Your hostility seems a bit undeserved. However, I'd like to respond if I may.
Have you worked through the tutorials in the standard manual (either the new one by Ton for 3.32 or the older one that is now free - [I think much of Tons newest has mostly been released under a free license as well])?
Doing all of your modeling in one big window is relatively straight forward. What particular 'manipulators' do you feel are missing? Are you familiar of the usage of the right and middle mouse button for manipulation? (Ie scaling, zooming, rotation, etc.)
I also desire full undo. It is non trivial, otherwise it would be done already. I recall seeing some work on enabling multi-level undo for everything but I'm not sure how far it has progressed.
[QUOTE] Blender is trying too hard to be different, and it's hurting itself in the process.[/QUOTE]
It isn't 'trying to be different'. The one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard is an extremely efficient method. Something being discussed is migrating all of the key and mousebindings to a user configureable method.(Yes should probably have been done from the beginning). Then you can set them up exactly as you like them from other environments.
"Give users the choice of either creating objects through click and drag, or at the origin."
That is a worthwhile suggestion, have you considered emailing the blender funboard (blender functionality board)
http://www.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-funbo ar d
Probably because they are well aware of Trademark law, and realize that they would lose the case since cars are in an entirely different market from webbrowsers and email clients?
I'd like to see more work done on QEMU and BOCHS two x86 emulators. QEMU needs more porting work (Alas, it does not work on my beloved OS X yet...), and BOCHS is fairly slow.
Since realizing profit from a particular endeavor can be manipulated with extreme flexibility, claiming no profits could easily be a method to discourage competitors....Dear competitors, gee this is a tough and profitless market, that is absolutely not worth your time. Please pursue a profitable venture while we foolishly throw away our money, sincerely
This is interesting... apparently The Skeptical Environmentalist was published in Danish four years ago, and had already been shredded. http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:6w MQiTS9HjQC: www.au.dk/~cesamat/debate.html+&hl=en
Also here are other rebuttals, http://www.ucsusa.org/environment/lomb org.html
I've read rebuttals from four different sources, and rebuttals for the same section focus on different, but equally devastating flaws.
Here is a link that has a thorough rebuttal of the work. http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/lo mborg12 1201.asp
Also see this article in the January 2002 edition of
Scientific American
Misleading Math about the Earth ESSAYS BY STEPHEN SCHNEIDER, JOHN P. HOLDREN, JOHN BONGAARTS AND THOMAS LOVEJOY
The book The Skeptical Environmentalist uses statistics to dismiss warnings about peril for the planet. But the science suggests that it's the author who is out of touch with the facts.
"Apex *is*, apparently, working to comply with the GPL. From what I've read in the past on his site, he works in the commercial fishing industry up in Alaska. I would imagine that his time to work on the site and the packages is limited. "
Apparently you are not familiar with the Alaskan Commercial Fishing Industry - he probably has nine months of the year to work on it . (Actually he might be crabbing during the winter, but most of us put it three or four months of hard work doing dangerous shit (ie sleeping for 2 (or less) hours in 48 hours in the second most dangerous job in the US...), and then slack the rest of the year. (Of course if he's been commercial fishing these past couple of years, then he probably works the rest of the year to support his commercial fishing habit ).
I posted about a year or two ago a patent proposal that is similar to yours (but much better - a bit more complex, rewards innovative patents more than poor patents etc.)
I'll email a copy of it to you if you like (just email me at the address above...).
Oops, I forgot to give my point (doh!), well - the point was, that doing a requirements gathering can result in numerous innovative features that might not otherwise be discovered, that the original programmer would love to have if only he had thought of it.
With a few decent tools, the process can be relatively painless to do, and yet provide great benefit to the end user.
(I'd suggest adding a link to the desktop of each linux distribition that solicits feature requests, and have a Wishlist/and a feature request voting as a menu item for every program [yes, I know that the bug tracking software has a wishlist, but a naieve user is unlikely to find it...]). With the proper tools, I feel that Free/Open software can grow at even a greater rate than it currently does.
I've done a feature request solicitation on the Evolution contact manager (similar in appearance to Outlook 2000).
We had well over 100 unique feature requests, with probably a third of them fairly significant advances over any contact manager out there (I've examined and reviewed about 20 different contact managers so I've got a good idea of what's available).
