The Gateway move was also not unexpected. Gateway is in lots of trouble. They want their big friends (Intel) to help them out, and so they are demonstrating their loyalty to their big friends.
I knew that Gateway is in a bad way but I had no idea that they were in this bad of shape. Yikes! With that said tho...
Having only Intel to supply their CPUs when the P3's first came out really burned Gateway and cut into their earnings due to Intel's inability to provide P3's in good quantities. One would hope that management would remember the lessons of the past and not repeat those mistakes. If management really believes in it's operational strategies they really should stick to those strategies in both good times and bad. Adhering to those important operational principles in bad times often makes the difference between a very good company and a not so good (or even a bankrupt) one.
I just heard on NPR the former head of the Clinton Antitrust division call the DOJ's move "an acknowledgement of reality." Reality in this case being that it would take forever to litigate a breakup of the company when compared to just implementing behaivoral remedies. According to the former Clinton DOJ official focusing the DOJ's resources on behavioral remedies should speed things up quite a bit.
The INS calls them "Aliens of Exceptional Abilities" and it basically means that you can more quickly and easily get a temporary workers VISA than Joe Six Pack. The definition of "exceptional abilities" is a bit murky but it basically boils down to if you have a very specialized skill, knowledge or could otherwise immensely benefit the US in some way. I believe this is how Transmeta got Linus into the US so fast.
Is it just me or does Microsoft's recent about face on OS ("linux is a cancer/virus" Oh you don't like that.. "we've learned a lot from OS") remind you of that "I can change" song in the South Park movie.
I CAN CHANGE
Bill Gates singing to ESR
Some people say that I'm a bad guy
That can't be right
That can't be right
But it's not as if I don't try
They just don't see
Try as I might
But I can change, I can change
I can learn to share my source code
I swear it.
I'll open up my code
And I will share it
Any minute now
It will be born again
Yes, I can change, I can change
I know I've been a dirty little bastard
I like to borrow, I like to steal
Yes, it's lame, but it's OK
Cause I can change
It's not my fault that I'm so selfish
It's the money, the money
You see IBM was sometimes selfish
And it made a prick of me
But I can change, I can change
I can learn to share my source code
I know it.
I'll open up my source
And I will show it
Any minute now
It will be born again
Eric Raymond: But what if you never change?
What if you remain a code hording little butt-hole?
Saddam Hussein: Hey Raymond
Don't be such a twit
Linus Torvalds won't have shit on me.
Just watch
Just watch me change
Here I go I'm changing
Hey Raymond Look! SHARED SOURCE!
Well, remember one thing: The clock speed IS significant in the speed of a computer. A 1Ghz processor is generally faster than a 100Mhz processor. We are talking about 20-30% differences here, so the consumers are not THAT misled.
Not if you have to make your pipeline five miles deep to do it which is basically how intel has achieved these high clock ratings. Sure the 2Ghz sounds great but the manner in which intel used to achieve it in no way translates to performance bc if your predictors screw up your data has to start all over again and go through that deep pipeline which kills performance. Which also explain why a 2Ghz P4 is about as fast as a 1.4Ghz tbird.
I talked to some developers with Corel a couple of years ago when they were just getting into the Linux market (it was at a job fair when I was looking for work) and they seemed pretty keen on how they were going to bring a fully integrated GUI to the Linux desktop (integrated as in from install through to user's desktop--like Windows does).
Lots of people really slammed Corel's distro but I thought it was a _very_ good first stab at a distro for newbs. With some tweaking and updating Corel Linux could be a very big competitor with Mandrake. Before you fall out of your seat laughing let's not forget that Linux had never seen a slicker install or a friendly set of workstation management tools than what Corel sported at the time. Many distros still don't have the ease of use that Corel has (the ones that want those kinds of tools anyhow). Granted the distro was inflexible and kept you firewalled off from the CLI but hopefully these are short comings that Xandros will address.
I liked the idea, and was especially happy to hear that it was a Canadian company. That said, I always thought Copland was a little flakey, and as it turned out his 'Copland Research Labs' got rid of him--and unfortunatly it seems their Linux distro. What can you expect when MS invests in you though?
I'm really glad that Corel's Distro is now safely out of Cowpland's. Cowpland is just a technology hound (who chases the latest tech flavor o' the month) and would have either dropped the Corel Linux all together or ruined it somehow. Getting rid of Cowpland was the best business decision Corel has made in some time.
I just wonder if all of Corel's GUI work was proprietary, or if it might be released Open Source with the distro's move?
Yes, Corel's GUI work was proprietary and that's the beauty of this sale. Now all of Corel's Linux work could possibly be GPLed by Xandros if they so choose (something that would never have happened with Corel). This sale could potentially be a huge windfall of code for Debian (and any other distro for that matter).
It also makes porting to a new platform dead easy, you can simply use whatever graphical toolkit is already existent on that platfrom, and just write a compatibility layer.
This wheel has already been invented quite nicely by wxWindows. wxWindows is a common API for GUI programming that wraps itself around the native OS' widget set for Win32, GTK, Mac and Motif. In my experience wxWindows is far less resource hungry than what I've seen from XUL and with wxWindows you get the crossplatform goodness as well as your native OS' look and feel. wxWindows began in '92 and really started growing up about '95 so I'm not sure why the NS devs made the comment they did about not having a *nix Moz port were it not for XUL. wxWindows was around at that time. Perhaps wx doesn't do something that they needed or they just weren't aware of it's existence. Perhaps someone can elighten me.
And as for the responsiveness issue, personally I find no difference between native windows apps and mozilla and native linux apps and mozilla.
That must be some system you have there. Myself and everyone I know says the same thing: XUL is heavier than it ought to be.
Face it, most people can't articulate themselves very well and prefer to use boilerplate letters. It doesn't make their opinions any less valid.
I tend to disagree. When you are unable to express yourself adequately it generally means one of two things:
A) You haven't thought about the issue enough to truly grok it and are therefore unable to express yourself effectively.
B) You haven't spent enough time editing your letter and your thoughts appear disorganized (because they are). Through the process of writing you tend to understand the issue better because you're forced to critically examine your thoughts.
