Linux, the Canadian lady and the 775 Legs of Intel

Linux will fall flat on its face - report

You've got to be kidding, who is this lady. Does she work for apple or get paid by apple. Anyone that's tried SuSE or Mandrake Linux lately should find navigation of the user interface as good if not better than Mac and WinXP and still allows the flexibility to tweak for the "geeks". My two cents. I left windows behind almost 9 years ago and really never got interested in going back.

Greg

Interesting that Michelle Levesque writes as though Linux first appeared last week. She doesn't seem to grasp that Linux, though still a small fry, has reached parity with Apple according to an OS survey last week (reported at the Inq, I think - but I'm distracted by planning how to spend my Lotto winnings). Nor did she manage to absorb the fact that such minor players as IBM, HP, etc., are selling and supporting Linux. [Her comments on OS X suggests that she doesn't know that OS X doesn't run on x86.]

I loved the line "... geeks gave more weight to integrity rather than beauty." Snort. How many weekly patches has WinXP seen? And how many more can be expected? (How deep is the ocean, how high is the sky?)

:)

John

Have you installed linux?? Have you tried?? Have you ever seen openoffice?? That is linux or open source, and so is abiword. The Microsoft NET framework is harder to install than they are and MUCH harder to use.

One of the prime unfriendly terms used on linux forums is RTFM which means "read the blanking manual". I don't use md5 sums but I know what they are. I've never had to, I usually get good downloads but yes I didn't know what an md5 was until I read a little further. Which was about as difficult as reading the cereal box is in the morning. My contention is that if anything linux is overdocumented which has been complained about time and time again, pages and pages of manuals. For those who don't want to compile from source or know what a bianry is there are always alternates for which you don't have to read but a page or two or you can heaven forbid buy the thing in order to obtain a fully working alternate operating system.

You seem to have researched on the surface which is good for a quick story but without going any further you have researched linux like some people might research me. I am a grandmother since the age of 37, was a mother at 17, second marriage, my husband is a truck driver and I live in what is known as hillbilly country and I know how to weld and drive a semi. Doesn't look very good does it?? On the other hand I have been a real estate agent, passed several college courses by testing out of them (oh I was a high school dropout too), been accepted into nursing school @ the age of 45, installed more operating systems than more people have used, I'm a longhorn beta tester, I've been on stage with Chuck Berry, I'm an EMT, and have a warped IQ of 140, have grandchildren in the gifted class and a daughter who is a nurse and one who is a minister, stepdaughter is soon to be a teacher and the other is a CPA, stepson is a nuclear engineer. But some people see the mother @ 17 truckdriver. Thank goodness most see the lady who has all the kids and does stuff with computers.

So I guess the first part is what counts about a person?? Just like your frustration with the checksum is what counts about open source. I cannot fathom what people find to attack in open source unless they work for microsoft?? It's like attacking the red cross for providing medicine to people who can't afford it because of our wonderful system of medical checks and balances? Or attacking the red cross for providing aid to the needy when someone could have gone in and made a killing off of their plight?? Sorry, just my viewpoint.

Teresa

Ms Levesque is completely off base with this one. If UI was this important - The DOJ would be breaking the Apple monopoly up into a hardware and software company.

M$ has proven we are price motivated, it's not the quality of your icons. 1. Use Intel to beat up Apple. 2. Be the flea. 3. Bite. Now M$ can't win on price - however - can continue to leverage existing user base. Our legal system was not prepared, or willing, to deal with this issue.

The Linux UI differences are on a similar scale to the Apple/M$ UI differences. A short break-in time when moving to one is needed.

Larry Sybrandt

Hi

I totally agree on your statements. I've seen linux (bought suse 6.1) about five years ago and my major problem was management and installation tools. But those years have passes, linux is used more and more and more, so I though I'll give it another try. I downloaded a debian release because it's got the famous apt-get install procedure. But I just don't understand the crowds cheering it is just great, it just doesn't show what it's doing or what has happened. Also I was missing management tools, they should be somewhere but I'll keep on searching ;) I found some tools to change color schemes and useless other settings but how to change network settings (in graphical environment) for instance.

But I think the linux community is more eager to create a 50% better performance than a 50% better usability for the average people.

koen

Whew. Not Linux. LGA 775

Features of Intel 775 socket revealed

Hi Doc,

I felt you left a few reasons off the list.

