I don't use Linux because I can get it without paying for it. I use it because it's stable, fast, and I can do whatever I want with it. I buy distros all the time. I subscribe to Krud and I buy the new versions of Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSe, and Debian (Progeny) when they come out. Sure, I download ISOs the second they hit the FTP servers, but I buy the boxes because I want to support the companies I believe in and when I get a newer release the local library is much happier when I bring them a box that has an install guide and all that rather than a home-burned CD with illegible handwriting on it.
If money was the only reason to choose an OS, I'd pick up a copy of OS/2 for $10 at Goodwill (still sealed) and be done with it.
Whenever I order CDs from Cheap Bytes I order extra to give to the lib. And all the Penguin Computing systems we ordered for work came with the Red Hat 6.2 CD set, all of which are now happily living at the local library. I also donate computer books when I get a newer edition (or buy one I already have - don't laugh, I've done it more times than I care to count).
My must haves:
Programming Python, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly, natch)
Java Enterprise CD Bookshelf (as above)
Apache, the definitive guide (as above)
Linux Network Administrators Guide, 2nd Edition (as above)
UNIX CD Bookshelf (as above)
C++ the Core Language (as above)
Or most any of the O'Reilly books, really, focusing on things that aren't going to change wildly with the next version (VB, for example).
Just re-read the rest of the original post. I don't know any DSL subscribers that are below 384K, which is higher than what the original poster positied as the high speed for consumer DSL. Personally, on a good day I get 768K (Qwest is not very good at bandwidth throttling) on a bad day 384K and I'm paying for 384K. Most of my friends are in the 512K-1.5M range.
>Now, as the article discusses, there are more things the cable company has to keep track of to keep your speed high than with DSL. OTOH, you can get much higher top speeds with cable modems than with DSL.
Not an absolute truism. If you're close enough to the CO you can get 7Mbps via DSL, I don't believe that cable goes that high (could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time, but I don't think so).
Jato simply disappeared from our back in Jan. Got almost 6 hours notice that they were shutting down and haven't heard from them since. I have a nice Netopia 8 port gateway that I haven't gotten around to doing anywhing with yet...
Is it? I use my cel to get the news on the way in to work everyday and to check my mail (no, not while I'm driving! I take light rail or commuter public transit) and while I'd like a larger screen and better UI, I always thought those were incremental issues rather than systemic.
I think this is a remarkably fair scheme, especially considering how onerous MSFT or RIAA will likely be when they start charging for online music delivery. The fact that they are only planning to charge people who make a profit strikes me as being rather enlightened.
I like Mandrake, I put it on my wife's computer to move her from Windows (at her request, she got sick of blue screening several times/day).
Supporting a company sometimes means cash money rather than contributing code or what have you. As for the desirability of doing so, if the idea of supporting a company that is promoting open source is offensive to you, then you might want to consider that the alternative is a 100% Microsoft dominated world.
But I worked for Rhythms for about 10 months developing the trouble ticket system and other sundry items, so I have some reasonable degree of familiarity (and yet I can't explain why my line from Qworst goes down several times/day). Hybrid == no DSL. Pure fiber is fine, pure copper is fine. Put them together and you've got expensive uselessness.
What's the big deal? If you don't like the fact that they're asking for donations, don't donate. If it offends you that they are even asking then I have a news flash for you: that's your problem and your hang up, not theirs.
I've moved most of my systems to KRUD, but I still have a lone Mandrake box and I'm moving my wife to linux (finally) and starting her out on Mandrake. I will definitely be donating because I am too impatient to wait for retail boxes so I download the ISO's.
I've heard very mixed reviews (some people I know and respect have had great service, others terrible). But I'd disagree that they are the best ISP around bar none. I am my own ISP and I think I do a great job.
KISS has made AOL billions? Y'know I've never been a big fan of their music, but Gene Simmons is such a cool guy I can't believe he'd be involved with AOL.;)
I use my cel (Samsung 6500) to check my work mail when I'm in transit in the morning and to check news. The UI is painful and the only reason I use it is because I start getting the shakes if I can't get online (I'm pathetic,I know). I think that a better UI and slightly larger screens (A Palm sized screen would be great if it had a better UI) would do it. A co-worker has the Visor Deluxe with the wireless modem and folding keyboard and it is truly awesome.
Congresspeople being bought
on
Congress@Work
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· Score: 1
I am shocked and offended at the allegation that our elected representatives can be influenced by the contributions of large corporations. The implication that the House and Senate are less than pure and are more concerned with their own career than with the good of their constituents is truly abhorrent. Next you'll be telling me that the President of the United States might lie to the American people.
"If you listened to the Democratic and Republican platform speeches, you might have thought that they were written by Exxon, and Dow, and General Motors. Oh, wait, they were." - Ralph Nader, 1992
The laws regarding slander and libel specifically address the spreading of FALSE information and one must be able to prove MALICIOUS INTENT as well. There is a fairly high bar set on this issue and thus it does not impede the First Amendment. Courts have traditionally (though not always) tended to interpret the First in the broadest sense possible tempered with some degree of practicality (the laws against yelling "Fire!" in a crowded building, for example).
