Slashdot Mirror
Windependence Day
An unknown reader points us to the Windependence Day contest sponsored by DesktopLinux. Cute idea, and I'm sure some people have exciting stories of battling the talking paperclip...
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
Good thing he doesn't work under CrossOver Office...
Stupid paperclip.
I don't depend on windows
wnidows depends on me
And on July 14th, join us as we storm the Redmond stronghold and cut the head of the evil king of the Microsoft Kingdom. The storming of Redmond will symbolize, for all citizens of Linuxdom, liberty, democracy and the struggle against all forms of oppression!
I battle word, excel, powerpoint and window 2000 everyday. Does this mean I'm finally going to win?
-Sean
What about a Sundependence Day? Or a Vaxdependence Day? Or a Aixdependence Day?
More systems are leaving traditional Unix for Linux than are leaving Windows for Linux.
I have been pwned because my
or public burnings of Bill Gates in Effigy or something.
Should get his attention.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
How about a overly paitiotic story about flying a jet fighter being flown into the big glowing heart of redmond and the whole place blowing up.....
or is that a little too insensitive these days??
-------
Drink Coffee - Do Stupid Things Faster And With More Energy!
To help celebrate wIndependence Day (or, perhaps more accurately, WinDependence Day), do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Linux? If it's just about not using Linux, then somebody has already started promoting a similar idea.
Maybe Apple would team up with the Linux community on this one if the event was a little more inclusive. On the other hand, I think OS X and Linux are serious competitors, at least in the PPC world. I know my interest in Linux on PPC died when I saw the terminal in OS X and XDarwin...
Except for a few months in 1996 when I had a NT box on loan from a customer (didn't care for it) my home and business have always been Windows-free (and Apple-free as well).
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
(from the episode where Homer gets smart via crayon removal)
Focusing all this energy on creating replacements for the apps that keep us tied to Windows?
For me to run Linux on my main PC at work, I need specific things: A Groupwise client, a Novell client, a pcAnywhere type thing to check on remote systems which cannot be replaced by Linux because of the apps that must run on them... ? These things would go a lot further than a doorprize, though free stuff is always good.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
If Indenpendence Day is ID4....
Does that make Windependence Day WD-40?
Independence day allows us to look back on the sacrifices our forefathers made to keep America free. I don't appreciate seeing it trivialized to further some partisan hippy cause. "Free software" types are clearly, in many cases, not on the side of Freedom (except when it comes to smoking pot). We need only look at their response to the Microsoft "anti-trust" case, or the victim-control mentality they exhibit so often on sites like this one. I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I'm even less of a fan of government intrusion. I recommend everybody read Atlas Shrugged to see how Gates should have handled things, if he wasn't such a pansy.
Bottomline: don't trivialize independence day.
Take the opportunity to start working for real change: less government intrusion, less taxes, fewer regulations, more freedom. Those are your birthrights, secured with the blood of our ancestors. Don't let them down by falling for this hippy crap instead.
If you have a problem with my views, REPLY, don't moderate!
If Lindows was an infringement upon the Windows name, then Lycoris has to be basically identical to WinXP (based on the screenshots). Look:
here
here
and here
Perhaps MS can sue them for 'theft of look and feel.'
Windependance day - The day hoards of slashdotters and Linux fans alike gathered to battle that EVIL paper clip. And what did they do? Well, heh, Ill tell you what they did, but it wasnt pretty. When they got ahold of the paper clip, they grabbed ahold of him at each and...and they....they....STRAIGHTENED HIM!!!
In college, really poor, need a flatscreen.
Lets see, we could have done this on:
July 14th (France)
May 1st (Russia)
October 1st (China)
July 1st (Hong Kong)
June 12th (Phillippines)
March 1st (South Korea)
April 30th (Vietnam)
Why is 4th July so special?
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
Dude, I agree with your sentiments whole-heartedly, however, as snopes2 can tell you, that page is rather a hoax. Some of the founding fathers did make extreme sacrifices, but not as bad as you think.
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/declare.htm
However, I whole-heartedly agree with your basic premise, in that this is distasteful of them, and Atlas Shrugged is a good read. Not likely to happen, ever, but an interesting perspective.
Sent from your iPad.
Doesn't anyone find it ironic that people hate Microsoft for much the same reasons that people from Microsoft's own country hated England?
