Not sure why they need to create a cut down version of XP. It runs just fine on mine with hardly any tweaks. The real issue is the 4GB SSD but this is also an issue for the default Xandros distro it comes with.
I have XP Pro SP2 with all updates, WMP10, Winamp, MPC, ffdshow, Notepad++, UltraEdit, Office 2003 (Word and Excel only), mIRC, Windows Live Messenger, Total Commander, Firefox and a few other little single exe apps like PuTTY and still have 1.5GB of SSD left. It runs perfect. Boots quickly and is just as responsive as a "normal" laptop. I originally put Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs on my Eee as I have it from my Software Assurance contract with Microsoft however the lack of NULL driver gave me issues with Cygwin so I decided to just stick full XP on it and have not looked back. I can't see I have noticed any difference between full XP and WinFLP.
The dialog size issue pops up every now and then but it is very rare once the system is up and running. The only screen I found was an issue is the 'System Properties' screen (WinKey+Break or System in the Control Panel). However as all these screens default to the OK button you can just hit enter to confirm or Esc to cancel. Pretty simple.
It also seems a little too late for Microsoft to do this. I mean by the time they get around to releasing it the 4GB SSD issue will be history as 8+ GB SSD will be the norm (the Eee 900 has 12 and 20GB models from what I have read and are due out very soon).
The only tweak I have done is move %TEMP% to an SDHC card however it made no difference to the performance (at least that I can tell) and was done just to save the SSD from being used as scratch space. I also stuck the Mozilla temp files on the SDHC too. However everything else (pagefile included as sticking it on the SDHC slowed the machine down) is on the SSD.
I run XP on my Eee too for the same reasons. I don't miss the optical drive at all however the resolution and lack of built in bluetooth are annoying (bluetooth because I use the laptop with my mobile phone to get online when I can't find a wifi spot). Built in 3G would be nice as well. I just really don't like the resolution. I feel Asus should have loaded up a Linux distro and Windows (the two supported OS) and seen what the minimum vertical resolution was for the default system dialogs and then taken that as the minimum resolution.
I would also like a slightly bigger keyboard. Just a cm or two wider so that a few extra keys can fit on without needing to press Fn and Shift and the key combo to get a backslash!
All in all I like my Eee and give it a 8/10. It does what I want although a few things I dislike about it stop it being perfect.
I play standard def MPEG4 (XviD) movies on my Eee 4G running XP SP2 just fine from USB memory stick, USB HDD and over the network (wired and wifi) without any problems. I cannot promise I have had no frame lag but nothing that I can remember. My only criticism is that the volume is a little low for noisier places like on a plane. I just use ffdshow-tryouts to process the audio and blumb it up that way. It is a lovely little portable movie player:)
1. You leave it everywhere. You leave your finger prints all over your desk at work. Just look how this guys finger print was stolen from a glass. 2. You can't change it.
Two factor auth is about something you know and something you have. I would much rather the later was a usb eToken or similar and not my fingerprint!
I understand that I just thought it was something more than a frontend. I guess I have expect more from DVD Jon. It is a bit of a disappointment to me.
Yes I understand the technical differences between AAC and MP3. It was just this application seemed to be advertised as a DRM remover not a frontend to a few transcoding applications. I was hoping it would be a bit more impressive by doing as you say and removing the DRM from AAC files, not just playing them in the background and encoding them.
So it is basically doing a software based line-out to line-in (aka loopback) encode? How is this anything special? I have done this for years using nothing but simple audio tools. Or is it doing something more intelligent? (I fail to see how though as it is still lossy -> lossy conversion).
Interesting question so I just tried it with a system I have just done a whole disk encryption on using TC5.
Stand By does not cause the system to boot up again so it just returns to Windows without asking for the TC password. This is correct behaviour as TC can only prompt when the system boots, as the system is not booting it cannot ask.
Interestingly when I tried to enable Hibernation via Power Options TrueCrypt intercepted with a message explaining that it has disabled Hibernation as the disk is encrypted. The reason given is that the contents of the system memory is written to the hibernation file thus the encryption keys would be written to the hibernation file.
