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191 Comments
- BinaryFragger, on 10/12/2007, -3/+48"Linspire isn't really something to brag about.. It's like Linux for kids and old people."
And they're you have the main problem with Linux. The software isn't problematic; it's the elitist attitude from some users that is the main issue. For a long time, Linux was difficult to use, which hurt its adoption rate. Now we have easy-to-use distributions that even grandma can use, and these distributions are criticized for being too easy to use.
Any distribution that introduces non-technical people to Linux is a good thing. Linux for kids and old people? That's a good thing! Linux isn't just for nerds anymore. - MasterChi, on 10/12/2007, -5/+47The entire host is down, not just the site !!
Digg community rejoice.....our power is so strong we took down a whole hosting service. We truly are great. - underthelinux, on 10/12/2007, -6/+41@Lyph
Aren't those the poeple that linux needs to target in order to become more mainstream? The great part about it is that we can still use it the way we want but the non-technorati can as well. - MBHoy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+26Response from my host:
"The data center that your server is housed in, is having major
connection problems at the moment. They are working on fixing this and
have assured us that it will be back up by tomorrow, but it is expected
to be morning before its fixed. We are sorry for the inconvenience, and
any downtime over our guarantee will be compensated. I'm afraid that's
all the information that I have now."
Let me ensure you, this was not taken down by digg, it died just after I posted it. Urgh. Time to move host, me thinks. - Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -5/+24@Lyph4:
"Linspire isn't really something to brag about.. It's like Linux for kids and old people."
Read: In the case where I am capable of something that you are not, whatever you choose to do is *****.
There, fixed that for you. - databyss, on 10/12/2007, -2/+20"And because I couldn't download "Wine" (because I didn't have the internet) I spent half an hour doing some crazy ***** just to get my broadband working."
Wine can be installed from the start since it's included on the CD so there would be no need to download it.
"And since Linux is open-source, I don't understand what would prevent hackers from creating billions of virusus for it as soon as it gets popular using that code. Imagine if Microsoft laid out all it's IE code..."
Oh the irony.
Open Source code is generally more stable and secure because it was built secure with tons of people examining what could go wrong and fixing it. If a hacker can find a way in, he can fix the code so that it's not possible anymore, and somebody else will likely find the problem before and fix it.
If the code for IE was available, it would likely be turned into an unusable browser due to the number of new exploits. - airjrdn, on 10/12/2007, -7/+25Actually loser, it's hosted on Linux
"Server Type: Apache/2.0.59 (Unix)"
http://whois.domaintools.com/mbhoy.com
Post your useless drivel elsewhere. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+27 Ive used Linspire over a year and now have Freespire.
It's been a great ride so far and i see no reason to buy a OS from Microsoft ever again.
In fact,here is a nice read on comparing Vista to MEPIS Linux:
http://desktoplinux.com/articles/AT9727687530.html - brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17"And since Linux is open-source, I don't understand what would prevent hackers from creating billions of virusus for it as soon as it gets popular using that code. Imagine if Microsoft laid out all it's IE code..."
Linux isn't 100% secure, but there are a lot of heavy hitters using it (IBM, Novell). Just because something is open source doesn't mean any random anonymous user can add to the official code. Only a few people control the kernel code, and all changes have to go through them. Then, all code eventually gets scrutinized by the community. Additionally, since not all Linux distros are created equal, writing a virus that works for all of them is damn near impossible. There are hundreds of Linux distributions that in certain ways behave completely different than the others.
The days of people writing virii solely to cause damage are over, anyway. Adware and Spyware are the main concerns for computer users now. Over 90% of all malware is installed by the user. Covert installation is the number one way malware gets on your PC. The argument that Windows is only vulnerable because it's the most used OS is bull. Windows is the most vulnerable OS because of it's "do everything or do nothing" security model.
In XP, you were by default running at administrator access. That's like doing your daily tasks on linux running as root. You can greatly increase your Windows security today just by creating a limited, separate user account with no administrative privileges for day-to-day tasks. The only problem is that limited accounts do not let you install programs, plugins, or do any system settings changes at all. That may be fine for some people, but I am CONSTANTLY installing new stuff and changing settings all the time, a limited account is not an option for me.
