"If you want to drag people away from the abomination that is windows, you have to offer something better instead of just copying the crap blindly."
I hear you. I really do. Personally I don't believe Microsoft is doing all that great with the products they push on people. They do have a nice interface however. It's not all that bad and the big thing is people are comfortable with it. To provide a Linux distro with a Windows look and feel should be that "something better" we are all hoping for.
I'm thinking of trying out the XPDE desktop for kicks. If it looks and feels like a Windows desktop then why now? I get the best OS around with a Windows desktop look and feel. Now if only HL2 would come out natively on Linux.... I can dream at least.
In my past life as a Microsoft MCSE (still in recovery mind you), I have come to the conclusion that Win95/98/ME all sucks as an OS. XP home was built from that foundation. XP Pro OTOH was designed from the more stable (tongue in cheek) NT/2000 pro line. It's an improvement but still crap. I wouldn't use this for anything other than gaming. All my real work is done on alternate OS's.
I tried XP home for a few weeks. Didn't like it. Crashed enough times that I simply gave up on it. Pro was the way to go and only cost me another $38 more. OEM version of course:-)
"If vendors feel so confident with the intellectual property foundation under their massive contributions into Linux, then they should put their money where their mouth is and protect end users with true vendor-based indemnification," said Darl McBride, president and CEO, The SCO Group, Inc."
::sigh:: This is such a bunch of crap. I called up Microsoft and asked them about this. I'm running XP Pro (for gaming only... honest!) and wanted to know what if SCO started the same crap against Microsoft end users. Will I be indemnified for the use of their product? The answer was of course yes. Ok.. so how much then? If I'm reading the EULA correctly, I'm protected up to the purchase price of the product. So OEM that's what? $100? $150? They were unable to answer my question unfortunately. I think we all know what the answer is however.
"The actions of these vendors today doesn't change the fact that SCO's intellectual property is being found in Linux."
I can see it now. At then end when they are crushed. Daryll will say "Honest... we thought we owned the IP. It's not my fault!" Only thing he could say to try and stay outta jail.
Too bad not all distros offer it during the "installation."
RedHat 9 provides it as an option during installation. When you pop in disk 1 you get the main install screen. Type "linux reiserfs" then hit enter. When Disk Druid comes up, select each disk partition and change it from ext3 to reiserfs. I have several RedHat 9 systems running @ home and work. Very stable so far.
My point exactly. People for years have kept saying how great and wonderful Microsoft is. Then the criminal actions are brought out of the closet. Microsoft 'claims' they will be forced, if split, to discontinue selling Windows. People were shocked thinking that would never happen. Now we see this. What are they to do for bug/security fixes?
It's plain and simple. They have NO option whatsoever. Cough up the money or become a zombie for the next Internet DDOS. Personally, the only reason I keep Wintendo around is for the games. I've tried running them in Wine and WineX (even crossover). Close to 100% stable but not close enough when you're about to capture the flag or waste some poor noobie;-)
These days I only use Windows for a gaming platform. If not for my Internet gaming addiction, I wouldn't use Microsoft products... ever!
FYI... This is all behind my nice and handy Linux firewall:-)
Goes to show that even those incentives were not enough to sway them over.
I understand that Microsoft had dropped the price of Windows XP to $10 a copy for Germany when they were looking at replacing Windows desktops with Linux.
I've been watching this happen over and over again. Country after country have been walking away from Microsoft over the last few years and it seems to be accelerating.
$300 for XP Pro and $500+ for Office is shear lunacy. Before you spend ANY money on hardware, you already have spent more than the hardware is worth just in a simple OS and office product. Not worth it. Not even close. When I asked for a refund for XP Pro on my laptop I was told I would receive a check for $10. Is that what I paid when purchasing the laptop? Of course when I asked for 10 copies of XP Pro at the same price they were a little miffed at me. Bummer dude.
If I'm keeping score properly, there are about 30 countries in which the Government has "allowed" opensource alternatives. Most have required justification for non-opensource software and why opensource can't be used for the work. Microsoft isn't totally out of the picture. They have a seriously reduced role which I'm encouraging everywhere I can.
