Think of it more as there's simply no way to reliably target Linux/Unix/Etc on a major scale with the same way you see on Windows, regardless of how many users there are. It's simply because of how much easier it is on Windows because it's one platform, one hardware architecture, etc. There's too much variation otherwise. If Mac were to become really popular, I would expect it'd see more problems than any OS based in *nix attitudes.
It's a beta, sure, but you have to remember that so far all it seems that Microsoft has done is re-branded it and, apparently, released updated definitions. I had it installed a while back and was surprised that in the process of the public beta stuff they're updating the definitions, although it makes sense, either way. One of the parts of it that I found really nice was all the false positives that it generated, most notably the one that a lot of users experience, registry entries for the ed2k protocol are thought to be something that should be warned about on the first run, even though it's not only edonkey2k that uses the network.
As far as how viable this tool is compared to the others -- Those are free, this one will NOT be, and there's even discussion of it being a subscription based service. I don't see many people jumping on the bandwagon to pay for an anti-spyware program that's more style than substance as far as I've experienced. It looks great, it functions great, it's a good program, but it's not worth the money IMHO.
P.S. -- If it is decided by Microsoft to release this as freeware, then hats off to them for finally deciding -not- to screw their userbase once more. It's really, really easy for spyware/adware to get on your computer unless you're savvy about computer usage in general, which, unfortunately, the majority of computer users are not. I would love them to make me take back my statement that it will not be free.
I regularly limit my upload speed in Bittorrent to 10KB/sec to maybe 13KB/sec. That goes for all my other P2P as well, but with Bittorrent I'm able to get anywhere from 100-300KB/sec usually with the upload limit I use. I also prefer Bittornado. Steer clear of the unlimited upload speed in -any- program, by the way, because they almost always strangle your connection to death.
Eh, by the way, you can use 'about:config' in the address bar to access this instead of messing around manually editing config files. You can even add new config options directly from about:config.
And the reason they're not enabled by default is because 1.) it doesn't always help esp. on slower machines (with regards to the nglayout.initialpaint.delay option) and 2.) some webservers and proxies don't support pipelining well or at all. Why not try reading the links, they explain it right there. Enabling these are at your own risk and they may or may not pay off, like most other tweaking people do with computers.
Besides, Firefox is not some beast of a download or anything. The setup file from mozilla.org for Windows is 6.8MB IIRC, and you can get 7zip compressed nightly builds that are optimized for specific architectures (or just have neat additions/changes) which usually weigh in at 4.8 or so MB. At least that's how my MOOX M2 builds work. And when it comes down to it, I myself use Firefox because I know that it has some of if not the best standards compliance around for anything that I myself deal with, esp. on my own webpage. Everything just looks right and it's extremely rare that I have to fire up anything else to browse a page.
Eh, I've used Gentoo on and off for a long time now (Well over a year and a half, mebbe two years) and I've never had a problem with using portage to keep my system running spiffer. Even if a problem did pop up I know that the forums would have much debate about it by the time I found out about it first-hand, so fixing the problem was usually a case of reading a thread or two.
Thanks for the links, good reads and informative, but I still don't think that SoundStorm is such a big deal that the NForce platform was floating on it (Obviously it wasn't, because as has been stated, mobo manufacturers found it too expensive with not enough return). You still had to get the proper equipment to go with the sound system, and then set it up the right way, or it was just your standard nothing special on-board audio.:)
Uhh, if you want a crappy Creative card, you can spend like $29 dollars getting a SB Live! 5.1 card. If you want a good Creative card, you can get an Audigy 2 ZS PCI retail for $91 (Which is what I upgraded to from a SB Live! Value). What exactly is the turn-on about having a dolby decoder/encoder/whatever, esp. when you're stuck with the the ALC650 codec?
Does it have something to do with movies, DVDs specifically? I wouldn't know about that not having a DVD-ROM drive, I watch all my movies away from the computer on the home theatre system. Seems like integrated audio is a real weird way to go about choosing your chipsets and especially CPU choice, and it's not like VIA is scrapping their on-board audio projects.
