Posts by 420Penguin

Docker taps unikernel brains to emit OS X, Windows public betas

Windows client?

No details of the Windows client in the article. Is there something that makes OS X simpler to set up a docker client on than Windows, or is that what Windows Subsystem for Linux is for?

Steve Jobs, MS Office, Israel, and a basic feature Microsoft took 13 years to install

Curious

The picture in the article looks like there's no Ribbon in Office 2016 for Mac. That's one less travesty that Office for Mac users won't have to put up with if true.

Don't bother buying computers for schools, says OECD report

Re: Is it my imagination

I agree. It is easier to quantify the results of money spent on computers -- you get physical objects -- than money spent on teacher training and art and music where the end result of developing students into better people is ephemeral. In fact, when the computers arrive they are used to train students in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint... all the better to make good worker drones. It is better to spend the time teaching students how to think logically and develop real problem-solving abilities, but that could make them dangerous to entrenched interests.

Do computers have a place in schools? Yes, if they're used to teach the fundamentals of technology by allowing the kids to pull them apart, reassemble them and work with Open Source Software, but only as an elective for those kids so inclined. Unfortunately, nothing is going to stop the technology-buying juggernaut spurred on by manufacturers, middlemen, education technology lobbies (like Code.org and Fwd.us) and the politicians and school administrators that they have seduced.

LibreOffice 5.0 debuts, complete with fewer German code comments

Re: Whatever happened to LibreOffice Online?

LO 5 will be the base that the online version will be built upon.

Windows 10 marks the end of 'pay once, use forever' software

Windows 365

The problem with Windows 10 is not that they might charge for new features down the line (I would think that security updates will always be free), but that they're forcing "features" and new drivers on users. i only get security updates on Win 7 automatically and choose what other updates to accept and leave off. I want to be able to maintain this practice with Win 10, but I can can't.

However, a subscription Windows could be in the future as Microsoft recently trademarked the "Windows 365" brand. By that time i'm hoping all my games are on Steam OS and Linux, and I can leave Windows behind.

'Fix these Windows 10 Horrors': Readers turn their guns on Redmond

Re: No Control of Updating

So you're telling me if I'm a home user and want to delay updates for 30 days I have to pay $80 more for the Pro version?

I call bullsh*t!

Microsoft U-turns on 'free' Windows 10 upgrade promise for ALL previewers

The default login since Windows 8.1 is a MSA, which is usually a Hotmail or Outlook account, although I've seen users with non-Microsoft email accounts. You can log in with a standard local account, but it's access is hidden in 8.1 & 10. The MSA is required to access Microsoft's online services, most metro apps and store. If you don't have a MSA you don't have access to these services.

There are 2 problems I've observed with this arrangement: one, if you want to do local networking with other computers you're out of luck (the other networked computers won't be seen by the MSA computer), and two, if you no longer have access to the MSA account (say you registered with an ISP email and later changed ISPs) you lose the ability to recover if you forgot you password. You can create another account in Windows, but the process deletes all your old files.

I'll stick with 7 in the meantime because I don't like or need the metro apps, and local networking with my Linux box and BSD-based NAS is very important to me. I'm wondering if you'll need the Pro version of 10 to create local accounts, with 10 Home being MSA only?

Fanbois designing Windows 10 – where's it going to end?

When I shift workspaces in Linux the taskbar represents what applications are active in that particular workspace.

Re: Insider here

I have a mix of Windows 7, Linux Mint, and NAS4Free boxes as well as the Win 10 tester in a workgroup LAN. Everything can see everything else. All PCs used local logins including the Windows 10 box, and everything was visible and accessible. I tried an app on W10 that required me to create/use a Microsoft account. I used my old Hotmail account and W10 changed my computer login from local to a Microsoft account (not just for the app!) When my account type changed I lost the ability to see and connect to anything beyond the W10 box, including mapping a drive. (I also lost my files from the local account!) Without seeing other machines I was not even offered the alternate account login capability that I've always had with Windows, or any other OS I've used. Perhaps I would be able to see shares on another W10 box, but I did not have that set up to test. It looks like it "lock-in time" again!

Insider here

I've been testing Windows 10 from day one, mainly out of curiosity of how the process will play out. I've made feedback comments about lack of utility/customizability of the new start menu and some networking problems I've discovered. I was amazed at the silly things people brought up when I read the tester feedback! Very little about real problems and lots of stuff about superficial fluff, or comments like, "Thank you Microsoft for letting us test the new Windows!". Obviously most of these "testers" have never filed a real bug report.

Microsoft has spent an inordinate amount of time on the look of Windows 10, moving buttons around. It has not fixed important underlying problems, like when you log in with a Microsoft online account your ability to see and connect to other computers/shares on the network go away. (Maybe this is intentional, forcing you to do all your file sharing in their cloud at some cost-per-GB.) Microsoft hiding the ability to create local accounts (that do work with local networking) does seem to be an issue that was often mentioned in feedback (using their cloud and many apps require you to change to a Microsoft online account, which destroys local networking). What's going to show up on July 29 is going to be one big mess!

It's Friday or as we call it, What Is Intel Buying Now Rumor Day: Not Altera, but Broadcom?

Broadcom wirelss chips

I'd like to see Intel buy Broadcom and then post the specs to the Broadcom wireless chips, Intel and others do this and therefore there are working Open Source drivers for these wireless chips, but getting Broadcom chips working with their proprietary firmware in Linux is often problematic.