For burning data I've been happy with Linux and my burner (Verbatum DVD/+R/+RW). For burning movies and building your own menus (and so on) it's a growing industry. I understand that Gear Inc has something for Linux but it's rather new. I'll check them out again in about a year or so. See if they had made progress.
xcdroast seems to work well when burning to DVD's. It's an exciting time for Linux users. The tools are coming.
I had the same concern. A year ago when I started looking at DVD burners I intended to convert movies from VHS to DVD and even make my own movies (family camcorder movies and photo slideshows). I noticed there was DVD-R, +R, -RW, +RW. What the heck is all this?
After checking out this site I learned that the formats -R and -RW were not standardized. Apparently some companies jumped the gun before the format was fully worked out. This would explain why 'some' DVD's I rented would not play. Thus +R and +RW was born. The story is these new formats are what everyone will be supporting on your DVD players for the future. This is what I bought though I highly recommend a burner which does all the above mentioned formats (just in case).
My burner only does the +R/+RW format which seems to work on just about every new DVD player I've come across. I did notice a few older models which were unable to play my movies. They were pre 1999 models (so far). I always warn people when they buy a player to check what formats it will support.
BTW, that dvdrhelp.com web site is great! They have tons of info on burners, players, editing software, how to convert formats and so on. Very good site to bookmark if you are serious about making movies, capturing or editing them.
Are you sure about that? I don't work with the planes nor do I work with the people involved. I did have many lunch conversations with them. It sounded convincing to me. They were prototypes so of course your statement is correct.
I did some google searches at the time. I learned that the Navy has tried the same thing with some of their planes and their ships. That being the case lends credibility to what they told me. The results were unfavorable. The window systems were removed as a result.
I'm not picking on Microsoft products. They don't have the best history with their software. While I use their products, I prefer using more stable environments for my work.
What really annoyed me was when I worked as a contractor for the Air Force, they had a fighter jet with a new computer system which would fail in the middle of the flight. After some poking around I learned it was a slimmed down version of Windows they were running.
The sad part was they tied it to the propulsion. When the computer crashed, the jet would simply shutdown and at 20,000 feet things could get interesting.
Ironically, the manufacturer provided restart instructions for the computer and claimed this was perfectly 'normal'. I don't believe this ever moved past the prototype stage.
I don't blame you. Personally why would anyone have surgery if they didn't need it? Sure, liposuction and plastic surgery but this? I had surgery years ago to remove a growth and it was VERY unpleasant.
"Applied Digital officials say such concern is unfounded because people are chipped voluntarily."
Not to troll here but think about it. Today it's valuntary but what about tomorrow? As with most things in the Government we find that temporary things become permanent. I wouldn't be surprised if this became a requirement in the future.
I can't begin to say how difficult it was dealing with people from India. Oh they were friendly and all. My concern was just being able to understand them.
One story (a favorite). I was being told to perform a command on my Unix system. The way support spoke it sounded like he wanted me to type in "G E R P". After repeating himself 4 or 5 times I finally figure out what he really wanted. G R E P:-)
No offense but if we can't understand one another then what good is paid support?
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"If you want to drag people away from the abomination that is windows, you have to offer something better instead of just copying the crap blindly."
I hear you. I really do. Personally I don't believe Microsoft is doing all that great with the products they push on people. They do have a nice interface however. It's not all that bad and the big thing is people are comfortable with it. To provide a Linux distro with a Windows look and feel should be that "something better" we are all hoping for.
I'm thinking of trying out the XPDE desktop for kicks. If it looks and feels like a Windows desktop then why now? I get the best OS around with a Windows desktop look and feel. Now if only HL2 would come out natively on Linux.... I can dream at least.
Didn't SCO sue IBM to find out what IP was put into Linux? So how can they sue anybody using Linux if they haven't got a clue?
And going to Europe won't be any better. They still have some laws that work against crap like this last I checked.
(Germany for example shut SCO down)
"What do you want them to do? "
;-)
Going out of business would be a good start
It's called Crossover Office ;-)
Perhaps. This is the way it was explained to me sometime back.
