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leave off the Sinclair? I (I believe, maybe wrongly, that Timex took it over later). Almost bought one of those gadgets back then. Then got some bonus money at work and bought a Radio Shack Color Computer (CoCo I). It ran Basic in 32K and, if you knew what minor H/W changes to make, you could activate all 64K and run OS/9 from Microware - a Unix clone that ran in 64K, including real multi-tasking. I still have it and later bought the CoCo 3 with 512K of memory (WOW!!!), an RGB monitor and a more powerful version of OS/9. I had the multipak which allowed me to hook up two TEAC floppys. I still have that too. About 5 or 6 years later, I bought a PC Jr., later added "top box" (instead of a side car) and had 640K of memory and a second floppy. Also have that one too. BTW, all three still work today - more than I can say for the later PCs that I bought.
The Sinclair was marketed in the US by Timex (last one on the list). I only ever recall seeing a Timex-branded Sinclair 1000, but if Sinclair did market in the US, I _think_ it was later on in the PC wars and I had other things to drool over (Amiga & Atari ST). I could be wrong, though. I did have one later in life, but then gave it to a fellow ham for nostalgia's sake. (My call is AB8KK, by the way...)
The _only_ reason I don't have my original CoCo2 (mine had 16K, soldered in the 64K upgrade myself) is because I had to sell it to get enough money to be able to afford my CoCo3 -- which I still have. I still play on it (my all time favorite game is Rogue - most PC / Linux versions of the game you could not throw potions, but you could on the CoCo version from Epyx). Dual floppy (360K 5.25 inch and 720K 3.5 inch). I used to read the OS-9 Level 2 manual just for fun. Learned it well enough to write a (not very big) assembly-language extension to Basic09.
You can still get upgrades for CoCo's - head on over to http://www.cloud9tech.com/ [1] - you can get IDE/CF interfaces which work as both virtual floppies for RSDOS and as a hard drive for OS-9, a product called 'drivewire' that runs the bit-banger serial port at 115200 and emulate a floppy drive on a PC server, they have even developed a 68B09 board so you can run OS-9 on an Atari 800XL/1200XL/130XE!
[1] No affiliation with the website other than being a happy customer.
... And they're still holding the annual ' "Last" Chicago CoCoFest ' - 22 years running now, April 22 & 23, 2013 is the next one. Head on over to http://www.glensideccc.com/ if you want more info.
If it wasn't for the wife, my CoCo would still be my "one true love..."
(Just kidding, of course.)
The other classic machine I still use a few times a month (if not more, at times) - My Tandy 200 laptop. I use it for note taking and in the kitchen for recipes & whatnot. Built in Feb. '85, still going strong.
The _only_ reason I don't have my original CoCo2 (mine had 16K, soldered in the 64K upgrade myself) is because I had to sell it to get enough money to be able to afford my CoCo3 -- which I still have. I still play on it (my all time favorite game is Rogue - most PC / Linux versions of the game you could not throw potions, but you could on the CoCo version from Epyx). Dual floppy (360K 5.25 inch and 720K 3.5 inch). I used to read the OS-9 Level 2 manual just for fun. Learned it well enough to write a (not very big) assembly-language extension to Basic09.
You can still get upgrades for CoCo's - head on over to http://www.cloud9tech.com/ [1] - you can get IDE/CF interfaces which work as both virtual floppies for RSDOS and as a hard drive for OS-9, a product called 'drivewire' that runs the bit-banger serial port at 115200 and emulate a floppy drive on a PC server, they have even developed a 68B09 board so you can run OS-9 on an Atari 800XL/1200XL/130XE!
[1] No affiliation with the website other than being a happy customer.
... And they're still holding the annual ' "Last" Chicago CoCoFest ' - 22 years running now, April 22 & 23, 2013 is the next one. Head on over to http://www.glensideccc.com/ if you want more info.
If it wasn't for the wife, my CoCo would still be my "one true love..."
