Is Google really that much worse than any other major internet company? Compare to MSN/Live or Yahoo - I don't see any major difference in terms of privacy policies.
A friend of mine just bought a Dell XPS laptop because he loved how configurable it was. I bet there are plenty more people who agree.
It would make sense for them to cut customization on the more basic models (Inspiron, Dimension) but keep it for the gaming models.
As for outsourcing, I just hope their quality doesn't degrade. Right now I'm using a 9 year old Dell desktop that has been chugging along just fine the whole time.
If they hadn't made such an insecure operating system, we wouldn't have any of these problems!!
I hate that argument, because its completely incorrect. The vast majority of people who use computers have little idea how they work, or the difference between viruses and spyware and adware. If it's easy for them to do what they need to do, they'll be happy. Linux may be extremely secure, but the reason it is hardly used as a desktop OS is because the vast majority of people don't know how to easily do what they need to do using it. To meet all users desires, you'll always have to sacrifice some security for ease-of-use. IMHO, Microsoft has done quite a decent job of making this balance in Windows. For all the people who do know how to use a computer and want security, there's Linux and OS X.
The fact is that you'll always have a lot people who use the easiest thing available, even if it is insecure. You'll always have the people who turn off the firewall because it makes their IM program not work, you'll always have the people who ignore the 'This file may harm your computer!' dialog. As a result, malware, worms, etc. will always be a problem.
I used Linux for a while and loved it, except for a two major factors: speed and compatibility. I cannot stand interfaces that aren't 'snappy', no matter how nice they look. GTK+ 2 just wasn't snappy enough. My hardware is a P3 900mhz and 320MB of RAM - that should definitely be enough for basic tasks such as word processing and web design. So I bought a copy of Windows XP and did a fresh install. In this area, XP outperforms my old Debian install fivefold - my XP install boots up about twice as fast as my Debian install, and starting up outlook express takes about 1 second vs. about 5 to start Evolution. As for compatibility, to my surprise, devices work much better right out of the box on Windows. My next computer will be either a Linux box or a Mac. There are many things I miss in Linux, and these two issues are the only things stopping me from going back. If they have been improved upon enough within a few years, I will definitely be switching back. There's no way I'll be getting Vista, because Microsoft seems to also be sacrificing snappy interfaces for fancy visual effects. I think that the biggest problem in Desktop Linux is speed, and this problem needs attention sooner than anything else.
I have a PIII running Windows 98SE with Windows Media Player 9 - it is very slow to load. Most of the time that I open Windows Media Player, it is to watch a quick video clip - for this, I don't need the whole music guide and library to load. It would be nice if Microsoft would make two separate players - one to quickly play short clips, and one to manage my library.
On my Linux machine (also a PIII) I use MPlayer, which can play almost any type of file and is much faster. If I want to manage my music library, I'll open up amaroK or something similar.
I have tried Dillo, and I agree with you about the speed, but it simply lacks too many features (JavaScript, CSS, etc.) for me to use it. What I like about Epiphany is that it renders the pages exactly the same way as Firefox, but it is much more responsive.
On my Linux machine, I recently ditched Firefox for Epiphany. It is much more responsive and less of a memory hog. I love some of Firefox's features, but until the developers polish up the interface and improve speed and memory usage, I'm sticking with Epiphany. For me, speed is much more important than extra features.
Slashdot Mirror
Is Google really that much worse than any other major internet company? Compare to MSN/Live or Yahoo - I don't see any major difference in terms of privacy policies.
Care to prove me wrong?
A friend of mine just bought a Dell XPS laptop because he loved how configurable it was. I bet there are plenty more people who agree. It would make sense for them to cut customization on the more basic models (Inspiron, Dimension) but keep it for the gaming models. As for outsourcing, I just hope their quality doesn't degrade. Right now I'm using a 9 year old Dell desktop that has been chugging along just fine the whole time.
I, for one, welcome our William T. Lord overlord.
For those who find it fishy that there's no article link for this story, here is one: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/02/14/21 2102/pictures-navigational-software-glitch-forces- lockheed-martin-f-22-raptors-back-to-hawaii.html
$15,000?!?! I've never seen such a good boxing day deal at Best Buy! Count me in!
If they hadn't made such an insecure operating system, we wouldn't have any of these problems!!
I hate that argument, because its completely incorrect. The vast majority of people who use computers have little idea how they work, or the difference between viruses and spyware and adware. If it's easy for them to do what they need to do, they'll be happy. Linux may be extremely secure, but the reason it is hardly used as a desktop OS is because the vast majority of people don't know how to easily do what they need to do using it. To meet all users desires, you'll always have to sacrifice some security for ease-of-use. IMHO, Microsoft has done quite a decent job of making this balance in Windows. For all the people who do know how to use a computer and want security, there's Linux and OS X.
The fact is that you'll always have a lot people who use the easiest thing available, even if it is insecure. You'll always have the people who turn off the firewall because it makes their IM program not work, you'll always have the people who ignore the 'This file may harm your computer!' dialog. As a result, malware, worms, etc. will always be a problem.
I used Linux for a while and loved it, except for a two major factors: speed and compatibility. I cannot stand interfaces that aren't 'snappy', no matter how nice they look. GTK+ 2 just wasn't snappy enough. My hardware is a P3 900mhz and 320MB of RAM - that should definitely be enough for basic tasks such as word processing and web design. So I bought a copy of Windows XP and did a fresh install. In this area, XP outperforms my old Debian install fivefold - my XP install boots up about twice as fast as my Debian install, and starting up outlook express takes about 1 second vs. about 5 to start Evolution. As for compatibility, to my surprise, devices work much better right out of the box on Windows. My next computer will be either a Linux box or a Mac. There are many things I miss in Linux, and these two issues are the only things stopping me from going back. If they have been improved upon enough within a few years, I will definitely be switching back. There's no way I'll be getting Vista, because Microsoft seems to also be sacrificing snappy interfaces for fancy visual effects. I think that the biggest problem in Desktop Linux is speed, and this problem needs attention sooner than anything else.
Isn't Slashdot's motto "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters."? This seems to be neither...
The one on the website isn't great quality anyways, here's the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaIUkwPybtM
I have a PIII running Windows 98SE with Windows Media Player 9 - it is very slow to load. Most of the time that I open Windows Media Player, it is to watch a quick video clip - for this, I don't need the whole music guide and library to load. It would be nice if Microsoft would make two separate players - one to quickly play short clips, and one to manage my library.
On my Linux machine (also a PIII) I use MPlayer, which can play almost any type of file and is much faster. If I want to manage my music library, I'll open up amaroK or something similar.
I have tried Dillo, and I agree with you about the speed, but it simply lacks too many features (JavaScript, CSS, etc.) for me to use it. What I like about Epiphany is that it renders the pages exactly the same way as Firefox, but it is much more responsive.
On my Linux machine, I recently ditched Firefox for Epiphany. It is much more responsive and less of a memory hog. I love some of Firefox's features, but until the developers polish up the interface and improve speed and memory usage, I'm sticking with Epiphany. For me, speed is much more important than extra features.