> The 14.04 LTS I use in work cannot even have the latest version of VLC)
--You pick an LTS distro for *long-term stability*, not the latest versions of software. Things tend to break sometimes when you use the testing or unstable branches. I use 14.04-64-LTS myself, and it's pretty rock solid - but starting to show its age after 3 years. If I want newer versions of software, I put up a Vmware or Virtualbox VM and install Antix or MX (no systemd) or even go beyond my existing triple-boot setup if it really needs to run on bare metal.
--There are more choices than that (LMDE, Devuan, Fedora, SuSE, etc), but I tend to prefer Debian-derived package systems and something that can actually survive a dist-upgrade in-situ without reinstalling.
> I can download the latest version of VLC on Windows Vista, and it is the same.exe that Windows 10 uses
--Yep, and you have to deal with the in-OS spyware, rampant virus and malware/cryptoware infection risks along with it. We can all see how that's working out for the Ukraine.
--Snap packages show some promise, but since Ubuntu 16.04 was such a terrible experience for me I haven't looked into it yet. Dunno if they ported Snap back to 14.04, but they have backported rebootless kernel patching for it recently.
> I also miss actual Write Protect switches on USB media
Kanguru has several USB3 thumbdrives available on Amazon with a physical hardware write protect switch. Standard disclaimer, just a satisfied customer.
> In a contemporary urban environment, that is crazier. A.22 can kill someone two miles away.
--Citation needed. Even if it were fired randomly up in the air, a.22 seems like it would have less striking power than a 5-cent piece on its way down from the 100th floor of a skyscraper.
--2600 Space Invaders, Combat, Defender, Berzerk, Pitfall, Missile Command, Bump-n-Jump, Centipede, and Asteroids were playable for hours. Yars Revenge, Ms Pac-Man, Q-Bert, Frogger, Pole Position, Dig Dug, Adventure, Super Breakout and Vanguard were memorable.
--The Pac-man port to the 2600 was pretty blah compared to the arcade, but still playable. Thousands of ET cartridges literally ended up in a landfill, however. That game was a little buggy...
> Let's take a look at the venerable Notepad++, version 7.3.3. The 32-bit exe is 2.32mB and the 64-bit exe is 2.781mB. That's not 'omg', but it's 20% larger and that adds up over all of Windows's exes and anything you install. If I load langs.model.xml (about 281kB) then the 32-bit version uses 13.2MB of memory and the 64-bit version uses 14.7MB of memory, which is 11.4% more. Again, certainly not a doubling, but when you've only got 512MB of RAM this really adds up.
--The size differences you mention between 32 and 64 bit are really negligible. It's like saying don't charge your phone in your car because you'll lose X amount of gas every 200 miles.
--Honestly, I would not be running a full interactive GUI (especially Windows) on anything that had only 512MB of RAM these days -- that's more for bespoke applications IMO; but 16 or 32 bit software would definitely be an -overall- advantage there. ( X apps over SSH is probably doable, but you'd need probably 2xRAM size for Swap. )
--Another vote for Borderlands 2. Been playing it for a couple of years with my wife in splitscreen, still fun. PROTIP: Since the bank vault and Claptrap's locker have limited space, we create secondary characters to use for collecting weapons, artifacts, char-specific mods, and keeping extra in-game cash.
Because monocultures are crap, somebody might like it, and this helps get the word out that it's available for use/testing. But don't worry, you are an AC and nobody cares about you, RIGHT?
--If you have $99 to spare, you can expect it to be pretty much immune to most virus infections - nobody's targeting it.
--OS/2 Warp 3 came out right before Win95 did. It had a very stable object-oriented GUI that basically wouldn't crash unless you had a driver issue; had an advanced filesystem for the time (HPFS supported long filenames and was fragmentation-resistant), great DOS support, native REXX scripting that was "better" than command.com, good multitasking (you could format a floppy in the background and do $other-things on a single-CPU 32-bit system without the whole interface bogging down) and better 16-bit multi-program Win 3.1 support than *native* Windows 3.1.
