Posts by JEDIDIAH

Red Dwarf's Kryten exposes iPhone number

What happened to the screaming hysteria?

> He's on Red Dwarf. I like Red Dwarf. But for the life in me I can't see

> why that should mean I, nor anybody else, would want to call him?

> He could paint his

...obviously not a Red Dwarf fan then.

USB hack connects Droid to printers, video cams, and more

Johnny come lately.

CUPS was not written by Apple. CUPS was BOUGHT by Apple.

Just like Star Office, CUPS was around for a long time before some other company decided to come along and buy it after all of the actual hard work was done. No gumption or vision was required. They just had to write a check.

OpenOffice is the new David Hasselhoff

A pile of bogus assumptions

This is just so funny...

> The problem, as always, was that OO was made and run by software guys who have

> almost no idea of what an office suite is supposed to do in the real world. This is

> endemic in the FOSS world, and is easily spotted by the mantra "people only buy (insert

> product) because they're too stupid to do otherwise". See posts above for canonical

> examples.

You assume here that Open Office is "hippie-ware" like any other bit of prominent Linux or Free Software. Infact, Open Office is a proprietary office suite that was "liberated" after it had been well established as commercial software. It was a proprietary office suite before Sun came along and bought it. It was produced by a German company. So the idea that it's popular in Germany doesn't seem terribly far off.

OO -> FOSS -> bad is just the usual Lemming nonsense of trashing anything that isn't the market leader.

"stop the flow of time..."

When was David Hasselhof ever cool? He started out in Star Crash and it went downhill from there.

iPad runs Windows, Nokia runs OSX

Just reduce your expectations enough...

Apple does a highly restrictive subset well. Try to go outside that little box and all bets are off.

Apple video shows Flashed iPad

Balkanized web.

Apple doesn't seem to care that it's Balkanizing the Internet here and also seems to think that they are big enough to get away with this. If a Microsoft or Linux version did this, there would be a screams and moans would be nearly unanimous. However, because it's Apple it gets excused. Sure, proprietary plug-ins suck bu they are part of the landscape everyone expects to move across with a web browser.

It's funny/interesting that Apple didn't want to show off their true vision of a non-flash web.

Apple iPad spanked with Defective by Design protest

The Mac that could have been...

...some other things to put on a proper tablet sized Mac.

Firefox

OpenOffice

Skype

Perian

VLC

Plex

Those games they demo at the Apple store.

"Managing" my media with the sftp handler in Nautilus would also be cool in lieu of iTunes.

Welcome to Oceania

> Please don't tell me you use winblows then?

The "music related" things you want to do aren't available in the type of Apple product we're talking about right here and right now. That's rather the point. This new generation of Apple devices is locked down to the point of being unusable to anyone but a "mere consumer". Even a "power consumer" doesn't have any means of controlling their experience.

If this is the future of Apple then you really don't have any choice.

It's either Windows or Linux for you. Like it or not.

Windows 7 users to fly without SP parachute

unbelievable...

The whole point of running something like Windows is to avoid scp. There are versions of Windows from the dawn of time that support network filesystems. They idea that you need to pull out a terminal or ftp app is quaint to say the least.

OTOH, Ubuntu can make an scp connection look just like an SMB or NFS one.

MS spins IE security disaster into Windows 7 upgrade opportunity

Unix is infact for lazy people

ANY OS requires the user to maintain it.

The key is to build a system that seeks to subject the user to as little "maintenance" as possible rather than depending on the more common idea of "just shove it out as quick as you can and patch it later". A novice consumer will be no more able to deal with Windows than any other system. This is just a widely perpetuated myth.

However, Windows and it's vendor applications are much more insecure by design.

Ditch IE entirely if you can. Ditch any MS apps that you can.

2010: The year PC prices go up

High end? Hah!

The "top end" of PCs has become increasingly less relevant over time. These days, such machines are much irrelevant for non-corporate users. The vast majority of users can't overtax the entry level boxes any more. Hardware surpassed their actual needs a long time ago.

Talk of $2500 boxes is just absurd. You can buy gross overkill (from the consumer point of view) for a mere $600.

Moore's Law advances and things that might have required a 3Ghz core last year are being integrated into $200 machines this year.

Welcome to the out-of-control decade

The nonsense of blaming the victim...

> Bring it on, I say. Two decades of personal computing has brought us

> nothing but botnets, malware and spam.

...courtesy of a monopoly that never had to care about product quality.

Even Apple's own general purpose products soundly refute the idea that

a computing experience that can be controlled by the consumer necessarily

will lead to rampant security problems.

You're blaming the victim here when the real perpetrator was a company

could get away with selling MS-DOS when Apple was already selling

Macs because they (MS) were in a dominant market position.

FDA takes aim at illegal net pharmacies

Nevermind fakes, fear the real stuff!

It really doesn't matter so much if what you are buying is a fake because "the genuine article" is already quite capable of creating a cascade of related drug interactions. Modern pharmaceuticals are more than dangerous enough on their own. You don't have to whip up bogus hysteria over "fakes". The real ones will do nicely on their own.

Europe welcomes Dell's Mac Mini Zino HD

The IONs already landed. Why bother?

The IONs already landed. Why bother with this?

IONs are already cheap and plentiful and quite adequate as serving as replacements for Apple hardware. The ATI graphics is rather so-so (especially for us Linux users). The price doesn't seem competitive either.

Colorful cases?

Dell's offering is redundant. They already have a mac mini style ATI based machine that's not terribly price competitive.

Apple plans turbocharged Mac Pro speedster

Feed the monster, ignore the housecat.

