And why are the hardware manufacturers restricting you on your current system?
I think it was two years after I got this laptop, service pack 2 came out -- Most of the drivers for my system didn't work anymore and the manufacturer didn't provide any updates.
Graphics card driver was Windows XP SP1 only. Could not even use those drivers on win2k or even win2k3 as it would cause a BSOD. Internal wireless card drivers didn't work with SP2 for some reason. Anyway, the lack of drivers to let me a run a upto date Windows after just two years is a bit insane -- because of that, I can't run windows.
I did stay with a outdated version of XP for a while, but I got irritated as more and more applications kept complaining about service pack 2 (games -- which worked fine under Wine mind you). Then I decided to try SP2 again (clean slipstreamed sp2 install cd)... Didn't work.
So I tried a few different Linux distributions (already used Linux before, but never as a desktop) and well... That's the story of that.
As part of that choice, you also chose not to use iTunes, Microsoft Office, and a lot of other software that is not available to the platform
Not particularly, I just went with what works, Windows didn't, and OS X didn't either. Now I feel pretty comfortable with Linux and I don't really want to change if I had the choice.
Just as I did when I chose OS X.
Difference between you and me. I didn't have a option.
So, if anyone is preventing you from watching, it's you.
Actually it's still hardware manufacturers preventing me for my current main system.
Oh, wait, I'm making an argument for libertarianism and responsibility on the internet. I apologize; don't know what came over me.
While reading your post, I got the impression that it seems to just 'piss' you off that I am not using iTunes.
So did I until 6 months ago. Part of the reason I changed?
I'm not changing.
Because I accept the fact that we're going to live in a DRM world.
DRM is not a big enough issue to me to switch OS.
There's nothing stopping someone from writing a DRM playback client for Linux using (gasp, shock, horror) a binary playback module developed by Apple
I'm not really hoping either. I'm not too fond of the idea that someone can just invalidate my collection on a whim.
The purists who hate the idea of binary-only code in Linux are the ones who are going to kill it as a desktop.
I'm not one of those.
The average user doesn't give a monkeys, they just want to play back their media. You may point out that Apple hasn't produced such a module... well... has anyone asked them to?
Yes, I remember the petitions on this.
Sure, open media is the goal but as long as we live in this litiginous, corporate-controlled society we're never going to get it. Like it or not, DRM is something the corporations want, and the corporations will get.
That's fine.
The people who are diametrically opposed to this philosophy are a very small minority of the buying public... like small enough that the corporations don't really care about annoying you.
I'm aware of that.
You won't buy their wares? They don't care. You write flaming articles on your blogs about the evils of DRM and how it should be opened? They don't care. As long as they can sell their wares openly to a large enough percentage of the population then they really don't care.
I agree completely.
Hey, I may not like the DRM-encumbered world much either. I actually hate the concept in general... but that doesn't mean I won't accept it and move on.
Oh, I accept there is DRM. I haven't bought a DVD in years because of region encoding. I'm not too worried, I can tell the companies aren't interested in selling me things.
There are more crucial things that demand my attention and can take up my life than worrying about the encoding or encryption of a media file.
DRM was a condition absolutely insisted upon by the big record labels.
And my condition for buying content is that there is no DRM on it. So they're not getting sales from me, even if they are "the #1 music download service".
You can live in a DRM free world today. Your participation in the existing paradigm is voluntary. Is there anything stopping you today from producing your own hit movie and releasing it without DRM?
Lack of money.
If you don't like DRM then become a DRM-free producer.
Or... You could just not buy DRMed stuff.
I used to buy DVDs (some from the States, some more local in Europe), then I discovered I couldn't play some because of some badly made DRM. I haven't bought DVDs in years since.
I'm not interested in workarounds, I know most of them, I know about DVD region-free players, point is -- I am not going to buy something on the assumption that I am a criminal. Obviously these people don't want my business.
You'll be a more effective leader by walking that walk than you will by being a harping critic who takes no action.
On the contrary, I think not tolerating it in your daily life is where it starts or ends.
Apple's DRM doesn't wonderously restrict files. You can still burn them and rerip them.
Seems more like a loophole to me, a workaround if you please. Rather than a permitted 'right' (is this against the DMCA?).
YES! We know there's a small reduction in quality.
Which is enough to not make me not want to buy it in the first place.
They have a business model that kind of works:.99 for a song, do almost what you want with it
No.. I read their agreements some time ago, you certainly can't even mix the music into something else and redistribute the resulting work.
They mostly have DRM so they can segway that iPod purchase into some iTunes purchases, and they can only offer that type of DRM.
It's still there, and I don't want it.
That is why the French fought to try and force Apple to disclose their DRM method.
