I think some eBook DRM places a watermark into the eBook with your personal info so they can track it down to you if you spread it over a filesharing network, etc. It won't prevent it from being copied from machine to machine. I think that is a better way of preventing piracy than copy protection.
Still a lot of people use piracy as a "try before you buy" way of demoing software or media before buying it, or using the pirated version because it lacks the copy protection, etc.
"There is nothing in Windows that is superior to Linux, except for the automation of the user interface. It is the single most unstable, unreliable, maintenance-consuming OS available today, bar none."
Yet it runs 90% of the software on the market, has 85% marketshare, Windows Update runs great, and has been adopted by more people and companies than the rest of them.
"Linux takes second place on that podium, unfortunately. The closer it gets to mainstream, the less it has to accomplish, other than being "better than Windows." As a minimum, it does this well for most things."
Linux does not take second place, Mac OSX does, followed by AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, and others.
"OSX, BSD, VMS, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, D/UX, IRIX, they're all better. Unfortunately, Linux is pandering to the lowest common denominator, plus 10%."
Nope Windows is pandering to the lowest common denominator, the average person and the average business, none of the rest of those appeal to the average person or business but only niche-markets. OSX for example is the artist or creative content market, VMS is the research and scientific market, the other Unixes are the engineering and research markets. Linux is more of a server market for web servers, file servers, most everything in Linux (an Unix) was designed as a server and not a workstation. While true, it can be used as a workstation, it is often marketed as a server.
I have broken libraries in Linux but my hardware passes all diagnostic tests. The hardware is not broken, the software is broken. Usually a reformat fixes it then the problem goes away.
It happens after Up2Date, apt-get, yum, synaptic, cnr or whatever updater runs into a library conflict or installs something that creates a conflict and I don't notice it until stuff stops working. Then even the restore function of the CD cannot fix it, and I am forced to reformat it.
no matter what distro you use. You are at the mercy of repositories maintained by people who are not controlled by those who created the distro. I had the same issues with Unbuntu, Mandriva, Linspire, Debian, and others. The reason why I chose Red Hat Fedora is because Red Hat's support is a whole hell of a lot better than the other distros and they can help me out when issues like that happen.
I find it funny that many here on Slashdot claim that Linux libraries do not get corrupt, and here exists a story showing how they get corrupt. In this case it happened with the Red Hat Up2Date software. I had the same issues happen to me with apt-get, yam, yamex, synaptic, and even cnr. Then the instructions you have to follow and commands you have to use to fix the library corruption are very complicated and can mess up your system worse if you do them wrong. In my experience I have found more issues of Linux library corruption than Windows library corruption simply due to the fact that Windows Update is a much more superior technology for updating an OS than Linux has yet to offer. Sure Windows libraries do get corrupt from time to time, but I've gotten into the habit of reformatting my system at least every year after backing up data for both my Windows and Linux boxes and then installing from scratch. Sometimes every three or six months instead of a year.
But please, do stay in denial of Linux library corruption as well as spread more FUD about Windows library corruption, I could use the good laughs over it.
The person with half the picture is you, because I seem to know things you don't and I have over 20 years of experience that you don't either. You ended the debate, because you know you are spouting off bullshit and I uncovered what a real n00b you are.
Yes Linux does have a restore option on some distros, provided you know the commands to use it, Windows restore is not that complicated and either uses Ghost or Partition Magic to copy a fresh install to the hard drive with minimal interaction from the user. I have used Linux restore before, and I know how complicated it can be. Thank you for playing, but when you use obvious lies and distort reality you are really only scoring own goals.
Remember easy to use and install and configure, without the need for an expert to help out. If Linux is as easy to use and install and configure how come you have to charge money to do those things for people, logically if Linux was easy to use install and configure there would be no need to hire you to do work for them, as they simply could do it themselves. You have completely proven my case, and shown what a complete and total liar you are by the fact that you are paid to install and configure Linux.
Now you are denying that Linus and the GNOME developers had an argument over source code and features. Did you used to work as the minister of propaganda for Iraq or something? Do you often dismiss or refuse to admit to things that are true and well documented?
Actually Vista has a Classic Windows mode like OSX has a Carbon mode for Classic Macintosh, it does the whole WIN32 API. Any application that does not work just needs the API interface changed to work with Vista.
Just like when applications that would not work under OSX got patches released to make them work, so will Windows programs get that Vista patch to make them work under Vista.
