I would be very interested to hear your comments on how future open source "productivity suites" will or will not be able to compete with MS Office dominance of this sector. In particular, do you think that Sun open-sourcing the Star Office suite could actually pose a threat to Microsoft's Office cash cow, and will the "office.net" and "superbrowser" that MS is currently working on make the Star Office and other office platform open-source efforts obsolete? And, do you think that the "subcribtion" model for software "renting" via the net will be a viable business model, or would the introduction of this business model by MS and others actually catapult GPL'd software use into the mainstream, therefore MS would insane to actually try implement it and expect success?
Your wise words on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
Well, it is good to see, even though it is "IPL'd" license.
What strikes me as more odd is this exerpt from the press release:
"Inprise Corporation (referred to in this press release as Inprise/Borland) is a leading provider of Internet access infrastructure and application development tools and services for most major platforms, including Linux(r), Solaris(tm) and Windows(r)."
Now, it seems to me like this is definately a primer for Kylix. I am not knocking Inprise, I think Kylix could be a huge kick in the rear for Linux to go mainstream, but really........since when have Borland/Inprise ever been a leading supplier of Linux dev. tools? Ok, so they WANT to be a leading supplier, but why claim you are when you are'nt....yet.???? Marketing oh marketing....
And, why in the world did they put Linux and Solaris in front of windoze in that sentence? I mean, Delphi was made what it was today because of windoze.
My guess is....the guys at Borland/Inprise have had so much fun porting to Linux and yes...Solaris that they are just excited with creaming-jeans and want to tell the world that they are now converts. I mean surely the port must be a piece of pie without the blue screen coming up every half hour....hehe.
Thanks for the correction. That is what i get for living abroad and ust plain ignoring the political status of the US of A because I am so damn sick of caring for something I cannot change.
well, it does not surprise me about prison labor. thanks for the correction.
death penalty and taxes are sure to come around one of these days.
forced abortions, well before you say NEVER, consider the world population, overpollution, lack of water and resources sometime in the year 2020~2050 and get back to me.
Thanks for the note. I was not aware of who was responsible for the bill.
In all fairness, both reps and dems are really all about the same thing, money and power for themselves. I only slammed Clinton because he is there to slam. I would not expect anything different from any other politico in the US at the momment. Things really look grave for freedom in the US for the next generation, and there is not much we can do about it.
Although the post was just a flat out shit for brains quikkie shot, it is altogether scary how the US is becoming so anti-everything to do with anything "immoral". I am sickened by the lack of freedom slowly churning in my motherland, the USA.
The concept is to provide a standard embedded OS, so that future cars and other devices can be developed from a standard OS. This means:
Faster development Cheaper development More developers Faster product to market Easier "Ugrades" (You can't upgrade your Car OS now, even if you wanted to)
Well, I have been running around China for some time, and it is good to see that the US is finally passing bills that make it more like China.
I hope that we can have all the other great things in China in the US soon as well, such as prison labor, death penalty for tax evasion, forced abortions, and a whole lot more!
Cheers to the Clinton administration for bedding with the commies!!!
Which candidates are claiming reunification with China? Where did you read this? What planet are you from?
I am here in Taiwan and read the papers everyday. No one is talking about "reunification" with the "motherland". If any electorate did, he would basically be conceeding the race altogether.
I have lived in Taiwan for over 8 years. I have been to the PRC over 300 times. Believe me, DEMOCRACY does work for the "Chinese race". You have been brainwashed by someone or yourself to believe that the "Chinese people" need a totalitarian government in order to live and prosper.
Come on over to Taiwan sometime, the presedential election is coming up! Yeah that's right, ELECTION by the Chinese people here (most of them third generation Fujianese). You should not discount democracy until YOU have seen it! Believe me as I have seen most of the PRC (most likely more than you), and real democracy there would do the place some real good.
You place way too many assumptions on "Chinese", which means that you are either: 1. A xenophobic Chinese, OR 2. A prejudiced westerner
Whatever you are, you are very wrong in assuming that "Chinese" fear anarchy above all else.
How many ethnic Chinese live in the USA, Canada, Taiwan, Europe and other democratic nations? Ask them all if they would prefer to live in communist China. I don't know the exact numbers, but I can tell you the percentage is most likely less than 0.1 %
How many Chinese flee the PRC annually in search of a life under a democratic government? I don't know the exact number, but it is probably a number higher than the GDP of Switzerland.
