As said by many other people here, physical media isn't going away any time soon as long as they don't radically change how the system works. Games on physical media works so well that I can't imagine a console that only uses downloadable games to thrive. Lets take a look at the reasons why, shall we?
Pros for using physical media: 1) Buy it once and it's yours forever.
2) You can re-sell it when you'd like a little extra cash and you don't want it anymore.
3) You can back them up using various methods. (Ever since I got a DS homebrew flashcart and installed homebrew on my Wii, their personal value for me has *SKYROCKETED* since I can play my game backups without digging for the disc.)
4) You can lend them to a friend that wants to try the game out.
5) The game case has a "look at the awesome thing I have" value for showing it off on your game rack.
6) I can play (most of) the games ten or twenty years from now, if they still work.
Basically the cons for using discs and cartridges are that if you lose them or get them scratched/broken, then you have to buy a new one. The pros heavily outweigh the cons for this. But what about downloadable games? Lets see:
Pros of downloadable games: 1) You don't have to drive to a store to purchase the game.
2) Sometimes the prices are much cheaper than a physical copy.
And... that's about it. The cons list, however, is much more extensive:
Cons of downloadable games: 1) Most have DRM that controls when, how, and where you play it.
1.5) You most likely won't be able to play the games in 10-20 years
2) You most likely won't be able to purchase the games in 10-20 years. (Nintendo/Sony/MS, I'm looking at you. Do something about this one!)
3) You can't trade them in for extra cash.
4) You can't lend them to a friend.
5) Games usually cost as much as a retail disc, which doesn't make much sense considering the cost of the disc or shipping it is not involved at all.
6) You're at the mercy of your internet connection to get a decent speed for downloading the game. (If you have "Super Ultra Basic DSL" or dial-up, it might be more worth it to go to a store.)
As long as physical media remains as sane as it is, and as long as downloadable games don't act so stupidly, I'm sticking to discs and cartridges. They are clearly the winner here.
You, sir, are the most Christian person I've ever seen on Slashdot. Finally not another Atheist troll! Your post really is insightful and clearly deserves a "+10 Wisdom". Thanks so much for loving God and not being one of the stereotypical "Christians" that Atheists love to paint us like!
This is slightly off-topic, but is anyone here familiar with Cory Doctorow? He wrote a book I just finished called Little Brother where this same thing happened (except a little more localized and extreme) and he shows how pointless it really is. The book can be found here for download and it's under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If I was in Marcus's position right now (the book's main character), I'd be scared and facepalming at the same time. I wouldn't be scared of terrorists; I'd be scared of my own government! And to think we always shoot down the very ideas of some foreign governments that "don't respect freedom" when we're doing the very things we hate. It just doesn't make sense.
Ah, fair enough. Still, don't make it seem like he hated it.
I don't believe I said he did, I said he found it disappointing, which you agree with (though it works when your head's at just the right place). I still believe the effect's great and I never said it wasn't; I merely said it was disappointing (and potentially nauseating) if not used correctly. Thank God you can turn it off or adjust the sensation on-the-fly, or this would become the Virtual Boy 2.
Read the whole article. His own words, at the very bottom, sum it up: "It's Astounding".
Keep in mind you are looking at a product that is literally months away from hitting retail, possibly even a year. Same thing with the games. If you expect it to be perfect upon its initial unveiling...
However, if you take the article in context,
The effect is astounding. I took a picture of the woman who had the 3DS padlocked to her waist. She's smiling and has her hands up. The hands feel like they're popping out of the screen, behind the room just goes on and on.
He was talking about the 3D camera, which I mentioned in my original post:
He goes on to mention that the 3D camera on the back works excellently and was a joy to use, however, and I can definitely understand that.
According to Kotaku, the effect completely fails if you move out of its small window of effectiveness. So much for playing the game in a truly portable way:\.He goes on to mention that the 3D camera on the back works excellently and was a joy to use, however, and I can definitely understand that.
The story was actually made up (since, of course, the Google TV isn't out yet). I just put together various parts of the horror stories about Best Buy from all of the people I know.
I instantly thought this was a horrible idea right here. I can't trust anything they do. After all of the Internet horror stories, stories from my relatives, and even in my own family about the terrible things that can happen when Best Buy is involved, I can't trust them with this.