What in the world were you expecting from a beta test, a flawless distro that you are going to have the time of your life with? You seem to have missed that part of the story. This is purely for those interested in assisting with making Xandros a better distro, and there's nothing wrong with that.
And everyone that says it's a bundle of otherwise-free apps keep forgetting that you get Crossover Office as well, which is most certainly not free. The cost for just Crossover Standard as a download is $39.95. The Deluxe Edition of Xandros can be had for $89 online at the store, and that's not too bad, really, it's cheaper than Windows XP Home edition, even, which is $94 at Newegg.
Why on earth would I switch from a Proprietary Windows world to a Proprietary Linux world? It makes no sense. Perhaps you get a brief respite from viruses, etc. But without the benefit of a free (as in speech) distribution, what is the point?
They're not marketing to you, pure and simple. They're marketing for people who want an easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain desktop that is a pretty seamless (From the looks of things, I signed up for the beta but I've kept tabs on Xandros ever since it was announced) transition from Windows. That's great that you don't want to buy it, they don't want you to buy it because it's not for you, obviously. Xandros releases the sources that they need to, and they keep the sources that keep their desktop unique and more useful. That is not a crime, and it is not something to frown upon. I'm sorry, but seriously, program your own stuff if you don't like it and make your own distro. Besides, just because it's not free doesn't mean it's not worth the money for someone other than yourself.
Why do distro-haters always have to make it out that everybody's trying to get them to switch? Stay in whatever distro you're using, by all means, I'm a regular Gentoo/Slackware user myself. Like most everything else in this world, a distro's value depends on the end-user's needs.
I don't think you realize the amount of effort in making a program run great on multiple platforms. GAIM's largest userbase in *nix users, Windows users, unfortunately, are simply going to have to deal with the quirks that come out to play every great occasion from porting stuff over. I mean sheesh, there are tons of Windows programs that send the OS down in flames.
It's easy to sit there and criticize a project for bugs in the software, and say stuff like "Most apps are just as stable on windows as on any other platform, why should gaim be any different?". The reason it's different is not only because it's running on a platform it wasn't originally designed for (And GTK+ for Windows is only avail pre-compiled from Dropline, IIRC, so I think it's a special build), but the development team most likely consists of *nix users. We can sit here and speculate all day long but it really all boils down to this -- squashing bugs takes time, and there are priorities, obviously your annoyances (Which I have never noticed) have not caught anyone's eye yet. Or if it did, well, damn, why not just ask for them to take a look at it? Developers don't bite, often.
You know I didn't really think about it before but you make a really good point mentioning Windows XP's (Maybe 98 as well) default behaviour of hiding file extensions, it really helps those people who are trying to disguise stuff. All these years I've been wondering "Why in the HELL would you open a file with like 10 freggin extensions that was obtained off a file-sharing network?!" and then, bam, that's why. Microsoft should release a "patch" for Windows OSes that turns off that behaviour by default, not only because it's dangerous in modern-day computing, but also because it's just, blah, am I the only one who can't stand not having the file details avail to me right in the same window the files are being displayed in?
I mean really, it's a security hazard for a large amount of PC owners and/or users, and if they think that their Security Center is a step in the right direction, I think this would be at least a small leap.:)
I know that I prefer Trillian in Windows simply because I don't feel like loading the GTK+ toolkit and everything in Windows. Memory usage isn't a huge concern anymore though since I'm off 256MB and up to 1GB, but GAIM used to be horrid compared to Trillian in WinXP on 256MB. I dunno, Miranda IM is one of my fav light-weight multi-protocol clients, and it's on Windows if it hasn't been ported already.
My recommendation is try them out and find out which one is right for you. They're not big downloads and they're not long installs, everything in any modern IM system is stored server-side so there's no pain switching between clients in the first place ICQ is the only protocol I've ever had problems w/getting contacts off the server, and that seems to have gone away completely sometime in the past, can't quite put my finger on when.
You expect people to do your homework for you just to prove a point on a website? Sheesh, you've got Google just like us, and it's not like it's easy to find a whole list of currently elected officials. They're there, just because you don't know any doesn't mean they're not.
