Quora Digest wrote:
Is there a future for Linux operating systems?
Chris McGowan
Chris McGowan, Linux user for many decades.
Answered Dec 13, 2018
Originally Answered: Will Linux supersede Windows in the future?
I think this is possible, but not in the way most people think. I personally have been using Linux for 25 years at home (and at work) .. yes, I am a Linux fanboy :-) but I do try and see and appreciate strengths of Windows.
Linux based servers are the backbone of the internet, and almost all embedded system these days use some Linux variant ( for example, BusyBox on arm processors), in these spaces Linux is king. What the question is asking about are the desktop computer that we use in offices and at home.
One of the existing problems with Windows is the kernel code is written very specifically for intel based processors. I have never see the code, but it appears from comments elsewhere that is has a lot of code this is difficult to port, and lots of code written with some horrors such as the totally crazy “hungarian” notation that was all the rage for a while. This make it very hard to move to different hardware architectures, the effort to port Linux to new hardware would be very much easier.
I think that there is a distinct possibility that windows will take on a Linux kernel, and replace the very complex kernel code it has. It has already done this to some extent, see A Linux Kernel at the Heart of a New Microsoft OS -- Redmondmag.com
This is a quite sensible approach, after years of ignoring Linux and actively bagging linux as some sort of toy for geeks.
It has been a fact for some time that Microsoft was a large contributor to the Linux kernel, this story, Top Five Linux Contributor: Microsoft | ZDNet says that Microsoft was the fifth largest contributor to the Linux Kernel. Why are they doing this if there is no benefit for them?
My guess is that Microsoft is toying with the ideal of replacing its current kernel with Linux. This is not a guarantee that it will happen, but the engineers at microsoft must be considering this as an option. There is probably a “dark” project in Microsoft looking at this and working out how feasible it would be. I imaging that this new Windows will look much the same as it does now, (They will not adopt X11, you can be sure of that) but under the hood the engine driving it will be a Linux kernel.
Apple did this by taking Linux’s cousin, Free-BSD , and replacing their rather tired kernel with a true *NIX kernel.
There are a lot of benefits to be had with a Linux Kernel, the great evolutionarily[sic] path of operating systems, the brilliant minds and effort over the last seventy or so years lead to the family of Unix OS’s, Linux being one that appeared at the right time to get prominence with the BSD linux versions being in the doldrums due to legal issues (this was overcome later ).
Operating systems are probably the most complex pieces of software developed by humans. The fact the that the existing Windows works as well as it does is a tribute to the people that developed it and maintained it over the years. Having said that, it has some quite serious problems that will make it harder to maintain in the future, and switching to a Linux kernel, as hard as that may be will breath new life into Microsoft and allow it keep its hold on the home and office software business.
Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Quora being what it is does not provide me with a link to this article. Thus I copied and pasted it as it appeared in my e-mail. I post it here because it is a sensible answer to an age old argument.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
I think BSD has a larger base than Linux from some reports I've seen.
I've seen the above article before, but don't remember where.
I don't think it is entirely accurate though.
Windows runs just fine on AMD cpu's so I wouldn't say it is an Intel only kernel they use.
Many knowledgeable Linux programmers seem to think that Micro$oft is who developed the Split Kernel used on many Linux boxes today. By moving things out of the Single Kernel into a Main Kernel and Supporting Kernel, things like adding new drivers for hardware would work seamlessly without rebooting. The only time you have to reboot a Linux box now is if the main kernel changes, not because you added a new device or made a change to something that under normal circumstances would require a change to the kernel and therefore a reboot.
Unfortunately, Linux can do this with ease simply by pointing to an extended kernel file, but the way Micro$oft wanted to do it was by, you guessed it, creating a kernel registry, which went over like a lead balloon in the Linux world anyhow. However, Mickey$oft may still do it that way in their proprietary release to get around some of the open source rules.
Also read something most interesting. There is no such thing as a 64 bit CPU. All CPU's are 32 bit Internal Register Size!
But since the 1990s they have a 64 bit Data Bus Width, so this is what the advertisers hawk as 64 bit CPUs.
And based on the specs given for each CPU, AMD has the fastest and cooler running CPUs, followed by Intel, and then Cyrix.
