Oh really? What did Sony give out to those that had their computers infected by their root kit? I believe that was a whole $10 check, correct? Can you get your PC cleaned for $10? Meanwhile the lawyer cleared something like 57 MILLION.
Hell don't believe me, go look for yourself. look up "10 largest class action suits" and see what the lawyers got VS what the actual victims got. The largest victim payout I found was a little over $50, 000, and that was ONLY for the one who initiated the class action. The lawyer? He got close to 80 MILLION dollars.
So here is your chance, go on, prove me wrong. Show me a SINGLE class action lawsuit where the victims got more than the lawyer, just one. I know you'll fail because I've looked at the numbers. All a class action does is make a couple of lawyers wealthy as sin while leaving the victims with a check that wouldn't even cover their medical bills. yeah, that's such a good deal there.
First of all, getting a single square is NOT bingo, unless you have the most fucked up game of bingo I've ever heard, second don't insult me by calling me a libertarian, I'm a socialist thank you VERY much.
And you still haven't answered the fundamental question: How is voting supposed to do ANYTHING when both parties have identical views? How's that Hope and Change working out for ya? Who has held onto every nasty policy Bush supported, even taking them farther when he could? And now Obama says he has the right to assassination of Americans on American soil thanks to irrevocable "war powers" so you tell me, how EXACTLY is he ANY different than the man who preceded him?
This isn't about some political party Mr funny man, this is about the loss of the very essence of a free society! This is about using the government as the personal attack dogs of the corporations (15 years in jail for copyright infringement?) and when bad management and cronyism causes the business to implode simply labeling it "too big to fail" and handing them a blank check. You find ANYTHING at all funny about that? You currently "owe" about $78,000 thanks to the spending insanity of our leaders, you know this right?
Thank you! You are the FIRST one that hasn't screamed and reached for the pitchfork, even though as I pointed out every single other OS with any numbers at all has had this "feature" (which I wouldn't call a feature, just common sense design) for over a decade. The only answer you usually get is a link to the religious rant against ABIs, where the writer goes so far as to call those that don't hand the developers ALL of their code "leeches" and hopes that Torvalds breaks their drivers often even when that bones the very users Linux so desperately needs.
Look Linux guys, I'm a small town computer retailer the kind of guy you want on your side because MSFT doesn't give us any breaks (I use System Builders and OEM) and I actually care about my customers and want them to have a safe and happy computing experience. Linux would mean less costs, so I would be able to sell for lower prices or offer better hardware, it would be a win for me AND my customers!
But I simply cannot in good conscience offer your OS, when even with 20+ years of computing experience I often bash my head against the wall fighting the damned thing! An update should never break drivers okay? And certainly not when you are cranking out said updates on a 6 month schedule. At that pace just as you get the thing finally running stable here it comes! yet another week or two spent scouring the web looking for "fixes" that involve huge messes of CLI that must be typed PERFECTLY or they cause havoc. Do you HONESTLY think I can offer that to my customers? People who just want to use a PC, not get an education in Linux forums and Bash commands?
And before anybody says LTS let me say that LTS is a really bad joke, because as long as software is tied to which kernel you are using LTS is simply a codeword for "can't use any new software" and the fact that software is actually tied to which kernel you have just shows the madness that is the kernel situation!
I want Linux to succeed, I really really do. I have written articles pointing out what needs to change for small businesses and retailers to embrace Linux, and I remember the days of OS/2 and GEM and Commodore and how nice it was to actually have plenty of choice. But the current situation in Linux on the desktop is like a bad joke, with broken drivers, constantly shifting internals, user programs tied to which kernel you are using, dependency hell like the old days of Win9X, and to top it all Torlvalds constantly making major changes which breaks programs and drivers left and right without a care in the world, like the kernel is his personal plaything and not the center of a multibillion dollar OS with millions depending on it.
So please Linux users, demand change. Demand Torvalds give a functional ABI or step down so someone else can give you what everyone else has had for over a decade, demand that while CLI still be optional that all software be usable without it, demand stability and the ability to keep software past an update, and demand that the 6 month update insanity be replaced with a more reasonable 3 or 5 year schedule, with plenty of beta testing before being handed to the masses. Because there are plenty of guys like me that would be happy to line our shelves with your OS, but as it is now just keeping the machines functional past updates would be a full time job. It is 2011, not 1991, and this is simply inexcusable.
As a non believer all I have to say is.....can I have your stuff? After all you won't be needing it, right? Oh and as a common courtesy please clear all nasty porn from your PCs, although feel free to leave the lesbian gangbangs and be sure to label the folder as "Tools and Utilities" so my GF won't find it. Thanks!
Actually allow me to say the above AC is full of shit, and a racist prick on top of it for calling a damned decent human being a "thug" trying to find an excuse for a racist cop head bashing. To set the record straight not all Baptist are Southern Baptists, Charles as a matter of fact isn't affiliated with any organized baptist groups at all, and simply calls his little church Baptists because they do believe in Baptizing, but only in those old enough to understand the symbolism behind it.
The simple fact is Charles and I have been friends for years, even though I'm an atheist and have a gay son. I already wrote what he says on atheism (Just because you don't love God doesn't mean he doesn't love you) and as far as my son being gay he says (It is not up to me to decide that is good or evil, that is between him and his God. As someone who has received hatred for falling in love and marrying a white woman because I am black I know what it is like to be hated for who you love and I can't in good conscience do that to someone. The bible says "Judge not lest ye be judged" and that is what I tell folks to do) so frankly I have No problem with the man just because we have different beliefs. Considering I know his history, and how he hit rock bottom and became suicidal after losing his mom and becoming addicted to drugs trying to cope, I can respect his need to believe in something bigger, even if I don't share in those beliefs.
As for his "cool cat" as you put it? Funny story, I was stuck at one of the meetings having to play with a guitarist that could barely play more than barre chords (I ended up getting Charles to come play lead, as I originally met him in a blues band and the man can play) so out of boredom while the tent started filling up I started playing "Sympathy for the devil" just being my usual smart ass self, and when Charles said he liked the grove I should keep it up I leaned over a told him what I was playing, not wanting to cause the man any embarrassment. Instead of being bothered he just grabbed the guitar and made a cool blues rap up about loving your fellow man. I wish I could remember the words, but all I can remember is he had the "Hope you guess my name" part changed to "Just remember, to the Lord we're all the same" and then went on about how we should treat everyone as Jesus did, as we are all brothers. I thought that would count as "cool cat" under your definition.
You forgot the third part...spend endless hours on the forums cursing because "update foo broke my (insert device) drivers!". Seriously someone needs to hunt down Torvalds and give that sucker a good ass kicking.
It is 2011 and he still acts like it is 1992 and the kernel is his personal playtoy. Every single decent OS, OSX, Windows, Solaris, BSD, hell even OS/2, has had driver level ABIs for a decade or more, yet Torvalds still refuses to allow this simple fix to keep from borking everything when he gets an itch to fuck with shit.
So I'm sorry but as a retailer that step three makes it so I'm unable to sell machines with your OS, or support your OS after the sale. The annual forum hunts just suck too much of my already limited time. Fix that and the whole "software tied to which kernel your using" mess and then I'll be happy to help your OS grow in numbers, but as it is now it is better to stick with Windows, even if the occasional user stupidity manages to get through the AV (usually because they tell the AV to allow it because the malware promises them some reward for doing so) than to have the guaranteed breakdown every six damned months for the life of the machine thanks to Torvalds and his kernel fucking.
As someone who actually has a scar on the back of his head from a cop that said, and I quote "Fucking niggers and God damned hippies, i don't know which I hate more' (and BTW that "fucking nigger" I was driving was a baptist minister that was doing a mini tent revival tour to raise money for the homeless, whom I was playing bass for and driving as a favor and because I believed in the cause even though I'm an atheist, which he would always counter with "Just because you don't love God doesn't mean he doesn't love you"), allow me to say, from the bottom of my heart.....please get the panties out of your ass dude.
