He's commenting to having too many apps. Which is dead wrong.
Windows:
Paint Shop Pro
Photoshop
Corel Draw
Ulead
(And umpteen others...)
Linux:
GIMP
It's not that it's that there's too many applications and all- it's that it's different from Windows by enough to throw the people that work by rote off. (Never mind that Bill and Company change up the rules every 5 or so years on UI...)
You will NEVER convince me that it's a valid complaint that there is "too many applications" because it's DEAD WRONG and an out and out lie meant to distract from the real problem- which isn't even a problem once you think about it.
But we don't need standards that handle things by way of THIS sort of answer. The link in question is a bug in the standards test. Their answer was not to fix the standards test, like it should have been- it was to, as Ulrich put it, don't use fast SMP machines. In it's current form, the standard is less than useful because you're needing "waivers" for things like this.
Combine this with silly requirements such as needing Sendmail (Uhm, shouldn't it be more along the lines of, we need an MTA of some sort- so long as it's handled properly, who cares which one, right? Sendmail's the least desireable of all of them, and it tends to get turned off for Postfix or Qmail most of the time anyway!) and it's about as useful an appendix is to a human these days.
Yes we need standards. API standards, possibly ABI standards- but not what we're getting here.
Much of the software out there, be it Open Source, Free Software, or Proprietary, is far from best of breed. It's just that the stuff that's not proprietary is likely to evolve into it- moreso than the Proprietary stuff. Why? Well, money isn't always a good motivator for excellence. If this were the case, money being the best motivator for excellence, then there'd be a lot of best of breed products out there and there'd not be sub-optimal products that levered themselves into prominence. Other things drive excellence- money being only one of them (and actually not high up on the list at that...).
In most cases, it's better to let it sink, get an Angel investor, or pass the hat around to smaller investors. VC money very often has all kinds of gotchas associated with it- and you more often than not get FAR more than you'd ever realistically need.
The only time VC money's really of any use is when you know you're going to be paying back the "loan" quickly and you're in something that will end up being capital intensive. That'd be the case with my company that's working on getting their funding via that route. Most businesses should NOT be seeking this money and probably ought to NOT be taking it if it's offered to them anyway.
You see, it's NOT the parents that are getting the punishment for not keeping the kids from the games in question. It's the vendors who get punished- just like with Tobacco and Alcohol. Now, it remains to be seen whether or not their definition of "adult" is going to be reasonable, but don't be deluding yourself like you have been as it's not going to have the result you seem to think it will.
Even if you tell someone to "get XP Home" (Of which, I'd NEVER tell anyone to get- Home's got a bunch of crap turned on that actually destabilize the machine...) or to "get XP Professional", you still have to tell them to "get an Anti-Virus proram" (Which is best? Your guess is as good as any- and it's more off of personal preferences, cost, etc...) and to "get an Anti-Spyware program" (Again, which is best? And, it's the same story as the Anti-Virus stuff...). This doesn't even go into an Office Suite, IM, etc.
With a Linux distribution, there's pretty much all of that taken care of. And there's several different "go get the 'Home' version" of Linux to choose from- Mandriva, Ubuntu, Xandros, Linspire, and Knoppix come immediately to mind right out of the gate. For the slightly more advanced, Fedora Core or SuSE come to mind. And you don't need to buy a "server" version for someone if they need one- the same "home" version will work quite well for server use (Much moreso than Windows versions do...).
You're entitled to your opinions, of course, but they're merely that- opinions. The reality of things is a lot different from what you've espoused in your comments.
Considering the criteria that Gartner used for this most recent piece of tripe, then Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server doesn't make the cut- moreso than Linux actually doesn't in their opinion.
I've long since blown these jokers off as being irrelevant- and I'm one of those people they purportedly cater to, the CXO crowd. Most of these supposed think-tanks are a complete waste of space, time, and resources- I honestly wish that they'd drop off the face of the Earth never to be replaced.
