When I buy a car I expect it to wear down and need repair from time to time. I do not expect the same of a right to watch a movie / listen to music / play a game.
Yes, what we're differentiating between here are physical goods (cars) vs ideas (software, books, music). Anyone who thinks you can sell the latter as if it's the former is barking up a tree.
No, it's perfectly valid. RMS laid the foundation for copyleft and Linus utilized it in the best way for the project. Linux is still only licensed under the GPLv2. A lot of tech companies which provide major support for the kernel would be more likely to shy away from it if they had to deal with the v3 license. If RMS had maintained copyrights to the software, he probably would have never hesitated to impose stronger copyrights on it and my feeling is that this would have hurt Linux and free software, not helped it.
On the other hand, I still think RMS played a more fundamental role in the success of the Linux kernel. There are other open source UNIX kernels out there as we all know, whether they're licensed under the GPL or not, and a few have also reached that critical mass of community support. We would have other kernels, but without gcc and the GPL, free software wouldn't be a fraction of what it is today.
Nevertheless, kudos to Linus and the entire Linux community. Like GP mentioned, they've made the world a much better place supporting projects like OLPC, Raspberry Pi, Android, Arduino and all the other embedded systems where Linux has found itself and more. And there are many more great years to come - we can only keep going up from here.
So another group does it too - that doesn't mean that it's right. Users should have the right to install whatever they want to, but they government won't protect them if they do that, so the vendor can write whatever terms they want.
Playing Devil's Advocate here - so if a user installs some software which causes the hardware to break, should the vendor still be expected to support it?
If MS wants to revoke OEM licenses because someone starts selling Linux as an alternative, they'd get their ass sued to hell. The only thing you'd have to lose is the attorney fees...... ah right then. Forget it.
Like others mentioned, subversion and git aren't bad tools either, though I guess they wouldn't be worth the effort unless the project is of textbook proportions.
Another vote for Beamer. The only gripe that I have is that you have to Google basically every formatting change you want - getting rid of the navigation toolbar, changing the bullet style, etc. This is not unlike everything else in Latex, but the options can get fairly obscure so it can be a slightly bigger hassle. Also, if you're writing raw latex yourself, inserting columns can be unwieldy, but I haven't made a presentation since I started using vim-latex, and I imagine that would make things a lot easier.
On the other hand, the themes are remarkably elegant and documents are very professional. When I used Beamer in school, people consistently told me that my slides looked more professional and readable than anyone else's. Also, the transitions are easy to make and the formula editing is obviously the best out there.
Here are some more suggestions, including Powerdot which is a good alternative to Beamer as well (slightly less complex perhaps): http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/Presentations
No, Office 2010 has sold over 200 million copies because it's tied to Microsoft. We know what tactics MS uses to get high market share. People don't willingly buy MS products - they buy them cause they 'have' to (whether it means that some organization doesnt support anyone that doesn't use it, or because they're incapable of learning something else). Once Office 2003 stopped being sold, the only choice on the market was the Ribbon. Don't account all those sales of 2007 and after to the fact that people liked it - rather, it was merely the only choice.
Aside from that, I don't have numbers or studies to back it up, but my guess would be that a lot of those licenses sold were corporate, where you basically take what you're given and nuts whether you like it and are productive on it or not.
Wow, that's really smart of them, imposing a limit on file size to stop piracy. Cause nobody's gonna try splitting their files to get around that limit, nor would they even imagine using encryption to hide the contents of the files.
That is about as useful as DRM. Sucks for the people who use the service legitimately, easily bypassed for those who want to circumvent it anyways.
This is one element of a much larger campaign. Who better to hit up (than your installed base) than the mobs at FB?
What mobs on Facebook are there that you speak of? You mean the people who 'quit' every time there's a UI change? Or a privacy settings change? Have you seen all those 'activist' groups on Facebook and all the social change that they've created?
If someone's on Facebook, then chances are that they're slaves to their overlords. There're going to do as much about something things Comcast does to piss them off as they're going to do about things Facebook does to piss them off.
You don't gain a damn thing from posting stuff to Facebook. Anyone on Facebook is the wrong audience.
You want to ally with Apple to stick it to Adobe? Foolish play my friend. Have you noticed how Apple has responded to it's Linux-based competitor in the mobile arena?
Make no mistake - Apple would like Linux to die as much as Microsoft would. I'd think Adobe would prefer as much as anyone else for a FOSS OS to win out so they would never have to worry about being strung up by Apple/MS like a puppet.
Adobe got lazy with flash, it is slow, buggy, a resource hog and crashes every two seconds
This is true of EVERYTHING made by Adobe. Name one product that they make which is resource efficient. You can't. This is yet another reason it's good for them to die. On many machines (my own included), Flash is the last piece of closed binary crap installed. It'll be welcome getting rid of this beast.
