And who is going to stock this stripped down version?
I expect it's more for the vendors who supply the copy of Windows with the machine. Who buys a boxed copy of Windows anyway?
Also, others have commented on the fact that it will be cheaper, which I just don't see happening (Microsoft has no reason to make it cheaper), and as making it more expensive will ruffle the feathers of the EU, I expect it to be the same price. But then, as you can download media player for free, I don't see how this would affect price anyway.
Plus "professional/home edition" or "N" hmm which sounds better..
It's "professional/home edition N". Not one or the other, but a combination of both. It still sucks as a name though...
I think the same rules should apply universally. If MS aren't allowed to provide a media player with Windows, Linux distributions and MacOS should also not be allowed to provide one as standard. Same with an internet browser. It's only fair to have a level playing field. For the record, I think MS were right about needing to include IE with all versions of Windows - can you imagine not being able to use the internet as soon as you get your new computer set up? That would suck.
You've missed the point. Vendors can still ship "Home edition N" with Media Player installed, the point is they have the choice. No, I can't imagine a vendor shipping a machine without a web browser, but they should be able to choose which web browser it ships with!
No, MS shouldn't be able to supply a media player with Windows, the vendor should. This doesn't quite work with Apple because they are also the vendor, so they get to choose what software bundle you get (besides the fact that you can uninstall iTunes and Safari on Mac OS X, which, from where I am sitting, is half the problem with Windows).
Generally, you uninstall apps by dragging them to the trash. Because there is no registry to mangle, everything should then be running smoothly! I also both downloaded the app, which came with no "read me", and searched the site for uninstall:
Which turned up no results. So, like every other Mac OS X app, it would seem that you need to delete the app to uninstall it!
If you wanted to double check that Konfabulator won't have any lingering effects, the only area that I can think of that might be relevant would be a startup item, so check/Applications/System Preferences -> Accounts -> Startup Items, and remove it if it is there (having said that, I don't know what Mac OS X would do if it tried to start am item that wasn't there anymore, haven't tried that before, so this might be OK anyway).
If you want to scrub your machine of any trace of Konfabulator, check/Library/Preferences (system prefs) and/Users//Library/Preferences (your prefs), and search both folders for the word "Konfabulator", and do with the files as you will (archive if you aren't 100% sure:-) . Next check both Library folders (as above) "Application Support" folders for any Konfabulator related gubbins, and, once again, do with as you will. These last two steps are obviously non-vital, and are mainly about recovering disk space, or doing a clean re-install of an app.
Oh, I also vaguely remember (from when I installed the initial release) that Konfabulator installed a widgets folder, possibly in/Users//Documents/Widgets/(?) . It certainly asks you about this on it's first launch, so hopefully you remember where you put it. This is obviously also about reclaiming disk space, rather than system maintanance, however. (Personally, I think this should go in Application Support, but the authors obviously disagreed, although I'm sure the user can change this).
My initial response of "just drag the app to the trash" should still be sufficient (and will be for the majority of Mac apps), but I have seen a few with specific uninstall apps. So, as a rule of thumb, if there's an uninstall app, use it. If not, trash the app. If that doesn't work as it should, it's a badly authored app.
Unless Apple has been spreading disinformation under NDA. Which would be a wierd thing to do.
Really? What if Apple had a handful of people (for the sake of argument say 20) that it thought could be leaking information. If Apple gave each of these 20 employees information about a new product, but made the information that each employee has unique (say, 30-80 GB HD, 256 - 768 MB RAM, 1 - 1.5GHz, etc.), then as soon as that information comes out, they know who their man is.
Now then, Apple can't directly act upon this information, because it's entrapment. But, they can subpoena the news outlets from which the information originated from as to find it's source (as they have done). Once it goes to court, for the defendant it will be similar to playing a game of poker against a pro, and the pro has already seen your hand.
Why does your client side Java experiences have any impact on whether this person should use it server side or not? Beside the fact that I could write a PDF viewer in any language that would run as slow as you described, making your entire point about client side Java moot at any rate.
