it's still a large download and it still takes a fair amount of time.
True. However an important difference between Windows updates and linux updates, in my experience, is that while Windows updates seem to just pile one upon another (I once ran a small Windows partition and regularly reformatted, reinstalled, ran all the updates, and installed the programs I needed. When I began this pattern the partition size was ample. After some time and a few reinstalls I was seeing 'hard disk full' errors before even getting through the updates on a fresh install.), linux updates replace the package in question with the updated version of the software. And while doing that (in debian-based updates anyway) it tells you exactly how much bigger -- or smaller -- the updated package will be compared to the replaced version.
Furthermore, if a certain package I'm using has been updated even some ridiculous number of times since my particular install CD was released, a single update cycle after install will replace that package with the latest version, as contrasted with the Windows method of having to reapply every layer from 2001 until now.
I have a friend who once worked for monster.ca and he explained in plain terms that it was little more than a front for harvesting their users' personal information for their own purposes.
It wouldn't shock me in the least to discover that monster played an active part in this shenanigan.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the Media Foundation Protected Pipeline or the mysterious mfpmp.exe process mentioned in Peter Gutmann's paper, which he credits with "pegging the CPU at 100% load on startup and then staying at 10-20% CPU during playback".
He quotes one user,
While playing an MP3 file in WMP, I ended the "mfpmp.exe" process, and then sound stopped, but WMP still worked. I then pressed stop in WMP and then Play again and the MP3 file started playing, but this time through wmplayer.exe itself. It probably detected something wrong with the "mfpmp.exe" and fell back to another playback path I think. Can't be sure. A few seconds later, "mfpmp.exe" did appear again, but with 0 CPU usage as the file was playing through WMP. I had to restart WMP in order for the MP3 to play again through "mfpmp.exe"
Kudos to HP for taking the initiative on this, but one must question the validity of any benchmark designed by a corporation that will use the benchmark, whether it will be a true reflection of real world performance and efficiency, or just shine false light on HP's design practices.
If nothing else, maybe this will spur the design of other relevant energy efficiency benchmarks.
the partition utility left far too many unanswered questions
True. I asked the same question when converting a Windows-only machine to a dual-boot.
it's still not user-friendly enough for the mass market.
This is a very Windows-centric conclusion, based on the generally needless assumption that "if it can't work with Windows, then it must not be any good"
Let's have a look at the problem from another angle: What if your computer had only Ubuntu, or BSD, or Solaris, or OS X on it and your friend recommended this great new 'Windows' product to you. How easily do you suppose the Windows XP installer would make it to get your computer dual booting?
Does your XP installer disk offer to repartition your disk and fully explain what will happen to your existing partition, along with the risks?
Does the XP installer detect what OSes are already on the computer and incorporate them into the boot menu?
Does the XP installer offer to import settings from the existing OS?
Will it mount all partitions with read/write support?
The argument that Ubuntu or any other Windows-competing OS is inferior simply because it has failed or threatened to fail to leave every brick of the Windows shrine untouched is both stale and lame.
I am not saying that because I can be productive that everyone should abandon Microsoft and start a project to implement Linux corporate wide.
I don't hate Windows, although I am not a fan of Microsoft as a company. I do give Microsoft credit for creating a product that has changed computing forever. For companies with huge budgets it might make sense to continue down the Microsoft path.
If you take on a pilot, make sure you have a few people on the team who are not married to Windows or Linux. Get some folks with an open mind who are interested in the overall good of the company and are not married to a certain technology.
Some quotes from your sig:
Yes, I am a Microsoft Employee.
Ok, now please go ahead and educate us on bias.
db
Re:DRM isn't supposed to be foolproof
on
The DRM Scorecard
·
· Score: 1
The point of DRM is to annoy and infuriate the average 'consumer' and vilify the 'establishment' in his mind to the point where downloading or copying rental copies of $ITEM, once considered unethical or taboo, is now well justified and deserved.
The war-mongering proponents of DRM and like schemes are their own worst enemy in this battle.
And I can tell you first hand that it has done wonders in bringing broadband into homes that would otherwise have no hope of it. I work for a wireless ISP and without the Alberta Supernet we wouldn't have a business, or at least not on the scale that we presently enjoy, and in the future hope to enjoy. And I can name other small local companies that we compete with who also use the supernet to connect to their upstream provider. All this in an area far too remote to ever blip on the cable or telcos' radar.
Until they smell competition of course. I was not personally involved in our company's struggle to gain access to the supernet, but I have heard first-hand that prying access from the clutched hands of Bell Canada (who are one of these large corporate telco/ISPs, and apparently charged with some maintenance or control of the supernet) was a tooth and nail battle. My advice to Ohioans is to beware how this ubiquitous broadband network -- if it is to be -- will be administered and controlled.
