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  • flessa, on 05/19/2008, -4/+148Informative for the masses. No brainers for the geek.
    • rasmasyean, on 05/19/2008, -6/+13Yeah, maybe so, but the masses are a much larger market share.
      • Audacitor, on 05/19/2008, -2/+35Software development today is a race between developers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.
        • kitsua, on 05/19/2008, -1/+1Ha! Nice.
        • vik0612, on 05/19/2008, -1/+3eloquent. very...
        • rasmasyean, on 05/19/2008, -7/+1Most diggers are young and have some technical savy so thye like your comment. Because it does take some geekiness to enjoy and use a site like this. What you don't understand is that most people of the masses are NOT. And if you want them to work for you and your company...you have to make it easier for them to do it. They have better things to do with their brains in their own jobs and life than learn detailed technical stuff. Maybe in a generation or 2 everyone will be "geeks". But I guarantee you...the kids of the future will say that YOU are an idiot...because you are bad at brian controlling devices or some other future crap that you did not grow up with.

          Ever wonder why the "idiot-proof" iPhone is so successful? hmmm...
        • kitsua, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1@rasmasyean - that's as may be, but the fact that the universe is incredibly adept at producing morons is still true, technology-wise or not. I dugg Audacitor's comment because it sounded like something Frank Zappa would say if he was into IT.
      • MCA2142, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1"Yeah, maybe so, but the masses are a much larger market share."

        Hence the word, "masses?"
  • wiredDeath, on 05/19/2008, -12/+41"Open Office is a free alternative to Microsoft's Office programs, and it is the best value freeware we can find. It is a fairly big download at more than 100MB"

    Bigger than MS Office?
    • hungryduck, on 05/19/2008, -2/+43It's smaller than MS Office 2003 and much smaller than 2007.
      • Audacitor, on 05/19/2008, -0/+6When it comes to size difference between commercial and open source programs, you can't beat Blender and [insert commercial 3D package here].
    • NJank, on 05/19/2008, -4/+15From how many places do you download a copy of MS Office? Well, legally, that is...
    • LeeSoong, on 05/19/2008, -1/+14Well, here then: Puppy Linux.

      The whole OS + Application programs, multimedia,
      email, chat, internet browser, and more all in 90MB:

      http://www.puppylinux.com/about.htm

      And a review of Puppy Linux:
      http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/11150

      The whole computer OS + software that fits on
      a USB memory stick, no hard drive required...

      http://www.puppylinux.com/download/release-4.00.ht ...
      • kitsua, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Hey, that's pretty damn cool. Thanks for those links, I am absolutely going to check that out, it's too cool not too.

        From the "review", a guy wrote this great comment;

        "After discussions with groups of networking people,
        product developers, etc - Keychain computing is about to take off.

        Remember when you had to boot up from a floppy disk?
        Seems silly now right?

        Well, in about 5 years, that is how hard drives will be viewed.
        Remember when your dad used to boot up a computer using a hard disk? So 1900's

        People will be buying 64 GB Pen drives for $69 bucks,
        load up their OS/Apps/Data - Hard drives will be used like backup tapes. Sure you'll have a 2 TB Hitachi drive in your computer base,
        but your system and working files - the things you need with you,
        well, that lives on your keychain.

        Use it anywhere, anytime - PCs will be little more than display / audio / keyboards.

        People want the privacy and security that Keychain Computing can provide.

        If you toss 4096 bit encryption on your backup data drive,
        the Keychain not only contains your software, it contains a real key to access your data - your personal information is protected.

        Even if someone kicked in your door and took your PC,
        without the Keychain USB Flash Drive - there is no operating system,
        no applications, and no decoder. The Hard drive and whole computer is a door stop.

        Keychain Computing is the future, freedom from lugging around too much equipment. Most people use a Machine at home, and at the desk at work. Traveling computers, notebooks, laptops - they will get a lot lighter, and run with days of battery life - all with no hard drive.

        Flash RAM eventually burns out, but QC has extended it's life,
        and will continue to extend the life of the subcomponents in USB pen drives. If it can last 3 or 4 years, that is long enough to go buy another one.

        Keychain Computing is the greatest shift in technology since
        the introduction of the laptop computer."


