"It *is* notable that it's the first time Nintendo has posted a loss, but I think that this may be slightly representative of the gaming market at large. We're on the downhill from here to 2005 in the sense that the market is no longer hard-core first adopters but largely families or potential multiple console owners."
On the bright side, it does light a fire under Nintendo to do even better next time around. Might even see their next system before everybody else....
"People should stop calling them "the RIAA" because they aren't worth the time and effort it takes to type the word "the" or to hold down the shift key Instead just call them riaa."
Personally, I like how the Register refers to them.
"Nintendo just dropped the price of the GC. Now sales have gone up significantly. "
I'm probably going to buy a second one when Mario Kart comes out for it. My gf and I still play MK64. We're looking forward to the new game, plus the ability to play on two seperate TVs.
Part of me wonders if the broadband adapter + multi player games + cheap GC will = impressive demand for the system. That'd kick ass!
In the mean time, I hope the next system from Nintendo comes with a dual-monitor/TV adapter. Splitscreen is painful. Also makes it hard to play games where you can't hide from the other player.
"the price is over $1500, I'd rather buy a fully functional laptop for that price./overpriced "
You buy stuff like this for a specific reason, not for general computing. It's sort of like saying "I'd rather buy a fully fuctional car than a bus pass." This is not a mass-market product, so you shouldn't be worrying about buying it over a laptop. Instead you should be thinking about whether or not it has specific qualities that would solve a problem for you. If it does, but the price is too high, then you're not the customer for it. BFD.
It's small, has a touch screen, and is instantly on. Presumably (the site's been Slashdotted) there are no moving parts so you don't have to worry about walking around using it. I can tell you my company would be interested in it. We have a digital video camera that sends data to a small portable PC. (not a laptop, long story.) Right now, we have an iPaq using 802.11 to talk to it. You can use it as a viewfinder, and to tell it "record, stop record, use this filename, etc" A device like the Psion (depending on a few details I haven't been able to verify) sounds like it'd be a useful replacement, in some situations, to the iPaq. We don't need a 14 inch screen, we don't need a 2 ghz processor, and we definitely don't need the boot-up time. We just need a simple device with a decent resolution screen (800 by 600 is great!) that can instantly turn on and off. Afterall, it is just a glorified remote control.
So, to summarize, no it's not the product for you. However, it's a faulty assumption that it's intended for you. I've noticed that some Slashdotters have a tendancy to not look at the strengths of a unit, instead figure out how they can get by without wanting/needing it. That's not the true geek way.
" There's a bit difference between not watching their every move and not giving a flying fuck about what they do."
Every day there's some new story about Microsoft on Slashdot and everybody cries wolf. In the last year, I've seen like at least 100 stories about how Microsoft is doing something new, and every single time people shouted "They're just working to improve their monopoly". Except for maybe 3-4 of those times, it was all just a bunch of hooey. They had legitimate reasons for what they did, didn't necessarily mean they were going to act in the worst possible way on them.
The XBOX is one of the things that I have in mind when talking about Slsahdot crying wolf. People were modded up for saying that Microsoft was going to put Office and IE on this machine so they can further extend their monopoly to hardware that they own. The fear was that everybody'd have an XBOX instead of a PC. Despite how ridiculous that sounds, everybody thought Microsoft would do it and be successful.
Microsoft's done some shitty stuff. Nobody's arguing that. At the same time, though, not every move they make is specifically calculated to own a market. They get there by making decent stuff people are willing to buy. There's a reason Microsoft really only has a monopoly in 2 (maybe 3) places, not in every little thing they touch.
So no, I don't give a flying fuck. Slashdot's desensitized me. Ask me if i give a fuck after they do something evil, instead of doing something that could potentially be evil.
Doesn't matter. You cannot do anything but play games on it, unless you want to break it. Want to play a Windows game on it? You have to port it. It may not be a recompile, but you still have to make significant changes. Same is true for ANY other Windows app. Mircrosoft designed a game console using off-the-shelf (well that's not exactly true...) PC components. They built it into something that's not a PC. Sorry.
Redhat 9. Though the install went okay, I was never able to get sound to work, and I never figured out how to get dual monitor going. Nor was I able to get it out of 60hz mode.
" it is magically no longer ibm pc compatible, even if there is NO OTHER difference?"
Hack it to remove the DRM BIOS and make it bootable, and you have a PC compatible.
