Well comparing ANYTHING to XP would be like comparing the latest Windows to Ubuntu first edition. Hell if it wasn't for military contracts MSFT would have done taken it behind the barn and put a bullet in it. You can't even buy OEM XP anymore, I haven't seen a retail copy in 3 years.
And sorry about start>>>run, I should have been more specific, the numbnuts misquoting me swears to God that we ALL use start>>>run constantly to launch programs. I don't know about you but on machines where I'm not admining? I MAYBE use it once a month, if that, and only to quick call regedit. Which FYI despite the hate registry is YEARS ahead of a bunch of.txt files splattered like a shotgun blast all over the OS. I can shoot a.reg to a client and say 'clicky clicky and reboot" and fix a good 80% of common everyday nigglers. There just isn't anything THAT easy when it comes to Linux, if the user can't run CLI (which a sane person does NOT give normal users admin if they can help it) or can't get the syntax? they're boned. i have seen Linux machines crippled simply because a word was mistyped in the wrong.conf file, a PC shouldn't be THAT easily broken.
Well if you work on anyone but corporate prepare to be in Home, as I'm predicting home Premium WILL be the new XP Pro. With XP there was enough differences to warrant using pro at home, with 7? Frankly there isn't a single feature that can't be done better using third party and a good 95%+ of the features they kept for pro frankly aren't used even by SMBs, strictly huge corps. So I'm seeing small offices all over the place running Home premium simply because its so much cheaper, hell you can get the 3 pack for something like $39 a license.
And there is ONE thing I really really REALLY have a problem with the kernel, and that is a stable hardware ABI. Linus in his arrogance simply won't allow one and its stupid, it could end all the "update foo broke my drivers" mess tomorrow and the ONLY reasons not to have one are arrogance and religious dogma. Again when ALL your competitors, windows, OSX, BSD, even OS/2, ALL have stable ABIs you should ask "Are they doing something right that we're doing wrong?" because for Torvalds to think he is smarter than the kernel teams of a half a dozen OSes put together? just shows how arrogant he truly is. Every argument against ends up boiling down to "ZOMG somebody might make a non free driver ZOMG!" which of course ignores the fact that binary blobs ARE HERE ALREADY and that a stable ABI isn't gonna suddenly change a corporations entire policy towards GPL one way or another.
Ultimately what Linux needs, and I get serious hate for saying this, is a Steve Jobs. Right now its too fractured, too many off doing their own thing, no real direction. it needs a dictator to come in there and say "You WILL get on the fucking ball NOW!" and lead the troops. many say it can't be done because of the nature of FOSS, I think it can. look at Google and how many have jumped on android. Give people a way to make money off what they do? You'd be surprised how many hoops they'll be willing to jump. But I agree that as it is there is simply too much cock waving and bullshit. The clock is ticking, XP is EOL in less than 2 years. The distro that cuts through the bullshit and gives the masses a "clicky clicky" easy peasy solution that runs on the hundreds of millions of machines? Could take some real share. but instead we see the DEs ripping off the worst bling bling of OSX and Windows, getting slower all the time, no real focus, its just a mess. And as someone that makes a living selling machines I can't afford to wait another 5 years while they get their shit together, if they ever do.
That is what amazes me about this if it is true, BOTH Bill and Steve ripped PARC shamelessly and BOTH companies are built upon ripping off others and getting those ideas to market before the other guy (or in the case of MSFT, doing it cheaper).
I think the line in Pirates of Silicon Valley summed it up, Gates to Jobs : "Get real, would ya? You and I are both like guys who had this rich neighbor - Xerox - who left the door open all the time. And you go sneakin' in to steal a TV set. Only when you get there, you realize that I got there first. I got the loot, Steve! And you're yellin'? "That's not fair. I wanted to try to steal it first." You're too late." and NOW he had the brass plated balls to complain about others using the biggest play in his own playbook?
I really have mixed feelings on this though, as you just know none of this would have been said or come out while the man had a pulse. hell let him get cold before we start kicking the corpse. maybe its a southern thing but we usually wait a year before we say anything bad about the dead, before that its just...its just not done. Give the family a year to mourn THEN tell everyone he was an asshole, what's wrong with that? Its not like folks won't still read it.
Actually that don't work here as the local cops are chickenshit. I only wish I'd have saved the paper that was put out a couple of years back, we all just about died laughing at what the POed reporter managed to get in there. Some thug robbed the local mini-mart and our cops thought they were gonna get to do some head cracking but didn't know Mr thug had a 12 gauge. They actually put in the paper that "After the suspect pulled his shotgun and fired the suspect headed east while the police headed west and contact with the suspect was lost". LOL!
Actually if you want to know what is generally the cause of Windows being slow its all that OEM trialware crapola that gets loaded onto a machine before you ever get it. I consider the new Asus EEE I got pretty light in that it only had nine extra things running at startup, of which only two I found useful (hybrid engine and Asus Hotkey) whereas I've seen as many as nineteen on some dells and HPs. That is why PC Decrapifier is a handy tool to have around.
The second thing that slows Windows down is what I call "granny services" which thankfully MSFT is FINALLY fixing in Windows 8. granny services are the services that MSFT or the OEMs have running to keep granny from calling tech support. That's support for cameras and scanners,media sharing services, etc. It took them a fricking decade but they are finally gonna have services launch by trigger instead of the usual auto/manual crap.
I only hope the new services setting is backported to Windows 7 as many of us have settled into Windows 7 and won't be making the switch for quite awhile. I know in my case i've just finished getting the last of my customers moved off of XP and I doubt seriously any of them will be too keen on jumping onto a new OS next year. With Windows 7 being supported until 2020 it could become the new XP, which while i'm sure that wouldn't make MSFT none too happy without a killer app to make all these multicores obsolete I just don't see folks switching every couple of years like we did in the 90s. Back then thanks to the MHz wars it was worth your while to switch thanks to the huge increases in performance, but now? Frankly any dual core is "good enough" for the majority of the things your average Joe is doing with a PC.
So while I'm happy that MSFT is FINALLY listening to users and making speed a priority I have a feeling windows 8 adoption will be even slower than 7 was. Anybody who has gotten a new PC in the past 4 years frankly has more than enough power to do whatever they want. Why would they switch? Frankly if the best reason they have is Metro and a few speed increases they are gonna be looking at some slow adoption rates IMHO. For most of the new machines I've seen in the end its the HDD not the OS that ends up the bottleneck anyway.
Ever been to MS? How about AZ? I hate to break the news to ya pal but racism, Alive and well. I even have a nice one inch scar on the back of my head from a cop that said, and I quote "Fucking niggers and God damned worthless hippes, I don't know which I hate more". Our crime? A white guy driving a black friend in the wrong state. didn't matter that the black was a Baptist minister, as far as that cop was concerned he was a worthless nigger and I was most likely a "race traitor" for association.
So I hate to burst you bubble but "states rights" was what the excuse was during the civil war, and in case you haven't noticed you can replace the word nigger for wetback and get a LOT of folks on board. It always happens during a depression, IIRC lynching went up in the 30s as well.
Hell don't believe ME friend, go to ANY Yahoo story about Mexicans or blacks and see the amount of sheer hatred. Then remember you're only getting about 1/20th the actual effect since they police their boards and remove the most obvious racist comments as quick as they can. But don't worry even with the policing they'll be plenty of hate for you to enjoy.
Must not be on a laptop then, as I have found exactly ONE distro that worked OOTB on wireless and sadly Ubuntu wasn't it. Xandros Linux worked OOTB on all four laptops I threw at it, but since it was $89 an install and Windows 7 HP is like $35 when you buy the 3 pack it ended up being pointless.
And I don't know how many times I can say this, you seem to be a nice guy so I'm gonna assume its not on purpose. You yourself admit you're an admin, yes?that's fine, hell I use CLI for IPConf, but you know what? NOT TALKING ABOUT GEEKS here, because Linux has ZERO growth factor for geeks, the geeks that want it already have it, those that don't? Happy where they are.
I'm talking about the people i work for 6 days a week, your mailman, your landlady, the checkout girl at the grocery store. Now be honest somersault , do you think any of those folks have EVER used start>>>run for anything? Hell most late model XP Dells didn't even come with start>run in XP Home and NOBODY noticed. Did you? I didn't until I needed to IPConf and had to remember to go use the GUI because the start didn't have it. It does show though how little that's used by home users when many PCs don't even have it and nobody notices.
And I still stand by my statement that for home users there is NO CLI in windows, it doesn't exist. they don't use it, they don't need it, you could strip it out tomorrow and nobody would notice. Now compare that to Ubuntu, go to their forum and ask for a NON CLI solution to ANY problem, see what you get. you'll get insulted, you'll get cursed, you'll get treated like shit by elitist fucks.
