"With a free 'good enough' office suite in their hands, many users wouldn't bother spending the 500 bucks on another suite."
or the hassle of aquiring one.
Amen to that brother. This is exactly the type of thing which really needs to start happening.
The real problem is that Microsoft will use the same tactics it used with IBM, If you are an OEM, and you DON'T bundle a microsoft productivity suite with your systems, microsoft will either refuse to sell, or charge an extremely high price for the windows system software you need for your business to survive.
Why do I get the nagging suspicion that Microsoft will be reading the StarOffice code, and putting things into future versions of Office specifically to make it incompatible?
I'm generally not a conspiracist, but this seems all too likely to me.
At least with open source, workarounds will be released more quickly if this does occur.
make them demo it before paying. that's the way a lot of graphic design is done. At least when I used to be a GD.
This type of thing should definitely have been covered in the contract.... how to settle disputes, how many revisions they get, final say over design, etc.
What possible incentive is it for someone to get a free copy of something that they can (usually) get at least a rough equivalent for by downloading it off the internet.
On another note that wasn't mentioned here, I think it should be pointed out that this is definitely not something that is unique to Linux. The windows world is the same way, as is the hardware world.
A fresh install of netscape generally won't crash for me.
I had some real crashing problems with netscape before, and after someone pointed me to a program called output or something similar, which found some software which had came with shareware, and attatched itself to netscape without my permission. That program removed that software, and instantly, my netscape crashing problems stopped.
If you've read the information in the microsoft case, you'd know as well how reliant netscape (and every other software company) is upon Microsoft releasing the APIs which are needed to write programs which run effectively on windows. I'd guess a good part of the reason MSIE runs better on windows than Netscape does is because MSIE uses a lot of functions of the operating system which microsoft did not allow netscape to have access to. Which is the type of thing whic is extremely bad for consumers.
The situation where Microsoft is not only attempting, but succeeding at making the net more and more proprietary is a critical one, because as more computing needs center around the net, and more of those needs are now completely reliant on Microsoft, we face the very real possibility of the few remaining big software companies which aren't microsoft being eliminated. What's the point of using better software if your connection or files are going to be incompatible with everyone else you know?
The company where I work, which once had vowed to always remain with Netscape has now officially made the switch (30,000 users) to MSIE.
At this point in time, no matter how strong your ideals or principles are, the very sad fact is that if you aren't compatible with the 86% (as quoted here at least) of people using MSIE, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Though our company policy is still to create web content which will remain compatible with established standards, I personally doubt that will hold true, as so many users crank up Front Page and whip out an incompatible page with no idea of what the term "standards" even means.
I think this whole MSIE 5.5 thing bothers me a lot more than it probably should. To me it seems like quite a blow to my hope for the opensource and standards-based future, at least as I had envisioned it.
This, of course, shouldn't suprise anyone, and I'm not sure at what point it stops being news.
Without federal intervention, Microsoft will surely stamp out all other software.
If I need to use MSIE to view even as little as 20% of websites, chances are I'll use it, and forsake Linux as a result since much of my computing time is web browsing, and without a browser that can show me the sites I need to see, linux becomes much less useful for my home computing needs.
I've already been forced to give up netscape completely on my windoze box because it crashes constantly, due to what I'm assuming is some unknown spyware which was installed without my consent. I hate M$ and MSIE, but not enough to cripple myself in a world controlled by them.
XMAME / XMESS should be on every linux user's hard drive.
there are many public domain games from companies who have either released them or gone out of business, and at least one company does sell rom images legally.
I'm one of the people who has about 1000 of these roms on my linux machine (sorry, don't shoot me) because they are fun. The nostalgia is great, and since the games themselves don't even exist anymore except in pieces or maybe somebody's basement or garage, it's the only way you can still experience many of them. It's a worthy cause, too bad they can't get more of the game companies on board to volunteer to release their old roms, it definitely wouldn't hurt them.
when I closed down my software company, I let the domain name lapse (of course)
I was fairly shocked to go to the site after it had expired, and find that a company had taken the name and was squatting on it.
Struck me as an extremely slimey, underhanded thing to do. (note: this name was one that was very unique, the name of the software company, and couldn't possibly be of any use to anyone else)
I can't imagine any purpose for grabbing a domain, and sitting on it, other than to try to extort money from the previous owner if they forget to pay the bill. I'd imagine there are companies with scripts that scan the available names every few minutes, and grab any which become available.
Imagine if the whole microsoft / hotmail thing had happened now, if domains can be grabbed once they expire.
This is one of the things about Linux that people don't tend to talk about too much.
Almost everything in linux is sold or marketed as "unsupported" from the corportations and hardware manufacturers who market them.
