What makes you think WP for Linux is coming?
on
Corel Goes Private
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Come on, Linux users. Let's fess up at something...how many of us have actually BOUGHT commercial Linux software? A show of hands, please?
Ahh, just as I thought. All 3 of you.
While some people have actually PAID for thier distros, most have not.
"Pay? Are you INSANE? I can just download it".
I've never paid for Linux software. I confess. Every distro I've ever used, every piece of Linux software I've ever installed has been cost free. Either I downloaded it, got it in the mail, or got in a book of some kind. The closest I've ever come is shipping and handling in the addition to the 5 bucks or so the CheapBytes CD cost me. How much of that money do you think went to the distro, hmmm?
My point in all of this is that commercial software outfits want to make money, and the dot com boom is over, ladies and gentlemen. No more crap about how free market exposure will somehow lead to profit in the future. Let's take Corel's expierience with their Linux offerings.
Corel Exec: "So how much money have we made from our Linux software? Distro and apps combined?"
Marketroid: "It's phenomenal! We've got millions of downloads! A LOT of people are using our software! We're getting huge mindshare here!
Corel Exec: "Ok...so, how many people have paid for the software? What's our profit margin projected to be?"
Marketroid: "Profit? Oh, no money's coming in right now. But this is giving us great mindshare, so we'll have tremendous profit opportunities in the future!"
Corel Exec: "That software costs a lot to develop, even with help from volunteer open source coders. What are we supposed to pay OUR coders with? Mindshare?"
Some people are going to roast me for this, but we've gotten used to free, and we even have a nasty tendancy to TRY to discourage use of commercial Linux software if theres an alternative. Whenever someone recommends StarOffice for small business usage, there's the inevitable flood of posts going "Why? Just use OpenOffice. You don't have to pay for that".
These people that have bought Corel know this as well, and the difference this time is it's THEIR money on the line, not the cash of faceless stockholders. Until we actively embrace, and PAY for commercial Linux software on a large scale basis, there's not going to be much of it available at all.
"So any piece of paper (or gaggle of electrons) you call a subpoena is valid?"
No, any piece of paper a JUDGE calls a subpeona is valid. The RIAA doesn't have the power to issue subpeonas; they bring probable cause to the judge, and he/she issues them. You can argue whether or not there's enough probable cause here, but to attack the subpeona system itself is plain silly. As a previous poster pointed out, a subpeona IS due process. You're not automatically convitcted. You are called to appear in a court of law to defend the claims against you. Supeona does not neccessarily equal injustice here.
I imagine some calls are being made to the Sharon goverment....Israel is moving tanks into the bank now....watch for "Earthstation 5" to be in the way when they roll. Is this really going to be a surprise to anyone?
I think these people are fools. Do not taunt dragons...they have sharp teeth.
I could be wrong , but I get the impression that the people bitching about these games are not Vietnam vets, but others. While I realize that Vietnam was traumatic for some (my stepfather fought at Hue during the Tet Offensive, 101st Airborne, and he doesn't talk much about Vietnam), it was a WAR folks. And despite the stereotypes of vets going into a nervous breakdown when a helicopter flies overhead, I've found them to be well adjusted. That war helped define them, but doesn't rule their lives. Frankly, I think most of them would consider this argument silly.
There always seems to be people against something...some people just NEED to protest something. I think this is one of those cases.
"Also perfect for high-end applications by the United States Navy, ala nuclear attack submarines"
Reading that article, the Xserve wasn't picked so much for it's performance as its low resource consumption. And Linux on G4 is probably a better performer than OSX on G4, to answer why they're not using the native OS. And while sonar image processing is an important task, that doesn't make this "high end" class hardware. I'd bet these servers will be clustered, so that wouldn't make them any more high end than other clusters with IDE disk boxes. Call me old fashioned, paranoid, or snobbish, but there's no substitute for SCSI on your servers when there's a ton of reading/writing going on to your disks constantly. Until Apple makes a server with SCSI disks, I won't consider them enterprise ready.
"why would i want to help allievate the situation? hell, i get to have all my computers attack microsoft for free! and legally! wohoo! sick 'em!"
