it just doesn't matter whether someone runs Linux or they run Windows 2000. Linux, and the whole free software "revolution" is not going to change the world into some utopian paradise
Maybe your right, but doing nothing and having no free alternative such as GNU Linux BSD etc leaves us powerless to the whims of large greedy corporations.
Look at DVD's for example. The supposedly free market decided to have region locking and content scabling, causing articfical scarcity (allows them to charge more) and grossly resticts fair use (but is useless to prevent industrial bootleggers who can copy bit for bit). The market will not do what is best for the customer.
These companies (cartels consortium and other variations on monopolies) have profit as their primary motivation, and so long as consumers neglect to excercise their buying power to force them to act other wise and voters are apathetic enough to let their politicians away without doing something about it, corporations will continue to do whatever they think they can get away with to make profit. companies have too much power and not enough responsibility
It is important not to cheapen the stuggle for freedom of the peoples of Tibet and East Timor, but it is also important that we continue and maintain our stuggle for freedom. Yes this may seem out of all scale and proportion but this is slashdot. Now would be a good time to remind you all of the hungersite. http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Hu ngerSite
(if anyone has a list of similar sites i would appreciate you posting them).
All it takes for Evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.
Software is just software people
Software is not just software, not just a mere tool, it is a vital part of what keeps our techonological society running the way it is. It can be an act of expression, even an art form. Just because its primary use is as a funtional tool do not deny its importance or fail to recognise how much of our way of life is influenced by it. Dont berate the geeks for failing to see the bigger picture and then fail to see how software fits into the bigger picture
"What I'd like to see is a Linux distro which installed the bare basics"
I dont know what version of RedHat you used but 6.2. has the option to just install, Kde OR Gnome or try a server install, you are not forced to install both.
If you want just the basics get one of the "Linux on a floppy" distributions, and add stuff form there. compiling your own kernel as shown on "Linux from scratch" would be overkill for what you seem to want.
"Seek and thou shalt find", if you had made an effort to search then you might have seen this: Trustix
http://www.icewalk.com/softlib/app/app_01091.html
or Bastille linux
i could go on, and on and on, and on but instead i suggest you Read this Article it lists various security focused linux distributions.
Distributors are listening, but they should not underestimate the importance of marketing and gaining mindshare (case in point is the success of micro$oft).
--
"Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated"
http://www.mozilla.org
. To further Flash as a Web standard, Macromedia has undertaken many initiatives, including opening the Flash file format, releasing the Flash Player code for licensing, and allowing redistribution of the Flash Player
Not a lot of people know that.
SVG has will have it tough, Flash has a serious lead and despite its annoying habit of ignoring your browser it is out there and proven.
(Go on, moderate me up +1)
--
"may you live in interesting times"
Chinese curse
However figures out Micropayments and makes paying for music as easy as throwing a coin in street perfomers hat could get very very rich.
Thievery is inevitable it is the oldest profession i believe, but if society does not accept it as ok then most people will do the right thing and pay for what use.
The current unrealistic markup on less than 50cents worth of plastic, and the difficutly of making micropayments is not an excuse, but it is a reason
Some one said once (paraphrase)
"They are playing a giant Internet game of whack the mole" in reference to DeCSS. This software is NOT going away. You seem to accept in principle that software cannot be banned and then go on to ask if the government could ban a piece of software!
Gnutella would be very difficult to shut down, all it takes is 2 or more people with the software and some way to tell where to point it (IP address).
and possibly enact legislation to criminalize 'systems [and software] for the primary purpose of violating copyright',
even if you could ban software (or a protocol in the case of Gnutella) you cant prove copyright violation is its primary purpose, no more than you could prove a master key was for burglary.
Democracy is supposed to be "by the people, for the people". If a law is unpopular enough it will be changed.
People like to share with their friends and this is just going to get easier and easier. You can try and stigmatize copyright infringement but that will only reduce the impact but if they can share/bootleg then it will happen (does happen).
Paying for music/video/media will become voluntary, and media companies will have to accept that their place is marketing and distribution. Artists will still make money by putting on shows.
History has shown that technology renders certain industries unprofitable, how many blacksmiths do you know? How many horse and carriage drivers do you see?
Copyright will hopefully revert to giving an artist/author due credit for their works and prevent others from profiteering on the back of their work without paying them for it. But if someone produces something of so little worth people dont feel any moral obligation to pay for then that is just tough.
--
Change is inevitable, but is it for the better?
Your asking this to a guy who used to work for Apple, what do you think he's going to say? Stir, stir, stir it up. (This is not an invitation to start a holy flame war, i quite like macs and think they are underated but they have a small market share, and im really looking forward to OS X).
