There's also a free work-alike called apprentice. Last time I checked on it it was missing many of the animation and interaction classes which open inventor provides, but it was able to load some inventor scene graphs from files.
More info on apprentice is at this site .
Even having the two gadgets in one case is kind of handy. I noticed this yesterday while trying to make room in my pockets for my individually-small but collectively-quite-bulky celphone and walkman.
While I'm skeptical of the real benefits of being able to schedule my PDA to download the latest Metallica (just say) MP3's and call up my buddy to listen to them, I'm grateful to have the two (three?) functions in one small package.
> If Linux picks up a lot of just-average users, > malicious code could actually be written in > source form, distributed with packages and > compiled in.
I'd like to think that the package distribution model filters out virii at this level. That is, most novice users will be installing only rpm's or deb's from CD or from a centralized distribution site. These are places where each package has a (presumably trusted) maintainer responsible for - among other things - avoiding the scenario you describe.
Personally, I make a point of never downloading binaries except from one of the debian.org sites. The assumption being that _someone_ is bound to have spotted malicious source and notified the world of it. If we all look at 1% of the source we download then I figure it will happen.
So, in my mind, the big viral danger for linux won't start until download.com or someone begins indexing/carrying linux binaries with unkown provenance.
Agreed. I like macs, but I won't be buying any more because of the difficulty in upgrading them. It's just like trying to upgrade a notebook computer: if an upgrade path exists at all, it's usually prohibitively expensive.
I think apple does best with "sealed" machines that users are willing to throw away when they have reached the end of their useful lives.
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There's also a free work-alike called apprentice. Last time I checked on it it was missing many of the animation and interaction classes which open inventor provides, but it was able to load some inventor scene graphs from files. More info on apprentice is at this site .
Even having the two gadgets in one case is kind of handy. I noticed this yesterday while trying to make room in my pockets for my individually-small but collectively-quite-bulky celphone and walkman.
While I'm skeptical of the real benefits of being able to schedule my PDA to download the latest Metallica (just say) MP3's and call up my buddy to listen to them, I'm grateful to have the two (three?) functions in one small package.
> If Linux picks up a lot of just-average users,
> malicious code could actually be written in
> source form, distributed with packages and
> compiled in.
I'd like to think that the package distribution model filters out virii at this level. That is, most novice users will be installing only rpm's or deb's from CD or from a centralized distribution site. These are places where each package has a (presumably trusted) maintainer responsible for - among other things - avoiding the scenario you describe.
Personally, I make a point of never downloading binaries except from one of the debian.org sites. The assumption being that _someone_ is bound to have spotted malicious source and notified the world of it. If we all look at 1% of the source we download then I figure it will happen.
So, in my mind, the big viral danger for linux won't start until download.com or someone begins indexing/carrying linux binaries with unkown provenance.
That settles it. I've seen that STTNG episode.
It's just a matter of time before the silcon-based alien life forms arrive and start calling us ugly bags of mostly water.
Agreed.
I like macs, but I won't be buying any more because of the difficulty in upgrading them. It's just like trying to upgrade a notebook computer: if an upgrade path exists at all, it's usually prohibitively expensive.
I think apple does best with "sealed" machines that users are willing to throw away when they have reached the end of their useful lives.