It makes me seriously consider the efforts I've been making as a Linux evangelist.
I've always been aware of the sizable group of linux users who don't want anybody else to use "their" OS. I never knew it was such a large percentage overall.
Linux still needs to grow before it can fill my needs as a fully functioning operating system.
I want software availability, I want drivers and support for all my hardware, I want full commercial quality polished programs -- not beta quality programs which are never finished as the author loses interest. These are all part of a mainstream OS, and each is still lacking in Linux from my personal experiences.
I do not love linux because it's small. It's underdog status is the thing I most dislike about it. I love linux because it's free software based upon the idea that anyone can contribute their ideas or change the system to be whatever they want and need. That vision is extremely appealing, and it's the reason I have so much fondness for this little OS.
If I were to find out today that the linux ship is never traveling to bigger and better things, never even planning on leaving the dock, I'd need to rethink how long I want to stay on board.
Everyone is terrified to speak out on this, because anyone who speaks ill of programs such as this has a high risk of being branded a "Racist" which is a death sentance in this day.
This system is, as stated, an attempt to give preferential enrollment status to minorities in a fashion which is better at hiding this fact. How much more racist can anything get than that?
And if myself, or anybody else says so, we are the ones who are branded as racists, and suffer the most severe consequences, while minorities are spoonfed jobs they aren't qualified for, and promotions rightfully deserved by others who don't get them for one reason, skin color.
As bad as racism once was in this country, it's much worse now because it's government sanctioned, and official policy of far too many organizations.
I'd guess that Dell isn't going to sell too many Linux laptops. Even/.ers are saying in this thread they'd just buy a doze machine and install it themselves.
Dell had to do a bit of work to come up with a linux configuration that worked, they had to get everything installed and tested, they had to do whatever tests were needed to determine, for themselves, that this was a marketworthy distribution.
That cost money, probably a fair amount of money. And there certainly won't be the same number of linux systems going out the door to break this cost down into as there are doze boxes, where any development costs you invest are easily covered by sales.
it's routine for educational and government affiliated businesses to give minorities a royal status, preference in everything from hiring to promotions.
I'd be suprised to see if these "judges" based their objective scores on the robot building on anything other than the color of the applicant's skin.
I don't own any DVDs, and I don't personally care to watch them under linux. However, to me this seems like a more important issue of powerful corporations illegally violating a person's rights, and I'd like to join others in trying to do what I can to help.
I haven't seen a direct statement from you as to what type of help you need most right now, but I'm sure there are many who would like to assist.
"PS - I love the name "Windows Media Player for Mac." They couldn't just call it the MS Media Player?"
Microsoft did have a "Windows media player for linux" for a short time, which I think is funny too. (Suprising how many people don't believe that, but it's true)
I'd like a quicktime player for linux. Any software which can be ported to linux is a blessing.
But, asking for an open source player is pushing much too far. Even the windows version includes an extremely annoying nag screen which they would not be willing to let people get around by releasing open source, I'm sure.
secondly, I have the windows player, and I must say, it is by far THE most annoying piece of software I've ever used. I'm not certain on the latest version, but in the past that software has messed up just about everything, from display of PNG images in netscape, to playing wav files, to other multimedia files. Terrible software.
Any software being ported is good. But I think it's important to separate the porting of software to linux from the releasing of software into open source. If companies are given the impression that they must release the source to their software to port it to linux, it will have a severely limiting effect on the amount of software which is available.
If someone has a plate of cookies, and you tell them you want 2 cookies, you will probably get none. But if you ask for one, you will probably get it, and you'll most likely get the second one too, just not all at once.
I would submit that if the UN actually does succeed in regulating and prohibiting speech against a group, such as those who hate jews, or catholics, or blacks, whoever... that the next step, prohibiting speech against a majority political party is not far behind.
The true implications of this attempt are quite chilling to me.
Fortunately for all of us, racism and hate-filled speech is looked down upon by most people in this age.
BUT...
If you hate me, and you say so, you shouldn't be arrested just because I'm popular and some people would be upset with your opinions of me. I certainly wouldn't agree with your opinions, but I'd fight with every bit of my strength to defend your right to say them.
It's very important that people have the right to express their feelings in open forum. Government can not, and should not, control thoughts. Prosecuting people for ideas, no matter how unpopular, should strike alarm in all of us.
It's very true that the most unpopular speech is the speech that needs protecting the most. Nobody needs to protect the right to speak popular ideas.
This is another area where governments should not tread. Fighting racist (or any other type) of crime is a must, but there is a very large jump between ideas and actions. Fighting against free speech, no matter how much the ideas being expressed may anger you, is very wrong.
In most industries, competitors are the ones who enforce all standards of accountability.
Consumers do not have the money or power, and cannot usually get sufficiently organized to do such. The end policing may be done by an official agency, but the initial call to alarm (at least the one that gets noticed) is almost always done by a competitor.
