Your tone indicates to me that your already set in your ways and you have no reason to switch on over to Linux.
As I had started with the question as to why ppl stick with Windows, and I as well had a similar disposition once upon a time, I began to realize that list of reasons soon got short.
- Linux has everything Windows does, and usually does it better in many cases.
- Linux has free games.
- Linux has free graphic appz exactly like Photoshop.
- Linux offers enterprise strength databases (I'm not a pro star at that yet, but google yourself and realize MS SQL is bottom line as far as strength goes).
- KDE (just one of many window managers...ah yes, selection is nice, ain't it?) offers K3B to burn everything...it actually blows Nero out of the water IMO.
- Finally if you think you can't connect to the web via your dsl...then yes, prehaps Linux is not for you.
Linux is not meant for your typical average joe user...I merely assumed since you were posting on/. that you weren't an average joe and among those that seek and love challenges....however I'm constantly reminded on a daily basis that assumption is wrong and a habit to break.
The profession has to look seriously at itself and get over the view that all teachers are saints. There are truly great teachers, but there are truly bad teachers, and as long as they are seen as equals, then we will be stuck with suboptimal education.
Prehaps they could make them take an exam to determine this. Make them write a 600-800 word essay on why they think they should keep their jobs...naturally we'll deduct 10% from their mark for each day they're late submitting their assignment. Immediate termination for anyone catch cheating or copying off someone else!!!
sheep = majority public that refuse to try and change beyond expectations, but rather follow suit
I know that sheep reference was maybe a little much to make a settle and factual point, but than again I suppose I'd roll my eyes too when the truth hurts.
What I haven't seen is why I should use linux. That's why I don't switch.
Fair enough, I'll throw a few reasons out why I like it.
I love the programs that it comes with. I'm sure I'm not doing it justice, but with KDE there's several programs and applications that come packages with KDE that would no doubt cost thousands in the commercial world. If you're at all interested in educational software or know someone who's taking mathematics class or just likes to play around with equations, fractions, and graphing....again it's there all free. Do you like Photoshop? A "legal" copy would cost you literally hundreds of dollars...or again you could use something like Gimp which is free. Do you like playing with encryption at all? Something that's (not sure the case now) heavy regulated by the NSA (what I've read from the book "Crypto" by Stephen Levy) in Windows systems going to 3rd world countries and domestic so the NSA can still read your stuff...well you can use, again free programs like KPGP to encrypt files and e-mail messages.
Besides the free, yes again overkill the word so I can jam it in your head, programs...I've found my system is actually very stable. It can go days with rebooting, unlike the daily need for when I had XP. Although I did discover I had a bad RAM module...so that's still for the jury.
Less viruses and vunerabilities. The one thing experts have been very out spoken about lately and lost their corporate jobs over, it that Linux systems in comparison to Windows systems have far lesser virus et al. Some will argue that's b/c Windows is far more popular with the sheep and so that's where the scum suckers will always attack. However b/c Linux is not closed source everything can be looked at again and again and ironed out. It will actually have the reverse effect of what's assumed than a closed system...one that tries to hold on to the little holes and vernabilities as secrets before the script kiddies find them out. Must be a burden for one company to keep a system closed and secret rather than allowing a far more educated community aid them in polishing up the entire system.
I could rant on and on why Linux is better, why Windows is limited, will always be limited and that you've been condition by an empire that'll eventually fall upon itself by its own paradigm and greed - but you're still convinced you have a winning horse, so what why waste my time?
The antidote to this is Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States".
I'm currently reading this book...I've just dipped into it a bit and it's mind blowing. What really made me take this book out of the library, besides the fact I've heard about it mention so many times, was the fact that this was a recent edition...3rd or 4th I believe...so it's updates up to 2001. Anyways, before the 25 Chapter: "The War on Terrorism" or something very similar, someone had...and I shit you not, honest to monkey Christ.....placed this 9/11 dollar bill (side a,side b).
I ask you, how intense it that? Someone had taken the time to find this book at my local library (Barrie, ON - Canada) and place this replicated US left-leaning dollar bill slaming the Bush administration. I find it amazing that little underground activists are hard at work doing these sort of things. Made me even wonder if there were more undiscovered books at my library that had these dollar bills placed in them.
No doubt I'll be returning this book with the bill right where I found it.
That grinds my teeth that ppl will stick it out with Windows 'til the day they die, and I don't know why!
I've asked lots of what I assumed were computer swavvy individuals, "Hey why not try Linux out?".
Response, "Oh I would if I had another machine", or "I'll install it on my second computer."
