Posts by The Mad Hatter

The German Federal Government has warned against using Windows 8, because of its built in support for Trusted Computing. Their concern is that the keys to the TPM could be supplised by Microsoft to the NSA...

http://investmentwatchblog.com/leaked-german-government-warns-key-entities-not-to-use-windows-8-links-the-nsa/

Microsoft has lost a huge amount of market share, depending upon how exactly you define computers. If you include tablets and smartphones, Microsoft has dropped to about 24% from 95% about ten years ago.

LARGEST COMPUTER MAKERS WHEN SMARTPHONES & TABLETS INCLUDED
Rank (was) . . Brand . . . . . . Units 2012 . . Market Share 2012
1 (1) . . . . . . . Apple . . . . . . 272 M . . . . . 22%
2 (2) . . . . . . . Samsung . . . 249 M . . . . . 20%
3 (6) . . . . . . . Lenovo . . . . . . 77 M . . . . . . 6%
4 (4) . . . . . . . HP . . . . . . . . 59 M . . . . . . 5%
5 (-) . . . . . . . Huawei . . . . . . 55 M . . . . . . 4%
6 (7) . . . . . . . Dell . . . . . . . . 38 M . . . . . . 3%
7 (10) . . . . . . Sony . . . . . . . 37 M . . . . . . 3%
8 (9) . . . . . . . Acer . . . . . . . 36 M . . . . . . 3%
9 (3) . . . . . . . Nokia . . . . . . . 35 M . . . . . . 3%
10 (-) . . . . . . ZTE . . . . . . . . 35 M . . . . . . 3%
. . . . . . . . . . Others . . . . . 331 M . . . . . 27%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,224 M

Source: TomiAhonen Almanac 2013 from company and industry data, February 2013
This data and this table may be freely shared

If you want to see how that splits by type of computer, it goes like this:
Smartphones . . . . . . 695 M . . 57%
Traditional PCs . . . . 353 M . . 29%
Tablet PCs . . . . . . . 176 M . . 14%
Total Computers . . 1,224 M
Source: TomiAhonen Almanac 2013 from company and industry data, February 2013
This data and this table may be freely shared

LARGEST OPERATING SYSTEMS OF COMPUTERS WHEN SMARTPHONES & TABLETS INCLUDED
Rank . . . . . Brand . . . . . . Units 2012 . . Market Share 2012 . . Market Share 2011
1 (2) . . . . . Android . . . . . 462 M . . . . . . 38% . . . . . . . . . . . . 23%
1 (1) . . . . . Windows . . . . 296 M . . . . . . 24% . . . . . . . . . . . . 31%
3 (3) . . . . . iOS . . . . . . . . 272 M . . . . . . 22% . . . . . . . . . . . . 21%
4 (5) . . . . . Blackberry . . . . 34 M . . . . . . . 3% . . . . . . . . . . . . 6%
5 (4) . . . . . Symbian . . . . . 19 M . . . . . . . 2% . . . . . . . . . . . . 9%
. . . . . . . . . Others . . . . . . 141 M . . . . . . 12%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,224 M

All of the data is from Tomi Ahonen's Communities Dominate Brands blog, and is based on numbers from the major tracking firms, so it is probably reasonably accurate.

Wayne

The 'must have' application for Windows 8 is Linux. Reformat the drive, and get rid of it.

Tried it at the store. Hated it. Totally.

Of course I'm not the average user, I'm old enough that I remember when Microsoft was the new kid on the block in the Operating System business.

Wayne

Ialso hate GNU coz it is GPL!

Um, pardon me, but what exactly have you been smoking?

GNU is the GNU tools, which sit on top of the Kernel, and give you an operating system. Software in other words. The Gnu tools are also used on BSD and CDDL licensed software, and could be used with the Windows Kernel if someone wanted to go to the trouble.

The GPL (General Public License) is a series of software licenses.

Which do you hate?

A lady just bought a computer and floppy drive in addition to her typewriter. She had just written to a of floppies and was wanting to label them, which she did ... with her impact typewriter! Customer support then had to deal with a very mad lady with a bunch of ruined floppies.

