I realise you said you're not looking for help, but did you try just plugging it in? (You probably did, but just in case.
) Because the Windows way of searching the web for drivers is absolutely the last resort on Linux and where most Windows users get lost in a mess of config files and command-line utilities. If the hardware is properly supported, it usually works out of the box (unless you're Shotglass apparently).For example, as a contrary to your experience, my HP printer can just be plugged in and off it goes. It's actually much easier than Windows since I don't even need drivers off the CD or the web. This of course goes back to the point about making sure you get hardware that's well supported if you run Linux. My laptop was also chosen specifically because all hardware in it is supported out of the box. It's a beautiful thing when a clean, bare-bones install of Ubuntu comes up with hardware 2D and 3D acceleration, network (wireless and wired), Bluetooth, suspend/resume, media keys, DVD-burner, SATA, digital camera etc. without lifting a finger. My mom could do it for christ's sake.
Yes, if you cannot get by in life without plug&play Lexmark printers, you will need to use Windows (go right ahead, noone will mind). Meanwhile the technophobes we're talking about here don't give a rat's arse as long as it puts ink on paper. Buying HP instead won't matter to them as long as it works (it does).
What's a "Microsoft-thrashing" kernel? Distros advertised as "Better than Windows"? There are some out there, and for many use-cases they are absolutely correct in saying so, but that is hardly the point. The Linux community is too large and diverse to do such a sweeping statement about it. Some want to kill Windows dead, true, but most just want a great OS conforming to their ideals and requirements, whatever they may be. You just don't hear from the non-zealots as much as the other group.
It can deliver that and it does deliver that to a lot of people. Look at the EEE PC and other netbooks for instance. Massively popular, run Linux (or XP if you want).
You go on and on about these vague issues and the necessity of editing config files by hand (totally unnecessary in the vast majority of cases), but you've yet to bring up a specific issue that's possible to refute/acknowledge apart from the inability of using unsupported hardware.
Now hardware support is a real issue, but the people it affects the most are Windows users wanting to switch and keep all their existing hardware. That will be a mixed bag unless you're lucky. If you buy an OEM Linux PC and a ask the guy at the store for a printer compatible with it (maybe even your existing one will work) it will be exactly the same as Windows, minus the license fee. This is what most technophobes will do. They will not wipe their harddrive and install a new OS themselves unless they're at least somewhat technically minded.
Yes, and in many cases that is Linux whether you like it or not. Once set up (by an OEM or the local geek) it's simple, secure, usable, does everything a large portion of users out there need, and it's friggin cheap. This isn't about spreading the gospel of the prophet Thorvalds, it's about gving people the right tool for the job, just like you said.
Indeed. You can also attach multiple keyboards and have several windows in "focus" at the same time. This allows you to let multiple users click around and type in different locations on the same computer/screen. It also supports multi-fingered touch screens like MS Surface and similar, which is what it's was originally meant for I think. Here's a (long winded) demonstration.
It'll probably take a while before window managers and GUI toolkits gain support once it's in X.org though, but there are some experimental window managers out there already.
So if I bought a motherboard with EFI instead of a BIOS I would be within my right to complain about Windows XP not installing? How about a PS2 controller for my PC? That wouldn't be my fault? If you're going to buy hardware you need to make sure it works on your system. Just because it's harder to find hardware not supporting Windows doesn't make the issue any different.
If people don't know this I'm sure they can get the guy at the store to explain it to them when they take their new printer back when it doesn't work. Then they can pick up compatible hardware and nothing but a few hours of their life has gone to waste. Big deal.
Who says Linux wants the n00b market share? Microsoft can have them for all I care. Other people would love to corner that market. There is no "primary objective" of the Linux community.
That said, for people who can get by just fine with Linux I will certainly recommend it to them. If nothing else because of the price. (I just saved my previously mentioned neighbour a few hundred pounds by installing OpenOffice instead of her buying MS Office like some other "expert" recommended. She couldn't be happier).
How about you list a few things that "can't be done" (like Shotglass did) so we can have an actual discussion here? Going on a vague rant about these Linux users pissing you off so badly is pointless. I'm not them, whoever they are. You're projecting so much pent up resentment onto me because I don't reject Linux outright it's impossible to discuss this rationally with you.
Maybe, but if you think a Vista/XP media centre would be any easier for him, you're seriously deluding yourself. That would be the appropriate comparison.
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Fragmentation isn't really a problem on modern filesystems unless they're filled to the brim. I also keep /home as it's own partition so the rest of the file system will at least be unfragmented. Not sure I understand what you mean with your second point?
