Where Linux is used and how it is made

[GreyGeek]

[woodsmoke]

NOW THAT..............is MARKETING!!! BRAVO!! BRAVO!!! BRAVO!!!

The only thing that might be added is having six random developers being picked, along with 6 random users and 6 random windblows users being picked....

to HALO out of a MILITARY TRANSPORT!!!

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

While the facts in the video are sound, an observer is still left wondering, "How come with all that rapid development, parts of my computer still don't work in Linux? Everything works in Windows!" A new kernel every two to three months doesn't mean much to someone struggling with wireless drivers. Matter of fact, such rapid change can become the target of blame.

Not trying to be a nattering nabob here. I'm just unclear of what audience that video is attempting to target.

[GreyGeek]

While the facts in the video are sound, an observer is still left wondering, "How come with all that rapid development, parts of my computer still don't work in Linux? Everything works in Windows!" A new kernel every two to three months doesn't mean much to someone struggling with wireless drivers. Matter of fact, such rapid change can become the target of blame.

Not trying to be a nattering nabob here. I'm just unclear of what audience that video is attempting to target.

Fair questions.

The answer to the first question is that the OEMs and Microsoft have an incestuous relationship. When your OS is the one that is installed by the OEMs and you can dictate to the OEMs by a "certification standard" which their hardware has to conform to if they want to get "ad rebates" then your OS is guaranteed to run on all the OEM hardware. Linux, on the other hand, is tossed a bone, a GPL file which barely supports a frame buffer, and with no specification data to help. Linux devs have to reverse engineer the drivers for the hardware. When one considers how many OEMs there are, and how many models they offer, it is amazing to me that Kubuntu "works out of the box" on such a variety of PCs as it does.

Sometimes some play dirty (either on their own or by inducement by Microsoft, who has offered IP for sale along with instructions on how to sue Linux) and coded their firmware to blow up when Linux is detected. The person who discovered the "buggy" code, TheAlmightyCthulhu, reverse engineered it and replaced the vector table misdirection with correct settings. He remarked:

They have several different tables, a group for Windws XP and Vista, a group for 2000, a group for NT, Me, 95, 98, etc. that just errors out, and one for LINUX.

The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation, causing weird kernel errors, strange system freezing, no suspend or hibernate, and other problems, using my modifications below, I've gotten it down to just crashing on the next reboot after having suspended, the horrible thing about disassembling any program is that you have no commenting, so it's hard to tell which does what, but I'll be damned if I'm going to buy a copy of Vista just to get the crashing caused by Foxconn's BIOS to stop, I am not going to be terrorized.

...

These are bogus mutes that are harmless to Windows (it ignores them), but crash Linux sporadically, soooo....

Find and replace all seven occurences of Acquire (MUTE, 0x03E8) and replace with Acquire (MUTE, 0xFFFF), it appears they're trying to crash the kernel by locking a region of memory that shouldn't be locked, but without access to their source code comments, I can only speculate, this tells it to lock a memory address that is always reserved instead.

Someone found a possible source for the modifications:
http://linuxologist.com/1general/eve...xconn-debacle/
but that is just speculation.


The Audience?
The hundreds of millions of Windows users who believe that Linux is rarely used on the desktop and not used anywhere else. I.E., those that have bought into the "1%" myth that Microsoft's PR department, and 3rd party supplicants, work hard to promote.

[SteveRiley]

It disgusts me that software becomes an ideological bludgeon.

(That's not directed at you, Jerry. I'm just venting.)

[rms]

The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation, causing weird kernel errors, strange system freezing, no suspend or hibernate, and other problems, using my modifications below, I've gotten it down to just crashing on the next reboot after having suspended, the horrible thing about disassembling any program is that you have no commenting, so it's hard to tell which does what, but I'll be damned if I'm going to buy a copy of Vista just to get the crashing caused by Foxconn's BIOS to stop, I am not going to be terrorized.

Heh, micro$hit and its vassal plonkers...

[lcorken]

Some years ago my wife took me to a friends house who showed me to her back yard, sat me in a lawn chair, handed me a can of beer and asked me figure out a sprinkler problem. Apparently my wife had noticed and told her friend that I figure stuff out better if I sit down with a can of beer and think about it for a while.

I can imagine open source devs sitting in the quiet of there homes at computer with their favorite brew at hand. How else could they think up the term "Free as in free beer"?

I also doubt if Mickey-Soft of Apple has this kind of work environment.

Ken.

[rms]

I can imagine open source devs sitting in the quiet of there homes at computer with their favorite brew at hand. How else could they think up the term "Free as in free beer"?
Ken.

Yeah, probably the best way to concentrate on a problem is with a mug of ice-cold lager. +1