Vista really doesn't suck. I say this as an OS X, Linux, and M-Windows user.
Then you've had a far better experience with the OS than me and several neighbors.
After reinstalling a few HP computers (which came with Vista) for the 6th time I started handing out copies of Ubuntu Linux. I couldn't believe how many times the OS became corrupted or something else freaked out. Computers are supposed to make life easier not harder!
Last year I built a new system for me and after thinking about all the things Linux can't do that Windows can I.. oh wait a second.... Linux DOES everything I need just as well if not better:-)
Yeah I'm running Ubuntu at home now. The only thing I struggled with was finding a good Non Linear Video Editor. KDENLIVE looks like a good replacement for most of what I do (though I'm still looking for a good replacement for DVD Architect).
Windows gaming over WINE has been pretty good. Running CSS/TF2/HL2/Portal. When Prey was announced to have a native linux client I bought that along with a bunch of other games (Q4, Ut2004 also). Starcraft, C&C 3, Oblivion (to name just a few) run great.
The licensing model of Vista (and Win7) is like dongle, only worse: it's a dongle with an expiry date. It penalizes the customer. If I buy an authentication key, *I* should be the one to say on which computer I install it. I shouldn't have to call Redmond for permission if I change computers.
I'm confused by the judge's comment -- I thought the whole issue was *not* that users paid higher prices for "Vista Capable" machines, but rather that they bought such machines that were not actually capable of running Vista.
What gives?
I understand your argument and you are right. However you are also presuming Judges have a clue about computers. Even the most basic understanding. And the comments by this Judge demonstrate just how disconnected they are from tech.
Not to make this a political thread but even John McCain didn't use email until last year. And someone had to show him how it works. And he's a Senator leading our Nation!
Mark my words, what we are seeing here is the tiniest tip of the turd iceberg that is Win7, AKA Vista the second edition. It will go down in flames as folks find out it is a big pile of stink just like Vista. That is why just yesterday I had a customer literally throw money at me saying "make this %^&^&$ POS Vista go away!
Shortly after Vista came out I gave it a spin and decided I didn't like what I was seeing or hearing from my friends/family who also were checking it out. Neighbors down the street would frequently ask me for 'advice' on solving Vista problems. Got to the point where I bought that T-Shirt from "Think Geek" which says "No I won't fix your computer".
I was building a new computer for myself and decided to switch to Ubuntu. I'm running 8.04 currently and haven't gone back. Heck, even my Windows games run perfectly under Ubuntu with WINE. HL2/TF2/CSS, Oblivion, UT2004 and so on.
My kids are sick and tired of Windows issue and have demanded I switch their computers over as well.
Microsoft is doing me a favor with Windows 7. Keep up the good work boys.
BTW, the neighbors asking for help, I've burned a copy of Ubuntu 8.04 for each and every one of them. If they want help then here ya go. I'm finished with Microsoft.
C2CAM, always on the bleeding edge of news items relating to government conspiracy, aliens, ghosts and telekinetic lesbian space fish from the fourteenth dimension.
Dude. Everyone knows that's just wrong. There are only 10 dimensions.
And finally, I like the power of choice. You don't have choice when you only have one choice.
Which is why I'm advocating another solution. The 4 or 5 companies running fiber is the same reason why we have airports rather than an airport for each airline company. Now that would be a lot of airports.
And speaking of choice, you have Concast then you have... ummm.. nobody else in your area. Unless you live like IN philly. Which now has Verizon coming.
Precisely, and we could easily fix in this in the United States if we simply allowed Time-Warner, Comcast, Cox, Charter, et cetera to run 4-5 lines in parallel through the underground pipe. Then a customer could say, "Cox is cheapest; hook me up," and a wire could be run from the underground pipe into the house.
The only people who claim this cannot be done are those who desire to keep a monopoly on cable tv/internet. As an engineer, I think it would be extremely easy to run 4-5 cables in parallel. There's plenty of room in the existing conduits.
Is there a reason you don't mention building a neutral infrastructure like what we have with public roads?
We could decide (for example) one pizza company has the best pizza on the planet and drive to their business and become a regular customer. On the other hand, if we find out they spit in the pizza sauce we can decide to drive those same roads to the pizza company next door to them and never go back.
In the same vein, why not have a service neutral network in place and decide one company over another is best for our needs?
