The problem is the GPL. Say someone comes along and invests a few million into making a really, REALLY great desktop and distro that does what the average user wants. How are they supposed to recover their costs (never mind make a profit)? After all, the first person they sell a copy to can redistribute the whole thing for free, and competitors can copy all the "good bits" without having to rack up that few million in development costs.
So you have two groups - those who are "scratching an itch" and those who are fixing things that need fixing for them, as opposed to the RotW (Rest of the World).
Contrast this with BSD - there was nothing stopping Apple from using FreeBSD, and throwing money at some of the FreeBSD developers. Additionally, Apple gave back a lot of stuff - you can dig through their site or better yet, here if you're a developer. FreeBSD certainly benefited. Linux benefited. Even Google benefited (Apple's work done on webkit, for example).
So, while the linux kernel will continue to benefit, since there are many companies that have needs that linux can meet, and one of those needs is stability - make too big a mess and the funding stops - the desktop environments don't have nearly the same user accountability (and there are just too many of them, so unlike the kernel, that's an additional lack of focus).
If they were smart, they would have tried to make the DEs cross-platform - even to the point of replacing the Windows shell (as opposed to KDE programs running - poorly - in Windows - people want the whole environment, not just a few me-too applications). The opportunity is lost now - the competition dropped the ball with the initial failure to ship a refreshed OS, instead opting for XPsp3... and then Vista. Now? Too late. With everyone going multi-core, even a pig like Vista, with all the patches, runs acceptably for most users, and Win7 got a significant diet.
So the linux distros are left copying each other, nobody is investing much in the things that really count, and the year of the linux desktop will simply never happen.
Well, I don't use Windows much except for compatibility testing, backing up my files and mail to the drive, fixing linux when it's broken, printing, scanning, simcity, wifi,... gee, there really are a few things that I do use it for:-)
But I don't use it for "working" stuff. Basically, all I need is a code editor, and for that... despite "java sux" speed-wise, jedit is actually quite nice, so that's what it is. I used to use either vim or kate (kate has nice syntax highlighting, but it REALLY sucks with over-long lines like you have when editing an sql dumpfile - it'll sit there for 10 minutes doing NOTHING), so...
What do people want? To surf the web and launch local applications and use their printer, wifi, etc. That's pretty much it. Linux isn't there yet. The only real short-term solution would be to convince people to port their Android applications to the desktop java runtime (shouldn't be THAT much work - the source IS java, after all...) and make a UI and distro that accommodates it, and lets people make a few $$$. Which means closed-source, so nobody can just copy it and change the ids to pocket the $$$ that should be going to the individual devs publishing their apps.
When I first bought the laptop, all I wanted it for was to grab some video off my camcorder. It then sat for ~!8 months until I bought a second 320 gig hard drive and swapped out the ram for 4 gigs, and installed opensuse on the secondary drive.
So for the longest time, I never used Vista except as a printer/scanner driver for my samsung color laser MFP. I got wifi to work, but that broke a few updates later... and so it's basically tethered unless I boot into Windows.
Now a funny thing happened... after installing all the updates, Vista works a lot better - it's actually useable for things like burning an emergency DVD, or playing a game, or testing... so it's not THAT bad... whereas Windows 7 has made a lot of things even more translucent/transparent, and with one eye messed up, that's not going to fly - and why should I upgrade when Vista works just fine.
The distro that took the dump was opensuse 12.1. There's a mail conversion that has to take place, and you simply do NOT mess with someone's email - ever! The conversion failed, re-installing from scratch was worse, so I ended up re-installing 11.4 over it, and found out that graphics mode was "umpossible" - it turns out that my in-place upgrades had prevented the bad config that you get from a clean install. So, lots of booting into single-user mode, downloading a new kernel with the right bits in it, and it now works like it used to, which is a good thing, because I have a personal project I want to put out there for people to play with before the end of the year.
I have another power supply sitting in the garage, but it's not a priority right now (in other words, it's *COLD* outside, and walking the dogs for half an hour at a time is enough, and I also want to get this project out; maybe during the holidays I'll swap the PS and install FreeBSD on it to see how bad the state of the union is.
And the reason the mail migration failed? They're evolving the back end of the mail client "for extra features". In other words, more bloat for finding stuff quicker for people who don't know how to use clickies to create a few rules to sort their mail, or just stick it all in "one big shoe-box".