No.. you're not trolling. It's a great question.
:-)
In my past life as a Microsoft MCSE (still in recovery mind you), I have come to the conclusion that Win95/98/ME all sucks as an OS. XP home was built from that foundation. XP Pro OTOH was designed from the more stable (tongue in cheek) NT/2000 pro line. It's an improvement but still crap. I wouldn't use this for anything other than gaming. All my real work is done on alternate OS's.
I tried XP home for a few weeks. Didn't like it. Crashed enough times that I simply gave up on it. Pro was the way to go and only cost me another $38 more. OEM version of course
"If vendors feel so confident with the intellectual property foundation under their massive contributions into Linux, then they should put their money where their mouth is and protect end users with true vendor-based indemnification," said Darl McBride, president and CEO, The SCO Group, Inc."
::sigh:: This is such a bunch of crap. I called up Microsoft and asked them about this. I'm running XP Pro (for gaming only... honest!) and wanted to know what if SCO started the same crap against Microsoft end users. Will I be indemnified for the use of their product? The answer was of course yes. Ok.. so how much then? If I'm reading the EULA correctly, I'm protected up to the purchase price of the product. So OEM that's what? $100? $150? They were unable to answer my question unfortunately. I think we all know what the answer is however.
"The actions of these vendors today doesn't change the fact that SCO's intellectual property is being found in Linux."
I can see it now. At then end when they are crushed. Daryll will say "Honest... we thought we owned the IP. It's not my fault!" Only thing he could say to try and stay outta jail.
SCO is full of it.
Too bad not all distros offer it during the "installation."
RedHat 9 provides it as an option during installation. When you pop in disk 1 you get the main install screen. Type "linux reiserfs" then hit enter. When Disk Druid comes up, select each disk partition and change it from ext3 to reiserfs. I have several RedHat 9 systems running @ home and work. Very stable so far.
Half Life and CounterStrike are the two I'm waiting for. Hoping that HalfLife 2 will have a Linux port. I'd buy it in a second.
I'm very interested. Hopefully UT 2004 will also have a Linux client.
My point exactly. People for years have kept saying how great and wonderful Microsoft is. Then the criminal actions are brought out of the closet. Microsoft 'claims' they will be forced, if split, to discontinue selling Windows. People were shocked thinking that would never happen. Now we see this. What are they to do for bug/security fixes?
;-)
:-)
It's plain and simple. They have NO option whatsoever. Cough up the money or become a zombie for the next Internet DDOS. Personally, the only reason I keep Wintendo around is for the games. I've tried running them in Wine and WineX (even crossover). Close to 100% stable but not close enough when you're about to capture the flag or waste some poor noobie
These days I only use Windows for a gaming platform. If not for my Internet gaming addiction, I wouldn't use Microsoft products... ever!
FYI... This is all behind my nice and handy Linux firewall
But isn't the price they pass on to the consumer much higher than $10 a copy of Windows? I think that's what I'm stumbling on.
Good point! I had forgotten that.
Goes to show that even those incentives were not enough to sway them over.
I understand that Microsoft had dropped the price of Windows XP to $10 a copy for Germany when they were looking at replacing Windows desktops with Linux.
Hebrew isn't all that bad. Computers can do left to right or right to left really easy. Heck, I can do it in perl just fine.
;-)
#!/usr/bin/perl
$hebrew_words = reverse $english_words;
print $hebrew_words;
You see. No problem
(Disclaimer. The above was a joke not originated by me. I claim no copyright as the *IAA may hunt me down and ask for my first born)
I've been watching this happen over and over again. Country after country have been walking away from Microsoft over the last few years and it seems to be accelerating.
$300 for XP Pro and $500+ for Office is shear lunacy. Before you spend ANY money on hardware, you already have spent more than the hardware is worth just in a simple OS and office product. Not worth it. Not even close. When I asked for a refund for XP Pro on my laptop I was told I would receive a check for $10. Is that what I paid when purchasing the laptop? Of course when I asked for 10 copies of XP Pro at the same price they were a little miffed at me. Bummer dude.