I am using Vista and Firefox, Thunderbird, and Seamonkey all work, but Mozilla did not bother to test them to pass the Vista certification.
While there are a lot of commercial games that won't work under Vista due to draconian security protection preventing them, one can apply unprotect patches to bypass that draconian security protection from Game Copy World or whatever with the NOCD crack. Future commercial games will support DirectX 10, and only Vista uses DirectX 10, which means future games will shut out the Windows XP and lower markets because they cannot do DirectX 10. Civilization IV might have issues, for example, but Civilization V might not and only run under Vista.
Just like everyone moved to OSX and shut out the Classic Mac OS 9 and under crowd, so too will everyone move to Vista and shut out the XP and under crowd.
Yet I got a feeling that a lot of F/OSS projects will still support XP and under, despite the commercial software companies that have contracts with Microsoft to only make Vista versions.
I can see you don't know the difference between MS-BASIC and ABasiC.
ABasiC was the original BASIC for the first series of Amiga systems, it was not written by Microsoft, and it was written to be easier to program on and to use objects and graphics a lot better and interface with AmigaDOS, it was known as Commodore Amiga BASIC. The problem was that ABasiC could not run Microsoft BASIC source code, and a lot of programs were written for Microsoft BASIC. Microsoft made Microsoft Macintosh BASIC for the Macintosh, so Commodore had Microsoft write Microsoft Amiga BASIC for the Amiga and replaced ABasiC with it, sacrificing ease of use for compatibility. Like the C64 version of Microsoft BASIC, the Microsoft Amiga BASIC was very limited in what it could do because it was not as advanced as Simon's BASIC (on the C64) or ABasiC on the early AmigaDOS systems.
Actually before the BASIC written by Microsoft there was one called ABasiC in the first models of Amigas. The BASIC that replaced it was written by Microsoft to match the Macintosh version of BASIC also written by Microsoft. Commodore Amiga BASIC was ABasiC, and Microsoft Amiga BASIC was the version that Microsoft wrote. ABasiC was the Visual BASIC type language also known as Commodore Amiga BASIC, Commodore used it to create AmigaVision which existed before Powerpoint and did Multimedia presentations and demonstrations and also used a scripting language named A-REXX based on the IBM version of REXX. This was before Powerpoint and Visual BASIC for Applications were invented.
Sorry but BASIC goes all the way back to Dartmouth. Visual BASIC uses a lot of Dartmouth BASIC IP so Microsoft cannot own it all. Real BASIC and True BASIC have Visual BASIC like features, and so does XBASIC and other BASIC languages. In fact Commodore Amiga BASIC was a bit like Visual BASIC before Visual BASIC was developed.
Mono does not use any Microsoft source code, all it does is use the.Net Framework by writing its own version of it based on the open standards that Microsoft gave to interface with it. Microsoft makes the Visual BASIC.Net language well documented, and Mono BASIC uses the same syntax and keywords as the Microsoft version so it can compile. Free Pascal did this with Turbo Pascal and Delphi to compile Pascal from those compilers in the same way.
Visual BASIC for GNU/Linux is a good thing, it means more applications for GNU/Linux and Corporations no longer have the excuse "Linux does not have Visual BASIC so we won't adopt it or develop for it" any more.
I made a living developing Visual BASIC for over a deacade, so I know how valuable it is to corporations.
I ordered a laptop from Circuit City, a Compaq dealer. I was told it was Linux compatible but shipped with XP pre-installed, but that I was free to install Linux on it if I wanted to.
I installed Linux only to find that the modem and wireless adapters had no driver support for Linux, so I searched the Compaq web site for them, they did not have them for my model. When I called their help desk, I was told something different than the salesperson told me, Linux is not supported for my model and that installing Linux voids my warranty and they do not have Linux drivers.
If Dell offers pre-installed Linux with restore CD/DVDs, and full driver support for the hardware on the laptop, my next laptop could be a Dell. From my experience Linux laptop support is horrible when it comes to driver support, and it has really upset me. Not only does Dell need pre-installed Linux but also Linux drivers we can download from their web site should we choose a different distro than the one Dell supports.