I actually witnessed someone do that. This was back in the days of 256K Ram and 10 megabyte hard drives. I was using Fastback Plus to backup the company data onto 5.25" floppy discs. They were really upset when I screamed at them because they were messing up my backup discs...

Things got real interesting. The owner came in, and we had a real noise fest. I finally got everyone convinced that they needed to put the label in the typewriter before putting it on the discs.

Man, that brings back memories. We'd switched from CP/M to DOS 1.0 (which was a downgrade - DOS 1.0 was garbage), and then upgraded to DOS 2.0, which caught up to the prior version of CP/M, typical Microsoft, always playing catchup.

Everyone told us we were crazy to buy a machine with 256K Ram and a 10 Meg hard drive, all we needed was 64K and dual 360K floppies. A year and a half later they told us that we were crazy not to buy a new machine, with 640K Ram and a 30 Meg hard drive.

Ah, the bad old days. Before we knew what …

Nothing. I'm looking forward to the new ARM Dual Core chips.

Reach For The Stars V3.0 - the best 4X game ever made. Of course I have to run it in DOSBOX now. There's been nothing like it.

Second place for me is Trade Wars 2002, the best online game ever (the telnet version).

Have you read this?

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/10/shuttleworth-unity-shell-will-be-default-desktop-in-ubuntu-1104.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Don't like Gnome myself, usually use XFCE or Enlightenment.

hi everyone i'm new to unix/linux . almost know nothing about it , but i wants to learn about it . so how can i get it on my pc . now i use windows xp

I strongly recommend checking out Distro Watch. It has links to all of the popular Linux distributions, and many of the lesser known ones.

Most distros come in Live CD/DVD format now, so you can check it out, without the need to install anything, by booting off the optical drive. If your computer supports booting from a USB key, some distros can also boot that way. This is what I did, till I found one that would support my hardware (this probably won't be an issue today, four years ago things were different). FYI, I've been Windows free for four years now.

Generally driver support with Linux is better than driver support for Windows. Note that I said generally, there are pieces of hardware with no support, though they tend to be odd things. For example all modern Linux distros work fine with all of the hardware on my MacBook (which is 4 months old). Older hardware can be an issue sometimes.

I don't know whether your interest in Linux is switching, or just learning. If it's switching, you'll have an easier time of it than I did.

FYI, my computer experiences predate the existence of Microsoft. I've never been all that impressed by them, going back to …

It's not uncommon to have a mental image of people online that is a complete mismatch with their real world appearance. I thought it would be interesting to see how different members of Daniweb are perceived by their peers.

Pick any members you find interesting and describe how you imagine them to look/act in real life.

That's easy, look at my picture :)

Someone in my department called IT about two hours ago because they couldn't access some files on the network drive due to the filepath being too long. The IT guy came up and did... something. I'm not sure what he did but it took him at least an hour to come to the conclusion that "I can't fix it from here. I'm going to have to change the folder name on the network drive." I then went up to him, plugged in my memory stick and ran a batch file I wrote two weeks ago. Problem fixed instantly.

All the batch file did was map the folder to a network drive.

Oh, that's hilarious.

Um, there's been so many. Note that these were 'self proclaimed experts'.

1) Woman who thought her modem was dead - it wasn't plugged into the telephone jack.

2) Woman who thought her mouse was dead - wireless, batteries needed replacement.

3) Guy who swore his motherboard was dead - Windows have committed sepuku.

4) Guy who swore his monitor was dead - it wasn't plugged in.

As I said, self proclaimed experts. Too few people are willing to sit down and logically work through issues when something isn't working.

This question covers Windows only. I know Microsoft makes a wide variety of other software products (Office, Exchange, etc.), I'm not interested in them, only in the Desktop Operating Systems.

First - unlike the most of you, I've read Microsoft's financial reports, and understand accounting. I know how much money Microsoft has on hand, and how unlikely this scenario is. I'm asking the question to find out what people currently think are their best options, if Windows is no longer available.

Second - this is not a troll. I know there are a lot of Windows fans here. I'm not trying to insult you. I'm asking what you would do in a theoretical situation.

Third - I'm going to be posting the same question in several places. The plan is to write an article based on the feedback I get. I am assuming that a response to this post means that I can quote you in full.

So what would you do if you could no longer buy new copies of Windows?

