IIRC, the origional poster said he taught "Technology". Pretty vague, to be sure, but I would suspect that it covers computer software, hardware, and maybe electronics.
I have to agree with your assesment of Reality Master, though. Definately some control issues going on there.
However, as the father of a 2 year old, I have to say that kid's minds are blank slates that you can write anything to. Everything they see, hear, or otherwise experience is filed away for later use. Obviously I'm talking about very young children here, though. By the time they reach high school (the level the origional poster teaches at) it's fairly difficult to indoctrinate them, unless for some reason they are looking for acceptance or a sense of self, which one might not have if under the influence of an overbearing parent.
Would it still be acceptable to you if you had a technology teacher who was pro-Microsoft and told the students every day that only good software comes from Microsoft? Would it be OK if they railed against open source software?
Having had such a teacher, I can safely say that yes, it was OK. He was very good at teaching the subjects he taught, which happened to revolve around MS software (mostly VB). I've also had teachers who sang the Gospel of Unix, or earnestly proposed that NetWare is the only network OS worth looking at. Every one of them was an excellent teacher, and I learned far more from them than from teachers who were less passionate about their subjects.
Kids are very good at filtering out the opinions of others; that's what teenage rebellion is all about. If your kids have had their sense of self so suppressed that they are so easily swayed by any authority figure that comes along, that is a failure of your own parenting, not the teacher's teaching style. Such kids have much deeper problems than being indoctrinated against a giant corporation, like the fact that they are probably having sex because they think it will bring acceptance rather than having sex because they are in love.
And for the record, while I've never had a history teacher that openly espoused a particular religeous belief, I have had chemistry, biology, and foreign language teachers that did so. None of them caused me to give up Buddhism, although they did convince me that they were all complete asses.
wimpy outer-borough kid contracts enormous powers, learns to use them wisely and well, faces terrible danger, sacrifices much.
Star Wars plot summary (from me):
wimpy outer-rim kid contracts enormous powers, learns to use them wisely and well, faces terrible danger, sacrifices much. Repeat.
So, what exactly is so different about the basic plot structures here? Split personality/dark and brooding hero whos powers seperate him from those he wants to be with? Hero doesn't get the girl? Yeah, remember Return of the Jedi? Never shirks on duty to the common good, even though it may cost him everything he holds dear? Yup, got that too. Maybe you mean the Orphan Hero thing... Oh wait, Star Wars has that, too.
All the myth elements you attribute to Spider-man have already been explored, repeatedly and in greater detail, in the Star Wars series, and Episodes 1-3 are following the same basic lines you've outlined as well, with a few minor twists. If spreading it out over multiple films makes it to hard for you to follow, than you have no business publishing a critical analysis of the subject matter.
I've never been a Katz basher, but come on! This so called 'comparison' is absurd.
I think this is a pretty underhanded move on Red Hat's part. This kind of thing doesn't help the Open Source cause at all. We are still the underdogs, and once we start fighting amongst ourselves it just clears the way for MS to come in and crush us. United we stand, divided we fall.
On the other hand, though, how much does difference $10 make? Red Hat Pro is $199, whereas SuSE Pro is $79, and I have a hard time believing that Red Hat Pro comes with more stuff than SuSE Pro.
Add to that the countless reviews that say something like "I couldn't get Hardware X to work under Red Hat, but it under SuSE it worked automagically", and I have to wonder if the Red Hat folks aren't focusing on the wrong thing. Up til now it seemed that the distros were competing solely on technology/features; Red Hat focusing on the US business market, Mandrake with their gaming edition, SuSE's assload of included packages, Slackware for the minimalists, even Rock for the old school Unix admins. This offer seems to take the competition to a different level. It feels more Marketing and less Tech, and the marketing approach has always felt sleazy to me.
Just offering a small rebate isn't so bad, I guess. What really bothers me is what this could become. I really hope the other distros don't follow suit here, as I think if they did it would just degenerate into a mud-slinging match, and that's the last thing we need. Linux is on the brink of mainstream acceptance. It would be really sad if we stumbled so close to the finish line, especially if it's because of something stupid like that.
What Elcom needs to do is get charges brought up against Adobe in Russian court. IANA(Russian)L, but I recall from an earlier article regarding this whole fiasco that Russian law falls very heavily on the side of consumer rights, and that under that legal framework Adobe's ebook encryption is actually illegal. Elcom's product was created for, and within, that legal framework.
