Posts by spegru
334 posts • joined Monday 24th December 2007 06:21 GMT
Re: Only the second?
ME was the last Windows I ever voluntarily used. Didnt seem too bad at the time.
Then I discovered SuSE and Mint - the rest is history
I got all excited for a moment
Liberator gun I thought? Surely it has to be one of these!
http://www.c0428998.myzen.co.uk/B7/B71.jpg
Avon would have been proud......
Re: Plan 9 from Planet Obvious: XP -> Linux Mint + sandboxed XP VM
An XP VM doesn't avoid the problem altogether of course but since you wouldn't be using for your main apps it's a much lesser problem. For many, those legacy apps would be for occasional use only anyway. For you main email, browsing, office, media, skype, security apps etc you wouldn't need the VM at all
Re: Plan 9 from Planet Obvious: XP -> Linux Mint + sandboxed XP VM
You are thinking of crufty old XP machines with nasty antivirus.
You might be surprised to see how well they run Linux, even with a minimalist XP VM for those legacy apps (that for many people will be only occasional anyway)
Re: Installation easier with Linux
with many many installs Linux Mint I've not had to search for drivers for years. I'm not saying that no-one would - but you'd be a fool to not try it
Blank PC to fully working in 15 mins is typical and all your apps are there too!
Re: Apps
'normal users can't be arsed with the command line. We have mice and pointers these days, seems to have passed Linux by'
Obviously you havn't looked at Linux for quite---a---while!
Re: @gcarter 12Apr13 21:42
You don't need 3g or Bluetooth as long as you also have have a phone to tether to
pah
The reason netbooks are losing out is because of Microsoft. When first introduced with Linux on board they were fine since they didn't have to be dragged down by crapware anti virus or indeed the monolithic piece of junk that is windows. Of course msft put a stop to that because of the underlying PC architecture. In turn, that killed the business case for the hardware makers.
So pleased am I with my Packard bell dot s3 netbook with its 7.5 hr battery, that sensing this very netbook demise, i bought a spare one.
It does everything I need running Linux Mint!
Re: Not so much
I'd say that this really is PCs being crushed by tablets - hardly the performance v software thing at all.
For so many years the PC was the only choice for an internet device (plus Macs for rich weirdos).
Now there is choice people are choosing devices without bloated OSs and virus problems that slow down to a crawl after a few months. Currently these are tablets, the user experience having been established on phones. Increasingly it's also smart TVs, so actually I dont even think it's about portability.
So fundamentally it's survival of the fittest and Windows PCs are too much trouble for (most) end users
6 foot?!
Nope I've just measured one: it's 4ft 7"
Yes they're powered - it tends to be a requirement when using non conductive optical fibre to connect to the exchange.
I do agree that sometimes their positioning across the pavement could have been better though.
Why
do we still need antivirus in 2013?
Posted in Huawei CEOs are 'migratory birds'
Fits perfectly into the Hive
No-one is an individual. Anyone can be replaced - even CEOs
That is how they think and work
Do you really want Chinese Government spyware on your PC?
Nope I didnt think so...
Such a small step from there to blocking disapproved words from web searches like they do over there
Posted in Who ate all the Pis?
Re: I like the PI ethos....
Sorry but that's b*ll*cks. It just shows that you *think* you know what a computer is.
The future for this type of gear is embedded and the PC as such will mostly disappear. The skills that kids (and others) learn will be used pretty much anywhere, but It wont look like what you are used to.
...AAAND with devices like that around, the future for personal tech can be democratised by anyone who wants to - thus helping avoid the proabably imminent threat of corporatisation of both the Internet and of personal computing that we have (mostly) enjoyed over the last 30yrs - like Apple and even Google would like.
BTW one of the best Pi things I saw demo-wise was simply the thing running rasbian with the XFCE desktop in Maplin - that's the High St you know (well ok Lakeside Retail park in my case). I wonder how many complete outsiders marvelled at that!
Their Problem is
Windows
=boring by they the consumers
Go on canonical, give them a call
Posted in 2012: The year that netbooks DIED
Netbook - underpowered?
underpowered for running windows xp complete with all the bloatware maybe.
