I almost feel sorry for them discovering this just after they discontinued Microsoft Messenger and moved people on to Skype. To be fair I expect this hole existed when they brought Skype.
I’m not so sure about that, y’know. It would likely have been discovered by now.
I expect it’s a side effect of the migration of MSN users to Skype as it likely requires changes to both Skype and its backend.
If it weren’t for your unemployment rates, which almost rival the ones here in Croatia, I’d be considering emigrating to Portugal. This way, I’m primarily considering Australia.
Precisely so.
Maintaining their own distro would be too much work for a meager reward. Building packages for major distros, with others left to incorporate those packages into their own structure any way they can, should suffice for the vast majority of use cases. Distro maintainers will make sure everything works as long as Valve doesn’t break something. People won’t be forced to reboot to play, or to reinstall their system just because they want Steam.
The whole point in making Steam for Linux is (or should be) setting their foot on Linux in order to be able to break away from Windows, or at least to expand to another existing market. Their own distro would mean more fragmentation, fewer users, and a break into the fairly mature market of Linux distros. Linux gaming is not that mature, and that is where Valve can gain most.
This Valve project is going to backlash so bad when Valve discovers that Ubuntu has big gaps in it's non-gfx driver reportoire as well. Valve actually need to make a distro where they put in shitloads of drivers, just like Windows. For both old, new and medium aged hardware.
How does “both” work with three items?
First of all, the Linux userbase is really small to begin with. Within that small userbase, you have two relatively large groups:
1. The ideologues, who really believe in RMS's idea that proprietary software is unethical. 2. The cheapskates, who aren't going to pay for software.
Who's left to sell to?
You know, every time there is a new Humble Bundle, sold on a pay-what-you-want scheme, it is always the Windows users that are the cheapest. Mac users fall in the middle, and Linux users shell out the most money on average.
Since those games are not Free, group 1 is out. That leaves group 2, which is demonstrably willing to pay more for software than their Windows- and Mac-using counterparts. But do go on calling them cheapskates.
Linux is completely unusable to the average computer user, so I dont think there is much loss here. Suffering from the same fragmentation as Android and lack of support for so many software companies. No one wants to find stupid workaround back-ass-wards ways to just get they're damn computer working.
Feeding the troll, I know, but still.
Last week I attempted to rescue my friend’s laptop. Some sort of low-end Lenovo. Not even a factory reset made it recognize its own battery, play sound without distortion, or work without staggering for 20 seconds every few minutes. She needs Windows for work, so she set off to buy a new laptop.
I loaded Bodhi Linux on the faulty laptop just to see if the problem was in Windows and related software, or if it was in fact in hardware (as the laptop had worked normally prior to the instant where all of the above problems occurred). Lo and behold, everything works in Linux. And even though Enlightenment is not the most user-friendly of desktop environments, she took to it immediately. She’s amazed with its looks, its speed, and its reliability. And it is now her secondary machine, and not a paperweight.
There are a few details that could and should be polished, but unless you need Windows-specific software, you’ll do just fine with Linux.
What Apple product is the xbox360 meant to compete against?
Apple Pippin, of course.
Really. If you want to be locked in there is iOS. For those who don't there is Android. Maybe that's why MS is having so much trouble, both options are taken by better companies?
I’d go so far as to say that not only are both options taken by others, but Microsoft attempts to mimic the wrong parts of each.
Actually, the best comparison I’ve seen is the one between Windows 1.0 and Windows 8.
We are legion.
One guy with one phone beat it, and only because he had a shortcut on his home page for the weather. Of course here on
The point of the exercise was showing how a Windows Phone can Do Stuff(TM) faster than iPhones and Android phones. And it depended on defaults, with tasks specifically tailored to show off WP defaults to people who don’t customize their iPhones and Androids.
The mere fact that you can set and Android the way you like, i.e., to have the apps for actions you wand or need at least as handy as they are on WP pretty much defeats the purpose of the exercise. I’m not even a smartphone user yet, but I know I wouldn’t be swayed by that kind of tactics.
The desktop interfaces are the same. I like OS X because it has very sane defaults, so the fact that it’s quite locked up doesn’t matter all that much. I like Linux because I can make it look and do whatever I want to. Windows is neither here nor there. And neither is Windows Phone, apparently.
Slashdot might have an obsession over N900 linux brickphones and 20-year-old Microsoft crimes, but Windows Phone is a total failure on the consumer level. People would rather buy Motorola Droids even though the adverts feature ninjas and giant robots.
My theory is the Windows brand is heavily associated with your shitty XP work computer, and nobody wants that crap in their pocket.
Well, I don’t know. I’ve only tried Metro with Windows 8 and even though I hated it on the desktop, I can see it work with phones. My designer colleagues, all Mac guys, are thrilled with Metro. I’m definitely not getting a phone with Windows, ever, but from what I’ve heard, Windows Phone is not half bad.
Computer.
The main thing that keeps many people on Windows are games. And I know a number of gamers who’ve given up on PC gaming and now have a Mac for work and a console for gaming.
Who targets less than 1%?
The 99%?
Intel CPUs are not defective, they just act that way. -- Henry Spencer