OK. So you don't like Linux. Go back to Windows then, and enjoy the Trojans and Virii.

This is another Troll post. Ignore it.

That is really, really good and I am happy for you.....really, but this thread is not about YOU.

To the OP,

Download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (http://www.majorgeeks.com/Malwarebytes_Anti-Malware_d5756.html) to your desktop.

* Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
* At the end, be sure to checkmark the Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish.
* If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
* Download the update from here if you have problems.
* Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan.
* When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
* Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
* When completed, a log will open in Notepad.
* Post the log back here.

The log can also be found here:
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\Logs\log-date.txt
Or at C:\Program Files\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\Logs\log-date.txt

Make sure that you restart the computer.

===========

Download HijackThis Executable from here. Save it to your desktop.
Start HJT & press the "Do a system scan and save a log file" button. When the scan is finished a window will pop up giving you the option of where to save it. Save it to desktop where it is easy to access. Open the log file and then go to the format Tab and make sure that wordwrap is unchecked. Copy the …

Because, installing a new OS creates dozens of new problems, finding substitutes for your current applications, backing up old files, compatability and many more... when just removing the trojan is far simpler.

Hum, I've always looked at installing a new OS as fun. Course I've probably been doing it longer than with, and installed a wider range of operating systems.

Now of course I install them in a VM. I like VirtualBox. It does a nice job. Heck, that's how I run Windows when I need too (about once every 3 or 4 months).

No, you never. What you offered him was another problem.
If you have no idea how to remove a trojan, I suggest you keep your opinions out of the Hijackthis forum.

Why was what I suggested another problem?

Good question, why are you running a Mac?
Either way, you seem to love trying to 'convert' people from Windows to Linux.

What I was trying to do, was offer him a solution. Which I did.

Seriously, just try installing the groupwise client on anything other than SLED and you will enter dependency hell.

No. GNUCash is horrible. Truly horrible. Ive resorted to WINEing Money 2000.

Other than those points, i agree with the above poster.

Never played with Groupwise, I cheat and use GMail.

As to GnuCash, I rather like it.

If you're not a Windows user, don't try to solve a Windows problem, simple as that.

It's about the equivalent of me going to a Linux forum and telling every person to switch to Windows because of a problem they have with linux, it's stupid.

His post was far more helpful than yours, he set him in the right direction where he can actually recieve some good help, you do have a linux obsession.

Why am I running a Mac?

@Mad hatter,
Get over with your linux obsession. It's not doing any good to anyone.

Um, let's get this straight. I make a valid suggestion, and tell him beyond that I can't help him any further.

You pop up a day later, tell him he posted in the wrong area, offer no suggestions, and then tell me I have an obsession?

Sheesh.

You my buddy, take the cake. In fact I'd bet you are a closet Windows addict, scared witless because the various OSX, BSD, and Linux operating systems make Windows look sick.

It's hard for me to admit it but there are things, ten things to be exact, that I really hate about Linux. Sometimes I think it's just me but I do see other people stating a few of these in the forums so I'm at least not alone with some of these issues.

I did some research a while back, along with a couple of other people, into Anti-Linux/OSX Trolls. We were able to track back on a large number Troll posts, to a small number of people, most of whom were associated to Microsoft partner companies. Our conclusion was that these people had an economic basis for their posts, since the posts, like yours, had nothing to do with reality.

These are in no particular order and they aren't just rants; they're legitimate problems and issues that I find annoying, destroying or cloying. Feel free to add your own to the list in the Comments section.

Illegitimate you mean.

1. Too Many Good Distros

Did you complain about the amount of choice last time you went car shopping, or video camera shopping? I doubt it. So why do you complain about this? No one is forcing you to try them all. Choice. He doesn't like choice. Sounds like Bill Gates.

2. Lacking Popular Application …

I am facing Torjan virus when i used net it come with in one minute anybody can help me in this regard i will be very thankful.

Yeah, go here, download and burn the ISO to CD, and install it in place of Windows. You'll never have Trojan problems again.

Beyond that, I don't have a clue, I gave up on Windows years ago.

You are 100% definately licenced to apply official parches to your windows install media. e.g integrate service packs and hotixes such as you do with nlite. MS state this in thier deployment guide for administrators.

