I didn't read the link until a while later. It's funny how the marketing hype for the i860 is so much like that for Itanium. Oh well..I hope they have better luck this time.
What I want from a computer equipment manufacturer are the following:
Hardware specifications available online as HTML or PDF documents for any piece of equipment they have made. I like it that I can lookup specs for an old Seagate hard drive or Mac that I can via ebay or yahoo. IMHO, auction sites increase the chance that old hardware may be bought and used by someone rather than being junked. Having good documentation for obsolete hardware is important if one is trying to make it useful again (isn't that one of the many beauties of Linux?).
Software updates available for download. Since, I'm not one for throwing hardware away and like to upgrade when I can, I want the manufacturer to keep updating the software in their products if possible. For example, Celerons with cache initially caused the motherboard that I have to not boot. A simple BIOS upgrade fixed that and I would expect that for each processor that Intel makes that uses the Slot 1 interface, I would like the board manufacturer to make sure that its BIOS will work with it.
Warranties with no-question replacement of defective parts. I don't want to buy something (a monitor for example) and then have it break in under a year. If it does, I want the company to replace it without having to jump through a lot of hoops.
I build most of my own systems, so I try to pick quality parts based on recommendations of friends & others on the web. Because I'm essentially providing my own support, I want the information/software to be able to keep my systems running for years. My brother had nothing but trouble with his Compaq. Not only did he have trouble with it breaking down a lot the first few months he had it, he had a heck of a time getting it fixed. Other friends have had good experiences with Gateway where if a part went bad, they would ship a replacement and have the user return the defective part in the same box without any questions.
IIRC, the i860 and i960 have done ok. Since they were RISC chips from Intel that weren't x86 compatible no one as far as I know used them as a main CPU. They were mainly used as co-processors or embedded cpus. SGI had a high end graphics board that used 12 i860s for doing the 3D transformations. Whether they still use them or not, I don't know.
Unless AOL is going to be GPLing their client, then they need to dynamically link against the libc library. Otherwise it would be a violation of the license.
Are you serious? "we can use standard TCP/IP client setups..." - Have you ever installed AOL 5.0? Goodbye DUN on Windows - if you had another ISP, AOL disables it.
That's only true if you do not select 'No' when it asks if you want AOL to be the default connection method for accessing the internet. This is the very last thing it does when it's being installed. I've setup Win9x machines this way for relatives and they don't have any problems using DUN or whatever methods their free ISP use for establishing a PPP connection.
It's pretty obvious that you have never used AOL recently as your Provider. If you have, then you'd know that it's almost impossible to connect with any medium.
Really? My wife can access AOL on an IP-Masq'ed box with a linux machine providing the TCP/IP link to my ISP -- we've done this with dialup and cable modem without any problems. They've had the 'bring-your-own-access' feature for quite a while. If that's the only method being used, one can chop the monthly AOL bill to only $10. I have also setup relatives machines with AOL 5.0 and they still can use the ISP of their choice (usually a free one) if they don't want to use AOL. It's not that difficult. When installing it, you just have to remember to select 'No' when it asks you if you want AOL to be the default internet access method.
It would be useful for people like me who run linux but have a wife and kids who _really_ like AOL for some unknown reason. They could still run AOL without having to run Win9x( or MacOS). Dual booting would be a thing of the past and the disk space taken up by Win9x could be used for more productive purposes.
It certainly could be something that RedHat or any of the other distributions could bundle in their retail boxes and might attract users that would like to try out linux, but don't want to give up AOL. I might also make other software developers a reason to take a look at porting their consumer software to linux.
I had RoadRunner last year and I do admit it was fast...when it worked, which was only about half the time. Their techs were clueless and had me repeat the same stupid steps (run winipcfg, release all, etc..)that never fixed anything. So much so, I could do so them from memory. To make matters worse, they could never give me a straight answer on why it would stop working. Replacing the modem didn't work, having some guy look at the cable wouldn't fix it. The service was shameful. It would also usually go out Friday night and be out the rest of the weekend, especially if it was a three day weekend. The last straw was when it went out the July 4th weekend and stayed out for 10 days. AOL was more reliable. I gave their modem back and went back to my previous dialup ISP.
