"...who has cable TV franchise agreements with many city governments, refuses to run ads for competing internet service providers.... guess that's something that citizens need to remind their local governments to correct the next time the monopoly terms are negotiated.."
Umm, that's not a monopoly action. They have the right to refuse service to anyone. Sorry but I'm not dusting off my pitchfork over this one.
I would like for you to link to my web site so I can get some more hits. I found a flimsy excuse that I might be listed in some blacklist somewhere, so I'm sure that will make me more popular. Thank you.
Just think, if he'd said "I went to N2H2 with Mozilla..." it would have made front page!
"Duuuh. That's because nobody selling something legitimate wants the negative side effects of spam- mainly, the disgust it causes."
Speaking of disgust that spam causes, you should respond to my comment here in the other article about spam. I normally wouldn't hunt somebody down over it, but you gave me a chewing I didn't deserve.
" What do people who don't know what a harddrive is need with "My Computer", not who doesn't know what a harddrive is."
I don't understand the "not who doesn't know what a harddrive is" bit of your comment, so please don't feel I'm intentionally dodging the question.
My Computer is a central place to look to find stuff like:
1.) HD's 2.) CD's 3.) My Document's Folder 4.) Digital Cameras/PDA's etc 5.) If you have XP, your shared folders.
It's a place to start to get at the rest of your computer. Want to search your entire computer for a file? Put in "My Computer". It may take a while, but it'll be found.
So why would somebody who doesn't know what an HD is need it for? They need to start somewhere. "My Computer" makes more sense than "hard drive", which could mean a floppy or compact disc to the uninitiated.
Think about it from a newb's point of view. You know your data's 'inside' the computer, clicking on it takes you inside it. It's a metaphor.
Again, I apologize if I didn't directly answer your question. I'm not sure I understood it.
Slashdot's been running text-based ads in the banner space above, and I can honestly say I've actually read those. Click-through is another story all together, but the message got through. The graphic banners are usually lost on me, mainly because they don't actually provide information.
It's kind of like the difference between reading Nickel Ads (or the want-ads in a newspaper) and reading a billboard. Me personally, I like having all the info up-front before I click. I'm sorry they can't track that, but banners have suckered me too many times. Just yesterday I clicked on a banner that said "Revolution OS" with a picture of a CD on it. When I got there, it turned out to be a documentary about this OS. I was expecting a distro I could install. Grr.
Here's what I think makes the text-ads work on Slashdot:
1.) They share the same font style/size as Slashdot.
2.) All the info's there. For example, I ran across the ad for adding barcode support to apps, with free demos available. I didn't click it (I have no use for barcodes) but if I did, I'd feel comfortable knowing where I'm going.
3.) They don't annoy me. They don't try to grab my attention. They don't pop up new windows. They don't interrupt my reading. Etc.
4.) They're relatively on-topic. Though I have no use for barcodes, it is of a subject matter that would be discussed here.
I just hope that the good stuff here isn't borrowed and 'improved' until they have to find some other way to sneak ads into content.
"In this day and age how many people don't know what a harddrive is who need to use the "My Computer" icon on windows? I'm hard pressed to think of an example."
Lots. There are lots of computer illiterate people today. I would happily concede that Apple has handled that better.
I guess I have to reiterate a point I made earlier: I didn't say they were right, I said there was reason. Unix may seem 'logical' to you, but you're also initiated. The mass market of people out there need to have their file systems illustrated for them. I can spend all day telling somebody how to mount a disk, or to cd to a directory, or I can say "click that folder that says "My Documents".
"Why are network drives listed under "My Computer" doesn't the name imply only have local mounts? "
Why confuse people about using a pair of backslashes to get at a shared folder? It's a shortcut, and Windows treats it like a disc. No biggie.
I appreciate that, but I disagree with you as well, please read on.
" WineX helps create this market, because it allows people to stay and game under Linux when they otherwise wouldn't be able to."
I just don't see this happening. What I do see happening is the game company in question digging their heels into Windows. "Well, if I make this for Windows, it'll probably run on WineX. Cool. If I make it for Linux, there is no LineX for Windows to play the game. I lose a huge chunk of my market. Hmm. No Linux port here."
Sorry. It just won't work. The best chance that Linux has at creating a game market is to create a game distro. That's right, create a distro that is not only conducive to gaming, but it also comes with a bunch of free games. Give it away at places like EB, or get a deal to have magazines to insert the CD into their next publication. Then, a good gaming SDK needs to be made that works with both Windows and Linux. It needs to be like DirectX, but platform independent. It needs to cover 2D, 3D, Audio, and input such as Joysticks. It needs to be royalty free so that a game company can just use it without having to worry about signing anything. Heck, if the community is willing to really work on it, make it so that it's easy to travel across processors as well. Make it a recompile to have it work on PS2.
Anyway, that's a bit of a tangent. I don't think there's a lot you can do there, unless you can program in the Linux environment. My point stands. WineX makes it easier to play games on Linux, but it also solidifies the choice to develop games for Windows.
"Because everything beginning with "My" is so much better..."
1.) My Computer + My Network Places = 2. Everything = infinity. Your sense of proportion is a little skewed. Now open KDE and look at all the apps you have that start with K.
