Okay, what is it about the "average user" that makes Linux not ready for prime time?
Think people, the AVERAGE user. You know the ones. The ones that think user@machinename# is their email, and they want into their system, but after they log in it takes them to their email. (Yea, got that one a few times, user logged in and X crashed, matter of fact, that was Ubuntu).
We all know the ones. We all poke fun at them. We all laugh about what they do. The people who are barely able to operate Windows, or Macs, and you honestly think these people can install, configure, and run their day to day apps on Linux? I've watched a lot of people try, and I always get called in to either A. Fix their installation and make it work. Or B. Put them back on Windows.
Okay, now you're talking about Windows. And I'll disagree about 90% of Microsoft's security problems being the fault of the users. The default install of a system should be secure enough WITHOUT requiring the users to know how to secure it.
I'm not talking about the user needing to actively secure it. And you're missing my point.
And by "something" you mean "plug it into the Internet as it was advertised".
Meanwhile, Ubuntu ships with NO open ports by DEFAULT. So I can plug it straight into the Internet in it's default configuration.
Funny, I've done the same thing since RTM Windows XP. I've run Windows XP Pro, and VERY occasionally updated it, ran 0 virus protection, 0 spyware protection, and just relied on the BUILT-IN Windows Firewall. I've had 1 issue. A friend got on my computer, and downloaded something. The user ACTIVELY did something to affect my machine's security. 20 minutes later I had corrected the problem. 6 years, 1 issue, no protection.
I now run Windows Vista Ultimate on my laptop, and my desktop remains Windows XP Pro (for the time being). It's at least Service Pack 2, but hell it's still running IE6. Guess what? No Virus/Spyware protection, and half the time I've the Windows Firewall disabled because it's easier to do that than to make rules for stuff (and I'm lazy). Vista? Same thing. 0 Virus/Spyware protection. Windows Firewall only. Guess what? Again, no issues. Funny how that works isn't it? Perhaps I should remote into my desktop at home and make a post? I frequently remote into home from work, or vice-versa. I've done nothing special to either of my machines, because it's not necessary. If someone thinks it IS necessary for me to take special precautions, they are welcome to prove it to me. I've yet to see anyone catually capable of doing so. Everyone loves to talk about how insecure Windows is, how as soon as you plug into the internet your machine will be h4x0r3d, but it's just not that way anymore. Start surfing the XXX sites that promise free goodies, or trading various w4r3z, and downloading music with your h4x0r program kazaa and yea, you will have problems.
Serves you right for being an idiot if that's the case.
And back to "being ready for prime-time" let me ask this (and it's an honest question, as for me, this is pretty much the only thing left, beyond some minor annoyances, that is, in my opinion, keepipng Linux off the USER's desktop), can I go, and buy a random piece of electronic equipment (phone, camera, video recorder, video card, sound card, webcam, microphone, etc.), bring it home, unpackage it, plug it in, and it just, work? If the answer to that is a SIMPLE YES, and not "Well yea but first you have to grab this special package, compile this, turn this on in system config, get the wrappoer for this, flash the device itself, or any other junk that, to the user, is going to be "arcane computer mumbo jumbo", then I would say yes, Linux is probably ready for the prime time. Last I knew of Ubuntu, it wasn't there yet. It was close, but not quite.
My own personal favorite is Gentoo. I like the control that I get with it. It's a pain in the rear to get setup completely (to where it IS plug & play), but once it's there, it tends to work pretty well.
Unfortunately, playing decent games on it is kinda tough. Oh well, back to Windows I go.
While I agree, very good response on getting this patched, and Linux does seem to have a better overall response time to patch needs, they're needing it more and more these days.
I find it pretty interesting that security advisories over the last several months have been on primarily non-MS platforms. Mac, Linux, Solaris, etc. have had many more security advisories than MS Windows has had to endure, and Microsoft, while certainly not leading that pack for response time, also isn't dead last. I invite you all to check This site which is April's list of security advisories. I remember seeing a review on security a short time ago dealing with response time from various OS Vendors, and while MS wasn't leading the pack in anything, they weren't dead last in anything either.
I personally think Linux has a lot of potential, and is a pretty decent OS. But it's not ready for primetime just because of the average user. Windows has a tough enough time with security because of the user (let's face it, 90% of problems are the user's fault). Sure, exploits exist, but you have to DO something. Users don't download patches. Users click on anything with an OK box. Same applies here. How many "users" running Linux are even going to know about this vulnerability, let alone patch it. Ok, if they've auto-updates on, perhaps they will fetch it in their next batch? In which case, good, and kudos to the distro for making that part painless for the user.
I've always wondered about Linux's wifi security, but that was primarily because of having to wrap up the driver of most wifi cards. Just seemed to me like a door just begging to be broken down. Apparently I wasn't the only one.
Backpacks were already banned, as were trenchcoats, and they tried like hell to make me stop wearing my leather biker style riding jacket. I said I would stop wearing it when I stopped breathing. But yea, school went pretty hardcore after columbine happened (and i lived in rural arkansas 900 miles away from columbine).