(Just kidding, of course.)The other classic machine I still use a few times a month (if not more, at times) - My Tandy 200 laptop. I use it for note taking and in the kitchen for recipes & whatnot. Built in Feb. '85, still going strong.
But anyone that makes sweeping statements like the one below, in absolute terms none the less, about an organization that includes thousands of people is clearly... what is the word I am looking for? Oh yes... stupid.
>> the people at Microsoft have absolutely NO INNOVATION capability or original thoughts, never have, never will.
>> the people at Microsoft have absolutely NO INNOVATION capability or original thoughts, never have, never will.
you're looking for. DOS developed by someone else and bought by Gates, ditto with Word, Excel, Access, and everything else they sell. Vista Aero a steal from 3D Glass. Internet Explorer stolen. The base code for MSO 2007 stolen. Sure they tweak them to make them compatible with Windows, but they don't develop them or invent them.
What is the point in talking to you if you don't seem to be able to differentiate between your opinion and "truth".
>> the people at Microsoft have absolutely NO INNOVATION capability
It is true that MS is not known for that and tend to buy up companies that are leaders in the field rather than reinvent the wheel. But to say that thousands of people (aka Microsoft) are incapable of, and are absolutely bereft of, innovation and/or original thought is absurd.
Example, MS created one of the single most important technologies in the history of the internet, on par with the hyper link: AJAX.
>> the people at Microsoft have absolutely NO INNOVATION capability
It is true that MS is not known for that and tend to buy up companies that are leaders in the field rather than reinvent the wheel. But to say that thousands of people (aka Microsoft) are incapable of, and are absolutely bereft of, innovation and/or original thought is absurd.
Example, MS created one of the single most important technologies in the history of the internet, on par with the hyper link: AJAX.
hardware that's come out of Microsoft, with the exception of the original traffic management program designed by Paul Allen, has been bought, stolen, or copied from someone else. That is NOT innovation at all. Even the stupid icon and touch system in Win 8 was originally designed by others, just as Windows and Internet Explorer were. The Surface is a copy of work done by others as well.
to attempt to pull some other technologies together, but not quite working right anyway. To claim Ajax as a new technology, you may as well claim any home made Macro is a new technology. From the wikipedia article, which is as far as I'm prepared to waste time on this, we have:
quote
The term Ajax has come to represent a broad group of web technologies that can be used to implement a web application that communicates with a server in the background, without interfering with the current state of the page. In the article that coined the term Ajax, Jesse James Garrett explained that the following technologies are incorporated:
- HTML (or XHTML) and CSS for presentation
- The Document Object Model (DOM) for dynamic display of and interaction with data
- XML for the interchange of data, and XSLT for its manipulation
- The XMLHttpRequest object for asynchronous communication
JavaScript to bring these technologies together
Since then, however, there have been a number of developments in the technologies used in an Ajax application, and the definition of the term Ajax. XML is not required for data interchange and therefore XSLT is not required for the manipulation of data. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is often used as an alternative format for data interchange, although other formats such as preformatted HTML or plain text can also be used.
Drawbacks
- In pre-HTML5 browsers, pages dynamically created using successive Ajax requests did not automatically register themselves with the browser's history engine, so clicking the browser's "back" button may not have returned the browser to an earlier state of the Ajax-enabled page, but may have instead returned to the last full page visited before it. A pre-Ajax workaround was to use invisible iframes to trigger changes in the browser's history. A workaround implemented by Ajax techniques is to change the URL fragment identifier (the part of a URL after the '#') when an Ajax-enabled page is accessed and monitor it for changes.
- - However, HTML5 provides an extensive API standard for working with the browser's history engine.
- Dynamic web page updates also make it difficult to bookmark and return to a particular state of the application. Solutions to this problem exist, many of which again use the URL fragment identifier.
- - The solution provided by HTML5 for the above problem also applies for this.
