Maybe this isn't news to you, and you do make a valid point about this story not being news. But not everyone follows Intel as closely as you do. I was glad to read this article and to know that I could buy a computer without having to worry that the next Linux update or upgrade would render my graphics performance to be slow and chunky. Of course, whether or not my graphics card is supported on Linux depends on the open source development community, but the odds of good support are much better with open documentation.
That's what makes the release of Intell's documentation under a CC license so logical. A group or even a confederation of groups working to develop a good driver can really make use of the docs. This can also make far more sense for Intel as they don't have build a driver for every purpose that their chips can be applied to. If anyone could afford to release documentation like this, without worrying about exposure to patents (as one other poster noted), that would be Intel. They're big enough to defend against most suits without going bankrupt.
I think Microsoft has been discouraging the provisioning of installation DVDs due to piracy concerns and the OEMs are only too happy to comply to save a few bucks. Imaging the disk prior to installing Linux is the best solution to this dilemma in my opinion. A better one could be System76.
I've been through the exact same scenario with Best Buy (NewEgg isn't the only one guilty of this policy error) and I found a nice solution:
1. Collect the following tools: External USB hard drive, Clonezilla or Parted Magic CD and user manual for new laptop. 2. Determine boot option hotkey for laptop with user manual. Usually something like F9 or Del (with Dell it's F12). Be ready to pounce this key on first boot. 3. Power on machine and press boot option key until boot menu is present. 4. Insert CD. 5. Select CD for boot. 6. Allow Clonezilla or Parted Magic to boot completely (you'll need to read up on these but it's worth the time). 7. Plug in USB HDD and proceed to image drive using Clonezilla. 8. Once drive is imaged, you can reboot to your favorite distro and install. 9. If fails to run properly on the laptop, it often has more to do with the laptop expecting Windows than Linux breaking the laptop. Restore the image to the laptop and return. 10. If linux runs properly, you have the oem image ready to go if you should ever want to sell the laptop and since you took the image on first boot, you haven't even agreed to the license yet on that image.
Yes, this takes some time, but its faster and more practical than spending an hour burning Windows installation DVDs or just blowing away the original disk image to find that Linux won't run on it. Plus you'll have a backup disk to use to back up your stuff.
Most of the patents out there are garbage anyway, especially the software patents as they are really just patents on ideas, not inventions. I say, if there's more than one way to reach a claim, it's a patent on an idea, not an invention. Besides, all software is math, and you can't patent math.
I really appreciate it when someone who actually does that work steps up and let us know what's really going on. I like the phone number idea as that assures me that I'm going to get a password reset message if someone tries to make trouble with my account. I also have never received unsolicited phone calls as a result of my disclosure of my phone number to Google. I have an Android phone, so it makes sense anyway.
The post by IamTheRealMike is one of the reasons I enjoy reading Slashdot. I am always looking for posts like that to educate myself. It is that spirit that brings me back over and over again.
Jury nullification would drive the point home without any violence and do so in a way that is completely legitimate. In fact, it would be hard to overcome without pulling the iron fist from within the velvet glove. It is, after all, intended as the last resort if the legislative and executive branches won't listen to the will of the people.
Given our current rate of patent litigation, I somehow doubt this conclusion. In their book, Against Intellectual Monopoly, Boldrin and Levine cite numerous studies showing how R&D fled patent enforcing countries for more friendly turf (medical R&D was just one example). While it's true we do a lot of R&D here, we're by no means alone in this endeavor. Not to mention China. They are producing as much or more R&D effort as we are and they are just getting started.
Designate Comcast as a common carrier and watch how fast they split their business between content and carriage. For as long as Comcast is connected to a public network carrying data from other networks to their customers, they are a common carrier, no matter what the FCC says. If Comcast wants to remain a private network, they can cut their connection to the Internet and provide their own content to their users.
I can appreciate your sentiments, but I haven't had the experiences you've had. The problems I have seen with Linux have been few and far between and fairly trivial to fix. As to your question of whether or not I'm learning how computers really work, I say that Linux is a lot more transparent than Windows (and probably more so than Mac, too, but I don't work with them much so I can't say). One example of what I mean comes to mind: Linux is configured with text files.
If a desktop configuration gets corrupted in Windows and I can't login to my user profile, then I usually I have to blow the user profile away to have it rebuilt. Then I have to put all my settings back the way they were. With Linux, the settings are ruled by text files, so I don't even have to log into a desktop to fix a configuration setting. Since the configuration of a user profile is distributed across a few files rather than one big registry or some binary blob, there is no need to try to access the configuration settings with a mouse as is often the case with Windows. If I have a problem, a little research will yield a man page on the configuration file I need to fix as well as a potential fix for the problem. Then I have a number of options available to me to access the configuration file, make the proper edits and test.