From the viewpoint of Intel, this is actually good practice...they don't want to cause someone's system to lock up.
No. If Intel's only concern in their compiler supporting features such as MMX or SSE on the competitor's hardware was that said hardware might lock up or do something funny, then they would just put a disclaimer on the compiler to let you know that your binaries risk locking up on AMD or any other unsupported hardware.
The only reason Intel bothers disabling code on a cpu which AMD claims to be supported code is to make the end user feel like AMD is much slower than Intel at running this code. This is much more insidious than just writing a compiler to run on your own hardware and letting the competition fend for themselves. It is subtle, it requires more work on Intel's part, and of the discussed hypothetical options, it is the least likely to make the user sit up and say, "hey, this binary that was created using Intel's compiler doesn't work well on my AMD cpu!"
You don't open files often, so you're not a Linux user. Those guys open files like crazy, all the time. Like, everything is a file to them, and then they open it.
And this from a person with chicken nuggets in his/her sig!
Seriously though, I've done enough shopping in enough states to know that if you want good chocolate or good cheese, you can either spend your entire day looking for it, or you can just shell out and buy the imported stuff.
And no, our chocolate in Canada is no better. Our cheese, beer, ice cream and meat, on the other hand...
This is the great AMD paradox. They have always been the darling of those who know, a great portion of whom are open-source users, people who want 64-bit hardware for their 64-bit software. Then AMD gets in bed with a decidedly anti-FOSS gpu company and alienates the better part of their most loyal following.
Slashdot Mirror
Furthermore, if a certain package I'm using has been updated even some ridiculous number of times since my particular install CD was released, a single update cycle after install will replace that package with the latest version, as contrasted with the Windows method of having to reapply every layer from 2001 until now.
db
It wouldn't shock me in the least to discover that monster played an active part in this shenanigan.
db
db
He quotes one user,
db
If nothing else, maybe this will spur the design of other relevant energy efficiency benchmarks.
db
and
Wow.db
Let's have a look at the problem from another angle: What if your computer had only Ubuntu, or BSD, or Solaris, or OS X on it and your friend recommended this great new 'Windows' product to you. How easily do you suppose the Windows XP installer would make it to get your computer dual booting?
Does your XP installer disk offer to repartition your disk and fully explain what will happen to your existing partition, along with the risks?
Does the XP installer detect what OSes are already on the computer and incorporate them into the boot menu?
Does the XP installer offer to import settings from the existing OS?
Will it mount all partitions with read/write support?
The argument that Ubuntu or any other Windows-competing OS is inferior simply because it has failed or threatened to fail to leave every brick of the Windows shrine untouched is both stale and lame.
db
db
Some quotes from your sig:
Ok, now please go ahead and educate us on bias.
db
The war-mongering proponents of DRM and like schemes are their own worst enemy in this battle.
db
Until they smell competition of course. I was not personally involved in our company's struggle to gain access to the supernet, but I have heard first-hand that prying access from the clutched hands of Bell Canada (who are one of these large corporate telco/ISPs, and apparently charged with some maintenance or control of the supernet) was a tooth and nail battle. My advice to Ohioans is to beware how this ubiquitous broadband network -- if it is to be -- will be administered and controlled.
db
Linux has always had an uphill battle ahead of it. And yet it continues to gain momentum on the desktop, despite such flamebait as this. db
Some of Intel's single and dual-port cards plug into 1x and 4x slots, respectively.
db
The only reason Intel bothers disabling code on a cpu which AMD claims to be supported code is to make the end user feel like AMD is much slower than Intel at running this code. This is much more insidious than just writing a compiler to run on your own hardware and letting the competition fend for themselves. It is subtle, it requires more work on Intel's part, and of the discussed hypothetical options, it is the least likely to make the user sit up and say, "hey, this binary that was created using Intel's compiler doesn't work well on my AMD cpu!"
Yes, but what does this have to do with Oprah?
Seriously though, I've done enough shopping in enough states to know that if you want good chocolate or good cheese, you can either spend your entire day looking for it, or you can just shell out and buy the imported stuff.
And no, our chocolate in Canada is no better. Our cheese, beer, ice cream and meat, on the other hand...
This is the great AMD paradox. They have always been the darling of those who know, a great portion of whom are open-source users, people who want 64-bit hardware for their 64-bit software. Then AMD gets in bed with a decidedly anti-FOSS gpu company and alienates the better part of their most loyal following.
noware. I'm no spelling nazi, but that's just plain funny. I like it even better than vaporware.
Of course, if Captain Smith had maintained his course, the whole fracas (or at least the sinking part) might have been avoided...
Where is the obligatory car analogy? If ever there was an appropriate moment...