Microsoft and Opera have supposedly been working together to get Silverlight working with the Opera browser, but I have the feeling that recent events will slow this process down a bit. (For those afraid to click links, Opera has filed an antitrust complaint with the EU.)
That's a shame because I'm an Opera man myself. I don't like switching to IE6/7 in Windows for those few sites that need it. However, if Silverlight does catch on, I'm sure Opera will support it (despite the antitrust squabbles).
I also typically use Intel motherboards for their reliability, but currently Intel's desktop motherboards only support 8GB of RAM and their server motherboards are too expensive. Intel recently released their 5100 chipset for "value" 2-socket Xeon servers, which can use up to 32GB of "standard" DDR2 (not FB-DIMMs). Unfortunately, they haven't released an Intel-branded motherboard based on this chipset.
Tyan and Supermicro, which both focus on the server/workstation market, are the only motherboard makers I've heard about releasing motherboards based on the 5100 chipset. If you trust the Intel brand for reliability, then I think this Intel chipset on a Tyan or Supermicro motherboard might be a decent compromise.
Tyan Tempest i5100X (S5375) - Seems to be out of stock everywhere (searched Google Products), but it's being listed at about $320 to $400. It's a server board, but it looks like it would make a decent workstation (PCIe x16 slot, integrated audio, extended ATX size).
Supermicro X7DCL-i - In the same price range as the Tyan board, but seems to be available at a few online stores (like this). Standard ATX size, but lacks PCIe x16 slot.
I believe that OEM XP is out of production Jan 1, 2008. So if you want any more, you had better go an buy some quick. License availability (direct OEM and retail) has been extended to June 30, 2008 (January 31, 2009 for system builders). This was covered at Ars Technica and other news sites.
Have you taken a good look at the new Notebooks on offer... I just got burnt with a Compaq v6620 - no XP drivers available. You can install XP, and it boots, but kiss the Lan, Wlan, Video, Audio good bye. No XP drivers - only vista and linux. So what does that tell you - Vista will be rammed down your throught whether you like it or not. Eventually, all new kit will be running Vista, because the Manufacturers won't be cutting any XP drivers for them! Most real "business/pro" PCs offer Windows XP as an installation option. I noticed that the Compaq v6620 is sold on HP/Compaq's "Home and Home Office" store, so it's probably really targeted toward the "home" user. If you browse HP/Compaq's current line of notebooks at their "Small & Medium Business" site, you'll notice that almost all of them (except a few very cheap models) offer Windows XP as an option.
The key to finding "professional/business" notebooks with Windows XP is looking in the "Business" sites, not the "Home & Home Office" sites. Unfortunately, I've noticed most brick-and-mortor stores (even "office supply" stores) don't carry these real "business" notebooks (just "home office" notebooks at best).
Sure, it could, but given the face Google would lose, it seems unlikely they would suddenly pull it.
Exactly. That's like saying Google would launch a service where you could buy videos and then a year or two later pull the service so you can't watch those videos any more.
With a company with the size and profile of Google, that just aint going to happen.
I'm assuming you're being sarcastic and suggesting Google screwed its customers after it closed its video store. However, Google "saved face" by giving full refunds for those videos and keeping its DRM service alive for another six months.
Given Google's actions after closing their video store, I think The Clockwork Troll makes a good point in the part of the comment you left out:
More likely, they would announce end-of-life months in advance and provide migration tools to popular alternatives.
Not to mention, you can always, well, download all your mail, documents, calendar items, etc.
Is the XPS LCD 6-bit or 8-bit (16M colors)? I've been curious about this (and agree that the 20" iMac's display sucks).
The XPS One's online manual on their support site lists the "viewing angles" as "80 degrees" (horizontal and vertical). This seems to indicate a cheap 6-bit panel, just like the iMac's.
"As it stands now, the "leaked" project that started this whole mess has been to most peoples knowledge, canned."
Are you sure you're talking about the right project? According to this article, the "leaked project" that provoked Apple's lawsuit was the Mac Mini, which was presented two weeks later at MacWorld Expo, and needless to say, has most definitely not been canned...
I'm almost certain falcon5768 was talking about Apple's Asteroid project, which was supposed to be a FireWire audio interface for GarageBand. Asteroid was never released and some think it never existed. Asteroid might have been a top secret pseudoproject meant to test the loyalties of Apple employees. The test failed because Think Secret, AppleInsider, and others reported on this project.
I'm not sure if Asteroid "started this whole mess," but the Asteroid lawsuit was apparently filed a month earlier than the Mac mini lawsuit.