        I thought that seemed exciting enough to bear repeating. Sorry for the scrolz.
        • raydeen, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2The recent Fedora on a USB stick story fits in with this. My greatest praise of flash based disk tech is that there's no moving parts. I'm not concerned with privacy, just with the possibility that all my hard work and porn could disappear in an instant due to a shock to a spinning hard drive. I'm saving up my pennies for an Asus EEE PC. It's not a powerhouse but certainly fits the bill for on the go computing. One fellow dropped his on the sidewalk and lost the use of the webcam but that was it. The rest of the unit still worked and all his data was still preserved. And the SSD in the unit is of high enough quality that under normal use should last 25 years. And let's face it. That little machine will be replaced much sooner than that.
      • raydeen, on 05/19/2008, -0/+3In addition to Puppy, there's Damn Small Linux.

        http://damnsmalllinux.org/

        I prefer DSL 3.4 to 4.0 but this distro is even smaller - 50 megs. I use it's bigger brother DSL-N as a quick and dirty little FTP server for my house. It's also a great way to rescue files from a dead or dying Windows box when Windows goes belly up.
    • kenok, on 05/19/2008, -3/+1It's written by a guy with a 56k'er.
    • mrjhmm, on 05/19/2008, -4/+21Microsoft Office 2008 is 527.72 MB:

      http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4011190/Microsoft_Offi ...
      • gritta, on 05/19/2008, -1/+7After you install it it's like 10 gig tho, plus an extra 250 meg for each day you leave it on your system.
    • lolwutpear, on 05/19/2008, -3/+6it might take up less disk space, but i've found the openoffice applications to run fairly slowly. then again, i'm comparing them to ms office 2k, not the newest versions. but hey, 2k works for me, so i won't be upgrading soon if i don't have to!
      • raydeen, on 05/19/2008, -1/+3I think the slowness might be due to the fact that some functions rely on Java which is no speed demon. As to MS Office, 2k was good but 97 was the best IMO. I never understood why in releases after 97, MS felt the need to 'lock' images when you inserted them into documents. It always bugged me that I would have to go into the image properties and change the positioning value just so that I could move it to wherever I wanted on the document. It always seemed to me that everything started to go downhill after Office 97.
        • lolwutpear, on 05/21/2008, -0/+0Aahh, I hate that too! I'm going to consider upgrading to Office 97. Look, Demonoid has a copy!
    • staeiou, on 05/19/2008, -6/+10Most people don't download MS Office, they get it on CD.
  • Deodrus, on 05/19/2008, -35/+22I just switched to Ubuntu on the day Hardy Heron came out, but I must say that as much as I love it, it still needs a tiny bit more polish (and ease of use for finding/installing applications - for causal users) before it can be accepted by the mainstream.

    My biggest problem is finding great applications to complement the OS. It'd be nice to have it all centralized... kind of like the official Firefox "Extensions/Themes" website.

    ==============
    (Oops, got carried away here - Political Stuff)

    I love BBC News, but their website (especially homepage) sucks for navigation purposes.

    I like CNN's clean design. Easier to find stuff too, though I don't care much for their biased reporting. Much of their reporting this primary season has been pro-Hillary, and I've noticed this since I check it almost everyday. They delayed reporting on Obama's delegate wins, and their tally was almost never the same as the other Associated Press sources. I'm not being paranoid - I really noticed this trend time and again on their website. Only recently have they started to get behind Obama and push Hillary to the side. No wonder some refer to them as the Clinton News Network.
    • ruddy, on 05/19/2008, -1/+26"it still needs a tiny bit more polish (and ease of use for finding/installing applications - for causal users"

      You know that button on the menu that says 'add/remove"? Thats all you need to get most apps that you need. thats it. nothing tricky. The exe equivalent for ubuntu (or a debian derivative) is .deb files. it's as easy to install as double click.
      Installing from source is another story... but you shouldn't have to deal with that in most cases - but even that isn't that hard.
    • porl, on 05/19/2008, -0/+35'It'd be nice to have it all centralized'

      you mean like having a central repository where you can browse and install software that will configure itself for you automatically without having to browse and download setup037523.ihopethisisn'tatrojan.exe and cross your fingers? that would be an awesome feature... if only linux developers could come up with something like that... oh who am i kidding, that could never happen....

