Sorry, but you sound like a totally selfish, non-caring individual with those statements - basically, what you are saying is that it doesn't matter that several hundred people have died in a plane crash somewhere provided that you don't get to hear about it while you're flying.
If your life is so full of "things to do" that a 20 second difference between the loading of MSOffice and OpenOffice is that important to you, how come you're wasting time on Slashdot?
The fact that it runs a Microsoft operating system means that some of the money from the sale of every unit goes to Microsoft.
Put Linux on it and you can cut Microsoft out of the loop completely and sell it slightly cheaper - to someon who earns $1000 a year, $5 cheaper is a big saving...
Also, what's this fascination Windows people have with the Linux command line? As a starting user, you can do all you need to at the GUI level, just like Windows. Sure, as a power user, nothing beats the command line but then I've never used a Windows system where I've not needed to drop to the command prompt on occasions to do an ipconfig, nslookup, ping or net use.
Come back and speak to us again in another 1000 days or so - by that time you'll probably come close to the record of uninterrupted service for an average UNIX server...
I use Windows 2000 for gaming and for some work apps I can't get working in Linux yet.
From a stability point of view, Windows 2000 is pretty reasonable but the fact is that the legacy of The Registry, combined with file-system fragmentation, means that any Windows OS chunders after about 6 months of continual use, no matter how much defragging and cleaning you do.
Windows XP Home is the biggest pile of bloated, patronising crap I have ever had the misfortune to work on and I will not be dragged any deeper into Microsoft's plans for domination of the world's data by DRM. Therefore Windows XP is an OS I will never install and Windows 2000 the last Microsoft OS I have vowed ever to use.
Even to this day, I have probably spent more of my computing time on Windows than I have on anything else and XP is the only Windows version I have not used because I refuse to use it.
Sure, Linux goes wrong too sometimes but it is a damn-sight more pleasing to work on and fix a Linux box than it is a Windows one purely because of the empowerment you have with Linux.
I know Windows better than most Windows users do - that's why I am refusing to continue to use it beyond Windows 2000.
Debian has released far more security patches for linux than Microsoft has for windows 2003
This is a completely different argument to what I was responding to so please keep this thread on topic.
With that said, the number of patches is a meaningless number - Debian is a distribution that includes a much more wide-ranging amount of software than any Windows version does. Besides, Microsoft do not fix every security exploit as reported - otherwise what else is a Service Pack but a whole heap of patches.
This does not answer the fact that the originator of this comment was ill-informed on his understanding of Linux - I was answering his comments about having to compile everything in Linux, we never mentioned security patches.
1. Gentoo is just one way of doing things in the Linux world - with Red hat, SuSE, Slackware, Debian, etc. you install updated binaries, no different to what you would do in Windows.
2. You do not recompile everything every time you update. Firstly, you might compile an application against libraries and/or kernel headers you have on your system - this depends on what the application is but generally this is very quick on modern systems. Sure kernels, Gnome, KDE, etc take a while to compile but then, you have a choice with Linux...
If you're going to argue against Linux then at least put up a valid argument that is factually correct.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Windows users base their anti-Linux arguments purely on speculation and FUD, it's very easy to see when they've never even used what they're complaining about.
Please remember that much of the Linux user base is made up of dissatisfied ex-Windows users so the Linux community is usually much more well informed and qualified on Windows than is the case the other way around.
Please make sure you get your facts right in future.
How about all us Firefox users, for a five minute period at 11:55pm GMT, click on every single web page advert we come across. Just for that single five minute period, then never click on another advert ever again.
That'll really mess up the heads of all the survey people and marketing types...
Browsing someone's website and blocking their ads is theft.
Wrong. Promoting yourself on Google and other search engines as providing particular information or a service but then bombarding me with unexpected advertising (that you get paid to host) is theft of my bandwidth!
Please remember that the Internet is primary a global public network, not a commercial one.
If you want content for free, gather it yourself, or make it yourself.
Don't be a jerk! That's like my playing an instrument in the street and then demanding people pay me for the privelige of listening!
If your information is not freely available to the general public then don't publish it in a public place!
