They also work closely with Linux kernel developers (they give away tons of slick hardware, and kernel developers have access to Cyrix engineers).
It shows. Linux really hauls @$$ on my Cyrix 233MHz.
The only reason I want to go to a dual Intel 400MHz arrangement is because it is more economical for me. I have a bunch of older systems that are seeming slow (Pentium 100's & 120's, 486, even a 386 still in operation) and rather than upgrade them all, I will upgrade only one to be really sweet and just use the older boxes as X terminals to get into the faster compute server. The Cyrix 233 box will likely be used primarily as a standalone still, though, because for almost everything I do it is more than fast enough.
The one thing that really tosses my salad, though, is that encoding MP3's is slower than snot flowing uphill in the winter. Decoding hardly uses any CPU at all, but encoding takes about 20 minutes per song. Ugh.
I wonder, does the Microsoft tax figure into this machine? At $299 I have a hard time seeing how they could come to this price point while preloading an OS on it.
If this is the case, we really should be more supportive of these guys. Stop all the bitching and moaning.
No monitor makes sense
on
The $299 PC
·
· Score: 0
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
Uh, and in what ways is this superiour to the 486 its replacing?
Here at work, one of my two machines is a 486. One of my home machines is Cyrix based. There is a world of difference.
And if I already have a 486, then for $250 I can buy a Celeron 300A, Abit BX6 Rev. 2, and 32 Meg of PC100 Memory, stuff it in that 486 box, and overclock it to 450Mhz, which sounds like a win over this trailing edge box
Then by all means, please do. But you are not the target buyer. The target buyer does not yet own a PC or is PC-illiterate. If you already have a 486, you have half the parts already to get to a nice level of performance.
The other thing you are leaving out is all the other parts. Shop around and come up with a shopping list for all of the components in this box. Case, motherboard, CPU, 56K modem, sound card, video card, keyboard, mouse. What is the price tag? The 1 year subscription to an ISP is worth, to me, at LEAST $144 since that is the cheapest I could buy it for in this area.
Also, please see my post above about "Don't scoff". Some of you guys snear at the current lineup of low-end chips but to be quite honest, the current lineup of low-end chips could even satisfy a lot of power users assuming you have a good amount of RAM and half decent components.
But the monitor is such a personal choice for most people. I personally don't see much difference between a 15" and a 17" monitor in day to day use, but some people can't stand a 15" monitor.
Most systems DO NOT come with a monitor. As it should be!
I've got the 233MHz variant in one of my machines. While it is not bleeding edge, it is certainly very snappy for running a GUI and most standard desktop applications. Even Windoze runs well on it, though the machine is usually booted into Linux/KDE. Video games run excellently on it, and even Quake II runs at a nice smooth clip.
It is no overclocked Intel Celery, to be sure, but it is DEFINITELY very useable even for many power users. The lack of a decent FPU is hardly missed. In fact, if this machine were available today I would certainly buy one because for once it is a lot cheaper than what I could build the same machine for myself.
Intel should go after them... as long as they only get the venders and leave the us alone
Wanna know what Linux REALLY is?
on
Linux on CNN
·
· Score: 1
Posted by Ominous the Foreboding:
Hmmm...
Maybe Linux is the final nail in the coffin of Windows -- the guiding light that will show the world that it doesn't have to blindly follow Microsoft into the depths of despair. Perhaps, as more and more Open Source software makes headlines, the world will slip away from the all-encompassing marketing-monster that is Bill, and into a world of better software by better authors...
Or, maybe Linux is just a fad -- the zealous obsession of a bunch of college nerds who think that squeezing every last drop of performance out of their aging hardware will somehow make up for the fact that they aren't gettin' any...
Or, maybe Linux is the unified alternative for the new age. Perhaps, as it is ported to more and more hardware platforms, and as desktop environments such as KDE and Gnome develop, Linux will succeed in uniting the second-stringers (who are currently using OS/2, Macs, Amigas, BeOS, etc.) into a force that can stand toe-to-toe and head-to-head against the Gates of Hell...
Or, maybe Linux is a plot by a pinko-commie bastard from Finland to convince red-blooded American programmers that they shouldn't expect to be paid for their hard work, and to instead code "for the good of all mankind", all in an attempt to begin the transition to the New World Order...
