Were there any compositing effects on the GNOME and KDE desktops you ran? If so, it doesn't make sense to compare directly to XP on the same hardware, since XP has no compositing. Comparing current GNOME, KDE, Win7 and Aqua on the same hardware makes more sense.
Since the primary motivation for Wayland is better compositor management on modern hardware, I'm sure it won't be a reasonable replacement for either Xorg or XP on older hardware. Therefore, it's important that default Ubuntu continue to be able to run with just Xorg on hardware that Wayland doesn't handle well.
If this ends up like OSX, it will be a giant mistake. I am using OSX right now on my work-provide machine and running X11 apps. Though the X11 server is included and starts automatically, X11 apps are second class citizens. They don't interact with the task manager or menu bar the same as native Aqua apps. Every X11 window is treated as part of the X11 app, regardless of how many distinct programs are running.
If, on the other hand, Canonical is smart and doesn't hate their users, they will put a high priority on X11 clients continuing to function the same as they do now, which should be possible when Xorg runs as a Wayland client AFAICT.
An obvious approach that some companies have taken is to realize that if someone gets a copy of a game by any route, they are now aware of the game and developer and might be interested in paying for additional content or games in the future. Many of the game purchases I have made were preceded by obtaining an unauthorized copy of the game, a predecessor, or other game from the same developer.
How many games from small companies are available to rent at your nearby rental place? If you want an example of a small game developer that doesn't seem to need DRM to survive, check out 2D Boy. After trying World of Goo, I paid for it specifically because I could download a version for any of the platforms I wanted to run it on without stupid restrictions. Maybe it's beyond the ken of the average console gamer, but downloading and installing a cracked version of just about any popular Windows game is extremely easy. Why do developers spend so much effort releasing so Windows if they can't "protect" their investment?
I think your attitude is much more rational than the GP. BP should be held responsible for all costs of fixing the well and cleaning up the mess. If the company is able to do that, they should be allowed to continue doing business. The very high price for this mismanagement and better oversight and regulation will cause future executives and shareholders to pay more attention to risks. I don't think the Federal government taking over BP would fix the big problems in the oil industry any more than its taking over several banks has fixed the financial industry.
Yeah, I had assumed that render times hadn't changed much over the years. However, the law of diminishing returns will apply eventually and someday one minute of computing time won't render a frame of noticeably lower quality than one hour. Of course I have no idea when that will be
If Pixar had been able to render scenes with better quality in a matter of minutes, they wouldn't have needed over 100 machines in their render farm. In fact, each frame took "from two to 13 hours."
Thank you for your insight and tireless efforts to promote Open Source and protect the rights and interests of all FLOSS users and developers. I think you're one of the most well-reasoned and balanced leaders in the FLOSS world.
Although I have been following the Free and Open Source movements for many years, I didn't know who Larry Rosen is. Now that I've looked him up, I assume you're referring to The Open Software License and The Academic Free License. Since the latter isn't copyleft, it seems to only make sense to compare it to the BSD and MIT licenses, not any from the FSF.
It seems that Rosen claims that the OSL is less ambiguous than the GPL, but the FSF claims that the distribution requirements of the OSL are more ambiguous. Since IANAL, it's not clear to me if either claim is true. Even if the FSF's warning about the Rosen's licenses interfering with version control and distribution are bogus, it seems like a big disadvantage that they aren't GPL compatible as there are far more projects released under GPL, LPGL, and non-FSF licenses that are GPL compatible.
If you're not a nerd and look down on them for their poor humor, what are you doing wasting your time posting on Slashdot? Did the cool blogs kick you out?
Ubuntu has lots of documentation that can be installed locally, including man pages, info, and GNOME documentation in addition to the Ubuntu-specific stuff. However, it's often inadequate by itself. I've often tried to troubleshoot things on Windows and Linux-based OSes using the documentation available on the local machine and I've usually not gotten very far. The reality is that usually the fastest way to figure out any problem with any OS is to use the Web, whether it's to access official documentation or forums. I don't think there's much difference between Windows and Ubuntu in that regard. Even if Windows local documentation is better organized than Ubuntu's it's often missing essential details.
If you've never had any trouble installing programs or drivers on Windows, count yourself extremely lucky. I've run into plenty of problems on every type of system I've ever used and I doubt that will change any time soon.
I made the distinction about hacker vs. cracker because I was replying to someone who claimed "But, I'm a lowly user, not a roxxor kernel haxxor." Clearly, that person meant a hacker in the traditional sense and not a cracker.
Don't forget about the German scientists and engineers. They had it far worse than their American counterparts in their spacious classrooms and bomber-free skies. I mean if the war had continued another five years, they'd probably have a colony on the moon by now.
Yeah, you're right about the Internet thing. But Gore did invent global warming! I just wonder how long before we have to start getting a giant ice cube from a distant planetoid every once in a while.
There's no security value to NAT. NAT does provide a stateful firewall that disallows inbound connections, but you can do that just as well without NAT, and with a great deal more flexibility.