Sure, it's the system. The problem with that argument is that it takes the people who put the system into place out of the whole discussion. Doing so, you neglect that it's the people who institute the system and the ones that execute it that make it even exist. Doing so, it makes it seem that the system is the problem, not the people- but then, look at what happened in WWII... The system's the one that set up the scenerio for the horrific acts performed- why didn't we blame the system? Oh, that's right, following orders doesn't count in that- just as the people who instituted the system was guilty of the acts.
I'm thinking multiplayer over the Internet for this discussion- besides, it's a moot point, really. As for playing hacked games, I pretty much don't do that as it'd be stealing from my colleagues considering that I port games from Windows and MacOSX as one of my professional endeavors.
I could run my own server that manages it's own maps and apply MY rules regarding PKing to the server. With Battle.NET, I have no such chance to do so.
Doesn't matter much. Diablo/DiabloII was passable as an RPG, but it's not got a lot of staying power. And, no, I didn't buy it- someone got it for me as a present for Christmas, I typically don't buy Windows applications, let alone ones from Blizzard when you factor in the reaction to people asking for Warcraft or Diablo titles for Linux- it'll be a cold day in Hell, is the basic gist of their response. Fine... I can live without your stuff, Blizzard. Now moreso than ever.
You started out good...but then you had to screw it up by calling it "stealing".
As others have pointed out, it's not theft, it's INFRINGEMENT which is actually defined as a different crime on the books because IT IS ONE.
Here, let me illustrate for you...
If, for example, I were to take your computer away from you, you'd be deprived of the use of the same. This is STEALING.
If, for example, I were to make a copy of your magnum opus novel (if you were to write one...) without your permission and make a couple more copies to hand out to my friends, you're not deprived of the work or the use thereof. You might have been deprived of the financial rewards caused by the artificial scarcity of the same brought about by the Copyright you have on the work- but you can always get more people to sign off on your copies. In this instance, I've not stolen from you. I have INFRINGED upon your rights to control the production and distribution of your given work of art- which are artificial rights established for the People on behalf of the Government to further the arts.
The moment you got that wrong, any and all valid points you might have had went clean out the window- as you obviously don't have a clue about what IS and ISN'T the law in the first place. Is it Morally wrong? You damn betcha. Is it stealing? Not even close.
...oddly, they can't be fielding the absolute top-end Solaris (which would be the only thing that'd make "sense" from a Unix perspective- all the other Unices are mostly "dead" because of Linux being available...) which would be the only reason to field that as a component. Now, considering that all the other Solaris boxes are much more expensive than the Linux boxes- and that there's more than enough Linux boxes on the high end, I just don't see where this CIO's off talking about "security" issues and overall costs.
It doesn't make sense to say the least. Honestly, it doesn't.
They have closet psychopaths and the abjectly clueless at the top. So for the sake of "consistency", they hand down edicts from above, never mind that the consequences of the decision in question. They don't care about the technical merits or demerits. They don't care about the actual long-term costs. They don't care about much more than the next quarter- they want to make their numbers "look good" for the quarter so they don't get in trouble.
I keep seeing it played out, time and time again. Mediocrity only knows itself. It doesn't understand and is intrinsically afraid of excellence.
The problems with what they claim is that while the initial support costs might be there, the ongoing ones AREN'T. Typically, most of the CXO crowd doesn't look at the long term picture- only what they read in a marketing piece and what the sales reps will tell you.
Really bright idea, guys.
Windows is a security nightmare, moreso than Linux- all one has to do to realize this is to take your blinders off and see all the worms, spyware, etc. and know this to be the case. And people keep using this stuff for mission critical stuff...
I wish the CIO of Unilever the best, but he's just put his company at a disadvantage with respects to others- the ones that aren't bound up with the lock-in will be the ones getting ahead in the long run.
An awful lot of businesses seem to depend on locking excrement away in the deepest cellar before, during, and after it's initial broadcasting- after all, they all seem to keep clamoring for "Digital Rights Management", never mind that the stuff's almost not worth consuming in the first place, let alone a second time or more.
