Smarter than Windows Users ? Probably... yes, but Smarter than PC users I thought the Mac was a "Personal Computer"... Lets face it.. as OSX fans will enevitably say MacOSX "It just Works" where as to use linux you need to be a "Ubergeek" etc.
I prefer to think that if you are smart enough not to be a Microsoft following Sheep, and make a concious decision to avoid windows, then you know for sure that there is a difference between "PC" and "Windows".. One is a piece of hardware and one is a piece of software. PC is not Ubiquitous with windows.
Linux users generally smarter than windows users? Most probably.
Mac users smarter than Windows users ? Smart enough not to line billy boy's pockets maybe. But i've come across Mac users that think that PC is synonymous with Windows, and I find that infuritating. OSX has certainly made Mac's more exciting to geeks, but before OSX came out Windows may well have been easier to get beneath the hood.
Im sure this kind of stuff is commonplace in Universities. I myself knew people who had or could get root access on machines from where (anything goes) in fact we had a room of NeXT stations that were mysteriously taken offline after someone I knew ran the unix "crack" password cracking tool on them. Another friend of mine had similar experiences at his uni.
Generally speaking it must be very difficult to ensure a secure network at a uni. The sheer variety of different machines and operating systems, and the ad-hoc nature of the network will invariably leave gaps in the security.
However i'd like to hope that most students are just excersizing their enquisitive nature and doing little harm in the process, after all University is "yours" just as much as it is the people who run or own it. It is a seat of learning after all!
The prospect of active volcanoes is a surefire indicator that there are sources of heat. That means there could well be regions on mars with liquid water. Warmth + Water are definitely a good start when it comes to the possibility of life. Of course if there are no active volcanoes then whatever is creating and sustaining supplies of ammonia and methane is also very interesting. Either way whether ammonia is coming from volcanos or from a possible source of life both scenarios are good in terms of finding it.
Its a fallacy that Terrasoft dont have regular updates. Sure the distro's maybe dont have quite the same release cycle as x86 counterparts but There are always apt-get's and rpm's available regularly. YDL is updated regularly even if the distros come out less often, but they are usually very stable and mature.
I was referring to a binary distribution, btw... Most Distro's both PPC and x86 come in binary form; source code is usually supplied on a different CD. Im not entirely sure what point you are making in your final comment. But to reiterate my comment in a different a way.
The main point of compiling from source ala gentoo (as i do on my athlon dualie) in most cases is to benefit for the kinds of performance tweaks that are specific to a certain type of architecture. (Different optimisations for Intel, AMD and so forth) PPC however generally speaking is made by one manufacturer and in most cases on similar motherboards made by Apple. Point being, that a Binary distro ala Yellow Dog can be optimised to a higher degree than a typical generic x86 one; Id also trust Terrasoft who have been doing linux for PPC longer than most to have a much better idea about making a stable, optimised distro than a vendor that typically concentrates on x86 arch.
Of course if you insist on having bleeding edge then that is another case then gentoo is the way to go but hey Gentoo isnt really bleeding edge..just yet.... (last time i did an rsync KDE 3.3 Beta wasnt in the tree).
It sound more like to me that you have never tried Yellow Dog, and are basing your comments on something that you have read somewhere or been told by someone. I'd suggest giving it a go because you will probably bite your lip and be surprised;)
Let's be honest, Linux on PPC runs like shit. have you tried any other distro's than Gentoo? While I have not tried Gentoo on PPC (dont hugely see the point ; unlike x86 ; PPC/Mac architectures are a lot less varied and therefore easier to more tightly optimise for a binary distro) In my experience Yellow dog on a blue G3 runs extremely speedy. Much faster than its native MacOS.
Bill Gates can basically say what he likes, what he says goes, after all with his control over the hardware and software industry if he decides to obsolete DVD in his operating system well thats his decision. Windows users will continue to follow whatever he dictates like sheep as they always have. Im sure the DRM people and MPAA/RIAA folks would welcome another media format to flog us. In addition DRM is perhaps another reason why DVD may become obsolete; everyone will rip them to *chosen drm free format*
Yellow Dog!,
although the distributions do not seem to be updated that often. There are always updates available via apt-get and rpm.
I dont see a huge point in going for a source distro unless you have something really new like a G5; Yellow dog is pretty well optimised for the more standardised (than pc) Mac/PPC architecture. In my experience it feel's rock-solid, fast and seems very stable than most x86 distro's i have tried. Terrasoft have also been doing PPC distro's for much longer than most vendors and as such I wouldnt dismiss it too quickly.
