It's looking likely that Corel is facing going under.
It should be obvious to everyone what it will mean to Linux if/when the first major company to heavily invest in the platform has lost too much money to survive.
I was unable to get it to run at all under KDE (audio, but no video) and it segfaults about 1/3 of the time in Gnome
On a 550MHz box with 128 megs of ram, it still has about 1/5 second lag between the video and audio (enough to be annoying) and a lot of visual defects when there is movement on the screen.
I'm wondering if anyone has contacted the guy who wrote the windows.dll file? I'd bet he wouldn't mind giving up the source for a linux version, or cooperating with someone on that.
A good first effort, but for a machine as slow as mine or slower, it's not really usable at this time. Great to see any progress in this area though, as far as I'm concerned.
crap, I REALLY wanted to try this, and it's already slashdotted with only 10 replies.
People should remember that this DIVX isn't the same DivX as the stupid dvd pay-to-play clone thing, it's just a video codec.
since DIVX and ASF are supposedly based off the same mpeg4 codec, is there a chance somebody can also hack the.asf format to play on linux? Microsoft has boasted that.asf is based on open Mpeg4 technology, therefore it should, in theory, be possible to hack out a decoder for linux.
One of the main things I find lacking in Linux compared to doze is video support. I have a lot of asf and divx files I really want to play, and I haven't been able to get media player to even run in wine, so native support for these would be a HUGE milestone (from my perspective) in no longer needing to rely on windows for video.
it is sad that so many people have the view that Linux is nothing more than anti-microsoft.
certainly, that's part of the appeal, but it seems that linux is being pigeonholed as nothing more than an inferior alternative for people who hate microsoft.
I'm not sure of a good way to do it, but I'd think Linux would benefit greatly if we could find a way to change the image from "not microsoft" to "a kickass operating system you'll love" it seems the second message is more important, but it's usually drowned out by the first.
maybe this is obvious to everyone, but I'd like to see a way to accomplish it. Most of the more "high profile" linux people have already taken this position. Perhaps when we all talk about how great linux is, we shouldn't always try to mention how much windows sucks (hell, it's already known by most people that windows hasn't improved at all since 1995, other than crashing a bit less than it used to.)
I'm one of the deluded linux fans who really thinks linux has a very good chance at the desktop market. In fact, I'm counting on it. Not all of us only use linux for servers... hell linux already has mastered the server market, it'd be a waste to stop there.
I live in a town of 100,000 people. There is not a single store in my town which sells linux games (or other linux software) Several sell commercial distributions like RedHat or Mandrake, but no Linux software at all.
The nearest Frys is a 150 mile round trip.
Of course, I don't think there is a store in town selling Macintosh software either. If that is any indication of Windows stranglehold.
That sounds like an extremely compatible, and good-for-everyone solution.
The money is out there. KDE is certainly worth the expenditure. If they can spend 9 billion dollars on purchasing slashdot, when they vow not to change anything, I honestly can't see how some forward-looking linux company doesn't purchase this product, if not, troll-tech in it's entirety, to do what may just amount to the saving of linux. Once licenses start to be "bent" in the manner which has been proposed, the foundation of Linux would seem to start to erode.
I can't begin to imagine the revenue troll-tech gets from this product, but I would seriously consider it to be much less than any single one of the linux money houses could easily spare.
maybe someday we won't be seeing "news stories" expecting us to be excited about games like Descent 3 being ported 12 months after their windows counterparts.
Linux is coming, and most of us are pretty damn happy about that. But, this article points out just how far it still has to go.
The day I can walk into a store in my town, and buy any piece of software for linux (besides the OS itself) I'll know linux has arrived. I think that's probably at least a year off though.
how long ago was descent 3 released? I got a copy of it with my sblive card I bought as long ago as I can remember.
Is Descent3 even still selling in the retail market? Don't suppose anybody has numbers on that?
When a single game, that's very old, and probably nobody in the PC world even cares about it anymore, when a single game like that makes news that it's being ported so long after the windows version, it's really a sign of how desparate the Linux world is.