Oh, and, why do the Taiwanese not vote to reunite with that wonderful "mainland"? I mean, they all came from there three generations ago. Ask anyone on the island, "are you Chinese", they say "yes". Ask them with a clear "are you MAINLAND Chinese", and they will most likely either scream "NO" or slash your throat.
Think again, but this time with your own brain, the DEMOCRATIC way! Believe me, hundreds of ethnic Chinese do it every day, contrary to your belief.
States have been trying to get taxes on mail order products for years, and some have passed laws that do tax out of state purchases. I would expect that some states will pass similar laws for internet sales, and some will stay in the clear.
A bigger problem will come when the federal government places tax on internet sales, bandwidth or usage, or whatever. This is primarily because there is no such all encompassing tax at this point. Whenever you purchase something, the only tax that goes to the federal government is the wonderful corporate tax that those who sold it to you pay each year. There is no "transaction" tax on any transactions whatsoever that the federal government collects. This is because it is unconstitutional to do so.
Now, IF the fed decides to make a "bandwidth tax" or a "transaction tax", which is what some are proposing now, that is a breech of our constitution. There is only one way to stop that, which is write your senators and congressman and tell them what you think about this, reminding them of what will happen to their job if they vote for any internet tax whatsoever.
I hope you all write at least one letter. Otherwise, you should'nt complain when bandwidth or transactions or whatever gets taxed. After all, you never officially complained, did you?
If you care to analyze your wonderful tax laws in Europe, you will realize that the Highest State Sales Tax in the U.S. is less than half of the "V.A.T." that you get charged for every single product or service in Europe.
V.A.T. already applies to internet sales in Europe, does'nt it? Unless of course, products are getting shipped from overseas.
It is good that you are educated on the subject and take the necessary steps to protect your privacy. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of the dangers of storing personal data digitally, and also do not take the initiative to learn how to set up strong encryption partitions, encryption for email, etc. That is why I see a huge need for this software to be implemented on EVERY system (preferably Linux:), as a standard and opensource solution.
Unfortunately, the employees obviously lacked a basic understanding that whatever they send in an email gets stored on their HD, perhaps stored on a server HD somewhere and surely stored on the recipient's HD as well. Yes we all have rights, but if they did break a law, even unknowingly, and the courts find sufficient evidence to suspect so and issue a warrant, then the mistake was their own. In this day and age, one cannot be too careful how one treats sensitive information.
Hence the main subject of my post, which is strong encryption and digital "shredders" that are easy to use and should be seamlessly working in the background. Such systems could be designed to:
1. Automatically encrypt and wipe user document directories, mail directories, etc. 2. Automatically wipe all data securely when deleting files. 3. Automatically encrypt and wipe all email communications (GPGP and other encryption programs for email work great, but are still too complicated for the average home user)
All of the above features should be easy and seamless to use, and BUILT IN to all email client and OS distributions. Hopefully, the OpenSource movement will come up with solutions to these "user" problems and incorporate such features in future versions of opensource software.
There should also be a big push by ALL OF US to educate the uneducated when it comes to using encryption and wiping techniques to store, erase and transmit sensitive data. I am still amazed at some of the email I receive from clients who complain about their bosses or companies to me through email going through their company servers!
Ok, so I am a bit biased, because I live in Taiwan. Not as a Taiwan national, but as an expat who has spent 8 years here living it out here on this little island. I have toured about 2,000 factories in all on this "little island", of which a good 15 to 20 were fabs or tech firms.
Taiwan is a great place, you can come here and just look up some factory, call them up and visit. You can take a look at an 8" fab, or a DVD-RAM line, or a PCB maker, or a plain old plastic injection molding factory with a phone call and a nice attitude. Taiwan is a manufacturing powerhouse, not only in the solid state industry, but in just about everything you can think of.
Sure, there is gov't money behind industry here, but is that so different from any other country in the world? No, the US has Boing, Germany has Mercedes, Japan has NEC, Korea has Samsung, and on and on and on. Government is run by business in the world and so what?
Morris is a visionary because he brought new vision and a new business focus for Taiwan's great entreprenurial spirit. He took the best of what he saw as opportunity at Texus Instruments and brought it back to Taiwan with him, in the form of a dream and a vision. He became the leader in the race to make Taiwan the leader ahead of Korea, Asia, and yes, Japan as a technology manufacturing foundry.
This is nothing new. Taiwan did the same thing with petrochemicals in the late 70's and 80's. Taiwan did the same thing with steel. Taiwan is a very special place in the world, because of its flexibility and extreme ability to move markets through the niches.