Not just volume... laser printers don't gum up from disuse quite like inkjets do. They just keep working, no matter whether you're printing 100 pages a day, or 100 pages a year. You beat me to it (how laser printers are also good for low volume). My anecdote: a friend who bought (in 1998) an NEC SuperScript 860 laser printer instead of accepting the "free" ink jet printer that was bundled with his new computer (Circuit City actually gave him at least $50 credit for the ink jet). My friend is still using the original toner that came with the laser printer. If he had accepted the ink jet printer, he would have gone through many ink jet cartridges that either ran out, dried out, or gummed up.
I'm late with my anectode that supports your anectode...
My brother's Xbox 360 sits (in vertical position) less than an inch away next to a cable modem (also in vertical position) which sits less than an inch away from a D-Link 802.11g router (vertical). I haven't noticed any 802.11g problems from about 30 feet away (one wall in between) while my brother plays using a wireless controller. I haven't done any throughput tests, though.
Between this and Miguel de Icaza, it looks like I'll finally be switching to KDE.
You're that upset that Miguel left the GNOME project half a decade ago? He's not working on KDE...
He might be refering to Miguel de Icaza from a Mono perspective. I think he might be referring to Miguel de Icaza as a "traitor" and "M$ shill" (that's how that story's comments seemed to describe Miguel) and still associates Miguel with the GNOME project. When he says he's "switching to KDE," I think he means he's switching away from "Miguel's" GNOME.
Xerox established the beginnings of the technology, and the concept of using multiple panes of information on the screen to simulate paper. They by no means developed any metaphor; the interfaces on the Alto computers were horrendous works in progress at best. Apple created the desktop metaphor in its fullness. The Alto was not the only GUI-based computer Xerox released before Apple's Lisa. The Xerox Star, released in 1981, created the desktop metaphor. Apple's Lisa was released in 1983.
Every user's initial view of Star is the "Desktop," which resembles the top of an office desk, together with surrounding furniture and equipment. It represents your working environment -- where your current projects and accessible resources reside. On the screen are displayed pictures of familiar office objects, such as documents, folders, file drawers, in-baskets, and out-baskets. These objects are displayed as small pictures or "icons," as shown in figure 2.
Chipset graphics is considered mediocre hardware. A discrete graphics solution is hard to be found in ANY corporate environment, which is what the original post is about. This is just my personal experience, but Vista with Aero enabled runs just fine and snappy on Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics with 1.5 GB of system memory (shared with graphics) and Celeron D 331 (2.66GHz Pentium 4 Prescott-based). That chipset (Intel 945G) was widely available in July 2005 (that's when I bought that motherboard for a friend). Unlike other chipset makers, Intel has provided working stable Vista drivers (even for their mediocre integrated graphics) since Vista was released.
How did your 2004 hardware score on the Vista compatiblity test. A high 2 or a low 3? Cause mine's a pretty hot system -AMD X2 6400+ 3.2 Ghz 2GB RAM X1950 card- and barely got a high 5. Barely got a high 5? Last time I checked, 5.9 was the highest possible score you could get on the Windows Experience Index. A low 3 will run Aero on a display that's not huge.
I'm not saying Vista with Aero enabled is not a resource hog (especially memory), but I think it's been grossly exaggerated on many highly-moderated Slashdot comments. I do think Vista was released too early and many hardware manufacturers only had flakey Vista drivers when Vista was released. Intel's drivers were fine, though.
That would be an excellent idea, but win2k is not secure anymore, not even as (in)secure as XP is. It would be a lot of effort to put back win2k on the "maintained" list I'm not disagreeing, just asking: How is Windows 2000 "not secure anymore?" Sure, it doesn't have the "out of box" security that XP and Vista have, but I think Windows 2000 is still being somewhat "maintained" with security updates and available paid supportuntil at least July 2010. Most current versions of Linux distributions won't get security updates for that long (of course, most Linux upgrades are free).
I agree that a clean Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 and all Windows Updates is not as secure as it should be without additional sofware. However, Comodo (and others) provides a good free firewall for Windows 2000. AVG and Spybot (and others) provide the needed protection against viruses and malware. Internet Explorer 6 is still getting security updates, but I think most users would be better off with the current versions of Opera or Firefox.
Getting back on topic, Windows 2000 is probably not a good solution for the "low-end PC market" anyway. There's a reason the only client version was called "Windows 2000 Professional." They could make it more usable for novices if they added an XP/Vista style "Security Center" that prompted the user to download free 3rd party firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware software.
and some might even be aware that Summer Glau did a stint on CBS's The Unit, True story:
Last week I had the television turned on to Fox (I think NFL football) and wasn't paying attention to the commercials. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Summer Glau (speaking in a "not quite right" way) in a promo for a new Fox science fiction-y type show. My hopes shot up through the two apartments above mine.