Seeing how Microsoft can provide knowledge on how to make DRM compatible devices, and the DRM is largely unbroken (by largely, the only things I've seen are these 'hacks' that grab the unencrypted content -- but aren't players themselves). Sorry, I don't understand the problem because of this.
So it's going to be a tougher fight for them to either disclose their DRM method or to be totally non-DRM.
I think they don't want to disclose it, because it's the perfect lock-in.
used Win32 Firefox under whine for a little. One reason: Flash 9. I kept running into Flash 8+-only sites and also got tired of never having the audio and video synchronized.
You could just run the Windows version of the Flash plugin under crossover. It's right in the install menu for heavens sakes!
I think the ability to run plugins under crossover (while using a native browser) has existed since version four of crossover.
At leat they are wasting their time and resources in something usefull to the majority of the user and not in a minority Linuzz obscure distro that only 4 cats can use.
I know Internet Explorer is exceptionally buggy It may sound strange but IE6 is one of the most stable pieces of software I've ever seen. Firefox doesn't even come close.
Firefox 2 hasn't crashed on me yet (been using it since it came out).
To be honest, even if Firefox crashed on me once a day, I think I'd still prefer it due to other issues.
I would love to see mainstream computer makers sell linux boxes and to advertise them on their home page.
I do know that Dell does provide Linux solutions at http://www.dell.com/linux. Unfortunately for Dell, I don't want to buy from them from them after having the experience of helping people who have had problems with their Dells.
I know that it is possible to set up the wide screen and wi-fi.
Actually wi-fi worked for me out of the box (Atheros chipset) -- I didn't buy the card with Linux in mind either. I haven't managed to get a widescreen laptop yet though, so I can't really comment on that yet.
And the laptop you link to is 300 more than my Dell e1505 with the same setup.
That's the only issue with dealing with smaller companies. They often can't afford to make things cheaper. However, Dell isn't a solution for me as I've mentioned earlier.
2) One of the greatest features of *nix filesystems is that libraries that are in use can be replaced. As long as some program is still using the inode, the data won't be removed, just effectively invisible to anything that doesn't already have it open. Once the refcount reaches zero, it's removed. That's how rm could delete itself.
I have actually done 'rm -rf/' once, it fails when some library (I'm guessing libc, I don't remember) is removed.
At least until you realize that virtual machine software like VMware, Bochs or QEMU in no way guarantees that the video output you're shown will actually match what you'd see when running the operating system directly on physical hardware.
I can't tell the difference under vmware (I haven't uses Boches or QEMU in ages).
So even when using VM software it's more than possible for the graphics you're shown to differ in many ways from what'd be displayed on real hardware.
it's clear to me that all your counter arguments are based on your own personal experiences.
I don't see the problem with that. I'm saying that most Microsoft stuff does not work well for me. Nothing more. I'm not saying it doesn't work for you.
I'm pretty sure there are less than 1% of companies use Gnucash.(i'm talking about business fiance but you clearly missed that).
I honestly don't care what other companies use, that's upto them to make the choice that best benefits them.
how much marketshare do MS have when they started gaming console? how much marketshare do MS have now within only two generations? what's gp2x's marketshare? did MS magically gain all the marketshare by marketing?
I don't know. I also don't give a crap about marketshare because half of it is always skewed statistics.
I still can't find any reliable 'marketshare' statistics on which OS people use.
Gamers are even more harder to please than software users but hey, MS are full of marketing droid, right?
With many gamers using Steam, I don't think that is the case.
MS doesn't really make stuffs that's worth paying for, right?
For most things I do, no. Which is why I tend to have very little of Microsoft's products.
how come Zune didn't knock-out ipod since MS's marketing and business tatics work wonder.
Not my argument, but... Technically it's not the same situation as how, from what I understand how Microsoft began to dominate the OS market. Every mp3 player manufactorer does not want Microsoft's software on their mp3 players because IBM was shipping business mp3 players that had software that only worked with those mp3 players which would make them compatible with work, with is a big selling point blah blah blah...
Vendors aren't going into agreements for marking up prices of mp3 players that run alternative software either in order to tell their mp3 players that run Microsoft's software either.
No mater what i say, you will just dimiss it even when MS does have good software/hardware.
I'm sorry, your own "it's a piece of crap" without backing up such claims is really a valid argument.
Having to pay a subscription to actually use hardware/software fully (xbox live - updates are free, IMs are free, but playing multi-player games on your own server!? HOLY CRAP NO! YOU MUST PAY!!!one!1!) that I bought doesn't make it good.
Having WGA give me a false positive on XP installation, then I verify it on Microsoft's own WGA support forums that my copy is genuine, I get no response suddenly. Calling up Microsoft's various support numbers to resolve this and getting transfered around for literally two hours, still not getting it resolved. You call this good?