Slander is "oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation" (emphasis mine). You're thinking libel, unless the web page talks. Libel is "A false publication in writing, printing, or typewriting or in signs or pictures that maliciously damages a person's reputation". However, the Supreme court has determined that OPINION is protected by the 1st Amendment. Fordsucks.com is OPINION, not FACT and is not presented as fact, therefore it fails to meet the legal requirements to be libel or slander. There are several "Linux sucks" websites and I for one think that the people who run them have every right to express their opinion.
The fact that people are stupid should regulate the rules of the domain name system? Then we should certainly do away with.org and.net, as they seem to confuse people tremendously. Further, if a person with the same name as a celebrity has a website using their name, then they should immediately turn the domain over to said celebrity. God forbid people have to think!
>Linux seems content to compete on hype and press releases.
As does Microsoft and pretty much any venture in the high tech market these days
>This notion of manifest destiny within the Linux camp is a little irritating. I don't know who declared the Linux users the chosen people, but it is silly.
This I completely agree with. I have nothing against BSD, my home network is about evenly split between BSD and Linux. I'm less concerned with the license of the OS I use than I am with the useability. I'd use MSFT if it was better for my purposes.
Funny, I don't know many banks that use Windows on the backend, and I worked with the analysts on the banking industry back in my Smith Barney days. They tend to be built on proprietary or old school UNICES. However, I won't let the facts get in the way of your prejudices.
Linux != Unix. This seems proof enough that you don't know what the hell you're talking about. If you actually installed linux and used it with an open mind you might find that it is quite useful for many different purposes.
Abusive tone: pot calling kettle black. Get over yourself.
Nt is hardly new, the NT project was started back in 92. As far as linux being older, I'm referring to distros, not concepts or kernels. Linux has many advantages over Win, but marketing budgets is not one of them. MCSE's are indeed a class of people (they are people who have a set of shared knowledge and passed a series of common tests, just as CNE's are a class of people).
I've been running RH servers for several years now. I've had them hacked only once, and that was because someone had compromised a developers remote workstation and got in through VPN. However, I've seen the NT servers at my last several jobs compromised on a regular basis by script kiddies (the admins were all MCSE's with many years of experience).
I'd agree that BSD has strong advantages over Linux for many server applications and I run BSD as well (I'm not a purist, I lump BSD in with Linux when I say Linux, and I'm sure that will get me flamed like crazy).
Or like watching MSNBC for an unbiased opinion of NBC or Microsoft (except on days when NBC is pissed at MSFT, then they tend to be a little more honest).
> Lets face facts. Linux is an obscure, hard to use, inconsistant OS, with a few cool features and thousands of drawbacks. Microsoft has nothing to fear, and indeed is giving Linux a spurious credibility by even acknowledging it.
Spoken like a true MCSE who has never used Linux. MSFT dominates because they had a 10 year head start and a much larger marketing budget. The argument "It's popular so it's better" just doesn't work. The canonical example being beta-vs-vhs. VHS sucks, always has, always will. VHS had more money, however, and convinced manufacturers to support them over the far superior beta (using FUD in intimidating the content producers in the process).
Slashdot Mirror
If money was the only reason to choose an OS, I'd pick up a copy of OS/2 for $10 at Goodwill (still sealed) and be done with it.
Whenever I order CDs from Cheap Bytes I order extra to give to the lib. And all the Penguin Computing systems we ordered for work came with the Red Hat 6.2 CD set, all of which are now happily living at the local library. I also donate computer books when I get a newer edition (or buy one I already have - don't laugh, I've done it more times than I care to count).
My must haves: Programming Python, 2nd Edition (O'Reilly, natch) Java Enterprise CD Bookshelf (as above) Apache, the definitive guide (as above) Linux Network Administrators Guide, 2nd Edition (as above) UNIX CD Bookshelf (as above) C++ the Core Language (as above) Or most any of the O'Reilly books, really, focusing on things that aren't going to change wildly with the next version (VB, for example).
Just re-read the rest of the original post. I don't know any DSL subscribers that are below 384K, which is higher than what the original poster positied as the high speed for consumer DSL. Personally, on a good day I get 768K (Qwest is not very good at bandwidth throttling) on a bad day 384K and I'm paying for 384K. Most of my friends are in the 512K-1.5M range.
>Now, as the article discusses, there are more things the cable company has to keep track of to keep your speed high than with DSL. OTOH, you can get much higher top speeds with cable modems than with DSL.
Not an absolute truism. If you're close enough to the CO you can get 7Mbps via DSL, I don't believe that cable goes that high (could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time, but I don't think so).
Jato simply disappeared from our back in Jan. Got almost 6 hours notice that they were shutting down and haven't heard from them since. I have a nice Netopia 8 port gateway that I haven't gotten around to doing anywhing with yet...
