If we're strictly talking about value/dollar and leaving out any politics, mainstream DVD releases are a much better deal than mainstream CD releases. Many people have pointed out why already. This is not to say that I feel comfortable buying either at the moment.
Independant music will continue to have CDs which are full of varied songs of good quality. It will continue to cost less than mainstream music, and will continue to be composed of artists and labels who are mainly concerned with getting their music heard.
Are there bad bands on indpendant labels? Oh, yes. But try this: visit http://www.cmj.com. Try to find a local college radio station (a real college station, not one that just rebroadcasts NPR and isn't even run by students [coughJHUcough]) and tune in. Whether you like world music, electronic, hip hop, jazz, rock, punk, folk, or whatever, I'm sure that you can find several independant artists to your liking.
There are still major label releases worth buying; the recent albums by Gorillaz ("G-sides") and Badly Drawn Boy ("About a Boy") really stand out (and these get played on college radio, too). Radiohead and Tool have never let me down. But, _in_general_, if you want more for your money, try to find some independant artists that you like. It costs less to see them live, too.
The Playstation 2 has USB ports. You can use a keyboard and mouse. Did you have any other reasons why it will "never" be a good platform for your sort of games?
By the way, consoles have been the platform of choice for my sort of games (RPGs) for quite some time. Which is why we have a Dreamcast, Saturn, and Playstation 2, and happily run Linux on all machines.
The summer before I started college, I worked in a screenprinting place. Sometimes I would print T-shirts, sometimes I would tag them and handle shipping orders. There was no AC in our part of the shop; in fact, it was _hotter_ than it was outside because of the large ink-drying machines. We got 30 minutes for lunch, and that was it. Had to take 2 busses each way, because it was in an area where my father felt the car would not be safe if parked all day.
But since then, I've gotten progressively better jobs. Do I feel bad about this? No. Sorry if you have to work construction all day, but I don't; I've got the skills that, presently, allow me to not do that. I feel more complete for having done manual labor stuff in the past, but I don't really miss it now.
You've pretty much just described a job at freshmeat.net, except that most of us tend to work during hours when the rest of our continent is awake. The 2 AM (EDT) shifts are done by the crew in Australia.
I recently read through _Your_Money_or_Your_Life_, and I'm going to start implementing it soon. It talks about calculating your "real" hourly wage, because you have to consider the expense and time of the commute, the cost of separate business clothes, how much you can get done after "a long hard day at work", etc. I don't have those problems; I can work in my underwear if I want (though I hope I've dressed by 2pm!), and my commuting expenses involve small monthly payments to Comcast. I don't feel tired after work, either.
Granted, I work very few hours a day, so the job pays about enough for a college student sharing a townhouse with others (and saving just a bit). I'll probably be getting a sysadmin job at some point (I've been doing this at the college paper for not much money for a few years now). But for now, I certainly can't complain.
Yes, _some_ Athlon chipsets did have serious problems with early versions of the 2.4 kernel. But this has been fixed for a very long time. I know this, because I'm using one of those chipsets. Be sure that you're actually using a recent kernel, and that you've gotten the latest BIOS updates for your motherboard.
Also, there were never any problems with running Linux 2.2 on an Athlon.
I don't care what they do. I don't buy their music; I haven't liked anything that's come out on Sony records this year, and the only things on Capitol I've liked have been Ed Harcourt, Badly Drawn Boy, and Gorillaz. And two of those were actually released by smaller labels that are just owned by Capitol. Everything else I've listened to has been from small, non-RIAA organisations.
As for the television and movie industry...gak. When I was a teenager, I used to go see a movie about every 2 weeks, and sometimes more often. This year, I might have seen 4. Now, some of that is avoidance because of all the crap they've been up to, but it's also because I haven't been interested in any of them. Am I worried about them not being able to waste millions on a live-action version of Scooby Doo or the next action movie? Not really.
I watch 4 TV channels: FoodTV, Comedy Central, Sci-fi, and Toonami. Many of the commercials on those networks are "house ads". And yes, I switch between them or go get a drink during commercials.