Could it be true? Is Fox bringing back Firefl...
It turned out to be a promo for Fox's new show Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Glau plays a Terminator sent back in time to protect John. That's why she talks "not quite right."
It's a good thing I didn't have a gun in my hand because I think I would have shot my television Elvis-style.
I can't be the only shmuck who thought about Bender after watching Kaylee's disagreement with Simon:
Simon: Fun? Right. I, uh-- I consider this fun. It's fun being forced to the ass end of the galaxy... to get to live on a piece of luh-suh wreck... and eat molded protein, and be bullied around by our... [Speaking Chinese] of a captain. That's fun. Kaylee: Luh-suh? Simon: Sorry? Kaylee: Serenity ain't luh-suh. Simon: No, I.. I didn't mean... Kaylee: Yeah, you did. You meant everything you just said. Simon: Well, no. Uh, actually I was being ironic... so in-in the strictest sense... Kaylee: You were being mean... is what. And if that's what you think of this life... then you can't think much of them that choose it... can you?
[After Bender trades his crotchplate to the Robot Devil for a huge airhorn in his nose slot, he blasts Leela's ears out as a joke.] Bender: Pretty annoying, huh Leela? Leela: (shouting) What? Are you talking? Oh God I'm deaf! Bender: Oops. I'm so so sorry Leela. I just wanted to annoy you. Leela: (shouting) What? Oh this is horrible. I won't be able to hear Fry's opera.
[She starts to cry. The Robot Devil stands at the end of the corridor watching them.]
Robot Devil: Ah how delightfully ironic. Bender: It's not ironic, it's just mean. Take this! [He blows the airhorn weakly.] Robot Devil: Ooh! Out of aerosol? Also ironic! Bender: Oh yeah? Well bite my shiny metal - [He points at where his crotchplate used to be. No ass left to bite.] (shouting) Oh nooo!
B) How is it the fault of Netflix if the studios/copyright holders refuse them a license for digital distribution UNLESS the resulting distribution medium imposes DRM? Blame the studios and not Netflix. Some people might blame Apple for refusing to license Fairplay (the only studio-sanctioned DRM available on OS X) to Netflix. Microsoft licenses their studio-sanctioned Windows Media DRM to any video store that wants it (like Netflix), but Apple refuses to let any store except their own use Fairplay. I don't know if any studio-sanctioned DRM exists for Linux.
Believe it or not, Netflix digital distribution might be coming to Mac (and maybe Linux) by using Microsoft technology: Silverlight. Silverlight, a Flash competitor, will supposedly bring cross-platform video support to multiple browsers (including Safari and Firefox) and its optional DRM component will supposedly be studio-sanctioned. I say "supposedly" because Windows Media has been available for the Mac for a long time, but I don't remember the DRM component ever being ported. But was it ever promised?
Netflix, Mac, and Silverlight were brought up by "Steve" (who's "responsible for the instant watching feature" on Netflix's site) on Netflix's community blog:
RandoX commented:
Dell too.
[snip]
When you pull up their laptop page, there are two links. "Customize with Windows XP" and "Customize with Windows Vista". Same price. PlatyPaul replied:
Easier than that: if you want an XP-loaded dell, just go here. Just to make things clear, Dell have always (since Vista was launched) offered Windows XP as an option on almost all of their configurable PCs on their "business/education/government" sites. Only their PCs on their "Home & Home Office" site have typically offered Vista as the only OS option. They recently started re-offering XP on some of their "home" PCs due to customer demand.
I think most Slashdot readers would prefer Dell's "Small & Medium Business" site better, anyhoo. Latitude "business" notebooks are better in many ways than Inspiron "home" notebooks. Optiplex desktops and Precision workstations are better than Inspiron/Dimension desktops. Their cheap Vostro business notebooks and desktops have no shovelware/crapware. Latitudes, Optiplexes, and Precisions come with better North American based support.
Also, as others have pointed out, I've always noticed XP as an option for configurable ThinkPads. Most PC makers have always offered XP on their configurable "business" PCs. I guess XP seekers aren't looking in the "business" sections of PC web sites. Unfortunately, most "brick-and-mortor" stores, even big "office supply" stores, don't stock XP PCs.
For example, I've been interested in Assassin's Creed for a while. (In case any readers aren't video gamers, it's a "sandbox" style game for the Xbox360 which has you tooling around in Crusades-era holy lands.) Many reviewers said it was very pretty, but that some things got repetetive (and didn't really like the combat system). I was worried that I might not like it, until I read Penny Arcade's "trust us, it does actually rock" post.
