Whether "Linux" is a good or bad choice, or whether it will become a mainstream desktop OS is besides the point. At least, if we want to stay on topic here.
The original question was whether you can disable Windows 10's privacy-invading features. Some posts argue that you can (by changing settings or by cutting off network communication with Microsoft e.g.). While there are things that you can do that appear to increase the user's privacy, it will always be necessary to trust the company that you bought your proprietary software from to believe that you actually have privacy.
This is where the free software argument comes in. You can debate whether it is a good competitor or which GNU/Linux distribution or BSD is better (for whatever reason), but the point here is that if you are using software (and you are connected to the internet at any point), it must be free software in order to be reasonably certain that you can protect your privacy.
I agree that this study does not suggest to become a vegetarian. However, less meat consumption (and other animal products, to a lesser extent) would help as well, of course.
I am a vegetarian to offset anthropogenic climate change. Others should join me, or decrease their meat production at least. First a warning: there might be potential side effects like you eat more healthy or animal welfare. Some people feel comfortable being a vegan. I don't ask people to do something that would make them unhappy. But they can try to do something. Really try it, and then decide what would be best for both you and the rest of us.
I will probably be modded down by the "pro meat conservative lobby".
There will always be cows, so I also encourage these kind of studies as well.
The decline of UNIX is, among other things, attributed to "the abundance of Unix-specific apps that can now also run on competitor's servers."
There is this thing called GNU, which has the explicit goal to replace UNIX. So it is not that Unix-specific apps can only run on other systems, the whole system is replaced. And though largely backwards compatible, improved as well (and free of course).
But about the actual article: Of course it is a very bad idea to tax the Internet, certainly taxes on trafic since this can only affect net neutrality.
No one has more rights than a citizen of the United States.
WTF? I am from another country than the United States of America and I am offended by this statement. What about using the phrase world citizen or human being? You watch too much 24.
We are funded to do research for the public good, yet prevented from taking our discoveries to the marketplace where they could be developed into new medicines.
So he does not say "funded by the public", but "funded [...] for the public good", etc.
Based on the actual quote you can give an argument for that this person is still an ass. Indeed, large parts of the funding are from the public, and therefore any inventions^H, ahum, discoveries(!) should be "returned" to the public immediately. There is still a market, medicines can be made from non-patented discoveries. If this is not possible, we are even in deeper shit that I thought.
At least the server edition is based on the Linux kernel according to the about page. Furthermore:
It uses the GCC compiler and many other tools from the GNU project.
So it is also, at least for a significant part, GNU based. (Note that people often talk about GNU/Linux if they say Linux, so to be certain I show that it is also GNU based.)
But the free software movement he created did lead to the proliferation of Linux-based servers which are prevalent in data centers and power much of the Internet. This is perhaps ironic because Stallman expresses resentment about the credit given to the Linux kernel at the expense of his own GNU operating system.
I do not see how this would be ironic. I think the author does not understand that when people talk about a "Linux-based server" they virtually always mean a server with GNU/Linux.
Sure, it's good to have the source... It's nice to be able to see how things work, to make sure that they're doing the job we think they are, etc., etc. But that doesn't mean it's actually important to everyone that their software (and associated electronic devices) be open source.
This might be so, but this is not just about having the source code. It is about user freedom, as Stallman would put it. You might make a similar argument for free software, but that is less trivial. Then you will touch upon something fundamental like user freedom, which more people might care about than you now presume in your current argument.
Indeed, in any discussion where probability is relevant, people tend to say stupid things. Think for instance about insurances, the lottery, gambling, the weather, or the injust use of the word 'coincidence'.
The definition of truth is not the only problem with the GP's vision. If companies would be as truthful as they can, they wouldn't look like the best anymore and people would buy from another company, one which is less truthful. Capitalism, regardless of how you feel about it, is about trying to be the best by lying. The only alternative which is compatible with the GP's idea is something else than capitalism.
It might just be a convention, or netiquette, but I wish that people would adhere to these kind of conventions, instead of less important things like minor copyright infringement.
