That's a good point, Microsoft, unlike a lot of other companies including Sony, is pretty good at getting other companies to use their stuff. To the point of illegally leveraging their monopolies to do it. Again, not great for Sony.
Just imagine, a cheap device that is "360 compatible". Plays any Xbox 360 game. Has any set of features any number of licensed OEMs would like to put in. HP could make one. Dell could make one. Panasonic could embed them in TVs.
If the licensing outlay is cheap and competitive enough, it would kill Sony.
Yeah, it's true, in F/OSS if something works really really well, it's perfectly okay, in fact strongly encouraged for that code to be adopted by whatever distro can make good use of it.
Although, Apple and Microsoft have been ripping off each other's ideas for decades now. The only difference is they're not supposed to.
But in terms of what is "right" for the advancement of humanity, the quicker an idea is free for all to use, the quicker we all benefit.
Imagine if the wright brothers copyrighted flight for 70 years. We'd still be flying prop planes today, and we'd be 20 years away from leaving the planet for the first time.
Proof you can't read, even if you can install Linux:
Lately, I have been looking into other distributions that, like Ubuntu, are working to make strides to attract new users.
Clearly if you're "Posting from an Ubuntu 64 workstation, running several Debian Etch VPS containers in VMWare Server, and a couple of dedicated Debian and FreeBSD boxes on this LAN.", you're not a new user.
But, look up. You are the kind of user that keeps most people, especially girls, a long, long way away from Linux. As a Windows user, and on behalf of all the Apple users, we thank you.
If people don't want to upgrade from XP to Vista because of application compatibility concerns, I can't see them dumping XP for Linux.
Look at it from the layman XP users perspective. Take the full set of applications they use from day to day.
How many of those will work on Vista? How many of those will work on Linux?
What is the difficulty curve in terms of setting up the apps? How long will it take? For apps that won't work on Vista or Linux, what are the alternatives? How hard are they to set up and use?
How long does the process take to switch? Including backups and application installs? Is it a significant amount of time? Are the rewards so great that it makes dumping XP worthwhile?
Compare all the benefits to the benefits of doing nothing and remaining with XP.
Windows XP remains Linux's biggest hurdle. Amusingly, it's also Microsoft's biggest hurdle.
What will kill Windows is the day I can download any Windows installer exe (packaged in MSI, InstallShield, WISE, whatever), doubleclick it, install it and run it on Linux and having it just work.
Me not being a kernel developer, how is the guy wrong?
I'm thinking it's because while the basic concept of the Linux kernel is, well, the same kind of thing Linus put together all those years ago, based roughly on UNIX and all that, but he's wrong because the kernel code would have been completely replaced by now?
How different is the latest kernel from those that have gone before?
How does it compare to Windows, which has completely changed kernels (DOS to NT) through it's lifespan, adding 386 instruction support etc etc? Surely Linux has adapted to newer x86 hardware capabilities as they've become available?
Until they have way too many WW2 FPS games. Amirite?
But seriously, in many ways I'm surprised at the lack of progress in the gaming areas.... the games do look quite mature, but nothing comes close to Crysis. One can argue that, yes, Crysis has huge dollars behind it. But open source games should never need to reinvent the wheel... doesn't that count for something? Shouldn't that mean the games evolve constantly from the same rich base?
The RIAA tracks your DNA and listens to everything you hear through implanted microphones, extracting micropayments wirelessly for everything you hear.
This is why when your computer breaks, there's a technician that fixes it, not an economist.
The internet will slow down.... assuming traffic demand rises and ISP's don't bother upgrading their infrastructure.
Maybe, just maybe, ISPs might be putting in more and fatter links? But I guess they wouldn't have thought about that, those plucky tech savvy economists, they know there's only a series of tubes and you can't have more tubes.
Realistically this might be a very lame push by the anti-neutrality groups furthering the case for "premium" internet pricing.
Since/. is all about misusing the "brick" analogy for rendering a device unfixable through straighforward means, wouldn't it be more appropriate to suggest 2007 bricked the music industry?
