If the SSSCA passes and I am no longer able to put my Linux box on the internet, perhaps I will dig out a couple of old modems I have and setup a good old fashioned BBS. I remember a time when the US was dotted with somewhere around 30,000 of these BBS's and many of them were connected through FIDO net or similar. I know no one would want to download MP3's off such a thing and after having been on a cable modem for over a year, I would hate to fall back to dialup. It worked for us in the past, perhaps it will be our future and maybe the only future for Free (as in both beer and speech) content.
To the person who writes the 100 lines of C code that disables whatever copy prrotection scheme they come up with. If you live outside of the US, post it anonymously, if you live inside the US send it to someone outside the US and have them post it anonymously. Don't endanger your freedom and well being for the "Glory of the Hack". I am not fooling myself, this time next year, we are going to be screwed and these people are going to be VERY serious about enforcing this. If you get caught you will be held without bail for a few years while the government, the MPAA and the RIAA mount a multi million dollar court case and you will either plead out or loose.
Yes, we here know that you can download ISOs of various distros for "free", but that's not a valid comparison. Consumers as a whole are not going to do that
I can get a full version of RedHat 7.2 from
Cheapbytes
for $3.99 plus shipping and Handling. Granted I don't get phone support or a nice printed manual, but this is balanced by the shear amount of software I get. Developement tools, Mail/Web/FTP/Telnet Servers and clients, alot of other stuff as well that cost extra from Microsoft.
This isn't going to happen. If someone sends me a letter, it becomes my property, to do with as I see fit, unless I have signed a prior aggreement, specifing what I may or may not do with it. At the very least, I would consider it an unsolicited gift, but more reasonably, if someone is threating legal action against me, I have the right to seek legal advice from any source to include a public forum. I wouldn't even need a Lawyer to fight that one, though it would probably wise to get one anyway.
Last year CD sales declined for the first time in a decade.
This was my favorite line in the article. It blames the decline of CD sales on music sharing, but misses the more obvious cause, Bad Economic Times. It may be true that people are getting thier music online rather than buying the CD, but given the choice between spending $20 on a CD, which probably has 1 or 2 songs I like, and buying food for my family, or puting gas in my car, guess what, I'll download the 2 songs I want, buy food for my children, and fill my gas tank. If downloading the music wasn't an option, guess what, I still wouldn't buy the CD. Maybe if the Music Industry would allow us to buy singles, either online or on CD, at a reasonable price, I'd be inclined to skip my lunch one day (my lunch, not my childrens) to buy the 1 or 2 songs I like.
I don't want to sound cold, but the truth of the matter is, he should have been as responsible in life as he was in death. Had he really cared he would have written those memoirs earlier and maybe he should have saved more and partied less. It is not the governments job to protect a person or his family from financial irresponsibilty. I however think it is not a bad idea to cut some slack in cases like this one. If a piece is not published before the authors death, then the next of kin should be allowed the same rights as the author, had he published it before his death.
I think the core of Eldred's case should focus not on Mickey Mouse, because as Valenti said, who cares if Mikey isn't in the public domain for another 1000 years. The argument should focus on the 10,027 books published in 1930, of which only 174 are still in print. Who is being harmed by these works being put into public domain ? Certainly Disney isn't hurt, nor the owners of the copyrights, since they aren't making any money anyway. We the people, thats who, each year there are less and less readable copies of these books. If these books are not put in the public domain, we are in real danger of loosing them. Project Gutenberg certainly isn't going to spend thousands of dollars to find out who owns a copyright, just to be told, no. As Lessig pointed out, it also stifles creativity, because no derivitive works can be done. He also pointed out two instances where an author has written a piece based on an older work, spent real money to find the copyright holder and been told NO, not, I will licence it to you for X amount of money, but NO. If we allow these extensions to stand, we get Mickey Mouse, if we don't let it stand, we get to preserve a whole body work for all time and we get a whole new body of work, which will never happen otherwise. This lawsuit should really be called Humanity vs Disney.