OpenGL is a better choice. It's being used in a variety of markets all the way from gaming up to complex scientific visualization, CAD, etc. OpenGL is the standard for the scientific/engineering marketplace. Linux has the better chance of making inroads into this market than it does general desktop & gamer markets. Why? Because people in those areas are used to working on Unix workstations and to them, Linux would be very similiar to what they've already been using, just on cheaper hardware with zero licensing costs. Given that OpenGL is available on PCs, Macs, and Unix workstations, developers who want to have something that can work on a wide variety of platforms will use OpenGL.
The reason OpenGL is slow is due to poorly implemented hardware drivers or it being implemented completly in software. With the efforts of the XFree team, SGI, and others, this won't be a problem for much longer. SGI recently announced a new graphics system that's been developed with NVidia to provide hardware accelerated graphics to linux.
Besides, do you really think Microsoft is going to provide a DirectX linux port anytime soon? Don't hold your breath.
Talk about ungrateful! So instead of having 7 people be able to access the web, write letters, etc, they went back to one machine. I'd rather work on a slow machine than have to wait until it's my turn for one that's probably not all that much faster. Even if it didn't have the plug in support that IE has, not every website requires IE or M$ only plugins (Thank God!) and would still be useful for those people who didn't need the plugin.
Don't you think having a free operating system and applications that don't require one to be on a corporate upgrade death(for your finances) march is a good idea for humanity? Many people here have mentioned setting up linux or using other open source tools to help charities do their jobs. These organizations often don't have the finances to pay for commercial software. They need good free software to do their job. It might not be directly helping the charities, but it will help them eventually. If one has coding talent, then put it to use helping people. Contributing to open source is just one way of doing that.
You might not have to look farther than ones own church. When I was talking to my Elder's Quorum president tonight, he was talking about how bad of shape the church's computer is in. It got me thinking about what I could do to remedy the problem, either by fixing it, donating some of my computer empire at home, or even setting up a Linux machine for them. I'm doing the same thing for a relative that can't afford a machine either. Most of the time, one doesn't have to look very far to find a need and it's usually appreciated much more.
I'm surprised I haven't read more people mentioning something like this. While it's not the normal idea of charity, it's still providing people with information/technology that they might not otherwise be able to acquire. I would consider developing free/open source software donating to charity also. The FSF is technically a charity and they always need good coders and tech writers (the latter being more in demand). Sure, it might not directly help someone, but it can help make free software better and easier to use, which in turn can make it easier for charities or people without lots of funds able to afford the technology.
BILL G. donated all that charity money about the time the lawsuits started hitting MS for Monopoly. Amazing the timing on that. He doesn't have a track record for prior donations. He also made the donation a huge publicity stunt. So even while donating he was trying to get something for his money. Again not what I'd call charitable intent.
It also doesn't hurt that many of his donations are gifts of software licenses, training, hardware, etc. Now whether it's the Gates Foundation purchasing them from M$ or M$ giving them away, M$ always comes out ahead with either more sales, a tax write off and more people locked into a M$ solution, which will result in more sales in the future.
I believe my employer gives old equipment to a business that refurbishes them for placement in schools, which in turn provides an opportunity for linux/bsd or companies like www.newdealinc.com to provide software on machines that won't run the latest Redmond bloatware.
I wish I had a link to the stats, but usually when the economy is good people in turn give more to charities they feel are worthwhile (it doesn't hurt that sometimes this is tax deductible..why be penalized for doing something good. Now donating just so you can get the deduction is another story). But the key is not forcing people to do it. Normally, that would just make someone not want to contribute and make the people on the receiving end ungrateful because they feel it's a right they deserve. I don't mind donating time/money to something that I feel is worthy. I feel great about doing it. Forced contribution (taxes, corporate United Way drives, etc.), just piss me off.
Do they have to pay taxes on any of that income? A friend of mine grew up on a reservation and he has said that's one of the big gripes the non-Indians always had with the tribe: they would get lots of benefits (the 100 student school had an Olympic sized pool, kids would get $2k from the Feds when they turned 18, practically free housing, food, etc.) and wouldn't have to pay anything where normally one would. He also said it caused lots a fraud (merchants claiming 90% of sales went to Indians when only 50% did so they could pocket the sales tax difference) and inter government squabble (the state would want to pay for a road but the tribal govt wouldn't let the HP patrol it, it would go to court, and then not get built, etc.).
