Slashdot Mirror
Final Call for Voting in Slashdot's Beanie Awards
With LinuxWorldExpo just around the corner, and thus the time that we'll actually give these awards away, I wanted to tell everyone to go out and vote for who you like. You can check out the initial story for more information on the awards. Vote early, and vote often...er. Scratch that last one. Anyway, voting goes until 8 PM EST tonight.
I was severely disappointed to not find my personal favorite comment poster on the list.
Had he been on the list, I would have voted for Dan Kaminsky (Effugas). I find his comments regularly insightful and well thought-out. I get the feeling he thinks about things a lot more than most posters before actually putting pen to paper, and this shows.
My Freakin Blog
He was extremely helpful, and it seemed to me that he genuinely cared for the OSS community. I'm definately not ruling them out for later help.
Brett, if you say he's out to deny you a livelyhood fast enough, it might sound to you as if it makes sense, maybe. But I see no logic there at all.
If you don't like the GPL, all you need do is not use GPL code as part of your program. We are not forcing you to use it. You may license your own code any way you like.
I really take issue with your calling RMS unethical. RMS and I can have our arguments, but my experience is that he is among the most ethical people I have ever met and I trust him completely. There is also no questioning his dedication: I promote free software as I can, RMS dedicates his entire life to it.
If we were to compare RMS' achievements with yours, I'm afraid you'd not measure up. Not even in the same order of magnitude. Thus, that you should presume to judge him so harshly seems extremely inappropriate. Frankly, I'm disgusted.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I tried to Nominate GNUstep, but most people would apparently rather stick with a bad rip-off of Windows (itself a bad rip-off of NeXTSTEP/MacOS ), that will get developed regardless of any award.
GNUstep has come a long way, and could really use the Spotlight and Money. Not to mention the real power Linux/BSD/Hurd could have with a set of Libraries and Development tools based on OpenStep.
It's too bad the most vocal members of the
A) A bunch of kids who while they more than likely rebel from their mainstream communities, choose to conform with whatever the current "Hip" (which for some reason seems to be whatever is Windows-Like) open-source software is. (I guess they just trade one conformity for another)
B) The I hate Microsoft/Bill Gates/Windows at all cost types, who again for some reason seem to have as their goal, replication of the Windows paradigm. (Albeit Pro Gratis)
C) The I will trade REAL POWER for a cool looking but almost non-functional windowing theme.
Now for the rest of you whom I haven't offended, I would enjoy seeing a discussion on the relative Merits of why KDE/GNOME deserves more attention than GNUstep. That is, from those that actually understand the issues involved.
Go ahead, flame away, moderate me down, in other words, prove my point.
Big Z
I'll admit it may not be as easy as in borland, but it's certainly there...
I hate dragging things like principles into jokes like this, but nevertheless, I abstained on principle from voting in this one-ballot election. Having only one choice turns the whole idea of an election into a joke (you hear me, a JOKE, Hemos!) and reminds me a bit too much of not-too-distant times in the CCCP where voter turnout for single-ballot elections was near 100% by fiat. I'm not saying Hemos is a bloody autocrat, just that he's a communistic socialist running dog of an autocrat. (Hmm, autocratic running dogs -- what will they think of next?) But hey, he's our hamster, so we love him just the same.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Or at least take some of the award money and donate it to EFF towards fighting the battle?
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
I do not have blinders on about linux. Cross platform advice is important to many newbies who will likely have a foot in several OS camps for the foreseeable future. And, the linux HOWTO world is pretty screwed up: while once it was highly useful, it is now too far out of date for newbies (oh, for how long did I slavishly rebuild my kernel to get masquerading... years after RedHat built it in). But ignoring it all and have newbies hash out the "new" way is not a good idea.
Somebody, please convince me that I'm wrong about this.
RMS and Alan both have impressive beards, but I think Jon Hall might have the winning edge during the holiday season. Can you imagine Mr. Hall playing the role of Santa? hehehe....
Having Tom Christiansen as Best Newbie Helper is like having Bill Clinton as best family man.
Even if you have read the FAQ, the ORA books, look at the source code, hacked on the problem for days, the chances are that Tom or his side kick Abagail will cut your head off if you ask for help on the Perl Newsgroups.
And if you escape to comp.lang.python, he'll show up there to insult your choice of scripting languages.
Other than that he's a great guy! Love his writing.
Anyway, you can always vote for LiViD and Video4Linux.
See, that's the problem with you Libertarians, you expect Big Brotha to take care of your petrification needs. Anyone who has actually read through Steve Forbes' tax plan will see his clear vision of Ms. Portman, Ms. Barrymore, and even Ms. Neve Campbell. A flat tax for everybody, deductions only for home mortgages and petrification research. Give the public sector the incentive and let it flourish in petrification. By having no other loop holes, we can encourage companies to beef up the petrification research to such a point that we will have our goal accomplished before Ms. Portman reaches the dreaded age of 22.
Letting the government handle petrification of young girls would be like throwing pennies at a petrified Leonardo DiCaprio. Sure we wouldn't have him in every other movie there is, but to do away with the problem completely, you must use dynamite! So, to really get the job done, please put your support behind Steve Forbes and the Republican party, which is the only party to put petrification into their party's platform.
There's a lovely lady in my neighborhood with a beard to put RMS and Cox to shame. No hormone supplements -- it just naturally happened that way. I think she's more into tatoos than mallocs, but who knows what goes on behind closed doors....
