Wow... all you Linux zealots will now be responsible for the deaths of hundreds, thousands and perhaps some day millions. I hope your proud of yourselves!;)
You liberals should be firmly backing Microsoft at this point... Windows is the ultimate anti-war software... I mean, how can you bomb the hell out of innocent civilians when your missile launch systems crash when you push the launch button!
But noooooo... with Linux, this'll never happen, and we can kill all the people we want with no doubt our systems will function properly.
Yeah, good job penguin-heads!
(In case there is any doubt, tongue is firmly planted in cheek here)
...why MS wants this? It's a way to logically partition a server.
You have sysplex on IBM mainframes, now you will have the same capability on Wintel boxes.
It's not about any deficiencies in Windows as some have put forth. It's about moving further towards an enterprise-class server OS. The ability to partition a system into multiple logical systems is something that is done all the time in the mainframe world, and I suspect in the Unix world as well. As a matter of fact, the mainframe where I work has at least three Unix partitions running on it. These are essentially just virtual machines under the base OS (OS/390 I believe).
This is something MS needs as they continue the march to taking over the datacenter. They can't compete with the big boys with this type of technology, hence it is a perfect, if not utterly obvious, acquisition for them.
I personally find VMWare to be superior, but then my experience is not in the server space, it's on a desktop. Maybe this product is superior on a server, I don't know.
The one group of people on this planet I would have expected to be open-minded and a least examine this with the thought that it MIGHT be legit, instead automatically and almost universally dismissed it out-of-hand as a hoax, mistake, conspiracy or other something or other, but certainly not possibly real.
Are we suddenly so jaded by fake human clone claims (which even STILL could be legit, but I digress...) that we just as a matter of course believe that anything regarding UFOs must be false?
NONE OF YOU ARE TRUE GEEKS!! Please hand in your nerd ID card and pocket protector on your way out of the "rent-a-date" center and immediately delete Linux from your machines, your not geeky enough!
One of the best miniseries I ever saw was a fairly unknown work called Invasion: Earth. I say unknown in the sense that it didn't seem to do too well in the ratings and didn't take the world by storm.
However, I thought it was one of the best "Earth vs. the aliens" movies for one very simple reason: they didn't sugar-coat anything and the motivation of the aliens was clear and straight-forward from the start, to destroy all like on Earth. They seem completely unbeatable, and in fact it ended with us about ready to get our collective asses kicked, no happy ending, no ambiguity about it. I love that, especially since if it ever continues one would assume we do finally win, and that will have impact and meaning based on how thoroughly outclassed we were, and if they go off and wipe out humanity, that's a ballsy ending and I'll love it just as much. I hate happy, wishy-washy endings where verything is great with little lasting impact. That's not the way life it and it just seems cheesy when it happens.
Such was the case with Taken. I should have expected it with Spielberg involved, but I was hoping otherwise, and was thinking that's how it might turn out based on the first five episodes which I thought were fantastic. They should never have killed off the first Crawford, he was one of the most interesting characters involved. I could have seen him in his 90's still running the show with sone and grandaughter in tow, wacking anyone who gets in their way.
Ah well, I'm not looking to rewrite the series, but it was a big let-down at the end not so much because they tried to pull some metaphysical higher-plane-of-existence wrap-up out of their asses, but because they just HAD to make it a happy ending. And you know what? It might not have been so bad if we were left with Allison leaving forever, never to be heard from again... but no, instead we get "Look Charlie, she'll be back!" So, we take a poor ending and make it that much worse. Just like Data dieing and being "reborn" in B-9... That's why Spock's death was so much better (ok, ONE of the reasons!)... because at the end of Star Trek II your not really sure he's going to be back... oh of course, you more than suspect it, but if he didn't come back or it took two more movies it would work well... but in Taken we're TOLD she's coming back. Geez, let her go and be done with it!
I did love seeing Max Headroom as a wacky super-genius. Can't beat that.
I just can't get past the ending though... actually, the last five episodes were rather weak, and not because of a lack of action... because of a lack of any risk-taking. Tell me a story where I don't see what's coming a million miles away... tell me a story where there are some real consequences for the characters I've become invested in, and don't cop out if you don't have a really good concept guiding it all. Don't tell me "geez, they're so much more advanced than us we can't hope to understand them". That might be true, but it's crap as far as story-telling goes.
