First Computer You've Owned?

[oi_antz]

My library currently consists of 6 meta-folders, most of which contain at least two aliases. I can add as many folders to my library as I wish. I'm not sure what you're talking about with "only five".

Read this: Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Forums - it seems there's a way to do it through group policy too, fantastic Microsoft - two equally tedious ways to do something that drag-n-drop is the most obvious solution for bravo, makes it easier for anyone who doesn't want to do something to not be able to do it

So I should sit around surfing the web on a Linux box, hoping that one day the devs will smile down upon me and release all of their software for Linux so I can actually get some work done?

No, that is not a solution, that is more of a snark. It's a real-life example of catch-22. Let me know if you do come up with the solution and we'll definitely honor you for your contribution to the world.

No. I don't allow malicious code to execute on my machine. That's pretty much a no-brainer, especially for anyone smart enough to use a Linux terminal.

Ah! Then why is it shipped in a box ready to "just work" yet somehow able to have malicious code execute on it, especially considering the general market it is destined for. It's interesting that this actually happened to me, indeed someone who knows better than to download hacked software and visit porn sites, yet the same person using Linux has had no identified viruses nor suffered from any sort of malicious activity whilst using Linux - is this a conspiracy to get everyone onto Linux? Who knows. Count yourself lucky, and sure, I consider Windows 7 security policies to be a major leap forward from XP. Still, I wouldn't actually buy another MS product until it was fit to rival OSS.

doesn't require a subscription for updates. Pay slightly over $100 up front, and receive free updates for the lifetime of the product. Certainly not $120 per year. Are you sure you're talking about Windows here?

I'm not talking about updates, poor choice of words. I'm talking about upgrades. Approx $250 for XP which was 2 years after 98SE, and Windows 7 for $500 which was 7 years after XP. I wouldn't have bothered with Vista, it has the worst of 7 mixed with the worst of XP. So work it out then, I'm happily paying more for Linux than Windoze, and it comes from a grateful heart. The company is really just a ticking time bomb waiting for people to realize the feasibility of alternatives and just how much can be accomplished with better management of resources.

 

[DeathMagus]

I asked if anybody could test if some code out... well command line, it was either in bash or perl.

Anyway I was being mischievous and it was a fork bomb.

Turned out the IRC Op ran it, not on his home computer... but the IRC server.

Everybody got disconnected, I got banned, but it goes to show there are some people out there (not trying to say you would so something like that at all).

Operating systems don't prevent a legitimate user from running malicious code. Hopefully the OP learned from his mistake, and didn't do it again.

Read this: Common File Dialog Box - Customize Places Bar - Windows 7 Forums - it seems there's a way to do it through group policy too, fantastic Microsoft - two equally tedious ways to do something that drag-n-drop is the most obvious solution for

bravo, makes it easier for anyone who doesn't want to do something to not be able to do it

Or, just customize your libraries, and anything you could possibly want is no more than two clicks away (for a dialogue that very rarely shows up in Windows 7 anyway - as it's legacy from earlier versions of Windows).

No, that is not a solution, that is more of a snark. It's a real-life example of catch-22. Let me know if you do come up with the solution and we'll definitely honor you for your contribution to the world.

It would be fruitless to come up with a solution when I don't have a problem. When I use Windows, I'm productive. When I use Linux, I'm productive. When I use Mac, I'm productive. What do I need to fix?

Ah! Then why is it shipped in a box ready to "just work" yet somehow able to have malicious code execute on it, especially considering the general market it is destined for. It's interesting that this actually happened to me, indeed someone who knows better than to download hacked software and visit porn sites, yet the same person using Linux has had no identified viruses nor suffered from any sort of malicious activity whilst using Linux - is this a conspiracy to get everyone onto Linux? Who knows. Count yourself lucky, and sure, I consider Windows 7 security policies to be a major leap forward from XP. Still, I wouldn't actually buy another MS product until it was fit to rival OSS.

So, you're going to claim that malicious software can't be downloaded and run on Linux? Shenanigans.

