I don't really see the point. it's nice, but it's not novel. Why not just a Java Web Start with http://jmonkeyengine.com/ You could even run that in the web browser with a Java Applet. It would run with 200 fps (or more) and not with the lousy 22 fps what I get in the browser. And it would be cross-platform, too.
Sorry, I don't really see the point to re-implement everything we have on the desktop now in the browser. It's like we throw everything we achieved in the last 25 years on the desktop in the trash for what? For iPhone? Instead that we use what the desktop have (OpenGL, Java, VLC, etc.) we implement now everything in the browser (Pdf, WebGL, sound, etc.). Mozilla team couldn't be happier of course. But now I have a clone of my system, done badly and ugly, as my browser.
So how did you find out about reg.exe? Is that something "competent users" can figure out by themselves? It's the same on Linux so I don't really see your argument.
I really don't understand what is the fuss about. Fedora 18 was just released, what are you expecting? From Wikipedia:
A version of Fedora has a relatively short life cycle—the maintenance period is only 13 months: there are 6 months between releases, and version X is supported only until 1 month after version X+2.[8]
Fedora is a bleeding-edge distribution. Much like Debian Sid. Fedora is the playground for new technology that was always so. You can't expect to have a new version of Fedora and everything be perfect.
Just wait 6 months and upgrade then. So do I with my Fedora. I install it release+6 months and everything is fine. You just can't compare Fedora with OpenSuse, Ubuntu, Debian Stable etc. The goals are totally different. If you want a bleeding-edge distribution with new technology then Fedora is the right distribution for you. If you want a stable desktop then Debian Stable is the choice for you.
This is the Linux community. I'm surprised that a more standard-compliant compiler is a "bad thing" now.
I'm no expert, but the site http://www.redhat.com/advice/speaks_gcc.html is listening the bugs in the broken gcc and is listening them after the language: C, C++ and Assembler.
You would think that the open source and Linux community would rather have a much stricter compiler then to rely solely on a specific branch of gcc.
Btw, only if something is console-based. It's still a GUI. The graphic have only 80x25 resolution (the classical DOS resolution), but it's still a GUI...
When was the last time you have to figure something like that for yourself? Back in the days there were books on how to do it. Now you can just google (or bing) it. With the days of Internet I rather have a one-line that I can copy&paste then to click through x dialogs and x menus. How I really like the Windows registry: Go to HKFOOBARZZZ, click on FOOBAR, Local User, Applications, Windows, Internet Explorer, Version Xxxx, 50 clicks and more... In Linux: just open/etc/foo in your favourite text editor, enter a one-line, finished.
Of course you could still read books, like Linux Admin Books. Or you could use "apropos network". Manpages are quite useful.
I'm a long time Linux user myself, I don't really get the point with the command line. All problems aside now, why is it more complicated to copy&past a few commands then to click through multiple menus, multiple dialogs, etc. to do the same?
In Linux command line I can do just mark the commands, copy them, paste them to the terminal and press enter. No brains needed.
(p1p1 is the name of the network interface. In KDE you can click on the small icon for the network manager and it will show you that name [you don't have to use the command line for everything]).
Now be really honest. What is more complicated? To follow 10 and more steps, involving 3 or more dialogs, or just open your terminal and copy & paste the one line command and press enter?
It is really a sad state. The computer user should be liberated and educated, not dumped down. The schools should teach kids today the command line and the proper usage of the computer.
I'm not really fond of the "Browser as System" concept. I already have a VOIP, Music and Video player. Why do I need the same functionality duplicated poorly in the browser? It's like Firefox now includes a Pdf viewer. Why, I already have a perfectly good Pdf viewer in my system. Why can't the browser leverage the resources already available on the system?
Make a standard that says: Web have to support: Pdf, Video (codecs a) b) c), Audio (codecs a) b) c), Jpg, png, gif, And make it so that it is the operating system that have to support that standard. Call it "Web System Standard". The browser will be just a client that uses that standards made available from the operating system. Make browser that can integrate seaming-less those standards.
