I'm not surprised by this conclusion. Think about it for a minute; the.Net system was only ever truly designed to run on Windows which means the run-time's roots can go deep into the inner workings of the OS - kernel-level HTTP servicing for instance (a win2003 feature I recall).
In fact, so tightly integrated are.NET and Windows Server 2003 that I believe Microsoft were going to call it Windows Server 2003.NET at one point until they dropped the idea and opted for plain "Windows Server 2003" instead.
That by design would give the extra performance gain, but of course lose flexibility too - something the article didn't explore much.
Essentially this is just another "flexibility vs. performance" argument here.
Excellent. Thanks for your feedback; most appreciated! I'm sticking with Linux - it's the geeky toys that do it for me so far; there's so many that Windows doesn't have!
Well folks, i've been meaning to write this down anyway; here seem's like the perfect place.
Now, I am a 100% Win fan. I love it; things just work. But, I have made the switch to Linux (Fedora Core 5) at home, seeing as it does 99% of what I want. After a couple of months of constant, un-interupted use, my biggest issues with Linux are broadly thus:
1. No fecking media support! I get XMMS inform me on first attempt at playing an MP3 that it won't because of licensing conflict. Wtf? Codecs for avi's and DVDs were a simular story; all had to be downloaded via yum (bloody excellent tool!). Seriously; not good, but fixed in the end.
2. Why the hell do I have to install a new kernel? Why? I've never had to on Windows - why is Linux different? Is it so buggy? I installed with a factory version something ending 054. Now I have something ending 122 I believe. I did it ok, but that's not the point I'm making; were there really 68 cock-ups so great in the kernel build from release-time until that now they had to re-release 68 times? I'm guessing probablly not, but still.
3. Point 2 also breaks my nvidia drivers. I don't want to re-compile new drivers everytime there's a new 'patch'. For the love of god, why?!
4. X-Windows. What a mess. Why do I have to tell it my x & y refresh rates for my monitor? Windows just 'knows'. Many more things here I feel that X-Windows should just 'know' - the number of buttons on my USB mouse for-instance. If Windows can do it, there's no reason why Linux can't. Also, X-Windows 'feels' slower than Windows. I'm sure there's good reasons for this, but I don't care; Windows is snappier.
5. Lack of decent file-browser. The best I've come across is Nautilus in a mode that resembles Windows Explorer. It'll do for now, but as far as I'm aware, offers no context-sensitive menus for applications (like the Winamp "Play in Winamp" right-click menu on folders.
Actually, I think that's largely it. In all, Linux has, and is continuing to be great fun to play with. So many cool tools - yum being one of them. I'll stick to Linux @ home; it can only get better, but I'd be interested to know what people think of the above points - any suggestions maybe? I want this to work after all...
Slashdotters, we should be pleased this shinny new Windows is coming to the masses. I have tried it already, and uninstalled it already - it being unusable as it is in a Virtual Machine.
My critique of Vista thus far is summarised as such: -Vista is furthers the very Microsoft-based philosophy that it knows how to run your machine better than you do - a good thing for average users; a bad thing for geeks. -Security has been improved & tightened (better firewall, more built-in protection); more or less a good thing for everyone, even if the more technical people may tweak this. -Improved kernel; a good thing for everyone too, but maybe once it's stable. -Very pretty graphics. Good for some people; irrelevant for people with slower machines, and damned frustrating for geeks.
Overall, the masses win in most cases and the geeks have very little to benefit from Vista.
The things that I noticed perhaps the most however, are the minor unsung improvements to how user-actions flow together just better; a bit like the small but noticeable improvements WinXP made over Win2k. For instance, the setup process - I must've made about 5 mouse clicks in total; the wizard is simultaneously even more slicker and patronising than ever - good for users, bad for geeks.
Anyway, I very much doubt I'll be upgrading myself as I can handle my own machine perfectly well on my own, but assuming Microsoft can pull it off, I say this is a positive thing for the majority of computer users that, frankly, want Microsoft to take as much care of their machines as possible. The more Windows can take care of a machine; the less irritating requests I'll get to "fix my bloody computer please!"
But frankly, I find some comments on this thread rather too anti-Microsoft to stay silent...
I run Fedora Core at home. Not Windows, but Linux. It's great. In the back of my mind though, it worries me however that my OS seems completely unbothered about any kind of self-protection for itself. Indeed, I have no (software) firewall, no AV-protection, no spyware protection - absolutely zip all!