For those interested I encrypted my system (3.4Ghz P4) with 20GB system partition (of which only 1.94GB is used) in little over 15 minutes. Boot performance was a few seconds slower but once up and running system feels the same. I have not tried copying any large files though, I am sure this would stress the system a bit. YMMV:)
I work for a large blue chip company and we have a strict policy of powering down at night (including monitor). We regularly audit the records to ensure the machine is powered down and users who are not are requested to always remember. A few users take a few reminders in order to do so and I have heard every excuse under for why they left it on and while some are valid the majority (95%) are not. Our reasons for pushing this policy is purely to save money and reduce unnecessary running time of the equipment. However we are in a position where only laptops users have VPN access so if they need to login to the network from home they already have their laptop with them. If we had open VPN access to desktop users I am sure we would see a lot of users leaving their computer on so that they can RDP into it over VPN.
It took about 6 months before we were at a realistic level. We have 633 desktops on our site so there is normally always a valid reason for one or two to be left on (valid reasons being batch copy, verify or processing of files). For those interested we have had a reduction in the amount of equipment failure (HDD mainly) as well as pretty good cost savings for power. Not to mention running greener (which regardless of if you believe in global warming or not is good).
Your comparison is idiotic, momentum is needed regardless of if there is a "race" or not. Momentum is needed just to get things done in general. I am surprised you do not understand this.
As for the pointless attack on "lusers", what exactly is your point? That the default configurations are too simple? How is this a bad thing? You can change it however you want so why complain? Because it is not how YOU want it? Linux still has many rough edges, making it simpler is important not just for wider adoption but also just to make lifer easier for people. Providing I can still change it, I don't care how it is by default. Having everything complex from the get go is just stupid, why make things harder than they need to be?
Personally I like Ubuntu's approach. IMHO Linux for the desktop can lose momentum very easily but Ubuntu seems to be keeping things rather stable. I have seen more improvements in Linux for the desktop since Ubuntu became popular than any time before. Perhaps it is just coincidence, perhaps not. Either way 6 months isn't an outrageously quick turn around time, I feel yearly releases would just cause everything to slow down.
Because MP's are not IT project managers and they don't employ skilled IT project managers. They treat all projects as the same so you get somebody who thinks they know about computer as they once wrote an Excel macro and give them some fancy job title.
Microsoft are right IMHO, JavaScript is a horrible language in many ways which are well known. I would much rather see a more modern language designed from scratch designed for the future of the web rather than hack in new features to JavaScript beyond the scope it was originally designed for. We also need better development environments for JavaScript as debugging it can be a royal PITA, while Firefox + extensions help it isn't perfect, a proper debugger would be great:)
I couldn't agree more. This is fantastic news. I was getting a little worried it might be wiimote only which would not have interested me but being able to use my classic controller (which, IMHO, is a fantastic controller and should be used in more games) is superb:)
That is a shame. I suggest that you make an account and report this to Ubuntu as a bug. You might find there is a simple work around. If you have an Nvidia or AMD graphics adapter in your laptop that might be causing you some problems due to their driver support so I suggest you run in "safe graphics mode" (second option in the CD boot menu I believe). This is what I had to use on my desktop which has an Nvidia 6800. Once installed I used Envy (http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html) to install the official Nvidia driver and it has been fine ever since (Envy also does AMD drivers).
While Ubuntu is not perfect it is still a superb OS. The new X configuration tool is a very welcome addition and long overdue. It is the "little" things like that which Ubuntu needs to work on over the next few versions. Once running X is always rock solid and fail proof it will be much more accessible to a lot of people. They also need to work on better networking options (such as WiFi) as it is still rather poor IMHO.
I don't want a built in keyboard as they are too small. I want a laptop form factor bluetooth keyboard that I can use when I need too nothing something built in:)
I have read about this for a long time now and have been meaning to ask...
Does this effect Europe? And more specifically the UK?
As far as I am aware Europe (and the UK) does not "do" software patents so even if MS is telling the truth about the Linux infringements are they even valid in Europe/UK?
Slashdot Mirror
Not sure why they need to create a cut down version of XP. It runs just fine on mine with hardly any tweaks. The real issue is the 4GB SSD but this is also an issue for the default Xandros distro it comes with.
I have XP Pro SP2 with all updates, WMP10, Winamp, MPC, ffdshow, Notepad++, UltraEdit, Office 2003 (Word and Excel only), mIRC, Windows Live Messenger, Total Commander, Firefox and a few other little single exe apps like PuTTY and still have 1.5GB of SSD left. It runs perfect. Boots quickly and is just as responsive as a "normal" laptop. I originally put Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs on my Eee as I have it from my Software Assurance contract with Microsoft however the lack of NULL driver gave me issues with Cygwin so I decided to just stick full XP on it and have not looked back. I can't see I have noticed any difference between full XP and WinFLP.
