Remember when running linux was all about running it on your old 386/486sx and doing cool shit that your friends couldn't figure out how to do. Playing one-up on all your geek friends about who could run the lightest or with the most outdated equipment. Remember when the biggest concern was getting a driver for your ATI All-in-wonder so you could watch tv without having to boot to windows. The days when you didn't have 200-800 dollars for a new hard drive and had to go fishing in the couch for the change to buy the used 1.2gig from Bob at the discount computer store. Aaaaaahhhhh the good old days, when Linux developers were worried about beating MS to the currently used and previously discarded technology standards, and sheep were nervous.
Now it's all about who's got a bigger pudd and who can thwack it on the head of others the hardest. What's next? I mean come on (yes that's two separate words "come" and "on" not "common") we're having a hard time getting most manufacturers or even third parties to develop drivers for existing products how much effort should be put into pushing a new, as yet unproven "standard", just so that we can say "Whooop! Deee! Doooo! We did it before Microsoft!" Let's just get the glowing condoms and turn out the lights now, I'll be Ben Kenobi and you can be Darth Maul.
Here's a concept: How about we try to let Linux stand on it's own merit. Say "Hey look at all the great things you can do with Linux!", "Hey look what Linux has to offer!" instead of going the OS/2 route and trying to be the "better windows than windows" and shooting ourselves in the foot (repetitively). Let's stop playing the "i'm better than you are" game and start doing some real work and some real advocacy. A wise man once said:
You see the mote within your brothers eye but you do not see the beam within your own. Once you have extracted the beam from your own eye, you can remove the mote from your brothers.
Profanity and scripture all in the same post I am definitely going to hell (or maybe I'll just get flamed a lot).
I agree with many of your points here and have some other information to offer.
There is a company now offering a product that attaches to the side of your head via a headset and sends signals that "mess" with your inner ear, giving you a sense of motion in a particular direction. While it's intent is to help people keep from getting sick while playing Quake/et al in my mind it would work equally as well for other virtually reality control situations as suggested. On the other hand we could just hook the pilots up to a gyroscope like in LawnMower Man!:)
Many companies are selling head mounted displays and other HUD type units that could easily be used in the exoskeleton and provide for a wide range of viewing and enhancement without needing to expose the pilot to danger. See Sony and Xybernaut.
This is not the first time that Exoskeletons have been studied. NASA has for some time had a program and several prototypes of exoskeletons for use in space.
Advances in current limb prosthetics will also aid in the exoskeleton projects. Newer prosthetics are becoming more responsive and allowing for sensations such as heat, cold, and pressure. They are also finding better ways to control the prosthetic such as picking up direct electrical signals from the body or simply responding faster to muscle tensioning. In, of all places, Oklahoma Not exactly a place known for technological innovation (my home state).
Some other points to bring up are the issues of emergent behaviour in robotic devices. I.E. Several projects around the world have shown that you may program an AI or robot to perform a particular task and that while that task is performed another behaviour (not programmed) may emerge that aids in the tasks completion. Hence "ducking" or "charging" or even self sacrafice may emerge from the programming. As these behaviours emerge humanity will begin to become attached to these robots, despite their original purpose.
Semi-Autonomous vehicles are already ready for production. Vehicles like the "Fire-Ant", which is basically a four wheeler with anti-tank rockets. It's designed so that a human pilot can strategically place it or even guide it to a target, but it can choose it's target on it's own and/or lie in wait for a target to come by. Of course the best display of semi-autonomy to date was the Pathfinder mission. Some of the newer NASA Missions are pushing this idea even further.
Other communications ideas are coming to light such as research into physics which show that you can have a partical in two places at once. If you change the partical at one physical location that partical also changes at the second location simultaneously. This could allow for instantaneous communication worldwide without the need for wires, signals that could be hacked or blocked, or transmission lag. I think this falls into the somewhat trekkie realm of "sub-space communications". Which I think someone recently tried to patent.
A secondary thought is this. If a company starts profiling users and groups of users there are a few things that can happen.
