If you are a realist please tell me why Linux should not be used on PCs that would otherwise be sold OS-free?
(silence)
Despite all this elitist bitching, total dumb anti-computer types don't buy no-name PCs. They buy Dell or Compaq or IBM because they know these companies.
People who buy ultra-cheap no-name PCs know what they are doing - at least to the extent that they know that they will need to pirate Windows if they have to run Windows-programs.
PCs preloaded with Lindows are not replacing Windows-preloaded PCs (or well, not primarily), they replace OS-free PCs that Walmart already sells for quite some time.
Lindows-PCs are perfect for those tasks IMO:
People who want to put their own OS on it (either an existing or pirated copy of Windows or Linux or something else)
PCs used only for email, web and simple office stuff. Yes, I do think that it's ready for grandma, too. It's preloaded after all and I assume they test their hardware against it, too.
PC terminals. For example at our universtity, there are tens of PCs used for administrative purposes (students can subscribe to courses, exams etc.) and all those PCs ever do in their whole livetime is run one browser-window that shows the institute's website. The only reason why those PCs currently run IE/Windows is because it was preinstalled.
Yes also *gasp* people who want to check out Linux and don't want to mess much with installation. The cheapest LindowsPC costs as much as a full retail copy of Windows XP pro. (300$) Hell, why not?
Lindows costs not much if anything, I don't see a complelling reason NOT TO put it on PCs that would otherwise be sold without an OS.
Believe me, Bill Gates *IS* losing sleep over this.
One major argument against Unix was always "fragmentation". Now Linux is solving the problem - it is reuniting Unix if you will.
Also, the more people use Linux, the more apps will be ported to Linux and it will become a better platform for ALL Linux users.
For example I'm pretty sure that because of this, 3DstudioMAX will sooner or later be ported to Linux. - And 3Dstudio is very popular among amateurs and home-users, too. Possibly even Photoshop will come to Linux, which will enable Linux as a viable option for even more users than 3Dstudio.
That's probably the most funny post I've seen for a while.
Microsoft not standing still?
I quote Bill Gates:
"The Internet will never be popular"
Microsoft ALWAYS stand still, they NEVER pick up really NEW ideas. They look where everybody is headed, then use their huge ressources to pick up.
Just look at PS, if we are at it. PS2/3 threatens Microsoft stronghold on home-computers, so what did Microsoft do? Copy Sony by putting out a console. The XBox is not offering anything new (no, a harddrive isn't anything new, you could save your games before, too.) they just bought the latest-greatest hardware and put it together, thought that if they through enough money at it, it will become a great success.
Now, half a year after launch, they have sold 2 millions less than expected, have to take 100$ more losses per box than expected and see already developers leaving and XBox failing miserably.
They would have to sell more than 10 games per box to break even and that's only hardware costs, if you count in the bloated marketing costs you would probably need 15 or even more games per customer to reach a cool zero. That simply ain't gonna happen.
So Microsoft is the only one taking huge losses and is still miles behind Gamecube everywhere (which overtook XBox in the USA recently and was always in front everywhere else) and lightyears behind PS2 which wipes the floor with XBox all over the world even though it's 2 years old.
You forget that Microsoft's revenue consists of 80% Office and Windows.
So if they half these prices, they nearly half their revenue (because the market is saturated) and actually start to make losses instead of high profits.
That's why they simply can't drop these prices and constantly raise prices instead.
Microsoft is a lot more vulnerable than most people believe. They trapped themselves in the stock-option house of cards they built around themselves.
It is entirely reasonable for them to use a computer to surf the web rather than a wannabe-computer like the PS3.
No, it's not reasonable to expect from your customer/visitor to write down your url on paper, leave their comfy couch, walk into another room, boot up their computer, type in the URL they have written down and watch your site.
And BTW, not all Playstation owners have a computer in the first place.
I won't upgrade my server, because I don't give a rat's ass about a "maybe if you do this and that and if 10 things coincides somebody might start a DOS attack" - bug like this.
But I would care about the numerous IIS-bugs that LET YOU TAKE OVER THE MACHINE - oh wait, I do care, that's why I don't run IIS in the first place.
Actually, this isn't funny - it's sad. Because those small glitches in open-source software that are hyped up to mega-bugs like this one are not even newsworthy when happening in IIS. I have yet to see a news article about a IIS-bug that did not allow to take over the whole machine, but I see trivial ("if you run that platform and if that may happen and if that is enabled than it might lead to a DOS attack") about OSS all the time.
I still remember the so-called ssh vulnerability about keystroke-intervals, which allowed an attacker to reduce the brute-force attack - time from 10 gazillion years to 2 gazillion years. (This so-called vulnerability was so irrelevant it's no longer funny. Why such crap gets accepted on slashdot - I don't understand that.)
Even slashdot has this tendency as it reports every tiny OSS-bug, but only reports the really huge-MS holes where you could drive a truck through.
