The funny thing is, I see people complain about these all of the time, but I don't get any of them. I don't respond to pings, my SSH is on a non-standard port, and I allow public-key authentication only.
Over the past couple of days however, I have been watching my firewall logs, and 99.8% of dropped packets are from the Middle East or Asia. Out of those they seem to be split 10/90 - 10% are spam that take advantage of the messenger service in Windows, and the other 90% are worms targeting exploits found in Microsoft products, most of them being NetBIOS and MS SQL Server.
Of course, the messenger service and NetBIOS are 'features', and nobody in their right minds runs an unpatched MS SQL server, right? Well, my firewall says there are a lot of people not in their right minds about.
If Microsoft is such a monopoly, why does my (NL) government only provide for a Windows application to fill in my tax forms?
Obviously you don't understand that a monopoly of the sort Microsoft has is a self-perpetuating cycle. The majority of people use Windows, therefore the government only develops said application for Windows. That then means that anyone wishing to switch, but needing that application, has been locked into the Windows OS by a lack of compatibility.
There are 3 kinds of people still using Windows:
Those who don't know about the alternatives (its not their fault...)
Those who have tried alternatives, but still 'prefer' Windows
Those who have tried alternatives, found them to be better, but are stuck in Windows because of the lock-in generated by MS putting their weight behind their proprietary formats, and breaking compatibility with others
Of course, group 1 is largely Microsoft's fault too, when you realise they use their leverage to get Windows installed on 100% of PCs that are sold. And while the government may (probably not, but you never know) want to be able to help EVERYONE, the people managing the projects are almost always oblivious to the fact that some computers don't run Windows.
Well, my train of thought got slightly de-railed there, not surprising, I'm a little ill at the moment. Hopefully people get the point I am trying to make...
I do all the time. Its called POP3 access via Thunderbird, using the Enigmail extension - I can read stuff sent to me, nobody else can. End of problem. If someone is sending it to me unencrypted, then it wasn't that important.
Yay, another generation of Linux gamers getting shafted! When MS makes OpenGL on their OS suck, game developers will stop using OpenGl. And anyone who has played games on Linux will know, anything that will run natively is generally OpenGL.
Of course, I'm not at all surprised about MS pulling a stunt like that - it was inevitable, taking into account their usual business practices. If the standard makes theirs look inferior, break it. And lets face it, there are a LOT of people who won't migrate to Linux because they want to play games.
And before anyone mentions Cedega - It looks like a lot of what they are doing, and what game producers will have to do to keep in line, will shaft WineX too. It really sucks that Microsoft are in a position to dictate to the world what to buy, and what to develop for. What needs to happen is for people to be educated. But thats just my opinion.
Disclaimer: I have been a Linux user for about 8 months now. Sometimes I come across things which I can only do under Windows, like a game I want to play. However one look at this, and memories of the hell of Windows that I have escaped, and I realise the disadvantages of using Windows outweigh the advantages. If I can't use their crap (for example games), I won't buy it. End of story.
I would have said the exact same thing if you hadn't, although probably not worded it quite as well. This has been my argument all along - a lot of the Windows userbase is only there because they don't know anything different. Schools use Windows, kids are taught Windows, kids grow up and use Windows, and then teach more kids Windows.
The point I make to a lot of people is this - you had to learn how to use Windows at some point. Unfortunately a lot of Windows usage is dumbed down, in my opinion. If people are taught Linux from day one, that is what they will know, and due the the extra complexities, they will have a better computer literacy too.
Of course people like Microsoft must see this, which is why they are quite happy to throw cheap licenses at schools - locking customers into your software at an early age, for life, has a much higher value!
I was lucky enough to have my brother become the perfect example of why it can work. He is your average annoying teenager - 15 years old, computing consists of MSN Messenger, and browsing the web for new Miniclip games, or whatever. I no longer have Windows running on any of my computers, so I turned him loose on my Gentoo laptop (running KDE). I look at it 3 hours later, and without asking me a single question or me offering any help, he has quite happily been doing what he wanted, and got his desktop, taskbar, etc. customized exactly how he wants them. That helped prove to me that the problem with Linux isn't that it is particularly any harder to learn at an early age, its just different. And lets face it, what most people hate more than anything else is change. A lot of people continue to use Windows because it is all they know.
