Actually, the chances are much better than that, if you first consult TransGaming's database. The games that worked were rated four or five (on a five-point scale).
The games that didn't work were rated lower, if they were rated at all.
If you have a large game collection, then you may find that WineX runs even less than half your games.
However, TransGaming focuses on good, popular games, and the database is fairly accurate.
to use the software you're required to provide Apple revenue through the purchase of an Apple DVD writer
If there was any vestige of hope that Apple, originator of the infamous "look-and-feel" copyright law suits, was a "good guy," it has quashed it by abusing the DMCA.
Apple developed iDVD to make Macs more attractive, so it released it free of charge.
It hoped that people would use it on SuperDrives.
Other World Computing didn't circumvent a copy-protection scheme, it circumvented a business model.
You know, like writing a Perl script for use with the freely distributed Cue Cat, or a Java program to administer an AirPort base station.
I bought an AirPort, because it was cheaper than anything comparable at the time.
I'm sure Apple expected me to buy a couple of Macs to go with it.
My 1.5GHz Athlon(1800 XP) still churns out a fair whack more heat than my 2.2GHz Pentium 4.
Soon, 1.5 V Thoroughbreds should be available at 1.4 - 1.6 GHz (1700+, 1800+, 1900+).
These run at around 50 W, compared to about 65 W for the 1.75 V Palomino.
It's not like id gets anything from other companies licensing their software OTHER than money.
Actually, every successful licensee is an advertisement that increases the reputation of id technology.
In fact, id has gone so far as to cultivate this in licensing Quake 3: "QUAKE III Arena engine licensees are part of an exclusive club that will remain exclusive because we are capping the total number of licensee companies."
Effectively, Raven, Ritual, et al. compete, as well as pay, for the privilege of showing off id's latest engine.
I just slapped together a dual p4 xeon2.0ghz system for 2500.
It has a gig of rambus, 80 gighd, DVD burner and a gforce4ti4200 something a rather.
Dell only offered Xeons in the p3 flavor, similiar setup for around 800 dollars more.
The Precision 530 line, with dual P4 Xeons, has been available for a while.
A similar configuration is available for about $2,800.
If you want a RDRAM system from Dell, you may want to wait for a "quadruple your memory" sale, like they have now.
their claims of The Sims running under WineX with a compatability level of 5 is truely misleading.
That's exactly what Rob meant.
Only after repeated complaints in the forums did TransGaming change the entry from "The Sims" to "The Sims (Mandrake Gaming Edition)."
The Sims was ported to Linux, with the help of WineX, so it was misleading to use it as a selling point for subscriptions.
Your criticism of TransGaming assumes that they would have written the same software if they had used the GPL....
If you want to sell software (and not support or some other intangible) you simply can't use the GPL.
First of all, WINE is not GPL, but LGPL, which is a fairly easy license to honor.
TransGaming claims that because its copy protection code is not modular, it can't abide by the LGPL.
I think if WINE had been LGPLed to start with, TransGaming would have designed accordingly.
As for making money with the GPL, the dual license is the most successful, as in Qt, GhostScript, and CUPS.
This requires, of course, owning all the copyright.
TransGaming now Supports Over 80 PC Games Issued on Wednesday April 17, 2002
Play Warcraft III on Linux with TransGaming's Release of WineX 2.1 Issued on Thursday August 1, 2002
TransGaming subscriptions cost $5 per month, with a minimum three months payment.
It's been just over three months since the last major release.
Coincidence?
problems with games, some computers
on
USB KVMs Compared
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· Score: 2
I've had an IOGear model G-CS104U for almost 3 years now.
Never had a problem with the KVM, and every device I've plugged into it has worked as expected.
I have the same unit.
Inclusion of cables, and a few favorable comments on USENET, won out over Belkin.
We use BlackBox at work, but that's more than I want to spend at home.
The biggest problem I've had so far is that the keyboard isn't responsive enough for action games.
I can type fine, but I can't play Max Payne.
I'm still investigating this problem, as it could be the USB adapter I'm using on the PS/2 keyboard.
