/*
KDE and Gnome has great userfaces as well, but haven't brought something completly new and cool up that we
haven't seen before
Has windows?
*/
Precisely...I wish I could find the neat little interview I saw in Byte before Win95 was rolled out...it had interviews with several developers. It was hilariously funny because one of the developers basically explained what interface they stole particular ideas from (the titlebar and toolkit was designed to be somewhat NeXTish, the desktop Mac'ish...etc.) A hilariously funny read and a good, honest look at how Microsoft "innovates."
Well...quite frankly, Slashdot leans toward the free-software world because much of the press world likes to lean toward Microsoft. It's refreshing to have someone take a non (even anti-) Microsoft view. That you've decided to attack a bastion of doubleplusungoodthink, well, disgusts me.
I had to watch Microsoft slowly take over through under-the-table deals, OEM armtwisting, etc. and watch publication houses whoring the latest Microsoft wares despite the fact that Microsoft was far from the leader in whatever category...give us our corner of the net and let us attempt the same. We might fail, but give us our chance. Microsoft had theirs.
Well, while your post reads like flamebait, you actually make some good points. There is one thing I take issue with, though:
"Command line is hard, GUI is easy."
Only if the GUI interface is designed well. I know some Joe Sixpacks that would rather use DOS commands than use Windows GUI ways of doing things (probably just because they learned the DOS ways first.) My dad's that way. He still has trouble with the Start menu. The Start menu, of all things! But when it comes time to get a sorted list of his AutoCAD files, sorted in order of file size, he heads for a DOS shell. It all depends on what's learned first, and how well the interface is designed.
" Developers may purchase the cryptographiccertificates used to create such a signature from Verisign Inc.--Microsoft has no say in determining who may receive such certificates or what software may be signed."
Good going, guys. I even bought it for a second. So, when I go to update my AdultCheck ID to get more pr0n, I can get my certificate too, eh?;-)
Sounds like a piss-poor attempt at controlling what sort of code can be run on your system--maybe they're trying to limit buggy code, or trying to do away with virii. I don't know.
Wouldn't it just be easier to improve the operating system? Oh wait; you can't have dual purposes with that strategy. Oops.
See the little text-entry field at the bottom of the page, with a button marked "Search" next to it?
Good.
Now, as an exercise, type "yabasic" into it and click the button. Whoa, the story you linked to is there! Wow!
We can all do this. We don't need 50 of you assholes posting links to previous stories. Either we know it, too, or we haven't seen the story yet and wouldn't know unless you posted the stupid fucking link.
/*
I think the problem is that a subscription service violates many things that the open source community
stands for.
*/
An important thing to keep in mind is that we're not discussing either open source or free software; we're discussing a Microsoft product which is completely and totally proprietary and also completely and totally Microsoft. Therefore, Microsoft gets to call the shots here. The market will decide if this is a moronic idea or pure genius.
And, frankly, until recently StarOffice was disagreeable with the free software community.
Realize that I skimmed through the press release since it's mostly just marketing drivel. I've written marketing drivel; this is bad marketing drivel.
Maybe I missed it when I was skipping through the drivel, but was there any mention of major upgrades at the end of a subscription cycle? Or in the middle, for that matter? I don't know about you, but the idea of upgrading Office SBE gives me the heebiejeebies. I'd rather use StarOffice.
But for the person who wants to run Windows, this sounds like a wonderful option. You're not ending up spending a boatload of cash on a license-for-life; you're spending money on a subscription. You don't have to feel like a heel for switching to OpenOffice in a year after you've spent hundred$ on a Microsoft EULA and media; you don't have to wonder how long the license is good for (life, apparently.) It has a specific time limit after which you're not obligated to use it and Microsoft is not obligated to support it. It sounds wonderful.
And before you use a "It's not Free; that's a f*cking good reason not to use it" realize that I use Linux as my primary OS. Your argument is tired and old. It's as simple as this: as a software consumer, I'm free to use either Free software or proprietary software. There are both positive and negative aspects to both approaches, and I'm not here to debate them, since they've been debated ad nauseum already.
