UK's Invensys offered 2.85 EUR per share, and BAAN management agreed with it. You can take a look at Invensys' press release, it's in PDF. BAAN has a shareholder meeting tomorrow (the 29'th), to discuss Insensys' offer.
It's not an issue of freeness or non-freeness. It's an issue that, in the Debian's opinion, that the unadorned GPL and the QPL make it illegal to legally distribute KDE binaries linked to Qt. Free or non-free is irrelevant.
from http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages:
Non-Free Packages in this area do not necessarily cost money, but have some onerous license condition restricting use or redistribution of the software.
I still don't really get it... but never mind. If I want KDE, I'll just use the KLPP site.
Then there's the 2 GB file limit problem on Linux before 2.4, which is impossible. Well... I'm still a few months busy, so... I'll look further in to it then.
I guess I am a typical example of the target group of the *BSD's.
I started out with Linux 2.0.14 and tried numerous distributions, and am running Mandrake 6.1 now. Because I have to be really productive on my machine right now, so I can't afford a non-clean system upgrade. Unfortunately, a simple upgrade-patch-whatever (just upgrade what needs to be upgraded) is not available for Mandrake.
OK, so there is Debian. So I happen to be one of the "unfortunate" KDE users. I have read the Slashdot article the other day, I fully understand the legal issues, but I happen to still don't understand why an inclusion in non-free seems to be a non-option.
After a while, spending a time on the 'net, looking and comparing...
Hey, there's FreeBSD! IMO, if FreeBSD would run the Linux kernel, it would be the very best distribution available. It's port collection is unmatched. Simple total system upgrades by typing a few words.
I need a file system which supports files larger than 2 GB and some sort of journaling facility. I found out that UFS with soft-updates can be the answer to my question. Could be a replacement of the ReiserFS partitions now. SMP support in FreeBSD 4.0 is improved.
All my hardware is supported by FreeBSD.
As soon as I can find the time, the change from Linux to FreeBSD will not be unrealistic. I want to do stuff with my computer, not muddle around.
Again a CS 101'er... I do not believe a thing such as Linux VM system has no actual design behind it. Of course, there is. But why isn't there some readily available design-doc of all important parts of Linux on the Internet?
Maybe Linux development could be made two-layered: open-designedandopen-sourced. In stead of leaving the design issues to a few, many could contribute ideas at higher level. Then we hopefully get what we all want: the best design combined with the best implementation.
are Xfree86.debs no problem? These aren't GPL'ed, too..
To me, it looks like a Gnome vs. KDE war through a distribution encapsulated in a license disagrement.
You only need much memory
on
Solving Chess?
·
· Score: 1
Solving chess is rather simple. Let 2 computer players start playing a random game against each other (make up all possible moves and choose one). They start with no memory. These computer players must operate in two different modes:
- the first must learn if lost - the other must learn if lost or it's a draw
A computer player should then memorize the board's position just prior to losing/drawing. This because the opponent is able to win/draw from that position. Then, see my first sentence. Make up all possible moves, but now remove those which lead to a memorized position and choose a random move again. Then, probably the most important part: if no moves are left (because they all lead to a position in which the opponent is able to win/draw), memorize the position prior to the current one (so, we're learning a move ahead). In this way, first all possible end-games are learned. After that, all possible middle-games are learned and finally a computer player could tell which opening move leads to victory or a draw. To finalize it all (to solve the game), play the following combinations:
- white: learn on draws/losses, black: learn on losses - white: learn on losses, black: learn on draws/losses
Now, make up a suitable hash function for storing a lot of possible positions, run the program, wait a long time and it's all done. You will be able to tell: "Chess? It's a boring game, white always wins". I mean, it sounds a lot like "Tic-tac-toe? It's a boring game, noone can win". And this is a valid sentence.
