remember that SCO has so far only put out threats and not sued
No, they have formally filed suit. What they haven't done is gone into court, which promises to be intensely amusing, and not in a good way for SCO.
What they have threatened is to reveal evidence that would be damaging to IBM and give them control of Linux. Anybody who has actually looked at the details of the situation knows this is just verbal flatulence, with overtones of commercial fraud.
CD Pirates are one of the primary reasons why Linux is gaining ground in Malaysia. They are cheap, and have all the latest titles. Linux enthuthiast who need the latest ISO's just needs to go to his local pirate distributor and usually in 2-3 days, you'll be able to get a copy. Especially useful for those of us who don't have Broadband internet at home
It's ironic that people will go to illegal channels as the most efficient way to get that which is free and legal anyway. Showing that distribution businesses do not need to own monopolies to be profitable.
It still puzzles me that at QuakeCon last year the id guys said that D3 was going to be targeted at GeForce 3-level cards. However, after seeing everything that D3 was doing I think that they are crazy if you want to play at anything more than 640/480 or watching a slide show with scary monsters
John Carmack has never made a mistake about that in the past, why would you expect him to do so now?
And the winner is.........The FIC ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB.
That's nice to know. I'll probably pick one up in a month or two when the price drops a little. I'd go for ATI anyway, even if NVidia was a little faster, just because ATI plays better better than NVidia at releasing tech specs.
But guess what I'll buy tomorrow, to drop into the AGP slot on my new Shuttle PC? A Matrox.
- Specs are totally public
- Runs cool
- Really cheap
- Superior rendering quality
KDE : We like to have giant throbbing buttons and eye candy, but we don't want you running it on enything less than a Athlon 3000 with 1GB of ram.
My wife runs KDE3 happily on a 233 MHz K6 with 196 MB. She complains a little about the speed of OpenOffice on that, but not to the point where she's willing to spend $400 for a new machine. As for KDE itself, it's quite acceptable, thankyou, though I'd be the last to claim it can't be improved.
What were they thinking when they wrote sentences such as "Engagement with an Open Source community is a continuum"? Whom were they trying to impress with this pseudo-scientific marketing fill-word collection?
I see an objective and insightful article here. It's not clear to me what you are whining about, perhaps you are trying to appear cool by dissing it? Remember, it wasn't written for you, it's obviously aimed at managers.
They go on and on about the various ways in which a company can contribute to the open source community, but completely fail to say why a company would want to do that in the first place!
Luckily for you too, because now is your golden chance to write your own article. As far as this one goes, they apparently assume that the reader is already aware of the benefits and is now at the point of wondering how they can get aboard the train, i.e., "engage the community" in PHB-speak.
The first installment of this diatribe was even worse, containing some vague assertions like "open source software is more stable" or "open source software is much more secure" and didn't even begin to consider backing this drivel up with facts of any kind.
Am I the only one a bit shocked by how expensive these variou linux distros are? from what I could gather from the article, the SuSe liences (with support, but nevertheless) were about $100/ea.
It's not a big deal, I frequently spend more than that on a technical book. If you're worried about $100, you can always go the Cheapbytes route, or get it for the cost of a blank CD from a friend - or copy it over a network cable for free.
When you get into the business side, you're buying other things, like installation handholding and 24/7 troubleshooting.
Many people will prefer to pay $50 or $100, and get a nice box with a manual, maybe even a nice penguin toy. While I've never paid more than $8 for Linux on my own behalf, I did send my brother a $100 u.s. Xandros box for Christmas.
The SCO lawsuit will fizzle pathetically (and SCO will crater, but who cares). The net effect will be to strengthen Linux and our right to *really* innovate.
NT4 Server users have until the end of 2004 for support. Windows 98 users will be the next on the list for axed support too.
And having been burned one time too many, it's a cinch that many of the admins and users involved will choose to switch to Linux or BSD (using the same machines - try that with Windows) rather than let themselves in for more of the same.
You want infantrymen who at least have some familiarty with office and windows to try learning bash or mutt?
That would be dumb, indeed. How about kde and kmail instead?
If the Army mandated Linux, there would be a 4 week training program, after which chaos would ensue because 90% of the people still didn't understand it.
That is highly unlikely. My mother could use Linux (kde, mozilla, etc) the first time she ever tried it.
The more of these dime companies release crap boxes, the more Linux will be thought of as a crap OS, the kind of thing your redneck friends buy at Wal-Mart because they can't afford a real PC from Dell or Gateway with the "good" OS.
I walked into a store and saw one of these special offer white boxes for 300 Euros (about $360) and grabbed it immediately, for a test box. It's a K7 2400+, with 40 GB disk and a 256 MB memory stick, which I doubled just on basic principle. I could have done even better pricewise online, but nothing beats being able to walk out of the store with a new machine in less than 5 minutes. It's a fantastic machine, no real speed daemon, but that's mainly because of the IDE disk, not the processor. It compiles a 2.4 kernel in about 5 minutes, that is kickass.
I'm posting with it now, by the way. Totally solid, I haven't got a single complaint. Oh wait, the mouse was too cheap, I returned it for a 3 EU credit and got a logitech.