The other CPU makers aren't even in the game anymore, NexGen, IDT, and Rise.
I've seen the above article before, but don't remember where.
I don't think it is entirely accurate though.
Windows runs just fine on AMD cpu's so I wouldn't say it is an Intel only kernel they use.
Many knowledgeable Linux programmers seem to think that Micro$oft is who developed the Split Kernel used on many Linux boxes today. By moving things out of the Single Kernel into a Main Kernel and Supporting Kernel, things like adding new drivers for hardware would work seamlessly without rebooting. The only time you have to reboot a Linux box now is if the main kernel changes, not because you added a new device or made a change to something that under normal circumstances would require a change to the kernel and therefore a reboot.
Unfortunately, Linux can do this with ease simply by pointing to an extended kernel file, but the way Micro$oft wanted to do it was by, you guessed it, creating a kernel registry, which went over like a lead balloon in the Linux world anyhow. However, Mickey$oft may still do it that way in their proprietary release to get around some of the open source rules.
Also read something most interesting. There is no such thing as a 64 bit CPU. All CPU's are 32 bit Internal Register Size!
But since the 1990s they have a 64 bit Data Bus Width, so this is what the advertisers hawk as 64 bit CPUs.
And based on the specs given for each CPU, AMD has the fastest and cooler running CPUs, followed by Intel, and then Cyrix.
The other CPU makers aren't even in the game anymore, NexGen, IDT, and Rise.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Before I decided to plunge into the Linux world I tried to run BSD. It installed without incident but when I turned it on all I got was a command line. I was expected to know what to do after that. That is what delayed my interest in Linux. I didn't want to have to build an operating system to use something that is supposedly better. 
The article I quoted is written by self proclaimed dedicated Linux fan. Plus it came off the highly suspect website, Quara. Thus it sounds authoritative, but I can't vouch for any of it. To be honest I don't know much about kernels to begin with.
A lot of the ISO's I collect are compiled for an amd64 architecture yet they run fine on al my Intel CPU's. So what gives? Well it's just a name for internal processing and does not imply it's tied to any brand.
The article I quoted is written by self proclaimed dedicated Linux fan. Plus it came off the highly suspect website, Quara. Thus it sounds authoritative, but I can't vouch for any of it. To be honest I don't know much about kernels to begin with.
A lot of the ISO's I collect are compiled for an amd64 architecture yet they run fine on al my Intel CPU's. So what gives? Well it's just a name for internal processing and does not imply it's tied to any brand.
Is that so?Gary wrote: Also read something most interesting. There is no such thing as a 64 bit CPU. All CPU's are 32 bit Internal Register Size!
The Wikipedia quote doesn't confirm what you read. But what do I know? I'd look up a spec sheet but does it really matter?x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64 and Intel 64[note 1]) is the 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set. It introduces two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mode. With 64-bit mode and the new paging mode, it supports vastly larger amounts of virtual memory and physical memory than is possible on its 32-bit predecessors, allowing programs to store larger amounts of data in memory. x86-64 also expands general-purpose registers to 64-bit, as well extends the number of them from 8 (some of which had limited or fixed functionality, e.g. for stack management) to 16 (fully general), and provides numerous other enhancements.
SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
That's where I got the data from was a Spec Sheet on the CPU's made by Intel, and AMD.
I was looking for the list I found that showed all the available CPUs and what their specs were.
Almost all of the new ones showed they had a 64 bit Data Bus Width, and advertised as 64 bit CPUs.
But the specs showed the INTERNAL REGISTER was only 32 bit.
Here is a list of the CPUs, but this list doesn't show the register sizes.
https://www.techpowerup.com/cpudb/
AHA, I found it. You'll have to scroll down a ways to get to the list where it shows the register sizes.
http://www.informit.com/articles/articl ... 8&seqNum=4
It is possible this article is outdated, so you could be right about their now being 64 bit Internal Registers.
Edited to Add that I see the article was from 2001, so I'm way out of date there, hi hi.
I was looking for the list I found that showed all the available CPUs and what their specs were.
Almost all of the new ones showed they had a 64 bit Data Bus Width, and advertised as 64 bit CPUs.
But the specs showed the INTERNAL REGISTER was only 32 bit.