Here is my other little test that shows, at least for retail, Linux isn't ready. Take ANY distro, your choice friend, download the ISO from 5 years ago (that would be Ubuntu 6 if you use Ubuntu i do believe), get everything working, NOW upgrade it to current, see how much is broke. I had exactly ONE, count 'em one, PC survive two upgrades, NONE survived upgrading to current with 100% hardware working, not one. Hell don't take MY word for it, how do you explain Dell have to run their own repos even though we are talking a teeny tiny subset of hardware? Its because everybody cranks out new code without bothering with even basic QA friend, that's why. Expecting a minimum of 7 years frankly ought to SOP, hell even Vista is getting 5+ and nobody bought it.
In the end I think the problem with Linux is threefold, 1.-the elitist assholes that think CLI gives them gonad powerz and all that don't want to learn Bash commands must be idiots. yeah I don't see them loading their kernels with punch cards, do you? And why aren't their apps in ASM, after all ALL languages since ASM has been to make things easier, get PEEKing and POKEing!
2.-Can't see the forest for the BS. As I said there is this great new thing that could put Linux in front of millions without even them knowing! Its fast, simple, easy, gives them MORE battery life or in the case of desktops lets them surf or enjoy media with SSD speed, yet the community ignores it. And for what? Every other attempt has failed miserably, Linux is flatline, same numbers this year as last, the only real gains are coming from dictatorships that want to do a China and put "Red Flag watch your ass" Linux on everything. with Expressgate/Splashtop you could actually do what the community has wanted for years, put Linux in the hands of millions, but because it is easy? See reason 1 as to why it won't get traction.
3.-the final nail in the coffin, one I can't see an easy way to fix, the "busted shitter" problem. everybody wants to be the guy who makes the cool discovery, everybody wants to be the star, how many want to fix busted shitters? try NONE. this is why Apple and MSFT have to pay out millions to coders, because bug fixing and serious documentation and QA? Its all slow, long, boring as watching flies fuck and thankless work. MSFT and Apple PAY to get that work done
BWA HA HA HA HA...oh wait, you were serious? BWA HA HA HA HA HA...you must not have had to deal with the cops very often. When my sister's checks were stolen the place that cashed them wrote the perps DL number on the checks and what did the cops put down? "Chance of solving...0%". I guess having to you know, get up, walk to the PC, put in the numbers, man that is just too much damned work. The sad part? the ONLY time I've ever seen local cops do their jobs is when there was potential for profit for them. true story:
My late sis live across the street from a gal that was getting battered. Restraining order didn't do shit, average police response time? FOUR HOURS. the last time put her in the hospital and with it escalating sis called me for help. I went to the gal and said "Here is how you solve the problem, you say the "D" word. When he starts beating on the door you call the cops and tell them you think he's high and has a bunch of drugs on him". she didn't believe me but promised to try it. Well sure enough next Saturday rolls around and here comes Mr Abuser. She says the "D" word. police response time? FOUR MINUTES and TWO squad cars. After they tore his truck to the frame and didn't score they were soooo pissed they threw the book at him, every single violation they could think of. He got something like 9 year all told.
so yeah, I kinda doubt law enforcement has jack shit to do with it, more likely they have never met a tax they didn't like and what to make sure they can squeeze the poor down in LA for every single shekel they can get. Frankly wouldn't surprise me with the asshole politicians we have in this country." Screw civil liberties, we need MORE MONIES nom nom nom!"
And if Alabama said "Nigger hunting season starts Saturday" would that be cool as well? After all its states rights to decide who they want and who they don't yes? don't forget it was just 40 years ago that a black could have their head bashed in for drinking at a fountain with the wrong sign on it. don't think it could happen now? Replace nigger with wetback and you'd be surprised how many would be happy to go along.
Uhhh...how EXACTLY will there be "public outrage" when the public will never hear about any of it? You think if it was more than hippies on Wall Street your ass would hear shit? it would be "some crazy nuts were rounded up today, next on Dancing with The Stars" and THAT would be all she wrote friend. We have 'free speech zones" now, or have you forgotten? that keeps the rabble away from the camera. if you get too uppity you better hope you aren't in Constitution-Free Zone or your ass can just disappear pal, no rights officially there.
so until the American people are ready to turn their Fords into technicals like our friends in Libya did I'm afraid you won't be getting very far. As long as the top 1%ers can make great profits off this crap you and the rest of us have ZERO say in the matter. After all look how many said NO to the bailouts, NO to going and starting a third war, NO to leaving our troops in the desert, but did they listen? They frankly don't give a fuck WHAT you think friend, you'll be given the choice of "rich insider corporate ass kisser" A or B and you damned well better like it!
Ever since the whole VLC debacle I have been wondering about that. How EXACTLY does contribution and rights fit under GPL? Can a single guy hold the whole thing hostage like with VLC, or is there a way to outvote them? Maybe Sun had the right idea with their "You give up rights to the code you contribute' clause because as desktops give way to mobile this could turn into a real sticky situation.
Because, and correct me if I'm wrong, no expert on GPL licenses, but as I understand it if I wanted to make sure a FOSS application didn't get into the major app stores all I'd have to do is pay an employee to contribute to the code and then have them throw a living shitfit if the appstore didn't follow the EXACT letter of the law when it came to the GPL, which from what I understand none of the major app stores do, am I right? Isn't that what happened to VLC?
I KNEW IT! Once you know what to look for you can spot that Intel POS compiler a mile away! The difference is in load times, with the Intel compiler ANY math heavy code, or code that SHOULD be sent to the GPU? Runs like absolute shit on AMD CPUs thanks to their purposely crippling the code and forcing it to run in x87 mode, which hasn't been supported as a mainstream codepath since 1995. I honestly don't understand (except maybe for bribery) why Intel hasn't been busted under antitrust, I really don't. What they have done is EVERY BIT as bad as the "Windows isn't done unless lotus won't run" and in fact WORSE, since everyone could easily see with lotus it was Windows causing the problem since the program wouldn't run. With the Intel compiler it ACTS like the program is working when in reality it is purposely hamstringing every single application compiled so that it runs like shit on any AMD or Via. BTW did you know it cripples for Atom too? That is how they upsell their Celeron and Pentium low end chips. Sorry fuckers.
But when it runs okay on a P4 (they heavily optimize for that POS) but runs like ass on a much newer AMD? Its the Intel compiler. This just adds one more reason to the "Don't use Firefox" list as I won't have a browser that requires certain CPUs just to function. To me that is just as dumb as MSFT tying new versions of IE to only certain OSes. If it is not been EOLed it SHOULD run, period. But I could tell they went to the Intel compiler around the 3.5 branch as everything before that ran okay, everything after ran like it was underwater. stupid move Moz, stupid move.
Re:Nice distro but they messed up the desktop
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Ubuntu Turns 7
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If you are on a laptop try Vector Linux. I've slapped it on a couple of old Dell laptops and it is quite snappy. You'll have to fiddle with the WiFi of course, but I haven't seen a Linux where you didn't have to fiddle with the WiFi. The nice thing is they have 6 versions, so you can pick one as heavy or as light as you like. Oh and they have KDE classic which is nice.
But here is what I don't get, the community FINALLY has a Linux that could gain some real share, and could even end up on the majority of computers, and its being completely ignored. I'm talking about Expressgate/Splashtop which if you've tried it you know its a game changer. No fiddly, no CLI, no update/upgrade mess, just 6 seconds and you are on the web, bam! And you don't have to "convert" anyone since they don't have to be either/or as the nice thing about EG/ST is its built into the system so you simply have two buttons, one button if you want Windows, the other button if you want the web. Oh and it adds a good 20-30% on the battery life as well.
So you have this truly great new thing, its fast, its easy, it costs the OEMs virtually nothing, and with support of the community you could have it one practically every consumer machine and yet its ignored. i honestly don't get it. If the community would get behind writing apps for it it could be fricking huge but instead everyone gives all the press to Ubuntu when Canonical seems to be going out of their way to piss people off. is there ANYONE not on a tablet that like Unity? It would be like going back in time and giving the community the latest Android, all wrapped in a pretty bow, only to get told "Nah, we think this WinCE thing is gonna be big!". Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, its just nuts.
Of course thanks to the drooling fanbois I'm sure to get modded down for not speaking the standard line, so for their benefit I'll give it to them: "Gee Biff, isn't Ubuntu sweel? it sure is chip, and RMS' farts smells like roses and cure the hole in the ozone!".
You want to know why I say what I do about Linux? I'm SICK OF THE BULLSHIT. i'm sick of the fucking delusional logic hoops where some dipshit actually tries to argue that users in windows use start>>>run to launch programs (seriously have you EVER met even a fucking admin that uses start>>.run for shit in Windows) and arguing that "Linux is a drop in replacement for Windows" while ignoring you HAVE to learn CLI. Now be honest somersault , you can NOT tell me that with a 6 month upgrade cycle you NEVER needed CLI to fix something broken in Ubuntu, tell the truth now, be honest.
