Don't have the figures to hand and too lazy to look them up, but I have seen figures that show the dollar (equivalent) figures paid for social health care in the two tax systems come out similar, with the US a little ahead. We get universal health care for that whereas many (most?) in the US aren't covered and have to get insurance.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.... Wikipedia says this:
"Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at more than 15% of GDP, a greater portion than in any other United Nations member state except for the Marshall Islands."
Well then it's a battle between "oooh, small shiny and cheap!" and "I want windows".
But you're right, that's one outcome. Another is they regard it as a different class of device, like they would a smart phone or a PDA. A third option is that this weird linux thing eventually gets some notice.
Given the competence with which Xandros was set up on my eee 901 though, I wouldn't bet on it.
And they should have got Gore? Who wouldn't have looked out for their interests either?
Personally I think he would have been the lesser evil, but I don't consider it important enough that I would have voted for him when there was another candidate that actually represented my interests. And I would consider even a small step to breaking the duocracy important.
"Isn't that what happening with the ascendancy of Bush II, isn't that what's currently happening with Obama?"
No, the last lot just got straight back in again!
I mean ditch them permanently.
"I'd recommend holding a public office for a while so you can see how all this really works. You can easily join an HOA or PTA board and see just how difficult it is to discern what your constituents actually want."
Yeah, what they really want, their rights trampled on every time.
I'm sorry but even a frikkin idiot could tell that some of this crap is not what the public wants. It's not that they don't know they're doing very bad things, it's that their agenda is not focussed on what the electorate want.
I'm quietly hopeful too, but then I like ARM. Not for any particularly great reason. Power consumption is good but not the most driving of reasons. Cheap is good.
I have several ARM devices already, but mostly small headless servers (customised NSLU2, sheevaplug on the way) or mobile phones. I'd love to see it take off even more. And the more they sell the more money will be available to take them further to challenging the lower end of Intel's offerings. That and hopefully help carry linux some little way further. I really do hope this is more than just vapour.
No, I'm saying we have universal healthcare that's up to a damn good standard, but if I want to be treated like I'm in a five star hotel then I can pay the extra for it, and I *still* pay less in tax and less in private insurance than the average american.
It's hard to argue that "the lesser of two evils" is bad policy when you're holding the greater of the two evils up as an example.
But surely at some point you have to concede that the lesser of two evils really isn't that much lesser, or that different, and that it doesn't really matter which evil gets in because when it comes down to it they are actually both evil?
So now you can be surprised. And you can be surprised again in 10 years when you look back at how we used to have the best healthcare in the world until Obama flushed it down the toilet for a more European style system.
You don't have the best health system in the world. You have a good health system in terms of quality, and a poor one in terms of coverage and costs. You know that you already pay more in taxes towards the state health provisions in the US than I do as a UK citizen? And that you don't get the benefit of that because you or your employer have to pay for insurance on top of that?
I also have top-up insurance, BTW, as an employer perk, but it's not quite the same thing. I only mention it to demonstrate that if you have money you can still buy your way to better accommodation, private rooms etc. in the UK.
Well anyway, that's up to you crazy Americans to decide upon, but don't be so quick to dismiss the models used by the rest of the civilised world.
They're going to represent the real views of real people in society right? So lets call them societalists. Except that's a bit of a mouthful so we'll shorten it to "socialists". that'' work really well, right?
This is just so much more ammo for the "Please don't vote for either R or D!" argument.
Choosing the lesser of two evils is not a good policy. "Throwing away" your vote on a third party is always decried as the best way to let the other guy in. No, no, no, you need to vote for whichever (R or D) is closer to your views or else all your doing is letting the other one, that you really hate, in.
Can we agree that their both evil yet?
Can we make 2012 a third party year? Please?
Signed by me, a cynical brit that would love to see actual change on either side of the atlantic.
I'm a desktop linux user, almost exclusively. I use lots of other OS's remotely, but linux is on most of my desktops.
I really dislike windows and consider it limited. I have a few serious (and well thought out) gripes about vista, but they're things that piss me off as a geek and a software developer. But I don't think it's the devil, or teh worst OS evar or anything like that. I just don't get on with MS except for when I have no choice, and think vista broke one or two things XP was OK at.