2.) Which reads better: My Computer or Komputer? Too easy? Okay, how about My Network Places and Kmy Knetwork Kplaces?
I find it interesting that whenever I make a legitimate complaint about Linux, people retaliate by childishly attacking Windows. Never mind that I didn't even bring up or even hint at Windows. Some of you anti-MS zealots really need to grow up. I'm dead serious. There's a wealth of useful information about how to make a UI in Windows that the KDE development team could learn alot from. (Note: learning != copying.) MS has teams dedicated to the end user experience. That's also where they are more focused. It's pretty evident that KDE's development team is not as shrewd in this respect, though it's improved a great deal in the last two years.
So spare me the stupid anti-MS attacks, as if that would have defeated me in some way. If you guys spent half your time learning about why they do things the way they do (the real reason, not the mythical "they do it to maintain a monopoly" FUD) instead of snickering at blue screen jokes, you'd have an OS that is much easier to adopt. There's a reason why 'My Computer' is called what it is. There's a reason why the Recycle Bin exists. There's a reason why permissions settings aren't near as tight as they are in Linux. Instead of assuming Microsoft's stupid, just ask the question: "Why would an educated person do this?" It might suddenly dawn on you that what really happens inside of a computer is confusing as hell to the uninitiated. The value of "My Computer" is lost on somebody who knows what a hard-drive is. But what would the value of an icon labeled "Hard Drive" be to somebody just getting started?
Okay, I'm done with my rant. I'm just amazed at how willfully ignorant some people are. Is it so hard to place yourself in somebody else's shoes?
"We may save some fuss, but we are also telling game developers that we don't want native ports, which is not true."
No you're not. They have 0 clue that you didn't buy a game because you don't use Windows.
Nobody's going to make gamnes for Linux until the market is big enough to be successful. There is no Linux game market, that's why you're getting a trickle of cheap-to-produce ports.
If you want to send them the message you want Linux ports, using WineX is doing absolutely nothing to help you. It gives them an excuse to say "We don't need to do a Linux port then." If you really really want them to make games for Linux, then don't buy the Windows games period. If you feel that's unreasonable, then you're going to have to play by their rules.
I'm in the same boat. I want GTA Vice City. It's only on PS2 right now. I will not buy a PS2. I'm personally boycotting Sony because I was a salesman for their PSOnes when they originally came out. 1 in 4 of those things were defective and Sony absolutely refused to treat their customers (mostly kids) with respect over it. It's a long story, the important part is that I'm boycotting them for reasons similar to why a lot of people here won't buy MS software.
I could probably pick up a used PS2 for a reasonable price. Since it's used, Sony wouldn't see a dime of that. Cool, eh? No. I want Rockstar to prioritize PC development. I'm sending them the message that they have to develop for PC or they won't get money from me. (Essentially what I'm advising to you.)
The bad news is that I don't get to play Vice City, but the good news is that Rockstar's gone ahead and ported it to PC. I'll have it in my hot little hands in 2 weeks. It's been a loooong week. Sadly, there are other games on PS2 I'd like to play that I never will because I just cannot support Sony.
So I hope my point sort of makes sense. If you're really devoted to avoiding MS so you can get games made for Linux, then turning around and playing the games anyway isn't helping. If I had given in and bought the used PS2, I'd be sending the message "its okay to only support PS2, I'll bend over backwards to follow you."
"As a poweruser of all software platforms I often have multiple programs that do similar things. One I might fire up if I just need to do something quick, another if I need something more powerful, and still another that might offer a unique feature that I need every now and then."
If you're a power user, then you know what you're looking for and how to go find it. When you're a new user, these little interruptions slow Linux's adoption.
That was one of the first things that slowed me down when using Linux. That and everything began with K. Yeah, real Kute. Kwhen Keverything Kbegins Kwith K Kit's Konfusing.
"I think most people, even teens and younger can separate games from reality. But to assert that you do nothing bad in the game is just wrong. "
I didn't assert that. What I said was that it was blown out of proportion. The entire point that I was making was that this game was unlikely to turn people/kids towards becoming criminals. It'd likely have the opposite effect.
"The whole thrill of the game is that you are doing bad things and getting away with it. "
Not exactly. Nobody'd bother finishing the game if it were just that. The thrill of the game is that you can break out of the conventional scripted environment of most games and actually use creativity to complete a mission. The simulation is good enough that you can be a true legend to this game. It's a very rich game even if you strip out the darker side of it.
"Plus you can usually kill one or two pedestrians before you get a wanted level. And if you only have 1 star, you drive around long enough and it will disappear. So the penalty for killing innocent people really is not there. "
Not true. If you run over somebody in plain view of a cop, they're after you. Yes, you can get away from one-star easily. When you get to two stars, then police focus on you. Then it's on. You can easily draw paralells from real life here.
"And you get a wanted level, you either bribe the police or get your car painted. It's not hard to get rid of wanted levels. (That's a good thing to teach people, how to bribe police)"
Yeah. Next time a pair of flashing lights appears behind me, I'm going to look for a token on the ground with a police badge on it. That'll get them off my back. Failing that, I'll pull into Maaco where they'll instantly paint my car and the cops won't recognize me. Heh.
