What this means to us, is that if a new workstation or laptop is requested by a user or their supervisor, and the district cannot procure a machine with XP, the request will be denied. Vista will only be allowed if the user submits a justification of why they need it (IE, have to run some software in the classroom as part of the curriculum that only works with Vista) and that justification is approved by their supervisor and IS.
This is why I went out and bought a Windows site license for my employer about 18 months ago.
I reckoned that before long, we'd be unable to buy OEM PCs with XP on, and I'd like any upgrade to Vista to be on my terms rather than Microsoft's. And the site license does give you some downgrade rights, regardless of whether or not the OEM version does.
(There's the added bonus I discovered - the OEM license doesn't allow you to use an OEM copy to image your systems unless you ARE the OEM. That, I guess, is how they sell Windows site licenses to companies which don't otherwise need them)
Last time I called Microsoft, they said that their definition of a PC is the motherboard. Like-for-like swaps when necessary for repair purposes are OK, any other swap is verboten.
Technically speaking, this means that in order to guarantee any sensible life expectancy for your license, you have to buy a PC from a large OEM with a good warranty because they'll have the resources to do like for like motherboard swaps for a few years. If you're buying your own components, motherboards tend to go out of manufacture in 6-9 months.
Linux is the OS that propeller heads use. If a noob tries to install it, encounters a problem and asks for help, they get the standard "RTFM" response, or perhaps a lecture on why something that doesn't work for them or is difficult to use is actually what they want. Ubuntu is the free alternative to windows which is heaps easier to use and has community support which is friendly, welcoming and extremely helpful.
Yeah, yeah, I know Ubuntu uses a Linux kernel and gnu tools, but it has established a brand which is seen as friendlier to non technical users than the Linux brand. The fact that one is an essential part of the other doesn't matter to people who don't no any better or care.
I'm glad to report that such an attitude is nowhere near as commonplace as it used to be.
However, I'm rather bemused to report that in the last few years I've noticed Googling to solve problems has started to return messages from random forums claiming to be something to do with Linux, yet having no connection to either any well-known distribution or any common package. These can be rather fun to read if you're not a noob - it's watching the blind leading the blind.
Just like rent-a-cops, it takes a certain kind of person to want to harass people all day. If you took the job for the money, doing it for any amount of time will soon turn you into one of those people.
Yeah, but someone had to decide it was a good idea to hire them in the first place.
Forget about licenses for a minute. There's no law that says "Applications running on Linux must be GPL'd".
The thing is, nobody's going to develop a Linux equivalent of, say, your favourite accounting/payroll application for free. It's as boring as hell to write and doesn't really directly benefit the person writing it so it is (and is likely to remain) the enclave of commercial software houses. GnuCash and the like don't really count here - I'm talking about the kind of application used by business accounts departments with at least a couple of people working fulltime.
And seeing as porting the software to Linux costs money - you've got to pay those developers somehow - you're not going to do it until such time as you've got a reasonable number of customers saying "Do you have a Linux version available? Because if not we're going elsewhere." (And that threat needs to be credible. Migrating your entire accounting department to another application isn't something you do lightly.)
Similarly, the businesses using these applications are more concerned about being able to run them than the OS they run on. "I can save you a bunch of money on Windows licenses" doesn't sound so attractive when you add "...but you won't be able to use products X, Y and Z on which you've built your business, and right now there is no credible alternative."
What? China has no stake in the Arctic at *all*. I'm more worried about the Russkies making moves on Canada and Denmark, one of whom has a pathetically small military, the other is really too far away to do any good.
I don't care how large or small the Danish army is, if you study your history you will know that you do NOT want to fuck around with vikings.
Well, to be fair, the Nazis committed their atrocities *after* being awarded the games.
If you'd studied Nazi Germany history, you'd know that the Nazis came into power on a platform of "Germany is still a great country, it's everyone else's fault that it's not a superpower right now but we can fix that" in the middle of the Great Depression.
I don't think they actually spelled out what they planned to do with anyone they didn't like at the time - AFAIK there's no evidence that the "final solution" was devised until some way into the second world war - but they certainly didn't leave any room for doubt regarding their opinions of anyone who wasn't Aryan in origin at the point where they came to power.