Well duh! Of course you are licensed to use Microsoft's patches. I'm talking about making your own, or editing the executable files with a Hex editor.
The current EULA does not allow this.

Modifying Windows was/is not the issue here. And i am not questioning the legality of certain sites. The reason an infraction was given to you by me was because you linked to a copy of windows. An infraction would have been given regardless of where it was hosted or whether it was verbatim or modified. The reason it was given was purely because it constiututed unaurthaurised distribution of copyrighted materials and therefore falls foul of our warez rule.[/B]

It "constiututed unaurthaurised"? Spell check. Always spell check.

Distributing a copy of "Longhorn Reloaded" would be legal in some countries. In the United States and Canada it would be. Since I don't know the location of Daniweb, I don't know what laws it operates under (I am assuming the United States).

Now, I didn't argue about posting the link - I shouldn't have done that without first checking to see what the rules were. The discussion about modifying Windows was a side thought, and I think a legitimate topic of discussion. Can you legally hex edit your own copy?

The pirate bay primarily links to torrent files (almost always to illegal files), "anything warez related" covers alot, including your link.

This is incorrect. There is a lot of legal content on The Pirate Bay. A lot of the smaller film makers use it for distribution, as do a lot of bands. From a legal stand point your statement that The Pirate Bay is a "Warez" site is not correct, and if The Pirate Bay group was litigious, would quite possibly be actionable.
Calling it a torrent site, and noting that there are a lot of illegal torrents (at least they are illegal in the United States, other countries have other laws), is fine.
At which point I have a question - where is Daniweb located (I'm curious as to what laws the site operates under).

Modifying Windows was/is not the issue here (I run a stripped out version of XP on another pc). The issue is linking to warez sites.

The Pirate Bay is not a Warez site, it's a Torrent Tracker, and carries a wide selection of legal content, such as the movie Nasty Old People which is being torrented by it's Director, Hanna Sköld (note that the movie is in Swedish with English subtitles). A lot of people are using The Pirate Bay as a content distribution platform now, including Nine Inch Nails who torrented their last album there.

AFAIK 'stripped' is not illegal, as long as you own a legal copy of the software, and you've stripped it down yourself.
But Microsoft doesn't provide support for stripped-down versions of Windows (like the ones made by nlite), though I don't care about that because I've never actually needed technical support from Microsoft.

Stripped isn't what I meant. You aren't legally allowed to modify most of the system files (according to Microsoft), even if you are fixing something that is causing you problems. This has never been tested in court though, and God knows if it would hold up under the "First Sale" doctrine in the United States or Canada. Quite probably it wouldn't.

Well, that's because I was not aware of the fact that I'd be a Linux island in a sea of Windows users at the time I chose my alias :P
You have to understand that my brothers and I share one computer which can be used by three of us at the same time (thanks to terminal services).
I don't want to be selfish and have a Linux install which can only be used by one of us (myself of course :P) at a time, and yes: I know you can set up Linux as a terminal server as well, but I never managed to do it, I still prefer those couple of clicks I have to do in Windows to set it up as opposed to this real nightmare in Linux (for me).
When I could get this right, then I can start thinking about partly migrating to Linux (and still having a dual boot with Windows for gaming).
I hope you understand my point of view about Linux, there are just some drawbacks for me (my wireless card which I can't get to work (you know, I'm really internet-dependent) and in Windows it's only a matter of quickly installing some drivers from a CD which came with the box; another important thing is that I really need terminal services (or multiseat)).
Those drawbacks make it very difficult for me to start using Linux, it just requires too much time for me to get …

Does this guy ever stop? <rant rant rant...ad infinitum>

I'm only going to say one thing:
That's maybe a reason for anyone out here to stop arguing.
Even when you continue arguing for a century or longer, people will always have different opinions and there's no one who can ever change this fact.
There's only one person who doesn't seem to get it and that is The Mad Hatter.

I've already admitted that I get you. You like Windows. I dislike Windows. You like Pepsi, I like Coke.

I still find it a bit ridiculous though that someone who uses "tux4life" as an alias likes Windows, and dislikes Linux. It's just soooo wrong!

Yes, it is. If MS or other authorised retail outlet hasn't sold it to you, then it is not a legal copy.