The advertising on FoodTV (the bit that isn't house ads) is not bad; a lot of it is actually related to food. Go figure! In fact, between these 4 channels, I haven't seen ads for "feminine products" for a very long time. Maybe more targeted channels are the answer; it seems to be working for these guys. Sci-fi started out with "Every movie we can buy for $20 or less apiece", and now they're producing their own content (much of which is of debatable quality, but hey). I think that channels like this will continue to do well, and I'm not sure I'd miss networks that are full of biased news and sitcom drivel.
If I could, would I pay for just these 4 channels? Absolutely; maybe even half as much as they want to charge me for the other 50 channels I don't watch.
Would the online college courses you're taking happen to be using Blackboard? I just finished taking a class (at a non-online university, UMBC) where the teacher used Blackboard for some things. There are a few different ways that Powerpoint presentations can be stuck into it, and one of those methods _does_ require IE. But the others don't.
Also, I wonder if the Crossover plugin would work for this (and maybe for your situation, too, if you're not using Blackboard). The class is over now, but the material is still up; I may download the trial version and check it out.
Flash will be better than HTML for writing online applications, because you can get immediate feedback, and also don't have to deal with the statelessness of HTML. One place where this has stuck out is the spell checker that is included with IMP. It can't really be interactive (as with a word processor), and so it's a lot less usable. Perhaps an optional Flash spell checker would be helpful.
A big problem with Flash that still (AFAIK) hasn't been fixed is that when people use it to create entire sites (replacing HTML), their site is essentially invisible to search engines. Maybe Google will solve this problem, but for now, I think that the best course of action is to use HTML whenever possible, and to use Flash when it would provide better functionality (and not just because it will look cool). Or, you could provide a non-Flash alternative, and that will be indexed.
There's also the problem that Flash isn't usable by everyone; people who browse non-visually, use a text-mode browser, or who simply haven't installed the plugin will not be able to use whatever portion of your site is in Flash. Just something to keep in mind.
You don't really have to train people (much) to use different platforms.
In my office (school newspaper, I'm the sysadmin), we have MacOS, Windows, and Linux (X terminal) clients.
[The school has servers running Linux, Solaris, and Irix, but I assume you're not worried about who's going to train the sysadmins:)]
The MacOS clients are for layout, and so are to be used by graphic designers, who are already familiar with the system. Really, all they need to know to do their job is how to use Quark (which is mostly the same as the Windows version, in the unlikely event that they were using Quark on Windows) and connect to the network (easy instructions, can be taught by other layout people).
The Windows and Linux machines are for general (writer/editor) use. At the moment, it's easy to make these similar enough to not be a problem. They can both run OpenOffice, which is the main application. They also both run Mozilla. The X-terminals run GAIM, which is close enough to AIM to work; same with Icewm (customised a bit to look more like Win98). And to complete the apps, we have webmail, so nothing more is needed.
Others have gone the route of making the Linux machines incredibly easy to use (a few giant buttons to launch apps). This would work, too. But I think an important bit is having the same applications on both platforms. Once we can get the Macs running OS X, everything can run OpenOffice and Mozilla, and then we're down to the tiny differences between GAIM and AIM.
The X-terminals are my ideal client situation; thin clients are incredibly easy to manage. They also mean that there is (effectively) no desktop OS to infect, leaving diversity up to the servers (where you don't have to worry about training "regular" users on the various platforms). I'll never be able to completely convert the office to using these, but some people have (like the city of Key Largo).
I do like the idea of Mac OS X very much (a well-designed interface with a good, stable underpinning that allows people who Know What They're Doing to hack around); it's certainly a better operating system than Windows (IMHO) for most desktop users.
However, I really agree with the comment that Linux "waste[s]/misuse[s] a lot of real estate". How is this the case? Are you comparing MacOS to only something like KDE or Gnome? I really don't think that MacOS X is so very much better at screen real estate than Enlightenment; in fact, some aspects of it annoy me greatly. Apple decided that I don't want to windowshade things anymore; in E, I can iconify (what OS X does now) or windowshade them. Also, I really miss the floating menu (you can get this with a hack on Windows, but I haven't seen any sort of equivalent on Mac OS). The fact that all applications in Mac OS share a menu bar at the top of the screen might save some real estate, but I have a hard time believing that it's such a huge difference (especially for someone like me, whose screen is mostly covered with Eterms). And the inability to set "focus follows mouse" is a crying shame.