The ones on the early dells (c600/610) had a manufacturing problem in the keyboard that would make the mouse fly all over the screen after the keyboard heated up from normal use and warped the sensor underneath.
I remember those! They earned Dell a lifetime ban from my previous employer.
As much as anything else, the lifetime ban was because you'd spend an hour on the phone trying to battle through a script "Have you checked the BIOS settings? Have you reinstalled Windows?" even after you'd explained that you'd had an engineer out every week for the past month replacing such keyboards and that as far as the engineers were concerned, it was a known issue.
Is it any cheaper if you order them from the States, maybe from amazon.com or some such, and have them shipped? Disclaimer: I don't know if this makes any sense, or if shipping charges eat your lunch, or what. But last time I sent a private package of about that size from the US to Europe, it cost me around $6 shipping, so it might still be a net win if you can find a place that won't overcharge for shipping.
Once you've dealt with any region-coding (or equivalent) issues, shipping and customs can easily eat into that saving. I've also noticed that packages sent to/from the US using the postal service have a remarkable habit of going missing - though courier firms tend to be reasonably reliable.
Either the US postal service loses about 30-40% of the packages they handle or someone somewhere in the route between US and UK postal service considers anything going through there fair game to steal.
Why exactly are we not allowed to carry screwdrivers etc on board and then (I did this last week at DTW, Detroit) you receive a sharp metal knife and fork in the restaurant after security?
Clearly this depends on the airport.
The restaurant at Dublin airport does give you metal cutlery, but no steak knives. Steak, however, remains on the menu.
I think the whole notion that terrorists will even try to hijack a plane again is absurd.
Agreed. But which politician in their right mind, when asked "What are you going to do to prevent a repeat of 9/11?" is going to answer with "Nothing"?
Are you sure you know what is in those packages on that FedEx or UPS plane? They could be highly valuable and/or highly dangerous, or they could have brought on board a valuable political hostage snatched earlier.
To beat the Jack Bauers in the world you need contingencies on top of contingencies nigh ad infinitum.
Assuming "flying into a built-up area" is the hijackers plan (which is almost certainly what the authorities would assume), any packages won't be highly valuable after they've been flown into a building. And they're probably no more dangerous in that scenario than in the shot-down scenario.
And as for bands who pump out multi-platinum albums who don't make a dime? I'd really like to see the books in that case. If it's true than there is so swamp land I want to offer these people. If you really have a serious fan base and you're not smart enough to go in and say "I sell records, I want a cut or you won't get any more recordings out of me" than you deserve whatever you get.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of examples of artists who've got their first record deal which basically states "You will produce 3 albums, we will pay you N%. We will provide the following services for you - but they're not free. You can reimburse us as soon as your albums start to sell....."
Those who produce 3 brilliant selling albums quite often do get another contract with a better cut. 90% of artists, however, do not produce 3 brilliant selling albums.
Go into the office and say "I want a cut" after album 1 or 2, and the label will turn around and say "Er... you've already got a contract and you know the terms. You keep your part of the deal or we'll sue you".
2. LOL. Maybe there need to exist two UI's of the Gimp (ducks). Upto now maybe half of the gimp-endusers are not satisfied. We, as a community, have not yet come up with a way to deal with that (technically or otherwise) other than to say 'RTFM' etc etc. However, I sort of agree that it is a hard problem.
I've used Photoshop too - I'd hardly describe it as the zenith of usability. Unless you're familiar with the ideas involved with multilayer image editing tools complete with layer masks and other such things, both are dogs to use.
The big advantages photoshop have are:
1. Familiarity. That's what most UI-complainers really mean when they say "usability". 2. Proper CMYK, 16bpp colour depth support and integration with colour-correction tools for monitors and printers. This is a field which is laced with patents and of very little interest to your average casual user. It's almost certainly beyond the interest level of the "itch-scratching" crowd.
One thing a lot of people forget when they propose backup systems is not just how quickly can you take the backup, but how quickly do you need it back?
A sync to your own PC with rsync will, once the first one's done, be very fast and efficient. If you're paranoid and want to ensure you can restore to a point in time in the last month, once the rsync is complete you can then copy the snapshot that's on your PC elsewhere.
But you said yourself that your internet link isn't particularly fast. If you can't live with your site being unavailable for some time, what are you going to do if/when the time comes that you have to restore the data?
