It really suites the mainstream journalists and closed source funded media to emphasize Gnome over KDE. The reasons are quite simple.
1 : KDE works already and a system with KDE preloaded is a credible contender on the desktop.
2 : Gnome verbally promises to be better than KDE and everything else.
3 : The Gnome Design is _not_ so spectacularly superior as to render KDE obsolete. In fact once you get past the stability and License issues. Gnome vs KDE becomes a simple matter of taste. No major objective superiority just "Well I like the Gnome theme manager or I prefer the KDE PPP Dialer".
4 : Gnome is Alpha ( BETA is when the whole thing is frozen and only bugfixes are going into CVS ) Therefore any Semi clued person who tries to install it today will suffer for it and possibly hate the system.
All these things taken together mean that Linux is an unfulfilled promise, just like Windows "Look how long we have been waiting for a desktop".
They mean that the well hyped "way of the future" will be a massive letdown. Gnome is impressive on it's own. To someone who already has a Working KDE installation it's just an alternative with no clear advantages.
Most important, it lets the apparent feud within the community flourish.
Maybe there is a bug on that specific motherboard. Linux has been tested on Alpha boxes with 2 gigs of RAM and works properly. Any problems here wold be specific to the server.
Onless it's 2.0.xx which has memory problems of it's own.
Anyone remember those days when some popular sites tried to force people to use Windows and IE ? If that wasn't lame enogh for ya, check out Infobeads over on ZDNet. Funy I went there for a Linux story
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Subject: A Little Girl's Web Site Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 15:13:54 -0500 From: "Michael Silberkleit" To: Kevin Forge
In case you had not heard, I am pleased to say that Veronica Sams will continue to have her veronica.org web site. Please allow me a moment of your time to explain how this situation came about.
When we first learned of the site a few months ago, it was an inactive site that had been registered by David Sams Industries Inc. and we had no idea what would go up on the site. We were concerned that we might be facing a repeat of an earlier situation.
In 1997, someone had put up an archie.com site that contained pornographic material. We were very upset that such a site associated with our character's name would have material unsuitable for small children. Concerned parents began to e-mail us thinking we were responsible for the content because of the domain name. After extensive discussions with the owners failed to convince them to take the site down, we decided that the best way to solve this problem was to buy it from them. We did this because we believe we have an obligation to the children who may be searching for material based on the names of our characters, not because we needed another domain name.
I can understand your concerns about the veronica.org web site since initial press reports made it appear that we were trying to deny a little girl her web site. Our sole intent was to protect children from seeing objectionable material on the Internet when they accessed what they might think is an "archie" web site.
Given that David and Renee Sams were unaware of our previous problem, it is also understandable that they were initially upset with our action. However, as soon as we saw that it was a site dedicated to their daughter, we withdrew our request to place the domain on hold. I am happy to report that I met with the Sams, we shook hands and put this unfortunate matter behind us.
Now that you know the circumstances, I hope that you too will understand our actions.
For your convenience, we have gathered a number of links to articles regarding the chronology and happy settlement of this matter. To see them, please visit our web site, at: http://www.archiecomics.com/insideacp/inthenews.ht ml
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely, Michael Silberkleit, Chairman and Co-Publisher
It's that simple. Reading throgh the posts here there is nobody saying "Ohh the QPL stinks so I am going to take up this code and help finish Harmony."
This means that the only valid coments are from people whoe say Harmony no longer has a purpose.
The only "complete" ( as in store bought, single box, Name brand" ) PCs I have ever owned were a coleco Adam ( how many Slashdot have ever seen that ? ) and an IBM AT ( The Original ).
The 1st didn't run much MS software ( not sure about the basic ). The second ran DOS and I used it extensively.
All the MS software I have now is BETA testing stuff. All legit. All $0. All valuable education. ( I still find it amusing when the people who tell me Windows is better than Linux are shelling out money to have me fix Windows for them. ).
I am nearsited and have long legs ( eaven for 6.2 ). I like a workstation that alows me to lean back and stretch them out and put the monitors in my face.
This dosn't look like it but it is customisable so I woldn't bet on that.
Corel is NOT stupid. So here is how I translate this move.
1 : Corel is weakened and hurt. Simply put they are bleeding so badly they can't shove the netwinder into the sub $500 category as much as they would like to.
2 : HCC is a fast growing and strong STARTUP.
3 : The best time to own stock in a such a company is in the minutes before it makes it's IPO.
4 : Linux is the biggest buzz of 1998 and it looks to be bigger in 1999. How big ? Think Internet in 1997.
This combination of factors suggests that if HCC goes public in the summer with the Netwinder as it's flagship product and Tox on all it's adds the stock will fly into the stratosphere.
