I'm not an expert and I don't follow these things so take my opinion as is.
I remember people talking in the early 2000s when Sun was trying to be the "dot in the dotcom" that Sun lost to linux. Many companies simply didn't need a big Sun box and now that they could get something unixy on a box more appropriate to their business that is what they did.
That could have happened if a proprietary business one day saw a niche for a unix operating system on a small machine.
Sun was all about selling big machines and their OS for those big machines.
Aside from that, I think he has a good point about thinking carefully when aiming the open source gun.
Many companies make it hard to buy something...at least for programmers.
If somebody can download something for free and have it work fine, they will not bother to go through the channels in their company to get them to buy something.
I stay in touch with the people in my life outside of FB.
There are a few acquaintances that Facebook put me back in touch with that I would like to stay in touch with via a similar site. Not so many that I need a service to send them a note for me.
As far as everyone else goes if they come with me great, if not no loss.
Yes and I was surprised that VLC worked fine for DVDs, post upgrading to 10.10, would not play. It has made the extended search for a solution to the broken totem more comfortable.
I've been on ubuntuforums, the ubuntu IRC channel on freedone, the ubuntu-users email list, launchpad, comp.os.linux.misc, alt.os.linux.ubuntu and linuxquestions.org
People in all of those places have been very helpful. They have given me suggestions which I have done. The only suggestion that turned up paydirt was installing VLC.
Whatever the upgrade did to Totem, it is an obscure problem nobody is noticing
It has seemed to me for a while that the really popular pieces of FOSS (or the majority) are done by professionals. The bearded, Simpson's comic book store owner types come in afterwards either to complain about how something isn't politically correct enough to get people to make a castrated, completely free version of it. That or they pop up on Slahsdot talking like they are the ones who built the stuff and dissing people who want the software to be friendly.
The products that do really well - the "best of F/OSS", if you like - are almost invariably the sort which scratches a very common itch. They're usually bankrolled by a number of companies (the Linux kernel falls under this category) or become self-funding when the project leader sets up a company to sell a commercial version with support and possibly extra features
Interesting quote.
It seems to work almost the way Richard Stallman would have hoped. Somebody likes a piece of software enough to pay a programmer to fix some aspect of it that needs to be changed.
I understand how the money is being made with commercial versions and support deals.
I don't see how money is being made with "several companies bankrolling" a piece of software that scratches a common itch. Is it that a particular company sees that it can make money by using, though not owning, a particular piece of software and they don't mind their money making improvements available to other people?
Turning your head works too. If that is too much of an athletic feat there is always looking in your mirrors.
The auto industry can get in on the act and make cars with good rear window visibility.........one of the reasons why I DIDN'T buy a Prius this past spring.
That is how it started, it is not what desktop Linux became or what it is.
There is an old saying that people who use FreeBSD love Unix, people who use Linux hate windows.
If you poll most of the desktop Linux users they will tell you they use it because they like it better than Windows. Most of these people will not mention minix.
The average Facebook users isn't interested in technology and the average Facebook user is the type of person to shut down listening at the smallest hint of jargon-speak coming. IT people often lose the ability to see how very little people know.
The average Facebook user isn't going to understand the many seed concept, let alone being willing to figure it out and set it up. I hope they make it brain dead, push just 3 buttons easy.
The average Facebook user isn't going to understand or be enthusiastic about "open source" or "privacy aware".
I hate Facebook.
It is my sincere hope that the Diaspora team realizes that winning Facebook users over is a bigger challenge than building their software and that winning them over involves many things that have nothing to do with having better software...having better software is only one minimum requirement.
I haven't seen any organization start off with the *intent* of usurping a website, a piece of software or a piece of hardware from an established niche and succeed, by intent.
Users tend to gather around a watering hole and stay there, despite better alternatives existing.
The Diaspora team would be smart to recognize this problem as being at least as large of a task as making their software. The wealthy uber geeks who donated large amounts of money to Diaspora would be wise to use their resources to get Diaspora some top notch marketing help.
