Those used to suck, especially with older systems that used to take a long time to boot up. But XP boots so quickly (and doesn't always require a reboot anyway) that is doesn't bother me much.
Don't get me wrong, a windows install does take longer for me as well, purely because I love all those apps that a linux install would have by default (firefox, thunderbird, OOo). And since I've installed ubuntu, I've developed a new found respect for the speed and ease that linux can achieve in installation. I just hate it when people leave out vital details when complaining about windows.
My last Linux installation took about 1/3 the time of my last Windows installation (on the exact same, very recent hardware) and the Linux installation included setting up hardware, networking, and installing many common personal/small biz apps such as office suite, browser, email, IM, etc. The Windows install did not include any of these "extras", all of which must be done *in addition to* the OS install for a Windows box.
Err what windows install was this exactly? A basic XP installation will set up hardware, get the network working, install a browser, email & IM. The only thing it won't install is a comprehensive office suite, and installing that is quite quick and easy.
Now I assume you refuse to use IE, outlook express, windows messanger, (I know I refuse to use any of them) so you obviously have a lot more installing to do putting in the apps you use (most likely the ones that the linux install put on by default). But that is your own personal choice of applications, a choice that is most likely defined by the apps you like to use on your linux installations. It is your choice of applications that is making the windows install longer.
Okay disclaimer: What I am about to say does not apply to windows ME or earlier. Just windows 2k and XP. There is no point complaining about how old windows systems, that should have been replaced long ago, break.
The only device I've ever had that happen with is my HP all-in-one printer. I have plugged in so many different usb/firewire devices into my 2k and XP boxes over the last few years, and ONLY ONE has ever required (the documentation often says I must, but it lies) that I install the drivers first. Now you make it sound like it happens all the time, what the hell kind of devices are you using?
Hopefully with longhorn even the HP printers will work with little to no effort.:)
The death/rape of a one person isn't as important as the wellbeing of huge corporate bodies. Especially when those huge corporate bodies are very willing to give politicians lots of money...
Things like IP addressable devices being treated as plug and play just like usb sound interesting, and it'll be interesting to see what security issues it causes.
Longhorn will still have improved plug and play type abilities. While to the average slashdotter security and WinFS may seem like the important things, to the average joe the ability to plug his camera/cell phone/mp3 player in and have it work without them having to do anything, is the most important thing.
That and pretty pictures...
Microsoft can make a killing from the average joe, and then release Longhorn SE with the added features a year or two later. And make another killing...
Yea, I recently discovered that when I tried to convert my father to open office. He had so many works files (spread sheets and documents), that I eventually just gave up and installed works again. I asked him to use Open Office with anything new he creates, but I doubt thats going to happen.:(
Depends I guess. I know I don't have the luxury of keeping my gaming machine seperate from all other applications I use, so my gaming machine is also my work machine and it tends to have a lot of stuff running at any given time. Now when playing shooter games I often notice a sudden drop in fps when some service or other decides it needs to do something. A dual core machine would be a lot less prone to this I guess.
Also, from the article. "And although the company says dual-core isn't for gamers quite yet, perhaps it is, only in a different usage model. Alan Dang and I were discussing processor benchmarking moving forward and he came up with the idea that we don't run compute-intensive tasks in the background today because we think they can't be done. However, if a dual-core processor enables a DVD encode while you're playing Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, there's a good chance that the way we think about demanding tasks may change. Even though games aren't currently threaded, the background processes a dual-core processor enables may very well catapult the technology into favor with game enthusiasts."
Unfortnately I'd say it is impossible to do 5 season long story archs (at least not detailed ones). Some coke snorting executive who probably never enjoyed a sci fi show in his life will decide half way through that the show needs to be canned.
Don't see why not. IDE or SATA is merely the way the drive communicates with the motherboard. Currently you get many vastly different drive types that work on IDE.
2D or 3D, we still want to store the same kind of data, it just gets stored on a different medium.
Its the 3rd now (at least where I am) and I've still got to pay special attention to the date on an article. The point of my post was that on the internet, no one takes their dumb april fools jokes down immediately, and if you're not careful you may get fooled several days later because you read some april fools joke you didn't see on the 1st.
Its always been that way AFAIK. Not that anyone cares. And what with the internet I guess the only time you can hope to stop getting april fools jokes is several days later...
Truthfully, it warms my heart to see a lack of a windows version.
What a stupid comment.
I have seen many people decide that moving over to Linux is a good idea after they try a good open source application on windows. Open office or firefox do a great job of lessening a users fear of open source, and once that fear has gone, the move to linux seems much more acceptable. The trick is to show the windows user that other OS's and their software can be as good or better as their windows counterpart. Now while I use GIMP myself (on windows and linux), it isn't exactly the kind of program thats going to convert users. That 90% is still 90%, and if they can only ever try GIMP with its current user interface on windows, then its highly unlikely that they will feel the urge to move from PSP or PS. However, if they can use GIMP with a familiar UI, then they may stick with it, and then they have one less application keeping them bound to their OS.