Here is a list of the CPUs, but this list doesn't show the register sizes.
https://www.techpowerup.com/cpudb/
AHA, I found it. You'll have to scroll down a ways to get to the list where it shows the register sizes.
http://www.informit.com/articles/articl ... 8&seqNum=4
It is possible this article is outdated, so you could be right about their now being 64 bit Internal Registers.
Edited to Add that I see the article was from 2001, so I'm way out of date there, hi hi.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
My guess is that you used a search engine that didn't exactly return results that were relevant to what you were looking for. Of course returned results is highly dependent on the search terms you provide. After nearly two dozen years of searching I haven't mastered exactly what to put in to get the desired results out. I run into this "out of date" problem all the time when I look up solutions for Linux problems. There are 50 [Solved] articles for the exact problem I'm having, but every one of them is ten years old or more.
None of the above is to debunk what you discovered. It is true that they call a 32 bit processor 64 bits because that's the size of the data bus - which is fed into the processor cache in two bytes. The best way to evaluate a microprocessor is to know and understand its throughput figure. How quickly can it transfer a 2Gb size picture in RAM and have it on the display bus, for example. The clock speed of most processor cores these days is about 1.5 GHz but I've never read about a case where they can use every one of those cycles during a given process. There is a lot of wait time because the stuff connected to the processor isn't as fast as that 1.5 GHz clock. The point is that it is very difficult to assess how fast a processor really is because each sales force rates performance differently. I know there are benchmarks for just this purpose, but I've not had a need to look them up lately. I am sure, however, that processors in the year 2020 can easily have internal registers 64 bits wide. In fact I see them taking about upping it to 128 once in a while. No average citizen would need such a monster, but it is not new technology.
None of the above is to debunk what you discovered. It is true that they call a 32 bit processor 64 bits because that's the size of the data bus - which is fed into the processor cache in two bytes. The best way to evaluate a microprocessor is to know and understand its throughput figure. How quickly can it transfer a 2Gb size picture in RAM and have it on the display bus, for example. The clock speed of most processor cores these days is about 1.5 GHz but I've never read about a case where they can use every one of those cycles during a given process. There is a lot of wait time because the stuff connected to the processor isn't as fast as that 1.5 GHz clock. The point is that it is very difficult to assess how fast a processor really is because each sales force rates performance differently. I know there are benchmarks for just this purpose, but I've not had a need to look them up lately. I am sure, however, that processors in the year 2020 can easily have internal registers 64 bits wide. In fact I see them taking about upping it to 128 once in a while. No average citizen would need such a monster, but it is not new technology.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
I don't know about supercomputers, but all those server farms that have thousands of computers in them, all seem to use both one or two CPUs and a Graphics Card for some reason to help speed them up, even though they don't have graphics on them. That still confuses me, hi hi. Why have a graphics card for headless servers? Except they use something on those cards, and perhaps have a way of looking in on each computer.
I know, I read all about it a couple of times, but my memory don't retain tidbits of that kind of information, hi hi.
Our desktop computers are so fast now, images load almost instantly. About the only wait time is waiting for the website you connected to to fetch the data and send it to you.
If you are low on the hosts priority list, you could grow a beard waiting for your turn to come around for the data you requested, hi hi.
I know, I read all about it a couple of times, but my memory don't retain tidbits of that kind of information, hi hi.
Our desktop computers are so fast now, images load almost instantly. About the only wait time is waiting for the website you connected to to fetch the data and send it to you.
If you are low on the hosts priority list, you could grow a beard waiting for your turn to come around for the data you requested, hi hi.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Each graphics card has a CPU, or more correctly a GPU. Thus when configured correctly the graphics card can be made into a parallel data processor. nVidia was riding high just a year or two ago because the crypto currency miners were stacking up video cards to do their mining. For a while this created a shortage of video cards and the prices went sky high. Thus the more processors you have in the loop the more data you can process, which is why dual and quad processors have a place on some motherboards. It gets esoteric quickly on that level.
There are limits to how fast a data bit can change from a 1 to a 0, and the physics of that is what limits the processing speed. That's why quantum computing holds a lot of promise; they don't use 1's or 0's. LOL The only way Intel or AMD or any of the rest of them can brag about speed is by putting cores one on top of another. This effectively creates the same situation as adding a GPU on top of a CPU to do parallel processing. The limit for any one core is still a 1.5GHz clock speed.