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Well, seeing the lovely flame war he I just HAD to get my own torch out! It is getting kinda rusty... First off, on linuxnewbie.org I am known as "TiredManInNeedOfSleep". Where it NOT for LNO I would not have Linux and if I had managed to obtain it I would not have been allowed to install it on my computer in the first place since I am 14 and live with my parents. This site has been a great help to me, while the people on it may not offer the bar none best advice they do offer tips and adive that will get the job done the first time around without making the poor person read through 130,348,488,000 how-to's
Quite obviously you are a troll!
Don't ask me no questions, and I won't tell you no lies.
As of Jan 27, 8:21a CT (14:21 GMT), http://slashdot.org/section.pl?=beanies gives a 404.
_________
My name is Aaron Landry, and I approve this message.
So E is relatively prime to (P-1)(Q-1)... Odd, that.
Just calm down man. It's just a slashdot thread. Remember, that this is the site that has people who fantasize about people naked and petrified. Don't take anything so seriously that you feel you need to give your 'papal indulgence' to those who transgress laws of etiquette.
This is not real life. This is the internet. Repeat that until you believe it, because it's true.
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
I guess you didn't look at the picture.
--Brett
GNU does not force people to use their utilities, no matter how you feel about the issue. The vast majority of UNIXen ship with their own proprietary utilities that you are free to use in leiu of GNU utilities. Whether or not you'd trust your box to programs that you have no knowledge of whatsoever is really up to you though.
Do you *honestly* think that RMS is out to get you? Because that's how it sounds. It sounds like you're scared of the GNU bogeyman that's riding into town and forcing you to use free software. That sounds like a persecution complex to me. And comparing GNU to microsoft? Do you have any idea of the difference in scale between GNU and microsoft?
If *I* were RMS, and I was against people making money doing what they love to do, I wouldn't have made it possible to make money selling GPL'd software. But RMS went out of his way to make it possible to sell GPL'd software at a profit. He didn't have to do that. While it's recommended that you charge for the media, there's nothing stopping you from selling deluxe distributions of gcc for $2,500 a pop. He's not anti-profit or anti-capitalist, as much as the people who would like to discredit him would love to slap the "commie" label on him. He's just pro-ethics, and against profit where it comes at the expense of freedom.
When you refer to the 20 year grudge, would you be referring to the other MIT programmers being hired away at high salaries? If so, I would question whether or not that's a grudge...as one of the best programmers in the department, he probably could have gone that route whenever he chose, but he simply chose not to, for ethical reasons.
GNU is not Microsoft, part of the essence of freedom is that you don't even have to choose freedom when it's offered to you on a plate via GNU. Chill out and realize that it's OK to disagree with GNU and go your own way, it is not however OK to spread FUD based off of your misconceptions about what GNU is about.
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
That may be true in an extremely limited sense, but in general, it's not.
Set your threshold at -1, and post something pro-linux, and watch the flames of karma-whore, linux nazi, and the usual oatmeal/natalie portman BS fly.
There are other ways of teaching newbies to find stuff for themselves then cutting their heads off. Namely, "here's the resource, but more importantly, here's how I found it..."
-- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
Is Stallman out to get me personally? No, he hasn't singled me out. His goal is to destroy the livelihoods of all commercial programmers. In a recent interview with Forbes magazine, he gloated over the fact that he had hurt a new business that was struggling to make money:
In short, the GPL was created out of spite -- pure and simple. Of course, in order to encourage its spread, Stallman must deny this -- and so he does.
GNU is not Microsoft, part of the essence of freedom is that you don't even have to choose freedom when it's offered to you on a plate via GNU.
Ironically, the GPL -- and the FSF -- use the same methods as Microsoft to destroy legitimate and creative small businesses and to deprive users of choice. The GPL does not bring "freedom" at all -- in fact, it keeps open source from the very people who could use it most productively.
The only "freedom" the GPL offers developers, especially when compared to true open source licenses such as the MIT X license, is "freedom" from being able to be paid for their work.
Stallman is likewise opposed to authors' rights.
--Brett Glass
You think that you should have a monopoly to make costly software, and anyone who makes less costly or free software is unfairly destroying your livelyhood. That's competition, Brett. If it happens that you lost, you weren't looking while we went by.
I know of three people who think more or less the way you do. One of them can actually program and seems to be a benefit to society sometimes. Two of them consider themselves hackers and bemoan that they are prevented from making a living by RMS and the GNU crowd, but try as I might I can't find any software that they've made. And this is at the same time that my own company is advertising a $100,000/year position for someone to do free software, and will advertise more. I call that making money. In fact, it's difficult to find good free software writers who aren't making something like that already, these days. Brett, how did we leave you behind? Don't you realize that these days, the way to make the most money is writing Linux and Free Software?
It sounds as if you're blaming us for your own failings. I'm sorry, but that's what I see here.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Irrelevant to the argument at hand. I prove my point above, and you respond ad hominem by calling me an anti-Semite or a racist!
You think that you should have a monopoly to make costly software,
Now another ad hominem attack: telling me what I "think" -- incorrectly -- and accusing me of being a monopolist.
and anyone who makes less costly or free software is unfairly destroying your livelyhood.