If you like Linux the way it is? I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT, I really don't. What I DO have a problem with is the fact the community refuses to allow the users to have CHOICE in the matter. You should be able to use CLI if you WANT to but you should never HAVE to. That's the way it is in OSX and Windows, everything can be done either way, YOUR choice. you can Powershell or script the whole OS if that melts your butter, or you can clicky clicky your ass off YOUR choice.
But don't take MY word for it, see for yourself somersault , go to ANY forum and say you are having a common problem, lets say a drive issue. Now as for a NON CLI solution, and see what happens? I'll tell you what happens, they'll call you every filthy name in the book and accuse you of being "an M$ Ninja!" for DARING to ask for a GUI, try it yourself and see.
That is why I say there are TWO kinds of Linux people, there is the Linux user (like you yourself seem to be) and then the is the FOSSie, which like a Moonie has drunk the koolaid so heavily they convince themselves that Windows BSODs 3 times a day and users use start>>>run to launch programs.
But in the end its simple, you give the users what they want or they WILL ignore you. Know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Linux has been CLI heavy since its inception and where is it? dead last. Hell it isn't even gaining share in servers in fact it is LOSING share, because as a Linux admin told me "If you put a Linux admin and a Windows one and give them a task that the Linux guy has done repeatedly then the Linux guy WILL win. If you give them both a task NEITHER has done? Then the Windows guy will be at home making a sandwich before the Linux guy is done Googling" and it is THAT, that right there, which is why CLI is as dead as bell bottoms and disco.
In the end you just can't change the nature of the interface, CLI is designed for repetition and copypasta and a GUI rewards exploration. Now how many times in the modern web based world do you think repetition and copypasta into a term is useful? For the masses? Very damned few friend.
The bitch is the Linux world has this wonderful thing that could actually gain share, not the desktop, it sucks. No I'm talking about Expressgate/Splashtop. Instead of getting rid of Windows you simply go around it and gain by oiffering users CHOICE, Windows for when they need Windows apps, but when all they need is the web? 6 seconds from button push to web, all clicky clicky easy, no muss, no fuss. But instead everyone will ignore for the latest Ubuntu crippled cheetah or whatever which will go NOWHERE fast. Its like going back in time with plans for the iPad and being told by the community "No thanks, we think this CueCat thing is gonna be a hit!". You just wanna pound you head against the desk at the stupid.
Awww...is the poor wittle Lunix Luser getting butt hurt he is STILL in last place and getting beat down by JavaME which is a shitastic cell phone OS? NEWSFLASH STUPID: You don't give the people what they want? THEY WILL IGNORE YOU. And hey guess what? That is EXACTLY what they have done! Now lets let everyone enjoy your daily dose of fail, shall we fucknuts?
Isn't it sad, how like a frightened child afraid to look under the bed, you cower at the truth? if your driver model isn't shit then why does Dell have to run their own repos even though we are talking a teeny tiny subset of hardware? Oh right because Linux shits itself and dies if you use the default repos! Man that is some excellent product you got there! you think I can get better QA than the third largest OEM on the planet? What, you expect me to tell paying customers "Go to the forum, kiss some loser ass, and maybe, just maybe, in a few days someone will have mercy and give you a big pile of bullshit that may or may not make your sound work again"?
You see you whiny little delusional mama's boy, I'm your worst fucking nightmare...a retailer that still believes. I believe that the community doesn't have to take Torvalds shit sandwiches, I believe that things can be made better, I believe Linux can be something for more than douchebags like you that will happily take a cock slapping from linus as long as you can say you are sticking to "teh man". I believe that there can be Linux boxes on actual shelves and penguins on boxes.
So you go hide now mama's boy, you hide with your Tux blankie and keep saying your magical nigger nigger faggot, or should I say shill shill astroturfer, like it is a magical word that will make all the bad go away. But it won't change reality and the reality is your driver model is shit and more than 15 years behind everyone else and that is why retailers like me wouldn't piss on it, not some mythical money truck that sneaks up to my door in the middle of the night. So go compile something and leave the men to talk about the real world, okay little girl?
Thanks for the info. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a cell phone/tablet guy which is why I asked. I've been too busy with the new netbooks and desktops to really spend more than a VERY limited time looking at the cell phone side (most folks here just take whatever they get with their contract) and when added to the time being sucked up by my new plaything (EEE 1215b) I just haven't been able to keep up.
BTW if anybody hasn't tried the new Brazos EEE netbooks? Man that baby ROCKS HARD! It has expressgate instant on NetOS (Linux based) AND Win 7 X64, its like having TWO netbooks, a ChromeOS style for just the web and a full on Win 7 for when you need the heavier apps. Oh and it supports 8Gb of RAM and has hardware virtualization for those that like running VMs. I maxed mine out with the full 8Gb and with a netbook sleeve the whole thing was just $340 shipped. Man this little baby is fun!
But thanks for the info, I'm sure when decent tablets hit the sub $150 mark I'll need to look into them and knowing that Android based are easily tweaked is a nice thing to know. Right now the folks here just don't seem that interested, most have laptops/netbooks and just use an iPhone when they don't want to carry their lappy. I may not care for them but I have to give old Jobs credit, I even see little old ladies playing with those damned iPhones. But they have started carrying the HTC Android cell phones as part of the local plans so I wouldn't be surprised if their usage starts going up.
So in other words its a "sorry about your penis" thing. typical Linux crap. You know what the problem I have with linux is? Its not guys like you, they accept they have a fiddly little bitch of an OS and they like it that way. No its the "Linux is ready for the desktop!" types that when you point out HOME USERS ARE NOT LIKE YOU will NEVER deal with CLI, learn bash, read man pages, do the "find the fix" forum dance, etc then start coming up with logic hoops that they insist that by jumping makes Linux and Windows equal.
There is a numbnuts around here that goes around quoting HALF of one of my sentences like that is "proof" that I don't know what I'm saying. he took the second half of this sentence " AS FAR AS THE USER IS CONCERNED THERE IS NO CLI IN WINDOWS and thinks by showing only the "there is no cli in windows" part that somehow proves something other than many Linux users are delusional. I still stand by the statement, as far as users are concerned? CLI doesn't exist. you could remove it from ALL OSX and Windows machines tomorrow and most users? Would never ever notice. it simply isn't needed.
As far as virus scans? i run it once a month just for the hell of it, but frankly i haven't seen a virus either since Win9X and IE. With Windows 7 thanks to ALSR, DEP, sandboxing, etc it actually takes a fair amount of work to even get a virus to the point a virus scanner can actually DO anything, most never make it even THAT far. Add in ABP? Frankly it will spend its time knitting doilies. with the exception of the rare zero day nasty that manages a NON ad based method of attack, which frankly i haven't seen in ages, ALL viruses nowadays are PEBKAC, and thanks to Win 7 even PEBKAC has been cut waaaay the hell down. In a way its bad for guys like me as we feel like the Maytag repairman as folks just don't get infected like they used to, but I keep busy with new builds and hardware upgrades so it all evens out in the wash.
So if the last time you used Windows was 2K/XP you really ought to give 7 a spin, its really quite good. Not only do you get ALL the major FOSS apps AND all the Windows apps but the combo of superfetch and readyboost is really sweet and nothing similar except for a few bad hacks has been implemented in Linux yet. Superfetch is intelligent prefetching, so the longer you use the OS the smarter it gets, so it knows WHAT you launch and WHEN you usually launch it and will have it waiting on you in RAM, and readyboost turns any HDD into a hybrid by moving most small read/write I/O ops to a flash based drive and leaving the HDD for sequential reads. quite sweet and great for netbooks!
The funny part is playing with new systems there is a bright future for Linux with home users IF and only IF the community would jump onboard this amazing new tech. i'm talking about Expressgate/Splashtop. if you haven't tried it its brilliant. When you need Windows you push the Windows button, when you just need the web? You have A/V, web, chat, and email, all in just 6 seconds from button press to running and adding 2 hours (at least in my exp) to battery life. if the community would get behind writing apps for it you could have a Linux based OS on every new machine, but instead they'll just waste time on flamewars and Ubuntu masturbating monkey or whatever the hell the latest one is. To me it would be like going back in time with the iPad plans and being told "No thanks, we think this CueCat thing is gonna be a hit!"
What OS? What make CPU? What speed HDD? How much cache? all of these things I've found make a BIG difference in FF, in dragon? Not so much. In fact the ONLY customer I didn't have complaining about FF speed (and all are updated to current,7.01) was the customer who had me replace his drive with a 7200RPM with 32mb of cache. on THAT drive its fast. 5200 and 5400RPM drives? its horrible. And while I don't know what that test you linked to is supposed to show, i know that on my customer's FB pages FF runs like ass, and often won't load half their apps, whereas Dragon? snappy and quick to load. So that test doesn't really jive with what my customers are running so it really isn't much help.
