(Generally young) people with no desire to gain any technical understand of securely maintaining responsibility over their own information use an (invariably) insecure operating system to access a web site designed specifically to make someone very rich by feeding advertisements at the same people in a way that makes them feel like "one of the pack" whilst divesting the site owners of any responsibility of that personal data by offering the service as "free".
I do fully agree with your point that Linux (at least as it stands today) will not displace Windows from the desktops of Joe Average users. To be perfectly honest, if Joe's computer usage consists purely of playing games, working with a few household documents, maybe printing and editing a few family photos and all that kind of stuff, then he's probably no need to ever run Linux - and if, when Joe buys his next PC, he's still able to do all of those things, then it won't matter to him whether or not he's running XP or Vista.
Additionally, although a confirmed Gentoo-only user myself, Linux distros are getting friendlier and easier to install, plus the process of installing updates is pretty straightforward. Where the real issue comes is with brand-spanking new hardware where the Linux kernel drivers have possibly not caught up with their Windows equivalents - in other words, if you're going to run Linux on a PC, you probably need to do some research first to make sure that all of the hardware in that PC is supported by a kernel or external driver. Again, this is a process Joe Average wants nothing to do with - he just wants to buy his PC and off he goes.
However, there are also a few of your points I disagree with. Assuming that we're again talking about Joe Average and that Joe has a fully working XP PC and a fully working Ubuntu PC in front of him, I would argue that to maintain and use the Ubuntu PC takes a lot less time than the XP PC *if you do it properly*.
For starters, on the XP machine, there are Microsoft updates to apply fairly frequently (although I admit Microsoft Update is pretty automatic) but then there's the weekly virus scans, adware scanners, maybe some kind of disk cleaning and registry cleaning tool to run, and possibly a disk defragmenter on top of that. With the Ubuntu PC, it's maybe a few RPMs to install pretty much automatically because none of the other XP tools have any relevance to Linux.
Then if Joe Average writes a few letters or documents, maybe keeps a spreadsheet for home finances, these are all perfectly doable on OpenOffice at the level (and far beyond) he needs to do things. Just because Joe hears everyone else talking about MS Office, it does not mean he uses anything more than about 10% of its features.
Another of your points I object to is Microsoft "allowing" competitors. Linux exists "despite" Microsoft, the whole free UNIX and GNU thing has been there long before Microsoft ever thought of Windows and Linux is used because, for certain applications and for certain people, it does things *better* than what Windows does. For example, if you're prepared to learn how to script a little (Perl, Python, shell-scripting, whatever), you can have hugely powerful automated tools that will have finished doing their job before the equivalent tool in Windows has even started its GUI. So please don't believe that MS has any power over Linux, or the other free UNIX-like OSes, because it doesn't - the GPL and similar licenses ensure that.
If you and other people in this world want to do something constructive for all computer users globally, then encourage Joe Average to use open alternatives to Microsoft's (and others) closed source tools. Don't forbid them to use those tools, just get them to try Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP, GAIM, OpenOffice, etc. on Windows and explain to them why it's important not to be locked into one vendor and why issues like DRM are important.
The other advantage of this approach is that if Joe Average gets to like these free tools, then if he does one day decide to give Linux a try, he'll have those same tools on his Linux desktop meaning that the shock to his system will be lessened considerably.
No, you're not (and let the Valve/Steam fanboys mod me down, I've karma to burn anyhow).
If some games players want an easy life and not to have to worry about applying updates manually then good luck to them and I hope Steam gives them what they want.
But Steam has also been shown to be as intrusive as spyware in what it "phones home" about in regard to what it finds on your PC - sure, those at "Steam Central" may not be able to do much with any information to any specific individuals but that information is still probably useful statistically and may even be used to justify even tighter restrictions on we consumers further down the line. No, I've nothing to hide whatsoever (apart from my own personal data on my machines) but I also work in operating system and server security - Steam is just another closed server/client application that has the potential to be misused or cracked and is therefore not running on any PC I own - it's that simple.
What's a real shame is that the original Half-Life (and its expansions) is my favourite game of all time and I would like to play Half-Life 2 and the new Episodes - yes, and like everything else I play, I'll happily go out and buy the full retail version. But I decide what I run on my PC and I simply will *NOT* allow any power-hungry company ride roughshod through my PC for the sake of a game.
It's even more annoying that I'm also a big fan of the Civilization series and have played them all up to Civ 3 - Civ 4 was going to be a game I was going to ask for a Christmas present from the missus. Hopefully, I'll still have the choice of buying the boxed version and downloading the updates to install manually, otherwise I'll be choosing something else for Santa Claus to bring me.
But to end on a positive note, at the other end of the scale I think Stardock deserve some real praise with the way they have handled Galactic Civilizations II. Not only is it a superb game (if you're a Master Of Orion fan like I am) but once you've installed it and registered your license key with their web site, you don't even need to put the game disc in the drive to play it - plus they even tell you how to export you registration to another machine so you can have it installed simultanously on a desktop and laptop or so that you don't need to go through the registration process again after a rebuild.