I'm also probably going to take people's suggestions and try Mint, as well as trying slackware again, before installing BSD on the old desktop... just to see... because you never know:-)
As for how anyone can take RMS seriously... there will always be a minority who simply cannot acknowledge the truth - that most people don't take him seriously, but the fact is that even in the F/LOSS community, he's well past his "best-before date" (which might explain the odor:-)
Stallman wouldn't be able to claim any misuse of GPL code by someone taking it and closing it off if it weren't for copyright - Stallman is the one who has the fundamental misunderstanding of the consequences of what would happen in a world without copyrights, like he does for so many other things, because he doesn't want to admit that his original premise is so incredibly stupid it's not even wrong...
He's become a hindrance. This is what happens when you're stuck in your own little world and can't see beyond your own foot-cheese.
Q. Why doesn't RMS use Gold Bond medicated foot powder?
A. Because it's finger-lickin' good!
Then again, what can you expect from someone who doesn't understand SOAP (not the protocol, the bar:-), or that if you're rude for years and years, eventually people will call you out when you lie (as he did recently with the anti-linux-license FUD).
Q. How many jokes abou RMS are there?
A. One - the rest are true.
And anyone who cares to do the research will see the same thing - a self-deluded fool who is no longer relevant, and hasn't been since at least the turn of the century.
First, if you had actually RTFA, you'd know that they've offered the Banshee developers a better revenue-sharing deal than Ubuntu did... and they're not saying "take it or leave it or we'll say 'screw you' and disable it entirely" like Ubuntu did when people complained.
Second, affiliate marketing must DIE DIE DIE! Kill it off, and you get rid of a LOT of spam.
All I'm saying is that you do, to a certain extent, plan your life to accommodate your TV viewing. You PVR TV programs that you feel you need to see, you make the time to watch them in sequence so as not to "spoil it", you pay for a satellite feed so as not to miss anything you're interested in...
Now, this is not to make any sort of ethical or moral statement as to whether this is good or bad... it just IS.
Do I watch TV? Occasionally. I bought a 50" plasma a few years ago, thinking it would increase my TV viewing. Turns out I was wrong. Even though I can get 15 or more HD channels with my cheap rabbit-ears (and a lot clearer than my neighbors with cable, since the signal isn't recompressed all to heck), I still go months without remembering to turn it on. It's just not an important part of my life. It's not something I would spend $100 a year, never mind $100 a month, for "entertainment."
My original point was that watching HDTV isn't necessarily an expensive proposition - a $20 antenna would meet many people's needs. That you need to spend on a satellite TV service and make sure you DVR stuff just says that TV is more important to you, and you're willing to arrange your priorities to accommodate that need. It doesn't invalidate my point - you're just not one of those people who can say "if it's not on when I feel like watching TV, I'll just skip it, no big loss."
Well, Canonical started it by doing this in Ubuntu. This doesn't make it right, but it *does* show how lame the U1MS (Ubuntu 1 Music Store) was. \
Banshee was sending their revenues from Amazon purchases to the Gnome foundation. Seems to me that Mint has done more than $3.41 worth of work making Gnome usable again, so why not let them continue for the time being?
Because if there is a show with some sort continuity or progression I download or DVR it.
So - you have shows that you have to DVR because of "continuity". You HAVE to see each episode. Which means you HAVE to make time to watch each episode. In sequence. So, you ARE arranging your life to accommodate your TV watching.
So, what is this mysterious TV show(s) with "some sort of continuity or progression" that you HAVE to watch every episode? Inquiring minds want to know:-p
The beauty of open sourcing is that keeping upstream with you (feature-wise) is extremely difficult for a competitor that has a separate closed-source codebase.
Not for projects below a certain size. Sure, for an OS kernel, this is true, but definitely not for something like the project discussed here, where maintaining compatibility with anything but your own hardware is just a waste of time and resources. Hardware *is* different.
Ask Linus if he has problems with business paying him to produce the features they want in linux. He doesn't. He "gets it" that they'll pay for the features THEY want.
Not like Stallman, who goes around saying that you should pirate other peoples' code if its not "free" - while whining if somebody violates the GPL . He's a smelly hypocrite. And a liar (just look for his anti-Linux, anti-Android FUD).
I'm not using Windows 7 - it's a combination of Vista (for when I need to print, wifi, etc., because Linux keeps breaking) and a downgraded version of Linux while I find some time to resurrect my desktop (power supply blew up 2 weeks ago) and install FreeBSD.:-)
He really is an MIT squatter - it's not like he works there - or ever graduated from MIT.
The "give it away for free and make money supporting it" model doesn't work, with a few established exceptions. Not when EVERY idea immediately has 1,000 different people chasing it because "hey, if they might make money off it, so can we" - so nobody makes money - and that's without giving away the source.