He what depressed him the most was watching his friends drop out of school and not give a sh*t because they had the attitude that school was useless because the govt (tribal or Federal) would take care of them. I'm glad to see that you helped some people get skills and create their own jobs. IMHO, the ones setting up casinos are doing themselves a disservice in the long run.
Seriously, if your kids can understand it, that's NOT a good indicator that other adults will understand it. I know -- I used to be that "6 year old whiz" myself
Unfortunately, they aren't "whiz kids". They are quite average. I just wish they spent the same amount of effort on school work that they do memorizing fscking Pokemon cards.
True, but why pay the software licenses when you don't have to? A friend at work got a new laptop a few months ago. The cost of the software licenses was about half the cost ($1000-2000) of the complete system. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of employees every two or three years and you start forking over a considerable amount of cash. IMHO, the amount would have been better spent funding a free software project for the same task.
Until MySQL includes commit/rollback transaction capability, it's not suitable for what I use SQL DBs for. Now with the recent investment in its development, that capability may be in a future release. If so, I will be looking forward to using it.
The best thing about the Mindcraft tests is that it gave the kernel developers a good list of things to do for 2.4.
Maybe I've been a Unix programmer for too long, but what's wrong with how programs are installed/removed? RPM and apt-get or any of their GUI front ends couldn't be easier to use. Also, vi and emacs aren't the only text editors. Hmm...there's pico, joe, ged, gnotepad, gedit, etc. I agree that the initial configuration of X can still be a pain, but once you are in GNOME, KDE, GNUStep, or any other X desktop, it's pretty simple. Heck, if my 6 & 9 year old kids can figure it out, it can't be that hard.
I don't really care if it becomes the dominant desktop OS. I want it because it provides me with an development platform that I find extremely comfortable and productive. I want it because it provides me freedom from a proprietary OS and the expensive upgrade treadmill that usually is associated with them. I want OS choice, not the single solution provided by one greedy corporation.
I would be very interested to see a repeat of these tests when then Apache 2.0 is finally released, since it can also be configured as a threaded server. Does anyone that's played with the 2.0 alphas care to give any examples of performance gains?
SPECweb99 is the next-generation SPEC benchmark for evaluating the performance of World Wide Web Servers. As the successor to SPECweb96, SPECweb99 continues the SPEC tradition of giving Web users the most objective and representative benchmark for measuring a system's ability to act as a web server. In response to rapidly advancing Web technology, the SPECweb99 benchmark includes many sophisticated and state-of-the-art enhancements to meet the modern demands of Web users of today and tomorrow:
Standardized workload, agreed to by major players in WWW market
Full disclosures available on this web site
Stable implementation with no incomparable versions
Measurement of simultaneous connections rather than HTTP operations
Simulation of connections at a limited line speed
Dynamic GETs, as well as static GETs; POST operations.
Keepalives (HTTP 1.0) and persistent connections (HTTP 1.1).
Dynamic ad rotation using cookies and table lookups.
File accesses more closely matching today's real-world web server access patterns.
An automated installation program for Microsoft Windows NT as well as Unix installation scripts.
I asked a person at flashcom and they said they really didn't care. But from their Terms and Conditions, it looks like they don't like anyone even using NAT, which I find very hard to believe. It's funny that they didn't mention web servers, but I guess they don't want you providing access to lots of other people (their business DSL is $100/month vs $40 for personal).
6. Restrictions. HomeSurfer Customers agree not to run any servers in conjunction with the Services, including but not limited to, electronic mail, NAT, DHCP and DNS servers. In the event any HomeSurfer Customer attempts to utilize a server on the network
PeopleSoft sells a Student Administration package that allows college administrators to manipulate classes, student records, etc. Most PeopleSoft users interact with the system via a proprietary Windows front end that communicates with the servers via ODBC or BEA/Tuxedo. This front end allows users to interact with different screens and menus (ie AddNewStudent, etc.). The panels are generated with a GUI tool and are stored entirely in a database (no source code to edit). There are COBOL and SQR batch processes that run the server(s) to generate different reports too. What is nice about this is that PeopleSoft provides all the source for the COBOL, SQR scripts, and one can modify their panels to your heart's delight. This can be very useful if your business needs aren't exactly what PeopleSoft has in mind and/or if something is broken and they haven't released a fix yet (this happens a lot).