My top ten (unsorted)

1. Power distrubution (increase location and current)
2. Power grounding/isolation
3. Signal groundin/shielding
4. 64bit extentions
5. Bragging rights, My chip has more pins then your chip so it must be better (like saying 3GHz is better than 2GHz without checking the real world outside the Intel vacuum).
6. Separate premium from value #cough# Celeron (#cough# list GHz not performance chip)
7. Platform for Server (XEON,Itanium) and high-end desktops.
8. Move towards new FSB and/or integrate Memory Managment Unit
9. More control signals, power saving states #cough# got to slow down because I'm going to fast and they bought me on max. GHz not by the speed they get throttled.
10. Because someone said a change is as good as a holiday and because Intel say "jump" and MB OEM's say "how high".

Regards,
Tim C

Linux Again

I have to agree with the basic premises. I've been attempting to install Mandrake Linux 9.2 on two vintage 2001 PCs I own, both 466Mhz Celeron E-machines with standard equipment. Been working on it on and off for a couple of weeks now; both of them are spare machines and this is more a learning experience anyway, so not all that anxious. Problems are 1) having the damn thing hang up in the installation script, on my fourth virgin install on both machines, and 2) having to know what I consider excruciating details about the hardware and underlying software. Certainly no where near as simple to set up as a Windows installation. I mean, c'mon now, I have to know what graphic chip I have in order to configure KDE? And then forget using packages like Samba; the documentation is obtuse, I cannot for the life of me get the web-based configurator to work, and although I've managed to figure out, I hope, what I need in the various configuration files, I'm sure I'm missing something, I just can't figure out what.

But there is a great deal of propaganda on the Samba site concerning all the incredible features it has, and how many more the developers plan on adding.

I'm almost afraid to tackle Apache, PHP, and MySQL. I only have so many more years to live, you know...

And by the way, I'm not stupid. I'm a highly successful control systems engineer with a goodly amount of experience working with computer-based real-time application. And I know to RTFM first.

Rich Wargo

Philanthropy

Hi INQ!

Why doesn't anybody realise that when Bill Gates gives away $23 Billion that it is NOT a good thing?

He is not giving away HIS money, he is giving away OUR money, which he obtained by monopolistic, unfair and sometimes illegal means. Yes, that may be charity, but not on his part. It is charity on our part. Surely we should be allowed to decide when and who to give charity to?

The huge amount that Bill gives to charity validates the argument that the products are overpriced. If he is not prepared to lower the prices, at least give us customers the credit for the charity works.

Cheers,
Maarten

Linux Again

Linux will fall flat on its face ? report

http://theinquirer.net/?article=15343

Some babbling researcher knows better huh? What distasteful and moronic statements by a complete idiot.

Sounds like a typical uneducated moron. Maybe she got her Yogurt Research Degree from a Digital Degree Mill featured on her web-site.

Please, don't give credence to this insane moron idiots anymore. I BEG you!!

Peter Martin

Build your own machines, Intel says

What a wonderful idea. I've been doing that for the past fifteen years and I agree heartily (even though I use AMD since the T-Bird came out - wonder how that sits with Intel's idea ?). Although there is one question that bothered me as soon as I read the article : what does Intel do about those users who buy everything to buid their cutting-edge gaming box, and it doesn't boot ? I mean, since Intel is apparently encouraging Joe Anybody to take the screwdriver and put that heat sink fan on, it follows that a fair proportion of those Joes who try are going to have problems - other than the simple fact that they hardly know what to expect when a PC boots up the first time. I wonder if those wonderful interactive guides include What To Do If situations, such as - the PC is turned on and nothing happens - the PC turns on, but there is no image on the screen - the PC turns on, the BIOS screen shows up, but no floppy unit is found

This is but a small sample of the vast number of issues that can happen when you tinker with PC hardware. And I voluntarily restrict my thinking to scenarios where all the components are functional and work correctly. God forbid I start thinking about what a poor user can be confronted to if the motherboard is faulty, or the RAM, or the CPU, or the hard disk(s), or the graphics card, or . . . stop it !

But I am being very cynical, aren't I ? Of course I am. I know, and you know, that Intel is just telling people to build their own. It's not like Intel is pledging to support the people who do so, right ? Of course.