This is a lesson more people should learn. I work for one of the big computer OEM houses, but I don't buy our own products. I go to a small Ma and Pop shop not far from where I live. Even though they are more expensive then buying from my own company, especially with my employee discount, they give me what my employer can never hope to give me. I easily spend $5000 a year on computer equipment, to my company, this is nothing, a drop in the bucket. But to these people that makes me one of thier best customers. They know me by name, and treat me like a friend, sometimes cut me good deals, and talk honestly about new products. When I was having trouble with one of my systems, the store owner took the system home with him, fixed it and charged me only for the parts. When my wife was in the hospital not long, they sent her flowers. Try to get that kind of service from Compaq, Dell or IBM.
Where there is a will, there is a way. If we wanted to setup online voting, we could, but the powers that be don't want it, so it isn't going to happen. The technology is there, the problem, as always is with people. When people are at home, how do you know thier abusive spouse isn't watching them, thier boss, or Union chairmen. The only way to provide any reasonable privacy is to provide a place to do it.
I use a Wacom pad, the instructions for installing them is pretty straight forward. All you need to do is open an X based text editor and do a copy/paste action into your XF86Config-4, then restart X. Also there are several font packs availble in both rpm and deb formats, there is also a shell script running around, which dowloads MS fonts and installs them for you. Even if these things are mildly difficult to do, it does not invalidate Linux as a desktop OS. Most people, when they goto work, sit down in front of a system that has been preconfigured for them, for most people (not all) Linux would do just fine.
In your last paragraph you implied that Microsoft and Apple users are too dumb to use StarOffice
I implied no such thing, what I said was, if I had an employee who could not learn how to use StarOffice, or any other tool required for thier job, I would have to question that persons ability to do thier job. No where in any of my posts in this thread do you see me bashing MS, Apple or people who use thier products. The question at hand is not "Does Windows/Office suck.", But "Is Linux viable Desktop OS ?" and the answer to that question is yes. But that does not mean it is for everyone nor does it mean Linux will or should take over, it simply means we have a choice.
This seems to be the major argument everyone seems to have against Linux on the Desktop. If Windows works for you then great, if some paticular application you need is not available under Linux, there is nothing I can do about that. However this does not invalidate Linux as a viable Desktop OS. Millions of other people use Linux for thier Desktop everyday for both business and personal use, that alone should be proof enough.
This is my day for the flame retardant pants. All the issues you mentioned are easily solved. The reason the GUI doesn't report anything, is because its not its job. All system messages are reported in the syslogs, and these logs are far more detailed then your average BSOD. As for system updates, RedHats up2date and Ximian redcarpet are as easy to use as it gets, point, click and drool, while it downloads. chmod +s/path/to/program will solve most of your "have to be root" problems, though for security reasons I don't recomend it. As for the man pages, I am sure a short shell script to check for a man page, info page or something in/usr/doc, would solve this problem straight away.
I am not even going to touch your statements, because it is flamebait pure and simple. I however apologize for the "someone who can't figure out StarOffice" crack, I did not think it would offended anyone on such a personal level.
Windows has at least more than one advantage over Linux. In Windows you are able to cut and pate from basically any application to another. In linux you cannot.
HMM strange, I don't have any problems cutting/coping and pasting between all my major applications
In order to "take over" the desktop, this basic requirement must be met.
No in order for Linux to "Take Over" the Microsoft Monopoly strangle hold on OEM computer manufacters must be broken.
Contrary to popular belief (at least here), Linux is just not ready for the everyday person's desktop.
I disagree, Windows has only one advantage over Linux and that is games. This may be a problem on the home desktop, but on the business desktop, it is not relevant. In every other area Linux has an free or nearly free alternative. Email, web browsing and content creation all have usable and in some cases outstanding programs. Even Exchange Server can be replaced, to include shared calenders (easy to implement with Apache/PHP) and address books (LDAP). I have helped a few small businesses convert to a Linux Based desktop for all employees, some do complain for a little while, but then they get back to doing whatever it is they get paid to do, especially when the CEO pointed out, it was either convert to Linux or face other budget cuts and possibly layoffs. I have yet to see anyone not be able to figure out how to use StarOffice. Frankly, someone who can't figure out StarOffice is probably not someone you want working for you anyway. With the sole exception of games, Linux is ready for the desktop. As a side note, I am just the opposite of you, I have a Windows partition on my system, but I haven't booted into it since I did the install, about 8 month ago. I am thinking about killing it and using the space for something useful.
you don't use the service, pepsi does. You pay a monthly fee for hardware you already own.
