Nice point. That's the best concise explaination of the motivations behind Longhorn I've seen.
But, I could also add a #7 that's a special pet peeve of mine that almost nobody talks about:
7) Inconsiderate software vendors. Specifically, software that auto-runs an unnecessary 'notify', 'update' or 'monitor' program when your PC starts.
If it wasn't enough that they put a shortcut on the desktop, a shortcut on the start menu, a shortcut in the programs folder and a shortcut on the quicklaunch bar, they go on to create some stupid bogus service monitor that autoruns and sits in my system tray phoning "God knows what" back to the home office under the guise of looking useful.
For examples see:
AOL, Logitech's mouse and KB drivers, Steam, MS Office, Windows, all the dumbass media players ( Real, Quicktime, etc.), and surprisingly, IBM's desktop PCs, which actually run an update service to notify you of **BIOS updates** the moment they are released!
...and all of this unnecessary me-too-ism comes at the cost of *MY* CPU cycles and RAM.
If they want to put unnecessary crap on my PC, they should at least be buying me the PC.
BTW, this is my favorite reason for using FOSS. I only left it off my original list because I wanted to stop at 5.
Good point. The next question is, then, do you think that the lack of native-platform commercial games for Linux is hurting now and will it become the primary obstacle preventing Linux adoption over the next three years?
I know we can expect hardware performance to improve substantially in the next three years, but COME ON! what are they trying to achieve here? What problems do I have with my computer that this solution is going to fix?
Ten years ago (pre-win95), if you asked me what my 5 major computing problems were, I'd have said:
1. Memory management - need a flat model with real 32 bit support
2. Standardized driver and hardware support, especially for printers.
3. Long File Names.
4. Standardized install/uninstall support.
5. Performance - hardware needs to be faster.
Well, a year or two years later, we've got all of them.
So, what are my top five today?
1. Spam
2. Viruses and Spyware
3. Every software vendor on the planet wants me to send them money every year even though I'm happy with what I've got. (See: license keys and forced registration/activiation.)
4. Tech IP (Patents).
5. Vendor lock-in.
ONE... **ONE** of those (#2) is a problem software can fix. and FOUR of them are *CAUSED* *INTENTIONALLY* by Microsoft and companies just like them.
I am not the only one who's soured on MS just because I'm tired of putting up with the crap. The corp world is moving, too.
I also think MS is in more trouble than they let on. They feel their grip on the monopoly rope slipping and rather than letting go and trusting that they can compete in an open world, they are forcing themselves to be the only player in a smaller and smaller box.
BTW, Knoppix 3.5(?) came out today. It now supports my NForce2 audio and net card correctly in the default configuration, and it makes NO demands of me beyond making me look at pictures of penguins.
I disagree. In addition to all the anti-trust issues pointed out by others here, if we ever needed ammo to convince users that single-vendor lockin was bad, HERE IT IS.
No company can do anything without income, and I think Longhorn will drive users away in droves toward simpler and more robust alternatives. There's no way the market is going to select Microsoft's plan for the future because it will be appalled at what Longhorn WON'T let them do. (heh, heh).
I know I'm not going to upgrade -- I've purchased my last copy of Windows because the price of future versions will be too high, even if they give it away.
BTW, Why is Microsoft's solution to design problems "more code" instead of "less complexity"? They must have skipped that day in design school.
Win9x may have been an unstable piece of shit masquerading as a graphical DOS shell, but as long as you didn't use Internet Exploiter and Outbreak Excess, you couldn't get pwn3d, because desktops that don't run any listening services are pretty fucking hard to compromise remotely.
IIRC, unlike the NT based versions, the TCP/IP stack in the Win9xs don't support raw sockets, either, so they're harder to turn into attack zombies.
Does anyone have a link to a page with the 'unwritten rules of bleach' on it? Mainly, I'm looking for NON-SAFETY RELATED handling instructions. For example: I know it is used as a surface disinfectant and sanitizer, but it's also used to burn stains out of clothes, so how long after I wipe down my countertop with bleach can I safely lean on it without fear of the residue damaging the shirt I'm wearing?
...only to get baffled by the chaotic interface in general and its non-standard UI compared to other Mac apps, its slowness to open large files and to apply filters, the unintuitive tools that accompany it and its very visible bad quality of text and lines/shapes.
I'm sorry, but I can't resist.
Isn't that sort of reaction kinda par for the "Mac user tries anything else" course? In fact, I think the text quoted by the submitter is a MacOS-level autotext macro.
It always bothered me that the SimCity manual editorializes that Reaganomics doesn't work. (Somewhere toward the back, in the section on economic srategies I think -- it's been a while.) I think the game is even set up to demonstrate that 'fact' for you under one of the pre-configured scenarios.
