1. I used it for my simplest personal information. Built it on Access 97, had to upgrade it for 2000 because of issues with Outlook 2000 and Access97. More upgrade issues with 2002 but I foresaw that and had migrated to MySQL beforehand. The issues with 2002 was the impetus to force me to drop Office altogether. Windows 98 doesn't have vendor support anymore so in fact, there is a virtual gun to my head.
2. Spyware has absolutely nothing to do with WIndows bogginess. It's the filesystem and registry. Anyone who has run IIS 4 on a million+ visitor day knows that you have to manually clean the registry nightly for performance issues. Anybody who is a power user with Windows knows that a reinstall takes less time than tracking down the issue and spending time to clean it. That is why I switched. I got so damn tired of dealing with the bugginess of the OS and not enough time being productive.
3. It's half a day for Windows. It's 30 minutes for Linux. The upgrades for Linux are passive and don't require a reboot. I just did this for 5 servers (Installed Linux)and 10 desktops (OEM reinstall of XP 2002 SP1). At least OEM reinstall didn't require activation but it did require:
SP2 update, reboot, Windows update, reboot, Windoes update again, validate this time, update, reboot, Update for the last time And those god damn popups make me want bitch slap the damn box.
4. You are given the full configuration and details of any ETC file in a MAN file or part of the documenataion project. There isn't a help file included with the OS for the registry nor is it available on the Manufacturer's website.
5 and 6. I'll agree that Windows 2003 is stable but XP SP2 is far from a reliable machine on middle class hardware specs.
7. I'll give you that. Mac defrags as part of the Filesystem reads and writes. Linux defrags are kept to a minimum due to the swap being on a seperate partition. Why the hell can't MS do the same?
And for the record, I run every other RH release starting from 6. I ran 8, upgraded to FC2 and have no slowness at all. My XP install isn't used as much and it's shows it's age at 6 weeks.
Environment for XP is: 1.8 Ghz 1Gig Ram Virus Scaning Eclipse Office2003 Mozilla Suite Firefox Opera IE Thunderbird MySQLcc my PHP parsing is run off a local server connected to a directory as a share
Linux is: 1.4 Mhz 500Mb Ram Apache in background Eclipse Thunderbird Evolution Mozilla Suite Firefox OPera Konquerer MySQLcc Open Office (Writer and Calc) and xMMS
Hated having to reinstall every 8 months for performance related issues when defragging and general cleanup didn't help
Hated the reinstalling process where upgrades take the better half of a day (I've just cleaned up some 2002 OEM machines that we have upgraded from and are selling to the public. The upgrade process DOES take a better half of a day)
Really liked learning another OS that didn't have 'hidden' features - (You have to buy a book on how to hack the registry and even books on the market aren't complete)
Uptime
Stability
Linux has the latest and greatest and experiemental stuff whereas Windows is at least 5 years behind (Windows still requires defragging of the hard drive, Mac and Linux don't)
Barry Lyndon - fantastic. I love the lighting. This is one of my favorite period pieces.
In the tone of lighting, The Musketeer was also lit authenticly. Most people hated the Musketeer but I enjoyed it as a matinee type of popcorn flick. Just sit and enjoy the chop-socky action.
I don't think anyone rooted for Microsoft in the early days. People freely traded DOS and MS issued a fatwa that the computer geeks that are promoting it are 'pirating' their software and ordered that they pay for it (LOL). One of the things that made the IBM-PC attractive was the ability to expand which was limiting on the Commodores (yes you could expand but not at the level of the ole' PC). The fact that MS-DOS was easy to copy just made it the easiest choice to use as an OS. It's the developers and their third party apps that made Microsoft an attractive OS to use.
So browser development stopped at Version 6 in 2001 and the antitrust suit probably made Microsoft scared to develop their browser anymore other than security patches.
In regards to Media Players, they were on version 6 for the longest time IIRC then 6.4 became the defacto player and favorite among many because it was lightweight and fast. Someone can correct me, I'm just going from memory here:
7 started that DRM crap and had that skinnable crap as well and was a resource hog. There was a Mac version but I don't think that skins were available. 8 was XP exclusive and I don't know what was different from 7 to 8. 9 seemed to be an update to 7 but didn't seem to do anything that 7 didn't do. There is a Mac version of this version where it is current. 10 introduced HD. What pray tell is version 11 going to do that 10 can't?
Now, IIRC, the only Windows version that the Media Player can be removed is the N series. Will Vista allow the media player to be removed by default or will it be some Vista-N version only allowed in the EU?
