"Einstein's theory of relativity will be 100 years old very soon....."
So ?
Thermodynamics have an even longer history. There's no indications that anyone will ever be able to produce a perpetual motion machine.
2677 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Mar 2010
My original post which didn't mention MS (other than in the auto-generated title) was :
{
"If you're change adverse, then perhaps IT isn't the right industry for you."
I want improvement not just change !
}
The comment was a general one - too often mere change is seen as a good thing when real improvement is what most people want.
I'd like all OSs to improve because I don't want any sort of monoculture - I make the choice to use Linux - I certainly wouldn't want to constrain other users.
I think the problem is the assumption that Linux isn't used much or that users "must still have Windows to be able to survive". You may not know many scientist but of course I do and even in my last company ~200 computational chemists had Unix or Linux workstations without Windows. To get the corporate crap we also had Windows machines.
I also know Linux is heavily used by scientific academics. Good luck with the course !
"Do you really do protein modeling on the train"
Well I used to drive to work - but let's suppose I did have a train journey.
With a laptop and internet connection I could do all the preliminary work, search databases, match protein sequences and set-up initial conditions. I could transfer the data to a compute server or a Linux farm and start the the simulation.
The main reason for a desktop workstation would then be be to analyse the output ( in 3D using liquid xtal shutter specs). This being a few years ago that would rule out a laptop - maybe even now.
Welcome to The Register !
Although I've had an interest in computing that goes back a long way ( I was taught physics by a guy who had worked on the Manchester 'baby' as a post grad) I can only say that the credit in using Linux for everything goes to the countless people who have worked on the kernel, written the GNU tools and assembled the distros.
Installing a modern distro ( I use OpenSuse ) is simple - FAR easier than Windows - but of course not many users do that do they ?.
If 90% of Windows users are incapable of using Linux I'd say they were also incapable of using Windows - I don't see the difference in easy of use. OpenSuse installs with no fuss, a good selection of user programs and no user involvement other than ticking boxes, accepting defaults and choosing language.
I simply can't believe that people who otherwise wouldn't dream of having their choice restricted to one car, one supermarket, one smartphone or whatever will blindly accept 1 OS.
Back in the eighties all sorts and manner of people got involved with a wide, wide range of micros, wrote software, built hardware, became professionals and yet now 90% of Windows users can't cope with anything else - rubbish - and IF that's true then it's the monopoly of MS that has brought it about.
"Those who don't need or want much out of a computer will use it"
That's why I say nonsense - protein modeling requires large compute power and long run times. I'd run a twin xeon workstation flat out over the weekend and then put another run on for the next 3 days whilst still being able to analyse ( 3D graphics, liquid crystal shutter specs.) the previous run. The kit was running at ~100% cpu day after day. That's demanding - the software wasn't even written for Windows - not stable enough - no point running for two days if it crashes after 12 hours running.
At home I regularly run 2-3 hour sessions rendering video edits for 1080/50p HD video
"I don't know a single person with a computer who does not also have a copy of Windows"
Allow me to introduce myself - I've been completely Windows free for 5 years - Linux only here, 4 desktops and server machines self-built, 1 laptop recycled to me after a Windows update failed disastrously , 1 net book always Linux .
I'm a retired scientist and even when I worked it was mostly on a twin Xeon Linux workstation using programs that were mostly VERY expensive and only available on Unix/Linux.
I don't need Windows - I can do everything I need on Linux. Apart from the scientific stuff that includes, browsing, e-mail, using Google Earth, processing RAW photo files, editing & viewing 1080/50p video, laying out pcbs, writing software and lots more. Libre Office is fine for my needs. A 3G dongle also works fine when traveling.
Whether you really need or just think you need MS Office it can only be a good thing that there is choice. Choice in OS, software is good. NOBODY would put up with just one car manufacturer, supermarket, etc.
I used MS Office for years at work but find that LibreOffice is just fine for personal use. It may be a little slower or be missing some features at the moment but as I run 6 PCs I certainly find that zero cost is a big incentive. In any case I'm all Linux so Office isn't an option even if I felt the need.
I do know that LibreOffice copes far better with reading old or odd formats of data and that I will not have massive upgrade costs and upheaval when the next version comes out - unlike MS Office.
ISO9564
"The standard specifies that PINs shall be from four to twelve digits long, noting that longer PINs are more secure but harder to use. It also notes that not all systems support entry of PINs longer than six digits."
Certainly my Swiss UBS card is 6 digits ( and I think could be longer ).
I thought UK ATMs let you enter digits and then press <enter> rather than accepting a fixed number of presses.
You wouldn't think I was lucky if you'd heard me after I soldered it all together and it didn't work !
Not an easy thing to debug. I eventually used a crystal earpiece to go round the board and eventually found a duff 7400 - quick replace - it was all socketed - and away it went. Bloody MS BASIC had a bug in its garbage collector but that''s another story.
I've got 11.4 on a range of hardware, atom netbook, celeron laptop, dual-core atom fileserver, 64AMD, dual-core 64AMD and a dual core Intel. All installed without any problems.
(BTW I've just added a cheap modern NVIDIA card to the dual core AMD and it now plays 1080/50p video perfectly with cpu use at ~5-10% using VDPAU )
.. the fact that people are willing to install a Linux on hardware that almost always they have to buy with Windows pre-installed and where most people don't care or know about Linux is a major triumph even if the desktop usage is ~1%.
I build all my own (except 1 laptop) so it's a no-brainer for me
There's an awful lot of people writing and compiling software for a desktop that you appear to think doesn't exist. Forget the enthusiast authors, major bits of software like Google Earth, Firefox, VLC, GIMP, Hugin, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Opera are all available.
People tell me all the time that 'x' can't be done on Linux -they are almost always wrong. Only the other day someone said 3G dongles didn't work - they do., and someone else said that 1080/50p video couldn't be edited - It can.
</rant>
~200 Computational chemists at my last company all used Linux on the desktop - the software wasn't available for Windows in any case as the practitioners in this area all use Unix/Linux. The workloads were epic, I'd leave protein modeling software running for days on a dual xeon workstation or shift it if necessary to a 1024 node Linux farm.
We all Windows systems too but that was for the trivial stuff like corporate e-mail.
CERN has a very heavy use. Most scientific academics use it.
I have 6 machines and have used nothing else for years.
was from someone who thinks I really use Windows in secret !!
I don't need or use WIndows.
I browse the web, watch video, process RAW photo files, edit video ( 1080/50p), design pcbs, write code, model proteins, run extensive scientific calculations, scan and print ALL without the need for WIndows
They sound impressive your numbers but let's look at them at little more closely.
A 1 tonne Mach 7.5 projectile had a kinetic energy of ~3e9 J - that's 3000 MJ - that's rather out of the range of current discussion esp. if the launch efficiency is as low as the data in the article suggests.
It is hard to beat Physics
That mirrors my experiences with various laptops/desktop but most often when Windows Update fails and the Recovery fails and there is, of course, no install disk. In each case a Linux Live-CD has recovered the data, and even reformatted the apparently ailing disk and the system has then gone on to a long useful Linux life. In fact I'm writing this on one now ~3 years after it's 'accident'