It is not easy when looking at numbers like these to make the argument that the home and SOHO user is spending much time looking "under the hood" or has any desire whatsoever for a deeper engagement with system internals.
If this proceeds, Google should simply shut down its operations in Italy and move to a neighboring country where its employees won't be targeted by tyrants. .
and where, pray tell, in the EU is Google going to find a more tolerant reception when it comes to stories like this?
The same kind that would require using REGEDIT on windows. Screw that troll, linux is as ready as any other consumer OS on the market. The consumer mass just been too much hammered into that win32 thinking shape.
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I doubt I've opened REGEDIT four times this year or twenty times over the life of XP.
I have yet to meet anyone other than the enthusiast or the pro who is genuinely comfortable editing configuration files.
The syntax is arcane - people fear the consequences of a typo. The experience has all the appeal of root canal without sedation.
It isn't enough to say that Linux as "ready as any other consumer OS." That is simply not a compelling reason to migrate.
Win 64 is now mainstream.
The more complex your home and SOHO systems become, the less likely you will be willing - much less able - to spend time "under the hood."
he argued that science was not consensus-based and that such claims were therefore meaningless
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Consensus is meaningful when you have to make decisions.
In 1952 there were 58,000 new cases of polio reported in the U.S. and over 3,000 deaths.
The vaccine that most everyone agrees will probably be ready for distribution before 1955 gets more resources than the one which most won't likely become available before 1960.
They do realize that they are getting up to the point in cost that they will be driving people *back* DVDs and other media, right? Blue-Ray suddenly sounds like a deal for movies.
Extremely unlikey in the extreme. If it was three percent you might have a point, Bill
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WalMart is the world's largest retailer - and is utterly ruthless when it comes to controlling its costs. So tell me then why WalMart.com keeps in stock 50 MS Vista laptops for every one Linux netbook.
Well to be fair the UK's House of Lords is an unelected body that holds no accountability to anyone and they've looked out for the "average Joe" way more than the elected and accountable house of commons.
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The modern House of Lords has only the power to delay legislation.
The representation of heritary peerages in the House of Lords was more or less extinquished in 1999. House of Lords Act 1999
When the House of Lords had the power to veto legislation it was very different institution and far less friendly to the "average Joe."
How many people buy the XP models and subsequently install Ubuntu or some other Linux distro though?
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Not enough to make a difference.
Never enough to make a difference.
The OEM system install has been the gold standard in the home and SOHO markets for thirty years.
You have a warranty.
You have a service contract.
If anything goes wrong, it is someone else's problem.
The geek thinks like a hobbyist. Everyone else is simply out buying a small appliance - and no more interested in installing an OS than in building a bread machine from a kit of parts.
Why would you get rid of the smallest model and the most efficient OS? This smells of a backdoor M$ deal.
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It could never be because the screen is too small, the keyboard is too small, and the Linux OS is unfamiliar and unwanted.
I installed the linux client for her. Point is, her first impulse was to return it rather than attempt the learning curve.
Of course it was.
Most of us don't have an all-knowing geek to call on for free, on-site, support. The Google search that returns 15,000 hits is of little help to the novice.
Passing a law against What everyone does is a risky affair.
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Assuming everyone does it is a risky business - assuming they will continue on with it after being warned twice is also a risky business.
Sure, legislators have to go along with the concept that recorded media is property. As in the idea that a corporation can actually own a song or a movie, which is quite absurd, although accepted.
As absurd as the F/OSS programmer who thinks his GPL license is enforceable?
A slight change in a note makes a different song, a minor re-edit or re-filming of the same plot makes a different movie
No it doesn't.
Infringement means precisely that. The copyright owner holds the rights to the original and all clearly derivative works.
I found an article by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols that might explain the "glowing" reviews at Microsoft's PDC. It seems that Microsoft may have permanently "loaned" $2,000 laptops with 2.4GHz Intel dual cores + 3GB ram to the "reviewers" to review Windows 7.
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Entry level for a 64 Bit Vista laptop with a 2 GHz Intel dual core CPU and 4 GB RAM is $812 at Walmart.com: Laptops-4 GB RAM
Walmart.com lists 25 dual-core laptops with 4 GB of RAM.
18 run 64 Bit Vista.
It's become trivially easy to meet Vista's hardware requirements as a mass market price.
64 Bit Vista is mainstream today.
The day after tomorrow, the quad core CPU will be everywhere, the Blu-Ray drive will be a burner, and systems sporting 8 GB RAM will scarcely seem unusual.
Sadly, the similarities between the Washington DC area and Fallout 3's representation of it don't go much beyond those landmarks and a few borrowed community names (Falls Church, etc.).
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I don't know why a fan of the series would want to see the ruins of the Washington of our universe and not the Washington of the Fallout universe.
For that he can rent Independence Day or Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.
Fallout had this interesting mix of retro-fifties sci-fi tech, remnants of an Orwellian architecture in the cities, and so on.
You can have your flying car.
You can twist history into knots. Setting up shop as a Slaver in what was once something very like - and very unlike - The Lincoln Memorial.
Fo'shure I'm looking forward to shelling out my hard-earned money (especially in this wonderful economy) for EA titles in the future after seeing this.
I am betting that they can live without you.
The Sims 3 is #36 on the Amazon PC seller list and it won't be released until February.
Red Alert 3 is #3 - and the geek's negative reviews of the EA product and DRM are being ignored across the board.
2,500 1-star reviews for Spore, currently #6 on the charts.
Slashdot Mirror
That would, I suspect, as a charitable estimate, strip Slashdot of 90% of its audience.
Net Application's Market Share Webstats for October 2008:
MS Vista 19%
Up +1% [from Sept 08]
OSX MacIntel 6%
Up +0.2%
Linux 0.7%
Down -0.2%
Top Operating System Share Trend
In the year of the netbook, Win NT has 0.8% of the desktop market and Win 9x 0.5% Operating System Market Share
It is not easy when looking at numbers like these to make the argument that the home and SOHO user is spending much time looking "under the hood" or has any desire whatsoever for a deeper engagement with system internals.
.
and where, pray tell, in the EU is Google going to find a more tolerant reception when it comes to stories like this?
.
I doubt I've opened REGEDIT four times this year or twenty times over the life of XP.
I have yet to meet anyone other than the enthusiast or the pro who is genuinely comfortable editing configuration files.
The syntax is arcane - people fear the consequences of a typo. The experience has all the appeal of root canal without sedation.
It isn't enough to say that Linux as "ready as any other consumer OS." That is simply not a compelling reason to migrate.
Win 64 is now mainstream.
The more complex your home and SOHO systems become, the less likely you will be willing - much less able - to spend time "under the hood."
.
Consensus is meaningful when you have to make decisions.
In 1952 there were 58,000 new cases of polio reported in the U.S. and over 3,000 deaths.
The vaccine that most everyone agrees will probably be ready for distribution before 1955 gets more resources than the one which most won't likely become available before 1960.
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It worked out rather well for Isaac Newton.
i can't decide which is more distateful, the post or the mod-up to "Interesting."
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True --- but in this town you were more likely to see a "Gays For Palin" parade than a living, breathing, Linux Geek off-campus.
and discovers that he is not Eddie Murphy:
Well the men they took to fightin
And when they pulled him from the floor
This geek he looked like a jigsaw puzzle
With a couple of pieces gone
[with apologies to Jim Croce]
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and this is a problem for Time-Warner, because?
The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray] (2008) $24
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WalMart is the world's largest retailer - and is utterly ruthless when it comes to controlling its costs. So tell me then why WalMart.com keeps in stock 50 MS Vista laptops for every one Linux netbook.
.
The modern House of Lords has only the power to delay legislation.
The representation of heritary peerages in the House of Lords was more or less extinquished in 1999. House of Lords Act 1999
When the House of Lords had the power to veto legislation it was very different institution and far less friendly to the "average Joe."
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Color me skeptical when I hear talk of a maintenance-free OS. That nothing can go wrong.
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It makes perfect sense if maintaining inventory and otherwise servicing that 30% ballons your costs all out of proportion to your anticipated return.
In this economy, you cut your losses, quickly, in the interest of survival.
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Not enough to make a difference.
Never enough to make a difference.
The OEM system install has been the gold standard in the home and SOHO markets for thirty years.
You have a warranty.
You have a service contract.
If anything goes wrong, it is someone else's problem.
The geek thinks like a hobbyist. Everyone else is simply out buying a small appliance - and no more interested in installing an OS than in building a bread machine from a kit of parts.
.
It could never be because the screen is too small, the keyboard is too small, and the Linux OS is unfamiliar and unwanted.
I installed the linux client for her. Point is, her first impulse was to return it rather than attempt the learning curve.
Of course it was.
Most of us don't have an all-knowing geek to call on for free, on-site, support. The Google search that returns 15,000 hits is of little help to the novice.
.
Assuming everyone does it is a risky business - assuming they will continue on with it after being warned twice is also a risky business.
Sure, legislators have to go along with the concept that recorded media is property. As in the idea that a corporation can actually own a song or a movie, which is quite absurd, although accepted.
As absurd as the F/OSS programmer who thinks his GPL license is enforceable?
A slight change in a note makes a different song, a minor re-edit or re-filming of the same plot makes a different movie
No it doesn't.
Infringement means precisely that. The copyright owner holds the rights to the original and all clearly derivative works.
.
Entry level for a 64 Bit Vista laptop with a 2 GHz Intel dual core CPU and 4 GB RAM is $812 at Walmart.com: Laptops-4 GB RAM
Walmart.com lists 25 dual-core laptops with 4 GB of RAM.
18 run 64 Bit Vista.
It's become trivially easy to meet Vista's hardware requirements as a mass market price.
64 Bit Vista is mainstream today.
The day after tomorrow, the quad core CPU will be everywhere, the Blu-Ray drive will be a burner, and systems sporting 8 GB RAM will scarcely seem unusual.
.
I don't know why a fan of the series would want to see the ruins of the Washington of our universe and not the Washington of the Fallout universe.
For that he can rent Independence Day or Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.
Fallout had this interesting mix of retro-fifties sci-fi tech, remnants of an Orwellian architecture in the cities, and so on.
You can have your flying car.
You can twist history into knots. Setting up shop as a Slaver in what was once something very like - and very unlike - The Lincoln Memorial.
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Fallout 1 and 2 did not ship with mod tools.
There is much to be said for playing the game - exploring the world - before you even think about building a mod.
It will be trivially easy, I suspect, to make a kid a punching-bag or a target dummy - as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.
But weaving a kid into your storyline, making him or her a significant NPC, is going to take a lot more thought and imagination.
Role-playing a kid in the Fallout universe would demand even more.
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Introducing children into an RPG helps bring your world to life.
But simply marking them for target practice is pandering - cheap thrills for the gamer-geek with nothing better to do.
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The short answer is that 99% of the general population has forgotten it even exists and the IRC client screams "Geek!" Ca. 1995.
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You don't need to look any farther than Walmart.com for proof of that.
The 64 Bit Vista HP desktop with HDTV, Blu-Ray, a 2.5 GHz quad core Intel CPU, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB of storage and a 1 GB NVIDIA DX 10 card is $1500.
Specs like this make benchmarks look ludicrous. You will never see the difference in the real world.
Vista SP2 is in Alpha. Next year the Blu-Ray drive will be a burner - and support for the Blu-Ray burner is in SP2.
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It's called a recession.
It's a time when discretionary spending is severely strained.
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When you are neither wolf or shepherd, pinning the "sheepie" label on others simply makes you look ridiculous.
I am betting that they can live without you.
The Sims 3 is #36 on the Amazon PC seller list and it won't be released until February.
Red Alert 3 is #3 - and the geek's negative reviews of the EA product and DRM are being ignored across the board.
2,500 1-star reviews for Spore, currently #6 on the charts.