Hmm, that is interesting, I thought I was paying for a service. I distinctly remember paying $199 for the Tivo and then signing up for the service, which costs me another $9.95 a month (I actually bought the lifetime, but that is not important here). No where in my service contract does it say I was paying for any hardware. If I discontinued my service would they repo my TiVo ? I don't think so, what I do think is you are being silly.
Yea, on sunday, when I went to the store for munchies, the checkout clerk asked me why I wasn't at home watching the SuperBowl, I responded with, "Whats the SuperBowl ? Is that Like the Special Olympics or something ?" Oddly, she wasn't amused.
Because TiVo provides a service that I like and use, they also do it better than anyone else. Standard Broadcasting and/or the Cable Companies have no compelling reason to do this. They make thier money on Advertising and they charge more for prime time spots. People who use TiVo, tend to fast forward through commercials, therefore that Ad money is wasted on that person. Eventually the Cable Companies may introduce similar sevices, but I doubt i will be able to fast forward through commercials. I don't think they will allow me save the show indefinately either, so I can watch it again, because this renders syndication obsolete.
Go to Redhats's HCL page for another example. They offer support for more devices than I can fathom and continue to support those devices even years after the vendor stops manufacturing them!
I'm pretty sure the US gets only 25% of its oil from the Middle East, so we don't really "need" it per se...
We certainly do not need middle eastern oil, we have plenty here. Our policy however is, "Use thiers first". Drain the middle east oil reserves first, then we still have a couple hundred years left of our own reserves.
Slashdot Mirror
If the SSSCA passes and I am no longer able to put my Linux box on the internet, perhaps I will dig out a couple of old modems I have and setup a good old fashioned BBS. I remember a time when the US was dotted with somewhere around 30,000 of these BBS's and many of them were connected through FIDO net or similar. I know no one would want to download MP3's off such a thing and after having been on a cable modem for over a year, I would hate to fall back to dialup. It worked for us in the past, perhaps it will be our future and maybe the only future for Free (as in both beer and speech) content.
To the person who writes the 100 lines of C code that disables whatever copy prrotection scheme they come up with. If you live outside of the US, post it anonymously, if you live inside the US send it to someone outside the US and have them post it anonymously. Don't endanger your freedom and well being for the "Glory of the Hack". I am not fooling myself, this time next year, we are going to be screwed and these people are going to be VERY serious about enforcing this. If you get caught you will be held without bail for a few years while the government, the MPAA and the RIAA mount a multi million dollar court case and you will either plead out or loose.
RedHat 7.2 Professional is selling for $199.99
Yes, we here know that you can download ISOs of various distros for "free", but that's not a valid comparison. Consumers as a whole are not going to do that
I can get a full version of RedHat 7.2 from Cheapbytes for $3.99 plus shipping and Handling. Granted I don't get phone support or a nice printed manual, but this is balanced by the shear amount of software I get. Developement tools, Mail/Web/FTP/Telnet Servers and clients, alot of other stuff as well that cost extra from Microsoft.
Here's a not-so-well-known fact: By the time AMD gets to a REAL 2GHz processor (Barton), Intel will be at 3.0GHz, and it ain't looking back.
True, but the 2 Ghz Athlon 3000+ will probably still meet the 3 Ghz Pentiums performance or come close, for half the price.
This isn't going to happen. If someone sends me a letter, it becomes my property, to do with as I see fit, unless I have signed a prior aggreement, specifing what I may or may not do with it. At the very least, I would consider it an unsolicited gift, but more reasonably, if someone is threating legal action against me, I have the right to seek legal advice from any source to include a public forum. I wouldn't even need a Lawyer to fight that one, though it would probably wise to get one anyway.
Last year CD sales declined for the first time in a decade.
This was my favorite line in the article. It blames the decline of CD sales on music sharing, but misses the more obvious cause, Bad Economic Times. It may be true that people are getting thier music online rather than buying the CD, but given the choice between spending $20 on a CD, which probably has 1 or 2 songs I like, and buying food for my family, or puting gas in my car, guess what, I'll download the 2 songs I want, buy food for my children, and fill my gas tank. If downloading the music wasn't an option, guess what, I still wouldn't buy the CD. Maybe if the Music Industry would allow us to buy singles, either online or on CD, at a reasonable price, I'd be inclined to skip my lunch one day (my lunch, not my childrens) to buy the 1 or 2 songs I like.