There is a very interesting FAQ written by Andrew Tanenbaum on Tanenbaum's site. Amongst other answers and questions, I found this ones:
What do you think of Linux? I have never used it. People tell me that if you like lots of bells and whistles, it is a nice system. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Linus for producing it. Before there was Linux there was MINIX, which had a 40,000-person newsgroup, most of whom were sending me email every day. I was going crazy with the endless stream of new features people were sending me. I kept refusing them all because I wanted to keep MINIX small enough for my students to understand in one semester. My consistent refusal to add all these new features is what inspired Linus to write Linux. Both of us are now happy with the results. The only person who is perhaps not so happy is Bill Gates.
What's wrong with LaTeX? Nothing, but real authors use troff.
What do you think of MS-DOS? It is better than Windows. At least it has a command line interface, albeit a pretty feeble one.
Ehm... I guess Tanenbaum likes simplicity a bit too much. I mean, he is convinced that a GUI can not make any improvement at all. For example, I use Lyx for making my thesis and I am convinced it is able to produce real quality material. Yes, it's a graphical WYSIWYM frontend to LaTeX. How can anyone be convinced Lyx isn't good because of that?
With real-time, high-end mathematical calculations one can think of things such as a satellite control system. If you don't complete your calculations in time, serious (expensive) accidents could happen. This leads to various mathematical models which give answers with a probability. For example, the calculation must always be completed within a second with 99% certainty. Another problem exists: not all mathematical problems are easily made parallel (or, whithout a significant deal of overhead). Even worse, problems exist which can only be solved sequentially. So for example, having a 4-CPU 400 Mhz box will not always be able to outperform a faster 500 Mhz uniprocessor. Generally said, it completely depends on the problem.
Re:Some differences BeOS for Linux / Windows
on
BeOS For Linux!
·
· Score: 1
Well, I keep the BeOS image file under an ext2fs partition. BeOS complained about not being able to generate swap space. Thanks for the "Don't nag" function it doesn't bother me again but still I have no swap space. I'm unable to enable it, too. I just thought of it why, it's another reason! I have 512 Mb RAM memory, and this forces me to use a minimal swap space of 640 (or something) Mb under BeOS. This is more than the BeOS file is, so...
But... you don't need swap space with 512 Mb RAM!... Sure, yeah, sure. But that's not the point.:-)
Some differences BeOS for Linux / Windows
on
BeOS For Linux!
·
· Score: 2
The image files extracted from the tgz and exe files are identical. However, there are some differences noticable.
1. If you want to enable SMP, boot off the disk supplied in the tgz. SMP is disabled after booting Windows. 2. If you boot BeOS from an ext2 partition, BeOS will be unable to use virtual memory. BeOS' VM works on FAT, not on ext2.
People who are experiencing driver problems, try the driver section at BeBits. My Rtl8139 ethernet start working after installing a fresh driver.
Well, I played with it for a few hours. Looks very solid and has a lot of potential. A few remarks, however... I did a few ping tests and they showed a pretty slow response from the BeOS system (3 times as slow as from a Linux system). I tried Quake2 but I probably installed something wrong. It runs almost frozen.
As I just read in the Readme.txt, Free BeOS has some really serious limitations:
- It's a 512 Mb file. No more, no less. No partitioning. Just a file. - It doesn't support SMP. Just 1 processor. Not nice, since I run dual and want to know if they really are as multithreaded as they say.
I think Konqueror will be amongst the good choices possible once KDE2 is released. With java and javascript support it will hopefully be a mature browser. For current CSS support progress, take a look at http://www.mosfet.org. Those CSS-test-links certainly shows netscape's flaws!
Slashdot Mirror
UK's Invensys offered 2.85 EUR per share, and BAAN management agreed with it. You can take a look at Invensys' press release, it's in PDF. BAAN has a shareholder meeting tomorrow (the 29'th), to discuss Insensys' offer.
There isn't any way to upgrade packages, you pretty much have to remove the old one before installing the new one.
So what I read at http://www.freebsddiary.org/portsupdate.html is not true?
Also, I hope you understand that FreeBSD is not a "distro."
:-)
Of course... I perfectly understand FreeBSD is an OS, and Linux isn't.
What would be nifty, however, is to bring the ports system to Linux.