Best Buy employee: This is the all new Google TV. It allows real-time web 2.0 synergy between your living room and the Internet. Me: Um... what? Employee: It's like TV but combined with the Internet with apps and stuff. Me: Awesome! How much does it cost? Employee: We sell the regular model by itself for X dollars, but that isn't certified with us. Me: Oh, it isn't? Employee: Yeah, it might not work with your TV unless you pay $150 more for our Geek Squad(tm) service. They set it up, put apps on it for you, and make sure everything works. Me: I'm a computer nerd, I can set it up myself. Thanks anyways! Employee: If you buy it without our service then you don't get [insert feature here]. You either have to use Geek Squad(tm) or buy this $100 gold-plated cable. Me: *looks at box* But the box says that I get that feature without having to buy anything. Employee: Yeah, but you need these cables to have it look decent. Me: I have some old ones at home I can use. Thank you for helping! Employee: We're out of regular Google TVs. Me:...Say what? Employee: We only have our pre-specialized models. They have everything already set up by Geek Squad(tm) so you don't have to bother. Me: I'd much rather bother. Employee: Trust me, it's horrible without our service. Are you sure? Me: *sigh* Fine, I'll buy it. Employee: Thank you for shopping at Best Buy! *I get home and set it up* Me: Okay, ready to try out my new Google TV! Wait... what's this? The box never said anything about "free trials" to all of these programs. Why is the interface so slow? Oh, it's all of these other things that came pre-installed. Of course. Why is this acting all weird? *looks in settings* These settings aren't what the defaults were in the manual! Ugh... *Google TV crashes* What the crap! Okay, screw this, I'm returning it. *goes back to best buy* Me: Excuse me, I'd like to return this obviously faulty Google TV. Employee: Did you install it? Me: Yes, how else would I know it is faulty? Employee: It seems you used unqualified cables. I'm afraid you can't return it. Me: Unqualifi- No, no, no! You can't void my ability to return this because I didn't use those $100 cables! That doesn't make sense! Employee: Rules are rules, sir. Have a nice day.
- You have a centralized location to re-download. If you move to another computer (or OS), you just click to download again
Same for World of Goo. All you have to do is go to your personal download link, pick your platform/installation method, and download it.
- If you have savegames on your Mac, Netbook, PC,..these savegames follow you around. You can start playing on the netbook, continue on the Mac and finish on the PC.
It's pretty easy to synchronize files between computers using symbolic links. For example, I copied my data for World of Goo, Aquaria, Pidgin, and other games/programs to Dropbox, made symbolic links on each computer connected to the account, and it acts like the settings are right where they should be.
I still think buying it DRM-free is much better than buying it on Steam. Your money goes directly to the developers this way (well, some goes to PayPal too but not as much as Steam takes).
Is this really a new concept? How can anyone say this is "awesome" when all you had to do before was shove DockbarX on a GNOME panel? That's all this is (except they're making their own dock for it)! Nothing to see here, people. Move along.
I don't illegally download or acquire media, but if I did I would be much more likely to buy it (like with The Humble Indie Bundle) if it's safe and convenient. You can't guarantee what you get with file sharing, and if companies made it easy, cheap, and safe to let me purchase DRM-free media, I would be a very, very happy former-downloader (if I was one; I listen to mostly independent music, so I have very little reason to "steal").
I keep hearing over and over how this is such a "great thing" and so "smart" and that if they didn't license the codec, Canonical would get "left behind" and all that crap. People, this is NOT good.
Lets look at the reasons this might be good:
1. H.264 is one of the best video codecs ever. 2. H.264 is supported by virtually every computer or computer-related device on the market now. 3. H.264 is being used for online video on many different web sites. 4. Canonical supporting H.264 is making it easier for people to watch video in this format.
If those were the only facts that mattered, I would be all for this. As a question of functionality, it only makes sense to support the codec. However, the reasons this is a bad thing in the long run are as follows:
1. This license is only for playing video encoded into the format. 2. If you want to use a video editor to edit or create video in this format, you need a license, and you can't use Free programs to do so. 3. If you want to sell your created video in H.264 format, you also need a license to do so. 4. In the USA, it is illegal to use Free implementations of the codec to study or share.
Imagine a world where H.264 or a similar codec is being used for virtually everything. You'd need permission to do anything with the codec! The MPEG-LA, with H.264, has a hold on our culture and how dare they restrict whether or not we create, edit, remix, and share! This isn't an argument about functionality, this is an argument about freedom. This is an argument about the freedoms of being able to create, remix, adapt, sell, share, and study, which H.264 does not allow us to do. Canonical supporting H.264 and software patents will only push us closer to a future where we need to pay someone to express ourselves. The long-term consequences from this are much more important than short-term. Canonical can't say any longer that they do not support software patents because of this move, and it damages the Linux community as a whole.
