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THE COUNTRY HAS now gone 57 days without a government and while Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are still talking to one another, there are still a number of issues they need to iron out before a deal can be reached on a minority-led government.
Last night, as formal negotiations broke for the weekend, issues like housing and water charges were causing problems.
In particular, the parties are having trouble compromising on water charge policy, with Fianna Fáil TD Thomas Byrne telling RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke yesterday that an agreement was doubtful unless Fine Gael was willing to suspect charges for five years.
A party source said the two leaders had “a good discussion” on the phone earlier today and would remain in contact over the weekend. However the parties’ negotiating teams will not resume formal talks until Monday morning.
One Fine Gael TD said it appears as if “the tail wants to wag the dog”. They suggested Fianna Fáil begin speaking to parties who are of the same mind on water, adding that Enda Kenny’s party is “duty bound” to hold their ground.
Both sides are still said to be hopeful that a resolution can be reached next week, but if neither are willing to budge on the water issue, the country could still be without a government next weekend.
- With reporting by Christina Finn.
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I have only used windows 8 on friends laptops, I found it disastrous though. A nightmare to navigate and get around. Quite happy with windows 7 and I won’t be in a rush to change
Still with 7 myself, I see it’s included in the update.
Might just wait and see though, hopefully they’ve nailed it this time.
I upgraded to 8.1 as it’s part of the minimum requirements for Kinect for windows V2 only to discover that it’s heavy on USB3 bandwidth and the hardware isn’t up to it.
I have to say though, having used a windows tablet before I really don’t see what people are complaining about with Win 8.1 – I’ve come to the conclusion that people don’t like change and that’s the issue more than anything.
“Linux is for people who want to know why it works. Mac is for people who don’t want to know why it works. DOS is for people who want to know why it does not work. Windows is for people who don’t want to know why it does not work.”
If you like Windows 7 then you’ll love Windows 10. It’s like a fork in the tree, bringing the familiarity of Windows 7 to the performance and features of Windows 8.1, plus more. The UI stuff appears to have been sorted out, with desktops/laptops acting like updated Windows 7 desktops/laptops, and mobile devices focusing more on the “Modern” UI. Hybrid devices can adapt using a feature called Continuum. And best feature: it’s one Windows 10 across phone, tablet, laptop/desktop, and the TV (via Xbox One) with one common store, enabling devs to write for all devices at once using “Universal Apps”. That should prod The Journal to finally give us a native app ;-)
Nah Tony, that’s arse. OSX is also for people who know how the sausage is made but don’t want to make it every time. All the BSD you can eat and mainstream platform support.
Microsoft aren’t really losing revenue that can be expected in this age of platform agnosticism. You can’t even win in the OS market by giving superior product away.
If you can`t getr your head around the new look Windows 8/8.1 – look into a program called “Classic Shell” (free) – it will let you organise windows 8/8.1 into looking like windows 7 , easy to use and configure.
Start8 by Stardock. It’s totally seamless and has everything you need for a native feeling Windows 7 experience. I keep forgetting other Win8 machines don’t have it! The only remnant of Metro is the wifi sidebar. It costs a few quid but it’s perfect and made by a great little company.
Classic shell is great. Surprised few people know about it. So much unnecessary hate towards 8.1
Classic shell is free, where as Start8 is only free for 30days and $9.99 thereafter.
Thats what i did as i was so used to using windows 7 but my laptop packed up so cheaper buying new one but missed the interface of 7!!!
What’s gass about media coverage of tech industry is that they only focus on consumer products. Decline in sales of PC’s doesn’t affect their sales of their Server products and other enterprise software, which back in 2013 brought them in over $20billion in revenue (Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange, Visual Studio/dev tools)
Windows 8 is a complete balls, the only good thing about it was its fast to load, but it’s a nightmare to use, If they kept the start button and give the option to switch over it wouldn’t be so bad. Windows 7 was grand
They gave the start button back in one of the updates. As for the metro interface if you spend 30 secs putting your programs in and learn the keyboard shortcut that have been a part of windows since at least 95. You find navigation much faster than 7. Also the search function on Windows 8 please you can just type what you what and get it. It people were willing to change a bit they would live how fast windows 8 makes everything.
For the record I hated 8 when I got it but after I used it for a month it and got used to it. I started to like it and then I when back to Windows 7 and found how slow things impossible to deal with.
Using windows 8.1 and it’s fine wouldn’t go back to windows 7 tbh, it’s a very Lean OS and flies along when installed on an ssd. Also I picked up the Microsoft Lumia 535 in Argos for €115 and have to say it’s an nice phone 5″ screen quad core no slowdown main apps are there like Facebook Twitter etc, no journal app but someone put up an unofficial app and it works fine. I did have a Moto G but it failed on calls the person who I was talking to voice would become garbled if the signal dropped a bar.
Windows 10 Technical Preview is worth a shot. Stepping back to go forwards. Start menu is enhanced by taking some design tips from Windows ’98 and the charms seem to be sleeping with the fishes.
Still, if you want to save money on system maintenance and have a better user Apple is still the only way to go.
Interesting comment from MS recently where they described Windows 10 as a service. Some eagle eyed commentators picked up on that. A service could mean a subscription based service similar to the model that Adobe have moved to. I’m on Win 7 and even though the upgrade to 10 is free for a year, I won’t move until I know its definitely non subscription based.
Do yourself a favour and dual boot it with Ubuntu. Trust me, you’ll hardly ever use Windows again.
Yep…Linux Mint being the best flavour of the day for newbies. I’ve put at least 15 people on it last year in dual boot and none of them have used Windows since. They all remark that their mental health has improved.
One less year of private education for the kids after that dip in share price today..
I thought I’d want to stay on 7 until they “fixed” things after the windows 8 fiasco but having in tried it I now really like it. I have it on the surface pro 3 also and I think it’s very good on that form factor.
I have 10 running on a laptop at present and have tried it on the surface. It’s excellent. 7 looks and feels antiquated at this stage.
I don’t see the need to buy into this idea of updating the software every year. It’s only a moneyspinner. I have used Windows 95 on my home PC and it is still going strong.
have your say