Given the advantage of transparency Linux has over Windows, I can honestly say that I learn more about how computers work with Linux than with Windows.
I use Linux because I find it very attractive. Sure, there are problems I encounter but I'm committed to working through them. That's how I learn how computers work and I have learned more about how computers work with Linux than I ever have with Windows. I simply cannot imagine myself going back to jail with Windows or Mac. For me, Linux is the Swiss Army Knife of computing. Anything I want to do, I can do it with Linux faster than I can with Mac or Windows.
For those who want to use Windows or Mac? They're not attracted to Linux for their own reasons so I let them be. They're paying for the subsidy I got on my computer, which has a Windows license. Since they're spending their own money, they have a right to their choice and I support that. I even offer support to fix their computer when they need help, for a reasonable fee. But if they want to convert to Linux with a little boost to get them started, I do that for free.
When i got my last computer, I imaged the hard drive, and put the image away (making Windows installation CDs is very slow compared to a quick image of the drive). Then I proceeded to install the distribution of my choice and I've been happy ever since. I've been on Linux exclusively at home for almost 5 years and I have no plans to go back to Windows, nor do I see a need to sell Linux. If people want what I have, I help them get it. If not, they always have Windows or Mac to use. It's their choice.
I would prefer the use of Linux to grow by attraction rather than promotion.
A point that is not often addressed in public discourse is that Americans have been surrendering rights just to keep their jobs in the face of demands by corporate American. Corporate America is using slave labor in China as leverage to demand and acquire concessions from workers and to bust unions here. Once we call it what it is in the mainstream press, we might see greater awareness in the general population.
"Oh, wait. When I buy a phone, be it Android, Apple or *gasp* Microsoft, I'm supporting slavery. That slavery is being used against me."
This has coincidentally been accelerating for the last 30 years. 30 years? Around 30 years ago we saw the start of:
* The rise of intellectual property * The lowest income tax rates in history * The acceleration of the outsourcing of labor to China, Vietnam and Thailand. * The acceleration of the continual decimation of the middle class.
I'm sure there is more, but you get the picture. Slavery is a great way to cause a depression.
You're not kidding about how easy the misconception is. I've installed ESX many times thinking that I'm installing something derived from Red Hat Linux. I did a little more research and now I can get a better sense of what they have accomplished using Busybox. I guess the only question left in mind that would be relevant to this thread is this: does VMware use the GPL version of Busybox or the BSD version that I've read about in the press?
A great example of mixing proprietary software with GPL software is VMware ESXi. The hypervisor rides on Linux, even the Virtual Machine File System is proprietary, yet the virtual disk file is freely available and implemented by multiple vendors. There are ton of patents that VMware owns for the ESX hypervisor and ESX can peacefully coexist with Linux.
It is also worth noting that VMware makes contributions to the Linux kernel, voluntarily.
Did I hear someone say, "Industrial commons for the digital age"? I think I did.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. While scientists and engineers know how to cram foreign genes into cells, they don't know exactly how the genes will be expressed, or to what extent, if at all. It's a a crapshoot. Which means they have no idea if the genes will be expressed as a toxic chemical or not.
If you want GM food so badly, *you* eat it. Let the people who don't want GM food have a choice in the matter. Put a label on it. Subject the companies that produce it to strict liability. That means they can be sued to oblivion if they screw up the ecosystem, kill anyone with their GM food or simply fail to label the food. Dennis Kucinich put together a nice bill on the subject in Congress.
Look, this is not about feeding the planet. It's about patenting life and getting the royalties without assuming any risk. That's the game Monsanto is playing and right now they are the Microsoft of seeds.
Fortunately, there is some true riparian hope for organic farmers.
How about giving people enough information to make an informed decision about what they put into their bodies? Is there something wrong with that? There is nothing hysterical about wanting to know where the food came from or how it was grown.
If the food is truly safe, then Monsanto and their ilk won't mind strict labeling and full, unlimited liability if they are found to be unsafe. That will never happen because Monsanto wants the patents without the risk.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe this isn't news to you, and you do make a valid point about this story not being news. But not everyone follows Intel as closely as you do. I was glad to read this article and to know that I could buy a computer without having to worry that the next Linux update or upgrade would render my graphics performance to be slow and chunky. Of course, whether or not my graphics card is supported on Linux depends on the open source development community, but the odds of good support are much better with open documentation.
