I started out with you at Workstation version2. Since that time, I have never seen anyone really do Virtualisation as well as you did. Ever. Workstation is still sold with new features, and some nice pricing. I played and ran ESXI 3-5 and at each step its been accompanied with a rising tide of pain. No matter how brilliant a product is, if you start throwing in silly licensing and serious costs - and stupid complexity (in licensing) - well - you get what VMware is right now.
And the worst part is if you talk with their low and middle staff, they KNOW they still have the tech, and the cool. They also nod each time you state the obvious thing they can't fix. I have no idea who the board are at VMware. I only know they have the best product, a bleeding edge product, and that they have started the process thats going to actually kill it. Being the best isn't actually relevant. Being the best with a fair and sensible model means people will use you - and not lose you.
Right now, there are only two types of VMware (enterprise level) customers. Those who are paying with eyes watering and teeth grinding, and those who are at least looking seriously at moving away.
And I speak as someone who has serious love of VMware stuff, and they've reached a stage where they are so arrogant they don't even talk to me now. So I guess thats why HyperV sits in my racks these days *despite* being lesser to me.
The problem with being the best, and getting too serious a dose of arrogance, is that come the fall, there is no way back.
I'd really like them to get back to ESXI being the foot in the door brilliance it once was, and to having a sensible curve upwards in cost that people could look at and say its great, "what if we grow?" Now it just seems like growth? Haaa, pay us a lot of $$.
Its still the best virt stuff I have used. Period. But the gap between it and other stuff that works pretty damn well is smaller than its ever been. So they need to wake the fuck up and get real.
Far as I can see - Linux spent a few years in desktop terms - with video and people pushing it as a nice computer platform. And how did they do this? Was it by presenting broken, limited, badly designed, poorly thought out and new desktop window managers?
No, the whole thing was not based on Gnome2 or KDE, but it was often driven by Compiz. I know this is a gentle over use of generalising something - but its also true. If anyone thinks that people were being exited by Gnome 2 or KDE 4 - then they are nuts. And none of the others are anything new really. They are rehashes on what was around in various flavours.
Unity (ha, I laugh at that name, when they chose it they must have been in the pub and knew using the largest dose of sarcasm possible was apt) - was just someone senior - drawing crap up on a napkin, And the stories of 13 windows users, one OSX mac user and three monkeys called Tom, Dick and Harry just about fit. Its for tablets!! Yeah - how many tablets are in your eco-system. Well.. er... none right now, BUT there soon will be. Yeah. That was what - two years ago. So how many now Mark. Er.. well, we have some ARM stuff floating around. here.. there. Yeah where can I buy them mark. Er.. well you can't really. But soon!!
And the moment I start reading stuff like we won't put stuff in that MS is pulling out of 8,9,10 is the moment where I think insanity has properly struck. If others are cutting back their offering, reducing choice, you should be looking to fill the gap. And no, this is not a rant against tablets. Its an absolute rant against the theory that people are taking their very good sound desktop and laptop computing platforms - and are decimating them because of 'Tablets'.
I could apply the same to the lunacy of Gnome 3. At least Gnome 3 seems to have some loose idea of being something that is building up. Unity just seems to be broken. we won't fix it, and here, have what you are given. A desktop being presented with more and more cut down. And all for tablets. And seemingly by default no user testing from its own users in the offing.
It would almost seem as if Compiz became a pinnacle - and having seen that, devs are running away with 'simplify' as a goal. Compiz drew in more people to Linux than anything Unity has done.
Personally - I think shuttleworth should stop pushing Unity as the global desktop of his choice. And beyond that, while Linux offers choice - which is fine, choice implies that you have a wide variance from one end of a spectrum to the other. Choice ceases to exist if everyone produces poorer desktops, reduces function and capability, and cuts features. So everyone has to do what, Move to XFCE or E17 or whatever? Are you kidding me? Thats the answer? All the mainstream ones have gone wrong, so into the lifeboats everyone jumps. I don't think the current desktop situation in Linux really is offering true choice. Yes, you can choose one of 12 desktops, and guess what, every single one of them is heading for a mess, is unpleasant, is heading for being a tablet, or is a retrograde step backwards. Not one of them is actually a true step forwards. Most are a side step to give the users back what Shuttleworth is screwing up.
People love to take something like a computer. And they spend time in it. They reach in and put their ID there, and its an extension of their persona. The web is filled with people who have taken a desktop and they amend it and customise it, and make it their own. The idea of uniformity to a group of developers is a sound one, I get it. You want very sound ground rules, and APIs and fundamentals. But thats what you build a structure on. Its what you put a customising set of APIs on top and its where you hand over something that the users then wish to customise. But you are not building a desktop - or indeed any real product where you want others to use it for THE DEVS. You're supposed to be building something that people can step into, use, and then make their own.
The moment you get an over arching commentry from the devs
The linux filesystem (while I can live with it - its far from something sensible to anyone looking at it from outside). really is byzantyne and bizarre. This kind of logical tidy up/clean up should not really be attacked - and it should not really be seen as a competitor of LSB or similar, but rather that it needs to evolve and where vendors can clean and simplify the file system, they should be applauded. The LSB should always consider clean ups and simplification.
In the modern sense - Linux is reaching out to 'normal people'. Its filesystem by design was for the arcane, the clever and the developer. Its filesystem means very little, but worse makes little sense to actual end users. And if thats the case it is *always* worth rethinking it rather than just accepting it is what it is - live with it.
If an end user has to actually start reading deep technical notes just to understand the file system, the filesystem is wrong. I'm not going to claim 'Windows' got it right, but its filesystem has a more humane naming convention at least in part. Programs actually live in a Program folder. Thats a simplistic example I know, but/usr/bin means very little to the average person..
Amiga inc since it left Gateway has been a complete mess. Marketing a name and products, but offering nothing but rip offs, shambles and diabolical product plans.
Hyperion, peddlers of junk and broken software. Originally the two pitched up with a third entity, Eyetech and produced the Amiga One platform. A broken junk pile of crap unworthy of being unleashed on the poor unsuspecting public. The broken hardware all backed by a warranty system designed to be malignant and to rip people off because they were 'developer' boards.
Hyperion have failed to deliver a proper product, and its riddled with issues. Its carried on leaking with its foul stench across a very short list of PPC equipment, and now apparently you'll too be 'lucky' to be offered a new 'Netbook'. They are the only member of the original three still trying to peddle this garbage and primarily each time they find some new victim-able hardware they can hang their hat on, they start making pronouncements.
I have no idea how this 'news' got pitched as being tech news of any kind on Slashdot. Whoever thought it was worth posting as an item_is_wrong.
The standing advice remains. Steer clear of anything from this bunch of cowboys.
Here have a clue. The last time some dickheads decided its time for communism - they spent all their efforts shipping AK47s and RPG7's to as many people as possible. What were they used for - Lets see, War, Famine, desolation, civil war, bloodshed. Robert Mugabe and others decided to implement Communist doctrine, wreck farms, and drive through the idealogy. Was done in a myriad of other locations.
