XF86 isn't broken, it isn't slow when compiled right either(okay only gentoo does it right all the time).
It is quite broken. You know when they added multi-moniter support, it broke the extension for hardware video? To get around it, they hacked it so it only works on the primary screen.
How about how Xine has to simulate a keypress every so often to prevent the screensaver from coming on? That, my friends, is a hack.
It has several advanced features that no other GUI system uses. Transparent network support at the top of the list.
That doesn't make up for anything. Fans always bring this up. "B-but, it's network-transparent!" Y-Windows is network transparent too.
That's right you don't have to load a whole desktop to use one app you can just load the app.
Uh, hello? I have to install both entire desktop libraries and base packages. That's what I was talking about. Read, learn, comprehend. I have to install KDE's base system to be able to run some app that happened to be coded for KDE. Instead of implementing one sane development library, a bunch of idealists have decided the more choice, the better--having absolutist views and applying them to everything is why Linux is still only at 1% of usage on Google Zeitgeist. The nearest is OS X up about 4 points (so much for that article declaring that Linux desktop usage would surpass the Mac...).
I wish they had listened and taken security seriously years earlier. Those of use "in the know" have complained about poor coding in MS products for decades.
That's what I want them to do. It's going to take years before it make a significant difference.
Not really. Once Longhorn is released and everything under the sun is running under managed code (even Linux apps via Mono), you'll see a difference. Not that it will change the minds of biased Slashdot zealots who treat operating systems like penis size contests, but the rest of us who are rational will appreciate the new technology.
Zing! Hooray for anti-"M$" FUD. Wait, didn't Gentoo, GNOME, Debian, GNU, Savannah, and more all get hacked within the last six months? Linux isn't some golden child of security.
Sometimes your security problem is located in front of the keyboard. I know years of conditioning has taught people that everything Microsoft does is evil and flawed, but the late 90s era of frothing Microsoft-bashing is over. It's time to start being more rational about things.
Clearly, you're venting your frustrations over the fact that Microsoft Windows is currently used way, way more than your religion, er operating system known as Linux. Zealots like you turn everything into a penis size debate.
Yes! Because I love it when a patch screws up my system and forces a reinstall!
Cite a single example.
Having automatic update/apply turned on lets me blame MS instead of myself for installing their craptacular patches that eat my registry!
Cite a single example of a patch that will "eat my registry." Oh, I forgot, you're just spewing FUD! That's a term we like around here.
Woohoo!! Go automatic patching!!
First you were bitching because you didn't have time to scan Windows Update, then when your ass was called on your ignorance due to Automatic Updates (which prompts you when you first run XP), now all the sudden patches are magical entities that "eat your registry" and do other vague claims that are never specified.
I've had plenty of Linux "updates" fuck things up. Hell, I've had GNOME crash enough times for me to have to reformat twice. Grow the hell up and spend some time away from Slashdot--it's turned you into a raving, frothing fanboy zealot who lashes out in any way possible to defend the penis size of his religion/operating system.
Microsoft have spouted a lot of FUD over their anti-piracy initiatives.
Only on Slashdot is it "FUD" for a company to discourage pirates from continuing to use illegal copies of software. Does anyone else find this a little bit of an odd statement?
Anyway, to get vaguely back on topic, it's the second Tuesday of the month, so let's see what the MS patch fairy brings us today. Probably another exploit for those nasty spam trojan people.
Talk about "FUD." I haven't had a new Critical Update in months. But, I don't expect that fact to ever be acknowledged. The false meme that a new patch comes out every week will continue to spread, because this place is a haven for anti-Microsoft zealots, not the pro-Linux community.
It also blocks scripts, screensavers, and many other executable formats, by default. This is pure FUD.
The problem has absolutely jack-shit to do with Outlook. It's people not patching or just running random executables they specifically allow into their Inbox.
I know we all spurge on our screens at the chance to bash Microsoft in any way possible, but let's be rational here.
In order for Linux to have the same infection rate as Windows, Linux would have to have the same (or similar) flaws. For example, the same email client installed, by default, upon every Linux machine and that email client would have to run executable content.
No, Mr. Security Expert, it would not. The same e-mail client isn't necessary, all that's necessary is getting enough people to run executables or whatever that exploit something. I'm sorry, but Linux distros aren't without their weekly exploits and buffer overruns either. MPlayer has had executable overflows before. A freaking media player! But you never see that reported on Slashdot, because OSDN has an agenda, and this place is completely biased (and as a result pumps out closed-minded Linux zealots by the pound).