It appears to be working, judging by the amount of free press they're getting from the event.
Yeah, but look at which sites have the aforementioned free press. This doesn't change a thing, as anybody who reads those sites (including this one), already knows about this.
And there are too many people making difefrent distros for Linux to really wane for some time.
And after more than a year of searching (admittedly in my spare time, which I don't have a lot of), I still can't find a distro I like! I went through Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, Yoper, and Gentoo, and all systems would require enough work in some area or another (whether it be default settings for commands, like double checking if I want to remove a file on the command line, to missing something really fundamental like being able to change your network settings in the GUI), that it was just quicker for me to reinstall another Linux distro in the hope that it was closer to my needs (as a side note, I also reinstalled some of the above multiple times, changing some installation settings in the hope of getting a system worth keeping, but I never did).
Alas, the fact that quality is a much better property than quantity really rings true here. Sure, I can spend countless hours fine tuning a brand spanking new distro that I decided to try out on a whim, just to have to do it all again when I get a new computer! And then I might try a new distro and have to go through the whole process again. But why would I bother, when I could choose Mac OS X for the desktop, and Solaris on server? Sure, not everything will be exactly to my needs, but at least I'll be able to use these systems from day one, rather than having to build up from the numerous varieties of half baked systems I could have chosen from. On top of that, it is all very well documented, in that if I get a problem with the system, chances are someone else has had it already, and the fix is posted online. With Linux, if I use, say, Yoper, and I uninstall their default mail client, nobody can tell me why it then throws a hissy fit during every subsequent boot up, because nobody has run into that problem before. Sure, Linux has a substantial user base, but it is spread so thinly over so many slight variations on the theme, that nobody knows quite what the other is doing.
There are too many cooks in the kitchen! But instead of them spoiling the one broth, they have all made their own. And from the same basic ingredients, each tasting ever so slightly different from the last, which will fill a supposed niche. The problem is, the broth isn't different enough to really stand out from the rest of the noise, and even if it was, none of it is as good as the broth from the vendors who also supply the bowl.
I recognise that a lot of the arguments I have offered above are exactly the same reasons that so many people love Linux. I can understand why some people enjoy tinkering with their systems, and even taking it up as a hobby. More power to them, but if you'll excuse me, I have real work to do.
I can't see how the number 13 has any special power.
It's the number of cycles the moon goes through in a year. Why is this now considered unlucky? Because the Pagan's believed that it was lucky, for precisely for the reason stated above. When Christianity was gaining popularity, the proponents of Christianity demonised a lot of Pagan beliefs, most prominently saying that Pagans worshipped the Devil (which is of course rubbish), but also did other subtle things, like changing the number 13 from good luck to bad.
The first all-in-one digital command central made just for you
Surely that should be command centre (or center, seeing as this is a U.S. based company)? My first impressions don't exactly inspire me with confidence...
The whole "switch" thing is for basic users I guess. The rest of us aren't afraid to partition a hard drive
But surely you have a *primary* OS? You know, the one you check your emails, chat, browse the internet, and generally do your day to day stuff in? What's the point in setting that stuff up in more than one OS? Sure, it can be done, but things like chat histories and bookmarks have to be moved from system to system, if they are compatible at all, and email would have to use a protocol like IMAP, not POP (unless you leave the messages on the server, but then you have to download all those attachments again), and... Why bother?
So, to rephrase the question;
If Mac OS X came to x86, would you switch to it as your default OS?
I think this is because the designers didn't try to make a device that was just a battery-powered version of an existing home console, but rather made a device that was specifically suited for portable gaming, even though it had fewer bells and whistles.
And that is where the DS vs. PSP comparison is valid! The rest of your statement:
That's why the GameBoy family is on its nth hardware generation right now, while the Lynx, the Game Gear, the Nomad, the TurboXpress, the NeoGeo Pocket, and all the others never made it past two.
