Actually it didn't do anything because not only am I on Win 7 X64 (which uses GUID instead of the old sector 0 boot) but I also back up my boot using the free Paragon Backup and Recovery that makes it trivial to backup and restore anything including both GUID and old style boot sectors. It also comes with Linux LiveCD based restore CD image so even if something manages to bork the OS I can be back up and running in under 20 minutes. Just plug in my 1Tb USB drive, run the CD, and away I go.
That said isn't it sad that thanks to mighty mighty dollar bill they are able to get away with this shit? Where else are you allowed to sell a product that is broken out of the box and often needs a third party crack just to run on a legal system? Why hasn't someone class actioned their asses right out of existence? This is frankly ridiculous, with the pirate version running faster, more stable, and is in every way BETTER than the legit version.
Don't feel bad, you aren't the only one getting bit in the ass by the DRM (the pirates OTOH are playing just fine) and for an example (be sure to note the HUGE pile of game boxes lining all his shelves) check out this video (warning:language NSFW but when you watch it you'll understand why he's POed).
In the end this scam benefits ONLY the manufacturers of DRM. It does ZERO to stop piracy, even the "online only" games like AC2 having running hacked version on Emule and the other P2P sites, it royally pisses off and fucks over your customer, who gets pissed when the game he bought runs like ass and won't run at all sometimes, only to find out they got bit by DRM, and it doesn't help initial sales, see how many warned customers off of Bioshock II thanks to a shitty DRM schema on Amazon. I know I was gonna by it at release and took one look at the warnings and just waited until it was bargain basement and bought it while playing the hacked version (just so I could have both boxes, I like having the boxes).
To the GOG guys? Thanks. I've been putting my money where my mouth is and for the most part your games rock (don't buy i76 if you are on a multicore, it runs like ass) and the fact that you make games easy to backup and reinstall is definitely a selling point for me. Keep up the good work GOG, and can you get Deathtrap Dungeon?
As a PC repairman I'd also like to point out that some of the nastier DRM can completely brick your system forcing a reinstall or in some cases even destroying hardware. How is that possible you ask?
Simple: In the first cases many versions of Safedisc, Starforce, and secuROM will attempt to install X86 Ring 0 code into an X64 kernel which as anyone that knows anything about OSes knows that is a BIG fricking no no with a capital B for bad. Now not only does this malware install X86 ring 0 code into an X64 OS, causing all kinds of instability and system problems the uninstaller will NOT remove it and it can't be safely uninstalled from the OS, even in safe mode. So if you don't have a Windows Live CD like I do or have a dual boot setup you WILL be uninstalling and reinstalling. I hope you have your data or a separate partition or drive.
Second I have found when you mix differing versions of Safedisc,SecuROM, and Starforce (since often it will force you to have multiple versions, since they don't recognize each others "security") there is a serious risk of throwing any burners on the machine into PIO mode which happens more often with XP, although I have seen it twice so far with Vista as well. Since modern burners aren't made to run that slow what happens is every burn comes out useless until the drive motors burn out bricking the drive. I can't count how many nice new DVD burners I've shitcanned because of this problem, it really bites XP customers in the ass.
So my advice is this: If you are on an X64 version have disc images of the OS which is good advice anyway, along with using a site such as GameCopyWorld to hack the.exe BEFORE launching. What I've found is much of the ring 0 crap that breaks machines isn't installed until first launch, so by hacking the.exe one can bypass the crap before it can do any damage.
Second if you can buy from GOG which has NO ring 0 crap, but if you have to play one that has nasty DRM buy the game but play the cracked game instead as this allows you to again bypass the bullshit and still play the game. For an example I bought Bioshock II recently for $10 (yeah I know its a shit game, but it was $10 and I missed doing the Plasmid/weapon two step) but after reading all the horror stories of nasty DRM and GFWL having to be installed (shudder, what a POS service! MSFT needs ro STFU and realize their shit will never be as good as Steam already!) I left the one I paid for in the box and got the cracked version which works perfectly without all the crap.
TLDR? If you want a faster game running better on a more stable system then pirate the fucker. hell it doesn't matter what you do anyway as they'll use any numbers they pull out their ass to justify giving us shitty console ports anyway.
Well then can we have our $200 billion back with interest that we paid the ISP for national broadband back in 96? No? Then STFU ISPs and get your asses to work! I propose we give them 90 days to pay back the money WITH INTEREST or we go eminent domain on their last mile infrastructure and open it up to competition!
You want a monopoly? We'll give you 10 years for fiber to the neighborhood, 15 for fiber to the home, and NO cherry picking! For each one we give you a monopoly on one unserved area must be added at the same speeds or you don't get ANY protection!
So lets cut the bullshit, we already paid for nationwide broadband and all we got for the money was a low res pic of Goatse and CEOs wiping their asses with OUR money. It is time to set them straight, give us what we paid for our we take back their public right of way and open competition up TO ALL like it was in the days of dial up.
Allow me to use an old Mel Brooks line: bullshit, bullshit aaaaaand bullshit! It is pretty damned common for those NOT talking about the iPad to say "tablet" while calling the iPad the iPad because one is a description of a general device,. the other a brand. or do you expect every sentence to begin "all devices not built by Jobs"?
And wow, check out the fanboy love? Do you have the autographed pic of Steve on your wall you can squee to? And perhaps you'll explain the "I am Rich" app which would have only sold on an Apple device since its purpose is a status symbol? And my dad wants one because the contractors are rich, and he wants to show his wealth and THAT'S IT.
Hell I have watched Appleites damned near come to blows over which was better, the Air or the MBP and it came down to...dum dum dum...how much they cost! Does that SOUND like a device that isn't being sold on price? Hell it certainly isn't being sold on quality, not with the crappy heatsink compound and all the failing GPUs and hangups with the latest models!
Look sparky, you can waste your breath arguing they are "a good value for the money" or whatever bullshit you care to peddle, it doesn't change the fact that the core demographic of Apple users makes over $100k and that is EXACTLY how Steve likes it. It is a hipster boutique label, it always has been.
According to estimates they are currently making nearly 40% profit on iPad which is the highest markup in the business BAR NONE (current estimate for cost? less than $370 for first gen, less than $340 for second) and there is NO WAY you could keep markups THAT high if there were actually competition, but Android isn't a status symbol is it? It would be like saying there is competition for Ferrari in Mustang, it just doesn't add up.
But you're about to see what I'm saying is true, as Android has overtaken apple and sales of iPhone have flatlined. Soon I wouldn't be surprised if iPad joins it. Why? Because the majority of the planet IS NOT rich and don't care for status symbols enough to spend the markup required, which Apple most certainly IS.
I put the FACT in front to separate points, as making lists in/. comments is kinda hit or miss right now in my version of Chromium and since anyone that doesn't suck down the kool aid will be labeled a 'ShillTrollAstroturfer(TM)" I might as well point out that most FOSSie bullshit is INDEED bullshit. And I noticed you STILL haven't answered the main question: What are you doing wrong, that your competitors doing right?
Because if you were actually correct and "ItWorksForMe(TM)" applied to more than just you then why has every B&M and OEM ran away from your product like it is the black death? I'll tell you why because your driver model is a picture of a turd with "Fix it yourself LOL!" written underneath. here try to defend the words of Linus Torvalds himself where he says there is NO PLAN for the kernel and he just "lets it grow like a virus". Yeah Linus its called an STD and that kind of Mickey Mouse shit would get you FIRED anywhere else. Can you imagine telling your boss on a multimillion dollar project "Plans? We don't need no steenkin plans! We gonna let it grow like teh clap LOL!"
And let me see if I have your complaint correct: You use an OS which everyone acknowledges is broken which even Ballmer himself said was "a mistake" at one of his speeches, use an even more broken OEM disc filled with trialware garbage, which BTW it is trivial to turn into a "good" (which is a relative term with Vista, aka "WinMe Part Deux") DVD with VLite or any number of freeware tools, and THEN you bitch it doesn't work?
Well I could use a FOSSie meme and say "ItWorksForMe(TM)" but instead I'll just point out you are using an abandoned OS that NO major OEM is putting on their devices now, that most retailers (myself included) wouldn't take a crate of if you gave it to us for free, and which will NEVER be fixed. Throw away WinME II and get Win 7 and you'll have a beautiful experience. Besides isn't that what FOSSies do on the "BiannualDeathMarch(TM)" with Ubuntu?
But its okay, you just keep right on believing there is nothing wrong, and that myself and millions of other B&M stores are avoiding your product because its a "Conspiracy(TM)" while Ignoring the fact that if your product actually worked on bigger than basement scale retailers could increase profits by not having to shell out for Windows licenses, and in the cutthroat world of PCs any money saved would make us better at competing.
You just ignore that Walmart, Staples, Best Buy, hell even little shops like myself have found your product to be a fiddly little bitch, or that I can provide linkafter linkafter link showing retailers RUNNING AWAY and users simply not touching it (Be sure to notice in the last link how JAVA ME is actually kicking your ass LOL!) but hey, those are just numbers right?
But I would point out this final bit of wisdom: If your product costs $0, and would save both the B&Ms and OEMs significant money by adopting, yet they refuse to take it over competitors that cost a minimum $100 and $700 respectfully? Then something IS rotten in Denmark friend. If your shit didn't stink then everyone in the business wouldn't be treating it like a turd in the urinal, and going out of their way to avoid it so.
Sadly Jizzbug I don't know if they are "geniuses" so much as giant assholes. I mean read this little bit from old Torvalds himself where he admits there is NO plans for the kernel, instead he does whatever he feels like and lets it "grow like a virus".
Yeah Linus that would be an STD, and Mickey Mouse shit like that would leave you FIRED with a capital F anywhere else. is it any wonder the damned drivers are constantly breaking? Can you imagine telling your boss "Plans? We don't need no steenkin plans! We gonna let it grow like teh clap LOL!".