Here's an example. Grab the latest copy of WindowsXP, run it without anti-virus software. Why is WindowsXP still vulnerable to the same viruses that Windows95 was?
Because of backwards-compatible libraries? Think a little.
We're supposed to be bashing Microsoft in this discussion, not being rational and pointing out that ignorance spans all operating systems (i.e., religions).
Didn't you know these are "Windows PCs," "Microsoft Zombies," and this is "the cost of supporting Microsoft?" Ah, the smell of propaganda in the morning. I fully expect to be modded down for even expressing my opinion. But these kinds of article summaries are full of such spin, it's amazing a lot of the "M$" sheep buy into it.
"Just another cost of supporting Microsoft, I suppose."
Uh, no--how do trojan attachments and viruses that moron users open have anything at all to do with Microsoft?
I forgot, we needed an article that specifically made sure to say "Windows PCs" in the headline as though it being Windows has anything to do with it. If everyone used Macs today, it would be Macs, and if everyone used Linux, it would be Linux boxes. Uninformed users are uninformed users, and short of Microsoft showing up at your house and forcing you at gunpoint not to open attachments or enable viruses, what do you expect them to do?
In this day and age, calling someone "Hitler" or a "Nazi" is the single biggest intellectual copout. The other person automatically wins the debate by default simply due to your lameness.
The fact MoveOn.org thought it was their best commercial says a lot about that group's thinking. Today, being part of a political group is like being part of a religion, and it's not about being truthful but about being "right" and being able to say "I told you so, you liberals/warhawks." Equating Bush to Hitler is lowest-common-denominator thinking that only preaches to the choir.
Reminds me of in high school when our Windows 95 machines had Internet Explorer and Netscape removed. So I just used ftp.com and downloaded Netscape--until ftp.com was also removed. But Winamp was still on the machines, and since the IE libraries were still installed, I used the net through Winamp's browser.
The ability to log in to all our favorite Web sites with one password.
It's called Passport.
Spam blocking for our e-mail accounts.
Hotmail does this (and does it well). Outlook 2003 does this.
Calendar sharing with colleagues and friends to schedule meetings.
Uh, how many years has scheduling been a part of Outlook?
Automatic address book updates for all our contacts.
See previous.
A virtual hard drive on the Internet for sharing files, photos, and music with our friends and access to these files via the Internet while traveling anywhere in the world.
Isn't that what a website is? I'm certain MSN provides this.
Synchronization of our Internet bookmarks across all our computers.
The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard lets you transfer whatever you want.
Online profiles of personal information that we could choose to share with Web sites and social networks.
Again, Passport. When Longhorn is released, this will be an even more prominent feature.
Regular backup of files to a storage site on the Internet.
Just wait and see how everything will be net-enabled when Longhorn hits with its entirely.NET interface. Personally, I'm not to keen on regular backups to a storage site on the Internet. I'll backup to a spare hard drive sitting in front of me, thank you.
Regular application and system- security updates.
For a while there it was quite often, but it's been a couple of months now since Windows Update alerted me to anything critical. I consider that a good thing.
One-step migration of files and programs to a new computer.
Again, it's called Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. This guy is supposed to have worked at Microsoft? It was one of Windows XP's new major features, specifically intended to do just what he described.
Why do people prefer good-looking cars over jalopies?
Do you really need to ask this question? Apple is one of the few companies that actually treats computers like a home appliance. You want a home appliance that looks good in addition to running well.
It's okay for KDE/GNOME to shamelessly rip everything off, but not Microsoft?
The point still stands. Windows 95 popularized the taskbar, start menu, and more. Windows 98 popularized the integrated filesystem/net browser. All are used in KDE, and most in GNOME.
There must be a better way of stopping child porn than this.
What better way is there than outright blocking it?
Can you go down to the store and buy child porn mags beside the Playboys and Hustlers? Are you going to picket outside and cry censorship because you can't?
People misuse the word censorship.
If Thomas Paine wrote "Common Sense" today it would most likely be banned and he would be a guest at Hotel Gitmo.
Oh, give me a break. Shouldn't you be off praising Micheal Moore docufictions somewhere?
I don't see what the big deal is over blocking child porn. It seems only extreme leftist thinkers get into a tizzy every time someone actually attempts to block something bad. "But simply blocking this one bad thing magically means you're taking away our rights to everything!" Trendy counterthinkers who believe they're enlightened simply because they go against the grain are intellectually braindead.