I don't think people like you have a right to tell everyone else people are starving. Now fuck off and die.
Someone somewhere has to provide the US with a wake up call about its current track. I don't think anyone would fundamentally argue that. Should the downgrade have happened? Maybe. But the Politicians are deeply split, and as such a downgrade is a reflection on how the world looking in through the window sees things. I think it needs to be borne in mind about the US that its just come out of a Gov that held all three arms of the executive. And it seems at least to me to have been highly ineffective given it had the opportunity to deliver things it wanted to. Now, its not got all three parts, and life is very much tougher.
The downgrade itself should not have been said to be economic if you present figures that far out. Is the world to place its faith and planning around bad mathmatics? Seriously? If the people looking in through the windows can't count, and yet they can cause trillions to be wiped out by the waves they start in their tsunami of reckless stupidity, maybe they should be brought to book.
Finally, one of the aspects of the wide angle lense thrown over the whole thing is the abuse of the Tea party. I'm not sure why. They are vocally speaking about a think I hear from many Americans I meet, that being that actually they personally feel the Government has indeed become too large, and is indeed actually not doing things how they see or think it should. And in this, a very democratic thing is happening. That voice is holding a place at the table and getting a say. It may be that had the old way stayed as was, that voice may not have been at the table at all. Now, me personally, I can take or leave the tea party. But I don't see any harm in someone at the table fighting for some curbs in the US, because as far as I can see, that deficit is cripplingly bad. And the wider question probably needs asking of your US representatives. 'Why is it the Tea Party are getting to raise this issue - when you should have been dealing with this years ago'. And thats the question that should be posed to anyone Tea party bashing.
It seems to me that its not really that the Tea party bunch are so bad. Its that the rest are near their equals in the stakes of being so poor.
I'm an Anglophile. I hope the US gets back on its feet soon. The world needs you.
How about this. Have we actually been through the best Linux desktops, and thats it? I quite like Linux, and its always been a struggle to keep it as a primary desktop for a number of reasons, but I always have some machines around.
I used to like KDE3.x moderatly. I could get on with it. I detest KDE4 - Huge stupid menu's and frankly a crap desktop.
Gnome 2. Simplistic but works. Apparently is all hacked at the backside, and the devs want to escape the simplistic desktop they made. GNOME 3. A steaming pile of shit. Apparently its idea is to be a touch screen type interface, and a complete screwup for a desktop interface. Numbers of users - 0% phone users - 100% desktop users. GNOME 3 developers and everyone involved are either the most stupid people ever to be left in charge of a desktop, or amongst the most arrogant. GNOME 3 is a steaming pile of crap. And any distro trying to force that on its users will pay the price.
Unity - Another GNOME 3. Number of touch users ? 0% Number of desktop users 100%. But they added a magic ingredient. Arrogance and stupidity in the same guargantuan quantities.
What does this mean, the linux desktop is devolving, losing customisation, and producing less and less choice, not more. The desktops users are choosing desktops *they* would not have chosen. They are being driven downwards to lesser desktops. And a serious note, GNOME 2 was a bit windows 95 in nature. Basic, and a bit lacking in customisation, saved by Compiz to make it 'interesting'. Without having that very desktop, one which many distro's wisely chose to use as their standard, Linux is heading for trouble.
And yes, I've tried XFCE, and others. Its no use forcing people to use a desktop 'worse' than GNOME 2 in 2011. If thats the actual way this is going, then fine. A fierce price is going to be paid on this.
Choices have to be made very swiftly, because unless someone continues GNOME 2 or unless someone comes back with a decent proper desktop - none of this is good. And the new primary desktops - GNOME 3 and Unity can't do multiscreen properly? In 2011? Get fucking real.
Facebook are a bunch of privacy stealing shitheads. Their motivation isn't sanguine. Its about unhooking private information - as much as they can, and leveraging it to benefit themselves. Companies who do this need to be brought to book. They should have no right to start dictating to everyone else that things go away just because they think its a good idea.
They can off course, choose to run their system how they wish, but they can shut up about anything outside.
Its really a high time that companies and individuals were remineded that information is damaging, and its misuse, over-release- and selling of isn't their ownership. And they don't have some magical right to it. And further, when their zealous activities equate to any punitive losses to the people, these companies need to have massive penalties as a reminder that this is not agame.
Firstly, before MS gets bashed (Oh, they did deserve bashing for not stopping it earlier) - The've released the change that stops the auto run on USB.
Second, if an ORG or CO has not implemented that change, then the fault is moved by a layer from user to 'admin/sec' and they should get the brunt.
Thirdly, to a nominal degree, if users cannot use the computer and get on with their work, including to some degree, plugging in a drive, then you have a totally broken system
Lastly, companies and orgs who have normals running as admin have bigger problems than just USB devices.
Hint; You can watch my basic vids on not running as Admin on XP for a kick off if you really don't know much about it. A high percentage of people think its not possible to run with limited rights so I made the vids to try and help anyone interested.
I've read through the suggestions, and many good ones have been posted.
But, we live in the cloud age. I'll suggest taking a look around to see if your compute requirements could be met by using an available resource in the cloud. The opportunities there are exploding, and hard to gather info on as its fast moving, but *if* your compute can be made to fit in and around something like cloud foundry, Azure, or perhaps Hadoop or other number crunching cloud ops, - the advantage is they only charge for what you use. So you can ramp up or down (at least this is the theory) your compute power to a greater degree and with more flex than you can by building all your own nodes.
(And I know, the question poser asked Linux, but with compute and cloud sometimes its good to move away from platforms, and focus on the actual compute needed. You care about the calc, and not about which flavour it crunches on..
The FBI and legal system did nothing against Sony.
If your claim that people had to get together to go fight a corp equates to the FBI kicking Sony in the balls, you are more stupid than you seem. No, Sony rootkitted people's machines and got away with it. If I rootkit a Sony device *I* own, apparently you think its kudos that they should have a big stick to beat me or anyone else with.
Having been round the block, I understand the issue from all sides.
I understand your wish for a service of some kind. But I don't think its your job to provision or supply it, and above all else, primarily, its not your network, or system. As such, nominally you don't have a starting position other than to take forward your request for the services you might like in the first instance. And the fact they don't provision something may not be a lack of service, it may be legal or compliance based.
I also understand that sometimes in research and scientific areas, there is in some orgnaisation some leeway applied. But in all cases, IT really has to be involved, and you have to end all the ideas that this is your service, on your network. Its not. It is a service on their network, through their firewall, and all the threats and vectors land on their plate and not yours.
Its sometimes tedious because in the real world - you get a full spectrum of IT, from very bad to very good, and often beyond your control or influence. There is another side of course. IT really only exists to provide services and tools to people, and sometimes thats lost in the mix. It gets lost in the storm that is lack of money, compliance, legal garbage, and budgets, problems, support, and so on.
