for this guys salery, office, moving, etc you're looking at what $250, $300k? ever seen how far $300k goes when it comes to world wide markeeting? not very
its like the company that bought the grilled cheese off ebay - think they could have come up with a cheaper way to get their name out?...maybe, but its tough
so I've got a Dell Inspiron 4000 that I absolutely LOVE. it cost something like $1800 but came with P3-850/128MB ram/20GB HD/DVD/2 batteries/etc.
the thing that amazed me the most about this notebook is how durable it is. The other day I was programming on it. Things were going great but it looked like it would be a long night so I got off the couch (yeah, I program on the couch while watching TV) and grabbed a cold one out of the fridge. When I got back to the couch I plopped down and the section I was sitting on fell backwards (it's a sectional sofa). About 2/3's of the beer went right through the middle of the notebook. In fact, beer went completely through the keyboard and came out the memory access compartment (directly on the bottom of the machine). I swore about 20 times and quickly removed the batteries. Hoping there was something I could do I went to Dell's site and found instruction on disassembling the machine. The doc had almost anything one could want (how to get the display off, removing the motherboard, CPU covers, etc). Long story short with about a half gallon of distilled water and some time its working perfectly.
Although it is true that multiple versions of Windows exist, the incompatibilities between them are minute compared to all the Linux versions. Even within the tiny domain of RH as many (if not more) version of 'Linux' exist than released versions of Windows
Because Windows is distributed by only one entity certain guarantees can be made (APIs/browsers/utilities). This makes the development of complex projects easier. In fact, it makes it possible. As a software developer I cant afford to risk my livelihood on the whim of the gnome/KDE folks. If they deside to alter the APIs I'm screwed. With Windows I can develop my software and feel reasonably confident that my code will work for years (I have many programs I use in 2k that I once used in 95). I've never had a graphical Linux program live more than a few years without major GUI rewrite.
In my opinion the dynamic nature of Linux is a double-edged sword. On one hand Linux is exciting. Daily new patches get released, new apps get created, and its plain fun to read about. However, quality software is difficult (if not impossible) to develop under these constraints.
In many ways I view Linux as beta software. It's not bad... in fact, its good. But there is never a version that is stamped as completed. And because of this if I want my code to work I must independently develop all components myself or statically link (which isn't that bad but it goes against my views of how quality software is developed).
So how can Linux shed its excessive baggage? Well.... When Redhat IPO'd I was very excited. I imagined productivity apps making the requirement of "RH6.1 or better"... but even that doesn't work because they don't have control over the developers. RH is a big gorilla, but they cant be expected to steer the community. Maybe if someone made a guarantee that they would only release yearly. RH2000 for example. This version would be set in stone and no major (API/application) changes could be made for a year. It would be considered the 'consumer' or 'released' version. Then in 2001 RH2001 would be release to reflect the year's development. That way an application developer would have something to rely on for the year.
Although I agree with the MHz/pointer/byte accounting the storage/heap problems are only found on the palm devices. Not to mention the 32K of contiguous memory thing. On WinCE programming is almost exactally the same as on a desktop. Just you have limited memory (but you can get pieces >32K).
I've quit following palm because programming for them was a pain, but a few years back (palm III) you would have either 96(+-4... my memory is bad) or 64K (PalmPro) for stack *AND* heap (not storage). After getting the networking libs we would have ~14K of usable memory. and you could make something like 4 threads? (and the OS took a few as I remember... but its been a while)
The CE machines are 100% different. You can get 32 processes, as many threads as you like and have as much memory as you wish.
My point is, just because Palm cant do it doesnt mean someone else cant.
Here are some OS's that I think are interesting. I'm not sure if these are the official sites or not...but they should be interesting to read about (actually, most of them are REALLY cool)
Dont get me wrong, I like Napster. Its just clear to me that the current CD model of business doesnt work as well as it always has. I'd pay a montly fee to legally use a program like napster... if I could get all the music I want.... Wouldnt it be great if we all paid for music like cable TV... and the bands got paid directly.... Everyone but the fat cats over at Sony would benefit...
Having unique distributions for particular pieces of hardware frightens me. In my opinion, one of the great thing about Windows is that I can go to the store where there is only one copy on the shelf. I don't want to be concerned with the particular pieces of hardware that I own.
