Sooner or later Microsoft is going to be forced to release their code under the GPL (GNU Public License) or another Open Source license if they want to be able to compete against Linux.
They're competing against linux just fine right now. What matters is that microsoft owns the "standards" that businesses operate on.
eg ".doc", ".xls", ".ppt"
it doesnt matter damn thing whether they are open source, gpl, or "bob's mclicense". The whole point is that it's what "everyone else" is using.
If you want to destroy them, release a better product, for free, that does everything their stuff does, AND convince all the businesses to switch over to it.
It's already been done. it's called
"Sybase Enterprise Server for Linux"
Do try to remember that "microsoft" SQL server is little more then sybase, swallowed wholesale.
Point "isql" at a MS-SQL server, and they will talk just fine. (In fact, they TRIED to break this at one point, but too many customers complained, so they re-enabled it with a service pack)
An excellent predictor of success on the SAT is taking an SAT prep course. Those are only available to
students with enough money and time available to take them. In other words, the SAT is already biased
against the poorest regions.
The reason those prep courses work, is that they
ACTUALLY TEACH YOU HOW TO DO THE PROBLEMS.
IF the public schools in the "poorest regions"
actually taught english and math, there wouldnt
be a problem. So if you dont like it that kids from poorer schools score worse on SATs, fix the schools.
Trying to eliminate standardized testing is just trying to cover up the problem.
No doubt this effort is being largely pushed by the public schools' teachers unions.
It appears to also be a programming language. It's pretty interesting, too, as it proclaims to be somewhere between the
efficiency of C (which he likens to machine logic) and the ease of use of Lisp
So, when is someone going to use this approach to finally write EMACS-OS directly welded to the linux kernel?
They are advertising it as "region-free".
This is the wrong way to go.
What you need is region-selectable.
THere is talk by the big studios about making DVDs that wont play on region-free players.
You DID know that DVDs are actually programmable things, right?:-)
Unlike IE 5.5,
Mozilla can be downloaded and installed in an hour without the need to reboot or replace half of
your system DLLs to do it.
ONLY if you happen to be running
linux,mac, or winblows.
Otherwise, you are indeed stuck in "well first compile this, this this, AND this. and THEN go through a very long compile"
THe REALLY irritating thing is that they CLAIM to support other platforms for binaries.
But just try clicking on some of the other "nightly build" links on the TOP PAGE.
The i386-solaris link has been non-functional for about a YEAR now, I think.
And what a beast of a source tree. I mean, geez,
it's larger then the ***X WINDOW SOURCE ***
I just have to rant a small bit here about the Christian Right.
Jesus wasn't all about doing good things. Well, okay, he was, but he was more about
compassion, love, and understanding of our fellow man. People who go out of thier
way to limit other's freedom (be they church groups preaching "whats right" or
those freaks who put ratings on videogames and music) aren't doing a very good job
of following JC's original intent.
Uh, actually, he was about preaching "what's right". But it's true that he was going about it by convincing, not by convicting.
Yeup, know what you mean about incremental projects.
I have been maintaining a program I first wrote over ten years ago. I DID actually start with some loose design work (I think:-) But every so often, I added a feature, many of which were user requests.
The nice thing was, my original code layout was clean enough so that I could add features without actually having to look at the whole code. Unfortunately, after a few years of Feaping Creaturism, that tended to have a bad result when you look at the big picture:-)
So, I took the time to restructure it. Not so much rewriting code, as grouping the appropriate code in the appropriate files. Making the header files match up (widget.h should ONLY have stuff needed to interface with widget.c)
And once done, it was even better than before. No visible user change, but it made continued work on it SO much easier.
Plus, it helped me track down one or two things on the buglist that I was having difficulty figuring out before:-)
5. (I hate to admit this...) Exult didn't start getting a lot of users until one of the contributors ported it
to Win32, after I had replaced the X code with SDL.
I had a similiar, yet not so soul-imperiling experience with my main free program:-)
I develop on Solaris. Before that, SunOS. But I
made a point of keeping the code as portable as I knew how.
And so, even though I'd never touched linux: I somehow aquired a large portion of my user base as linux users. When I noticed that, I started posting updates to comp.os.linux.announce... and got even MORE linux users:-)
Then someone made a debian package out of it. So it gets even MORE linux exposure:-)
Under Sony's current scheme, if I want to write a game
I have to pay them a lot of money, like $25000. Under the X-box scheme, all I have to do is get a
compiler.
You seem to be under the assumption that
"All the world's an open source oyster".
Putting together a decent game these days costs a LOT of money. $25K is just the cost of doing business.
"Incorporating it into the OS" does NOT magically give you performance enhancements.
What improves performance.. is performance enhancements.
For example, converting the wonderfully portable but wasteful system class zip/jars, into shared libraries. If you're REALLY clever, you would put them into the library in an already initialized state.
This would then be OS-dependant, AND JVM dependant. But think of the startup gain, not to mention the memory savings on multiple java invokations!
Heck, a really good jvm would create $HOME/.class-cache, and do the conversion automatically, for system classes.
