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#1
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
On 8/30/2010 8:11 PM, James wrote:
On Aug 31, 11:13 am, Andre wrote: On Aug 31, 2:00 am, wrote: I'm very cheap, free in fact. Free as in speech that is, but not virus prone. Okay, I'll bite; that's either a monstrous troll, or a valuable tip. How do you manage not to be virus prone without spending any money? -- AJ For the benefit of those who don't follow links without description, the following is the home page of Ubuntu, a distribution of the GNU/ Linux OS. http://www.ubuntu.com/ Or if you prefer Debian, Mepis is a very good distribution. "http://www.mepis.org/". You still get all the advantages of Debian over Ubuntu, but you still can have a "windows-like interface" which is the primary attraction of Ubuntu. Of course if you only need a windows-like interface you'd be happier with Windows. |
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#2
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
SMS writes:
On 8/30/2010 8:11 PM, James wrote: On Aug 31, 11:13 am, Andre wrote: On Aug 31, 2:00 am, wrote: I'm very cheap, free in fact. Free as in speech that is, but not virus prone. Okay, I'll bite; that's either a monstrous troll, or a valuable tip. How do you manage not to be virus prone without spending any money? -- AJ For the benefit of those who don't follow links without description, the following is the home page of Ubuntu, a distribution of the GNU/ Linux OS. http://www.ubuntu.com/ Or if you prefer Debian, Mepis is a very good distribution. "http://www.mepis.org/". You still get all the advantages of Debian over Ubuntu, but you still can have a "windows-like interface" which is the primary attraction of Ubuntu. Of course if you only need a windows-like interface you'd be happier with Windows. There is nothing "Windows like interface" at all in Ubuntu. It's Gnome. At least nothing more than any other of the multiple Gnome using X based distros. |
#3
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
On Aug 31, 5:54*pm, Simon Lewis wrote:
SMS writes: On 8/30/2010 8:11 PM, James wrote: On Aug 31, 11:13 am, Andre *wrote: On Aug 31, 2:00 am, *wrote: I'm very cheap, free in fact. *Free as in speech that is, but not virus prone. Okay, I'll bite; that's either a monstrous troll, or a valuable tip. How do you manage not to be virus prone without spending any money? -- AJ For the benefit of those who don't follow links without description, the following is the home page of Ubuntu, a distribution of the GNU/ Linux OS. http://www.ubuntu.com/ Or if you prefer Debian, Mepis is a very good distribution. "http://www.mepis.org/". You still get all the advantages of Debian over Ubuntu, but you still can have a "windows-like interface" which is the primary attraction of Ubuntu. Of course if you only need a windows-like interface you'd be happier with Windows. There is nothing "Windows like interface" at all in Ubuntu. It's Gnome. At least nothing more than any other of the multiple Gnome using X based distros. That's what I hate about the Windows world, the efflorescence of conflicting versions necessitated by bug fixes, demonic commercial "differentiation", egotripping, and plain stupidity. My first Mac was signed in the back by Steve 'n'Steve (and when I sold it paid for every Mac I bought since) -- and thirty years later the interface is still recognizably the same! There's something else important about the Mac that isn't often mentioned. Anyone who has been conscientious about transferring his data as new storage media appeared has lost *nothing*. Can any PC/ Microsoft user truly say that? Mo I can search thirty-year-old data from my desktop and it hardly ever needs work, and then just a little, to make it presentable. Who can say that in the PC/Microsoft world? Andre Jute "The brain of an engineer is a delicate instrument which must be protected against the unevenness of the ground." -- Wifredo-Pelayo Ricart Medina |
#4
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
Andre Jute wrote:
There's something else important about the Mac that isn't often mentioned. Anyone who has been conscientious about transferring his data as new storage media appeared has lost *nothing*. Can any PC/ Microsoft user truly say that? Mo I can search thirty-year-old data from my desktop and it hardly ever needs work, and then just a little, to make it presentable. Who can say that in the PC/Microsoft world? Yes, I can say that. This XP boot image was installed in Jan, 2001, making it this moment a few months short of it's 10th birthday. It had since been through two major hardware upgrades, the most recent 4 long years ago, including motherboards and processors, and seen 3 whole generations of board and bus architectures. Whole disk drives have come and gone, as has a small pile of now dead keyboards and mice, and still the original XP installation remains. It was cloned to its current