Look at how companies that are LOOSING money make out at IPO time when they are all the rage. This is a profitable company with a strong product line and all the buzz you could want. End result. That 25% stake will make Corel shareholders rich again within 2:27:34 after it goes public.
HCC on the other hand will ride the wave and crank out Netwinder for $499 and under and introduce a notebook line ( 30hour battery life is not impossible ) to make us all happy.
End result ? Even RMS. would call this a good thing(R). ( He owns that trademark )
The Jamaican Government is good at playing folow-the-leader.
Now that India is leading towards no crappie insecure software for mission critical work maybe we can talk our ministers into doing the same.
Before you ask. Yes we have tried before. 3 or 4 years ago when they wanted to buy a system for voter registration which would latter be expanded to do actual voting, we lobbied and failed to have TRW disqualified. The weird thing about that one is they used them over Delarue (SP?) The british company which prints our cash.
"Look Mr. PM. Windows isn't good enough to run a business in India. They want Linux and indigenous software. Shouldn't we be importing from them and Australia sean as we have all these cool trade agreements with them anyway ?"
Price this product acordingly and ofer similer support options. Grow the support as the instaled base increases ( we don't like to hold for 30 Mins. ).
The free developer version is optional but may be needed to seed the market since the competition is already doing that.
I remember the dos days and the joys of really crapy games ( the ones that need a boot disk:).
SB was always the soundcard of choice because every game sounds good on a creative card ( subject to the developers interpritation of "good".
I got my SB16 in 1995 because it was the only card I culd find that wold work properly in Linux, OS/2, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, WinNT, DOS and the many games that talk directly to the hardware.
Smart move IMHO... They don't need MS to like or back them to remain strong. Not when people still come into the shop and say "Are those el chepo cards REALLY Sound Blaster compatible ?"
I have been getting whiffs of this for a while now and the way that makes sense and how it will probably pan out is this.
1 : Spark Linux ( AKA Ultra Penguin ) already runs Solaris Binaries.
2 : Sun Mentioned that they would add Linux binary support to the next version of Solaris ( X86 and Spark ).
That is what's been done... here is how I stretch the logic:).
1 : Add Solaris X86 Binary support to Linux ( A relatively simple hack considering how much of the needed work is already done ).
2 : Take into consideration that binary compatibility is NOT emulation. ( I.e. Linux is reputed to run SCO bins faster than SCO. ). With this in mind there would be no need for Sun to make Linux versions of it's apps and it wouldn't need to port over any Linux apps either.
3 : Linus has already said the next version ( 2.4 or 3.0 ? ) will be "pushing for the desktop". This I take to mean that he will be doing broader driver support ( I2O, USB etc... I think it's worthwhile releasing a major 2.4 JUST for USB support once it's working right ). PnP improvements and more modularized stuff ( less need to recompile ) are pretty obvious. That crack also means ( to me ) that he and the cour team aren't going to pay much attention to big iron for a while yet. This is a smart move since as of today Sun can put more 1st rate programers in it's source code and on 64 CPU boxes than we can. I.e. The "More Eyeballs" logic works against us on large scale SMP more than any other problem.
This all sounds like maintaining both a true Solaris and a Linux/Solaris hybrid. It's already assumed that Solaris outruns Linux ( even 2.2.x ) on truly huge machines with 16CPUs and more, while Linux outruns Solaris on smaller 4 CPU and under boxes. I haven't herd claims either way in the mid range.
It's then up to the marketing department ( at Sun ) to spin it so your head hurts. Things like "Smooth scaling from a $700 workgrupe web server all the way up to a 9 terabytes database workhorse" sounds like a nice line:).
As for the license issue. This isn't a major concern since they would mearly have to ship source for Linux and whatever GPL etc... tools are included. Opening up Solaris itself and hence any Sun brewed software is a major bonus.
They won't even need to change the pricing since when you buy a Spark box you get X amount of support and most Solaris customers wouldn't mind paying the same for Linux and getting it with the same contract ( Plus the GPL, LGPL, Artistic etc... freedom )
Get the breakdown of usage within particular domains. 65.79% ofApache is *.com while 56.71% of IIS is the same. Apache has 5.64% in *.UK while IIS has 2.77%.
My translation of this is that
1: The UK is one of the biggest net users outside of the US. ( Not surprising even with the Cox family making up 10% or so of it :).
2: Apache has a bigger lead outside of mainstream American business than it dose inside.
3: That there is no market in which IIS has any advantage.
Long term prognosis is that the lead will widen and eventually IIS installed base will start to decline as those deleting it toimprove performance and stability outnumber those installing it fresh.