Personally, I tend to agree that it's just software...
If a dumbass burglar stumbled into my office and had to pick which machine to steal, he'd probably get the crappiest one because it is in a big ass full tower case with dual power supplies and all that. The rattly XT case with the "blinkenlights" sticker on it would have been a far more desirable booty if Mr. Burglar only knew not to judge a book by its cover.:-)
BTW - The XT is going to be a dual Pentium II 400MHz as soon as I get my tax refund back. Woo! Now I just need to find a nice clickety clack keyboard so I can get rid of this freebie I got from Best Buy ($9.99 sticker, and a $9.99 rebate).
I once heard (but I can't verify) that there is a similar effort WRT Hebrew. Apparently there are those who believe only words in the Torah (sp?) are valid, and new words should not be added to the language for new concepts. So, when they need a name for something like "floppy disk", they have to recycle an old word that meant something like, "eviscerate your enemy with a dull wooden spoon" (i.e., something that will hopefully go unmissed in common discourse). --
Just the right words. Lets wait and see what they pull out of the hat. Personally i think it could be very interesting.
Lets wait and see what they say tonight.
PowerPalle
Another clueless journalist
on
Linux on CNN
·
· Score: 1
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
Inadept journalists will be part of this country's downfall. Due to the mass media there are still people who believe that this country banned "assault weapons" in 1994.
There are still people who believe that Bill Clinton's failed impeachment was "all about sex".
There are still people who believe that the American civil war was just about slavery.
There are still people who believe that the police are the "good guys".
This moron compared source code to blueprints or a movie script. Source code is more like bricks and mortar. A compiler and linker put it together.
Does he not know that in many situations where software is custom developed, a part of the agreement is that a neutral third party must hold a copy of all of the source code in case the supplier goes belly up?
Source code is more important than the compiled executables in terms of the big picture. If someone could decompile all of M$' source code to Win2K and format it in a readable fashion, M$ would sue everyone from that person's kindergarten teacher to the clerk at Starbucks who served French Mocha Blend to him/her that week.
Just like every other shift in the computing paradigm, Linux will take time to mature. 30 years ago you would have been laugned at if you said that eventually every home (or close to it) in te US would have a computer. Where are we today?
20 years ago you'd have been laughed at if you told someone that the richest man in the world would be the CEO of a software company instead of the chairman of some media/movie/oil company. Where are we today?
A decade ago you'd have been laughed at if you told someone that you could buy off of the shelf PCs for $150,000 and link them together and match the performance of a 5.5 million dollar supercomputer. Where are we today?
Why do so many people seem in-fucking-capable of getting it?
I doubt that the upgrades would cost that much really. Assuming the SAT equipment and RAID's cost each theatre $20,000 , the cost they pay for each movie would be lower, and in the long run, profits would boost
On one hand, I think one talking head was too many for Slashdot. This is a great news forum, but if every struggling semi-computer-literate journalist can post silly Katzian articles here, the signal-to-noise unbalance will start driving people off. As long as the editorial pieces stay reasonably rare, it should be OK. (And the customizable slashdot feature kicks major booty, if I do say so myself!)
On the other hand, this guy isn't as bad as Katz. (I know Jon means well, but he's still rather purple and content-free, IMHO.) Apart from a few laughably top-heavy metaphors ("digital blade?" whatever...), this is pretty lucid.
I propose a probationary period. We let him keep posting, for now... but if he ever again posts an article which confuses "hacker" and "cracker" as cluelessly as this one, we kick him out and mail a dead cat to his house.
Slashdot Mirror
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
They also work closely with Linux kernel developers (they give away tons of slick hardware, and kernel developers have access to Cyrix engineers).
It shows. Linux really hauls @$$ on my Cyrix 233MHz.
The only reason I want to go to a dual Intel 400MHz arrangement is because it is more economical for me. I have a bunch of older systems that are seeming slow (Pentium 100's & 120's, 486, even a 386 still in operation) and rather than upgrade them all, I will upgrade only one to be really sweet and just use the older boxes as X terminals to get into the faster compute server. The Cyrix 233 box will likely be used primarily as a standalone still, though, because for almost everything I do it is more than fast enough.