Document Foundation pledges Office 365 and Google Docs challenger

A Hardware Alternative Too?

It's my own little fantasy, but this would be an excellent foundation for an truly "free-as-in-freedom" Chromebook alternative running Firefox OS on open hardware which included more storage and a real printing sub-system.

You'll get sick of that iPad. And guess who'll be waiting? Big daddy Linux...

@Jeff Lewis

I guess it's my turn to repeat that Linux is a kernal. The order, from bottom up, is: kernal (Linux), operating system (GNU), desktop (Unity, Gnome, KDE, etc). All together is called a distribution (i.e.: Linux Mint). Windows is built along similar lines: kernal (NT), operating system, desktop (Metro, Aero).

Yes, we understand that BSD Unix underlies OS X and iOS. Keeping consistent, the Linux kernal (a flavor of Unix) underlies Android, Chrome OS, and Firefox OS, as well as the various distributions of GNU/Linux.

Now that that has been explained, yet again, let me mention the "parallel universe" that Linux lives in is the one where most of the web servers, smartphones, embedded devices, supercomputers, and coming wearables and smart TVs (and that Internet of Things thing) all run Linux. I can live with Windows (NT) left with running games and Excel.

Internet Explorer 12 to shed legacy cruft in bid to BEAT Chrome

It is this tight welding of IE to the OS that makes all versions of IE such security black holes. Visit an infected webpage and BAM! your PC is infected with malware or a bot! IE and Windows Explorer share the same code and both are deeply rooted in the OS which is why any IE update requires a reboot. It's better that MS move away from this model by dropping IE completely and using only the new browser (codenamed "Spartan") IF the browser is just an application and not bound to the OS like a tumor.

I would rather use another browser when using Windows (and preferably another OS), but hopefully this will help reduce the number of infected, botted Windows machines available for attacks on the internet itself. Getting rid of IE, and technologies that depend on it, can't come soon enough!

Re: I'll be happy...

My wife uses OWA at home to access her school email. It works OK in Firefox and Chrome on Linux and Windows 7, but doesn't connect to mailbox after login with IE 11 on W7. Go figure!

Reg man confesses: I took my wife out to choose a laptop for Xmas. NOOOO

Home Sweet Home

The ChromeBook was designed for the non-technical person and requires little in terms of technical support, but if your partner needs Word and iTunes then use whatever makes that available.

My wife is extremely non-technical, although a professional and smart, but she uses the household computer running Linux Mint just fine. She uses LibreOffice for wordprocessing and her newsletter and Firefox for web browsing, and she freely shares her office output with her co-workers, who use MS Office. We use Spotify (Linux client) for music. The computer works flawlessly with the house networked printer/scanner, the webcam and Skype. I have near zero technical support issues. I'm not recommending this for everybody, I'm just saying it works well for us.

If you want to make your partner happy, don't worry about the technology, just try to be a bit less condescending.

RIP Microsoft Clip Art – now you can fill your slides with web cat pics

Re: Screw the clipart

The templates from hloom.com are very lively and professional-looking.

Thx

Screw the clipart

MS also killed their offline template collection for Office. They all worked really well in Open/LibreOffice too! Now it's Office 365 only.

Return of the disk drive bigness? Not for poor old, busted WD

I have 3 WD 1 TB drives of different lines (Blue, Green) running in 3 different PCs for over 3 years without a hiccup. Always found WD drives very reliable. Spinning disks are great ways to store a lot of data these days very cheaply, but I somehow feel that as flash has replaced optical disks, SSD will replace HDD in the future.

Windows 10: One for the suits, right Microsoft? Or so one THOUGHT

Catching up to Linux

I've been playing with Win10 today on a 6-year-old Athlon64x2 w/ 2Gb RAM and I'm impressed that it runs as quickly as Windows 7 does on this machine. The menus and other functions are pretty likable for Windows and even IE looks snappy. However I've been tricking my Windows friends with my Linux Mint laptop (also 6 y.o) themed to look like Windows. I've been showing them the "improved" menu, virtual desktops, tiling, and a host of other features, some of which I'm seeing in Win 10. The Linux world has had many of these features for years. In fact, I think I like Win 10 because it reminds me so much of running Linux with the Cinnamon desktop environment.

Re: My questions

Testing W10 now:

Will you need to have a remote account (a la Windows Store)?

You'll need a Outlook.com account (or Hotmail)

Will it include Media Centre?

It has XBox Music & XBox Video apps, and Windows Media Player (but you have to search for it)

Will it include "cloud storage" turned on by default?

Yes, One Drive.

Will it be available for a sensible price to offset what I paid for a copy of Windows 7 to replace the TIKFAM rubbish preinstalled on my new laptop?

Why didn't you just install Classic Shell for free?

Wanna keep your data for 1,000 YEARS? No? Hard luck, HDS wants you to anyway

Unreadable File Formats

OK, assume the data survives 1000 years. What file formats are they stored in? Something where there was a documented and agreed upon International standard... or some mysterious, undocumented, proprietary file format by a company long out of business as will be the case with Microsoft Office docs? Try opening a Word doc in 1000 years! (or 20!). Where possible, data should be preserved in open standard formats like ODF or PDF.