I appreciated Gabe's argument that reviewers don't play games the same way many of us do, and that the review process is poorly suited for sandbox games. Reviewers play with a deadline, whereas in a sandbox game the point is to take your time, explore, and find cool stuff.
I don't know if you caught Ars Technica's review (by Frank Caron) of Assassin's Creed, but it made a point similar to Gabe's. Caron called it a great, but not perfect, game and in the "good, bad, and ugly" part of the conclusion stated:
The ugly:
Those currently racing through the game who are missing the point
Ars Technica doesn't review a lot of games, but they don't rush to publish their reviews on the game's release day. Their Assassin's Creed review was published on November 22, nine days after most gaming-oriented sites published their reviews.
I do NOT know if this page has been changed since the ad campaign was started but in its current form it is quit clear that Windows Vista Capable means just the bare bones of Vista and that if you want everything you need a Vista Premium Ready machine.
[snip]
Does anyone know if MS had the same text at launch, if so, then the case is without merit. If you trust articles from Ars Technica's Microsoft-related journal, then Microsoft was defining "Vista Capable" as "at least Home Basic Edition" in March 2006. Recall that Vista was released to volume license customers in November 2006 and to the general public in January 2007. So this early definition of "Vista Capable" was defined about 8 months before release. They couldn't get too specific about requirements at the time, but they were very similar to the final requirements.
From that March 2006 article:
The company plans on using the next few months to go into detail about what will be required of a very Vista-capable PC, but for now it has released a document that covers what constitutes a Windows Vista Capable computer. But don't get too excited because "Windows Vista Capable" only means two things: the PC can definitely run Home Basic Edition, and it gets to sport a pretty logo.
The Windows Vista Capable program is intended to be used as a way to entice customers into performing an early upgrade to Vista. If a customer sees the "Designed for Windows XP--Windows Vista Capable" logo, then he knows that he can purchase that PC and safely upgrade to some version of Vista in the future. But what exactly are the minimum requirements for a capable computer anyway?
PCs must meet these requirements in order to display a Windows Vista Capable logo:
Be able to competently run Windows XP
A modern CPU
A minimum of 512MB of RAM
A DirectX 9 class graphics processor
Optionally support Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) to take advantage of Vista's improved graphics
Still, the requirements just mentioned are required for "good" performance. Nobody is happy just being "good." People want only the best, right? Here's what that's going to take:
DirectX 9 class graphics hardware that supports WDDM and Pixel Shader 2.0
A minimum of 32 bits per pixel
Appropriate graphics memory for specified monitor resolutions expressed as total pixels (X dimension multiplied by Y dimension)
Graphics memory bandwidth, as assessed by Windows Vistas built in system assessment tool WinSAT.EXE, of at least 1,800MB/s at 1,310,720 pixels on a desktop and at the native resolution on a mobile PC
With those features in hand, Microsoft says that you should be able to run Aero. According to a Microsoft spokesman, even if the hardware is able to run Aero, that still doesn't necessarily mean that it can run any version of Windows Vista.
"The Windows Vista Capable program does not represent minimum hardware requirements for the different versions of Windows Vista we look forward to providing additional information regarding minimum hardware requirements for Windows Vista and the Windows Vista logo program in the coming months."
What toleraen said:
Isn't it more accurate to compare the time line of Windows XP to Mac OS X? Both were released around the same time, both are their respective publishers most popular desktop OS, both are currently supported, etc. Yet one has received free updates since release, where as the other has had four $129 software updates since release. Since both companies stopped supporting the older versions of their OS, which would you go with? The OS with free updates, or the OS that has cost you over $500 to stay updated? What you said:
Service Packs != Operating System releases. Just because Apples Marketing monicker is to call them 10.x, doesn't make them mere service packs. Each update actually added functionality that wasn't there before, whereas the SPs added functionality that was supposed to be there in the first place. I think you're both wrong or misleading.
It's freakin' obvious to anyone who uses both operating systems that Windows Service Packs are not equivalent to OS X versions. Windows Service Packs add far fewer "features" than new OS X versions. The features SPs do add would be considered minor compared to the major features added to new OS X versions (although Apple does list many "minor" features in their "300+ New Features" list).