By the way, does Joe Anybody know that ? Of course not.

Good luck, Joe. I hope everything works out the first time, every time.

Pascal

Build your Own

Hi there

Yep build your own is the way to go. However, you'll want to be ready for $600/gig memory prices, that nice $1,000 cpu and a mainboard, the lovely upcoming “performance” model that won't perform more than 12% overclock based on hardwiring. Now a great many folks can get 16-20% overclock on simple stock cooling alone and, in the past, that has helped even the playing field in some places where P4's are slower. But good old Intel can't have any of that. Why however would they keep you buying their products if you could actually get them to truly run fast?

Meanwhile, AMD says if you are willing to spend $700 on our cpu, you are a special customer. We'll open up the multiplier to whatever you are able to manage. We wouldn't want to channel you into expensive memory when the old stuff works just as well, so that will only cost you $350 or so, and just because we are trying to stay conservative we'll give you an equivalent to 20% performance boost over those “extreme” processors, depending on your application. And if you can even so much as do a tiny overclock you can begin to leave those other cpu's far behind in performance. We, at AMD thank you for you business at this price level.

So, hmm, I can spend $1600 plus other components and do basically stock computing, throw away my memory in a year if I want the new 1066 fsb (or keep it if I got ddr2 533 and I don't care about overclock at all), or I can spend $1050, get a higher performing chip that caters to performance users and says thank you for your business. Wave bye-bye to Intel, because they are feeding off your wallet and don't give a crum about the customer or their pricing. Oh yeah, and all that “savings on building smaller chips” that you were supposed to see from .13 and .09 micron cpus? I don't see it, do you?

Best regards
David F

Jobs, Plutonium, the Elves and the Oxymoron

You left out one of your most cogent theories...that Steve Jobs may have implanted plutonium in these cheap new eMacs, so he can poison the entire universe with deadly radiation. I would put that suggestion on a par with all of your other suppositions. Gosh, I guess we'll do just about anything to torque off the Mac faithful and get a rise out of them, now, won't we?

Did you ever think of just giving Apple credit for coming out with faster machines (you left out a faster system bus, faster memory, a faster (8x) SuperDrive, a faster graphics card...not integrated video like cheapo PeeCees, by the way, and the inclusion of 3 USB 2.0 ports)? All this, and a cheaper price to boot. Swill like you criticize Apple for being 'so' expensive (BS), then criticize them again, when they come out with even better machines at a LOWER price.

You, sir, are a hypocrite. I suspect this has nothing to do with your chosen profession. It's probably just your nature.

What matters just as much as price is value. If I gave you the choice between a hunk of crap for $499 and an eMac for $799, which would you choose, Mike? Hold on. That's okay. I already know your answer. Here, take this big spoon and enjoy. Be sure to wash it down with a tankard full of your journalistic integrity.

BG

Outsourcing Series

Outsourcing

I find the article on outsourcing on your website today simply quite amazing and am surprised that you should carry it...... while i realise that there are a lot of local jobs at stake.. those jobs just simply have to learn and adapt to working at lower wage levels or try to retrain or reeducate themselves into something more defensible. or as is happening risk losing jobs to "outsourcing"

The fact remains that outsourcing will continue and only increase as the level of education and knowledge in "cheaper economies' improve.. and fact remains that those regions will work for less than 1/3 the cost of developed (more expensive) regions.. the issue is cropping up because now suddenly all collar (blue and white) are being outsourced whereas earlier it was only the lowest end manufacturing. india has taken up most of the software development...while china the assembly.. and it will only increase as educated populations in these countries continue to justify the shift...english is a global language and issues such as languages and accents are only short term impediments to the eventual move to cheaper locations.. whether it is India or china or the philipines...or even mexico and south america....

More importantly the author forgets that as the asian economies grow and in time compete with developed US and Europe...and the demand for products and services increase in these regions....the need for the so-called "local accent" will increase and companies such as Dell and HPQ who sell equipment worldwide will use local call centers instead of pulling back. the strength of the emerging market economies and the weakness of the dollar is telling us the obvious.. which is growth has moved on into Asia.

Do what you do best is the key...the better model for the US to retain its edge is by pushing the design frontier even harder... and increasing the effort spent on developing new products while letting the rest of the world manufacture and outsource away the lower level jobs..

Regards
Kishore