This guy is using a dinosaur notebook. It only has 64mb of RAM, a 4.3gig HD and a Celeron400a (whatever that means. Whats the Mhz on that thing?)CPU.
I'm starting to wonder. Is one of the requirements to being a faithful free software proponent that you suffer using old and vastly outdated hardware to compliment your largely incompatible and non-user-friendly software? Then once you've installed the latest distro, which is surely a lot more resource hungry then the fabled "bare kernels" which so many love to boast they've installed on their toasters, you bitch about how slowly it performs? Give me a break.
Alright first you refuse to admit that proprietary software is the best choice for most regular users because the hassle of using open source software outweighs the freedom you gain by using it. It is absoltutely NOT worthwile to sacrifice some functionality so that we can all pledge allegience to the GPL. As said many times before, some folks have some work to get done, would like to get it done and then go outside to play, spend time with their families....etc without having to come up with work arounds to get their OSS systems back up to the level of functionality they previously had with their proprietary systems.
Next you're trying to tell us all that Microsoft is not a profitable corporation because of some link to a very obscure website. I think in this current environment of discovering accounting tricks that Microsoft's own tricks would have been uncovered by now if they had any. I do know they settled recently with the SEC but I cannot remember exactly what for but I DO know that the situation wasn't so grave as to switch their status from on of a profitable corp to an unprofitable one.
This post needs to be modded up. The part about the "long-bearded steel worker" is just classic. I was laughing my butt off. It also brings up the important point that MAYBE you don't want some strung out bitter hippie producing and or maintaining your Enterprise class software. Especially when the only thing they want to talk about in times of a crisis is "Software Freedom" and why producing well supported and highly polished proprietary software that WORKS is somehow "limiting your freedom."
Citrix only works for software which has application server components or multiuser components. For other software that does not have those features it does NOT work.
Educated in freedom? Do I have to remind you what that sounds like? Leftist communist revolutionaries used to say the same exact things about the pampered and comfortable capitalist middle classes. Is this a cultural revolution we're talking about here or everyday computing usage?
I don't know how you can say that XTerms can do "everything" a PC can. Sure if you don't mind slow load times, less software availability and single points of failure. In my company could you find us a XTerm version of the real estate software that we run on client PC's individually? I don't think so.
There's a TON of things that can't be done NOW in free software. Sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "Not true, not true, not true" everytime this is mentioned helps no one, especially not you. VMWare does NOT work for everything and for the things that don't need VMWare they aren't equivalents.
It does not matter if most people " as very expensive, error prone typewriters-cum-calculators.". Those overgrown typewritters are, when running Windows, able to run all the software you could ever possibly need. Freedom? What good is freedom on Linux when you don't have the rest of the software you need? I run Linux at home on one of my machines but for my job in real estate it is absolutely useless. Now I know my industry isn't the only industry in the world but it is one. And it certainly refutes your statement that anything a PC can do, open source can do as well. Educated in freedom. Thats a good one. So what am I supposed to do after I put on my soldiers uniform, march my co-workers into "re-education camps", give them open source software and they STILL ask me why the stuff doesn't "WORK RIGHT NOW"? Should my response each time they ask be, "In due time, at least now you have freedom!"?
I guess I really should have known that you as a Debian user and or coder would approach this issue from a political point of view instead of a common sensical and practical usage one. I had thought you might have been able to rise above it however.
The very SECOND you submit to the fallacy that people MUST invest time in order to learn how to use their machiens it the second you allow intellectual laziness to regin supreme. There is always more we can do in order to make the computers more user friendly and easy to use.
If automakers had the same attitude you did, we'd all still be driving stick shifts and when asked why, cranky engineers would simply say, "If you want to get from point A, to point B in our wonderful invention then you're simply going to have to invest the time to learn how to operate our manual transmissions. Automatic transmissions? Why I've never heard of such a monstrosity and the very thought of one is a thought I find insulting! To think we put all this arcane work into our Dark Majiks and you want us to AUTOMATE it!?!? Lessen our own value by allowing you to drive more efficiently yourselves!?!? Get out of my face! NOW!"
You're just pissed because as soon as companies start making machines that are really usable for even the most un technically minded individuals, the collective worth of geeks like you will plummet faster then Enron stock on the day they disclosed their fraud.
Unfortunately you are too close to the problem to recognize that you are a part of the problem.
In your list of tradeoffs you mention that the current proprietary OS's make tradeoffs that they should have never had made. Well thats dead wrong. Most people want to simply get their work done, NOW, and not in "due time" as you so casually put it.
In "due time" could be a mantra for GNU/Hurd itself. Its funny you mention it seeing as how Jesus Christ, LORD our GAWD will return to the planet before it is even close to being ready for production use. Then you've got Apache which is actually good software. Too bad the latest version is all but unuseable to a select few. And then we finish up with Gnome which is so disorganized that Red Hat had to take it, and its equally disorganized twin, KDE, and slap a common UI on them both just so that "normal, regular folks" could get some "work done".