Another provably incorrect claim. As I've mentioned many times, it's the GPL that targets livelihoods. Other open source licenses, such as the MIT X license and BSD license, do not because they are not exclusionary.
That's competition, Brett.
No, it is anti-competitive. Just as Microsoft is, while all the time claiming that it is merely "competing aggressively."
If it happens that you lost, you weren't looking while we went by.
Another insult that does nothing to bolster any argument you might be trying to make. In fact, your entire message appears to be nothing but a series of attempts at personal attacks.
I know of three people who think more or less the way you do. One of them can actually program and seems to be a benefit to society sometimes. Two of them consider themselves hackers and bemoan that they are prevented from making a living by RMS and the GNU crowd, but try as I might I can't find any software that they've made. And this is at the same time that my own company is advertising a $100,000/year position for someone to do free software, and will advertise more.
All anecdotal and irrelevant to the point at hand. The fact is that the GPL is the instrument of a spiteful, malicious, and therefore unethical agenda -- a point which you cannot refute because there's ample proof. And you are actively supporting that agenda and thereby doing harm. If you are ethical, you should stop.
I call that making money. In fact, it's difficult to find good free software writers who aren't making something like that already, these days.
Actually, companies like your own -- and others, such as Red Hat -- are not making money. They're losing it. The money they spend on salaries was taken from stockholders, not earned.
Brett, how did we leave you behind?
You didn't. I've refused to participate in unethical activities. Writing GPLed software is unethical, because the GPL is designed to turn open source -- otherwise a good thing -- into a weapon against a specific group of people against whom Richard Stallman bears a grudge.
Don't you realize that these days, the way to make the most money is writing Linux and Free Software?
Maybe ethics matter more to me than to "make the most money."
The fact is, Bruce, that the companies to which you refer are not making money. They do not even own what they sell! This is not a good business proposition. I intend to make money off of sound and ethical activities. I will not contribute to any GPLed software -- ever. And I will use it only as a matter of necessity, until such time as I can avoid it altogether.
It sounds as if you're blaming us for your own failings.
Again, an ad hominem attack. I haven't "failed" at anything. What I am doing is sounding a warning which intelligent and ethical people should heed.
I'm surprised to see a message like yours from a person who is said to be a key evangelist for open source. Look what you're saying and doing! The way you're coming across, you seem to be so much in denial about the aims of the GPL that even after I've demonstrated irrefutably what they are, you feel the need to attack me personally instead of following the argument to its obvious and inescapable conclusion. We must face facts, Bruce: the GPL is an instrument of spite designed to hurt people. Honest people who want to make an honest living. It is therefore unethical to use or support it.
--Brett Glass
Jon Katz's Hellmouth writings be listed under the 'Cluestick Award for FUD in Journalism' award??? It would seem a much more appropriate place for it than 'Best Slashdot Story'. Though he may not be up with the ranks of the MS lawyers/marketing and Jesse Berst, since he does write some thought provoking stuff now and then, the Hellmouth series was just about as bad as it can get - almost as bad as the "Please Die" series, which don't strike me as anything worthy of posting...
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the guy, but not everything that comes off of his pen (keyboard) is golden...
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
The Usenet Oracle pondered your question deeply.
Your question was:
> How many posts would a "first post" post if a "first post" boast "first post"?
And in responce, thus spake the Oracle:
} A "first post" would post as many post as a
} "first post" would post if "first post"
} boast "first post".
}
} You owe the Oracle the first "first post"
} in the "first post" posting history.
} And oh, by the way. *ZOT*...er...(Score: -1, Offtopic)
I agree about the voting after where the money will do most good, at least for the big award, instead of after a literal interpretation of the question. The big award is a significant sum.
However, I also believe Wine is the project that could use the money most. It does _not_ get money directly from Corel, Corel has their own version of the source, and occationally the merge back contributions to the main Wine CVS repository. Also, Corels goals are different from the Wine project, examplified in Corels KDE-specific GUI patch. I believe the money could help keep Wine alive independent of Corel, and implement features that are less important to Corel.
CHAMPAIGN 2000
Free Champaigning
by Richard M. Stallman
It has come to my attention that Slashdot is holding a contest of sorts and that I have been nominated for an award. Please allow me to share some thoughts on this contest and perhaps give you an understanding of why I believe this contest is not beneficial to the Free Software Movement nor the Slashdot community.
The voting process has historically been about money. The concept of money is not compatible with the Free Software Movement. This contest is destined to become not a vote of ideas, but a vote of dollars. I don't have access to the millions of dollars that Mr. Raymond, with his little IPO rewards, has amassed. I therefore do not have access to the proper media channels to bring my platform to the people of Slashdot.
Let me explain this further with an analogy. Let us imagine two software developers. One of these developers is from a rich family of lawyers. Money has been as accessible to him as air. The other developer is the son of peacock farmers in Tennessee and has struggled for his very survival all of his life.
Despite their vast economic differences, these two developers have many things in common. Not the least of which is a passion for wildlife. This common interest brings the two developers together, in a cosmic sense, as they decide to protest the shutting down of a tapir refuge in Washington DC.
Independantly, the two developers decide to take action to save the tapir refuge. Being of like minds, they come to the same logical means of implementing their action. Here is where the disparity begins to manifest and, like a gust of wind churned about by a pair of butterfly wings growing into a storm on the other side of the world, the disparity only increases with time.
