I did have my share of problems.... And that about 4 weeks ago while reinstalling the machine of friend of mine. That's a machine that's about 1.5 years old, so you cannot blame the age.
I made a tri-boot machine out of it: W98 for games (he wanted it that way) and W2k for serious stuff and I gave him a Lycoris partition so that he actually gets a feel for Linux. He is a Marketing Major, so I think it would be a good thing to expose him to Linux. However the results I got were these:
Win98: WinModem didn't detect. As I always go I don't use the CD delivered by the manufacturer but go straight to the website of the manufacturer and download it there. Yes, it was there and no it didn't work. Why is beyond me. I installed it from the CD and it worked but the performance is appaling including mulitiple disconnects.
Windows 2000: Winmodem did detect as a HSF (or HFS, I don't remember) modem. I was happy and thought to give it a shot with the default drivers. No success. Back to the manufacturer website, downloaded the current drivers and those didn't work either. Had to use the CD once again. Works fine on W2k though.
Lycoris: Winmodem didn't detect (as I expected), surfed to the manufacturers website where I downloaded a module that had to be compiled against the kernel. I did that but got the nice message that I couldn't use it because the Lycoris kernel was SMP and that was not supported by that module. So I had to recompile the kernel, but I somehow broke Lycoris completely that way (yes, my fault probably). So reinstall Lycoris, and then my options were over. I just let it be, he won't have a modem on Linux:-(
I realise it probably is just crappy hardware, but it still proves that Software Modems are not very reliable. What if he wants to upgrade to WinXP? Will it work? I highly doubt it. That is one of the biggest issues I have with softmodems. With hardware modems you just need a serial port and a generic driver and it will work reliably.
I warned him though that he has a crappy modem. Hope he will change it soon, but I don't think so. Saving 2$ on an IC with these kind of issues is just stupid. Sorry, for the rant...
Thank you kind, sir.. I only have this Mac for 9 months and am too stupid to find that myself (note, didn't find it very obvious)
Now Chimera is default! Yay! I rule...ehm.. My iBook rules, I mean.
Yes, dear AC... I know that, and I did that. It does it for every program (Gnucleus for example), except Mozilla. I don't get it, I'm pretty sure I did something wrong myself, but I don't know what. I haven't set up Dialup in ages...which probably doesn't help.
I mostly blame my own incompetence, not Mircosoft. It's still astonishing, I have a very huge experience in reinstalling machines. I do it for anyone who asks and has a case of beer in spare;-)
Well, even though I find the claims a bit exaggerated, I have had a problem with SP3. I don't run it myself yet, but last weekend I reinstalled the machine of my uncle with Windows 2000 in order to get him rid of Windows ME that came with his computer and was completely corrupted. (Okay, this W2k version is my legal copy so technically this is pirating).
However I wanted him not to have trouble with the security issues that often come with Internet Explorer (particulary the one that ships with W2k). So I though I'd install Mozilla and disable IE5 with the service pack 3. This is what I did, I also installed the IE skin for mozilla so that they wouldn't be too disorientated. (I downloaded all this on my own DSL line and burned it to CD so that I didn't have to use his puny 56K modem). Now comes the problem: normally users are used to start "the internet" by starting Internet Explorer. If I tried the same with Mozilla, but it just says "website not found" (the page marked as homepage), instead of starting the connection. Now how do you expect Mozilla to be usable when a normal user has to start the connection himself if years and years the computer took care of that.
That's why I re-enabled IE5 as default browser, and told them to start the internet that way and I also told them that I installed an alternate browser that is in my opinion superior. Of course I know they are never going to use it. Is this a problem with Mozilla? I don't know... Perhaps I just had to check an option in Mozilla, but I didn't find it. I do not accuse Microsoft of anything, but I felt a bit disappointed in SP3 because of this issue. (Note that I also disabled Outlook and installed Eudora instead, but I know Eudora connects when not connected)
Isn't that what CSS is for? I mean, if you get a server up and running, learning basic HTML and CSS1 should be peanuts.
And since the headhunters will be running IE6 they will be able to read it. Well, if IE6 complies to standards and everyone here claims so. I use Mozilla anyway, on x86 and Mac.
Damn, I was going for a Funny mod and you made an even more funny statement out of it. Soon we will see a Sun-Lego merger in order to get a steady supply of cheap workmanship! Question is: how will they call themselves? LeSun or SunGo;-)
Point taken... A love one is worth more than any money on this world, but I thought it was a funny way to give a honest compliment. Besides, you just should use the compliment while referring to the article. See: you could turn it like that... Any geek that doesn't have a girlfriend would have to spend 40Mio$ and I have you which is way better. Something like that.
Right... But on the other hand gaving a girlfriend is probably worth more than even those 40Mio$. I was actually just trying to make a point that you should value what you have.
Take your car example... I have a 35000$ car, and it is more worth to me than that. Perceived value is often different from the real value.