Linux/Unix/OS X are more secure because they allow you to temporarily grant administration rights, as opposed to having to log in and run a full desktop session as the administrator. Any system settings change or program installation has to be approved by password entry. Unlike XP, you can quickly grant access without having to log off and back on to an account with more permissions.
Vista has improved on this, but in true Microsoft fashion, they've completely missed the point. User Account Control in Vista is just plain annoying. Instead of having to type a password, users have to wait for their entire screen to fade out just to hit an "Allow" button. Additionally, UAC pops up so much, it breeds one of two scenarios:
1. The User gets so fed up with their screen going dark every 5 minutes so they can allow the simple, routine task that they initiated to run, that they just turn off UAC, completely nullifying the point in the first place
2. If the user can stand the annoying frequency of the pop-ups, they just have to click a button as opposed to typing a password. Because of this, they'll be hitting "Allow" an awful lot. Eventually, the user will stop thinking about it, and just keep hitting "Allow" out of instinct, and eventually allow a piece of malware to be installed.
Back on task, every OS has flaws, and every OS is vulnerable to some degree. The great thing about open source code is that it's public and can be scrutinized as such. Writing a virus for a POSIX-modeled OS (Unix, OSX, Linux) is inherently more difficult than writing one for Windows due to the security models used. A lot of Linux distributions are just safer without being annoying. It's funny you mentioned IE, which is historically the most vulnerable browser ever released by far. It has had more security exploits than its Open-source rival Firefox by orders of magnitude. Even though Firefox carried a pretty decent share of the market, it was still proven to be harder to hack into. - davidrools, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18well since the site's down i guess we can just talk linux? i installed freespire last night but it missed a lot of my hardware that ubuntu edgy installed automatically. i started my mostly-permanent move to linux a few weeks ago and it's been a challenge and an adventure and wonderful. i highly recommend it to anyone who's just a little bit computer savvy. vista sucks. i dont even like osx.
- MrSarcasm, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19Oh,. there are plenty of games for linux!
Like, emacs, turbo manual reading, irssi and even... flaming KDE - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15considering it's probably a bandwidth issue, that's a really retarded statement to make.
- MBHoy, on 10/12/2007, -9/+20Sorry for the downtime, don't know what this is about. My entire host is down.
http://www.mfhost.com - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13I love how people talk about switching to Linux like they're giving up alcohol.
- pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Just so Twist doesn't mislead anyone thinking of trying Linux:
You probably won't need to use Wine to make your broadband connection work. Wine is an implementation of many Windows libraries for Linux, meant to make it possible to run Windows software without modification. My best guess is that Twist was trying to run some special dialer software. If you're not using that under Windows, you won't need it under Linux.
There are many interfaces available for Linux that aren't available for Windows. Even assuming that a given interface could be transferred, it hasn't been done yet, whatever it is.
Maybe Linux is easily hackable (although I doubt it), but that doesn't mean that running Linux won't give you years of peace before virus-writers catch up. - justinjacobs, on 10/12/2007, -7/+17Great story. I've spent almost a year using Linux myself. I started with Fedora Core 4, and now I use Ubuntu Edgy Eft. The only time I ever really see Windows now is at school/work.
- brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -7/+17Incorrect
- SharkyTech, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Sometimes I wonder why people bother going to the trouble of establishing botnets for a DDoS attack when they could just post their target on digg.
- MBHoy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12OK GUYS, I MADE A COPY OF THE ARTICLE:
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/12023663120462347840
SORRY FOR ANY INCONVEINIENCE! - merce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Why does DuggMirror not seem to catch anything anymore? What's the point of it then?
- xgunterx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12[quote]
And since Linux is open-source, I don't understand what would prevent hackers from creating billions of virusus for it as soon as it gets popular using that code. Imagine if Microsoft laid out all it's IE code...
[/quote]
That myth is older than the story of Moses walking over water.
This should give you a clue:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/security_report_windows_vs_linux/#linuxdesign
More to find with Google. - cawpin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12"I spent half an hour doing some crazy ***** just to get my broadband working."