Lets say the WIZMO company makes a product and through profiling they find that their buyers are split up as follows, 80%African American, 2%Caucasian, 2% Asian, 6% Latino. There's two things that I can see happening. They can look at the product and say "hey look there's a huge segment of the population that we're not hitting" and then they can re-evaluate the product design and try to hit those market segments better. OR they might look at their marketing tactics and find out how to better hit their target audience in their largest market segment in order to generate further revenue.
and there are probably at least 5 examples of *nix and other E-commerce systems being hacked. *nux despite the sheep mentatility around here is not hack proof. It's still just as vulnerable to improper setup and misconfiguration and user stupidity as any other OS. It's kinda like the difference between buying a waterproof watch and one that is water resistant. Windows is resistant, a little splash ain't gonna kill it, *nix is a little more resistant and might take a short submersion just fine, but I'm still waiting for the Diver's version.
again people are missing the point. Of course I know where to go to get a cheap distro. This is not about you or me it's about the average user getting a distro and getting it set up easily. The point was that Linux was not to that point yet. There are companies that are trying to get it to that point but they are also the ones jacking the price up for the average user who buys it off the shelf at BEST BUY. My point in all that was that if the average user had a choice between Win98SE for 99 bucks with the ability to use almost every software package in Best Buy or get RedHat (which happens to be the biggest seller and the most prodominant on the shelves) and be able to use 2 of the software packages in Best Buy, which do you think the average user would choose. Do you honestly think he'd say "well Linux is super stable and secure, I think I'll get that". Bullshit. He'll pick up the win98 box and take it home and it'll hold his hand through the upgrade/install, and all his old files will be in the same place that he's always gone and all his old programs (well most of them) will still run. And he'll sit and smile and pat himself on the back for telling that software engineer at the company he runs that they would definitely NOT BE MOVING TO LINUX because Windows works just fine for him.
I guess you completely missed the article that this was about. We're not talking about you or I going out and ftp'ing a copy of SUSE or Mandrake here. We're talking about the average computer user getting a copy of the software. Which means that they will go to Best Buy or CompUSA and not through the "normal" channels that you or I do. We were also talking about corporate america putting there hooks and marketing machine into Linux distro's and the effects that it has on price and changes to the distribution itself. For instance I can go through the marketing/distribution machine that is BestBuy and pick up WIN98SE for $199 full version and $49.99 for Plus98/or I could go to mom-n-pop and get an OEM version for $90 that give me 98SE and PLUS98 and then use the extra money to pick up a 13gig hard drive. Most average users don't know to do this. And that is the point. Most average users are using Win98 or some other version, it's what they're used to and therefore employers are more likely to use that as the desktop at work than they are Linux. Because it's "easy to use" and "familiar" where as Linux is not (at this point).
Evidently you don't travel much. Different stores carry different merchandise. It's very difficult to walk into a Wal-mart in Oklahoma and find the same things that are in a Wal-mart in California. Best Buy is the same. For instance the Best Buy closest to me has a choice of 1 DVD player (computer) and 1 VCR with SVHS input/output. The store in Oklahoma City has 3 DVD Players to choose from and 2 VCR's with SVHS input/output. It's called supply and demand and marketing. Some products sell well in an area and some do not. I get out very regularly, enough to say that I hit Best Buy once a week along with two different CompUSA's, and a string of mom and pop shops. I know what the products are because I purchase on a regular basis. Don't accuse me of ignorance in this area. I know enough to understand where the deals are and to go to the local mom and pop and pay $121 for 128meg dimm as opposed to getting gouged by BestBuy/CompUSA for $399 just to get it in a nice box, I think I know at least as much about software.
That being the case my point was that there are distributions out there that are going for relatively high prices (even given the feature set). And these distros and the companies supporting them are targeting BUSINESS. Hitting the consumer is just a way to get a foothold to help move the marketing up the food chain.
For instance (on pricing) the barebones Redhat 6.1 your talking about goes for 29.99 while the Deluxe goes for 79.99 and the PRO goes for 149.99. And while you or I might go and get the 29.99 version set it up, then download all the extras and be all shits and smiles. Average Joe User is not going to know to do this. He'll look at the 79.99 version that the sales clerk is helping him with or go and find SUSE 6.3 that someone told him about with the new GUI (for about the same price). He won't know to go to mom-and-pop, he won't know how to set it up, he won't know what to tell the tech support if/when it fails to install correctly, he won't know how to get to his old files, he probably won't even know that those files got wiped out when he installed the OS.
Now there are people who go through and research what they are going to buy. And they call around and they talk to friends. These are the same people who read the manuals and know what they are doing before they insert the disk. These people are not Average Joe User.
Why is it that I post fact not opinion and get moderated to a one, while someone who has something as useful to say as 'hope not' and 'companies should go stick it' gets moderated up to "(5)INSIGHTFUL". I've been said companies should "stick it" many times and no ones ever said I was insightful. Is/. suddenly allowing people to moderate there own posts and I missed the news?
