OK, Napster helps me violate copyright laws. I do illegally gain access to music that I didn't pay for. I'm not going to deny it.
But guess what? 150 years ago, people like you said the same about runaway slaves, and people like me were helping them escape. In an unjust society, the only place for a just man is in prison. If a society does not allow me my freedoms - be it citizenship, in the case of slavery, or pursuit of happiness, in the form of sharing (what you call 'stealing' or 'pirating' art (you know copyright laws exist to benefit the consumer and the arts, not the artist right? Or at least that's the premise they were based on)), I do not wish to follow the rules of that society.
Except it only works in Netscape 4 and not Mozilla, nor any other web browser (lynx, amaya, w3, w3m, or gzilla, or any others except Konqueror). Really, I wouldn't mind it much, except it's the ONLY way to navigate the site. Let's hear it for shitty designers.
On the contrary, XML can cover every conceivable standard. It's a metalanguage, not a language in its own right. You use it to create languages, which in turn describe documents. DTD are incredibly versatile; Schemas will be moreso.
Ideally, you don't make tags for bold, you'd use the existing, open, XSL format to stylize documents.
HTML (well, XHTML) is an example of an XML format. Open standards exist for hypertext structure, vector graphics, software descriptions, multimedia, wireless transfer, documents, and the stylization and display of all of the above.
Generally, XML documents are "well-formed" (or am I thinking of "valid"? Always get them confused...), which means you can read them even without a DTD, and get a good idea of what they do. However, like source code, XML can be purposelyfully obfuscated, so you can still proprietize it somewhat. But it's definitely better than, say,.doc or.pdf.
Amen to CSoft sucking ass. I followed the ad from everything1 a few years ago, and got an account. Had 2 really good sites going (and opensoucegames.org in progress), then they said someone was doing something illegal from my account and cut me off. No explanation. No reponse to emails. Back to good old llamacom for me...
Oh yeah, I agree with everything else here. Too much politics, not enough geek. And the geek there is has been posted 3 times on/.. But most importantly, I agree with csoft sucking.
Time in prison? Oh yes, the months and months without a trial, without information about a trial, without offers of a trial, without any legal rights. It was either the plea bargin or spend the rest of his life in prison without being convicted.
Discarding the troll at the end of your statement, I'd like to point out there are hundreds of packages in Debian that are not part of the GNU project. Also, Debian has non-free software, specifically, a section of software called non-free that contains non-free software (wow, the logic blows my mind). Secondly, Slackware ships with Netscape, Qt 1.x, et al, making it non-free. RMS Linux is _the only fully free linux distribution there is, hands down_.
What you say is pretty much right, but Red Hat is in the right on all cases, actually:P
The/opt hierarchy is for custom installed packages, according to the Linux filesystem standards. OTOH, KDE is definitely binaries for use by users, so it goes in/usr. If you install it yourself, it goes in/opt/kde or/usr/local.
Your GAIM problem sounds like --prefix=/usr wasn't used on the./configure command line. Most GNU/Linux distributions put GAIM, as they should, in/usr. However, as I said earlier, custom stuff doesn't go in/usr, it goes in/usr/local/. Again, as it should.
Configuration is a big deal for support, and is definitely a problem across distributions. People offering GNU/Linux tech support should definitely offer for more than Linuxconf/Anaconda (ie, Red Hat), but often don't. Or they should label themselves as "Red Hat Support", not "Linux Support".
First, I agree with the site wholeheartedly. I run Debian on all my computers but one, where I rolled my own, and too often I see "Linux" meaning "Red Hat", whether it's distribution via RPMs (easily solved), or highly customized programs and support programs. I recently offered to install GNU/Linux on some computers at school, and the administrator was scared out of his mind at the swirl (I liked the penguin better...) instead of the hat.
However, the site mentions VA as a 'Red Hat only' supporter. Nothing could be further from the truth. VA ships with Red Hat because Red Hat has argueably the best tech support; Debian has none; Mandrake wasn't much different until recently; Slackware's commercial support future remains to be seen. Others just didn't have anything to offer for VA over other choices. However, if you look, VA pushed a boxed Debian, and is working on commercial support. My friends at VA love Debian, and want to ship with it.