That is a software issue not a hardware one. Caps lock have nothing to do with >>99.9% of computing, and 99.9% of the time it is invoked accidentally, and it has negative effects on the users computing experience.
Oh, well hackstraw said so. It's a "software issue." And now all the sudden caps lock has nothing to do with 99.9% of computing?
Lots of things have "negative effects on the users computing experience." Caps lock is a necessary key. GIVE ME A BREAK. Like I said, just one example is the contracts my company uses. When fields are filled in, they are done in all caps. Legal documents all use a lot of caps.
Just because you've arbitrarily decided that "99.9%" of your personal computing usage doesn't require caps lock doesn't mean the rest of the entire computing world adheres to your mold.
"Dude," when I first introduce a character, location, or even a sound effect, I capitalize it. There are lots of other reasons for capitalizing things in a screenplay. Obviously my software capitalizes dialogue headers and sluglines and other miscellaneous formatting marks, but most any random script has a lot of manual capitalization, and mine are no different.
If you tell them what you just posted to Slashdot, they'll basically tell you to go to hell because you should be oh-so-grateful for their volunteer effort. It's the bad attitudes permeating OSS that keep it from progressing. I don't even want to get into the hellhole GUIs that are GNOME and KDE, which will never ever trump Windows or OS X in their current mindsets.
There needs to be a fundamental paradigm shift if any of this OSS is going to actually go mainstream. Right now, it's not gonna happen, no matter how many bash-Windows articles Slashdot posts. Preaching to the choir doesn't convert anyone, and neither does making software by nerds for nerds. Software needs to be made for everyone, and the nerds can hack on their little special needs after.
Slashdot Mirror
XF86 isn't broken, it isn't slow when compiled right either(okay only gentoo does it right all the time).
It is quite broken. You know when they added multi-moniter support, it broke the extension for hardware video? To get around it, they hacked it so it only works on the primary screen.
How about how Xine has to simulate a keypress every so often to prevent the screensaver from coming on? That, my friends, is a hack.
It has several advanced features that no other GUI system uses. Transparent network support at the top of the list.
That doesn't make up for anything. Fans always bring this up. "B-but, it's network-transparent!" Y-Windows is network transparent too.
That's right you don't have to load a whole desktop to use one app you can just load the app.
Uh, hello? I have to install both entire desktop libraries and base packages. That's what I was talking about. Read, learn, comprehend. I have to install KDE's base system to be able to run some app that happened to be coded for KDE. Instead of implementing one sane development library, a bunch of idealists have decided the more choice, the better--having absolutist views and applying them to everything is why Linux is still only at 1% of usage on Google Zeitgeist. The nearest is OS X up about 4 points (so much for that article declaring that Linux desktop usage would surpass the Mac...).
Avoid all my points--don't cite a single example. Somehow, patches magically "eat my registry."
I don't give two shits about your cute little defensive "list."
I wish they had listened and taken security seriously years earlier. Those of use "in the know" have complained about poor coding in MS products for decades.
Linuxsecurity Advisories
That's what I want them to do. It's going to take years before it make a significant difference.
Not really. Once Longhorn is released and everything under the sun is running under managed code (even Linux apps via Mono), you'll see a difference. Not that it will change the minds of biased Slashdot zealots who treat operating systems like penis size contests, but the rest of us who are rational will appreciate the new technology.
Or, you could just enable Automatic Updates.
Zing! Hooray for anti-"M$" FUD. Wait, didn't Gentoo, GNOME, Debian, GNU, Savannah, and more all get hacked within the last six months? Linux isn't some golden child of security.
Sometimes your security problem is located in front of the keyboard. I know years of conditioning has taught people that everything Microsoft does is evil and flawed, but the late 90s era of frothing Microsoft-bashing is over. It's time to start being more rational about things.
Clearly, you're venting your frustrations over the fact that Microsoft Windows is currently used way, way more than your religion, er operating system known as Linux. Zealots like you turn everything into a penis size debate.
Yes! Because I love it when a patch screws up my system and forces a reinstall!
Cite a single example.
Having automatic update/apply turned on lets me blame MS instead of myself for installing their craptacular patches that eat my registry!
Cite a single example of a patch that will "eat my registry." Oh, I forgot, you're just spewing FUD! That's a term we like around here.
Woohoo!! Go automatic patching!!
First you were bitching because you didn't have time to scan Windows Update, then when your ass was called on your ignorance due to Automatic Updates (which prompts you when you first run XP), now all the sudden patches are magical entities that "eat your registry" and do other vague claims that are never specified.
