...or doesn't the cost of hiring " every political lobbyist, and every law firm, with anti-trust expertise and putting them to work on unrelated projects" dwarf the advantages that would come out of it (well, obviously they don't feel that way, otherwise they wouldn't do it).
No one could seriously have believed that Microsoft would be broken up into pieces. I'm not talking about if they deserve it or not, just that it's too drastic for a higher court not to change it. And thats probably regardless if they "just" sent in their normal army of lawyers or if they did this.
Something must make it worth this amount of money. IANAL but maybe they are fighting really hard to avoid class-action type lawsuits which could end up costing them much more than the remedies in the actual DoJ MS case?
Re:What's good about 2.5
on
2.5.4 Kernel Out
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Check out this link. It's a list of stuff to expect in 2.5
Follow the link to the posts if you want the details and discussions, if you don't, the items and a more human-readable explaination is below:
2.5.x API change summaries
o Shouldn't matter much as far as I could tell, mostly "heads up" to people writing programs that mess with the kernel.
o Block I/O layer changes:
The goal seems to be a more generic i/o scheduler while at the same time making it more efficient.
Typical "dont-understand-exactly-what-they-are-doing-but-g lad-they-do-it" stuff.
o initrd / initramfs:
initramfs is intended as a replacement for initrd. The basic idea seems to be to tack a.tar archive of modules and programs to the end of the kernel image, make a basic boot, unpack the tar file to a ram-based root filesystem then everything goes from userspace. If it's true that 2.5 will move to a completely modular kernel (as Alan Cox has hinted), this would be a much friendlier system than initrd.
o SCSI changes
As always?
o driver model: driverfs
Driverfs seems to aim towards merging all bus-type weirdness that lives under/proc and building one big tree with all bus:es in it. Most comments I've seen circle much around how much easier it would be to implement a proper ACPI power management system with this and that it clears up/proc.
o reworking major/minor system
The currrent model of drivers having major/minor numbers is going to change to allow larger numbers (and therefore, more devices). May be some hairy details involved in changing such a "standard" size. Consent seems to be that apps that depend on a specific size are broken anyway.
o USB and WireLess API changes
I don't use any of these so I haven't got much to say, anyone with more interest/info?
o kbuild and CML2
The new configuration language and makefiles, these have been discussed earlier on slashdot (see here).
XFS uses functionality that is written specifically for XFS that makes changes in many kernel subsystems (which is a big reason why it's not in 2.4).
The plan is to add that functionality in a "generic" way to those subsystems (in 2.5). This is to make sure that all filesystems (that "want" to) can use the benefits of the new functionality.
"And soon after Mosfet's website announced that he was leaving Linux and Liquid was dead. Unable to afford to develop Liquid for free, he was seeking work in the windows world."
Yet the page says: "The good news is I've made up my mind, I'm back coding again, and mosfet.org is being redesigned and will never die despite the efforts of companies like Future Technologies.".
It also says that "I've started working for a Windows-based software company". That's not the same thing as leaving Linux (I know many people that work in Windows enviroments just because it's easy to find jobs even though they prefer to use other OS'es).
...but read the PDF, look at the 4:th page, third paragraph after the text boxes. See the work Micro$oft there? (I'm not saying it's weird MicroSoft is mentioned, I'm saying it's funny that they spelled it Micro$oft) methinks they had to read a lot of Open Source opinions on this one.
...I lugged a pile of disks to my friends house to copy the last files. We had cooperated on downloading it from a BBS (last program I downloaded from a BBS by the way) and it was in the range of 20-30 disks...found out that some disks were broken as always and had to go back to do some more copying....but finally it was working on my computer...those were the days...seems to be more than 5 years ago though...
And there's proof that people really do buy region free players cause:
1) On every ad for DVD players I've seen here in Sweden they have "region-free" written all over it as one of the pros.
2) In one of the shops that sells DVD's that has the largest selection, 80% are region 1.
I've heard that some twisted offspring of the MPAA are suing the companies that import region 1 DVD's though, dont know what will happen in the future.
Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've
encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently
running, the suggested command should tell you.
Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already
functionally running a Linux 2.2 kernel. Also, not all tools are
necessary on all systems; obviously, if you don't have any PCMCIA (PC
Card) hardware, for example, you probably needn't concern yourself
with pcmcia-cs.
o Gnu C 2.91.66 # gcc --version
o Gnu make 3.77 # make --version
o binutils 2.9.1.0.25 # ld -v
o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
o modutils 2.4.0 # insmod -V
o e2fsprogs 1.19 # tune2fs --version
o pcmcia-cs 3.1.21 # cardmgr -V
o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
o isdn4k-utils 3.1beta7 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
*snip*
The recommended compiler for the kernel is egcs 1.1.2 (gcc 2.91.66), and it
should be used when you need absolute stability. You may use gcc 2.95.2
instead if you wish, although it may cause problems. Later versions of gcc
have not received much testing for Linux kernel compilation, and there are
almost certainly bugs (mainly, but not exclusively, in the kernel) that
will need to be fixed in order to use these compilers. In any case, using
pgcc instead of egcs or plain gcc is just asking for trouble.
For even more details, read the file yourself;)
Oh...and if you choose to include devfs, do remember to install devfsd before you reboot with your new kernel (I forgot)
I think some important points are forgotten....
on
id On Linux: Bad News
·
· Score: 1
I have several friends who are "serious" gamers, many of them dualboot between Linux and Windows (and always use Linux for Quake 1 because of stability, connection quality etc.). They could just as well have bought the Linux versions of Quake 3 but didn't.....why?
1) Timing...Q3Win was in the stores in Sweden for a long time before Q3Lin appeared in the few stores that do carry Linux products
2) They knew that they would later on be able to download a Linux binary, thus "it didn't matter" which version they bought
3) Price! When Q3Lin actually did make it to the stores it costed about 2 times as much as Q3Win (Yeah, I know that you should "vote with your wallet", but students dont have the luxury to spend 20$ extra on "voting").
I have the Windows version myself.....If I had seen Q3Lin next to Q3Win at the same price and time, I would definately pick Q3Win since I play mostly under Linux.
Finally, when it comes to distro differences etc, won't the widespread use of XFree86 4.X (with it's own os-independence layers and continously updated drivers) help "solve" the problem in the future? (provided that accelerated open-source drivers becomes available for most video cards).
I'm not really sure, but couldn't the changes be made to GTK/QT so that all GTK/QT apps supported it without recoding? (Of course more "native" X apps is another issue)
...we had one email address that all users used to send their support issues (upgrades,hw/sw troubles etc etc). Of course if the network was down or something there was also phones, but email was the primary way of communication (if you machine doesn't work, the one in the next room probably does). All the support personel there used an app which showed one folder for each technician plus one for the incoming support requests and one for solved issues. As mails dropped in to the central "Incoming" folder any free technician just moved that mail to his folder, solved the issue, replied to the mail with the solution (making it a thread) and then moved the entire thread into the "solved" hierarcy. The users were also given lots of examples on how to write good problem descriptions etc in order to get as informative reports as possible.....this was one of the best systems I've seen....creating something like that shouldn't be too hard?
.....that is frequently forgotten is that many people taking part of an open source project doesn't have english as their native language. It happens every now and then for me on IRC etc. that people completely misunderstand me when talking english even though I consider my english to be quite good (compared to many other europeans). Things like humour, sarcasm etc. are especially hard, problems like this rarely occur when communicating with others in your native language =)
I think you are confusing this with when the patent for the RSA crypto expires...the new export restriction rules are already effective but most companies needs to let their lawyers investigate them first....hence the delay
For those of you who want to read the agreement which JC's plan file talks about, a copy can be found here. (Since the original server seems to be down)
No you cant charge obscene amounts for the source (and before you suggest it: you can't provide the source on the tapes which come out of your homebrewed Betamax data backup machine)
[GPL: Section 3]
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange;
What Linux distribution do you use as a base? Do you include an installation wizard to support many distributions?
We would like to support at least the major distributions, but many of the details still need to be worked out. We have released an Alpha version of Civilization: Call to Power, and are exploring the possibility of Sparc support; thanks to our partnership with Terra Soft Solutions, we will also be supporting the PowerPC. Linux is growing, changing and adapting to users needs on a daily basis. We'll keep pace with the current industry standards and work with publishers and game distributors to produce quality products that respond to users needs as closely as possible.