In short, before you condemn this out of hand due to your blind hatred of Microsoft (I'm not too fond of them, myself--I wonder sometimes if they've ever had a creative thought in their lives) pause and *think*. It might change your mind.
You know, the reason I started reading Slashdot (and I found out about it, well, a couple of weeks after it started) was because it had a Linux bias. Well, what's go great about that? Well, what was so great about it was that, other than peoples' home pages and Linux Journal, most media seemed to be sucking up to Microsoft. It was refreshing to see someone willing to run a site devoted to Not Microsoft and Not Macintosh.
Frankly, I really don't understand why/. has been overrun by Microsoft whores.
/*
REPEAT: The question is what does the future hold for linux, not Wolenczak's impression of W2K. W2K works very
well with or without Wolenczak, thank you very much. Linux doesnt. What are we going to do about it?
*/
OK, I can't comment at all on W2K since I haven't even touched it (nor do I plan to unless paid to do so.) However, I'm wondering what you mean by the statement "Linux doesn't (work). What are we going to do about it?"
Huh? I'm sending this from Netscape Communicator, which is running on my Linux box right now. Obviously, Linux works. Could you be more specific?
Erm, the day some moron switches to freebsd just because some distro is easy to use for every tom, dick, and harry is the day I disavow any knowledge of BSD.
I won't even mention the fact that you got Word/WordPerfect ass-backwards. For that matter, Lotus and Netscape. I'm not sure about Ashton-Tate.
What do I mean?
-WordPerfect had the market until Microsoft bought Word
-Lotus had the spreadsheet market until Microsoft bought Excel
-Netscape had the browser market until Microsoft bought Mosaic (and ex-Mosaic people worked for Netscape!)
Slashdot Mirror
How is a GPL reference lib proprietary?
No, those were FITS files--a totally different format.
Something CmdrTaco could have found for himself before sticking his foot up his ass(again)
/*
KDE and Gnome has great userfaces as well, but haven't brought something completly new and cool up that we
haven't seen before
Has windows?
*/
Precisely...I wish I could find the neat little interview I saw in Byte before Win95 was rolled out...it had interviews with several developers. It was hilariously funny because one of the developers basically explained what interface they stole particular ideas from (the titlebar and toolkit was designed to be somewhat NeXTish, the desktop Mac'ish...etc.) A hilariously funny read and a good, honest look at how Microsoft "innovates."
Also nevermind that you, yes you, can have that on a Win95/98 box with a cute little registry hack.
troll
Well...quite frankly, Slashdot leans toward the free-software world because much of the press world likes to lean toward Microsoft. It's refreshing to have someone take a non (even anti-) Microsoft view. That you've decided to attack a bastion of doubleplusungoodthink, well, disgusts me.
I had to watch Microsoft slowly take over through under-the-table deals, OEM armtwisting, etc. and watch publication houses whoring the latest Microsoft wares despite the fact that Microsoft was far from the leader in whatever category...give us our corner of the net and let us attempt the same. We might fail, but give us our chance. Microsoft had theirs.
The thing I see wrong here is that, hey, all those distribs ship the same kernel. You can't say the same thing for FreeBSD and OpenBSD.
FreeBSD is a variant of BSD, as is OpenBSD, NetBSD, Darwin...
Come to think of it, why do different variants have different kernels, eh?
The certificates are controlled by VeriSign.
Well, while your post reads like flamebait, you actually make some good points. There is one thing I take issue with, though:
"Command line is hard, GUI is easy."
Only if the GUI interface is designed well. I know some Joe Sixpacks that would rather use DOS commands than use Windows GUI ways of doing things (probably just because they learned the DOS ways first.) My dad's that way. He still has trouble with the Start menu. The Start menu, of all things! But when it comes time to get a sorted list of his AutoCAD files, sorted in order of file size, he heads for a DOS shell. It all depends on what's learned first, and how well the interface is designed.
Good going, guys. I even bought it for a second. So, when I go to update my AdultCheck ID to get more pr0n, I can get my certificate too, eh? ;-)
Sounds like a piss-poor attempt at controlling what sort of code can be run on your system--maybe they're trying to limit buggy code, or trying to do away with virii. I don't know.