Now, we can't try to go around demanding full support at this point, as linux is still small enough that these companies would probably be more profitable by skipping linux altogether than by investing in full support for linux drivers and support staff. Especially with the incredibly high number of distributions and variations out there.
A type of certification would be great, but implementation and enforcement would be a nightmare.
We can't demand more support, but if we settle for no support, that's all we will ever get. No easy answers, other than the only one which makes sense at this point... "wait till we get a bit more marketshare"
Since this topic is about people's opinions on wine: My favorite game is Tribes. My favorite operating system is Linux.
The two don't mix, much to my dismay. (T2 will have a linux client, yay)
Tribes will run under wine, with no noticeable loss in performance. I'd love to ditch windows... but... It locks up after anywhere from a few minutes to an hour due to some obscure error. (locks hard, can't get back to system without reboot, can't even kill it from telnet)
Once they get the bugs worked out, wine will be an EXTREMELY important piece of the picture for people as they start migrating from windows to linux, and don't want to leave their favorite win32 programs behind.
I love the desktop option, I'd love for a full implementation of the windows desktop and program menus, so I could ditch windows completely. as others have pointed out here, for most people, it's not realistic to be completely without a windows box at this point. Wine could change that.
Wine is great, I suspect it's going to get better, and during the coming period when the general public begins to understand the advantages of Linux, it will play an important role in making migration easier.
Finally, If any of the wine devs read this, thanks for your work. I, for one, appreciate it and look forward to the upcoming versions.
________ 1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Re:Linux - use REAL MEDIA, link here.
on
Movies Online?
·
· Score: 2
Update, Just found a real media version.
try this link then choose real media from the format menu.
should work fine in linux if you have the real player. If you haven't seen this thing yet, do it. it's ROFL funny.
you can watch it... you just can't listen to it.:)
Linux's main desktop weakness, lack of video format support, comes glaring through. Hopefully someone who matters will see this soon, and create a video viewer on par with those other platforms. I just wish I was a programmer capable of doing that myself.
I love linux, but until I can get microsoft media player to work in wine, or someone writes a video player for it which can play all these video clips I run into on the net, Linux has to remain down the list for video capabilities.
I just noticed on the 405 website that they are claiming the divx format was created for the divx video disks. *chuckle*:)
I think a more worthy question after watching this film, is whether film makers will be facing competition from the web.
This film easily matches any special effects in any 100 million dollar budget blockbuster. Yet, it was shot in 2 days, with a couple months of spare-time editing. The end result easily would have taken millions and millions of dollars 10 years ago to achieve, yet cost these 2 guys nothing but time. $0.
They had less than a few thousand in equipment, absolutely no money for a shooting budget, yet the result is nothing less than the type of scene moviegoers would have been in awe of, and studios would have had to shell out truckloads of money to achieve.
As they say on the website, we have now reached the point where film makers are limited only by their imaginations. If two guys (two very talented guys) can make a movie with special effects on par with anything seen before, anywhere. If two guys can achieve this result at home, on cheap hardware with consumer software, then we have reached the point where there are no boundries for amateur filmmakers, and it's probably safe to say that, like with the web in general, those people with the talent, and the ideas, *WILL* have an outlet to shine, regardless of whether they can be bankrolled by a big studio, much as we are beginning to see with musicians and MP3s.
well, my personal experience working in a microsoft only shop mirrors this.
Most people here either have no idea what linux is, or just don't care.
I'd guess the numbers of these people are much larger than any visit to slashdot could typically indicate.
the more important side of this, however, is that the numbers of these people are shrinking at an astounding rate. I'd guess the number of people who have even HEARD of linux has more than doubled in the past year.
it seems like it would be a great fit. Open source engines companies could modify to fit their game, and share the source when the game comes out. Plenty of time to get your sales in before your competition could absorb your tech.
They would still have full copyright on all the models, sounds, maps, artwork... everything else.
It would seem to be a great benefit to the game companies, and everyone in general.
Imagine all the talent currently going into mods, instead going to a bunch of individual games, many probably free. I worked on a few mods people seemed to like, just because it was fun.
but, since I'm not a game developer, I don't know. Maybe it would just encourage more really crappy games. Maybe the open source model would discourage innovation since people could pump out a game without adding much to the engine code if they didn't want to.
Who can tell. But with the release of the sourcecode to golgotha, Quake, and now the Duke Nukem 3d Build engine, It's suprising noone has taken any of these projects to the next step.
I'd guess that most of the JarJar footage is going to end up on the cutting room floor. Lucas will have him in there, to be sure. Someone like him will make a point of not bowing to pressure to change stories. But, I can't believe he'd make the same mistake twice.
Should be a good movie. Maybe not great, but still worth seeing.