I understand that the US has determined it has jurisdiction because they were able to purchase Elcom's product in the US from US based vendors. Fine, I can accept that; but turn about is fair play. Obviously Adobe ebooks are available in Russia, or Elcom's product wouldn't exist. I say that Elcom should use the same tactics against Adobe in Russia that Adobe has used against them here in the US.
And yes, I'm aware of Adobe's statement that they don't want Elcom prosecuted, and I think it's a bullshit PR stunt. If I shoot somebody, the fact that I didn't want them to die does not excuse the fact that I pointed the gun at them and pulled the trigger. Adobe is clearly trying to restrict the rights of the Russian people, and should be punished to the full extent of the law.
I remember that email, and I think this is a great idea. I think it should be carefully crafted and proofread before being released into the wild, perhaps as an open source project:)
I'd certainly be willing to help. I'm not really up on the particulars, so I don't think I'd be the one to write the initial document, but I do know a bit about editing for maximum impact, and I'll certainly forward it to everyone that I know.
It is a well known fact that AMD Duron processors are made in a sweatshop in Maylasia.
Actually, it is a well known fact that the Duron is manufactured in AMD's Fab 25 in Austin, Texas. I'm sure the residents of Austin will be suprised to know that they are now citizens of "Maylasia". Or did you perhaps mean Malaysia?
But hey, smart folks like you have no need for verifiable facts, right? So much for that "no toleranse for stupidity" thing. I guess Mensa'll hand out a card to any retard willing to take their asinine brain teaser test...
Oh and, by the way, it's spelled "tolerance". You might want to fix that one of these days. But then again, since I already pointed that out to you several months ago, maybe you enjoy looking like an idiot?
Not true. Compaq may sell more computer products than HP, but HP definately produces more products. Compaq is just a computer company, whereas HP has it's fingers in a lot of pies, like calculators, test equipment, printers (Compaq just repackages other manufacturers printers), etc.
HP is much bigger than Compaq, and always has been.
As pointed out by UVaRob, that should be 2+2=11 in ternary, however, unless you are trying to claim that ternary 11 is equal to decimal 11, there is no loophole here. The actual values used haven't changed, only the way they are represented. "I don't speak Spanish" and "No hablo Espanol" both mean the same thing, regardless of the language used (well, assuming I didn't make any conjugation mistakes. It's been a few years since I've actually had to use spanish).
If you read it again, you'll find that the terms of the equations are refered to as NUMBERS. POSITIVE INTEGERS refers to the "natural" or "counting" numbers. So no, actually, my wordy answer is not wrong. However, I think I've proved my point;)
I have to disagree. It is the complexity that allows loopholes. Something that is complex is more easily interpreted differently. Something that is clear and simple leaves no room for alternate interpretations. Which of these leaves more room for interpretation?
2+2=4
The ANSWER is equal to the SUM of the FIRST NUMBER and the SECOND NUMBER, where the FIRST NUMBER has the same value as the SECOND NUMBER. IF AND ONLY IF the SECOND NUMBER has the value of the SECOND POSITIVE INTEGER, the ANSWER will have the value of the FOURTH POSITIVE INTEGER.
In my case it came out to about $10k per property for power and phone lines (there were 5 properties getting hooked up, and we all had to sign a 3 year minimum service contract). The nearest hookup was a mile from my house, but they ran about 3 miles for a closed loop, which is more reliable apparently.
It sounds to me like he already has phone service, though, so that isn't his problem. If he lives far enough out of town that cable isn't an option, then there are certainly repeaters between him and the telco CO, which, since DSL is non-repeatable, means DSL isn't an option either. If there are no repeaters then he's on a fiber loop, and DSL doesn't work over fiber, only copper. To my knowledge, no amount of money will solve that basic problem.
ISDN should be available, but it sounds like his real problem is the ISP, so it's questionable wether ISDN would fix that.
BTW, a note on the cost listed above: The prices are higher now. The telco engineer we worked with pulled strings and pushed things through to get us in before the price hike. If we'd applied a week later we would have had to pay a lot more.
I didn't say I agreed with it, I was just presenting my interpretation of the justification. I think it sucks, personally.
I agree that management needs to be held responsible for their failures, but I think most companies fear a change in leadership more than even the complete failure of the business. It's totally irrational, I know, but most policy is driven by fear, not success.