Myself as well as several of my customers use Samsung EcoDrives for OS drives, as they really cut down the heat and the large cache generally makes them faster than most 5400RPM drives again EXCEPT for FF. With FF you can launch it a dozen times, it'll be just as slow to launch the fifth time as the first. dragon by comparison is instantaneous after the first launch and damned near instant on the first launch.
I have also found that FF doesn't seem to like AMD CPUs very much, at least on windows. i have to wonder if they are using the Intel compiler which cripples any program compiled with it when run on AMD CPUs. It also seems to fair better on linux, possibly again a compiler issue. since i refuse to sell Intel CPUs since it came out they were bribing OEMs? that kinda makes for a problem.
So while I have no doubt your experience is vastly different than mine, as i've pointed out at least with FF hardware and OS can make a BIG difference. In fact on the older AMD XP boxes I've found anything over 3.6 to be frankly unsable. it simply slams the CPU too hard and can't even run the most low res flash videos, whereas again Dragon has no problem.
while i'm no browser developer I WOULD love to know EXACTLY what they are doing as far as a compiler, which one, what use flags, etc. Because i have a feeling a lot of what many of us have experienced with FF can be traced back to the compiler, like I said I wouldn't be surprised if they were using the Intel "crippletastic" compiler which makes FF simply unusable on AMD CPUs.
I have a question....what good will it be to get the source? The way I understand it, correct me if I'm mistaken, is that Android is using GPL 2 correct? And that there is no requirement to share driver source or anything BUT the kernel. Now considering these devices are as proprietary as the desktops used to be in the 80s how EXACTLY is one gonna find the source useful? Without the drivers these things are bricks, correct?
So I just don't get it, claiming Android is "open" without any requirements for drivers seems to me to be about as useful as claiming Apple is open because you can download Darwin. Without all the other bits one can't really do much with it, can they?
And who says they can't be hot as hell? There is a reason that we have the word MILF in our vocabulary folks, that is because a confident woman that knows her way around the bedroom and takes care of herself can be every bit as hot as the bambi bimbette. Personally having tried both? Give me the MILF as bambi tends to be fiddly and fumbly and not really comfortable or knowing what to do, whereas the MILF will ride your ass like a rollercoaster.
sure bambi might score you a little more status when you walk into a room, but when it all gets down to brass tacks? The MILF will know every trick in the book and will make sure you and she both have a damned good time.
And I think it sucks nobody gives old Bill credit for that. Sure he had selfish reasons but there is a good chance we wouldn't have AAPL as we know them now if it wasn't for MSFT. Look at the stories written about Apple then, it was being labeled a corpse, stick a fork, its done. By coming out on that telecast with Jobs and saying "We think Apple has a bright future and we're gonna support them with MSFT software" and buying those stocks he calmed a spooked market and gave many developers a reason to think writing software for Apple could be profitable. After all if MSFT was writing software for Apple surely they are expecting a profit, right?
As for TFA Ballmer screwed the pooch, not by failing to finish a frankly waaaaay overpriced deal, but by buying the search and NOT the golden egg of Yahoo which was and is webmail. Look at the numbers folks, that is over a quarter of a billion unique users and double what Gmail has in the US. It is THAT which Ballmer should have been after, not search. Just another example of why Ballmer is a piss poor CEO IMHO.
Actually Yang may end up with the last laugh, as it is pretty common knowledge that he has wanted his company back and the collapse may allow him to take Yahoo private again which seems to have been his main goal all along.
And let us not forget that the REAL value of Yahoo was NOT search but webmail which MSFT did NOT get and which if you'll read the stats I have provided shows that Yahoo has DOUBLE the users Gmail has. That is a hell of a lot of eyeballs for ads friends. If he can take it private and capitalize on those eyeballs he'll make out like a bandit.
Yep and I HATE it. No easy ABP style functionality, and waaaaaaaaaaay too many bugs out there specifically targeting IE. As someone who actually has to fix the things after they get infected you'd be surprised how many bugs come back to IE, and IE is the biggest target simply because as you note too many corps insist on IE only, making IE a juicy target rich with opportunity.
So I'm sorry Billy but before i'd switch my users to IE i'd write my own browser. IE is too big a target, too much malware, too much of a PITA to selectively remove ads (one of the biggest sources of malware) and frankly go to ANY security forum and look at how many warnings they have for IE, even the latest. It is just unreal. I'm glad i don't have to deal with IE only corps anymore and feel sorry for those that do, its just not a good browser. its STILL tied too damned closely to the OS (look at how the latest version won't run on XP and Vista, I hear the one for Win 8 won't run on Win 7, know why that is? TOO MANY OS HOOKS) which is a Titanic sized stupid design choice.
The browser frankly shouldn't give a shit WHICH OS its run off if its suitably isolated as long as the GPU supports the drawing features it requires. they simply don't know how to build a browser anymore, its an OS application that renders HTML. BAD design.
Uhhhh...don't you know? Okay I guess a history lesson is in order. According to the constitution it is SUPPOSED to be the government, but on dec 23, 1913 (which they chose since most legislators would be gone and they could bum rush it) they gave away the right to print money to Federal Reserve which is about as federal as my wiener. It is the top money men, many from Goldman Sachs. In fact you'll see a revolving door between GS and the fed going back decades.
So to answer your question a bunch of bankers who can choose to listen to the government or choose to tell them to get stuffed, their choice.
And do you see ANY directors using sound as an effect? Or color? That would be a NO. As I said we have ONE, count 'em ONE director that has ANY real grasp of the medium. How many 3D movies have come out now that were variations on the "Boo!" shit jumps out at you?
Again it takes incredible skill to use this medium for ANYTHING that isn't "boo!" and lets be honest friend: If they haven't gotten it in 50+ years? They probably won't get it ever. Even a hack director can make a beautiful scene with vivid color or rich sound, but 3D ends up being used as a gimmick because most directors don't have any use for it and again its the MONEY MEN who tell the director "your new flick? Better be 3D buddy" and NOT the director saying "I could make this better if I had 3D". and THAT is just a bad way to go friend, any way you slice it.
And when the ONE, count 'em ONE, director who has ANY real skills with the medium says its a cheap gimmick and would prefer the resources be spent on 60FPS instead? That doesn't really give one faith in the medium, now does it? But don't take MY word for it, Google it yourself and see what Cameron says on the subject.
If I don't have any extensions, then why would I just not use IE or Safari? That is like saying "Porsche is a gas hog but if you remove the engine why it gets incredible gas mileage!". BTW I ONLY have the SAME extensions on BOTH browsers. Both Dragon and Firefox have Adblock Plus and ForecastFox and THAT'S IT.
So the fanbois can mod down even though I'm reporting what I've seen with my very own peepers but it won't make black white nor will it make FF anything but slow as Xmas. same extensions, same OS, Dragon blows the doors of FF which seems to get slower to launch with every version, and unless you are running multicore (which I've found on multicore if you have less than a quad be ready for 100% CPU usage) it WILL make the entire machine unresponsive when launching new tabs and you can't even watch low res SD flash video without it being a slideshow. compare this to Dragon (again SAME extensions and OS) where no tab hits more than 70% and SD video plays smooth as butter, even on a 1.8GHz Sempron.
So I'm sorry Robbie but FF is going to crap. hell look at the numbers, folks just don't switch browsers willy nilly, it is often a PITA to re-learn all the little quirks and is irritating so folks don't switch until something becomes unbearable to them. for me it was time to launch and new tab generation which frankly after FF 5 became truly horrid on anything less than a high GHz multicore.
But hell don't take MY word for it Robbie, try it yourself. i'm sure like most geeks you have an older PC lying around, maybe something in the 2GHz without HT? If not simply disable cores until you are running single core, then compare FF and Dragon, or hell FF and anybody. you'll find FF is slower to load, slower to make new tabs, and if you bring up task manager (or if in Linux whatever the Linux equivalent) you'll find FF slams the living hell out of the CPU compared to other browsers. When finding something to replace FF (Because my users who typically don't have any extensions except ABP were bitching at me about how slow it was) I tried Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Dragon. Every. single. One. had better usage, both in CPU slamming and in new tab generation, than FF. don't believe me friend, try it yourself, its pretty dramatic, especially when compared to Opera and Dragon.
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Well comparing ANYTHING to XP would be like comparing the latest Windows to Ubuntu first edition. Hell if it wasn't for military contracts MSFT would have done taken it behind the barn and put a bullet in it. You can't even buy OEM XP anymore, I haven't seen a retail copy in 3 years.
