* Posts by Sandtitz

1702 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Oct 2010

Trying out Microsoft's pre-release OS/2 2.0

Sandtitz Silver badge

Re: Microsoft Presentation for the 1989 IBM PS/2 forum

The SIQ was very frustrating and IIRC it happened to me annoyingly often for the years I used OS/2 at home (2.1 -> Warp 4). I remember someone actually wrote a driver where you could use e.g. joystick port to reset/restart PM - the only other way was resetting the PC and losing all work. Most annoyingly I couldn't replicate this with a specific software or work pattern.

I don't think SIQ affected the sales in any meaningful way, people just didn't find use for OS/2 - all the software was for Windows (and DOS), and driver support was poor. I also remember my snappy 486/33/8 (with a reasonably fast non-SCSI hard drive) using around 4 minutes to load OS/2 2.1 desktop -- 3 minutes longer than just DOS+Windows.

Software offerings was poor all around. Things like terminal emulators for dialing into the BBS's were lacking in basic features (ANSI, Zmodem) for a long time until i found ZOC. Interestingly my 14400bps ISA modem (with crappy UART) suffered from buffer overruns under OS/2 all the way to my later Pentium box with Warp 3/4 - but when I made the move to NT4 the problems vanished - better multitasking I guess.

EU users can't update 3rd party iOS apps if abroad too long

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Re: Why does anyone buy Apple?

That's a good idea, but I don't have a Mac so can't compare...

Sandtitz Silver badge

Re: Why does anyone buy Apple?

"Honest question — what for? You think it’s faster? Better in some way?"

Do I think it's faster? Impossible to say because 3rd party engines are not permitted on iPhone.

I certainly think Firefox browser is better than Safari on my iPhone already with features, better UI.

Apple does not have any real competition for browsers on iOS so what's their excuse of lagging on all HTML5 features, for example?

Do I and everyone else think that Safari is the best possible browser on macOS? No. Why would it be any different on iPhone?

"Do you see a lot of consumer excitement over browser engines on iOS?"

No. I do not generally interview people about their browser habits. What's your sampling size?

Sandtitz Silver badge
Stop

Re: Why does anyone buy Apple?

has anyone actually heard an iPhone user say “I wish I could use Firefox’ rendering engine on iPhone”?

I wish I could use Firefox rendering engine on iPhone.

Safari is okay. WebKit is okay.

Perhaps you are fine with just "okay". Not all are.

We’re okay with the ‘walled garden’. If we weren’t, we would’ve held our noses and gotten Android.

I would like to use my iPhone in a way that Apple doesn't currently allow. Something really simple like setting an audio file to a ringtone is trivial with Android. Whoever is responsible for the ringtone management with iPhone should be hanged, drawn and quartered.

I'm can manage just fine with the walled garden on my iPhone because nothing exists outside of it for iPhone, but I am surely interested in changing the web browser with another engine. I am using iPhone not because it is Apple, but because it ain't Google. Apple has some things done better than Android. And vice versa.

Hold up world, HP's all-in-one print subscription's about to land, and don't forget AI PCs

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Re: Sweating assets

The pick-up rolls failed early and required replacing too often. HP even offered a free one-time DIY cardboard fix for every model.

Not picking up papers / picking several papers at the same time were the typical problems.

The redheaded stepchild in otherwise all right LaserJet 5 family.

Actually all upright HP models have been shite, perhaps because they naturally gather dust inside them. After 6L they came up with Laserjet 1100 - shite for the same reasons.

Sandtitz Silver badge

Re: Sweating assets

"Single digit LaserJets also had the reputation of lasting forever"

Laserjet 5L and 6L were cheap shite.

Musk 'texts' Nadella about Windows 11's demands for a Microsoft account

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Re: Some elements of the operating system simply do not work

"If you have Microsoft Authenticator (required if you have corporate 365 with MFA)"

Authy and others work just fine with 365+MFA.

Microsoft catches the Wi-Fi 7 wave with Windows 11

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Re: Marketing needs to feed

"It’s just a new driver that MS happen to include in the standard build, nothing special."

It won't be just a new driver, although I suspect a Wi-Fi adapter would probably work without official OS support.

