And how does a tiny company like SCO manage to get this much press attention? The guys who sued MS and won a court judgement certainly got nowhere near this much press. Sure the activism of Linux advocates explains some of it but still.. Could there be more to this than meets the eye?
Yeah, El got it right in another post: the media has a hunch that SCO is a proxy for Microsoft. They understand that this is really MS attempting to crush opposition without the DOJ noticing. The reporters can almost smell the backroom deals, and they'd kill to be the first to expose it. But I would be surprised if they ever find any proof.
My biggest annoyance is the installers. Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake -- they are seriously annoying. I know, the installers have seen tons of work and improvements, because Linux doesn't usually come preinstalled. And yes, a simple install is really easy with these things. BUT, try running an install on a 100 mhz 486 or a low-end Pentium with 32 megs of RAM. Oftentimes, it won't work, and it's not even Linux itself that imposes the cutoff. It's the installers. They've grown bulky. I believe Alan Cox himself (or another prominent Linux person) was recently talking about running SuSE on an old 32 meg box, and someone asked how that was possible, given the system requirements. Turns out he installed it onto a disk on another computer, then transferred the disk to the low-end computer and tweaked the heck out of it. SuSE would run on lower-end hardware if the installer would get out of the way. I've seen posts here on Slashdot about how an installer would say no support for z or x, but then you would go into kernel config, rebuild, and you have z or x. I wish installers were more intelligent and more optimized to reflect the real requirements of Linux.
spending lots of money on advertising... Which is, of course, silly to do for a free project
Yep, I'm learning this. But not for the reasons you think. Try advertising a free project using Google's adwords. They'll kill the ad, asking you to substantiate the claim that the software is free. However, they don't actually give you any method to substantiate the claim -- they only give you the option to change the ad! I tried replying via email (never read/responded to) and even adding text to my Web site to note that the project was under a BSD license. No response, no way to undo their block.
Hmm. Now that I'm ranting about it, I think I'll change the ad text from "free" to "open source" and see if they block that. Fewer people will understand it, but a gimped ad is better than none, I guess.
Someone should infiltrate. Either get the job so you can try to work within their system and convince your coworkers to behave ethically, or get in there and see how long you can keep the job while you royally undermine the company's business.
Maybe we need to start a little campaign...something along the lines of everyone shouting: "Look, I already paid to see the f***ing movie, didn't I!?!" every time one of these ads comes on.
...but I had worked up a response the their campaign last Friday, I think. It's called Shout at the Screen. Basically, I suggest using their ads as a platform to reclaim the public domain, or at least make people aware of the issue.
the best way to start winning them over is to provide free software for Windows
Yeah, I agree that this will help build mindshare. Once my wife began using Mozilla and OpenOffice on her Win98SE box, she was a bit more comfortable on my SuSE Linux 8.1 laptop. So there is something to this.
However, there is also something to having a killer app for your platform. Apple has desktop publishing locked up, and video editing a bit too (at least at the consumer level). Sure, anything the Mac can do, other systems can reproduce. Likewise, anything Linux can do, others could copy. But taking the lead in an area means people default to your system. You can see Linux doing this for high-end 3D animation, and high-end video work seems to be coming along for Linux too. And of course, the Linux server-based apps seem to really trounce Windows in a few areas. That's our "lock" and we need to do it more. Mozilla is the next thing I see -- more features than the competition, more standards, more stability, more up-to-date.
Finally, as a developer who has released a few Perl, PHP, and AppleScript apps, I find that the best way to win someone over is ease of installation. Wizards, wizards, wizards. Once past that, it's all user interface from what I can see. Is your app more intuitive? Does it expose more options in a sensible way? I have found that most things that are difficult on Linux are justified by users/developers with comments such as "this IS hard, this isn't for idiots, this is how it has to be." And then a month or a year later, another app comes out that does exactly the same thing with no feature loss or configurability loss, and it does it better. And it "outsells" the old product well. I am experiencing this right now with one of my products -- a free photo album tool called PHPortfolio. PHPix is more powerful, easier to install, and simpler to use. My app is getting trounced. But it should -- it's crufty. Happily, everything is free, so no loss other than ego.:)
I beat morrowind in around 40 hours and baldur's gate in 60 hours (and I did every single quest in baldur's gate too).
Not in a single 60-hour game you didn't. Certain quests are spawned by alignment and people in your party -- there is no possible way to have every NPC join your group at every required point that a side quest can spawn, and there is no way to have every alignment in a single game. In addition, certain quests are based on other quests -- if you did one, then the rest are closed to you. You wouldn't be able to do all the quests. Hell, even if you used a hack to allow you to try everything, the class-related quests would work out bizarrely if you weren't right. And of course, if you're using a hack, the entire concept of a 60-hour game is suspect.