Laptops are also outselling PCs - and most of them certainly are NOT running Linux as the only OS. And the #1 selling smartphone in terms of market share - the iPhone - at 28% is NOT made with a "free and open source OS". Who's the #1 Android vendor? HTC - at 15%. And the iPhone makes more profit than everyone else combined, and will continue to do so.
You have a serious problem when 15 years later people will still PAY to avoid using your free software.
Logical fallacy at its best.. you're still a walking, talking fuckup machine.
Do you have evidence that the average user is even cognizant of free (or open source) software, let alone pays to avoid it?
Didn't think so...
Given the number of people who use Firfox and Chrome, the majority of computer users are aware of "free or open source software" - they just avoid Linux on the desktop because Linux on the desktop is a near-total failure. 15 years later, it's STILL a rounding error. They'd rather pay Microsoft or Apple and be able to use their printers, scanners, camcorders, wifi, and everything else rather than have something break every upgrade, and some stuff never working.
... And that's why everyone uses Linux on the desktop, instead of Windows or OSX.
You have a serious problem when 15 years later people will still PAY to avoid using your free software.
Look at the Apple App Store. Developers are cashing in to the tune of a $BILLION a MONTH. Do you see them open-sourcing their apps to "generate buzz" or "get crowd-sourced support"?
Do you want the kind of culture where people stain the couches with take out chinese food and eat parts of their feet, yet write great code? And use free code? Then open sources is for you. Emacs is crazy, but it is great.
Turn in your geek card. RMS failed at maintaining emacs (for some reason, people don't like working with him), and was forced to import the complete xemacs fork and rename it "emacs".
Same story with gcc and egcs.
RMS can't earn a living with "his" code, which is why he rambles around talking about how you too can be dirt poor via open source.
Only open source your codebase if you want to outsource your entire company and any future profits to your competitors.
I think you're still missing the point... you definitely ARE planning your life around TV, just in a different fashion. For example, you say you have "must see" shows, and you've made adjustments to your life to see them.
Uhm, it doesn't seem very fair to lump actual fraudsters in the same group as relatively innocent parodists. Once you start making people part with their money, it's a completely different situation.
One guy apparently scammed his former gf for 15k. That's not parody.
Yes, I *am* arguing for less choice. Beyond a certain point, too much choice is sub-optimal, diverting resources. Whether it's 698 different linux distros, of the "programming language of the week", it sucks.
It's not a question of a "wider pool of talent", but focusing on solving the real problems, rather than playing with the latest toy. Look at how ruby is dying for an example of an over-hypeds, poor-performing language.
Of course, it's easy to do the evaluation in much less time. From the 300, subtract the 275 that I don't know, and spend an hour mulling over which of the rest would be the best fit. Total time expended: 1 hour.
There's no real point in evaluating languages you don't know, because (1) you don't know them, so you're not in a position to do a proper evaluation, and (2) if you picked one you didn't know, you'd lose even more time learning it.
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The problem is the GPL. Say someone comes along and invests a few million into making a really, REALLY great desktop and distro that does what the average user wants. How are they supposed to recover their costs (never mind make a profit)? After all, the first person they sell a copy to can redistribute the whole thing for free, and competitors can copy all the "good bits" without having to rack up that few million in development costs.
So you have two groups - those who are "scratching an itch" and those who are fixing things that need fixing for them, as opposed to the RotW (Rest of the World).
Contrast this with BSD - there was nothing stopping Apple from using FreeBSD, and throwing money at some of the FreeBSD developers. Additionally, Apple gave back a lot of stuff - you can dig through their site or better yet, here if you're a developer. FreeBSD certainly benefited. Linux benefited. Even Google benefited (Apple's work done on webkit, for example).
So, while the linux kernel will continue to benefit, since there are many companies that have needs that linux can meet, and one of those needs is stability - make too big a mess and the funding stops - the desktop environments don't have nearly the same user accountability (and there are just too many of them, so unlike the kernel, that's an additional lack of focus).
If they were smart, they would have tried to make the DEs cross-platform - even to the point of replacing the Windows shell (as opposed to KDE programs running - poorly - in Windows - people want the whole environment, not just a few me-too applications). The opportunity is lost now - the competition dropped the ball with the initial failure to ship a refreshed OS, instead opting for XPsp3 ... and then Vista. Now? Too late. With everyone going multi-core, even a pig like Vista, with all the patches, runs acceptably for most users, and Win7 got a significant diet.
So the linux distros are left copying each other, nobody is investing much in the things that really count, and the year of the linux desktop will simply never happen.
There's a better way ...
