"There may be some Slashdot readers who don't know the story about the chair"
--- and a good many more who wish the joke could be retired along with the other long-since-gone-stale running gags that pass for humor on Slashdot. Trouble with your theory is, it is not a joke, it actually happened.
Am I in the market for another machine? Maybe. It should be the size of a package of cigarettes (no I don't smoke). It should have at least two (2) nics. I'd like solid state. I'd like edge connectors so that I can live connect another unit to it if I can think of a reason to do so. If it likes 12 volts then this will be perfect because any old deep cycle battery can then power the thing which means I can use it off grid. My Hawker battery cost over $400 bux. This drives a UPS which puts out 120 volts AC which goes into a switching power supply which puts out 5 & 12 volts DC. I think there are some optimizations which can take place here. You would think. Last time I went looking for a ready-made DC UPS I didn't find anything. Convert to 110 and back is gross. Anyway you will have trouble getting your pack of cigarettes format and still have a hard disk in it. The 2 1/2 inch hard disk takes up half the space inside the box. As far as 2 1/2 inch form factor SSD goes, forget it for now unless you are immune to sticker shock. $1300 for 8G? I will wait a while, thanks. 2 1/2 inch disks are pretty quiet.
It was also important to me that this box _be_ a PC. It saves a lot of hassle.
Last time I installed Windows, it didn't work without installing Flash.;) Right, and by the way, the open source flash player (.flv format) completely blows away the Adobe product in performance. Adobe drops frames on the standard postage-stamp sized Youtube video while Noatun and MPlayer run flash files smoothly at full screen.
Shame about the 256mb memory limit but otherwise is perfect. 256mb is working out OK. I'm running KDE3 (and KDE 4!) and watching videos for the last couple of days, surfing with Firefox 3, and running a couple of different Openoffice apps all at the time time without problems. Well, starting an application will make the video stutter but once started everything is OK. Oh, and Festival the speech synthesizer, an endless source of amusement for my wife and kid. Haven't gone more than 130 MB into swap.
Anyway, I got it to be a web server which it will do perfectly fine given my wimpy DSL. Kind of tempted now to keep using it as a desktop.
Until they find out they can't run their kids games or some weird software they've already bought. Then they just call the neighborhood geek to put Windows on it. They might even go about it legally and purchase a boxed copy. You underestimate the power of consumer laziness my friend. I can assure you, kids are happy with the games that come with standard Linux boxes. I'm watching mine having fun with Tuxpaint right now.
When it comes to serious games, you are just not going to get joy from the Eee. That's when I throw a CD into the PS3.
Actually, I have tried to run off a couple of the latest Ubuntu cds, and it has not worked at all. It probably is because I am runnung on a standard Intel 845GBV motherboard, manufactured in high volume, with an old ATI 8500DV all-in-wonder video card. I am more than a little disappointed that ubuntu fails to run. I have never had that problem with windows.
Just to make sure you understand my level of expertise, I am the electronic hardware engineer who designed the 845GBV motherboard (over a million shipped), as well as many other motherboards while at Intel. No, I am not an Intel fanatic (they laid me off with 3,000 other Americans one day in fall of 2002). Nor am I a Windows fanatic. I am always thankful when the latest windows annoyances book comes out. I think we need a linux annoyances book. My level of familiarity with linux? I have been running and supporting a majority of the unix and linux operating systems for over 15 years. Yes, I could have gotten it to work. I just do not have that much time to devote to fussing with it right now, and no compelling reason to do so. Give me a reason to waste my time on it. You sounded credible until that last sentence. "Has not worked at all" does not sound remotely like a problem description about an Intel motherboard from an Intel engineer. Anyway, if you really are that lazy, just boot a Knoppix CD on it.
Linux is well supported on Intel 845 chipsets. Chances that Ubuntu "fails to run" are slim, though I have seen Ubuntu fail to boot on an Intel laptop myself and I did not investigate, just switched to for-real Debian which worked fine. Chances that Knoppix fails to run are practically nonexistent.
