Why is it that when one of these stories hits/. there are so many AC posts? More so than the average in most other types of stories (i.e., those bashing 'M$')?
Why can't we all just admit that there are some crappy, bloated open source apps? Is that just too painful?
Also, what's with all the stories pointing to LunixAndMain and OregonLive? Do we have a new content agreement with them or something?
How in the hell does this unintelligable anonymous coward get +5?
While I agree in principle with your insightful post, you should have tried to run a spell checker on it before posting a flame that has the word unintelligible in it.
I'm not sure if this means that they'll have to make 2 offices, or maintain two completely separately OS's. I would think only the former is necessary, but I'm getting the impression that they are targetting the latter.
I disagree. They've been trying to get away from that mess since they released NT4 and they just managed to do it with XP. I don't think they want to go there again.
The point of this new data store isn't necessarily faster searches, although that is one part of it. The idea is to have a common data storage mechanism, used by all programs.
They actually tried to do this once but it didn't gain much popularity. There's a "service" in COM called compound documents (also known as structured storage), which aside from being able to archive serialized objects can also function as a simplified data store. It's based in two simple interfaces: IStorage and IStream. A storage object is a "folder", and a stream object is a "file". The format is hierarchical so in effect you have a filesystem-within-a-filesystem. Although the structure format is propietary, what you actually put inside need not be. You can have simple text if you want. The current implementation supports advanced region locking, low-memory commit and a bunch of other good stuff, and it's actually quite robust.
The Office applications (since the 2000 version) are a good example of this. With the exception of Access they all use this format. If you have the DocViewer utility that ships with the the Platform SDK or VC++ you can open any.DOC,.XLS or.PPT file and look at the innards without a problem.
Also, since the interfaces themselves are defined by COM, anyone can write a better implementation than Microsoft's own (which has some problem regarding element attributes). It never got a lot of attention though. It's not difficult to code against, so I really don't know why more companies writing Windows software didn't use it.
Unfortunately the article doesn't go into much technical detail. As far as I've heard from some people in "the know" (if you can go that far) is that the new FS will be based on some beefed up version of SQL Server. That much is apparent. However, this version will be enhanced with ORDBMS-like capabilities, which SQL Server doesn't have today. It will also be tied heavily into Active Directory. That much I do know.
Now for some speculation. The implementation is likely to be based on the same "pluggable" FS driver architecture first introduced in Windows 2000, where the NTFS and FAT32 drivers are just a layer on top of the kernel (you can actually buy a devkit from Microsoft that will allow you to implement, say, ReiserFS for Windows 200). This however poses an interesting question: do you make this newfangled FS to sit on top of tried-and-true NTFS, or do you implement it at the kernel level and make NTFS a layer on top of that? Either way, I think the article is overstating the devastating effect on existing apps. Microsoft is not about to shoot itself in the foot so massively. Whatever this ends up being it's a good bet it will be fully backwards compatible. Kinda like Win32, which can still run 16-bit apps, albeit slower (in 2K and XP). But this will make companies more likely to either port existing code or release newer versions that take advantage of the redesigned FS.
Young adults are also more proficient, says the survey, when it comes to using cell phones, stereos, remote controls, microwaves and computers
Uh, my wife and mom have me beat when it comes to dishwasher, washer, dryer, microwave and range. However, that's because they use the darn things all the time. My mom can't take a PC apart and install a new HDD, but she doesn't have to, because she can ask me. OTOH, I taught her how to use e-mail and a word processor and she didn't miss a beat. Ditto for my wife. I didn't show them how to write C++ because they didn't have a pressing need for that either.
Dear Jon, perhaps you can take a deep breath and realize that the fact that your 85 year-old neighbor can't toggle a jumper on a SCSI controller doesn't mean the computer industry is falling appart with apathy or that the world is coming to an end. It's just that he has no need to do it.
It's amazing how you monkeys react to things like these. There's a bug in zlib, yeah. And your response is to say "Microsoft software has more bugs!" Do you really think you're doing anyone a favor by blabbering your pathetic "insight" for the word to see?
Just when I think I'll finally cease to be amazed at the mass of useless posts in this place someone like you proves me wrong.
Right - if it had followed the open source business model the only difference is that the CEO would have had less opportunity to cheat money out of employees.
Not to say it wouldn't have come crashing down anyway, of course.