After doing assessment I generally moved how I tend to do things over to Steam. 1. Steam has proven to be nice. I hate DRM, but steam is more than just invasive DRM. Its DRM that gets out of the way most of the time *and* has some nice things that are positive as well as negative. 2. I can buy a game, and put it on my PCs. Yes, I can only log in one at a time and play, but there is only one of me. Re-installing the game on machine rebuilds is easy and the games are patched for you. 3. I *actually* grew to like steam. I still hate DRM, but Valve and the people at Steam deserve serious pats on the back and kudos for actually making something thats good for game dev and for customers. I still regard steam as DRM, but its tolerable DRM, and its easy, and it stays out of the way. 4. Fair prices, AT least as competitive as any outlet, with masses of good value, special deals, weekend deals, and cheap back catalogue
5. 99% of people here thinking the cracks and keygens and exe's are better than DRM - wrong. 6. Malware is so bad, and security tools only shield you to a limited extent and can only shield you in limited ways. 7. Botnets, virii, malware has reached a level where its economic to infest your pc. The risk element is far larger, and thinking DRM is worse than the elevated risks means you should try and avoid both where you can, not avoid one over the other. Anyone downplaying the malware issue and current state of play has no idea what they are talking about and should promptly shut up.
If game devs build round steam, then I have no real problem buying the game from them and accepting its level of DRM. The only think I'd like to see is the ability to buy more simple activations on games that have 3-4-whatever activations, and more friend packs where I can buy 4-8copies for friends and give it as presents.
I've kind of ended up on GNOME in most cases. So these are just observations. On the KDE4 times where I fire up the distro, the nested menu seems to have been designed by someone with more sarcasm and comedy than Sinofsky. (Yes, Sinofsky, your Win7 UI and shell was on a new level of stupidity).
Do you like nested menu items where nothing is where you want it to be, and you are forced back or forward in and out of menu's? No idea, but not fun. In terms of customisation, I have to say its been odd to watch as Win 7, KDE, and GNOME all seem to have a theory that less, and less.. and less.. is more. Its not.
In 2.32 Gnome, and far as I know every version before it, you can have multiple workspaces, but the customisation is so limited that you are only allowed one wallpaper. Thats very 1990's and retro, but I don't like it.
And in general, I can't explain why or how we ended up here, but in the main, (and this is starting to afflict webpages, design, UIs and OSs), there seems to be a theory of My menu or tool bar is better, fatter, more useless, and more wasteful that yours. Fnaaar Fnarrr.
People seem to have thought that additional screen sizes should be offset by retarded dumn and wasteful UI, and a removal of the ability to really cut that down. And in 2011, new UI's don't come with a decent customising interface, no no, you need to go code your own in CSS. Bleh.
Call me a bit odd, but I'm reaching the stage where I've started to think it would actually be nice to have a desktop that was a user desktop, that could be totally skinned and shaped and made how the user might like it. And not just a sterile, wasteful 'locked down' branded desktop going by the name of KDE or GNOME or Unity.
Seems to be more important to have your name and brand smashed across my desktop than to actually deliver a nice dsktop to a user.
Now, in both KDE and GNOME, YES, I know, you can 'configure' them. But I've simply found them not very configurable overall.
I'm not an Apple fan. And I know a bit about Mr Jobs. And I know the good and certainly the bad in terms of Apple. But looking in as someone who has a small number of Apple devices, the technology is always interesting and neat as is all things that are newish in tech terms.
Mr Jobs used to present a true sales pitch each year, and even when I was not going to buy it, it was certainly fun to watch. As to the rest, I hope you get well soon Steve. None of which is anything to do with Apple, or its good or bad Aspects.
The company I work for is occassionally bleeding edge. They purchased quite a number of earlier 160GB Intel 2.5 inch units, and every single one has failed within 18 months. In a first or second gen product, especially bleeding edge arena, we cut people some slack. But Intel have not been good _at_all in terms of warranty, and the base fact is I don't think we have any interest in ever dealing with Intel again in the SSD area. We can tolerate the breakage, its part of being leading edge, but the failure to back the product up in a way thats acceptable is a no no.
Given the hype, frankly we expect 5 years from a unit roughly, and the fact every single one died fills us with a view that these have inherent breakage, and cold shoulder warranty. Not good enough.
The raw and cold truth is that contributors to all the open OSs can't really be vetted. Not in a meaningful way. And the number of people who are deep low level 'hackers' capable of writing the code is relatively small. The numbers able to code audit to a level of examination are even fewer. So yes, the code is open, the code is visible, the code can and could be audited. But here is the thing, being auditable is not the same as being audited. And personally, I would not be shocked if a full audit was run if something might be found.
That being said, this is one step better than closed source, where some of the above is not possible or viable, and in cases where money crosses palms, may in fact be unwanted.
Further to this though, I personally don't expect government to simply roll over and die. I expect them to take steps to try and stay one step ahead of bad things, and the relaxing of technology limits has benefitted people across the world, even if I were to make a case that the cost is that at the point of a pyramid - the goves can hunt down the world culprits and suspects. In some cases - releasing the tech in fact has your enemy using that tech after some time and you get to tap into it.
i.t. requires more cognitive power than other fields of life
I know I'm on slashdot, but seriously? IT people are smarter than Engineers, Doctors, Farmers, Teachers?
Hardly. You have one set of skills that you feel makes you superior to others. You can fix computers. This makes you the modern day equivalent of a car mechanic. And that is not to disparage the intelligence of a mechanic, just to show you that you aren't somehow better than everyone else.
In fact, unlike most car mechanics, I doubt you have a real understanding of the interior structure of the networks you administrate or the systems you repair. I used to work in IT, and it is full of the laziest group of people I've ever seen. Most mechanics at least like cars and know them inside and out, they can tell you a problem by listening. Most IT people open a work order, don't bother fixing the problem, close the order and blame the customer. When the customer actually demands service, they get bumped to a supervisor who finally might get an underling to actually do something.
Compounding all of this is your superiority complex. IT people hate doing the "mundane" tasks, like fixing printers or setting up programs, never realizing that their entire job is to do those tasks so that the rest of the company can actually do some damn work. I can fix a network printer, I can configure my own Citrix account. I'm not going bother since we are paying YOU to do it. I have my own job. (Though half the time I wind up doing yours too since IT can't even install an update without taking two days with an open order, by which time the client information I needed will be out of date...)
The IT people aren't the main focus of a company-- they are support staff and maintenance. Get used to it or do something else with your life.
I bet you do nice things for your sys ops on system admin day.
Michael Moore's body of work equates to a joke level quantity of monumental stupidity. The man has a political bias as large as his backside, but worse, he's not even very good at presenting his bias. HIs movies are garbage, and although they make make some points, these are often obliterated by his idiocy and institutional lying. I fundamentally object to the idea that you are going to uncover your political opposites who have 'lied' by presenting a pack of munmental bullshit wrapped in lies.
And yes, I'm a Brit. His painting of the UK NHS system - and the icons and artwork and pictures were obscene level lying that were unforgivable.
