There may be part of that, but the real problem is the vendors trying to install a bunch of poorly written crap that screws everything up. The drivers themselves are seldom the whole problem.
Now we get to the root of the problem. The problem here is most likely that the built-in Windows driver was installed to access it as a storage device. The vendors driver superceded the already installed driver, which caused the problem.
That's a little different from a Printer where no driver exists. I always tell people, if Windows recognizes your hardware, DO NOT install the vendors drivers unless there is a damn good reason to. They're probably worse.
That "security hole" line only last so long. The first time someone clicks on the Red Carpet, or SuSE update or Mandrake update or whatever icon and sees 25 packages with security flaws, they're going to wonder what was so bad with Windows.
You can argue all you like about how Windows doesn't come with 10 billion packages, and so will have fewer flaws, but the end user will still see "hmm.. 25 critical security flaws in 1 week".
What's interesting is that this "install the kitchen sink" mentality of Linux is precisely what everyone was criticizing Windows (and Linux as well) for a few years back in which all kinds of services were enabled by default.
Ideally, a users system should have just the software he needs to use, everything else is a security risk waiting to happen.
There *IS* Nothing the registry before the driver is installed. It's simply not possible for the above to be true.
Now, i have seen pretty crappy drivers that require some of the above if, for example, you plug the USB device into a different USB port once it's already installed, but first time installation simply has no way for anything to get into the registry to do that in the first place.
Not that it matters, but the reason the vendors do that nowadays is because it's much easier for Windows Plug-n-play to install the driver during hardware detection. But, it can't do that if the driver isn't installed first.
Normally, you could just point the driver dialog to the CD, but so many vendors these days insist on providing windows installer programs rather than a directory with driver files that the driver dialog can find. This is because the hardwaare vendor wants you to install all the other marketing crap that goes along with it.
Now, it's relatively simple to fix this problem. Just go into the device manager, delete the detected hardware after you have installed the software, and right click and choose scan hardware again, but even that's too much for most people and would result in a support call.
I'm surprised you can sit there with a straight face and say "Windows has held the world back" and in the next statement say "Thank god Linux finally allows to world to type in their native language".
It seems to me like Microsoft HAS been farther along in many technologies than Linux, such as native language input and localization for years. It seems to me Linux is still playing catchup to many of MS's supposedly inferior technologies.
Not that I disagree that MS hasn't, on some levels held technology back, but frankly the Linux community hasn't done much to push it either, though things are starting to change on that front. Linux is begining to stop copying everyone else and start doing some of it's own thinking for a change. That's a good thing.
You seem to think that Windows is still the same as DOS and Win3.1. Windows has improved at a much faster rate than Linux for the first 10 years or so. It's only now that Linux is beginning to pull ahead.
I should add, I just think it's turning into a "boy that called wolf" kind of situation. Eventually it will happen, but not because you keep saying "this is the year".
While it's unlikely that these machines are actually on the internet, but if they are it's probably not a big deal anyways. They'd likely be using some kind of hardware VPN, and even if they weren't they are most likely shutting off all external ports other than their own software, making it no more vulnerable than any other OS they might choose. No open ports, no way to exploit it.
If they could get by with all their existing ATM's, it wouldn't be a problem. The problem is that they need to install new ones, both in new locations and to replace aging equipment that's failing.
Diebold (the #1 maker of ATM's) doesn't sell an OS/2 based ATM anymore, which means if you want new ones, you're stuck with Windows.
Actually, to some extent, yes. The poll assumes you ARE familiar with other OS's. Otherwise you just get people with no experience saying their OS rules.
You missed my point. I know the keyboard shortcuts exist. Apple-` is application defined though, and apps have to support it, which in my experience has been very few.
Commenting about Expose is just a circular argument.
The windowing scheme is braindead because you can only select the current application via the dock. Windows that are behind other open windows of the same app can't be easily gotten to without minimizing or moving windows. If you're lucky, the app supports keyboard shortcuts to switch between windows of that app, but that's typically not the case in my experience.