You should check out Linux TMs where former Linux users like myself created a site to document all the total bullshit that serves for answers in the "community" such as "WorksForMe (TM)" and "ItsEasyToChangeIt(TM)" (yeah like we are all software developers with infinite time to learn somebody else's code habits).
As for KDE and Gnome? I agree they seem to be on a race to see which one can beat Vista in the bloat race, which is kinda funny since Vista got a giant DO NOT WANT attached to it and MSFT lowered the reqs for 7. I know that when Gnome Shell reached beta so he could try it Glenn, my old Linux admin buddy, finally gave up on Linux for his desktop and bought a Macbook. He said while he'll keep using it for servers the desktop is just too much of a fractured mess and that the Mac "just works". So if their goal is to get more Linux guys using Apple? Congrats, its working like a charm fellas.
Using the CLI (which NO consumer will EVER touch in a million years) I have NO doubt? And if you manage to get two updates in a row without Linux shitting itself then you are the luckiest bastard in the world! Oh and the meme you are using is called WorksForMe (TM). Oh and you might want to tell the guys at The Register that it WorksForMe(TM) while you're at it.
As for nothing wrong with the driver model you are using the meme StableKernelDriverABINonsenseâ
while ignoring the fact that everyone else has had one for over a decade and if you'll look up the arguments in favor of not having a standard ABI they are strictly political in nature and the one that wrote it even goes so far as to call those that don't give ALL driver code to the kernel devs "leeches".
And you STILL won't ask yourself the question, will you? What are your competitors doing right, that you are doing wrong? If there is nothing wrong with the driver model why has ALL B&Ms and just about all OEMs dropped your product like a bad habit? I'll tell you why it is because IT IS A BROKED ASS MESS that's why! And is that a Dell Ubuntu offering? Bet it ain't, as they don't work with the Ubuntu repos LOL!,
Kinda sad that every single talking point you have has been regurgitated so damned many times it is a meme, isn't it? It is like the flip side of the MSFT shills, where you go through the TM list and pick the same tired ass arguments, while ignoring nobody wants your product. Oh well, some will just never learn.
Want to know what's funny? he did exactly what I'd said they'd do and went straight to the memes. in this case it is the classic "ChangingThe GoalPosts (TM)" in that he had ZERO to argue my points with so he completely changes the subject to kernel exploits, which is also covered in "LinuxIsJustTheKernel(TM)".
Now whether the FOSSies (which I use to separate FOSS users from Zealots, FOSSies are like Moonies in that EVERYTHING IS PERFECT and anybody that points out their BS is a "ShillAstroturferTroll(TM)". Now whether the FOSSie wants to believe it or not post SP2 with a decent free AV like Avast or Comodo CIS (both of which use heuristics and sandboxing by default) both of which are 100% free, then it is pretty damned hard to infect windows without the user helping the bug along. This is why we have seen post XP that malware is increasingly going the Trojan route, see fake AV and "Porn Codec.exe" for examples.
And notice he was VERY careful not to say a word about the Linux driver model, the most broken ass POS teabagged pile of garbage every foisted off onto man. And no wonder it is garbage when the controller of the kernel writes, and I quote" The kernel isn't designed, it grows like a virus" (yeah Linus, its called an STD and your ass would be FIRED for that Mickey Mouse shit anywhere else).
The simple fact is Linux had its shot during the XP pre SP2 and Vista era, and it blew it. They didn't fix the mess, instead just piling more broken releases atop a broken driver model and ended up a broken POS. They will put up with that in the server dept because MSFT server licensing is frankly a clusterfuck from hell, so putting up with the BS of Linux is cheaper than hiring a lawyer to read a MSFT server EULA.
But in the desktop, of which we speak? Things have never been better in Windows land, sorry. Windows 7 is trivial to lock down, trivial to admin, trivial to get hardware for, trivial for even the most clueless to keep safe thanks to low rights mode and users no longer EVER having admin rights (even when you run as admin you are really a power user with admin reserved for SYSTEM).
So why does Windows still get bugs? Three words: Third Parties and PEBKAC. Third parties keep MSFT from packing anything more powerful than Windows Defender in by default because both the OEMs and bunches like Symantec make a killing on trialware, which thankfully windows security will now flag if you don't keep up to date, and PEBKAC because the malware writers learned long ago it is easier to break a system if the user helps you.
I had a beautiful secure machine I sold last week, the customer just paid me to clean it, so what happened? He refused to listen to me or the AV which practically threw itself in front of him trying to stop him (he uninstalled it to get it to "shut up") and then he proceeded to install a bunch of dodgy shit like Limewire and then was amazed when I ran my LiveCd and showed him he was infected all to hell.
Now how are you gonna blame MSFT for that? The guy IGNORED all warnings, disabled AV, and WENT OUT OF HIS WAY to install dodgy shit. And you know what? That is how a good 90%+ of the infections I see cross my desk. The rest are old crap like Adobe or those that turn off updates because they are running "hot windows" and naturally get pwned. Shock shock, running hot software gotten off dodgy warez sites isn't safe. color me surprised!
And for you "Linux advocates" out there? FIX YOUR BROKED ASS SHIT and we retailers will be HAPPY to carry your product! Do you think we LIKE buying Windows licenses? We do so because YOUR SHIT DON"T WORK because your drivers might as well come with the Goatse image for a logo, since they are gonna shit all over themselves come first update! BTW did you know Dell, on of the largest retailers ON THE PLANET can't even use your default repos? Do you know why? It is because if you update ANY Dell linux offering with the default repos it breaks sound and networking! FIX YOUR BROKED ASS SHIT and then we'll talk, otherwise you are just blowing smoke up our collective asses and calling it perfume.
Actually if you know your history of the time there was a very good reason why the Soviets got ahead of us on missiles...they had NO choice. America was frankly kick ass when it came to long range bomber tech, they were so far behind they had to reverse engineer our B-29 superfortress, 4 of which were forced to land in Soviet territory during our bombing of Japan, in an attempt just to try to keep up. Even then the difference between metric and American measurement cost them about 20% range due to using thicker metal.
So instead of trying to keep up the Soviets took what they had, which was many scientists and rockets from Peenemunde, and used that to try to give them an equal footing to the American bomber. So in the end it wasn't like they suddenly decided space was the way to go, they simply didn't have the tech to keep up with American air power and used what they had to try to balance the scales. Same reason that they for years based all their air defenses on rockets like the SA-2 Guideline instead of having air interceptors like the Americans.
When your enemy has a superior advantage in an area you can expend serious resources trying to keep up or come up with a way around it. They weren't capable of doing the former so they went with the later. Personally I'll be glad when the USA quits fighting the last war and kills projects like the F-35 and goes with drones. Frankly manned aircraft is just getting stupidly pointless for anything except for close ground support like the A-10. Better to spend that money on drones where you can get a hell of a lot more bang for the buck and you don't risk multimillion dollar pilots on every sortie.
Now that the Linux FUD patrol have weighed in (hows that 6 year old X Server bug? Figure out how to make drivers run past a single update yet?) allow the ministry of truth to relay the facts.
..FACT...Post Sp2 Windows is trivial to secure with a wealth of free services from MSFT SE to AVG to Comodo CIS to Avast. OOTB post Sp2 is easy to lock down and will NOT get infected simply by hooking to the net as ALL incoming all blocked BY DEFAULT.
..FACT.. Talk to ANYONE that actually repairs machines (such as myself) and we'll be happy to tell you that a good 90% of infections are INSTALLED BY THE USER. REPEAT nearly ALL INFECTIONS are INSTALLED BY THE USERS, with the other 10% divided between outdated Adobe products and using out of date browsers like IE 6. Why would they install bugs? Two words: SOCIAL ENGINEERING that's why. One of the new bugs I'm sure this bunch is using is the "New limewire" installer, which punches a huge hole in security and sets up a proxy so they can MITM anything coming from that machine. "But Limewire is dead!" you say, true but the users don't know that so the "new" limewire simply drops them on gnutella while pwning the box.
..FACT...Linux without IT personnel IS WORTHLESS. These infections are being done primarily in the SOHO, consumer, and SMB markets where there is NO or lax IT personnel. These users WILL NOT in no particular order...learn BASH, learn CLI, trawl forums for fixes when the update shit all over the drivers, play hardware roulette trying to figure out what works and what don't, hell I could go on all day. Your "solution" may as well be "give them a fab and make them build their own box! Then they'll know what is going on with their systems!" While this is true you have better odds of winning the lotto than getting the masses to go along.
..FACT...When Linux becomes a big enough target IT WILL BE PWNED. See the current rounds of bugs going through Android, or the "KDE Look Screeensaver Trojan" for examples. Windows malware thrives on uneducated users will to install dodgy shit. Lots of uneducated users willing to install dodgy shit on Linux? Here comes the malware. Right now the users of Linux at least attempt to educate themselves and don't go around installing dodgy shit off of Freshmeat. if that situation changes? Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games.
So your entire argument is based around several fallacies. One that an uneducated user of Windows, which is the ones that get pwned, will suddenly be willing to learn your PITA Linux dance and become an educated Linux user. if that were true they'd quit installing dodgy shit and wouldn't have that problem in Windows either. Two that the bugs are magically knocked down the doors and installing themselves, when it is the users inviting them in and offering them coffee. See the fake AVs, the fake Limewire, and the "watch the hot pron, just install this codec.exe now!" for examples. if Linux users were willing to install dodgy shit like that, don't think someone would be writing it? Think again.
The funny part is you WILL NEVER ask yourself this econ 101 question "What am I doing wrong, that my competitors are doing right?" (hint it is NOT a conspiracy) because when your product costs $0 and the competition has a starting price of $100 and $700 respectively, and they are royally kicking your ass? something is rotten in Denmark.
