Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Ext 2/3/4 supported in the Linux kernel, not userspace? That would mean they don't have to really do anything to make it work other than mount/unmount since they use the vanilla Linux kernel as a base before their modifications to make it a ChromeOS kernel, and Ext support is pretty solid, and has been for years. NTFS in Linux and its derivatives is typically mounted in userspace using FUSE and ntfs-3g, which would be something they'd have to support and would make sense for them to remove.
Part if it might be hardware support. My no-name tablet runs Jelly Bean and OTG works with it. I've used CC swiper, KB, mouse, and USB storage (visible even via Storage UI) without issue on a powered hub. My KitKat phone has OTG support and worked (before rooting) with KB and mouse, but Storage UI did not show flash drives as present nor did they show up in the mount locations in Astro. After rooting, StorageUI still doesn't show the flash drives, but they can be mounted with the OTG Helper program and are visible to file managers like Astro which will allow me to copy to/from and play media from the drive. Seems too arbitrary of a feature to remove without a reason, and pushing users to Google Drive seems to be that reason. Therefore, it doesn't surprise me that Google is doing similar with ChromeOS considering it is advertised as a cloud device anyway.
I think the article hits it head-on about pushing users toward cloud storage, specifically Google Drive.
I just got a Droid Maxx with KitKat and was shocked to find they had removed the ability to mount USB drives via USB OTG. Had to root my phone and install USB OTG Helper to have that basic functionality again. Obviously, the support is still there in the kernel; just the userspace access was removed, and USB OTG Helper was able to mount my flash drives successfully, even NTFS. Did I mention the Droid Maxx (made by Motorola after Google's acquisition) lacks an SD card? The 32 GB model was discontinued, so this is the 16 GB version and a Verizon exclusive, so you KNOW it's full of unremovable bloatware further depleting its limited, unexpandable storage.
They tried to justify this by including 50 GB of Google Drive space for 2 years, but cloud storage should not be a replacement for local storage, only a supplement. Also, what if I did jump in feet-first and use all that extra space? What happens to my data 2 years from now? It's essentially being held hostage by the free "trial". Thankfully I only use cloud storage as off-site backup for important documents; I also store them in encrypted containers to prevent them from being data mined. Also, cloud storage is a pain when you have metered internet.
I love me some Google products, but their "don't be evil" philosophy has gone out the window long ago.
Um, welcome to Slashdot? I hardly ever comment here because the comments are usually so far off-topic that there's no chance of the train ever getting back on track. At least talking about hard drives has some relevance to the article, even though there hasn't been an actual, rotating-platter hard drive in most portable electronics since the early iPods. I'm not bashing/. per se, but look at the comments on a random article and you'll see what I mean. Any time I go to a comments section and the first posts are "FIRST!!!!1" or some crap like that, I really don't expect to find intelligent conversation. However, this article seems to have attracted a few people who actually know how to use the internet, and so I applaud the bulk of you.
Nah, the data is still stored as 0's and 1's, otherwise your computer wouldn't know what to do with it; the data is just represented internally as cuneiform symbols. Nit picky, I know.
I just always have to stress the backup part. Many of my customers will buy the cheapest, crappiest laptop WalMart has to offer, throw their entire photo albums and history on there, no back ANYTHING up, EVER, throw the laptop around like a throw pillow (often while it's on), and then come in crying that their computer won't boot and they lost their entire family photo albums. If I didn't see this weekly, I might have more pity on the poor suckers. That $229 laptop isn't such a great deal when you have to have the hard drive and operating system reinstalled a year later. One thing I have learned from these people is to never rely on a Seagate or Toshiba hard drive. Even factoring in customer abuse, I've seen FAR more of these two brands fail than any other.
"...hard drive last more than a couple of years..."