I know (think) you're joking, but while we can moan all we want about how Microsoft should design software that's more secure, we can't do anything about existing systems. And windowsupdate was the fastest, easiest way for the non-tech public to protect and repair themselves. Those of you out there that view this impending attack and the shutting down of windowsupdate as a good thing are very shortsighted.
Maybe you don't give a shit about all of those other users out there that use Windows. Maybe you're happy this is happening. Fine. But rest assured, it's not going to cause people to rebel against Microsoft, like many of you are hoping. There will be no enlightenment and mass exodus to Linux or BSD or OSX. This is going to get blaimed on "hackers". And we all know hackers hate God, hate America, root for Saddam, get pentagram tattoos on their foreheads....and use Linux. Pretty soon it'll be "yeah, I saw those Linux guys bragging on slashdot.org that they took windowsupdate down!"
IBM's reps will be going "yeah, thanks heaps for the positive image, slashdotters.........fuckers".
Make fun of people that run Windows all you want, but don't assist in, or support the disabling of one of their few effective means of defense.
"Personally, I think we should (build) some new nuclear power plants...I personally wish the US would update it's power infrastructure, and I'd be willing to pay for it."
You got it, pardner. This is one of those things where they could raise a tax somewhere, and I wouldn't complain about it. ESPECIALLY if it was for new nuclear plants. Environmentalists will be hysterical, but so what. Europe, which is supposedly faaar ahead of us in terms of civilization and good ideas, draws as much as 50 percent of its power from nuclear reactors in countries like France and Sweden.
Not that I wouldn't mind some more natural alternatives. I'd LIKE to see things like advancing wind farm and solar panel technology. Bur right now no other alternatives will provide NEAR the power we need except for nukes or more fossil fuel powered plants.
The grid is indeed horrendous and old, and President Bush himself said as much today, urging that it be upgraded.
That's because Theo would rather drink his own vomit than add SMB support and let OBSD scale up. While some brave souls are working on such support, they're doing it with his scorn.
Until it can run in "Enterprise" class settings, Open will be good for firewalls and workstations for security nazis. And that's the way Theo likes it.
Judicial Activism is one of those terms that has become horribly abused. Basically, if your side loses in court, you scream "judicial activism". When SCOTUS ruled that abortion is a right, conservatives screamed it. When they similarly ruled on conservative-favored issues (drug testing for athletes, etc), liberals screamed the same thing.
"To get more developers, we must make it easier to contribute to GnuCash. "Casual" sex with Cmdrtaco to scratch an itch is much to hard, even for an experienced developer"
Most parents will approve of this for safety reasons. And a previous poster pointed out that the teacher is under some pressure to perform here too.
There are VERY legitimate privacy problems here, but students almost always lose on privacy issues in schools when the subject is brought to court. The paradox here, is that they HAVE to be there, unless their parents can afford to send them to a private school. They have no choice. The state, under force of arms, can force them into the classroom for their own good, the reasoning goes. And yet the facilities and staff are paid for with public dollars. Frankly, you have a better case banning cameras on public streets than you do in schools.
I love books. Always have. I can hang out in a bookstore all day long. I love the smell of them (even the musty smell of older books), the feel of good books in my hand. When you find a book with really nice paper and binding, you've found a treasure. This even goes for paperbacks.
There is no substitute for holding that book in your hands, and having the pleasure of turning the pages. It's slow, perhaps (unless you're one of those heathen speedreaders; reading was meant to be enjoyed), but it's a satisfying expirience.
As much as I love computers and all things gadget-like, no electronic contraption with a small sreen will ever replace my books. And having a personal library is just plain damn cool.
That's the common term for it. You're annoyed at that? Tough. I'm annoyed at people that use cold, clinical words like "infringment" so that it won't sound as bad; the implication being that since they don't agree with the notion of copyright in the first place, they'll try to make piracy sound as harmless as possible.
" It would be most beneficial to consumers if all of their software used open standards. Imagine if Microsoft Office used a set of open document formats, for instance."