Don't sweat it, really. The business model you are trying to defend is really not a business model at all, nor is it defensible. There's nothing to defend if it's not working in the first place.
You're not doing so well in the accuracy department.
Then again, repeating the word "wrong" 67 times is not helping your cause much and does not open the doors of interesting dialogue, hmmm? I was hoping I'd have a chance to insult you a bit more.
Fuck-wit.
Aw, come on. I was expecting something better from you. Fuck-wit? Am I supposed to laugh or cry?
All extremists should be shot.
Take gun, place against head, pull trigger. Let us know how it goes.
You fucking pathetic brain dead zealot. You and your drug-happy brethren are the prime reason open source is going nowhere fast.
Here's hoping that eventually you'll learn to construct thoughts with your brain instead of your liver. Maybe then you'll gape in wonder at the reality of the world you live in.
That's partly because of the endless marketing grab. 14-16 year olds don't buy toys and stickers and shit like that any more (well - most don't), nor do they badger their mommy to buy them a Dragonball Z beach towel and matching shampoo.
8-10 crowd however, does. Ergo, make the cartoon palatable to (them | their parents) and you have a winner in terms of scondary marketing, even though the edit might take away some of the cartoon's storytelling value.
Imagine what they would do to the first Heavy Metal movie if they had to market it to 9 year old kids.
It is spyware and/or crapware as long as it installs furtively without asking me if I want to allow it into my PC or not, period. By the time I realized kazaa was installing something without my consent -anything-, the 'cancel' button on the tiny BDE install dialog had disappeared.
Look AC - when I say 'Go into the registry and delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software. Then sit back and enjoy the show', then you can flame me. When I post a link to a dubious EXE and giggle while I tell you to download and run it, then you can flame me. When I tell you to look under a few folders, find a few files, check them, delete them and do the same for a few strings in the registry, you are free to follow the instructions - or not. But you can bite me real hard if you're suggesting I'm trying to damage anyone's machine. Now be a good AC and definitly fuck off.
Well, maybe not, but it's still annoying. In Windows, when you download the latest version of the client from kazaa.com you'll be forced to install the bde 'stream' thing, which gives you, wait for it, a talking woman on the front page of the application. Yipeee.
You can go to Add/Remove programs and kill it, but in true crapware tradition it doesn't actually delete the files. Go into the system folder and you'll find a bunch of DLLs prefixed with 'bde', both DLLs and EXEs. Delete them. (make sure you don't kill anything that belongs to the Borland Database Engine if you have it installed - check the DLL versions). There are two EXEs with fuzzy green icons.
Next, under the windows folder there will be a directory called 'BDE', IIRC. Delete that too.
Finally, go into the registry and look for the 'bde' and 'brilliant' strings. After verifying that they're not something else, delete those too.
The removal doesn't seem to affect the kazaa client at all.
Let me burn my remaining Karma here, since I'll stop reading/. soon. Better to go out with a flame.
Look at the first and second stories on this Wired story.
Bwahahahahahaha!!!!
Feel the burn babeeee!!!
Anyhoo, it's been interesting I suppose. But I guess concentrated zealotry, st00pid "editorial work", JonKatz and overall high suck factor will only take you so far. Count me along with the zillions of trolls and flamers that will leave this pace in droves. In any case,/. is nothing more than a big collection of links to other sites that have... wait... Ads! Hehehe.
In passing, I'd like to say I cannot freaking believe that anyone would even contemplate charging for this. I mean, sure. It's funny sometimes. Informative once in a while. But absolutely not worth it, not by far. Not even if you guys all leave, OSDN hires two amateur bloggers and then puts up one of those "Under New Management!!!1!!" signs on the front page. Nope, not a chance in hell I would ever pay for Slashdot.
Oh, and not only that - since ya'll have been giving away the code, ya'll can now expect 1,000 little Slashdots to pop up all over the Internet. Here's to giving away the crown jewels! Really mad #props for that!!!
So it was indeed karma (the bad variety) that eventually took this place down.
But - I'd like to propose a toast. Raise your glasses along with me.
Here's to the howling masses, demanding everything be free because they deserve it for some strange cosmic reason. Here's to all the open source "geeks", punks and 1337 h4xx0rz that think the most important thing in the world is to have a kewl mod case, 20/. karma points and be able to compile a kernel. Here's to companies run by people who don't have a goddamn clue of how to run a business. Here's to all the times I saw an interesting thought being censored and sent to the troll bin because it gave a different point of view than all the kiddies and weirdos with mod points to burn. Here's to the ending of the "dream". Here's #props to ESR saying that "cheap PCs will kill Windows" while the "free software and beer and everything else has to be free" "movement" is slowly killing itself without help from anyone else.
