Even if man-made climate change is false, reducing the fucking atmospheric pollution is a good damn idea.
Carbon dioxide isn't a pollutant. And much of the increase in real atmospheric pollution is a result of the Greens demanding that Western nations reduce CO2 emissions, so we shipped all our factories to China, where they burn coal without a care in the world about where the pollution goes.
By the same logic, touch screens are a fail because my grandmother has difficulty bringing up the Android keyboard as she is not used to touch interfaces.
Yes. Touch screens are a lousy alternative to a real user interface.
If you need a video to explain how to use your GUI... it's a fscking awful GUI.
Seriously, just admit that it's a disaster, and move on. If Microsoft don't do that, they'll be selling themselves at a cut price to Google or Apple in a few years.
Firstly, I think everyone realises that space-based solar power makes no sense if you have to launch it from Earth on a current generation rocket at $20,000 a pound. The only economically viable plans I've seen for building them were based on building them in space from materials collected in space, and even they fell apart when you put real-world launch costs in there rather than NASA's 1970s 'out of the ass' numbers for the space shuttle.
Secondly, from what I remember, the designs I've seen used heat engines, not solar panels. Most of the spacecraft would be mirrors, not PV cells.
Space-based solar power may not make financial sense for decades to come (if ever), but that article makes about as much sense as those in the 1920s proving that you could never build an airliner that would carry more than a handful of passengers at more than a hundred and fifty miles per hour. They were perfectly true within the assumptions they made, but their assumptions were retarded.
You do know about RIGHT-CLICKING in the lower-left corner (or on the new start button in 8.1), right? Windows-X brings up the same power-users menu.
How the fsck is my grandmother supposed to figure that out?
I had the misfortune to use a Windows 8 machine a few days ago and it's a completely uninuititive piece of crap. I didn't realise just how badly the lack of a start menu hurt the OS until I had to try to run a program from the desktop. If I didn't know I could press the Windows key I'd have been completely stumped, and, even then, I had to give up on scrolling through a crazy number of worthless Metro apps to try to find the desktop app I was looking for.
The Start Menu is not back. All they've done is added a Start button which takes you back to the crappy Metro screen where you can't find any of the apps you want to run.
Putting the Start Menu back would have been trivial, it's what users wanted, but Microsoft crapped in their face by making the Start button go to the Metro screen that users hate.
Name one OS that is just right out of the box and needs no tweaks. Linux always needs fiddling with (that's why you love it) and MacOS's two-finger scroll scrolls the wrong way by default.
How very strange.
I installed Linux on my netbook and it just worked. I installed Linux on my laptop, and it just worked. I installed Linux on my work desktop machine, and it just worked. Where is this Linux which 'always needs fiddling with' that you speak of?
When you only have one GUI option in your operating system and you have to install a third-party addon just to make it usable, it's a complete failure.
I believe the point was that old iPhone users regularly complain that they upgraded to the latest and greatest operating system and now their phone feels like a 386 running XP.
Whereas, after eight years developing on Linux, I can't imagine going back to developing on an abomination like Windows. Even though Visual Studio was far more robust than Eclipse.
Xbox has still lost money over its lifetime. Office? People would happily be using whatever version of Office Microsoft churned out, there was no demand to switch to a new version. Windows 7? If Microsoft were still pumping out upgraded versions of Windows XP, they'd be selling more than they are of Windows 8.
Microsoft should have called Windows and Office done years ago, and moved most of the developers off to new products. Then they might still be relevant.
I disagree, if you buy an ebook from Amazon you're pretty much stuck with Amazon devices.
Or Windows, or Linux (through Wine), or an Android tablet or phone, or an iPad or iPhone, or, I believe, a web interface. If it's DRM-free, of course, you can convert it to any other format.
Us Unix workstation folks laughed at Windows users when it was first released. It was a cheap, crap, toy windowing system compared to Sun workstations and the like.
It was only with Windows 95 and NT that it started to look comparable to the Unix alternatives, at a much lower price.
Microsoft were always the cheap, crap option. DOS over Unix, Windows over Unix or Mac. I can't think of a single 'really cool thing' they've ever done.
With Android already owning the cheap, crap niche in the mobile space and Apple owning expensive and cool, Microsoft have nowhere to go.
Slashdot basement dwellers tend to vastly overemphasize the importance of PC gaming. The entire PC game market could disappear and it would make barely a blip in Microsoft's revenue.
Even the idea of owning a desktop PC (especially with huge red fans and bright blue LEDs) is considered ridiculous by most people in year 2013.
So:
1. Businesses aren't buying desktop PCs because Windows 8. 2. Consumers aren't buying desktop PCs because they're 'ridiculous'.
Then who's buying those desktop PCs, other than gamers?
Slashdot Mirror
Even if man-made climate change is false, reducing the fucking atmospheric pollution is a good damn idea.
Carbon dioxide isn't a pollutant. And much of the increase in real atmospheric pollution is a result of the Greens demanding that Western nations reduce CO2 emissions, so we shipped all our factories to China, where they burn coal without a care in the world about where the pollution goes.
By the same logic, touch screens are a fail because my grandmother has difficulty bringing up the Android keyboard as she is not used to touch interfaces.
Yes. Touch screens are a lousy alternative to a real user interface.
If you need a video to explain how to use your GUI... it's a fscking awful GUI.
Seriously, just admit that it's a disaster, and move on. If Microsoft don't do that, they'll be selling themselves at a cut price to Google or Apple in a few years.
Wow, you're right. It's so hard to put a Linux CD in the drive, boot up and click 'Install'.
Maybe you should try a distro that's less than twenty years old.
