Posts by Pompous Git 3087 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Sep 2014
systemd-free Devuan Linux hits RC2
@ i1ya I get around one downvote for every 6 upvotes. Think how boring it would be if we all thunk the same :-)
Frankly, I have no real idea what the fuss is about. When it comes to OSs I view things from the perspective of an end user. Does it run stable and does it run my applications? Implying I'm childish for wanting that seems rather petty. Now the downvotes will come thick and fast [evil grin]
"when I met my wife, she didn't know how to install software"When I met my ex-fiancée, neither of us knew how to install software ;-) Today, she still only has the most rudimentary grasp of how to use a PC and she's been using one at work since the days of the Apple IIe. When I try to explain things she interrupts and says: "But I want to do x. I don't want to know about y or z." Frustrating, but I love her anyway :-)
"WordPerfect weren't just DOS, Windows and OS/2, I had it on the Amiga "I have Corel Word Perfect for Linux that I was given at a MS bash. It was a PITA to install (no installer) and a PITA to use. It listed every font twice; one was the screen font and one the printer font. And yes, there was a *nix version that you had to compile before installing.
"I don't know about Ashton Tate and WordStar but WordPerfect and especially Lotus were conveniently kicked at the curb by Microsoft anti-competitive actions to make sure they are not here today."I used to train end-users using Wordstar for Windows, Word Perfect for Windows, Lotus Word Pro and Word for Windows. WfW's competitors were too little, too late.
Wordstar frequently crashed when running the spellchecker or printing. Word Perfect was also unstable and would often refuse to perform a mail merge. Fixing formatting problems with reveal codes was a step too far for many users, especially when you still couldn't fix the problem. In many respects Lotus was a great product, its modeless dialogs were a wonderful time-saver. Unfortunately, if you changed a template, you changed all the documents that used that template, not just the current and subsequent documents. Thus you ended up with a massive proliferation of templates.
Word had its faults, but was streets ahead of the competition. BillG recalled attempting to interest the software houses in developing for Windows and being told it was a nine day wonder and not worth the effort. So BillG hired his own developers who had no choice.
The odd thing here is that MS doesn't seem to know Windows/Office history and seems as determined as Ashton Tate etc to shoot themselves in the foot. So it goes...
"with a much greater range of software than MS will ever allow"I really, really wish that were true, but it isn't. I spent a very pleasant 18 months using Cinnamon Mint as my primary OS. It is indeed wonderful. But my main applications are Windows or Mac OS. They won't run on Linux. There are no acceptable Linux substitutes. Until the major software houses get their act together, or the Linux community gets serious about developing professional software, Linux as a desktop OS is doomed to remain a niche. This saddens me greatly...
"Like a plough pulled by a horse. And about as useful."You've obviously never used a breast plough , or ploughed with a horse.
Note that in the video the ploughman is working soft soil, not turf. I have a neighbour who has footage of a peasant in The People's Paradise ploughing up grassland with a breast plough in the 1960s. I'm willing to bet that guy would have given his eye teeth to possess a horse and turnwrest plough.
"The OED merely documents usage. It doesn't usually point out where that usage is an abomination to native speakers."George Bernard Shaw was a superb writer IMHO. YMMV of course...
"What was formerly called ‘real property’ is replaced by ordinary personal property and common property administrated by the State."On Rocks 1934.
Of course Shaw was an Irishman rather than a proper Englishman.
"housing benefit is basically a transfer of taxpayer money to private landlords"That depends. Here in Oz Centrelink pay the rent subsidy to the tenants. The tenants use the rent subsidy to purchase drugs and the landlord ends up evicting the tenants after a long battle to be allowed to do so. Yes, this ends up driving up rents, but that's what the government in its wisdom appears to want. That and cheaper drugs.
""the last version of Windows ever" is nothing more than the Microsoft way of saying "resistance is futile.""As usual MS have this wrong. Resistance is not futile. Having tested w8 and w10 and decided that both were a crock of shit, I concluded that w7 was my last windows ever. If they dick the CPUs to stymie that, I will just continue run w7 in a VM on Linux.
Where's the pass the popcorn icon when you need it? [Though I might prefer a Smith's Crisps icon]
... the annual cheque from Australia's Copyright Council I used to receive. It was a nominal sum* to be sure being contributed by teachers photocopying my work for the use of their students. But no more... Makes me wonder if they teach their students to steal other property too.
* I don't think it ever exceeded more than $100.
"We should ask him to upgrade to a proper Office suite, as there's no point using software that generates files that can't be read by other users."Alternatively you could upgrade everyone to Libre Office. OTOH if you need compatibility with Word and Excel docs from outside the firm...