(As a side note, and probably going to start a flame war:/ how come everyone complains when people think "Linux" means "Red Hat", but object to calling the distributions "GNU/Linux"? I know it's asking for trouble, but I'm curious.)
First of all, Red Hat has no different APIs than any other distro. In fact, I much prefer Debian as a development distribution, MANY more libraries come with it. Red Hat itself has no API, it's a software collection. Supporting Linux is no harder than supporting Windows. Usually a product for Windows has to be tested on Win95, OSR1, OSR2, OSR2 with IE4, OSR2 with IE5, 98, 98 with IE5, Millennium, NT4, NT4SP, Win2k, Win2k beta. Proprietary Unices are the same deal.
Interesting? I don't think so. Red Hat, in fact, has the only completely free distribution - Red Hat Means Source Linux (RMS Linux). Debian has non-free, Caldera and SuSE are packed with proprietary software, and standard Red Hat has a few closed programs, but RMS Linux is the only fully free distribution.
Really, maris, I'm embarrased you might think it's me. As much as I hate Katz, there's no way I'd sue, especially over so-called intellectual "property", and especially not a company I own stock in...
Seriously, this is just dumb. Slashdot is an open forum, anyone can read the comments anyway. Plus, there's the issue of anonimity - there was stuff said on Columbine I'm sure people wouldn't want sent out to the world at large - and you'd have to get rid of the AC comments, some of the most insightful. I have my own set of issues with the Columbine story, but I'm not going to sue because someone published 3 lines I said about it.
Mozilla was the original name of the Netscape web browser before Netscape became a household name. It was chosen to be a "Mosaic Killer" - hence, Mozilla. Netscape's HTTP header still calls the browser Mozilla.
The full story, and other amusing Netscape trivia, can be found on jwz's site.
You're not wrong. I go to to one of these school. We got some 486s running Windows 3.1 a few years ago. Now we're stuck a Windows school. Several hundred computers, all running NT4 with Office 98, and an upgrade to 2000 coming. Now, we don't get any discounts on the software, or on the new computers (P2-266s, and some Celerons), we just got a large donation a few years ago. But I'd say MS has more than repaid this investment. Oh yeah, the network barely works, whole labs go down constantly, and no one has a clue how to fix them. (As a side note - afaik, the medical expenses are not given with many strings attached, and are a truly philanthropic gesture [although it can be noted that they have stepped up in frequency and amount greatly since the antitrust lawsuits began], but they're not doing MS much good. My father, who heads a Catholic mutual fund firm, lost some customers when some substantial medical donations ended up going to abortion research.)
Close. The issue was that you couldn't distribute any of the programs on the beta CD, which is a blatant violation of the GPL. They also linked a KDE-based program to libapt, a GPLd library. An exception was later granted for this, however. And I think the beta was fixed before the official release, so there weren't violations per se, just a lot of bad stuff that makes many people (including myself) worried about things Corel does.
No, it's not if they have it, it's how they use it. If they don't use it to control your life (which I think is a bit far-fetched for AOL/Time-Warner, you can just leave the country...), then let them have it. For example, if you're running Linux, you're pretty much at the mercy of Linus. He's very dictatorial over the kernel. If you're using the Internet, I can almost guarantee you your traffic goes over Cisco's lines. They have incredible power, but they don't use it to harm you.
OK, working off totally anecdotal evidence, with no numbers to back me up (at least I admit it...)
The largest speed increase I ever had was from a 486/33 to a PPro200. That huge jump aside, what I find works the best is, all other things being not-sucky (ie, not 16MB RAM, not 100mhz, etc), a switch from IDE to SCSI brings huge speed increases. My dual P3-500 box without its SCSI sucks it to my P200 for general use with SCSI (of course, now I run the SCSI on the dual P3).
That being said, lots of memory is helpful, and of course, processors do speed things up. But after, oh, about 600mhz and 256MB RAM, the bottleneck in the modern PC (remember, this whole thing is about PCs, not your incredibly powerful SGI rendering box) is the HDD.
