Slackware, being a one man deal, is nice to see Linux as one man's vision. No committees involved or any compromise in the design, but it doesn't have the resources for something like apt... Apt is nice.
On a desktop system how often after initial setup and configuration (a week just to be sure?) do you need apt-get? When installing something you just learned about? Maybe once a month tops? So maybe you use it for system upgrades/updates? rsync'ing slackware-current and "find . -name *.tgz -exec upgradepkg *.tgz" does a fair approximation of it.
A quote about being easy from an obscure 80's movie... "Quicker and easier. Yes, quick and easy is how you bake a cake or clean a toilet bowl or shop, by mail. But quick and easy is not how you run a multi-million dollar business such as ours (Perret)."
Yes and no. Yes, every extended hiatus has me trying other distros to fill in the gaps (new gcc, new kde, new X, new distro-specific widget, etc)... But I always go back to slackware-current once the gap is filled.
If he will love game programming for the rest of his life, skip the 4-year degree. If he might want to change to something else later, say outside of computer programming even, get the 4-year degree.
Best example I know of (because they're programs I use): www.memtest86.com www.memtest.org.com was first....org thought it was unmaintained... patched it up and forked it....com came back on the scene... Took some platform detection from.org and added a new "better" randomized memory checker....org took the new better memory checker.
That's about all I can follow from the FAQs and ChangeLogs:). They seem (at least from an outsider's view) to at least respect one anothers' accomplishments. I use them both. Sounds like the asker is in a similar code situation, but the memtest* guys just know how to play nice.
I intend to one-up you. I have no life savings and only crazy ideas. You had capital, that makes it easier. Though, admittedly, I have nothing to lose.
I think you are mistaken that open source coders do not know the value of their work. What motivates them is not necessarily its monetary value. If most open source coders are professional coders during the day, they know exactly what their time / energy is worth.
Red Hat (while $$ whores these days) worked their asses off to make a cohesive distribution out of the wild and wooly linux scene. It wasn't / isn't my cup of tea, but they've done a lot to give back to OSS along their way. They saw that Linux (OSS) had potential as a commerical business and stuck with it. Yeah, they make all the money. That's what businesses do. They hired some of the coders that made linux what it is today (Alan Cox).
When just being an MSCE is grounds for making $100,000+ (in the bubble), there needs to be a long, hard soul search before the regulars can get back to work. Commercial software (Games, OSes, Entertainment apps, websites) is shit these days anyway. Might as well make it go fully belly up and start fresh.
Apache has money, but it's not going to support a fulltime staff of coders with what it has in the bank. http://www.guidestar.org/controller/searchR esults.gs?action_gsReport=1&npoId=1166096
I know Oracle Portal runs apache internally (while selling for $$$). I'm not sure how much support IBM, Oracle, etc give Apache. I think because it is a stable network server (not real sexy in the eyes of users or developers) it doesn't need a full staff of programmers to make new and interesting things. (But yet apache.org always has something new...)
Red Hat want's your money. It's the odd man out when saying Linux, Apache, Red Hat... Apache is BSD, it wants to be loved by all. Linux is GPL, it wants to be free and the best. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is costly and not entirely free nor downloadable. As an act of good faith the OSS community gets Fedora Core.
You've stated Red Hat needs Linux to be Open Source, but that's not necessarily saying Red Hat cares about open source.
To contradict what you said (and then argee with you): Anyone can steal Linux, but any cool changes they make go right back to Red Hat. So you can't steal it for long... So I think Red Hat made a business decision to go with Linux because even if someone has the upper hand, it won't be for long. And if Red Hat beats them to the cool new changes (read: innovations) they will remain on top.
IMHO, this all changed with RHEL. Now RH is in the software business and that means rock solid support ($$$) and less daring innovations.
1) Don't have it available for download (RHEL anyone?) You purcahse the software, you get the source. There is nothing in the GPL that says you can't sell your software for $1,000. (Yeah, then that person who bought it can give the source away for free if they want to. But with a $1,000 investment, why would they?) Look at TrollTech's Qt: they dual license to allow people to play with the source, but others to buy it if they need it. 2) To value-add is to innovate. If you're not making it up on support, and you actually have to sell the product (think tuxracer), you have to continually innovate just like everybody else. Make the product do more.