No, it really wouldn't. I'd bet that your average PC user doesn't appreciate the issues with IE. Many probably don't even know what a "browser" is, they just know to click this button for "the Internet" (not to be confused with e-mail)
So the vendor makes the choice for them. That's the point of removing it in the first place. At the moment, Windows PCs ship with WMP and IE. If they were removed, they could ship with vlc and iTunes (or whatever) instead. Just because there is a choice, doesn't mean it's the user who has to make it!
Actualy, the DS stands for "developer system", as in, it's the system that developers want
No, the grandparent was correct, and here it is straight from the horse's mouth in a Press Release. Also notice the DS logo, where there are dual 'o's in Nintendo (made a little more square, like the screens on a DS)?
But i gotta say, alot of the messages are very cool, almost like Nintendo's ilovebees.com on a much smaller scale.
The ilovebees.com thing is actually from Bungie in regards to Halo 2. It's not like it's the first time they have pulled this stuff either, although admittedly it was never on this scale. For more general information on Bungie, including similar stuff (like box acronyms), and also Marathon and how it relates to Halo, see the Marathon Story Page.
[A] main character with unusual parentage, supporting characters with the obligatory "tragic pasts", a villain with a prediliction for gloating speeches, a third-act plot twist that turns the game's world upside down.
There you go, that's your story! It doesn't get any deeper than that... There's no inner turmoil or human issues that are dealt with in other FF's. This is intentional, because the characters are faceless so they can change to different jobs (this was done much better in Tactics, where you had main-character-specific jobs, which meant that they achieved an individualism). There's no explanation of why the villain came to be so bad. And, that's my next point, the villain is the faceless Ex-death, who's evil, m'kay? But why is he evil? He's just evil, m'kay?
At the end of the game, I felt no apathy towards the characters I was playing as, and I didn't really care for defeating Ex-death. Sure, tactically I was on fire, but the fun was in levelling up and gaining new skills. So, by the final battle, where I had all the skills I wanted, it was boring, because it was the same as every other faceless boss fight. And the start of the game was also boring, because the skills weren't very interesting (until later level ups).
Sure, for it's time, it was revolutionary. But like Quake, it was a technical game which has now been superseded by technically better games (V by Tactics, and Quake by Quake III, both of the recent games do what the original done, just better). Games like FFIV don't get superseded, because it was about the story and atmosphere, and you can't 'upgrade' that experience without remaking the original game.
Those that like the old school FF's (FF1, 4, 5, 6, and to some extent 9), and those that like the newer ones (FF7, 8, 10). There's some overlap, but the general feeling exists for me. Staff listings have some interesting trends in the series too.
Your experience or no, the general trend throughout the series has been that odd numbered games have had a technical leaning, and even numbered games have had more story / atmosphere. There are games that buck the trend. VII also has a fantastic story, for example, and IX is all about atmosphere, it's technical backing isn't in the slightest bit complex.
So I, for example, like IV, VI, VII and VIII, which would suggest that I enjoy the story more. But, instead of talking about why I like the above games, I'll talk about why I don't like the others. V was far too unbalanced, in that it had zero story, (which was sad, because it had a fantastic technical base upon which the rest of the game could have been built), so it just feels like half a game. IX was just a rehash of the earlier (pre VI) FF's, and I just didn't see the point in re-treading old ground, and X was a medly of VII and VIII, not having any of what made either special. XI is online, and quite frankly, I don't need to live my life around a game.
I have a lot of friends who see more or less eye to eye with my views (some friends may like IX or X, but not like VIII or IV, for example), so the trends I see are different from yours. I'm not saying that my trends are correct, and yours wrong, but maybe there are four 'groups' of FF players, rather than your two. Or just maybe, there isn't a trend at all?
The best in the series by far is FFV. To the true fan of the series it outranks them all. FFIV is a close second with a better story but less involved as it has no "job" system. Never forget FF1, tho;D
But surely Final Fantasy Tactics does everything that FFV does, (namely the job system,) but does it better. There's certainly nothing else that V has going for it, and Tactics has so much more...