I know - it was just a rhetorical question. I think that you should be able to modify your operating system. Microsoft thinks you shouldn't be able to. They won't convince me, and I won't convince them.

[quotre]Now that's interesting - I posted yesterday, and that post is missing.
it contained a link to warez, so it was removed and you recieved an infraction.

it contained a link to warez, so it was removed and you recieved an infraction.
He appears to be ignoring that fact, like he ignored other comments throughout the thread.
Personally I think what he is coming out with now is all BS to cover the fact that he is a Mac/Apple/Linux etc. fanboi.
EDIT. @ The Mad Hatter. So if it was all an exercise, do you rescind all the comments made by yourself?

It seems a convenient way of saying "Yeah, i lost" without actually saying anything about it.

Now that's open to debate. Assuming you own a copy of Windows Vista, and someone puts up a modified version for download, is it technically a "warez"? However the message that I'm talking about, which appears to have disappeared, did not contain a link to that file on The Pirate Bay. I have to admit some curiosity as to how Longhorn Reloaded compared to Vista, since it allegedly contained some of the features that didn't end up being included in the production version of Vista. I mean, did they actually work (Longhorn Reloaded was supposed to have been built around an MSDN beta kernel release according to this article from Ars which said it was bit of a mess).

As to "rescinding" my comments - …

Well you definitely got people talking. This thread recieved more than 150 replies in only 9 days. I just hope you learned something useful from this experience. Hope to see you around the software dev forums in the future. (remember no outrageous personal opinions, just help for those who need it) ;)
Regards
~Tom.

Tom,
Quite frankly the response was great, and I'd like again to thank everyone who participated.
And to apologize again. If I'd have said what I was doing at the start, it would have changed your responses.

How shallow your basis for for arguments were quite frankly suprised me.

Remember, I was trying to get people talking. I wanted your opinions, not to convince you I was right.

Well, that shut him up :D.

Agreed, this thread stopped being entertaining about 12 pages ago.
@The Mad Hatter
This is a vast community. You should share your knowledge and help people who are having problems with their hardware or programming problems. Just don't impose your views on people there. They ask questions and you provide assistance. And bouns: you get to be mean to people who don't show effort on their work. What more can you ask for? ;)

What I cannot understand is why this idiotic discussion has been allowed to continue, the OP is eithera troll or a narrow minded person who is unable to accept the views of others. Close the thread please!

Really, is this going anywhere? I mean is there any point to us continuing to post here? If you want a good discussion you have to give and take, not just instantly say "Your wrong..." because we are right some of the time, and part of a discussion is to admit that.

So grow up and stop trolling.

Now that's interesting - I posted yesterday, and that post is missing. Let's try it again.

The sort of places that I hang out in, well there's lots of OSX, Solaris, Linux, and BSD users. There aren't many Windows users, and the ones that they have are quite frankly weird. I wanted to find out what "normal" educated Windows users were thinking, so I came in, and posted something inflammatory.

It's …

You wont know until you've tried, and until you do, you're in no position to judge it.

Well, I have tried it. I just don't own a copy. I know a lot of people who are running Vista, and I've used their machines. Quite frankly it's a bit of a snore. It runs slow on modern hardware, and it doesn't seem to offer anything new, that is anything that XP didn't have, except for slightly better security.
My son is running Windows 7 (the beta I think), and it looks a lot like OSX would look like if Liberace did the Industrial Design work. It seems to run the same as Vista.
All told, I probably have about 40 hours time on Vista and Windows 7. That's a lot longer than you would have if you were computer shopping, and my take is that it doesn't offer any value. If I was buying PC hardware, I'd click no to the EULA, ask for a refund, and install Linux.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/13/snow_leopard_data_eating_bug_predates_now_leopard/

Every OS has bugs. Hell, Ubuntu has one that is open from August 20/2004, which they are still working on, and which they don't think will be fixed for a while yet.

Then there it no point trying to preach your ideas to us because your ideas are outdated.

So stop your trolling.

Lol. Soo much irony.

http://www.mac-sucks.com/switch_why.php

[professional googler/internets troller]

http://themacsucks.com/

OK, so Crunchie and PaulThom think I should let myself get screwed again by a company that I have zero respect for, just to make them happy. NOT.