Either way you have no business babbling on to whomever about your poorly conceived opinions. Granted, everyone (esp myself =P) is guilty of not thinking things through before firing off a misguided rant but that's not what we should aspire to. Lord knows I'm not the best writter in the world but anyone can get their point across with a little effort. Besides, people of importance (like govt officials) get these form letters all the time and they don't make near the impression as someone who took the time to pen something in their own words.
I also take exception to your notion that people are unable to express themselves. Most people are perfectly capable of expressing themselves _if they take the time_. (which brings me to my sub rant)
This elitist attitude of "I am made from a different (better) cloth than everyone else. I'm therefore smarter than 90% of the common herd and pity their ignorance." which pervades geek society leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Everyone is knowledgeable in a particular area and just because your area of expertise is a black box to others doesn't make you any more intelligent than the next person.
Yes, I am a geek.. and yes that makes me part of the problem.
Please try to think about that next time before you go off on a tirade about one of your "clueless lusers." I know I will...
I think Loki needs to not only restructure its debts, it needs to restructure its business practice. Instead of paying hefty royalties to produce Linux versions of games that are already released, perhaps Loki could focus on more "timeless" games. You know, the games that aren't based on the latest and greatest graphics (Tribes 2) and aren't any fun after a year. They're expensive to produce, require high-end hardware, and only have a short 1-2 year shelf life before nobody wants it.
The problem with this thought is that it takes far fewer people to do a port and the domain of your project is greatly reduced (ie you don't have to worry about producing artwork) than doing a full game. Sure it costs a lot in royalties to port games but I'd bet it's far cheaper than paying the salaries for an entire dev team.
I think Loki could make a fair amount of money creating a unique game and producing it for both Windows and Linux. I'm not convinced that money can be made in the porting business, but a well-run game design place can. Focus all of Loki on one good game, of whatever genre, and market it well. Sell both Linux and Windows versions. If you buy one version, you should be able to get a 50% or more off the price of the other version. Sure, Loki can still port a game or two (c'mon, port Civ III - I'll pay $50 for it!). I high-end game companies have a hard time making profits off of games because of expensive development costs. Loki has a solid base of games that work great and can generate some revenue while they develop their own games that have a sensible budget. Too many game companies are focusing on great graphics and the latest 3D cards. Instead, the focus should be on playability and creativity.
I couldn't agree with you more! The _vast_ majority of the gaming industry today really appeals to the lowest common denominator ("Oooo! shiny thing!! Og must buy pretty thing _now_!") and it turns my stomach quite fankly. Instead of being adventurous gaming companies are largely going through the motions and cranking out game after monotonous game. In part I think this is because of the risk and large investment required to produce a game today as opposed to the lone wolf day where one guy could make a game by himself without regard to what the rest of the industry is up to. To be honest with you thought that's what the public is rewarding for the most part:
Games with copious amounts of eye candy but substandard gameplay and almost a complete lack of originality.
Seemingly gone are the days when I could curl up with a coke and a game that focused on _gameplay_ and had nearly infinite replay value. Most games today focus on eye candy first and the game second and sadly it's exactly what the public wants. This is precisely why I think the gaming industry needs a thriving indie scene to keep the big boys honest and to provide a little something for everyone. It is my great hope for ambitious projects such as CrystalSpace, WorldForge and SDL/OpenAL can provide the necessary building blocks to help small dev houses (or even a single person) to develop innovative, creative, well thought out games that compete effectively with large production houses.
If Loki makes a great game and has a version for Linux and Windows, it's sure to make a good chunk of money.
I really wish I could agree with you here. The gaming industry really requires deep pockets to tide you over in case your current game is a flop. By porting proven hits Loki gets to pick proven successful games and eliminates the roll of the dice that always occurs when producing a new game. Granted, Loki probably doesn't sell as many copies by waiting but it also substantially limits it's risks as well. Hopefully Loki can pull out of it's current financial problems and prosper. I'm all about anything that helps that guy in his basement with plenty of caffeine, an inspiring idea and a burning desire to make his dream a reality.
All manufacturer x needs to do is dust off some old driver diskettes and stick them online and Windows is covered.
Ack! Bad hardware vendor *NO TWINKIE*!!!;-)
So you're going to release your new driver w/o testing it to see how it does on your specific hardware implementation. You're basically advocating vendors push out drivers for their hardware which hasn't been tested. *bad bad bad* Some of the drivers in Windows make the system _really_ unstable and MS's operating system takes the blame. Windows doesn't need any help falling over it does it enough for my tastes thank you very much. =P
For Linux, they've got to go out, find if someone has made them a driver, check it (cos no one wants to risk their brand on an untested driver or employ someone to write their own.
Why would they bother?
Because someone else will likely write the driver or help maintain it for them so the hardware vendor doesn't have to devote as many resources to this task. If they open up their specs and the device is purchased with any substantial amount someone will get itchy and write a driver for it.
Because an odd handful of 5% of the desktop computer population might find some old hardware in a second hand store? And this helps them how?
There are many countries who either choose not to always get the latest and greatest hardware or are forced to by economics to whom this support is a huge plus. Just because the guy in the office across the street is running more or less state of the art hardware doesn't mean everyone is. Some people (IMO) wisely choose to stay out of the upgrade rat race if their machine does what they need it to.
The test was most likely done under ideal conditions, and the Military has been known to give their toys less than realistic advantages when the public is actually interested in the outcome.
I know this is/. and all but did you even bother to skim the story? Let me spell it out for you...
"It managed to disregard the decoy that the Minuteman was carrying and smash into its intended target, the dummy warhead."
Now, granted the ppl lauching the interceptor knew exactly when the minuteman was launching but this was just a preliminary test and it did manage to ignore a decoy. While this sucessful test doesn't say with any finality that the technology is or isn't workable I would certainly keep quiet if I was one of those ppl who have been saying that the tech "will never work."
I'm reminded of one quote that seems particularly fitting...
"Never say never."
I don't know about anyone else here but I'm all for having a system that can pick off a few nukes sent up by a rouge terrorist organization.
One of the major obstacles from more of this sort of thing going on is a lack of readily accessible free media sure there are a few oasis of public domain media and even fewer still examples of GPLedmedia. The fact remains though that there is no central repository for free media that artists can use to build on one another's works.