And sorry about start>>>run, I should have been more specific, the numbnuts misquoting me swears to God that we ALL use start>>>run constantly to launch programs. I don't know about you but on machines where I'm not admining? I MAYBE use it once a month, if that, and only to quick call regedit. Which FYI despite the hate registry is YEARS ahead of a bunch of .txt files splattered like a shotgun blast all over the OS. I can shoot a .reg to a client and say 'clicky clicky and reboot" and fix a good 80% of common everyday nigglers. There just isn't anything THAT easy when it comes to Linux, if the user can't run CLI (which a sane person does NOT give normal users admin if they can help it) or can't get the syntax? they're boned. i have seen Linux machines crippled simply because a word was mistyped in the wrong .conf file, a PC shouldn't be THAT easily broken.
Well if you work on anyone but corporate prepare to be in Home, as I'm predicting home Premium WILL be the new XP Pro. With XP there was enough differences to warrant using pro at home, with 7? Frankly there isn't a single feature that can't be done better using third party and a good 95%+ of the features they kept for pro frankly aren't used even by SMBs, strictly huge corps. So I'm seeing small offices all over the place running Home premium simply because its so much cheaper, hell you can get the 3 pack for something like $39 a license.
And there is ONE thing I really really REALLY have a problem with the kernel, and that is a stable hardware ABI. Linus in his arrogance simply won't allow one and its stupid, it could end all the "update foo broke my drivers" mess tomorrow and the ONLY reasons not to have one are arrogance and religious dogma. Again when ALL your competitors, windows, OSX, BSD, even OS/2, ALL have stable ABIs you should ask "Are they doing something right that we're doing wrong?" because for Torvalds to think he is smarter than the kernel teams of a half a dozen OSes put together? just shows how arrogant he truly is. Every argument against ends up boiling down to "ZOMG somebody might make a non free driver ZOMG!" which of course ignores the fact that binary blobs ARE HERE ALREADY and that a stable ABI isn't gonna suddenly change a corporations entire policy towards GPL one way or another.
Ultimately what Linux needs, and I get serious hate for saying this, is a Steve Jobs. Right now its too fractured, too many off doing their own thing, no real direction. it needs a dictator to come in there and say "You WILL get on the fucking ball NOW!" and lead the troops. many say it can't be done because of the nature of FOSS, I think it can. look at Google and how many have jumped on android. Give people a way to make money off what they do? You'd be surprised how many hoops they'll be willing to jump. But I agree that as it is there is simply too much cock waving and bullshit. The clock is ticking, XP is EOL in less than 2 years. The distro that cuts through the bullshit and gives the masses a "clicky clicky" easy peasy solution that runs on the hundreds of millions of machines? Could take some real share. but instead we see the DEs ripping off the worst bling bling of OSX and Windows, getting slower all the time, no real focus, its just a mess. And as someone that makes a living selling machines I can't afford to wait another 5 years while they get their shit together, if they ever do.
That is what amazes me about this if it is true, BOTH Bill and Steve ripped PARC shamelessly and BOTH companies are built upon ripping off others and getting those ideas to market before the other guy (or in the case of MSFT, doing it cheaper).
I think the line in Pirates of Silicon Valley summed it up, Gates to Jobs : "Get real, would ya? You and I are both like guys who had this rich neighbor - Xerox - who left the door open all the time. And you go sneakin' in to steal a TV set. Only when you get there, you realize that I got there first. I got the loot, Steve! And you're yellin'? "That's not fair. I wanted to try to steal it first." You're too late." and NOW he had the brass plated balls to complain about others using the biggest play in his own playbook?
I really have mixed feelings on this though, as you just know none of this would have been said or come out while the man had a pulse. hell let him get cold before we start kicking the corpse. maybe its a southern thing but we usually wait a year before we say anything bad about the dead, before that its just...its just not done. Give the family a year to mourn THEN tell everyone he was an asshole, what's wrong with that? Its not like folks won't still read it.
Actually that don't work here as the local cops are chickenshit. I only wish I'd have saved the paper that was put out a couple of years back, we all just about died laughing at what the POed reporter managed to get in there. Some thug robbed the local mini-mart and our cops thought they were gonna get to do some head cracking but didn't know Mr thug had a 12 gauge. They actually put in the paper that "After the suspect pulled his shotgun and fired the suspect headed east while the police headed west and contact with the suspect was lost". LOL!
Actually if you want to know what is generally the cause of Windows being slow its all that OEM trialware crapola that gets loaded onto a machine before you ever get it. I consider the new Asus EEE I got pretty light in that it only had nine extra things running at startup, of which only two I found useful (hybrid engine and Asus Hotkey) whereas I've seen as many as nineteen on some dells and HPs. That is why PC Decrapifier is a handy tool to have around.
The second thing that slows Windows down is what I call "granny services" which thankfully MSFT is FINALLY fixing in Windows 8. granny services are the services that MSFT or the OEMs have running to keep granny from calling tech support. That's support for cameras and scanners,media sharing services, etc. It took them a fricking decade but they are finally gonna have services launch by trigger instead of the usual auto/manual crap.
I only hope the new services setting is backported to Windows 7 as many of us have settled into Windows 7 and won't be making the switch for quite awhile. I know in my case i've just finished getting the last of my customers moved off of XP and I doubt seriously any of them will be too keen on jumping onto a new OS next year. With Windows 7 being supported until 2020 it could become the new XP, which while i'm sure that wouldn't make MSFT none too happy without a killer app to make all these multicores obsolete I just don't see folks switching every couple of years like we did in the 90s. Back then thanks to the MHz wars it was worth your while to switch thanks to the huge increases in performance, but now? Frankly any dual core is "good enough" for the majority of the things your average Joe is doing with a PC.
So while I'm happy that MSFT is FINALLY listening to users and making speed a priority I have a feeling windows 8 adoption will be even slower than 7 was. Anybody who has gotten a new PC in the past 4 years frankly has more than enough power to do whatever they want. Why would they switch? Frankly if the best reason they have is Metro and a few speed increases they are gonna be looking at some slow adoption rates IMHO. For most of the new machines I've seen in the end its the HDD not the OS that ends up the bottleneck anyway.
Ever been to MS? How about AZ? I hate to break the news to ya pal but racism, Alive and well. I even have a nice one inch scar on the back of my head from a cop that said, and I quote "Fucking niggers and God damned worthless hippes, I don't know which I hate more". Our crime? A white guy driving a black friend in the wrong state. didn't matter that the black was a Baptist minister, as far as that cop was concerned he was a worthless nigger and I was most likely a "race traitor" for association.
So I hate to burst you bubble but "states rights" was what the excuse was during the civil war, and in case you haven't noticed you can replace the word nigger for wetback and get a LOT of folks on board. It always happens during a depression, IIRC lynching went up in the 30s as well.
Hell don't believe ME friend, go to ANY Yahoo story about Mexicans or blacks and see the amount of sheer hatred. Then remember you're only getting about 1/20th the actual effect since they police their boards and remove the most obvious racist comments as quick as they can. But don't worry even with the policing they'll be plenty of hate for you to enjoy.
Must not be on a laptop then, as I have found exactly ONE distro that worked OOTB on wireless and sadly Ubuntu wasn't it. Xandros Linux worked OOTB on all four laptops I threw at it, but since it was $89 an install and Windows 7 HP is like $35 when you buy the 3 pack it ended up being pointless.
And I don't know how many times I can say this, you seem to be a nice guy so I'm gonna assume its not on purpose. You yourself admit you're an admin, yes?that's fine, hell I use CLI for IPConf, but you know what? NOT TALKING ABOUT GEEKS here, because Linux has ZERO growth factor for geeks, the geeks that want it already have it, those that don't? Happy where they are.
I'm talking about the people i work for 6 days a week, your mailman, your landlady, the checkout girl at the grocery store. Now be honest somersault , do you think any of those folks have EVER used start>>>run for anything? Hell most late model XP Dells didn't even come with start>run in XP Home and NOBODY noticed. Did you? I didn't until I needed to IPConf and had to remember to go use the GUI because the start didn't have it. It does show though how little that's used by home users when many PCs don't even have it and nobody notices.
And I still stand by my statement that for home users there is NO CLI in windows, it doesn't exist. they don't use it, they don't need it, you could strip it out tomorrow and nobody would notice. Now compare that to Ubuntu, go to their forum and ask for a NON CLI solution to ANY problem, see what you get. you'll get insulted, you'll get cursed, you'll get treated like shit by elitist fucks.