I could point out it is because your driver model is a drawing of a turd with "fix it yourself LOL!" written underneath, that no B&M like myself will touch it because you can't allow updates without half the drivers shitting themselves, tying software to the kernel rev is fucking idiotic, hell I could go on all day but why bother? You'll just keeping munching that shit sandwich OF FREEDOM while telling everyone one complete lie after another, thinking they'll buy your bullshit. Hell go to Linux TM repos and see every single argument any FOSS zealot will use to rebut me, from "ItWorksForMe (TM)" to "StableABINonsense(TM)" because t
Uhhh...did you miss the "for repairs" part friend? Please feel free to insert NYC, Paris, anyplace where there is a shitload of cameras. I simply used DC as it is a place where there are a ton of tourists with cameras, see the getting your pic made with a cutout of the president for an example.
I think the "grain of sand part" you focused on misses the bigger question , which would be "How many of those have FTL capability?" which Sagan pointed out in several of his works that even if you had a billion stars with inhabited planets the odds that even one of those has BOTH FTL drives AND would come to what is arguably the "ass end of the galaxy" just to fuck with the hairless monkeys? Pretty damned small. Hell if any of them DID come it would be a "gorillas in the mist" kinda thing where they would take pics of the primitives. it isn't like they would look upon man as any more special than fungus.
As for your "see above" with UFO hunters and the like? Frankly it doesn't make a damned difference WHAT they see or get it is what the MSM says that is important. See how more than 40% at last count of the American people thought we went into Iraq over 9/11! The population by and large ONLY believes what the TV tells them to, and if the TV says all those films are bullshit and the witnesses crackpots? Well then THAT is what they'll believe! Hell our government has propaganda and misinformation down so pat I'm waiting for a news report to say "Four alarm fire makes way for GLORIOUS new tractor factory!" like they had on Airplane II.
Again are there aliens out there? I honestly don't know, but as a scientific agnostic I want more than some shaky handycam footage before I believe shit. Would the government be honest to the people if they knew? NOT A CHANCE IN HELL. Hell we refuse to acknowledge Aurora or the stealth blimp or the pulse drive or any of the other new toys we are blowing ass loads of $$$ on, even though the desert rats can tell you when they take off and land! Bullshit and lies are SOP of the government, they sure ain't gonna change that for something as world changing as proof of extraterrestrial life.
If someone is smart they'll keep gnome 2 going just as there is someone keeping KDE 3 alive. While I never used Gnome I never understood this rush to add more bloat and bling bling. I mean if it ain't broke? Linux is quickly losing its title of the lightweight OS with all the bling bling being added, so it is nice to see there are those out there that don't want to start over from scratch and would prefer the stability/features of the older version.
Personally I wish them luck, because having choices is nice. I still have many customers on Seamonkey which prefer it to the direction FF is going, and I'm sure there are plenty of Gnome users (at least from reading all the IT SUCKS! posts on OSNews about Gnome Shell) that would prefer to stay with Gnome 2. That is one thing I'll give F/OSS credit for, if enough people can't stand what the developers are doing you CAN change it by forking. Damned shame we Windows guys can't do that or I bet Win2K would still be supported! Best damned SMB OS I'd ever seen.
Oh please! She wouldn't have gone BSOD, the buzzword bingo would have overloaded her causing a Singularity (TM). I mean have you seen some of the MSFT first post shills? All I need is synergy to get diagonal and maybe win the toaster.
That is why I LMAO at FOSS zealots that call everyone who doesn't drink the kool aid a shill or an astroturfer, it is so damned easy to spot the real thing you just make yourself look like a douche for calling it incorrectly!
For those that haven't noticed, here is a handy guide to spotting a MSFT shill: ALWAYS STAYS ON MESSAGE...it doesn't matter how far off the subject in TFA is, they'll stay on message. For example the story on a new pad the other day had as a FP "I wish Microsoft (TM) would have come out with the Courier!" (complete with link for those that didn't know what the anti iPad vaporware was). NEVER BITE THE HANDS THAT FEED They will pull out such glowing praise even Paul Thurott would choke on the levels of bullshit. ALWAYS USE BUZZWORD BINGO They will use market drone speak like "vertical integration" "wide range of integrated solutions" and every other catch phrase you've read on a white paper advertisement. It is pretty obvious they are NOT allowed to go off message, probably relates to bonuses or something. GET AS HIGH A POST AS POSSIBLE Again probably related to bonuses, but makes it nearly impossible for them to "jam in" the message as it is about as subtle as someone switching channels in the middle of a program to an infomercial.
So maybe it is time for PJ and Groklaw to go the way of the 8 track, as frankly Linux is pretty much corporate owned now anyway. All you will see in the future is megacorps like Google (who I'm still betting will TiVo Android) and IBM against other mega corps like Oracle and MSFT. There really isn't any David VS Goliath anymore as David has been bought out or co opted by SuperMega Inc. Isn't the count something like 90% of the new code submitted by the mega corps now? It isn't like Google or IBM needs Groklaw to fight their battles.
So goodbye PJ, whether you existed or not it was fun to watch you bait McBride until he foamed at the mouth and cranked up the crazy. Sadly McBride lost his job AND his house so kicking him now would be like kicking your former asshole neighbor who is homeless "just for old times sake". Hell with the way he killed SCO dead I wouldn't be surprised if the best job he can get in this economy is managing a Kinko's somewhere. So goodbye PJ, and thanks for all the LULZ.
"The War Of The Worlds", simple as that. My grandfather brought me one of his flight books to show "military logic" and it said "THERE ARE NO UFOS...but if you see one don't fire unless fired upon". Him and his buddies used to LMAO about that one. How do you "not fire unless fired upon" something that doesn't exist?
Sadly MiB summed up the military view of the population perfectly "A Person is smart, people are dumb dangerous panicky animals and you KNOW it". Frankly if a saucer landed on the White House lawn to do repairs the MSM would be handed a bulletin telling them to talk about "the new alien movie being filmed today in Washington" and that would be it.
Do they have alien tech? Don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. The US military has been to just about every single place on the planet, if anything crashes I have no doubt they would snatch it. will they EVER tell the American people? NOT A CHANCE IN HELL.
Oh don't forget the best part! The best part is over a third of the bible was thrown away in the third century and NEVER put back! Can you imagine reading LOTR and having over a third of the chapters shitcanned in no particular order? Do you think you would have ANY clue as to the author's meaning? And yet people base their lives on a book with a third missing LOL!
Sorry I can't remember the king's name but I DO remember the story: Basically the king got tired of the "My Bible is better than your Bible!" and all the bullshit, so he called the religious leaders of the day into a conference. he told them basically "nobody leaves until you get your stories straight, and anybody who doesn't agree can have his head on a pike out front" which got them to STFU REAL quick. They then threw out ANY and ALL books they couldn't agree on, and the 28 or so books in the bible got cut down to the 12 in there now.
So I personally find it hilarious that so much hatred and bigotry is done in the name of a book with nearly half the chapters missing. That of course doesn't count the parts later cut by the Catholics or old King "I hate women unless they're barefoot and pregnant!" James. So personally I think the Soviets had the right idea, pile up their books and throw them in the fire. For 80 years they had different religions living side by side but without organized bigotry they didn't go around killing each other. what happened when they allowed religious "freedom"? "My god is better then yours, you heathen!".
Pile up the religious texts and break out the gasoline. While I hate the thought of losing ANY book, the amount of suffering caused by the three major religions makes Mein Kampf and the little red book look like Mickey Mouse coloring books in comparison. The world would be a better place if they simply didn't exist.
Sorry, meant aren't. The religious scumbags really piss me off as I have a gay kid, he is the sweetest most gentle creature you would ever want to meet, literally wouldn't hurt a fly, and I have seen knuckle draggers drag their kids across the street rather than let them come anywhere near him.
It took three janitors to keep me from bitch slapping the fuck out of a fifth grade teacher who brought a bible into her fifth grade class to speak about "Sodomite and idol worshiping heathens "(his brother is Catholic). I would have loved to sue the whole fucking town out of existence, but unfortunately my sister who gave me the boys to raise when she found out her illness was terminal, didn't want the last year of her life to be a circus.
Oh and those "Xtian values" that bitch rallied for? We home schooled the boys after that and now the oldest is in pre-med, the youngest is deciding whether to be a graphic artist or a chef, meanwhile the kids in the class they were in are 2/3rds junkies or dropouts INCLUDING the bitches little bitch who got knocked up and became a meth whore.
As for those villages being sterile? Easy way to fix that, there are TONS of kids growing up in the system right now that could use a loving stable home, but the bigots won't allow that. Isn't it funny how they rally against abortion but then don't want a damned thing to do with the offspring nobody wants, except to tell everyone else THEY can't have them either? Last I checked something like 40%+ of the kids dumped in the system that aren't infants will NEVER be adopted, and instead be bounced from one facility and foster home to another. I wonder what the crime rate for those kids turned adults are? I bet pretty high as being told nobody wants you from an early age must destroy their self esteem.
I know plenty of gay couples that would be happy to open their homes to a couple of kids nobody else wants, too bad knuckle dragging bigots will NEVER allow it to happen. Instead the gays have found a way around it, with the gays and lesbians working out deals where the lesbians are artificially inseminated by the gays and then either keep the child themselves or give the child to the gay couple. Just shows that yet another stupid pointless law hurts nobody but the most vulnerable.
Personally I would have rather lived in either one that surrounded by a bunch of religious bigots and hate mongers, thanks. I guess love thy neighbor only applies if he is white and republican huh?