      :P
    • desuexmachina, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4I have just installed Fedora 9 on my Linux box, I'm totally impressed with it's ease and polish but I've found myself trying to run apt-get about 4 times now. I'll get used to it though.
      • zwaldowski, on 05/19/2008, -2/+4I'm sorry, but Fedora was just way too slow for me.
        • desuexmachina, on 05/19/2008, -0/+7Don't be sorry. You're allowed to have different experiences than I do.

          I'm running it on a crappy Acer miniPC, it seems fast enough to do most of the things I'm doing with it. You might be doing more than just web browsing and screwing around with the GUI.
    • buu700, on 08/26/2008, -1/+10I realize you are new to Ubuntu, so I won't give a sarcastic or "elitist" reply (for the record, I didn't digg you down; in fact, I dugg you up, but only to help negate all the buries your comment received).

      First, I agree that Ubuntu needs more polish, but not really in the places that "average Joe" users notice (e.g. the latest Nvidia driver in Ubuntu's repositories has a bug that causes the TTY terminals to not show up as blank screens on my computer).

      Second, this may seem like a foreign, or even impossible, concept coming from Windows, but Ubuntu and other Linux distributions/"distros" (operating systems that use the Linux kernel (as opposed to Windows' NT kernel and Mac OS X's Darwin kernel)) have vast repositories/"repos" (centralized databases) of software "packages" (.deb files in Ubuntu, equivalent to .exe files in Windows) available. What this means it that you almost never have to search the web for programs to install. Just install software directly through a GUI (in Ubuntu that would be Add/Remove (Applications>Add/Remove...) or, for "advanced" users, Synaptic (System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager)) or the command line (which I prefer, as it's faster to type 'sudo aptitude install foo' or 'sudo aptitude search bar' than to wait for a GUI to load, especially since I'm a Dvorak typer :) (Dvorak is a faster alternative keyboard layout to QWERTY, for those unfamiliar)). Additionally, once a package is installed through a "package manager" (a GUI or command line frontend to the distribution's repositories), it is automatically kept up-to-date, with the only interaction on the user's part being to authorize the installation of updates and enter his/her password. Don't think that this is anything like Microsoft Update, but with the some additional core applications; most people never need to install anything outside of their distro's official repositories (and even then it's possible to add extra repositories), and with good reason: Synaptic currently lists 24811 available packages for me (however, keep in mind that at least half of these are metapackages and libraries and the like; nevertheless, the number of actual applications available through the repositories is still impressive). Furthermore, if there is something Windows-specific that you need (rare for casual users), you can always try running it in Wine, an open source implementation of the Win32 subsystem on Unix-like systems (Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, etc.), which works very well these days (yes, Wine is in Ubuntu's repositories, but it's not the most recent release, as the Wine package maintainers for Ubuntu apply patches and test for stability; however, winehq.org has its own Ubuntu repository with the most recent Wine releases).

      Anyways, you may want to give Ubuntu another look after learning a bit more, and it (and Linux distributions in general) is significantly more polished and advanced with each 6-month release, so if you don't stay with it for now, don't be afraid to consider it in the future (if you boot into 6.06, for example, the release from only 2 years ago and the previous "LTS" (Long Term Support) release, you'll notice that it's A LOT less polished than 8.04, and even 7.10 is noticeably worse than 8.04 (though by all means still a respectable operating system)).


      N.B. In Add/Remove, make sure to set it to show all available applications instead of all supported applications, as there are far fewer officially supported ones, and from what I can tell no significant advantage to exclusively using them.
    • lonniebiz, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2It is centralized. Go to your Applications menu and then select Add/Remove. Make sure "All available applications" is selected in the top right corner.

      Then you can install more than 10,000 pieces of software from a centralized repository.
  • n0odles, on 05/19/2008, -14/+17Ops, there goes Microsoft's 13% Vista users.
    • LeeSoong, on 05/19/2008, -4/+11"It looks like you're trying to log-on and actually get some work done for a change. Confirm or Deny ?"
      • duckyinc, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1why :O
      • maninalift, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4please select:
        [Yes, open Excel] [Yes, open MSVC] [No I'll just piss about on the internet]
  • poontangpirate, on 05/19/2008, -9/+3http://www.geekstir.com/pictures/firefox-or-intern ...
    • TacticalPenguin, on 05/19/2008, -2/+3ffs frodo stop spamming geekstir. that pic is old as hell
    • desuexmachina, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4Yeah, who would you rather actually have a conversation with? A random girl who can wear a shirt two sizes too small or somebody who helped bring computing to everybody with a few hundred bucks?

