Yes, linux software is at times difficult to install. However I think it's fairly safe to say that if you're using linux in any sort of real sense, especially a non RH distribution, you probably have more basic computer knowledge than your average win32 user. Given this fact, what is acceptable for a linux install is not acceptable for a windows install where everything is at least technically supposed to work out of the box. It doesn't, but we're not here to talk about that.
Safedisc is one of the most annoying pieces of software I've ever seen, at best it makes starting up the game take forever. At worst as stated here it stops people from even using the software. It's always done this, and it's not likely to ever change. Not sure why software distributers still use the thing, but that's their lookout.
Incorrect system requirements on boxes are old hat by now they nearly always happen. I can't say this one really upsets me since I don't really like voodoo cards in the first place and to the best of my knowledge voodoo cards are the only semi-up to date cards which don't offer 32 bit support.
I think review valuable though it is, is admitedly somewhat incomplete, ease of installation is an important part of any review, admitedly I didn't particularly like the first Myst, never bought the second and don't plan on touching this one with a 10 foot pole, but that's only my opinion, others might like the thing. Of course if they can't install it it's not going to do anyone much good.
Reminds me of back in the day of floppies, when copy protection involved looking up something idiotically stupid in the manual either at startup or at some random point in the game. It was a pain when you didn't know where your manual had ended up, or some such thing. Or for that matter of the current practices of overburning cd's and such. It doesn't stop the pirates, I mean who are we kidding here for every one person working to protect the copyright on something there are at least 50 people with just as much knowledge trying to override the protection.
Basic Copyright Lesson: 99% of the time your method of protection only annoys the very people who are paying your salary through their purchases, the people who are stealing your stuff are still stealing your stuff.
This article has a few problems, not the least of which is that the clawhammer isn't really in any way related to the P4. It won't be out for a while, and by that point the P4 may be the same size again, and also the P4 and the Clawhammer aren't even competitors in any real sense.
Maybe if they compared the Itanium to the Clawhammer it might be an accurate comparison, but even then there's more to that decision than chip size or cost.
The Itanium is a pure 64bit chipset with a new instruction set from which the legacy garbage from the old 8 bit x86's from the early 80's has been removed, the clawhammer is not, and still contains those same annoying problems.
Also the assumption made later in this thread about merely recompiling is not completely correct, true you will be able to make 32 bit programs run merely by recompiling them on a 64 bit environment, but that doesn't mean they'll be optimized for 64 bit, or that they'll be taking advantage of the technology available.
When it comes right down to it, the success of microsoft has a great deal more to Bill Gates being in the right place at the right time. He started his company at a point when computing was anything but a mainstream event. Then he lucked out by having IBM choose his OS to load on their machines. They lucked out in that IBM and compatibles became the type of computer that people chose to buy, and which programmers therefor chose to support. Bill Gates was holding the rope when the baloon went through the roof, and that's pretty much all you can say.
Actually, I got to UW-Madison in Wisconsin, and with the exception of a 1 credit c++ class by e-mail, another c++ class you can't get credit for if you're a CS major and a little bit of machine language that's only good on MIPS-RISC systems, all we do here is java, and I am indeed at an accredited university.
And of course in all reality, if the only marketable skill you have is telemarketing, it wouldn't be that much of a tragedy if you jumped off a building because I harrassed you anyway. The one's I have trouble with are the people who are collecting for a decent cause, because they're annoying, but you can't hate them.
In all reality x86 processors have a rather dominant market share. Unless apple does something rather drastic, it's going to stay that way. I've personally always been fond of pc's and I definitely like the ability to replace parts whenever I want(though they're taking that out of a lot of the prebuilt machines these days). Whether Apple's new operating system turns out to be a good OS or not doesn't really matter if no one buys the hardware. That is the real edge for linux you can put it on the machine you already have. Well that and there's a much larger community at work making sure things work properly and adding support to it. In the end what will determine the success of this OS is the success of the computers it runs on, and that future doesn't look terribly promising.