I'm seriously interested in whether there is a website, or something that allows gambling on the outcome of all of this.
I personally think any company with as much money as microsoft can buy their way out of anything, but I'd happily put $50 on betting that they will lose the case, just to be an optomist.
anyway, if it does hit the supreme court, that is a victory for the case against M$, since they will not have the option to tie the case in court for years and years.
I'm still seeing green boxes in front of my eyes. ouch. hopefully the maintainer of that site (which is a great idea, and could be very useful) will see this, and make it a little less painful to view.
Slashdot Mirror
or the hassle of aquiring one.
Amen to that brother. This is exactly the type of thing which really needs to start happening.
The real problem is that Microsoft will use the same tactics it used with IBM, If you are an OEM, and you DON'T bundle a microsoft productivity suite with your systems, microsoft will either refuse to sell, or charge an extremely high price for the windows system software you need for your business to survive.
________
I'm generally not a conspiracist, but this seems all too likely to me.
At least with open source, workarounds will be released more quickly if this does occur.
________
This is exactly the step which was needed to make SO a realistic alternative to that other package.
God, I hope this works out!
________
The typical "we will release drivers, but don't bother trying to call for help" like most hardware which says it works in linux.
________
This type of thing should definitely have been covered in the contract.... how to settle disputes, how many revisions they get, final say over design, etc.
________
What possible incentive is it for someone to get a free copy of something that they can (usually) get at least a rough equivalent for by downloading it off the internet.
On another note that wasn't mentioned here, I think it should be pointed out that this is definitely not something that is unique to Linux. The windows world is the same way, as is the hardware world.
________
I had some real crashing problems with netscape before, and after someone pointed me to a program called output or something similar, which found some software which had came with shareware, and attatched itself to netscape without my permission. That program removed that software, and instantly, my netscape crashing problems stopped.
If you've read the information in the microsoft case, you'd know as well how reliant netscape (and every other software company) is upon Microsoft releasing the APIs which are needed to write programs which run effectively on windows. I'd guess a good part of the reason MSIE runs better on windows than Netscape does is because MSIE uses a lot of functions of the operating system which microsoft did not allow netscape to have access to. Which is the type of thing whic is extremely bad for consumers.
The situation where Microsoft is not only attempting, but succeeding at making the net more and more proprietary is a critical one, because as more computing needs center around the net, and more of those needs are now completely reliant on Microsoft, we face the very real possibility of the few remaining big software companies which aren't microsoft being eliminated. What's the point of using better software if your connection or files are going to be incompatible with everyone else you know?
________
________
At this point in time, no matter how strong your ideals or principles are, the very sad fact is that if you aren't compatible with the 86% (as quoted here at least) of people using MSIE, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Though our company policy is still to create web content which will remain compatible with established standards, I personally doubt that will hold true, as so many users crank up Front Page and whip out an incompatible page with no idea of what the term "standards" even means.
I think this whole MSIE 5.5 thing bothers me a lot more than it probably should. To me it seems like quite a blow to my hope for the opensource and standards-based future, at least as I had envisioned it.
________
Without federal intervention, Microsoft will surely stamp out all other software.
If I need to use MSIE to view even as little as 20% of websites, chances are I'll use it, and forsake Linux as a result since much of my computing time is web browsing, and without a browser that can show me the sites I need to see, linux becomes much less useful for my home computing needs.
I've already been forced to give up netscape completely on my windoze box because it crashes constantly, due to what I'm assuming is some unknown spyware which was installed without my consent. I hate M$ and MSIE, but not enough to cripple myself in a world controlled by them.
________
there are many public domain games from companies who have either released them or gone out of business, and at least one company does sell rom images legally.
I'm one of the people who has about 1000 of these roms on my linux machine (sorry, don't shoot me) because they are fun. The nostalgia is great, and since the games themselves don't even exist anymore except in pieces or maybe somebody's basement or garage, it's the only way you can still experience many of them. It's a worthy cause, too bad they can't get more of the game companies on board to volunteer to release their old roms, it definitely wouldn't hurt them.
________
I was fairly shocked to go to the site after it had expired, and find that a company had taken the name and was squatting on it.
Struck me as an extremely slimey, underhanded thing to do. (note: this name was one that was very unique, the name of the software company, and couldn't possibly be of any use to anyone else)
I can't imagine any purpose for grabbing a domain, and sitting on it, other than to try to extort money from the previous owner if they forget to pay the bill. I'd imagine there are companies with scripts that scan the available names every few minutes, and grab any which become available.
Imagine if the whole microsoft / hotmail thing had happened now, if domains can be grabbed once they expire.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Almost everything in linux is sold or marketed as "unsupported" from the corportations and hardware manufacturers who market them.
