Norway, where Opera is currently based, is a strong rule-of-law country and their legislation seems mostly compatible with EU Data Protection directive. So yes, I do think a Chinese company buying off Opera is way worse than before.
Too bad. I only recently discovered Opera on Android, and have been using it ever since because it has an in-built ad-blocker. Google will probably never deliver an ad-blocker to Chrome for Android because Google is an advertising company and it would be about shooting themselves in the foot. But I will any day choose a bit slower and more annoying browsing experience over installing Chinese spyware on my phone. So long, Opera.
[X] YES I would like take advantage of my limited, one-time special offer to have InstantComputerFixer++ Pro and InstantComputerFixer++ Pro BrowserToolBar installed for FREE alongside this software!
It's probably a misnomer to call this a backdoor or virus. The users probably need click through some EULA where they give the company permission to do as they see best with the user's computer. Computers are powerful machines and a great deal of users are just too ignorant and should not be allowed the install code downloaded from the Internet on their computers.
FUD. Just the standard in spreading climate hysteria. It might scientifically proven but the green loonies are still the biggest PR group. Which is great for the climate change deniers because it makes their job so easy.
Android is built on the Linux kernel so actually if you hook a keyboard, a mouse or such in the micro-USB slot on your phone it should just work out of the box. I don't think there's that much consumer interest for hooking up a 10x sized a keyboard to a smartphone though. It wouldn't be a big push for Google to bring out a dongle-sized concept PC based on Chromium OS or Android if such devices prove popular, however.
And if you are willing to hack some there's of course the business-card sized Raspberry PI that has decent ARM CPU, HDMI out and USB in that can be flashed with your favourite Linux distro, Android or Win 10.
I think it's the very goal of Microsoft to blur the line between "desktop" and "mobile". Case and point: Windows Store (which will now be a much more prominent part of the OS) uses the same kind of app permission and sandboxing model as Android and iOS.
Why bother trying to create an open home brew environment around a closed platform?
Cost and availability of hardware? While the original platform/OS might be closed, it might be possible to root it and get raw access to the underlying hardware. With original Xbox this was super easy, since it was essentially a cheap Intel PC in a console box. There was a very lively hobbyist culture around the original Xbox with many people installing Linux on it to convert it to an affordable HTPC.
You are absolutely wrong. Nokia only sold its phone manufacturing business to Microsoft. However, Nokia is actually a conglomerate that currently also operates in e.g. networking (the Nokia Siemens Networks division, now a fully-owned subsidiary of Nokia) and mapping + location technology (the "HERE" brand). Previously, they have also operated in cable, television, Personal Computer, car/bicycle tire and rubber boot manufacturing just to name a few other areas. Few people know about these other Nokias, but it's actually a really old company (founded already in 1865). The Nokia car tyre business is currently known as Nokian Tyres, and is one of the world's leading winter tire manufacturers in the world (it's get cold and icy in Finland, you know).
If you read about the development history of the MeeGo/Maemo line, it was only kept alive as a hobbyist/freak project. This also allowed it the rapid development cycle, unlike the other projects inside Nokia that were over-managed. At the end of the day, the management however preferred Symbian and later WP over that line. I guess they didn't see it as suitable for businesses or something.
That was only the last nail in the coffin. The company still had its own strategy and vision before 2011. However, the seeds of doom were sown during the early 2000s when phone sales were excellent and the company hired lots of middle management. When Apple came out with iPhone, the company could not react because proper R&D had become almost impossible due to the management overhead. When Nokia went to MS for Elop and WP, they already knew they were doomed as they had no competive product of their own.
This is probably just about MS laying off all the useless middle management from ex-Nokia divisions. Nokia failed because they had practically unrestricrted growth of middle management at the expense of R&D. This diet is necessary. Under the original Finnish management Nokia had no balls to lay off anybody. Finland is unfortunately still largely a 1960s-style socialist market economy where layoffs mean labor union strikes and the emloyer being deemed socially irresponsible.
Is this the first Linux product being offered by Microsoft?
Definitely not. This might have been so in the 1990s and early 2000s. But Microsoft is nowadays a major kernel contributor and has been offering Linux as a first-class operating systemn on the Azure cloud computing platform since at least 2010.
At least according to Ars this is much less. It's just about killing specific kind of SW patents. Crucially, it still allows patents that "improve the functioning of the computer itself".
Also, in the new version it's no longer possible to use a master password... if you want to use sync all your password will be in plaintext (well, obfuscated) in FF's password file. Any malicious or vulnerable application can get access to ALL your passwords. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s...
Booted to Ubuntu, it wants to install new Firefox. Okay. Here are the first impressions: TL;DR: It's terrible. The designer hipsters are now ruining Firefox, too.
1. Why are the tabs again above the URL bar? I have configured them time after time below. But this time, the option to put them back below is gone even from about:config! WTF?