Am I the only one who's ashamed to have Poland backing our so-called liberation when they obviously care much more about the oil than anything else, especially when they send such a measley amount of soldiers? Can't say that they're with bad company though, considering how much Bush and Cheney love their buddies at Halliburton. I'm sure the Iraqis are positively thrilled that Poland is so concerned for their oil's well-being.
Get Quicktime Alternative then? Works great for me. There isn't anything wrong with.mov AFAIK, and the download/installation of that package I linked to is quite quick and painless (Cable modem user speaking here, 7.5MB for latest ver), I really recommend Media Player Classic even if you don't want to get the Quicktime Alternative (It's bundled with the Alternative).
And I have to agree that the Quicktime player is one I avoid almost as much as the Real player. Eww to both of them. I do agree though that Xvid would be nice, just because choice == good.:)
You're complaining about low-end cards that cost beans? Sheesh, shop at online bargain bin sites that have tons of old hardware, don't expect Dell and other outfits to have antiquated hardware hardly anyone wants anymore.
A problem somewhere? Yeah, a problem with you understanding how technology cycles work, how do you expect games and such to get better/more realistic (graphics wise) while still using PoS 8MB AGP cards from who the hell knows when, that stuff is OLD and you wouldn't be able to give it away anymore. 128MB is nice, 64MB is min, and anything about 128MB is awesome. We're talking gaming here, not general desktop usage.
Let's all ignore the auto-update feature in the latest Firefox peoples, yay! It's always fun to point out vulnerabilities in old versions while completely omitting the fact that the problems were fixed. Troll I say, troll.
I must be the only one who never had this issue with any version of Firefox rendering Slashdot to any extreme degree, and I've been a regular/. reader for at least 4 years, and have been using Firefox since, like, the second or third release. I have minor problems every now and then where the tables overlap by maybe like 3-5 pixels, but that's it, and it's hardly a huge issue, in Firefox or any other Gecko-based browser. Hell, I used to follow the trunk and branch builds a lot, too.
BTW, when I say it's a minor issue I mean I don't even bother reloading the page when it happens, it doesn't affect my reading.
Sure. Maybe maybe maybe. But after 10 years of dickering around, we got Sept. 11, and we just weren't in the mood to dicker around anymore.
And you have heard by now that Iraq had nothing to do with September 11'th, right? The administration whipped up our nation into a furor, linked Al Quaeda and Saddam, and then turned the anger towards Iraq, and all their blustering and "intelligence" turned out to be a load of crap. And even before we're done with Iraq we're talking about invading Syria if they don't comply with our demands, where's the evidence that Syria is so damned guilty?
Again, sure. But we're talking about the situation *before* the U.S. invaded. We only know about the nuclear situation in hindsight, and here's the kicker: WE WOULDN'T KNOW THAT NOW IF WE HADN'T INVADED TO BEGIN WITH.
It's sad when you can justify the invasion of another country against all advice from most of the international community like that. Oh, we know now that we invaded that they don't have nukes, 'sall good!
As for the rest of your post, you make a perfect example of the type of American who thinks that what's good for America is good for the world, and if they can't realize it, well then sucks to be you. We have no right to take out Saddam halfway accross the world when he is in no way a direct and immediate threat to our country, if Saddam does something, there's nothing stopping us from going in there and taking the bastard out, but as long as he minds his own business, we have no business there. We're not the world police man. Maybe we should start gathering reliable intelligence rather than relying on what Bush and Cheney decide to say today. Then we could actually get the rest of the world backing us because we can prove it.
I'm not saying Saddam was a nice guy, or that taking him out of power was not ultimately a bad thing, I'm only saying the methods that we utilized were EXTREMELY unnecessary. The war was a devastation of Iraq's already considerably weakened forces (Remember the first war? I'm sure Iraq had already amassed at least as much power as they had previously), and now it's just squabbling with a bunch of terrorists, putting our troops into a quandary. Operation Shock and Awe was a huge joke as well, hey let's fling tons and tons of missles into a populated urban area, they're guided and things never malfunction! Like half those missles were necessary?