That's what I intended to mean
It's not an issue of freeness or non-freeness. It's an issue that, in the Debian's opinion, that the unadorned GPL and the QPL make it illegal to legally distribute KDE binaries linked to Qt. Free or non-free is irrelevant.
from http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages:
Non-Free
Packages in this area do not necessarily cost money, but have some onerous license condition restricting use or redistribution of the software.
I still don't really get it... but never mind. If I want KDE, I'll just use the KLPP site.
Then there's the 2 GB file limit problem on Linux before 2.4, which is impossible. Well... I'm still a few months busy, so... I'll look further in to it then.
I guess I am a typical example of the target group of the *BSD's.
I started out with Linux 2.0.14 and tried numerous distributions, and am running Mandrake 6.1 now. Because I have to be really productive on my machine right now, so I can't afford a non-clean system upgrade. Unfortunately, a simple upgrade-patch-whatever (just upgrade what needs to be upgraded) is not available for Mandrake.
OK, so there is Debian. So I happen to be one of the "unfortunate" KDE users. I have read the Slashdot article the other day, I fully understand the legal issues, but I happen to still don't understand why an inclusion in non-free seems to be a non-option.
After a while, spending a time on the 'net, looking and comparing...
Hey, there's FreeBSD! IMO, if FreeBSD would run the Linux kernel, it would be the very best distribution available. It's port collection is unmatched. Simple total system upgrades by typing a few words.
I need a file system which supports files larger than 2 GB and some sort of journaling facility. I found out that UFS with soft-updates can be the answer to my question. Could be a replacement of the ReiserFS partitions now. SMP support in FreeBSD 4.0 is improved.
All my hardware is supported by FreeBSD.
As soon as I can find the time, the change from Linux to FreeBSD will not be unrealistic. I want to do stuff with my computer, not muddle around.
Again a CS 101'er... I do not believe a thing such as Linux VM system has no actual design behind it. Of course, there is. But why isn't there some readily available design-doc of all important parts of Linux on the Internet?
Maybe Linux development could be made two-layered: open-designed and open-sourced. In stead of leaving the design issues to a few, many could contribute ideas at higher level. Then we hopefully get what we all want: the best design combined with the best implementation.
have become the core business of certain websites!
Comments on this?
are Xfree86 .debs no problem? These aren't GPL'ed, too..
To me, it looks like a Gnome vs. KDE war through a distribution encapsulated in a license disagrement.
Solving chess is rather simple. Let 2 computer players start playing a random game against each other (make up all possible moves and choose one). They start with no memory. These computer players must operate in two different modes:
- the first must learn if lost
- the other must learn if lost or it's a draw
A computer player should then memorize the board's position just prior to losing/drawing. This because the opponent is able to win/draw from that position.
Then, see my first sentence. Make up all possible moves, but now remove those which lead to a memorized position and choose a random move again. Then, probably the most important part: if no moves are left (because they all lead to a position in which the opponent is able to win/draw), memorize the position prior to the current one (so, we're learning a move ahead).
In this way, first all possible end-games are learned. After that, all possible middle-games are learned and finally a computer player could tell which opening move leads to victory or a draw. To finalize it all (to solve the game), play the following combinations:
- white: learn on draws/losses, black: learn on losses
- white: learn on losses, black: learn on draws/losses
Now, make up a suitable hash function for storing a lot of possible positions, run the program, wait a long time and it's all done. You will be able to tell: "Chess? It's a boring game, white always wins". I mean, it sounds a lot like "Tic-tac-toe? It's a boring game, noone can win". And this is a valid sentence.
There is a very interesting FAQ written by Andrew Tanenbaum on Tanenbaum's site. Amongst other answers and questions, I found this ones:
What do you think of Linux?
I have never used it. People tell me that if you like lots of bells and whistles, it is a nice system. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Linus for producing it. Before there was Linux there was MINIX, which had a 40,000-person newsgroup, most of whom were sending me email every day. I was going crazy with the endless stream of new features people were sending me. I kept refusing them all because I wanted to keep MINIX small enough for my students to understand in one semester. My consistent refusal to add all these new features is what inspired Linus to write Linux. Both of us are now happy with the results. The only person who is perhaps not so happy is Bill Gates.