Too bad the only good competing codec so far is Theora. VP8, the new Google-owned codec, is our only hope of stopping this from happening.
Except that actually involves using GIMP... GIMP. People like me can't stand the interface despite the nifty features it may or may not have.
From what I can gather, the main reason people despise the GIMP UI is because they're so used to the designs of other programs. I've heard it said before that people that get used to GIMP, when they try Photoshop, find its UI to be "horrible" as well. Personally I like the GIMP interface and I don't see what's so horrible about it; might I remind you that if you hate its current UI so much, GIMP 2.8 (being released later this year) will have a single window mode so people don't complain as loud.
For the record, GIMP has had a functionality similar to the content aware fill for YEARS. It's called the GIMP Resynthesizer plugin and if you're running a linux distribution that uses package repositories, it's probably in there. This blog post is one of the many that points this out.
If there is a patent trap in Mono (which exists regardless of its license), then that means that MS can then sue all those businesses and governments for patent infringement.
I'm getting sick of this meme.
Tell me, are you a patent attorney? What is your expertise for making claims like this one?
Why is Ubuntu so synonymous with Linux? Don't people know there are alternatives, or are they all too "geeky" for normal users? I've tried lots of Linux distributions and they're all very nice and usable. Couldn't they base this on Debian, or Fedora, or even just make their own distribution? Basing it on Ubuntu would only add unnecessary bloat; just give people something like Parted Magic or D@mn Small Linux (or something similar with maybe a more appropriate name for banks) and don't reinvent the wheel. "Can Ubuntu save online baking?" why not "can Linux save online banking"?
Linux Mint aims to do just that;). I switched after Ubuntu wasn't being transparent enough since what I love most about Linux is that we're (supposed to be) a community of people (in the Free Culture sense).
By the way, here's a car analogy about the button change which pretty much explains why I switched.
A couple of dollars of components would allow them to implement "3D". Namely put a tilt / magnetometer into the DS and games could change the display as the user tilted their device around. Nintendo like their profits so I really don't see them doing anything radical when a relatively cheap gimmick like this would garner them a lot of new sales.
The problem with a tilt sensor is all of those kids running around with their DSs, putting them in sleep mode (closing the lid), etc. You'd have to "set" the sensors every few minutes to get decent results. Not only that, but you'd have to be reasonably still while playing, which is a huge no-no for kids. Head tracking, as shown in the video on Kotaku, is much more usable by players of all ages.
Everyone fine with the button change, including Mark and the all-knowing design team, is missing a huge point: the change wasn't transparent and brought around right when the User Interface Freeze for Ubuntu 10.04 happened.
Think of it this way: each operating system is its own country. Linux-based OSes are a lot like the United States of America in that there's lots of different parts that make one huge country. Ubuntu is huge, and in this way it's like the state of Texas. Ubuntu changing the button order and location is like this: Lets say Texas decided to do things differently than everyone else in the country. They changed state law to say that everyone not only drove on the left side of the road instead of the right side, but they used a totally different layout than what everyone in the entire world was used to for the gas, break, steering wheel, etc. They also made this change out of nowhere without asking people in the state about it. How would you feel as a citizen of Texas once you heard this? Would you not question the ability of those running your state? Of course, you could always just "get used to it", but driving from one state to another would be horribly inconsistent. The state later said that they wanted to "use the left side for some innovative things later on" (like how Mark said he wanted to use the right side for things) regardless of the fact that the other side was completely empty before they switched!
Because they changed everything, citizens are complaining over and over about how things should be what's considered the standard for consistency's sake. Others are yelling at the complainers to "just live with it or move out". Then there's people also saying "they know what they're doing, they're professionals! How dare you ever question the opinions of those whose profession is making our laws"!
I love Linux, I really do, but if you don't do things transparently then you'll have a lot of people opposing the change, a lot more than usual. I would be perfectly fine with this change if they told us about it and asked our opinion before it actually happened (10.04 comes out in one month; people writing documentation for Ubuntu will have to re-write a few things and take new screenshots if these decisions are ever reversed). The whole "don't argue with them because they know what they're doing" approach is not only ignorant, but it assumes that everyone in a profession does their job perfectly. Have you ever been able to trust every doctor you've visited? Every dentist? Every polititian? Every president? If you answered yes to those then I suggest waking up: that's now how things work in the real world.
