Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Warning: This is going to be a mini-rant about the current Vista vs Apple vs Linux vs *BSD crap going on.
I don't know if it's because I'm feeling like crap today (mild dose of the flu), or sh*tty customers or I've been reading to much slashdot? But I've come to the realisation, Who gives a f**k if you run Vista or MacOS X or WindowsXP or Linux or *BSD or QNX or Solaris or whatever. What matters is, does it support the application you wish to use the PC for!
My boss is pressuring me to install Vista on my work notebook (Asus M6N - P-M@1.6, 1GB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HDD, ATI R9600 Mobile), so I did some research before attempting to install Vista on it. Bottom line, the ACPI module in the BIOS is incompatible with Vista, and to install/use Vista I need to disable APM/ACPI in the BIOS (aka NO power management for a laptop). I'm sorry, but I'm not sacrificing power management just to run Vista.
But I also came to realise, why install Vista if WinXP is doing everything I need it to do? Same with MS Office, Acrobat, etc? My boss's answer is because Vista is the latest, so we must run it. That stinks of the brain-dead consumer Paris Hilton view on life; look it's shiny, must have...
While I do like the current Apple vs PC ad's (The security one is a crack up, Cancel or Allow?), what does it matter what the underlying system is, as long it fulfills your needs or applications to be as productive as possible? Cancel or Allow? Something which from reading on the 'net Vista isn't shaping up to be for many people out there... Cancel or Allow?
So what's the point of running MacOS X (despite the ad's on tv), if you can't run your needed application? I mean either games, business applications, eg Quicken, etc, or even get connected to the right IM network? Sure Apple offer a stable, secure (and mostly virus/malware free) platform, but if you can't run <insert you favourite/must have application> what's the point?
I've also read Ars's little write up on Beryl (the 3d desktop for X), and while cool, I can't see it providing any advantage over what I'm currently using now (WindowMaker), I mean both allow you to manage your desktop, make pretty themes, etc, why burn CPU cycles or have unnecessary hardware requirements for "unnecessary" eye-candy. Even lack of driver support is a sticking point for many... (Open Source gfx drivers for nVidia and ATI come to mind, but I have nothing but praise for the respective teams on reverse engineering a mostly working driver)! While the closed-source drivers are getting easier to install (nothing like setting up the 3dfx glide drivers with Mesa3D back in the day to get GLQuake running), it doesn't help when you're not on a vendor supported platform (FreeBSD in my case).
I then started thinking about my home box (dual Opty, 2GB RAM, SCSI HDD setup, etc), and wondered do I really need Windows installed, other than for a few games that I play only at LANs, (I currently don't have a Internet connection at home). Could those games be played from within Wine, allowing a pure FreeBSD setup? After reading through the WineHQ database for known working applications, I've found that the few games (Quake2/Quake3, BF2, RavenShield) do work OR have native Linux/FreeBSD ports (in the case of the Quake series). Alternatively, I've got my work notebook, which plays RavenShield, Q3 and BF2 adequately for LAN gaming. At least gaming on the notebook will save me from having to carry around a huge box/monitor...
The rest of my requirements for my home box are covered by the various alternate applications available in the F/OSS world, eg AbiWord, Gnumeric, GIMP, SANE, MPlayer (w/wmv, mp4, xvid/divx, dvd plug-ins), LAME, XMMS (w/mp3, ogg plug-ins), GQView, Kino (w/firewire support and dvd-rw tools for burning), and all my hardware is supported except for a Logitech Webcam (el'cheapo one, not surprised really, not that I have much use for the thing today anyway). For my dev work, I'm mostly working in gcc/fasm these days, and rarely touch MS VC++ 2003 other than to test that the cross-platform utilities build correctly without error under Windows (the utilities are all CLI, no GUI applications and only using libc)... I'm pretty sure WINE will be able to handle the VC++ 2003 enough to compile code, via Makefiles and the CLI.
Could it be good-bye Microsoft for my home PC? I'm starting to think so. Simply because I'll be moving from 2 OS's with different sets of applications back to a single OS with all the applications I need it to do.
But do I switch from FreeBSD to Linux (after 2 years of being a FreeBSD user), just so I can have a solid 3d driver? or just stick with the open source driver for my Radeon 9600XT found in Xorg 7.2? Heck, even video-in works with the open source driver, which the close source one lacks. I like FreeBSD, simply because "It Works", and current Linux distro's don't offer anything that FreeBSD doesn't already have...
