I think a better metric is how much total fuel is used per driver. For example, I used to work 26 miles from home but drove a more efficient vehicle. I've since changed jobs but now drive a less efficient vehicle. However, the total fuel I use is much less. I.e., before I used about $60/week on gas, now it's $40/2 weeks on average. I don't drive an SUV, but I still don't escape people telling me that my average MPG is OHMYGOD, under 20. I'm not saying there should be rations, but I get a little upset when some joker with a relatively fuel efficient vehicle gives me guff because my car is not so efficient.
I agree that was the worst "modern" stupidity. The movie was supposedly not based on Welles' story, but an end by virus? The ending completely ruined the movie for me. Besides the deus ex machina copout, a Mac uploading to an alien mainframe completely dispelled any suspension of disbelief that I had. [insert obligatory joke about Macs (esp. pre-Intel Macs) being incompatible with everything in the known universe...]
How many people on here can agree with me that an at least semi-technical class like basic HTML should not have people in it that still can't tell the difference between a chassis (case) and a modem or call the whole thing a cpu?
Alas, in the real world hand-coding HTML pretty much means you're a dinosaur. There was a time when I could write cgi apps, hand code HTML in vi, use cool MARQUEE tags (I kid, I kid) but that's long gone. Web developers rarely ever look at the HTML anymore. Many of the developers have a graphical design background and don't know much about the underlying technology. Of course, there are some technical folks -- java/.NET programmers, admins, database folks -- but for the most part, site design is sufficiently abstracted from the operating system that a computer science minor is unnecessary.
Oh no no no no... You document, just don't document *completely*. E.g.:
1) Disable the old httpd server: rpm -e httpd 2) Rebuild the new server using the appropriate patches.
This leaves you the right to say, "I documented the process." You look like a hero for taking the initiative in just doing some documentation, and also makes the bosses stay away. If someone takes you to task for lack of detail, insist that that particular process is obvious and look bewildered that someone wouldn't know how to do it. "What? Document a rebuild? Does that mean I need to tell them how to turn on the computer too?"
Math teachers have been doing this for years:
I'll leave the details as an exercise for the reader.
As a primarily Linux user who occasionally must support Windows, there are things with the Windows installation method that I wish were different.
For example, in RPM distros I like to clean up packages that I do not use. It's pretty easy because I can easily generate a query with summary information telling what every package does. In Windows this is quite difficult. The Add/Remove programs has little information and doesn't include all packages. It's difficult to determine (or at least I don't know how) what package owns which files. How do I tell if a file has changed in a package? How do I tell the interdepencies with the packages? How do I create a list of installed packages so that I can document the system as part of compliance efforts? Even relatively simple tasks such as maintaining a local update repository seems more difficult with the current Windows Add/Remove and installation tools.
Many of these deficiencies are remedied with third-party applications for system management and package building, but it's just another app to manage (and pay for) for me and my company. Again, I'm just a Windows user and not an admin and may just be ignorant of how to do these tasks on Windows.
A few years ago I had to learn Perl in a hurry. There were some REXX based apps that needed to be moved and I got tasked with the job. In a few weeks I went from knowing that Perl was a useful scripting language to actually having to teach an introductory Perl course for the other team members. The translation process was extremely helpful. For one, it was doing useful stuff, not just what the textbook author thinks is appropriate. Second, it forced me to use "proper" methods if only because the REXX scripts were fairly mature and I needed equivalent stability.
Teaching it was also useful because it made me convert awk, korn, bash and sed functionality *and* taught me that Perl wasn't the slowpoke I'd thought an interpreted language would be.
The funniest (and saddest) part was when the rep proclaimed, "I am not a mathematician" on being asked to multiply the numbers. Lowering the bar indeed.
The sad thing is that Audrey Hepburn's dress has fetched more than any scientific memorabilia ever could. I'm a film buff, so can appreciate the significance of it, but still wish that the less glamorous sciences would bring on the same bidding frenzy.
I work with lots of Indian programmers and developers. Many are very good. Most of them are pretty hard workers. And as you say, there are some that do not belong in IT. I agree particularly with your statement that unless the solution is a stock answer, then they cannot solve it. But I can say the same about the American IT workers I've dealt with, especially those that sprung up during the height of the dotcom. Right now the number of tech schools in India seems to be approaching the number of tech schools during the boom. You remember? Everyone was an MCSE, everyone was a web developer, hardly any knew what a for loop was.