To those who will yell that, "Those are 'hacker' things and Apple doesn't care about catering to you"; you're right. But that proves that they don't have the uber-OS (and I'm not sure that anyone can). Apple certainly deserves a lot of credit for their ideas and implementations, but they're not perfect for everyone. For most "regular" users? I do think so, yes. But not for me...not at the moment.
Many caravan models use a car frame rather than a truck frame, though some of the larger models do use truck frames.
Caravans also don't have the horrible gas mileage problems that SUVs do. My father drives an '89 Dodge caravan, and it has a 4 cylinder engine. Sure, you can't drive it the same way as a 6 cylinder car, but it certainly has no problem pulling a small trailer (with a motorcycle), or being packed full of heavy audio equipment.
He's a mechanic, and we got the caravan well after they had become popular. I'm certain he wouldn't have gone near one if they had any sort of track record of safety problems (and I don't remember hearing anything). Caravans are, IMHO, much better family cars than SUVs.
Re:builders wanted for Project Babel
on
Project Eden
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· Score: 1
Except that in India, half of the work against the tower would already be done. They are, IIRC, the only country to have multiple national anthems, and they have multiple official languages (11? Something like that).
Well, I wouldn't exactly call MPlayer a "hastle" (is that like a castle?):
./configure make make install
has always worked for me. If you want to get things like soft-subs (subtitles distributed in a separate file for things like DivX movies), you'll need a few extra steps, but it's all documented, and hardly torture.
I guess if you only want to watch DVDs, then maybe something else would be easier (like something that allows pre-distributed binaries). But for watching stuff you get from the Web/usenet (fan-subbed anime, videos from Web sites, etc.), I've found MPlayer to work best.
Why was this moderated up to 3? It is off topic for this discussion, and has also been posted several times in the past (in other articles).
It's not really "insightful", either; everyone knows that Office compatibility is the big deal, and everyone other than this person (assuming this is not a troll, which is a stretch) knows that converting documents to plain text isn't an option.
"It's not like these people would buy all this music if they couldn't get it free."
OK, so that means that their _customers_ are probably not really the criminals, eh? I'm relatively certain that there are more people downloading MP3s than uploading them. And there are probably more people who just buy the CD and listen to it (or rip MP3s for their own convenience) than people who rip the CD and upload the MP3s to file sharing services.
I really doubt that most people who could actually be considered customers are illegally distributing music. "Everyone [you] know" may do it, but I think that you probably know only a small subset of the population.
(and personally, as someone who knows his way around a recording studio, I would love to have a higher quality distribution format).
Quark Express is the standard in layout and design software. It's also a horrible piece of crap, but we won't get into that.
A single-user license for Quark 5 costs (IIRC) $900. However, universities can buy an 8 license package for $800, with the ability to add licenses later for $99 each. Thus, everyone learns Quark in school, and it stays entrenched in businesses because it's easy to find people who know it (trust me, I really didn't want to buy Quark again, but I just did, because I basically have to). Plus, that's what most printing places accept, because it's the most popular...and so that's what they teach in schools so that their students can graduate and get jobs. Begin again.
Aside from the reasons mentioned from the above reply, you can also get email from unknown addresses if you're applying for a job. Finding a job is (apparently) difficult enough these days without possibly bouncing email messages from a potential employer.
If you want a good studio sound card with Linux drivers, try the RME Hammerfall series. You can get up to 24 channels (optical ADAT I/O). It can be had for under $500.
Linux, patched, has lower latency than MacOS or any flavour of Windows. BeOS still beats it (I think), but not by very much.
Jazz++ can sync MIDI and audio, and is released under the GPL.
That said, I still haven't gotten around to converting "my" (WMBC's) recording studio, so I don't have any answers for you about effects. However, I did see something very promising at last year's Linux World Expo in NY. Also, I believe that Broadcast2000 (which isn't being developed anymore, but should still be available) can do this with audio as well as video.
Transgaming offered to trade many of their changes to the code for several of the changes that had gone into the LGPL tree. This seems reasonable to me, but the people with the LGPL patches weren't interested. If WINE is not going to help Transgaming, why should Transgaming help WINE?