Sounds like that would make a great MythFrontend machine, if the video can keep up. It plays avi/mpeg etc videos smoothly at full screen (only tried 1024/768 so far). Flash player performance not so much, because of the the proprietary/slow Adobe player.
Try to beat the pitch drop experiment [wikipedia.org] compiling openoffice on a 5 watt draw. Why should I? I already downloaded and installed it from the Ubuntu repository, it took about 5 minutes, works great. Actually, oo was already installed and I ended up just getting an updated version. Fine.
If I want to compile openoffice I will ssh into a faster machine... in another room where I don't hear the noise.
I'm Hearing Year of the Linux Machine around here a lot again (again, or continuously... you decide). It has been year of the Linux desktop for 10 years now over here. Yes, it is true, I have never booted Windows box in that period and do not miss a thing except the annoyance. Registration key? Feh.
At the moment I am running on one of these, Ubuntu, everything just worked when I turned it on including sound, Youtube, several different browsers including firefox 3. Runs KDE like a champ, very smooth. While I type, KDE 4 is installing. Not bad for an embedded box I brought in to be my always-on (5 watts!) server and just thought I'd try running KDE on it for fun, which turned out to work really well.
Oh right, time to install openoffice too, you never know when you might need that on a server:-)
Bias, by definition, ignores logic and sees only the data one wishes to see to support his opinion/theory/evidence. Nonsense. By your definition, all trial lawyers ignore logic and so do both the affirmative and negative sides in a debating contest. I do not think that the word logic means what you think it means.
The M$ moniker is perfectly legitimate and weakens nobody's position in the slightest.
Arguments are weakened by false or inaccurate premises, writing M$ gives a perfect idea of the bias of the poster Durr. Those two statements contradict each other. Yes, writing M$ DOES give a perfect idea of the bias of the poster...that is, a blind Microsoft hater that takes any opportunity to criticize them. It is you who are wrong. There is no contradiction between his two statements because he talks about the logical elements of argument (he could have mentioned faulty logic for completeness) and you conflate that with bias. Bias on the part of a judge would be a problem, but bias on the part of someone participating in a debate is wholly irrelevant to the logical correctness of their argument. To put it another way, truth trumps opinion.
it would be like calling linux "£x" in some world where 90% of the people writing messages used that abbreviation. Calling Linux "Linsux" is like calling M$ "Microsucks" Thanks for saying that. M$ is funny because of the allusion to basic variable$. It's beyond me why Microsofties get so upset about it.
Yes Microsoft plays hard ball. They are a tough competitor and not to be underestimated. But when all is said and done Microsoft and Bill Gates will not look like the villain that many like to portray. You mean, plays hardball and habitually breaks the law.
This isn't a software patent though - many of the claims (camera, removable storage, etc) refer to hardware. But it is idiotic enough to draw attention to the problem. Goodness knows, we have more than enough software patents in the same class of idiocy, but the general public seldom gets to see that.
These guys will be smashed into paste by hordes of the highest paid lawyers on planet Earth first thing Monday morning. And they are actually doing us a service by raising the profile of how badly broken the American patent system really is. Ideally this process ends with outlawing software patents like Europe.
Huh? What finacial harm? If you want to put IE into standards mode, it requires a 10 second configuration change. And requires millions of sites to change their html if they want it to be rendered correctly in the default configuration of Microsoft's browser. Multiply the typical cost of the labor to change the site by all the sites affected, and there are your damages. Anybody care to make an estimate?
Why not turn this complaint into a class action suit? It seems to me that putting right this sort of wrong is exactly the purpose of this legal mechanism. Surely the financial harm can be easily estimated. So some Microsoft Employee thought my suggestion was a troll, hmm? No, completely serious.