There are other considerations. The American currency was recently redesigned. Part of the new process includes some good anti-counterfeit features. This was important because the $US is the most counterfeited bill in the world. At some point before the visual redesign, there was other stuff put in (a plastic strip, some miniature letters). There's magnetic ink (hold a magnet up to a dollar to see what I mean).
So you have the same problem you face with updating software. There's a huge legacy user base. How do you retool the country to use the new bills? Vending machines will have issues. Copy machines, printers, commercial software, etc.. will need to be updated. So it's not just a matter of printing the new money, but all those other devices in the US and elsewhere, will need to be updated. Sure, not necessarily the government's task, but it's a responsibility.
Personally, I would like to see more widespread use of the $1 coin, and introduction of a $5 coin. Just in printing costs alone, it may pay for itself after a few years since coins can stay in circulation for a lot longer.
OK, the OP got modded as funny, but it's not so far off the mark.
Currently, there are billions of bills in all denominations. They have a relatively short lifetime for the smaller bills, but years for the largest. Replacing these is not all that doable and extremely expensive because of re-tooling, re-design (yeah, government may re-tool before re-design:P), etc..
The other option is to provide the relatively fewer numbers of people suffering from blindness a small device that can read/distinguish the currency. The electronics already exist and is in wide use (look at any vending machine). It's not ideal for these people, but can be done relatively quickly. The government already has programs to provide similar devices.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend I logged in close to 30 hours playing NWN on Linux. I think I paid around $50 for the game some months ago, downloaded the Linux client, then got everything updated. Easily the best $50 I've spent. If there's a pre-order list I'll put my money in.
Are you sure your all your friends and relatives actually want Linux, terrific though it may be, rather than having it forced down their throats?
You know, that just made me think of something... No matter whether I want to or not, I am the default technical support for my entire family. And apparently they are extending my family support to their friends. I still remember with great bitterness the time that some stranger appeared at my door, WITH A PC IN HAND, and *told* me that my parental unit had sent him over.
I think I'm going to disavow all knowledge of Windows from now on. If they have a problem, I'll hand them the Linux CD and tell them to re-install, " 'cause that's the only thing I know."
We need zealots on both sides. We need extremist viewpoints just for the ad absurdum arguments. You cannot decry Stallman without decrying the corporations on the other side of the fence (RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, BSA).
Think of the approaching situation if some corporations have their way: You would not legally be "allowed" to move your software license from one machine to another more than once. You would rent your OS each year, guaranteeing a revenue stream to these corporations. You would not be allowed (via technical and legal barriers) to run a non-approved OS on your computer you *buy* from a store. You could be jailed for copying a DVD, if only for personal use, if you post the code on how to do it even if you don't make the content available. You could be jailed for giving a technical conference on a security vulnerability in a well-known product.
So yeah, Stallman is a zealot, but look what's on the other side.
Which begs some questions such as, "Should software vendors be considered utilities if they start renting their software? I.e., the power and phone companies fall under lots of regulations. Should Microsoft, once their licensing model changes, be regulated as a utility?" But these questions are not taken seriously and in the end, the people pay more and the corporations make big profits without oversight.
It would be cool if this technology could be designed into something like a hearing aid. It should probably be just large enough to be inserted into the inner ear canal. If it could interface directly with the auditory nerves that would be cool.. Sounds far off, but many current hearing aids can do this. We could put the microphone so that it's hidden completely. Hearing aids are useful, and nothing to be embarrassed about, but some people are self conscious about them.
It's not so far off to think that it could automatically decode not only language, but difficult expressions.. For example:
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits
On a lurgid bee.
That makes no sense, and is almost painful to hear, but the translation device could effectively render this to the equivalent:
I all alone beweep my outcast state And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself and curse my fate,
I use it occasionally when I want to make screenshots. Recently I enabled all the gratuitous eye candy such as shadows, (fake) translucency, Crystal widget set, etc.. Even enabled SuperKaramba with a bunch of system monitors. It looks pretty impressive, though using it on a day to day basis would drive me crazy... at that point I drop back to Fluxbox to do work.
Is there any reason to care about Fedora now that we have CentOS?
I use CentOS on a couple servers now. My desktops are primarily Fedora Core 5 with a recent OpenSuSe and Ubuntu additions. FC5 has Xen which works really well. SELinux works better in FC5 than in CentOS. More choice in the Extra repository than with CentOS. It's a PITA to put FC5 on a server mainly because of the one year lifespan. There's Fedora Legacy, but it's going through some issues at the moment. CentOS4.4 tracks RHEL4U4, so has a couple more years of useful life and that's great for a server. There's lots of other userspace stuff that keeps me using FC.