Both developers set out to travel to the National Farmland Headquarters. The wealthy developer books a seat on a plane. The less prosperous developer must hitchhike.
The less wealthy developer spends weeks on the road. Starvation, pestilence and fatigue are his only companions. The wealthy developer reaches the Farmland National Headquarters in a matter of a hours.
The less wealthy developer hasn't even reached the halfway mark to the Farmland National Headquarters by the time the wealthy developer has appropriated the giant novelty sausage displayed in the main lobby and booked a flight to Washington DC.
Days later, our less well-to-do friend has collapsed on the side of the highway. Nobody even stops, thinking he is just another mutilated mass of road-kill. His clothes are torn but not as much as his spirit. The wealthy developer on the other hand has found his way to the tapir refuge. He beats in the door and severely bludgeons the beauracracy responsible for bleeding away the funding that the refuge depends on for its survival.
The wealthy developer is now a national hero. He is revered by high-profile political figures and is the media's darling. Eventually, he meets Natalie Portman at a movie opening, marries her and rears several beautiful daughters.
Meanwhile, our less wealthy developer is being autopsied in a small town, population 500. He is the talk of the town and is featured on the front page of the local paper, accompanied by a photo of his mutilated remains stuffed into a black trash bag.
Clearly, money talks in this society. That is why I protest this contest. This is just the Slashdot Community's way of giving ESR a hot young actress wife and a bunch of sweet little girls and leaving my rotting carcass in a black trash bag.
thank you.
Sure, it's called M-x compile. Or if that's too hard, you can always try the little 'compile' button up at the top of Xemacs.
I'm not sure I see your problem. I do Java and C++ development in Emacs, and I have 2 windows open: Emacs, and a terminal for testing the program. You're not going to get any fewer windows no matter what you're doing. Now I must admit, I'm rarely dealing with more than a handful of sources, so it's trivial to whip up a makefile and just M-x compile using the default command "make -k".
Or are you referring to something else?
--
pdubroy AT yahoo DOT com
Miramax announces Gary Coleman to play slashdot troll in upcoming movie "Takedown"
This post is not redundant. The internal server error and previewer problems were not mentioned by any previous poster.
Nor is it off-topic--I expressed my opinions on the voting.
(Now I'll probably get moderated down for flamebait)
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
Well, I happend to be a daily vistor to LinuxNewbie.org, and I must say the I disagree with you. Being a Win9x/NT man, I have found the learning process of *nix very steep. LinuxNewbie.org has been my one-stop resource for linux, with great NHF and links to all required info/apps/drivers/etc! There message board is extremelly helpful and creative, with a rather fast turn around time. Oh well, that's just me though...
What? You work with MattMann, too? Maybe you're the same person as MattMann.
>Hypocrite, your email address is not in your info
DUHH!! Did you actually read that Mattman's sliming LinuxNewbie.org and did you actually went there? You that blind you can't read Sensei's email-address from that site that he owns? DUHH!
>You say that what he has posted is FUD even
>though he has given many reasons to back up his
> argument, while you have given none
You got a really bad case of reading-disability, huh? MattMann's just trolled and tried to slime a good newbie-site. Why? Coz Linuxnewbie did a great job of exposing LinuxOne's fake-distro. That pissed off MattMann in another thread and then he goes here at this thread to try to confused people about Linuxnewbie-site, probably hoping that people will not read the first-hand linuxone-distro review over there.
>I agree with him completely
You oughta. You seem to be either himself or another person working for/with him.
If you're gonna troll, troll better. Go pack your bowling bags and read trolling-101 book.
--treatment--
I'm happy to see Carmack on the list. Allthough I have no interest in his games, it is his type that occationally makes it worthwhile to read /. comments. There are basically three types of comment posters:
1) The flamers and off-topic posters.
2) The people who seem to have an opinion on everything, but insight in nothing.
3) The (rare) people some first hand knowledge about the topic being discussed.
I vote for Carmack as representing the third category. Those comment posters who makes it worth browsing through the first two categories.
you misinterpreted me a little. I was/am really interested in getting other people's opinions (about LinuxNewbie) so I wanted to let angry people know that I was still listening despite their best efforts to get me to stop. I meant what I said more as a parish priest than as a pope.
I am, however, infallible (ha ha, ok, too obvious a joke)
LinuxOne's fake distro was exposed a LLLLOOOOONNGGG time ago. You may be an old-timer on LinuxNewbie, but you clearly have not been reading Slashdot. Want to see what'll show up as the next LinuxNewbie expose'? Get a little taste of the future! Come read this! hee hee.
Brett,
We'd like to - but that's what the whole two-week nomination process was for. We've simply schelped what people nominated in the highest degree.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Because *this* money is for the Beanie Awards. Other money can be spent on the EFF for the DeCSS battle.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
I know this sounds like a rant, but I mean it in all sincerity: The lack of good voting options for software in this poll worries me. KDE still comes across as a Windows wannabe (all the frittery details and nonsense, but no real advance). Gnome is the great unfinished project. The Gimp is up for best graphical interface? Okay, it has a lot of interface with a lot of frills, but *yuck*, no would should ever design a user interface like this one--ugh.
I guess my real point is that this could have been a poll from 1998. Has nothing changed?
I know a lot of people like the Hellmouth series, but it read to me as this incredibly self-indulgent therapy session by Katz trying to exorcise his own demons.