My XP machine on the other hand is different. On factory install it whined like a bitch it didn't have AV protection, a known firewall, and all updates applied! Windows actually cares whether or not it's protected; Linux does not - with maybe the exception of system-updates.
Now, I can already hear the Linux zealots copying & pasting their favourite template replies for this subject...."yes but Windows has so many more holes, this & that.....etc". Remember folks, Windows is by far a more popular platform out there. Yes, in the past certainly its security record has been lax, but that's quickly improving; UAC in Vista is yet another improvement - the last truly lacking design feature in Windows that makes it inferior to Linux on a security-level.
Windows has had to be paranoid to survive, and the result is an increasingly hardened system that actually gives a shit whether the user is protecting it - which for 99% of ordinary users is exactly what they need.
I'm lucky enough to know how to look after my machine, so I'll stick with Linux. Others don't, so they shouldn't.
This OneCare is yet another step in the right direction in my opinion. Maybe Windows is a more 'dangerous' system to run (I personally don't believe so), but just lately, it's not been because of its design - only popularity.
But anyway, what am I saying. On Slashdot, Microsoft are between a rock and a hard place - too much and it's anti-competitive; too little, and it's poor design.
Actually, my point was basically that it's important, for beginners especially, that any silly errors that you make while writing, be reported ASAP by the IDE - for which the vast majority of IDE's do as a basic level of functionality anyway. This prevents unnecessary confusion later on.
When I was learning OO/Java at uni, I noticed that most of my learner comrades, and indeed myself, would get caught out by trivial errors more than anything; missing semi-colons, etc. This would go un-noticed until running a javac, at which point I'd be looking at the biggest & dirtiest error-list since I decided to install Linux for the first time; just for one semi-colon!
Of course, being new software engineering, I'd then spend the next 10 minutes looking at this bloody console output to decipher what was going on - completely distracting me from what I was actually trying to achieve.
Now I'm a full-time software engineer and I use a good IDE, the trivial tasks are taken care of - I just have to focus on what's important; writing good software.
I use Ubuntu Linux on a casual basis. It's nice; 90% the apps I could want, works with 100% of my hardware; no real complaints there.
However, I believe I could sum up my feeling on this subject by outlining a common issue I run into...
A classic conversation could be something like (not reproduced exactly):
Me: "How do I get my back/forward mouse buttons to work in Firefox (like it does in Windows)?"
Friend: "Er, what distro are you running again?"
Me: "Ubuntu...whatever the latest is"
Friend: "Ah. I don't know that one too well...try editing the X-config files"
Me: "Ah, that big scary file that if you screw up renders the pretty GUI bit useless?"
Friend: "yep."
Me: "Well, never mind. I'll pass."
I mean, just give me the one control-panel for crying out loud?! As much as I appreciate the freedom that comes with linux, sometimes it's just not just not worth the hassle! Maybe I'm not l337 enough when it comes to Linux, but I happen to also like standardisation when it comes to some things; system configuration being one of them.
So there you go. Rantings of a Windows boy. Maybe one day I'll "make the switch", but not until I get my god-forsaken 5 mouse-buttons working without manually having to edit random config-files.
Apart from that, it's all dandy! Thanks for listening.
Mr Pauljoyce, firstly, it's probably not the best idea to ask/.ers which is their favourite windows apps - it's probably on par with asking a bunch of right-wing Christians what their favourite party drugs are.
Anyway, and now to answer your question...Favourite apps for Windows have to be MS-Office for productivity, Visual Studio 2005 for development (yes, ok, I'm a Microsoft Certified Whore(tm) but I love it), but more than these....
There's a tonne of games which will only run under Windows, and are not available on the consoles! Take WoW for instance; absolutely brilliant game, and PC only I believe. C&C Generals is another classic game. There's loads! Obviously, if you're not into your gaming, then I too would suggest you're not going to miss much by not using Windows.
Hopefully, this is a little more constructive than the "use linux LOL!!1" posts I've seen by some. Each platform has got pro's and cons over the next; Windows, in my humble opinion is great for Games and development. Get involved, and welcome!
I've actually found this tool very usefull for starting out when designing webpages too.
It produces perfect cross-browser compatible seperation of CSS/HTML; no tables for one thing, and there's a whole bunch of template layouts to get started with (2 column. The rest just involves saving the source, tweaking the CSS to your own look & feel and adding content! Granted, the layouts are never exactly what you're looking for, but still, it's a good starting point.
