Right, that's how their model works. The alternative to that is to just sell an open system at the cost + profit price...but we already have a whole sector dedicated to that: the PC market.
There's a naivete with the console makers in that they don't expect anyone else to use the boxes for other purposes
I'm not sure you can call it "naivete" when they actively work to stop it.
and naivete in thinking that they can stamp it out
In general they can, sure you can hack it to make it do something else but these days that ruins it for its primary purpose and the alternative uses are a crappy version of what you would get if you used the correct hardware instead. For example the lack of access to the PS3's GPU in Linux mode means it wasn't a useful gaming system or media center when compared to a PC.
or that it's hurting their profits if they don't.
If they're selling below cost with a model that relies on recouping the cost and making a profit by selling games or subscriptions then absolutely it would be hurting their profits if they just opened it up for uses they can't monetize. The answer is simple though, if you want an open system then just get a PC, it will actually be supported for the use case.
When is it going to finally be illegal for device creators to lock us out of our own shit? Hardware DOES NOT EQUAL software. Saying you want one does not automatically imply the other.
It's a product and it's offered under certain terms. If you don't like those terms then don't buy it, go buy a PC or an open source console instead.
But take away that ability, and suddenly the homebrewers and pirates goals have aligned - homebrewers want to write code and pirates want to run code.
Homebrewers want to run code as well, they can write code no problems, the issue here is running code. How exactly are you going to have an open system where "homebrewers" can run code but "pirates" cannot?
Except a jailbroken PS4 could in theory boot/run STEAM OS,,,,
In theory, but in practise you would need to have decent drivers for all the hardware. If you want to run SteamOS then get the right tool for the job - hardware that is actually supported by it - rather than all this effort to shoehorn it on to the wrong hardware where it won't even work properly.
If you can't find an Android phone that suits your usage I think you're being deliberately obtuse about it. The array of choices is staggering, too much probably.
Nexus phones were the go-to choice because they were the ones that actually got updates in a reasonable timeframe and for a reasonable length of time. So what budget Android phone manufacturer is giving a comparable level of support for their devices?
The LLC structure allowes Zuck to dodge the capital gain.
How exactly? I'm pretty sure a limited liability company still has to pay capital gains tax when the shares are sold. There is no exemption to capital gains tax for LLCs.
I'm not going to pretend I understand the intricacies of US tax law but the way it has been set up indeed means he still has to pay capital gains tax on those shares. And sure when you make a charitable donation it is generally tax deductible but that doesn't offset the cost of the donation...unless I'm doing it wrong?
No doubt, not everybody has the same size hands and same preferences. It's funny to look at the posts defending whatever screen size Apple is currently producing and even predicting that no other will ever exist. There's certainly no shortage of people out there defending the company's decisions based on their own made-up justifications - that actually turn out to be wrong.
Now you have the iPad mini and iPhone 6 Plus competing to be the same size.
I actually really like the iPhone 6 Plus and it was long overdue, yes it is naturally more awkward than it's predecessors but that's ok, the tradeoff is screensize which makes it MUCH more useful. Apple has a habit of lambasting things that its competitors are doing that it isn't yet doing, when they do that history has shown it is a sign it is something they are worried about and hurriedly working on themselves.
And when a game is running, isn't the OS basically sitting around doing not much at all?
On consoles the operating system provides a lot of the features a game uses. For example the multiplayer components, audio chat, gameplay video recording, etc... So resources are reserved for the operating system to be able to handle these tasks.
On my PC I can use all of my cores when I play a game even though the OS is much more bloated than on a console.
I'm not sure what you mean by "bloated" in this context but when you're running an application on your desktop generally any operating system tasks are run as low priority backround threads and only when resources aren't needed by priority tasks. The OS also doesn't generally provide you much game-specific functionality that is required as a high priority when the game is running.
Yes, because MS Windows is totally "Unix Philosophy" and is all about choice and modularity.
No, the "UNIX philosophy" has nothing to do with it. It is about choice but not about modularity but that is because choice in applications is what is most important to computer users. Do I care what desktop environment or init system is running behind Maya or Photoshop or Solidworks? Of course not, it's completely irrelevant. But I certainly care about whether the operating system can run those applications.
Choice in applications is the most important thing to the vast majority of users, Microsoft themselves are finding this out the hard way with their mobile platform.
You mean there are no ideas of interesting things to do with GIMP ?
