The limiting factor is the eye. I used to use a hard copy terminal with 160 columns and a 224 option. Great for flow charts or other uses where you only look at a part of the data at once, not good for text. For code I usually work in a 100char window, but keep the actual code to 80 char, which allows a lot of indenting.
Many businesses and low budget users are using 1024x768 pixel LCD displays, which allow at most 128 chars using an 8x14 font, and fewer if you want a pretty font 9x16. Smaller fonts cause fatigue and are read more slowly in most cases, so fewer pixels in the font aren't the answer for long term use. There were studies around years ago when I was doing an office automation project, I'm sure you can find some figures on reading speed vs. font type and size. Code is easier to read in fixed pitch, prose is easier in proportional fonts with serifs to speed character recognition. And if lines are too long to read without moving the eye to multiple positions on each line, reading speed goes down and fatigue up. So display hardware and the eye are the limiting factor, and 80-100 is about the best for most people.
bootx looks interesting, sounds as if any kernel could be booted. I wonder how long it will be before there is (a) a virus to misuse the device, perhaps to call pay-for phone sites, and (b) when the iLinux port will come out.
Was this, and the root password in clear an indication that Apple is incompetent, or that they want the device used for many interesting things? I'd buy one if the battery were replacable, long trips need extra power.
Dell doesn't really need to provide a distribution of Linux, selling a computer with no o/s and certified to have working drivers for all hardware would be fine with many people. I would just as soon install my own, and I suspect many of the prospective customers would be willing, if not eagar, to do the same.
You can't support all distributions, nor do you need to support any, just provide working hardware, particularly laptops.
The whole idea of forcing metrics onto the country makes no sense. The metric system is already used in most places where it makes sense, our cars are metric, many if not all beverages are sold in metric size, and all contain metric size information. Car speedometers read in metric as well as miles, measuring cups read both oz and ml, etc.
Forcing change where it makes no difference is a waste of money and effort, and justly is opposed by anyone who thinks we waste enough time in non-productive ways already. Proposals like requiring every map and property deed to be converted to metric convince citizens that anything so stupid and error prone makes the whole metric system suspect.
Products and services which interface with other countries can be, and for the most part are, done in metric. But the idea that metric is in some way better morally is silly. Both systems are arbitrary, the benefit of metric is that it is more common. Let's let common sense and the market choose what and when to convert, not people who treat the issue as a crusade.
Like the legendary why do you beat your mother? question, there is an assumption in the question. In this case the assumption that any other O/S has a realistic chance of pushing Windows off the desktop in significant numbers. In truth, if the widely known Mac interface hasn't done it in a decade longer than Linux has existed, it's not going to be a revolution, but an evolution.
Why people like an O/S is somewhat like a discussion of the technical merits of blonds vs. redheads. I like the better user interface of Linux, with realistic choices for both GUI and a command line interface where that makes sense. People develop free software for attaboys, not money, and frankly how many will you get if you write for one of the O/S variants even geeks don't recognize?
People write desktop for Linux because it's the only viable open source alternative to Windows at the moment, and as a fringe benefit the Mac folks can use most applications as well.
I was part of a test program to sell SVR4 as a Dell product, and it worked very well compared to similar software of that time. But Dell found that it ran on other computers, and didn't want to sell it just as a software product. Unable to bundle the O/S with Dell hardware, they dropped the project.
I still probably have the install tapes around, DC600 format.
It would seem the new technology would be more reliable (when the technology matures a bit) since the new magnetic media appear to have better hysteresis characteristics. Once written correctly the data should stay written, so that in the extreme case the platters might be recovered even if the mechanism or electronics failed. Obviously only practical when the data have significant value.
Because Intel and AMD are competing, and beating on each other with technology, features, and price vs. performance. x86 is simply both the least expensive (absolute cost) and most cost effective (performance/cost) for most applications. And as virtualization moves from the mainframe to the laptop, there are no low cost alternatives.
The availability of software is certainly a factor; as long as Windows is popular x86 will have market share, and while Linux is functional on a wider range of hardware, it is still best supported on x86/x86_64.
The people who want to have this support should either do it, or pay for it, or forget about it. I'm sorry to see this service go away, it means I will eventually have to upgrade, redeploy, or scrap some systems, but I don't have the time to do a proper support myself, and can't justify paying for it instead of a more stable supported release like RHEL.
I'm grateful for the free support I have received, and I might set up a virtual machine for FC3 and rebuild critical applications from source as long as they will build, but I'm not going to complain at losing my free lunch.
Underwater forever assumes that ocean levels will never recede in the future. Not to mention that low lying islands have disappeared before in the days of sailing ships, the islands are in a river system, storms contributing, etc, etc.
Poor examples don't really help convince people of anything except the weakness of claims.
One of my regular columns was on the politics of this, but based on the nuclear winter predictions. I satirically postulated G. Bush justifying bombing all the countries he didn't like in the name of preventing warming, then discussed the politics of floating a power plant on the ocean to boil seawater and create clouds to increase reflectivity. The downside would be a big increase in rainfall, which would be a political problem, although might actually be used to reduce lack of rainfall problems.
Small payloads to deploy sulpher mist might be G-resistant enough to endcourage launch via magnetic rail gun, rather than rockets.