If dozens of specialized copies appear I'm afraid that the public impression of Linux will be tarnished. Which one do I need? I know I have a sound blaster... but which one? Even though this way of thinking is ridiculous since the packages will probably be built around a commercial distribution.... I think the confusion will occur (and is probably what the hardware companies are banking on to sell their custom distro's)
Instead of having specialized copies of the distributions, I believe the masses would benefit more if hardware companies (or anyone...) would create a simple way to drop in a new device driver, no strings, every time. The user would go to the hardware companies site (or floppy/CD), get the driver, click on it and reboot (if required). No thought would be required... the point is that you dont have to do ANY work, or read any README, be concerned with your kernel version..... and it would work everytime.
I'm not saying this would be easy...but for the case of a motherboard that wont boot without the correct drivers, having a way to EASILY plug in modules during the installation would be great. Whatever the solution is, I believe it must be SUPER EASY.
a while back when hotmail got cracked, wasnt the procedure censored from slashdot? (as I remember it, the procedure was part of the origional post)... maybe I'm wrong though (my memory sucks)...
About a year ago I was in the same situation. At that time my grandfather was 81 and needed a machine for checking his stock portfolio. In addition, he wanted to do email and my grandmother wanted to do some word processing. Basically, he had been hearing about these computers changing the world, and how much money Microsoft was making... he wanted in.
My father and I fixed him up with a top of the line Pentium plenty of RAM, printer... the works. we got him connected with a friendly ISP and even wrote some simple documentation explaining how to do everything he wanted.
We packed the machine up, drove it 5 hours to his house, hooked it up and put him in front of the box... we even took 2 days to tutor him in the use of the machine. The idea of a mouse, and windows were very difficult for him to understand. not to mention connecting to the internet was tricky at best(old wiring in the house).
he mailed us the machine back in less than a month.
The machine turned out to be an embarrassment for him... its not fun trying to learn to use one of these things, especially when your getting older.
Our final solution was Web TV. HE LOVES IT. He checks his stocks and writes email. nothing more. He feels good about it since he's on the "information superhighway" and everything is going great.
PLEASE don't put Linux on his computer... unless you plan on maintaining it and want to embarrass him. (don't get me wrong... I LOVE Linux...) if you must have complicated machine, choose something that is *SIMPLE* and doesn't fail often.
Slashdot Mirror
for this guys salery, office, moving, etc you're looking at what $250, $300k? ever seen how far $300k goes when it comes to world wide markeeting? not very
...maybe, but its tough
its like the company that bought the grilled cheese off ebay - think they could have come up with a cheaper way to get their name out?
so I've got a Dell Inspiron 4000 that I absolutely LOVE. it cost something like $1800 but came with P3-850/128MB ram/20GB HD/DVD/2 batteries/etc.
the thing that amazed me the most about this notebook is how durable it is. The other day I was programming on it. Things were going great but it looked like it would be a long night so I got off the couch (yeah, I program on the couch while watching TV) and grabbed a cold one out of the fridge. When I got back to the couch I plopped down and the section I was sitting on fell backwards (it's a sectional sofa). About 2/3's of the beer went right through the middle of the notebook. In fact, beer went completely through the keyboard and came out the memory access compartment (directly on the bottom of the machine). I swore about 20 times and quickly removed the batteries. Hoping there was something I could do I went to Dell's site and found instruction on disassembling the machine. The doc had almost anything one could want (how to get the display off, removing the motherboard, CPU covers, etc). Long story short with about a half gallon of distilled water and some time its working perfectly.
-CG
Although it is true that multiple versions of Windows exist, the incompatibilities between them are minute compared to all the Linux versions. Even within the tiny domain of RH as many (if not more) version of 'Linux' exist than released versions of Windows
Because Windows is distributed by only one entity certain guarantees can be made (APIs/browsers/utilities). This makes the development of complex projects easier. In fact, it makes it possible. As a software developer I cant afford to risk my livelihood on the whim of the gnome/KDE folks. If they deside to alter the APIs I'm screwed. With Windows I can develop my software and feel reasonably confident that my code will work for years (I have many programs I use in 2k that I once used in 95). I've never had a graphical Linux program live more than a few years without major GUI rewrite.
In my opinion the dynamic nature of Linux is a double-edged sword. On one hand Linux is exciting. Daily new patches get released, new apps get created, and its plain fun to read about. However, quality software is difficult (if not impossible) to develop under these constraints.
In many ways I view Linux as beta software. It's not bad... in fact, its good. But there is never a version that is stamped as completed. And because of this if I want my code to work I must independently develop all components myself or statically link (which isn't that bad but it goes against my views of how quality software is developed).