The dialog size issue pops up every now and then but it is very rare once the system is up and running. The only screen I found was an issue is the 'System Properties' screen (WinKey+Break or System in the Control Panel). However as all these screens default to the OK button you can just hit enter to confirm or Esc to cancel. Pretty simple.
It also seems a little too late for Microsoft to do this. I mean by the time they get around to releasing it the 4GB SSD issue will be history as 8+ GB SSD will be the norm (the Eee 900 has 12 and 20GB models from what I have read and are due out very soon).
The only tweak I have done is move %TEMP% to an SDHC card however it made no difference to the performance (at least that I can tell) and was done just to save the SSD from being used as scratch space. I also stuck the Mozilla temp files on the SDHC too. However everything else (pagefile included as sticking it on the SDHC slowed the machine down) is on the SSD.
It would make more sense to me if Microsoft took Vista and stripped bits out of that. There are a lot of people who have done this and are very happy with Vista on their Eee. Ben Armstrong (Virtual PC PM) has done just this, have a read at http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/03/05/using-virtual-pc-to-evaluate-eee-pc.aspx
I run XP on my Eee too for the same reasons. I don't miss the optical drive at all however the resolution and lack of built in bluetooth are annoying (bluetooth because I use the laptop with my mobile phone to get online when I can't find a wifi spot). Built in 3G would be nice as well. I just really don't like the resolution. I feel Asus should have loaded up a Linux distro and Windows (the two supported OS) and seen what the minimum vertical resolution was for the default system dialogs and then taken that as the minimum resolution.
I would also like a slightly bigger keyboard. Just a cm or two wider so that a few extra keys can fit on without needing to press Fn and Shift and the key combo to get a backslash!
All in all I like my Eee and give it a 8/10. It does what I want although a few things I dislike about it stop it being perfect.
I play standard def MPEG4 (XviD) movies on my Eee 4G running XP SP2 just fine from USB memory stick, USB HDD and over the network (wired and wifi) without any problems. I cannot promise I have had no frame lag but nothing that I can remember. My only criticism is that the volume is a little low for noisier places like on a plane. I just use ffdshow-tryouts to process the audio and blumb it up that way. It is a lovely little portable movie player :)
You are doing something wrong if you XP + Office 2007 images are 8-10GB.
My XP SP2 + updates + Office 2007 is only 2GB. You need to look into the shrink option in VMware Tools.
Two problem I have with biometric authentication
1. You leave it everywhere. You leave your finger prints all over your desk at work. Just look how this guys finger print was stolen from a glass.
2. You can't change it.
Two factor auth is about something you know and something you have. I would much rather the later was a usb eToken or similar and not my fingerprint!
I understand that I just thought it was something more than a frontend. I guess I have expect more from DVD Jon. It is a bit of a disappointment to me.
Yes I understand the technical differences between AAC and MP3. It was just this application seemed to be advertised as a DRM remover not a frontend to a few transcoding applications. I was hoping it would be a bit more impressive by doing as you say and removing the DRM from AAC files, not just playing them in the background and encoding them.
So it is basically doing a software based line-out to line-in (aka loopback) encode? How is this anything special? I have done this for years using nothing but simple audio tools. Or is it doing something more intelligent? (I fail to see how though as it is still lossy -> lossy conversion).
Bad form to reply to myself I know but I took a screenshot of the message for those interested.
http://x025.uploaderx.net/x/tc-hibernation.png
Interesting question so I just tried it with a system I have just done a whole disk encryption on using TC5.
:)
Stand By does not cause the system to boot up again so it just returns to Windows without asking for the TC password. This is correct behaviour as TC can only prompt when the system boots, as the system is not booting it cannot ask.
Interestingly when I tried to enable Hibernation via Power Options TrueCrypt intercepted with a message explaining that it has disabled Hibernation as the disk is encrypted. The reason given is that the contents of the system memory is written to the hibernation file thus the encryption keys would be written to the hibernation file.