It took you an hour to plug in an ethernet cable?
pauldonnely is correct. Even if you are using a dialer, you should have a router since you have broadband and you can use it to "dial in". - Kevin108, on 10/12/2007, -6/+156 months on Linux, 6 minutes on Digg.
- KnightWhoSaysNi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12@lyph4
"Linspire isn't really something to brag about.. It's like Linux for kids and old people."
Linux will never be viable as a Windows replacement until it can be used by kids and old people.
Even Linspire is not there yet. - xgunterx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Indeed it does!
You must be drained by now?
A happy OpenSUSE user. :-) - davidrools, on 10/12/2007, -7/+14"mfhost" must stand for motherf%^&* sucky host
- Nightfall, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Each tool has its use. Same goes for the OS. I run Ubuntu at home as well as Windows XP and I can tell you that they both have their pluses and minuses. There is no way I would run either one or the other exclusively because neither of them fully achieve my computing needs. The fanboys on both sides need to open their minds a little bit to the opposite side.
- strabes, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Yeah, for $2000
- brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8"I spent half an hour doing some crazy ***** just to get my broadband working."
that's strange. Every time I've installed Linux (and I've done it a lot on several computers), the broadband connection requires no setup whatsoever. It kind of just works. Unless you got some really jacked-up hardware, all you should need to do is plug the ethernet cable in to the modem. Wireless didn't even need setting up on my friend's laptop. - brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10If you're not a professional, you don't need photoshop. Gimp does everything an amateur needs to do and then some.
- oobuntu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9actually i think they're trying to say, that you should use linux every day before criticising it because a lot of people use XP 300 days per year at work, and then use linux for 10 minutes and then proceed to complain they don't know how to do stuff.
you need to immerse yourself fully, and not just slap it on your crummy old 800mhz P3 machine.
i do agree there are a lot of articles like this appear on slow news days... - WRXHokie, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Couldnt agree with you more mobilehavoc. I've had similar experiences, and if you own an iPod, then just forget it. Its not worth the hastle when you can just run windows, or os x and not have to deal with it.
Ubuntu is frankly not nearly as good as the fanboy's make it out to be. I've had much more success with OpenSuse 10.2, but even then it took me hours to get my broadband working, and my then the issues with my iPod are just hopeless. Oh and if you want to play games... forget it. You can do it, but you have to an uber amount of experience with wine or linux in general to get them working at half the speed that they run in windows. These are the reasons why linux is not even close to challenging windows. - discourse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7google cache of the article: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:K1rPP1SBwAEJ:www.mbhoy.com/22-02-2007/six-months-on-pure-linux+http://www.mbhoy.com/22-02-2007/six-months-on-pure-linux&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=za&client=firefox-a
- lilrabbit129, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"Linspire isn't really something to brag about.. It's like Linux for kids and old people."
Your comment shows probably the #1 thing wrong with the linux community.
(BTW I use FC6, so its not linux hating) - jcraveiro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT7770280571.html
- pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I use Linux because I prefer staying connected to wireless networks over connecting every couple of minutes (/still bitter over whatever the hell is wrong with my networking in Windows).
- MBHoy, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13Actually, invid it's down for another reason. I'm just back now, and I'll call my host, should have it sorted soon. This ***** probably hurt my digg rate though. Last time it went down at around 900 diggs... hmm.
- dougm68, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Your logic is flawed.
Wifes don't suck.
Girlfriends do. =P - afex, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7i usually don't bite on these types of things but i used to be a 'linux can't do wireless' guy...so a few months ago you know what i did? i googled this phrase:
"ubuntu wpc11 v4" (my card)
you know what i got? about a billion forums with handholding instructions on how to get it to work. you know what i got 5 mins later? a kickass wireless connection. there is something to be said for the great community that's out there if you're willing to be patient and do a little reading. - mobilehavoc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I want to be enlightened as a Ubuntu user for the last 6+ months what the ***** does Linux provide over Windows? As in, how would you sell someone to try Linux over Windows?