Ah, bottom line: if you would have asked me after the first five episodes what I thought, I'd have said it wasn't as good as V (which by the way if you don't own on DVD, you can just tear up your Real Geek Club membership card because you don't belong!), but it was close, and if the last five episodes went well, it could be on par. But, as it is, I think it was OK, and could have been told in a lot less time. I don't mind spending 20 hours on a miniseries at all, but the payoff has to make it worth it, and this didn't.
You see, now this is an example of why some people think IE sucks when in fact it's almost always the fault of an idiot... if you had any reasonably good popup killer running, as you always should in this day and age, this wouldn't have been a problem. I clicked the link. One window, a WAV playing, that's it. I clicked my mouse's scroll wheel (mapped to browser back) and I was out of it. No crash, no ill effect, nothing. Just a little annoying, which is a fair description of 85% of the Internet in general.
Sure, it'd be nice if IE had a popup kller built-in ala Mozilla, but come on, we're always complaining about MS bundling stuff, here's a time when they didn't and we're going to bitch about them NOT bundling? I DON'T THINK SO!
Before you complain about ANYTHING, stop and ask yourself "Am I an asshole?" You'll find that better than half the time the answer, if your at all honest with yourself, will be "yes", and then you won't blame this, that or the other person at all.
I say this with complete certainty, and I readily admit there is not a single argument anyone could possibly make that would change my mind:
This guy deosn't get it.
It seems painfully obvious to me that this guy can't think in terms beyond an hour, he can't concieve of a story that unfolds over a number of years.
I've found this to be the #1 reason people don't like B5: their brains just don't work at a high enough level to appreciate the beauty of the ENTIRE story.
Don't get me wrong though... it might sound like I'm ragging on anyone that doesn't like B5 and that's not what I'm doing... all I'm saying is that we need garbage men and we need people to clean sewers just like we need DaVinci and we need Einstein. We need people of a lower caliber mentality just like we need geniuses. In the case of B5 however, those lower-mentality people don't get what B5 was all about and therefore choose to dismiss it as crap.
That's fine. I know better, as do a large number of people.
Yeah, I've been telling them to go jump in a lake for a long while too. I've been rather contrite about it many times even. What are they going to do, tell me I can't have that resistor that they can't even identify the value on anyway?!? "Sir, you can't purchase that transmorgifier unless I get your address". "Dude, that's a coax cable you dimwit!"
I haven't had a problem with it for a long time because you just so "no, not today" and they complete the sale. No problem, no privacy implications, a total non-issue.
Now years ago I do remember I'd say no and the salesperson would be like "We really have to get this information" amd I'd be like "I said NO" and he'd be like "I'm not sure we can complete the sale without it" and I'd be like... OUT THE F'ING DOOR. But that was years ago, not recently. AND it was in New York, so it could have been just that fact alone that made him such an a**hole.
I'm on the move between three different locations regularly. I've had Wi-Fi access points installed at all three locations. This allows me to:
Constantly get eMail even when I'm moving around the buildings (not between building, just within each one, which is the majority of the time) and of course I can answer right then and there.
More importantly, I have an IM client, so it's a step above eMail.
Even more important, I have Telnet, FTP, VNC and other utilities, so I can deal with any issue that arises no matter where I am (yes, I HAVE restarted crashed web applications while sitting on the john!)
Note-taking on my SL-5500 is incredibly easy, and since I have worse handwriting than a doctor, this is invaluable to me. Even when I use my old Casio E-125 I can still be more effective than without it just using the on-screen keyboard (I can probably bang out 25 WPM with 98% accuracy I'd guess).
It's very nice to be able to play a game of Tennis while waiting for meetings to start (assuming I have my 125, Scrabble when I have the 5500).
In short, I suppose I could make due without one, but I can't imagine how!
> perhaps because XML wasn't designed to be edited by hand?
That would be a valid argument, if it wasn't for the inconvenient fact that it's absolutely untrue!
One of the most highly-touted benefits of XML is that it is in fact human-readable and easily edited by hand (assuming the author hasn't choosen to obfuscate it with lousy and meaningless tag named or worse, nothing but [cdata]'s)...