Two of the computers had no problem using the keyboard and mouse: an Intel 810E running Linux and an Alladin V running Windows and Linux.
The third system, a VIA KT133A, is not as happy.
Windows 98 did not recognize the keyboard or mouse.
I had to connect a keyboard directly to dismiss the "mouse not detected" message and install drivers.
I have yet to get Linux to recognize the keyboard or mouse on this system.
So to have the decisions go in the opposite direction indicates that the whole thing [is] decided by hordes of rampaging lawyers.
In both the unix.org and unix.com cases, the panel said that X/Open had undisputed rights to the UNIX trademark, which covers unix.*.
Unix.com refuted the bad faith claim, as it has been a viable, non-commercial web site since 1993.
Unix.org, on the other hand, was a brand new site with nothing but links to commercial Unix-related sites.
I disagree that unix.org was registered in bad faith, but the battle lines have been drawn.
So expecting a similar quality payoff from Digital Video, three of us made an effort to see Attack of the Clones in a digital theater.
We were disappointed.
I thought the digital version of Star Wars II looked terrible.
The individual pixels were clearly visible.
For example, the Star Wars logo had poorly anti-aliased "jaggies."
I suspect that the screen was too large and/or I was sitting too close.
I'm sure the DVD will look spectacular, but I don't think digital has enough resolution to compete with film, yet.
since in effect you would be "stealing" from the company who would benefit.
Same way avoiding television commercials is stealing, I'd say.
You have a strange definition of theft.
Theft is the unauthorized transfer of physical goods from one person to another.
Unauthorized use of a number (a copyrighted work is really just one big number) is sometimes restricted by other laws.
Watching television without the ads is not theft.
Watching public television without paying is not theft.
Watching an ad and not purchasing the advertised product is not theft.
Modifying free software is most definitely not theft.
Releasing software under a free license, but not expecting anyone to take advantage of that freedom, is a sham.
You are misappropriating the cachet of free software.
you must agressively defend a patent or you lose the rights to it
No, I see this misconception every time a patent story appears on Slashdot.
A trademark does not expire, but can be abandoned.
A patent lasts about twenty years, but does not have to be uniformly defended.
In fact, a company with a large patent portfolio (especially one acquired through mergers) may not be immediately aware that a current technology infringes one of its patents.
BT's hyperlink patent is a controversial example of this.
In other cases, companies attempt to popularize a patented invention through a standard to develop a revenue stream.
Unisys's GIF patent is an example of this.
Rambus apparently tried to patent JEDEC-related inventions.
The MPEG-4 standards are laced with patents.
While patent abandonment is not an issue here, the following may be:
if SGI granted a perpetual license to its OpenGL-related patents, then it's unlikely that Microsoft can revoke it
SGI's patents will eventually expire
the patents may be invalid
OpenGL may not infringe the patents
Microsoft may be barred from using the patents, due to its illegal use of a monopoly
The simpler something is to use, the better....
the telephone is top of my list
"Things should be made as simple as possible--but no simpler."
Put another way (by Larry Wall), it should be easy to do easy things and possible to do hard things.
It's funny that you should mention the telephone.
A receptionist transferred a customer to me by mistake.
After fiddling with the "forward" button for a minute, I was forced to ask the customer to hang up and call again.
I later discovered that my phone was an old model that lacked the "transfer" button.
It required a "*" code to perform that function.
a Dead Man's Switch license would be very interesting to see implemented
You mean something like the KDE Free Qt Foundation?
Qt is triple licensed: GPL, QPL, proprietary.
If TrollTech discontinues the free edition of Qt, then the last available version will be released under the BSD license.
(I'm not sure whether that's with the advertising clause.)
How can one Linux distribution be 'more stable' than another?
It has the same FSCKING kernel!
The SAME drivers, THE SAME libraries all written by THE SAME people!
No, it doesn't.
Linux from Scratch or Gentoo may use the latest and greatest, but most major distributions patch (i.e., fork) the major components.
They back port bug fixes to a relatively stable version.