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Lol nice link in your sig. :)
Think of it more as there's simply no way to reliably target Linux/Unix/Etc on a major scale with the same way you see on Windows, regardless of how many users there are. It's simply because of how much easier it is on Windows because it's one platform, one hardware architecture, etc. There's too much variation otherwise. If Mac were to become really popular, I would expect it'd see more problems than any OS based in *nix attitudes.
It's a beta, sure, but you have to remember that so far all it seems that Microsoft has done is re-branded it and, apparently, released updated definitions. I had it installed a while back and was surprised that in the process of the public beta stuff they're updating the definitions, although it makes sense, either way. One of the parts of it that I found really nice was all the false positives that it generated, most notably the one that a lot of users experience, registry entries for the ed2k protocol are thought to be something that should be warned about on the first run, even though it's not only edonkey2k that uses the network.
As far as how viable this tool is compared to the others -- Those are free, this one will NOT be, and there's even discussion of it being a subscription based service. I don't see many people jumping on the bandwagon to pay for an anti-spyware program that's more style than substance as far as I've experienced. It looks great, it functions great, it's a good program, but it's not worth the money IMHO.
P.S. -- If it is decided by Microsoft to release this as freeware, then hats off to them for finally deciding -not- to screw their userbase once more. It's really, really easy for spyware/adware to get on your computer unless you're savvy about computer usage in general, which, unfortunately, the majority of computer users are not. I would love them to make me take back my statement that it will not be free.
I regularly limit my upload speed in Bittorrent to 10KB/sec to maybe 13KB/sec. That goes for all my other P2P as well, but with Bittorrent I'm able to get anywhere from 100-300KB/sec usually with the upload limit I use. I also prefer Bittornado. Steer clear of the unlimited upload speed in -any- program, by the way, because they almost always strangle your connection to death.
Those problems were even present in the stable branch? I'm always in ~x86 myself, and I didn't have to deal with that particular GCC upgrade.
Eh, by the way, you can use 'about:config' in the address bar to access this instead of messing around manually editing config files. You can even add new config options directly from about:config.
And the reason they're not enabled by default is because 1.) it doesn't always help esp. on slower machines (with regards to the nglayout.initialpaint.delay option) and 2.) some webservers and proxies don't support pipelining well or at all. Why not try reading the links, they explain it right there. Enabling these are at your own risk and they may or may not pay off, like most other tweaking people do with computers.
Besides, Firefox is not some beast of a download or anything. The setup file from mozilla.org for Windows is 6.8MB IIRC, and you can get 7zip compressed nightly builds that are optimized for specific architectures (or just have neat additions/changes) which usually weigh in at 4.8 or so MB. At least that's how my MOOX M2 builds work. And when it comes down to it, I myself use Firefox because I know that it has some of if not the best standards compliance around for anything that I myself deal with, esp. on my own webpage. Everything just looks right and it's extremely rare that I have to fire up anything else to browse a page.
Eh, I've used Gentoo on and off for a long time now (Well over a year and a half, mebbe two years) and I've never had a problem with using portage to keep my system running spiffer. Even if a problem did pop up I know that the forums would have much debate about it by the time I found out about it first-hand, so fixing the problem was usually a case of reading a thread or two.
Thanks for the links, good reads and informative, but I still don't think that SoundStorm is such a big deal that the NForce platform was floating on it (Obviously it wasn't, because as has been stated, mobo manufacturers found it too expensive with not enough return). You still had to get the proper equipment to go with the sound system, and then set it up the right way, or it was just your standard nothing special on-board audio. :)
Uhh, if you want a crappy Creative card, you can spend like $29 dollars getting a SB Live! 5.1 card. If you want a good Creative card, you can get an Audigy 2 ZS PCI retail for $91 (Which is what I upgraded to from a SB Live! Value). What exactly is the turn-on about having a dolby decoder/encoder/whatever, esp. when you're stuck with the the ALC650 codec?
Does it have something to do with movies, DVDs specifically? I wouldn't know about that not having a DVD-ROM drive, I watch all my movies away from the computer on the home theatre system. Seems like integrated audio is a real weird way to go about choosing your chipsets and especially CPU choice, and it's not like VIA is scrapping their on-board audio projects.
What in the world were you expecting from a beta test, a flawless distro that you are going to have the time of your life with? You seem to have missed that part of the story. This is purely for those interested in assisting with making Xandros a better distro, and there's nothing wrong with that.
And everyone that says it's a bundle of otherwise-free apps keep forgetting that you get Crossover Office as well, which is most certainly not free. The cost for just Crossover Standard as a download is $39.95. The Deluxe Edition of Xandros can be had for $89 online at the store, and that's not too bad, really, it's cheaper than Windows XP Home edition, even, which is $94 at Newegg.
They're not marketing to you, pure and simple. They're marketing for people who want an easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain desktop that is a pretty seamless (From the looks of things, I signed up for the beta but I've kept tabs on Xandros ever since it was announced) transition from Windows. That's great that you don't want to buy it, they don't want you to buy it because it's not for you, obviously. Xandros releases the sources that they need to, and they keep the sources that keep their desktop unique and more useful. That is not a crime, and it is not something to frown upon. I'm sorry, but seriously, program your own stuff if you don't like it and make your own distro. Besides, just because it's not free doesn't mean it's not worth the money for someone other than yourself.
Why do distro-haters always have to make it out that everybody's trying to get them to switch? Stay in whatever distro you're using, by all means, I'm a regular Gentoo/Slackware user myself. Like most everything else in this world, a distro's value depends on the end-user's needs.
I don't think you realize the amount of effort in making a program run great on multiple platforms. GAIM's largest userbase in *nix users, Windows users, unfortunately, are simply going to have to deal with the quirks that come out to play every great occasion from porting stuff over. I mean sheesh, there are tons of Windows programs that send the OS down in flames.
It's easy to sit there and criticize a project for bugs in the software, and say stuff like "Most apps are just as stable on windows as on any other platform, why should gaim be any different?". The reason it's different is not only because it's running on a platform it wasn't originally designed for (And GTK+ for Windows is only avail pre-compiled from Dropline, IIRC, so I think it's a special build), but the development team most likely consists of *nix users. We can sit here and speculate all day long but it really all boils down to this -- squashing bugs takes time, and there are priorities, obviously your annoyances (Which I have never noticed) have not caught anyone's eye yet. Or if it did, well, damn, why not just ask for them to take a look at it? Developers don't bite, often.
You know I didn't really think about it before but you make a really good point mentioning Windows XP's (Maybe 98 as well) default behaviour of hiding file extensions, it really helps those people who are trying to disguise stuff. All these years I've been wondering "Why in the HELL would you open a file with like 10 freggin extensions that was obtained off a file-sharing network?!" and then, bam, that's why. Microsoft should release a "patch" for Windows OSes that turns off that behaviour by default, not only because it's dangerous in modern-day computing, but also because it's just, blah, am I the only one who can't stand not having the file details avail to me right in the same window the files are being displayed in?
I mean really, it's a security hazard for a large amount of PC owners and/or users, and if they think that their Security Center is a step in the right direction, I think this would be at least a small leap. :)
I know that I prefer Trillian in Windows simply because I don't feel like loading the GTK+ toolkit and everything in Windows. Memory usage isn't a huge concern anymore though since I'm off 256MB and up to 1GB, but GAIM used to be horrid compared to Trillian in WinXP on 256MB. I dunno, Miranda IM is one of my fav light-weight multi-protocol clients, and it's on Windows if it hasn't been ported already.
My recommendation is try them out and find out which one is right for you. They're not big downloads and they're not long installs, everything in any modern IM system is stored server-side so there's no pain switching between clients in the first place ICQ is the only protocol I've ever had problems w/getting contacts off the server, and that seems to have gone away completely sometime in the past, can't quite put my finger on when.
You expect people to do your homework for you just to prove a point on a website? Sheesh, you've got Google just like us, and it's not like it's easy to find a whole list of currently elected officials. They're there, just because you don't know any doesn't mean they're not.
If you use an NVidia card you don't have these sorts of issues, just FYI. I kinda wish I had one but my 9800 Pro/XT was a big investment lol.
