DirectX 9.0a is non-existent bloatware

Reading through your DirectX 9.0a article, and had this revelation..

The download can be 165317 KB in size, so I did some looking around.

Being Uninstalled:
Windows 95 OSR 2.1 was 79.0 MB
Windows 95 OSR 2.1 was 65.0 MB w/o AOL or Compuserve 3
Windows 98 SE is 173 MB with all the extras
Windows 98 SE is 137 MB w/o the Online Services
(AOL,CS,ATT)

God damn DirectX is now larger than 95 or 98 by itself!!!! Can YOU say bloatware? All its going to do is slow crap down even further :p

Ill keep an ear to the ground about any call home features, and keep you posted.

~Sir Cujo

Re: LCD firms blame Gulf War II for panel price rises

Dear Mr. Mageek

First a warm congratulation on your second birthday. At times I could swear you're a tad older than that.

Anyway, regarding your article about the price increases of some LCD monitors I think the Iraqi navy is not the one to blame here. As far as I can tell the problem is related to the American and British pre-war build-up of forces and their transport needs. I have heard of a couple of cases where the reduced availability of ships affected everyday transports from Sweden. So I would hazard a guess that this may have been the case elsewhere as well.

Regards,
Björn

The spam odyssey continues...

I do the exact same thing as you describe, but there is an additional feature. I may want to block the spam, but not the original recipient. For example I got a lot of spam from hotresumes.com as they apparently sold my address to spammers, but I still want mail from them. I am running BSD and use Elm filter to filter mail, so I use this rule:

if (to "hotresumes@" and not from "hotresumes.com") then delete

...so it trashes all mail addressed to hotresumes@mydomain *unless* it came from hotresumes itself.

SPAM IS INDEED becoming a tiresome problem; I agree with the findings of the study; I have my own domain name, so it allows me to create as many email addresses as I like. For instance, I could ask you to publish this mail on your site using "inquirer@mydomain.com" instead of P4man@mydomain.com. If I'd get any spam sent to this address, i'd know where they got it from. Each time I have to give my email address for something, I use one that I can track back to that site, and can add to my spamlist if required.

Email address supplied

Re: Microsoft logo scheme means Office Depot won't sell non-compliant XP products

Just thought I'd flame you on the coverage of Microsoft's logo scheme. It's nuts, it's freaky, it makes me glad I'm typing this on a Penguin-Powered Mandrake laptop that sadly, also has Win2000 installed. I really think Misro$oft has gone too far, they have a monopoly, why are they even continuing? Why doesn't Bill Gates just, RETIRE, and release all of his software and technology to the open-source community? He's richer beyond all reason, is truthfully accused of relaying personal information back to his henchmen through the Windows Update site. It will just make uninformed consumers think that "Oh! This isn't certified for my Compaq, as it doesn't have WinXP, better go spend $300 for the PRO version, because it just HAS to better than Home!", when in fact it works just fine under 98, 2000, God forbid Millenium Edition, even Linux. I think he should grow up, get his thoughts straight, and make a decent product.

-Gareth

On Apple's plans...

yes panther will have 64bit goodness (interesting bit will be if the convert the math libs from altivec to standard 64bit ops after banging on about AltiVec I suspect they might just do it V V quietly or only for specific math ops )

a port to PPC64 would involve changing the Memory Management Unit handling code in darwin (which they could steal from old NetBSD, same VM Subsystem which is Mach funny thing is that the leader of mach project went to work at MS on the NT microkernel.... so MS has people who wrote core of MacOS and I would bet know it better than anyone at Apple...... go figure )

still there has been a linux and BSD ppc64 port for a long time....
and a GCC backend exists
so its a no brainer port about a weeks work then tuning which can go on on on on ...........

the only 2 things that will be cool
1/ if Apple finally make an affordable 64bit machine.
2/ the interface between CPU -> northbridge (memory system) is upgraded

(frankly I dont hold my breath for no.1 )

you could crank Apple PPC up to 4GHz and it would SUCK compared to a Intel system because the BUS in Apple's is *&%^%$

IBM on the other hand has a PPC BUS that blows everything out of the water (this is a mainframe class with prefetching) but its a cold day in hell before they let that IP out of their sights....

best apple ASIC people can do is hope for Hypertransport but will end up with the sucky MOT backed RapidIO........ (at MPF IBM did not say what bus they would use)

disclaimer BSD VM != Mach VM. (all of the time)
The BSD VM was based on Mach 2.0, this was before (or about the same
time) that external pagers were added to Mach.

Email address supplied

Howdy -- i just read your article about MS dropping the W3C panel on web services.

