Unless all the big stations decide that everyone quietly doctoring footage is better than blowing the whistle on those who decide to try. How many companies are the big TV news stations currently owned by? If I remember correctly, its no more than three. Howeever, that still leaves other media to say "hey, look at what THESE guys are doing..."
Excuse me! This computer I'm using is about a month old and for the most part uses some of the most up-to-date PC hardware I could find. The exception being a the graphics card (G400, I like Matrox). Linux supports every single device better than Windows, which tends to do odd things at odd times, like lock up when I'm playing music and using a text editor. True, windows-specific or proprietary devices aren't supported by Linux, but that's because they're windows-specific or proprietary.
As for installation, I'll admit that can be slightly harder than Windows installation, if only because its less automated. You have to know more about your system and what you want, as opposed to the windows installer, which assumes an awful lot and configures even more without asking what the user wants. So, in all, I'd say the two systems are about equal there. And I did have to download Linux drivers for my soundcard, but the installation of these drivers was fairly simple.
Yes, Linux doesn't quite have the software variety of Windows yet. But both GNOME and KDE are making excellent progress towards creating the range of programs (office suites, etc) that Windows users expect. Yes, not everything has a nice configuration GUI. But most of the things that don't are server programs of some kind, or other things that most desktop users don't need.
I'm a member of a LUG here, and our last meeting was pretty amazing. We had, if I remember right, a taxi driver, a religious studies prof, and a couple of other people you wouldn't associate with Linux there. Most hadn't contributed extensively to the list yet, but from what they said, they enjoyed using Linux.
I've been on the LUG mailing list for about a year, and there's quite a lot of people who come on asking loads of questions, then within a month are answering questions almost as well as the people who've been using Linux for (or so it seems) most of their lives.
Actually, I'd say its more like getting fed up with the government and splitting off a new country. The original government and any who choose to follow them are still there, so they haven't been booted out. Its just that you're a seperate entity now.
And,yes, forking is quite powerful. But like anything that's powerful, it can cause troubles, and shouldn't be overused.
Clipboard support, especially, is something that it would be nice to have standardized. I know its a pain to be working away in one program, then want to paste something to another program, and have to open up yet a third program to actually copy the text. I know that it's impossible to get it to work right with legacy programs, but how hard would it be to have GNOME and KDE programs sharing the same clipboard?
Why does the phrase McCarthyism come to mind? (Yes, your name did remind me of this) Wasn't that exactly what this seems to be turning into? The persecution of a group based on their beliefs that were deemed to be a threat to those in power? Of course, this could just be various people on Slashdot taking a quote in the judge's ruling and turning a molehill into a mountain. But it is such an offensive quote...
Maybe if the judge had actually listened to some of the facts, the reason for its initial platform would be more obvious. The initial program had to be a Windows executable because Linux didn't yet have the support needed and all of the things they were reverse-engineering from were Windows executables.
Three step sequence. Reverse-Engineer, Support, Port. Why couldn't the judge work that out...?
Answer this question in an essay of no more than a page in length. Submit for marking to the Slashdot community. Additional points will be granted for each major news source to publish the essay. If the news source in question is owned by the MPAA, you automatically pass.
Oh, and welcome back to high school Mr. Goldstein.;-)
I agree that GUI design is one area that is lagging behind everything else. Yes, its nice, but how many real changes have there been since Win3.1? Or even the original MacOS? For me, having spent most of my computer time previously in Win/Dos, the power of pipes and I/O redirection, especially in C/C++ and other programming languages, was amazing. We need something like that for the GUI... Unfortunately, I have no ideas as to what it could be...:-(
My father uses OS/2 as his primary OS (I choose Linux), and he runs a G200 PCI as his graphics card. He's never had the slightest problem with the driver support. At all.
Oh, well. Speaking of OS/2, the interface is very VERY nicely designed. If I could get GTK+ to look and feel like that, I would be very happy indeed.
Suggestion to IBM: Work with the GNOME guys or something and try and get us an OS/2-like interface for Linux!
Possibly bootlegging by record companies? Or maybe when the RIAA owned their music, bootlegging was fine, but now that they own it again, the fans have to pay them for their music so it doesn't get traded like a commodity?