Im surprised hand writing or voice recognition has not caught on yet.
Uh hello? Which one have made it? You would not be talking about the likes of Amazon who are losing money hand over fist! I thought the only people making money were the bucket and spade sellers of this goldrush, like Cisco, Juniper, Akimitech, ummm running out of ideas fast...(and of course the pr0n mongers). I cant think of many profitable dotcoms, please correct me if im wrong.
-- But the cat came back the very next day The cat came back, they thought he was a goner But the cat came back, he just wouldn't stay away
I really like Macs because they are pretty! That's whats really important in a computer. Im glad there is only one mouse button, it would be too confusing to have 2 buttons. but seriously, i started on a mac in school and then used windows 9x and only recently have i returned to the mac, and it was a very easy return. Thanks to Apple i hate Microsoft Works with a passion (an oxymoron if ever there was one), and i deride it as possibly the shittiest program i have ever had the misfortune to use. Clarisworks is/was a great program particularly the graphics package from 6 years ago is still better than anything that comes with MSoffice. They have had a text to speech program for years, a great way to annoy your teacher. Dont underestimate the importance of ease of use, Microsoft spends a fortune on it and the Mac is way easier to use. There are more people who dont understand computers than there are who do, if you make the learning curve to steep then they will balk, and give up completely. We dont really want that do we?
Besides Apple is not Microsoft, and that's gotta count for something.;) I was at a talk by an Apple exec, and he talked about the wonderful GUI innovations made by Apple i was on the verge of shouting Xerox. Microsoft and Apple have spent decades refining Xerox PARC research from decades ago, and finally Apple is turning to BSD (one small step back, one big step forward IMAO)
I do find the hardware annoying, there first thing you should do is get rid of the "ufo" single button mouse. As someone who scanvenges parts from older machines and messes about a bit with the insides its annoying, but i suppose that is what PPC linux is for, and Mac users allegedly get a longer lifespan out of their hardware than windows users.
I am seriously considering buying a Mac especially since OSX with its BSD foundation should let me take a crowbar to the OS, and get more control. But for now i cant quite kick the MS habit, Linux has steep learning curve (your not going to win over any mac fans if you dont provide a point and click alternative, i dont care how stupid/lazy you may think i am but CLI is not for everyone, although i do appreciate the choice), and BeOS is as close as i get to a Mac on x86 hardware for now.
We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them'
- STEVE JOBS on the jellybean-licious Mac OS X
...watch out for the brown "Application Quit" dialogs
It is a bit ugly, but give it time, consider yourself spoiled by windows and the Mac OS.
Innovative? They all stole it from Xerox PARC so lets not even go through that one again. You dont have to reinvent the wheel, just build a better wheel. (Or just build a better marketing department it as a better wheel and abuse your ) Innovative? They all stole it from Xerox PARC so lets not even go through that again.
More choice is good, and being able do everything through the GUI is essential to a Desktop user (nay Plebain such as myself), but that does not mean the power tools should not be there to let you do everything down to the last detail and leverage your knowledge. High level programming languages do not make assembly languages any less useful when you need speed and have the know how. For all their ability, its nice to know that they still cant spell
But does it run MS office? MS Office is still one of the biggest crutches of windows users, especially when most people dont use much more than WordPad/Write + spell checker.
(i just know some bastard is going to moderate me down for no particular reason, but a response would be really appreciated.)
Open source would be nice, but as other posters have mentioned it seems unlikely due to proprietry M$ contributions. Would making it free for non commercial use be viable? It might cheer up the enthusiasts and hobbyists. Or partial opening of the source to allow some self suppport? At least it, runs Java so theres life in it yet. I suppose it is just wishful thinking that they would do anything so benevolent, especially with M$ looking over their shoulder. This might would go against their attempts to push people forward to newer systems, they dont really want to encourage people to use it.
monthy python nostalgia:
"Im not dead yet"
What is the air speed velocity of a pigeon?
African or European? I dont know that... Aaaaagh!!!
(* do you remember when we did not used to be nostalgic. *)
quelle surprise, a good idea from the french (*sarky at being forced to study french for all those years*)
I wish the Slashdot editor would stop sensationalising the headlines. To say they are demanding the source is a bit strong (the french verb to ask is demande).
Hopefully we can get other governments to follow this lead, i cant see a downside (but with politics involved there usually is).
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe your right, but doing nothing and having no free alternative such as GNU Linux BSD etc leaves us powerless to the whims of large greedy corporations.
Look at DVD's for example. The supposedly free market decided to have region locking and content scabling, causing articfical scarcity (allows them to charge more) and grossly resticts fair use (but is useless to prevent industrial bootleggers who can copy bit for bit). The market will not do what is best for the customer.