On the other hand, Windows Vista added more major features to Windows XP than OS X Leapord did to Tiger. Of course, Microsoft had a lot more time between Windows versions.
toleraen did bring up a good point about OS updates, but mislead about how much OS X users had to pay to keep updated ("four $129 software updates"). Microsoft's lifecycle policy for Windows versions is: at least 5 years of mainstream support for "home" and "pro" versions, plus an additional 5 years of extended support for "pro" versions (an exception was made for Windows XP "home" versions).
AFAIK, Apple does not have an "official" lifecycle policy, but they provide very few updates for past versions after releasing the 2nd new version after that past version. It is misleading to say that OS X users are required to pay $129 for each new version to stay updated. Skipping one OS X version is perfectly okay if OS X users want to stay supported and updated. Since OS X was released in March 2001, users could have skipped 10.2 and 10.4 and stayed supported and updated.
However, that's nothing compared to the updates MS provides for XP. MS released Windows XP in October 2001 and will provide security updates, non-security hotfixes, design changes, and feature requests until April 2009. They will continue to provide security updates until April 2014.
Um, you do realize that Microsoft has been releasing Vista fixes for months now via Windows Update, right? Fixes don't have to come as SPs or.0.1 updates.
Yeah, but Apple's 10.5.1 update seems quite similar to what MS would call a Service Pack... comparing it to the individual fixes MS releases isnt fair. That is why I even put links into my posts that showed what was fixed (BIG list for each link) - so the comparison to a Service Pack could be made (which is a far more accurate comparison). I don't understand why you keep insisting on comparing a Windows Service Pack to an OS X 10.5.x update. I'm guessing you've never applied a Service Pack.
No software maker except Microsoft. [snip] MS has enough of their own products that people can't live without that they could push almost everyone to use Vista without any help from anybody else. I agree that Microsoft does have a different "required OS" policy than other software companies because they want users to upgrade their OS. Many of their free-as-in-beer apps require the latest version of Windows.
How long until MS puts out some hit game that requires Vista to run? As others have pointed out, Halo 2 requires Vista. However, this seems to be the exception to MS's policy on non-free, revenue-generating applications.
Or how long until they put out a new version of Office that requires Vista? I think never. The last version of Office that required the latest version of Windows was Office 95 (Windows 3.1 was the previous Windows version). Office 2000 supports Windows 95 and 98 as well as Windows 2000 (and later versions). Office 2003 supports Windows 2000 as well as Windows XP (and Vista). Office 2007 supports Windows XP as well as Vista (and probably the next Windows version).
MS makes a buttload of money from Office. They're not going to give up potential Office sales from corporate users that are slow to change their OS.
How long until Visual Studio only runs on Vista? Same as Office (never). Visual Studio 6.0 (1998) supported Windows 95 as well as Windows 98. Visual Studio.NET (2002) and Visual Studio 2005 supports Windows 2000 and XP. Visual Studio 2008 will support Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
Just to know: most of the Windows applications you would use (especially corporate applications) would run just fine on an Windows 2000 Workstation. Are you differentiating "runs just fine" from "supported" and "system requirements?" I've noticed that non-free (non-libre), especially corporate, applications have been dropping Windows 2000 support lately. Of the apps the GP mentioned, the latest versions of these apps do not support Windows 2000: Photoshop, Dreamweaver, MS Office, Internet Explorer, and Quickbooks. As expected, the "libre" software (Firefox and Apache) works with Windows 2000.
Even though Windows 2000 will continue to get security updates and paid support until July 2010, I think the installed base is getting too small to be worth supporting (for many developers). That's a shame (for me) because I enjoy using my Windows 2000/Kubuntu desktop more than my Windows XP notebook.
Screw 'em. I like Opera better than Internet Explorer 7. Foobar2000 over Media Player/iTunes. COMODO Firewall Pro over Windows Firewall. TrueCrypt over BitLocker. AVG/Spybot over Norton/McAfee/Symantec. 7-Zip, IrfanView, Picassa, VLC, Media Player Classic, Quicktime Alternative, QuickPar, ImgBurn, VirtualDubMod, BitComet, Skype, Google Desktop Search,... and that's just some free (beer) stuff available for Windows 2000.
Making a companies core product Vista only would make the company go bankrupt, not increase Vista sales.
Not if that company is Microsoft... Trust me, it's their strategy to eliminate XP just as much as they want to eliminate Linux. In the past, I've noticed Microsoft making their revenue-generating and "pro" apps (like Office) compatible with previous (and future) versions of Windows. Office 2007 works on Vista and XP. Office 2003 works on XP, 2000, and Vista. They want users to upgrade Windows, but they're not going to pass up $150 (Home and Student) to $680 (Ultimate) in Office sales.