"If it shared "some components" with it, you might have a point. But the fact is that it doesn't share "some components", it shares ALL significant components with a nForce motherboard."
It doesn't make a difference. It's a custom built motherboard and they specifically designed it for playing games.
"And if that illusion makes MS die fast in a horrible way then I'm stickin to it. I'm not interested how good or bad it is, I just want MS go away for good."
If you get your wish, what will the OSS Community copy off of?
" Do you ever consider that they may have used anti-competitive means to consolidate their position in the market?"
They did, we all know that now.
" Does this not bother you? "
Yep.
" Are you not concerned that they might be using their size to unfairly trample the opposition?"
Yep. However, I'm not going to watchdog their every step. For example, I'm not going to run around spreading wild theories about how the XBOX is there to enhance Microsoft's Windows monopoly. Microsoft isn't doing anything unusual with that system, so I'm not going to get all uppity.
Many moons ago when Star Control II came out, one of the resources you could collect was 'Magnetic Monopoles'. I remember thinking I was all smart by drilling it into a friend of mine's head that it was impossible to have one of those.
"Not necessarily for remaining usable or stable under heavy load or resource usage -- try eating up all free memory and watch Explorer die the first time it hits an unchecked malloc"
I eat up all my ram all the time. I do renderings that max out the RAM. I don't lose control of my computer over it. Now, I will say that over a period of 2 weeks, I end up needing to reboot in one way or another. Is that what you meant maybe?
"Windows has pageable kernel memory,"
Think it'd make a difference if I disabled paging the kernel? That's the first thing I do when I get a new Windows system. I wonder if that's why my machines always tend to stay up...? Can you provide any insight into this?
"Windows is a much harder environment to write a reliable device driver in, and driver quality reflects this. "
I'm sure the first part is true, I'm not so sure about the second part. I don't know if I just have damn good luck with hardware or what.
"Then get off your mindless consumer ass and contribute to the code. "
Nope. I'm not taking up programming to do that. However, when somebody makes a good product, I'm happy to pay for it. (Besides, you don't want me programming for the Community.)
"2 kinds of people, serious people and couch-potato users. "
Sorry bud, there are varying shades of gray. You need to face facts and understand that people want to use their computer, they don't necessarily want to get into it and tell it how to work. You're going to have to deal with a LOT of people like that if and when Linux ever hits the mass market. I, for one, am not going to waste my time learning how to code something that already exists in Windows.
" linux is as successful as it is right now because serious people care enough to help make it what it is. "
You make a good point, however not everybody is capable of contributing to the Linux project as a code-writer. Now, if somebody wants me to cook up some nice interface designs, then hey, send them my way. I'm great with interfaces.
"Why are you here if you're the latter?"
I don't go to Slashdot to attend anti-MS, pro-Open Source rallies. I go here to read the news.
" If you don't understand the difference between complaining to M$ (or Oracle, or SAS, or IBM) about their for-profit closed source stuff and complaining here about *OPEN SOURCE* community-driven stuff then fack off."
I'm not complaining about for-profit closed source stuff. I give them money, they give me tools I can make a living with. I owe my yearly salary to Adobe for making Photoshop and After Effects, and Newtek for making Lightwave. I invested in them, and they gave me a career in return. You all want me to go to Open Source, but I would take a hit in my capabilities by doing that. And for what? I can't write the code to fix those problems. I can't spend $500 and be re-assured that the Gimp team will take a close look at how people use it and make it better. I don't mind spending the money, but there has to be the value for me there. If the price tag is free, but the value isn't there, then I haven't come out ahead.
I know you're going to be boiling when you read this. Sorry. I have a girlfriend to feed and rent to pay.
"However, I'm perfectly happy with my Linux system now. It does everything I want. I know all the short cuts. It's free, and it's constantly improving. The quality of Windows is just not very relevant anymore."
I think you have the right OS then. Sounds to me you've made an intelligent decision. If you're satisfied, then you've done the right thing. I would bet money that I'm using Linux by 2005.
"It is simply another M$ product that runs Windoz in a certain market."
It runs a variant of Windows to boot up. That's a far cry from making it a PC.
"Again it is appalling to find *anyone* willing to argue that there is a rightful place for yet another inferior M$ "product" in a niche market."
It's a good game machine. Lots of people own one and are quite happy. If they're unhappy, it's because of the games provided for it.
"The problem here, nogator, is that M$ has far too much pull in the personal computing world."
Maybe, but this is the gaming world.
