TheOpenCD 1.4 Released

Lykos writes "From OpenCD's website: 'TheOpenCD is a collection of high quality Free and Open Source Software. The programs run in Windows and cover the most common tasks such as word processing, presentations, e-mail, web browsing, web design, and image manipulation.' This is a great little package to leave lying around your friends' workplace to convince them to go opensource. =) Lots of quality programs in one convenient package."

Comments

My problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that when I leave the CD open, it won't boot it. I have to close the CD to get the Open CD to work.

Re:My problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Hurry up and close the drive tray, I can't get the site to load.

Re:My problem

[b17bmbr]

drive tray, i thought that was a drink holder.

Re:My problem

[Anonymous Coward]

Drive tray?
My DVD-ROM is a slot-load, you insensitive clod!

Re:My problem

[bccomm]

That's a GPL violation. Stallman's attack dogs are coming...RUN

*Ducks*

Don't blame me---it's my first Slashdot joke. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Re:My problem

[Anonymous Coward]

drive tray, i thought that was a drink holder.

it is,

on my smoked window's Mp3Mobile Jeep it workz with all formats cd/cdrw/dvdrw/svcds/80mm minicds/maccokecoups/pepsi cans/superbock/sagres dark beer bottles/lemonade glasses/and donuts

No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriosuly, isn't this the first item on *everyone's* install list?

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Seriosuly"

Maybe aspell should be on that list too.

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[The Snowman]

Seriosuly, isn't this the first item on *everyone's* install list?

When I install Windows XP, it goes something like this:

1. Install service pack, install Windows Update patches
2. "ungayify" Windows by reverting to Windows Classic theme, old-school permissions and file sharing, etc. 2000 had the right idea, XP "Professional" "is not."
3. Install open source applications such as Mozilla, OpenOffice, Gimp, Vim, etc.
4. Never use Outlook or IE again except for Windows Update

The only thing Microsoft has on any Windows system I install is Windows itself. The rest of their junk is just that: junk. The OS is decent if you put it behind a firewall, even better if you never plug the computer in.

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

i don't like windows unless it's in "classic" mode either, but surely you can come up with a better word than gay. how about, hetero. how hetero is it to have your windows in that mode.

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Brandybuck]

It's not on my install list, because the packages were made for some OS called "Windows".

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

old-school permissions and file sharing

Huh? What's that? Care to explain it?

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[cfuse]

Seriosuly, isn't this the first item on *everyone's* install list?

In a word, no.

Sick to death of "it's free, the UI was designed by a guy with autism, and the help system and documentation are non-existant but it's still the bestest software EVAR!" brand of advocacy.

And remember, if you don't just 'know' how the software works, it's your fault. Documentation is for idiots. Clear examples are unnecessary. Everything must be driven from the command line with 50 case sensitive switches with no relationship to the options they represent.

90% of people care about the way it looks/feels, not the fact that it's 'better'.

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

And your post relates to Frozen Bubble how?

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Hatta]

Have you ever actually played frozen bubble?

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

old-school permissions and file sharing

Huh? What's that? Care to explain it?

Windows XP hides details of file permissions, opting for a basic "share" or "don't share," with an option to allow write access, and only at the directory level. Disabling simple file sharing and permissions allows full group-based permissions for specific files in directories just like Windows 2000 (and Unix).

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[j-pimp]

Hate to break it to you, but Windows ACLs are more fine grained than Traditional Unix permissions. Granted you can do ACLs in several Linux flavors. However, its not "standard". Thats not to say Unix is more insecure, Unless your running VMS or an AS/400, server stuff tends to be run in god-mode and their is little initial security tuning. However, all the advanced permissions are no good if you don't use them.

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Mozai]

Pity that explorer.exe == iexplorer.exe, and explorer.exe is the shell, eh?

May I suggest an alternate shell?
http://sourceforge.net/projects/bb4win/

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a great little package to leave lying around your friends' workplace to convince them to go opensource.

I'll leave it right next to the AOL CDs. Im sure they will get just as much mileage out of it.

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well done, you win slashdots idiot of the day award.

What documentation do you believe you require for Frozen Bubble?

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

why did those man-man-love-people have to ruin a perfectly good word like 'gay'? I think gay accurately describes windowsXP. Hetero does not. Thats why hetero is a worse choice than gay. Quick, call the thought police.

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he meant 'gay' as in 'happy.' That is what gay means, after all.

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[Anonymous Coward]

It sure sounds like you have something against autistic people. I really hope not.

Or maybe I'm reading too far into it?

Perhaps those with the gift of autism will stick to complex, powerful operating systems, while the rest of the world gets pretty colors to look at (aka Windows).

Re:No Frozen Bubble?

[The Snowman]

...but to call all of their software junk indicates either that you have never used it, or lack the skills to use it properly.

Microsoft became popular by writing software designed for single user systems. The forced it into a multi-user environment, introducing inconsistencies, inefficiencies, and massive quantities of security holes. To be fair all software has these issues, but Microsoft did not understand the network paradigm until it was too late to change because of all the existing software. Windows 2000 came close, XP is probably a step back.

When I call it junk, I mean that it has so many problems that it is marginally useful. Oh, to be fair, my comment is -1 flamebait but the good outweighs the bad.

Torrent

[r84x]

sorry about whoring...

but just in case...

torrent

Re:Torrent

[NineNine]

Wow... so slashdotted a few K .torrent file won't even download...

Anyone have another copy of this .torrent somewhere?

Re:Torrent

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but I'll be sure to share a torrent of it as soon as I download it.

Re:Torrent

[itsdave]

can we get a torrent of this torrent please.

thanks you.

Re:Torrent

[delta407]

Anyone have another copy of this .torrent somewhere?

Certainly. It's amazing what `wget` can do with patient timeouts.

Though, given what happened to the .torrent, I'm somewhat concerned about the availability of their tracker...

Re:Torrent

[Anonymous Coward]

I made some torernts too, just in case...

here

Re:Torrent

[Anonymous Coward]

Copy and paste, huh?

Re:Torrent

[NineNine]

Well, they did it with multiple redundant trackers, but it looks like they're all dead. That's what I hate about BT. It's great when it works, but finding a reliable tracker is about as easy as finding Osama Bin Laden. The tracker software apparently needs a massive re-write.

Re:Torrent

[ttldkns]

i got it and i put it up in these places one here
and here

Re:Torrent

[BiggyP]

We now have a site mirror at: http://www.theopencd.net/
limited bandwidth, but the primary site is crawling.

Don't just leave it around

[Anonymous Coward]

Erase their harddrive and install it over top. We need converts. Time to get proactive. To the extreme!

Re:Don't just leave it around

[andih8u]

format their drive and install a cd of opensource programs that run on windows onto their newly blank drive? Great way to get converts.

Re:Don't just leave it around

[tttonyyy]

format their drive and install a cd of opensource programs that run on windows onto their newly blank drive? Great way to get converts.

That's not too far off what my company did a while ago. We were all upgraded(!) to Win2k, but the system team bundled a load of OSS stuff with each installation, including the excellent Gimp. No-one I'd spoken to here before had used it (sure they'd heard of it but had never been bothered to try it). Now there are lots of converts that really swear by it.

I would have modded you insightful rather than funny.

Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Richard Stallman -- Lead Flute
Miguel De Icaza -- Banjo
Alan Cox -- Washboard

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[jtwJGuevara]

It's nothing compared to track no. 7 though... Eric S. Raymond - "My Dear Aunt Tillie"

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[edbarrett]

You forgot:
Darl McBride -- Cowbell

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[Lord Kano]

Steve Jobs-The Pied Piper's Flute
Bill Gates-Wallet Harp

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[Anonymous Coward]

more like...
Richard Stallman -- skin flute

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[alefbet]

Richard Stallman -- Lead Flute
Miguel De Icaza -- Banjo
Alan Cox -- Washboard

Do they make flutes out of lead? Seems like a health hazard to me. :P

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget Bill Gates on the kazoo ;-)

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be a bass lead flute.

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[wiit_rabit]

No.. Bill Gates doing a rendition of 4'33"

Re:Dude track one kicks ASS on OpenCD!!

[druxton]

No.. Bill Gates doing a rendition of 4'33"
I hope I'm not the only one that got that - but you should have said Darl McBride, not Bill. All your silence are belong to us...

Fred Fish

[tttonyyy]

Heh, reminds me of the old Fred Fish disks for the Amiga, crammed with free/shareware stuff. They were great days. :)

Re:Fred Fish

[0xC0FFEE]

and aminet, yeah nice memories... The difference though is that you rarely had source with the programs (they were mostly shareware) whereas you _must_ have them now because of the GPL. This is an order of magnitude better in my view.

Re:Fred Fish

[tttonyyy]

and aminet, yeah nice memories... The difference though is that you rarely had source with the programs (they were mostly shareware) whereas you _must_ have them now because of the GPL. This is an order of magnitude better in my view.

Oh, I completely agree. Not that there would be room on the disks. :) But back then the Fish Disks were invaluable for legally spreading around good free/shareware software at a time when the internet wasn't so commonly available.

I think TheOpenCD is a good idea for increasing OSS availability/awareness, though I question it's validity in this day when everyone is used to just "downloading and installing". Also, everyone seems to want "the latest version" and OSS apps go through versions rapidly, quickly outdating the CD.

Re:Fred Fish

[0xC0FFEE]

I remember frantic copy sessions where we'd lookup the disks we wanted (special yearly edition, Amiga Computing?) beforehand and buy unformatted disks by the hundreads and make copies...

Re:Fred Fish

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, they are, aren't they?

Re:Fred Fish

[quadong]

'everyone is used to just "downloading and installing"'

I think you have a narrow view of "everyone". The people around my office certainly seem to expect software to come on a CD. To many people, putting Free Software on a CD gives it the same emotional validity as the proprietary software that comes on CDs.