Is it? I use my cel to get the news on the way in to work everyday and to check my mail (no, not while I'm driving! I take light rail or commuter public transit) and while I'd like a larger screen and better UI, I always thought those were incremental issues rather than systemic.
I think this is a remarkably fair scheme, especially considering how onerous MSFT or RIAA will likely be when they start charging for online music delivery. The fact that they are only planning to charge people who make a profit strikes me as being rather enlightened.
I like Mandrake, I put it on my wife's computer to move her from Windows (at her request, she got sick of blue screening several times/day). Supporting a company sometimes means cash money rather than contributing code or what have you. As for the desirability of doing so, if the idea of supporting a company that is promoting open source is offensive to you, then you might want to consider that the alternative is a 100% Microsoft dominated world.
But I worked for Rhythms for about 10 months developing the trouble ticket system and other sundry items, so I have some reasonable degree of familiarity (and yet I can't explain why my line from Qworst goes down several times/day). Hybrid == no DSL. Pure fiber is fine, pure copper is fine. Put them together and you've got expensive uselessness.
I've moved most of my systems to KRUD, but I still have a lone Mandrake box and I'm moving my wife to linux (finally) and starting her out on Mandrake. I will definitely be donating because I am too impatient to wait for retail boxes so I download the ISO's.
I've heard very mixed reviews (some people I know and respect have had great service, others terrible). But I'd disagree that they are the best ISP around bar none. I am my own ISP and I think I do a great job.
KISS has made AOL billions? Y'know I've never been a big fan of their music, but Gene Simmons is such a cool guy I can't believe he'd be involved with AOL. ;)
I use my cel (Samsung 6500) to check my work mail when I'm in transit in the morning and to check news. The UI is painful and the only reason I use it is because I start getting the shakes if I can't get online (I'm pathetic,I know). I think that a better UI and slightly larger screens (A Palm sized screen would be great if it had a better UI) would do it. A co-worker has the Visor Deluxe with the wireless modem and folding keyboard and it is truly awesome.
Doesn't promoting Linux qualify as community service?
boot floppy.
"If you listened to the Democratic and Republican platform speeches, you might have thought that they were written by Exxon, and Dow, and General Motors. Oh, wait, they were." - Ralph Nader, 1992
The laws regarding slander and libel specifically address the spreading of FALSE information and one must be able to prove MALICIOUS INTENT as well. There is a fairly high bar set on this issue and thus it does not impede the First Amendment. Courts have traditionally (though not always) tended to interpret the First in the broadest sense possible tempered with some degree of practicality (the laws against yelling "Fire!" in a crowded building, for example).
Slander is "oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation" (emphasis mine). You're thinking libel, unless the web page talks. Libel is "A false publication in writing, printing, or typewriting or in signs or pictures that maliciously damages a person's reputation". However, the Supreme court has determined that OPINION is protected by the 1st Amendment. Fordsucks.com is OPINION, not FACT and is not presented as fact, therefore it fails to meet the legal requirements to be libel or slander. There are several "Linux sucks" websites and I for one think that the people who run them have every right to express their opinion.
The fact that people are stupid should regulate the rules of the domain name system? Then we should certainly do away with .org and .net, as they seem to confuse people tremendously. Further, if a person with the same name as a celebrity has a website using their name, then they should immediately turn the domain over to said celebrity. God forbid people have to think!
>This notion of manifest destiny within the Linux camp is a little irritating. I don't know who declared the Linux users the chosen people, but it is silly. This I completely agree with. I have nothing against BSD, my home network is about evenly split between BSD and Linux. I'm less concerned with the license of the OS I use than I am with the useability. I'd use MSFT if it was better for my purposes.
Linux != Unix. This seems proof enough that you don't know what the hell you're talking about. If you actually installed linux and used it with an open mind you might find that it is quite useful for many different purposes.
Abusive tone: pot calling kettle black. Get over yourself.
I've been running RH servers for several years now. I've had them hacked only once, and that was because someone had compromised a developers remote workstation and got in through VPN. However, I've seen the NT servers at my last several jobs compromised on a regular basis by script kiddies (the admins were all MCSE's with many years of experience).
I'd agree that BSD has strong advantages over Linux for many server applications and I run BSD as well (I'm not a purist, I lump BSD in with Linux when I say Linux, and I'm sure that will get me flamed like crazy).
> Lets face facts. Linux is an obscure, hard to use, inconsistant OS, with a few cool features and thousands of drawbacks. Microsoft has nothing to fear, and indeed is giving Linux a spurious credibility by even acknowledging it. Spoken like a true MCSE who has never used Linux. MSFT dominates because they had a 10 year head start and a much larger marketing budget. The argument "It's popular so it's better" just doesn't work. The canonical example being beta-vs-vhs. VHS sucks, always has, always will. VHS had more money, however, and convinced manufacturers to support them over the far superior beta (using FUD in intimidating the content producers in the process).