The bottom line is: You, as the author, get to decide if having it open source is in your best interest (whether you're a company or individual). And once that is decided you can decided how much to charge and how much to "embrace" the open source community. Look at WineX -- do they embrace the community? Not a whole lot, but they don't outright offend them.
There are models that exists out there (RHEL, WineX, Qt), but everyone assumes GPL = free CVS and binary packages. It does not have to end there or even necessarily begin there either.
Open source is not about making it up on support. It's about making a better program. When you, as the lone coder, can do that: people will buy yours instead.
Does apache group care about support? Does lkml care about support? Did mommy and daddy grease the way for either apache or linux? A person, or people, saw the need (probably their own) for a specific piece of software and made it. Get the chip off your shoulder.
Does redhat care about open source? No. It's just a means to an end. If they build a better product they, expect to get paid (Which, I suppose, they think RHEL is). They are just like any other software company.
Yeah, right. Lazy people memorizing only the final result of a conversion and then remembering it incorrectly only happens in the US?
While it's interesting that everyone has their own conversion of a meter in to inches, it is not interesting because: 1) The conversion is known and exact: 1 in = 2.54 cm is exact. 2) There isn't even a precision problem (more digits than a double will hold). 3) He seems like a smart fellow... He should have known to check his references:).
Yes. (Reboot out of Linux and boot a normal game.)
PS2 Linux FAQ - Can I Play PS2 Games under Linux?
It takes some memory card space and installs itself to the included harddrive. Other than that, it doesn't change the PS2 at all.
I suppose I'm just biased because the Net Yaroze (Playstation 1 hobbyist kit) was $800 and you had to sign your life, first born child, and all code you wrote to Sony to get your hands on it. For $99 you get the hardware and some crippled access to the real DVD drive (use a USB one instead...) -- Seems like a good exchange to me.
Did you code on it at all? I'm sure it sucks as a desktop, but using it to play around with a (decently) powerful embeded device might be kinda fun. Either way, mine is on the way:).
I doubt they will "unbundle" it. It's been out for a while and it seems like they have no intention of selling the individal components. They want to make sure whoever buys it can use Linux immediately (assuming they have a PS2 and memeory card).
Here's the link to the PS2 Linux FAQ discussing the HD and other games:
PS2 Linux FAQ
IMHO, I think the HD will work for FFXI, but either PS2 Linux or FFXI at a time (requiring a format in between). Will we ever see FFXI without a harddrive? I dunno.
UCSB had some stupid rule about only allowing Windows 2000 on their resnet... No XP, no Linux, no 98 SE, no FreeBSD. Some admin got a wild hair. Let them run whatever they want. If you don't like all the worms: 1) Get more bandwidth. 2) Block port 135 at the router/switch. 3) Educate the students -- they don't like slow connections and they don't like worms running around.
Point 1: No one is willing to pay for security any more! No one gives a damn! So your Information Security claim is irrevelant. Why is Windows on the desktop? Because it's quick and it's easy and when it gets hacked you just reinstall. It's cheaper to ignore the security problem.
Point 2: Yes threats are real (see point 1), but you have products to ship, contracts to uphold, and work to get done. If Linux allows you to do that faster, it makes good business sense. If you don't want to pay the tech support people $3 more because they have to know Linux as well... It makes good business sense to have Linux be hush, hush.
Slashdot Mirror
Slackware, being a one man deal, is nice to see Linux as one man's vision. No committees involved or any compromise in the design, but it doesn't have the resources for something like apt... Apt is nice.
On a desktop system how often after initial setup and configuration (a week just to be sure?) do you need apt-get? When installing something you just learned about? Maybe once a month tops? So maybe you use it for system upgrades/updates? rsync'ing slackware-current and "find . -name *.tgz -exec upgradepkg *.tgz" does a fair approximation of it.
A quote about being easy from an obscure 80's movie...
"Quicker and easier. Yes, quick and easy is how you bake a cake or clean a toilet bowl or shop, by mail. But quick and easy is not how you run a multi-million dollar business such as ours (Perret)."