802.11be includes ability to connect simultaneously to all 2.4/5/6 GHz bands. Operating Systems expect wireless adapter to connect to a single band, so existing framework needs new code in how connectivity is reported and configured. 802.11be should come with major latency improvements so perhaps changes in the network stacks are needed as well. Certainly some work has been done with Linux kernel, and not just new drivers.

I do not understand what people have against newer gen devices and faster speeds. "640kB is enough"?

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FAIL

Re: Marketing needs to feed

"How many El Reg readers have any device capable of WiFi-7? Hands up now.... Wot! No one... Quelle surprise."

What a silly remark. I don't have 400Gbit networking products at home or workplace, yet I'm quite glad the operating systems support it. Or many other advances in tech.

Linux kernel has had WiFi-7 development for 1.5 years now according to Phoronix.

Why aren't you ranting about it - because it is not Microsoft?

Persistent memory to replace DRAM, but it could take a decade

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Re: Its gonna be hard to supplant DRAM

"because persistent memory is of little use to most people"

Intel tried to sell the Xpoint memory for awhile in many configurations. The Optane NVMe drives had lowest random access latencies available but most people were already pretty happy with the move from HDD to SSD (and NVMe) that the difference wasn't worth the price difference.

The Optane NVDIMM modules are/were in a different class - the latency being something like 1 / 100th of NVMe drives. The sequential read speeds were only regular NVMe class (even if the memory bus allows way more) but write speeds were much lower.

Too bad those NVDIMM's worked only on Intel Xeon platforms, were expensive (duh!) and initially they were available in small 16/32GB modules, and you could populate maybe three of them per CPU (or per system? getting hazy...) so not that big. I think the later NVDIMM generatiosn allowed much bigger systems.

I'm sure there are applications that will greatly benefit from those super low latencies, but as you say, little use to most people.

Worried about the impending demise of Windows 10? Google wants you to give ChromeOS Flex a try

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Re: ChromeOS *is* Linux

I also recommend checking the EOL list for the Chromeos Flex. Some of those computer models have lost support last year already, many will lose support before Windows 10 is actually put to pasture, and some models actually came with Win11 which will outlast the support date in the Chromeos Flex list!

So if you only fancy a quick web browser and nothing else, then Flex could be worth a shot. Otherwise it's Linux every time.

What really irks me is that Google can't be bothered to support optical media many of those computers will have. No way to listen to CD's or watch DVD's.

I have an Android TV box that is a great HTPC. Cheap, easy to setup, easy to use even for the technophobes. I also have a lot of CD's, and films in DVD format - and a USB DVD drive - but I can't use it because Google has removed all optical support from the Linux kernel so Kodi/VLC and others cannot read the discs.

Sandtitz Silver badge

Re: What does "stream an app" mean?

"I thought the *-365 apps were web-based and only required a subscription and a browser (like Chrome) to run?"

365 requires subscription. Companies can opt for the cheapest O365 tier, currently named "Microsoft 365 Business Basic", which only includes access to the web based applications.

In all other Company/Home tiers the users receive the full Office suite package for Windows/Mac/Android/iOS.

SAP hits brakes on Tesla company car deal

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Joke

Warp?

"Warp, as in Star Trek's warp drive. Given recent delivery projections, it might have to rename it chug-a-chug-chug."

Consider Musk's attention span, they should call it the Musk Impulse Drive.

AI models just love escalating conflict to all-out nuclear war

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Re: Unsurprising....

"Usually, it ends with the AI realising that Humans are the problem.."

Can't recommend enough the Colossus novel, where the AI takes control of both US and Russian nuclear arsenal, detonates a few of them and threatens humans unless they "act nice together" under its absolute rule. A ripping yarn.

The film version is faithful to the book and well made as well. Just avoid the book sequels.

Amid Broadcom's subscription push, VMware killed a SaaS product

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"I'm in the position where I've prevented all of my VMware products connecting to t'internet just in case..."

I think that is wise for any infrastructure product, a mandatory security mitigation really.

Users now keep cellphones for 40+ months and it's hurting the secondhand market

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Re: Xiaomi Mi 9, the one with Qi charging, since March 2019, aka 58 Month.