Global warming is a political theory, not a scientific one. Almost all of the global warming experts are politicians pretending to be scientists like Al Gore. A lot of these global warming articles are fabricated to promote the political movements behind global warming. Notice that the so called "scientific" evidence for global warming only shows a 1 degree rise in temperature over 100 years but does not show a margin of error like most statistical calculations, proving that it is not a scientifically sound test, but more of a political test. When it is peer reviewed it is found that the data does not fit a bell curve so the z-score should not have been used, and the t-score should have been used instead, and under the t-score the hypothesis fails. All of these things a person with a real scientific degree (such as myself, bachelors of science and a 3.91 GPA) can easily detect in the so called evidence presented.
Glaciers have always moved, it is due to El Nino, and not global warming. Glaciers had moved before humans learned how to pollute due to storms like El Nino causing weird weather patterns, which also fit Katrina and Camile hurricanes.
Carbon pollution is still a serious matter anyway, because we should be good stewards of the Earth, and also he need to find alternative energy to ween ourselves off of foreign oil so we don't need to deal with governments who support terrorism any more.
Windows systems have a restore CD or DVD that the user simply boots from, and it automatically uses software to reformat and reinstall the whole installation and makes it a no-brainer. But then you didn't know that because you are in denial.
Upgrading from one Linux distro to another requires booting from a CD or DVD and learning how partitions work and selecting options and other things that are not as easy to use as a restore CD or DVD.
You are correct that most Windows systems are pre-installed, which are no-brainers anyway.
Most of the Vista upgrade issues are due to Vista requiring new hardware. New systems are as cheap as $300 with Vista pre-installed, and a $500 Vista desktop has that software bundle already installed on it.
Linux has malware as well just hope your Linux Buddies don't run things as root or enter the root password to try to install things.
Back on the subject, Linux Infighting, The Clash of the Egos, how can Linux compete when developers are starting civil wars and are not united as Windows developers are?
Discrimination means that this employee was treated differently than other employees.
Allow me to give you an example:
Employee A and Employee B both surf porn at work. There is a record of both of them surfing porn.
Employee A gets warned, but Employee B does not. Employee A is 58 and close to retirement and Employee B is 21.
Employee A and Employee B still surf porn at work. Employee A is fired, but Employee B is not.
Because Employee A was treated differently than Employee B for doing the same thing, it is a case of discrimination due to age.
Now if Employee A has a mental disorder and they can prove Internet Addiction not only is it age discrimination but it is also disability discrimination. So Employee A can win on either age or disability discrimination if Employee B does not have the same disability and/or is not over 40.
Actually Penn and Teller debunked Global Warming and show how it was politically motivated and not scientifically motivated. Pen and Teller expose a lot of people with political degrees and politicians posing as scientists that support global warming. No PHDs in Science at all and they consider themselves as scientists. Al Gore, for example, has an undergraduate degree in government and no master's or PHD in anything, yet claims to be a scientist and is the major force behind pushing global warming and is regarded as an expert and will be getting a Nobel Peace prize for his work. Even if his work is pseudo-science or "Junk Science" and he is not certified to do the work in the first place. Al Gore uses private jets to fly all over the world to promote global warming, and they spread more CO2 in the air than they should be spreading. As Vice-President Al Gore did nothing to try and stop global warming and reduce CO2 emissions despite him saying in 1992 that global warming and CO2 emissions are a serious threat. Just like Gore promised to fix healthcare, end poverty, fix social security, stop the export of jobs overseas, and other promises he made with Clinton to be elected. Al Gore has a long record of lying and making up false information as well as making empty promises.
I'd link to the video in Google, it was there a few weeks ago, but Google removed it because it disproved global warming, but kept the other Pen and Teller videos, and Youtube did the same thing for the video. Proving that global warming is a scam and they are trying to cover it up. I am sure that Showtime might be showing repeats of it on their channels.
Do they do their own upgrades? What do they do when their libraries get corrupt? Do they ask you to install tarballs and RPMs for them or are they able to do that themselves? I set people up with Linux as well, and then I have to fix corrupt libraries, install new programs for them, compile and make programs from source code, etc.
I'll bet you just configured their Linux for them, installed the programs they needed, ran updated and then left them unable to install programs or run updates and force them to just use the software you installed. Until they are able to do all of that by themselves, Linux is not as easy to use or install as Windows apparently is, until it is easy enough that the average person can do what you did for them, without needing a Linux expert to work for them.
Linspire is trying to make Linux easier to update, install, and repair programs and libraries with the Click N Run software for many Linux distros to add in that Windows Update type easy to use feature that Linux lacks.
this is the real reason why Windows has not been taken over by Linux yet. If a majority of the Linux developers decided to work together to make Linux easy enough to use for even Windows and Mac Users so Linux would be used more than Windows or Mac systems.