My interest is mostly in media that can be used for free games but any media that can be shared amongst the artistic community is great in my eyes. At any rate here are some free media resources that I've found and their associated licenses. I hope this list helps other artists and people looking for free media to use for one purpose or another:
Pixel Place - Lots of public domain images mainly intended for web site use (but you could find other uses if you're a creative thinker)
Ender Design - Public domain images mostly for web sites once again. High quality and very usable for UI graphics. The 'design sets' aren't public domain so be sure and read the license. I highly recommend this site.
The Texture Library - Public domain mostly photorealistic textures intended to be used for games (OpenGL). Very nice!
The Golgotha Project - High quality public domain music, textures and meshes! Perhaps the largest cache of freely available media in one place.
Free Game Arts - High quality media (mostly 3d meshes [MDLs] and textures) with various free licenses. The license which each model/texture is covered by is clearly stated before the d/l so be sure to read!
GNUArt - A site in french with GPLed media (mostly music).
GNUsic - A site that features a CD written by artists who have GPLed their work.
Linkware Graphics - License is called 'Linkware' which translates to free for non commercial use and no modifications allowed. Mostly music related images here. Again mainly for web sites but could be used for other purposes.
I am currently gathering sites with free media and sucking down their contents in preparation for WorldForge's free media repository.
Perhaps all the/.ers know of free media resources which I failed to mention here? The free media repository will have media with all sorts of licenses so don't think we're after just one type of 'free' media. Perhaps others who know of good caches with free media could share them with us here? Thanks!
There's also a question of what actually constitutes "stealing". The Canadian hackers did not "deprive" the use of the DSS signal from the DirecTV satellite service. So "stealing" doesn't quite work here. A more accurate statement might be "It's Unauthorized Decryption". Yes it is. And it's also not illegal, at least in canada. But use of the term "theft" here makes one think of a far larger insidious deed than was perpetrated, While free TV is a legal possible outcome, under law, it is not "theft".
I am stunned by the sheer volume of people here who are simply willing to overlook a morally wrong act by hiding behind laws and saying, "Well, it's not illegal so it must be ok!" Come on people! Before there was legislation against data theft, cracking, phone phreaking etc. did that mean it was morally ok until someone decided to pass a law? Of course not! I'm no fan of large corporations like DirectTV but if you want your rights and personal property respected then you must reciprocate and respect everyone else's. If someone tapped in to your cordless or cell phone's signal and replayed embarrasing conversations to your family, boss and friends would you be as forgiving? Under your definition they are not stealing and aren't doing anything 'illegal' but does that make it right?
And the last thing you were wrong about is the hack itself. Yes, indeed, it's a damn fine hack.
So, in the future. Don't play loosey-goosey with the language. 'k?
Ummm... No... You did all but call it a crack yourself when you labeled it "Unauthorized decryption." Was it clever? Sure... but the word hack and crack are not interchangeable depending on how technologically impressive the act is... These guys are crackers and sully the name of all fine hackers everywhere. Perhaps it is you who should stop playing loosey-goosey with the language before lecturing others on it's use.
If a developer takes public domain code and uses it as a foundation of or a component of their own work then I don't understand how you can expect to have a claim to free access to the work they did. Any value that a developer is able to add to or extract from a piece of public domain code should be theirs to license as they see fit.
Of course that's why it's public domain... The author doesn't care what you do with their work.
He who does the work (or funds the work) should have the freedom to set the license. The GPL eliminates this freedom by requiring GPL on both derivative works and work which incorporate even small portions of GPL'd code into their codebase.
I am always surprised when people eagerly use others hard work but when asked to return the favor and share they snap back "Mine!" You speak of only your freedom and what you would like to do but your view leaves little consideration for others. The GPL is meant for people who like to share their work so everyone can benefit. When someone says to me, "Here's some code that I wrote. You're welcome to use it. I hope you find it useful." My first impulse is to reciprocate and share back since the person was so kind and saved me a lot of work. The GPL is basically forcing you to be considerate. Is that really so bad? If someone is nice enough to share something with you is it so unreasonable to ask that you share back? If you can't share back (for whatever reason) why not just politely decline and develop your own solution instead of talking about how the GPL invades your 'freedom.'
Although it's a tired cliche I can't resist using it on you..
There are several companies to whom you can farm out your dial up service to. They even take care of all the tech support for you which is by far the biggest pain in the ass. You get charged about $10/per customer to use their phone lines and tech support droids. That way you only have to worry about a pipe for your servers and high speed bandwidth (DSL/Cable) start up costs [which can be substantial]. Technically you could run your whole operation off of one box (I used to know of a small shop that did so years ago) although I wouldn't recommend it. When it comes to your servers think redundancy, redundancy redundancy! It's going to be tough for the little guy just starting out but there are areas that are more rural areas that are under serviced or have no service at all by the big boys. This would be your best bet I think. Signing up companies for domain and web site hosting should be your cash cow. The dial up folks won't make you rich but companies you get signed up should help alot. Have fun!!!
Every computer user in the country will receive a copy of Windows XP, whether they ask for it or not. If they fail to pay for it, Guido, from our Collections Division, will be coming around to "persuade" them...
Since when did Guido Van Rossum has become a Microsoft hitman?! Noooooo!!! I knew that GVR and the FSF have had a falling out but I didn't know that Guido was angry enough to revert to violence... RMS should make sure and turn back the covers before he goes to bed every night or he might hop into bed with a bunch of snakes put there by a Pythonistas! Watch your back RMS! Guido has been talking to lawyers for too long and he's PISSED !!!
...and to go almost full-circle back to the notion of it being a game-based innovation, one could argue that Street Fighter 2 has joystick/gesture-based before all of these.
To stretch the example even more "Karate Champ" had gesture based controls way before all of these. There were no buttons involved in game play at all. Just 2 joysticks. I still play Karate Champ to this day using various emulators.
Actually I find WinCVS *OK* but it's UI is horrid. I usually end up using the command line it's so bad. For most day to day things that I do in CVS I find Tortoise CVS to be far better. It integrates well with Windows Explorer and you can perform most CVS tasks by just selecting things in explorer and right clicking. It's pretty spiffy and it's actually based on the WinCVS code base.
What non-commerical linux community written software that a consumer who buys a pc for games and simple office work is better than what can be had for Windows?