Considering that you'll have heating, you'd change the thermal conductivity so that unless you're totally bathed in microwaves, you're not going to have issues (HINT: if you're bathed in microwaves such that it's going to bake you in that sort of armor, then you're going to get baked in a tank or any other armor you'd might field- the energy densities in question are such that there's little to shield you unless you can shed the heat... This stuff could shield you against riot control uses of Microwave energy...)
...LGP has shipped HOW many games to date with those tools and Loki Games before them, I do believe your comments are merely uninformed opinion. And comments to the effect that Loki went under will be ignored as it wasn't the tools, but rather Scott's complete mis-management of the company as a whole that did them in. As for LGP, we're encountering problems beyond our control in getting out some of our titles in hand (we've got this vicious 11th hour bug we're tracking down in Ballistics, for example...) but we largely use nothing but those tools to get our titles out- in fact, that's mostly your option if you make a title that runs under Linux. (Uh, Id and Epic seem to be able to use GCC, etc. to make games for the Linux side and they use OpenAL for all platforms for sound support (which is one of those tools you're pooh-poohing...))
You're entitled to your opinions but, please, please don't be parading that about as "facts"- because they simply are nowhere near that.
Tools do not make a game. They can make it better or poorer, but it's the developer themselves that actually MAKES the game. If they can't afford the tools you're insisting are the "only" way to accomplish things- then if they keep to your attitude, then they'd not get anything done.
Some people are talkers. Some are doers. You, sir, sound like a talker- if so, move aside so that the doers can get their doing done.
If you're using a Peltier for cooling the CPU down to ambient or below for overclocking, you're going to need either this sort of power supply or some serious redundant units. The 120W Peltiers eat an unbelieveable fourteen amperes at 15 VDC. That's 210W by itself. Any other craziness like that and that wattage gets burned up quickly.
Now, does one NEED something like this? No.
But I am glad that there's a real high-end for switching supplies for personal computers these days. 500's okay for most setups, but I can see a 1kW supply being useful for others (i.e. all in a nice single case instead strung all over creation...).
If you can't afford the $100 cost to get torque, you won't have any of the other stuff you need to make a game.
Really now...
Compiler - GCC. Check. Debugger - GDB/DDD Check. Network Middleware - Q3:A engine network stack, or OpenPlay, or ADAPTIVE Communications Environment, or... Check. Game Physics - Q3:A engine, or Crystal Space, or NeL, or... Check... Game Rendering - Ditto... Installer - Loki/LGP Installer, Autopackage, NSIS, etc. Check. 3D Modeler - Blender, etc. Check. Sound - OpenAL, FMOD, etc. Check.
Gee, there seems to be all the tools for someone to make a game in hand for cross-platform development of professional games (HINT: They DO make games with the above stuff and people have bought them- even in recent times...) and all Open Sourced, with no costs whatsoever if you can support yourself.
You forgot that Torque costs MONEY- while those games prove Torque is battle proven, it still equates to spending money. Even small money can be prohibitive. Q3:A costs NOTHING to field a game and the cost of allowing your engine mods out if you need to modify the engine to accomplish your game.
Most BPL systems have RFI that is actually unacceptable (whether you think it that way or not is irrelevent- wait until the next disaster that might involve your area and you not being able to get help (which would happen if they rolled this stuff out).
With Corridor System's offering, you don't use the power lines to deliver it to your doorstep, you use tradtional means such as WiFi or fiber. Besides, you're not going to see better than 2 or so Megabits of TOTAL bandwidth with the BPL systems they're all using. Corridor's offering 10 Mbit and could offer 54Mbit. Big difference that.
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He's commenting to having too many apps. Which is dead wrong.
Windows:
Paint Shop Pro
Photoshop
Corel Draw
Ulead
(And umpteen others...)
Linux:
GIMP
It's not that it's that there's too many applications and all- it's that it's different from Windows by enough to throw the people that work by rote off. (Never mind that Bill and Company change up the rules every 5 or so years on UI...)