Taiwan will drive world prices of anything down, because it is a world supplier. Through this great service that it does to the world, it gets rich. Yes, Taiwan is very rich indeed, all becuase of its wonderful flexibility and willingness to change.
If Taiwan were not flexible, you would still see a plethora of textile factories here instead of the numerous fabs and science parks one sees popping up all over the island now adays!
What does Taiwan lack in the solid state field? 1. design 2. brand marketing 3. upstream suppliers (ie: fab equipment manufacturers, as it all comes from the U.S. and Europe)
This could change as well, as the industry is really just a baby when compared to the U.S. and Europe.
Let's hope the Corel distro gets some good market share (from Win users of course), and that will prompt Corel to get into gear and port Corel Draw and other cool stuff to Linux that we all really want and need.
There are plenty of good distros out there, they really did not need to release their own.
I am of the opinion that the software market is an entirly world market, in that it does not have the barriers to trade that traditional products may have. With this in mind, developers need to focus on internationalization from the beginning and not only concentrate on "English and Euro" versions. MS has done a great job with this, and that is why I think LNX developers need to approach this issue now, not tomorrow.
I am an expatriate living in Asia and running a trading/consulting company.
I recently switched our network over to a RH solution from NT4.0. I did this for the following reasons:
1. I did not want to fork over upgrade fees for NT4.0 and Office 2K next year.
2. I installed sp5.0 on our NT4.0 Alpha server a couple months ago, crashing the entire server, losing lots of valuable information, and forcing me to re-install from step 1. I decided on that day that I want a stable Unix based solution for our enterprise server.
3. I had played with Linux (RH6.0) on my workstation, and found it easy to install, configure and use. I then installed on another employee's computer, and he found it to be ok for application use. The stability of the kernel is VERY GOOD (Thanks to all you developers out there!!! Drinks are on me when you are in town!)
4. I believe in Open Source as a defense against possible dangers to the free world caused by proprietary network solutions and protocols.
Ok, the war is ahead, and there are MILESTONE battlefields that must be crossed before anyone using, developing, selling, or banking on Linux and the open source movement can cheer: THESE BATTLEFIELDS ARE:
1. A STABLE INTERNATIONALIZED BROWSER. Netscape is half a load short of bricks for Linux. We all know it. It crashes all the time and drives me nuts. Options? Not Opera, which I have tried in beta form and find flaky. Not Amaya, which I can't even read WIRED.COM with. And surely not Lynx, which I like using now and again but find just a little too much like gophering for the year 2k. What do I do if I want to read a Chinese Big5 charset page in English Linux? If I am running M$, I can do this, and read Arabic, and read Japanese, without any glitches. LINUX NEEDS A GOOD STABLE BROWSER WITH INTERNATIONALIZED READING AND INPUT CAPABILITY. The future is the internet, and this is the key to having any market share on the desktop of the future. MS may realize this one day and just release IE for Linux. They may be working on it now, and if it were out tomorrow, I would pay for it.
2. STABLE INTERNATIONALIZED OFFICE APPLICATIONS. Running Office 97 English under NT4.0, I could read a Chinese big5 business plan submitted to me. Now, I have to go to one of the Chinese NT4 Workstations to read one. And why are there still Chinese NT4 Workstations in the office? Well, because there IS NO CHINESE APPLICATION software for Linux. That's right NONE. So the NT workstaions gotta stay, and I will have to pay M$ for upgrade fees sometime next year for NT5 and Office2K. I would much rather pay for a Chinese version of StarOffice, or Applix or even Office2K for Linux! The Chinese employees refuse to use English office apps, as they don't even speak fluent English! IF LINUX WANTS TO CONQUER THE DESKTOP, IT WILL NEED TOOLS TO DO IT. As this is a world market, Linux needs tools for worldwide use. There are posts about this above this one, so I will not go into more details here.
3. WORLD DISTRIBUTION. M$ is used on 90%+ desktops in China, and of those probably 90%+ are not paid licenses. M$ does not care, because this creates a barrier of entry to competitors' products at the present and in the future. WHEN the average Chinese user can afford to pay for the M$ License, which is much sooner than most of you who have never been there think, THEY WILL PAY FOR IT. And, they would rather pay for it than pay the time needed learn a new OS and Office Application Platform. This is the economics of software gentleman and ladies, and we are living in a single market world economy. M$ is available at every single software store, both legal and illegal, in China. What about Linux? It took me 4 hours of computer shop hopping and alotta "duh, what is Linux you freak?" looks before I found a book with RH6.0, RH6.1, CLE0.8 and some local disto CD all included in the book for about 12.00 $USD. I could have got a pirated copy of NT4.0 and Office97 for the same price, in about 2 minutes of shopping!