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
LMAO.
'It was a dark and stormy night. My nervous grip on my trusty Xconfigurator tightened as I heard the 'BOOIIING!' from the distance. Only one thing in this world made that sound. And that thing was Bob...'
not to be a troll or anything, but i think they could have come up with a better name.
"windependence" sounds like "windows dependence" to me, and who but m$ would want to celebrate something like that? ;)
Gyrate Dot Org - "Where high-tech meets low-life"
Paperclip vs. Penguin
Efren Belizario
headspeak.com
(Apologies to Martina McBride.)
...why not celebrate it on the day the courts finally dole out MS's punishment? I mean, it's gonna happen sooner or later, right?
c-hack.com |
You got a 3 mod points for Insightful. That was damn funny to me.
(Score: 5, Hilarious)
If it's really dumb, it's moderated down later.
I have to agree, I was first amazed at the continue attempts by KDE to copy the windows look and feel (just a little trolling I guest). But this must top it all.
I can only wonder if it blue screen too.
the first time i saw (and participated in) it
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Yes, we should all have a help button, GO GO R-Keys! :)
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
I recently switched. Just my laptop, for now...
My company volunteered for a BSA audit some months ago.
We were short some licenses; we rectified the situation before sending our report back to the BSA, indicating while we had been short some licenses, we were currently in compliance...
This overage involved approximately 10% of our client machines...
We relaxed, thinking we'd done good ethically and morally, by owing up to our discretion and paying for it...
Then we were sued...
Not for the the 10% of our clients that were out of license...
For a sum equal to the entire -retail- value of all BSA represented software at our organization...
Paid for yesterday, or three years ago, or five, or more...
Essentially, they want us to pay for every piece of BSA software (we currently use) twice...
My Windependence day happened a month ago...
Just my laptop...
25 machines on our network use mission critical MS-only systems...
That's less that 3%...
Last month MS lost 1 customer...
Just my laptop...
The other 900+ systems on our network...
Well...
They're good for now...
At first I thought you said the Stoning of Redmond. That would be a much better idea. If theres one thing the world lacks its stonings.
... Microsoft temporarily closed its doors today after thousands of dissatisfied Windows users hurled stones at the buildings on Microsoft's main campus, breaking nearly every window. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries..."
I can see the headlines now... "Microsoft Closes for a Week
Hmmm... Wonder if a "Rebel against Linux Day" story would make front page? Microsoft's struggle to battle the communist open sourcers.
Sure my comment's troll flame-bait, but no more than that story is.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I don't agree with you, but I respect your opinion. I can't believe that you got modded down as troll.
The reason I disagree is that monopolistic companies and organizations can take away our rights the same as any invader. Only we have a harder time fighting them. The MPAA/RIAA and their purchase of Senator Fritz come to mind. If the SSSCA had passed, we'd have lost some rights critical to creative work.
I respectfully disagree with you, but modding you down as Troll was awful. There are moderators on Slashdot that could stand to learn the difference between stating an opinion and trying to rile people up.
"Derp de derp."
Can we have Widependance day? Freedom from page widening posts?
(Supposed to be funny)
"Oh no, 3 horny women and only 2 condoms...Thank god I read slashdot"
If I used nothing but my OS and two or three software pieces I could probably go "Windependence," too. But I buy a lot of software, and a lot of games which I enjoy, and so I need to be "Windependent" about like a hole in the head...:)
I don't value my computers for the OS's they run, but I value my OS's for the software they support.
Heh, you bet I do. Take a look at this:
Note: Normally I would just give a link to fanfiction.net, where I originally posted it, but since the site seems to be down (and because that version is slightly altered to be *cough* backstreet boys fan fiction), you'll have to make do with this. If you really need to, you can search for the author's name--moyix--on http://fanfiction.net/ when it comes back up.
You have got to check this picture out. Battling the paperclip! I want to write without interference!
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
I considered switching my desktop to Linux for a while and have been looking closely at it for the last five years. Unfortunately, there's not much progress in sight. Installing a simple game is an exercice in patience. Why can't I just click on Next - Complete Install and then click on Finish and start the game just like in Windows?
The already bundled software with the Linux distribution works fine but its when I want to install new software that the problems occur (ie. missing libraries, permissions, drivers, graphics, etc.)