Interesting. I went through the results and found a mystery (at least to me). Check out this My Documents folder, and click the 10 Q & A link. Watch what happens as you click the resulting links. What is going on here?
At my job, about 6 months ago, I moved from one part of a building to another. I had been using an NT system for a couple years -- it was slow, but it rarely crashed. When I moved, IT wanted to upgrade the computer to XP. I balked, but they did it anyway. Short summary: over the next 2 months, they did 3 RE-installs, with my downtime being almost 100% the entire period. I worked from home, I complained, I brought in my own laptops, but they refused to let me do an installation myself, and they refused to put me back on NT.
Finally, I realized that my work was suffering so badly that my boss was ready to blame me. But my boss is the head of IT, and knew of the problems. So at last I took the broken computer they gave me -- which was heavily locked down (no admin rights for me, no CMOS access), pulled off the cover, pulled out the battery, waited for CMOS to clear, then installed SuSE Linux 8.1, and finally set YAST to manage packages via the network (so I didn't have to keep bringing in my CDs if I needed a new app).
Finally, I was productive. I've had some problems for the last 3 months, though. Mozilla on Linux can't do those IE-only logins via HTTPS (the ones that require username, password, and domain), and we're heavily into Exchange server, so I had a very difficult time doing email/calendaring. Also, OpenOffice is mostly good, but some of my presentations looked BAD when I'd bring 'em up in PowerPoint. And I couldn't shut off the frigging autocomplete in Quanta. But the intranet, which is where I do most of my work, displayed fine. So I finally got some good work done. Recently, they gave me a new XP machine with some admin rights, and it's been a little better. I can fix my own problems, usually. But I've kept the Linux box, just in case.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Ah ha! Your true agenda comes out! Slashdot traitor!
:)
My God. How in the world did he get such a low user number?!?
Bwahahaha! Not only do you think we have girlfriends, you think Slashdot has two female readers! What a riot!
That commercial has more problems than just a bad tagline. Like that it handily ignores their assualt on the public domain.
Yeah, El got it right in another post: the media has a hunch that SCO is a proxy for Microsoft. They understand that this is really MS attempting to crush opposition without the DOJ noticing. The reporters can almost smell the backroom deals, and they'd kill to be the first to expose it. But I would be surprised if they ever find any proof.
Well, if Microsoft can get users to shutdown by going to the start menu, it's only fair that Linux gets a similar chance!
Ahhhh. That's better. Thanks.
You know you've been reading Slashdot too long when seeing the word "sheer" spelled properly throws you for a loop.
Quick! Somebody use the word in the same context, but spell it shear! I'm having withdrawls!
::drumroll::
Well, you know, no one ever got fired for buying Microsoft.
waiting... waiting...
My biggest annoyance is the installers. Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake -- they are seriously annoying. I know, the installers have seen tons of work and improvements, because Linux doesn't usually come preinstalled. And yes, a simple install is really easy with these things. BUT, try running an install on a 100 mhz 486 or a low-end Pentium with 32 megs of RAM. Oftentimes, it won't work, and it's not even Linux itself that imposes the cutoff. It's the installers. They've grown bulky. I believe Alan Cox himself (or another prominent Linux person) was recently talking about running SuSE on an old 32 meg box, and someone asked how that was possible, given the system requirements. Turns out he installed it onto a disk on another computer, then transferred the disk to the low-end computer and tweaked the heck out of it. SuSE would run on lower-end hardware if the installer would get out of the way. I've seen posts here on Slashdot about how an installer would say no support for z or x, but then you would go into kernel config, rebuild, and you have z or x. I wish installers were more intelligent and more optimized to reflect the real requirements of Linux.
Thanks!
OMG that is funny!
Yep, I'm learning this. But not for the reasons you think. Try advertising a free project using Google's adwords. They'll kill the ad, asking you to substantiate the claim that the software is free. However, they don't actually give you any method to substantiate the claim -- they only give you the option to change the ad! I tried replying via email (never read/responded to) and even adding text to my Web site to note that the project was under a BSD license. No response, no way to undo their block.
Hmm. Now that I'm ranting about it, I think I'll change the ad text from "free" to "open source" and see if they block that. Fewer people will understand it, but a gimped ad is better than none, I guess.