Microsoft enjoys a great PR-advantage, even on slashdot.
It loads faster than IE (with Quickstart enabled) and HTTP 1.1 pipelining will make webpages load about 10% to 20% faster for modem-users or DSL-users with high-latency connections.
Oh my god, before I will *gasp* download Mozilla I would rather troll on slashdot and request screenshots about a feature that can't be shown on a screenshot.
Hey, what's up with you? Is Bill Gates standing behind you and holding a Magnum on your head? Did you sign a live-long contract with Microsoft? What exactly is holding you back from downloading Mozilla?
This "I use Microsoft and will always use Microsoft even if it involves great pain." - kind of attitude is not going through my head, care to explain it to me?
Playstation3 will use Linux for everything online-related. If it is as successful as PS1 (100 Million sold) or PS2 (30 million sold, another million sold EACH MONTH), there will be millions of Mozilla-users who won't accept a "use IE instead" because they *can't* use IE.
Add to those:
30 million of AOL users who will sooner or later upgrade to a Mozilla-based browser. Few computers last longer than 4 years, also Widows tends to be reinstalled sometimes even without upgrading hardware, so I guess that in 3 or 4 years we will see at least 20 million Mozilla-users coming from AOL.
Windows-users who like Mozilla's features (tabbed browsing, http-pipelining, stop animations)
Windows-users not liking Microsoft (actually I know more Windows-users hating Microsoft than liking them. Yes, you can flame me for this.)
Linux users. Yes it's starting to happen. South Korea switching 1/4 of their desktops to Linux, allmost all Hollywood studios switching to Linux, Walmart starting to sell Linux-preinstalled computers to the masses - this is just the beginning, Linux will make inroads in the desktop in the next years.
People who want a multiplatform browser. No, IE/Mac is not the same as IE/Win and see above for PS3 and Linux/desktop in the future. Those people who use any non-Windows OS either at work or at home will probably also use Mozilla on their Windows-machines because Mozilla makes it easier to share bookmarks etc. between platforms.
As the article suggests, people using embedded devices, etc.
Mozilla will almost certainly break IE-domination in this year (by reaching more than 10% marketshare, which is too much to ignore for webdesigners) and will become the standard browser within 10 years.
Re:Binary Distros Are Dead
on
Is RPM Doomed?
·
· Score: 2
Would you recommend Source Mage or Gentoo? What are the differences?
Thanks again for helping an 'not yet'- source-based Linux distribution user;-)
Re:Binary Distros Are Dead
on
Is RPM Doomed?
·
· Score: 2
The software is compiled optimized for your hardware. Typically such systems run 20-30% faster than their binary equivelents, based on some casual benchmarking I and a few others have done.
What benchmarking did you and few others do? (And what CPU do you use?)
20-30% sounds a bit high for me.
Thanks for any details.
KDE is not gnome
on
Is RPM Doomed?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Can the RedHat users please stop claiming that KDE is cloning the registry?
KDE users configuration files like most other Unix-software.
There are some things debatable about the location of these files (in $KDEDIR/share/config and ~/.kde/share/config) but thankfully it's not even close to being a registry.
Re:standardized locations, etc.
on
Is RPM Doomed?
·
· Score: 2
That's one reason why programs often get their own copy of a library, even though it sucks from an end-user standpoint.
Why does this suck from an end-user standpoint?
I personally don't care much about how many versions of some library are installed as long as the goddamned software works. I think software like everything from Loki(RIP) or Codeweavers are very well done because they don't require many libraries (Only the kernel and glibc AFAIK)
Slashdot Mirror
(silence)
Despite all this elitist bitching, total dumb anti-computer types don't buy no-name PCs. They buy Dell or Compaq or IBM because they know these companies.
People who buy ultra-cheap no-name PCs know what they are doing - at least to the extent that they know that they will need to pirate Windows if they have to run Windows-programs.
Walmart can lower the price AND grow their margin by using Lindows.
PCs preloaded with Lindows are not replacing Windows-preloaded PCs (or well, not primarily), they replace OS-free PCs that Walmart already sells for quite some time.
Lindows-PCs are perfect for those tasks IMO:
Lindows costs not much if anything, I don't see a complelling reason NOT TO put it on PCs that would otherwise be sold without an OS.
Which will become Linux-compatible, too...
One major argument against Unix was always "fragmentation". Now Linux is solving the problem - it is reuniting Unix if you will.
Also, the more people use Linux, the more apps will be ported to Linux and it will become a better platform for ALL Linux users.
For example I'm pretty sure that because of this, 3DstudioMAX will sooner or later be ported to Linux. - And 3Dstudio is very popular among amateurs and home-users, too. Possibly even Photoshop will come to Linux, which will enable Linux as a viable option for even more users than 3Dstudio.
If some major site like this has a maximum uptime of 23 days, they really need not bother telling us the OS as we'll already know...
"New York Times is reporting that Disney has switched over to Linux-based HP workstations for animation."