If you want "finer details of the world", grab
"Legend of Dragoon" for Playstation.
Just absurdly high amounts of detail scattered all over. Stuff that doesnt have anything to do with the story. (And lots that does:-). Plus cool FMV of course. The best game I've played. And you actually have to interact to make sure your character hits properly:-)
What do you think is unrealistic or irrational about these comments ?
What's irrational is that the PAID efforts would
"have" to reinvent everything, and the "free" programers would automatically get
"better tools".
This is generally the complete opposite of reality. If a business is willing to pay people to develop software, they are usually quite willing and even happy to pay for tools to make their employees more efficient.
Whereas "free" programmers are generally stuck with free tools. If the free tools are better, great. if not... they usually just have to make do.
South park , is the worst animation ever, a 3 year old child can do better and it is one of the most sucessful animated series on the planet. If your storyline/plot sucks big potatoes, no amount of technology/flashy tricks will save it
You give a lousy example of a good principle. South park's success has nothing to do with "storyline". It's a basic excercise in shock value. That, and milking all the lost "beavis and butthead" fans.
THe only way a linux console can be a significant market force, is by focusing on the strengths that make linux a market force today:
1. free, or dirt cheap to the consumer
There needs to be an OPEN SPECIFICATION on "This is an L-Box". Presumably, something like "The box runs Mesa-2.0(compatible), with *hardware* support for x,y, and z. The Joystick interface will be this. The fizbobble interface will be this API."
That way, those who want to buy a cheap box, can buy a box from whoever wants to make specialized cheap hardware. But otherwise, you get a jumpstart on a huge userbase, with existing "normal" linux systems. O course, it's real difficult to compete against subsidized hardware. But this doesnt change the truth of rule #1.
2. zero license fees to game-makers. Let's face it: The only way you're going to get studios to take a gamble on this, is if you say, "Hey, want to keep ALL the software revenue?"
If they want to pay license fees, they can already do that to Sony, Nintendo, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
They're competing against linux just fine right now. What matters is that microsoft owns the "standards" that businesses operate on. eg ".doc", ".xls", ".ppt"
it doesnt matter damn thing whether they are open source, gpl, or "bob's mclicense". The whole point is that it's what "everyone else" is using.
If you want to destroy them, release a better product, for free, that does everything their stuff does, AND convince all the businesses to switch over to it.
Good luck.
It's already been done. it's called
"Sybase Enterprise Server for Linux"
Do try to remember that "microsoft" SQL server is little more then sybase, swallowed wholesale.
Point "isql" at a MS-SQL server, and they will talk just fine. (In fact, they TRIED to break this at one point, but too many customers complained, so they re-enabled it with a service pack)
If you have a "holodeck", you could use it in TWO ways:
1. Being "in" it, in which case you probably want real-time interaction
2. Watching it from "outside", because you're running a sim or something. Although sometimes you may be inside just because you want an up-close look.
Remember the somewhat cheesy ST:TNG ep where geordie was running a holodeck sim to find out where the "shadow" was coming from?
In case #2, you probably do not want real time.
The reason those prep courses work, is that they ACTUALLY TEACH YOU HOW TO DO THE PROBLEMS.
IF the public schools in the "poorest regions" actually taught english and math, there wouldnt be a problem. So if you dont like it that kids from poorer schools score worse on SATs, fix the schools.
Trying to eliminate standardized testing is just trying to cover up the problem. No doubt this effort is being largely pushed by the public schools' teachers unions.
But then someone decided, "High speed impact... Hmm.. been there, done that. Hey, waitaminit.. Why dont we try LANDING something this time?"
}8-)
Nope. Actually, it's determined by
$Z:
echo $Z
"All our business partners are using M$.
All our customers are using M$.
Therefore, we will use M$ to stay 100% compatible".
So, when is someone going to use this approach to finally write EMACS-OS directly welded to the linux kernel?
They are advertising it as "region-free".
:-)
This is the wrong way to go.
What you need is region-selectable.
THere is talk by the big studios about making DVDs that wont play on region-free players.
You DID know that DVDs are actually programmable things, right?
Oh... man....
That's one set of pics I'm going to be looking at over and over... drool...
ONLY if you happen to be running linux ,mac, or winblows.
Otherwise, you are indeed stuck in "well first compile this, this this, AND this. and THEN go through a very long compile"
THe REALLY irritating thing is that they CLAIM to support other platforms for binaries. But just try clicking on some of the other "nightly build" links on the TOP PAGE. The i386-solaris link has been non-functional for about a YEAR now, I think.
And what a beast of a source tree. I mean, geez, it's larger then the ***X WINDOW SOURCE ***
Jesus wasn't all about doing good things. Well, okay, he was, but he was more about compassion, love, and understanding of our fellow man. People who go out of thier way to limit other's freedom (be they church groups preaching "whats right" or those freaks who put ratings on videogames and music) aren't doing a very good job of following JC's original intent.
Uh, actually, he was about preaching "what's right". But it's true that he was going about it by convincing, not by convicting.
Yeup, know what you mean about incremental projects.