Now, that said, SimCity does a pretty decent job of teaching you firsthand that taxes are necessary and that overtaxation hurts as much or worse than undertaxation, so the political commentary isn't fatal, just annoying.
BTW, to all the Reagan-haters out there (and there are a lot of you) that are getting ready to click the "moderate" button: please consider that disagreeing is not same as flamebaiting or trolling. This is a discussion, not a war.
==========
JV:...[omitted stuff about the broadcast flag]... Well, why would people object to it?
TT: I'll tell you, because I'm an engineer, I'm an engineering student, and this year I built a high-definition television, from scratch. But because of the broadcast flag, if I wanted to do that again after July 2005, that would be illegal.
JV: How many people in the United States build their own sets?
TT: Well, I'm talking about engineers.
==========
The interviewer blew it right there in his last response.
The CORRECT response should have been "Why does that matter? Do I not have the right to build stuff for myself?"
Because that's the crux of the misunderstanding. They do not believe we have the right to build anything for ourselves. We only have the right to choose which overinflated strong-arm corporate overlord we're the least pissed off at today.
What the internet is changing is not copyright infringement, but publication and distribution. We used to be consumers because we had no choice. Now we are producers becuase the option is available. That's the meat of the thing!
Anyone who's been to homestarrunner.com knows that Disney does not have to be involved for your entertainment to be hilarious, (very nearly) family-appropriate and extrodinarily well-written.
Or even 1972 Toyota Corollas, but you need expend an extrordinary amount of energy getting their momentum large enough for the effect to be noticeable because (IIRC) the condition for diffraction is that the DeBroglie wavelength of the particle has to be the same order of magnitude as the slit spacing. If I did the calcs correctly (choosing round numbers), a 2000Kg Toyota moving at 10^6 m/s (1/3 speed of light) would require a slit spacing around 10^-45m, but it's been 10 years since grad school, so I might have messed up.
I just want to throw in my 2 cents and say that the Linux deals Novell has made in the past year are real head-slappers.
You know, "Dang! why didn't I think of that?"
For years, Novell has been looking at the Windows as an internet application server platform and for a while, they wanted Netware to compete. Finally, they found a way to make it happen - big time. They also bring to Linux all their years of experience with Netware, Groupwise and file and user security and directory services, so I even expect other projects like Samba and Filesystem ACLs will benefit too.
Dust off the red markers, boys, the 'N' is back in town.
While we're on the subject of usability vs. security, does anyone know of a link to those gag pictures from a few years back of the user-secure keyboard and mouse that don't have any buttons? I want to save them this time. I'd post 'em if I had 'em - they're almost on-topic and a certain +5 funny.
I know older versions of Weatherbug included Gator, but my understanding was that they had stopped bundling this garbage in favor of a more unintrusive ad-only revenue model. At least the last couple of versions I scanned with Spybot S&D and Ad-aware tested clean.
Did I miss something?
Oh, and more on-topic, YES. Spyware is a big reason why I use open-source software whenever possible.
Amen, and let me add that I'm not altogether certain why Hollywood is entirely opposed to this since the original Director's version of the work is still completely accessible. Of course, if Hollywood had their way, we'd be stuck with the Special Editions of SW (IV-VI) and CE3K.:(
What about Sun StarOffice, or even OpenOffice for that matter? I know it's officially OSS, but OpenOffice1.1 now has the Sun logo on the startup banner, so it's there for a reason, right?
It was a problem right up until 23:59:59 on 12/31/1999.
A lot of man-hours and cashola were spent rewriting software and upgrading systems to avoid it. I would even be willing to argue the IT spending bubble of the late 90's, (and even the horribly accelerated acceptance of Windows NT 4.0) was not caused by cheap ubiquitous internet access, but by Y2K. Sure, internet speculation contributed, but it wouldn't have had nearly as sizable a foothold among financiers if market expectations weren't already inflated by Y2K spending.
Didn't we try this already? I mean, wasn't the Y2K problem largely caused by this kind of thinking along with compelling limitations on hardware? You know, "Let's just design it for the hardware we have and when cheaper for powerful hardware comes around, we'll rewrite it." At least that's what TV says.
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Nice point. That's the best concise explaination of the motivations behind Longhorn I've seen.
But, I could also add a #7 that's a special pet peeve of mine that almost nobody talks about:
7) Inconsiderate software vendors. Specifically, software that auto-runs an unnecessary 'notify', 'update' or 'monitor' program when your PC starts.
If it wasn't enough that they put a shortcut on the desktop, a shortcut on the start menu, a shortcut in the programs folder and a shortcut on the quicklaunch bar, they go on to create some stupid bogus service monitor that autoruns and sits in my system tray phoning "God knows what" back to the home office under the guise of looking useful.