I mean, my high school experience sucked too, but I just don't feel this big need to cast blame everywhere. My inability to fit in was because of my own social limitations. When I worked to overcome them, suddenly life started improving a lot.
Unfortunately, Katz' story is just another symptom of blaming everything in society except yourself for your own problems.
--
However, my nominations were made during that two-week period, and several of the same people or projects were also made by others. Therefore, I cannot understand why they were omitted from the ballot. There was certainly room for more choices!
Among the people to whom I've spoken, there seems to be general disappointment with the selection on the ballot. Some have accused Slashdot of favoring "the usual suspects" -- Stallman, the FSF, etc. -- because the Slashdot crew may feel that it owes its new-found wealth to the hordes of "Linux faithful." I don't think that's so, but the ballot choices certainly would support that assertion! I'd still encourage you to open up the voting -- and perhaps to circulate ballots at the show. (When's your awards ceremony?)
--Brett Glass
>We must face facts, Bruce: the GPL is an
>instrument of spite designed to hurt people.
>Honest people who want to make an honest living.
>It is therefore unethical to use or support it.
__Who__ are these honest people that you are talking about? Be specific.
How is it really _unethical_ to use or support GPL? Do you write software? If so, for _whom_? Do _you_ own that software you wrote? If not, then _why the heck not_?
__Nobody__ is forcing people like _YOU_ to use the GPL. If you don't want it, don't use it. Don't _whine_ about what other people prefer to use. The GPL is very simple: either you agree to use it, or you don't use it coz you don't agree to it. Don't try to pontificate about your jihad against RMS or the GPL.
How about __YOU__ come up with a better license than GPL and tell us exactly how many coders are willing to accept __your Brett Glass license__. Don't even think about appropriating or cloning the various *bsd-type licensing terms.
--treatment--
I was a little concerned when I noticed who the nominees for 'Favorite Slashdot Poster' were. Only one (boredatwork) was a 'real' slashdot poster. The others are very public personalities who just happen to have slashdot accounts. Name recognition plays a big part, just like any popularity contest. My opinion is that there are at least 10 slashdot posters who are more deserving of the award, whose aliases just aren't very memorable. I find myself recognizing posters by their signatures, for example.
..And if we're going to nominate 'personalities' where the fsck is Alan Cox? His posts have all the qualities I look for in a significant contributor to this community. First and foremost; terseness, but he's well informed and interesting as well.
Compare this to Tom "I know what I want. It's not that, that or that. Come to think of it, I know what you want too" Christianson, and Bruce "Everything I know I learned in 8th grade debate class" Perens.
-nme!
PS Yes, I am a bitch.
And I am stopping, but ya gotta do me a favor and get LinuxNewbie to change at least this line from their credo page [italics added] :) :) :)
just a joke, folks, anybody can make a typo! ...see you all, around.
Just like the subject says. If you HAD spent any time there, you would realise how valuable the site is.
Let's get something straight: If a newbie wants help, he/she is best served by going to a general-purpose linux mailing list, news group or bulliten board. I use all three of these sources and it is QUITE obvious that most users of these lists are newbies themselves. Look at the linux-newbie and debian-user mailing lists for good examples. So the model of newbies helping newbies is is actually the *dominant* model for linux support. And this isn't a bad thing! I constantly post to these groups both to get help and receive help. I have been using Linux for 4 years, and in that time *every* *general* *purpose* *Linux* *support* *source* has used this model. Because it works. LinuxNewbie.org is no exception. The gurus generally don't have the time or patience to answer these questions. Newbies do. Newbie A knows how to get their SB Pro working under Linux. Newbie B can get their mcd CDROM working. They can trade their knowledge to solve each-others problem. This is the principle behind most linux support sites. LinuxNewbie.org provides a conveinent place to do so. Why in God's name would someone who already knows everything about Linux hang out on a newbie site? The only incentive for doing so is to learn something.
Why don't you go to LinuxNewbie.org, and follow a goddammed thread or two? You'll then realize how valuable a tool it is.
Damn, that was a hard choice.
:-(
I couldn't decide - I checked hemos, then i decided he's not worthy, since hemos is much better.
So naturally i changed my vote to hemos, but hell - hemos was still a better choice!
So again i rechecked the hemos box,
but then I understood that the best hemos isn't hemos nor is it hemos, so i checked hemos instead.
Then I doubted my choices and decided to go back to Hemos.
After an hour or so I realized that such a desicion can take me days!
So eventualy I absained.
---
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck,
---
I'm going to live forever, or die in the attempt.
Oh well, maybe next year.
Never knock on Death's door:
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
OpenBSD, for example, was left out of the "most improved" category, despite the security audit that made them the most secure OS in existence. Tim O'Reilly was left out of the advocacy category. Brian Behlendorf, whose Apache project has the distinction of achieving the largest market share of any open source project, was left out of the "unsung hero" category. And what's this about Richard Stallman for "Best dressed?" Unless the intent is to make a sarcastic joke at his expense, this is silly. The FreeBSD Daemon Girl (see http://www.gci-net.com/~u sers/f/fluke/comdex/bsdgirl1.jpg) got my nomination. But she wasn't included on the ballot, even though I both mentioned her in the discussion and entered her into the form.
