Eh, I like Debian better myself, but the pointy-haired types like the feeling of security that comes with the support package. Also, some server hardware requires it.
It does the job well though, in my experience it has been solid and stable.
Asimov's vision of the world economy being controlled by machines has become reality.
Unfortunately for us, the machines we actually put in place bear little resemblance to those he described. Instead of being programmed with the 3 laws, and therefore a help to mankind by eliminating poverty and famine, we have programmed them to enrich the few at the expense of the many.
Such a system can not, and will not, be sustainable - as History so abundantly proves.
RedHat's main product, RHEL, is not a good choice for a consumer product. Great for servers though, where it can already be bought pre-loaded from a variety of different manufacturers.
Fedora could be a candidate, but is generally too flaky for mass deployment, and there are no support contracts available for it. RedHat would have to be convinced to get back into the consumer Linux market, something which they have explicitly avoided for a number of years now.
Dell has already sold several different consumer grade systems pre-loaded with Ubuntu, but never with much publicity (/. notwithstanding) and therefore not in significant numbers. These efforts have also not lasted too long. This time may be different, but first let's see if they actually release it, at this point it's still vaporware.
Valve is a big deal for Linux, but they haven't said they would stop supporting Windows, so to MS it's not an immediate danger. Sure, some people may no longer need to boot into Windows as often, and a few may remove it entirely from their systems, but I highly doubt it will lead to a big decrease in Windows licenses sold.
As you said, Blizzard has not publicized any plans for a possible strategy shift as Valve has.
Mozilla is an obvious anti-MS, Firefox was started in part to restore open standards on the web, IOW, to loosen IE's iron grip on the web.
Don't get me wrong, as a longtime Linux-only user, nothing would please me more than my favorite OS getting some much needed attention from important software and hardware companies, especially at the expense of MS and/or Apple. I just don't think it will happen any time soon. Look at LibreOffice, it's free and roughly equivalent to MS Office for the average non-professional user, but it has yet to gain any kind of significant traction. And as long as MS has a hold on Office, Windows will be around.
As other have said, there isn't one that's "better" than the other in a general sense. However, there are situations in which one is better suited to a task at hand.
This is of course something that applies to many different aspects of application design and architecture.
As an example, I'm developing a high volume, high transaction website application and use both PostgreSQL and MongoDB.
We use SQL where strict relations, type checking, and data integrity are required. The SQL database has the extremely important function of making sure the data given to it by the application is coherent. I realize that MongoDB has functions for checking data integrity, but it is tricker to get right in my opinion and experience (it does allow greater flexibility however). Also, the application has the need for atomic operations and transactions, which MongoDB does not provide.
MongoDB on the other hand, is used where it delivers better performance than PostgreSQL. For example all our logging is sent there, giving near-disk performance while allowing quick and easy searching and archival. Our session is also handled by MongoDB. Finally we make great use of gridFS for all our uploaded content and document storage. We're also looking into MongoDB for data analysis and reporting, fed data from SQL.
So there's no reason to pick one over the other, a mix and match approach will yield better results. Where tasks require greater speed and have loose integrity requirements, go for NoSQL. When the data absolutely needs to be coherent and is by its nature relational, go for SQL.
Also, PostgreSQL will soon support embedding JSON objects directly, so some sort of hybridization is foreseeable in the future. As of now we simply put the Mongo ID in SQL when we need to reference.
Don't know about Germany, but I've driven from Marseille (south of France) to Paris in about 8.5 hours - at night, but not speeding (much) and with food/bathroom breaks.
The TGV, which I've also taken, does it in 3.5 hours, and I can eat and go to the bathroom without stopping.
Cost depends, if you have 4 people in the car and split the fuel and toll costs, it's generally cheaper than 4 train tickets. But for 2 or 3 people, it depends on whether you buy the train tickets in advance or not. For one person, the train will be cheaper, sometimes considerably so.
You better believe something will be done about software patents, and IP laws in general, when the Chinese start to heavily sue US companies.