In contrast, Microsoft's free or bundled-with-OS products (like Defender, Firewall, Windows Media Player, Movie Maker, Internet Explorer) usually (but not always) require the latest version of Windows. For example, Windows Defender (anti-spyware) and Windows Media Player 10 were not made available for Windows 2000.
However, Windows XP's huge installed base and Vista's relatively slow adoption is changing their policy for some free apps. Media Player 11 and IE7 were obviously designed for Vista, but are compatible with XP. I guess they see revenue from those free apps in the futre. MS just released the free XP-compatible Live Photo Gallery and Live Mail (both better than the Vista versions). I guess these are responses to Picassa and GMail.
Slashdot Mirror
...Does not work with Opera.Not interested.
Microsoft and Opera have supposedly been working together to get Silverlight working with the Opera browser, but I have the feeling that recent events will slow this process down a bit. (For those afraid to click links, Opera has filed an antitrust complaint with the EU.)That's a shame because I'm an Opera man myself. I don't like switching to IE6/7 in Windows for those few sites that need it. However, if Silverlight does catch on, I'm sure Opera will support it (despite the antitrust squabbles).
I will add, if it does not work with Firefox/Linux, not interested.
Will you be interested when it does work with Linux, which it's supposed to do "at the beginning of 2008"?For those interested in Linux/Silverlight info, the Linux version is called "Moonlight" and is being developed by Novell with Microsoft's help.
Tyan and Supermicro, which both focus on the server/workstation market, are the only motherboard makers I've heard about releasing motherboards based on the 5100 chipset. If you trust the Intel brand for reliability, then I think this Intel chipset on a Tyan or Supermicro motherboard might be a decent compromise.
The key to finding "professional/business" notebooks with Windows XP is looking in the "Business" sites, not the "Home & Home Office" sites. Unfortunately, I've noticed most brick-and-mortor stores (even "office supply" stores) don't carry these real "business" notebooks (just "home office" notebooks at best).
Sure, it could, but given the face Google would lose, it seems unlikely they would suddenly pull it.
Exactly. That's like saying Google would launch a service where you could buy videos and then a year or two later pull the service so you can't watch those videos any more.With a company with the size and profile of Google, that just aint going to happen.
I'm assuming you're being sarcastic and suggesting Google screwed its customers after it closed its video store. However, Google "saved face" by giving full refunds for those videos and keeping its DRM service alive for another six months.Given Google's actions after closing their video store, I think The Clockwork Troll makes a good point in the part of the comment you left out:
More likely, they would announce end-of-life months in advance and provide migration tools to popular alternatives.Not to mention, you can always, well, download all your mail, documents, calendar items, etc.
The XPS One's online manual on their support site lists the "viewing angles" as "80 degrees" (horizontal and vertical). This seems to indicate a cheap 6-bit panel, just like the iMac's.
Are you sure you're talking about the right project? According to this article, the "leaked project" that provoked Apple's lawsuit was the Mac Mini, which was presented two weeks later at MacWorld Expo, and needless to say, has most definitely not been canned...
I'm almost certain falcon5768 was talking about Apple's Asteroid project, which was supposed to be a FireWire audio interface for GarageBand. Asteroid was never released and some think it never existed. Asteroid might have been a top secret pseudoproject meant to test the loyalties of Apple employees. The test failed because Think Secret, AppleInsider, and others reported on this project.I'm not sure if Asteroid "started this whole mess," but the Asteroid lawsuit was apparently filed a month earlier than the Mac mini lawsuit.
My brother's Xbox 360 sits (in vertical position) less than an inch away next to a cable modem (also in vertical position) which sits less than an inch away from a D-Link 802.11g router (vertical). I haven't noticed any 802.11g problems from about 30 feet away (one wall in between) while my brother plays using a wireless controller. I haven't done any throughput tests, though.
I hope I'm wrong.
From the 1982 Byte article "Designing the Star User Interface":
I'm not saying Vista with Aero enabled is not a resource hog (especially memory), but I think it's been grossly exaggerated on many highly-moderated Slashdot comments. I do think Vista was released too early and many hardware manufacturers only had flakey Vista drivers when Vista was released. Intel's drivers were fine, though.
I agree that a clean Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 and all Windows Updates is not as secure as it should be without additional sofware. However, Comodo (and others) provides a good free firewall for Windows 2000. AVG and Spybot (and others) provide the needed protection against viruses and malware. Internet Explorer 6 is still getting security updates, but I think most users would be better off with the current versions of Opera or Firefox.
Getting back on topic, Windows 2000 is probably not a good solution for the "low-end PC market" anyway. There's a reason the only client version was called "Windows 2000 Professional." They could make it more usable for novices if they added an XP/Vista style "Security Center" that prompted the user to download free 3rd party firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware software.