"I understand MS have finally caught up with multiple workspaces.Er... I had multiple desktops on NT4, but never found them particularly useful. I had more fun with the Mac OS Theme 'cos that used to annoy the fuck out of the Mackerels :-)So on the whole, that's one up to Linux."
"please can you get rid of that damn ribbon thing and put a proper menu back"Addin Tools Classic Menu.
"Don't feel picked on 'cause you live in Tassie, mate."Oh I don't feel in the least picked on. Imagine if you will a terrorist being told he had to go to Tasmania to wreak havoc.
"You really expect me to fly to Australia, catch a boat to Tasmania and then ride in a horse and cart to where you want me to blow things up? FFS..."
"Ebay haven't insisted on Paypal exclusively for at least a couple of years. I don't think they ever did in Australia."They did. The rules change was made in 2010. If you are purchasing from a reputable supplier and thus do not need the PayPal warranty you're better off purchasing by bank deposit.
"Before I get accused of stretching the truth, I am not making this up. This was the actual supply chain for an item. At each stage nark up [I see what you did there!] was about 30%."It is even worse in Tasmania where an additional 30-40% is added because Bass Strait. Even quite nominal amounts of material cost significantly less when purchased from mainland suppliers.* When I replaced our dead TV last year, I purchased it from the mainland for ~$300 and it was delivered to my door. Purchasing the identical item from JB HiFi in Hobart was $50 more and still needed to be carted an additional 30 odd miles to my home. I didn't bother ascertaining what that would have cost.
* Amusingly Huon pine harvested in the valley where I live is cheaper to purchase from Victoria (hence two trips across Bass Strait) than it is locally.
"A massive expansion of the public sector to administer this is anathema to our conservative ruling party (confusingly named the Liberal Party but actually Tories). "Not really. Both the ALP and the Liberal/National coalition are parties of the centre. The Liberal Party are not so much a conservative party as an anti-Labor party. It is true that the Left wing of the ALP is to the left of the Right wing of the Coalition. Most members of our national parliament are midway between the extremes with little to distinguish them from each other.
John Stone was Secretary to the Treasury from 1979 to 1984 and Senator for Queensland representing the National Party from 1987 to 1990. He was, to hear him speak, the driest of the dries. However, he doubled the number of staff while at Treasury.
"Geoblocking by multinationals like Panasonic, Sony and many others not to mention car companies, whose local prices are often double or even triple the price of the same item elsewhere"Replacement batteries for my Nikon camera are $140 in Australia, plus a stocking fee that I did not enquire the amount of. I purchase two for $AU10 post-paid from the USA. They were cheaper than from China.
"Contrast with Linux, where only properly skilled coders get to contribute."ROFLMAO! Needed to compile a video for a friend. First Linux proggy took nearly half an hour and didn't want to burn the DVD. Second Linux proggy took the same amount of time, but did burn the DVD. Nero's proggy running on Win7 took less than a minute of my time because drag 'n' drop.
"And she tells me they're selling up their maisonettesLeft the Hotpoints to rust in the kitchenettes
And they're saving their labour for insane reading.
Some of them lose - and some of them lose
But that's what they want - and that's what they choose
It's a burden — such a burden
Oh what a burden to be so relied on."
"It is easy enough to identify the writer by his/her choices of words, the grammatical preferences, the rhetorical devices, and even the spelling mistakes. It does not take too much text either."I seem to recall we did that with Peter Gleick's fake memo. It only took us a day. No computering involved.
"Libre Office works fine for me."Works fine for me too; better in some respects (no stupid ribbon). However, compatibility is a problem.
Mrs Git sent me a two page Word document to fine-tune. Libre Office interpreted it as a six page document! So faut mieux I had to open it in Word.
"The support staff have absolutely no interest in changing anything at any time ever. They just want to get on and get their jobs done with everything staying the same as it has been forever."I suspect that goes for the users too. That's not stupid; that's sensible. If it's not broken, why fix it and frustrate the fuck out of everyone who just want to get their work done?
"But, but, but the Liberal Party was able to dump about 15 billion dollars into their buddies pockets"And that's different to the ALP doing the same thing? How? Remember the NTD cost is ~$600 and elsewhere on the planet the connection is a $15 ethernet socket. If a user needs four so they can access more than one ISP simultaneously they purchase a device to plug into it.
"The other day I downloaded a video file with malware that caused it to refuse to play on my old VGA monitor."The other day I downloaded a movie on Youtube and it didn't make me sit through all that stupid copyright infringement crap! Hercules Returns as it happens. One of the funniest movies I've ever seen.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
