I agree, the way they use all their products as vehicles for their other products is wrong, and that's what the EU should focus on, not the browsers so much.
Take DirectX for example, if it was developed by a separate company they would make cross-platform implementations so they can sell their game development tools, etc. to a wider audience, that is the logical move. However, Microsoft just use it to strengthen their Windows monopoly, a move which is illegal under EU law, and should be stopped.
To be honest I think the EU should just force Microsoft to co-operate on producing a cross-platform DirectX implementation (and possibly more of the Windows API like.NET etc.) to stop people being locked-in to Windows. Of course, this would basically kill Windows so MS will resist it at all costs.
It's an interesting approach but it reminds me too much of the old adventure games, I suppose it could work out all right if they make it fit in smoothly.
It'll be interesting to see what effect it has on performance though.
I loved playing Pandora Tomorrow over XBConnect. It was a bit too easy to learn the levels off by heart as the spy and sneak through to near the objective without triggering any cameras.
Penumbra: Overture is a pretty good horror game for having to flee. Same with Call Of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
I find stealth games much more scary, like Thief, System Shock 2, even Oblivion are scary when you are sneaking around and suddenly get caught unaware.
I agree, I think forcing Microsoft to develop an open source, cross-platform implementation of DirectX would be much more productive than more fines or removing bundled IE.
Yeah, I refuse to donate to 'mainstream' charity for reasons just like that. I don't think they approach it properly - it's better to get an organized government approach IMO than just throwing money at the problems.
I donate to the FSF, etc. though where I can see the money is being used well and gathered fairly.
"(1) has windows UI"
Could you clarify what is so special and necessary about the Windows UI. I find Explorer to be horribly slow for file management, especially whn they bloated it even more in Vista.
"(2) can run all software I want to use (either runs the same program or has an alternative)"
Most software has a decent alternative, unless you have learnt how to use a particular program very well, the alternatives are normally good. You could always try WINE too.
"(3) use setup.exe (.sh,.whatever) file for installation of additional software that do not depend on some third party (apt-get, yum) database and have all needed files included (.so files,.dll files) (can have some exceptions, like LinuxD3D, Lin.net, LinVBrun)"
There are.deb's etc. available to do that, but package management is much better than the horror of Windows' Add/Remove programs - a legacy of the time before modern internet when you installed programs from 20 floppies.
"(4) is compatible with majority of old software, written 15 years ago"
More programs written 15 years ago run on my GNU/Linux box than my Windows one. (All the GNU core utils for a start:P) and MS broke a lot of compatibility with Vista.
"(5) uses GUI (for most options) or registry (for obscure options) for configuration, instead of text files"
Text config files are much less cryptic than the registry IMO, they are also much easier to restore and share. There are GUIs available for most of the config, I've only had to touch Xorg.conf when Cedega broke it.
"(6) supports any currently made device that Windows supports (including a USB thermometer)"
Buy devices with open specifications or Open Source drivers. We aren't magicians, we need the specifications to make drivers.
"(7) is compatible with games"
There aren't many good GNU/Linux games, I'll admit but I play CS1.6 and Oblivion in WINE. But again, this is really a problem of basically saying I will use GNU/Linux if it is Windows.
"(8) is so better (faster, more stable) than windows that I do not mind reinstalling the OS."
The Freedom of using GNU/Linux is already well worth installing the OS for. It doesn't take long, nor is it binding, and you can try it out. It's well worth just being free from malware, etc. for a start.
But ultimately it's your choice, you don't have to use GNU/Linux, but if you don't want to use it, please don't make shallow excuses as to why you would.
Why do the charities want censorship, when the far better option would be to alert Interpol to users finding it and to monitor them so they can shut down the source. Blocking it just means the criminals will know it is blocked and go underground, better to secretly monitor them I think.
Has this idea ever worked? Most sites that go pay-to-view just have a huge loss in traffic as people look elsewhere, they hardly have a monopoly on the news.
This is why I love the BBC, just pay the license fee and you get loads of great programmes and news, they make great documentaries as they needn't worry so much about profits and ratings (perhaps more so as we lower the TV license - tbh I think they'd do better taking it out of tax as there'd be no cost of enforcement and it'd mean people using only the iPlayer still pay their fair share without draconian DRM being installed).
But anyway, back on subject, having a government sponsored news agency can be good. I'd worry the AP would be too open to accept bribes to censor/editorialize stories under this model.
Even if they were reporting it, the moment they started acting on the fact the ID3 tags showed leaked albums, people would change all their ID3 tags to leaked albums in protest.
