Oh? Try buying a prebuilt computer without Windows. They are hard to get, if they even exist (Macs excluded).
and the two run flavors of Linux.
Let me ask you: Did you pay for Windows when you bought them? If it was preloaded, then you paid for Windows.
They have only gone after Microsoft for being a "monopoly", which Microsoft clearly isn't
Microsoft may not be a monopoly in the strictest sense, which means that they have a 100% market share on desktop operating systems and office software. But in practice they do, and legally they do. There is something called "Monopoly power". Hell, I heard Standard Oil was broken up because they unfairly used their monopoly powers, and they only had around 65% market share. Microsoft has more than 90% market share in the desktop operating system market and in the office and productivity application market. Does that not constitute enough of a monopoly to you?
There is another comparison that I like to do: In elections, people as well as international election observers get suspicious about election fraud when some single party or presidential candidate get more than about 80% of the votes. Why? Because people are different. But the very same people does not seem to think there's anything strange that more than 95% of desktop PC users think that Windows is the best operating system.
Look at the cellular phone market. The market leader, Nokia has around 35% of the market. If people's tastes were so similar, why is Nokia's market share not larger than around 35%? Because people are different, with different needs and different tastes. So if Microsoft is not a monopoly, why don't we see a larger diversity in the desktop PC operating system market? People are different, yet they all seem to accept the MS one-size-fits-all solution. Why? Because there are no alternatives when you try to buy a computer without having to assemble it yourself.
Since Microsoft is an american company, did it strike you that the EU may not be in the position to order a break-up? They could do the next best thing though, which is to take a sizeable part of their profits. Or why not take all profits Microsoft earns in Europe? I mean, if they won't comply with EU regulations, why allow them to make a profit in Europe at all?
I'm really all for the whole uncensored and unregulated internet.
I agree. With each such idea brought up by american politicians, the idea of the US as the "land of the free" looks more and more hollow. But then I'm in Europe, so americans might view me as biased.:)
We finally figured out that he thought that an internet/network connection was a one-way connection. ie, a request goes out and then the response comes back on another connection. I didn't even bother to ask why/how he could think that his browser worked....
That very much reminds me of a neighbour I had a few years ago. The neighbourhood was considering an upgrade of the cable tv system to support two-way communications, and one afternoon we had a Q&A session for the not so computer literate neighbours. I and this neighbour, who was even a computer consultant, were answering questions about broadband in general and this solution in particular. When asked why we needed this upgrade, the computer consultant said that "While one-way communications are sufficient for receiving data, such as browsing the web, two-way communications is needed when you also want to send data, like sending email."
And he was supposed to know anything about computers and networks.:)
From what I've heard, Linux support for built-in wireless chipsets can be fairly weak, but none of these laptops have wireless. Cardbus works fine though.
If you buy a laptop with of the Intel Centrino brand, i.e. one with an intel wireless chip built-in, you'll be fine. The driver was provided by Intel itself, and is included in the kernel tree. You might have to download the firmware though.
your use of the phrase "power plant" implies using combustion to generate heat, which is then used to expand a gas to drive a piston to move a linkage etc
Actually, power plants don't have to use piston engines. Electricity-generating fixed power plants usually use steam turbines instead of piston engines to turn the generator, and gas turbines are used some vehicles, although not common in cars.
...Microsoft urges UK PC vendors to not sell PC's without an OS, since this is a missed opportunity to market their software and services. They also claim that so called naked PCs are often used to install pirated copies of Microsoft software.
Note that they do not specifically mention that this OS is Windows, but I think it is implied between the lines. It is also common knowledge that BSA counts systems sold without a commercial OS as using a pirated OS, which means that computers running Linux or other F/OSS OS'es are included in their piracy statistics.
It isn't, but many of the necessary packages are shipped with FC5. If you want to try using AIGLX, you can install a separate X server with AIGLX support without touching your primary X server. More information can be found here:
You are partially correct. ActiveX is not cross-platform, but the three top statements in the function all do the same thing, in different browsers. The top two statements are for different versions of Internet Explorer, and the third one is for all AJAX-compatible non-Microsoft browsers (Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc). In other words, they are mutually exclusive.
Kinda like Linux. Personally, the 2 or 3 extra hours I might spend fussing with Linux is still worth the $300 saved on a Windows license.
Now, somebody will probably say that configuring Linux takes a lot more than three hours unless you are experienced. But then I would claim that Windows could take quite some time to configure correctly, not to mention periodic reboots to clear bogus file locks, where Windows claims that a file is locked even if I haven't used it.
Really? Mostly theoretical and only some tiny strands made, as far as I've heard.
I remember I read in news article a while ago that somebody had woven a piece of cloth from nanotube fibers spun to threads. This piece of cloth had allegedly been about one meter long and about 10 centimeters wide.
Essentially, you spin down earth to spin up the cable. Offcourse you'd need to send up a significant portion of the mass of earth to have a significant effect. And the moment you start sending stuff down equally much as up the effect cancels out.
Not only that, remember that the Earth's rotation is slowing down very gently because of tidal forces. I guess that the slowdown caused by the proposed elevator would be really small compared to this effect, that in itself is also really small.
Slashdot Mirror
Except that Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly.
Oh? Try buying a prebuilt computer without Windows. They are hard to get, if they even exist (Macs excluded).
and the two run flavors of Linux.
Let me ask you: Did you pay for Windows when you bought them? If it was preloaded, then you paid for Windows.