--I dropped out of Warp when it wouldn't boot anymore after I inserted a space before an REM in config.sys back in the day. (Win95-98 could handle that with no problem.) There weren't really good bootable OS/2 recovery tools back then... Linux was the place to be after that, circa 1996-1997.
--I would say that Linux is still the place to be these days, but trying out OS/2 on modern hardware for grins will add to your non-Windows experience at least, and who knows - you might like it.
...so you find out who else in your industry uses this "mission critical" Windows-based software, sit down and have some meetings, and all band together. Contact the software maker as a group to port the software to Linux and/or MAC. It's not rocket science... People just don't want to spend the money.
> While I am sure that they are running a plethora of Windows only software that they likely feel trapped in, they really need to think much further ahead than Windows 10. They need a department for handling and developing operating systems and software in house. I would say move all desktops to a hard implementation of PCBSD. That is, unless they really need to play 3D video games. I am not talking tomorrow. But if they look at it, and come up with a strategy for conversion including developing their own counterparts for whatever critical software they currently rely on, in five to ten years they could be good to go for rolling out.
--I wish I had mod points for you. Critical government infrastructure shouldn't be running on Windows AT ALL, much less '95 or '98 versions!
--You should also look into Antix/MX, it's Debian without systemd.
--I filed a couple of bug reports months ago with Devuan and find it hard to take them seriously, since no one took ownership or even updated the bugs for over a month.
Slashdot Mirror
> The 14.04 LTS I use in work cannot even have the latest version of VLC)
--You pick an LTS distro for *long-term stability*, not the latest versions of software. Things tend to break sometimes when you use the testing or unstable branches. I use 14.04-64-LTS myself, and it's pretty rock solid - but starting to show its age after 3 years. If I want newer versions of software, I put up a Vmware or Virtualbox VM and install Antix or MX (no systemd) or even go beyond my existing triple-boot setup if it really needs to run on bare metal.
--There are more choices than that (LMDE, Devuan, Fedora, SuSE, etc), but I tend to prefer Debian-derived package systems and something that can actually survive a dist-upgrade in-situ without reinstalling.
> I can download the latest version of VLC on Windows Vista, and it is the same .exe that Windows 10 uses
--Yep, and you have to deal with the in-OS spyware, rampant virus and malware/cryptoware infection risks along with it. We can all see how that's working out for the Ukraine.
--Snap packages show some promise, but since Ubuntu 16.04 was such a terrible experience for me I haven't looked into it yet. Dunno if they ported Snap back to 14.04, but they have backported rebootless kernel patching for it recently.
--You can. Obtain $MONEY and upgrade to a mainframe.
> I also miss actual Write Protect switches on USB media
Kanguru has several USB3 thumbdrives available on Amazon with a physical hardware write protect switch. Standard disclaimer, just a satisfied customer.
--But if they all pooled their money together to buy ONE fidget spinner, does that count as being Hipster Ironic??
--Color changing shirts can already be found on Amazon... Search for "shadow shifter"
--That actually made me LOL. Thanks :^)
> In a contemporary urban environment, that is crazier. A .22 can kill someone two miles away.
--Citation needed. Even if it were fired randomly up in the air, a .22 seems like it would have less striking power than a 5-cent piece on its way down from the 100th floor of a skyscraper.
--2600 Space Invaders, Combat, Defender, Berzerk, Pitfall, Missile Command, Bump-n-Jump, Centipede, and Asteroids were playable for hours. Yars Revenge, Ms Pac-Man, Q-Bert, Frogger, Pole Position, Dig Dug, Adventure, Super Breakout and Vanguard were memorable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
--The Pac-man port to the 2600 was pretty blah compared to the arcade, but still playable. Thousands of ET cartridges literally ended up in a landfill, however. That game was a little buggy...
--It's the weekend. How bout installing Lubuntu on it? :b
/ haven't seen you around in a while, glad you're still here
> Backup protocols should be integral to every database vendor's product. Db creation should not be allowed until a backup system is in place FIRST.
--I find what you say to be fascinating, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. :b
--Veeam bare-metal backup does a pretty good job of this, there's a prompt to generate a recovery ISO before setting up/performing the 1st backup.