I have my gmail forwarded to my home account where I access it through my local IMAP server. When at work I use gmail, at home I use thunderbird. And offshore backups of email thrown in for free.;)
One wonders how fast this will take off. With 3d graphics cards, we had the cards also emulating the older 2d cards. So when you bought one, it was used with everything, and the new games just got to use more of it. With this, you get this hardware that is essentially useless for most applications. I'm not saying it won't take off, I just think it may gain popularity very slowly.
The immediate benifit for the gamer is that when you have a lot of games running this, they begin to feel similar. As a FPS gamer, the worst part about playing a new game is getting those grenades bouncing back at you because the physics engine is different from what you are used to. Now some may say thats the fun of it, but I think that learning the physics engine is just a hinderance to playing the game (and thus partaking in the story).
Game companies benifit from this when their game is new, but suffer when their game ages.
Okay, I'm just reading everyone replies. I'll just reply to this though.
IMO:
usability is a result of good design
security is a result of good design
size is a result of good design
noise is a result of good design
longevity doesn't really count with computers for 99% of the population, a cheap PC works for longer than it takes the user to want a newer better machine
style is a result of good design
included software, the macs included software is good because... good design
included hardware is where the macs lose.
Now lets see what I said.
The fucking problem is that you can get an equivalent PC for less. Of course thats without the design. But then again thats what the grandparent said...
Please understand that I do realise that for many people, the mac is a superior choice. It should be. It is designed well. Perhaps it is rightly more expensive, but most people will buy the best HARDWARE for their money, and live with the other stuff being worse.
The fucking problem is that you can get an equivalent PC for less. Of course thats without the design. But then again thats what the grandparent said...
I've had to call microsoft to activate a copy of XP home 3 times (Lots of issues with installing new hardware). Twice I got Indian support guys and once some british lady. Now I live in Durban which has the largest Indian population in any city outside of india (at least I'm pretty sure I remember hering that), so the indian guys were not a problem. The british lady however had some nasty dialect that I just couldn't understand over the phone. That call took twice as long as the others combined and she spoke english as a first language.;)
The point however was not to dis indians or any other nationality, the problem is that for many people, listening to foreign accents over the phone is difficult. And the moment you make call centers even more important, there is a manager somewhere who is going to try save money, and then we all get screwed.:(
The more times you have to deal with a company after you have purchased a product, the more chance of something going wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
Those used to suck, especially with older systems that used to take a long time to boot up. But XP boots so quickly (and doesn't always require a reboot anyway) that is doesn't bother me much.
Don't get me wrong, a windows install does take longer for me as well, purely because I love all those apps that a linux install would have by default (firefox, thunderbird, OOo). And since I've installed ubuntu, I've developed a new found respect for the speed and ease that linux can achieve in installation. I just hate it when people leave out vital details when complaining about windows.
Err what windows install was this exactly? A basic XP installation will set up hardware, get the network working, install a browser, email & IM. The only thing it won't install is a comprehensive office suite, and installing that is quite quick and easy.
Now I assume you refuse to use IE, outlook express, windows messanger, (I know I refuse to use any of them) so you obviously have a lot more installing to do putting in the apps you use (most likely the ones that the linux install put on by default). But that is your own personal choice of applications, a choice that is most likely defined by the apps you like to use on your linux installations. It is your choice of applications that is making the windows install longer.
Firstly, games are entertainment, and entertainment (music, books, movies, TV) has rarely, if ever, been productive.
:P
If anything games, like TV, probably reduce the number of children produced in this world. So I guess you can say they keep the population down.
Okay disclaimer: What I am about to say does not apply to windows ME or earlier. Just windows 2k and XP. There is no point complaining about how old windows systems, that should have been replaced long ago, break.
:)
The only device I've ever had that happen with is my HP all-in-one printer. I have plugged in so many different usb/firewire devices into my 2k and XP boxes over the last few years, and ONLY ONE has ever required (the documentation often says I must, but it lies) that I install the drivers first. Now you make it sound like it happens all the time, what the hell kind of devices are you using?
Hopefully with longhorn even the HP printers will work with little to no effort.
The death/rape of a one person isn't as important as the wellbeing of huge corporate bodies. Especially when those huge corporate bodies are very willing to give politicians lots of money...
:(
Sad but true.
Will be interesting to see just how improved.
Things like IP addressable devices being treated as plug and play just like usb sound interesting, and it'll be interesting to see what security issues it causes.
Longhorn will still have improved plug and play type abilities. While to the average slashdotter security and WinFS may seem like the important things, to the average joe the ability to plug his camera/cell phone/mp3 player in and have it work without them having to do anything, is the most important thing.
That and pretty pictures...
Microsoft can make a killing from the average joe, and then release Longhorn SE with the added features a year or two later. And make another killing...
Yea, I recently discovered that when I tried to convert my father to open office. He had so many works files (spread sheets and documents), that I eventually just gave up and installed works again. I asked him to use Open Office with anything new he creates, but I doubt thats going to happen. :(
Depends I guess. I know I don't have the luxury of keeping my gaming machine seperate from all other applications I use, so my gaming machine is also my work machine and it tends to have a lot of stuff running at any given time. Now when playing shooter games I often notice a sudden drop in fps when some service or other decides it needs to do something. A dual core machine would be a lot less prone to this I guess.