That and making sure that third parties develop Linux device drivers for the hardware that they make.
Will this most recent fight cause a fork in the source code of GNOME?
While we Linux users suffer from this sort of thing, Bill Gates laughs over it and starts to take a swim in his money vaults like Scrooge MacDuck, knowing that the competition won't be taking over Windows marketshare any time soon.
Wikipedia is suffering from The Peter Principle in which its employees, admins, and editors have grown incompetent in the hierarchy that is Wikipedia.
The Wikipedia effect happens because the article writers of Wikipedia articles automatically link web sites to articles that they wrote or contributed to, in order to boost the pagerank in Google. The more writers, the more people who link to the article in Google to boost pagerank. Then they state opinion as fact in the article and then link some more web sites to it even more. Before you know it, there is more opinion than fact in the Wikipedia article, but everyone links to it because hey it is Wikipedia and if it is in Wikipedia it must be true. Then more opinions are written in the article, and it is used as a reference in forums, blogs, CMS sites, and other things to support the opinions of others who agree with the opinions in the article. By that time almost all facts are replaced in the article with opinions and the Wikipedia article has the number one pagerank in Google. Opinions are acceptable in Wikipedia, as long as they are written in a neutral point of view and links are cited to web sites that state the same opinions on them as well. Usually the same Liberal Editorial message in some web newspaper with a Liberal bias, or a college professor's web site who holds the same opinions as the Wikipedia article, or the blog site disguised as a magazine or newspaper in order to force those opinions on everyone else as facts.
Before you know it, Wikipedia editors and writers suffer from The Peter Principle and grow incompetent and keep using their own opinions instead of facts, and at that point cannot tell the difference anymore, nor can the readers of the article know the difference either. But who cares, number one result in Google, so it must be true!
Yet isn't it odd that the number one page hit in Google is usually an article that has been link whored out with a lot of bogus links to it, planned to increase the page ranking until it hits number one like a Wikipedia article that is mostly opinions with few facts if any? I mean honestly I don't start hitting real facts until the first couple of pages of page scrolling in Google in order to avoid the opinions disguised as facts that have been link whored and take up the first couple or pages or so of results.
How about we create Mini-Stars and use them to collect energy they put out in order to take ourselves off of fossil fuels?
If you can create a Mini-Black Saturn, you have a stillborn star, which is what the real Saturn is, a gas giant that did not turn into a star for some reason.
This could be the ultimate weapon if you can make a Mini-Black Hole large enough to take out a city or something before the Hawking radiation causes it to shrink into almost nothingness.
like "Ok" anyway. If the default is to deny it, it will deny it, if the default is to allow it, it will allow it.
Norton Internet Security works the same way, when a program like BoDog Poker gets updated, Norton Firewall will ask the user "BoDog Poker was recently Updated? Do you want to block or allow it?" the combo box defaults to block, and then they just hit "Ok" and it blocks the program. Anyway then they call me to come in a unblock it for them so they can play BoDog poker again. Usually they just tell me something like their Internet doesn't work anymore. I check their system, and the Internet works fine, just not for their game. Then I check the Firewall settings and see that the game is blocked, and I unblock it. Something they don't know how to do by themselves.
Symantec is worried that Microsoft is giving Vista these built in security controls, but the Norton series of security programs had them before Vista did.
I doubt Apple would want their OS or Systems sold at Wal-Mart because Apple is very strict about not selling products below their suggested retail price.
Wal-Mart always tries to sell things below the suggested retail price in order to get business away from competition.
Those $300 Wal-Mart PCs will be running some version of Linux instead.
If someone wants to run OSX, they can always buy a $599 Mac Mini and use their old keyboard, mouse, and monitor with it. Some of the older G3 and G4 PowerMac and iMac systems sell for cheaper than that used, plus the cost of the OSX install disk to upgrade them to OSX.
I bought a used Blueberry iMac G3 system for under $100 including shipping. All it needs is a bigger hard drive and 256M of RAM to run OSX. But I am keeping it Mac OS9 for my son to use for his educational software that runs in the Classic Mac environment.
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I think some eBook DRM places a watermark into the eBook with your personal info so they can track it down to you if you spread it over a filesharing network, etc. It won't prevent it from being copied from machine to machine. I think that is a better way of preventing piracy than copy protection.