I think you're asking all the wrong questions here. Free software only has to be 'about as good' as commercial software (although it is sometimes better) for people to switch to free alternatives. Why keep shelling out the bucks when something else is free and is better or almost as good?
Netscape 6? No. Sorry, IE5 is a better browser.
Have you tried Mozilla M18? I'm guessing no... It's rendering engine is just plain faster than IE and Mozilla is far more configurable than IE. blah blah blah... I could go on and give you a laundry list of why I like Mozilla better than IE now but they would be _my_ reasons... My basic point is you shouldn't assume that just bc you like something better that everyone else will feel the same as you.
Mail clients? No. They're a dime a dozen on Windows also--and many of those are excellent mail clients.
So I could get a free mail client or use a mail client that comes bundled with a $100 OS? Hmmm.. I admit that I'm ovestating argument my argument a little but not by much at all. I'd also point out that hordes of stampeding GNUs are making such an argument more persuasive daily...
THe same holds true for news readers, ftp clients, and IRC programs.
Yes, they are a dime a dozen but all of the leading products in the categories that you listed (except for possibly Free Agent) cost money. All those really nice apps are free in Linux.:) I would say this is one area where Linux has caught Windows programs. Functionality between News, FTP and IRC clients is virtually the same on Windows and Linux platforms.
Office apps? Maybe But people will want to use at home what they use at work.
People may *want* to use Office at home are they willing to shell out $500 to do so when free software equivilants exists which will do the same work and import MS Office documents? Furthermore, take into account that Windows XP and.NET promises to have strict copyright protection and that changes the scene even more. Office and Windows is some of the most pirated software around. Pretty soon Microsoft is going to force these folks to either pony up the $500 for Office (alot more if you add in the OS) or not play at all with MS's toys. I don't see 'mom and dad' shelling out that kinda dough to browse the web and finish a word/excel/powerpoint document etc at home which they started at work. I think you too readily ignore the sky high cost of Office.
Games? I don't think there are many non-commercial Linux games that hold a candle to any commerical offering (on either Linux or Windows). In the commerical games camp you only have ports of games that already exist on Windows.
Isn't that why we're all here now tho? Porting DX over to WINE sounds like a wonderful thing. As a shameless plug, over at WorldForge we're working on improving the game scene in the *nix area by creating a MMORPG engine... Oh yeah and don't forget those great guys over at Loki who are laying the foundation for even more wonderful games on *nux to appear and in the process bringing some great game ports over to Linux.
So what, if anything, would a Windows user see in non-commercial linux software that would make them want to switch OSes?
I think the question is starting to become "Why would anyone continue to pay such insane prices for software when so many free equivilants exist?" I don't pretend that Linux is there yet with MS in terms of ease of use or the number of killer apps but I look around every day and see Microsoft's advantages rapidly diminishing. In my eyes the advantages that Microsoft holds over it's free alternatives have become pretty marginal. We're already seeing poorer nations such as Mexico and other cash strapped countries balking at Microsoft's high licensing fees and going with (free) GNU software which is roughly equivilant. If I were Ballmer and company I would be worried about the GPL (and it's variants) making software a commodity item... very very worried indeed...
You can also do scheduled security and package upgrades from the console with the MandrakeUpdateRobot (as mentioned in the forums). This is still labeled 'Cooker' software but supposedly it's going to be put into production very soon (a couple of weeks).
Their perspective on OSS is now very warped, but the sad fact is that the Corel case may indeed prove that a successful company has to concern itself with whether or not OSS can be long-term viable - especially for operating systems. Perhaps they have a point - that giving away and adhering to open standards and api's is a better solution than giving away all the source code.
Quite frankly your case here is paper thin. Corel has been a technology chasers for years always in search of "The Next Big Thing"(tm). Perhaps you'd like to ask Corel how their Java based office suite is coming? Or their Linux based office suite? Or their.NET office suite? Please, this is an old company which has no spring in it's step and no creative vision left in them. They are merely content to chase the lastest passing fad much like that dog in your neighborhood who cases every car that zooms by. Corel finally got it's nose clipped for chasing one passing car too many. The company has lacked a clear vision for their future for some time now and they're finally paying the piper.
I find it amusing that you use Corel as your model of a "long-term" linux company. How long were they even actively in "The Linux Market"? six months? a year perhaps? If anything Corel proves that an old company can't reinvent itself by sprinkling a bit of linux pixie dust (or insert buzzword here) on itself. Corel was a grandiose failure all right but it wasn't because of any inherent flaws with making money from OSS. Corel's ultimate failure was that of it's flip flop management. Changing the wholesale direction (and culture) of your ship every 6-12 months won't get you anywhere and you will likely find yourself lost at the end. Corel proved this in spades. Call me when you start to see the likes of Red Hat, IBM and Mandrake pulling up stakes and moving out of the OS bazaar. Then I'll really start to become concerned about the long term viability of OSS business models. Until then we'll have to wait and see how well OSS businesses scale.
But companies like Corel, even to a degree RedHat, and especially Microsoft, (also, to a lesser degree Sun) really don't care much about the slashdot crowd. This is for a few reasons.
This type of knee jerk bashing of Red Hat is becoming all to common nowadays here at/. The kind that goes, "You know Microsoft, Corel, Red Hat all those big morally bankrupt companies." Just ask RMS what he thinks of RH and he'll tell you that RH does the right thing for Free Software almost all of the time (who can agree with RMS 100% of the time anyway?). Anyone who employs Allen Cox full time doesn't belong in the dubious company that you place them. And no, I don't use Red Hat but I think your grouping of them with the likes of MS, Sun and Corel is highly unfair and distasteful.
You can be certain that this attack cost them quite a few dollars in terms of cards needing to be replaced as well as the loss of subscribers that they have managed to piss off once again.
This is funny... So basically you're the theif who when confronted by the police grabs the nearest kid, places the kid in front of you and proclaims, "If you try and shoot me you'll hit the kid too! Think about that coppers!" You are truly sad, sir.
BTW Did you ever think that at least some of the crackers might've actually broken down and started *paying* for the service? *gasp* The _horror_...
I'm sure that helped defray the cost of a couple of old (now BBQed) smartcards.
OMG Bill look! We had five fewer hits today than yesterday!!! It must be those 5 pesky AV users! Curses, now we'll be *forced* to remove our ban on their spiders! I'll get you Penelope Pitstop!