Last week I had the television turned on to Fox (I think NFL football) and wasn't paying attention to the commercials. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Summer Glau (speaking in a "not quite right" way) in a promo for a new Fox science fiction-y type show. My hopes shot up through the two apartments above mine.
Could it be true? Is Fox bringing back Firefl...
It turned out to be a promo for Fox's new show Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles . Glau plays a Terminator sent back in time to protect John. That's why she talks "not quite right."
It's a good thing I didn't have a gun in my hand because I think I would have shot my television Elvis-style.
Kaylee: Luh-suh?
Simon: Sorry?
Kaylee: Serenity ain't luh-suh.
Simon: No, I.. I didn't mean...
Kaylee: Yeah, you did. You meant everything you just said.
Simon: Well, no. Uh, actually I was being ironic... so in-in the strictest sense...
Kaylee: You were being mean... is what. And if that's what you think of this life... then you can't think much of them that choose it... can you?
Bender: Pretty annoying, huh Leela?
Leela: (shouting) What? Are you talking? Oh God I'm deaf!
Bender: Oops. I'm so so sorry Leela. I just wanted to annoy you.
Leela: (shouting) What? Oh this is horrible. I won't be able to hear Fry's opera. [She starts to cry. The Robot Devil stands at the end of the corridor watching them.] Robot Devil: Ah how delightfully ironic.
Bender: It's not ironic, it's just mean. Take this! [He blows the airhorn weakly.]
Robot Devil: Ooh! Out of aerosol? Also ironic!
Bender: Oh yeah? Well bite my shiny metal - [He points at where his crotchplate used to be. No ass left to bite.] (shouting) Oh nooo!
1- All explosives are incidaries that induce huge orange fireballs.
My favorite: heroic humans can outrun those huge fiery explosions (and it looks so cool in slow motion).Believe it or not, Netflix digital distribution might be coming to Mac (and maybe Linux) by using Microsoft technology: Silverlight. Silverlight, a Flash competitor, will supposedly bring cross-platform video support to multiple browsers (including Safari and Firefox) and its optional DRM component will supposedly be studio-sanctioned. I say "supposedly" because Windows Media has been available for the Mac for a long time, but I don't remember the DRM component ever being ported. But was it ever promised?
Netflix, Mac, and Silverlight were brought up by "Steve" (who's "responsible for the instant watching feature" on Netflix's site) on Netflix's community blog:
- Instant watching on Mac, Firefox, and more
Of course, Adobe also has a closs-platform, studio-sanctioned DRM video solution planned: Adobe Media Player. Let's see who wins this race.[snip]
When you pull up their laptop page, there are two links. "Customize with Windows XP" and "Customize with Windows Vista". Same price. PlatyPaul replied: Easier than that: if you want an XP-loaded dell, just go here. Just to make things clear, Dell have always (since Vista was launched) offered Windows XP as an option on almost all of their configurable PCs on their "business/education/government" sites. Only their PCs on their "Home & Home Office" site have typically offered Vista as the only OS option. They recently started re-offering XP on some of their "home" PCs due to customer demand.
I think most Slashdot readers would prefer Dell's "Small & Medium Business" site better, anyhoo. Latitude "business" notebooks are better in many ways than Inspiron "home" notebooks. Optiplex desktops and Precision workstations are better than Inspiron/Dimension desktops. Their cheap Vostro business notebooks and desktops have no shovelware/crapware. Latitudes, Optiplexes, and Precisions come with better North American based support.
Also, as others have pointed out, I've always noticed XP as an option for configurable ThinkPads. Most PC makers have always offered XP on their configurable "business" PCs. I guess XP seekers aren't looking in the "business" sections of PC web sites. Unfortunately, most "brick-and-mortor" stores, even big "office supply" stores, don't stock XP PCs.
I appreciated Gabe's argument that reviewers don't play games the same way many of us do, and that the review process is poorly suited for sandbox games. Reviewers play with a deadline, whereas in a sandbox game the point is to take your time, explore, and find cool stuff.