4. PROFITABILITY AND SHAREHOLDER VALUE. Wall Street can be very understanding and kind in the beginning of a relationship. Unfortunately, as time goes on (not much time et'all), investors start looking at the value of their investment and the overall profitability of the enterprise. RH, LNUX, and all the latest Linux IPOs companies will need to prove their value in bottom line numbers in the coming year. Anyone of you involved in Open Source based Companies, please remember, PROFITABILITY IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE FIRM, and you must be profitable to survive the years ahead and win the war. I hope that RH, LNUX and the others are very profitable and bless their shareholders, but it will be tough to beat M$. Per employee perhaps the most profitable company in the world, M$ buys new revenue streams with that income, and hence my next battlefield-M&A.
5. MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IN THE LINUX COMMERCIAL COMMUNITY. Giants rule the modern corporate world with market share and profitability. Niche markets are for small players, and small players will get acquired in time. In order for Linux to compete, there will need to be a consolidation in the industry. Fortunately, M$ is distracted by the Justice Dept at present, and can not consider an open Linux buyout. Now that Linux related shares are a commodity, they are for the picking by the giants if they want it. It is only a matter of time UNLESS the Commercial Linux Community itself begins consolidations through M&A and grows into a giant itself. I was very disappointed to NOT read "Corel and RedHat finalize merger deal today" during 1999. Applix would make a great buyout target for RedHat. Get wise gents, and get together to get big.
Well, just a few humble opinions. Sorry if some stuff is repeated from above posts.
If I were a developer, I would be contributing to Linux in every way I could. Since I am not a developer, all I can do is educate and encourage friends to try Linux, and prepare them for the revolution that may or may not happen. I hope it happens, and Linux and the Open Source movement in general have my cheers, 100%.
By the way, did anyone figure out that chess move Knight takes Rook checkmate move #5? It's got me stumped!
i keep a deliminated text file with all my personal passwords (several workstations and websites), servers, virtual server telnet accounts, and ftp accounts on it. the file is always PGP encrypted with max bit encryption available. what would i do if i forgot my password file password??????
by the way, the file is on an magnetic-optical and called "judy.jpg" (just an example), not on my hd, just in case.
This is not a new issue, and is certainly not limited to Microsoft Co. I think of a greater concern, should be the overall status of the equities markets in the U.S. at present.
If you care to learn more, here are some very good resources:
Warren Buffet on the Stock Market: http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/1999/11/22/buf .html
We all know that IBM Corp's patent search engine can do searches for ANY patent, but does anyone know of any websites that focus on the following issues:
1. Recently issued software and "internet business model" patents, with respective briefs on the patent.
2. Current litigation status concerning software and "internet business model" patent disputes.
3. Searchable database of software patents via the patents' claims to patented functions.
4. Searchable database of "business method" or "internet business model" patents via the patents' claims to patented procedures and models.
This type of search engine would be very useful for programmers and entrepenuers alike.
_______________________________________________
On a more utopian phase, surely a foundation should be started for the "open source patent" model. Such a foundation would be funded by donors and would be non-profit, with a charter describing its function as:
1. Assisting programmers ensure that mundane software procedures and functions are patented in an open source model.
2. Provide programmers with advise on how to ensure that code written does not infringe on any existing patents.
3. Re-patent (the most common way to get around a patent in the manufacturing world) existing software and "internet business procedure" patents through improving the function and performance of the patented procedures and re-patenting the improvements under an open source model patent.
Somebody should do it, wish I had the time. I would be more than willing to assist those who are interested, or point someone in the right direction for starting such a project.
Well, I am an US citizen, but if there were a serious conflict I would stick around. But joining the military here is a little outta the question, even if it was on a ROTC basis. Plus, I don't think uncle sam would appreciate me joining another country's army..hehe. I assume you are also an expat, from the comments you posted....??? You never know, we may have met before.
Slashdot Mirror
I would be very interested to hear your comments on how future open source "productivity suites" will or will not be able to compete with MS Office dominance of this sector. In particular, do you think that Sun open-sourcing the Star Office suite could actually pose a threat to Microsoft's Office cash cow, and will the "office.net" and "superbrowser" that MS is currently working on make the Star Office and other office platform open-source efforts obsolete? And, do you think that the "subcribtion" model for software "renting" via the net will be a viable business model, or would the introduction of this business model by MS and others actually catapult GPL'd software use into the mainstream, therefore MS would insane to actually try implement it and expect success?