My non-techie friends and family hate it with an irrational passion. I don't know why, I have yet to get to the bottom of this. I think some of it is to do with older peripherals not being well supported, but it transcends reason.
Even as a penguin lover, I have to say I find it weird.
Look up the Pegatron (yeah, bad name I know, Asus spin-off company) netbook on Google image search. Should be available in the next 2-4 months. 1GHz ARM, nice long battery life, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, price point around $200. Apparently they're working with adobe to ensure that flash is available too.
They are coming. Later in the year we ought to start seeing nVidia Tegra based devices cropping up too.
I'm not sure they'll necessarily be anything that sparks off a revolution, or if people will complain that they can't run their word/itunes/whatever and steer clear entirely, but they are on the way.
The problem with ARM for MS is that one of the major reasons people give for sticking with Windows is:
"But I can't run $APP without Windows!"
Take away their ability to run $APP anyway and they'll be just as well off on another OS. Which is where linux could win because the likes of debian already have the majority of their software available for ARM.
It might not win in any significant wat, but at that point you are starting to kick away at the dominance of the prevailing monoculture.
"I wouldn't complain to Microsoft for not supporting 32bit (if only!) I'd complain to the manufacturer for using a 32bit CPU in 2009 / 2008."
Oh sure, blame the consumer, and whilst you're busy doing that, wave goodbye to your sales into that niche.
I'm not saying leaving 32 bit behind is a bad idea, I just think it's incredibly unrealistic right now. Microsoft continues to "win" in the netbook arena precisely because they put their normal OS on there. The moment they give in and make netbooks second class to so-called normal computers, they've potentially lost the market. If you can't run your windows apps on the netbook, what's keeping you with MS? And once they've got used to the idea that there is no one true OS, why, they might try something non MS. And that would be bad, if you're an MS strategist.
Then it's a good thing you don;t work for MS, for whom netbooks ARE a really big thing and need to be supported as first class citizens.
Your desire to expunge the "legacy" 32 bit from the record is surely a noble one, but it is misplaced.
The moment MS stop supporting 32 bit as first class citizens in the netbook world then they lose the ability to run that huge array of windows software we're always talking about and linux sneaks in at the edges.
No, MS strategy will never give up on 32 bit until it really is only old and out of date junk.
"When the economy picks up, netbooks will disappear"
What utter nonsense. The netbook phenomenon was massive before the current crash. Cheap, consumer grade net devices are a niche that isn't going anywhere.
I'm sure as hell not going to spend double the money on something bigger, heavier and that I'm more concerned about breaking because it's expensive.
The netbook market is nothing to do with the downturn.
Seriously, teh linux now supports far more hardware than recent MS releases, and this will continue to be true unless lots of hardware vendors:
1) Put a lot of effort into porting drivers for old products. There's no revenue in that. 2) Come back from the dead
So it's XP or linux now if you want to use that more-than-three-year-old non-standard printer/scanner/modem/webcam/doohickey. I know people who are still downgrading their new machines for this very reason.
I know it's wishful thinking to hope that linux can pick up some of the downgrade traffic, but I guess that's precisely why MS have extended the life of XP again and again.
Personally, I think most folks would be fooled if they just released an XP "look and feel" skin for vista with lots of the candy and annoyances turned off.
Well, given that netbooks are still shipping with 32 bit cores, and are probably the fastest growing (and maybe even fastest selling) segment of consumer devices right now, I think MS and any other operating system vendor would have to be damned foolish to only release a 64 bit version.
32 bit is going to be here for a while boys, get comfy.
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Don't have the figures to hand and too lazy to look them up, but I have seen figures that show the dollar (equivalent) figures paid for social health care in the two tax systems come out similar, with the US a little ahead. We get universal health care for that whereas many (most?) in the US aren't covered and have to get insurance.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.... Wikipedia says this:
"Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at more than 15% of GDP, a greater portion than in any other United Nations member state except for the Marshall Islands."
And has a citation for it.
Well then it's a battle between "oooh, small shiny and cheap!" and "I want windows".
But you're right, that's one outcome. Another is they regard it as a different class of device, like they would a smart phone or a PDA. A third option is that this weird linux thing eventually gets some notice.
Given the competence with which Xandros was set up on my eee 901 though, I wouldn't bet on it.