They have only gone after Microsoft for being a "monopoly", which Microsoft clearly isn't
Microsoft may not be a monopoly in the strictest sense, which means that they have a 100% market share on desktop operating systems and office software. But in practice they do, and legally they do. There is something called "Monopoly power". Hell, I heard Standard Oil was broken up because they unfairly used their monopoly powers, and they only had around 65% market share. Microsoft has more than 90% market share in the desktop operating system market and in the office and productivity application market. Does that not constitute enough of a monopoly to you?
There is another comparison that I like to do: In elections, people as well as international election observers get suspicious about election fraud when some single party or presidential candidate get more than about 80% of the votes. Why? Because people are different. But the very same people does not seem to think there's anything strange that more than 95% of desktop PC users think that Windows is the best operating system.
Look at the cellular phone market. The market leader, Nokia has around 35% of the market. If people's tastes were so similar, why is Nokia's market share not larger than around 35%? Because people are different, with different needs and different tastes. So if Microsoft is not a monopoly, why don't we see a larger diversity in the desktop PC operating system market? People are different, yet they all seem to accept the MS one-size-fits-all solution. Why? Because there are no alternatives when you try to buy a computer without having to assemble it yourself.
Break them up, or stop crying.
Since Microsoft is an american company, did it strike you that the EU may not be in the position to order a break-up? They could do the next best thing though, which is to take a sizeable part of their profits. Or why not take all profits Microsoft earns in Europe? I mean, if they won't comply with EU regulations, why allow them to make a profit in Europe at all?
I'm really all for the whole uncensored and unregulated internet.
I agree. With each such idea brought up by american politicians, the idea of the US as the "land of the free" looks more and more hollow. But then I'm in Europe, so americans might view me as biased. :)
We finally figured out that he thought that an internet/network connection was a one-way connection. ie, a request goes out and then the response comes back on another connection. I didn't even bother to ask why/how he could think that his browser worked....
That very much reminds me of a neighbour I had a few years ago. The neighbourhood was considering an upgrade of the cable tv system to support two-way communications, and one afternoon we had a Q&A session for the not so computer literate neighbours. I and this neighbour, who was even a computer consultant, were answering questions about broadband in general and this solution in particular. When asked why we needed this upgrade, the computer consultant said that "While one-way communications are sufficient for receiving data, such as browsing the web, two-way communications is needed when you also want to send data, like sending email."
And he was supposed to know anything about computers and networks. :)
From what I've heard, Linux support for built-in wireless chipsets can be fairly weak, but none of these laptops have wireless. Cardbus works fine though.
If you buy a laptop with of the Intel Centrino brand, i.e. one with an intel wireless chip built-in, you'll be fine. The driver was provided by Intel itself, and is included in the kernel tree. You might have to download the firmware though.
your use of the phrase "power plant" implies using combustion to generate heat, which is then used to expand a gas to drive a piston to move a linkage etc
Actually, power plants don't have to use piston engines. Electricity-generating fixed power plants usually use steam turbines instead of piston engines to turn the generator, and gas turbines are used some vehicles, although not common in cars.
Otherwise I agree with your post.
I'm just waiting for someone to create the hardware that will supercede CD's and DVD's altogether... leapfrog this whole BR-HD-DVD argument.
You might be interested in this:
Holographic Versatile Disc...Microsoft urges UK PC vendors to not sell PC's without an OS, since this is a missed opportunity to market their software and services. They also claim that so called naked PCs are often used to install pirated copies of Microsoft software.
Note that they do not specifically mention that this OS is Windows, but I think it is implied between the lines. It is also common knowledge that BSA counts systems sold without a commercial OS as using a pirated OS, which means that computers running Linux or other F/OSS OS'es are included in their piracy statistics.
assuming AIGLX is present in FC5
It isn't, but many of the necessary packages are shipped with FC5. If you want to try using AIGLX, you can install a separate X server with AIGLX support without touching your primary X server. More information can be found here:
Fedora Rendering Project WikiFedora Rendering Project Wiki (AIGLX Page)
How to install AIGLX on Fedora Core
You are partially correct. ActiveX is not cross-platform, but the three top statements in the function all do the same thing, in different browsers. The top two statements are for different versions of Internet Explorer, and the third one is for all AJAX-compatible non-Microsoft browsers (Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc). In other words, they are mutually exclusive.
I don't know what internal tech McDonalds uses, and don't care.
IIRC, I think they use SCO Unix
You'd think people would learn after windows crashes 8 times in a week...
But then they'll think that this is the baseline, and that free programs must be even worse.
Kinda like Linux. Personally, the 2 or 3 extra hours I might spend fussing with Linux is still worth the $300 saved on a Windows license.
Now, somebody will probably say that configuring Linux takes a lot more than three hours unless you are experienced. But then I would claim that Windows could take quite some time to configure correctly, not to mention periodic reboots to clear bogus file locks, where Windows claims that a file is locked even if I haven't used it.Really? Mostly theoretical and only some tiny strands made, as far as I've heard.
I remember I read in news article a while ago that somebody had woven a piece of cloth from nanotube fibers spun to threads. This piece of cloth had allegedly been about one meter long and about 10 centimeters wide.
Essentially, you spin down earth to spin up the cable. Offcourse you'd need to send up a significant portion of the mass of earth to have a significant effect. And the moment you start sending stuff down equally much as up the effect cancels out. Not only that, remember that the Earth's rotation is slowing down very gently because of tidal forces. I guess that the slowdown caused by the proposed elevator would be really small compared to this effect, that in itself is also really small.
That actually sounds like something a marketing m$-fanboy would say! With those links?