That's a really great idea. The problem is that most people on/. cannot agree on the color of shite. Don't be believe me? Here's a few examples:
Which is better: Gnome or KDE? FreeBSD or Linux? Perl or Python?
That alone results in a flamewar that will engulf the world ten times over.
What's more, there would be too many egos involved: "I want to use C." "C sucks, C++ is the only way." "Java trumps all of those." etc. etc. etc.
It's too bad because you're absolutely correct. If we could get people to focus on something that impressive it would be an amazing accomplishment for humankind.
A lot of this has to do outdated culture ideas in the US. If we are an information based economy, rather than a manufacturing based economy then "productive time" is irrelavent.
People need to come to grips with the fact that employees are being paid for their brains and the thinking that they do, rather than the amount of time spent doing it.
As a developer, if I were to actually keep track of all of the time spent "working --> thinking about" something related to my day job, I would be billing an enormous amount of hours. I'm "on the clock" 24 hours a day as I don't know when an idea might come to me. I think about problems in the shower, when I'm taking a crap, eating dinner, driving to work, walking in the park, lifting weights at the gym, etc.
The bottom line is that corporate america needs to stop speaking out of both sides of its mouth. We're an information economy but we use industrial economy metrics. Bollocks.
Do you have proof of this "memory leak" or are you just spouting off?
What is your source of information for the large processor and memory overhead for.net? What is "large".
If you coded something in C++ (I assume you mean using visual studio 6) you can still compile it with visual studio 7, though not using managed code.
What it appears you're saying is:
"I hate.NET because everything I wrote in Lisp and Eiffle isn't considered valid because I can't dump it into.NET and get a bunch of new binaries over night."
Pure bollocks..NET is an entirely new development platform. It's not an 'upgrade' (with the exception of the C++ compiler). I'm guessing that you were really talking about the VB 6 applications that you wrote but threw C++ in an attempt to gain some sort of/. coder legitimacy.
I understand that it's your personal opinion but really, if you're going to share it with others (or in this case the whole world) you should at least make an attempt to base it in fact rather than pulling stuff out of your arse.
You should do a bit a research and study. You might actually learn something.
I had guessed that there were probably more circumstances for the decision than the points that you listed. It does appear that you made the right choice; Happy users is really the only gauge that matters in the end.
Given all of the things you listed above, why exactly did you pick Dokeos?
From your list:
1. BlackBoard and WebCT are better supported with conversion utilities, etc.
2. It's not any cheaper to use the proprietary solution, as you need a programmer (you, in this case).
3. Dokeos is less configurable than Blackboard.
4. Security is equal to or (more likely) less than the commercial product.
From the above points, if I were your boss or manager I would fire you for making such a decision. It appears (only from the points that you made) that you picked the open source product due to evangelism or job security (you're the programmer).
This is why some businesses shun open source. You picked a less than optimal solution, merely because it was open source.
I'm so sick of people saying that the FOSS movement is "misunderstood". The reality is that people are cheap. If they can get something for FREE (as in cost) they will. You can wax poetic all day about the virtues of Freedom Software but at the end of the day the VAST majority of people use it because it has no monetary cost.
This idea that you can charge whatever you want for it is a fallicy, especially in the FOSS world. FOSS people will deliberatly undermine your ability to make money from the selling of the software by providing it free of charge if for no other reason that just to prove that they can.
Let's stop the semantic non-sense and call a spade a spade.
You've missed the point entirely. Not everything that "we" do needs to have some higher purpose for the good of humanity. Some people like to spend their time doing recreational things. Some people take things seriously that others would consider pointless or a waste of time...
Art is a great example of this. How does Art further cancer research? Or solve hunger problems? It doesn't do any of those things directly. Does that mean that it's a waste of time? Should we stop creating art (composing music, poetry, fiction, etc.) because it doesn't further cancer research?
"One that comes to mind instantly is writing a replacement for X Windows. It makes it very difficult to do gaming on Linux. Why don't they port Gnome to run against frame buffer (or something similar), so we could run a GUI without X? Linux could take the pc gaming niche market if it performed well. They already have the knowledge for the task so it wouldn't have much learning curve. DirectX would be a lot easier to emulate without X.