Thanks for the clarification. :)
That's what makes the release of Intell's documentation under a CC license so logical. A group or even a confederation of groups working to develop a good driver can really make use of the docs. This can also make far more sense for Intel as they don't have build a driver for every purpose that their chips can be applied to. If anyone could afford to release documentation like this, without worrying about exposure to patents (as one other poster noted), that would be Intel. They're big enough to defend against most suits without going bankrupt.
I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of this.
I think Microsoft has been discouraging the provisioning of installation DVDs due to piracy concerns and the OEMs are only too happy to comply to save a few bucks. Imaging the disk prior to installing Linux is the best solution to this dilemma in my opinion. A better one could be System76.
I've been through the exact same scenario with Best Buy (NewEgg isn't the only one guilty of this policy error) and I found a nice solution:
1. Collect the following tools: External USB hard drive, Clonezilla or Parted Magic CD and user manual for new laptop.
2. Determine boot option hotkey for laptop with user manual. Usually something like F9 or Del (with Dell it's F12). Be ready to pounce this key on first boot.
3. Power on machine and press boot option key until boot menu is present.
4. Insert CD.
5. Select CD for boot.
6. Allow Clonezilla or Parted Magic to boot completely (you'll need to read up on these but it's worth the time).
7. Plug in USB HDD and proceed to image drive using Clonezilla.
8. Once drive is imaged, you can reboot to your favorite distro and install.
9. If fails to run properly on the laptop, it often has more to do with the laptop expecting Windows than Linux breaking the laptop. Restore the image to the laptop and return.
10. If linux runs properly, you have the oem image ready to go if you should ever want to sell the laptop and since you took the image on first boot, you haven't even agreed to the license yet on that image.
Yes, this takes some time, but its faster and more practical than spending an hour burning Windows installation DVDs or just blowing away the original disk image to find that Linux won't run on it. Plus you'll have a backup disk to use to back up your stuff.
I hope this helps.
Most of the patents out there are garbage anyway, especially the software patents as they are really just patents on ideas, not inventions. I say, if there's more than one way to reach a claim, it's a patent on an idea, not an invention. Besides, all software is math, and you can't patent math.
I really appreciate it when someone who actually does that work steps up and let us know what's really going on. I like the phone number idea as that assures me that I'm going to get a password reset message if someone tries to make trouble with my account. I also have never received unsolicited phone calls as a result of my disclosure of my phone number to Google. I have an Android phone, so it makes sense anyway.
The post by IamTheRealMike is one of the reasons I enjoy reading Slashdot. I am always looking for posts like that to educate myself. It is that spirit that brings me back over and over again.
So thanks, IamTheRealMike.
That's true, they are. But if you noticed in Oracle v Google, there's a jury sitting for both copyright and patent infringement.
Yes, getting the issue before a judge would have to come first.
The road is littered with the carcasses of the former partners of Microsoft.
Jury nullification would drive the point home without any violence and do so in a way that is completely legitimate. In fact, it would be hard to overcome without pulling the iron fist from within the velvet glove. It is, after all, intended as the last resort if the legislative and executive branches won't listen to the will of the people.
I can understand your sentiments, but what tool would you suggest?
The only way that is going to happen is through jury nullification of patent law. http://fija.org/
Given our current rate of patent litigation, I somehow doubt this conclusion. In their book, Against Intellectual Monopoly, Boldrin and Levine cite numerous studies showing how R&D fled patent enforcing countries for more friendly turf (medical R&D was just one example). While it's true we do a lot of R&D here, we're by no means alone in this endeavor. Not to mention China. They are producing as much or more R&D effort as we are and they are just getting started.
I think the point is abundantly clear in the following article:
http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/186-186/4184-net-neutrality-is-a-ruse
Designate Comcast as a common carrier and watch how fast they split their business between content and carriage. For as long as Comcast is connected to a public network carrying data from other networks to their customers, they are a common carrier, no matter what the FCC says. If Comcast wants to remain a private network, they can cut their connection to the Internet and provide their own content to their users.
I can appreciate your sentiments, but I haven't had the experiences you've had. The problems I have seen with Linux have been few and far between and fairly trivial to fix. As to your question of whether or not I'm learning how computers really work, I say that Linux is a lot more transparent than Windows (and probably more so than Mac, too, but I don't work with them much so I can't say). One example of what I mean comes to mind: Linux is configured with text files.