The one thing that really tosses my salad, though, is that encoding MP3's is slower than snot flowing uphill in the winter. Decoding hardly uses any CPU at all, but encoding takes about 20 minutes per song. Ugh.
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
I wonder, does the Microsoft tax figure into this machine? At $299 I have a hard time seeing how they could come to this price point while preloading an OS on it.
If this is the case, we really should be more supportive of these guys. Stop all the bitching and moaning.
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
Uh, and in what ways is this superiour to the 486 its replacing?
Here at work, one of my two machines is a 486. One of my home machines is Cyrix based. There is a world of difference.
And if I already have a 486, then for $250 I can buy a Celeron 300A, Abit BX6 Rev. 2, and 32 Meg of PC100 Memory, stuff it in that 486 box, and overclock it to 450Mhz, which sounds like a win over this trailing edge box
Then by all means, please do. But you are not the target buyer. The target buyer does not yet own a PC or is PC-illiterate. If you already have a 486, you have half the parts already to get to a nice level of performance.
The other thing you are leaving out is all the other parts. Shop around and come up with a shopping list for all of the components in this box. Case, motherboard, CPU, 56K modem, sound card, video card, keyboard, mouse. What is the price tag? The 1 year subscription to an ISP is worth, to me, at LEAST $144 since that is the cheapest I could buy it for in this area.
Also, please see my post above about "Don't scoff". Some of you guys snear at the current lineup of low-end chips but to be quite honest, the current lineup of low-end chips could even satisfy a lot of power users assuming you have a good amount of RAM and half decent components.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
...they are "open sourcing" a non-existent product? Great! When is MS open sourcing W2K?
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
Actually I think it does come with a keyboard...
But the monitor is such a personal choice for most people. I personally don't see much difference between a 15" and a 17" monitor in day to day use, but some people can't stand a 15" monitor.
Most systems DO NOT come with a monitor. As it should be!
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
I've got the 233MHz variant in one of my machines. While it is not bleeding edge, it is certainly very snappy for running a GUI and most standard desktop applications. Even Windoze runs well on it, though the machine is usually booted into Linux/KDE. Video games run excellently on it, and even Quake II runs at a nice smooth clip.
It is no overclocked Intel Celery, to be sure, but it is DEFINITELY very useable even for many power users. The lack of a decent FPU is hardly missed. In fact, if this machine were available today I would certainly buy one because for once it is a lot cheaper than what I could build the same machine for myself.
Posted by DarkYoda:
what a shaft...
i would rather watch
grass grow
Posted by DarkYoda:
Intel should go after them...
as long as they only get the venders
and leave the us alone
Posted by Ominous the Foreboding:
Hmmm...
Maybe Linux is the final nail in the coffin of Windows -- the guiding light that will show the world that it doesn't have to blindly follow Microsoft into the depths of despair. Perhaps, as more and more Open Source software makes headlines, the world will slip away from the all-encompassing marketing-monster that is Bill, and into a world of better software by better authors...
Or, maybe Linux is just a fad -- the zealous obsession of a bunch of college nerds who think that squeezing every last drop of performance out of their aging hardware will somehow make up for the fact that they aren't gettin' any...
Or, maybe Linux is the unified alternative for the new age. Perhaps, as it is ported to more and more hardware platforms, and as desktop environments such as KDE and Gnome develop, Linux will succeed in uniting the second-stringers (who are currently using OS/2, Macs, Amigas, BeOS, etc.) into a force that can stand toe-to-toe and head-to-head against the Gates of Hell...
Or, maybe Linux is a plot by a pinko-commie bastard from Finland to convince red-blooded American programmers that they shouldn't expect to be paid for their hard work, and to instead code "for the good of all mankind", all in an attempt to begin the transition to the New World Order...
Personally, I tend to agree that it's just software...
... but, unlike Windows, it's damn good software.
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
:-)
If a dumbass burglar stumbled into my office and had to pick which machine to steal, he'd probably get the crappiest one because it is in a big ass full tower case with dual power supplies and all that. The rattly XT case with the "blinkenlights" sticker on it would have been a far more desirable booty if Mr. Burglar only knew not to judge a book by its cover.
BTW - The XT is going to be a dual Pentium II 400MHz as soon as I get my tax refund back. Woo! Now I just need to find a nice clickety clack keyboard so I can get rid of this freebie I got from Best Buy ($9.99 sticker, and a $9.99 rebate).