"Satya Stupella killed Windows Phone when it just was taking off."

Quite a revisionist take there. WinPhone market was fizzling, with less and less apps was ported for it.

Micros~1 could have spent Billions more with it, but it wasn't a winning hand.

NB. I was happy with the Lumia 820 and 640 phones I used at some point. TIFKAM was better interface than what IOS or Android offered.

Satya has a good record at Micros~1 - now, his predecessor on the other hand...

After injecting cancer hospital with ransomware, crims threaten to swat patients

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Re: Brutality

"Do you know why it doesn't work as a deterrent? Because inmates gets a place to sleep, 3 meals a day, access to medical care, TV & Internet and all that FOR FREE! Make them earn their keep (not Auschwitz style but close) and you'll see some deterrent.

"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons"

A place to sleep? Perhaps some vagrants do petty crimes to exit winter conditions and for a more regular meal ticket. I believe that is a very small percentage of all prisoners, however.

So, how much nutrition would AC be ready to give the inmates? Denying medical care - do you think most criminals are already paragons of health and would care? Denying TV - should the inmates also be denied of all news and entertainment as well? All those are recipe for mental issues and more violence. Any freed inmate will just cause more problems for the society when they come back with no skills, in poor health due to denied medical care and starvation, and probably bearing a grudge against everyone. Easiest course for them is to continue criminal life.

People commit capital offenses because they don't pay any thought to a possible sentence; some believe they can get away with crimes; some have the "get rich or die tryin" mentality; some are ushered to crimes by the company they are with. Some people have mental issues (psychopaths, sociopaths) and can be violent without (apparent) provocation, or are totally indifferent to other people's suffering without consideration for their own punishment. People still kill people in states where death penalty is certain.

Google to start third-party cookie cull for 30 million Chrome users

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Re: Armchair

"People...keep buying overpriced crap cause it's Apple (insert favourite maga-corp here),"

I use an iPhone. Not because it's Apple, but because it isn't Google. What's your excuse for using Android - the extra privacy?

"watch Disney movies...."

Sturgeon's Law applies with all movies. Disney has good movies and bad movies.

People power made payroll support in putrid places prodigiously perilous

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Re: Explosion proofing

Earthquake "proof" rack cases (or mechanisms to be put under your existing rack) do exist; I would always put at least rubbery rack feet to absorb shocks even if you weren't in a mine / earthquake area. Near-by pile driving, or hauling/operating of heavy equipment in the same building can cause shocks as well.

Israel to plow $3.2B into $25B Intel fab project

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Mushroom

Re: Intel .. big chips , small brain.

"Who should we blame for the cluster bombs lobbed into Belgorod, apparently killing 20 and injuring over 100?"

Get with the times. The casualties were all caused by the inept Russian anti-aircraft defenses.

"if Russia does it, why isn't it a war crime when Israel drops US 2,000lb bombs on apartment buildings?"

Yes, both are war crimes. Glad you are finally accepting Russian war crimes in this forum.

Broadcom to end VMware’s channel program, move partners to its own invite-only offering

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Good or bad? Can't say.

The current licensing scheme has been per CPU license with up to 32 cores. So if you have a 36 core Intel Xeon, you need 2 licenses. Or if you had dual socket server with 8 core CPU's you would still have to pay for two licenses. So, when buying new VMware servers it's usually the CPU models with core count /32 producing an integer that somehow are the most attractive even if it's not the best fit.

Depending on the new licensing details this could be beneficial for some deployments:

HPE Microserver has a single 4-core Xeon. Good enough to run a couple VM's in a remote office.

Lower core count VMware clusters for Oracle DB usage due to Oracle's stupid (...or ingenious?) physical host licensing requirements.

AMD and Intel server CPU's with highest single thread performance (=raw GHz) have typically low core counts.

War of the workstations: How the lowest bidders shaped today's tech landscape

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Re: Disagree on a few points

"Multiple CPUs? Since 286 generation"

Really? I thought 386 was the first with SMP. Or was this some sort of asymmetric 286 CPU cards on a backplane thingy?

