Really? GNU/Linux? How do we know it's not really Ruby/Apache/X.org/KDE/GNU/Linux? The article just says "Linux environment." It could very well be BSD/Linux instead of GNU/Linux.
But I digress. HP generally uses Red Hat Linux. To be semantically correct the summary should have read "Postal Service moves to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on HP Hardware"
You can get the latest release of NetBSD for Alpha at netbsd.org. What's great about netbsd is that the source can be used to compile for any architecture that supported from any other architecture. As for Debian, you can get that from the Debian website.
Personally, for really old hardware I prefer NetBSD. I used to have an old Sparcstation IPC, those old lunchbox-style computers. NetBSD ran great on it.
Why on earth would you hack it to run linux, this thing (assuming it existed) would most likely run OS X... So you take off a perfectly good unix with drivers for all the bits of the hardware, and lots of application support, and replace it with a one-size-fits all OS that doesn't do the half of it... Why?
What you fail to see is that at some point, this thing (if it exists) will no longer be supported by Apple. But once Linux and other free unix-like OSes get ported it will be supported practically forever. Take a look at the Old World Macs (and even some of the New World Macs). If you want modern software to run on those things, your only practical option is to run a free unix-like system.
Are you out of your mind? The point other commenters are making is that a non-trivial number of folks, with an emphasis on schools and other educational institutions, have old hardware that runs Mac OS 9.
Name me one school that still uses old Macs, especially ones in Mexico where the price disparity between a Mac and non-Mac computer is amplified.
It might be that, in some abstract, general sense, Linux or BSD is more usable and stable than OS 9 (although I disagree), but the question is what's more usable on the hardware available to these folks.
Can't really argue against someone who doesn't believe in facts. For example, Mac OS 9 did not have memory protection or preemptive multitasking. It crashed a lot. I know from experience.
As somebody who spent too much time in college (computer science program, university known for computer science) trying to get linux to run on apple hardware of this era, I can assure you that getting other OSes to work is nigh-impossible,
Then you obviously suck at installing free unixes on these machines. Any Mac with Openfirmware can have a free unix installed. It is trivial to install with new world Mac machines. There are some quirks with old world Macs. And that's about the range of hardware that Mac OS 9 will run on anyway.
and that few, if any, of the institutions that are *still* using this hardware could realistically take that option. So this is great for those users.
Again, name me one school that still uses old Mac hardware to any significant degree.
but I'd rather see a competition that takes regular cars and modifies them to get the most gas mileage. The problem with these uber gas-mileage vehicles is that they're street legal, have no safety equipment, and don't go very fast.
What do you mean they never developed a thing? There are very few ways to put an electric motor and a gasoline motor together in a car to make it work. Ford did not license Toyota's hybrid synergy drive. Ford licensed about 20 of Toyota's patents when the Ford developers noticed the similarities. There are hundreds of other patents that went into the Ford Fusion that have nothing else to do with Toyota's hybrid synergy drive.
On the highway, aerodynamics do play a part. However, I think the engines and their management play a greater role. The Prius uses Atkinson-ized cam timings. That means greater efficiency at the cost of power. Honda, on the other hand, also uses lean-burn and somehow got around the resulting higher NOx production too. And, of course, there's the electric drive which can capture, store, and release kinetic energy in the city.
Ironic or just a coincidence? Rain on your wedding day and a free ride when you've already paid are, despite popular demand, are still just coincidences.
This is a bug in the Slashcode, I think. Try this: Make an HTML post in which you use italics. Then view that same post in your profile. The italics will have been replaced by quotes. Hopefully this high-visibility example will cause this to be fixed.
Now you know why magazines such as OK!, US Weekly, etc. are so annoyingly popular among the masses. Most people are voyeurs; they just don't want to admit it.
He is associated more strongly with Apple than perhaps any CEO is associated with any large company in America.
Not quite. Throughout history there have been CEOs who've been very strongly associated with their companies. Here's a short, non-exhaustive list (in no particular order):
Bill Gates - Microsoft Warren Buffet - Berkshire Hathaway Jack Welch - General Electric Larry Ellison - Oracle Andy Grove - Intel Michael Bloomberg - Bloomberg Charles Schwabb - Charles Schwabb J.P. Morgan - J.P. Morgan and Co. John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil
I was with Apple through the late 90's. Yes, that was an era of leaks -- but more often than not, they came from up top, not from the folks down in the trenches.
What was the difference? If I or a colleague said anything, it was a leak, and we'd be fried. But if someone on top said something, well, that was strategic.
That's a somewhat interesting question. The fact is is that people know new things are coming out from Apple. Yet they buy the "old" stuff and then bitch and moan when the "new" stuff comes out!
It's helpful for everyone but Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Seriously, when you get a case brought upon you by the RIAA, you'd rather win and get on with your life rather than have to pay those bastards $1.9 million in installments until you die.
Slashdot Mirror
here
Really? GNU/Linux? How do we know it's not really Ruby/Apache/X.org/KDE/GNU/Linux? The article just says "Linux environment." It could very well be BSD/Linux instead of GNU/Linux.
But I digress. HP generally uses Red Hat Linux. To be semantically correct the summary should have read "Postal Service moves to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on HP Hardware"
You can get the latest release of NetBSD for Alpha at netbsd.org. What's great about netbsd is that the source can be used to compile for any architecture that supported from any other architecture. As for Debian, you can get that from the Debian website.