The way these companies behave is odd, if you think of standards the way most people seem to. They are not great agreements or concords. It's constructive to think of the original meaning: a flag on a stick carried into battle. It was a mobile rallying point. Rally around the wrong one and you got your head bashed in. Many a soldier in trouble would run to the standard of the knight who looked like he knew what he was doing. Many a knight would beat their charges to prevent them from fleeing, for better or worse. The W3C is an old king trying to keep his brood of young knights in line.

This notion that a room full of flacks can hammer out some manager-friendly yet useful revelation for the masses is trash. The best standards are born of a cycle of implementation, abstraction, and feedback from the people who will actually use them. Don't expect me to pant in anticipation of the latest JCP or Working Group to come out of non-disclosure.

If you want to do something great, RFC your idea and let the chips fall where they may. If you want to protect your investment, flood the world with FUD and four-colour glossies and get some standards body to bless it like an honorary degree.

Email address supplied

A month ago Microsoft left the OpenGL Architecture Review Board, and now they leave W3C? Microsoft is pushing to become THE software source, and they will accept nothing less than monopoly. Knowing how much of a PITA it is to program for all of Microsoft's new "gadgets," I'd say they're sending themselves in an early grave. Linux is starting to look so much more appealing. I think Apple had the right idea when they switched to a BSD-based system.

In any case, the next few years will prove to be VERY interesting indeed.

Ken

Re: IBM just a set of "mammoth blowhards", says HP

I was amused by your story - but not by the cartoon. The funny part is that HP should think it is in a position to criticise anyone!

It used to be a great company, or it would never have got as big as it is today. However, it seems to be discarding more and more of its computer lines of business. HP has not had a credible software strategy for ten years (it thinks up a new one every two years or so, dumping all its old partners and committed customers in the process).

Now it is talking up Linux, perhaps hoping to destroy its own 2 billion dollar software business. Then it will have nothing left but servers and printers. And those are threatened by IBM, Sun, and Dell.

Regards
Tom

Re: Can Linux break through to the commercial office desktop?

here's a little story in the local Toronto Sun - no affiliation with theLondon ( that I'm aware of ) about a whole town switching to linux - for all machines and apps ...

CNews

Cheers
Richard

I had written about each point raised in this article, but decided to focus on just one, Software Replacement.

Quote:
"In most cases Linux software that is compatible with the standard file formats can be obtained. If alternative software is available but file formats need to be altered then some tough decisions will need to be made."

That made me laugh. MS has changed Word formats so many times, it is hard to keep track. Now, MS is preparing to move formats to XML, BUT, their "version" of XML will not be compatible with their previous formats, nor with accepted international standards (but then, when has MS complied with international standards.)

The "Tough decision" that needs to be made is whether or not a company will port their documents to yet another MS proprietary format, or port them to OpenOffice's XML free and open standard.

OpenOffice has both a Windows and Linux version. This allows a company to install OO on windows computers to get people used to the software, before moving users
to Linux. OO can be a migration tool for users, providing familiarity during their transition to Linux.

Regarding support concerns, OpenOffice.org, as a volunteer organization with hundreds of thousands of users, if not millions, will always be supported by the community. A commercial enterprise may collapse, but a free, open organization will survive as long as there are users.

File format concerns aside, the bigger issue with some companies is the widespread use of Word macros, and the problems associated with having to redo them in OpenOffice (since Word uses VB to create the macros, and, obviously, OpenOffice does not use VB.)

Just one more point.

Over the next however many years, lets say 20, OpenOffice and Linux will continue to increase its functionality, power and speed. Government and business often do NOT upgrade due to the fact that upgrades (for MS products) cost money, but lack of upgrades also hinders productivity. (97 is still the main MS Office Suite in use.) With Open Source and/or Free Software, the cost of upgrading is quite small, usually only the time cost of the administrator to perform the upgrade. Businesses should be looking at TCO over 20 plus years, not over a single upgrade. When long term upgrade costs are factored in, the cost of proprietary software is quite high.

Bob

I can't believe this person at all.... was he born yesterday..... Microsoft has bugs that they have repeated over and over again from windows 3.xx up to windows XP.... even some dll's are win3.1 dll's with extra stuff added not re-written DLL that are specifically made for that OS version.... Hardware come on, I just for a test yanked a hard drive out of one system and plugged it into an other and it re-detected all the hardware with no problems at all (NO INTERVENTION) you can't say that of windows at all (you can say BSOD though)....

OH My god your trying to tell me that you can't roll out a imaged versions of Linux across the board, WTH are you dumb, Most big organizations that I've worked for buy exact hardware in every box every so many years so that there is only so many different configurations and being that I can plug a HDD from one box to an other (with different chipset, video, NIC and sound) and have everything re-detected properly then I would say if you have 3 types of config's then you only need to install the OS three times and make images of each and everything is honky dory.