Jokes and satire are what we use to know only alleviate some of the hasher realities of this world we live in, but to also shine a light on people's misconceptions without being ugly about it. It is like what my GF who is Cherokee says when people start talking Spanish to her, assuming because she is brown she must be a Mexican "Me no Mexican, Me Cherokee, Me scalp your ass!" and by doing so sets the record straight without any preaching or PC bullshit (and always gets a laugh out of me when I see their faces).
So please, do get the panties out your ass, the sand out yo vagina, or however it is kids put quit being a stuck up prick these days. It is all the PC bullshit that leads us down the slope where you have "victim classes" and "hate crimes " (excuse me? If someone bashes my head in it don't count as much if my head is white? WTF?) and other "sensitivity" horseshit.
Oh and since I'm an atheist Irish/Creek Indian mix, feel free to make all the Godless Heathen, Drunken Mick, and Wild Injun jokes you like. If it is a good one I'll even be passing it around so please keep all jokes GPL or PD.
Now as for TFA? Apple is one of the most lawsuit happy corps bar none, so is anyone surprised? Everyone made a stink about MSFT and TomTom while ignoring the fact that MSFT offered TomTom (who are making money with their devices, not giving them away) the same RAND pricing they offer the flash manufacturers, no discrimination because they weren't using WinCE, and in the entire history of the company they've been the instigator of a whole 7 lawsuits in the company's history. I wonder how many Apple has started? because I bet it is a hell of a lot higher.
Wow they must be upgrading my area, as I used to just hit 2Mbps down and now according to both Cnet and Speedtest I'm hitting between 8 and 10.
BTW for those that haven't heard Randy Macho Man Savage just died of a heart attack in a car accident. As someone who grew up with his "ohh YEAH" he will be missed. RIP Macho Man.
That is if they are even using digital. In my area the basic is still analog (I know as I use a cheapo USB TV tuner to watch it) because according to my bud that works there the owners are too cheap to pay for new boxes to be rolled out. I wonder how much bandwidth I could be using for the net is being sucked up by the 50 analog channels I had to take to get the cheaper 3 pack bundle?
I don't suppose it really matters as I'd kill for the Comcast 250Gb limits, here it is 36gb residential and 76Gb commercial...eek! Maybe if 250Gb becomes the standard I may even get upgraded!
I have a friend that works the local cabelco (pop 15,000) and assume what he told me is what they are doing nationwide. According to him Netflix is negotiating to set up severs that will host all of the popular content at the ISP, with only funky unpopular stuff hosted at Netflix. this way Netflix gets the customers without having to worry about the caps, the ISPs don't have to deal with PO'ed customers who hit the caps, everybody wins.
Of course the downside is everyone who doesn't have the $$$ to set up such an arrangement is boned, but if there is one thing this country is for, it is for screwing the little guy in favor of the megacorp. Shame we don't have any choices in it, but that is what happens when the last miles are owned by a few megacorps who don't ever reinvest their profits in infrastructure. While the rest of the world ends up with 100Mbps pipes we get the short bus to the information superhighway. But at least we'll have the latest shitty Hollywood crap delivered for just $8 a month, right?
And that is different from what we have now....how exactly? Abandonware sites gets run off or shut down all the time, try selling a disc of abandonware with DOSBox preset for running it and see how quickly the corps shut you down. If someone can't squeeze maximum profits from an IP then nobody is allowed to have it and groups like the BSA will go after abandonware even by corps that have long since gone tits up.
The ultimate goal should be pretty obvious to anyone by now, to lock the world behind a paywall. Nothing is free, anything and everything any person could possibly want to see, read, hear, or use, locked down behind a paywall so some ultramegacorp don't have to worry about competition with its products. Pretty nasty but since we no longer even have the rule of law in this country ( see how the president now claims the right to imprison or assassinate Americans without trial anywhere in the world including American soil under "war powers") the corps WILL get whatever their little greedy black hearts desire, period.
All that is left is to kill off free software (death by a thousand trolls, anyone?) and that is that, anything that can be useful or make a profit will be locked behind a paywall. Personally I predict the next "big thing" will be converting the existing commercial software, video, and music into SaaS where you won't be allowed to "own" anything (look at the EULA, in some ways that is already true) but instead you'll be forced to "rent" everything you use or watch or hear in perpetuity and the second you miss a payment your PC won't work, your movies won't play, etc. This serves the ultimate goal of "maximizing profit potential" and ensures they force you to consume the latest product by flipping the kill switch on the old. To put a current spin on an old song..."Freedoms just another word for, no people to screw..."
If you can't see how MSFT is gonna make boatloads of cash off of Skype then you must be blind. They'll turn it into THE must have WinServer all in one for managing employee phones. You'll be able to give them a Nokia WinPhone with Skype, have it route to wherever they are on the planet, all for a single low rate, be able to manage the whole thing with GPOs through AD, businesses will snatch it up!
The words you need to be thinking of AC is "vertical integration" which MSFT is finally wising up to. You'll see WinPhone, Skype, Windows 7, and the X360 ALL play nice together and integrate in a nice "it just works" kinda way,
It along with the Nokia deal were smart moves (unlike Ballmer's crazy "Hey lets buy Yahoo!" idea) that with one move let them kick start their mobile division and give them a way to tie everything together all nice and neat, in a way that both home users and business users won't have any problems buying, either as part of the OS or hardware on the home side, and as part of a service contract on the business side. Its a smart move any way you look at it.
Thank you! And notice how anyone who dares to not suckle the kool aid gets labeled troll or flamebait? As you pointed out the very first post and hundreds after it were "ZOMG dump Skype NOW!" and then the community has the unmitigated gall to bitch when proprietary companies won't support them? Why should they, when you treat them like lepers?
Frankly they can waste their mod points ALL THEY WANT but there is nothing i find more disgusting than hypocrites and right now the Linux community is overflowing with them. What do they say in many a post? "If proprietary companies would only support us too we would buy from them!" and then what do they do "ZOMG Its teh M$! They won't give uz teh codez and they will set trapz RUN AWAY!"
What did they say about hardware? "If the companies would release the code we would buy AND support them wholeheartedly!" So what happened when AMD actually did what the "community" asked and opened up every damned bit of code as fast as they could get the lawyers to sign off? "You should buy Intel and Nvidia if you run Linux" even though Nvidia ain't giving you shit and Intel has been going PowerVR which don't support Linux!
In the end while I can support (even if I don't agree with) RMS because the man has consistently walked the walk as well as talked the talk, frankly if the community were any more full of shit you could solve the energy crisis just by squeezing them! Lies, bullshit, hypocrisy, elitism and FUD, those words sum up the current community IMHO pretty damned well.
You expect the whole damned world to bend over backwards to accommodate you, even when the numbers aren't there to make it worth the effort, and then when a company DOES reach out, or do as you ask? You are more than happy to shit on them or buy from the competition who gives you the finger.
No damned wonder Linux is such a niche OS, with no support or retail presence, you go out of your way to ensure nobody wants anything to do with you! Now watch them waste mod points because they know my words are 100% correct. That is the thing about hypocrites, always ready to shit on others rather than take a good hard look in the mirror. But if after 20 years you have less users than JavaME? It is high time the community asks itself "What are we doing wrong?" and I'd say making sure no proprietary company will have a damned thing to do with your OS is a start.
As someone who fixes said boxes 6 days a week, allow me to shed some light on why that is. I have found a good 90% of viruses on machines can be traced back to one of four attack vectors. 1.- The "you want teh hot lesbos? you need to run our Iz_not_Viruz_iz_codec.exe to play teh vidz!" 2.- The "ZOMg you got teh viruz! To fix run our Iz_not_Viruz_iz_cleanerz.exe to get rid of it ZOMG!" 3.-The "Use the new Limewire (Iz_not_Viruz_iz_Limewirez) to download teh latest Titney_Spearz.mp3.exe tunez today!" and 4.-"Hey my BFF sent me a funny cat video! It says I should run Iz_not_Viruz_iz_LOLCatz to see teh kittiez!"