There are limits to how fast a data bit can change from a 1 to a 0, and the physics of that is what limits the processing speed. That's why quantum computing holds a lot of promise; they don't use 1's or 0's. LOL The only way Intel or AMD or any of the rest of them can brag about speed is by putting cores one on top of another. This effectively creates the same situation as adding a GPU on top of a CPU to do parallel processing. The limit for any one core is still a 1.5GHz clock speed.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Hmm, I thought programs had to be purposely written in order to use more than one core of a CPU?
Unless they now have an intermediary program as part of the OS that handles that now.
What goes on under the hood is usually well beyond my grasp, hi hi.
When it comes to computers, you can compare me to an old woman and a car.
Unless they now have an intermediary program as part of the OS that handles that now.
What goes on under the hood is usually well beyond my grasp, hi hi.
When it comes to computers, you can compare me to an old woman and a car.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Not surprisingly, I have one of each of those around here.When it comes to computers, you can compare me to an old woman and a car.
At the chip level microprocessors only understand 1's and 0's. Amazing as it sounds, there are real people who can program them in binary. Most humans, however, rely on machine code that gets compiled into binary for the processor. The number of cores that are actually used depends on the programmer using the correct machine code of the processor. The chip manufacturer determines what that code is. Of course that means his application has to be written to take advantage of parallel processing too. So, you are right. Some coding is needed to utilize multiple cores of a processor.
When stacking GPU's cores to use them as parallel processors to mine bitcoins, you will need some code to make that happen. I'm certain it's available on the dark web, but nVidia has implemented it into it's products as well. The video card for the Silver Yogi has that capability.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
I started messing around with bitcoin for about a year just using my computers that were sitting here doing nothing.
I burned up more electric than I ever made in bitcoins, hi hi.
What little I did make was enough to buy a bag of mints from a place that took bitcoins, and once my purse was empty, I just closed it out completely.
Back when I had the octal-entry Heath Zenith 8 bit computer, that is how we had to program it unless you bought this small compiler program from Heathkit, which I eventually did, along with the paper tape drive. It was more or less just a toy to learn on, but was enough to get me hooked into buying the Apple I motherboard and sinking money into everything needed to get it to work. Then of course they came out with the Apple II which I bought, and the following year the Apple II+, after that is when I got the Lisa System, followed by Wang VS at work and a Wang PC for at home.
I must say though, I really liked that Wang PC, especially after they made it work with both Wang and Windows software.
Still had my old Apple II+ at the time I got the Wang PC, but I had to constantly open it up, take an eraser to the cards contact area to keep it working. Hated to get rid of it after buying the two Apple Drives for it and the expensive printer.
On the bright side though, I made back more money than I spend on those devices doing work for small companies.
I burned up more electric than I ever made in bitcoins, hi hi.
What little I did make was enough to buy a bag of mints from a place that took bitcoins, and once my purse was empty, I just closed it out completely.
Back when I had the octal-entry Heath Zenith 8 bit computer, that is how we had to program it unless you bought this small compiler program from Heathkit, which I eventually did, along with the paper tape drive. It was more or less just a toy to learn on, but was enough to get me hooked into buying the Apple I motherboard and sinking money into everything needed to get it to work. Then of course they came out with the Apple II which I bought, and the following year the Apple II+, after that is when I got the Lisa System, followed by Wang VS at work and a Wang PC for at home.
I must say though, I really liked that Wang PC, especially after they made it work with both Wang and Windows software.
Still had my old Apple II+ at the time I got the Wang PC, but I had to constantly open it up, take an eraser to the cards contact area to keep it working. Hated to get rid of it after buying the two Apple Drives for it and the expensive printer.
On the bright side though, I made back more money than I spend on those devices doing work for small companies.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
I never understood bitcoins. It's a pretend currency that varies in value that is controlled by unseen forces in the universe. I guess you could say the same for stocks and bonds, but at least in equities there is generally a brick and mortar company behind it. The mining part is a total fantasy. I am pretty sure you can win more buying lottery tickets than you can looking for pretend money hidden somewhere in the bowels of this planet. Needless to say I never got into it. Maybe I will some day after I figure out UEFI and Linux. LOL
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Honesty Yogi? It really is not pretend currency. Cryptocurrency can be converted to Real Money without difficulty.
