I know this is a late reply, but if I had mod points I'd send one your way just for using "mortified" in a post. I know of only one other person that uses that word, and it reminded me of them. Kudos.
I can attest to this. I'm a construction consultant and the only thing keeping me from going to Linux on my work machine is, the "Industry Standard" construction scheduling program "Primavera Project Planner" (P3), and it's successor P3ec. Both Windows only to the core. Our clients, a good portion of them working for the government, require we work with P3 exclusively. From time to time we'll get a client that wants it in MS Project, but those are very few, and very far between. Any interaction with the program, as in programming wise is done through their libraries, and exclusively with MS Visual Basic, so we're kind of stuck, though we are trying out OO.o 2, we'll probably be an MS only shop for a long time. Sucks but it's true
So AMD's products are bad today despite their well documented superiority, because their products from 5+ generations ago had poor memory bandwidth. Yeah I can buy that, cause it makes sense.
"They do not produce their own motherboards, and while some third-party manufacturers produce some great silicon, most are abobinable pieces of flaky crap."
"most" huh?
I have made dozens of A-64/A-XP PC's in my day, and I've used motherboards made by Tyan, MSI, Asus, AsRock, Abit, Biostar, Foxconn, Gigabyte, and ECS. Using Chipsets by AMD, Uli, Nvidia, and Via. And out of the 100+ boards I've been shipped I've only had problems with 2 that weren't my responsibility. With one and only one exception and that's if I installed Nvidia's Software IDE Driver, that being said I've experienced similar issues with Intel's Software IDE drive, called "Intel Application Accelerator" or something like that. So I call that a wash, and don't install either.
How do you define most... for argument's sake lets say that I'm lucky, and assume normal return rates with electronic goods, when I was in the distribution biz, we expected 20% of all of our electronics to come back whether it was defective or otherwise. So let's put it at 20% how on Earth does 20% constitute "most"? You literally don't have a clue as to what you are talking about.
Let's continue shall we?
"when you consider than the vast majority of PCs sold in America and troughout the world are trought direct sales (say Dell) as the Ed implied, and through wholesale (Businesses), AMD is marginalized.
Why? Because they can't promise the same level of production as Intel does. They do not produce their own motherboards, "
Do you think Dell buys Intel manufactured motherboards? Wrong! One of Dell's largest suppliers for cases/Mobos ect. is Foxconn/Hon Hi, In fact one of the major suppliers for every PC manufacture sprawling from Dell, to Intel, to even that sacred cow Apple is Foxconn/Hon Hai. Please post "facts" on just the topics you understand.
I have a friend that does video editing, any chance you have proof to back this up, he's asking me for PC suggestions and this would make the difference between me telling him to get a dual core p4 of a dual core a64
Maybe so, but it's mixed in with this highly biased BS, and that throws its credibility right out the window for me. Particularly because all of their shows are biased in one direction. I'm not saying it's just Fox News, I hate Hardball for the same reasons I hate O'Reilly.
"When I hear claims of bias, it's always important to examine the source of the claim."
Look I'm a middle-of-the-roader, whether you believe me or not. I'm morally pro-life, politically pro-choice. I love the idea of a free market economy, but I also see the need for some government intervention, lord knows what the US would look like without Roosevelt the 1st. Some of my more democratic views are I believe in a graduated tax, and good public schooling. However I also believe that there shouldn't be a bias against private schools religious or otherwise. I'm left and right on most issues, and that's where I'm coming from.
I don't watch TV news regularly, I hate "Hardball", and the "O'Reilly Factor" equally, I'm not here to comment on whether CNN, MSNBC, are liberal biased, I don't watch them. I'm here to call you out on your assertion that Fox News is unbiased, that's a load of B&HS
How you can sit there and tell me that after 4-5 years of watching Fox "News" you can't tell that it's "right" biased is beyond me. It would be like saying that John Stewart isn't a liberal, or that Rush Limbaugh, isn't sympathetic to the conservative agenda. The last time I watched Fox News (it was less than three weeks ago) I was tying my shoes about to head outside, and within less than 30 seconds I was listening to Bill O'Reilly and a guest literally talking about "what's wrong with liberals". And Bill that bastion of unbiased news discussion cuts off the guest mid-sentence and said something to the effect of:
Wait I know what they want. They want the government to take care of them, and not hold them morally responsible for their actions.
