"why it makes you do this"
"login as root to change simple settings (ie network)"
One word, security. Windows left the security to the user and the one thing that this has showed, the user cannot be trusted to be secure. Therefore it is best to run as a user with restricted rights. (I bet you don't run everything as Administrator on Windows XP)
One word to completely destroy your argument..
LINSPIRE
Linspire...the Linux OS where you can run as a passwordless root user all day long. Linspire, the Linux distro aimed at the newbie which sells itself as having the security of Linux over Windows then leaves the door wide open.
To truly compete against Windows, GNU/Linux needs to have a line of hardware, clearly marked, that it will work flawlessly with.
Its even worse than that. Take for example my Epson Stylus CX5400 MFD (Printer/Scanner). It was listed and WORKED in Suse9, it doesn't in SuSE 9.1. I had an ISDN card that worked in Mandrake 8 but didn't in 8.1 but did again in 8.2. What the hell is all that about? I do an update , which so happens to include a newer kernel, and all of a sudden my graphics card doesn't work and I'm left at CLI cos X won't load!
Linux hasn't a cat in hells chance of taking over from Windows as a "home" OS until it gets its hardware support act together.
How the hell you can compare Linux to the usability of Windows when you have to re-install drivers, if they're available or "build" your own if they're not, just because you ran "update" is beyond me.
Digital Satellite TV in the UK is heading that way. It can't be far off now. 383 TV Channels and 87 "Digital Radio" channels available through the Sky TV Digibox.
Many of the things that people have bitched about being "not available for Linux" have just not been available _free_ for Linux.
THats exactly the point. There's been decent 3D and multiple monitor support for Linux for ages but it costs money. There's a perfect MS software compatibility solution (Codeweaver CRossover) but it costs money.
Why oh why do alot of people bitching about MS compatibility/missing Windows applications equivalents in Linux continue to do so when there are viable solutions to those problems? Is it because they actually involve paying out some money?
There's too many people in here making Linux look like the poor mans OS by their ranting against any software that has a price tag attached.
This is utterly shameless. You can save things in compatibilty mode in excel, so that they can be read by previous versions of the software
And of course an employee working in a predominantly MS Office environment is automatically going to save them in compatibility mode isnt s/he? YEAH RIGHT. Perhaps if you took that Linux/OSS blindfold off you might see how things work in the real corporate MS dominated world and then you'd realise just how much of a battle you had on your hands.
Because back then, people innovated in order to create a revenue stream. Nowadays companies seem unable to come up with fresh ideas that people will buy into so instead they take the easy way out and use IP to generate an income.
Does anyone here actually use a PDA for anything remotely interesting or useful (beyond impressing your techie friends with your new toy)?
Yep...Satnav. I work as a lorry driver in the UK (trucker) for an employment agency. I've got an Ipaq 2210 and run TomTom Navigator 3 on it. AS I'm not in the same vehicle for more than a couple of days at a time it allows me to take it from vehicle to vehicle and as it does street level, it has replaced the massive box of town/city maps I had. Its bluetooth too so it uses GPRS through my mobile phone to get traffic updates as I go.
THats utter bullshit. An OS should perform acceptably out of the box. If you have to start pratting about tuning it as you put it then its broken in the first place. In this day and age having to compile a custom kernel for your hardware, edit config files just to get the right DMA mode set up etc etc is just bloody ridiculous.
Obviously you're one of those people who actually never does anything with your PC.
So, in order to get a reasonably zippy GUI in Linux that doesn't need 128MB+ you have to use a Window manager that gives you a desktop looking very much like Windows 3 at best or those DOS GUI shells you could get on 1000 best shareware apps CDs???
BT plans to have a 99.6% broadband rollout by next summer so you should be convered. They're also trialling >5km ADSL connections (up to 11km AFAIK) in Milton Keynes and if the trial is successful it should sort out the problems of those living in the back of beyond although speeds may be limited to 256k but its still better than dialup.
Yes, it is British Telecom. Originally it was public owned and was the only telco in the UK with the exception of Kingston Communications, a Hull City coucil run telco only available to the residents of Kingston Upon Hull. B.T was then privatised. It is the largest Telco in the UK. With the exception of a few cable companies operating in limited areas and Kingston Communications, B.T still owns most of the telephone exchanges in the UK and if you want to provide a DSL/Phone service you have to do it over their lines.
The preferences importing from Opera works extremely well. In fact I wasn't aware it was there, installed FF 0.9 and fired it up for the first time to set it up just to find it loading up my homepage and my Opera bookmarks were all there.
