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Comment Re:Guess we know what iPhone 6 will have! (Score 1) 114

That is because it is simply wrong. Apple is not listed as a member of the Power Matters Alliance, which is the competing standard of wireless power that Starbucks used. Both Starbucks and Powermat are represented on the board of directors for the alliance, so it is unsurprising which technology they chose for their coffee shops.

Comment Re:Sideloading other Linux games (Score 1) 173

I'd like to see a source stating that Steam OS users can't sideload other Linux-compatible games.

First of all, this isn't SteamOS we are talking about, it is Windows. Secondly, I'm not suggesting that you can't load non-Steam games. But you won't be able to do it sitting on your couch holding your controller. Buying and playing Steam games on a Steam box will be much, much easier.

There are enough people on Windows computers who refuse to buy games that they can't load from the Steam client (and complain bitterly when games are offered on other services). Just imagine how receptive buyers of something called a Steam box will be to having to exit from Steam's Big Picture mode to run another launcher.

So while it might not be a technical locking to Steam, it will be a practical one.

Comment Re:So they take premium hardware (Score 1) 173

So they take premium hardware, run it on a second rate OS, and hope flowers will bloom out of the pile of manure? Those who would argue about whether Linux is not the best OS to run on premium hardware, needs to go over to TOP500.org, and look at the overwhelming majority of supercomputers that run Linux.

And how many games run on those supercomputers? Those who would argue about whether Linux is the best OS to run games need to go over to Steam's Hardware & Software Survey, and look at the underwhelming minority of gaming computers that run Linux.

Linux games on Steam recently reached the 500 mark, which I think is excellent and highly encouraging for the platform. But your argument that Windows is a second rate OS for gaming is still laughable and demonstrably wrong.

Comment Re:Describe PUSSYING OUT (Score 5, Insightful) 173

Time to blacklist Alienware and NEVER buy a Steam Machine from them.

But surely you had already blacklisted Alienware because they have sold Windows-based computers for many years. And frankly, if you are going to blacklist any company that sells Microsoft-powered computers then you must have very limited range from which to choose.

The alternative to mounting a vendetta against the company is to just to grow up and simply not buy the products that you don't want. Then when the Steam-OS systems finally arrive then you can happily buy it, knowing that you weren't forced at gunpoint to pay any evil Microsoft tax.

Comment Re:Even higher! (Score 1) 1040

I think that 7 Nobel economists are more than enough to argue against the claim that "no serious economist supports the minimum wage", especially when that claim backed up by... nothing. And if you keep reading passed the headline, you will also see a reference to a survey of economists that shows that opinions on the effect of minimum wage is a lot more divided than you made it out to be.

Comment Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score 3, Informative) 187

Please explain then, how the (according to slashdot, idiot) non-technical Mac userbase has a 51% uptake of Mavericks inside of 12 months? No, it doesn't automatically deploy, and no, 51% of the Mac userbase is not on 12 month old hardware. I'll offer a hypothesis: Mavericks offers things end Mac end-users want. Windows 8 does not offers things Windows users want.

The explanation is that Mavericks is a free upgrade, while Windows 8 is not. A correct analogy with Mavericks would be that the free Window 8.1 update has passed 50% within 3 months of release.

Comment Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months (Score 2) 187

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Windows kernel, UI, and default browser all share essential low-level processes, and therefore could never ever possibly be decoupled.

That is incorrect. The kernel can happily work without the UI, and you get the choice for this when installing Windows Server. It has two modes: Server Core Installation and Server with a GUI. With Server Core Installation, the server is configured be either a Powershell command prompt or using administration tools from a Windows computer. This is the default installation option.

The links to Internet Explorer were removed after they copped so much flak for it. This is why you can no longer customise the HTML of the folder view for specific folders among other missing features.

Comment Re:The only reason (Score 1) 187

I've heard this over and over. "you can tweak this and that and install the other thing and it works just like 7." So just use 7.

I always dissuade people from upgrading from Win7 to Win8. It is a half step forward, two steps back. Frankly, I would not even upgrade from Vista to Win8.

highlander ... well any of them after the first.

The producers should have known that there could be only one.

Comment Re:Infectious diseases ... (Score 1) 493

How could they possibly pose the same threat level. Let's say (with simplified maths) that a particular vaccine is only 90% effective. That means that a vaccinated person has a 10% chance of becoming infected, while the unvaccinated person has 100% chance of infection. That means an unvaccinated person will be much more likely to act as a conduit for an outbreak simply because the disease will live longer in that individual.

Comment Re:Yes, because of your selection bias (Score 4, Insightful) 268

Microsoft ONLY does it to gain control, the fact that you mention them hurts your point more than helps it.

Does Microsoft really control Apache now? Why wasn't this news splashed all over the news sites?

If I have it wrong, and it is not Apache that the company bought, which open source project did it take control of?

Comment Re:Well, that took a while (Score 1) 184

It's a pretty seismic shift in Microsoft's direction. The unholy trinity of Windows-Office-Backoffice has been the guiding paradigm of Microsoft's strategy for two decades.

The only flaw in your premise is that we are now just four months away from the 25th birthday of *Microsoft Office for Mac*. This predates the Windows version by more than a year. Also, Word was first made for Xenix (Microsoft's brand of Unix) under the name *Multi-Tool Word* (along with an MS-DOS version).

There has never been a time when Office was only available for Windows. And this latest move to iOS does not mean that "Windows is out of the loop". There is still (and always will be) the Windows desktop version of Office, and it does have more features than the mobile version.

Comment Re:Next they'll give internet explorer free (Score 1) 208

And yet Microsoft were eventually vindicated, as every modern operating system is released with a bundled browser.

There was nothing inherently special about a web browser that meant that it always had to be an add-on item that had to be separately purchased. People expect that an OS will allow them to browse a web page or play a media file. They don't want to have to go buy Trumpet Winsock just to get a TCP/IP stack like they used to in the Windows 3.0 days. These are just the basic user requirements.

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