Personally, for really old hardware I prefer NetBSD. I used to have an old Sparcstation IPC, those old lunchbox-style computers. NetBSD ran great on it.
For free unix-like systems, Debian and NetBSD come to mind.
Why on earth would you hack it to run linux, this thing (assuming it existed) would most likely run OS X... So you take off a perfectly good unix with drivers for all the bits of the hardware, and lots of application support, and replace it with a one-size-fits all OS that doesn't do the half of it... Why?
What you fail to see is that at some point, this thing (if it exists) will no longer be supported by Apple. But once Linux and other free unix-like OSes get ported it will be supported practically forever. Take a look at the Old World Macs (and even some of the New World Macs). If you want modern software to run on those things, your only practical option is to run a free unix-like system.
Are you out of your mind? The point other commenters are making is that a non-trivial number of folks, with an emphasis on schools and other educational institutions, have old hardware that runs Mac OS 9.
Name me one school that still uses old Macs, especially ones in Mexico where the price disparity between a Mac and non-Mac computer is amplified.
It might be that, in some abstract, general sense, Linux or BSD is more usable and stable than OS 9 (although I disagree), but the question is what's more usable on the hardware available to these folks.
Can't really argue against someone who doesn't believe in facts. For example, Mac OS 9 did not have memory protection or preemptive multitasking. It crashed a lot. I know from experience.
As somebody who spent too much time in college (computer science program, university known for computer science) trying to get linux to run on apple hardware of this era, I can assure you that getting other OSes to work is nigh-impossible,
Then you obviously suck at installing free unixes on these machines. Any Mac with Openfirmware can have a free unix installed. It is trivial to install with new world Mac machines. There are some quirks with old world Macs. And that's about the range of hardware that Mac OS 9 will run on anyway.
and that few, if any, of the institutions that are *still* using this hardware could realistically take that option. So this is great for those users.
Again, name me one school that still uses old Mac hardware to any significant degree.
Or just put one of the Linux or BSD distributions on there. They're certainly more usable and more stable than Mac OS 9 ever was.
There's always hardware emulation to run OS9
Hmmm, that should say "they're not street legal"
but I'd rather see a competition that takes regular cars and modifies them to get the most gas mileage. The problem with these uber gas-mileage vehicles is that they're street legal, have no safety equipment, and don't go very fast.
What do you mean they never developed a thing? There are very few ways to put an electric motor and a gasoline motor together in a car to make it work. Ford did not license Toyota's hybrid synergy drive. Ford licensed about 20 of Toyota's patents when the Ford developers noticed the similarities. There are hundreds of other patents that went into the Ford Fusion that have nothing else to do with Toyota's hybrid synergy drive.
On the highway, aerodynamics do play a part. However, I think the engines and their management play a greater role. The Prius uses Atkinson-ized cam timings. That means greater efficiency at the cost of power. Honda, on the other hand, also uses lean-burn and somehow got around the resulting higher NOx production too. And, of course, there's the electric drive which can capture, store, and release kinetic energy in the city.
Ironic or just a coincidence? Rain on your wedding day and a free ride when you've already paid are, despite popular demand, are still just coincidences.
This is a bug in the Slashcode, I think. Try this: Make an HTML post in which you use italics. Then view that same post in your profile. The italics will have been replaced by quotes. Hopefully this high-visibility example will cause this to be fixed.
Hopefully? This is Slashdot afterall...
I prefer to read the html code and interpret them myself...
I thought the 3 groups of people were: those who can count and those who can't count.
Now you know why magazines such as OK!, US Weekly, etc. are so annoyingly popular among the masses. Most people are voyeurs; they just don't want to admit it.
He is associated more strongly with Apple than perhaps any CEO is associated with any large company in America.
Not quite. Throughout history there have been CEOs who've been very strongly associated with their companies. Here's a short, non-exhaustive list (in no particular order):
Bill Gates - Microsoft
Warren Buffet - Berkshire Hathaway
Jack Welch - General Electric
Larry Ellison - Oracle
Andy Grove - Intel
Michael Bloomberg - Bloomberg
Charles Schwabb - Charles Schwabb
J.P. Morgan - J.P. Morgan and Co.
John D. Rockefeller - Standard Oil
I was with Apple through the late 90's. Yes, that was an era of leaks -- but more often than not, they came from up top, not from the folks down in the trenches.
What was the difference? If I or a colleague said anything, it was a leak, and we'd be fried. But if someone on top said something, well, that was strategic.
See the difference?
At least you got to keep your job!
That's a somewhat interesting question. The fact is is that people know new things are coming out from Apple. Yet they buy the "old" stuff and then bitch and moan when the "new" stuff comes out!
Or using those lights to grow pot. Hmmm... he's funding terrorism!
The Jammie Thomas-Rasset case is being pretty helpful.
It's helpful for everyone but Jammie Thomas-Rasset. Seriously, when you get a case brought upon you by the RIAA, you'd rather win and get on with your life rather than have to pay those bastards $1.9 million in installments until you die.
Well, at least we don't have surveillance cameras at every corner...
I'd rather use PS3s. You lose a lot less money buying PS3s and selling them than buying gold from these outlets.
Also we use bacteria and viruses to do our bidding. "Nanotech" is just another buzz word to get people hyped up.