Thats a relief. The first thing I worried about when seeing this "One laptop per child" was "Oh great, another avenue for MS to spoon-feed Windows into another generation. While computer usage is becoming more prolific, computer literacy is being kept in the stone age by a lack of education about the alternatives. The majority of people I meet can't understand the concept of Windows not being the ONLY thing they can run on thier computers.
My argument always is, people have to learn to use Windows at some point. Why is it so hard for people to learn Linux sometimes? Because its different to what they know. If all schools used Linux instead of Windows, and employed a competent IT technician, you would have an entire generation of ultra-computer-literate kids.
Part of me thinks that MS can already see this, which is why they literally THROW licenses at OEMs and educational establishments. People having a chance to be educated about the alternatives translates into lower sales for Microsoft.
... run an operating system they haven't written their crapware for? Where their crapware won't work? Or does that mean that non-Windows users just aren't allowed to listen to music on their computers?
When I question the morality of music piracy, crap like this makes me say "fuck the labels".
I found the information on the linked FAQ very useful, just downloaded Grisbi, and now I can finally say I have an easy-to-use replacement for MS Money (not saying MS Money was easy to use, but it was usable). It was to the point where I couldn't be bothered to boot into Windows just for accounting, and emulation didn't really cut it, so i wasn't bothering to keep track of my accounts at all!
I never said command lines were unusable - I have 3 computers that don't even have a GUI installed. I prefer command lines for most things. However, when it comes to the uses some people put things like vi(m) to, its just plain jumping through hoops trying to get anything done.
But then again, its all a matter of opinion. I've tried vi, vim, emacs, etc, and my opinion is that I prefer to spend a higher percentage of my time working within the interface, not with the interface. But if it truly works for you, good.
And your generalisation about 'GUI people' is as bad as mine about 'vim users'. Yeah, so what, I like to use something with a graphical interface. It doesn't have to be pretty or bloated though. Just easy to use. Intuitive. Where is the intuition in using 'vi' ? Lets face it, vi(m) will always remain a small percentage, because the interface yells "RTFM" at people who just want to get one with some plain ol' text editing. Although I don't deny its power, there are much easier ways of doing the same thing.
Now to wait for a vi-weilding moderator to come mod this as Troll...
Even better, just download the Putty executable and put it on a USB drive. Then you can use it anywhere!
Sounds like a 'vim' user, shunning usable interfaces for hardcore elitism.
Not to mention what happens if you don't have a computer with a sshd running on it. This idea of a GUI mail client made completely portable is definitely a good thing for the average user.
All well and good, until the US government yet again exercises their right to obtain any information held on US servers, then you might think twice about using the services if you value your privacy...
What would be good is some kind of encryption integrated into such services, so that nobody can obtain any useful information of yours from the server, however I can't see that happening as Google would get legal flak for 'obstruction of "justice"'. Remember, if you value privacy, you're a terrorist!
Not to mention, where the hell does the energy to recharge these batteries come from? Yeah, solar power if you live in the desert with a few square miles of land, but what do you do in a smog-filled city, in a 2nd-floor apartment? It still comes back to burning fossil fuels to get the energy.
Plus of course, once it has gone through all the transfers from fossil fuel to battery charge, its more efficient to burn the damn stuff yourself!
Very good point - compact cars have become very compact, and the safest cars on the road are still the heavier ones.
However, grandparent is a good example of putting blame on the companies. At the end of the day, there is no substitute for just watching what the fuck you are doing when driving. Lets face it, the majority of road accidents are due to people not paying attention, or misjudging the conditions ("What you mean I won't stop in time doing 80mph in the rain?").
I find myself agreeing totally - however extreme in your anti-MS stance, this is exactly what its about - restoring competition. MS have gotten way too used to the fact they can do what they want, and everyone else has to fall in line because they are all locked into their software by games developers, hardware vendors, and pretty much everything else.
No matter what the industry, a monopoly is a Bad Thing(tm). It stifles innovation - Just look at their latest offering. Vista is the same old rehashed crap, with a resource whore of a GUI grafted onto it. Remove that monopoly, and big companies are forced to do something actually worth buying to stay in the market.