Piercings, Chains, anything that was considered "dark imagery", backpacks, purses, hand bags, cargo pants (or anything else with excessively large pockets).
THe school even ignored the angered cry of parents when kids started having serious back problems because of having to carry all of their books with them without the aid of a backpack. Then they had the nerve (8 months later) to say the back problems had actually been caused by the backpacks, and that's why they were banned (nevermind not a single problem aside from the occasional scoliosis sufferer had come up).
The police were called on my mother when she got in a vice principal's face because he wouldn't leave me alone. Police got there and my mom was ranting about harassment and we were both ejected from the school grounds by the police. That was after the sit-out protest. They tried to expel me, then i went to the local news station. They sent a reporter to the school, and suddenly they had NO idea what the reporter was talking about, some kid just played a prank on them trying to get attention. And suddenly I wasn't expelled anymore.
People say I'm paranoid. Well, there's a reason for that.
So yes, when I see a court case like this stick it to the man, it brings me just a bit more hope, that one day, enough people will be outraged to make a BIG difference, and win a BIG battle. THese smaller ones are setting up future battles that will ultimately decide whether we keep and regain our rights, or give all of them up.
I for one, have 0 problems with this. It would be nice to be able to pick and choose specific songs, but on the flipside of that, I've discovered songs that I never would have otherwise, just because they're already there. This will be much the same for me.
As for the person that made the comment aobut how everything with XBox Live Marketplace being absurdly overpriced let me offer a counter view. I've had the 360 since shortly after it came out, and not until the last few months did I start buying actual 360 games for it. I do, however, have a TON of "XBox Live Arcade" games downloaded. The one I play the most, Texas Hold 'Em, I got while it was offered as a free download. And you know what? I've gotten more enjoyment from the Arcade games offered, at worst about $10 a pop, than I have out of most $50 games I've purchased. Those I generally play through, then lose interest. I will occasionally revisit them (The Sonic Mega Collection I got for the original XBox was one of the best games I'd purchased in a long time, just because it had all the Sonic Goodness (plus some of the mistakes) in one package. I barely play the Sonic games anymore. It isn't that I don't like them, but I've played them a lot. They dont' change much. In a single player game, once you've gone through it, unless it's a TRULY DYNAMIC game, there's not really much left to it. That's where multiplayer comes into play. If the multiplayer fails, the game fails. It has no replay value. With downloadable content, that changes things. Guitar Hero also has the added benefit of being able to play against, or with other people. It has ALL the makings of a GREAT game, with GREAT replay value.
Am I willing to shell out a bit more for a game that is going to provide me with countless hours of good clean fun? Damn straight I am. Everyone else can go sit in a corner and whine and cry all they want, in the meantime I'm going to crank up the sound, and have fun.
It's funny, the most enjoyable games I've played to date on the XBox 360 have been Guitar Hero II, some DDR style game my roomate bought, Texas Hold 'Em, Worms, Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I didn't even buy NFS because I knew the replay value on it would suck. Still, it was fun to cruise around in my souped up Pink Mitsubishi. You hear on the radio "Suspect is driving a Pink Mitsubishi". But we just got the Guitar, and DDR game. We've mostly just been playing Arcade games ont he 360. Oh, and Geometry Wars, can't believe I almost left that one out. FANTASTIC. Other than that, our 360 is used to stream media from our computers. The 360 is far and above the pittance we paid for it (We have the Premium one, 1st-gen when they still came with the media remote), and the content is thus far, more than worth what we pay. I've considered purchasing television episodes from the marketplace as well, and if I could offload them to my computer, I would without hesitation.
Safetey pins, medical tape, belt loops, basically we wore the entire contents of our purses attached to our clothes, in our hair, anywhere we could get them to latch on. A friend of mine made what, i can only describe as a duct tape belt, with keyrings going through it that she could hang things on.
After 2 days the faculty caved, and let us carry our purses again (though they had to stay in our lockers, because then we wouldn't be able to shoot up the school with the guns we were all carrying in them). Then they started finding out who organized it, and suspended us for insubordination. About 3 weeks later, there was a sit-out at the school, which didn't end well (not for those of us organizing it).
Yea, I used to be a big pusher for people's rights not getting trampled. But after becoming so disillusioned in those years, then my stint in the Army, and current political happenings, it's enough that I'm willing to make/. posts.
It's refreshing to see this occasionally happen. My teens aren't that far behind me, and I've gone rounds with various entities about similar things. It's nice to see things like this happen where it's recognized that damnit, in this country, we're SUPPOSED to be able to speak our minds.
The original case accused the girl in question of identity theft, because the page she posted on was supposed to be the Principal's page (it was created by someone else entirely). When all that was said and done, they had to save face somehow, and so prosecuted the person and declared her delinquent for being "obscene". Counter damages perhaps? I would sooooooooo go after them for that.