As far as Bitcoin goes, the maximum amount of Bitcoins that will ever exist is 21 million.
In other words, only 21 million blockchain blocks can be created over time as they become necessary.
It is really no longer worth trying to mine bitcoins, unless you have tons of cash to buy multiple fast processors to do so.
I've seen bitcoins go from under a penny to over 30 bucks, then drop back down to about 2 bucks, but they will go up again the closer to the limit of coins is reached.
And that is where there may be a problem. Who is going to pay to keep the transactions going? The small fee for handling transactions will no longer produce enough money to pay for the electricity to do so.
However, we can look at the credit card and debit card industry to see they are still making tons of money handling transactions. This is mainly because a few larger companies are devoted to doing just that.
Debi used to work for one such place when it was named Nova, they changed the name slightly to Elavon.
They handle almost all credit card and debit transactions and supply stores with the transaction machines.
Banks and credit card companies were worried about Cryptocurrency taking away their high profit margin, which is why they did an about face and now pay their customers a percentage of each sale. It is the stores that are paying the fees for both credit card, and cryptocurrency users. Even the Bitcoin ATMs that convert bitcoins to cash charge a small fee to do so. Even so, it is cheaper to go through a bitcoin exchange to get cash transferred to your bank.
When you think about it, not too many people carry Cash in their pockets anymore, most use Plastic Cards.
If you go back many moons, not everywhere accepted Plastic. We did not accept credit cards at our florist, but did accept Florins. In a way it was not much different than cryptocurrency is today. Florins was an international money exchange medium used by florists worldwide, especially if they were FTD members. It really did simplify things because we did not have to know international money exchange rates, only what a Florin was worth in our dollars.
So, if our dollar price of a bouquet was 17.50 that converted to 52.5 Florins or actually 53 Florins because they were in whole amounts if I recall. So the person ordering that bouquet for us to deliver to who they wanted it to go to, would cost him 53 Forins, whatever that converted to in their currency at their end of the wire.
Like Bitcoin, there was a fixed amount of Florins that could be created, and no more after that amount.
At one time I knew the purpose of there being a limit, but don't recall what it was. I think the main thing was to keep the value of a Florin from diminishing. This is one area of financing I have absolutely no knowledge of how it works.
Other than to say, if you think of it as Gold and value of gold goes up by supply and demand, or down. If there is no more of it, you probably have to pay more to get a piece of gold. But I don't know how they account for what gets lost in either the case of Bitcoins or Florins. Confusing to me!
As far as Bitcoin goes, the maximum amount of Bitcoins that will ever exist is 21 million.
In other words, only 21 million blockchain blocks can be created over time as they become necessary.
It is really no longer worth trying to mine bitcoins, unless you have tons of cash to buy multiple fast processors to do so.
I've seen bitcoins go from under a penny to over 30 bucks, then drop back down to about 2 bucks, but they will go up again the closer to the limit of coins is reached.
And that is where there may be a problem. Who is going to pay to keep the transactions going? The small fee for handling transactions will no longer produce enough money to pay for the electricity to do so.
However, we can look at the credit card and debit card industry to see they are still making tons of money handling transactions. This is mainly because a few larger companies are devoted to doing just that.
Debi used to work for one such place when it was named Nova, they changed the name slightly to Elavon.
They handle almost all credit card and debit transactions and supply stores with the transaction machines.
Banks and credit card companies were worried about Cryptocurrency taking away their high profit margin, which is why they did an about face and now pay their customers a percentage of each sale. It is the stores that are paying the fees for both credit card, and cryptocurrency users. Even the Bitcoin ATMs that convert bitcoins to cash charge a small fee to do so. Even so, it is cheaper to go through a bitcoin exchange to get cash transferred to your bank.
When you think about it, not too many people carry Cash in their pockets anymore, most use Plastic Cards.