" DO you personally run applications on it? You most certainly do."
100% of the applications are games, hence a game machine.
"The point is that this BIOS strategy will reveal M$ to truly be the POS company that it is "
That's certainly possible. I'm not defending Microsoft's strategy here.
"Remember, nongator, the great thing about a pc (M$ or Apple) was that *you* had control over it."
Yes, that's a PC. You can't do that with an X-BOX, hence not a PC, it's a console.
" If Windoz controls what you can play, load, replay, record or create even you will one day throw it out the window."
That may very well be the future. I don't know why you're preaching this to me as if I was saying MS was a great benevolent company or something.
"Nanogator is an idiot again AND probably works for"
If I'm the idiot, then how come my subjects fit in the subject line? BTW, if you accuse people of working for Microsoft, then you musn't have much of a rebuttal, eh?
P.S. Why are you trying so hard to bug me anyway? I must really be getting under your skin. Posting 4 times anonymously as if I don't know who you are? Heh. Ass.
"Based on the fact that Netscape is NOT an M$ product you moron. "
Hey, moron, you missed my point. Go reread what I was responding to.
" Nanopenis, I don't know what your problem is, aside from drawing a Microsoft paycheck.."
Wish I was getting a paycheck from Microsoft. Anyhoo, I didn't read past this. You obviously have nothing interesting to say if that's your key defense.
"Now, granted, I think that Windows 2000 was the best OS to come out of Redmond (yes better than XP, IMHO)."
I've come to that conclusion myself. I have it on my laptop. I can't say I've had to deal with inopportune crashes or anything like that, but I have had it go wonky on m. Usually after I bring it out of suspend mode. This problem is compounded by my running a 3rd party desktop on it. One of these days I'll buy a copy and try it on my production machine, but I can't say I'm eager to do so. Though I like the new interface (not the fisher price looking thing, but there are lots of niceties with XP that have helped my art stuff) it's not enough for me to switch and put up with added problems.
"I can laugh at most of them, though. I can't say Windows hasn't earned it, either. "
Eh. If Windows 2000 was released when Win95 came out, I seriously doubt BSOD jokes would have made it anywhere. I guess the reason I said what I did is that I'm sick of the Linux zealots here acting like Redmond is standing still while Linux goes by. That wouldn't bother me that much except I think that attitude is having a negative effect on Linux. I'd like to see Linux compete with Windows. I'd like to see the community say "Hmm.. they've got something up their sleeve with Longhorn, so let's do what we can to Linux to try to beat them!" Instead, I predict that Longhorn will come out, and a year or two later they'll get around to copying the nice bits of it.
"My point is that the hardware in the Xbox is mostly the same as a PC, which is also true. The Xbox is an embedded PC designed to do one thing, but this does not necessarily invalidate its membership in the larger set. That was the whole reason that Microsoft made the Xbox the way that they did (i.e. so that the architecture would be familiar to companies that already made PC games)."
I agree with that.
" I was trying to point out that the PS2 and DC have very little in common with the PC architecture, but that an Xbox shares most of its architecture with the PC. Thus, where you have to cross compile things for the DC, you don't need to with the Xbox. So, the DC and PS2 aren't PCs, but the Xbox is a PC, albeit a very specialized one"
Ah okay. You're talking about compiling, I'm talking about being able to use it as a general purpose machine. Kind of like the Mac, really. You have to recompile for it too. Heck, you have to recompile based on the OS you're on.
"Of course, there'd be tons of trolls here that would instantly mock it (even whilst clicking the "Buy now!" button). "
The funny thing is that they don't need the XBOX for that. If they can do it for the X-BOX, why not use the PC where they can net-deliver it?
"The SEGA Dreamcast used a proprietary format known as GD-ROM that was designed to curtail piracy. SEGA never designed the system with alternate operating systems in mind, only the two SEGA supported operating systems. There was never any official support by SEGA for booting Linux on the Dreamcast."
Well... sort of. The Dreamcast does have the proprietary format, but it also plays ordinary CDs. I've burned freeware apps on CD that the DC was more than happy to play. To the best of my knowledge, there were no hacks or exploits to make these CDs work. No, Sega never officially supporte dit, but they never (to the best of my knowledge) did anything to stop it. I can honestly say I don't ever remember Sega even badmouthing it.