Windows has to run on 90% of machines on the planet earth, and with literally millions and millions of hardware combinations - completely flawlessly (which rarely happens to be fair, but it's the thought which counts).
Couple this with the Windows philosophy that stuff 'just works' like new devices, software, and backwards compatibility, and you'll see why Windows development cycles are slow.
That's not to say Linux doesn't go some distance towards this 'it just works' holy grail, but I can summarise by saying didn't have to compile my Windows NVIDIA drivers like I did my Linux NVIDIA drivers (yes, I know you can download pre-built modules but sometimes they just don't play ball).
Why on earth would you use a generic versioning system over something like SharePoint?
SharePoint's designed for document collaboration specifically; it's got some nice features to that effect. Sure it's Microsoft, but, I have to say I think they've nipped this one in the bud this time.
I don't think anyone argues that OO isn't a bad Office suite. It's got 90% of the features that 90% of people probablly use today. For the remain 10%, I'd suggest OO is sorely lacking; especially in the area of collaboration.
While, not many people collaborate much currently in thier office suites, that doesn't mean that won't change of course. How many people have spent any time looking into how SharePoint can increase team-working abilities for thier company? The modern office is becoming more disconnected, and increasing relying on technology to keep everyone in sync and operating as a whole unit.
Anyway, my main point is that as good as OO is; it doesn't have anywhere near the features and investment MSO has. In my experience, companies tend to disregard costs of investing in systems that will allow thier staff to work better and allow the company to grow better. Apart from the price, OO has no other real selling points over Microsoft Office.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not surprised by this conclusion. Think about it for a minute; the .Net system was only ever truly designed to run on Windows which means the run-time's roots can go deep into the inner workings of the OS - kernel-level HTTP servicing for instance (a win2003 feature I recall).
.NET and Windows Server 2003 that I believe Microsoft were going to call it Windows Server 2003.NET at one point until they dropped the idea and opted for plain "Windows Server 2003" instead.
In fact, so tightly integrated are
That by design would give the extra performance gain, but of course lose flexibility too - something the article didn't explore much.
Essentially this is just another "flexibility vs. performance" argument here.
Yes, thanks very much - most appreciated.
Thanks for your feedback; most appreciated! I'm sticking with Linux - it does rock after everything I mentioned!
Excellent. Thanks for your feedback; most appreciated! I'm sticking with Linux - it's the geeky toys that do it for me so far; there's so many that Windows doesn't have!
I might well try that. I've only heard good things about Ubuntu, not that Fedora 5 is particually bad either.
i media-Installation-HOWTO/
Incidently, this link was very usefull getting multimedia support in FC5 - http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Fedora-Mult
Cheers,
Sam
I'm not meaning to troll at all. It's geniune critism; which is more or less what this whole thread's about.
I'm even writing this from our wonderful Linux too, so I'm not being hypicritical either. I hope people see that.
Well folks, i've been meaning to write this down anyway; here seem's like the perfect place.
Now, I am a 100% Win fan. I love it; things just work. But, I have made the switch to Linux (Fedora Core 5) at home, seeing as it does 99% of what I want. After a couple of months of constant, un-interupted use, my biggest issues with Linux are broadly thus:
1. No fecking media support! I get XMMS inform me on first attempt at playing an MP3 that it won't because of licensing conflict. Wtf? Codecs for avi's and DVDs were a simular story; all had to be downloaded via yum (bloody excellent tool!). Seriously; not good, but fixed in the end.
2. Why the hell do I have to install a new kernel? Why? I've never had to on Windows - why is Linux different? Is it so buggy? I installed with a factory version something ending 054. Now I have something ending 122 I believe. I did it ok, but that's not the point I'm making; were there really 68 cock-ups so great in the kernel build from release-time until that now they had to re-release 68 times? I'm guessing probablly not, but still.
3. Point 2 also breaks my nvidia drivers. I don't want to re-compile new drivers everytime there's a new 'patch'. For the love of god, why?!
4. X-Windows. What a mess. Why do I have to tell it my x & y refresh rates for my monitor? Windows just 'knows'. Many more things here I feel that X-Windows should just 'know' - the number of buttons on my USB mouse for-instance. If Windows can do it, there's no reason why Linux can't. Also, X-Windows 'feels' slower than Windows. I'm sure there's good reasons for this, but I don't care; Windows is snappier.
5. Lack of decent file-browser. The best I've come across is Nautilus in a mode that resembles Windows Explorer. It'll do for now, but as far as I'm aware, offers no context-sensitive menus for applications (like the Winamp "Play in Winamp" right-click menu on folders.