Well, that's happening in a roundabout way. Microsoft themselves aren't going to "open standards", but what's happening now effectively fixes that problem; everyone else is adopting MS formats. Everybody uses Word? Fine. Notice that all of MS's competitors (WordPerfect, Star/OpenOffice, etc) can easily import Word docs, even CREATE Word docs. Some even use ".doc" as the native format. Same for spreadsheets..Net? No problem. Here comes Mono. The point is, if Microsoft won't come to the mountain, everyone else is bringing the mountain to Microsoft, so to speak. They can CHANGE their formats, but it would be dangerous for them do so. If they radically changed Word to another format, I PROMISE you that reps from WordPerfect and Sun come into big business saying "Hey, from now on, our word processor uses the standard.doc format by default. Use our product, and you wont have to change anything!". You can also bet that said companies would let existing users "upgrade" to their products for pennies on the dollar.
So, if MS doesn't want to play nice, fine, we'll simply make OUR products compatible. The only possible danger here is if the DMCA were invoked to keep competitors from finding ways to make compatible products. Otherwise, WE'LL just keep adapting to Microsoft.
"...I continuously found myself staring upwards muttering expletives to myself, a truly awsome sight. Perhaps soon to become one of the wonders of the ancient world."
I used to be an ametuer astronomer (simply no time or decent equipment of late), and I love the stars as well. And I remember my first memory of going out to the boonies, and looking up in the cold winter night and seeing the most beautiful night sky I'd ever seen. I was in love with the stars from that point.
That said, the stars aren't going anywhere, so they're not going to become "one of the wonders of the ancient world". That would assume that EVERYWHERE on Earth would be lighted at night, and that will never be the case. If you're in a city, you're simply going to have to plan your star trips, and go into the boonies at night. But those unlighted boonies will always be there.
Wish I could have been with you in Mongolia though. That sounded like an outstanding expierience. Wonder what you do for a living?
"...but it is certainly indicative of the kind of audience Slashdot draws: Adults Who Read Comic Books"
You forgot to add "Porno Comic Books".
Nothing says "taste" like western girls, drawn by Japanese artists, getting tentacle-raped by some fiend from outer space. High quality slashdot entertainment at it's best. I'm only surprised that Slashdot hasn't added a Hentai section yet.
"We initially WERE naked. Obviously the Lord didn't create Adam and Eve, and then hand them some GAP clothes. Humans created clothing throughout history, mainly as a way of showing wealth"
Strictly in a Biblical Context, man started wearing clothing (if you can call a fig leaf clothing) after he (and she) partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and knew good and evil, and became aware of the naked bodies, and became ashamed. Hey, you and the previous poster brought God into this....
And scientifically, we got tired of freezing to death, so we figured we could use those animal skins more than they could...besides, the animals were mighty tasty. Style or wealth probably didn't have a lot to do with things at first.
Here in Alabama, vibrators were (and maybe still are) illegal. The attorney general ruled that "women do not have a constitutional right to pleasure inducing devices".
"Of course, if the fine folk in Tulsa don't want that stuff they won't buy it, and the shops will fold due to lack of business."
There's a market for crack and murder in Tulsa too....should that be legal? Just because there's something people are willing to pay for, doesn't mean it should be legally available.
"The US Constitution doesn't have any "except for obscene materials" clauses in it."
That's because George Washington and Co. never dreamed that "hot young teen pussies for you!" would be openly sold in markets. It's a bit of a stretch to say the founders expicitly wanted obscene matierial to have legal protection. They never included it because the mores of the day forbid such things publicly, and it obviously never crossed their minds to ban it via the law. While they had skeletons in their closets too, I think it's safe to say none of them would endorse the public sale of porn.
"We've got a sub-population in this country that's rampaging out of control, trying to get anyone who differs from them thrown in prison. "
That's a gross exageration and hysterical nonsense. You're pissed because the country isn't going your way right now, and you comfort yourself by telling yourself it's a big conspiracy by a small minority. If the "sub-population" you're speaking of consists of center-right and right leaning people, you're sadly mistaken; in that case, YOU'RE the minority.
You can disagree with me on this, but this is a fairly conservative country. There are pockets of liberalism/leftism, but they're highly concentrated on the coasts. Texas is smack in the middle of that conservative voting zone. Why is anyone surprised at this? If you don't like the way things in Texas are, then move to a place more of your liking. You don't have to right to change the laws of the state agaisnt the wishes of the majority because you want things differently, with few exceptions. That's the atmosphere they want there. Look at the voting record in Texas over the past couple of decades. Is anyone SERIOUSLY going to contend that it's not a conservative state?