      Oh god, I'm going to die alone, I'd pick Bill. Sigh.
  • TacticalPenguin, on 05/19/2008, -6/+30Oh, yea, OO is huge. MS office 2007 is over 300MB......
    • desuexmachina, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4One thing I'd love to see is the ability to just download individual parts of OO (this might be possible, but I haven't seen it officially, maybe I'm daft though). Like really all I want is the word processor and the spreadsheets.
      • TheWindBlows, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2It is sort of (you save like 2 MiB or so) but OpenOffice is built upon a base system so all the parts of it are in one major base.
      • antdude, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1Basically, a network install like Debian.
      • zwaldowski, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Systems that bundle OpenOffice and have package managers (mostly Linux distros) have packages for different OO components. However, OpenOffice has one large network of components. In Ubuntu, for example, not installing the openoffice.org-base package will save you about 20 MB, but amounts to not having a shortcut that launches the '--base' option.
    • yatin, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1I agree... but how many people buy a download of Office (i'm not even sure if you can)

      On the other hand, OO.org is almost exclusively obtained by download, so its a considerably bigger issue, although with bandwidth being quite easily available in most of North America, Europe, and a lot of Asia, it's more and more of a moot point.
  • JensenSteve, on 05/19/2008, -19/+29I switched to ubuntu, firefox, and OO and will never go back to M$ again.
    • quickgold192, on 05/19/2008, -6/+10until you want to play video games...
      • zwaldowski, on 05/19/2008, -4/+6Yeah, cause then he'll stop being a lazy ass and get a game console (for $300-$400) and stop buying overpriced gaming rigs. Stop penis-measuring.
        • apophenic, on 05/19/2008, -1/+6Computers remain much better for playing FPS games. I hate aiming with a joystick. You don't even need a "gaming rig" to play most games these days, they're not designed to take full advantage of the most powerful machines, because they know that most people don't have those computers.
        • WoollyMittens, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Yes... computers much better. That crysis was a great multi-player success ... no wait. CoD4, that was a PC exclu... no... wait. Uhm...
        • maninalift, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Gaming-rigs aren't over priced. Consoles are under-priced, subsidised by games prices.
        • jumico, on 05/19/2008, -1/+0I hate gaming with a mouse and keyboard. Clicking on people with a mouse and moving with keys isn't nearly as fun to me as using a controller.
        • theaceoffire, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1True gaming machines are so overpowered for everything else it is ridiculous. You don't need 4GB to browse digg, you don't need 4 video cards etc etc.

          Just buy a cheap machine for work/net, and $800 or so for a console and games. With cheap dual core machines available now, you can get a 22 inch screen + a great machine (3 GB of ram, 2 core AMD, 500GB of storage, blah) for $730 on newegg.

          $1600 for having 3 - 10 years of playable games and a good computer is a great deal. Spending the same on a Computer will probably last 3 years at most, until all PC games require 8-16 Core processors and 30GB of ram.
      • Stonekeeper, on 05/19/2008, -5/+1Yeah, ubuntu plays exactly 0 video games... o.O
    • jumico, on 05/19/2008, -2/+3Honestly office 07 is pretty awesome compared to OO.
    • MCA2142, on 05/19/2008, -0/+0Godspeed brother. Godspeed.
    • ventralnet, on 05/19/2008, -1/+1firefox has been crashing pretty constantly recently...
  • MasteRR, on 05/19/2008, -3/+90The article lists AVG for anti-virus. That is NOT open source. Free (libre) but not open source.
    • xxMarka, on 05/19/2008, -5/+14why the hell did you say libre
    • Weejay, on 05/19/2008, -0/+16Because it's the only way to differentiate free as in free beer and free as in free speech. We French have two different for that, gratuit and libre.

      Also @MasteRR, I don't see how an application can be Free (libre) but not open source.... You seem to be confused by the world libre. You should have used "free as in free beer" instead, cause "libre" means that you can modify the code and redistribute it etc.
      • desuexmachina, on 05/19/2008, -9/+2Most English speakers would be able to discern the meaning from the context.
        • HonoredMule, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Personal experience dictates contrarily.
    • teaguecl, on 05/19/2008, -0/+9MasteRR, you've gotten it backwards. AVG is free as in beer, it is NOT software libre (or Free for us English speakers).
    • Haydre, on 05/19/2008, -0/+8To build on what Weejay said, you mean free (gratis).
    • wisam, on 05/19/2008, -1/+2Even more worse is that AVG will no longer have a free version after the 30th of May. AVG 7.5 will be replaced with AVG 8.0 which doesn't have a free version.

