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To Ubuntu or not to Ubuntu; that is the question.
BaronJ:
--- Quote from: mklotz on April 18, 2014, 04:15:42 PM ---
--- Quote from: Baron on April 18, 2014, 03:19:54 PM --- Indecently the Internet is based on Unix.
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Yes, it does get rather raunchy at times, doesn't it?
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Hi Marv,
Rubbish spull chuckers :)
BaronJ:
--- Quote from: Arbalist on April 19, 2014, 04:31:02 AM ---
--- Quote from: Baron on April 18, 2014, 03:19:54 PM ---What most people don't realise is that in some form or other they have been running Linux for quite some time ! Dare I mention set top boxes for digital TV, DVD recorders, Sat navs... Not to mention Android tablet computers or Apple machines. One based on Linux and the other based on a Unix. Indecently the Internet is based on Unix.
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Yes, almost everything except Windows! Why is this?! :doh:
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Hi Arbalist,
Quite simply... Money !
Whilst Linux is an open source operating system, its also a free licence. So it doesn't cost anything to use.
However there are costs ! The Linux ethos is that you can take the source code, modify it and use it in your product. Basically you can do whatever you like with it. The costs are in the time and expertise needed to make the changes required for your product.
Now you are encouraged to feed back any modifications or changes to the code you make into the community, but you are not obliged to. Which makes most products that use Linux as a base, closed, in other words proprietary. No different in principal to anything Microsoft does. Indeed Microsoft have often claimed that Linux uses some of their code ! I have absolutely no doubts that Windows contains various amounts of Linux code. Particularly since some of the programmers at Microsoft actively participate in writing code for use within Linux. Actually there are several large companies actively participate in producing code and promoting its use.
awemawson:
My first operating system was 8 bit CP/M - a hookey copy and if I remember rightly the source was on 8 inch floppy disc of a slightly different spec to mine. I had to unscrew the index transducer and fix it using Plasticine in a different radial position. My disk drives were Shuggart 801's.
Can't imagine today's kids going to the trouble. Amazing what I managed to achieve with that system. Wrote an emulator for HPGL that drove steppers on an early Mill / Drill simply so I could profile 'D Type' socket holes in electronic boxes I was making at the time.
At least then you could touch and feel the hardware. Nowadays everything is 'abstraction layers' deliberately keeping you away from what is actually happening. :(
OKAY - I'm a grumpy old git , I know :lol:
CrazyModder:
Aye. I used to solder LEDs to the data/address input lines of the CPU on an old Atari 800 XL (yes, those things could be used for other things than gaming). It was quite hillarious.
And yes, my kids today use computers (PCs, Smartphones etc.) daily without having the tiniest idea of what it all means or how it works. I couldn't imagine how a kid would get into electronics today - it all must be so boring if you are used to the hightech gadgets, no? ;)
Though I guess the Raspberry PI, Arduino etc. solve that problem and they'll probably get into it just fine. :ddb:
DavidA:
Yes, the times they are a changing.
I was recently looking through an old copy of ETI (Electronics Today International. Remember it/) and the lead item was about whether USB would catch on or not.
Now the D type sockets are gone, and the much loved (by experimenters} parallel (printer) port is on the way out.
USB reigns supreme !
Well, not in my house.
Dave.
Hands up all those who know how to convert a single sided 5.25" floppy into a double sided one . :dremel:
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