Re:Fred Fish

[blackest_k]

fred fish and the aminet and truely free software

great times and a great os I still miss some of its features even with the superb graphics and processing speeds my pc's have well 1 of em at least.

Proper freeware not download it for free and find out its badly crippled shareware. My biggest gripe with google is i look for something free for a particular job and i get offered cripple ware or a commercial alternative. perhaps i should be putting open source along with what i want into google. There are some pretty strange meanings given to free these days and if anyone can come up with a way of avoiding the links to search pages results instead of a proper link I would be very greatful.

oh and and a pc equivilent to aminet with docs next to each download which you could take a look at before hitting download.

Re:Fred Fish

[Gadget_Guy]

The difference though is that you rarely had source with the programs (they were mostly shareware) whereas you _must_ have them now because of the GPL.

In the early days a lot of the Fish disks had source code on them. And they were pretty much all PD. And you used to get a lot of different things on each disk too. Then slowly everything began to go all shareware and massive, until eventually you got just one or two crippled programs on each disk.

I lost interest in them about then, and I would just pine for the good old days - when giving out the source code was not a movement, it was just what you did.

Re:Fred Fish

[booch]

It's interesting to note that Fred Fish is somewhat active in the GNU community. If you do a Google search, you can find several of his contributions and mailing list posts in several GNU projects.

Re:Fred Fish

[Anonymous Coward]

IIRC, Fred Fish was involved in the thread that saw Linus bitchslap Tanenbaum over Minix.

Oh great

[cybermace5]

Now we'll see this CD turning up on eBay. There's a surprising amount of people selling Free software to uninformed people.

Re:Oh great

[r84x]

Now we'll see this CD turning up on eBay. There's a surprising amount of people selling Free software to uninformed people.

Like this?

Re:Oh great

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a surprising amount of people selling Free software to uninformed people.

Of course, some folks wouldn't mind paying ~$5 for a CD full of free software if they have slow Internet connections. But yeah, it would be nice if the money went to the OpenCD people, rather than the eBay middlemen.

Re:Oh great

[penguinoid]

There's a surprising amount of people selling Free software to uninformed people.

And this is bad why? It spreads the free software to people who wouldn't have otherwise gotten it.

"I believe in parting a fool and his money as soon as possible" -- someone

Re:Oh great

[uberjoe]

I sell OSS on ebay, and we are not taking advantage of the uninformed. I like to think we are providing a service to all the poor modem users out there who cannot download a multi-cd set of software. Besides I only charge a small "media fee" and shipping.

Re:Oh great

[strictnein]

That auction is great... and shows why I just love ebay.

The CD being sold is $.99, which is a pretty good price. But the shipping and handling is $5.99, to ship one lousy CD, and $1.99 for each CD after that.

Re:Oh great

[sohojim]

There's a surprising amount of people selling Free software to uninformed people.

People like SuSE and RedHat, for instance?

Check www.gnu.org if you're still unclear on whether you can sell free software.

Hint: you can.

Re:Oh great

[cybermace5]

No, I'm talking about people who sell programs like OpenOffice under some other name, and do not mention at all that it is free. I'm talking about sellers like this.

Re:Oh great

[cybermace5]

Why don't you provide a link to some of your auctions? Do you talk and hawk OpenOffice and GIMP but fail to mention that they are free programs that could be downloaded if the poor modem user wanted to spend the time?

I've seen some really bad examples on eBay. One guy was rebranding everything, QCad was LuxuriosityCAD, and then there was Luxuriosity Office. Basically, trying to profit from the work of others, or trick people into buying something they could have gotten for free.

If your eBay blurbs do state that you are distributing open-source software for free, and only charging for media and shipping costs, then I'd consider you to be an exception to the rule.

Re:Oh great

[penguinoid]

But they do leave the licence intact, no? (If not, then the police will be knocking on their door shortly.) The licence says it is free software. While selling like that may not be morally right, some people simply wouldn't use it if it were free.

Re:Oh great

[Zordak]

Honestly, the guy is selling you a CD with OpenOffice burned on it for about $10. What's the big deal about that? Maybe I am familiar with it, but don't have the bandwidth, and I think it's worth the $10. Maybe I don't know I can download it for free, but dropping the $10 introduces me to something new that I had no idea existed. If you think the $10 is too much, lowball him on your bid and see if you get lucky. The guy appears to be getting a lot of positive feedback, so maybe a lot of people who would otherwise be locked into the Microsoft rut have found a viable alternative, and have decided that $10 was a fair price for enlightenment. Now, if he doesn't include the proper license, or in any other way breaks the law, then he has a problem. Otherwise, he's probably just an evangelist making a few bucks off of his preaching.

Re:Oh great

[Anonymous Coward]

trying to profit from the work of others

Isn't this the holy grail of Open Source???

Re:Oh great

[belloc]

"I believe in parting a fool and his money as soon as possible" -- someone

The saying is: "A fool and his money are soon parted."

This is a statement of the way things are, not what someone thinks ought to happen. That's why it's insightful.

Belloc

Re:Oh great

[BillyBlaze]

There's probably nothing illegal about it, but it's a bit dishonest, and unfair to OpenOffice.org, to not mention what it actually is. Frankly, I'm amazed at how many people bought it, how many gave good feedback, and that nobody identified it in the feedback.

When installing OpenOffice, it's hard not to notice that it's open source. ("Did you know that you can get help from the community?"...) So even people who would buy such an nondescript product would be pleasantly surprised.

Re:Oh great

[Snoopy77]

If you would have read the whole advertisement on Ebay you would have seen that he clearly states that all the software on the CD is may be freely downloaded off the internet and that this CD is being provided simply as a convenience to those who don't have the time or bandwidth to download them all. And at $6.98 delivered to your door I don't think he's exactly ripping people off.

Re:Oh great

[ryen]

a simple search on ebay brings surprising results:
Is this what you were talking about?.

Re:Oh great

[Anonymous Coward]

Good point. Let's keep Free/OSS under wraps and inaccessable to people without broadband. Also, let's make sure that we crap all over anyone trying to run a business with Free/OSS, and make sure that it never helps anyone turn a profit.

1. Use Free/OS Software
2. ????
3. NO PROFIT!

Re:Oh great

[cybermace5]

I think that might be someone reselling the original junk. The Luxuriosity guy seemed to have moved on a while back, probably selling under another name.

Re:Oh great

[uberjoe]

I assure you sir, that I would never take advantage of the undereducated in such a blatant manner. I am currently only providing slackware, whose users are not likely to be taken in by the scam you described. If you are interested, my ebay name is 'lordkimbot' please look me up and review my 100% positive feedback rating.

Re:Oh great

[pyrrhonist]

There's a surprising amount of people selling Free software to uninformed people.

Like these people! Bastards.

Re:Oh great

[miracle69]

There is nothing morally or ethically wrong with selling free software, and in fact, the GPL doesn't prohibit you from selling free software.

As long as he includes the license and the source to whomever asks for it, it's totally kosher to sell GPLed software to those who want to buy it.

At the price he's offering it, he's actually selling a service. He's also probably near the break-even price point for a small operation mailing individual CDs across the country.

Re:Oh great

[gnuman99]

Open source does not mean "must be free". They can sell it for how much they want to sell it for. They just can't change the name to "iDoOffice" and change the license to non GPL compliant one.

Re:Oh great

[Mantorp]

I don't see a problem with this guy. He's not lying, and he gets good feedback like: "WOW!!!!! I got it today, GREAT product. Can't believe it's so good for $10. A+++"

Re:Oh great

[awful]

Check the buyer feedback - the guy sold OpenOffice.org for 1 cents! And then the buyer said "what a deal; great ebayer, arrived perfect, new, much less thatn retail." !!!!

user feedback here

Re:Oh great

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you be familiar with it when the name isn't even given? Don't you think it's dishonest to tell uninformed people that it's 100% compatible with Microsoft Office? Different versions of MS Office aren't even 100% compatible with each other! How about this line: "Why spend hundreds of dollars for software from Microsoft when an alternative is available at a fraction of the price???" It's not just a fraction of the price, it can be free. Maybe the seller is providing a service to those on dial-up but he's doing it in a very dishonest way to get money from the unsuspecting as well.

Re:Oh great

[Anonymous Coward]

Why did this get modded up? It's a response to something that was never said. No one claimed that you couldn't sell Free software. Grandparent simply implied there were those taking advantage of people unaware of the fact that GNU software can be downloaded for free by selling it and not telling the buyers about it's freeness.

Re:Oh great

[harrkev]

If I was still stuck on dial-up, I would pay $5 or $6 for this. My phone lines were so bad, I could reach 28.8K on a good day. So for me, it was order CDs from shovelware sites or do without.

Re:Oh great

[ryen]

either selling or reselling, its pretty lame. shouldn't ebay be notified of such things?

Re:Oh great

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you trying to be funny, or do you really not understand the difference?

CD Program Contents

[Anonymous Coward]

already slow... here's the cd list...

Office & Design
OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, PDFCreator, GIMP

Internet & Communication
Mozilla, Miranda IM, FileZilla, TightVNC, WinHTTrack, PuTTY

Multimedia & Games
Audacity, CDex, Tux Paint, Crack Attack!, Sokoban YASC,
Neverball, Celestia, Really Slick Screensavers

Utilities & Other
7-Zip, SciTE, WinPT, NetTime

Re:CD Program Contents

[Fammy2000]

Awesome. Slashdot one site instead of dozens!

/.ed

[Knights who say 'INT]

oh, please. zero comments and the link is already slashdotted. Grrr.

previous coverage

[werdnapk]

previous coverage here and here

Also take a look..