For the record, I have never paid anything towards MS more than the part of my laptop sale they got for the OEM copy of Windows XP on it. My philosophy - you back me into a corner where I HAVE to use your crap for compatibility, hell's gonna freeze over before I pay for it! No company has the right to force people to part with money - they should be selling on the merits of their software, not the lock-in of their customers. I use Linux for everything except for games now. Why? Because I'm in control of my computer, not MS.
I had Windows 2.01 on an old Amstrad 486, before one day it decided to delete itself. Not entirely sure why - I'm sure M$ would say its a "feature" or soemthing.
Time to start writing down the IP addresses of those sites you depend on! Otherwise you'll not be able to use the internet in a month's time.
Or you could just put it all down to EU and UN FUDdery (sp?), and keep using the internet as usual.
Hell, a collapse of the DNS system would be a boost for OSS - we could restructure the internet in our image, because at the end of the day its us "enthusiasts" with the knowledge to get it done quickly. As long as routing wasn't affected.
I don't fear the regulation of information on the internet, because I have seen enough examples of private networks stretching across tens of city blocks to know that if such things occurred, a free, unofficial internet would continue to exist in its place, even though it would have reduced functionality (international links could be difficult, I would imagine).
It amazes me the amount of time people are willing to spend on a collection of puns just to get mod points, when they could be writing things more meaningful.
Oh yeah, I forgot, Funny is the easiest way to get mod points. Doesn't that just say something about the mods? I can't be the only one to have noticed a decline in the quality of modding, where worthy comments are left at "1" because some lame joke that has already been done in the same thread 15 times got modded up.
I mean, yeah, its funny, but those mod points could have been put to better use...
So I guess I'll be getting a "-1, Troll" for this...
Just goes to show nobody reads real news on real paper... I read about this 3 weeks ago as a footnote in the Business section of The Independant (a UK paper).
Slashdot Mirror
The funny thing is, I see people complain about these all of the time, but I don't get any of them. I don't respond to pings, my SSH is on a non-standard port, and I allow public-key authentication only.
Over the past couple of days however, I have been watching my firewall logs, and 99.8% of dropped packets are from the Middle East or Asia. Out of those they seem to be split 10/90 - 10% are spam that take advantage of the messenger service in Windows, and the other 90% are worms targeting exploits found in Microsoft products, most of them being NetBIOS and MS SQL Server.
Of course, the messenger service and NetBIOS are 'features', and nobody in their right minds runs an unpatched MS SQL server, right? Well, my firewall says there are a lot of people not in their right minds about.
... this one? http://www.frsirt.com/exploits/20051121.IEWindow0d ay.php
Nice to see Slashdot on the ball. I was reading this yesterday, not last week!
There are 3 kinds of people still using Windows:
- Those who don't know about the alternatives (its not their fault...)
- Those who have tried alternatives, but still 'prefer' Windows
- Those who have tried alternatives, found them to be better, but are stuck in Windows because of the lock-in generated by MS putting their weight behind their proprietary formats, and breaking compatibility with others
Of course, group 1 is largely Microsoft's fault too, when you realise they use their leverage to get Windows installed on 100% of PCs that are sold. And while the government may (probably not, but you never know) want to be able to help EVERYONE, the people managing the projects are almost always oblivious to the fact that some computers don't run Windows.Well, my train of thought got slightly de-railed there, not surprising, I'm a little ill at the moment. Hopefully people get the point I am trying to make...
I do all the time. Its called POP3 access via Thunderbird, using the Enigmail extension - I can read stuff sent to me, nobody else can. End of problem. If someone is sending it to me unencrypted, then it wasn't that important.
Yay, another generation of Linux gamers getting shafted! When MS makes OpenGL on their OS suck, game developers will stop using OpenGl. And anyone who has played games on Linux will know, anything that will run natively is generally OpenGL.
Of course, I'm not at all surprised about MS pulling a stunt like that - it was inevitable, taking into account their usual business practices. If the standard makes theirs look inferior, break it. And lets face it, there are a LOT of people who won't migrate to Linux because they want to play games.