You can't say "I shut my eyes everytime I drove past a speed limit sign" and expect a judge to let you off the hook for going 120.
If I were a judge I would let you off of the speeding ticket for that excuse, but I would also nail you for the more serious crimes of reckless endangerment or, if the situation warranted, attempted murder. Then you'd really feel like an idiot for claiming you were driving 120mph with your eyes closed!
I have to agree. However, the thinking as I understand it is that the bonuses for executives are supposed to be incentive for them to stay on through the rough times. Why one would want the people responsible for driving ones business into the ground to stay on is beyond me, but there it is.
Someone mentioned that in the UK any stockholder can walk in to a business and demand to see the records of bonuses and such. I think that sort of law would probably be nice to have in the US as well, though I don't see it happening any time soon. What we need is a big Enron style scandal that involves large bonuses to executives centrally. It's too late to push something through on the Enron scandal, I think.
It's like all those people whining about how hard Linux is to install, but the last time they tried was Red Hat 5.1. For some reason they think that just because they had a bad experience 3 years ago that it's the same now.
Oh well, some people just like to complain, I guess.
What will this CD have on it? Linux ports or Windows ports?
Personally, I would use the Windows ports. They're available for all the current shining stars of open source; OpenOffice, Mozilla, GIMP. Those are the big ones, they cover 90% of what people actually use computers for, and they're all available for windows. Get people to switch to those and you're more than halfway to getting them on Linux.
Someone else asked 'this stuff is already freely/easily available with easy install, etc, so why aren't people switching already?' Habit is why. They're used to using MS Office and they're afraid that it'll take too long or be to hard to learn a new package. I just went through that with my Dad when I built him a new computer. He was used to MS Office and wanted it installed. Of course, he didn't actually own a copy, and I tossed my pirated copy when I discovered OpenOffice. It took me a little while to convince him to just try OpenOffice, and if he didn't like it he could always go back. It's been 2 weeks now, and he's sold. He finds OpenOffice much easier to use, and he's comforted by the fact that he can open up his old MS Office documents without a hitch.
This is the way to get people to switch to OSS, one app at a time. Then, once they've switched for all their major apps, simply point out that they will all run on Linux.
For home users, it usually isn't that hard. In a business environment it's a different story, since even the thought of a productivity hit, no matter how small, sends chills down people's spines. I think the key there is to get them to switch at home, where they're more comfortable and can take some time.
the bozos in senior management just finished buying up several failing companies and paying some large bonuses to themselves.
and there it is! The company likely could have saved just as much money by cutting those bonuses in half, or maybe even just defering them. But no, management has to have their bennies, we'll just stick it to the employees.
My advice is get out now. Find another job before you have to fight all your current cowrkers for it. Any company that's willing to screw it's employees while handing upper management bonuses doesn't deserve those employees. If every company that pulled this crap went under because all their employees bailed and they couldn't get anything done, guess what, companies would stop pulling that crap!
Of course, employees don't do that because the instability inherent in a move like that is scary. How will I pay my bills, people say, what if I don't find another job? Besides, the management guys say it's just for this one month and we'll be fine. Bullshit. How are you going to pay your bills on half your current salary? Once the management knows you'll take it once, they'll do it again, and if not that then there will be layoffs.
The fact is, the employees of this company are screwed either way. I say, screw the company back by making your skills/training/expertise suddenly unavailable.
What bothers me about them is they're always posted AC and never give any reasons for needing PS over GIMP other than "GIMP isn't ready for primetime". I maintain that it's a matter of training rather than actual capability of the software, and no one has yet refuted that claim (at least not with anything more than empty rhetoric).
I'm just a casual user, not a graphics guy, but I'm very much interested in exactly what functionality is missing from the GIMP.
a university has an obligation to train people to use commercial software
Unless the student takes a class to specifically learn to use a particular piece of software the school is under absolutely no obligation to train them on commercial software, and in fact I would argue that the school is doing the student a disservice if the do so.
For example; when I take a class in C++ I expect to be taught the C++ language, and the skills I learn in that class should be portable to whatever environment I then choose to use. If I'm forced to use only MS VisualC++ when I would prefer to use Borland Builder or vi/gcc my education is being limited. I'm not suggesting that the school should be forced to provide me with alternatives, merely that I shouldn't be restricted from using them if I so desire.