Not to mention Sodom didn't have a damned thing to do with your "God" either, you just gave him the credit. They built over a large gas vein a city where the primary means of cooking was...dum dum dum...open flames! It would be like giving your God credit for Pompeii and the Hindenburg. A bad design is a bad design is a bad design, period.
Personally I've lived near Xtians and gays and I'll take gays any day of the week, they are nicer and more decent than the knuckle dragging religious types by a HUGE amount! At least THEY are busy trying to stick their noses in my business or trying to force me to live by rules written by goat herders who feared a deity I don't even believe in. Oh and guess whose PCs are the most overloaded with kinky porn? It ain't the gays! Hypocrites, bullshit artists, scammers, and control freaks. I'd say that pretty well describes most of what I've seen of your religion, so please don't sully my home with it, thanks but no thanks.
But wouldn't the easier thing to use be something more along the lines of a pad? those genius pads are dirt cheap, variable sensitivity, and with software calibration should be easier to control I'd think than trying to wield a mouse if you have trouble with fine motor movements.
I know it wasn't originally designed for it, but then neither is a mouse, hence the software. but it just seems to me a pad would be easier all around to tweak especially considering that even the cheapo pad has custom control buttons running down both sides.
I can't believe it, the world must be ending as we actually agree on something. you'll see that I changed my sig, fair is fair. What pisses me off about the FOSSies is they act like nobody has ever tried the damned thing, and any and ALL problems are just bullshit! Do you have ANY idea how many times I bashed my head on a table because some nice off lease office machine I got set up with PCLOS or Ubuntu ran fine until the first update, which then promptly shit itself and wiped out more than half the drivers? No warning, no heads up, just BAM! I ended up taking a bath on all the machines I had to accept returns on, which by state law have to be sold as used.
As for the DNS thing, while I don't think HOSTS is the way to go the basic idea is sound, just not IMHO optimal for what you are trying to do. Have you thought about running your own recursive DNS? It would give you all the advantages of blacklists without the overhead and still give YOU full control. I use Treewalk to connect directly to the ARIN nameservers. It cuts the DNS time by a good 60%, lets you load any blacklists or whitelists, and because it is its own recursive nameserver you don't have to scan the entire list like HOSTS to get to an IP address. It also uses less than 1Mb of RAM and can be easily set up to feed your entire network, even remotely if you choose in case you are in the field.
So never let it be said I can't live and let live, or find ways to adapt differing viewpoints. besides anybody that can see if something free can't beat something that costs $100+ there is a serious problem with the free product, instead of hanging onto dogma and zealotry at least isn't blind like so many that lurk here.
While I hate corporate welfare I really don't know if you can call it that in this case. In fact what they got Twitter to agree to is to build new offices in a scummy slum part of town, which of course will now cost Twitter in extra security and such, in the hopes that they can renew the area and get businesses to move back which will also get the same break if they move into scum town.
Now considering this neighborhood is probably "welcome to the jungle" you are gonna have to offer something for any business to take the risk, and I'm sure there will be employees that will turn down an offer from twitter because they'd have to go into and out of such a rough area.
So while I think bullshit like GE paying almost no taxes by pulling crap like the double dutch IS bullshit and needs to be stopped ASAP, giving a company a break for taking increased risk by moving into bad areas in the hope of fixing them up is just smart. The same was done several years ago in my own state with the river market area, and whereas before the place looked like Beirut, what with all the bombed out looking buildings and garbage everywhere, now it is a really nice neighborhood with little shops and a thriving gay community.
Everything there is clean and nice with plenty of foot paths and nobody is afraid to walk there anymore, so I'd say the tax breaks the city gave were money well spent. If by giving them a tax break the city of SF can do the same to one of their slums why not? Better than just letting the buildings fall apart and become fire hazards like Detroit.
Which like a Moonie or the useful idiots of old go "la la la" while putting blinders on to the broken shit around you. Did you even read a single link? No because that would shatter your little worldview that it is a M$ conspiracy and not the fact YOUR SHIT IS BROKEN that is keeping the masses avoiding your product like a free STD.
Hell I could post about 14 pages of "update foo broke my drivers" from your very own forums, page after page of bugs that have been there for years, but why bother? Like any other zealot if your leaders teabagged your ass you'd thank them for the gentle caress!
You know what the sad part is? It is the fact that you could fix it if you'd only take your lips off RMS and Linus's asses long enough that is. The ONLY reason Linus is able to get away with his Amateur hour bullshit is so many line up to kiss his ass. The ONLY reason why developers are able to put out one broken version after another instead of actually fixing the damned bugs is the way the users go fawning all over them, squeeing like little girls.
But go ahead, call everyone that doesn't suck down the shit sandwich OF FREEDOM your version of nigger spic or kike, ala troll shill or astroturfer but you know what? Your little twisted broken dreams are NEVER coming true and you simply can't face reality or the facts.
FACT..Every retailer that has tried to sell your product found it to be a broken mess, with high returns thanks to updates breaking drivers, which frankly is Win3.x era amateur hour shit. Updates should NEVER break working drivers and the fact you accept it just shows what a Mickey Mouse OS it is. FACT..Even Dell, one of the largest PC retailers ON THE PLANET, can't get enough decent QA from your precious developers to allow their Ubuntu offerings to update, so they have to DISABLE UPDATES and run their own out of date repos. What happens when they run updates from the default repos? Why it breaks sound and networking LOL!
So don't get mad when the developers give you a Cleavland Steamer for an OS, tell them it is manna from heaven. Don't get mad when you can't even run fricking updates without the whole thing falling apart like DOS, tell them LinuxMakesYouSmart(TM), ignore the fact that NOBODY sells your OS at retail, you can say it TheX86Conspiracy(TM) and then claim you're "winning" (Hell crazy Charlie is more of a winner than Linux) because LinuxRunsOnAnything(TM). Meanwhile don't be surprised if it takes you ANOTHER 18 years to reach 2%, if you ever do. Oh and be sure to thank Google for the surprise buttsex when they TiVo trick Android. At least somebody is messing with you, right?
You like the other poster are "cherry picking" and mixing and matching corporate and consumer which NOBODY did before XP. if you are gonna mix both then you need to count WinME which came after 2K and sucked hairy donkey balls, and both 2K and 2K3 server frankly sucked until Sp2, which was SOP for MSFT at the time. I remember how many wouldn't touch NT 4 until SP3 either, and when you look at the HUGE number of patches we are talking it has gone from mere bandaids to pretty much gutting whole subsystems. Also check out XP pre SP2, it was a buggy badly behaving insecure POS.
And Vista should be looked at as a giant DON'T DO THAT which they are gonna fail to heed with Windows 8. What we saw with Vista is that PCs have reached good enough that if people don't like it they'll simply stick with what they have, it isn't like the Win9x days where you really had to upgrade to support the latest tech or software. XP is going on 12 years old now and any corp would frankly be nuts not to have support for XP in their products, and Windows 7 has FINALLY, finally after all these damned years, given then a product that works on BOTH the business and consumer desktop that folks like and are willing to use.
Look I've been selling the things since Win 3.x, so I know of which I speak. there was about a year where my #1 money earner was killing Vista dead, people hated it THAT much. The things that keep folks on Windows are software and games, which makes them 180 degrees in opposite of Apple which has been able to go through no less than 3 CPU changes and still keep people buying. If MSFT tries to stick a WinPhone style OS in front of people and call it Windows folks will just ignore it and stick with XP and 7. Windows 7 gets extended support until 2020 (which they can't drop thanks to contracts) so it isn't like folks HAVE TO jump on board.
With Win 7 they finally have a UI where those like my dad can find new things and figure things out intuitively without bugging the living shit out of old hands like myself. Why fuck up a good thing? I'll tell you why, and this is from someone who makes their living selling MSFT products: it is because they have gotten too much of a hard on for Apple, that's why. you look at what has happened since Ballmer took over and it has been nothing but "Lets copy Apple and then we'll be hip too!" while ignoring they have completely different demographics.
Kin, Zune, WinPhone, everything Apple does will have a MSFT version less than a year later. They have a hit in the X360, they have a chance at making Win 7 as big a hit as XP, why cock it all up chasing a demographic that will NEVER ever buy your stuff? Apple is a hipster boutique label, it would be like expecting Ferrari owners to suddenly start buying Mustangs.
It is stupid, it is pointless, it will piss off the customers, and I bet if MSFT goes for this "Web 2.0 Cloud Extreme WinPhone OS" idea for Win 8 I'll be wiping it to put on Win 7 just as I wiped countless Vista installs to put on XP. The folks that buy Windows just aren't gonna jump on a cloud based PhoneOS for their desktop, it just won't work. To make it lean enough they'll have to destroy completely backwards compatibility, and if I'm gonna have to start from scratch anyway why not just go Mac or Linux?
Notice I said TABLET and NOT the iPad, because frankly it is like comparing a Ferrari and a Civic. Frankly with all the status around the Apple logo they could probably polish old Steve's turds and package them and make bank.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure like their other products the iPad is well designed, but anybody that doesn't think the Apple name has a LOT to do with their figures is delusional. hell my 70 year old dad can't figure out how to text on his current phone and is seriously talking about going iPhone. Why? Is it offering some feature set or better UI or something he doesn't currently have? Nope, it is because all his contractor buddies have one and he wants to keep up with the latest trend.
So frankly it doesn't matter what happens in the tablet market as iPad will continue to sell, just as it doesn't matter there are plenty of PMPs with better feature sets than iPod but that doesn't keep everyone and their dog from tripping right over them to spend three times the price for the Apple logo. I really have to give the man credit, Jobs took a DOA company and turned them into THE boutique consumer electronics brand, like Sony had in the 80s when they could do no wrong with Walkman. Once he passes and they lose his ability to hype the brand they may be in trouble, but right now they have a license to print money.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually it didn't do anything because not only am I on Win 7 X64 (which uses GUID instead of the old sector 0 boot) but I also back up my boot using the free Paragon Backup and Recovery that makes it trivial to backup and restore anything including both GUID and old style boot sectors. It also comes with Linux LiveCD based restore CD image so even if something manages to bork the OS I can be back up and running in under 20 minutes. Just plug in my 1Tb USB drive, run the CD, and away I go.
