While I do agree that AMD is *well* behind Intel's latest and greatest in the 1P / desktop world, I fail to see how you could make such bold statement, unless you have had the chance to compare and AMD 4S machine to Intel 4S machine (say, Opteron 62xx based HP DL585G7 vs. Xeon 75xx/E7 based HP DL580G7).

In my experience (and I venture and guess that is just as good as yours, if not better) the picture is far from being black-and-white and greatly (!!!) depends on the application that is being tested. The pictures becomes even more complex, once you factor in the Xeon E7 excessive price. ... So I ask again, have you had any experience in benchmarking the Opteron 6200 or are you simply making things up as you go along?

- Gilboa

Let me start by pointing out that "nationalization of certain industries" goes against one of the basic principles of freedom (One that was actually acknowledged as such by the U.N.) - the right ownership of private property. I should also point out (at the risk of triggering the Godwin's Law) that the man-kind's worst totalitarian regimes (e.g. Nazi Germany, Lenin/Stalin's USSR) started by the nationalization of industry, land and private assets in the name of the "common people" as a first step in their attempt to re-model the society to match their perfect image (does who did not match their view ended up as slave laborers in Siberia or executed in Auschwitz)
The reason I took the time to point this out is simple: You *assume* that your views are moderate and that are shared by 99% of the western world working class, while in-fact, you'd be amazed at how many people will consider these views to be radical and dangerous - and I'm not talking extremely wealthy people who "rather maintain the current order".

Beyond that. your attempt to compare the brokenness of the Democratic system (and I don't doubt this fact) to the (very-short) life of a woman that somehow got blamed for infidelity or blamed for tarnishing the family-honor in Iran, Afghanistan or in the Gaza strip (let alone basic human rights, religious rights, etc) is amazing at best. I could only wonder how you view WWII and/or the cold war. (though I can easily guess).

- Gilboa

I'm *perfectly* happy with not giving *you* the power to "effect social change"; something tells me that what-you-consider-social-chance is what I consider anarchy...

- Gilboa

I must admit that -my- experience (anecdotal, just as yours) is the exact opposite of what you are seeing.
I -never- had history/bookmark/etc corruption due to version upgrade on Firefox, while my experience with Chrome is the exact opposite (Addons no longer working; crashes; etc). I would seriously consider switching distribution to one that's **apparently** more competent in packaging Firefox...
As for the part about having the "new version" tab, I can't really get the point: would it make it any easier on your eyes if the version was 3.8 instead of 6? (Though I would agree that Firefox devs should do their best to help addons developers write version-free addons)

Much like the Linux kernel version issue, users seem to make far, far, far, far, far (x10000) too much fuss about mere version numbers.
Version numbers are meaningless, get over it! (Did Microsoft really release 1996 NT versions/builds between NT 4.0 and Windows 2000?)

- Gilboa

[RANT="Sorry for being blunt, but the continuous stream of stupid Firefox/Linux kernel version jokes/rants is *really* getting on my nerves".]
As far as I remember, chrome uses a somewhat shorter six week [1] release schedule. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
Now given the fact the in one of you previous post, you said: "... I'd still be fine with it, but I'd probably be migrating entirely to Chrome soon" [2], I'm left to wonder if you plan to make the same tedious jokes about chrome...[/RANT]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome#Release_channels_and_updates
[2] http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2273874&cid=36584518 (Actually took the time to look it up)

Enterprise Linux (E.g. RHEL, SLES, etc) maintain obsolete releases by back porting security fixes.
This is what they do best, and this is the reason why using RHEL and SLES with no support contract should be avoided.

I would suggest you take the time to do some research before posting!

- Gilboa

Bullshit.

When you manage 80K desktops (or 100s of servers, something that I have experience in), you buy a site license for RHEL/SLES/etc, keeping 99.9% of the distribution intact changing only packages that you really-really-really-really-really need changed;
You then keep using the old really until you really-really-really-really have to upgrade.
I doubt that you grasp how many of my clients/colleges still use RHEL 4.x (!!!!) for both application desktops and servers...

By the time RHEL and SLES release 3.x based distributions, Linux 3.0 will be a memory of the past.
(I would imagine that RHEL 6.2 will include a new version of FF as "technology preview" but will keep FF 3.6.x as the main browser)

- Gilboa

.

I can only speak from my own personal experience, but at least in my case, ESD and Arts never really worked when trying combined non-native applications (E.g. KDE under GNOME or vice versa, let alone running OSS games/flash/etc under both) and as for JACK, well, tried it a couple of times, never really worked for me, dropped it.
Pulse marked the first time both me and the people around me can reliably mix multiple streams from different applications while getting expected results. (E.g. Mixing Amarok, skype, qemu running Windows VM w/ audio and a native Linux games that uses OSS)

Granted, both me and my friends/coworkers use Fedora which doubles as PulseAudio test-bed (which may be the reason to better out-of-the-box experience), but at least for us, PA simply, err, works?

I fully agree, even though I understand Lennart's reasons for doing it (AKA KDE 4.0 release limbo).
Heck, I used to automatically remove PA as the first post install phase up-until Fedora ~8-9.

As I see it, PA had a rotten beginning and has improved tremendously since then but much like KDE 4.x, it still suffers from the bad reputation that trails it since the initial troubled release.