The idea of an XML registry has been brought up before. There are lots of arguments against it, including that you'd need a registry in the first place, to who will write the individual parsers for each distro, to pleas for the status quo. The vi frontend is consistent across programs in all the major distros .
You must have compared this low end Dell to the MacBook Pro and not the base MacBook.
Apparently I did... Just rechecked my specs against the Macbook Pro base. THe MBP has a 2.16G processor versus the 2.00GhZ in my configuration. It also has a 1440x900 display instead of 1280x800 (that's worth $100). Add those with retail Dell prices (not what I pay) and the difference is smaller, about $700. That's still a good amount of money but I can actually get that configuration for less than $1200 with an employee discount.
Don't get me wrong.. I enjoy using Macs as anyone who knows me, or has seen my office, can attest, but I'm also a cheap bastard and like saving money. The Mac may work out cheaper in the long run, but I'm not convinced of that, hence the OP.
OK, the specs on the new MacBooks look great; however, the price difference between my Dell E1505 Core2Duo and a similarly configured MacBook is $1000.
I'm interested in hearing from people who use both Linux and Mac extensively. The majority of people I've seen recommending either Linux or Mac don't seem to know either very well. So they end writing some bullshit statements about the capabilities/incapabilities of both that just look stupid. I think they read something on the Internet somewhere, maybe five years ago, and still think it's true.
Some of the questions I have: 1) Do I need to install Linux to make it useful? I.e., on a Windows machine I install Cygwin and lots of Unix-like tools such as bash, gvim, putty, perl.
2) What's the performance under Java like? On dual proccy machines (my Opteron, Core2Duo), Java screams. Can I expect the same performance under OSX?
3) How stable is it. Macs are traditionally easy to use, but as I've owned dozens of Macs (and used to sell them too) I can attest that they were not the most stable machines out there (up until the first OSX spin). But browsing the knowledge bases and user forums (the BEST place for info) I see lots of issues.
4) How much Free software is available? Can GNU/Open/Free programs be compiled easily and natively? I'd think because it's more consistent than the hundreds of Linux distros, this would be true...
5) How solid is the workmanship. Hey, I get mocked at work because of my Dell, but it was cheap and it's fast. That's usually all I need. My Thinkpad is better built, but the $600 price difference was not worth it. What makes the Mac worth the extra $1K?
6) How fast is it? Remember, I used to own lots of Macs. I know that the PowerPC Macs were not so fast in everyday usage as the equivalent Intel/AMD chips. If you quote some meaningless statistic and some Apple press release I will laugh at you because I used them on a daily basis for years. But Macs now have a new OS, new chips... On real world apps (Java, video, disk), how do they stack up?
7) How does the two-finger trackpad stack up against real buttons? I.e., it's software to emulate two physical buttons. I've not used it before. Any drawbacks?
Stallman doesn't believe in compromising his ideals. His life's work is Free Software.
We can call him a weirdo, mad, an ass, but without his conviction we would all be locked into proprietary products. Unlike some things that happened because the world was ready for it (cell phones, computers), I don't believe that Free Software would exist if not for Stallman. That is, without him, I don't think another person would have dedicated his/her life to the cause.
Corporations don't compromise. Look at Microsoft's business tactics that were either outright illegal or bordering on the illegal. If they had their way we would not be allowed to write our own software, not be allowed to trade software with the original authors, not be allowed to listen to our own music. And this nightmare world is happening.
Sure, there has to be regulations, but not those imposed by corporations. Look at the radio broadcast spectrum, the automobile industry, etc.. for parallels.
So here is Richard Stallman. He's probably closer to the end of his years than to the beginning. His life's work is almost happening but Linux, for good or bad, is not at all what he envisioned. He's trying to fix it while he can. If I were in his position, I'd probably do the same thing (if only to be an ornery bastard).
Stallman is not compromising, but neither is Microsoft.
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I think a better metric is how much total fuel is used per driver. For example, I used to work 26 miles from home but drove a more efficient vehicle. I've since changed jobs but now drive a less efficient vehicle. However, the total fuel I use is much less. I.e., before I used about $60/week on gas, now it's $40/2 weeks on average. I don't drive an SUV, but I still don't escape people telling me that my average MPG is OHMYGOD, under 20. I'm not saying there should be rations, but I get a little upset when some joker with a relatively fuel efficient vehicle gives me guff because my car is not so efficient.