These companies (cartels consortium and other variations on monopolies) have profit as their primary motivation, and so long as consumers neglect to excercise their buying power to force them to act other wise and voters are apathetic enough to let their politicians away without doing something about it, corporations will continue to do whatever they think they can get away with to make profit. companies have too much power and not enough responsibility
It is important not to cheapen the stuggle for freedom of the peoples of Tibet and East Timor, but it is also important that we continue and maintain our stuggle for freedom. Yes this may seem out of all scale and proportion but this is slashdot. Now would be a good time to remind you all of the hungersite.u ngerSite
http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/H
(if anyone has a list of similar sites i would appreciate you posting them).
Software is just software people
Software is not just software, not just a mere tool, it is a vital part of what keeps our techonological society running the way it is. It can be an act of expression, even an art form. Just because its primary use is as a funtional tool do not deny its importance or fail to recognise how much of our way of life is influenced by it. Dont berate the geeks for failing to see the bigger picture and then fail to see how software fits into the bigger picture
I dont know what version of RedHat you used but 6.2. has the option to just install, Kde OR Gnome or try a server install, you are not forced to install both.
If you want just the basics get one of the "Linux on a floppy" distributions, and add stuff form there. compiling your own kernel as shown on "Linux from scratch" would be overkill for what you seem to want.
"Seek and thou shalt find", if you had made an effort to search then you might have seen this:
Trustix
http://www.icewalk.com/softlib/app/app_01091.html
or Bastille linux
kha0s
i could go on, and on and on, and on but instead i suggest you Read this Article it lists various security focused linux distributions.www.kha0s.org
Distributors are listening, but they should not underestimate the importance of marketing and gaining mindshare (case in point is the success of micro$oft).
--
"Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated"
http://www.mozilla.org
Now would be a good time to remind you of kha0s Linux
http://www.kha0s.org (thats a zero, not an "o") which tries aims to be secure by default.
I wonder if Redmond Linux will try and be as secure as windows (http://www.redmondlinux.org/)
--
dont Mark me up as informative
(Reverse physcology for those bastards who keep on moderating me down from 1 to zero)
Gnutella, all you need is 2 people who know each others ip address and what port to connect on.
I know Napster is dead easy to shut down but there is no central server with gnutella. And Gnutella will run on whatever port you want.
You can shut down Napster Inc., but you then you have to move on to Open Nap or anyone else providing a central server.
After the cheesy 80's TV show of course
Sledge Hammer!
--
and of course the obligatory "Wow, imagine a beowulf cluster of these"
AFIAK Suse is (was about a year ago) one of the more profitable Linux companies, whereas RedHat has gone for expansion and market share.
FLASH IS OPN
o ntents.html
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/open/c
. To further Flash as a Web standard, Macromedia has undertaken many initiatives, including opening the Flash file format, releasing the Flash Player code for licensing, and allowing redistribution of the Flash Player
Not a lot of people know that.
SVG has will have it tough, Flash has a serious lead and despite its annoying habit of ignoring your browser it is out there and proven.
(Go on, moderate me up +1)
--
"may you live in interesting times"
Chinese curse
However figures out Micropayments and makes paying for music as easy as throwing a coin in street perfomers hat could get very very rich.
Thievery is inevitable it is the oldest profession i believe, but if society does not accept it as ok then most people will do the right thing and pay for what use.
The current unrealistic markup on less than 50cents worth of plastic, and the difficutly of making micropayments is not an excuse, but it is a reason
Some one said once (paraphrase)
"They are playing a giant Internet game of whack the mole" in reference to DeCSS. This software is NOT going away. You seem to accept in principle that software cannot be banned and then go on to ask if the government could ban a piece of software!
Gnutella would be very difficult to shut down, all it takes is 2 or more people with the software and some way to tell where to point it (IP address).
and possibly enact legislation to criminalize 'systems [and software] for the primary purpose of violating copyright',
even if you could ban software (or a protocol in the case of Gnutella) you cant prove copyright violation is its primary purpose, no more than you could prove a master key was for burglary.
Democracy is supposed to be "by the people, for the people". If a law is unpopular enough it will be changed.
People like to share with their friends and this is just going to get easier and easier. You can try and stigmatize copyright infringement but that will only reduce the impact but if they can share/bootleg then it will happen (does happen).
Paying for music/video/media will become voluntary, and media companies will have to accept that their place is marketing and distribution. Artists will still make money by putting on shows.
History has shown that technology renders certain industries unprofitable, how many blacksmiths do you know? How many horse and carriage drivers do you see?