The rant was also not about the principal, but rather about school policy regarding body piercings. Oh how many times I was suspended for criticizing school policy, and faculty for stupidity. Although in some cases, motivating the student body to protest can be helpful. My high school once told us we couldn't bring our purses to school. 2 days of every girl in the school using tampons for hair rollers fixed that one. On the other hand, those of us who organized that, were suspended for a week for insubordination.
I love seeing cases like this stick it to the man. It's sad that the Constitution so often (aside from being trampled daily) doesn't seem to apply to anyone under the age of 18. With the advent of the internet, however, and online social societies of their own, teens seem to be able to fight for a few more rights, and correct a few more injustices than they were able to even just 10 years ago. That's a great thought. Bolstered by victories now, perhaps the next generation will be less inclined to just roll over while their rights are trampled on than the current generation.
Because God knows that if I'm searching for "New Cars" I damn sure don't want to see any advertisements about car dealerships, finance companies, or anythign like that. Hell I don't even want results returning cars stuff. Why cant they just give me my sex in a new car porn and be done with it?!
As a Wow player, and as someone who also played Everquest heavily, I think things like this are absolutely ludicrous. Nevermind that we're already taxed into poverty, now let's start taxing our virtual entertainment.
Apparently the tax I paid on the money I made at my job, then the tax I paid on the car that drove me to the store, the taxes I pay that (laff) "built" the road I drove on, the sales tax I paid on the game itself, the tax I paid on the fuel for my car, the tax that i pay on the electricity in my house, the tax I pay on my house, the tax I paid on my computer which I play the game on, then of course the tax for the internet connection also required to play the game, aren't enough, so my play time gets taxed too?
WHen will it end? I know, how about a breathing tax. Gotta fund the planting of all those new trees somehow right? Gotta keep air to breathe! Wait wait no I got it! Let's tax death! If you die, you have to pay tax! YES! What? There's already a death tax? Damn! I so thought I had that one.
One interesting way this could play out is taking the Zune's wireless sharing abilities from a sort of novelty "That's kinda neat" feature to something actually marketable (not to mention a legal quagmire for Microsoft). They sell unprotected music, with 0 DRM, and then people start sharing songs between Zunes like crazy. I had a Zune for a while, and loved it, it's actually a great little device. If MS would make a few tweaks to it's usability and features, it would really be a great product. It's already better than an iPod (imho) of what it can do, usability, and features. The real question, however, is if Microsoft is just changing to adapt to what is really becoming a truly consumer driven market, or if they're actually trying to go after Apple's complete dominance of the MP3 device market. Either way, should make for an interesting show.
I can't help but wonder when the first RIAA lawsuit is brought forth against Apple or MS for "Enabling Filesharing" by "Failing to protect copyrighted content". And then going after the HDD manufacturers for making access to the files so easy.
Part of the reason Antibiotics have been overprescribed is in our world of super ultra hygeine concious society, people are killing off all the germs they can everywhere. People sanitize their hands 50 times a day. This is all well and good, and healthy, but it also causes a problem. Without exposure to various germs, bacteria, etc. people's immune systems actually atrophy. So when they get a little bug that a 'normal' immune system could kick without much trouble, theirs can't, or they fraek out because they are ultra health concious, so they go to the Dr. Dr sees what's going on, prescribes an anti-biotic because John Q and Sally public are so afraid to go a few weeks with the sniffles and let it run their course.
The end result is that a person's immune system no longer has to do it's job, job gets done for it. The immune system becoems weaker, they get sick more, then get more anti-biotics.
It seems that a great deal of IT oriented people (at least of those I've known) aren't always the best at being outgoing and aren't always the type to make friends, or meet people easily. I think that's also part of the appeal of things like D&D. It's engaging, imaginative, and, well would YOU walk into a bar and start up a bar fight just to distract everyone from the big heist you're working on, or to escape out the back with the town gaurds (read: police) right on your heels? Probably not.
D&D, and games like it, allow you to become someone else entirely. It's been my experience that people tend to choose characters that fit into one of two groups. A. Someone who is their polar opposite (it's fun to do things YOU would never do, and not really have to worry about the consequences) or B. Someone very close to themselves. The "B" characters are not necessarily less imaginative, as it still allows the player a great deal of liberty, while being enjoyable and able to 'stick close to home'. For example, one might play a character who is super intelligent, possibly pretty wise, but lacks much physical strength and dexterity. The punchline? The character is a Fighter. Or perhaps a Mage with great physical prowess, but a few fries short of a Happy Meal. These types of characters are often the most fun to play, because they make for some rather interesting situations down the road.
In the world of anal retentive ACLs, Stack Dumps, tedious reports, and just plain dumb users, who wouldn't want to just occasionally fantasize about swinging around a 6' sword and lopping someone's head off, or blasting someone into charred oblivion?
This is most distressing. Why, pirates are already few in number, and heavily hunted. With this insidious new canine threat, the Flying Spaghetti Monster will become more furious. As you can see , natural weather disasters, globl warming, etc are all DIRECTLY related to the number of pirates (FSM's chosen Missionaries) in the world. If more begin disappearing, we're all doomed! We must stand as one and oppose his nefarious threat to our existence.