XML config files is an fantastic idea for Windows as well as any *nix variant you prefer. That would remove what is certainly one of my biggest complaints about both camps: understanding and editing the registry certainly sucks as does the arcane, inconsistent and poorly-documented config files of the *nix world (you ubber-geeks in the BSD world notwithstanding)
See but my experience has been quite different... just as an example, I have three high-traffic NT4 boxes running here at work that I personally built. One is exclusively a SQL server that is host to an operational data store that is getting hammered all day long. Another is a Crystal Info and SQL server (as well as a BDC) that is also very high-traffic. The third is a web server that hosts a number of internal applications and also an FTP site and a lower-traffic Tomcat installation. These three boxes have been up for nearly a year now (I just checked the up-time) without the slightest hiccup. I'm not actually an admin by trade, so how I can get these boxes so rock-solid while professional admins can't seem to is beyond me.
Fair enough. I have to constantly remind myself that it's certainly not the entire community that do it a disservice. In fact I'm sure the majority are professional, intelligent intellectuals that I would never have a problem with.
Unfortunately, it always seems like the loudest voices go to the few doing the most damage.
Are you saying you WOULDN'T fuck the octopus girl? Of COURSE you would! We ALL would!
I mean, handjob, tit strokes and a finger up the ass all at the same time and she could still cook me some eggs, flip the channel, fold my laundry and have two free hands (tentacles??) for herself?
No, wait, finger up the ass?, that wasn't me, I swear, I didn't say that!
Yeah, but if your box is running hot enough to crash an any OS, you have A HARDWARE PROBLEM!
Frankly, I think Windows is doing you a favor... If your CPU is frying, you might be inclined to fix that issue because Windows keeps crashing, wheras with Mandrake now happily chugging along irregardless of your CPU getting ready to be toasted, you won't fix it and lose the CPU.
I underatand your point: Linux appears to be more tolerant of hardware problems (at least a hot CPU in particular), and I'm not about to try and deny that.
But your not really making a GOOD point, and I think your short-lived CPU would tend to agree with me!
You see, when things like this are posted it further degrades my opinion of the Linux community (which I am assuming you support, if my assumption is incorrect than I whole-heartedly apologize)...
This link is referring to a problem with Office, not Windows. Further, it is referring to a bug, not some nefarious plot on the part of Microsoft.
I never said they don't screw up rather often, but you were trying to support the post that said Windows phones home, which I think we all interpreted as some clandestined communication with Redmond for some unknown purpose, and your evidence does nothing of the sort.
Since I assume you couldn't have been so stupid as to completely misunderstand the article you linked to, I'll assume you were trying to spread some FUD around.
I applaud you! And here I thought only Microsoft could excel at the FUD game! Hey, they're right: Linux really IS catching up with Microsoft!
He can piss off the teachers all he wants, so long as he's RIGHT. I used to get in trouble all the time in school because I knew more than the teachers. I'd get sent to the principal's office, my parents would come down and the first thing my dad would is "was my son right?". The pissed-off teacher would reluctantly have to admit I was, and that was the end of it.
Now, when he's wrong, he'll get his ass kicked, just like I did.
If a teacher can't take the time to be computer-literate themselves, and if further they are going to be angry because a child knows more than them, say it with me: THEY SHOULD NOT BE A TEACHER, and they will not be a teacher of MY child for long because one way or another the teacher will be gone or my child will be out of the class or the school entirely. Fortunately I can afford to send my children to private school if that becomes necassery, and I'll just keep trying different ones until we find teachers that are worth a shit, which means they won't be offended or threatened by a child who knows more than them.
That DOES NOT mean my child shouldn't be suspended for hacking as in your example... he has to follow the rules same as anyone else and if he breaks them he has to face the consequences, even when the rules are stupid. Being smarter than everyone else doesn't excuse you from having to follow the rules, but that's a separate issue from a teacher being made because he can change his monitor's refresh rate while the rest of the kids in the class have to get headaches because theirs is set to 60Hz.
I am angry... angry because I don't like Microsoft any more than anyone else here does, but I find myself in a position where I have to defend them because a large number of those in oposition to Microsoft can't seem to be fair about it.
It's the one thing that keeps me from joining the open-source community in general... I have this perception of the community that is more negative than my perception of Microsoft!
This myth that any Windows OS is so unbelievably unstable, and the constant avalanche of supposed computer "experts" that run Linux but can't keep any Microsoft OS running is a prime example of the unfairness of the community (my perception of the community I should say) and this makes me angry because I don't want to be on Microsoft's side but I don't see the other side being a better choice. That makes me mad!