They might not take their training back with them when they go to buy illicit drugs. Or... they might have someone else buy the drugs for them! Or... they might be getting the drugs from someone at their regular training venues!
You cannot shoot GPS at a problem and make it go away. You cannot shoot AJAX at a problem and make it go away. You cannot shoot XML at a problem and make it go away. You cannot shoot nanotechnology at a problem and make it go away. You cannot shoot RFID at a problem and make it go away.
Although, I must say, if there are people who really believe that because the OS doesn't boot, it's bricked, I would be happy to take those nasty old bricks off their hands and, err, "dispose" of them safely. Really.
Ahh, it's not at all, that reminds me of the old joke:
A couple goes on vacation to a fishing resort. The husband likes to fish at the crack of dawn. The wife likes to read. One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a short nap. Although she isn't familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and continues to read her book. Along comes the game warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside her and says,"Good morning, Ma'am, what are you doing?" "Reading my book," she replies, thinking isn't that obvious? "You're in a restricted fishing area," he informs her. "But officer, I'm not fishing. Can't you see that?" "Yes, but you have all the equipment. I'll have to take you in and write you up." "If you do that, I'll have to charge you with rape," says the woman. "But I haven't even touched you," says the game warden. "That's true, but you do have all the equipment."
The capability does not equal the crime, thankfully, so while you might put the laptop in a position it's brickable, it's not. Also, with dual bios's, bricking something like a laptop requires quite a bit of effort!
The trackball mechanically might seem like the mouse upside down, but that's not exactly right, and the key difference is why we use the mouse instead of analog sticks or trackballs today.
The mouse won the interface battle because it's got context, it's constantly got a point of reference that is easy to understand - the position of the mouse on the table. The mouse interface is not just that blocking thing with buttons on it and the glowing eye underneath. The interface is the mouse and the surface. As a human being, it's intuitive to move the mouse up a little, or a lot, depending on how far on the screen you need the pointer to move. Overshoot? Correcting is also very easy because you move the mouse back a small distance to achieve it, and it's practically unconscious, because humans are good at moving things around on flat surfaces.
Trackballs and analog sticks don't have that kind of context. Rolling a trackball through 35 degrees is much harder to intuit than sliding the mouse back down 5cms.
The Wiimote, because it is a pointer, almost has the same level of context, but it's still not as good.
It's being incorrectly used. The term "bricking" refers to completely disabling an appliance beyond reasonable repair, specifically with mobile phones and smaller devices, where an incorrect firmware update or similar can render the phone irreparable without replacing key internal components with brand new ones, hence turning the device into an object with about as much functionality as a brick.
Fixing deleted system files is something XP's system restore can handle, and it's only a software problem, so it hardly turns the PC into a "brick".
There was an FPS called C&C Renegade, which, much like WoW, alters the format of the popular RTS.
In Renegade, it was mostly PvP deathmatches (NOD vs GDI) with a single player campaign. You could spend points to buy vehicles or infantry types. You had to defend your base (if they destroy your armory you can't build tanks etc). You could likewise assault the enemy base and destroy their buildings to prevent them from obtaining upgrades.
Much in the same way that WoW is an RPG based on the Warcraft RTS, where again the buildings are the same models from the ones in the RTS, only huge!
Slashdot Mirror
At that speed you could download a high-definition copy of 'Batman Begins' in four minutes.
Or, if you use Bittorrent, 4 weeks. Way to go Comcast!
That's a good point, Microsoft, unlike a lot of other companies including Sony, is pretty good at getting other companies to use their stuff. To the point of illegally leveraging their monopolies to do it. Again, not great for Sony.
Those kooky scientists will try anything to get laid! Just wait until the dean hears about this!
"Hey baby, fancy a hot nanobot injection?"
Just imagine, a cheap device that is "360 compatible". Plays any Xbox 360 game. Has any set of features any number of licensed OEMs would like to put in. HP could make one. Dell could make one. Panasonic could embed them in TVs.
