I'm hoping this is both relevant and useful. I was recently able to convince our companies' REAL decision-makers (in our company this is not the IS Director, but the board) to go with a Linux server for email, as they finally got fed up with Exchange. The hint I have, as odd as it is, I would imagine may work for many others. Corel Linux was NOT THREATENING to the board, so they decided to implement it on a test basis. I am not, in any way, affiliated with Corel, btw. And yes, I know that Corel is a workstation-targeted distro, but it still easily outperforms Exchange.
It'd be kewl if Rob would use his newfound/. influence to get this story posted on redherring.com or something like it - I believe/. owes it to its community to use the influence that community has created to further the Open Source Movement, and would guess by virtue of past postings that Rob would agree...whaddya think, Rob? I know I have had propoganda and digitalblasphemy bookmarked for wuite some time. Customization is important, as it allows us our ounce of personality on our work boxes (at least in my case).
There is no doubt in my mind that the Gecko engine shall be the best, and perhaps the most widely used, especially in embedded systems, if only for its efficiency. Sad fact is, Microsoft has rendered that almost pointless, as we all know. I guess I'm just re-stating what we all know, but the key to the next Mozilla browser release should honor the market Microsoft has created, because the main necessity, as I see it, is to win the Browser War. I still believe this is possible in the short term, because of the way even "newbies" transitionned to IE. I would suggest, while knowing full well the suggestion runs contrary to many of the main tenets of open source, that the Mozilla team release the next Browser no more stable nor efficient than IE, but faster, and with more relatively useless features that the same newbies will grow accustommed to. Perhaps the Gecko engine is mature enough to allow for this sudden portability...we have to hope so because this battle will define so many aspects of the public's view towards Open Source, and as a result Linux. The public is driven by the Market, which for better or worse plays itself out on NASDAQ and the like. Market share is what we need now, not the best browser - a rather unfortunate, unromantic position, but one that could prove helpful. Sorry for subjecting you to my novelette.
Beware, this question is likely mired in ignorance, so feel free to moderate it out, but... Would it not be possible, if there were sufficient interest, for the Open Source Community to port BeOS to the Macintosh hardware platform? I'm suggesting that, with the infinite resources of this community, we could, almost by trial and error and help from LinuxPPC (don't know if that even applies) get another OS for the still viable Macintosh platform. Perhaps some sort of deal could be struck that they adopt the GPL if we helped in this regard?
You've made an important point about when to consider these types of issues - as soon as it is known that there shall be an issue, educated minds should research and conclude (one need only refer to the know-nothings trying to create internet patent laws, of course). I honestly believe that the "self-replicating" aspect is the major issue, combined with learning ability. Yes, I know, Jurassic Park reference, but I believe that movie had its chaos theory correct.
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Conspicuously absent is Wizardry 8...Why is that? The series has claimed weeks of my free time.
I'm hoping this is both relevant and useful. I was recently able to convince our companies' REAL decision-makers (in our company this is not the IS Director, but the board) to go with a Linux server for email, as they finally got fed up with Exchange. The hint I have, as odd as it is, I would imagine may work for many others. Corel Linux was NOT THREATENING to the board, so they decided to implement it on a test basis. I am not, in any way, affiliated with Corel, btw. And yes, I know that Corel is a workstation-targeted distro, but it still easily outperforms Exchange.
It'd be kewl if Rob would use his newfound /. influence to get this story posted on redherring.com or something like it - I believe /. owes it to its community to use the influence that community has created to further the Open Source Movement, and would guess by virtue of past postings that Rob would agree...whaddya think, Rob? I know I have had propoganda and digitalblasphemy bookmarked for wuite some time. Customization is important, as it allows us our ounce of personality on our work boxes (at least in my case).
There is no doubt in my mind that the Gecko engine shall be the best, and perhaps the most widely used, especially in embedded systems, if only for its efficiency. Sad fact is, Microsoft has rendered that almost pointless, as we all know. I guess I'm just re-stating what we all know, but the key to the next Mozilla browser release should honor the market Microsoft has created, because the main necessity, as I see it, is to win the Browser War. I still believe this is possible in the short term, because of the way even "newbies" transitionned to IE. I would suggest, while knowing full well the suggestion runs contrary to many of the main tenets of open source, that the Mozilla team release the next Browser no more stable nor efficient than IE, but faster, and with more relatively useless features that the same newbies will grow accustommed to. Perhaps the Gecko engine is mature enough to allow for this sudden portability...we have to hope so because this battle will define so many aspects of the public's view towards Open Source, and as a result Linux. The public is driven by the Market, which for better or worse plays itself out on NASDAQ and the like. Market share is what we need now, not the best browser - a rather unfortunate, unromantic position, but one that could prove helpful. Sorry for subjecting you to my novelette.
Beware, this question is likely mired in ignorance, so feel free to moderate it out, but... Would it not be possible, if there were sufficient interest, for the Open Source Community to port BeOS to the Macintosh hardware platform? I'm suggesting that, with the infinite resources of this community, we could, almost by trial and error and help from LinuxPPC (don't know if that even applies) get another OS for the still viable Macintosh platform. Perhaps some sort of deal could be struck that they adopt the GPL if we helped in this regard?
You've made an important point about when to consider these types of issues - as soon as it is known that there shall be an issue, educated minds should research and conclude (one need only refer to the know-nothings trying to create internet patent laws, of course). I honestly believe that the "self-replicating" aspect is the major issue, combined with learning ability. Yes, I know, Jurassic Park reference, but I believe that movie had its chaos theory correct.