Fact of the matter is that unless you're using Linux frequently as a primary workstation you'll never appreciate how it's far more intuitive than Windows will ever be. Yet I find it very interesting that I myself once had the same mentality...to never use Linux as my primary workstation. It's been discussed relentlessly on/., but what makes ppl stick it out with Windows? I'm far happier now that I'm using something far more superior like Gentoo...even with user friendly KDE.
I'll continue my attempts to pimp people on board to the OS revolution, and yell at ppl for not even giving Knoppix a try...I mean there's no excuse to limit your computer experience.
Now if they had included a decent camera (besides your typical 1.something MP ones they have now on cells), and some sort of MP3 playback capabilities to give iPods a run for their money, well hell...that'd settle my wish list!
...and it's a pretty sweet device. Haven't regretted buying it for a moment. Every time I flip it open it defiantly turns heads and gets attention (I'm still not certain this is a good thing). I can say it's without a doubt awesome to send text messages using its full keyboard. As far as browsing the Internet I hate it. Usually the sites are too large in size to view. I have yet to find a search engine that works with it...I've tried Google's cell phone page without success.
I've recently notice some of my games I haven't played in awhile will pause in mid-play...not a biggie but something I have to investigate. One of the things that I liked was that it ran Java on it and assumed that I would be able to program a few custom appz for my own amusement. Realizing I hadn't programmed in Java in a long time proved challenging as finding a decent Java IDE that's FREE seems next to impossible and gave up trying.
All in all my Nokia 6800 is still the cat's meow compared to all my friends' cell phones. I'm sure there are plenty of cell phones that put it to shame but I have yet to met someone that has one.
I feel sorta bad how we use to treat the librarians back in high school...seting off the theft alarms with magnets and them metal strips, and giving them fake names when they questioned who we were.....
Gosh, and we thought they were soooo conversative.
With that said I know I'm a mere pawn in the grid. I'm glad there's individuals out there that are very passionate about bringing awareness regarding various privacy issues. However I'm also a realist and realize that again anyone that motivated enough will track you no matter what.
You could spend your entire life trying to stay on top of "them", know the latest and greatest (no doubt/. crowd), could live a life of a cloak and dagger mentality, and still be tracked by those people you just mentioned.
Eventually you're gonna have to shrug your shoulders so you can get to sleep.
We're all part of the grid on the "Net" as Sandra Bullock showed us back in 1995.
Not to point out redundancy...but is this anything new? Better question, does anyone care? Obviously motivated individuals wish to track and/or locate you they have the means to so more easily these days. Unless you're in deep doing questionable activites these days are you really that concerned?
Prehaps I've just become ignorant as I know I'm 0wn3d by someone out there.
When I saw this gizmo originally on Tom's Hardware Defcon 12 review (posted on a/. article), I thought in deed it was clever but more so intriguing b/c it was slapped on to a rifle handle. I can just imagine bingo-ladies calling 911 when they see a bunch of lads driving around pointing this thing aimlessly out the window trying to snag a signal, if their team name "Bluedriving crew".
No doubt a solid way to get in trouble is to make something look like a weapon and walk around public with it, or to point one of them laser pointers at Bill Clinton at a next book signing (offtopic note: notice the stiff no-ass-grab-hug in that picture he has to do now).:P
As the site has a very clean and professional look, as oppose to very corporate sites (CNN.com comes to mind for me), that's probably one of the factors that's made them so successful. They should except to lose some visitors and will have to make a decision as to what is more important - more coin, or more traffic.
If he were to be convicted of murder, it would mean that all drunk driving fatalaties could now be classified as murders as well.
Great...now at road checks I'm gonna have the cops sticking their head in to smell my breath and to check what kind of gear I have installed in my vechicle.
"what...is that a surround sound system sir?!...GET OUT OF THE CAR NOW WITH YOUR HANDS UP!!!"
Prehaps those that are unable to grasp the basics or understanding of it?
It's funny this is from an advocate of relational databses. I once remember a wise person telling me once that unless you're making an "Access Realm database" that relational databases would not be the way to go.
E.g. when a police officer is punching up your licence info to see if you're a wanted criminal that's considered armed and dangerous, chances are it's not running through a relational database to give Johnny Law a quick response.
The first thing I ever saw of his was "The Big One" a couple of years back on the one of them artsy channels on the satellite. I'm a movie junkie whore and would've watched anything, but when I started watching this documentary about this badly dressed putze walking into big ass corporations and asking why they where downsizing and firing thousands of workers while they were reporting profits - I was thunderstruck!