I don't know if you caught Ars Technica's review (by Frank Caron) of Assassin's Creed, but it made a point similar to Gabe's. Caron called it a great, but not perfect, game and in the "good, bad, and ugly" part of the conclusion stated:- The ugly:
- Those currently racing through the game who are missing the point
Ars Technica doesn't review a lot of games, but they don't rush to publish their reviews on the game's release day. Their Assassin's Creed review was published on November 22, nine days after most gaming-oriented sites published their reviews.[snip]
Does anyone know if MS had the same text at launch, if so, then the case is without merit. If you trust articles from Ars Technica's Microsoft-related journal, then Microsoft was defining "Vista Capable" as "at least Home Basic Edition" in March 2006 . Recall that Vista was released to volume license customers in November 2006 and to the general public in January 2007. So this early definition of "Vista Capable" was defined about 8 months before release. They couldn't get too specific about requirements at the time, but they were very similar to the final requirements.
From that March 2006 article:
The Windows Vista Capable program is intended to be used as a way to entice customers into performing an early upgrade to Vista. If a customer sees the "Designed for Windows XP--Windows Vista Capable" logo, then he knows that he can purchase that PC and safely upgrade to some version of Vista in the future. But what exactly are the minimum requirements for a capable computer anyway?
PCs must meet these requirements in order to display a Windows Vista Capable logo:
Still, the requirements just mentioned are required for "good" performance. Nobody is happy just being "good." People want only the best, right? Here's what that's going to take:
With those features in hand, Microsoft says that you should be able to run Aero. According to a Microsoft spokesman, even if the hardware is able to run Aero, that still doesn't necessarily mean that it can run any version of Windows Vista.
It's freakin' obvious to anyone who uses both operating systems that Windows Service Packs are not equivalent to OS X versions. Windows Service Packs add far fewer "features" than new OS X versions. The features SPs do add would be considered minor compared to the major features added to new OS X versions (although Apple does list many "minor" features in their "300+ New Features" list).
On the other hand, Windows Vista added more major features to Windows XP than OS X Leapord did to Tiger. Of course, Microsoft had a lot more time between Windows versions.
toleraen did bring up a good point about OS updates, but mislead about how much OS X users had to pay to keep updated ("four $129 software updates"). Microsoft's lifecycle policy for Windows versions is: at least 5 years of mainstream support for "home" and "pro" versions, plus an additional 5 years of extended support for "pro" versions (an exception was made for Windows XP "home" versions).
AFAIK, Apple does not have an "official" lifecycle policy, but they provide very few updates for past versions after releasing the 2nd new version after that past version. It is misleading to say that OS X users are required to pay $129 for each new version to stay updated. Skipping one OS X version is perfectly okay if OS X users want to stay supported and updated. Since OS X was released in March 2001, users could have skipped 10.2 and 10.4 and stayed supported and updated.
However, that's nothing compared to the updates MS provides for XP. MS released Windows XP in October 2001 and will provide security updates, non-security hotfixes, design changes, and feature requests until April 2009. They will continue to provide security updates until April 2014.
Compare the list of "improvements" (Apple's term) for the OS X 10.5.1 update (25 improvements) and the list of "fixes" for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (more than 800 fixes). Service Pack 2 also added "features" in addition to the "fixes."
Yes, XP SP2 was a biggie as far as Service Packs go. It had been 23 months since SP1.
MS makes a buttload of money from Office. They're not going to give up potential Office sales from corporate users that are slow to change their OS.
How long until Visual Studio only runs on Vista? Same as Office (never). Visual Studio 6.0 (1998) supported Windows 95 as well as Windows 98. Visual StudioEven though Windows 2000 will continue to get security updates and paid support until July 2010, I think the installed base is getting too small to be worth supporting (for many developers). That's a shame (for me) because I enjoy using my Windows 2000/Kubuntu desktop more than my Windows XP notebook.
Screw 'em. I like Opera better than Internet Explorer 7. Foobar2000 over Media Player/iTunes. COMODO Firewall Pro over Windows Firewall. TrueCrypt over BitLocker. AVG/Spybot over Norton/McAfee/Symantec. 7-Zip, IrfanView, Picassa, VLC, Media Player Classic, Quicktime Alternative, QuickPar, ImgBurn, VirtualDubMod, BitComet, Skype, Google Desktop Search, ... and that's just some free (beer) stuff available for Windows 2000.
In contrast, Microsoft's free or bundled-with-OS products (like Defender, Firewall, Windows Media Player, Movie Maker, Internet Explorer) usually (but not always) require the latest version of Windows. For example, Windows Defender (anti-spyware) and Windows Media Player 10 were not made available for Windows 2000.
However, Windows XP's huge installed base and Vista's relatively slow adoption is changing their policy for some free apps. Media Player 11 and IE7 were obviously designed for Vista, but are compatible with XP. I guess they see revenue from those free apps in the futre. MS just released the free XP-compatible Live Photo Gallery and Live Mail (both better than the Vista versions). I guess these are responses to Picassa and GMail.