Slashdot Mirror
I knew that Gateway is in a bad way but I had no idea that they were in this bad of shape. Yikes! With that said tho...
Having only Intel to supply their CPUs when the P3's first came out really burned Gateway and cut into their earnings due to Intel's inability to provide P3's in good quantities. One would hope that management would remember the lessons of the past and not repeat those mistakes. If management really believes in it's operational strategies they really should stick to those strategies in both good times and bad. Adhering to those important operational principles in bad times often makes the difference between a very good company and a not so good (or even a bankrupt) one.
-Pato
I just heard on NPR the former head of the Clinton Antitrust division call the DOJ's move "an acknowledgement of reality." Reality in this case being that it would take forever to litigate a breakup of the company when compared to just implementing behaivoral remedies. According to the former Clinton DOJ official focusing the DOJ's resources on behavioral remedies should speed things up quite a bit.
The INS calls them "Aliens of Exceptional Abilities" and it basically means that you can more quickly and easily get a temporary workers VISA than Joe Six Pack. The definition of "exceptional abilities" is a bit murky but it basically boils down to if you have a very specialized skill, knowledge or could otherwise immensely benefit the US in some way. I believe this is how Transmeta got Linus into the US so fast.
-Pato
Is it just me or does Microsoft's recent about face on OS ("linux is a cancer/virus" Oh you don't like that.. "we've learned a lot from OS") remind you of that "I can change" song in the South Park movie.
I CAN CHANGE
Bill Gates singing to ESR
Some people say that I'm a bad guy
That can't be right
That can't be right
But it's not as if I don't try
They just don't see
Try as I might
But I can change, I can change
I can learn to share my source code
I swear it.
I'll open up my code
And I will share it
Any minute now
It will be born again
Yes, I can change, I can change
I know I've been a dirty little bastard
I like to borrow, I like to steal
Yes, it's lame, but it's OK
Cause I can change
It's not my fault that I'm so selfish
It's the money, the money
You see IBM was sometimes selfish
And it made a prick of me
But I can change, I can change
I can learn to share my source code
I know it.
I'll open up my source
And I will show it
Any minute now
It will be born again
Eric Raymond:
But what if you never change?
What if you remain a code hording little butt-hole?
Saddam Hussein:
Hey Raymond
Don't be such a twit
Linus Torvalds won't have shit on me.
Just watch
Just watch me change
Here I go I'm changing
Hey Raymond Look! SHARED SOURCE!
Well, remember one thing: The clock speed IS significant in the speed of a computer. A 1Ghz processor is generally faster than a 100Mhz processor. We are talking about 20-30% differences here, so the consumers are not THAT misled.
Not if you have to make your pipeline five miles deep to do it which is basically how intel has achieved these high clock ratings. Sure the 2Ghz sounds great but the manner in which intel used to achieve it in no way translates to performance bc if your predictors screw up your data has to start all over again and go through that deep pipeline which kills performance. Which also explain why a 2Ghz P4 is about as fast as a 1.4Ghz tbird.
I talked to some developers with Corel a couple of years ago when they were just getting into the Linux market (it was at a job fair when I was looking for work) and they seemed pretty keen on how they were going to bring a fully integrated GUI to the Linux desktop (integrated as in from install through to user's desktop--like Windows does).
Lots of people really slammed Corel's distro but I thought it was a _very_ good first stab at a distro for newbs. With some tweaking and updating Corel Linux could be a very big competitor with Mandrake. Before you fall out of your seat laughing let's not forget that Linux had never seen a slicker install or a friendly set of workstation management tools than what Corel sported at the time. Many distros still don't have the ease of use that Corel has (the ones that want those kinds of tools anyhow). Granted the distro was inflexible and kept you firewalled off from the CLI but hopefully these are short comings that Xandros will address.
I liked the idea, and was especially happy to hear that it was a Canadian company. That said, I always thought Copland was a little flakey, and as it turned out his 'Copland Research Labs' got rid of him--and unfortunatly it seems their Linux distro. What can you expect when MS invests in you though?
I'm really glad that Corel's Distro is now safely out of Cowpland's. Cowpland is just a technology hound (who chases the latest tech flavor o' the month) and would have either dropped the Corel Linux all together or ruined it somehow. Getting rid of Cowpland was the best business decision Corel has made in some time.
I just wonder if all of Corel's GUI work was proprietary, or if it might be released Open Source with the distro's move?
Yes, Corel's GUI work was proprietary and that's the beauty of this sale. Now all of Corel's Linux work could possibly be GPLed by Xandros if they so choose (something that would never have happened with Corel). This sale could potentially be a huge windfall of code for Debian (and any other distro for that matter).
It also makes porting to a new platform dead easy, you can simply use whatever graphical toolkit is already existent on that platfrom, and just write a compatibility layer.
This wheel has already been invented quite nicely by wxWindows. wxWindows is a common API for GUI programming that wraps itself around the native OS' widget set for Win32, GTK, Mac and Motif. In my experience wxWindows is far less resource hungry than what I've seen from XUL and with wxWindows you get the crossplatform goodness as well as your native OS' look and feel. wxWindows began in '92 and really started growing up about '95 so I'm not sure why the NS devs made the comment they did about not having a *nix Moz port were it not for XUL. wxWindows was around at that time. Perhaps wx doesn't do something that they needed or they just weren't aware of it's existence. Perhaps someone can elighten me.
And as for the responsiveness issue, personally I find no difference between native windows apps and mozilla and native linux apps and mozilla.
That must be some system you have there. Myself and everyone I know says the same thing: XUL is heavier than it ought to be.
Face it, most people can't articulate themselves very well and prefer to use boilerplate letters. It doesn't make their opinions any less valid.
I tend to disagree. When you are unable to express yourself adequately it generally means one of two things:
A) You haven't thought about the issue enough to truly grok it and are therefore unable to express yourself effectively.
B) You haven't spent enough time editing your letter and your thoughts appear disorganized (because they are). Through the process of writing you tend to understand the issue better because you're forced to critically examine your thoughts.
Either way you have no business babbling on to whomever about your poorly conceived opinions. Granted, everyone (esp myself =P) is guilty of not thinking things through before firing off a misguided rant but that's not what we should aspire to. Lord knows I'm not the best writter in the world but anyone can get their point across with a little effort. Besides, people of importance (like govt officials) get these form letters all the time and they don't make near the impression as someone who took the time to pen something in their own words.