home on a 1.5 TB SATA drive when the original Seagate drive started to fail 3 years ago. Through it all, it has never been burdened with the viral anti-virus software. The occasional cleanups were accomplished easily using simple tools. It is my main desktop, serving as a development workstation by day, at one point as much as 18 hours a day, and in the past, also hosted some very performance intensive games by night. It is typically powered and connected to the web up to 20 hours each day, every day of every year of its long service. As for 30 years, no, I can't quite say that. The oldest harddrive in the deadwood pile dates back to 1987. It was retired for its uselessly small capacity rather than failure, although its 20 MB was pretty big once upon a time. I can actually plug it into today's hardware if I so wanted. The old ATA interfaces are still available on today's systems. While I have nothing against Macs, I find nothing at all notable or compelling about them, except now and again the very occasional oddity of finding one or two in roles now utterly dominated by Microsoft and Windows only points out their obscurity. I have little also to say about Linux. My bug fix to an obscure TCP buffering problem in the very early 2.something kernels, about 1997, likely are no longer even in the distributions. These days, I run a Ubuntu distro on a VPC on this self same XP work horse rather than devote a separate box. I've always found them less than suitable as desktop workstations. The GUIs typically sucked a full core just updating the display, as recently as 2007 when I last tried. Granted, it could easily have just been the crap driver support for the (absolutely unremarkable and unobscure) Nvidia. I find it much more usable as a headless server, even in a virtual machine, serving up remote terminals hosted on the Windows desktop. As for longevity, stability, compatibility, and security, gimme a bleepin' break. Apple's main claim to fame is continually leading the market with glitzy products and promising technologies, often well ahead of their time, and unfortunately, always it seems before the underlying technologies they represent were ready. I have a like new Newton II still floating around, at first waiting for relevance, and then retired as a novelty still unused when that relevance soon came and swallowed it whole. I'd give you the full list, but that would only bring me anguish to have to revisit that inventory. And Linux? What can I say? It's most notable for the underground roots that it still represents to this day, and is the collective sum of contributions from some very talented (and some less talented) minds as they passed through on their ways to their real lives and callings. That's Linux, initially aspiring to no more than simply existing as an alternative, and in maturity achieved that and little more. One might call that the definition of mediocrity, but I don't in truth hold that dismal view. And what about Windows, then? Windows had Dave Cutler, and Microsoft's deep pockets, a visionary genius and the means to bring his vision to fruition. Twenty plus years later, Cutler's NT architecture still defines the Windows kernel. Nobody *loves* Windows, and in some circles, it's chic to hate and disparage it. Shrug Said the bearded guy: I don't always drink beer, but I do, I prefer Dos Equis. (No, that isn't supposed to make any sense. I just tired of the thought and the drudgery of typing it.) |
#5
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
On Aug 31, 9:23*pm, "MikeWhy" wrote:
Andre Jute wrote: There's something else important about the Mac that isn't often mentioned. Anyone who has been conscientious about transferring his data as new storage media appeared has lost *nothing*. Can any PC/ Microsoft user truly say that? Mo I can search thirty-year-old data from my desktop and it hardly ever needs work, and then just a little, to make it presentable. Who can say that in the PC/Microsoft world? Yes, I can say that. This XP boot image was installed in Jan, 2001, making it this moment a few months short of it's 10th birthday. So you can't really say that your OS vendor has protected your data integrity for 30 years, can you? Ten years is a looooong way short of 30 years. Andre Jute There are lies, damned statistics, and Apple WYSIWYG -- except that all other wysiwygs are worse It had since been through two major hardware upgrades, the most recent 4 long years ago, including motherboards and processors, and seen 3 whole generations of board and bus architectures. Whole disk drives have come and gone, as has a small pile of now dead keyboards and mice, and still the original XP installation remains. It was cloned to its current home on a 1.5 TB SATA drive when the original Seagate drive started to fail 3 years ago. Through it all, it has never been burdened with the viral anti-virus software. The occasional cleanups were accomplished easily using simple tools. It