It could be, just by adding a standard windowing interface.
No - you have completely missed the point -
It could be if they cut out all this locked-down shite. A PC is when you can choose your own OS. Until then, it is just a noose for you to stick your head in.
Why use Chrome as a limited 'OS' when you could use a real OS
Because then you could use Firefox.
Or, why do you need a screen that outperforms most laptops to be fitted with a "desktop" that was designed for a screen that is 320 x 240? Hell, that is CGA! We used to have proper desktops on that
resolution. Lets just dump all this Fisher-Price-alike icon crap for good, and go back to drop down menus - even on perfectly normal (eg Samsung J5/J7) phones.
crappy mouse support, crappy cut and paste, near total absence of keyboard shortcuts, no draggable application windows, fucked up lame excuse for a task bar.
You forgot to mention using stupid, half baked icons instead of drop-down hierarchical menus with text options for those of us who are not completely illiterate.
What are the costs to rewrite the water-billing software, payroll software, work order system, etc, and then integrate them all together?
Probably not very much if the original systems are properly documented so you have a clear idea of what you are doing, and plenty of test data. Plus your hardware costs would probably be 1/4 what they are at present, so you could factor this as part of your "rolling upgrade plan" -you do have plans for a rolling upgrade, don't you?
How many Linux gurus are willing to take the pay cut to work at the same rate as a Windows guru?
Since they are probably 4 times as productive (ie believe the statistic is more like 10 times) none would need to.
You clearly have no idea how costly it is to keep a pile of shit like Windows on the road, even without malware problems.
The fetishes of smartphone reviewers never made sense to me.
Bribes from Apple explain a lot.
As a member of a former Sony buying family, I can say with confidence - the problem is lack of bug fixes to the software. Massive show-stopping feature omissions which are never fixed is what drove us away.
We do not care about bezels, notches, thinness etc. But we wont buy phones without:
dual SIM
Removable battery
removable SD card
availability of cases, screen protectors
standard headphone and charger connectivity
OK, so its probably ten years since anyone in the family bought a Sony - we consumers remember being shafted for a long time
If Sony (or anyone else) want to buy us back, then support for 3rd party OSes is the best bet, not because many will install one, but because it publically demonstrates abandoning the "we enjoy shafting our users" mentality.
It may have escaped your attention, but very few phone users are suckers these days, because they have all had several phones before. (Apple users don't count - they have always had the same phone each time).
LibreOffice is crap. It's good for amateurs, maybe, and little children. It's not for work.
I have used it for work and i am not alone. many UK government departments appear to be using it too.
There are no valid video editing solutions.
I have been using computers since about 1972, and so far, have never needed to do any video editing. Perhaps you are a snowflake?
GIMP is a joke,
Yeah GIMP is indeed a joke. I just wish it was funnier. Perhaps someone should explain to Adobe that there is a huge market of Linux users begging for their software? Or maybe some talented upstart (Russian? Chinese?) should eat Adobe's breakfast!!! (Startups, VCs where the hell are you?)
you will get your printer/scanner/fax machine up and running in about 2 seconds on linux.
Unfortunately, if its Oki*, Canon, or certain Epson models (probably others I don't own too) , it is more a case of "walking" than running - half the functionality is gone, and 2 days later it will flake out - probably never to work again.
I accept that in all cases, it is because the manufacturer is allergic to the very concept of standards, but that is life.
I am still never going back to Windows.
* I have an Oki MC342, and Ubuntu. If you do a mail merge to A5 pages in the multi-purpose feeder, the first page is formatted as portrait, and all the rest as landscape! (The fix is to print to PDF and then print the PDF - so it is not the printer thats at fault - but try explaining that to a class of overworked health workers who need their handouts).
I have scripts my mom wrote 30 years ago which still run fine on my Linux machine today.
You are lucky - 50 years ago my mum wrote IBM IBJOB scripts - definitely not Linux compatible. Today at 93, she is a Mac user.
Luckily, at least some the Unix I learned in the 1970's is still useable on Linux - while I also learned over 10 years ago not to have anything to do with Windows.
None of my family uses Windows (although many of the younger ones use Apple - and some can even use the command line on Apple - with help from great granny if needed).
I suspect the writing is on the wall for MS. Most of the world's population either does not have "always on Internet" or can't afford it. For them Linux is the obvious answer if MS do this. It is already better localised.
for a long time outperformed x86 for a lot of worloads
Assuming you meant workloads and not warlords, it still does in terms of processing power per watt in some situations if you are talking about t-series.