For example for Pdf. Don't include Pdf viewer in the browser, but make it very easy from the Browser to open Pdf files. Or for video, make it so that the browser can open my video application inside the web page.
If the operating system do not include a Pdf viewer, or a video playback application that can work in the browser, then it will not be in compliance with the "Web System Standard".
Why double the effort? I like my Pdf viewer (Okular), I like my video playback application (VLC and Kaffeine), I like my audio playback application (Amarok). I do not want the browser for that.
But instead to follow the Unix way, we now need a second monolith besides the operating system: the browser. Great, not I have two operating systems.
So you don't like Black on White but want the background be black? In KDE I can make all windows or only one selected window inverse the colors. White will become black and black will become white (and green is red and vice versa) I tried it for the night when the laptop screen will get too bright.
I'm interested if OpenJDK is also affected by this exploit or is it only the Oracle JRE? Since Java 7 OpenJDK is now the reference implementation of Java. Linux ships of course with OpenJDK but you can still install Java from Oracle.
Some of my co-workers have an iPad. I observed how they "created" something with a touch screen and the touch screen pen. The result was like a 3 year old was painting with fingers. So he paid 600$ or more and now he can paint like a 3 year old.
Use the right tool for the right job. The consumer touch screens are designed to push some buttons, like "Play" and "Stop". As a media consumption devices they are maybe good.
> laptop with a rotatable touchscreen But do you want to carry a laptop without a keyboard and rely only on a touch screen?
It's because you are not the targeted consumer. I notice now for a while that everyone (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel,) is moving to consumption-only PCs. The "app-markets", touch for everything, 16:9 monitors, Secure Boot, DRM schemes for video and audio output.
Touch is good for video, music, and games. It is horrible for production or creating of content. But neither the big IT companies nor the big publishers want you to create anything on your computer. They want you to be the consumer-only, like TV.
It's a sad thing, the imprisonment of the PC user. From a business perspective it makes perfect sense. The IT players are now big, they divide the market under them. They do not want a free computing experience. If they would have their way, they would make laptops now without mouse or keyboard.
It's really ironic. Now that every home have more computing power then anyone needs and Smartphones are moving to have the same computing power then desktop PCs and the individual have more and more information to their fingertips, the user is more and more enslaved. Copyright laws, the direction of the IT and entertainment industry.
I'm so glad right now for GNU/Linux and the open source community. I think in 10 years it will be the only force to ensure that I can still plug-in my keyboard and mouse to my laptop/desktop and do whatever I want with my devices.
First of all you are comparing a System Kernel with a Web-Engine. I'm a user of Linux myself, and it would be great if Microsoft would port all their Windows APIs to the Linux Kernel. But you forget that with a new Kernel you need new drivers. So it wouldn't make sense for Microsoft to ditch all the Nvidia, AMD/ATI, Wireless, etc. drivers.
But a Web-Engine is something completely different. Nobody would really care at all if tomorrow IE would use Webkit.
Also, how would Microsoft loss any control if they would switch to Webkit? Last I checked it's under LGPL/BSD license. That means, Microsoft can do whatever it wants with Webkit.
That is not really a Java issue. Flash was horrible, too. But the Browser work-around the issues with flash. Some Java apps can crash the browser, true. But some Java apps are very good. For example:
Also Java webstart is a very good technology, better then anything Flash based. The problem with Java in the Browser is that it's a very hard competition against Flash and Sun didn't wanted to take that battle. But Sun made more mistakes with Java. For example not developing Android.
I wish Orcale or the community would take Java and make it first class citizen in the Web. We need rich clients for the Web, but Javascript is still 20 years behind. Flash and Silverlight are proprietary and Java would be a good open source alternative.
When I was a kid I loved horror movies. Nightmare on Elms Street, monster movies, The best horror movie was with a monster that came from the sea and got people with tentacles and eat them. I think I had nightmares for weeks and I'm still looking for a movie that can scary me like I was 6 years.
I think the "reality" shows on the TV make way more damage to the young generation then any horror, action or porn movie ever could. So what if he gets a few nights nightmares? That is what to be a kid is all about.