There is this pathetic peddled view posted around on the interent about this 'theory' that Americans are more stupid, and badly led than say Europeans, and others. They paint this false painting of their moral stupidity. Its one I happen to disagree with Americans are not all stupid red necks and so on. But one qualification for being quantified as pathetically stupid and painfully gullable is to go to a MM movie and come out the other side thinking something you just saw has some form of value.
As for Assange - Nothing more than an opportunist shithead who's fundamental driver is to make a stack of money. And he really does not care who he shits on. Has this piece of shit given Manning some money yet? As for Manning, don't really care what others think. He deserves whatever he is going to get.
As for the people like Pilger hanging around Assange, no real surprise there. Pilger stinks out any city block he happens to be in. Nuff said.
Assange is a piece of shit anyway. Its long since passed that Wikileaks was generically 'good'. And most of its work is damaging free democracy, serving soldiers, and important national and international information that has little to do with information and moch more to do with Assange's ever present hatred of the US, and anything he can dig up to further that political belief.
Contrary to this, The US and the WEST in general remain the beacon of hope and freedom despite their many failings, and this war on them does not further things like freedom, liberty, freedom of speech. And it certainly provides those who do not believe in those things with information, and intel and I am sick of it.
Hope. Was not that the so called banner from 'Democrats' during their endless waa waa about Bush. Not much needs to be said. Gitmo? Ha. Iraq? Ha. Afganistan, Ha.
Obama is gone after 4 years, and will be hated by both sides.
Mr Assange is a westerner. He lives with the privilages that being a westerner provide. He has some wealth, some prosperity, and the freedoms and privilages that living in the 'west'. Unfortunately, Mr Assange like many people in the west today does not understand or comprehend his position. He does not understand that with freedom comes responsibility. When in WW2 Churchill and Roosevelt made the atlantic agreement: - The Atlantic Charter established a vision for a post-World War II world, despite the fact that the United States had yet to enter the war. The participants hoped that the Soviet Union would adhere as well, after having been attacked by Nazi Germany in June 1941 in defiance of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
In brief, the eight points were:
1. No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom.
2. Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned.
3. All peoples had a right to self-determination.
4. Trade barriers were to be lowered.
5. There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare.
6. Freedom from want and fear.
7. Freedom of the seas.
8. Disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament.
This has been a base operative of the free world. Its fair to say that not enough has been completed. However, the US and the UK are still policing the world because frankly there is no one else to do it. And plenty who shirk. Decades later, these post WW2 decisions and building blocks are nominally carried forward and have been built on decade over dacade, and have provided the openness and freedoms where 'the freedom' of the press exists. And where 'HUman rights exists to an extent that human rights NGO's and organisation span the globe. But these have been built off the back of American and British and Allied lives. They were not free. They did not prosper. Many have paid the ultimate price so that people like Mr Assange can have a good life.
Mr Assange has now gone so far, that he claims he has some moral responsibility to out the mixed forces of good in this world, because as he claims, it is for the force of good.
Well Mr Assange, I don't take kindly to you or your antics. I don't take kindly to people of the left who do all their work off the back sof the forces they hate. I hope the Guardian newspaper is ever so proud to be associated today with wikileaks. They deserve each other. I don't take kindly to western citizens who have all the freedoms that it brings, betraying the men and women on the ground who daily fight for every inch to provide the freedom that lets scum like Assange have his nice cosy life. If anyone in our society has an issue with political decisions, one of the things the same men and women on the ground fight for, and die for, is the right for you, and anyone like you who disagrees, to partake in your country's free democratic life. You can become a politician, you can take part in politics and you can change the world. That is the right they go to the worst places in the world and stand in the mud and shit to present and protect. If you do not agree with your politicians, then mr Assange, spend your time hunting down material to base your case and to make it. But you will not and do not make the case by betraying troops on the ground, and placing many people in very dangerous places in pure, unlimited danger by your obscene and stupid obstinate belief that you need to leak this information.
Frankly, you are now getting people murdered. Not just the military personnel - but you are now placing civilians, aid workers, doctors, and many others in danger. People in the west like you Assange have an arrogance that your freedoms and privilages simply exist, and you think that your actions support your freedoms. You claim a serious motivation for you Mr Assange i
7 is nothing special
on
Time To Dump XP?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Win 7 has had some of its speed issues sorted out. But some of the glaring problems and failures from Vista simply remain and are not going to be fixed. Vista was not a good release, but unlike with ME where MS changed the underpinnings, this time they have kept them.
There has been some movement in terms of applications being recoded and reworked, or simply versioned up to close the hole, and many driver problems have been resolved. But older drivers, programs, applications - all largely the same problems as under Vista. Microsoft threatened to provide shims for none working programs and applications, but these are a sticky plaster over a bigger problem. We don't live in the 1990s any more. The enforced upgrade of hundreds of machines then now equats to thousands of machines (assuming a portion of general growth). The idea people are just going to hand over ever larger bundles of money for beta level PRE SP1 releases is really quite over. Given the state of the economy, and given the pain of trying to move, many will simply hold on until they absolutly have to - and will only change then.
Microsoft made the largest error in their history with 7. They changed the look and feel, moving many items around for no real reason apart from making it'new'. Thus the cost is retraining. They also chose the time to introduce changes at every level, breaking drivers, applications and programs, and the new OS only has partial compatability. They would have been vastly better breaking their OS into 32 bit legacy and brand new 64 bit, with a complete break from the past. They should have continued to fully rework and support XP and 2003 as the end of line 32 bit market supply, and continued to make money out of that. At the same time they should have introduced win 7 (or you may say Vista) as the 64 bit future OS. The infexible approach of saying 'we are ending xp' 'move' has no real reflection in terms of where the world sits on this.
In terms of 7 its still riddled with pathetic bugs (the deletion of a user and inability to create without having to clean registry all the way back to Vista is still there) and application, driver, and program issues are just as bad as they were with Vista. The fact is 7 has been sold across the tech world because some people wanted something new. And they for whatever reason don't see the bugs, or prefer not to talk about them. Or they cite its a new MS release and say its 'always been like this, and it will be sorted by an SP'. However, again, this is not the 1990's and people should not be 'beta' testing full releases for the vendor. Its riddled with issues on SMB/CIFS with older devices, it has numerous problems in terms of WiFi, the entire area of networking including VPN (PPTP is a spectacular screw up, dropped connections, or connections that no longer work as they should) - not to mention retarded control panel and network screens.
The only kudos I can really give it, is that the Vista speed issues and complete sluggishness of that has been turned round. But most of the very core problems remain, and are not going to be fixed. With that as a background, I think many people will simply not move yet, no matter how much Gartner thinks they should. The days of IT being handed money like confetti really died quite some time ago and the reality of this remains today.
