Any Free software for x86 "could" be ported to ppc, some do use assembler, but most don't. So you could want to use blender or play quake at present (for example), and if Linux PPC is supported it makes the choice Free Software gives all the greater as you can also choose your platform instead of choosing x86 or no 3d. As it is, ati using PPC'ians (and Apple went all ati didn't they) are "stuck" without the choice of trying ATI's binary drivers. To be honest I'm happier with minimal binary releases as it keeps more people working on the Free drivers which are not going to "force" you to go to particular kernels or versions of X (what's next for ATI, will they release for XFree86 4.4 or will they join the 'splitters').
At present SVG is simply not an option for people to use thanks to the lack of clients. SVG is still a few years away from taking the role of Flash and thats best case. In the meantime, lots and lots of Flash is being produced and used, people want to produce and use it and their only options are to use OSX or Windows. Each person who is considering their next OS will currently not choose Linux if they need Flash, if they could choose Linux (even with Flash under Wine) that's a good thing, Free Software is about choice (including the choice to use closed software). If Flash comes to Linux and brings some Flash developers onto Linux, I would expect to see them feedback into Linux and probably in particular into SVG tools (unless Flash provides what they need), they would have the motivation of not wanting to have to keep lining Macromedia's pockets while also having the appreciation of when it is cheaper to just do it. We could also see a load of Flash designers suddenly taking an interest in theme designing (and perhaps interfaces) and hence a lot more vector based themes out there (and maybe even some good and innovative ones). Everything that gives more choice on Linux is good! Hell I'd even welcome an Office port because of the people it could bring with it. Now if the Office port insisted you had to taint your kernel with a closed MS module... but as long as people are simply releasing normal software it is all just adding choice and that in instelf is a Freedom! Of course Flash 7 already has a gold medal from crossover and flash mx a bronze so it looks like Macromedia can probably get a very good port onto Linux quite easily unless they have done something drastic in flash mx 2004.
Never forget that Microsoft has been deemed by the US courts to have a monopoly and as such to be subject to anti-trust laws. Microsoft cannot simply act as any small business would and hence could be breaking the law by doing things perfectly legal for others to do!
"What were they thinking?" said Bruce Perens, one of the founders of the Open Source Initiative. "I think this sends a very strange message and I'd like to hear a real explanation out of CA."
And I'd love to hear the real reasons from everyone else aswell! Are they setting up for a counter-suit, dumb or in SCO/MS pockets?
We're not talking about pure software here, we are talking about hardware and possibly sotware combinations. It is just the same as region coding in dvd players, the player can have an engineering menu to disable it but otherwise your generally into the sort of serious hardware hacking hardly anyone does.
A bug in the software could only cause your legs to break if one of two conditions apply:
You have the leg strength to break your own leg and do so by resisting a machine movement.
The machine is designed so that it can manouver so as to break a leg. The machine should have a physically limited range of motion which does not exceed the wearers!
So I would have no problem wearing an exoskeleton, if it was designed not to be able to break the human body inside, if it isn't... who the hell designed it?
Beautiful! Now all we need is somewhere to post the information! I guess we could tell SCO themselves, but I'd rather tell someone else like IBM! I can just imagine SCO telling the court "and on the 3rd and 4th March 2004 we distributed linux kernel source 2.4.21 for sco linux under the gpl to 20,000 anonymous users from our public web server".
How about Cockfosters in London. I spent an entire holiday laughing about it on holidays after I saw the name (along with some friends), typed it in when I got back to work and triggered their content monitor, access denied!
One of the other great things they are doing here in Ireland with respect to this is changing the machines without testing! The trial that you mentioned was run on a Series 1 machine, but thanks to our system with large multiple seat constituencies (up to 5 seats) they are actually using the series 2 machine to which they have since decided to add the ability to spoil a vote! So all testing has been invalidated twice!
They are planning on a nationwide rollout which will involve the distribution of almost 7,000 voting machines in 267 local electoral areas. They are planning on using the machines in the June European and Local elections.