But I don't use it for "working" stuff. Basically, all I need is a code editor, and for that ... despite "java sux" speed-wise, jedit is actually quite nice, so that's what it is. I used to use either vim or kate (kate has nice syntax highlighting, but it REALLY sucks with over-long lines like you have when editing an sql dumpfile - it'll sit there for 10 minutes doing NOTHING), so ...
What do people want? To surf the web and launch local applications and use their printer, wifi, etc. That's pretty much it. Linux isn't there yet. The only real short-term solution would be to convince people to port their Android applications to the desktop java runtime (shouldn't be THAT much work - the source IS java, after all ...) and make a UI and distro that accommodates it, and lets people make a few $$$. Which means closed-source, so nobody can just copy it and change the ids to pocket the $$$ that should be going to the individual devs publishing their apps.
Because they've already offered a bigger percentage of it to the Banshee devs (who will be donating it to Gnome) than Canonical gave ...
When I first bought the laptop, all I wanted it for was to grab some video off my camcorder. It then sat for ~!8 months until I bought a second 320 gig hard drive and swapped out the ram for 4 gigs, and installed opensuse on the secondary drive.
So for the longest time, I never used Vista except as a printer/scanner driver for my samsung color laser MFP. I got wifi to work, but that broke a few updates later ... and so it's basically tethered unless I boot into Windows.
Now a funny thing happened ... after installing all the updates, Vista works a lot better - it's actually useable for things like burning an emergency DVD, or playing a game, or testing ... so it's not THAT bad ... whereas Windows 7 has made a lot of things even more translucent/transparent, and with one eye messed up, that's not going to fly - and why should I upgrade when Vista works just fine.
The distro that took the dump was opensuse 12.1. There's a mail conversion that has to take place, and you simply do NOT mess with someone's email - ever! The conversion failed, re-installing from scratch was worse, so I ended up re-installing 11.4 over it, and found out that graphics mode was "umpossible" - it turns out that my in-place upgrades had prevented the bad config that you get from a clean install. So, lots of booting into single-user mode, downloading a new kernel with the right bits in it, and it now works like it used to, which is a good thing, because I have a personal project I want to put out there for people to play with before the end of the year.
I have another power supply sitting in the garage, but it's not a priority right now (in other words, it's *COLD* outside, and walking the dogs for half an hour at a time is enough, and I also want to get this project out; maybe during the holidays I'll swap the PS and install FreeBSD on it to see how bad the state of the union is.
And the reason the mail migration failed? They're evolving the back end of the mail client "for extra features". In other words, more bloat for finding stuff quicker for people who don't know how to use clickies to create a few rules to sort their mail, or just stick it all in "one big shoe-box".
I'm also probably going to take people's suggestions and try Mint, as well as trying slackware again, before installing BSD on the old desktop ... just to see ... because you never know :-)
As for how anyone can take RMS seriously ... there will always be a minority who simply cannot acknowledge the truth - that most people don't take him seriously, but the fact is that even in the F/LOSS community, he's well past his "best-before date" (which might explain the odor :-)
Stallman wouldn't be able to claim any misuse of GPL code by someone taking it and closing it off if it weren't for copyright - Stallman is the one who has the fundamental misunderstanding of the consequences of what would happen in a world without copyrights, like he does for so many other things, because he doesn't want to admit that his original premise is so incredibly stupid it's not even wrong ...
He's become a hindrance. This is what happens when you're stuck in your own little world and can't see beyond your own foot-cheese.
Q. Why doesn't RMS use Gold Bond medicated foot powder?
A. Because it's finger-lickin' good!
Then again, what can you expect from someone who doesn't understand SOAP (not the protocol, the bar :-), or that if you're rude for years and years, eventually people will call you out when you lie (as he did recently with the anti-linux-license FUD).
Q. How many jokes abou RMS are there?
A. One - the rest are true.
And anyone who cares to do the research will see the same thing - a self-deluded fool who is no longer relevant, and hasn't been since at least the turn of the century.
First, if you had actually RTFA, you'd know that they've offered the Banshee developers a better revenue-sharing deal than Ubuntu did ... and they're not saying "take it or leave it or we'll say 'screw you' and disable it entirely" like Ubuntu did when people complained.
Second, affiliate marketing must DIE DIE DIE! Kill it off, and you get rid of a LOT of spam.
All I'm saying is that you do, to a certain extent, plan your life to accommodate your TV viewing. You PVR TV programs that you feel you need to see, you make the time to watch them in sequence so as not to "spoil it", you pay for a satellite feed so as not to miss anything you're interested in ...
Now, this is not to make any sort of ethical or moral statement as to whether this is good or bad ... it just IS.