And yeah, Mac's aren't perfect. However I've never had my MacBook crash once in two years of heavy use, and it's been all over North America during that time. So, yeah, I'm pretty happy with it. As they say, it just works.

And it's the same with the computers I have Linux installed on, they just keep running.

Oh, both OSX and Linux need updating regularly, just like Windows. But that's not a big deal.

And with Linux, it's even possible to pull and entire OS upgrade just by clicking on one button, and leaving it overnight. You can't do that with Windows or OSX (of course not - they can't make any money off you that way).

Here's a link that you'll find amusing - Small Businesses Should Bank Securely – And That Means Linux: Wired via the Washington Post

if you havent tried vista or windows7 you arent in a position to talk about the good and bad points of windows vs other systems...

Exactly, things have changed. Once you have educated yourself, then you can start arguments.

Remember Scottie's line in the original series episode "Friday's Child", Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me. I'm not going back to Windows. In fact I was a real fool, because after Windows 95, I used Windows 98, and ME, and NT 3.5, NT 4.0, Win2K, and XP. all of which was pretty damned foolish, because the only one that worked at all well, was Win2K, and it was limited.

So, no. I'm no trying Vista or Vista Seven.

Okay i have just finished reading the whole thread... And i noticed something you said:

Wow, it was bad back then?! Woop Dee Doo. Things get upgraded, you would know that. I used Ubuntu on and off over the past few years. It got better as it was upgraded, lots better. Still every time i went back to windows because you know what? I could double click on a setup and have it work. I didnt have to go to the repositries, make sure i have all of the setup packages. And in the end i could find all the tools i needed on windows.

So if Ubuntu gets lots better with releases, why wouldn't windows? I am still using XP and it works really well, i never have driver issues, crashes, or anything that i cant fix in 10 minutes or less.

So if you havent used windows properly since 3.1 you really should be getting yourself a bit more educated. Its like me saying the latest ferarri has terrible handling and i hated it and its fuel economy. But seeing i am not old enough to drive i obviously don't know this first hand. All you are feeding us and news posts and "I think windows sucks because..." yeah sure opinion is great, but let it be educated.

It was Works that I dropped back then, not Windows. I've used every version of Windows from 3.0 to ME (on the DOS side) and from NT 3.5 to XP …

I love how when someone disagrees with you you just ignore thier point entirely (e.g #41, #75, #100, #106, #108)

and you can legally use H.264 on linux by obtaining a licenced codec - you can do by purchacing the codec pack from Fluendo. This also enables you to legally watch copy protected DVDs in the US.

I don't need to buy it - I live in Canada, where software patents aren't legal. The H.264 licensing depends upon software patents, and if you live in a country where software patents don't exist, there is no need to purchase a license.

Miro and Videolan both have good implementations of the H.264 codec, which are legal for use in Canada (and come in Windows, Mac, and Linux versions). Of course there's nothing stopping you from downloading them in the U.S., and if you have Windows on your computer, you already have paid for the codecs. You should try them, they are both pretty good.

Now what precisely was the point that you believe I missed?

I would have thought you would have quoted someone closer to your own, cold climate, rather than someone in my part of the world.
Too many juicy bits to tell and not enough time.

That would assume that the Ontario Provincial Police knew what a computer was.

So basically you are talking crap, like we thought for 99% of this thread.
Slight contradiction of yourself there.

Hum, quote killed the context - what I said was that there wasn't any exploits on the IPhone, and then that exploits were fixed quickly, which is of course why there aren't any exploits.

Xan thinks that the fact that there have been exploits means I'm full of bovine by-product.

You could take it either way, but I prefer my take (of course).

Again, talking crap...
Apple ARENT for it. They think thier own H.264 codec is much better but HTML5 will use OGG (vorbis/theora), which has pretty poor compatibility with windows (indeed the only browser currently support HTML5 <video> tags is FF3.5)

Now you are getting into some real fun stuff. H.264 may be better, but it's patent encumbered, and unless the U.S. Supreme Court decides that software cannot be patented, H.264 cannot be used by Free or Open Source Software in the Excited States of Hamerica. It can be used legally in Canada and other countries where software cannot be patented.