And the one and ONLY guest who was clearly as unbiased as Mr. O'Reilly vehemently agreed with his assessment, I laughed my a#$ off, finished tying my shoes and left.
If you don't see that kind of programming as biased I can't help you, and I'm not an expert in the area, but I'd venture a guess that no one can. When was the last time you saw Fox do a "what's wrong with conservatives segment"? Go ahead and mod me troll, PLEASE! If you believe that Fox News is unbiased you're either ignorant or lying, I'm leaning towards you're a lier. I'm not just saying that either, I can't believe that you could watch Fox News for more than an hour and not realize it. It's disgusting to think you'd lie on a public forum for no tangible benefit to yourself, and to the determent of those here. However it's hysterical to think that you may be so thick-headed as to honestly believe that Fox News is unbiased.
I used to hack my old nes, gameboy, and SNES batery save cartriges and replace the small watch batery they used to hold the charge with AA, and AAA bateries. Loosing my families F-Zero track times was the impetus for this... it was a cold day in the houshold when we found out all those hours of sibling rivalry were gone without a trace.
It's even worse than that. Their dirct competitors are using their work to compete directly against them. How does that help anyone, consumers included. I say good for them, and I hope they bring it back under a better license.
"There are amazing technologies like VPN and remote desktop that allow one to access their documents, and even a rich GUI, from anywhere. If I can access some online office service, then I can likely access my own machines just as easily."
Too true. I use OpenVPN, and UltraVNC, like crazy. I love being able to connect to my home PC from everywhere I can connect to the web. OpenVPN, and UltraVNC, work on Linux, Windows, and maybe even OSX(I know OpenVPN does, though I'm not sure about UVNC, though I'm sure some flavor of VNC does). Though I'm sure the alternatives out there like eyeOS, and a "GOffice" system would have advantages over a "OpenVPN & UltraVNC" setup. You should give it a try if you need any help setting it up on Windows XP, just PM me.
go to McDonalds, Wendys, Burger King, what color isn't the skin of the person behind the counter? Do you honestly believe that the poor are poor because they're lazy? You're ignorant in the highest degree.
In a lot of places we have created a social underclass, and in those places this republic, unfortunately, is just like the Roman one. Run on slavery, only this time it's socially except able. We put the "socially challenged" in worse schools, and let them drop out. We tell them you can't work here without x degree. Despite the fact that for the majority of jobs OTJT is the best education you can get.
Is it intentional?
Not at all, but is it what's happening? Yes.
The poor get poorer, and the rich get richer. Do you believe that poor family's tend to stay poor, and rich family's tend to stay, rich because rich people are more motivated, better suited for success? Get a clue, mod me troll, ignorance such as yours serves no one.
I was born poor white trash, into a family with 8 children, and a single mother. I'm well on my way to living a more successful life than her but I'm not ignorant to the fact that I had a LOT of help. Help not available to most people. That's why I'm where I am today.
Yes I work hard, but no harder than the guys I used to work with when I was painting pools shoulder to shoulder with them.
Yes I'm intelligent, but no more so than any one else I've worked with.
I know for a fact that I'm where I am today simply because I have friends with friends with friends that pulled some strings and get me a break, to get that interview. And no matter what you say about affirmative action I know that when I go on an interview I have a leg up on a black applicant, or an applicant with an accent, just because I was born white into a family while broke for all intents and purposes, were well spoken.
You have no idea how stacked in your favor were the cards, that allow you to sit in your position, and pass judgment on those that aren't as successful as you. Ignorance like this disgusts me.
I had a P3-800 with 3 256MB DIMMs. One was bad. I had Windows98 on it for years and it ran as well as expected.
Windows 98 has notoriously bad memory management, and chances are it never even hit those last 256MB of RAM. I recal reading somwhere that 95/98, can only recognise 192MB of RAM, Maximum PC I think did the tests. It sounds like a tiny number now, but you have to realise back when 98 was released typical desktop PC's were shipping with 32MB of RAM. I remember people throwing a tizzy about 95's sugjested configuration having 16MB of RAM. 16MB at the time was like 2GB is now(on the desktop, not server area). Some users have that much ram but most have 1/4 of that.
So chances are 98 could give two s@#ts less about the last 576MB of RAM. Where Gentoo runs into problems because it's actualy using that memory for something.
does anyone else get the impression that this guy is so full of himself, he believes it's a treat to read any pile of ish that happens to dibble out of the corners of his mouth? What's with the page devoted to the naming scheme for Vista, and Ubuntu. Get to the point already guy, you're not clever or funny just tell me if the distro is good or bad, save me the "if I were to name it would be better because I named it" BS.