If your going to run a Windows system for your kids, buy yourself a copy of Ghost. I've only had to use it once on my two-year old's machine over the past six months (STILL not sure how he managed to delete the files he deleted to make the OS not boot!), but it will make your life a lot more pleasent.
Phone home? I can only assume you are referring to auto-updated, which is completely under your control.
If that's not what you mean, you'd better post a number of supporting links lest you be accused of trolling FUD for the Linux camp (which we know of course NEVER happens, right?!?)
I don't get all the bitching about Windows stability. I think 95% of the time it's stupid users that don't know how to maintain a system (and I'm not talking about my mom or your uncle Joe either, I mean you supposed computer "experts" out there that can't keep a Win2K box running for more than a day).
My two-year old has his own PC in his room and he plays it for two-three hours a day. I never turn it off, it just runs 24-7 whether he's playing it or not. He has a library of about 30 different games, some DirectX, some Flash, some straight Windows games, even a few DOS-based games. His machine is running Win98 and it's on Dell hardware with an added ATI All-In-Wonder and Sound Blaster 16. Guess what? I can't remember the last time it crashed, froze or otherwise required my intervention (aside from dirty disks from him handling it improperly).
And this is Win98, not even Win2K or XP which are considerably more stable.
I just don't get it. All you Linux experts that can take the time to learn a Unix-based system and administer it well can't keep a Windows box running. Guess what: IT'S NOT THE OS! I grant you the 9x versions are inherently less stable than Win2K or XP, but still, if they are crashing a couple of times a day, I'm fulling willing to say that 95% of the time it's YOUR OWN DAMNED FAULT!
Slashdot Mirror
Is that honestly the best response you could think up?
I realize your a 12-year-old little punk, but geez... if the children really are our future, WE ARE FUCKED.
Uhhh... yeah. Ok.
Up the dosage buddy. Up the dosage.
Wow... all you Linux zealots will now be responsible for the deaths of hundreds, thousands and perhaps some day millions. I hope your proud of yourselves! ;)
You liberals should be firmly backing Microsoft at this point... Windows is the ultimate anti-war software... I mean, how can you bomb the hell out of innocent civilians when your missile launch systems crash when you push the launch button!
But noooooo... with Linux, this'll never happen, and we can kill all the people we want with no doubt our systems will function properly.
Yeah, good job penguin-heads!
(In case there is any doubt, tongue is firmly planted in cheek here)
Don't know what your looking at... using IE 6.00.2800.1106, which should be the latest because I keep up with patches, here's what you get:
p les/kitchensink.xml
HTML Validation Results
Document Checked
URL: http://www.mozilla.org/catalog/web-developer/exam
Last modified: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 22:19:44 GMT
Character encoding: UTF-8
Level of HTML: XHTML 1.1
Congratulations, no errors!
I presume that's what it should say.
...why MS wants this? It's a way to logically partition a server.
You have sysplex on IBM mainframes, now you will have the same capability on Wintel boxes.
It's not about any deficiencies in Windows as some have put forth. It's about moving further towards an enterprise-class server OS. The ability to partition a system into multiple logical systems is something that is done all the time in the mainframe world, and I suspect in the Unix world as well. As a matter of fact, the mainframe where I work has at least three Unix partitions running on it. These are essentially just virtual machines under the base OS (OS/390 I believe).
This is something MS needs as they continue the march to taking over the datacenter. They can't compete with the big boys with this type of technology, hence it is a perfect, if not utterly obvious, acquisition for them.
I personally find VMWare to be superior, but then my experience is not in the server space, it's on a desktop. Maybe this product is superior on a server, I don't know.
Wow, this cracks me up...
The one group of people on this planet I would have expected to be open-minded and a least examine this with the thought that it MIGHT be legit, instead automatically and almost universally dismissed it out-of-hand as a hoax, mistake, conspiracy or other something or other, but certainly not possibly real.
Are we suddenly so jaded by fake human clone claims (which even STILL could be legit, but I digress...) that we just as a matter of course believe that anything regarding UFOs must be false?
NONE OF YOU ARE TRUE GEEKS!! Please hand in your nerd ID card and pocket protector on your way out of the "rent-a-date" center and immediately delete Linux from your machines, your not geeky enough!