Your wise words on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
Well, it is good to see, even though it is "IPL'd" license.
What strikes me as more odd is this exerpt from the press release:
"Inprise Corporation (referred to in this press release as Inprise/Borland) is a leading provider of Internet access infrastructure and application development tools and services for most major platforms, including Linux(r), Solaris(tm) and Windows(r)."
Now, it seems to me like this is definately a primer for Kylix. I am not knocking Inprise, I think Kylix could be a huge kick in the rear for Linux to go mainstream, but really........since when have Borland/Inprise ever been a leading supplier of Linux dev. tools? Ok, so they WANT to be a leading supplier, but why claim you are when you are'nt....yet.???? Marketing oh marketing....
And, why in the world did they put Linux and Solaris in front of windoze in that sentence? I mean, Delphi was made what it was today because of windoze.
My guess is....the guys at Borland/Inprise have had so much fun porting to Linux and yes...Solaris that they are just excited with creaming-jeans and want to tell the world that they are now converts. I mean surely the port must be a piece of pie without the blue screen coming up every half hour....hehe.
Forever linuxized I AM.
Thanks for the correction. That is what i get for living abroad and ust plain ignoring the political status of the US of A because I am so damn sick of caring for something I cannot change.
well, it does not surprise me about prison labor. thanks for the correction.
death penalty and taxes are sure to come around one of these days.
forced abortions, well before you say NEVER, consider the world population, overpollution, lack of water and resources sometime in the year 2020~2050 and get back to me.
Thanks for the note. I was not aware of who was responsible for the bill.
In all fairness, both reps and dems are really all about the same thing, money and power for themselves. I only slammed Clinton because he is there to slam. I would not expect anything different from any other politico in the US at the momment. Things really look grave for freedom in the US for the next generation, and there is not much we can do about it.
Although the post was just a flat out shit for brains quikkie shot, it is altogether scary how the US is becoming so anti-everything to do with anything "immoral". I am sickened by the lack of freedom slowly churning in my motherland, the USA.
Really takes "spam" to a new level does'nt it!
The concept is to provide a standard embedded OS, so that future cars and other devices can be developed from a standard OS. This means:
Faster development
Cheaper development
More developers
Faster product to market
Easier "Ugrades" (You can't upgrade your Car OS now, even if you wanted to)
Get the drift?
Well, I have been running around China for some time, and it is good to see that the US is finally passing bills that make it more like China.
I hope that we can have all the other great things in China in the US soon as well, such as prison labor, death penalty for tax evasion, forced abortions, and a whole lot more!
Cheers to the Clinton administration for bedding with the commies!!!
Why do we have this same subject and same article when it was posted before?
Is Slashdot turning Lameflop?
Why is this up again?
Hello!
Which candidates are claiming reunification with China? Where did you read this? What planet are you from?
I am here in Taiwan and read the papers everyday. No one is talking about "reunification" with the "motherland". If any electorate did, he would basically be conceeding the race altogether.
I have lived in Taiwan for over 8 years. I have been to the PRC over 300 times. Believe me, DEMOCRACY does work for the "Chinese race". You have been brainwashed by someone or yourself to believe that the "Chinese people" need a totalitarian government in order to live and prosper.
Come on over to Taiwan sometime, the presedential election is coming up! Yeah that's right, ELECTION by the Chinese people here (most of them third generation Fujianese). You should not discount democracy until YOU have seen it! Believe me as I have seen most of the PRC (most likely more than you), and real democracy there would do the place some real good.
You place way too many assumptions on "Chinese", which means that you are either:
1. A xenophobic Chinese, OR
2. A prejudiced westerner
Whatever you are, you are very wrong in assuming that "Chinese" fear anarchy above all else.
How many ethnic Chinese live in the USA, Canada, Taiwan, Europe and other democratic nations? Ask them all if they would prefer to live in communist China. I don't know the exact numbers, but I can tell you the percentage is most likely less than 0.1 %
How many Chinese flee the PRC annually in search of a life under a democratic government? I don't know the exact number, but it is probably a number higher than the GDP of Switzerland.
Oh, and, why do the Taiwanese not vote to reunite with that wonderful "mainland"? I mean, they all came from there three generations ago. Ask anyone on the island, "are you Chinese", they say "yes". Ask them with a clear "are you MAINLAND Chinese", and they will most likely either scream "NO" or slash your throat.