If you go back many moons, not everywhere accepted Plastic. We did not accept credit cards at our florist, but did accept Florins. In a way it was not much different than cryptocurrency is today. Florins was an international money exchange medium used by florists worldwide, especially if they were FTD members. It really did simplify things because we did not have to know international money exchange rates, only what a Florin was worth in our dollars.
So, if our dollar price of a bouquet was 17.50 that converted to 52.5 Florins or actually 53 Florins because they were in whole amounts if I recall. So the person ordering that bouquet for us to deliver to who they wanted it to go to, would cost him 53 Forins, whatever that converted to in their currency at their end of the wire.
Like Bitcoin, there was a fixed amount of Florins that could be created, and no more after that amount.
At one time I knew the purpose of there being a limit, but don't recall what it was. I think the main thing was to keep the value of a Florin from diminishing. This is one area of financing I have absolutely no knowledge of how it works.
Other than to say, if you think of it as Gold and value of gold goes up by supply and demand, or down. If there is no more of it, you probably have to pay more to get a piece of gold. But I don't know how they account for what gets lost in either the case of Bitcoins or Florins. Confusing to me!
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Good assumption there. That is exactly the reason why the US Government does not just print money to pay their bills. They take out loans instead to maintain the value of the dollar. Stocks and bonds work the same way. There is a limited number of them floating in the wild which is what determines the stock price at it's initial offering. After that initial offering, the price of a stock is determined by investors; exactly how bit coin and cryptocurrency work. Stocks (and coins) are intangibles. You can get a certificate that says you own so many, but you never really will see a "share" in your desk drawer. It's a concept that has a value attached to it. That value used to be what the market will bear, but now and days it seems to be determined by supercomputers sitting in the world's financial markets. Nobody knows what determines a bit coin's value but they say $30,000 is possible soon. I'm personally benefiting from other people manipulating stock prices, but since I don't know the mechanism behind pretend currency I am hesitant to get involved.At one time I knew the purpose of there being a limit, but don't recall what it was. I think the main thing was to keep the value of a Florin from diminishing.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
When bitcoin first was introduced, I thought it was some companies gimmick on a way to get rich.
Turns out that was not the case. They didn't actually make the 21 million bitcoins, they had to be generated from transaction fees and new blocks being added to the block-chain. I'm sure they still made a bundle though, hi hi.
Probably because they handled ALL of the transactions until someone earned a block, hi hi.
From what I understand, the government only allows so much gold to be mined now, to protect its value.
But they don't worry about what little bit is gleaned from streams.
Turns out that was not the case. They didn't actually make the 21 million bitcoins, they had to be generated from transaction fees and new blocks being added to the block-chain. I'm sure they still made a bundle though, hi hi.
Probably because they handled ALL of the transactions until someone earned a block, hi hi.
From what I understand, the government only allows so much gold to be mined now, to protect its value.
But they don't worry about what little bit is gleaned from streams.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
My understanding is that the US government dropped it's dependency on gold for an artificially fixed rate. The free market went nuts after they did that. Parity was set at $35/oz when they changed their ways and now the free market price is around $1300/oz. In uncertain times people buy gold which is seen as a safe haven. That's a great perception, but nobody but large governments conducts business using gold. They rather use bit coins. LOL
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
My brother recently cashed in all his Platinum for Gold.
He found it harder to sell Platinum fast, whereas Gold will be purchased by nearly anyone.
As usual though, he always came out smelling like a rose, hi hi.
One of his friends in the marina has whole bars of silver, several of them too.
On the bright side, they have doubled in value in over the few years he's owned them.
Fiat currency is only paper, which could become worthless at any moment.
Now here is something I have absolutely no idea on how it works.
But when you put money into the bank, it is normally in U.S. Dollars.
Some wealthy folks are having the money they have in the bank saved as Renminbi instead of dollars.
What I don't know is if their money is actually a transaction here, but sent to wherever the heck it is that uses Renminbi.
But the claim is, it is a stable currency, not likely to fail before the U.S. Dollar depreciates further.
I know it has nothing to do with Swiss bank accounts, or at least I don't think it does.
But the powers that be who have money seem to know where to put it away safe, hi hi.
He found it harder to sell Platinum fast, whereas Gold will be purchased by nearly anyone.
As usual though, he always came out smelling like a rose, hi hi.
