You're right in that everything's kinda vague... I guess without greater elaboration, we can't really say anything about enterprise solutions for sure. And on reading the article again, he does specifically say that the device drivers just aren't cutting it. I think that device drivers are generally available and reasonably up to date, but it's going to remain an uphill battle for Linux users to get OEM drivers for the time being. It's even an uphill battle for Windows users to get good drivers for their notebooks, too... getting latest drivers for ATI chipsets is difficult!
It does appear that Google did censor it... "dumb motherfucker bush" turns up the original match at the 14th place... so it's still in there. Oh well.
For enterprise elements, I'm not sure what he could be talking about in terms of the kernel... For kernel services, I'd say he's wrong. But without the word Kernel in there, he's right. Enterprise means management of several hundred installations of an operating system, which is something that Linux doesn't yet have an elegant tool for. Also, the ActiveDirectory feature of Windows is actually really cool, if properly implemented.
Regarding Linux on notebooks, I think you're missing the point. People tote around notebooks to do write memos while on the plane and do Powerpoint presentations at client offices. It's not that you can't install Linux on notebooks -- it's that the common applications and functions that you'd use a notebook for are better developed for Windows.
The term vaporware is being way overused these days on Slashdot. Unless there's no evidence of development progess and/or the ship date is repeatedly pushed back, it's not vaporware! Microsoft unveiled the plans for the X-Box less than one year ago and slated it for release as third or fourth quarter this year. MS has been showing what it's done so far and I believe that developers already have SDKs. So it's not vaporware, unless they slip the shipdate by several months or more.
Re:Microsoft can't do anything about free..
on
Linux Is Going Down
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· Score: 1
The problem with Linux is that companies can't back it. There are a few companies that will be successful at supporting open source software, but for the most part, they need to rely upon individuals, either in-house or otherwise, to maintain the code. It will result in some nice products, but companies are going to be hesitant to adopt code that just sits there as a gift. They want someone to be responsible and they're willing to back it -- someone so willing that they're going to put their money (their entire business) on it. Short of the some of the big open source projects that have already been adopted, such as Apache, many of them will never see widespread commercial implementation.
How the hell is HTML supposed to crash a browser? That's a fault of the browser, not the HTML. Would you use a browser that crashed every time you ran across some guy's personal homepage because he forgot to close a couple of tags? Sometimes browsers just crash. Netscape especially.
Re:You must not do anything interesting on them
on
Microsoft's DNS Down
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· Score: 1
Actually, I've had very good success with Windows 2000 as a server. I've run all the services, including web and db, from a single Pentium II box with no problems with some serious uptime. I've only seen it crash once on my desktop box -- ATI's experimental DVD drivers for my Rage 128 card caused it to crash. On my notebook, it crashes more frequently, mostly due to ACPI or overheating. Suspend doesn't seem to work all the time.
As for the home directories, it takes a while to get there, but the Documents and Settings directory seems to do a good job of it and there is a well-structured location for personal files. It's not the OS's fault if applications throw data all over the place. Of course, their past practice in previous incarnations of NT and Win32 did a poor job of encouraging multi-user OS's, but Win2k does a very good job of fixing that problem.
As for the WM, it works well for me. You do have a point about the modal dialogs, but I don't like virtual desktops -- I tend to maximize most things anyway.
Re:Are you serious? Of course your readers go ther
on
Microsoft's DNS Down
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· Score: 1
Yes, but mindless ranting and raving without rhyme nor reason hardly lends any credibility to the site or his personal opinion. If he intends to provide a forum for intelligent discussion, he needs to start with rational arguments that he can back up.
Everybody has the right to have an opinion with their own set of likes and disklikes. But if you can't defend your point of view with rational arguments and provide fair views to others, you lack credibility. This doesn't work for every case -- I'm mystified by the success of the Backstreet Boys, but I don't expect every fan to provide a well-thought justification of why. In this case, Rob repeatedly fails to provide rational justification or fair arguments (joking aside). I value the opinions of Rob and many other Slashdot readers, but I'm interested in reasoning rather than chauvanism.
Buying used for high end equipment is a great idea and I second that opinion. ESPECIALLY for solid-state stuff with few moving parts, like amps, tuners, and DVD players. High end equipment is usually very well taken care of and if you can find a good dealer of used equipment, pick up almost everything you can find. Speakers are sometimes a mixed bag, but you can find great deals for those, too.