Re:One argument for the GPL and against "look alik
on
Debian And WineX
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· Score: 2
"This is why I bought a PlayStation 2 -- NOTHING is free, and I don't expect any of it to be, so I'm not disappointed. I can just sit down and PLAY GAMES without making moral decisions."
You also have a system which is very good at playing games. The controller feels better than a keyboard, crashes are incredibly rare, the games are running on known hardware so there are no surprises (speed/driver/whatever issues), and the boot/shutdown time is almost instant.
Most of the games I want to play (I'm into RPGs) are on consoles anyway. Although I refuse to buy an Xbox to play the current Oddworld installment (grr). Amusingly, the only games I play on my PC (besides xscorch) are with console emulators:)
That said, Windows emulation does have some uses other than gaming...but then, gaming is what most of WineX's changes benefit.
When my right wrist starting hurting this January, I decided to change several things. First, I gave up my cheap Packard Bell keyboard in favor of one of the old, loud IBM models. This thing feels so much better. I don't know about any new, oddly-shaped keyboards, but this feels great to me. Additionally, I got a keyboard drawer to position it at a better height, which helped.
I also talked to one of my martial arts instructors (who is also a chiropractor) about exercises to help. He showed me several that have also made a big difference. In case you're wondering, it's an Indonesian art called Pentjak Silat, and the exercises involve sticks (I also take Jujitsu, which does have some wrist stretching, though Aikido would do more).
Aside from martial arts, I also play several musical instruments, and I think that the variety of motion is probably also beneficial.
PS: Yes, I do use qwerty touch typing, and have since I was around 10 (I'm almost 25 now). I think my problems may have been brought on by a period of time in which I didn't play much music, was doing less martial arts, and was writing many pages of Japanese characters. The fact that my left wrist is fine deepens this suspicion.
According to some employees, it also stands for (or used to, don't know if it's still this way) "I've Been Moved", after the company's tendency to transfer employees all over creation.
Remember when Silicon Graphics Incorporated actually changed their name to "sgi"?
Slashdot Mirror
If we're strictly talking about value/dollar and leaving out any politics, mainstream DVD releases are a much better deal than mainstream CD releases. Many people have pointed out why already. This is not to say that I feel comfortable buying either at the moment.
Independant music will continue to have CDs which are full of varied songs of good quality. It will continue to cost less than mainstream music, and will continue to be composed of artists and labels who are mainly concerned with getting their music heard.
Are there bad bands on indpendant labels? Oh, yes. But try this: visit http://www.cmj.com. Try to find a local college radio station (a real college station, not one that just rebroadcasts NPR and isn't even run by students [coughJHUcough]) and tune in. Whether you like world music, electronic, hip hop, jazz, rock, punk, folk, or whatever, I'm sure that you can find several independant artists to your liking.
There are still major label releases worth buying; the recent albums by Gorillaz ("G-sides") and Badly Drawn Boy ("About a Boy") really stand out (and these get played on college radio, too). Radiohead and Tool have never let me down. But, _in_general_, if you want more for your money, try to find some independant artists that you like. It costs less to see them live, too.
No, the current version (3.4) of OpenSSH has not only fixed the remote exploit, but also defaults to having privelege separation turned on.
The Playstation 2 has USB ports. You can use a keyboard and mouse. Did you have any other reasons why it will "never" be a good platform for your sort of games?
By the way, consoles have been the platform of choice for my sort of games (RPGs) for quite some time. Which is why we have a Dreamcast, Saturn, and Playstation 2, and happily run Linux on all machines.
The summer before I started college, I worked in a screenprinting place. Sometimes I would print T-shirts, sometimes I would tag them and handle shipping orders. There was no AC in our part of the shop; in fact, it was _hotter_ than it was outside because of the large ink-drying machines. We got 30 minutes for lunch, and that was it. Had to take 2 busses each way, because it was in an area where my father felt the car would not be safe if parked all day.
But since then, I've gotten progressively better jobs. Do I feel bad about this? No. Sorry if you have to work construction all day, but I don't; I've got the skills that, presently, allow me to not do that. I feel more complete for having done manual labor stuff in the past, but I don't really miss it now.