You will NEVER convince me that it's a valid complaint that there is "too many applications" because it's DEAD WRONG and an out and out lie meant to distract from the real problem- which isn't even a problem once you think about it.
Not if you believe Mandrake and Red Hat's packaging, it doesn't. They insist on including Sendmail if you want to be LSB compliant.
But we don't need standards that handle things by way of THIS sort of answer. The link in question is a bug in the standards test. Their answer was not to fix the standards test, like it should have been- it was to, as Ulrich put it, don't use fast SMP machines. In it's current form, the standard is less than useful because you're needing "waivers" for things like this.
Combine this with silly requirements such as needing Sendmail (Uhm, shouldn't it be more along the lines of, we need an MTA of some sort- so long as it's handled properly, who cares which one, right? Sendmail's the least desireable of all of them, and it tends to get turned off for Postfix or Qmail most of the time anyway!) and it's about as useful an appendix is to a human these days.
Yes we need standards. API standards, possibly ABI standards- but not what we're getting here.
He's the gent that's the equivalent of Linus for the current in use GCC right at the moment. You might want to listen to him- he's got a good point.
Even if you don't use Linux and use Free/Open/NetBSD or MacOSX, you should be thinking highly of this man- he's pretty damn sharp to say the least.
Much of the software out there, be it Open Source, Free Software, or Proprietary, is far from best of breed. It's just that the stuff that's not proprietary is likely to evolve into it- moreso than the Proprietary stuff. Why? Well, money isn't always a good motivator for excellence. If this were the case, money being the best motivator for excellence, then there'd be a lot of best of breed products out there and there'd not be sub-optimal products that levered themselves into prominence. Other things drive excellence- money being only one of them (and actually not high up on the list at that...).
Indeed.
In most cases, it's better to let it sink, get an Angel investor, or pass the hat around to smaller investors. VC money very often has all kinds of gotchas associated with it- and you more often than not get FAR more than you'd ever realistically need.
The only time VC money's really of any use is when you know you're going to be paying back the "loan" quickly and you're in something that will end up being capital intensive. That'd be the case with my company that's working on getting their funding via that route. Most businesses should NOT be seeking this money and probably ought to NOT be taking it if it's offered to them anyway.
You see, it's NOT the parents that are getting the punishment for not keeping the kids from the games in question. It's the vendors who get punished- just like with Tobacco and Alcohol. Now, it remains to be seen whether or not their definition of "adult" is going to be reasonable, but don't be deluding yourself like you have been as it's not going to have the result you seem to think it will.
I'm actually amazed you got modded up with that.
Software, in general, is complicated.
Even if you tell someone to "get XP Home" (Of which, I'd NEVER tell anyone to get- Home's got a bunch of crap turned on that actually destabilize the machine...) or to "get XP Professional", you still have to tell them to "get an Anti-Virus proram" (Which is best? Your guess is as good as any- and it's more off of personal preferences, cost, etc...) and to "get an Anti-Spyware program" (Again, which is best? And, it's the same story as the Anti-Virus stuff...). This doesn't even go into an Office Suite, IM, etc.
With a Linux distribution, there's pretty much all of that taken care of. And there's several different "go get the 'Home' version" of Linux to choose from- Mandriva, Ubuntu, Xandros, Linspire, and Knoppix come immediately to mind right out of the gate. For the slightly more advanced, Fedora Core or SuSE come to mind. And you don't need to buy a "server" version for someone if they need one- the same "home" version will work quite well for server use (Much moreso than Windows versions do...).
You're entitled to your opinions, of course, but they're merely that- opinions . The reality of things is a lot different from what you've espoused in your comments.
Considering the criteria that Gartner used for this most recent piece of tripe, then Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server doesn't make the cut- moreso than Linux actually doesn't in their opinion.
I've long since blown these jokers off as being irrelevant- and I'm one of those people they purportedly cater to, the CXO crowd. Most of these supposed think-tanks are a complete waste of space, time, and resources- I honestly wish that they'd drop off the face of the Earth never to be replaced.