What, are you buying Seagates, running them in an oven, all while shaking them constantly and beating the crap out of them? I've got hard drives that are pushing their second decade with little to no signs of wear (two are Western Digital and one is a Hitachi). At work, though, I've seen hard drives fail within a year, but they're usually in the el cheapo Wal-mart HP Pavilions that people refuse to stop buying even though they are UTTER AND COMPLETE CRAP. You get what you pay for, people. If you want a drive to last, put a little more money in a Western Digital Caviar Black or get yourself a server-class drive. Even if it fails, the WD Black has a 5-year warranty with little to no questions asked. And really, you should be backing up your data anyway.
My old FroYo phone was glacier slow until I downloaded a fsTrim utility. It requires root, but it made my old dinosaur run MUCH faster. It even noticeably sped up my current 4.1.1 phone which doesn't yet have TRIM support built in. I think it was called LagFix Free in the Play Store, but I could be mistaken. If you have a rooted Android phone that DOESN'T already support TRIM, give it a go; it did wonders for both of my phones.
I hope there is no way people will put up with this. Anyone using EBTC should drop them, and drop them now. If they get away with it there, how long before it becomes a precedent that other ISPs use to do the same?
AT&T/Verizon/Comcast/Cox/Suddenlink, et all CEO: (obligatorily rubbing nipples while saying this) "Hey, people in Iowa don't seem to mind. Let's roll it out nationwide."
Hate replying to my own post, but after reading further comments, this appears to be an April Fool's Day prank. [sarcasm]Great job, guys[/sarcasm].
Next time, try to make a funny AFD joke. This was simply annoying, disconcerting, and almost made me rage-quit Slashdot. I'm all for a good April fool's joke, but this was awful. Do better next year, guys!
I'm logged in and am still only viewing ROT-13.
I don't know if this is just an April Fool's Day joke, but if the whole of the internet decided to go this route, I would stop using it altogether. Period. Might even lose a few lbs:-P
If this is the route/.is going to take, then they have just lost a VERY loyal reader.
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Ext 2/3/4 supported in the Linux kernel, not userspace? That would mean they don't have to really do anything to make it work other than mount/unmount since they use the vanilla Linux kernel as a base before their modifications to make it a ChromeOS kernel, and Ext support is pretty solid, and has been for years. NTFS in Linux and its derivatives is typically mounted in userspace using FUSE and ntfs-3g, which would be something they'd have to support and would make sense for them to remove.
Part if it might be hardware support. My no-name tablet runs Jelly Bean and OTG works with it. I've used CC swiper, KB, mouse, and USB storage (visible even via Storage UI) without issue on a powered hub. My KitKat phone has OTG support and worked (before rooting) with KB and mouse, but Storage UI did not show flash drives as present nor did they show up in the mount locations in Astro. After rooting, StorageUI still doesn't show the flash drives, but they can be mounted with the OTG Helper program and are visible to file managers like Astro which will allow me to copy to/from and play media from the drive. Seems too arbitrary of a feature to remove without a reason, and pushing users to Google Drive seems to be that reason. Therefore, it doesn't surprise me that Google is doing similar with ChromeOS considering it is advertised as a cloud device anyway.
If the NSA tells you not to worry, that's probably when you should worry.
I think the article hits it head-on about pushing users toward cloud storage, specifically Google Drive. I just got a Droid Maxx with KitKat and was shocked to find they had removed the ability to mount USB drives via USB OTG. Had to root my phone and install USB OTG Helper to have that basic functionality again. Obviously, the support is still there in the kernel; just the userspace access was removed, and USB OTG Helper was able to mount my flash drives successfully, even NTFS. Did I mention the Droid Maxx (made by Motorola after Google's acquisition) lacks an SD card? The 32 GB model was discontinued, so this is the 16 GB version and a Verizon exclusive, so you KNOW it's full of unremovable bloatware further depleting its limited, unexpandable storage. They tried to justify this by including 50 GB of Google Drive space for 2 years, but cloud storage should not be a replacement for local storage, only a supplement. Also, what if I did jump in feet-first and use all that extra space? What happens to my data 2 years from now? It's essentially being held hostage by the free "trial". Thankfully I only use cloud storage as off-site backup for important documents; I also store them in encrypted containers to prevent them from being data mined. Also, cloud storage is a pain when you have metered internet. I love me some Google products, but their "don't be evil" philosophy has gone out the window long ago.