Perhaps grabbing files from the home directory and encrypting them. Contact the author for resolution.
This would be fantastic if the software that you were selling in the first place was an encryptor / decryptor. It would just mean that the user had to buy the software after all!:-).
Mr. Bungle (Web site sadly lacking, maybe the Ipecac Records web site has more more info?), are an alternative band who's first album contained old school (now I say that, the album came out in '89... it wasn't old school back then!) video game samples (mostly from the NES iirc) sprinkled throughout their first album. Note, they aren't a "game band", they are a (very well respected, cult status) alternative band.
There seems to be some samples on bunglefever.com. Have at it!
Slashdot Mirror
But that's two games you played, so surely you were fooled twice?
If you want to see these folders, edit /.hidden
Apple have messed me about (68k to PPC, Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X) for the last time! I'm switching to an Intel based machine! Oh, wait...
Why? Why can you live with your computer being insecure? Why do you accept this? Especially when there are secure alternatives!
I expect it's more for the vendors who supply the copy of Windows with the machine. Who buys a boxed copy of Windows anyway?
Also, others have commented on the fact that it will be cheaper, which I just don't see happening (Microsoft has no reason to make it cheaper), and as making it more expensive will ruffle the feathers of the EU, I expect it to be the same price. But then, as you can download media player for free, I don't see how this would affect price anyway.
It's "professional/home edition N". Not one or the other, but a combination of both. It still sucks as a name though...
You've missed the point. Vendors can still ship "Home edition N" with Media Player installed, the point is they have the choice. No, I can't imagine a vendor shipping a machine without a web browser, but they should be able to choose which web browser it ships with!
No, MS shouldn't be able to supply a media player with Windows, the vendor should. This doesn't quite work with Apple because they are also the vendor, so they get to choose what software bundle you get (besides the fact that you can uninstall iTunes and Safari on Mac OS X, which, from where I am sitting, is half the problem with Windows).
Generally, you uninstall apps by dragging them to the trash. Because there is no registry to mangle, everything should then be running smoothly! I also both downloaded the app, which came with no "read me", and searched the site for uninstall:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safa ri&rls=en-gb&q=site%3Awww.konfabulator.com+uninsta ll&btnG=Search
Which turned up no results. So, like every other Mac OS X app, it would seem that you need to delete the app to uninstall it!
If you wanted to double check that Konfabulator won't have any lingering effects, the only area that I can think of that might be relevant would be a startup item, so check /Applications/System Preferences -> Accounts -> Startup Items, and remove it if it is there (having said that, I don't know what Mac OS X would do if it tried to start am item that wasn't there anymore, haven't tried that before, so this might be OK anyway).
If you want to scrub your machine of any trace of Konfabulator, check /Library/Preferences (system prefs) and /Users//Library/Preferences (your prefs), and search both folders for the word "Konfabulator", and do with the files as you will (archive if you aren't 100% sure :-) . Next check both Library folders (as above) "Application Support" folders for any Konfabulator related gubbins, and, once again, do with as you will. These last two steps are obviously non-vital, and are mainly about recovering disk space, or doing a clean re-install of an app.
Oh, I also vaguely remember (from when I installed the initial release) that Konfabulator installed a widgets folder, possibly in /Users//Documents/Widgets/(?) . It certainly asks you about this on it's first launch, so hopefully you remember where you put it. This is obviously also about reclaiming disk space, rather than system maintanance, however. (Personally, I think this should go in Application Support, but the authors obviously disagreed, although I'm sure the user can change this).
My initial response of "just drag the app to the trash" should still be sufficient (and will be for the majority of Mac apps), but I have seen a few with specific uninstall apps. So, as a rule of thumb, if there's an uninstall app, use it. If not, trash the app. If that doesn't work as it should, it's a badly authored app.
Hope this helps!