Okay, call me an old duffer but wasn't there a time prior to the commercialisation (Ugh! I hate that word, too much like "commercials"!) of the Internet when military/academic people just used the ARPAnet for the communication of important information? I don't ever recall any business being given the right to make money on the Internet...
The attitude of big business today seems to be that every human must be forced to stare at billboards, glossy pages in magazines, TV ads and Internet banners displaying product after product after product - even to the point where the 3" diameter circle on the top of a petrol pump at a petrol station has to display an ad for a bar of chocolate...
So, just as much as big business seems to be given the right to try to force-feed me endless advertising, I reserve the right to read a book on a tube train so I never have to stare up at the ads over the windows, the right to use my remote control to switch to another channel during the ad breaks and the right to use any goddamn browser and asblock program I want to keep this constant assault of visual garbage away from my eyes.
I'm sure Microsoft's "Chief Programmer" can jump in his Learjet and come over here and do a few hours with the EDS guys sorting out the problems, can't he? Have a pizza with the guys as they crowd round a few dead Windows servers scratching their heads?
Bring Steve along in a clown suit, have him dance outside the Social Security offices with sweaty armpits, amusing the angry hordes with his continual chanting of "De benefits, de benefits".
The chances are that the same people using pirated copies of Windows are also using other pirated MS software like Office and probably software from other vendors also.
Since the article talks specifically about Windows XP and allowing Microsoft to check your PC, what's to stop them taking legal action against you for a pirated copy of Office or shopping you to, say, Symantec, because you're running Norton Antivirus on your PC also.
I've personally vowed never to use Windows XP because I don't trust what MS are doing and will not use an OS that seriously starts to inhibit my personal freedoms - currently, I use mostly Linux and some Windows 2000 (mainly for gaming) but the latter will be the last MS operating system I will ever use.
I doubt Intel would open source their drivers to Linux.
It's not Linux they fear, it's the fact that once the drivers are open, then any competitor can get a hold of them and find out a bit more about how their hardware all works.
It's an encouraging sign from Intel, though. The real danger is that all Intel hardware goes the DRM/Palladium route at some point in the future - this would create a real problem for Linux because DRM/Palladium drivers are never going to be open sourced (for obvious reasons) and closed drivers would never be included within the kernel distribution.
If nothing else, we can kind of hope that Intel will still have an interest in Linux in the future and maybe release specific Linux hardware as a result. It's possible, then, I guess, they might open source some very specific drivers but I doubt they'd do anything more than that.
Why are people pirating Windows when Linux is free?
Because most people are too afraid of computers to try something new - to those people, a pirated copy of Windows is free and familiar whereas Linux is free but unfamiliar (in their limited perceptions at least).
It could be argued that if Windows was not piratable, then more people would take the time to install and try Linux rather than pay the inflated prices for Windows XP, Office, etc.
None of us, whether Windows or Linux user, should lose focus as to the real reason why Microsoft are doing this.
Windows XP has always been Microsoft's first big step into clamping down on the freedoms that most users have taken for granted up until now.
From Microsoft's perspective, there is very little money to be made from just selling OSes any more, hence the licensing lock-ins that most guarantee regular income to MS.
With regard to home and private users, make no mistake that MS intends to become a utility company alongside your electricity, gas and telephone provider. They want everyone to rent software and licenses that allow all of us to use the data we freely had access to and control over ourselves.
Windows XP, along with WMP 10 and ultimately DRM hardware will force the rental model upon all Windows users - sure, it will be sold as security enhancements to Joe Public but will ultimately force all Windows users to continually pay to use their software or suffer deactivation.
This is why Microsoft can afford to give away XP because, in the longer term, they will gain from this.
It's important that, in the Open Source user-base, we continue to push home the message that it's not just about security & stability when choosing to use FOSS - its primarily about personal freedoms and maintaining our rights to use whatever software we want on our computers.
So don't get lost amongst the smoke and mirrors of what MS is doing here by giving away XP - it's ultimately about everyone paying money to MS in the future for the rights to do the things they did freely in the past.
What did he do in 04 that influenced other business' in their executive decision process?
Exactly the same as he did in 03, 02, 01, etc., namely just acted as a controlling figurehead to the rest of the Linux community such that all those who contribute to Linux maintain a single focus.