As to Ogg's reputed incompatibility with Windows, I first used Ogg on Windows, …

I know Windows is awful. Everyone knows Windows is awful. Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it’s there, and there’s nothing you can do about it. OK, OK: I know other operating systems are available. But their advocates seem even creepier, snootier and more insistent than Mac owners. The harder they try to convince me, the more I’m repelled. To them, I’m a sheep. And they’re right. I’m a helpless, stupid, lazy sheep. I’m also a masochist. And that’s why I continue to use Windows – horrible Windows – even though I hate every second of it. It’s grim, it’s slow, everything’s badly designed and nothing really works properly: using Windows is like living in a communist bloc nation circa 1981. And I wouldn’t change it for the world, because I’m an abject bloody idiot and I hate myself, and this is what I deserve: to be sentenced to Windows for life.
Charlie Brooker has a way with words.

New south wales poilce are idiots...!!!

That doesnt make someting safe... the iphone isnt invulnerable. Also he doesnt seem to comprehend the fact that it can be lost easialy, or the fact that its sending your data over public airwaves or (usually unsecured) wireless networks

Think of how many stolen goods reports they get. I'm quite certain that they know how easily something can be stolen.

There are exploits, although they tend to be patched fairly quickly.

Look at this: http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/28/hackers-iphone-apple-technology-security-hackers.html

Apple did resolve this issue, although there have been others before this and there are, no doubt, undiscovered problems.

But Apple keeps plugging them, and pretty quickly.

And one would actually believe (arguably) the most corrupt police in Australia? Give me a break.

Now that one I hadn't heard. Why do you say they are corrupt (since I'm not from Australia I've no doubt missed the juicy bits).

I highly doubt that Dell would put together a machine that was unbalanced by putting in a bottleneck in the FSB, if that is what you are suggesting (which it seems it is). In any case, the FSB speed for both systems is 1066 MHz. . . Not that it matters (if you look into it more, I believe the speed does not determine the actual bandwidth, although I'm no expert). The point is that including video editing, music editing, and other software packages that most people don't use into the "price comparison" of systems is …

I've only ever used linux distro's for testing stuff on, now mainly through vmware.

I've remained with windows xp because of the software really. For protection all I do is run sygate personal firewall. And decline anything that looks suspicious. Sure the pop up box is annoying but you get used to it after time.

Which software? I've found everything I needed for Mac or Linux, the only exception is games.

New south wales poilce are idiots...!!!

That doesnt make someting safe... the iphone isnt invulnerable. Also he doesnt seem to comprehend the fact that it can be lost easialy, or the fact that its sending your data over public airwaves or (usually unsecured) wireless networks

Are they? There aren't any exploits that affect the IPhone's security, just as there aren't any exploits that affect Linux's security. In fact the IPhone is one of the most secure platforms around, as Apple vets every application, so unless you "Jailbreak" your phone, you can't install a Keylogger or Trojan. The only possible issue is public airwaves, and all mobile devices have the same problem, the IPhone is no less secure than the WinMobile phones.

Right, but the other differences are that the Mac's processors aren't as fast (2.13ghz compared to 2.44 ghz) and my computer came with 2x the RAM (4gigs compared to 2gigs). The battery I have says it lasts for 4 hrs on power saver mode, I usually use it on high performance and it lasts around 3. I see where the expenses that are in the Mac are coming from. They just aren't worthwhile for me or for the average computer user. Some of those things you listed are unnecessary for most people (online data backup - I have an external, an office suite - I only need Microsoft Works or similar, 6+ hrs battery life - my 4 is more than enough, music/video editing software - I don't use these) ... some of them are found for free online (music/video editing software - I used Camtasia Studios at work once, for example, and it was excellent and free) ... and some of them are standard on a lot of machines (CD/DVD burner, photo management software - assuming you weren't talking about photoshop, which I'd include in the 'unnecessary' category). So again, I have a more powerful machine with the simple things that I need to use for less money. I don't see how that is "buying a machine that is priced $200 less". It is buying a machine that has the necessities, and not spending more money for software that I will never use.