"Giving away code means gaining fame - that is, if the code is good. With enough fame, you can write your own ticket."
I think this is a bit too optimistic. Realistically, in my experience, giving away good code means fame for a small minority of the people who do so. And for the rest, it means a few pats on the back followed by continuing to live in obscurity as a little-known, non-famous coder.
Nonsense. IF YOU ARE LUCKY, that will happen. There's plenty of great code out there that doesn't result in fame...
When you should at a target, you won't always hit it, but if you are good, you can reasonably expect to. Somebody famous once said: "the more I practice, the luckier I get".
It sounds like this guy got all of the publicity and free computers that he wanted, but he STILL wasn't bringing in enough money to pay his bills.
Obviously, writing great code, giving it away and getting famous isn't the whole story. That's enough to get you onto the green, but then you still have to sink the putt. This normally requires people skills. Another way of saying it is: giving away your code creates opportunities, but it's still up to you to take advantage of them.
It's constantly amazing to me too how many of the Gnu-Uber-Alles folks don't really understand that they are giving their work away for free and can not reasonably expect anything in return. Not a salary, not an occasional trip, not even acknowledgement.
You are quite wrong about that. Giving away code means gaining fame - that is, if the code is good. With enough fame, you can write your own ticket.
In today's world, fame is bankable, make no mistake about it. Now, take note that this only addresses the money factor. Giving away code - good code - has many other benefits:
- Gain respect from your peers
- Social aspects - make useful contacts, meet like-minded people
- Improve your skills
- Take advantage of the debugging/design power of peer review
- Forestall possible attempts by others to patent ideas you've discovered independently
- People will send you free computers
- If you're good enough, expect to be invited to join organizations, speak at events, etc - it's fun.
Slashdot Mirror
remember that SCO has so far only put out threats and not sued
No, they have formally filed suit. What they haven't done is gone into court, which promises to be intensely amusing, and not in a good way for SCO.
What they have threatened is to reveal evidence that would be damaging to IBM and give them control of Linux. Anybody who has actually looked at the details of the situation knows this is just verbal flatulence, with overtones of commercial fraud.
Bill Gates did not become the world's most successful business by being dumb.
If he's so smart, then why can't he make a profit on anything besides his illegal monopolies?
CD Pirates are one of the primary reasons why Linux is gaining ground in Malaysia. They are cheap, and have all the latest titles. Linux enthuthiast who need the latest ISO's just needs to go to his local pirate distributor and usually in 2-3 days, you'll be able to get a copy. Especially useful for those of us who don't have Broadband internet at home
It's ironic that people will go to illegal channels as the most efficient way to get that which is free and legal anyway. Showing that distribution businesses do not need to own monopolies to be profitable.
It still puzzles me that at QuakeCon last year the id guys said that D3 was going to be targeted at GeForce 3-level cards. However, after seeing everything that D3 was doing I think that they are crazy if you want to play at anything more than 640/480 or watching a slide show with scary monsters
John Carmack has never made a mistake about that in the past, why would you expect him to do so now?
And the winner is.........The FIC ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB.
That's nice to know. I'll probably pick one up in a month or two when the price drops a little. I'd go for ATI anyway, even if NVidia was a little faster, just because ATI plays better better than NVidia at releasing tech specs.
But guess what I'll buy tomorrow, to drop into the AGP slot on my new Shuttle PC? A Matrox.
- Specs are totally public
- Runs cool
- Really cheap
- Superior rendering quality
KDE : We like to have giant throbbing buttons and eye candy, but we don't want you running it on enything less than a Athlon 3000 with 1GB of ram.
My wife runs KDE3 happily on a 233 MHz K6 with 196 MB. She complains a little about the speed of OpenOffice on that, but not to the point where she's willing to spend $400 for a new machine. As for KDE itself, it's quite acceptable, thankyou, though I'd be the last to claim it can't be improved.
What were they thinking when they wrote sentences such as "Engagement with an Open Source community is a continuum"? Whom were they trying to impress with this pseudo-scientific marketing fill-word collection?
I see an objective and insightful article here. It's not clear to me what you are whining about, perhaps you are trying to appear cool by dissing it? Remember, it wasn't written for you, it's obviously aimed at managers.
They go on and on about the various ways in which a company can contribute to the open source community, but completely fail to say why a company would want to do that in the first place!
Luckily for you too, because now is your golden chance to write your own article. As far as this one goes, they apparently assume that the reader is already aware of the benefits and is now at the point of wondering how they can get aboard the train, i.e., "engage the community" in PHB-speak.
The first installment of this diatribe was even worse, containing some vague assertions like "open source software is more stable" or "open source software is much more secure" and didn't even begin to consider backing this drivel up with facts of any kind.
Heh, you are just a troll, have a nice day.
"with what? photoshop? gimp? MSPAint? please do tell."
With the current moment. There's something to be confused about?
Oh, that's what it means? Thanks for rescuing me from my ignorance, I'll be eternally grateful.
