Also check out OpenBSD, a Canadian dist. of BSD. It makes a rock solid firewall, or server. From Calgary. 0% Librano content.
whoopee ding
At least Linux doesn’t have to stop every 1024 interrupts and deposit another nickel in Bill’s wallet.
I’m confused!
…Linux’s greatest downfall:
Distrofragmentation.
Ask 100 Linux users which distro is best for a small home office and get 101 answers.
Unfortunately – video streaming is NOT available for a lot of sites (CTV, CBC, etc.) Miss a show? Don’t bother trying – they “say” they ONLY support MS Windows/XP and Mac OSX. Why? Digital Rights Management! Watch now; but, we can turn it off whenever we want and unless you pay. Not that our public TV networks mention this real reason.
Hmmm… so this why the EU wants Windows Media Player divorced from Windows. Pity because Linux is the emerging O/S in most of the world. We’re falling behind people.
Lindsay, fortunately the geek hordes make TV available on Bit Torrent for the DRM avoiding Linux masses.
The latest story of Vista is a hoot, their games support is worse than in XP so far. I don’t know a single techie who is switching to Vista, they are all waiting for SP1 or going to Mac or Linux.
Lindsay, CTV puts the mms: / / url right in the links to their video. Just copy the link and paste it into your viewer of choice.
No problems viewing the stuff.
Cheers,
lance
“the future is now” or some similar cliche
it might be a linux or it might be a mac but next new desktop in the bollocks household is NOT going to be Windows based.
That’s the Beryl window manager at work. Do you use it, Kate?
I’ve tried it with Linux on my Mac and the eye candy is nice, but it’s not really stable.
I’m a Windoze guy, and I have to admit I haven’t been paying too much attention to Vista, but from what I have heard about it there’s nothing substantial about it that makes me want to get it.
I guess it has groovy transparent UI abilities, but I don’t care about that. What I do want is an O/S that doesn’t fall to its knees when crappy apps go crazy and successfully suck up all memory or CPU. I’m sick of seeing “Windows has to close this app/would you like to send a report to Microsoft?”
Well no I wouldn’t. I like you to fix your O/S – and I’d like the software industry to write better apps – so that crap is isolated and doesn’t force me to re-boot.
this from the MSM on Vista:
Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, an anti-virus program that actively scans computers for “spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software.” The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software.
Once operational, the agreement warns that Windows Defender will, by default, automatically remove software rated “high” or “severe,” even though that may result in other software ceasing to work or mistakenly result in the removal of software that is not unwanted.
For greater certainty, the terms and conditions remove any doubt about who is in control by providing that “this agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights.” For those users frustrated by the software’s limitations, Microsoft cautions that “you may not work around any technical limitations in the software.”
Those technical limitations have proven to be even more controversial than the legal ones.
Last December, Peter Guttman, a computer scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand released a paper called “A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection.” The paper pieced together the technical fine print behind Vista, unraveling numerous limitations in the new software seemingly installed at the direct request of Hollywood interests.
Guttman focused primarily on the restrictions associated with the ability to play back high-definition content from the next-generation DVDs such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (referred to as “premium content”).
He noted that Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium content when played on most computer monitors.
Guttman’s research suggests that consumers will pay more for less with poorer picture quality yet higher costs since Microsoft needed to obtain licences from third parties in order to access the technology that protects premium content
etc etc
go ahead connedsumer, gooooooo ahead and put that great big heavy clanking chain around your neck and your wallet called Vista.
this is like the old days with ibm enslaving businesses with their product line, creating contracts that protect ibm’s interests exquisitely.
“I don’t know a single techie who is switching to Vista, they are all waiting for SP1 or going to Mac or Linux.”
I just grudgingly ordered Vista Home Premium for a new boxen that I’m building. The *only* reason I’m running it is because I’ll have to support customers using the same. I’m not happy about it.
As if this wasn’t enough, most of Vista is just a cheap rip-off of what’s been available in other systems for years already. I think this will be the first version of Windows I won’t be using outside the betas.