That said isn't it sad that thanks to mighty mighty dollar bill they are able to get away with this shit? Where else are you allowed to sell a product that is broken out of the box and often needs a third party crack just to run on a legal system? Why hasn't someone class actioned their asses right out of existence? This is frankly ridiculous, with the pirate version running faster, more stable, and is in every way BETTER than the legit version.
Are you kidding? The Goths would LOVE it! Hell it would probably be the first time in history we could get teens to eat veggies!
Don't feel bad, you aren't the only one getting bit in the ass by the DRM (the pirates OTOH are playing just fine) and for an example (be sure to note the HUGE pile of game boxes lining all his shelves) check out this video (warning:language NSFW but when you watch it you'll understand why he's POed).
In the end this scam benefits ONLY the manufacturers of DRM. It does ZERO to stop piracy, even the "online only" games like AC2 having running hacked version on Emule and the other P2P sites, it royally pisses off and fucks over your customer, who gets pissed when the game he bought runs like ass and won't run at all sometimes, only to find out they got bit by DRM, and it doesn't help initial sales, see how many warned customers off of Bioshock II thanks to a shitty DRM schema on Amazon. I know I was gonna by it at release and took one look at the warnings and just waited until it was bargain basement and bought it while playing the hacked version (just so I could have both boxes, I like having the boxes).
To the GOG guys? Thanks. I've been putting my money where my mouth is and for the most part your games rock (don't buy i76 if you are on a multicore, it runs like ass) and the fact that you make games easy to backup and reinstall is definitely a selling point for me. Keep up the good work GOG, and can you get Deathtrap Dungeon?
As a PC repairman I'd also like to point out that some of the nastier DRM can completely brick your system forcing a reinstall or in some cases even destroying hardware. How is that possible you ask?
Simple: In the first cases many versions of Safedisc, Starforce, and secuROM will attempt to install X86 Ring 0 code into an X64 kernel which as anyone that knows anything about OSes knows that is a BIG fricking no no with a capital B for bad. Now not only does this malware install X86 ring 0 code into an X64 OS, causing all kinds of instability and system problems the uninstaller will NOT remove it and it can't be safely uninstalled from the OS, even in safe mode. So if you don't have a Windows Live CD like I do or have a dual boot setup you WILL be uninstalling and reinstalling. I hope you have your data or a separate partition or drive.
Second I have found when you mix differing versions of Safedisc,SecuROM, and Starforce (since often it will force you to have multiple versions, since they don't recognize each others "security") there is a serious risk of throwing any burners on the machine into PIO mode which happens more often with XP, although I have seen it twice so far with Vista as well. Since modern burners aren't made to run that slow what happens is every burn comes out useless until the drive motors burn out bricking the drive. I can't count how many nice new DVD burners I've shitcanned because of this problem, it really bites XP customers in the ass.
So my advice is this: If you are on an X64 version have disc images of the OS which is good advice anyway, along with using a site such as GameCopyWorld to hack the .exe BEFORE launching. What I've found is much of the ring 0 crap that breaks machines isn't installed until first launch, so by hacking the .exe one can bypass the crap before it can do any damage.
Second if you can buy from GOG which has NO ring 0 crap, but if you have to play one that has nasty DRM buy the game but play the cracked game instead as this allows you to again bypass the bullshit and still play the game. For an example I bought Bioshock II recently for $10 (yeah I know its a shit game, but it was $10 and I missed doing the Plasmid/weapon two step) but after reading all the horror stories of nasty DRM and GFWL having to be installed (shudder, what a POS service! MSFT needs ro STFU and realize their shit will never be as good as Steam already!) I left the one I paid for in the box and got the cracked version which works perfectly without all the crap.
TLDR? If you want a faster game running better on a more stable system then pirate the fucker. hell it doesn't matter what you do anyway as they'll use any numbers they pull out their ass to justify giving us shitty console ports anyway.
Well then can we have our $200 billion back with interest that we paid the ISP for national broadband back in 96? No? Then STFU ISPs and get your asses to work! I propose we give them 90 days to pay back the money WITH INTEREST or we go eminent domain on their last mile infrastructure and open it up to competition!
You want a monopoly? We'll give you 10 years for fiber to the neighborhood, 15 for fiber to the home, and NO cherry picking! For each one we give you a monopoly on one unserved area must be added at the same speeds or you don't get ANY protection!
So lets cut the bullshit, we already paid for nationwide broadband and all we got for the money was a low res pic of Goatse and CEOs wiping their asses with OUR money. It is time to set them straight, give us what we paid for our we take back their public right of way and open competition up TO ALL like it was in the days of dial up.
Allow me to use an old Mel Brooks line: bullshit, bullshit aaaaaand bullshit! It is pretty damned common for those NOT talking about the iPad to say "tablet" while calling the iPad the iPad because one is a description of a general device,. the other a brand. or do you expect every sentence to begin "all devices not built by Jobs"?
And wow, check out the fanboy love? Do you have the autographed pic of Steve on your wall you can squee to? And perhaps you'll explain the "I am Rich" app which would have only sold on an Apple device since its purpose is a status symbol? And my dad wants one because the contractors are rich, and he wants to show his wealth and THAT'S IT.
Hell I have watched Appleites damned near come to blows over which was better, the Air or the MBP and it came down to...dum dum dum...how much they cost! Does that SOUND like a device that isn't being sold on price? Hell it certainly isn't being sold on quality, not with the crappy heatsink compound and all the failing GPUs and hangups with the latest models!
Look sparky, you can waste your breath arguing they are "a good value for the money" or whatever bullshit you care to peddle, it doesn't change the fact that the core demographic of Apple users makes over $100k and that is EXACTLY how Steve likes it. It is a hipster boutique label, it always has been.
According to estimates they are currently making nearly 40% profit on iPad which is the highest markup in the business BAR NONE (current estimate for cost? less than $370 for first gen, less than $340 for second) and there is NO WAY you could keep markups THAT high if there were actually competition, but Android isn't a status symbol is it? It would be like saying there is competition for Ferrari in Mustang, it just doesn't add up.
But you're about to see what I'm saying is true, as Android has overtaken apple and sales of iPhone have flatlined. Soon I wouldn't be surprised if iPad joins it. Why? Because the majority of the planet IS NOT rich and don't care for status symbols enough to spend the markup required, which Apple most certainly IS.
I put the FACT in front to separate points, as making lists in /. comments is kinda hit or miss right now in my version of Chromium and since anyone that doesn't suck down the kool aid will be labeled a 'ShillTrollAstroturfer(TM)" I might as well point out that most FOSSie bullshit is INDEED bullshit. And I noticed you STILL haven't answered the main question: What are you doing wrong, that your competitors doing right?
Because if you were actually correct and "ItWorksForMe(TM)" applied to more than just you then why has every B&M and OEM ran away from your product like it is the black death? I'll tell you why because your driver model is a picture of a turd with "Fix it yourself LOL!" written underneath. here try to defend the words of Linus Torvalds himself where he says there is NO PLAN for the kernel and he just "lets it grow like a virus". Yeah Linus its called an STD and that kind of Mickey Mouse shit would get you FIRED anywhere else. Can you imagine telling your boss on a multimillion dollar project "Plans? We don't need no steenkin plans! We gonna let it grow like teh clap LOL!"
And let me see if I have your complaint correct: You use an OS which everyone acknowledges is broken which even Ballmer himself said was "a mistake" at one of his speeches, use an even more broken OEM disc filled with trialware garbage, which BTW it is trivial to turn into a "good" (which is a relative term with Vista, aka "WinMe Part Deux") DVD with VLite or any number of freeware tools, and THEN you bitch it doesn't work?
Well I could use a FOSSie meme and say "ItWorksForMe(TM)" but instead I'll just point out you are using an abandoned OS that NO major OEM is putting on their devices now, that most retailers (myself included) wouldn't take a crate of if you gave it to us for free, and which will NEVER be fixed. Throw away WinME II and get Win 7 and you'll have a beautiful experience. Besides isn't that what FOSSies do on the "BiannualDeathMarch(TM)" with Ubuntu?
But its okay, you just keep right on believing there is nothing wrong, and that myself and millions of other B&M stores are avoiding your product because its a "Conspiracy(TM)" while Ignoring the fact that if your product actually worked on bigger than basement scale retailers could increase profits by not having to shell out for Windows licenses, and in the cutthroat world of PCs any money saved would make us better at competing.
You just ignore that Walmart, Staples, Best Buy, hell even little shops like myself have found your product to be a fiddly little bitch, or that I can provide link after link after link showing retailers RUNNING AWAY and users simply not touching it (Be sure to notice in the last link how JAVA ME is actually kicking your ass LOL!) but hey, those are just numbers right?
But I would point out this final bit of wisdom: If your product costs $0, and would save both the B&Ms and OEMs significant money by adopting, yet they refuse to take it over competitors that cost a minimum $100 and $700 respectfully? Then something IS rotten in Denmark friend. If your shit didn't stink then everyone in the business wouldn't be treating it like a turd in the urinal, and going out of their way to avoid it so.
Sadly Jizzbug I don't know if they are "geniuses" so much as giant assholes. I mean read this little bit from old Torvalds himself where he admits there is NO plans for the kernel, instead he does whatever he feels like and lets it "grow like a virus".