Think again, but this time with your own brain, the DEMOCRATIC way! Believe me, hundreds of ethnic Chinese do it every day, contrary to your belief.
States have been trying to get taxes on mail order products for years, and some have passed laws that do tax out of state purchases. I would expect that some states will pass similar laws for internet sales, and some will stay in the clear.
A bigger problem will come when the federal government places tax on internet sales, bandwidth or usage, or whatever. This is primarily because there is no such all encompassing tax at this point. Whenever you purchase something, the only tax that goes to the federal government is the wonderful corporate tax that those who sold it to you pay each year. There is no "transaction" tax on any transactions whatsoever that the federal government collects. This is because it is unconstitutional to do so.
Now, IF the fed decides to make a "bandwidth tax" or a "transaction tax", which is what some are proposing now, that is a breech of our constitution. There is only one way to stop that, which is write your senators and congressman and tell them what you think about this, reminding them of what will happen to their job if they vote for any internet tax whatsoever.
I hope you all write at least one letter. Otherwise, you should'nt complain when bandwidth or transactions or whatever gets taxed. After all, you never officially complained, did you?
If you care to analyze your wonderful tax laws
in Europe, you will realize that the Highest
State Sales Tax in the U.S. is less than half
of the "V.A.T." that you get charged for every single product or service in Europe.
V.A.T. already applies to internet sales in Europe, does'nt it? Unless of course, products are getting shipped from overseas.
It is good that you are educated on the subject and take the necessary steps to protect your privacy. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of the dangers of storing personal data digitally, and also do not take the initiative to learn how to set up strong encryption partitions, encryption for email, etc. That is why I see a huge need for this software to be implemented on EVERY system (preferably Linux :), as a standard and opensource solution.
Unfortunately, the employees obviously lacked a basic understanding that whatever they send in an email gets stored on their HD, perhaps stored on a server HD somewhere and surely stored on the recipient's HD as well. Yes we all have rights, but if they did break a law, even unknowingly, and the courts find sufficient evidence to suspect so and issue a warrant, then the mistake was their own. In this day and age, one cannot be too careful how one treats sensitive information.
Hence the main subject of my post, which is strong encryption and digital "shredders" that are easy to use and should be seamlessly working in the background. Such systems could be designed to:
1. Automatically encrypt and wipe user document directories, mail directories, etc.
2. Automatically wipe all data securely when deleting files.
3. Automatically encrypt and wipe all email communications (GPGP and other encryption programs for email work great, but are still too complicated for the average home user)
All of the above features should be easy and seamless to use, and BUILT IN to all email client and OS distributions. Hopefully, the OpenSource movement will come up with solutions to these "user" problems and incorporate such features in future versions of opensource software.
There should also be a big push by ALL OF US to educate the uneducated when it comes to using encryption and wiping techniques to store, erase and transmit sensitive data. I am still amazed at some of the email I receive from clients who complain about their bosses or companies to me through email going through their company servers!
Ciao
Hello All!
Ok, so I am a bit biased, because I live in Taiwan. Not as a Taiwan national, but as an expat who has spent 8 years here living it out here on this little island. I have toured about 2,000 factories in all on this "little island", of which a good 15 to 20 were fabs or tech firms.
Taiwan is a great place, you can come here and just look up some factory, call them up and visit. You can take a look at an 8" fab, or a DVD-RAM line, or a PCB maker, or a plain old plastic injection molding factory with a phone call and a nice attitude. Taiwan is a manufacturing powerhouse, not only in the solid state industry, but in just about everything you can think of.
Sure, there is gov't money behind industry here, but is that so different from any other country in the world? No, the US has Boing, Germany has Mercedes, Japan has NEC, Korea has Samsung, and on and on and on. Government is run by business in the world and so what?
Morris is a visionary because he brought new vision and a new business focus for Taiwan's great entreprenurial spirit. He took the best of what he saw as opportunity at Texus Instruments and brought it back to Taiwan with him, in the form of a dream and a vision. He became the leader in the race to make Taiwan the leader ahead of Korea, Asia, and yes, Japan as a technology manufacturing foundry.
This is nothing new. Taiwan did the same thing with petrochemicals in the late 70's and 80's. Taiwan did the same thing with steel. Taiwan is a very special place in the world, because of its flexibility and extreme ability to move markets through the niches.