Dear Nintedo Lawyer Dude
Blow me !
PS- Please sue me, I will counter sue on anti competive grounds and Nintedo will finance my eary retirement.
I don't want to sound cold, but the truth of the matter is, he should have been as responsible in life as he was in death. Had he really cared he would have written those memoirs earlier and maybe he should have saved more and partied less. It is not the governments job to protect a person or his family from financial irresponsibilty. I however think it is not a bad idea to cut some slack in cases like this one. If a piece is not published before the authors death, then the next of kin should be allowed the same rights as the author, had he published it before his death.
I think the core of Eldred's case should focus not on Mickey Mouse, because as Valenti said, who cares if Mikey isn't in the public domain for another 1000 years. The argument should focus on the 10,027 books published in 1930, of which only 174 are still in print. Who is being harmed by these works being put into public domain ? Certainly Disney isn't hurt, nor the owners of the copyrights, since they aren't making any money anyway. We the people, thats who, each year there are less and less readable copies of these books. If these books are not put in the public domain, we are in real danger of loosing them. Project Gutenberg certainly isn't going to spend thousands of dollars to find out who owns a copyright, just to be told, no. As Lessig pointed out, it also stifles creativity, because no derivitive works can be done. He also pointed out two instances where an author has written a piece based on an older work, spent real money to find the copyright holder and been told NO, not, I will licence it to you for X amount of money, but NO. If we allow these extensions to stand, we get Mickey Mouse, if we don't let it stand, we get to preserve a whole body work for all time and we get a whole new body of work, which will never happen otherwise. This lawsuit should really be called Humanity vs Disney.
I know the owner, and he tajkes care of me.
This is a lesson more people should learn. I work for one of the big computer OEM houses, but I don't buy our own products. I go to a small Ma and Pop shop not far from where I live. Even though they are more expensive then buying from my own company, especially with my employee discount, they give me what my employer can never hope to give me. I easily spend $5000 a year on computer equipment, to my company, this is nothing, a drop in the bucket. But to these people that makes me one of thier best customers. They know me by name, and treat me like a friend, sometimes cut me good deals, and talk honestly about new products. When I was having trouble with one of my systems, the store owner took the system home with him, fixed it and charged me only for the parts. When my wife was in the hospital not long, they sent her flowers. Try to get that kind of service from Compaq, Dell or IBM.
Install WinME, reboot twice
Set TCP/IP, Install Video, sound and first update
try to figure out which driver screwed up the system up, reboot 3 more times.
setup WinTV, download second set of updates, install IE6
system screwed up again, uninstall WinTV, system still screwed up. Format and reinstall, 4 more reboots
download more updates, DirectX and dev suites, 2 more reboots.
Tried to play Wolf, but system hangs during setup, 1 reboot
can now play Wolf, but could only do the install after killing all the programs running in the background.
Yes Virginia, I am a Troll and this is Flamebait.
Where there is a will, there is a way. If we wanted to setup online voting, we could, but the powers that be don't want it, so it isn't going to happen. The technology is there, the problem, as always is with people. When people are at home, how do you know thier abusive spouse isn't watching them, thier boss, or Union chairmen. The only way to provide any reasonable privacy is to provide a place to do it.
There is nothing wrong with it, as long as it is a choice among many. If however it becomes the ONLY choice, then it becomes a problem.
I use a Wacom pad, the instructions for installing them is pretty straight forward. All you need to do is open an X based text editor and do a copy/paste action into your XF86Config-4, then restart X. Also there are several font packs availble in both rpm and deb formats, there is also a shell script running around, which dowloads MS fonts and installs them for you. Even if these things are mildly difficult to do, it does not invalidate Linux as a desktop OS. Most people, when they goto work, sit down in front of a system that has been preconfigured for them, for most people (not all) Linux would do just fine.
In your last paragraph you implied that Microsoft and Apple users are too dumb to use StarOffice
I implied no such thing, what I said was, if I had an employee who could not learn how to use StarOffice, or any other tool required for thier job, I would have to question that persons ability to do thier job. No where in any of my posts in this thread do you see me bashing MS, Apple or people who use thier products. The question at hand is not "Does Windows/Office suck.", But "Is Linux viable Desktop OS ?" and the answer to that question is yes. But that does not mean it is for everyone nor does it mean Linux will or should take over, it simply means we have a choice.