Thank you for pointing that out. So many people seem to think NAT is a security tool. I think it's because just about any router capable of NAT also has a stateful firewall (since NAT requires tracking of connections) and many people don't understand the distinction.
You clearly don't understand the way the Internet is supposed to work, which is as a bunch of peers, all able to communicate with each other. NATs only work to the extent that they can preserve the illusion of a peer to peer network. A shortage of addresses resulting in more NATs gives the man more ways to control us, not the opposite.
"Private" IP addresses have little to do with human privacy. If you don't want a fridge giving out private information, don't buy fridge capable of doing that or don't connect it to a network. If you think NATs keep your network secure or keep your data private, you're in for a big surprise, especially if there are devices in your network actively trying to leak private information. What can be helpful in keeping a network secure is a stateful firewall (though that wouldn't necessarily prevent a malicious device such as the hypothetical fridge from leaking private information), and since most routers that do NAT also have stateful firewalls, many people seem to confuse the two.
I've never gotten more than on public address from any ISP for a residential account, whether dialup, DSL or cable. Have you? I think that's a pretty rare situation.
Well, I'm glad you figured out that the best way to search for solutions is to use Google. Remember to generalize that. Many times I've looked for something on Microsoft's site before I realized it was much faster just to use Google even if I added "site:microsoft.com".
You say that Windows XP was able to synchronize NTFS filesystems well right away, which seems reasonable. However, how well does it do synchronizing EXT3 or other native Linux files ystems? Hopefully Unison on Ubuntu will eventually handle NTFS as well as Windows does natively, but it's hardly fair to expect that when XP can't do anything with native Linux file systems.
I have also encountered many problems with video drivers on Linux-based OSes and that's certainly a weak area. However, did your ATI driver work perfectly as soon as you installed Windows? It's never worked that way for me the many times I've installed Windows; I've always had to install drivers from the manufacturer. OTOH, when I installed Ubuntu on my laptop with ATI IGP, it worked very well with no input from me. It certainly doesn't happen that way all the time, but I've never seen that on Windows.
You're certainly right that VNC is far from ideal, but it is very easy to get working.
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Were there any compositing effects on the GNOME and KDE desktops you ran? If so, it doesn't make sense to compare directly to XP on the same hardware, since XP has no compositing. Comparing current GNOME, KDE, Win7 and Aqua on the same hardware makes more sense.
Since the primary motivation for Wayland is better compositor management on modern hardware, I'm sure it won't be a reasonable replacement for either Xorg or XP on older hardware. Therefore, it's important that default Ubuntu continue to be able to run with just Xorg on hardware that Wayland doesn't handle well.
If this ends up like OSX, it will be a giant mistake. I am using OSX right now on my work-provide machine and running X11 apps. Though the X11 server is included and starts automatically, X11 apps are second class citizens. They don't interact with the task manager or menu bar the same as native Aqua apps. Every X11 window is treated as part of the X11 app, regardless of how many distinct programs are running.
If, on the other hand, Canonical is smart and doesn't hate their users, they will put a high priority on X11 clients continuing to function the same as they do now, which should be possible when Xorg runs as a Wayland client AFAICT.
With calculators and computers, nobody needs to know math itself.
With Wikipedia, nobody needs to know history or literature itself.
An obvious approach that some companies have taken is to realize that if someone gets a copy of a game by any route, they are now aware of the game and developer and might be interested in paying for additional content or games in the future. Many of the game purchases I have made were preceded by obtaining an unauthorized copy of the game, a predecessor, or other game from the same developer.
How many games from small companies are available to rent at your nearby rental place? If you want an example of a small game developer that doesn't seem to need DRM to survive, check out 2D Boy. After trying World of Goo, I paid for it specifically because I could download a version for any of the platforms I wanted to run it on without stupid restrictions. Maybe it's beyond the ken of the average console gamer, but downloading and installing a cracked version of just about any popular Windows game is extremely easy. Why do developers spend so much effort releasing so Windows if they can't "protect" their investment?
You've certainly opened my eyes. I hadn't considered just how basic DRM is to our way of life. Won't somebody please think of the ch^H^Hmedia giants.
Well, I'm satisfied. As long as a state's political philosophy can be summarized concisely in rhyme, it must be correct.
If you think Python's syntax has anything to do with COBOL or Hollerith cards, I doubt you've ever even looked at any Python code.
I think your attitude is much more rational than the GP. BP should be held responsible for all costs of fixing the well and cleaning up the mess. If the company is able to do that, they should be allowed to continue doing business. The very high price for this mismanagement and better oversight and regulation will cause future executives and shareholders to pay more attention to risks. I don't think the Federal government taking over BP would fix the big problems in the oil industry any more than its taking over several banks has fixed the financial industry.