Yes, sorry. The one I was thinking of was "displayconfig-gtk" which at least was available in the Ubuntu menu at one point (Not sure if it's still there in a clean install since it's been a while since I did one).
Network Manager doesn't work? I just need normal ethernet to get online so I've never had to deal with that mess (you do seem to end up in all the corners that don't work entirely out of the box
). There is some new GUI for setting up DSL connections with PPP in the most recent Network Manager though, so that may be what you're after?Input and screen config is mixed because, as you probably know, X is also a protocol for something akin to Windows' remote desktop. You can connect to another computer's X server over (for instance) TCP/IP and have all input and display from this computer routed through the connection to your local graphics card (hardware accelerated) and input devices.
It should of course not be as volatile and hard to configure as it is, but that is mostly due to legacy code that noone really understands and as such has been let sit and rot for far too long. This will get better over the coming year as new replacement bits start to drop into git master (like X Input 2, XKB 2, Multi Pointer X, RandR 1.3, kernel modesetting etc.)
Heh that's mildly amusing because I find this layout makes backups really, really easy. When all software uses this layout (like on Ubuntu) you can just wipe everything but home, reinstall, and your system is back exactly how it was. I do this every time I upgrade Ubuntu and it works a treat. The messy hybrid Windows has become isn't in anyones interest though, I'll give you that. Consistency, whatever the chosen approach is, is most important.
Ah well, that sounds bad indeed. I don't have an Nvidia card at the moment, so I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing that one.
"System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution"? The Nvidia drivers also come with a control panel that may be better suited from them than the Gnome dialog. As for mouse buttons all 4 on my mouse seem to work out of the box, but I know this has traditionally has been difficult. X Input 2 is coming Any Day Now though and that should hopefully clean all this up once and for all. There's a lot of great stuff coming up for X in the coming year which will remove most (all?) of these legacy niggles.
Not the average Joes I deal with, but whatever. If you do want to install a printer you obviously have to check for Linux compatibility before you buy (HP works great out of the box). Is that really too much to ask?
What? Do you think this is average user stuff? Does the average technophobe have to install windows by themselves and fiddle round with drivers and install locations? Somehow I doubt it.
Whoo boy, here we go. Keep in mind I'm currently on the Alpha of Ubuntu 8.10, so the following may be a bit off wrt the current stable version.
I *think* the most recent Ubuntu has NTFS support out of the box. It hasn't been enabled earlier as the implementation has been a bit sketchy. Not shocking since it's reverse engineered without docs. Proprietary Nvidia drivers can be installed through the dialog under "System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers" in Ubuntu (I'm sure other distros have something similar).
Hmm, maybe it's worth looking into mounting /usr/share, /usr/bin or just /usr to a different drive? You can do this during setup, or later with a bit more difficulty. I'm not sure where Matlab stores all its stuff so I can't advice further.
I agree to a certain extent, but I would absolutely love it if LFS stored setups and replays in my User directory like it should instead of in its own directory. That would make it easier to have separate users access LFS without having to share all this user specific data. It would also cure a lot of UAC woes on Vista.
Most likely your screen isn't autodetected due to missing drivers? With Nvidia that can be a problem but I think this should be solved once the drivers are installed? Personally I havent touched xorg.conf for at least a year. Intel and ATI cards can all be configured via the GUI in Gnome. All resolutions are detected automatically and dual head works out of the box.
If your monitor is of an older variety and doesn't provide (proper) EDID information to the driver you may have to add horizontal and vertical refresh rates to xorg.conf though, that's true, and a fair complaint.
EDIT: And yeah. GRUB sucks. Why none of the prominent distros don't just fix it once and for all boggles my mind.
Keep in mind I'm currently on the Alpha of Ubuntu 8.10, so the following may be a bit off wrt the current stable version.I *think* the most recent Ubuntu has NTFS support out of the box. It hasn't been enabled earlier as the implementation has been a bit sketchy. Not shocking since it's reverse engineered without docs. Proprietary Nvidia drivers can be installed through the dialog under "System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers" in Ubuntu (I'm sure other distros have something similar).
Hmm, maybe it's worth looking into mounting /usr/share, /usr/bin or just /usr to a different drive? You can do this during setup, or later with a bit more difficulty. I'm not sure where Matlab stores all its stuff so I can't advice further.
I agree to a certain extent, but I would absolutely love it if LFS stored setups and replays in my User directory like it should instead of in its own directory. That would make it easier to have separate users access LFS without having to share all this user specific data. It would also cure a lot of UAC woes on Vista.