      Any idea of a good alternative? Maybe Avast.

      Edit: I just checked, there IS a free version of 8.0.
      • Jarulf, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Check out Clam AV.

        http://www.clamav.net/

        Available for both *NIX and Windows.
        • rohanch, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1The Windows version (at least) doesn't have on-access scanning, so it's not as useful for desktop use.

          AVG alternatives... Avira is very good, but has lots of nag screens. And it's freeware, not open source by the way; the same as AVG.
    • dvavasour, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4You mean free (gratis).
  • PocchieTheMan, on 05/19/2008, -23/+10I don't care what anyone says, I like Vista. If you don't, fine, whatever, nobody makes you buy the freaking software. Don't bitch bitch bitch about it all the time, it's annoying.
    • xxMarka, on 05/19/2008, -2/+6dugg down not because I hate Vista (which I don't) but because no one is bitching
    • jay019, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2The computer shop tried to make me buy Vista. Chose the barebones ASUS instead and got a better deal.
      • ventralnet, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2yea you usually get a better deal when you don't get any software on a computer
  • orangePenguin92, on 05/19/2008, -8/+1The normal:
    Firefox = Internet Explorer
    Open Office = Microsoft Office
    Linux = Windows
    AVG = Good virus protection.
    • al13n, on 05/19/2008, -0/+3I see you have problems with mathematics.
    • theaceoffire, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Yeah, I found it funny that they included Virus scanners as well as suggesting Linux OS's, since you don't really need virus scanners on most distros.
  • CryTekEmployee, on 05/19/2008, -31/+2Using open source is like drinking RC Cola, it's a clear indication you are poor and in need of losing that minimum wage job. I played Crysis on MAX resolution in Windows Vista (lol, Ubuntu port of Crysis?), I drive a BMW and wipe the windshield with spare $100 bills.
    • DavidYeah, on 05/19/2008, -1/+5I like open source.
    • PopcornDave, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1What do you use for your ass then? 50's?
    • desuexmachina, on 05/19/2008, -1/+7Man, this is the third time I've seen the "I can run Crysis" argument today. It's as daft as "linux doesn't need to defrag" who cares. I use Windows because I actually like it, not because it can run the latest video game. If I wanted to game I'd get a console. Crysis is an application, it can be coded for anything if the developers wanted. Not everybody will use it, no matter how many times you spam that you can play it.
      • CryTekEmployee, on 05/19/2008, -6/+0Consoles can't play Crysis
        • desuexmachina, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2I did not say "if I wanted to play Crysis, I would buy a console" I said if I wanted to game...

          But way to reading comprehend.
        • Strungout, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1Not yet, but Crytek is bringing the Crytek2 engine that Crysis is running on to consoles (See Far Cry 2). Also said engine is able to perform fine on both 360 and PS3
        • jay019, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1Cool another crap game to not buy!
    • teaguecl, on 05/19/2008, -1/+4This is a good example of my belief that most computer users are "the ends justify the means" type of people. For me the use of OSS is about freedom and morality. CryTekEmployee is willing to give up some freedom in exchange for being able to play his game - I am not. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with his position, it's just not mine.
    • jay019, on 05/19/2008, -0/+0Dude, how about using that money to go get a girlfriend. Maybe then you wont need to play ***** games.
    • CWise, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4you forgot to add small penis to your list.
  • JohnnyKdiggs, on 05/19/2008, -7/+20They make it seem as though you must pay for an Ubuntu contract to use it. This is not the case.

