As a rule of thumb, when you are in the server OS business, you wanna be sure that your servers can handle the slashdot effect when you make an anouncement, otherwise you look like a moron. How embarrassing.
So, I put up an informational site about the rise and fall of Hitler, and somewhere in there put something that pisses off the Germans and they come after me. Big deal, they can spin their wheels all they want. The thing is, they can't do anything to me without breaking my constitutional rights. First they submit me to unlawful search and seisure, and thereby suppress my freedom of speech. There's no way this would get by an American court as soon as I appeal it. The American Constitution has to be held for me because I committed this crime" in America. To deny me those rights and subject me to German law would call into question the sovereignty of the United States. If I commit a crime that's illegal in America, that's one thing. But to subject me to some other country's law when it's not illegal in the country I did it in, that is simply erasing the boundaries of the Nation State. Perhaps this is what was meant by the nationless world.
Well, no matter if the company goes under or not, if you rented the software, you're S.O.L. anyways. But more specifically, I think what he was considering was a sort of key escrow for temporary license keys. A sort of clearinghouse that just pushes out keys, sans product support/development, so that the failed businesses' customers can keep using the product. Or at least that's the way I interpreted the proposistion.
There are plenty of systems packagers and value-added resellers [VARs] that provide this level of service for Windows-based business computing, but few for Open Source users. This is silly, and it is going to change. There is a grand business opportunity in this area for small entrepreneurs who don't have a lot of capital, and it continually shocks me that companies like VA (which owns Slashdot, remember), Red Hat, and others that play heavily in the Open Source sandbox haven't been encouraging resellers and systems packagers all along, right down to providing franchise-style "Linux Consultant in a Box" packages complete with "approved" software, "certified" hardware packages, and all the rest of the support structure that has long been availbale to Windows-based VARs.
This points to a basic idea of how to look at OSS that I think much of society misses. OSS is a raw material, much like metal ore. Anyone can go out to some remote place, dig up some ore, smelt it, mold it, and then use it for whatever they need. However, it is much easier to pay someone who is specialised in the process to simply deliver the metal in a useable form. This is the business opportunity, and should be the business model, for OSS. Linux, for example, is a raw material. Now start your small business by deploying/configuring it and continuing to maintain it. Businesses will be a lot more open to Linux and other open source software if there is someone to hold their hand and they have a phone number to call when they have a problem.
Your questions are not assinine, I think I see where I'm not being clear.
Think of it this way: Car manufacturers (almost) always go with one tire company for their new cars. Honda goes with Michelin, Ford goes with Firestone, etc. etc. This is fine because if you don't like the tires that one manufacturer offers (this is, of course, if tires are a major bargaining point to you), then you can go to another manufacturer that "bundles" a different kind of tire with the car. That's where I see the problem with the OEMs and windows. Until relatively recently, you couldn't find an OEM who didn't bundle Windows with the machines, and consequently, charge you for the license. Back in 1997 I bought a machine from Gateway; I asked them to not bundle and charge me for windows, because I wasn't going to use it anyways. They said that they could go without bundling it, but I'd still be charged. This is exactly what I am talking about. There was no choice. Dell told me the same thing (in 1997). This to me is definitely grounds for a suit. Hardware is like the tires; if I don't like nVidia, then I'll buy from someone else. Next pc I get, it will be coming from Penguin Computing, VA Linux, or I'll just build it myself.
Considering Apple, again I don't know enough about them to say one way or the other. If it is the way you say it is, then I believe that they are in the wrong as well. There is no doubt that the lawyers are going after M$ first, when you're the biggest ass, everyone knows how much you stink. Another reason that Apple (probably) doesn't have these problems is because people who use Apple, love Apple. They have arguably a larger cult following then Linux.
I don't think that it's as simple as being punished for a product that some people don't like. I think it goes much further than that. The antitrust case is probably the more appropriate realm to argue against them in. Also, I can't truthfully say that there is no way that this isn't the OEMs fault either. However, I do believe that M$ has done harm to consumers. Not only in their unstable and upredictable products, but also in the manner in which their monopoly has lowered the bar for excellent software. I also believe that the law should be uniform. If it turns out that M$ really didn't break any laws, I'll be fine by that. I'd prefer that Linux take them down on their own terms anyways. But if these people have a case, they have proof that M$ broke the law, and they were harmed, then they should be fairly compensated. I feel a lot of this is going around in circles because the article didn't have much detail.