Well given the time it takes Best Buy to restock the shelves I will assume that all of the SUSE was sold out the last four times I was at Best Buy (since they keep it on the same aisle) or it's possible that they just don't carry it where I am. I know that one of the booksellers carry's it though and your right SUSE (6.1) is about 30. But the other distributions are not. And Red Hat is not my only example. Of course if you buy it from SUSE it's (6.3) 49.95 to 99.95 depeding on the bundle you want. Corel 59-89, etc. While I admit that they all come bundled with additional software (some useful, some not so) this is the very same reason that Microsoft claims that it's software is at the price it's at "packed with features" and "lots of extras", "world class support". Do you see where I'm coming from.
And yes you can get a distro from cheapbytes for $3.00 (or $1.99) but they also range all the way up to $86) Like I said I'm already well aware of the facts/arguments.
I'm not saying that it hasn't. Personally I don't know what equipment that they use on the shuttle. I remember the LEAP project which was advocating the porting of all shuttle programs to Linux and to attempt to get Linux installed as the OS of choice on laptops for the shuttle crew and ISS. I'm unaware of the status of that project (last updated sometime in 98 I think), I am similarly ignorant of any specific news of Linux use in the shuttle. (I.E. Linux used for mission "mission number here" for the purpose of "insert purpose here"). I attempted to educate myself on this issue but NASA provided no information at many of there sites (like spaceflight.nasa.gov) about anything related to Linux and all of the other websearches I did turned up dead-links or speculation when referring to NASA Shuttle missions using Linux.
Anyway, the problem I'm really referring to is an article posted in the news about NASA purchasing linux laptops and what they "may or may not" do with them. So I'm really speaking more about the speculation that happens about where linux is to be used as opposed to actual facts about where it is used.
*i've been quietly living out my years under a rock, somewhere on to of a bigger rock, which revolves around an even bigger rock that some dumbass set on fire.
Hello! Companies are already doing exactly what this man says. Redhat, Corel, SUSE, Debian, Slackware, all these distributions are starting to cater to what the "wealthy organizations" are "demanding" not to what "Joe-User-downloading-for-free-off-the-internet" is asking for. Albeit they are reaping the rewards of "Joe's" 3 am coding efforts, they are still migrating towards the same mindset as every other company out there... "how do we get BUSINESS".
Last time I checked Linux distros from the local computer store were running about 79.99. That's 10-20$ cheaper than Win98 with about 1/100 the software to choose from. So you tell me if I can pick up win98 for about $100 and play all the games people tell me about, or I can pick up Linux for about $80 and get two of the games people tell me about, as a newbie which would I pick. How does this fit? Corporate honchos are regular people too. They visit Best Buy, they have computers that they play games on and do accounting, etc. And for the most part they will recommend the easy, the popular, the product that "everyone" is familiar with. This is the reality of corporate America.
I've already heard all the arguments "moron, $5.00 and you can get a CD burned with your choice of distros!", "your actually paying for the book and extra's...", "what intelligent person goes to Best Buy...", "if everyone jumped off a bridge...". Truth is most people are lemmings/sheep. They'll do what their boss tells them to do or what their friends say is cool. They'll vote for Gore or Bradley because everyone else seems to think "he's fine" or "sincere". Everyone knows someone like this, and if you don't, guess what... that's right... you're one of these people. Be honest this is what the Linux movement has become, same thing with the Windows movement and any other movement before that. There are really only a few leaders and trendsetters out there doing "the right thing", marching to the beat of there own drum. But see that's the problem with trends. Eventually a trend becomes trendy and everyone wants in on it. "Joe-user" on up to "How-can-we-milk-this-Corporate-America", which disgusts the trendsetters since they got in on it to be different from everyone else, to "change the world". Hence a new trend will come. Count on it!
While some corporations are adopting Linux it's still a minority. While the press pushes the point that "linux is on the rise", they fail to point out that the majority of adoptions taking place are in test cases or divisional. For example NASA might buy a bunch of new laptops with Linux installed. Where will they be used, how will they be used, will they stay in the default configuration, are these for managers;programmers;engineers;techsupport,was it simply a cheaper way for purchasing, or was it a linux advocate simply pushing his own personal choices. Rumor and speculation abound "oh they could be used on the shuttles, wahoo!"
Don't get me wrong I know companies that are going all out with Linux, but again it's still a minority case. I'd love to see the statistics of Fortune 500/1000 companies adopting wholesale Linux use especially compared to mom-and-pop business and startup use.
If you honestly think "wealthy organizations accustomed to getting their way" are going to "take their 'schedules' and shove them" your dreaming and you'll end up like all of the OS/2 users out there. Holding the bag using software with no support and no future. Some companies already know they can make a$$-loads of cash catering to these same organizations and there's nothing you can do that will change that. Linux advocates already bitch about some of the distros that are being put forth because of how "crappy" they are and how many useless features they've added. But ya know what... the organizations asked for it, and bing-bang-boom someone delivered. Fast if not effectively. You can almost guarantee that they didn't rely on the Linux community to decide their development schedule either.