is my main desktop, serving as a development workstation by day, at one point as much as 18 hours a day, and in the past, also hosted some very performance intensive games by night. It is typically powered and connected to the web up to 20 hours each day, every day of every year of its long service. As for 30 years, no, I can't quite say that. The oldest harddrive in the deadwood pile dates back to 1987. It was retired for its uselessly small capacity rather than failure, although its 20 MB was pretty big once upon a time. I can actually plug it into today's hardware if I so wanted. The old ATA interfaces are still available on today's systems. While I have nothing against Macs, I find nothing at all notable or compelling about them, except now and again the very occasional oddity of finding one or two in roles now utterly dominated by Microsoft and Windows only points out their obscurity. I have little also to say about Linux. My bug fix to an obscure TCP buffering problem in the very early 2.something kernels, about 1997, likely are no longer even in the distributions. These days, I run a Ubuntu distro on a VPC on this self same XP work horse rather than devote a separate box. I've always found them less than suitable as desktop workstations. The GUIs typically sucked a full core just updating the display, as recently as 2007 when I last tried. Granted, it could easily have just been the crap driver support for the (absolutely unremarkable and unobscure) Nvidia. I find it much more usable as a headless server, even in a virtual machine, serving up remote terminals hosted on the Windows desktop. As for longevity, stability, compatibility, and security, gimme a bleepin' break. Apple's main claim to fame is continually leading the market with glitzy products and promising technologies, often well ahead of their time, and unfortunately, always it seems before the underlying technologies they represent were ready. I have a like new Newton II still floating around, at first waiting for relevance, and then retired as a novelty still unused when that relevance soon came and swallowed it whole. I'd give you the full list, but that would only bring me anguish to have to revisit that inventory. And Linux? What can I say? It's most notable for the underground roots that it still represents to this day, and is the collective sum of contributions from some very talented (and some less talented) minds as they passed through on their ways to their real lives and callings. That's Linux, initially aspiring to no more than simply existing as an alternative, and in maturity achieved that and little more. One might call that the definition of mediocrity, but I don't in truth hold that dismal view. And what about Windows, then? Windows had Dave Cutler, and Microsoft's deep pockets, a visionary genius and the means to bring his vision to fruition.. Twenty plus years later, Cutler's NT architecture still defines the Windows kernel. Nobody *loves* Windows, and in some circles, it's chic to hate and disparage it. Shrug Said the bearded guy: I don't always drink beer, but I do, I prefer Dos Equis. (No, that isn't supposed to make any sense. I just tired of the thought and the drudgery of typing it.) |
#6
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
Andre Jute wrote:
On Aug 31, 9:23 pm, "MikeWhy" wrote: Andre Jute wrote: There's something else important about the Mac that isn't often mentioned. Anyone who has been conscientious about transferring his data as new storage media appeared has lost *nothing*. Can any PC/ Microsoft user truly say that? Mo I can search thirty-year-old data from my desktop and it hardly ever needs work, and then just a little, to make it presentable. Who can say that in the PC/Microsoft world? Yes, I can say that. This XP boot image was installed in Jan, 2001, making it this moment a few months short of it's 10th birthday. So you can't really say that your OS vendor has protected your data integrity for 30 years, can you? Ten years is a looooong way short of 30 years. I have some old tapes and disks from the old C64, but I'm thinking that's still a year or two too young. Gawd. What a pack rat you must be. |
#7
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
On Sep 1, 12:32*am, "MikeWhy" wrote:
Andre Jute wrote: On Aug 31, 9:23 pm, "MikeWhy" wrote: Andre Jute wrote: There's something else important about the Mac that isn't often mentioned. Anyone who has been conscientious about transferring his data as new storage media appeared has lost *nothing*. Can any PC/ Microsoft user truly say that? Mo I can search thirty-year-old data from my desktop and it hardly ever needs work, and then just a little, to make it presentable. Who can say that in the PC/Microsoft world? Yes, I can say that. This XP boot image was installed in Jan, 2001, making it this moment a few months short of it's 10th birthday. So you can't really say that your OS vendor has protected your data integrity for 30 years, can you? Ten years is a looooong way short of 30 years. I have some old tapes and disks from the old C64, but I'm thinking that's still a year or two too young. Gawd. What a pack rat you must be. I raise you some microcassettes from an Epson PX8 laptop (called an Epson Paris in the States)...In fact, you can still get those microcassettes as they're a current standard in Olympus and other microrecorders. Andre Jute Gawd, what did I do with those magnetic strips we used to feed the Olivetti Programma 101, the first desktop computer (c1968)? |