I'm not talking about updates, poor choice of words. I'm talking about upgrades. Approx $250 for XP which was 2 years after 98SE, and Windows 7 for $500 which was 7 years after XP. I wouldn't have bothered with Vista, it has the worst of 7 mixed with the worst of XP. So work it out then, I'm happily paying more for Linux than Windoze, and it comes from a grateful heart. The company is really just a ticking time bomb waiting for people to realize the feasibility of alternatives and just how much can be accomplished with better management of resources.

You like to simply declare that "more can be accomplished" with Linux, but you don't ever really say how. How can I accomplish more with Linux than I can with Linux on my servers and Windows on my desktops?

 

[BigMat]

My family's first computer was a TRS-80 back in the mid-eighties. The thing booted direct to Basic, which was stored in memory. My dad programmed the snot out of that thing back in the day. My brothers and I played games on it endlessly. It had no hard drives or floppy drives, you used whatever software was in memory, on the cartridge that plugged into the slot in the side, or what ever you had saved to audio cassette tape via the external tape drive. I've still got the thing laying around somewhere.

The first computer that was all mine I built myself around 2000. It was a dual slot one Pentium II with 450 mhz cpu's, 128 megs of ram, and was built on a Supermicro workstation motherboard running Windows NT4. It had an expensive workstation graphics card that had been liberated from a corporate trash bin (which was really where the card belonged) and my trusty old SB AWE-32 sound card that I'd bought in the mid-nineties. Over the years I gave the machine a couple of major upgrades and a number of minor ones. When it retired in 2007 it was packing dual 1 ghz PIII's, Dual monitors powered by an nvidia MX440 graphics card, a half Gig of ram, full blown surround sound provided by an external SB Extigy sound unit, and was running Windows 2000.

The only parts of it that are still in use today are the huge tower that housed it, the Extigy audio device with Logitech speakers, and my trusty ancient old (eighties vintage) IBM keyboard. The keyboard is like a 70's Cadillac compared to the ratty, unpleasant-to-use, throw away junk you find for sale today -- huge, heavy, indestructible, with solid responsive keys that slam down with a robust thunk when you press them and return with a reassuring snap when your finger lifts from them. I can type twice as fast on this keyboard than on any new keyboard.

 

[Willtor]

...

On the compilation front, I use Cygwin's Subversion rather than the 'standard' Windows build, because I share tarballs between my setups and the standard one refused to output Unix line endings at every turn - the resulting source would fail to compile under Linux if I didn't perform a fromdos operation on it. Switched to Cygwin's and the problem disappeared. MSys doesn't care what the line endings are, so I always make sure the source grabbing tools (at least, Subversion and Git; I don't think I've ever really checked what my CVS client uses) output Unix.

I avoid MSVC like the plague.

We use Mercurial at work, now, and it has good line ending support. I use Git at home, but I don't develop on my Windows box, so line endings don't matter there.

I don't care for MSVC, either. Its debugger has the potential for greatness, though, in my opinion.

 

[oi_antz]

Or, just customize your libraries, and anything you could possibly want is no more than two clicks away (for a dialogue that very rarely shows up in Windows 7 anyway - as it's legacy from earlier versions of Windows).

Well it shouldn't be a legacy should it? It should be consistent, and is it so hard for someone who wrote software to actually emulate the same API with a wrapper to the new one? No, MS just screws things up majorly and users suffer. Big deal, we have libraries! It's just a folder with shortcuts and symbolic links that the system knows to index - whoop dee doo, real ground-breaking stuff! (not). Why does almost every software you install on Windoze require a restart? Is it really that necessary that the user has to restart their computer, or does Windoze refuse to improve the biggest inconvenience? Certainly Windoze users aren't using it because it's the better platform, but because either they are forced to use it, or they are simply proud to be what they are. I think MS is just that sort of company that only considers what is in the interests of profit and market share, and not the consumer's real needs.

It would be fruitless to come up with a solution when I don't have a problem. When I use Windows, I'm productive. When I use Linux, I'm productive. When I use Mac, I'm productive. What do I need to fix?

You don't, your attitude is one of the sort of person who says petroleum based plastic is fine, the oceans can handle it for another 150 years and it's not likely to kill anyone in my generation, why do I need to care?