I still use Office 97. For the Home User it is already overkill. At work I have to use Office 2000 (I'm a developer, so I don't really use Office...only to read stuff others write), but honestly, I don't see a big difference (except in the amount of memory being hogged)
Just make sure you buy one of the latest iBook models with the Radeon chipset
How do I check this? I bought my iBook G3 600Mhz with DVD/CD-RW combo last december and I don't even know what graphics card is in it. The thing is only slow when I load too much stuff at the same time... 384Meg RAM is full in notime:-((
If you are a geek with a girlfriend (a rarity), don't forget her to tell her that she is worth $40,000,000. It's one heck of a compliment, and now you have proof of in with this article;-)
No... Office 2000 is more annoying than Office 97. (Personalized menu's anyone - yes, I know you can disable it) I did't see any new features that make it worthwhile. At home I still use Office 97 and it works just fine for anything I do. At work I have Office 2000, so can compare even though I'm not an extensive user. I cannot say anything about Office XP. Does anyone actually use Office XP? I never even saw it.
The other day I got my first Office 97/Office 2000 incompatibility: in Excel 97, I wasn't able to change the background colour of a cell in a document that was created using Excel 2000. Found it quite strange, but perhaps I did something wrong;-)
Same situation here...just it is a P166 with 128Meg RAM running OpenBSD (Really...OpenBSD has no bloat, well not the kind of bloat typical Linux and Windows systems have). Mine serves 5 users, and one would think it is non-mission critical. The problem with such a setup is that once you get your "users" (read: family) to rely on the setup it has becomes mission critical. My sister actually calls me for support if for some reason the "internet is down". You have to see the faces of your coworkers if you do technical support for home:-P And to maximze uptime, I finally even shelled out the money for a UPS. Best purchase I ever made in years (we got quite a lot of power outages lately).
I still have a PPro200, but it still is used as a desktop. Great desktop by the way... Has 256Meg RAM, more than enough for anything my family can throw at it;-) Well, except for newer games... But don't get me started about that.
No need to thank me. For once I got a reasonable and informative conversation on slashdot. This has become rather rare lately (my regular account is in the 190K range..not as low as yours of course)
Just one two small comments:
For computers being a service rather than an appliance. I already do it that way: I'm the service, and people just have to pay me a case of beer for service. They can call me day and night and I will fix stuff as soon as possible. Of course, it's a bargain, but my reputation has spread...there is not a week that I don't earn my case of beer. Usually I setup W2K or NT4 (according to the power of the machine) and setup up the users. They don't get the Admin password. It really is astonishing how stable computers get if you do that;-) I also disable Autoplay, because it is the single most annoying feature in the Windows world. Some installers are so stupid that they actually run at each insertion of the CD... which is very stupid if the application is already installed. Many applications (games) do need the CD just for data and/or copy protection.
I'm holding on to a PII-233, just in case it ever comes in handy. As a paperweight, I suppose.
I *sure* hope you are kidding. Is your P-II 233 a paperweight? Ehm, can I have it? I'll take care of shipping and handling. My NAT/Firewall/Fileserver/Mailserver/Webserver is a P166 with 128Meg RAM running OpenBSD. Memory usage is around 30 - 40 Megs of RAM, CPU gets hardly used at all...Only Samba seems to eat up a lot when everyone is accessing their files at the same time.
The machine I bought for my sisters is a K6-II 333Mhz (384Meg RAM) and she uses it as a desktop. Speedy enough for *everything*, according to her. So I could really make a nice Linux desktop from a P-II 233 or a very very nice server. The possibilities are infinite:-) Just try it yourself, because such a great machine has a better destiny than being a paperweight. But, of course, I just didn't "get" the joke, right?
You are entitled to all the rants you want. I'm going to make this short for I do not have time to argue:
I think six times the price (take 1Mbit/s in Belgium and do the same in LU) of what our neighbours have is pretty expensive
Indeed...but only because you compare price/speed. Are there offerings in our neighbouring countries that are 256kbps/64kbps for a *very* low price? No, those do not exist: they have the choice between a (as half expensive as ours) DSL line or no DSL at all. Granted, they get faster access, but for low-budget families a 5Eur/month DSL access with 256Kbps/64Kbps is surely preferable over a 75Euro month DSL line they now can get.
Besides, do not forget we are frigging rich here in Luxembourg. Compare the rent of apartments her in Luxembourg to the rent in Antwerp. Or even the price of a house. Living is just more expensive in Luxembourg and that's just life. Cope, or move to Belgium (or whatever).
Gaming
You do realise you are a special kind of public? Do you? I do my share of big downloads: Linux ISO's, Service Packs etc... But I'm also a special kind of public, you know those of the "Nerd" kind. Normal users don't do this. Normal users do surf, email, chat... And P2P, and it's only the latter that need broadband.
surfing slow
Granted...but just don't visit sites with Flash. It's what I do...I don't think I ever missed anything. I hate flash as much as the next geek.
email jokes
I have the connection, I don't care. Since I run my own mailserver they get in during the day and I push "check mail" and not 10 seconds later I have the in my mailbox. It's the forwarding part that is hard for the line, but of course I do not have to forward;-) The normal user however either gets not much of this email, or likes this kind of stuff. So if he likes it, he has to wait. It's what I did in the modem and ISDN days.
ISDN
Re-read my previous post: most important selling point was the ability to have two phonelines. That is: you are online and and can call. It is more reliable, and if you do not buy a silly 10Euro card you will not have any problems. Heck, I have used ISDN for over 4 years and never ever had any problems regarding drivers. But of course I buy decent hardware and I did run NT4 (now W2k, but I don't use ISDN anymore anyayy). You do not need the modem-emulation, what for anyway? You use your modem for anything else than the Internet? I surely don't. You only *need* the CAPI drivers, that's it..done. I think you never actually installed an ISDN solution.
My reliability remark was a bit biased because I came from a 28.8k hardware modem when 56k was getting the norm. That is when I switched to ISDN. I know software modems are crap, I don't do in that. However I have many clients that I help that have serious disconnection problems (to the P&T kiosk service) useing hardware modems (US Robotics external). In my opinion Analog communication must die as fast as possible. I'd take ISDN/DSL anyday over Analog/DSL, yes it costs 50Euro more...But then I do not care. 50 Euro? You cannot even go to a good restaurant with friends for that!
Bitching people on IRC
Did you ever consider that these gamers were just bitching on IRC because they get fragged all the time when competing agains DSL users? The just vent their frustration: those that did have DSL were probably just happily gaming.
Above that, consider also that there is a high probability that you were gaming against people from this region (Saar-Mosel/Lorraine/Ardennes), which is technologically as bad as as Luxembourg, if not worse. Low population-densty you know. If you had been asking around about the bigger cities, you would have gotten a different image of the situation.
Finally, I suspect that gamers prefer to push 200Euro on the newest NVidia Geforce7 than on a ADSL interface (don't call it a "modem", it's not).
Finally I'm always on too. Heck I even bought a UPS in order to keep my machine up during power failures (we had our share with the storms). Actually, mine is up 24/24, 7/7 unless something unexpected happens. Relatively speaking I "pay less" now too. (Actually even asolutely speaking, from 4 hours on daily online DSL is cheaper). It's great to have (even low-end) broadband, and I suspect times will change: speeds will go up, pricing will go down. We are just first-adopters (I was a first-adopter for cellphones too, do I have to remind you what a call costed on a cellphone 7 years ago?) Luxemburg just *is* a bit slower. Accept it.
First off: Don't pick on my nick. I chose it a while ago and thought Trolling would be fun. Well it isn't. I just state my opinions with it now, especially the controversial ones.
The PPro I mentioned is older than 4 years. I have had it since 1996. I just did not have any machine that is 4 year old lying around, so I just picked the closest next one. Don't forget that the PPro is technically a P-II without MMX, so a P-II 233 and a PPro 200 are really really close. Besides, that machine runs The Sims perfectly, not kidding you.
Indeed I might agree that my timescales on CPU speeds are a bit skewed. Probably due to the fact that I'm happy with my machine. You are probably right that most 4-year old machines will be running todays "popular applications" (That's Office and Quicken and that kind of stuff..), but it will run games *only* when it was Top-Off-The-Line when it was bought. Normal users do not buy Top-Off-The-Line equipent. Only when this Top-Off-The-Line PC was correctly maintained and upgraded, current games will run. And with this I mean *exactly* upgrading the graphics card and RAM. Or did you really think that my PPro came with a VooDoo2 and 256Meg RAM back in 1996? Besides, the resaon I picked the PPro back in the Pentium days was that I wanted to keep it a long time, and as you see it worked fine: runs Windows 2000 perfectly and every normal application I really need. Even two year old games are great: The Sims, Halflife, and that kind of stuff...excuse me if I'm again a year off or so.
Minimum System Requirements don't really reflect what the game actually needs. Only execption to-date that really was correct on Minimum System Requirements was The Sims. Oh, heck, I ran The Sims on a P120 laptop with 32Meg RAM, it was slow as hell but playable (and I had to cheat telling it not to check for memory) And for example RTCW is a real pain in the butt: it reverts to "high settings" every time you leave the game. Might be a bug, might have a patch on the internet...but to me old-computer user it is really annoying.
Besides, I didn't know that "You Don't Know Jack" was an *actual* game. I'm not a gamer at all and I thought the name of the game was just made up like "Joe Sixpack".
My main point still is that a normal user will not see the difference between "crappy performance" and "not working" . That's it and nothing else. About Linux being worse in "buying and installing third party software" being less easy. Yes, that is right. You will not find "Backgammon Madness for Linux" (made-up-title) on the shelves at Best Buy. And you don't shove the CD into the machine and just install it. And I think that is danmed good, because most people that use computers shouldn't be allowed to do so (installing applications, not using computers). They are as apt to administer their machines as I am apt to upgrade my car, meaning absolutely not.
I don't know, but I've seen my share of machines (especially W 9x) that have been hosed beyond recognition by your beloved Third Party Software or by it's own users.