I've had plenty of Linux "updates" fuck things up. Hell, I've had GNOME crash enough times for me to have to reformat twice. Grow the hell up and spend some time away from Slashdot--it's turned you into a raving, frothing fanboy zealot who lashes out in any way possible to defend the penis size of his religion/operating system.
Microsoft have spouted a lot of FUD over their anti-piracy initiatives.
Only on Slashdot is it "FUD" for a company to discourage pirates from continuing to use illegal copies of software. Does anyone else find this a little bit of an odd statement?
Anyway, to get vaguely back on topic, it's the second Tuesday of the month, so let's see what the MS patch fairy brings us today. Probably another exploit for those nasty spam trojan people.
Talk about "FUD." I haven't had a new Critical Update in months. But, I don't expect that fact to ever be acknowledged. The false meme that a new patch comes out every week will continue to spread, because this place is a haven for anti-Microsoft zealots, not the pro-Linux community.
In Outlook, executable files, scripts, and screensavers are blocked by default.
If you tried deleting everything on your hard drive, you'd get errors from system files that are in use. Windows won't delete them.
In windows, click-to-infect is the norm.
I have a feeling you haven't used a copy of Windows since 1998. Pure FUD.
It also blocks scripts, screensavers, and many other executable formats, by default. This is pure FUD.
The problem has absolutely jack-shit to do with Outlook. It's people not patching or just running random executables they specifically allow into their Inbox.
I know we all spurge on our screens at the chance to bash Microsoft in any way possible, but let's be rational here.
In order for Linux to have the same infection rate as Windows, Linux would have to have the same (or similar) flaws. For example, the same email client installed, by default, upon every Linux machine and that email client would have to run executable content.
No, Mr. Security Expert, it would not. The same e-mail client isn't necessary, all that's necessary is getting enough people to run executables or whatever that exploit something. I'm sorry, but Linux distros aren't without their weekly exploits and buffer overruns either. MPlayer has had executable overflows before. A freaking media player! But you never see that reported on Slashdot, because OSDN has an agenda, and this place is completely biased (and as a result pumps out closed-minded Linux zealots by the pound).
Here's an example. Grab the latest copy of WindowsXP, run it without anti-virus software. Why is WindowsXP still vulnerable to the same viruses that Windows95 was?
Because of backwards-compatible libraries? Think a little.
We're supposed to be bashing Microsoft in this discussion, not being rational and pointing out that ignorance spans all operating systems (i.e., religions).
Didn't you know these are "Windows PCs," "Microsoft Zombies," and this is "the cost of supporting Microsoft?" Ah, the smell of propaganda in the morning. I fully expect to be modded down for even expressing my opinion. But these kinds of article summaries are full of such spin, it's amazing a lot of the "M$" sheep buy into it.
Everything in XF86 is broken. But Linux users are afraid of change and won't get off this 20+ outdated architecture.
Mod this as troll all you want, it's the honest truth.
"Just another cost of supporting Microsoft, I suppose."
Uh, no--how do trojan attachments and viruses that moron users open have anything at all to do with Microsoft?
I forgot, we needed an article that specifically made sure to say "Windows PCs" in the headline as though it being Windows has anything to do with it. If everyone used Macs today, it would be Macs, and if everyone used Linux, it would be Linux boxes. Uninformed users are uninformed users, and short of Microsoft showing up at your house and forcing you at gunpoint not to open attachments or enable viruses, what do you expect them to do?
In this day and age, calling someone "Hitler" or a "Nazi" is the single biggest intellectual copout. The other person automatically wins the debate by default simply due to your lameness.
The fact MoveOn.org thought it was their best commercial says a lot about that group's thinking. Today, being part of a political group is like being part of a religion, and it's not about being truthful but about being "right" and being able to say "I told you so, you liberals/warhawks." Equating Bush to Hitler is lowest-common-denominator thinking that only preaches to the choir.
We installed Winamp. We installed lots of things. We were high school kids.
We had net access to telnet to a Linux server we used for our web pages.
Reminds me of in high school when our Windows 95 machines had Internet Explorer and Netscape removed. So I just used ftp.com and downloaded Netscape--until ftp.com was also removed. But Winamp was still on the machines, and since the IE libraries were still installed, I used the net through Winamp's browser.
She gave up at that point.
The ability to log in to all our favorite Web sites with one password.
.NET interface. Personally, I'm not to keen on regular backups to a storage site on the Internet. I'll backup to a spare hard drive sitting in front of me, thank you.
It's called Passport.
Spam blocking for our e-mail accounts.