Notice how in NONE of those attacks did the underlying OS make a difference in any way, shape, or form, because it was the USER actively helping the malware? The last real security issue in Windows, the "hey lets have everyone run as admin!" died when Vista came out. That is why you're seeing more third party like flash exploits and a shitload of social engineering, because the malware writers know the best way to get around security is have the user help you and frankly it is beyond easy.
Trust me Linux guys, you ever get the numbers OSX now has? you'll be seeing Iz_not_Viruz_iz_screensaver.sh and the users WILL run it. Look up "KDE screensaver bug" to see it HAS happened in the past and it WILL happen again in the future. The reason why you're not a target now is the numbers simply aren't there and like most criminals malware writers are lazy and go for the lowest hanging fruit, and that is the Iz_not_Viruz_iz_(fill in the blank).exe by a HUGE margin.
Not to mention this is a PERFECT example of why MSFT should NOT support Linux users! I mean here it is, the program works just fine, MSFT says they'll continue to support it, and what happens? "ZOMG teh M$ pwns it, we must switch NOW!"
I mean why the fuck should MSFT bother keeping the thing running, especially when Torvalds annual 6 month kernel screwing means you have to keep a cadre of developers working on NOTHING but keeping the Linux client going, when every Linux zealot is gonna be screaming from the rafters to have the thing removed?
In the end it is just another perfect example of why NO proprietary company should support Linux ever. Those that simply want an alternative OS have been pushing out by the zealots, who believe anything that isn't "free as in freedom and beer!" is the devil and must be destroyed. In the end you have a teeny tiny market controlled by zealots that have made it clear if MSFT gave away candy and beer they'd be standing by the cart throwing it into the ditch to keep anyone from being "poisoned" be teh evil M$, so why bother? That goes for Photoshop, games, hell anything that refuses to hand over any and all code, they simply don't want you there, so why waste the effort?
So I predict this will be a classic self fulfilling prophecy. The zealots will push for its banning and/or removal, it will require constant updating because from the kernel on up Linux shifts around more than any OS BAR NONE, and the Linux users, what few there were, will drop off the face of the earth, because they would rather deal with some half baked PITA mess of a "solution" rather than let ANYTHING owned by "M$" anywhere near their system, so MSFT will see the money is being pissed down a drain, quit supporting it, and all those like the Nichols troll (who is right up there with Thurott on the Windows side when it comes to trolling) will say "See? I TOLD YOU teh M$ would dump you!"
So enjoy throwing out something that works for a half baked royal PITA simply because its "free as in freedom!" Linux guys, but don't bitch when no proprietary company will touch you with a 50 foot pole, or that the "must haves" like Skype and Netflix won't run on your OS. You brought it upon yourselves.
Are afraid little man? can't actually answer so all you can do is try to deflect? How fucking sad. And you expect your broke ass shit to be compared to quality? BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA...damn man, that is some funny shit! That is why all the major retailers avoid your shit like the black death, the 'quality" scares them, HA HA HA HA HA!
So lets see you put your ass with your mouth is buddy, step up! Remove ALL access to the CLI for just 6 months I DARE YOU.. but of course you won't, you know why? Because LINUX IS BROKE ASS SHIT that shits itself and dies without CLI and YOU KNOW IT! Just admit it, you know this is true! Hell just look up "Broke drivers" or any variation thereof on Ubuntu, the "Linux for humans" forum. I did recently and quit counting at over 14 THOUSAND hits! Now for an OS that is less than 1/4 of 1 percent, which IIRC is what the Ubuntu numbers are, it is fucking pathetic! Your entire driver model is a piss poor joke!
But you stick your head in the sand little man, you pretend it is all a global conspiracy by the evil M$ to keep your "quality" away from the masses when in reality the masses have spoken in a loud single voice and said "DO NOT WANT to your broke ass driver clusterfuck and CLI jerking off. Oh and BTW here's YOUR sign dumbass please enjoy how we laugh at your "quality". Yeah about as much quality as a taco fart by one of the unwashed at your LUG maybe.
Bingo! Anyone who bothers to vote for anything other than local elections is simply wasting their time, as any and ALL choices will be pre-approved by our corporate owners before being allowed to proceed. Hell even though I don't approve of his policies just look at how quick the MSM was when it came to isolating Ron Paul when it looked like he might actually gain some support. Not pre-approved by the corporate owners? Well then you are a stupid quack nutjob worthless of being allowed to speak according to the mouthpiece of the owners, aka our "news" services.
To those that think anything short of an Egypt style revolt will stop our slouching into a fascist corporate owned police state here are your choices in the next presidential election. you can vote for the corporate ass kissing fascist in the blue suit, or the corporate ass kissing fascist in the other blue suit. Notice how neither choice gives you someone who isn't a corporate asskissing fascist? This is what they commonly call "voting for the lesser of two evils" which is in reality about as much choice as being handed a slip with two boxes, one says "Check here to vote for el presidente!" and the other says "check here to support el presidente by voting for him".
To all my fellow/.ers I say this...steal the shit. Steal anything and everything that ain't nailed down, pirate the living fuck out of everything you can. Because we have seen conclusively that "voting with your dollars" has completely failed as they simply list ALL lost sales as piracy and get ever more draconian laws passed regardless, and if you ever did enough damage to actually cause them any financial pain they would simply have themselves declared 'too big to fail" and take the money out of your pocket while the government holds you down.
So snatch that shit buddy, snatch everything you can. It is only a matter of time before China calls in the loans and the whole thing turns into Zimbabwe part II, so you might as well get yours because they are sure as fuck snatching every damned thing that ain't nailed down, like the public domain, freedoms like the fourth amendment, and anything else on their corporate wishlists.
Well please follow it up with a nice pointing out of how you just went 'full retard" because that is EXACTLY what you have done. tell you what sparky, want me to prove it? walk up to half a dozen people at random, NOT at your local LUG mind you, and simply ask them this "How do you launch a CLI in Windows"? You know what you'll get dumbass? First most will say "What is a CLI?" and then nearly ALL will have no fucking clue. None at all.
But what do I expect from a guy that can't even read a full sentence. if you would have bothered to read the sentence it said "THERE IS NO COMMAND LINE IN WINDOWS" followed by explaining how while there may be a way to get one, hidden deep in the bowels of the OS the user never uses or sees it while Linux distros have to put a fucking term link on the desktop. Why? because that shit be broke, that's why! They KNOW that without CLI Linux shits itself and dies HARD, and notice how neither you nor ANYONE here would accept my challenge to remove your access to CLI in Linux for 6 months? Why is that? It is because YOUR SHIT BE BROKE!
So Mr "full retard" don't blame the messenger because you be driving teh hoopty. If your shit wasn't some broke ass lame excuse for a desktop you wouldn't have to cling to CLI like a baby clinging to its mother but you do Blanche, you most certainly do. So please continue to advertise your lack of reading comprehension and fear of accepting my challenge. Meanwhile I've got 5 more Win 7 boxes just sold, still waiting on 2 new laptops to come in. Windows is selling quite well, meanwhile NOBODY is selling your OS. Why is that? You think there is a global conspiracy? Could it be...oh I don't know....YOUR SHIT BE BROKE?
Riiiight, because most folks have a couple of million lying around to hire some land sharks and keep them on the payroll for a decade or more right? Hell a friend of mine was running a little ISP and got screwed blatntly by one of the big boys who said "just try and sue us". Even his lawyer said ultimately he'd win, no doubt but it would cost a minimum of 1.5 million and a decade, maybe a decade and a half, for them to use up all their appeals and drag it to the highest courts.
You see the thing that makes the corps "better than you" in the eyes of the law (which is written by lawyers natch) is that they can afford legal teams that do nothing but smack guys like you around all day. Unless your last name is Buffet or Dell you can't afford justice even if you are right, simply because they can drag it out forever. So unless you can get a lawyer who'll go for class action (in which case the lawyer gets 99% and you get a coupon towards your next purchase) you are SOL dude.
THANK YOU! Don't you just love the incredible level of denial around here? it is obviously not just a river in Egypt. These guys think because THEY are geeks and THEY think something is simple, there for it is so...BULLSHIT!