Fortunately though, this now a non-issue. With companies like VA Linux and Penguin Computing, you can now buy good hardware that has a different OS preloaded. And the villagers rejoiced
First two points: don't have the proof or details in front of me, don't have the time to look them up right now, so I'll relenquish those positions for now.
I never said that you pay full price, because I know OEMs get a discount for bulk. But the license is supposedly for a full copy of windows. I'm not sure who's fault that one is (OEM or M$), I was just saying that that practise is bullshit.
I don't know enough about Apple to say that they should go to hell or heaven. However, if that is the way their process is, then I think that is bullshit also....at least MS liscences their OS... The point of these class action suits isn't whether or not they get a license, it's whether or not you have a choice. And up until recently, the average consumer that lacked the know-how to build their own machine was without choice if they wanted to buy from a reliable OEM.
...unjustly inflicted with an functional OS with which they were quite satisfied...
Quite satisfied? Good God, what users are you talking about? And I'm not talking about us geeks who actually read and post to/. I'm talking about "normal people." I know many many people who would be considered average to below average users, and the general feeling is one of disgust. When I worked in a large corporation, I realized that the only reason our sys admins had any job security was because of windoze. They spent 75 per cent of their time helping out normal users who were doing nothing but browsing the net and using office and still were having an aweful time with win98/ME. I'm no extremist who says that every desktop should be linux or anything, because I know that these people aren't ready for it. But windows is such crap that I've known people who had a hard time with email sit down and take the effort to learn linux just because they were one blue screen away from throwing the PC out the window, without prodding by me or any other linux enthusiast. I haven't met anyone who has had an overall enjoyable experience on any windows machine. IMHO, I think that windows is actually slowing down the "'Net Revolution" by making users frustrated and giving up (which I have seen too many times). How you can spend 2 days on a windows machine and call it a functional OS is beyond me.
So are you saying then that people should be forced to pay for 2 operating systems? It appears that what you are suggesting here is that they go ahead and pay the OEM for winblowz and then pay staples for RHAT. Hardly seems right to me.
People are actually into looking at porn on their phones/pda's? I can only imagine how far the addiction will go with the increased availability of networked appliances... nothing like checking out some cheerleaders while waiting for your toast. On the fridge, we could develop a system that ties in the thermostat to a 3d image of a coed... the colder the fridge, the bigger the nipples! It's genious! Entertaining and useful! Gives a whole new range of possibilities to the promise of being able to finger the fridge!
#finger fridge
fridge: ooh it's cold here, come warm me up big boy!
Bob,
There has been a lot of excitement about IBM formally entering the OSS community recently (understandably), and it seems that they are keeping quite busy at it. What's your take on working with IBM? Are they truly entrenched in the OSS movement? What advantages to us normal geeks (you know, the ones that can't quite afford a big bad blue super-computer yet) do you see coming from this relationship? Obviously, whenever a contender like IBM enters the fray, there's going to be trickle down technology, but is there anything that you see coming down the pipe that just makes you go "Wow!"?
Ok, this is definitly the coolest consulting firm site out there. Ego Media's site is completely flash and very complex. Very well done. Any ego people out there reading this, hats off to you.
Ok, this is definitly the coolest consulting firm site out there. Ego Media's site is completely flash and very complex. Very well done. Any ego people out there reading this, hats off to you.
lookandfeel.com, which is a site for site designers, has some very cool stuff on it. Besides their site in general incorporating some cool stuff, go to the portfolio menu and click on area 14. A menu of navigation schemes will open up for you to experiment with. Very interactive. While they're only navigation schemes, they are by far the coolest navigation schemes that I've seen ever.
Since you mentioned opera, I'm assuming you're considering live shows. Have you seen Stomp before? They take a bunch of trash and play percussion on it. It's really well choreographed, has a story line, and incredible music. It sounds and looks stupid until you actually see it.. it's by far one of the best shows I've seen.
Also check out Atom Films. It would probably take you a month to look through all the material that they have. The majority of it is independents with twisted minds, and even Tim Burton has some good stuff there (not that he is excluded from the aforementioned group of people).
I've heard a lot lately about the poor state of broadband in America, but I thought it was blown a little out of proportion because of the service that I get.
