Not sure why you posted this in reply to me, as opposed to other people that replied beneath me.
*I* played CS, a lot.... 5 years ago.
I'm sure there are great CS servers out there. That's not what keeps me from playing - I'd simply rather play UT2004, Call of Duty, or various other online PC and console games with my free time. CS was good, CS was great, but I've been there, and after countless all-night LAN parties, I've done played it out.
I don't go to LAN parties much anymore, because invariably, someone demands that CS get dragged from the closet, and pitches a whiny fit if it doesn't get played. It's time to move on. Eventually, there will be a second Counter-Strike, and I'd rather just wait for that and let the experience be fresh and new again.
With SOCOM II, SCEA got smart and implemented some stringent server-side security - and cheating went from "every game" to "only exploiting gameplay flaws" (most of which were subsequently patched).
... if they promise never to come back with theatrical Special Editions 20 years down the road with redone special FX, and promise not to replace swords with foam noodles in scenes where hobbits are around, or do anything else to sully the legacy... then I promise I'll go watch ROTK EE in the theater.
I have been a PC gaming snob for many years. Only recently have I begrudgingly started playing consoles more.
Walk into any gaming store. Software Etc. used to have entire walls dedicated to PC games. Niche genres like flight sims, other military sims, point-and-click adventures, hex-based strategy, etc, used to live quite comfortably.
Today, PC games have almost no shelf space. Entire genres are dying out.
If you're sitting there saying nothing is changing, you are truly deluding yourself. PC gaming has taken major, major hits.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that has noticed that PC hardware advancements are WELL outpacing their software uses. Plenty of people "surf the web" quite comfortably on computers as slow as P200. My girlfriend's parents use a K6-2 233. My parents each have P2-400 laptops.
The basic computer tasks of "web browsing, word processing, e-mail, and instant messaging" do not require 3 GHz machines. I mean, they haven't requires the latest-and-greatest hardware for a long time, but the hardware is growing MUCH MUCH faster than the baseline requirements for these tasks are.
So, it makes sense for a single PC to serve multiple users simultaneously.
People have pointed out that old UNIX machines did just this, but the ironic thing is that these uses are for the exact opposite reasons. Used to be that CPU time was so costly that it was necessary. Now, CPU time is so cheap that one can't help but buy more than they need, and splitting it up across users is ideal.
And yum doesn't solve much until you go plug in some more 3rd-party repositories - which is part of the problem.
And guess what? Some people want to be able to download and install RPMs graphically. There's no reason that it should be a task - talking about yum and apt are red herrings to deflect criticism from something that is largely broken.
I know people that really want to like Linux, but they're not hardcore geeks, and the run into dumb problems:
Fedora is an RPM based distro. Fedora's default desktop is GNOME. Fedora's GNOME does not have a default file association for *.rpm files. DUMB
When you do have a program associated with RPM, you can double-click the RPM, only to spend a few minutes realizing that each of the packages you downloaded need each other installed first. Sure, you can do an "rpm -ivh blah-*.rpm" from the command line (or whatever the switches are - I don't use RPM distros anymore), but is it so freaking hard to have the graphical RPM tools "see" the other RPMs sitting right there in the same folder, and handle them intelligently? DUMB
Way, way, way, way too many packages that aren't available through the distro's repositories themselves. There's only about a dozen RPM repositories for Fedora Core to chase various packages down from. This is the one biggest thing that makes me dump SuSE every time and head back to Gentoo. Instead of Pacman and usr-local-bin and etc. etc. etc., would it really be so hard to have a "contributed" repository maintained by SuSE (and "known" to YaST at install time), where these places (and god knows what others) just submit their packages to? Virtually everything I can imagine, I could get through Portage in Gentoo. Why can't the "big" distros have their prebuilt package repositories be similarly comprehensive? It was such a task for one of my buddies to get/install divx4linux - all the guy wanted to do was watch a little pr0n on his fresh Linux install! Even though it's not that hard, nobody should *have* to fall back on tarballs and./configure / make / make install. DUMB
There's a lot of little things that keep pissing off potential Linux users, and sending them back to Windows. It's the "little things" that the Mac platform usually does so well. It's those same "little things" that Linux distros, desktop environments, etc, need to pay attention to.
We are all guilty of fucking shit up sometimes. Syntax checking was invented in programming languages for a reason, however it is also assumed that you will fuck up sooner or later. Hence many things have syntax checking built in.
Not my fault/. doesnt have a spell checker.
Kids, this is why you go to college and get an actual education. Otherwise, this may happen to you.
First they came for Rap
and I did not speak out
because I did not like Rap.
Then they came for Pop
and I did not speak out
because I did not like Pop.
Then they came for Country
and I did not speak out
because I did not like Country.
Then the RIAA came for Good Music
and I did not speak out
For I died of shock
You do realize that it's quite possible for a bad voice actor to be a good stage/screen actor and vice versa, right? There's a lot more to screen acting than vocal inflection.
. I obviously understand letting AOL members use it, but allowing non-members always confused me. I guess they thought that by letting users use it for free, they would discover they like AOL and switch to it or some such.
No, I think it's more a case of giving AOL users value by being able to communicate with everyone, instead of just other AOL users. Being able to message anyone from within their little AOL universe is a nice feature for your average AOL user, but only being able to message other AOL users would be far less valuable. If they can't message their friends, their friends might be likely to try and pull them over to the "real" Internet (even more than already).
Slashdot Mirror
I type "www.google.com"
The main page still fits in a 640x480 screen (if I were crazy enough to use such a display). The central focus of the screen is the search bar.