First off, nothing there was Microsoft's fault. MS does not prevent manufacturer's from shipping a Windows Disk. In fact, Gateway often still does (along with Dell, and some HPs). In fact, for quite some time, these machines were ONLY coming with an OS disk (which is JUST the OS, nothing more, and it's just your average run of the mill OEM XP, no nasty surprises or anything), and you were REQUIRED to burn your applications/drivers disk.
These days, not many manufactureres include any kind of recovery disks, though there are a few. But what you WILL see, is that everyone who DOES include SOMETHING (except Toshiba, who uses a Ghost image) includes a disk with ONLY THE OS. As for your key not working, MS uses different a algorythm (i should hang for butchering that) for each XP Version. OEM XP Home, OEM XP Pro, OEM XP Media Center, Retail XP Home, Retail XP Pro, Corporate XP Pro, OEM XP Home Service Pack 1, OEM XP Pro Service Pack 1, etc. etc. etc. So no, that key on the side of your machine is not going to work with the "Disks you have lying around". I have to wonder, with you so eager to jump to Ubuntu as a "solution", why do you have so many XP disks laying about?
Anyway, the no floppy thing does suck. Setting up a RAID these days on OEM machines is a nightmare, but only because it's very much a pain in the ass (XP is 5 years old, OEM machines no longer have floppy drives, etc.), but is is definitely doable. What I'm wondering though, is what you were using XP as a server for, and where you aquired this machine. And why would you be using an OEM retail (kinda sounds like this is the case) machine as a "Server" anyway?
Interestingly enough this reminds me a lot of a sale that I was recently asked about. A gentleman wanted to set up a server for his office, with 3 clients. I talked to him for quite a while. Retail machines are cheap, and depending on the exact needs, they may work well. But for christ's sake, don't be an idiot setting it up. And don't blame the companies for your ignorance. Gawd that pisses me off.
1. My desktop (3 years old) run Vista flawlessly. 90+% of machines I've seen on retail shelves in recent months will run it just fine. Probably 80% of retail systems in the last year and a half to two years will also run it just fine. No high end graphics card needed. Aero runs quite well with a decent integrated video solution. Overstating Vista's hardware demands doesn't make you cooler.
2. XP doesn't have extremely detailed, well designed parental controls. XP doesn't have Aero. XP doesn't have bit locker. XP doesn't allow you to control nearly as much when it comes to power consumption (mostly for laptops). XP doesn't have built in speech recognition (which is way cooler, and a lot better than/. would lead you to believe). So, now you've met someone that has told you several things that Vista does that XP "doesn't already do".
3. That wasn't what they were saying. They were saying that people WOULD be making the switch to Vista, simply because it would be preloaded on OEM systems. Much like how people ended up with XP. Few people actually bought it. Doesn't mean it's better, worse, or anything in between, they were simply making a statement. But congratulations on capitalizing on an excellent opportunity to miss the point and get in another jab at MS.
4. There are very few driver issues with XP these days. The ones that remain tend to the the MFG's fault rather than Microsoft's. As for compatability issues, I've had an interesting time getting some apps going, but the same was true for immediately when XP came out. These days I can run pretty much anything/everything I want without too much trouble, and Vista seems to be even more compatible than XP is now.
I've been using Vista for quite some time, and it's differences from XP are VERY significant. You have to take a look 'under the hood' so to speak, to appreciate many of them, but there are quite a few from the surface as well. But I guess that isn't as cool as bashing MS.
Windows 3.0 gets polished and becomes Windows 95? hardly, as these two Operating Systems are vastly different, with their only real similarity being they both run on top of DOS.
Windows XP gets polished and becomes Windows Vista? Again, hardly, as again they are VERY different. XP And Vista are much closer than 3.1/95, but they're still worlds apart. Feature sets are very different, capabilities are very different, overall user experience is VASTLY different, and checking things out under the hood a lot has changed, and it's kind of interesting to see just how much. Yes a lot of features were unfortunately dropped, but there is still a lot here to chew on.
I saw earlier a comment saying the blogger is a spammer. Somehow, that wouldn't surprise me. It's an MS flame article though. Can we mod front page articles -1 flamebait?;-)
I enjoy Windows. Sure it gets boring for me, but overall I enjoy Windows quite a bit. Now here's the thing. I don't use Linux very often, it's just too much of a pain to get going, and I often find the dumbest reasons to ditch it. The last time, the ONLY reason I ditched it, was because I couldn't get a frikken flash player to work. I'm addicted to flash cartoons. Damn you Adobe/Macromedia!
That said, I think this is a wonderful idea. Someone mentioned that people don't get excited over Operating Systems. Well, not when you put it like that. Just show off some of the things about it, and people WILL get excited about it. Wobbly windows are awesome. The first time I saw that, I wanted to install Linux JUST for that, to play with them. I think that is kind of the point here. It's just getting people to USE the thing, hoping the features will sell themselves.