Factory farms feed cows other things than grass because it is more efficient ( cheaper and more profitable). Grass fed beef would be expensive beef beyond what many Americans can afford, let alone other people in the world.
Marginal land, is just that marginal land. There isn't enough of it to raise enough life stock to feed a significant number of people.
I don't mean any personal insult to you, but you last statement is egregiously wrong. Raising animals for meat actually contributes to world hunger.
It takes about 10 pounds of grain to get 1 pound of beef out. In other words, you converted 10 pounds of food ( or crops that could have been food if you chose to grow something else ) into one pound of food.
Then there is all of the pollution from livestock farming that slowly using up fresh water and damaging other agricultural resources.
I read in a few places that I can't remember right now that it takes feeding an animal 26 calories to get 1 calorie of food out, by eating their meat. In other words you have to put more energy in than you get out. This is good for Tyson's if this is about waste they could not do anything else with. It isn't an alternative energy solution though. It isn't even an efficient way to get food.
I remember when I got into computers as a student. The campus labs were running off of a DOS menu that would allow you to go to your unix account to do all sorts of things, various DOS programs or go into Windows 3.0. The machines were a mix of 386 and 486 boxes. Windows 3.0 ran so poorly was such PITA and added so little value to what people were trying to accomplish most lab patrons stuck with DOS programs and their shell accounts. That was Windows 3.0. I can only imagine how frustrating using Windows 1.0 must have been.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not an expert and I don't follow these things so take my opinion as is.
I remember people talking in the early 2000s when Sun was trying to be the "dot in the dotcom" that Sun lost to linux. Many companies simply didn't need a big Sun box and now that they could get something unixy on a box more appropriate to their business that is what they did.
That could have happened if a proprietary business one day saw a niche for a unix operating system on a small machine.
Sun was all about selling big machines and their OS for those big machines.
Aside from that, I think he has a good point about thinking carefully when aiming the open source gun.
Many companies make it hard to buy something...at least for programmers.
If somebody can download something for free and have it work fine, they will not bother to go through the channels in their company to get them to buy something.
I stay in touch with the people in my life outside of FB.
There are a few acquaintances that Facebook put me back in touch with that I would like to stay in touch with via a similar site. Not so many that I need a service to send them a note for me.
As far as everyone else goes if they come with me great, if not no loss.
I just wish Diaspora was finished so I could send an invitation to the few FB friends who matter to join me there and then delete my FB page.
My suspicion is that a higher education would lessen the fear of death by introducing a person to the thoughts and arguments of the great minds.
Do non-liberal arts majors get enough of this by electives ( classes they are forced to take )?
Yes and I was surprised that VLC worked fine for DVDs, post upgrading to 10.10, would not play. It has made the extended search for a solution to the broken totem more comfortable.
I've been on ubuntuforums, the ubuntu IRC channel on freedone, the ubuntu-users email list, launchpad, comp.os.linux.misc, alt.os.linux.ubuntu and linuxquestions.org
People in all of those places have been very helpful. They have given me suggestions which I have done. The only suggestion that turned up paydirt was installing VLC.
Whatever the upgrade did to Totem, it is an obscure problem nobody is noticing
Ugh, I'm still trying to fix my broken DVD playback from upgrading to 10.10 last week.
This alpha does sound fascinating. Will this be an Ubuntu without X-windows sitting under a GNOME? An Updated GNOME?
It has seemed to me for a while that the really popular pieces of FOSS (or the majority) are done by professionals. The bearded, Simpson's comic book store owner types come in afterwards either to complain about how something isn't politically correct enough to get people to make a castrated, completely free version of it. That or they pop up on Slahsdot talking like they are the ones who built the stuff and dissing people who want the software to be friendly.
Interesting quote.
It seems to work almost the way Richard Stallman would have hoped. Somebody likes a piece of software enough to pay a programmer to fix some aspect of it that needs to be changed.
I understand how the money is being made with commercial versions and support deals.