What's wrong with LaTeX?
Nothing, but real authors use troff.
What do you think of MS-DOS?
It is better than Windows. At least it has a command line interface, albeit a pretty feeble one.
Ehm... I guess Tanenbaum likes simplicity a bit too much. I mean, he is convinced that a GUI can not make any improvement at all. For example, I use Lyx for making my thesis and I am convinced it is able to produce real quality material. Yes, it's a graphical WYSIWYM frontend to LaTeX. How can anyone be convinced Lyx isn't good because of that?
I found the following in a reply of Linus in the AT-LT discussion:
:-)
If you write programs for linux today, you shouldn't have too many surprises when you just recompile them for Hurd in the 21st century.
So, where is the HURD??
With real-time, high-end mathematical calculations one can think of things such as a satellite control system. If you don't complete your calculations in time, serious (expensive) accidents could happen. This leads to various mathematical models which give answers with a probability. For example, the calculation must always be completed within a second with 99% certainty.
Another problem exists: not all mathematical problems are easily made parallel (or, whithout a significant deal of overhead). Even worse, problems exist which can only be solved sequentially. So for example, having a 4-CPU 400 Mhz box will not always be able to outperform a faster 500 Mhz uniprocessor.
Generally said, it completely depends on the problem.
Well, I keep the BeOS image file under an ext2fs partition. BeOS complained about not being able to generate swap space. Thanks for the "Don't nag" function it doesn't bother me again but still I have no swap space. I'm unable to enable it, too.
... Sure, yeah, sure. But that's not the point. :-)
I just thought of it why, it's another reason! I have 512 Mb RAM memory, and this forces me to use a minimal swap space of 640 (or something) Mb under BeOS. This is more than the BeOS file is, so...
But... you don't need swap space with 512 Mb RAM!
The image files extracted from the tgz and exe files are identical. However, there are some differences noticable.
1. If you want to enable SMP, boot off the disk supplied in the tgz. SMP is disabled after booting Windows.
2. If you boot BeOS from an ext2 partition, BeOS will be unable to use virtual memory. BeOS' VM works on FAT, not on ext2.
People who are experiencing driver problems, try the driver section at BeBits. My Rtl8139 ethernet start working after installing a fresh driver.
Well, I played with it for a few hours. Looks very solid and has a lot of potential. A few remarks, however... I did a few ping tests and they showed a pretty slow response from the BeOS system (3 times as slow as from a Linux system). I tried Quake2 but I probably installed something wrong. It runs almost frozen.
19932845 Mar 23 23:52 linux-2.3.99-pre3.tar.gz
:)
21544357 Mar 30 19:49 03302000linux-2.3-xfs.tgz
Finally! A filesystem which is larger than the whole OS!
As I just read in the Readme.txt, Free BeOS has some really serious limitations:
- It's a 512 Mb file. No more, no less. No partitioning. Just a file.
- It doesn't support SMP. Just 1 processor. Not nice, since I run dual and want to know if they really are as multithreaded as they say.
I guess that's it then. No try-out for me.
Right here...
o r.ftp.be.com/
/pub/beos/
ftp://ftp.be.com/pub/
ftp://ftp.beeurope.com/pub/
ftp://ftp.archive.de.uu.net/pub/systems/BeOS/mirr
ftp://ftp.gbnet.net/pub/be/
ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/systems/be/
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/beos/
ftp://ftp.lab.kdd.co.jp/Be/
ftp://mirror.nucba.ac.jp/mirror/BeOS/
ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/BeOS/
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/beos/
BeOS5 Free edition can be found under
A particular cool file is named:
BeOS4Linux.tar.gz
There is a HTML version of the KDE 2.0 Release plan up at http://deve loper.kde.org/development-versions/kde-2.0-release -plan.html.
I think Konqueror will be amongst the good choices possible once KDE2 is released. With java and javascript support it will hopefully be a mature browser. For current CSS support progress, take a look at http://www.mosfet.org. Those CSS-test-links certainly shows netscape's flaws!