"Plus the goal of many missions is to kill people. They may not be innocent in the sense that they are merely pedestrians, but you do end up killing alot of people in the game, even if you are very careful not to kill "innocent bystanders".
Yeah, you kill bad guys. Which sounds bad, right? Sure. It also shows why being involved in a gang is such an awful thing. And as I said before, when ya kill innocent bystanders, you get more police attention.
If the media'd leave it at that, then I wouldn't be ranting now.;)
For the record, this topic is exactly the reason I won't vote to put Joe Liberman in office. He pulled this shit with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap back in the early nineties. I'm not convinced that his attacks on those games was anything more than an attempt to gain political power by raising an issue parents are ill-educated about. However, that's strictly my opinion.
"My point was simply that some people wont want to dual boot just to play games..."
If you're talking about running only a handful of games you particularly like, then yes you are absolutely right, WineX is a better choice. If you're a gamer though... (no point in running around the track again..;))
" And in the end, if I use WineX for now to run old games, perhaps when the developers realize I only have linux (hopefully many os us) they will native port."
I'm sorry, I just don't see that happening. What they'll see is a handful of people have Linux, and a fraction of them might want to play their game. Multiply the number of Linux users/gamers by 10, and you'll start seeing Linux games. I remember reading that Q3 for Linux sold 10,000 copies. (it might have been 40k now that I think about it...) That's peanuts. A decent selling game on Win/PC is 100,000, and Q3 sold several million. See my point? It's not about people being willing to jump through hoops, it's about how many copies they can sell.
" Mozilla and all its files simply did not exist. The complete installation and directories dissapeared. The registry had no entries for it. This has only happened once."
Okay. I believe ya, but I cannot explain to you what might have happened as I've never seen it. Sounds rather unusual for me, but if it happened to me I'd feel exactly as you do.
"Wether this is repeatable I dont know, but we both know that the EULA DOES allow for this. Microsoft explicitly says that they can enter your machine and make changes, supposdly for security."
That's sort of true. The reason they have that in the EULA is so they can provide the Windows update service by default, instead of having it enabled if the user so chooses. The reason they're doing that is to make IE fixes happen a lot faster and with more proliferation. If MS didn't have that in the EULA, they'd risk being sued by having Windows call home by default.
Unfortunately, Slashdot didn't bother to actually investigate this possiblity before they ran off on a "MS wants to see everything you're doing" tangent.
I'd rather deal with SPAM by making it technically harder to send out messages like that. I guess I'm just a little paranoid that one day I'll send out a message and find myself in court.
"Because I seriously dont wont windows on my computer anymore. I dont like the direction MS is going, and I dont want to be a part of it. MS wants to eliminate us having local files..."
So.. you're worried about what MS might do down the road so you won't use it to play games today? I might understand that except WineX would be of no more use to you in that case either.
If you don't want to buy it because you want to flip-off MS that's fine, I respect that. I just don't think your rationale's all that logical.
"Upon reboot Mozilla had been uninstalled! Thanks MS!"
I found this comment interesting for a few reasons:
1.) I've never heard of it before. That might not be a big deal except Slashdot would jump all over it.
2.) I can't find any reference to this problem on the web.
3.) I'm not sure that you'd know the difference between Mozilla being uninstalled and Mozilla just not being the default handler to.HTML files.
4.) Uninstalls don't just magically happen without you knowing in Windows.
" I was having a problem with Starcraft after I upgraded to W2K from 98. Apparently my sound card support went from 'working' to 'not' between kernels."
That's a 'fix it once' type of problem just like you'd have if it broke in Linux. That's not a "this particular game didn't like it because we didn't quite support it right" type of problem that you'd run a risk of getting in Winex.
"As for testing, you could always 'borrow the game from a friend' and then buy a legit copy once you know it works."
There are some people that'd work for. Unfortunately, that's not always a possibilty. However, I'll concede that demo availability would help suss that out.
"Don't forget the added HDD space you'll need to install Windows. XP and 2K are both rather large installations."
Yes, you're right. You'd also have to have enough partition space for your games. However, disk space is cheap. I have 40 gigs in my laptop and over 200 on my desktop. I can't imagine most people are terribly worried about dedicating a few gigs to a game partition. Secondly, why muck up your Linux configuration over it? Why find out that your video drivers are obselete for a particular game and go through the hassle of updating them? This, if gone wrong, could really mess up your productivity in Linux. The same risk exists in Windows, but it's not a big deal if that boot is only used for games. Windows is pretty graceful with it's default VGA driver, so getting it fixed isn't a big deal. To be honest, in the last 3 years of using 2k on a variety of machines, I haven't had any serious issues here.
There are other added benfitis too. Ya'll complain about spotty Windows media or Quicktime support. If something (like the Animatrix Movies) came along and you just couldn't get it to work in Linux, it'd be a piece of cake to have it running in Windows.
In any case, I know this suggestion's not going to be very popular here. Just remember this is experience talking. I'm a Windows guy. I have Linux installed on another partition because it's got Film Gimp and a few other things I'd like to play with. There are Windows versions available, but they are inferior as most of the attention goes to Linux. It's not like I'm totally insensitive to your situation here. I'd like to switch to Linux some day, but I wouldn't get rid of Windows in the process. I like playing my games. I wouldn't shoot myself in the foot like that.
