Ah, the modern tech industry, creating solutions for problems that don't exist.

Such as Windows 8 or the Slashdot beta.

The beta site feels like the kind of place where one would expect hear "We only support Windows, Mac, and Linux with current IE, Chrome, or Firefox".

let's take a moment to reflect on what Slashdot HAS run on over the years.

Here are just a few screen shots I have handy:

Amiga
http://toastytech.com/guis/ami...

BreadBox (GeoWorks)
http://toastytech.com/guis/bbe...

BeOS
http://toastytech.com/guis/b5p...

QNX 1.44MB demo floppy:
http://toastytech.com/guis/qnx...

MacOS 7.5.5
http://toastytech.com/guis/mac...

OpenStep:
http://toastytech.com/guis/ope...

Lynx:
http://toastytech.com/guis/tex...

Windows NT 3.51 (this actually shows a version of SeaMonkey modified specifically to view current Slashdot correctly!)
http://toastytech.com/files/Se...

I've seen so many products and sites go in this direction over the years, it makes me sick. Something reaches near perfection and then someone decides to rewrite it in Java or .Net or XML or something, and totally ruins it.

Slashdot doesn't need some redesign. It just needs a few bugs fixed.

Where did they even get the idea that anyone wants any of that stuff on the beta site? Large fonts, huge pictures, HTML 9000 or whatever it is at today. What does Dice think this site is, I Can Has Cheezeburger? Actually, even THAT site went downhill after a bogged down redesign.

A real geek site would work great running on an Amiga using HTML 3. Oh, right, we had that:
http://toastytech.com/guis/ami...

One of the strengths (and simultaneous weakens) of Opera was that it used it's own unique rendering engine. That gave it an advantage in specialized situations where others would not quite fit.

Since they changed to using webkit, they are, in my opinion, basically irrelevant now. They might have well just become another one of those circa 2000 Microsoft Internet Explorer shells.

Say what you will about Presto not working on site x, y, or z, more diversity is good, and it helps keep real standard in check. There were once too many sites that were only viewable in IE, I do not look forward to a future internet that is only viewable in Google Chome.

Is there any hope at all that they might open source the Presto Rendering engine?

> How about a demo of Jay Miner demoing the Amiga 1000?

Or how about a video of the 1982 Comdex where supposedly VisiCorp showed off a development version of their brand new "GUI" environment Visi On? Doubt anyone recorded that, but it would be interesting to see.

And there is actually a video on Youtube of the fall 1983 Comdex with a demonstration of a brand new product in development from Microsoft called "Wiindows". Stole all the thunder from VisiCorp, but obviously didn't put a damper on Apple's Macintosh released shortly afterwards.

Ah, yes, I meant Theora. Vorbis is the audio codec.

They didn't even need to buy On2 to get VP9. They could have used one of the open-source codecs that already exists. You know, like Vorbis, which is perfectly fine for most videos and not as resource-hungry.

I find the abbreviation, MARTA, cute. Reminds me of a certain video game character.

If windows 7/8 wasn't a downgrade from XP in every respect,

Wrong. Windows 7 is better than XP in every way

(For the pedants: "Except size on disk")

On the other hand there is the abomination known as Windows 8.

And that is all one can easily find in most stores these days.

You can run XP in a virtual machine if you have software you must absolutely run that cannot run under Windows 7 or 8.

Not if the software you need to run is a device driver for special hardware.

And you still have the issue that the VM may need to talk to the outside world and therefore be as "vulnerable" as real hardware.

Microsoft isn't putting customers at risk by not patching what will then be a 13-year old operating system. They had a full life cycle plan in place and customers have had many years advance notice to plan their transition. The lack of resources placed on transitioning legacy software to something other than an end-of-life OS is squarely the fault of the customers. The people in charge obviously don't place a great deal of importance on security or support. They have made their decision, let them suffer the consequences.

What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light years away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout. Energize the demolition beam. I don't know, apathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at all.

write a frontend in javascript

You're doing it wrong.

I use a mouse mat and clean my room. It's not that bad.

Speak for yourself. My "roller-ball" mouse still works after 15 years of use. The buttons don't respond as well, though.

At any rate, yesterday's "roller-ball" mice were of superior build quality than today's cheap throw-away optical mice.