No, you can tell us that you don't like an interface, and make suggestions on what you think might make it better for you. Reality? The interface may suck - but that doesn't mean you have any idea as to why it sucks. Add to that? You're suggestions are not likely to be all that good for fixing the design problems.
You don't pay that much attention to bug reports that just say "it crashes", why would you pay any attention to a usability report that says "it sucks"?
Almost every single feature is scrutinized with usability in mind. GNOME has been removing more and more configuration options from the user interface in order to make things easier for the average user. In fact, they've done so much their best that the technical audiance, i.e. Slashdot/OSNews/Reddit, is constantly flaming them for removing config options. Yet this same audience is flaming them for not being usable.
That's because highly technical people often have their own idea of what's usable, and generally want to be able to configure their desktop to meet this idea. Removing options flies in the face of that.
My mother, on the other hand, isn't about to spend hours trying to get her desktop just the way she wants it - instead, she'll use what she's put in front of (and be very vocal if she doesn't like it). It's people like my mum that Gnome are targeting with their "make the desktop as usable as possible" ideal.
First you have to obtain a means to measure usability (by the users is best, I guess).
That's a great idea, but it suffers from two minor issues:
1. You're essentially agreeing on design by committee. Not a process with a history of producing clean, elegant solutions. 2. It works great if you're trying to clean up the interface slightly for existing users. It sucks royally if you're trying to bring in a new class of user. If you need an example of this, see practically any slashdot story which mentions the Gimp in the summary.
Slashdot Mirror
What this means to us, is that if a new workstation or laptop is requested by a user or their supervisor, and the district cannot procure a machine with XP, the request will be denied. Vista will only be allowed if the user submits a justification of why they need it (IE, have to run some software in the classroom as part of the curriculum that only works with Vista) and that justification is approved by their supervisor and IS.
This is why I went out and bought a Windows site license for my employer about 18 months ago.
I reckoned that before long, we'd be unable to buy OEM PCs with XP on, and I'd like any upgrade to Vista to be on my terms rather than Microsoft's. And the site license does give you some downgrade rights, regardless of whether or not the OEM version does.
(There's the added bonus I discovered - the OEM license doesn't allow you to use an OEM copy to image your systems unless you ARE the OEM. That, I guess, is how they sell Windows site licenses to companies which don't otherwise need them)
They would.
Last time I called Microsoft, they said that their definition of a PC is the motherboard. Like-for-like swaps when necessary for repair purposes are OK, any other swap is verboten.
Technically speaking, this means that in order to guarantee any sensible life expectancy for your license, you have to buy a PC from a large OEM with a good warranty because they'll have the resources to do like for like motherboard swaps for a few years. If you're buying your own components, motherboards tend to go out of manufacture in 6-9 months.
USE!=INSTALL. No doubt your "noob" would run into all sorts of problems trying to install Windows too.
But it's far more likely that the kid down the street can fix it.
Linux is the OS that propeller heads use. If a noob tries to install it, encounters a problem and asks for help, they get the standard "RTFM" response, or perhaps a lecture on why something that doesn't work for them or is difficult to use is actually what they want. Ubuntu is the free alternative to windows which is heaps easier to use and has community support which is friendly, welcoming and extremely helpful.
Yeah, yeah, I know Ubuntu uses a Linux kernel and gnu tools, but it has established a brand which is seen as friendlier to non technical users than the Linux brand. The fact that one is an essential part of the other doesn't matter to people who don't no any better or care.
I'm glad to report that such an attitude is nowhere near as commonplace as it used to be.
However, I'm rather bemused to report that in the last few years I've noticed Googling to solve problems has started to return messages from random forums claiming to be something to do with Linux, yet having no connection to either any well-known distribution or any common package. These can be rather fun to read if you're not a noob - it's watching the blind leading the blind.
Just like rent-a-cops, it takes a certain kind of person to want to harass people all day. If you took the job for the money, doing it for any amount of time will soon turn you into one of those people.
Yeah, but someone had to decide it was a good idea to hire them in the first place.
Forget about licenses for a minute. There's no law that says "Applications running on Linux must be GPL'd".
