IIRC pacman is the packages manager for Archlinux, it uses a tar.gz package much like slackware. It's quite good although I still prefer debian just for the sheer number of packages in its repository. Even compiling php and mysql from source shouldn't be too difficult for any competent linux user.
Actually I believe if MS were to build a pocket gaiming system the would name it something like XpocketPC and it'd probably just be a pocket PC device with a souped up graphics proc and ram, probably with sd or some sort of card for games. This would make it easy, just port directX over and they have a whole environment. Also they would need to change the layout from the standard devices to something a little more gaming friendly.
Thats no true, a driver alone can do nothing. Take for instance a video driver, its job is not to control the i/o directly, its merely and interface between the hardware and the thing that is actually controlling the i/o, which is the OS kernel. The reason you need different drivers for different cards is that each card speaks a different language so to speak and the OS can only talk in an out in one language. The drivers are merely translators between the hardware and the OS.
A browser is in no way an OS. An operation system by most accounts that I have heard is the program that handles devices, files & filesystem, processes(process manager), and I/O(input/output). What you are talking about is a thin-client system, where a client is connected to a remote server, but in this case there is still and need for I/O, so there at least must be some type of os locally in addition to the browser, which would be in the application layer.
IIRC from the disections I have seen, the mini only has 1 slot for ram, so you'll need to snag an 1G stick and then you'll need to remove the 256M stick thats already in there. That is a good deal thought.
The average user doesn't realize that linux is just a kernel and most of those don't even know what a kernel is even if you were to tell them. The actual system is GNU/Linux becuase the kernel is kinda useless without the application layer. This is a problem with GNU/Linux in my opinion, most users just want stuff to work they don't want to have to learn a whole new language and philosophy just to understand the basics of the system they are using.
I think you mean mildly irrate 8+ mins from now, you are forgetting that mars is far away and if the rover stops something, there is a minimum of about 20mins before it can actually react to something it saw.
And as you mention there is an S-Video dongle that adapts everyone else (not sure why a dongle is that bad, essentially a small adaptor at the end of the cable).
I wasn't saying that a dongle is bad per-se, I only mention the fact that it doesn't appear to be included for the $500 so that is an additional cost if you want a decent situation for TV out from the box.
I also forgot to mention in my post that neither 40GB or the 80GB in the upgraded model are really sufficient for a HTPC or MythTV box and there is no word yet on upgradeability but that would of course be another cost to add in. I wasn't aware of the quantity of usb2 and firewire capture devices avialable until I looked after my original post but most I saw didn't seem to have mature or any drivers for the Mac although there are certainly a few possibilites out there. I guess the point is really that altough you *could* make this box into a MythTV type box, its really not all that practical and would probably be a better idea in most cases to simply build a system on your own. Once again I think this is a nice product and should sell well but I'm not quite sure its suited for and HTPC system, there seem to be much better options out there.
I hate to burst your bubble but anyone excited that this will bring "MythTV" boxes to the mainstream will be sorely dissapointed when the realize there is no video capture card nor are there any upgrade slots avialable to place a capture card in. I agree that in principle this would be just about the kind of box you want but unfortunately the hardware just isn't there (256MB RAM, no Capture Card, needs a dongle for s-video out, no DVD burner which is nice to have on a video storage box). Anyhow I do think its a neat box for all of us out there who would like a mac on their desk as an additional machine but don't want to pay through the teeth for one. That said I don't understand why people are complaining that they are offering a cheap mac option. Are they taking away your nice expensive mac or PC in order to do so?
You are just giving support to all the linux zealots out there. So what you are saying is that its worse to have a kernel exploit, than to have an os which can be crashed and seriously exploited from userland programs? I don't think so, linux tends to be pretty good at prevent user space programs from accessing or exploiting the kernel and thus crashing the system, windows has serious problems with this... like why are the web browser and user interface directly tied into the kernel.
I don't think there is any way to sue individual users on a tracker for the reason that they are taking/hosting only a single file. This is like the mpaa or riaa going after someone who swipes a cd off the shelf at a music store and then makes 10 or 15 copies for his friends, what are they going to sue for $100? the legal fees will be far greater and the user base much to large for them to deter any users.
Even if I were to conceed that the speeds are the same with ubuntu and windows XP, you are still forgetting that fact that windows costs $250 more than ubuntu retail. If I could get compareable speed for a savings of $250 I would probably take that bargin.
I got a via 800ghz engineering sample (I had a buddy that worked for via) its running in an old shuttle sv24. Yes the thing is slow, but it was my first linux box and I liked it. Trust me, most people shopping at walmart and buying $450 PC's will probably think its damn fast.