Someone should infiltrate. Either get the job so you can try to work within their system and convince your coworkers to behave ethically, or get in there and see how long you can keep the job while you royally undermine the company's business.
Done.
...but I had worked up a response the their campaign last Friday, I think. It's called Shout at the Screen. Basically, I suggest using their ads as a platform to reclaim the public domain, or at least make people aware of the issue.
Yeah, I agree that this will help build mindshare. Once my wife began using Mozilla and OpenOffice on her Win98SE box, she was a bit more comfortable on my SuSE Linux 8.1 laptop. So there is something to this.
However, there is also something to having a killer app for your platform. Apple has desktop publishing locked up, and video editing a bit too (at least at the consumer level). Sure, anything the Mac can do, other systems can reproduce. Likewise, anything Linux can do, others could copy. But taking the lead in an area means people default to your system. You can see Linux doing this for high-end 3D animation, and high-end video work seems to be coming along for Linux too. And of course, the Linux server-based apps seem to really trounce Windows in a few areas. That's our "lock" and we need to do it more. Mozilla is the next thing I see -- more features than the competition, more standards, more stability, more up-to-date.
Finally, as a developer who has released a few Perl, PHP, and AppleScript apps, I find that the best way to win someone over is ease of installation. Wizards, wizards, wizards. Once past that, it's all user interface from what I can see. Is your app more intuitive? Does it expose more options in a sensible way? I have found that most things that are difficult on Linux are justified by users/developers with comments such as "this IS hard, this isn't for idiots, this is how it has to be." And then a month or a year later, another app comes out that does exactly the same thing with no feature loss or configurability loss, and it does it better. And it "outsells" the old product well. I am experiencing this right now with one of my products -- a free photo album tool called PHPortfolio. PHPix is more powerful, easier to install, and simpler to use. My app is getting trounced. But it should -- it's crufty. Happily, everything is free, so no loss other than ego. :)
Not in a single 60-hour game you didn't. Certain quests are spawned by alignment and people in your party -- there is no possible way to have every NPC join your group at every required point that a side quest can spawn, and there is no way to have every alignment in a single game. In addition, certain quests are based on other quests -- if you did one, then the rest are closed to you. You wouldn't be able to do all the quests. Hell, even if you used a hack to allow you to try everything, the class-related quests would work out bizarrely if you weren't right. And of course, if you're using a hack, the entire concept of a 60-hour game is suspect.
\/\/0rk 0n +h053 5p311in6 5ki115!
Peter Noone? What does Herman's Hermits have to do with an SBC/RIAA battle? Oh no! Surely Peter hasn't chosen to side with the RIAA?
Interesting. I went through the results and found a mystery (at least to me). Check out this My Documents folder, and click the 10 Q & A link. Watch what happens as you click the resulting links. What is going on here?
The sad thing is I can read it, and I'm in management. Ph34r /\/\y P0/\/\3rp0in7 5ki115!
Yes. Because the .bash_history file left behind by a hacker is always reliable and is never tampered with.
At my job, about 6 months ago, I moved from one part of a building to another. I had been using an NT system for a couple years -- it was slow, but it rarely crashed. When I moved, IT wanted to upgrade the computer to XP. I balked, but they did it anyway. Short summary: over the next 2 months, they did 3 RE-installs, with my downtime being almost 100% the entire period. I worked from home, I complained, I brought in my own laptops, but they refused to let me do an installation myself, and they refused to put me back on NT.
Finally, I realized that my work was suffering so badly that my boss was ready to blame me. But my boss is the head of IT, and knew of the problems. So at last I took the broken computer they gave me -- which was heavily locked down (no admin rights for me, no CMOS access), pulled off the cover, pulled out the battery, waited for CMOS to clear, then installed SuSE Linux 8.1, and finally set YAST to manage packages via the network (so I didn't have to keep bringing in my CDs if I needed a new app).
Finally, I was productive. I've had some problems for the last 3 months, though. Mozilla on Linux can't do those IE-only logins via HTTPS (the ones that require username, password, and domain), and we're heavily into Exchange server, so I had a very difficult time doing email/calendaring. Also, OpenOffice is mostly good, but some of my presentations looked BAD when I'd bring 'em up in PowerPoint. And I couldn't shut off the frigging autocomplete in Quanta. But the intranet, which is where I do most of my work, displayed fine. So I finally got some good work done. Recently, they gave me a new XP machine with some admin rights, and it's been a little better. I can fix my own problems, usually. But I've kept the Linux box, just in case. :)
If by "technically" you mean "intentional and exactly as designed."