I mean, when it's US companies bashing those in other countries, software patents are awesome. When the inverse occurs, they are obviously a hinderance to progress.
And how will you determine if people didn't get hurt without sending someone to check on them?
At impacts likely to trigger the device, it's entirely possible for someone to be hurt and not even realize till the next day or so. This happens with neck and back injuries, not enough to notice until the person stretches or makes a bad movement, and then *extreme pain*
Funny you should mention that right when AMD wins a huge order of graphic chips precisely because they have open source drivers.
And anecdotally, I've never had a problem with AMD hardware, generally by the time the proprietary driver loses support, the open source one matches its performance.
Ecuador's foreign minister had offered assylum in 2010 but president Rafael Correa later dismised it. It's possible they have succombed to US pressure already, or they could be worried he has something they don't want released.
Should be an interesting turn of events either way. I do hope he finds refuge somewhere, to continue the good fight.
Same here, Mint + Enlightenment is a great combination.
At home, the older laptop that struggles to run Cinnamon (plain Gnome3 is not even an option) is nice and snappy with E17.
At work, it works great on dual or tripple monitors, is super fast even with a bunch of applications and VMs open, and most importantly doesn't slow me down by forcing a workflow I do not want.
I'm running the SVN-fresh version. There's a few bugs sometimes (almost always fixed the next day or so, sometimes within the hour) but by and large it's pretty stable.
Sarkozy is just pandering to the extreme right in an election year.
This law would not be applicable given the French constitution, and in fact would also violate EU law. Any law which limits free expression must have a very specific target, and simply saying "terrorism" or "hate speech" is way too vast.
Child pornography is illegal because it can be easily and precisely defined, but what would define terrorist or hateful speech ? And what is the difference between genuine political speech and hate speech ? It's all very subjective. It would also lead to some interesting consequences, like that Mein Kampf would be legal to sell in print but not viewable on the Internet.
Oracle is (partly) a Linux company: they sell and support their own distro. After the Sun acquisition, they also own Java, which is used pretty extensively on Linux.
Adobe up until very recently supported Flash on Linux. It may be free, but it was an important part of their business strategy before HTML 5 came along.
These missions are also technology demonstrators, meant to advance the state of the art. Using the same design several times doesn't provide the same technological advancement as building upon previous work and enhancing it.
If you look at the Mars missions, each subsequent rover design sent was larger and more capable, and sent back much better science.
No, Iraq is worse off now than it was under Saddam. At least under Saddam there was security, basic services, good access to health care, and one of the best education systems in the middle east.
I'm not glorifying the bastard mind you, there were political kidnappings, executions and torture under Saddam. But this hasn't stopped, far from it, there has been an increase in political and ethnic violence, as well as corruption.
In other words, it's better to live under the rule of a ruthless dictator than it is to be "liberated" by the US.
The police in your example WOULD be held responsible. If a big sporting event is taking place in a city, you would expect the police to increase their presence. Which, in fact, they do.
It's true that the US sometimes gets blamed unjustly, but in this case the blame is squarely on the shoulders of the US military and government.
Iraqis had been living in poverty for over a decade due to the first Gulf war and then UN sanctions. Now, almost overnight, there is no more police, military or government. It's pretty obvious that in this type of situation people are going to loot. The same thing would happen anywhere.
As the occupying power, it is the responsibility of the US for ensuring the security of the people and the infrastructure.
Slashdot Mirror
Eh, I like Debian better myself, but the pointy-haired types like the feeling of security that comes with the support package. Also, some server hardware requires it.
It does the job well though, in my experience it has been solid and stable.
Asimov's vision of the world economy being controlled by machines has become reality.
Unfortunately for us, the machines we actually put in place bear little resemblance to those he described. Instead of being programmed with the 3 laws, and therefore a help to mankind by eliminating poverty and famine, we have programmed them to enrich the few at the expense of the many.
Such a system can not, and will not, be sustainable - as History so abundantly proves.
