Submitted by The big story in The New York Times on November 20, 1985, concerned Hurricane Kate’s advance as it smashed into northern Cuba and the Florida Keys before barreling north to threaten the Gulf Coast. But another big story — for the technology world — was about to unfold thousands of miles away in Las Vegas, where the Comdex trade show was getting under way.
Apple had grabbed headlines a year earlier with the introduction of its graphical Macintosh. Now, after two years of delays, Microsoft was finally ready to debut the much-promised Microsoft Windows.
It became the blueprint for many of Microsoft’s new product launches. Early versions suck, but get progressively better over the years.
Early versions suck, but get progressively better over the years.
I believe Windows RT is an exception to this rule.
I believe you are deluding yourself!
No, I’m just saying Windows RT don’t have a future, so it’s an exception to the “rule”.
It depends. If Microsoft perseveres, it might still suck in the future.
LOL, well… you look at Windows 1.0 and where the OS is now, and it’s quite a big leap. Who knows what RT will be like 10 years from now, which I imagine is the MINIMUM amount of time it will take before any self-respecting power user will go anywhere near it.
I think 10 years isn’t what 10 years used to be 10 years ago.
Products need to be instant hits these days and if they are not they are labeled a “flop” almost immediately. From then on a product not only needs to improve, but also shake its damaged image.
Windows RT not only has to show it has become better, it also has prove beyond any reasonable and even unreasonable doubt that it doesn’t suck like it did before and if one or two (small) things do suck it gets another “flop” sticker.
Will Microsoft then continue to improve or start with a clean slate? In a way what they did with Windows Mobile 6 -> Windows Phone 7 -> Windows Phone 8.
I don’t know, but if they can improve it to the point where tech tards like using it, then they have a stable base to improve upon.
The PC invaded homes from work replacing the home computer, because people wanted to do at home what they did at work.
Now the iPad invaded work from home, because people wanted to use it at work.
I think Windows tablets have a chance if they prove their value in the working environment and people take them from there to home. If you already have a Windows tablet, do you need another one too?
An iPad is great, but I think it’s designed for consumer use and not to be used in a business environment. If I used a tablet at/for work I’d want it to easily access the file server for example, open files in Microsoft Office and save them back to the file server. This is not easy with an iPad.
Give me a tablet that connect with the corporate network, VPN or local WiFi, and becomes a full member. Acces to all the recourses and files.
A PC (aka Personal Computer) isn’t a Home Computer??
It did? People use ipads at work? Why?
That heavily depends on the particulars of said network. If its set up correctly, my Nexus 7 can do that.
Edited 2013-11-21 23:33 UTC
In the 80’s we made a distinction between IBM PCs & compatibles and home computers (Commodore 64/128/Amiga, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Atari, Acorn, etc…).
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/fortune_500_companies_moving…
In my personal experience sales people of 3rd parties pull iPads to show presentations. Our QC department uses them to pull in temperature data from sensors and transfer that data to a portal site while adding some info manually.
I use mine for system administration when not at my desk or to draw stuff to support me explaining things to other people. As I come in very early I’m usually the only one around and when I don’t have any pressing matters I use it for iTunes U.
Our sales people use them for email and presentations when they are traveling abroad, because they dislike the weight of a laptop.
Yes, but I’m not sure that’s going to help the future of Windows RT.
Ok, thanks for the response. In my 1980’s that I lived through, we called any computer that was in your house a home computer. PC, Commodore 64, Apple II were types of home computers.
I guess sales presentations make sense, but using an ipad for systems administration seems difficult and dangerous, if you are using a terminal/ssh app. Or is there a windows active directory administration app? Or some other kind of gui you use? Or maybe a web based admin like phpmysql admin?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_computer
The term “personal computer” can be confusing, because those words can be used to describe a computer, but IBM also named their computer PC.
My Commodore 128 is a true home computer, yet on the case it says “personal computer”.
When the home computer went away we were left with PCs and Macs, but when Steve talked about post-PC, PCs included Macs too. So a Mac is a PC, but a PC doesn´t need to be a PC.
Regarding system administration, I have a few tools to directly control systems like VMware and Nagios. I have an SSH client, but our Linux systems never have an emergency so I never use it. Most stuff I do is via a remote desktop connection to either a server or to a user PC.