Yup. The will to fight the good fight has been beaten out of me.
Um, welcome to Slashdot? I hardly ever comment here because the comments are usually so far off-topic that there's no chance of the train ever getting back on track. At least talking about hard drives has some relevance to the article, even though there hasn't been an actual, rotating-platter hard drive in most portable electronics since the early iPods. I'm not bashing /. per se, but look at the comments on a random article and you'll see what I mean. Any time I go to a comments section and the first posts are "FIRST!!!!1" or some crap like that, I really don't expect to find intelligent conversation. However, this article seems to have attracted a few people who actually know how to use the internet, and so I applaud the bulk of you.
Nah, the data is still stored as 0's and 1's, otherwise your computer wouldn't know what to do with it; the data is just represented internally as cuneiform symbols. Nit picky, I know.
I just always have to stress the backup part. Many of my customers will buy the cheapest, crappiest laptop WalMart has to offer, throw their entire photo albums and history on there, no back ANYTHING up, EVER, throw the laptop around like a throw pillow (often while it's on), and then come in crying that their computer won't boot and they lost their entire family photo albums. If I didn't see this weekly, I might have more pity on the poor suckers. That $229 laptop isn't such a great deal when you have to have the hard drive and operating system reinstalled a year later. One thing I have learned from these people is to never rely on a Seagate or Toshiba hard drive. Even factoring in customer abuse, I've seen FAR more of these two brands fail than any other.
"...hard drive last more than a couple of years..." What, are you buying Seagates, running them in an oven, all while shaking them constantly and beating the crap out of them? I've got hard drives that are pushing their second decade with little to no signs of wear (two are Western Digital and one is a Hitachi). At work, though, I've seen hard drives fail within a year, but they're usually in the el cheapo Wal-mart HP Pavilions that people refuse to stop buying even though they are UTTER AND COMPLETE CRAP. You get what you pay for, people. If you want a drive to last, put a little more money in a Western Digital Caviar Black or get yourself a server-class drive. Even if it fails, the WD Black has a 5-year warranty with little to no questions asked. And really, you should be backing up your data anyway.
My old FroYo phone was glacier slow until I downloaded a fsTrim utility. It requires root, but it made my old dinosaur run MUCH faster. It even noticeably sped up my current 4.1.1 phone which doesn't yet have TRIM support built in. I think it was called LagFix Free in the Play Store, but I could be mistaken. If you have a rooted Android phone that DOESN'T already support TRIM, give it a go; it did wonders for both of my phones.
Fleabay. HA! I'm going to have to use that from now on.
First of all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o19CaOSuD8
I hope there is no way people will put up with this. Anyone using EBTC should drop them, and drop them now. If they get away with it there, how long before it becomes a precedent that other ISPs use to do the same?
AT&T/Verizon/Comcast/Cox/Suddenlink, et all CEO: (obligatorily rubbing nipples while saying this) "Hey, people in Iowa don't seem to mind. Let's roll it out nationwide."
Hate replying to my own post, but after reading further comments, this appears to be an April Fool's Day prank. [sarcasm]Great job, guys[/sarcasm]. Next time, try to make a funny AFD joke. This was simply annoying, disconcerting, and almost made me rage-quit Slashdot. I'm all for a good April fool's joke, but this was awful. Do better next year, guys!
I'm logged in and am still only viewing ROT-13. I don't know if this is just an April Fool's Day joke, but if the whole of the internet decided to go this route, I would stop using it altogether. Period. Might even lose a few lbs :-P
If this is the route /.is going to take, then they have just lost a VERY loyal reader.