"Oh, uh, maybe that part wasn't shattering. At least now, your facts are straight, though. Heh heh. "
Heh well I could have sworn that when that kit came out it was crippled. I still think I read that somewhere. Like I said, though, I might have been thinking of the Yaroze. One of these days i'm going to look into that and sort that out.
" if you consider the fairly decent job Apple has done with their version of BSD in making it accessible to non-technical users, it seems like there should be some big push for Linux to do the same."
The problem as I see it is that the people who are computer saavy enough to use Linux are also capable of 'living with it' when there's a problem. They don't have a problem with learning commands that are intermittently missing vowels. I don't think that Linux is attracting enough of the creative types and giving the incentive or tools to work on improving it, ya know? Apple's got money dedicated to getting the resources they need to do that, but the OSS Community doesn't have that at their disposal. Gotta ask, does Linux have something like Visual Basic? Like, a visual dev environment that's more mouse clicking than code writing? QT maybe? Me personally, I've enjoyed having VB around. I've been able to write quick little apps to help me with stuff. Even kicked around the idea of writing a tool to help Lightwave users.
"Good, it was supposed to be silly. I was curious to see whether you would get the joke or not and if we would end up, "You hate Microsoft!", "No, you do!", "Oh yeah? Well, you hate them more!"
Heh I love those arguments. Although tonight I got more than I can handle. Did you know you can only post 30 times in 4 hours? Found that out tonight with this thread.
"Sure, no problem. Hey, it's Slashdot, so you never can tell at first glance."
Yeah, after a while you start learning to be instantly hostile with ppl. I need to quit doing that.
Slashdot Mirror
"The next challenge is to make a Linux distribution like Knoppix big enough to use that whole DVD."
They could team up with Redhat.
"I can fit my entire porn collection onto one floppy. The collection consists of a single picture, goat sex man, "
You've got your head right up your... uh.. well ya kind of took the fun out of my insult there.
"It *is* notable that it's the first time Nintendo has posted a loss, but I think that this may be slightly representative of the gaming market at large. We're on the downhill from here to 2005 in the sense that the market is no longer hard-core first adopters but largely families or potential multiple console owners."
On the bright side, it does light a fire under Nintendo to do even better next time around. Might even see their next system before everybody else....
"People should stop calling them "the RIAA" because they aren't worth the time and effort it takes to type the word "the" or to hold down the shift key Instead just call them riaa."
Personally, I like how the Register refers to them.
"TOLD YOU SO. Alright y'all, fanboy up! "
That might bother the fan boys if you had read the article and still felt good about saying that.
"The N64 was not a great game machine,"
What? It had good games and four controller ports. (also it didn't start skipping 1 day after the warranty ran out.) Not a great game machine?
"Nintendo just dropped the price of the GC. Now sales have gone up significantly. "
I'm probably going to buy a second one when Mario Kart comes out for it. My gf and I still play MK64. We're looking forward to the new game, plus the ability to play on two seperate TVs.
Part of me wonders if the broadband adapter + multi player games + cheap GC will = impressive demand for the system. That'd kick ass!
In the mean time, I hope the next system from Nintendo comes with a dual-monitor/TV adapter. Splitscreen is painful. Also makes it hard to play games where you can't hide from the other player.
"I'm afraid the Site Finder will be quite operational by the time your friends arrive."
I'm endagering the mission, I shouldn't have posted.
"Lets see: frivoulous lawsuits, defamation of character...any lawyer wannabes want to add to the list?"
Call me naieve, but doesn't the court have to say it's frivilous? A class action lawsuit won't fly so high if the court rules in SCO's favor.
Frankly, I think more of you should be considering that possibility and figuring out what to do instead of just blanketly denying that SCO has a case.
(note: I'm not saying SCO's right, nor am I saying that nobody look for defense. Simply saying to be careful as it can go either way.)
" that those in charge of the company (which I will not name, as one should not name the devil)"
Valdimort?
"the price is over $1500, I'd rather buy a fully functional laptop for that price. /overpriced "
You buy stuff like this for a specific reason, not for general computing. It's sort of like saying "I'd rather buy a fully fuctional car than a bus pass." This is not a mass-market product, so you shouldn't be worrying about buying it over a laptop. Instead you should be thinking about whether or not it has specific qualities that would solve a problem for you. If it does, but the price is too high, then you're not the customer for it. BFD.