I starting googling up this Michael Moore guy and found out he was making another movie at that time called...ahhh...let me think...oh yeah "Bowling for Columbine"! I'm sure I actually a handful of people that was actually waiting for the release of that movie to hit the theatres. Then when it finally did I disappointed to find out it was only playing in one theatre that was like 2-3 hours away from me. Oh well, I eventually saw it as obviously many did; as well as his first movie "Roger and Me"; went on a fan rant with all my friends and family about how incredible he was; read "Stupid White Men"; and now in complete anticipation for my days off to go see "Fahrenheit 9/11".
I'm actually surprised many people, other than ranting right-wingers, despise the guy including people I once held in such high respect for such as Dennis Miller. What I really liked about Michael Moore after watching "The Big One" is that despite the fact he's pretty much a sloppy nobody, he makes people accountable. It really is something to see the reaction on a PR or HR personnel's face of some big-ass corporation trying to explain why they laid off thousands of people for no reason other than to save a bit of money upon their already ridiculous profit margin. Without people like Moore being a thorn some of these high powers (no need to mention) could go on doing whatever the hell they want, whenever the hell they want, b/c no-one is challenging them or bringing it to the attention of others.
The flaming right-winging ACs' will no doubt rebuttal from their tiny world.
As I sit here on this fine weekend as a computer operator...surfing the net and reading Slashdot, I know that my job could easily be wiped out if someone were to clean up the redundancy around here and place more faith in automation. The same is true with the new swipe cards making the Commissionaires (a.k.a. security guards) down the hall start to sweat, b/c their job of letting people in the building is starting to make less sense.
However it's ironic that b/c it's a government position that "they" still prefer a warm and fuzzy body around just in case something does hit the fan.
I remember scheming and dreaming a project once upon a time and trying to look for a database that contained various dates and the weather data conditions for that day.
Found a free archive on Environment Canada that does just that for all of Canada.
Slashdot Mirror
You're right.
/. that you weren't an average joe and among those that seek and love challenges....however I'm constantly reminded on a daily basis that assumption is wrong and a habit to break.
Your tone indicates to me that your already set in your ways and you have no reason to switch on over to Linux.
As I had started with the question as to why ppl stick with Windows, and I as well had a similar disposition once upon a time, I began to realize that list of reasons soon got short.
- Linux has everything Windows does, and usually does it better in many cases.
- Linux has free games.
- Linux has free graphic appz exactly like Photoshop.
- Linux offers enterprise strength databases (I'm not a pro star at that yet, but google yourself and realize MS SQL is bottom line as far as strength goes).
- KDE (just one of many window managers...ah yes, selection is nice, ain't it?) offers K3B to burn everything...it actually blows Nero out of the water IMO.
- Finally if you think you can't connect to the web via your dsl...then yes, prehaps Linux is not for you.
Linux is not meant for your typical average joe user...I merely assumed since you were posting on
The profession has to look seriously at itself and get over the view that all teachers are saints. There are truly great teachers, but there are truly bad teachers, and as long as they are seen as equals, then we will be stuck with suboptimal education.
Prehaps they could make them take an exam to determine this. Make them write a 600-800 word essay on why they think they should keep their jobs...naturally we'll deduct 10% from their mark for each day they're late submitting their assignment. Immediate termination for anyone catch cheating or copying off someone else!!!
This is where we met the defining reason as to why your perspective and ideals are not the same as mine.
Linux is NOT a "product" for me to sell....it's an operating system.
scum suckers = virus creators
You're actually defending them?
sheep = majority public that refuse to try and change beyond expectations, but rather follow suit
I know that sheep reference was maybe a little much to make a settle and factual point, but than again I suppose I'd roll my eyes too when the truth hurts.
What I haven't seen is why I should use linux. That's why I don't switch.
Fair enough, I'll throw a few reasons out why I like it.
I love the programs that it comes with. I'm sure I'm not doing it justice, but with KDE there's several programs and applications that come packages with KDE that would no doubt cost thousands in the commercial world. If you're at all interested in educational software or know someone who's taking mathematics class or just likes to play around with equations, fractions, and graphing....again it's there all free. Do you like Photoshop? A "legal" copy would cost you literally hundreds of dollars...or again you could use something like Gimp which is free. Do you like playing with encryption at all? Something that's (not sure the case now) heavy regulated by the NSA (what I've read from the book "Crypto" by Stephen Levy) in Windows systems going to 3rd world countries and domestic so the NSA can still read your stuff...well you can use, again free programs like KPGP to encrypt files and e-mail messages.