When my son has soccer training and I still have stuff to do I bring my iPad and sit in the cantine. I can also use my iPhone, but its small screen doesn´t help much when using remote desktop. I do use it sometimes as a second screen. I do stuff on the iPad and use the iPhone to look stuff up or use one of those tools that directly control a system.
I can help it I do prefer to work with a bigger screen and a real keyboard.
Ah, thanks for the enlightenment. It appears none of our terms have the same definitions.
> I think Windows tablets have a chance if they prove their value in the working environment and people take them from there to home.
That is 100% never going to happen because Windows RT can’t join an Active Directory domain. OOPS.
Android has both Sonicwall and Cisco VPN clients, RDP, and the ability to map drives with some software. I have clients in the field that are already going this route. No you cannot join it to a domain AFAIK but does that matter if you have a terminal server?
No, you are right.
Personally I think Windows Domains are overrated and do more harm than good.
No, you were on the right track with the evolutionary dead-end.
Windows 1.0 eventually became Windows 9x which became Windows ME and then died out.
Windows NT eventually became Windows XP which is now Windows 7 (there is no other OS after that).
In the same vein, Windows RT is like Windows 1.0. It will probably last 10 years, but will eventually be abondanded, just as the Windows 1.x-9x line did.
🙂
Most version 1 products sucked.
Apple TV for example, 2nd and 3rd generation are still updated, but the first not anymore since a long time. The first iPhone and iPad were either lacking features or got obsoleted much quicker than following generations.
First Android phone.
Linux sucked for some time.
I guess every version 1 (Windows, Linux, Android) sucked either from the start or when compared to 2nd and following generations (iPad, iPhone, Apple TV).
To be successful in this business you need a long breath (==money) and figure out the weaknesses in your product and fix them.
With Windows Microsoft took a very long time to get things right. Even though version 3 brought them success, it still sucked. Windows 3.11 and Windows 2000 were some bright spots I guess, but Windows 7 (or perhaps Vista + service packs) was the first Windows version that didn’t suck. And then they released Windows 8!!!
Still does if you are heavy into multimedia, 3D and mobile computing.
That is why I keep it for server side development and my little netbook.
My main laptop uses Windows 7 and I was a Linux Journal subscriber from 1995 until 2004.
Indeed, but I consider Linux only for a server OS or to play around with. For those 2 things it is great.
I’m trying to replace the hard disk of my Windows 7 laptop with a SSD. Making an image was easy, putting it back not so. Oh well.
What, linux to play around with?
MOS6510, you are missing out on something truly awesome man!
I have used linux as my only OS for ages. At work, at home, for play, fun, work anything. And I do not miss microsoft at all.
I work as a systems and network administrator, so no need for microsoft office or other proprietary bull
Don´t panic, I´m an experienced Linux user!
I know how to use it for all kinds of serious things, but for me the fun in Linux is doing the non-serious things. Even things without purpose, just to see if it´s possible.
Like I once spend a lot of time recompiling the kernel to make it as small as possible and having as many things I did need as modules. Of course I ended up with an unbootable system, but it was an educational experience to get it working again too.
Do you contribute back?
Edited 2013-11-23 16:10 UTC
You have to define a bit more what you mean by any of those terms. My linux laptop and android phone happily perform as well as any other system in any of those 3 areas you mentioned, and do so with plenty of mobility. But then again, I wasn’t subscribed to Linux Journal so who knows…
Like 3D programming using OpenGL 3.x and 4.x/OpenCL/Cuda with proper drivers.
Using Unity.
Doing video manipulation work.
Having a OS that can hibernate properly and make use of the wireless card.
The remark about Linux Journal was to point out that I am not a Linux newbie and am fully aware of OSS since 1995, but eventually gave up.
That generally how I feel. A lot of stuff has been broken for almost a decade or someone reinvents the wheel for the sake of it.
Technically OpenCL/CUDA isn’t 3D Programming (whatever that means), but at least from NVIDIA’s perspective their drivers for GPU compute support for linux are pretty much on par with their windows counterparts. In fact, you’d be surprised if you were to find out what OS most of the CUDA dev team machines runs ;-). The larger scale deployments of CUDA tend to be on linux clusters interestingly enough.