It comes down to this; the business of the University is education, the teaching of concepts which can be applied within the given field regardless of the tools available. Training on a particular tool is process-oriented job training, best left to trade schools or employers.
Now, obviously, there are situations where this doesn't apply. If I'm taking a class in Visual Basic I'm going to use MS Visual Basic because it's the only game in town. I imagine that's likely the case with some highly specialized scientific software as well. However, I would still argue that the university has no obligation to train the student on that particular software, but rather the obligation is to teach the student what they need to know in order to understand and interpret what that software does. I was never trained in using Mathematica, but I was taught enough algebra and calculus that I figured out how to use it, and how to interpret the results it gave me, without too much difficulty.
Anyway, I don't want this to seem like a flame. Other than that one point I wholeheartedly agree with you and find the examples you give encouraging.
On the CAD front, rumor has it (rumors are treason. Trust the Computer) that Pro-Engineer runs on Linux. I haven't verified that, though. I suspect AutoCAD might also as they used to have a Unix version, though I'm not sure if they still do. If you're just doing 2D CAD I hear QCAD is a viable alternative.
All the graphics folks I know swear by Photoshop of course (except one, who prefers Corel for some reason), but I suspect it's largely because that's what they were taught. I admit that I am not a graphics guy, but the GIMP seems perfectly capable to me.
I mean, why else would they be running Linux? Linux is for hackers, right? And everyone knows hackers are evil, desiring nothing but the total disruption and destruction of the American Way of Life(tm), just like those Godless Commies in China. Open Source is just another form of Communism.
Of course, the Chinese will say that they run Linux because of "backdoors" and "security holes" in Windows. Well, if they weren't planning to attack us, they'd have nothing to hide, would they? And if they had nothing to hide, they'd be running Windows and the CIA would know EXACTLY what they were up to! None of this "maybe" crap!
Seriously, though, how much damage could they really do? Oh no, I wouldn't be able to surf the web for a little while! My email might be delayed! Really, how effective would such an attack actually be in terms of an act of war?
It's well documented that the CIA is the largest drug dealing organization in the world, and it's common knowledge that most dealers are also users. I think this particular theory proves that those CIA boys have been smoking crack!
Slashdot Mirror
Yup, you can write anything, unfortunately it seems to be ROM ;)
A sharp blow to the head might work for a format, but media integrity isn't guaranteed.
IIRC, the origional poster said he taught "Technology". Pretty vague, to be sure, but I would suspect that it covers computer software, hardware, and maybe electronics.
I have to agree with your assesment of Reality Master, though. Definately some control issues going on there.
However, as the father of a 2 year old, I have to say that kid's minds are blank slates that you can write anything to. Everything they see, hear, or otherwise experience is filed away for later use. Obviously I'm talking about very young children here, though. By the time they reach high school (the level the origional poster teaches at) it's fairly difficult to indoctrinate them, unless for some reason they are looking for acceptance or a sense of self, which one might not have if under the influence of an overbearing parent.
Would it still be acceptable to you if you had a technology teacher who was pro-Microsoft and told the students every day that only good software comes from Microsoft? Would it be OK if they railed against open source software?
Having had such a teacher, I can safely say that yes, it was OK. He was very good at teaching the subjects he taught, which happened to revolve around MS software (mostly VB). I've also had teachers who sang the Gospel of Unix, or earnestly proposed that NetWare is the only network OS worth looking at. Every one of them was an excellent teacher, and I learned far more from them than from teachers who were less passionate about their subjects.
Kids are very good at filtering out the opinions of others; that's what teenage rebellion is all about. If your kids have had their sense of self so suppressed that they are so easily swayed by any authority figure that comes along, that is a failure of your own parenting, not the teacher's teaching style. Such kids have much deeper problems than being indoctrinated against a giant corporation, like the fact that they are probably having sex because they think it will bring acceptance rather than having sex because they are in love.
And for the record, while I've never had a history teacher that openly espoused a particular religeous belief, I have had chemistry, biology, and foreign language teachers that did so. None of them caused me to give up Buddhism, although they did convince me that they were all complete asses.
wimpy outer-borough kid contracts enormous powers, learns to use them wisely and well, faces terrible danger, sacrifices much.
Star Wars plot summary (from me):
wimpy outer-rim kid contracts enormous powers, learns to use them wisely and well, faces terrible danger, sacrifices much. Repeat.
