Allow me to explain to you, eno2001, why the average business that I do IT work for, cannot switch from Windows to...well...anything else:
(1) ActiveX. A surprising number of business applications are coded to this format. Unless you know of some way to make ActiveX work in a non-MS OS (and I'll give you a hint, WINE won't cut it, I've tried) then one particular large business I know of (gross sales in fiscal year 2006 total over 300 million) won't (or can't) switch.
(2) Exchange. Yet another business I do work for (they manufacture parts for the tobacco industry) need Exchange. Haven't seen anything even remotely close to this on a non-MS OS.
These are but two examples I use, again and again, when confronting the rapid non-MS crowd (and I used to be one of those. I was a BeOS *fanatic* years ago) Home-based PCs may be an acceptable platform to experiment on, but in the business world, you live or die by an MS OS.
I have no idea what MS is attempting to do by partnering themselves with Novell/SuSE, with the possible exception of buying out (and shutting down) all competitors to its desktop (and server) OS.
Monopoly abuse to be sure, but it has worked for them in the past....
I've been playing with Linux since I discovered Suse 6.1. I love the concept, but the execution has been flawed. People have enough trouble with maintaining Windows PCs, much less having to delve into command line shells to get things done.
I've tried virtually every distro out there (and some that don't exist any more) and what I've found is the only one that matches the ease of use of Windows and BeOS is.....
Linspire (also working as freespire)
Funny, from the man everyone loves to hate (and I admit, his bragging has been pretty outlandish) comes the only linux distro to get it right.
I used BeOS as my prime OS for several years, so I'm no stranger to command lines, bash shells and working with obscure items, but Linux, as a concept, has a long way to go.
That we (as 'comsumers') have to purchase DRM-free (and other assorted rootkit-style malware) music/movies/etc. from 'shady' dealers overseas if we wish to enjoy our purchase any way we wish?
And by 'any way we wish' I mean 'in the same fashion our fathers enjoyed their purchases'
Dunno if you've ever tried, but reading the crash dumps that are sent, using MS tools, is actually quite handy. I've had great success finding the offending file, and fixing the issue myself (not via programming, but by file replacement mind you)
...So you have no problem with allowing people to starve? Ok. I think that I don't even need to make an argument. But I will point out that there are no indefinite welfare programs anyway. Did you miss welfare reform in the 90s?...
I have absolutely no problems letting people, who will not help themselves, starve. None whatsoever.
As far as indefinate welfare, there is a world of difference between reform, and implementation. The work I did in the 90s, showed to me, that nothing had changed.
Nothing.
Case in point: One notable housing project I went to, had a fixed monthly rent of 1$.
That's right 1.00$, and you couldn't be kicked out for late rent payments.
End result? *Straight* from the director's mouth, "no one pays rent here. No one. They know they can't be evicted, so they don't bother."
*That's* abuse of the system....Will government funded education and job placement miraculously be more efficient than welfare?...
Perhaps, perhaps not, but it's no long a spoon-fed life support system. Besides, are you only going to accept programs that are guaranteed to work? Then by that definition, you should be rejecting welfare, because it *clearly* *doesn't* work!...Unless you can provide me with serious evidence (i.e. something more substantial than "I saw it") that a significant percentage of welfare recipients abuse the programs, I will have to conclude that there's nothing more to be said here...
20,000 housing project units, encompassing over 100,000 people. In the areas where these project were, that was roughly 10% of the population.
Having just checked the budget for just *one* of the years in my state, I found the welfare section was *5 billion* dollars. For one year!
And much of that money, comes from my tax dollars. I resent this.
I am not the be-all-end-all authority on welfare, but having seen, 1st hand, how it is mis-used, in a very large section of the welfare population (20,000+ units) I can safely say I know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, as far as fixing it, it's simple:
2 years on "welfare" then you are cut off. Find a job or starve.
You've got 2 years, hell the gov't will even help with education and job placement (at least the state gov't where I live does)
Welfare was an idea for temporary assistance, started in the depression era (IIRC) and was never meant to be a way of life.