No I mean that the things that need doing are not exciting to anybody with the time to volunteer to do them. Sure I'd knock some of those off that list if somebody paid me to do it but I'm not interested in spending my free time doing it, there's more fun things to do in the world of software than that. Seems most others share that view too.
Once the volunteers get bored the projects stagnate because the model of users paying devs to add features for them doesn't really work. The case where it does work is when those users are large corporations that can afford to employ and manage contract developers or their own software development department, but of course proprietary software vendors listen to those customers and often act on their requests as a high priority so the customer doesn't have to worry about software development.
It also brings GIMP in line with a lot of professional software.
I totally agree with you. I just find it bizarre that for all the pontificating about the greatness of Free Software these discussions are actually taking place and on a site like slashdot no less. It really shows that FOSS has a long way to go before people get it, even in the geek community.
So fork the GIMP repo and patch it then just merge from the mainline on the major releases. Seriously what is the point of open source if all people are going to do is whine about how the developers aren't doing exactly what they want?
Wait, Free is supposed to mean getting users to pay? I guess I'm old fashioned because to me "free" equals "not paid for".
Yes I think that has been a huge problem for free software, the confusion over the meaning of the word "free" (particularly when you have things like "freeware" in the mix). Because, by it's nature, Free Software can be freely shared it is usually free of cost to obtain which further confuses people. Instead of always having to explain it as "free as in freedom" they should have just called it Freedom Software.
The day GIMP started trying to force people to save in its own proprietary format (to the great unhappiness of a large portion of its user base) rather than the format the file was OPENED in pretty much marks its death.
Which would be a problem if it were closed source yet this is exactly the reason we always hear that programs should be open source, so that things you don't like can be changed and/or improved.
Slashdot Mirror
We're a society that happily spends $8 on a latte we drink in under a minute but refuses to pay $1 for a game we'd spend hours on.
Where do you get that idea from? Apple dolled out $10 Billion to app developers in 2014, where is this money coming from if nobody is paying for it?
There's a naivete with the console makers in that they don't expect anyone else to use the boxes for other purposes
I'm not sure you can call it "naivete" when they actively work to stop it.
and naivete in thinking that they can stamp it out
In general they can, sure you can hack it to make it do something else but these days that ruins it for its primary purpose and the alternative uses are a crappy version of what you would get if you used the correct hardware instead. For example the lack of access to the PS3's GPU in Linux mode means it wasn't a useful gaming system or media center when compared to a PC.
or that it's hurting their profits if they don't.
If they're selling below cost with a model that relies on recouping the cost and making a profit by selling games or subscriptions then absolutely it would be hurting their profits if they just opened it up for uses they can't monetize. The answer is simple though, if you want an open system then just get a PC, it will actually be supported for the use case.
The code written by homebrewers can then be run, but pirates cannot run copies of games as they do not have the unsigned version that they could sign.
What stops them from just re-signing the binary with a homebrew key?
When is it going to finally be illegal for device creators to lock us out of our own shit? Hardware DOES NOT EQUAL software. Saying you want one does not automatically imply the other.
It's a product and it's offered under certain terms. If you don't like those terms then don't buy it, go buy a PC or an open source console instead.
But take away that ability, and suddenly the homebrewers and pirates goals have aligned - homebrewers want to write code and pirates want to run code.
Homebrewers want to run code as well, they can write code no problems, the issue here is running code. How exactly are you going to have an open system where "homebrewers" can run code but "pirates" cannot?
Except a jailbroken PS4 could in theory boot/run STEAM OS,,,,
In theory, but in practise you would need to have decent drivers for all the hardware. If you want to run SteamOS then get the right tool for the job - hardware that is actually supported by it - rather than all this effort to shoehorn it on to the wrong hardware where it won't even work properly.
If you can't find an Android phone that suits your usage I think you're being deliberately obtuse about it. The array of choices is staggering, too much probably.
Nexus phones were the go-to choice because they were the ones that actually got updates in a reasonable timeframe and for a reasonable length of time. So what budget Android phone manufacturer is giving a comparable level of support for their devices?
The LLC structure allowes Zuck to dodge the capital gain.
How exactly? I'm pretty sure a limited liability company still has to pay capital gains tax when the shares are sold. There is no exemption to capital gains tax for LLCs.
I'm not going to pretend I understand the intricacies of US tax law but the way it has been set up indeed means he still has to pay capital gains tax on those shares. And sure when you make a charitable donation it is generally tax deductible but that doesn't offset the cost of the donation...unless I'm doing it wrong?