I don't see how money is being made with "several companies bankrolling" a piece of software that scratches a common itch. Is it that a particular company sees that it can make money by using, though not owning, a particular piece of software and they don't mind their money making improvements available to other people?
Driving a car instead of a minivan or SUV helps too.
Turning your head works too. If that is too much of an athletic feat there is always looking in your mirrors.
The auto industry can get in on the act and make cars with good rear window visibility.........one of the reasons why I DIDN'T buy a Prius this past spring.
Since when are rabbits are a problem?
That is how it started, it is not what desktop Linux became or what it is.
There is an old saying that people who use FreeBSD love Unix, people who use Linux hate windows.
If you poll most of the desktop Linux users they will tell you they use it because they like it better than Windows. Most of these people will not mention minix.
The year is 2010, not 1989
Linux "got popular" because *some* ( Windows still rules the market ) people wanted an alternative to Microsoft Windows.
Diaspora *may* get popular because many people want an alternative to Facebook.
I hate IE. I hate Facebook. I also completely agree with you.
Diaspora wants to win over the average social media user --- the average person.
Few things turn off the average person more quickly than geeky adolescent fanboy spouting.
I know, I've made that mistake myself.
The average Facebook users isn't interested in technology and the average Facebook user is the type of person to shut down listening at the smallest hint of jargon-speak coming. IT people often lose the ability to see how very little people know.
The average Facebook user isn't going to understand the many seed concept, let alone being willing to figure it out and set it up. I hope they make it brain dead, push just 3 buttons easy.
The average Facebook user isn't going to understand or be enthusiastic about "open source" or "privacy aware".
I hate Facebook.
It is my sincere hope that the Diaspora team realizes that winning Facebook users over is a bigger challenge than building their software and that winning them over involves many things that have nothing to do with having better software...having better software is only one minimum requirement.
I haven't seen any organization start off with the *intent* of usurping a website, a piece of software or a piece of hardware from an established niche and succeed, by intent.
Users tend to gather around a watering hole and stay there, despite better alternatives existing.
The Diaspora team would be smart to recognize this problem as being at least as large of a task as making their software. The wealthy uber geeks who donated large amounts of money to Diaspora would be wise to use their resources to get Diaspora some top notch marketing help.
than can they offer streaming netflix to the rest of the Linux users?
They are supposed to be the best military in the world and they are charged with defending our air space.
Something came into our air space and they could not identify it.
How can they defend our airspace if they don't know what is in our airspace?
Ask Grandma if she has heard of the iPhone, then ask her if she heard of the Windows Phone 7.
Isn't anyone else bothered that the military couldn't identify it?
Factory farms feed cows other things than grass because it is more efficient ( cheaper and more profitable). Grass fed beef would be expensive beef beyond what many Americans can afford, let alone other people in the world.
Marginal land, is just that marginal land. There isn't enough of it to raise enough life stock to feed a significant number of people.
I don't mean any personal insult to you, but you last statement is egregiously wrong. Raising animals for meat actually contributes to world hunger.
It takes about 10 pounds of grain to get 1 pound of beef out. In other words, you converted 10 pounds of food ( or crops that could have been food if you chose to grow something else ) into one pound of food.
Then there is all of the pollution from livestock farming that slowly using up fresh water and damaging other agricultural resources.
I read in a few places that I can't remember right now that it takes feeding an animal 26 calories to get 1 calorie of food out, by eating their meat. In other words you have to put more energy in than you get out. This is good for Tyson's if this is about waste they could not do anything else with. It isn't an alternative energy solution though. It isn't even an efficient way to get food.
I remember when I got into computers as a student. The campus labs were running off of a DOS menu that would allow you to go to your unix account to do all sorts of things, various DOS programs or go into Windows 3.0. The machines were a mix of 386 and 486 boxes. Windows 3.0 ran so poorly was such PITA and added so little value to what people were trying to accomplish most lab patrons stuck with DOS programs and their shell accounts. That was Windows 3.0. I can only imagine how frustrating using Windows 1.0 must have been.
Thanks a lot of the info!
Will the "compatibility layer" cause a visible performance hit?