I've since switched to Linux Mint from Ubuntu and I am loving it! =)
I will not even buy games with DRM schemes I refuse to be part of off Steam. Simply to do my share of showing that this sort of DRM is not acceptable.
Besides, who really keeps checking game pages for the patch that removes certain aspects of DRM? Do you really go back every week to see if a year-old game finally got stripped?
I bought Civilization IV after they stripped it of DRM (it was advertised on the box). This makes the game a lot more enjoyable since I can install it and play it on more than one computer in my house! =D
But it’s only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can’t just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.
Look at the Free Culture/Software movement, Obama. There's people all over the place "stealing other people's ideas", except it isn't stealing. When you steal something, you take it from them without their permission. Should you need permission to make a program that does the same thing as another program? Should you need permission to cover, adapt, or remix something someone else did? It's not like you can just sue random people off the street for singing a song you "own" (Oh wait, that happened quite a few times already. Nevermind). None of these uses of our culture should ever be thought of as infringing; doing so practically removes our right to say as we please (then again, people over the years have stated that we have never had "free speech" anyways).
"Fair Use" has produced millions of dollars, and you dare imply that it didn't? By supporting the ACTA/RIAA/MPAA, you're supporting concentration of wealth (which just so happens to be concentrated towards the few companies that are trying to control our culture), which is never a good thing. "Intellectual Property" doesn't need to be "protected" in this matter at all, and these ideas are just getting more and more absurd. Things aren't going to get better if we have people like Obama supporting these crazy ideas.
Slashdot Mirror
As said by many other people here, physical media isn't going away any time soon as long as they don't radically change how the system works. Games on physical media works so well that I can't imagine a console that only uses downloadable games to thrive. Lets take a look at the reasons why, shall we?
Pros for using physical media:
1) Buy it once and it's yours forever.
2) You can re-sell it when you'd like a little extra cash and you don't want it anymore.
3) You can back them up using various methods. (Ever since I got a DS homebrew flashcart and installed homebrew on my Wii, their personal value for me has *SKYROCKETED* since I can play my game backups without digging for the disc.)
4) You can lend them to a friend that wants to try the game out.
5) The game case has a "look at the awesome thing I have" value for showing it off on your game rack.
6) I can play (most of) the games ten or twenty years from now, if they still work.
Basically the cons for using discs and cartridges are that if you lose them or get them scratched/broken, then you have to buy a new one. The pros heavily outweigh the cons for this. But what about downloadable games? Lets see:
Pros of downloadable games:
1) You don't have to drive to a store to purchase the game.
2) Sometimes the prices are much cheaper than a physical copy.
And... that's about it. The cons list, however, is much more extensive:
Cons of downloadable games:
1) Most have DRM that controls when, how, and where you play it.
1.5) You most likely won't be able to play the games in 10-20 years
2) You most likely won't be able to purchase the games in 10-20 years. (Nintendo/Sony/MS, I'm looking at you. Do something about this one!)
3) You can't trade them in for extra cash.
4) You can't lend them to a friend.
5) Games usually cost as much as a retail disc, which doesn't make much sense considering the cost of the disc or shipping it is not involved at all.
6) You're at the mercy of your internet connection to get a decent speed for downloading the game. (If you have "Super Ultra Basic DSL" or dial-up, it might be more worth it to go to a store.)
As long as physical media remains as sane as it is, and as long as downloadable games don't act so stupidly, I'm sticking to discs and cartridges. They are clearly the winner here.
You, sir, are the most Christian person I've ever seen on Slashdot. Finally not another Atheist troll! Your post really is insightful and clearly deserves a "+10 Wisdom". Thanks so much for loving God and not being one of the stereotypical "Christians" that Atheists love to paint us like!
This is slightly off-topic, but is anyone here familiar with Cory Doctorow? He wrote a book I just finished called Little Brother where this same thing happened (except a little more localized and extreme) and he shows how pointless it really is. The book can be found here for download and it's under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If I was in Marcus's position right now (the book's main character), I'd be scared and facepalming at the same time. I wouldn't be scared of terrorists; I'd be scared of my own government! And to think we always shoot down the very ideas of some foreign governments that "don't respect freedom" when we're doing the very things we hate. It just doesn't make sense.