When I go to work everyday I don't see one user bitching about how the software they use is not "free". If I were to replace the software we use with open source everything however I'm pretty sure I'd get an earful on why doesn't anything "WORK" anymore.
You can't outsmart the suits. They always find a way to package and sell your "revolutions" back to you in the form of shiny baubles, trinkets and gifts.
Man you still don't get it do you? The "information wants to be free" crap is over. Its still is and always has been wrong to steal software. And warez has always been theft.
Thank you for your Idealistic Claptrap, Mr. Henry DoRight. What you fail to realize is that the buisiness of America is BUSINESS! Its what we do and who we are. Of course there is a sizeable minority who would dispute that, but I bet you most of those folks have corporate jobs as well.
And yes he did improve our standard of living. It is now possible for the average American to acquire more music (a product) for a lower price (free). That would qualify as an increase of the standard of living in any Econ 101 text book.
They aren't extremely stupid people. They just aren't people who went to school to study computer science for the sole purpose of knowing how to use strange and obscure technologies with little to know consideration for ease of use(such as Linux) at the drop of a hat.
Slashdot hasn't been ad supported all of those 5 years. The first 3 years were supported with dot.com bubble mania venture capital money that was very unwisely spent on companies such as these. I mean its not like the revenue projections of Slashdot are going to make any investors who buy into the stock NOW very rich.
"Oh, and support from newsgroups and Linux specific message boards are usually just as fast and thourough as any tech support dept. I've ever called.
Swing and a miss - Strike 1."
Its this kind of thinking that unfortunately keeps the adoption rate of Linux/Free Software artificially down.
Corporations, ones bigger then your local mom and pop that is, don't want to obtain their tech support from a bunch of geeks in a web forum or on a mailing list. They want teams of experienced consultants and tech support specialists whom they can call upon at any hour and not recieve answers like this "Stop being so pushy! We do this for free you know! WE DON'T OWE YOU ANYTHING!"
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, a company that also has nuch better software.
This guy is using a dinosaur notebook. It only has 64mb of RAM, a 4.3gig HD and a Celeron400a (whatever that means. Whats the Mhz on that thing?)CPU.
I'm starting to wonder. Is one of the requirements to being a faithful free software proponent that you suffer using old and vastly outdated hardware to compliment your largely incompatible and non-user-friendly software? Then once you've installed the latest distro, which is surely a lot more resource hungry then the fabled "bare kernels" which so many love to boast they've installed on their toasters, you bitch about how slowly it performs? Give me a break.
There aught to be limits on freedom anyway.
Alright first you refuse to admit that proprietary software is the best choice for most regular users because the hassle of using open source software outweighs the freedom you gain by using it. It is absoltutely NOT worthwile to sacrifice some functionality so that we can all pledge allegience to the GPL. As said many times before, some folks have some work to get done, would like to get it done and then go outside to play, spend time with their families....etc without having to come up with work arounds to get their OSS systems back up to the level of functionality they previously had with their proprietary systems.
Next you're trying to tell us all that Microsoft is not a profitable corporation because of some link to a very obscure website. I think in this current environment of discovering accounting tricks that Microsoft's own tricks would have been uncovered by now if they had any. I do know they settled recently with the SEC but I cannot remember exactly what for but I DO know that the situation wasn't so grave as to switch their status from on of a profitable corp to an unprofitable one.
This post needs to be modded up. The part about the "long-bearded steel worker" is just classic. I was laughing my butt off. It also brings up the important point that MAYBE you don't want some strung out bitter hippie producing and or maintaining your Enterprise class software. Especially when the only thing they want to talk about in times of a crisis is "Software Freedom" and why producing well supported and highly polished proprietary software that WORKS is somehow "limiting your freedom."
Well if you want to be the first "l33t" PDA user on your block or you care a lot about software "Freedom" then yeah you need this PDA.
If however you just want to get "work done" you're better off sticking to either a PalmOS or PocketPC PDA.
Citrix only works for software which has application server components or multiuser components. For other software that does not have those features it does NOT work.
Educated in freedom? Do I have to remind you what that sounds like? Leftist communist revolutionaries used to say the same exact things about the pampered and comfortable capitalist middle classes. Is this a cultural revolution we're talking about here or everyday computing usage?
I don't know how you can say that XTerms can do "everything" a PC can. Sure if you don't mind slow load times, less software availability and single points of failure. In my company could you find us a XTerm version of the real estate software that we run on client PC's individually? I don't think so.
There's a TON of things that can't be done NOW in free software. Sticking your fingers in your ears and saying "Not true, not true, not true" everytime this is mentioned helps no one, especially not you. VMWare does NOT work for everything and for the things that don't need VMWare they aren't equivalents.