Here's some hard numbers on "traditional" approaches to solar ground vs space:
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/03/space-based-solar-power/
Firstly, I think everyone realises that space-based solar power makes no sense if you have to launch it from Earth on a current generation rocket at $20,000 a pound. The only economically viable plans I've seen for building them were based on building them in space from materials collected in space, and even they fell apart when you put real-world launch costs in there rather than NASA's 1970s 'out of the ass' numbers for the space shuttle.
Secondly, from what I remember, the designs I've seen used heat engines, not solar panels. Most of the spacecraft would be mirrors, not PV cells.
Space-based solar power may not make financial sense for decades to come (if ever), but that article makes about as much sense as those in the 1920s proving that you could never build an airliner that would carry more than a handful of passengers at more than a hundred and fifty miles per hour. They were perfectly true within the assumptions they made, but their assumptions were retarded.
You do know about RIGHT-CLICKING in the lower-left corner (or on the new start button in 8.1), right? Windows-X brings up the same power-users menu.
How the fsck is my grandmother supposed to figure that out?
I had the misfortune to use a Windows 8 machine a few days ago and it's a completely uninuititive piece of crap. I didn't realise just how badly the lack of a start menu hurt the OS until I had to try to run a program from the desktop. If I didn't know I could press the Windows key I'd have been completely stumped, and, even then, I had to give up on scrolling through a crazy number of worthless Metro apps to try to find the desktop app I was looking for.
How did this POS actually get shipped?
The Start Menu is not back. All they've done is added a Start button which takes you back to the crappy Metro screen where you can't find any of the apps you want to run.
Putting the Start Menu back would have been trivial, it's what users wanted, but Microsoft crapped in their face by making the Start button go to the Metro screen that users hate.
Name one OS that is just right out of the box and needs no tweaks. Linux always needs fiddling with (that's why you love it) and MacOS's two-finger scroll scrolls the wrong way by default.
How very strange.
I installed Linux on my netbook and it just worked. I installed Linux on my laptop, and it just worked. I installed Linux on my work desktop machine, and it just worked. Where is this Linux which 'always needs fiddling with' that you speak of?
When you only have one GUI option in your operating system and you have to install a third-party addon just to make it usable, it's a complete failure.
I believe the point was that old iPhone users regularly complain that they upgraded to the latest and greatest operating system and now their phone feels like a 386 running XP.
Whereas, after eight years developing on Linux, I can't imagine going back to developing on an abomination like Windows. Even though Visual Studio was far more robust than Eclipse.
Maybe you should try a Linux distribution that's less than twenty years old.
As for 'Windows Desktop Environment' being good, any chance of that went away with Windows 8.
Except the Xbox has lost money over its lifetime.
There's no real competition in game consoles, not because the Xbox is so good, but because companies can't make money there.
Has Xbox turned net positive yet? I know it's finally making money, but has it reached ROI point yet?
Not as far as I'm aware.
And the 'innovation' would mostly appear to be locking in users and spying on them.
How are any of them 'successes'?
Xbox has still lost money over its lifetime.
Office? People would happily be using whatever version of Office Microsoft churned out, there was no demand to switch to a new version.
Windows 7? If Microsoft were still pumping out upgraded versions of Windows XP, they'd be selling more than they are of Windows 8.
Microsoft should have called Windows and Office done years ago, and moved most of the developers off to new products. Then they might still be relevant.
Microsoft is a B2B company, not a B2C company. They have a huge team that goes out to businesses and researches what they want and need.
So how did they end up with a tablet interface on desktop PCs? Which businesses 'wanted and needed' that?
Of course they do. They only exist to support DRM-ed epub.
Besides, do you really want to tell Adobe every book you read?
I disagree, if you buy an ebook from Amazon you're pretty much stuck with Amazon devices.
Or Windows, or Linux (through Wine), or an Android tablet or phone, or an iPad or iPhone, or, I believe, a web interface. If it's DRM-free, of course, you can convert it to any other format.
It may surprise you to know that for several years, Microsoft had one of the most popular distributions of Unix... ever heard of Xenix?
Yes, but the Xenix machines I saw were still a joke when put alongside a real Unix workstation. Did it even have a GUI?
I can't wait to see what they do with Star Wars.
Could hardly be worse than what Lucas did to it.
Back when Windows was released, Unix was sort of crap, too.
Uh, no.
Us Unix workstation folks laughed at Windows users when it was first released. It was a cheap, crap, toy windowing system compared to Sun workstations and the like.
It was only with Windows 95 and NT that it started to look comparable to the Unix alternatives, at a much lower price.
Microsoft started out making really cool things
Like what? DOS?
Microsoft were always the cheap, crap option. DOS over Unix, Windows over Unix or Mac. I can't think of a single 'really cool thing' they've ever done.
With Android already owning the cheap, crap niche in the mobile space and Apple owning expensive and cool, Microsoft have nowhere to go.
Slashdot basement dwellers tend to vastly overemphasize the importance of PC gaming. The entire PC game market could disappear and it would make barely a blip in Microsoft's revenue.
Even the idea of owning a desktop PC (especially with huge red fans and bright blue LEDs) is considered ridiculous by most people in year 2013.
So:
1. Businesses aren't buying desktop PCs because Windows 8.
2. Consumers aren't buying desktop PCs because they're 'ridiculous'.
Then who's buying those desktop PCs, other than gamers?
Don't worry: someone will be along shortly to point out that the slippery slope is a logical fallacy, so this could never have happened.
This software is all written in Java these days, isn't it?
Probably just paused for a few hours for garbage collection.
That's certainly more environmentally friendly than shipping it all the way to China so they can dump it in a hole in the ground.