While there is certainly a contingent that is interested in "launching sputnik" from the home office, it remains a relatively meagre part of the market. Meanwhile, the middle ground is being all but ignored by Apple. An expandable PC with greatly improved specs (compared to a mini) can be had for the same price as a mini. So for the contingent that might want an expansion slot or an extra full size drive bay there is this gaping chasm in the Mac lineup between $600 and $2400.

Does the Linux desktop need to be popular?

It's a much more sparse minefield these days...

> If I take my immediately families usage of their computers then I'd have to ensure that

> all their printers, webcams, cameras, video cards had Unix drivers available (and that

> there are easily installed!). This is no easy task.

...just like you would be doing with Windows.

They will come for you to advice and recommendations and help when all does not go well.

It's a big myth that Windows device support is trouble free. Plus with a sufficiently sophisticated device they may have it working and not even realize it. Some device (like a multi-function printer) might just be more than they know how to deal with. They might not be clear on how they verify that it is actually working.

So the whole "will all of grandma's devices work" problem is a bit of nonsense.

First figure out what the real problem is.

> I just installed Ubuntu 9.04 (Insipid Imbecile or whatever), and Firefox 3.5 isn't in the repository,

Please update your FUD and try again.

I installed Firefox 3.5 from the repositories on my 9.04 install.

IBM Linux chief: Chasing desktop Windows a 'dead-end'

Try some better lies next time.

> Or listen to MP3s. Or watch videos. Or... I know these can be done

> (I have set them up), but hey are post install and not always straight-forward.

Not straightforward?

All you do is open up the file and let the package manager sort things out.

It's hardly rocket science and it is EASIER than what Windows will subject you to in identical conditions. This is simply absurd and a**inine as a FUD talking point. Update your FUD. Run something from this millenium and get better talking points.

The FUD machine is broken.

> Linux has been trying for many years to become the dominent player in the desktop

> market and has resolutely failed, a fact which Linux fans should wake up and accept.

Linux was used as a blunt instrument by OEMs to force Microsoft to extend the lifetime of XP. Linux remains a stated threat to Microsoft in SEC filings and propaganda presented to retail sales clerks. Linux has by no means "resolutely failed" in terms of "domination".

Things are only getting better. Interfaces improve. Applications are improved. New applications are created. Corporate support improves.

In most of the things that people generally do with computers, Linux is a drop in replacement.

There is no need for the current Linux user to think of themselves as something akin to a BeOS or Amiga user.

Dell: Linux v Windows netbook returns a 'non-issue'

On the subject of Jobs proping up Microsoft.

After Office2007, the wife was annoyed enough at Microsoft to give Linux a serious look after all these years and was perfectly willing to use it at home until she got her iPhone. Ironically enough, lack of support for an Apple product is what keeps Windows running in this household.

Jobs has 2 serious fad consumer devices but to use them you are essentially forced into choosing between Windows and MacOS to do so. Inevitably, most people use the OS that can run on the HW they have lying around.

Between printers, scanners, still cameras, video cameras, non-apple PMPs, wifi cards and video capture devices the Apple products are the only ones not just indifferent to Linux but actively hostile to it.

Modern Linux has gotten rather spiffy otherwise. I don't even have the temptation to run MacOS anymore despite the fact that I have 3 Macs (MythTV).

Down with Kings!

It shouldn't really matter who is "King".

Any healthy market allows those with different requirements and sensibilities to be accommodated effectively without anyone getting the impression they have been forced into something they would never want. The nature of computing tends to make that a difficult prospect. Although it helps if governments don't just blindly go along helping perpetuate some choice strangling monopoly.

The difference between a market leader and monopoly is that you can ignore a market leader.

If I can use the technology that suits me, the crowd can subject themselves to MS-DOS again for all I care.

Ubuntu man extends olive branch to irate Debian devs

Just getting stuff done

> they want to get payroll out on time, or open the wedding video their daughter and new son-in-law just sent from the other side of the planet.

This old saw?

Chances are that Linux is going to be much better at opening some random media file. Windows or MacOS may end up needing to have some bit of Free Software installed on it first.

That is a product of Ubuntu. It may need to install the same software that the Windows or Mac user may eventually stumble over but Ubuntu will do so automatically and in a pleasantly user friendly fashion.

People that complain about other people's vision should check their own. Linux isn't standing still either and Shuttleworth is in the thick of it.

Microsoft under threat from Linux - it's official

2 for the price of one

It's interesting how the key FUD talking points seem to be stuck a decade in the past. Macs are no longer terribly expensive. They are in the same price range as consumer PCs that some clerk at the local electronics store might try to your mother. Linux is also considerably different from the hysterical portrait some try to paint of it.

The Windows fear mongers are pretty much wrong on all accounts.

It's a sort of 2 for 1 sale.

The biggest barrier is the fear generated by the fear mongers.

Given that Linux pushed Microsoft to keep XP alive longer and slash their OEM prices, their required disclosure of Linux as a competitor is clearly not just a smoke screen. Linux may not necessarily gain market share but it can certainly devalue Microsoft's products.

Bug exposes eight years of Linux kernel

Conflate and inflate...

It's interesting how the trolls jump on any bug in Linux that comes along.

it makes you wonder how things would look if Microsoft's development process were as transparent. This is a BUG. This is not a working piece of malware that has managed to cripple the Internet.

It should be fixed. It shouldn't have happened to begin with. But it's not nearly in the same league as the hordes of malware that infest s WinDOS consumer PC's the world over.

Linux to spend eternity in shadow of 'little blue E'

Are you kidding?

Are you kidding? Linux doomed to be in the shadow of the E? Exploder?

The E is already being replaced on Windows by saavy Windows users.

Microsoft survives due to the perception that they are the only game in

town. As soon as that perception is fractured, you have people fleeing

en masse to other alternatives.