A welcome suprise and it means I can get shut of my 3rd party bookmark convertor.
Its humour. You seriously need to get out more and GET A LIFE.
Anyone who cannot see this is a satire, needs to turn their PC off, get some sleep and go meet people in reality.
A firewall is all well and good until someone brings an unsecured laptop in and plugs it into the network.
So what? If all the computers on the LAN are configured properly it still shouldn't be an issue.
Perhaps if administrators stopped being lazy lard arses and actually configures every desktop properly then the fact someone brings in an infected machine to the LAN shouldn't make a difference.
XP is pretty much the default OS on all new Windows boxes being bought in the corporate sector. It has a built in firewall. Its firewall would've stopped this BUT yet again, lazy fat arse administrators can't be arsed to tick the firewall box in the Advanced section of the NIC properties.
I put a completely unpatched XP pre SP1 machine on the net yesterday. It didn't get Sasser or MSBlast etc etc. Why? Because I ticked the box to enable the built in firewall in the advanced tab for the NIC.
Personally, I'm surprised and disapointed re: Suse. However, I'm also a bit surprised that someone who is seriously trying evaluate Linux and get a sound card to work didn't try either Mandrake or Red Hat.
Or that a so called "Expert" didn't bother to check whether his hardware was compatible with the operating system in the first place...
It's no record moment; it is (as-ever) a wake up call to the slashdot croud who perpetually fool themselves as to how good linux is. As this article highlights, failing to interact with such basic hardware as a sound card makes it unviable for mom & pop situations! How can you possibly expect people to have to try 9 different distros just for them to get the music working?
Err...Linux isn't Windows. Its a completely different OS. IT HAS ITS OWN HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY LIST!!!!
I'd love to know what the soundcard was because I've yet to find one that doesn't actually work including no-name onboard SiS and Realtek rubbish.
Oh and BTW, what happens when you install a soundcard not on Windows HCL and you can't find drivers? IT DOESN'T WORK.
If they're not going to be releasing the next version of Windows until 2006 they're giving Linux a VERY BIG chance of overtaking them on the desktop.
Just look how far Linux has come on in the last couple of years especially in respect to the desktop GUI and GUI configuration tools.
I think MS has driven a very big nail into their coffin by giving Linux another two years to play catchup.
The point of the Windows GUI is not that it looks nice, it's that you can do everything in it. If this project provided a functional Add/Remove Programs, Device Manager and Control Panel then that would be a good thing.
That in mind, wouldn't using OOo for windows be preferable for Microsoft, when compared to someone pirating and sharing copies of their suite?
Noooo..that's not how they think. In China they said they'd rather have pirated versions of MS software on desktops because it reduced the number of Linux installs. Twisted I know but thats how scared they are of Linux and Open Source/GPL.
This is not the US. The decision can be applied immediately whilst the appeals go through. THe EU courts aren't subject to the same "commercialisation" that the US courts seem to have gone through.
You're dealing with a completely different mindset in the EU. I understand though. The US seems to have problems understanding that not everybody thinks and works the way they do.
Slashdot Mirror
One word to completely destroy your argument..
LINSPIRE
Linspire...the Linux OS where you can run as a passwordless root user all day long. Linspire, the Linux distro aimed at the newbie which sells itself as having the security of Linux over Windows then leaves the door wide open.
Its even worse than that. Take for example my Epson Stylus CX5400 MFD (Printer/Scanner). It was listed and WORKED in Suse9, it doesn't in SuSE 9.1. I had an ISDN card that worked in Mandrake 8 but didn't in 8.1 but did again in 8.2. What the hell is all that about? I do an update , which so happens to include a newer kernel, and all of a sudden my graphics card doesn't work and I'm left at CLI cos X won't load!
Linux hasn't a cat in hells chance of taking over from Windows as a "home" OS until it gets its hardware support act together.
How the hell you can compare Linux to the usability of Windows when you have to re-install drivers, if they're available or "build" your own if they're not, just because you ran "update" is beyond me.
READ THE BLOODY ARTICLE DUMBASS. He said that Mandrake and SuSE had the tools to resize the partitions, only Fedora needed Part. Magic.
Digital Satellite TV in the UK is heading that way. It can't be far off now. 383 TV Channels and 87 "Digital Radio" channels available through the Sky TV Digibox.
THats exactly the point. There's been decent 3D and multiple monitor support for Linux for ages but it costs money. There's a perfect MS software compatibility solution (Codeweaver CRossover) but it costs money.