As long as you don't have some really perverted movies, let him watch what he likes. Kids get bad because of the parents not because of some movie.
Next is a pre-school class with Yoda with a bunch of 5 years kids. Also the kids get the light sabres from the dead Jedi, it's all in the brochure: So You Want Your Kid To Be A Jedi. Oh yeah, your kid need to take drugs if they get to puberty, because love is forbidden and leads to the dark side.
That reminds me of the clusterfuck that is the copy-replace dialog in Windows 7. Who don't know what I'm talking about, try to copy files in a directory that already contains the files: http://www.smith.edu/tara/smith_network/2007_word.html (scroll little bit down there is a screenshot)
First of all, it's huge. I mean really huge. For such a simple file operation it's so freaking huge. Second, there are no simple buttons like "Ok", "Replace", "Cancel". The only buttons you see are "Skip" and "Cancel" and you don't really want them because you want to copy files. Third, too many choices. a) copy and replace, b) don't copy, c) copy, but keep files, d) skip (which is the same as b)), and e) cancel. Fourth, you need to check [] do this for the next x conflicts. So you need first to check the radio button, then you need to choose one action. Why not just a "replace all" button.
Compare it with the Copy&Replace dialog from Windows XP: http://superuser.com/questions/104908/windows-7-copy-file-dialog-keyboard-accelerators Simple, small, compact. Few choices. One click actions. It would be better if the buttons would be "Replace", "Replace All", "Skip" and "Cancel" so you don't have to read the pre-text, but "Yes", "Yes to All", "No" and "Cancel" are just as fine.
I don't even really want to think about how much money and man-hours Microsoft spend on the design of the Copy&Replace dialog for Windows 7. Only to come up with that clusterfuck. And it don't even have keyboard accelerators.
I think any closed room with more then 10 people needs to have a ventilation system. Either you throw away that heat or you using it.
It's a shame that we don't have more buildings like that, that can use heat from the sun or people for anything useful. Termites nest have a strict regulated temperature (like 1 degree Celsius strict) without any ventilation or air-conditioners.
My apartment is on the north side of the house block. With mirrors and fiber optics I could get the same sun then my neighbour. I was thinking now for a long time if I could install a mirror for the sun on the wall of my neighbour house block. There are three house blocks under the same management. If we could install an array of mirrors on the south wall on each house block to reflect the sun to the north side of the next block, we could save a lot of energy in lighting and heat.
How about having the laws written in such a way that any common man, who is not intellectual limited, lets say passes the grade school, can understand and apply?
How about we not have 500 sites of law that every citizen in theory must follow and should apply (the citizen law book (BGB) in Germany have 407 pages)? How about 100 pages or 50 pages?
How about we make lawyers nonprofit profession and law firms a public utility, that are required by law to offer anyone help regardless if the client can pay or not?
Lawyers are a by-product of civilization. Just like house maids, butlers. In theory you can clean your own stuff, or open your own door. Just like in theory you should be able to defend yourself in court without to tie your savings money directly to the success of the case. But if you make the apparatus of the door complicated enough that you can't open the door yourself without the help of a specialized server, then yes you "need" a butler.
So just re-implement his code and put VLC in the app-store again. Shouldn't be that difficult?
Ah see that's the crux of it all. He didn't anything wrong, in fact he created something you have used and enjoyed for free. But now that Apple chooses to have their app-store GPL unfriendly you are pissed at him. How about you send a letter to Apple?
Who modded you "Insightful"? Only because you are using fancy words like KB and MB?
First of all, at the current times it's extremely easy to launch novel software. You have all the matured software stacks and developer communities to start something new. Java, Php, Python, and all the fast open source libraries out there, free web servers, free caching proxies, free everything.
20 years ego we didn't had Java, Php and all the free open source software and libraries were still very immature. Today you have enterprise grade operating systems (Linux, BSD), enterprise grade software stacks (Apache, Php, Java, Tomcat, Memcached, etc.) all for free to build your "novel software stack".