You've pretty much just described a job at freshmeat.net, except that most of us tend to work during hours when the rest of our continent is awake. The 2 AM (EDT) shifts are done by the crew in Australia.
I recently read through _Your_Money_or_Your_Life_, and I'm going to start implementing it soon. It talks about calculating your "real" hourly wage, because you have to consider the expense and time of the commute, the cost of separate business clothes, how much you can get done after "a long hard day at work", etc. I don't have those problems; I can work in my underwear if I want (though I hope I've dressed by 2pm!), and my commuting expenses involve small monthly payments to Comcast. I don't feel tired after work, either.
Granted, I work very few hours a day, so the job pays about enough for a college student sharing a townhouse with others (and saving just a bit). I'll probably be getting a sysadmin job at some point (I've been doing this at the college paper for not much money for a few years now). But for now, I certainly can't complain.
You've been living in a cave, right?
Yes, _some_ Athlon chipsets did have serious problems with early versions of the 2.4 kernel. But this has been fixed for a very long time. I know this, because I'm using one of those chipsets. Be sure that you're actually using a recent kernel, and that you've gotten the latest BIOS updates for your motherboard.
Also, there were never any problems with running Linux 2.2 on an Athlon.
I don't care what they do. I don't buy their music; I haven't liked anything that's come out on Sony records this year, and the only things on Capitol I've liked have been Ed Harcourt, Badly Drawn Boy, and Gorillaz. And two of those were actually released by smaller labels that are just owned by Capitol. Everything else I've listened to has been from small, non-RIAA organisations.
As for the television and movie industry...gak. When I was a teenager, I used to go see a movie about every 2 weeks, and sometimes more often. This year, I might have seen 4. Now, some of that is avoidance because of all the crap they've been up to, but it's also because I haven't been interested in any of them. Am I worried about them not being able to waste millions on a live-action version of Scooby Doo or the next action movie? Not really.
I watch 4 TV channels: FoodTV, Comedy Central, Sci-fi, and Toonami. Many of the commercials on those networks are "house ads". And yes, I switch between them or go get a drink during commercials.
The advertising on FoodTV (the bit that isn't house ads) is not bad; a lot of it is actually related to food. Go figure! In fact, between these 4 channels, I haven't seen ads for "feminine products" for a very long time. Maybe more targeted channels are the answer; it seems to be working for these guys. Sci-fi started out with "Every movie we can buy for $20 or less apiece", and now they're producing their own content (much of which is of debatable quality, but hey). I think that channels like this will continue to do well, and I'm not sure I'd miss networks that are full of biased news and sitcom drivel.
If I could, would I pay for just these 4 channels? Absolutely; maybe even half as much as they want to charge me for the other 50 channels I don't watch.
Would the online college courses you're taking happen to be using Blackboard? I just finished taking a class (at a non-online university, UMBC) where the teacher used Blackboard for some things. There are a few different ways that Powerpoint presentations can be stuck into it, and one of those methods _does_ require IE. But the others don't.
Also, I wonder if the Crossover plugin would work for this (and maybe for your situation, too, if you're not using Blackboard). The class is over now, but the material is still up; I may download the trial version and check it out.
To add to Asa's comment, Mozilla has worked with Allfirst online banking since around 1.0RC1 or so.
However, it still should not replace HTML.
Flash will be better than HTML for writing online applications, because you can get immediate feedback, and also don't have to deal with the statelessness of HTML. One place where this has stuck out is the spell checker that is included with IMP. It can't really be interactive (as with a word processor), and so it's a lot less usable. Perhaps an optional Flash spell checker would be helpful.
A big problem with Flash that still (AFAIK) hasn't been fixed is that when people use it to create entire sites (replacing HTML), their site is essentially invisible to search engines. Maybe Google will solve this problem, but for now, I think that the best course of action is to use HTML whenever possible, and to use Flash when it would provide better functionality (and not just because it will look cool). Or, you could provide a non-Flash alternative, and that will be indexed.
There's also the problem that Flash isn't usable by everyone; people who browse non-visually, use a text-mode browser, or who simply haven't installed the plugin will not be able to use whatever portion of your site is in Flash. Just something to keep in mind.
You can also use the ming library with PHP to generate flash content on-the-fly:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.ming.php
You don't really have to train people (much) to use different platforms.
