RE: FN-FORUM: [OT] can't wait till microsoft tries this....

date posted 4th January 2004 19:16

First of all, I'm proper *aghast* at your lack of understanding of what
you're talking about.

Danny Leonard:
> Windows just isnt capable of handling the graphical intensity as it was
> never built to carry that sort of strain yet linux although isnt designed

Sorry, but that's crap. DirectX?

> to handle intense graphics can easily cope with it thru various avenues..
> eg editable kernel and add-ons and most of it is open source.

Regarding Linux, it *is* designed for it (ever heard of DRI?) - it's in the
kernel for chrissakes.

> For instance.. TiVo uses Linux as its operating system as it can handle
the
> video/audio capabilites along with all the connectivity and housekeeping.

TiVo uses GNU/Linux because it's cheaper and easier than using/licensing
Windows.
People certainly do use Windows for Personal Video Recorders (normally 98 -
a good trade between stability and size-of-footprint). Not to mention you
can get, like, hardware to do all that tricky TV handling.

> Linux uses what memory it needs not everything it has all at once "just in
> case" like windows therefor much most stable and dynamic.

Be honest - you have *no* idea what you're on about.

> As for the OS being stored on the DVD games, not sure on that one.. its
> possible i guess as there is the physical capacity but seems rather far
> fetched as it would take a LONG while (in comparison) to load the OS

That's exactly what I thought - you'd be taking a speed hit unnecessarily.

> environment just to load a game.. would probably make more sense
> to load the OS first and pass any variables eg game data etc to the
kernel.

...or to load a cut-down microkernel and let each 'game' load any extra
drivers that it needs.

> There would have to be a resident OS to load the base OS anyway..
> just like BIOS on a PC.

First up, the BIOS is *not* an OS.
Secondly, the BIOS does *not* load your OS (directly).
Finally, you'd just need a boot loader - which isn't an OS.

> When u switch the box on it loads some form of environment to play normal
> dvd's or audio cds.

Yes, it's a small image on the hard disk.

> Yet Linux has GUI capabilites so could either be handled by W2K or Linux.

No, Linux can run X, which provides GUI capabilities.

- Nick Grimshaw
{ if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate. }