If you were talking more generally than Loki I do understand you though....but I seriously doubt that the x86 platform will die anytime soon...
Are you a public corporation? If so, on what exchange and what is your stock symbol?
Our stock is not publicly traded, and it is unlikely this will change any time soon. While we are interested in hearing from qualified investors, we are sadly unable to entertain any small investments. This is primarily a result of U.S. federal and California state securities regulations, which make it prohibitively difficult to sell unregistered securities to most private investors.
But do you think the fact that a Deja poll has been polluted is considered "News for nerds, stuff that matters"?! If you do think that this is stuff that matters you probably had too much champagne on new years eve;)
The problem with the bank scenario is that there is: A) Probably no legal way for the first guy to get the code so that he can disclose it to you B) The code can only be used for unlawful activities....that is....opening the vault even though youre not authorized to do so C) Considering he is an employee he has probably signed a deal not to tell anyone the banks secrets
A better scenario would be:
Youre walking around in your own home town listening to some music and eating some ice-cream. A nice looking person walks up to you and asks you where the gun store is, you tell him/her where it it and he/she buys a gun thats used to rob a bank later....
Now the person telling the criminal where the shop is would be the person with a link to DeCSS on his/her homepage. The shop (assuming they didnt break any laws selling the gun in the first place) is the server that actually holds the code and the criminal is the person that downloads DeCSS and uses it to rip and sell illegal copies...
In my scenario....why should you or the shop be held guilty?
Remember the DeCSS code isnt ONLY used for pirating....its used to *play* DVD's on Linux systems...
Slashdot Mirror
...or doesn't the cost of hiring " every political lobbyist, and every law firm, with anti-trust expertise and putting them to work on unrelated projects" dwarf the advantages that would come out of it (well, obviously they don't feel that way, otherwise they wouldn't do it).
No one could seriously have believed that Microsoft would be broken up into pieces. I'm not talking about if they deserve it or not, just that it's too drastic for a higher court not to change it. And thats probably regardless if they "just" sent in their normal army of lawyers or if they did this.
Something must make it worth this amount of money. IANAL but maybe they are fighting really hard to avoid class-action type lawsuits which could end up costing them much more than the remedies in the actual DoJ MS case?
Check out this link. It's a list of stuff to expect in 2.5
g lad-they-do-it" stuff.
.tar archive of modules and programs to the end of the kernel image, make a basic boot, unpack the tar file to a ram-based root filesystem then everything goes from userspace. If it's true that 2.5 will move to a completely modular kernel (as Alan Cox has hinted), this would be a much friendlier system than initrd.
/proc and building one big tree with all bus:es in it. Most comments I've seen circle much around how much easier it would be to implement a proper ACPI power management system with this and that it clears up /proc.
Follow the link to the posts if you want the details and discussions, if you don't, the items and a more human-readable explaination is below:
2.5.x API change summaries
o Shouldn't matter much as far as I could tell, mostly "heads up" to people writing programs that mess with the kernel.
o Block I/O layer changes:
The goal seems to be a more generic i/o scheduler while at the same time making it more efficient.
Typical "dont-understand-exactly-what-they-are-doing-but-
o initrd / initramfs:
initramfs is intended as a replacement for initrd. The basic idea seems to be to tack a
o SCSI changes
As always?
o driver model: driverfs
Driverfs seems to aim towards merging all bus-type weirdness that lives under
o reworking major/minor system
The currrent model of drivers having major/minor numbers is going to change to allow larger numbers (and therefore, more devices). May be some hairy details involved in changing such a "standard" size. Consent seems to be that apps that depend on a specific size are broken anyway.
o USB and WireLess API changes
I don't use any of these so I haven't got much to say, anyone with more interest/info?
o kbuild and CML2
The new configuration language and makefiles, these have been discussed earlier on slashdot (see here).
Not quite true.
XFS uses functionality that is written specifically for XFS that makes changes in many kernel subsystems (which is a big reason why it's not in 2.4).
The plan is to add that functionality in a "generic" way to those subsystems (in 2.5). This is to make sure that all filesystems (that "want" to) can use the benefits of the new functionality.
"And soon after Mosfet's website announced that he was leaving Linux and Liquid was dead. Unable to afford to develop Liquid for free, he was seeking work in the windows world."