In my office (school newspaper, I'm the sysadmin), we have MacOS, Windows, and Linux (X terminal) clients.
[The school has servers running Linux, Solaris, and Irix, but I assume you're not worried about who's going to train the sysadmins
The MacOS clients are for layout, and so are to be used by graphic designers, who are already familiar with the system. Really, all they need to know to do their job is how to use Quark (which is mostly the same as the Windows version, in the unlikely event that they were using Quark on Windows) and connect to the network (easy instructions, can be taught by other layout people).
The Windows and Linux machines are for general (writer/editor) use. At the moment, it's easy to make these similar enough to not be a problem. They can both run OpenOffice, which is the main application. They also both run Mozilla. The X-terminals run GAIM, which is close enough to AIM to work; same with Icewm (customised a bit to look more like Win98). And to complete the apps, we have webmail, so nothing more is needed.
Others have gone the route of making the Linux machines incredibly easy to use (a few giant buttons to launch apps). This would work, too. But I think an important bit is having the same applications on both platforms. Once we can get the Macs running OS X, everything can run OpenOffice and Mozilla, and then we're down to the tiny differences between GAIM and AIM.
The X-terminals are my ideal client situation; thin clients are incredibly easy to manage. They also mean that there is (effectively) no desktop OS to infect, leaving diversity up to the servers (where you don't have to worry about training "regular" users on the various platforms). I'll never be able to completely convert the office to using these, but some people have (like the city of Key Largo).
I do like the idea of Mac OS X very much (a well-designed interface with a good, stable underpinning that allows people who Know What They're Doing to hack around); it's certainly a better operating system than Windows (IMHO) for most desktop users.
However, I really agree with the comment that Linux "waste[s]/misuse[s] a lot of real estate". How is this the case? Are you comparing MacOS to only something like KDE or Gnome? I really don't think that MacOS X is so very much better at screen real estate than Enlightenment; in fact, some aspects of it annoy me greatly. Apple decided that I don't want to windowshade things anymore; in E, I can iconify (what OS X does now) or windowshade them. Also, I really miss the floating menu (you can get this with a hack on Windows, but I haven't seen any sort of equivalent on Mac OS). The fact that all applications in Mac OS share a menu bar at the top of the screen might save some real estate, but I have a hard time believing that it's such a huge difference (especially for someone like me, whose screen is mostly covered with Eterms). And the inability to set "focus follows mouse" is a crying shame.
To those who will yell that, "Those are 'hacker' things and Apple doesn't care about catering to you"; you're right. But that proves that they don't have the uber-OS (and I'm not sure that anyone can). Apple certainly deserves a lot of credit for their ideas and implementations, but they're not perfect for everyone. For most "regular" users? I do think so, yes. But not for me...not at the moment.
Many caravan models use a car frame rather than a truck frame, though some of the larger models do use truck frames.
Caravans also don't have the horrible gas mileage problems that SUVs do. My father drives an '89 Dodge caravan, and it has a 4 cylinder engine. Sure, you can't drive it the same way as a 6 cylinder car, but it certainly has no problem pulling a small trailer (with a motorcycle), or being packed full of heavy audio equipment.
He's a mechanic, and we got the caravan well after they had become popular. I'm certain he wouldn't have gone near one if they had any sort of track record of safety problems (and I don't remember hearing anything). Caravans are, IMHO, much better family cars than SUVs.
Except that in India, half of the work against the tower would already be done. They are, IIRC, the only country to have multiple national anthems, and they have multiple official languages (11? Something like that).
Well, I wouldn't exactly call MPlayer a "hastle" (is that like a castle?):
./configure
make
make install
has always worked for me. If you want to get things like soft-subs (subtitles distributed in a separate file for things like DivX movies), you'll need a few extra steps, but it's all documented, and hardly torture.
I guess if you only want to watch DVDs, then maybe something else would be easier (like something that allows pre-distributed binaries). But for watching stuff you get from the Web/usenet (fan-subbed anime, videos from Web sites, etc.), I've found MPlayer to work best.
Why was this moderated up to 3? It is off topic for this discussion, and has also been posted several times in the past (in other articles).
