From TFA, MS is sending their sales people after customers claiming the customer is not in license compliance and they need to send an inspection team in. They are very threatening, implying if the company doesn't comply, they'll face legal prosecution. Once the inspection team gets in, they try to get the customer to buy more products.
And they've been doing this for YEARS. It's nothing new. When we went to Notes from Exchange, it happened. It also hapened when we pased over SQL Server in favor of Oracle on a Windows platform.
Anybody who's been involved in purchasing licenses from Microsoft (or anyone else, for that matter) knows this,
In windows, she can just "click here" and the installer does the rest. All she has to do is click "Next, I agree, Next^N, Finish" and she's done.
The reason it's so easy to install on Windows is not because of any package manager. It's the use of any one of the myriad "Installation Wizards" out there.
And they also exist for Linux. The fact that developers choose not to use them is another matter altogether.
Actually, less hardware is kind of subjective. The Pepper Pad comes in at 12.1 inches. To me , that's not any more portable than a laptop. I guess I place a premium on the small size of the Zaurus. Plus, there's an incredibly active developer community that pretty much provides any type of application I could ever want or use on it.
If what you're looking for is a nice alternative to Windows Mobile, why not consider an import from either Dynamism or Trisoft? They both offer a smaller form factor Linux-based clamshell with better keyboards for half the price. Not only that, they have both SD and CF slots to expand storage.
I don't get the "gotta have" with this.
Tablet PCs that are able to run Linux are cheaper, if you're looking for a hard-disk based solution.
... are self-selected because they tend to know more about technology than your average PC buyer
My experience with Mac users is that they do indeed know more about Macs and OS X, but not much else. Ask them about Windows or Linux (or BSD, for that matter) and they won't get very far.
I'd be passing the plugin along to everyone I knew.
Seriously. I don't use MSOffice all that much, but have to constantly exchange.doc,.xls, etc. formats all the time with other people. For the most part, OO.o saves in these formats and opens in Office fine, as intended. Sometimes it doesn't though. If I could save in ODF format and include a plugin with the document itself, I would think that would be far more helpful in getting people to at least look at open source, rather than just pointing them to OO.o and saying "Install this".
It may not be the best system for brute force processing, but it's very stable and will handle a high load easily.
But really, how much high load do you really need at home, anyway?
Even if you're in the hosting business (and who in their right mind would do that from home?), throughput would be much more important than load.
I suppose you could be a computational chemist or doing bioinformatics stuff from home, but even then, I would think it would be cheaper to get a few x86 boxes and cluster them for compute power and it would still be less energy.
What I'm driving at is that I think live TV commercials *would* be interesting, at least at first.
It wouldn't ever really be interesting ot me. I literally record every show that I'm interested in and watch it later. Live commercials would do absolutely no good in my case.
Let me reiterate - I don't watch live TV. Until they build a device that prevents me from viewing commercials, I'll skip them. Always.
Seriously, the best hope anyone has of advertising to me is product placement within the show itself.
They just do. Hell, I dont even see how Joe Computer User is going to make heads or tails of ipchains. He can barely grok the big fat GUIs of the Windows Firewall.
I know of a couple of distros that have GUI front ends for firewall setup/maint. They're commercial distros, but the GUI does what it's supposed to. No need to drop down to command line if you don't want to.
Honestly, with titles like "Debian Woody", "Breezy Badger", "Dapper Drake" etc. is it any wonder the rest of the world thinks the Linux crowd are a bunch of Nerdy Nutcases?
I think the only people who really pay any attention to these names are the ones who are already running some form of Linux.
Most other people who don't run Linux probably only are aware of RedHat and Suse, because those are usually the only two names you see supported by apps such as Oracle.
yeah there's some non-windows computer jobs out there, but they are very few and far inbetween.
There are PLENTY of non-windows jobs. Take a look on Dice sometime. Just because part of the office uses Windows doesn't mean a Solaris admin needs to. The last two sysadmin jobs I had were for HPC clusters and Oracle DB clusters. The mail system was Notes, not Exchange.
All of my tools were Unix-based.
Now, if you're talking about sales, front office support, stuff like that, then yes Windows is probably required. But don't say that non-Windows jobs are few and far between. It's simply not true.
Have you ever seen recent Mac hardware from nearby (and I mean recent as in less than five years old)? It's not just beautiful, it's solid and durable.
Ever have problem with a recent Mac laptop LCD going south on you? And I mean recent as in less than five years old.
If it breaks, you're tough out of luck. They DO NOT under any circumstances cover laptop screens. You will have to buy a complete new laptop from them.
No it wasn't. If anything it was originally based on Slackware. Over time they incorporated many things that Redhat offered, such as RPMs and/etc/sysconfig structure.
The price point is actually decent. If Sharp had only priced their newest Zauruses (the C1000/C3xxx series) at the same price point and actually sold them in the US, they'd sell like hotcakes. Pretty much every complaint about the Nokia is gone with the newest Zaurus series. Sharp missed the boat on that one.