First lets gets some things straight Linux guys, since so many of you seem misinformed...ready? THERE IS NO COMMAND LINE IN WINDOWS...I know, its a concept! I mean sure if you wanted to go hunting in the bowels you can find one, but you know what? The common man has never used it because frankly the ENTIRE OS is designed so you don't ever have to. Before anyone brings up Powershell that is SERVER TECH and I have NEVER seen it in the wild on a desktop, ever.
Second using a CLI just to get your drivers working? UR DOIN IT WRONG...You see, everyone else in the free world has these little things called "APIs", Solaris, BSD, OS fricking 2, which means you can actually patch your machine without shit breaking! I know, what a concept! I am typing this on a machine running win2K drivers on XP Sp3. That is TWELVE YEARS without having any driver fuckups. Hell the card in it is a fricking TNT2! My Win 7 PC has Vista drivers for a couple of parts, that is nearly FIVE YEARS again with NO driver problems, NO CLI, and no bullshit, it "just works".
So before anyone goes spouting off bullshit, answer this: How many Linux machines have you sold? I'm a retailer, I've tried literally a dozen different distros just trying to find ONE, just one mind you, that wouldn't shit itself and die hard when the 6 month deathmarch rolled around.
What did I find? Sound broken, networking broken, video broken, wireless BROKEN...see a pattern here? NO home user is buying support contracts okay? That means it is MY ass that would have to deal with it. I have XP machines that have been in the field for nearly 8 years now with nothing needed from me but the occasional hardware upgrade....that's it. That's all. Because IT IS EASY NOT TO INFECT WINDOWS if you just use even a teeny tiny bit of common sense. Don't download warez, don't go to dodgy porn sites, don't click on every email, is that so hard? No it is not.
Look, I hope one day Linux gets good enough for the masses, I really really do. You think I like buying Windows licenses? But as of right now YOUR SHIT BE BROKE and instead of fixing said broke ass shit you call everybody shill or troll, how about this instead? Tell Torlvalds WE WANT A DRIVER ABI and ride his ass HARD until he gives you one! Hell even OS fricking 2 has one, why not you? Don't give me the same lame excuses, because that is what they are. Actually READ the article everyone points out against ABIs and you know what? It is a religious text, he even goes so far as to call all that won't give up the code as "leeches" and actually wishes that their drivers would break even if it bones the users.
It is really simple folks: Make it simple, make it GUI, make it "clicky clicky" easy, make CLI DIAF so that you NEVER have to use it unless you want to, and then and ONLY then do you have a shot on the desktop. I have nothing against Linux, in fact I'm trying to get the local college to switch to Beagleboards for their local rocket designs. It is quite good for programmers. But home users are NOT programmers, admins, or CS grads. They are lucky if they can find control panel and you want to trust them in a 70s era term, with no spellcheck or auto-complete, where if they get the tiniest thing wrong they hose the entire OS? Give me a fricking break! Sorry folks, that shit ain't gonna cut it, which is why it took 20 years for Linux to get 1% of the desktop, and why OSX and Windows rule. No CLI in those OSes, not as far as the user is concerned.
Oh please! I can make that into a little.reg file and go "See this thing? Go clicky clicky and reboot" and its done, period, the end. Just because YOU don't know how to make a.reg file doesn't mean the giant clusterfuck that is Linux CLI (seriously even OS fricking 2 has a solid API by now, having drivers break every time Torlvalds gets a bug up his ass is inexcusable) is in ANY way shape or form comparable.
I get can have a machine spend years without needing a SINGLE line of CLI, ever. Can YOU do that? Try this experiment if you think Linux is ready for the desktop: Remove ALL shells. C'mon, Linux is modular, yes? Then remove the shell or mod them down so you can NOT use them! I bet the machine won't even make 6 months, and you sure as hell won't be updating the thing, because without CLI Linux falls down like a house of cards.
Just face the fact that Linux is a SERVER OS, with millions being spent on SERVER tools, and the GUI is an afterthought at best. Sound breaks? Bash, Wireless fucks up? Bash. Video problems? Bash. Hell the answer to EVERY question in Linux is bash. Which is fine if you're an admin, CS grad, or geek with more time than money. For everyone else? News Flash: They ain't touched a CLI in 10 years and they sure as hell ain't about to start now. You show them a command prompt and they think "rinky dink Mickey Mouse OS" and frankly they are right. You should NEVER need CLI on a modern OS. The fact that Linux can't live without it just shows how far behind it is in the desktop arena. Embedded and server its great, desktop is shit.
Nah, they usually go for the old "suicide" route, like that reporter a couple of years back that slit his wrists in the tub. the problem was if anybody would have bothered to find out about the guy first they would have found out he had blood phobia so bad his family said he would pass out if he pricked his finger. Kinda doubt a guy that couldn't stand the sight of blood would go for a slow bleed out.
As for TFA, is anybody surprised? We have seen the enemy and he is us. Ever since the end of WWI (where before WWII we were like 37th on the list of militarily sizes) the USA has been nothing but a giant power grab, hell look at the FBI with COINTELPRO. With that one they went as far as actually executing a Black Panther for not staying in his place, does it surprise ANYONE that our government is right up there with China when it comes to spying on its own people?
I'm sure they'll claim its to "catch pedos/terrorists" and get Nancy Grace and all the talking heads to cheer for it if this little setback actually causes any flak, but with the megacorps who are in bed with the government owning the media I doubt this will even make the evening news. That is why voting today is pretty much pointless past the local level, the megacorps will make sure only properly bribed choices are allowed. Anyone you vote for, whether D or R, will continue to give lip service to "freedom" and "privacy" while continuing the status quo. See Obama and warrantless wiretaps for example.
Sorry but you're full of shit AC and I have NOTHING against old Razr1911, as a matter of fact I often use his "XP Mini Pro" with my own keys for low RAM boxes. hell of a lot better than WinFLP.
But if anyone doesn't believe me here is a little test: download "Windows 7 X86-X64 all versions".ISO. That is the RTM version BTW. Now let it patch to Sp1...I'll wait...uh oh! Did you just get WGA'd? Yes you did. Of course you can kill it in about 25 seconds with "WGAKiller All Versions.exe" but that doesn't change the fact MSFT has blacklisted the OEM RTM keys that were used in the original hack.
Because then all they have to do is figure out a buffer overflow for the default browser and you can't patch it so you're boned? As a PC repairman my question would be this....why bother? Do you have ANY idea how many unpatched XP boxes are out there? Boxes with NO AV, or the same trialware Norton crap it came with in 05, loaded up with P2P crap or running "Razr1911 Pro SP2 Corp" that has WU turned off to keep from getting WGA'd? If the number was less than 60 million frankly I'd be amazed.
So I don't see why they are bothering with this now when they have so much low hanging fruit left, unless they are planning on using it for a spear phishing attack. The time to be releasing something like this would be about 6 months before XP EOL, when the amount of unpatched "Razr1911 Windows 7 all versions pre-activated" will be much higher, although even then most likely all the updates will be turned off (already seeing that BTW, as MSFT figured out how to kill the Razr1911 OEM hack on the RTM version so pirates are just killing WU like they did with XP) so again hacking will be easy.
As a guy that cleans them for a living I can tell you infecting a Windows box simply isn't that hard, not because MSFT built a bad OS (I'd argue that properly patched an XP or 7 box is actually pretty solid) but because there are so many pirated versions, boxes controlled by people that will happily click on any email attachment, or download "Hot_Lesbos.avi.exe" and run it without a second thought.
Hell Limewire has been dead for a couple of years yet I still see new boxes infected with malware calling itself "the new Limewire" because simply ripping off the old Limewire icons is enough to get the clueless to happily turn off any security that attempts to stop them installing it so they can snatch the latest pop crap. Social engineering with literally millions of clueless users makes it butt simple to infect masses of boxes with just a little carrot at the end of a stick. This seems like a hell of a lot more work than required unless they have some corporate target in mind.