It's not really "insightful", either; everyone knows that Office compatibility is the big deal, and everyone other than this person (assuming this is not a troll, which is a stretch) knows that converting documents to plain text isn't an option.
"It's not like these people would buy all this music if they couldn't get it free."
OK, so that means that their _customers_ are probably not really the criminals, eh? I'm relatively certain that there are more people downloading MP3s than uploading them. And there are probably more people who just buy the CD and listen to it (or rip MP3s for their own convenience) than people who rip the CD and upload the MP3s to file sharing services.
I really doubt that most people who could actually be considered customers are illegally distributing music. "Everyone [you] know" may do it, but I think that you probably know only a small subset of the population.
(and personally, as someone who knows his way around a recording studio, I would love to have a higher quality distribution format).
Quark Express is the standard in layout and design software. It's also a horrible piece of crap, but we won't get into that.
A single-user license for Quark 5 costs (IIRC) $900. However, universities can buy an 8 license package for $800, with the ability to add licenses later for $99 each. Thus, everyone learns Quark in school, and it stays entrenched in businesses because it's easy to find people who know it (trust me, I really didn't want to buy Quark again, but I just did, because I basically have to). Plus, that's what most printing places accept, because it's the most popular...and so that's what they teach in schools so that their students can graduate and get jobs. Begin again.
Aside from the reasons mentioned from the above reply, you can also get email from unknown addresses if you're applying for a job. Finding a job is (apparently) difficult enough these days without possibly bouncing email messages from a potential employer.
If you want a good studio sound card with Linux drivers, try the RME Hammerfall series. You can get up to 24 channels (optical ADAT I/O). It can be had for under $500.
Linux, patched, has lower latency than MacOS or any flavour of Windows. BeOS still beats it (I think), but not by very much.
Jazz++ can sync MIDI and audio, and is released under the GPL.
That said, I still haven't gotten around to converting "my" (WMBC's) recording studio, so I don't have any answers for you about effects. However, I did see something very promising at last year's Linux World Expo in NY. Also, I believe that Broadcast2000 (which isn't being developed anymore, but should still be available) can do this with audio as well as video.
Transgaming offered to trade many of their changes to the code for several of the changes that had gone into the LGPL tree. This seems reasonable to me, but the people with the LGPL patches weren't interested. If WINE is not going to help Transgaming, why should Transgaming help WINE?
"This is why I bought a PlayStation 2 -- NOTHING is free, and I don't expect any of it to be, so I'm not disappointed. I can just sit down and PLAY GAMES without making moral decisions."
You also have a system which is very good at playing games. The controller feels better than a keyboard, crashes are incredibly rare, the games are running on known hardware so there are no surprises (speed/driver/whatever issues), and the boot/shutdown time is almost instant.
Most of the games I want to play (I'm into RPGs) are on consoles anyway. Although I refuse to buy an Xbox to play the current Oddworld installment (grr). Amusingly, the only games I play on my PC (besides xscorch) are with console emulators
That said, Windows emulation does have some uses other than gaming...but then, gaming is what most of WineX's changes benefit.
When my right wrist starting hurting this January, I decided to change several things. First, I gave up my cheap Packard Bell keyboard in favor of one of the old, loud IBM models. This thing feels so much better. I don't know about any new, oddly-shaped keyboards, but this feels great to me. Additionally, I got a keyboard drawer to position it at a better height, which helped.
I also talked to one of my martial arts instructors (who is also a chiropractor) about exercises to help. He showed me several that have also made a big difference. In case you're wondering, it's an Indonesian art called Pentjak Silat, and the exercises involve sticks (I also take Jujitsu, which does have some wrist stretching, though Aikido would do more).
Aside from martial arts, I also play several musical instruments, and I think that the variety of motion is probably also beneficial.
PS: Yes, I do use qwerty touch typing, and have since I was around 10 (I'm almost 25 now). I think my problems may have been brought on by a period of time in which I didn't play much music, was doing less martial arts, and was writing many pages of Japanese characters. The fact that my left wrist is fine deepens this suspicion.
According to some employees, it also stands for (or used to, don't know if it's still this way) "I've Been Moved", after the company's tendency to transfer employees all over creation.
Remember when Silicon Graphics Incorporated actually changed their name to "sgi"?