Hear hear! Where do these people get this stupid idea into their heads that avoiding punctualisation and capitalisation is "cool" or "hip"?
If someone on here at least makes an attempt at using either, or just the occasional spelling mistake, I don't mind letting it go but I don't see how I'm supposed to take somebody seriously as a computer expert (who presumably programs in some kind of structured programming language) when that same person does not even make an attempt to use the structure of written English correctly?
I'm thinking of adding a disclaimer to all my Slashdot postings:
"The author of this posting would like to make it clear that any resemblance to fanboys, living or dead, is purely coincidental - but maybe if you stop taking Linux, Apple, World of Warcraft, Windows or Sony so seriously for a minute, you may learn to start seeing the funny side of things and chilling out a bit more."
That's for you young whippersnappers - I'm talking 1st Edition *MAN'S RULES*, sonny!
If you were a cleric in those days, there was none of this wussying about with "Well if you worship that god, then you can use a small blade..." rubbish! Ooh, no no no. Mace or a mallet, that was your weapon choice - and possibly a half-elf but definitely *NO DWARVES*.
And we used to use *REAL* pencils, paper and dice for our character sheets, not some new-fangled character generator program and a printer like you young'uns do these days....
Lik Sang has announced that it is closing its doors, as of October 24th 2006, because of those fags at Sony.
Being an Englishman who takes every word literally, do I take it that Sony employees are therefore using the communal smoking area outside of the Lik Sang office to the point where Lik Sang must stop the smoke filled air entering their building?
Gor, blimey! Sum peepul dun arf take liburtees wiv there smurk breaks, dunnay?
If I ever have a big gap to fill on a designer coffee table, need a quick but expensive way of feeling superior to normal Windows users and happen to forget everything I ever learned about operating systems, then I will certainly buy one of these!
Would you like to just temporarily remove those Sony salesman's genitals from your mouth and repeat what you just said? I couldn't understand you the first time...
"Hey! Gronk, Shnazzbit and the rest of you guys! Come here! I've an idea... How about we take that £10 that Fangtooth won in the beauty contest and go on a daylight hotel-building raid on Leicester Square.."
I guess teenage "Thrombo The Orcslayer" will need to sheath his "Daemon Warblade" and come down from his bedroom over Christmas and join mum, dad and Auntie Flo for a family game of Monopoly this year then.
Slashdot Mirror
(Generally young) people with no desire to gain any technical understand of securely maintaining responsibility over their own information use an (invariably) insecure operating system to access a web site designed specifically to make someone very rich by feeding advertisements at the same people in a way that makes them feel like "one of the pack" whilst divesting the site owners of any responsibility of that personal data by offering the service as "free".
Additionally, although a confirmed Gentoo-only user myself, Linux distros are getting friendlier and easier to install, plus the process of installing updates is pretty straightforward. Where the real issue comes is with brand-spanking new hardware where the Linux kernel drivers have possibly not caught up with their Windows equivalents - in other words, if you're going to run Linux on a PC, you probably need to do some research first to make sure that all of the hardware in that PC is supported by a kernel or external driver. Again, this is a process Joe Average wants nothing to do with - he just wants to buy his PC and off he goes.
However, there are also a few of your points I disagree with. Assuming that we're again talking about Joe Average and that Joe has a fully working XP PC and a fully working Ubuntu PC in front of him, I would argue that to maintain and use the Ubuntu PC takes a lot less time than the XP PC *if you do it properly*.
For starters, on the XP machine, there are Microsoft updates to apply fairly frequently (although I admit Microsoft Update is pretty automatic) but then there's the weekly virus scans, adware scanners, maybe some kind of disk cleaning and registry cleaning tool to run, and possibly a disk defragmenter on top of that. With the Ubuntu PC, it's maybe a few RPMs to install pretty much automatically because none of the other XP tools have any relevance to Linux.
Then if Joe Average writes a few letters or documents, maybe keeps a spreadsheet for home finances, these are all perfectly doable on OpenOffice at the level (and far beyond) he needs to do things. Just because Joe hears everyone else talking about MS Office, it does not mean he uses anything more than about 10% of its features.
Another of your points I object to is Microsoft "allowing" competitors. Linux exists "despite" Microsoft, the whole free UNIX and GNU thing has been there long before Microsoft ever thought of Windows and Linux is used because, for certain applications and for certain people, it does things *better* than what Windows does. For example, if you're prepared to learn how to script a little (Perl, Python, shell-scripting, whatever), you can have hugely powerful automated tools that will have finished doing their job before the equivalent tool in Windows has even started its GUI. So please don't believe that MS has any power over Linux, or the other free UNIX-like OSes, because it doesn't - the GPL and similar licenses ensure that.
If you and other people in this world want to do something constructive for all computer users globally, then encourage Joe Average to use open alternatives to Microsoft's (and others) closed source tools. Don't forbid them to use those tools, just get them to try Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP, GAIM, OpenOffice, etc. on Windows and explain to them why it's important not to be locked into one vendor and why issues like DRM are important.