And before anyone mentions Cedega - It looks like a lot of what they are doing, and what game producers will have to do to keep in line, will shaft WineX too. It really sucks that Microsoft are in a position to dictate to the world what to buy, and what to develop for. What needs to happen is for people to be educated. But thats just my opinion.
Disclaimer: I have been a Linux user for about 8 months now. Sometimes I come across things which I can only do under Windows, like a game I want to play. However one look at this, and memories of the hell of Windows that I have escaped, and I realise the disadvantages of using Windows outweigh the advantages. If I can't use their crap (for example games), I won't buy it. End of story.
Tab completion... 'nuff said.
Yay, the Internet hasn't fallen apart! Now we just need to fix all this invalid pseudo-HTML being thrown around!
I would have said the exact same thing if you hadn't, although probably not worded it quite as well. This has been my argument all along - a lot of the Windows userbase is only there because they don't know anything different. Schools use Windows, kids are taught Windows, kids grow up and use Windows, and then teach more kids Windows.
The point I make to a lot of people is this - you had to learn how to use Windows at some point. Unfortunately a lot of Windows usage is dumbed down, in my opinion. If people are taught Linux from day one, that is what they will know, and due the the extra complexities, they will have a better computer literacy too.
Of course people like Microsoft must see this, which is why they are quite happy to throw cheap licenses at schools - locking customers into your software at an early age, for life, has a much higher value!
I was lucky enough to have my brother become the perfect example of why it can work. He is your average annoying teenager - 15 years old, computing consists of MSN Messenger, and browsing the web for new Miniclip games, or whatever. I no longer have Windows running on any of my computers, so I turned him loose on my Gentoo laptop (running KDE). I look at it 3 hours later, and without asking me a single question or me offering any help, he has quite happily been doing what he wanted, and got his desktop, taskbar, etc. customized exactly how he wants them. That helped prove to me that the problem with Linux isn't that it is particularly any harder to learn at an early age, its just different. And lets face it, what most people hate more than anything else is change. A lot of people continue to use Windows because it is all they know.
Just my $12. Keep the change.
And there I was thinking the feds joined in some kind of fruit fight...
I think I need to get more sleep...
Thats a relief. The first thing I worried about when seeing this "One laptop per child" was "Oh great, another avenue for MS to spoon-feed Windows into another generation. While computer usage is becoming more prolific, computer literacy is being kept in the stone age by a lack of education about the alternatives. The majority of people I meet can't understand the concept of Windows not being the ONLY thing they can run on thier computers.
My argument always is, people have to learn to use Windows at some point. Why is it so hard for people to learn Linux sometimes? Because its different to what they know. If all schools used Linux instead of Windows, and employed a competent IT technician, you would have an entire generation of ultra-computer-literate kids.
Part of me thinks that MS can already see this, which is why they literally THROW licenses at OEMs and educational establishments. People having a chance to be educated about the alternatives translates into lower sales for Microsoft.
Just my £0.02
How many bugs do you think are outstanding in Microsoft's Office code base?
They're not bugs, they're features!
... run an operating system they haven't written their crapware for? Where their crapware won't work? Or does that mean that non-Windows users just aren't allowed to listen to music on their computers?
When I question the morality of music piracy, crap like this makes me say "fuck the labels".
I found the information on the linked FAQ very useful, just downloaded Grisbi, and now I can finally say I have an easy-to-use replacement for MS Money (not saying MS Money was easy to use, but it was usable). It was to the point where I couldn't be bothered to boot into Windows just for accounting, and emulation didn't really cut it, so i wasn't bothering to keep track of my accounts at all!
Thanks 'Noksagt'!
What
the
fuck?
25.99 for a cd, and having 23.99 go to a label, .50 to a another schmuck, and then .50 to the musician.
So, dare I ask where the other 1.00 goes??
I never said command lines were unusable - I have 3 computers that don't even have a GUI installed. I prefer command lines for most things. However, when it comes to the uses some people put things like vi(m) to, its just plain jumping through hoops trying to get anything done.
But then again, its all a matter of opinion. I've tried vi, vim, emacs, etc, and my opinion is that I prefer to spend a higher percentage of my time working within the interface, not with the interface. But if it truly works for you, good.