Mine is perfectly ok for mobile office work. You know spreadsheets and docs - for which tablets are almost useless.
Msft blackmailed their oems l, pushed up the spec and reduced the price advantage. What Msft really wanted (and still want) was a Windows monoculture that the could administer from a afar like a tax man (but without any democratic accountability).
Still, they reaped what they sowed: it's pretty obvious that the original non-windows netbooks influenced both Apple and Google with ios and android. So the monoculture has gone anyway.
Here's to fragmentation, competition and democracy - just as with every other consumer technology!
One thing that has worried me a little regarding the future for Linux is that it has piggy backed on windows to a large degree since that is where the massive market is and hence has driven the development of pc hardware - something that may not happen in future if the pc market disappears.
However, thanks to this article I have now heard of the pengpod, and indeed the guide to installing Ubuntu on nexus 7.
It's not Linux in the sense of mint or ubuntu per se that I want. It's the freedom to play
PC?
Of course the IBM compatible PC is known for MSwindows, but it's also the basis of Xbox.
I'd have thought the obvious thing was for them to do another locked down PC based platform. Whether that's Linux as we understand it is proabably quite questionable. Rather like Android ......
I almost agree
Yes, if I am a good example, I find that I care less about new widgets simply because there are so many nice ones to choose from. This contrasts heavily with a few years ago where your only choice was Microsoft who could dictate to the market. Now, we appear to have diversity. That's great and pleas let it continue. I really don't want to be a prisoner of *any* corporation!
Exciting times
Seems the MSFT grip on hardware makers is about to dissolve.
Is it possible to get shares in Canonical?
Re: Why bother?
i'm just steeling myself for when they switch off the linux versions like they did on my 3 Skypephone
Microsoft is a Corporation
Its primary function is to stay in business, making money for its share shareholders - it's not a service for the rest of the world computing, although many would like it to be. Oh, and propomoting lock-in (to them) of course.
So that is why it (and Apple) is focussed on what comes next, future market share etc etc: And that's all looking like phones & tablets etc. The desire to maintain one codebase is an obvious way to reduce cost over separate platforms (although it is perhaps interesting to not that this does not always hap[pen in other industries, such as cars)
MSFT is trying to do two things at once
The mistake many made was to think MSFT as we have known it will always be there - it may not: That really is something for CIOs to consider
Will someone else pick up the desktop / server market? Can you think of any candidates for that?
let them reap what they sow
that is all
Posted in Nokia Asha 311 budget smartphone review
What is a smart phone?
My very first was a Sony-Ericsson P800 in about 2003, followed by the much improved (and still missed) P910.
So this one: It looks like a smart phone to me. So why isn't it? Itr certaily does a few things that the P910 didn't and yet that was a smartphone at the time.
What really is the definition?
Sync
With Rhythmbox or Banshee on Linux Mint with the ipod plugins installed (automatically of course)
Sync. Oh look now all you stuff is on your PC!
Connect Android or any other decent MP3 device.
Sync. Oh look all my music is on my new device!
The trick here is to not use itunes!
Yeah so there might be a problem syncing back to a recent iphone (4+) for now, until someone figures out the database checksum. But why the heck would you want to do that anyway after this experience?
Posted in Asus CEO sounds netbook death knell
Get 'em in while stocks last!
Not difficult to understand the commericals - when a good Netbook can be had for ~220, but a tablet costs ~400. And that's without Windows Tax!
However IMO a good netbook with a 7 hour battery running Linux Mint13 is a waaay better solution for mobile users than either an ipad or ultrabook
Re: Apple's values are important. Seriously.
If by 'mistakes' you mean following decades, nay centuries, of precedent and practice with regards to patents then I have to agree. But another way of seeing it is following the law.
Re: Oh come on ...
The scary part is that Tim Cook (and others) might actually believe this is true.
What they don't consider is that the benefits of ~200 years of the industrial age have relied on designs being copied and improved on. Just imagine what would have happened if Apple had invented Fire, or the Steam Engine, or HTML?
They don't consider that they themselves are Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.
A little modesty does alot to make you popular, whereas arrogance does quite the opposite
Perhaps Apple shareholders should take that into account. I give them max 5 yrs before the downside of their approach is obvious to all.