Just my two cents, thrown from way up on top of my soapbox.
I think these studies should be put in context sometimes. While it might be true that sleep deprivation causes increases in brain activity similar studies have also shown that the subject will have degraded comprehension of stimuli, poor coordination, and increased irritability. I guess I'm just kind of wondering what in the hell the schools and government are paying for this kind of crap study for in the first place. I think it's been known for some time the effects of sleeplessness (similarly fasting). Many religions and cultures have used sleep deprivation and sometimes fasting in order to reach "higher states of consciousness". Too me the deprivation just forces the body/mind to push dreams into the conscious mind in order to seek some respite from the overload of stimuli (hence the hallucinations). I think all of us who spent anytime programming, role-playing, playing Quake, working our asses off could attest to the effects of sleep deprivation. I also think a better study would be to focus on maybe why brain activity goes up, how it can be used to some advantage, can it be controlled at all, or how do these effects play into our religions and beliefs. I guess another thought is compare the results of the studies to the data on mentally disabled individuals and see if there is any correlation. I know that after about 48-72 hours of missed sleep I start seeing and hearing sh** like a crazy person. Paranoia much. just my two cents thrown from way up from my soapbox
One person pointed out that the patch would "break" the news system. Of course this one person quoting ONE other person which had a total of ONE experience with this supposed "break". Another person points out the the second security issue Microsoft knew about "for weeks" when I believe that the article stated that "users" had discussed it for weeks but only recently had Microsoft been officially notified (how true this is I cannot attest). The point here being that some of you are quoting single sources with no verifiable data to back up a conclusion or mis-quoting sources (intentionally or unintentionally). Please pay attention to your facts.
EVERY OS has it's bugs (Beta, GOLD, Developers release, what have you). The things to remember are these. Any Microsoft OS is going to be picked apart for bugs for reasons A) Huge number of computer users using the software B)People who want to find anything they can wrong with Microsoft's software C) People willing and able to sit in front of computer for hours to find any exploit for ANY system. D) People who will shout from the rooftops someone else's flaws (before their own of course)
Now when Linux gets to the point where it offers all of the features Windows does (and don't tell me it does now cuz my ATI video card will tell you different) including an easy to use/configure GUI and continues to run faster than Windows with less code. Then and only then can you start shouting from the roof tops that Linux is king. Don't get me wrong Linux is great for what you can do with it, but lately I've noticed that the companies bringing linux into the mainstream are raising the prices (linux 79.99 compared to wins 99.99) and raising the system requirements along with it. So the lighter, faster, better argument is running out of steam (quick). Of course the argument is "well look what you get for your money" but isn't that the same thing MS has been saying for years too.
Think about what you are going to say, research it, back it up with fact, think about it again. Then say it!
There are quite a few idiotic statements floating around that I would like to address.
1. You should never find out about a problem, bug, inconsistency, or discrepancy in a piece of software as you roll it out to all 100 to 1000 company desktops. This is what a testing environment is for. Therefore the scenario of, "...network administrators could be forced to grant users root access to a network..." is not likely to happen.
2. Software makers cannot test for all three billion or so hardware/software combinations to ensure compatibility. While Open Source projects are a good start they cannot completely solve the problem. A completely compatible OS or software package will come out just about the time that we all start using the same programming language and identical hardware.
Disclaimer: In the event that a totally compatible OS emerges it will be so robust (and bloated) that you will need a PVII 5000 MHz CPU with a terabyte of RAM and some sort of hard drive using molecular storage. Even then people will argue about whether or not it's written the right way, what language it's written in, and what motives are driving the person who wrote it.
3. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and is providing a hot fix for it sometime within the next week. The problem is not limited to Lotus Notes but also effects other Winsock applications (which I found out on a test machine at work using an internally built mail system.) A serious criminal entity would create problems in less obvious ways and in the end not provide a fix for the problem. Do you really think that Microsoft would attempt, in one fail swoop, to destroy a competitor, alienate more customers, bring more negative press attention, while also inciting more legal battles? The point: this is probably more of a testing discrepancy on someone's part than a grand plot to overthrow the world for Emperor Bill.
4. Your way is not the Holy Grail. Being a third generation geek, I can pull from about forty years of experience. There will never be ONE way to do something. Use what is right for YOU and for YOUR business and try not to drag anyone down with your own personal and sometimes biased views. While Linux/MS-Windows might work for your seventy-something grandfather, it might not work for mine, and vice versa. Don't look down on someone or cast aspersions on him or her based on the software choice that they make, that's what works for them and they are not forcing you to do anything.