Personally, I think it's genius. It also has the potential to help the USER to switch to Linux. Granted there is a pretty big difference in just running a LiveCD, and actually installing the thing, but many installers these days are becoming simpler for those new to the show. There's a part of me that wishes this would get more publicity, just because it has the potential to create some really good happenings for the Users.
In short, people would see how Linux stacks up against Windows (the good, bad and the ugly), and some will undoubtedly make the switch. As Linux captures more of the OS market share, along with MacOS-X, Microsoft will scramble to keep pace. This could create very REAL, and VIABLE competition for Microsoft, which I think would be beneficial to EVERYONE. The ONLY reason that MS is still on top, is because people find it too hard, or too inconvenient to make the switch to Linux (for various reasons). This has the potential to go a long ways towards overcoming that hurdle.
All in all, (and this coming from an MS Fangirl), well done. Very well done. The real question is, will this make it to enough people, and will it actually accomplish what I'm thinking it could.
Nope, but that makes sense if that's where he got it. He loves that site. I've poked around it a bit but, nothing too serious. Right-o then. I really should get back to checking that site periodically.
This article seems to think along these lines as well. To steal a quote from a friend of mine (and where he got it I've no idea)...
The problem with (America) is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be capital punishment for stupidity, let's just remove the warning labels from products and let the problem solve itself.
And yea, after reading the article, hehe. Wow. I wish I'd had the Atomic lab. Oh the fun I'd have had with that! Those bastards that snapped my bra in high school would have MAJOR issues now...
*Maniacle laughter followed immediately by a chase scene involving a bunch of men in white coats*
To customize Internet Explorer, you can add your organization's name or other wording to the title bar. For example, the phrase "Windows Internet Explorer Provided by Proseware, Inc." could appear on your title bar.
You can preset the following Web pages and links:
Customer support page
Users' home page
Users' search providers
So no, it's EXACTLY what Microsoft intended. And the very fact that it's being offered by Google is actually a boon to Microsoft. They may be competitors in some areas, but this has obvious benefits for both.
Slashdot Mirror
Think people, the AVERAGE user. You know the ones. The ones that think user@machinename# is their email, and they want into their system, but after they log in it takes them to their email. (Yea, got that one a few times, user logged in and X crashed, matter of fact, that was Ubuntu).
We all know the ones. We all poke fun at them. We all laugh about what they do. The people who are barely able to operate Windows, or Macs, and you honestly think these people can install, configure, and run their day to day apps on Linux? I've watched a lot of people try, and I always get called in to either A. Fix their installation and make it work. Or B. Put them back on Windows.
I'm not talking about the user needing to actively secure it. And you're missing my point.
Funny, I've done the same thing since RTM Windows XP. I've run Windows XP Pro, and VERY occasionally updated it, ran 0 virus protection, 0 spyware protection, and just relied on the BUILT-IN Windows Firewall. I've had 1 issue. A friend got on my computer, and downloaded something. The user ACTIVELY did something to affect my machine's security. 20 minutes later I had corrected the problem. 6 years, 1 issue, no protection.
I now run Windows Vista Ultimate on my laptop, and my desktop remains Windows XP Pro (for the time being). It's at least Service Pack 2, but hell it's still running IE6. Guess what? No Virus/Spyware protection, and half the time I've the Windows Firewall disabled because it's easier to do that than to make rules for stuff (and I'm lazy). Vista? Same thing. 0 Virus/Spyware protection. Windows Firewall only. Guess what? Again, no issues. Funny how that works isn't it? Perhaps I should remote into my desktop at home and make a post? I frequently remote into home from work, or vice-versa. I've done nothing special to either of my machines, because it's not necessary. If someone thinks it IS necessary for me to take special precautions, they are welcome to prove it to me. I've yet to see anyone catually capable of doing so. Everyone loves to talk about how insecure Windows is, how as soon as you plug into the internet your machine will be h4x0r3d, but it's just not that way anymore. Start surfing the XXX sites that promise free goodies, or trading various w4r3z, and downloading music with your h4x0r program kazaa and yea, you will have problems.
Serves you right for being an idiot if that's the case.
And back to "being ready for prime-time" let me ask this (and it's an honest question, as for me, this is pretty much the only thing left, beyond some minor annoyances, that is, in my opinion, keepipng Linux off the USER's desktop), can I go, and buy a random piece of electronic equipment (phone, camera, video recorder, video card, sound card, webcam, microphone, etc.), bring it home, unpackage it, plug it in, and it just, work? If the answer to that is a SIMPLE YES, and not "Well yea but first you have to grab this special package, compile this, turn this on in system config, get the wrappoer for this, flash the device itself, or any other junk that, to the user, is going to be "arcane computer mumbo jumbo", then I would say yes, Linux is probably ready for the prime time. Last I knew of Ubuntu, it wasn't there yet. It was close, but not quite.
My own personal favorite is Gentoo. I like the control that I get with it. It's a pain in the rear to get setup completely (to where it IS plug & play), but once it's there, it tends to work pretty well.
Unfortunately, playing decent games on it is kinda tough. Oh well, back to Windows I go.
I find it pretty interesting that security advisories over the last several months have been on primarily non-MS platforms. Mac, Linux, Solaris, etc. have had many more security advisories than MS Windows has had to endure, and Microsoft, while certainly not leading that pack for response time, also isn't dead last. I invite you all to check This site which is April's list of security advisories. I remember seeing a review on security a short time ago dealing with response time from various OS Vendors, and while MS wasn't leading the pack in anything, they weren't dead last in anything either.
I personally think Linux has a lot of potential, and is a pretty decent OS. But it's not ready for primetime just because of the average user. Windows has a tough enough time with security because of the user (let's face it, 90% of problems are the user's fault). Sure, exploits exist, but you have to DO something. Users don't download patches. Users click on anything with an OK box. Same applies here. How many "users" running Linux are even going to know about this vulnerability, let alone patch it. Ok, if they've auto-updates on, perhaps they will fetch it in their next batch? In which case, good, and kudos to the distro for making that part painless for the user.
I've always wondered about Linux's wifi security, but that was primarily because of having to wrap up the driver of most wifi cards. Just seemed to me like a door just begging to be broken down. Apparently I wasn't the only one.
Piercings, Chains, anything that was considered "dark imagery", backpacks, purses, hand bags, cargo pants (or anything else with excessively large pockets).
THe school even ignored the angered cry of parents when kids started having serious back problems because of having to carry all of their books with them without the aid of a backpack. Then they had the nerve (8 months later) to say the back problems had actually been caused by the backpacks, and that's why they were banned (nevermind not a single problem aside from the occasional scoliosis sufferer had come up).
The police were called on my mother when she got in a vice principal's face because he wouldn't leave me alone. Police got there and my mom was ranting about harassment and we were both ejected from the school grounds by the police. That was after the sit-out protest. They tried to expel me, then i went to the local news station. They sent a reporter to the school, and suddenly they had NO idea what the reporter was talking about, some kid just played a prank on them trying to get attention. And suddenly I wasn't expelled anymore.
People say I'm paranoid. Well, there's a reason for that.
So yes, when I see a court case like this stick it to the man, it brings me just a bit more hope, that one day, enough people will be outraged to make a BIG difference, and win a BIG battle. THese smaller ones are setting up future battles that will ultimately decide whether we keep and regain our rights, or give all of them up.
As for the person that made the comment aobut how everything with XBox Live Marketplace being absurdly overpriced let me offer a counter view. I've had the 360 since shortly after it came out, and not until the last few months did I start buying actual 360 games for it. I do, however, have a TON of "XBox Live Arcade" games downloaded. The one I play the most, Texas Hold 'Em, I got while it was offered as a free download. And you know what? I've gotten more enjoyment from the Arcade games offered, at worst about $10 a pop, than I have out of most $50 games I've purchased. Those I generally play through, then lose interest. I will occasionally revisit them (The Sonic Mega Collection I got for the original XBox was one of the best games I'd purchased in a long time, just because it had all the Sonic Goodness (plus some of the mistakes) in one package. I barely play the Sonic games anymore. It isn't that I don't like them, but I've played them a lot. They dont' change much. In a single player game, once you've gone through it, unless it's a TRULY DYNAMIC game, there's not really much left to it. That's where multiplayer comes into play. If the multiplayer fails, the game fails. It has no replay value. With downloadable content, that changes things. Guitar Hero also has the added benefit of being able to play against, or with other people. It has ALL the makings of a GREAT game, with GREAT replay value.
Am I willing to shell out a bit more for a game that is going to provide me with countless hours of good clean fun? Damn straight I am. Everyone else can go sit in a corner and whine and cry all they want, in the meantime I'm going to crank up the sound, and have fun.
It's funny, the most enjoyable games I've played to date on the XBox 360 have been Guitar Hero II, some DDR style game my roomate bought, Texas Hold 'Em, Worms, Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I didn't even buy NFS because I knew the replay value on it would suck. Still, it was fun to cruise around in my souped up Pink Mitsubishi. You hear on the radio "Suspect is driving a Pink Mitsubishi". But we just got the Guitar, and DDR game. We've mostly just been playing Arcade games ont he 360. Oh, and Geometry Wars, can't believe I almost left that one out. FANTASTIC. Other than that, our 360 is used to stream media from our computers. The 360 is far and above the pittance we paid for it (We have the Premium one, 1st-gen when they still came with the media remote), and the content is thus far, more than worth what we pay. I've considered purchasing television episodes from the marketplace as well, and if I could offload them to my computer, I would without hesitation.
After 2 days the faculty caved, and let us carry our purses again (though they had to stay in our lockers, because then we wouldn't be able to shoot up the school with the guns we were all carrying in them). Then they started finding out who organized it, and suspended us for insubordination. About 3 weeks later, there was a sit-out at the school, which didn't end well (not for those of us organizing it).