Wine could use some help.
Mozilla and Firefox could use some help."
Who needs them? Graphics are over rated. If you're so concerned about eye-candy, you don't need a graphical browser. Use Lynx.
People like eye candy... and guess what? It's FUN. Sometimes people like to spend their energy doing things that don't really have a point. Music? Fiction? Do we really need these?
Semantically, crackers break copy-protection on software (traditionally Games). "Crackers" don't have anything to do with breaking into computer systems... Wired Magazine distorted the term in the late 90s (1997, I believe) to mean "A person who breaks into computers with the intent to do harm".
*THIS* is insightful? Although modern english grammar allows for "she", it is correct to use "he" to describe any person male or female without a sexist component.
Agreed! Although the Mini started my craving, I decided that an iBook was more functional and not much more. Of course once I tasted blood, I had to have more and ended up buying a PowerMac for the desktop as well. All told my lust for a Mini ended up costing me $5,000 and I still don't have one, yet...
OS X is the most beautiful and productive OS I've used in a long time. I feel right at home and don't miss my PC in the least.
I'm guessing that you didn't read the article or are unfamiliar with.NET. The.NET Framework is a 23 meg download, not 65. The article states that the TOTAL download of the framework + malware + spyware was 65 megs.
Your point does remain that the JRE is smaller than the.Net Framework, however.
I see a lot of people talk about this is bad for Apple, or Apple doesn't do this... The interesting thing is that I think they do this intentionally. There is a *HUGE* opportunity to find niche markets for software on the Mac simply because Apple doesn't fill in the gaps like Microsoft. Look at the previous story about Digital Monster. These guys wrote what amounts to shareware, charged 40 bucks a copy and have been wildly successful.
I hope that others will recognize the opportunity and take it! Apple has managed to blend commercial and OSS in a brilliant way...
I'm so fucking tired of hearing the argument "Free != no $$".
I wish people would stop lying to themselves and face up to the fact that Free == Free. The code may be free but most "normal" people are attracted to "free" software because it has no cost... They can have really great software without paying a penny for it.
Even large corporations know this. What do you think the argument about TCO of Linux vs. Microsoft is about? Very simply:
Microsoft Software costs money. Linux doesn't.
Conclusion: Linux has a lower TCO.
Stop bullshitting and just admit the fact that OSS is popular (with non-geek) types because it has no cost. No one gives a rats ass about anything else./end rant.
There's a difference between constructive criticism and ranting. I enjoy receiving constructive cricism of my work as it improves my abiltities. When someone flops off with ignorant statements, half truths and propaganda: I don't care what they think.
You're forgetting one very important thing about Free Software. As a developer, I honestly don't care if you like it or not. It matters very little to me if "corporate types" use Gnome or not. It isn't going to stop the development train. I use Gnome because *I* like it. Most of the people who develop Gnome or for gnome do it because they *like* doing it.
As long as it's fun and people are doing what they love, I see little point in worrying about whether or not some geek or PHB likes the work. "FreeBSD is Dead!", "Gnome sucks"... so what?
What exactly does this have to do with developers? The things you are asking for come from the PTBs at Microsoft, not the guys in the trenches writing code. Perhaps you should learn to place blame where it belongs and instead of dismissing an entire group of people based on the actions of a few.
That would be very ironic, considering the Mormon faith was founded by a snake oil salesman, well known for his fraudulent behavior. We should just wait for Darl to find some golden plates under a rock and claim that the angel Moroni told him that he owns Linux. That's when things will get really interesting!
Slashdot Mirror
That's a really great idea. The problem is that most people on /. cannot agree on the color of shite. Don't be believe me? Here's a few examples:
Which is better: Gnome or KDE? FreeBSD or Linux? Perl or Python?
That alone results in a flamewar that will engulf the world ten times over.
What's more, there would be too many egos involved: "I want to use C." "C sucks, C++ is the only way." "Java trumps all of those." etc. etc. etc.
It's too bad because you're absolutely correct. If we could get people to focus on something that impressive it would be an amazing accomplishment for humankind.