Linux's penetration into the corporate environment is far more extensive than you actually believe it is - remember, there is no need to put a "Designed for Linux" sticker on every box that runs it and I'd be very surprised if you didn't own a car, handheld device, set-top box, etc. that didn't run Linux.
I myself work for a telecomms company and Linux powers our flagship telephony server products that power businesses with 10,000+ extension offices and huge call centres.
Very soon, we are going into the "carrier-grade" telephony market with Linux-based servers, previously an area occupied almost exclusively by HP-UX.
You also need to be aware that HP-UX and Solaris have been traditionally linked to very powerful, high-performance hardware platforms from HP and Sun to drive backbone Internet applications like Sendmail, Apache, BIND, etc. Linux runs all of these also with the added advantage that clustering and server farms provide equal power and resilience on much cheaper hardware.
Just because Linus doesn't stand up on stage with sweaty armpits shouting "Developers" over and over again, don't diss him - he has demonstrated that it is perfectly possible to lead from the back.
You should be more concerned that Carly "Angel Of Death" Fiorina comes in at number 7...
...to get you to part with your hard-earned money.
How about all those lazy PC games programmers actually stick with a single game engine for a while and spend time optimising that rather than recreating the wheel for every new game.
What happened to all the slick programmers that were able to push "fixed" machines like the Amiga and Commodore 64 beyond their capabilities through neat programming tricks and constant code improvements?
I've really had it now with constant upgrades and with hardware that is never tried and tested long enough to see what can be done with it.
I've completed Half-Life and the two additional mission packs 3 times now. It's probably the greatest and most influential game I've ever played.
I still play Half-Life multiplayer and Counter-Strike.
I own three legitimate copies of all of them so as to have enough software keys for myself and two buddies to play on-line simultaneously.
But I won't buy or play Half-Life 2.
I am sick and tired of being treated like a criminal by software companies. I do not mind having to register my software on a once-only basis but I do object to constant checking of my validity and I especially object to copy protection that stops me making legitimate backups of any software that I own.
Half-Life 2 may be even better than the original but until I'm treated like a valued customer by Valve and all the other software houses, I won't be buying ANY protected software.
Software piracy is nothing to do with me because I don't pirate software, it's that simple. But I won't be held accountable for what pirates do.
It's about time that all the "sheep" that make up the buyers of software, audio CDs and DVDs actually took a stand against being treated like criminals and just stopped buying this stuff, even if it's just for one day, until we all push home the message that we are sick and tired of inflated pricing, poor quality products and products that are more difficult to use as a result of protection.
Valve can stick that in their Steam pipe and smoke it...
Slashdot Mirror
You can direct it to a file or pipe it.
Great for using is shell-scripts to scrape specific data from a web page.
"Micro" and "Long", "soft" and "horn"...
Another iPod owner who has to tell us he/she has an iPod...
So Halo 2 obviously contributes to offsetting the losses but presumably every X-Box owner has to own at least another 4 games also.
Do you have many friends?
If your life is so full of "things to do" that a 20 second difference between the loading of MSOffice and OpenOffice is that important to you, how come you're wasting time on Slashdot?
Put Linux on it and you can cut Microsoft out of the loop completely and sell it slightly cheaper - to someon who earns $1000 a year, $5 cheaper is a big saving...
Also, what's this fascination Windows people have with the Linux command line? As a starting user, you can do all you need to at the GUI level, just like Windows. Sure, as a power user, nothing beats the command line but then I've never used a Windows system where I've not needed to drop to the command prompt on occasions to do an ipconfig, nslookup, ping or net use.
Come back and speak to us again in another 1000 days or so - by that time you'll probably come close to the record of uninterrupted service for an average UNIX server...
From a stability point of view, Windows 2000 is pretty reasonable but the fact is that the legacy of The Registry, combined with file-system fragmentation, means that any Windows OS chunders after about 6 months of continual use, no matter how much defragging and cleaning you do.
Windows XP Home is the biggest pile of bloated, patronising crap I have ever had the misfortune to work on and I will not be dragged any deeper into Microsoft's plans for domination of the world's data by DRM. Therefore Windows XP is an OS I will never install and Windows 2000 the last Microsoft OS I have vowed ever to use.