This solves the problem is having to run multiple cables and if a provider decides to 'spit in our sauce' we can tell them to shove off.
Precisely. If you want the "goods" then you should pay the piper. That's entirely fair. It's how everything from water usage to electric usage to gasoline usage works. The more you use, the more you pay. ----- As for myself, I'd be happy with a 100 Meg cap, since my traffic report says I only downloaded 55 Meg last month. Nowhere near the limit.
That's today. Tomorrow you're needs very likely will be different. Possibly requiring more bandwidth. That's just life.
20 years ago 10 Meg hard drives were huge. How can anyone possibly use that much data on a computer?
Today that's a single file or a portion of a file. Just one mp3 could be anywhere from 3-5 Megs alone.
Things always change. I don't see this being a good one
Since Vista worked out so good for them they had to follow their 'success'. Seems like some people never learn.
But Vista is a success story dude. It was the best thing to happen to my family. Once I installed it my family asked for everything to be moved to Ubuntu. We've been happy ever since.
Using WINE for those programs we simply must have (Starcraft, Oblivion, Call of Duty 4 and so on). Native support for everything else like Prey, Quake 4 and Unreal Tournament 2004.
It's also the year I move my family to Ubuntu linux. Oh wait that was two years ago. Yeah, Vista was a great product. Soo great that I was encouraged enough to finally make the move.
You know what... Except for running a bunch of games under WINE, I don't really miss it.
Even my kids have stopped bugging me. The computer just works now:D
Uh, market segmentation is pretty basic economics and common practice. See, for example, any car manufacturer charging $500 for a GPS unit or stereo when equivalent (if not better) models be bought off the shelf for 1/4 the price (but won't be quite as "integrated").
I guess this means Microsoft's argument that Linux is fragmented will no longer be used when they argue why Linux sucks. They are fragmented pretty badly and it's just one company!
Personally I really like Ubuntu myself. It installs, it runs very well and has ton's of features doing everything I could want on a computer.
Well... I'm still waiting for a good video editor to come out. But just about everything you could want is there.
Oh and yes, I've tried Kino, Cinelerra, and now checking out blender. I'm looking for something to replace Vegas Video and DVD Architect. Maybe someday:D
This is what amuses me as a slightly miffed Comcast customer. That little residential service ToS document that you agree to has (for at least the past five years) carried language that says "You _cannot_ run servers. Not even SSH or RSH." and "If you use too much of the network, we _will_ terminate your connection.".
that's the funny thing about it all. Even if you don't run a server and the contract language says "Unlimited use for a flat monthly fee", some people think they don't mean unlimited use when it says unlimited use.
And Concast didn't provide a stated limit until october 2008. So they can terminate you by just saying they believe you used more than 250 gigs even if my monitoring tools (which I have in place now) tell me I'm using say 10% of my allocated bandwidth.
How would they resolve that???
Yeah, Concast really cares. What you aren't told is they care about their stock and profits and not about their customers.
Some people get confused over that.
and and switch to a new isp? Can your honestly suggest there is real competition to allow for that?
Go with Concast and get fast speeds, go with anyone else and get 1/10th the speed.
And that's competition?
Competition provides similar products. Not dissimilar products.
Actually I read it as more arrogant than clueless, or perhaps hostile would be the word. He definately didn't defend as much as say "Yeah, we don't care" to most of the questions.
It's a good thing they have a lot of money. They will need it as more and more people like me decide not to purchase their DRM crap products.
Amazon.com music is awesome. No DRM and it works with any player I have. I don't share the files with other's. They are mine however and not the property of another entity.
That's basically what DRM is. Giving property rights away and turning your property into a rental.
So it is OK for a state to discriminate against a group of people? The only actual arguments I've seen against gay marriage are based on religious beliefs.
When the government made polygamy illegal they said it was because they needed to protect morality basically. If that argument no longer applies then perhaps polygamy shouldn't be illegal either.
I'm not talking about these weirdo's marrying you girls. I'm talking about adults wanting to be married (as in 18 and older).
Under the guise of 'hurts hiring' one could wax a whole bunch of laws that should be in place. Laws *dont* exist to serve corperate interest... okay, okay laws *should* not exist to serve corperate interest.