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Oh really? What did Sony give out to those that had their computers infected by their root kit? I believe that was a whole $10 check, correct? Can you get your PC cleaned for $10? Meanwhile the lawyer cleared something like 57 MILLION.
Hell don't believe me, go look for yourself. look up "10 largest class action suits" and see what the lawyers got VS what the actual victims got. The largest victim payout I found was a little over $50, 000, and that was ONLY for the one who initiated the class action. The lawyer? He got close to 80 MILLION dollars.
So here is your chance, go on, prove me wrong. Show me a SINGLE class action lawsuit where the victims got more than the lawyer, just one. I know you'll fail because I've looked at the numbers. All a class action does is make a couple of lawyers wealthy as sin while leaving the victims with a check that wouldn't even cover their medical bills. yeah, that's such a good deal there.
First of all, getting a single square is NOT bingo, unless you have the most fucked up game of bingo I've ever heard, second don't insult me by calling me a libertarian, I'm a socialist thank you VERY much.
And you still haven't answered the fundamental question: How is voting supposed to do ANYTHING when both parties have identical views? How's that Hope and Change working out for ya? Who has held onto every nasty policy Bush supported, even taking them farther when he could? And now Obama says he has the right to assassination of Americans on American soil thanks to irrevocable "war powers" so you tell me, how EXACTLY is he ANY different than the man who preceded him?
This isn't about some political party Mr funny man, this is about the loss of the very essence of a free society! This is about using the government as the personal attack dogs of the corporations (15 years in jail for copyright infringement?) and when bad management and cronyism causes the business to implode simply labeling it "too big to fail" and handing them a blank check. You find ANYTHING at all funny about that? You currently "owe" about $78,000 thanks to the spending insanity of our leaders, you know this right?
Thank you! You are the FIRST one that hasn't screamed and reached for the pitchfork, even though as I pointed out every single other OS with any numbers at all has had this "feature" (which I wouldn't call a feature, just common sense design) for over a decade. The only answer you usually get is a link to the religious rant against ABIs, where the writer goes so far as to call those that don't hand the developers ALL of their code "leeches" and hopes that Torvalds breaks their drivers often even when that bones the very users Linux so desperately needs.
Look Linux guys, I'm a small town computer retailer the kind of guy you want on your side because MSFT doesn't give us any breaks (I use System Builders and OEM) and I actually care about my customers and want them to have a safe and happy computing experience. Linux would mean less costs, so I would be able to sell for lower prices or offer better hardware, it would be a win for me AND my customers!
But I simply cannot in good conscience offer your OS, when even with 20+ years of computing experience I often bash my head against the wall fighting the damned thing! An update should never break drivers okay? And certainly not when you are cranking out said updates on a 6 month schedule. At that pace just as you get the thing finally running stable here it comes! yet another week or two spent scouring the web looking for "fixes" that involve huge messes of CLI that must be typed PERFECTLY or they cause havoc. Do you HONESTLY think I can offer that to my customers? People who just want to use a PC, not get an education in Linux forums and Bash commands?
And before anybody says LTS let me say that LTS is a really bad joke, because as long as software is tied to which kernel you are using LTS is simply a codeword for "can't use any new software" and the fact that software is actually tied to which kernel you have just shows the madness that is the kernel situation!
I want Linux to succeed, I really really do. I have written articles pointing out what needs to change for small businesses and retailers to embrace Linux, and I remember the days of OS/2 and GEM and Commodore and how nice it was to actually have plenty of choice. But the current situation in Linux on the desktop is like a bad joke, with broken drivers, constantly shifting internals, user programs tied to which kernel you are using, dependency hell like the old days of Win9X, and to top it all Torlvalds constantly making major changes which breaks programs and drivers left and right without a care in the world, like the kernel is his personal plaything and not the center of a multibillion dollar OS with millions depending on it.
So please Linux users, demand change. Demand Torvalds give a functional ABI or step down so someone else can give you what everyone else has had for over a decade, demand that while CLI still be optional that all software be usable without it, demand stability and the ability to keep software past an update, and demand that the 6 month update insanity be replaced with a more reasonable 3 or 5 year schedule, with plenty of beta testing before being handed to the masses. Because there are plenty of guys like me that would be happy to line our shelves with your OS, but as it is now just keeping the machines functional past updates would be a full time job. It is 2011, not 1991, and this is simply inexcusable.
As a non believer all I have to say is.....can I have your stuff? After all you won't be needing it, right? Oh and as a common courtesy please clear all nasty porn from your PCs, although feel free to leave the lesbian gangbangs and be sure to label the folder as "Tools and Utilities" so my GF won't find it. Thanks!
Actually allow me to say the above AC is full of shit, and a racist prick on top of it for calling a damned decent human being a "thug" trying to find an excuse for a racist cop head bashing. To set the record straight not all Baptist are Southern Baptists, Charles as a matter of fact isn't affiliated with any organized baptist groups at all, and simply calls his little church Baptists because they do believe in Baptizing, but only in those old enough to understand the symbolism behind it.
The simple fact is Charles and I have been friends for years, even though I'm an atheist and have a gay son. I already wrote what he says on atheism (Just because you don't love God doesn't mean he doesn't love you) and as far as my son being gay he says (It is not up to me to decide that is good or evil, that is between him and his God. As someone who has received hatred for falling in love and marrying a white woman because I am black I know what it is like to be hated for who you love and I can't in good conscience do that to someone. The bible says "Judge not lest ye be judged" and that is what I tell folks to do) so frankly I have No problem with the man just because we have different beliefs. Considering I know his history, and how he hit rock bottom and became suicidal after losing his mom and becoming addicted to drugs trying to cope, I can respect his need to believe in something bigger, even if I don't share in those beliefs.
As for his "cool cat" as you put it? Funny story, I was stuck at one of the meetings having to play with a guitarist that could barely play more than barre chords (I ended up getting Charles to come play lead, as I originally met him in a blues band and the man can play) so out of boredom while the tent started filling up I started playing "Sympathy for the devil" just being my usual smart ass self, and when Charles said he liked the grove I should keep it up I leaned over a told him what I was playing, not wanting to cause the man any embarrassment. Instead of being bothered he just grabbed the guitar and made a cool blues rap up about loving your fellow man. I wish I could remember the words, but all I can remember is he had the "Hope you guess my name" part changed to "Just remember, to the Lord we're all the same" and then went on about how we should treat everyone as Jesus did, as we are all brothers. I thought that would count as "cool cat" under your definition.
You forgot the third part...spend endless hours on the forums cursing because "update foo broke my (insert device) drivers!". Seriously someone needs to hunt down Torvalds and give that sucker a good ass kicking.
It is 2011 and he still acts like it is 1992 and the kernel is his personal playtoy. Every single decent OS, OSX, Windows, Solaris, BSD, hell even OS/2, has had driver level ABIs for a decade or more, yet Torvalds still refuses to allow this simple fix to keep from borking everything when he gets an itch to fuck with shit.
So I'm sorry but as a retailer that step three makes it so I'm unable to sell machines with your OS, or support your OS after the sale. The annual forum hunts just suck too much of my already limited time. Fix that and the whole "software tied to which kernel your using" mess and then I'll be happy to help your OS grow in numbers, but as it is now it is better to stick with Windows, even if the occasional user stupidity manages to get through the AV (usually because they tell the AV to allow it because the malware promises them some reward for doing so) than to have the guaranteed breakdown every six damned months for the life of the machine thanks to Torvalds and his kernel fucking.
As someone who actually has a scar on the back of his head from a cop that said, and I quote "Fucking niggers and God damned hippies, i don't know which I hate more' (and BTW that "fucking nigger" I was driving was a baptist minister that was doing a mini tent revival tour to raise money for the homeless, whom I was playing bass for and driving as a favor and because I believed in the cause even though I'm an atheist, which he would always counter with "Just because you don't love God doesn't mean he doesn't love you"), allow me to say, from the bottom of my heart.....please get the panties out of your ass dude.