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Yes, linux software is at times difficult to install. However I think it's fairly safe to say that if you're using linux in any sort of real sense, especially a non RH distribution, you probably have more basic computer knowledge than your average win32 user. Given this fact, what is acceptable for a linux install is not acceptable for a windows install where everything is at least technically supposed to work out of the box. It doesn't, but we're not here to talk about that. Safedisc is one of the most annoying pieces of software I've ever seen, at best it makes starting up the game take forever. At worst as stated here it stops people from even using the software. It's always done this, and it's not likely to ever change. Not sure why software distributers still use the thing, but that's their lookout. Incorrect system requirements on boxes are old hat by now they nearly always happen. I can't say this one really upsets me since I don't really like voodoo cards in the first place and to the best of my knowledge voodoo cards are the only semi-up to date cards which don't offer 32 bit support. I think review valuable though it is, is admitedly somewhat incomplete, ease of installation is an important part of any review, admitedly I didn't particularly like the first Myst, never bought the second and don't plan on touching this one with a 10 foot pole, but that's only my opinion, others might like the thing. Of course if they can't install it it's not going to do anyone much good.
Reminds me of back in the day of floppies, when copy protection involved looking up something idiotically stupid in the manual either at startup or at some random point in the game. It was a pain when you didn't know where your manual had ended up, or some such thing. Or for that matter of the current practices of overburning cd's and such. It doesn't stop the pirates, I mean who are we kidding here for every one person working to protect the copyright on something there are at least 50 people with just as much knowledge trying to override the protection. Basic Copyright Lesson: 99% of the time your method of protection only annoys the very people who are paying your salary through their purchases, the people who are stealing your stuff are still stealing your stuff.
This article has a few problems, not the least of which is that the clawhammer isn't really in any way related to the P4. It won't be out for a while, and by that point the P4 may be the same size again, and also the P4 and the Clawhammer aren't even competitors in any real sense. Maybe if they compared the Itanium to the Clawhammer it might be an accurate comparison, but even then there's more to that decision than chip size or cost. The Itanium is a pure 64bit chipset with a new instruction set from which the legacy garbage from the old 8 bit x86's from the early 80's has been removed, the clawhammer is not, and still contains those same annoying problems. Also the assumption made later in this thread about merely recompiling is not completely correct, true you will be able to make 32 bit programs run merely by recompiling them on a 64 bit environment, but that doesn't mean they'll be optimized for 64 bit, or that they'll be taking advantage of the technology available.
When it comes right down to it, the success of microsoft has a great deal more to Bill Gates being in the right place at the right time. He started his company at a point when computing was anything but a mainstream event. Then he lucked out by having IBM choose his OS to load on their machines. They lucked out in that IBM and compatibles became the type of computer that people chose to buy, and which programmers therefor chose to support. Bill Gates was holding the rope when the baloon went through the roof, and that's pretty much all you can say.
Actually, I got to UW-Madison in Wisconsin, and with the exception of a 1 credit c++ class by e-mail, another c++ class you can't get credit for if you're a CS major and a little bit of machine language that's only good on MIPS-RISC systems, all we do here is java, and I am indeed at an accredited university.
And of course in all reality, if the only marketable skill you have is telemarketing, it wouldn't be that much of a tragedy if you jumped off a building because I harrassed you anyway. The one's I have trouble with are the people who are collecting for a decent cause, because they're annoying, but you can't hate them.
In all reality x86 processors have a rather dominant market share. Unless apple does something rather drastic, it's going to stay that way. I've personally always been fond of pc's and I definitely like the ability to replace parts whenever I want(though they're taking that out of a lot of the prebuilt machines these days). Whether Apple's new operating system turns out to be a good OS or not doesn't really matter if no one buys the hardware. That is the real edge for linux you can put it on the machine you already have. Well that and there's a much larger community at work making sure things work properly and adding support to it. In the end what will determine the success of this OS is the success of the computers it runs on, and that future doesn't look terribly promising.