Re: [tlug] New notebook & distro

[Benjamin Tayehanpour <benjamin@example.com>]

On 12 November 2013 06:40, Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com> wrote:
> So the secure boot issue is for Windows 7 only and has been abandoned
> with Windows 8?  I had thought the issue *began* with Windows 7 and
> was *continuing* with Windows 8.  The users I've been speaking with
> that got stuck with W8 are extremely unhappy with it and I know a few
> people who went out of their way to get W7 (within the past few
> months) as they were avoiding W8 like the Bubonic Plague....

Of course they are avoiding W8. Wouldn't you? All I am saying is that
the Windows 8 *certification* of x86-based computers *requires* that
the user be able to add boot certificates. If you can't, well, then
that computer isn't certified for Windows 8. This is a major
improvement over the Windows 7 certification. Note *certification*;
I'm not talking about the operating system itself, or the entire
ridiculous idea about boot signing.

>"Dying
> breed"?  We're talking about machines here, right?  They're not alive,
> never were alive, and they were not bred like horses.  I still say
> your use of the term "nowadays" was inappropriate.  But never mind,
> most people don't give a d**n about the actual meaning of words any
> more, so it doesn't matter.  That said, I suppose the old term of
> avoiding something "like the plague" doesn't make much sense either.
> Whatever!

While I do love a bit of linguistic one-upmanship once in a while, I
would suggest that you actually make sure you actually know your stuff
before criticising others too loudly. A breed, dying or otherwise, can
be used to describe non-living objects as well. [1] It's common
idiomatic speech.

Furthermore, avoiding something like the plague is to avoid something
as you would the plague. The usage of "plague" to mean anything
annoying is attested all the way back to the 1590s. [2] I can find
quotes on avoiding/shunning/whatever like the plague from 1699
onwards, [3] which probably means that it's been in colloquial use
since way before then [citation needed, lol].

And, finally: Since, to my knowledge, new Windows 7 certified
computers are no longer sold, computers with that particular
certification will not grow in numbers. Hence, the problem *now* is
with old (in the newer end of the spectrum of "old", granted)
computers. Thus, the situation nowadays is better. Quod est
demonstrandum.

That said, the situation may well worsen in the future. But the future != now.

[1] http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/british/breed_17
("2. a particular type of person *or thing*")
[2] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=plague
[3] Oxford English Dictionary, ISBN: 978-0199548415 ("1699 W. PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude (ed. 5) §257. 82 An able bad Man, is an ill
Instrument, and to be shunn'd as the Plague. 1703 M. CHUDLEIGH Song of
Three Children in Poems Several Occasions, Those Ills we court, which
we as Plagues shou'd shun. 1835 T. MOORE in Byron Wks. XV. 133 Saint
Augustine..avoided the school as the plague. 1896 A. R. WHITE Youth's
Educator xi. 130 Young ladies would shun slang phrases as they would
the plague.")