For examples see:
AOL, Logitech's mouse and KB drivers, Steam, MS Office, Windows, all the dumbass media players ( Real, Quicktime, etc.), and surprisingly, IBM's desktop PCs, which actually run an update service to notify you of **BIOS updates** the moment they are released!
If they want to put unnecessary crap on my PC, they should at least be buying me the PC.
BTW, this is my favorite reason for using FOSS. I only left it off my original list because I wanted to stop at 5.
Good point. The next question is, then, do you think that the lack of native-platform commercial games for Linux is hurting now and will it become the primary obstacle preventing Linux adoption over the next three years?
I know we can expect hardware performance to improve substantially in the next three years, but COME ON! what are they trying to achieve here? What problems do I have with my computer that this solution is going to fix?
Ten years ago (pre-win95), if you asked me what my 5 major computing problems were, I'd have said:
1. Memory management - need a flat model with real 32 bit support
2. Standardized driver and hardware support, especially for printers.
3. Long File Names.
4. Standardized install/uninstall support.
5. Performance - hardware needs to be faster.
Well, a year or two years later, we've got all of them.
So, what are my top five today?
1. Spam
2. Viruses and Spyware
3. Every software vendor on the planet wants me to send them money every year even though I'm happy with what I've got. (See: license keys and forced registration/activiation.)
4. Tech IP (Patents).
5. Vendor lock-in.
ONE... **ONE** of those (#2) is a problem software can fix. and FOUR of them are *CAUSED* *INTENTIONALLY* by Microsoft and companies just like them.
I am not the only one who's soured on MS just because I'm tired of putting up with the crap. The corp world is moving, too.
I also think MS is in more trouble than they let on. They feel their grip on the monopoly rope slipping and rather than letting go and trusting that they can compete in an open world, they are forcing themselves to be the only player in a smaller and smaller box.
BTW, Knoppix 3.5(?) came out today. It now supports my NForce2 audio and net card correctly in the default configuration, and it makes NO demands of me beyond making me look at pictures of penguins.
I disagree. In addition to all the anti-trust issues pointed out by others here, if we ever needed ammo to convince users that single-vendor lockin was bad, HERE IT IS.
No company can do anything without income, and I think Longhorn will drive users away in droves toward simpler and more robust alternatives. There's no way the market is going to select Microsoft's plan for the future because it will be appalled at what Longhorn WON'T let them do. (heh, heh).
I know I'm not going to upgrade -- I've purchased my last copy of Windows because the price of future versions will be too high, even if they give it away.
BTW, Why is Microsoft's solution to design problems "more code" instead of "less complexity"? They must have skipped that day in design school.
Win9x may have been an unstable piece of shit masquerading as a graphical DOS shell, but as long as you didn't use Internet Exploiter and Outbreak Excess, you couldn't get pwn3d, because desktops that don't run any listening services are pretty fucking hard to compromise remotely.
IIRC, unlike the NT based versions, the TCP/IP stack in the Win9xs don't support raw sockets, either, so they're harder to turn into attack zombies.
Speaking of which -
Does anyone have a link to a page with the 'unwritten rules of bleach' on it? Mainly, I'm looking for NON-SAFETY RELATED handling instructions. For example: I know it is used as a surface disinfectant and sanitizer, but it's also used to burn stains out of clothes, so how long after I wipe down my countertop with bleach can I safely lean on it without fear of the residue damaging the shirt I'm wearing?
I'm sorry, but I can't resist.
Isn't that sort of reaction kinda par for the "Mac user tries anything else" course? In fact, I think the text quoted by the submitter is a MacOS-level autotext macro.
We call 'em "MacSnobs" for a reason, eh?
I'm probably wrong, but I think the manual described it using the words "a failed economic policy of the '80s" or something like that.
It always bothered me that the SimCity manual editorializes that Reaganomics doesn't work. (Somewhere toward the back, in the section on economic srategies I think -- it's been a while.) I think the game is even set up to demonstrate that 'fact' for you under one of the pre-configured scenarios.
Now, that said, SimCity does a pretty decent job of teaching you firsthand that taxes are necessary and that overtaxation hurts as much or worse than undertaxation, so the political commentary isn't fatal, just annoying.
BTW, to all the Reagan-haters out there (and there are a lot of you) that are getting ready to click the "moderate" button: please consider that disagreeing is not same as flamebaiting or trolling. This is a discussion, not a war.
I had a number of digital watches in the 70's that could do that. Short push for date, long push for set.