I had a completely different experience.
No doubt, not everybody has the same size hands and same preferences. It's funny to look at the posts defending whatever screen size Apple is currently producing and even predicting that no other will ever exist. There's certainly no shortage of people out there defending the company's decisions based on their own made-up justifications - that actually turn out to be wrong.
Care about what? I asked Why are you so upset about that? I thought it was pretty clear so what part of that confused you?
No claims of "just making an observation" or the sort is sufficient clarification because it's an excuse and not a reason.
I didn't make any 'observation'. You seem to be very very confused, looks like you're replying to the wrong post.
And, judging by your response, he at least in part succeeded.
How so exactly? You're saying I have to care and I have to be upset about this? I'm not sure you have a very good grasp on this.
Seriously? He announced he was giving this money away in a clear attempt to generate good will for himself and/or Facebook.
Why are you so upset about that? Who cares.
Now you have the iPad mini and iPhone 6 Plus competing to be the same size.
I actually really like the iPhone 6 Plus and it was long overdue, yes it is naturally more awkward than it's predecessors but that's ok, the tradeoff is screensize which makes it MUCH more useful. Apple has a habit of lambasting things that its competitors are doing that it isn't yet doing, when they do that history has shown it is a sign it is something they are worried about and hurriedly working on themselves.
And when a game is running, isn't the OS basically sitting around doing not much at all?
On consoles the operating system provides a lot of the features a game uses. For example the multiplayer components, audio chat, gameplay video recording, etc... So resources are reserved for the operating system to be able to handle these tasks.
On my PC I can use all of my cores when I play a game even though the OS is much more bloated than on a console.
I'm not sure what you mean by "bloated" in this context but when you're running an application on your desktop generally any operating system tasks are run as low priority backround threads and only when resources aren't needed by priority tasks. The OS also doesn't generally provide you much game-specific functionality that is required as a high priority when the game is running.
Yes, because MS Windows is totally "Unix Philosophy" and is all about choice and modularity.
No, the "UNIX philosophy" has nothing to do with it. It is about choice but not about modularity but that is because choice in applications is what is most important to computer users. Do I care what desktop environment or init system is running behind Maya or Photoshop or Solidworks? Of course not, it's completely irrelevant. But I certainly care about whether the operating system can run those applications.
Choice in applications is the most important thing to the vast majority of users, Microsoft themselves are finding this out the hard way with their mobile platform.
You mean there are no ideas of interesting things to do with GIMP ?
No I mean that the things that need doing are not exciting to anybody with the time to volunteer to do them. Sure I'd knock some of those off that list if somebody paid me to do it but I'm not interested in spending my free time doing it, there's more fun things to do in the world of software than that. Seems most others share that view too.
Once the volunteers get bored the projects stagnate because the model of users paying devs to add features for them doesn't really work. The case where it does work is when those users are large corporations that can afford to employ and manage contract developers or their own software development department, but of course proprietary software vendors listen to those customers and often act on their requests as a high priority so the customer doesn't have to worry about software development.
At least they're honest, apparently you get faster set-up, you get reduced privacy and you get security concerns.
It also brings GIMP in line with a lot of professional software.
I totally agree with you. I just find it bizarre that for all the pontificating about the greatness of Free Software these discussions are actually taking place and on a site like slashdot no less. It really shows that FOSS has a long way to go before people get it, even in the geek community.
So patch it or find somebody to do it for you, that's what Free Software is all about.
So fork the GIMP repo and patch it then just merge from the mainline on the major releases. Seriously what is the point of open source if all people are going to do is whine about how the developers aren't doing exactly what they want?
If you build for rpm, dpkg and slackpkg you'll have all the major ones covered....or just use 0install to target everything.
Wait, Free is supposed to mean getting users to pay? I guess I'm old fashioned because to me "free" equals "not paid for".
Yes I think that has been a huge problem for free software, the confusion over the meaning of the word "free" (particularly when you have things like "freeware" in the mix). Because, by it's nature, Free Software can be freely shared it is usually free of cost to obtain which further confuses people. Instead of always having to explain it as "free as in freedom" they should have just called it Freedom Software.
The day GIMP started trying to force people to save in its own proprietary format (to the great unhappiness of a large portion of its user base) rather than the format the file was OPENED in pretty much marks its death.
Which would be a problem if it were closed source yet this is exactly the reason we always hear that programs should be open source, so that things you don't like can be changed and/or improved.
Even easier then!