I too think of myself as a Linux newbie in many ways. Even though I maintain two linux servers (one business, one personal), I only recently compiled and installed a custom kernel with success. Were it not for RedHat I'd still be where I was 6 months ago.
However just because you start out doing it the easy way, doesn't mean that you should be content continue on that path.
But as a whole it is NOT a good thing to remove people so much from technology.
When my dad was my age, there was not a part in his car that he couldn't fix himself with a good sized toolbox. If my car weren't so hopelessly old I'd never be able to lift the hood. As automotive technlogy marched on people got lazy, we were more than happy to go to firestone, or Mr. Goodwrench to get our cars fixed instead of learning to do it ourselves.
We are marching down the same path with computers. Hell maybe I'll open a repair center and call it Mr. Goodchips and make a load of cash.
First, the "marketplace" in "let the marketplace decide" is not always economic. It can be the "marketplace of ideas" or something similar. The "invisible hand" of Adam Smith works in other areas as well. (evolution anyone?)
That said, I agree that capitalism (or worse, consumerism) is an ideology that many would do good to get rid off, although I'm not quite as cynical as your "marketing department" comment makes you sound.
It's not a "zealotry" issue. It's a consistency issue. If I hold a principle to apply to some cases, there has to be a reason it doesn't apply in other cases. In order to abandon my principles I need a better reason than "the ends justify the means".
As for infringing on the creators rights: Far from it. The creator of GPL'd software has at least as many rights as closed software developers (if not more) with the added benefit of increased usage.
Hey, I'm 19, no college education, yet still gainfully employed. I must be doing something right.;-) It beats what other people my age do. Would you like fries with that?
Will it take to make a CD? And where will I be able to buy one of these machines? Thank {insert favorite diety (i.e., God, Goddess, Buddha, Yahweh, Linus) here} that they don't have some lame-ass "Yes, I too am a Follow-The-Crowd Wannabe-Tech-Elite" name, though...
i'd rather marry a sweet female hacker
on
Wired on Kipling
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· Score: 1
Posted by white[noise]:
Well thats a refreshing viewpoint. Wish it were the norm.
Man, Red Hat does seem to be doing a really good job in packaging and marketing. (I'm unqualified to judge their code, so I won't.) For Linux to be really successful, someone's got to do that. Not everybody in the world has the vision to just automatically see how Open Source works, and why their fears and doubts are unjustified. Red Hat's doing that, and doing it well.
So the question I pose to you is: how successful do you want Linux to be? If you want it to remain where it is, then fine. But if you want it to go head to head with Microsoft on every level, you've got to accept that there are companies out there that will take the lead and become rich.
The best thing, I think, that Linux users can do is to support a standards base and hold all companies accountable to it. And if Red Hat or someone else decides to do something squirrelly with the code, use the power that brought Linux to prominence in the first place to set things straight again.
I tell ya...this open source thing is amazing. I hope it stays that way.
Windows for the masses? Insulting to the masses.
on
Wearable PCs
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· Score: 1
Posted by Mike@ABC:
Usually I wouldn't respond to this, and I mean no disrespect to the Anonymous Coward, but there's an attitude here which has the potential to alienate a lot of people. Yes, Linux and Java and other OSes and languages are great, they're much more flexible, and they're better than Windows. But think about this -- if you lump non-techies together with your disdain for Microsoft, I betcha the masses will get pissed. Nobody likes to be called stupid. The readers and posters here are very smart and very with-it (mostly), but a lot of those masses are also smart and with-it, just in different ways.
I'm rambling a bit here. In the end, all I'm saying is: be nice to the masses. It's the only way you'll win them over to Linux and all the other cool stuff.
People - this is not a web device - its a tool
on
Palm VII Field Trial
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· Score: 1
Posted by keithahern:
I played with a Palm VII a few months ago. This thing (if the price is right) is going to sell millions of units, why ? * I clicked on the yahoo email lookup, entered my name and city - pressed 'go' 7 seconds later after 3-4 seconds of actually using the wireless service I had my email address returned to me. * I clicked on traffic - 7 seconds later - traffic on all the roads around me (it knows where you are - due to using the cellphone network) * I clicked on an ATM locator and got 6 within a half mile. * I checked my bank balance.. * I almost ordered movie tickets... The above scenarios add up to 30-40 seconds of actually using the wireless service. RESULT * Battery life people! * 'just the facts' responses. The Palm VII rocks.
Don, you make an excellent point. I think that all Redhat needs to complete the transition to an AOL type entity is to make the default runlevel 5 in the/etc/inittab. This would cause the default install of the system to boot into xdm and remove the pure console from the equasion.