IANAL however I have been researching on California's.gov web site for marriage laws and was surprised to learn that domestic partner laws provide the same benefits as a heterosexual marriage. The only thing missing is the federal government doesn't recognize the partnership.
I would be interested in hearing the real argument for homosexual marriage.
My gaming has certainly improved since switching to Ubuntu from XP. The same machine in multiboot to the same servers running Counterstrike Source and Team Fortress 2.
Under Windows XP my ping was around 80-100 ms which is respectable. Rebooting to Ubuntu 8.04 with WINE I found the same servers my ping was around 35-60 ms.
While the in game chat is broken under WINE (at least I'm having trouble getting it to work right), everything else seems to be running just fine. A little occasional lag but generally I'm now sniping with the best of them after the switch:-)
Yeah, Linux definitely is better. Now if they would only finish that port of source games over I'd be in heaven:-)
I've been reading these stories for years and wanted to thank you for the good work you have all done.
It's changed my perspective and my families purchasing habits with music. Everyone I speak with knows I don't purchase music when the RIAA will benefit from it.
I go to sites such as secondspin.com, gametz.com or amazon.com marketplace and purchase second hand music if I must have that song. Also I've been using google to find independents to purchase directly online.
The internet is a liberating tool. Another reason I'm hoping it becomes like public roads. Everyone should have it available and fast. This way we can punish organizations such as these guys by taking our money elsewhere.
Over the last few years I've also switched my home computers to Ubuntu Linux (kicking Microsoft out) and replaced Concast Internet with a local provider. Similar reasons. I don't like their poor attitude and won't do business with them.
This is the only way everyday people will get these companies attention. Perhaps they will figure it out. Then again, perhaps they will be the ones asking for a bail out as well.
Maybe because at the moment there are very few applications of an Internet connection for which you'd notice the difference between 1mbit and 10mbit.
Unless you are a habitual downloader (a group statistically overrepresented here on Slashdot), you won't notice any difference to your web and email by moving above 1mbit. Hell, with the intelligent buffering that most video sites have, it's likely that you wouldn't even notice the difference on those sites unless you're really paying attention.
If you are talking about grandma who uses the internet for email or basic web browsing then you are correct. However if you are talking about 2 or 3 family members using the internet for gaming then you are way off.
I'm running 1.5 Meg DSL (because that's my only really good option at the moment) and when we have a couple of kids playing Team Fortress 2 or Counter Strike Source while I'm browsing the internet then yes it's damn slow. Of course that's when they are downloading the latest map update or steam is updating again.
BTW, can you name a single instance during your internet experience where you are NOT downloading something?
It's either a.nav file for CSS or an.html document for your browser. You are doomed to download dude. You hear me. Doomed:-)
When they sell the machine to the buyer it is distributing the software that the machine runs.
And if the SCO group was somehow involved, it's interesting to note they would be 'claiming' you could be sued by them for using these machines to vote on.
Trust me in a country with a population ~300m there's far more of us than there are of them. We don't have to agree to continue the current method of governance. The founding fathers gave us militias and protection for weapons for that very reason.
Which is why I bought several weapons and ammo. To protect my family against all threats. Both foreign and domestic.
Also why I'm voting for many in the Constitution party. It's better voting my conscience instead of the 'lesser of two evils'.
The Constitution is only as good as the people enforcing it. If the President can create an emergency that enables him to do what he wants, then the Constitution is irrelavent.
which is why I'm not voting the the lesser of two evils (Democrat or Republican). I'm voting my conscience which means many of the people running for office in the Constitution party.
I've had it with the professional politicians. They obviously are incompetent despite having many years of experience.
By being given the opportunity to vote, we're invited to participate in our electoral process.
If you decline to vote, then you really have no recourse to complain about the results of that process, do you? You had your chance to be heard and decided you had other things to do.
Sounds good. I think I'll vote for Chuck Baldwin for President since he gives a crap about our Constitution. You know. The Document which gives our Government authority:D
Slashdot Mirror
Vista really doesn't suck. I say this as an OS X, Linux, and M-Windows user.
Then you've had a far better experience with the OS than me and several neighbors.
After reinstalling a few HP computers (which came with Vista) for the 6th time I started handing out copies of Ubuntu Linux. I couldn't believe how many times the OS became corrupted or something else freaked out. Computers are supposed to make life easier not harder!
