that he says that what I've actually been doing very successfully for 2 years is just now becoming viable. Where do they get these so called experts?
I'm a software developer and have been running linux (exclusively) on my primary work computer (laptop) for two years without a hitch. None of my colleagues who run microsoft-based laptops can say that.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never had driver issues/problems on any of the many different boxes (including laptops) I've installed Linux on. It has always detected whatever soundcard/mouse/keyboard/nic/drives are present without a hiccup. If I want hardware-accelerated 3D I just download/install the latest nvidia driver, which is exactly what I'd do for a windows box too.
Actually I find Linux is WAY easier to set up than a windows-based box, because you don't have to spend hours correcting all the microsoft dumbed-down settings, uninstalling bloatware, and fixing all the security holes in XP.
The only real issue I have is if I ever visit a store to buy buy addon hardware. I make a point of asking the store staff to double-check my purchase isn't windows-only (even if I already know), just to get them to realise there are other OS's in the world than windows. We need to provide the big stores with visibility of them repeatedly losing sales because of lack of Linux support.
If enough other Linux users do that too maybe Frys/CompUSA/BestBuy/PCWorld will start to demand Linux supported Hardware from the manufacturers. Those big stores are the guys with the real voices as far as the HW manfuacters are concerned.
I'm a gaming nut and have traditionally spent lots of money on having a monster system, however getting married and a brand new baby have meant I haven't upgraded my rig (except for my monitor) for 2 or 3 years now.
My machine has an old 2.53 (non-hyperthreaded) pentium 4 and a geforce3 card. In hardcore gaming circles, my current system is laughable but I managed to get to the end of Doom3 with it fairly comfortably. It did crawl at times though, and it just can't deal with halflife2 so I decided to upgrade.
I suspected my system's worst bottle neck was the graphics card, so I decided to buy a geforce 6800 ultra. But I faced the dilemma of either buying a dead-end-technology AGP slot version or ugrade my whole PC to PCIe, socket 775 etc. to future-proof my GPU investment.
Anyway I ended up taking a chance on being a cheapskate and bought the AGP version. I was very surprised to find that my PC now benchmarks up there with most of the latest p4 systems running the same GPU. even at my monitor's native 1920x1200 resoulution. I'm totally glad I didn't waste all that money on building a whole new PC as my old system will probably last for another 2 or 3 years effortlessly now.
It really made me realise that Intel processors probably haven't significantly improved noticeable performance for at least 3 years. Also, all the hype that most gaming websites put out about needing the latest CPU for the latest games is largely bullcrap.
OK, so if even gaming doesn't need the latest CPU's, then who really does? Most people are just opening word documents or websurfing. Maybe there are a few people that regularly do bulk processing, but I bet there's not really that many users that would notice upgrading to these CPU's.
nope. even the single core 3.2ghz runs faster than one core of the Petnium D at the same clock speed. Its down to the shared cache latency or some such.
Currently, dual core cpus are pointless unless you have a particular app in mind that you know is multi-threaded, or you plan on frequently running more than one app at once.
If they become the unofficial police of the internet, they will be first in line to be the official ones, when government (with a little help from microsoft) decides that such a body should exist.
I am also concened about the effects of long-term exposure to CRTs and spent some time researching on the net, finding no conlcusive evidence either way about X-rays.
However I also read a swedish study that concluded spending a long time in front of CRT's (especially big ones) may cause problems if you have metal dental work such as amalgam fillings, due to them inducting a slight current from the CRT's EMF field.
I've spent about 25 years of working in front of CRTs with no noticeable problem so far, except that CRT's, espcially in combination with flourescent strip lighting, give me terrible headaches after extended use, probably because of the beat-frequency of the combined flicker.
I get far less headaches and eyestrain with LCD panels, and my x-ray paranoia is satsfied too.
I'm a software developer now resident in the USA for about 5 yrs. Preivious to that I've been a developer and consultant working all over europe.
In my experience, a much higher percentage of European projects are delivered on time than US ones. The simple reason is that in Europe, engineers are more respected and are usually tightly involved with the requirements gathering/planning phase.