Do I watch TV? Occasionally. I bought a 50" plasma a few years ago, thinking it would increase my TV viewing. Turns out I was wrong. Even though I can get 15 or more HD channels with my cheap rabbit-ears (and a lot clearer than my neighbors with cable, since the signal isn't recompressed all to heck), I still go months without remembering to turn it on. It's just not an important part of my life. It's not something I would spend $100 a year, never mind $100 a month, for "entertainment."
My original point was that watching HDTV isn't necessarily an expensive proposition - a $20 antenna would meet many people's needs. That you need to spend on a satellite TV service and make sure you DVR stuff just says that TV is more important to you, and you're willing to arrange your priorities to accommodate that need. It doesn't invalidate my point - you're just not one of those people who can say "if it's not on when I feel like watching TV, I'll just skip it, no big loss."
Banshee was sending their revenues from Amazon purchases to the Gnome foundation. Seems to me that Mint has done more than $3.41 worth of work making Gnome usable again, so why not let them continue for the time being?
So - you have shows that you have to DVR because of "continuity". You HAVE to see each episode. Which means you HAVE to make time to watch each episode. In sequence. So, you ARE arranging your life to accommodate your TV watching.
So, what is this mysterious TV show(s) with "some sort of continuity or progression" that you HAVE to watch every episode? Inquiring minds want to know :-p
Not for projects below a certain size. Sure, for an OS kernel, this is true, but definitely not for something like the project discussed here, where maintaining compatibility with anything but your own hardware is just a waste of time and resources. Hardware *is* different.
Ask Linus if he has problems with business paying him to produce the features they want in linux. He doesn't. He "gets it" that they'll pay for the features THEY want.
Not like Stallman, who goes around saying that you should pirate other peoples' code if its not "free" - while whining if somebody violates the GPL . He's a smelly hypocrite. And a liar (just look for his anti-Linux, anti-Android FUD).
I'm not using Windows 7 - it's a combination of Vista (for when I need to print, wifi, etc., because Linux keeps breaking) and a downgraded version of Linux while I find some time to resurrect my desktop (power supply blew up 2 weeks ago) and install FreeBSD. :-)
He really is an MIT squatter - it's not like he works there - or ever graduated from MIT.
The "give it away for free and make money supporting it" model doesn't work, with a few established exceptions. Not when EVERY idea immediately has 1,000 different people chasing it because "hey, if they might make money off it, so can we" - so nobody makes money - and that's without giving away the source.
Also, desktops are not going away.
Given the number of people who use Firfox and Chrome, the majority of computer users are aware of "free or open source software" - they just avoid Linux on the desktop because Linux on the desktop is a near-total failure. 15 years later, it's STILL a rounding error. They'd rather pay Microsoft or Apple and be able to use their printers, scanners, camcorders, wifi, and everything else rather than have something break every upgrade, and some stuff never working.
The developers are being paid, By businesses. It's not a "community effort."
The same with the devs working on Firefox and Chrome.
The same as the FreeBSD devs were paid by Apple.
You have a serious problem when 15 years later people will still PAY to avoid using your free software.
Look at the Apple App Store. Developers are cashing in to the tune of a $BILLION a MONTH. Do you see them open-sourcing their apps to "generate buzz" or "get crowd-sourced support"?
Turn in your geek card. RMS failed at maintaining emacs (for some reason, people don't like working with him), and was forced to import the complete xemacs fork and rename it "emacs".
Same story with gcc and egcs.
RMS can't earn a living with "his" code, which is why he rambles around talking about how you too can be dirt poor via open source.
Only open source your codebase if you want to outsource your entire company and any future profits to your competitors.
I think you're still missing the point ... you definitely ARE planning your life around TV, just in a different fashion. For example, you say you have "must see" shows, and you've made adjustments to your life to see them.
There it - it's called "open a casino."
There's also "become a lobbyist for some social evil (eg: big tobacco)."
But the number # 1 way is do as L. Ron Hubbard did with scientology - create your own religion.
One guy apparently scammed his former gf for 15k. That's not parody.
On a more remarkable note ...
Did he submit the plans so other makers can copy it?
It's not a question of a "wider pool of talent", but focusing on solving the real problems, rather than playing with the latest toy. Look at how ruby is dying for an example of an over-hypeds, poor-performing language.
So THAT is how we end out-sourcing to the 3rd world. Thx.
And they didn't publish the vote tallies, which means that "voter turn-out" was embarrassingly low. Same as their readership numbers, I guess.
There's no real point in evaluating languages you don't know, because (1) you don't know them, so you're not in a position to do a proper evaluation, and (2) if you picked one you didn't know, you'd lose even more time learning it.