By that point, it was far too late. Slashdotters are too smart to try to do the same thing and expect different results -after getting burned many times we stopped reading his shit.
I'll be the first to admit that my knowledge of flash-based games is quite limited; but just because java script can do most of what flash can do doesn't mean that it's ready to do quality games.
In fact, a great real-world example of this is CentOS. Redhat charges for their binaries, but since all of their code is FOSS CentOS was able to snag it, re-brand and re-distribute it.
Kqemu seems to make more of a difference on Linux than any other platform, as far as I can tell. (not having performed benchmarks of any sort). Frankly, VirtualBox seems to be the best of the lot, at least as far as disk I/O is concerned (I'm basing this on how long it takes to boot pkgsrc using OpenBSD in a VM; in VirtualBox it's near native, VMWare it's quite sluggish and takes a long-ass time, I wouldn't dream of trying this in Qemu).
If it was any sort of priority for Sun, that project would have actually gotten somewhere after three and a half years.
Alternate assessment, Sun may not legally be able to rewrite them, depending on the terms of whatever licensing agreement keeps those bits closed
If that was the case, they wouldn't sponsor a project to rewrite those parts of the tree. Sun is nothing if not extremely careful about what legal ground they walk on.
If there was even a slight bit of doubt about whether or not they could rewrite those portions, that project would not exist on a sun-sponsored site.
If it was any sort of priority for Sun, that project would have actually gotten somewhere after three and a half years. If it's not important to Sun, it's not important to me, either.
Not to mention the fact that Sun is financially circling the drain, which means that the future of OpenSolaris is very much in question. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised to see Sun try to sue people for distributing the binary bits later on down the road if they ever reach a point of financial desperation (or if they ever get sold off to a SCO-like organisation).
Personally, I'd rather install FreeBSD, which I trust will continue to be here and relevant (-not here in a technical "it's available and there's a usergroup of five people" sense like plan 9 is) and which I am able to compile a working, 100% Free version of.
Their license is OSI approved, but you can't compile a working system using only the parts that are open source.
Let me clarify this before someone gets confused -by "Their" I only meant Opensolaris. NetBSD and FreeBSD include binary blob device drivers -but you can compile a working system without them. You can't compile a working system without using the binary-only components of OpenSolaris.
It's not possible to compile Opensolaris without downloading and using a whole bunch of binary components which are distributed under a proprietary license. (see here for details.
This is in stark contrast to OpenBSD (and to a lesser degree NetBSD and/or FreeBSD -both of which include proprietary binary-only blobs). Their license is OSI approved, but you can't compile a working system using only the parts that are open source.
I've only known one non-geek person who doesn't use webmail; and he's in his fifties. Everyone else I know in the non-geek crowd uses Yahoo or doesn't use the internet at all.
I was considering getting it when I saw it on sale for $9.99 at Best Buy, until I remembered the fuss kicked up over it here. That, plus the fact that seeing a relatively new game go for $9.99 raises a few alarms in and of itself.
>Just because there are large barriers to entry in the preinstalled OEM OS market doesn't mean that you didn't pay for Windows. No, the fact that the computer costs the same with or without windows means that I didn't pay for windows. I don't give a shit who paid for it, the main point I'm making and that you're ignoring is that I didn't pay for it; and that's all I'm concerned with.
Practically speaking? No, it didn't. IE I did not have to plop down an additonal $100 (much less $300 -god god WTF?) to get windows installed on my $300 PC -and since there were no $200 PCs with the same specs I don't buy the whole "The price of windows makes your computer cost more omfg omfg omfg" BS.
In practical terms NO I have not paid for either of my copies of windows, and NO they are not pirated.
>your post really makes no sense at all. Your failure at reading comprehension really isn't my problem. Regardless, I'll break it down for you. Advantages to using windows:
1)Comes free (for all practical purposes) with your PC.
2)Is able to run a wide assortment of professional-grade software which is not offered for Linux (note that I'm saying NOTHING about price here --nor was I in the original comment. Commas, motherfuckers --can you parse them?)
3)Can play mp3s and usually DVDs out of the box for free.
While I'm responding to flamers: Yo! Mad Merlin! Who in the FUCK pays $300 for windows? Who in the real world does that? Fucking no fucking one, that's who. The shit's already included in the price of your PC; stop looking for extreme corner cases to prop up your weak, untenable argument, fool.
> That's not free on Windows - the cheapest DVD playback software tends to run about $30 on top of whatever Windows costs already. Most off the shelf systems come with that software bundled, but you're still paying for it.