One of the best miniseries I ever saw was a fairly unknown work called Invasion: Earth. I say unknown in the sense that it didn't seem to do too well in the ratings and didn't take the world by storm.
However, I thought it was one of the best "Earth vs. the aliens" movies for one very simple reason: they didn't sugar-coat anything and the motivation of the aliens was clear and straight-forward from the start, to destroy all like on Earth. They seem completely unbeatable, and in fact it ended with us about ready to get our collective asses kicked, no happy ending, no ambiguity about it. I love that, especially since if it ever continues one would assume we do finally win, and that will have impact and meaning based on how thoroughly outclassed we were, and if they go off and wipe out humanity, that's a ballsy ending and I'll love it just as much. I hate happy, wishy-washy endings where verything is great with little lasting impact. That's not the way life it and it just seems cheesy when it happens.
Such was the case with Taken. I should have expected it with Spielberg involved, but I was hoping otherwise, and was thinking that's how it might turn out based on the first five episodes which I thought were fantastic. They should never have killed off the first Crawford, he was one of the most interesting characters involved. I could have seen him in his 90's still running the show with sone and grandaughter in tow, wacking anyone who gets in their way.
Ah well, I'm not looking to rewrite the series, but it was a big let-down at the end not so much because they tried to pull some metaphysical higher-plane-of-existence wrap-up out of their asses, but because they just HAD to make it a happy ending. And you know what? It might not have been so bad if we were left with Allison leaving forever, never to be heard from again... but no, instead we get "Look Charlie, she'll be back!" So, we take a poor ending and make it that much worse. Just like Data dieing and being "reborn" in B-9... That's why Spock's death was so much better (ok, ONE of the reasons!)... because at the end of Star Trek II your not really sure he's going to be back... oh of course, you more than suspect it, but if he didn't come back or it took two more movies it would work well... but in Taken we're TOLD she's coming back. Geez, let her go and be done with it!
I did love seeing Max Headroom as a wacky super-genius. Can't beat that.
I just can't get past the ending though... actually, the last five episodes were rather weak, and not because of a lack of action... because of a lack of any risk-taking. Tell me a story where I don't see what's coming a million miles away... tell me a story where there are some real consequences for the characters I've become invested in, and don't cop out if you don't have a really good concept guiding it all. Don't tell me "geez, they're so much more advanced than us we can't hope to understand them". That might be true, but it's crap as far as story-telling goes.
Ah, bottom line: if you would have asked me after the first five episodes what I thought, I'd have said it wasn't as good as V (which by the way if you don't own on DVD, you can just tear up your Real Geek Club membership card because you don't belong!), but it was close, and if the last five episodes went well, it could be on par. But, as it is, I think it was OK, and could have been told in a lot less time. I don't mind spending 20 hours on a miniseries at all, but the payoff has to make it worth it, and this didn't.
You see, now this is an example of why some people think IE sucks when in fact it's almost always the fault of an idiot... if you had any reasonably good popup killer running, as you always should in this day and age, this wouldn't have been a problem. I clicked the link. One window, a WAV playing, that's it. I clicked my mouse's scroll wheel (mapped to browser back) and I was out of it. No crash, no ill effect, nothing. Just a little annoying, which is a fair description of 85% of the Internet in general.
Sure, it'd be nice if IE had a popup kller built-in ala Mozilla, but come on, we're always complaining about MS bundling stuff, here's a time when they didn't and we're going to bitch about them NOT bundling? I DON'T THINK SO!
Before you complain about ANYTHING, stop and ask yourself "Am I an asshole?" You'll find that better than half the time the answer, if your at all honest with yourself, will be "yes", and then you won't blame this, that or the other person at all.
I say this with complete certainty, and I readily admit there is not a single argument anyone could possibly make that would change my mind:
This guy deosn't get it.
It seems painfully obvious to me that this guy can't think in terms beyond an hour, he can't concieve of a story that unfolds over a number of years.
I've found this to be the #1 reason people don't like B5: their brains just don't work at a high enough level to appreciate the beauty of the ENTIRE story.
Don't get me wrong though... it might sound like I'm ragging on anyone that doesn't like B5 and that's not what I'm doing... all I'm saying is that we need garbage men and we need people to clean sewers just like we need DaVinci and we need Einstein. We need people of a lower caliber mentality just like we need geniuses. In the case of B5 however, those lower-mentality people don't get what B5 was all about and therefore choose to dismiss it as crap.