Now this being slashdot, I thought I should really give you all a few links to set you on your way (and even one which gets technical, to the level of analysing conforming to standard best coding practices and adherence to ANSI C):
Press Release from 25th Feb confirming the government plans, and the establishment of a Commission to verify the "secrecy and accuracy" of the Nedap/Powervote system.
Report done by a group oppossed to the current plans, analysing the requirements and the proposed system. Should include the lovely link to this 2002 report, obtained under the Freedom of Information act and found by google, which is the software test report on the system?
Nice write up on the sort of rubbish being spouted about e-voting in Ireland.
If slashdot decided to launch a political party, what would it have to do to get the government to pay for running an in-party competition to decide if we want Roblimo or CowboyNeal for President? I can only assume this is an open possibility for anyone, I just wonder what the barriers to entry are? I know that to actually stand for President in a state you must have a number of signatures, but what if you only want to decide who you want to try and collect the signatures for?
Also, the only reason why gnome was created in the first place is null and void. Now that Novell has taken over Ximain you can expect VENDOR lock in. Want groupware for linux? Thats $300 a seat.
Gnome was created because KDE was based on QT which was not free software. As far as I understand it, QT is now free though the port for windows in not, someone could port the GPL QT onto windows but no-one has (that I have heard of) and until that happens Gnome/GTK still has a reason to exist even if it is inferior.
As for Novell's purchase of Ximian, there are multiple things to consider. First, Ximian is not Gnome like Trolltech is QT so Novell can do very little to impact Gnome. Secondly Novell have their original business, Ximian and Suse to bring into co-existance. I suspect that you will see them focusing on building a Suse product line which is based on Free software, but interoperates flawlessly with all the proprietary solutions they have. They will certainly be looking for per seat charges for supported solutions, whether proprietary or free, but I doubt you will see them dropping free software tools which they can exploit to provide a complete solution simply out of spite, surely their purchases show that they want to take advantage of the free software world, even if they mightn't want to give away their work (which is no problem as long as the work remains GPL, each recipient can decide what to do with it).
Can you simply subscribe to napster and stream the content to disc, thus illegally "buying" it? It's not that I want to do this, it's just that I would imagine that if people cannot do this (or have to go d2a2d to do it) then their market will always be much smaller than the stores, if however you can rip off the content then I imagine many users will go that route as a cheaper way to get their hands on music that's slightly more legal than simply going peer to peer. Come to think of it, can you just timeshift the napster content legally? I presume not as you can control it's delivery but...
Here is a post about this story. It's even worse then you describe in every way. This guy set out to snare people looking for the Windows Source code into downloading a linux kernel from his torrent, and he even used slashdot to get people to it in the first place by posting here. The fun part was when he discovered his dsl was down thanks to a valentine legal letter from MS (included in linked post).
The flip side of what you say (and it is summed up in your first sentence) is that Linux is more likely to support older hardware, so which has greater hardware support depends on the age of the hardware in question, or the general answer is, as you said "It doesn't matter if you're running linux or windows as far as hardware support" unless you want to buy new hardware (which will come with Windows pre-installed on hardware selected for its windows drivers or will be a component which will ship with drivers for some of the newest OSs (in rare cases including Linux)).
My understanding of Irish law is quite simply that, if a company is guilty of a criminal act then the directors (and even large shareholders) can be held liable. Are you really telling me I can set up a corporation in the USA, employ a bunch of people to setup a protection racket and not be liable for anything because I set up a corporation to do it? Can I setup a hitman service, child porn? If that isn't garbage then my view of the US system just managed to go even lower!
In case you haven't figured it out yet, Kieth Packard wants freedekstop.org's release to be Free as in DFSG free as in Free by Debian standards and perfectly includable in main (where XFree86 has been kept up until know though reviewing XFree86 revealed it has some problems as is, though only a couple of files).
5) Has contributors tearing their hair out wondering what is happening their work and how, when and if it will ever be applied
Basically XFree86 is a closed development (you can watch their cvs commits) though it was releasing DFSG-free code. Now it is not going to be releasing DFSG-free code why would Linux distributions for one stick with it unless the act of replacing it was too hard (but it isn't, just take 4.3.99?)? Added bonus is they also get to setup a new open development model.