5. If you're smart enough to install and use Linux then you're probably smart enough to not buy a computer from Best Buy or Circuit City. In fact you are probably even smart enough to do a little research and then go to the local computer store and buy all the parts to build your own system, install your own chosen OS, and your own favorite software. What a concept! In the end you'll spend less, have a better system, be happier with the results, and will not be sitting around bitching that someone "forced" you to get a computer with an OS that you didn't want or need to pay for.
6. You have choices in your life. You can choose to sit and bitch about software companies that make bad software. You can complain about your project manager that refuses to see the benefits of Linux. You can gripe about the choices that everyone else makes. You can continue to see yourself as powerless. You can post nonsense, forget about grammar and spell checking (come on != common && they're != there || their), and insult peoples intelligence. You can cast aspersions on someone's character, genetic heritage, country of origin, or intelligence quotient. On the other hand, you can make a choice. You can be polite as long as possible. You can use a spell/grammar checker and think while you write. You can see yourself as having power. You can get another job where your ideas are appreciated or better yet work your way up to where you are the one making decisions about software. Lastly, you can choose not to buy or use offending or poorly designed software (for your own personal use) or some of you can even choose to create better software. Make a choice.
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Now it's all about who's got a bigger pudd and who can thwack it on the head of others the hardest. What's next? I mean come on (yes that's two separate words "come" and "on" not "common") we're having a hard time getting most manufacturers or even third parties to develop drivers for existing products how much effort should be put into pushing a new, as yet unproven "standard", just so that we can say "Whooop! Deee! Doooo! We did it before Microsoft!" Let's just get the glowing condoms and turn out the lights now, I'll be Ben Kenobi and you can be Darth Maul.
Here's a concept: How about we try to let Linux stand on it's own merit. Say "Hey look at all the great things you can do with Linux!", "Hey look what Linux has to offer!" instead of going the OS/2 route and trying to be the "better windows than windows" and shooting ourselves in the foot (repetitively). Let's stop playing the "i'm better than you are" game and start doing some real work and some real advocacy. A wise man once said:
You see the mote within your brothers eye but you do not see the beam within your own. Once you have extracted the beam from your own eye, you can remove the mote from your brothers.
Profanity and scripture all in the same post I am definitely going to hell (or maybe I'll just get flamed a lot).
There is a company now offering a product that attaches to the side of your head via a headset and sends signals that "mess" with your inner ear, giving you a sense of motion in a particular direction. While it's intent is to help people keep from getting sick while playing Quake/et al in my mind it would work equally as well for other virtually reality control situations as suggested. On the other hand we could just hook the pilots up to a gyroscope like in LawnMower Man! :)
Many companies are selling head mounted displays and other HUD type units that could easily be used in the exoskeleton and provide for a wide range of viewing and enhancement without needing to expose the pilot to danger. See Sony and Xybernaut.
This is not the first time that Exoskeletons have been studied. NASA has for some time had a program and several prototypes of exoskeletons for use in space.
Advances in current limb prosthetics will also aid in the exoskeleton projects. Newer prosthetics are becoming more responsive and allowing for sensations such as heat, cold, and pressure. They are also finding better ways to control the prosthetic such as picking up direct electrical signals from the body or simply responding faster to muscle tensioning. In, of all places, Oklahoma Not exactly a place known for technological innovation (my home state).
Some other points to bring up are the issues of emergent behaviour in robotic devices. I.E. Several projects around the world have shown that you may program an AI or robot to perform a particular task and that while that task is performed another behaviour (not programmed) may emerge that aids in the tasks completion. Hence "ducking" or "charging" or even self sacrafice may emerge from the programming. As these behaviours emerge humanity will begin to become attached to these robots, despite their original purpose.
Semi-Autonomous vehicles are already ready for production. Vehicles like the "Fire-Ant", which is basically a four wheeler with anti-tank rockets. It's designed so that a human pilot can strategically place it or even guide it to a target, but it can choose it's target on it's own and/or lie in wait for a target to come by. Of course the best display of semi-autonomy to date was the Pathfinder mission. Some of the newer NASA Missions are pushing this idea even further.
Other communications ideas are coming to light such as research into physics which show that you can have a partical in two places at once. If you change the partical at one physical location that partical also changes at the second location simultaneously. This could allow for instantaneous communication worldwide without the need for wires, signals that could be hacked or blocked, or transmission lag. I think this falls into the somewhat trekkie realm of "sub-space communications". Which I think someone recently tried to patent.
just my two cents.
A secondary thought is this. If a company starts profiling users and groups of users there are a few things that can happen.