Even to this day, I have probably spent more of my computing time on Windows than I have on anything else and XP is the only Windows version I have not used because I refuse to use it.
Sure, Linux goes wrong too sometimes but it is a damn-sight more pleasing to work on and fix a Linux box than it is a Windows one purely because of the empowerment you have with Linux.
I know Windows better than most Windows users do - that's why I am refusing to continue to use it beyond Windows 2000.
This is a completely different argument to what I was responding to so please keep this thread on topic.
With that said, the number of patches is a meaningless number - Debian is a distribution that includes a much more wide-ranging amount of software than any Windows version does. Besides, Microsoft do not fix every security exploit as reported - otherwise what else is a Service Pack but a whole heap of patches.
This does not answer the fact that the originator of this comment was ill-informed on his understanding of Linux - I was answering his comments about having to compile everything in Linux, we never mentioned security patches.
You can go get Fedora free of charge or just download any number of other free distros.
What's the problem? With Linux, you have a choice.
2. You do not recompile everything every time you update. Firstly, you might compile an application against libraries and/or kernel headers you have on your system - this depends on what the application is but generally this is very quick on modern systems. Sure kernels, Gnome, KDE, etc take a while to compile but then, you have a choice with Linux...
If you're going to argue against Linux then at least put up a valid argument that is factually correct.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Windows users base their anti-Linux arguments purely on speculation and FUD, it's very easy to see when they've never even used what they're complaining about.
Please remember that much of the Linux user base is made up of dissatisfied ex-Windows users so the Linux community is usually much more well informed and qualified on Windows than is the case the other way around.
Please make sure you get your facts right in future.
That'll really mess up the heads of all the survey people and marketing types...
"Try to pigeon-hole we Slashdotters, huh?"
Wrong. Promoting yourself on Google and other search engines as providing particular information or a service but then bombarding me with unexpected advertising (that you get paid to host) is theft of my bandwidth!
Please remember that the Internet is primary a global public network, not a commercial one.
If you want content for free, gather it yourself, or make it yourself.
Don't be a jerk! That's like my playing an instrument in the street and then demanding people pay me for the privelige of listening!
If your information is not freely available to the general public then don't publish it in a public place!
What a moron!
The attitude of big business today seems to be that every human must be forced to stare at billboards, glossy pages in magazines, TV ads and Internet banners displaying product after product after product - even to the point where the 3" diameter circle on the top of a petrol pump at a petrol station has to display an ad for a bar of chocolate...
So, just as much as big business seems to be given the right to try to force-feed me endless advertising, I reserve the right to read a book on a tube train so I never have to stare up at the ads over the windows, the right to use my remote control to switch to another channel during the ad breaks and the right to use any goddamn browser and asblock program I want to keep this constant assault of visual garbage away from my eyes.
Bring Steve along in a clown suit, have him dance outside the Social Security offices with sweaty armpits, amusing the angry hordes with his continual chanting of "De benefits, de benefits".
Smug mode engage...
Some people like it, buy it and play music on it.
Others don't have a need for an iPod.
End of story - next news article please.
Why do iPod owners use every Slashdot story then can to let us know they own iPods?
The chances are that the same people using pirated copies of Windows are also using other pirated MS software like Office and probably software from other vendors also.
Since the article talks specifically about Windows XP and allowing Microsoft to check your PC, what's to stop them taking legal action against you for a pirated copy of Office or shopping you to, say, Symantec, because you're running Norton Antivirus on your PC also.
I've personally vowed never to use Windows XP because I don't trust what MS are doing and will not use an OS that seriously starts to inhibit my personal freedoms - currently, I use mostly Linux and some Windows 2000 (mainly for gaming) but the latter will be the last MS operating system I will ever use.
It's not Linux they fear, it's the fact that once the drivers are open, then any competitor can get a hold of them and find out a bit more about how their hardware all works.
It's an encouraging sign from Intel, though. The real danger is that all Intel hardware goes the DRM/Palladium route at some point in the future - this would create a real problem for Linux because DRM/Palladium drivers are never going to be open sourced (for obvious reasons) and closed drivers would never be included within the kernel distribution.