So long live... whatever.
You may now start wasting mod points on me. Ta-ta!
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Why can't we all just admit that there are some crappy, bloated open source apps? Is that just too painful?
Also, what's with all the stories pointing to LunixAndMain and OregonLive? Do we have a new content agreement with them or something?
"Brilliant digital". Crapware, actually. See this
While I agree in principle with your insightful post, you should have tried to run a spell checker on it before posting a flame that has the word unintelligible in it.
Hope this helps!
Dear Sir,
I smoke 3 packs a day of unfiltered Camels. Does that mean I can try your experiment with alacrity?
Please respond to me immediately.
Sincerely,
satamarnayananamayanapan guchanda
sat@hotmail.com
NTFS 4 (which is NT4) sorta did support them but you either had to go throught the POSIX subsystem (kind of a drag) or use an obscure backup function.
Check out the MSDN reference. It's there.
I disagree. They've been trying to get away from that mess since they released NT4 and they just managed to do it with XP. I don't think they want to go there again.
It also has mount points as well as reparse points.
Very few people actually use them, but that doesn't mean they're not there.
They actually tried to do this once but it didn't gain much popularity. There's a "service" in COM called compound documents (also known as structured storage), which aside from being able to archive serialized objects can also function as a simplified data store. It's based in two simple interfaces: IStorage and IStream. A storage object is a "folder", and a stream object is a "file". The format is hierarchical so in effect you have a filesystem-within-a-filesystem. Although the structure format is propietary, what you actually put inside need not be. You can have simple text if you want. The current implementation supports advanced region locking, low-memory commit and a bunch of other good stuff, and it's actually quite robust.
The Office applications (since the 2000 version) are a good example of this. With the exception of Access they all use this format. If you have the DocViewer utility that ships with the the Platform SDK or VC++ you can open any .DOC, .XLS or .PPT file and look at the innards without a problem.
Also, since the interfaces themselves are defined by COM, anyone can write a better implementation than Microsoft's own (which has some problem regarding element attributes). It never got a lot of attention though. It's not difficult to code against, so I really don't know why more companies writing Windows software didn't use it.
I do see your point, but Microsoft can't afford to stop moving ahead. In any case, this is three or four years away at best.
Now for some speculation. The implementation is likely to be based on the same "pluggable" FS driver architecture first introduced in Windows 2000, where the NTFS and FAT32 drivers are just a layer on top of the kernel (you can actually buy a devkit from Microsoft that will allow you to implement, say, ReiserFS for Windows 200). This however poses an interesting question: do you make this newfangled FS to sit on top of tried-and-true NTFS, or do you implement it at the kernel level and make NTFS a layer on top of that? Either way, I think the article is overstating the devastating effect on existing apps. Microsoft is not about to shoot itself in the foot so massively. Whatever this ends up being it's a good bet it will be fully backwards compatible. Kinda like Win32, which can still run 16-bit apps, albeit slower (in 2K and XP). But this will make companies more likely to either port existing code or release newer versions that take advantage of the redesigned FS.
There's a interesting Register article here
Uh, my wife and mom have me beat when it comes to dishwasher, washer, dryer, microwave and range. However, that's because they use the darn things all the time. My mom can't take a PC apart and install a new HDD, but she doesn't have to, because she can ask me. OTOH, I taught her how to use e-mail and a word processor and she didn't miss a beat. Ditto for my wife. I didn't show them how to write C++ because they didn't have a pressing need for that either.
Dear Jon, perhaps you can take a deep breath and realize that the fact that your 85 year-old neighbor can't toggle a jumper on a SCSI controller doesn't mean the computer industry is falling appart with apathy or that the world is coming to an end. It's just that he has no need to do it.
Well that's some pretty complex math you got going there Will! Thank you for teaching me how Slashdot works.
Anyway, I guess you're in a race to redefine "pathetic" - I'll leave you to it.
thanks for replying to the post and thus modding the parent up to 3. you'll note i posted without the bonus, so it was at 1.
Will, we need to work on your math skills as well - I'm seeing your post at 1 still.
prove me wrong - what I said was true.