RedHat's main product, RHEL, is not a good choice for a consumer product. Great for servers though, where it can already be bought pre-loaded from a variety of different manufacturers.
Fedora could be a candidate, but is generally too flaky for mass deployment, and there are no support contracts available for it. RedHat would have to be convinced to get back into the consumer Linux market, something which they have explicitly avoided for a number of years now.
Dell has already sold several different consumer grade systems pre-loaded with Ubuntu, but never with much publicity (/. notwithstanding) and therefore not in significant numbers. These efforts have also not lasted too long. This time may be different, but first let's see if they actually release it, at this point it's still vaporware.
Valve is a big deal for Linux, but they haven't said they would stop supporting Windows, so to MS it's not an immediate danger. Sure, some people may no longer need to boot into Windows as often, and a few may remove it entirely from their systems, but I highly doubt it will lead to a big decrease in Windows licenses sold.
As you said, Blizzard has not publicized any plans for a possible strategy shift as Valve has.
Mozilla is an obvious anti-MS, Firefox was started in part to restore open standards on the web, IOW, to loosen IE's iron grip on the web.
Don't get me wrong, as a longtime Linux-only user, nothing would please me more than my favorite OS getting some much needed attention from important software and hardware companies, especially at the expense of MS and/or Apple. I just don't think it will happen any time soon. Look at LibreOffice, it's free and roughly equivalent to MS Office for the average non-professional user, but it has yet to gain any kind of significant traction. And as long as MS has a hold on Office, Windows will be around.
Option C) Keep selling windows, but partner with a Linux distributor as a back up plan. Canonical would be a good candidate for such a partnership.
As other have said, there isn't one that's "better" than the other in a general sense. However, there are situations in which one is better suited to a task at hand.
This is of course something that applies to many different aspects of application design and architecture.
As an example, I'm developing a high volume, high transaction website application and use both PostgreSQL and MongoDB.
We use SQL where strict relations, type checking, and data integrity are required. The SQL database has the extremely important function of making sure the data given to it by the application is coherent. I realize that MongoDB has functions for checking data integrity, but it is tricker to get right in my opinion and experience (it does allow greater flexibility however). Also, the application has the need for atomic operations and transactions, which MongoDB does not provide.
MongoDB on the other hand, is used where it delivers better performance than PostgreSQL. For example all our logging is sent there, giving near-disk performance while allowing quick and easy searching and archival. Our session is also handled by MongoDB. Finally we make great use of gridFS for all our uploaded content and document storage. We're also looking into MongoDB for data analysis and reporting, fed data from SQL.
So there's no reason to pick one over the other, a mix and match approach will yield better results. Where tasks require greater speed and have loose integrity requirements, go for NoSQL. When the data absolutely needs to be coherent and is by its nature relational, go for SQL.
Also, PostgreSQL will soon support embedding JSON objects directly, so some sort of hybridization is foreseeable in the future. As of now we simply put the Mongo ID in SQL when we need to reference.
Don't know about Germany, but I've driven from Marseille (south of France) to Paris in about 8.5 hours - at night, but not speeding (much) and with food/bathroom breaks.
The TGV, which I've also taken, does it in 3.5 hours, and I can eat and go to the bathroom without stopping.
Cost depends, if you have 4 people in the car and split the fuel and toll costs, it's generally cheaper than 4 train tickets. But for 2 or 3 people, it depends on whether you buy the train tickets in advance or not. For one person, the train will be cheaper, sometimes considerably so.
You're quite right of course, but the same could be said for some European companies.
For example, SNCF sued a food stall lady over her use of the term "Orient Express".
SNCF is wholly-owned by the French governement.
You better believe something will be done about software patents, and IP laws in general, when the Chinese start to heavily sue US companies.
I mean, when it's US companies bashing those in other countries, software patents are awesome. When the inverse occurs, they are obviously a hinderance to progress.
And how will you determine if people didn't get hurt without sending someone to check on them?