2. Where has the "add-on bar" gone? Wasn't it enough that the status bar was replaced with the buggy text that shows on mouse hover?
3. Google "firefox 29 tabs below url bar", people are recommending this add-on. Thought: has Firefox really gone the way of Windows 8 where you need to install 3rd party extension (Classic Shell) to band-aid the catastrophic damage the hipster designers have done to the original product?
4. Reboot the browser after installing the extension. Spend 20+ minutes making everything as close as possible to what is what before.
5. Finally, continue working. About 2 hours in, suddenly my back/forward buttons stop working. Assume the extension is interfering with core somehow. Fortunately, rebooting the browser helps. Some time later, this happens again, need to again reboot Firefox.
6. Seriously consider switching to Google Chrome. The few reasons to use Firefox are evaporating fast.
Overall experience: 30min spent fiddling with Firefox settings. There is currently no easy way to make it like it was before. If you are running Firefox 28, I would suggest waiting a few weeks before upgrading until there is an easy and tried way to un-fuck the UI.
If you have ever wondered why all the popular open source licenses, like GPL, BSD and Apache, include the "warranty" and "limitation of liability" clauses, this is exactly why. The clauses usually state something like "this software is provided 'as is' and without any warranty. The user of the software assumes all risks that may arise. In no event shall the project or its contributors be liable for any damages."
Oh, for god's sake, don't you get it? All opinions are equally meaningless unless people actually react to them. The ultimate non-existence of freedom of speech would be a society, where speech and actions have no consequences. This time, the consequence of his actions was that the public saw him as unfit for CEO of Mozilla. No one has denied him the right to hold those views, and he has been very kindly offered a platform to express them. What you should take away from this, is that your political opinions are often of little importance when you are just another employee, but once you become the CEO, who is a public figure, you can expect heat from those who disagree with your opinions. Which you have an absolute right to. Just like those who disagree with you.
You seem to have misunderstood the very core tenet of freedom of speech. Eich has full right to his opinion. The protests were not about him having an opinion. The protests were about the content of that opinion. What do you think people should have done instead? Ignore his views?
Slashdot Mirror
Norway, where Opera is currently based, is a strong rule-of-law country and their legislation seems mostly compatible with EU Data Protection directive. So yes, I do think a Chinese company buying off Opera is way worse than before.
Too bad. I only recently discovered Opera on Android, and have been using it ever since because it has an in-built ad-blocker. Google will probably never deliver an ad-blocker to Chrome for Android because Google is an advertising company and it would be about shooting themselves in the foot. But I will any day choose a bit slower and more annoying browsing experience over installing Chinese spyware on my phone. So long, Opera.
[X] YES I would like take advantage of my limited, one-time special offer to have InstantComputerFixer++ Pro and InstantComputerFixer++ Pro BrowserToolBar installed for FREE alongside this software!
It's probably a misnomer to call this a backdoor or virus. The users probably need click through some EULA where they give the company permission to do as they see best with the user's computer. Computers are powerful machines and a great deal of users are just too ignorant and should not be allowed the install code downloaded from the Internet on their computers.
FUD. Just the standard in spreading climate hysteria. It might scientifically proven but the green loonies are still the biggest PR group. Which is great for the climate change deniers because it makes their job so easy.
Android is built on the Linux kernel so actually if you hook a keyboard, a mouse or such in the micro-USB slot on your phone it should just work out of the box. I don't think there's that much consumer interest for hooking up a 10x sized a keyboard to a smartphone though. It wouldn't be a big push for Google to bring out a dongle-sized concept PC based on Chromium OS or Android if such devices prove popular, however.
And if you are willing to hack some there's of course the business-card sized Raspberry PI that has decent ARM CPU, HDMI out and USB in that can be flashed with your favourite Linux distro, Android or Win 10.
I think it's the very goal of Microsoft to blur the line between "desktop" and "mobile". Case and point: Windows Store (which will now be a much more prominent part of the OS) uses the same kind of app permission and sandboxing model as Android and iOS.
Why bother trying to create an open home brew environment around a closed platform?
Cost and availability of hardware? While the original platform/OS might be closed, it might be possible to root it and get raw access to the underlying hardware. With original Xbox this was super easy, since it was essentially a cheap Intel PC in a console box. There was a very lively hobbyist culture around the original Xbox with many people installing Linux on it to convert it to an affordable HTPC.
You are absolutely wrong. Nokia only sold its phone manufacturing business to Microsoft. However, Nokia is actually a conglomerate that currently also operates in e.g. networking (the Nokia Siemens Networks division, now a fully-owned subsidiary of Nokia) and mapping + location technology (the "HERE" brand). Previously, they have also operated in cable, television, Personal Computer, car/bicycle tire and rubber boot manufacturing just to name a few other areas. Few people know about these other Nokias, but it's actually a really old company (founded already in 1865). The Nokia car tyre business is currently known as Nokian Tyres, and is one of the world's leading winter tire manufacturers in the world (it's get cold and icy in Finland, you know).