In 16MB RAM I couldn't even start my web browser. No all that fancy JavaScript, WebGL and HTML5 possible. So don't tell me the step from 16MB to 16GB is small. If you really think so, try to use an old 286 from 1984 with 16MB max RAM. Lets see in how many minutes you run back to your desktop, laptop, or iPhone.
Today you have so many free and mature software stacks, that any grad student can build 10 Facebooks in their lunchtime. Today, open source software dominates the software industry.
We are still in at very beginning of the computer revolution. Both software and hardware are very primitive and limited. To their defence, it's not entirely their fault. Both software and hardware are held back by politics (copyright and patents).
We didn't even have begun to scratch the possibilities of computer technology. Still no nano-technology, no noteworthy AI, no autonomic robots, no good speech recognition, no cognitive abilities.
We are still in the stone age of computers. Sure they get faster, smaller, but that is only a natural improving of old techniques.
If someone really see the current point of development in computers as the high point, then I advise strongly to read a sci-fiction novel from the 1970, or even 1950.
Interesting, care to elaborate why you don't want more GNU on your tablet? Is it a bias against the GNU GPL or something concrete? GNU brought me only joy in my life, more freedom, less costs, more joy. I don't know why anybody don't want to have more GNU on his or her tablet.
User base of KDE or user base of Windows? Compared to the KDE desktop, the Windows desktop is horrible. So why is always allowing more choice is somewhat bad in the computer industry?
Even if only 1 user worldwide would like to use KDE on Windows, it's a) anyway a good idea to decouple the system and the desktop shell (security wise and see the success of Linux everywhere, from toaster, to TV, to server, to supercomputer) and b) why not allowing it?
But of course then you can't push your GUI to the users and force them to adapt. For example, if Windows XP would have the option to install alternative desktops like KDE or Gnome, then nobody would ever "upgrade" to Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't really see the point. it's nice, but it's not novel.
Why not just a Java Web Start with http://jmonkeyengine.com/
You could even run that in the web browser with a Java Applet.
It would run with 200 fps (or more) and not with the lousy 22 fps what I get in the browser. And it would be cross-platform, too.
Sorry, I don't really see the point to re-implement everything we have on the desktop now in the browser. It's like we throw everything we achieved in the last 25 years on the desktop in the trash for what? For iPhone? Instead that we use what the desktop have (OpenGL, Java, VLC, etc.) we implement now everything in the browser (Pdf, WebGL, sound, etc.). Mozilla team couldn't be happier of course. But now I have a clone of my system, done badly and ugly, as my browser.
So how did you find out about reg.exe? Is that something "competent users" can figure out by themselves?
It's the same on Linux so I don't really see your argument.
I really don't understand what is the fuss about. Fedora 18 was just released, what are you expecting? From Wikipedia:
A version of Fedora has a relatively short life cycle—the maintenance period is only 13 months: there are 6 months between releases, and version X is supported only until 1 month after version X+2.[8]
Fedora is a bleeding-edge distribution. Much like Debian Sid. Fedora is the playground for new technology that was always so. You can't expect to have a new version of Fedora and everything be perfect.
Just wait 6 months and upgrade then. So do I with my Fedora. I install it release+6 months and everything is fine.
You just can't compare Fedora with OpenSuse, Ubuntu, Debian Stable etc. The goals are totally different.
If you want a bleeding-edge distribution with new technology then Fedora is the right distribution for you.
If you want a stable desktop then Debian Stable is the choice for you.
This is the Linux community. I'm surprised that a more standard-compliant compiler is a "bad thing" now.
I'm no expert, but the site http://www.redhat.com/advice/speaks_gcc.html is listening the bugs in the broken gcc and is listening them after the language: C, C++ and Assembler.
You would think that the open source and Linux community would rather have a much stricter compiler then to rely solely on a specific branch of gcc.
Btw, only if something is console-based. It's still a GUI. The graphic have only 80x25 resolution (the classical DOS resolution), but it's still a GUI...
When was the last time you have to figure something like that for yourself? /etc/foo in your favourite text editor, enter a one-line, finished.
Back in the days there were books on how to do it.
Now you can just google (or bing) it. With the days of Internet I rather have a one-line that I can copy&paste then to click through x dialogs and x menus.