It strikes me as very bad for linux. If companies are going to be spending a half a million dollars on linux, and end up getting a product like "LinuxOne OS" which, according to this review doesn't work at all, they will be very unhappy with "linux" not with linux one. And it could harm linux in extreme ways.
LinuxOne, and the others which are sure to follow, will do what noone has been able to do before, give linux a bad reputation as a buggy, useless, inferior software.
I have been hoping for some type of open source, free antivirus software for a while now in the windows world.
Perhaps this may get it's start in the linux world if a virus or two starts to appear.
I'm not sure how difficult it would be to create such a thing under the open source model, since it would be easy to get around at first, but even closed-source antivirus apps currently available do not prevent people from getting around them. And open source software would probably be updated much more quickly at any sign of threat.
a universal, freely available, freely updatable, widespread (installed with every distro possibly) could be the death of viruses as we know them.
Anyway, we won't be really vulnerable till Microsoft ports it's office suite with Outlook and all the VBA goodies which make up the VBA virii toolkit a majority of new virii are based upon these days.
yes. I'm fairly sure I first read about it on/. a few weeks ago. I think it was a post in a thread, though, and not it's own topic.
I set up my parents with that service (through altavista, who also is just a front-end to 1st up) about a couple of months ago and it works pretty nicely for them. They can spend their 10-15 minutes a week online to check their email or do a little web browsing, and it doesn't cost them anything.
No complaints from them, except when the time runs out on the ad banner and they get interrupted.
aureal is working on linux drivers. That is a very good thing.
Not all companies can, or will release their drivers as fully open source, that is a fact.
if, as you are suggesting, the only options which companies are going to be given is open, or nothing, I fear that could be very detrimental to future companies considering releasing drivers which support linux.
the great thing about it is that it's open source. There are lots of competitiors, and should always be.
if there were 10 windows distributions, and I could download any one I chose for free, and get the sourcecode free, I would probably not be here. And neither would a lot of others (don't try to get them to admit it though.:)
I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but certainly they haven't hurt the cause.
You think the Aureal drivers announcement had nothing to do with Creative's involvement with opensource?
We are going to just now start seeing the effects of the domino effect on linux. As more companies get involved with linux, other companies will follow.
Corel is one of the first companies to get involved with linux, they certainly can't take too much credit, but undoubtedly they can take some credit, as can many other companies who have started the ball rolling.
I'm assuming that is sarcasm. I just can't smell it from here.
Criticizing the government is a very good thing. Given a choice between a country where you can criticize gubmint, and one where you aren't allowed to, there would be no choice.
besides, if you want to see people criticizing the government on TV or the radio, just watch some campaign ads.
that kind of thing is perfect for college radio stations.
but questions arise as to how they will possibly be able to monitor all of these new stations for appropriate content, and whether they will cause interference with "legitimate" stations and other electronic devices like telephone lines.
The company I work for just bought the "brand new, never been used" large research facility which WD built, but hasn't even completed construction on yet. They took a big loss on that, so you know something serious is up. Lots of people at WD here are expecting to lose their jobs.
Slashdot Mirror
did this lego gun get the guy into college so he wouldn't have to take the SAT?
I've always been aware of the sizable group of linux users who don't want anybody else to use "their" OS. I never knew it was such a large percentage overall.
Linux still needs to grow before it can fill my needs as a fully functioning operating system.
I want software availability, I want drivers and support for all my hardware, I want full commercial quality polished programs -- not beta quality programs which are never finished as the author loses interest. These are all part of a mainstream OS, and each is still lacking in Linux from my personal experiences.
I do not love linux because it's small. It's underdog status is the thing I most dislike about it. I love linux because it's free software based upon the idea that anyone can contribute their ideas or change the system to be whatever they want and need. That vision is extremely appealing, and it's the reason I have so much fondness for this little OS.
If I were to find out today that the linux ship is never traveling to bigger and better things, never even planning on leaving the dock, I'd need to rethink how long I want to stay on board.
Everyone is terrified to speak out on this, because anyone who speaks ill of programs such as this has a high risk of being branded a "Racist" which is a death sentance in this day.
This system is, as stated, an attempt to give preferential enrollment status to minorities in a fashion which is better at hiding this fact. How much more racist can anything get than that?
And if myself, or anybody else says so, we are the ones who are branded as racists, and suffer the most severe consequences, while minorities are spoonfed jobs they aren't qualified for, and promotions rightfully deserved by others who don't get them for one reason, skin color.
As bad as racism once was in this country, it's much worse now because it's government sanctioned, and official policy of far too many organizations.
Dell had to do a bit of work to come up with a linux configuration that worked, they had to get everything installed and tested, they had to do whatever tests were needed to determine, for themselves, that this was a marketworthy distribution.
That cost money, probably a fair amount of money. And there certainly won't be the same number of linux systems going out the door to break this cost down into as there are doze boxes, where any development costs you invest are easily covered by sales.
it's routine for educational and government affiliated businesses to give minorities a royal status, preference in everything from hiring to promotions.