Yeah Linus that would be an STD, and Mickey Mouse shit like that would leave you FIRED with a capital F anywhere else. is it any wonder the damned drivers are constantly breaking? Can you imagine telling your boss "Plans? We don't need no steenkin plans! We gonna let it grow like teh clap LOL!".
You should check out Linux TMs where former Linux users like myself created a site to document all the total bullshit that serves for answers in the "community" such as "WorksForMe (TM)" and "ItsEasyToChangeIt(TM)" (yeah like we are all software developers with infinite time to learn somebody else's code habits).
As for KDE and Gnome? I agree they seem to be on a race to see which one can beat Vista in the bloat race, which is kinda funny since Vista got a giant DO NOT WANT attached to it and MSFT lowered the reqs for 7. I know that when Gnome Shell reached beta so he could try it Glenn, my old Linux admin buddy, finally gave up on Linux for his desktop and bought a Macbook. He said while he'll keep using it for servers the desktop is just too much of a fractured mess and that the Mac "just works". So if their goal is to get more Linux guys using Apple? Congrats, its working like a charm fellas.
Using the CLI (which NO consumer will EVER touch in a million years) I have NO doubt? And if you manage to get two updates in a row without Linux shitting itself then you are the luckiest bastard in the world! Oh and the meme you are using is called WorksForMe (TM). Oh and you might want to tell the guys at The Register that it WorksForMe(TM) while you're at it.
As for nothing wrong with the driver model you are using the meme StableKernelDriverABINonsenseâ while ignoring the fact that everyone else has had one for over a decade and if you'll look up the arguments in favor of not having a standard ABI they are strictly political in nature and the one that wrote it even goes so far as to call those that don't give ALL driver code to the kernel devs "leeches".
And you STILL won't ask yourself the question, will you? What are your competitors doing right, that you are doing wrong? If there is nothing wrong with the driver model why has ALL B&Ms and just about all OEMs dropped your product like a bad habit? I'll tell you why it is because IT IS A BROKED ASS MESS that's why! And is that a Dell Ubuntu offering? Bet it ain't, as they don't work with the Ubuntu repos LOL!,
Kinda sad that every single talking point you have has been regurgitated so damned many times it is a meme, isn't it? It is like the flip side of the MSFT shills, where you go through the TM list and pick the same tired ass arguments, while ignoring nobody wants your product. Oh well, some will just never learn.
Want to know what's funny? he did exactly what I'd said they'd do and went straight to the memes. in this case it is the classic "ChangingThe GoalPosts (TM)" in that he had ZERO to argue my points with so he completely changes the subject to kernel exploits, which is also covered in "LinuxIsJustTheKernel(TM)" .
Now whether the FOSSies (which I use to separate FOSS users from Zealots, FOSSies are like Moonies in that EVERYTHING IS PERFECT and anybody that points out their BS is a "ShillAstroturferTroll(TM)". Now whether the FOSSie wants to believe it or not post SP2 with a decent free AV like Avast or Comodo CIS (both of which use heuristics and sandboxing by default) both of which are 100% free, then it is pretty damned hard to infect windows without the user helping the bug along. This is why we have seen post XP that malware is increasingly going the Trojan route, see fake AV and "Porn Codec.exe" for examples.
And notice he was VERY careful not to say a word about the Linux driver model, the most broken ass POS teabagged pile of garbage every foisted off onto man. And no wonder it is garbage when the controller of the kernel writes, and I quote" The kernel isn't designed, it grows like a virus" (yeah Linus, its called an STD and your ass would be FIRED for that Mickey Mouse shit anywhere else).
The simple fact is Linux had its shot during the XP pre SP2 and Vista era, and it blew it. They didn't fix the mess, instead just piling more broken releases atop a broken driver model and ended up a broken POS. They will put up with that in the server dept because MSFT server licensing is frankly a clusterfuck from hell, so putting up with the BS of Linux is cheaper than hiring a lawyer to read a MSFT server EULA.
But in the desktop, of which we speak? Things have never been better in Windows land, sorry. Windows 7 is trivial to lock down, trivial to admin, trivial to get hardware for, trivial for even the most clueless to keep safe thanks to low rights mode and users no longer EVER having admin rights (even when you run as admin you are really a power user with admin reserved for SYSTEM).
So why does Windows still get bugs? Three words: Third Parties and PEBKAC. Third parties keep MSFT from packing anything more powerful than Windows Defender in by default because both the OEMs and bunches like Symantec make a killing on trialware, which thankfully windows security will now flag if you don't keep up to date, and PEBKAC because the malware writers learned long ago it is easier to break a system if the user helps you.
I had a beautiful secure machine I sold last week, the customer just paid me to clean it, so what happened? He refused to listen to me or the AV which practically threw itself in front of him trying to stop him (he uninstalled it to get it to "shut up") and then he proceeded to install a bunch of dodgy shit like Limewire and then was amazed when I ran my LiveCd and showed him he was infected all to hell.
Now how are you gonna blame MSFT for that? The guy IGNORED all warnings, disabled AV, and WENT OUT OF HIS WAY to install dodgy shit. And you know what? That is how a good 90%+ of the infections I see cross my desk. The rest are old crap like Adobe or those that turn off updates because they are running "hot windows" and naturally get pwned. Shock shock, running hot software gotten off dodgy warez sites isn't safe. color me surprised!
And for you "Linux advocates" out there? FIX YOUR BROKED ASS SHIT and we retailers will be HAPPY to carry your product! Do you think we LIKE buying Windows licenses? We do so because YOUR SHIT DON"T WORK because your drivers might as well come with the Goatse image for a logo, since they are gonna shit all over themselves come first update! BTW did you know Dell, on of the largest retailers ON THE PLANET can't even use your default repos? Do you know why? It is because if you update ANY Dell linux offering with the default repos it breaks sound and networking! FIX YOUR BROKED ASS SHIT and then we'll talk, otherwise you are just blowing smoke up our collective asses and calling it perfume.
Actually if you know your history of the time there was a very good reason why the Soviets got ahead of us on missiles...they had NO choice. America was frankly kick ass when it came to long range bomber tech, they were so far behind they had to reverse engineer our B-29 superfortress, 4 of which were forced to land in Soviet territory during our bombing of Japan, in an attempt just to try to keep up. Even then the difference between metric and American measurement cost them about 20% range due to using thicker metal.
So instead of trying to keep up the Soviets took what they had, which was many scientists and rockets from Peenemunde, and used that to try to give them an equal footing to the American bomber. So in the end it wasn't like they suddenly decided space was the way to go, they simply didn't have the tech to keep up with American air power and used what they had to try to balance the scales. Same reason that they for years based all their air defenses on rockets like the SA-2 Guideline instead of having air interceptors like the Americans.
When your enemy has a superior advantage in an area you can expend serious resources trying to keep up or come up with a way around it. They weren't capable of doing the former so they went with the later. Personally I'll be glad when the USA quits fighting the last war and kills projects like the F-35 and goes with drones. Frankly manned aircraft is just getting stupidly pointless for anything except for close ground support like the A-10. Better to spend that money on drones where you can get a hell of a lot more bang for the buck and you don't risk multimillion dollar pilots on every sortie.
Now that the Linux FUD patrol have weighed in (hows that 6 year old X Server bug? Figure out how to make drivers run past a single update yet?) allow the ministry of truth to relay the facts.
..FACT...Post Sp2 Windows is trivial to secure with a wealth of free services from MSFT SE to AVG to Comodo CIS to Avast. OOTB post Sp2 is easy to lock down and will NOT get infected simply by hooking to the net as ALL incoming all blocked BY DEFAULT.
..FACT.. Talk to ANYONE that actually repairs machines (such as myself) and we'll be happy to tell you that a good 90% of infections are INSTALLED BY THE USER. REPEAT nearly ALL INFECTIONS are INSTALLED BY THE USERS, with the other 10% divided between outdated Adobe products and using out of date browsers like IE 6. Why would they install bugs? Two words: SOCIAL ENGINEERING that's why. One of the new bugs I'm sure this bunch is using is the "New limewire" installer, which punches a huge hole in security and sets up a proxy so they can MITM anything coming from that machine. "But Limewire is dead!" you say, true but the users don't know that so the "new" limewire simply drops them on gnutella while pwning the box.
..FACT...Linux without IT personnel IS WORTHLESS. These infections are being done primarily in the SOHO, consumer, and SMB markets where there is NO or lax IT personnel. These users WILL NOT in no particular order...learn BASH, learn CLI, trawl forums for fixes when the update shit all over the drivers, play hardware roulette trying to figure out what works and what don't, hell I could go on all day. Your "solution" may as well be "give them a fab and make them build their own box! Then they'll know what is going on with their systems!" While this is true you have better odds of winning the lotto than getting the masses to go along.
..FACT...When Linux becomes a big enough target IT WILL BE PWNED. See the current rounds of bugs going through Android, or the "KDE Look Screeensaver Trojan" for examples. Windows malware thrives on uneducated users will to install dodgy shit. Lots of uneducated users willing to install dodgy shit on Linux? Here comes the malware. Right now the users of Linux at least attempt to educate themselves and don't go around installing dodgy shit off of Freshmeat. if that situation changes? Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games.
So your entire argument is based around several fallacies. One that an uneducated user of Windows, which is the ones that get pwned, will suddenly be willing to learn your PITA Linux dance and become an educated Linux user. if that were true they'd quit installing dodgy shit and wouldn't have that problem in Windows either. Two that the bugs are magically knocked down the doors and installing themselves, when it is the users inviting them in and offering them coffee. See the fake AVs, the fake Limewire, and the "watch the hot pron, just install this codec.exe now!" for examples. if Linux users were willing to install dodgy shit like that, don't think someone would be writing it? Think again.