That might be an interesting point of games said on the box "WineX supported". But they don't. So you're stuck having to find out on the net if it is supported. Even if it is, sometimes hardware can make a difference here. It might run okay on one person's machine, that doesn't mean your different machine will. As stated before, Windows is a much better platform for this as that's what it was developed and tested on.
You might think it's no big deal to look it up, but that requires that the game actually be released and that somebody has actually tested it. That sucks if your plan is to pre-purchase a highly-anticipated game.
Frankly, I wouldn't deal with all that mess. Then again, I don't use Linux so it really doesn't matter for me. I can play all my games. The thought of having shakey confidence about buying a game makes me shudder.
"2) I saw a study on one of the major gaming sites, and kids *are* playing this game by the ton. You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise."
What exactly is the harm in that? I've played GTA3 from beginning to end. I think it's fine for ages 13 and up. Despite what the media's made it out to be, it's really not that bad.
One of the chief complaints about the game is prostitution. They fail to mention, though, that if you don't know what a prostitute is when you play the game, you won't suddenly find out. The peak of it's graphic depiction is a rocking car. Look in the window and you see two people sitting there staring into space.
Another complaint is about being able to kill innocent people, and then making money for it. Fair point, almost. You can kill people if you like, but that's really your choice. It's not the goal of the game. (besides, wouldn'it be MORE twisted if the game didn't respond to people getting run over or hit with a bat at all? What kind of message would that send to children?) It doesn't help you in any way. If anything, this aspect of the game game teaches you a sense of right and wrong. If you beat somebody up, the cops will come get you. If you resist the cops, more of them will come. Before you know it, the entire city is against you. There's something to be said for reality here. If I kill somebody, my freedom is over. The 'money' you recieve from killing somebody is probably more a reward for taking the risk, rather than a reward for killing somebody. You have to kill a LOT of people before you can actually do anything with the money. It's kinda like getting paid 50 cents to piss off the cops. There's no benefit to murder, it only makes the game harder.
One of the other complaints about GTA3 is giving kids the urge to steal a car and try to outrun the cops in it. There might sort of be a point here. GTA3 lets you steal a car and then you can take a run at outrunning the cops, all while pulling off stunts etc. The level of physics of this game makes it seem easier than it'd really be, i.e. if you jump over a hill with your car and land on the roof, it doesn't collapse the car and kill you. Instead, if it rolls onto it's tires it can keep going. Yeah, on the surface, I can see that bothering people. However, when you play the game, you find out just how scary a police chase can be. You see, as mentioned before, this is a simulation of a city. There's all kinds of random elements that you just cannot always account for. No matter how good you are at this game, getting away from the cops is a flip of the coin that usually doesn't land in your favor. You ever see those police chases videos that Fox used to run? This game is very much like that. All it takes is for somebody to pull out in front of you to wipe you out. If this game teaches you anything, it's not that it's fun to outrun cops. It's that if you value your life at all, you're much better off being a good citizen. You'll live longer.
My biggest complaint about the media's attention on this game is that it's plain as day that they haven't actually spent any time playing the game. The news would have a much more detremental affect on your child than GTA3 would. They don't really understand what it's about, instead they take screengrabs and sensationalize it. As a result, people who have no interest in the game see these screengrabs and develop strange ideas about what it's about. You know that old saying "The camera never lies?" It's completely untrue. Cameras always lie. The entire point of a camera (or in this case, a screenshot) is to tell a story. Take a screngrab of the character from GTA3 clubbing a little old lady to death, and the story that gets told is that the game is about a guy running around killing innocent people.
I would advise anybody to not get their parenting tips from places like CNN or Donahue, especially when it comes to video games. Instead, seek the opinion of somebody who's actually played the game and can tell you what it's really about.
'I think perhaps you don't understand. Wine doesn't need Windows. You can buy 3 good, modern games for the price of Windows alone."
Fair point, except that if you buy a game that Wine doesn't support, you're out $50. It's guaranteed to work with Windows since it was developed for it.
Think of it as like you're buying a game console. Windows is about the same price as an XBOX or PS2.
...so why's it so hard to just dual boot with Windows?
I mean seriously, every time I see these WineX threads I'm reminded of why I went from DOS to Win95 in the first place. I got sick of having to set everything up, then troubleshooting the inevitable problems that would arise. That's gone in recent years. Now installing a game on XP or 2k is "setup.exe, ok, ok, ok, play." Now you guys are talking about adding steps to that if the game doesn't work straight away.
Seriously dudes, if you really want to play games that badly, just dual boot into Windows. Save yourselves the fuss.
Slashdot Mirror
"...who has cable TV franchise agreements with many city governments, refuses to run ads for competing internet service providers.... guess that's something that citizens need to remind their local governments to correct the next time the monopoly terms are negotiated .."
Umm, that's not a monopoly action. They have the right to refuse service to anyone. Sorry but I'm not dusting off my pitchfork over this one.