The worst part is, since the game is so old now, it's not likely to sell terribly well, and the "powers that be" will take it, incorrectly, as another sign that people don't want games on linux.
I was one of the people who bought windows quake3 to play on linux just because there wasn't a single store in my town that sold the linux version, and I don't buy off the internet. (I'm more of a linux fanatic now, and I'd probably drive the 120 miles to buy it retail if it came out now)
what can we do? Is it really a good idea to buy these outdated, more expensive than windows (which are now probably in the $5 bin) games, simply to support the platform we love? Or do we sit back and wait, as linux grows, it's inevitable that games will be ported to linux in a more timely and more convenient fashion.
I'm sure the answer is somewhere in the middle, but it's very frustrating that we can't get more games to Linux faster without showing the interest is there, and the interest isn't really going to be there until more games come out on linux faster...
Anybody who has worked in games probably thinks of them as the holy grail of game companies. Everyone who has worked at id is still known as "a guy who used to work at id", even Romero.
We don't know the whole situation here, but I'd surmise that a whole lot of Carmack's plan is targetted towards making the other's look bad, and making steed look like victim here, so he can find another job more easily. Don't overlook the fact that he says Steed has done things worthy of firing in the past, and now that Q3 and the mission packs are done, it's the logical time to let him go anyway, since you don't want to change staff in the middle of a project.
I'd be happy to work at id, too bad they are only accepting people with talent.
Obviously this isn't a good place for "objective" feedback about this topic, but I think it would benefit everyone (not that it matters since it will be appealed for the next million years anyway)
Once anyone reads about how Microsoft was willing to lose all the potential income, and the development money they had already invested in macintosh office just to force internet explorer on apple, it's hard to imagine any other alternative.
Microsoft does make some very nice programs, but there is no good reason they shouldn't have to compete equally with every other software developer out there without the tool of using monopoly power in other areas to force inferior products by witholding products which consumers want.
the last split up was the phone company. now days you have excellent prices on phone service. you have competition. you have choice. Everybody won that time. Everybody will win here.
just my opinion, and I don't pretend to be unbiased.
I've done a similar thing with a modified bulletin board at work, I use it to create a database of bugs in microsoft products (strangely appropriate since I'm posting here)
myself and my co-workers post summaries of problems, and when a solution is found, we just post a followup.
then there is a search engine, where we can find the information very quickly.
something like that may be helpful for you to create, especially if clients can find solutions to their problems on their own with a simple search.
there are several commercial products which do this also, but I'm a do-it-yourself type personally.
in any event, what you describe should be very simple in perl, or any similarly functioning language.
I dont think they could have mentioned the antitrust suit any more times. At least we know they aren't backing down, and they shouldn't. Gotta wonder wtf microsoft is thinking here. They should at least pretend to be a friendly company. babble.
video on linux is poor at best. I have xanim, and every other player I could find, but I still have had spotty luck at best getting anything to play under linux.
windows media player is still many, many times better than anything available for linux.
If I could just view asf and DivX in linux, I'd be happy. So far RealPlayer is looking like the only hope.
Music is not information. Napster did not provide music.
The location of music files is information. That's all napster provided. What people did with that information was up to them.
If Napster had a giant server with thousands of mp3 files on it that people could download (like mp3.com) then their guilt would be well-deserved, and without a doubt. But, they did not ever possess or distribute any music files.
It's not exactly "upstanding" but it certainly shouldn't be illegal.
There was recently a website that published the location of all the speed traps in the county. People of course could use that information to break the law, and speed in other areas, but that information in itself is not, and should not be illegal.
The only ones responsible for breaking the laws are the people who do it. But the people who break the laws are not getting any responsibility here, and that is wrong.
Napster told people where to find files. they didn't distribute any files, and responsible users wouldn't have broken any laws. Those people who did choose to break laws did so by their own actions, and are the ones soley responsible.
You can find mp3 files on any search engine or IRC client.... what's the difference besides efficiency?
very bad for everyone if this story is true. I don't care about mp3 files at all personally, but this kind of precedent is a very bad one for freedom of information in general.
there are many highly moderated questions here which have already been answered in that chat. Let's not have slashdot look like we didn't do our homework.;)
Macro viruses have been known for what, about 5 years now?