Yeah, I had assumed that render times hadn't changed much over the years. However, the law of diminishing returns will apply eventually and someday one minute of computing time won't render a frame of noticeably lower quality than one hour. Of course I have no idea when that will be
If Pixar had been able to render scenes with better quality in a matter of minutes, they wouldn't have needed over 100 machines in their render farm. In fact, each frame took "from two to 13 hours."
Thank you for your insight and tireless efforts to promote Open Source and protect the rights and interests of all FLOSS users and developers. I think you're one of the most well-reasoned and balanced leaders in the FLOSS world.
Although I have been following the Free and Open Source movements for many years, I didn't know who Larry Rosen is. Now that I've looked him up, I assume you're referring to The Open Software License and The Academic Free License. Since the latter isn't copyleft, it seems to only make sense to compare it to the BSD and MIT licenses, not any from the FSF.
It seems that Rosen claims that the OSL is less ambiguous than the GPL, but the FSF claims that the distribution requirements of the OSL are more ambiguous. Since IANAL, it's not clear to me if either claim is true. Even if the FSF's warning about the Rosen's licenses interfering with version control and distribution are bogus, it seems like a big disadvantage that they aren't GPL compatible as there are far more projects released under GPL, LPGL, and non-FSF licenses that are GPL compatible.
If you're not a nerd and look down on them for their poor humor, what are you doing wasting your time posting on Slashdot? Did the cool blogs kick you out?
Ubuntu has lots of documentation that can be installed locally, including man pages, info, and GNOME documentation in addition to the Ubuntu-specific stuff. However, it's often inadequate by itself. I've often tried to troubleshoot things on Windows and Linux-based OSes using the documentation available on the local machine and I've usually not gotten very far. The reality is that usually the fastest way to figure out any problem with any OS is to use the Web, whether it's to access official documentation or forums. I don't think there's much difference between Windows and Ubuntu in that regard. Even if Windows local documentation is better organized than Ubuntu's it's often missing essential details.
If you've never had any trouble installing programs or drivers on Windows, count yourself extremely lucky. I've run into plenty of problems on every type of system I've ever used and I doubt that will change any time soon.
I made the distinction about hacker vs. cracker because I was replying to someone who claimed "But, I'm a lowly user, not a roxxor kernel haxxor." Clearly, that person meant a hacker in the traditional sense and not a cracker.
So, which on is it? I want in on the action.
Don't forget about the German scientists and engineers. They had it far worse than their American counterparts in their spacious classrooms and bomber-free skies. I mean if the war had continued another five years, they'd probably have a colony on the moon by now.
Yeah, you're right. Giant governments are naturally better at determining what children need to learn.
Yeah, you're right about the Internet thing. But Gore did invent global warming! I just wonder how long before we have to start getting a giant ice cube from a distant planetoid every once in a while.
Thank you for pointing that out. So many people seem to think NAT is a security tool. I think it's because just about any router capable of NAT also has a stateful firewall (since NAT requires tracking of connections) and many people don't understand the distinction.
You clearly don't understand the way the Internet is supposed to work, which is as a bunch of peers, all able to communicate with each other. NATs only work to the extent that they can preserve the illusion of a peer to peer network. A shortage of addresses resulting in more NATs gives the man more ways to control us, not the opposite.
"Private" IP addresses have little to do with human privacy. If you don't want a fridge giving out private information, don't buy fridge capable of doing that or don't connect it to a network. If you think NATs keep your network secure or keep your data private, you're in for a big surprise, especially if there are devices in your network actively trying to leak private information. What can be helpful in keeping a network secure is a stateful firewall (though that wouldn't necessarily prevent a malicious device such as the hypothetical fridge from leaking private information), and since most routers that do NAT also have stateful firewalls, many people seem to confuse the two.
The difficulty being discussed is not related to DNS, but to IP routing, a lower level function.
I've never gotten more than on public address from any ISP for a residential account, whether dialup, DSL or cable. Have you? I think that's a pretty rare situation.
OTOH, belief in the laws of physics is something that every potential engineer proves to himself by empirical evidence as he or she grows up.
Well, I'm glad you figured out that the best way to search for solutions is to use Google. Remember to generalize that. Many times I've looked for something on Microsoft's site before I realized it was much faster just to use Google even if I added "site:microsoft.com".
You say that Windows XP was able to synchronize NTFS filesystems well right away, which seems reasonable. However, how well does it do synchronizing EXT3 or other native Linux files ystems? Hopefully Unison on Ubuntu will eventually handle NTFS as well as Windows does natively, but it's hardly fair to expect that when XP can't do anything with native Linux file systems.
I have also encountered many problems with video drivers on Linux-based OSes and that's certainly a weak area. However, did your ATI driver work perfectly as soon as you installed Windows? It's never worked that way for me the many times I've installed Windows; I've always had to install drivers from the manufacturer. OTOH, when I installed Ubuntu on my laptop with ATI IGP, it worked very well with no input from me. It certainly doesn't happen that way all the time, but I've never seen that on Windows.
You're certainly right that VNC is far from ideal, but it is very easy to get working.