With the current distributions, I'd say it takes _less_ skill to update the kernel or one of the userland tools than it takes to install an NT service pack. Take a look at the Mandrake Update program, for instance.
However, I think it's a shame that some users (and more importantly sysadmins) are so unwilling to learn how to do things like this.. After all, it's not _that_ difficult. With distros like Mandrake and Red Hat, I found myself hopelessly trying to work around all the tools and additions they made to the base system. Recently I discovered Linux From Scratch, which proved to be an excellent way to learn, and resulted in a more basic and much less bloated Linux installation. --
CDDB^2 has some support for this, and other neat things like song lyrics etc..
No linux software that supports it yet though, and to get the Developers Kit or use the database you have to sign a nauseatingly restrictive 16-page PDF agreement and fax it back to them, and even then you can only let a maximum of 100 people use the application until the CDDB people has tested your application and found it worthy.
I can already see the practical applications of this.. Next to the speed and quality requirement settings in Napster, there will be 'music type', 'sounds like' and 'doesn't sound like' entry boxes..
This way Napster can really be a way of finding new artists, try searching for a symphonic rock band that doesn't sound like Metallica, for instance. Or female pop singers that doesn't sound like Brittney Spears.
This could also be a way to avoid misnamed files. Of course, this probably won't be possible until in a few years, when Napster has been sued into oblivion by the Evil Corporations(TM) anyway. --
That code dictated that if a mason constructed a building which collapsed and killed the owner, the mason would be summarily executed. Imagine the bloodbath if modern engineers and inventors were held accountable that way.
"Getting things right is a far bigger worry in today's dense technology than it was thousands of years ago," Linehard writes. "Yet while we do not threaten to amputate surgeon's hands or kill engineer's children, our resulting technologies are still surprisingly safe. Only one person in ten million dies each year from the structural failure of a building. And tens of millions of Americans safely make commercial flights between the rare fatalities that do occur."
I have a tip for you - when you write a new paragraph, try to read what you wrote in the previous one first and see if anything there goes completely against what you're writing. This kind of thing doesn't really make you look any smarter.
Then again, I guess it's not possible to look much dumber.
-- The horrible mutant merge of a Slashdot "author" and a famous "philosopher", out to create a better type of steel through horrible writing! --
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However, I think it's a shame that some users (and more importantly sysadmins) are so unwilling to learn how to do things like this.. After all, it's not _that_ difficult. With distros like Mandrake and Red Hat, I found myself hopelessly trying to work around all the tools and additions they made to the base system. Recently I discovered Linux From Scratch, which proved to be an excellent way to learn, and resulted in a more basic and much less bloated Linux installation.
--
No linux software that supports it yet though, and to get the Developers Kit or use the database you have to sign a nauseatingly restrictive 16-page PDF agreement and fax it back to them, and even then you can only let a maximum of 100 people use the application until the CDDB people has tested your application and found it worthy.
FreeDB^2, anyone?
--
This way Napster can really be a way of finding new artists, try searching for a symphonic rock band that doesn't sound like Metallica, for instance. Or female pop singers that doesn't sound like Brittney Spears.
This could also be a way to avoid misnamed files. Of course, this probably won't be possible until in a few years, when Napster has been sued into oblivion by the Evil Corporations(TM) anyway.
--
That code dictated that if a mason constructed a building which collapsed and killed the owner, the mason would be summarily executed. Imagine the bloodbath if modern engineers and inventors were held accountable that way.
"Getting things right is a far bigger worry in today's dense technology than it was thousands of years ago," Linehard writes. "Yet while we do not threaten to amputate surgeon's hands or kill engineer's children, our resulting technologies are still surprisingly safe. Only one person in ten million dies each year from the structural failure of a building. And tens of millions of Americans safely make commercial flights between the rare fatalities that do occur."
I have a tip for you - when you write a new paragraph, try to read what you wrote in the previous one first and see if anything there goes completely against what you're writing. This kind of thing doesn't really make you look any smarter.
Then again, I guess it's not possible to look much dumber.
--
The horrible mutant merge of a Slashdot "author" and a famous "philosopher", out to create a better type of steel through horrible writing!
--