Slashdot Mirror
Dear VMware,
I started out with you at Workstation version2. Since that time, I have never seen anyone really do Virtualisation as well as you did. Ever. Workstation is still sold with new features, and some nice pricing. I played and ran ESXI 3-5 and at each step its been accompanied with a rising tide of pain. No matter how brilliant a product is, if you start throwing in silly licensing and serious costs - and stupid complexity (in licensing) - well - you get what VMware is right now.
And the worst part is if you talk with their low and middle staff, they KNOW they still have the tech, and the cool. They also nod each time you state the obvious thing they can't fix. I have no idea who the board are at VMware. I only know they have the best product, a bleeding edge product, and that they have started the process thats going to actually kill it. Being the best isn't actually relevant. Being the best with a fair and sensible model means people will use you - and not lose you.
Right now, there are only two types of VMware (enterprise level) customers. Those who are paying with eyes watering and teeth grinding, and those who are at least looking seriously at moving away.
And I speak as someone who has serious love of VMware stuff, and they've reached a stage where they are so arrogant they don't even talk to me now. So I guess thats why HyperV sits in my racks these days *despite* being lesser to me.
The problem with being the best, and getting too serious a dose of arrogance, is that come the fall, there is no way back.
I'd really like them to get back to ESXI being the foot in the door brilliance it once was, and to having a sensible curve upwards in cost that people could look at and say its great, "what if we grow?" Now it just seems like growth? Haaa, pay us a lot of $$.
Its still the best virt stuff I have used. Period. But the gap between it and other stuff that works pretty damn well is smaller than its ever been. So they need to wake the fuck up and get real.
Far as I can see - Linux spent a few years in desktop terms - with video and people pushing it as a nice computer platform. And how did they do this? Was it by presenting broken, limited, badly designed, poorly thought out and new desktop window managers?
No, the whole thing was not based on Gnome2 or KDE, but it was often driven by Compiz. I know this is a gentle over use of generalising something - but its also true. If anyone thinks that people were being exited by Gnome 2 or KDE 4 - then they are nuts. And none of the others are anything new really. They are rehashes on what was around in various flavours.
Unity (ha, I laugh at that name, when they chose it they must have been in the pub and knew using the largest dose of sarcasm possible was apt) - was just someone senior - drawing crap up on a napkin, And the stories of 13 windows users, one OSX mac user and three monkeys called Tom, Dick and Harry just about fit. Its for tablets!! Yeah - how many tablets are in your eco-system. Well.. er... none right now, BUT there soon will be. Yeah. That was what - two years ago. So how many now Mark. Er.. well, we have some ARM stuff floating around. here.. there. Yeah where can I buy them mark. Er.. well you can't really. But soon!!
And the moment I start reading stuff like we won't put stuff in that MS is pulling out of 8,9,10 is the moment where I think insanity has properly struck. If others are cutting back their offering, reducing choice, you should be looking to fill the gap. And no, this is not a rant against tablets. Its an absolute rant against the theory that people are taking their very good sound desktop and laptop computing platforms - and are decimating them because of 'Tablets'.
I could apply the same to the lunacy of Gnome 3. At least Gnome 3 seems to have some loose idea of being something that is building up. Unity just seems to be broken. we won't fix it, and here, have what you are given. A desktop being presented with more and more cut down. And all for tablets. And seemingly by default no user testing from its own users in the offing.
It would almost seem as if Compiz became a pinnacle - and having seen that, devs are running away with 'simplify' as a goal. Compiz drew in more people to Linux than anything Unity has done.
Personally - I think shuttleworth should stop pushing Unity as the global desktop of his choice. And beyond that, while Linux offers choice - which is fine, choice implies that you have a wide variance from one end of a spectrum to the other. Choice ceases to exist if everyone produces poorer desktops, reduces function and capability, and cuts features. So everyone has to do what, Move to XFCE or E17 or whatever? Are you kidding me? Thats the answer? All the mainstream ones have gone wrong, so into the lifeboats everyone jumps. I don't think the current desktop situation in Linux really is offering true choice. Yes, you can choose one of 12 desktops, and guess what, every single one of them is heading for a mess, is unpleasant, is heading for being a tablet, or is a retrograde step backwards. Not one of them is actually a true step forwards. Most are a side step to give the users back what Shuttleworth is screwing up.
People love to take something like a computer. And they spend time in it. They reach in and put their ID there, and its an extension of their persona. The web is filled with people who have taken a desktop and they amend it and customise it, and make it their own. The idea of uniformity to a group of developers is a sound one, I get it. You want very sound ground rules, and APIs and fundamentals. But thats what you build a structure on. Its what you put a customising set of APIs on top and its where you hand over something that the users then wish to customise. But you are not building a desktop - or indeed any real product where you want others to use it for THE DEVS. You're supposed to be building something that people can step into, use, and then make their own.
The moment you get an over arching commentry from the devs
The linux filesystem (while I can live with it - its far from something sensible to anyone looking at it from outside). really is byzantyne and bizarre. This kind of logical tidy up/clean up should not really be attacked - and it should not really be seen as a competitor of LSB or similar, but rather that it needs to evolve and where vendors can clean and simplify the file system, they should be applauded. The LSB should always consider clean ups and simplification.
In the modern sense - Linux is reaching out to 'normal people'. Its filesystem by design was for the arcane, the clever and the developer. Its filesystem means very little, but worse makes little sense to actual end users. And if thats the case it is *always* worth rethinking it rather than just accepting it is what it is - live with it.
If an end user has to actually start reading deep technical notes just to understand the file system, the filesystem is wrong. I'm not going to claim 'Windows' got it right, but its filesystem has a more humane naming convention at least in part. Programs actually live in a Program folder. Thats a simplistic example I know, but /usr/bin means very little to the average person..
Amiga inc since it left Gateway has been a complete mess. Marketing a name and products, but offering nothing but rip offs, shambles and diabolical product plans.
Hyperion, peddlers of junk and broken software. Originally the two pitched up with a third entity, Eyetech and produced the Amiga One platform. A broken junk pile of crap unworthy of being unleashed on the poor unsuspecting public. The broken hardware all backed by a warranty system designed to be malignant and to rip people off because they were 'developer' boards.
Hyperion have failed to deliver a proper product, and its riddled with issues. Its carried on leaking with its foul stench across a very short list of PPC equipment, and now apparently you'll too be 'lucky' to be offered a new 'Netbook'. They are the only member of the original three still trying to peddle this garbage and primarily each time they find some new victim-able hardware they can hang their hat on, they start making pronouncements.
I have no idea how this 'news' got pitched as being tech news of any kind on Slashdot. Whoever thought it was worth posting as an item_is_wrong.
The standing advice remains. Steer clear of anything from this bunch of cowboys.
Here have a clue. The last time some dickheads decided its time for communism - they spent all their efforts shipping AK47s and RPG7's to as many people as possible. What were they used for - Lets see, War, Famine, desolation, civil war, bloodshed. Robert Mugabe and others decided to implement Communist doctrine, wreck farms, and drive through the idealogy. Was done in a myriad of other locations.
I don't think people like you have a right to tell everyone else people are starving. Now fuck off and die.