... to drive people away from my site. I'll call it a 'banner'.
"Web sites don't use frames. Web browsers use frames. Web site author doesn't know how it will be renderred. "
.MP3 author doesn't know how it will be played back.
Mp3 files don't use the MP3 codec, Mp3 players use the MP3 codec. The
"I just moved to a new high school and was wondering what the best way to ensure I get beat up on a daily basis was. "
... hey! Put me down!"
At least look at the bright side. The word 'mount' would finally enter their vocabularies.
Hmm. Yeah, you're right. They're going to get beat up.
"... couldn't get the damn thing to work, so I said 'man mount' in order to see what I hadn't tried yet and
Just think, if he'd said "I went to N2H2 with Mozilla..." it would have made front page!
Anybody else expecting the phrase 'with wings' to appear in that one?
"Duuuh. That's because nobody selling something legitimate wants the negative side effects of spam- mainly, the disgust it causes."
Speaking of disgust that spam causes, you should respond to my comment here in the other article about spam. I normally wouldn't hunt somebody down over it, but you gave me a chewing I didn't deserve.
" What do people who don't know what a harddrive is need with "My Computer", not who doesn't know what a harddrive is."
I don't understand the "not who doesn't know what a harddrive is" bit of your comment, so please don't feel I'm intentionally dodging the question.
My Computer is a central place to look to find stuff like:
1.) HD's
2.) CD's
3.) My Document's Folder
4.) Digital Cameras/PDA's etc
5.) If you have XP, your shared folders.
It's a place to start to get at the rest of your computer. Want to search your entire computer for a file? Put in "My Computer". It may take a while, but it'll be found.
So why would somebody who doesn't know what an HD is need it for? They need to start somewhere. "My Computer" makes more sense than "hard drive", which could mean a floppy or compact disc to the uninitiated.
Think about it from a newb's point of view. You know your data's 'inside' the computer, clicking on it takes you inside it. It's a metaphor.
Again, I apologize if I didn't directly answer your question. I'm not sure I understood it.
Slashdot's been running text-based ads in the banner space above, and I can honestly say I've actually read those. Click-through is another story all together, but the message got through. The graphic banners are usually lost on me, mainly because they don't actually provide information.
It's kind of like the difference between reading Nickel Ads (or the want-ads in a newspaper) and reading a billboard. Me personally, I like having all the info up-front before I click. I'm sorry they can't track that, but banners have suckered me too many times. Just yesterday I clicked on a banner that said "Revolution OS" with a picture of a CD on it. When I got there, it turned out to be a documentary about this OS. I was expecting a distro I could install. Grr.
Here's what I think makes the text-ads work on Slashdot:
1.) They share the same font style/size as Slashdot.
2.) All the info's there. For example, I ran across the ad for adding barcode support to apps, with free demos available. I didn't click it (I have no use for barcodes) but if I did, I'd feel comfortable knowing where I'm going.
3.) They don't annoy me. They don't try to grab my attention. They don't pop up new windows. They don't interrupt my reading. Etc.
4.) They're relatively on-topic. Though I have no use for barcodes, it is of a subject matter that would be discussed here.
I just hope that the good stuff here isn't borrowed and 'improved' until they have to find some other way to sneak ads into content.
"In this day and age how many people don't know what a harddrive is who need to use the "My Computer" icon on windows? I'm hard pressed to think of an example."
Lots. There are lots of computer illiterate people today. I would happily concede that Apple has handled that better.
I guess I have to reiterate a point I made earlier: I didn't say they were right, I said there was reason. Unix may seem 'logical' to you, but you're also initiated. The mass market of people out there need to have their file systems illustrated for them. I can spend all day telling somebody how to mount a disk, or to cd to a directory, or I can say "click that folder that says "My Documents".
"Why are network drives listed under "My Computer" doesn't the name imply only have local mounts? "
Why confuse people about using a pair of backslashes to get at a shared folder? It's a shortcut, and Windows treats it like a disc. No biggie.
"This is an opinion, and I disagree with it."
I appreciate that, but I disagree with you as well, please read on.
" WineX helps create this market, because it allows people to stay and game under Linux when they otherwise wouldn't be able to."
I just don't see this happening. What I do see happening is the game company in question digging their heels into Windows. "Well, if I make this for Windows, it'll probably run on WineX. Cool. If I make it for Linux, there is no LineX for Windows to play the game. I lose a huge chunk of my market. Hmm. No Linux port here."
Sorry. It just won't work. The best chance that Linux has at creating a game market is to create a game distro. That's right, create a distro that is not only conducive to gaming, but it also comes with a bunch of free games. Give it away at places like EB, or get a deal to have magazines to insert the CD into their next publication. Then, a good gaming SDK needs to be made that works with both Windows and Linux. It needs to be like DirectX, but platform independent. It needs to cover 2D, 3D, Audio, and input such as Joysticks. It needs to be royalty free so that a game company can just use it without having to worry about signing anything. Heck, if the community is willing to really work on it, make it so that it's easy to travel across processors as well. Make it a recompile to have it work on PS2.
Anyway, that's a bit of a tangent. I don't think there's a lot you can do there, unless you can program in the Linux environment. My point stands. WineX makes it easier to play games on Linux, but it also solidifies the choice to develop games for Windows.