[Karamchand]

..at GNUWin II, a similar project.

Re:Also take a look..

[ZaMoose]

Yowsers. Lots more stuff on GNUWinII than on the OpenCD.

Like FlightGear, glTron, SodiPodi, Blender.

Sweet.

Re:Also take a look..

[Ian Peon]

Twice the size too. Gee, I wonder how they did that? ;-P

Re:Also take a look..

[Shadwell]

Also see this one.

Really cool idea

[Black_Logic]

This seems like a pretty cool idea. I thought about something like this a while back. I'm not to familiar with windows any more. Would it be possible to have these programs execute straight from the cd instead of installing? That would defninitely come in handy at say, the school labs where you can't install programs and they don't have your favorite OS program installed.

Seems like a good list of programs, firefox may be a nice addition, though.

Re:Really cool idea

[Sn_wC_t]

Its been a while since I was in school, but back in my day...
They had the BIOS set to load from cd, and the BIOS was password protected even!
...fifteen miles barefoot ... uphill both ways ...

Re:Really cool idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks kind of like this

Wouldn't a Web portal be a better idea?

[hal2814]

I'm thinking that an easy to use Web portal to this kind of software would be a better idea. That way the user can get the most up-to-date version of the software and any new software deemed "worthy" of the list could be distributed to everyone by updating a Web page.

Re:Wouldn't a Web portal be a better idea?

[bubkus_jones]

That would require an internet connection. At least with the cd, you can take it anywhere and use it on computers, internet connection or not.

Re:Wouldn't a Web portal be a better idea?

[thegoldenear]

like this?

Re:Wouldn't a Web portal be a better idea?

[The-Dalai-LLama]

Yes, it would for people who are already interested enough to follow through with the effort it would take. The cool thing about the CD is that it's portable, easy and cheap to reproduce, and most important: it's very convenient.

I'm using Linux for most of my computing because somebody handed me a throw-away Knoppix CD. If he had told me, "Hey, there's this cool Knoppix thing that lets you try Linux with no hassles. You can download all 658 Megs for free!" I'd probably still be using Win98 exclusively.

The Dalai LLama
...LLam's LLaw: If x is the amount of bullshit someone has to wade through to try something new and y represents the likelihood that they will actually do so, then the value of x is inversely proportional to the value of y ....

Re:Wouldn't a Web portal be a better idea?

[Anonymous Coward]

I propose that you add curl, the command line downloader. I use it for all my downloads. I used to use wget on Windows, but it doesn't seem to localize the UTC times properly for Daylight Savings timestamps. My files would always be about 2 hours ahead. Anyways, thanks for the informative list.

Site overloaded

[macmaxbh]

If you want the new OpenCD, use the torrent--no mirror yet (just the overloaded site itself)

Too bad broadband has me craving latest version :P

[utahraptor]

This is one of those deals that is outdated before download completes.

Mirror here

[broothal]

Poor webserver is already bending over backwards. Find your mirror here.

Re:Mirror here

[Anonymous Coward]

The link above is acting like it's slashdotted, even though it's a google chched page. Is anyone else able to get the page to load?

Re:Mirror here

[MartinG]

None of the mirrors listed there have this version yet. The page linked even says so.

Re:Mirror here

[FireBreathingDog]

To mail me: echo wgz2pxf4zg11lbjlwyxbhyb3q | tr bfghjlpqwxyz1234 .@acdeikmnorstuw

I guess you don't want Windows users e-mailing you (unless they have Cygwin installed, that is).

Sounds like a good plan if you ask me...

Re:Mirror here

[MartinG]

It's not elitism, its obfuscation. The plan is not to have my email address harvested.

Obviously, in doing that I was trusting folks not to be wankers by posting the plain text address.

Already Slashdotted

[Anonymous Coward]

You guys should probably have some kind of load-test kit before you publish stories from little-known sites. This happened many times recently.

Re:Already Slashdotted

[jamonterrell]

What's the fun in that? The only reason I read slashdot is to watch poor sites get DDoS'd by a very large group of unconnected web browsers!

It's interesting...

[AKAImBatman]

...how much my software has changed. It used to be that I'd use MS Office, Internet Explorer, Paintshop Pro, WinZIP, and other for-pay applications to get my work done. These days I find myself using FireFox, OpenOffice, JEdit, NetBeans, Cygwin, EnZIP, GIMP, and other Open Source tools. And nearly every one of them is superior to the application I replaced. Fascinating world we live in.

Re:It's interesting...

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with you on everything but PSP/GIMP. Man I wish I could get PSP5 to work in Wine. [insert GIMP
s UI sucks rant here] Hopefully the Gimp people will fix some of these issues, or perhaps offer alternative interfaces all together?

Re:It's interesting...

[16K Ram Pack]

Is Enzip OSS? I could only find downloads of the exe.

Re:It's interesting...

[dave420]

Superior to you.

Not everyone gets on with the different ways OSS apps do things. Sure, we can extoll the virtues of the ideology and talk about how it's free, etc., but it doesn't change the fact that lots of people prefer IE and MS Office over their OSS counterparts. Those are the majority of users, and it's those people who need converting.

Re:It's interesting...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not quite true. Very few people PREFER IE over Firefox; it's just that this "majority" don't know about anything else. Every single person I've shown Firefox to has converted full-time -- every one of 'em. Before, they simply didn't know that other browsers than IE existed.

I agree with your point on OpenOffice.org vs MS Office (as the latter does have some strengths over the former), but in the browser arena, it's not really down to preference or quality at all. Firefox is so far ahead of IE and so much more pleasant to use, the quality war is over.

Re:Ah...... slashdotted. Anyone got a mirror?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mirror list, mostly FTP but some HTTP as well.

Re:Ah...... slashdotted. Anyone got a mirror?

[Anonymous Coward]

here's a mirror

Can't even get Google Cache?

[IceAgeComing]

Slashdot is responsive, but even this google cache of the mirror sites isn't working for me.

Sasser, or is it just me?

Re:Can't even get Google Cache?

[Anonymous Coward]

Two minutes to load! We slashdotted google!

Another free CD that is handy

[saskboy]

The Ultimate Boot CD

This CD and the Open CD are about all you need to get your friends computer working in tip top shape.

http://ubcd.sf.net/

Re:Another free CD that is handy

[Anonymous Coward]

Ultimate Boot CD, Circa 4/20/04.

Sounds like there's a real legacy there.

Re:Another free CD that is handy

[DrLZRDMN]

oh I don't know but I think this does a good job as well.

Re:Another free CD that is handy

[saskboy]

On a 56kbps modem connection, the UBCD is still the way to go, but if I had highspeed Internet, I'd get and learn knoppix.

Re:Another free CD that is handy

[Anonymous Coward]

Not open source, but free: BartPE

No it isn't.

[cnelzie]

Leaving that CD around won't convince anybody to go to OpenSource software. I don't have the time to look at some CD that was left around by someone attempting to tempt me to 'go over' to their side.

As the Purchasing Agent and the entire IT Staff I get all sorts of DemoCD Crap sent to me all the time. All sorts of "Look at how awesome our crap is!", "Try it once and wonder how you ever did without it!"

Most of it is all the same, they come from silly 'Microsoft Partners' all selling the same thing... Some kind of 'Revolutionary Business Management Software' that we would have to build our business around to get anything out of it. The rest of it is a mess of various CAD/CAM systems, most of which are the worst crap you ever did see...

Do you know what I do with it all? I dump it into the trash first thing. I don't read the marketing hype, I don't waste a moment attempting to load something that then demands I 'Register' the Demo to get a Demo unlock code that does nothing but mark me as a 'target' to their sales drones...

If we need software, my job is to head out and find it. I look at OSS first, because most of the little side software packages we need won't require massive retraining, like zip software or other utilities like that...

So, would a CD Found laying around our office end up in any PC? Heck no, especially if it is unmarked... There could be all sorts of nasties on it we don't want/need on our network...

Keep your CD to yourself unless someone mentions looking for a mess of free software, then give them the CD.

Re:No it isn't.

[Anonymous Coward]

Touchy, touchy.

Re:No it isn't.

[penguinoid]

So, would a CD Found laying around our office end up in any PC?

Yes. There are people who read spam. There are people who open random attachments. There are people who use AOL cds. There will be people who would read an unlabled CD.

In fact, I have a feeling that quite a few people would be interested in a CD that has a good picture and something like "Open CD" and url ending with .org on it.

Re:No it isn't.

[Quantum Jim]

I dump it (a CD) into the trash first thing.

What a waste of a perfectly good drink coster. ;-)

Re:No it isn't.

[bcrowell]

Leaving that CD around won't convince anybody to go to OpenSource software. I don't have the time to look at some CD that was left around by someone attempting to tempt me to 'go over' to their side.
Unfortunately, I'd have to agree based on my experience with using TheOpenCD and GnuWinII as tools for evangelizing free software. For me, the results were really disappointing. I teach physics at a community college. A lot of my students don't have much money, and it seemed to me like they'd just naturally be interested in free alternatives to Office, etc. I handed out free CDs on the first day of class, and got exactly zero interest. Not a single student mentioned having used the software. Not a single student started using OSS for doing graphs in their lab reports.

Some possible reasons:

• Hard as it may be for me (and other Slashdotters) to conceive, many people simply don't consider playing with software to be a fun activity.
• I don't think they say, "Hmm...should I spend X dollars for a legal copy of Office, or should I run OSS?" They say, "Hmm...should I spend X dollars for a legal copy of Office, or should I get a copy from my friend?"

I've gotten better results simply by putting my old FreeBSD box in the lab alongside the school's Windows machines. KDE is installed, and I think a lot of them just start using it without even realizing at first that it's not Windows. After a while, the message may sink in that this alternative at least exists.