I've planned to put a survey up on Sourceforge, but unfortunately the survey design available is really weak. (I'd like to have a feature name, with breif description, a pop up link for a more complete description, and have the feature ranked via likert scale on how desirable the feature is. Also, I'd like additional radio buttons for marking wheter they would consider this a 'killer feature', plus an area to suggest additional features and categories, plus a bit of demographic information to find a correlation between professions and 'killer features'. I'd also like a field for those who would like to be contacted when the feature is available, or those who would like to volunteer to help implement stuff....)
If you'd like to look at the list of feature requests here they are, if you have any additional requests please email me...
(note that some of these features have already been added to Evolution, ie GPG support, but I haven't updated the list for a while... so deal (grin))
Filters and Searching
filters to have available
Feature: Duplicate message filter
Feature: 'Common properties' filter construction
Feature: Time based email filter/vFolder
Feature: hide message based on an attribute
Feature: Auto-generate vFolders based on frequent words/topics
Feature: Auto-creation of a folder for each new contact/Auto-association of messages with a contact
searching
Feature: abbreviation symbol search recognition
Feature: Fuzzy searching/allow misspellings on searches
Feature: Synonym searching
Feature: Clustering analysis
Feature: Outlier analysis
Feature: Mail merge
Feature: Bounce/Email redirection
Feature: Spell checking of email addresses
Feature: Send immediately button
attributes
Feature: addition of a 'dealt with' mail state
display
Feature: Summary display of 'new text only'
Feature: plain-text headers
Feature: Display html as plain text
Feature: Full-justified email
Feature: Allow display of message body in proportional font
Feature: allow custom colorization of messages for categorization and prioritization of mails
composing
Feature: Intelligent reply for mailing lists
Feature: HTML Stationary
Feature: html or image signature file
Feature: User based signature file
Feature: Rotating signature file
Feature: Macro/Graphical reply builder from user defined generic paragraphs
Feature: Smart email recognition
Feature: Outgoing mail prioritizer
Feature: 'Smart' auto-completion of email addresses
Feature: Default domain for unqualified addresses.
other
Feature: Automatic opening of 'bounced' messages to be resent
Feature: Don't create duplicate messages in a folder
To-do
alarms
Feature: Customization of alarm type, frequency and duration
Feature: Alarms can trigger shell commands
Feature: Alarm daemon
Feature: Ability to define a standard set of alarms
other
Feature: Follow-up/Reply reminder
Feature: Associate/attach mail message or thread to a to-do or calendar item
Feature: Follow-up
Feature: Partial completion of to-dos
Feature: To-do sub-tasking
Feature: Task Delegation
Calendar
Feature: Scheduling conflict notification
Feature: Group scheduling and scheduling conflict detection
Feature: Task Prioritizer and Scheduler
Feature: Day planner printing
Contacts
contact addition
Feature: Add contact category to master list
Feature: Frequent contact list
Feature: Recent contact list
Feature: Duplicate/Smart contact recognition
Feature: Automatic addition of new contacts to address book
other
Feature: Geographic/Time zone mapping
Feature: Mapquest.com/Mapblast.com/etc query
Feature: Caller ID launches associated contact
Feature: Contact/Employee skill and attributes
Feature: User defined pull down lists (and list elements)
Feature: User defined free text fields
Interoperability
Feature: Interoperation with proprietary groupware servers (MS Exchange, Lotus Exchange, etc.)
Feature: Palm Pilot synchronization (and other Personal organizers)
Feature: Export filters
Feature: Import filters
Feature: Fax support
Feature: Remote/local Synchronization
Feature: Access web based mail boxes via Evolution
Security
Feature: Automatic remote backup of mail
Feature: Seamless GnuPG, PGP and other encryption support
Feature: Trusted/Routing Flag
Feature: email tracking
Feature: Get public keys from a key-server
Help, training, user education
help
Feature: Help linked to IRC
Feature: visually directed help
Feature: spoken help
training
Feature: Command summary card
Feature: User level settings
Feature: Interviewer
Advanced/Not Yet Classified Features
Feature: Command Line widget
Feature: Multicopy/paste
Feature: Voice integration/dictation support
Feature: Key bindings
Feature: User configurable display attributes for mail states
Feature: One to many relationships for todos, contacts, projects, emails, etc.
Feature: Day planner viewing
Feature: Interface clones
Feature: Action/Time log
Feature: Report Generator
Feature: Time log
Feature: Document management and tracking
Feature: Mailing address and label printing
Feature: Smart message retrieval
Feature: Resume message downloading
Feature: Voice commands
Feature: Autoupdate
Feature: See contents of multiple folders at the same time
Your proposal sounds rather interesting, but I have a few questions that haven't been raised/answered elsewhere...