Lets say the WIZMO company makes a product and through profiling they find that their buyers are split up as follows, 80%African American, 2%Caucasian, 2% Asian, 6% Latino. There's two things that I can see happening. They can look at the product and say "hey look there's a huge segment of the population that we're not hitting" and then they can re-evaluate the product design and try to hit those market segments better. OR they might look at their marketing tactics and find out how to better hit their target audience in their largest market segment in order to generate further revenue.
In the end how will either of these hurt us?
and there are probably at least 5 examples of *nix and other E-commerce systems being hacked. *nux despite the sheep mentatility around here is not hack proof. It's still just as vulnerable to improper setup and misconfiguration and user stupidity as any other OS. It's kinda like the difference between buying a waterproof watch and one that is water resistant. Windows is resistant, a little splash ain't gonna kill it, *nix is a little more resistant and might take a short submersion just fine, but I'm still waiting for the Diver's version.
again people are missing the point. Of course I know where to go to get a cheap distro. This is not about you or me it's about the average user getting a distro and getting it set up easily. The point was that Linux was not to that point yet. There are companies that are trying to get it to that point but they are also the ones jacking the price up for the average user who buys it off the shelf at BEST BUY. My point in all that was that if the average user had a choice between Win98SE for 99 bucks with the ability to use almost every software package in Best Buy or get RedHat (which happens to be the biggest seller and the most prodominant on the shelves) and be able to use 2 of the software packages in Best Buy, which do you think the average user would choose. Do you honestly think he'd say "well Linux is super stable and secure, I think I'll get that". Bullshit. He'll pick up the win98 box and take it home and it'll hold his hand through the upgrade/install, and all his old files will be in the same place that he's always gone and all his old programs (well most of them) will still run. And he'll sit and smile and pat himself on the back for telling that software engineer at the company he runs that they would definitely NOT BE MOVING TO LINUX because Windows works just fine for him.
I guess you completely missed the article that this was about. We're not talking about you or I going out and ftp'ing a copy of SUSE or Mandrake here. We're talking about the average computer user getting a copy of the software. Which means that they will go to Best Buy or CompUSA and not through the "normal" channels that you or I do. We were also talking about corporate america putting there hooks and marketing machine into Linux distro's and the effects that it has on price and changes to the distribution itself. For instance I can go through the marketing/distribution machine that is BestBuy and pick up WIN98SE for $199 full version and $49.99 for Plus98/or I could go to mom-n-pop and get an OEM version for $90 that give me 98SE and PLUS98 and then use the extra money to pick up a 13gig hard drive. Most average users don't know to do this. And that is the point. Most average users are using Win98 or some other version, it's what they're used to and therefore employers are more likely to use that as the desktop at work than they are Linux. Because it's "easy to use" and "familiar" where as Linux is not (at this point).
That being the case my point was that there are distributions out there that are going for relatively high prices (even given the feature set). And these distros and the companies supporting them are targeting BUSINESS. Hitting the consumer is just a way to get a foothold to help move the marketing up the food chain.
For instance (on pricing) the barebones Redhat 6.1 your talking about goes for 29.99 while the Deluxe goes for 79.99 and the PRO goes for 149.99. And while you or I might go and get the 29.99 version set it up, then download all the extras and be all shits and smiles. Average Joe User is not going to know to do this. He'll look at the 79.99 version that the sales clerk is helping him with or go and find SUSE 6.3 that someone told him about with the new GUI (for about the same price). He won't know to go to mom-and-pop, he won't know how to set it up, he won't know what to tell the tech support if/when it fails to install correctly, he won't know how to get to his old files, he probably won't even know that those files got wiped out when he installed the OS.
Now there are people who go through and research what they are going to buy. And they call around and they talk to friends. These are the same people who read the manuals and know what they are doing before they insert the disk. These people are not Average Joe User.
Duh that was an obvious enough thought.
Why is it that I post fact not opinion and get moderated to a one, while someone who has something as useful to say as 'hope not' and 'companies should go stick it' gets moderated up to "(5)INSIGHTFUL". I've been said companies should "stick it" many times and no ones ever said I was insightful. Is /. suddenly allowing people to moderate there own posts and I missed the news?
I apoligize for lumping Debian into the mix. It was an error.
While I appreciate your view point on how Debian behaves. I think you would agree that not all companies or organizations behave similarly.
I don't understand why if Debian is not a company it holds www.debian.com? (just my personal thing though)
And yes you can get a distro from cheapbytes for $3.00 (or $1.99) but they also range all the way up to $86) Like I said I'm already well aware of the facts/arguments.