Re:Review of the Pre-beta
on
Netscape 6
·
· Score: 2
Probably somewhere else on this thread already, but... There are a lot of reasons why Mozilla has custom widgets. The three most notable are: 1. Lack of a good cross-platform toolkit. Qt, maybe, but Mozilla needs to be real C++, not hackneyed C++. GTK? Windows port is still immature. Mozilla developers want 1 kit to worry about, not many. 2. Cross-platform standards. Motif is not GTK is not Qt is not Win32 is not (widget set). They all look different, and Mozilla's big thing (one of them) is that it looks the same everywhere. 3. No toolkit has all the widgets/features that the standards Mozilla implements wants, so they'd need to either add them, or write their own. As for skinning - the whole thing is XUL anyway, a combination of JavaScript and XML. Building around those two standards really makes them skinnable no matter what. (there are alternate chromes out there already, that are faster than the default one, and look nice - I use the OpenSource UI one). Simple bare-bones browser - compile it yourself, it's called `simplebrowser'. It comes with the nightly builds, but it doesn't work for me with them, you'll want the source. IIRC, it has back, forward, URL entry, and a gecko window. about as simple as you can get.
IMO, nothing wrong with Perl/CGI, if the server can handle it. Frames and the like will go away as CSS gets support (ie, Mozilla - as she puts it, open standard, open source, cross-platform). Although, big companies have a history of not 'getting it' very fast - I say 2005 they realize you need more than a graphic designer or a programmer, you need someone who's both, and about 2010 before they actually get something worthwhile. Of course, those are based on rough estimates of technology acceptance, from what I can estimate in my head. It'll probably take much longer:)
Re:the source for the php gnutella -- mirror!
on
GNUTella Search Tool
·
· Score: 2
OK, for those who don't get it... this is PHP and JavaScript, not HTML. It's the full source to the clone, and contains specifications on the Gnutella protocol (indirectly), and acts as a client (directly). The point of putting it here is that if the MPAA/AOL/RIAA/other stupid organization shuts down the site (or the site gets/.ed), the code is here. And hopefully, on your hard drive, right next to a full copy of LiViD's work, Echelon reports, the RSA encryption algorithm, and all those other things us paranoids keep on our disks.
Yes and no. There are free MP3s encoders that are legal in many countries - just not the US. LAME, GOGO, BladeEnc, 8hz-mp3, and probably more. No clue about the legality of importing them, but I know dozens of people in the US using them.
As a side note, I remember hearing something about AOL buying the MP3 patent from Franhauffer[sp]... with AOL's recent turn towards (at least some) free software, anyone know what their stance is on all this?
Just like the Sega Dreamcast uses WinCE, even though they're in competition? Or Compaq buying Windows, supporting Linux, _and_ Tru64? Companies won't switch because MS represents their milch cow right now, and until free operating systems get more mindshare (not necessarily be installed, but more awareness), you'll see the same hypocrisy from a lot of companies.
Note: I'm not a GTK+ hacker My understanding is that GTK sits above the Gdk layer, which does all the actual work, and porting Gdk means (pretty much) a port of GTK. This is why the Win32 port was (relatively) easy, and why you have both Gdk/X11 and Gdk/Imlib to choose from in X. So a port of Gdk to the framebuffer would do it.
Umm... GNOME and KDE1 are _far_ from innovative, Apache really has nothing to do with Linux (despite what people tell you). KDE2 has KParts going for it, which is kinda cool and new, but no big deal.
OTOH, you mentioned E... E is the first totally configurable GUI, and while its usability can be questioned, it's a proof-of-concept for something insanely cool.
As for Linux itself, it's not very innovative, it's UNIX. However, it does have 2 things going for it - the kernel module system manages to get a lot of microkernel benefits from a macrokernel being the main one. However, an oft-overlooked one is the/dev/random device, on par with some hardware random number generators. Not exactly an innovation, but unique.
I think what you meant to say is that the new-fangled 90s idea of proprietary software differs from the mostly-open view of developers from the 60s to the mid-80s.
What was my point again? Oh, yes. Just because Linux is sucessful doesn't mean it's innovative. It means it works, and if an old design (UNIX) works, use it (although, Hurd might stand a good chance at an innovative redesign of UNIX, but I'm offtrack again:). Linux is, in general, not very new technology, and that's in many cases a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, Napster helps me violate copyright laws. I do illegally gain access to music that I didn't pay for. I'm not going to deny it.