The irony is that a lot of people here praise Alsa... anyone that's old enough to remember the first years after the move from OSS to Alsa would easily remember that Alsa attracted more-or-less the same hateful reaction that PA now draws. ... One can only wonder what will be said on GNOME 3 and KDE 4 when GNOME 4 and KDE 5.0 will be released :)

- Gilboa

Actually, I -really- like Pulse.
For the first time since, err, RedHat 5?, I can actually hear music on amarok, watch a movie on youtube and get a call using skype without blocking the system.
I can dynamically reduce the volume of streams that I don't like (E.g. flash) without dropping the volume on other applications (E.g. amarok) or dynamically move streams from one device to another (E.g. Switch music stream from on-board / headphone to SB Audigy / 5.1).
I could never achieve that, not with Alsa (Linux w/ or w/o dmix) nor with OSS (under both Linux and FreeBSD).

Now, ***you*** may not appreciate or need it, but calling a very stable (at least on Fedora) a useless piece of shit just because ***you*** don't use it, should have earned you a -5 troll.

- Gilboa

You do realize that my previous comments, which included large amounts of factual information were largely ignored by you, right?
Let me point a few:
1, By international law, the so-called occupied territories are not occupied at all.
2. Most Palestinians live under PA and Hamas control. Both of which violate basic human rights on a daily basis; a fact that's completely ignored by so-called human right groups.
2a. Unlike their PA and HAMAS controlled brothers, Israeli-Arab (Read: Palestinians who have Israeli citizenship) enjoy full civil rights (including the right to vote and be elected)
3. In a series of peace threats Israel redraw on a number of occasions from so-called occupied territories, treaties that were largely violated by the Palestinian side. (E.g. Stopping state sanctioned incitement for terror acts in PA controlled media and schools; Stopping state sanctioned terror acts; Changing the Palestinian treaty to acknowledge Israel's right to exist [...], etc)
4. Each time Israel withdraw from so-called occupied territories (with or w/o a peace treaty) the Palestinians immediately launched a wave of terror in return which usually targeted targets (like my Supermarket...).
5. In most cases, the attacks originated from Palestinian Civilian centers, relaying on Israel's reluctance to attack civilian targets. ... and I can continue.

Now, would I think different if I was sitting in Gaza right now? Most likely I would. Should it matter, as -my- house is being attacked by rockets fired from so-called Palestinian territories and when -my- Supermarket was blown by a suicide bomber killing and injuring dozens of civilians? Not really. ...Neither would you.

The only thing standing between us and peace is Arab recognition of the Jewish people's right to its own independent state. As the Palestinian still bluntly [1] refuse [2] to accept [3] our presence [4] here [5], peace could not be further away.

Last question? Might I inquire where do you live?

- Gilboa
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Amin_al-Husayni
[2] 10 point plan (which objects to SC 242), Official PA page in the UN site: http://www.un.int/wcm/content/site/palestine/pid/12354
[3] http://israelinsider.net/profiles/blogs/abbas-rejects-jewish-state
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPsOe9yRqTU
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GueURvTbIss&feature=related

*Sigh*

As expected, once you ran out of mock facts to spew, you switched to calling a me a Nazi.
How pathetic...

- Gilboa

I believe this sums up my words (from the link you posted):

"We will not harm the supply of food for children, medicine for those who need it and fuel for institutions that save lives," Olmert said at the time.
"But there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards (at southern Israel)," he added.

- Gilboa

I could have wasted my time and started by quoting article 42, of the 1907 Hague conversion (comments mine):
"Territory [Who's territory?] is considered occupied [from?] when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army [hostile to whom?]", pointing out that:
1. Israel has a peace agreement with Egypt which does not claim sovereignty over Gaza.
2. Israel has a peace agreement Jordan which does not claim sovereignty over the West-Bank.
3. There was never a Palestinian state in said territories. (Hence the "whom" part)
4. Hence, by all account Israel is legally free to continue holding these lands (at least until Egypt or Jordan change their position).

I could also point out that most of the Palestinian population is already living under Palestinian rule (be that the PA in the West bank or the Hamas militia group in Gaza) and has been doing so since the 1992-1995 Oslo peace agreement(s), which more or less negate the "oppression" argument (If anything, by all accounts the Hamas militia is currently violently oppressing the Palestinian populous under its rule - but somehow I don't see you demonstrating against them [Come to think about it, go to Gaza and demonstrate against Hamas' disregard for basic human rights, I'll bring pop-corn, it should be fun to watch).

I could further point out that each time we tried to redraw completely from so called Palestinian territories, we were met by a suicide bombers and rocket attacks against restaurants, buses, hospital and urban centres. (E.g. In December alone [!!!] more than 40 rockets and mortar shells were fired from the Hamas held Gaza strip on Israeli civilian towns and villages surrounding the Gaza strip)

I could end by pointing out that the only thing keeping the PA alive, preventing the Hamas from taking over the west-bank by force (much like they did in t

... At least you didn't put us as genocidal maniacs, or were you?
In the current atmosphere of "Israel is to be blamed for GW, Al-Qaeda, world hunger and, well, Opera", I could actually consider your post fairly-balanced.

So, just before I go about my business (which apparently includes slaughtering baby seals, burning their corpses in an effort to release additional CO2 to the atmosphere), care to explain in what exactly we did this time?

- Gilboa

"India's shift was very violent as well, Israel's was the same"

Care to elaborate?
AFAIR, we chose Democracy by-more-or-less default. (Almost ended up a pseudo-socialist-Democracy, but that's another story)

- Gilboa