Other OS, though not stellar examples of GUI design either at least provide relatively consistent ways to select other windows. In Windows, apps are usually SDI or MDI, both of which provide methods of selecting windows, such as the task bar or the window menu. There is the occasional exception though (Delphi anyone?).
Expose is brilliant. I love it on my G5, and i'd love to have it on Windows, but it's not nearly so critical for me.
Apart from the obvious fact that I didn't call him stupid, I said he made a stupid statement...
He said he was more productive on Linux because he can bind keys to do things. Given that you can do the exact same on both Windows and OSX, that means he'd be just as productive on those boxes given his reasons, thus he wouldn't be MORE productive on Linux BECAUSE of that reason.
He's more productive because he KNOWS how to do it in Linux. That's it.
BTW, if you plan on criticizing someone for their spelling, you might want to check your own first. "spellchecker" is two words.
All i'm saying is that if you're planning on giving a reason for being productive in a particular OS, you should make sure that reason is unique to that OS, or at least unique to the major ones cited.
Apart from the obvious of binding a key to a bash script under cygwin, you can bind a key to a similar WSH script if you want. It's even easier under OSX with applescript.
Why do you arrogantly believe Linux is the only OS capable of this?
I find that the answer to the productivity question is: What you're most familiar with.
By way of example, I'll use one of yours above:
As a programmer, I am much more productive in Linux because I can tie almost everything I do in Gnome (or KDE) to a key command.
You do realize that you can set any random key equivelents you like in most other OS's as well, including Windows (check the shortcut link properties) and MacOS, right? No. You didn't. Or you wouldn't have made such a stupid statement.
Your infamiliarity with other OS's leads you to falsely believe that what you know is the only way to be productive.
Well, actually.. the new Xeon's are looking quite good compared to Opteron's for server work. Performance wise they seem to be kicking the Opteron's ass, and remember it too has x86-64 (EM64T).
Prices are still a little higher than opteron's, but then servers aren't usually sold on value.
Not quite. Even with really really user friendly versions of Linux, there are lots of things the distro vendor didn't think about.
Example: There are tons of ASP developers out there that know very little about how to configure machines. The other day I took my SuSE 9.1 box and wanted to install PHP to access a MS SQL database. You can't do it without downloading a non-YaST managed package (OpenTDL) and recompiling PHP with the proper configuration, all of which means you can't manage it with YaST anymore.
With Windows, I can install SQL Server, IIS, ASP, etc.. without ever leaving a GUI, or recompiling anything. Not so easy with SuSE and probably similar with most other distro's.
All i'm saying here is that Linux distro's still have a long way to go to cater to the edge cases. And all the different edge cases comprise a startlingly large percentage. As the saying goes, any one use probably only uses 10% of (whatever), but it's always a different 10%.
That's "head buried in the sand" thinking. First, Firefox has had a lot of security flaws recently. Not all of them were fixed as quickly as they should have been. Regardless of how quickly the patch comes, the problem will be getting people to apply the patches. That's the same problem IE has.
Yeah, but how many of those 25,000,000 are people downloading nightly builds, and people downloading patched versions due to various vulnerabilities being found?
Slashdot Mirror
There may be part of that, but the real problem is the vendors trying to install a bunch of poorly written crap that screws everything up. The drivers themselves are seldom the whole problem.
Now we get to the root of the problem. The problem here is most likely that the built-in Windows driver was installed to access it as a storage device. The vendors driver superceded the already installed driver, which caused the problem.
That's a little different from a Printer where no driver exists. I always tell people, if Windows recognizes your hardware, DO NOT install the vendors drivers unless there is a damn good reason to. They're probably worse.
That "security hole" line only last so long. The first time someone clicks on the Red Carpet, or SuSE update or Mandrake update or whatever icon and sees 25 packages with security flaws, they're going to wonder what was so bad with Windows.