So, you're going to claim that malicious software can't be downloaded and run on Linux? Shenanigans.

No, read it again, you are simply putting words in my mouth. I'm saying that it happens to relatively careful users of Windoze, while the same users of Linux don't get that problem. If I'm going to be completely fair, it's not necessarily MS's fault, but one thing that is MS's fault is the continued use of backslash in path names when forward slash is pretty much supported anyway. Do you know why they insist on being different? It's ok to be different when it's better, but MS's idea of "improvement" doesn't always make their product better and more often than not actually causes compatibility issues with other platforms - maybe this is intentional of course, but still a contradictory attitude to what I expect from a company that supplies my products and services.

You like to simply declare that "more can be accomplished" with Linux, but you don't ever really say how. How can I accomplish more with Linux than I can with Linux on my servers and Windows on my desktops?

What are you up to? I didn't say that at all. All I've said is why I find Ubuntu to be more comfortable than Windoze, not that Windoze can't do something that Ubuntu can - it's just a matter of jumping through hoops to do it.

Edit:
Ah, you think that "more can be accomplished with better management of resources" means the user can accomplish more - that's not what I mean. I mean OSS companies can accomplish more with their resources than proprietary companies can. It's all about passion for quality over profit, sure deadlines are breached and resources are stretched delaying releases, but when they are released there is no compromise in the quality of the product. The developer has included the exact features they intended to, and the feature list didn't suffer for lack of resources, the deadline did. Money drives evil, which in the case of MS products, it is manifested as the user suffering a poor experience. I don't like that, I'd rather wait a few months longer and get those features that would otherwise have been cut back and dropped forever.

 

[DeathMagus]

Why does almost every software you install on Windoze require a restart?

They don't.

You don't, your attitude is one of the sort of person who says petroleum based plastic is fine, the oceans can handle it for another 150 years and it's not likely to kill anyone in my generation, why do I need to care?

Your comparison is a bit melodramatic.

No, read it again, you are simply putting words in my mouth. I'm saying that it happens to relatively careful users of Windoze, while the same users of Linux don't get that problem. If I'm going to be completely fair, it's not necessarily MS's fault, but one thing that is MS's fault is the continued use of backslash in path names when forward slash is pretty much supported anyway. Do you know why they insist on being different? It's ok to be different when it's better, but MS's idea of "improvement" doesn't always make their product better and more often than not actually causes compatibility issues with other platforms - maybe this is intentional of course, but still a contradictory attitude to what I expect from a company that supplies my products and services.

As you said - they support both. Microsoft has more third-party vendors to think about than any other operating system company, so they have to keep legacy APIs floating around longer to accommodate systems already in place.

What are you up to? I didn't say that at all. All I've said is why I find Ubuntu to be more comfortable than Windoze, not that Windoze can't do something that Ubuntu can - it's just a matter of jumping through hoops to do it.

Edit:
Ah, you think that "more can be accomplished with better management of resources" means the user can accomplish more - that's not what I mean. I mean OSS companies can accomplish more with their resources than proprietary companies can. It's all about passion for quality over profit, sure deadlines are breached and resources are stretched delaying releases, but when they are released there is no compromise in the quality of the product. The developer has included the exact features they intended to, and the feature list didn't suffer for lack of resources, the deadline did. Money drives evil, which in the case of MS products, it is manifested as the user suffering a poor experience. I don't like that, I'd rather wait a few months longer and get those features that would otherwise have been cut back and dropped forever.

Thanks for clearing that up - I will concur that OSS is generally more efficient with resources, but honestly that's a problem for Bill Gates' accountants, not me. Final price point and product are what matter to me, not how much Microsoft spent developing it.

Will Linux overtake Microsoft? Almost certainly. That's fine with me. Before it does, it will be a default platform for everything I use Windows for currently, and I will have no reason to purchase Windows again. It's not there yet, however - and I'm not going to sacrifice my productivity just to speed it along a fraction of a percent.

 

[higherFaith]

So, you're going to claim that malicious software can't be downloaded and run on Linux? Shenanigans.