Jokes and satire are what we use to know only alleviate some of the hasher realities of this world we live in, but to also shine a light on people's misconceptions without being ugly about it. It is like what my GF who is Cherokee says when people start talking Spanish to her, assuming because she is brown she must be a Mexican "Me no Mexican, Me Cherokee, Me scalp your ass!" and by doing so sets the record straight without any preaching or PC bullshit (and always gets a laugh out of me when I see their faces).
So please, do get the panties out your ass, the sand out yo vagina, or however it is kids put quit being a stuck up prick these days. It is all the PC bullshit that leads us down the slope where you have "victim classes" and "hate crimes " (excuse me? If someone bashes my head in it don't count as much if my head is white? WTF?) and other "sensitivity" horseshit.
Oh and since I'm an atheist Irish/Creek Indian mix, feel free to make all the Godless Heathen, Drunken Mick, and Wild Injun jokes you like. If it is a good one I'll even be passing it around so please keep all jokes GPL or PD.
Now as for TFA? Apple is one of the most lawsuit happy corps bar none, so is anyone surprised? Everyone made a stink about MSFT and TomTom while ignoring the fact that MSFT offered TomTom (who are making money with their devices, not giving them away) the same RAND pricing they offer the flash manufacturers, no discrimination because they weren't using WinCE, and in the entire history of the company they've been the instigator of a whole 7 lawsuits in the company's history. I wonder how many Apple has started? because I bet it is a hell of a lot higher.
Wow they must be upgrading my area, as I used to just hit 2Mbps down and now according to both Cnet and Speedtest I'm hitting between 8 and 10.
BTW for those that haven't heard Randy Macho Man Savage just died of a heart attack in a car accident. As someone who grew up with his "ohh YEAH" he will be missed. RIP Macho Man.
That is if they are even using digital. In my area the basic is still analog (I know as I use a cheapo USB TV tuner to watch it) because according to my bud that works there the owners are too cheap to pay for new boxes to be rolled out. I wonder how much bandwidth I could be using for the net is being sucked up by the 50 analog channels I had to take to get the cheaper 3 pack bundle?
I don't suppose it really matters as I'd kill for the Comcast 250Gb limits, here it is 36gb residential and 76Gb commercial...eek! Maybe if 250Gb becomes the standard I may even get upgraded!
Lame, as you're still taking up a whole 3 dimensions. The correct answer is Hentai. 2D for the win!
I have a friend that works the local cabelco (pop 15,000) and assume what he told me is what they are doing nationwide. According to him Netflix is negotiating to set up severs that will host all of the popular content at the ISP, with only funky unpopular stuff hosted at Netflix. this way Netflix gets the customers without having to worry about the caps, the ISPs don't have to deal with PO'ed customers who hit the caps, everybody wins.
Of course the downside is everyone who doesn't have the $$$ to set up such an arrangement is boned, but if there is one thing this country is for, it is for screwing the little guy in favor of the megacorp. Shame we don't have any choices in it, but that is what happens when the last miles are owned by a few megacorps who don't ever reinvest their profits in infrastructure. While the rest of the world ends up with 100Mbps pipes we get the short bus to the information superhighway. But at least we'll have the latest shitty Hollywood crap delivered for just $8 a month, right?
And that is different from what we have now....how exactly? Abandonware sites gets run off or shut down all the time, try selling a disc of abandonware with DOSBox preset for running it and see how quickly the corps shut you down. If someone can't squeeze maximum profits from an IP then nobody is allowed to have it and groups like the BSA will go after abandonware even by corps that have long since gone tits up.
The ultimate goal should be pretty obvious to anyone by now, to lock the world behind a paywall. Nothing is free, anything and everything any person could possibly want to see, read, hear, or use, locked down behind a paywall so some ultramegacorp don't have to worry about competition with its products. Pretty nasty but since we no longer even have the rule of law in this country ( see how the president now claims the right to imprison or assassinate Americans without trial anywhere in the world including American soil under "war powers") the corps WILL get whatever their little greedy black hearts desire, period.
All that is left is to kill off free software (death by a thousand trolls, anyone?) and that is that, anything that can be useful or make a profit will be locked behind a paywall. Personally I predict the next "big thing" will be converting the existing commercial software, video, and music into SaaS where you won't be allowed to "own" anything (look at the EULA, in some ways that is already true) but instead you'll be forced to "rent" everything you use or watch or hear in perpetuity and the second you miss a payment your PC won't work, your movies won't play, etc. This serves the ultimate goal of "maximizing profit potential" and ensures they force you to consume the latest product by flipping the kill switch on the old. To put a current spin on an old song..."Freedoms just another word for, no people to screw..."
If you can't see how MSFT is gonna make boatloads of cash off of Skype then you must be blind. They'll turn it into THE must have WinServer all in one for managing employee phones. You'll be able to give them a Nokia WinPhone with Skype, have it route to wherever they are on the planet, all for a single low rate, be able to manage the whole thing with GPOs through AD, businesses will snatch it up!
The words you need to be thinking of AC is "vertical integration" which MSFT is finally wising up to. You'll see WinPhone, Skype, Windows 7, and the X360 ALL play nice together and integrate in a nice "it just works" kinda way,
It along with the Nokia deal were smart moves (unlike Ballmer's crazy "Hey lets buy Yahoo!" idea) that with one move let them kick start their mobile division and give them a way to tie everything together all nice and neat, in a way that both home users and business users won't have any problems buying, either as part of the OS or hardware on the home side, and as part of a service contract on the business side. Its a smart move any way you look at it.
Thank you! And notice how anyone who dares to not suckle the kool aid gets labeled troll or flamebait? As you pointed out the very first post and hundreds after it were "ZOMG dump Skype NOW!" and then the community has the unmitigated gall to bitch when proprietary companies won't support them? Why should they, when you treat them like lepers?
Frankly they can waste their mod points ALL THEY WANT but there is nothing i find more disgusting than hypocrites and right now the Linux community is overflowing with them. What do they say in many a post? "If proprietary companies would only support us too we would buy from them!" and then what do they do "ZOMG Its teh M$! They won't give uz teh codez and they will set trapz RUN AWAY!"
What did they say about hardware? "If the companies would release the code we would buy AND support them wholeheartedly!" So what happened when AMD actually did what the "community" asked and opened up every damned bit of code as fast as they could get the lawyers to sign off? "You should buy Intel and Nvidia if you run Linux" even though Nvidia ain't giving you shit and Intel has been going PowerVR which don't support Linux!
In the end while I can support (even if I don't agree with) RMS because the man has consistently walked the walk as well as talked the talk, frankly if the community were any more full of shit you could solve the energy crisis just by squeezing them! Lies, bullshit, hypocrisy, elitism and FUD, those words sum up the current community IMHO pretty damned well.
You expect the whole damned world to bend over backwards to accommodate you, even when the numbers aren't there to make it worth the effort, and then when a company DOES reach out, or do as you ask? You are more than happy to shit on them or buy from the competition who gives you the finger.
No damned wonder Linux is such a niche OS, with no support or retail presence, you go out of your way to ensure nobody wants anything to do with you! Now watch them waste mod points because they know my words are 100% correct. That is the thing about hypocrites, always ready to shit on others rather than take a good hard look in the mirror. But if after 20 years you have less users than JavaME? It is high time the community asks itself "What are we doing wrong?" and I'd say making sure no proprietary company will have a damned thing to do with your OS is a start.
As someone who fixes said boxes 6 days a week, allow me to shed some light on why that is. I have found a good 90% of viruses on machines can be traced back to one of four attack vectors. 1.- The "you want teh hot lesbos? you need to run our Iz_not_Viruz_iz_codec.exe to play teh vidz!" 2.- The "ZOMg you got teh viruz! To fix run our Iz_not_Viruz_iz_cleanerz.exe to get rid of it ZOMG!" 3.-The "Use the new Limewire (Iz_not_Viruz_iz_Limewirez) to download teh latest Titney_Spearz.mp3.exe tunez today!" and 4.-"Hey my BFF sent me a funny cat video! It says I should run Iz_not_Viruz_iz_LOLCatz to see teh kittiez!"