Do you call Microsoft's 'open' xml format good? Because from what I can see, they're trying to spout that they have a open standards format (the technical specifications in the link show that the documentation on the actual format is lacking severely).
Sorry, what do you call 'good' about Microsoft's software/hardware exactly?
Unless you want to play games or own a LAN-gaming center like I do. In the world of games and professional gamers Windows is king.
I dare say that I find Second life, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake 3 etc. which have native Linux ports... A lot faster than under Windows.
Acquaintances of mine have told me (and I have seen) that games like World of Warcraft running under Wine, for some baffling reason were even faster than under Windows.
I'm sorry, I cannot agree with your "Windows is king" statement on gaming.
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I wouldn't really say OS X is based on FreeBSD.
In other words, yes.
Graphics card driver was Windows XP SP1 only. Could not even use those drivers on win2k or even win2k3 as it would cause a BSOD. Internal wireless card drivers didn't work with SP2 for some reason. Anyway, the lack of drivers to let me a run a upto date Windows after just two years is a bit insane -- because of that, I can't run windows.
I did stay with a outdated version of XP for a while, but I got irritated as more and more applications kept complaining about service pack 2 (games -- which worked fine under Wine mind you). Then I decided to try SP2 again (clean slipstreamed sp2 install cd)... Didn't work.
So I tried a few different Linux distributions (already used Linux before, but never as a desktop) and well... That's the story of that.
I used to buy DVDs (some from the States, some more local in Europe), then I discovered I couldn't play some because of some badly made DRM. I haven't bought DVDs in years since.
I'm not interested in workarounds, I know most of them, I know about DVD region-free players, point is -- I am not going to buy something on the assumption that I am a criminal. Obviously these people don't want my business.On the contrary, I think not tolerating it in your daily life is where it starts or ends.
Which is enough to not make me not want to buy it in the first place.
No.. I read their agreements some time ago, you certainly can't even mix the music into something else and redistribute the resulting work.
It's still there, and I don't want it.
Seeing how Microsoft can provide knowledge on how to make DRM compatible devices, and the DRM is largely unbroken (by largely, the only things I've seen are these 'hacks' that grab the unencrypted content -- but aren't players themselves). Sorry, I don't understand the problem because of this.
I think they don't want to disclose it, because it's the perfect lock-in.
It doesn't really matter, after all you can always burn a CD. A CD!
I think the ability to run plugins under crossover (while using a native browser) has existed since version four of crossover.
To be honest, even if Firefox crashed on me once a day, I think I'd still prefer it due to other issues.
linux-gate.so.1 => (0xffffe000)
libc.so.6 =>
ash-fox@Tapestry:~$ I have actually done 'rm -rf
Also, where have you been this past decade? You can use something like VMware server to run Windows if you really need to.
I honestly don't care what other companies use, that's upto them to make the choice that best benefits them.
I don't know. I also don't give a crap about marketshare because half of it is always skewed statistics.
I still can't find any reliable 'marketshare' statistics on which OS people use.
With many gamers using Steam, I don't think that is the case.For most things I do, no. Which is why I tend to have very little of Microsoft's products.Not my argument, but... Technically it's not the same situation as how, from what I understand how Microsoft began to dominate the OS market. Every mp3 player manufactorer does not want Microsoft's software on their mp3 players because IBM was shipping business mp3 players that had software that only worked with those mp3 players which would make them compatible with work, with is a big selling point blah blah blah...
Vendors aren't going into agreements for marking up prices of mp3 players that run alternative software either in order to tell their mp3 players that run Microsoft's software either.I'm sorry, your own "it's a piece of crap" without backing up such claims is really a valid argument.
Having to pay a subscription to actually use hardware/software fully (xbox live - updates are free, IMs are free, but playing multi-player games on your own server!? HOLY CRAP NO! YOU MUST PAY!!!one!1!) that I bought doesn't make it good.
Having WGA give me a false positive on XP installation, then I verify it on Microsoft's own WGA support forums that my copy is genuine, I get no response suddenly. Calling up Microsoft's various support numbers to resolve this and getting transfered around for literally two hours, still not getting it resolved. You call this good?
Do you call Microsoft's 'open' xml format good? Because from what I can see, they're trying to spout that they have a open standards format (the technical specifications in the link show that the documentation on the actual format is lacking severely).
Sorry, what do you call 'good' about Microsoft's software/hardware exactly?
Acquaintances of mine have told me (and I have seen) that games like World of Warcraft running under Wine, for some baffling reason were even faster than under Windows.
I'm sorry, I cannot agree with your "Windows is king" statement on gaming.