The Computer Thread

Not directly computer-related, I guess, but I finally got a new desk for my computer today! Feels soooooo much better than having to sit on my feet with that old TV cart. Was an absolute bitch to put together though. These things really should come with more than a single one-sided sheet of vague instructions printed on what amounts to toilet paper.

edited 30th Sep '12 5:54:14 PM by DemonSharkKisame

I could say the same thing about any instruction manual.

I cannot wait for Steam on Linux.

Thoughts? I think Microsoft is going to lose a lot of the market share because of Windows 8.

I can't wait either, but so far, the Steam for Linux beta is only open to 1,000 people. I highly doubt it'll stay that way for very long though.

As for Windows 8, it's practically suicide for Microsoft if you ask me. I've yet to see an honest good review for it, and yet they seem to be trying their damnedest to force it on everything they can.

Desk building 101: uncut wooden door + 6 cinder blocks + hard plastic sheet = functional desk. You can substitute in file cabinets for the cinder blocks if you feel ritzy.

I have a reasonably comfy couch and three stands that where once used for those big assed CRT television sets, which have on them my LCD monitors, two used for the pc and the biggest one used as a television set, as the PC display on it sucks.

If I have to do any heavy duty typing, I have a computer desk the size of the average First World War fort to sit next to on a comfy armed office chair in my bedroom. It's bloody cold though in there.

As for Windows 8? I made it plain earlier on that that thing is the first real step that Microsoft is making towards the post-PC era, and why they are doing it. Windows 7 does for me.

edited 30th Sep '12 8:52:06 PM by TamH70

My guess is that about a year and a half into Win8's life cycle, we'll see hardware manufacturers offering Linux computers (albeit in limited quantities), especially with GUIs that try to make the experience as similar to Win7 as they can without getting blasted for copyright stuff, and Microsoft will (relatively) quickly make a "fixed" version for actual computers more in the vein of previous releases of Windows, slap a new name on it (they'll probably avoid numbers to disassociate it from Win8), and in about 4 years, we'll (mostly) forget about it (except for using it as an example of OSs sucking like ME and Vista), Win8 will have forked off into a mobile OS, and Win9'll be the basis of new MS desktop OSs, though MS will have lost some market share to Apple and Linux which both kept the mobile and computer OSs separate. Actually, they'll probably fuck it back up in time for Win10.

Basically, I'm expecting Win8 to be Vista all over again.

I think it's going to be the Year of the Linux Desktop — we'll see a great increase for Linux. The gaming audience will have moved to Linux, but the majority of users will have stayed.

It'll be like Vista, only worse. Won't do much damage to Microsoft, though. They'll still have schools and offices wrapped around their finger.

Though those markets will probably hang onto their Win7 boxes longer, much like they did with Vista and XP.

I see most gamers simply holding off upgrading until Win9, considering switching to the Mac OS (look at it this way: WINE already runs on that as well, people have heard of it, and it still has more native game support than Linux), or just reusing Win7 disks, but I think that the Linux crowd overestimates the willingness of people to switch over from what they know and how much most people care about things like Open Source (hint: most people give exactly zero fucks). Linux will only really gain traction with gamers if they can get their fancy games to run on it reliably, which could possibly be facilitated by someone like Alienware (simply as an example of a gaming focused hardware maker) forking off a version of WINE that can actually run a wide variety of modern games (we're talking your newest CODs and such) with little to no slowdown and as installed, at the "Platinum" (flawless out of the box) level (fortunately, with both software and hardware control, this should be easier, though still difficult). Or by widespread Linux support by AAA developers because indies are already fairly likely (at least compared to AAA devs) to have Linux support, but many gamers simply don't care about non-AAA titles, dismissing them as gimicky and/or subpar pieces of trash, or just never notice them.

(Slightly more) simply put, normal home users who don't like Win8 will probably go Mac unless OEMs present a cheaper alternative in Linux, and even then, only if it proves easy to use (we're talking at the level of making Linux Mint or Ubuntu look like they're for absolute pros only in comparison). Gamers will (in my estimation of order of probability, and taking a steep nosedive after option b) a.) stick with what they have (especially if they just upgraded), b.) reuse their current Win7 disks, c.)just bite the bullet, d.) give Mac a crack, e.) or MAYBE give Linux a shot. Offices and schools will probably stick with Win7 boxes or get a "special" Enterprise/Education version that acts like Win7 for the most part.

If you're wondering why I'm so cynical about widespread Linux adoption even as a Linux user, it's because I've seen this kind of response to an upcoming bad Windows OS before. Linux guys tend to think Linux is gonna see a HUGE boost in popularity, bad Windows release comes out, people bitch and stick with what they already have or go Mac but very few go Linux, "fixed" version of Windows comes out (and MS regains at least some of their market share), Linux remains obscure and associated with certain types of neckbeards/unheard of, and the cycle repeats.

edited 30th Sep '12 10:03:05 PM by Balmung

I think folks have been predicting the year of the Linux desktop for the last five years at least. Thing is, this time, they could just be right. If someone does introduce a Linux distro like Balmung suggests, and the thing actually works properly, it will get a damned sight more installs than any other distro in history, simply because people will not install Windows Vista Mark Two.