It actually depends on what I do. I do like the Mac but I'm not sure if I like it better. I use my Mac for portability and wireless (iBook) and 3rd party applications. I have to use Photoshop (Gimp does not do PSD layers) and I love iMovie and iPhoto. iPhoto is great to showcase off the Mac to show troubled Windows users that the Mac actually is good enough for their needs. If one has the time to showcase off iMovie, it's a shoo in.
I do most of my productivity on Linux and games. I purchased Quake3 on cd when it came out and found it just as easy to install as any Windows game at the time. I do like GQview better than iPhoto FWIW and there (or at least I haven't found any) isn't any comparable image program on Windows.
My biggest complaint is the lack of official 3rd party multimedia support. I understand why there is no Windows Media Player for Linux and all WMP does for Mac is play files. It isn't the same as it is on Windows. Quicktime for Windows is almost identical if not completely as it is on the Mac. That shows me that Apple's programmers are much better than those from the Microsoft campus. (comment not intended as troll material) Real at least gives us a supported player but I really haven't tried the latest version and I'm pretty sure that it will only play Real files unlike the other OS's where the Real player will play AVI's and MPG's, etc...
If Real would play MP3's, AVI's, MPG, etc..., I would happily support Real and forgive their PC Hijackings of years past.
MS doesn't have geek appeal like it did in the 80's and 90's. Those masters want to work with Google. If they can't get a good paying job, they might settle for Microsoft.
Who cares what PeTA thinks anyway. They're not the de-facto animal rights saviours although the media might want you to think otherwise which is what they want - exposure. They're more like terrorists and an organized crime ring. The fact that they hire known felons and arsonists to destroy businesses should be a clue that they're not on the up and up. The ASPCA is the organization that actually cares about the well being of animals. http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer
What's realy sad about this is that for us XHTML coders, we will still need to verify against IE and no matter how much IE7 is supposed to be closer to CSS2 compliant, there will be specific bugs that will exist. Something like 3 floated DIVS will blow the next element out or something like that.
I'd pay $50 for a 3 app permission version of Vista just for IE. Don't need anything else.
Didn't stop the Mac but then they didn't have the registry either.
What's wrong with having a new uber super OS with developers making new Apps and having a virtual machine or compatability layer for legacy apps? Come on, they OWN Virtual PC. It's not like they don't have the assets and existing code base. OEMs provide older licenses and retail purchases are the new OS. It's been done before. With new machines averaging at 3Ghz, what's wrong with splitting that in half for legacy/new?
Anybody who says "But you can't because..." is a code stooge and isn't up to the challenge and THAT is why you (MS programmers in general) continue to use Microsoft. Windows is a flawed OS as stated from the manufacturer in their most recently supported OS. XP Sp2 notifies you if you don't have anti-virus software thereby endorsing the fact that you MUST HAVE anti-virus protection for a secure OS from them. This is an added cost that is not inclusive to the OS and most OEM's only provide 90 days of protection.
The parent like most users/people that aren't into digital arts, seemed to not know the difference between the two. Some people thought that Acryllic is Microsoft's answer to Photoshop when in fact it's competing with Illustrator. Xara is not a competing product with Gimp but a complementary one. That was my point. An artist will use what ever tool he can express him/herself with the easiset. I've seen artists jam out hundred of icons in Illustrator and hundreds of textures/patterns in Photoshop within a sitting. Pretty neat stuff to watch the progress on sometimes.
Now when we get a 3d display going, that will be cool.
I have yet to see an iconographer make icons using a raster based program. It just doesn't make sense. You're limited to the size you create them in. If it's for web, that's OK for most cases. A 3D program like Maya or Blender IS a vector drawing program. Not a raster based. Textures can be raster based.
This isn't a competitor to Gimp. It's more of a competitor to Inkscape.
Gimp is a competitor to MSPaint, Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint, JASC Paintshop Pro. Xara is like Acrylic, Illustrator, Inkscape and even Macromedia Flash. Flash adds a timeline with animation but it is vector based.
Gimp is a raster editor. If your canvas is 640 pixels across and 480 pixels down, you have 640 pixels times 480 pixels of resolution to edit in. Scalable with software help. Quality varies with size. Xara is a vector based program. Your canvas size has no limit. 100% scalable.
Artists use vector programs to 'create' in. It's what is used to create icons that we sometimes take for granted but the reality is that someone had to create it. (like fonts) Raster programs are used to edit existing content to produce a final result. Think http://www.worth1000.com/
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1. I used it for my simplest personal information. Built it on Access 97, had to upgrade it for 2000 because of issues with Outlook 2000 and Access97. More upgrade issues with 2002 but I foresaw that and had migrated to MySQL beforehand. The issues with 2002 was the impetus to force me to drop Office altogether.
Windows 98 doesn't have vendor support anymore so in fact, there is a virtual gun to my head.