Like most of PeopleSoft's other packages, this can be web-enabled, which involves a java client that does the same sort of job that the windows client does (via BEA/Tuxedo) or an ASP plugin that translates the panels into HTML and handles interacting with the user. Taking a PeopleSoft panel and putting it up on the web isn't very difficult and like everything, it can be customized.
It certainly sounds like your University spent a lot of money on consultants to put it together and didn't do much for usability testing during the installation.
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I didn't read the link until a while later. It's funny how the marketing hype for the i860 is so much like that for Itanium. Oh well..I hope they have better luck this time.
What I want from a computer equipment manufacturer are the following:
I build most of my own systems, so I try to pick quality parts based on recommendations of friends & others on the web. Because I'm essentially providing my own support, I want the information/software to be able to keep my systems running for years. My brother had nothing but trouble with his Compaq. Not only did he have trouble with it breaking down a lot the first few months he had it, he had a heck of a time getting it fixed. Other friends have had good experiences with Gateway where if a part went bad, they would ship a replacement and have the user return the defective part in the same box without any questions.
What is ACPI? I'm thinking about adding another processor to my machine, but if this is something important, I may just get a faster cpu.
IIRC, the i860 and i960 have done ok. Since they were RISC chips from Intel that weren't x86 compatible no one as far as I know used them as a main CPU. They were mainly used as co-processors or embedded cpus. SGI had a high end graphics board that used 12 i860s for doing the 3D transformations. Whether they still use them or not, I don't know.
Unless AOL is going to be GPLing their client, then they need to dynamically link against the libc library. Otherwise it would be a violation of the license.
Are you serious? "we can use standard TCP/IP client setups..." - Have you ever installed AOL 5.0? Goodbye DUN on Windows - if you had another ISP, AOL disables it.
That's only true if you do not select 'No' when it asks if you want AOL to be the default connection method for accessing the internet. This is the very last thing it does when it's being installed. I've setup Win9x machines this way for relatives and they don't have any problems using DUN or whatever methods their free ISP use for establishing a PPP connection.
It's pretty obvious that you have never used AOL recently as your Provider. If you have, then you'd know that it's almost impossible to connect with any medium.
Really? My wife can access AOL on an IP-Masq'ed box with a linux machine providing the TCP/IP link to my ISP -- we've done this with dialup and cable modem without any problems. They've had the 'bring-your-own-access' feature for quite a while. If that's the only method being used, one can chop the monthly AOL bill to only $10. I have also setup relatives machines with AOL 5.0 and they still can use the ISP of their choice (usually a free one) if they don't want to use AOL. It's not that difficult. When installing it, you just have to remember to select 'No' when it asks you if you want AOL to be the default internet access method.
It would be useful for people like me who run linux but have a wife and kids who _really_ like AOL for some unknown reason. They could still run AOL without having to run Win9x( or MacOS). Dual booting would be a thing of the past and the disk space taken up by Win9x could be used for more productive purposes.
It certainly could be something that RedHat or any of the other distributions could bundle in their retail boxes and might attract users that would like to try out linux, but don't want to give up AOL. I might also make other software developers a reason to take a look at porting their consumer software to linux.
I had RoadRunner last year and I do admit it was fast...when it worked, which was only about half the time. Their techs were clueless and had me repeat the same stupid steps (run winipcfg, release all, etc..)that never fixed anything. So much so, I could do so them from memory. To make matters worse, they could never give me a straight answer on why it would stop working. Replacing the modem didn't work, having some guy look at the cable wouldn't fix it. The service was shameful. It would also usually go out Friday night and be out the rest of the weekend, especially if it was a three day weekend. The last straw was when it went out the July 4th weekend and stayed out for 10 days. AOL was more reliable. I gave their modem back and went back to my previous dialup ISP.