Those that are stuck on a sudo box have adapted (as all these child posts will show)...
My particular brand of crazy is:
$ sudo bash
That's for Pat to decide / enforce...
Yes and no.
Yes, every extended hiatus has me trying other distros to fill in the gaps (new gcc, new kde, new X, new distro-specific widget, etc)...
But I always go back to slackware-current once the gap is filled.
Slackware Package websites:
www.linuxpackages.net
www.slackware-current.net
(There are more, but these are easy to remember.)
They're very nice for any omissions and/or upgrades between release versions.
If he will love game programming for the rest of his life, skip the 4-year degree.
If he might want to change to something else later, say outside of computer programming even, get the 4-year degree.
A Dreamcast MMO! AWESOME! Those crazy hackers will never let it die!
DC? DC Comics? A DC Comics MMO? Bullocks!
Best example I know of (because they're programs I use): .com was first... .org thought it was unmaintained... patched it up and forked it... .com came back on the scene... Took some platform detection from .org and added a new "better" randomized memory checker... .org took the new better memory checker.
:). They seem (at least from an outsider's view) to at least respect one anothers' accomplishments. I use them both. Sounds like the asker is in a similar code situation, but the memtest* guys just know how to play nice.
www.memtest86.com
www.memtest.org
That's about all I can follow from the FAQs and ChangeLogs
I intend to one-up you. I have no life savings and only crazy ideas. You had capital, that makes it easier. Though, admittedly, I have nothing to lose.
I think you are mistaken that open source coders do not know the value of their work. What motivates them is not necessarily its monetary value. If most open source coders are professional coders during the day, they know exactly what their time / energy is worth.
Red Hat (while $$ whores these days) worked their asses off to make a cohesive distribution out of the wild and wooly linux scene. It wasn't / isn't my cup of tea, but they've done a lot to give back to OSS along their way. They saw that Linux (OSS) had potential as a commerical business and stuck with it. Yeah, they make all the money. That's what businesses do. They hired some of the coders that made linux what it is today (Alan Cox).
When just being an MSCE is grounds for making $100,000+ (in the bubble), there needs to be a long, hard soul search before the regulars can get back to work. Commercial software (Games, OSes, Entertainment apps, websites) is shit these days anyway. Might as well make it go fully belly up and start fresh.
Apache has money, but it's not going to support a fulltime staff of coders with what it has in the bank.R esults.gs?action_gsReport=1&npoId=1166096
http://www.guidestar.org/controller/search
I know Oracle Portal runs apache internally (while selling for $$$). I'm not sure how much support IBM, Oracle, etc give Apache. I think because it is a stable network server (not real sexy in the eyes of users or developers) it doesn't need a full staff of programmers to make new and interesting things. (But yet apache.org always has something new...)
*Note*: Pig-headed opinions
Red Hat want's your money. It's the odd man out when saying Linux, Apache, Red Hat... Apache is BSD, it wants to be loved by all. Linux is GPL, it wants to be free and the best. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is costly and not entirely free nor downloadable. As an act of good faith the OSS community gets Fedora Core.
You've stated Red Hat needs Linux to be Open Source, but that's not necessarily saying Red Hat cares about open source.
To contradict what you said (and then argee with you): Anyone can steal Linux, but any cool changes they make go right back to Red Hat. So you can't steal it for long... So I think Red Hat made a business decision to go with Linux because even if someone has the upper hand, it won't be for long. And if Red Hat beats them to the cool new changes (read: innovations) they will remain on top.
IMHO, this all changed with RHEL. Now RH is in the software business and that means rock solid support ($$$) and less daring innovations.
1) Don't have it available for download (RHEL anyone?) You purcahse the software, you get the source. There is nothing in the GPL that says you can't sell your software for $1,000. (Yeah, then that person who bought it can give the source away for free if they want to. But with a $1,000 investment, why would they?) Look at TrollTech's Qt: they dual license to allow people to play with the source, but others to buy it if they need it.
2) To value-add is to innovate. If you're not making it up on support, and you actually have to sell the product (think tuxracer), you have to continually innovate just like everybody else. Make the product do more.