1) If someone does a complete reinstall on their computer, won't that result in the loss of the content? (I assume that you have some redundancy of data, but the more duplication, the greater the cost in mojo... - Perhaps offer redundancy for a greater cost, but the default be non redundant...)
2) You offer 1 Million mojo for beta testers, what is to stop someone from creating numerous false beta testing accounts (say a skript kiddie installing the mojonation on rooted boxen...), and then transferring all of the mojo to his account.
3) It would appear that your company would be in a similar position to the Federal Reserve - capable of 'printing' additional mojo, causing price inflation. What types of safety mechanisms are in place to keep you (or a clever hacker) from openning up their own 'mojo printing press'?
4) Givin that Mojo transfers have 'float' - that is, payment is not made until a certain level of Mojo is 'owed'. Could not an individual make transfers that were only to just below the threshold, and then no longer use the services of that individual? Thus one could 'owe' 9999 to ten thousand entities, and yet only have a total of 10,000 mojo.. Or create multiple anonymous accounts that each only use 9,999 credits.
5) Can large content easily be broken down into smaller pieces? I realize that a user could break the content apart before uploading it, but it would be nice if I could download partial content of a movie in smaller parts so that my payments are over a longer period of time.
6) If I download content, can I then advertise that I have it available so that I can recoup some of the cost of me downloading the content?
7) Is a method in place to 'stream' the content, if multiple users are willing to wait to download the content at the same time to reduce the cost per user and reduce the resources used by the sender?
"Therefore, it seems like the main cost of getting to orbit is energy [...] and my rudimentary knowledge of physics says to me that you're doing the same amount of work no matter how you get up there. "
The point that you are missing is energy effeciency of the device used to get up to space. While the "absolute minimum" energy requried is a hard limit. The maximum energy used is not. Also, using rockets, you have to carry your launch fuel with you, which is heavy and spendy. Using a space elevator you only need to carry fuel that you need to manuever once you are in space. That is why a space elevator would be so much cheaper.
"Also, you can release proprietary code with GPL code in it, as long as you make available the changes to the GPL's code. "
I'm sorry, but you are wrong. If you are using GPLed code in a product, then the whole of the code must be released under the GPL if you choose to distribute it. Hence the 'viral' nature of the GPL. You may be thinking of the LGPL (Lesser GPL, previously Library GPL), in which you can link to the LGPL code with proprietary/closed source software, but must make availble the changes you made to the LGPL source code.
One a Linux box is set up and configured properly, it can go forever. Thus it makes great sense as a preconfigured print server. On the other hand, getting a Linux box set up as a client, can be absolute hell! There are three bazillion tweaks and incompatibilites that your flavor of Linux client can have. The printer drivers are generally bare bones support, and designed by people outside of the printer company. Thus the return for offering support versus the effort needed to maintain that support on linux is a very poor proposition. Until Linux becomes a relatively large and homogenous target market, it doesn't make economic sense to support it as a client.
"They were showing Evolution and the new "red carpet" installer at LinuxWorld. They both look GREAT. They mentioned that native Exchange server support would be in the second release of Evolution and the first release would use IMAP. "
Luke of WINE fame is working on REing Exchange Server format right now, so it may end up supporting Exchange server in about a month or so, as opposed to version 1.0..
Slashdot Mirror
I've read heavily in the research on computer assisted instruction and related topics.
In general the usage of computers has been horidly awful, and the software design has been attrocious.
Bad implementations are not the same as bad concept, something which many critics seem to have difficulty distinguishing between.
LetterRip
Hmmm...
o ar d
Your hostility seems a bit undeserved. However, I'd like to respond if I may.
Have you worked through the tutorials in the standard manual (either the new one by Ton for 3.32 or the older one that is now free - [I think much of Tons newest has mostly been released under a free license as well])?
Doing all of your modeling in one big window is relatively straight forward. What particular 'manipulators' do you feel are missing? Are you familiar of the usage of the right and middle mouse button for manipulation? (Ie scaling, zooming, rotation, etc.)
I also desire full undo. It is non trivial, otherwise it would be done already. I recall seeing some work on enabling multi-level undo for everything but I'm not sure how far it has progressed.
[QUOTE] Blender is trying too hard to be different, and it's hurting itself in the process.[/QUOTE]
It isn't 'trying to be different'. The one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard is an extremely efficient method. Something being discussed is migrating all of the key and mousebindings to a user configureable method.(Yes should probably have been done from the beginning). Then you can set them up exactly as you like them from other environments.