And don't even start about having it a better API and it's Plug 'n Play etc... Don't even try to install a current machine on a stock 98 install without having it complain about DirextX 9, or whatever version is current right now. Luckily it's mostly shipped on the CD of the game, but "normal user" doens't know what DirectX is in the first place.
Oh, yes, I remember that game. We played it (and finished it) on one of those lazy wednesday afternoons we were supposed to be in class. This was many springs ago.
Ah, memories! I'd love to play it again... Just I don't have it anymore. Since it's *not* abandonware you won't find it anywhere. Still, can buy it at Lucasarts I believe.
First, the P&T DSL is not a bad offering because it is not that expensive (and better that than no broadband). Of course I'd like to have a faster connection, but that one will have to do. For the uplink I am not so sure, I think it really is just 64Kbps. I run sendmail and if I dare to send email jokes to my friend it brings my connection to a grinding halt (sending a big movie to 20 emails is heavy for sendmail) Perhaps it is just a geographical difference, I do not know.
A thing that you seem to forget is that a faster connection is not needed for most users. 56k modem is enough to surf and chat and email. Only with the advent of P2P applications the demand by "normal users" has become higher. That's why we got it in the end I think. Also, the cost of broadband is way beyond what most people want to pay. I have had ISDN (and still have ISDN) for a long time and it served me well (much more reliable) ADSL is cheaper for me because my family is online for more than 5 hours a day, but most people are only online a few hours a day or even less. It just doesn't pay for them, and this also counts for our neighbouring countries.
In neighbouring countries DSL and Cable have been offered for a long time, but they were not advertised that much. Simply because the target market are commuters and geeks. Only in the last year I have seen normal users jump to ADSL or Cable. Really not before.
I know you refer to the T-ISDN ads in germany that ran on TV about a year ago. Well, their prime selling point was *not* speed. It was the fact that you could be on the internet and phone at the same time. Broadband just comes to the attention of the general public right now (T-DSL or how is it called in the T-Online ads?) and this is due because people now want speed... due to P2P applications. I also think that pushing ISDN is not a bad thing. It feeded the demand for DSL because it was slightly faster but way more reliable. I've never been disconnected on an ISDN line, but many times on a modem.
It is not because you didn't see ads for broadband in our neigbouing countries that it was not there. I can confirm out of first hand that it existed for sure in Antwerp and Paris at least for two years (longer certainly), but consider also that these sectors are highly urbanized.
First thing: I'm not the AC that replied to you (though he seemed quite polite)
Second. Following your logic a computer intergrator like Dell and Compaq should not sell unproven hardware with flaky drivers. This however is not the case: go and look at their offerings. They all have the latest NVidia cards and thus the drivers. Not that I say they are not good quality, but optimizations will come in the following years. I know that competition and demand dictate them to do this.
Next, you are indeed correct that performance intensive applications have a small userbase but only in the corporate market. Home users tend to overestimate their hardware. Not only that they underestimate themselves. Look, how many times have you helped people out with buying/building a computer? I did many times: if you ask them whet want to do you'll get the classic answer: "email, word processing, surfing and eventually using Encarta". Now, a celery is enough for that and I will recommend them a cheaper machine. However two weeks later the said "normal user" will call me to tell me that I recommended a crap computer. Why? Simple: they just bought RTCW and it was unbearably slow. This was not stated in the initial specifications given to me, but yet I am blamed. Because, contrary to what you say: an application like that "that just runs slow" looks to the normal users as "an application that does not work".
I know, I've been there. The computer I mentioned (the PPro 200, 256Meg RAM, with Voodoo2) is able to run RTCW but you have to set detail very very low. I knew that when I installed it on that machine, but the kid next does does not know that.
Oh, besides...some years ago, I ran Unreal on that said machine (96Meg RAM back then) and it runs really good on that. A friend of my sisters came along and was completely baffled the game ran at all. The guy did have a P-II class machine, with a nice config for the rest, but yet his badly maintained PC just choked on it. For him, it didn't work.
I don't want to break your illusions but end-users really are not what you think they are.
When?
Think back the late eighties and the early nineties. I will talk specifically PC now, but think for example of DOS 3.xx. Most people stayed at 3.xx even when 4.xx came out because 4.xx was plain and utter crap. Only when 5.xx and 6.xx came out people upgraded (and then really not that many). I also think of Wordperfect. How many people stayed years on WP 5.1. I personally used WP 4.8 (IIRC) a loooong time.
We don't even have to stay in the PC world, look at the mainframes: how many custom build COBOL applications do run in emulation on newer mainframes? I will tell you (for I work in the banking sector)...A lot.
The upgrade cycle has become much much faster. Look at it that way: when did Windows 2000 came out? And when Windows XP? Not even a year later. However I do not see an incentive to upgrade. Same with Office 97. I still use it, many people consider me backward and idiot because I do not follow. Why should I? I can read any document I get, why install a new Office Suite that drains CPU and even more RAM (I have seem RAM usage jumping to 200Megs just by typing three sentences in Word!)
