Official Computer Talk Thread

[Bulkybear]

I take it your into linux webby? The one thing that i didn't like so much was all the professional tools for anything are on windows or osx. Linux has a lot of open source alternatives but they really take a back seat to the professional tools. Example, gimp is a good open source photo editor. But even paint.net is better.

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[webby]

I've messed with a handful of things. I've never tried paint.net...hmm, I'll have to check its features out. I've tried gimp out in the past.

 

[Bulkybear]

Yeah. That's how I am. I just mess with things. That's how I even learned about linux and Unix and using them and android development as well.

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[Bulkybear]

After this last jump into linux I think I may just stick to mainstream software. Seems better developed.

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[webby]

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVpbFMhOAwE

 

[Bulkybear]

Good video, makes good points. Amd for the situations they mentioned linux is very competitive. However I don't think that's the case for regular desktop/laptop computing. I will say out of all of my customers one of them does run linux registers with a Unix back end. And it runs really good. The rest of my customers use windows for all there need except for walmart who uses a custom variation of dos (yes I said dos). Walmart just recently upgraded there controllers to fat32 lol.

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[webby]

are you referring to point of sale computers at walmart?

 

[Bulkybear]

Yes, the register themselves have no data storage. They are dummy terminals running off of the controllers in the back of the store. The software is preloaded and ran from ram. Walmarts sap server however runs windows server (I believe 2003).

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[mikey6p]

Yes, the register themselves have no data storage. They are dummy terminals running off of the controllers in the back of the store. The software is preloaded and ran from ram. Walmarts sap server however runs windows server (I believe 2003).

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That is very ghetto fabulous. My store's terminals run windows NT

Both my desktop and netbook dualboot ubuntu and windows. Ubuntu is lightning fast and awesome on the netbook, but I really don't use it much on the desktop.

 

[Bulkybear]

That is very ghetto fabulous. My store's terminals run windows NT

Both my desktop and netbook dualboot ubuntu and windows. Ubuntu is lightning fast and awesome on the netbook, but I really don't use it much on the desktop.

Actually a lot of retail environments run on some variation of terminal services. It's not a bad model. Pretty easy to get a handle on the software with that setup as you have 1 server to worry about, not 80 registers. Where is it that you work?

 

[mikey6p]

Its a grocery store. So if the terminal controller goes down in a wal mart, all registers also go down? That'd be horrible.

 

[Bulkybear]

Its a grocery store. So if the terminal controller goes down in a wal mart, all registers also go down? That'd be horrible.

There are 2 controllers. CC and DD, cc controls the even registers DD controls the odds. If one goes down its registers will go on backup and run off the other controller. If both go down you have a down store. It has happened before.

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[mikey6p]

We have two controllers also, and if ever both go down, the only thing affected is electronic payments and rewards cards. They payment info just gets archived and sent later. On the user side, it just appears really slow to process payment and rewards card phone numbers don't work.

 

[webby]

if both are down, how are you archiving payment info?

 

[Dar-Dar]

I guess I'll be able to play xbox games on windows 8. Forza on my laptop will be fun!

 

[mikey6p]

if both are down, how are you archiving payment info?

Good question. That's beyond my knowledge, but I'd want to guess it gets stored locally at each register.

 

[Bulkybear]

Good question. That's beyond my knowledge, but I'd want to guess it gets stored locally at each register.

Usually if each register runs its own software and has an "offline mode" transactions are stored at the register (transaction data is measured in kilobytes) and then transmitted when brought back online. Most systems can't process electronic payments this way though.

 

[mikey6p]

I'm pretty sure that's how ours runs, because we can ring people up with both controllers down.

Also- May be commissioned to build a computer for girlfriends parents. They said their budget is 1k. I told them I could build one for $300 and they thought I was full of it.

 

[webby]

1/3rd of that will be windows, unless you're going linux, or using cracked stuff

 

[mikey6p]

I didn't really factor that, figuring I can use their old serial number to re-install on the new tower...but there's always cracks