That, and testing, is why Red Hat 7.2 stayed on Linux 2.4.9.
In fact, the situation is even crazier with Red Hat Advanced Server 2.1.
It has asynchronous I/O, more scheduler patches, and lots of goodies you won't find in 2.4.18, let alone 2.4.9.
I actually find the RHAS scenario kind of scary.
Red Hat 7.3 was unusable on our VA Linux box until the ext3 update (2.4.18-4) and the Mylex update (2.4.18-5).
Do I really trust them with more advanced features and an even smaller (albeit, higher paying) user base?
Red Hat has moved to a model on advanced server where... they are charging around $800+ for their advanced server product.
[Love]
Binaries, Red Hat Network, ISO's/CD's are available for those who pay for the whole package. The source will be available publically for all to build their own.
[Hogan]
The availability of binaries and ISOs has obviously contributed to Red Hat's success.
I find it obnoxious that some companies stick a proprietary license on the packaging tool to enforce, in effect, a per-seat license on the whole distro.
The proof will be in the pudding, but UnitedLinux sounds like it will be very similar to Red Hat Advanced Server.
The core will be free software (with the possible exception of Acrobat Reader).
The lack of binaries, ISOs, and a trademark license discourage use of the product without support.
Support will cost much more than the regular products, and is, of course, per server.
This business of certifying a specific combination of Dell, EMC, RHAS, and Oracle is what really strikes me as exclusive.
I wonder whether you could get an Oracle support contract on a built-from-source version of RHAS, without Red Hat support.
(Given the relative price of Oracle and RHAS, the question is academic.)
What I find curious is that RHAS and UL are positioned as increasing developer support.
As a developer, I'm going to find barriers to entry (such as lack of ISOs) annoying, considering that it may be but one of a dozen potential platforms.
For that matter, are these really platforms to bet on?
The increased cost may increase the O/S vendor's profits, but probably over fewer customers.
If I'm Oracle, I may be able to require an "enterprise" Linux distro.
Otherwise, I'd rather make it easy to use my product.
Subsequent albums by Pearl Jam... were exactly the same as "Ten", except not so good.
They sold poorly because the public's taste had changed, the music did not change in the same way, and nobody wanted to hear Eddie Vedder's political vitriol.
I thought it was the other way around: the public wanted another Ten, but got "Not for You" and the aforementioned politics.
When it comes to a platinum album, most fans don't want a radically different sequel.
This is a band we're talking about, not Picasso.
Perhaps you've heard of the programming competition sponsored by Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister in the 80s.
They varied the requirements, telling some teams to minimize coding time, others to minimize bugs, etc.
The conclusion was that, on the whole, programmers do what they're told.
There were some anomalies: one of the rapid development teams had fewer bugs than most, for example.
I suspect that you can generalize this to security, as well.
OpenBSD focuses on security, and it shows.
Microsoft doesn't, and it shows.
This is not a matter of proprietary v. free.
Slashdot Mirror
You're confused: Microsoft released the bug. Qualcomm just did a little free QA.
Actually, the chances are much better than that, if you first consult TransGaming's database. The games that worked were rated four or five (on a five-point scale). The games that didn't work were rated lower, if they were rated at all.
If you have a large game collection, then you may find that WineX runs even less than half your games. However, TransGaming focuses on good, popular games, and the database is fairly accurate.
If there was any vestige of hope that Apple, originator of the infamous "look-and-feel" copyright law suits, was a "good guy," it has quashed it by abusing the DMCA. Apple developed iDVD to make Macs more attractive, so it released it free of charge. It hoped that people would use it on SuperDrives.
Other World Computing didn't circumvent a copy-protection scheme, it circumvented a business model. You know, like writing a Perl script for use with the freely distributed Cue Cat, or a Java program to administer an AirPort base station. I bought an AirPort, because it was cheaper than anything comparable at the time. I'm sure Apple expected me to buy a couple of Macs to go with it.