How I really like the Windows registry: Go to HKFOOBARZZZ, click on FOOBAR, Local User, Applications, Windows, Internet Explorer, Version Xxxx, 50 clicks and more... In Linux: just open
Of course you could still read books, like Linux Admin Books. Or you could use "apropos network". Manpages are quite useful.
I'm a long time Linux user myself, I don't really get the point with the command line.
All problems aside now, why is it more complicated to copy&past a few commands then to click through multiple menus, multiple dialogs, etc. to do the same?
In Linux command line I can do just mark the commands, copy them, paste them to the terminal and press enter. No brains needed.
For example, to change the duplex mode on Windows I need to follow that:
http://www.home-network-help.com/speed-and-duplex.html
For Linux I just need:
sudo ethtool -s p1p1 speed 10 duplex half
(p1p1 is the name of the network interface. In KDE you can click on the small icon for the network manager and it will show you that name [you don't have to use the command line for everything]).
Now be really honest. What is more complicated? To follow 10 and more steps, involving 3 or more dialogs, or just open your terminal and copy & paste the one line command and press enter?
It is really a sad state. The computer user should be liberated and educated, not dumped down. The schools should teach kids today the command line and the proper usage of the computer.
I'm not really fond of the "Browser as System" concept.
I already have a VOIP, Music and Video player. Why do I need the same functionality duplicated poorly in the browser?
It's like Firefox now includes a Pdf viewer. Why, I already have a perfectly good Pdf viewer in my system.
Why can't the browser leverage the resources already available on the system?
Make a standard that says: Web have to support: Pdf, Video (codecs a) b) c), Audio (codecs a) b) c), Jpg, png, gif,
And make it so that it is the operating system that have to support that standard. Call it "Web System Standard".
The browser will be just a client that uses that standards made available from the operating system.
Make browser that can integrate seaming-less those standards.
For example for Pdf. Don't include Pdf viewer in the browser, but make it very easy from the Browser to open Pdf files.
Or for video, make it so that the browser can open my video application inside the web page.
If the operating system do not include a Pdf viewer, or a video playback application that can work in the browser, then it will not be in compliance with the "Web System Standard".
Why double the effort? I like my Pdf viewer (Okular), I like my video playback application (VLC and Kaffeine), I like my audio playback application (Amarok). I do not want the browser for that.
But instead to follow the Unix way, we now need a second monolith besides the operating system: the browser. Great, not I have two operating systems.
I just care for one benchmark: Who is making the better movies?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALIkp1wkeDs
So you don't like Black on White but want the background be black?
In KDE I can make all windows or only one selected window inverse the colors.
White will become black and black will become white (and green is red and vice versa)
I tried it for the night when the laptop screen will get too bright.
I'm interested if OpenJDK is also affected by this exploit or is it only the Oracle JRE?
Since Java 7 OpenJDK is now the reference implementation of Java. Linux ships of course with OpenJDK but you can still install Java from Oracle.
Some of my co-workers have an iPad. I observed how they "created" something with a touch screen and the touch screen pen. The result was like a 3 year old was painting with fingers. So he paid 600$ or more and now he can paint like a 3 year old.
Use the right tool for the right job. The consumer touch screens are designed to push some buttons, like "Play" and "Stop". As a media consumption devices they are maybe good.
> laptop with a rotatable touchscreen
But do you want to carry a laptop without a keyboard and rely only on a touch screen?
It's because you are not the targeted consumer.
I notice now for a while that everyone (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel,) is moving to consumption-only PCs. The "app-markets", touch for everything, 16:9 monitors, Secure Boot, DRM schemes for video and audio output.
Touch is good for video, music, and games. It is horrible for production or creating of content. But neither the big IT companies nor the big publishers want you to create anything on your computer. They want you to be the consumer-only, like TV.
It's a sad thing, the imprisonment of the PC user. From a business perspective it makes perfect sense. The IT players are now big, they divide the market under them. They do not want a free computing experience. If they would have their way, they would make laptops now without mouse or keyboard.