Also check out OpenBSD, a Canadian dist. of BSD. It makes a rock solid firewall, or server. From Calgary. 0% Librano content.
whoopee ding
At least Linux doesn’t have to stop every 1024 interrupts and deposit another nickel in Bill’s wallet.
I’m confused!
…Linux’s greatest downfall:
Distrofragmentation.
Ask 100 Linux users which distro is best for a small home office and get 101 answers.
Unfortunately – video streaming is NOT available for a lot of sites (CTV, CBC, etc.) Miss a show? Don’t bother trying – they “say” they ONLY support MS Windows/XP and Mac OSX. Why? Digital Rights Management! Watch now; but, we can turn it off whenever we want and unless you pay. Not that our public TV networks mention this real reason.
Hmmm… so this why the EU wants Windows Media Player divorced from Windows. Pity because Linux is the emerging O/S in most of the world. We’re falling behind people.
Lindsay, fortunately the geek hordes make TV available on Bit Torrent for the DRM avoiding Linux masses.
The latest story of Vista is a hoot, their games support is worse than in XP so far. I don’t know a single techie who is switching to Vista, they are all waiting for SP1 or going to Mac or Linux.
Lindsay, CTV puts the mms: / / url right in the links to their video. Just copy the link and paste it into your viewer of choice.
No problems viewing the stuff.
Cheers,
lance
“the future is now” or some similar cliche
it might be a linux or it might be a mac but next new desktop in the bollocks household is NOT going to be Windows based.
That’s the Beryl window manager at work. Do you use it, Kate?
I’ve tried it with Linux on my Mac and the eye candy is nice, but it’s not really stable.
I’m a Windoze guy, and I have to admit I haven’t been paying too much attention to Vista, but from what I have heard about it there’s nothing substantial about it that makes me want to get it.
I guess it has groovy transparent UI abilities, but I don’t care about that. What I do want is an O/S that doesn’t fall to its knees when crappy apps go crazy and successfully suck up all memory or CPU. I’m sick of seeing “Windows has to close this app/would you like to send a report to Microsoft?”
Well no I wouldn’t. I like you to fix your O/S – and I’d like the software industry to write better apps – so that crap is isolated and doesn’t force me to re-boot.
this from the MSM on Vista:
Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, an anti-virus program that actively scans computers for “spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software.” The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software.
Once operational, the agreement warns that Windows Defender will, by default, automatically remove software rated “high” or “severe,” even though that may result in other software ceasing to work or mistakenly result in the removal of software that is not unwanted.
For greater certainty, the terms and conditions remove any doubt about who is in control by providing that “this agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights.” For those users frustrated by the software’s limitations, Microsoft cautions that “you may not work around any technical limitations in the software.”
Those technical limitations have proven to be even more controversial than the legal ones.
Last December, Peter Guttman, a computer scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand released a paper called “A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection.” The paper pieced together the technical fine print behind Vista, unraveling numerous limitations in the new software seemingly installed at the direct request of Hollywood interests.
Guttman focused primarily on the restrictions associated with the ability to play back high-definition content from the next-generation DVDs such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (referred to as “premium content”).
He noted that Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium content when played on most computer monitors.
Guttman’s research suggests that consumers will pay more for less with poorer picture quality yet higher costs since Microsoft needed to obtain licences from third parties in order to access the technology that protects premium content
etc etc
go ahead connedsumer, gooooooo ahead and put that great big heavy clanking chain around your neck and your wallet called Vista.
this is like the old days with ibm enslaving businesses with their product line, creating contracts that protect ibm’s interests exquisitely.
“I don’t know a single techie who is switching to Vista, they are all waiting for SP1 or going to Mac or Linux.”
I just grudgingly ordered Vista Home Premium for a new boxen that I’m building. The *only* reason I’m running it is because I’ll have to support customers using the same. I’m not happy about it.
As if this wasn’t enough, most of Vista is just a cheap rip-off of what’s been available in other systems for years already. I think this will be the first version of Windows I won’t be using outside the betas.