Please note the term "workstation".
Microsoft not standing still?
I quote Bill Gates:
"The Internet will never be popular"
Microsoft ALWAYS stand still, they NEVER pick up really NEW ideas. They look where everybody is headed, then use their huge ressources to pick up.
Just look at PS, if we are at it. PS2/3 threatens Microsoft stronghold on home-computers, so what did Microsoft do? Copy Sony by putting out a console. The XBox is not offering anything new (no, a harddrive isn't anything new, you could save your games before, too.) they just bought the latest-greatest hardware and put it together, thought that if they through enough money at it, it will become a great success.
Now, half a year after launch, they have sold 2 millions less than expected, have to take 100$ more losses per box than expected and see already developers leaving and XBox failing miserably.
They would have to sell more than 10 games per box to break even and that's only hardware costs, if you count in the bloated marketing costs you would probably need 15 or even more games per customer to reach a cool zero. That simply ain't gonna happen.
So Microsoft is the only one taking huge losses and is still miles behind Gamecube everywhere (which overtook XBox in the USA recently and was always in front everywhere else) and lightyears behind PS2 which wipes the floor with XBox all over the world even though it's 2 years old.
What will Microsoft do against PS3?
So if they half these prices, they nearly half their revenue (because the market is saturated) and actually start to make losses instead of high profits.
That's why they simply can't drop these prices and constantly raise prices instead.
Microsoft is a lot more vulnerable than most people believe. They trapped themselves in the stock-option house of cards they built around themselves.
They can't lower Windows and Office prices (that would destroy Bill Gates valuable stock.), so they will slowly lose to Linux and OpenOffice.
Nothing lasts forever, neither does Microsoft's desktop domination.
No, it's not reasonable to expect from your customer/visitor to write down your url on paper, leave their comfy couch, walk into another room, boot up their computer, type in the URL they have written down and watch your site.
And BTW, not all Playstation owners have a computer in the first place.
Well you ARE WRONG.
I won't upgrade my server, because I don't give a rat's ass about a "maybe if you do this and that and if 10 things coincides somebody might start a DOS attack" - bug like this.
But I would care about the numerous IIS-bugs that LET YOU TAKE OVER THE MACHINE - oh wait, I do care, that's why I don't run IIS in the first place.
I still remember the so-called ssh vulnerability about keystroke-intervals, which allowed an attacker to reduce the brute-force attack - time from 10 gazillion years to 2 gazillion years. (This so-called vulnerability was so irrelevant it's no longer funny. Why such crap gets accepted on slashdot - I don't understand that.)
Even slashdot has this tendency as it reports every tiny OSS-bug, but only reports the really huge-MS holes where you could drive a truck through.
Microsoft enjoys a great PR-advantage, even on slashdot.
It loads faster than IE (with Quickstart enabled) and HTTP 1.1 pipelining will make webpages load about 10% to 20% faster for modem-users or DSL-users with high-latency connections.
Oh, no I fed a troll again...
Hey, what's up with you? Is Bill Gates standing behind you and holding a Magnum on your head? Did you sign a live-long contract with Microsoft? What exactly is holding you back from downloading Mozilla?
This "I use Microsoft and will always use Microsoft even if it involves great pain." - kind of attitude is not going through my head, care to explain it to me?
And millions of AOL-users - while not reaching majority - will make sure that Mozilla reaches enough marketshare so it can't be ignored by webmasters.
Hell, I use it all the time and I don't have any real problems, maybe once per week I see a misaligned graphic, but nothing really important.
Add to those:
Mozilla will almost certainly break IE-domination in this year (by reaching more than 10% marketshare, which is too much to ignore for webdesigners) and will become the standard browser within 10 years.
Well, that's still 70% Microsoft... ;-)
Thanks again for helping an 'not yet'- source-based Linux distribution user ;-)
What benchmarking did you and few others do? (And what CPU do you use?)
20-30% sounds a bit high for me.
Thanks for any details.
KDE users configuration files like most other Unix-software.
There are some things debatable about the location of these files (in $KDEDIR/share/config and ~/.kde/share/config) but thankfully it's not even close to being a registry.
Why does this suck from an end-user standpoint?
I personally don't care much about how many versions of some library are installed as long as the goddamned software works. I think software like everything from Loki(RIP) or Codeweavers are very well done because they don't require many libraries (Only the kernel and glibc AFAIK)
Linux looks like Unix, it acts like Unix, it feels like Unix. It is Unix for all respects that matter.
And grandma doesn't play Max Payne anyway, so those who only need email/web/office will be set, IMO.
Where labour is cheap and education is bad (for example China, Lebanon, most of 3rd world, US-military), Microsoft is king.
Where labour is expensive and education is good (for example Japan, Germany) Open-source will be used.
It's not the licensing costs that make Windows so expensive, it's the work that is needed to constantly babysit and patch it.
If you don't believe me, check out for yourself:
http://www.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/200205/ index.html