We can resist: don't upgrade if there is no need. For consumer apps, I use (for example) ICQ 2000b. We are at which version? 2002b surely. And you know why I upgraded to 2000b? Just because 99b stopped working correctly. 99b provided me anything I needed.
I don't upgrade my car either because my current one doesn't have cupholders (it doesn't).
Do not misunderstand me: upgrading can be useful, that is when there are security issues or when there really is that little feature you have been craving for years for. Otherwhise it is just the same as buying a new car because the newer models have cupholders.
Finally there is the hardware issue: back in the 8086, 80286, 80386, 80486 and early pentium days the performance difference was very notable. This has changed, take any P-II class computer and slap enough RAM into it and you can run virtually anything you need (speaking as a normal user). Why slow it even more down by installing never versions that don't bring anything more except more memory requirements and more CPU requirements. Heck, I run Eclipse at work and at home. At work I just got a shiny P-IV 1.8Ghz with 512Meg RAM, at home I run a P-III 800Mhz with 768Meg RAM. Noticable difference between the two: zero.. It both feels as sluggish as ever.
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I made a tri-boot machine out of it: W98 for games (he wanted it that way) and W2k for serious stuff and I gave him a Lycoris partition so that he actually gets a feel for Linux. He is a Marketing Major, so I think it would be a good thing to expose him to Linux. However the results I got were these:
- Win98: WinModem didn't detect. As I always go I don't use the CD delivered by the manufacturer but go straight to the website of the manufacturer and download it there. Yes, it was there and no it didn't work. Why is beyond me. I installed it from the CD and it worked but the performance is appaling including mulitiple disconnects.
- Windows 2000: Winmodem did detect as a HSF (or HFS, I don't remember) modem. I was happy and thought to give it a shot with the default drivers. No success. Back to the manufacturer website, downloaded the current drivers and those didn't work either. Had to use the CD once again. Works fine on W2k though.
- Lycoris: Winmodem didn't detect (as I expected), surfed to the manufacturers website where I downloaded a module that had to be compiled against the kernel. I did that but got the nice message that I couldn't use it because the Lycoris kernel was SMP and that was not supported by that module. So I had to recompile the kernel, but I somehow broke Lycoris completely that way (yes, my fault probably). So reinstall Lycoris, and then my options were over. I just let it be, he won't have a modem on Linux
:-(
I realise it probably is just crappy hardware, but it still proves that Software Modems are not very reliable. What if he wants to upgrade to WinXP? Will it work? I highly doubt it. That is one of the biggest issues I have with softmodems. With hardware modems you just need a serial port and a generic driver and it will work reliably.I warned him though that he has a crappy modem. Hope he will change it soon, but I don't think so. Saving 2$ on an IC with these kind of issues is just stupid. Sorry, for the rant...
Thank you kind, sir.. I only have this Mac for 9 months and am too stupid to find that myself (note, didn't find it very obvious)
Now Chimera is default! Yay! I rule...ehm.. My iBook rules, I mean.
I mostly blame my own incompetence, not Mircosoft. It's still astonishing, I have a very huge experience in reinstalling machines. I do it for anyone who asks and has a case of beer in spare ;-)
Where is that in OS X? I'd really love it that the Mail app would lauch Mozilla instead of Internet Explorer when I click on a link people send me.
However I wanted him not to have trouble with the security issues that often come with Internet Explorer (particulary the one that ships with W2k). So I though I'd install Mozilla and disable IE5 with the service pack 3. This is what I did, I also installed the IE skin for mozilla so that they wouldn't be too disorientated. (I downloaded all this on my own DSL line and burned it to CD so that I didn't have to use his puny 56K modem). Now comes the problem: normally users are used to start "the internet" by starting Internet Explorer. If I tried the same with Mozilla, but it just says "website not found" (the page marked as homepage), instead of starting the connection. Now how do you expect Mozilla to be usable when a normal user has to start the connection himself if years and years the computer took care of that.
That's why I re-enabled IE5 as default browser, and told them to start the internet that way and I also told them that I installed an alternate browser that is in my opinion superior. Of course I know they are never going to use it.
Is this a problem with Mozilla? I don't know... Perhaps I just had to check an option in Mozilla, but I didn't find it. I do not accuse Microsoft of anything, but I felt a bit disappointed in SP3 because of this issue. (Note that I also disabled Outlook and installed Eudora instead, but I know Eudora connects when not connected)
And since the headhunters will be running IE6 they will be able to read it. Well, if IE6 complies to standards and everyone here claims so. I use Mozilla anyway, on x86 and Mac.
Damn, I was going for a Funny mod and you made an even more funny statement out of it. Soon we will see a Sun-Lego merger in order to get a steady supply of cheap workmanship! ;-)
Question is: how will they call themselves? LeSun or SunGo
Oh, he doesn't even need to build it himself.
Point taken... A love one is worth more than any money on this world, but I thought it was a funny way to give a honest compliment. Besides, you just should use the compliment while referring to the article. See: you could turn it like that... Any geek that doesn't have a girlfriend would have to spend 40Mio$ and I have you which is way better. Something like that.