No, read it again, you are simply putting words in my mouth. I'm saying that it happens to relatively careful users of Windoze, while the same users of Linux don't get that problem.

Okay let me stop both of you there. Linux doesn't have virri, and it does in more than one way. It doesn't have viruses if you use the package manager your system comes with, generally speaking, teams usually do not put in malicious code with their systems, however a minute team may (direct or indirect).

Viruses for Linux have been written as a "proof of concept".

If you use WINE or some other API on a UNIX system, you can get Windows viruses just as easily as you could on a Windows system with everything your user can do, and if the cracker is intelligent, it can cause priviledge escalation from a UNIX account as well as a Windows account.

Thanks for clearing that up - I will concur that OSS is generally more efficient with resources, but honestly that's a problem for Bill Gates' accountants, not me. Final price point and product are what matter to me, not how much Microsoft spent developing it.

Open sourcred code is generally better because of the code being open, if this was the same with Microsoft code, then Windows and it's API's would be a better system.

Note: Windows is trademarked "Windows", not "Windoze".

 

[jamesrwright3]

Commodore 64...

 

[djkenetics]

I had like a 386 i think, I used to play kings quest and doom 1 and 2 haha, good ole days

 

[WalksWithChrist]

I had like a 386 i think, I used to play kings quest and doom 1 and 2 haha, good ole days

Ah King's Quest. I think I played the original version of that one on our Atari 520 ST.
They really don't make games like they used to.

 

[jonpw]

First computer was a Spectrum+. Great computer!

First PC was built for me by my best pal, Athlon 1Ghz I think. Seemed very fast at the time. 1999?

 

[jonpw]

WalkswightChrist, my neighbor had an Atari ST, great computer that was. We played Dungeon Master (I think that was the name) mostly. Great fun, happy days.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

WalkswightChrist, my neighbor had an Atari ST, great computer that was. We played Dungeon Master (I think that was the name) mostly. Great fun, happy days.

Oh yeah. Those were way ahead of their time for sure. Gaming on those was really, really fun.

Is this what you remember?
YouTube - Dungeon Master: Atari ST
I don't think I ever played that one. It looks like it is based off the old text-based ones I've seen.

 

[Mixolydian]

I was the first kid with Pong on the block.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

I was the first kid with Pong on the block.

Enjoy!

YouTube - Roddick vs Pong

 

[jonpw]

Yeah that was it!
Great fun.

 

[jonpw]

They even chose Halk in that clip, I think we chose him too.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

They even chose Halk in that clip, I think we chose him too.

They just don't make many great games like they did back then.

Games in that area were actually HARD and often you never did get to finish them unless you were a super gaming genius.
But they were always fun.

I sucked at Donkey Kong for example. But I played it all the time. Over and over and over.

 

[Qyöt27]

They just don't make many great games like they did back then.

Games in that area were actually HARD and often you never did get to finish them unless you were a super gaming genius.
But they were always fun.

I sucked at Donkey Kong for example. But I played it all the time. Over and over and over.

Because it's relevant:
Nintendo Hard - Television Tropes & Idioms

I love TVTropes.



Heck, I never left the 2D platformer era. I didn't like 3D games when the N64 came out (nor the ones on the PSX), and I still don't like them. Track-based games like Crash Bandicoot don't count, though. But then again, the crux of my game playing is almost entirely summed up with Mega Man, Metroid, [classic] Mario, [classic] Sonic, R-Type, Touhou.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

Because it's relevant:
Nintendo Hard - Television Tropes & Idioms

I love TVTropes.



Heck, I never left the 2D platformer era. I didn't like 3D games when the N64 came out (nor the ones on the PSX), and I still don't like them. Track-based games like Crash Bandicoot don't count, though. But then again, the crux of my game playing is almost entirely summed up with Mega Man, Metroid, [classic] Mario, [classic] Sonic, R-Type, Touhou.

Nintendo Hard.
I love it!


After a while of playing, and sucking at, the Mario games I gravitated more to Tetris and games like Shingen the Ruler which was strategy based. I haven't played a Mario-type game for ages upon ages. Just burned out long ago and never looked back.