The thing is, nobody's going to develop a Linux equivalent of, say, your favourite accounting/payroll application for free. It's as boring as hell to write and doesn't really directly benefit the person writing it so it is (and is likely to remain) the enclave of commercial software houses. GnuCash and the like don't really count here - I'm talking about the kind of application used by business accounts departments with at least a couple of people working fulltime.
And seeing as porting the software to Linux costs money - you've got to pay those developers somehow - you're not going to do it until such time as you've got a reasonable number of customers saying "Do you have a Linux version available? Because if not we're going elsewhere." (And that threat needs to be credible. Migrating your entire accounting department to another application isn't something you do lightly.)
Similarly, the businesses using these applications are more concerned about being able to run them than the OS they run on. "I can save you a bunch of money on Windows licenses" doesn't sound so attractive when you add "...but you won't be able to use products X, Y and Z on which you've built your business, and right now there is no credible alternative."
What? China has no stake in the Arctic at *all*. I'm more worried about the Russkies making moves on Canada and Denmark, one of whom has a pathetically small military, the other is really too far away to do any good.
I don't care how large or small the Danish army is, if you study your history you will know that you do NOT want to fuck around with vikings.
I disagree, on the basis that most of the people you see on the ground are mindlessly doing as they're told.
I think it would be far more productive for the management and politicians behind the DHS to lead by example.
Well, to be fair, the Nazis committed their atrocities *after* being awarded the games.
If you'd studied Nazi Germany history, you'd know that the Nazis came into power on a platform of "Germany is still a great country, it's everyone else's fault that it's not a superpower right now but we can fix that" in the middle of the Great Depression.
I don't think they actually spelled out what they planned to do with anyone they didn't like at the time - AFAIK there's no evidence that the "final solution" was devised until some way into the second world war - but they certainly didn't leave any room for doubt regarding their opinions of anyone who wasn't Aryan in origin at the point where they came to power.
Besides, Media Sentry is a joke. They will soon be hacked out of existance.
Exactly, rule number 1 of running something online. If you make hackers mad, they will hack. I believe that Scientology learned that
Quite right too. The Church of Scientology made just one bunch of hackers mad and look what happened to them.
That's what the concrete's for.
I recently had a conversation at work about security issues. The fact is that any security system can be beaten.
I have a variation on that.
The only 100% guaranteed secure computer system is one that's been pulverised into little shards of metal and encased in concrete.
The ones on the early dells (c600/610) had a manufacturing problem in the keyboard that would make the mouse fly all over the screen after the keyboard heated up from normal use and warped the sensor underneath.
I remember those! They earned Dell a lifetime ban from my previous employer.
As much as anything else, the lifetime ban was because you'd spend an hour on the phone trying to battle through a script "Have you checked the BIOS settings? Have you reinstalled Windows?" even after you'd explained that you'd had an engineer out every week for the past month replacing such keyboards and that as far as the engineers were concerned, it was a known issue.
Is it any cheaper if you order them from the States, maybe from amazon.com or some such, and have them shipped? Disclaimer: I don't know if this makes any sense, or if shipping charges eat your lunch, or what. But last time I sent a private package of about that size from the US to Europe, it cost me around $6 shipping, so it might still be a net win if you can find a place that won't overcharge for shipping.
Once you've dealt with any region-coding (or equivalent) issues, shipping and customs can easily eat into that saving. I've also noticed that packages sent to/from the US using the postal service have a remarkable habit of going missing - though courier firms tend to be reasonably reliable.
Either the US postal service loses about 30-40% of the packages they handle or someone somewhere in the route between US and UK postal service considers anything going through there fair game to steal.
Why exactly are we not allowed to carry screwdrivers etc on board and then (I did this last week at DTW, Detroit) you receive a sharp metal knife and fork in the restaurant after security?
Clearly this depends on the airport.
The restaurant at Dublin airport does give you metal cutlery, but no steak knives. Steak, however, remains on the menu.
I think the whole notion that terrorists will even try to hijack a plane again is absurd.
Agreed. But which politician in their right mind, when asked "What are you going to do to prevent a repeat of 9/11?" is going to answer with "Nothing"?
Are you sure you know what is in those packages on that FedEx or UPS plane? They could be highly valuable and/or highly dangerous, or they could have brought on board a valuable political hostage snatched earlier.