But those that only wish to be a leach, or have no self respect regarding their place in this world, have abused the system, and turned it into a generational life support.
I was an Industrial Hygienist for 8 years. One of my primary roles was to oversee the renovation of housing projects. I *directly* saw where my tax money went, insofar as the welfare part.
I can goddamn guarantee you that welfare is a waste of my money, and everyone else's to boot.
I've read/., on and off for years. Never have I seen so many articles about the (alleged) shortcomings of a single product (aside from Windows, but that's a given.)
It seems like every other day an article gets posted about a Mac product failing. Whether it's overheating, poor battery life, dirty cases, and now swelling batteries.
Seriously, what percentage of *any* product fails? Yet it's blown all out of shape here.
I'm not a Mac owner, nor do I even like their OS, but hell guys, lighten up huh?
Slashdot Mirror
Allow me to explain to you, eno2001, why the average business that I do IT work for, cannot switch from Windows to...well...anything else:
(1) ActiveX. A surprising number of business applications are coded to this format. Unless you know of some way to make ActiveX work in a non-MS OS (and I'll give you a hint, WINE won't cut it, I've tried) then one particular large business I know of (gross sales in fiscal year 2006 total over 300 million) won't (or can't) switch.
(2) Exchange. Yet another business I do work for (they manufacture parts for the tobacco industry) need Exchange. Haven't seen anything even remotely close to this on a non-MS OS.
These are but two examples I use, again and again, when confronting the rapid non-MS crowd (and I used to be one of those. I was a BeOS *fanatic* years ago) Home-based PCs may be an acceptable platform to experiment on, but in the business world, you live or die by an MS OS.
I have one more question to pose about god.
IF he exists, AND he created the heavens and the earth, and all the known stars and space...
THEN why do you think he needs us?
In other words, why does a being so powerful, vast and intelligent, need something so insignificant and fleeting as us?
>>God doesn't care what name you call him by.
So I can call him by his first AND last name and be okay?
You know, "God Damnit!"
Ditto here.
In fact, I've used m-w.com since I can recall, and I've *never* seen a popup, or under for that matter.
I think their PC has something else installed
Worked for the Egyptians didn't it?
too fucking right
"If you can't beat them...buy them out"
I have no idea what MS is attempting to do by partnering themselves with Novell/SuSE, with the possible exception of buying out (and shutting down) all competitors to its desktop (and server) OS.
Monopoly abuse to be sure, but it has worked for them in the past....
Europe understands something we (Americans) are still struggling with.
...On a sidenote, i'm a little curious myself if a workstation card would be capable of running a modern 3D game at decent resolutions...
A few years ago, the answer was no, as things like Direct X 9 wasn't supported. These days...I dunno if that's changed or not.
If it's a non-standard format, then it isn't a DVD....
There is a very famous quote, I think by (ten) President Reagan, that says something to the effect of:
"I'm not afriad of the man who wants many nukes, I'm afraid of the man who wants only one."
Nuke are not useless.
But if I am in IE, in anything dating back to win98se, I can type in the address of what part of the computer I want to get to.
I wonder how they are going to curtail that, seeing as how IE is so tightly integrated with the rest of the OS?
And something else-
How do those in charge of measuring such things, determine the money "lost" if I buy a cd used?
In other words, say I download music illegally.
Okay, RIAA loses money your guess is as good as mine as to how much)
Or-
I buy my music used, in which case the RIAA "technically" loses money (i.e. they didn't get a percentage of the sale)
So, where is the difference between downloading and buying used?
...enemy combatants have still recieved the right to a trial...
Yeah, look how fair we were to the German High Command after WW2...
I've been playing with Linux since I discovered Suse 6.1. I love the concept, but the execution has been flawed. People have enough trouble with maintaining Windows PCs, much less having to delve into command line shells to get things done.
I've tried virtually every distro out there (and some that don't exist any more) and what I've found is the only one that matches the ease of use of Windows and BeOS is.....