I agree that was the worst "modern" stupidity. The movie was supposedly not based on Welles' story, but an end by virus? The ending completely ruined the movie for me. Besides the deus ex machina copout, a Mac uploading to an alien mainframe completely dispelled any suspension of disbelief that I had. [insert obligatory joke about Macs (esp. pre-Intel Macs) being incompatible with everything in the known universe...]
How many people on here can agree with me that an at least semi-technical class like basic HTML should not have people in it that still can't tell the difference between a chassis (case) and a modem or call the whole thing a cpu?
Alas, in the real world hand-coding HTML pretty much means you're a dinosaur. There was a time when I could write cgi apps, hand code HTML in vi, use cool MARQUEE tags (I kid, I kid) but that's long gone. Web developers rarely ever look at the HTML anymore. Many of the developers have a graphical design background and don't know much about the underlying technology. Of course, there are some technical folks -- java/.NET programmers, admins, database folks -- but for the most part, site design is sufficiently abstracted from the operating system that a computer science minor is unnecessary.
Oh no no no no...
You document, just don't document *completely*. E.g.:
1) Disable the old httpd server: rpm -e httpd
2) Rebuild the new server using the appropriate patches.
This leaves you the right to say, "I documented the process." You look like a hero for taking the initiative in just doing some documentation, and also makes the bosses stay away. If someone takes you to task for lack of detail, insist that that particular process is obvious and look bewildered that someone wouldn't know how to do it. "What? Document a rebuild? Does that mean I need to tell them how to turn on the computer too?"
Math teachers have been doing this for years:
I'll leave the details as an exercise for the reader.
As a primarily Linux user who occasionally must support Windows, there are things with the Windows installation method that I wish were different.
For example, in RPM distros I like to clean up packages that I do not use. It's pretty easy because I can easily generate a query with summary information telling what every package does. In Windows this is quite difficult. The Add/Remove programs has little information and doesn't include all packages. It's difficult to determine (or at least I don't know how) what package owns which files. How do I tell if a file has changed in a package? How do I tell the interdepencies with the packages? How do I create a list of installed packages so that I can document the system as part of compliance efforts? Even relatively simple tasks such as maintaining a local update repository seems more difficult with the current Windows Add/Remove and installation tools.
Many of these deficiencies are remedied with third-party applications for system management and package building, but it's just another app to manage (and pay for) for me and my company. Again, I'm just a Windows user and not an admin and may just be ignorant of how to do these tasks on Windows.
A few years ago I had to learn Perl in a hurry. There were some REXX based apps that needed to be moved and I got tasked with the job. In a few weeks I went from knowing that Perl was a useful scripting language to actually having to teach an introductory Perl course for the other team members. The translation process was extremely helpful. For one, it was doing useful stuff, not just what the textbook author thinks is appropriate. Second, it forced me to use "proper" methods if only because the REXX scripts were fairly mature and I needed equivalent stability.
Teaching it was also useful because it made me convert awk, korn, bash and sed functionality *and* taught me that Perl wasn't the slowpoke I'd thought an interpreted language would be.
The funniest (and saddest) part was when the rep proclaimed, "I am not a mathematician" on being asked to multiply the numbers. Lowering the bar indeed.
The sad thing is that Audrey Hepburn's dress has fetched more than any scientific memorabilia ever could. I'm a film buff, so can appreciate the significance of it, but still wish that the less glamorous sciences would bring on the same bidding frenzy.
I work with lots of Indian programmers and developers. Many are very good. Most of them are pretty hard workers. And as you say, there are some that do not belong in IT. I agree particularly with your statement that unless the solution is a stock answer, then they cannot solve it. But I can say the same about the American IT workers I've dealt with, especially those that sprung up during the height of the dotcom. Right now the number of tech schools in India seems to be approaching the number of tech schools during the boom. You remember? Everyone was an MCSE, everyone was a web developer, hardly any knew what a for loop was.
There are other considerations. The American currency was recently redesigned. Part of the new process includes some good anti-counterfeit features. This was important because the $US is the most counterfeited bill in the world. At some point before the visual redesign, there was other stuff put in (a plastic strip, some miniature letters). There's magnetic ink (hold a magnet up to a dollar to see what I mean).