You need a big fast server to dole out reasonable fractions of a 3+ Gig Database. Remember that there are a lot of people who will be riding in on a T1, T3 or Cable Modem with every intention of downloading the whole database.
It costs lots of money to put a BFS online.
There is Hardware, Bandwidth and Tech time to set it up right ( even if you do it yourself, you could have been working instead ). Plus that little niggling $50 a year domain registration ( unless you want to make home on a little island:).
According to my math it's cheaper to burn 18 CDs and Fedex them to each of the listed groups than to put up a server. Bruce can afford to live comfortably ( if that's his wish ). He is not however a wealthy man. A $ 100,000 donation would probably put a strain on his budget.
My best bet on how to use this. The Programers who will get this treasure should link with each other and hammer out a single work team. I.e. Web setups and a few GPLed application separated more by purpose than by creator. The web version could be plastered on a server managed by these people but earning money on adds for sponsoring other OSS/FSF projects.
the applications should remain as simple GPL and free download in source and binary so they run on most OSs etc... The Data can then be sold for CD copying prices. Walnut Creak seams to think that amounts to $25 per set ( The price of it's 6 disk Linux set ). A DVD version is of course a nobrainer.
Work to improve the accuracy of the DATA is also a smart move.
Question. KDE is headquarters in europe and most of the core team are not Americans. Why should they care ? Or do they need it more as nonresidents ?
Slashdot Mirror
It really suites the mainstream journalists and closed source funded media to emphasize Gnome over KDE. The reasons are quite simple.
1 : KDE works already and a system with KDE preloaded is a credible contender on the desktop.
2 : Gnome verbally promises to be better than KDE and everything else.
3 : The Gnome Design is _not_ so spectacularly superior as to render KDE obsolete. In fact once you get past the stability and License issues. Gnome vs KDE becomes a simple matter of taste. No major objective superiority just "Well I like the Gnome theme manager or I prefer the KDE PPP Dialer".
4 : Gnome is Alpha ( BETA is when the whole thing is frozen and only bugfixes are going into CVS ) Therefore any Semi clued person who tries to install it today will suffer for it and possibly hate the system.
All these things taken together mean that Linux is an unfulfilled promise, just like Windows "Look how long we have been waiting for a desktop".
They mean that the well hyped "way of the future" will be a massive letdown. Gnome is impressive on it's own. To someone who already has a Working KDE installation it's just an alternative with no clear advantages.
Most important, it lets the apparent feud within the community flourish.
I have read the HOWTO and it still scares me how
much neads to be done to put a working Gnome on a
working RedHat 5.1 instalation.
Long list of Libs ( yeah you can say it's just
this or that but you still have to download and
install over a dozen files.
Then you get to Gnome itself and you wonder which
pices you really nead.
How about wraping them up into sensible bundles
as folows.
1 : GTK -: gtk+, gtk--, gtk-whatever
2 : GNOMESUPPORT -: imlib, Orbit etc...
3 : GNOMELIB -: All the base librarys for Gnome
4 : GNOMEBASE -: A basic set of apps like the
panel the XTerm, file manager Text editor
and a Gnome compliant WindowManager or two.
5 : Everything else.
Maybe there is a bug on that specific motherboard.
Linux has been tested on Alpha boxes with 2 gigs
of RAM and works properly. Any problems here wold
be specific to the server.
Onless it's 2.0.xx which has memory problems of
it's own.
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We are very sorry, but we have not yet certified your browser/platform combination. Mozilla/4.5 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.0-pre8-ac1 i586)
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Talk about backward mentality ?
Subject:
t ml
A Little Girl's Web Site
Date:
Mon, 25 Jan 1999 15:13:54 -0500
From:
"Michael Silberkleit"
To:
Kevin Forge
In case you had not heard, I am pleased to say that
Veronica Sams will continue to have her veronica.org
web site. Please allow me a moment of your time to
explain how this situation came about.
When we first learned of the site a few months ago, it
was an inactive site that had been registered by David
Sams Industries Inc. and we had no idea what would go
up on the site. We were concerned that we might be
facing a repeat of an earlier situation.
In 1997, someone had put up an archie.com site that
contained pornographic material. We were very upset
that such a site associated with our character's name
would have material unsuitable for small children.
Concerned parents began to e-mail us thinking we were
responsible for the content because of the domain name.
After extensive discussions with the owners failed to
convince them to take the site down, we decided that
the best way to solve this problem was to buy it from
them. We did this because we believe we have an
obligation to the children who may be searching for
material based on the names of our characters, not
because we needed another domain name.
