Windows 8

General Discussions
#81

I have been an Apple fanboy most of my life, and I’m slowly coming off of it. I had a Mac since I was like 5. I use all the iDevices. The closest I get to PC is dual-booting my Mac so I can play PC games.

That being said, I definitely do think Microsoft has ripped off a lot of Apple’s ideas. And so has Google with Android. But Apple has ripped off a lot of ideas too - even their first revolutionary windowing system was a ripoff of a Xerox invention. Employees who work at any of these big tech companies often work for many of the others. In short, it’s all an incestuous orgy and it’s all going to evolve together as a result.

And I don’t really use my iPad 2 very much, but my wife is on it all the time. She gets recipes, watches HBO / Netflix, etc. etc. It’s a great device to have floating around the house for quick media consumption. I also set it up to watch a movie when I have to wash dishes or do laundry or some other menial task. Then I can very simply carry it around with me as I move into different rooms. Good stuff. With a laptop you can do many of the same things, except the added bulk of the keyboard really is frustrating and makes much of this impossible (can’t just place it on a shelf or something). Plus, many laptops will be completely and totally destroyed from just a dab of water. Not so with iDevices, which are close to water proof (I mean that just in terms of getting random droplets on them, etc. you certainly wouldn’t want to bring it in the shower).

Anyway. Windows 8 moving more towards tablets is unsurprising. It is clearly where the market is heading. I prefer tactile feedback (keyboard) but they’ll figure out a way to give us that too, don’t worry.

#82

What else? I saw young children at school using Mandriva Linux without difficulties. There are a lot of GNU/Linux distros, some of them are very easy to use (Mageia, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora). There are a lot of games on Linux but only a few commercial games, I think it is one of the biggest problem.

#83

I don’t think you’ve used Ubuntu in the past year. It’s gone downhill - my impression is that they’ve started focussing on novelty and lost the focus on quality.

#84

My previously working Ubuntu 10 (with almost nothing freaky done to it whatsoever, it was supposed to be a test rig) totally broke and won’t boot after I tried upgrading it to 11. So I gave up on it. Eventually I’ll have to bite the bullet and try it again of course.

Cas :slight_smile:

#85

Maybe I’m just a postmodern sort of guy, but I’m completely unmoved by “Company A Ripped off Company B”. I don’t care if they stole every line of source code from other people as long as it works. Well I do for different reasons, but the pedigree of the code has jack flippin’ all to do with the experience of using it.

#86

I don’t like Unity and all
So I moved to Mint, which is awesome.

One thing I like is that these Ubuntu and Mint Distros now all have all the codecs installed by default. Very nice.

#87

Ok sorry for the misquote. But, isn’t that a problem? (I’m not really used to Linux system so I don’t know but usually having many different OS is never a good idea when you need to put code that work on them all)

#88

Let me try another way.

  • secure boot
  • hardware currently doesn’t have Pkey of desired provider
  • doesn’t have/cannot get a tool to add Pkey of said provider
  • cannot disable secure boot

Maybe my understanding of the current demographic of marginal OSes is off, but this chain of events seems pretty unlikely to me. As a margainal OS user my concern level over this is about zero. On the flip side I’m happy that my future hardware will be just a little bit more secure.

I’ve never understood this designation. What does it “really” mean other than FSF could never get their act together and make an OS so they ride on the “coat-tails” of Linux. My windows box has more GNU software installed than any of my linux boxes…should I start calling it: GNU/Win7?

#89

Just a touch of the old ego I think. You know what programmers are like.

Cas :slight_smile:

#90

I think FSF’s reasoning for really pushing the term ‘GNU/Linux’ is that Linux distro’s rely heavily on GNU software to run. In practical terms, you cannot have a Linux distro that did not contain GNU software, however you could have a Windows system which didn’t contain any. I think it’s partly also that they feel unappreciated since a lot of effort has been put into building GNU software, which in turn has helped to push Linux, such as GCC.

I think it’s a bit of a contradictory argument. The whole point of having ‘free as in freedom’ is so we don’t have to adhere to silly rules like referring to ‘Linux’ as ‘GNU/Linux’.

#91

I’m not sure it’s true and you seem not to know GNU Hurd (another kernel for the GNU system). Linux designates only the kernel, not the whole operating system. GNU/Linux is an implementation of the GNU system. The FSF wrote:

[quote]Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait for the Hurd, because of Linux. Once Torvalds wrote Linux, it fit into the last major gap in the GNU system. People could then combine Linux with the GNU system to make a complete free system: a Linux-based version of the GNU system; the GNU/Linux system, for short.
[/quote]

It is not contradictory, it is just a different conception of the software freedom with which I agree.

#92

I’ve heard FSF talking about Hurd for over 20 years (so yeah I know about it)…does it work yet? It would have been really cool if they had a working microkernel system in the early 90s…too bad it just didn’t happen.

That was my point about my GNU/Windows7 box. I have all the common GNU software above the kernel level installed.

#93

It’s called GNU/Linux to differentiate it from the old Linux!

But now I’ve hurd that the nuisance isn’t enough, so the heard are switching to herd, and the knew new won’t be the new that you gnu, so new is not Linux, just knew.

Great project, bloody stupid name! ;D

#94

GNU Hurd has worked since 2001 but is not stable enough for a daily use.

You don’t have all components of the GNU system on Windows. I assume you use GCC.

#95

Linus calls it Linux. In fact pretty much everyone without neck beards calls it Linux, unprefixed.

#96

I would consider being stable a requirement of working.

#97

ROFL ;D

#98

ORLY? Name one that I don’t. My GCC usage is limited to compling other peoples code that use GCC only extensions and occasionally updating some of my portable libraries (like when a new release comes out).