Kudos to Nokia for actually selling and supporting such a device to the Western market.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't believe we'll ever see it below a yellow (elevated) level. Ever.
And they've been doing this for YEARS. It's nothing new. When we went to Notes from Exchange, it happened. It also hapened when we pased over SQL Server in favor of Oracle on a Windows platform.
Anybody who's been involved in purchasing licenses from Microsoft (or anyone else, for that matter) knows this,
The reason it's so easy to install on Windows is not because of any package manager. It's the use of any one of the myriad "Installation Wizards" out there.
And they also exist for Linux. The fact that developers choose not to use them is another matter altogether.
It's not free, but if you need to get Canon printers working under Linux, check out: http://www.turboprint.info/
Cost is minimal, and the driver works nicely.
Link whore? Hit whore?
Actually, less hardware is kind of subjective. The Pepper Pad comes in at 12.1 inches. To me , that's not any more portable than a laptop. I guess I place a premium on the small size of the Zaurus. Plus, there's an incredibly active developer community that pretty much provides any type of application I could ever want or use on it.
You can insert video (as well as many other types of media).
Insert...
Plugins
Then just choose which type of media you're inserting.
I can't say I think it's very useful, but it can be done.
I don't get the "gotta have" with this.
Tablet PCs that are able to run Linux are cheaper, if you're looking for a hard-disk based solution.
Is it cheap? No. But it's available: http://www.direcway.com/
My experience with Mac users is that they do indeed know more about Macs and OS X, but not much else. Ask them about Windows or Linux (or BSD, for that matter) and they won't get very far.
That's just been my experience.
The US went to two-letter state abbreviations a LONG time ago. Where've you ben?
Seriously. I don't use MSOffice all that much, but have to constantly exchange .doc, .xls, etc. formats all the time with other people. For the most part, OO.o saves in these formats and opens in Office fine, as intended. Sometimes it doesn't though. If I could save in ODF format and include a plugin with the document itself, I would think that would be far more helpful in getting people to at least look at open source, rather than just pointing them to OO.o and saying "Install this".
And there's the rub for for any argument of simplicity. If you have to go mucking about the BIOS, it's not simple for any OS.
I think the issue is what to wear to court.
You MUST realize there's a difference.
Hell, even Judge Judy would tell you to cover up your belly button.
Loving what you do and being able to dress yourself in a socially acceptable manner are not mutually exclusive.
I don't know why the slashdot crowd seems to think they are.
But really, how much high load do you really need at home, anyway?
Even if you're in the hosting business (and who in their right mind would do that from home?), throughput would be much more important than load.
I suppose you could be a computational chemist or doing bioinformatics stuff from home, but even then, I would think it would be cheaper to get a few x86 boxes and cluster them for compute power and it would still be less energy.
Don't kid yourself. It's a landgrab war, not a war on terror. And it could EASILY turn into a world war if we're not careful.
Let me reiterate - I don't watch live TV. Until they build a device that prevents me from viewing commercials, I'll skip them. Always.
Seriously, the best hope anyone has of advertising to me is product placement within the show itself.
I know of a couple of distros that have GUI front ends for firewall setup/maint. They're commercial distros, but the GUI does what it's supposed to. No need to drop down to command line if you don't want to.
FUD works both ways I suppose.
I think the only people who really pay any attention to these names are the ones who are already running some form of Linux.
Most other people who don't run Linux probably only are aware of RedHat and Suse, because those are usually the only two names you see supported by apps such as Oracle.
There are PLENTY of non-windows jobs. Take a look on Dice sometime. Just because part of the office uses Windows doesn't mean a Solaris admin needs to. The last two sysadmin jobs I had were for HPC clusters and Oracle DB clusters. The mail system was Notes, not Exchange.
All of my tools were Unix-based.
Now, if you're talking about sales, front office support, stuff like that, then yes Windows is probably required. But don't say that non-Windows jobs are few and far between. It's simply not true.
Otherwise, cool pics.
Ever have problem with a recent Mac laptop LCD going south on you? And I mean recent as in less than five years old.
If it breaks, you're tough out of luck. They DO NOT under any circumstances cover laptop screens. You will have to buy a complete new laptop from them.
I speak from personal experience.
No it wasn't. If anything it was originally based on Slackware. Over time they incorporated many things that Redhat offered, such as RPMs and /etc/sysconfig structure.
But it was never based on Redhat.
The price point is actually decent. If Sharp had only priced their newest Zauruses (the C1000/C3xxx series) at the same price point and actually sold them in the US, they'd sell like hotcakes. Pretty much every complaint about the Nokia is gone with the newest Zaurus series. Sharp missed the boat on that one.
Kudos to Nokia for actually selling and supporting such a device to the Western market.