"Give users the choice of either creating objects through click and drag, or at the origin."
That is a worthwhile suggestion, have you considered emailing the blender funboard (blender functionality board)
http://www.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-funb
discusses feature suggestions.
Probably because they are well aware of Trademark law, and realize that they would lose the case since cars are in an entirely different market from webbrowsers and email clients?
LetterRip
It is foolish to base belief on arguements from authority if their is adequate information to evaluate the merits of the claim.
They've provided their report here
Report
instead of speculating, why not read the report?
I'd like to see more work done on QEMU and BOCHS two x86 emulators. QEMU needs more porting work (Alas, it does not work on my beloved OS X yet...), and BOCHS is fairly slow.
QEMU BOCHSHowever, I think QEMU could compete head on with Virtual PC within a year if it gets additional porting effort.
This seems like clear grounds for a class action lawsuit by the shareholders.
There seems to be no business justifiable reason for such an action.
LetterRip
Since realizing profit from a particular endeavor can be manipulated with extreme flexibility, claiming no profits could easily be a method to discourage competitors. ...Dear competitors, gee this is a tough and profitless market, that is absolutely not worth your time. Please pursue a profitable venture while we foolishly throw away our money, sincerely
Steve Jobs
"Where do you put your coffee?"
The built in cup holder - DUH!
I certainly hope he remebers to pay the capital gains on the song, otherwise it won't just be RIAA who is out to get him, but the IRS.
LetterRip
This is interesting... apparently The Skeptical Environmentalist was published in Danish four years ago, and had already been shredded.w MQiTS9HjQC: www.au.dk/~cesamat/debate.html+&hl=en
b org.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:6
Also here are other rebuttals,
http://www.ucsusa.org/environment/lom
I've read rebuttals from four different sources, and rebuttals for the same section focus on different, but equally devastating flaws.
LetterRip
Here is a link that has a thorough rebuttal of the work.o mborg12 1201.asp
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/l
Also see this article in the January 2002 edition of
Scientific American
Misleading Math about the Earth
ESSAYS BY STEPHEN SCHNEIDER, JOHN P. HOLDREN, JOHN BONGAARTS AND THOMAS LOVEJOY
The book The Skeptical Environmentalist uses statistics to dismiss warnings about peril for the planet. But the science suggests that it's the author who is out of touch with the facts.
LetterRip
"Apex *is*, apparently, working to comply with the GPL. From what I've read in the past on his site, he works in the commercial fishing industry up in Alaska. I would imagine that his time to work on the site and the packages is limited. "
Apparently you are not familiar with the Alaskan Commercial Fishing Industry - he probably has nine months of the year to work on it . (Actually he might be crabbing during the winter, but most of us put it three or four months of hard work doing dangerous shit (ie sleeping for 2 (or less) hours in 48 hours in the second most dangerous job in the US...), and then slack the rest of the year. (Of course if he's been commercial fishing these past couple of years, then he probably works the rest of the year to support his commercial fishing habit ).
LetterRip
That no one has suggested
Code Complete
and
Rapid Development
they are two of the most important computer (programmer) books out there...
LetterRip
"They used to work just like patents...and fortunately patents still expire 17 years. "
Actually,
patents now expire after 20 years,
LetterRip
Could you please email me offlist?
/.
I have some questions for you that I'd prefer not to post to
Thanks,
LetterRip
sorry there was supposed to be a smiley beside the much better so that you knew I was teasing... stupid post ate my tags...
LetterRip
Dublin,
I posted about a year or two ago a patent proposal that is similar to yours (but much better - a bit more complex, rewards innovative patents more than poor patents etc.)
I'll email a copy of it to you if you like (just email me at the address above...).
LetterRip
It would seem that the same law would apply to the logs at the Whitehouse and other major organizations.
If the time spent at such sites is logged as well, then a significant case for wasted tax money can be made.
There will likely be some interesting fall out from this...
LetterRip
Tom M.
TomM@pentstar.com
Oops, I forgot to give my point (doh!), well - the point was, that doing a requirements gathering can result in numerous innovative features that might not otherwise be discovered, that the original programmer would love to have if only he had thought of it.
With a few decent tools, the process can be relatively painless to do, and yet provide great benefit to the end user.