Notice how in NONE of those attacks did the underlying OS make a difference in any way, shape, or form, because it was the USER actively helping the malware? The last real security issue in Windows, the "hey lets have everyone run as admin!" died when Vista came out. That is why you're seeing more third party like flash exploits and a shitload of social engineering, because the malware writers know the best way to get around security is have the user help you and frankly it is beyond easy.
Trust me Linux guys, you ever get the numbers OSX now has? you'll be seeing Iz_not_Viruz_iz_screensaver.sh and the users WILL run it. Look up "KDE screensaver bug" to see it HAS happened in the past and it WILL happen again in the future. The reason why you're not a target now is the numbers simply aren't there and like most criminals malware writers are lazy and go for the lowest hanging fruit, and that is the Iz_not_Viruz_iz_(fill in the blank).exe by a HUGE margin.
Not to mention this is a PERFECT example of why MSFT should NOT support Linux users! I mean here it is, the program works just fine, MSFT says they'll continue to support it, and what happens? "ZOMG teh M$ pwns it, we must switch NOW!"
I mean why the fuck should MSFT bother keeping the thing running, especially when Torvalds annual 6 month kernel screwing means you have to keep a cadre of developers working on NOTHING but keeping the Linux client going, when every Linux zealot is gonna be screaming from the rafters to have the thing removed?
In the end it is just another perfect example of why NO proprietary company should support Linux ever. Those that simply want an alternative OS have been pushing out by the zealots, who believe anything that isn't "free as in freedom and beer!" is the devil and must be destroyed. In the end you have a teeny tiny market controlled by zealots that have made it clear if MSFT gave away candy and beer they'd be standing by the cart throwing it into the ditch to keep anyone from being "poisoned" be teh evil M$, so why bother? That goes for Photoshop, games, hell anything that refuses to hand over any and all code, they simply don't want you there, so why waste the effort?
So I predict this will be a classic self fulfilling prophecy. The zealots will push for its banning and/or removal, it will require constant updating because from the kernel on up Linux shifts around more than any OS BAR NONE, and the Linux users, what few there were, will drop off the face of the earth, because they would rather deal with some half baked PITA mess of a "solution" rather than let ANYTHING owned by "M$" anywhere near their system, so MSFT will see the money is being pissed down a drain, quit supporting it, and all those like the Nichols troll (who is right up there with Thurott on the Windows side when it comes to trolling) will say "See? I TOLD YOU teh M$ would dump you!"
So enjoy throwing out something that works for a half baked royal PITA simply because its "free as in freedom!" Linux guys, but don't bitch when no proprietary company will touch you with a 50 foot pole, or that the "must haves" like Skype and Netflix won't run on your OS. You brought it upon yourselves.
Are afraid little man? can't actually answer so all you can do is try to deflect? How fucking sad. And you expect your broke ass shit to be compared to quality? BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA...damn man, that is some funny shit! That is why all the major retailers avoid your shit like the black death, the 'quality" scares them, HA HA HA HA HA!
So lets see you put your ass with your mouth is buddy, step up! Remove ALL access to the CLI for just 6 months I DARE YOU.. but of course you won't, you know why? Because LINUX IS BROKE ASS SHIT that shits itself and dies without CLI and YOU KNOW IT! Just admit it, you know this is true! Hell just look up "Broke drivers" or any variation thereof on Ubuntu, the "Linux for humans" forum. I did recently and quit counting at over 14 THOUSAND hits! Now for an OS that is less than 1/4 of 1 percent, which IIRC is what the Ubuntu numbers are, it is fucking pathetic! Your entire driver model is a piss poor joke!
But you stick your head in the sand little man, you pretend it is all a global conspiracy by the evil M$ to keep your "quality" away from the masses when in reality the masses have spoken in a loud single voice and said "DO NOT WANT to your broke ass driver clusterfuck and CLI jerking off. Oh and BTW here's YOUR sign dumbass please enjoy how we laugh at your "quality". Yeah about as much quality as a taco fart by one of the unwashed at your LUG maybe.
Bingo! Anyone who bothers to vote for anything other than local elections is simply wasting their time, as any and ALL choices will be pre-approved by our corporate owners before being allowed to proceed. Hell even though I don't approve of his policies just look at how quick the MSM was when it came to isolating Ron Paul when it looked like he might actually gain some support. Not pre-approved by the corporate owners? Well then you are a stupid quack nutjob worthless of being allowed to speak according to the mouthpiece of the owners, aka our "news" services.
To those that think anything short of an Egypt style revolt will stop our slouching into a fascist corporate owned police state here are your choices in the next presidential election. you can vote for the corporate ass kissing fascist in the blue suit, or the corporate ass kissing fascist in the other blue suit. Notice how neither choice gives you someone who isn't a corporate asskissing fascist? This is what they commonly call "voting for the lesser of two evils" which is in reality about as much choice as being handed a slip with two boxes, one says "Check here to vote for el presidente!" and the other says "check here to support el presidente by voting for him".
To all my fellow /.ers I say this...steal the shit. Steal anything and everything that ain't nailed down, pirate the living fuck out of everything you can. Because we have seen conclusively that "voting with your dollars" has completely failed as they simply list ALL lost sales as piracy and get ever more draconian laws passed regardless, and if you ever did enough damage to actually cause them any financial pain they would simply have themselves declared 'too big to fail" and take the money out of your pocket while the government holds you down.
So snatch that shit buddy, snatch everything you can. It is only a matter of time before China calls in the loans and the whole thing turns into Zimbabwe part II, so you might as well get yours because they are sure as fuck snatching every damned thing that ain't nailed down, like the public domain, freedoms like the fourth amendment, and anything else on their corporate wishlists.
Well please follow it up with a nice pointing out of how you just went 'full retard" because that is EXACTLY what you have done. tell you what sparky, want me to prove it? walk up to half a dozen people at random, NOT at your local LUG mind you, and simply ask them this "How do you launch a CLI in Windows"? You know what you'll get dumbass? First most will say "What is a CLI?" and then nearly ALL will have no fucking clue. None at all.
But what do I expect from a guy that can't even read a full sentence. if you would have bothered to read the sentence it said "THERE IS NO COMMAND LINE IN WINDOWS" followed by explaining how while there may be a way to get one, hidden deep in the bowels of the OS the user never uses or sees it while Linux distros have to put a fucking term link on the desktop. Why? because that shit be broke, that's why! They KNOW that without CLI Linux shits itself and dies HARD, and notice how neither you nor ANYONE here would accept my challenge to remove your access to CLI in Linux for 6 months? Why is that? It is because YOUR SHIT BE BROKE!
So Mr "full retard" don't blame the messenger because you be driving teh hoopty. If your shit wasn't some broke ass lame excuse for a desktop you wouldn't have to cling to CLI like a baby clinging to its mother but you do Blanche, you most certainly do. So please continue to advertise your lack of reading comprehension and fear of accepting my challenge. Meanwhile I've got 5 more Win 7 boxes just sold, still waiting on 2 new laptops to come in. Windows is selling quite well, meanwhile NOBODY is selling your OS. Why is that? You think there is a global conspiracy? Could it be...oh I don't know....YOUR SHIT BE BROKE?
Riiiight, because most folks have a couple of million lying around to hire some land sharks and keep them on the payroll for a decade or more right? Hell a friend of mine was running a little ISP and got screwed blatntly by one of the big boys who said "just try and sue us". Even his lawyer said ultimately he'd win, no doubt but it would cost a minimum of 1.5 million and a decade, maybe a decade and a half, for them to use up all their appeals and drag it to the highest courts.
You see the thing that makes the corps "better than you" in the eyes of the law (which is written by lawyers natch) is that they can afford legal teams that do nothing but smack guys like you around all day. Unless your last name is Buffet or Dell you can't afford justice even if you are right, simply because they can drag it out forever. So unless you can get a lawyer who'll go for class action (in which case the lawyer gets 99% and you get a coupon towards your next purchase) you are SOL dude.