There are some very good parts to it though, seeing the menus in action was cool, and info on installing CVS, and getting clearlook up and running was informative, and helpfull.
Hey man that hurts, cause it's just as bad if not worse here in Miami, and I'm still toughing it out. I've reconciled the fact that I'll be living in an apartment for the next 25 years where by the time I'm 51 I'll finally be able to afford a down payment on a house in a market that's climbing away from me at 25% a year. No joke, my boss bought a cheap house in a flood zone for 260k, it's gone up in value $150k in 2 years. A house across the street from him same square footage, but brand spanking new just sold for over 500k. These are modest homes not palaces.
The situation both sucks, and blows. I saw a 800sq foot S*%t hole condo, not house, in a crappy neighborhood sell for 190k the other day. 800sq feet. That put a damper on things that day. It just plain sucks here. Anyone need a construction consultant outside of the greater Miami area? Employers from California, New York, or Boston need not apply. The sad fact is that I'd actually consider moving, where two years ago that would of seemed funny to me.
yeah lot of rigs with fast processors play HD content fine, but if you have anything less that a P4 3.0 or Athlon 64 2800 expect a lot of stuttering, even a Athlon XP 3000+ has problems with HD content unless you have hardware assitance. so for about 90% of the PC market a cheap card that does decent in 3D is a good thing, and for the reccord S3's last card was about as good an ATI 9600. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. if it's as good as an x700, or vanilla GF6600, it could be a decent card. I just hope they open source the drivers.
Oh man too true I'll never forget my pakard-bell dx2-66 with it's patented incompatability card. what a pile if "ish" though it did get me through "Sam and Max", "Doom 2", "X-Com 2", and "Ascendancy".
Slashdot Mirror
I know this is a late reply, but if I had mod points I'd send one your way just for using "mortified" in a post. I know of only one other person that uses that word, and it reminded me of them. Kudos.
-manno
Don't mod my post up mod this parent up. Great post.
I think they meant to link this
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3144666&did=1
I can attest to this. I'm a construction consultant and the only thing keeping me from going to Linux on my work machine is, the "Industry Standard" construction scheduling program "Primavera Project Planner" (P3), and it's successor P3ec. Both Windows only to the core. Our clients, a good portion of them working for the government, require we work with P3 exclusively. From time to time we'll get a client that wants it in MS Project, but those are very few, and very far between. Any interaction with the program, as in programming wise is done through their libraries, and exclusively with MS Visual Basic, so we're kind of stuck, though we are trying out OO.o 2, we'll probably be an MS only shop for a long time. Sucks but it's true
-manno
good point
now that was funny, and honestly it's only about half as fast a the dual processor 2.7Ghz G5
I'm going to patent the human heart, or maybe I'll be gratious, and just patenet one of its valves.
It is? I know it's false, but that wasn't the impression I got.
So AMD's products are bad today despite their well documented superiority, because their products from 5+ generations ago had poor memory bandwidth. Yeah I can buy that, cause it makes sense.
-manno
"They do not produce their own motherboards, and while some third-party manufacturers produce some great silicon, most are abobinable pieces of flaky crap."
"most" huh?
I have made dozens of A-64/A-XP PC's in my day, and I've used motherboards made by Tyan, MSI, Asus, AsRock, Abit, Biostar, Foxconn, Gigabyte, and ECS. Using Chipsets by AMD, Uli, Nvidia, and Via. And out of the 100+ boards I've been shipped I've only had problems with 2 that weren't my responsibility. With one and only one exception and that's if I installed Nvidia's Software IDE Driver, that being said I've experienced similar issues with Intel's Software IDE drive, called "Intel Application Accelerator" or something like that. So I call that a wash, and don't install either.
How do you define most... for argument's sake lets say that I'm lucky, and assume normal return rates with electronic goods, when I was in the distribution biz, we expected 20% of all of our electronics to come back whether it was defective or otherwise. So let's put it at 20% how on Earth does 20% constitute "most"? You literally don't have a clue as to what you are talking about.
Let's continue shall we?
"when you consider than the vast majority of PCs sold in America and troughout the world are trought direct sales (say Dell) as the Ed implied, and through wholesale (Businesses), AMD is marginalized.