(I'd suggest adding a link to the desktop of each linux distribition that solicits feature requests, and have a Wishlist/and a feature request voting as a menu item for every program [yes, I know that the bug tracking software has a wishlist, but a naieve user is unlikely to find it...]). With the proper tools, I feel that Free/Open software can grow at even a greater rate than it currently does.
LetterRip
Tom M.
TomM@nospamPentstar.com
I've done a feature request solicitation on the Evolution contact manager (similar in appearance to Outlook 2000).
...)
We had well over 100 unique feature requests, with probably a third of them fairly significant advances over any contact manager out there (I've examined and reviewed about 20 different contact managers so I've got a good idea of what's available).
I've planned to put a survey up on Sourceforge, but unfortunately the survey design available is really weak. (I'd like to have a feature name, with breif description, a pop up link for a more complete description, and have the feature ranked via likert scale on how desirable the feature is. Also, I'd like additional radio buttons for marking wheter they would consider this a 'killer feature', plus an area to suggest additional features and categories, plus a bit of demographic information to find a correlation between professions and 'killer features'. I'd also like a field for those who would like to be contacted when the feature is available, or those who would like to volunteer to help implement stuff.
If you'd like to look at the list of feature requests here they are, if you have any additional requests please email me...
(note that some of these features have already been added to Evolution, ie GPG support, but I haven't updated the list for a while... so deal (grin))
Filters and Searching
filters to have available
Feature: Duplicate message filter
Feature: 'Common properties' filter construction
Feature: Time based email filter/vFolder
Feature: hide message based on an attribute
Feature: Auto-generate vFolders based on frequent words/topics
Feature: Auto-creation of a folder for each new contact/Auto-association of messages with a contact
searching
Feature: abbreviation symbol search recognition
Feature: Fuzzy searching/allow misspellings on searches
Feature: Synonym searching
Feature: Clustering analysis
Feature: Outlier analysis
other
Feature: 'Cleanup' command
Feature: Relevancy/Importance Scoring
Email
commands
Feature: Mail merge
Feature: Bounce/Email redirection
Feature: Spell checking of email addresses
Feature: Send immediately button
attributes
Feature: addition of a 'dealt with' mail state
display
Feature: Summary display of 'new text only'
Feature: plain-text headers
Feature: Display html as plain text
Feature: Full-justified email
Feature: Allow display of message body in proportional font
Feature: allow custom colorization of messages for categorization and prioritization of mails
composing
Feature: Intelligent reply for mailing lists
Feature: HTML Stationary
Feature: html or image signature file
Feature: User based signature file
Feature: Rotating signature file
Feature: Macro/Graphical reply builder from user defined generic paragraphs
Feature: Smart email recognition
Feature: Outgoing mail prioritizer
Feature: 'Smart' auto-completion of email addresses
Feature: Default domain for unqualified addresses.
other
Feature: Automatic opening of 'bounced' messages to be resent
Feature: Don't create duplicate messages in a folder
To-do
alarms
Feature: Customization of alarm type, frequency and duration
Feature: Alarms can trigger shell commands
Feature: Alarm daemon
Feature: Ability to define a standard set of alarms
other
Feature: Follow-up/Reply reminder
Feature: Associate/attach mail message or thread to a to-do or calendar item
Feature: Follow-up
Feature: Partial completion of to-dos
Feature: To-do sub-tasking
Feature: Task Delegation
Calendar
Feature: Scheduling conflict notification
Feature: Group scheduling and scheduling conflict detection
Feature: Task Prioritizer and Scheduler
Feature: Day planner printing
Contacts
contact addition
Feature: Add contact category to master list
Feature: Frequent contact list
Feature: Recent contact list
Feature: Duplicate/Smart contact recognition
Feature: Automatic addition of new contacts to address book
other
Feature: Geographic/Time zone mapping
Feature: Mapquest.com/Mapblast.com/etc query
Feature: Caller ID launches associated contact
Feature: Contact/Employee skill and attributes
Feature: User defined pull down lists (and list elements)
Feature: User defined free text fields
Interoperability
Feature: Interoperation with proprietary groupware servers (MS Exchange, Lotus Exchange, etc.)
Feature: Palm Pilot synchronization (and other Personal organizers)
Feature: Export filters
Feature: Import filters
Feature: Fax support
Feature: Remote/local Synchronization
Feature: Access web based mail boxes via Evolution
Security
Feature: Automatic remote backup of mail
Feature: Seamless GnuPG, PGP and other encryption support
Feature: Trusted/Routing Flag
Feature: email tracking
Feature: Get public keys from a key-server
Help, training, user education
help
Feature: Help linked to IRC
Feature: visually directed help
Feature: spoken help
training
Feature: Command summary card
Feature: User level settings
Feature: Interviewer
Advanced/Not Yet Classified Features
Feature: Command Line widget
Feature: Multicopy/paste
Feature: Voice integration/dictation support
Feature: Key bindings
Feature: User configurable display attributes for mail states
Feature: One to many relationships for todos, contacts, projects, emails, etc.