I can understand your concerns about the veronica.org
web site since initial press reports made it appear
that we were trying to deny a little girl her web site.
Our sole intent was to protect children from seeing
objectionable material on the Internet when they
accessed what they might think is an "archie" web site.
Given that David and Renee Sams were unaware of our
previous problem, it is also understandable that they
were initially upset with our action. However, as soon
as we saw that it was a site dedicated to their daughter,
we withdrew our request to place the domain on hold. I
am happy to report that I met with the Sams, we shook
hands and put this unfortunate matter behind us.
Now that you know the circumstances, I hope that you too
will understand our actions.
For your convenience, we have gathered a number of links
to articles regarding the chronology and happy settlement
of this matter. To see them, please visit our web site, at:
http://www.archiecomics.com/insideacp/inthenews.h
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
Michael Silberkleit,
Chairman and Co-Publisher
We all know the call to arms that got the Linux
.plan and asked to be fingerd. :).
ball roleing, but have you all read this set of
postings in the erly days of Linux ?
I.e. Linus had a
( Get your mind out of the gutter AC
It's all here
Next time you read his diary, check out "the other :).
side". Mithinks Mrs. Cox shuld start Documenting
stuff
It's that simple. Reading throgh the posts here
there is nobody saying "Ohh the QPL stinks so I am
going to take up this code and help finish Harmony."
This means that the only valid coments are from
people whoe say Harmony no longer has a purpose.
The only "complete" ( as in store bought, single box, Name brand" ) PCs I have ever owned were a coleco Adam ( how many Slashdot have ever seen that ? ) and an IBM AT ( The Original ).
The 1st didn't run much MS software ( not sure about the basic ). The second ran DOS and I used it extensively.
All the MS software I have now is BETA testing stuff. All legit. All $0. All valuable education. ( I still find it amusing when the people who tell me Windows is better than Linux are shelling out money to have me fix Windows for them. ).
I am nearsited and have long legs ( eaven for 6.2 ). I like a workstation that alows me to lean back and stretch them out and put the monitors in my face.
This dosn't look like it but it is customisable so I woldn't bet on that.
I will say this only once.
Corel is NOT stupid. So here is how I translate this move.
1 : Corel is weakened and hurt. Simply put they are bleeding so badly they can't shove the netwinder into the sub $500 category as much as they would like to.
2 : HCC is a fast growing and strong STARTUP.
3 : The best time to own stock in a such a company is in the minutes before it makes it's IPO.
4 : Linux is the biggest buzz of 1998 and it looks to be bigger in 1999. How big ? Think Internet in 1997.
This combination of factors suggests that if HCC goes public in the summer with the Netwinder as it's flagship product and Tox on all it's adds the stock will fly into the stratosphere.
Look at how companies that are LOOSING money make out at IPO time when they are all the rage. This is a profitable company with a strong product line and all the buzz you could want. End result. That 25% stake will make Corel shareholders rich again within 2:27:34 after it goes public.
HCC on the other hand will ride the wave and crank out Netwinder for $499 and under and introduce a notebook line ( 30hour battery life is not impossible ) to make us all happy.
End result ? Even RMS. would call this a good thing(R). ( He owns that trademark )
Am I the only one who noticed that the chipmaker refused to be identifide ?
Yo. Linus. What kinda CPU is it REALLYYYYYY ?
The Jamaican Government is good at playing folow-the-leader.
Now that India is leading towards no crappie insecure software for mission critical work maybe we can talk our ministers into doing the same.
Before you ask. Yes we have tried before. 3 or 4 years ago when they wanted to buy a system for voter registration which would latter be expanded to do actual voting, we lobbied and failed to have TRW disqualified. The weird thing about that one is they used them over Delarue (SP?) The british company which prints our cash.
"Look Mr. PM. Windows isn't good enough to run a business in India. They want Linux and indigenous software. Shouldn't we be importing from them and Australia sean as we have all these cool trade agreements with them anyway ?"
Today Linux runs against NT.
Price this product acordingly and ofer similer
support options. Grow the support as the instaled
base increases ( we don't like to hold for 30
Mins. ).
The free developer version is optional but may be
needed to seed the market since the competition
is already doing that.
I remember the dos days and the joys of really :).
... They don't need MS to like or
crapy games ( the ones that need a boot disk
SB was always the soundcard of choice because
every game sounds good on a creative card
( subject to the developers interpritation of
"good".
I got my SB16 in 1995 because it was the only
card I culd find that wold work properly in Linux,
OS/2, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, WinNT, DOS and
the many games that talk directly to the hardware.