The Supreme Court ruled that local community standards for obscenity would rule the day. This has been the way things have been done for decades. Again, if you don't like it, try to change the minds of the populace. If they still want different obscenity standards than you, hey, San Francisco and Los Angelas are calling your name. Go there. Buy Porn. Make fun of the middle America yokels. Be happy. They'll probably be just as happy that YOU left.
While I'm glad to see BSD becoming more prominent and giving Linux some competition, I'm a little worried about something; the ongoing attempt to make BSD and Linux "all things to all people". In other words, to put these OS's on everything from small embedded chips in cell phones, to huge enterprise class server setups. I think this approach only creates more bloat in an OS.
Granted, you can take the source code, modify it heavily for your purpose (embedded routers in this case), and it might bear little resemblance to the parent OS. But is it still BSD or Linux then? How far can you alter it before it becomes a radical offshoot, and in truth, a different OS?
We are exceedingly cheap. We expect FREE on the internet. It's been burned into our heads since the dot com boom. At one point, "free" topped "sex" in web searches. We think if it's digitized and non-physical, we should have access to it and be able to copy it. We can't grasp the concept of monetary value for digital things. We can't wrap our brains around the idea that those digital things took work to create, and people that made them want to be paid for them. Since we can get it so quickly and easily over the internet, we just cant comprehend that.
If MS ever started selling Office exclusively as a download, they'd lose millions of dollars. Because Office just wouldn't feel like a real product to them. Put a CD in that consumers hand, though, and they're more willing to pay for it.
With the exception of Apple users, who will do whatever Stevie tells them to (buy music at the Apple Store! On your Ipod! Now!), most denizens of the internet are, let's be blunt, cheap bastards.
Slashdot Mirror
Come on, Linux users. Let's fess up at something...how many of us have actually BOUGHT commercial Linux software? A show of hands, please?
Ahh, just as I thought. All 3 of you.
While some people have actually PAID for thier distros, most have not.
"Pay? Are you INSANE? I can just download it".
I've never paid for Linux software. I confess. Every distro I've ever used, every piece of Linux software I've ever installed has been cost free. Either I downloaded it, got it in the mail, or got in a book of some kind. The closest I've ever come is shipping and handling in the addition to the 5 bucks or so the CheapBytes CD cost me. How much of that money do you think went to the distro, hmmm?
My point in all of this is that commercial software outfits want to make money, and the dot com boom is over, ladies and gentlemen. No more crap about how free market exposure will somehow lead to profit in the future. Let's take Corel's expierience with their Linux offerings.
Corel Exec: "So how much money have we made from our Linux software? Distro and apps combined?"
Marketroid: "It's phenomenal! We've got millions of downloads! A LOT of people are using our software! We're getting huge mindshare here!
Corel Exec: "Ok...so, how many people have paid for the software? What's our profit margin projected to be?"
Marketroid: "Profit? Oh, no money's coming in right now. But this is giving us great mindshare, so we'll have tremendous profit opportunities in the future!"
Corel Exec: "That software costs a lot to develop, even with help from volunteer open source coders. What are we supposed to pay OUR coders with? Mindshare?"
Some people are going to roast me for this, but we've gotten used to free, and we even have a nasty tendancy to TRY to discourage use of commercial Linux software if theres an alternative. Whenever someone recommends StarOffice for small business usage, there's the inevitable flood of posts going "Why? Just use OpenOffice. You don't have to pay for that".
These people that have bought Corel know this as well, and the difference this time is it's THEIR money on the line, not the cash of faceless stockholders. Until we actively embrace, and PAY for commercial Linux software on a large scale basis, there's not going to be much of it available at all.
Man, I get a first post because apparently, nobody reading slashdot CARES about this story.
"So any piece of paper (or gaggle of electrons) you call a subpoena is valid?"
No, any piece of paper a JUDGE calls a subpeona is valid. The RIAA doesn't have the power to issue subpeonas; they bring probable cause to the judge, and he/she issues them. You can argue whether or not there's enough probable cause here, but to attack the subpeona system itself is plain silly. As a previous poster pointed out, a subpeona IS due process. You're not automatically convitcted. You are called to appear in a court of law to defend the claims against you. Supeona does not neccessarily equal injustice here.