Sure, it's the system. The problem with that argument is that it takes the people who put the system into place out of the whole discussion. Doing so, you neglect that it's the people who institute the system and the ones that execute it that make it even exist. Doing so, it makes it seem that the system is the problem, not the people- but then, look at what happened in WWII... The system's the one that set up the scenerio for the horrific acts performed- why didn't we blame the system? Oh, that's right, following orders doesn't count in that- just as the people who instituted the system was guilty of the acts.
I'm thinking multiplayer over the Internet for this discussion- besides, it's a moot point, really. As for playing hacked games, I pretty much don't do that as it'd be stealing from my colleagues considering that I port games from Windows and MacOSX as one of my professional endeavors.
I could run my own server that manages it's own maps and apply MY rules regarding PKing to the server. With Battle.NET, I have no such chance to do so.
Doesn't matter much. Diablo/DiabloII was passable as an RPG, but it's not got a lot of staying power. And, no, I didn't buy it- someone got it for me as a present for Christmas, I typically don't buy Windows applications, let alone ones from Blizzard when you factor in the reaction to people asking for Warcraft or Diablo titles for Linux- it'll be a cold day in Hell, is the basic gist of their response. Fine... I can live without your stuff, Blizzard. Now moreso than ever.
You started out good...but then you had to screw it up by calling it "stealing".
As others have pointed out, it's not theft, it's INFRINGEMENT which is actually defined as a different crime on the books because IT IS ONE.
Here, let me illustrate for you...
If, for example, I were to take your computer away from you, you'd be deprived of the use of the same. This is STEALING .
If, for example, I were to make a copy of your magnum opus novel (if you were to write one...) without your permission and make a couple more copies to hand out to my friends, you're not deprived of the work or the use thereof. You might have been deprived of the financial rewards caused by the artificial scarcity of the same brought about by the Copyright you have on the work- but you can always get more people to sign off on your copies. In this instance, I've not stolen from you. I have INFRINGED upon your rights to control the production and distribution of your given work of art- which are artificial rights established for the People on behalf of the Government to further the arts.
The moment you got that wrong, any and all valid points you might have had went clean out the window- as you obviously don't have a clue about what IS and ISN'T the law in the first place. Is it Morally wrong? You damn betcha. Is it stealing? Not even close.
...oddly, they can't be fielding the absolute top-end Solaris (which would be the only thing that'd make "sense" from a Unix perspective- all the other Unices are mostly "dead" because of Linux being available...) which would be the only reason to field that as a component. Now, considering that all the other Solaris boxes are much more expensive than the Linux boxes- and that there's more than enough Linux boxes on the high end, I just don't see where this CIO's off talking about "security" issues and overall costs.
It doesn't make sense to say the least. Honestly, it doesn't.
They have closet psychopaths and the abjectly clueless at the top. So for the sake of "consistency", they hand down edicts from above, never mind that the consequences of the decision in question. They don't care about the technical merits or demerits. They don't care about the actual long-term costs. They don't care about much more than the next quarter- they want to make their numbers "look good" for the quarter so they don't get in trouble.
I keep seeing it played out, time and time again. Mediocrity only knows itself. It doesn't understand and is intrinsically afraid of excellence.
The problems with what they claim is that while the initial support costs might be there, the ongoing ones AREN'T. Typically, most of the CXO crowd doesn't look at the long term picture- only what they read in a marketing piece and what the sales reps will tell you.
Really bright idea, guys.
Windows is a security nightmare, moreso than Linux- all one has to do to realize this is to take your blinders off and see all the worms, spyware, etc. and know this to be the case. And people keep using this stuff for mission critical stuff...
I wish the CIO of Unilever the best, but he's just put his company at a disadvantage with respects to others- the ones that aren't bound up with the lock-in will be the ones getting ahead in the long run.
An awful lot of businesses seem to depend on locking excrement away in the deepest cellar before, during, and after it's initial broadcasting- after all, they all seem to keep clamoring for "Digital Rights Management", never mind that the stuff's almost not worth consuming in the first place, let alone a second time or more.