RTFM
Last time I had lycoris running, I tried to do just that with the GUI-based LILO config tool that comes with it.
Couldn't work out what settings I needed, so I brought up the manual.
The manual was one introductory passage, and a series of chapter headings all marked "Not written yet".
Handy advice!
Coming soon - pyrogyra
Does anyone else find it a little hypocritical that some of the "prizes" being awarded are designed to make Linux look and act more like Windows? Or in the case of the Code Weavers CD, to run Microsoft products on Linux? How does this speak for independance from Windows?
A special black OPs agent, known as the BOFH, has already made his way into the stronghold. Using unencrypted satellites, he's beamed back his assault on Clippy. View the gruesome archive:
p g
http://www.salmondays.tv/downloads/paper_clip.m
I really hate Dan Patrick.
Well, reading the headline I thought, wow, what a good idea, trying to break the dependence on foreign oil by using more wind power!
Would be a good slogan for that, too...
(However, reading that on Slashdot should have told me!)
Hurricane Application Group, Dept of Meteorology Control, Ministry of Proactive Defense
We'll conquer the desktop together, one user at a time if need be," enthused Shawn Gordon, President of theKompany.
I'm pretty sure he said 'konquer the desktop'.
Hello, my name is Robert Lerner, and I pronounce Lernux as "99% cpu"
Think of it in another way. Are we celebrating
our dependence on Windows. That is what came to
my mind first reading Windependence.
We need a better name than windependependence.
-anand
What really put the bee in the American bonnett was the stamp tax. The exact details escape me, but the parallels between the Stamp Act and new Software Assurance program are startling.
Think about it, Parliment wanted to bill the colonists for every legal document, license, contract, pamplet, and even playing card (MS Solitaire?). The Bill was passed without any feedback or representation of the customer.
You want to talk about history repeating itself, look no further.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
I think it's a shame that most of the prizes are partly or completely non-free software.
It brings to mind what I believe is a translated polish proverb:
A change of leaders is the joy of fools.
To exchange one set of proprietary terms & conditions for another, even if the new ones are a lot less aggravating, when one could instead have grasped Freedom in perpetuity, is a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
Debian: GNU/Linux done the Linux way
Finally a good use for all those AOL discs eh? (The power source is the problem. A spring just doesn't cut it for a 100 CD magazine.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
That I'll never use! Gee, whiz, I need to spend $500 on it and take out a second mortgage for the computer I'm going to need!
Karma whorin' since 1999
In fact, here is a link to it. You could have justed asked google, which is what I did. I used "declaration of war germany". It was the first hit.
Lawrence Lessig is my personal hero.
http://www.salmondays.tv/downloads/paper_clip.mpg
from salmon days, the register's on line tv show adaptation of the bofh (bastard operator from hell, but you knew that anyway)...
I think it's a shame that most of the prizes are partly or completely non-free software.
That was so well said that I'll give you 10 free Apache licenses and another 10 free OpenOffice licenses!
For me to run Linux at work, I need Office. I can't even convince my project boss (1000 km away, more or less) to use FrameMaker for this project, despite its being the Right Tool for the Job.
At home, however... Linux box here I come! (Just moved; computers et al in pieces!)
?!
I'm not a geek, I'm just a clever script.
I was using that as my organization for years on alt.religion.scientology before Co$'s local thugs tracked down the reference -- they actually wasted the time searching for it, which suits the tactics of Dirac Angestun Gespt just fine. ;^)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Any chance of it being a portable railgun that would fling CDs, or is the aluminum layer in your average CD not sufficient for that idea to work? If it could work, you could get some pretty decent speed out of the business end of it...
Of course, you'd probably need a backpack power supply to drive the thing. You could go around flinging AOHell CDs at people with a contraption that looks like something out of Ghostbusters...
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
The poster is making an important point, but the point is lost amid the insults. People will respond not to the ideas but the language. For that reason, it is a troll.
I have re-written the parent, removing all insults, thus making a more effective post:
Independence day allows us to look back on the sacrifices our forefathers made to keep America free. I don't appreciate seeing it trivialized.
Take the opportunity to start working for real change: less government intrusion, less taxes, fewer regulations, more freedom. Those are your birthrights, secured with the blood of our ancestors. Don't let them down!
Scandinavian independence day. If it weren't for Scandinavians, we wouldn't even be thinking about this.