Really? What if Apple had a handful of people (for the sake of argument say 20) that it thought could be leaking information. If Apple gave each of these 20 employees information about a new product, but made the information that each employee has unique (say, 30-80 GB HD, 256 - 768 MB RAM, 1 - 1.5GHz, etc.), then as soon as that information comes out, they know who their man is.
Now then, Apple can't directly act upon this information, because it's entrapment. But, they can subpoena the news outlets from which the information originated from as to find it's source (as they have done). Once it goes to court, for the defendant it will be similar to playing a game of poker against a pro, and the pro has already seen your hand.
Why does your client side Java experiences have any impact on whether this person should use it server side or not? Beside the fact that I could write a PDF viewer in any language that would run as slow as you described, making your entire point about client side Java moot at any rate.
Yeah, but look at which sites have the aforementioned free press. This doesn't change a thing, as anybody who reads those sites (including this one), already knows about this.
And after more than a year of searching (admittedly in my spare time, which I don't have a lot of), I still can't find a distro I like! I went through Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, Yoper, and Gentoo, and all systems would require enough work in some area or another (whether it be default settings for commands, like double checking if I want to remove a file on the command line, to missing something really fundamental like being able to change your network settings in the GUI), that it was just quicker for me to reinstall another Linux distro in the hope that it was closer to my needs (as a side note, I also reinstalled some of the above multiple times, changing some installation settings in the hope of getting a system worth keeping, but I never did).
Alas, the fact that quality is a much better property than quantity really rings true here. Sure, I can spend countless hours fine tuning a brand spanking new distro that I decided to try out on a whim, just to have to do it all again when I get a new computer! And then I might try a new distro and have to go through the whole process again. But why would I bother, when I could choose Mac OS X for the desktop, and Solaris on server? Sure, not everything will be exactly to my needs, but at least I'll be able to use these systems from day one, rather than having to build up from the numerous varieties of half baked systems I could have chosen from. On top of that, it is all very well documented, in that if I get a problem with the system, chances are someone else has had it already, and the fix is posted online. With Linux, if I use, say, Yoper, and I uninstall their default mail client, nobody can tell me why it then throws a hissy fit during every subsequent boot up, because nobody has run into that problem before. Sure, Linux has a substantial user base, but it is spread so thinly over so many slight variations on the theme, that nobody knows quite what the other is doing.
There are too many cooks in the kitchen! But instead of them spoiling the one broth, they have all made their own. And from the same basic ingredients, each tasting ever so slightly different from the last, which will fill a supposed niche. The problem is, the broth isn't different enough to really stand out from the rest of the noise, and even if it was, none of it is as good as the broth from the vendors who also supply the bowl.
I recognise that a lot of the arguments I have offered above are exactly the same reasons that so many people love Linux. I can understand why some people enjoy tinkering with their systems, and even taking it up as a hobby. More power to them, but if you'll excuse me, I have real work to do.
It's the number of cycles the moon goes through in a year. Why is this now considered unlucky? Because the Pagan's believed that it was lucky, for precisely for the reason stated above. When Christianity was gaining popularity, the proponents of Christianity demonised a lot of Pagan beliefs, most prominently saying that Pagans worshipped the Devil (which is of course rubbish), but also did other subtle things, like changing the number 13 from good luck to bad.
And in the 1990's:
Performa 5400
I don't think apple are afraid to get fruity either...
And...
Surely that's a feature!
No, really... Not in a "that's a feature not a bug" sort of way, I mean it really is a feature!
From the website:
Surely that should be command centre (or center, seeing as this is a U.S. based company)? My first impressions don't exactly inspire me with confidence...
But surely you have a *primary* OS? You know, the one you check your emails, chat, browse the internet, and generally do your day to day stuff in? What's the point in setting that stuff up in more than one OS? Sure, it can be done, but things like chat histories and bookmarks have to be moved from system to system, if they are compatible at all, and email would have to use a protocol like IMAP, not POP (unless you leave the messages on the server, but then you have to download all those attachments again), and... Why bother?