The bottom line is: You, as the author, get to decide if having it open source is in your best interest (whether you're a company or individual). And once that is decided you can decided how much to charge and how much to "embrace" the open source community. Look at WineX -- do they embrace the community? Not a whole lot, but they don't outright offend them.
There are models that exists out there (RHEL, WineX, Qt), but everyone assumes GPL = free CVS and binary packages. It does not have to end there or even necessarily begin there either.
Coward.
Open source is not about making it up on support. It's about making a better program. When you, as the lone coder, can do that: people will buy yours instead.
Does apache group care about support? Does lkml care about support? Did mommy and daddy grease the way for either apache or linux? A person, or people, saw the need (probably their own) for a specific piece of software and made it. Get the chip off your shoulder.
Does redhat care about open source? No. It's just a means to an end. If they build a better product they, expect to get paid (Which, I suppose, they think RHEL is). They are just like any other software company.
It's called Angels and Demons!
Wow. Does SciFi really cover everything? Can't we think of new ways to kill / destroy?
System Shock 2
(Well, it could be played other ways than just run and gun -- almost adventure game style instead of FPS.)
Yeah, right.
:).
Lazy people memorizing only the final result of a conversion and then remembering it incorrectly only happens in the US?
While it's interesting that everyone has their own conversion of a meter in to inches, it is not interesting because:
1) The conversion is known and exact: 1 in = 2.54 cm is exact.
2) There isn't even a precision problem (more digits than a double will hold).
3) He seems like a smart fellow... He should have known to check his references
Nothing at fault seems overly US-centric.
Yes. (Reboot out of Linux and boot a normal game.) PS2 Linux FAQ - Can I Play PS2 Games under Linux?
It takes some memory card space and installs itself to the included harddrive. Other than that, it doesn't change the PS2 at all.
I suppose I'm just biased because the Net Yaroze (Playstation 1 hobbyist kit) was $800 and you had to sign your life, first born child, and all code you wrote to Sony to get your hands on it. For $99 you get the hardware and some crippled access to the real DVD drive (use a USB one instead...) -- Seems like a good exchange to me.
Did you code on it at all? I'm sure it sucks as a desktop, but using it to play around with a (decently) powerful embeded device might be kinda fun. Either way, mine is on the way :).
I doubt they will "unbundle" it. It's been out for a while and it seems like they have no intention of selling the individal components. They want to make sure whoever buys it can use Linux immediately (assuming they have a PS2 and memeory card).
Here's the link to the PS2 Linux FAQ discussing the HD and other games: PS2 Linux FAQ
IMHO, I think the HD will work for FFXI, but either PS2 Linux or FFXI at a time (requiring a format in between). Will we ever see FFXI without a harddrive? I dunno.
He gets the insightful, you get the troll :). What a (/.) wonderful world.
School sucks.
:).
I'll play a game instead.
Work sucks.
UT2K4 is nice.
Girls are EViL...
(X-Com) UFO is a nice distraction.
Etc, etc, etc. Gamers have known the escapist and therapeutic benefits of games for years
UCSB had some stupid rule about only allowing Windows 2000 on their resnet... No XP, no Linux, no 98 SE, no FreeBSD. Some admin got a wild hair. Let them run whatever they want. If you don't like all the worms:
1) Get more bandwidth.
2) Block port 135 at the router/switch.
3) Educate the students -- they don't like slow connections and they don't like worms running around.
Point 1:
No one is willing to pay for security any more! No
one gives a damn! So your Information Security claim is irrevelant. Why is Windows on the desktop? Because it's quick and it's easy and when it gets hacked you just reinstall. It's cheaper to ignore the security problem.
Point 2:
Yes threats are real (see point 1), but you have products to ship, contracts to uphold, and work to get done. If Linux allows you to do that faster, it makes good business sense. If you don't want to pay the tech support people $3 more because they have to know Linux as well... It makes good business sense to have Linux be hush, hush.
I'm simliar. :( (But it's DDR300 and Dual Channel - 512 meg x2). Radeon 9700 Pro, standard clock on everything:
XP 2700, RAM at 266
~4400.
I need better RAM and to tweak out the Radeon.