but all I got was yellow dots You might want to try switching back to IPv4, and shorter host and user names. Sometimes just enlarging the margins will do the job. Of course, YMMV. HTH.
This reminds me of a joke with another simple solution:
A student comes to a young professor's office. She glances down the hall, closes his door, kneels pleadingly.
"I would do anything to pass this exam."
She leans closer to him, flips back her hair, gazes meaningfully into his eyes. "I mean..." she whispers, "I would do... anything."
He returns her gaze. "Anything?"
"Anything."
His voice softens. "Anything?"
"Anything."
His voice turns to a whisper. "Would you... study?"
I'll complete your explanation with the obligatory, yet not-so-far-off-the-truth addition:
1: You need permission to pollute.
2: You get those permissions from the carbon credit markets.
3: You have to buy them at whatever they cost in that market every year.
4: You can sell permissions if you have more than you need. 5: ???
6: Profit!!!
Now, suppose you are one of the teachers that evaluated, and "qualified" the mandriva solution that comes pre-installed on the laptops, and you get this CD that says "Take 200 hours and install this untested, mystery OS on all 200 of your schools laptops, destroying the one you are already familiar with." How likely are you to actually comply? Hey, this looks like a win-win situation to me: Schools get Mandriva systems, government officials get grease money, and suddenly 17.000 copies of Windows show up on eBay!
However, reading that open letter tells me why Mandriva is not, and will never be a major player as long as Mr. Whiner is in charge. The tone seemed more of a bitchfest than anything trying to acquire more people in his court, without actually moving for a change. I don't understand what he thinks he could possibly achieve with this letter. He could get the publicity by just stating the facts, without whining, without accusations, and letting the readers connect the dots. Now he really does sound like a school kid that's been bullied, a cry baby. Without a shred of evidence, this is more like defamation than anything else. And if he actually does have some proof (which I doubt) he'd be better off showing it rather than just spreading rumours.
What do you mean low UIDs pissing contest? I never did that! i swear! oh... wait...:P
(So who's inactive account is going to have to be declared the first dead and resurected/. account?:) Oh, they'll just recycle #53, who's been pretty active in the pissing contest department.
but whilst still wiping all the other software that you've installed that doesn't come with the default installation - if I've spent a year picking this and that out of yast and installing it, so that a bunch of clever gizmos are just there when I come to need them I don't want to be having the whole lot wiped out (because they're not installed in/home) when everything else is re-imaged. And what about stuff that I've compiled from source and had to spend 1/2 a flaming day hunting down the dependencies for because developers STILL can't be bothered to include everything you need in the archive? If you re-image you'll wipe that out. You'll probably also re-image with a new version, so instead of having to find all the pre-compiled bits and move them back into the relevant places so they can be run useably, you'll have to recompile everything as well, and if you have to do that, you'll probably spend forever chasing dependencies down again, or at least making sure to compile each in the right order. I really don't have experience in yast, but I'll warmly recommend to try out Gentoo, if you're not intimidated by the thought of it. There's really not such a thing as a "default installation", but everything you've installed is recorded in the "world file", which is a great help in rebuilding a system. Just save/etc and/home, and you'll get really far. Of course, this has next to nothing to do with re-imaging the box, but for someone like you it might work nicely.
I'm running the stable branch (I don't have enough time for the bleeding edge) and the problems with dependencies have been few and far between. The only piece of software I've needed that I haven't found in Portage (the Gentoo package repository) is Alpine, which is still in alpha stage anyway. Of course, you'll have to compile. And you'll have to compile a lot. But typing './configure', 'make', and 'make install' has pretty much become a thing of the past, 'emerge' does it all for you. And I've never had to move the installed files anywhere. And 'equery' tells you to which package a file belongs to, and which files belong to a package, so you can easily figure that out as well.
Conclusion: The bits of your linux installation that you'll want to save aren't confined solely to/home, they're buried all over the place. at least with windows you can make sure to save all your installation files in one place and back that up as well. You have a point in that/home is not the same as your linux installation, but I'll argue that, for most people, their personal data is way more important than the installation anyway.
Unfortunately, it failed the wife test. She had trouble getting used to the tabbed-browsing in Firefox and was generally unhappy with OpenOffice (in her words, "it just isn't the same"). I think given time she would have gotten used to Fedora, but it wasn't worth listening to her moaning, so I installed XP last night. I can relate, but I didn't give up so easily. I told her she could have her XP or whatever if she bought, installed, and maintained it herself. I wasn't going to touch it with a ten foot pole. That pretty much did it. Of course she still complains to everyone that she can't do x or y because we have this "non-standard operating system" (sic!), but partly she's also happy to tell everyone that she is using Linux too. She was also pretty amazed that I could install some software she needed with a simple 'emerge' spell on the command line.