I won't say that linux is exactly ready for mainstream desktop but I would say that it's more stable.... I can't believe that you even think that WinXP is more stable.... A program crashes in windows, then you end that task and you retry the program again it still doesn't work, try a re-boot, it might work ok so problem solved.... Linux program crashes (which I will say that it doesn't happen as often but it still happens), kill the process re-start the app and everything is honky dory... wow no re-boots no
multiple retries of the app just to find out that windows can't free the memory space that the app was residing in, the worst I've had to do is log off and re-log in again and that's it....

Now contrast this with the fact that most user will panic when errors occur and not do anything until the tech gets there (if the tech is available, which we all know that sometimes (when its least convenient) the tech is not there and you wait for hours to get working again, and all the tech does is re-boot the machine.)

I'm sorry that I attacked you with the comment of are you dumb but if you can't see the benefits of Linux then your being paid by someone that's pushing Windows and that it. Windows is getting better but being that they have the money they do (M$ that is) why can't they be far superior in all aspects (and that mainly means memory management), they have the resources, they have the money, they have the battalion of programmers, what is wrong with this picture..... I'll tell you one thing Windows is like the Old West buildings, nice from front but just a plain box from the back. Microsoft doesn't care about bringing a new product that is truly an innovation they care about its pockets, that's it. Don't get me wrong about this I do know that companies, what ever they do care about there pockets but some seem to have integrity and hold strong social responsibility but microsoft doesn't. If M$ could make a million from pushing their mom down a flight of stairs they would.

To me a company that only shows interest in profits an holds not honour to the customers that brought them there success deserves nothing. Now lets speak about getting support, I don't know how familiar you are with forums but I'll tell you that I've had excellent success with them and being that all M$ info is only given on a paid basis (and forums are free), ex: 3 machines same hardware same OS (Win98SE in this case) same drivers same Office package (Office 2k) same printer, same document, two can print one cannot, according to Microsoft support its the printer that is at fault,
Office and windows are not and thank you for the $250.00 USD (BTW I did repair/re-install/remove re-install printer drivers and office). So I actually had to pay 250.00 US to get support on a problem with there software and the problem was never solved..... WOW look at that great support OH my god isn't this a great world after all. Get life and breath fresh air methane is known to cause problems with thinking and stuff.

The only way you can get a Windows NT box to stay up for 3 years is to run nothing on it but the OS. My record was 3 crashes in one day, for Windows 95b it was 6 (and I was not trying to crash it). The only software I was running was Lotus Notes, Visual C++ 5.0, Hummingbird Exceed (X-windows software) and IE. The worse culprit for resource leeks was VC++.

Windows 2000 Pro is a lot more stable than the above OS's, but still is shy of LINUX/UNIX.

If you wand an unstable OS go to Windows Me, the only OS that is worse is Windows 95a. If you want a stable OS, go with LINUX, UNIX, OS/2 or Windows 2000 (the least stable of the 4, but not bad).

Now the bit about hardware replacement. I am more likely to have to replace hardware due to Windows than LINUX. MS forces you to get rid of old hardware, LINUX does not. As far as new hardware, MS does get the drivers first. So if you go with the latest and greatest that may be a problem. As time goes on it is less and less of a problem due to the manufactures supporting LINUX better and better as time goes on.

The reason I have my home machine dual boot W2k/Red Hat is because of games. In a business environment one hopes they aren't concerned with games. The availability of office suites IMHO puts it on par with MS for the business environment.

You bring up support, I find LINUX requires no more support than Windows.

I have not had the pleasure of testing XP. Due to their licensing scheme and my tendency to change hardware, I doubt I will any time soon.

So you have been fussed at a little. Not quite flamed.

Give LINUX a try.

Email address supplied

I wish to comment on your article entitled "Can Linux break through to the commercial office desktop?" While I agree that it is important to test applications before installing them, I disagree that users should not be allowed to install their own software. Even if the software is buggy, it is the job of the operating system's to make sure resources are handled correctly and that the system will not go down should an
application crash. And quite frankly, I don't think administrators need to know what I'm installing or dictating what software I install. For example, what if I wanted to use OpenOffice instead of Office XP even though OpenOffice may not have been tested? Or use Opera instead of Internet Explorer? What if I wanted to install WinAMP or MusicMatch to listen to music while I work? Or what if my job required some special software? Heck, what if I write my own software? The logical answer would be that the administrator understands my needs and would comply, but we can never really count on that. Just dealing with administrators can be enough of a hassle, but you're suggesting that everyone who wants to install a new piece of software should do just that.

In summary, I believe that the OS should be held accountable for stability, not applications. Anyone can play the blame game with application stability, but what it comes down to is having a reliable OS that can take anything you throw at it no matter how buggy. The only concern should be hardware drivers, and that is something I can agree that administrators should worry about.

David

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