But guess what? 150 years ago, people like you said the same about runaway slaves, and people like me were helping them escape. In an unjust society, the only place for a just man is in prison. If a society does not allow me my freedoms - be it citizenship, in the case of slavery, or pursuit of happiness, in the form of sharing (what you call 'stealing' or 'pirating' art (you know copyright laws exist to benefit the consumer and the arts, not the artist right? Or at least that's the premise they were based on)), I do not wish to follow the rules of that society.
Except it only works in Netscape 4 and not Mozilla, nor any other web browser (lynx, amaya, w3, w3m, or gzilla, or any others except Konqueror). Really, I wouldn't mind it much, except it's the ONLY way to navigate the site. Let's hear it for shitty designers.
On the contrary, XML can cover every conceivable standard. It's a metalanguage, not a language in its own right. You use it to create languages, which in turn describe documents. DTD are incredibly versatile; Schemas will be moreso.
.doc or .pdf.
Ideally, you don't make tags for bold, you'd use the existing, open, XSL format to stylize documents.
HTML (well, XHTML) is an example of an XML format. Open standards exist for hypertext structure, vector graphics, software descriptions, multimedia, wireless transfer, documents, and the stylization and display of all of the above.
Generally, XML documents are "well-formed" (or am I thinking of "valid"? Always get them confused...), which means you can read them even without a DTD, and get a good idea of what they do. However, like source code, XML can be purposelyfully obfuscated, so you can still proprietize it somewhat. But it's definitely better than, say,
Amen to CSoft sucking ass. I followed the ad from everything1 a few years ago, and got an account. Had 2 really good sites going (and opensoucegames.org in progress), then they said someone was doing something illegal from my account and cut me off. No explanation. No reponse to emails. Back to good old llamacom for me...
/.. But most importantly, I agree with csoft sucking.
Oh yeah, I agree with everything else here. Too much politics, not enough geek. And the geek there is has been posted 3 times on
Time in prison? Oh yes, the months and months without a trial, without information about a trial, without offers of a trial, without any legal rights. It was either the plea bargin or spend the rest of his life in prison without being convicted.
Discarding the troll at the end of your statement, I'd like to point out there are hundreds of packages in Debian that are not part of the GNU project. Also, Debian has non-free software, specifically, a section of software called non-free that contains non-free software (wow, the logic blows my mind). Secondly, Slackware ships with Netscape, Qt 1.x, et al, making it non-free. RMS Linux is _the only fully free linux distribution there is, hands down_.
What you say is pretty much right, but Red Hat is in the right on all cases, actually :P
/opt hierarchy is for custom installed packages, according to the Linux filesystem standards. OTOH, KDE is definitely binaries for use by users, so it goes in /usr. If you install it yourself, it goes in /opt/kde or /usr/local.
./configure command line. Most GNU/Linux distributions put GAIM, as they should, in /usr. However, as I said earlier, custom stuff doesn't go in /usr, it goes in /usr/local/. Again, as it should.
The
Your GAIM problem sounds like --prefix=/usr wasn't used on the
Configuration is a big deal for support, and is definitely a problem across distributions. People offering GNU/Linux tech support should definitely offer for more than Linuxconf/Anaconda (ie, Red Hat), but often don't. Or they should label themselves as "Red Hat Support", not "Linux Support".
First, I agree with the site wholeheartedly. I run Debian on all my computers but one, where I rolled my own, and too often I see "Linux" meaning "Red Hat", whether it's distribution via RPMs (easily solved), or highly customized programs and support programs. I recently offered to install GNU/Linux on some computers at school, and the administrator was scared out of his mind at the swirl (I liked the penguin better...) instead of the hat.
:/ how come everyone complains when people think "Linux" means "Red Hat", but object to calling the distributions "GNU/Linux"? I know it's asking for trouble, but I'm curious.)
However, the site mentions VA as a 'Red Hat only' supporter. Nothing could be further from the truth. VA ships with Red Hat because Red Hat has argueably the best tech support; Debian has none; Mandrake wasn't much different until recently; Slackware's commercial support future remains to be seen. Others just didn't have anything to offer for VA over other choices. However, if you look, VA pushed a boxed Debian, and is working on commercial support. My friends at VA love Debian, and want to ship with it.