Here is my other little test that shows, at least for retail, Linux isn't ready. Take ANY distro, your choice friend, download the ISO from 5 years ago (that would be Ubuntu 6 if you use Ubuntu i do believe), get everything working, NOW upgrade it to current, see how much is broke. I had exactly ONE, count 'em one, PC survive two upgrades, NONE survived upgrading to current with 100% hardware working, not one. Hell don't take MY word for it, how do you explain Dell have to run their own repos even though we are talking a teeny tiny subset of hardware? Its because everybody cranks out new code without bothering with even basic QA friend, that's why. Expecting a minimum of 7 years frankly ought to SOP, hell even Vista is getting 5+ and nobody bought it.
In the end I think the problem with Linux is threefold, 1.-the elitist assholes that think CLI gives them gonad powerz and all that don't want to learn Bash commands must be idiots. yeah I don't see them loading their kernels with punch cards, do you? And why aren't their apps in ASM, after all ALL languages since ASM has been to make things easier, get PEEKing and POKEing!
2.-Can't see the forest for the BS. As I said there is this great new thing that could put Linux in front of millions without even them knowing! Its fast, simple, easy, gives them MORE battery life or in the case of desktops lets them surf or enjoy media with SSD speed, yet the community ignores it. And for what? Every other attempt has failed miserably, Linux is flatline, same numbers this year as last, the only real gains are coming from dictatorships that want to do a China and put "Red Flag watch your ass" Linux on everything. with Expressgate/Splashtop you could actually do what the community has wanted for years, put Linux in the hands of millions, but because it is easy? See reason 1 as to why it won't get traction.
3.-the final nail in the coffin, one I can't see an easy way to fix, the "busted shitter" problem. everybody wants to be the guy who makes the cool discovery, everybody wants to be the star, how many want to fix busted shitters? try NONE. this is why Apple and MSFT have to pay out millions to coders, because bug fixing and serious documentation and QA? Its all slow, long, boring as watching flies fuck and thankless work. MSFT and Apple PAY to get that work done
BWA HA HA HA HA...oh wait, you were serious? BWA HA HA HA HA HA...you must not have had to deal with the cops very often. When my sister's checks were stolen the place that cashed them wrote the perps DL number on the checks and what did the cops put down? "Chance of solving...0%". I guess having to you know, get up, walk to the PC, put in the numbers, man that is just too much damned work. The sad part? the ONLY time I've ever seen local cops do their jobs is when there was potential for profit for them. true story:
My late sis live across the street from a gal that was getting battered. Restraining order didn't do shit, average police response time? FOUR HOURS. the last time put her in the hospital and with it escalating sis called me for help. I went to the gal and said "Here is how you solve the problem, you say the "D" word. When he starts beating on the door you call the cops and tell them you think he's high and has a bunch of drugs on him". she didn't believe me but promised to try it. Well sure enough next Saturday rolls around and here comes Mr Abuser. She says the "D" word. police response time? FOUR MINUTES and TWO squad cars. After they tore his truck to the frame and didn't score they were soooo pissed they threw the book at him, every single violation they could think of. He got something like 9 year all told.
so yeah, I kinda doubt law enforcement has jack shit to do with it, more likely they have never met a tax they didn't like and what to make sure they can squeeze the poor down in LA for every single shekel they can get. Frankly wouldn't surprise me with the asshole politicians we have in this country." Screw civil liberties, we need MORE MONIES nom nom nom!"
And if Alabama said "Nigger hunting season starts Saturday" would that be cool as well? After all its states rights to decide who they want and who they don't yes? don't forget it was just 40 years ago that a black could have their head bashed in for drinking at a fountain with the wrong sign on it. don't think it could happen now? Replace nigger with wetback and you'd be surprised how many would be happy to go along.
Uhhh...how EXACTLY will there be "public outrage" when the public will never hear about any of it? You think if it was more than hippies on Wall Street your ass would hear shit? it would be "some crazy nuts were rounded up today, next on Dancing with The Stars" and THAT would be all she wrote friend. We have 'free speech zones" now, or have you forgotten? that keeps the rabble away from the camera. if you get too uppity you better hope you aren't in Constitution-Free Zone or your ass can just disappear pal, no rights officially there.
so until the American people are ready to turn their Fords into technicals like our friends in Libya did I'm afraid you won't be getting very far. As long as the top 1%ers can make great profits off this crap you and the rest of us have ZERO say in the matter. After all look how many said NO to the bailouts, NO to going and starting a third war, NO to leaving our troops in the desert, but did they listen? They frankly don't give a fuck WHAT you think friend, you'll be given the choice of "rich insider corporate ass kisser" A or B and you damned well better like it!
Ever since the whole VLC debacle I have been wondering about that. How EXACTLY does contribution and rights fit under GPL? Can a single guy hold the whole thing hostage like with VLC, or is there a way to outvote them? Maybe Sun had the right idea with their "You give up rights to the code you contribute' clause because as desktops give way to mobile this could turn into a real sticky situation.
Because, and correct me if I'm wrong, no expert on GPL licenses, but as I understand it if I wanted to make sure a FOSS application didn't get into the major app stores all I'd have to do is pay an employee to contribute to the code and then have them throw a living shitfit if the appstore didn't follow the EXACT letter of the law when it came to the GPL, which from what I understand none of the major app stores do, am I right? Isn't that what happened to VLC?
I KNEW IT! Once you know what to look for you can spot that Intel POS compiler a mile away! The difference is in load times, with the Intel compiler ANY math heavy code, or code that SHOULD be sent to the GPU? Runs like absolute shit on AMD CPUs thanks to their purposely crippling the code and forcing it to run in x87 mode, which hasn't been supported as a mainstream codepath since 1995. I honestly don't understand (except maybe for bribery) why Intel hasn't been busted under antitrust, I really don't. What they have done is EVERY BIT as bad as the "Windows isn't done unless lotus won't run" and in fact WORSE, since everyone could easily see with lotus it was Windows causing the problem since the program wouldn't run. With the Intel compiler it ACTS like the program is working when in reality it is purposely hamstringing every single application compiled so that it runs like shit on any AMD or Via. BTW did you know it cripples for Atom too? That is how they upsell their Celeron and Pentium low end chips. Sorry fuckers.
But when it runs okay on a P4 (they heavily optimize for that POS) but runs like ass on a much newer AMD? Its the Intel compiler. This just adds one more reason to the "Don't use Firefox" list as I won't have a browser that requires certain CPUs just to function. To me that is just as dumb as MSFT tying new versions of IE to only certain OSes. If it is not been EOLed it SHOULD run, period. But I could tell they went to the Intel compiler around the 3.5 branch as everything before that ran okay, everything after ran like it was underwater. stupid move Moz, stupid move.
If you are on a laptop try Vector Linux. I've slapped it on a couple of old Dell laptops and it is quite snappy. You'll have to fiddle with the WiFi of course, but I haven't seen a Linux where you didn't have to fiddle with the WiFi. The nice thing is they have 6 versions, so you can pick one as heavy or as light as you like. Oh and they have KDE classic which is nice.
But here is what I don't get, the community FINALLY has a Linux that could gain some real share, and could even end up on the majority of computers, and its being completely ignored. I'm talking about Expressgate/Splashtop which if you've tried it you know its a game changer. No fiddly, no CLI, no update/upgrade mess, just 6 seconds and you are on the web, bam! And you don't have to "convert" anyone since they don't have to be either/or as the nice thing about EG/ST is its built into the system so you simply have two buttons, one button if you want Windows, the other button if you want the web. Oh and it adds a good 20-30% on the battery life as well.
So you have this truly great new thing, its fast, its easy, it costs the OEMs virtually nothing, and with support of the community you could have it one practically every consumer machine and yet its ignored. i honestly don't get it. If the community would get behind writing apps for it it could be fricking huge but instead everyone gives all the press to Ubuntu when Canonical seems to be going out of their way to piss people off. is there ANYONE not on a tablet that like Unity? It would be like going back in time and giving the community the latest Android, all wrapped in a pretty bow, only to get told "Nah, we think this WinCE thing is gonna be big!". Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, its just nuts.
Of course thanks to the drooling fanbois I'm sure to get modded down for not speaking the standard line, so for their benefit I'll give it to them: "Gee Biff, isn't Ubuntu sweel? it sure is chip, and RMS' farts smells like roses and cure the hole in the ozone!".
You want to know why I say what I do about Linux? I'm SICK OF THE BULLSHIT. i'm sick of the fucking delusional logic hoops where some dipshit actually tries to argue that users in windows use start>>>run to launch programs (seriously have you EVER met even a fucking admin that uses start>>.run for shit in Windows) and arguing that "Linux is a drop in replacement for Windows" while ignoring you HAVE to learn CLI. Now be honest somersault , you can NOT tell me that with a 6 month upgrade cycle you NEVER needed CLI to fix something broken in Ubuntu, tell the truth now, be honest.