Hold on a second - when …

1) Did you buy anti-virus software? - No.
2) Did you buy firewall software? - No.
3) Did you buy CD/DVD burning software? - No
4) Did you buy photo management software - No
5) Did you buy Video editing software? - No
6) Did you buy backup software? - No
7) Did you buy music editing/recording software? - Sort of
8) Did you buy an office suite? - Sort of
9) Do you get 6 plus hours of battery life? - No

I get 4 hours of battery life, otherwise all the rest are No (with the exception of office software [openoffice] and recording/editing software [audacity] they are all bundled with Vista or aviable from ms (e.g windows security essentials, windows live essentials) !)

Open Office is pretty good, main thing it's missing is templates, which is where IWork does really well.. Audacity works, but Garage Band is a lot nicer.

And now for a recommendation from Detective Inspector Bruce van der Graaf from the Computer Crime Investigation Unit of the New South Wales Police on Internet Banking, "The first rule, he said, was to never click on hyperlinks to the banking site and the second was to avoid Microsoft Windows."

Not really. After a little research, I found a few articles that agree with your point, but the prices are no longer valid and the points do not apply to average computer users (for example, the average computer user does not need most of the software that comes standard on a mac). I recently (under two months ago) bought a Dell, and I was considering a Mac (not seriously, but I did compare prices). The prices were hundreds of dollars better for Dell. Of course, I was only really including processor speed, RAM, and cache size in my analysis. . I wasn't too worried about the video card, what software comes standard, etc. . so those probably play a factor. But for the average computer user (and I probably require a higher end computer than the average user) a Dell is much more affordable. The most inexpensive Mac that I considered usable for me was over a grand. After building a Dell that had more than enough power and memory, it was around 800.

OK, so the machine may not be quite the same, but is probably close (horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons). But I have a few questions:

1) Did you buy anti-virus software?
2) Did you buy firewall software?
3) Did you buy CD/DVD burning software?
4) Did you buy photo management software?
5) Did you buy Video editing software?
6) Did you buy backup software?
7) Did you …

Reminds me of that Cher song, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsys,_Tramps_&_Thieves">Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves</a>.

Opps, forgot this place doesn't do HTML. Write up on Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves is here.

Not outside of the US. The apple store here just swaps the $ for a £ which is shit.

e.g. Macbook (the most basic one) is £749 - Thats $1186

You can get a Toshiba with an AMD Dual core, 17" screen, 3gb ram, An Geforce 8200, and 250gb hdd for £340.

I've heard that about Sony as well with the PS3. In Canada you don't get nailed too bad, but we can just drive across the border if we aren't happy.

yeah ms do it with windows too.

Reminds me of that Cher song, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsys,_Tramps_&_Thieves">Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves</a>.

Not outside of the US. The apple store here just swaps the $ for a £ which is shit.

e.g. Macbook (the most basic one) is £749 - Thats $1186

You can get a Toshiba with an AMD Dual core, 17" screen, 3gb ram, An Geforce 8200, and 250gb hdd for £340.

I've heard that about Sony as well with the PS3. In Canada you don't get nailed too bad, but we can just drive across the border if we aren't happy.

Heh - check this out.

What choice does a gamer have. I know supposedly there's programs to make Windows software work on a ?Linux box, but they never work right and are Always a big hassle.,, Plus Linux can't keep up on the driver situation (last time I set up a linux box a few years ago there was 1 driver for SATA drives, and it didn't work).

Windows is a hassle enough, There's no way I'm going to something even MORE complicated!

There's also no way, I'm going to accept, "Just can't do that" on my computer. And the idiocy and cuteness that comes with MACs (lots of "Can't do that"), just makes me sick. Even if they eliminated the "Can't do that" stuff, I probably couldn't stand a MAC. Plus they cost 3 times as much (and you get less, poor ignorant Maccies) . . .

So now you know why people use Windows, it's NOT because we like it or we're mindless drones. It's because we don't have a choice!

Actually if you compare a Mac against a Dell, same specs, the prices are pretty close. If you get a Windows box that's 1/3 the price, it won't have the same capabilities.

As to Linux, 3 years is forever for Linux. Remember that Fedora, Mandriva and Ubuntu, the biggest Linux distributions have 2 releases per year, as compared to Microsoft's 1 release in 5 years (though there were 3 service packs). This is actually becoming a problem, as both the Kernel …