Still a lot of people use piracy as a "try before you buy" way of demoing software or media before buying it, or using the pirated version because it lacks the copy protection, etc.
"There is nothing in Windows that is superior to Linux, except for the automation of the user interface. It is the single most unstable, unreliable, maintenance-consuming OS available today, bar none."
Yet it runs 90% of the software on the market, has 85% marketshare, Windows Update runs great, and has been adopted by more people and companies than the rest of them.
"Linux takes second place on that podium, unfortunately. The closer it gets to mainstream, the less it has to accomplish, other than being "better than Windows." As a minimum, it does this well for most things."
Linux does not take second place, Mac OSX does, followed by AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, and others.
"OSX, BSD, VMS, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, D/UX, IRIX, they're all better. Unfortunately, Linux is pandering to the lowest common denominator, plus 10%."
Nope Windows is pandering to the lowest common denominator, the average person and the average business, none of the rest of those appeal to the average person or business but only niche-markets. OSX for example is the artist or creative content market, VMS is the research and scientific market, the other Unixes are the engineering and research markets. Linux is more of a server market for web servers, file servers, most everything in Linux (an Unix) was designed as a server and not a workstation. While true, it can be used as a workstation, it is often marketed as a server.
I have broken libraries in Linux but my hardware passes all diagnostic tests. The hardware is not broken, the software is broken. Usually a reformat fixes it then the problem goes away.
It happens after Up2Date, apt-get, yum, synaptic, cnr or whatever updater runs into a library conflict or installs something that creates a conflict and I don't notice it until stuff stops working. Then even the restore function of the CD cannot fix it, and I am forced to reformat it.
no matter what distro you use. You are at the mercy of repositories maintained by people who are not controlled by those who created the distro. I had the same issues with Unbuntu, Mandriva, Linspire, Debian, and others. The reason why I chose Red Hat Fedora is because Red Hat's support is a whole hell of a lot better than the other distros and they can help me out when issues like that happen.
I find it funny that many here on Slashdot claim that Linux libraries do not get corrupt, and here exists a story showing how they get corrupt. In this case it happened with the Red Hat Up2Date software. I had the same issues happen to me with apt-get, yam, yamex, synaptic, and even cnr. Then the instructions you have to follow and commands you have to use to fix the library corruption are very complicated and can mess up your system worse if you do them wrong. In my experience I have found more issues of Linux library corruption than Windows library corruption simply due to the fact that Windows Update is a much more superior technology for updating an OS than Linux has yet to offer. Sure Windows libraries do get corrupt from time to time, but I've gotten into the habit of reformatting my system at least every year after backing up data for both my Windows and Linux boxes and then installing from scratch. Sometimes every three or six months instead of a year.
But please, do stay in denial of Linux library corruption as well as spread more FUD about Windows library corruption, I could use the good laughs over it.
The person with half the picture is you, because I seem to know things you don't and I have over 20 years of experience that you don't either. You ended the debate, because you know you are spouting off bullshit and I uncovered what a real n00b you are.
Yes Linux does have a restore option on some distros, provided you know the commands to use it, Windows restore is not that complicated and either uses Ghost or Partition Magic to copy a fresh install to the hard drive with minimal interaction from the user. I have used Linux restore before, and I know how complicated it can be. Thank you for playing, but when you use obvious lies and distort reality you are really only scoring own goals.
Remember easy to use and install and configure, without the need for an expert to help out. If Linux is as easy to use and install and configure how come you have to charge money to do those things for people, logically if Linux was easy to use install and configure there would be no need to hire you to do work for them, as they simply could do it themselves. You have completely proven my case, and shown what a complete and total liar you are by the fact that you are paid to install and configure Linux.
Now you are denying that Linus and the GNOME developers had an argument over source code and features. Did you used to work as the minister of propaganda for Iraq or something? Do you often dismiss or refuse to admit to things that are true and well documented?
Actually Vista has a Classic Windows mode like OSX has a Carbon mode for Classic Macintosh, it does the whole WIN32 API. Any application that does not work just needs the API interface changed to work with Vista.
Just like when applications that would not work under OSX got patches released to make them work, so will Windows programs get that Vista patch to make them work under Vista.
I am using Vista and Firefox, Thunderbird, and Seamonkey all work, but Mozilla did not bother to test them to pass the Vista certification.
