I would rather say; Some people aren't ready for the linux desktop. It might not be as easy as Windows or OSX, but nothing really stops you from using linux instead of windows
Well, you yourself said there are two "nothings" potentially stopping Windows or OSX users from switching to Linux.
1. It might not be as easy as Windows or OSX. This is not a trivial consideration for some people: both consumers who want the easiest to use system available, even if it costs more money, because they believe it's worth the money for their own personal pleasure; and businesses who want the easiest to use system, even if it costs more money, because they believe they'll gain a net return on the extra money from the extra productivity they'll gain.
2. Some specific applications might not be available, making particular tasks impossible to accomplish at all on Linux.
Those two reasons you yourself gave seem like more than "nothing" to me. Of course, if you're an idealist living in poverty (I'm not assuming you are), neither argument would be compelling. But it's tough to make a decent living by selling to idealists living in poverty, compared to selling to consumers who are ready to pay more for convenience, and to businesses who are ready to pay more for productivity.
It's reasonable to imagine that some life supporting medical devices might be controlled by a computer with an Internet connection. Three reasons, for instance: to let the manufacturer download new software with additional features; to let authorized doctors retrieve patient records remotely; for insurance companies to verify the machine is actually in use, and thereby reduce fraudulent claims. There may well be more reasons.
I'm not a medical technology expert, but I could imagine that machines of this type might eventually include devices that control anaesthesia during surgery, or other devices in which a system failure could literally kill the patient within minutes.
It's not unreasonable to imagine that some manufacturers, despite the protests of the average Slashdot reader, might have the control and reporting software run on a commodity operating system or database sold by a commercial vendor in Silicon Valley or the Pacific Northwest.
It's not unreasonable to imagine that the nurses and hospital clerks and medical equipment technicians who are familiar with the medical usage of the equipment, might not also be expert in installing the latest security patches and firewall configurations that would maximize the security of the system.
When someone sends a virus that attacks, say, all Windows XP machines, or all SQL Servers, the sender has no way of knowing for sure that NONE of the eventual receiving systems will encounter unscheduled downtime, as a result of the software exploit, that literally kills one or more patients.
The parent post to this one was excessively glib about what could, literally, be a life or death matter.
"compiled into micro-HTML" - I'm pretty familiar with the HTML standards from the W3C (http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/), and I haven't found the spec yet for "micro-HTML". Perhaps this is the marketing buzzword description for zip compression of the HTML file? Am I missing an explanation, or is this just a freely flung buzzword in an otherwise interesting article?
In Seattle: Boeing Museum of Flight: F-18 simulator, Air Force One, B-29, Sopwith Camel, SR-71 cockpit, air traffic control tower exhibit, etc.
Take the Monorail to the Space Needle and Experience Music Project. (Seattle Science Center is redundant if you'll visit the one in L.A.)
Portland: McMenamins Edgefield: brewery, b&b, Tie-dye golf tournament for Jerry Garcia's birthday, galss blowing, etc. Saturday Market(also on Sunday), great local arts&crafts&music event. Powell's books, one of the nation's largest bookstore sprawling over an entire city block, with another store down the street full of technical books.
Authentic Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden and a friendly Zoo with a good concert series.
Indie music from Music Millenium, offbeat movies from Movie Madness, the Church of Elvis, various other wacky things geek create after six months without sunshine.
You might not be able to get into the Pittock Internet Hotel unless you're a TCP or UDP packet.
The post with L.A. suggestions was excellent, at Caltech be sure to visit the gravity wave detector if possible.
The third page of the article mentions several new areas of human-computer interaction that are likely to become very important drivers of business success for software companies in the coming decade, such as taxonomies, knowledge maps, and active alerts based on pulling information related to user preferences.
Right now there is no standard for any of these areas. There are no expectations on the marketplace for the look & feel. There is nothing to copy from the world of Unix or from the Mac or from Parc or from Windows. This new field is totally wide open.
Will the free software community step up and demonstrate creative leadership in humane, truly empowering, open approaches to these new UI opportunities? Or, since it's not a chance to either bash Microsoft or promote Linux, will the free software world sigh, yawn, scratch its collective butt and then complain ten years later that corporations are controlling the world's access to these crucial software technologies?
Anyone remember the Next cube? Steve Jobs wanted everyone to have their "world" of software on a disk they could pop into any machine - especially useful for students sharing a computer lab. That's why the 600MB mag-optical disk drive from Sony was the centerpiece of the Next Cube. - Chris
If you prefer a crisp, low resolution screen, then you'd enjoy Color Forth as described by Chuck Moore at http://www.ultratechnology.com/fsc98.htm. It's part of his overall "low fat computing" project to return to the simplest possible form of computing (which happens to include some very sophisticated, elegant ideas). By the way, Chuck thinks useful programs may some day exceed 1 KB.:-) - Chris
I agree that all of these things could come about if there was a way to print displays onto fabrics. But despite the Slashdot headline, I didn't see anything in the article about printing onto paper or fabric. The article was just about using inkjets as part of a manufacturing process onto a silicon backing, which currently can only be a rigid backing.
Even if the flexible, weatherproof substrate is perfected, it would still be a manufacturing process that requires a significant factory, not a special cartridge for your $99 printer that lets it hook up to your sewing machine.
The article also described displays a few inches across with TV resolution, and a 1000 hour usable life. While cool, that technology is a long ways away from what "fudboy" rhapsodized about. What's the inverse of FUD - Glee, Uncertainty, and Premature Raving?
