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Who should your computer take its orders from?


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"Who should your computer take its orders from? Most people think their computers should obey them, not obey someone else. With a plan they call "trusted computing", large media corporations (including the movie companies and record companies), together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you. (Microsoft's version of this scheme is called "Palladium".) Proprietary programs have included malicious features before, but this plan would make it universal."

Full article here.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html

Additional reading

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html

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I've heard about it before, but honestly it isn't that alone that makes me not want any new Windows version, but instead the bugs, security exploits, costs that go along with being an MS'er.

 

Personally I'd like to build an appliance which to my knowledge I don't even know if it's possible that requires; no OS yet be all hardware driven with multimedia capabilities, word processing etc., without any interest of it having Internet capabilities, and that can't be infected by anything.

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"costs that go along with being an MS'er"

Have you tried Linux yet?

 

Vista vs. Mepis

 

"With both systems completely idle except for their memory map programs and the screenshot program, MEPIS has a memory footprint of less than 100MB, while Vista is pounding down its foot with over half-a-gigabyte of RAM."

 

The story is not finished yet, but here is what is done.

http://desktoplinux.com/articles/AT9727687530.html

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Have you tried Linux yet?

No I haven't. Mainly because I don't want to go through hardware hoops like finding correct drivers, etc.

 

Hmm so the U.S. power consumption could be elleviated to some degree if everyone living in the U.S. switched to Linux. :o:)

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. . .but this plan would make it universal. . .

 

Read the links, sounds pretty scary. Big brotherish. Brings to mind the Sony rootkit. :angry:

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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No I haven't. Mainly because I don't want to go through hardware hoops like finding correct drivers, etc.

 

Hmm so the U.S. power consumption could be elleviated to some degree if everyone living in the U.S. switched to Linux. :o:)

PCLinuxOS and Mepis are two Distros' that I know of that do an auto detect. I just added my printer and it was that easy, "Add Printer." Done.

I am at work right now but when I get home I will post a link for "Linux Incompatibility List."

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PCLinuxOS and Mepis are two Distros' that I know of that do an auto detect. I just added my printer and it was that easy, "Add Printer." Done.

I am at work right now but when I get home I will post a link for "Linux Incompatibility List."

http://leenooks.com/

If it is in this link, it probably won't work, although it could.

Part of the idea of the LiveCD is to test it to see if it will work. If it works with the CD, it will work when installed. Just faster, better, stronger.

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faster, better, stronger.

Off topic here. Apologies.

 

But where have I heard that before? It`s from something on TV I`m almost certain.

 

Does anyone recognize that little phrase before it does my head in.

;)

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I'm not too keen on the stuff discussed in this article. I have a vista updgrade disc(home premium) that I'm debating installing.(because of that and other reasons). I got it for free, so I won't be out anything by not using it.

 

I would love to be able to switch to linux, but like andavari noted hardware detection right now quite frankly sucks. And unlike windows, you cant just install a driver from an exe to get it to work, you have to screw around in the command line. (which I'm not totally against, but I just don't know what the hell I'm doing. I did get my wifi and ati card working, but my sound card wouldn't work not matter what.) I've tried mepis and pclinuxos and it was about the same thing with both.

 

To be honest if I had to use linux right now it would be mepis or kubuntu. PClinuxOS booted from the live cd but when I installed it it didn't work.(Not sure why, don't really care)

 

I've just kind of accepeted that I'm using XP untill MS doesn't support it. :P

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I've just kind of accepeted that I'm using XP untill MS doesn't support it. :P

That's pretty much my conclusion, although I would like something stable on my old low spec PC without having to use super buggy deluxe (referring to Win98).

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Maybe I got lucky, but everything works on my computer. Everything was also auto detected. My computer was manufactured in August 2005.

I can play music that is on my NTFS partition. I can rip music and DVDs' as well as burn them. Printer works no problem.

The only thing is that now I don't get to play around with anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware, disk defrag and all that other fun time consuming M$ $tuff. 10 hours a month I don't know what to do with now.

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That's the problem. It isn't all me. I share my computer and I am not as confident in the other users browsing habits.

Now it isn't a problem. I don't care where they surf to.

I didn't like Ubuntu myself. It wouldn't even let me set my monitor correctly. Kept display at 800X600, refresh at @ 50 Hertz. Recommendations for my monitor are 1024X768 @ 85 Hertz. Mepis and PCLOS set it correctly the first time and allow for adjustments to be made.

Updating Java required @ 10 lines of commands. Mepis and PCLOS do it automatically without any commands.

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Microsoft vs. GM

 

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."

 

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating (by Mr. Welch himself): If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

 

1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT." But then you would have to buy more seats.

6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.

7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.

8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.

9. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.

10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

12. Everytime GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

13. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine

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  • 3 weeks later...
I'm not too keen on the stuff discussed in this article. I have a vista updgrade disc(home premium) that I'm debating installing.(because of that and other reasons). I got it for free, so I won't be out anything by not using it.

 

I would love to be able to switch to linux, but like andavari noted hardware detection right now quite frankly sucks. And unlike windows, you cant just install a driver from an exe to get it to work, you have to screw around in the command line. (which I'm not totally against, but I just don't know what the hell I'm doing. I did get my wifi and ati card working, but my sound card wouldn't work not matter what.) I've tried mepis and pclinuxos and it was about the same thing with both.

 

To be honest if I had to use linux right now it would be mepis or kubuntu. PClinuxOS booted from the live cd but when I installed it it didn't work.(Not sure why, don't really care)

 

I've just kind of accepeted that I'm using XP untill MS doesn't support it. :P

I'd read the EULA before I used that upgrade disc. It specifically states "After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from."

http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx

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