Smart move IMHO
back them to remain strong. Not when people still
come into the shop and say "Are those el chepo cards REALLY Sound Blaster compatible ?"
I have been getting whiffs of this for a while now and the way that makes sense and how it will probably pan out is this.
... here is how I stretch the logic :).
:).
1 : Spark Linux ( AKA Ultra Penguin ) already runs Solaris Binaries.
2 : Sun Mentioned that they would add Linux binary support to the next version of Solaris ( X86 and Spark ).
That is what's been done
1 : Add Solaris X86 Binary support to Linux ( A relatively simple hack considering how much of the needed work is already done ).
2 : Take into consideration that binary compatibility is NOT emulation. ( I.e. Linux is reputed to run SCO bins faster than SCO. ). With this in mind there would be no need for Sun to make Linux versions of it's apps and it wouldn't need to port over any Linux apps either.
3 : Linus has already said the next version ( 2.4 or 3.0 ? ) will be "pushing for the desktop". This I take to mean that he will be doing broader driver support ( I2O, USB etc... I think it's worthwhile releasing a major 2.4 JUST for USB support once it's working right ). PnP improvements and more modularized stuff ( less need to recompile ) are pretty obvious. That crack also means ( to me ) that he and the cour team aren't going to pay much attention to big iron for a while yet. This is a smart move since as of today Sun can put more 1st rate programers in it's source code and on 64 CPU boxes than we can. I.e. The "More Eyeballs" logic works against us on large scale SMP more than any other problem.
This all sounds like maintaining both a true Solaris and a Linux/Solaris hybrid. It's already assumed that Solaris outruns Linux ( even 2.2.x ) on truly huge machines with 16CPUs and more, while Linux outruns Solaris on smaller 4 CPU and under boxes. I haven't herd claims either way in the mid range.
It's then up to the marketing department ( at Sun ) to spin it so your head hurts. Things like "Smooth scaling from a $700 workgrupe web server all the way up to a 9 terabytes database workhorse" sounds like a nice line
As for the license issue. This isn't a major concern since they would mearly have to ship source for Linux and whatever GPL etc... tools are included. Opening up Solaris itself and hence any Sun brewed software is a major bonus.
They won't even need to change the pricing since when you buy a Spark box you get X amount of support and most Solaris customers wouldn't mind paying the same for Linux and getting it with the same contract ( Plus the GPL, LGPL, Artistic etc... freedom )
This is just what I need to justify the home network I am building. "But mom it's so that dad can reserch for his next sermon".
:)
Being the son of a pastor is not that bad
Nice.
Now lets see if all those OEM pridictions come true.
Get the breakdown of usage within particular domains. 65.79% ofApache is *.com while 56.71% of IIS is the same. Apache has
5.64% in *.UK while IIS has 2.77%.
My translation of this is that
1: The UK is one of the biggest net users outside of the US. (
Not surprising even with the Cox family making up 10% or so of it
:).
2: Apache has a bigger lead outside of mainstream American
business than it dose inside.
3: That there is no market in which IIS has any advantage.
Long term prognosis is that the lead will widen and eventually
IIS installed base will start to decline as those deleting it toimprove performance and stability outnumber those installing it
fresh.
I wish they wold provide an OS listing. I get the
distinct impresion that they compile such a
listing by default but don't publish it.
Do the math.
:).
You need a big fast server to dole out reasonable fractions of a 3+ Gig Database. Remember that there are a lot of people who will be riding in on a T1, T3 or Cable Modem with every intention of downloading the whole database.
It costs lots of money to put a BFS online.
There is Hardware, Bandwidth and Tech time to set it up right ( even if you do it yourself, you could have been working instead ). Plus that little niggling $50 a year domain registration ( unless you want to make home on a little island
According to my math it's cheaper to burn 18 CDs and Fedex them to each of the listed groups than to put up a server. Bruce can afford to live comfortably ( if that's his wish ). He is not however a wealthy man. A $ 100,000 donation would probably put a strain on his budget.
My best bet on how to use this. The Programers who will get this treasure should link with each other and hammer out a single work team. I.e. Web setups and a few GPLed application separated more by purpose than by creator. The web version could be plastered on a server managed by these people but earning money on adds for sponsoring other OSS/FSF projects.
the applications should remain as simple GPL and free download in source and binary so they run on most OSs etc... The Data can then be sold for CD copying prices. Walnut Creak seams to think that amounts to $25 per set ( The price of it's 6 disk Linux set ). A DVD version is of course a nobrainer.
Work to improve the accuracy of the DATA is also a smart move.
Question. KDE is headquarters in europe and most of the core team are not Americans. Why should they care ? Or do they need it more as nonresidents ?