Wouldn't it just be easier to improve the operating system? Oh wait; you can't have dual purposes with that strategy. Oops.
Good.
Now, as an exercise, type "yabasic" into it and click the button. Whoa, the story you linked to is there! Wow!
We can all do this. We don't need 50 of you assholes posting links to previous stories. Either we know it, too, or we haven't seen the story yet and wouldn't know unless you posted the stupid fucking link.
If I wanted links to repeat stories, I'd look the fucking things up myself.
/*
I think the problem is that a subscription service violates many things that the open source community
stands for.
*/
An important thing to keep in mind is that we're not discussing either open source or free software; we're discussing a Microsoft product which is completely and totally proprietary and also completely and totally Microsoft. Therefore, Microsoft gets to call the shots here. The market will decide if this is a moronic idea or pure genius.
And, frankly, until recently StarOffice was disagreeable with the free software community.
Realize that I skimmed through the press release since it's mostly just marketing drivel. I've written marketing drivel; this is bad marketing drivel.
Maybe I missed it when I was skipping through the drivel, but was there any mention of major upgrades at the end of a subscription cycle? Or in the middle, for that matter? I don't know about you, but the idea of upgrading Office SBE gives me the heebiejeebies. I'd rather use StarOffice.
But for the person who wants to run Windows, this sounds like a wonderful option. You're not ending up spending a boatload of cash on a license-for-life; you're spending money on a subscription. You don't have to feel like a heel for switching to OpenOffice in a year after you've spent hundred$ on a Microsoft EULA and media; you don't have to wonder how long the license is good for (life, apparently.) It has a specific time limit after which you're not obligated to use it and Microsoft is not obligated to support it. It sounds wonderful.
And before you use a "It's not Free; that's a f*cking good reason not to use it" realize that I use Linux as my primary OS. Your argument is tired and old. It's as simple as this: as a software consumer, I'm free to use either Free software or proprietary software. There are both positive and negative aspects to both approaches, and I'm not here to debate them, since they've been debated ad nauseum already.
In short, before you condemn this out of hand due to your blind hatred of Microsoft (I'm not too fond of them, myself--I wonder sometimes if they've ever had a creative thought in their lives) pause and *think*. It might change your mind.
Hrm, obviously you've never had to do an install of Windows by hand.
And you would get an Insightful from me if I had moderator points. Well done. =)
You know, the reason I started reading Slashdot (and I found out about it, well, a couple of weeks after it started) was because it had a Linux bias. Well, what's go great about that? Well, what was so great about it was that, other than peoples' home pages and Linux Journal, most media seemed to be sucking up to Microsoft. It was refreshing to see someone willing to run a site devoted to Not Microsoft and Not Macintosh.
/. has been overrun by Microsoft whores.
Frankly, I really don't understand why
/*
REPEAT: The question is what does the future hold for linux, not Wolenczak's impression of W2K. W2K works very
well with or without Wolenczak, thank you very much. Linux doesnt. What are we going to do about it?
*/
OK, I can't comment at all on W2K since I haven't even touched it (nor do I plan to unless paid to do so.) However, I'm wondering what you mean by the statement "Linux doesn't (work). What are we going to do about it?"
Huh? I'm sending this from Netscape Communicator, which is running on my Linux box right now. Obviously, Linux works. Could you be more specific?
OK ls *.ttf | wc -l is, essentially an example of being experienced with the interface.
Erm, the day some moron switches to freebsd just because some distro is easy to use for every tom, dick, and harry is the day I disavow any knowledge of BSD.
Heh, considering that so many Windows apps run under WINE now, I'm not sure what you mean by "flail around so weakly." =)
I won't even mention the fact that you got Word/WordPerfect ass-backwards. For that matter, Lotus and Netscape. I'm not sure about Ashton-Tate.
What do I mean?
-WordPerfect had the market until Microsoft bought Word
-Lotus had the spreadsheet market until Microsoft bought Excel
-Netscape had the browser market until Microsoft bought Mosaic (and ex-Mosaic people worked for Netscape!)
throw in lex and yacc and you got yourself a deal.