The meaning of my post apparently escapes you.
Just when I think I'll finally cease to be amazed at the mass of useless posts in this place someone like you proves me wrong.
Not to say it wouldn't have come crashing down anyway, of course.
Don't sweat it, really. The business model you are trying to defend is really not a business model at all, nor is it defensible. There's nothing to defend if it's not working in the first place.
Mod parent up =)
Then again, repeating the word "wrong" 67 times is not helping your cause much and does not open the doors of interesting dialogue, hmmm? I was hoping I'd have a chance to insult you a bit more.
Fuck-wit.
Aw, come on. I was expecting something better from you. Fuck-wit? Am I supposed to laugh or cry?
All extremists should be shot.
Take gun, place against head, pull trigger. Let us know how it goes.
Here's hoping that eventually you'll learn to construct thoughts with your brain instead of your liver. Maybe then you'll gape in wonder at the reality of the world you live in.
Notice the question mark at the end is gone.
So we give Netscrape the benefit of the doubt, I guess. Like another poster said - whatever is not Microsoft. It doesn't matter how bad it is.
Kinda ass-backward if you ask me.
8-10 crowd however, does. Ergo, make the cartoon palatable to (them | their parents) and you have a winner in terms of scondary marketing, even though the edit might take away some of the cartoon's storytelling value.
Imagine what they would do to the first Heavy Metal movie if they had to market it to 9 year old kids.
Maybe not spyware, but definitely crapware.
Look AC - when I say 'Go into the registry and delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software. Then sit back and enjoy the show', then you can flame me. When I post a link to a dubious EXE and giggle while I tell you to download and run it, then you can flame me. When I tell you to look under a few folders, find a few files, check them, delete them and do the same for a few strings in the registry, you are free to follow the instructions - or not. But you can bite me real hard if you're suggesting I'm trying to damage anyone's machine. Now be a good AC and definitly fuck off.
You can go to Add/Remove programs and kill it, but in true crapware tradition it doesn't actually delete the files. Go into the system folder and you'll find a bunch of DLLs prefixed with 'bde', both DLLs and EXEs. Delete them. (make sure you don't kill anything that belongs to the Borland Database Engine if you have it installed - check the DLL versions). There are two EXEs with fuzzy green icons.
Next, under the windows folder there will be a directory called 'BDE', IIRC. Delete that too.
Finally, go into the registry and look for the 'bde' and 'brilliant' strings. After verifying that they're not something else, delete those too.
The removal doesn't seem to affect the kazaa client at all.
Look at the first and second stories on this Wired story.
Bwahahahahahaha!!!!
Feel the burn babeeee!!!
Anyhoo, it's been interesting I suppose. But I guess concentrated zealotry, st00pid "editorial work", JonKatz and overall high suck factor will only take you so far. Count me along with the zillions of trolls and flamers that will leave this pace in droves. In any case, /. is nothing more than a big collection of links to other sites that have... wait... Ads! Hehehe.
In passing, I'd like to say I cannot freaking believe that anyone would even contemplate charging for this. I mean, sure. It's funny sometimes. Informative once in a while. But absolutely not worth it, not by far. Not even if you guys all leave, OSDN hires two amateur bloggers and then puts up one of those "Under New Management!!!1!!" signs on the front page. Nope, not a chance in hell I would ever pay for Slashdot.
Oh, and not only that - since ya'll have been giving away the code, ya'll can now expect 1,000 little Slashdots to pop up all over the Internet. Here's to giving away the crown jewels! Really mad #props for that!!!
So it was indeed karma (the bad variety) that eventually took this place down.
But - I'd like to propose a toast. Raise your glasses along with me.
Here's to the howling masses, demanding everything be free because they deserve it for some strange cosmic reason. Here's to all the open source "geeks", punks and 1337 h4xx0rz that think the most important thing in the world is to have a kewl mod case, 20 /. karma points and be able to compile a kernel. Here's to companies run by people who don't have a goddamn clue of how to run a business. Here's to all the times I saw an interesting thought being censored and sent to the troll bin because it gave a different point of view than all the kiddies and weirdos with mod points to burn. Here's to the ending of the "dream". Here's #props to ESR saying that "cheap PCs will kill Windows" while the "free software and beer and everything else has to be free" "movement" is slowly killing itself without help from anyone else.
So long live... whatever.
You may now start wasting mod points on me. Ta-ta!