The result of all this high-profile rapid expansion is..... a thin line of tiny plain-text links above the search bar.
Yeah, I can see how that's complicated and confusing.
Indeed, a great feature. And now that UT has done it, expect the rest of the online shooter rank and file to fall in.
Heh, back when I played CS, there wasn't no steeenking built-in voice comms.
*I* played CS, a lot.... 5 years ago.
I'm sure there are great CS servers out there. That's not what keeps me from playing - I'd simply rather play UT2004, Call of Duty, or various other online PC and console games with my free time. CS was good, CS was great, but I've been there, and after countless all-night LAN parties, I've done played it out.
I don't go to LAN parties much anymore, because invariably, someone demands that CS get dragged from the closet, and pitches a whiny fit if it doesn't get played. It's time to move on. Eventually, there will be a second Counter-Strike, and I'd rather just wait for that and let the experience be fresh and new again.
SOCOM 1 on the PS2 suffered from this, big time.
With SOCOM II, SCEA got smart and implemented some stringent server-side security - and cheating went from "every game" to "only exploiting gameplay flaws" (most of which were subsequently patched).
It's way past time to die!
BSD died nice and gracefully - why won't you go? Are you too good for your destiny?
Are you blind?
I have been a PC gaming snob for many years. Only recently have I begrudgingly started playing consoles more.
Walk into any gaming store. Software Etc. used to have entire walls dedicated to PC games. Niche genres like flight sims, other military sims, point-and-click adventures, hex-based strategy, etc, used to live quite comfortably.
Today, PC games have almost no shelf space. Entire genres are dying out.
If you're sitting there saying nothing is changing, you are truly deluding yourself. PC gaming has taken major, major hits.
The basic computer tasks of "web browsing, word processing, e-mail, and instant messaging" do not require 3 GHz machines. I mean, they haven't requires the latest-and-greatest hardware for a long time, but the hardware is growing MUCH MUCH faster than the baseline requirements for these tasks are.
So, it makes sense for a single PC to serve multiple users simultaneously.
People have pointed out that old UNIX machines did just this, but the ironic thing is that these uses are for the exact opposite reasons. Used to be that CPU time was so costly that it was necessary. Now, CPU time is so cheap that one can't help but buy more than they need, and splitting it up across users is ideal.
No, you'll get modded down for telling everyone else that their opinions are false, and that they actually did "like" the movies.
However, not everyone shares your low standards.
This might not be the case with all installs (perhaps it is different for some install types), but it does in fact happen, and never should.
But I am not the newbie.
And yum doesn't solve much until you go plug in some more 3rd-party repositories - which is part of the problem.
And guess what? Some people want to be able to download and install RPMs graphically. There's no reason that it should be a task - talking about yum and apt are red herrings to deflect criticism from something that is largely broken.
Fedora is an RPM based distro. Fedora's default desktop is GNOME. Fedora's GNOME does not have a default file association for *.rpm files. DUMB
When you do have a program associated with RPM, you can double-click the RPM, only to spend a few minutes realizing that each of the packages you downloaded need each other installed first. Sure, you can do an "rpm -ivh blah-*.rpm" from the command line (or whatever the switches are - I don't use RPM distros anymore), but is it so freaking hard to have the graphical RPM tools "see" the other RPMs sitting right there in the same folder, and handle them intelligently? DUMB
Way, way, way, way too many packages that aren't available through the distro's repositories themselves. There's only about a dozen RPM repositories for Fedora Core to chase various packages down from. This is the one biggest thing that makes me dump SuSE every time and head back to Gentoo. Instead of Pacman and usr-local-bin and etc. etc. etc., would it really be so hard to have a "contributed" repository maintained by SuSE (and "known" to YaST at install time), where these places (and god knows what others) just submit their packages to? Virtually everything I can imagine, I could get through Portage in Gentoo. Why can't the "big" distros have their prebuilt package repositories be similarly comprehensive? It was such a task for one of my buddies to get/install divx4linux - all the guy wanted to do was watch a little pr0n on his fresh Linux install! Even though it's not that hard, nobody should *have* to fall back on tarballs and ./configure / make / make install. DUMB
There's a lot of little things that keep pissing off potential Linux users, and sending them back to Windows. It's the "little things" that the Mac platform usually does so well. It's those same "little things" that Linux distros, desktop environments, etc, need to pay attention to.
That means FOUR mice, keyboards, DISPLAYS and users with just one CPU.
Man 2: "Really? What's that?"
Goose: "ATRAC!"
Well if there's no double-barrelled shotgun in Doom 3, we'll know what's in store for us...
Kids, this is why you go to college and get an actual education. Otherwise, this may happen to you.
This may come as a shock, but language rules were not invented just for "term papers".
Why some people feel proper English is optional, I will never know. More often than not, it's used to excuse a lack of English skills.
Mistakes happen. An attitude that it doesn't matter except for "term papers", however, shouldn't.
Then the RIAA came for Good Music
and I did not speak out
For I died of shock
They can't all be Shatner.
Wow! I'm boycotting EMI without even trying!
As soon as DRM cripples something of quality, then I'll be a sad clown.
D00d, all kinds!
Star Wars Episode I
Star Wars Episode II
Teh Hulk
Ma7r1x Reloaded
Ma7r1x Revolutions
Troy
Jersey Girl
Chocolat
All aewsum!!!111
No, I think it's more a case of giving AOL users value by being able to communicate with everyone, instead of just other AOL users. Being able to message anyone from within their little AOL universe is a nice feature for your average AOL user, but only being able to message other AOL users would be far less valuable. If they can't message their friends, their friends might be likely to try and pull them over to the "real" Internet (even more than already).