And they should have got Gore? Who wouldn't have looked out for their interests either?
Personally I think he would have been the lesser evil, but I don't consider it important enough that I would have voted for him when there was another candidate that actually represented my interests. And I would consider even a small step to breaking the duocracy important.
No, YOU have been programmed to plug in your iPhone or Blackberry every day.
Normal humans, let's call them Europeans, don't usually buy phones that have such sucky battery life.
"Isn't that what happening with the ascendancy of Bush II, isn't that what's currently happening with Obama?"
No, the last lot just got straight back in again!
I mean ditch them permanently.
"I'd recommend holding a public office for a while so you can see how all this really works. You can easily join an HOA or PTA board and see just how difficult it is to discern what your constituents actually want."
Yeah, what they really want, their rights trampled on every time.
I'm sorry but even a frikkin idiot could tell that some of this crap is not what the public wants. It's not that they don't know they're doing very bad things, it's that their agenda is not focussed on what the electorate want.
"None of which nullifies GPP's point, which was entirely valid. Sheesh...he misspelled a word. Get over it."
It was me, and I replied when I spotted my own mistake to pre-empt any snarks. Looks like I failed!
"Oh because changing the letter to L or G would mean they would give back the power?"
Hmm, how about voting for someone that will, and voting out their entire party if they fail to deliver. You know, how it's supposed to work?
The letters are nothing, it's the results. The result of voting for R or D is currently fail.
I'm quietly hopeful too, but then I like ARM. Not for any particularly great reason. Power consumption is good but not the most driving of reasons. Cheap is good.
I have several ARM devices already, but mostly small headless servers (customised NSLU2, sheevaplug on the way) or mobile phones. I'd love to see it take off even more. And the more they sell the more money will be available to take them further to challenging the lower end of Intel's offerings. That and hopefully help carry linux some little way further. I really do hope this is more than just vapour.
That said, I love my atom-based netbook too.
Qualifier - less in health insurance tax.
We have a horrible amount of tax here in the UK.
No, I'm saying we have universal healthcare that's up to a damn good standard, but if I want to be treated like I'm in a five star hotel then I can pay the extra for it, and I *still* pay less in tax and less in private insurance than the average american.
But surely at some point you have to concede that the lesser of two evils really isn't that much lesser, or that different, and that it doesn't really matter which evil gets in because when it comes down to it they are actually both evil?
You don't have the best health system in the world. You have a good health system in terms of quality, and a poor one in terms of coverage and costs. You know that you already pay more in taxes towards the state health provisions in the US than I do as a UK citizen? And that you don't get the benefit of that because you or your employer have to pay for insurance on top of that?
I also have top-up insurance, BTW, as an employer perk, but it's not quite the same thing. I only mention it to demonstrate that if you have money you can still buy your way to better accommodation, private rooms etc. in the UK.
Well anyway, that's up to you crazy Americans to decide upon, but don't be so quick to dismiss the models used by the rest of the civilised world.
Hold on, wait, I think I have an idea...
They're going to represent the real views of real people in society right? So lets call them societalists. Except that's a bit of a mouthful so we'll shorten it to "socialists". that'' work really well, right?
No? How about the People's Party?
No? Too communist?
This is tougher than I thought.
Though I don't know much about Mr. Paul, I'll agree to that. When it comes to blame, I'll make sure not to point in your direction.
Have a cookie.
Can we also agree that the internet is slowly ruining my grammar and spelling?
They're, their, there. All have their own meanings.
At least I'm so far immune to the loose/lose thing.
This is just so much more ammo for the "Please don't vote for either R or D!" argument.
Choosing the lesser of two evils is not a good policy. "Throwing away" your vote on a third party is always decried as the best way to let the other guy in. No, no, no, you need to vote for whichever (R or D) is closer to your views or else all your doing is letting the other one, that you really hate, in.
Can we agree that their both evil yet?
Can we make 2012 a third party year? Please?
Signed by me, a cynical brit that would love to see actual change on either side of the atlantic.
Funny, my experience is the opposite.
I'm a desktop linux user, almost exclusively. I use lots of other OS's remotely, but linux is on most of my desktops.
