Thats what people say, its not what a lot of people can actually do. First movers like Red Hat and Suse have managed to carve out a niche but even they have found it necessary to create artificial tiers in their product lines.
You see this is the trouble a company runs into when their main product is FREE.
A permanent underclass of folks who can't afford a $700 Mac Mini or a $350 Dell Desktop running Vista? Are you serious here? These same poor folks who have big screen TVs, cars, cable, $200 pairs of sneakers and the like in their subsidized apartments?
(Here's a hint for you, I grew up poor in the ghetto so I know what I'm talking about here.)
Its a pretty nice world when the biggest philosophical battles of one's life are software license issues huh? I mean some folks decide to fight against governmental corruption or tyranny or disease and hunger.
But you, you're fighting the good fight to make sure that folks can freeload on software!
During the time that RH and Mandrake didn't do this, weren't THEY suckers too for thinking you could run a business without charging for... well anything?
Its only serious if you can't afford to pay the money the companies are asking for access to the content that is protected by the DRM. I'm not homeless, I can afford it. I assume as you have internet access you could afford it too. These "freedoms" you talk about aren't like civil rights. They're the ability to use "stuff" without paying for it. Doesn't sound so patriotic when its phrased that way does it?
So do you really care about freedoms, or are you just a freeloader?
Oh come on. You really think its just folks with inherited wealth? Bill Gates inherited his wealth sure, but technology in general is a very MERITOCRATIC industry. Most of the CEOs and founders did not come from millionaire parents.
BTW hospitality workers have been relying on tips since forever, and that includes back when Americans held most of those jobs.
Actually I think the real arsehowles would be the ones who CONTINUE to insist that Linux is just a kernel and not a complete operating system. That one MUST mention a particular distro to be talking about an operating system. Its almost as bad as the folks who insist that "hackers" aren't the bad guys, but instead "crackers" are.
Its all so incredibly pedantic.
Oh right I'm on Slashdot nevermind everything I just said.
The fact that Linux is FREE, and you have to pay for Windows and Mac OS X and they still lead Linux in marketshare kinda sorta tends to suggest that perhaps you are wrong and that they are in fact better for the average user.
I think you totally missed the point of his question.
He was asking why with an idiot Republican president in charge aren't the smart people leaving the US. Those smart people would be the Liberals.
You responded with basically "Well there's still hope we'll beat the socialists (Liberals) and even if the socialists win the US is still a great place to be."
Thus your entire response makes no sense to the question asked. Liberals wouldn't want to leave if the liberals were already running the White House. They want to leave because of the current republican administration which is already closer to your what I perceive to be libertarian values than any liberal president would be.
Back during the 60's-80's when crime in cities was rampant I could understand wanting to leave them. Now thats no longer the case. Then there's the pace of life argument. That one I don't get. I live in Boston and my personal pace of life is as slow as it could be. In fact the damn city shuts down mostly at around 10PM-2AM as the public transit stops working at midnight.
People in Boston are mean, but I like it that way but folks in NYC are very nice. Traffic is fun, gives you time to listen to your iPods, dirty air builds character, and cities are full of interesting characters. Way different than the country.
Aside from geeks who frequent Slashdot and those with an anti-corporate bent, nearly everyone already has iTunes on their computer. The actual "downloading" part would probably be limited to those who have been serving on the Atlantis outpost for the past 2 years in the Pegasus galaxy fighting off the Wraith and Replicators and could only make it home for shoreleave 4 months after the iPhone was released.
National governments did away with the whole "international freedom" aspect of the internet the very first time one busted down the doors of an ISP to seize someone's servers. The internet is a global network that is located in individual countries. Slashdot is an American site serving up mainly American stories with readers from all over the world. If you constantly expect Slashdot to have an international focus, you'll just constantly experience disappointment.
Not if they either unconcerned or incapable of considering what regular users need in terms of a user interface. Ubuntu is the best Linux has to offer and doesn't come close UI wise to XP or Mac OS X. By the time it DOES, those two will have moved ahead still keeping Linux in a never ending game of "catchup".
This is one of the reasons why Microsoft's IIS is gaining marketshare on Apache. IIS has a graphical user interface. Its security and stability lesser in importance when you discover that more people can actually administrate it than can administrate Apache.
Not all the time. Choice can be deceptive in its damage. Take a look at the Linux/Open source world. Dozens of distros dividing effort and attention and resulting in a ton of duplication of effort. Same thing with many open source projects. The open source folks don't seem to get that its not progress to fork a project at the first sign of disagreement.
Apparently you've been unaware that Apple's desktop marketshare is actually increasing. Its at 7% now in the US.
As for Linux, even YOU will stop porting people over to it when you get sick of being their tech support. When those folks have problems with their Linux installs they'll have to come to you because no one else will be able to figure their systems out.
Slashdot Mirror
What information and knowledge then can you not access from a Windows or Mac OS X based computer?
Thats what people say, its not what a lot of people can actually do. First movers like Red Hat and Suse have managed to carve out a niche but even they have found it necessary to create artificial tiers in their product lines.
You see this is the trouble a company runs into when their main product is FREE.
A permanent underclass of folks who can't afford a $700 Mac Mini or a $350 Dell Desktop running Vista? Are you serious here? These same poor folks who have big screen TVs, cars, cable, $200 pairs of sneakers and the like in their subsidized apartments?