While there are a lot of commercial games that won't work under Vista due to draconian security protection preventing them, one can apply unprotect patches to bypass that draconian security protection from Game Copy World or whatever with the NOCD crack. Future commercial games will support DirectX 10, and only Vista uses DirectX 10, which means future games will shut out the Windows XP and lower markets because they cannot do DirectX 10. Civilization IV might have issues, for example, but Civilization V might not and only run under Vista.
Just like everyone moved to OSX and shut out the Classic Mac OS 9 and under crowd, so too will everyone move to Vista and shut out the XP and under crowd.
Yet I got a feeling that a lot of F/OSS projects will still support XP and under, despite the commercial software companies that have contracts with Microsoft to only make Vista versions.
I can see you don't know the difference between MS-BASIC and ABasiC.
ABasiC was the original BASIC for the first series of Amiga systems, it was not written by Microsoft, and it was written to be easier to program on and to use objects and graphics a lot better and interface with AmigaDOS, it was known as Commodore Amiga BASIC. The problem was that ABasiC could not run Microsoft BASIC source code, and a lot of programs were written for Microsoft BASIC. Microsoft made Microsoft Macintosh BASIC for the Macintosh, so Commodore had Microsoft write Microsoft Amiga BASIC for the Amiga and replaced ABasiC with it, sacrificing ease of use for compatibility. Like the C64 version of Microsoft BASIC, the Microsoft Amiga BASIC was very limited in what it could do because it was not as advanced as Simon's BASIC (on the C64) or ABasiC on the early AmigaDOS systems.
Actually before the BASIC written by Microsoft there was one called ABasiC in the first models of Amigas. The BASIC that replaced it was written by Microsoft to match the Macintosh version of BASIC also written by Microsoft. Commodore Amiga BASIC was ABasiC, and Microsoft Amiga BASIC was the version that Microsoft wrote. ABasiC was the Visual BASIC type language also known as Commodore Amiga BASIC, Commodore used it to create AmigaVision which existed before Powerpoint and did Multimedia presentations and demonstrations and also used a scripting language named A-REXX based on the IBM version of REXX. This was before Powerpoint and Visual BASIC for Applications were invented.
Sorry but BASIC goes all the way back to Dartmouth. Visual BASIC uses a lot of Dartmouth BASIC IP so Microsoft cannot own it all. Real BASIC and True BASIC have Visual BASIC like features, and so does XBASIC and other BASIC languages. In fact Commodore Amiga BASIC was a bit like Visual BASIC before Visual BASIC was developed.
.Net Framework by writing its own version of it based on the open standards that Microsoft gave to interface with it. Microsoft makes the Visual BASIC.Net language well documented, and Mono BASIC uses the same syntax and keywords as the Microsoft version so it can compile. Free Pascal did this with Turbo Pascal and Delphi to compile Pascal from those compilers in the same way.
Mono does not use any Microsoft source code, all it does is use the
Visual BASIC for GNU/Linux is a good thing, it means more applications for GNU/Linux and Corporations no longer have the excuse "Linux does not have Visual BASIC so we won't adopt it or develop for it" any more.
I made a living developing Visual BASIC for over a deacade, so I know how valuable it is to corporations.
Thanks, I'll check them out. When it is time to upgrade, I'll see which one of their systems is more likely to upgrade into.
I ordered a laptop from Circuit City, a Compaq dealer. I was told it was Linux compatible but shipped with XP pre-installed, but that I was free to install Linux on it if I wanted to.
I installed Linux only to find that the modem and wireless adapters had no driver support for Linux, so I searched the Compaq web site for them, they did not have them for my model. When I called their help desk, I was told something different than the salesperson told me, Linux is not supported for my model and that installing Linux voids my warranty and they do not have Linux drivers.
If Dell offers pre-installed Linux with restore CD/DVDs, and full driver support for the hardware on the laptop, my next laptop could be a Dell. From my experience Linux laptop support is horrible when it comes to driver support, and it has really upset me. Not only does Dell need pre-installed Linux but also Linux drivers we can download from their web site should we choose a different distro than the one Dell supports.
Global warming is a political theory, not a scientific one. Almost all of the global warming experts are politicians pretending to be scientists like Al Gore. A lot of these global warming articles are fabricated to promote the political movements behind global warming. Notice that the so called "scientific" evidence for global warming only shows a 1 degree rise in temperature over 100 years but does not show a margin of error like most statistical calculations, proving that it is not a scientifically sound test, but more of a political test. When it is peer reviewed it is found that the data does not fit a bell curve so the z-score should not have been used, and the t-score should have been used instead, and under the t-score the hypothesis fails. All of these things a person with a real scientific degree (such as myself, bachelors of science and a 3.91 GPA) can easily detect in the so called evidence presented.