One of his friends in the marina has whole bars of silver, several of them too.
On the bright side, they have doubled in value in over the few years he's owned them.
Fiat currency is only paper, which could become worthless at any moment.
Now here is something I have absolutely no idea on how it works.
But when you put money into the bank, it is normally in U.S. Dollars.
Some wealthy folks are having the money they have in the bank saved as Renminbi instead of dollars.
What I don't know is if their money is actually a transaction here, but sent to wherever the heck it is that uses Renminbi.
But the claim is, it is a stable currency, not likely to fail before the U.S. Dollar depreciates further.
I know it has nothing to do with Swiss bank accounts, or at least I don't think it does.
But the powers that be who have money seem to know where to put it away safe, hi hi.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
I'm not going to get political here, but this is an example of what I was talking about in some other post regarding the National Debt. People are switching away from the dollar and that's not good.Wikipedia wrote:The renminbi is the official currency of the People's Republic of China, and one of the world's major reserve currencies
Also, there is no such thing as a stable currency because it's all relative to everybody else's currency. Think about gold. It's not bought because it's value remains constant. So, if you buy something guaranteed not to change in value, you are making a poor investment.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
I guess I could have looked up who used Renminbi and learned for myself. But that must not be the common name they call Chinese money? Unless it means the same thing as a Yen or whatever.
Anything in limited quantities will usually go up in value over time. Even if it does have occasional downswings, over the long haul it usually goes up. Not meaning things that can be duplicated of course, more like minerals that what we found is what we have. The amount of Silver is why it's price seems to stay low. And also why they limit the amount of gold that can be mined and introduced to the marketplace.
I could be wrong here, without looking it up, but it seems to me, after the 1849 gold rush, the value of gold actually went down a lot due to so much being discovered back then.
There was an article in a magazine of the period that claimed gold was now easier to find than silver, and that article alone could be one cause of the drop in the value of gold during that era.
There are many metals more precious than gold, but as far as being able to sell them quickly, well, that is almost impossible. It takes time to find someone buying a particular rare metal, and it is not usually collectors, but some industry that needs it.
Not that it is relevant to metals, but I read something a couple of years ago, when all the stink about Fracking was in the air. There are a few products that can only be obtained from pure crude oil, that is not found in other oil sources, such as from coal tar, fracking, or derived oils from gasses. Several industries use these products and they are getting scarce so the prices are skyrocketing. Apparently not all crude oil reserves have these either. So perhaps they were only from a certain type of dinosaur, hi hi.
Anything in limited quantities will usually go up in value over time. Even if it does have occasional downswings, over the long haul it usually goes up. Not meaning things that can be duplicated of course, more like minerals that what we found is what we have. The amount of Silver is why it's price seems to stay low. And also why they limit the amount of gold that can be mined and introduced to the marketplace.
I could be wrong here, without looking it up, but it seems to me, after the 1849 gold rush, the value of gold actually went down a lot due to so much being discovered back then.
There was an article in a magazine of the period that claimed gold was now easier to find than silver, and that article alone could be one cause of the drop in the value of gold during that era.
There are many metals more precious than gold, but as far as being able to sell them quickly, well, that is almost impossible. It takes time to find someone buying a particular rare metal, and it is not usually collectors, but some industry that needs it.
Not that it is relevant to metals, but I read something a couple of years ago, when all the stink about Fracking was in the air. There are a few products that can only be obtained from pure crude oil, that is not found in other oil sources, such as from coal tar, fracking, or derived oils from gasses. Several industries use these products and they are getting scarce so the prices are skyrocketing. Apparently not all crude oil reserves have these either. So perhaps they were only from a certain type of dinosaur, hi hi.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
Personally I think the story about dinosaurs being the source of crude oil is bogus. I'm too lazy to do any research on it, but I do know there are more oil reserves in terms of volume than there ever was dinosaur flesh in all of history. The numbers do not seem to add up.
I don't know what the Chinese call their money, officially, but I do know there are global forces at work to get the world off the US dollar as a reserve standard.