I'm also paying for the laser that comes "bundled" as part of the DVD -and that I'd have to pay money for if I wanted one that was seperate from the unit I'm buying. No one complains about that, however --because it's all one package. Practically speaking, I haven't found any need to actually pay for a seperate program -any more than I've found the need to pay for a seperate laser.
> I get the feeling that you, uh, don't care much for Linux.
>I'd refute you but saw the "aesthetically pleasing desktop" with windows and decided not to bother. Not sure what you mean there. Do you mean that you run OS X and therefore would win by default -or do you mean that you run one of crappy linux desktops and realize that only someone with horrifically crap tastes would think that either KDE or Gnome are prettier and easier to use than XP or Vista?
Uh, I don't believe you get DVD playback included in Windows, at least not in XP. You do get MP3 support included, but then, that's not the same thing as free, is it? Presumably you paid for your copy of Windows, either off-the-shelf or as part of a new computer purchase.
I've been able to play DVDs just fine with the last two computers I've bought, and before that I got a free copy of a dvd program (powerdvd, I think?) for windows when I bought a standalone dvd drive.
So, yeah -I've always been able to play mp3s and watch DVDs for free on windows; it's only on Linux (the so-called "Free software" platform) where I've been coerced into paying.
It would be a lot better if they specifically addressed the whole Roland Pipsqueel orwhathisnameis ( I can't be arsed to look for one of his stores) accusations.
Sorry, it's obvious to anyone whose been here a while that certain stories are posted onto the front page because someone in the slashdot compound is getting compensation "above and beyond" the usual ad revenue. Roland's stories are an example of that -for more just browse through some of the stories tagged as slashvertisements.
Now it can be viewed skeptically for it's "bait and switch" claim. "Linux is free software, except you have to pay for these packages over here if you want to view any of your media, and no -you can't redistribute or modify them".
Fuck that; at least using windows I get the same functionality for free, I get an assortment of professional third party software (eg Photoshop) and I get a coherent, polished and aesthetically pleasing desktop as well!
Slashdot Mirror
A little from column 'a', a little from column 'b'...
Every few years a new wave of kids discover the Pakin Complaint Generator. Apparently it's that time again.
Control.
By that point, it was far too late. Slashdotters are too smart to try to do the same thing and expect different results -after getting burned many times we stopped reading his shit.
I'll be the first to admit that my knowledge of flash-based games is quite limited; but just because java script can do most of what flash can do doesn't mean that it's ready to do quality games.
In fact, a great real-world example of this is CentOS. Redhat charges for their binaries, but since all of their code is FOSS CentOS was able to snag it, re-brand and re-distribute it.
Kqemu seems to make more of a difference on Linux than any other platform, as far as I can tell. (not having performed benchmarks of any sort). Frankly, VirtualBox seems to be the best of the lot, at least as far as disk I/O is concerned (I'm basing this on how long it takes to boot pkgsrc using OpenBSD in a VM; in VirtualBox it's near native, VMWare it's quite sluggish and takes a long-ass time, I wouldn't dream of trying this in Qemu).
If that was the case, they wouldn't sponsor a project to rewrite those parts of the tree. Sun is nothing if not extremely careful about what legal ground they walk on.
If there was even a slight bit of doubt about whether or not they could rewrite those portions, that project would not exist on a sun-sponsored site.
If it was any sort of priority for Sun, that project would have actually gotten somewhere after three and a half years. If it's not important to Sun, it's not important to me, either.
Not to mention the fact that Sun is financially circling the drain, which means that the future of OpenSolaris is very much in question. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised to see Sun try to sue people for distributing the binary bits later on down the road if they ever reach a point of financial desperation (or if they ever get sold off to a SCO-like organisation).
Personally, I'd rather install FreeBSD, which I trust will continue to be here and relevant (-not here in a technical "it's available and there's a usergroup of five people" sense like plan 9 is) and which I am able to compile a working, 100% Free version of.
Let me clarify this before someone gets confused -by "Their" I only meant Opensolaris.
NetBSD and FreeBSD include binary blob device drivers -but you can compile a working system without them.
You can't compile a working system without using the binary-only components of OpenSolaris.
It's not possible to compile Opensolaris without downloading and using a whole bunch of binary components which are distributed under a proprietary license. (see here for details.