It does not matter if most people " as very expensive, error prone typewriters-cum-calculators.". Those overgrown typewritters are, when running Windows, able to run all the software you could ever possibly need. Freedom? What good is freedom on Linux when you don't have the rest of the software you need? I run Linux at home on one of my machines but for my job in real estate it is absolutely useless. Now I know my industry isn't the only industry in the world but it is one. And it certainly refutes your statement that anything a PC can do, open source can do as well. Educated in freedom. Thats a good one. So what am I supposed to do after I put on my soldiers uniform, march my co-workers into "re-education camps", give them open source software and they STILL ask me why the stuff doesn't "WORK RIGHT NOW"? Should my response each time they ask be, "In due time, at least now you have freedom!"?
I guess I really should have known that you as a Debian user and or coder would approach this issue from a political point of view instead of a common sensical and practical usage one. I had thought you might have been able to rise above it however.
Wrong wrong wrong, and wrong.
The very SECOND you submit to the fallacy that people MUST invest time in order to learn how to use their machiens it the second you allow intellectual laziness to regin supreme. There is always more we can do in order to make the computers more user friendly and easy to use.
If automakers had the same attitude you did, we'd all still be driving stick shifts and when asked why, cranky engineers would simply say, "If you want to get from point A, to point B in our wonderful invention then you're simply going to have to invest the time to learn how to operate our manual transmissions. Automatic transmissions? Why I've never heard of such a monstrosity and the very thought of one is a thought I find insulting! To think we put all this arcane work into our Dark Majiks and you want us to AUTOMATE it!?!? Lessen our own value by allowing you to drive more efficiently yourselves!?!? Get out of my face! NOW!"
You're just pissed because as soon as companies start making machines that are really usable for even the most un technically minded individuals, the collective worth of geeks like you will plummet faster then Enron stock on the day they disclosed their fraud.
Unfortunately you are too close to the problem to recognize that you are a part of the problem.
In your list of tradeoffs you mention that the current proprietary OS's make tradeoffs that they should have never had made. Well thats dead wrong. Most people want to simply get their work done, NOW, and not in "due time" as you so casually put it.
In "due time" could be a mantra for GNU/Hurd itself. Its funny you mention it seeing as how Jesus Christ, LORD our GAWD will return to the planet before it is even close to being ready for production use. Then you've got Apache which is actually good software. Too bad the latest version is all but unuseable to a select few. And then we finish up with Gnome which is so disorganized that Red Hat had to take it, and its equally disorganized twin, KDE, and slap a common UI on them both just so that "normal, regular folks" could get some "work done".
When I go to work everyday I don't see one user bitching about how the software they use is not "free". If I were to replace the software we use with open source everything however I'm pretty sure I'd get an earful on why doesn't anything "WORK" anymore.
You can't outsmart the suits. They always find a way to package and sell your "revolutions" back to you in the form of shiny baubles, trinkets and gifts.
Yes it is.
Man you still don't get it do you? The "information wants to be free" crap is over. Its still is and always has been wrong to steal software. And warez has always been theft.
Yeah but you and the folks you refer to are elitists so your opinion doesn't matter.
Thank you for your Idealistic Claptrap, Mr. Henry DoRight. What you fail to realize is that the buisiness of America is BUSINESS! Its what we do and who we are. Of course there is a sizeable minority who would dispute that, but I bet you most of those folks have corporate jobs as well.
And yes he did improve our standard of living. It is now possible for the average American to acquire more music (a product) for a lower price (free). That would qualify as an increase of the standard of living in any Econ 101 text book.
That sig of yours is hilarious.
You do self-hate (or if you are not an American, anti-americanism) so well that it hurts!
They aren't extremely stupid people. They just aren't people who went to school to study computer science for the sole purpose of knowing how to use strange and obscure technologies with little to know consideration for ease of use(such as Linux) at the drop of a hat.
So what company makes first rate stuff in Japan then?
Slashdot hasn't been ad supported all of those 5 years. The first 3 years were supported with dot.com bubble mania venture capital money that was very unwisely spent on companies such as these. I mean its not like the revenue projections of Slashdot are going to make any investors who buy into the stock NOW very rich.
What good will that do when the company can simply outsource development to another country?
Put some more effort into it. I know you can be a bit more condescending then that.
Yeah and SOOO many people listen to Classical music.
"Oh, and support from newsgroups and Linux specific message boards are usually just as fast and thourough as any tech support dept. I've ever called.
Swing and a miss - Strike 1."
Its this kind of thinking that unfortunately keeps the adoption rate of Linux/Free Software artificially down.
Corporations, ones bigger then your local mom and pop that is, don't want to obtain their tech support from a bunch of geeks in a web forum or on a mailing list. They want teams of experienced consultants and tech support specialists whom they can call upon at any hour and not recieve answers like this "Stop being so pushy! We do this for free you know! WE DON'T OWE YOU ANYTHING!"