Iran finishes up work on its first nuclear bomb. Declaring the second Islamic calliphate is upon us, they launch the nuke at Israel, but due to a faulty auto-pilot (which some skeptical observers at Slash.NBC point to as another example of the CIA successfully responding to terrorism threats) it lands off the coast of Great Britain. Scotland converts to Sharia, stops producing Scotch whiskey, and declares independence. Finally free of the stultifying effects of Scotch whiskey, British scientists end their 300-year bender, get back to work, and find a cure for cancer. With millions of now-healthy cancer patients enjoying endless hours of free time, many other discoveries follow, including the famous infants' gastro vaccine. World Peace arrives, and some guy named Bob gives back the dog he stole from his neighbors and was keeping in his basement.
You just said two seconds ago it was about social problems. Or is it about revenge and retribution for social problems? Damn you, Amerikkka, our illiterate society has theocrats running our countries into the sewer, state-controlled economies, and none of the freedoms you take for granted! We must fly planes into your buildings!
For fuck's sake, you (like the terrorist's you're feebly attempting to defend) are completely demented.
Yes, free markets and the right not to wear a burqa caused millions of Muslims and non-Muslims to believe in an atavistic, fascistic, nihilistic global war on infidels.
Makes sense to me. Death to infidels!
(Oh, sorry.. that should be "subsidized day care and free yoga classes for terrorists! That'll stop them from wanting to kill me, won't it?")
WHY HASN'T BUSH DETECTED LIFE ON MARS YET?! IS IT BECAUSE THERE'S NO OIL ON MARS?
Surely he could've at the least found some carbon-based life...
[Lameness filter is lame.]
(Actually, no, I guess it's not. If I hadn't been sarcastic in my post, I guess it would've done a good job of stomping out a lame Bush-is-evil whine.)
Excellent post. Your analysis is right on, and I agree with most of your conclusions, but even if we're both correct that doesn't entail continued market dominance by Microsoft, as maintaining their lock-in does not ensure their continued success in the market -- although it is, of course, an advantage.
Uh, wrong. I work on free software as a hobby (excluding the portions of my job that involve OSS, which in no way entail catering to idiots like you), and therefore I'll do what I damn well please -- and it's only my own damn problem that I work for free in that I do it for fun, i.e. it's not a problem.
If you'd read any of this discussion -- you did, didn't you? -- you'd know that I don't "advocate the adoption of Linux." Personally I think it's a terrific system that a lot of people have jointly created and shared with everybody, and it's great if other people find interesting uses for it and enjoy the wealth of free software, but that in no way means I or anyone else owes you any of the things you listed: software, customer service, a Windows-like "user-friendly" experience, etc.
As I've already said twice here, you're a dick, and I'd recommend you think a little more about how OSS works and your expectations, or find a more appropriate venue for your piss-headed complaints.
Hm, you must be using a different Linux than I am.
There are things for which you need to do the things you've listed, but those are things that don't just "take 2 minutes in Windows and no effort." The latter also take 2 minutes in Linux and no effort.
Also, note that I'm not saying Linux is perfect -- of course it's not. My point is that "making Linux work for Joe Sixpack," or whatever other formulation, is not a "problem of Linux." Linux has a plethora of problems, unsolved issues etc., as does any complex system, but when some clueless shit who's just received a free 6 billion byte collection of software comes whining that it doesn't work exactly the same or isn't as easy as Windows, and if we don't immediately make it work the way he wants there'll be grave consequences to follow, I'm sure you can see that it's worthy only of dismissal, and it's also an insult to a lot of people.
So basically, the appropriate response is "go fuck yourself," but I thought I'd put it more politely.
(To him, that is. You make valid points, and Linux does indeed still have serious technical, political, business and other problems. It's definitely "ready for the desktop" -- it's on most of my desktops, and is always my preference -- but there's always room for disagreement, and Linux is not perfect nor the only solution.)