Well, in and of themselves, they're not bad. But compared to what you pay for them, you can do a lot better. With an MIT student discount of something like ~50%, it's probably worth the money. But otherwise, you can probably do better.
My original impression was that a dedicated MPEG chip would handle it and it would largely by a separate system, but you're probably right in that it will probably use a software decoder. An idle chip will definitely not need the cooling of a fan, though. My notebook hardly rarely uses its fan unless I have something that's consuming 100% of its processor time (like SETI@home) running on it. As a result, I don't use the SETI@home on it.
Actually, I don't consider the cartridge to be its weakness. You're right in that it has a lot of advantages, but their biggest failure was to sign (or hold) their developers and market the whole system effectively. They failed the business test, not the technical one. I'd love to see them succeed, but they seem to be having some very hard times. GameCube is going to make them or break them.
First of all, I'm willing to bet that your numbers are way off. With high volume pricing and all sorts of other factors, the numbers could really be anything. Secondly, Sega only recently (September?) slashed the price of the DC to $150. It used to sell for $200. They lowered the price to boost sales for the upcoming PS2 -- which was a smart move. Their sales has effectively doubled, even though they were going to take massive losses for the move, forcing them in the red until March, maybe even later.
Re:Freedom to innovate... new interfaces?
on
First Looks At XBox
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· Score: 1
Stupid? Hardly. It makes it nice and easy to get royalties on any licensed accessories. Every other console maker does it -- it's suicide not to use such marketing tactics.
If there are enough companies in the market, then why are they all facing problems? Nintendo has completely missed the boat with N64. Their arrogance has caused them lots of problems. Don't be surprised if they disappear in the next couple of years. Sega is facing massive losses and isn't expected to recover until about March. Sony is banking huge with the PS2 and the jury's still out on whether it's going to succeed. There's no question that it's superior to the other systems out there right now, but it's pricey, hard to find, and didn't quite live up to the hype (at least so far). Rumors are rampant that they're going to take huge losses with it because the thing costs so much money to make and there aren't enough good games to help make that money back.
Re:Why I'm disappointed by XBox - and impresed by
on
First Looks At XBox
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· Score: 1
Yes, 6 games to break even is about right. Last I heard, Dreamcast in the US required 4.5 games to break even, Dreamcast in Japan required 5.5 games to break even, PlayStation required 9 games to break even, and PlayStation 2 required 15 games to break even. I don't know about Nintendo, but they've got to be comparable to Sega, at the least. Microsoft has very, very deep pockets, and we learn a couple of things from them. 1) They have the money to spend to run the numbers on this to make sure they'll make money on it. 2) They've spent millions on user interface studies. Maybe they're not 100% right, but the MS Mouse has always been the best for years. The innovation of the wheel mouse and the explorer buttons on the mouse are real productivity improvers.
8 GB is not for one game. You do the install process same as in current PC games and create installation directories where information is cached and profiles/characters/scores are stored. You could store dozens of games' information at once and still have space to spare for downloading email and browsing the web. Not all games need more than a few megs of temporary space, but some could really use it.
I hate to break it to you, but the capabilities of the system and the quality of the games are the deciding factor for most people (along with price). Maybe they could have made it smaller, but they didn't. I don't think that's going to sway very many people at all. Nor the controllers. Please trash Microsoft with real complaints only.
It doesn't really matter what your desktop can/will do. The competition is against other consoles. In general, people aren't interested in configuring this, that, and the other thing. They want to plug it in and make it work.
Also, like all other consoles, the cost of the hardware is being subsidized by the royalties in the sales of the games, which means that you'll be able to buy more power for less money.
The sound of the fan in my DC is insignificant compared to the whirring of the GD-ROM drive spinning up and down. Besides, why would the processor be on if you're just watching a movie?
If it's gonna bust the hard drive, it's gonna bust the DVD drive, too. People just gotta be more careful. The advantages of a hard drive far outweigh the costs and the inconvenience.
It's a relief to see a rational analysis -- thanks. I agree with the points that you're making and Linux serious hurts from the idea that usability is inversely proportional to looking pretty. So far, Linux has spent $0 in usability studies in comparison to the millions that Microsoft has spent -- and it shows.
VS7 is definitely a powerful IDE -- I'm quite impressed with its capabilities, though it isn't really an OS thing. The line between the OS and applications is rapidly blurring as the OS becomes more and more capable, which is why I think that the DOJ vs. Microsoft was crap. They had some predatory business practices, but I consider the browser an essential part of any modern computer. But that discussion is for a different time and a different place.