I also take exception to your notion that people are unable to express themselves. Most people are perfectly capable of expressing themselves _if they take the time_. (which brings me to my sub rant)
This elitist attitude of "I am made from a different (better) cloth than everyone else. I'm therefore smarter than 90% of the common herd and pity their ignorance." which pervades geek society leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Everyone is knowledgeable in a particular area and just because your area of expertise is a black box to others doesn't make you any more intelligent than the next person.
Yes, I am a geek.. and yes that makes me part of the problem.
Please try to think about that next time before you go off on a tirade about one of your "clueless lusers." I know I will...
The problem with this thought is that it takes far fewer people to do a port and the domain of your project is greatly reduced (ie you don't have to worry about producing artwork) than doing a full game. Sure it costs a lot in royalties to port games but I'd bet it's far cheaper than paying the salaries for an entire dev team.
I think Loki could make a fair amount of money creating a unique game and producing it for both Windows and Linux. I'm not convinced that money can be made in the porting business, but a well-run game design place can. Focus all of Loki on one good game, of whatever genre, and market it well. Sell both Linux and Windows versions. If you buy one version, you should be able to get a 50% or more off the price of the other version. Sure, Loki can still port a game or two (c'mon, port Civ III - I'll pay $50 for it!). I high-end game companies have a hard time making profits off of games because of expensive development costs. Loki has a solid base of games that work great and can generate some revenue while they develop their own games that have a sensible budget. Too many game companies are focusing on great graphics and the latest 3D cards. Instead, the focus should be on playability and creativity.
I couldn't agree with you more! The _vast_ majority of the gaming industry today really appeals to the lowest common denominator ("Oooo! shiny thing!! Og must buy pretty thing _now_!") and it turns my stomach quite fankly. Instead of being adventurous gaming companies are largely going through the motions and cranking out game after monotonous game. In part I think this is because of the risk and large investment required to produce a game today as opposed to the lone wolf day where one guy could make a game by himself without regard to what the rest of the industry is up to. To be honest with you thought that's what the public is rewarding for the most part:
Games with copious amounts of eye candy but substandard gameplay and almost a complete lack of originality.
Seemingly gone are the days when I could curl up with a coke and a game that focused on _gameplay_ and had nearly infinite replay value. Most games today focus on eye candy first and the game second and sadly it's exactly what the public wants. This is precisely why I think the gaming industry needs a thriving indie scene to keep the big boys honest and to provide a little something for everyone. It is my great hope for ambitious projects such as CrystalSpace, WorldForge and SDL/OpenAL can provide the necessary building blocks to help small dev houses (or even a single person) to develop innovative, creative, well thought out games that compete effectively with large production houses.
If Loki makes a great game and has a version for Linux and Windows, it's sure to make a good chunk of money.
I really wish I could agree with you here. The gaming industry really requires deep pockets to tide you over in case your current game is a flop. By porting proven hits Loki gets to pick proven successful games and eliminates the roll of the dice that always occurs when producing a new game. Granted, Loki probably doesn't sell as many copies by waiting but it also substantially limits it's risks as well. Hopefully Loki can pull out of it's current financial problems and prosper. I'm all about anything that helps that guy in his basement with plenty of caffeine, an inspiring idea and a burning desire to make his dream a reality.
-Pato
All manufacturer x needs to do is dust off some old driver diskettes and stick them online and Windows is covered.
Ack! Bad hardware vendor *NO TWINKIE*!!! ;-)
So you're going to release your new driver w/o testing it to see how it does on your specific hardware implementation. You're basically advocating vendors push out drivers for their hardware which hasn't been tested. *bad bad bad* Some of the drivers in Windows make the system _really_ unstable and MS's operating system takes the blame. Windows doesn't need any help falling over it does it enough for my tastes thank you very much. =P For Linux, they've got to go out, find if someone has made them a driver, check it (cos no one wants to risk their brand on an untested driver or employ someone to write their own. Why would they bother? Because someone else will likely write the driver or help maintain it for them so the hardware vendor doesn't have to devote as many resources to this task. If they open up their specs and the device is purchased with any substantial amount someone will get itchy and write a driver for it.
Because an odd handful of 5% of the desktop computer population might find some old hardware in a second hand store? And this helps them how?
There are many countries who either choose not to always get the latest and greatest hardware or are forced to by economics to whom this support is a huge plus. Just because the guy in the office across the street is running more or less state of the art hardware doesn't mean everyone is. Some people (IMO) wisely choose to stay out of the upgrade rat race if their machine does what they need it to.
-Pato
TechTV had a whole show devoted to it a night or two ago on Dvorak's show. I'd say this issue is beginning to see the light of day at least a little.
The test was most likely done under ideal conditions, and the Military has been known to give their toys less than realistic advantages when the public is actually interested in the outcome.
I know this is /. and all but did you even bother to skim the story? Let me spell it out for you...
"It managed to disregard the decoy that the Minuteman was carrying and smash into its intended target, the dummy warhead."
Now, granted the ppl lauching the interceptor knew exactly when the minuteman was launching but this was just a preliminary test and it did manage to ignore a decoy. While this sucessful test doesn't say with any finality that the technology is or isn't workable I would certainly keep quiet if I was one of those ppl who have been saying that the tech "will never work."
I'm reminded of one quote that seems particularly fitting...
"Never say never."
I don't know about anyone else here but I'm all for having a system that can pick off a few nukes sent up by a rouge terrorist organization.
-Pato
Creating a new .NET sure is easier when you have the source code to XP!! *ouch* Just kidding! =P
One of the major obstacles from more of this sort of thing going on is a lack of readily accessible free media sure there are a few oasis of public domain media and even fewer still examples of GPLed media. The fact remains though that there is no central repository for free media that artists can use to build on one another's works.
My interest is mostly in media that can be used for free games but any media that can be shared amongst the artistic community is great in my eyes. At any rate here are some free media resources that I've found and their associated licenses. I hope this list helps other artists and people looking for free media to use for one purpose or another:
Pixel Place - Lots of public domain images mainly intended for web site use (but you could find other uses if you're a creative thinker)
Ender Design - Public domain images mostly for web sites once again. High quality and very usable for UI graphics. The 'design sets' aren't public domain so be sure and read the license. I highly recommend this site.