Take your car example... I have a 35000$ car, and it is more worth to me than that. Perceived value is often different from the real value.
I still use Office 97. For the Home User it is already overkill. At work I have to use Office 2000 (I'm a developer, so I don't really use Office...only to read stuff others write), but honestly, I don't see a big difference (except in the amount of memory being hogged)
How do I check this? I bought my iBook G3 600Mhz with DVD/CD-RW combo last december and I don't even know what graphics card is in it. The thing is only slow when I load too much stuff at the same time... 384Meg RAM is full in notime :-((
No problem: I can send you that one for the small fee of 100$.
If you are a geek with a girlfriend (a rarity), don't forget her to tell her that she is worth $40,000,000. It's one heck of a compliment, and now you have proof of in with this article ;-)
I a hot chick wearing next to nothing would install a heatsink on my new P4.... I bet that I will need a heatsink myself!
No... Office 2000 is more annoying than Office 97. (Personalized menu's anyone - yes, I know you can disable it) I did't see any new features that make it worthwhile. At home I still use Office 97 and it works just fine for anything I do. At work I have Office 2000, so can compare even though I'm not an extensive user. I cannot say anything about Office XP. Does anyone actually use Office XP? I never even saw it. ;-)
The other day I got my first Office 97/Office 2000 incompatibility: in Excel 97, I wasn't able to change the background colour of a cell in a document that was created using Excel 2000. Found it quite strange, but perhaps I did something wrong
I still have a PPro200, but it still is used as a desktop. Great desktop by the way... Has 256Meg RAM, more than enough for anything my family can throw at it ;-) Well, except for newer games... But don't get me started about that.
Well, another one springs to mind: the software industry.
But then I really am a pirate, arrr, matie!
Just one two small comments: ;-) I also disable Autoplay, because it is the single most annoying feature in the Windows world. Some installers are so stupid that they actually run at each insertion of the CD... which is very stupid if the application is already installed. Many applications (games) do need the CD just for data and/or copy protection.
For computers being a service rather than an appliance. I already do it that way: I'm the service, and people just have to pay me a case of beer for service. They can call me day and night and I will fix stuff as soon as possible. Of course, it's a bargain, but my reputation has spread...there is not a week that I don't earn my case of beer. Usually I setup W2K or NT4 (according to the power of the machine) and setup up the users. They don't get the Admin password. It really is astonishing how stable computers get if you do that
I'm holding on to a PII-233, just in case it ever comes in handy. As a paperweight, I suppose. :-) Just try it yourself, because such a great machine has a better destiny than being a paperweight. But, of course, I just didn't "get" the joke, right?
I *sure* hope you are kidding. Is your P-II 233 a paperweight? Ehm, can I have it? I'll take care of shipping and handling. My NAT/Firewall/Fileserver/Mailserver/Webserver is a P166 with 128Meg RAM running OpenBSD. Memory usage is around 30 - 40 Megs of RAM, CPU gets hardly used at all...Only Samba seems to eat up a lot when everyone is accessing their files at the same time.
The machine I bought for my sisters is a K6-II 333Mhz (384Meg RAM) and she uses it as a desktop. Speedy enough for *everything*, according to her. So I could really make a nice Linux desktop from a P-II 233 or a very very nice server. The possibilities are infinite
I think six times the price (take 1Mbit/s in Belgium and do the same in LU) of what our neighbours have is pretty expensive
Indeed...but only because you compare price/speed. Are there offerings in our neighbouring countries that are 256kbps/64kbps for a *very* low price? No, those do not exist: they have the choice between a (as half expensive as ours) DSL line or no DSL at all. Granted, they get faster access, but for low-budget families a 5Eur/month DSL access with 256Kbps/64Kbps is surely preferable over a 75Euro month DSL line they now can get.
Besides, do not forget we are frigging rich here in Luxembourg. Compare the rent of apartments her in Luxembourg to the rent in Antwerp. Or even the price of a house. Living is just more expensive in Luxembourg and that's just life. Cope, or move to Belgium (or whatever).
Gaming
You do realise you are a special kind of public? Do you? I do my share of big downloads: Linux ISO's, Service Packs etc... But I'm also a special kind of public, you know those of the "Nerd" kind. Normal users don't do this. Normal users do surf, email, chat... And P2P, and it's only the latter that need broadband.
surfing slow
Granted...but just don't visit sites with Flash. It's what I do...I don't think I ever missed anything. I hate flash as much as the next geek.
email jokes
I have the connection, I don't care. Since I run my own mailserver they get in during the day and I push "check mail" and not 10 seconds later I have the in my mailbox. It's the forwarding part that is hard for the line, but of course I do not have to forward ;-) The normal user however either gets not much of this email, or likes this kind of stuff. So if he likes it, he has to wait. It's what I did in the modem and ISDN days.