Copyright will hopefully revert to giving an artist/author due credit for their works and prevent others from profiteering on the back of their work without paying them for it. But if someone produces something of so little worth people dont feel any moral obligation to pay for then that is just tough.
--
Change is inevitable, but is it for the better?
Nice, another piece in the puzzle. Lets keep this in proportion tho'. it does not look like that huge an improvement on Midnight Commander.
:)
Displaying the properties of the mp3s is a nifty feature and i like it
--
Cumulative, cumulative, cumulative, the biggest advantage of open source is you dont have to reinvent the wheel.
*snigger*
Your asking this to a guy who used to work for Apple, what do you think he's going to say?
Stir, stir, stir it up.
(This is not an invitation to start a holy flame war, i quite like macs and think they are underated but they have a small market share, and im really looking forward to OS X).
Im surprised hand writing or voice recognition has not caught on yet.
Cant wait to hear this guys answers.
Newbies, there are way more of them than us.
Uh hello? Which one have made it? You would not be talking about the likes of Amazon who are losing money hand over fist!
I thought the only people making money were the bucket and spade sellers of this goldrush, like Cisco, Juniper, Akimitech, ummm running out of ideas fast...(and of course the pr0n mongers).
I cant think of many profitable dotcoms, please correct me if im wrong.
--
But the cat came back the very next day
The cat came back, they thought he was a goner
But the cat came back, he just wouldn't stay away
but seriously, i started on a mac in school and then used windows 9x and only recently have i returned to the mac, and it was a very easy return. Thanks to Apple i hate Microsoft Works with a passion (an oxymoron if ever there was one), and i deride it as possibly the shittiest program i have ever had the misfortune to use. Clarisworks is/was a great program particularly the graphics package from 6 years ago is still better than anything that comes with MSoffice. They have had a text to speech program for years, a great way to annoy your teacher.
Dont underestimate the importance of ease of use, Microsoft spends a fortune on it and the Mac is way easier to use. There are more people who dont understand computers than there are who do, if you make the learning curve to steep then they will balk, and give up completely. We dont really want that do we?
Besides Apple is not Microsoft, and that's gotta count for something. ;)
I was at a talk by an Apple exec, and he talked about the wonderful GUI innovations made by Apple i was on the verge of shouting Xerox. Microsoft and Apple have spent decades refining Xerox PARC research from decades ago, and finally Apple is turning to BSD (one small step back, one big step forward IMAO)
I do find the hardware annoying, there first thing you should do is get rid of the "ufo" single button mouse. As someone who scanvenges parts from older machines and messes about a bit with the insides its annoying, but i suppose that is what PPC linux is for, and Mac users allegedly get a longer lifespan out of their hardware than windows users.
I am seriously considering buying a Mac especially since OSX with its BSD foundation should let me take a crowbar to the OS, and get more control. But for now i cant quite kick the MS habit, Linux has steep learning curve (your not going to win over any mac fans if you dont provide a point and click alternative, i dont care how stupid/lazy you may think i am but CLI is not for everyone, although i do appreciate the choice), and BeOS is as close as i get to a Mac on x86 hardware for now.
so it should not be long before Pakistan announce their space plans, or the rocket mysteriously goes off course.
conspiracy theories, mwu h^ h^ h^
Who thinks that Sun, Apple, Oracle and the like would not be as aggressive and domineering as Microsoft if they had the chance?
Business is business.
Innovative? They all stole it from Xerox PARC so lets not even go through that one again.
You dont have to reinvent the wheel, just build a better wheel. (Or just build a better marketing department it as a better wheel and abuse your )
Innovative? They all stole it from Xerox PARC so lets not even go through that again.
More choice is good, and being able do everything through the GUI is essential to a Desktop user (nay Plebain such as myself), but that does not mean the power tools should not be there to let you do everything down to the last detail and leverage your knowledge.
High level programming languages do not make assembly languages any less useful when you need speed and have the know how.
For all their ability, its nice to know that they still cant spell
But does it run MS office?
MS Office is still one of the biggest crutches of windows users, especially when most people dont use much more than WordPad/Write + spell checker.
(i just know some bastard is going to moderate me down for no particular reason, but a response would be really appreciated.)
Or partial opening of the source to allow some self suppport? At least it, runs Java so theres life in it yet.
I suppose it is just wishful thinking that they would do anything so benevolent, especially with M$ looking over their shoulder. This might would go against their attempts to push people forward to newer systems, they dont really want to encourage people to use it.
monthy python nostalgia:
(* do you remember when we did not used to be nostalgic. *)
I wish the Slashdot editor would stop sensationalising the headlines. To say they are demanding the source is a bit strong (the french verb to ask is demande).
Hopefully we can get other governments to follow this lead, i cant see a downside (but with politics involved there usually is).