- Depending on the nature of the Ajax application, dynamic page updates may interfere disruptively with user interactions, especially if working on an unstable Internet connection. For instance, editing a search field may trigger a query to the server for search completions, but the user may not know that a search completion popup is forthcoming, and if the internet connection is slow, the popup list may show up at an inconvenient time, when the user has already proceeded to do something else.
- Because most web crawlers do not execute JavaScript code, publicly indexable web applications should provide an alternative means of accessing the content that would normally be retrieved with Ajax, thereby allowing search engines to index it.
- Any user whose browser does not support JavaScript or XMLHttpRequest, or simply has this functionality disabled, will not be able to properly use pages which depend on Ajax. Devices such as smartphones and PDAs may not have support for the required technologies, though this is becoming less of an issue. The only way to let the user carry out functionality is to fall back to non-JavaScript methods. This can be achieved by making sure links and forms can be resolved properly and not relying solely on Ajax.
- Similarly, some web applications which use Ajax are built in a way that cannot be read by screen-reading technologies, such as JAWS. The WAI-ARIA standards provide a way to provide hints in such a case.
- Screen readers that are able to use Ajax may still not be able to properly read the dynamically generated content.
- The same origin policy prevents some Ajax techniques from being used across domains, although the W3C has a draft of the XMLHttpRequest object that would enable this functionality. Methods exist to sidestep this security feature by using a special Cross Domain Communications channel embedded as an iframe within a page, or by the use of JSONP.
- The asynchronous callback-style of programming required can lead to complex code that is hard to maintain, to debug and to test.
end quote
Ajax is so great it's hardly used and not all that well known about, and definitely NOT a new technological development as CSS is another way of using a script to do something within HTML but not a technology in itself.
quote
The term Ajax has come to represent a broad group of web technologies that can be used to implement a web application that communicates with a server in the background, without interfering with the current state of the page. In the article that coined the term Ajax, Jesse James Garrett explained that the following technologies are incorporated:
- HTML (or XHTML) and CSS for presentation
- The Document Object Model (DOM) for dynamic display of and interaction with data
- XML for the interchange of data, and XSLT for its manipulation
- The XMLHttpRequest object for asynchronous communication
JavaScript to bring these technologies together
Since then, however, there have been a number of developments in the technologies used in an Ajax application, and the definition of the term Ajax. XML is not required for data interchange and therefore XSLT is not required for the manipulation of data. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is often used as an alternative format for data interchange, although other formats such as preformatted HTML or plain text can also be used.
Drawbacks
- In pre-HTML5 browsers, pages dynamically created using successive Ajax requests did not automatically register themselves with the browser's history engine, so clicking the browser's "back" button may not have returned the browser to an earlier state of the Ajax-enabled page, but may have instead returned to the last full page visited before it. A pre-Ajax workaround was to use invisible iframes to trigger changes in the browser's history. A workaround implemented by Ajax techniques is to change the URL fragment identifier (the part of a URL after the '#') when an Ajax-enabled page is accessed and monitor it for changes.
- - However, HTML5 provides an extensive API standard for working with the browser's history engine.
- Dynamic web page updates also make it difficult to bookmark and return to a particular state of the application. Solutions to this problem exist, many of which again use the URL fragment identifier.
- - The solution provided by HTML5 for the above problem also applies for this.
- Depending on the nature of the Ajax application, dynamic page updates may interfere disruptively with user interactions, especially if working on an unstable Internet connection. For instance, editing a search field may trigger a query to the server for search completions, but the user may not know that a search completion popup is forthcoming, and if the internet connection is slow, the popup list may show up at an inconvenient time, when the user has already proceeded to do something else.
- Because most web crawlers do not execute JavaScript code, publicly indexable web applications should provide an alternative means of accessing the content that would normally be retrieved with Ajax, thereby allowing search engines to index it.
- Any user whose browser does not support JavaScript or XMLHttpRequest, or simply has this functionality disabled, will not be able to properly use pages which depend on Ajax. Devices such as smartphones and PDAs may not have support for the required technologies, though this is becoming less of an issue. The only way to let the user carry out functionality is to fall back to non-JavaScript methods. This can be achieved by making sure links and forms can be resolved properly and not relying solely on Ajax.