You can argue all you like about how Windows doesn't come with 10 billion packages, and so will have fewer flaws, but the end user will still see "hmm.. 25 critical security flaws in 1 week".
What's interesting is that this "install the kitchen sink" mentality of Linux is precisely what everyone was criticizing Windows (and Linux as well) for a few years back in which all kinds of services were enabled by default.
Ideally, a users system should have just the software he needs to use, everything else is a security risk waiting to happen.
I call bullshit.
There *IS* Nothing the registry before the driver is installed. It's simply not possible for the above to be true.
Now, i have seen pretty crappy drivers that require some of the above if, for example, you plug the USB device into a different USB port once it's already installed, but first time installation simply has no way for anything to get into the registry to do that in the first place.
Not that it matters, but the reason the vendors do that nowadays is because it's much easier for Windows Plug-n-play to install the driver during hardware detection. But, it can't do that if the driver isn't installed first.
Normally, you could just point the driver dialog to the CD, but so many vendors these days insist on providing windows installer programs rather than a directory with driver files that the driver dialog can find. This is because the hardwaare vendor wants you to install all the other marketing crap that goes along with it.
Now, it's relatively simple to fix this problem. Just go into the device manager, delete the detected hardware after you have installed the software, and right click and choose scan hardware again, but even that's too much for most people and would result in a support call.
I'm surprised you can sit there with a straight face and say "Windows has held the world back" and in the next statement say "Thank god Linux finally allows to world to type in their native language".
It seems to me like Microsoft HAS been farther along in many technologies than Linux, such as native language input and localization for years. It seems to me Linux is still playing catchup to many of MS's supposedly inferior technologies.
Not that I disagree that MS hasn't, on some levels held technology back, but frankly the Linux community hasn't done much to push it either, though things are starting to change on that front. Linux is begining to stop copying everyone else and start doing some of it's own thinking for a change. That's a good thing.
You seem to think that Windows is still the same as DOS and Win3.1. Windows has improved at a much faster rate than Linux for the first 10 years or so. It's only now that Linux is beginning to pull ahead.
I should add, I just think it's turning into a "boy that called wolf" kind of situation. Eventually it will happen, but not because you keep saying "this is the year".
Oh yeah, every year for the last several years. Examples follow"
March 2003
July 2003
November 2004
December 2003
They weren't, at least not that I'm aware of. They were DoS'd because of high network activity.
While it's unlikely that these machines are actually on the internet, but if they are it's probably not a big deal anyways. They'd likely be using some kind of hardware VPN, and even if they weren't they are most likely shutting off all external ports other than their own software, making it no more vulnerable than any other OS they might choose. No open ports, no way to exploit it.
If they could get by with all their existing ATM's, it wouldn't be a problem. The problem is that they need to install new ones, both in new locations and to replace aging equipment that's failing.
Diebold (the #1 maker of ATM's) doesn't sell an OS/2 based ATM anymore, which means if you want new ones, you're stuck with Windows.
Actually, to some extent, yes. The poll assumes you ARE familiar with other OS's. Otherwise you just get people with no experience saying their OS rules.
You missed my point. I know the keyboard shortcuts exist. Apple-` is application defined though, and apps have to support it, which in my experience has been very few.
Commenting about Expose is just a circular argument.
The windowing scheme is braindead because you can only select the current application via the dock. Windows that are behind other open windows of the same app can't be easily gotten to without minimizing or moving windows. If you're lucky, the app supports keyboard shortcuts to switch between windows of that app, but that's typically not the case in my experience.
Other OS, though not stellar examples of GUI design either at least provide relatively consistent ways to select other windows. In Windows, apps are usually SDI or MDI, both of which provide methods of selecting windows, such as the task bar or the window menu. There is the occasional exception though (Delphi anyone?).