If nothing else, we can kind of hope that Intel will still have an interest in Linux in the future and maybe release specific Linux hardware as a result. It's possible, then, I guess, they might open source some very specific drivers but I doubt they'd do anything more than that.
Because most people are too afraid of computers to try something new - to those people, a pirated copy of Windows is free and familiar whereas Linux is free but unfamiliar (in their limited perceptions at least).
It could be argued that if Windows was not piratable, then more people would take the time to install and try Linux rather than pay the inflated prices for Windows XP, Office, etc.
Windows XP has always been Microsoft's first big step into clamping down on the freedoms that most users have taken for granted up until now.
From Microsoft's perspective, there is very little money to be made from just selling OSes any more, hence the licensing lock-ins that most guarantee regular income to MS.
With regard to home and private users, make no mistake that MS intends to become a utility company alongside your electricity, gas and telephone provider. They want everyone to rent software and licenses that allow all of us to use the data we freely had access to and control over ourselves.
Windows XP, along with WMP 10 and ultimately DRM hardware will force the rental model upon all Windows users - sure, it will be sold as security enhancements to Joe Public but will ultimately force all Windows users to continually pay to use their software or suffer deactivation.
This is why Microsoft can afford to give away XP because, in the longer term, they will gain from this.
It's important that, in the Open Source user-base, we continue to push home the message that it's not just about security & stability when choosing to use FOSS - its primarily about personal freedoms and maintaining our rights to use whatever software we want on our computers.
So don't get lost amongst the smoke and mirrors of what MS is doing here by giving away XP - it's ultimately about everyone paying money to MS in the future for the rights to do the things they did freely in the past.
Exactly the same as he did in 03, 02, 01, etc., namely just acted as a controlling figurehead to the rest of the Linux community such that all those who contribute to Linux maintain a single focus.
Linux's penetration into the corporate environment is far more extensive than you actually believe it is - remember, there is no need to put a "Designed for Linux" sticker on every box that runs it and I'd be very surprised if you didn't own a car, handheld device, set-top box, etc. that didn't run Linux.
I myself work for a telecomms company and Linux powers our flagship telephony server products that power businesses with 10,000+ extension offices and huge call centres.
Very soon, we are going into the "carrier-grade" telephony market with Linux-based servers, previously an area occupied almost exclusively by HP-UX.
You also need to be aware that HP-UX and Solaris have been traditionally linked to very powerful, high-performance hardware platforms from HP and Sun to drive backbone Internet applications like Sendmail, Apache, BIND, etc. Linux runs all of these also with the added advantage that clustering and server farms provide equal power and resilience on much cheaper hardware.
Just because Linus doesn't stand up on stage with sweaty armpits shouting "Developers" over and over again, don't diss him - he has demonstrated that it is perfectly possible to lead from the back.
You should be more concerned that Carly "Angel Of Death" Fiorina comes in at number 7...
How about all those lazy PC games programmers actually stick with a single game engine for a while and spend time optimising that rather than recreating the wheel for every new game.
What happened to all the slick programmers that were able to push "fixed" machines like the Amiga and Commodore 64 beyond their capabilities through neat programming tricks and constant code improvements?
I've really had it now with constant upgrades and with hardware that is never tried and tested long enough to see what can be done with it.
I still play Half-Life multiplayer and Counter-Strike.
I own three legitimate copies of all of them so as to have enough software keys for myself and two buddies to play on-line simultaneously.
But I won't buy or play Half-Life 2.
I am sick and tired of being treated like a criminal by software companies. I do not mind having to register my software on a once-only basis but I do object to constant checking of my validity and I especially object to copy protection that stops me making legitimate backups of any software that I own.
Half-Life 2 may be even better than the original but until I'm treated like a valued customer by Valve and all the other software houses, I won't be buying ANY protected software.
Software piracy is nothing to do with me because I don't pirate software, it's that simple. But I won't be held accountable for what pirates do.
It's about time that all the "sheep" that make up the buyers of software, audio CDs and DVDs actually took a stand against being treated like criminals and just stopped buying this stuff, even if it's just for one day, until we all push home the message that we are sick and tired of inflated pricing, poor quality products and products that are more difficult to use as a result of protection.
Valve can stick that in their Steam pipe and smoke it...