Re:No it isn't.

[Anonymous Coward]

So, would a CD Found laying around our office end up in any PC?

If I labelled it "HR Backup" or "Girls Gone Wild" I could move a stack of them at work.

Figures

[JediTrainer]

As usual, I downloaded their last version just two days ago.

Good thing I hadn't gotten around to burning it yet, I guess.

Shows free GUI software's problem

[Karamchand]

If you take a look at the screenshots of all the included apps you'll notice the many different sets of widgets. One uses native W32 widgets, the other one GNOME-style, the third one has own.. - this will only confuse the user and in my opinion shows a large problem free GUI software is facing today.

Re:Shows free GUI software's problem

[twener]

You mean like eg all the Windows media players which all have exactly this one and only skin which makes them look conform to the native W32 widget set?

Re:Shows free GUI software's problem

[TwinkieStix]

People complain about this all the time on Slashdot, but I don't think it's as bad as people think. I think that if the features are there and there is no-more usable alternative for the same cost, the interface isn't that big of a selling point.

Look at winamp. It's always had a non-standard interface and before microsoft started bundling the same features into windows, was the de-facto standard media player.

Another example was the old Napster. Remember how it used buttons instead of tabs for the tabed-like interface? That took me, a slashdot reading geek a few extra minutes to figure out, yet it still managed to be the biggest thing in the news for several months.

Re:Shows free GUI software's problem

[Chris Pimlott]

You cite exceptional examples. WinAmp was the first full-featured Windows MP3 player. Napster was the first huge p2p app. Both of them hit at just the right time to ride the MP3 wave to popularity.

Many people probably used these applications in /spite/ of their interface; they were just so hot and unlike anything else at the time.

Now, not to say there isn't some innovative FOSS software out there; but a lot of it is rather mundane, i.e. apps that already exist in the closed-source world. In the midst of all the competition, if a FOSS looks kinda weird and is not obviously head shoulders better than the competition, it's probably going to be a point against it.

Re:Shows free GUI software's problem

[AJWM]

Widgets, schmidgets.

The web has taught people that buttons can look like just about any damn thing the designer pleases, and they'll happily point'n'click at anything that looks vaguely clickable. Different skins for media apps prove that.

I'm not arguing that it's efficient, mind, but anyone who is confused over different widget sets has other, worse problems.

Re:Shows free GUI software's problem

[F13]

I don't know... Do you freak out everytime you use a different shaped pen?

Re:Shows free GUI software's problem

[dbullock]

Winamp is a terrible example.

It had a nonstandard windows interface that very closely mapped a stereo. That was one of Winamp's strengths. It's competitors often went wild and tossed any good UI design out the window entirely and went for "cool". They suffered as a result.

You're comparing apples and oranges.

Re:Shows free GUI software's problem

[TwinkieStix]

I firmly believe that some of the software on those CDs is exceptional. For a person who actually believes that piracy is bad, GIMP is a godsend, regardless of how un-intuative the interface is initially. Also, most of the programs that come with these types of CDs use a standard windows GUI like Firefox/mozilla, 7zip and Filezilla.

Re:Shows free GUI software's problem

[lpontiac]

One uses native W32 widgets,

Very few programs use entirely "Win32 native" widgets. There isn't even a way to put icons in a Win32 menu without drawing it yourself.

Pretty much every piece of software out there will use widgets from one or more of the following, in addition to "native" widgets:

• Comctl32.dll widgets (bundled with Windows, so okay, this is stretching it)
• MFC widgets
• Windows Forms controls (ie .NET widgets)
• Visual Basic controls (VBXes or OCXes or ActiveX controls or whatever they are this year
• Custom widgets created just for one application

And these are just the ones that have persisted - there have been many others, for instance the OK/Cancel with the green tick/red cross that you'd find in apps created with Borland tools.

Is this approved by the HSD?

[nurb432]

I dont want to run anything that isnt approved safe by my government..

Have they approved its use on windows longhorn?

sheep go baaaaah.

Re:Is this approved by the HSD?

[Buchenskjoll]

Comment on sig: I think that was ment to say "The right to keep and arm bears, shall not be infringed"

Re:Is this approved by the HSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

look: for some reason you can't seem to even give your free software away. you can't effectively sell it 'cause of your licensing provisions, you can't (warranty, market, inject into retail channels, indemnify) it because you've gone and used the gpl, so how can you pay lawyers, accountants, secretaries and executives to make the tough decisions? You can't concentrate on the larger aspects of development, such as design and consistant metaphors and interface elements. You can't initiate new trends or invent new paradigms because you are all too busy 're-implementing' commercial software (MS OFFICE, *BSD Kernel, Photoshop, Explorer, Internet Explorer, etc).

I cannot figure out where the mental disjunction comes from, or why it persists, other than at the bidding of a few sclerotic idealogues banking on their bloated reputations.

the only business model that's worked so far is "to make the software so cryptic and prone to complications and sub-component-version-fragmentations" that anyone using it will have to hire you to consult at it and troubleshoot the inevitable meltdown. and even that doesn't work so well (see RHAT, LNUX)...

I wish you'd all just work on BSD for your jollies and real software (eg ADBE, MSFT) so the whole shebang don't collapse under you idealistic schism decisions

Re:Is this approved by the HSD?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, no it's "The right of the people to keep their arms bare, shall not be infringed"

No firewall?

[LittleBigScript]

I think it is interesting how important security is on slashdot to people, but there is no mention about any anti-(spam | virus | worm).

There is also no firewall? Come on...

I can't recommend it, anyway, because it doesn't have Nethack.

Re:No firewall?

[NineNine]

I use free-av.com. Best virus app I've seen, and it's 100% free for personal use. It's updated almost daily, and it doesn't cause problems like Norton & McAffee.

Re:No firewall?

[athakur999]

Are there any mature OSS anti-virus or firewall programs for Windows? I've never heard of any.

Re:No firewall?

[Anonymous Coward]

ClamAV runs on Windows.

For the command line users.
http://www.sosdg.org/clamav-win32/index.php

If you want a frontend for easy, graphical usage.
http://clamwin.sourceforge.net/

Cheers,

AC

Re:No firewall?

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is running 'firewall' software on your workstation isn't the same as being behind a firewall. Now, I could go into a long, and quite likely painful, rant about how this term, like many others, is mangled. But, let's face it, a large body of people will continue to wonder why the email-du-jour-trojan infected the computer with a 'firewall' installed.

Re:No firewall?

[Dmala]

I think it is interesting how important security is on slashdot to people, but there is no mention about any anti-(spam | virus | worm).

If you use the IE and Outlook alternatives on the CD and a little common sense, you virtually don't need AV. I haven't used it in years, and I've never had a problem.

I can't recommend it, anyway, because it doesn't have Nethack.

At risk of sounding entirely humorless, I don't think Nethack is released under the GPL.

Re:No firewall?

[ozbird]

I tried it for a while, but its habit of downloading the entire multi-megabyte package every time there was a signature update was annoying (for dial-up users...)

I've since switched to AVG Free Edition Which also works great and has regular incremental updates.

Re:No firewall?

[zcat_NZ]

ClamAV has a windows version, and an OE plugin.

It doesn't do continuous scanning, but I usually switch that off, on the basis that if I'm scanning everything as it comes in I'm not likely to have written a virus to file in the first place.

Nice easy installer, and everything. http://clamwin.sourceforge.net/

Re:No firewall?

[Henk Poley]

They fixed that some months ago.

Re:No firewall?

[tokul]

I use free-av.com. Best virus app I've seen, and it's 100% free for personal use.

It is not as free as programs provided in OpenCD. You need just one lesson to understand the difference between free and really free. Get used to some program and see it being discontinued or gone commercial.

For example: Aida32 or PowerArchiver

Mirror For TheOpenCD ISO

[evil_eyes]

http://public.www.planetmirror.com/pub/opencd/

Re:Mirror For TheOpenCD ISO

[jonman_d]

Keep in mind that these aren't the latest ISO files. If you look at the dates, you can see that they're from 2003.

It's probably going to take a little while for all the mirrors to catch up with the latest release (especially with this slashdotting...)

Re:Mirror For TheOpenCD ISO

[torgosan]

What would have been nice is a mirror of the TheOpenCD 1.4 release, not v. 1.2

Re:Mirror For TheOpenCD ISO

[jpetts]

Sweet: a link to the OLD version in a story about the new version. +1 Confusing.

Re:Mirror For TheOpenCD ISO

[BiggyP]

Here's a quick list ofmirrors that appear to have the new ISO.

ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pc/OpenCD/
ftp://ftp.sunsite.dk/projects/TheOpenCD/pub/releas es/1.4/iso/
http://www.tw-fileserver.de/mirror/TheOpenCD/

Torrent mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

here:
http://theopencd.net/TheOpenCD-v1.4.iso.zip .torren t

Psst.. Wanna buy a CD...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've made up to $100 some days selling Knoppix and OpenCD CDs on the street. I do tell people they can download it themselves.

question about open source

[shnives]

I have a general security question about open source software. I am not a programmer so bear with me if this is redundant. The idea I have is that open source would by nature be more vulnerable to viri, spywarez, etc because anyone can see the source code. wouldnt this be much easier for "evildoers" to take advantage of? obviously the argument that keeping source code secret makes it safer is a shaky one, kinda like to one about outlawing guns (then only outlaws will have em...) people are already finding tons of flaws in windsows, and M$ writing quality on the box doesnt seem to do much about this. and this is with little or no info on sourrce code. wouldnt this type of activity be much higher (if it is easier to do, more people will do it) with open source software? I think there are 2 reasons why linux virii are not a factor. 1 there are too few computers out there for anything to replicate itself. 2 more importantly, the linux crowd is a tech savvy one, keeping a regular eye on their machines, and if a problem is found they deal with it themselves. I see a big problem here with open source goin mainstream. even if open source became simple to install. ie fool proof gui, that said install, yes, no, back and next. sure more people would have it, but there will always be people that are not tech savvy. some of them may be very intelligent etc, but just do not have the time to worry about it. I know this is kinda off topic, but would be really interested to read what the /. crowd thinks about open source being more secure, and why.