This seems to be the major argument everyone seems to have against Linux on the Desktop. If Windows works for you then great, if some paticular application you need is not available under Linux, there is nothing I can do about that. However this does not invalidate Linux as a viable Desktop OS. Millions of other people use Linux for thier Desktop everyday for both business and personal use, that alone should be proof enough.
This is my day for the flame retardant pants. All the issues you mentioned are easily solved. The reason the GUI doesn't report anything, is because its not its job. All system messages are reported in the syslogs, and these logs are far more detailed then your average BSOD. As for system updates, RedHats up2date and Ximian redcarpet are as easy to use as it gets, point, click and drool, while it downloads. chmod +s /path/to/program will solve most of your "have to be root" problems, though for security reasons I don't recomend it. As for the man pages, I am sure a short shell script to check for a man page, info page or something in /usr/doc, would solve this problem straight away.
I am not even going to touch your statements, because it is flamebait pure and simple. I however apologize for the "someone who can't figure out StarOffice" crack, I did not think it would offended anyone on such a personal level.
Windows has at least more than one advantage over Linux. In Windows you are able to cut and pate from basically any application to another. In linux you cannot.
HMM strange, I don't have any problems cutting/coping and pasting between all my major applications
In order to "take over" the desktop, this basic requirement must be met.
No in order for Linux to "Take Over" the Microsoft Monopoly strangle hold on OEM computer manufacters must be broken.
Contrary to popular belief (at least here), Linux is just not ready for the everyday person's desktop.
I disagree, Windows has only one advantage over Linux and that is games. This may be a problem on the home desktop, but on the business desktop, it is not relevant. In every other area Linux has an free or nearly free alternative. Email, web browsing and content creation all have usable and in some cases outstanding programs. Even Exchange Server can be replaced, to include shared calenders (easy to implement with Apache/PHP) and address books (LDAP). I have helped a few small businesses convert to a Linux Based desktop for all employees, some do complain for a little while, but then they get back to doing whatever it is they get paid to do, especially when the CEO pointed out, it was either convert to Linux or face other budget cuts and possibly layoffs. I have yet to see anyone not be able to figure out how to use StarOffice. Frankly, someone who can't figure out StarOffice is probably not someone you want working for you anyway. With the sole exception of games, Linux is ready for the desktop. As a side note, I am just the opposite of you, I have a Windows partition on my system, but I haven't booted into it since I did the install, about 8 month ago. I am thinking about killing it and using the space for something useful.
you don't use the service, pepsi does. You pay a monthly fee for hardware you already own.
Hmm, that is interesting, I thought I was paying for a service. I distinctly remember paying $199 for the Tivo and then signing up for the service, which costs me another $9.95 a month (I actually bought the lifetime, but that is not important here). No where in my service contract does it say I was paying for any hardware. If I discontinued my service would they repo my TiVo ? I don't think so, what I do think is you are being silly.
Yea, on sunday, when I went to the store for munchies, the checkout clerk asked me why I wasn't at home watching the SuperBowl, I responded with, "Whats the SuperBowl ? Is that Like the Special Olympics or something ?" Oddly, she wasn't amused.
Why do you want TiVo to succeed in particular?
Because TiVo provides a service that I like and use, they also do it better than anyone else. Standard Broadcasting and/or the Cable Companies have no compelling reason to do this. They make thier money on Advertising and they charge more for prime time spots. People who use TiVo, tend to fast forward through commercials, therefore that Ad money is wasted on that person. Eventually the Cable Companies may introduce similar sevices, but I doubt i will be able to fast forward through commercials. I don't think they will allow me save the show indefinately either, so I can watch it again, because this renders syndication obsolete.
Go to Redhats's HCL page for another example. They offer support for more devices than I can fathom and continue to support those devices even years after the vendor stops manufacturing them!
I'm pretty sure the US gets only 25% of its oil from the Middle East, so we don't really "need" it per se...
We certainly do not need middle eastern oil, we have plenty here. Our policy however is, "Use thiers first". Drain the middle east oil reserves first, then we still have a couple hundred years left of our own reserves.