At least they're upfront about the data slurping. "Targeted advertising and location tracking with that soda ma'am?"
Posts by Scotthva5
97 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jun 2014
Japan's second-ranked mobile telco to buy convenience store chain from Mitsubishi
Top Linux distros drop fresh beats
Re: I can customise it to my heart's content but that's not the point
I would argue it's not the point when comparing the out of the box experience for a prospective Windows convert. The bones of MX are rock solid but the interface is crude and amateurish and takes considerable fiddling to bring it anywhere near modern aesthetics. That's a hard sell for a new user wishing for a simple Win10/11 replacement.
Style is optional
MX Linux is, indeed, the bee's knees when it comes to reliability and low resource usage but I have one major problem with it: it's dogshit ugly. I had no idea XFCE could be made to look so utilitarian and spartan with icon designs right out of the early 90's but there you go. Yes, yes and again yes I realize I can customise it to my heart's content but that's not the point, right out of the box it looks dated and old and not something I would show to someone considering leaving Windows. Before any of you penguin herders get snippy I'm looking at MX with home user desktop googles and not a productivity focused build. I've been running Zorin Pro for years as my main rig at home and I do appreciate the spit and polish that it provides right out of the box. Down votes in 3...2...1...
AI PC hype seems to be making PCs better – in hardware terms, at least
PC 'price hike' coming as cost of memory soars – analysts
The Hobbes OS/2 Archive logs off permanently in April
Microsoft issues deadline for end of Windows 10 support – it's pay to play for security
Tech renders iconic rockers Kiss genuinely immortal
Apple exec defends 8GB $1,599 MacBook Pro, claims it's like 16GB in a PC
Windows 11: The number you have dialed has been disconnected
IDC: AI is a solution for a PC industry with a sales problem
CERN swells storage space beyond 1EB for LHC's latest ion-whacking experiments
Mixin suspends deposits and withdrawals after $200m cryptocurrency heist
Beneath Microsoft's Surface event, AI spreads everywhere
ArcaOS 5.1 gives vintage OS/2 a UEFI facelift for the 21st century
Use case?
I was a rabid OS/2 user back in the mid to late 90s until Linux wooed me and eventually swept me off my feet. It was, indeed, the better DOS and Windows that IBM promised and was a literal godsend for my use case of managing a mid-size Novell network over both ARCnet and TCNS with Windows clients aplenty. I'm aware that many banks and ATMs used OS/2 in its various incarnations until the mid 2000s but is it still being used in a professional capacity today at a volume worthy of keeping alive? Being stuck at 32 bit (which was hailed as a revolution at the time) severely limits its use today except for hobbyists like me that will buy a copy. That said, I'm glad OS/2 is still around and getting the love it deserves.
Judge snuffs man's quest to have AI-created art protected by copyright
Want to live dangerously? Try running Windows XP in 2023
Oracle pours fuel all over Red Hat source code drama
Oh, great. Yet another tech billionaire thinks he can get microblogging right
Re: Funny
Judging by my two 20-something daughters I'm inclined to agree. Whenever I call them to verify that their vocal cords are in fact functional I receive a disapproving tone of voice that suggests "Jeez Daddy you're so old". My teenage son on the other hand refuses to communicate with anyone unless it's through TikToc or SnapChat.
FTC pulls emergency brake on Microsoft's marriage to Activision Blizzard
Re: Triple-A gaming is a mess and a ripoff
Agreed, some of my favorite games are produced by independent studios. The last AAA game I bought was Forza Horizon 4 and it took ages to sort out that mess. Benchmarks ran just fine but benchmarks didn't show the horrendous input lag that made it unplayable or Microsoft's cavalier attitude in fixing it. Never again.
Intel says AI is overwhelming CPUs, GPUs, even clouds – so all Meteor Lakes get a VPU
Nvidia's RTX 4060 and 4060TI are actually priced like mid-tier cards
A triumph of marketing over substance
The caveat "1.7x faster than its predecessor, when using its frame generated DLSS 3.0" is typical Nvidia marketing behavior and is apples to oranges regarding gen vs gen performance increases. Of course DLSS runs faster when turned on, that's the whole point of if it if the games support it. No mention of 3060ti vs 4060ti non-DLSS performance increase coupled with comparing it to a card 2 generations behind it makes me even more skeptical of their claims. A 10-15% actual gain is much more likely but doesn't sound as sexy in the marketing material.
No more feature updates for Windows 10 – current version is final
Musicians threaten to make Oasis 'Live Forever' with AI
More ads in Windows 11 Start Menu could be last straw for some
IDC gets even more pessimistic about PC sales
Re: I, for one...
>> goodbye, nVidia
You might want to explore Intel's Arc 750/770 as the drivers are maturing week by week. The just released 6.2 kernel has Arc support baked in so no need for twiddling or running Ubuntu to make it work properly and the price/performance ratio beats anything nVidia or AMD is offering. Everything I've read is very promising and Arc might do very well indeed on Linux.
Patches to make WINE work on Wayland display server protocol are being merged
Titanic mass grave site to be pillaged for NFTs
Marketing company chases Twitter for $7,000 over 'swag gift box for Elon'
Microsoft tells people to prepare for AI search engine that goes Bing!
