SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Sebastian Anthony writes that Microsoft is setting an awful precedent by caving and issuing a fix for Windows XP. "Yes, tardy governments and IT administrators can breathe a little easier for a little bit longer," writes Anthony, "and yes, your mom and dad are yet again safe to use their old Windows XP beige box. But to what end? It's just delaying the inevitable." This won't be the only vulnerability found in XP adds Dwight Silverman. "If Microsoft makes an exception now, what about the flaw found after this one? And the next? And the one after that, ad infinitum?" Even though Microsoft has released a patch for the IE flaw, and Windows XP is included, it's time to move on really. "I don't want to hear that tired "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" line. Hey, XP IS broke, and it will just get more so over time. Upgrade to a newer version of Windows, or switch to another modern operating system, such as OS X or Linux."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 05 2014, @01:59PM
The best you'll get out of that faggot is hysterical rambling rather than a simple statement of what the challenge is or why it matters. From [0], the challenge is to remove the command line and use a Linux based system for a year. The rationale is that modern, desktop systems do not use the command line. Because the majority of Linux based systems do use the command line, hairyfeet's logic goes, no Linux based system is a desktop OS and is instead a server OS.
[0] https://knowtheworldfacts.wordpress.com/2012/11/29 /is-it-time-for-the-linux-command-line-to-sunset/ [wordpress.com]
(Score: 1) by jackb_guppy on Monday May 05 2014, @04:53PM
My daughters (now 15 and 13) have been using Linux for over 2 years, without the command line. Yes, it is still available, but they do not use it let alone know it there. They use Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I installed it on their netbooks with single core Atom, 1/2GB of memory and 8G of SSD. I wiped XP after the 4th virus mess. Showed them how to pick their own software. Even helped one, who had a Windows Game that must have -- to install wine...
Since then they: started to use GIMP, figured out to get flash support, Download and installed ray tracing, and generally been have a good time. They are now showing their friends and helping them to cross-over...
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday May 05 2014, @05:30PM
Wait, this is supposed to be comparing Windows to Linux? Shouldn't the challenge then be something that is possible to do in Windows? Going all the way back to Windows 3.1, there was definitely never a stretch as long as a full year in which I didn't use the command-line on a Windows system. Maybe a couple months here and there as the longest stretch. Today I haven't touched Windows at home in years, but I still need to use the command line on my XP laptop at work nearly every day! Even if you're not an advanced user, the first thing the help desk always tells you to do when you call is to open the command-line, so I don't see how there could be anyone in this entire office building who doesn't use the Windows command-line at least once a year, I've even seen people in the freakin' marketing department sitting there with command prompt open...
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday May 06 2014, @03:02PM
That is NOT the complete hairyfeet challenge, that is a teeny tiny piece that frankly should be the most simple and even then? Good luck getting Linux to pass. See above you for the complete challenge, should take about an hour and a half to two hours using ubuntu, but feel free to use the system of your choice. at the end of the day the Linux drivers WILL be shit upon, with just a 5 years lifecycle the system WILL become completely unusable without having to pay someone like me several times what a Windows license is worth.
Every time you have to go to CLI to fix an issue during the challenge? That is $75 to me, because the typical user doesn't understand bash scripting (which one HAS to understand because 9 times out of 10 the "open up bash and type" shit you are given on your typical forum WILL NOT WORK because it was written for hardware F,rev H and you have hardware F, rev j and Linus made Linux a picky bitch). Every time you boot up from the upgrade and you have no sound, wireless, or video? that will be $75 to me, because the typical user has NO idea how to debug driver issues. Every time you have to Google for fixes? $75...seeing a pattern here?
Saying "Linux is ready for the masses" is like saying "everyone should make their own silverware" because there are people out there with the ability to make their own silverware. the particular skills required to 1.- debug scripts, 2.- troubleshoot failed drivers, 3.- use search engines to identify and track down the source of driver failures, and 4.- apply the information while being able to tweak on the fly any issues that arise is a set of skills 99.995% of the population does not have and the Linux numbers reflect that. Look at netbooks, they were practically designed around Linux hardware requirements yet what happened when MSFT lowered the price of XP, which just FYI was already a version behind and SEVEN YEARS behind the Linux offering? LINUX DIED, nobody took it, the sales dried up and blew away like a fart in the breeze, even though the Linux system were often cheaper and in some cases had better hardware...but why? the answer is simple and its the same reason why Linux netbooks had four times the returns (link available upon request) and that is because its buggy, its hardware support is terrible, and most folks would rather have plug and pray than plug and Google for fixes.