(As a side note, and probably going to start a flame war
First of all, Red Hat has no different APIs than any other distro. In fact, I much prefer Debian as a development distribution, MANY more libraries come with it. Red Hat itself has no API, it's a software collection. Supporting Linux is no harder than supporting Windows. Usually a product for Windows has to be tested on Win95, OSR1, OSR2, OSR2 with IE4, OSR2 with IE5, 98, 98 with IE5, Millennium, NT4, NT4SP, Win2k, Win2k beta. Proprietary Unices are the same deal.
Interesting? I don't think so. Red Hat, in fact, has the only completely free distribution - Red Hat Means Source Linux (RMS Linux). Debian has non-free, Caldera and SuSE are packed with proprietary software, and standard Red Hat has a few closed programs, but RMS Linux is the only fully free distribution.
Really, maris, I'm embarrased you might think it's me. As much as I hate Katz, there's no way I'd sue, especially over so-called intellectual "property", and especially not a company I own stock in...
Seriously, this is just dumb. Slashdot is an open forum, anyone can read the comments anyway. Plus, there's the issue of anonimity - there was stuff said on Columbine I'm sure people wouldn't want sent out to the world at large - and you'd have to get rid of the AC comments, some of the most insightful. I have my own set of issues with the Columbine story, but I'm not going to sue because someone published 3 lines I said about it.
OK, so I'm biting an amusing troll...
Mozilla was the original name of the Netscape web browser before Netscape became a household name. It was chosen to be a "Mosaic Killer" - hence, Mozilla. Netscape's HTTP header still calls the browser Mozilla.
The full story, and other amusing Netscape trivia, can be found on jwz's site.
You're not wrong. I go to to one of these school. We got some 486s running Windows 3.1 a few years ago. Now we're stuck a Windows school. Several hundred computers, all running NT4 with Office 98, and an upgrade to 2000 coming. Now, we don't get any discounts on the software, or on the new computers (P2-266s, and some Celerons), we just got a large donation a few years ago. But I'd say MS has more than repaid this investment. Oh yeah, the network barely works, whole labs go down constantly, and no one has a clue how to fix them. (As a side note - afaik, the medical expenses are not given with many strings attached, and are a truly philanthropic gesture [although it can be noted that they have stepped up in frequency and amount greatly since the antitrust lawsuits began], but they're not doing MS much good. My father, who heads a Catholic mutual fund firm, lost some customers when some substantial medical donations ended up going to abortion research.)
Close. The issue was that you couldn't distribute any of the programs on the beta CD, which is a blatant violation of the GPL. They also linked a KDE-based program to libapt, a GPLd library. An exception was later granted for this, however. And I think the beta was fixed before the official release, so there weren't violations per se, just a lot of bad stuff that makes many people (including myself) worried about things Corel does.
No, it's not if they have it, it's how they use it. If they don't use it to control your life (which I think is a bit far-fetched for AOL/Time-Warner, you can just leave the country...), then let them have it. For example, if you're running Linux, you're pretty much at the mercy of Linus. He's very dictatorial over the kernel. If you're using the Internet, I can almost guarantee you your traffic goes over Cisco's lines. They have incredible power, but they don't use it to harm you.
OK, working off totally anecdotal evidence, with no numbers to back me up (at least I admit it...)
The largest speed increase I ever had was from a 486/33 to a PPro200. That huge jump aside, what I find works the best is, all other things being not-sucky (ie, not 16MB RAM, not 100mhz, etc), a switch from IDE to SCSI brings huge speed increases. My dual P3-500 box without its SCSI sucks it to my P200 for general use with SCSI (of course, now I run the SCSI on the dual P3).
That being said, lots of memory is helpful, and of course, processors do speed things up. But after, oh, about 600mhz and 256MB RAM, the bottleneck in the modern PC (remember, this whole thing is about PCs, not your incredibly powerful SGI rendering box) is the HDD.