Personally, I find OpenOffice too much like MS Office: the first thing to do after installation is disabling all those "auto correct spelling while I type" etc. kind of features...
I think that example has more to do with Geek Squad being a revenue stream for Best Buy rather than as a demonstration of how to 'fix' Windows. If Best Buy sold Linux systems, I would bet money that they would use the same method for 'fixing' the boxes they sold with Linux. Except that with Linux it's a breeze to separate/home from the rest of the system, making it possible to re-image the box without wiping all your data.
The ubiquitous nature of windows makes it very easy to fix your machine should something go wrong. Part of it is due to the fact that there are very few versions of Windows, part of it has to do with the vast user base that windows has. Windows easy to fix? You must mean, "Umm, where's that installation CD again?";) I've used Windows 10+ years, Linux 5+ years, and my experience is that Windows is difficult to fix. It's hard to find the root cause for problems, and it's difficult to figure out what can be done to fix the problems permanently. You just hack away and cross your fingers. And boot after every change in settings (okay, this has improved a lot lately.)
Of course, Windows has interesting, non obvious features to prevent breakage, such as automatically reverting any modified system files - which can really be a PITA sometimes.
Very few versions of Windows? NT4, 2K, XP, Vista, server/workstation, home/pro, SP n,...? This hasn't been a good argument for years now.
As to the user base, I prefer quality over quantity. Try asking for help in Gentoo Forums, for example, and you're in for a pleasant surprise.
3. Objective publicity, especially in comparison to Windows.
It is just amazing how much problems Windows users withstand with a shrug of the shoulders, thinking "it's just the way Windows is". It's incredibly acceptable for Windows to have problems. In contrast, any problems average people face with Linux are huge. It's perfectly okay to tell your boss that Windows ate your source code ("Well, shit happens."), but try that again with Linux ("I just knew this would happen.").
It is also common to list some Windows features lacking in Linux, while ignoring cool features never seen on Windows.
English does not use compound words. But Finnish does. A lot. The longest one I know is "kolmivaihevaihtovirtakilowattituntimittari". This appropriately geeky word means three phase alternating current kilowatt hour meter.
Look at it this way: It's his job to say the things he said, right? He chose to say them off the record so that instead of genuinely trying to help, he was just having a bitch session. He then went right back to failing to oppose something he didn't believe in. He was not supposed to say those things on or off the record as a chairman of that meeting, or as a representative of the Finnish Standards Board, which was present as an independent, unbiased observer. What he did have was enough technical competence to understand what was wrong with the proposed standard, and asked if he could present his opinion as a private citizen. He was allowed to do that, and he also repeated that the opinion of the Finnish Standards Board would be the result of the meeting, regardless of his own opinions. In my opinion, he did the Right Thing.
The goal was to reach consensus between all parties while SFS acts as an independent observer. There was no vote, but all parties were given the chance to voice their opinion. If no consensus could be reached, Finland's vote would be "abstension".
Gathered from the above source and others, the opinions were (non-exhaustive list):
Approval:
Microsoft
Novell
Sysopen Digia
Tietoenator
WM-Data
Ministry of Trade and Industry
Ministry of Finance
Customs
City of Helsinki
Disapproval:
Nokia
Sun Microsystems
IBM
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Justice
National Archives Service
National Library
Electronic Frontier Finland
Confederation of Finish Industries
The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities
Centre for Open Source Solutions
Abstension:
F-Secure
Nordea
Tax Administration
After the comments Microsoft representative wanted to know why it was not possible to accept the "approval with comments" option. It was at this point that chairman Lassi Nirhamo of SFS responded "as a private citizen" that the proposal does not fulfill a single requirement set for ISO standards.
At the end, the chairman had stated that it was evident that the corporations disagreed, and that it would've been enough if the state had been unanimous, but as this was not the case, Finland's vote would be "abstension".
And due to outcome of this meeting, Finland's decision wasnt declared due to results of this meeting. To be precise, Finland's vote in ISO will be "abstension" due to the results of this meeting.
Speaking as someone from the same demographics as Linus, I can assure you that he's familiar with the meaning of the word. Newsflash! Two nerds are familiar with wanking.
The scary thing is, I suspect that most Slashdot readers now have wives or girlfriends, and some of them might come to the parties and even bring friends. It's actually beyond that. "I'll come to the/. party if I manage to get a babysitter."
Yeah, and the other half is here posting on Slashdot! Judging by some of the comments seen here I'm confident the intersection of sleepers and slashdotters is a non-empty set.
After thirty minutes of down-time, I grab a cup of coffee and hit the afternoon refreshed, thinking clearly and less stressed. I've found that it gives me the best boost to have the coffee first, and nap before it hits the system. Wake-up and caffeine boost come simoultaneously.