The other advantage of this approach is that if Joe Average gets to like these free tools, then if he does one day decide to give Linux a try, he'll have those same tools on his Linux desktop meaning that the shock to his system will be lessened considerably.
...how great inventions discovered while making pornography are now carried on space missions?
To match the "pumped-up" right arms of all the teenage male Kotaku reading WoW players?
You'll be a bloody round-eared, gut-bucketed, short-lived human and like it!
..."but our Verisign certificate goes up to 11!"
Ooohh! Can I feel your bulging bicep, you great big hunk pirate of the Great Internet Ocean???
Kotaku reader gets girlfriend!!!
One-eyed python rumoured to have got "pumped up"!!!
More news at eleven!!!
... the one-legged man who never turned up at the ass-kicking party?
If some games players want an easy life and not to have to worry about applying updates manually then good luck to them and I hope Steam gives them what they want.
But Steam has also been shown to be as intrusive as spyware in what it "phones home" about in regard to what it finds on your PC - sure, those at "Steam Central" may not be able to do much with any information to any specific individuals but that information is still probably useful statistically and may even be used to justify even tighter restrictions on we consumers further down the line. No, I've nothing to hide whatsoever (apart from my own personal data on my machines) but I also work in operating system and server security - Steam is just another closed server/client application that has the potential to be misused or cracked and is therefore not running on any PC I own - it's that simple.
What's a real shame is that the original Half-Life (and its expansions) is my favourite game of all time and I would like to play Half-Life 2 and the new Episodes - yes, and like everything else I play, I'll happily go out and buy the full retail version. But I decide what I run on my PC and I simply will *NOT* allow any power-hungry company ride roughshod through my PC for the sake of a game.
It's even more annoying that I'm also a big fan of the Civilization series and have played them all up to Civ 3 - Civ 4 was going to be a game I was going to ask for a Christmas present from the missus. Hopefully, I'll still have the choice of buying the boxed version and downloading the updates to install manually, otherwise I'll be choosing something else for Santa Claus to bring me.
But to end on a positive note, at the other end of the scale I think Stardock deserve some real praise with the way they have handled Galactic Civilizations II. Not only is it a superb game (if you're a Master Of Orion fan like I am) but once you've installed it and registered your license key with their web site, you don't even need to put the game disc in the drive to play it - plus they even tell you how to export you registration to another machine so you can have it installed simultanously on a desktop and laptop or so that you don't need to go through the registration process again after a rebuild.
"Slit a sacrifice's throat?" Not as Chaotic Good alignment you don't, matey....
[PLEASE INSERT ADDITIONAL STAR TREK JOKES BENEATH HERE]
If someone on here at least makes an attempt at using either, or just the occasional spelling mistake, I don't mind letting it go but I don't see how I'm supposed to take somebody seriously as a computer expert (who presumably programs in some kind of structured programming language) when that same person does not even make an attempt to use the structure of written English correctly?
HA! The sun would have to get up *PRETTY EARLY IN THE MORNING* to catch *ME* out"!!!
Oh wait...
"The author of this posting would like to make it clear that any resemblance to fanboys, living or dead, is purely coincidental - but maybe if you stop taking Linux, Apple, World of Warcraft, Windows or Sony so seriously for a minute, you may learn to start seeing the funny side of things and chilling out a bit more."
That's for you young whippersnappers - I'm talking 1st Edition *MAN'S RULES*, sonny!
If you were a cleric in those days, there was none of this wussying about with "Well if you worship that god, then you can use a small blade..." rubbish! Ooh, no no no. Mace or a mallet, that was your weapon choice - and possibly a half-elf but definitely *NO DWARVES*.
And we used to use *REAL* pencils, paper and dice for our character sheets, not some new-fangled character generator program and a printer like you young'uns do these days....
Please, don't get angry. Anyone can make a mistake... it's just that you *looked* like a Sony salesman, okay?
How about I just disappear again and then the two of you can continue with your fellatio session...
Being an Englishman who takes every word literally, do I take it that Sony employees are therefore using the communal smoking area outside of the Lik Sang office to the point where Lik Sang must stop the smoke filled air entering their building?
Gor, blimey! Sum peepul dun arf take liburtees wiv there smurk breaks, dunnay?
Oops! Sorry, "Sony"... I thought you said "Nazis"... Sorry about that....
Ah, what the hell! Same difference, leave that one in.
What the hell, karma to burn...
Would you like to just temporarily remove those Sony salesman's genitals from your mouth and repeat what you just said? I couldn't understand you the first time...
"Hey! Gronk, Shnazzbit and the rest of you guys! Come here! I've an idea... How about we take that £10 that Fangtooth won in the beauty contest and go on a daylight hotel-building raid on Leicester Square.."
"And in a private speech to the Confederation of British Industry later on this afternoon, Tony Blair will be saying that..."
And of course, we then get a full breakdown of what will be in this *private* speech.
And I'm an AD&D player - dwarves can't be priests.
I guess teenage "Thrombo The Orcslayer" will need to sheath his "Daemon Warblade" and come down from his bedroom over Christmas and join mum, dad and Auntie Flo for a family game of Monopoly this year then.