Slashdot Mirror
I would rather say; Some people aren't ready for the linux desktop. It might not be as easy as Windows or OSX, but nothing really stops you from using linux instead of windows Well, you yourself said there are two "nothings" potentially stopping Windows or OSX users from switching to Linux. 1. It might not be as easy as Windows or OSX. This is not a trivial consideration for some people: both consumers who want the easiest to use system available, even if it costs more money, because they believe it's worth the money for their own personal pleasure; and businesses who want the easiest to use system, even if it costs more money, because they believe they'll gain a net return on the extra money from the extra productivity they'll gain. 2. Some specific applications might not be available, making particular tasks impossible to accomplish at all on Linux. Those two reasons you yourself gave seem like more than "nothing" to me. Of course, if you're an idealist living in poverty (I'm not assuming you are), neither argument would be compelling. But it's tough to make a decent living by selling to idealists living in poverty, compared to selling to consumers who are ready to pay more for convenience, and to businesses who are ready to pay more for productivity.
This isn't necessarily true.
It's reasonable to imagine that some life supporting medical devices might be controlled by a computer with an Internet connection. Three reasons, for instance: to let the manufacturer download new software with additional features; to let authorized doctors retrieve patient records remotely; for insurance companies to verify the machine is actually in use, and thereby reduce fraudulent claims. There may well be more reasons.
I'm not a medical technology expert, but I could imagine that machines of this type might eventually include devices that control anaesthesia during surgery, or other devices in which a system failure could literally kill the patient within minutes.
It's not unreasonable to imagine that some manufacturers, despite the protests of the average Slashdot reader, might have the control and reporting software run on a commodity operating system or database sold by a commercial vendor in Silicon Valley or the Pacific Northwest.
It's not unreasonable to imagine that the nurses and hospital clerks and medical equipment technicians who are familiar with the medical usage of the equipment, might not also be expert in installing the latest security patches and firewall configurations that would maximize the security of the system.
When someone sends a virus that attacks, say, all Windows XP machines, or all SQL Servers, the sender has no way of knowing for sure that NONE of the eventual receiving systems will encounter unscheduled downtime, as a result of the software exploit, that literally kills one or more patients.
The parent post to this one was excessively glib about what could, literally, be a life or death matter.
"compiled into micro-HTML" - I'm pretty familiar with the HTML standards from the W3C (http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/), and I haven't found the spec yet for "micro-HTML". Perhaps this is the marketing buzzword description for zip compression of the HTML file? Am I missing an explanation, or is this just a freely flung buzzword in an otherwise interesting article?
Today I've got a Zaurus
...but is it PC compatible?
In Seattle:
Boeing Museum of Flight: F-18 simulator, Air Force One, B-29, Sopwith Camel, SR-71 cockpit, air traffic control tower exhibit, etc.
Take the Monorail to the Space Needle and Experience Music Project. (Seattle Science Center is redundant if you'll visit the one in L.A.)
Portland:
McMenamins Edgefield: brewery, b&b, Tie-dye golf tournament for Jerry Garcia's birthday, galss blowing, etc.
Saturday Market(also on Sunday), great local arts&crafts&music event.
Powell's books, one of the nation's largest bookstore sprawling over an entire city block, with another store down the street full of technical books.
Authentic Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden and a friendly Zoo with a good concert series.
Indie music from Music Millenium, offbeat movies from Movie Madness, the Church of Elvis, various other wacky things geek create after six months without sunshine.
You might not be able to get into the Pittock Internet Hotel unless you're a TCP or UDP packet.
The post with L.A. suggestions was excellent, at Caltech be sure to visit the gravity wave detector if possible.
The third page of the article mentions several new areas of human-computer interaction that are likely to become very important drivers of business success for software companies in the coming decade, such as taxonomies, knowledge maps, and active alerts based on pulling information related to user preferences.
Right now there is no standard for any of these areas. There are no expectations on the marketplace for the look & feel. There is nothing to copy from the world of Unix or from the Mac or from Parc or from Windows. This new field is totally wide open.
Will the free software community step up and demonstrate creative leadership in humane, truly empowering, open approaches to these new UI opportunities? Or, since it's not a chance to either bash Microsoft or promote Linux, will the free software world sigh, yawn, scratch its collective butt and then complain ten years later that corporations are controlling the world's access to these crucial software technologies?
PC-based Tactile User Interface: PTUI, the new way to communicate with your computer.
Anyone remember the Next cube? Steve Jobs wanted everyone to have their "world" of software on a disk they could pop into any machine - especially useful for students sharing a computer lab. That's why the 600MB mag-optical disk drive from Sony was the centerpiece of the Next Cube.
- Chris
If you prefer a crisp, low resolution screen, then you'd enjoy Color Forth as described by Chuck Moore at http://www.ultratechnology.com/fsc98.htm. :-)
It's part of his overall "low fat computing" project to return to the simplest possible form of computing (which happens to include some very sophisticated, elegant ideas). By the way, Chuck thinks useful programs may some day exceed 1 KB.
- Chris
Even if the flexible, weatherproof substrate is perfected, it would still be a manufacturing process that requires a significant factory, not a special cartridge for your $99 printer that lets it hook up to your sewing machine.
The article also described displays a few inches across with TV resolution, and a 1000 hour usable life. While cool, that technology is a long ways away from what "fudboy" rhapsodized about. What's the inverse of FUD - Glee, Uncertainty, and Premature Raving?