The Texture Library - Public domain mostly photorealistic textures intended to be used for games (OpenGL). Very nice!
The Golgotha Project - High quality public domain music, textures and meshes! Perhaps the largest cache of freely available media in one place.
Free Game Arts - High quality media (mostly 3d meshes [MDLs] and textures) with various free licenses. The license which each model/texture is covered by is clearly stated before the d/l so be sure to read!
GNUArt - A site in french with GPLed media (mostly music).
GNUsic - A site that features a CD written by artists who have GPLed their work.
Linkware Graphics - License is called 'Linkware' which translates to free for non commercial use and no modifications allowed. Mostly music related images here. Again mainly for web sites but could be used for other purposes.
Public Domain Images - Small amount of public domain images
I am currently gathering sites with free media and sucking down their contents in preparation for WorldForge's free media repository.
Perhaps all the /.ers know of free media resources which I failed to mention here? The free media repository will have media with all sorts of licenses so don't think we're after just one type of 'free' media. Perhaps others who know of good caches with free media could share them with us here? Thanks!
-Jason
There's also a question of what actually constitutes "stealing". The Canadian hackers did not "deprive" the use of the DSS signal from the DirecTV satellite service. So "stealing" doesn't quite work here. A more accurate statement might be "It's Unauthorized Decryption". Yes it is. And it's also not illegal, at least in canada. But use of the term "theft" here makes one think of a far larger insidious deed than was perpetrated, While free TV is a legal possible outcome, under law, it is not "theft".
I am stunned by the sheer volume of people here who are simply willing to overlook a morally wrong act by hiding behind laws and saying, "Well, it's not illegal so it must be ok!" Come on people! Before there was legislation against data theft, cracking, phone phreaking etc. did that mean it was morally ok until someone decided to pass a law? Of course not! I'm no fan of large corporations like DirectTV but if you want your rights and personal property respected then you must reciprocate and respect everyone else's. If someone tapped in to your cordless or cell phone's signal and replayed embarrasing conversations to your family, boss and friends would you be as forgiving? Under your definition they are not stealing and aren't doing anything 'illegal' but does that make it right?
And the last thing you were wrong about is the hack itself. Yes, indeed, it's a damn fine hack.
So, in the future. Don't play loosey-goosey with the language. 'k?
Ummm... No... You did all but call it a crack yourself when you labeled it "Unauthorized decryption." Was it clever? Sure... but the word hack and crack are not interchangeable depending on how technologically impressive the act is... These guys are crackers and sully the name of all fine hackers everywhere. Perhaps it is you who should stop playing loosey-goosey with the language before lecturing others on it's use.
If a developer takes public domain code and uses it as a foundation of or a component of their own work then I don't understand how you can expect to have a claim to free access to the work they did. Any value that a developer is able to add to or extract from a piece of public domain code should be theirs to license as they see fit.
Of course that's why it's public domain... The author doesn't care what you do with their work.
He who does the work (or funds the work) should have the freedom to set the license. The GPL eliminates this freedom by requiring GPL on both derivative works and work which incorporate even small portions of GPL'd code into their codebase.
I am always surprised when people eagerly use others hard work but when asked to return the favor and share they snap back "Mine!" You speak of only your freedom and what you would like to do but your view leaves little consideration for others. The GPL is meant for people who like to share their work so everyone can benefit. When someone says to me, "Here's some code that I wrote. You're welcome to use it. I hope you find it useful." My first impulse is to reciprocate and share back since the person was so kind and saved me a lot of work. The GPL is basically forcing you to be considerate. Is that really so bad? If someone is nice enough to share something with you is it so unreasonable to ask that you share back? If you can't share back (for whatever reason) why not just politely decline and develop your own solution instead of talking about how the GPL invades your 'freedom.'
Although it's a tired cliche I can't resist using it on you..
Never look a gift horse in the mouth...
There are several companies to whom you can farm out your dial up service to. They even take care of all the tech support for you which is by far the biggest pain in the ass. You get charged about $10/per customer to use their phone lines and tech support droids. That way you only have to worry about a pipe for your servers and high speed bandwidth (DSL/Cable) start up costs [which can be substantial]. Technically you could run your whole operation off of one box (I used to know of a small shop that did so years ago) although I wouldn't recommend it. When it comes to your servers think redundancy, redundancy redundancy! It's going to be tough for the little guy just starting out but there are areas that are more rural areas that are under serviced or have no service at all by the big boys. This would be your best bet I think. Signing up companies for domain and web site hosting should be your cash cow. The dial up folks won't make you rich but companies you get signed up should help alot. Have fun!!!
Every computer user in the country will receive a copy of Windows XP, whether they ask for it or not. If they fail to pay for it, Guido, from our Collections Division, will be coming around to "persuade" them...
Since when did Guido Van Rossum has become a Microsoft hitman?! Noooooo!!! I knew that GVR and the FSF have had a falling out but I didn't know that Guido was angry enough to revert to violence... RMS should make sure and turn back the covers before he goes to bed every night or he might hop into bed with a bunch of snakes put there by a Pythonistas! Watch your back RMS! Guido has been talking to lawyers for too long and he's PISSED !!!
To stretch the example even more "Karate Champ" had gesture based controls way before all of these. There were no buttons involved in game play at all. Just 2 joysticks. I still play Karate Champ to this day using various emulators.
Actually I find WinCVS *OK* but it's UI is horrid. I usually end up using the command line it's so bad. For most day to day things that I do in CVS I find Tortoise CVS to be far better. It integrates well with Windows Explorer and you can perform most CVS tasks by just selecting things in explorer and right clicking. It's pretty spiffy and it's actually based on the WinCVS code base.
What non-commerical linux community written software that a consumer who buys a pc for games and simple office work is better than what can be had for Windows?
I think you're asking all the wrong questions here. Free software only has to be 'about as good' as commercial software (although it is sometimes better) for people to switch to free alternatives. Why keep shelling out the bucks when something else is free and is better or almost as good?
Netscape 6? No. Sorry, IE5 is a better browser.
