I think what's really ridiculous is that M$ has given their typical short shrift to what is potentially a major security nightmare "in the wild". Sure, they did issue a patch in a timely manner, but they absolved any support for all of their browsers that are not either version 5.01 or version 5.5 (with the exception of 5.01 SP2 which is unaffected).
It's unlikely enough for the typical home user to go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com or monitor Mickeysoft's security bulletins.. But when a patch claims that your software does not need the security patch, then the chances that a common user would then go out of their way to download a full browser and reapply the patch are quite remote.
It also makes you wonder how the problem is already fixed in IE 5.01 SP2, but not in their latest flagship version 5.5 SP1. Sure, software is complex and obscure bugs like this may actually come and go without notice, but do they really care about exposure to their customers until a white hat tips them off?
well nvidia has pre-built rpms for many of the major distributions stock kernels. If you don't compile your own kernel, chances are you can download an rpm that will work. And you're right.. their glx driver for XF401 talks to their kernel module, so you can't play without it.
On another note entirely, I'm running a GeForce2 MX on VIA Apollo 133A chipset, and I've had to follow nvidia's instructions on disabling AGP. Frankly, I don't notice any difference (besides added stability) because I don't play any 3D-games. So don't ask why I got a Geforce2 card:)
I just bought a new GeForce2 MX card, and it's not stable under SuSE's XFree 4.01 rpms. I've yet to try disabling AGP, which should probably alleviate much of the hurt associated with GeForce video on VIA chipsets.
The question is when will VMware support XFree4? XFree86 4.0 was released back in March, and VMware still doesn't support it (i.e. accelerated video).
Nothing against Sweeney, but I don't buy the argument. Sure, GT's motivation is purely profit, but what's the evidence to support Linux binaries would wipe out any profit from increased sales? Historically (although it's starting to change), Linux users are significantly more PC-intelligent than the Windows user. The typical successful Linux user doesn't call up Red Hat for support; he locates the proper newsgroup, searches dejanews, or *shock* locates relevant docs on the Web.
If the Linux support is mature, it shouldn't raise many more issues than the Windows binary. If it isn't yet mature, then do what id did for a while: clearly stamp it as unsupported (admittedly, non-support is more obvious if the user must dl the binaries electronically).
The typical user who is likely to call up a phone number upon hitting a problem isn't terribly likely to even have Linux, much less use it exclusively. Recall that part-time Linux users often dual-boot just for games, and wouldn't be shut out if the Linux version didn't work; they'd at least try under Windows before calling up a phone number.
As the other post alluded to, WordPerfect is a significantly more recognizable franchise than Corel. And in reality, WP is the only killer-app among the bunch.. the rest are also-rans. Excel and Powerpoint dominate their categories even more than Word does its.
not trying to add fuel to the flame, but you didn't really articulate your biases against Java, besides admitting it is somewhat "personal" in nature.
You cite that the fact it came from Sun is a problem. I would claim that Sun is somewhere in the middle between a Microsoft and GNU as far as contribution to free software. That should be irrelevant to an objective discussion of technical merits, at any rate.
You also acknowledge that Java is good at what it's designed to do. What exactly is that? Remember originally it was formulated for set-top boxes. Three years ago, people thought that Java was destined to take over the client, particularly with what I'd call "applet suites." That was a pipe dream, and Java's current successes and usage are almost all server-side. The point is Java has been over-marketed by Sun, but it is a fairly versatile platform nevertheless.
Actually, a lot of people feel Java is a markedly simpler implementation language than C++, largely due to garbage collection (hence no programmer memory management), which actually is more of a runtime feature supported by the language.
Some claims have been made that Java is twice as efficient to create Web-based systems, but such metrics are difficult to substantiate.
Syntactically, Java borrows heavily from C/C++, so I wouldn't argue it's dumbed-down in any respect. Considering language-level support for multithreading and rich standard libraries, there's little merit to any language superiority arguments here (or in many places).
This isn't an attack at all on your posts or position, but contribution to the thread at large. No "inflammation" intended.:)
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I think what's really ridiculous is that M$ has given their typical short shrift to what is potentially a major security nightmare "in the wild". Sure, they did issue a patch in a timely manner, but they absolved any support for all of their browsers that are not either version 5.01 or version 5.5 (with the exception of 5.01 SP2 which is unaffected).
It's unlikely enough for the typical home user to go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com or monitor Mickeysoft's security bulletins.. But when a patch claims that your software does not need the security patch, then the chances that a common user would then go out of their way to download a full browser and reapply the patch are quite remote.
It also makes you wonder how the problem is already fixed in IE 5.01 SP2, but not in their latest flagship version 5.5 SP1. Sure, software is complex and obscure bugs like this may actually come and go without notice, but do they really care about exposure to their customers until a white hat tips them off?
And judging by the name of the form action, "email.pl" I suspect that this CGI-BIN then emails your submission once again across the Net unencrypted.
well nvidia has pre-built rpms for many of the major distributions stock kernels. If you don't compile your own kernel, chances are you can download an rpm that will work. And you're right.. their glx driver for XF401 talks to their kernel module, so you can't play without it.
:)
On another note entirely, I'm running a GeForce2 MX on VIA Apollo 133A chipset, and I've had to follow nvidia's instructions on disabling AGP. Frankly, I don't notice any difference (besides added stability) because I don't play any 3D-games. So don't ask why I got a Geforce2 card
I just bought a new GeForce2 MX card, and it's not stable under SuSE's XFree 4.01 rpms. I've yet to try disabling AGP, which should probably alleviate much of the hurt associated with GeForce video on VIA chipsets.
The question is when will VMware support XFree4? XFree86 4.0 was released back in March, and VMware still doesn't support it (i.e. accelerated video).
And are you sure it does hardware anti-aliasing at low-res modes?
If the Linux support is mature, it shouldn't raise many more issues than the Windows binary. If it isn't yet mature, then do what id did for a while: clearly stamp it as unsupported (admittedly, non-support is more obvious if the user must dl the binaries electronically).
The typical user who is likely to call up a phone number upon hitting a problem isn't terribly likely to even have Linux, much less use it exclusively. Recall that part-time Linux users often dual-boot just for games, and wouldn't be shut out if the Linux version didn't work; they'd at least try under Windows before calling up a phone number.
not bad at all.
As the other post alluded to, WordPerfect is a significantly more recognizable franchise than Corel. And in reality, WP is the only killer-app among the bunch.. the rest are also-rans. Excel and Powerpoint dominate their categories even more than Word does its.
You cite that the fact it came from Sun is a problem. I would claim that Sun is somewhere in the middle between a Microsoft and GNU as far as contribution to free software. That should be irrelevant to an objective discussion of technical merits, at any rate.
You also acknowledge that Java is good at what it's designed to do. What exactly is that? Remember originally it was formulated for set-top boxes. Three years ago, people thought that Java was destined to take over the client, particularly with what I'd call "applet suites." That was a pipe dream, and Java's current successes and usage are almost all server-side. The point is Java has been over-marketed by Sun, but it is a fairly versatile platform nevertheless.
Actually, a lot of people feel Java is a markedly simpler implementation language than C++, largely due to garbage collection (hence no programmer memory management), which actually is more of a runtime feature supported by the language.
Some claims have been made that Java is twice as efficient to create Web-based systems, but such metrics are difficult to substantiate.
Syntactically, Java borrows heavily from C/C++, so I wouldn't argue it's dumbed-down in any respect. Considering language-level support for multithreading and rich standard libraries, there's little merit to any language superiority arguments here (or in many places).
This isn't an attack at all on your posts or position, but contribution to the thread at large. No "inflammation" intended. :)