If the licensing outlay is cheap and competitive enough, it would kill Sony.
It seems a bit far-fetched, though.
I think that in fact qualifies him to be reviewing Linux for new users.
Or can your grandmother write raw HTML better than Frontpage hacks it up?
Didn't think so.
Yeah, it's true, in F/OSS if something works really really well, it's perfectly okay, in fact strongly encouraged for that code to be adopted by whatever distro can make good use of it.
Although, Apple and Microsoft have been ripping off each other's ideas for decades now. The only difference is they're not supposed to.
But in terms of what is "right" for the advancement of humanity, the quicker an idea is free for all to use, the quicker we all benefit.
Imagine if the wright brothers copyrighted flight for 70 years. We'd still be flying prop planes today, and we'd be 20 years away from leaving the planet for the first time.
Proof you can't read, even if you can install Linux:
Lately, I have been looking into other distributions that, like Ubuntu, are working to make strides to attract new users.
Clearly if you're "Posting from an Ubuntu 64 workstation, running several Debian Etch VPS containers in VMWare Server, and a couple of dedicated Debian and FreeBSD boxes on this LAN.", you're not a new user.
But, look up. You are the kind of user that keeps most people, especially girls, a long, long way away from Linux. As a Windows user, and on behalf of all the Apple users, we thank you.
Threat to Microsoft? Shouldn't think so.
If people don't want to upgrade from XP to Vista because of application compatibility concerns, I can't see them dumping XP for Linux.
Look at it from the layman XP users perspective. Take the full set of applications they use from day to day.
How many of those will work on Vista? How many of those will work on Linux?
What is the difficulty curve in terms of setting up the apps? How long will it take? For apps that won't work on Vista or Linux, what are the alternatives? How hard are they to set up and use?
How long does the process take to switch? Including backups and application installs? Is it a significant amount of time? Are the rewards so great that it makes dumping XP worthwhile?
Compare all the benefits to the benefits of doing nothing and remaining with XP.
Windows XP remains Linux's biggest hurdle. Amusingly, it's also Microsoft's biggest hurdle.
What will kill Windows is the day I can download any Windows installer exe (packaged in MSI, InstallShield, WISE, whatever), doubleclick it, install it and run it on Linux and having it just work.
Me not being a kernel developer, how is the guy wrong?
I'm thinking it's because while the basic concept of the Linux kernel is, well, the same kind of thing Linus put together all those years ago, based roughly on UNIX and all that, but he's wrong because the kernel code would have been completely replaced by now?
How different is the latest kernel from those that have gone before?
How does it compare to Windows, which has completely changed kernels (DOS to NT) through it's lifespan, adding 386 instruction support etc etc? Surely Linux has adapted to newer x86 hardware capabilities as they've become available?
Until they have way too many WW2 FPS games. Amirite?
But seriously, in many ways I'm surprised at the lack of progress in the gaming areas.... the games do look quite mature, but nothing comes close to Crysis. One can argue that, yes, Crysis has huge dollars behind it. But open source games should never need to reinvent the wheel... doesn't that count for something? Shouldn't that mean the games evolve constantly from the same rich base?
The RIAA tracks your DNA and listens to everything you hear through implanted microphones, extracting micropayments wirelessly for everything you hear.
I thought Linux was supposed to be "free".... but the units they're talking about cost as much as any other with an embedded proprietary OS.
At least with Linux you could hack together a network connected lump of 1.5TB for less than $1100 on your own.
Thanks Netgear...
This is why when your computer breaks, there's a technician that fixes it, not an economist.
The internet will slow down.... assuming traffic demand rises and ISP's don't bother upgrading their infrastructure.
Maybe, just maybe, ISPs might be putting in more and fatter links? But I guess they wouldn't have thought about that, those plucky tech savvy economists, they know there's only a series of tubes and you can't have more tubes.
Realistically this might be a very lame push by the anti-neutrality groups furthering the case for "premium" internet pricing.