Glaciers have always moved, it is due to El Nino, and not global warming. Glaciers had moved before humans learned how to pollute due to storms like El Nino causing weird weather patterns, which also fit Katrina and Camile hurricanes.
Carbon pollution is still a serious matter anyway, because we should be good stewards of the Earth, and also he need to find alternative energy to ween ourselves off of foreign oil so we don't need to deal with governments who support terrorism any more.
Windows systems have a restore CD or DVD that the user simply boots from, and it automatically uses software to reformat and reinstall the whole installation and makes it a no-brainer. But then you didn't know that because you are in denial.
Upgrading from one Linux distro to another requires booting from a CD or DVD and learning how partitions work and selecting options and other things that are not as easy to use as a restore CD or DVD.
You are correct that most Windows systems are pre-installed, which are no-brainers anyway.
Most of the Vista upgrade issues are due to Vista requiring new hardware. New systems are as cheap as $300 with Vista pre-installed, and a $500 Vista desktop has that software bundle already installed on it.
Linux has malware as well just hope your Linux Buddies don't run things as root or enter the root password to try to install things.
Back on the subject, Linux Infighting, The Clash of the Egos, how can Linux compete when developers are starting civil wars and are not united as Windows developers are?
Discrimination means that this employee was treated differently than other employees.
Allow me to give you an example:
Employee A and Employee B both surf porn at work. There is a record of both of them surfing porn.
Employee A gets warned, but Employee B does not. Employee A is 58 and close to retirement and Employee B is 21.
Employee A and Employee B still surf porn at work. Employee A is fired, but Employee B is not.
Because Employee A was treated differently than Employee B for doing the same thing, it is a case of discrimination due to age.
Now if Employee A has a mental disorder and they can prove Internet Addiction not only is it age discrimination but it is also disability discrimination. So Employee A can win on either age or disability discrimination if Employee B does not have the same disability and/or is not over 40.
How about both?
Wikipedia is full of bullshit.
Actually Penn and Teller debunked Global Warming and show how it was politically motivated and not scientifically motivated. Pen and Teller expose a lot of people with political degrees and politicians posing as scientists that support global warming. No PHDs in Science at all and they consider themselves as scientists. Al Gore, for example, has an undergraduate degree in government and no master's or PHD in anything, yet claims to be a scientist and is the major force behind pushing global warming and is regarded as an expert and will be getting a Nobel Peace prize for his work. Even if his work is pseudo-science or "Junk Science" and he is not certified to do the work in the first place. Al Gore uses private jets to fly all over the world to promote global warming, and they spread more CO2 in the air than they should be spreading. As Vice-President Al Gore did nothing to try and stop global warming and reduce CO2 emissions despite him saying in 1992 that global warming and CO2 emissions are a serious threat. Just like Gore promised to fix healthcare, end poverty, fix social security, stop the export of jobs overseas, and other promises he made with Clinton to be elected. Al Gore has a long record of lying and making up false information as well as making empty promises.
I'd link to the video in Google, it was there a few weeks ago, but Google removed it because it disproved global warming, but kept the other Pen and Teller videos, and Youtube did the same thing for the video. Proving that global warming is a scam and they are trying to cover it up. I am sure that Showtime might be showing repeats of it on their channels.
Do they do their own upgrades? What do they do when their libraries get corrupt? Do they ask you to install tarballs and RPMs for them or are they able to do that themselves? I set people up with Linux as well, and then I have to fix corrupt libraries, install new programs for them, compile and make programs from source code, etc.
I'll bet you just configured their Linux for them, installed the programs they needed, ran updated and then left them unable to install programs or run updates and force them to just use the software you installed. Until they are able to do all of that by themselves, Linux is not as easy to use or install as Windows apparently is, until it is easy enough that the average person can do what you did for them, without needing a Linux expert to work for them.
Linspire is trying to make Linux easier to update, install, and repair programs and libraries with the Click N Run software for many Linux distros to add in that Windows Update type easy to use feature that Linux lacks.
this is the real reason why Windows has not been taken over by Linux yet. If a majority of the Linux developers decided to work together to make Linux easy enough to use for even Windows and Mac Users so Linux would be used more than Windows or Mac systems.