A lot of this has to do outdated culture ideas in the US. If we are an information based economy, rather than a manufacturing based economy then "productive time" is irrelavent.
People need to come to grips with the fact that employees are being paid for their brains and the thinking that they do, rather than the amount of time spent doing it.
As a developer, if I were to actually keep track of all of the time spent "working --> thinking about" something related to my day job, I would be billing an enormous amount of hours. I'm "on the clock" 24 hours a day as I don't know when an idea might come to me. I think about problems in the shower, when I'm taking a crap, eating dinner, driving to work, walking in the park, lifting weights at the gym, etc.
The bottom line is that corporate america needs to stop speaking out of both sides of its mouth. We're an information economy but we use industrial economy metrics. Bollocks.
Do you have proof of this "memory leak" or are you just spouting off?
.net? What is "large".
.NET because everything I wrote in Lisp and Eiffle isn't considered valid because I can't dump it into .NET and get a bunch of new binaries over night."
.NET is an entirely new development platform. It's not an 'upgrade' (with the exception of the C++ compiler). I'm guessing that you were really talking about the VB 6 applications that you wrote but threw C++ in an attempt to gain some sort of /. coder legitimacy.
What is your source of information for the large processor and memory overhead for
If you coded something in C++ (I assume you mean using visual studio 6) you can still compile it with visual studio 7, though not using managed code.
What it appears you're saying is:
"I hate
Pure bollocks.
I understand that it's your personal opinion but really, if you're going to share it with others (or in this case the whole world) you should at least make an attempt to base it in fact rather than pulling stuff out of your arse.
You should do a bit a research and study. You might actually learn something.
I had guessed that there were probably more circumstances for the decision than the points that you listed. It does appear that you made the right choice; Happy users is really the only gauge that matters in the end.
Given all of the things you listed above, why exactly did you pick Dokeos?
From your list:
1. BlackBoard and WebCT are better supported with conversion utilities, etc.
2. It's not any cheaper to use the proprietary solution, as you need a programmer (you, in this case).
3. Dokeos is less configurable than Blackboard.
4. Security is equal to or (more likely) less than the commercial product.
From the above points, if I were your boss or manager I would fire you for making such a decision. It appears (only from the points that you made) that you picked the open source product due to evangelism or job security (you're the programmer).
This is why some businesses shun open source. You picked a less than optimal solution, merely because it was open source.
Zip code is all you need for shipping, ask them to enter it and add shipping cost under every product on the site.
Then why is the Wayback machine slashdotted?
I'm so sick of people saying that the FOSS movement is "misunderstood". The reality is that people are cheap. If they can get something for FREE (as in cost) they will. You can wax poetic all day about the virtues of Freedom Software but at the end of the day the VAST majority of people use it because it has no monetary cost.
This idea that you can charge whatever you want for it is a fallicy, especially in the FOSS world. FOSS people will deliberatly undermine your ability to make money from the selling of the software by providing it free of charge if for no other reason that just to prove that they can.
Let's stop the semantic non-sense and call a spade a spade.
I believe that is one of the most subtle and brilliant (not to mention funny) comments I have ever seen on Slashdot. Kudos to you!
DirecTV is phasing out Tivo anyway. Perhaps this is part of the reason?
Don't be so quick to throw out the baby with the bath water.
You've missed the point entirely. Not everything that "we" do needs to have some higher purpose for the good of humanity. Some people like to spend their time doing recreational things. Some people take things seriously that others would consider pointless or a waste of time...
Art is a great example of this. How does Art further cancer research? Or solve hunger problems? It doesn't do any of those things directly. Does that mean that it's a waste of time? Should we stop creating art (composing music, poetry, fiction, etc.) because it doesn't further cancer research?
I find the glimpse of your world view pretty sad.
"One that comes to mind instantly
is writing a replacement for X Windows.
It makes it very difficult to do gaming on Linux.
Why don't they port Gnome to run against frame
buffer (or something similar), so we could run a
GUI without X? Linux could take the pc gaming
niche market if it performed well. They already
have the knowledge for the task so it wouldn't
have much learning curve. DirectX would be a lot
easier to emulate without X.