That said, we desperately need a royalty-free codec to gain large-scale adoption. God save us all
This is the only redeeming value I place in social networks, their existence sometimes helps me to weed out the fake from the real.
I totally hear this - to an extent towards friends (most of my arrangements are made through email, phone and text), but even more so towards corporations. If they want me to sign up for something on Facebook, they don't want me to sign up. If they're too lazy to make their own webpage, they don't want me to see their webpage. If they're making offers through a third party, they're not making an offer.
The worst was when there was an organization trying to arrange emergency contact information through surveymonkey. Appallingly idiotic. Fortunately, I was able to take care of it in person, but honestly, do corporations, employers, etc. just not understand that some things stay in the company?
Idea: Don't pay until after they've activated Windows. Once they activate it, tell them you don't want it.
I suppose they could still just resell the machine to someone else once they've played with it, but if not, they're out a license for Windows and Symantec - the Windows license itself is >$100 lost - and maybe it'll get them to end this inane policy.
You see, this isn't a problem of Windows vs. Linux. It's a problem of corporate software vs. free software. Adobe and Apple and Google couldn't care less if your computer slows down as long as their application seems to run responsively, cause the user will just blame it on the operating system. I'm sure if you could install those applications on Linux too (no idea why anyone in the world would), the same thing would happen.
Good luck with XFCE. It's an outstanding DE. xfpanel is remarkably featured and it has a very comprehensive settings dialog. I do which the display manager would make it easier to expand your desktop, but I can use xrandr for that for now. I think Thunar is great, but you might still have the same complaint regarding your last comment, but I think you can use Compiz in XFCE for that feature and if you disable enough other options, it probably won't slow things down too much. Otherwise I'm sure there must be a way to do that beyong hacking the DE.
Anything compiled by gcc automatically becomes licensed by GPLv3. Each compiled executable maintains a copy of the original source code with the licensing terms attached.
That would be fraud and/or negligence. The bank sold you their trust and you put the money in. How they handle it is a part of the agreement whenever you open a bank account. IANAL
So what obligation does Carpathia have to host the files? I'm pretty sure they don't have a similar agreement with the people that asked them to host the files...
This is the wonderful thing about corporate software. If there's something that they decide is too expensive to maintain, they drop it. Then you have to retrain all your employees. Remember that again the next time someone talks about TCO...
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No, they're just words.
Same. High level executives have filled us with so much trust that I'll automatically do anything they tell me!
When I buy a car I expect it to wear down and need repair from time to time. I do not expect the same of a right to watch a movie / listen to music / play a game.
Yes, what we're differentiating between here are physical goods (cars) vs ideas (software, books, music). Anyone who thinks you can sell the latter as if it's the former is barking up a tree.
No, it's perfectly valid. RMS laid the foundation for copyleft and Linus utilized it in the best way for the project. Linux is still only licensed under the GPLv2. A lot of tech companies which provide major support for the kernel would be more likely to shy away from it if they had to deal with the v3 license. If RMS had maintained copyrights to the software, he probably would have never hesitated to impose stronger copyrights on it and my feeling is that this would have hurt Linux and free software, not helped it.
On the other hand, I still think RMS played a more fundamental role in the success of the Linux kernel. There are other open source UNIX kernels out there as we all know, whether they're licensed under the GPL or not, and a few have also reached that critical mass of community support. We would have other kernels, but without gcc and the GPL, free software wouldn't be a fraction of what it is today.
Nevertheless, kudos to Linus and the entire Linux community. Like GP mentioned, they've made the world a much better place supporting projects like OLPC, Raspberry Pi, Android, Arduino and all the other embedded systems where Linux has found itself and more. And there are many more great years to come - we can only keep going up from here.
So another group does it too - that doesn't mean that it's right. Users should have the right to install whatever they want to, but they government won't protect them if they do that, so the vendor can write whatever terms they want.
Playing Devil's Advocate here - so if a user installs some software which causes the hardware to break, should the vendor still be expected to support it?
You mean in the antitrust courts, right?
If MS wants to revoke OEM licenses because someone starts selling Linux as an alternative, they'd get their ass sued to hell. The only thing you'd have to lose is the attorney fees...... ah right then. Forget it.
That's in development
Like others mentioned, subversion and git aren't bad tools either, though I guess they wouldn't be worth the effort unless the project is of textbook proportions.
Another vote for Beamer. The only gripe that I have is that you have to Google basically every formatting change you want - getting rid of the navigation toolbar, changing the bullet style, etc. This is not unlike everything else in Latex, but the options can get fairly obscure so it can be a slightly bigger hassle. Also, if you're writing raw latex yourself, inserting columns can be unwieldy, but I haven't made a presentation since I started using vim-latex, and I imagine that would make things a lot easier.
On the other hand, the themes are remarkably elegant and documents are very professional. When I used Beamer in school, people consistently told me that my slides looked more professional and readable than anyone else's. Also, the transitions are easy to make and the formula editing is obviously the best out there.