The funny part is you WILL NEVER ask yourself this econ 101 question "What am I doing wrong, that my competitors are doing right?" (hint it is NOT a conspiracy) because when your product costs $0 and the competition has a starting price of $100 and $700 respectively, and they are royally kicking your ass? something is rotten in Denmark.
I could point out it is because your driver model is a drawing of a turd with "fix it yourself LOL!" written underneath, that no B&M like myself will touch it because you can't allow updates without half the drivers shitting themselves, tying software to the kernel rev is fucking idiotic, hell I could go on all day but why bother? You'll just keeping munching that shit sandwich OF FREEDOM while telling everyone one complete lie after another, thinking they'll buy your bullshit. Hell go to Linux TM repos and see every single argument any FOSS zealot will use to rebut me, from "ItWorksForMe (TM)" to "StableABINonsense(TM)" because t
Uhhh...did you miss the "for repairs" part friend? Please feel free to insert NYC, Paris, anyplace where there is a shitload of cameras. I simply used DC as it is a place where there are a ton of tourists with cameras, see the getting your pic made with a cutout of the president for an example.
I think the "grain of sand part" you focused on misses the bigger question , which would be "How many of those have FTL capability?" which Sagan pointed out in several of his works that even if you had a billion stars with inhabited planets the odds that even one of those has BOTH FTL drives AND would come to what is arguably the "ass end of the galaxy" just to fuck with the hairless monkeys? Pretty damned small. Hell if any of them DID come it would be a "gorillas in the mist" kinda thing where they would take pics of the primitives. it isn't like they would look upon man as any more special than fungus.
As for your "see above" with UFO hunters and the like? Frankly it doesn't make a damned difference WHAT they see or get it is what the MSM says that is important. See how more than 40% at last count of the American people thought we went into Iraq over 9/11! The population by and large ONLY believes what the TV tells them to, and if the TV says all those films are bullshit and the witnesses crackpots? Well then THAT is what they'll believe! Hell our government has propaganda and misinformation down so pat I'm waiting for a news report to say "Four alarm fire makes way for GLORIOUS new tractor factory!" like they had on Airplane II.
Again are there aliens out there? I honestly don't know, but as a scientific agnostic I want more than some shaky handycam footage before I believe shit. Would the government be honest to the people if they knew? NOT A CHANCE IN HELL. Hell we refuse to acknowledge Aurora or the stealth blimp or the pulse drive or any of the other new toys we are blowing ass loads of $$$ on, even though the desert rats can tell you when they take off and land! Bullshit and lies are SOP of the government, they sure ain't gonna change that for something as world changing as proof of extraterrestrial life.
If someone is smart they'll keep gnome 2 going just as there is someone keeping KDE 3 alive. While I never used Gnome I never understood this rush to add more bloat and bling bling. I mean if it ain't broke? Linux is quickly losing its title of the lightweight OS with all the bling bling being added, so it is nice to see there are those out there that don't want to start over from scratch and would prefer the stability/features of the older version.
Personally I wish them luck, because having choices is nice. I still have many customers on Seamonkey which prefer it to the direction FF is going, and I'm sure there are plenty of Gnome users (at least from reading all the IT SUCKS! posts on OSNews about Gnome Shell) that would prefer to stay with Gnome 2. That is one thing I'll give F/OSS credit for, if enough people can't stand what the developers are doing you CAN change it by forking. Damned shame we Windows guys can't do that or I bet Win2K would still be supported! Best damned SMB OS I'd ever seen.
Oh please! She wouldn't have gone BSOD, the buzzword bingo would have overloaded her causing a Singularity (TM). I mean have you seen some of the MSFT first post shills? All I need is synergy to get diagonal and maybe win the toaster.
That is why I LMAO at FOSS zealots that call everyone who doesn't drink the kool aid a shill or an astroturfer, it is so damned easy to spot the real thing you just make yourself look like a douche for calling it incorrectly!
For those that haven't noticed, here is a handy guide to spotting a MSFT shill: ALWAYS STAYS ON MESSAGE...it doesn't matter how far off the subject in TFA is, they'll stay on message. For example the story on a new pad the other day had as a FP "I wish Microsoft (TM) would have come out with the Courier!" (complete with link for those that didn't know what the anti iPad vaporware was). NEVER BITE THE HANDS THAT FEED They will pull out such glowing praise even Paul Thurott would choke on the levels of bullshit. ALWAYS USE BUZZWORD BINGO They will use market drone speak like "vertical integration" "wide range of integrated solutions" and every other catch phrase you've read on a white paper advertisement. It is pretty obvious they are NOT allowed to go off message, probably relates to bonuses or something. GET AS HIGH A POST AS POSSIBLE Again probably related to bonuses, but makes it nearly impossible for them to "jam in" the message as it is about as subtle as someone switching channels in the middle of a program to an infomercial.
So maybe it is time for PJ and Groklaw to go the way of the 8 track, as frankly Linux is pretty much corporate owned now anyway. All you will see in the future is megacorps like Google (who I'm still betting will TiVo Android) and IBM against other mega corps like Oracle and MSFT. There really isn't any David VS Goliath anymore as David has been bought out or co opted by SuperMega Inc. Isn't the count something like 90% of the new code submitted by the mega corps now? It isn't like Google or IBM needs Groklaw to fight their battles.
So goodbye PJ, whether you existed or not it was fun to watch you bait McBride until he foamed at the mouth and cranked up the crazy. Sadly McBride lost his job AND his house so kicking him now would be like kicking your former asshole neighbor who is homeless "just for old times sake". Hell with the way he killed SCO dead I wouldn't be surprised if the best job he can get in this economy is managing a Kinko's somewhere. So goodbye PJ, and thanks for all the LULZ.
"The War Of The Worlds", simple as that. My grandfather brought me one of his flight books to show "military logic" and it said "THERE ARE NO UFOS...but if you see one don't fire unless fired upon". Him and his buddies used to LMAO about that one. How do you "not fire unless fired upon" something that doesn't exist?
Sadly MiB summed up the military view of the population perfectly "A Person is smart, people are dumb dangerous panicky animals and you KNOW it". Frankly if a saucer landed on the White House lawn to do repairs the MSM would be handed a bulletin telling them to talk about "the new alien movie being filmed today in Washington" and that would be it.
Do they have alien tech? Don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. The US military has been to just about every single place on the planet, if anything crashes I have no doubt they would snatch it. will they EVER tell the American people? NOT A CHANCE IN HELL.
Oh don't forget the best part! The best part is over a third of the bible was thrown away in the third century and NEVER put back! Can you imagine reading LOTR and having over a third of the chapters shitcanned in no particular order? Do you think you would have ANY clue as to the author's meaning? And yet people base their lives on a book with a third missing LOL!
Sorry I can't remember the king's name but I DO remember the story: Basically the king got tired of the "My Bible is better than your Bible!" and all the bullshit, so he called the religious leaders of the day into a conference. he told them basically "nobody leaves until you get your stories straight, and anybody who doesn't agree can have his head on a pike out front" which got them to STFU REAL quick. They then threw out ANY and ALL books they couldn't agree on, and the 28 or so books in the bible got cut down to the 12 in there now.
So I personally find it hilarious that so much hatred and bigotry is done in the name of a book with nearly half the chapters missing. That of course doesn't count the parts later cut by the Catholics or old King "I hate women unless they're barefoot and pregnant!" James. So personally I think the Soviets had the right idea, pile up their books and throw them in the fire. For 80 years they had different religions living side by side but without organized bigotry they didn't go around killing each other. what happened when they allowed religious "freedom"? "My god is better then yours, you heathen!".
Pile up the religious texts and break out the gasoline. While I hate the thought of losing ANY book, the amount of suffering caused by the three major religions makes Mein Kampf and the little red book look like Mickey Mouse coloring books in comparison. The world would be a better place if they simply didn't exist.
Sorry, meant aren't. The religious scumbags really piss me off as I have a gay kid, he is the sweetest most gentle creature you would ever want to meet, literally wouldn't hurt a fly, and I have seen knuckle draggers drag their kids across the street rather than let them come anywhere near him.
It took three janitors to keep me from bitch slapping the fuck out of a fifth grade teacher who brought a bible into her fifth grade class to speak about "Sodomite and idol worshiping heathens "(his brother is Catholic). I would have loved to sue the whole fucking town out of existence, but unfortunately my sister who gave me the boys to raise when she found out her illness was terminal, didn't want the last year of her life to be a circus.
Oh and those "Xtian values" that bitch rallied for? We home schooled the boys after that and now the oldest is in pre-med, the youngest is deciding whether to be a graphic artist or a chef, meanwhile the kids in the class they were in are 2/3rds junkies or dropouts INCLUDING the bitches little bitch who got knocked up and became a meth whore.
As for those villages being sterile? Easy way to fix that, there are TONS of kids growing up in the system right now that could use a loving stable home, but the bigots won't allow that. Isn't it funny how they rally against abortion but then don't want a damned thing to do with the offspring nobody wants, except to tell everyone else THEY can't have them either? Last I checked something like 40%+ of the kids dumped in the system that aren't infants will NEVER be adopted, and instead be bounced from one facility and foster home to another. I wonder what the crime rate for those kids turned adults are? I bet pretty high as being told nobody wants you from an early age must destroy their self esteem.
I know plenty of gay couples that would be happy to open their homes to a couple of kids nobody else wants, too bad knuckle dragging bigots will NEVER allow it to happen. Instead the gays have found a way around it, with the gays and lesbians working out deals where the lesbians are artificially inseminated by the gays and then either keep the child themselves or give the child to the gay couple. Just shows that yet another stupid pointless law hurts nobody but the most vulnerable.
Personally I would have rather lived in either one that surrounded by a bunch of religious bigots and hate mongers, thanks. I guess love thy neighbor only applies if he is white and republican huh?
