What does it matter if half the distros ultimately fail ? If there is enough variety consumers will have more choices, more users will start to adopt Linux, more developers will produce software for it,etc. There are some Linux distros that are good for different asks and yet fail at other more commonplace jobs. Mandrake is the best for my limited use of Linux, Caldera ok, but Red Hat isn't my cup of tea. After all it won't be until Linux gets a distribution which allows easy installation and uninstallation of programmes that the masses will start to buy it. As it is Linux for many comes across as a perpetual project type of software where users are always describing how they can configure it for this or that, but not how they actually use. Its like a car constantly been serviced and polished but never leaving the garage.
If the Australian government's opinion was such you would be right to dump on them. Anyone silly enough to start sprouting comparisons between this country and China just show they don't know what they are talking about. Its like saying that just because the F.B.I has "Omnivore" the US government reads everyone's email and because the U.S has tried to stifle the export of crypto software the U.S is trying to keep the web insecure and subject to U.S imperialist ambitions! The reality is more complex and the media has failed to put things in persceptive. The amendments are directed more at trying to create a criminal dimension in the so-called "electronic frontier" than anything else. Penalising the sending of viruses and spam by email is the real target of the legislation. In Australia, as a nation, we are trying to create a statutory regime to hit the "bad guys" of the web, those bastards who infringe your right to use the net (e.g virus writers, spamers, privacy cheats, etc). Now I will concede that, due to the balance of power in the Senate being held by a strict Catholic, has led to a couple of silly pieces of legislation their practical effect is around zero. Any web user can assure you that access to the web,including the flood of foreign porn and garbage, is as unrestricted as before the last round of legislation. Maybe as users we will have to adapt to the idea that "information must be free" is a great slogan but it has to be tempered by twisting good old J S Mill around to say "information must be free, as long as being free it doesn't infringe everyone else's right to information".
Thanks for your time.
Slashdot Mirror
What does it matter if half the distros ultimately fail ? If there is enough variety consumers will have more choices, more users will start to adopt Linux, more developers will produce software for it,etc. There are some Linux distros that are good for different asks and yet fail at other more commonplace jobs. Mandrake is the best for my limited use of Linux, Caldera ok, but Red Hat isn't my cup of tea. After all it won't be until Linux gets a distribution which allows easy installation and uninstallation of programmes that the masses will start to buy it. As it is Linux for many comes across as a perpetual project type of software where users are always describing how they can configure it for this or that, but not how they actually use. Its like a car constantly been serviced and polished but never leaving the garage.
If the Australian government's opinion was such you would be right to dump on them. Anyone silly enough to start sprouting comparisons between this country and China just show they don't know what they are talking about. Its like saying that just because the F.B.I has "Omnivore" the US government reads everyone's email and because the U.S has tried to stifle the export of crypto software the U.S is trying to keep the web insecure and subject to U.S imperialist ambitions! The reality is more complex and the media has failed to put things in persceptive. The amendments are directed more at trying to create a criminal dimension in the so-called "electronic frontier" than anything else. Penalising the sending of viruses and spam by email is the real target of the legislation. In Australia, as a nation, we are trying to create a statutory regime to hit the "bad guys" of the web, those bastards who infringe your right to use the net (e.g virus writers, spamers, privacy cheats, etc). Now I will concede that, due to the balance of power in the Senate being held by a strict Catholic, has led to a couple of silly pieces of legislation their practical effect is around zero. Any web user can assure you that access to the web,including the flood of foreign porn and garbage, is as unrestricted as before the last round of legislation. Maybe as users we will have to adapt to the idea that "information must be free" is a great slogan but it has to be tempered by twisting good old J S Mill around to say "information must be free, as long as being free it doesn't infringe everyone else's right to information". Thanks for your time.