Some of the individual apps are really good, but the CS3 suite is one of the most annoying and intrusive pieces of crap ever foisted on the buying public. It constantly interrupts what you're doing with update messages, and demands that everything else be shut down while it does.
I won't be upgrading. Time to look for alternatives.
Actually it demonstrates that your company is in great shape
Not necessarily.
A significant portion of the salaries Microsoft pays its employees is in the form of stock options rather than cash. Compared to the rest of the industry, Microsoft employees are on mediocre rates. The way it attracts and retains employees is stock options.
It's a good technique because it saves a substantial amount of tax, but the downside is that the constant issuing of shares to employees dilutes the value held by existing shareholders. When the company is growing fast, that's fine, but now there's a downturn, a lot of threats and a whole slew of new companies trying to attract employees.
MS can not afford a major drop in the value of their shares, so they're pre-emptively propping them up with their spare cash instead of issueing the cash as dividends or reinvesting. This isn't a sign of a company in good shape. This is Microsoft girding their loins and settling in for a siege.
what distro should I be trying for newish, high-endish hardware support? openSUSE?
If you really want Ubuntu, the best place to look is in the Ubuntu forums. (and yes, I know this looks like RTFM, but the forums ARE very helpful). A quick search shows that your NVIDIA 9800 GT card causes problems with the default kernel in 8.04.
I personally don't like Ubuntu's fussiness with hardware and would suggest trying Mandriva Spring or OpenSUSE 11.
the lack of safety standards & enforcement by China is a big part of why their exports are so "cheap".
I see this claim a lot, but having looked at some of their factories, I'd have to say it's not really true.
The railcar fabrication workshop we looked at was more modern and mechanised than ours in Australia. They were able to produce the wagons at about 2/3rds the cost of our because they could do much larger production runs, not because they were working dangerously. Economies of scale matter.
The fact that it is setting off virus scanners tells me that it might,which means if it was used on the original Asus install image there is a lot of infected machines out there.
It's on a Windows DVD.
Asus is just saving its users some time. No point delaying the inevitable.
Sorry, your uid is not small enough for you to reminisce about days that far back
I have a higher UID than the PP, but cut my first code on punchcards and still have some large chunks of that Cyber 180 under my house (Oooh look, you can count each bit of memory).
Slashdot is not the entire geek world. Some of us clung to the fragments of usenet for far too long...
most importantly it always works, period. If you had a problem with Steam, I'd put money on it being because you did something wrong.
Bullshit.
Steam is annoying as hell and frequently stops me using games I own.
I paid money for that game so I own it. When I double-click on the icon, it is not a "request" for it to run. The game is fully installed, and doesn not need to be connected to Steam to run. Cracked versions work without the DRM-enforced waits.
If the game does not start immediately, every time, it is broken.
HP maybe just playing around with a simple linux interface for netbooks..
HP has supported Linux on its laptops for a long time. I have a NC6400 laptop which came with SLED10 installed on it, even has a nice green and silver SUSE logo badge.
What we're seeing here isn't just one hardware maker toying Linux, there are dozens of them - Nokia was an early adopter with Maemo/OS200x, but Asus, Everex/Wallmart, Dell, etc, etc are all jumping on the bandwagon. Even Intel, Microsoft's long-term partner in crime, has it's own Linux plans. And the important point these early adopters have demonstrated is that it isn't hard.
Microsoft's monopoly has been an immense roadblock for computing progress for decades now, but Vista's failure means there are cracks appearing in their Windows, and both competitors and partners have a scent of the fresh air on the other side. That's why the commentators are all calling HP's efforts an end-run around MS.
It's not a fait accompli yet, but with Adobe reinventing Flash as an application platform, Google poising Chrome/Gears in a similar role and Linux being adopted by most major hardware makers, Microsoft is looking more and more like losing control of the computing world.
And not before time.
I don't believe this is a paid guerrilla advertising campaign from MS
Can I ask why not?
I agree there's a significant effort from ISVs who are encouraged to "get out on the web and support the product", but there's also abundant evidence that Microsoft uses marketing groups like DCI and Law Media Group to astroturf more directly.
Slashdot Mirror
I won't be upgrading. Time to look for alternatives.
Not necessarily.
A significant portion of the salaries Microsoft pays its employees is in the form of stock options rather than cash. Compared to the rest of the industry, Microsoft employees are on mediocre rates. The way it attracts and retains employees is stock options.