Once again, a misleading and sensationalist article on slashdot. Microsoft have no plans to make windows "compatible" with linux in the general sense of the word. Nope, they are just planning to include SFU (Services for unix) which has been available free for some time. SFU is literally just that; adds support for linus/unix services enabling *nix style printer queues and general network interoperability tools. It does not for example allow you to run KDE or GIMP or anything fancy like that. It is preposterous to even suggest like these so called "Industry Analysts" are that this is a move my microsoft to enable Linux software to run on windows, and that it is planning on becoming the worlds biggest unix software provider. For the very word "Linux" to be associated with "Windows" is enough to make Bill Gates turn in his grave (if he was dead that is!)
Jeez! its such a flawed logic. Think about it, closed source software is virtual suicide when you have players like Microsoft in todays market. If you have a good idea you will either be ripped off by Microsoft, Bought by Microsoft; Or just die of natural causes leaving your customers without any line of support or future in the software. Open source however ensures longevity; extensibility and this increases availability of source and so forth.
Open source also creates a need for skilled workers and in addition a wondrous array of tools and applications both to use and examine(source code anyone?). Its a lot easier for anyone to get the tools and learn how to use them than to do the same with closed source.
Closed source however reduces choice, makes development less accessible, and makes it more expensive to set-up shop.
It is complete and utter fud. How many jobs have been created through Open Source? All those ISP's running Apache services they are running well over half the Web (netcraft link anyone?) Then what about IBM, Red-Hat, Apple, Sony, Motorola, Sharp the list goes on and there are whole service industries based around open source. Its not just about the programmers, but the Hardware, the Software, the Support, Technicians all the way up and down the chain!
People will continue to say Linux is not ready for the desktop. But really I've heard that said just as many times as I've heard people repeat "It Just Works"... And its getting to the stage where it is said in parrot fashion by people who havent tried a well-put-together linux desktop.
Sooner or later that phrase is going to go out of fashion. From my own personal point of view, everyone can see, that Linux is growing and gaining momentum. With every release "It just gets better"(lets repeat that parrot fashion instead!) My retired parents have taken to mandrake 10 like a duck to water without any problems. I run a fresh build of gentoo, and despite the initial installation; I visit the command line considerably less than I did 5years ago when I first switched. Lots of people have similar stories. No matter what side of the fence you sit on pretty soon the definite question is not going to be "Is it ready for the desktop" is no-longer going to be asked. So we'd better start thinking about what the next big question for linux is going to be.
That most; if not all DVD playing software on any platform ; from any company; closed or open source. Insists on making their gui's look like the front of a set-top dvd player?Do they not always look ugly and out of place? No single dvd playing software seems to spend enough time on getting the gui right. I know stuff like Xine and MPlayer are skinnable (and others probably) but invariably they default to a nasty rendition of the front of a dvd player. Id like to see more time spent on a cleaner, simpler interface with buttons that are simple to understand. For example; take a look at the powerdvd screenshot. WTF are all those icons for ?
My guess is that OSX has redefined the Mac in many ways and opened up new avenues that simply werent viable before. I see Apple growing; and if they dont; open source will keep them alive.
Well, I suppose if they are going to make it illegal to create peer to peer software for the purpose of transferring files then I guess than means, no more web browsers, ftp clients. No more distributed computing (seti/ anti-cancer/ whatever) clients. Basically anything that allows a piece of data to move from one computer to another (tcp/ip, is clearly the root of all evil since it provides the basic framework for p2p to happen). Obviously it is a completely absurd idea and will never work. I dont know why we are worrying so much.
it's secure and it can run on any Windows-ready machine.
and
Unfortunately, to install any of these versions without wiping out most Windows installations, you'll need to buy a third-party program to partition your hard drive
At first I thought that this was an impressive feat, I dont think anyone has successfully successfully transplanted a whole eyeball before and had the patient seeing. Having read the article, it seems that the boy has simply had a cornea transplant; Not exactly a groundbreaking medical acheivement these days (well, at least not in the west). I suppose the politcal statement is fairly important in terms of pakistan / india relations.
In other words it just takes one unscrupulous reviewer with a disc and a machine; to duplicate the film using the audio and video out connectors. Great for the companies that are heralding this technology; but in practice it is going to do little to curtail piracy; lets face it most of the decent pre-release films on the net have come from someone inside the business;
Slashdot Mirror
Smarter than Windows Users ? Probably ... yes, but Smarter than PC users I thought the Mac was a "Personal Computer"... Lets face it.. as OSX fans will enevitably say MacOSX "It just Works" where as to use linux you need to be a "Ubergeek" etc.
;)
I prefer to think that if you are smart enough not to be a Microsoft following Sheep, and make a concious decision to avoid windows, then you know for sure that there is a difference between "PC" and "Windows".. One is a piece of hardware and one is a piece of software. PC is not Ubiquitous with windows.
Linux users generally smarter than windows users? Most probably.
Mac users smarter than Windows users ?