An excellent point, although from what I've heard, BC's government is a lot less reasonable than the rest of our nation. Our copyright laws in particular, though, are a lot more reasonable than those in the US. Usually.
I agree that BC politics suck. I was involved in model parliament in HS last year, and seeing as the government's bill was to nationalize all universities and schools (they were NDP) we did some studies of countries in Europe (where it has basically worked) and BC (where it hasn't, IIRC). I can only conclude that you're right. BC politics suck. Blame the NDP Party.;-)
(Yes, I know NDP = New Democratic Party. But so many people refer to them as the NDP Party.)
And, so this isn't completely off-topic, my view is that parents should take responsibility for their kids. You don't want Jonny playing a game like SoF, you make it clear to him that he's not to buy it and you also make clear to him exactly what will happen if he doesn't exercise good judgement.
I recommend reading Galaxy Express 999 by Leiji Matsumoto. He talks about a future very like the one you describe, but only the rich and powerful have mechanical bodies. Very, very interesting.
Most definitely.:-) What was really sad was when said people got moderated up for doing exactly that. My view is that its Rob's news site, and he can put what he wants on it.
Well, yes, you do have a point. However, remember that digital audio encoding is still a work in progress. From what I've heard, Ogg Vorbis is better than MP3, and whatever comes after Ogg Vorbis will be better than both. Remember that you are making a trade-off in quality (which I personally can't detect) for ease of access.
It's because the product with the most bells and whistles tends to succeed in the consumer-level high-tech marketplace. Companies hype features because they sound cool, reviewers focus on features because feature comparison charts look neat, and consumers focus on them because they're features! The Software Conspiracy, a book often-mentioned here, goes into some more detail.
Personally, I'd rather that good, solid products succeeded. But what can you do? Well, funding education properly might be a start, but anyway...
I beg to differ. I'm a fan of a type of music that North American record stores generally do not permit to grace their shelves. Apparently, despite the recent interest in anime, there's no market for JPop. MP3s are really the only way to get decent JPop music. Sites like Animenation allow you to order JPop CDs, but the price and shipping time combine to make that somewhat unfeasable when trying to find artists one likes.
But, please, let the power users customize their systems! That is one thing I like about Linux after using Windows for so long. Windows has one tool (TweakUI), that isn't even supported, to allow interface customization. Linux has I-don't-know-how-many. One per window manager, at the very least.
I'd say so. Definitely for home use, and probably for corporate as well. As long as they have mostly compatible file formats and comprable feature sets or stability, they should be fine.
If I recall correctly, the original PSX had very few "revolutionary" features. But it still managed to beat out the N64 and the Saturn. Do I remember right?
Oh, please. That may be the image the American media tries to stuff on it, and some of the commerical import stuff may fill that role. But Macross Plus sure as hell doesn't, and Hana Yori Dango is definitely not that kind of anime. Neither is Serial Experiments Lain, for that matter. Or Key the Metal Idol, or Gundam 0080, or Queen Emeraldas, or Revolutionary Girl Utena...
Hell, yes! That's what sparks the constant holy wars in the Open Source/Free Software community. Even the entire Open Source VS Free Software thing. Geek is a label encompassing an amazingly wide variety of people. Of course, not every geek will agree with that.;-) Similarly, the label anime encompasses an incredibly wide variety of shows. Any similarities between Macross Plus and Hana Yori Dango are purely co-incidental. And the varieties are much larger than the varieties in American television. Don't believe the mecha and big-breasted-babes line fed by the American media. Given enough information, I can practically garuntee I'll find an anime show you'll like (unless you inist it have live actors;-).
Slashdot Mirror
Unless all the big stations decide that everyone quietly doctoring footage is better than blowing the whistle on those who decide to try. How many companies are the big TV news stations currently owned by? If I remember correctly, its no more than three. Howeever, that still leaves other media to say "hey, look at what THESE guys are doing..."
