spouting such silly nonsense...
These microsoft heads crack me up with their smug assurance that linux will never threaten the near monopoly of microsoft on the desktop.
When one version of ms office can successfully read and write ms office files of different versions with absolutely no damage to the file or the rendering, then I'd think maybe microsoft is getting a clue.
Until then open, standard file formats are the only thing that makes sense. Your microsoft worship is a luxury you may not always be able to afford.
That is sad, you seem to be working with very dull people - perhaps they are all mcses, working on nothing other than microsoft-centric technologies. For them, linux is a threat, something best ignored in the hope that it will all just go away, so that they won't have to learn anything new.
I have done work for a number of companies over the past 5 years, and there has been one recurring theme: wherever you find the techies - programmers, sys admins, webmasters, etc - you find linux desktops in use, often under the radar to avoid the involvement of clueless managers who feel threatened by what they don't understand.
Fortunately for us, in these lean times, managers are having to start thinking about how to get the most bang for the buck, and maximize their IT investments. This has opened the door for linux somewhat, despite the fear and ignorance which motivates so much of the opposition to it.
I remember one large well known company where I worked as webmaster a few years ago. The inner circle of web techies used mostly linux or macs, because we were using what best empowered us to do our jobs. At one point an extreme microsoft-head manager took over and began a huge move in a microsoft direction, much to our dismay. One of his first moves was to switch our remote access server to windows nt. surprise, surprise, all of a sudden the mac and linux users could no longer connect from home. bad move. The microsoft tech support troops came around and fumbled and puzzled over our setups, making comments like "why on earth aren't you using ms windows?" and "why do you have to be different?" We tried all their suggestions and never could connect, so the company was forced to reinstall the old remote access server. This was some years ago, but the last I heard the microsoft-head manager had been canned, and things were moving back in a more sane direction.
The good news is that linux desktop trickle appears to be turning into a stream.
Is it just me, or has the quality of the trolls been slipping lately?
.doc and .pdf have not been an issue for years - I have been working with ms office files for some time using unix-based office suites - and when I send rtf files to everyone, even the ms office users can handle them fine.
.NET apps" - who are you kidding? I've not seen one yet - although I've heard the usual blaring incessant hype about the coming of .net for some years now...
and what is "MSHTTP"? is that some sort of special pee-cee only variant of http? In any event, apache rules the web, as we all know.
as far as a "proliferation of
methinks your panic is beginning to show...
But of course - mozilla, aka netscape, has been my primary browser for years - well, to call it a browser is like calling an aircraft carrier a little boat. I use it for email, web browsing, newsgroups, and downloads of all sorts - and the occasional instant message, in a pinch.
I've looked at opera and wasn't really that impressed. I sometimes use konqueror.
I could run ms ie in windoze emulation, but why bother - I mean, what would it buy me?
It would doubtless be much much easier to go buy a $45 Geforce 2, pop it in there and install the nvidia drivers, than to muck about with trying to configure and install an old unsupported version of XFree just to use the ati card.
just a thought...
Wow - now this is even more interesting than the 3Dlabs announcement - sounds very impressive indeed - more features, plus it's open source, so I don't need to worry about having to run a certain distro or kernel.
I will have to check this puppy out.
silly windoze troll - these guys don't get it.
Linux hackers get paid well, why would linux users have to work for free?
I sure don't...
Nah, that's nowhere near right.
/dev, /bin, /tmp, /var, /usr
An operating system being a unix variant has nothing to do with being text-based or not, since any modern unix in the past decade or so ships with a client/server, network-transparent GUI framework (X11) - while msdos, novell netware and as400, none of which even remotely resemble unix, are all text based.
mr gates claimed some time ago that windoze nt would be a "better unix than unix" but anyone who has compared the two environments would find a marked divergence of cultures, with very little in common between the two.
windoze "nt" owes more to ideas from vms, pc-lan networking and ms-dos than anything else. (Ok, got it? let's do a single-user version of vms, give it an ms-dos prompt and pc-lan networking, slap on a pee cee gui and call it "new technology"! - folks will love it!)
No, unix is a very very different beast from ms windows, vms, as400, novell netware, and other OSes - those who know the unix nature need no explanation.
But, for the newbies, I'll take a swing at it - this is a rough idea:
1. Unix has a multiuser, client/server design
2. In the Unix process model, init is the father of all processes
3. Each process has it's own protected environment
4. New processes creation is via fork, or fork/exec
5. Each process has a process id, a parent process, and a controlling tty
6. Processes become daemons by disconnecting from their controlling tty
7. Job control via nice, signals and foreground/backgrounding facilities
8. Each user has a unique user id and belongs to one or more a groups
9. There is a unique superuser with uid 0, not subject to normal limits.
10 Filesystem characteristics - quotas, hard/soft links, directory files
11 Files - The dir links inodes to filenames, inodes contain all other info
12 Filesystem layout - "/", transparent mount points, no "drive letters".
13 Overall filesystem hierarchy -
14 Generally recognizable as either SysV or BSD
15 nfs is the native file sharing protocol, can also support ipx, pc-lan
16 Generally includes a mail delivery system, c compiler, and debug tools
17 Philosophy of many small tools from which to build big tools
18 Remote multiuser shell access via 'r' commands, telnet, secure shell
19 Remote multiuser GUI access via network transparent X protocol
LOL, these windoze cheerleaders are just too funny!
Well, for starters, just about anything beats windoze xp for flexibility, scalability, and usability!
And the way he calls IBM, Novell and Oracle "open sores hippies" - such ignorance would be funny if it wasn't soo sad, and truly sad if it weren't so funny...
Thank You
Does anyone have a direct link to Daveigh Chase's acceptance speech? (She won for best villain as Samara in the ring)
no, mi2g won't count this.
Linux is dominant on the web - the number of domains hosted on linux/apache is greater than those hosted on windows pcs running iis.
But, the overwhelming majority of web security problems is with, you guessed it - iis.
Indeed, I've noticed a number of these emails today - I'd click on it, have a laugh and delete it.
Of course, I run linux so I am completely immune - windoze users, do not try this.
Nope, inspired by minix perhaps, but not based on minix at all.
In fact, the fundamental designs of linux and minix were so diametrically opposed that torvalds and tannenbaum had a famous usenet thread about it. Tannanbaum, a CS Prof and creator of minix, basically thought linus was insane for designing a monolithic OS at a time when microkernel design was all the rage. Tannenbaum actually went on record as saying he would give Linus a grade of F for the design of Linux.
Ironically, minix is still an obscure academic toy, while linux has moved into the data centers of most fortune 1000 companies.
Yes, in the past it was customary for the microsoft pee cee fanboys to launch into yet another frenzied rendition of the monkey dance whenever microsoft drove yet another american company into bankruptcy -
But no, I don't think the ms fanboys are doing the monkey dance over this one...
> Really, OSS is fine in academia but for the
> administrative needs of a governing body !?
Wow, there seem to be so many ms shills here today, this must be killing microsoft...
IBM, Oracle and SAP will be happy to explain to you about open source - oh, and welcome to the real world!
Sure I'll bet -
Show me the server logs - you'll find the majority of slashdot posters are ms windoze users.
And if all the pro-microsoft bs here doesn't tip you off, I'm not sure what would...