Darn it... I thought of this a while ago, I should have patented it.:-)
Seriously, the patent system in the US is broken and I don't think this would help. It, as was previously mentioned, would end up being abused by the patent trolls.
Our company policy is this: company resources are to be used for business purposes only. Now having said that, everyone knows that people use it for personal things. Nobody has a problem with that so long as it doesn't interfere with performing your job and isn't considered offensive.
In our department, we try to balance security and convenience. We don't block webmail etc, however all the traffic is proxied and logged. Executable type code is not permitted to be downloaded. We keep all the clients up-to-date on patches, virus signatures etc. to help minimize the risks.
We also do try to educate our users a bit. We hold "mini-classes" where we cover a topic or two (people can make requests). We try to keep them short and have them early in the morning or after general work hours. They are completely optional and we get a good turn out (60% to 70% depending on the topic(s)). People learn a little bit that can help them either at work or at home. I do most of the work to organize this over a lunch or two, it costs the company so little, and it helps everyone. Hell, the executives attend most of them, partially because they support it and because they too learn a little.
First of all, I want to say that GNU/Linux is a fantasic OS. It is my primary OS at home, although I do dual boot, XP is around strictly for 1 game and to do my taxes on.
I think all this looks real good on paper, but I'll bet they will get very few home users on the bandwagon. Not because Linux is bad, but because at this particular time, 3rd party stuff for Linux doesn't exist in any meaningful way. How much software can you buy for Linux at your favority big-box store? How many ISP's actually support linux? Buying hardware, better do your homework before you go shopping.
For me, there are some things I want a commercial package for. Tax software being #1 because, dammit, if I have to essentially sign my family's life away, I want to know that the crap is accurate or someone is a phone call away to find out why it's not.
Anyway, I hope they can manage to get it going. It sure would be nice for linux to have more home users. If linux could get some bigger numbers, perhaps more hardware/software vendors would take notice and produce more linux native software/drivers.
Cheers
Slashdot Mirror
It was back in 1977-78-79 somewhere back then.
There was this really cool star trek game written by Lance Micklus (spelling might be wrong)
Man it took foreever to load it from a cassette tape, but man it was fun.
I'd still like to play that one again.
Ahh.. the memories
While I too find that a bit disturbing, it doesn't surprise me.
1) There isn't enough people using linux to really hurt them dollar wise by not supporting it.
2) They probably saved a lot of money by not licensing an os or trying to develop one on their own.
3) There is nothing really preventing them from doing so as long as they abide by the GPL etc...
As I said, I'm not saying it's right but it is what I would expect at this point.
It's life, Jim, but not as we know
Not as we know it,
Not as we know it,
It's life, Jim, but not as we know
Not as we know it....
I love the old Star Trek's and a few of the movies. But the series of remakes and the later movies, IMHO, have been bad at best.
Before they are done with their remakes Spock will be rolling out in Christopher Pike's wheelchair. Now wouldn't that be exciting.
I admit it, I didn't read the articles.
Something good could come out of it. Perhaps it will reduce the number of adware distributors due to the cost of licensing this crap.
Or perhaps, more adware will be in the default install of Windows.
Maybe they just want more ad revenue for their MSN site.
Time will tell
Darn it... I thought of this a while ago, I should have patented it. :-)
Seriously, the patent system in the US is broken and I don't think this would help. It, as was previously mentioned, would end up being abused by the patent trolls.
This seems to coincide nicely with the story about MS saying that some open source project violates over 200 MS patents.
Pay the MS tax or go to jail for life... hmmm
Sounds like there is a lot of cock being sucked for this one.
Our company policy is this: company resources are to be used for business purposes only. Now having said that, everyone knows that people use it for personal things. Nobody has a problem with that so long as it doesn't interfere with performing your job and isn't considered offensive.
In our department, we try to balance security and convenience. We don't block webmail etc, however all the traffic is proxied and logged. Executable type code is not permitted to be downloaded. We keep all the clients up-to-date on patches, virus signatures etc. to help minimize the risks.
We also do try to educate our users a bit. We hold "mini-classes" where we cover a topic or two (people can make requests). We try to keep them short and have them early in the morning or after general work hours. They are completely optional and we get a good turn out (60% to 70% depending on the topic(s)). People learn a little bit that can help them either at work or at home. I do most of the work to organize this over a lunch or two, it costs the company so little, and it helps everyone. Hell, the executives attend most of them, partially because they support it and because they too learn a little.
This approach works very well for us.
First of all, I want to say that GNU/Linux is a fantasic OS. It is my primary OS at home, although I do dual boot, XP is around strictly for 1 game and to do my taxes on. I think all this looks real good on paper, but I'll bet they will get very few home users on the bandwagon. Not because Linux is bad, but because at this particular time, 3rd party stuff for Linux doesn't exist in any meaningful way. How much software can you buy for Linux at your favority big-box store? How many ISP's actually support linux? Buying hardware, better do your homework before you go shopping. For me, there are some things I want a commercial package for. Tax software being #1 because, dammit, if I have to essentially sign my family's life away, I want to know that the crap is accurate or someone is a phone call away to find out why it's not. Anyway, I hope they can manage to get it going. It sure would be nice for linux to have more home users. If linux could get some bigger numbers, perhaps more hardware/software vendors would take notice and produce more linux native software/drivers. Cheers