Am I the only one a bit shocked by how expensive these variou linux distros are? from what I could gather from the article, the SuSe liences (with support, but nevertheless) were about $100/ea.
It's not a big deal, I frequently spend more than that on a technical book. If you're worried about $100, you can always go the Cheapbytes route, or get it for the cost of a blank CD from a friend - or copy it over a network cable for free.
When you get into the business side, you're buying other things, like installation handholding and 24/7 troubleshooting.
Many people will prefer to pay $50 or $100, and get a nice box with a manual, maybe even a nice penguin toy. While I've never paid more than $8 for Linux on my own behalf, I did send my brother a $100 u.s. Xandros box for Christmas.
The sco lawsuit is just the first salvo.
The SCO lawsuit will fizzle pathetically (and SCO will crater, but who cares). The net effect will be to strengthen Linux and our right to *really* innovate.
IBM is among the ones opposed to the patents as well
You're sure about that? I'd be incredibly impressed if it's true.
Here is a better link from FFII (Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure).
Thanks, dear AC. For the lazy, here's the full article.
Blaming Bill Gates for Microsoft Worms is about the same as blaiming Henry Ford for drunk driving deaths.
Just replace "drunk driving" by "exploding gastanks" and your analogy will work fine.
NT4 Server users have until the end of 2004 for support. Windows 98 users will be the next on the list for axed support too.
And having been burned one time too many, it's a cinch that many of the admins and users involved will choose to switch to Linux or BSD (using the same machines - try that with Windows) rather than let themselves in for more of the same.
Windows may be more cost effective.
How so? They already use it.
Another way of saying the same thing is: "Penny wise, pound foolish".
Not that I even agree with your premise that it would cost more to switch immediately.
You want infantrymen who at least have some familiarty with office and windows to try learning bash or mutt?
That would be dumb, indeed. How about kde and kmail instead?
If the Army mandated Linux, there would be a 4 week training program, after which chaos would ensue because 90% of the people still didn't understand it.
That is highly unlikely. My mother could use Linux (kde, mozilla, etc) the first time she ever tried it.
You get what you pay for. Literally.
Yeah, right.
The more of these dime companies release crap boxes, the more Linux will be thought of as a crap OS, the kind of thing your redneck friends buy at Wal-Mart because they can't afford a real PC from Dell or Gateway with the "good" OS.
I walked into a store and saw one of these special offer white boxes for 300 Euros (about $360) and grabbed it immediately, for a test box. It's a K7 2400+, with 40 GB disk and a 256 MB memory stick, which I doubled just on basic principle. I could have done even better pricewise online, but nothing beats being able to walk out of the store with a new machine in less than 5 minutes. It's a fantastic machine, no real speed daemon, but that's mainly because of the IDE disk, not the processor. It compiles a 2.4 kernel in about 5 minutes, that is kickass.
I'm posting with it now, by the way. Totally solid, I haven't got a single complaint. Oh wait, the mouse was too cheap, I returned it for a 3 EU credit and got a logitech.
"Giving away code means gaining fame - that is, if the code is good. With enough fame, you can write your own ticket."
I think this is a bit too optimistic. Realistically, in my experience, giving away good code means fame for a small minority of the people who do so. And for the rest, it means a few pats on the back followed by continuing to live in obscurity as a little-known, non-famous coder.
You ignored the "if the code is good" part.
Get on the bus!
Actually, it's a garbage truck, and everybody riding on it smells like they've being doing it for a while.
It still won't get you laid, though.
You don't know that.
Nonsense. IF YOU ARE LUCKY, that will happen. There's plenty of great code out there that doesn't result in fame...
When you should at a target, you won't always hit it, but if you are good, you can reasonably expect to. Somebody famous once said: "the more I practice, the luckier I get".
You can bet though, the message the SCO signs carried - linux = communism, GPL = theft, OSS = Kazaa - resonated with a few less-informed people.
But more importantly, is the effect re informed people. Those signs will surely come back to haunt SCO.
It sounds like this guy got all of the publicity and free computers that he wanted, but he STILL wasn't bringing in enough money to pay his bills.
Obviously, writing great code, giving it away and getting famous isn't the whole story. That's enough to get you onto the green, but then you still have to sink the putt. This normally requires people skills. Another way of saying it is: giving away your code creates opportunities, but it's still up to you to take advantage of them.
It's constantly amazing to me too how many of the Gnu-Uber-Alles folks don't really understand that they are giving their work away for free and can not reasonably expect anything in return. Not a salary, not an occasional trip, not even acknowledgement.
You are quite wrong about that. Giving away code means gaining fame - that is, if the code is good. With enough fame, you can write your own ticket.
In today's world, fame is bankable, make no mistake about it. Now, take note that this only addresses the money factor. Giving away code - good code - has many other benefits:
- Gain respect from your peers
- Social aspects - make useful contacts, meet like-minded people
- Improve your skills
- Take advantage of the debugging/design power of peer review
- Forestall possible attempts by others to patent ideas you've discovered independently
- People will send you free computers
- If you're good enough, expect to be invited to join organizations, speak at events, etc - it's fun.
And so on.