So, what exactly is so different about the basic plot structures here? Split personality/dark and brooding hero whos powers seperate him from those he wants to be with? Hero doesn't get the girl? Yeah, remember Return of the Jedi? Never shirks on duty to the common good, even though it may cost him everything he holds dear? Yup, got that too. Maybe you mean the Orphan Hero thing... Oh wait, Star Wars has that, too.
All the myth elements you attribute to Spider-man have already been explored, repeatedly and in greater detail, in the Star Wars series, and Episodes 1-3 are following the same basic lines you've outlined as well, with a few minor twists. If spreading it out over multiple films makes it to hard for you to follow, than you have no business publishing a critical analysis of the subject matter.
I've never been a Katz basher, but come on! This so called 'comparison' is absurd.
I think this is a pretty underhanded move on Red Hat's part. This kind of thing doesn't help the Open Source cause at all. We are still the underdogs, and once we start fighting amongst ourselves it just clears the way for MS to come in and crush us. United we stand, divided we fall.
On the other hand, though, how much does difference $10 make? Red Hat Pro is $199, whereas SuSE Pro is $79, and I have a hard time believing that Red Hat Pro comes with more stuff than SuSE Pro.
Add to that the countless reviews that say something like "I couldn't get Hardware X to work under Red Hat, but it under SuSE it worked automagically", and I have to wonder if the Red Hat folks aren't focusing on the wrong thing. Up til now it seemed that the distros were competing solely on technology/features; Red Hat focusing on the US business market, Mandrake with their gaming edition, SuSE's assload of included packages, Slackware for the minimalists, even Rock for the old school Unix admins. This offer seems to take the competition to a different level. It feels more Marketing and less Tech, and the marketing approach has always felt sleazy to me.
Just offering a small rebate isn't so bad, I guess. What really bothers me is what this could become. I really hope the other distros don't follow suit here, as I think if they did it would just degenerate into a mud-slinging match, and that's the last thing we need. Linux is on the brink of mainstream acceptance. It would be really sad if we stumbled so close to the finish line, especially if it's because of something stupid like that.
What Elcom needs to do is get charges brought up against Adobe in Russian court. IANA(Russian)L, but I recall from an earlier article regarding this whole fiasco that Russian law falls very heavily on the side of consumer rights, and that under that legal framework Adobe's ebook encryption is actually illegal. Elcom's product was created for, and within, that legal framework.
I understand that the US has determined it has jurisdiction because they were able to purchase Elcom's product in the US from US based vendors. Fine, I can accept that; but turn about is fair play. Obviously Adobe ebooks are available in Russia, or Elcom's product wouldn't exist. I say that Elcom should use the same tactics against Adobe in Russia that Adobe has used against them here in the US.
And yes, I'm aware of Adobe's statement that they don't want Elcom prosecuted, and I think it's a bullshit PR stunt. If I shoot somebody, the fact that I didn't want them to die does not excuse the fact that I pointed the gun at them and pulled the trigger. Adobe is clearly trying to restrict the rights of the Russian people, and should be punished to the full extent of the law.
This is probably the most insightful comment I've read today.
I remember that email, and I think this is a great idea. I think it should be carefully crafted and proofread before being released into the wild, perhaps as an open source project :)
I'd certainly be willing to help. I'm not really up on the particulars, so I don't think I'd be the one to write the initial document, but I do know a bit about editing for maximum impact, and I'll certainly forward it to everyone that I know.
Actually, it is a well known fact that the Duron is manufactured in AMD's Fab 25 in Austin, Texas. I'm sure the residents of Austin will be suprised to know that they are now citizens of "Maylasia". Or did you perhaps mean Malaysia?
But hey, smart folks like you have no need for verifiable facts, right? So much for that "no toleranse for stupidity" thing. I guess Mensa'll hand out a card to any retard willing to take their asinine brain teaser test...
Oh and, by the way, it's spelled "tolerance". You might want to fix that one of these days. But then again, since I already pointed that out to you several months ago, maybe you enjoy looking like an idiot?
HP is much bigger than Compaq, and always has been.