    You can download it free from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download or request a free install CD from http://shipit.ubuntu.com
    • WoollyMittens, on 05/19/2008, -1/+2No they don't. They said that "some", would offer to sell you a service plan.
  • kipmartin, on 05/19/2008, -25/+7im pretty sick of Open Source as the answer for everything.
    • ryananger, on 05/19/2008, -0/+15I'm sure Open Source is sick of you being the answer for nothing...
    • DavidYeah, on 05/19/2008, -0/+7There's just no way you could have put up a more uninteresting comment.
    • kipmartin, on 05/19/2008, -5/+1very clever comments! good luck with your geek software. wish it worked, but casual users will buy stuff that works.
      • jay019, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1No. Casual users will buy what they are told to buy!
  • SubjectiveC, on 05/19/2008, -13/+4"It is worth remembering that the programmers creating these open source alternatives are competing directly with Windows, so it is often worth making the desktop environment look familiar to Windows, in order to ease the transition.

    Apart from Microsoft's proprietary technology and brands, Ubuntu in particular seems to emulate the Windows experience as closely as possible."

    This is why most people don't fall in awe when you show them your Linux desktop. Windows or OSX do something, and Linux is close behind with a a version of their own and the gigantic slogan "We can do it, too!".
    • moges, on 05/19/2008, -0/+7Try again. Most of the advancements 'made' by Windows actually appeared on Linux based systems first.

      To see how the window management of the next Windows will look like, try Compiz. Commercial software constantly bombards us with the message that it is better, newer, more inventive, but that is rarely the case. Except maybe their marketing departments.

      I don't play with OSX, so I won't comment on what they do/do not do.
    • ArthurSucks, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Yeah remember when Microsoft made a live boot CD, a package management system, or XGL? They did it first!
  • LeeSoong, on 05/19/2008, -7/+10yay FireFox!

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=GqRK9d0S27Y

    Weee!
    • jptolife, on 05/19/2008, -1/+2That video was so LAME, gosh
      • LeeSoong, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1If I could make I.E. say 'Weee!' every time a URL is entered, that would be sweet...
  • dcollins, on 05/19/2008, -5/+7Did anyone else interpret the title of this article as "the alternative to open source"?
  • rasmasyean, on 05/19/2008, -15/+7Talk about taking the article out of context. Why does every open source article have to be an opportunity to say "Vista Sux!", "Widoze bloze!", "MS Office is bloated!"??? And any comment that praises any of these products is dugg down.

    Some of you Open Source fanatics are funny. It’s an “alternative” not a “total replacement” for every single computer! You do realize that 90% of corporations choose closed source even though it’s infinity times more expensive right? It’s good for some situations. Not for everything. If you want to have ubuntu running you entire house, go ahead. Don’t think that that makes you king of the world and know better than everyone else!

    • teaguecl, on 05/19/2008, -0/+13Have you ever witnessed how a corporation makes it's decision to buy expensive proprietary software? No? Then shut up. The people making the purchase decisions are business executives and IT personnel - NOT engineers. They make their decisions based on:
      1. what is least likely to get them fired
      2. The warranty and support that comes with it. e.g. "it's not my fault, I'm waiting for tech support from to fix the issue"
      3. what they are familiar with

      Stating that "90% of corporations choose closed source" is an irrelevant statistic. It's like saying "90% of xbox owners use Microsoft brand controllers". Both statements are true, but neither of them accurately reflect the relative quality of the products being discussed.
    • thepxc, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1It's not about being "better". It's about being freer. Let me explain.

      There are no "Open Source fanatics". The Open Source movement a pragmatic thing, based upon the merits of a distributed development model. The idea behind it is that when you open up source code, you have a greater potential to produce a good product, and as a result, much OSS is superior to its proprietary equivalents, or at least worth considering as a low-or no-cost alternative.

      The "fanaticism" comes on the Free Software side, which is a movement designed to liberate users from restrictions that would be put upon them by the owners of the software, that is, the owners of the copyrights--the proprietors. This is where the term "proprietary software" comes from. So-called "Free Software fanatics" try to use as much Free Software as possible as a matter of personal preference, accountability, or perceived moral value, and would have no real reason to think they're better than someone else for having that philosophy.

      Anyone who just uses every OSS news piece as an opportunity to bash Microsoft and other software giants is simply someone who doesn't really understand either group, and wants to somehow fit into both without comprehending all that that entails. Also consider that historically, IT professionals and fans of Free and/or Open Source Software come from the same group, so the same people that deal with Microsoft's software (and all of its problems) on a regular basis at work are the ones that read F/OSS news. As a result, these people who've been "burned" by (sometimes repeated) bad experience with Microsoft in the industry will be reminded of what F/OSS often competes _against_ by these articles, and then be reminded of the opportunity to speak about it, even if it is somewhat off topic.