Yea, I used to be a big pusher for people's rights not getting trampled. But after becoming so disillusioned in those years, then my stint in the Army, and current political happenings, it's enough that I'm willing to make /. posts.
It's sad really.
The original case accused the girl in question of identity theft, because the page she posted on was supposed to be the Principal's page (it was created by someone else entirely). When all that was said and done, they had to save face somehow, and so prosecuted the person and declared her delinquent for being "obscene". Counter damages perhaps? I would sooooooooo go after them for that.
The rant was also not about the principal, but rather about school policy regarding body piercings. Oh how many times I was suspended for criticizing school policy, and faculty for stupidity. Although in some cases, motivating the student body to protest can be helpful. My high school once told us we couldn't bring our purses to school. 2 days of every girl in the school using tampons for hair rollers fixed that one. On the other hand, those of us who organized that, were suspended for a week for insubordination.
I love seeing cases like this stick it to the man. It's sad that the Constitution so often (aside from being trampled daily) doesn't seem to apply to anyone under the age of 18. With the advent of the internet, however, and online social societies of their own, teens seem to be able to fight for a few more rights, and correct a few more injustices than they were able to even just 10 years ago. That's a great thought. Bolstered by victories now, perhaps the next generation will be less inclined to just roll over while their rights are trampled on than the current generation.
Time will tell.
Stupid advertisers.
Seriously, wtf is wrong with this picture?
Apparently the tax I paid on the money I made at my job, then the tax I paid on the car that drove me to the store, the taxes I pay that (laff) "built" the road I drove on, the sales tax I paid on the game itself, the tax I paid on the fuel for my car, the tax that i pay on the electricity in my house, the tax I pay on my house, the tax I paid on my computer which I play the game on, then of course the tax for the internet connection also required to play the game, aren't enough, so my play time gets taxed too?
WHen will it end? I know, how about a breathing tax. Gotta fund the planting of all those new trees somehow right? Gotta keep air to breathe! Wait wait no I got it! Let's tax death! If you die, you have to pay tax! YES! What? There's already a death tax? Damn! I so thought I had that one.
Is who do i have to talk to to download my 1337 space robot porn? Is this a new marketing/fundraising tactic by NASA?
I can't help but wonder when the first RIAA lawsuit is brought forth against Apple or MS for "Enabling Filesharing" by "Failing to protect copyrighted content". And then going after the HDD manufacturers for making access to the files so easy.
The end result is that a person's immune system no longer has to do it's job, job gets done for it. The immune system becoems weaker, they get sick more, then get more anti-biotics.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
7000 processors and 58000 hours? SG-1 Did that in a single episode! On a TV special effects budget no less!
Will these complex neural networks be running on Linux? Or can we expect Windows sludge?
In Soviet Russia, car drives YOU.
D&D, and games like it, allow you to become someone else entirely. It's been my experience that people tend to choose characters that fit into one of two groups. A. Someone who is their polar opposite (it's fun to do things YOU would never do, and not really have to worry about the consequences) or B. Someone very close to themselves. The "B" characters are not necessarily less imaginative, as it still allows the player a great deal of liberty, while being enjoyable and able to 'stick close to home'. For example, one might play a character who is super intelligent, possibly pretty wise, but lacks much physical strength and dexterity. The punchline? The character is a Fighter. Or perhaps a Mage with great physical prowess, but a few fries short of a Happy Meal. These types of characters are often the most fun to play, because they make for some rather interesting situations down the road.
In the world of anal retentive ACLs, Stack Dumps, tedious reports, and just plain dumb users, who wouldn't want to just occasionally fantasize about swinging around a 6' sword and lopping someone's head off, or blasting someone into charred oblivion?
This is most distressing. Why, pirates are already few in number, and heavily hunted. With this insidious new canine threat, the Flying Spaghetti Monster will become more furious. As you can see , natural weather disasters, globl warming, etc are all DIRECTLY related to the number of pirates (FSM's chosen Missionaries) in the world. If more begin disappearing, we're all doomed! We must stand as one and oppose his nefarious threat to our existence.
These days, not many manufactureres include any kind of recovery disks, though there are a few. But what you WILL see, is that everyone who DOES include SOMETHING (except Toshiba, who uses a Ghost image) includes a disk with ONLY THE OS. As for your key not working, MS uses different a algorythm (i should hang for butchering that) for each XP Version. OEM XP Home, OEM XP Pro, OEM XP Media Center, Retail XP Home, Retail XP Pro, Corporate XP Pro, OEM XP Home Service Pack 1, OEM XP Pro Service Pack 1, etc. etc. etc. So no, that key on the side of your machine is not going to work with the "Disks you have lying around". I have to wonder, with you so eager to jump to Ubuntu as a "solution", why do you have so many XP disks laying about?
Anyway, the no floppy thing does suck. Setting up a RAID these days on OEM machines is a nightmare, but only because it's very much a pain in the ass (XP is 5 years old, OEM machines no longer have floppy drives, etc.), but is is definitely doable. What I'm wondering though, is what you were using XP as a server for, and where you aquired this machine. And why would you be using an OEM retail (kinda sounds like this is the case) machine as a "Server" anyway?
