Linux Sucks. Java sucks. I'm a Microsoft guy again!

[ChristianAnarchist]

It's the movie player that came with Ubuntu.  Totem Movie Player 2.26.1.  I'm new to this o.s. so I have zero experience (other than some command line stuff from 20 years ago that is very fuzzy now)...

Right now I'm installing the dragon and I will see how that works...

The Speedfan application shows all temps available to the system.  None of them show out of spec or even on the high side (but then I took off the side cover and removed the HD which is laying next to the case several months back).

[PlainShane]

VLC plays flv files flawlessly. Be sure to get the ubuntu restricted extras as noted.

[Zhwazi]

Windows = Good implementation of bad design
Linux = Bad implementation of good design
OpenSolaris = Good implementation of good design

[Alex Libman 15]

... on a server.

[BobRobertson]

Windows = Good implementation of bad design
Linux = Bad implementation of good design

I understand what you mean, even if I disagree.

The Linux kernel isn't designed, it has evolved.

Distributions demonstrate the insights and limitations of the people who create them, from one-man-shows that do what that one person wants very well, much like the Austin Mini, to the huge team efforts like Debian that put their greatest effort into the simple goal of making applications from disparate developers work on the same system without conflicts.

OpenSolaris = Good implementation of good design

As plausible as I find that statement, I have no experience with which to place it in context, because Solaris has never, ever, successfully installed.

People talk about it, so I conclude it does in fact work for someone, but I've tried numerous times since 1996 and it's just never worked. I'm sure it's because I've only tried the x86 versions, or some other factor over which I have control but just didn't know was critical.

[Zhwazi]

... on a server.

On a server, on my desktop, on my Latitude, and on my netbook. Runs all of 'em quite nicely! The only issues I've had are side effects of it's lack of popularity (e.g. never been tested with my model of camera, some specific applications not available, etc) and not due to any fault of the system itself.

Windows = Good implementation of bad design
Linux = Bad implementation of good design

I understand what you mean, even if I disagree.

The Linux kernel isn't designed, it has evolved.

Distributions demonstrate the insights and limitations of the people who create them, from one-man-shows that do what that one person wants very well, much like the Austin Mini, to the huge team efforts like Debian that put their greatest effort into the simple goal of making applications from disparate developers work on the same system without conflicts.

I know Linux isn't designed, and it shows. Evolution is good for systems that have their own intent. For tools and operating systems, design is the obvious winner.

OpenSolaris = Good implementation of good design.

As plausible as I find that statement, I have no experience with which to place it in context, because Solaris has never, ever, successfully installed.

For me neither. That's why I said Opensolaris. Solaris 10u5 dies at GRUB. Opensolaris since 2008.05 through 2009.06 has installed flawlessly for me every time.

[BobRobertson]

For me neither. That's why I said Opensolaris. Solaris 10u5 dies at GRUB. Opensolaris since 2008.05 through 2009.06 has installed flawlessly for me every time.

I mean OpenSolaris, also.

I am very glad it works for you. It's also nice to have another perspective on things that isn't just ms/mac/lin sniping at each other.

[Zhwazi]

I actually went back and read the whole stupid thread. (okay, I skimmed a few posts, but I read mosts posts on every page.)

Then again, Torvalds made the huge mistake of picking GPL over BSD, thus prolonging Microsoft's OS domination for at least another decade...

...So by ensuring that Microsoft cannot embed Linux code legally, Microsoft has been forced to spend vastly more time and treasure trying, and failing, to keep up with F/OSS innovation and progress.

Ya gotta love the copyleft fanatics trying to pretend that their desktop / productivity software isn't 5-10 years behind Microsoft's, or that they can compete with BSD on the server...

This.

GPL is an attempt to create a gigantic pool of communist code (communism works for software) that can only be combined with other GPL code. (Stuff that is BSD, MIT, ISC, etc licensed might as well just be forked and GPL'd when included into a GPL program.) This is retarded, and forces both open source and proprietary software writers to reinvent wheels for licensing reasons. GPL'ing software is a dick move. BSD and public domain are freest, if you must have copyleft there's CDDL which still allows for code reuse under proprietary licenses but requires that modifications get put back, minimizing software parasitism and maximizing code reuse.

Freedom means lack of restriction, which includes restrictions ostensibly to preserve freedom.