So, to rephrase the question;
If Mac OS X came to x86, would you switch to it as your default OS?
And that is where the DS vs. PSP comparison is valid! The rest of your statement:
Do I see a trend here?
So the vendor makes the choice for them. That's the point of removing it in the first place. At the moment, Windows PCs ship with WMP and IE. If they were removed, they could ship with vlc and iTunes (or whatever) instead. Just because there is a choice, doesn't mean it's the user who has to make it!
No, the grandparent was correct, and here it is straight from the horse's mouth in a Press Release. Also notice the DS logo, where there are dual 'o's in Nintendo (made a little more square, like the screens on a DS)?
The ilovebees.com thing is actually from Bungie in regards to Halo 2. It's not like it's the first time they have pulled this stuff either, although admittedly it was never on this scale. For more general information on Bungie, including similar stuff (like box acronyms), and also Marathon and how it relates to Halo, see the Marathon Story Page.
There you go, that's your story! It doesn't get any deeper than that... There's no inner turmoil or human issues that are dealt with in other FF's. This is intentional, because the characters are faceless so they can change to different jobs (this was done much better in Tactics, where you had main-character-specific jobs, which meant that they achieved an individualism). There's no explanation of why the villain came to be so bad. And, that's my next point, the villain is the faceless Ex-death, who's evil, m'kay? But why is he evil? He's just evil, m'kay?
At the end of the game, I felt no apathy towards the characters I was playing as, and I didn't really care for defeating Ex-death. Sure, tactically I was on fire, but the fun was in levelling up and gaining new skills. So, by the final battle, where I had all the skills I wanted, it was boring, because it was the same as every other faceless boss fight. And the start of the game was also boring, because the skills weren't very interesting (until later level ups).
Sure, for it's time, it was revolutionary. But like Quake, it was a technical game which has now been superseded by technically better games (V by Tactics, and Quake by Quake III, both of the recent games do what the original done, just better). Games like FFIV don't get superseded, because it was about the story and atmosphere, and you can't 'upgrade' that experience without remaking the original game.
Your experience or no, the general trend throughout the series has been that odd numbered games have had a technical leaning, and even numbered games have had more story / atmosphere. There are games that buck the trend. VII also has a fantastic story, for example, and IX is all about atmosphere, it's technical backing isn't in the slightest bit complex.
So I, for example, like IV, VI, VII and VIII, which would suggest that I enjoy the story more. But, instead of talking about why I like the above games, I'll talk about why I don't like the others. V was far too unbalanced, in that it had zero story, (which was sad, because it had a fantastic technical base upon which the rest of the game could have been built), so it just feels like half a game. IX was just a rehash of the earlier (pre VI) FF's, and I just didn't see the point in re-treading old ground, and X was a medly of VII and VIII, not having any of what made either special. XI is online, and quite frankly, I don't need to live my life around a game.
I have a lot of friends who see more or less eye to eye with my views (some friends may like IX or X, but not like VIII or IV, for example), so the trends I see are different from yours. I'm not saying that my trends are correct, and yours wrong, but maybe there are four 'groups' of FF players, rather than your two. Or just maybe, there isn't a trend at all?
But surely Final Fantasy Tactics does everything that FFV does, (namely the job system,) but does it better. There's certainly nothing else that V has going for it, and Tactics has so much more...
This would be fantastic if the software that you were selling in the first place was an encryptor / decryptor. It would just mean that the user had to buy the software after all! :-) .
Mr. Bungle (Web site sadly lacking, maybe the Ipecac Records web site has more more info?), are an alternative band who's first album contained old school (now I say that, the album came out in '89... it wasn't old school back then!) video game samples (mostly from the NES iirc) sprinkled throughout their first album. Note, they aren't a "game band", they are a (very well respected, cult status) alternative band.
There seems to be some samples on bunglefever.com. Have at it!