-RickHunter
Excuse me! This computer I'm using is about a month old and for the most part uses some of the most up-to-date PC hardware I could find. The exception being a the graphics card (G400, I like Matrox). Linux supports every single device better than Windows, which tends to do odd things at odd times, like lock up when I'm playing music and using a text editor. True, windows-specific or proprietary devices aren't supported by Linux, but that's because they're windows-specific or proprietary.
As for installation, I'll admit that can be slightly harder than Windows installation, if only because its less automated. You have to know more about your system and what you want, as opposed to the windows installer, which assumes an awful lot and configures even more without asking what the user wants. So, in all, I'd say the two systems are about equal there. And I did have to download Linux drivers for my soundcard, but the installation of these drivers was fairly simple.
Yes, Linux doesn't quite have the software variety of Windows yet. But both GNOME and KDE are making excellent progress towards creating the range of programs (office suites, etc) that Windows users expect. Yes, not everything has a nice configuration GUI. But most of the things that don't are server programs of some kind, or other things that most desktop users don't need.
-RickHunter
I'm a member of a LUG here, and our last meeting was pretty amazing. We had, if I remember right, a taxi driver, a religious studies prof, and a couple of other people you wouldn't associate with Linux there. Most hadn't contributed extensively to the list yet, but from what they said, they enjoyed using Linux.
I've been on the LUG mailing list for about a year, and there's quite a lot of people who come on asking loads of questions, then within a month are answering questions almost as well as the people who've been using Linux for (or so it seems) most of their lives.
-RickHunter
Well, that's a start. :) Having compatible clipboards means there's at least a demand for compatibility
-RickHunter
Actually, I'd say its more like getting fed up with the government and splitting off a new country. The original government and any who choose to follow them are still there, so they haven't been booted out. Its just that you're a seperate entity now.
And,yes, forking is quite powerful. But like anything that's powerful, it can cause troubles, and shouldn't be overused.
-RickHunter
Clipboard support, especially, is something that it would be nice to have standardized. I know its a pain to be working away in one program, then want to paste something to another program, and have to open up yet a third program to actually copy the text. I know that it's impossible to get it to work right with legacy programs, but how hard would it be to have GNOME and KDE programs sharing the same clipboard?
-RickHunter
Why does the phrase McCarthyism come to mind? (Yes, your name did remind me of this) Wasn't that exactly what this seems to be turning into? The persecution of a group based on their beliefs that were deemed to be a threat to those in power? Of course, this could just be various people on Slashdot taking a quote in the judge's ruling and turning a molehill into a mountain. But it is such an offensive quote...
-RickHunter
Maybe if the judge had actually listened to some of the facts, the reason for its initial platform would be more obvious. The initial program had to be a Windows executable because Linux didn't yet have the support needed and all of the things they were reverse-engineering from were Windows executables.
Three step sequence. Reverse-Engineer, Support, Port. Why couldn't the judge work that out...?
-RickHunter
Answer this question in an essay of no more than a page in length. Submit for marking to the Slashdot community. Additional points will be granted for each major news source to publish the essay. If the news source in question is owned by the MPAA, you automatically pass.
Oh, and welcome back to high school Mr. Goldstein. ;-)
-RickHunter
Yes. He goes by the name of Pitr and sysadmins for an ISP somewhere in BC. Here's his webpage.
Silly question. :-P
-RickHunter
I agree that GUI design is one area that is lagging behind everything else. Yes, its nice, but how many real changes have there been since Win3.1? Or even the original MacOS? For me, having spent most of my computer time previously in Win/Dos, the power of pipes and I/O redirection, especially in C/C++ and other programming languages, was amazing. We need something like that for the GUI... Unfortunately, I have no ideas as to what it could be... :-(
Any suggestions? Comments? Criticisms?
-RickHunter
My father uses OS/2 as his primary OS (I choose Linux), and he runs a G200 PCI as his graphics card. He's never had the slightest problem with the driver support. At all.
Oh, well. Speaking of OS/2, the interface is very VERY nicely designed. If I could get GTK+ to look and feel like that, I would be very happy indeed.
Suggestion to IBM: Work with the GNOME guys or something and try and get us an OS/2-like interface for Linux!