If you read about the development history of the MeeGo/Maemo line, it was only kept alive as a hobbyist/freak project. This also allowed it the rapid development cycle, unlike the other projects inside Nokia that were over-managed. At the end of the day, the management however preferred Symbian and later WP over that line. I guess they didn't see it as suitable for businesses or something.
That was only the last nail in the coffin. The company still had its own strategy and vision before 2011. However, the seeds of doom were sown during the early 2000s when phone sales were excellent and the company hired lots of middle management. When Apple came out with iPhone, the company could not react because proper R&D had become almost impossible due to the management overhead. When Nokia went to MS for Elop and WP, they already knew they were doomed as they had no competive product of their own.
This is probably just about MS laying off all the useless middle management from ex-Nokia divisions. Nokia failed because they had practically unrestricrted growth of middle management at the expense of R&D. This diet is necessary. Under the original Finnish management Nokia had no balls to lay off anybody. Finland is unfortunately still largely a 1960s-style socialist market economy where layoffs mean labor union strikes and the emloyer being deemed socially irresponsible.
Is this the first Linux product being offered by Microsoft?
Definitely not. This might have been so in the 1990s and early 2000s. But Microsoft is nowadays a major kernel contributor and has been offering Linux as a first-class operating systemn on the Azure cloud computing platform since at least 2010.
At least according to Ars this is much less. It's just about killing specific kind of SW patents. Crucially, it still allows patents that "improve the functioning of the computer itself".
I meant, 300 who had an opinion of systemd. So it would mean 3 people actually used it and found bugs (?)
For that observation to have much any statistical value, you'd had to know over 300 people who used systemd.
So what exactly makes Google search less "anonymous" than all the others?
Also, in the new version it's no longer possible to use a master password... if you want to use sync all your password will be in plaintext (well, obfuscated) in FF's password file. Any malicious or vulnerable application can get access to ALL your passwords. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/s...
My reaction when reading this
Booted to Ubuntu, it wants to install new Firefox. Okay. Here are the first impressions: TL;DR: It's terrible. The designer hipsters are now ruining Firefox, too.
1. Why are the tabs again above the URL bar? I have configured them time after time below. But this time, the option to put them back below is gone even from about:config! WTF?
2. Where has the "add-on bar" gone? Wasn't it enough that the status bar was replaced with the buggy text that shows on mouse hover?
3. Google "firefox 29 tabs below url bar", people are recommending this add-on. Thought: has Firefox really gone the way of Windows 8 where you need to install 3rd party extension (Classic Shell) to band-aid the catastrophic damage the hipster designers have done to the original product?
4. Reboot the browser after installing the extension. Spend 20+ minutes making everything as close as possible to what is what before.
5. Finally, continue working. About 2 hours in, suddenly my back/forward buttons stop working. Assume the extension is interfering with core somehow. Fortunately, rebooting the browser helps. Some time later, this happens again, need to again reboot Firefox.
6. Seriously consider switching to Google Chrome. The few reasons to use Firefox are evaporating fast.
Overall experience: 30min spent fiddling with Firefox settings. There is currently no easy way to make it like it was before. If you are running Firefox 28, I would suggest waiting a few weeks before upgrading until there is an easy and tried way to un-fuck the UI.
may end up with some lawsuits (?)
If you have ever wondered why all the popular open source licenses, like GPL, BSD and Apache, include the "warranty" and "limitation of liability" clauses, this is exactly why. The clauses usually state something like "this software is provided 'as is' and without any warranty. The user of the software assumes all risks that may arise. In no event shall the project or its contributors be liable for any damages."
This is quite old news, why is slashdot only picking up on it now?
Slashdot did pick it up earlier already when it was first announced. So it's a dupe, really.
Oh, for god's sake, don't you get it? All opinions are equally meaningless unless people actually react to them. The ultimate non-existence of freedom of speech would be a society, where speech and actions have no consequences. This time, the consequence of his actions was that the public saw him as unfit for CEO of Mozilla. No one has denied him the right to hold those views, and he has been very kindly offered a platform to express them. What you should take away from this, is that your political opinions are often of little importance when you are just another employee, but once you become the CEO, who is a public figure, you can expect heat from those who disagree with your opinions. Which you have an absolute right to. Just like those who disagree with you.
You seem to have misunderstood the very core tenet of freedom of speech. Eich has full right to his opinion. The protests were not about him having an opinion. The protests were about the content of that opinion. What do you think people should have done instead? Ignore his views?
The CEO of Bitcoin has already decided to ban China as a countermeasure. So who's the fool now?
Well, they did eventually port it to Firefox. The demo is down right now, but it ran fine at least on Ubuntu.