Umm.. if my system hasn't crashed in six months and it's only been rebooted twice in that time for updates - that's not reliable?
I would say so, yes. I keep XEmacs sessions running longer than that.
Let me try a car analogy. If your car had two recalls (required software updates) every six months requiring overnight servicing (a reboot), would you consider that reliable?
What's your definition?
Solaris is reliable. It's a remarkable event when a server running Solaris requires a reboot or goes down. My desktop Linux box at work is reliable - it has neither required a software update (that forced a reboot) nor has it crashed forcing a reboot in the almost 2 years I've had it.
Reliable (in an OS) is when a machine reboot of any sort is an utterly catastrophic and totally unexpected event. Two required software updates in six months isn't even close. I've had Unix (of various versions) boxes at home and at work for the last two decades that did better than that.
And to be fair, I also consider Mac OS X 10.5 to be an utter disaster as far as reliability is concerned (10.4 was more stable). My coworkers migrating to Macs from Microsoft Windows XP have a little different opinion.
It's not really a Republican -vs- Democrat sort of thing.
What foreign country and administration established and funded the organization later known as Al Qaeda during the USSR/Afghanistan war?
What foreign country and administration substantially financed Iraq in the 1980s in the Iraq/Iran war?
Republican results? Marcos out of power.
I'll pick the one place that I have first hand knowledge of. Marcos was kept in power because he was buds with President Reagan from the Governor of California days.
But... for whatever his other faults were, Marcos did more in the way of building infrastructure than other single person in Philippine history (which sadly includes the lack of rebuilding after WWII). Imelda Marcos still wields considerable power in the Senate, Corazon Aquino is regarded as a failure and nearly all older people (that I talked to) miss the Marcos days.
The US was born a Republic and never should have gotten into the Empire business.
And to return to topic, Ballmer must do this, or else when Obama nationalizes Microsoft, he might get fired like Rick Wagoner.
If you're a Microsoft shop, you have to stick with their upgrade path.
That appears to be the issue.
That's the way it is with everything, including Open Source. You need to keep updated with the latest security patches, hardware support, etc.
Oh really? I support an application that runs on Perl 5.6. There are plenty of folks who run Linux 2.4 kernels, particularly in the embedded area. XEmacs 21.1 is still in use.
There's a remarkable resistance to changing software once you get it to work. The advantage of using Open Source versus Microsoft/Closed Source is that if there is a required security patch needed, you can always patch the version of software you are running instead of having to "upgrade" to get the fix.
The Army is jumping the gun, but they're not doing anything anyone else is going to do. When the slow corporate migration away from Microsoft Windows XP happens, it will be to an in-house tested build of Microsoft Vista (or something else, Mac OS X is gaining some traction) not Microsoft Windows 7.
The Army is largely equipped by contracts from private companies. Back in March, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. won over Boeing the contract to manufacture hundreds of mid-air refueling airplanes for Pentagon. They are not even an american company. So what's the fuss about? Stop this paranoid "evil Microsoft" whine. You are not concerned about the US airforce using planes from a foreign private entity, but when Microsoft provides the operating system for military computers, it's the end of the world...
Eh? If there's anything more unpleasant than the Microsoft Windows user experience, it's the Airbus user experience. At least with Microsoft Windows, you can always not reboot it after a crash or turn it off. There's not much you can do at 35,000 feet on an Airbus except pray that you land in one piece and are not sick for more than a few days from the cabin air conditioning.
The GPL is the license, not the license holder, so it cannot "win". But +1 for your religious devotion.
I work for Cisco; I enjoy working for Cisco and I obviously want us to come out of this as cleanly as we can.
I am an Open Source developer. I spent some years in charge of XEmacs development. I have great appreciation for the GPL.
A long-standing issue with the GPL was that it hadn't been tested in (US) court. I am sad that this had to go to court (I've advised any of the upper management that I have access to what the GPL means), but I am happy that it was resolved quickly and in favor of the GPL.
Disclaimer: Cisco could have fought this out and maybe won. Then I would have either quit in disgust or got fired for screaming at management.