Probably somewhere else on this thread already, but... There are a lot of reasons why Mozilla has custom widgets. The three most notable are: 1. Lack of a good cross-platform toolkit. Qt, maybe, but Mozilla needs to be real C++, not hackneyed C++. GTK? Windows port is still immature. Mozilla developers want 1 kit to worry about, not many. 2. Cross-platform standards. Motif is not GTK is not Qt is not Win32 is not (widget set). They all look different, and Mozilla's big thing (one of them) is that it looks the same everywhere. 3. No toolkit has all the widgets/features that the standards Mozilla implements wants, so they'd need to either add them, or write their own. As for skinning - the whole thing is XUL anyway, a combination of JavaScript and XML. Building around those two standards really makes them skinnable no matter what. (there are alternate chromes out there already, that are faster than the default one, and look nice - I use the OpenSource UI one). Simple bare-bones browser - compile it yourself, it's called `simplebrowser'. It comes with the nightly builds, but it doesn't work for me with them, you'll want the source. IIRC, it has back, forward, URL entry, and a gecko window. about as simple as you can get.
IMO, nothing wrong with Perl/CGI, if the server can handle it. Frames and the like will go away as CSS gets support (ie, Mozilla - as she puts it, open standard, open source, cross-platform). Although, big companies have a history of not 'getting it' very fast - I say 2005 they realize you need more than a graphic designer or a programmer, you need someone who's both, and about 2010 before they actually get something worthwhile. Of course, those are based on rough estimates of technology acceptance, from what I can estimate in my head. It'll probably take much longer :)
OK, for those who don't get it... this is PHP and JavaScript, not HTML. It's the full source to the clone, and contains specifications on the Gnutella protocol (indirectly), and acts as a client (directly). The point of putting it here is that if the MPAA/AOL/RIAA/other stupid organization shuts down the site (or the site gets /.ed), the code is here. And hopefully, on your hard drive, right next to a full copy of LiViD's work, Echelon reports, the RSA encryption algorithm, and all those other things us paranoids keep on our disks.
Yes and no. There are free MP3s encoders that are legal in many countries - just not the US. LAME, GOGO, BladeEnc, 8hz-mp3, and probably more. No clue about the legality of importing them, but I know dozens of people in the US using them.
As a side note, I remember hearing something about AOL buying the MP3 patent from Franhauffer[sp]... with AOL's recent turn towards (at least some) free software, anyone know what their stance is on all this?
Just like the Sega Dreamcast uses WinCE, even though they're in competition? Or Compaq buying Windows, supporting Linux, _and_ Tru64? Companies won't switch because MS represents their milch cow right now, and until free operating systems get more mindshare (not necessarily be installed, but more awareness), you'll see the same hypocrisy from a lot of companies.
Note: I'm not a GTK+ hacker My understanding is that GTK sits above the Gdk layer, which does all the actual work, and porting Gdk means (pretty much) a port of GTK. This is why the Win32 port was (relatively) easy, and why you have both Gdk/X11 and Gdk/Imlib to choose from in X. So a port of Gdk to the framebuffer would do it.
So rather than telling the sysadmins to fix the broken webservers, we have a broken web server and a broken browser. Yeah, real good solution.
You mean, Gadsby, not The Great Gatsby. Sorry to nitpick, I've just seen that mistake WAY too much :)
Umm... GNOME and KDE1 are _far_ from innovative, Apache really has nothing to do with Linux (despite what people tell you). KDE2 has KParts going for it, which is kinda cool and new, but no big deal.
/dev/random device, on par with some hardware random number generators. Not exactly an innovation, but unique.
:). Linux is, in general, not very new technology, and that's in many cases a good thing.
OTOH, you mentioned E... E is the first totally configurable GUI, and while its usability can be questioned, it's a proof-of-concept for something insanely cool.
As for Linux itself, it's not very innovative, it's UNIX. However, it does have 2 things going for it - the kernel module system manages to get a lot of microkernel benefits from a macrokernel being the main one. However, an oft-overlooked one is the
I think what you meant to say is that the new-fangled 90s idea of proprietary software differs from the mostly-open view of developers from the 60s to the mid-80s.
What was my point again? Oh, yes. Just because Linux is sucessful doesn't mean it's innovative. It means it works, and if an old design (UNIX) works, use it (although, Hurd might stand a good chance at an innovative redesign of UNIX, but I'm offtrack again