Not to mention Sodom didn't have a damned thing to do with your "God" either, you just gave him the credit. They built over a large gas vein a city where the primary means of cooking was...dum dum dum...open flames! It would be like giving your God credit for Pompeii and the Hindenburg. A bad design is a bad design is a bad design, period.
Personally I've lived near Xtians and gays and I'll take gays any day of the week, they are nicer and more decent than the knuckle dragging religious types by a HUGE amount! At least THEY are busy trying to stick their noses in my business or trying to force me to live by rules written by goat herders who feared a deity I don't even believe in. Oh and guess whose PCs are the most overloaded with kinky porn? It ain't the gays! Hypocrites, bullshit artists, scammers, and control freaks. I'd say that pretty well describes most of what I've seen of your religion, so please don't sully my home with it, thanks but no thanks.
But wouldn't the easier thing to use be something more along the lines of a pad? those genius pads are dirt cheap, variable sensitivity, and with software calibration should be easier to control I'd think than trying to wield a mouse if you have trouble with fine motor movements.
I know it wasn't originally designed for it, but then neither is a mouse, hence the software. but it just seems to me a pad would be easier all around to tweak especially considering that even the cheapo pad has custom control buttons running down both sides.
I can't believe it, the world must be ending as we actually agree on something. you'll see that I changed my sig, fair is fair. What pisses me off about the FOSSies is they act like nobody has ever tried the damned thing, and any and ALL problems are just bullshit! Do you have ANY idea how many times I bashed my head on a table because some nice off lease office machine I got set up with PCLOS or Ubuntu ran fine until the first update, which then promptly shit itself and wiped out more than half the drivers? No warning, no heads up, just BAM! I ended up taking a bath on all the machines I had to accept returns on, which by state law have to be sold as used.
As for the DNS thing, while I don't think HOSTS is the way to go the basic idea is sound, just not IMHO optimal for what you are trying to do. Have you thought about running your own recursive DNS? It would give you all the advantages of blacklists without the overhead and still give YOU full control. I use Treewalk to connect directly to the ARIN nameservers. It cuts the DNS time by a good 60%, lets you load any blacklists or whitelists, and because it is its own recursive nameserver you don't have to scan the entire list like HOSTS to get to an IP address. It also uses less than 1Mb of RAM and can be easily set up to feed your entire network, even remotely if you choose in case you are in the field.
So never let it be said I can't live and let live, or find ways to adapt differing viewpoints. besides anybody that can see if something free can't beat something that costs $100+ there is a serious problem with the free product, instead of hanging onto dogma and zealotry at least isn't blind like so many that lurk here.
While I hate corporate welfare I really don't know if you can call it that in this case. In fact what they got Twitter to agree to is to build new offices in a scummy slum part of town, which of course will now cost Twitter in extra security and such, in the hopes that they can renew the area and get businesses to move back which will also get the same break if they move into scum town.
Now considering this neighborhood is probably "welcome to the jungle" you are gonna have to offer something for any business to take the risk, and I'm sure there will be employees that will turn down an offer from twitter because they'd have to go into and out of such a rough area.
So while I think bullshit like GE paying almost no taxes by pulling crap like the double dutch IS bullshit and needs to be stopped ASAP, giving a company a break for taking increased risk by moving into bad areas in the hope of fixing them up is just smart. The same was done several years ago in my own state with the river market area, and whereas before the place looked like Beirut, what with all the bombed out looking buildings and garbage everywhere, now it is a really nice neighborhood with little shops and a thriving gay community.
Everything there is clean and nice with plenty of foot paths and nobody is afraid to walk there anymore, so I'd say the tax breaks the city gave were money well spent. If by giving them a tax break the city of SF can do the same to one of their slums why not? Better than just letting the buildings fall apart and become fire hazards like Detroit.
Which like a Moonie or the useful idiots of old go "la la la" while putting blinders on to the broken shit around you. Did you even read a single link? No because that would shatter your little worldview that it is a M$ conspiracy and not the fact YOUR SHIT IS BROKEN that is keeping the masses avoiding your product like a free STD.
Hell I could post about 14 pages of "update foo broke my drivers" from your very own forums, page after page of bugs that have been there for years, but why bother? Like any other zealot if your leaders teabagged your ass you'd thank them for the gentle caress!
You know what the sad part is? It is the fact that you could fix it if you'd only take your lips off RMS and Linus's asses long enough that is. The ONLY reason Linus is able to get away with his Amateur hour bullshit is so many line up to kiss his ass. The ONLY reason why developers are able to put out one broken version after another instead of actually fixing the damned bugs is the way the users go fawning all over them, squeeing like little girls.
But go ahead, call everyone that doesn't suck down the shit sandwich OF FREEDOM your version of nigger spic or kike, ala troll shill or astroturfer but you know what? Your little twisted broken dreams are NEVER coming true and you simply can't face reality or the facts.
FACT..Every retailer that has tried to sell your product found it to be a broken mess, with high returns thanks to updates breaking drivers, which frankly is Win3.x era amateur hour shit. Updates should NEVER break working drivers and the fact you accept it just shows what a Mickey Mouse OS it is. FACT..Even Dell, one of the largest PC retailers ON THE PLANET, can't get enough decent QA from your precious developers to allow their Ubuntu offerings to update, so they have to DISABLE UPDATES and run their own out of date repos. What happens when they run updates from the default repos? Why it breaks sound and networking LOL!
So don't get mad when the developers give you a Cleavland Steamer for an OS, tell them it is manna from heaven. Don't get mad when you can't even run fricking updates without the whole thing falling apart like DOS, tell them LinuxMakesYouSmart(TM), ignore the fact that NOBODY sells your OS at retail, you can say it TheX86Conspiracy(TM) and then claim you're "winning" (Hell crazy Charlie is more of a winner than Linux) because LinuxRunsOnAnything(TM). Meanwhile don't be surprised if it takes you ANOTHER 18 years to reach 2%, if you ever do. Oh and be sure to thank Google for the surprise buttsex when they TiVo trick Android. At least somebody is messing with you, right?
You like the other poster are "cherry picking" and mixing and matching corporate and consumer which NOBODY did before XP. if you are gonna mix both then you need to count WinME which came after 2K and sucked hairy donkey balls, and both 2K and 2K3 server frankly sucked until Sp2, which was SOP for MSFT at the time. I remember how many wouldn't touch NT 4 until SP3 either, and when you look at the HUGE number of patches we are talking it has gone from mere bandaids to pretty much gutting whole subsystems. Also check out XP pre SP2, it was a buggy badly behaving insecure POS.
And Vista should be looked at as a giant DON'T DO THAT which they are gonna fail to heed with Windows 8. What we saw with Vista is that PCs have reached good enough that if people don't like it they'll simply stick with what they have, it isn't like the Win9x days where you really had to upgrade to support the latest tech or software. XP is going on 12 years old now and any corp would frankly be nuts not to have support for XP in their products, and Windows 7 has FINALLY, finally after all these damned years, given then a product that works on BOTH the business and consumer desktop that folks like and are willing to use.
Look I've been selling the things since Win 3.x, so I know of which I speak. there was about a year where my #1 money earner was killing Vista dead, people hated it THAT much. The things that keep folks on Windows are software and games, which makes them 180 degrees in opposite of Apple which has been able to go through no less than 3 CPU changes and still keep people buying. If MSFT tries to stick a WinPhone style OS in front of people and call it Windows folks will just ignore it and stick with XP and 7. Windows 7 gets extended support until 2020 (which they can't drop thanks to contracts) so it isn't like folks HAVE TO jump on board.
With Win 7 they finally have a UI where those like my dad can find new things and figure things out intuitively without bugging the living shit out of old hands like myself. Why fuck up a good thing? I'll tell you why, and this is from someone who makes their living selling MSFT products: it is because they have gotten too much of a hard on for Apple, that's why. you look at what has happened since Ballmer took over and it has been nothing but "Lets copy Apple and then we'll be hip too!" while ignoring they have completely different demographics.
Kin, Zune, WinPhone, everything Apple does will have a MSFT version less than a year later. They have a hit in the X360, they have a chance at making Win 7 as big a hit as XP, why cock it all up chasing a demographic that will NEVER ever buy your stuff? Apple is a hipster boutique label, it would be like expecting Ferrari owners to suddenly start buying Mustangs.
It is stupid, it is pointless, it will piss off the customers, and I bet if MSFT goes for this "Web 2.0 Cloud Extreme WinPhone OS" idea for Win 8 I'll be wiping it to put on Win 7 just as I wiped countless Vista installs to put on XP. The folks that buy Windows just aren't gonna jump on a cloud based PhoneOS for their desktop, it just won't work. To make it lean enough they'll have to destroy completely backwards compatibility, and if I'm gonna have to start from scratch anyway why not just go Mac or Linux?
Notice I said TABLET and NOT the iPad, because frankly it is like comparing a Ferrari and a Civic. Frankly with all the status around the Apple logo they could probably polish old Steve's turds and package them and make bank.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure like their other products the iPad is well designed, but anybody that doesn't think the Apple name has a LOT to do with their figures is delusional. hell my 70 year old dad can't figure out how to text on his current phone and is seriously talking about going iPhone. Why? Is it offering some feature set or better UI or something he doesn't currently have? Nope, it is because all his contractor buddies have one and he wants to keep up with the latest trend.
So frankly it doesn't matter what happens in the tablet market as iPad will continue to sell, just as it doesn't matter there are plenty of PMPs with better feature sets than iPod but that doesn't keep everyone and their dog from tripping right over them to spend three times the price for the Apple logo. I really have to give the man credit, Jobs took a DOA company and turned them into THE boutique consumer electronics brand, like Sony had in the 80s when they could do no wrong with Walkman. Once he passes and they lose his ability to hype the brand they may be in trouble, but right now they have a license to print money.