At impacts likely to trigger the device, it's entirely possible for someone to be hurt and not even realize till the next day or so. This happens with neck and back injuries, not enough to notice until the person stretches or makes a bad movement, and then *extreme pain*
So, better safe than sorry.
Funny you should mention that right when AMD wins a huge order of graphic chips precisely because they have open source drivers.
And anecdotally, I've never had a problem with AMD hardware, generally by the time the proprietary driver loses support, the open source one matches its performance.
Well it's a good design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Douris_Man_with_wax_tablet.jpg
Ecuador's foreign minister had offered assylum in 2010 but president Rafael Correa later dismised it. It's possible they have succombed to US pressure already, or they could be worried he has something they don't want released.
Should be an interesting turn of events either way. I do hope he finds refuge somewhere, to continue the good fight.
Same here, Mint + Enlightenment is a great combination.
At home, the older laptop that struggles to run Cinnamon (plain Gnome3 is not even an option) is nice and snappy with E17.
At work, it works great on dual or tripple monitors, is super fast even with a bunch of applications and VMs open, and most importantly doesn't slow me down by forcing a workflow I do not want.
I'm running the SVN-fresh version. There's a few bugs sometimes (almost always fixed the next day or so, sometimes within the hour) but by and large it's pretty stable.
https://launchpad.net/~hannes-janetzek/+archive/enlightenment-svn
It's an improvement change in behavior from outright war, yes. But closed sourced drivers are rarely an improvement long term.
Sarkozy is just pandering to the extreme right in an election year.
This law would not be applicable given the French constitution, and in fact would also violate EU law. Any law which limits free expression must have a very specific target, and simply saying "terrorism" or "hate speech" is way too vast.
Child pornography is illegal because it can be easily and precisely defined, but what would define terrorist or hateful speech ? And what is the difference between genuine political speech and hate speech ? It's all very subjective. It would also lead to some interesting consequences, like that Mein Kampf would be legal to sell in print but not viewable on the Internet.
Article (in French)
Oracle is (partly) a Linux company: they sell and support their own distro. After the Sun acquisition, they also own Java, which is used pretty extensively on Linux.
Adobe up until very recently supported Flash on Linux. It may be free, but it was an important part of their business strategy before HTML 5 came along.
Don't corporations already do enough damage on this planet ?
These missions are also technology demonstrators, meant to advance the state of the art. Using the same design several times doesn't provide the same technological advancement as building upon previous work and enhancing it.
If you look at the Mars missions, each subsequent rover design sent was larger and more capable, and sent back much better science.
The plant in question is not extinct, and is part of the current ecosystem in the Siberian tundra.
Had this been an extinct plant, there would be something to worry about.
Horses have been trained not to spook for thousands of years.
Horses not only can be abandoned, but can also be eaten in times of need.
The land drone has been done too, though this has been criticized by animal rights groups.
No, Iraq is worse off now than it was under Saddam. At least under Saddam there was security, basic services, good access to health care, and one of the best education systems in the middle east.
I'm not glorifying the bastard mind you, there were political kidnappings, executions and torture under Saddam. But this hasn't stopped, far from it, there has been an increase in political and ethnic violence, as well as corruption.
In other words, it's better to live under the rule of a ruthless dictator than it is to be "liberated" by the US.
The police in your example WOULD be held responsible. If a big sporting event is taking place in a city, you would expect the police to increase their presence. Which, in fact, they do.
It's true that the US sometimes gets blamed unjustly, but in this case the blame is squarely on the shoulders of the US military and government.
Iraqis had been living in poverty for over a decade due to the first Gulf war and then UN sanctions. Now, almost overnight, there is no more police, military or government. It's pretty obvious that in this type of situation people are going to loot. The same thing would happen anywhere.
As the occupying power, it is the responsibility of the US for ensuring the security of the people and the infrastructure.
Right, Europeans have never exploited anyone, and certainly haven't built up wealth as a result of exploitation.