Am I the only one who's ashamed to have Poland backing our so-called liberation when they obviously care much more about the oil than anything else, especially when they send such a measley amount of soldiers? Can't say that they're with bad company though, considering how much Bush and Cheney love their buddies at Halliburton. I'm sure the Iraqis are positively thrilled that Poland is so concerned for their oil's well-being.
Get Quicktime Alternative then? Works great for me. There isn't anything wrong with .mov AFAIK, and the download/installation of that package I linked to is quite quick and painless (Cable modem user speaking here, 7.5MB for latest ver), I really recommend Media Player Classic even if you don't want to get the Quicktime Alternative (It's bundled with the Alternative).
And I have to agree that the Quicktime player is one I avoid almost as much as the Real player. Eww to both of them. I do agree though that Xvid would be nice, just because choice == good. :)
Come now, it's not so hard to use cut-and-paste though. :)
You're complaining about low-end cards that cost beans? Sheesh, shop at online bargain bin sites that have tons of old hardware, don't expect Dell and other outfits to have antiquated hardware hardly anyone wants anymore.
A problem somewhere? Yeah, a problem with you understanding how technology cycles work, how do you expect games and such to get better/more realistic (graphics wise) while still using PoS 8MB AGP cards from who the hell knows when, that stuff is OLD and you wouldn't be able to give it away anymore. 128MB is nice, 64MB is min, and anything about 128MB is awesome. We're talking gaming here, not general desktop usage.
Let's all ignore the auto-update feature in the latest Firefox peoples, yay! It's always fun to point out vulnerabilities in old versions while completely omitting the fact that the problems were fixed. Troll I say, troll.
I must be the only one who never had this issue with any version of Firefox rendering Slashdot to any extreme degree, and I've been a regular /. reader for at least 4 years, and have been using Firefox since, like, the second or third release. I have minor problems every now and then where the tables overlap by maybe like 3-5 pixels, but that's it, and it's hardly a huge issue, in Firefox or any other Gecko-based browser. Hell, I used to follow the trunk and branch builds a lot, too.
BTW, when I say it's a minor issue I mean I don't even bother reloading the page when it happens, it doesn't affect my reading.
"It's sad to see everyone jump on the bandwagon and dunp on the French, it just shows up the moronity of the typical ugly American."
Kettle, meet pot. Pot, meet kettle.
Sure. Maybe maybe maybe. But after 10 years of dickering around, we got Sept. 11, and we just weren't in the mood to dicker around anymore.
And you have heard by now that Iraq had nothing to do with September 11'th, right? The administration whipped up our nation into a furor, linked Al Quaeda and Saddam, and then turned the anger towards Iraq, and all their blustering and "intelligence" turned out to be a load of crap. And even before we're done with Iraq we're talking about invading Syria if they don't comply with our demands, where's the evidence that Syria is so damned guilty?
Again, sure. But we're talking about the situation *before* the U.S. invaded. We only know about the nuclear situation in hindsight, and here's the kicker: WE WOULDN'T KNOW THAT NOW IF WE HADN'T INVADED TO BEGIN WITH.
It's sad when you can justify the invasion of another country against all advice from most of the international community like that. Oh, we know now that we invaded that they don't have nukes, 'sall good!
As for the rest of your post, you make a perfect example of the type of American who thinks that what's good for America is good for the world, and if they can't realize it, well then sucks to be you. We have no right to take out Saddam halfway accross the world when he is in no way a direct and immediate threat to our country, if Saddam does something, there's nothing stopping us from going in there and taking the bastard out, but as long as he minds his own business, we have no business there. We're not the world police man. Maybe we should start gathering reliable intelligence rather than relying on what Bush and Cheney decide to say today. Then we could actually get the rest of the world backing us because we can prove it.
I'm not saying Saddam was a nice guy, or that taking him out of power was not ultimately a bad thing, I'm only saying the methods that we utilized were EXTREMELY unnecessary. The war was a devastation of Iraq's already considerably weakened forces (Remember the first war? I'm sure Iraq had already amassed at least as much power as they had previously), and now it's just squabbling with a bunch of terrorists, putting our troops into a quandary. Operation Shock and Awe was a huge joke as well, hey let's fling tons and tons of missles into a populated urban area, they're guided and things never malfunction! Like half those missles were necessary?