"completely killed Counter-Strike."
If you were playing Counter-Strike, you have an internet connection. Quit bitching just because they're trying to protect their investment from people who steal software.
As someone who has been playing HL2 for about 3:30 hours already, I can say it's honestly worth the $50.
Dumbshit, get your facts straight.
Steam is Valve's, not Vivendi. Vivendi has their panties in a twist because Steam allows Valve to circumvent the traditional publishing channels and cut out the retailer and the publisher, making it easier for them to get a cut of the money earned by the product they put their sweat, blood, and tears into.
As for playing? You activate once, and then, unless you're retarded, you can play the single player without needing an internet connection. And if you want to play multiplayer, you gotta check with steam...but CD key checks like that have been going on since the days of Quake 3.
If this is really a problem for you, it's because you're planning on pirating the game and this makes it a little harder to do so, not because you're afraid of activating a piece of software you legitimately own.
As for the Maya/3ds debate, I'll assume you've used Max as much as I've used Maya, because I've come to the opposite conclusion because I know Max like the back of my hand, whereas I know Maya can probably do whatever I want it to do, but frequently can't figure it out off the top of my head without reading the help file.
And yeah, I do need CMYK. I'm currently working on a design commission for a 14 page printed book for a school. My most recent job before that was designing business cards for Digitally Imported. If you're a designer, (not a webmaster) you need CMYK. Printed material is growing steadily despite the internet, as people have just grown more hungry for quick information (including away from the computer), Nevermind the fact that not being able to multipurpose a digital thing (some stills from a movie? Hi-rez logos for a web company) into something else (Movie poster? Catalog?) is a major handicap.
I'm glad that your magic job allows you to never consider CMYK, but the majority of the design world has to bow to the fact that they will design things for the multi-billion dollar industry that is printing.
My machine is a beast, true. I've got a 3.2 P4 with HT, 2 gigs RAM, and a RAID 0 Array on 10k RPM platters. (Video Card doesn't matter much for the 2d, as it's all computed on the proc except for rendering screenspace). I have such a beast because when I'm working on something at print resolution and heavily editing things, anything less powerful would be unusuable. Taking a performance hit to run an old version through WINE (I know Wine Is Not an Emulator, but it's close enough in function, at least) and I don't care if the performance hit is reduced if I fuck with the kernel.
I install the latest version off of the CD in Windows XP and it runs at full speed. Across 2 monitors, if I want (which I do.)
Can I raise my hand for each time I've had some zealot tell me about the exciting features of the GIMP while I'm using photoshop?. Because my arm will get tired.
yeah, but if you're using a $200 digital camera, or a $80 dollar scanner, you're going to have hiccups, too. And that's not really acceptable, as the casual user is going to want one of these things. Most of the families that I know that have a family computer but are not computer people tend to have one of these devices to support a hobby, etc.
Running an old version of a piece of software through an emulator when I could be running the current version in it's native environment is not a compelling argument to switch.
When you get to high-end hardware, you don't have problems with Windows drivers. You're not going to have problems with scanners, cameras, or even video cards or graphics cards.
The only time you might have driver problems with Windows is if you're using small-run hardware that is old, as was the case when my friends were working on converting http://muppets.rit.edu to work with a head tracker, glove, and flock-of-birds (spatial motion tracker).
But Linux chokes on a wide variety of hardware that works fine in windows.
"If you use Linux for...servers" THEN YOU ARE NOT A DESKTOP USER. THIS WHOLE ARGUMENT IS ABOUT USING LINUX AS A DESKTOP, NOT A SERVER. It's a fine OS for serving.
This doesn't change the fact that Linux is not as easy to set up as a windows system, nor does it have the software library that windows has. It covers the basics but you'll never get anyone interested in creating graphics, using a digital camera, scanner, digital video recording (as in cameras, not DVR), playing games, etc. interested, because it simply doesn't support that. So, in other words, all the cool things that casual desktop users want to experiment with aren't available. It has e-mail, office, etc...but so does windows and it probably all came with the machine already.
There is no Linux Killer App. There isn't a reason for a casual user to switch to Linux (aside from security, which is not a priority concern for casual users), because there isn't interesting software available, and there certainly isn't anything available to appeal to professionals (outside of secretaries) who deal with computers in non-programming professions (IE, design, print, etc)
Linux does not run 3ds Max or Photoshop, or programs that come close to their functionality (nevermind the fact that I own legal student licenses for both of these programs and that's a further incentive to get my money's worth out of them).
Until it runs graphics software that is aimed at professionals instead of hobbyists and open-source teams making logos for their mp3 player...Linux is not useful to me.
"Well, that point of view is one-sided. The whole thing about spatiality is to provide the user with a real-life-alike interface that keeps objects' state and does not alter the contents of any physical object if not ordered to. Browser mode folder windows violate these rules by replacing physical object (folder, represented on screen by a window) contents with new set of icons every time the user opens a new folder, and not retaining folders' state (view mode, sort order, icon placement)."
Whoever thinks a computer should emulate a file cabinet should trade their compiler for a carpentry set.
Poor interface design requires bullshit defenses like this. Good interface design becomes obvious upon using it.