When I e-mailed Rob Malda asking why none of these folks appeared on the ballot, he said that nominations had been closed and that it was "too late." However, I did mention these candidates in plenty of time in the nomination discussions, and entered all of them on the nomination Web form! Other people also recommended them in the discussions.
I certainly hope that these folks were not excluded from the ballot because the awards were actually intended to go to specific people or only people from certain organizations. (With only one or two exceptions, only people involved with Linux or FSF projects appear on the ballot.) Since Andover is spending enough to buy a house on these awards ($100,000 for the awards themselves and probably about $50,000 on space at the convention, advertising, etc.), they should include candidates such as these. Currently, my ballot mostly says "Abstain" -- and I bet I'm not the only one!
Since this is the Web, it's never too late to add candidates or allow write-ins. How about it, guys? It's sure better than winding up with people who aren't the readers' choices.
--Brett Glass
As a newbie user of a desktop linux machine, even tho I have used it on and off for years remotely, I appreciate the help I am getting at LinuxNewbie.Org. See.. as I went searching around the net looking for information to help me with my machine, not even my distro's info site would help. It just ended up confusing me more than ever. Going into irc to any of the #linux channels would just get me a "RTFM!!" from some arrogant snot who thinks he's better than me just cause he knows stuff I don't. That made me want to switch back to Windows. But I kept on looking for help. When I found LinuxNewbie.org, I was much happy. I've been ransacking the sight for info and help. I even got a laugh about the windows NT article. Without it, I would have probably said "fsk it!" and gone back to Windows. Instead, I am a convert of the Gimp. =)
I have seen the Gimp and it is Good.
I just found linuxnewbie.org yesterday and can say with 100% confidence that you have not a clue what you are talking about. I found the site to be most informative. Yes, I found a problem with one of the articles there, and I wrote to the guy who wrote the article and let him know what the problem was. If you find a problem someplace why don't you write to the author and let them know? After all, that is why HOWTO authors put their email addresses in there - so people can comment on their work and they can fix what needs fixing - just like they do on linuxnewbie.org.
Making such idiotic comments such as you have made about this site does nobody any good. It misleads those who could benefit from its content yet now will not visit and it just makes you look like a fool.
Or someone else? This isn't a vote, though I'm looking for suggestions and rationale.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
So you work for LinuxOne, huh? figures. --xre--
In my subjective opinion (how does one judge these things?) Mozilla is the most improved project. However I wonder, what is the use of giving $30K to AOL?
Sometimes.
I usually learn most by lurking on newsgroups or mailing lists. I also spend a good deal of time researching on the net and in books.
I too have seen Tom help absolute newbies. But I have also seen him and others squash folks with what were real questions that need the touch of a tutor, not the lash. I think this has lead to the increase in sales of Python books.
We have a common joke in users groups in this area that reflects the zeal that sometimes comes from both the Internet and local Perl wizards:
"Perl, the choice of arrogant bastards!"
Heh, well it would sure as hell help *me*..
Bowie J. Poag
Project Manager, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://propaganda.themes.org)
Bowie J. Poag
Thanks for clearing that up for us, Tom!
When I installed RedHat 6.0, my goals were to have it eventually replace Windoze. In order to do that, as a power user, all I need is internet access, and icq. With that in mind, I went to their site. After spending several minutes figuring out how their website interface worked and looking for a place to search for help files, I typed in "ppp". Instead of bringing up a helpful dialog, I get a ton of stuff I don't need, like "NHF's: Intel Based" and "Linux: What is linux?".
After searching for about fifteen minutes, I gave up and instead went to Linux.com's help chat, where I was referred to KClinux.com, where I immediately found how to set up internet in KDE, complete with newbie-useful graphics. Once I completed that, it was time to set up ICQ. I have heard that the ICQ java version is crap, so I decided that I wanted one of their clones. I headed on back to linuxnewbie.org and searched for "ICQ". The search only turns up two things, neither of them even remotely having anything to do with icq. I have yet to find a way to install the rpm and other necessary files for ICQ, so I'm still stuck in windows.
(Offtopic: If someone is willing to help me on this subject, email me at oh00@yahoo.com and I would greatly appreciate it)
thankyou, i think ill burry my head in the sand now ;)
I'm very pissed that JED isn't one of the editors listed. It totally rocks, and I'm very sure tons of other people think so. Why give the duopoly of vim and emacs money? ;)
Freshmeat entry
Author's homepage
ICQ#2584116
-- d'arcy poirot
I can't believe no one hasn't nominated that guy that always posts under the name "Anonymous Coward". He always posts so MANY comments in every discussion (he's almost super human in how it seems he never even goes to sleep. A new story can be posted at 3 AM EST, and there he his, going "first post!" and plays a very important role around here in encouraging slashdot to add features (witness: Moderation and then meta-moderation, thresholds, etc...).
Yep. Anonymous Coward should take the grand prize...
:)
Maybe people don't know it even exists, but I LOVE lpe. http://cdsmith.twu.net/lpe/ It's like joe or pico, but I think it has better keyboard commands, and best of all it, has syntax highlighting for java, c, perl, c++ and html. So, lpe is all I ever use for my ediitng purposes. It combines the syntax highlighting of things like vim with an even easier to use interface than joe or pico. I suggest you all check it out(especially you debian maintainers, I want a deb of it!)
I have no problem saying, well done on your Wine support Corel and giving them a nice trophey with slashdot.org logo on it but is giving Corel $2000 really going to help anyone?