The reaction I get from a lot of the people who still download a lot of music from TPB and other places is "$1 is too much for a song!" So what? I think $80,000 is too much for a car, which is why I don't own aa $80,000 car. Not liking the price is NOT justification for taking it anyway.
Say $1 is too much for a song for me, if I then download is for no money at all, this does not affect the profit.
For a car this is different, because a car is a physical object. If I take a car for free, it cannot be sold to another person.
Maybe the website is crappy or minimal because they didn't want it slashdotted... This underlines chairboy's comment in a previous reply: "It seems like Slashdot is being used as a hammer here"
Yes, freedom is a good thing to have, but it's not going to benefit people if all they learn to do is use an obscure system that doesn't do anything the way they do it out in the business world. Maybe it is obvious, or it seems I'm doing a play on words, but I should say that F/OSS like GNU/Linux (and Sugar) is not obscure. The source is out there. Windows is obscure in the most fundamental sense.
I do know that the latter is used much more within the business world, but this is not very relevant and is getting less relevant every day, because more and more businesses are starting to use open standards, which makes the usage of different operating systems and other software not problematic. Therefore, even though this is not an argument against Windows on the XO per se, it is neither an argument for Windows on the XO.
Another "easy to use" distro. We have enough of those. Focus your resources on stuff that matters. Why is this a troll when comment 22971278 is Insightful? The content is the same. Be consistent, mod this Insightful or Interesting.
Put ndiswrapper on it(I cannot believe how many distros leave this out be default), maybe(ndisGTK too), and just make sure the manual explains how to use it for the people not familiar. Even though I must say that ndiswrapper is a nice tool, I tell people where I install GNU/Linux that their hardware is not supported and they should buy this or that to replace the hardware. On the other hand, why would you want to dispose any hardware? This is two-fold for me.
First, it is proprietary software (i.e. the drivers).
Secondly, is are the drivers maintainable? How good does ndiswrapper work and how do you know that when it works it keeps on working?
Slashdot Mirror
Whether "Linux" is a good or bad choice, or whether it will become a mainstream desktop OS is besides the point. At least, if we want to stay on topic here.
The original question was whether you can disable Windows 10's privacy-invading features. Some posts argue that you can (by changing settings or by cutting off network communication with Microsoft e.g.). While there are things that you can do that appear to increase the user's privacy, it will always be necessary to trust the company that you bought your proprietary software from to believe that you actually have privacy.
This is where the free software argument comes in. You can debate whether it is a good competitor or which GNU/Linux distribution or BSD is better (for whatever reason), but the point here is that if you are using software (and you are connected to the internet at any point), it must be free software in order to be reasonably certain that you can protect your privacy.
I agree that this study does not suggest to become a vegetarian. However, less meat consumption (and other animal products, to a lesser extent) would help as well, of course.
I am a vegetarian to offset anthropogenic climate change. Others should join me, or decrease their meat production at least. First a warning: there might be potential side effects like you eat more healthy or animal welfare. Some people feel comfortable being a vegan. I don't ask people to do something that would make them unhappy. But they can try to do something. Really try it, and then decide what would be best for both you and the rest of us.
I will probably be modded down by the "pro meat conservative lobby".
There will always be cows, so I also encourage these kind of studies as well.
That's great, but I think that your case is atypical.
The decline of UNIX is, among other things, attributed to "the abundance of Unix-specific apps that can now also run on competitor's servers."
There is this thing called GNU, which has the explicit goal to replace UNIX. So it is not that Unix-specific apps can only run on other systems, the whole system is replaced. And though largely backwards compatible, improved as well (and free of course).
In an effort to get ever more taxes for doing absolutely nothing
This is an ignorant remark. Compared with most governments and their institutes, the United Nations receive relatively little money compared with what they actually do. Read a few pages from http://www.dhf.uu.se/publications/development-dialogue/erskine-barton-childers-for-a-democratic-united-nations-and-the-rule-of-law/
But about the actual article: Of course it is a very bad idea to tax the Internet, certainly taxes on trafic since this can only affect net neutrality.
No one has more rights than a citizen of the United States.
WTF? I am from another country than the United States of America and I am offended by this statement. What about using the phrase world citizen or human being? You watch too much 24.