Anyway, the problem I'm really referring to is an article posted in the news about NASA purchasing linux laptops and what they "may or may not" do with them. So I'm really speaking more about the speculation that happens about where linux is to be used as opposed to actual facts about where it is used.
*i've been quietly living out my years under a rock, somewhere on to of a bigger rock, which revolves around an even bigger rock that some dumbass set on fire.
Hello! Companies are already doing exactly what this man says. Redhat, Corel, SUSE, Debian, Slackware, all these distributions are starting to cater to what the "wealthy organizations" are "demanding" not to what "Joe-User-downloading-for-free-off-the-internet" is asking for. Albeit they are reaping the rewards of "Joe's" 3 am coding efforts, they are still migrating towards the same mindset as every other company out there... "how do we get BUSINESS".
Last time I checked Linux distros from the local computer store were running about 79.99. That's 10-20$ cheaper than Win98 with about 1/100 the software to choose from. So you tell me if I can pick up win98 for about $100 and play all the games people tell me about, or I can pick up Linux for about $80 and get two of the games people tell me about, as a newbie which would I pick. How does this fit? Corporate honchos are regular people too. They visit Best Buy, they have computers that they play games on and do accounting, etc. And for the most part they will recommend the easy, the popular, the product that "everyone" is familiar with. This is the reality of corporate America.
I've already heard all the arguments "moron, $5.00 and you can get a CD burned with your choice of distros!", "your actually paying for the book and extra's...", "what intelligent person goes to Best Buy...", "if everyone jumped off a bridge...". Truth is most people are lemmings/sheep. They'll do what their boss tells them to do or what their friends say is cool. They'll vote for Gore or Bradley because everyone else seems to think "he's fine" or "sincere". Everyone knows someone like this, and if you don't, guess what... that's right... you're one of these people. Be honest this is what the Linux movement has become, same thing with the Windows movement and any other movement before that. There are really only a few leaders and trendsetters out there doing "the right thing", marching to the beat of there own drum. But see that's the problem with trends. Eventually a trend becomes trendy and everyone wants in on it. "Joe-user" on up to "How-can-we-milk-this-Corporate-America", which disgusts the trendsetters since they got in on it to be different from everyone else, to "change the world". Hence a new trend will come. Count on it!
While some corporations are adopting Linux it's still a minority. While the press pushes the point that "linux is on the rise", they fail to point out that the majority of adoptions taking place are in test cases or divisional. For example NASA might buy a bunch of new laptops with Linux installed. Where will they be used, how will they be used, will they stay in the default configuration, are these for managers;programmers;engineers;techsupport,was it simply a cheaper way for purchasing, or was it a linux advocate simply pushing his own personal choices. Rumor and speculation abound "oh they could be used on the shuttles, wahoo!"
Don't get me wrong I know companies that are going all out with Linux, but again it's still a minority case. I'd love to see the statistics of Fortune 500/1000 companies adopting wholesale Linux use especially compared to mom-and-pop business and startup use.
If you honestly think "wealthy organizations accustomed to getting their way" are going to "take their 'schedules' and shove them" your dreaming and you'll end up like all of the OS/2 users out there. Holding the bag using software with no support and no future. Some companies already know they can make a$$-loads of cash catering to these same organizations and there's nothing you can do that will change that. Linux advocates already bitch about some of the distros that are being put forth because of how "crappy" they are and how many useless features they've added. But ya know what... the organizations asked for it, and bing-bang-boom someone delivered. Fast if not effectively. You can almost guarantee that they didn't rely on the Linux community to decide their development schedule either.
Just my two cents, thrown from way up on top of my soapbox.
I think these studies should be put in context sometimes. While it might be true that sleep deprivation causes increases in brain activity similar studies have also shown that the subject will have degraded comprehension of stimuli, poor coordination, and increased irritability. I guess I'm just kind of wondering what in the hell the schools and government are paying for this kind of crap study for in the first place. I think it's been known for some time the effects of sleeplessness (similarly fasting). Many religions and cultures have used sleep deprivation and sometimes fasting in order to reach "higher states of consciousness". Too me the deprivation just forces the body/mind to push dreams into the conscious mind in order to seek some respite from the overload of stimuli (hence the hallucinations). I think all of us who spent anytime programming, role-playing, playing Quake, working our asses off could attest to the effects of sleep deprivation. I also think a better study would be to focus on maybe why brain activity goes up, how it can be used to some advantage, can it be controlled at all, or how do these effects play into our religions and beliefs. I guess another thought is compare the results of the studies to the data on mentally disabled individuals and see if there is any correlation. I know that after about 48-72 hours of missed sleep I start seeing and hearing sh** like a crazy person. Paranoia much. just my two cents thrown from way up from my soapbox
One person pointed out that the patch would "break" the news system. Of course this one person quoting ONE other person which had a total of ONE experience with this supposed "break". Another person points out the the second security issue Microsoft knew about "for weeks" when I believe that the article stated that "users" had discussed it for weeks but only recently had Microsoft been officially notified (how true this is I cannot attest). The point here being that some of you are quoting single sources with no verifiable data to back up a conclusion or mis-quoting sources (intentionally or unintentionally). Please pay attention to your facts.