Also, why get your users hooked on an office suite that also runs on free os's. The way I see it, most people use their computer for web, email, office apps, and messenging, (and these days to a greater extend music and video). Safari uses khtml, there are plenty of good apps for email on free *nixes, as well as messenging apps. The one big deal breaker is most people do not believe free*nix has a stable office suite, once you give the users that there is little reason to continue to pay a hardware premium and an os premium (I do like mac myself, but the average user could care less about powerpc vs x86 hardware). thats just my $.02
I think you are forgetting that MS owns a portion of Apple. I guess this doesn't mean that you have MS products on or as part of you mac, but you are certainly "Sleeping with the enemy" so to speak. Anyhow mac does rock, enjoy on (also NeoOffice/J is cool I saw it for the first time the other day).
How is KDE a windows clone, other than the obvious interface similarities the underlying system (kpart, dcop, applications) are completely different than a windows implementation. And I might add, KDE is OSS, windows is not. There are many, many differences.
Yes, but we are talking about wifi usage here, so I'm going to assume the grandparent was talking about a multiplayer quest, it which case one user running out of battery could be catastrophic to a whole guild of nerds on a never ending quest to save their "girlfriends". Of course most nerds probably don't have the problem (the girlfriend, they still have the battery life problems).
Very well said, esp. about the sex ed programs. When the majority of sex ed programs are tainted by religious beliefs, it is unfair for those of other religions or no religion at all to get correct information. The idea that preventing sex education would prevent sexual contact is crazy, I would venture to say that the more education we provide, the better decisions the young people will make.
I seem to remember the entire creation of the religion was based on the fact that the kingdom of god was coming "soon" so there was no reason for jesus to write his teachings. IIRC it hasn't happened yet, its a few thousand years overdue.
-kaplanfx
P.S. I could go on and on but I prefer not to be called a left-wing wacko, when I am the one who is actually conservative.
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IIRC pacman is the packages manager for Archlinux, it uses a tar.gz package much like slackware. It's quite good although I still prefer debian just for the sheer number of packages in its repository. Even compiling php and mysql from source shouldn't be too difficult for any competent linux user.
-kaplanfx
Actually I believe if MS were to build a pocket gaiming system the would name it something like XpocketPC and it'd probably just be a pocket PC device with a souped up graphics proc and ram, probably with sd or some sort of card for games. This would make it easy, just port directX over and they have a whole environment. Also they would need to change the layout from the standard devices to something a little more gaming friendly.
-kaplanfx
Thats no true, a driver alone can do nothing. Take for instance a video driver, its job is not to control the i/o directly, its merely and interface between the hardware and the thing that is actually controlling the i/o, which is the OS kernel. The reason you need different drivers for different cards is that each card speaks a different language so to speak and the OS can only talk in an out in one language. The drivers are merely translators between the hardware and the OS.
-kaplanfx
heh that should read operating system, not operation system (I should use the preview button)...
A browser is in no way an OS. An operation system by most accounts that I have heard is the program that handles devices, files & filesystem, processes(process manager), and I/O(input/output). What you are talking about is a thin-client system, where a client is connected to a remote server, but in this case there is still and need for I/O, so there at least must be some type of os locally in addition to the browser, which would be in the application layer.
-kaplanfx
IIRC from the disections I have seen, the mini only has 1 slot for ram, so you'll need to snag an 1G stick and then you'll need to remove the 256M stick thats already in there. That is a good deal thought.
-kaplanfx
The average user doesn't realize that linux is just a kernel and most of those don't even know what a kernel is even if you were to tell them. The actual system is GNU/Linux becuase the kernel is kinda useless without the application layer. This is a problem with GNU/Linux in my opinion, most users just want stuff to work they don't want to have to learn a whole new language and philosophy just to understand the basics of the system they are using.
-kaplanfx
Can't speak for my anus, but your anus is certainly a gas giant.
Professor: "We got tired of that joke. They changed the name of that planet 500 years ago"
Fry: "Whats it called now?"
Professor: "Urectum"
-kaplanfx
I think you mean mildly irrate 8+ mins from now, you are forgetting that mars is far away and if the rover stops something, there is a minimum of about 20mins before it can actually react to something it saw.
-kaplanfx
And as you mention there is an S-Video dongle that adapts everyone else (not sure why a dongle is that bad, essentially a small adaptor at the end of the cable).
I wasn't saying that a dongle is bad per-se, I only mention the fact that it doesn't appear to be included for the $500 so that is an additional cost if you want a decent situation for TV out from the box.