They appear to be the #1 type of virus affecting people in the world today by numbers, just by looking at the symantec virus database.
This could all be fixed by Microsoft if they wanted to, yet they don't fix it, and everywhere I look, people are saying "it's not microsoft's fault"
How can a security hole as demonstrably large as this remain unfixed for so long? 1 jr. high kid in the phillipines writes a small virus saying how he hates to go to school, and in less than 2 days, he has disrupted communications in most of the world. (30,000 without email in my company alone today)
What can be done to focus people's attention on this security hole, nobody seems to care that it exists, and it is exploited over, and over, bringing companies to their knees time and time again.
or am I being overly critical here, and this isn't anything unreasonable? To me, it seems obvious, and I don't understand how the mainstream press hasn't begun to pressure Microsoft to stop these virus attacks by fixing their software.
I think people really are forgetting the contributions redhat is making to the linux community.
They have worked with hardware vendors, software vendors, and most recently, they are working with real to get a good realplayer on linux.
Of COURSE they will set it up to support red hat.
If redhat is going to be spending time and money to get this type of support, why try to cancel out that support? (it's probably difficult to achieve in todays corporate mentalities) One of the most beautiful parts of linux is that anyone can build off (most) anything that is in any distribution. If anything is compatible with redhat, and you want it on your distribution, you *CAN* add support in your distro for it also, you just have to be open enough to actually not do everything just how you want, and expect everyone to come begging at your door to support you and the other 50000 incompatible versions. What is so bad about using *some* of the precedents redhat is setting in making other distributions compatible in those areas?
If there is one thing that can really slow the development of linux, it's all this type of fighting within the ranks. Companies looking at supporting linux, and seeing nothing but anger if they don't support each of the 100 individual distribution and platform combinations wouldn't be acting unreasonably if they ran in the opposite direction screaming back to microsoft's easy single windows distribution.
Linux is not redhat, but it seems very self destructive to try and "blacklist" companies supporting redhat, or act in any negative way towards the very companies we should be courting.
RPM is an open format, despite the vicious statement on that site noting that it stands for Redhat Package Manager (is the hatred that intense that even the name of redhat inspires anger?) Instead of fighting against RPM files, why not put an RPM handler in other distributions by default?
Slashdot Mirror
p ress release
they are coming along. Just very slowly.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
It should be obvious to everyone what it will mean to Linux if/when the first major company to heavily invest in the platform has lost too much money to survive.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Corel hasn't had great programs from my experience.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
If they drop support for other platforms, it can only mean one thing.
at the very least, we can be damn sure there won't be a linux port of halo now.
Thank god Tribes 2 is looking like a much better game anyway, and that is going to be native on Linux to boot!
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
thanks to _dewman_
thanks to dapozza-
thanks to Wizard of OS
I finally got it to compile on my system.
I was unable to get it to run at all under KDE (audio, but no video) and it segfaults about 1/3 of the time in Gnome
On a 550MHz box with 128 megs of ram, it still has about 1/5 second lag between the video and audio (enough to be annoying) and a lot of visual defects when there is movement on the screen.
I'm wondering if anyone has contacted the guy who wrote the windows .dll file? I'd bet he wouldn't mind giving up the source for a linux version, or cooperating with someone on that.
A good first effort, but for a machine as slow as mine or slower, it's not really usable at this time. Great to see any progress in this area though, as far as I'm concerned.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Why doesn't freshmeat mirror it's files?
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
People should remember that this DIVX isn't the same DivX as the stupid dvd pay-to-play clone thing, it's just a video codec.
since DIVX and ASF are supposedly based off the same mpeg4 codec, is there a chance somebody can also hack the .asf format to play on linux? Microsoft has boasted that .asf is based on open Mpeg4 technology, therefore it should, in theory, be possible to hack out a decoder for linux.
One of the main things I find lacking in Linux compared to doze is video support. I have a lot of asf and divx files I really want to play, and I haven't been able to get media player to even run in wine, so native support for these would be a HUGE milestone (from my perspective) in no longer needing to rely on windows for video.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
I'm starting to dislike all these "Krappy" names.