2. Spyware has absolutely nothing to do with WIndows bogginess. It's the filesystem and registry. Anyone who has run IIS 4 on a million+ visitor day knows that you have to manually clean the registry nightly for performance issues. Anybody who is a power user with Windows knows that a reinstall takes less time than tracking down the issue and spending time to clean it. That is why I switched. I got so damn tired of dealing with the bugginess of the OS and not enough time being productive.
3. It's half a day for Windows. It's 30 minutes for Linux. The upgrades for Linux are passive and don't require a reboot. I just did this for 5 servers (Installed Linux)and 10 desktops (OEM reinstall of XP 2002 SP1). At least OEM reinstall didn't require activation but it did require:
SP2 update, reboot,
Windows update, reboot,
Windoes update again, validate this time, update, reboot,
Update for the last time
And those god damn popups make me want bitch slap the damn box.
4. You are given the full configuration and details of any ETC file in a MAN file or part of the documenataion project. There isn't a help file included with the OS for the registry nor is it available on the Manufacturer's website.
5 and 6. I'll agree that Windows 2003 is stable but XP SP2 is far from a reliable machine on middle class hardware specs.
7. I'll give you that. Mac defrags as part of the Filesystem reads and writes. Linux defrags are kept to a minimum due to the swap being on a seperate partition. Why the hell can't MS do the same?
And for the record, I run every other RH release starting from 6. I ran 8, upgraded to FC2 and have no slowness at all. My XP install isn't used as much and it's shows it's age at 6 weeks.
Environment for XP is:
1.8 Ghz 1Gig Ram
Virus Scaning
Eclipse
Office2003
Mozilla Suite
Firefox
Opera
IE
Thunderbird
MySQLcc
my PHP parsing is run off a local server connected to a directory as a share
Linux is:
1.4 Mhz 500Mb Ram
Apache in background
Eclipse
Thunderbird
Evolution
Mozilla Suite
Firefox
OPera
Konquerer
MySQLcc
Open Office (Writer and Calc)
and xMMS
Barry Lyndon - fantastic.
I love the lighting. This is one of my favorite period pieces.
In the tone of lighting, The Musketeer was also lit authenticly. Most people hated the Musketeer but I enjoyed it as a matinee type of popcorn flick. Just sit and enjoy the chop-socky action.
Without being to leet, OMG, ROFLMAO!!
That shows what clever editing can do.
How about gettin back to us when MCE becomes portable and you can share content between Mac/Windows machines.
I will expect to hear from you in about 25 years. (Oops, Microsoft won't let that happen. How about never.)
I suspect that when you can get a 180Gig portable HD in an iPod, Apple will have portable HD content with an adapter for HDMI on the iPod.
There is a difference between dual CPU and dual-core CPU
It's called GQview and it's what is used to homebrew picture frame kits.
I don't think anyone rooted for Microsoft in the early days. People freely traded DOS and MS issued a fatwa that the computer geeks that are promoting it are 'pirating' their software and ordered that they pay for it (LOL).
One of the things that made the IBM-PC attractive was the ability to expand which was limiting on the Commodores (yes you could expand but not at the level of the ole' PC).
The fact that MS-DOS was easy to copy just made it the easiest choice to use as an OS.
It's the developers and their third party apps that made Microsoft an attractive OS to use.
I bought Quake 3 on CD that was the Linux version. Not the Windows version then run a Linux installer like UT.
So browser development stopped at Version 6 in 2001 and the antitrust suit probably made Microsoft scared to develop their browser anymore other than security patches.
In regards to Media Players, they were on version 6 for the longest time IIRC then 6.4 became the defacto player and favorite among many because it was lightweight and fast.
Someone can correct me, I'm just going from memory here:
7 started that DRM crap and had that skinnable crap as well and was a resource hog. There was a Mac version but I don't think that skins were available.
8 was XP exclusive and I don't know what was different from 7 to 8.
9 seemed to be an update to 7 but didn't seem to do anything that 7 didn't do. There is a Mac version of this version where it is current.
10 introduced HD.
What pray tell is version 11 going to do that 10 can't?
Now, IIRC, the only Windows version that the Media Player can be removed is the N series. Will Vista allow the media player to be removed by default or will it be some Vista-N version only allowed in the EU?
Why is it that Media Player is on Version 11 and IE is version 7. Don't most people use their browser over their media player?
It actually depends on what I do. I do like the Mac but I'm not sure if I like it better. I use my Mac for portability and wireless (iBook) and 3rd party applications. I have to use Photoshop (Gimp does not do PSD layers) and I love iMovie and iPhoto. iPhoto is great to showcase off the Mac to show troubled Windows users that the Mac actually is good enough for their needs. If one has the time to showcase off iMovie, it's a shoo in.