Personally, I would love more server manufacturers to sell "the most power you can get in a box for 100W/200W", for which I use Sparc, but would be happy to use Arm or Mips or Risc-V. (I use very little floating point and quite a lot of I/O bandwidth).
Granny always told me not to put my eggs in a basket called x86.
wifi card also isn't going to stop working with an automatic update
Have you even used Windows? This is a regular event. Not only that, the new drivers you need have to be downloaded of the Internet using your machine with no Wifi to connect to the Internet.
In reality, Windows is not only not fit for prime time, it is "unfit for the purposes for which it was advertised" - which is a crime in Europe unless you have enough money to pay the bribes, and eventually even they will get caught.
And what was it in 1940 if you exclude airforce pilots (life expectancy in service 3 months) and heavy smokers (almost all militaries provided free cigarettes - untipped)? Most of my family that survived the war died of smoking or the consequences of pollution levels that meant you could not see the end of your own arm for days on end.
Meanwhile, my ancestors who lived between 1600 and 1800 in rural Europe mostly lived to between 70 and 90 - provided they survived the age of 5 - which a lot did not. (Have just been on a genealagy website). After the industrial revolution, things got bad in the cities.
Is that 640 computers or 640 cpus? Threads? Per person or per home (+office?)
I am probably close to 640 CPUs already, and I expect I will find a use for more if I could find a space for them. (not all of them are running at any one time - and remember a lot of Android phones have 8 cores).
If you consider PDP11 equivalent power, then that is probably close to 640k*.
Remember when Bill Gates said 640k should be enough for anyone, he could probably not afford 64k.
* Anyone know how many Cray 1 equivalents a Samsung Galaxy S9 is?
Fortunately we in the UK will be spared this lunacy, as we will, in the traditional way, have the worst thunderstorms since records began (last Thursday).
our systems do NOT depend on open source software AT ALL
If you are dependent on closed source for your infrastructure, the day will surely come when you are totally up the creek without a paddle.
You don't know anything about the software you are completely dependent on, except that you are not allowed to know what a pile of shite it is beneath the surface. And all your support depends on people who are required to sign contracts forbidding them to tell the truth about the product you have been sold.
If the software you are writing changes the world, I am concerned it will change for the worse faster than I can say Brexit.
Closed source applications may be a good idea. Closed source infrastructure cannot ever be a good idea - although it might be the only show in town.
Slashdot Mirror
No - he employs a neural net to throw the darts.
No, it just posts all your Bitcoins to Zuckerberg
or a desklet.
I think the guy who said it was a dessert topping was closer.
No - you have completely missed the point - It could be if they cut out all this locked-down shite.
A PC is when you can choose your own OS. Until then, it is just a noose for you to stick your head in.
Because then you could use Firefox.
Or, why do you need a screen that outperforms most laptops to be fitted with a "desktop" that was designed for a screen that is 320 x 240? Hell, that is CGA! We used to have proper desktops on that resolution. Lets just dump all this Fisher-Price-alike icon crap for good, and go back to drop down menus - even on perfectly normal (eg Samsung J5/J7) phones.
You forgot to mention using stupid, half baked icons instead of drop-down hierarchical menus with text options for those of us who are not completely illiterate.
Probably not very much if the original systems are properly documented so you have a clear idea of what you are doing, and plenty of test data. Plus your hardware costs would probably be 1/4 what they are at present, so you could factor this as part of your "rolling upgrade plan" -you do have plans for a rolling upgrade, don't you?
How many Linux gurus are willing to take the pay cut to work at the same rate as a Windows guru?
Since they are probably 4 times as productive (ie believe the statistic is more like 10 times) none would need to.
You clearly have no idea how costly it is to keep a pile of shit like Windows on the road, even without malware problems.
You'll never get it - that is a sensible option. The phone industry does not do "sensible".
Bribes from Apple explain a lot.
As a member of a former Sony buying family, I can say with confidence - the problem is lack of bug fixes to the software. Massive show-stopping feature omissions which are never fixed is what drove us away.
We do not care about bezels, notches, thinness etc. But we wont buy phones without:
OK, so its probably ten years since anyone in the family bought a Sony - we consumers remember being shafted for a long time
If Sony (or anyone else) want to buy us back, then support for 3rd party OSes is the best bet, not because many will install one, but because it publically demonstrates abandoning the "we enjoy shafting our users" mentality.