Here are some more suggestions, including Powerdot which is a good alternative to Beamer as well (slightly less complex perhaps): http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/Presentations
No, Office 2010 has sold over 200 million copies because it's tied to Microsoft. We know what tactics MS uses to get high market share. People don't willingly buy MS products - they buy them cause they 'have' to (whether it means that some organization doesnt support anyone that doesn't use it, or because they're incapable of learning something else). Once Office 2003 stopped being sold, the only choice on the market was the Ribbon. Don't account all those sales of 2007 and after to the fact that people liked it - rather, it was merely the only choice.
Aside from that, I don't have numbers or studies to back it up, but my guess would be that a lot of those licenses sold were corporate, where you basically take what you're given and nuts whether you like it and are productive on it or not.
Wow, that's really smart of them, imposing a limit on file size to stop piracy. Cause nobody's gonna try splitting their files to get around that limit, nor would they even imagine using encryption to hide the contents of the files.
That is about as useful as DRM. Sucks for the people who use the service legitimately, easily bypassed for those who want to circumvent it anyways.
This is one element of a much larger campaign. Who better to hit up (than your installed base) than the mobs at FB?
What mobs on Facebook are there that you speak of? You mean the people who 'quit' every time there's a UI change? Or a privacy settings change? Have you seen all those 'activist' groups on Facebook and all the social change that they've created?
If someone's on Facebook, then chances are that they're slaves to their overlords. There're going to do as much about something things Comcast does to piss them off as they're going to do about things Facebook does to piss them off.
You don't gain a damn thing from posting stuff to Facebook. Anyone on Facebook is the wrong audience.
Perhaps, but it's probably not worth defending if it's only to save $25k
In other words: "Give me money for free! I don't feel like making an honest, productive living!!!"
Rights aren't there to protect the well-off - they're there to ensure liberty for the oppressed.
You want to ally with Apple to stick it to Adobe? Foolish play my friend. Have you noticed how Apple has responded to it's Linux-based competitor in the mobile arena?
Make no mistake - Apple would like Linux to die as much as Microsoft would. I'd think Adobe would prefer as much as anyone else for a FOSS OS to win out so they would never have to worry about being strung up by Apple/MS like a puppet.
So you're saying Flash kills Adobe for Linux?
Adobe got lazy with flash, it is slow, buggy, a resource hog and crashes every two seconds
This is true of EVERYTHING made by Adobe. Name one product that they make which is resource efficient. You can't. This is yet another reason it's good for them to die. On many machines (my own included), Flash is the last piece of closed binary crap installed. It'll be welcome getting rid of this beast.
That said, we desperately need a royalty-free codec to gain large-scale adoption. God save us all
This is the only redeeming value I place in social networks, their existence sometimes helps me to weed out the fake from the real.
I totally hear this - to an extent towards friends (most of my arrangements are made through email, phone and text), but even more so towards corporations. If they want me to sign up for something on Facebook, they don't want me to sign up. If they're too lazy to make their own webpage, they don't want me to see their webpage. If they're making offers through a third party, they're not making an offer.
The worst was when there was an organization trying to arrange emergency contact information through surveymonkey. Appallingly idiotic. Fortunately, I was able to take care of it in person, but honestly, do corporations, employers, etc. just not understand that some things stay in the company?
Idea: Don't pay until after they've activated Windows. Once they activate it, tell them you don't want it.
I suppose they could still just resell the machine to someone else once they've played with it, but if not, they're out a license for Windows and Symantec - the Windows license itself is >$100 lost - and maybe it'll get them to end this inane policy.
You see, this isn't a problem of Windows vs. Linux. It's a problem of corporate software vs. free software. Adobe and Apple and Google couldn't care less if your computer slows down as long as their application seems to run responsively, cause the user will just blame it on the operating system. I'm sure if you could install those applications on Linux too (no idea why anyone in the world would), the same thing would happen.
Good luck with XFCE. It's an outstanding DE. xfpanel is remarkably featured and it has a very comprehensive settings dialog. I do which the display manager would make it easier to expand your desktop, but I can use xrandr for that for now. I think Thunar is great, but you might still have the same complaint regarding your last comment, but I think you can use Compiz in XFCE for that feature and if you disable enough other options, it probably won't slow things down too much. Otherwise I'm sure there must be a way to do that beyong hacking the DE.
Anything compiled by gcc automatically becomes licensed by GPLv3. Each compiled executable maintains a copy of the original source code with the licensing terms attached.
That would be fraud and/or negligence. The bank sold you their trust and you put the money in. How they handle it is a part of the agreement whenever you open a bank account. IANAL
So what obligation does Carpathia have to host the files? I'm pretty sure they don't have a similar agreement with the people that asked them to host the files...
This is the wonderful thing about corporate software. If there's something that they decide is too expensive to maintain, they drop it. Then you have to retrain all your employees. Remember that again the next time someone talks about TCO...