Besides the free, yes again overkill the word so I can jam it in your head, programs...I've found my system is actually very stable. It can go days with rebooting, unlike the daily need for when I had XP. Although I did discover I had a bad RAM module...so that's still for the jury.
Less viruses and vunerabilities. The one thing experts have been very out spoken about lately and lost their corporate jobs over, it that Linux systems in comparison to Windows systems have far lesser virus et al. Some will argue that's b/c Windows is far more popular with the sheep and so that's where the scum suckers will always attack. However b/c Linux is not closed source everything can be looked at again and again and ironed out. It will actually have the reverse effect of what's assumed than a closed system...one that tries to hold on to the little holes and vernabilities as secrets before the script kiddies find them out. Must be a burden for one company to keep a system closed and secret rather than allowing a far more educated community aid them in polishing up the entire system.
I could rant on and on why Linux is better, why Windows is limited, will always be limited and that you've been condition by an empire that'll eventually fall upon itself by its own paradigm and greed - but you're still convinced you have a winning horse, so what why waste my time?
The antidote to this is Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States".
I'm currently reading this book...I've just dipped into it a bit and it's mind blowing. What really made me take this book out of the library, besides the fact I've heard about it mention so many times, was the fact that this was a recent edition...3rd or 4th I believe...so it's updates up to 2001. Anyways, before the 25 Chapter: "The War on Terrorism" or something very similar, someone had...and I shit you not, honest to monkey Christ.....placed this 9/11 dollar bill (side a,side b).
I ask you, how intense it that? Someone had taken the time to find this book at my local library (Barrie, ON - Canada) and place this replicated US left-leaning dollar bill slaming the Bush administration. I find it amazing that little underground activists are hard at work doing these sort of things. Made me even wonder if there were more undiscovered books at my library that had these dollar bills placed in them.
No doubt I'll be returning this book with the bill right where I found it.
That grinds my teeth that ppl will stick it out with Windows 'til the day they die, and I don't know why!
/., but what makes ppl stick it out with Windows? I'm far happier now that I'm using something far more superior like Gentoo...even with user friendly KDE.
I've asked lots of what I assumed were computer swavvy individuals, "Hey why not try Linux out?".
Response, "Oh I would if I had another machine", or "I'll install it on my second computer."
Fact of the matter is that unless you're using Linux frequently as a primary workstation you'll never appreciate how it's far more intuitive than Windows will ever be. Yet I find it very interesting that I myself once had the same mentality...to never use Linux as my primary workstation. It's been discussed relentlessly on
I'll continue my attempts to pimp people on board to the OS revolution, and yell at ppl for not even giving Knoppix a try...I mean there's no excuse to limit your computer experience.
You snowballed that guy? -Dante
My Nokia 6800, as I've mentioned once upon a time, is pretty much the cat's meow.
Now if they had included a decent camera (besides your typical 1.something MP ones they have now on cells), and some sort of MP3 playback capabilities to give iPods a run for their money, well hell...that'd settle my wish list!
How the flock would I know?
As a result from stress and aggrevation I've apparently made a couple of origami sheep while in school.
And I thought they were just cruppled up pieces of paper.
...and it's a pretty sweet device. Haven't regretted buying it for a moment. Every time I flip it open it defiantly turns heads and gets attention (I'm still not certain this is a good thing). I can say it's without a doubt awesome to send text messages using its full keyboard. As far as browsing the Internet I hate it. Usually the sites are too large in size to view. I have yet to find a search engine that works with it...I've tried Google's cell phone page without success.
I've recently notice some of my games I haven't played in awhile will pause in mid-play...not a biggie but something I have to investigate. One of the things that I liked was that it ran Java on it and assumed that I would be able to program a few custom appz for my own amusement. Realizing I hadn't programmed in Java in a long time proved challenging as finding a decent Java IDE that's FREE seems next to impossible and gave up trying.
All in all my Nokia 6800 is still the cat's meow compared to all my friends' cell phones. I'm sure there are plenty of cell phones that put it to shame but I have yet to met someone that has one.
Yes they're grand.
I feel sorta bad how we use to treat the librarians back in high school...seting off the theft alarms with magnets and them metal strips, and giving them fake names when they questioned who we were.....
Gosh, and we thought they were soooo conversative.
I totally agree with your point.
/. crowd), could live a life of a cloak and dagger mentality, and still be tracked by those people you just mentioned.
With that said I know I'm a mere pawn in the grid. I'm glad there's individuals out there that are very passionate about bringing awareness regarding various privacy issues. However I'm also a realist and realize that again anyone that motivated enough will track you no matter what.