Anyone else feel the same way?
KDE is great, but, as somebody with a degree in advertising, I'd submit that too much of anything is always a bad thing.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
certainly, that's part of the appeal, but it seems that linux is being pigeonholed as nothing more than an inferior alternative for people who hate microsoft.
I'm not sure of a good way to do it, but I'd think Linux would benefit greatly if we could find a way to change the image from "not microsoft" to "a kickass operating system you'll love" it seems the second message is more important, but it's usually drowned out by the first.
maybe this is obvious to everyone, but I'd like to see a way to accomplish it. Most of the more "high profile" linux people have already taken this position. Perhaps when we all talk about how great linux is, we shouldn't always try to mention how much windows sucks (hell, it's already known by most people that windows hasn't improved at all since 1995, other than crashing a bit less than it used to.)
I'm one of the deluded linux fans who really thinks linux has a very good chance at the desktop market. In fact, I'm counting on it. Not all of us only use linux for servers... hell linux already has mastered the server market, it'd be a waste to stop there.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
The nearest Frys is a 150 mile round trip.
Of course, I don't think there is a store in town selling Macintosh software either. If that is any indication of Windows stranglehold.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
The money is out there. KDE is certainly worth the expenditure. If they can spend 9 billion dollars on purchasing slashdot, when they vow not to change anything, I honestly can't see how some forward-looking linux company doesn't purchase this product, if not, troll-tech in it's entirety, to do what may just amount to the saving of linux. Once licenses start to be "bent" in the manner which has been proposed, the foundation of Linux would seem to start to erode.
I can't begin to imagine the revenue troll-tech gets from this product, but I would seriously consider it to be much less than any single one of the linux money houses could easily spare.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
maybe someday we won't be seeing "news stories" expecting us to be excited about games like Descent 3 being ported 12 months after their windows counterparts.
Linux is coming, and most of us are pretty damn happy about that. But, this article points out just how far it still has to go.
The day I can walk into a store in my town, and buy any piece of software for linux (besides the OS itself) I'll know linux has arrived. I think that's probably at least a year off though.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Is Descent3 even still selling in the retail market? Don't suppose anybody has numbers on that?
When a single game, that's very old, and probably nobody in the PC world even cares about it anymore, when a single game like that makes news that it's being ported so long after the windows version, it's really a sign of how desparate the Linux world is.
The worst part is, since the game is so old now, it's not likely to sell terribly well, and the "powers that be" will take it, incorrectly, as another sign that people don't want games on linux.
I was one of the people who bought windows quake3 to play on linux just because there wasn't a single store in my town that sold the linux version, and I don't buy off the internet. (I'm more of a linux fanatic now, and I'd probably drive the 120 miles to buy it retail if it came out now)
what can we do? Is it really a good idea to buy these outdated, more expensive than windows (which are now probably in the $5 bin) games, simply to support the platform we love? Or do we sit back and wait, as linux grows, it's inevitable that games will be ported to linux in a more timely and more convenient fashion.
I'm sure the answer is somewhere in the middle, but it's very frustrating that we can't get more games to Linux faster without showing the interest is there, and the interest isn't really going to be there until more games come out on linux faster...
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
it's IDSOFTWARE. duh.
Anybody who has worked in games probably thinks of them as the holy grail of game companies. Everyone who has worked at id is still known as "a guy who used to work at id", even Romero.
We don't know the whole situation here, but I'd surmise that a whole lot of Carmack's plan is targetted towards making the other's look bad, and making steed look like victim here, so he can find another job more easily. Don't overlook the fact that he says Steed has done things worthy of firing in the past, and now that Q3 and the mission packs are done, it's the logical time to let him go anyway, since you don't want to change staff in the middle of a project.
I'd be happy to work at id, too bad they are only accepting people with talent.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
I've got my shotgun ready.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Once anyone reads about how Microsoft was willing to lose all the potential income, and the development money they had already invested in macintosh office just to force internet explorer on apple, it's hard to imagine any other alternative.