"Because everything beginning with "My" is so much better..."
1.) My Computer + My Network Places = 2. Everything = infinity. Your sense of proportion is a little skewed. Now open KDE and look at all the apps you have that start with K.
2.) Which reads better: My Computer or Komputer? Too easy? Okay, how about My Network Places and Kmy Knetwork Kplaces?
I find it interesting that whenever I make a legitimate complaint about Linux, people retaliate by childishly attacking Windows. Never mind that I didn't even bring up or even hint at Windows. Some of you anti-MS zealots really need to grow up. I'm dead serious. There's a wealth of useful information about how to make a UI in Windows that the KDE development team could learn alot from. (Note: learning != copying.) MS has teams dedicated to the end user experience. That's also where they are more focused. It's pretty evident that KDE's development team is not as shrewd in this respect, though it's improved a great deal in the last two years.
So spare me the stupid anti-MS attacks, as if that would have defeated me in some way. If you guys spent half your time learning about why they do things the way they do (the real reason, not the mythical "they do it to maintain a monopoly" FUD) instead of snickering at blue screen jokes, you'd have an OS that is much easier to adopt. There's a reason why 'My Computer' is called what it is. There's a reason why the Recycle Bin exists. There's a reason why permissions settings aren't near as tight as they are in Linux. Instead of assuming Microsoft's stupid, just ask the question: "Why would an educated person do this?" It might suddenly dawn on you that what really happens inside of a computer is confusing as hell to the uninitiated. The value of "My Computer" is lost on somebody who knows what a hard-drive is. But what would the value of an icon labeled "Hard Drive" be to somebody just getting started?
Okay, I'm done with my rant. I'm just amazed at how willfully ignorant some people are. Is it so hard to place yourself in somebody else's shoes?
"We may save some fuss, but we are also telling game developers that we don't want native ports, which is not true."
No you're not. They have 0 clue that you didn't buy a game because you don't use Windows.
Nobody's going to make gamnes for Linux until the market is big enough to be successful. There is no Linux game market, that's why you're getting a trickle of cheap-to-produce ports.
If you want to send them the message you want Linux ports, using WineX is doing absolutely nothing to help you. It gives them an excuse to say "We don't need to do a Linux port then." If you really really want them to make games for Linux, then don't buy the Windows games period. If you feel that's unreasonable, then you're going to have to play by their rules.
I'm in the same boat. I want GTA Vice City. It's only on PS2 right now. I will not buy a PS2. I'm personally boycotting Sony because I was a salesman for their PSOnes when they originally came out. 1 in 4 of those things were defective and Sony absolutely refused to treat their customers (mostly kids) with respect over it. It's a long story, the important part is that I'm boycotting them for reasons similar to why a lot of people here won't buy MS software.
I could probably pick up a used PS2 for a reasonable price. Since it's used, Sony wouldn't see a dime of that. Cool, eh? No. I want Rockstar to prioritize PC development. I'm sending them the message that they have to develop for PC or they won't get money from me. (Essentially what I'm advising to you.)
The bad news is that I don't get to play Vice City, but the good news is that Rockstar's gone ahead and ported it to PC. I'll have it in my hot little hands in 2 weeks. It's been a loooong week. Sadly, there are other games on PS2 I'd like to play that I never will because I just cannot support Sony.
So I hope my point sort of makes sense. If you're really devoted to avoiding MS so you can get games made for Linux, then turning around and playing the games anyway isn't helping. If I had given in and bought the used PS2, I'd be sending the message "its okay to only support PS2, I'll bend over backwards to follow you."
"As a poweruser of all software platforms I often have multiple programs that do similar things. One I might fire up if I just need to do something quick, another if I need something more powerful, and still another that might offer a unique feature that I need every now and then."
If you're a power user, then you know what you're looking for and how to go find it. When you're a new user, these little interruptions slow Linux's adoption.
That was one of the first things that slowed me down when using Linux. That and everything began with K. Yeah, real Kute. Kwhen Keverything Kbegins Kwith K Kit's Konfusing.
"I think most people, even teens and younger can separate games from reality. But to assert that you do nothing bad in the game is just wrong. "
I didn't assert that. What I said was that it was blown out of proportion. The entire point that I was making was that this game was unlikely to turn people/kids towards becoming criminals. It'd likely have the opposite effect.
"The whole thrill of the game is that you are doing bad things and getting away with it. "
Not exactly. Nobody'd bother finishing the game if it were just that. The thrill of the game is that you can break out of the conventional scripted environment of most games and actually use creativity to complete a mission. The simulation is good enough that you can be a true legend to this game. It's a very rich game even if you strip out the darker side of it.
"Plus you can usually kill one or two pedestrians before you get a wanted level. And if you only have 1 star, you drive around long enough and it will disappear. So the penalty for killing innocent people really is not there. "
Not true. If you run over somebody in plain view of a cop, they're after you. Yes, you can get away from one-star easily. When you get to two stars, then police focus on you. Then it's on. You can easily draw paralells from real life here.