It's a good technique because it saves a substantial amount of tax, but the downside is that the constant issuing of shares to employees dilutes the value held by existing shareholders. When the company is growing fast, that's fine, but now there's a downturn, a lot of threats and a whole slew of new companies trying to attract employees.
MS can not afford a major drop in the value of their shares, so they're pre-emptively propping them up with their spare cash instead of issueing the cash as dividends or reinvesting. This isn't a sign of a company in good shape. This is Microsoft girding their loins and settling in for a siege.
Fixed that for you.
There's a Haskell compiler written in Haskell already. Where does C fit in to that?
There are versions out already. The browser in my Nokia N800 is Mozilla based.
If you really want Ubuntu, the best place to look is in the Ubuntu forums. (and yes, I know this looks like RTFM, but the forums ARE very helpful). A quick search shows that your NVIDIA 9800 GT card causes problems with the default kernel in 8.04.
I personally don't like Ubuntu's fussiness with hardware and would suggest trying Mandriva Spring or OpenSUSE 11.
Scariest application of Rule 34 ever.
Until Ballmer gets involved...
I see this claim a lot, but having looked at some of their factories, I'd have to say it's not really true.
The railcar fabrication workshop we looked at was more modern and mechanised than ours in Australia. They were able to produce the wagons at about 2/3rds the cost of our because they could do much larger production runs, not because they were working dangerously. Economies of scale matter.
All you have to do is find a way of mounting a combination liposuction and biodiesel plant on a bicycle and you're a winner.
Millions of Americans have been stockpiling fuel in anticipation of your invention. Go for it!
It's on a Windows DVD.
Asus is just saving its users some time. No point delaying the inevitable.
You're in the wrong lane again?
Geez, some people never learn.
I foresee a slight problem with developing a hand-grenade that has a 2km blast radius...
Not if I'm happy to see you.
They improved Windows? They stopped abusing their monopoly?
When did that happen? All I heard about was Vista, hacking ISO and 228 patents. Why wasn't their change of heart on the front page??
I have a higher UID than the PP, but cut my first code on punchcards and still have some large chunks of that Cyber 180 under my house (Oooh look, you can count each bit of memory).
Slashdot is not the entire geek world. Some of us clung to the fragments of usenet for far too long...
Bullshit.
Steam is annoying as hell and frequently stops me using games I own.
I paid money for that game so I own it. When I double-click on the icon, it is not a "request" for it to run. The game is fully installed, and doesn not need to be connected to Steam to run. Cracked versions work without the DRM-enforced waits.
If the game does not start immediately, every time, it is broken.
HP has supported Linux on its laptops for a long time. I have a NC6400 laptop which came with SLED10 installed on it, even has a nice green and silver SUSE logo badge.
What we're seeing here isn't just one hardware maker toying Linux, there are dozens of them - Nokia was an early adopter with Maemo/OS200x, but Asus, Everex/Wallmart, Dell, etc, etc are all jumping on the bandwagon. Even Intel, Microsoft's long-term partner in crime, has it's own Linux plans. And the important point these early adopters have demonstrated is that it isn't hard.
Microsoft's monopoly has been an immense roadblock for computing progress for decades now, but Vista's failure means there are cracks appearing in their Windows, and both competitors and partners have a scent of the fresh air on the other side. That's why the commentators are all calling HP's efforts an end-run around MS.
It's not a fait accompli yet, but with Adobe reinventing Flash as an application platform, Google poising Chrome/Gears in a similar role and Linux being adopted by most major hardware makers, Microsoft is looking more and more like losing control of the computing world.
And not before time.
Bill showed him a beta of Mojave.
You want to know why Wintel hates OLPC and astroturfs so vindictively, yet we love them?
Got it yet?
Nah, Stroustrup just decided to save time, so he's included the first buffer overflow in the language's name.
What about the context of human marriage?
Seem like something a surprisingly large number of people might do, including this one which looks most like the source pic.
Though I'd normally be looking more towards Top Gear than Mythbusters for this sort of action...
That's an interesting point.
I've noticed a big increase in the amount of anti-Adobe sentiment in tech blogs recently, with Flash being targeted in particular.
I wonder if it has anything to do with Microsoft's pushing Silverlight?
Can I ask why not?
I agree there's a significant effort from ISVs who are encouraged to "get out on the web and support the product", but there's also abundant evidence that Microsoft uses marketing groups like DCI and Law Media Group to astroturf more directly.
Why wouldn't they?
All the Windows Mobile PDAs I've used had terrible interfaces that were more suited to a desktop than a PDA.