At that point you have the equiv of M$ windoze for Linux. If that happens the dumbing down of the typical user will accellerate beyond all control.
It's because AOL has attracted the lowest common denominator to the internet that we've had to deal with crap like the CDA. When the internet was too difficult for the average child to access, nobody used protecting children from smut on the internet as a campaign issue.
I think of myself as a rather competent computer user and for all I know and all I can do I'm a flea compared to men like Linus, and the GURUs at bell labs who envisioned the concepts of UNIX and Linux.
In a decade, even though I'll never be in their league, I will be that far ahead of the people who are considered very capable or competent.
Just as now I'm humbled by people who still do assembler programming.
There is nothing that forces RedHat (or any other vendor) to release programs they write under the GPL, modifications to the kernel or system libraries are a different story though.
Um, yeah, but what if that's the part that he's talking about? It sure seems to be the part that counts here.
Yesh, it'sh the shame old shtory, gimme another one a them doubles bartender thanksh . . . you good friend, ol' pal . . . buddy ol' pal . . . 'd'i ev' tellya 'bout my wife lefme? she lefme . . . damn wife . . . ol' buddy ol' pal . . .
This is just what I'd expect from Caldera. The trail of bodies behind that company just gets longer and longer, doesn't it?
Not that Red Hat is any better. The rumors of prohibited biological experiments in their classified mountain bunker are too persistent -- and too detailed -- to ignore. And does anybody still bother trying to keep track of all the international war crimes tribunals that have been convened solely for the purpose of investigating the atrocities commited by the infamous Red Hat Brigade? I thought not.
Slashdot Mirror
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
it may be goodtasteware...
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
I too think of myself as a Linux newbie in many ways. Even though I maintain two linux servers (one business, one personal), I only recently compiled and installed a custom kernel with success. Were it not for RedHat I'd still be where I was 6 months ago.
However just because you start out doing it the easy way, doesn't mean that you should be content continue on that path.
But as a whole it is NOT a good thing to remove people so much from technology.
When my dad was my age, there was not a part in his car that he couldn't fix himself with a good sized toolbox. If my car weren't so hopelessly old I'd never be able to lift the hood. As automotive technlogy marched on people got lazy, we were more than happy to go to firestone, or Mr. Goodwrench to get our cars fixed instead of learning to do it ourselves.
We are marching down the same path with computers. Hell maybe I'll open a repair center and call it Mr. Goodchips and make a load of cash.
LK
Posted by Saurus:
On a different note, freeware developers who write
ports only for Windows are volunteering efforts to
enhance an OS that keeps us in shackles.
It would be divine if we could make it a taboo to
devote your time and energy into free software for
a proprietary platform.
Posted by JerTheNerd:
Either way, I'm willing to bet that within a year or two it'll be in the $5 bargain bin.
Posted by Akira410:
:-)
Am I strange for knowing this since it happened?
Btw: Sup Jim
heh
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
I don't get it. Isn't Gates rich enough already? Why contribute to his BSD codebase any further?
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
...by the use of the infantile "NOT!" nor the repeated abuse of reasonable people.
Posted by OGL:
/.'ing.
Ugh...I submitted that link on March 15, and it's no longer on the Linux Game Tome. A better link would be this one. Happy
-W.W.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
First, the "marketplace" in "let the marketplace decide" is not always economic. It can be the "marketplace of ideas" or something similar. The "invisible hand" of Adam Smith works in other areas as well. (evolution anyone?)
That said, I agree that capitalism (or worse, consumerism) is an ideology that many would do good to get rid off, although I'm not quite as cynical as your "marketing department" comment makes you sound.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
It's not a "zealotry" issue. It's a consistency issue. If I hold a principle to apply to some cases, there has to be a reason it doesn't apply in other cases. In order to abandon my principles I need a better reason than "the ends justify the means".
As for infringing on the creators rights: Far from it. The creator of GPL'd software has at least as many rights as closed software developers (if not more) with the added benefit of increased usage.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
Found this interesting: www.az.com/~drysdam/GPL-as-strategy.html
Posted by JerTheNerd:
;-) It beats what other people my age do. Would you like fries with that?
Hey, I'm 19, no college education, yet still gainfully employed. I must be doing something right.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
This is exactly the right metaphor for such "artists" as Richard Marx and Backstreet Boys.
Junk food for the ears.
Posted by Cassull:
Will it take to make a CD? And where will I be able to buy one of these machines? Thank {insert favorite diety (i.e., God, Goddess, Buddha, Yahweh, Linus) here} that they don't have some lame-ass "Yes, I too am a Follow-The-Crowd Wannabe-Tech-Elite" name, though...
