Linked by Howard Fosdick on Sat 24th Nov 2012 17:52 UTC
Do you depend on your computer for your living? If so, I'm sure you've thought long and hard about which hardware and software to use. I'd like to explain why I use generic "white boxes" running open source software. These give me a platform I rely on for 100% availability. They also provide a low-cost solution with excellent security and privacy.
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RE: I couldn't agree more
by lucas_maximus on Sat 24th Nov 2012 21:14
in reply to "I couldn't agree more"
Member since:2009-08-18
Switched from WindowsXP to Linux over 10 years ago. I've never looked back. And, you're right about the hard drive swap from one motherboard to another. I've done the same several times now.
What happens if the hardrive goes?
You can be back up and running with Windows or any other operating system if you plan for it.
Even if the video driver at bootup is for a different card than the original, the OS will switch automatically to a generic vesa or other generic driver.
Windows Vista/7 and 8 can also deal with that. I have had the same Windows installation cross motherboard hardware ... the only common denominator was the processor was intel.
RE[2]: I couldn't agree more
by djohnston on Mon 26th Nov 2012 16:15
in reply to "RE: I couldn't agree more"
Member since:2006-04-11
What happens if the hardrive goes?
You can be back up and running with Windows or any other operating system if you plan for it.
I think you're grasping at straws here. I wasn't referring to a dead hard drive. I was referring to moving a hard drive from one motherboard to another and proceeding without interruption, as indicated by this portion of Howard's article:
My motherboard died last summer. I removed the boot disk from the dead system and plopped it into another, then booted that Linux instance on the target computer. Problem solved! Windows won't let you do this.
RE[2]: I couldn't agree more - Office 2010
by jabbotts on Mon 26th Nov 2012 18:09
in reply to "RE: I couldn't agree more"
Member since:2007-09-06
Shame Office 2010 wasn't as smart as Win7 with regard to moving. I can kind of accept that I can't install a Pro license on the new machine without unregistered the license from the old machine. One licese, one install; fair enough.
What I can't understand is why the uninstall program does not unregister the license during the process or even provide the option. And if you do uninstall, you can't re-install back on that same machine again because your license is flagged as already registered. WTF.. it's the machine it was registered to run on in the first place. So, I can't re-install or move the license to a new machine without calling Microsoft on the phone and asking permission? This is a Pro license for F sakes.
Now, I have to go make a phone call and try not to throw up in my mouth during.
Edited 2012-11-26 18:09 UTC
RE[2]: I couldn't agree more
by telns on Mon 26th Nov 2012 18:12
in reply to "RE: I couldn't agree more"
Member since:2009-06-18
Windows Vista/7 and 8 can also deal with that. I have had the same Windows installation cross motherboard hardware ... the only common denominator was the processor was intel.
I've done this often.
One Windows 2K3 array I've moved hardware three times without a hitch. My current desktop switched pretty much everything, including processor mfg, when I cloned it over to the new one. It worked fine, from big stuff all the way down to the color calibration of my monitors.
I think it is a bit of a myth that Windows can't deal with this. From Windows 2000 on, it seems pretty solid. I never tried it on desktops back in 3.x - 9x days, so I can't comment. Maybe it didn't work back then. I did move NT4 around few times, and it worked OK, but I did not do that often.
Edited 2012-11-26 18:13 UTC
RE[2]: I couldn't agree more
by mbharat on Tue 27th Nov 2012 22:51
in reply to "RE: I couldn't agree more"
Member since:2008-06-19
RE[2]: I couldn't agree more
by tylerdurden on Wed 28th Nov 2012 02:48
in reply to "RE: I couldn't agree more"
Member since:2009-03-17
Windows Vista/7 and 8 can also deal with that. I have had the same Windows installation cross motherboard hardware ... the only common denominator was the processor was intel.
Yeah, but depending on what license you have for windows, transferring the same OS installation among different machines may or may not be legal.
Something which is a non-issue with Linux or BSDs, for example.
Technically, however, both Linux and Windows are a mixed bag when it comes to having an installation work across different machines/configurations. At least from personal experience.
Edited 2012-11-28 02:50 UTC
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.More News »
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Member since:
2006-04-11
Switched from WindowsXP to Linux over 10 years ago. I've never looked back. And, you're right about the hard drive swap from one motherboard to another. I've done the same several times now. Even if the video driver at bootup is for a different card than the original, the OS will switch automatically to a generic vesa or other generic driver.