So how can Linux shed its excessive baggage? Well.... When Redhat IPO'd I was very excited. I imagined productivity apps making the requirement of "RH6.1 or better"... but even that doesn't work because they don't have control over the developers. RH is a big gorilla, but they cant be expected to steer the community. Maybe if someone made a guarantee that they would only release yearly. RH2000 for example. This version would be set in stone and no major (API/application) changes could be made for a year. It would be considered the 'consumer' or 'released' version. Then in 2001 RH2001 would be release to reflect the year's development. That way an application developer would have something to rely on for the year.
Just my 2 cents
-CG
Although I agree with the MHz/pointer/byte accounting the storage/heap problems are only found on the palm devices. Not to mention the 32K of contiguous memory thing. On WinCE programming is almost exactally the same as on a desktop. Just you have limited memory (but you can get pieces >32K).
I've quit following palm because programming for them was a pain, but a few years back (palm III) you would have either 96(+-4... my memory is bad) or 64K (PalmPro) for stack *AND* heap (not storage). After getting the networking libs we would have ~14K of usable memory. and you could make something like 4 threads? (and the OS took a few as I remember... but its been a while)
The CE machines are 100% different. You can get 32 processes, as many threads as you like and have as much memory as you wish.
My point is, just because Palm cant do it doesnt mean someone else cant.
Here are some OS's that I think are interesting. I'm not sure if these are the official sites or not...but they should be interesting to read about (actually, most of them are REALLY cool)
Interesting FAQ: comp.os.research FAQ
Chorus Distributed OS paper
The Amoeba Distributed OS (check out the papers... I think many of the links are broken
Microsofts Rialto OS
who cares... really. this is a lost battle.
Dont get me wrong, I like Napster. Its just clear to me that the current CD model of business doesnt work as well as it always has. I'd pay a montly fee to legally use a program like napster... if I could get all the music I want.... Wouldnt it be great if we all paid for music like cable TV... and the bands got paid directly.... Everyone but the fat cats over at Sony would benefit...
Having unique distributions for particular pieces of hardware frightens me. In my opinion, one of the great thing about Windows is that I can go to the store where there is only one copy on the shelf. I don't want to be concerned with the particular pieces of hardware that I own.
If dozens of specialized copies appear I'm afraid that the public impression of Linux will be tarnished. Which one do I need? I know I have a sound blaster... but which one? Even though this way of thinking is ridiculous since the packages will probably be built around a commercial distribution.... I think the confusion will occur (and is probably what the hardware companies are banking on to sell their custom distro's)
Instead of having specialized copies of the distributions, I believe the masses would benefit more if hardware companies (or anyone...) would create a simple way to drop in a new device driver, no strings, every time. The user would go to the hardware companies site (or floppy/CD), get the driver, click on it and reboot (if required). No thought would be required... the point is that you dont have to do ANY work, or read any README, be concerned with your kernel version..... and it would work everytime.
I'm not saying this would be easy...but for the case of a motherboard that wont boot without the correct drivers, having a way to EASILY plug in modules during the installation would be great. Whatever the solution is, I believe it must be SUPER EASY.
a while back when hotmail got cracked, wasnt the procedure censored from slashdot? (as I remember it, the procedure was part of the origional post)... maybe I'm wrong though (my memory sucks)...
several years back a group of my friends and I went to comdex in Atlanta... we werent older than 14-15 then.... guess its a new rule?
Hello,
About a year ago I was in the same situation. At that time my grandfather was 81 and needed a machine for checking his stock portfolio. In addition, he wanted to do email and my grandmother wanted to do some word processing. Basically, he had been hearing about these computers changing the world, and how much money Microsoft was making... he wanted in.
My father and I fixed him up with a top of the line Pentium plenty of RAM, printer... the works. we got him connected with a friendly ISP and even wrote some simple documentation explaining how to do everything he wanted.
We packed the machine up, drove it 5 hours to his house, hooked it up and put him in front of the box... we even took 2 days to tutor him in the use of the machine. The idea of a mouse, and windows were very difficult for him to understand. not to mention connecting to the internet was tricky at best(old wiring in the house).
he mailed us the machine back in less than a month.
The machine turned out to be an embarrassment for him... its not fun trying to learn to use one of these things, especially when your getting older.
Our final solution was Web TV. HE LOVES IT. He checks his stocks and writes email. nothing more. He feels good about it since he's on the "information superhighway" and everything is going great.
PLEASE don't put Linux on his computer... unless you plan on maintaining it and want to embarrass him. (don't get me wrong... I LOVE Linux...) if you must have complicated machine, choose something that is *SIMPLE* and doesn't fail often.
-CG