Re:question about open source

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't feed the troll, mmkay? thanks.

Re:question about open source

[no-arg constructor]

the theory is that if you have many eyes looking at the source of application Z, then any security lapses, buffer overflows, etc will be caught before distribution. if a person took the code for application Z and wrote some sort of rootkit or something into it, and redistributed it as a third party program under the GPL, then there is the potential for a virus, but in general linux users tend to be more cautious of third party binary programs not "tested" by a known entity. seeing the source to a program has advantages and disadvantages, and one of the disadvantages is that anybody can use it for any purpose. when you give out that sort of freedom, you don't have control over what other people do with it, good or bad.

Re:question about open source

[Anonymous Coward]

1) The big difference is the number of eyes looking at the code. Many people will report a bug or fix it when they find that something is not correct.
But no, there is no guarantee that no-one will use the source code for writing viruses etc.
But: There are a number other methods to find flaws in code, you do not necessarily need the source code for it.
2) Did you actually have a look at the software on this CD? Most of it is as easy or easier to install than commercial alternatives!

Re:question about open source

[Jestrzcap]

An insightful post, and good points. I'd like to use a bit of an analogy to respond. Computers and computer system (home network, business networks, the internet) are becoming more and more akin to biology and ecosystems. Your first point is (to a point) right on. But it has less to do with number of system running linux, and more to do with the fact that most linux systems (server or otherwise) are not in fact running the same sets of software and have very different configurations. This means that if you have a virus targeted at a certain flaw in a certain system, the odds that you are going to find a significant number of those system to infect is minimal. Mutations allow for survival. This is why some people can still be killed by the common cold. With something as homogenous as windows (2k,xp,server2k3 are vunerable to all the same problems) you not only have a greater number of hosts to propigate to, you also have the same flaws that allow you to infect them. Mutations are required for survival.
Your second point is good but I do not know that it is a correct assumption. Yes, most people who are going to use linux are more tech savvy, but that doesnt mean they are smart about things like securing their systems. They may be more equipped to deal with a problem, but the smart ones know enough to avoid the problem to begin with. Dont you think that 10 years is enough time to improve a product so that it doesnt fall victim to some of these hideous data destroying worms that happen monthly (sometimes weekly)? I'm not trying to bash Microsoft for their flaws so much (they do, after all have 100x more people working against them than for them), but they have not focused on making their product better over the years, just more desireable. Nowadays they are so big, the only thing they really need to concern themselves with is how can they make people (and companies) buy more of their products, any improvements they make are only done so to placate their customers.
Does having the source code make something more of a security risk? The answer is really, only if it was hidden to begin with. The benefit to having everyone staring at your code, is that the people who intend to use the code will make sure that youve done a good job coding it and will point out the grevious errors youve made. Opening up closed souce is going to allow people to suddenly find all of those flaws at once because noone ever pointed them out before. Open source code is in a constant state of having its (if any) flaws fixed, and stable releases of such software should be significantly more bug/error/flaw free than similar closed software (again this all varies depending on who is writing the code).

Re:question about open source

[emurphy42]

Two more things:

3. Yes, people creating malware can see the source code, but so can people defeating malware.

4. OSS authors are tech-savvy. If you know that your source code will be seen, then there's an incentive for you to write non-crappy code.

You're right about one thing: not everyone actually does read the source code, even among the tech-savvy.

Your first point is true, but (as you also correctly point out) it's not the whole story, like some Windows zealots make it out to be. Apache is more widely used than IIS, but IIS has had worse problems with vulnerabilities.

Re:question about open source

[3) profit!!!]

Well, all software has security holes. Hackers/crackers are always going to find these holes, given enough time. Open source software lets these same hackers fix the security holes, rather than just emailing the company or reporting them publicly. Malicious crackers, of course, will take advantage of either. So, open source is probably WORSE (from a security standpoint) for small projects, but works exceptionally well for large, popular projects, since with that many eyes somebody's bound to see something and submit a patch.

Feel free to point out any errors in my argument, I'm new at this whole evangelizing business. ;)

Re:question about open source

[Anonymous Coward]

OSS authors are tech-savvy. If you know that your source code will be seen, then there's an incentive for you to write non-crappy code.

No offence intended but as a blanket statement, this is false. Some of the worst code I've ever had the shame to work with was open source. I'd argue the fact that you can hide behind a web alias is one of the weakness of open source. Furthermore, no-one is going to fire you if kludge something in. "Oh but it will be spotted in mintues!!!". No, frankly it usually won't on any but a few high profile OSS projects.

Re:question about open source

[Anonymous Coward]

if open source became simple to install. ie fool proof gui

SuSE Linux has a simple install for some versions now.

Select 'install' from the boot menu, click 'accept' for language, 'accept' for configuration, 'yes, really install', and you have a default installation on your disk. You can change the configuration, but you don't have to.

'About' TheOpenCD from the website

[Anonymous Coward]

Introduction

The Open CD project aims to introduce users of MS-Windows to the benefits of Open Source Software. We include only the highest quality programs, which have been carefully tested for stability and which we consider appropriate for a broad audience. We provide a description and screen-shots of each program, so you can get an idea of what it does before installing. All these applications install and un-install cleanly, so you can be comfortable testing them with the knowledge that they will not adversely affect your system. The programs on this disk are all distributed under an Open Source License (OSI approved), which allows you to freely use and distribute them.

Open Source Software

Open Source Software (OSS) is provided with a license that gives the end user the right to use it freely for private or commercial use. You also have the right to inspect and even modify the underlying source code. You can give away or sell the original version you received or one with your modifications, provided that you then in turn pass on the modified source code so that others can benefit from the changes you have made. This last clause protects the developer's work from unfair exploitation by others, while allowing the source code to be released to the community. You are not required to pay royalties to previous developers, but you are still permitted to charge money for the sale of OSS. This disk may have been given to you by a friend; or sold to you for a small fee, and both are permitted.
If you have no interest in source code, you may ask why the availability of this matters. One answer is that the release of source allows external observers to inspect the true functioning of the program, which means that you can be confident that the program treats your private data with respect. A real problem with proprietary software can be that your data is locked in to a software's proprietary file format, which means that you may eventually be forced to upgrade to newer versions of that software to retain access to your data. This does not happen with OSS, because when the source code for opening and saving files is available, a third party can easily write an import filter for the next generation of software, ensuring that your data will always be available. Finally, the release of source code has in some cases spawned large communities of volunteer developers who have in turn provided the world with highly useful, and entirely free software such as Linux, OpenOffice, and Mozilla. These are then available free of charge to schools or anyone else who may not have a large budget available for software. So, you can see that the freedom of software is important for everyone, not just software developers.

The Open CD project

There is a staggering number of OSS projects out there. A typical source (Freshmeat) lists over 30 000 projects. There are also numerous of Shareware and Freeware programs available that you can freely download from the net. However these do not qualify as OSS, because you do not have the right to modify the underlying source code. Usually you are not even able to inspect the source code, and often restrictions are placed your use of the program, such as non-commercial use only.
Enter TheOpenCD project. We have made a small collection of only the highest quality OSS for Windows, easily available on a CD. When you insert the disk into your computer it automatically launches a browser which will guide you through the contents of the disk, presenting the various programs, and allow you to easily install them. The programs are carefully selected to ensure stability, ease of use and a clean install and un-install from your computer. This CD is intended as a first introduction to the world of OSS, but it is our hope that you will later go on to explore other projects, and at some stage you may even want to try a whole new operating system such as Linux. In the Further Resource section of this disk we provide a list of other major OSS projects with links to their web pages. There is also a selection of essays about Open Source which should give you some more insight into the history and philosophy of OSS.

hmmm

[ambienceman]

when will they release something like this for the Mac? I have a few open source programs, but I want something that runs natively in OS X and does what OpenOffice does. Anyone have any suggestions?

Re:hmmm

[menace3society]

Nothin' perfect, yet. NeoOffice and NeoOffice/J are two projects trying to Mac OS X-ize OpenOffice. NeoOffice/J is largely usable, but also very large (~500MB, memory usage typically runs above 100MB) and slow. It's also ugly as sin.
I haven't been following it much, but someone is also in the processing of using Qt's cross-compatibility to port KOffice to OS X.

Re:hmmm

[Hatta]

Check out fink, it's a port of debian's apt-get to darwin. It makes it trivial to get an assload of free software for your mac. Including OO. Still, it requires a network connection so it may not be what you're looking for.

Re:hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you looked at Abiword? The new unstable version, 2.1.1, is OS X native and seems pretty slick. It opens most of my word files fine and can also save to word's document format. It can be a little unstable, however, as the title indicates. I am very impressed with it so far, though.

The name's Hans Buster, Esq.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can invite you to my next tea party, if you like.

Bittorrent sucks ass!

[FreeLinux]

Multiple redundant trackers and they are all dead! Nice. Even if the trackers weren't dead it would still be a pain to get the download started and keep it going.

I still can't get the Knoppix download from last night to start, although the tracker is up and fine.

Yes, I enabled the appropriate port forwarding! And what's up with that?!?!? I have to reconfigure my firewall to allow incomming connections to download? I would much prefer a couple of good old FTP mirrors to Bittorrent.

Bittorrent sucks ass!

Moderate all you want. I call it like I see it and I have infinite karma to burn!