Posted by white[noise]:
Well thats a refreshing viewpoint. Wish it were the norm.
Posted by Mike@ABC:
Man, Red Hat does seem to be doing a really good job in packaging and marketing. (I'm unqualified to judge their code, so I won't.) For Linux to be really successful, someone's got to do that. Not everybody in the world has the vision to just automatically see how Open Source works, and why their fears and doubts are unjustified. Red Hat's doing that, and doing it well.
So the question I pose to you is: how successful do you want Linux to be? If you want it to remain where it is, then fine. But if you want it to go head to head with Microsoft on every level, you've got to accept that there are companies out there that will take the lead and become rich.
The best thing, I think, that Linux users can do is to support a standards base and hold all companies accountable to it. And if Red Hat or someone else decides to do something squirrelly with the code, use the power that brought Linux to prominence in the first place to set things straight again.
I tell ya...this open source thing is amazing. I hope it stays that way.
Posted by Mike@ABC:
Usually I wouldn't respond to this, and I mean no disrespect to the Anonymous Coward, but there's an attitude here which has the potential to alienate a lot of people. Yes, Linux and Java and other OSes and languages are great, they're much more flexible, and they're better than Windows. But think about this -- if you lump non-techies together with your disdain for Microsoft, I betcha the masses will get pissed. Nobody likes to be called stupid. The readers and posters here are very smart and very with-it (mostly), but a lot of those masses are also smart and with-it, just in different ways.
I'm rambling a bit here. In the end, all I'm saying is: be nice to the masses. It's the only way you'll win them over to Linux and all the other cool stuff.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
Toast the Win95 partition.
Posted by keithahern:
I played with a Palm VII a few months ago. This thing (if the price is right) is going to sell millions of units, why ? * I clicked on the yahoo email lookup, entered my name and city - pressed 'go' 7 seconds later after 3-4 seconds of actually using the wireless service I had my email address returned to me. * I clicked on traffic - 7 seconds later - traffic on all the roads around me (it knows where you are - due to using the cellphone network) * I clicked on an ATM locator and got 6 within a half mile. * I checked my bank balance.. * I almost ordered movie tickets... The above scenarios add up to 30-40 seconds of actually using the wireless service. RESULT * Battery life people! * 'just the facts' responses. The Palm VII rocks.
Posted by NJViking:
The FUll-Circle win32 version is super unstable. I get a Dr. Watson error every time I try to run it.
When I get home I will try it on the REAL OS.
-= NJV =-
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
/etc/inittab. This would cause the default install of the system to boot into xdm and remove the pure console from the equasion.
Don, you make an excellent point. I think that all Redhat needs to complete the transition to an AOL type entity is to make the default runlevel 5 in the
At that point you have the equiv of M$ windoze for Linux. If that happens the dumbing down of the typical user will accellerate beyond all control.
It's because AOL has attracted the lowest common denominator to the internet that we've had to deal with crap like the CDA. When the internet was too difficult for the average child to access, nobody used protecting children from smut on the internet as a campaign issue.
I think of myself as a rather competent computer user and for all I know and all I can do I'm a flea compared to men like Linus, and the GURUs at bell labs who envisioned the concepts of UNIX and Linux.
In a decade, even though I'll never be in their league, I will be that far ahead of the people who are considered very capable or competent.
Just as now I'm humbled by people who still do assembler programming.
LK
Posted by Antinomian Chowderhead:
There is nothing that forces RedHat (or any other vendor) to release programs they write under the GPL, modifications to the kernel or system libraries are a different story though.
Um, yeah, but what if that's the part that he's talking about? It sure seems to be the part that counts here.
These damn AC's piss me off sometime.
That's becaue your mother's a crack whore.
Posted by Antinomian Chowderhead:
The users are going to destroy slashdot.
Yeah, if it doesn't destroy them first.
Conviction without action is the ruin of the soul
Ham without eggs is the ruin of breakfast.
Posted by Antinomian Chowderhead:
Yesh, it'sh the shame old shtory, gimme another one a them doubles bartender thanksh . . . you good friend, ol' pal . . . buddy ol' pal . . . 'd'i ev' tellya 'bout my wife lefme? she lefme . . . damn wife . . . ol' buddy ol' pal . . .
Posted by Antinomian Chowderhead:
This is just what I'd expect from Caldera. The trail of bodies behind that company just gets longer and longer, doesn't it?
Not that Red Hat is any better. The rumors of prohibited biological experiments in their classified mountain bunker are too persistent -- and too detailed -- to ignore. And does anybody still bother trying to keep track of all the international war crimes tribunals that have been convened solely for the purpose of investigating the atrocities commited by the infamous Red Hat Brigade? I thought not.