It's small, has a touch screen, and is instantly on. Presumably (the site's been Slashdotted) there are no moving parts so you don't have to worry about walking around using it. I can tell you my company would be interested in it. We have a digital video camera that sends data to a small portable PC. (not a laptop, long story.) Right now, we have an iPaq using 802.11 to talk to it. You can use it as a viewfinder, and to tell it "record, stop record, use this filename, etc" A device like the Psion (depending on a few details I haven't been able to verify) sounds like it'd be a useful replacement, in some situations, to the iPaq. We don't need a 14 inch screen, we don't need a 2 ghz processor, and we definitely don't need the boot-up time. We just need a simple device with a decent resolution screen (800 by 600 is great!) that can instantly turn on and off. Afterall, it is just a glorified remote control.
So, to summarize, no it's not the product for you. However, it's a faulty assumption that it's intended for you. I've noticed that some Slashdotters have a tendancy to not look at the strengths of a unit, instead figure out how they can get by without wanting/needing it. That's not the true geek way.
" There's a bit difference between not watching their every move and not giving a flying fuck about what they do."
Every day there's some new story about Microsoft on Slashdot and everybody cries wolf. In the last year, I've seen like at least 100 stories about how Microsoft is doing something new, and every single time people shouted "They're just working to improve their monopoly". Except for maybe 3-4 of those times, it was all just a bunch of hooey. They had legitimate reasons for what they did, didn't necessarily mean they were going to act in the worst possible way on them.
The XBOX is one of the things that I have in mind when talking about Slsahdot crying wolf. People were modded up for saying that Microsoft was going to put Office and IE on this machine so they can further extend their monopoly to hardware that they own. The fear was that everybody'd have an XBOX instead of a PC. Despite how ridiculous that sounds, everybody thought Microsoft would do it and be successful.
Microsoft's done some shitty stuff. Nobody's arguing that. At the same time, though, not every move they make is specifically calculated to own a market. They get there by making decent stuff people are willing to buy. There's a reason Microsoft really only has a monopoly in 2 (maybe 3) places, not in every little thing they touch.
So no, I don't give a flying fuck. Slashdot's desensitized me. Ask me if i give a fuck after they do something evil, instead of doing something that could potentially be evil.
"It shares EVERY fundemental component with it"
Doesn't matter. You cannot do anything but play games on it, unless you want to break it. Want to play a Windows game on it? You have to port it. It may not be a recompile, but you still have to make significant changes. Same is true for ANY other Windows app. Mircrosoft designed a game console using off-the-shelf (well that's not exactly true...) PC components. They built it into something that's not a PC. Sorry.
Redhat 9. Though the install went okay, I was never able to get sound to work, and I never figured out how to get dual monitor going. Nor was I able to get it out of 60hz mode.
Sadly, I'm a Linux newb.
" it is magically no longer ibm pc compatible, even if there is NO OTHER difference?"
Hack it to remove the DRM BIOS and make it bootable, and you have a PC compatible.
"If it shared "some components" with it, you might have a point. But the fact is that it doesn't share "some components", it shares ALL significant components with a nForce motherboard."
It doesn't make a difference. It's a custom built motherboard and they specifically designed it for playing games.
"And if that illusion makes MS die fast in a horrible way then I'm stickin to it. I'm not interested how good or bad it is, I just want MS go away for good."
If you get your wish, what will the OSS Community copy off of?
" Do you ever consider that they may have used anti-competitive means to consolidate their position in the market?"
They did, we all know that now.
" Does this not bother you? "
Yep.
" Are you not concerned that they might be using their size to unfairly trample the opposition?"
Yep. However, I'm not going to watchdog their every step. For example, I'm not going to run around spreading wild theories about how the XBOX is there to enhance Microsoft's Windows monopoly. Microsoft isn't doing anything unusual with that system, so I'm not going to get all uppity.
Is my view clearer now?
Many moons ago when Star Control II came out, one of the resources you could collect was 'Magnetic Monopoles'. I remember thinking I was all smart by drilling it into a friend of mine's head that it was impossible to have one of those.
Man I hope he doesn't find my email address.
"Not necessarily for remaining usable or stable under heavy load or resource usage -- try eating up all free memory and watch Explorer die the first time it hits an unchecked malloc"
...? Can you provide any insight into this?
I eat up all my ram all the time. I do renderings that max out the RAM. I don't lose control of my computer over it. Now, I will say that over a period of 2 weeks, I end up needing to reboot in one way or another. Is that what you meant maybe?