Later today
I plan to get a Galaxy S3
Re: nice hardware...
Difficult to understand how you can describe the world's most popular mobile OS that way compares to an as yet unreleased but still highly critisised OS.
@Richto
Lots of downvotes of course. You are not going to make yourself popular here!
However there is a deeper point to be made: In these WIndows/IOS/Linux/Mac/Android discussion it always seems to be assumed (by some) that there can only be one or maybe two winners and that the otherwill disappear. But Why? Most other markets are fragmented so why not computers?
Cars are a particularly good example of a large mature and very fragmented market, as is food,
So even if Linux users are in minority - so what? There's still thousands of us and sensible companies wanting to sell into the market should not say 'oh we can ignore them' because all it means is lost sales! (in this case sales of yes software but also services and hardware)
Hey I drive a sports car - I'm in a minority: Do you want my business?
Re: As If
Ah but after the arrival of smartphones and tablets and smart TVs, if even MSFT are seen as supporting the diversification of platforms then who knows what effect that could have on public perception of computer=windows that they have lived on for so long.
Is it that difficult to imagine say Ubuntu desktops/laptops?
App Stores & Repositories
Desktop Linux Distros normally use Software repositories. They're alot like an App Store but without the corporate arrogance. So although in principle Linux may not be much different to Mac (although it IS vs Windose 'cos of the default Admin level Users), Mac users install from anywhere! Surely this is quite a bit safer (and therefore the Critical Mass argument is wrong).
PS I like the Gated Community Analogy
The new Evil
It beggars my belief, but it actually appears that Apple has managed to beat Microsoft in it the corporate arrogance stakes.
Knocks bundling of IE with Windows into a cocked hat.
Nice i guess but
who the heck buys such things in a laptop form at those prices. I can understand servers and workstations, but surely your data and development work is at risk in a luggable. Why not a Desktop?
Posted in USB charges up to 100 watts
USB3 Voltage
I think this is about USB3 with its extra contacts that can trigger higher voltages to be used. This is how the EeePad Transformer chargers work already
Copyright Applause
I actually think this good, and it's nice to see the hardware manufacturers pushing rather than msft.
What we have here is a copyrighted design from Intel. If they can push the Utrabook brand some more it will simply make normal winPCs look clunky and fat. At the same time Intel will no doubt licence the Ultrabook name to the makers meaning that both sides should benefit in moving away from that race to the bottom. Agreed the price has been too high, but even if it's 1-200 more than a std laptop that would be a huge increase in margin.
All they need now is a different OS to further differentiate from widose and closer to Mac
I can think of a couple of nice distros for that...
heatsink?
I'd have thought that the lack of convection would have been offset but low temperature
I wonder
how many Macbook Airs they would sell if there were loads of 500quid Macbooks around anyway
I reckon the problem with Ultrabooks is that they are seen as only being boring old Windows PCs really.
The OS is the problem here
WTF?
So is this about ethernet swtching without spanning tree?
Alot like a Telco style network then.....
Posted in Tablets to outship laptops in 2016 SHOCK
Tablet+Desktop+TV?
Proper work: desktop+TV/monitor+desk of course
light browsing: tablet or phone
Smart TV does alot too
So why lug a heavy laptop around?
Ultrabook=Tablet with a screen? - but tablets can do that already
Posted in Nokia details 808 Pureview release
you'd think that
at least they'd take off the factory screen protector for the publicity shot!
thus proving
that popularity of Macbook Airs is not just about the hardware
Look like Windows is an impediment in that market segment
Posted in Samsung snafu grounds blue Galaxy S III
CAD Fail? Missed opportunity
for a Derek Jacobi - style herbalist monk explanation
dongles
I can vouch that whereas Three used not even mention tethering in their Ts&Cs, now you can only get it on their One Plan. Presumably recent phones are phoning home to Three about that even though they didn't used to.
On the other hand why are we talking about 3g wifi routers since we must almost by definition be considering non phone devices? If you have a simple dongle you can use your own laptop. wifi to share the 3G. I certainly can do that in Mint 12, and surely you can even do that in windows
I seriously doubt that that kind of tethering could be detected
