Nah, of course not. At least, I doubt it, although it's funny that all of a sudden Napster comes along with its "New Artist Program" that's had the same "Featured Artist" for a month... now is it just me or does that sound like they're putting on a song and dance for someone? However, I don't believe that Napster should be shut down just because its users choose to use it for piracy (or even because that's what it was designed for). I'd rather they go after the individuals (like Metallica did), or better yet, just leave us alone completely (yeah, like that'll happen).
This is true, but isn't it always better to install the manufacter's drivers anyways for any product? In that case, who cares if Windows has drivers for them or not, since they'll always be outdated? It's too bad companies aren't providing better drivers for Win2k though... it really peeves me that my brand new Voodoo card keeps uninstalling itself just because 3dfx can't fix their broken drivers. On the other hand, it works fine in Linux;-)
Pshaw I say. These days Linux is getting to be quite easy to install. It's not so much the Windows installation program that sucks (although it does, and often has inexplicable crashes), it's the hardware detection process that tends to screw things up. I'm not saying that installing Windows is hard; in fact, most of the time (if you remove all your expansion cards first) it's trouble-free. But I think Linux is just as easy, if not easier in some cases, to install. Especially Debian - does Windows explain that you need to fdisk, and format, for example? No, although sometimes if it feels like it it just might do that for you. It's pretty hit-or-miss. Debian's famous "hit enter five billion times" install works pretty well and actually lays out what needs to be done in an easy to understand manner. Windows Setup is okay, but not great.
No, he believes that by having this software, people can decrypt DVDs, compress them into a smaller format like DivX, and post them on the Net. And he's right.
The judge obviously missed the point though... when I read that garbage about breaking into computer systems I thought, "Huh?"
Please explain how having more clients makes them more secure.
I think you misunderstand the point. The clients themselves are not more secure just because there are so many of them, but because Outlook is so widespread, most worms/trojans are designed only to attack Outlook. Hence, if you run a *nix client you are less vulnerable to attack. See?
You're right. The problem is that to "properly admin" a box so that it doesn't crash constantly, you have to be really, really, really careful about EVERYTHING you install. Windows is way too easy to corrupt with a bad driver, bad hardware, or whatever. Believe me, I've fixed literally hundreds if not thousands of problems over the past few years on the boxen at the school where I work, and a huge percentage of the time, the solution has been "reformat and copy a good hard drive over to this one." Windows makes such a big deal out of irrelevant system changes (for example, "Standard serial mouse" vs. "Microsoft serial mouse," which use EXACTLY the same protocol but still require it to install its "driver" at bootup) that it's a wonder the thing boots at all.
I'm not saying that Linux can't be corrupted easily either, but if you use something like Debian stable (Potato now, yay!) and only install stuff using the package manager, you never have to worry.
I guess my point is that while Windows, and especially NT, can be perfectly stable, it's far too easy to permanently damage that stability.
And, more on topic, I think that if this story were true it would be great for me, because I could definitely use some MS apps in Linux, but for Linux's future as a mainstream desktop OS it could be deadly - read various possible conspiracy theories already mentioned by other posters. Be afraid.
I'll probably get modded out of existence for responding to the offtopic part of your message, but I think there's a simple explanation for part of that disparity - inexperienced moderators. People who don't know about the "topic checkbox" will mod up the posts that complain about topics they don't like. People who know about the checkbox, but are still so new that they think no one else does, will mod up any post that tells someone how to use it, thinking that it's useful information. This is a big problem, though it really should be discussed over in sid=moderation.
Sorry bout the OT-ness. TMTAR (to make this anime related): Tylor.
Well, it's not really "the boys at slashdot" who decide these things. CmdrTaco is the one who posts all the Anime stuff, because, hey, he likes it. And it's his site. If you don't like it, turn it off. As I reminded another poster above, you can still read/. for everything else; all you have to do is uncheck the Anime option in your preferences!
This may be a bit redundant but I'm just trying to help out:)
Not that your post should have been moderated down, but it certainly didn't warrant a +1 Insightful. Unless Insightful means "can't figure out a preferences page." You probably honestly didn't realize this, but you can simply uncheck the boxes for any subjects you're not interested in (I know I don't like hearing about the latest book reviews, for example). Many people on this site do care about anime. Those who don't can uncheck it in their preferences. It's gone!
I'm the guy who asked the question. It'd be nice if I could "spend a few bucks" to buy a T1 or some other permanent connection so that I could run the server myself. Unfortunately I'm a poor student and I can't really afford this, so I'm looking for someone else to host it for me. Thanks to all who posted! I've decided to go with BN3 for now; their webhosting isn't that great but I was really just looking for a way to save my email addresses.
Hm. You know, you're right, it is in fact Netscape 6... my bad. Now that I think of it though, I'm curious... what happened to Microsoft Word for Windows 3 through 5? I used to have Word for Windows 2.0... then the next version I heard of was Word 6.0 for Windows 95. Were there any releases in between but they just weren't publicized as well?
Even funnier is that I got modded up as funny, when I was really just laughing my ass off at the crazy moderation on the original post. It's like metahumor, sorta... anyway it's nice to see that the moderators have a sense of humor!
Unfortunately everyone else in the software industry seems to have gone along with Microsoft's crazy versioning scheme, but it's all just marketing. I have to admit that any product with a 2000 after its name does sound kinda cool. It's like when you get a quarter with a 2000 date on it - it's like, ooh, I got a new one, yay! - or, that could just be me... if anyone needs me, I'll be hiding around the corner.
Well, no, because AOL and Windows filesharing were not designed for the explicit purpose of trading MP3s. No, all MP3s are certainly not illegal but because Napster provided no way to distinguish between the two they have shot themselves in the foot.
As interesting as your idea is, the reason this won't happen is because there are very few independent artists who use Napster as a distribution method. I wish that Napster could be saved, it really is perfect for downloading live and other rare stuff, but I have to admit that I find myself doubting the legality of it more and more every day. Unless the laws are changed... not much can be done.
What you (and seemingly everyone else who replied to my post) seem to have missed is the whole point of what I said. I did not say that this was targeted at "true geeks," nor did I say that no "true geeks" would be interested in it.
What I did say was that it was a pointless project. Even if it were ever completed (which doesn't seem likely) it would be functionally exactly the same as Windows, so it's not really an "alternative OS that can run DirectX" - just Windows with different code underneath.
And even worse - just as there is no market for a free version of Windows 3.1, there will be no market in ten years (assuming they can get it done in that short amount of time) for a free version of Windows ME, which this will be based on. How would newbies get it? Not from OEM's, certainly, and not from the store, since they'd already have their OEM copy of Windows 2010, which will be based on NT anyway!
Would even geeks be interested in ten-year-old technology? (Yes, I realize Unix is much older than that but do you want to be running a 2.2.x kernel ten years from now?)
Of course Linux is not ready for the desktop, but full Windows binary support would definitely help push it along. These guys are pushing in the wrong direction.
Slackware went from 4.0, I think, to 7.0, in order to look like they were keeping up with Red Hat (kinda like Netscape 6) which may be what he was referring to.
Complain to ABCNews.com - I did. Be clear, polite, and be sure to indicate that not only was Mr. Moody obviously trolling, he deliberately lied about the data - see this link that another poster mentioned.
You talk about "bashing MS without all the facts" but don't present any relevant facts yourself either. So what if it's stable for what you've used it for? Have you used it to run load-balancing servers for Hotmail? The fact is that Microsoft tried this before with NT4 and failed miserably. No, that does not prove that Win2K can't handle it, but it does shed some serious doubt. Maybe you should think before you troll.
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Nah, of course not. At least, I doubt it, although it's funny that all of a sudden Napster comes along with its "New Artist Program" that's had the same "Featured Artist" for a month... now is it just me or does that sound like they're putting on a song and dance for someone? However, I don't believe that Napster should be shut down just because its users choose to use it for piracy (or even because that's what it was designed for). I'd rather they go after the individuals (like Metallica did), or better yet, just leave us alone completely (yeah, like that'll happen).
You keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means.
This is true, but isn't it always better to install the manufacter's drivers anyways for any product? In that case, who cares if Windows has drivers for them or not, since they'll always be outdated? It's too bad companies aren't providing better drivers for Win2k though... it really peeves me that my brand new Voodoo card keeps uninstalling itself just because 3dfx can't fix their broken drivers. On the other hand, it works fine in Linux ;-)
Pshaw I say. These days Linux is getting to be quite easy to install. It's not so much the Windows installation program that sucks (although it does, and often has inexplicable crashes), it's the hardware detection process that tends to screw things up. I'm not saying that installing Windows is hard; in fact, most of the time (if you remove all your expansion cards first) it's trouble-free. But I think Linux is just as easy, if not easier in some cases, to install. Especially Debian - does Windows explain that you need to fdisk, and format, for example? No, although sometimes if it feels like it it just might do that for you. It's pretty hit-or-miss. Debian's famous "hit enter five billion times" install works pretty well and actually lays out what needs to be done in an easy to understand manner. Windows Setup is okay, but not great.
No, I doubt it would have made a difference, but this statement does show (at least to us) that Kaplan didn't even listen to the defense.
No, he believes that by having this software, people can decrypt DVDs, compress them into a smaller format like DivX, and post them on the Net. And he's right.
The judge obviously missed the point though... when I read that garbage about breaking into computer systems I thought, "Huh?"
Please explain how having more clients makes them more secure.
I think you misunderstand the point. The clients themselves are not more secure just because there are so many of them, but because Outlook is so widespread, most worms/trojans are designed only to attack Outlook. Hence, if you run a *nix client you are less vulnerable to attack. See?
You're right. The problem is that to "properly admin" a box so that it doesn't crash constantly, you have to be really, really, really careful about EVERYTHING you install. Windows is way too easy to corrupt with a bad driver, bad hardware, or whatever. Believe me, I've fixed literally hundreds if not thousands of problems over the past few years on the boxen at the school where I work, and a huge percentage of the time, the solution has been "reformat and copy a good hard drive over to this one." Windows makes such a big deal out of irrelevant system changes (for example, "Standard serial mouse" vs. "Microsoft serial mouse," which use EXACTLY the same protocol but still require it to install its "driver" at bootup) that it's a wonder the thing boots at all.
I'm not saying that Linux can't be corrupted easily either, but if you use something like Debian stable (Potato now, yay!) and only install stuff using the package manager, you never have to worry.
I guess my point is that while Windows, and especially NT, can be perfectly stable, it's far too easy to permanently damage that stability.
And, more on topic, I think that if this story were true it would be great for me, because I could definitely use some MS apps in Linux, but for Linux's future as a mainstream desktop OS it could be deadly - read various possible conspiracy theories already mentioned by other posters. Be afraid.
I'll probably get modded out of existence for responding to the offtopic part of your message, but I think there's a simple explanation for part of that disparity - inexperienced moderators. People who don't know about the "topic checkbox" will mod up the posts that complain about topics they don't like. People who know about the checkbox, but are still so new that they think no one else does, will mod up any post that tells someone how to use it, thinking that it's useful information. This is a big problem, though it really should be discussed over in sid=moderation.
Sorry bout the OT-ness. TMTAR (to make this anime related): Tylor.
Well, it's not really "the boys at slashdot" who decide these things. CmdrTaco is the one who posts all the Anime stuff, because, hey, he likes it. And it's his site. If you don't like it, turn it off. As I reminded another poster above, you can still read /. for everything else; all you have to do is uncheck the Anime option in your preferences!
This may be a bit redundant but I'm just trying to help out :)
Not that your post should have been moderated down, but it certainly didn't warrant a +1 Insightful. Unless Insightful means "can't figure out a preferences page." You probably honestly didn't realize this, but you can simply uncheck the boxes for any subjects you're not interested in (I know I don't like hearing about the latest book reviews, for example). Many people on this site do care about anime. Those who don't can uncheck it in their preferences. It's gone!
I'm the guy who asked the question. It'd be nice if I could "spend a few bucks" to buy a T1 or some other permanent connection so that I could run the server myself. Unfortunately I'm a poor student and I can't really afford this, so I'm looking for someone else to host it for me. Thanks to all who posted! I've decided to go with BN3 for now; their webhosting isn't that great but I was really just looking for a way to save my email addresses.
ICQ used to be able to do this (dunno if this is still so since I haven't used it in years). It was a very cool feature. I'd love to see it in AIM!
From the article:
"She added that her company has not received requests from its hardware partners to try to make it more difficult to modify the device.
Sounds like they don't have a problem with it to me.
Hm. You know, you're right, it is in fact Netscape 6... my bad. Now that I think of it though, I'm curious... what happened to Microsoft Word for Windows 3 through 5? I used to have Word for Windows 2.0... then the next version I heard of was Word 6.0 for Windows 95. Were there any releases in between but they just weren't publicized as well?
Even funnier is that I got modded up as funny, when I was really just laughing my ass off at the crazy moderation on the original post. It's like metahumor, sorta... anyway it's nice to see that the moderators have a sense of humor!
Unfortunately everyone else in the software industry seems to have gone along with Microsoft's crazy versioning scheme, but it's all just marketing. I have to admit that any product with a 2000 after its name does sound kinda cool. It's like when you get a quarter with a 2000 date on it - it's like, ooh, I got a new one, yay! - or, that could just be me... if anyone needs me, I'll be hiding around the corner.
Well, no, because AOL and Windows filesharing were not designed for the explicit purpose of trading MP3s. No, all MP3s are certainly not illegal but because Napster provided no way to distinguish between the two they have shot themselves in the foot.
As interesting as your idea is, the reason this won't happen is because there are very few independent artists who use Napster as a distribution method. I wish that Napster could be saved, it really is perfect for downloading live and other rare stuff, but I have to admit that I find myself doubting the legality of it more and more every day. Unless the laws are changed... not much can be done.
What you (and seemingly everyone else who replied to my post) seem to have missed is the whole point of what I said. I did not say that this was targeted at "true geeks," nor did I say that no "true geeks" would be interested in it.
What I did say was that it was a pointless project. Even if it were ever completed (which doesn't seem likely) it would be functionally exactly the same as Windows, so it's not really an "alternative OS that can run DirectX" - just Windows with different code underneath.
And even worse - just as there is no market for a free version of Windows 3.1, there will be no market in ten years (assuming they can get it done in that short amount of time) for a free version of Windows ME, which this will be based on. How would newbies get it? Not from OEM's, certainly, and not from the store, since they'd already have their OEM copy of Windows 2010, which will be based on NT anyway!
Would even geeks be interested in ten-year-old technology? (Yes, I realize Unix is much older than that but do you want to be running a 2.2.x kernel ten years from now?)
Of course Linux is not ready for the desktop, but full Windows binary support would definitely help push it along. These guys are pushing in the wrong direction.
The funniest thing about this post is that it was moderated up as Informative! ROFL... at least now we understand.
Slackware went from 4.0, I think, to 7.0, in order to look like they were keeping up with Red Hat (kinda like Netscape 6) which may be what he was referring to.
Complain to ABCNews.com - I did. Be clear, polite, and be sure to indicate that not only was Mr. Moody obviously trolling, he deliberately lied about the data - see this link that another poster mentioned.
You talk about "bashing MS without all the facts" but don't present any relevant facts yourself either. So what if it's stable for what you've used it for? Have you used it to run load-balancing servers for Hotmail? The fact is that Microsoft tried this before with NT4 and failed miserably. No, that does not prove that Win2K can't handle it, but it does shed some serious doubt. Maybe you should think before you troll.
The headline was a joke, to imply that switching to W2K will cause Hotmail to collapse under the load. Sheesh...