If a desktop configuration gets corrupted in Windows and I can't login to my user profile, then I usually I have to blow the user profile away to have it rebuilt. Then I have to put all my settings back the way they were. With Linux, the settings are ruled by text files, so I don't even have to log into a desktop to fix a configuration setting. Since the configuration of a user profile is distributed across a few files rather than one big registry or some binary blob, there is no need to try to access the configuration settings with a mouse as is often the case with Windows. If I have a problem, a little research will yield a man page on the configuration file I need to fix as well as a potential fix for the problem. Then I have a number of options available to me to access the configuration file, make the proper edits and test.
Given the advantage of transparency Linux has over Windows, I can honestly say that I learn more about how computers work with Linux than with Windows.
I use Linux because I find it very attractive. Sure, there are problems I encounter but I'm committed to working through them. That's how I learn how computers work and I have learned more about how computers work with Linux than I ever have with Windows. I simply cannot imagine myself going back to jail with Windows or Mac. For me, Linux is the Swiss Army Knife of computing. Anything I want to do, I can do it with Linux faster than I can with Mac or Windows.
For those who want to use Windows or Mac? They're not attracted to Linux for their own reasons so I let them be. They're paying for the subsidy I got on my computer, which has a Windows license. Since they're spending their own money, they have a right to their choice and I support that. I even offer support to fix their computer when they need help, for a reasonable fee. But if they want to convert to Linux with a little boost to get them started, I do that for free.
When i got my last computer, I imaged the hard drive, and put the image away (making Windows installation CDs is very slow compared to a quick image of the drive). Then I proceeded to install the distribution of my choice and I've been happy ever since. I've been on Linux exclusively at home for almost 5 years and I have no plans to go back to Windows, nor do I see a need to sell Linux. If people want what I have, I help them get it. If not, they always have Windows or Mac to use. It's their choice.
I would prefer the use of Linux to grow by attraction rather than promotion.
A point that is not often addressed in public discourse is that Americans have been surrendering rights just to keep their jobs in the face of demands by corporate American. Corporate America is using slave labor in China as leverage to demand and acquire concessions from workers and to bust unions here. Once we call it what it is in the mainstream press, we might see greater awareness in the general population.
"Oh, wait. When I buy a phone, be it Android, Apple or *gasp* Microsoft, I'm supporting slavery. That slavery is being used against me."
This has coincidentally been accelerating for the last 30 years. 30 years? Around 30 years ago we saw the start of:
* The rise of intellectual property
* The lowest income tax rates in history
* The acceleration of the outsourcing of labor to China, Vietnam and Thailand.
* The acceleration of the continual decimation of the middle class.
I'm sure there is more, but you get the picture. Slavery is a great way to cause a depression.
You're not kidding about how easy the misconception is. I've installed ESX many times thinking that I'm installing something derived from Red Hat Linux. I did a little more research and now I can get a better sense of what they have accomplished using Busybox. I guess the only question left in mind that would be relevant to this thread is this: does VMware use the GPL version of Busybox or the BSD version that I've read about in the press?
A great example of mixing proprietary software with GPL software is VMware ESXi. The hypervisor rides on Linux, even the Virtual Machine File System is proprietary, yet the virtual disk file is freely available and implemented by multiple vendors. There are ton of patents that VMware owns for the ESX hypervisor and ESX can peacefully coexist with Linux.
It is also worth noting that VMware makes contributions to the Linux kernel, voluntarily.
Did I hear someone say, "Industrial commons for the digital age"? I think I did.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. While scientists and engineers know how to cram foreign genes into cells, they don't know exactly how the genes will be expressed, or to what extent, if at all. It's a a crapshoot. Which means they have no idea if the genes will be expressed as a toxic chemical or not.
If you want GM food so badly, *you* eat it. Let the people who don't want GM food have a choice in the matter. Put a label on it. Subject the companies that produce it to strict liability. That means they can be sued to oblivion if they screw up the ecosystem, kill anyone with their GM food or simply fail to label the food. Dennis Kucinich put together a nice bill on the subject in Congress.
Look, this is not about feeding the planet. It's about patenting life and getting the royalties without assuming any risk. That's the game Monsanto is playing and right now they are the Microsoft of seeds.
Fortunately, there is some true riparian hope for organic farmers.
http://www.naturalnews.com/033216_GMO_contamination_lawsuits.html
That should learn'em.
That's why they want labels on the food - so that they know what they're talking about.
Ignorance of food is good?
How about giving people enough information to make an informed decision about what they put into their bodies? Is there something wrong with that? There is nothing hysterical about wanting to know where the food came from or how it was grown.
If the food is truly safe, then Monsanto and their ilk won't mind strict labeling and full, unlimited liability if they are found to be unsafe. That will never happen because Monsanto wants the patents without the risk.