And your generalisation about 'GUI people' is as bad as mine about 'vim users'. Yeah, so what, I like to use something with a graphical interface. It doesn't have to be pretty or bloated though. Just easy to use. Intuitive. Where is the intuition in using 'vi' ? Lets face it, vi(m) will always remain a small percentage, because the interface yells "RTFM" at people who just want to get one with some plain ol' text editing. Although I don't deny its power, there are much easier ways of doing the same thing.
Now to wait for a vi-weilding moderator to come mod this as Troll...
Even better, just download the Putty executable and put it on a USB drive. Then you can use it anywhere!
Sounds like a 'vim' user, shunning usable interfaces for hardcore elitism.
Not to mention what happens if you don't have a computer with a sshd running on it. This idea of a GUI mail client made completely portable is definitely a good thing for the average user.
All well and good, until the US government yet again exercises their right to obtain any information held on US servers, then you might think twice about using the services if you value your privacy...
What would be good is some kind of encryption integrated into such services, so that nobody can obtain any useful information of yours from the server, however I can't see that happening as Google would get legal flak for 'obstruction of "justice"'. Remember, if you value privacy, you're a terrorist!
Not to mention, where the hell does the energy to recharge these batteries come from? Yeah, solar power if you live in the desert with a few square miles of land, but what do you do in a smog-filled city, in a 2nd-floor apartment? It still comes back to burning fossil fuels to get the energy.
Plus of course, once it has gone through all the transfers from fossil fuel to battery charge, its more efficient to burn the damn stuff yourself!
Very good point - compact cars have become very compact, and the safest cars on the road are still the heavier ones.
However, grandparent is a good example of putting blame on the companies. At the end of the day, there is no substitute for just watching what the fuck you are doing when driving. Lets face it, the majority of road accidents are due to people not paying attention, or misjudging the conditions ("What you mean I won't stop in time doing 80mph in the rain?").
Someone find some more mod points for this guy!
I find myself agreeing totally - however extreme in your anti-MS stance, this is exactly what its about - restoring competition. MS have gotten way too used to the fact they can do what they want, and everyone else has to fall in line because they are all locked into their software by games developers, hardware vendors, and pretty much everything else.
No matter what the industry, a monopoly is a Bad Thing(tm). It stifles innovation - Just look at their latest offering. Vista is the same old rehashed crap, with a resource whore of a GUI grafted onto it. Remove that monopoly, and big companies are forced to do something actually worth buying to stay in the market.
For the record, I have never paid anything towards MS more than the part of my laptop sale they got for the OEM copy of Windows XP on it. My philosophy - you back me into a corner where I HAVE to use your crap for compatibility, hell's gonna freeze over before I pay for it! No company has the right to force people to part with money - they should be selling on the merits of their software, not the lock-in of their customers. I use Linux for everything except for games now. Why? Because I'm in control of my computer, not MS.
I had Windows 2.01 on an old Amstrad 486, before one day it decided to delete itself. Not entirely sure why - I'm sure M$ would say its a "feature" or soemthing.
Time to start writing down the IP addresses of those sites you depend on! Otherwise you'll not be able to use the internet in a month's time.
Or you could just put it all down to EU and UN FUDdery (sp?), and keep using the internet as usual.
Hell, a collapse of the DNS system would be a boost for OSS - we could restructure the internet in our image, because at the end of the day its us "enthusiasts" with the knowledge to get it done quickly. As long as routing wasn't affected.
I don't fear the regulation of information on the internet, because I have seen enough examples of private networks stretching across tens of city blocks to know that if such things occurred, a free, unofficial internet would continue to exist in its place, even though it would have reduced functionality (international links could be difficult, I would imagine).
It amazes me the amount of time people are willing to spend on a collection of puns just to get mod points, when they could be writing things more meaningful.
Oh yeah, I forgot, Funny is the easiest way to get mod points. Doesn't that just say something about the mods? I can't be the only one to have noticed a decline in the quality of modding, where worthy comments are left at "1" because some lame joke that has already been done in the same thread 15 times got modded up.
I mean, yeah, its funny, but those mod points could have been put to better use...
So I guess I'll be getting a "-1, Troll" for this...
Just goes to show nobody reads real news on real paper... I read about this 3 weeks ago as a footnote in the Business section of The Independant (a UK paper).
l e313023.ece
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/artic