Bulldozer? Are you kidding????
Try, can you say "Apache Gunship"?
I imagine some calls are being made to the Sharon goverment....Israel is moving tanks into the bank now....watch for "Earthstation 5" to be in the way when they roll. Is this really going to be a surprise to anyone?
I think these people are fools. Do not taunt dragons...they have sharp teeth.
I could be wrong , but I get the impression that the people bitching about these games are not Vietnam vets, but others. While I realize that Vietnam was traumatic for some (my stepfather fought at Hue during the Tet Offensive, 101st Airborne, and he doesn't talk much about Vietnam), it was a WAR folks. And despite the stereotypes of vets going into a nervous breakdown when a helicopter flies overhead, I've found them to be well adjusted. That war helped define them, but doesn't rule their lives. Frankly, I think most of them would consider this argument silly.
There always seems to be people against something...some people just NEED to protest something. I think this is one of those cases.
"first they came for the jews, but I was not a jew, so I stayed silent." ...
"Then they came for the potheads, and I was too stoned to notice, and......what was I saying?"
"Also perfect for high-end applications by the United States Navy, ala nuclear attack submarines"
Reading that article, the Xserve wasn't picked so much for it's performance as its low resource consumption. And Linux on G4 is probably a better performer than OSX on G4, to answer why they're not using the native OS. And while sonar image processing is an important task, that doesn't make this "high end" class hardware. I'd bet these servers will be clustered, so that wouldn't make them any more high end than other clusters with IDE disk boxes. Call me old fashioned, paranoid, or snobbish, but there's no substitute for SCSI on your servers when there's a ton of reading/writing going on to your disks constantly. Until Apple makes a server with SCSI disks, I won't consider them enterprise ready.
"why would i want to help allievate the situation? hell, i get to have all my computers attack microsoft for free! and legally! wohoo! sick 'em!"
I know (think) you're joking, but while we can moan all we want about how Microsoft should design software that's more secure, we can't do anything about existing systems. And windowsupdate was the fastest, easiest way for the non-tech public to protect and repair themselves. Those of you out there that view this impending attack and the shutting down of windowsupdate as a good thing are very shortsighted.
Maybe you don't give a shit about all of those other users out there that use Windows. Maybe you're happy this is happening. Fine. But rest assured, it's not going to cause people to rebel against Microsoft, like many of you are hoping. There will be no enlightenment and mass exodus to Linux or BSD or OSX. This is going to get blaimed on "hackers". And we all know hackers hate God, hate America, root for Saddam, get pentagram tattoos on their foreheads....and use Linux. Pretty soon it'll be "yeah, I saw those Linux guys bragging on slashdot.org that they took windowsupdate down!"
IBM's reps will be going "yeah, thanks heaps for the positive image, slashdotters.........fuckers".
Make fun of people that run Windows all you want, but don't assist in, or support the disabling of one of their few effective means of defense.
"Personally, I think we should (build) some new nuclear power plants...I personally wish the US would update it's power infrastructure, and I'd be willing to pay for it."
You got it, pardner. This is one of those things where they could raise a tax somewhere, and I wouldn't complain about it. ESPECIALLY if it was for new nuclear plants. Environmentalists will be hysterical, but so what. Europe, which is supposedly faaar ahead of us in terms of civilization and good ideas, draws as much as 50 percent of its power from nuclear reactors in countries like France and Sweden.
Not that I wouldn't mind some more natural alternatives. I'd LIKE to see things like advancing wind farm and solar panel technology. Bur right now no other alternatives will provide NEAR the power we need except for nukes or more fossil fuel powered plants.
The grid is indeed horrendous and old, and President Bush himself said as much today, urging that it be upgraded.
Fluffy, you got me there. I was tired when I made the post. I meant SMP, as in multiple processors.
"Their dist servers run Solaris!"
That's because Theo would rather drink his own vomit than add SMB support and let OBSD scale up. While some brave souls are working on such support, they're doing it with his scorn.
Until it can run in "Enterprise" class settings, Open will be good for firewalls and workstations for security nazis. And that's the way Theo likes it.