- Similarly, some web applications which use Ajax are built in a way that cannot be read by screen-reading technologies, such as JAWS. The WAI-ARIA standards provide a way to provide hints in such a case.
- Screen readers that are able to use Ajax may still not be able to properly read the dynamically generated content.
- The same origin policy prevents some Ajax techniques from being used across domains, although the W3C has a draft of the XMLHttpRequest object that would enable this functionality. Methods exist to sidestep this security feature by using a special Cross Domain Communications channel embedded as an iframe within a page, or by the use of JSONP.
- The asynchronous callback-style of programming required can lead to complex code that is hard to maintain, to debug and to test.
end quote
Ajax is so great it's hardly used and not all that well known about, and definitely NOT a new technological development as CSS is another way of using a script to do something within HTML but not a technology in itself.
This discussion has been taken to The Water Cooler / View thread
regard a truthful answer to a question as being stupid.
as I speak only truth on this issue.
This discussion has been taken to The Water Cooler / View thread
Losing the TCO seems extremely unlikely.
Just a simple example, even just replacing a Windows computer with an identical Windows computer can cost me a week in productivity reinstalling and updating all my programs. Linux has no advantage in this area except that maybe you can script some of your installs instead of having to baby sit and CD switch.
Just a simple example, even just replacing a Windows computer with an identical Windows computer can cost me a week in productivity reinstalling and updating all my programs. Linux has no advantage in this area except that maybe you can script some of your installs instead of having to baby sit and CD switch.
Does this no longer work? It makes a LiveCD out of your current install (including everything in /home, if you want), and you can install to a new computer from that LiveCD. Couple hours, soup to nuts.
Or most of the time, just making and using a Clonezilla image will work (unlike with Windows, where the different hardware will trigger licensing issues).
Or most of the time, just making and using a Clonezilla image will work (unlike with Windows, where the different hardware will trigger licensing issues).
Without proper imaging infrastructure (sometimes even with), windows system reloads are usually a time-consuming p.i.t.a. I've become a big fan of installing from usb flash drives, tho; much faster. The scripting / automation for linux comment, I can personally attest to. No licensing or "activation" issues, either. That alone is worth the low price of admission.
I am currently using 320GB on my dev machine, it would be difficult to burn that to a CD. Drive cloning would work, assuming the hardware was identical.
I imagine an experienced Linux machine would have the same file size issue. But as I understand, Linux re-detects hardware changes at bootup, so cloning would work fine.
I imagine an experienced Linux machine would have the same file size issue. But as I understand, Linux re-detects hardware changes at bootup, so cloning would work fine.
On distros like Ubuntu, there is (or was) an upgrade ability from release to release. You had the option to upgrade every 6 months when the next release came out (every April and October). Since i have not gone beyond 10.10 with it, I can't say for certain they carried this through with the Unity releases (11.04 and beyond). When you were notified there were updates you could download, the update process had an "Upgrade" button displayed when the next release came out. Clicked on it and the upgrade took place.
all,
Linux stroke gnu/linux does not have a single publicity machine behind it so few want it.
What are Ubuntu (canonical) doing? What has happened to 'Wayland'?
It seems they, canonical, are doing a track and trace event that might bring them revenue but why?
It does seem futile to let one, or a few , privileged sellers dominate the market.
Linux stroke gnu/linux does not have a single publicity machine behind it so few want it.
What are Ubuntu (canonical) doing? What has happened to 'Wayland'?
It seems they, canonical, are doing a track and trace event that might bring them revenue but why?
It does seem futile to let one, or a few , privileged sellers dominate the market.