Someone somewhere has to provide the US with a wake up call about its current track. I don't think anyone would fundamentally argue that. Should the downgrade have happened? Maybe. But the Politicians are deeply split, and as such a downgrade is a reflection on how the world looking in through the window sees things.
I think it needs to be borne in mind about the US that its just come out of a Gov that held all three arms of the executive. And it seems at least to me to have been highly ineffective given it had the opportunity to deliver things it wanted to. Now, its not got all three parts, and life is very much tougher.
The downgrade itself should not have been said to be economic if you present figures that far out. Is the world to place its faith and planning around bad mathmatics? Seriously? If the people looking in through the windows can't count, and yet they can cause trillions to be wiped out by the waves they start in their tsunami of reckless stupidity, maybe they should be brought to book.
Finally, one of the aspects of the wide angle lense thrown over the whole thing is the abuse of the Tea party. I'm not sure why. They are vocally speaking about a think I hear from many Americans I meet, that being that actually they personally feel the Government has indeed become too large, and is indeed actually not doing things how they see or think it should. And in this, a very democratic thing is happening. That voice is holding a place at the table and getting a say. It may be that had the old way stayed as was, that voice may not have been at the table at all. Now, me personally, I can take or leave the tea party. But I don't see any harm in someone at the table fighting for some curbs in the US, because as far as I can see, that deficit is cripplingly bad. And the wider question probably needs asking of your US representatives. 'Why is it the Tea Party are getting to raise this issue - when you should have been dealing with this years ago'. And thats the question that should be posed to anyone Tea party bashing.
It seems to me that its not really that the Tea party bunch are so bad. Its that the rest are near their equals in the stakes of being so poor.
I'm an Anglophile. I hope the US gets back on its feet soon. The world needs you.
How about this. Have we actually been through the best Linux desktops, and thats it? I quite like Linux, and its always been a struggle to keep it as a primary desktop for a number of reasons, but I always have some machines around.
I used to like KDE3.x moderatly. I could get on with it. I detest KDE4 - Huge stupid menu's and frankly a crap desktop.
Gnome 2. Simplistic but works. Apparently is all hacked at the backside, and the devs want to escape the simplistic desktop they made. GNOME 3. A steaming pile of shit. Apparently its idea is to be a touch screen type interface, and a complete screwup for a desktop interface. Numbers of users - 0% phone users - 100% desktop users. GNOME 3 developers and everyone involved are either the most stupid people ever to be left in charge of a desktop, or amongst the most arrogant. GNOME 3 is a steaming pile of crap. And any distro trying to force that on its users will pay the price.
Unity - Another GNOME 3. Number of touch users ? 0% Number of desktop users 100%. But they added a magic ingredient. Arrogance and stupidity in the same guargantuan quantities.
What does this mean, the linux desktop is devolving, losing customisation, and producing less and less choice, not more. The desktops users are choosing desktops *they* would not have chosen. They are being driven downwards to lesser desktops. And a serious note, GNOME 2 was a bit windows 95 in nature. Basic, and a bit lacking in customisation, saved by Compiz to make it 'interesting'. Without having that very desktop, one which many distro's wisely chose to use as their standard, Linux is heading for trouble.
And yes, I've tried XFCE, and others. Its no use forcing people to use a desktop 'worse' than GNOME 2 in 2011. If thats the actual way this is going, then fine. A fierce price is going to be paid on this.
Choices have to be made very swiftly, because unless someone continues GNOME 2 or unless someone comes back with a decent proper desktop - none of this is good. And the new primary desktops - GNOME 3 and Unity can't do multiscreen properly? In 2011? Get fucking real.
The state of the desktop is diabolical.
Facebook are a bunch of privacy stealing shitheads. Their motivation isn't sanguine. Its about unhooking private information - as much as they can, and leveraging it to benefit themselves. Companies who do this need to be brought to book. They should have no right to start dictating to everyone else that things go away just because they think its a good idea.
They can off course, choose to run their system how they wish, but they can shut up about anything outside.
Its really a high time that companies and individuals were remineded that information is damaging, and its misuse, over-release- and selling of isn't their ownership. And they don't have some magical right to it. And further, when their zealous activities equate to any punitive losses to the people, these companies need to have massive penalties as a reminder that this is not agame.
Its a boring subject, get over yourself.
Firstly, before MS gets bashed (Oh, they did deserve bashing for not stopping it earlier) - The've released the change that stops the auto run on USB.
Second, if an ORG or CO has not implemented that change, then the fault is moved by a layer from user to 'admin/sec' and they should get the brunt.
Thirdly, to a nominal degree, if users cannot use the computer and get on with their work, including to some degree, plugging in a drive, then you have a totally broken system
Lastly, companies and orgs who have normals running as admin have bigger problems than just USB devices.
Hint; You can watch my basic vids on not running as Admin on XP for a kick off if you really don't know much about it. A high percentage of people think its not possible to run with limited rights so I made the vids to try and help anyone interested.
Skip to part 2 for the actual methods.
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6UIrdLAkFM
Part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osF6FS2KS_E
I've read through the suggestions, and many good ones have been posted.
But, we live in the cloud age. I'll suggest taking a look around to see if your compute requirements could be met by using an available resource in the cloud. The opportunities there are exploding, and hard to gather info on as its fast moving, but *if* your compute can be made to fit in and around something like cloud foundry, Azure, or perhaps Hadoop or other number crunching cloud ops, - the advantage is they only charge for what you use. So you can ramp up or down (at least this is the theory) your compute power to a greater degree and with more flex than you can by building all your own nodes.
(And I know, the question poser asked Linux, but with compute and cloud sometimes its good to move away from platforms, and focus on the actual compute needed. You care about the calc, and not about which flavour it crunches on..
Just my tuppence in this complex question..
The FBI and legal system did nothing against Sony.
If your claim that people had to get together to go fight a corp equates to the FBI kicking Sony in the balls, you are more stupid than you seem.
No, Sony rootkitted people's machines and got away with it. If I rootkit a Sony device *I* own, apparently you think its kudos that they should have a big stick to beat me or anyone else with.
No, you sony bitchboy, take a hike.
Having been round the block, I understand the issue from all sides.
I understand your wish for a service of some kind. But I don't think its your job to provision or supply it, and above all else, primarily, its not your network, or system. As such, nominally you don't have a starting position other than to take forward your request for the services you might like in the first instance. And the fact they don't provision something may not be a lack of service, it may be legal or compliance based.
I also understand that sometimes in research and scientific areas, there is in some orgnaisation some leeway applied. But in all cases, IT really has to be involved, and you have to end all the ideas that this is your service, on your network. Its not. It is a service on their network, through their firewall, and all the threats and vectors land on their plate and not yours.
Its sometimes tedious because in the real world - you get a full spectrum of IT, from very bad to very good, and often beyond your control or influence. There is another side of course. IT really only exists to provide services and tools to people, and sometimes thats lost in the mix. It gets lost in the storm that is lack of money, compliance, legal garbage, and budgets, problems, support, and so on.