Smart enough not to line billy boy's pockets maybe. But i've come across Mac users that think that PC is synonymous with Windows, and I find that infuritating. OSX has certainly made Mac's more exciting to geeks, but before OSX came out Windows may well have been easier to get beneath the hood.
How about I throw this into the mix
Are Gentoo users smarter than Linspire users ?
Nick..
Im sure this kind of stuff is commonplace in Universities. I myself knew people who had or could get root access on machines from where (anything goes) in fact we had a room of NeXT stations that were mysteriously taken offline after someone I knew ran the unix "crack" password cracking tool on them. Another friend of mine had similar experiences at his uni.
Generally speaking it must be very difficult to ensure a secure network at a uni. The sheer variety of different machines and operating systems, and the ad-hoc nature of the network will invariably leave gaps in the security.
However i'd like to hope that most students are just excersizing their enquisitive nature and doing little harm in the process, after all University is "yours" just as much as it is the people who run or own it. It is a seat of learning after all!
nick
The prospect of active volcanoes is a surefire indicator that there are sources of heat. That means there could well be regions on mars with liquid water. Warmth + Water are definitely a good start when it comes to the possibility of life. Of course if there are no active volcanoes then whatever is creating and sustaining supplies of ammonia and methane is also very interesting. Either way whether ammonia is coming from volcanos or from a possible source of life both scenarios are good in terms of finding it.
I read somewhere a while back, that Sun were going to open source java
...
going to open source java
Or was that before Microsoft and Sun slept together?
Nick
Would be that today a v1.0 firefox release.
no idea on that one i'm afraid.
...
Nick
Its a fallacy that Terrasoft dont have regular updates. Sure the distro's maybe dont have quite the same release cycle as x86 counterparts but There are always apt-get's and rpm's available regularly. YDL is updated regularly even if the distros come out less often, but they are usually very stable and mature.
... Most Distro's both PPC and x86 come in binary form; source code is usually supplied on a different CD. Im not entirely sure what point you are making in your final comment. But to reiterate my comment in a different a way.
..just yet .... (last time i did an rsync KDE 3.3 Beta wasnt in the tree).
;)
...
I was referring to a binary distribution, btw
The main point of compiling from source ala gentoo (as i do on my athlon dualie) in most cases is to benefit for the kinds of performance tweaks that are specific to a certain type of architecture. (Different optimisations for Intel, AMD and so forth) PPC however generally speaking is made by one manufacturer and in most cases on similar motherboards made by Apple. Point being, that a Binary distro ala Yellow Dog can be optimised to a higher degree than a typical generic x86 one; Id also trust Terrasoft who have been doing linux for PPC longer than most to have a much better idea about making a stable, optimised distro than a vendor that typically concentrates on x86 arch.
Of course if you insist on having bleeding edge then that is another case then gentoo is the way to go but hey Gentoo isnt really bleeding edge
It sound more like to me that you have never tried Yellow Dog, and are basing your comments on something that you have read somewhere or been told by someone. I'd suggest giving it a go because you will probably bite your lip and be surprised
Nick
Are you trolling ?
Let's be honest, Linux on PPC runs like shit. have you tried any other distro's than Gentoo? While I have not tried Gentoo on PPC (dont hugely see the point ; unlike x86 ; PPC/Mac architectures are a lot less varied and therefore easier to more tightly optimise for a binary distro) In my experience Yellow dog on a blue G3 runs extremely speedy. Much faster than its native MacOS.
Bill Gates can basically say what he likes, what he says goes, after all with his control over the hardware and software industry if he decides to obsolete DVD in his operating system well thats his decision. Windows users will continue to follow whatever he dictates like sheep as they always have. Im sure the DRM people and MPAA/RIAA folks would welcome another media format to flog us. In addition DRM is perhaps another reason why DVD may become obsolete; everyone will rip them to *chosen drm free format*
Yellow Dog!,
although the distributions do not seem to be updated that often. There are always updates available via apt-get and rpm.
I dont see a huge point in going for a source distro unless you have something really new like a G5; Yellow dog is pretty well optimised for the more standardised (than pc) Mac/PPC architecture. In my experience it feel's rock-solid, fast and seems very stable than most x86 distro's i have tried. Terrasoft have also been doing PPC distro's for much longer than most vendors and as such I wouldnt dismiss it too quickly.
Resident Evil games have voice work so bad they offer up unintentional B-grade-movie-style chuckles
I'd call that authentic, what is Resident Evil if not the videogame incarnation of the classic b-movie theme Zombies
You can hardly complain about the acting in a game/movie of that genre!
Howabout flashing with a new bios ?
...
http://www.linuxbios.org/
That might be a fun thing to do
Nick...