I'm more than satisfied with the current level of interest in Linux, and I expect it to continue growing at a torrid pace regardless of what dipshits who complain that "Linux is hard" say on slashdot.
At work, I regularly watch a Pentium Pro (something like 200 MHz) running Fedora merge a thousand letters from a db before a P4 2.4 GHz right next to it, running windows XP, brings up the Display properties dialogue.
(And that's only the half of it -- the Linux box runs rings around the Windows computer. It's also a file server, print server, web server, among others.)
Am I (or is any Linux developer) supposed to give a crap whether you have a hard time with an OS they've built for their own use and pleasure? And no, I don't care if "attitudes like that are why Linux will never take over the desktop" -- I have no interest in what OS you or other people choose to run on your computers.
Please do enlighten us, though, as to what the "problems of Linux" are. I'm sure we'll find it amusing.
You're absolutely right about the importance of degrees and what they signify, but the very fact that all a degree now represents is "committing to a reasonably demanding goal and finishing it" says a lot about the (low) quality of post-secondary education.
One of the questions I keep asking (and never getting a reply to) is: "In what way was the Vietnam conflict so different from the Iraqi War?"
We didn't cut and run from Iraq after taking out the regime? We didn't hand over the country to a bunch of lunatic mass murderers because of domestic anti-American pressure?
He told me that the primary interest of the USA in Vietnam was oil -- specifically oil discovered off an island claimed by both China and Vietnam.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, people who disagree with you are all "republitards" who hate homosexuals.
Some time around the year 2010...
Iran finishes up work on its first nuclear bomb. Declaring the second Islamic calliphate is upon us, they launch the nuke at Israel, but due to a faulty auto-pilot (which some skeptical observers at Slash.NBC point to as another example of the CIA successfully responding to terrorism threats) it lands off the coast of Great Britain. Scotland converts to Sharia, stops producing Scotch whiskey, and declares independence. Finally free of the stultifying effects of Scotch whiskey, British scientists end their 300-year bender, get back to work, and find a cure for cancer. With millions of now-healthy cancer patients enjoying endless hours of free time, many other discoveries follow, including the famous infants' gastro vaccine. World Peace arrives, and some guy named Bob gives back the dog he stole from his neighbors and was keeping in his basement.
I think having some incompetent asshole from the government forcing you to have children counts as our society and culture disappearing.
You just said two seconds ago it was about social problems. Or is it about revenge and retribution for social problems? Damn you, Amerikkka, our illiterate society has theocrats running our countries into the sewer, state-controlled economies, and none of the freedoms you take for granted! We must fly planes into your buildings!
For fuck's sake, you (like the terrorist's you're feebly attempting to defend) are completely demented.
Yes, free markets and the right not to wear a burqa caused millions of Muslims and non-Muslims to believe in an atavistic, fascistic, nihilistic global war on infidels.
Makes sense to me. Death to infidels!
(Oh, sorry.. that should be "subsidized day care and free yoga classes for terrorists! That'll stop them from wanting to kill me, won't it?")
er, and how many rods to the hog's head?
Are those footsteps..?
Erm, well, it's not exactly grammar-related, but your gray-on-gray scheme is a bit hard to read...
WHY HASN'T BUSH DETECTED LIFE ON MARS YET?! IS IT BECAUSE THERE'S NO OIL ON MARS?
Surely he could've at the least found some carbon-based life...
[Lameness filter is lame.]
(Actually, no, I guess it's not. If I hadn't been sarcastic in my post, I guess it would've done a good job of stomping out a lame Bush-is-evil whine.)
Excellent post. Your analysis is right on, and I agree with most of your conclusions, but even if we're both correct that doesn't entail continued market dominance by Microsoft, as maintaining their lock-in does not ensure their continued success in the market -- although it is, of course, an advantage.
Uh, wrong. I work on free software as a hobby (excluding the portions of my job that involve OSS, which in no way entail catering to idiots like you), and therefore I'll do what I damn well please -- and it's only my own damn problem that I work for free in that I do it for fun, i.e. it's not a problem.