That and making sure that third parties develop Linux device drivers for the hardware that they make.
Will this most recent fight cause a fork in the source code of GNOME?
While we Linux users suffer from this sort of thing, Bill Gates laughs over it and starts to take a swim in his money vaults like Scrooge MacDuck, knowing that the competition won't be taking over Windows marketshare any time soon.
Wikipedia is suffering from The Peter Principle in which its employees, admins, and editors have grown incompetent in the hierarchy that is Wikipedia.
The Wikipedia effect happens because the article writers of Wikipedia articles automatically link web sites to articles that they wrote or contributed to, in order to boost the pagerank in Google. The more writers, the more people who link to the article in Google to boost pagerank. Then they state opinion as fact in the article and then link some more web sites to it even more. Before you know it, there is more opinion than fact in the Wikipedia article, but everyone links to it because hey it is Wikipedia and if it is in Wikipedia it must be true. Then more opinions are written in the article, and it is used as a reference in forums, blogs, CMS sites, and other things to support the opinions of others who agree with the opinions in the article. By that time almost all facts are replaced in the article with opinions and the Wikipedia article has the number one pagerank in Google. Opinions are acceptable in Wikipedia, as long as they are written in a neutral point of view and links are cited to web sites that state the same opinions on them as well. Usually the same Liberal Editorial message in some web newspaper with a Liberal bias, or a college professor's web site who holds the same opinions as the Wikipedia article, or the blog site disguised as a magazine or newspaper in order to force those opinions on everyone else as facts.
Before you know it, Wikipedia editors and writers suffer from The Peter Principle and grow incompetent and keep using their own opinions instead of facts, and at that point cannot tell the difference anymore, nor can the readers of the article know the difference either. But who cares, number one result in Google, so it must be true!
Yet isn't it odd that the number one page hit in Google is usually an article that has been link whored out with a lot of bogus links to it, planned to increase the page ranking until it hits number one like a Wikipedia article that is mostly opinions with few facts if any? I mean honestly I don't start hitting real facts until the first couple of pages of page scrolling in Google in order to avoid the opinions disguised as facts that have been link whored and take up the first couple or pages or so of results.
I would love to, but my proxy says it is a bad IP and blocks it. So I cannot read it at all.
I cannot because my proxy blocks the site. It is marked as a bad IP that might install malware on my system. Must be their advertising or something.
How about we create Mini-Stars and use them to collect energy they put out in order to take ourselves off of fossil fuels?
If you can create a Mini-Black Saturn, you have a stillborn star, which is what the real Saturn is, a gas giant that did not turn into a star for some reason.
This could be the ultimate weapon if you can make a Mini-Black Hole large enough to take out a city or something before the Hawking radiation causes it to shrink into almost nothingness.
like "Ok" anyway. If the default is to deny it, it will deny it, if the default is to allow it, it will allow it.
Norton Internet Security works the same way, when a program like BoDog Poker gets updated, Norton Firewall will ask the user "BoDog Poker was recently Updated? Do you want to block or allow it?" the combo box defaults to block, and then they just hit "Ok" and it blocks the program. Anyway then they call me to come in a unblock it for them so they can play BoDog poker again. Usually they just tell me something like their Internet doesn't work anymore. I check their system, and the Internet works fine, just not for their game. Then I check the Firewall settings and see that the game is blocked, and I unblock it. Something they don't know how to do by themselves.
Symantec is worried that Microsoft is giving Vista these built in security controls, but the Norton series of security programs had them before Vista did.
I doubt Apple would want their OS or Systems sold at Wal-Mart because Apple is very strict about not selling products below their suggested retail price.
Wal-Mart always tries to sell things below the suggested retail price in order to get business away from competition.
Those $300 Wal-Mart PCs will be running some version of Linux instead.
If someone wants to run OSX, they can always buy a $599 Mac Mini and use their old keyboard, mouse, and monitor with it. Some of the older G3 and G4 PowerMac and iMac systems sell for cheaper than that used, plus the cost of the OSX install disk to upgrade them to OSX.
I bought a used Blueberry iMac G3 system for under $100 including shipping. All it needs is a bigger hard drive and 256M of RAM to run OSX. But I am keeping it Mac OS9 for my son to use for his educational software that runs in the Classic Mac environment.