I also forgot to mention in my post that neither 40GB or the 80GB in the upgraded model are really sufficient for a HTPC or MythTV box and there is no word yet on upgradeability but that would of course be another cost to add in. I wasn't aware of the quantity of usb2 and firewire capture devices avialable until I looked after my original post but most I saw didn't seem to have mature or any drivers for the Mac although there are certainly a few possibilites out there. I guess the point is really that altough you *could* make this box into a MythTV type box, its really not all that practical and would probably be a better idea in most cases to simply build a system on your own. Once again I think this is a nice product and should sell well but I'm not quite sure its suited for and HTPC system, there seem to be much better options out there.
-kaplanfx
I hate to burst your bubble but anyone excited that this will bring "MythTV" boxes to the mainstream will be sorely dissapointed when the realize there is no video capture card nor are there any upgrade slots avialable to place a capture card in. I agree that in principle this would be just about the kind of box you want but unfortunately the hardware just isn't there (256MB RAM, no Capture Card, needs a dongle for s-video out, no DVD burner which is nice to have on a video storage box). Anyhow I do think its a neat box for all of us out there who would like a mac on their desk as an additional machine but don't want to pay through the teeth for one. That said I don't understand why people are complaining that they are offering a cheap mac option. Are they taking away your nice expensive mac or PC in order to do so?
-kaplanfx
You are just giving support to all the linux zealots out there. So what you are saying is that its worse to have a kernel exploit, than to have an os which can be crashed and seriously exploited from userland programs? I don't think so, linux tends to be pretty good at prevent user space programs from accessing or exploiting the kernel and thus crashing the system, windows has serious problems with this... like why are the web browser and user interface directly tied into the kernel.
-kaplanfx
I don't think there is any way to sue individual users on a tracker for the reason that they are taking/hosting only a single file. This is like the mpaa or riaa going after someone who swipes a cd off the shelf at a music store and then makes 10 or 15 copies for his friends, what are they going to sue for $100? the legal fees will be far greater and the user base much to large for them to deter any users.
-kaplanfx
heh yeah, 800ghz would rock, but I did mean 800mhz.
Even if I were to conceed that the speeds are the same with ubuntu and windows XP, you are still forgetting that fact that windows costs $250 more than ubuntu retail. If I could get compareable speed for a savings of $250 I would probably take that bargin.
-kaplanfx
I got a via 800ghz engineering sample (I had a buddy that worked for via) its running in an old shuttle sv24. Yes the thing is slow, but it was my first linux box and I liked it. Trust me, most people shopping at walmart and buying $450 PC's will probably think its damn fast.
-kaplanfx
Also, why get your users hooked on an office suite that also runs on free os's. The way I see it, most people use their computer for web, email, office apps, and messenging, (and these days to a greater extend music and video). Safari uses khtml, there are plenty of good apps for email on free *nixes, as well as messenging apps. The one big deal breaker is most people do not believe free*nix has a stable office suite, once you give the users that there is little reason to continue to pay a hardware premium and an os premium (I do like mac myself, but the average user could care less about powerpc vs x86 hardware). thats just my $.02
-kaplanfx
I think you are forgetting that MS owns a portion of Apple. I guess this doesn't mean that you have MS products on or as part of you mac, but you are certainly "Sleeping with the enemy" so to speak. Anyhow mac does rock, enjoy on (also NeoOffice/J is cool I saw it for the first time the other day).
-kaplanfx
How is KDE a windows clone, other than the obvious interface similarities the underlying system (kpart, dcop, applications) are completely different than a windows implementation. And I might add, KDE is OSS, windows is not. There are many, many differences.
-kaplanfx
Were they africanized bees?
-kaplanfx
Yes, but we are talking about wifi usage here, so I'm going to assume the grandparent was talking about a multiplayer quest, it which case one user running out of battery could be catastrophic to a whole guild of nerds on a never ending quest to save their "girlfriends". Of course most nerds probably don't have the problem (the girlfriend, they still have the battery life problems).
-kaplanfx
Debian has major releases? There hasn't been one since I've been using it and thats a couple of years at least.
-kaplanfx
According to the scripture didn't man appear on earth within the first 7 days?
-kaplanfx
Very well said, esp. about the sex ed programs. When the majority of sex ed programs are tainted by religious beliefs, it is unfair for those of other religions or no religion at all to get correct information. The idea that preventing sex education would prevent sexual contact is crazy, I would venture to say that the more education we provide, the better decisions the young people will make.
-kaplanfx
I seem to remember the entire creation of the religion was based on the fact that the kingdom of god was coming "soon" so there was no reason for jesus to write his teachings. IIRC it hasn't happened yet, its a few thousand years overdue.
-kaplanfx
P.S. I could go on and on but I prefer not to be called a left-wing wacko, when I am the one who is actually conservative.