Until Linux (any version) makes it possible to click, download, install without additional searches or steps, it will never take a share of the commercial mainstream market. Example you can try... Pretending you know nothing about Linux (any version) or better yet, let your non-techie mother in law, find, download and install the driver for the Epson Perfection V200 Photo Printer. To do this, I had to first, find it. Secondly, had to go, search for and learn how to download and install the dependencies. I had to click, read, attempt to interpret cryptic code to find out which one I needed, read some more, find another dependency at another website, download, attempt to install, deal with another cryptic error message... Now, have that same person go to a printer's website and download and install a modern Windows HP print driver of his/her choice. Click, download, install, run. Until these problems are rectified, no version of Linux will ever match the ease and comfort level of basic computer users. This, my friends, is the 97% of the population who do not turn on their computers just to tweak them but to get actual work done. After 4 hours, I finally got the V200 Linux driver installed. I pray it never corrupts as I do not want to go through all that hassle again!
I am not sure which distro you are referencing, but most Debian-based distros (e.g., Mint, Ubuntu, etc.) have the Software Center and the Synaptic Package Manager. You do not need to do a google search, download the application and then install it. With the Synaptic Package Manager, you do have to type in the package name (akin to the google search), but once you have the list of packages, select the one you want, click on "Apply" and it downloads and installs it automagically. Likewise when you want to get something from the Software Center. Enter the name, select the package and click on "Install".
Granted, if you can't find what you want in either of those two places, you can download the DEB package (if Debian-based) or the RPM package (if RedHat-based), click on it and it gets installed. Most Distros will support either or both and that support is normally installed now-a-days. And 7-Zip will handle nearly all "zipped" files (Linux and Windows).
Granted, if you can't find what you want in either of those two places, you can download the DEB package (if Debian-based) or the RPM package (if RedHat-based), click on it and it gets installed. Most Distros will support either or both and that support is normally installed now-a-days. And 7-Zip will handle nearly all "zipped" files (Linux and Windows).
Strange- every time I have purchased new hardware for my Linux boxes (printers, monitors, digitizer tablet, data acquisition equipment, web cam, etc.), it has been mostly plug and play. I haven't had to search for a hardware driver since leaving the Windows universe...
I'm sure Canonical designed and developed Unity, rather than "adopted" it per se, altho you might have meant they adopted their own "experimental" netbook UI as their mainstream UI for all screens including the desktop.
Ever hear people argue about Frigidaire or GE or SEARS or hammers or saws?
If you did you would think it was pretty freakin stupid. That is what you all sound like.
If you did you would think it was pretty freakin stupid. That is what you all sound like.
they make stupid products that don't work as they should or don't operate within the required industry standards.
Sears does not manufacture any of their products, instead they are all made by the other leading manufacturers, often with added features. They are then rebranded with the Kenmore (or other) brand name. http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/make.shtml
Yes, there are differences in brands of appliances, but some of them are made IN THE SAME FACTORY in CHINA for different companies, side by side, from the same blueprints.
What's the world coming to?
Yes, there are differences in brands of appliances, but some of them are made IN THE SAME FACTORY in CHINA for different companies, side by side, from the same blueprints.
What's the world coming to?
I worked for a lawnmower manufacturer that manufactured Craftsman products, among several other proprietary brands for other retailers. All plants were located in the US. Identical products except for the paint schemes, decals, manuals, and cartons. This has been common practice in US manufacturing for decades and has nothing to do with China.
when they start arguing Craftsman or Snap-on. Or around shooters when they start discussing the "best" firearms manufacturer.
It's human nature. Go with it or ignore it,but it's there in us all.
It's human nature. Go with it or ignore it,but it's there in us all.
Is arguing about makes and models of cars stupid? Don't tell the gearheads.
People will always have opinions, especially about the tools of their trades. You'll have a hard time convincing me it's as easy to find drivers on HP's web site as it is on Dell's, 'cause it ain't. APC's UPS replacement batteries are better than the ones from Interstate; the terminals on the Interstate batteries required adapters for the UPS connectors.
But if we're all pretty freakin stupid, why are you bothering with us?