      I hope that clears up your confusion.

      --Patrick C.
      • rasmasyean, on 05/19/2008, -1/+0I don't agree that most OSS is better than proprietary...they each have their places.

        But what you say about the "fanatics" people here does make a lot of sense. I suppose that really just makes Digg seem like a place to vent frustrations. LOL
      • maninalift, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1
        With 'There are no "Open Source fanatics"' I think you are wrong on two counts

        (1) rasmasyeanrasmasyean appeared to be talking about people who are fanatical about using open-source software whether on a liberal or restrictive license, you must admit such people exist. No judgment upon them, indeed I think all of us users of open-source get a little that way, we just feel uncomfortable if we think someone else holds the license and has the right to pull the rug from under us probably disproportionately to the actual risk.

        (2) In the OSS vs FSF war which you present I also think you are wrong to say there are no fanatics on the OSS side. eg. have you seen http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html
        • thepxc, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1I didn't really mean to suggest that there is a war between the FSF & OSS supporters, but instead that those are two valid and distinct positions on the issue of what software should be used/developed, how, and why.
  • Ocelot13, on 05/19/2008, -7/+2Firefox for Web
    Frostwire for single mp3s
    µTorrent for torrents
    Open Office for Office
    Disgby for IM

    feel free to add your recomendations
  • Inox555, on 05/19/2008, -1/+30Did anyone else here notice the volume control on the streaming video player at the bottom of the article goes up to 11?

    Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
    Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
    Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
    Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
    Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
    Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
    Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
    Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
    Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
    Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
    Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.
  • riggs32, on 05/19/2008, -0/+14open source ftw.
    • uberduger, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1Glad that the word is getting out to the public!
  • GavinZac, on 05/19/2008, -0/+24"The most popular is Firefox, hotly followed by Safari and Opera."

    "Hotly followed" must rather blandly refer to ranking positions as in terms of market share it would be flattering to say "luke warmly followed"
  • nickgarvey, on 05/19/2008, -0/+14"Linux is the basis for a vast array of other operating systems like Debian, RedHat and Ubuntu. "

    That "other" in there made me cringe a little.
  • Hijack32, on 05/19/2008, -3/+9Go Ubuntu and Firefox Woo Woo!
  • taradisiac, on 05/19/2008, -9/+2Socialists.
    • PatrickBrown, on 05/19/2008, -4/+3You wish. Perhaps in 100 years we will have democratic socialism and the majority will stop getting ***** on.

      We can only hope.
      • taradisiac, on 05/19/2008, -2/+2They get ***** on because they're lazy and dumb.
        • PatrickBrown, on 05/19/2008, -2/+4Ah, yes. The working class is so lazy.
  • pedo, on 05/19/2008, -1/+3too bad they can't walk the walk

    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070213-8833 ...
  • bgturk, on 05/19/2008, -2/+13AVG is not open source software.
    • WoollyMittens, on 05/19/2008, -1/+1Nor, do they claim that. They merely state that it is "free". I know that the community elite understands the difference between "free as in beer" and "free as in liberty", but the BBC tries to cater to the common people too.
  • tusseyd, on 05/19/2008, -3/+23"Hi. My name is David, and I've been Microsoft free for over two weeks."
  • sully213, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4You have to love the irony from the caption of the video at the bottom:
    "Click interview: Computer Active magazine editor, Paul Allen, recommends the best freeware software available"
  • WoollyMittens, on 05/19/2008, -3/+8The average person that asks me to "fix" their "virussusses", doesn't have a clue that "free" software exists. If anything, they have been scared silly by stories about spam and free software that comes with said "virussuses". It seems that the corporate propaganda works really really well, if it stops people from looking for free things.
    • ThugThrasher, on 05/19/2008, -0/+6It's not just corporate propaganda that keeps people from looking for free things. It's also the fact that they get told by MANY people who know computers NOT to just download free things will-nilly. Because, if those of us who KNOW what we're doing DON'T tell those that DON'T know not to do that, they'll download anything with the word 'free' near it and get infected. It's not safe to just download free stuff from random sources many times. I usually tell them 'don't download things unless I tell you it's okay or it's from a reputable website' and then show them some good websites
  • thepxc, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4I was personally very disappointed that the article doesn't make a distinction between freeware and free software. I know the difference may seem subtle to "non-techies", but the difference is essential, both in terms of philosophy and usually the actual quality of the software.