There are free drivers in XFree86. There are people all over the place already who have been working on these and porting them and X onto various architectures. It is a significant work, but there are a lot of people/companies interested in it! I suspect that in the very very near future you will suddenly see alpha ports of drivers (or even just one) over to the fdo xserver unless XFree86 reverses this decision. I suspect it is already too late for XFree86, and the hearts and minds of everyone who matters (except possibly hardware manufacturers, who will follow the distributions) have already decided that fdo is coming.
I suspect you couldn't be more wrong if you tried:-)
Firstly I think XFree86 will fall off the face of the earth. If distributions don't package it but instead go with X from freedesktop.org, XFree86 will die in weeks as developers will move over to the new, freer codebase (Keith Packard has said he wants the freedesktop.org release to be DFSG-free).
Replacing X cleanly on a package managed system has always been one of the more tricky things around, why do you think this will change? And what do you think will be the desire for people to support an organisation which the distributions have all turned their back on? I don't think the distributors only problem is distributing it themselves, I cannot see any good reason for them to help people use XFree86, it only slows development of their chosen system, and unless they release with a major showstopper (like no 3d and I don't see that happening) what will be the justification for doing the work?
This isn't just about gaming, it's about X! But to address what most people seem concerned about, binary drivers (this is why I try and pick hardware based on the Free driver support) the death of XFree86 will be a fait acompli if freedesktop.org can get the hardware manufacturers who currently supply binary drivers to announce that they will be shipping freedesktop.org drivers (and preferably not be shipping XFree86 4.4 drivers). If the hardware manufacturers won't do that then XFree86 may well become the closed binary drivers X, and freedesktop.org the Free one, in which case perhaps someone like transgaming would take on the work of providing a system for people to use XFree86. This is why it has always and will always be vital for people to work on Free drivers, even when binary drivers exist, otherwise you remain in the hands of the hardware manufacturers.
I think a bright future is ahead for X, and I just hope XFree86 don't reverse their position and possibly ruin it! The Free X development is probably about to come right out into the open, rejoice and stop worrying!
I don't think the above is any sort of right answer, but I think it is as valid an indicator as counting the apparent OS of http servers by domain name. Both skew results horribly in certain directions, combine the two though and your starting to see a broader picture. Also I seem to have found an error in the table I posted here, not sure where it came from (somewhere in copy, paste/special and sort in ooo.org I suspect). The order is unaffected and the figures are relatively/comparitively similar (though the growths are generally a bit higher). I discovered it when I was making a posting on Debian Planet.
Your wireless network is not switched. Your cable couldn't deliver a good HDTV stream (well no cable modem I've heard of, the cable itself is capable), if you are the luckiest person going it just might handle a full quality DVD stream/DVB broadcast in PAL (8mbs). You also cannot compare the speed of your wireless lan with the speed of a potential wan connection, it's like someone saying, now I have a 10mbs hub, there's no need to upgrade my 19200baud modem, there just isn't a connection or if there is one it has the opposite effect of what you want, where the desire is to have a wan connection as broad as your lan could take! Finally the difference between a symetric network and a asymetric (like dsl) cannot be underestimated, it makes the difference between having a network of peers or a network of leeches. Do you want to be able to use your hdtv videocamera for a video call?
I had gathered it was using things like the relative positioning of say the stars on the bill, so depending on the algorithm, it probably would detect regular/square transformations. Fit a twisted lense which disorts the image, use calibration images to create a filter to striaghten the image, and use an editor which doesn't feature any checking techniques. Lots more effort, but not enough to prevent organised crime if they had the desire to edit notes digitally.
Take the above data from distrowatch, which is the average of the previous month and combine it with the averages from the previous 3, 6 and 12 months. Work out the change in average percentage share of the hits for each distro (well for those with clearly over 100 hits per month for the last 12 months) between 2-3 months ago and the previous month. Here's what you discover (sorted by biggest increase in share from 2-3 months ago to last month):
God that table is ugly, sorry! It reads, distro, click share % for last month, increase in click share from 2-3 months ago to last month and increase in click share from 7-12 months ago to last month.