Vote for people who will make use of the money. Pity Beanie Awards was set up as it was, should of given everybody a year to make programs in some needed categories as then it could of been used for motivation not just a pat on the back after the event.
It's turtles all the way down.
I didn't realize the voting was still going on--it's been how long, two weeks?
Yes, that was the plan. The voting was to be counted in two weeks after it was announced. That means the contest is about up. If you haven't voted, please do it now.
I suggest a lottery of sorts. You get your name entered into the drawing by showing up to support the various court cases (like all the RIAA and MPAA ones) that benefit from "the community" showing up.
wasnt there a guy in california named ty, who owned the ty.com domain before beanie babies ever existed. then they bullied him out of his domain name without even going to court. if so, I think it would be rather bad for slashdot to promote beanie awards. ... Has anyone else seen it???
I looked on the internet for this story, but couldn't find it
thanks
1) you pre-judged the website
2) look around the website before posting YOUR FUD.
3) I challenge YOU to show me/us sites that help newbies better than LNO, afterall you are the one that started this ridiculous troll post.
"But I'm only interested in hearing from people who are willing to do the legwork: tell me the specific pages you think are good or bad."
Who are you? I'm only interested in listening to people that leave their email address behind.
BTW are you moderating your own posts?
http://www.icalledit.com - Predicting the future, one post at a time
"Best Open Source Developer Beard Award!"?
...
Doesn't that exclude most of the female technogeeks? For example, my neighbour, Micosoftie that she is, is one heck of a technogeek, and if I could just sway her over from the Dark Side (TM), she could be in the running for this, except - she's blond and has no beard. But brains, yup, tons of those
Will in Seattle
Sometimes insults, flames and having your head cut off are good learning experience.
You can have as many friendly, helpful and cheerful helpers as you want to carefully guide and correct the newbie, but there has to be at least one person doing the weaning. At some point the newbie has to learn that he can and should try to find out stuff himself.
"Spare the flame and spoil the newbie"
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
I'm serious. I understand completely that if you feel insulted or passionately about something it is natural to lash out. I've done it myself. But I think this is a serious topic and worth pursuing so I'm ignoring all the noise.
Respond, if you'd like, to the actual details of what I posted (hint: it would make you look more credible if you admit which parts you might agree with and separately which parts you disagree with) and we can talk about it. Helping newbies is a noble cause and worth getting right, which I suspect is the reason the award is being given.
I think there are some much better dressed geeks out there.. geez!
Victoria Palmer - I brake for unix.boys, Windows just breaks. - http://www.escape.com/~juliet
By the way is it "vi" like rhymes with "vie" or is it "v-i"? Is it Emacs like E-Max (iMac?) or "Im-iks"? And is it "pee-ko" or "pick-o"?
Brett,
:)
I do hope you voted for jkh.
--
Sam
I mentioned several articles quite explicity in my original post. You made reference to a few yourself but didn't say which they were, so: anyone can go see what I was talking about, and nobody can go see what you are talking about... who did the legwork and who didn't? Slashdot needs a gentle "Incorrect" moderation category.
Interesting discussions are about analyzing and investigating what other people say. You seem like a generally open-minded intelligent person, but in this discussion you are simply repeating yourself and asking for evidence that I've already provided. You either need to disprove or provide counterexamples to make your case. But any response from me will have to come in a future forum, because I said what I wanted here, and the S/N is a little out of hand. Plus, with sensei now ignoring me because I don't post my email address, what's the point? He's absolutely right, of course, why should he respond substantively in public? : )
I came back here to clean up loose ends, and answer the good questions, but brianvan's were pretty much the best.
Thanks for the moderation that removed the "flamebait" I was awarded. That seemed a bit much to me too, though I do wish I had toned down my original post a little. I think the way I wrote it is not out of bounds for making a strong statement to neutral parties, but I do see that it would not elicit the most helpful answers from partisans from the other side, so: sorry guys, for ruffling your feathers. I don't want to denigrate anyone's hard work, but I don't like to see hard work poured into misguided projects either.
As to all the other noise here, some of it is humorous: how could my original remarks be called "pre-judging"? Which part of "pre" don't you understand? : ) Or, "you never come to our site" except "you come there all the time to flame us" and "you're 14" but "you worked on OS/2". Make up your minds, is it pre, post, often or never? And, give my email address to people who clearly want to flame me more? You are grasping at straws. Try the simple way: respond to the actual allegations rather than attacking the person who made them.
Finally, do I work at LinuxOne? The irony is, that's kinda how this all got started. I went and read that editorial at LinuxNewbie, and it then surfed around a bit whereupon I saw all the unhelpful help. Then I got bored of that slashdot discussion with everybody endlessly repeating the same negatives (very old news) about LinuxOne. So, I went away. Then, a couple of hours later it just popped into my head: LinuxNewbie that day was featuring nothing but negative news about opensource (in addition to LinuxOne, you had some stuff about Java and IBM and DeCSS) and it just clicked: If I were Bill Gates, I would want a site that prominently featured controversy about opensource, just to sow the seeds of doubt, and then I'd add in a bunch of "help" that was broken, and testimonials from people who tell stories about switching back to NT. I'd have to tone it down, though, don't want to get caught. BINGO! "FUD site" is what I thought. By the way, in that light, the samba doc is a masterwork: undermines rpm, tarballs, .debs, etc., all in one fell swoop! Since that discussion on Slashdot had gotten very stale, but LinuxNewbie was still on topic, I figured I'd post at least something a little different to try to liven it up. So, no, I don't work at or approve of LinuxOne. Grasp at another straw.
