BellGab.com Archive

As you wish my liege.

In these days of high gas prices and low national self-esteem, we need a new hero.   It is in our power to make Michael the next contributed-content millionaire!  If we all craft our posts carefully and are half as witty as we think we are ... then Michael will be the next Drew Curtis ... and we will all be able to say that we knew him when he was threatening to take a dump on his monitor if anyone mentioned spyware again.  Then he will cruise by in his luxury yacht and we will smile with great satisfaction.

Michael, remember this post, when you take over the world I want to be in charge of Australia.

It only shows the brilliance and foresight of the WINE developers when they named their project Wine Is Not an Emulator.   They foresaw the difficulty explaining what WINE does.  As far as I understand it .... WINE is more of a jedi mind trick for your computer than it is  a windows work-alike.  For a windows work-alike .... try ReactOS. 

Anyone trying ReactOS, please let me know if streamer works.

That said .... yeah ... it pretty much is an emulator.

I hate to be "That Guy" ... but WINE is not an emulator.  I would not even bother to point this out if WINE were anything other than a recursive acronym for WINE is not an emulator.
/me goes back to playing telnet nethack

I use linux, mac osx and windows on a daily basis and in roughly that order.  I find that they each have their strength and weaknesses.  I will try to enumerate them here and I will ask everyone to remember that these are my personal impressions and preferences ... so I cannot be wrong, only delusional.

Linux -- Pros: Powerful command line utilities, TONS of documentation, TONS of flexibility and choices of applications, interfaces, process control, user control.  Cons:  All the documentation can become overwhelming and it is difficult to determine the degree of completeness of any given project until you have invested a significant amount of time messing with it.  Linux of my operating system of choice because I tend to be more textual than graphical.  I don't have to look for the drop down menu that contains the right choice ... all I have to do is type it.  I recognize that I am THE ONLY person who feels this way, but it works for me.

Mac -- Pros:  Limited number of hardware configurations allow for thorough testing of each piece of software and allows for optimization of OS, apps etc.  This makes the life cycle of a Mac about double that of a similar windows based offering from Dell, GateWay etc.  I am using a 5-6 year old mac laptop to listen to the stream, play travian, skype with friends, type this message, read a pdf about a project I am working on AND shell into a remote server.  All using the most current versions of all software.  I wouldn't be able to install Vista on a PC laptop of similar age, let alone do all of the other things I listed at once.  Cons: Having to tell your parents you are gay (KIDDING!) -- The narrow range of software is my biggest problem, but this is somewhat alleviated  by the availability of MacPorts as an easy method for install a wide range of Gnu software.

Windows  -- Pros: large user base, huge array of commercial and free/cheap software, huge array of varied hardware specifications, combinations and manufacturers.  Cons: large user base, huge array of commercial and free/cheap software, huge array of varied hardware specifications, combinations and manufacturers.  The sheer number of users, manufacturers and specifications makes for a large number of benefits and problems.  I personally find windows difficult to work with because I never know where to look for what it is that I want to do.  I do love my gaming options on this platform and I have never been able to find a great replacement for MS-Visio.

In short, I use 'em all , love 'em all and hate 'em all.  No matter which one any of us settle on, there will be limitations and frustrations.

FLAME ON!