==========
JV:
TT: I'll tell you, because I'm an engineer, I'm an engineering student, and this year I built a high-definition television, from scratch. But because of the broadcast flag, if I wanted to do that again after July 2005, that would be illegal.
JV: How many people in the United States build their own sets?
TT: Well, I'm talking about engineers.
==========
The interviewer blew it right there in his last response.
The CORRECT response should have been "Why does that matter? Do I not have the right to build stuff for myself?"
Because that's the crux of the misunderstanding. They do not believe we have the right to build anything for ourselves. We only have the right to choose which overinflated strong-arm corporate overlord we're the least pissed off at today.
What the internet is changing is not copyright infringement, but publication and distribution. We used to be consumers because we had no choice. Now we are producers becuase the option is available. That's the meat of the thing!
Anyone who's been to homestarrunner.com knows that Disney does not have to be involved for your entertainment to be hilarious, (very nearly) family-appropriate and extrodinarily well-written.
It doesn't appear to add context menus to Windows, it is so handy to be able to select an archive and right-click extract.
Yes, it does, but the config's a little weird. You have to go into CONFIG, then the PLUGINS tab and hit the OPTIONS button for the 7-Zip component.
The only problem is that I can't get it to default to creating ZIP format with the shell support -- only 7z files.
Or even 1972 Toyota Corollas, but you need expend an extrordinary amount of energy getting their momentum large enough for the effect to be noticeable because (IIRC) the condition for diffraction is that the DeBroglie wavelength of the particle has to be the same order of magnitude as the slit spacing. If I did the calcs correctly (choosing round numbers), a 2000Kg Toyota moving at 10^6 m/s (1/3 speed of light) would require a slit spacing around 10^-45m, but it's been 10 years since grad school, so I might have messed up.
See DeBroglie Wavelength.
Here's a web calculator for calculating stuff about it.
And here's a calculation with a pitched baseball, if you still don't believe me.
I just want to throw in my 2 cents and say that the Linux deals Novell has made in the past year are real head-slappers.
You know, "Dang! why didn't I think of that?"
For years, Novell has been looking at the Windows as an internet application server platform and for a while, they wanted Netware to compete. Finally, they found a way to make it happen - big time. They also bring to Linux all their years of experience with Netware, Groupwise and file and user security and directory services, so I even expect other projects like Samba and Filesystem ACLs will benefit too.
Dust off the red markers, boys, the 'N' is back in town.
Here I was thinking that satellite radio was a good thing for competition in radio.
Competition is good for radio... because it's bad for Clearchannel.
The moderation of this comment is unfair! Mods! please rectify the situmamation and award parent +5 funny at once!
Nicely done.
While we're on the subject of usability vs. security, does anyone know of a link to those gag pictures from a few years back of the user-secure keyboard and mouse that don't have any buttons? I want to save them this time. I'd post 'em if I had 'em - they're almost on-topic and a certain +5 funny.
Thanks.
You'd be surprised how many people hammer out a few games of solitaire or Zuma or whatever at lunch.
I know older versions of Weatherbug included Gator, but my understanding was that they had stopped bundling this garbage in favor of a more unintrusive ad-only revenue model. At least the last couple of versions I scanned with Spybot S&D and Ad-aware tested clean.
Did I miss something?
Oh, and more on-topic, YES. Spyware is a big reason why I use open-source software whenever possible.
The one bad thing about OSS is it allows certain 'entities' to 'repurpose' this kind of code for their own 'purposes'.
?
Amen, and let me add that I'm not altogether certain why Hollywood is entirely opposed to this since the original Director's version of the work is still completely accessible. Of course, if Hollywood had their way, we'd be stuck with the Special Editions of SW (IV-VI) and CE3K.
Looks like they forgot to account for 'shrinkage'. D'OH!
What does this mean for Sun Java Desktop Linux?
What about Sun StarOffice, or even OpenOffice for that matter? I know it's officially OSS, but OpenOffice1.1 now has the Sun logo on the startup banner, so it's there for a reason, right?
Something about this gives me the jumblies.
It was a problem right up until 23:59:59 on 12/31/1999.
A lot of man-hours and cashola were spent rewriting software and upgrading systems to avoid it. I would even be willing to argue the IT spending bubble of the late 90's, (and even the horribly accelerated acceptance of Windows NT 4.0) was not caused by cheap ubiquitous internet access, but by Y2K. Sure, internet speculation contributed, but it wouldn't have had nearly as sizable a foothold among financiers if market expectations weren't already inflated by Y2K spending.
Didn't we try this already? I mean, wasn't the Y2K problem largely caused by this kind of thinking along with compelling limitations on hardware? You know, "Let's just design it for the hardware we have and when cheaper for powerful hardware comes around, we'll rewrite it." At least that's what TV says.