It took a large lart stick, but Cisco did The Right Thing (in settling quickly) and so did the FSF. Please note that Linksys is an acquisition and whatever practices they had that ran afoul of the GPL DID NOT stem from Cisco.
Also known as "Trickle-Down Economics" aka "Trickle-Upon Economics" aka "Reagan Free Market Capitalism", as in big corporations a "free" to fuck you six ways till Sunday.
President Reagan had his faults (Civil Forfeiture and "Money Laundering"), but I do believe you are confusing Clintonomics and Obamanomics.
How much more fucked does it get when you loan a company money (via buying secured bonds) and the government arbitrarily changes the laws that says you are no longer required to be paid back (and the preferred creditors do not want control of the company)?
While in the senate he developed a reputation for being the leading expert on not just climate change, but arms control, nuclear weapons, and communications technology
None of which were deserved.
To have a record like that and lose to a first-term governor with a really crappy record takes some serious lack of skill.
I absolutely agree with you on the last point. A sitting VP has a huge advantage and to waste it shows a tremendous lack of something.
Remember this, Dick Nixon managed to get elected President, even after losing a gubernatorial election in California after losing to Kennedy in 1960. "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more".
And don't act like the 2 party system is what's wrong here anyway, that's just absurd.
I think it is. For most of the past decade when I've had residence in California, I've had no representation. I (mistakenly) voted for President Bush, but my vote didn't matter, the Electors of the state of California voted for Algore despite my absentee[1] vote. Lois Capps, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein certainly do not represent my views.
[1] Which was counted towards certain ballot totals despite what idiots say to the contrary.
Civil Forfeiture and Money Laundering were invented in the Reagan Administration.
If impeached ex-President Clinton had just let his little head think a bit more for his big head and not fought against "gridlock" I'd rank him up with the best of the Presidents.
The worst of the evils of the Bush administration (the so-called "Patriot" act) were all successfully beaten down during the Clinton era.
So what was your problem with open source again? Hidden terms and conditions? Shit, I'll take that any day over what Rebol wanted.
There are no hidden terms and conditions with Open Source software. I had never heard of Rebol before, but I'll add another - PROMAL. Closed, licensed computer languages are doomed to failure.
The GPL and the FSF help protect developers and end users from getting punched in the face by companies like Cisco.
It was Linksys (a Cisco acquisition) not base Cisco.
I am sure that I will not be the only Cisco employee forwarding this result up the reporting chain applauding the result.
We did the Right Thing here, though it should never have gotten to court. It was also one of our guys who had the legal blog that was against the RIAA. We are not the bad guys.
Disclaimer: I work for Cisco, I do not speak for Cisco.
The result is that many companies are pushed back into the warm embrace of Microsoft because at least you know where you stand with code compiled with VCPP and any other libraries you bought. It might cost more in the short term but if it means you get to keep the key IP asset of your company safe then it becomes worth it.
Like Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3, etc. etc. etc. History has clearly shown that if you are making money off of Microsoft Windows based software and are successful enough, Microsoft will cut your throat.
Or maybe the FSF (unlike some other IP-related litigants out there) only wants people to comply with the GPL, and will settle once the defendant agrees to do so (as opposed to extorting money out of the defendants)?
I am pleased that this got settled quickly and in a manner that supports the GPL.
Kudos to the FSF for going for what's right rather than what's rich.
Ditto. Credit where credit is due.
And kudos to Cisco for supporting the GPL in the end, even if a few hard-headed managers had to get larted.
Disclaimer: I am a supporter of the GPL, but I am not a friend of the FSF and although I am a Cisco employee, I do not write for Cisco.
Its much like cutting off your own foot with a rusty chainsaw without anesthetic, place it on a table, hammer a bullet into the foot, rejoin the foot again to the leg with Super Glue and claim you shot yourself in foot. I wonder how people can be so dumb and yet be on slashdot.
Nobody is going to understand that without a car analogy. You must be new here.
I do not believe any of the items mentioned should be considered "right"s. You pay your money, you take your chances.