Why? Because they can't promise the same level of production as Intel does. They do not produce their own motherboards, "
Do you think Dell buys Intel manufactured motherboards? Wrong! One of Dell's largest suppliers for cases/Mobos ect. is Foxconn/Hon Hi, In fact one of the major suppliers for every PC manufacture sprawling from Dell, to Intel, to even that sacred cow Apple is Foxconn/Hon Hai. Please post "facts" on just the topics you understand.
mod -1 FUD
-manno
I have a friend that does video editing, any chance you have proof to back this up, he's asking me for PC suggestions and this would make the difference between me telling him to get a dual core p4 of a dual core a64
thanks
-matt
"If humans had such pads they could leap 100-storey buildings."
Statements like this make me cringe.
"The NEWS ITSELF at Fox News is pretty balanced"
Maybe so, but it's mixed in with this highly biased BS, and that throws its credibility right out the window for me. Particularly because all of their shows are biased in one direction. I'm not saying it's just Fox News, I hate Hardball for the same reasons I hate O'Reilly.
"When I hear claims of bias, it's always important to examine the source of the claim."
Look I'm a middle-of-the-roader, whether you believe me or not. I'm morally pro-life, politically pro-choice. I love the idea of a free market economy, but I also see the need for some government intervention, lord knows what the US would look like without Roosevelt the 1st. Some of my more democratic views are I believe in a graduated tax, and good public schooling. However I also believe that there shouldn't be a bias against private schools religious or otherwise. I'm left and right on most issues, and that's where I'm coming from.
I don't watch TV news regularly, I hate "Hardball", and the "O'Reilly Factor" equally, I'm not here to comment on whether CNN, MSNBC, are liberal biased, I don't watch them. I'm here to call you out on your assertion that Fox News is unbiased, that's a load of B&HS
How you can sit there and tell me that after 4-5 years of watching Fox "News" you can't tell that it's "right" biased is beyond me. It would be like saying that John Stewart isn't a liberal, or that Rush Limbaugh, isn't sympathetic to the conservative agenda. The last time I watched Fox News (it was less than three weeks ago) I was tying my shoes about to head outside, and within less than 30 seconds I was listening to Bill O'Reilly and a guest literally talking about "what's wrong with liberals". And Bill that bastion of unbiased news discussion cuts off the guest mid-sentence and said something to the effect of:
Wait I know what they want. They want the government to take care of them, and not hold them morally responsible for their actions.
And the one and ONLY guest who was clearly as unbiased as Mr. O'Reilly vehemently agreed with his assessment, I laughed my a#$ off, finished tying my shoes and left.
If you don't see that kind of programming as biased I can't help you, and I'm not an expert in the area, but I'd venture a guess that no one can. When was the last time you saw Fox do a "what's wrong with conservatives segment"? Go ahead and mod me troll, PLEASE! If you believe that Fox News is unbiased you're either ignorant or lying, I'm leaning towards you're a lier. I'm not just saying that either, I can't believe that you could watch Fox News for more than an hour and not realize it. It's disgusting to think you'd lie on a public forum for no tangible benefit to yourself, and to the determent of those here. However it's hysterical to think that you may be so thick-headed as to honestly believe that Fox News is unbiased.
My sincerest apologies,
-manno
I used to hack my old nes, gameboy, and SNES batery save cartriges and replace the small watch batery they used to hold the charge with AA, and AAA bateries. Loosing my families F-Zero track times was the impetus for this... it was a cold day in the houshold when we found out all those hours of sibling rivalry were gone without a trace.
-matt
It's about time a company came up with a mutualy beneficial product for customers rather than the take-em-for all their worth.
It's even worse than that. Their dirct competitors are using their work to compete directly against them. How does that help anyone, consumers included. I say good for them, and I hope they bring it back under a better license.
"There are amazing technologies like VPN and remote desktop that allow one to access their documents, and even a rich GUI, from anywhere. If I can access some online office service, then I can likely access my own machines just as easily."
Too true. I use OpenVPN, and UltraVNC, like crazy. I love being able to connect to my home PC from everywhere I can connect to the web. OpenVPN, and UltraVNC, work on Linux, Windows, and maybe even OSX(I know OpenVPN does, though I'm not sure about UVNC, though I'm sure some flavor of VNC does). Though I'm sure the alternatives out there like eyeOS, and a "GOffice" system would have advantages over a "OpenVPN & UltraVNC" setup. You should give it a try if you need any help setting it up on Windows XP, just PM me.