In Cleveland, if you're looking to relocate, you've got many choices. I have Ameritech DSL that gives me 760K down/240 up for $40/month. There's a little trick though. Aparently there is a little problem with their equipment that allows me to do multiple downloads at 760K each. I've hit 3M before, and the biggest download so far has been Corel Linux (600MB) in <40 mins. Of course I'm also about to move just outside the city, where Adelphia (the local cable company) tells me that they can give me cable access at 3M/sec down and 500K/sec up for $40/month. It seems, after reading some of these posts, that Cleveland is pretty damn wired in comparison.
I never knew how bad the real state of affairs in broadband was. Amazing! I couldn't live without my DSL.
In your honest opinion, how does Windows stack up against Linux in the following areas, in no particular order (and feel free to add others as you see fit):
-Security
-User Control
-Look and Feel (pick the one you know best: KDE, GNOME, etc.)
-Stability
-Power
-Ease of Use
-Speed
-Value
I've read from various sources that Microsoft developers are not even allowed to look at OSS software. If this is true, how is Microsoft going to port.NET over to Linux?
What about that guy (sorry, can't remember his name) that has the Next Big Thing rumored to be a Stirling engine? More importantly, the rumor that he is going to implement this to power a home generator for less than $2000? CSFB says that whatever he is making is going to make him richer than Bill Gates in less than five years, and it will be coming out next year. I think whatever it is should quench your thirst for innovation. (Someone please look up the links for what I'm talking about here, I have no time to... the boss is grazing the cube farm).
It only works about 50% of the time anyways. The other 50% of the time it just hangs. Maybe now they'll get some money to pay someone to develop a decent system. I love my RH 7 system, but the updater wasn't ever worth the trouble.
Without making judgement on your curriculum, I can tell you how things were in my school and why I was a *slacker* student.
I went into CS because I like creating solutions to problems, and I like computers. The first year was cool, we of course learned the basics, and I picked up a few tricks that I didn't know about. The second year was just as good, learning about data structures and algorithms. The third year sucked. The first two years, most of the curriculum was learning a new trick, then writing a small app to demonstrate comprehension. Nothing was more than 5,000 lines. When I got to the third year, I was hoping to do some really cool stuff, like tying it all together. While of course there is going to be some overlap, and you're going to use previous knowledge to help with the new stuff, it was the same old stuff: writing small apps to demonstrate comprehension. The projects had become mundane because I could be given a project, think about it for a half hour, and I knew how to do it. After that it was just a matter of sitting down and writing the code. There wasn't anymore challenge to it because there wasn't any discovery during the code writing. To me, in education, you should be learning new stuff all the way through your projects, not just drudging through the code till you're done with the project that you already knew how to do. I got REALLY bored, I stopped going to class, my grades dropped, and I ended up taking a break from school because I felt my brain turning to mush. I'm in the workforce now, doing interesting stuff, receiving accolades from my peers and employers. I excel because it's interesting. I know that what I'm creating is going to be used by people. I get REAL feedback from endusers about what they'd like to see changed to make the software better. During my first 2 years in CS education, I was an 'A' or 'B' student, my third year I was a 'C' student. It's not like I was always a bad student. After 3 months as a professional, I had learned more about CS and programming then I did during those three years in school. My advice, if you want to keep your students engaged and excited about your class, is to make it REALLY interesting. I know that you have certain topics to cover in a course, but how about this: starting with second year students, have them pick an application that they want to do at the beginning of the semester. Pick one that will use the topics that you need to cover. Make it a group effort (you know, like the real world works). Assign tech leads. Do code reviews. CS can be fun, let it be that way. Before I took my vacation from school, I had one class that was this way. We were split into 5 person teams and our first assignment was to establish a team lead, and find a client. From there, most of the class was a question and answer about the technologies that we were using. We even were paired up with graphic designers for our user interfaces. It was a collaberative effort. It was very close to the way things are in the real world. But most importantly, EVERYONE worked real hard at it. Everyone got 'A's and 'B's because of that. And why? Because we had clients who were going to actually enjoy the fruits of our labor, we were going to make business' happy. There is a certain amount of oomph that goes into it when you know that what you are doing is genuinely going to help someone. That really counts for a lot. Everything that I learned in school was interesting, there was never a doubt about that. The problem was that I didn't have much of an opportunity to use what I was learning. Give your students the opportunity to really use it to make someones' lives better, and I think you'll see more smiling faces when you get up there in class.