I'd be suprised to see if these "judges" based their objective scores on the robot building on anything other than the color of the applicant's skin.
makes me sick.
I haven't seen a direct statement from you as to what type of help you need most right now, but I'm sure there are many who would like to assist.
Wonder if that's where they got it....
Microsoft did have a "Windows media player for linux" for a short time, which I think is funny too. (Suprising how many people don't believe that, but it's true)
But, asking for an open source player is pushing much too far. Even the windows version includes an extremely annoying nag screen which they would not be willing to let people get around by releasing open source, I'm sure.
secondly, I have the windows player, and I must say, it is by far THE most annoying piece of software I've ever used. I'm not certain on the latest version, but in the past that software has messed up just about everything, from display of PNG images in netscape, to playing wav files, to other multimedia files. Terrible software.
Any software being ported is good. But I think it's important to separate the porting of software to linux from the releasing of software into open source. If companies are given the impression that they must release the source to their software to port it to linux, it will have a severely limiting effect on the amount of software which is available.
If someone has a plate of cookies, and you tell them you want 2 cookies, you will probably get none. But if you ask for one, you will probably get it, and you'll most likely get the second one too, just not all at once.
The true implications of this attempt are quite chilling to me.
BUT...
If you hate me, and you say so, you shouldn't be arrested just because I'm popular and some people would be upset with your opinions of me. I certainly wouldn't agree with your opinions, but I'd fight with every bit of my strength to defend your right to say them.
It's very important that people have the right to express their feelings in open forum. Government can not, and should not, control thoughts. Prosecuting people for ideas, no matter how unpopular, should strike alarm in all of us.
It's very true that the most unpopular speech is the speech that needs protecting the most. Nobody needs to protect the right to speak popular ideas.
This is another area where governments should not tread. Fighting racist (or any other type) of crime is a must, but there is a very large jump between ideas and actions. Fighting against free speech, no matter how much the ideas being expressed may anger you, is very wrong.
Consumers do not have the money or power, and cannot usually get sufficiently organized to do such. The end policing may be done by an official agency, but the initial call to alarm (at least the one that gets noticed) is almost always done by a competitor.
if these are at 0 I have to see them (cause thats what most anonymous posts are) but at -1 I can just read real comments.
Receives Initial Software Order For $500,000.00
It strikes me as very bad for linux. If companies are going to be spending a half a million dollars on linux, and end up getting a product like "LinuxOne OS" which, according to this review doesn't work at all, they will be very unhappy with "linux" not with linux one. And it could harm linux in extreme ways.
LinuxOne, and the others which are sure to follow, will do what noone has been able to do before, give linux a bad reputation as a buggy, useless, inferior software.
I for one am very worried.
Perhaps this may get it's start in the linux world if a virus or two starts to appear.
I'm not sure how difficult it would be to create such a thing under the open source model, since it would be easy to get around at first, but even closed-source antivirus apps currently available do not prevent people from getting around them. And open source software would probably be updated much more quickly at any sign of threat.
a universal, freely available, freely updatable, widespread (installed with every distro possibly) could be the death of viruses as we know them.
Probably just wishful thinking on my part.
course I'm still a newbie, so they coulda been lying to me.
I set up my parents with that service (through altavista, who also is just a front-end to 1st up) about a couple of months ago and it works pretty nicely for them. They can spend their 10-15 minutes a week online to check their email or do a little web browsing, and it doesn't cost them anything.
No complaints from them, except when the time runs out on the ad banner and they get interrupted.
Not all companies can, or will release their drivers as fully open source, that is a fact.
if, as you are suggesting, the only options which companies are going to be given is open, or nothing, I fear that could be very detrimental to future companies considering releasing drivers which support linux.
the great thing about it is that it's open source. There are lots of competitiors, and should always be.
if there were 10 windows distributions, and I could download any one I chose for free, and get the sourcecode free, I would probably not be here. And neither would a lot of others (don't try to get them to admit it though. :)
You think the Aureal drivers announcement had nothing to do with Creative's involvement with opensource?
We are going to just now start seeing the effects of the domino effect on linux. As more companies get involved with linux, other companies will follow.
Corel is one of the first companies to get involved with linux, they certainly can't take too much credit, but undoubtedly they can take some credit, as can many other companies who have started the ball rolling.
Criticizing the government is a very good thing. Given a choice between a country where you can criticize gubmint, and one where you aren't allowed to, there would be no choice.
besides, if you want to see people criticizing the government on TV or the radio, just watch some campaign ads.
but questions arise as to how they will possibly be able to monitor all of these new stations for appropriate content, and whether they will cause interference with "legitimate" stations and other electronic devices like telephone lines.
The company I work for just bought the "brand new, never been used" large research facility which WD built, but hasn't even completed construction on yet. They took a big loss on that, so you know something serious is up. Lots of people at WD here are expecting to lose their jobs.
now that glide has been opensourced, isn't anything in the works to expand on this open, though a bit outdated currently, API?