PCs for Everyone lists the following prices (all OEM, which requires a hardware purchase):
- WP Office 2002 Standard: $19
- Works 2002 (incl. Word): $89
- Office XP Small Business: $219
- Office XP Pro: $369
I have no idea what HP and Dell pay, but this is one data point.Soon, 1.5 V Thoroughbreds should be available at 1.4 - 1.6 GHz (1700+, 1800+, 1900+). These run at around 50 W, compared to about 65 W for the 1.75 V Palomino.
Actually, every successful licensee is an advertisement that increases the reputation of id technology. In fact, id has gone so far as to cultivate this in licensing Quake 3: "QUAKE III Arena engine licensees are part of an exclusive club that will remain exclusive because we are capping the total number of licensee companies."
Effectively, Raven, Ritual, et al. compete, as well as pay, for the privilege of showing off id's latest engine.
Dell only offered Xeons in the p3 flavor, similiar setup for around 800 dollars more.
The Precision 530 line, with dual P4 Xeons, has been available for a while. A similar configuration is available for about $2,800. If you want a RDRAM system from Dell, you may want to wait for a "quadruple your memory" sale, like they have now.
Most "soap on a rope" laptop transformers can handle 220 V, but it's worth checking.
I spent some time switching cables around this evening, and it would seem that the PS/2 - USB adapter is the culprit.
That's exactly what Rob meant. Only after repeated complaints in the forums did TransGaming change the entry from "The Sims" to "The Sims (Mandrake Gaming Edition)."
The Sims was ported to Linux, with the help of WineX, so it was misleading to use it as a selling point for subscriptions.
First of all, WINE is not GPL, but LGPL, which is a fairly easy license to honor. TransGaming claims that because its copy protection code is not modular, it can't abide by the LGPL. I think if WINE had been LGPLed to start with, TransGaming would have designed accordingly.
As for making money with the GPL, the dual license is the most successful, as in Qt, GhostScript, and CUPS. This requires, of course, owning all the copyright.
Issued on Wednesday April 17, 2002
Play Warcraft III on Linux with TransGaming's Release of WineX 2.1
Issued on Thursday August 1, 2002
TransGaming subscriptions cost $5 per month, with a minimum three months payment.
It's been just over three months since the last major release. Coincidence?
I have the same unit. Inclusion of cables, and a few favorable comments on USENET, won out over Belkin. We use BlackBox at work, but that's more than I want to spend at home.
The biggest problem I've had so far is that the keyboard isn't responsive enough for action games. I can type fine, but I can't play Max Payne. I'm still investigating this problem, as it could be the USB adapter I'm using on the PS/2 keyboard.
Two of the computers had no problem using the keyboard and mouse: an Intel 810E running Linux and an Alladin V running Windows and Linux. The third system, a VIA KT133A, is not as happy. Windows 98 did not recognize the keyboard or mouse. I had to connect a keyboard directly to dismiss the "mouse not detected" message and install drivers. I have yet to get Linux to recognize the keyboard or mouse on this system.
In both the unix.org and unix.com cases, the panel said that X/Open had undisputed rights to the UNIX trademark, which covers unix.*. Unix.com refuted the bad faith claim, as it has been a viable, non-commercial web site since 1993. Unix.org, on the other hand, was a brand new site with nothing but links to commercial Unix-related sites.
I disagree that unix.org was registered in bad faith, but the battle lines have been drawn.
I thought the digital version of Star Wars II looked terrible. The individual pixels were clearly visible. For example, the Star Wars logo had poorly anti-aliased "jaggies."
I suspect that the screen was too large and/or I was sitting too close. I'm sure the DVD will look spectacular, but I don't think digital has enough resolution to compete with film, yet.
You have a strange definition of theft. Theft is the unauthorized transfer of physical goods from one person to another. Unauthorized use of a number (a copyrighted work is really just one big number) is sometimes restricted by other laws. Watching television without the ads is not theft. Watching public television without paying is not theft. Watching an ad and not purchasing the advertised product is not theft. Modifying free software is most definitely not theft.
Releasing software under a free license, but not expecting anyone to take advantage of that freedom, is a sham. You are misappropriating the cachet of free software.