Taiwan will drive world prices of anything down, because it is a world supplier. Through this great service that it does to the world, it gets rich. Yes, Taiwan is very rich indeed, all becuase of its wonderful flexibility and willingness to change.
If Taiwan were not flexible, you would still see a plethora of textile factories here instead of the numerous fabs and science parks one sees popping up all over the island now adays!
What does Taiwan lack in the solid state field?
1. design
2. brand marketing
3. upstream suppliers (ie: fab equipment manufacturers, as it all comes from the U.S. and Europe)
This could change as well, as the industry is really just a baby when compared to the U.S. and Europe.
Ciao,
I agree with you 100%
Let's hope the Corel distro gets some good market share (from Win users of course), and that will prompt Corel to get into gear and port Corel Draw and other cool stuff to Linux that we all really want and need.
There are plenty of good distros out there, they really did not need to release their own.
Apps are what we all need now, not new distros.
I am of the opinion that the software market is an entirly world market, in that it does not have the barriers to trade that traditional products may have. With this in mind, developers need to focus on internationalization from the beginning and not only concentrate on "English and Euro" versions. MS has done a great job with this, and that is why I think LNX developers need to approach this issue now, not tomorrow.
The War Ahead for Linux in Asia
Hello All!
I am an expatriate living in Asia and running a trading/consulting company.
I recently switched our network over to a RH solution from NT4.0. I did this for the following reasons:
1. I did not want to fork over upgrade fees for NT4.0 and Office 2K next year.
2. I installed sp5.0 on our NT4.0 Alpha server a couple months ago, crashing the entire server, losing lots of valuable information, and forcing me to re-install from step 1. I decided on that day that I want a stable Unix based solution for our enterprise server.
3. I had played with Linux (RH6.0) on my workstation, and found it easy to install, configure and use. I then installed on another employee's computer, and he found it to be ok for application use. The stability of the kernel is VERY GOOD (Thanks to all you developers out there!!! Drinks are on me when you are in town!)
4. I believe in Open Source as a defense against possible dangers to the free world caused by proprietary network solutions and protocols.
Ok, the war is ahead, and there are MILESTONE battlefields that must be crossed before anyone using, developing, selling, or banking on Linux and the open source movement can cheer: THESE BATTLEFIELDS ARE:
1. A STABLE INTERNATIONALIZED BROWSER. Netscape is half a load short of bricks for Linux. We all know it. It crashes all the time and drives me nuts. Options? Not Opera, which I have tried in beta form and find flaky. Not Amaya, which I can't even read WIRED.COM with. And surely not Lynx, which I like using now and again but find just a little too much like gophering for the year 2k. What do I do if I want to read a Chinese Big5 charset page in English Linux? If I am running M$, I can do this, and read Arabic, and read Japanese, without any glitches. LINUX NEEDS A GOOD STABLE BROWSER WITH INTERNATIONALIZED READING AND INPUT CAPABILITY. The future is the internet, and this is the key to having any market share on the desktop of the future. MS may realize this one day and just release IE for Linux. They may be working on it now, and if it were out tomorrow, I would pay for it.
2. STABLE INTERNATIONALIZED OFFICE APPLICATIONS. Running Office 97 English under NT4.0, I could read a Chinese big5 business plan submitted to me. Now, I have to go to one of the Chinese NT4 Workstations to read one. And why are there still Chinese NT4 Workstations in the office? Well, because there IS NO CHINESE APPLICATION software for Linux. That's right NONE. So the NT workstaions gotta stay, and I will have to pay M$ for upgrade fees sometime next year for NT5 and Office2K. I would much rather pay for a Chinese version of StarOffice, or Applix or even Office2K for Linux! The Chinese employees refuse to use English office apps, as they don't even speak fluent English! IF LINUX WANTS TO CONQUER THE DESKTOP, IT WILL NEED TOOLS TO DO IT. As this is a world market, Linux needs tools for worldwide use. There are posts about this above this one, so I will not go into more details here.
3. WORLD DISTRIBUTION. M$ is used on 90%+ desktops in China, and of those probably 90%+ are not paid licenses. M$ does not care, because this creates a barrier of entry to competitors' products at the present and in the future. WHEN the average Chinese user can afford to pay for the M$ License, which is much sooner than most of you who have never been there think, THEY WILL PAY FOR IT. And, they would rather pay for it than pay the time needed learn a new OS and Office Application Platform. This is the economics of software gentleman and ladies, and we are living in a single market world economy. M$ is available at every single software store, both legal and illegal, in China. What about Linux? It took me 4 hours of computer shop hopping and alotta "duh, what is Linux you freak?" looks before I found a book with RH6.0, RH6.1, CLE0.8 and some local disto CD all included in the book for about 12.00 $USD. I could have got a pirated copy of NT4.0 and Office97 for the same price, in about 2 minutes of shopping!