Re:Bittorrent sucks ass!

[Wehesheit]

Not knowing how to use the program properly is not the programs fault. The problem is between the keyboard and the chair.

Re:Bittorrent sucks ass!

[pluvia]

How BitTorrent became so popular, I don't know.

Its success seems to be due to the use of fast servers early on in its deployment. While its nature might improve spreading rate through coordination, the cost is centralization and "burst" pattern sharing.

I don't know why protocols like ed2k or overnet haven't caught on with the slashdot crowd.

Re:Bittorrent sucks ass!

[Saeger]

I don't know why protocols like ed2k or overnet haven't caught on with the slashdot crowd.

edonkey P2P *is* quite popular here, but slashcode won't let you paste a working ed2k link (the slashes and pipes are stripped), and the plaintext workaround has inconvenient whitespace added: ed2k://|file|DeDRMS.cs|7389|55CBF56C77D2BF0CC9B050 A3DE139753|/

--

Re:Bittorrent sucks ass!

[Hatta]

You shouldn't be pasting URLs into /. without an

<a href="">

around them. BTW, anyone know a way to do that inline?

ed2k is ok I guess, but the queues are huge. At least with BT you start downloading and uploading immediately.

Re:Bittorrent sucks ass!

[pluvia]

Fascinating. Thanks for the info. Is this intentional? ... for some sort of potential copyright linking issues? ... or do you think if someone submitted a patch to slashcode that it would be accepted?

Perhaps some of the ed2k clients could be patched for the whitespace issue, or we could use a simple web redirection script (is there a free redirector out there that redirects to the link encoded in the url?). It's a shame that it's so difficult.

btw: I noticed that if you ascii escape the colon, it keeps the rest of the characters, but makes the whole url relative to slashdot.org.

test

convince...?

[NineNine]

This is a great little package to leave lying around your friends' workplace to convince them to go opensource.

Why in the hell would anyone make open source, in and of itself, a cause? It's a tool, like other tools. That's like somebody advocating the use of torx screws as opposed to phillips head. It's just plain silly. I'll use whatever tool is best for the job, open source or not. Software should be the end cause/product only for people who develop software. For everybody else, it's a tool like a screwdriver or a pair of pliers. Unexciting and useful not in and of itself, but what it can do.

Re:convince...?

[jdhutchins]

The problem is that most people don't know about open-source alternatives. Outlook, IE, etc come with their computer, most people (well, not as many anymore) don't know about Mozilla, haven't even heard of it. In several cases, open-source IS superior to payware. You just have to let them know that it exists.

Re:convince...?

[Russellkhan]

"That's like somebody advocating the use of torx screws as opposed to phillips head."

As I see it, it's more like advocating buying from local coffeshops and video stores rather than giving your money to Starbucks and Blockbuster. The programs themselves are tools, but who gets your money does make a difference. Also, those producing the tools benefit from having more users.

The sad fact is, there's a company out there producing software with monopoly power. At times it has even been known to abuse that power. Some even suspect that this company is actively seeking more power and that it might begin being abusive to its customers if it feels that it has no competition to worry about. Open Source/Free Software is seen by many as a (perhaps the only) hope of competition in the software world. Personally, I find this to be reason to consider Open Source first when looking for software tools.

Re:convince...?

[16K Ram Pack]

To use your example, would you use a type of screw where the only screwdrivers that were available were made by the screw manufacturer?

There's a lot of political talk about software being free, but to me it's a question of insurance. I'd rather use OSS, because some company can't dictate the direction of the software I use. I can add features I want, if I want to. I can make it work for me.

In jobs I've done, I've had to tell customers that I can't do something because the tool I'm using doesn't let me. That's not good enough.

Re:convince...?

[An Onerous Coward]

With 3200+ comments under your belt, you should be able to write your own rebuttal with half your brain tied behind your back, even if you don't believe it.

Nevertheless, because I'm avoiding studying for finals, I'll dish out the standard reply:

There are two reasons to choose a piece of open source software. The first is the pragmatic, is-this-the-best-fit reason. You choose an OSS app because it does what you want better than any of the alternatives.

The often low-to-zero price is sometimes a big advantage from this perspective, but it is just one part of the overall fit. The availability of source code is another. Availability from multiple vendors and adherence to standards can also be attractive from this viewpoint.

The second reason, of course, is all about freedom. This is the one that causes many people to embrace open source applications even when the proprietary world is kicking its butt as far as features and ease of use go. The freedom to explore, to experiment, to use in virtually any way you see fit. The freedom to modify and redistribute. Also, because anyone can take the product and fork it if they're unhappy, OSS packages generally have to avoid doing nasty things to annoy the user base. Spyware, malware, ad-ware, all becomes virtually impossible. Why? Because people don't want it, and because it's *free* nobody can force it on them.

Look at the web browser situation. When IE doesn't have stiff competition, everyone writes HTML with an eye towards IE, not towards accepted standards. This gives Microsoft a great deal of control over how most of us experience the Internet.

This is just one of many examples of how ordinary software users are affected by their choice of tools, and why software can be considered a worthwhile cause for non-developers.

Re:convince...?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's like somebody advocating the use of torx screws as opposed to phillips head.

Oh yeah, TOTALLY the same thing as Free software versus proprietary software.

Because, you know, phillips head screws come with 8-page LICENSES that tell you what brand of screw you can use, and how many toolboxes you can move it between, and, oh yeah, here's a 16-digit SCREWDRIVER ACTIVATION CODE! If you need to move to another room in your house, you have to re-enter to code. It only takes 30 minutes, tops!

For me the best tool is the one that doesn't have strings attached. If I can't find one, I'll take the strings-attached version, but it better be *GOOD* (Photoshop, Mac OS X, VMWare .. that's about it).

Re:convince...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why rebutt a perfectly good point? As he pointed out, only a miniscule minority of people give a damn about source code and "freedom". The fact you missed the point demonstrates how acute the GP's post was. Take a look around at the average computer user rather than your CS-Major peers (these are the targets for the CD we are talking about after all).

Re:convince...?

[bcrowell]

In several cases, open-source IS superior to payware. You just have to let them know that it exists.
My experience is that this is just not true. Most people aren't interested. As long as they've got something that works, they couldn't care less. And even if you think Mozilla is superior to IE, that's not obvious to most users. For typical everyday use by the average person, there is no difference between Mozilla and IE.

I think there's also a fundamental problem with using these CDs to evangelize free software:

• Free-as-in-speech doesn't work as a motivation, because even if they use the CD, they're still tied to a proprietary OS. Most people do agree in some abstract sense that Microsoft is naughty (maybe even evil), but using the CD doesn't free you from being a Microserf; you're still running Windows.
• Free-as-in-beer doesn't excite people either. Sure, there probably is a difference in total cost of ownership, but whatever it is, it's small compared to what your time is worth. If you're not excited about OSS for its own sake, then every minute of time you spend switching from Windows/Office to OSS is money down the drain. And remember your freshman calculus: when a function is at a maximum, small changes in x don't affect the value of y very much. MS has very carefully optimized the price of Windows. Unless the difference in TCO is huge (which I don't think it is), it doesn't matter that much.

Re:convince...?

[McDutchie]

Why rebutt a perfectly good point? As he pointed out, only a miniscule minority of people give a damn about source code and "freedom".

No, only a minuscule minority of people are aware of issues surrounding source code and freedom (no quotes). I find that if I make people aware of the issues in terms they can understand, and explain the whole FS/OSS concept in terms that make sense from an enlightened self-interest point of view (and avoiding to seem like a zealot), people generally start caring.

Re:convince...?

[BiggyP]

TheOpenCD, as well as being a collection of Free software for windows, includes rather a lot of information about OpenSource and Free Software, the idea being to help users understand why its free, and why they should care.

Wondering out loud

[0xC0FFEE]

I see people commenting about the server being slashdotted already. I mean how come open source advocates (which should already have most of the software they need actually _installed_ on their system) care to download this _now_.

Are most of you really going to burn copies like crazy for the next few days and flood your friends with them?

Re:Wondering out loud

[Tin Foil Hat]

In a word, yes. Hell, I keep a CD full of useful sofware myself, but it doesn't get updated very often, so something like this is very useful to me. There are also a lot of people (me among them) that are continually reinstalling the same software on new computers or operating systems. Having ready access to an up to date iso image is very helpful.

Having said all that, be careful what you download. Just because somebody releases a collection of open source software does not mean that there are no nasties on it. Either download from a source you trust, or check the source code against the md5 sums posted on their respective websites. If you are distributing the discs, you really should take the trouble to check the sources yourself.

Does it matter?

[crimson_alligator]

Maybe I'm blinded by my exposure to all different types of software, but does it matter if the widgets are different? For example, Mac users complain about the widgets on the Mac OpenOffice port. To me this makes absolutely no difference! It's mostly aesthetic. I've heard complaints that this makes the software 'unusable.' I don't even notice! In my experience you have to learn how each piece of software works. Whether they all look/behave the same is less important than how well each of them are designed. No, I'm not saying that widgets are totally irrelevant. But I'd rather use a CD full of good, free software using many widget sets than use Internet Explorer, Office, etc.

Re:Does it matter?

[codepunk]

Oh you mean like the standard widgets used in photo shop and perhaps like the standard widgets used in
macromedia products?

Give me a break those guys all use custom widget sets so what the hell is the difference. Go troll on zdnet or something would you.

eD2K Link

[amembleton]

eD2K Link: TheOpenCD-1stEdition.iso

Re:eD2K Link

[BiggyP]

I wouldn't really advise sharing of the 1st edition, it's only really of historical interest.

The mirror list, mirrored here, been updated.

Mirror site

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.theopencd.net/

Introducing...