Posted by Bill "Willing Boy-Toy of the B:
I once heard (but I can't verify) that there is a similar effort WRT Hebrew. Apparently there are those who believe only words in the Torah (sp?) are valid, and new words should not be added to the language for new concepts. So, when they need a name for something like "floppy disk", they have to recycle an old word that meant something like, "eviscerate your enemy with a dull wooden spoon" (i.e., something that will hopefully go unmissed in common discourse).
--
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
I don't know what you're talking about. It clearly says 1999.
Posted by patg:
He didn't really say anything bad (except about windows 2000)...
Posted by PowerPalle:
Just the right words. Lets wait and see what they pull out of the hat. Personally i think it could be very interesting.
Lets wait and see what they say tonight.
PowerPalle
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
Inadept journalists will be part of this country's downfall. Due to the mass media there are still people who believe that this country banned "assault weapons" in 1994.
There are still people who believe that Bill Clinton's failed impeachment was "all about sex".
There are still people who believe that the American civil war was just about slavery.
There are still people who believe that the police are the "good guys".
This moron compared source code to blueprints or a movie script. Source code is more like bricks and mortar. A compiler and linker put it together.
Does he not know that in many situations where software is custom developed, a part of the agreement is that a neutral third party must hold a copy of all of the source code in case the supplier goes belly up?
Source code is more important than the compiled executables in terms of the big picture. If someone could decompile all of M$' source code to Win2K and format it in a readable fashion, M$ would sue everyone from that person's kindergarten teacher to the clerk at Starbucks who served French Mocha Blend to him/her that week.
Just like every other shift in the computing paradigm, Linux will take time to mature. 30 years ago you would have been laugned at if you said that eventually every home (or close to it) in te US would have a computer. Where are we today?
20 years ago you'd have been laughed at if you told someone that the richest man in the world would be the CEO of a software company instead of the chairman of some media/movie/oil company. Where are we today?
A decade ago you'd have been laughed at if you told someone that you could buy off of the shelf PCs for $150,000 and link them together and match the performance of a 5.5 million dollar supercomputer. Where are we today?
Why do so many people seem in-fucking-capable of getting it?
LK
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
It's already happened.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
...all the money you have to fork over for third-party tools to do basic things like file system quotas or real login scripts under NT.
Posted by Lord_Badass:
I have to agree, he had me interested at first, then started spewing the buzzword crap and I got bored.
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
You mean, I can't change anything at all about it that my heart desires?
I cannot legally copy it onto any medium and distribute it to my friends?
I don't have to pay a license fee every time I load a new machine?
OEM's don't have to sign ANY agreements with ANYBODY to preload it on systems?
This guy is very much hung up on the concept of "free" as meaning "free beer" and not "free speech".
You'd think a couple of minutes of actual research would have gone into this article.
Posted by The ULTIMATE Crippler:
This guy at least on the surface sounds as if he possesses a clue.
Katz is one of the clueless talking heads mentioned in the article that often gets it wrong.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
So we can add preemptive multi-tasking and a decent GUI, right?
Posted by Art Pepper:
I use it.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
Read the docs that came with your software.
Posted by EasySleeze:
I doubt that the upgrades would cost that much really. Assuming the SAT equipment and RAID's cost each theatre $20,000 , the cost they pay for each movie would be lower, and in the long run, profits would boost
Posted by Fimmtiu:
:-)
On one hand, I think one talking head was too many for Slashdot. This is a great news forum, but if every struggling semi-computer-literate journalist can post silly Katzian articles here, the signal-to-noise unbalance will start driving people off. As long as the editorial pieces stay reasonably rare, it should be OK. (And the customizable slashdot feature kicks major booty, if I do say so myself!)
On the other hand, this guy isn't as bad as Katz. (I know Jon means well, but he's still rather purple and content-free, IMHO.) Apart from a few laughably top-heavy metaphors ("digital blade?" whatever...), this is pretty lucid.
I propose a probationary period. We let him keep posting, for now... but if he ever again posts an article which confuses "hacker" and "cracker" as cluelessly as this one, we kick him out and mail a dead cat to his house.
All in favor?