Ah, fair enough. Still, don't make it seem like he hated it.
I don't believe I said he did, I said he found it disappointing, which you agree with (though it works when your head's at just the right place). I still believe the effect's great and I never said it wasn't; I merely said it was disappointing (and potentially nauseating) if not used correctly. Thank God you can turn it off or adjust the sensation on-the-fly, or this would become the Virtual Boy 2.
Read the whole article. His own words, at the very bottom, sum it up: "It's Astounding".
Keep in mind you are looking at a product that is literally months away from hitting retail, possibly even a year. Same thing with the games. If you expect it to be perfect upon its initial unveiling...
However, if you take the article in context,
The effect is astounding. I took a picture of the woman who had the 3DS padlocked to her waist. She's smiling and has her hands up. The hands feel like they're popping out of the screen, behind the room just goes on and on.
He was talking about the 3D camera, which I mentioned in my original post:
He goes on to mention that the 3D camera on the back works excellently and was a joy to use, however, and I can definitely understand that.
According to Kotaku, the effect completely fails if you move out of its small window of effectiveness. So much for playing the game in a truly portable way :\.He goes on to mention that the 3D camera on the back works excellently and was a joy to use, however, and I can definitely understand that.
I don't know what eBook readers, if any currently, use Linux as a platform OS but eBook readers would seem to be an ideal hardware application for it.
Amazon Kindle runs Linux.
You see this, and think "Why didn't someone think about this before?"
Tab Mix Plus has had locked tabs for a while now. I'm not entirely sure if this fixes the issue of tabnapping, but it looks like it might.
The story was actually made up (since, of course, the Google TV isn't out yet). I just put together various parts of the horror stories about Best Buy from all of the people I know.
Best Buy
I instantly thought this was a horrible idea right here. I can't trust anything they do. After all of the Internet horror stories, stories from my relatives, and even in my own family about the terrible things that can happen when Best Buy is involved, I can't trust them with this.
Best Buy employee: This is the all new Google TV. It allows real-time web 2.0 synergy between your living room and the Internet. ...Say what?
Me: Um... what?
Employee: It's like TV but combined with the Internet with apps and stuff.
Me: Awesome! How much does it cost?
Employee: We sell the regular model by itself for X dollars, but that isn't certified with us.
Me: Oh, it isn't?
Employee: Yeah, it might not work with your TV unless you pay $150 more for our Geek Squad(tm) service. They set it up, put apps on it for you, and make sure everything works.
Me: I'm a computer nerd, I can set it up myself. Thanks anyways!
Employee: If you buy it without our service then you don't get [insert feature here]. You either have to use Geek Squad(tm) or buy this $100 gold-plated cable.
Me: *looks at box* But the box says that I get that feature without having to buy anything.
Employee: Yeah, but you need these cables to have it look decent.
Me: I have some old ones at home I can use. Thank you for helping!
Employee: We're out of regular Google TVs.
Me:
Employee: We only have our pre-specialized models. They have everything already set up by Geek Squad(tm) so you don't have to bother.
Me: I'd much rather bother.
Employee: Trust me, it's horrible without our service. Are you sure?
Me: *sigh* Fine, I'll buy it.
Employee: Thank you for shopping at Best Buy!
*I get home and set it up*
Me: Okay, ready to try out my new Google TV! Wait... what's this? The box never said anything about "free trials" to all of these programs. Why is the interface so slow? Oh, it's all of these other things that came pre-installed. Of course. Why is this acting all weird? *looks in settings* These settings aren't what the defaults were in the manual! Ugh... *Google TV crashes* What the crap! Okay, screw this, I'm returning it.
*goes back to best buy*
Me: Excuse me, I'd like to return this obviously faulty Google TV.
Employee: Did you install it?
Me: Yes, how else would I know it is faulty?
Employee: It seems you used unqualified cables. I'm afraid you can't return it.
Me: Unqualifi- No, no, no! You can't void my ability to return this because I didn't use those $100 cables! That doesn't make sense!
Employee: Rules are rules, sir. Have a nice day.
I could go on but you can imagine the horror.
- You have a centralized location to re-download. If you move to another computer (or OS), you just click to download again
Same for World of Goo. All you have to do is go to your personal download link, pick your platform/installation method, and download it.