THANK YOU! Don't you just love the incredible level of denial around here? it is obviously not just a river in Egypt. These guys think because THEY are geeks and THEY think something is simple, there for it is so...BULLSHIT!
First lets gets some things straight Linux guys, since so many of you seem misinformed...ready? THERE IS NO COMMAND LINE IN WINDOWS...I know, its a concept! I mean sure if you wanted to go hunting in the bowels you can find one, but you know what? The common man has never used it because frankly the ENTIRE OS is designed so you don't ever have to. Before anyone brings up Powershell that is SERVER TECH and I have NEVER seen it in the wild on a desktop, ever.
Second using a CLI just to get your drivers working? UR DOIN IT WRONG...You see, everyone else in the free world has these little things called "APIs", Solaris, BSD, OS fricking 2, which means you can actually patch your machine without shit breaking! I know, what a concept! I am typing this on a machine running win2K drivers on XP Sp3. That is TWELVE YEARS without having any driver fuckups. Hell the card in it is a fricking TNT2! My Win 7 PC has Vista drivers for a couple of parts, that is nearly FIVE YEARS again with NO driver problems, NO CLI, and no bullshit, it "just works".
So before anyone goes spouting off bullshit, answer this: How many Linux machines have you sold? I'm a retailer, I've tried literally a dozen different distros just trying to find ONE, just one mind you, that wouldn't shit itself and die hard when the 6 month deathmarch rolled around.
What did I find? Sound broken, networking broken, video broken, wireless BROKEN...see a pattern here? NO home user is buying support contracts okay? That means it is MY ass that would have to deal with it. I have XP machines that have been in the field for nearly 8 years now with nothing needed from me but the occasional hardware upgrade....that's it. That's all. Because IT IS EASY NOT TO INFECT WINDOWS if you just use even a teeny tiny bit of common sense. Don't download warez, don't go to dodgy porn sites, don't click on every email, is that so hard? No it is not.
Look, I hope one day Linux gets good enough for the masses, I really really do. You think I like buying Windows licenses? But as of right now YOUR SHIT BE BROKE and instead of fixing said broke ass shit you call everybody shill or troll, how about this instead? Tell Torlvalds WE WANT A DRIVER ABI and ride his ass HARD until he gives you one! Hell even OS fricking 2 has one, why not you? Don't give me the same lame excuses, because that is what they are. Actually READ the article everyone points out against ABIs and you know what? It is a religious text, he even goes so far as to call all that won't give up the code as "leeches" and actually wishes that their drivers would break even if it bones the users.
It is really simple folks: Make it simple, make it GUI, make it "clicky clicky" easy, make CLI DIAF so that you NEVER have to use it unless you want to, and then and ONLY then do you have a shot on the desktop. I have nothing against Linux, in fact I'm trying to get the local college to switch to Beagleboards for their local rocket designs. It is quite good for programmers. But home users are NOT programmers, admins, or CS grads. They are lucky if they can find control panel and you want to trust them in a 70s era term, with no spellcheck or auto-complete, where if they get the tiniest thing wrong they hose the entire OS? Give me a fricking break! Sorry folks, that shit ain't gonna cut it, which is why it took 20 years for Linux to get 1% of the desktop, and why OSX and Windows rule. No CLI in those OSes, not as far as the user is concerned.
Oh please! I can make that into a little .reg file and go "See this thing? Go clicky clicky and reboot" and its done, period, the end. Just because YOU don't know how to make a .reg file doesn't mean the giant clusterfuck that is Linux CLI (seriously even OS fricking 2 has a solid API by now, having drivers break every time Torlvalds gets a bug up his ass is inexcusable) is in ANY way shape or form comparable.
I get can have a machine spend years without needing a SINGLE line of CLI, ever. Can YOU do that? Try this experiment if you think Linux is ready for the desktop: Remove ALL shells. C'mon, Linux is modular, yes? Then remove the shell or mod them down so you can NOT use them! I bet the machine won't even make 6 months, and you sure as hell won't be updating the thing, because without CLI Linux falls down like a house of cards.
Just face the fact that Linux is a SERVER OS, with millions being spent on SERVER tools, and the GUI is an afterthought at best. Sound breaks? Bash, Wireless fucks up? Bash. Video problems? Bash. Hell the answer to EVERY question in Linux is bash. Which is fine if you're an admin, CS grad, or geek with more time than money. For everyone else? News Flash: They ain't touched a CLI in 10 years and they sure as hell ain't about to start now. You show them a command prompt and they think "rinky dink Mickey Mouse OS" and frankly they are right. You should NEVER need CLI on a modern OS. The fact that Linux can't live without it just shows how far behind it is in the desktop arena. Embedded and server its great, desktop is shit.
Nah, they usually go for the old "suicide" route, like that reporter a couple of years back that slit his wrists in the tub. the problem was if anybody would have bothered to find out about the guy first they would have found out he had blood phobia so bad his family said he would pass out if he pricked his finger. Kinda doubt a guy that couldn't stand the sight of blood would go for a slow bleed out.
As for TFA, is anybody surprised? We have seen the enemy and he is us. Ever since the end of WWI (where before WWII we were like 37th on the list of militarily sizes) the USA has been nothing but a giant power grab, hell look at the FBI with COINTELPRO. With that one they went as far as actually executing a Black Panther for not staying in his place, does it surprise ANYONE that our government is right up there with China when it comes to spying on its own people?
I'm sure they'll claim its to "catch pedos/terrorists" and get Nancy Grace and all the talking heads to cheer for it if this little setback actually causes any flak, but with the megacorps who are in bed with the government owning the media I doubt this will even make the evening news. That is why voting today is pretty much pointless past the local level, the megacorps will make sure only properly bribed choices are allowed. Anyone you vote for, whether D or R, will continue to give lip service to "freedom" and "privacy" while continuing the status quo. See Obama and warrantless wiretaps for example.
Sorry but you're full of shit AC and I have NOTHING against old Razr1911, as a matter of fact I often use his "XP Mini Pro" with my own keys for low RAM boxes. hell of a lot better than WinFLP.
But if anyone doesn't believe me here is a little test: download "Windows 7 X86-X64 all versions" .ISO. That is the RTM version BTW. Now let it patch to Sp1...I'll wait...uh oh! Did you just get WGA'd? Yes you did. Of course you can kill it in about 25 seconds with "WGAKiller All Versions.exe" but that doesn't change the fact MSFT has blacklisted the OEM RTM keys that were used in the original hack.
Because then all they have to do is figure out a buffer overflow for the default browser and you can't patch it so you're boned? As a PC repairman my question would be this....why bother? Do you have ANY idea how many unpatched XP boxes are out there? Boxes with NO AV, or the same trialware Norton crap it came with in 05, loaded up with P2P crap or running "Razr1911 Pro SP2 Corp" that has WU turned off to keep from getting WGA'd? If the number was less than 60 million frankly I'd be amazed.
So I don't see why they are bothering with this now when they have so much low hanging fruit left, unless they are planning on using it for a spear phishing attack. The time to be releasing something like this would be about 6 months before XP EOL, when the amount of unpatched "Razr1911 Windows 7 all versions pre-activated" will be much higher, although even then most likely all the updates will be turned off (already seeing that BTW, as MSFT figured out how to kill the Razr1911 OEM hack on the RTM version so pirates are just killing WU like they did with XP) so again hacking will be easy.
As a guy that cleans them for a living I can tell you infecting a Windows box simply isn't that hard, not because MSFT built a bad OS (I'd argue that properly patched an XP or 7 box is actually pretty solid) but because there are so many pirated versions, boxes controlled by people that will happily click on any email attachment, or download "Hot_Lesbos.avi.exe" and run it without a second thought.
Hell Limewire has been dead for a couple of years yet I still see new boxes infected with malware calling itself "the new Limewire" because simply ripping off the old Limewire icons is enough to get the clueless to happily turn off any security that attempts to stop them installing it so they can snatch the latest pop crap. Social engineering with literally millions of clueless users makes it butt simple to infect masses of boxes with just a little carrot at the end of a stick. This seems like a hell of a lot more work than required unless they have some corporate target in mind.