Windows does have DirectX, which depending on one’s perspective may be a value added that Linux lacks. As far as OpenGL, again speaking from NVIDIA’s perspective, both Windows and Linux drivers are pretty much on par (4.4), in this regard the OS clearly lagging behind is OSX.
I assume that’s a specific game engine, is that correct? If there is an app your livelihood depends on, which is not available for a specific platform it makes sense to ignore that platform.
That is more of an issue with the Software vendors not supporting a specific platform, not a shortcoming of the platform itself. Yeah, Avid, Smoke, Premiere, or Final Cut do not run on linux. I think Lightworks is about to be released for Linux though. There are a bunch of FOSS video editing apps, which may not be suitable for professional production work but seem to cut it alright for personal use (in my experience at least).
Again, my work laptop running linux has absolutely no issue with any of that. I have had issues where windows was unstable in some HW platforms, but I assumed a couple of personal data points were not enough to extrapolate to the entirety of the Windows ecosystem.
I will make the bet that your work laptop is a business class laptop and has an Intel chipset, because that is the only way to guarantee that Linux will work well on a laptop.
If you don’t have that … good luck because it all off-road from there.
Yeah, but that’s true for any system; OSes tend to run best on HW they support properly. RTFM is a wonderful thing and saves much time and effort in the tech field.
I can understand the frustration if one has some random laptop (purchased for other original purpose/intent) laying around and wants to try out Linux on a whim, only to find out the HW is not supported properly. But using that as an indictment against the entire system would be as odd as me claiming how Windows 8 still does not scale properly because I couldn’t even get it to boot on my Raspberry Pi.
Edit to add: There are also flaws on any system. Linux distros will foobar things and drivers every now and then. But so does windows as well, for example we can revisit the debacle which were the graphics drivers on Vista’s early days. Now, if Linux is not the right tool for someone, then they should not use it nor waste time with it.
Edited 2013-11-22 19:42 UTC
RTFM is not something that normal people should need to do or want to do. It is failing of the system if it requires a user to do that.
In fact I shouldn’t need to do it either. The system should work for me … not the other way around.
It is an indictment against the entire system because, it shows that it just isn’t mature enough to be used effectively by people that aren’t savvy unless it is significantly abstracted away (android is the perfect example).
Gnome and friends can talk all they like about HID guidelines and the ilk, but if people can’t actually do stuff with it without mucking about it is essentially useless for the majority of the population.
Linux has always succeeded on servers and embedded (I consider Android sufficiently locked down to be called embedded) because what we know as Linux is abstracted away from the user.
I dunno why this is so hard to grok.
The API changed so Manufacturers didn’t get it right. It doesn’t change as nearly as often as the Linux API/ABI does. The only way to ensure compatibility is to give your code over and that isn’t an option for a lot of companies … thus you have the churn change situation.
I think it is f–king crazy that there are slightly different versions of the same components put together in different distros and people aren’t surprised by it working.
I know that even changing how some of my JS is called in my larger JS apps can break everything and there is far less code than in distro.
But hey, I am a software engineer … not a hacker, so what do I know.
Edited 2013-11-22 22:17 UTC
It’s called “instructions/information” which is something normal humans still have to do when faced with something they do not know. That is, until we have figured out how to transfer information directly into our brains by bypassing basic cognitive processes. Until that happens RTFM it is…
If you do not know what you’re doing, you have to find out. That applies to linux as well as Windows.
How in bloody hell is an indictment against a system for it to not work on a platform it does not support? If I give my grandma an old ass laptop and a Windows 8 DVD, throw away the instructions, and tell her to install a fresh copy of windows on it. Guess what? She won’t know what the fuck I’m even asking her to do. Oh well, I guess that’s an indictment against the entire Windows ecosystem. What a failure!
You mean like how people had to google how to do basic stuff such as turning off the computer or close down an application under Metro? And I’m talking about people with PhD’s in CS, because there is nothing more intuitive than a GUI concept called “charm” or dragging a window with a mouse to close the app. Obviously I assume as far as you’re concerned is impossible for a Microsoft product to be flawed, they’re just “featureful.”
Apparently is not as easy as you think, since you don’t seem to understand what “embedded” means in the context of computing.
There is more to it than that. Also, care to produce quantitative reference to how many times Linux’s APIs have fundamentally changed vs. Windows?
Is this the part where you have to be explained what “distro” means in the context of Linuxland?
I know what you mean, as a kid I had a crappy summer job as a fossil fuel engineer specializing in transfers of broad octane spectrum petrochemical hydrocarbons. Alas, people never took my arguments to authority on chemistry and the oil industry in general seriously…
Well there are these companies that called Apple that work on the principle you shouldn’t need to, they make a lot of money. There a quick startup guide and that is about the only thing you get.
Most web development is about usability, check out people like brad frost.
http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/
People have better things to do than read manuals … like getting on with their life. If the system is too complicated or onerous they will just choose something else or avoid using it.
That wasn’t what I was talking about. Things that are easy on other operating systems just don’t always work as expected on Linux the situation hasn’t changed in over 10 years (I started using Linux in the Redhat 7.2 days).
I am talking generally about usability and expected feature sets.
My SD card never worked right in my laptop until a few months before I sold it last year …. and I don’t care why it doesn’t work … I expect it to work, it is a simple bit of kit compared to others things that were working on there.
As moondevil said after a while you get sick of fiddling and just use an existing system that works.
I moved to OSX for a short period because I needed a stable usable nix. My choices were Solaris (slow as fuck and doesn’t run well on a laptop) or a Mac.
We are moving away from TFS at work, to GIT … because TFS is a big pile of shit and for a lot less money we can have the same experience using GIT with Atlassian tools.
This isn’t about Windows vs Linux, or Microsoft vs Open source. This is about “Does this work for what I want it to do”, if it doesn’t I don’t care how good you think it is.
I want to leave the office on time, so I can go home get ready and spend my Evening as I wish.
* Server is locked down environment normally only certain people with experience of working with them are allowed to make changes on them directly.
* Phone operating systems are typically tied to the phone i.e the hardware is almost useless without that OS on the system. That is close to being embedded IMHO. I know it technically isn’t, but you knew what I meant.
* Actual embedded platforms.
You knew what I meant. Being a pedant doesn’t make you right, it just makes you sound like a arsehole.
I don’t know, but I don’t have to get a new nvidia driver package everytime there are updates in Windows, in Linux land I do.
That suggests to me something is wrong with their designs decisions somewhere.
Most people would think you were talking about traditional distros like fedora, debian and the ilk.
Again being a pedant for the sake of it.
Being trite as per usual. Pathetic.
I put things together in a way that can be easily changed. I use quite a lot of different software components to put together a web application, there are huge amounts of system and server side code I have to interface with (I work for a gambling company, the systems aren’t much different that high frequency trading systems).
I am a software engineer. I work at a higher level than you do yes, but this ivory tower bollox I get tired of.
Uh, a random post about web design? We’re discussing different processes. Installing and configuring an OS from scratch requires some level of understanding, be it Windows, Linux, or even OSX.
You think the windows process is easy because you’re used to it, so it’s easy to confuse something being familiar with it being intuitive. Ask any random person who knows little about ‘puters to install windows from scratch and configure it properly without instructions. Good luck with that. That’s why there is a whole consulting industry around consumer computing (esp. Windows).
I have no idea why once again you’re bringing random tangential crap to obfuscate things.
Which means that system is probably not for them. Linux is not for everybody. That again applies to Windows, Mac, or whatever.
Installing the latest Ubuntu is as complex as installing the latest Windows 8. The latter may have a slight edge but it costs money so people expect more, while the former is free thus some accommodating may be expected. But all in all consumer stuff is easier. On the other hand, integrating and configuring a corporate environment requires a bit more effort and knowledge in both linux and windows.
Simple concepts really.
And the vice versa also applies; things that are bloody easy on linux are really really hard on windows. No system is perfect, every single one has warts. Stop dealing with absolutes, because that’s the easiest way to be absolutely wrong.
so was I. Turning off the computer and closing an application are right up there in the list of basic usability requirements.
People manage to be productive on both Windows and Linux. You’re trying to make it seems as if it is impossible to be productive on a linux desktop/laptop which is just plain FUD. Just like how people claimed it’s impossible to get anything done on Win8, which was also silly uninformed FUD.
The fingerprint reader in my other laptop stopped working when I upgraded to Windows 8. I don’t care why it doesn’t work… I expect it to work, it is a simple bit of kit compared to other things that were working on there.
What’s good for the gander should be applicable for the geese as well. So obviously Windows 8 is an utter failure, Right?
That, again, applies to every fucking OS on the planet. If Linux doesn’t work for you, do not use it. It’s a tool.
But I also suspect you have had to put a little bit of fiddling in order to get your Windows system to work just like you need it/want it to. You just simply like Redmond’s Finest better, so what you thought was an unacceptable chore in Linux, becomes a pleasurable opportunity to geek out with Windows. I assume linux zealots suffer from the same affliction but the opposite direction.
I like when you try to show off with those irrelevant personal anecdotes, but they end up highlighting you really have little to no clue on certain stuffs. It really is not that hard to get a productive and stable linux mobile environment, especially if you’re buying the laptop for that purpose.
And I’m simply trying to explain to you that “it doesn’t work, for you” it’s a bit different than “it does not work, period.”
That’s not very professional. Perhaps you should actually work when you’re at the office, rather than waste time commenting on a random website.
How exactly is it my fault that you don’t know basic computing terminology?
In the time it took you to write all that nonsense you could have googled a basic definition for the term and learn what it means. Alas…
No, it simply suggest you’re comparing apples to oranges because you don’t understand what’s going on. E.g. You don’t have to update the driver in linux whenever you update things, because not every linux update is a kernel update. Just like not every update in windows affects the kernel either.
Remember what I said earlier about absolutes?
I’m starting to suspect “pedantic” is yet another item in the long list of terms that do not mean what you think they do…
It’s called a joke. Humor is something that people without massive insecurity complexes don’t tend to find that threatening.
Again, I don’t give a shit what it is that you do. In the same sense nobody should give a shit that I have orders of magnitude more industry experience and academic formation than you. It’s irrelevant because arguments to authority on an anonymous forum are silly.
That you’re a supposed “software engineer” it’s irrelevant to this discussion, because it does not make your opinion automatically correct. You could very well be a shitty “software engineer” who does not know what he’s talking about.
A Linux is even more difficult. OSX is pop in the DVD and press “yes I agree to the restrictions the god man Jobs insists on”.
Linux is choose between several hundreds of distros that are all slightly incompatible, all running slightly different versions of the same software, have different levels of support and may or may not work with your hardware.
That is even before you download the iso.
I am not, you are limited to thinking in very small scopes. You nitpick an argument instead of understanding the idea being presented to you, mainly because you like to be right.
Yet there are still too many problems for IT professionals as highlighted in this thread which is the very reason for us having this disagreement.
People not choosing to believe they exist is the very reason why we are having disagreement. If you are too thick to see that well that isn’t my fault.
We are talking about simple things like my SD card working. Not setting up a complicated pieces of software such as a development workstation, web-server , database server or anything of non-trivial complexity.
I didn’t say it was impossible, but simple things just not working wear on your patience over time and you get fed up.
Well they give you a upgrade tool for older versions of Windows when you upgrade to 8. You obviously didn’t use it or didn’t pay attention to its report.
I know the fingerprint things works because I saw it when I ran the upgrade tool.
Linux requires fiddling to get simple things working. not complicated things. You are the one being a absolutist.
I upgraded to Windows 8 on this machine, I had to do nothing other than double click the .exe and wait.
The only thing I changed was the desktop background and the Window border titles.
Personal insults again and assumptions. I didn’t not have laptop at all at the time, iBooks at the time were cheaper than an equivalently sized business laptop.
The decision made sense at the time. Don’t assume …
Well you obviously don’t get the whole that was presented. It takes longer than it should do, not that it isn’t possible. It always possible, but the amount of effort exerted is larger than the reward, it not worth the effort.
I was at home at the time. Don’t assume things because it makes an ass out of u and me
It is impossible to have a sensible debate when the other half is being a pedant. I am presenting an idea, if you choose to deliberately not get it, well that is your problem … not mine.
Again you are thinking to low level. I don’t care what the reason is. I just want it to work.
Kernel updates happen pretty frequently on most up 2 date distros. I don’t want to be using old software, maybe if it was properly built in this situation you wouldn’t need to choose between stability and the latest features. I don’t have to choose with Windows, I do with Linux.
Stop being a dickhead. It is unbecoming.
The old “its a joke defence”, when you are called out on being rude. Pathetic.
I generally bet you don’t like people that aren’t your friends making jokes, you aren’t my friend.
You have called me a “web designer” before. Making clear what I do is polite, to see my viewpoint.
You are being an ass again, trying to put me in a negative light. It isn’t cool, and I am correcting you.
My (Windows 7) laptop runs perfectly on Xubuntu.
Desktop Linux has improved a great deal since 2004
Tell that to my wireless card and DPMS driver.
Buy the wrong hardware and you’ll experience grief with Linux.
Do some research on which hardware to buy and Linux is smooth sailing.
Yes, I have been hearing that since 1994.
I have better things to do with my life as locating and recompiling working drivers that were removed from distributions for FOSS political reasons.
I’ve been using Linux since 2000. I’ve yet to encounter any of these mysterious hardware problems that seem plague some people.
I bet your’e one of those people who still claims that you need to use a soldering iron to install a memory stick on a PC.
“WORKS FOR ME, YOU MUST BE STUPID!” attitude is pathetic.
The fact of the matter is that there has been things that plague desktop Linux and they persist because of this very attitude.
Pretending that issues don’t exist because they don’t occur for you is dishonest and selfish.
Edited 2013-11-22 10:18 UTC
Does this go for Windows as well? Windows has plenty of its own issues and shortcomings. It depends on what you want to do. Personally I work with Windows all day but when I come home I like my Linux laptop. Windows UI always seems so laggy and cumbersome to me even on systems much newer than my laptop.
It’s annoying as hell for me to find relevant things in Windows logs. Powershell makes it better somewhat but Powershell itself is so damn verbose I don’t use it nearly as much as I use the shell in Linux. Powershell also is not really the same thing as bash. It is mostly meant for administrative tasks whereas I can use bash for pretty much everything, like everyday desktop tasks which makes me much more efficient.
The other big thing for me is that I’m not big on buying a lot of software and I like to do a lot of different things. Now Windows also has a good amount of FOSS software but not nearly as much as Linux and a lot of the times the Linux version of FOSS software is better.
My Linux laptop comes in handy in business network environments as well when it comes to pentesting and troubleshooting networks. There are just so many more tools and again the cross platform ones just seem to work so much better on Linux.
Lastly the most annoying thing of all that Linux doesn’t have to deal with is the plethora of versions and license keys that you have to deal with Microsoft. Just for example…you cannot get bitlocker on Windows 7 without having a VLK version or Ultimate. Some clients get brand new machines with Windows 7 Pro and then later decide they want encryption. Well you can’t get bitlocker on Pro without a VLK version so you either have to upgrade to Ultimate or wipe and reload a VLK version. This is especially annoying when you already have VLK licensing but the only way to use the key is to wipe the OS. It’s just stupid.
YMMV
You mis-understood the point I was making.
I find that a lot of people in the Desktop Linux community do not what to listen to criticism even if it is valid.
I don’t have a lot of free time these days at work or in my social life. I don’t want to spend fixing things that shouldn’t be broke in the first place.
This applies for ASP.NET development (my speciality) and other web stacks that I work with. I have quite a lot of frustrations because of things that are either broke or not implemented in these web stacks.
When it comes to an Operating system (it isn’t even bespoke code). I just expect certain things to work, if they don’t work then I won’t use it unless I have to … one of the reasons why I don’t use OpenBSD anymore even though I like the OS and its philosophy … it just isn’t practical.
My example is quite easy to find.
Canonical developers replaced working Broadcom binary drivers from the LTS by FOSS drivers that were still immature and distributed them via Ubuntu update.
Many users were forced to live with unstable wireless drivers until they fixed everything a few months later.
For those with free time on their hands, there was the possibility to manually rollback the changes produced by the update.
Forum links can be provided on request.
And I bet you are one of those FOSS zealots.
Ubuntu rocks … we broke it? try in 6 months again.
People who complain about hardware problems in Linux are usually comparing apples to oranges.
If you buy a pre-built Windows computer: all the hardware is going to work fine with the operating system. Likewise, if you were to buy a pre-built Linux computer from someplace like System76: you can be sure that the hardware will work just fine too.
The problem is when somebody takes a computer built for Windows and tries to install Linux on it. There may be some hardware you just can not get drivers for. The same problem happens when people try to switch versions of Windows on a machine and is probably worse. For example: If a person tries to upgrade a machine that came with Windows XP to Windows 7, it is likely that they are going to end up with some orphaned hardware.
My wireless card and DPMS driver issues happened with a Asus netbook sold with Ubuntu in Germany.
With the version of Ubuntu they ship the laptop with. Try another Linux distro this your mileage will vary.
This only happens if you downgrade Windows on newer hardware, not if you upgrade.
Hardware that didn’t exist at the time, the OS hasn’t got drivers for … who would have thought?!
BS. Plenty of hardware has become obsolete on newer Microsoft systems. This is a dated reference but I remember getting a free printer and scanner with my brand new Windows ME laptop when ME first came out. The free hardware didn’t have drivers for ME and NEVER did.
Not too long ago I did work for a printing company and most of the printers and scanners didn’t have drivers for Windows 7 machines and never will because those machines can last 10-20 years but the manufacturer would rather sell you a new one and Microsoft doesn’t give a fuck. This is actually a much better situation on Linux because you are not beholden to the manufacturer. I would be willing to bet there has been less hardware obsolescence on Linux over the past 20 years than Windows.
So a printer company trying to force it customers to buy software is Microsoft’s fault?
And the driver situation of today’s Windows OS is exactly the same as 14/15 years ago.
Sorry the only bullshit is coming from you in this case.
Buy Intel hardware for wireless.
Problem solved. You no longer have to do research.
Though, I’m sure you’ll find some other straw man to pick a fight with.
i can added that my windows 7 and windowsXP runs very well on the linux laptop (thanks to virtualbox
)
The linux desktop has indeed evolved … but still too many edges to cut. Mainly on having stable and integrated environments. Not some kind of a different OS every 6 months.
And only now we are reaching the non-technical OS, where you want to have the X application installed and you don’t know how to do it, even though linux has the *store feature for ages (dpkg/ap-get?)
I have to ask..in what respect does it suck for multimedia, 3D, and mobile? Those aspects of Linux are all fine for me but maybe you have different requirements. Those all did suck very much for a long time but they are quite good now…at least in my opinion.
I dunno, my Nexus 4 Linux phone is rock solid thus far. Seems to be doing pretty good in the commercial mobile market, too – 81% last quarter, at least as reported by IDC.
Maybe you’re using the wrong Linux distro?
Well, should I start using Android for my laptop?!!
Because except for Linux, which is a kernel. With changes not part of the mainline, the userland is 100% Java.
Which handset manufacturer should I ask for the drivers?
How well does Android work with mouse and keyboard?
OK, so you meant for a laptop – the majority of “mobile” is actually touch devices, so yours is the minority case.
What I would recommend for you is the Dell “Sputnik 3” laptop with Ubuntu pre-installed or, if you want a different distro for some reason, check a pre-install from Zareason (they have a wide variety).
Generally, regardless of OS, people unwilling to deal with finding drivers should always buy pre-installs. This is as true for Windows as for Linux, of course – I’ve done more installs of both than most, and while Linux is typically easier, some effort is ALWAYS required!
I think you have blinders on. Did the first big mac suck?
I’m not an expert on fast food.
I actually have an original box copy of Windows 1.03 at home. I also have a 5.25 drive sitting in the same closet. I wonder if I can get it running on a spare computer. Last time I tried to get it to run it seemed very tempermental and would crash frequently. Don’t know if Windows or the version of DOS I was using was the culprit. Might have something to experiment this weekend if I get bored…
Version 1.02 DT (german version) here, on 6 5.25″ disks, still sealed. 🙂
From my “museum experience” this shouldn’t be a big problem. Make sure everything is clean (free of dust). Also make sure your mains voltage is stable.
This old technology seems to be much more reliable than our today’s “modern” technology. I still have computer systems from the early 1980’s here, with disks and printer, running a CP/M clone – fully functional. I tend to experience fewer reading troubles with those old diskettes and drives than with some new DVD equipment… just curious if it would be possible to use today’s devices in 30 years… 😉
Mandatory pointer to the GUI Gallery:
http://toastytech.com/guis/indexwindows.html
Thirty years ago hardware was vastly more expensive than modern hardware. People expected that very expensive hardware to last a long time so it had to be made well. Now a DVD burners costs <$20 so people have developed much lower expectations regarding quality. eg My laptop can’t handle CDs or DVDs with very minor scratches and is often reluctant to eject discs.