You are right about supply and demand causing prices to go up. It's basic economic theory. Those same Chinese people who are attracting currency investors also have cornered the market on a couple rare earth elements. These elements, whose name escape me at the moment, are only found in China and are critical for the manufacturing of solid state electronics. There is no law or force in nature that makes the Chinese sell those critical elements to people they disfavor. It's one of the many reasons why economic cooperation between rivals is important. If, for example, they cut us off from supplies of those critical elements, that could be the end of our electronics industry. Economic weapons are more powerful than nuclear weapons in some cases.
I don't know what the Chinese call their money, officially, but I do know there are global forces at work to get the world off the US dollar as a reserve standard.
You are right about supply and demand causing prices to go up. It's basic economic theory. Those same Chinese people who are attracting currency investors also have cornered the market on a couple rare earth elements. These elements, whose name escape me at the moment, are only found in China and are critical for the manufacturing of solid state electronics. There is no law or force in nature that makes the Chinese sell those critical elements to people they disfavor. It's one of the many reasons why economic cooperation between rivals is important. If, for example, they cut us off from supplies of those critical elements, that could be the end of our electronics industry. Economic weapons are more powerful than nuclear weapons in some cases.
Re: Windows Moving To A Linuix Kernel
You are correct Yogi, oil from dinosaurs is a myth. In fact, a lot of the oil was formed long before dinosaurs even existed.
It formed in the bottom of oceans from algae, dead animals, plankton, and nearly everything, then as those ocean areas filled with sediment it kept the stuff from becoming fossilized and ended up turning into three (possibly more) major products. The dinosaurs only contributed a little, a little later, hi hi.
Now, if one considers the way oil was formed, it is an ongoing process that has never ended.
Some of the oil pockets we have used are from pre-dinosaur era 250 million years ago, some are post-dinosaur era only 63 million years ago, and some newer oil pockets are only about 30 million years old.
How they determine the age of an oil pocket is beyond my comprehension.
Back when I was doing some magic in a small way, magicians were always in the market for steel pennies.
They still are in fact, because they are used in several types of magic acts.
I had a little sideline business since I had a couple of sources where I could buy those steel pennies, back in the 1970s for only 2 to 4 cents each. I then paid Thies Plating Company a dime each to clean and copper plate them for me.
Turned around and sold them for a dollar each to magicians and fifty cents each to magic shops all across the U.S.
Today, they are harder to find and although you can buy them for 15 cents to 50 cents, only those valued above about 35 cents are worth obtaining. They now cost about a buck each to have plated, and that's only if you have lots of them to do at once. Magic shops are selling them now for anywhere from 4 to 15 dollars each, depending on quality. Some cheap plating looks orange so obviously fake looking.
There is one token company that got permission from the government to closely duplicate the 1943 steel penny, however it is slightly larger, and the back must be hollowed out to hold a real dime fairly loose too. For another simple magic trick of course, hi hi.
It formed in the bottom of oceans from algae, dead animals, plankton, and nearly everything, then as those ocean areas filled with sediment it kept the stuff from becoming fossilized and ended up turning into three (possibly more) major products. The dinosaurs only contributed a little, a little later, hi hi.
Now, if one considers the way oil was formed, it is an ongoing process that has never ended.
Some of the oil pockets we have used are from pre-dinosaur era 250 million years ago, some are post-dinosaur era only 63 million years ago, and some newer oil pockets are only about 30 million years old.
How they determine the age of an oil pocket is beyond my comprehension.
Back when I was doing some magic in a small way, magicians were always in the market for steel pennies.
They still are in fact, because they are used in several types of magic acts.
I had a little sideline business since I had a couple of sources where I could buy those steel pennies, back in the 1970s for only 2 to 4 cents each. I then paid Thies Plating Company a dime each to clean and copper plate them for me.
Turned around and sold them for a dollar each to magicians and fifty cents each to magic shops all across the U.S.
Today, they are harder to find and although you can buy them for 15 cents to 50 cents, only those valued above about 35 cents are worth obtaining. They now cost about a buck each to have plated, and that's only if you have lots of them to do at once. Magic shops are selling them now for anywhere from 4 to 15 dollars each, depending on quality. Some cheap plating looks orange so obviously fake looking.
There is one token company that got permission from the government to closely duplicate the 1943 steel penny, however it is slightly larger, and the back must be hollowed out to hold a real dime fairly loose too. For another simple magic trick of course, hi hi.