    I hate the ambiguity of the English word "free". If only it had been called "libre software" from the beginning...
    • sk11, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Then people would ask what libre meant. The reply would be that it meant free. "Oh, free software, well why didn't you say that in the first place?"
    • eclecticdave, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1Sadly, someone further up in this very discussion misused 'libre' where they meant 'gratis'. Given that Digg users are generally more likely than most to understand the difference, it doesn't seem likely that using the word 'libre' would help much with the general public.
  • reisrocks, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1Is it me or is every reason duplicated.
  • darrin, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1I know it's not a casual user's desktop application, but I wish PostgreSQL would get mentioned more as an "open source alternative" to Oracle in articles like this. If nothing else, just to get the name seen more.

    [/Oracle DBA turned PostgreSQL DBA rant]
  • iamthearm, on 05/19/2008, -5/+0Firefox will suck until it's adopted like IE is on the internet. There are limitations at the moment and I don't recommend it when I am asked by my users.
    • onedobb, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1Sooo... you don't recommend IE to your users right? Just want to make sure that I understand clearly. I feel sorry for your users if I happen to be wrong.
    • barius, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2I'm not sure what limitations you're thinking of. You may be thinking that Fx can't load ActiveX controls and therefore can't be used on sites that require the installation of one. However, this isn't a limitation, it's a very useful feature that I have grown to love. ActiveX controls are one of the most exploitable 'features' in IE and are regularly abused to spread viruses. These days any sites that are worth using use Java Applets, and that includes business class intranetware. Granted, if you're stuck using Exchange for web mail it could be a problem for you, but not many 'regular' users would have that limitation (thankfully). Personally, being the IT where I work we skipped the Exchange lock in and used Zimbra+Thunderbird instead. So far, the boss loves it and so do the users.
    • iamthearm, on 05/19/2008, -0/+0Well, I'm a hardware/software tech so I'm sure your right, barius, about Exchange. I fix OS/Application issues and change out hardware. I was talking about activeX. ActiveX is a problem because people don't read what they are saying YES to (most of the time). I don't put the blame on IE for that nor do I put the blame on IE because people hack systems via ActiveX and IE. People will alway hack and there will always be exploitations.

      Onedobb: I do tell people that IE has problems because of hackers so I of course tell them to read prompts, know what site you are on and be careful what you say yes to. But Firefox is just like Linux and Mac's. Once it gets more popular, it will be hacked just like Microsoft.
  • Anthonym1987, on 05/19/2008, -0/+4Dugg for honest summary
  • pafboy, on 05/19/2008, -1/+1http://www.reliablesource.org/
  • indiehead, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1nice article, i put a load of fixes and tips for ubuntu on one of my recent posts which should help those making the switch; the default screen fonts are anything but good.

    http://www.red91.com/articles/2008/05/11/my-ubuntu ...
  • randallb, on 05/19/2008, -1/+1Why are people digging this misleading article? AVG is not open source. The author seems to think that free (as in beer) is the same thing as open source.
  • duffy89, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1"Hotly followed by Safari"... Piss off is it haha
  • golvin, on 05/20/2008, -0/+0Huh? The title reads "open source alternative" but is AVG 'free' version an open source one? ClamWin is not mentioned at all...
  • rimbaud, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1Buried for wrong category. Not Linux/Unix
  • CCmachined, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1easier to purchase a PC loaded with a cheaper alternative. < BURIED
    its not cheap, its Free - Free of charge and gives you Freedom. blatent disrespect for Free software. call nitpicking if you like, but this is the BBC, and when people say cheap, they're not getting even half the story. Free costs nothing, not cheap, and you have Freedom. cmon, it's the first mention of the software involved.

    and then it goes on about free anti-virus... they forget that GNU/Linux is uber-resistant to viruses out the box?
  • ilike2, on 05/21/2008, -0/+0interesting
  • enterneo, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1FTA: "Developed since 2004, Ubuntu's gained a significant following because of its ease of use. It is downloadable from the internet or *available with a support contract for a few dollars.*". Would someone throw light on the starred comment?

  • enterneo, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1the video was uninformative, the guy was just fooling around with the questions being asked
  •  

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