Also, from the article. "And although the company says dual-core isn't for gamers quite yet, perhaps it is, only in a different usage model. Alan Dang and I were discussing processor benchmarking moving forward and he came up with the idea that we don't run compute-intensive tasks in the background today because we think they can't be done. However, if a dual-core processor enables a DVD encode while you're playing Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, there's a good chance that the way we think about demanding tasks may change. Even though games aren't currently threaded, the background processes a dual-core processor enables may very well catapult the technology into favor with game enthusiasts."
Ahh you see, the secret is to demand that they do not mod you down...
(Don't you DARE mod me down)
I had that too on one of the 3 XP boxes I updated.
Though everything seemed fine after chkdsk did its thing.
Unfortnately I'd say it is impossible to do 5 season long story archs (at least not detailed ones). Some coke snorting executive who probably never enjoyed a sci fi show in his life will decide half way through that the show needs to be canned.
Don't see why not. IDE or SATA is merely the way the drive communicates with the motherboard. Currently you get many vastly different drive types that work on IDE.
2D or 3D, we still want to store the same kind of data, it just gets stored on a different medium.
Well arete.
Its the 3rd now (at least where I am) and I've still got to pay special attention to the date on an article. The point of my post was that on the internet, no one takes their dumb april fools jokes down immediately, and if you're not careful you may get fooled several days later because you read some april fools joke you didn't see on the 1st.
I thought it was obvious...
Its always been that way AFAIK. Not that anyone cares. And what with the internet I guess the only time you can hope to stop getting april fools jokes is several days later...
LOL my gmail window shares a monitor with outlook. So it's up all day reguardless. :P
;)
1327 MB.
My gmail space is now 1316 MB and slowly climbing...
Why couldn't they just increase the number in one go...
Truthfully, it warms my heart to see a lack of a windows version.
What a stupid comment.
I have seen many people decide that moving over to Linux is a good idea after they try a good open source application on windows. Open office or firefox do a great job of lessening a users fear of open source, and once that fear has gone, the move to linux seems much more acceptable. The trick is to show the windows user that other OS's and their software can be as good or better as their windows counterpart. Now while I use GIMP myself (on windows and linux), it isn't exactly the kind of program thats going to convert users. That 90% is still 90%, and if they can only ever try GIMP with its current user interface on windows, then its highly unlikely that they will feel the urge to move from PSP or PS. However, if they can use GIMP with a familiar UI, then they may stick with it, and then they have one less application keeping them bound to their OS.
And you thought they made their money from spam...
I have my gmail forwarded to my home account where I access it through my local IMAP server. When at work I use gmail, at home I use thunderbird. And offshore backups of email thrown in for free. ;)
One wonders how fast this will take off. With 3d graphics cards, we had the cards also emulating the older 2d cards. So when you bought one, it was used with everything, and the new games just got to use more of it. With this, you get this hardware that is essentially useless for most applications. I'm not saying it won't take off, I just think it may gain popularity very slowly.
The immediate benifit for the gamer is that when you have a lot of games running this, they begin to feel similar. As a FPS gamer, the worst part about playing a new game is getting those grenades bouncing back at you because the physics engine is different from what you are used to. Now some may say thats the fun of it, but I think that learning the physics engine is just a hinderance to playing the game (and thus partaking in the story).
Game companies benifit from this when their game is new, but suffer when their game ages.
Okay, I'm just reading everyone replies. I'll just reply to this though.
IMO:
usability is a result of good designsecurity is a result of good design
size is a result of good design
noise is a result of good design
longevity doesn't really count with computers for 99% of the population, a cheap PC works for longer than it takes the user to want a newer better machine
style is a result of good design
included software, the macs included software is good because... good design
included hardware is where the macs lose.
Now lets see what I said.
The fucking problem is that you can get an equivalent PC for less. Of course thats without the design. But then again thats what the grandparent said...
Please understand that I do realise that for many people, the mac is a superior choice. It should be. It is designed well. Perhaps it is rightly more expensive, but most people will buy the best HARDWARE for their money, and live with the other stuff being worse.
The fucking problem is that you can get an equivalent PC for less. Of course thats without the design. But then again thats what the grandparent said...
Now why don't microsoft hire you... :) Oh wait that was a good idea...
I've had to call microsoft to activate a copy of XP home 3 times (Lots of issues with installing new hardware). Twice I got Indian support guys and once some british lady. Now I live in Durban which has the largest Indian population in any city outside of india (at least I'm pretty sure I remember hering that), so the indian guys were not a problem. The british lady however had some nasty dialect that I just couldn't understand over the phone. That call took twice as long as the others combined and she spoke english as a first language. ;)
:(
The point however was not to dis indians or any other nationality, the problem is that for many people, listening to foreign accents over the phone is difficult. And the moment you make call centers even more important, there is a manager somewhere who is going to try save money, and then we all get screwed.
The more times you have to deal with a company after you have purchased a product, the more chance of something going wrong.