DHS? TSA? Please, write out these acronyms. Not all /. readers live in the USA or have Wikipedia plugged into their brains.
Don't twist the words, the exact quote is:
We are funded to do research for the public good, yet prevented from taking our discoveries to the marketplace where they could be developed into new medicines.
So he does not say "funded by the public", but "funded [...] for the public good", etc.
Based on the actual quote you can give an argument for that this person is still an ass. Indeed, large parts of the funding are from the public, and therefore any inventions^H, ahum, discoveries(!) should be "returned" to the public immediately. There is still a market, medicines can be made from non-patented discoveries. If this is not possible, we are even in deeper shit that I thought.
Nevermind, the desktop variant is indeed not Linux based. (I should have read the FAQ before I posted.)
not based on Linux nor one of the BSDs
At least the server edition is based on the Linux kernel according to the about page.
Furthermore:
It uses the GCC compiler and many other tools from the GNU project.
So it is also, at least for a significant part, GNU based.
(Note that people often talk about GNU/Linux if they say Linux, so to be certain I show that it is also GNU based.)
Malicious code is the least of the problems with online voting.
Even though there are more obvious problems, I believe that the freedom to study and test the system is essential to any democratic voting system.
From the article:
But the free software movement he created did lead to the proliferation of Linux-based servers which are prevalent in data centers and power much of the Internet. This is perhaps ironic because Stallman expresses resentment about the credit given to the Linux kernel at the expense of his own GNU operating system.
I do not see how this would be ironic. I think the author does not understand that when people talk about a "Linux-based server" they virtually always mean a server with GNU/Linux.
Sure, it's good to have the source... It's nice to be able to see how things work, to make sure that they're doing the job we think they are, etc., etc. But that doesn't mean it's actually important to everyone that their software (and associated electronic devices) be open source.
This might be so, but this is not just about having the source code. It is about user freedom, as Stallman would put it. You might make a similar argument for free software, but that is less trivial. Then you will touch upon something fundamental like user freedom, which more people might care about than you now presume in your current argument.
Indeed, in any discussion where probability is relevant, people tend to say stupid things. Think for instance about insurances, the lottery, gambling, the weather, or the injust use of the word 'coincidence'.
The definition of truth is not the only problem with the GP's vision. If companies would be as truthful as they can, they wouldn't look like the best anymore and people would buy from another company, one which is less truthful. Capitalism, regardless of how you feel about it, is about trying to be the best by lying. The only alternative which is compatible with the GP's idea is something else than capitalism.
It might just be a convention, or netiquette, but I wish that people would adhere to these kind of conventions, instead of less important things like minor copyright infringement.
The reaction I get from a lot of the people who still download a lot of music from TPB and other places is "$1 is too much for a song!" So what? I think $80,000 is too much for a car, which is why I don't own aa $80,000 car. Not liking the price is NOT justification for taking it anyway.
Say $1 is too much for a song for me, if I then download is for no money at all, this does not affect the profit.
For a car this is different, because a car is a physical object. If I take a car for free, it cannot be sold to another person.
That is indeed an overstatement. I do not like Flash anyway, but do have gnash installed, which does not display the movie.
The fact that one can get it working on GNU/Linux by installing proprietary software is not an advantage.
It can be more clear, but it is clear enough what is meant. A paraphrase of the summary:
Their Linux driver, which has only been available in binary form until now, is now released under the GNU GPL.
Maybe the website is crappy or minimal because they didn't want it slashdotted...
This underlines chairboy's comment in a previous reply: "It seems like Slashdot is being used as a hammer here"
I do know that the latter is used much more within the business world, but this is not very relevant and is getting less relevant every day, because more and more businesses are starting to use open standards, which makes the usage of different operating systems and other software not problematic. Therefore, even though this is not an argument against Windows on the XO per se, it is neither an argument for Windows on the XO.
I think the necessity of it is question begging.
Be consistent, mod this Insightful or Interesting.
First, it is proprietary software (i.e. the drivers).
Secondly, is are the drivers maintainable? How good does ndiswrapper work and how do you know that when it works it keeps on working?