It may have escaped your attention, but very few phone users are suckers these days, because they have all had several phones before. (Apple users don't count - they have always had the same phone each time).
However, the letters DHS suggest the opposite
For that money, I would expect a cat!
I have used it for work and i am not alone. many UK government departments appear to be using it too.
There are no valid video editing solutions.
I have been using computers since about 1972, and so far, have never needed to do any video editing. Perhaps you are a snowflake?
GIMP is a joke,
Yeah GIMP is indeed a joke. I just wish it was funnier. Perhaps someone should explain to Adobe that there is a huge market of Linux users begging for their software? Or maybe some talented upstart (Russian? Chinese?) should eat Adobe's breakfast!!! (Startups, VCs where the hell are you?)
Unfortunately, if its Oki*, Canon, or certain Epson models (probably others I don't own too) , it is more a case of "walking" than running - half the functionality is gone, and 2 days later it will flake out - probably never to work again.
I accept that in all cases, it is because the manufacturer is allergic to the very concept of standards, but that is life.
I am still never going back to Windows.
* I have an Oki MC342, and Ubuntu. If you do a mail merge to A5 pages in the multi-purpose feeder, the first page is formatted as portrait, and all the rest as landscape! (The fix is to print to PDF and then print the PDF - so it is not the printer thats at fault - but try explaining that to a class of overworked health workers who need their handouts).
Sure - Why not put Gnome on it and call it Ubuntu?
You are lucky - 50 years ago my mum wrote IBM IBJOB scripts - definitely not Linux compatible. Today at 93, she is a Mac user.
Luckily, at least some the Unix I learned in the 1970's is still useable on Linux - while I also learned over 10 years ago not to have anything to do with Windows.
None of my family uses Windows (although many of the younger ones use Apple - and some can even use the command line on Apple - with help from great granny if needed).
I suspect the writing is on the wall for MS. Most of the world's population either does not have "always on Internet" or can't afford it. For them Linux is the obvious answer if MS do this. It is already better localised.
Because sane people do not wish to be on the same planet as Larry Ellison.
Assuming you meant workloads and not warlords, it still does in terms of processing power per watt in some situations if you are talking about t-series.
Personally, I would love more server manufacturers to sell "the most power you can get in a box for 100W/200W", for which I use Sparc, but would be happy to use Arm or Mips or Risc-V. (I use very little floating point and quite a lot of I/O bandwidth).
Granny always told me not to put my eggs in a basket called x86.
There are not enough rational persons to make this a worthwhile argument.
Just wait till he finds out about salt mines from Vlad!
Have you even used Windows? This is a regular event. Not only that, the new drivers you need have to be downloaded of the Internet using your machine with no Wifi to connect to the Internet.
In reality, Windows is not only not fit for prime time, it is "unfit for the purposes for which it was advertised" - which is a crime in Europe unless you have enough money to pay the bribes, and eventually even they will get caught.
And what was it in 1940 if you exclude airforce pilots (life expectancy in service 3 months) and heavy smokers (almost all militaries provided free cigarettes - untipped)? Most of my family that survived the war died of smoking or the consequences of pollution levels that meant you could not see the end of your own arm for days on end.
Meanwhile, my ancestors who lived between 1600 and 1800 in rural Europe mostly lived to between 70 and 90 - provided they survived the age of 5 - which a lot did not. (Have just been on a genealagy website). After the industrial revolution, things got bad in the cities.
Or, as we say here on /.
If it ain't broke, it ain't Windows.
If you consider PDP11 equivalent power, then that is probably close to 640k*.
Remember when Bill Gates said 640k should be enough for anyone, he could probably not afford 64k.
* Anyone know how many Cray 1 equivalents a Samsung Galaxy S9 is?
Fortunately we in the UK will be spared this lunacy, as we will, in the traditional way, have the worst thunderstorms since records began (last Thursday).
If you are dependent on closed source for your infrastructure, the day will surely come when you are totally up the creek without a paddle.
You don't know anything about the software you are completely dependent on, except that you are not allowed to know what a pile of shite it is beneath the surface. And all your support depends on people who are required to sign contracts forbidding them to tell the truth about the product you have been sold.
If the software you are writing changes the world, I am concerned it will change for the worse faster than I can say Brexit.
Closed source applications may be a good idea. Closed source infrastructure cannot ever be a good idea - although it might be the only show in town.