After doing assessment I generally moved how I tend to do things over to Steam.
1. Steam has proven to be nice. I hate DRM, but steam is more than just invasive DRM. Its DRM that gets out of the way most of the time *and* has some nice things that are positive as well as negative.
2. I can buy a game, and put it on my PCs. Yes, I can only log in one at a time and play, but there is only one of me. Re-installing the game on machine rebuilds is easy and the games are patched for you.
3. I *actually* grew to like steam. I still hate DRM, but Valve and the people at Steam deserve serious pats on the back and kudos for actually making something thats good for game dev and for customers. I still regard steam as DRM, but its tolerable DRM, and its easy, and it stays out of the way.
4. Fair prices, AT least as competitive as any outlet, with masses of good value, special deals, weekend deals, and cheap back catalogue
5. 99% of people here thinking the cracks and keygens and exe's are better than DRM - wrong.
6. Malware is so bad, and security tools only shield you to a limited extent and can only shield you in limited ways.
7. Botnets, virii, malware has reached a level where its economic to infest your pc. The risk element is far larger, and thinking DRM is worse than the elevated risks means you should try and avoid both where you can, not avoid one over the other. Anyone downplaying the malware issue and current state of play has no idea what they are talking about and should promptly shut up.
If game devs build round steam, then I have no real problem buying the game from them and accepting its level of DRM.
The only think I'd like to see is the ability to buy more simple activations on games that have 3-4-whatever activations, and more friend packs where I can buy 4-8copies for friends and give it as presents.
So, observations.
I've kind of ended up on GNOME in most cases. So these are just observations. On the KDE4 times where I fire up the distro, the nested menu seems to have been designed by someone with more sarcasm and comedy than Sinofsky. (Yes, Sinofsky, your Win7 UI and shell was on a new level of stupidity).
Do you like nested menu items where nothing is where you want it to be, and you are forced back or forward in and out of menu's? No idea, but not fun. In terms of customisation, I have to say its been odd to watch as Win 7, KDE, and GNOME all seem to have a theory that less, and less.. and less.. is more. Its not.
In 2.32 Gnome, and far as I know every version before it, you can have multiple workspaces, but the customisation is so limited that you are only allowed one wallpaper. Thats very 1990's and retro, but I don't like it.
And in general, I can't explain why or how we ended up here, but in the main, (and this is starting to afflict webpages, design, UIs and OSs), there seems to be a theory of My menu or tool bar is better, fatter, more useless, and more wasteful that yours. Fnaaar Fnarrr.
People seem to have thought that additional screen sizes should be offset by retarded dumn and wasteful UI, and a removal of the ability to really cut that down. And in 2011, new UI's don't come with a decent customising interface, no no, you need to go code your own in CSS. Bleh.
Call me a bit odd, but I'm reaching the stage where I've started to think it would actually be nice to have a desktop that was a user desktop, that could be totally skinned and shaped and made how the user might like it. And not just a sterile, wasteful 'locked down' branded desktop going by the name of KDE or GNOME or Unity.
Seems to be more important to have your name and brand smashed across my desktop than to actually deliver a nice dsktop to a user.
Now, in both KDE and GNOME, YES, I know, you can 'configure' them. But I've simply found them not very configurable overall.
I'm not an Apple fan. And I know a bit about Mr Jobs. And I know the good and certainly the bad in terms of Apple. But looking in as someone who has a small number of Apple devices, the technology is always interesting and neat as is all things that are newish in tech terms.
Mr Jobs used to present a true sales pitch each year, and even when I was not going to buy it, it was certainly fun to watch. As to the rest, I hope you get well soon Steve. None of which is anything to do with Apple, or its good or bad Aspects.
The company I work for is occassionally bleeding edge. They purchased quite a number of earlier 160GB Intel 2.5 inch units, and every single one has failed within 18 months. In a first or second gen product, especially bleeding edge arena, we cut people some slack. But Intel have not been good _at_all in terms of warranty, and the base fact is I don't think we have any interest in ever dealing with Intel again in the SSD area. We can tolerate the breakage, its part of being leading edge, but the failure to back the product up in a way thats acceptable is a no no.
Given the hype, frankly we expect 5 years from a unit roughly, and the fact every single one died fills us with a view that these have inherent breakage, and cold shoulder warranty. Not good enough.
You obviously failed to read my first comment. Go back, you'll see the part (*I*) spoke about closed source.
The raw and cold truth is that contributors to all the open OSs can't really be vetted. Not in a meaningful way. And the number of people who are deep low level 'hackers' capable of writing the code is relatively small. The numbers able to code audit to a level of examination are even fewer. So yes, the code is open, the code is visible, the code can and could be audited. But here is the thing, being auditable is not the same as being audited. And personally, I would not be shocked if a full audit was run if something might be found.
That being said, this is one step better than closed source, where some of the above is not possible or viable, and in cases where money crosses palms, may in fact be unwanted.
Further to this though, I personally don't expect government to simply roll over and die. I expect them to take steps to try and stay one step ahead of bad things, and the relaxing of technology limits has benefitted people across the world, even if I were to make a case that the cost is that at the point of a pyramid - the goves can hunt down the world culprits and suspects. In some cases - releasing the tech in fact has your enemy using that tech after some time and you get to tap into it.
At least its an interesting story :)
i.t. requires more cognitive power than other fields of life
I know I'm on slashdot, but seriously? IT people are smarter than Engineers, Doctors, Farmers, Teachers?
Hardly. You have one set of skills that you feel makes you superior to others. You can fix computers. This makes you the modern day equivalent of a car mechanic. And that is not to disparage the intelligence of a mechanic, just to show you that you aren't somehow better than everyone else.
In fact, unlike most car mechanics, I doubt you have a real understanding of the interior structure of the networks you administrate or the systems you repair. I used to work in IT, and it is full of the laziest group of people I've ever seen. Most mechanics at least like cars and know them inside and out, they can tell you a problem by listening. Most IT people open a work order, don't bother fixing the problem, close the order and blame the customer. When the customer actually demands service, they get bumped to a supervisor who finally might get an underling to actually do something.
Compounding all of this is your superiority complex. IT people hate doing the "mundane" tasks, like fixing printers or setting up programs, never realizing that their entire job is to do those tasks so that the rest of the company can actually do some damn work. I can fix a network printer, I can configure my own Citrix account. I'm not going bother since we are paying YOU to do it. I have my own job. (Though half the time I wind up doing yours too since IT can't even install an update without taking two days with an open order, by which time the client information I needed will be out of date...)
The IT people aren't the main focus of a company-- they are support staff and maintenance. Get used to it or do something else with your life.
I bet you do nice things for your sys ops on system admin day.
Michael Moore's body of work equates to a joke level quantity of monumental stupidity. The man has a political bias as large as his backside, but worse, he's not even very good at presenting his bias. HIs movies are garbage, and although they make make some points, these are often obliterated by his idiocy and institutional lying. I fundamentally object to the idea that you are going to uncover your political opposites who have 'lied' by presenting a pack of munmental bullshit wrapped in lies.
