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Re: 6 months ago: Microsoft shows off leaner kernel for Windows 7

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, High Plains Thumper
<highplainsthumper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 wrote
on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:02:12 -0600
<4805421a$0$584$6e1ede2f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> The Ghost In The Machine wrote:
>> High Plains Thumper wrote
>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>> Linonut on Saturday :
>>>>> Matt fired off:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> This story barely made it into COLA about six months 
>>>>>> back---as an Inquirer article posted by [H]omer.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9043359
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> "A lot of people think of Windows as this really
>>>>>>> large, bloated operating system, and that may be a
>>>>>>> fair characterization, I have to admit," said Eric
>>>>>>> Traut, who holds the title of distinguished engineer
>>>>>>> at Microsoft. "[So] we created what we call MinWin.
>>>>>>> It's still bigger than I'd like it to be, but we've
>>>>>>> taken a shot at really stripping out all of the
>>>>>>> layers above and making sure that we had a clean
>>>>>>> architectural layer there."
>>>>> 
>>>>> Does he mean that they are doing a redesign, or just an
>>>>> ad hoc refactoring?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Of course, they'll still have the apps to
>>>>> redesign/refactor.
>>>> 
>>>> Here's what they do here (a friend E-mailed me this some
>>>> hours ago):
>>>> 
>>>> "In the face of strong competition, Evangelism's focus may
>>>> shift immediately to the next version of the same
>>>> technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts)
>>>> for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of
>>>> version X."
>>>> 
>>>> --- Microsoft, internal document 
>>>> http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/Comes-3096.pdf
>>> 
>>> I take the announcements with a grain of salt.  One is never
>>> sure what will transpire, when it is ready to distribute it
>>> is ready to distribute.
>>> 
>>> Meanwhile, Linux will continue to be the choice OS to
>>> install on lighter hardware, knowing that it will perform
>>> well as expected and stable.
>> 
>> No it won't.  Not that Linux isn't a good OS, mind you -- but
>> there's other factors involved, such as marketing. It's far
>> easier to sell junk to the populace than to turn out a quality
>> product; we'll buy almost *anything*, especially if it's
>> well-presented.
>
> Well, you will always have people who for the sake of new and
> impressing their friends AKA "keepin up with the Jones", plunk
> down 1,000 quid without batting an eye; pay for it through a
> credit card loan at highest interest rate.
>
> If one were to do that, then do it with a Mac.
>
> I have met people who are intimidated by reinstalling software
> and ask for help.  Even installing Microsoft Windows XP Home
> requires some computer knowledge that not all have or ever acquire.
>
> The closest to an out-of-the-box experience comes from Ubuntu
> Linux.

Assuming a box which has only BIOS on it initially, of course.
The sad part is: most boxes have that...erm...other solution
on them as well.

> After rebooting (the one and only rebooting required,
> unless one has such an out-of-date distro that requires a huge
> download with kernel patches), every came up working, sound,
> video, USB ports, DVD, etc.

I take it you're not counting the initial boot with the
Livedisc...but yeah, that's about the size of it with
Gentoo as well, if one goes stock.

I suspect most other distros need only one as well.

It just works...but it still needs that install, if one doesn't
get preinstalled Linux (System76 and Eracks look good to me
personally, but linux.org has a few others).

>
>>> Best test is to try the software.  It helps overcome the
>>> troll nonsense being posted in this newsgroup, which is
>>> BASICALLY OUT TO DESTROY LINUX REPUTATION in a sad jihad of
>>> evangelism tainted with half truths and in some cases, out
>>> right lies.
>> 
>> This may be the seamier side thereof.  Of course it's in 
>> Microsoft's interest to paint the opposition as a bunch of
>> amateuristic fools.  (They're half-right.  Amateur is derived
>> from "with love" or "to love"; Linux is a labor of love.  Of
>> course with IBM and other such wading in it's a potential
>> profit center as well, especially with respect to its
>> reliability.  But IBM can't quite match Microsoft in marketing
>> yet.)
>
> Trolls herein have attempted to do that with very poor results. 
> It makes them look like Royale Phools.

They play on the public's ignorance.  How many of us know
of INT 80H (int $0x80)?  How much of us really need to?
Separation of root accounts from user accounts is probably
the layman's limit, absent specialized instructions.

Of course they can try to read /usr/src/linux/Documentation
but there are 218 entries in there, 66 of which are
subdirectories.  'find . -type f | wc' suggests almost
1000 files.  Most of these are presumably for rather
specialized modules.

Were someone to have the time, one might consider
organizing this a bit, making it an actual navigable Web
tree (index.html with links), and folding it back into the
Linux source, and possibly moving things around a bit
(e.g, ./i386 and ./ia64 and ./m68k might be moved to
./arch/i386 et al, perhaps).  As a documentation aid, the
value add might be nice; it is of course largely irrelevant
to actual kernel operation.

>
>>> One falsehood is that Linux advocates hate Windows.  This is
>>> not true; we use it where needed.  Having knowledge of the
>>> strengths and weaknesses of Windows gives us a benchmark for
>>> comparing Linux.
>>> 
>>> After comparing the 2, I have a definite preference for
>>> Linux.  I prefer the stability it brings, the empowerment to
>>> save money, keep lighter and cheaper hardware fully
>>> operational, newer faster hardware operating at peak
>>> efficiency for applications.
>>> 
>>> It also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by running
>>>  lighter on hardware.
>> 
>> Not at all sure how much of a factor this is; there's a fair
>> number of issues here.  Of course ideally we wouldn't need
>> computer clock pulses anyway, but I have noticed on my laptop
>> that when idle it doesn't need to cool itself nearly as much.
>
> If one is not afraid to void his EULA, he can post true 
> benchmarks between Windows and Linux.  However, that will not 
> guarantee that he may not be sued by the monopoly, with intention 
> to make an example out of him.  Or have them sic the software 
> police on him (SBA).
>

One wonders how far they would want to go with this.

-- 
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Useless C/C++ Programming Idea #12398234:
void f(char *p) {char *q = strdup(p); strcpy(p,q);}

-- 
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