"Windows NT 4.0 - albeit I find no official information which minimum CPU was needed for multiprocessor support"

NT4 required a 486 and I think it had several HAL's included: Compaq Systempro comes to mind. Not that I ever had the pleasure of using SMP 386/486.

"I could not get two visible CPUs in my Hyper-V VM, despite changing to multiprocessor kernel due to no matching hal which boots NT 3.51, I tried all."

Hyper-V is poor for running historic OS's. NT3.1 SMP has been done on VirtualBox.

Lapsus$ teen sentenced to indefinite detention in hospital for Nvidia, GTA cyberattacks

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"blagging your way into a mental health facility to avoid prison time"

That's the idea in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Microsoft offers rollback for those affected by Windows wireless futility

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Re: Did I have the issue?

"but it could have been a coincidence..."

This problem seems to manifest only when 802.1x and 802.11r are in use.

So, if you are using a single wireless access point with only a PSK shared secret, then it probably was just a coincidence.

Microsoft floats bringing a text editor back to the CLI

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Thumb Up

Re: EDLIN?

Micro looks promising, but I'm not giving up on TSE (née Qedit) just yet.

Easily the best editor since DOS days.

Hollywood plays unwitting Cameo in Kremlin plot to discredit Zelensky

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Re: Merry Pranksters.

"Now that's hilarious. Russia has proven it's degraded economically from what a dump it was in Soviet days - a 3rd world country with a first 3rd world military. Reliant on the likes of Iranian and Nork handouts of weaponry."

Curiously there was no rebuttal for these Iranian and Nork weapon transfers, because of too much evidence that cannot be brushed away.

Just last year he claimed that stories about Iranian drones are not credible:

"There's also the 'Iranian drone' meme. Russia can produce 5th gen fighters and space station parts, yet we're meant to believe it can't produce what's essentially a souped-up RC aircraft. Err.. right."

A few months ago he made up a story about the failed T14 Armata development with "they didn't want T-14's being captured", something that Kremlin or no other Russian source has claimed so far. Perhaps Russians should stop developing new armament altogether for that reason.

Perhaps he is a devil's advocate, with the devil being somewhere inside Kremlin walls.

Sandtitz Silver badge

Re: So, now it's about substance addiction

"The line that he is a Nazi is no longer relevant?"

Russian Kommersant newspaper had an opinion poll a month ago, asking what would count as a Russian victory in the "special operation".

Only 5% answered 'destruction of fascism'.

Apparently 95% of Russians do not either call for destruction of fascism - or more likely - didn't believe the Kremlin lies in the first place.

Steam client drops support on macOS, but adds it on Linux

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""but you could still install a 32 bit version up to Win 10"

Better yet, just use winevdm. Win3.1 era software work really well on my 64-bit Windows 10.

HP exec says quiet part out loud when it comes to locking in print customers

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"As for their servers, have you tried using their support sites to get all the drivers etc you need to set one up?"

That's HPE, not HP. Same ancestor, different businesses since 2015.

I don't find HPE support site particularly hard to use at all, and setting one Proliant up doesn't really require even a visit. What's your beef?

UK competition watchdog wins appeal – investigation into Apple will go on

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"If I buy a Tesla, I don’t expect to be able to install software from BMW, or use wheels from Maserati"

Your analogy isn't hitting the mark at all. Tesla doesn't have an app store (as of yet), iPhone has.

This is not about replacing the operating system in Apple products, but what is allowed in the app store.

All the web browsers on iOS are just skins on Apple's inferior WebKit browser engine. Originally - and probably still to some degree - Apple just wanted to deny browser-based games and such by committing to a subset of HTML5 features - to push users into App Store. Having fewer features results in fewer vulnerabilities at the cost of weaker usability but I, for one, would like better browsers than what Safari or Firefox Focus can offer in my iPhone.

Apple has some valid reasons for mandating use of their own frameworks.

Parents need parental control over kids' internet browsing and if Apple's parental control won't work with 3rd party browsers, well, there's a problem.

I think Apple is also requiring software developers to use the built-in crypto provided by iOS which is probably better than having every app having vulnerable openssl libraries. Then again... Google, Microsoft and other big players are at least as adept in providing security updates / features.

USB Cart of Death: The wheeled scourge that drove Windows devs to despair

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Holmes

Ps2 was a pain, two identical (almost) sockets for different devices, yes they were colour coded"

PS/2 connectors were never color coded in IBM PS/2 computers, and at the beginning the ports were just marked simply as "1" and "2".

Several years after IBM killed PS/2 line of computers did MS + Intel come up with the PC-97 design recommendation which included the PS/2 color coding.

A PS/2 mouse was immediately addressable whereas with a serial mice autodetection wasn't granted - you needed to know which physical port one was connected. Computers (way) back then usually had two or more serial ports with no visible address at the back of a computer, so bit of guess work at times to set up.

"but trying to refit them behind a typical installed base unit was an absolute pain."

You mean inserting without seeing? I can't say the AT style DIN keyboard was any easier, and inserting a COM cable by feel wasn't easy either since they weren't always oriented the same way at the back of the chassis. At least some PS/2 mice and keyboards had a notch to indicate which way was "up".

Then again serial cables had a benefit in that they could be fastened with screws - as long as you didn't screw them too tight.

And USB Type-A still usually requires 3 tries to get it right. :-)

FFmpeg 6.1 drops a Heaviside dose of codec magic

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Re: Version numbers are not what you think

"For a long time, you couldn't tell much from a software projects version numbering which many of them particularly keen to avoid major releases – think of the openssl scheme. But more and more have since adopted more lax definitions of major.minor.patch or have gone all the way to time-based-releases."

PuTTY is turning 25 years next year and it's still only at 0.79.

I'm perfectly fine with that.

Third-party data breach affecting Canadian government could involve data from 1999

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Joke

Re: Copied not stolen

The thieves stole the originals and left copies in place.

Ubuntu Budgie switches its approach to Wayland

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Boffin

Re: @TJS

"I know, RDP, at least on Windows, is supposed to be able to give you rootless client sessions which in theory does not require you to take over the console, but I've not spent enough time trying to get it to work"

Windows Servers allow two concurrent sessions (local+remote or remote+remote) without any additional configuration after initial setup as long as you enable remote connections to it. The sessions can be allowed for non-administrators ("rootless") as well.

If you require more than two concurrent sessions, you need to enable Remote Desktop Services which requires payment to Redmond.

You cannot have two different sessions with the same user name so a remote session will take over the console session (or vice versa) if both are using the same credentials.

This functionality has been built-in since Windows 2000.

Russia's Sandworm – not just missile strikes – to blame for Ukrainian power blackouts

Sandtitz Silver badge

Re: Like I've said before

>>"Any independent and sovereign country should be able to join any economic or military alliance"

1) agreed, but it would stop being independent. Remember Brexit ?

No, being part of economic or military alliances do not make countries non-independent, nor does it mean that Russia can annex them. No matter what RT says.

You completely disregarded how Russia is part of Collective Security Treaty Organization (military) and also part of Eurasian Economic Union. Russia is still just as independent and sovereign as e.g. NATO or EU countries, no matter how much you tell the opposite.

"NATO forbid that and forced them to fight"

You are spouting unbelievable bullshit there, comrade.

"Why would that matter ?"

You stated that you are from a NATO country when all evidence points to Russia. Let me just say that I don't suspect you of being Russian.

"Russia lost the cold war and should have been disbanded in the mid-90. Since then, it's a warmongers club without any "democratic" oversight."

TFTFY.

Sandtitz Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Like I've said before

"Why would they want to conquer a country that is 1) bankrupt and 2) hates them ?"

Soviet Union wanted to conquer Finland and this Finns surely hated SU and were barely out of agrarian society at the time. The Soviet leadership wanted it to happen and settled for annexing parts of Finland when couldn't push further.

"Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty [...] A NATO country is not independent anymore"

Any independent and sovereign country should be able to join any economic or military alliance. Check the dictionary for both of those terms.

Contrary to your comment, NATO countries are independent despite the alliance - and I dare say some of those bordering Russia are still independent BECAUSE of the membership.

Why are you not complaining about Collective Security Treaty Organization, the military alliance formed in 2002 between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (and others) - the signatories of the same 1994 Budapest Memorandum? Is Russia now free to attack and annex those countries as well since by your definition they are not independent anymore?