That's fine. I know better, as do a large number of people.
Yeah, I've been telling them to go jump in a lake for a long while too. I've been rather contrite about it many times even. What are they going to do, tell me I can't have that resistor that they can't even identify the value on anyway?!? "Sir, you can't purchase that transmorgifier unless I get your address". "Dude, that's a coax cable you dimwit!"
I haven't had a problem with it for a long time because you just so "no, not today" and they complete the sale. No problem, no privacy implications, a total non-issue.
Now years ago I do remember I'd say no and the salesperson would be like "We really have to get this information" amd I'd be like "I said NO" and he'd be like "I'm not sure we can complete the sale without it" and I'd be like... OUT THE F'ING DOOR. But that was years ago, not recently. AND it was in New York, so it could have been just that fact alone that made him such an a**hole.
Really, I don't think I could:
I'm on the move between three different locations regularly. I've had Wi-Fi access points installed at all three locations. This allows me to:
Constantly get eMail even when I'm moving around the buildings (not between building, just within each one, which is the majority of the time) and of course I can answer right then and there.
More importantly, I have an IM client, so it's a step above eMail.
Even more important, I have Telnet, FTP, VNC and other utilities, so I can deal with any issue that arises no matter where I am (yes, I HAVE restarted crashed web applications while sitting on the john!)
Note-taking on my SL-5500 is incredibly easy, and since I have worse handwriting than a doctor, this is invaluable to me. Even when I use my old Casio E-125 I can still be more effective than without it just using the on-screen keyboard (I can probably bang out 25 WPM with 98% accuracy I'd guess).
It's very nice to be able to play a game of Tennis while waiting for meetings to start (assuming I have my 125, Scrabble when I have the 5500).
In short, I suppose I could make due without one, but I can't imagine how!
> perhaps because XML wasn't designed to be edited by hand?
That would be a valid argument, if it wasn't for the inconvenient fact that it's absolutely untrue!
One of the most highly-touted benefits of XML is that it is in fact human-readable and easily edited by hand (assuming the author hasn't choosen to obfuscate it with lousy and meaningless tag named or worse, nothing but [cdata]'s)...
XML config files is an fantastic idea for Windows as well as any *nix variant you prefer. That would remove what is certainly one of my biggest complaints about both camps: understanding and editing the registry certainly sucks as does the arcane, inconsistent and poorly-documented config files of the *nix world (you ubber-geeks in the BSD world notwithstanding)
Good point, I hadn't thought of that!
Office + IE = Windows? Not at all!
Office is quite completely a separate product. I won't argue IE as much because it's so heavily integrated, but still...
See but my experience has been quite different... just as an example, I have three high-traffic NT4 boxes running here at work that I personally built. One is exclusively a SQL server that is host to an operational data store that is getting hammered all day long. Another is a Crystal Info and SQL server (as well as a BDC) that is also very high-traffic. The third is a web server that hosts a number of internal applications and also an FTP site and a lower-traffic Tomcat installation. These three boxes have been up for nearly a year now (I just checked the up-time) without the slightest hiccup. I'm not actually an admin by trade, so how I can get these boxes so rock-solid while professional admins can't seem to is beyond me.
Fair enough. I have to constantly remind myself that it's certainly not the entire community that do it a disservice. In fact I'm sure the majority are professional, intelligent intellectuals that I would never have a problem with.
Unfortunately, it always seems like the loudest voices go to the few doing the most damage.
Are you saying you WOULDN'T fuck the octopus girl? Of COURSE you would! We ALL would!
I mean, handjob, tit strokes and a finger up the ass all at the same time and she could still cook me some eggs, flip the channel, fold my laundry and have two free hands (tentacles??) for herself?
No, wait, finger up the ass?, that wasn't me, I swear, I didn't say that!
My tinfoil hat doubles as a Wi-Fi antenna, say nani-nani-poo-poo!
Yeah, but if your box is running hot enough to crash an any OS, you have A HARDWARE PROBLEM!
Frankly, I think Windows is doing you a favor... If your CPU is frying, you might be inclined to fix that issue because Windows keeps crashing, wheras with Mandrake now happily chugging along irregardless of your CPU getting ready to be toasted, you won't fix it and lose the CPU.
I underatand your point: Linux appears to be more tolerant of hardware problems (at least a hot CPU in particular), and I'm not about to try and deny that.