EVERY OS has it's bugs (Beta, GOLD, Developers release, what have you). The things to remember are these. Any Microsoft OS is going to be picked apart for bugs for reasons A) Huge number of computer users using the software B)People who want to find anything they can wrong with Microsoft's software C) People willing and able to sit in front of computer for hours to find any exploit for ANY system. D) People who will shout from the rooftops someone else's flaws (before their own of course)
Now when Linux gets to the point where it offers all of the features Windows does (and don't tell me it does now cuz my ATI video card will tell you different) including an easy to use/configure GUI and continues to run faster than Windows with less code. Then and only then can you start shouting from the roof tops that Linux is king. Don't get me wrong Linux is great for what you can do with it, but lately I've noticed that the companies bringing linux into the mainstream are raising the prices (linux 79.99 compared to wins 99.99) and raising the system requirements along with it. So the lighter, faster, better argument is running out of steam (quick). Of course the argument is "well look what you get for your money" but isn't that the same thing MS has been saying for years too.
Think about what you are going to say, research it, back it up with fact, think about it again. Then say it!
1. You should never find out about a problem, bug, inconsistency, or discrepancy in a piece of software as you roll it out to all 100 to 1000 company desktops. This is what a testing environment is for. Therefore the scenario of, "...network administrators could be forced to grant users root access to a network..." is not likely to happen.
2. Software makers cannot test for all three billion or so hardware/software combinations to ensure compatibility. While Open Source projects are a good start they cannot completely solve the problem. A completely compatible OS or software package will come out just about the time that we all start using the same programming language and identical hardware.
Disclaimer: In the event that a totally compatible OS emerges it will be so robust (and bloated) that you will need a PVII 5000 MHz CPU with a terabyte of RAM and some sort of hard drive using molecular storage. Even then people will argue about whether or not it's written the right way, what language it's written in, and what motives are driving the person who wrote it.
3. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and is providing a hot fix for it sometime within the next week. The problem is not limited to Lotus Notes but also effects other Winsock applications (which I found out on a test machine at work using an internally built mail system.) A serious criminal entity would create problems in less obvious ways and in the end not provide a fix for the problem. Do you really think that Microsoft would attempt, in one fail swoop, to destroy a competitor, alienate more customers, bring more negative press attention, while also inciting more legal battles? The point: this is probably more of a testing discrepancy on someone's part than a grand plot to overthrow the world for Emperor Bill.
4. Your way is not the Holy Grail. Being a third generation geek, I can pull from about forty years of experience. There will never be ONE way to do something. Use what is right for YOU and for YOUR business and try not to drag anyone down with your own personal and sometimes biased views. While Linux/MS-Windows might work for your seventy-something grandfather, it might not work for mine, and vice versa. Don't look down on someone or cast aspersions on him or her based on the software choice that they make, that's what works for them and they are not forcing you to do anything.
5. If you're smart enough to install and use Linux then you're probably smart enough to not buy a computer from Best Buy or Circuit City. In fact you are probably even smart enough to do a little research and then go to the local computer store and buy all the parts to build your own system, install your own chosen OS, and your own favorite software. What a concept! In the end you'll spend less, have a better system, be happier with the results, and will not be sitting around bitching that someone "forced" you to get a computer with an OS that you didn't want or need to pay for.
6. You have choices in your life. You can choose to sit and bitch about software companies that make bad software. You can complain about your project manager that refuses to see the benefits of Linux. You can gripe about the choices that everyone else makes. You can continue to see yourself as powerless. You can post nonsense, forget about grammar and spell checking (come on != common && they're != there || their), and insult peoples intelligence. You can cast aspersions on someone's character, genetic heritage, country of origin, or intelligence quotient. On the other hand, you can make a choice. You can be polite as long as possible. You can use a spell/grammar checker and think while you write. You can see yourself as having power. You can get another job where your ideas are appreciated or better yet work your way up to where you are the one making decisions about software. Lastly, you can choose not to buy or use offending or poorly designed software (for your own personal use) or some of you can even choose to create better software. Make a choice.
End of rant.
Nhavar