Anything missing is either too new for distrowatches information to be useful (for example Fedora it claims has an average of 518/month whether you are talking over the past 12 months or 1) or else it fell foul of having under 100 hits somewhere (Yoper would have had far and away the biggest negative growth but it has dropped to only 63 hits).
So fastest growing distro? You choose, if you just want the last months growth you have the list above, you want to compare it to 7 to 12 months ago, then its Xandros, Debian, Knoppix, Lindows, Mandrake (spot the trend).
Slashdot Mirror
Any Free software for x86 "could" be ported to ppc, some do use assembler, but most don't. So you could want to use blender or play quake at present (for example), and if Linux PPC is supported it makes the choice Free Software gives all the greater as you can also choose your platform instead of choosing x86 or no 3d. As it is, ati using PPC'ians (and Apple went all ati didn't they) are "stuck" without the choice of trying ATI's binary drivers. To be honest I'm happier with minimal binary releases as it keeps more people working on the Free drivers which are not going to "force" you to go to particular kernels or versions of X (what's next for ATI, will they release for XFree86 4.4 or will they join the 'splitters').
But how hard would it be for them to fix up an alienised deb and distribute that, or to plain create debs in the first place?
At present SVG is simply not an option for people to use thanks to the lack of clients. SVG is still a few years away from taking the role of Flash and thats best case. In the meantime, lots and lots of Flash is being produced and used, people want to produce and use it and their only options are to use OSX or Windows. Each person who is considering their next OS will currently not choose Linux if they need Flash, if they could choose Linux (even with Flash under Wine) that's a good thing, Free Software is about choice (including the choice to use closed software). If Flash comes to Linux and brings some Flash developers onto Linux, I would expect to see them feedback into Linux and probably in particular into SVG tools (unless Flash provides what they need), they would have the motivation of not wanting to have to keep lining Macromedia's pockets while also having the appreciation of when it is cheaper to just do it. We could also see a load of Flash designers suddenly taking an interest in theme designing (and perhaps interfaces) and hence a lot more vector based themes out there (and maybe even some good and innovative ones). Everything that gives more choice on Linux is good! Hell I'd even welcome an Office port because of the people it could bring with it. Now if the Office port insisted you had to taint your kernel with a closed MS module ... but as long as people are simply releasing normal software it is all just adding choice and that in instelf is a Freedom! Of course Flash 7 already has a gold medal from crossover and flash mx a bronze so it looks like Macromedia can probably get a very good port onto Linux quite easily unless they have done something drastic in flash mx 2004.
Never forget that Microsoft has been deemed by the US courts to have a monopoly and as such to be subject to anti-trust laws. Microsoft cannot simply act as any small business would and hence could be breaking the law by doing things perfectly legal for others to do!
We're not talking about pure software here, we are talking about hardware and possibly sotware combinations. It is just the same as region coding in dvd players, the player can have an engineering menu to disable it but otherwise your generally into the sort of serious hardware hacking hardly anyone does.
- You have the leg strength to break your own leg and do so by resisting a machine movement.
- The machine is designed so that it can manouver so as to break a leg. The machine should have a physically limited range of motion which does not exceed the wearers!
So I would have no problem wearing an exoskeleton, if it was designed not to be able to break the human body inside, if it isn'tBeautiful! Now all we need is somewhere to post the information! I guess we could tell SCO themselves, but I'd rather tell someone else like IBM! I can just imagine SCO telling the court "and on the 3rd and 4th March 2004 we distributed linux kernel source 2.4.21 for sco linux under the gpl to 20,000 anonymous users from our public web server".
How about Cockfosters in London. I spent an entire holiday laughing about it on holidays after I saw the name (along with some friends), typed it in when I got back to work and triggered their content monitor, access denied!
One of the other great things they are doing here in Ireland with respect to this is changing the machines without testing! The trial that you mentioned was run on a Series 1 machine, but thanks to our system with large multiple seat constituencies (up to 5 seats) they are actually using the series 2 machine to which they have since decided to add the ability to spoil a vote! So all testing has been invalidated twice!
They are planning on a nationwide rollout which will involve the distribution of almost 7,000 voting machines in 267 local electoral areas. They are planning on using the machines in the June European and Local elections.