...after all, I espied Lucifer ice-skating to work this morning and Caterpillar's jumping for joy on the giant order of snow plows he just placed...
..IF DONE RIGHT...
Considering that you'll have heating, you'd change the thermal conductivity so that unless you're totally bathed in microwaves, you're not going to have issues (HINT: if you're bathed in microwaves such that it's going to bake you in that sort of armor, then you're going to get baked in a tank or any other armor you'd might field- the energy densities in question are such that there's little to shield you unless you can shed the heat... This stuff could shield you against riot control uses of Microwave energy...)
...LGP has shipped HOW many games to date with those tools and Loki Games before them, I do believe your comments are merely uninformed opinion. And comments to the effect that Loki went under will be ignored as it wasn't the tools, but rather Scott's complete mis-management of the company as a whole that did them in. As for LGP, we're encountering problems beyond our control in getting out some of our titles in hand (we've got this vicious 11th hour bug we're tracking down in Ballistics, for example...) but we largely use nothing but those tools to get our titles out- in fact, that's mostly your option if you make a title that runs under Linux. (Uh, Id and Epic seem to be able to use GCC, etc. to make games for the Linux side and they use OpenAL for all platforms for sound support (which is one of those tools you're pooh-poohing...))
You're entitled to your opinions but, please, please don't be parading that about as "facts"- because they simply are nowhere near that.
Tools do not make a game. They can make it better or poorer, but it's the developer themselves that actually MAKES the game. If they can't afford the tools you're insisting are the "only" way to accomplish things- then if they keep to your attitude, then they'd not get anything done.
Some people are talkers. Some are doers. You, sir, sound like a talker- if so, move aside so that the doers can get their doing done.
...Peltier Cooling.
If you're using a Peltier for cooling the CPU down to ambient or below for overclocking, you're going to need either this sort of power supply or some serious redundant units. The 120W Peltiers eat an unbelieveable fourteen amperes at 15 VDC. That's 210W by itself. Any other craziness like that and that wattage gets burned up quickly.
Now, does one NEED something like this? No.
But I am glad that there's a real high-end for switching supplies for personal computers these days. 500's okay for most setups, but I can see a 1kW supply being useful for others (i.e. all in a nice single case instead strung all over creation...).
If you can't afford the $100 cost to get torque, you won't have any of the other stuff you need to make a game.
Really now...
Compiler - GCC. Check.
Debugger - GDB/DDD Check.
Network Middleware - Q3:A engine network stack, or OpenPlay, or ADAPTIVE Communications Environment, or... Check.
Game Physics - Q3:A engine, or Crystal Space, or NeL, or... Check...
Game Rendering - Ditto...
Installer - Loki/LGP Installer, Autopackage, NSIS, etc. Check.
3D Modeler - Blender, etc. Check.
Sound - OpenAL, FMOD, etc. Check.
Gee, there seems to be all the tools for someone to make a game in hand for cross-platform development of professional games (HINT: They DO make games with the above stuff and people have bought them- even in recent times...) and all Open Sourced, with no costs whatsoever if you can support yourself.
Seems to me, you missed the boat somewhere.
You forgot that Torque costs MONEY- while those games prove Torque is battle proven, it still equates to spending money. Even small money can be prohibitive. Q3:A costs NOTHING to field a game and the cost of allowing your engine mods out if you need to modify the engine to accomplish your game.
Most BPL systems have RFI that is actually unacceptable (whether you think it that way or not is irrelevent- wait until the next disaster that might involve your area and you not being able to get help (which would happen if they rolled this stuff out).
With Corridor System's offering, you don't use the power lines to deliver it to your doorstep, you use tradtional means such as WiFi or fiber. Besides, you're not going to see better than 2 or so Megabits of TOTAL bandwidth with the BPL systems they're all using. Corridor's offering 10 Mbit and could offer 54Mbit. Big difference that.