For those interested I encrypted my system (3.4Ghz P4) with 20GB system partition (of which only 1.94GB is used) in little over 15 minutes. Boot performance was a few seconds slower but once up and running system feels the same. I have not tried copying any large files though, I am sure this would stress the system a bit. YMMV
Sorry I should have clarified. It took 6 months to implement but we have had the policy for a little over 4 years now.
We have had the exact opposite of this after implementing a shut down at night policy.
I work for a large blue chip company and we have a strict policy of powering down at night (including monitor). We regularly audit the records to ensure the machine is powered down and users who are not are requested to always remember. A few users take a few reminders in order to do so and I have heard every excuse under for why they left it on and while some are valid the majority (95%) are not. Our reasons for pushing this policy is purely to save money and reduce unnecessary running time of the equipment. However we are in a position where only laptops users have VPN access so if they need to login to the network from home they already have their laptop with them. If we had open VPN access to desktop users I am sure we would see a lot of users leaving their computer on so that they can RDP into it over VPN.
It took about 6 months before we were at a realistic level. We have 633 desktops on our site so there is normally always a valid reason for one or two to be left on (valid reasons being batch copy, verify or processing of files). For those interested we have had a reduction in the amount of equipment failure (HDD mainly) as well as pretty good cost savings for power. Not to mention running greener (which regardless of if you believe in global warming or not is good).
ESX3 is Linux based however ESX3i is not. It is a pure hypervisor checking in at about 32MB.
Your comparison is idiotic, momentum is needed regardless of if there is a "race" or not. Momentum is needed just to get things done in general. I am surprised you do not understand this.
As for the pointless attack on "lusers", what exactly is your point? That the default configurations are too simple? How is this a bad thing? You can change it however you want so why complain? Because it is not how YOU want it? Linux still has many rough edges, making it simpler is important not just for wider adoption but also just to make lifer easier for people. Providing I can still change it, I don't care how it is by default. Having everything complex from the get go is just stupid, why make things harder than they need to be?
Personally I like Ubuntu's approach. IMHO Linux for the desktop can lose momentum very easily but Ubuntu seems to be keeping things rather stable. I have seen more improvements in Linux for the desktop since Ubuntu became popular than any time before. Perhaps it is just coincidence, perhaps not. Either way 6 months isn't an outrageously quick turn around time, I feel yearly releases would just cause everything to slow down.
He should have got his department to kill somebody, that way he could have kept his job!
Because MP's are not IT project managers and they don't employ skilled IT project managers. They treat all projects as the same so you get somebody who thinks they know about computer as they once wrote an Excel macro and give them some fancy job title.
With a nationwide DNA database? Please. They can't be trusted with anything.
Microsoft are right IMHO, JavaScript is a horrible language in many ways which are well known. I would much rather see a more modern language designed from scratch designed for the future of the web rather than hack in new features to JavaScript beyond the scope it was originally designed for. We also need better development environments for JavaScript as debugging it can be a royal PITA, while Firefox + extensions help it isn't perfect, a proper debugger would be great :)
I couldn't agree more. This is fantastic news. I was getting a little worried it might be wiimote only which would not have interested me but being able to use my classic controller (which, IMHO, is a fantastic controller and should be used in more games) is superb :)
That is a shame. I suggest that you make an account and report this to Ubuntu as a bug. You might find there is a simple work around. If you have an Nvidia or AMD graphics adapter in your laptop that might be causing you some problems due to their driver support so I suggest you run in "safe graphics mode" (second option in the CD boot menu I believe). This is what I had to use on my desktop which has an Nvidia 6800. Once installed I used Envy (http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html) to install the official Nvidia driver and it has been fine ever since (Envy also does AMD drivers).
While Ubuntu is not perfect it is still a superb OS. The new X configuration tool is a very welcome addition and long overdue. It is the "little" things like that which Ubuntu needs to work on over the next few versions. Once running X is always rock solid and fail proof it will be much more accessible to a lot of people. They also need to work on better networking options (such as WiFi) as it is still rather poor IMHO.
LTS was always planned for 8.04. This was announced when 7.04 was released in April.
I don't want a built in keyboard as they are too small. I want a laptop form factor bluetooth keyboard that I can use when I need too nothing something built in :)
I have read about this for a long time now and have been meaning to ask ...
Does this effect Europe? And more specifically the UK?
As far as I am aware Europe (and the UK) does not "do" software patents so even if MS is telling the truth about the Linux infringements are they even valid in Europe/UK?