People will always have opinions, especially about the tools of their trades. You'll have a hard time convincing me it's as easy to find drivers on HP's web site as it is on Dell's, 'cause it ain't. APC's UPS replacement batteries are better than the ones from Interstate; the terminals on the Interstate batteries required adapters for the UPS connectors.
But if we're all pretty freakin stupid, why are you bothering with us?
Steam is one game, and I suspect it will work just fine on Windows 8 Desktop. I don't expect Halo for Linux soon, but beyond that it'll take a lot of really hot games only on Linux before gamers give up their Windows platforms and the Windows games they already paid for.
I'm not a gamer and didn't know that Steam is a platform. Thanks for the info. Although he said nasty stuff about Modern UI that he won't port Steam to, almost any program that runs on Vista or 7 runs on 8 Desktop. Is there something about Steam that won't run on Windows 8 Desktop? And if it's a platform won't its game developers demand support for the overwhelming majority that they can sell to?
I believe your statement that many great games already play on Linux, but I know a lot of gamers who have sunk Real Money into massive collections of Windows games that they're not going to give up. I know lots of Linux users at work but when they go home they play games on Windows, dedicated consoles, or phones.
With Client Hyper-V in Windows 8 it should be pretty easy to set up a Linux system running on Windows 8 to run Linux games that aren't available for Windows. With that Windows 8 just might help accelerate Linux use, but it will take some time. This thread is in response to predictions for 2013. As much as I'd like to see Linux grow beyond the server and appliance markets, I don't see gaming on Linux growing much next year.
I believe your statement that many great games already play on Linux, but I know a lot of gamers who have sunk Real Money into massive collections of Windows games that they're not going to give up. I know lots of Linux users at work but when they go home they play games on Windows, dedicated consoles, or phones.
With Client Hyper-V in Windows 8 it should be pretty easy to set up a Linux system running on Windows 8 to run Linux games that aren't available for Windows. With that Windows 8 just might help accelerate Linux use, but it will take some time. This thread is in response to predictions for 2013. As much as I'd like to see Linux grow beyond the server and appliance markets, I don't see gaming on Linux growing much next year.
comment re steam porting to Linux so people can use that instead of Windows.
Don't know how good the Hyper-V is in Win 8, but I do know the Win 7 XP Mode VM does NOT run all XP applications, and some of those it does run it doesn't run perfectly
Don't know how good the Hyper-V is in Win 8, but I do know the Win 7 XP Mode VM does NOT run all XP applications, and some of those it does run it doesn't run perfectly
The old XP mode used the antique product Virtual PC, which wasn't bad in its day for a program running on top of Windows that emulates another PC. Client Hyper-V is a real hypervisor with Linux drivers for its virtual peripherals that run far better than forcing Linux to run on the primitive virtual machine presented by the old Virtual PC. I'd like to see Linux enthusiasts demonstrate how well it runs on Client Hyper-V, which might entice Windows users to give Linux a serious look.
Laughable Linux
milesbradford@... 10th Dec
http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-397902-37239
Hello milesbradford@.
You are not very good at knowing Gnu/Linux OR free software are you!!!
If you read more into the "Apple operating system software" you will find that it (Apple operating system software) is derived from the BSD tree of which is from Unix. Linux is related to Unix. So the "Apple operating system", although closed source, had come from free software.
The laughter is on you now "milesbradford@".
Time to read some history books on the subject, so go and read.
milesbradford@... 10th Dec
http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-397902-37239
Hello milesbradford@.
You are not very good at knowing Gnu/Linux OR free software are you!!!
If you read more into the "Apple operating system software" you will find that it (Apple operating system software) is derived from the BSD tree of which is from Unix. Linux is related to Unix. So the "Apple operating system", although closed source, had come from free software.
The laughter is on you now "milesbradford@".
Time to read some history books on the subject, so go and read.
Until there is some basic change in the human gneome I don't think fud will disappear. It's a behavior that's been around forever and shows no sign of disappearing.
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