Making an exemption for Open Source software in the Security article is particularly galling. If you're going to do something like that, you might as well abbreviate the whole document to:
Article 1: Thou shalt have source code for every piece of software that you run on your computer.
If Apple really wanted to crush MS all they would have to do would be sell OS X for PCs. They could do it easily, build up ~25% marketshare in the first few months, and basically confine MS to gamers and businesses
The only thing keeping businesses from going Apple is Microsoft vendor lock-in. The company that I work for has recently allowed employees to select Mac Powerbooks for their company issue notebook computer. I see a lot of Macs around now and all of the people in my group who were up for hardware refresh selected Macs to replace their Microsoft Windows notebooks.
As near as I can tell, when given a choice, people will choose something other than Microsoft. The hell of it is that Microsoft still gets its cut because they put a (licensed) copy of Microsoft Windows on the Apples. I suppose that's an improvement over paying for two copies of Microsoft Windows.
If someone WANTS these calls, that's fine. Don't push #5. Most people don't want these calls and the victims should be able to instantly make these groups feel the pressure back in a big way.
The US cellphone system is as broken as SMTP (the cost of delivery lies on the recipient). If I had an option to charge US$ or block every call that I had not explicitly white listed, I would use it.
Your first statement is so nice, I want to repeat it.
Anything which makes unwanted bells go off in my house by remote control is an invasion of my peace and quiet.
Slashdot Mirror
Umm.. if my system hasn't crashed in six months and it's only been rebooted twice in that time for updates - that's not reliable?
I would say so, yes. I keep XEmacs sessions running longer than that.
Let me try a car analogy. If your car had two recalls (required software updates) every six months requiring overnight servicing (a reboot), would you consider that reliable?
What's your definition?
Solaris is reliable. It's a remarkable event when a server running Solaris requires a reboot or goes down. My desktop Linux box at work is reliable - it has neither required a software update (that forced a reboot) nor has it crashed forcing a reboot in the almost 2 years I've had it.
Reliable (in an OS) is when a machine reboot of any sort is an utterly catastrophic and totally unexpected event. Two required software updates in six months isn't even close. I've had Unix (of various versions) boxes at home and at work for the last two decades that did better than that.
And to be fair, I also consider Mac OS X 10.5 to be an utter disaster as far as reliability is concerned (10.4 was more stable). My coworkers migrating to Macs from Microsoft Windows XP have a little different opinion.
Not nearly as funny as the guys suggesting other OSes _don't_ crash.
Ford Pinto is a great car. It's quite reliable - it rarely explodes when you have a fender bender.
This notebook computer is great. It's quite reliable - its batteries rarely explode.
The MD-11 is quite a reliable aircraft - it rarely crashes while attempting to land.
Meh.
It's not really a Republican -vs- Democrat sort of thing.
What foreign country and administration established and funded the organization later known as Al Qaeda during the USSR/Afghanistan war?
What foreign country and administration substantially financed Iraq in the 1980s in the Iraq/Iran war?
Republican results? Marcos out of power.
I'll pick the one place that I have first hand knowledge of. Marcos was kept in power because he was buds with President Reagan from the Governor of California days.
But ... for whatever his other faults were, Marcos did more in the way of building infrastructure than other single person in Philippine history (which sadly includes the lack of rebuilding after WWII). Imelda Marcos still wields considerable power in the Senate, Corazon Aquino is regarded as a failure and nearly all older people (that I talked to) miss the Marcos days.
The US was born a Republic and never should have gotten into the Empire business.
And to return to topic, Ballmer must do this, or else when Obama nationalizes Microsoft, he might get fired like Rick Wagoner.
I found it to be reliable - rarely a crash to be seen
You Microsoft apologists/shills are funnier than David Letterman. "Reliable" != "rarely crashes".
If you're a Microsoft shop, you have to stick with their upgrade path.
That appears to be the issue.
That's the way it is with everything, including Open Source. You need to keep updated with the latest security patches, hardware support, etc.
Oh really? I support an application that runs on Perl 5.6. There are plenty of folks who run Linux 2.4 kernels, particularly in the embedded area. XEmacs 21.1 is still in use.