I don't know if it's because I'm feeling like crap today (mild dose of the flu), or sh*tty customers or I've been reading to much slashdot? But I've come to the realisation, Who gives a f**k if you run Vista or MacOS X or WindowsXP or Linux or *BSD or QNX or Solaris or whatever. What matters is, does it support the application you wish to use the PC for!
My boss is pressuring me to install Vista on my work notebook (Asus M6N - P-M@1.6, 1GB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HDD, ATI R9600 Mobile), so I did some research before attempting to install Vista on it. Bottom line, the ACPI module in the BIOS is incompatible with Vista, and to install/use Vista I need to disable APM/ACPI in the BIOS (aka NO power management for a laptop). I'm sorry, but I'm not sacrificing power management just to run Vista.
But I also came to realise, why install Vista if WinXP is doing everything I need it to do? Same with MS Office, Acrobat, etc? My boss's answer is because Vista is the latest, so we must run it. That stinks of the brain-dead consumer Paris Hilton view on life; look it's shiny, must have...
While I do like the current Apple vs PC ad's (The security one is a crack up, Cancel or Allow?), what does it matter what the underlying system is, as long it fulfills your needs or applications to be as productive as possible? Cancel or Allow? Something which from reading on the 'net Vista isn't shaping up to be for many people out there... Cancel or Allow?
So what's the point of running MacOS X (despite the ad's on tv), if you can't run your needed application? I mean either games, business applications, eg Quicken, etc, or even get connected to the right IM network? Sure Apple offer a stable, secure (and mostly virus/malware free) platform, but if you can't run <insert you favourite/must have application> what's the point?
I've also read Ars's little write up on Beryl (the 3d desktop for X), and while cool, I can't see it providing any advantage over what I'm currently using now (WindowMaker), I mean both allow you to manage your desktop, make pretty themes, etc, why burn CPU cycles or have unnecessary hardware requirements for "unnecessary" eye-candy. Even lack of driver support is a sticking point for many... (Open Source gfx drivers for nVidia and ATI come to mind, but I have nothing but praise for the respective teams on reverse engineering a mostly working driver)! While the closed-source drivers are getting easier to install (nothing like setting up the 3dfx glide drivers with Mesa3D back in the day to get GLQuake running), it doesn't help when you're not on a vendor supported platform (FreeBSD in my case).
I then started thinking about my home box (dual Opty, 2GB RAM, SCSI HDD setup, etc), and wondered do I really need Windows installed, other than for a few games that I play only at LANs, (I currently don't have a Internet connection at home). Could those games be played from within Wine, allowing a pure FreeBSD setup? After reading through the WineHQ database for known working applications, I've found that the few games (Quake2/Quake3, BF2, RavenShield) do work OR have native Linux/FreeBSD ports (in the case of the Quake series). Alternatively, I've got my work notebook, which plays RavenShield, Q3 and BF2 adequately for LAN gaming. At least gaming on the notebook will save me from having to carry around a huge box/monitor...
The rest of my requirements for my home box are covered by the various alternate applications available in the F/OSS world, eg AbiWord, Gnumeric, GIMP, SANE, MPlayer (w/wmv, mp4, xvid/divx, dvd plug-ins), LAME, XMMS (w/mp3, ogg plug-ins), GQView, Kino (w/firewire support and dvd-rw tools for burning), and all my hardware is supported except for a Logitech Webcam (el'cheapo one, not surprised really, not that I have much use for the thing today anyway). For my dev work, I'm mostly working in gcc/fasm these days, and rarely touch MS VC++ 2003 other than to test that the cross-platform utilities build correctly without error under Windows (the utilities are all CLI, no GUI applications and only using libc)... I'm pretty sure WINE will be able to handle the VC++ 2003 enough to compile code, via Makefiles and the CLI.
Could it be good-bye Microsoft for my home PC? I'm starting to think so. Simply because I'll be moving from 2 OS's with different sets of applications back to a single OS with all the applications I need it to do.
But do I switch from FreeBSD to Linux (after 2 years of being a FreeBSD user), just so I can have a solid 3d driver? or just stick with the open source driver for my Radeon 9600XT found in Xorg 7.2? Heck, even video-in works with the open source driver, which the close source one lacks. I like FreeBSD, simply because "It Works", and current Linux distro's don't offer anything that FreeBSD doesn't already have...