Last year I built a new system for me and after thinking about all the things Linux can't do that Windows can I .. oh wait a second.... Linux DOES everything I need just as well if not better :-)
Yeah I'm running Ubuntu at home now. The only thing I struggled with was finding a good Non Linear Video Editor. KDENLIVE looks like a good replacement for most of what I do (though I'm still looking for a good replacement for DVD Architect).
Windows gaming over WINE has been pretty good. Running CSS/TF2/HL2/Portal. When Prey was announced to have a native linux client I bought that along with a bunch of other games (Q4, Ut2004 also). Starcraft, C&C 3, Oblivion (to name just a few) run great.
The licensing model of Vista (and Win7) is like dongle, only worse: it's a dongle with an expiry date. It penalizes the customer. If I buy an authentication key, *I* should be the one to say on which computer I install it. I shouldn't have to call Redmond for permission if I change computers.
So Windows... Yeah, I used to run that. :-)
I'm confused by the judge's comment -- I thought the whole issue was *not* that users paid higher prices for "Vista Capable" machines, but rather that they bought such machines that were not actually capable of running Vista.
What gives?
I understand your argument and you are right. However you are also presuming Judges have a clue about computers. Even the most basic understanding. And the comments by this Judge demonstrate just how disconnected they are from tech.
Not to make this a political thread but even John McCain didn't use email until last year. And someone had to show him how it works. And he's a Senator leading our Nation!
Mark my words, what we are seeing here is the tiniest tip of the turd iceberg that is Win7, AKA Vista the second edition. It will go down in flames as folks find out it is a big pile of stink just like Vista. That is why just yesterday I had a customer literally throw money at me saying "make this %^&^&$ POS Vista go away!
Shortly after Vista came out I gave it a spin and decided I didn't like what I was seeing or hearing from my friends/family who also were checking it out. Neighbors down the street would frequently ask me for 'advice' on solving Vista problems. Got to the point where I bought that T-Shirt from "Think Geek" which says "No I won't fix your computer".
I was building a new computer for myself and decided to switch to Ubuntu. I'm running 8.04 currently and haven't gone back. Heck, even my Windows games run perfectly under Ubuntu with WINE. HL2/TF2/CSS, Oblivion, UT2004 and so on.
My kids are sick and tired of Windows issue and have demanded I switch their computers over as well.
Microsoft is doing me a favor with Windows 7. Keep up the good work boys.
BTW, the neighbors asking for help, I've burned a copy of Ubuntu 8.04 for each and every one of them. If they want help then here ya go. I'm finished with Microsoft.
In what universe? [imdb.com]
I was being sarcastic but in a more serious vein I was thinking of something like this
C2CAM, always on the bleeding edge of news items relating to government conspiracy, aliens, ghosts and telekinetic lesbian space fish from the fourteenth dimension.
Dude. Everyone knows that's just wrong. There are only 10 dimensions.
And finally, I like the power of choice. You don't have choice when you only have one choice.
Which is why I'm advocating another solution. The 4 or 5 companies running fiber is the same reason why we have airports rather than an airport for each airline company. Now that would be a lot of airports.
And speaking of choice, you have Concast then you have... ummm.. nobody else in your area. Unless you live like IN philly. Which now has Verizon coming.
Concast must be pissed.
Good. Screw em.
Precisely, and we could easily fix in this in the United States if we simply allowed Time-Warner, Comcast, Cox, Charter, et cetera to run 4-5 lines in parallel through the underground pipe. Then a customer could say, "Cox is cheapest; hook me up," and a wire could be run from the underground pipe into the house.
The only people who claim this cannot be done are those who desire to keep a monopoly on cable tv/internet. As an engineer, I think it would be extremely easy to run 4-5 cables in parallel. There's plenty of room in the existing conduits.
Is there a reason you don't mention building a neutral infrastructure like what we have with public roads?
We could decide (for example) one pizza company has the best pizza on the planet and drive to their business and become a regular customer. On the other hand, if we find out they spit in the pizza sauce we can decide to drive those same roads to the pizza company next door to them and never go back.
In the same vein, why not have a service neutral network in place and decide one company over another is best for our needs?
This solves the problem is having to run multiple cables and if a provider decides to 'spit in our sauce' we can tell them to shove off.