Yet the page says: "The good news is I've made up my mind, I'm back coding again, and mosfet.org is being redesigned and will never die despite the efforts of companies like Future Technologies.".
It also says that "I've started working for a Windows-based software company".
That's not the same thing as leaving Linux (I know many people that work in Windows enviroments just because it's easy to find jobs even though they prefer to use other OS'es).
...but read the PDF, look at the 4:th page, third paragraph after the text boxes. See the work Micro$oft there? (I'm not saying it's weird MicroSoft is mentioned, I'm saying it's funny that they spelled it Micro$oft) methinks they had to read a lot of Open Source opinions on this one.
Quote: "some people enjoy having a stable, unchanging system that's up-to-date."
How's that for a contradiction? unchanging <-> up-to-date
...I lugged a pile of disks to my friends house to copy the last files. We had cooperated on downloading it from a BBS (last program I downloaded from a BBS by the way) and it was in the range of 20-30 disks...found out that some disks were broken as always and had to go back to do some more copying....but finally it was working on my computer...those were the days...seems to be more than 5 years ago though...
And there's proof that people really do buy region free players cause:
1) On every ad for DVD players I've seen here in Sweden they have "region-free" written all over it as one of the pros.
2) In one of the shops that sells DVD's that has the largest selection, 80% are region 1.
I've heard that some twisted offspring of the MPAA are suing the companies that import region 1 DVD's though, dont know what will happen in the future.
From linux/Documentation/Changes:
;)
Current Minimal Requirements
Upgrade to at *least* these software revisions before thinking you've
encountered a bug! If you're unsure what version you're currently
running, the suggested command should tell you.
Again, keep in mind that this list assumes you are already
functionally running a Linux 2.2 kernel. Also, not all tools are
necessary on all systems; obviously, if you don't have any PCMCIA (PC
Card) hardware, for example, you probably needn't concern yourself
with pcmcia-cs.
o Gnu C 2.91.66 # gcc --version
o Gnu make 3.77 # make --version
o binutils 2.9.1.0.25 # ld -v
o util-linux 2.10o # fdformat --version
o modutils 2.4.0 # insmod -V
o e2fsprogs 1.19 # tune2fs --version
o pcmcia-cs 3.1.21 # cardmgr -V
o PPP 2.4.0 # pppd --version
o isdn4k-utils 3.1beta7 # isdnctrl 2>&1|grep version
*snip*
The recommended compiler for the kernel is egcs 1.1.2 (gcc 2.91.66), and it
should be used when you need absolute stability. You may use gcc 2.95.2
instead if you wish, although it may cause problems. Later versions of gcc
have not received much testing for Linux kernel compilation, and there are
almost certainly bugs (mainly, but not exclusively, in the kernel) that
will need to be fixed in order to use these compilers. In any case, using
pgcc instead of egcs or plain gcc is just asking for trouble.
For even more details, read the file yourself
Oh...and if you choose to include devfs, do remember to install devfsd before you reboot with your new kernel (I forgot)
I have several friends who are "serious" gamers, many of them dualboot between Linux and Windows (and always use Linux for Quake 1 because of stability, connection quality etc.). They could just as well have bought the Linux versions of Quake 3 but didn't.....why?
1) Timing...Q3Win was in the stores in Sweden for a long time before Q3Lin appeared in the few stores that do carry Linux products
2) They knew that they would later on be able to download a Linux binary, thus "it didn't matter" which version they bought
3) Price! When Q3Lin actually did make it to the stores it costed about 2 times as much as Q3Win (Yeah, I know that you should "vote with your wallet", but students dont have the luxury to spend 20$ extra on "voting").
I have the Windows version myself.....If I had seen Q3Lin next to Q3Win at the same price and time, I would definately pick Q3Win since I play mostly under Linux.
Finally, when it comes to distro differences etc, won't the widespread use of XFree86 4.X (with it's own os-independence layers and continously updated drivers) help "solve" the problem in the future? (provided that accelerated open-source drivers becomes available for most video cards).
I'm not really sure, but couldn't the changes be made to GTK/QT so that all GTK/QT apps supported it without recoding? (Of course more "native" X apps is another issue)
...we had one email address that all users used to send their support issues (upgrades,hw/sw troubles etc etc). Of course if the network was down or something there was also phones, but email was the primary way of communication (if you machine doesn't work, the one in the next room probably does).