As pointed out by UVaRob, that should be 2+2=11 in ternary, however, unless you are trying to claim that ternary 11 is equal to decimal 11, there is no loophole here. The actual values used haven't changed, only the way they are represented. "I don't speak Spanish" and "No hablo Espanol" both mean the same thing, regardless of the language used (well, assuming I didn't make any conjugation mistakes. It's been a few years since I've actually had to use spanish).
If you read it again, you'll find that the terms of the equations are refered to as NUMBERS. POSITIVE INTEGERS refers to the "natural" or "counting" numbers. So no, actually, my wordy answer is not wrong. However, I think I've proved my point ;)
That was exactly my point. Thanks for getting it :)
I have to disagree. It is the complexity that allows loopholes. Something that is complex is more easily interpreted differently. Something that is clear and simple leaves no room for alternate interpretations. Which of these leaves more room for interpretation?
2+2=4
The ANSWER is equal to the SUM of the FIRST NUMBER and the SECOND NUMBER, where the FIRST NUMBER has the same value as the SECOND NUMBER. IF AND ONLY IF the SECOND NUMBER has the value of the SECOND POSITIVE INTEGER, the ANSWER will have the value of the FOURTH POSITIVE INTEGER.
In my case it came out to about $10k per property for power and phone lines (there were 5 properties getting hooked up, and we all had to sign a 3 year minimum service contract). The nearest hookup was a mile from my house, but they ran about 3 miles for a closed loop, which is more reliable apparently.
It sounds to me like he already has phone service, though, so that isn't his problem. If he lives far enough out of town that cable isn't an option, then there are certainly repeaters between him and the telco CO, which, since DSL is non-repeatable, means DSL isn't an option either. If there are no repeaters then he's on a fiber loop, and DSL doesn't work over fiber, only copper. To my knowledge, no amount of money will solve that basic problem.
ISDN should be available, but it sounds like his real problem is the ISP, so it's questionable wether ISDN would fix that.
BTW, a note on the cost listed above: The prices are higher now. The telco engineer we worked with pulled strings and pushed things through to get us in before the price hike. If we'd applied a week later we would have had to pay a lot more.
I didn't say I agreed with it, I was just presenting my interpretation of the justification. I think it sucks, personally.
I agree that management needs to be held responsible for their failures, but I think most companies fear a change in leadership more than even the complete failure of the business. It's totally irrational, I know, but most policy is driven by fear, not success.
If I were a judge I would let you off of the speeding ticket for that excuse, but I would also nail you for the more serious crimes of reckless endangerment or, if the situation warranted, attempted murder. Then you'd really feel like an idiot for claiming you were driving 120mph with your eyes closed!
Kind of presumptive, don't you think?
I have to agree. However, the thinking as I understand it is that the bonuses for executives are supposed to be incentive for them to stay on through the rough times. Why one would want the people responsible for driving ones business into the ground to stay on is beyond me, but there it is.
Someone mentioned that in the UK any stockholder can walk in to a business and demand to see the records of bonuses and such. I think that sort of law would probably be nice to have in the US as well, though I don't see it happening any time soon. What we need is a big Enron style scandal that involves large bonuses to executives centrally. It's too late to push something through on the Enron scandal, I think.
It's like all those people whining about how hard Linux is to install, but the last time they tried was Red Hat 5.1. For some reason they think that just because they had a bad experience 3 years ago that it's the same now.
Oh well, some people just like to complain, I guess.
What will this CD have on it? Linux ports or Windows ports?
Personally, I would use the Windows ports. They're available for all the current shining stars of open source; OpenOffice, Mozilla, GIMP. Those are the big ones, they cover 90% of what people actually use computers for, and they're all available for windows. Get people to switch to those and you're more than halfway to getting them on Linux.
Someone else asked 'this stuff is already freely/easily available with easy install, etc, so why aren't people switching already?' Habit is why. They're used to using MS Office and they're afraid that it'll take too long or be to hard to learn a new package. I just went through that with my Dad when I built him a new computer. He was used to MS Office and wanted it installed. Of course, he didn't actually own a copy, and I tossed my pirated copy when I discovered OpenOffice. It took me a little while to convince him to just try OpenOffice, and if he didn't like it he could always go back. It's been 2 weeks now, and he's sold. He finds OpenOffice much easier to use, and he's comforted by the fact that he can open up his old MS Office documents without a hitch.
This is the way to get people to switch to OSS, one app at a time. Then, once they've switched for all their major apps, simply point out that they will all run on Linux.