"And you get a wanted level, you either bribe the police or get your car painted. It's not hard to get rid of wanted levels. (That's a good thing to teach people, how to bribe police)"
Yeah. Next time a pair of flashing lights appears behind me, I'm going to look for a token on the ground with a police badge on it. That'll get them off my back. Failing that, I'll pull into Maaco where they'll instantly paint my car and the cops won't recognize me. Heh.
"Plus the goal of many missions is to kill people. They may not be innocent in the sense that they are merely pedestrians, but you do end up killing alot of people in the game, even if you are very careful not to kill "innocent bystanders".
Yeah, you kill bad guys. Which sounds bad, right? Sure. It also shows why being involved in a gang is such an awful thing. And as I said before, when ya kill innocent bystanders, you get more police attention.
"Well argued, but it's a _game_ folks..... "
;)
If the media'd leave it at that, then I wouldn't be ranting now.
For the record, this topic is exactly the reason I won't vote to put Joe Liberman in office. He pulled this shit with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap back in the early nineties. I'm not convinced that his attacks on those games was anything more than an attempt to gain political power by raising an issue parents are ill-educated about. However, that's strictly my opinion.
"My point was simply that some people wont want to dual boot just to play games..."
;))
If you're talking about running only a handful of games you particularly like, then yes you are absolutely right, WineX is a better choice. If you're a gamer though... (no point in running around the track again..
" And in the end, if I use WineX for now to run old games, perhaps when the developers realize I only have linux (hopefully many os us) they will native port."
I'm sorry, I just don't see that happening. What they'll see is a handful of people have Linux, and a fraction of them might want to play their game. Multiply the number of Linux users/gamers by 10, and you'll start seeing Linux games. I remember reading that Q3 for Linux sold 10,000 copies. (it might have been 40k now that I think about it...) That's peanuts. A decent selling game on Win/PC is 100,000, and Q3 sold several million. See my point? It's not about people being willing to jump through hoops, it's about how many copies they can sell.
" Mozilla and all its files simply did not exist. The complete installation and directories dissapeared. The registry had no entries for it. This has only happened once."
Okay. I believe ya, but I cannot explain to you what might have happened as I've never seen it. Sounds rather unusual for me, but if it happened to me I'd feel exactly as you do.
"Wether this is repeatable I dont know, but we both know that the EULA DOES allow for this. Microsoft explicitly says that they can enter your machine and make changes, supposdly for security."
That's sort of true. The reason they have that in the EULA is so they can provide the Windows update service by default, instead of having it enabled if the user so chooses. The reason they're doing that is to make IE fixes happen a lot faster and with more proliferation. If MS didn't have that in the EULA, they'd risk being sued by having Windows call home by default.
Unfortunately, Slashdot didn't bother to actually investigate this possiblity before they ran off on a "MS wants to see everything you're doing" tangent.
I'd rather deal with SPAM by making it technically harder to send out messages like that. I guess I'm just a little paranoid that one day I'll send out a message and find myself in court.
"Because I seriously dont wont windows on my computer anymore. I dont like the direction MS is going, and I dont want to be a part of it. MS wants to eliminate us having local files..."
.HTML files.
So.. you're worried about what MS might do down the road so you won't use it to play games today? I might understand that except WineX would be of no more use to you in that case either.
If you don't want to buy it because you want to flip-off MS that's fine, I respect that. I just don't think your rationale's all that logical.
"Upon reboot Mozilla had been uninstalled! Thanks MS!"
I found this comment interesting for a few reasons:
1.) I've never heard of it before. That might not be a big deal except Slashdot would jump all over it.
2.) I can't find any reference to this problem on the web.
3.) I'm not sure that you'd know the difference between Mozilla being uninstalled and Mozilla just not being the default handler to
4.) Uninstalls don't just magically happen without you knowing in Windows.
Enlighten me?
" I was having a problem with Starcraft after I upgraded to W2K from 98. Apparently my sound card support went from 'working' to 'not' between kernels."
That's a 'fix it once' type of problem just like you'd have if it broke in Linux. That's not a "this particular game didn't like it because we didn't quite support it right" type of problem that you'd run a risk of getting in Winex.
"As for testing, you could always 'borrow the game from a friend' and then buy a legit copy once you know it works."
There are some people that'd work for. Unfortunately, that's not always a possibilty. However, I'll concede that demo availability would help suss that out.
"Don't forget the added HDD space you'll need to install Windows. XP and 2K are both rather large installations."
Yes, you're right. You'd also have to have enough partition space for your games. However, disk space is cheap. I have 40 gigs in my laptop and over 200 on my desktop. I can't imagine most people are terribly worried about dedicating a few gigs to a game partition. Secondly, why muck up your Linux configuration over it? Why find out that your video drivers are obselete for a particular game and go through the hassle of updating them? This, if gone wrong, could really mess up your productivity in Linux. The same risk exists in Windows, but it's not a big deal if that boot is only used for games. Windows is pretty graceful with it's default VGA driver, so getting it fixed isn't a big deal. To be honest, in the last 3 years of using 2k on a variety of machines, I haven't had any serious issues here.
There are other added benfitis too. Ya'll complain about spotty Windows media or Quicktime support. If something (like the Animatrix Movies) came along and you just couldn't get it to work in Linux, it'd be a piece of cake to have it running in Windows.