Yeah, I'm way off topic. So there. :-P
-RickHunter
<sarcasm>
Possibly bootlegging by record companies? Or maybe when the RIAA owned their music, bootlegging was fine, but now that they own it again, the fans have to pay them for their music so it doesn't get traded like a commodity?
</sarcasm>
-RickHunter
An excellent point, although from what I've heard, BC's government is a lot less reasonable than the rest of our nation. Our copyright laws in particular, though, are a lot more reasonable than those in the US. Usually.
-RickHunter
I agree that BC politics suck. I was involved in model parliament in HS last year, and seeing as the government's bill was to nationalize all universities and schools (they were NDP) we did some studies of countries in Europe (where it has basically worked) and BC (where it hasn't, IIRC). I can only conclude that you're right. BC politics suck. Blame the NDP Party. ;-)
(Yes, I know NDP = New Democratic Party. But so many people refer to them as the NDP Party.)
And, so this isn't completely off-topic, my view is that parents should take responsibility for their kids. You don't want Jonny playing a game like SoF, you make it clear to him that he's not to buy it and you also make clear to him exactly what will happen if he doesn't exercise good judgement.
Worked for me, at least.
-RickHunter
I recommend reading Galaxy Express 999 by Leiji Matsumoto. He talks about a future very like the one you describe, but only the rich and powerful have mechanical bodies. Very, very interesting.
-RickHunter
Most definitely. :-) What was really sad was when said people got moderated up for doing exactly that. My view is that its Rob's news site, and he can put what he wants on it.
-RickHunter
Well, yes, you do have a point. However, remember that digital audio encoding is still a work in progress. From what I've heard, Ogg Vorbis is better than MP3, and whatever comes after Ogg Vorbis will be better than both. Remember that you are making a trade-off in quality (which I personally can't detect) for ease of access.
-RickHunter
It's because the product with the most bells and whistles tends to succeed in the consumer-level high-tech marketplace. Companies hype features because they sound cool, reviewers focus on features because feature comparison charts look neat, and consumers focus on them because they're features! The Software Conspiracy, a book often-mentioned here, goes into some more detail.
Personally, I'd rather that good, solid products succeeded. But what can you do? Well, funding education properly might be a start, but anyway...
-RickHunter
I beg to differ. I'm a fan of a type of music that North American record stores generally do not permit to grace their shelves. Apparently, despite the recent interest in anime, there's no market for JPop. MP3s are really the only way to get decent JPop music. Sites like Animenation allow you to order JPop CDs, but the price and shipping time combine to make that somewhat unfeasable when trying to find artists one likes.
-RickHunter
then let the power users customize their systems
But, please, let the power users customize their systems! That is one thing I like about Linux after using Windows for so long. Windows has one tool (TweakUI), that isn't even supported, to allow interface customization. Linux has I-don't-know-how-many. One per window manager, at the very least.
-RickHunter
I'd say so. Definitely for home use, and probably for corporate as well. As long as they have mostly compatible file formats and comprable feature sets or stability, they should be fine.
-RickHunter
If I recall correctly, the original PSX had very few "revolutionary" features. But it still managed to beat out the N64 and the Saturn. Do I remember right?
-RickHunter
Oh, please. That may be the image the American media tries to stuff on it, and some of the commerical import stuff may fill that role. But Macross Plus sure as hell doesn't, and Hana Yori Dango is definitely not that kind of anime. Neither is Serial Experiments Lain, for that matter. Or Key the Metal Idol, or Gundam 0080, or Queen Emeraldas, or Revolutionary Girl Utena...
Get the point? Good.
-RickHunter
Hell, yes! That's what sparks the constant holy wars in the Open Source/Free Software community. Even the entire Open Source VS Free Software thing. Geek is a label encompassing an amazingly wide variety of people. Of course, not every geek will agree with that. ;-) Similarly, the label anime encompasses an incredibly wide variety of shows. Any similarities between Macross Plus and Hana Yori Dango are purely co-incidental. And the varieties are much larger than the varieties in American television. Don't believe the mecha and big-breasted-babes line fed by the American media. Given enough information, I can practically garuntee I'll find an anime show you'll like (unless you inist it have live actors ;-).
-RickHunter