Judicial Activism is one of those terms that has become horribly abused. Basically, if your side loses in court, you scream "judicial activism". When SCOTUS ruled that abortion is a right, conservatives screamed it. When they similarly ruled on conservative-favored issues (drug testing for athletes, etc), liberals screamed the same thing.
" Hmm, I'm wondering how does Red Hat makes money"
Red Hat makes money? I'm ALL FOR OSS making money, but how many quarters have they been in the black?
"To get more developers, we must make it easier to contribute to GnuCash. "Casual" sex with Cmdrtaco to scratch an itch is much to hard, even for an experienced developer"
What if this wasn't a troll?
God Help Us!
Most parents will approve of this for safety reasons. And a previous poster pointed out that the teacher is under some pressure to perform here too.
There are VERY legitimate privacy problems here, but students almost always lose on privacy issues in schools when the subject is brought to court. The paradox here, is that they HAVE to be there, unless their parents can afford to send them to a private school. They have no choice. The state, under force of arms, can force them into the classroom for their own good, the reasoning goes. And yet the facilities and staff are paid for with public dollars. Frankly, you have a better case banning cameras on public streets than you do in schools.
I love books. Always have. I can hang out in a bookstore all day long. I love the smell of them (even the musty smell of older books), the feel of good books in my hand. When you find a book with really nice paper and binding, you've found a treasure. This even goes for paperbacks.
There is no substitute for holding that book in your hands, and having the pleasure of turning the pages. It's slow, perhaps (unless you're one of those heathen speedreaders; reading was meant to be enjoyed), but it's a satisfying expirience.
As much as I love computers and all things gadget-like, no electronic contraption with a small sreen will ever replace my books. And having a personal library is just plain damn cool.
That's the common term for it. You're annoyed at that? Tough. I'm annoyed at people that use cold, clinical words like "infringment" so that it won't sound as bad; the implication being that since they don't agree with the notion of copyright in the first place, they'll try to make piracy sound as harmless as possible.
" It would be most beneficial to consumers if all of their software used open standards. Imagine if Microsoft Office used a set of open document formats, for instance."
.Net? No problem. Here comes Mono. The point is, if Microsoft won't come to the mountain, everyone else is bringing the mountain to Microsoft, so to speak. They can CHANGE their formats, but it would be dangerous for them do so. If they radically changed Word to another format, I PROMISE you that reps from WordPerfect and Sun come into big business saying "Hey, from now on, our word processor uses the standard .doc format by default. Use our product, and you wont have to change anything!". You can also bet that said companies would let existing users "upgrade" to their products for pennies on the dollar.
Well, that's happening in a roundabout way. Microsoft themselves aren't going to "open standards", but what's happening now effectively fixes that problem; everyone else is adopting MS formats. Everybody uses Word? Fine. Notice that all of MS's competitors (WordPerfect, Star/OpenOffice, etc) can easily import Word docs, even CREATE Word docs. Some even use ".doc" as the native format. Same for spreadsheets.
So, if MS doesn't want to play nice, fine, we'll simply make OUR products compatible. The only possible danger here is if the DMCA were invoked to keep competitors from finding ways to make compatible products. Otherwise, WE'LL just keep adapting to Microsoft.
"...I continuously found myself staring upwards muttering expletives to myself, a truly awsome sight. Perhaps soon to become one of the wonders of the ancient world."
I used to be an ametuer astronomer (simply no time or decent equipment of late), and I love the stars as well. And I remember my first memory of going out to the boonies, and looking up in the cold winter night and seeing the most beautiful night sky I'd ever seen. I was in love with the stars from that point.
That said, the stars aren't going anywhere, so they're not going to become "one of the wonders of the ancient world". That would assume that EVERYWHERE on Earth would be lighted at night, and that will never be the case. If you're in a city, you're simply going to have to plan your star trips, and go into the boonies at night. But those unlighted boonies will always be there.
Wish I could have been with you in Mongolia though. That sounded like an outstanding expierience. Wonder what you do for a living?
"...but it is certainly indicative of the kind of audience Slashdot draws: Adults Who Read Comic Books"
You forgot to add "Porno Comic Books".