-manno
lol
go to McDonalds, Wendys, Burger King, what color isn't the skin of the person behind the counter? Do you honestly believe that the poor are poor because they're lazy? You're ignorant in the highest degree.
In a lot of places we have created a social underclass, and in those places this republic, unfortunately, is just like the Roman one. Run on slavery, only this time it's socially except able. We put the "socially challenged" in worse schools, and let them drop out. We tell them you can't work here without x degree. Despite the fact that for the majority of jobs OTJT is the best education you can get.
Is it intentional?
Not at all, but is it what's happening? Yes.
The poor get poorer, and the rich get richer. Do you believe that poor family's tend to stay poor, and rich family's tend to stay, rich because rich people are more motivated, better suited for success? Get a clue, mod me troll, ignorance such as yours serves no one.
I was born poor white trash, into a family with 8 children, and a single mother. I'm well on my way to living a more successful life than her but I'm not ignorant to the fact that I had a LOT of help. Help not available to most people. That's why I'm where I am today.
Yes I work hard, but no harder than the guys I used to work with when I was painting pools shoulder to shoulder with them.
Yes I'm intelligent, but no more so than any one else I've worked with.
I know for a fact that I'm where I am today simply because I have friends with friends with friends that pulled some strings and get me a break, to get that interview. And no matter what you say about affirmative action I know that when I go on an interview I have a leg up on a black applicant, or an applicant with an accent, just because I was born white into a family while broke for all intents and purposes, were well spoken.
You have no idea how stacked in your favor were the cards, that allow you to sit in your position, and pass judgment on those that aren't as successful as you. Ignorance like this disgusts me.
I had a P3-800 with 3 256MB DIMMs. One was bad. I had Windows98 on it for years and it ran as well as expected.
Windows 98 has notoriously bad memory management, and chances are it never even hit those last 256MB of RAM. I recal reading somwhere that 95/98, can only recognise 192MB of RAM, Maximum PC I think did the tests. It sounds like a tiny number now, but you have to realise back when 98 was released typical desktop PC's were shipping with 32MB of RAM. I remember people throwing a tizzy about 95's sugjested configuration having 16MB of RAM. 16MB at the time was like 2GB is now(on the desktop, not server area). Some users have that much ram but most have 1/4 of that.
So chances are 98 could give two s@#ts less about the last 576MB of RAM. Where Gentoo runs into problems because it's actualy using that memory for something.
does anyone else get the impression that this guy is so full of himself, he believes it's a treat to read any pile of ish that happens to dibble out of the corners of his mouth? What's with the page devoted to the naming scheme for Vista, and Ubuntu. Get to the point already guy, you're not clever or funny just tell me if the distro is good or bad, save me the "if I were to name it would be better because I named it" BS.
There are some very good parts to it though, seeing the menus in action was cool, and info on installing CVS, and getting clearlook up and running was informative, and helpfull.
-manno
Hey man that hurts, cause it's just as bad if not worse here in Miami, and I'm still toughing it out. I've reconciled the fact that I'll be living in an apartment for the next 25 years where by the time I'm 51 I'll finally be able to afford a down payment on a house in a market that's climbing away from me at 25% a year. No joke, my boss bought a cheap house in a flood zone for 260k, it's gone up in value $150k in 2 years. A house across the street from him same square footage, but brand spanking new just sold for over 500k. These are modest homes not palaces.
The situation both sucks, and blows. I saw a 800sq foot S*%t hole condo, not house, in a crappy neighborhood sell for 190k the other day. 800sq feet. That put a damper on things that day. It just plain sucks here. Anyone need a construction consultant outside of the greater Miami area? Employers from California, New York, or Boston need not apply. The sad fact is that I'd actually consider moving, where two years ago that would of seemed funny to me.
-matt
yeah lot of rigs with fast processors play HD content fine, but if you have anything less that a P4 3.0 or Athlon 64 2800 expect a lot of stuttering, even a Athlon XP 3000+ has problems with HD content unless you have hardware assitance. so for about 90% of the PC market a cheap card that does decent in 3D is a good thing, and for the reccord S3's last card was about as good an ATI 9600. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. if it's as good as an x700, or vanilla GF6600, it could be a decent card. I just hope they open source the drivers.
Oh man too true I'll never forget my pakard-bell dx2-66 with it's patented incompatability card. what a pile if "ish" though it did get me through "Sam and Max", "Doom 2", "X-Com 2", and "Ascendancy".