For home users, it usually isn't that hard. In a business environment it's a different story, since even the thought of a productivity hit, no matter how small, sends chills down people's spines. I think the key there is to get them to switch at home, where they're more comfortable and can take some time.
the bozos in senior management just finished buying up several failing companies and paying some large bonuses to themselves.
and there it is! The company likely could have saved just as much money by cutting those bonuses in half, or maybe even just defering them. But no, management has to have their bennies, we'll just stick it to the employees.
My advice is get out now. Find another job before you have to fight all your current cowrkers for it. Any company that's willing to screw it's employees while handing upper management bonuses doesn't deserve those employees. If every company that pulled this crap went under because all their employees bailed and they couldn't get anything done, guess what, companies would stop pulling that crap!
Of course, employees don't do that because the instability inherent in a move like that is scary. How will I pay my bills, people say, what if I don't find another job? Besides, the management guys say it's just for this one month and we'll be fine. Bullshit. How are you going to pay your bills on half your current salary? Once the management knows you'll take it once, they'll do it again, and if not that then there will be layoffs.
The fact is, the employees of this company are screwed either way. I say, screw the company back by making your skills/training/expertise suddenly unavailable.
I have, but I troll for them, apparently... ;)
What bothers me about them is they're always posted AC and never give any reasons for needing PS over GIMP other than "GIMP isn't ready for primetime". I maintain that it's a matter of training rather than actual capability of the software, and no one has yet refuted that claim (at least not with anything more than empty rhetoric).
I'm just a casual user, not a graphics guy, but I'm very much interested in exactly what functionality is missing from the GIMP.
a university has an obligation to train people to use commercial software
Unless the student takes a class to specifically learn to use a particular piece of software the school is under absolutely no obligation to train them on commercial software, and in fact I would argue that the school is doing the student a disservice if the do so.
For example; when I take a class in C++ I expect to be taught the C++ language, and the skills I learn in that class should be portable to whatever environment I then choose to use. If I'm forced to use only MS VisualC++ when I would prefer to use Borland Builder or vi/gcc my education is being limited. I'm not suggesting that the school should be forced to provide me with alternatives, merely that I shouldn't be restricted from using them if I so desire.
It comes down to this; the business of the University is education, the teaching of concepts which can be applied within the given field regardless of the tools available. Training on a particular tool is process-oriented job training, best left to trade schools or employers.
Now, obviously, there are situations where this doesn't apply. If I'm taking a class in Visual Basic I'm going to use MS Visual Basic because it's the only game in town. I imagine that's likely the case with some highly specialized scientific software as well. However, I would still argue that the university has no obligation to train the student on that particular software, but rather the obligation is to teach the student what they need to know in order to understand and interpret what that software does. I was never trained in using Mathematica, but I was taught enough algebra and calculus that I figured out how to use it, and how to interpret the results it gave me, without too much difficulty.
Anyway, I don't want this to seem like a flame. Other than that one point I wholeheartedly agree with you and find the examples you give encouraging.
On the CAD front, rumor has it (rumors are treason. Trust the Computer) that Pro-Engineer runs on Linux. I haven't verified that, though. I suspect AutoCAD might also as they used to have a Unix version, though I'm not sure if they still do. If you're just doing 2D CAD I hear QCAD is a viable alternative.
All the graphics folks I know swear by Photoshop of course (except one, who prefers Corel for some reason), but I suspect it's largely because that's what they were taught. I admit that I am not a graphics guy, but the GIMP seems perfectly capable to me.
I mean, why else would they be running Linux? Linux is for hackers, right? And everyone knows hackers are evil, desiring nothing but the total disruption and destruction of the American Way of Life(tm), just like those Godless Commies in China. Open Source is just another form of Communism.
Of course, the Chinese will say that they run Linux because of "backdoors" and "security holes" in Windows. Well, if they weren't planning to attack us, they'd have nothing to hide, would they? And if they had nothing to hide, they'd be running Windows and the CIA would know EXACTLY what they were up to! None of this "maybe" crap!
Seriously, though, how much damage could they really do? Oh no, I wouldn't be able to surf the web for a little while! My email might be delayed! Really, how effective would such an attack actually be in terms of an act of war?
It's well documented that the CIA is the largest drug dealing organization in the world, and it's common knowledge that most dealers are also users. I think this particular theory proves that those CIA boys have been smoking crack!