Fancy a quick tour of DragonFly BSD 6.4?
Re: Not goading a flamewar...
I worked in a NetBSD shop around the time of the Dragonfly split and through the years I've heard many variations of the argument (sometimes in raised voices) about which approach works best. Consensus seemed to be they both are and since Net and Dragonfly (mostly) peacefully coexist I don't believe there is a "right" or "wrong" approach. As Liam said above, choice is good.
Too big to live, too loved to die: Big Tech's billion dollar curse of the free
Re: I'm a typical Alexa user
I'm embarrassed to admit it's a matter of pure convenience on our part. It is much easier to say "Alexa play white noise" than it is to muck around with Bluetooth and plugging in yet another device to save the battery. Trust me we have tried myriad ways and this is the easiest and best solution for the both of us. The app has a ton of settings to sculpt the sound to your liking as it's not easy to get two people to agree on what constitutes "white noise" as apposed to just "noise".
I'm a typical Alexa user
We have a number of Alexa devices in the house and we use them just as the study suggests: music, reminders and the occasional argument settler. The only Alexa service we pay for is the advanced white noise app that we use for sleep and it is worth its weight ($2.99 a month) in gold. I'm willing to bet Amazon will increase the cost of Prime for Alexa devices over and above the cost of regular Prime service to keep the accountants happy. When this happens we will bin the lot and go back to earplugs.
Elon Musk issues ultimatum to Twitter staff: Go hardcore or go home
Why I love my Chromebook: Reason 1, it's a Linux desktop
Juno offering Linux-powered tablet PC for pre-order
Re: Kinda pricey...
I was using the iPad as a reference, obviously they are for completely separate markets. What exactly are you going to be filling that larger storage with short of media? It certainly won't be touch native applications. I'm no Apple fanboy (I champion all things Linux and have for years) but the value of Apple's massive ecosystem can't be overstated. Adding a mouse or other input device such as a keyboard would make it far easier to use normal Linux apps but now we are getting away from being a 'tablet' and closer to Microsoft's Surface. At $400+ this is outside the realm of 'nice to have plaything', at least for me. I wish Juno the best of luck but I don't see a compelling market niche for it.
Kinda pricey...
..for a no-name, non-upgradable Chinese tablet with a slow, low-end processor. I'm all for more Linux based appliances but Apple's base iPad is $100 cheaper, boasts far higher specs, has an OS designed from the ground up to be touch native and a vast ecosystem. Tablets are not flying off the shelves these days and I'm struggling to see what market niche this would fill other than developers working on touch native applications.
This maglev turntable costs more than an average luxury electric car
Linus Torvalds's faulty memory (RAM, not wetware) slows kernel development
Re: I worry about the longevity of Emperor Penguins
>>Decision-by-committee is the worst death by a thousand cuts
Sounds like you have been subjected to one too many "product planning" or "customer focus" meetings, as have I. Herding Jell-O cats is easier than getting a firm decision by a group of people with conflicting interests.
Intel's 13th-gen CPUs are hot, hungry, loaded with cores
Re: Seems an odd choice for 2022
I'm thinking more or less along similar lines: what happened to the push for efficiency? When AMD announced their Ryzen 7000 series and the large boost in TDP I thought it was a misprint at first and now Intel is doing the same thing. So much for efficient and cool running CPUs and their less costly cooling requirements. It's no wonder ARM is making inroads in the data center, small though they may be.
You can never have too many backups. Also, you can never have too many backups
Big Tech is building the metaverse of its own dreams. You don't want to go there
>> I'm not interested in sharing the minutia of my life with strangers.
That, in a nutshell, is why I've stayed away from almost all forms of social media. If I wanted to know what you ate last night or what film you watched I would ask, I don't need to read about the next day. Years ago B3TA did a "show us your useless inventions" Photoshop challenge and one of the winners was Twitter enabled bog roll. "I'm wiping my ass with Tesco Ultra Soft" is not too far removed from the drivel that populates most Facebook or Twitter feeds.
Mozilla finds 18 of 25 popular reproductive health apps share your data
Specs leak of 5.7GHz AMD Ryzen 7000 chips with double the L2 cache
Enough with the notifications! Focus Assist will shut them u… 'But I'm too important!'
Re: talky toaster?
More like Talky Microwave. I have a mid-range micro that announces every key press with a shrill and incredibly loud beep with no option of turning it off. Why? Ostensibly it's for the visually impaired but a closer inspection reveals that to be false: the number pad is perfectly smooth (so no tactical feedback) and the tone is the same for every key press (so no audible feedback). The best I can come up with is the micro has taken it upon itself to inform the entire household that Dad is back from the bar and reheating that last piece of pizza at 2 am.
VMware’s subscriptions start at 16 cores, prices won't be made public
Motorola-powered Mac from 1989 used to write smartphone apps
I remember using A/UX 3.x back in the 90's. It was lovely, the stability of Unix (with some BSD goodies) paired with the Apple finder grafted on top. It's a shame Apple never continued development and restricted it's use to Nubus equipped 68k Macs, it might have replaced the mess that was classic MacOS with something far more modern.