#8
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
MikeWhy wrote:
Andre Jute wrote: On Aug 31, 9:23 pm, "MikeWhy" wrote: Andre Jute wrote: There's something else important about the Mac that isn't often mentioned. Anyone who has been conscientious about transferring his data as new storage media appeared has lost *nothing*. Can any PC/ Microsoft user truly say that? Mo I can search thirty-year-old data from my desktop and it hardly ever needs work, and then just a little, to make it presentable. Who can say that in the PC/Microsoft world? Yes, I can say that. This XP boot image was installed in Jan, 2001, making it this moment a few months short of it's 10th birthday. So you can't really say that your OS vendor has protected your data integrity for 30 years, can you? Ten years is a looooong way short of 30 years. I have some old tapes and disks from the old C64, but I'm thinking that's still a year or two too young. Gawd. What a pack rat you must be. Wow. 30 years ago we had to fit the program and the data all on a 180k disk. Well, until we got the cassette drive, that is. Such a long time ago! -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org/ Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
#9
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
On Aug 31, 5:33 pm, AMuzi wrote:
MikeWhy wrote: Andre Jute wrote: On Aug 31, 9:23 pm, "MikeWhy" wrote: Andre Jute wrote: There's something else important about the Mac that isn't often mentioned. Anyone who has been conscientious about transferring his data as new storage media appeared has lost *nothing*. Can any PC/ Microsoft user truly say that? Mo I can search thirty-year-old data from my desktop and it hardly ever needs work, and then just a little, to make it presentable. Who can say that in the PC/Microsoft world? Yes, I can say that. This XP boot image was installed in Jan, 2001, making it this moment a few months short of it's 10th birthday. So you can't really say that your OS vendor has protected your data integrity for 30 years, can you? Ten years is a looooong way short of 30 years. I have some old tapes and disks from the old C64, but I'm thinking that's still a year or two too young. Gawd. What a pack rat you must be. Wow. 30 years ago we had to fit the program and the data all on a 180k disk. Well, until we got the cassette drive, that is. Such a long time ago! In any case, bits are bits. Unless somebody loses the specification, open source is always best. |
#10
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On the constant malice of the petty scum on RBT
On Sep 1, 1:33*am, AMuzi wrote:
MikeWhy wrote: Andre Jute wrote: On Aug 31, 9:23 pm, "MikeWhy" wrote: Andre Jute wrote: There's something else important about the Mac that isn't often mentioned. Anyone who has been conscientious about transferring his data as new storage media appeared has lost *nothing*. Can any PC/ Microsoft user truly say that? Mo I can search thirty-year-old data from my desktop and it hardly ever needs work, and then just a little, to make it presentable. Who can say that in the PC/Microsoft world? Yes, I can say that. This XP boot image was installed in Jan, 2001, making it this moment a few months short of it's 10th birthday. So you can't really say that your OS vendor has protected your data integrity for 30 years, can you? Ten years is a looooong way short of 30 years. I have some old tapes and disks from the old C64, but I'm thinking that's still a year or two too young. Gawd. What a pack rat you must be.. Wow. *30 years ago we had to fit the program and the data all on a 180k disk. Well, until we got the cassette drive, that is. Such a long time ago! -- Andrew Muzi * www.yellowjersey.org/ * Open every day since 1 April, 1971 There was a thin bellypan that fitted under the Epson PX8/Paris laptop that was called a CMOS drive, which contained non-volatile memory in which one could load programmes and data. c1980. I had one for my PX8s that outlasted several of the computers, was given to a friend for his PX8, went to his son, a journalist, was later returned to me, and was the last bit of the PX8 chain to survive, c1990 when C/PM, the operating system, wasn't even a memory for most of the new computer- literates. I took a PX8 into the Arctic Circle; it was the sturdiest laptop I knew of then or now.-- AJ |
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