Fascinating. First you say...

Microsoft isn't the only one who'd be "cherry-picking code out of the BSD and MIT licensed systems" - their competitors can too, including tiny start-ups.  In fact, being the biggest software-oriented company in the world, Microsoft needs BSD code the least.  BSD is the great equalizer.

Then you reverse yourself and say...

GPL / copyleft has been the great cancer on the software industry, delivering crummy quality that's useless to 80-99% of desktop users, while making it impossible for serious competitors to rise up and challenge Microsoft.

So which is it? Which does your Microsoft Astroturf Play-Book tell you to use when your contradictions are brought to light?

There's no contradiction there. BSD is an equalizer, GPL makes it hard for serious competitors to challenge Microsoft. I don't agree that BSD is necessarily an equalizer but there's no contradiction there.

[Kevin Freeheart]

Now that Karmic is in Beta, I'm using it.

Totem is still fraked, but VLC works. I'm quite impressed, and it's replaced Windows on my laptop.

[Alex Libman 15]

I've started a separate thread about...  Karmic Koala Kubuntu 

[BobRobertson]

Ok, today I tried to get the eval of Win7 to see what y'all were talking about.

The Microsoft site wouldn't let me get it. Period.

Windows won't work for me even if I _want_ it to! It's not my fault! 

[Alex Libman 15]

You snooze, you... pirate.




EDIT: oh, speaking of KMPlayer (notice the icon) - it's on FFMPEG's Hall of Shame...  The commie lawyers should be coming along shortly... 

[BobRobertson]

You snooze, you... pirate.

I've said it before, and since you've said this before I get to say it again: I don't want to use the product of someone who doesn't want me as a customer. Why "pirate" when I can get better for free?

And if I really get desperate, I can always look at YouTube to see what Win7 looks like.



Zhwazi, I did finally get OpenSolaris to boot and install. At last! I, for one, am relieved.

It's also clear why I was unable to get it installed previously: The default VirtualBox settings for the minimal OpenSolaris install are HUGE! I've never had a system before this last summer that had what those settings require, much less the ability to set aside that much RAM just to run the VM.

So my previous "big" system with 512MB and a 2.8GHz P4 just didn't have what it takes to run Solaris.

Now that it's installed, and I have had a chance to run through it, I honestly think that Sun has successfully copied what Linux distributions have been doing for years.

It's a good copy, the package management is quite clean and easy. I prefer KDE to their use of GNOME, but that's just personal preference.

[Zhwazi]

KDE is available in a third-party repository, and is quite heavily still in the process of porting, so it's not 100% stable and functional yet, but it is usable for me. Only major components I'm missing is an IRC client and an MSN/WLM client, pretty much everything else is there.

[Alex Libman 15]

From Slashdot -- Microsoft Research Shows Off Multi-Touch Mouse Prototypes --

Engadget has snagged some of the details behind a bunch of multi-touch mouse prototypes from Microsoft Research. The prototypes range from the wacky to the extreme, but at least they are thinking outside the mouse trap.

"Each one uses a different touch detection method, and at first glance all five seem to fly in the face of regular ergonomics. The craziest two are probably "Arty", which has two articulated arms to cradle your thumb and index finger, with each pad housing its own optical sensor for mission-critical pinching gestures, and "Side Mouse" which is button free and actually detects finger touches in the table immediately in front of the palm rest. Of course, there's plenty of crazy in the FTIR, Orb Mouse, and Cap Mouse, which rely on an internal camera, orb-housed IR camera and capacitive detection, respectively. Of course, there's no word on when these might actually see the light of day."

Check out that video (original link in bold) - coolness!


And, on a related note, also from Slashdot -- Contest Winners Show Potential For Pressure-Sensitive Keyboard --

About a month ago, Microsoft sent out prototype pressure sensitive keyboards to 40 international teams. They had four weeks to hack and cobble together some cool ideas. The innovation contest that centered around the keyboards released the winners last night (after a voting period Monday night at the ACM UIST conference). Some pretty neat ideas, ranging from pressure-sensitive password entry (Safelock), magnetic pens for cursor control (Hidden Forces), and even cool climbing (Rock Climbing) and land-deformation games (BallMeR).

It is inevitable that Microsoft will lose some basic markets to open source, but what's important is that it continues to move forward into new markets.