"Why is it so important that Ukraine joins NATO ? Hell, I wish WE would leave it !"

Now, who is this purported 'WE' ? Which country are you citizen of?

Based on how badly you spelled 'Warsaw' (Varshow) - it looks more like a poorly transliterated Cyrillic version of a Warsaw and certainly not close to English spelling.

Warsaw is written in many different ways in different languages. Especially the fact that 'rsh' is not a form used outside Uzbek and 'sh' itself is used in languages where Cyrillic Ш (sha) is used - combined with capital V (not W) - makes me suspicious of your origin.

Downfall fallout: Intel knew AVX chips were insecure and did nothing, lawsuit claims

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Happy

Just nitpicking here. :-)

"DX2-100 and they demanded whatever math co-pros"

DX2 wasn't available as 100MHz, you mean DX4 - both of which included FPU.

Of course at the time the boss "needed" a Pentium which was released before DX4 came out.

"SX for the plebs who were doing all the work and making the documents."

Well, at the time SX models were fine for any office work apart from CAD. Apart from lack of FPU, they were identical to DX counterparts and fast enough to drive any word processor / spreadsheet software of that era - at least on DOS. Even if used on those fake L2 cache motherboards...

Adding Windows to the mix could have been more of struggle - usually because of lack of memory that resulted in swapping.

Word turns 40: From 'new kid on the block' to 'I can't believe it's not bloatware'

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Re: That sounds about right...

"Office '97 was the real breakthrough for Microsoft, and the reason was that everyone who wanted to could install it from the CD for free and it would never ask for money at all. That is how the competition was killed off."

This may be a shock to you but back then all software was easily copied and installed into any computer.

Office 97 wasn't any harder to pirate than say, Lotus SmartSuite, Coreldraw, Photoshop etc. The manufacturers only relied that people wouldn't share the installation keys. Software activation over internet was not used back then.

Perhaps Microsoft just had better office package than Lotus or Novell could produce?

AMD gives 7000-series Threadrippers a frequency bump with Epyc core counts

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Boffin

Threadripper is not aimed at average PC users or to run typical desktop applications.

Threadripper supports ECC memory and has more PCIe lanes than what Intel or AMD Zen offers.

More cores are helpful with (nested) virtualisation.

With Threadripper rig you can have a test/dev environment at your own desktop for cheaper than using actual Xeon / EPYC servers. YMMV.

Microsoft gives unexpected tutorial on how to install Linux

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"Linux can mount Windows partitions, but Windows can't mount Linux partitions. It will cheerfully offer to format them, though."

Sure Windows can mount Linux partitions, but you need 3rd party software for that.

But I'm sure you knew that already.

Intel offers $179 Arc A580 GPU to gamers on a budget

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Your definition of 'gamer' seems to differ from what most other people think.

I'm a gamer - in that I mostly play old games via DOSBox. Or Nethack. My 10-year-old laptop IGP is overkill for all of those.

My father-in-law plays World of Tanks with his big 1080p screen and this could be a fine card for something like that. Why pay $500 or $1000 for something that can be accomplished with less spending?

Not all people are maxing out their rigs - or they max out their rigs to the level they can afford or feel comfortable paying for.

Microsoft does not want ValueLicensing CEO anywhere near its confidentiality ring

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WTF?

Re: MS is a monopoly

"Proudly MS free since 2016"

Proud of something - yet writing as AC.

Does not compute.

Why Chromebooks are the new immortals of tech

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Re: Dafuq?

"As for ads, Windows has had them for years, like in the Bing Widget sidebar"

That "B" button one in Edge? No ads there. Perhaps you meant something else since I don't have any Bing desktop widget and don't even know how to get one.

"and in search, and the ad platform uses user telemetry data for targeting".

Perhaps this is regional? The (rather useless) Windows 10 search does not show ads, so I'm not certain what targeting there can even be?

"Windows also pushes Microsoft subscriptions to its users left, right and center"

They are pushing the Micros~1 account which still isn't mandatory, and is free.