Once again, a misleading and sensationalist article on slashdot. Microsoft have no plans to make windows "compatible" with linux in the general sense of the word. Nope, they are just planning to include SFU (Services for unix) which has been available free for some time. SFU is literally just that; adds support for linus/unix services enabling *nix style printer queues and general network interoperability tools. It does not for example allow you to run KDE or GIMP or anything fancy like that. It is preposterous to even suggest like these so called "Industry Analysts" are that this is a move my microsoft to enable Linux software to run on windows, and that it is planning on becoming the worlds biggest unix software provider. For the very word "Linux" to be associated with "Windows" is enough to make Bill Gates turn in his grave (if he was dead that is!)
...
nick
Jeez! its such a flawed logic. Think about it, closed source software is virtual suicide when you have players like Microsoft in todays market. If you have a good idea you will either be ripped off by Microsoft, Bought by Microsoft; Or just die of natural causes leaving your customers without any line of support or future in the software. Open source however ensures longevity; extensibility and this increases availability of source and so forth.
Open source also creates a need for skilled workers and in addition a wondrous array of tools and applications both to use and examine(source code anyone?). Its a lot easier for anyone to get the tools and learn how to use them than to do the same with closed source.
Closed source however reduces choice, makes development less accessible, and makes it more expensive to set-up shop.
It is complete and utter fud. How many jobs have been created through Open Source? All those ISP's running Apache services they are running well over half the Web (netcraft link anyone?) Then what about IBM, Red-Hat, Apple, Sony, Motorola, Sharp the list goes on and there are whole service industries based around open source. Its not just about the programmers, but the Hardware, the Software, the Support, Technicians all the way up and down the chain!
Its crap Bill and you know it!
People will continue to say Linux is not ready for the desktop. But really I've heard that said just as many times as I've heard people repeat "It Just Works"... And its getting to the stage where it is said in parrot fashion by people who havent tried a well-put-together linux desktop.
Sooner or later that phrase is going to go out of fashion. From my own personal point of view, everyone can see, that Linux is growing and gaining momentum. With every release "It just gets better"(lets repeat that parrot fashion instead!) My retired parents have taken to mandrake 10 like a duck to water without any problems. I run a fresh build of gentoo, and despite the initial installation; I visit the command line considerably less than I did 5years ago when I first switched. Lots of people have similar stories. No matter what side of the fence you sit on pretty soon the definite question is not going to be "Is it ready for the desktop" is no-longer going to be asked. So we'd better start thinking about what the next big question for linux is going to be.
I tend to use the email anon@anon.com.
...
nick
That most; if not all DVD playing software on any platform ; from any company; closed or open source. Insists on making their gui's look like the front of a set-top dvd player?Do they not always look ugly and out of place? No single dvd playing software seems to spend enough time on getting the gui right. I know stuff like Xine and MPlayer are skinnable (and others probably) but invariably they default to a nasty rendition of the front of a dvd player. Id like to see more time spent on a cleaner, simpler interface with buttons that are simple to understand. For example; take a look at the powerdvd screenshot. WTF are all those icons for ?
Nick...
What ... Microsoft stealing ideas from other people ? Never .. Next thing we know IE will come with tabbed browsing ...
Well, looks like New Zealand will be invaded next as they clearly have an active program for the development of Weapons Of Mass Destruction.
Ask yourself this question...
Where would Apple be now if it wasnt for OSX?
My guess is that OSX has redefined the Mac in many ways and opened up new avenues that simply werent viable before. I see Apple growing; and if they dont; open source will keep them alive.
Well, I suppose if they are going to make it illegal to create peer to peer software for the purpose of transferring files then I guess than means, no more web browsers, ftp clients. No more distributed computing (seti/ anti-cancer/ whatever) clients. Basically anything that allows a piece of data to move from one computer to another (tcp/ip, is clearly the root of all evil since it provides the basic framework for p2p to happen). Obviously it is a completely absurd idea and will never work. I dont know why we are worrying so much.
Great.. Now Microsoft can legitimately say that Open Source enthusiasts write viruses and therefore Open Source is evil ...
Especially when he makes comments like ...
it's secure and it can run on any Windows-ready machine.
and
Unfortunately, to install any of these versions without wiping out most Windows installations, you'll need to buy a third-party program to partition your hard drive
Nick...
At first I thought that this was an impressive feat, I dont think anyone has successfully successfully transplanted a whole eyeball before and had the patient seeing. Having read the article, it seems that the boy has simply had a cornea transplant; Not exactly a groundbreaking medical acheivement these days (well, at least not in the west).
...
I suppose the politcal statement is fairly important in terms of pakistan / india relations.
nick
"the discs, by themselves, cannot be hacked"
In other words it just takes one unscrupulous reviewer with a disc and a machine; to duplicate the film using the audio and video out connectors. Great for the companies that are heralding this technology; but in practice it is going to do little to curtail piracy; lets face it most of the decent pre-release films on the net have come from someone inside the business;