This would make it much easier to set up a colony if we needed to. It'd be a bit like Dune, but at least it'd probably be possible now (although obv. oxygen and atmospheric pressure are still an issue)
In other news Fannie Mae publishes a paper on financial stability, Congress publishes a paper on honesty in politics and Dick Cheney publishes a paper on foreign policy and diplomacy.
Many of the commenters here seem to think that this was government censorship, I would just like to clarify that the IWF is funded (and founded) by an independent consortium of ISPs and is not attached to the government in any way.
The ISPs are just as panicky as the government about banning it so the story-hungry newspapers don't start a campaign against them. I think this just goes to show that you it isn't only the government censoring/filtering content, the corporations will do it too (albeit for different reasons).
Except this wasn't blocked by the government but an independent consortium of ISPs. I think they do it just so the media don't hound them - the Daily Mail would love a campaign like this on a slow news day.
The distributors, etc. need to realise that they are trying to sell a product that is practically worthless monetarily (anything that can be easily and freely copied is worthless to sell). Therefore they should greatly reduce prices in both digital download and physical copies, remove DRM, and add in multiplayer, etc. where possible to encourage people to purchase it. ATM, most companies charge a small fortune for a more crippled product than you can get for free via piracy, they need to realise that they should be happy with whatever money they can get and that buying games now (especially single-player only) is practically a donation.
It'd be cool if more games added IRC clients like Uplink had. Just imagine having an IRC overlay on Fallout 3, where you can chat from the Pip-boy.
It can damage immersion I suppose.
Fixing this should be a top priority for the Gnome and KDE developers so we can keep GNU/Linux malware free. Just make it require +x for launchers and automatically ask the user for the password when running one, to make it +x - kind of like OS X does with sudo operations.
It's good to see people speaking out against DRM, but I'm not sure if it's enough to stop the huge plans at work to push through stricter and stronger DRM.
Read this short story about the future with DRM. We are becoming frighteningly close to making it a reality.
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I don't know why the EU is going after them for the browser. They should force them to release cross-platform DirectX, etc. libraries.
I agree, the way they use all their products as vehicles for their other products is wrong, and that's what the EU should focus on, not the browsers so much.
.NET etc.) to stop people being locked-in to Windows. Of course, this would basically kill Windows so MS will resist it at all costs.
Take DirectX for example, if it was developed by a separate company they would make cross-platform implementations so they can sell their game development tools, etc. to a wider audience, that is the logical move. However, Microsoft just use it to strengthen their Windows monopoly, a move which is illegal under EU law, and should be stopped.
To be honest I think the EU should just force Microsoft to co-operate on producing a cross-platform DirectX implementation (and possibly more of the Windows API like
It's an interesting approach but it reminds me too much of the old adventure games, I suppose it could work out all right if they make it fit in smoothly.
It'll be interesting to see what effect it has on performance though.
I loved playing Pandora Tomorrow over XBConnect. It was a bit too easy to learn the levels off by heart as the spy and sneak through to near the objective without triggering any cameras.
Penumbra: Overture is a pretty good horror game for having to flee. Same with Call Of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
I find stealth games much more scary, like Thief, System Shock 2, even Oblivion are scary when you are sneaking around and suddenly get caught unaware.
I agree, I think forcing Microsoft to develop an open source, cross-platform implementation of DirectX would be much more productive than more fines or removing bundled IE.
Yeah, I refuse to donate to 'mainstream' charity for reasons just like that. I don't think they approach it properly - it's better to get an organized government approach IMO than just throwing money at the problems.
I donate to the FSF, etc. though where I can see the money is being used well and gathered fairly.
"(1) has windows UI"
.whatever) file for installation of additional software that do not depend on some third party (apt-get, yum) database and have all needed files included (.so files, .dll files) (can have some exceptions, like LinuxD3D, Lin.net, LinVBrun)" .deb's etc. available to do that, but package management is much better than the horror of Windows' Add/Remove programs - a legacy of the time before modern internet when you installed programs from 20 floppies.
:P) and MS broke a lot of compatibility with Vista.
Could you clarify what is so special and necessary about the Windows UI. I find Explorer to be horribly slow for file management, especially whn they bloated it even more in Vista.
"(2) can run all software I want to use (either runs the same program or has an alternative)"
Most software has a decent alternative, unless you have learnt how to use a particular program very well, the alternatives are normally good. You could always try WINE too.