Hotmail does this (and does it well). Outlook 2003 does this.
Calendar sharing with colleagues and friends to schedule meetings.
Uh, how many years has scheduling been a part of Outlook?
Automatic address book updates for all our contacts.
See previous.
A virtual hard drive on the Internet for sharing files, photos, and music with our friends and access to these files via the Internet while traveling anywhere in the world.
Isn't that what a website is? I'm certain MSN provides this.
Synchronization of our Internet bookmarks across all our computers.
The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard lets you transfer whatever you want.
Online profiles of personal information that we could choose to share with Web sites and social networks.
Again, Passport. When Longhorn is released, this will be an even more prominent feature.
Regular backup of files to a storage site on the Internet.
Just wait and see how everything will be net-enabled when Longhorn hits with its entirely
Regular application and system- security updates.
For a while there it was quite often, but it's been a couple of months now since Windows Update alerted me to anything critical. I consider that a good thing.
One-step migration of files and programs to a new computer.
Again, it's called Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. This guy is supposed to have worked at Microsoft? It was one of Windows XP's new major features, specifically intended to do just what he described.
That was fucking stupid. Thank god Taco changed it so Funny upmods don't count for karma.
Why do people prefer good-looking cars over jalopies?
Do you really need to ask this question? Apple is one of the few companies that actually treats computers like a home appliance. You want a home appliance that looks good in addition to running well.
those are not MS innovations
They're not Linux innovations either.
It's okay for KDE/GNOME to shamelessly rip everything off, but not Microsoft?
The point still stands. Windows 95 popularized the taskbar, start menu, and more. Windows 98 popularized the integrated filesystem/net browser. All are used in KDE, and most in GNOME.
There must be a better way of stopping child porn than this.
What better way is there than outright blocking it?
Can you go down to the store and buy child porn mags beside the Playboys and Hustlers? Are you going to picket outside and cry censorship because you can't?
People misuse the word censorship.
If Thomas Paine wrote "Common Sense" today it would most likely be banned and he would be a guest at Hotel Gitmo.
Oh, give me a break. Shouldn't you be off praising Micheal Moore docufictions somewhere?
I don't see what the big deal is over blocking child porn. It seems only extreme leftist thinkers get into a tizzy every time someone actually attempts to block something bad. "But simply blocking this one bad thing magically means you're taking away our rights to everything!" Trendy counterthinkers who believe they're enlightened simply because they go against the grain are intellectually braindead.
Yet automatically by default.
Maybe we need to lure some Opera developers away and have them hack on Firefox for a while.
Serious question. I could have sworn Taco said subscribers would be aiding in the editorial process...
We get dupes just as before, at an alarmingly increasing rate.
Microsoft never innovates or popularizes a single idea!
Hang on while I go install KDE with a taskbar, start menu, integrated filesystem/net browser, Mono, etc....
That is a software issue not a hardware one. Caps lock have nothing to do with >>99.9% of computing, and 99.9% of the time it is invoked accidentally, and it has negative effects on the users computing experience.
Oh, well hackstraw said so. It's a "software issue." And now all the sudden caps lock has nothing to do with 99.9% of computing?
Lots of things have "negative effects on the users computing experience." Caps lock is a necessary key. GIVE ME A BREAK. Like I said, just one example is the contracts my company uses. When fields are filled in, they are done in all caps. Legal documents all use a lot of caps.
Just because you've arbitrarily decided that "99.9%" of your personal computing usage doesn't require caps lock doesn't mean the rest of the entire computing world adheres to your mold.
"Dude," when I first introduce a character, location, or even a sound effect, I capitalize it. There are lots of other reasons for capitalizing things in a screenplay. Obviously my software capitalizes dialogue headers and sluglines and other miscellaneous formatting marks, but most any random script has a lot of manual capitalization, and mine are no different.
Welcome to the reason 99% of OSS interfaces suck.
If you tell them what you just posted to Slashdot, they'll basically tell you to go to hell because you should be oh-so-grateful for their volunteer effort. It's the bad attitudes permeating OSS that keep it from progressing. I don't even want to get into the hellhole GUIs that are GNOME and KDE, which will never ever trump Windows or OS X in their current mindsets.
There needs to be a fundamental paradigm shift if any of this OSS is going to actually go mainstream. Right now, it's not gonna happen, no matter how many bash-Windows articles Slashdot posts. Preaching to the choir doesn't convert anyone, and neither does making software by nerds for nerds. Software needs to be made for everyone, and the nerds can hack on their little special needs after.