Why not turn this complaint into a class action suit? It seems to me that putting right this sort of wrong is exactly the purpose of this legal mechanism. Surely the financial harm can be easily estimated.
your assertion that you can simply remove Firefox from Ubuntu Desktop is incorrect. Oh, you can remove it... but you must remove the package 'ubuntu-desktop', which depends on firefox! This will result in autoremoval of a lot of other packages (if you are doing autoremoval) and the failure to track some updates to ubuntu. If so, then that is just boneheaded packaging. I can remove Iceweasel (aka Firefox) from Debian Sid just fine.
sudo apt-get remove iceweasel Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done The following packages will be REMOVED:
iceweasel iceweasel-gnome-support 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 245 not upgraded. Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 27.5MB disk space will be freed.
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vmsplice exploit fix
--- and a good many more who wish the joke could be retired along with the other long-since-gone-stale running gags that pass for humor on Slashdot. Trouble with your theory is, it is not a joke, it actually happened.
It was also important to me that this box _be_ a PC. It saves a lot of hassle.
Anyway, I got it to be a web server which it will do perfectly fine given my wimpy DSL. Kind of tempted now to keep using it as a desktop.
When it comes to serious games, you are just not going to get joy from the Eee. That's when I throw a CD into the PS3.
Just to make sure you understand my level of expertise, I am the electronic hardware engineer who designed the 845GBV motherboard (over a million shipped), as well as many other motherboards while at Intel. No, I am not an Intel fanatic (they laid me off with 3,000 other Americans one day in fall of 2002). Nor am I a Windows fanatic. I am always thankful when the latest windows annoyances book comes out. I think we need a linux annoyances book. My level of familiarity with linux? I have been running and supporting a majority of the unix and linux operating systems for over 15 years. Yes, I could have gotten it to work. I just do not have that much time to devote to fussing with it right now, and no compelling reason to do so. Give me a reason to waste my time on it. You sounded credible until that last sentence. "Has not worked at all" does not sound remotely like a problem description about an Intel motherboard from an Intel engineer. Anyway, if you really are that lazy, just boot a Knoppix CD on it.
Linux is well supported on Intel 845 chipsets. Chances that Ubuntu "fails to run" are slim, though I have seen Ubuntu fail to boot on an Intel laptop myself and I did not investigate, just switched to for-real Debian which worked fine. Chances that Knoppix fails to run are practically nonexistent.
If I want to compile openoffice I will ssh into a faster machine... in another room where I don't hear the noise.
At the moment I am running on one of these, Ubuntu, everything just worked when I turned it on including sound, Youtube, several different browsers including firefox 3. Runs KDE like a champ, very smooth. While I type, KDE 4 is installing. Not bad for an embedded box I brought in to be my always-on (5 watts!) server and just thought I'd try running KDE on it for fun, which turned out to work really well.
Oh right, time to install openoffice too, you never know when you might need that on a server
Arguments are weakened by false or inaccurate premises, writing M$ gives a perfect idea of the bias of the poster Durr. Those two statements contradict each other. Yes, writing M$ DOES give a perfect idea of the bias of the poster...that is, a blind Microsoft hater that takes any opportunity to criticize them. It is you who are wrong. There is no contradiction between his two statements because he talks about the logical elements of argument (he could have mentioned faulty logic for completeness) and you conflate that with bias. Bias on the part of a judge would be a problem, but bias on the part of someone participating in a debate is wholly irrelevant to the logical correctness of their argument. To put it another way, truth trumps opinion.
Why not turn this complaint into a class action suit? It seems to me that putting right this sort of wrong is exactly the purpose of this legal mechanism. Surely the financial harm can be easily estimated.
"Frankly, we welcome the competition." -- Orlando Ayala
Allow me to translate that newspeak to English: "Frankly, we detest competition and will go to any lengths to end it."
Well here's hoping he can fix the horrid file open, save and print dialogs.
sudo apt-get remove iceweasel
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
iceweasel iceweasel-gnome-support
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 245 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives.
After unpacking 27.5MB disk space will be freed.