Linspire (also working as freespire)
Funny, from the man everyone loves to hate (and I admit, his bragging has been pretty outlandish) comes the only linux distro to get it right.
I used BeOS as my prime OS for several years, so I'm no stranger to command lines, bash shells and working with obscure items, but Linux, as a concept, has a long way to go.
That we (as 'comsumers') have to purchase DRM-free (and other assorted rootkit-style malware) music/movies/etc. from 'shady' dealers overseas if we wish to enjoy our purchase any way we wish?
And by 'any way we wish' I mean 'in the same fashion our fathers enjoyed their purchases'
Boo DRM, hooray allofmp3!
Thank you! I've been saying this for years, but everyone labels me as anti-god.
The more we know about our place in the universe, and the laws that make it work, the less we need religion.
Once again, thank you for stating this!
Dunno if you've ever tried, but reading the crash dumps that are sent, using MS tools, is actually quite handy. I've had great success finding the offending file, and fixing the issue myself (not via programming, but by file replacement mind you)
...So you have no problem with allowing people to starve? Ok. I think that I don't even need to make an argument. But I will point out that there are no indefinite welfare programs anyway. Did you miss welfare reform in the 90s? ...
...Will government funded education and job placement miraculously be more efficient than welfare?...
...Unless you can provide me with serious evidence (i.e. something more substantial than "I saw it") that a significant percentage of welfare recipients abuse the programs, I will have to conclude that there's nothing more to be said here...
I have absolutely no problems letting people, who will not help themselves, starve. None whatsoever.
As far as indefinate welfare, there is a world of difference between reform, and implementation. The work I did in the 90s, showed to me, that nothing had changed.
Nothing.
Case in point: One notable housing project I went to, had a fixed monthly rent of 1$.
That's right 1.00$, and you couldn't be kicked out for late rent payments.
End result? *Straight* from the director's mouth, "no one pays rent here. No one. They know they can't be evicted, so they don't bother."
*That's* abuse of the system.
Perhaps, perhaps not, but it's no long a spoon-fed life support system. Besides, are you only going to accept programs that are guaranteed to work? Then by that definition, you should be rejecting welfare, because it *clearly* *doesn't* work!
20,000 housing project units, encompassing over 100,000 people. In the areas where these project were, that was roughly 10% of the population.
Having just checked the budget for just *one* of the years in my state, I found the welfare section was *5 billion* dollars. For one year!
And much of that money, comes from my tax dollars. I resent this.
I am not the be-all-end-all authority on welfare, but having seen, 1st hand, how it is mis-used, in a very large section of the welfare population (20,000+ units) I can safely say I know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, as far as fixing it, it's simple:
2 years on "welfare" then you are cut off. Find a job or starve.
You've got 2 years, hell the gov't will even help with education and job placement (at least the state gov't where I live does)
Welfare was an idea for temporary assistance, started in the depression era (IIRC) and was never meant to be a way of life.
But those that only wish to be a leach, or have no self respect regarding their place in this world, have abused the system, and turned it into a generational life support.
Shit-
I was an Industrial Hygienist for 8 years. One of my primary roles was to oversee the renovation of housing projects. I *directly* saw where my tax money went, insofar as the welfare part.
I can goddamn guarantee you that welfare is a waste of my money, and everyone else's to boot.
...OTOH, which social programs are "craptastic," pray tell?...
Welfare.
Any other questions?
I've read /., on and off for years. Never have I seen so many articles about the (alleged) shortcomings of a single product (aside from Windows, but that's a given.)
It seems like every other day an article gets posted about a Mac product failing. Whether it's overheating, poor battery life, dirty cases, and now swelling batteries.
Seriously, what percentage of *any* product fails? Yet it's blown all out of shape here.
I'm not a Mac owner, nor do I even like their OS, but hell guys, lighten up huh?
My stock in a chair making company is way up.
That's a fine idea, provided you do it the right way. Which apparently RMS is not.