Posted 04/23/2009 at 10:37:41am

I actually don't find IE8 that much slower than FF3, to the point where there is no real advantage of FF3, except maybe for firebug.  Chrome just "aw snaps" every 2 seconds, so I uninstalled that with prejudice (although it is quite fast when it deigns to work), and I'm still playing around with Opera (which seems pretty good, though not compatible with some sites (or vice versa)).

Posted 03/24/2009 at 12:20:09pm

...with IE8, and it's head and shoulders above IE7.  I think that this "story" is nonsense.  Chrome, on the other hand, is now uninstalled due to it crashing every 3 seconds, even on Google-owned sites like YouTube and Maps.  Yes, Windows 7.  Excuses?  Nah, not really - none of the other browsers seem to have a problem.  Take your "aw snap"s somewhere else.  IE8, the new one not the one that originally came with Windows 7 earlier this year, seems to be pretty nippy, and has crashed once.  FF3 is still more stable, in my opinion.  But IE8 really seems to be "up there" with FF3.

Also, am I the only one to think it's a bit silly, after only 3 days, to start talking about mass-conversions away from IE8?  I suspect that most of the general population doesn't even know it exists yet.  Oh wait, this is how MaxPC gets its revenues...

Posted 03/11/2009 at 05:33:21am

don't forget to tell them about the option in make to use all of your cores to do compilation so much faster.  -i5 i think it was.  perfect for larger builds.

Posted 03/05/2009 at 01:52:54pm

and can someone explain to be in non-fanboi language why i should care about "wars" and what the "wars" are about anyway.  so what if i use IE rather than FF.  what revenue do the creators get from me using FF, for example?  nothing, right?  no adverts, no forced links to sites i don't want to see, nothing.  so what's the big deal?  for example, just because safari 4 might be good does not mean (at all!) that i will start using other apple products (frantically finds a scrap of wood to touch).

Posted 03/05/2009 at 01:44:46pm

think chrome does this too

Posted 03/05/2009 at 01:43:47pm

so, well, i do like chrome and how fast it is (actually, srware iron, because i need a tin hat) but the damn thing crashes on every third site, including youtube and google maps.  pdf files don't feel much love either.  inevitably i use chrome for doing things like "300 gbp in usd" and leave website building for FF3 and IE8.  and pretty much the only thing wrong with IE8 that i care about is the speed, which needs a serious boost.

Posted 01/15/2009 at 01:01:17pm

But I like Linux.  Ubuntu.  I installed MythTV and (with the requisite number of tons of CO2 wasted on Google searches) even got it to work.  I modify and re-compile MAME from source code on Ubuntu and on Xandros (eeePC).  Websites I build are hosted on Linux boxes.  Great stuff!  But just because some people only use the basic stuff doesn't mean that everyone does.  My mother might be able to get away with it (though Exchange-based email doesn't work THAT well in whatever the Linux mail client is called the name escapes me for a sec), my father would absolutely not be able to cope - peripherals, light gaming, etc.  I can just see it now - "excuse me, Canon, but my multi-function fax/printer/copier/tea maker isn't working, can you help me fix it?  Sure, what OS are you using?  Linux.  <click>".  It's not just games - it's hardware compatability too.  I bash Linux when it deserves to be bashed!!  And I do the same with Windows just as often, just not in this thread.  Anyway, more than any of that: HP is the root of all evil - their support for devices under any operating system is next to nonexistent, they can't write drivers worth a damn, and if you have a legacy device... well, phone up support and all you'll get is <click> as they hang up on you.

Posted 01/15/2009 at 06:52:31am

+1.  I love my little Asus eee, but I love it for what it is, not for what it could never become.

Posted 01/15/2009 at 06:50:35am

Linux scenario: Oh, sorry, Gran, that your email isn't working.  Just go into the command line by going Alt-T, then type sudo su followed by your password.  No, Gran, it's not my sister Sue - it's just "ess you".  Yes.  Now type in your password.  What do you mean you don't know what it is?  etc. for the next 15 hours.  Sorry about the fglrx driver, Gran, you're going to have to write a patch.

Windows scenario: Log in to Gran's PC using LogMeIn Free, fiddle with a couple of settings, and then call her and tell her it's working.

Posted 01/15/2009 at 06:29:53am

This really is the most yawn-inducing article of recent days.  No company in their right minds is going to sacrifice Peter to pay Paul.  Give the consumer Linux on a platform that might require even the slightest upgrade or addition of peripherals, and their support costs go through the roof... and that's not even counting the negative press.  Can you imagine - Dell asking its customers to go to Google and figure out a series of indecipherable command-line comments to get something working?  And with most of the Linux gurus online being such arrogant b**tards it's enough to make you go "sudo rm -rf *" on the lot of them.  Linux taking over in the server market?  Maybe, but just wait until people realize that file copy performance is 2x better with the latest versions of Windows (SMB2) and see how long that will last.  My take: people still want something that works out of the box and is going to work with 99% of the hardware they throw at it.  The "sorry, the fglrx driver really isn't that reliable on certain series of ATI cards, why don't you get a new graphics card?" just isn't going to cut it.