Microsoft does make some very nice programs, but there is no good reason they shouldn't have to compete equally with every other software developer out there without the tool of using monopoly power in other areas to force inferior products by witholding products which consumers want.
the last split up was the phone company. now days you have excellent prices on phone service. you have competition. you have choice. Everybody won that time. Everybody will win here.
just my opinion, and I don't pretend to be unbiased.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
myself and my co-workers post summaries of problems, and when a solution is found, we just post a followup.
then there is a search engine, where we can find the information very quickly.
something like that may be helpful for you to create, especially if clients can find solutions to their problems on their own with a simple search.
there are several commercial products which do this also, but I'm a do-it-yourself type personally.
in any event, what you describe should be very simple in perl, or any similarly functioning language.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
video on linux is poor at best. I have xanim, and every other player I could find, but I still have had spotty luck at best getting anything to play under linux.
windows media player is still many, many times better than anything available for linux.
If I could just view asf and DivX in linux, I'd be happy. So far RealPlayer is looking like the only hope.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
The location of music files is information. That's all napster provided. What people did with that information was up to them.
If Napster had a giant server with thousands of mp3 files on it that people could download (like mp3.com) then their guilt would be well-deserved, and without a doubt. But, they did not ever possess or distribute any music files.
It's not exactly "upstanding" but it certainly shouldn't be illegal.
There was recently a website that published the location of all the speed traps in the county. People of course could use that information to break the law, and speed in other areas, but that information in itself is not, and should not be illegal.
The only ones responsible for breaking the laws are the people who do it. But the people who break the laws are not getting any responsibility here, and that is wrong.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Napster told people where to find files. they didn't distribute any files, and responsible users wouldn't have broken any laws. Those people who did choose to break laws did so by their own actions, and are the ones soley responsible.
You can find mp3 files on any search engine or IRC client.... what's the difference besides efficiency?
very bad for everyone if this story is true. I don't care about mp3 files at all personally, but this kind of precedent is a very bad one for freedom of information in general.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
They appear to be the #1 type of virus affecting people in the world today by numbers, just by looking at the symantec virus database.
This could all be fixed by Microsoft if they wanted to, yet they don't fix it, and everywhere I look, people are saying "it's not microsoft's fault"
How can a security hole as demonstrably large as this remain unfixed for so long? 1 jr. high kid in the phillipines writes a small virus saying how he hates to go to school, and in less than 2 days, he has disrupted communications in most of the world. (30,000 without email in my company alone today)
What can be done to focus people's attention on this security hole, nobody seems to care that it exists, and it is exploited over, and over, bringing companies to their knees time and time again.
or am I being overly critical here, and this isn't anything unreasonable? To me, it seems obvious, and I don't understand how the mainstream press hasn't begun to pressure Microsoft to stop these virus attacks by fixing their software.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
They have worked with hardware vendors, software vendors, and most recently, they are working with real to get a good realplayer on linux.
Of COURSE they will set it up to support red hat.
If redhat is going to be spending time and money to get this type of support, why try to cancel out that support? (it's probably difficult to achieve in todays corporate mentalities) One of the most beautiful parts of linux is that anyone can build off (most) anything that is in any distribution. If anything is compatible with redhat, and you want it on your distribution, you *CAN* add support in your distro for it also, you just have to be open enough to actually not do everything just how you want, and expect everyone to come begging at your door to support you and the other 50000 incompatible versions. What is so bad about using *some* of the precedents redhat is setting in making other distributions compatible in those areas?
If there is one thing that can really slow the development of linux, it's all this type of fighting within the ranks. Companies looking at supporting linux, and seeing nothing but anger if they don't support each of the 100 individual distribution and platform combinations wouldn't be acting unreasonably if they ran in the opposite direction screaming back to microsoft's easy single windows distribution.
Linux is not redhat, but it seems very self destructive to try and "blacklist" companies supporting redhat, or act in any negative way towards the very companies we should be courting.
RPM is an open format, despite the vicious statement on that site noting that it stands for Redhat Package Manager (is the hatred that intense that even the name of redhat inspires anger?) Instead of fighting against RPM files, why not put an RPM handler in other distributions by default?
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"