There's a remarkable resistance to changing software once you get it to work. The advantage of using Open Source versus Microsoft/Closed Source is that if there is a required security patch needed, you can always patch the version of software you are running instead of having to "upgrade" to get the fix.
The Army is jumping the gun, but they're not doing anything anyone else is going to do. When the slow corporate migration away from Microsoft Windows XP happens, it will be to an in-house tested build of Microsoft Vista (or something else, Mac OS X is gaining some traction) not Microsoft Windows 7.
The Army is largely equipped by contracts from private companies. Back in March, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. won over Boeing the contract to manufacture hundreds of mid-air refueling airplanes for Pentagon. They are not even an american company. So what's the fuss about? Stop this paranoid "evil Microsoft" whine. You are not concerned about the US airforce using planes from a foreign private entity, but when Microsoft provides the operating system for military computers, it's the end of the world...
Eh? If there's anything more unpleasant than the Microsoft Windows user experience, it's the Airbus user experience. At least with Microsoft Windows, you can always not reboot it after a crash or turn it off. There's not much you can do at 35,000 feet on an Airbus except pray that you land in one piece and are not sick for more than a few days from the cabin air conditioning.
The stalls are apparently where all the action is anyway.
The GPL is the license, not the license holder, so it cannot "win". But +1 for your religious devotion.
I work for Cisco; I enjoy working for Cisco and I obviously want us to come out of this as cleanly as we can.
I am an Open Source developer. I spent some years in charge of XEmacs development. I have great appreciation for the GPL.
A long-standing issue with the GPL was that it hadn't been tested in (US) court. I am sad that this had to go to court (I've advised any of the upper management that I have access to what the GPL means), but I am happy that it was resolved quickly and in favor of the GPL.
Disclaimer: Cisco could have fought this out and maybe won. Then I would have either quit in disgust or got fired for screaming at management.
It took a large lart stick, but Cisco did The Right Thing (in settling quickly) and so did the FSF. Please note that Linksys is an acquisition and whatever practices they had that ran afoul of the GPL DID NOT stem from Cisco.
Also known as "Trickle-Down Economics" aka "Trickle-Upon Economics" aka "Reagan Free Market Capitalism", as in big corporations a "free" to fuck you six ways till Sunday.
President Reagan had his faults (Civil Forfeiture and "Money Laundering"), but I do believe you are confusing Clintonomics and Obamanomics.
How much more fucked does it get when you loan a company money (via buying secured bonds) and the government arbitrarily changes the laws that says you are no longer required to be paid back (and the preferred creditors do not want control of the company)?
While in the senate he developed a reputation for being the leading expert on not just climate change, but arms control, nuclear weapons, and communications technology
None of which were deserved.
To have a record like that and lose to a first-term governor with a really crappy record takes some serious lack of skill.
I absolutely agree with you on the last point. A sitting VP has a huge advantage and to waste it shows a tremendous lack of something.
Remember this, Dick Nixon managed to get elected President, even after losing a gubernatorial election in California after losing to Kennedy in 1960. "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more".
And don't act like the 2 party system is what's wrong here anyway, that's just absurd.
I think it is. For most of the past decade when I've had residence in California, I've had no representation. I (mistakenly) voted for President Bush, but my vote didn't matter, the Electors of the state of California voted for Algore despite my absentee[1] vote. Lois Capps, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein certainly do not represent my views.
[1] Which was counted towards certain ballot totals despite what idiots say to the contrary.
Civil Forfeiture and Money Laundering were invented in the Reagan Administration.
If impeached ex-President Clinton had just let his little head think a bit more for his big head and not fought against "gridlock" I'd rank him up with the best of the Presidents.
The worst of the evils of the Bush administration (the so-called "Patriot" act) were all successfully beaten down during the Clinton era.
So what was your problem with open source again? Hidden terms and conditions? Shit, I'll take that any day over what Rebol wanted.
There are no hidden terms and conditions with Open Source software. I had never heard of Rebol before, but I'll add another - PROMAL. Closed, licensed computer languages are doomed to failure.