Unfortunately in the US it usual practice to keep engineers away from clients and only involve them when everything is already agreed on paper. This means that the engineer gets a garbled requirement to work from, and the technical decisions have already been made/commited to by someone without any technical skills (i.e. sales or management).
The net result is that the engineer is expected to implement someone elses bad design that usually misses important aspects or doesn't address the actual problem, in a hopelessly optimistic timeline. Furthermore god help the engineer if the customer isn't kept happy.
> They know they would never be allowed to play those games in my house.
It seems a standard christian reaction to force censorship on everyone because christians hide from evil rather than deal with it.
Instead of fearing it, why don't you let your kids play the game but reinforce that its a game, not real life. Most kids have no trouble knowing the difference between a video game and real life. Why don't you acknowledge that?
If you keep hiding them from bad stuff, they won't know how to deal with it properly when they leave home and come across it.
Every iteration of Windows wastes more and more screenspace with toolbars, status bars, iconviews etc. From the screenshot, Longhorn is even more cluttered, apparently.
Soon a file explorer view won't have any space left for any actual file icons!
It depends on the local definition of "improvement". E.g to a culture that favours boy babies over girls, "hereditary improvement" may simply mean being male.
Slashdot Mirror
what a microwave is for?
installing applications can/does put all kinds of stuff directly into the windows system directory.
Wow. you need to set up a special server to get windows to be easily installable?
that he says that what I've actually been doing very successfully for 2 years is just now becoming viable. Where do they get these so called experts?
I'm a software developer and have been running linux (exclusively) on my primary work computer (laptop) for two years without a hitch. None of my colleagues who run microsoft-based laptops can say that.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've never had driver issues/problems on any of the many different boxes (including laptops) I've installed Linux on. It has always detected whatever soundcard/mouse/keyboard/nic/drives are present without a hiccup. If I want hardware-accelerated 3D I just download/install the latest nvidia driver, which is exactly what I'd do for a windows box too.
Actually I find Linux is WAY easier to set up than a windows-based box, because you don't have to spend hours correcting all the microsoft dumbed-down settings, uninstalling bloatware, and fixing all the security holes in XP.
The only real issue I have is if I ever visit a store to buy buy addon hardware. I make a point of asking the store staff to double-check my purchase isn't windows-only (even if I already know), just to get them to realise there are other OS's in the world than windows. We need to provide the big stores with visibility of them repeatedly losing sales because of lack of Linux support.
If enough other Linux users do that too maybe Frys/CompUSA/BestBuy/PCWorld will start to demand Linux supported Hardware from the manufacturers. Those big stores are the guys with the real voices as far as the HW manfuacters are concerned.
I'm a gaming nut and have traditionally spent lots of money on having a monster system, however getting married and a brand new baby have meant I haven't upgraded my rig (except for my monitor) for 2 or 3 years now.
My machine has an old 2.53 (non-hyperthreaded) pentium 4 and a geforce3 card. In hardcore gaming circles, my current system is laughable but I managed to get to the end of Doom3 with it fairly comfortably. It did crawl at times though, and it just can't deal with halflife2 so I decided to upgrade.
I suspected my system's worst bottle neck was the graphics card, so I decided to buy a geforce 6800 ultra. But I faced the dilemma of either buying a dead-end-technology AGP slot version or ugrade my whole PC to PCIe, socket 775 etc. to future-proof my GPU investment.
Anyway I ended up taking a chance on being a cheapskate and bought the AGP version. I was very surprised to find that my PC now benchmarks up there with most of the latest p4 systems running the same GPU. even at my monitor's native 1920x1200 resoulution. I'm totally glad I didn't waste all that money on building a whole new PC as my old system will probably last for another 2 or 3 years effortlessly now.
It really made me realise that Intel processors probably haven't significantly improved noticeable performance for at least 3 years. Also, all the hype that most gaming websites put out about needing the latest CPU for the latest games is largely bullcrap.
OK, so if even gaming doesn't need the latest CPU's, then who really does? Most people are just opening word documents or websurfing. Maybe there are a few people that regularly do bulk processing, but I bet there's not really that many users that would notice upgrading to these CPU's.
nope.
even the single core 3.2ghz runs faster than one core of the Petnium D at the same clock speed. Its down to the shared cache latency or some such.