Have you tried Mozilla M18? I'm guessing no... It's rendering engine is just plain faster than IE and Mozilla is far more configurable than IE. blah blah blah... I could go on and give you a laundry list of why I like Mozilla better than IE now but they would be _my_ reasons... My basic point is you shouldn't assume that just bc you like something better that everyone else will feel the same as you.
Mail clients? No. They're a dime a dozen on Windows also--and many of those are excellent mail clients.
So I could get a free mail client or use a mail client that comes bundled with a $100 OS? Hmmm.. I admit that I'm ovestating argument my argument a little but not by much at all. I'd also point out that hordes of stampeding GNUs are making such an argument more persuasive daily...
THe same holds true for news readers, ftp clients, and IRC programs.
Yes, they are a dime a dozen but all of the leading products in the categories that you listed (except for possibly Free Agent) cost money. All those really nice apps are free in Linux. :) I would say this is one area where Linux has caught Windows programs. Functionality between News, FTP and IRC clients is virtually the same on Windows and Linux platforms.
Office apps? Maybe But people will want to use at home what they use at work.
People may *want* to use Office at home are they willing to shell out $500 to do so when free software equivilants exists which will do the same work and import MS Office documents? Furthermore, take into account that Windows XP and .NET promises to have strict copyright protection and that changes the scene even more. Office and Windows is some of the most pirated software around. Pretty soon Microsoft is going to force these folks to either pony up the $500 for Office (alot more if you add in the OS) or not play at all with MS's toys. I don't see 'mom and dad' shelling out that kinda dough to browse the web and finish a word/excel/powerpoint document etc at home which they started at work. I think you too readily ignore the sky high cost of Office.
Games? I don't think there are many non-commercial Linux games that hold a candle to any commerical offering (on either Linux or Windows). In the commerical games camp you only have ports of games that already exist on Windows.
Isn't that why we're all here now tho? Porting DX over to WINE sounds like a wonderful thing. As a shameless plug, over at WorldForge we're working on improving the game scene in the *nix area by creating a MMORPG engine... Oh yeah and don't forget those great guys over at Loki who are laying the foundation for even more wonderful games on *nux to appear and in the process bringing some great game ports over to Linux.
So what, if anything, would a Windows user see in non-commercial linux software that would make them want to switch OSes?
I think the question is starting to become "Why would anyone continue to pay such insane prices for software when so many free equivilants exist?" I don't pretend that Linux is there yet with MS in terms of ease of use or the number of killer apps but I look around every day and see Microsoft's advantages rapidly diminishing. In my eyes the advantages that Microsoft holds over it's free alternatives have become pretty marginal. We're already seeing poorer nations such as Mexico and other cash strapped countries balking at Microsoft's high licensing fees and going with (free) GNU software which is roughly equivilant. If I were Ballmer and company I would be worried about the GPL (and it's variants) making software a commodity item... very very worried indeed...
Which apparently they are...
Now I'm no big RPM or Mandrake fanatic (ports! yay!) but the author of the article very obviously didn't do his homework.
URPMI is to RPMs as APT-GET is to DEBs.
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/urpmi.php3
You can also do scheduled security and package upgrades from the console with the MandrakeUpdateRobot (as mentioned in the forums). This is still labeled 'Cooker' software but supposedly it's going to be put into production very soon (a couple of weeks).
http://www.cyest.org/drakupdatetxt/
Their perspective on OSS is now very warped, but the sad fact is that the Corel case may indeed prove that a successful company has to concern itself with whether or not OSS can be long-term viable - especially for operating systems. Perhaps they have a point - that giving away and adhering to open standards and api's is a better solution than giving away all the source code.
Quite frankly your case here is paper thin. Corel has been a technology chasers for years always in search of "The Next Big Thing"(tm). Perhaps you'd like to ask Corel how their Java based office suite is coming? Or their Linux based office suite? Or their .NET office suite? Please, this is an old company which has no spring in it's step and no creative vision left in them. They are merely content to chase the lastest passing fad much like that dog in your neighborhood who cases every car that zooms by. Corel finally got it's nose clipped for chasing one passing car too many. The company has lacked a clear vision for their future for some time now and they're finally paying the piper.
I find it amusing that you use Corel as your model of a "long-term" linux company. How long were they even actively in "The Linux Market"? six months? a year perhaps? If anything Corel proves that an old company can't reinvent itself by sprinkling a bit of linux pixie dust (or insert buzzword here) on itself. Corel was a grandiose failure all right but it wasn't because of any inherent flaws with making money from OSS. Corel's ultimate failure was that of it's flip flop management. Changing the wholesale direction (and culture) of your ship every 6-12 months won't get you anywhere and you will likely find yourself lost at the end. Corel proved this in spades. Call me when you start to see the likes of Red Hat, IBM and Mandrake pulling up stakes and moving out of the OS bazaar. Then I'll really start to become concerned about the long term viability of OSS business models. Until then we'll have to wait and see how well OSS businesses scale.
But companies like Corel, even to a degree RedHat, and especially Microsoft, (also, to a lesser degree Sun) really don't care much about the slashdot crowd. This is for a few reasons.
This type of knee jerk bashing of Red Hat is becoming all to common nowadays here at /. The kind that goes, "You know Microsoft, Corel, Red Hat all those big morally bankrupt companies." Just ask RMS what he thinks of RH and he'll tell you that RH does the right thing for Free Software almost all of the time (who can agree with RMS 100% of the time anyway?). Anyone who employs Allen Cox full time doesn't belong in the dubious company that you place them. And no, I don't use Red Hat but I think your grouping of them with the likes of MS, Sun and Corel is highly unfair and distasteful.
You can be certain that this attack cost them quite a few dollars in terms of cards needing to be replaced as well as the loss of subscribers that they have managed to piss off once again.
This is funny... So basically you're the theif who when confronted by the police grabs the nearest kid, places the kid in front of you and proclaims, "If you try and shoot me you'll hit the kid too! Think about that coppers!" You are truly sad, sir.
BTW Did you ever think that at least some of the crackers might've actually broken down and started *paying* for the service? *gasp* The _horror_...
I'm sure that helped defray the cost of a couple of old (now BBQed) smartcards.
OMG Bill look! We had five fewer hits today than yesterday!!! It must be those 5 pesky AV users! Curses, now we'll be *forced* to remove our ban on their spiders! I'll get you Penelope Pitstop!