My first hard drives were back when GE was a mainframe vendor, and we had the mighty "DSU-10" drives, which stored 16M 36 bit words, and we used 6 bit (BCD) or 9 bit (ASCII+) "bytes." The unit was so large that there were mount points on the top for a small, 1m arm length, crane to pull platters. they were 1m or a bit more in diameter, and the unit originally ran outside air. Head crashes were reduced when an air filter was added. The unit was taller than I am (I'm ~ 2m tall) and had two independent head assemblies per surface. Independent as in you could seek to various places on each surface, not the current practice of moving all the heads at once with a single actuator.
Those were the days, walk-in CPUs, with every wall covered with slots for boards covered with discrete transistors and such.
It's true of 64 bit, the CPUs sell due to marketing. If only people who need the larger address space (or >32GB) bought 64 bit CPUs, they would cost 10x more, I suspect.
The issue with cores is even clearer, the limiting factor is memory bandwidth. Cores buy you less and less, and until a major change is made, such as going to NUMA on the desktop, more cores will have a poor cost/benefit ratio. That doesn't mean the technically naive won't buy them, of course.
It isn't always stored at room temperature...
There was a molasses spill in the port of Albany (NY) in the late 60's, a friend of mine was working construction there and got to hang from the ball on the end of a crane line and snatch dead bodies out of the result.
Actually given the time it takes to run a big engineering calculation and the time it take to hand optimize, for long runs it makes lots of sense and is relevant to users.
Also note that if this ever became more widely used there's no reason gcc can't be taught to do a much better job for this hardware.
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The issue isn't replacing the battery when it fails, it's being able to take a few spares along on a trip and not have to think about recharge.
Many businesses and low budget users are using 1024x768 pixel LCD displays, which allow at most 128 chars using an 8x14 font, and fewer if you want a pretty font 9x16. Smaller fonts cause fatigue and are read more slowly in most cases, so fewer pixels in the font aren't the answer for long term use. There were studies around years ago when I was doing an office automation project, I'm sure you can find some figures on reading speed vs. font type and size. Code is easier to read in fixed pitch, prose is easier in proportional fonts with serifs to speed character recognition. And if lines are too long to read without moving the eye to multiple positions on each line, reading speed goes down and fatigue up. So display hardware and the eye are the limiting factor, and 80-100 is about the best for most people.
Was this, and the root password in clear an indication that Apple is incompetent, or that they want the device used for many interesting things? I'd buy one if the battery were replacable, long trips need extra power.
You can't support all distributions, nor do you need to support any, just provide working hardware, particularly laptops.
Forcing change where it makes no difference is a waste of money and effort, and justly is opposed by anyone who thinks we waste enough time in non-productive ways already. Proposals like requiring every map and property deed to be converted to metric convince citizens that anything so stupid and error prone makes the whole metric system suspect.
Products and services which interface with other countries can be, and for the most part are, done in metric. But the idea that metric is in some way better morally is silly. Both systems are arbitrary, the benefit of metric is that it is more common. Let's let common sense and the market choose what and when to convert, not people who treat the issue as a crusade.
Why people like an O/S is somewhat like a discussion of the technical merits of blonds vs. redheads. I like the better user interface of Linux, with realistic choices for both GUI and a command line interface where that makes sense. People develop free software for attaboys, not money, and frankly how many will you get if you write for one of the O/S variants even geeks don't recognize?
People write desktop for Linux because it's the only viable open source alternative to Windows at the moment, and as a fringe benefit the Mac folks can use most applications as well.
I still probably have the install tapes around, DC600 format.
It would seem the new technology would be more reliable (when the technology matures a bit) since the new magnetic media appear to have better hysteresis characteristics. Once written correctly the data should stay written, so that in the extreme case the platters might be recovered even if the mechanism or electronics failed. Obviously only practical when the data have significant value.
The availability of software is certainly a factor; as long as Windows is popular x86 will have market share, and while Linux is functional on a wider range of hardware, it is still best supported on x86/x86_64.
I'm grateful for the free support I have received, and I might set up a virtual machine for FC3 and rebuild critical applications from source as long as they will build, but I'm not going to complain at losing my free lunch.
Underwater forever assumes that ocean levels will never recede in the future. Not to mention that low lying islands have disappeared before in the days of sailing ships, the islands are in a river system, storms contributing, etc, etc. Poor examples don't really help convince people of anything except the weakness of claims.
Small payloads to deploy sulpher mist might be G-resistant enough to endcourage launch via magnetic rail gun, rather than rockets.
Those were the days, walk-in CPUs, with every wall covered with slots for boards covered with discrete transistors and such.
The issue with cores is even clearer, the limiting factor is memory bandwidth. Cores buy you less and less, and until a major change is made, such as going to NUMA on the desktop, more cores will have a poor cost/benefit ratio. That doesn't mean the technically naive won't buy them, of course.
It isn't always stored at room temperature... There was a molasses spill in the port of Albany (NY) in the late 60's, a friend of mine was working construction there and got to hang from the ball on the end of a crane line and snatch dead bodies out of the result.
Actually given the time it takes to run a big engineering calculation and the time it take to hand optimize, for long runs it makes lots of sense and is relevant to users. Also note that if this ever became more widely used there's no reason gcc can't be taught to do a much better job for this hardware.