"Windows has pageable kernel memory,"
Think it'd make a difference if I disabled paging the kernel? That's the first thing I do when I get a new Windows system. I wonder if that's why my machines always tend to stay up
"Windows is a much harder environment to write a reliable device driver in, and driver quality reflects this. "
I'm sure the first part is true, I'm not so sure about the second part. I don't know if I just have damn good luck with hardware or what.
"Then get off your mindless consumer ass and contribute to the code. "
Nope. I'm not taking up programming to do that. However, when somebody makes a good product, I'm happy to pay for it. (Besides, you don't want me programming for the Community.)
"2 kinds of people, serious people and couch-potato users. "
Sorry bud, there are varying shades of gray. You need to face facts and understand that people want to use their computer, they don't necessarily want to get into it and tell it how to work. You're going to have to deal with a LOT of people like that if and when Linux ever hits the mass market. I, for one, am not going to waste my time learning how to code something that already exists in Windows.
" linux is as successful as it is right now because serious people care enough to help make it what it is. "
You make a good point, however not everybody is capable of contributing to the Linux project as a code-writer. Now, if somebody wants me to cook up some nice interface designs, then hey, send them my way. I'm great with interfaces.
"Why are you here if you're the latter?"
I don't go to Slashdot to attend anti-MS, pro-Open Source rallies. I go here to read the news.
" If you don't understand the difference between complaining to M$ (or Oracle, or SAS, or IBM) about their for-profit closed source stuff and complaining here about *OPEN SOURCE* community-driven stuff then fack off."
I'm not complaining about for-profit closed source stuff. I give them money, they give me tools I can make a living with. I owe my yearly salary to Adobe for making Photoshop and After Effects, and Newtek for making Lightwave. I invested in them, and they gave me a career in return. You all want me to go to Open Source, but I would take a hit in my capabilities by doing that. And for what? I can't write the code to fix those problems. I can't spend $500 and be re-assured that the Gimp team will take a close look at how people use it and make it better. I don't mind spending the money, but there has to be the value for me there. If the price tag is free, but the value isn't there, then I haven't come out ahead.
I know you're going to be boiling when you read this. Sorry. I have a girlfriend to feed and rent to pay.
"However, I'm perfectly happy with my Linux system now. It does everything I want. I know all the short cuts. It's free, and it's constantly improving. The quality of Windows is just not very relevant anymore."
I think you have the right OS then. Sounds to me you've made an intelligent decision. If you're satisfied, then you've done the right thing. I would bet money that I'm using Linux by 2005.
"It is simply another M$ product that runs Windoz in a certain market."
It runs a variant of Windows to boot up. That's a far cry from making it a PC.
"Again it is appalling to find *anyone* willing to argue that there is a rightful place for yet another inferior M$ "product" in a niche market."
It's a good game machine. Lots of people own one and are quite happy. If they're unhappy, it's because of the games provided for it.
"The problem here, nogator, is that M$ has far too much pull in the personal computing world."
Maybe, but this is the gaming world.
" DO you personally run applications on it? You most certainly do."
100% of the applications are games, hence a game machine.
"The point is that this BIOS strategy will reveal M$ to truly be the POS company that it is "
That's certainly possible. I'm not defending Microsoft's strategy here.
"Remember, nongator, the great thing about a pc (M$ or Apple) was that *you* had control over it."
Yes, that's a PC. You can't do that with an X-BOX, hence not a PC, it's a console.
" If Windoz controls what you can play, load, replay, record or create even you will one day throw it out the window."
That may very well be the future. I don't know why you're preaching this to me as if I was saying MS was a great benevolent company or something.
"Nanogator is an idiot again AND probably works for"
If I'm the idiot, then how come my subjects fit in the subject line? BTW, if you accuse people of working for Microsoft, then you musn't have much of a rebuttal, eh?
P.S. Why are you trying so hard to bug me anyway? I must really be getting under your skin. Posting 4 times anonymously as if I don't know who you are? Heh. Ass.
"Based on the fact that Netscape is NOT an M$ product you moron. "
Hey, moron, you missed my point. Go reread what I was responding to.
" Nanopenis, I don't know what your problem is, aside from drawing a Microsoft paycheck.."
Wish I was getting a paycheck from Microsoft. Anyhoo, I didn't read past this. You obviously have nothing interesting to say if that's your key defense.
"Now, granted, I think that Windows 2000 was the best OS to come out of Redmond (yes better than XP, IMHO)."