Precisely. If you want the "goods" then you should pay the piper. That's entirely fair. It's how everything from water usage to electric usage to gasoline usage works. The more you use, the more you pay. ----- As for myself, I'd be happy with a 100 Meg cap, since my traffic report says I only downloaded 55 Meg last month. Nowhere near the limit.
That's today. Tomorrow you're needs very likely will be different. Possibly requiring more bandwidth. That's just life.
20 years ago 10 Meg hard drives were huge. How can anyone possibly use that much data on a computer?
Today that's a single file or a portion of a file. Just one mp3 could be anywhere from 3-5 Megs alone.
Things always change. I don't see this being a good one
Since Vista worked out so good for them they had to follow their 'success'. Seems like some people never learn.
But Vista is a success story dude. It was the best thing to happen to my family. Once I installed it my family asked for everything to be moved to Ubuntu. We've been happy ever since.
Using WINE for those programs we simply must have (Starcraft, Oblivion, Call of Duty 4 and so on). Native support for everything else like Prey, Quake 4 and Unreal Tournament 2004.
I have no complaints with Vista now ;-)
It's also the year I move my family to Ubuntu linux. Oh wait that was two years ago. Yeah, Vista was a great product. Soo great that I was encouraged enough to finally make the move.
You know what... Except for running a bunch of games under WINE, I don't really miss it.
Even my kids have stopped bugging me. The computer just works now :D
Uh, market segmentation is pretty basic economics and common practice. See, for example, any car manufacturer charging $500 for a GPS unit or stereo when equivalent (if not better) models be bought off the shelf for 1/4 the price (but won't be quite as "integrated").
I guess this means Microsoft's argument that Linux is fragmented will no longer be used when they argue why Linux sucks. They are fragmented pretty badly and it's just one company!
Personally I really like Ubuntu myself. It installs, it runs very well and has ton's of features doing everything I could want on a computer.
Well... I'm still waiting for a good video editor to come out. But just about everything you could want is there.
Oh and yes, I've tried Kino, Cinelerra, and now checking out blender. I'm looking for something to replace Vegas Video and DVD Architect. Maybe someday :D
Last I checked, you could get dial-up through most telecoms, and you can get cellular data plans most anywhere in the nation.
Would you go with dial up today?
This is what amuses me as a slightly miffed Comcast customer. That little residential service ToS document that you agree to has (for at least the past five years) carried language that says "You _cannot_ run servers. Not even SSH or RSH." and "If you use too much of the network, we _will_ terminate your connection.".
that's the funny thing about it all. Even if you don't run a server and the contract language says "Unlimited use for a flat monthly fee", some people think they don't mean unlimited use when it says unlimited use.
And Concast didn't provide a stated limit until october 2008. So they can terminate you by just saying they believe you used more than 250 gigs even if my monitoring tools (which I have in place now) tell me I'm using say 10% of my allocated bandwidth.
How would they resolve that???
Yeah, Concast really cares. What you aren't told is they care about their stock and profits and not about their customers.
Some people get confused over that.
and and switch to a new isp? Can your honestly suggest there is real competition to allow for that?
Go with Concast and get fast speeds, go with anyone else and get 1/10th the speed.
And that's competition?
Competition provides similar products. Not dissimilar products.
Actually I read it as more arrogant than clueless, or perhaps hostile would be the word. He definately didn't defend as much as say "Yeah, we don't care" to most of the questions.
It's a good thing they have a lot of money. They will need it as more and more people like me decide not to purchase their DRM crap products.
Amazon.com music is awesome. No DRM and it works with any player I have. I don't share the files with other's. They are mine however and not the property of another entity.
That's basically what DRM is. Giving property rights away and turning your property into a rental.
So it is OK for a state to discriminate against a group of people? The only actual arguments I've seen against gay marriage are based on religious beliefs.
When the government made polygamy illegal they said it was because they needed to protect morality basically. If that argument no longer applies then perhaps polygamy shouldn't be illegal either.
I'm not talking about these weirdo's marrying you girls. I'm talking about adults wanting to be married (as in 18 and older).
Under the guise of 'hurts hiring' one could wax a whole bunch of laws that should be in place. Laws *dont* exist to serve corperate interest... okay, okay laws *should* not exist to serve corperate interest.
IANAL however I have been researching on California's .gov web site for marriage laws and was surprised to learn that domestic partner laws provide the same benefits as a heterosexual marriage. The only thing missing is the federal government doesn't recognize the partnership.