Feature: Day planner viewing
Feature: Interface clones
Feature: Action/Time log
Feature: Report Generator
Feature: Time log
Feature: Document management and tracking
Feature: Mailing address and label printing
Feature: Smart message retrieval
Feature: Resume message downloading
Feature: Voice commands
Feature: Autoupdate
Feature: See contents of multiple folders at the same time
LetterRip
Tom M.
TomM@nospamPentstar.com
Your proposal sounds rather interesting, but I have a few questions that haven't been raised/answered elsewhere...
1) If someone does a complete reinstall on their computer, won't that result in the loss of the content? (I assume that you have some redundancy of data, but the more duplication, the greater the cost in mojo... - Perhaps offer redundancy for a greater cost, but the default be non redundant...)
2) You offer 1 Million mojo for beta testers, what is to stop someone from creating numerous false beta testing accounts (say a skript kiddie installing the mojonation on rooted boxen...), and then transferring all of the mojo to his account.
3) It would appear that your company would be in a similar position to the Federal Reserve - capable of 'printing' additional mojo, causing price inflation. What types of safety mechanisms are in place to keep you (or a clever hacker) from openning up their own 'mojo printing press'?
4) Givin that Mojo transfers have 'float' - that is, payment is not made until a certain level of Mojo is 'owed'. Could not an individual make transfers that were only to just below the threshold, and then no longer use the services of that individual? Thus one could 'owe' 9999 to ten thousand entities, and yet only have a total of 10,000 mojo.. Or create multiple anonymous accounts that each only use 9,999 credits.
5) Can large content easily be broken down into smaller pieces? I realize that a user could break the content apart before uploading it, but it would be nice if I could download partial content of a movie in smaller parts so that my payments are over a longer period of time.
6) If I download content, can I then advertise that I have it available so that I can recoup some of the cost of me downloading the content?
7) Is a method in place to 'stream' the content, if multiple users are willing to wait to download the content at the same time to reduce the cost per user and reduce the resources used by the sender?
Thanks,
LetterRip
Tom M.
TomM@pentstar.com
"Therefore, it seems like the main cost of getting to orbit is energy [...] and my rudimentary knowledge of physics says to me that you're doing the same amount of work no matter how you get up there. "
The point that you are missing is energy effeciency of the device used to get up to space. While the "absolute minimum" energy requried is a hard limit. The maximum energy used is not. Also, using rockets, you have to carry your launch fuel with you, which is heavy and spendy. Using a space elevator you only need to carry fuel that you need to manuever once you are in space. That is why a space elevator would be so much cheaper.
LetterRip
Tom M.
TomM@pentstar.com
"Also, you can release proprietary code with GPL code in it, as long as you make available the changes to the GPL's code. "
I'm sorry, but you are wrong. If you are using GPLed code in a product, then the whole of the code must be released under the GPL if you choose to distribute it. Hence the 'viral' nature of the GPL. You may be thinking of the LGPL (Lesser GPL, previously Library GPL), in which you can link to the LGPL code with proprietary/closed source software, but must make availble the changes you made to the LGPL source code.
LetterRip
Tom M.
fstmm@yahoo.com
One a Linux box is set up and configured properly, it can go forever. Thus it makes great sense as a preconfigured print server. On the other hand, getting a Linux box set up as a client, can be absolute hell! There are three bazillion tweaks and incompatibilites that your flavor of Linux client can have. The printer drivers are generally bare bones support, and designed by people outside of the printer company. Thus the return for offering support versus the effort needed to maintain that support on linux is a very poor proposition. Until Linux becomes a relatively large and homogenous target market, it doesn't make economic sense to support it as a client.
LetterRip
Tom M.
TomM@pentstar.com
"They were showing Evolution and the new "red carpet" installer at LinuxWorld. They both look GREAT. They mentioned that native Exchange server support would be in the second release of Evolution and the first release would use IMAP. "
..
Luke of WINE fame is working on REing Exchange Server format right now, so it may end up supporting Exchange server in about a month or so, as opposed to version 1.0
Tom M.
TomM@pentstar.com