Slashdot Mirror
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
This points to a basic idea of how to look at OSS that I think much of society misses. OSS is a raw material, much like metal ore. Anyone can go out to some remote place, dig up some ore, smelt it, mold it, and then use it for whatever they need. However, it is much easier to pay someone who is specialised in the process to simply deliver the metal in a useable form. This is the business opportunity, and should be the business model, for OSS. Linux, for example, is a raw material. Now start your small business by deploying/configuring it and continuing to maintain it. Businesses will be a lot more open to Linux and other open source software if there is someone to hold their hand and they have a phone number to call when they have a problem.
$man microsoft
Think of it this way: Car manufacturers (almost) always go with one tire company for their new cars. Honda goes with Michelin, Ford goes with Firestone, etc. etc. This is fine because if you don't like the tires that one manufacturer offers (this is, of course, if tires are a major bargaining point to you), then you can go to another manufacturer that "bundles" a different kind of tire with the car. That's where I see the problem with the OEMs and windows. Until relatively recently, you couldn't find an OEM who didn't bundle Windows with the machines, and consequently, charge you for the license. Back in 1997 I bought a machine from Gateway; I asked them to not bundle and charge me for windows, because I wasn't going to use it anyways. They said that they could go without bundling it, but I'd still be charged. This is exactly what I am talking about. There was no choice. Dell told me the same thing (in 1997). This to me is definitely grounds for a suit. Hardware is like the tires; if I don't like nVidia, then I'll buy from someone else. Next pc I get, it will be coming from Penguin Computing, VA Linux, or I'll just build it myself.
Considering Apple, again I don't know enough about them to say one way or the other. If it is the way you say it is, then I believe that they are in the wrong as well. There is no doubt that the lawyers are going after M$ first, when you're the biggest ass, everyone knows how much you stink. Another reason that Apple (probably) doesn't have these problems is because people who use Apple, love Apple. They have arguably a larger cult following then Linux.
I don't think that it's as simple as being punished for a product that some people don't like. I think it goes much further than that. The antitrust case is probably the more appropriate realm to argue against them in. Also, I can't truthfully say that there is no way that this isn't the OEMs fault either. However, I do believe that M$ has done harm to consumers. Not only in their unstable and upredictable products, but also in the manner in which their monopoly has lowered the bar for excellent software. I also believe that the law should be uniform. If it turns out that M$ really didn't break any laws, I'll be fine by that. I'd prefer that Linux take them down on their own terms anyways. But if these people have a case, they have proof that M$ broke the law, and they were harmed, then they should be fairly compensated. I feel a lot of this is going around in circles because the article didn't have much detail.
Fortunately though, this now a non-issue. With companies like VA Linux and Penguin Computing, you can now buy good hardware that has a different OS preloaded. And the villagers rejoiced
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
I never said that you pay full price, because I know OEMs get a discount for bulk. But the license is supposedly for a full copy of windows. I'm not sure who's fault that one is (OEM or M$), I was just saying that that practise is bullshit.
I don't know enough about Apple to say that they should go to hell or heaven. However, if that is the way their process is, then I think that is bullshit also. ...at least MS liscences their OS... The point of these class action suits isn't whether or not they get a license, it's whether or not you have a choice. And up until recently, the average consumer that lacked the know-how to build their own machine was without choice if they wanted to buy from a reliable OEM.
$man microsoft
Quite satisfied? Good God, what users are you talking about? And I'm not talking about us geeks who actually read and post to /. I'm talking about "normal people." I know many many people who would be considered average to below average users, and the general feeling is one of disgust. When I worked in a large corporation, I realized that the only reason our sys admins had any job security was because of windoze. They spent 75 per cent of their time helping out normal users who were doing nothing but browsing the net and using office and still were having an aweful time with win98/ME. I'm no extremist who says that every desktop should be linux or anything, because I know that these people aren't ready for it. But windows is such crap that I've known people who had a hard time with email sit down and take the effort to learn linux just because they were one blue screen away from throwing the PC out the window, without prodding by me or any other linux enthusiast. I haven't met anyone who has had an overall enjoyable experience on any windows machine. IMHO, I think that windows is actually slowing down the "'Net Revolution" by making users frustrated and giving up (which I have seen too many times). How you can spend 2 days on a windows machine and call it a functional OS is beyond me.
