Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 18th Oct 2010 21:54 UTC
Well, it's been a while since we've opened this particular jar (box is not historically accurate) owned by Pandora. Desktop Linux... Yes, that ever elusive readiness of the desktop that is Linux-powered. Some story on ComputerWorld argues that the desktop Linux dream is dead, and apparently, the story is causing some stir on the web. Well, paint me pink and call me a lightbulb, but of course desktop Linux is dead. However - who gives a flying monkey? Linux is being used by more people than ever!
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Member since:2007-07-14
Bah!
I don't even like to think about the aggregate hours of my life wasted reinstalling windows on other peoples PC's because they couldn't (a lot of times it was after they tried anyway... teehee)
That reason is a smokescreen for the truth, which is most people couldn't install ANY O.S. on ANY computer.
Hows the level of difficulty install for MacOS X on bare hardware? What? You don't know? Me neither. Move along.
Linux superior driver support makes it easier 9 times out of 10, than Windows. The only exception might be installing on a netbook with no optical media, which is no picnic for windows either.
Member since:2006-12-05
Member since:2006-06-28
Linux superior driver support makes it easier 9 times out of 10, than Windows. The only exception might be installing on a netbook with no optical media, which is no picnic for windows either.
IMO Linux rocks on Netbooks. Don't know why some people seem to have problems in this area. And you are right, sometimes Windows fails too, but still. Even if all OSs have there problems this is a reason for people giving up on Linux.
I always complain (well, actually these complaints never leave my head
) about everyone just writes reviews on how the install went, which isn't really the main thing one cares. I mean what would happen if all those game magazines would just write about how bad or awesome the installers had been. I don't want to attack all reviews. There are good ones too, but that's an other topic anyway.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2006-06-28
An other reason for this statement being somewhat true is that it's still too hard to install.
No, not that the installers are confusing. Using mainly Windows 7 on the desktop I recently decided to have a look on how the Linux world is doing. I have used Linux on Desktop exclusively for more than eight years (even longer aside with XP) until Windows 7 came out. Then I somewhat switched. At least on the real Desktop. My old laptop still is Arch Linux powered, but I don't use it very often lately. It has always been a pretty minimal desktop.
First I tried the latest release of Ubuntu and after trying it a few time, playing with various options I gave up on getting the installer to run. The disc has been okay, but the installer didn't start and the screen turned black. Disappointed, but not being an Ubuntu fanboy anyway I tried some other distros. I got further with some of them, but for some reason they all failed to create a working installation. In all the years and with tons of tested distributions I never had so many problems. In the end I decided to give Gentoo a try and it worked like a charm.
I don't get it. Not even Live CDs could start X. I have done this a year ago and without any problems and the old CD still works. I don't think the problem is usability. I installed Linux on my mums laptop and only configured it once. For years it has been working like a charm. Having just a _very_ basic understanding about how to use a computer she wouldn't be able to use Windows.
You simply can't leave people with something not working. That's the number one reason for switching back to Windows. Also you can't always present them something completely new. This caused people to go back to Windows. It's also why many people still use Windows XP. They are getting used to it.
Not long ago I talked to a friend about how cool it would be if everyone would start from scratch using the, knowledge, but giving the computer world the opportunity to do everything right from the beginning. This is a dramatical shift, but software simply needs to mature. Even if you have a enough manpower with all the people being experienced programmers you can't build software that "just works" in a few weeks. It takes some time to make everything "just work". The newer versions of Windows took ages and many features didn't make, but they have way fewer of those rare cases that cause problems to people that just want to use computers.