To beat the Jack Bauers in the world you need contingencies on top of contingencies nigh ad infinitum.
Assuming "flying into a built-up area" is the hijackers plan (which is almost certainly what the authorities would assume), any packages won't be highly valuable after they've been flown into a building. And they're probably no more dangerous in that scenario than in the shot-down scenario.
And as for bands who pump out multi-platinum albums who don't make a dime? I'd really like to see the books in that case. If it's true than there is so swamp land I want to offer these people. If you really have a serious fan base and you're not smart enough to go in and say "I sell records, I want a cut or you won't get any more recordings out of me" than you deserve whatever you get.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of examples of artists who've got their first record deal which basically states "You will produce 3 albums, we will pay you N%. We will provide the following services for you - but they're not free. You can reimburse us as soon as your albums start to sell....."
Those who produce 3 brilliant selling albums quite often do get another contract with a better cut. 90% of artists, however, do not produce 3 brilliant selling albums.
Go into the office and say "I want a cut" after album 1 or 2, and the label will turn around and say "Er... you've already got a contract and you know the terms. You keep your part of the deal or we'll sue you".
Look at how Windows CE eventually beat Palm.
Then use Windows CE and wonder how it ever beat anything.
You mean wifi on Linux is ready for Aunt Tillie?
Oh, no. It can't be. Then all the trolls will have nothing to complain about!
No, but only because Tillie isn't a very common name in the UK.
It may, however, be ready for Aunt Doris.
2. LOL. Maybe there need to exist two UI's of the Gimp (ducks). Upto now maybe half of the gimp-endusers are not satisfied. We, as a community, have not yet come up with a way to deal with that (technically or otherwise) other than to say 'RTFM' etc etc. However, I sort of agree that it is a hard problem.
I've used Photoshop too - I'd hardly describe it as the zenith of usability. Unless you're familiar with the ideas involved with multilayer image editing tools complete with layer masks and other such things, both are dogs to use.
The big advantages photoshop have are:
1. Familiarity. That's what most UI-complainers really mean when they say "usability".
2. Proper CMYK, 16bpp colour depth support and integration with colour-correction tools for monitors and printers. This is a field which is laced with patents and of very little interest to your average casual user. It's almost certainly beyond the interest level of the "itch-scratching" crowd.
One thing a lot of people forget when they propose backup systems is not just how quickly can you take the backup, but how quickly do you need it back?
A sync to your own PC with rsync will, once the first one's done, be very fast and efficient. If you're paranoid and want to ensure you can restore to a point in time in the last month, once the rsync is complete you can then copy the snapshot that's on your PC elsewhere.
But you said yourself that your internet link isn't particularly fast. If you can't live with your site being unavailable for some time, what are you going to do if/when the time comes that you have to restore the data?
No, you can tell us that you don't like an interface, and make suggestions on what you think might make it better for you. Reality? The interface may suck - but that doesn't mean you have any idea as to why it sucks. Add to that? You're suggestions are not likely to be all that good for fixing the design problems.
You don't pay that much attention to bug reports that just say "it crashes", why would you pay any attention to a usability report that says "it sucks"?
Almost every single feature is scrutinized with usability in mind. GNOME has been removing more and more configuration options from the user interface in order to make things easier for the average user. In fact, they've done so much their best that the technical audiance, i.e. Slashdot/OSNews/Reddit, is constantly flaming them for removing config options. Yet this same audience is flaming them for not being usable.
That's because highly technical people often have their own idea of what's usable, and generally want to be able to configure their desktop to meet this idea. Removing options flies in the face of that.
My mother, on the other hand, isn't about to spend hours trying to get her desktop just the way she wants it - instead, she'll use what she's put in front of (and be very vocal if she doesn't like it). It's people like my mum that Gnome are targeting with their "make the desktop as usable as possible" ideal.
-let people vote about the quality of the above
First you have to obtain a means to measure usability (by the users is best, I guess).
That's a great idea, but it suffers from two minor issues:
1. You're essentially agreeing on design by committee. Not a process with a history of producing clean, elegant solutions.
2. It works great if you're trying to clean up the interface slightly for existing users. It sucks royally if you're trying to bring in a new class of user. If you need an example of this, see practically any slashdot story which mentions the Gimp in the summary.