It's really ironic. Now that every home have more computing power then anyone needs and Smartphones are moving to have the same computing power then desktop PCs and the individual have more and more information to their fingertips, the user is more and more enslaved. Copyright laws, the direction of the IT and entertainment industry.
I'm so glad right now for GNU/Linux and the open source community. I think in 10 years it will be the only force to ensure that I can still plug-in my keyboard and mouse to my laptop/desktop and do whatever I want with my devices.
First of all you are comparing a System Kernel with a Web-Engine.
I'm a user of Linux myself, and it would be great if Microsoft would port all their Windows APIs to the Linux Kernel.
But you forget that with a new Kernel you need new drivers. So it wouldn't make sense for Microsoft to ditch all the Nvidia, AMD/ATI, Wireless, etc. drivers.
But a Web-Engine is something completely different. Nobody would really care at all if tomorrow IE would use Webkit.
Also, how would Microsoft loss any control if they would switch to Webkit? Last I checked it's under LGPL/BSD license. That means, Microsoft can do whatever it wants with Webkit.
That is not really a Java issue. Flash was horrible, too. But the Browser work-around the issues with flash.
Some Java apps can crash the browser, true.
But some Java apps are very good.
For example:
http://jchart2d.sourceforge.net/applet.shtml
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=s-inn.b.illbk.04&java=yes
Also Java webstart is a very good technology, better then anything Flash based.
The problem with Java in the Browser is that it's a very hard competition against Flash and Sun didn't wanted to take that battle. But Sun made more mistakes with Java. For example not developing Android.
I wish Orcale or the community would take Java and make it first class citizen in the Web. We need rich clients for the Web, but Javascript is still 20 years behind. Flash and Silverlight are proprietary and Java would be a good open source alternative.
When I was a kid I loved horror movies. Nightmare on Elms Street, monster movies,
The best horror movie was with a monster that came from the sea and got people with tentacles and eat them. I think I had nightmares for weeks and I'm still looking for a movie that can scary me like I was 6 years.
I think the "reality" shows on the TV make way more damage to the young generation then any horror, action or porn movie ever could. So what if he gets a few nights nightmares? That is what to be a kid is all about.
As long as you don't have some really perverted movies, let him watch what he likes.
Kids get bad because of the parents not because of some movie.
Next is a pre-school class with Yoda with a bunch of 5 years kids. Also the kids get the light sabres from the dead Jedi, it's all in the brochure: So You Want Your Kid To Be A Jedi. Oh yeah, your kid need to take drugs if they get to puberty, because love is forbidden and leads to the dark side.
That reminds me of the clusterfuck that is the copy-replace dialog in Windows 7.
Who don't know what I'm talking about, try to copy files in a directory that already contains the files:
http://www.smith.edu/tara/smith_network/2007_word.html (scroll little bit down there is a screenshot)
First of all, it's huge. I mean really huge. For such a simple file operation it's so freaking huge.
Second, there are no simple buttons like "Ok", "Replace", "Cancel". The only buttons you see are "Skip" and "Cancel" and you don't really want them because you want to copy files.
Third, too many choices. a) copy and replace, b) don't copy, c) copy, but keep files, d) skip (which is the same as b)), and e) cancel.
Fourth, you need to check [] do this for the next x conflicts. So you need first to check the radio button, then you need to choose one action. Why not just a "replace all" button.
Compare it with the Copy&Replace dialog from Windows XP:
http://superuser.com/questions/104908/windows-7-copy-file-dialog-keyboard-accelerators
Simple, small, compact. Few choices. One click actions.
It would be better if the buttons would be "Replace", "Replace All", "Skip" and "Cancel" so you don't have to read the pre-text, but "Yes", "Yes to All", "No" and "Cancel" are just as fine.
I don't even really want to think about how much money and man-hours Microsoft spend on the design of the Copy&Replace dialog for Windows 7. Only to come up with that clusterfuck. And it don't even have keyboard accelerators.
I mean, can I install Ubuntu, Debian or Fedora on the Box? Is it locked down or can I just boot from USB stick?
Thanks for the info.