Currently, dual core cpus are pointless unless you have a particular app in mind that you know is multi-threaded, or you plan on frequently running more than one app at once.
will now be filled with twitchy people.
Why don't they just leave it in orbit?
Its not hurting anyone is it? and it could still be used I guess...
If they become the unofficial police of the internet, they will be first in line to be the official ones, when government (with a little help from microsoft) decides that such a body should exist.
to see it had GPS on board. Suprised because I thought GPS wouldn't work at that altitiude, i.e. possibly even ouside the ring of GPS satellites.
>> noticed that my vision deteriorated extensively in less than a year of serious usage (8+ hours a day)
Time to stop browsing those pron sites then.
I am also concened about the effects of long-term exposure to CRTs and spent some time researching on the net, finding no conlcusive evidence either way about X-rays.
However I also read a swedish study that concluded spending a long time in front of CRT's (especially big ones) may cause problems if you have metal dental work such as amalgam fillings, due to them inducting a slight current from the CRT's EMF field.
I've spent about 25 years of working in front of CRTs with no noticeable problem so far, except that CRT's, espcially in combination with flourescent strip lighting, give me terrible headaches after extended use, probably because of the beat-frequency of the combined flicker.
I get far less headaches and eyestrain with LCD panels, and my x-ray paranoia is satsfied too.
bullcrap. All you end up doing is getting your employer to get used to you working 80 hour weeks, then they ultimately expect it all the time.
I'm a software developer now resident in the USA for about 5 yrs. Preivious to that I've been a developer and consultant working all over europe.
In my experience, a much higher percentage of European projects are delivered on time than US ones. The simple reason is that in Europe, engineers are more respected and are usually tightly involved with the requirements gathering/planning phase.
Unfortunately in the US it usual practice to keep engineers away from clients and only involve them when everything is already agreed on paper. This means that the engineer gets a garbled requirement to work from, and the technical decisions have already been made/commited to by someone without any technical skills (i.e. sales or management).
The net result is that the engineer is expected to implement someone elses bad design that usually misses important aspects or doesn't address the actual problem, in a hopelessly optimistic timeline. Furthermore god help the engineer if the customer isn't kept happy.
Mod parent up!!! I totally agree!!
The best 'Prepare this computer for resale' functionality would be for it to install linux.
Apart from the obvious benefits, unless you have a full version of XP (most people only have OEM), the licence is non-transferrable.
Thankfully my new 24" 1920x1200 panel arrived with no dead pixels.
If Samsung/Dell can get it right, why can't Sony with a much smaller/lower res screen?
This is yet another example of the ongoing 'censorship in the name of christianity' fad of the current US legislation.
Not only is it ridiculous, but it makes a mockery of free speech and insults the intelligence and parenting skills of all US citizens.
> They know they would never be allowed to play those games in my house.
It seems a standard christian reaction to force censorship on everyone because christians hide from evil rather than deal with it.
Instead of fearing it, why don't you let your kids play the game but reinforce that its a game, not real life. Most kids have no trouble knowing the difference between a video game and real life. Why don't you acknowledge that?
If you keep hiding them from bad stuff, they won't know how to deal with it properly when they leave home and come across it.
>> ..but so much doesn't work right. Linux on the desktop is close to a joke. I've tried both GNOME and KDE and neither is bug free
So you believe Linux is more buggy than windows?
err... whatever...
Well with asians and other imigrants making up more and more of the British population, it probably is, now.
because microsoft starts off with the asusmption that the user is stupid enough not to know what an exe is anyway, so why even tell them?
Its like those "A system error has occurred" messages. They assume you're too stupid to tell which error actually happened.
Every iteration of Windows wastes more and more screenspace with toolbars, status bars, iconviews etc. From the screenshot, Longhorn is even more cluttered, apparently.
Soon a file explorer view won't have any space left for any actual file icons!
It depends on the local definition of "improvement". E.g to a culture that favours boy babies over girls, "hereditary improvement" may simply mean being male.
>> This isn't about eugenics. This is about...being able to have some say if they child that they have is the boy or girl that they've always wanted.
But that IS eugenics.
eugenics
n. (used with a sing. verb)
The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.