The free thing doesn't work since most people get a copy of Windows with their hardware. Software doesn't work because there's obviously more mainstream apps for Windows than Linux. Hardware doesn't work because Windows has possibly the best hardware compatibility out there. Games doesn't work because Windows is the gaming platform of choice. Stability doesn't work because with XP SP2 and Vista these days, my Windows install is as stable if not more than my Edgy install.
SO WHAT THE ***** IS LEFT?!?!? - underthelinux, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11the ironing is delicious.
- ucg1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6For $599 you get an underpowered piece of *****. I know because I own one.
- FuzzyCat, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9
..and also someone who thinks it's the number of Diggs a site get that kills it rather than the traffic/hits.. - BassJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Still down.......guess i'll have to read it tomorrow now! Quite how I'm going to survive the rest of the day without my weekly read of a "I've switched to linux........" blog article on Digg I don't know!
This should be top of those other favourites for the front page "10 ways to get to the front page"
1. Write an article on how you gave up windows for linux
2. Write an article on how to get to the front page
3. Repeat steps 1&2 - woxidu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No, he's getting paid by the beverage company to keep us healthy.
- MBHoy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Another message from my ***** host:
2/23/2007 12:55 PM (EST)
After speaking with the data center again a few minutes ago, I am not sure that they are actually going to be back online anytime soon. I will keep everyone updated. If they are not online by tomarrow at noon we will start refunding our clients.
Archive of the text you're all looking for: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/12023663120462347840 - mobilehavoc, on 10/12/2007, -5/+9I was on Ubuntu Dapper and then recently Edgy for about 6 months too...except I finally gave up on it for a few major reasons that matter to ME:
- At least with the Ubuntu distro, their update QA is ***** horrible. Over the last 6 months, there have been several updates that are listed as security/performance updates which have either broken Xserver or the entire install. Add to that I have ATI's fglrx driver which breaks every time there's a new kernel update and other update problems...I have to think twice before installing any updates now and that's just retarded
- iTunes. I used GTKpod and it worked but I couldn't play the iTunes music or videos I had purchased from the store. Also the podcast/RSS feed catcher is either broken in the release I tried or just plain ass sucks. iPodder Lemon worked for podcasts but required manual intervention to get the ***** onto my iPod (for videos I had to run a script that updated the metadata in the videos so my iPod could read it). So in the end, was a royal pain in the ass. AND YES I tried Amarok, Banshee, etc. - they all sadly suck compared to iTunes when you own an iPod
- Compatibility with several hardware - such as my Logitech webcam (I know it can be done but is annoying), my Logitech Harmony remote, Wireless for 3945ABG (it's NOT out of the box support on Edgy so don't even go there), my Blackberry desktop software, Office 2007 (yes unfortunately I actually use my computers to do work too...shocking!) and of course the occasional games that I decide to play not what works in Wine or Cedega or whatever.
So in the end, I just got sick and tired of making compromises in order to use OSS...I didn't gain anything over running Windows (my Windows XP and now Vista install have been rock solid/stable) but rather lost functionality and had to use workarounds. Running Wine or VMWare in Linux to run Windows programs was just too moronic for me personally when I can just boot into Windows and run them natively along with all my other stuff.
Good luck to the rest of you but I don't think Linux is even close to challenging Windows in the mainstream consumer marketplace yet...maybe in a few more years. - immrlizard, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6After all, that is the sign of a good OS, a good looking solitaire game. The only reason I even tried linux is because I was tired of having to patch windows all of the time and not having it make any difference. Microsoft is never going to have a safe OS, so I thought I would look and see what else was out there. I couldn't see getting a mac because they are just as bad if not worse them MS in some ways. I still use windows for a couple things, but those are getting more and more limited.
If you are truly that sick of hearing about linux then go into your prefs and uncheck the linux box. Problem solved. You won't see another linux article. Believe it or not, there are other people out there are looking to try something else. Since it is free, if they don't like it they can always go back to the way it was. That is what is great. - ronaldst, on 10/12/2007, -8/+12Another MS hater just got owned.
- spritom, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5...and you pay for both a girlfriend or a wife.
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