Most likely your screen isn't autodetected due to missing drivers? With Nvidia that can be a problem but I think this should be solved once the drivers are installed? Personally I havent touched xorg.conf for at least a year. Intel and ATI cards can all be configured via the GUI in Gnome. All resolutions are detected automatically and dual head works out of the box.If your monitor is of an older variety and doesn't provide (proper) EDID information to the driver you may have to add horizontal and vertical refresh rates to xorg.conf though, that's true, and a fair complaint.
EDIT: And yeah. GRUB sucks. Why none of the prominent distros don't just fix it once and for all boggles my mind.
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Well, my ~65 year old neighbour sure gets worried about all those popups from various applications in her XP system tray. Just a few days ago I was over there to remove some of the crap that was crying for attention (updates for various software not in use, anti-virus, Windows update etc.). They may not know or care about bloat, but when it gets in their face it's still annoying.
If it wasn't for the fact that she's already somewhat set in her ways with Windows and Outlook I'd rip the thing off her computer and install Ubuntu. It would do everything she needs her computer to do, with less fuss for both me and her.
Vendors not providing Linux software in appropriate packages is a "problem" only solved by market share, and you're telling me Linux won't get market share until this problem's fixed? Catch 22. Guess it's Windows until the end of time then. I'll call up Linus and let him know.
See, technophobes won't be installing software they downloaded from the internet themselves anyway. They'll call me and have me do it for them, if they even know what software is and why they need it. Same when they want to buy a printer or a webcam. The technophobes are in fact the perfect candidates for using a Linux box because they aren't even aware of the things Linux sucks at. Firefox, Pidgin, OpenOffice and Linux friendly hardware picked by Dell and they're good. Same as with Windows.
Actually, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Linux is a lot more suited to technophobes than Windows is if you buy from an OEM. The amount of crapware the average Windows installation is buried under out of the box makes Ubuntu look like a shining beacon of simplicity and usability. The XP install on my Thinkpad made me cry when I first fired it up, and it took me all of an hour to throw it away and bring up a fully working Ubuntu install.
See, technophobes won't be installing software they downloaded from the internet themselves anyway. They'll call me and have me do it for them, if they even know what software is and why they need it. Same when they want to buy a printer or a webcam. The technophobes are in fact the perfect candidates for using a Linux box because they aren't even aware of the things Linux sucks at. Firefox, Pidgin, OpenOffice and Linux friendly hardware picked by Dell and they're good. Same as with Windows.
Actually, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Linux is a lot more suited to technophobes than Windows is if you buy from an OEM. The amount of crapware the average Windows installation is buried under out of the box makes Ubuntu look like a shining beacon of simplicity and usability. The XP install on my Thinkpad made me cry when I first fired it up, and it took me all of an hour to throw it away and bring up a fully working Ubuntu install.
Well, downloading a .deb for your chosen OS and installing that is hardly any different. Just less "next, next, next, ****.. previous, next, finish". Double click, install, done. Installing for instance Opera with all its dependencies is a breeze that way. Skype the same. The fact that not all vendors provide .debs for their software is of of course sad, but hardly the failing of the repository system itself.
There are also several different package managers around. The huge list of software in say Synaptic can of course be a little daunting, but in most Gnome desktops you have the "Add/Remove" dialog right in the "Applications" menu and that's a lot easier to navigate.
As for choosing an install location, I can certainly see where you're coming from as I had the same annoyance when I first started fiddling with *nix, but honestly why does it matter? My entire Ubuntu install (not counting /home which is on a different partition) with OMG-LOADS!!1! of software installed takes up 6GB. You can fit that on any harddrive made this decade and a few made the last one. Additionally I very much like the consistency of how the filesystem is laid out, even though manually removing all traces of an application from all over the filesystem can be tedious (which is why we have package managers for doing that).
As for editing config files from a console, I can't think of when I last HAD to do that. I've done it because I occasionally find it easier, but in 99% of the cases there is a GUI to get shit done.
No it doesn't. That's the starting year of the silly number of years the copyright will be in effect for.
If the police storms a volatile situation like that guns a'blazin' you have no way of knowing how it'll turn out. You may save some lives, but you may also kill a lot of people needlessly in the confusion if things go belly up. With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to say which scenario would have been likely, but it's not that easy when you're in the thick of it.
It may feel better to "do something", but it's not always the best solution.
You're a better man than I.