Expose is brilliant. I love it on my G5, and i'd love to have it on Windows, but it's not nearly so critical for me.
Apart from the obvious fact that I didn't call him stupid, I said he made a stupid statement...
He said he was more productive on Linux because he can bind keys to do things. Given that you can do the exact same on both Windows and OSX, that means he'd be just as productive on those boxes given his reasons, thus he wouldn't be MORE productive on Linux BECAUSE of that reason.
He's more productive because he KNOWS how to do it in Linux. That's it.
BTW, if you plan on criticizing someone for their spelling, you might want to check your own first. "spellchecker" is two words.
All i'm saying is that if you're planning on giving a reason for being productive in a particular OS, you should make sure that reason is unique to that OS, or at least unique to the major ones cited.
Apart from the obvious of binding a key to a bash script under cygwin, you can bind a key to a similar WSH script if you want. It's even easier under OSX with applescript.
Why do you arrogantly believe Linux is the only OS capable of this?
No, but you can bind the shortcut to a WSH or Apple script that will do the same thing.
Why is it that everyone believes that Linux is the only OS capable of doing this stuff?
Actually, yes. Expose is WAY cool in terms of productivity. But then, OSX needs it because of it's otherwise brain dead windowing scheme.
It would still be useful on other platforms, but not nearly as necessary for productivity as it is on OSX.
I find that the answer to the productivity question is: What you're most familiar with.
By way of example, I'll use one of yours above:
As a programmer, I am much more productive in Linux because I can tie almost everything I do in Gnome (or KDE) to a key command.
You do realize that you can set any random key equivelents you like in most other OS's as well, including Windows (check the shortcut link properties) and MacOS, right? No. You didn't. Or you wouldn't have made such a stupid statement.
Your infamiliarity with other OS's leads you to falsely believe that what you know is the only way to be productive.
Off topic, but for your information:
Multiple desktops are trivial in any version of Windows. There are lots of free or very inexpensive 3rd party tools to give them to you.
There's of course the official MS powertoy but this is largely a piece of crap.
There's DeskSelect $9.95
There's Cool Desk $24.95
There's a whole section of them at tucows.
There's Multidesktop
There's Virtual Desk
There's Enable virtual desktop
Open Source, there's Virtual Desktop, Virtual Dimensions, VirtuaWin, etc... etc... etc..
Unless your company won't allow you to install any software on your local computer, there's no excuse to be whining about lack of virtual desktops.
Well, actually.. the new Xeon's are looking quite good compared to Opteron's for server work. Performance wise they seem to be kicking the Opteron's ass, and remember it too has x86-64 (EM64T).
Prices are still a little higher than opteron's, but then servers aren't usually sold on value.
Not quite. Even with really really user friendly versions of Linux, there are lots of things the distro vendor didn't think about.
Example: There are tons of ASP developers out there that know very little about how to configure machines. The other day I took my SuSE 9.1 box and wanted to install PHP to access a MS SQL database. You can't do it without downloading a non-YaST managed package (OpenTDL) and recompiling PHP with the proper configuration, all of which means you can't manage it with YaST anymore.
With Windows, I can install SQL Server, IIS, ASP, etc.. without ever leaving a GUI, or recompiling anything. Not so easy with SuSE and probably similar with most other distro's.
All i'm saying here is that Linux distro's still have a long way to go to cater to the edge cases. And all the different edge cases comprise a startlingly large percentage. As the saying goes, any one use probably only uses 10% of (whatever), but it's always a different 10%.
That's "head buried in the sand" thinking. First, Firefox has had a lot of security flaws recently. Not all of them were fixed as quickly as they should have been. Regardless of how quickly the patch comes, the problem will be getting people to apply the patches. That's the same problem IE has.
Yeah, but how many of those 25,000,000 are people downloading nightly builds, and people downloading patched versions due to various vulnerabilities being found?
Have you even HEARD of group policy? Nobody can disable the firewall if the group policy won't let them.