So if you have the skills to admin Linux on the desktop? Good for you, so can I (although I have better things to do with my time) but we are in the less than 1% that have enough IT experience to do so, THIS IS NOT THE NORM and never will be, which is why Linux will never ever, not in a million fricking years EVAR go anywhere on the desktop.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday May 06 2014, @06:00PM
Sounds like you haven't used Linux since around 2005...
My mother ran Linux for three years on a Dell netbook. She doesn't know what the command-line is. She doesn't even know what Linux is. I did have to help her set it up by configuring Thunderbird -- the same way I had to configure Outlook on her desktop and the mail app on her iPad -- but otherwise I never touched the thing a single time. I was off at college. I didn't remote in, I didn't support her on the phone, I never heard a single complaint in three years. Pay up.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday May 06 2014, @10:32PM
Are we REALLY gonna play the TM game? I guess so so here enjoy your TMs, you used living in the past TM [tmrepository.com] along with Linux for grandmas [tmrepository.com] and you have just a hint of works for me TM [tmrepository.com] and you know WHY I can recreate your ENTIRE ANSWER in NOTHING but TMs? because it is all anecdotal bullshit and if you want to play that game my systems are all windows and I have never had a virus therefor Windows never have viruses...pay up bitch.
So instead of wasting my time with more anecdotal bullshit you nut up or shut up and show us your work. the challenge is right there, is 100% free, easy to reproduce, and there are several 100% free places that will host your video. Be sure to show us your device manager and network manager showing you have it working and hooked via WPA V2 at the start (If you are using ubuntu that would be 7.10) and then upgrade using JUST the GUI (as your grandma would have had to do if you wouldn't have disabled updates, which since you claim you didn't admin her box that is EXACTLY what you did) and at each stage of the upgrade process..remember to keep the video rolling so we can see you don't drop into CLI or Google for fixes on another box!
But you won't do it, instead you'll either throw insults or slink away because YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN, we all know what will happen, Linux WILL shit all over its own drivers and it WILL end up a nasty stinking pile of fecal matter...you know this, I know this, hell the FOSSie faction knows this which is why a challenge that takes less than 3 hours, is 100% free, and takes nothing but a bit of a lazy afternoon has stood for FIVE YEARS without a single taker...not one, is the whole community chicken? Nope they aren't comp-letely pants on head retarded and know as well as i do what happens when you try to get Linux to run without all the Googling and open up bash and type [tmrepository.com] Linux falls down and goes BOOM! Not surprising really considering the maladjusted self centered devs that run the show. How many MAJOR pieces have been tossed out in the 6 years you will be simulating? lets see, ALSA for Pulse, Gnome 2 for GnomeSuck and KDE 3 for KDE "ZOMFG look we got pretty like Vista yo!" and that doesn't even consider all the stupid "hey lets change a pointer because it looks better that way" crap going on in the low level guts.
so lets see your video or please don't waste our time with any more worthless anecdotes, okay?
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday May 06 2014, @03:08PM
That is NOT the challenge, please quit posting that old Link from the Linux loony club, okay FOSSIe? That was from an article on CLI and I challenged them to try living without Bash. THAT IS NOT THE HAIRYFEET CHALLENGE but its sad that you should keep bringing that up since NO LINUX WILL PASS THAT as Linux is such a CLI heavy mess that doing a chmod to the shell so it can't run? will leave pretty much every Linux distro unbootable.
Kinda sad really, like Windows 98 you are completely dependent on some ancient POS underpinning for the entire OS and without it? It all falls down. But why should this be surprising, Linux still uses .INI files and frankly .VXD drivers would be considered high tech to the 1970s UNIX shit that passes for drivers. honestly Linux isn't even up to WinXP level yet, you MIGHT be up to WinNT 4 but no further, after all Win2K could be taken from RTM to final patch without a single driver failure, something Linux can't do in half the time, hence the challenge.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.