In any case, I know this suggestion's not going to be very popular here. Just remember this is experience talking. I'm a Windows guy. I have Linux installed on another partition because it's got Film Gimp and a few other things I'd like to play with. There are Windows versions available, but they are inferior as most of the attention goes to Linux. It's not like I'm totally insensitive to your situation here. I'd like to switch to Linux some day, but I wouldn't get rid of Windows in the process. I like playing my games. I wouldn't shoot myself in the foot like that.
"Why buy a game that isn't supported? "
That might be an interesting point of games said on the box "WineX supported". But they don't. So you're stuck having to find out on the net if it is supported. Even if it is, sometimes hardware can make a difference here. It might run okay on one person's machine, that doesn't mean your different machine will. As stated before, Windows is a much better platform for this as that's what it was developed and tested on.
You might think it's no big deal to look it up, but that requires that the game actually be released and that somebody has actually tested it. That sucks if your plan is to pre-purchase a highly-anticipated game.
Frankly, I wouldn't deal with all that mess. Then again, I don't use Linux so it really doesn't matter for me. I can play all my games. The thought of having shakey confidence about buying a game makes me shudder.
"2) I saw a study on one of the major gaming sites, and kids *are* playing this game by the ton. You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise."
What exactly is the harm in that? I've played GTA3 from beginning to end. I think it's fine for ages 13 and up. Despite what the media's made it out to be, it's really not that bad.
One of the chief complaints about the game is prostitution. They fail to mention, though, that if you don't know what a prostitute is when you play the game, you won't suddenly find out. The peak of it's graphic depiction is a rocking car. Look in the window and you see two people sitting there staring into space.
Another complaint is about being able to kill innocent people, and then making money for it. Fair point, almost. You can kill people if you like, but that's really your choice. It's not the goal of the game. (besides, wouldn'it be MORE twisted if the game didn't respond to people getting run over or hit with a bat at all? What kind of message would that send to children?) It doesn't help you in any way. If anything, this aspect of the game game teaches you a sense of right and wrong. If you beat somebody up, the cops will come get you. If you resist the cops, more of them will come. Before you know it, the entire city is against you. There's something to be said for reality here. If I kill somebody, my freedom is over. The 'money' you recieve from killing somebody is probably more a reward for taking the risk, rather than a reward for killing somebody. You have to kill a LOT of people before you can actually do anything with the money. It's kinda like getting paid 50 cents to piss off the cops. There's no benefit to murder, it only makes the game harder.
One of the other complaints about GTA3 is giving kids the urge to steal a car and try to outrun the cops in it. There might sort of be a point here. GTA3 lets you steal a car and then you can take a run at outrunning the cops, all while pulling off stunts etc. The level of physics of this game makes it seem easier than it'd really be, i.e. if you jump over a hill with your car and land on the roof, it doesn't collapse the car and kill you. Instead, if it rolls onto it's tires it can keep going. Yeah, on the surface, I can see that bothering people. However, when you play the game, you find out just how scary a police chase can be. You see, as mentioned before, this is a simulation of a city. There's all kinds of random elements that you just cannot always account for. No matter how good you are at this game, getting away from the cops is a flip of the coin that usually doesn't land in your favor. You ever see those police chases videos that Fox used to run? This game is very much like that. All it takes is for somebody to pull out in front of you to wipe you out. If this game teaches you anything, it's not that it's fun to outrun cops. It's that if you value your life at all, you're much better off being a good citizen. You'll live longer.
My biggest complaint about the media's attention on this game is that it's plain as day that they haven't actually spent any time playing the game. The news would have a much more detremental affect on your child than GTA3 would. They don't really understand what it's about, instead they take screengrabs and sensationalize it. As a result, people who have no interest in the game see these screengrabs and develop strange ideas about what it's about. You know that old saying "The camera never lies?" It's completely untrue. Cameras always lie. The entire point of a camera (or in this case, a screenshot) is to tell a story. Take a screngrab of the character from GTA3 clubbing a little old lady to death, and the story that gets told is that the game is about a guy running around killing innocent people.
I would advise anybody to not get their parenting tips from places like CNN or Donahue, especially when it comes to video games. Instead, seek the opinion of somebody who's actually played the game and can tell you what it's really about.
'I think perhaps you don't understand. Wine doesn't need Windows. You can buy 3 good, modern games for the price of Windows alone."
Fair point, except that if you buy a game that Wine doesn't support, you're out $50. It's guaranteed to work with Windows since it was developed for it.
Think of it as like you're buying a game console. Windows is about the same price as an XBOX or PS2.
...so why's it so hard to just dual boot with Windows?
I mean seriously, every time I see these WineX threads I'm reminded of why I went from DOS to Win95 in the first place. I got sick of having to set everything up, then troubleshooting the inevitable problems that would arise. That's gone in recent years. Now installing a game on XP or 2k is "setup.exe, ok, ok, ok, play." Now you guys are talking about adding steps to that if the game doesn't work straight away.
Seriously dudes, if you really want to play games that badly, just dual boot into Windows. Save yourselves the fuss.