"(3) use setup.exe (.sh,
There are
"(4) is compatible with majority of old software, written 15 years ago"
More programs written 15 years ago run on my GNU/Linux box than my Windows one. (All the GNU core utils for a start
"(5) uses GUI (for most options) or registry (for obscure options) for configuration, instead of text files"
Text config files are much less cryptic than the registry IMO, they are also much easier to restore and share. There are GUIs available for most of the config, I've only had to touch Xorg.conf when Cedega broke it. "(6) supports any currently made device that Windows supports (including a USB thermometer)"
Buy devices with open specifications or Open Source drivers. We aren't magicians, we need the specifications to make drivers.
"(7) is compatible with games"
There aren't many good GNU/Linux games, I'll admit but I play CS1.6 and Oblivion in WINE. But again, this is really a problem of basically saying I will use GNU/Linux if it is Windows.
"(8) is so better (faster, more stable) than windows that I do not mind reinstalling the OS."
The Freedom of using GNU/Linux is already well worth installing the OS for. It doesn't take long, nor is it binding, and you can try it out. It's well worth just being free from malware, etc. for a start.
But ultimately it's your choice, you don't have to use GNU/Linux, but if you don't want to use it, please don't make shallow excuses as to why you would.
Why do the charities want censorship, when the far better option would be to alert Interpol to users finding it and to monitor them so they can shut down the source. Blocking it just means the criminals will know it is blocked and go underground, better to secretly monitor them I think.
Has this idea ever worked? Most sites that go pay-to-view just have a huge loss in traffic as people look elsewhere, they hardly have a monopoly on the news.
This is why I love the BBC, just pay the license fee and you get loads of great programmes and news, they make great documentaries as they needn't worry so much about profits and ratings (perhaps more so as we lower the TV license - tbh I think they'd do better taking it out of tax as there'd be no cost of enforcement and it'd mean people using only the iPlayer still pay their fair share without draconian DRM being installed).
But anyway, back on subject, having a government sponsored news agency can be good. I'd worry the AP would be too open to accept bribes to censor/editorialize stories under this model.
Even if they were reporting it, the moment they started acting on the fact the ID3 tags showed leaked albums, people would change all their ID3 tags to leaked albums in protest.
"The game makes us of Unreal Engine 3..."
I think you accidentally the whole verb.
This would make it much easier to set up a colony if we needed to. It'd be a bit like Dune, but at least it'd probably be possible now (although obv. oxygen and atmospheric pressure are still an issue)
In other news Fannie Mae publishes a paper on financial stability, Congress publishes a paper on honesty in politics and Dick Cheney publishes a paper on foreign policy and diplomacy.
Now if only they could make one!
Well, to be fair, it's not like the ISPs want to allow it. It's not like they care either way.
I'm surprised they ban content though, would've thought it'd be better to track the viewers and then report to Interpol.
Many of the commenters here seem to think that this was government censorship, I would just like to clarify that the IWF is funded (and founded) by an independent consortium of ISPs and is not attached to the government in any way.
The ISPs are just as panicky as the government about banning it so the story-hungry newspapers don't start a campaign against them. I think this just goes to show that you it isn't only the government censoring/filtering content, the corporations will do it too (albeit for different reasons).
Except this wasn't blocked by the government but an independent consortium of ISPs. I think they do it just so the media don't hound them - the Daily Mail would love a campaign like this on a slow news day.
The distributors, etc. need to realise that they are trying to sell a product that is practically worthless monetarily (anything that can be easily and freely copied is worthless to sell). Therefore they should greatly reduce prices in both digital download and physical copies, remove DRM, and add in multiplayer, etc. where possible to encourage people to purchase it. ATM, most companies charge a small fortune for a more crippled product than you can get for free via piracy, they need to realise that they should be happy with whatever money they can get and that buying games now (especially single-player only) is practically a donation.
Because it's on Windows, and the attempt to hack in some sort of security (UAC), is too little, too late.
It'd be cool if more games added IRC clients like Uplink had. Just imagine having an IRC overlay on Fallout 3, where you can chat from the Pip-boy. It can damage immersion I suppose.
If you care that much just use Free Software - no EULAs, no DRM and no restrictions. You can do what you want with your computer.
Fixing this should be a top priority for the Gnome and KDE developers so we can keep GNU/Linux malware free. Just make it require +x for launchers and automatically ask the user for the password when running one, to make it +x - kind of like OS X does with sudo operations.
I agree, but most computers have ATI and Nvidia cards. Therefore it is important for hardware compatibility.
It's good to see people speaking out against DRM, but I'm not sure if it's enough to stop the huge plans at work to push through stricter and stronger DRM.
Read this short story about the future with DRM. We are becoming frighteningly close to making it a reality.