I think any closed room with more then 10 people needs to have a ventilation system. Either you throw away that heat or you using it.
It's a shame that we don't have more buildings like that, that can use heat from the sun or people for anything useful. Termites nest have a strict regulated temperature (like 1 degree Celsius strict) without any ventilation or air-conditioners.
My apartment is on the north side of the house block. With mirrors and fiber optics I could get the same sun then my neighbour. I was thinking now for a long time if I could install a mirror for the sun on the wall of my neighbour house block. There are three house blocks under the same management. If we could install an array of mirrors on the south wall on each house block to reflect the sun to the north side of the next block, we could save a lot of energy in lighting and heat.
How about having the laws written in such a way that any common man, who is not intellectual limited, lets say passes the grade school, can understand and apply?
How about we not have 500 sites of law that every citizen in theory must follow and should apply (the citizen law book (BGB) in Germany have 407 pages)? How about 100 pages or 50 pages?
How about we make lawyers nonprofit profession and law firms a public utility, that are required by law to offer anyone help regardless if the client can pay or not?
Lawyers are a by-product of civilization. Just like house maids, butlers. In theory you can clean your own stuff, or open your own door. Just like in theory you should be able to defend yourself in court without to tie your savings money directly to the success of the case. But if you make the apparatus of the door complicated enough that you can't open the door yourself without the help of a specialized server, then yes you "need" a butler.
So just re-implement his code and put VLC in the app-store again. Shouldn't be that difficult?
Ah see that's the crux of it all. He didn't anything wrong, in fact he created something you have used and enjoyed for free. But now that Apple chooses to have their app-store GPL unfriendly you are pissed at him. How about you send a letter to Apple?
Who modded you "Insightful"? Only because you are using fancy words like KB and MB?
First of all, at the current times it's extremely easy to launch novel software. You have all the matured software stacks and developer communities to start something new. Java, Php, Python, and all the fast open source libraries out there, free web servers, free caching proxies, free everything.
20 years ego we didn't had Java, Php and all the free open source software and libraries were still very immature. Today you have enterprise grade operating systems (Linux, BSD), enterprise grade software stacks (Apache, Php, Java, Tomcat, Memcached, etc.) all for free to build your "novel software stack".
In 16MB RAM I couldn't even start my web browser. No all that fancy JavaScript, WebGL and HTML5 possible. So don't tell me the step from 16MB to 16GB is small. If you really think so, try to use an old 286 from 1984 with 16MB max RAM. Lets see in how many minutes you run back to your desktop, laptop, or iPhone.
Today you have so many free and mature software stacks, that any grad student can build 10 Facebooks in their lunchtime. Today, open source software dominates the software industry.
We are still in at very beginning of the computer revolution. Both software and hardware are very primitive and limited. To their defence, it's not entirely their fault. Both software and hardware are held back by politics (copyright and patents).
We didn't even have begun to scratch the possibilities of computer technology. Still no nano-technology, no noteworthy AI, no autonomic robots, no good speech recognition, no cognitive abilities.
We are still in the stone age of computers. Sure they get faster, smaller, but that is only a natural improving of old techniques.
If someone really see the current point of development in computers as the high point, then I advise strongly to read a sci-fiction novel from the 1970, or even 1950.
Interesting, care to elaborate why you don't want more GNU on your tablet?
Is it a bias against the GNU GPL or something concrete?
GNU brought me only joy in my life, more freedom, less costs, more joy. I don't know why anybody don't want to have more GNU on his or her tablet.
User base of KDE or user base of Windows?
Compared to the KDE desktop, the Windows desktop is horrible.
So why is always allowing more choice is somewhat bad in the computer industry?
Even if only 1 user worldwide would like to use KDE on Windows, it's a) anyway a good idea to decouple the system and the desktop shell (security wise and see the success of Linux everywhere, from toaster, to TV, to server, to supercomputer) and b) why not allowing it?
But of course then you can't push your GUI to the users and force them to adapt.
For example, if Windows XP would have the option to install alternative desktops like KDE or Gnome, then nobody would ever "upgrade" to Windows Vista or Windows 7.