- If you have savegames on your Mac, Netbook, PC, ..these savegames follow you around. You can start playing on the netbook, continue on the Mac and finish on the PC.
It's pretty easy to synchronize files between computers using symbolic links. For example, I copied my data for World of Goo, Aquaria, Pidgin, and other games/programs to Dropbox, made symbolic links on each computer connected to the account, and it acts like the settings are right where they should be.
I still think buying it DRM-free is much better than buying it on Steam. Your money goes directly to the developers this way (well, some goes to PayPal too but not as much as Steam takes).
Is this really a new concept? How can anyone say this is "awesome" when all you had to do before was shove DockbarX on a GNOME panel? That's all this is (except they're making their own dock for it)! Nothing to see here, people. Move along.
I don't illegally download or acquire media, but if I did I would be much more likely to buy it (like with The Humble Indie Bundle) if it's safe and convenient. You can't guarantee what you get with file sharing, and if companies made it easy, cheap, and safe to let me purchase DRM-free media, I would be a very, very happy former-downloader (if I was one; I listen to mostly independent music, so I have very little reason to "steal").
I keep hearing over and over how this is such a "great thing" and so "smart" and that if they didn't license the codec, Canonical would get "left behind" and all that crap. People, this is NOT good.
Lets look at the reasons this might be good:
1. H.264 is one of the best video codecs ever.
2. H.264 is supported by virtually every computer or computer-related device on the market now.
3. H.264 is being used for online video on many different web sites.
4. Canonical supporting H.264 is making it easier for people to watch video in this format.
If those were the only facts that mattered, I would be all for this. As a question of functionality, it only makes sense to support the codec. However, the reasons this is a bad thing in the long run are as follows:
1. This license is only for playing video encoded into the format.
2. If you want to use a video editor to edit or create video in this format, you need a license, and you can't use Free programs to do so.
3. If you want to sell your created video in H.264 format, you also need a license to do so.
4. In the USA, it is illegal to use Free implementations of the codec to study or share.
Imagine a world where H.264 or a similar codec is being used for virtually everything. You'd need permission to do anything with the codec! The MPEG-LA, with H.264, has a hold on our culture and how dare they restrict whether or not we create, edit, remix, and share! This isn't an argument about functionality, this is an argument about freedom. This is an argument about the freedoms of being able to create, remix, adapt, sell, share, and study, which H.264 does not allow us to do. Canonical supporting H.264 and software patents will only push us closer to a future where we need to pay someone to express ourselves. The long-term consequences from this are much more important than short-term. Canonical can't say any longer that they do not support software patents because of this move, and it damages the Linux community as a whole.
Too bad the only good competing codec so far is Theora. VP8, the new Google-owned codec, is our only hope of stopping this from happening.
If you pay $100 or more (split any way you like), you get a complimentary EFF Pioneer Level Membership.
Source.
Except that actually involves using GIMP... GIMP. People like me can't stand the interface despite the nifty features it may or may not have.
From what I can gather, the main reason people despise the GIMP UI is because they're so used to the designs of other programs. I've heard it said before that people that get used to GIMP, when they try Photoshop, find its UI to be "horrible" as well. Personally I like the GIMP interface and I don't see what's so horrible about it; might I remind you that if you hate its current UI so much, GIMP 2.8 (being released later this year) will have a single window mode so people don't complain as loud.
For the record, GIMP has had a functionality similar to the content aware fill for YEARS. It's called the GIMP Resynthesizer plugin and if you're running a linux distribution that uses package repositories, it's probably in there. This blog post is one of the many that points this out.
If there is a patent trap in Mono (which exists regardless of its license), then that means that MS can then sue all those businesses and governments for patent infringement.
I'm getting sick of this meme.
Tell me, are you a patent attorney? What is your expertise for making claims like this one?
Now I'm not a patent attorney either,
I stopped reading right at that point.
c) Included "rm -SCO" or "sudo fuck SCO" in their post
sudo fsck SCO. And you call yourself an old-school Unix user.
Why is Ubuntu so synonymous with Linux? Don't people know there are alternatives, or are they all too "geeky" for normal users? I've tried lots of Linux distributions and they're all very nice and usable. Couldn't they base this on Debian, or Fedora, or even just make their own distribution? Basing it on Ubuntu would only add unnecessary bloat; just give people something like Parted Magic or D@mn Small Linux (or something similar with maybe a more appropriate name for banks) and don't reinvent the wheel. "Can Ubuntu save online baking?" why not "can Linux save online banking"?