[Anonymous Coward]

The ClosedCD... Includes: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Adobe Photoshop CS Microsoft Office 2003 and a host more goodies, all packed into one tiny DVD - Available at any good Chinese Market Stall near you!

Web mirror

[HenrikOxUK]

There is a mirror of the web page here: http://www.theopencd.net/ ... that works for the time being.

New welcome message

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome /. ! Please try the Google Cache or the mirror on theopencd.net. Or download the ISO torrent file. - TheOpenCD Team

+1, funny

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent up.

Have you tried, say, OpenOffice?

[stealth.c]

According to Apple's site, you can download X11 and then you're able to run X apps like OpenOffice. Is this not the case? Or are you specifically demanding a *real* native app? In which case--I dunno.

Re:Have you tried, say, OpenOffice?

[ambienceman]

yeah, but i'm not l33t with X11. It was too much of a hassle for me because I had school to worry about. I just used Office on my PC. but I eventually want to get a mobile solution for this Powerbook. I just want to be able to launch it from the dock and use it. I'll use OpenOffice X11 if it can integrate with OS X pretty well. Any tutorials or apps that make this easier?

Re:Have you tried, say, OpenOffice?

[mrgreen4242]

OpenOffice, and a slew of other X11 based apps will indeed run on OSX without to much work. There's some issues with that, tho.

Speed is the number one thing. X11 apps just don't compare to Aqua apps in terms of responsiveness and speed, so they feel slow when used side by side with 'native' Mac apps. Also, launching X11 apps, OpenOffice in particular, is pretty slow. You have to launch the X11 server, if it isn't already running, and then launch whatever app you are trying to use after that. On my (admittedly slow) iBook G4, it takes something like 20-25 for OpenOffice to start.

The interface is another issue with X11 software on a Mac. It looks like you are running it on a KDE desktop. Nothing wrong with that, except that it doesn't gel well with the generally very nice looking Aqua apps it is running next to.

To answer the original poster, there really isn't a GREAT open source office suite available for the Mac at the moment. OpenOffice will get the job done, no doubt about it, but it really doesn't even come close to MS Office for Mac (where I prefer OOo to MS Office under Windows). They are saying it will be a couple of years before we see an Aqua native version of OOo.

Which reminds me to head over to the OOo site and see if there is anything I can do to volunteer.

Open source Video recording software for Windows

[Binarybrain]

Is there any decent, open source, video recording software for Windows? I can't find any.

Open Source for Grandma?

[hoggoth]

What would slashdotters recommend I install on a computer for Grandma? I have to reinstall her computer from scratch every MONTH or so because it becomes completely unusable due to viruses, spyware, and other random windows deitrius.

I'd rather stay Windows than Linux because it's what she know how to use. She only does web browsing and email.

With all this amazing open source software available it should be possible to set up a computer that's easy to use for a novice, and safe from malware.

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[codepunk]

If she only does email and web browsing then Linux is exactly what she needs. Might suggest installing Fedora and all of the Livna.org goodies. Make her a user account, only you have root and all the problems will magically go away.

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[hoggoth]

Is Linux a realistic alternative for someone who will expect AVIs Quicktime and Real links to "just work" like she is used to?

(not trolling, I really don't know)

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're setting up a web computer for a computer illiterate, consider a cheap machine with a decent modem that supports Linux. Install NOTHING on the hard drive. They use it on the off chance they want to save notes etc.

Then boot from a Knoppix CD. Each time they boot, every thing's new. If you really like your configuration, you can make a permanent configuration file. Just leave a 3x5 card next to the computer of what to type at boot time.

The minimal typing is a PITA but ask them which they hate more: 1) 10-20 seconds of typing each and every time they boot to a bug-free environment, or 2) day/weeks of groveling and asking some computer literate for help.

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[FireBreathingDog]

What would slashdotters recommend I install on a computer for Grandma? I have to reinstall her computer from scratch every MONTH or so because it becomes completely unusable due to viruses, spyware, and other random windows deitrius.

Why don't you just try telling Granny to lay off the porn sites?

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[hoggoth]

> boot from a Knoppix CD. Each time they boot, every thing's new

Neat idea! Is it possible to set up a boot partition on the hard disk and protect it as READ ONLY?
I could have it boot Knoppix from a protected read only partition, then virii couldn't cause any harm!

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[Laur]

Is Linux a realistic alternative for someone who will expect AVIs Quicktime and Real links to "just work" like she is used to? (not trolling, I really don't know)

Install mplayer, the win32, quicktime and real codecs, and the Mozilla plugin and everything "just works." Linux still has some problems on the desktop (for instance, I'm still trying to set up automounting for my usb mass storage devices) but media playing is not one of them.

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[Laur]

Neat idea! Is it possible to set up a boot partition on the hard disk and protect it as READ ONLY? I could have it boot Knoppix from a protected read only partition, then virii couldn't cause any harm!

You seem a bit confused, or at least a bit ignorant of Linux. Under Linux it is certainly possible to make your boot partition read-only, you can even make your root partition read-only if you don't plan on installing any software (this is most frequently done in isolated systems like routers). I believe that certain partitions like /var have to be read-write so the system can write logs and such (I may be wrong about this). However, this really shouldn't be necessary to prevent Granny from installing programs, since only root has write access to the root partition anyway. Also, Linux doesn't have any viruses to speak of, so this shouldn't even be a concern.

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[Sjobeck]

Stay away from Fedora. Who knows what they'll do next. Even Madrake is more reliable than they are, but SuSE is going no where but up and forward.

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[hoggoth]

> You seem a bit confused, or at least a bit ignorant of Linux
> only root has write access to the root partition anyway
> Linux doesn't have any viruses to speak of

Wow, you mean none of the daemons running on Linux have any undiscovered vulnerabilities? That's great! Which distro are you using that has never had a vulnerability that allowed a hacker or virus to gain root privileges?

I know I am confused, but in my ignorance I thought even programs thought to be beyond question like SSHD had vulnerabilities discovered in them. Please enlighten me with your wisdom.

Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[Laur]

Wow, way to be a jerk, and way to attack something I never said. Where in my post did I say that Linux never has vulnerabilities? You specifically said viruses ("I could have it boot Knoppix from a protected read only partition, then virii couldn't cause any harm!") , I replied that Linux doesn't have any viruses to speak of. I stand by this statement, if you can name any significant Linux viruses please tell me, I genuinely want to know. There is a big difference between virus and worm attacks and a hacker(cracker) attack. NO system is invulnerable from a concentrated attack from a serious and skilled hacker, and I never claimed as such.

Totally...

[Anonymous Coward]

that ten cents you saved really puts my mind at ease.

More

[aking137]

This is a great idea, but there's not a great deal on there. I've been making up CDs full of free and open source Windows software for a couple of years now, which (along with Knoppix and Toms) prove to be extremely useful. Here's just some of what's on there (note that some of the links don't actually point to the Windows version of that software; you might need to dig around a bit):

• Abiword - Word processor, supports .doc, .rtf, GPL.
• Open Office - Whole Office suite, including a database frontend and BASIC macro language.
• Perl - Scripting language
• Python - Scripting language
• Cygwin - UNIX emulator. Can create Windows programs, reliant on a cygwin1.dll.
• MinGW - Port of some of the UNIX utilities (BASH, gcc, vi...) to Windows.
• djgpp - UNIX emulator for DOS.
• Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird - Web browser, e-mail client, IRC client, lots more.
• Filezilla - FTP client.
• xchat - IRC client.
• putty, pscp, psftp and others - Telnet/SSH clients.
• Gaim - Client for IRC/Yahoo/MSN/ICQ/AIM and more.
• gzip - Compression (usually better than .zip).
• tar - Extracts/Makes tar archives.
• bzip2 - Totally ace compression (usually better than gzip).
• Info-ZIP - Support for .zip. Good free substitute for Winzip.
• 7-zip - Support for multiple compression formats.
• frhed - Hex editor
• Ext2fs - Several programs for doing Ext2 under Windows.
• Antiword - Converts documents out of the proprietary .doc format.
• MySQL - RDBMS.
• Apache - Web/Proxy server
• sendmail - Mail server
• squid - Proxy server
• freeamp - Audio player
• winlame - MP3 encoder
• cd-ex - MP3/OGG encoder?
• gimp - Very detailed graphics program.
• imagemagick - Graphic manipulation. Provides the 'convert' utility under UNIX.
• freeciv - Civilisation clone.
• gnuplot - Plotting package.
• TightVNC - A fork of VNC, with enhancements.
• RealVNC - The original VNC.
• rdesktop - Access Windows Terminal Services and Remote Desktops.
• Nmap - Well known port scanner.
• John the Ripper - Password cracker. Does NT and MD5.

Re:More

[Anonymous Coward]

I am the child of a karma whore.

Re:More

[BiggyP]

GNUWinII provide a CD with similar content to yours, judging by your list.

Re:More

[cos(0)]

Your list is quite thorough, but most of the things you listed and dozens more are already on the CD compilation that I update monthly:

http://pmw.myip.org/oss/

Please tell me what you think. :-)

Re:More

[SixArmedJesus]

Hey, this is pretty cool! I'll definitely be taking a look at this one. Thanks for posting this!

Re:More

[wuonm]

You missed DeepBurner, a free cd burning tool. I didn't read the license but it seems enough free.

Anyway your compilation is amazing.

Re:More

[RDW]

Looks like an excellent compilation. However, does the ActiveState license allow you to distribute ActivePerl in this way? My interpretation of their license (http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/li cense_agreement.plex) would be that it limits re-distribution of the CD even if you have permission from ActiveState to distribute the package yourself. You might want to look at an alternative binary distribution like SiePerl (http://www.cpan.org/ports/index.html#win32) or build it yourself from source.