I really dislike windows and consider it limited. I have a few serious (and well thought out) gripes about vista, but they're things that piss me off as a geek and a software developer. But I don't think it's the devil, or teh worst OS evar or anything like that. I just don't get on with MS except for when I have no choice, and think vista broke one or two things XP was OK at.
My non-techie friends and family hate it with an irrational passion. I don't know why, I have yet to get to the bottom of this. I think some of it is to do with older peripherals not being well supported, but it transcends reason.
Even as a penguin lover, I have to say I find it weird.
Why the aggressive cynicism?
Look up the Pegatron (yeah, bad name I know, Asus spin-off company) netbook on Google image search. Should be available in the next 2-4 months. 1GHz ARM, nice long battery life, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, price point around $200. Apparently they're working with adobe to ensure that flash is available too.
They are coming. Later in the year we ought to start seeing nVidia Tegra based devices cropping up too.
I'm not sure they'll necessarily be anything that sparks off a revolution, or if people will complain that they can't run their word/itunes/whatever and steer clear entirely, but they are on the way.
Let's withold judgement a while eh?
The problem with ARM for MS is that one of the major reasons people give for sticking with Windows is:
"But I can't run $APP without Windows!"
Take away their ability to run $APP anyway and they'll be just as well off on another OS. Which is where linux could win because the likes of debian already have the majority of their software available for ARM.
It might not win in any significant wat, but at that point you are starting to kick away at the dominance of the prevailing monoculture.
"I wouldn't complain to Microsoft for not supporting 32bit (if only!) I'd complain to the manufacturer for using a 32bit CPU in 2009 / 2008."
Oh sure, blame the consumer, and whilst you're busy doing that, wave goodbye to your sales into that niche.
I'm not saying leaving 32 bit behind is a bad idea, I just think it's incredibly unrealistic right now. Microsoft continues to "win" in the netbook arena precisely because they put their normal OS on there. The moment they give in and make netbooks second class to so-called normal computers, they've potentially lost the market. If you can't run your windows apps on the netbook, what's keeping you with MS? And once they've got used to the idea that there is no one true OS, why, they might try something non MS. And that would be bad, if you're an MS strategist.
Then it's a good thing you don;t work for MS, for whom netbooks ARE a really big thing and need to be supported as first class citizens.
Your desire to expunge the "legacy" 32 bit from the record is surely a noble one, but it is misplaced.
The moment MS stop supporting 32 bit as first class citizens in the netbook world then they lose the ability to run that huge array of windows software we're always talking about and linux sneaks in at the edges.
No, MS strategy will never give up on 32 bit until it really is only old and out of date junk.
"When the economy picks up, netbooks will disappear"
What utter nonsense. The netbook phenomenon was massive before the current crash. Cheap, consumer grade net devices are a niche that isn't going anywhere.
I'm sure as hell not going to spend double the money on something bigger, heavier and that I'm more concerned about breaking because it's expensive.
The netbook market is nothing to do with the downturn.
Seriously, teh linux now supports far more hardware than recent MS releases, and this will continue to be true unless lots of hardware vendors:
1) Put a lot of effort into porting drivers for old products. There's no revenue in that.
2) Come back from the dead
So it's XP or linux now if you want to use that more-than-three-year-old non-standard printer/scanner/modem/webcam/doohickey. I know people who are still downgrading their new machines for this very reason.
I know it's wishful thinking to hope that linux can pick up some of the downgrade traffic, but I guess that's precisely why MS have extended the life of XP again and again.
Personally, I think most folks would be fooled if they just released an XP "look and feel" skin for vista with lots of the candy and annoyances turned off.
Well, given that netbooks are still shipping with 32 bit cores, and are probably the fastest growing (and maybe even fastest selling) segment of consumer devices right now, I think MS and any other operating system vendor would have to be damned foolish to only release a 64 bit version.
32 bit is going to be here for a while boys, get comfy.
"PSP (not the most relevant example)"
You can say that again, the PSP is a MIPS device!
No, I'm sorry, but now you can just fuck off too.
The "GPL is viral" meme was lame ten years ago, the fact that you still spout it now is basically proof of mental deficiency.
OM was developed by a company full of people that also get up and go to work every day.
It was managed badly. That has nothing to do with the license. Grow up.