If you'd read any of this discussion -- you did, didn't you? -- you'd know that I don't "advocate the adoption of Linux." Personally I think it's a terrific system that a lot of people have jointly created and shared with everybody, and it's great if other people find interesting uses for it and enjoy the wealth of free software, but that in no way means I or anyone else owes you any of the things you listed: software, customer service, a Windows-like "user-friendly" experience, etc.
As I've already said twice here, you're a dick, and I'd recommend you think a little more about how OSS works and your expectations, or find a more appropriate venue for your piss-headed complaints.
Hm, you must be using a different Linux than I am.
There are things for which you need to do the things you've listed, but those are things that don't just "take 2 minutes in Windows and no effort." The latter also take 2 minutes in Linux and no effort.
Also, note that I'm not saying Linux is perfect -- of course it's not. My point is that "making Linux work for Joe Sixpack," or whatever other formulation, is not a "problem of Linux." Linux has a plethora of problems, unsolved issues etc., as does any complex system, but when some clueless shit who's just received a free 6 billion byte collection of software comes whining that it doesn't work exactly the same or isn't as easy as Windows, and if we don't immediately make it work the way he wants there'll be grave consequences to follow, I'm sure you can see that it's worthy only of dismissal, and it's also an insult to a lot of people.
So basically, the appropriate response is "go fuck yourself," but I thought I'd put it more politely.
(To him, that is. You make valid points, and Linux does indeed still have serious technical, political, business and other problems. It's definitely "ready for the desktop" -- it's on most of my desktops, and is always my preference -- but there's always room for disagreement, and Linux is not perfect nor the only solution.)
I'm more than satisfied with the current level of interest in Linux, and I expect it to continue growing at a torrid pace regardless of what dipshits who complain that "Linux is hard" say on slashdot.
At work, I regularly watch a Pentium Pro (something like 200 MHz) running Fedora merge a thousand letters from a db before a P4 2.4 GHz right next to it, running windows XP, brings up the Display properties dialogue.
(And that's only the half of it -- the Linux box runs rings around the Windows computer. It's also a file server, print server, web server, among others.)
How exactly is that a "problem of Linux"?
Am I (or is any Linux developer) supposed to give a crap whether you have a hard time with an OS they've built for their own use and pleasure? And no, I don't care if "attitudes like that are why Linux will never take over the desktop" -- I have no interest in what OS you or other people choose to run on your computers.
Please do enlighten us, though, as to what the "problems of Linux" are. I'm sure we'll find it amusing.
Even that's superfluous. Most people (or their vendors) will pay for Windows XP separately with each computer, paying twice for just one OS.
(Yes, not the full price if it's the vendor buying, or if it's academic, etc., but then, not an upgrade version either.)
Me too ;)
You're absolutely right about the importance of degrees and what they signify, but the very fact that all a degree now represents is "committing to a reasonably demanding goal and finishing it" says a lot about the (low) quality of post-secondary education.
Thank you, I enjoyed your post :)
I'll keep an eye out for your future posts, which judging by your past posts I expect to enjoy, too.
Do you have a book of logical fallacies somewhere?
Wrong snide comment. It should be:
Many religious beliefs would be decimated
That's hardly a significant achievement. There aren't any that haven't been decimated.
One of the questions I keep asking (and never getting a reply to) is: "In what way was the Vietnam conflict so different from the Iraqi War?"
We didn't cut and run from Iraq after taking out the regime? We didn't hand over the country to a bunch of lunatic mass murderers because of domestic anti-American pressure?
He told me that the primary interest of the USA in Vietnam was oil -- specifically oil discovered off an island claimed by both China and Vietnam.
Yeah, and World War II was a war for BMW's.
How the fuck did you get so delusional?
Right. That'll happen any time now...
Moron.
There's the old saw: if you owe the bank $1,000, you're in trouble. If you owe the bank $1,000,000, the bank's in trouble.
;)
--
(/.)