And yes, I'm a Brit. His painting of the UK NHS system - and the icons and artwork and pictures were obscene level lying that were unforgivable.
There is this pathetic peddled view posted around on the interent about this 'theory' that Americans are more stupid, and badly led than say Europeans, and others. They paint this false painting of their moral stupidity. Its one I happen to disagree with Americans are not all stupid red necks and so on. But one qualification for being quantified as pathetically stupid and painfully gullable is to go to a MM movie and come out the other side thinking something you just saw has some form of value.
As for Assange - Nothing more than an opportunist shithead who's fundamental driver is to make a stack of money. And he really does not care who he shits on. Has this piece of shit given Manning some money yet? As for Manning, don't really care what others think. He deserves whatever he is going to get.
As for the people like Pilger hanging around Assange, no real surprise there. Pilger stinks out any city block he happens to be in. Nuff said.
Assange is a piece of shit anyway. Its long since passed that Wikileaks was generically 'good'. And most of its work is damaging free democracy, serving soldiers, and important national and international information that has little to do with information and moch more to do with Assange's ever present hatred of the US, and anything he can dig up to further that political belief.
Contrary to this, The US and the WEST in general remain the beacon of hope and freedom despite their many failings, and this war on them does not further things like freedom, liberty, freedom of speech. And it certainly provides those who do not believe in those things with information, and intel and I am sick of it.
Hope. Was not that the so called banner from 'Democrats' during their endless waa waa about Bush. Not much needs to be said. Gitmo? Ha. Iraq? Ha. Afganistan, Ha.
Obama is gone after 4 years, and will be hated by both sides.
Mr Assange is a westerner. He lives with the privilages that being a westerner provide. He has some wealth, some prosperity, and the freedoms and privilages that living in the 'west'. Unfortunately, Mr Assange like many people in the west today does not understand or comprehend his position. He does not understand that with freedom comes responsibility. When in WW2 Churchill and Roosevelt made the atlantic agreement: -
The Atlantic Charter established a vision for a post-World War II world, despite the fact that the United States had yet to enter the war. The participants hoped that the Soviet Union would adhere as well, after having been attacked by Nazi Germany in June 1941 in defiance of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
In brief, the eight points were:
1. No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom.
2. Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned.
3. All peoples had a right to self-determination.
4. Trade barriers were to be lowered.
5. There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare.
6. Freedom from want and fear.
7. Freedom of the seas.
8. Disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament.
This has been a base operative of the free world. Its fair to say that not enough has been completed. However, the US and the UK are still policing the world because frankly there is no one else to do it. And plenty who shirk. Decades later, these post WW2 decisions and building blocks are nominally carried forward and have been built on decade over dacade, and have provided the openness and freedoms where 'the freedom' of the press exists. And where 'HUman rights exists to an extent that human rights NGO's and organisation span the globe. But these have been built off the back of American and British and Allied lives. They were not free. They did not prosper. Many have paid the ultimate price so that people like Mr Assange can have a good life.
Mr Assange has now gone so far, that he claims he has some moral responsibility to out the mixed forces of good in this world, because as he claims, it is for the force of good.
Well Mr Assange, I don't take kindly to you or your antics. I don't take kindly to people of the left who do all their work off the back sof the forces they hate. I hope the Guardian newspaper is ever so proud to be associated today with wikileaks. They deserve each other. I don't take kindly to western citizens who have all the freedoms that it brings, betraying the men and women on the ground who daily fight for every inch to provide the freedom that lets scum like Assange have his nice cosy life. If anyone in our society has an issue with political decisions, one of the things the same men and women on the ground fight for, and die for, is the right for you, and anyone like you who disagrees, to partake in your country's free democratic life. You can become a politician, you can take part in politics and you can change the world. That is the right they go to the worst places in the world and stand in the mud and shit to present and protect. If you do not agree with your politicians, then mr Assange, spend your time hunting down material to base your case and to make it. But you will not and do not make the case by betraying troops on the ground, and placing many people in very dangerous places in pure, unlimited danger by your obscene and stupid obstinate belief that you need to leak this information.
Frankly, you are now getting people murdered. Not just the military personnel - but you are now placing civilians, aid workers, doctors, and many others in danger. People in the west like you Assange have an arrogance that your freedoms and privilages simply exist, and you think that your actions support your freedoms. You claim a serious motivation for you Mr Assange i
Win 7 has had some of its speed issues sorted out. But some of the glaring problems and failures from Vista simply remain and are not going to be fixed. Vista was not a good release, but unlike with ME where MS changed the underpinnings, this time they have kept them.
There has been some movement in terms of applications being recoded and reworked, or simply versioned up to close the hole, and many driver problems have been resolved. But older drivers, programs, applications - all largely the same problems as under Vista. Microsoft threatened to provide shims for none working programs and applications, but these are a sticky plaster over a bigger problem. We don't live in the 1990s any more. The enforced upgrade of hundreds of machines then now equats to thousands of machines (assuming a portion of general growth). The idea people are just going to hand over ever larger bundles of money for beta level PRE SP1 releases is really quite over. Given the state of the economy, and given the pain of trying to move, many will simply hold on until they absolutly have to - and will only change then.
Microsoft made the largest error in their history with 7. They changed the look and feel, moving many items around for no real reason apart from making it'new'. Thus the cost is retraining. They also chose the time to introduce changes at every level, breaking drivers, applications and programs, and the new OS only has partial compatability. They would have been vastly better breaking their OS into 32 bit legacy and brand new 64 bit, with a complete break from the past. They should have continued to fully rework and support XP and 2003 as the end of line 32 bit market supply, and continued to make money out of that. At the same time they should have introduced win 7 (or you may say Vista) as the 64 bit future OS. The infexible approach of saying 'we are ending xp' 'move' has no real reflection in terms of where the world sits on this.
In terms of 7 its still riddled with pathetic bugs (the deletion of a user and inability to create without having to clean registry all the way back to Vista is still there) and application, driver, and program issues are just as bad as they were with Vista. The fact is 7 has been sold across the tech world because some people wanted something new. And they for whatever reason don't see the bugs, or prefer not to talk about them. Or they cite its a new MS release and say its 'always been like this, and it will be sorted by an SP'. However, again, this is not the 1990's and people should not be 'beta' testing full releases for the vendor. Its riddled with issues on SMB/CIFS with older devices, it has numerous problems in terms of WiFi, the entire area of networking including VPN (PPTP is a spectacular screw up, dropped connections, or connections that no longer work as they should) - not to mention retarded control panel and network screens.
The only kudos I can really give it, is that the Vista speed issues and complete sluggishness of that has been turned round. But most of the very core problems remain, and are not going to be fixed. With that as a background, I think many people will simply not move yet, no matter how much Gartner thinks they should. The days of IT being handed money like confetti really died quite some time ago and the reality of this remains today.