OpenGL is a better choice. It's being used in a variety of markets all the way from gaming up to complex scientific visualization, CAD, etc. OpenGL is the standard for the scientific/engineering marketplace. Linux has the better chance of making inroads into this market than it does general desktop & gamer markets. Why? Because people in those areas are used to working on Unix workstations and to them, Linux would be very similiar to what they've already been using, just on cheaper hardware with zero licensing costs. Given that OpenGL is available on PCs, Macs, and Unix workstations, developers who want to have something that can work on a wide variety of platforms will use OpenGL.
The reason OpenGL is slow is due to poorly implemented hardware drivers or it being implemented completly in software. With the efforts of the XFree team, SGI, and others, this won't be a problem for much longer. SGI recently announced a new graphics system that's been developed with NVidia to provide hardware accelerated graphics to linux.
Besides, do you really think Microsoft is going to provide a DirectX linux port anytime soon? Don't hold your breath.
Talk about ungrateful! So instead of having 7 people be able to access the web, write letters, etc, they went back to one machine. I'd rather work on a slow machine than have to wait until it's my turn for one that's probably not all that much faster. Even if it didn't have the plug in support that IE has, not every website requires IE or M$ only plugins (Thank God!) and would still be useful for those people who didn't need the plugin.
Don't you think having a free operating system and applications that don't require one to be on a corporate upgrade death(for your finances) march is a good idea for humanity? Many people here have mentioned setting up linux or using other open source tools to help charities do their jobs. These organizations often don't have the finances to pay for commercial software. They need good free software to do their job. It might not be directly helping the charities, but it will help them eventually. If one has coding talent, then put it to use helping people. Contributing to open source is just one way of doing that.
You might not have to look farther than ones own church. When I was talking to my Elder's Quorum president tonight, he was talking about how bad of shape the church's computer is in. It got me thinking about what I could do to remedy the problem, either by fixing it, donating some of my computer empire at home, or even setting up a Linux machine for them. I'm doing the same thing for a relative that can't afford a machine either. Most of the time, one doesn't have to look very far to find a need and it's usually appreciated much more.
I'm surprised I haven't read more people mentioning something like this. While it's not the normal idea of charity, it's still providing people with information/technology that they might not otherwise be able to acquire. I would consider developing free/open source software donating to charity also. The FSF is technically a charity and they always need good coders and tech writers (the latter being more in demand). Sure, it might not directly help someone, but it can help make free software better and easier to use, which in turn can make it easier for charities or people without lots of funds able to afford the technology.
BILL G. donated all that charity money about the time the lawsuits started hitting MS for Monopoly. Amazing the timing on that. He doesn't have a track record for prior donations. He also made the donation a huge publicity stunt. So even while donating he was trying to get something for his money. Again not what I'd call charitable intent.
It also doesn't hurt that many of his donations are gifts of software licenses, training, hardware, etc. Now whether it's the Gates Foundation purchasing them from M$ or M$ giving them away, M$ always comes out ahead with either more sales, a tax write off and more people locked into a M$ solution, which will result in more sales in the future.
I believe my employer gives old equipment to a business that refurbishes them for placement in schools, which in turn provides an opportunity for linux/bsd or companies like www.newdealinc.com to provide software on machines that won't run the latest Redmond bloatware.
I wish I had a link to the stats, but usually when the economy is good people in turn give more to charities they feel are worthwhile (it doesn't hurt that sometimes this is tax deductible..why be penalized for doing something good. Now donating just so you can get the deduction is another story). But the key is not forcing people to do it. Normally, that would just make someone not want to contribute and make the people on the receiving end ungrateful because they feel it's a right they deserve. I don't mind donating time/money to something that I feel is worthy. I feel great about doing it. Forced contribution (taxes, corporate United Way drives, etc.), just piss me off.