So you have the same problem you face with updating software. There's a huge legacy user base. How do you retool the country to use the new bills? Vending machines will have issues. Copy machines, printers, commercial software, etc.. will need to be updated. So it's not just a matter of printing the new money, but all those other devices in the US and elsewhere, will need to be updated. Sure, not necessarily the government's task, but it's a responsibility.
Personally, I would like to see more widespread use of the $1 coin, and introduction of a $5 coin. Just in printing costs alone, it may pay for itself after a few years since coins can stay in circulation for a lot longer.
OK, the OP got modded as funny, but it's not so far off the mark.
:P), etc..
Currently, there are billions of bills in all denominations. They have a relatively short lifetime for the smaller bills, but years for the largest. Replacing these is not all that doable and extremely expensive because of re-tooling, re-design (yeah, government may re-tool before re-design
The other option is to provide the relatively fewer numbers of people suffering from blindness a small device that can read/distinguish the currency. The electronics already exist and is in wide use (look at any vending machine). It's not ideal for these people, but can be done relatively quickly. The government already has programs to provide similar devices.
...don't you have the tiniest fear that someone in MPAA headquarters isn't reading and thinking, "Great Scott!! It's brilliant!"
Over the Thanksgiving weekend I logged in close to 30 hours playing NWN on Linux. I think I paid around $50 for the game some months ago, downloaded the Linux client, then got everything updated. Easily the best $50 I've spent. If there's a pre-order list I'll put my money in.
First thing I thought, how heavy was the moon? And how do they plan to weigh it?
Are you sure your all your friends and relatives actually want Linux, terrific though it may be, rather than having it forced down their throats?
You know, that just made me think of something... No matter whether I want to or not, I am the default technical support for my entire family. And apparently they are extending my family support to their friends. I still remember with great bitterness the time that some stranger appeared at my door, WITH A PC IN HAND, and *told* me that my parental unit had sent him over.
I think I'm going to disavow all knowledge of Windows from now on. If they have a problem, I'll hand them the Linux CD and tell them to re-install, " 'cause that's the only thing I know."
All we have to do is all agree what is gorgeous and what is not.
Ugly: ls ~
outfile1.txt p0rn outfile2.txt magoo.mpg aishwarya.avi sharapova.avi Susy_Punk_Rocker.ogg
Beautiful: ls ~
\audio \video \text
I also prefer a smaller font than the default xterm and a green on black screen. That's the height of legibility for me.
We need zealots on both sides. We need extremist viewpoints just for the ad absurdum arguments. You cannot decry Stallman without decrying the corporations on the other side of the fence (RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, BSA).
Think of the approaching situation if some corporations have their way: You would not legally be "allowed" to move your software license from one machine to another more than once. You would rent your OS each year, guaranteeing a revenue stream to these corporations. You would not be allowed (via technical and legal barriers) to run a non-approved OS on your computer you *buy* from a store. You could be jailed for copying a DVD, if only for personal use, if you post the code on how to do it even if you don't make the content available. You could be jailed for giving a technical conference on a security vulnerability in a well-known product.
So yeah, Stallman is a zealot, but look what's on the other side.
Which begs some questions such as, "Should software vendors be considered utilities if they start renting their software? I.e., the power and phone companies fall under lots of regulations. Should Microsoft, once their licensing model changes, be regulated as a utility?" But these questions are not taken seriously and in the end, the people pay more and the corporations make big profits without oversight.
It would be cool if this technology could be designed into something like a hearing aid. It should probably be just large enough to be inserted into the inner ear canal. If it could interface directly with the auditory nerves that would be cool.. Sounds far off, but many current hearing aids can do this. We could put the microphone so that it's hidden completely. Hearing aids are useful, and nothing to be embarrassed about, but some people are self conscious about them.
It's not so far off to think that it could automatically decode not only language, but difficult expressions.. For example:
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits
On a lurgid bee.
That makes no sense, and is almost painful to hear, but the translation device could effectively render this to the equivalent:
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
I use it occasionally when I want to make screenshots. Recently I enabled all the gratuitous eye candy such as shadows, (fake) translucency, Crystal widget set, etc.. Even enabled SuperKaramba with a bunch of system monitors. It looks pretty impressive, though using it on a day to day basis would drive me crazy... at that point I drop back to Fluxbox to do work.
Nvidia cards work great for me in FC5. I'm having a bear of a time with some ATI FireGL cards however.
Is there any reason to care about Fedora now that we have CentOS?