Slashdot Mirror
Careful ... you're IQ is showing.
You're right in that everything's kinda vague ... I guess without greater elaboration, we can't really say anything about enterprise solutions for sure. And on reading the article again, he does specifically say that the device drivers just aren't cutting it. I think that device drivers are generally available and reasonably up to date, but it's going to remain an uphill battle for Linux users to get OEM drivers for the time being. It's even an uphill battle for Windows users to get good drivers for their notebooks, too ... getting latest drivers for ATI chipsets is difficult!
... "dumb motherfucker bush" turns up the original match at the 14th place ... so it's still in there. Oh well.
It does appear that Google did censor it
No need to get your panties in a twist. I develop on mine, too ... but most don't.
For enterprise elements, I'm not sure what he could be talking about in terms of the kernel ... For kernel services, I'd say he's wrong. But without the word Kernel in there, he's right. Enterprise means management of several hundred installations of an operating system, which is something that Linux doesn't yet have an elegant tool for. Also, the ActiveDirectory feature of Windows is actually really cool, if properly implemented.
Regarding Linux on notebooks, I think you're missing the point. People tote around notebooks to do write memos while on the plane and do Powerpoint presentations at client offices. It's not that you can't install Linux on notebooks -- it's that the common applications and functions that you'd use a notebook for are better developed for Windows.
BTW, your sig no longer works.
The term vaporware is being way overused these days on Slashdot. Unless there's no evidence of development progess and/or the ship date is repeatedly pushed back, it's not vaporware! Microsoft unveiled the plans for the X-Box less than one year ago and slated it for release as third or fourth quarter this year. MS has been showing what it's done so far and I believe that developers already have SDKs. So it's not vaporware, unless they slip the shipdate by several months or more.
The problem with Linux is that companies can't back it. There are a few companies that will be successful at supporting open source software, but for the most part, they need to rely upon individuals, either in-house or otherwise, to maintain the code. It will result in some nice products, but companies are going to be hesitant to adopt code that just sits there as a gift. They want someone to be responsible and they're willing to back it -- someone so willing that they're going to put their money (their entire business) on it. Short of the some of the big open source projects that have already been adopted, such as Apache, many of them will never see widespread commercial implementation.
How the hell is HTML supposed to crash a browser? That's a fault of the browser, not the HTML. Would you use a browser that crashed every time you ran across some guy's personal homepage because he forgot to close a couple of tags? Sometimes browsers just crash. Netscape especially.
Actually, I've had very good success with Windows 2000 as a server. I've run all the services, including web and db, from a single Pentium II box with no problems with some serious uptime. I've only seen it crash once on my desktop box -- ATI's experimental DVD drivers for my Rage 128 card caused it to crash. On my notebook, it crashes more frequently, mostly due to ACPI or overheating. Suspend doesn't seem to work all the time.
As for the home directories, it takes a while to get there, but the Documents and Settings directory seems to do a good job of it and there is a well-structured location for personal files. It's not the OS's fault if applications throw data all over the place. Of course, their past practice in previous incarnations of NT and Win32 did a poor job of encouraging multi-user OS's, but Win2k does a very good job of fixing that problem.
As for the WM, it works well for me. You do have a point about the modal dialogs, but I don't like virtual desktops -- I tend to maximize most things anyway.
Yes, but mindless ranting and raving without rhyme nor reason hardly lends any credibility to the site or his personal opinion. If he intends to provide a forum for intelligent discussion, he needs to start with rational arguments that he can back up.
Everybody has the right to have an opinion with their own set of likes and disklikes. But if you can't defend your point of view with rational arguments and provide fair views to others, you lack credibility. This doesn't work for every case -- I'm mystified by the success of the Backstreet Boys, but I don't expect every fan to provide a well-thought justification of why. In this case, Rob repeatedly fails to provide rational justification or fair arguments (joking aside). I value the opinions of Rob and many other Slashdot readers, but I'm interested in reasoning rather than chauvanism.
Buying used for high end equipment is a great idea and I second that opinion. ESPECIALLY for solid-state stuff with few moving parts, like amps, tuners, and DVD players. High end equipment is usually very well taken care of and if you can find a good dealer of used equipment, pick up almost everything you can find. Speakers are sometimes a mixed bag, but you can find great deals for those, too.