Now, we can't try to go around demanding full support at this point, as linux is still small enough that these companies would probably be more profitable by skipping linux altogether than by investing in full support for linux drivers and support staff. Especially with the incredibly high number of distributions and variations out there.
A type of certification would be great, but implementation and enforcement would be a nightmare.
We can't demand more support, but if we settle for no support, that's all we will ever get. No easy answers, other than the only one which makes sense at this point... "wait till we get a bit more marketshare"
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
fixme:winsock:_get_sock_fd handle 0 is not a socket (GLE 6) and fixme:dsound:IDirectSound3DListenerImpl_CommitDefe rredSettings stub
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
The two don't mix, much to my dismay. (T2 will have a linux client, yay)
Tribes will run under wine, with no noticeable loss in performance. I'd love to ditch windows... but... It locks up after anywhere from a few minutes to an hour due to some obscure error. (locks hard, can't get back to system without reboot, can't even kill it from telnet)
Once they get the bugs worked out, wine will be an EXTREMELY important piece of the picture for people as they start migrating from windows to linux, and don't want to leave their favorite win32 programs behind.
I love the desktop option, I'd love for a full implementation of the windows desktop and program menus, so I could ditch windows completely. as others have pointed out here, for most people, it's not realistic to be completely without a windows box at this point. Wine could change that.
Wine is great, I suspect it's going to get better, and during the coming period when the general public begins to understand the advantages of Linux, it will play an important role in making migration easier.
Finally, If any of the wine devs read this, thanks for your work. I, for one, appreciate it and look forward to the upcoming versions.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
try this link then choose real media from the format menu.
should work fine in linux if you have the real player. If you haven't seen this thing yet, do it. it's ROFL funny.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Linux's main desktop weakness, lack of video format support, comes glaring through. Hopefully someone who matters will see this soon, and create a video viewer on par with those other platforms. I just wish I was a programmer capable of doing that myself.
I love linux, but until I can get microsoft media player to work in wine, or someone writes a video player for it which can play all these video clips I run into on the net, Linux has to remain down the list for video capabilities.
I just noticed on the 405 website that they are claiming the divx format was created for the divx video disks. *chuckle* :)
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
This film easily matches any special effects in any 100 million dollar budget blockbuster. Yet, it was shot in 2 days, with a couple months of spare-time editing. The end result easily would have taken millions and millions of dollars 10 years ago to achieve, yet cost these 2 guys nothing but time. $0.
They had less than a few thousand in equipment, absolutely no money for a shooting budget, yet the result is nothing less than the type of scene moviegoers would have been in awe of, and studios would have had to shell out truckloads of money to achieve.
As they say on the website, we have now reached the point where film makers are limited only by their imaginations. If two guys (two very talented guys) can make a movie with special effects on par with anything seen before, anywhere. If two guys can achieve this result at home, on cheap hardware with consumer software, then we have reached the point where there are no boundries for amateur filmmakers, and it's probably safe to say that, like with the web in general, those people with the talent, and the ideas, *WILL* have an outlet to shine, regardless of whether they can be bankrolled by a big studio, much as we are beginning to see with musicians and MP3s.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
plays other divx movies, but this one gets no sound and a framerate of about 2x normal speed.
fwiw, ymmv.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Most people here either have no idea what linux is, or just don't care.
I'd guess the numbers of these people are much larger than any visit to slashdot could typically indicate.
the more important side of this, however, is that the numbers of these people are shrinking at an astounding rate. I'd guess the number of people who have even HEARD of linux has more than doubled in the past year.
and that can only be a good thing for us.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
it seems like it would be a great fit. Open source engines companies could modify to fit their game, and share the source when the game comes out. Plenty of time to get your sales in before your competition could absorb your tech.
They would still have full copyright on all the models, sounds, maps, artwork... everything else.
It would seem to be a great benefit to the game companies, and everyone in general.
Imagine all the talent currently going into mods, instead going to a bunch of individual games, many probably free. I worked on a few mods people seemed to like, just because it was fun.
but, since I'm not a game developer, I don't know. Maybe it would just encourage more really crappy games. Maybe the open source model would discourage innovation since people could pump out a game without adding much to the engine code if they didn't want to.
Who can tell. But with the release of the sourcecode to golgotha, Quake, and now the Duke Nukem 3d Build engine, It's suprising noone has taken any of these projects to the next step.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Should be a good movie. Maybe not great, but still worth seeing.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Too bad you can't take an eye test or an ID photo over the internet.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
I personally think any company with as much money as microsoft can buy their way out of anything, but I'd happily put $50 on betting that they will lose the case, just to be an optomist.
anyway, if it does hit the supreme court, that is a victory for the case against M$, since they will not have the option to tie the case in court for years and years.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"