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Recently I was reading an article about “Linux on the Desktop being a non starter.” Most of these articles revolve around the author wanting to do something and failing OR it taking way to long to do it. I can accept that. Ubuntu isn’t perfect for everything. Its really great at some things though.

However, this article is so flagrantly poor quality it makes me wonder what quality standards Computerworld has for its bloggers. Obviously few.

Lets go over some of the gems contained in this article.

It claims Linux on the desktop is “still not happening.” Beyond the fact that is is and I know lots of people using it, its also constructed of basically two silly arguments.

* “For a while last year, things were looking up for Linux. Many of the early netbook vendors were forgoing Windows licenses and instead offering consumers machines that ran some form of Linux. That didn’t last long, though. Return rates for Linux netbooks were much higher than for their Windows counterparts, and most netbooks today are sold with some version of Windows, not Linux. What this means is that, though Linux is a great value for many server applications, it’s still a non-starter on the desktop.

Huh. So netbooks have a higher return rate than Windows netbooks? OK. Fair enough. The author notes this and jumps to the conclusion that Linux is a non-starter on the desktop. This is faulty logic. There could be a sea of reasons why someone would return a Linux netbook. How bout they thought Windows was on it? You mean customer made a mistake? I think its possible people may click before they read every sentence.

Netbooks are a nascent market in computing. Its like looking at ebooks and noting that Amazon controls the desktop. The author didn’t note how many people stuck with Linux powered netbooks. If the number of people with Linux netbooks is 20% then id say Linux on a netbook is a success.

* “Richard Stallman may not be typical, but you can read all about his setup here. It’s not something that’s going to win a lot of converts among the mass market of computer users, though. As he explains it, he uses a Lemote Yeelong, a netbook with a Loongson chip and a 9-inch display. “I spend most of my time using Emacs. I run it on a text console, so that I don’t have to worry about accidentally touching the mouse-pad and moving the pointer, which would be a nuisance. I read and send mail with Emacs (mail is what I do most of the time). I switch to the X console when I need to do something graphical, such as look at an image or a PDF file. Most of the time I do not have an Internet connection. Once or twice or maybe three times a day I connect and transfer mail in and out.”

Since most of us would go back to using paper, pens, envelopes and stamps before using the open-source text editor Emacs, it still seems likely that it’s going to be a Windows and Mac OS world for the foreseeable future.”

ARE YOU SERIOUS? <sarcasm>Obviously all Linux users have is Emacs and a console. Obviously</sarcasm>. Wait, no thats absolutely ludicrous. I use Gnome. Gnome is pretty, functional and elegant.

Anyways, felt it was worth sharing. I am not a Linux crazy but this kind of poor article makes me want to throw a Firefox at someone.

Bill and Ted 3? Way.

“.. On the red carpet for the Academy Awards, MTV asked Keanu Reeves if we’d be seeing a new Bill & Ted sequel in the future. Reeves laughed and responded by saying “I’m trying, I’m trying.”
MTV journo Josh Horowitz asked if he was joking, to which Reeves responded “I’m not…””

I love Bill and Ted. I own both films. The second one wasn’t as good as the first, but that often happens in the sequel. If a third one comes along it could be good. It could also be totally bodacious. Awesome? Way.

Did Han shoot this guy first?

Star Wars is my favorite movie trilogy of all time. The original episodes IV-VI. Its cool to see new stuff from that age, like these newly released photos.

This is a fun picture.

Its too late for me, my son.

I hope this comes alive!

Joystiq has a collection of new screenshots from Fallout: New Vegas. I loved Fallout 3 and New Vegas seems to be more of the same. Hopefully in a good way.

SXSW Torrent 2010

Every year SXSW releases free mp3s on their site. This year is no exception and people have nabbed the music and wrapped it up in one bit torrent download. So far only one torrent is available with 656 songs rounding 3.35G!

I picked up the 2007 torrent and found some great music. This years batch seems very good as well. Been listening to it as I work and I am already in the “B” artists. I sorted the list by artist name. Total run time of the music? 1 day 17 hours and 25 minutes.

I knew his meetings went like this.

This game is so good it makes me want to have my own country.

Recently I picked up a few PC games to get back into the whole PC gaming thing. When I was at Frys electronics I noticed they had Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2 on sale for $10. I picked it up immediately because thats such a good deal for both Age of Empires games. Now Age of Empires 2 was released in 1999 making it 11 years old(yes Virgina, I can maths). In gamer terms that might as well be ancient. The graphics are 2D and a little rough compared to the airbrushed 3D glitz we get these days. However this game has one thing going for it. It is so much fun to play.

This weekend jdubb, Adam and I played 6 LAN games of Age 2 and had a blast. 11 years later fun is still fun and you don’t need ultra high res graphics to have a great game. Not saying ultra amazing graphics are bad, they just don’t totally make a game.

When the Age of Empires 3 pack comes down in price some I will pick it up. Hopefully its as good as Age 2 LAN.