> Let's take a look at the venerable Notepad++, version 7.3.3. The 32-bit exe is 2.32mB and the 64-bit exe is 2.781mB. That's not 'omg', but it's 20% larger and that adds up over all of Windows's exes and anything you install. If I load langs.model.xml (about 281kB) then the 32-bit version uses 13.2MB of memory and the 64-bit version uses 14.7MB of memory, which is 11.4% more. Again, certainly not a doubling, but when you've only got 512MB of RAM this really adds up.
--The size differences you mention between 32 and 64 bit are really negligible. It's like saying don't charge your phone in your car because you'll lose X amount of gas every 200 miles.
--Honestly, I would not be running a full interactive GUI (especially Windows) on anything that had only 512MB of RAM these days -- that's more for bespoke applications IMO; but 16 or 32 bit software would definitely be an -overall- advantage there. ( X apps over SSH is probably doable, but you'd need probably 2xRAM size for Swap. )
--Netflix (AFAIK)...
> I've been on Slashdot for way more than ten years - longer than you for sure
--You don't say? ;-)
--Another vote for Borderlands 2. Been playing it for a couple of years with my wife in splitscreen, still fun. PROTIP: Since the bank vault and Claptrap's locker have limited space, we create secondary characters to use for collecting weapons, artifacts, char-specific mods, and keeping extra in-game cash.
U don't say??
/ some of us never left
Because monocultures are crap, somebody might like it, and this helps get the word out that it's available for use/testing. But don't worry, you are an AC and nobody cares about you, RIGHT?
That was YOU?! I couldn't use that bathroom for 45 minutes after you were done! Next time try a courtesy spray, you insensitive clod!
:B
/ damn green clouds hanging around...
--If you have $99 to spare, you can expect it to be pretty much immune to most virus infections - nobody's targeting it.
--OS/2 Warp 3 came out right before Win95 did. It had a very stable object-oriented GUI that basically wouldn't crash unless you had a driver issue; had an advanced filesystem for the time (HPFS supported long filenames and was fragmentation-resistant), great DOS support, native REXX scripting that was "better" than command.com, good multitasking (you could format a floppy in the background and do $other-things on a single-CPU 32-bit system without the whole interface bogging down) and better 16-bit multi-program Win 3.1 support than *native* Windows 3.1.
--I dropped out of Warp when it wouldn't boot anymore after I inserted a space before an REM in config.sys back in the day. (Win95-98 could handle that with no problem.) There weren't really good bootable OS/2 recovery tools back then... Linux was the place to be after that, circa 1996-1997.
--I would say that Linux is still the place to be these days, but trying out OS/2 on modern hardware for grins will add to your non-Windows experience at least, and who knows - you might like it.
REF:
http://www.os2museum.com/wp/os...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
--Maybe... But it should certainly run REXX.
...so you find out who else in your industry uses this "mission critical" Windows-based software, sit down and have some meetings, and all band together. Contact the software maker as a group to port the software to Linux and/or MAC. It's not rocket science... People just don't want to spend the money.
--Ever tried Nomachine NX?
--What I did for dual-boot is to set Grub to boot last selected entry, might work for you...
This article is about intrusive spyware, and statements like yours are PART OF THE PROBLEM.
> While I am sure that they are running a plethora of Windows only software that they likely feel trapped in, they really need to think much further ahead than Windows 10. They need a department for handling and developing operating systems and software in house. I would say move all desktops to a hard implementation of PCBSD. That is, unless they really need to play 3D video games. I am not talking tomorrow. But if they look at it, and come up with a strategy for conversion including developing their own counterparts for whatever critical software they currently rely on, in five to ten years they could be good to go for rolling out.
--I wish I had mod points for you. Critical government infrastructure shouldn't be running on Windows AT ALL, much less '95 or '98 versions!
--You should also look into Antix/MX, it's Debian without systemd.
--I filed a couple of bug reports months ago with Devuan and find it hard to take them seriously, since no one took ownership or even updated the bugs for over a month.