No, I see this misconception every time a patent story appears on Slashdot. A trademark does not expire, but can be abandoned.
A patent lasts about twenty years, but does not have to be uniformly defended. In fact, a company with a large patent portfolio (especially one acquired through mergers) may not be immediately aware that a current technology infringes one of its patents. BT's hyperlink patent is a controversial example of this.
In other cases, companies attempt to popularize a patented invention through a standard to develop a revenue stream. Unisys's GIF patent is an example of this. Rambus apparently tried to patent JEDEC-related inventions. The MPEG-4 standards are laced with patents.
While patent abandonment is not an issue here, the following may be:
"Things should be made as simple as possible--but no simpler." Put another way (by Larry Wall), it should be easy to do easy things and possible to do hard things.
It's funny that you should mention the telephone. A receptionist transferred a customer to me by mistake. After fiddling with the "forward" button for a minute, I was forced to ask the customer to hang up and call again. I later discovered that my phone was an old model that lacked the "transfer" button. It required a "*" code to perform that function.
You mean something like the KDE Free Qt Foundation? Qt is triple licensed: GPL, QPL, proprietary. If TrollTech discontinues the free edition of Qt, then the last available version will be released under the BSD license. (I'm not sure whether that's with the advertising clause.)
I've heard that some Olympus cameras only enable certain features (QuickTime flipbook, maybe?) if the SmartMedia card has an Olympus ID.
No, it doesn't. Linux from Scratch or Gentoo may use the latest and greatest, but most major distributions patch (i.e., fork) the major components. They back port bug fixes to a relatively stable version. That, and testing, is why Red Hat 7.2 stayed on Linux 2.4.9.
In fact, the situation is even crazier with Red Hat Advanced Server 2.1. It has asynchronous I/O, more scheduler patches, and lots of goodies you won't find in 2.4.18, let alone 2.4.9.
I actually find the RHAS scenario kind of scary. Red Hat 7.3 was unusable on our VA Linux box until the ext3 update (2.4.18-4) and the Mylex update (2.4.18-5). Do I really trust them with more advanced features and an even smaller (albeit, higher paying) user base?
Binaries, Red Hat Network, ISO's/CD's are available for those who pay for the whole package. The source will be available publically for all to build their own. [Hogan]
The availability of binaries and ISOs has obviously contributed to Red Hat's success. I find it obnoxious that some companies stick a proprietary license on the packaging tool to enforce, in effect, a per-seat license on the whole distro.
The proof will be in the pudding, but UnitedLinux sounds like it will be very similar to Red Hat Advanced Server. The core will be free software (with the possible exception of Acrobat Reader). The lack of binaries, ISOs, and a trademark license discourage use of the product without support. Support will cost much more than the regular products, and is, of course, per server.
This business of certifying a specific combination of Dell, EMC, RHAS, and Oracle is what really strikes me as exclusive. I wonder whether you could get an Oracle support contract on a built-from-source version of RHAS, without Red Hat support. (Given the relative price of Oracle and RHAS, the question is academic.)
What I find curious is that RHAS and UL are positioned as increasing developer support. As a developer, I'm going to find barriers to entry (such as lack of ISOs) annoying, considering that it may be but one of a dozen potential platforms. For that matter, are these really platforms to bet on? The increased cost may increase the O/S vendor's profits, but probably over fewer customers. If I'm Oracle, I may be able to require an "enterprise" Linux distro. Otherwise, I'd rather make it easy to use my product.
I thought it was the other way around: the public wanted another Ten, but got "Not for You" and the aforementioned politics. When it comes to a platinum album, most fans don't want a radically different sequel. This is a band we're talking about, not Picasso.
I suspect that you can generalize this to security, as well. OpenBSD focuses on security, and it shows. Microsoft doesn't, and it shows. This is not a matter of proprietary v. free.
A friend's joystick died, so he asked to borrow mine. Once he smelled smoke, he realized that he'd plugged it into the AUI port of an Ethernet card.