You could spend your entire life trying to stay on top of "them", know the latest and greatest (no doubt
Eventually you're gonna have to shrug your shoulders so you can get to sleep.
Yeah sorry, too early in the morn' and didn't pick up on your intended delivery until after I replied.
...too bad their parents were never married.:P
Gotta love them modders...
Try using bugmenot.
We're all part of the grid on the "Net" as Sandra Bullock showed us back in 1995.
Not to point out redundancy...but is this anything new? Better question, does anyone care? Obviously motivated individuals wish to track and/or locate you they have the means to so more easily these days. Unless you're in deep doing questionable activites these days are you really that concerned? Prehaps I've just become ignorant as I know I'm 0wn3d by someone out there.
When I saw this gizmo originally on Tom's Hardware Defcon 12 review (posted on a /. article), I thought in deed it was clever but more so intriguing b/c it was slapped on to a rifle handle. I can just imagine bingo-ladies calling 911 when they see a bunch of lads driving around pointing this thing aimlessly out the window trying to snag a signal, if their team name "Bluedriving crew".
No doubt a solid way to get in trouble is to make something look like a weapon and walk around public with it, or to point one of them laser pointers at Bill Clinton at a next book signing (offtopic note: notice the stiff no-ass-grab-hug in that picture he has to do now).:P
You're absolutely right.
As the site has a very clean and professional look, as oppose to very corporate sites (CNN.com comes to mind for me), that's probably one of the factors that's made them so successful. They should except to lose some visitors and will have to make a decision as to what is more important - more coin, or more traffic.
If he were to be convicted of murder, it would mean that all drunk driving fatalaties could now be classified as murders as well.
Great...now at road checks I'm gonna have the cops sticking their head in to smell my breath and to check what kind of gear I have installed in my vechicle.
"what...is that a surround sound system sir?!...GET OUT OF THE CAR NOW WITH YOUR HANDS UP!!!"
Prehaps those that are unable to grasp the basics or understanding of it?
It's funny this is from an advocate of relational databses. I once remember a wise person telling me once that unless you're making an "Access Realm database" that relational databases would not be the way to go.
E.g. when a police officer is punching up your licence info to see if you're a wanted criminal that's considered armed and dangerous, chances are it's not running through a relational database to give Johnny Law a quick response.
You are an inspiration for birth control!
Michael Moore is awesome!
The first thing I ever saw of his was "The Big One" a couple of years back on the one of them artsy channels on the satellite. I'm a movie junkie whore and would've watched anything, but when I started watching this documentary about this badly dressed putze walking into big ass corporations and asking why they where downsizing and firing thousands of workers while they were reporting profits - I was thunderstruck!
I starting googling up this Michael Moore guy and found out he was making another movie at that time called...ahhh...let me think...oh yeah "Bowling for Columbine"! I'm sure I actually a handful of people that was actually waiting for the release of that movie to hit the theatres. Then when it finally did I disappointed to find out it was only playing in one theatre that was like 2-3 hours away from me. Oh well, I eventually saw it as obviously many did; as well as his first movie "Roger and Me"; went on a fan rant with all my friends and family about how incredible he was; read "Stupid White Men"; and now in complete anticipation for my days off to go see "Fahrenheit 9/11".
I'm actually surprised many people, other than ranting right-wingers, despise the guy including people I once held in such high respect for such as Dennis Miller. What I really liked about Michael Moore after watching "The Big One" is that despite the fact he's pretty much a sloppy nobody, he makes people accountable. It really is something to see the reaction on a PR or HR personnel's face of some big-ass corporation trying to explain why they laid off thousands of people for no reason other than to save a bit of money upon their already ridiculous profit margin. Without people like Moore being a thorn some of these high powers (no need to mention) could go on doing whatever the hell they want, whenever the hell they want, b/c no-one is challenging them or bringing it to the attention of others.
The flaming right-winging ACs' will no doubt rebuttal from their tiny world.
As I sit here on this fine weekend as a computer operator...surfing the net and reading Slashdot, I know that my job could easily be wiped out if someone were to clean up the redundancy around here and place more faith in automation. The same is true with the new swipe cards making the Commissionaires (a.k.a. security guards) down the hall start to sweat, b/c their job of letting people in the building is starting to make less sense.
However it's ironic that b/c it's a government position that "they" still prefer a warm and fuzzy body around just in case something does hit the fan.
I remember scheming and dreaming a project once upon a time and trying to look for a database that contained various dates and the weather data conditions for that day.
Found a free archive on Environment Canada that does just that for all of Canada.