Re:More

[npsimons]

freeamp - Audio player

Zinf Is Not FreeA*p! Just thought you'd like to know, since freeamp.org no longer exists (they had to change the name because of trademark issues or somesuch).

Re:More

[cos(0)]

Thanks; I removed DivX (spyware) and added this to the collection.

Re:More

[aking137]

Very useful - will be taking a long look at that. Thanks!

Re:yo, strictnein!

[Anonymous Coward]

wow. hot.

Why not? Re:Open Source for Grandma?

[Anonymous Coward]

If ALL SHE DOES is Web and Email, spend this month's rescue effort on Linux and Mozilla installation.

Seriously, she already learned a desktop environment. How much trouble will it be for her?

Re:Open source Video recording software for Window

[Anonymous Coward]

Virtualdub - www.virtualdub.org.

NeoOffice/J

[Anonymous Coward]

NeoOffice/J is a test version of OpenOffice for OS X that does not require X11, as it's coded in Java. It's the best version for most users right now. neooffice.org/java/

Rebranding wrong?

[tepples]

One guy was rebranding everything, QCad was LuxuriosityCAD, and then there was Luxuriosity Office.

I thought rebranding was OK, as long as the copyright notices shipped with the product adhere to the original work's license. Netscape is a rebranded Mozilla. Linspire is a rebranded Debian GNU/Linux. Mandrake began as a rebranded Red Hat Linux. Can you give more detail on what problem you have with rebranding a customized OpenOffice.org suite as Luxuriosity Office? Or do you want to reintroduce the horrid advertising clause that applied to older BSD operating systems?

Re:Rebranding wrong?

[cybermace5]

No modifications were being made to the programs, he was just slapping CD labels on burned CDs. The eBay description contained zero mention of the fact that the software was free, or even of the actual names of the software. However, the screenshots were copied directly from the project sites.

It was all an effort to trick someone into buying a product while taking measure to keep them ignorant of the true nature of the product. While I am not a legal expert on the GPL and do not know if this violates it in any way, it seems deceitful to me.

Re:Open source Video recording software for Window

[Hatta]

Mencoder

Re:Program List

[sahonen]

Your sig is a Flaming Lips song.

Yeah, but how many is he really selling?

[aquarian]

I see a lot of no-bid listings...

couple of updates....

[neurojab]

>djgpp - UNIX emulator for DOS.

djgpp - C++ compiler for DOS

> Cygwin - UNIX emulator. Can create Windows programs, reliant on a cygwin1.dll.

Cygwin - A unix-to-Windows porting library, complete with compiler and a large collection of pre-ported software

> cd-ex - MP3/OGG encoder?

cd-ex - A freeware CD ripper that plugs nicely into MP3 and ogg encoders. Similar to Grip in the Linux world.

What He's Doing Is Against eBay Policy

[Landaras]

That seller is listing OOo with the words "Word Excel" in the listing. He's not selling Word or Excel. It's against eBay policy to use the names of similar or competing products in your title.

As for the morality / legality on the F/OSS end, I think he's relatively free and clear. In the description he's pretty honest with what they're getting, even though I didn't see him mention OOo by name.

My one complaint is that he lists OOo as "100% compatible" with MS Office, which it isn't yet. You can ding him on that.

Would I buy from this guy? No. But his feedback looks like a lot of people have and they're satisfied.

- Neil Wehneman

Google doesn't get slashdotted. It's your browser.

[tepples]

No, just because your browser doesn't render anything below the "This is cached" notice doesn't mean you've slashdotted Google. Google does not cache stylesheets but instead pulls the stylesheets from the original site. Some browsers wait until the site with the stylesheet times out before displaying anything.

Indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I understand Winamp went through a full usability and user acceptance assessment process. Its OK to bend the rules if its deliberate and you can back it up like that.

Re:Don't forget...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not needed if you just make sure your hosts are in EV1's data centers. So it's your turn to do some teabagging.

Re:Words change

[Anonymous Coward]

Best response to complaint about negative use of 'gay' that I've seen. I have new appreciation for the term in that sense.

Similar to MozOO.org

[Anonymous Coward]

All very similar to MozOO.org which has been around for a few months also. Only main difference is MozOO focuses on a few main applications and updates when they update. You should be able to guess. Mozilla and OpenOffice are the central packages. The two things most people will use.

Closed Source limits Support Options

[Chris Tyler]

You make an interesting point when you ask whether security problems will increase if Open Source 'goes mainstream'.

However, I think we need to keep in mind the fact that Closed Source limits support options. Ultimately, bug fixes must come from the party who has the source. Thus, any support provider who does not have the source is automatically a second-tier provider, at the mercy of the party that controls the source.

IBM is a multibillion dollar, international company that has (at least recently) built a large part of their business around support offerings. But if you buy a large LAN from them, and that LAN runs proprietary, closed source software, then IBM is limited in the support that they can provide when a bug is discovered. They are at the mercy of (for example) Microsoft to fix bugs in their products -- Office, Windows XP, SQL Server, and so forth. If MS doesn't see a bug as critical, then it could be some time before it is fixed -- if ever. You can change support providers, but none of the providers except for MS itself can do any better at fixing your problem. (MS is only an example here -- substitute Oracle, CA, Sibel, SAS, or any other proprietary vendor).

On the other hand, if IBM sells you the same LAN and the same support contract, but that LAN runs Open Source software, then they can fix any bugs that are discovered. They have the capability to provide top-notch support.

Even more useful: IBM has to compete with everyone else who has the source code in order to keep your support contract. If IBM doesn't come through -- if the network is buggy and unstable -- then you can turn to any other support provider and have them work on the problem for you. The little 3-man consulting shop down the street has a crack at providing better support than the multinational, and vice versa. And since (contrary to what some proprietary vendors will tell you) people hate to fork (it's way too much work!), the fixes do get sent back to the maintainers and do get rolled into the core distributions.

For this reason I think that you will find that Open Source's stability will scale as it gains acceptance in the marketplace.

Re:Words change

[Dashing Leech]

I don't know if I'd consider it negative. It just recognizes that gays tend to be, or are at least know for being, more "colour coordinated". Might be a bit of a stereotype, but not without some truth to it (e.g., "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy").

The Windows Classic settings are very dull and grey in comparison to the flashy colours of the default XP, so I don't see it as a big leap, or being negative, to call it "gayified". I would think it would be a bigger negative to suggest that "dull and grey" is better (although I prefer the Classic as well).

Just a thought. Not every gay reference is automatically negative.

I agree...

[cnelzie]

I evangelize OSS software here and have attempted to push OpenOffice.org and other various applications across the network of computers.

Unfortunately most users are running MS Office and as good as OpenOffice.org is a number of our often used job tracking documents are in Excel format. No matter what we do, when those documents are opened up in OpenOffice.org time has to be spent adjusting the document to print properly.

I would love to have two versions of the documents in question, but the end-users simply wouldn't be able to deal with that... Then there is the issue of duplicating those forms electronically, it just isn't economically feasible to enter all the data into 'identical' electronic forms just to be able to open them up in whichever spreadsheet application you happen to be sitting in front of.

Windows answers here

[Anonymous Coward]

I see you get a lot of Linux-answers, but you asked for a Windows-answer so here it is:

1) Tell her to click NO to installing things. Explain why this is a stupid thing to do.

2) Make her a guest-account in XP (If you're using Windows 98 your installation is always going to be hosed, so stop using it! Make HER pay for XP, it's the only ethical thing to do anyways..) A guest account will not be able to do much of anything besides the simplest stuff, so much less chance of things going wrong.

3) Run Adaware and Spybot S&D instead of reinstalling Windows.

4) Install Kerio Personal Firewall, free for personal use. Turn off the dialog boxes after you've configured it adequately.

5) Install AVG Antivirus, Anti-vir or Avast! They're all free for personal home use and you register online with your grandma's info (with her consent).

6) Turn on automatic updates in XP, so you don't have to run to her house after each critical exploit is released.

With these safeguards, everything should run by itself is all she's doing is really surfing and sending email. Beware! NEVER get her a printer.. Printers are the worst thing you'll get her as a present ;-) It'll bork down whenever you want to do something fun. ;-D

Re:Windows answers here

[hoggoth]

> Beware! NEVER get her a printer.. Printers are the worst thing you'll get her as a present ;-) It'll bork down whenever you want to do something fun

DOH! Too late! :-)

Thanks for the tips...
By 'guest' account, do you mean 'limited' account? I only see two choies, 'administrator' and 'limited'.

Should I replace IE with Mozilla or (Fire|Thunder)(bird|fox)? Do they run well on Windows? Will they have trouble with some IE-specific pages?

OSS CD

[plotz]

definitely recommend this compilation over about five others I've tried in the past. [IMHO] the variety of programs and monthly updates make it the most useful.

http://pmw.myip.org/oss/

Disable Themes Service

[worldcitizen]

Better than revert to the classic theme: Disable the "Themes" service. In addition to de-uglifying your desktop you'll get back some memory and cpu cycles. Even if you have plenty of both, it is one less process that can potentially crash/be hacked.

Re:AVG sounds great but...

[Psykechan]

from the page:

"AVG Free Edition CAN NOT BE INSTALLED ON SERVERS FOR ANY REASON. IT CAN NOT BE INSTALLED IN ANY NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT!"

I like to connect my computer to the Internet every now and then. I guess I can't use the free version.

Seriously though, I have a home network as probably 90% of slashdotters do. It's there so that the household can connect their various computers to the Internet and also to occasionally play LAN games. It's not like we're running a business. However, because of this, Free AVG is of no use to me.

Why can't they just allow it for all non-profit use?

Clam Anti-Virus

[npsimons]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Clam Anti-Virus yet. They even have a Windows port and a Windows GUI frontend.