If I'm keeping score properly, there are about 30 countries in which the Government has "allowed" opensource alternatives. Most have required justification for non-opensource software and why opensource can't be used for the work. Microsoft isn't totally out of the picture. They have a seriously reduced role which I'm encouraging everywhere I can.
WMD?
:-)
Weapons of Mass Distraction?
Sorry.. I couldn't help myself
Start passing out private information and quickly learn just how valuable privacy really is.
It's not a privilege it's a right. Otherwise why bother with the Bill of Rights?
For burning data I've been happy with Linux and my burner (Verbatum DVD/+R/+RW). For burning movies and building your own menus (and so on) it's a growing industry. I understand that Gear Inc has something for Linux but it's rather new. I'll check them out again in about a year or so. See if they had made progress.
xcdroast seems to work well when burning to DVD's. It's an exciting time for Linux users. The tools are coming.
I had the same concern. A year ago when I started looking at DVD burners I intended to convert movies from VHS to DVD and even make my own movies (family camcorder movies and photo slideshows). I noticed there was DVD-R, +R, -RW, +RW. What the heck is all this?
After checking out this site I learned that the formats -R and -RW were not standardized. Apparently some companies jumped the gun before the format was fully worked out. This would explain why 'some' DVD's I rented would not play. Thus +R and +RW was born. The story is these new formats are what everyone will be supporting on your DVD players for the future. This is what I bought though I highly recommend a burner which does all the above mentioned formats (just in case).
My burner only does the +R/+RW format which seems to work on just about every new DVD player I've come across. I did notice a few older models which were unable to play my movies. They were pre 1999 models (so far). I always warn people when they buy a player to check what formats it will support.
BTW, that dvdrhelp.com web site is great! They have tons of info on burners, players, editing software, how to convert formats and so on. Very good site to bookmark if you are serious about making movies, capturing or editing them.
"*of course, the first time they tried it, the humans broke ranks and just ran away from the orcs. What does that say?"
:-)
;-)
Sounds like that commercial was right "when the courage of men fail"...
Good thing we had Aragorn eh
Are you sure about that? I don't work with the planes nor do I work with the people involved. I did have many lunch conversations with them. It sounded convincing to me. They were prototypes so of course your statement is correct.
I did some google searches at the time. I learned that the Navy has tried the same thing with some of their planes and their ships. That being the case lends credibility to what they told me. The results were unfavorable. The window systems were removed as a result.
I'm not picking on Microsoft products. They don't have the best history with their software. While I use their products, I prefer using more stable environments for my work.
Fortunately this was another system on another fighter jet. Still the results were not promising.
What really annoyed me was when I worked as a contractor for the Air Force, they had a fighter jet with a new computer system which would fail in the middle of the flight. After some poking around I learned it was a slimmed down version of Windows they were running.
The sad part was they tied it to the propulsion. When the computer crashed, the jet would simply shutdown and at 20,000 feet things could get interesting.
Ironically, the manufacturer provided restart instructions for the computer and claimed this was perfectly 'normal'. I don't believe this ever moved past the prototype stage.
I don't blame you. Personally why would anyone have surgery if they didn't need it? Sure, liposuction and plastic surgery but this? I had surgery years ago to remove a growth and it was VERY unpleasant.
"Applied Digital officials say such concern is unfounded because people are chipped voluntarily."
Not to troll here but think about it. Today it's valuntary but what about tomorrow? As with most things in the Government we find that temporary things become permanent. I wouldn't be surprised if this became a requirement in the future.
I can't begin to say how difficult it was dealing with people from India. Oh they were friendly and all. My concern was just being able to understand them.
:-)
One story (a favorite). I was being told to perform a command on my Unix system. The way support spoke it sounded like he wanted me to type in "G E R P". After repeating himself 4 or 5 times I finally figure out what he really wanted. G R E P
No offense but if we can't understand one another then what good is paid support?
Next thing you know they will outlaw "Master and Commander" from viewing in LA Country.
Get real.