Linux Mint aims to do just that ;). I switched after Ubuntu wasn't being transparent enough since what I love most about Linux is that we're (supposed to be) a community of people (in the Free Culture sense).
By the way, here's a car analogy about the button change which pretty much explains why I switched.
A couple of dollars of components would allow them to implement "3D". Namely put a tilt / magnetometer into the DS and games could change the display as the user tilted their device around. Nintendo like their profits so I really don't see them doing anything radical when a relatively cheap gimmick like this would garner them a lot of new sales.
The problem with a tilt sensor is all of those kids running around with their DSs, putting them in sleep mode (closing the lid), etc. You'd have to "set" the sensors every few minutes to get decent results. Not only that, but you'd have to be reasonably still while playing, which is a huge no-no for kids. Head tracking, as shown in the video on Kotaku, is much more usable by players of all ages.
Everyone fine with the button change, including Mark and the all-knowing design team, is missing a huge point: the change wasn't transparent and brought around right when the User Interface Freeze for Ubuntu 10.04 happened.
Think of it this way: each operating system is its own country. Linux-based OSes are a lot like the United States of America in that there's lots of different parts that make one huge country. Ubuntu is huge, and in this way it's like the state of Texas. Ubuntu changing the button order and location is like this: Lets say Texas decided to do things differently than everyone else in the country. They changed state law to say that everyone not only drove on the left side of the road instead of the right side, but they used a totally different layout than what everyone in the entire world was used to for the gas, break, steering wheel, etc. They also made this change out of nowhere without asking people in the state about it. How would you feel as a citizen of Texas once you heard this? Would you not question the ability of those running your state? Of course, you could always just "get used to it", but driving from one state to another would be horribly inconsistent. The state later said that they wanted to "use the left side for some innovative things later on" (like how Mark said he wanted to use the right side for things) regardless of the fact that the other side was completely empty before they switched!
Because they changed everything, citizens are complaining over and over about how things should be what's considered the standard for consistency's sake. Others are yelling at the complainers to "just live with it or move out". Then there's people also saying "they know what they're doing, they're professionals! How dare you ever question the opinions of those whose profession is making our laws"!
I love Linux, I really do, but if you don't do things transparently then you'll have a lot of people opposing the change, a lot more than usual. I would be perfectly fine with this change if they told us about it and asked our opinion before it actually happened (10.04 comes out in one month; people writing documentation for Ubuntu will have to re-write a few things and take new screenshots if these decisions are ever reversed). The whole "don't argue with them because they know what they're doing" approach is not only ignorant, but it assumes that everyone in a profession does their job perfectly. Have you ever been able to trust every doctor you've visited? Every dentist? Every polititian? Every president? If you answered yes to those then I suggest waking up: that's now how things work in the real world.
I've since switched to Linux Mint from Ubuntu and I am loving it! =)
I will not even buy games with DRM schemes I refuse to be part of off Steam. Simply to do my share of showing that this sort of DRM is not acceptable.
Besides, who really keeps checking game pages for the patch that removes certain aspects of DRM? Do you really go back every week to see if a year-old game finally got stripped?
I bought Civilization IV after they stripped it of DRM (it was advertised on the box). This makes the game a lot more enjoyable since I can install it and play it on more than one computer in my house! =D
But it’s only a competitive advantage if our companies know that someone else can’t just steal that idea and duplicate it with cheaper inputs and labor.
Look at the Free Culture/Software movement, Obama. There's people all over the place "stealing other people's ideas", except it isn't stealing. When you steal something, you take it from them without their permission. Should you need permission to make a program that does the same thing as another program? Should you need permission to cover, adapt, or remix something someone else did? It's not like you can just sue random people off the street for singing a song you "own" (Oh wait, that happened quite a few times already. Nevermind). None of these uses of our culture should ever be thought of as infringing; doing so practically removes our right to say as we please (then again, people over the years have stated that we have never had "free speech" anyways).
"Fair Use" has produced millions of dollars, and you dare imply that it didn't? By supporting the ACTA/RIAA/MPAA, you're supporting concentration of wealth (which just so happens to be concentrated towards the few companies that are trying to control our culture), which is never a good thing. "Intellectual Property" doesn't need to be "protected" in this matter at all, and these ideas are just getting more and more absurd. Things aren't going to get better if we have people like Obama supporting these crazy ideas.