Actually, I think that's largely it. In all, Linux has, and is continuing to be great fun to play with. So many cool tools - yum being one of them. I'll stick to Linux @ home; it can only get better, but I'd be interested to know what people think of the above points - any suggestions maybe? I want this to work after all...
-Sr. Samwel.
Slashdotters, we should be pleased this shinny new Windows is coming to the masses. I have tried it already, and uninstalled it already - it being unusable as it is in a Virtual Machine.
My critique of Vista thus far is summarised as such:
-Vista is furthers the very Microsoft-based philosophy that it knows how to run your machine better than you do - a good thing for average users; a bad thing for geeks.
-Security has been improved & tightened (better firewall, more built-in protection); more or less a good thing for everyone, even if the more technical people may tweak this.
-Improved kernel; a good thing for everyone too, but maybe once it's stable.
-Very pretty graphics. Good for some people; irrelevant for people with slower machines, and damned frustrating for geeks.
Overall, the masses win in most cases and the geeks have very little to benefit from Vista.
The things that I noticed perhaps the most however, are the minor unsung improvements to how user-actions flow together just better; a bit like the small but noticeable improvements WinXP made over Win2k. For instance, the setup process - I must've made about 5 mouse clicks in total; the wizard is simultaneously even more slicker and patronising than ever - good for users, bad for geeks.
Anyway, I very much doubt I'll be upgrading myself as I can handle my own machine perfectly well on my own, but assuming Microsoft can pull it off, I say this is a positive thing for the majority of computer users that, frankly, want Microsoft to take as much care of their machines as possible. The more Windows can take care of a machine; the less irritating requests I'll get to "fix my bloody computer please!"
I run RHL 8, and I have absolutely no uptime issues.
I mean really, I think you can go so
.
.
.
FATAL HTTP ERROR: [Connection to client lost]
But frankly, I find some comments on this thread rather too anti-Microsoft to stay silent...
I run Fedora Core at home. Not Windows, but Linux. It's great. In the back of my mind though, it worries me however that my OS seems completely unbothered about any kind of self-protection for itself. Indeed, I have no (software) firewall, no AV-protection, no spyware protection - absolutely zip all!
My XP machine on the other hand is different. On factory install it whined like a bitch it didn't have AV protection, a known firewall, and all updates applied!
Windows actually cares whether or not it's protected; Linux does not - with maybe the exception of system-updates.
Now, I can already hear the Linux zealots copying & pasting their favourite template replies for this subject...."yes but Windows has so many more holes, this & that.....etc".
Remember folks, Windows is by far a more popular platform out there. Yes, in the past certainly its security record has been lax, but that's quickly improving; UAC in Vista is yet another improvement - the last truly lacking design feature in Windows that makes it inferior to Linux on a security-level.
Windows has had to be paranoid to survive, and the result is an increasingly hardened system that actually gives a shit whether the user is protecting it - which for 99% of ordinary users is exactly what they need.
I'm lucky enough to know how to look after my machine, so I'll stick with Linux. Others don't, so they shouldn't.
This OneCare is yet another step in the right direction in my opinion. Maybe Windows is a more 'dangerous' system to run (I personally don't believe so), but just lately, it's not been because of its design - only popularity.
But anyway, what am I saying. On Slashdot, Microsoft are between a rock and a hard place - too much and it's anti-competitive; too little, and it's poor design.
Nothing to see here; move along please...
Actually, my point was basically that it's important, for beginners especially, that any silly errors that you make while writing, be reported ASAP by the IDE - for which the vast majority of IDE's do as a basic level of functionality anyway. This prevents unnecessary confusion later on.
When I was learning OO/Java at uni, I noticed that most of my learner comrades, and indeed myself, would get caught out by trivial errors more than anything; missing semi-colons, etc. This would go un-noticed until running a javac, at which point I'd be looking at the biggest & dirtiest error-list since I decided to install Linux for the first time; just for one semi-colon!
Of course, being new software engineering, I'd then spend the next 10 minutes looking at this bloody console output to decipher what was going on - completely distracting me from what I was actually trying to achieve.
Now I'm a full-time software engineer and I use a good IDE, the trivial tasks are taken care of - I just have to focus on what's important; writing good software.
Try using your hand and not your foot - it's way more productive, even if you are just 'following the crowd'. :)
I use Ubuntu Linux on a casual basis. It's nice; 90% the apps I could want, works with 100% of my hardware; no real complaints there.