Do they have to pay taxes on any of that income? A friend of mine grew up on a reservation and he has said that's one of the big gripes the non-Indians always had with the tribe: they would get lots of benefits (the 100 student school had an Olympic sized pool, kids would get $2k from the Feds when they turned 18, practically free housing, food, etc.) and wouldn't have to pay anything where normally one would. He also said it caused lots a fraud (merchants claiming 90% of sales went to Indians when only 50% did so they could pocket the sales tax difference) and inter government squabble (the state would want to pay for a road but the tribal govt wouldn't let the HP patrol it, it would go to court, and then not get built, etc.).
He what depressed him the most was watching his friends drop out of school and not give a sh*t because they had the attitude that school was useless because the govt (tribal or Federal) would take care of them. I'm glad to see that you helped some people get skills and create their own jobs. IMHO, the ones setting up casinos are doing themselves a disservice in the long run.
Seriously, if your kids can understand it, that's NOT a good indicator that other adults will understand it. I know -- I used to be that "6 year old whiz" myself
Unfortunately, they aren't "whiz kids". They are quite average. I just wish they spent the same amount of effort on school work that they do memorizing fscking Pokemon cards.
But businesses can.
True, but why pay the software licenses when you don't have to? A friend at work got a new laptop a few months ago. The cost of the software licenses was about half the cost ($1000-2000) of the complete system. Multiply that by hundreds or thousands of employees every two or three years and you start forking over a considerable amount of cash. IMHO, the amount would have been better spent funding a free software project for the same task.Until MySQL includes commit/rollback transaction capability, it's not suitable for what I use SQL DBs for. Now with the recent investment in its development, that capability may be in a future release. If so, I will be looking forward to using it.
The best thing about the Mindcraft tests is that it gave the kernel developers a good list of things to do for 2.4.
Maybe I've been a Unix programmer for too long, but what's wrong with how programs are installed/removed? RPM and apt-get or any of their GUI front ends couldn't be easier to use. Also, vi and emacs aren't the only text editors. Hmm...there's pico, joe, ged, gnotepad, gedit, etc. I agree that the initial configuration of X can still be a pain, but once you are in GNOME, KDE, GNUStep, or any other X desktop, it's pretty simple. Heck, if my 6 & 9 year old kids can figure it out, it can't be that hard.
I don't really care if it becomes the dominant desktop OS. I want it because it provides me with an development platform that I find extremely comfortable and productive. I want it because it provides me freedom from a proprietary OS and the expensive upgrade treadmill that usually is associated with them. I want OS choice, not the single solution provided by one greedy corporation.
I would be very interested to see a repeat of these tests when then Apache 2.0 is finally released, since it can also be configured as a threaded server. Does anyone that's played with the 2.0 alphas care to give any examples of performance gains?
From http://www.spec.org/osg/web99/:
It certainly looks like they are testing Dynamic content as well as static. Check out http://www.spec.org/osg/web99/results/ api-src/ for the source for the dynamic content.
I asked a person at flashcom and they said they really didn't care. But from their Terms and Conditions, it looks like they don't like anyone even using NAT, which I find very hard to believe. It's funny that they didn't mention web servers, but I guess they don't want you providing access to lots of other people (their business DSL is $100/month vs $40 for personal).
PeopleSoft sells a Student Administration package that allows college administrators to manipulate classes, student records, etc. Most PeopleSoft users interact with the system via a proprietary Windows front end that communicates with the servers via ODBC or BEA/Tuxedo. This front end allows users to interact with different screens and menus (ie AddNewStudent, etc.). The panels are generated with a GUI tool and are stored entirely in a database (no source code to edit). There are COBOL and SQR batch processes that run the server(s) to generate different reports too. What is nice about this is that PeopleSoft provides all the source for the COBOL, SQR scripts, and one can modify their panels to your heart's delight. This can be very useful if your business needs aren't exactly what PeopleSoft has in mind and/or if something is broken and they haven't released a fix yet (this happens a lot).
Like most of PeopleSoft's other packages, this can be web-enabled, which involves a java client that does the same sort of job that the windows client does (via BEA/Tuxedo) or an ASP plugin that translates the panels into HTML and handles interacting with the user. Taking a PeopleSoft panel and putting it up on the web isn't very difficult and like everything, it can be customized.
It certainly sounds like your University spent a lot of money on consultants to put it together and didn't do much for usability testing during the installation.