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
#finger fridge
fridge: ooh it's cold here, come warm me up big boy!
$man microsoft
There has been a lot of excitement about IBM formally entering the OSS community recently (understandably), and it seems that they are keeping quite busy at it. What's your take on working with IBM? Are they truly entrenched in the OSS movement? What advantages to us normal geeks (you know, the ones that can't quite afford a big bad blue super-computer yet) do you see coming from this relationship? Obviously, whenever a contender like IBM enters the fray, there's going to be trickle down technology, but is there anything that you see coming down the pipe that just makes you go "Wow!"?
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
Also check out Atom Films. It would probably take you a month to look through all the material that they have. The majority of it is independents with twisted minds, and even Tim Burton has some good stuff there (not that he is excluded from the aforementioned group of people).
$man microsoft
In Cleveland, if you're looking to relocate, you've got many choices. I have Ameritech DSL that gives me 760K down/240 up for $40/month. There's a little trick though. Aparently there is a little problem with their equipment that allows me to do multiple downloads at 760K each. I've hit 3M before, and the biggest download so far has been Corel Linux (600MB) in <40 mins. Of course I'm also about to move just outside the city, where Adelphia (the local cable company) tells me that they can give me cable access at 3M/sec down and 500K/sec up for $40/month. It seems, after reading some of these posts, that Cleveland is pretty damn wired in comparison.
I never knew how bad the real state of affairs in broadband was. Amazing! I couldn't live without my DSL.
$man microsoft
-Security
-User Control
-Look and Feel (pick the one you know best: KDE, GNOME, etc.)
-Stability
-Power
-Ease of Use
-Speed
-Value
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
$man microsoft
I went into CS because I like creating solutions to problems, and I like computers. The first year was cool, we of course learned the basics, and I picked up a few tricks that I didn't know about. The second year was just as good, learning about data structures and algorithms. The third year sucked. The first two years, most of the curriculum was learning a new trick, then writing a small app to demonstrate comprehension. Nothing was more than 5,000 lines. When I got to the third year, I was hoping to do some really cool stuff, like tying it all together. While of course there is going to be some overlap, and you're going to use previous knowledge to help with the new stuff, it was the same old stuff: writing small apps to demonstrate comprehension. The projects had become mundane because I could be given a project, think about it for a half hour, and I knew how to do it. After that it was just a matter of sitting down and writing the code. There wasn't anymore challenge to it because there wasn't any discovery during the code writing. To me, in education, you should be learning new stuff all the way through your projects, not just drudging through the code till you're done with the project that you already knew how to do. I got REALLY bored, I stopped going to class, my grades dropped, and I ended up taking a break from school because I felt my brain turning to mush. I'm in the workforce now, doing interesting stuff, receiving accolades from my peers and employers. I excel because it's interesting. I know that what I'm creating is going to be used by people. I get REAL feedback from endusers about what they'd like to see changed to make the software better. During my first 2 years in CS education, I was an 'A' or 'B' student, my third year I was a 'C' student. It's not like I was always a bad student. After 3 months as a professional, I had learned more about CS and programming then I did during those three years in school. My advice, if you want to keep your students engaged and excited about your class, is to make it REALLY interesting. I know that you have certain topics to cover in a course, but how about this: starting with second year students, have them pick an application that they want to do at the beginning of the semester. Pick one that will use the topics that you need to cover. Make it a group effort (you know, like the real world works). Assign tech leads. Do code reviews. CS can be fun, let it be that way. Before I took my vacation from school, I had one class that was this way. We were split into 5 person teams and our first assignment was to establish a team lead, and find a client. From there, most of the class was a question and answer about the technologies that we were using. We even were paired up with graphic designers for our user interfaces. It was a collaberative effort. It was very close to the way things are in the real world. But most importantly, EVERYONE worked real hard at it. Everyone got 'A's and 'B's because of that. And why? Because we had clients who were going to actually enjoy the fruits of our labor, we were going to make business' happy. There is a certain amount of oomph that goes into it when you know that what you are doing is genuinely going to help someone. That really counts for a lot. Everything that I learned in school was interesting, there was never a doubt about that. The problem was that I didn't have much of an opportunity to use what I was learning. Give your students the opportunity to really use it to make someones' lives better, and I think you'll see more smiling faces when you get up there in class.
$man microsoft
$man microsoft