Finally, why do I criticize instead of going back to help newbies, fire off corrections, participate in every forum, and rewrite all the doc? From this I take it that:
... and you guys call me silly? I am contributing by reviewing, it is hard work and takes time, especially this discussion we are having right here. Otherwise, in other venues I do plenty of volunteer work, and I send people constructive criticism when I think there's something salvagable. The site didn't thrill me, I didn't want to see people voting for you just on the basis of your name, and I haven't seen anything here today that would draw me back either.
So, I'd be perfectly happy to be proven wrong. It would be great if you helped tons of people to learn linux... and hurd and the BSDs -- those are the "other" OSes advocated in the LinuxOne credo, right?
It's too late now for this go round, but in the future please include a write in (text entry field) for each category.
Also, there were some items that I just felt none of the canidates deserved. A "none deserve it" option would be nice. If "none deserve it" wins, none of the canidates get the money.
Reading this article, I wonder about the usefulness of this. I personally think that "Using Enzymes to help fight CO2 build-up" is pretty pointless. I think that "Using Enzymes to petrify Natalie Portman" would be a more productive use of taxpayer dollars.
I'm completely Libertarian.
As a Libertarian, I'm opposed to using taxpayer money to fund scientific research. But as a sensible human being, logic demands that ANY PRICE neccessary to turn Natalie Portman to stone MUST BE PAID. The taxpayers will understand that their money is being taken for a good cause.
Other than that, I'm completely Libertarian.
All taxation is evil and must be abolish, except for taxation used to fund research into transforming actress Natalie Portman into a nude marble statue. People should be required pay 40% of their income towards this goal.
Other than that, I'm completely Libertarian.
Well, I *DO* think everyone in the world is also entitled to receive, from society if they are unable to afford one, exactly one (1) nude petrified teenage girl. Not neccessarily Ms. Portman, because there's only one of her, but SOME teenage girl.
Other than that, I'm completely Libertarian.
Of course, we don't have enough cute teenage girls in the world for everyone to have one. Therefore, I support the genetic engineering of teenage girls, and I support the citizenry being required to parent and raise these girls who, upon reaching the age of 17, will be turned over to the government for petrification.
Other than that, I'm completely Libertarian.
Those who are required to parent and raise these future statues will be given a 5% tax deduction. Those who are not required but volunteer will receive a 10% tax deduction.
Other than that, I'm completely Libertarian.
Some may say that cute teenage girls like Natalie Portman have the right not to be turned to stone. But I believe it's okay, because it's FOR THE GOOD OF SOCIETY.
Other than that, I'm completely Libertarian.
I also think European people have very bad attitudes and should be banned by law from society.
Other than that, I'm COMPLETELY Libertarian!
Come on folks! How could you forget the "Best Open Source Developer Beard Award!". Sheesh! My vote goes to RMS with Mr. Cox coming in a close second.
do it now
Well it worked for me the first time in my location at......*muffled scream*.... Johnson destroy of the evidence quickly...Yes Sir!
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest
--
--
Just lurking, thanks!
The LinuxNewbie discussion groups permit everybody to post questions as well as advice.
I didn't criticize the discussions groups, in this post. In the other post I criticized just the discussion about switching to NT. I thought that whole thread was a little strange on a site whose name is "linuxnewbie", a site that carried an editorial criticizing LinuxOne (rightfully) for riding on the linux name.
Due to this, there is good probablity that SOME advice given may not be the right advice.
I think my critique was pretty comprehensive, and not focused on random erroneous info.
Jordan is worthy of an award, no question. But I'd prefer to see him get an award for being a good team leader and give the award for "unsung hero" to Brian. I'll vote for Jordan if the ballot isn't changed (one of the few categories from which I won't abstain). But if he wins this category it'll really be because people thing he deserves some kind of award and not because this is the best category for him.
--Brett
In general I think that awards for such things are a really nice thing in general. Philanthropy is usually a very noble persuit. What I would suggest is that perhaps a little pressure be put on people to get a really good IDE for linux that actually works. You cannot believe the trouble I have had getting any sort of IDE to actually work. Does anyone know of a way to force^H^H^H^H^H persuade Xemacs/Emacs or something else to work well (even to the level of say turbo C++ 3.0)? That is where I would suggest putting the money. I have always thought that the compilers were really nice but having to have two windows open one for compiling things and another for a text editor is just complete crap and more of a pain than anything else.
/. is screwed
/.
This should prove interesting reading.
I didn't realize the voting was still going on-- it's been how long, two weeks?
Well if you had $100,000 to give away wouldn't you wait a little before giving it to someone?
And slashdot is also having problems--the 404 mentioned in the above posts, and also for a period of about two minutes before this article appeared I'd get an "Internal Server Error" when trying to access anything on
Small technical problems usually occur on large high trafic web sites and such don't cast slashdot in the light of 'sites that really suck' category.
And also when I try to preview this comment the previewer isn't showing my
What kind of error is this? I generally have never used a 'Hope Taco and Crew fix it.
Good chance they will.
Slashdot social engineering at it's finest