Since /. is all about misusing the "brick" analogy for rendering a device unfixable through straighforward means, wouldn't it be more appropriate to suggest 2007 bricked the music industry?
Swiss tanks are the best in the world because nobody ever invaded Switzerland.
They might not take their training back with them when they go to buy illicit drugs.
Or... they might have someone else buy the drugs for them!
Or... they might be getting the drugs from someone at their regular training venues!
You cannot shoot GPS at a problem and make it go away.
You cannot shoot AJAX at a problem and make it go away.
You cannot shoot XML at a problem and make it go away.
You cannot shoot nanotechnology at a problem and make it go away.
You cannot shoot RFID at a problem and make it go away.
Technology is a tool, not a solution.
Although, I must say, if there are people who really believe that because the OS doesn't boot, it's bricked, I would be happy to take those nasty old bricks off their hands and, err, "dispose" of them safely. Really.
Ahh, it's not at all, that reminds me of the old joke:
A couple goes on vacation to a fishing resort. The husband likes to fish at the crack of dawn. The wife likes to read. One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a short nap. Although she isn't familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and continues to read her book. Along comes the game warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside her and says,"Good morning, Ma'am, what are you doing?" "Reading my book," she replies, thinking isn't that obvious? "You're in a restricted fishing area," he informs her. "But officer, I'm not fishing. Can't you see that?" "Yes, but you have all the equipment. I'll have to take you in and write you up." "If you do that, I'll have to charge you with rape," says the woman. "But I haven't even touched you," says the game warden. "That's true, but you do have all the equipment."
The capability does not equal the crime, thankfully, so while you might put the laptop in a position it's brickable, it's not. Also, with dual bios's, bricking something like a laptop requires quite a bit of effort!
This is NOT bricking. The OS is simply disabled and can be reinstalled/system repaired whatever.
Bricking means rendering the device completely inert and beyond normal repair methods.
The trackball mechanically might seem like the mouse upside down, but that's not exactly right, and the key difference is why we use the mouse instead of analog sticks or trackballs today.
The mouse won the interface battle because it's got context, it's constantly got a point of reference that is easy to understand - the position of the mouse on the table. The mouse interface is not just that blocking thing with buttons on it and the glowing eye underneath. The interface is the mouse and the surface. As a human being, it's intuitive to move the mouse up a little, or a lot, depending on how far on the screen you need the pointer to move. Overshoot? Correcting is also very easy because you move the mouse back a small distance to achieve it, and it's practically unconscious, because humans are good at moving things around on flat surfaces.
Trackballs and analog sticks don't have that kind of context. Rolling a trackball through 35 degrees is much harder to intuit than sliding the mouse back down 5cms.
The Wiimote, because it is a pointer, almost has the same level of context, but it's still not as good.
It's being incorrectly used. The term "bricking" refers to completely disabling an appliance beyond reasonable repair, specifically with mobile phones and smaller devices, where an incorrect firmware update or similar can render the phone irreparable without replacing key internal components with brand new ones, hence turning the device into an object with about as much functionality as a brick.
Fixing deleted system files is something XP's system restore can handle, and it's only a software problem, so it hardly turns the PC into a "brick".
That the WoW laptop includes an Ageia physics solution specifically for a game that doesn't support Ageia physics.
This is indeed a fine mechanism to separate the rich from their money.
There was an FPS called C&C Renegade, which, much like WoW, alters the format of the popular RTS.
In Renegade, it was mostly PvP deathmatches (NOD vs GDI) with a single player campaign. You could spend points to buy vehicles or infantry types. You had to defend your base (if they destroy your armory you can't build tanks etc). You could likewise assault the enemy base and destroy their buildings to prevent them from obtaining upgrades.
Much in the same way that WoW is an RPG based on the Warcraft RTS, where again the buildings are the same models from the ones in the RTS, only huge!
It's in a coma? Let's get Dr. House on it. It's probably just lupus.
They'd do much better with their older strategy, buying the competition.
All they have to do is dump a huge load of cash on YouTube and they'll be fine.
What do you mean, "Google ain't selling"?