I use CentOS on a couple servers now. My desktops are primarily Fedora Core 5 with a recent OpenSuSe and Ubuntu additions. FC5 has Xen which works really well. SELinux works better in FC5 than in CentOS. More choice in the Extra repository than with CentOS. It's a PITA to put FC5 on a server mainly because of the one year lifespan. There's Fedora Legacy, but it's going through some issues at the moment. CentOS4.4 tracks RHEL4U4, so has a couple more years of useful life and that's great for a server. There's lots of other userspace stuff that keeps me using FC.
The idea of an XML registry has been brought up before. There are lots of arguments against it, including that you'd need a registry in the first place, to who will write the individual parsers for each distro, to pleas for the status quo. The vi frontend is consistent across programs in all the major distros .
Thank you.. very informative and just the sorts of things I was looking for.
You must have compared this low end Dell to the MacBook Pro and not the base MacBook.
Apparently I did... Just rechecked my specs against the Macbook Pro base. THe MBP has a 2.16G processor versus the 2.00GhZ in my configuration. It also has a 1440x900 display instead of 1280x800 (that's worth $100). Add those with retail Dell prices (not what I pay) and the difference is smaller, about $700. That's still a good amount of money but I can actually get that configuration for less than $1200 with an employee discount.
Don't get me wrong.. I enjoy using Macs as anyone who knows me, or has seen my office, can attest, but I'm also a cheap bastard and like saving money. The Mac may work out cheaper in the long run, but I'm not convinced of that, hence the OP.
OK, the specs on the new MacBooks look great; however, the price difference between my Dell E1505 Core2Duo and a similarly configured MacBook is $1000.
I'm interested in hearing from people who use both Linux and Mac extensively. The majority of people I've seen recommending either Linux or Mac don't seem to know either very well. So they end writing some bullshit statements about the capabilities/incapabilities of both that just look stupid. I think they read something on the Internet somewhere, maybe five years ago, and still think it's true.
Some of the questions I have:
1) Do I need to install Linux to make it useful? I.e., on a Windows machine I install Cygwin and lots of Unix-like tools such as bash, gvim, putty, perl.
2) What's the performance under Java like? On dual proccy machines (my Opteron, Core2Duo), Java screams. Can I expect the same performance under OSX?
3) How stable is it. Macs are traditionally easy to use, but as I've owned dozens of Macs (and used to sell them too) I can attest that they were not the most stable machines out there (up until the first OSX spin). But browsing the knowledge bases and user forums (the BEST place for info) I see lots of issues.
4) How much Free software is available? Can GNU/Open/Free programs be compiled easily and natively? I'd think because it's more consistent than the hundreds of Linux distros, this would be true...
5) How solid is the workmanship. Hey, I get mocked at work because of my Dell, but it was cheap and it's fast. That's usually all I need. My Thinkpad is better built, but the $600 price difference was not worth it. What makes the Mac worth the extra $1K?
6) How fast is it? Remember, I used to own lots of Macs. I know that the PowerPC Macs were not so fast in everyday usage as the equivalent Intel/AMD chips. If you quote some meaningless statistic and some Apple press release I will laugh at you because I used them on a daily basis for years. But Macs now have a new OS, new chips... On real world apps (Java, video, disk), how do they stack up?
7) How does the two-finger trackpad stack up against real buttons? I.e., it's software to emulate two physical buttons. I've not used it before. Any drawbacks?
Here's part of the problem:
Stallman doesn't believe in compromising his ideals. His life's work is Free Software.
We can call him a weirdo, mad, an ass, but without his conviction we would all be locked into proprietary products. Unlike some things that happened because the world was ready for it (cell phones, computers), I don't believe that Free Software would exist if not for Stallman. That is, without him, I don't think another person would have dedicated his/her life to the cause.
Corporations don't compromise. Look at Microsoft's business tactics that were either outright illegal or bordering on the illegal. If they had their way we would not be allowed to write our own software, not be allowed to trade software with the original authors, not be allowed to listen to our own music. And this nightmare world is happening.
Sure, there has to be regulations, but not those imposed by corporations. Look at the radio broadcast spectrum, the automobile industry, etc.. for parallels.
So here is Richard Stallman. He's probably closer to the end of his years than to the beginning. His life's work is almost happening but Linux, for good or bad, is not at all what he envisioned. He's trying to fix it while he can. If I were in his position, I'd probably do the same thing (if only to be an ornery bastard).
Stallman is not compromising, but neither is Microsoft.