Wine could use some help.
Mozilla and Firefox could use some help."
Who needs them? Graphics are over rated. If you're so concerned about eye-candy, you don't need a graphical browser. Use Lynx.
People like eye candy... and guess what? It's FUN. Sometimes people like to spend their energy doing things that don't really have a point. Music? Fiction? Do we really need these?
Semantically, crackers break copy-protection on software (traditionally Games). "Crackers" don't have anything to do with breaking into computer systems... Wired Magazine distorted the term in the late 90s (1997, I believe) to mean "A person who breaks into computers with the intent to do harm".
*THIS* is insightful? Although modern english grammar allows for "she", it is correct to use "he" to describe any person male or female without a sexist component.
Agreed! Although the Mini started my craving, I decided that an iBook was more functional and not much more. Of course once I tasted blood, I had to have more and ended up buying a PowerMac for the desktop as well. All told my lust for a Mini ended up costing me $5,000 and I still don't have one, yet...
OS X is the most beautiful and productive OS I've used in a long time. I feel right at home and don't miss my PC in the least.
I'm guessing that you didn't read the article or are unfamiliar with .NET. The .NET Framework is a 23 meg download, not 65. The article states that the TOTAL download of the framework + malware + spyware was 65 megs.
.Net Framework, however.
Your point does remain that the JRE is smaller than the
I see a lot of people talk about this is bad for Apple, or Apple doesn't do this... The interesting thing is that I think they do this intentionally. There is a *HUGE* opportunity to find niche markets for software on the Mac simply because Apple doesn't fill in the gaps like Microsoft. Look at the previous story about Digital Monster. These guys wrote what amounts to shareware, charged 40 bucks a copy and have been wildly successful.
I hope that others will recognize the opportunity and take it! Apple has managed to blend commercial and OSS in a brilliant way...
The only one that doesn't make sense is #5. I have an x800.. So unless I'm in an alternate universe, that's a bogus claim.
I'm so fucking tired of hearing the argument "Free != no $$".
/end rant.
I wish people would stop lying to themselves and face up to the fact that Free == Free. The code may be free but most "normal" people are attracted to "free" software because it has no cost... They can have really great software without paying a penny for it.
Even large corporations know this. What do you think the argument about TCO of Linux vs. Microsoft is about? Very simply:
Microsoft Software costs money.
Linux doesn't.
Conclusion: Linux has a lower TCO.
Stop bullshitting and just admit the fact that OSS is popular (with non-geek) types because it has no cost. No one gives a rats ass about anything else.
Naw... Just borrow the BSD file format. Problem solved.
There's a difference between constructive criticism and ranting. I enjoy receiving constructive cricism of my work as it improves my abiltities. When someone flops off with ignorant statements, half truths and propaganda: I don't care what they think.
You're forgetting one very important thing about Free Software. As a developer, I honestly don't care if you like it or not. It matters very little to me if "corporate types" use Gnome or not. It isn't going to stop the development train. I use Gnome because *I* like it. Most of the people who develop Gnome or for gnome do it because they *like* doing it.
As long as it's fun and people are doing what they love, I see little point in worrying about whether or not some geek or PHB likes the work. "FreeBSD is Dead!", "Gnome sucks"... so what?
Critics are like assholes... everyone is one.
What exactly does this have to do with developers? The things you are asking for come from the PTBs at Microsoft, not the guys in the trenches writing code. Perhaps you should learn to place blame where it belongs and instead of dismissing an entire group of people based on the actions of a few.
That would be very ironic, considering the Mormon faith was founded by a snake oil salesman, well known for his fraudulent behavior. We should just wait for Darl to find some golden plates under a rock and claim that the angel Moroni told him that he owns Linux. That's when things will get really interesting!
It most certainly *IS* legal to say that someone is "crazy" or "psychotic". This is clearly a matter of opinion; regardless free speech still applies.
Here's an example:
Fred Phelps is a "Baptist Preacher" in Topeka, Kansas who pickets funerals of people who die from aids with signs that say "God hates fags", etc.
Now, I personally think he's a fuck-nut and is clearly psycho. Can he sue me for saying this? Not in a million years.