Once spotted a pensioner hanging on a fence outside my house as I was walking to the shops. Being a suspicious and anti-social prick, I was just about to walk on by pretending not to notice when my neighbour drove past, screeched to a halt, jumped out and called me over to help put the poor guy back on his feet. Turned out he was dead drunk and had cracked his head open on the curb but moments earlier. Had to call an ambulance to get him sent off and stitched back together.
Still feel bad about that one.
Peh, "step in the right direction." That's like your doctor announcing all your internal organs have exploded, and will have to be scooped out with a melon bowler, "but luckily we were able to save your spleen."
I think I can control my enthusiasm.
I think I can control my enthusiasm.
Actually no, for now I'll try to avoid products with these limits (though even that can be hard because they hardly advertise this "feature" on the front of the box). Problem solved, and won't come back to bite me in the future either. I'll also loudly complain so these producers know exactly why I don't buy their products, whether you like it or not.
I've already given you a very specific use-case in which this limit will become a problem (Sam & Max has been installed on at least 8-9 of my computers, across multiple formats) and at a certain point in the future there is no telling if EA and their customer support will even be around, much less able to do anything when you call. If the activation servers are gone, there's nothing even EA can do.
I've also explained that limits like this goes against the spirit and intention of the copyright protection EA is relying on to be able to sell their product, and that it effectively rob the public at large of their culture to the benefit of media giants that have long since made their money back.
Isn't that enough to demonstrate there is a problem? How could I possibly say this any clearer?
And yeah, I'm not especially thrilled about the LFS activation either since it's already preventing me from enjoying older versions for a laugh. This sucks. Big time. Still, I'm willing to put some of my standards aside occationally to support a small indie developer with an excellent product. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it. In the end I trust the devs a lot more than I trust EA to do the right thing when they eventually abandon the game. Time will tell if that trust is misplaced.
I've also explained that limits like this goes against the spirit and intention of the copyright protection EA is relying on to be able to sell their product, and that it effectively rob the public at large of their culture to the benefit of media giants that have long since made their money back.
Isn't that enough to demonstrate there is a problem? How could I possibly say this any clearer?
And yeah, I'm not especially thrilled about the LFS activation either since it's already preventing me from enjoying older versions for a laugh. This sucks. Big time. Still, I'm willing to put some of my standards aside occationally to support a small indie developer with an excellent product. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it. In the end I trust the devs a lot more than I trust EA to do the right thing when they eventually abandon the game. Time will tell if that trust is misplaced.
I'm sorry? How the hell do you know? That's not why I'm complaining (and I've had my share of foul words against Steam as well). The "you're only complaining because it's EA" argument is nothing but a pathetic derailment of the discussion.
Why people are complaining has nothing to do with the question wether restrictive DRM like this is fair to the consumer and the public at large.
But we're not talking about you. We're talking about the people complaining, people like me. We obviously do play games older than 10 years. I listed two out of several I still like to pick up, and I have installed them countless times to do so. Personally I doubt even the activation servers for Spore will still be live 10 years in the future, making even the install count and customer service points moot.
Do you honestly think it's fair for EA to limit our usage like this? What about music? Would you accept the same there? Movies? "I'm sorry, you can't watch Casablanca because the man on the activation phone died in the 1960s."
Then maybe you could explain to me how I could still play my copies of Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max if they had this kind of DRM? People aren't complaining about running out right now, they are complaining about the fact that they most certainly will a few years down the road. An uninstall will not increase your "allowed install count". It's five and then that's it. Good luck calling up EA for an additional install 20 years from now.
If you take it to the extreme DRM is in fact a violation against one of the conditions set by copyright protection since copyrighted material is supposed to enter the public domain after a certain time (which is faaar too long in most countries, but that's another discussion). With this install limit that's impossible and will eventually mean we have to "pirate" to get access to our own damn culture. Thanks capitalism!
He did one lap on the inters, then changed to the wets everyone else was using. He may have done this at the time the track was at its best, but Massa still thoroughly outdrove him later in the session under the exact same conditions and with the same tires.
And that of course had nothing to do with the fact that Rossi == God in Italy and that Ferrari is an Italian company interested in the publicity he'd bring. No sir.
Ah, but due to poor audience feedback from the boring "bomb under a table" script, that is in fact exactly how the film depicts the attempted assassination. I hear the CGI scenes with Mecha-Hitler are awesome.
Europe is what is known as a "political continent" (as opposed to the geographical continent of Eurasia), which was obviously what I was referring to. I also think you need to look at the link Scawen posted.
As for "Blairland", congratulations, you have successfully identified one third of the joke. Do you want your price now or do you want to take a shot at the other two thirds for the possibility of getting the special triple awesome m-m-m-mega-bonus?
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG