And how much of that spyware/malware was installed by the user?
Seriously, you can't make any OS that can protect against ignorant users. Ever. Blame Microsoft if you want, but at least make sure when you do that you're blaming the right person. If this user was running Ubuntu, and got a alert in Firefox saying "do you want to install X?" what are the chances they'd say yes? Until you can prove that all of those spyware/malware programs were installed without the user's knowledge, how can you blame Windows?
We're seeing a coming depression that is unique in that it will only affect the middle class. I reflect on the anger and aggression with which my credit card company deals with me and my wife just because we pay our bill in full every month. Our banker is shocked because we have paid our mortgage and aren't interested in refinancing our home "to pay bills, take a vacation. Living within our means, not participating in the orgy of consumerism makes us the enemy of those that would see us become indentured.
What the EU should be doing is encouraging domestic (European) competition for Microsoft. Apparently, European companies were all kind of dozing off in the early 90s when Microsoft was developing great products, setting up their sales and distribution, and becoming a monopoly. Think about how screwed up it is that a country of 60 million people, all of whom speak French, buy their operating system from an American company that speaks English. 60 million people is more than enough to support a domestic OS; where is it?
That said, punishing successful companies is stupid. Those companies are successful because they offer something that other companies do not-- maybe it's lower cost, like Wal-Mart, maybe it's better product integration, like Microsoft, or maybe it's higher quality, like Japanese auto-makers. If you want to dethrone Microsoft, make a product that's significantly better than Windows and Office and beat them at their own game... if you fail, well, business is cut-throat. (Of course, the EU doesn't care because Microsoft is a successful American company. They'd never do the same to a successful European company.)
Government should be in the business of encouraging business, and that includes getting out of the way of successful businesses and letting them do their thing.
Apple used PPC chips to emulate Motorola 68k CPUs for ages. They only recently stopped supporting that configuration, with the switch to Intel. (Now Apple has their Intel Core CPUs emulating the PPC CPUs.)
The coolest part is that when Apple does an architecture switch like this, their emulation is so fast and bug-free (not 100%, but good) that you couldn't even tell the difference between running a 68k program or a PPC program most of the time.
Even as recently as last year, there were people here on Slashdot extolling the virtues of Windows 2000 over XP. They gave the exact same reasons that are given now for avoiding Vista: too much eye-candy, not enough real improvement. I think there's just always a population of 'we hate to upgrade' people around, and most of them hang out on Slashdot.
After-all, what's Slashdot's favorite OS? Linux, because it can run software from the 70s and even earlier. Their favorite text editors both predate GUIs and IDEs. They just hate to upgrade.
I think (i do not know - so back off, i'm guessing) that there is some kind of problem with Vista and video... at least, i'm seeing a trend.
I don't think this even counts as "guessing." Maybe "flailing around wild assertions."
What "trend" are you seeing? That some dude who posted on Slashdot had a problem with his Toshiba and you had a problem with your Mac in the same week? Seriously? Or do you have some actual... what's what word... oh yeah, *data* to support this 'trend?'
Come on, Slashdotters. If I said, "I think there's a trend with OS X and having tacky desktop backgrounds! I saw it on two computers today!" would you mod that up to +5 as well?
I don't mind these snarky, moronic "Linux is the answer to everything" posts, on the assumption that the author is trying to be funny. What I mind is that they get modded up EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Jokes are only funny the first time, Mods. The four-thousandth time? Not funny.
They also changed video card vendors, and from my understanding, shaders in video cards use different code for different vendors. There's really a lot of reasons that it's hard for a Xbox 360 to emulate an OG Xbox game.
And "it's used by video games" isn't an ideology? Why would anybody ever give a crap what video games stored their music in? By that logic, we'd all be using Intel's Indeo codec for every piece of video everywhere.
But the main point you're leaving out is that iTunes and Windows Media Player won't play it. (Yes, yes, there are plug-ins. But average Joes don't do plug-ins.)
We signed a looong lease before the revolution. If we tried to buy land in Cuba now to build a base, Castro would say "no way." But he's bound to honor the old agreement.
Because the *real* reason they give people OGG is so, when those people come back and say "I can't play this," they can give a long, boring lecture about how evil proprietary software and formats are. If they just used ACC, it'd work a lot more often and they wouldn't be able to give the lecture. Incidentally, this is also why open source users have so few friends.:)
Yeah, I had that exact same problem when I tried to install the last version on my iBook.
Installing networking drivers, especially wireless ones, should never require a network connection. And every open source developer should be forced to read Catch-22.
What if you just came in from the cold and your fingers are stiff? What if you're using your laptop on your lap... top... and don't type the same way you do at your desk?
Before Safari, Apple either shipped no browser on their OS CDs, or they shipped both Netscape and IE on the CD so users could install both. The simple fact is that the vast majority of Mac users back in the early 00s used IE because IE 4 was plain better than Netscape 4. Then Netscape fell off the planet and didn't update their software to compete while IE got better and better. (It didn't help that Netscape stopped shipping a web browser and instead only shipped a 'Communicator' which a whole bunch of features nobody liked or wanted.)
I can't speak for the Windows market, but on the Macintosh IE was almost universally used before Safari and Firefox came out because it was a better product than the competition.
Has anybody on Slashdot thought that maybe Microsoft made those extensions because they thought it would be a useful feature and their users were asking for it?
It's silly to automatically assume the worst about an action. Back when IE was being built, Netscape took the exact same liberties with supporting the 'standard' and Netscape never got any flack about it. Why does Microsoft? Oh right; hypocrisy.
Ever heard the phrase "you only have one chance to make a first impression?"
Applies to software, too.
Sure you say he should try Firefox again now that it's bumped up a version and improved. But I'm going to wager (this being Slashdot) that you're unwilling to install and try out RealPlayer again. Right?
Now that IE7 has tabs, I actually prefer it to Firefox. There's nothing wrong with that, and I'm not stupid and I'm certainly not lazy. I actually use Safari most of the time, as I'm a Mac user at home, but at work I prefer IE 7 to Firefox.
I thought the whole Slashdot vibe was that it's good to have a lot of choices. Now apparently the highest moderated post says you're stupid and lazy if you happen to choose something other than Firefox. (Out of curiosity, are Opera users stupid and lazy, also? Opera isn't open source.)
MySQL's dual-license scheme is about the most complicated thing on earth. Do I have to pay a licensing fee for this install? Who knows! Maybe a highly-paid lawyer, but no mere mortal can figure it out.
I dunno, maybe this was a few years ago, but it was definitely a huge problem then. Since the DB had to be (basically) embedded, and was going to stay small and mostly static, I actually opted for SQLite instead. No confusion about SQLite's license.
Slashdot Mirror
And how much of that spyware/malware was installed by the user?
Seriously, you can't make any OS that can protect against ignorant users. Ever. Blame Microsoft if you want, but at least make sure when you do that you're blaming the right person. If this user was running Ubuntu, and got a alert in Firefox saying "do you want to install X?" what are the chances they'd say yes? Until you can prove that all of those spyware/malware programs were installed without the user's knowledge, how can you blame Windows?
How about explaining those bold-faced terms?
What's "vendor-tunnels?" What's "sneak and peek?" What "special privileges?"
If you're going through the effort to emphasize them, you could at least define them.
We're seeing a coming depression that is unique in that it will only affect the middle class. I reflect on the anger and aggression with which my credit card company deals with me and my wife just because we pay our bill in full every month. Our banker is shocked because we have paid our mortgage and aren't interested in refinancing our home "to pay bills, take a vacation. Living within our means, not participating in the orgy of consumerism makes us the enemy of those that would see us become indentured.
Paranoid much?
What the EU should be doing is encouraging domestic (European) competition for Microsoft. Apparently, European companies were all kind of dozing off in the early 90s when Microsoft was developing great products, setting up their sales and distribution, and becoming a monopoly. Think about how screwed up it is that a country of 60 million people, all of whom speak French, buy their operating system from an American company that speaks English. 60 million people is more than enough to support a domestic OS; where is it?
That said, punishing successful companies is stupid. Those companies are successful because they offer something that other companies do not-- maybe it's lower cost, like Wal-Mart, maybe it's better product integration, like Microsoft, or maybe it's higher quality, like Japanese auto-makers. If you want to dethrone Microsoft, make a product that's significantly better than Windows and Office and beat them at their own game... if you fail, well, business is cut-throat. (Of course, the EU doesn't care because Microsoft is a successful American company. They'd never do the same to a successful European company.)
Government should be in the business of encouraging business, and that includes getting out of the way of successful businesses and letting them do their thing.
Eh, they have to put something on the screen. What would you recommend?
Apple used PPC chips to emulate Motorola 68k CPUs for ages. They only recently stopped supporting that configuration, with the switch to Intel. (Now Apple has their Intel Core CPUs emulating the PPC CPUs.)
The coolest part is that when Apple does an architecture switch like this, their emulation is so fast and bug-free (not 100%, but good) that you couldn't even tell the difference between running a 68k program or a PPC program most of the time.
Even as recently as last year, there were people here on Slashdot extolling the virtues of Windows 2000 over XP. They gave the exact same reasons that are given now for avoiding Vista: too much eye-candy, not enough real improvement. I think there's just always a population of 'we hate to upgrade' people around, and most of them hang out on Slashdot.
After-all, what's Slashdot's favorite OS? Linux, because it can run software from the 70s and even earlier. Their favorite text editors both predate GUIs and IDEs. They just hate to upgrade.
I think (i do not know - so back off, i'm guessing) that there is some kind of problem with Vista and video... at least, i'm seeing a trend.
I don't think this even counts as "guessing." Maybe "flailing around wild assertions."
What "trend" are you seeing? That some dude who posted on Slashdot had a problem with his Toshiba and you had a problem with your Mac in the same week? Seriously? Or do you have some actual... what's what word... oh yeah, *data* to support this 'trend?'
Come on, Slashdotters. If I said, "I think there's a trend with OS X and having tacky desktop backgrounds! I saw it on two computers today!" would you mod that up to +5 as well?
Because Linux has such great tablet support?
I don't mind these snarky, moronic "Linux is the answer to everything" posts, on the assumption that the author is trying to be funny. What I mind is that they get modded up EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Jokes are only funny the first time, Mods. The four-thousandth time? Not funny.
They also changed video card vendors, and from my understanding, shaders in video cards use different code for different vendors. There's really a lot of reasons that it's hard for a Xbox 360 to emulate an OG Xbox game.
And "it's used by video games" isn't an ideology? Why would anybody ever give a crap what video games stored their music in? By that logic, we'd all be using Intel's Indeo codec for every piece of video everywhere.
But the main point you're leaving out is that iTunes and Windows Media Player won't play it. (Yes, yes, there are plug-ins. But average Joes don't do plug-ins.)
We signed a looong lease before the revolution. If we tried to buy land in Cuba now to build a base, Castro would say "no way." But he's bound to honor the old agreement.
Because the *real* reason they give people OGG is so, when those people come back and say "I can't play this," they can give a long, boring lecture about how evil proprietary software and formats are. If they just used ACC, it'd work a lot more often and they wouldn't be able to give the lecture. Incidentally, this is also why open source users have so few friends. :)
Newbies won't need to play DVDs?
Yeah, I had that exact same problem when I tried to install the last version on my iBook.
Installing networking drivers, especially wireless ones, should never require a network connection. And every open source developer should be forced to read Catch-22.
What if you just came in from the cold and your fingers are stiff? What if you're using your laptop on your lap... top... and don't type the same way you do at your desk?
This is a stupid idea.
I thought Ubuntu was supposed to be for human beings, not IRC-dwelling trolls.
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 cards *do not* work, despite all documentation claiming they do.
It's true for almost all Mac users.
Before Safari, Apple either shipped no browser on their OS CDs, or they shipped both Netscape and IE on the CD so users could install both. The simple fact is that the vast majority of Mac users back in the early 00s used IE because IE 4 was plain better than Netscape 4. Then Netscape fell off the planet and didn't update their software to compete while IE got better and better. (It didn't help that Netscape stopped shipping a web browser and instead only shipped a 'Communicator' which a whole bunch of features nobody liked or wanted.)
I can't speak for the Windows market, but on the Macintosh IE was almost universally used before Safari and Firefox came out because it was a better product than the competition.
Has anybody on Slashdot thought that maybe Microsoft made those extensions because they thought it would be a useful feature and their users were asking for it?
It's silly to automatically assume the worst about an action. Back when IE was being built, Netscape took the exact same liberties with supporting the 'standard' and Netscape never got any flack about it. Why does Microsoft? Oh right; hypocrisy.
So... having heard of web browser is now a measure of IQ?
"Ignorant", perhaps. But saying "stupid" is still insulting to everybody who uses IE, whether they choose it or use it by default.
Ever heard the phrase "you only have one chance to make a first impression?"
Applies to software, too.
Sure you say he should try Firefox again now that it's bumped up a version and improved. But I'm going to wager (this being Slashdot) that you're unwilling to install and try out RealPlayer again. Right?
Now that IE7 has tabs, I actually prefer it to Firefox. There's nothing wrong with that, and I'm not stupid and I'm certainly not lazy. I actually use Safari most of the time, as I'm a Mac user at home, but at work I prefer IE 7 to Firefox.
I thought the whole Slashdot vibe was that it's good to have a lot of choices. Now apparently the highest moderated post says you're stupid and lazy if you happen to choose something other than Firefox. (Out of curiosity, are Opera users stupid and lazy, also? Opera isn't open source.)
Even worse is license confusion.
MySQL's dual-license scheme is about the most complicated thing on earth. Do I have to pay a licensing fee for this install? Who knows! Maybe a highly-paid lawyer, but no mere mortal can figure it out.
I dunno, maybe this was a few years ago, but it was definitely a huge problem then. Since the DB had to be (basically) embedded, and was going to stay small and mostly static, I actually opted for SQLite instead. No confusion about SQLite's license.
Sounds like a cheaper hobby with less stress. (How much does it cost to maintain a dozen phone numbers to give to different spammers?)