I've come to that conclusion myself. I have it on my laptop. I can't say I've had to deal with inopportune crashes or anything like that, but I have had it go wonky on m. Usually after I bring it out of suspend mode. This problem is compounded by my running a 3rd party desktop on it. One of these days I'll buy a copy and try it on my production machine, but I can't say I'm eager to do so. Though I like the new interface (not the fisher price looking thing, but there are lots of niceties with XP that have helped my art stuff) it's not enough for me to switch and put up with added problems.
"I can laugh at most of them, though. I can't say Windows hasn't earned it, either. "
Eh. If Windows 2000 was released when Win95 came out, I seriously doubt BSOD jokes would have made it anywhere. I guess the reason I said what I did is that I'm sick of the Linux zealots here acting like Redmond is standing still while Linux goes by. That wouldn't bother me that much except I think that attitude is having a negative effect on Linux. I'd like to see Linux compete with Windows. I'd like to see the community say "Hmm.. they've got something up their sleeve with Longhorn, so let's do what we can to Linux to try to beat them!" Instead, I predict that Longhorn will come out, and a year or two later they'll get around to copying the nice bits of it.
Cheers.
"My point is that the hardware in the Xbox is mostly the same as a PC, which is also true. The Xbox is an embedded PC designed to do one thing, but this does not necessarily invalidate its membership in the larger set. That was the whole reason that Microsoft made the Xbox the way that they did (i.e. so that the architecture would be familiar to companies that already made PC games)."
I agree with that.
" I was trying to point out that the PS2 and DC have very little in common with the PC architecture, but that an Xbox shares most of its architecture with the PC. Thus, where you have to cross compile things for the DC, you don't need to with the Xbox. So, the DC and PS2 aren't PCs, but the Xbox is a PC, albeit a very specialized one"
Ah okay. You're talking about compiling, I'm talking about being able to use it as a general purpose machine. Kind of like the Mac, really. You have to recompile for it too. Heck, you have to recompile based on the OS you're on.
"Of course, there'd be tons of trolls here that would instantly mock it (even whilst clicking the "Buy now!" button). "
The funny thing is that they don't need the XBOX for that. If they can do it for the X-BOX, why not use the PC where they can net-deliver it?
"The SEGA Dreamcast used a proprietary format known as GD-ROM that was designed to curtail piracy. SEGA never designed the system with alternate operating systems in mind, only the two SEGA supported operating systems. There was never any official support by SEGA for booting Linux on the Dreamcast."
Well... sort of. The Dreamcast does have the proprietary format, but it also plays ordinary CDs. I've burned freeware apps on CD that the DC was more than happy to play. To the best of my knowledge, there were no hacks or exploits to make these CDs work. No, Sega never officially supporte dit, but they never (to the best of my knowledge) did anything to stop it. I can honestly say I don't ever remember Sega even badmouthing it.
"Oh, uh, maybe that part wasn't shattering. At least now, your facts are straight, though. Heh heh. "
Heh well I could have sworn that when that kit came out it was crippled. I still think I read that somewhere. Like I said, though, I might have been thinking of the Yaroze. One of these days i'm going to look into that and sort that out.
" if you consider the fairly decent job Apple has done with their version of BSD in making it accessible to non-technical users, it seems like there should be some big push for Linux to do the same."
The problem as I see it is that the people who are computer saavy enough to use Linux are also capable of 'living with it' when there's a problem. They don't have a problem with learning commands that are intermittently missing vowels. I don't think that Linux is attracting enough of the creative types and giving the incentive or tools to work on improving it, ya know? Apple's got money dedicated to getting the resources they need to do that, but the OSS Community doesn't have that at their disposal. Gotta ask, does Linux have something like Visual Basic? Like, a visual dev environment that's more mouse clicking than code writing? QT maybe? Me personally, I've enjoyed having VB around. I've been able to write quick little apps to help me with stuff. Even kicked around the idea of writing a tool to help Lightwave users.
"Good, it was supposed to be silly. I was curious to see whether you would get the joke or not and if we would end up, "You hate Microsoft!", "No, you do!", "Oh yeah? Well, you hate them more!"
Heh I love those arguments. Although tonight I got more than I can handle. Did you know you can only post 30 times in 4 hours? Found that out tonight with this thread.
"Sure, no problem. Hey, it's Slashdot, so you never can tell at first glance."
Yeah, after a while you start learning to be instantly hostile with ppl. I need to quit doing that.
Have a good weekend.