To help celebrate wIndependence Day (or, perhaps more accurately, WinDependence Day), do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Linux? If it's just about not using Linux, then somebody [apple.com] has already started promoting a similar idea.
First, you need to rephrase your question.
As stated, no, you don't have to use GNU/Linux, but you do have to use a Free Operating System (Free as in Freedom). This rules out Apple, Sun, etc. Replacing one set of masters with another set of masters doesn't by you an ounce of freedom or independence, which is what "Windependence" is all about.
So, if you had phrased your question "...do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Free Software" then the answere would be, if you wish to be free and independent, then yes, you have to use free software. If you do not care that a corporate vendor has veto power over your ability to use your PC, then Apple, Microsoft, or any number of other proprietary vendors will likely serve your purposes just fine.
Ok, maybe not Microsoft based on their track record for the last 10 years vis-a-vis reliability, security, and forced obsolescence...but don't kid yourself: Sun and Apple are just failed Microsoft wannabe's, and if you switch to their product you may find, while you are breathing a sigh of relief to be free of Microsoft's stranglehold, that you have in fact only replaced one set of masters with another and are now firmly entrenched in Apple, or Sun's, stranglehold. It only becomes a question of time then, before you are looking for escape once more.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
...l1b3rty, 3qual1ty, and frat3rn1ty!
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Windows-alike interfaces aren't that special. Let's start doing something revolutionary, like paying attention to UI research results.
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
Fortunately, there were no serious injuries...
You mispelled "Sadly".
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I'm under the impression that the BSA will contact you and ask for a voluntary audit first. If you don't have the time/money for it, they'll gladly provide their own people to do the audit for you. If you are found in compliance they'll just go away, but if you are found to be guilty they charge you (contrator rates) for the people they provided.
If you ignore or upset them, then the BSA will get help from local authorities. I believe they use the federal marshalls. The Marshalls will knock down your door and tell everyone to take their hands off their keyboards to prevent any deletion of evidence. So far not much gives the BSA the right to do this, but a flimsy EULA and some badly interpreted copyright laws.
No, it's not right or fair, but it is now precedented, so you will need to check your facts before you start using software from BSA members. There are few ways to win against the BSA system because they only get paid if you are charged/fined/extorted money.
Just remember that that fu*k'n paperclip is a member of the mob.
You misspelled "mispelled," although I agree with the sentiment completely. Damn, I sure I hope I spelled everything correctly. :)
look what I found in
#!/bin/sh
# Blue screen of death implementation for Linux
# Author: Christian Steinruecken cstein@suse.de
if test -t 0; then
set -- `stty size`
L="$1"
R="$2"
else
L="25"
R="80"
fi
echo -en "\033[m\033[44;37m\033[H\033[J"
LL=`expr $L / 2 - 5`
RR=`expr $R / 2 - 3`
echo -en "\033[${LL}B"
echo -en "\033[${RR}G"
echo -e "\033[47;34m Linux \033[37;44m"
RR=`expr $R / 2 - 34`
p=`echo -en "\033[${RR}G"`
echo -e "\033[1m"
case "$LANG" in
de*) cat ${p}Der schwere Ausnahmefehler 0E trat auf in
Prozess 01 (/sbin/init &)
${p}Die aktuelle Anwendung kann nicht
fortgesetzt werden.
${p} * Drücken Sie RETURN um die Anwendung zu
beenden.
${p} * Drücken Sie STRG-ALT-ENTF um Ihren
Computer neu zu starten. Vergessen
${p} Sie nicht, vorher laut zu fluchen.
EOF
# Feel free to add more languages!
*) cat ${p}The fatal exception 0E occurred in process 1
(/sbin/init &) ${p}The current application cannot be continued.
${p} * Press RETURN to close the application.
${p} * Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot your
computer. Do not forget to
${p} scream and curse.
EOF
esac
if test -t 1; then
read
echo -en "\033[${L}H\033[m"
echo -e "\033[KOh, and yes... Have a nice day!!
else
echo -en "\033[${L}H\033[m"
fi
exit 0
the problem with using CD's, is that they arent articularly aerodynamic - no curves, not strategically placed holes...
too flat and smooth.
... hi bingo
Damn, I sure I hope I spelled everything correctly. :)
From now on, I sure I hope I do too.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
From now on I hope I can I hit the preview button instead of the submit button. :)