Now this being slashdot, I thought I should really give you all a few links to set you on your way (and even one which gets technical, to the level of analysing conforming to standard best coding practices and adherence to ANSI C):
If slashdot decided to launch a political party, what would it have to do to get the government to pay for running an in-party competition to decide if we want Roblimo or CowboyNeal for President? I can only assume this is an open possibility for anyone, I just wonder what the barriers to entry are? I know that to actually stand for President in a state you must have a number of signatures, but what if you only want to decide who you want to try and collect the signatures for?
I'm only going to address one part of your post.
Gnome was created because KDE was based on QT which was not free software. As far as I understand it, QT is now free though the port for windows in not, someone could port the GPL QT onto windows but no-one has (that I have heard of) and until that happens Gnome/GTK still has a reason to exist even if it is inferior.As for Novell's purchase of Ximian, there are multiple things to consider. First, Ximian is not Gnome like Trolltech is QT so Novell can do very little to impact Gnome. Secondly Novell have their original business, Ximian and Suse to bring into co-existance. I suspect that you will see them focusing on building a Suse product line which is based on Free software, but interoperates flawlessly with all the proprietary solutions they have. They will certainly be looking for per seat charges for supported solutions, whether proprietary or free, but I doubt you will see them dropping free software tools which they can exploit to provide a complete solution simply out of spite, surely their purchases show that they want to take advantage of the free software world, even if they mightn't want to give away their work (which is no problem as long as the work remains GPL, each recipient can decide what to do with it).
Can you simply subscribe to napster and stream the content to disc, thus illegally "buying" it? It's not that I want to do this, it's just that I would imagine that if people cannot do this (or have to go d2a2d to do it) then their market will always be much smaller than the stores, if however you can rip off the content then I imagine many users will go that route as a cheaper way to get their hands on music that's slightly more legal than simply going peer to peer. Come to think of it, can you just timeshift the napster content legally? I presume not as you can control it's delivery but ...
Here is a post about this story. It's even worse then you describe in every way. This guy set out to snare people looking for the Windows Source code into downloading a linux kernel from his torrent, and he even used slashdot to get people to it in the first place by posting here. The fun part was when he discovered his dsl was down thanks to a valentine legal letter from MS (included in linked post).
The flip side of what you say (and it is summed up in your first sentence) is that Linux is more likely to support older hardware, so which has greater hardware support depends on the age of the hardware in question, or the general answer is, as you said "It doesn't matter if you're running linux or windows as far as hardware support" unless you want to buy new hardware (which will come with Windows pre-installed on hardware selected for its windows drivers or will be a component which will ship with drivers for some of the newest OSs (in rare cases including Linux)).
My understanding of Irish law is quite simply that, if a company is guilty of a criminal act then the directors (and even large shareholders) can be held liable. Are you really telling me I can set up a corporation in the USA, employ a bunch of people to setup a protection racket and not be liable for anything because I set up a corporation to do it? Can I setup a hitman service, child porn? If that isn't garbage then my view of the US system just managed to go even lower!
In case you haven't figured it out yet, Kieth Packard wants freedekstop.org's release to be Free as in DFSG free as in Free by Debian standards and perfectly includable in main (where XFree86 has been kept up until know though reviewing XFree86 revealed it has some problems as is, though only a couple of files).
You forgot one:
5) Has contributors tearing their hair out wondering what is happening their work and how, when and if it will ever be applied
Basically XFree86 is a closed development (you can watch their cvs commits) though it was releasing DFSG-free code. Now it is not going to be releasing DFSG-free code why would Linux distributions for one stick with it unless the act of replacing it was too hard (but it isn't, just take 4.3.99?)? Added bonus is they also get to setup a new open development model.
There are free drivers in XFree86. There are people all over the place already who have been working on these and porting them and X onto various architectures. It is a significant work, but there are a lot of people/companies interested in it! I suspect that in the very very near future you will suddenly see alpha ports of drivers (or even just one) over to the fdo xserver unless XFree86 reverses this decision. I suspect it is already too late for XFree86, and the hearts and minds of everyone who matters (except possibly hardware manufacturers, who will follow the distributions) have already decided that fdo is coming.