Why oh why do alot of people bitching about MS compatibility/missing Windows applications equivalents in Linux continue to do so when there are viable solutions to those problems? Is it because they actually involve paying out some money?
There's too many people in here making Linux look like the poor mans OS by their ranting against any software that has a price tag attached.
And of course an employee working in a predominantly MS Office environment is automatically going to save them in compatibility mode isnt s/he? YEAH RIGHT. Perhaps if you took that Linux/OSS blindfold off you might see how things work in the real corporate MS dominated world and then you'd realise just how much of a battle you had on your hands.
The best stuff usually isn't.
Err...I belive you could buy explosives in some states using a driving licence not that long ago?
Because back then, people innovated in order to create a revenue stream. Nowadays companies seem unable to come up with fresh ideas that people will buy into so instead they take the easy way out and use IP to generate an income.
GPS SatNav. Apart from the XDA2 which is only available in the UK with one cellular provider the choices are PDA or dedicated install.
Yep...Satnav. I work as a lorry driver in the UK (trucker) for an employment agency. I've got an Ipaq 2210 and run TomTom Navigator 3 on it. AS I'm not in the same vehicle for more than a couple of days at a time it allows me to take it from vehicle to vehicle and as it does street level, it has replaced the massive box of town/city maps I had. Its bluetooth too so it uses GPRS through my mobile phone to get traffic updates as I go.
Obviously you're one of those people who actually never does anything with your PC.
Firkin Ridiculous.
BT plans to have a 99.6% broadband rollout by next summer so you should be convered. They're also trialling >5km ADSL connections (up to 11km AFAIK) in Milton Keynes and if the trial is successful it should sort out the problems of those living in the back of beyond although speeds may be limited to 256k but its still better than dialup.
Yes, it is British Telecom. Originally it was public owned and was the only telco in the UK with the exception of Kingston Communications, a Hull City coucil run telco only available to the residents of Kingston Upon Hull. B.T was then privatised. It is the largest Telco in the UK. With the exception of a few cable companies operating in limited areas and Kingston Communications, B.T still owns most of the telephone exchanges in the UK and if you want to provide a DSL/Phone service you have to do it over their lines.
A welcome suprise and it means I can get shut of my 3rd party bookmark convertor.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/In stall/2/WXP/EN-US/DeskmanPowertoySetup.exe
It provides up to 4 virtual desktops and puts a control panel in the taskbar.
Its humour. You seriously need to get out more and GET A LIFE. Anyone who cannot see this is a satire, needs to turn their PC off, get some sleep and go meet people in reality.
So what? If all the computers on the LAN are configured properly it still shouldn't be an issue.
Perhaps if administrators stopped being lazy lard arses and actually configures every desktop properly then the fact someone brings in an infected machine to the LAN shouldn't make a difference.
XP is pretty much the default OS on all new Windows boxes being bought in the corporate sector. It has a built in firewall. Its firewall would've stopped this BUT yet again, lazy fat arse administrators can't be arsed to tick the firewall box in the Advanced section of the NIC properties.
I put a completely unpatched XP pre SP1 machine on the net yesterday. It didn't get Sasser or MSBlast etc etc. Why? Because I ticked the box to enable the built in firewall in the advanced tab for the NIC.
Or that a so called "Expert" didn't bother to check whether his hardware was compatible with the operating system in the first place...
Err...Linux isn't Windows. Its a completely different OS. IT HAS ITS OWN HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY LIST!!!!
I'd love to know what the soundcard was because I've yet to find one that doesn't actually work including no-name onboard SiS and Realtek rubbish.
Oh and BTW, what happens when you install a soundcard not on Windows HCL and you can't find drivers? IT DOESN'T WORK.
Tom, you are a class idiot and a crap troll.
If they're not going to be releasing the next version of Windows until 2006 they're giving Linux a VERY BIG chance of overtaking them on the desktop. Just look how far Linux has come on in the last couple of years especially in respect to the desktop GUI and GUI configuration tools. I think MS has driven a very big nail into their coffin by giving Linux another two years to play catchup.
That'd be SuSE 9 then....
Noooo..that's not how they think. In China they said they'd rather have pirated versions of MS software on desktops because it reduced the number of Linux installs. Twisted I know but thats how scared they are of Linux and Open Source/GPL.
You're dealing with a completely different mindset in the EU. I understand though. The US seems to have problems understanding that not everybody thinks and works the way they do.