Nothing says "taste" like western girls, drawn by Japanese artists, getting tentacle-raped by some fiend from outer space. High quality slashdot entertainment at it's best. I'm only surprised that Slashdot hasn't added a Hentai section yet.
"We initially WERE naked. Obviously the Lord didn't create Adam and Eve, and then hand them some GAP clothes. Humans created clothing throughout history, mainly as a way of showing wealth"
Strictly in a Biblical Context, man started wearing clothing (if you can call a fig leaf clothing) after he (and she) partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and knew good and evil, and became aware of the naked bodies, and became ashamed. Hey, you and the previous poster brought God into this....
And scientifically, we got tired of freezing to death, so we figured we could use those animal skins more than they could...besides, the animals were mighty tasty. Style or wealth probably didn't have a lot to do with things at first.
Here in Alabama, vibrators were (and maybe still are) illegal. The attorney general ruled that "women do not have a constitutional right to pleasure inducing devices".
It ain't just Texas.
"Of course, if the fine folk in Tulsa don't want that stuff they won't buy it, and the shops will fold due to lack of business."
There's a market for crack and murder in Tulsa too....should that be legal? Just because there's something people are willing to pay for, doesn't mean it should be legally available.
"The US Constitution doesn't have any "except for obscene materials" clauses in it."
That's because George Washington and Co. never dreamed that "hot young teen pussies for you!" would be openly sold in markets. It's a bit of a stretch to say the founders expicitly wanted obscene matierial to have legal protection. They never included it because the mores of the day forbid such things publicly, and it obviously never crossed their minds to ban it via the law. While they had skeletons in their closets too, I think it's safe to say none of them would endorse the public sale of porn.
"We've got a sub-population in this country that's rampaging out of control, trying to get anyone who differs from them thrown in prison. "
That's a gross exageration and hysterical nonsense. You're pissed because the country isn't going your way right now, and you comfort yourself by telling yourself it's a big conspiracy by a small minority. If the "sub-population" you're speaking of consists of center-right and right leaning people, you're sadly mistaken; in that case, YOU'RE the minority.
You can disagree with me on this, but this is a fairly conservative country. There are pockets of liberalism/leftism, but they're highly concentrated on the coasts. Texas is smack in the middle of that conservative voting zone. Why is anyone surprised at this? If you don't like the way things in Texas are, then move to a place more of your liking. You don't have to right to change the laws of the state agaisnt the wishes of the majority because you want things differently, with few exceptions. That's the atmosphere they want there. Look at the voting record in Texas over the past couple of decades. Is anyone SERIOUSLY going to contend that it's not a conservative state?
The Supreme Court ruled that local community standards for obscenity would rule the day. This has been the way things have been done for decades. Again, if you don't like it, try to change the minds of the populace. If they still want different obscenity standards than you, hey, San Francisco and Los Angelas are calling your name. Go there. Buy Porn. Make fun of the middle America yokels. Be happy. They'll probably be just as happy that YOU left.
While I'm glad to see BSD becoming more prominent and giving Linux some competition, I'm a little worried about something; the ongoing attempt to make BSD and Linux "all things to all people". In other words, to put these OS's on everything from small embedded chips in cell phones, to huge enterprise class server setups. I think this approach only creates more bloat in an OS.
Granted, you can take the source code, modify it heavily for your purpose (embedded routers in this case), and it might bear little resemblance to the parent OS. But is it still BSD or Linux then? How far can you alter it before it becomes a radical offshoot, and in truth, a different OS?
We are exceedingly cheap. We expect FREE on the internet. It's been burned into our heads since the dot com boom. At one point, "free" topped "sex" in web searches. We think if it's digitized and non-physical, we should have access to it and be able to copy it. We can't grasp the concept of monetary value for digital things. We can't wrap our brains around the idea that those digital things took work to create, and people that made them want to be paid for them. Since we can get it so quickly and easily over the internet, we just cant comprehend that.
If MS ever started selling Office exclusively as a download, they'd lose millions of dollars. Because Office just wouldn't feel like a real product to them. Put a CD in that consumers hand, though, and they're more willing to pay for it.
With the exception of Apple users, who will do whatever Stevie tells them to (buy music at the Apple Store! On your Ipod! Now!), most denizens of the internet are, let's be blunt, cheap bastards.