Comparing Chromebooks against Windows PC's, the difference here is: Chromebook requires Google account.

"Edge has monetization built in (Shopping with Microsoft)"

I tried it and looks like it tries to find cheapest prices and such. How does that 'monetize Windows users' and do you find it detrimental?

"and users of standalone Office are also shown various MS365 ads and nag screens."

That really is indefensible.

"As for AI integration (Copilot), I guess you have been living under a rock or in a cave for the last couple of weeks as this was mentioned everywhere"

I took offence at the Anon Coward's comment of "so it can better lie to you", and called it FUD, because that's what it was. Do you disagree?

Sandtitz Silver badge

Re: Dafuq?

"You might be surprised how much data Microsoft Office slurps from your computer and stuffs into telemetry.."

How much?

"On top of that there are all the ads and other monetization features in Microsoft's software and Windows."

I think you need to be a bit more specific here.

I see no ads at my household nor at my clients' computers. I think Onedrive UI has an ad for higher tier with more storage space, and Win10 also had (a removable) O365 link at Start menu, but the system is not showing advertisements nor asking to fork out for subscriptions.

"And, very soon, there will be "AI" to exfiltrate your data so it can better lie to you."

FUD is the best you can offer?

Sandtitz Silver badge
Stop

Dafuq?

"Besides, most Windows and macOS users don't use local software anymore."

Spurious claim with zero references. Unless author's definition of local software only includes office products?

PC/Mac users still actually DO use local software beyond word processors and email.

"Take Microsoft Office 2021, the standalone, old-school PC version of Office. It doesn't even show up in office software market studies. The top office program today is Google Workspace, with 50.3 percent, then Microsoft 365 with 45.4 percent"

Eh... Does that statistic, include businesses, home users or education? If most/many basic and secondary education pupils in the US alone are enrolled into Google education account, that surely amounts to several millions "users".

I'd also say that a local office installation trumps browser apps in usability and availability. Not to mention confidentiality. I'd say >99% of those MS 365 users have also installed Office into their PC, Mac, phone or tablet.

"yet in practice, we all know they tend to slow down from cases of what I call Windows cruft."

"yet in practice, we all know Google looks at everything you do at Google Workspace".

And everyone believes that too.

"Major macOS versions are only maintained for three years."

So? Then you upgrade to a supported major version for free as long as the device is supported. Granted, Apple still lacks in the total life time support vs others, but even unsupported devices can be patched to later macOS versions.

Pot calls the kettle hack as China claims Uncle Sam did digital sneak peek first

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Re: Article 7 of China's National Intelligence Law @A.Coward

"Do you seriously believe that the US, UK, China, Russia and various other major countries aren't all at it?"

No. I haven't stated anything like that.

This thread is about China's National Intelligence Law and how it compels Chinese businesses anywhere in the world to provide all data the Chinese spy agencies ask for.

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Stop

Re: Article 7 of China's National Intelligence Law @A.Coward

"https://www.justice.gov/criminal-oia/cloud-act-resources"

CLOUD act is certainly not the same, and it does mandate anything like "citizens and organizations are required to function as covert operatives of the state" as mentioned in the article.

In fact it does not concern individuals at all, it is only about mandating companies to provide requested data stored on servers if a warrant is served to them. It also provides mechanisms for the companies or the courts to reject or challenge these if they believe the request violates the privacy rights of the foreign country the data is stored in.

"Also you can't even say that they requested information from you, else you get canceled, banned and destroyed."

Ah, you're speaking again about the Chinese National Intelligence Law. They sure do have a habit of making people disappear for re-education.

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Re: Article 7 of China's National Intelligence Law @A.Coward

"Stop speaking about this law, the same kind of obligations exist in the Western countries laws."

<citation needed>

Getting to the bottom of BMW's pay-as-you-toast subscription failure

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Re: if you tolerate this then your chilled air will be next.

"Struggling Acer pulls out Wang too late, then calls Wong number"

That's one title I'll never forget.

Windows August update plays Blue Screen bingo – and MSI boards got the winning ticket

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Re: Gee

This case is not too different from when Linux was bricking Samsung laptops.

Why would this case be any different when a rare CPU problem only affects select MSI boards?