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"completely killed Counter-Strike." If you were playing Counter-Strike, you have an internet connection. Quit bitching just because they're trying to protect their investment from people who steal software. As someone who has been playing HL2 for about 3:30 hours already, I can say it's honestly worth the $50.
Dumbshit, get your facts straight. Steam is Valve's, not Vivendi. Vivendi has their panties in a twist because Steam allows Valve to circumvent the traditional publishing channels and cut out the retailer and the publisher, making it easier for them to get a cut of the money earned by the product they put their sweat, blood, and tears into. As for playing? You activate once, and then, unless you're retarded, you can play the single player without needing an internet connection. And if you want to play multiplayer, you gotta check with steam...but CD key checks like that have been going on since the days of Quake 3. If this is really a problem for you, it's because you're planning on pirating the game and this makes it a little harder to do so, not because you're afraid of activating a piece of software you legitimately own.
As for the Maya/3ds debate, I'll assume you've used Max as much as I've used Maya, because I've come to the opposite conclusion because I know Max like the back of my hand, whereas I know Maya can probably do whatever I want it to do, but frequently can't figure it out off the top of my head without reading the help file. And yeah, I do need CMYK. I'm currently working on a design commission for a 14 page printed book for a school. My most recent job before that was designing business cards for Digitally Imported. If you're a designer, (not a webmaster) you need CMYK. Printed material is growing steadily despite the internet, as people have just grown more hungry for quick information (including away from the computer), Nevermind the fact that not being able to multipurpose a digital thing (some stills from a movie? Hi-rez logos for a web company) into something else (Movie poster? Catalog?) is a major handicap. I'm glad that your magic job allows you to never consider CMYK, but the majority of the design world has to bow to the fact that they will design things for the multi-billion dollar industry that is printing.
My machine is a beast, true. I've got a 3.2 P4 with HT, 2 gigs RAM, and a RAID 0 Array on 10k RPM platters. (Video Card doesn't matter much for the 2d, as it's all computed on the proc except for rendering screenspace). I have such a beast because when I'm working on something at print resolution and heavily editing things, anything less powerful would be unusuable. Taking a performance hit to run an old version through WINE (I know Wine Is Not an Emulator, but it's close enough in function, at least) and I don't care if the performance hit is reduced if I fuck with the kernel. I install the latest version off of the CD in Windows XP and it runs at full speed. Across 2 monitors, if I want (which I do.)
You don't mind using PS6 because it's not a priority app for you. I use it about 4-6 hours a day. It's a priority app for me.
Can I raise my hand for each time I've had some zealot tell me about the exciting features of the GIMP while I'm using photoshop?. Because my arm will get tired.
yeah, but if you're using a $200 digital camera, or a $80 dollar scanner, you're going to have hiccups, too. And that's not really acceptable, as the casual user is going to want one of these things. Most of the families that I know that have a family computer but are not computer people tend to have one of these devices to support a hobby, etc.
Running an old version of a piece of software through an emulator when I could be running the current version in it's native environment is not a compelling argument to switch.
When you get to high-end hardware, you don't have problems with Windows drivers. You're not going to have problems with scanners, cameras, or even video cards or graphics cards. The only time you might have driver problems with Windows is if you're using small-run hardware that is old, as was the case when my friends were working on converting http://muppets.rit.edu to work with a head tracker, glove, and flock-of-birds (spatial motion tracker). But Linux chokes on a wide variety of hardware that works fine in windows. "If you use Linux for...servers" THEN YOU ARE NOT A DESKTOP USER. THIS WHOLE ARGUMENT IS ABOUT USING LINUX AS A DESKTOP, NOT A SERVER. It's a fine OS for serving.
This doesn't change the fact that Linux is not as easy to set up as a windows system, nor does it have the software library that windows has. It covers the basics but you'll never get anyone interested in creating graphics, using a digital camera, scanner, digital video recording (as in cameras, not DVR), playing games, etc. interested, because it simply doesn't support that. So, in other words, all the cool things that casual desktop users want to experiment with aren't available. It has e-mail, office, etc...but so does windows and it probably all came with the machine already. There is no Linux Killer App. There isn't a reason for a casual user to switch to Linux (aside from security, which is not a priority concern for casual users), because there isn't interesting software available, and there certainly isn't anything available to appeal to professionals (outside of secretaries) who deal with computers in non-programming professions (IE, design, print, etc)
Linux does not run 3ds Max or Photoshop, or programs that come close to their functionality (nevermind the fact that I own legal student licenses for both of these programs and that's a further incentive to get my money's worth out of them). Until it runs graphics software that is aimed at professionals instead of hobbyists and open-source teams making logos for their mp3 player...Linux is not useful to me.
then the future must be awkward and take a while to close when you're done using it.
"Well, that point of view is one-sided. The whole thing about spatiality is to provide the user with a real-life-alike interface that keeps objects' state and does not alter the contents of any physical object if not ordered to. Browser mode folder windows violate these rules by replacing physical object (folder, represented on screen by a window) contents with new set of icons every time the user opens a new folder, and not retaining folders' state (view mode, sort order, icon placement)." Whoever thinks a computer should emulate a file cabinet should trade their compiler for a carpentry set. Poor interface design requires bullshit defenses like this. Good interface design becomes obvious upon using it.