This is in stark contrast to OpenBSD (and to a lesser degree NetBSD and/or FreeBSD -both of which include proprietary binary-only blobs). Their license is OSI approved, but you can't compile a working system using only the parts that are open source.
And this is after three and a half years, guys.
Me too. Big hair, spandex and uncomfortable rashes. At least Madonna was still a hottie, though.
One of these days, Coward -POW, right in the kisser!
I've only known one non-geek person who doesn't use webmail; and he's in his fifties. Everyone else I know in the non-geek crowd uses Yahoo or doesn't use the internet at all.
I was considering getting it when I saw it on sale for $9.99 at Best Buy, until I remembered the fuss kicked up over it here. That, plus the fact that seeing a relatively new game go for $9.99 raises a few alarms in and of itself.
>Just because there are large barriers to entry in the preinstalled OEM OS market doesn't mean that you didn't pay for Windows.
No, the fact that the computer costs the same with or without windows means that I didn't pay for windows. I don't give a shit who paid for it, the main point I'm making and that you're ignoring is that I didn't pay for it; and that's all I'm concerned with.
>horrifically crap taste instead of a closed mind.
Sorry to say it -but it sounds like you've got both.
Enjoy your shitty user interface!
Practically speaking? No, it didn't. IE I did not have to plop down an additonal $100 (much less $300 -god god WTF?) to get windows installed on my $300 PC -and since there were no $200 PCs with the same specs I don't buy the whole "The price of windows makes your computer cost more omfg omfg omfg" BS.
In practical terms NO I have not paid for either of my copies of windows, and NO they are not pirated.
>your post really makes no sense at all.
Your failure at reading comprehension really isn't my problem. Regardless, I'll break it down for you.
Advantages to using windows:
1)Comes free (for all practical purposes) with your PC.
2)Is able to run a wide assortment of professional-grade software which is not offered for Linux (note that I'm saying NOTHING about price here --nor was I in the original comment. Commas, motherfuckers --can you parse them?)
3)Can play mp3s and usually DVDs out of the box for free.
While I'm responding to flamers: Yo! Mad Merlin! Who in the FUCK pays $300 for windows? Who in the real world does that? Fucking no fucking one, that's who. The shit's already included in the price of your PC; stop looking for extreme corner cases to prop up your weak, untenable argument, fool.
> That's not free on Windows - the cheapest DVD playback software tends to run about $30 on top of whatever Windows costs already. Most off the shelf systems come with that software bundled, but you're still paying for it.
I'm also paying for the laser that comes "bundled" as part of the DVD -and that I'd have to pay money for if I wanted one that was seperate from the unit I'm buying. No one complains about that, however --because it's all one package. Practically speaking, I haven't found any need to actually pay for a seperate program -any more than I've found the need to pay for a seperate laser.
> I get the feeling that you, uh, don't care much for Linux.
I love Free Software; I'm just not monogamous.
>I'd refute you but saw the "aesthetically pleasing desktop" with windows and decided not to bother.
Not sure what you mean there. Do you mean that you run OS X and therefore would win by default -or do you mean that you run one of crappy linux desktops and realize that only someone with horrifically crap tastes would think that either KDE or Gnome are prettier and easier to use than XP or Vista?
Uh, I don't believe you get DVD playback included in Windows, at least not in XP. You do get MP3 support included, but then, that's not the same thing as free, is it? Presumably you paid for your copy of Windows, either off-the-shelf or as part of a new computer purchase.
I've been able to play DVDs just fine with the last two computers I've bought, and before that I got a free copy of a dvd program (powerdvd, I think?) for windows when I bought a standalone dvd drive.
So, yeah -I've always been able to play mp3s and watch DVDs for free on windows; it's only on Linux (the so-called "Free software" platform) where I've been coerced into paying.
It would be a lot better if they specifically addressed the whole Roland Pipsqueel orwhathisnameis ( I can't be arsed to look for one of his stores) accusations.
Sorry, it's obvious to anyone whose been here a while that certain stories are posted onto the front page because someone in the slashdot compound is getting compensation "above and beyond" the usual ad revenue. Roland's stories are an example of that -for more just browse through some of the stories tagged as slashvertisements.
Now it can be viewed skeptically for it's "bait and switch" claim. "Linux is free software, except you have to pay for these packages over here if you want to view any of your media, and no -you can't redistribute or modify them".
Fuck that; at least using windows I get the same functionality for free, I get an assortment of professional third party software (eg Photoshop) and I get a coherent, polished and aesthetically pleasing desktop as well!