The GPL and the FSF help protect developers and end users from getting punched in the face by companies like Cisco.
It was Linksys (a Cisco acquisition) not base Cisco.
I am sure that I will not be the only Cisco employee forwarding this result up the reporting chain applauding the result.
We did the Right Thing here, though it should never have gotten to court. It was also one of our guys who had the legal blog that was against the RIAA. We are not the bad guys.
Disclaimer: I work for Cisco, I do not speak for Cisco.
The result is that many companies are pushed back into the warm embrace of Microsoft because at least you know where you stand with code compiled with VCPP and any other libraries you bought. It might cost more in the short term but if it means you get to keep the key IP asset of your company safe then it becomes worth it.
Like Word Perfect, Lotus 1-2-3, etc. etc. etc. History has clearly shown that if you are making money off of Microsoft Windows based software and are successful enough, Microsoft will cut your throat.
FSF wanted Cisco to follow the agreement, not to suck money from the company.
That seems clear. The big winner here is the GPL.
That is a good thing.
cisco has finally lost something
We didn't lose anything. We affirmed the GPL in US court. That means a lot.
Disclaimer: I do not speak for Cisco.
Or maybe the FSF (unlike some other IP-related litigants out there) only wants people to comply with the GPL, and will settle once the defendant agrees to do so (as opposed to extorting money out of the defendants)?
I am pleased that this got settled quickly and in a manner that supports the GPL.
Kudos to the FSF for going for what's right rather than what's rich.
Ditto. Credit where credit is due.
And kudos to Cisco for supporting the GPL in the end, even if a few hard-headed managers had to get larted.
Disclaimer: I am a supporter of the GPL, but I am not a friend of the FSF and although I am a Cisco employee, I do not write for Cisco.
Its much like cutting off your own foot with a rusty chainsaw without anesthetic, place it on a table, hammer a bullet into the foot, rejoin the foot again to the leg with Super Glue and claim you shot yourself in foot.
I wonder how people can be so dumb and yet be on slashdot.
Nobody is going to understand that without a car analogy. You must be new here.
Come on man, you could at least feed it a useless and disgusting expression.
If you feed it "goatse" it says it doesn't know what to do with your input. That's a vast improvement over Google.
I do not believe any of the items mentioned should be considered "right"s. You pay your money, you take your chances.
Making an exemption for Open Source software in the Security article is particularly galling. If you're going to do something like that, you might as well abbreviate the whole document to:
Article 1: Thou shalt have source code for every piece of software that you run on your computer.
And even I do not believe in that to be a right.
I do actually think that current MMORPGs should not be considered VR.
You mean I don't really have blue skin, horns, hooves, a tail and these strange tendril things sprouting from my face?
Way to spoil my evening ...
If Apple really wanted to crush MS all they would have to do would be sell OS X for PCs. They could do it easily, build up ~25% marketshare in the first few months, and basically confine MS to gamers and businesses
The only thing keeping businesses from going Apple is Microsoft vendor lock-in. The company that I work for has recently allowed employees to select Mac Powerbooks for their company issue notebook computer. I see a lot of Macs around now and all of the people in my group who were up for hardware refresh selected Macs to replace their Microsoft Windows notebooks.
As near as I can tell, when given a choice, people will choose something other than Microsoft. The hell of it is that Microsoft still gets its cut because they put a (licensed) copy of Microsoft Windows on the Apples. I suppose that's an improvement over paying for two copies of Microsoft Windows.
+1
I suppose I should have asked the person I talked to what color of underwear she was wearing ...
If someone WANTS these calls, that's fine. Don't push #5. Most people don't want these calls and the victims should be able to instantly make these groups feel the pressure back in a big way.
The US cellphone system is as broken as SMTP (the cost of delivery lies on the recipient). If I had an option to charge US$ or block every call that I had not explicitly white listed, I would use it.
Your first statement is so nice, I want to repeat it.
Anything which makes unwanted bells go off in my house by remote control is an invasion of my peace and quiet.
Amen! Brother Slashdotter.