However, I believe I could sum up my feeling on this subject by outlining a common issue I run into...
A classic conversation could be something like (not reproduced exactly):
Me: "How do I get my back/forward mouse buttons to work in Firefox (like it does in Windows)?"
Friend: "Er, what distro are you running again?"
Me: "Ubuntu...whatever the latest is"
Friend: "Ah. I don't know that one too well...try editing the X-config files"
Me: "Ah, that big scary file that if you screw up renders the pretty GUI bit useless?"
Friend: "yep."
Me: "Well, never mind. I'll pass."
I mean, just give me the one control-panel for crying out loud?! As much as I appreciate the freedom that comes with linux, sometimes it's just not just not worth the hassle! Maybe I'm not l337 enough when it comes to Linux, but I happen to also like standardisation when it comes to some things; system configuration being one of them.
So there you go. Rantings of a Windows boy. Maybe one day I'll "make the switch", but not until I get my god-forsaken 5 mouse-buttons working without manually having to edit random config-files.
Apart from that, it's all dandy! Thanks for listening.
http://www.big.co.ck/ is still available I believe; let the auctioning commence!
Mr Pauljoyce, firstly, it's probably not the best idea to ask /.ers which is their favourite windows apps - it's probably on par with asking a bunch of right-wing Christians what their favourite party drugs are.
Anyway, and now to answer your question...Favourite apps for Windows have to be MS-Office for productivity, Visual Studio 2005 for development (yes, ok, I'm a Microsoft Certified Whore(tm) but I love it), but more than these....
There's a tonne of games which will only run under Windows, and are not available on the consoles! Take WoW for instance; absolutely brilliant game, and PC only I believe. C&C Generals is another classic game. There's loads!
Obviously, if you're not into your gaming, then I too would suggest you're not going to miss much by not using Windows.
Hopefully, this is a little more constructive than the "use linux LOL!!1" posts I've seen by some. Each platform has got pro's and cons over the next; Windows, in my humble opinion is great for Games and development. Get involved, and welcome!
Never mind .eu, it's all about 'cock' domains!
For example - http://www.google.co.ck/
Hmmm. The Euro symbol doesn't seem to display on /.
A bug maybe?
Testing:
Well, there we have it ladies & gentlemen; a golden opportunity awaits!
I propose a challenge for you 1337 coders; the first person to hack Mr Gate's inbox gets 20 and all the h4x0r respect I can muster.
I'd suggest the truest random data source would currently be Microsoft product release dates.
What the shuddering fuck are you talking about?!
No really?! This is a local site for local people (geeks); we'll have no trouble here!
I've actually found this tool very usefull for starting out when designing webpages too.
It produces perfect cross-browser compatible seperation of CSS/HTML; no tables for one thing, and there's a whole bunch of template layouts to get started with (2 column. The rest just involves saving the source, tweaking the CSS to your own look & feel and adding content! Granted, the layouts are never exactly what you're looking for, but still, it's a good starting point.
Well done Google!
Windows has to run on 90% of machines on the planet earth, and with literally millions and millions of hardware combinations - completely flawlessly (which rarely happens to be fair, but it's the thought which counts).
Couple this with the Windows philosophy that stuff 'just works' like new devices, software, and backwards compatibility, and you'll see why Windows development cycles are slow.
That's not to say Linux doesn't go some distance towards this 'it just works' holy grail, but I can summarise by saying didn't have to compile my Windows NVIDIA drivers like I did my Linux NVIDIA drivers (yes, I know you can download pre-built modules but sometimes they just don't play ball).
Why on earth would you use a generic versioning system over something like SharePoint?
SharePoint's designed for document collaboration specifically; it's got some nice features to that effect. Sure it's Microsoft, but, I have to say I think they've nipped this one in the bud this time.
I don't think anyone argues that OO isn't a bad Office suite. It's got 90% of the features that 90% of people probablly use today. For the remain 10%, I'd suggest OO is sorely lacking; especially in the area of collaboration.
While, not many people collaborate much currently in thier office suites, that doesn't mean that won't change of course. How many people have spent any time looking into how SharePoint can increase team-working abilities for thier company? The modern office is becoming more disconnected, and increasing relying on technology to keep everyone in sync and operating as a whole unit.
Anyway, my main point is that as good as OO is; it doesn't have anywhere near the features and investment MSO has. In my experience, companies tend to disregard costs of investing in systems that will allow thier staff to work better and allow the company to grow better. Apart from the price, OO has no other real selling points over Microsoft Office.