Thinking that one bad windows release == The Year Of Linux On The Desktop is, sorry, crazy. There have been bad windows releases before — remember? Like every other version.

Thing is, now the gaming industry is getting curious about Linux. Forget about Android for a minute-we're talking about Linux proper. Remember that Gabe Newell, the boss of a major PC game company that runs one of the biggest digital distribution operations for games, has expressed interest in Linux and has criticized Windows 8. Add to that the fact that Valve has been making some progress on a Steam client for Linux and plans for porting to the major distros. Granted, I think Valve are one of, if not the only game company looking at Linux at the moment, but things might indeed change not only if 8 is massively bad, but also if the PC games industry is willing to put their weight behind Linux.

At most, I think the gaming industry is seeing the point of why having one dominant OS is a bad thing; stupidity at the helm affects them all and there's no alternative.

I'll concede this could help the adoption of Linux. It's just not going to kill Windows.

One of the other major impediments to widespread Linux adoption beyond the fact that Windows is what most people already know (though Win8 looks to break that) is that most people don't know HOW to install a new OS. As I said, Linux will probably see a small bump in numbers, maybe even gain a whole percentage point of market share, but most people will (assuming they dislike Win8) will either keep on using what they already have or go Mac. In the end, MS probably won't lose more than 5 percentage points of market share, with the lion's share of what they lose going to Apple. It'll sting for MS, but not much worse than Vista most likely.

Also, I think that most of use PC gamers have an overinflated view of our impact on the market. By and large, we're not the target audience. We're a niche market. For the most part, I doubt MS even really cares about PC gamers at all in the first place.

Now, all that said, I'd love to see a fairly substantial migration to Linux, but actually expecting to see one just strikes me as naively optimistic.

edited 1st Oct '12 7:55:05 AM by Balmung

I think we've been aware of that since MS decided to focus on the Xbox. Why do you think that so many of us hold Valve in higher regard than the company who made the systems we've been playing on for years?

What I'm saying is that it seems unlikely that future Windows releases will do much to try to appease PC gamers in particular, barring a mass exodus, which is unlikely because big companies like EA and Activision will probably stick with only bothering with Windows support because big business tends to support big business and it's what they already know.

In the meantime, Linux still has several obstacles to success including spotty Flash performance, somewhat awkward audio, and a lack of certain popular applications like iTunes and Microsoft Office. And yes, there's Open Office, but its spreadsheet and slideshow programs often still have trouble doing completely proper conversion to MS Office formats.

The future for Adobe is HTML 5. They have already neck-shot Flash for the mobile market, expect that state of affairs to get more widespread in the desktop space.

Have a swatch at this:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/09/25/adobe-announces-amazing-suite-of-html5-tools-in-bid-to-merge-open-source-and-profit/

Also, some bad news for the Cult of the Orchard.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/10/01/after-30-billion-mistake-can-tim-cook-manage-apple/ Seems the Cult's map app is so shit they are telling folks not to use it.

edited 1st Oct '12 12:47:59 PM by TamH70

Flash is an ugly mutant dog with more eyes than it needs. Time to put it down, I think.

I know Flash sucks, but lots of content still uses it, making it relatively important to have.

They've already technically killed Flash for desktop Linux (it survives as the Pepper API plugin for Google Chrome), so I'd expect it to die for the other platforms eventually (Mac support will probably end way before Windows though, thanks to people using it for purposes like entire websites...).

Speaking of desktop Linux, I've once again ditched Windows for Elementary OS Luna. Despite the "unstable" label, I've yet to see any major glitches. Very impressed so far.

edit: And of course, I jinxed it. Back to Ubuntu + GNOME Shell for me.

edited 2nd Oct '12 1:36:32 AM by DemonSharkKisame

Eh, I'm not wild about the look of Gnome 3. The again, I chose MATE and later Cinnamon for their visual similarities to Windows on the grounds that I'd have less to relearn with a GUI with a similar layout.

It's not that hard to get used to, you know. Besides, I dumped that for Kubuntu not too long afterwards, since KDE seems to love my computer.

edit: Never mind, back to GNOME. Finally got Skype to not suck though, seems I needed to install a few 32-bit libraries that don't get pulled in when Skype is normally installed.

edited 3rd Oct '12 4:24:49 PM by DemonSharkKisame

Just bought my Intel Core i5 2500k off of ebay. Hopefully it won't be too long until I get the thing then I can start on building the Beast Mark 2.

@pvtnum11

Old as it may be, it still lists some very good principles when it comes to looking for a PC that you want.

And the guide never said it was Ragnarok-proof. Just stable enough to withstand everything within normal conditions.

edited 3rd Oct '12 7:48:03 PM by Nettacki

Agreed, the principles are sound. Just that the details are not. Provided that the user follows the principles, they'll end up okay.

The Ragnarok-proofing jibe is simply a statement of fact - an awesome build now will be merely adequate in three years, and functionally obsolete in five (or thereabouts). I'm dealing with that with my laptop. The Asus G50Vt was pretty good three years ago, but it's woefully underpowered for most modern games today, which is why I want to replace it with a G74 before the year is over.

edited 4th Oct '12 11:16:00 AM by pvtnum11

I suppose this qualifies as technology: NIST has selected the Keccak algorithm to be the SHA-3 hash function. [1]