I would be interested in hearing the real argument for homosexual marriage.
Don't misunderstand me. The pro-prop 8 people are wrong too. There's no way that two men getting married is going to diminish my marriage in any way.
Would this include polygamy? I mean would it diminish marriage in any way? It is illegal also which I'm curious as to why.
That's a very strong assertion.
What evidence is there that more than half of the people in "higher-level jobs requiring an education" are homosexual?
You presume he needs evidence to support his statement :-)
My gaming has certainly improved since switching to Ubuntu from XP. The same machine in multiboot to the same servers running Counterstrike Source and Team Fortress 2.
Under Windows XP my ping was around 80-100 ms which is respectable. Rebooting to Ubuntu 8.04 with WINE I found the same servers my ping was around 35-60 ms.
While the in game chat is broken under WINE (at least I'm having trouble getting it to work right), everything else seems to be running just fine. A little occasional lag but generally I'm now sniping with the best of them after the switch :-)
Yeah, Linux definitely is better. Now if they would only finish that port of source games over I'd be in heaven :-)
I've been reading these stories for years and wanted to thank you for the good work you have all done.
It's changed my perspective and my families purchasing habits with music. Everyone I speak with knows I don't purchase music when the RIAA will benefit from it.
I go to sites such as secondspin.com, gametz.com or amazon.com marketplace and purchase second hand music if I must have that song. Also I've been using google to find independents to purchase directly online.
The internet is a liberating tool. Another reason I'm hoping it becomes like public roads. Everyone should have it available and fast. This way we can punish organizations such as these guys by taking our money elsewhere.
Over the last few years I've also switched my home computers to Ubuntu Linux (kicking Microsoft out) and replaced Concast Internet with a local provider. Similar reasons. I don't like their poor attitude and won't do business with them.
This is the only way everyday people will get these companies attention. Perhaps they will figure it out. Then again, perhaps they will be the ones asking for a bail out as well.
Thanks again and keep up the great work!
Maybe because at the moment there are very few applications of an Internet connection for which you'd notice the difference between 1mbit and 10mbit.
Unless you are a habitual downloader (a group statistically overrepresented here on Slashdot), you won't notice any difference to your web and email by moving above 1mbit. Hell, with the intelligent buffering that most video sites have, it's likely that you wouldn't even notice the difference on those sites unless you're really paying attention.
If you are talking about grandma who uses the internet for email or basic web browsing then you are correct. However if you are talking about 2 or 3 family members using the internet for gaming then you are way off.
I'm running 1.5 Meg DSL (because that's my only really good option at the moment) and when we have a couple of kids playing Team Fortress 2 or Counter Strike Source while I'm browsing the internet then yes it's damn slow. Of course that's when they are downloading the latest map update or steam is updating again.
BTW, can you name a single instance during your internet experience where you are NOT downloading something?
It's either a .nav file for CSS or an .html document for your browser. You are doomed to download dude. You hear me. Doomed :-)
When they sell the machine to the buyer it is distributing the software that the machine runs.
And if the SCO group was somehow involved, it's interesting to note they would be 'claiming' you could be sued by them for using these machines to vote on.
Since they violate the IP that is :-)
Trust me in a country with a population ~300m there's far more of us than there are of them. We don't have to agree to continue the current method of governance. The founding fathers gave us militias and protection for weapons for that very reason.
Which is why I bought several weapons and ammo. To protect my family against all threats. Both foreign and domestic.
Also why I'm voting for many in the Constitution party. It's better voting my conscience instead of the 'lesser of two evils'.
The Constitution is only as good as the people enforcing it. If the President can create an emergency that enables him to do what he wants, then the Constitution is irrelavent.
which is why I'm not voting the the lesser of two evils (Democrat or Republican). I'm voting my conscience which means many of the people running for office in the Constitution party.
I've had it with the professional politicians. They obviously are incompetent despite having many years of experience.
By being given the opportunity to vote, we're invited to participate in our electoral process.
If you decline to vote, then you really have no recourse to complain about the results of that process, do you? You had your chance to be heard and decided you had other things to do.
Sounds good. I think I'll vote for Chuck Baldwin for President since he gives a crap about our Constitution. You know. The Document which gives our Government authority :D