4. PROFITABILITY AND SHAREHOLDER VALUE. Wall Street can be very understanding and kind in the beginning of a relationship. Unfortunately, as time goes on (not much time et'all), investors start looking at the value of their investment and the overall profitability of the enterprise. RH, LNUX, and all the latest Linux IPOs companies will need to prove their value in bottom line numbers in the coming year. Anyone of you involved in Open Source based Companies, please remember, PROFITABILITY IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE FIRM, and you must be profitable to survive the years ahead and win the war. I hope that RH, LNUX and the others are very profitable and bless their shareholders, but it will be tough to beat M$. Per employee perhaps the most profitable company in the world, M$ buys new revenue streams with that income, and hence my next battlefield-M&A.
5. MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS IN THE LINUX COMMERCIAL COMMUNITY. Giants rule the modern corporate world with market share and profitability. Niche markets are for small players, and small players will get acquired in time. In order for Linux to compete, there will need to be a consolidation in the industry. Fortunately, M$ is distracted by the Justice Dept at present, and can not consider an open Linux buyout. Now that Linux related shares are a commodity, they are for the picking by the giants if they want it. It is only a matter of time UNLESS the Commercial Linux Community itself begins consolidations through M&A and grows into a giant itself. I was very disappointed to NOT read "Corel and RedHat finalize merger deal today" during 1999. Applix would make a great buyout target for RedHat. Get wise gents, and get together to get big.
Well, just a few humble opinions. Sorry if some stuff is repeated from above posts.
If I were a developer, I would be contributing to Linux in every way I could. Since I am not a developer, all I can do is educate and encourage friends to try Linux, and prepare them for the revolution that may or may not happen. I hope it happens, and Linux and the Open Source movement in general have my cheers, 100%.
By the way, did anyone figure out that chess move Knight takes Rook checkmate move #5? It's got me stumped!
i keep a deliminated text file with all my personal passwords (several workstations and websites), servers, virtual server telnet accounts, and ftp accounts on it. the file is always PGP encrypted with max bit encryption available. what would i do if i forgot my password file password??????
by the way, the file is on an magnetic-optical and called "judy.jpg" (just an example), not on my hd, just in case.
This is not a new issue, and is certainly not limited to Microsoft Co. I think of a greater concern, should be the overall status of the equities markets in the U.S. at present.
f .html
u rrent/ld0164.html
u rrent/fn8276.html
If you care to learn more, here are some very good resources:
Warren Buffet on the Stock Market:
http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/1999/11/22/bu
"Killing Glass-Steagall":
http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/c
"How Big is the Tech Economy":
http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/c
For some reason, I can't access the original article. The message from Yahoo returns
"This article has been removed".
Why? Does anyone know?
We all know that IBM Corp's patent search engine can do searches for ANY patent, but does anyone know of any websites that focus on the following issues:
1. Recently issued software and "internet business model" patents, with respective briefs on the patent.
2. Current litigation status concerning software and "internet business model" patent disputes.
3. Searchable database of software patents via the patents' claims to patented functions.
4. Searchable database of "business method" or "internet business model" patents via the patents' claims to patented procedures and models.
This type of search engine would be very useful for programmers and entrepenuers alike.
_______________________________________________
On a more utopian phase, surely a foundation should be started for the "open source patent" model. Such a foundation would be funded by donors and would be non-profit, with a charter describing its function as:
1. Assisting programmers ensure that mundane software procedures and functions are patented in an open source model.
2. Provide programmers with advise on how to ensure that code written does not infringe on any existing patents.
3. Re-patent (the most common way to get around a patent in the manufacturing world) existing software and "internet business procedure" patents through improving the function and performance of the patented procedures and re-patenting the improvements under an open source model patent.
Somebody should do it, wish I had the time. I would be more than willing to assist those who are interested, or point someone in the right direction for starting such a project.
Well, I am an US citizen, but if there were a serious conflict I would stick around. But joining the military here is a little outta the question, even if it was on a ROTC basis. Plus, I don't think uncle sam would appreciate me joining another country's army..hehe. I assume you are also an expat, from the comments you posted....??? You never know, we may have met before.