ISDN
Re-read my previous post: most important selling point was the ability to have two phonelines. That is: you are online and and can call. It is more reliable, and if you do not buy a silly 10Euro card you will not have any problems. Heck, I have used ISDN for over 4 years and never ever had any problems regarding drivers. But of course I buy decent hardware and I did run NT4 (now W2k, but I don't use ISDN anymore anyayy). You do not need the modem-emulation, what for anyway? You use your modem for anything else than the Internet? I surely don't. You only *need* the CAPI drivers, that's it..done. I think you never actually installed an ISDN solution.
My reliability remark was a bit biased because I came from a 28.8k hardware modem when 56k was getting the norm. That is when I switched to ISDN. I know software modems are crap, I don't do in that. However I have many clients that I help that have serious disconnection problems (to the P&T kiosk service) useing hardware modems (US Robotics external). In my opinion Analog communication must die as fast as possible. I'd take ISDN/DSL anyday over Analog/DSL, yes it costs 50Euro more...But then I do not care. 50 Euro? You cannot even go to a good restaurant with friends for that!
Bitching people on IRC
Did you ever consider that these gamers were just bitching on IRC because they get fragged all the time when competing agains DSL users? The just vent their frustration: those that did have DSL were probably just happily gaming.
Above that, consider also that there is a high probability that you were gaming against people from this region (Saar-Mosel/Lorraine/Ardennes), which is technologically as bad as as Luxembourg, if not worse. Low population-densty you know. If you had been asking around about the bigger cities, you would have gotten a different image of the situation.
Finally, I suspect that gamers prefer to push 200Euro on the newest NVidia Geforce7 than on a ADSL interface (don't call it a "modem", it's not).
Finally I'm always on too. Heck I even bought a UPS in order to keep my machine up during power failures (we had our share with the storms). Actually, mine is up 24/24, 7/7 unless something unexpected happens. Relatively speaking I "pay less" now too. (Actually even asolutely speaking, from 4 hours on daily online DSL is cheaper). It's great to have (even low-end) broadband, and I suspect times will change: speeds will go up, pricing will go down. We are just first-adopters (I was a first-adopter for cellphones too, do I have to remind you what a call costed on a cellphone 7 years ago?) Luxemburg just *is* a bit slower. Accept it.
The PPro I mentioned is older than 4 years. I have had it since 1996. I just did not have any machine that is 4 year old lying around, so I just picked the closest next one. Don't forget that the PPro is technically a P-II without MMX, so a P-II 233 and a PPro 200 are really really close. Besides, that machine runs The Sims perfectly, not kidding you.
Indeed I might agree that my timescales on CPU speeds are a bit skewed. Probably due to the fact that I'm happy with my machine. You are probably right that most 4-year old machines will be running todays "popular applications" (That's Office and Quicken and that kind of stuff..), but it will run games *only* when it was Top-Off-The-Line when it was bought. Normal users do not buy Top-Off-The-Line equipent. Only when this Top-Off-The-Line PC was correctly maintained and upgraded, current games will run. And with this I mean *exactly* upgrading the graphics card and RAM. Or did you really think that my PPro came with a VooDoo2 and 256Meg RAM back in 1996? Besides, the resaon I picked the PPro back in the Pentium days was that I wanted to keep it a long time, and as you see it worked fine: runs Windows 2000 perfectly and every normal application I really need. Even two year old games are great: The Sims, Halflife, and that kind of stuff...excuse me if I'm again a year off or so.
Minimum System Requirements don't really reflect what the game actually needs. Only execption to-date that really was correct on Minimum System Requirements was The Sims. Oh, heck, I ran The Sims on a P120 laptop with 32Meg RAM, it was slow as hell but playable (and I had to cheat telling it not to check for memory) And for example RTCW is a real pain in the butt: it reverts to "high settings" every time you leave the game. Might be a bug, might have a patch on the internet...but to me old-computer user it is really annoying.
Besides, I didn't know that "You Don't Know Jack" was an *actual* game. I'm not a gamer at all and I thought the name of the game was just made up like "Joe Sixpack".
My main point still is that a normal user will not see the difference between "crappy performance" and "not working" . That's it and nothing else. About Linux being worse in "buying and installing third party software" being less easy. Yes, that is right. You will not find "Backgammon Madness for Linux" (made-up-title) on the shelves at Best Buy. And you don't shove the CD into the machine and just install it. And I think that is danmed good, because most people that use computers shouldn't be allowed to do so (installing applications, not using computers). They are as apt to administer their machines as I am apt to upgrade my car, meaning absolutely not.
I don't know, but I've seen my share of machines (especially W 9x) that have been hosed beyond recognition by your beloved Third Party Software or by it's own users.
And don't even start about having it a better API and it's Plug 'n Play etc... Don't even try to install a current machine on a stock 98 install without having it complain about DirextX 9, or whatever version is current right now. Luckily it's mostly shipped on the CD of the game, but "normal user" doens't know what DirectX is in the first place.
I probably just have a old-hardware fetich. ;-)
Oh, yes, I remember that game. We played it (and finished it) on one of those lazy wednesday afternoons we were supposed to be in class. This was many springs ago.
Ah, memories! I'd love to play it again... Just I don't have it anymore. Since it's *not* abandonware you won't find it anywhere. Still, can buy it at Lucasarts I believe.