All the support personel there used an app which showed one folder for each technician plus one for the incoming support requests and one for solved issues. As mails dropped in to the central "Incoming" folder any free technician just moved that mail to his folder, solved the issue, replied to the mail with the solution (making it a thread) and then moved the entire thread into the "solved" hierarcy.
The users were also given lots of examples on how to write good problem descriptions etc in order to get as informative reports as possible.....this was one of the best systems I've seen....creating something like that shouldn't be too hard?
.....that is frequently forgotten is that many people taking part of an open source project doesn't have english as their native language.
It happens every now and then for me on IRC etc. that people completely misunderstand me when talking english even though I consider my english to be quite good (compared to many other europeans). Things like humour, sarcasm etc. are especially hard, problems like this rarely occur when communicating with others in your native language =)
if you have the sources the image is under mozilla/xpfe/bootstrap/ and the file is splash.bmp or splash.xpm depending on which format you want
Just wondering, can and will the rest be released when the RSA patent expires?
I think you are confusing this with when the patent for the RSA crypto expires...the new export restriction rules are already effective but most companies needs to let their lawyers investigate them first....hence the delay
For those of you who want to read the agreement which JC's plan file talks about, a copy can be found here. (Since the original server seems to be down)
No you cant charge obscene amounts for the source (and before you suggest it: you can't provide the source on the tapes which come out of your homebrewed Betamax data backup machine)
[GPL: Section 3]
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange;
I dont think Loki deserves all this moaning...
From http://www.lokigames.com/prod ucts/civctp/updates.php3:
Updates and patches
Civilization: Call to Power 1.1 Update
Intel x86 and compatibles (3.8 MB)
PowerPC* (2.7 MB)
Alpha** (5 MB)
And from http://www.lokigames.com/about/faq.php3 :
What Linux distribution do you use as a base? Do you include an installation wizard to support many distributions?
We would like to support at least the major distributions, but many of the details still need to be worked out. We have released an Alpha version of Civilization: Call to Power, and are exploring the possibility of Sparc support; thanks to our partnership with Terra Soft Solutions, we will also be supporting the PowerPC. Linux is growing, changing and adapting to users needs on a daily basis. We'll keep pace with the current industry standards and work with publishers and game distributors to produce quality products that respond to users needs as closely as possible.
If you were talking more generally than Loki I do understand you though....but I seriously doubt that the x86 platform will die anytime soon...
From http://www.lokigames.com/about/faq.php3
Are you a public corporation? If so, on what exchange and what is your stock symbol?
Our stock is not publicly traded, and it is unlikely this will change any time soon. While we are interested in hearing from qualified investors, we are sadly unable to entertain any small investments. This is primarily a result of U.S. federal and California state securities regulations, which make it prohibitively difficult to sell unregistered securities to most private investors.
How about ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/p ub/XFree86/snapshots/3.9.17/RELNOTES......from the document itself: "This document contains some information about the features present in XFree86 3.9.17 and their status."
But do you think the fact that a Deja poll has been polluted is considered "News for nerds, stuff that matters"?! If you do think that this is stuff that matters you probably had too much champagne on new years eve ;)
The problem with the bank scenario is that there is:
A) Probably no legal way for the first guy to get the code so that he can disclose it to you
B) The code can only be used for unlawful activities....that is....opening the vault even though youre not authorized to do so
C) Considering he is an employee he has probably signed a deal not to tell anyone the banks secrets
A better scenario would be:
Youre walking around in your own home town listening to some music and eating some ice-cream. A nice looking person walks up to you and asks you where the gun store is, you tell him/her where it it and he/she buys a gun thats used to rob a bank later....
Now the person telling the criminal where the shop is would be the person with a link to DeCSS on his/her homepage. The shop (assuming they didnt break any laws selling the gun in the first place) is the server that actually holds the code and the criminal is the person that downloads DeCSS and uses it to rip and sell illegal copies...
In my scenario....why should you or the shop be held guilty?
Remember the DeCSS code isnt ONLY used for pirating....its used to *play* DVD's on Linux systems...
Actually....what do you think makes that water move?
Proxies do work as far as I know (I haven't actually tried using proxies)....for more info look at bug reports:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10276
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8559