Also, I think thirty minutes is a bit long. An old boss of mine (!!!) taught me this trick: take some metallic object in your hand, such as a keyring, a stapler, whatever. Something that makes some noise but doesn't break when it hits the floor. Once you've fallen asleep and relaxed, the object will fall and wake you up. Works like a charm. Of course, YMMV.
Slashdot Mirror
"I would do anything to pass this exam."
She leans closer to him, flips back her hair, gazes meaningfully into his eyes. "I mean..." she whispers, "I would do... anything."
He returns her gaze. "Anything?"
"Anything."
His voice softens. "Anything?"
"Anything."
His voice turns to a whisper. "Would you... study?"
2: You get those permissions from the carbon credit markets.
3: You have to buy them at whatever they cost in that market every year.
4: You can sell permissions if you have more than you need.
5: ???
6: Profit!!!
Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics :-)
(So who's inactive account is going to have to be declared the first dead and resurected
FTFA:
The laptop is now called the XO, because if you turn the logo 90 degrees, it looks like a child.
It looks more like the symbol on poison labels and pirate ships, if you ask me.
And if you ask me, I'm thinking that if you turn XO 90 degrees, you'll be spilling your fine extra old cognac, which really makes me weep.I'm running the stable branch (I don't have enough time for the bleeding edge) and the problems with dependencies have been few and far between. The only piece of software I've needed that I haven't found in Portage (the Gentoo package repository) is Alpine, which is still in alpha stage anyway. Of course, you'll have to compile. And you'll have to compile a lot. But typing './configure', 'make', and 'make install' has pretty much become a thing of the past, 'emerge' does it all for you. And I've never had to move the installed files anywhere. And 'equery' tells you to which package a file belongs to, and which files belong to a package, so you can easily figure that out as well.
Conclusion: The bits of your linux installation that you'll want to save aren't confined solely toPersonally, I find OpenOffice too much like MS Office: the first thing to do after installation is disabling all those "auto correct spelling while I type" etc. kind of features...
Of course, Windows has interesting, non obvious features to prevent breakage, such as automatically reverting any modified system files - which can really be a PITA sometimes.
Very few versions of Windows? NT4, 2K, XP, Vista, server/workstation, home/pro, SP n, ...? This hasn't been a good argument for years now.
As to the user base, I prefer quality over quantity. Try asking for help in Gentoo Forums, for example, and you're in for a pleasant surprise.
3. Objective publicity, especially in comparison to Windows.
It is just amazing how much problems Windows users withstand with a shrug of the shoulders, thinking "it's just the way Windows is". It's incredibly acceptable for Windows to have problems. In contrast, any problems average people face with Linux are huge. It's perfectly okay to tell your boss that Windows ate your source code ("Well, shit happens."), but try that again with Linux ("I just knew this would happen.").
It is also common to list some Windows features lacking in Linux, while ignoring cool features never seen on Windows.
Alice: Asok, you're coming with me to an important meeting across the bridge.
Asok: Important! My hard work as an intern is paying off. Already I am invited to an important meeting!
Asok (in passenger seat): Hey, we get to use the carpool lane!
Depends. How much does MS pay? Apparently not enough. YMMV.
The goal was to reach consensus between all parties while SFS acts as an independent observer. There was no vote, but all parties were given the chance to voice their opinion. If no consensus could be reached, Finland's vote would be "abstension".
Gathered from the above source and others, the opinions were (non-exhaustive list):
Approval:
- Microsoft
- Novell
- Sysopen Digia
- Tietoenator
- WM-Data
- Ministry of Trade and Industry
- Ministry of Finance
- Customs
- City of Helsinki
Disapproval:- Nokia
- Sun Microsystems
- IBM
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Justice
- National Archives Service
- National Library
- Electronic Frontier Finland
- Confederation of Finish Industries
- The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities
- Centre for Open Source Solutions
Abstension:- F-Secure
- Nordea
- Tax Administration
After the comments Microsoft representative wanted to know why it was not possible to accept the "approval with comments" option. It was at this point that chairman Lassi Nirhamo of SFS responded "as a private citizen" that the proposal does not fulfill a single requirement set for ISO standards.At the end, the chairman had stated that it was evident that the corporations disagreed, and that it would've been enough if the state had been unanimous, but as this was not the case, Finland's vote would be "abstension".
Also, I think thirty minutes is a bit long. An old boss of mine (!!!) taught me this trick: take some metallic object in your hand, such as a keyring, a stapler, whatever. Something that makes some noise but doesn't break when it hits the floor. Once you've fallen asleep and relaxed, the object will fall and wake you up. Works like a charm. Of course, YMMV.
*yawn* wait, what time is it?
I'm sure we could go on and on with this "sure, but did you know" line. I'll still regard the bombings as a war crime and a crime against humanity.