(Here's a hint for you, I grew up poor in the ghetto so I know what I'm talking about here.)
The thing about old people is that they're still alive, and no "product" is important enough to deprive them of what they have been using forever.
You'll just have to wait your turn.
Its a pretty nice world when the biggest philosophical battles of one's life are software license issues huh? I mean some folks decide to fight against governmental corruption or tyranny or disease and hunger.
But you, you're fighting the good fight to make sure that folks can freeload on software!
Woo hoo!
Thank the lord for Richard M Stallman.
During the time that RH and Mandrake didn't do this, weren't THEY suckers too for thinking you could run a business without charging for ... well anything?
Its only serious if you can't afford to pay the money the companies are asking for access to the content that is protected by the DRM. I'm not homeless, I can afford it. I assume as you have internet access you could afford it too. These "freedoms" you talk about aren't like civil rights. They're the ability to use "stuff" without paying for it. Doesn't sound so patriotic when its phrased that way does it?
So do you really care about freedoms, or are you just a freeloader?
Ever consider for a moment you got those RSI issues because of your distaste for dumbed down GUI interfaces?
Not seeing how any of that makes Bill less evil.
Seriously.
So whats stopping you from sticking with Slackware or Debian or Linux From Scratch?
So you use Linux because you're paranoid?
Oh come on. You really think its just folks with inherited wealth? Bill Gates inherited his wealth sure, but technology in general is a very MERITOCRATIC industry. Most of the CEOs and founders did not come from millionaire parents.
BTW hospitality workers have been relying on tips since forever, and that includes back when Americans held most of those jobs.
How is it drivel? The parent is allowed to post inflammatory comments about the rich and he's not supposed to be called on it?
And it was a joke, don't take life so seriously. Don't be an Internet Tough Guy.
Someone with money ran off with your mom and caused your dad to never recover from the loss didn't they?
If that happened to me, I'd hate rich folks as much as you do too.
Actually I think the real arsehowles would be the ones who CONTINUE to insist that Linux is just a kernel and not a complete operating system. That one MUST mention a particular distro to be talking about an operating system. Its almost as bad as the folks who insist that "hackers" aren't the bad guys, but instead "crackers" are.
Its all so incredibly pedantic.
Oh right I'm on Slashdot nevermind everything I just said.
The fact that Linux is FREE, and you have to pay for Windows and Mac OS X and they still lead Linux in marketshare kinda sorta tends to suggest that perhaps you are wrong and that they are in fact better for the average user.
I think you totally missed the point of his question.
He was asking why with an idiot Republican president in charge aren't the smart people leaving the US. Those smart people would be the Liberals.
You responded with basically "Well there's still hope we'll beat the socialists (Liberals) and even if the socialists win the US is still a great place to be."
Thus your entire response makes no sense to the question asked. Liberals wouldn't want to leave if the liberals were already running the White House. They want to leave because of the current republican administration which is already closer to your what I perceive to be libertarian values than any liberal president would be.
So who are the crooks and liars that you are talking about? Everything you said made sense until you came to this part.
Back during the 60's-80's when crime in cities was rampant I could understand wanting to leave them. Now thats no longer the case. Then there's the pace of life argument. That one I don't get. I live in Boston and my personal pace of life is as slow as it could be. In fact the damn city shuts down mostly at around 10PM-2AM as the public transit stops working at midnight.
People in Boston are mean, but I like it that way but folks in NYC are very nice. Traffic is fun, gives you time to listen to your iPods, dirty air builds character, and cities are full of interesting characters. Way different than the country.
Aside from geeks who frequent Slashdot and those with an anti-corporate bent, nearly everyone already has iTunes on their computer. The actual "downloading" part would probably be limited to those who have been serving on the Atlantis outpost for the past 2 years in the Pegasus galaxy fighting off the Wraith and Replicators and could only make it home for shoreleave 4 months after the iPhone was released.
Shit even the Asgaard use iTunes.
National governments did away with the whole "international freedom" aspect of the internet the very first time one busted down the doors of an ISP to seize someone's servers. The internet is a global network that is located in individual countries. Slashdot is an American site serving up mainly American stories with readers from all over the world. If you constantly expect Slashdot to have an international focus, you'll just constantly experience disappointment.
And Ubuntu is South African just so you know.
Not if they either unconcerned or incapable of considering what regular users need in terms of a user interface. Ubuntu is the best Linux has to offer and doesn't come close UI wise to XP or Mac OS X. By the time it DOES, those two will have moved ahead still keeping Linux in a never ending game of "catchup".
This is one of the reasons why Microsoft's IIS is gaining marketshare on Apache. IIS has a graphical user interface. Its security and stability lesser in importance when you discover that more people can actually administrate it than can administrate Apache.
Not all the time. Choice can be deceptive in its damage. Take a look at the Linux/Open source world. Dozens of distros dividing effort and attention and resulting in a ton of duplication of effort. Same thing with many open source projects. The open source folks don't seem to get that its not progress to fork a project at the first sign of disagreement.
Apparently you've been unaware that Apple's desktop marketshare is actually increasing. Its at 7% now in the US.
As for Linux, even YOU will stop porting people over to it when you get sick of being their tech support. When those folks have problems with their Linux installs they'll have to come to you because no one else will be able to figure their systems out.
You are the one making a big deal out of nothing and you are saying that HE is out of touch?