I suspect you couldn't be more wrong if you tried :-)
Firstly I think XFree86 will fall off the face of the earth. If distributions don't package it but instead go with X from freedesktop.org, XFree86 will die in weeks as developers will move over to the new, freer codebase (Keith Packard has said he wants the freedesktop.org release to be DFSG-free).
Replacing X cleanly on a package managed system has always been one of the more tricky things around, why do you think this will change? And what do you think will be the desire for people to support an organisation which the distributions have all turned their back on? I don't think the distributors only problem is distributing it themselves, I cannot see any good reason for them to help people use XFree86, it only slows development of their chosen system, and unless they release with a major showstopper (like no 3d and I don't see that happening) what will be the justification for doing the work?
This isn't just about gaming, it's about X! But to address what most people seem concerned about, binary drivers (this is why I try and pick hardware based on the Free driver support) the death of XFree86 will be a fait acompli if freedesktop.org can get the hardware manufacturers who currently supply binary drivers to announce that they will be shipping freedesktop.org drivers (and preferably not be shipping XFree86 4.4 drivers). If the hardware manufacturers won't do that then XFree86 may well become the closed binary drivers X, and freedesktop.org the Free one, in which case perhaps someone like transgaming would take on the work of providing a system for people to use XFree86. This is why it has always and will always be vital for people to work on Free drivers, even when binary drivers exist, otherwise you remain in the hands of the hardware manufacturers.
I think a bright future is ahead for X, and I just hope XFree86 don't reverse their position and possibly ruin it! The Free X development is probably about to come right out into the open, rejoice and stop worrying!
I don't think the above is any sort of right answer, but I think it is as valid an indicator as counting the apparent OS of http servers by domain name. Both skew results horribly in certain directions, combine the two though and your starting to see a broader picture. Also I seem to have found an error in the table I posted here, not sure where it came from (somewhere in copy, paste/special and sort in ooo.org I suspect). The order is unaffected and the figures are relatively/comparitively similar (though the growths are generally a bit higher). I discovered it when I was making a posting on Debian Planet.
Your wireless network is not switched. Your cable couldn't deliver a good HDTV stream (well no cable modem I've heard of, the cable itself is capable), if you are the luckiest person going it just might handle a full quality DVD stream/DVB broadcast in PAL (8mbs). You also cannot compare the speed of your wireless lan with the speed of a potential wan connection, it's like someone saying, now I have a 10mbs hub, there's no need to upgrade my 19200baud modem, there just isn't a connection or if there is one it has the opposite effect of what you want, where the desire is to have a wan connection as broad as your lan could take! Finally the difference between a symetric network and a asymetric (like dsl) cannot be underestimated, it makes the difference between having a network of peers or a network of leeches. Do you want to be able to use your hdtv videocamera for a video call?
I had gathered it was using things like the relative positioning of say the stars on the bill, so depending on the algorithm, it probably would detect regular/square transformations. Fit a twisted lense which disorts the image, use calibration images to create a filter to striaghten the image, and use an editor which doesn't feature any checking techniques. Lots more effort, but not enough to prevent organised crime if they had the desire to edit notes digitally.
Notes are identical across the EU. Each country does have it's own coins, where one side features a national emblem and the other is common.
Take the above data from distrowatch, which is the average of the previous month and combine it with the averages from the previous 3, 6 and 12 months. Work out the change in average percentage share of the hits for each distro (well for those with clearly over 100 hits per month for the last 12 months) between 2-3 months ago and the previous month. Here's what you discover (sorted by biggest increase in share from 2-3 months ago to last month):
God that table is ugly, sorry! It reads, distro, click share % for last month, increase in click share from 2-3 months ago to last month and increase in click share from 7-12 months ago to last month.Anything missing is either too new for distrowatches information to be useful (for example Fedora it claims has an average of 518/month whether you are talking over the past 12 months or 1) or else it fell foul of having under 100 hits somewhere (Yoper would have had far and away the biggest negative growth but it has dropped to only 63 hits).
So fastest growing distro? You choose, if you just want the last months growth you have the list above, you want to compare it to 7 to 12 months ago, then its Xandros, Debian, Knoppix, Lindows, Mandrake (spot the trend).