I do most of my productivity on Linux and games. I purchased Quake3 on cd when it came out and found it just as easy to install as any Windows game at the time.
I do like GQview better than iPhoto FWIW and there (or at least I haven't found any) isn't any comparable image program on Windows.
My biggest complaint is the lack of official 3rd party multimedia support.
I understand why there is no Windows Media Player for Linux and all WMP does for Mac is play files. It isn't the same as it is on Windows.
Quicktime for Windows is almost identical if not completely as it is on the Mac. That shows me that Apple's programmers are much better than those from the Microsoft campus. (comment not intended as troll material)
Real at least gives us a supported player but I really haven't tried the latest version and I'm pretty sure that it will only play Real files unlike the other OS's where the Real player will play AVI's and MPG's, etc...
If Real would play MP3's, AVI's, MPG, etc..., I would happily support Real and forgive their PC Hijackings of years past.
Ditto.
My home is Linux/Mac.
Just curious what people pay,
I have DSL and just the DSL portion is $30 a month for 1500/768. My IP address is separate and that's $27 a month for a static IP.
MS doesn't have geek appeal like it did in the 80's and 90's. Those masters want to work with Google. If they can't get a good paying job, they might settle for Microsoft.
Who cares what PeTA thinks anyway. They're not the de-facto animal rights saviours although the media might want you to think otherwise which is what they want - exposure. They're more like terrorists and an organized crime ring. The fact that they hire known felons and arsonists to destroy businesses should be a clue that they're not on the up and up.
The ASPCA is the organization that actually cares about the well being of animals.
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer
Cancer removal cream already exists.
http://www.cancerx.org/leg_&_arms.htm
What's realy sad about this is that for us XHTML coders, we will still need to verify against IE and no matter how much IE7 is supposed to be closer to CSS2 compliant, there will be specific bugs that will exist. Something like 3 floated DIVS will blow the next element out or something like that.
I'd pay $50 for a 3 app permission version of Vista just for IE. Don't need anything else.
Didn't stop the Mac but then they didn't have the registry either.
What's wrong with having a new uber super OS with developers making new Apps and having a virtual machine or compatability layer for legacy apps? Come on, they OWN Virtual PC. It's not like they don't have the assets and existing code base.
OEMs provide older licenses and retail purchases are the new OS. It's been done before.
With new machines averaging at 3Ghz, what's wrong with splitting that in half for legacy/new?
Anybody who says "But you can't because..." is a code stooge and isn't up to the challenge and THAT is why you (MS programmers in general) continue to use Microsoft.
Windows is a flawed OS as stated from the manufacturer in their most recently supported OS. XP Sp2 notifies you if you don't have anti-virus software thereby endorsing the fact that you MUST HAVE anti-virus protection for a secure OS from them.
This is an added cost that is not inclusive to the OS and most OEM's only provide 90 days of protection.
I guess it's back to hunting whales for the 1% of us.
The parent like most users/people that aren't into digital arts, seemed to not know the difference between the two. Some people thought that Acryllic is Microsoft's answer to Photoshop when in fact it's competing with Illustrator. Xara is not a competing product with Gimp but a complementary one. That was my point.
An artist will use what ever tool he can express him/herself with the easiset. I've seen artists jam out hundred of icons in Illustrator and hundreds of textures/patterns in Photoshop within a sitting. Pretty neat stuff to watch the progress on sometimes.
Now when we get a 3d display going, that will be cool.
I have yet to see an iconographer make icons using a raster based program. It just doesn't make sense. You're limited to the size you create them in. If it's for web, that's OK for most cases.
A 3D program like Maya or Blender IS a vector drawing program. Not a raster based. Textures can be raster based.
In the end, it really depends on the end result.
This isn't a competitor to Gimp.
It's more of a competitor to Inkscape.
Gimp is a competitor to MSPaint, Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint, JASC Paintshop Pro.
Xara is like Acrylic, Illustrator, Inkscape and even Macromedia Flash.
Flash adds a timeline with animation but it is vector based.
Gimp is a raster editor. If your canvas is 640 pixels across and 480 pixels down, you have 640 pixels times 480 pixels of resolution to edit in. Scalable with software help. Quality varies with size.
Xara is a vector based program. Your canvas size has no limit. 100% scalable.
Artists use vector programs to 'create' in. It's what is used to create icons that we sometimes take for granted but the reality is that someone had to create it. (like fonts)
Raster programs are used to edit existing content to produce a final result. Think http://www.worth1000.com/
One of the differences in Linux is that if/when you do run as root, your library path is different and/or limited.
/sbin/apachectl -t
I can't run apachectl -t as a user unless I
Likewise, I can't run quake3 as root.
Why not apply the same methodology to a Windows environment?