Tuesday, August 28, 2001

Windows in Linux -- 7:04 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

ZDNet has an article comparing five ways to run Windows in Linux. It's a handy thing for those applications that just aren't there (or not quite there) for Linux yet. Thanks Slashdot.

SOF Platinum released -- 5:44 pm CST, Update by The Master

Whilst I'm waiting for my son to wake up from his nap so I can go home, I read a Kenn Hoekstra .plan update indicating the new Soldier of Fortune: Platinum edition is available online. Kenn has also added mirrors to the update, so go forth and download all SOF fans.

A.T. Hun comments: Hopefully Loki will get a patch for the Linux version out too so I could actually play online, although I'm not holding my breath.

Pondering the Imponderable -- 9:42 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I was just flipping through the channels and I happened to catch Alien Ant Farm's cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal." A cool cover and a cool video. Quite a bit heavier than the original :)

Last Sunday we had our fantasy football draft which I missed for the second year in a row. Thus my team was chosen for me again. We'll see how the old Fightin' Wombats do this year.

Monday, August 27, 2001

The Death of BeOS -- 7:51 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Scot Hacker (an appropriate name) has an article on Byte.com on the death of the Be operating system. Be's assets were recently purchased by Palm. Hacker blames Microsoft's anticompetitive practices for Be's failure. While the article is interesting, here's a bit I take issue with:

So here we are in 2001, and guess what? It's still not possible to purchase a dual-boot Win/Linux machine. Doesn't that seem kind of odd? With all of the hype Linux has gotten, and with the technical simplicity of shipping dual-boot machines, not a single PC OEM is shipping such a beast. The technology marketplace is glutted with options. Vendors use even the smallest opportunities to trumpet their differentiating factors. Linux is free. And yet there are no commercially available dual-boot machines on the market. Not one. The silence of the marketplace speaks volumes. There is no other way to explain this phenomenon other than as a repercussion of the confidential Windows License under which every hardware vendor must do business.

The emphasis is the author's. While the Windows License does indeed suck and is almost certainly anticompetitive, there is more to this issue. PC manufacturers don't want to have to support Linux. They have a hard enough time finding people who form a half-decent tech support for Windows, much less trying to do it with Linux.

I never used BeOS, but trying to make an OS that will compete financially with Microsoft is utter foolishness. It reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where a programmer asks Dogbert for money to write a Windows word processor. Dogbert offers $20--to have the waitress hit him upside the head. The reason why Linux has a chance is because it is open source, so it is not subject to the financial pressures M$ can exert. Thanks Linux Today.

IE 6.0 Released -- 6:00 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Well kids, Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 6.0 on the unsuspecting masses. Now Windows machines will have a new and improved way to GPF! I suppose I'll have to download it eventually to my Windows partition so I can make sure The Haus displays correctly. Hopefully I can push it off until the inevitable 6.1 release.

UPDATE! Redwood reports that his Win2K system would blue screen like crazy after he installed IE 6.0. Fortunately he was able to go to safe mode and remove it. Caveat emptor.

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