Well, in and of themselves, they're not bad. But compared to what you pay for them, you can do a lot better. With an MIT student discount of something like ~50%, it's probably worth the money. But otherwise, you can probably do better.
My original impression was that a dedicated MPEG chip would handle it and it would largely by a separate system, but you're probably right in that it will probably use a software decoder. An idle chip will definitely not need the cooling of a fan, though. My notebook hardly rarely uses its fan unless I have something that's consuming 100% of its processor time (like SETI@home) running on it. As a result, I don't use the SETI@home on it.
Actually, I don't consider the cartridge to be its weakness. You're right in that it has a lot of advantages, but their biggest failure was to sign (or hold) their developers and market the whole system effectively. They failed the business test, not the technical one. I'd love to see them succeed, but they seem to be having some very hard times. GameCube is going to make them or break them.
First of all, I'm willing to bet that your numbers are way off. With high volume pricing and all sorts of other factors, the numbers could really be anything. Secondly, Sega only recently (September?) slashed the price of the DC to $150. It used to sell for $200. They lowered the price to boost sales for the upcoming PS2 -- which was a smart move. Their sales has effectively doubled, even though they were going to take massive losses for the move, forcing them in the red until March, maybe even later.
Stupid? Hardly. It makes it nice and easy to get royalties on any licensed accessories. Every other console maker does it -- it's suicide not to use such marketing tactics.
If there are enough companies in the market, then why are they all facing problems? Nintendo has completely missed the boat with N64. Their arrogance has caused them lots of problems. Don't be surprised if they disappear in the next couple of years. Sega is facing massive losses and isn't expected to recover until about March. Sony is banking huge with the PS2 and the jury's still out on whether it's going to succeed. There's no question that it's superior to the other systems out there right now, but it's pricey, hard to find, and didn't quite live up to the hype (at least so far). Rumors are rampant that they're going to take huge losses with it because the thing costs so much money to make and there aren't enough good games to help make that money back.
Yes, 6 games to break even is about right. Last I heard, Dreamcast in the US required 4.5 games to break even, Dreamcast in Japan required 5.5 games to break even, PlayStation required 9 games to break even, and PlayStation 2 required 15 games to break even. I don't know about Nintendo, but they've got to be comparable to Sega, at the least. Microsoft has very, very deep pockets, and we learn a couple of things from them. 1) They have the money to spend to run the numbers on this to make sure they'll make money on it. 2) They've spent millions on user interface studies. Maybe they're not 100% right, but the MS Mouse has always been the best for years. The innovation of the wheel mouse and the explorer buttons on the mouse are real productivity improvers.
8 GB is not for one game. You do the install process same as in current PC games and create installation directories where information is cached and profiles/characters/scores are stored. You could store dozens of games' information at once and still have space to spare for downloading email and browsing the web. Not all games need more than a few megs of temporary space, but some could really use it.
I hate to break it to you, but the capabilities of the system and the quality of the games are the deciding factor for most people (along with price). Maybe they could have made it smaller, but they didn't. I don't think that's going to sway very many people at all. Nor the controllers. Please trash Microsoft with real complaints only.
It doesn't really matter what your desktop can/will do. The competition is against other consoles. In general, people aren't interested in configuring this, that, and the other thing. They want to plug it in and make it work.
Also, like all other consoles, the cost of the hardware is being subsidized by the royalties in the sales of the games, which means that you'll be able to buy more power for less money.
The sound of the fan in my DC is insignificant compared to the whirring of the GD-ROM drive spinning up and down. Besides, why would the processor be on if you're just watching a movie?
... and that Linux-running DC has done what for you so far? It's far more useful as a DC than a Linux DC.
If it's gonna bust the hard drive, it's gonna bust the DVD drive, too. People just gotta be more careful. The advantages of a hard drive far outweigh the costs and the inconvenience.
It's a relief to see a rational analysis -- thanks. I agree with the points that you're making and Linux serious hurts from the idea that usability is inversely proportional to looking pretty. So far, Linux has spent $0 in usability studies in comparison to the millions that Microsoft has spent -- and it shows.
VS7 is definitely a powerful IDE -- I'm quite impressed with its capabilities, though it isn't really an OS thing. The line between the OS and applications is rapidly blurring as the OS becomes more and more capable, which is why I think that the DOJ vs. Microsoft was crap. They had some predatory business practices, but I consider the browser an essential part of any modern computer. But that discussion is for a different time and a different place.