If you like Linux the way it is? I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT, I really don't. What I DO have a problem with is the fact the community refuses to allow the users to have CHOICE in the matter. You should be able to use CLI if you WANT to but you should never HAVE to. That's the way it is in OSX and Windows, everything can be done either way, YOUR choice. you can Powershell or script the whole OS if that melts your butter, or you can clicky clicky your ass off YOUR choice.
But don't take MY word for it, see for yourself somersault , go to ANY forum and say you are having a common problem, lets say a drive issue. Now as for a NON CLI solution, and see what happens? I'll tell you what happens, they'll call you every filthy name in the book and accuse you of being "an M$ Ninja!" for DARING to ask for a GUI, try it yourself and see.
That is why I say there are TWO kinds of Linux people, there is the Linux user (like you yourself seem to be) and then the is the FOSSie, which like a Moonie has drunk the koolaid so heavily they convince themselves that Windows BSODs 3 times a day and users use start>>>run to launch programs.
But in the end its simple, you give the users what they want or they WILL ignore you. Know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Linux has been CLI heavy since its inception and where is it? dead last. Hell it isn't even gaining share in servers in fact it is LOSING share, because as a Linux admin told me "If you put a Linux admin and a Windows one and give them a task that the Linux guy has done repeatedly then the Linux guy WILL win. If you give them both a task NEITHER has done? Then the Windows guy will be at home making a sandwich before the Linux guy is done Googling" and it is THAT, that right there, which is why CLI is as dead as bell bottoms and disco.
In the end you just can't change the nature of the interface, CLI is designed for repetition and copypasta and a GUI rewards exploration. Now how many times in the modern web based world do you think repetition and copypasta into a term is useful? For the masses? Very damned few friend.
The bitch is the Linux world has this wonderful thing that could actually gain share, not the desktop, it sucks. No I'm talking about Expressgate/Splashtop. Instead of getting rid of Windows you simply go around it and gain by oiffering users CHOICE, Windows for when they need Windows apps, but when all they need is the web? 6 seconds from button push to web, all clicky clicky easy, no muss, no fuss. But instead everyone will ignore for the latest Ubuntu crippled cheetah or whatever which will go NOWHERE fast. Its like going back in time with plans for the iPad and being told by the community "No thanks, we think this CueCat thing is gonna be a hit!". You just wanna pound you head against the desk at the stupid.
Awww...is the poor wittle Lunix Luser getting butt hurt he is STILL in last place and getting beat down by JavaME which is a shitastic cell phone OS? NEWSFLASH STUPID: You don't give the people what they want? THEY WILL IGNORE YOU. And hey guess what? That is EXACTLY what they have done! Now lets let everyone enjoy your daily dose of fail, shall we fucknuts?
Isn't it sad, how like a frightened child afraid to look under the bed, you cower at the truth? if your driver model isn't shit then why does Dell have to run their own repos even though we are talking a teeny tiny subset of hardware? Oh right because Linux shits itself and dies if you use the default repos! Man that is some excellent product you got there! you think I can get better QA than the third largest OEM on the planet? What, you expect me to tell paying customers "Go to the forum, kiss some loser ass, and maybe, just maybe, in a few days someone will have mercy and give you a big pile of bullshit that may or may not make your sound work again"?
Bleeding yet douchey? want some more? nice thing about having the truth on your side, you can keep throwing punches all day! How about how a decade old Windows beat the shit out of Linux on netbooks or how ASUS has given up on your bullshit or how about Walmart running away from linux as fast as it can? You got the crazy koolaid drunk enough to say they ALL are paid shills because they won't do your forum dance or CLI horseshit? Meanwhile your "hero" Torvalds the great says Plans? We don't need no steenkin plans!. Why don't you tell them that at work next week, see how quick you get a pink slip? More? How about you actually have the balls to celebrate getting a whole 1% market share while you are actually lower than JavaME and there is a whole website dedicated To your bullshit and excuses .
You see you whiny little delusional mama's boy, I'm your worst fucking nightmare...a retailer that still believes. I believe that the community doesn't have to take Torvalds shit sandwiches, I believe that things can be made better, I believe Linux can be something for more than douchebags like you that will happily take a cock slapping from linus as long as you can say you are sticking to "teh man". I believe that there can be Linux boxes on actual shelves and penguins on boxes.
So you go hide now mama's boy, you hide with your Tux blankie and keep saying your magical nigger nigger faggot, or should I say shill shill astroturfer, like it is a magical word that will make all the bad go away. But it won't change reality and the reality is your driver model is shit and more than 15 years behind everyone else and that is why retailers like me wouldn't piss on it, not some mythical money truck that sneaks up to my door in the middle of the night. So go compile something and leave the men to talk about the real world, okay little girl?
Thanks for the info. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a cell phone/tablet guy which is why I asked. I've been too busy with the new netbooks and desktops to really spend more than a VERY limited time looking at the cell phone side (most folks here just take whatever they get with their contract) and when added to the time being sucked up by my new plaything (EEE 1215b) I just haven't been able to keep up.
BTW if anybody hasn't tried the new Brazos EEE netbooks? Man that baby ROCKS HARD! It has expressgate instant on NetOS (Linux based) AND Win 7 X64, its like having TWO netbooks, a ChromeOS style for just the web and a full on Win 7 for when you need the heavier apps. Oh and it supports 8Gb of RAM and has hardware virtualization for those that like running VMs. I maxed mine out with the full 8Gb and with a netbook sleeve the whole thing was just $340 shipped. Man this little baby is fun!
But thanks for the info, I'm sure when decent tablets hit the sub $150 mark I'll need to look into them and knowing that Android based are easily tweaked is a nice thing to know. Right now the folks here just don't seem that interested, most have laptops/netbooks and just use an iPhone when they don't want to carry their lappy. I may not care for them but I have to give old Jobs credit, I even see little old ladies playing with those damned iPhones. But they have started carrying the HTC Android cell phones as part of the local plans so I wouldn't be surprised if their usage starts going up.
So in other words its a "sorry about your penis" thing. typical Linux crap. You know what the problem I have with linux is? Its not guys like you, they accept they have a fiddly little bitch of an OS and they like it that way. No its the "Linux is ready for the desktop!" types that when you point out HOME USERS ARE NOT LIKE YOU will NEVER deal with CLI, learn bash, read man pages, do the "find the fix" forum dance, etc then start coming up with logic hoops that they insist that by jumping makes Linux and Windows equal.
There is a numbnuts around here that goes around quoting HALF of one of my sentences like that is "proof" that I don't know what I'm saying. he took the second half of this sentence " AS FAR AS THE USER IS CONCERNED THERE IS NO CLI IN WINDOWS and thinks by showing only the "there is no cli in windows" part that somehow proves something other than many Linux users are delusional. I still stand by the statement, as far as users are concerned? CLI doesn't exist. you could remove it from ALL OSX and Windows machines tomorrow and most users? Would never ever notice. it simply isn't needed.
As far as virus scans? i run it once a month just for the hell of it, but frankly i haven't seen a virus either since Win9X and IE. With Windows 7 thanks to ALSR, DEP, sandboxing, etc it actually takes a fair amount of work to even get a virus to the point a virus scanner can actually DO anything, most never make it even THAT far. Add in ABP? Frankly it will spend its time knitting doilies. with the exception of the rare zero day nasty that manages a NON ad based method of attack, which frankly i haven't seen in ages, ALL viruses nowadays are PEBKAC, and thanks to Win 7 even PEBKAC has been cut waaaay the hell down. In a way its bad for guys like me as we feel like the Maytag repairman as folks just don't get infected like they used to, but I keep busy with new builds and hardware upgrades so it all evens out in the wash.
So if the last time you used Windows was 2K/XP you really ought to give 7 a spin, its really quite good. Not only do you get ALL the major FOSS apps AND all the Windows apps but the combo of superfetch and readyboost is really sweet and nothing similar except for a few bad hacks has been implemented in Linux yet. Superfetch is intelligent prefetching, so the longer you use the OS the smarter it gets, so it knows WHAT you launch and WHEN you usually launch it and will have it waiting on you in RAM, and readyboost turns any HDD into a hybrid by moving most small read/write I/O ops to a flash based drive and leaving the HDD for sequential reads. quite sweet and great for netbooks!
The funny part is playing with new systems there is a bright future for Linux with home users IF and only IF the community would jump onboard this amazing new tech. i'm talking about Expressgate/Splashtop. if you haven't tried it its brilliant. When you need Windows you push the Windows button, when you just need the web? You have A/V, web, chat, and email, all in just 6 seconds from button press to running and adding 2 hours (at least in my exp) to battery life. if the community would get behind writing apps for it you could have a Linux based OS on every new machine, but instead they'll just waste time on flamewars and Ubuntu masturbating monkey or whatever the hell the latest one is. To me it would be like going back in time with the iPad plans and being told "No thanks, we think this CueCat thing is gonna be a hit!"