A thing that you seem to forget is that a faster connection is not needed for most users. 56k modem is enough to surf and chat and email. Only with the advent of P2P applications the demand by "normal users" has become higher. That's why we got it in the end I think. Also, the cost of broadband is way beyond what most people want to pay. I have had ISDN (and still have ISDN) for a long time and it served me well (much more reliable) ADSL is cheaper for me because my family is online for more than 5 hours a day, but most people are only online a few hours a day or even less. It just doesn't pay for them, and this also counts for our neighbouring countries.
In neighbouring countries DSL and Cable have been offered for a long time, but they were not advertised that much. Simply because the target market are commuters and geeks. Only in the last year I have seen normal users jump to ADSL or Cable. Really not before.
I know you refer to the T-ISDN ads in germany that ran on TV about a year ago. Well, their prime selling point was *not* speed. It was the fact that you could be on the internet and phone at the same time. Broadband just comes to the attention of the general public right now (T-DSL or how is it called in the T-Online ads?) and this is due because people now want speed... due to P2P applications. I also think that pushing ISDN is not a bad thing. It feeded the demand for DSL because it was slightly faster but way more reliable. I've never been disconnected on an ISDN line, but many times on a modem.
It is not because you didn't see ads for broadband in our neigbouing countries that it was not there. I can confirm out of first hand that it existed for sure in Antwerp and Paris at least for two years (longer certainly), but consider also that these sectors are highly urbanized.
Second. Following your logic a computer intergrator like Dell and Compaq should not sell unproven hardware with flaky drivers. This however is not the case: go and look at their offerings. They all have the latest NVidia cards and thus the drivers. Not that I say they are not good quality, but optimizations will come in the following years. I know that competition and demand dictate them to do this.
Next, you are indeed correct that performance intensive applications have a small userbase but only in the corporate market. Home users tend to overestimate their hardware. Not only that they underestimate themselves. Look, how many times have you helped people out with buying/building a computer? I did many times: if you ask them whet want to do you'll get the classic answer: "email, word processing, surfing and eventually using Encarta". Now, a celery is enough for that and I will recommend them a cheaper machine. However two weeks later the said "normal user" will call me to tell me that I recommended a crap computer. Why? Simple: they just bought RTCW and it was unbearably slow. This was not stated in the initial specifications given to me, but yet I am blamed. Because, contrary to what you say: an application like that "that just runs slow" looks to the normal users as "an application that does not work".
I know, I've been there. The computer I mentioned (the PPro 200, 256Meg RAM, with Voodoo2) is able to run RTCW but you have to set detail very very low. I knew that when I installed it on that machine, but the kid next does does not know that.
Oh, besides...some years ago, I ran Unreal on that said machine (96Meg RAM back then) and it runs really good on that. A friend of my sisters came along and was completely baffled the game ran at all. The guy did have a P-II class machine, with a nice config for the rest, but yet his badly maintained PC just choked on it. For him, it didn't work.
I don't want to break your illusions but end-users really are not what you think they are.
Think back the late eighties and the early nineties. I will talk specifically PC now, but think for example of DOS 3.xx. Most people stayed at 3.xx even when 4.xx came out because 4.xx was plain and utter crap. Only when 5.xx and 6.xx came out people upgraded (and then really not that many).
I also think of Wordperfect. How many people stayed years on WP 5.1. I personally used WP 4.8 (IIRC) a loooong time.
We don't even have to stay in the PC world, look at the mainframes: how many custom build COBOL applications do run in emulation on newer mainframes? I will tell you (for I work in the banking sector)...A lot.
The upgrade cycle has become much much faster. Look at it that way: when did Windows 2000 came out? And when Windows XP? Not even a year later. However I do not see an incentive to upgrade. Same with Office 97. I still use it, many people consider me backward and idiot because I do not follow. Why should I? I can read any document I get, why install a new Office Suite that drains CPU and even more RAM (I have seem RAM usage jumping to 200Megs just by typing three sentences in Word!)
We can resist: don't upgrade if there is no need. For consumer apps, I use (for example) ICQ 2000b. We are at which version? 2002b surely. And you know why I upgraded to 2000b? Just because 99b stopped working correctly. 99b provided me anything I needed.
I don't upgrade my car either because my current one doesn't have cupholders (it doesn't).
Do not misunderstand me: upgrading can be useful, that is when there are security issues or when there really is that little feature you have been craving for years for. Otherwhise it is just the same as buying a new car because the newer models have cupholders.
Finally there is the hardware issue: back in the 8086, 80286, 80386, 80486 and early pentium days the performance difference was very notable. This has changed, take any P-II class computer and slap enough RAM into it and you can run virtually anything you need (speaking as a normal user). Why slow it even more down by installing never versions that don't bring anything more except more memory requirements and more CPU requirements. Heck, I run Eclipse at work and at home. At work I just got a shiny P-IV 1.8Ghz with 512Meg RAM, at home I run a P-III 800Mhz with 768Meg RAM. Noticable difference between the two: zero.. It both feels as sluggish as ever.