But your not really making a GOOD point, and I think your short-lived CPU would tend to agree with me!
You see, when things like this are posted it further degrades my opinion of the Linux community (which I am assuming you support, if my assumption is incorrect than I whole-heartedly apologize)...
This link is referring to a problem with Office, not Windows. Further, it is referring to a bug, not some nefarious plot on the part of Microsoft.
I never said they don't screw up rather often, but you were trying to support the post that said Windows phones home, which I think we all interpreted as some clandestined communication with Redmond for some unknown purpose, and your evidence does nothing of the sort.
Since I assume you couldn't have been so stupid as to completely misunderstand the article you linked to, I'll assume you were trying to spread some FUD around.
I applaud you! And here I thought only Microsoft could excel at the FUD game! Hey, they're right: Linux really IS catching up with Microsoft!
I don't think your joking at ALL.
*I* was one of those kids!
He can piss off the teachers all he wants, so long as he's RIGHT. I used to get in trouble all the time in school because I knew more than the teachers. I'd get sent to the principal's office, my parents would come down and the first thing my dad would is "was my son right?". The pissed-off teacher would reluctantly have to admit I was, and that was the end of it.
Now, when he's wrong, he'll get his ass kicked, just like I did.
If a teacher can't take the time to be computer-literate themselves, and if further they are going to be angry because a child knows more than them, say it with me: THEY SHOULD NOT BE A TEACHER, and they will not be a teacher of MY child for long because one way or another the teacher will be gone or my child will be out of the class or the school entirely. Fortunately I can afford to send my children to private school if that becomes necassery, and I'll just keep trying different ones until we find teachers that are worth a shit, which means they won't be offended or threatened by a child who knows more than them.
That DOES NOT mean my child shouldn't be suspended for hacking as in your example... he has to follow the rules same as anyone else and if he breaks them he has to face the consequences, even when the rules are stupid. Being smarter than everyone else doesn't excuse you from having to follow the rules, but that's a separate issue from a teacher being made because he can change his monitor's refresh rate while the rest of the kids in the class have to get headaches because theirs is set to 60Hz.
I am angry... angry because I don't like Microsoft any more than anyone else here does, but I find myself in a position where I have to defend them because a large number of those in oposition to Microsoft can't seem to be fair about it.
It's the one thing that keeps me from joining the open-source community in general... I have this perception of the community that is more negative than my perception of Microsoft!
This myth that any Windows OS is so unbelievably unstable, and the constant avalanche of supposed computer "experts" that run Linux but can't keep any Microsoft OS running is a prime example of the unfairness of the community (my perception of the community I should say) and this makes me angry because I don't want to be on Microsoft's side but I don't see the other side being a better choice. That makes me mad!
If your going to run a Windows system for your kids, buy yourself a copy of Ghost. I've only had to use it once on my two-year old's machine over the past six months (STILL not sure how he managed to delete the files he deleted to make the OS not boot!), but it will make your life a lot more pleasent.
Phone home? I can only assume you are referring to auto-updated, which is completely under your control.
If that's not what you mean, you'd better post a number of supporting links lest you be accused of trolling FUD for the Linux camp (which we know of course NEVER happens, right?!?)
I don't get all the bitching about Windows stability. I think 95% of the time it's stupid users that don't know how to maintain a system (and I'm not talking about my mom or your uncle Joe either, I mean you supposed computer "experts" out there that can't keep a Win2K box running for more than a day).
My two-year old has his own PC in his room and he plays it for two-three hours a day. I never turn it off, it just runs 24-7 whether he's playing it or not. He has a library of about 30 different games, some DirectX, some Flash, some straight Windows games, even a few DOS-based games. His machine is running Win98 and it's on Dell hardware with an added ATI All-In-Wonder and Sound Blaster 16. Guess what? I can't remember the last time it crashed, froze or otherwise required my intervention (aside from dirty disks from him handling it improperly).
And this is Win98, not even Win2K or XP which are considerably more stable.
I just don't get it. All you Linux experts that can take the time to learn a Unix-based system and administer it well can't keep a Windows box running. Guess what: IT'S NOT THE OS! I grant you the 9x versions are inherently less stable than Win2K or XP, but still, if they are crashing a couple of times a day, I'm fulling willing to say that 95% of the time it's YOUR OWN DAMNED FAULT!