What OS? What make CPU? What speed HDD? How much cache? all of these things I've found make a BIG difference in FF, in dragon? Not so much. In fact the ONLY customer I didn't have complaining about FF speed (and all are updated to current,7.01) was the customer who had me replace his drive with a 7200RPM with 32mb of cache. on THAT drive its fast. 5200 and 5400RPM drives? its horrible. And while I don't know what that test you linked to is supposed to show, i know that on my customer's FB pages FF runs like ass, and often won't load half their apps, whereas Dragon? snappy and quick to load. So that test doesn't really jive with what my customers are running so it really isn't much help.
Myself as well as several of my customers use Samsung EcoDrives for OS drives, as they really cut down the heat and the large cache generally makes them faster than most 5400RPM drives again EXCEPT for FF. With FF you can launch it a dozen times, it'll be just as slow to launch the fifth time as the first. dragon by comparison is instantaneous after the first launch and damned near instant on the first launch.
I have also found that FF doesn't seem to like AMD CPUs very much, at least on windows. i have to wonder if they are using the Intel compiler which cripples any program compiled with it when run on AMD CPUs. It also seems to fair better on linux, possibly again a compiler issue. since i refuse to sell Intel CPUs since it came out they were bribing OEMs? that kinda makes for a problem.
So while I have no doubt your experience is vastly different than mine, as i've pointed out at least with FF hardware and OS can make a BIG difference. In fact on the older AMD XP boxes I've found anything over 3.6 to be frankly unsable. it simply slams the CPU too hard and can't even run the most low res flash videos, whereas again Dragon has no problem .
while i'm no browser developer I WOULD love to know EXACTLY what they are doing as far as a compiler, which one, what use flags, etc. Because i have a feeling a lot of what many of us have experienced with FF can be traced back to the compiler, like I said I wouldn't be surprised if they were using the Intel "crippletastic" compiler which makes FF simply unusable on AMD CPUs.
I have a question....what good will it be to get the source? The way I understand it, correct me if I'm mistaken, is that Android is using GPL 2 correct? And that there is no requirement to share driver source or anything BUT the kernel. Now considering these devices are as proprietary as the desktops used to be in the 80s how EXACTLY is one gonna find the source useful? Without the drivers these things are bricks, correct?
So I just don't get it, claiming Android is "open" without any requirements for drivers seems to me to be about as useful as claiming Apple is open because you can download Darwin. Without all the other bits one can't really do much with it, can they?
And who says they can't be hot as hell? There is a reason that we have the word MILF in our vocabulary folks, that is because a confident woman that knows her way around the bedroom and takes care of herself can be every bit as hot as the bambi bimbette. Personally having tried both? Give me the MILF as bambi tends to be fiddly and fumbly and not really comfortable or knowing what to do, whereas the MILF will ride your ass like a rollercoaster.
sure bambi might score you a little more status when you walk into a room, but when it all gets down to brass tacks? The MILF will know every trick in the book and will make sure you and she both have a damned good time.
And I think it sucks nobody gives old Bill credit for that. Sure he had selfish reasons but there is a good chance we wouldn't have AAPL as we know them now if it wasn't for MSFT. Look at the stories written about Apple then, it was being labeled a corpse, stick a fork, its done. By coming out on that telecast with Jobs and saying "We think Apple has a bright future and we're gonna support them with MSFT software" and buying those stocks he calmed a spooked market and gave many developers a reason to think writing software for Apple could be profitable. After all if MSFT was writing software for Apple surely they are expecting a profit, right?
As for TFA Ballmer screwed the pooch, not by failing to finish a frankly waaaaay overpriced deal, but by buying the search and NOT the golden egg of Yahoo which was and is webmail. Look at the numbers folks, that is over a quarter of a billion unique users and double what Gmail has in the US. It is THAT which Ballmer should have been after, not search. Just another example of why Ballmer is a piss poor CEO IMHO.
Actually Yang may end up with the last laugh, as it is pretty common knowledge that he has wanted his company back and the collapse may allow him to take Yahoo private again which seems to have been his main goal all along.
And let us not forget that the REAL value of Yahoo was NOT search but webmail which MSFT did NOT get and which if you'll read the stats I have provided shows that Yahoo has DOUBLE the users Gmail has. That is a hell of a lot of eyeballs for ads friends. If he can take it private and capitalize on those eyeballs he'll make out like a bandit.
Yep and I HATE it. No easy ABP style functionality, and waaaaaaaaaaay too many bugs out there specifically targeting IE. As someone who actually has to fix the things after they get infected you'd be surprised how many bugs come back to IE, and IE is the biggest target simply because as you note too many corps insist on IE only, making IE a juicy target rich with opportunity.
So I'm sorry Billy but before i'd switch my users to IE i'd write my own browser. IE is too big a target, too much malware, too much of a PITA to selectively remove ads (one of the biggest sources of malware) and frankly go to ANY security forum and look at how many warnings they have for IE, even the latest. It is just unreal. I'm glad i don't have to deal with IE only corps anymore and feel sorry for those that do, its just not a good browser. its STILL tied too damned closely to the OS (look at how the latest version won't run on XP and Vista, I hear the one for Win 8 won't run on Win 7, know why that is? TOO MANY OS HOOKS) which is a Titanic sized stupid design choice.
The browser frankly shouldn't give a shit WHICH OS its run off if its suitably isolated as long as the GPU supports the drawing features it requires. they simply don't know how to build a browser anymore, its an OS application that renders HTML. BAD design.
Uhhhh...don't you know? Okay I guess a history lesson is in order. According to the constitution it is SUPPOSED to be the government, but on dec 23, 1913 (which they chose since most legislators would be gone and they could bum rush it) they gave away the right to print money to Federal Reserve which is about as federal as my wiener. It is the top money men, many from Goldman Sachs. In fact you'll see a revolving door between GS and the fed going back decades.
So to answer your question a bunch of bankers who can choose to listen to the government or choose to tell them to get stuffed, their choice.
And do you see ANY directors using sound as an effect? Or color? That would be a NO. As I said we have ONE, count 'em ONE director that has ANY real grasp of the medium. How many 3D movies have come out now that were variations on the "Boo!" shit jumps out at you?
Again it takes incredible skill to use this medium for ANYTHING that isn't "boo!" and lets be honest friend: If they haven't gotten it in 50+ years? They probably won't get it ever. Even a hack director can make a beautiful scene with vivid color or rich sound, but 3D ends up being used as a gimmick because most directors don't have any use for it and again its the MONEY MEN who tell the director "your new flick? Better be 3D buddy" and NOT the director saying "I could make this better if I had 3D". and THAT is just a bad way to go friend, any way you slice it.
And when the ONE, count 'em ONE, director who has ANY real skills with the medium says its a cheap gimmick and would prefer the resources be spent on 60FPS instead? That doesn't really give one faith in the medium, now does it? But don't take MY word for it, Google it yourself and see what Cameron says on the subject.
If I don't have any extensions, then why would I just not use IE or Safari? That is like saying "Porsche is a gas hog but if you remove the engine why it gets incredible gas mileage!". BTW I ONLY have the SAME extensions on BOTH browsers. Both Dragon and Firefox have Adblock Plus and ForecastFox and THAT'S IT.
So the fanbois can mod down even though I'm reporting what I've seen with my very own peepers but it won't make black white nor will it make FF anything but slow as Xmas. same extensions, same OS, Dragon blows the doors of FF which seems to get slower to launch with every version, and unless you are running multicore (which I've found on multicore if you have less than a quad be ready for 100% CPU usage) it WILL make the entire machine unresponsive when launching new tabs and you can't even watch low res SD flash video without it being a slideshow. compare this to Dragon (again SAME extensions and OS) where no tab hits more than 70% and SD video plays smooth as butter, even on a 1.8GHz Sempron.
So I'm sorry Robbie but FF is going to crap. hell look at the numbers, folks just don't switch browsers willy nilly, it is often a PITA to re-learn all the little quirks and is irritating so folks don't switch until something becomes unbearable to them. for me it was time to launch and new tab generation which frankly after FF 5 became truly horrid on anything less than a high GHz multicore.
But hell don't take MY word for it Robbie, try it yourself. i'm sure like most geeks you have an older PC lying around, maybe something in the 2GHz without HT? If not simply disable cores until you are running single core, then compare FF and Dragon, or hell FF and anybody. you'll find FF is slower to load, slower to make new tabs, and if you bring up task manager (or if in Linux whatever the Linux equivalent) you'll find FF slams the living hell out of the CPU compared to other browsers. When finding something to replace FF (Because my users who typically don't have any extensions except ABP were bitching at me about how slow it was) I tried Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Dragon. Every. single. One. had better usage, both in CPU slamming and in new tab generation, than FF. don't believe me friend, try it yourself, its pretty dramatic, especially when compared to Opera and Dragon.