:-) But every so often, I added a feature, many of which were user requests.
:-)
:-)
I have been maintaining a program I first wrote over ten years ago. I DID actually start with some loose design work (I think
The nice thing was, my original code layout was clean enough so that I could add features without actually having to look at the whole code. Unfortunately, after a few years of Feaping Creaturism, that tended to have a bad result when you look at the big picture
So, I took the time to restructure it. Not so much rewriting code, as grouping the appropriate code in the appropriate files. Making the header files match up (widget.h should ONLY have stuff needed to interface with widget.c)
And once done, it was even better than before. No visible user change, but it made continued work on it SO much easier.
Plus, it helped me track down one or two things on the buglist that I was having difficulty figuring out before
I had a similiar, yet not so soul-imperiling experience with my main free program :-)
I develop on Solaris. Before that, SunOS. But I
made a point of keeping the code as portable as I knew how.
And so, even though I'd never touched linux: I somehow aquired a large portion of my user base as linux users. When I noticed that, I started posting updates to comp.os.linux.announce... and got even MORE linux users :-)
Then someone made a debian package out of it. So it gets even MORE linux exposure :-)
You seem to be under the assumption that "All the world's an open source oyster". Putting together a decent game these days costs a LOT of money. $25K is just the cost of doing business.
"Incorporating it into the OS" does NOT magically give you performance enhancements.
What improves performance.. is performance enhancements.
For example, converting the wonderfully portable but wasteful system class zip/jars, into shared libraries. If you're REALLY clever, you would put them into the library in an already initialized state.
This would then be OS-dependant, AND JVM dependant. But think of the startup gain, not to mention the memory savings on multiple java invokations!
Heck, a really good jvm would create $HOME/.class-cache, and do the conversion automatically, for system classes.
If you want "finer details of the world", grab
:-). Plus cool FMV of course. The best game I've played. And you actually have to interact to make sure your character hits properly :-)
"Legend of Dragoon" for Playstation.
Just absurdly high amounts of detail scattered all over. Stuff that doesnt have anything to do with the story. (And lots that does
- more stable
- as fast or faster than
- as supported as
Linux.
This is a case of corporate pride leading to poor decisions.
Sounds more like a case of "The previous article is a case of fanaticism clouding judgement".
As others have pointed out, cobalt was moving to x86 anyway. Doing a comparison on that basis,
1. Solaris is certainly not going to be LESS stable than linux.
2. There's probably not going to be more than a 10% performance difference either way.
3. How could solaris be "[less] supported [than]" linux? By SUN? That's just silly.
Why hasn't anyone pointed out that giving special rights to "hispanics" is majorly discriminatory?
If they're going to put something in like that, they should put in rights for immigrants in general.
What's really sad is that the mbone domain names have basically been hijacked.
.ORG??
mbone.com is some totally random "portal" site.
mbone.ORG is yahoo trying to make a buck out of it. How the hell do they justify
interestingly though, mbone.net isn't taken.
Some good samaritan who knows how mbone SHOULD be used, want to snag that domain?
No, actually it's beyond just "distribution" issues. Becker wants to stop people even USING his driver on a "non-free OS".
http://www.scyld.com/expert/license.html
What's irrational is that the PAID efforts would "have" to reinvent everything, and the "free" programers would automatically get "better tools".
This is generally the complete opposite of reality. If a business is willing to pay people to develop software, they are usually quite willing and even happy to pay for tools to make their employees more efficient.
Whereas "free" programmers are generally stuck with free tools. If the free tools are better, great. if not... they usually just have to make do.
I stopped watching it when they killed Ivanova.
Grrr. Damn cheapass producers wouldn't give her a raise. Sheesh.
You give a lousy example of a good principle. South park's success has nothing to do with "storyline". It's a basic excercise in shock value. That, and milking all the lost "beavis and butthead" fans.
What the hell are you talking about?
You're griping about "HTTP", which is a *protocol*, reguarding menus and DHTML, which is
a *FORMAT*.
And you top it all off with
"XML is a [...] truly robust protocol". Except again, XML is a FORMAT, not a protocol!
I really, really hope people aren't paying you money to design websites, if you cant tell the difference between a protocol and a format.
THe only way a linux console can be a significant
market force, is by focusing on the strengths that
make linux a market force today:
1. free, or dirt cheap to the consumer
There needs to be an OPEN SPECIFICATION on
"This is an L-Box". Presumably, something like "The box runs Mesa-2.0(compatible), with *hardware* support for x,y, and z. The Joystick interface will be this. The fizbobble interface
will be this API."
That way, those who want to buy a cheap box, can buy a box from whoever wants to make specialized cheap hardware. But otherwise, you get a jumpstart on a huge userbase, with existing "normal" linux systems.
O course, it's real difficult to compete against subsidized hardware. But this doesnt change the truth of rule #1.
2. zero license fees to game-makers.
Let's face it: The only way you're going to get studios to take a gamble on this, is if you say, "Hey, want to keep ALL the software revenue?"
If they want to pay license fees, they can already do that to Sony, Nintendo, etc.