Interestingly enough this reminds me a lot of a sale that I was recently asked about. A gentleman wanted to set up a server for his office, with 3 clients. I talked to him for quite a while. Retail machines are cheap, and depending on the exact needs, they may work well. But for christ's sake, don't be an idiot setting it up. And don't blame the companies for your ignorance. Gawd that pisses me off.
2. XP doesn't have extremely detailed, well designed parental controls. XP doesn't have Aero. XP doesn't have bit locker. XP doesn't allow you to control nearly as much when it comes to power consumption (mostly for laptops). XP doesn't have built in speech recognition (which is way cooler, and a lot better than /. would lead you to believe). So, now you've met someone that has told you several things that Vista does that XP "doesn't already do".
3. That wasn't what they were saying. They were saying that people WOULD be making the switch to Vista, simply because it would be preloaded on OEM systems. Much like how people ended up with XP. Few people actually bought it. Doesn't mean it's better, worse, or anything in between, they were simply making a statement. But congratulations on capitalizing on an excellent opportunity to miss the point and get in another jab at MS.
4. There are very few driver issues with XP these days. The ones that remain tend to the the MFG's fault rather than Microsoft's. As for compatability issues, I've had an interesting time getting some apps going, but the same was true for immediately when XP came out. These days I can run pretty much anything/everything I want without too much trouble, and Vista seems to be even more compatible than XP is now.
I've been using Vista for quite some time, and it's differences from XP are VERY significant. You have to take a look 'under the hood' so to speak, to appreciate many of them, but there are quite a few from the surface as well. But I guess that isn't as cool as bashing MS.
And everywhere, lonely geeks rejoice at the decreased download time for the favorite pr0n!
Windows 3.0 gets polished and becomes Windows 95? hardly, as these two Operating Systems are vastly different, with their only real similarity being they both run on top of DOS.
Windows XP gets polished and becomes Windows Vista? Again, hardly, as again they are VERY different. XP And Vista are much closer than 3.1/95, but they're still worlds apart. Feature sets are very different, capabilities are very different, overall user experience is VASTLY different, and checking things out under the hood a lot has changed, and it's kind of interesting to see just how much. Yes a lot of features were unfortunately dropped, but there is still a lot here to chew on.
I saw earlier a comment saying the blogger is a spammer. Somehow, that wouldn't surprise me. It's an MS flame article though. Can we mod front page articles -1 flamebait? ;-)
That said, I think this is a wonderful idea. Someone mentioned that people don't get excited over Operating Systems. Well, not when you put it like that. Just show off some of the things about it, and people WILL get excited about it. Wobbly windows are awesome. The first time I saw that, I wanted to install Linux JUST for that, to play with them. I think that is kind of the point here. It's just getting people to USE the thing, hoping the features will sell themselves.
Personally, I think it's genius. It also has the potential to help the USER to switch to Linux. Granted there is a pretty big difference in just running a LiveCD, and actually installing the thing, but many installers these days are becoming simpler for those new to the show. There's a part of me that wishes this would get more publicity, just because it has the potential to create some really good happenings for the Users.
In short, people would see how Linux stacks up against Windows (the good, bad and the ugly), and some will undoubtedly make the switch. As Linux captures more of the OS market share, along with MacOS-X, Microsoft will scramble to keep pace. This could create very REAL, and VIABLE competition for Microsoft, which I think would be beneficial to EVERYONE. The ONLY reason that MS is still on top, is because people find it too hard, or too inconvenient to make the switch to Linux (for various reasons). This has the potential to go a long ways towards overcoming that hurdle.
All in all, (and this coming from an MS Fangirl), well done. Very well done. The real question is, will this make it to enough people, and will it actually accomplish what I'm thinking it could.
Nope, but that makes sense if that's where he got it. He loves that site. I've poked around it a bit but, nothing too serious. Right-o then. I really should get back to checking that site periodically.
Bill: Uh, Steve?
Steve: Oh, uh.... YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA!!!! DAMN STRAIGHT! YAAAAAAARRRRRRR!
Bill: STEVE!
Steve: Right, whew. Just got a bit excited there... *twitch* YYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *toss*
Bill: So, I'll expect your next TPS report to have a new cover sheet, and go ahead and make sure you get a copy of that memo. Mmmmkay?
The problem with (America) is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be capital punishment for stupidity, let's just remove the warning labels from products and let the problem solve itself.
And yea, after reading the article, hehe. Wow. I wish I'd had the Atomic lab. Oh the fun I'd have had with that! Those bastards that snapped my bra in high school would have MAJOR issues now...
*Maniacle laughter followed immediately by a chase scene involving a bunch of men in white coats*
From Microsoft's Page regarding Advantages for Content Providers .
So no, it's EXACTLY what Microsoft intended. And the very fact that it's being offered by Google is actually a boon to Microsoft. They may be competitors in some areas, but this has obvious benefits for both.