I'd have to say that I've tried Lycoris and I'm rather impressed with it. It seems to be somewhat picky about what hardware it works with, but otherwise it is a fast, no-nonsense desktop. There is one well-chosen app for each task you could need, and the menu layout is simple and straightforward. I think they were even using Mozilla as the default browser before RedHat was. Everything is designed to look and work like, say, Windows 98; so it is an easy transition for almost anyone. The install is also very quick and easy; this is the one that lets you play solitare while it's copying files. There aren't really any installation options; you get the default install, but it will all fit on a 1gb disk.
The only thing I can't really gauge is whether it would be as easy to upgrade/modify as a distro like Lindows that is based on Debian. Lycoris originally didn't offer development tools for download, but I think their new version has them. I would be somewhat worried, though, about the long-term financial viability of some of these smaller desktop distributions.
I also used to think their productivity pack was something like AbiWord and Gnumeric because of the goofy pictures on their site, but I read somewhere that it is a modified version of OpenOffice.org.
He's not trolling. It could be a webified, DRMified, One-Click TM, porn-downloading idiot-box for Joe Sixpack. You know MS is going to do it sooner or later; Linux might as well be first. Passwords and hard drive and everything to save your porn and keep it from the Mrs., no computer needed.
I didn't even know this could be used on a website until someone enabled it in order to watch interactive baseball stats. He got a virus shortly thereafter, of course, and couldn't use his computer for almost a day; but that doesn't stop other people from complaining that their browsers don't have this 'feature'.
aren't there far less linux compitent IT guys available then there are MCSE drones?
That, sir, is a *good* thing. It means that those who choose to learn and support Linux are the ones who are 1) intelligent and competent enough to do so, and 2) bright enough to see that Linux is the correct long-term choice. Besides, it takes less Linux admins for a given number of boxen than it does MCSE's.
Regarding call centers, I've come to the same conclusion over the past few months. Desktop Linux is a great solution.
What Linux needs as a killer-app in this environment is good VoIP support. By good, I mean cheaper than Windows.
Specifically, I'm thinking it would be feasible to add software echo-cancellation to some of the sound card drivers or as a separate module. That would easily shave another $50 off the price of a typical call center desktop, and probably more than that with the way people tend to break their $100 headsets.
Hiding a key under the mat is security through obscurity, sure. But what they're talking about is really much worse than that.
It's more analogous to using doors made of laminate plywood to protect all of your worldly belongings. Keys and locks or whatnot, anyone could just kick them in.
They may obscure the contents of your house from a random passer-by, but anyone who is actually *motivated* to violate that security will have no problem.
Good, you're listening. Let me spell it out for you.
There is nothing in your socialist programs, other than the fact that they are merely poorly-managed, thinly-veiled methods of fleecing the lower classes, that would require them to be mandatory.
Even if there were, requiring people to participate in them would not be an exercise in securing liberty; it would be an exercise in tyrranny.
this is no freedom issue It obviously doesn't work to let everyone "decide" if one wants an insurance or not. Because you have the "option" not to get an insurance...
You're an idiot. I don't even have to argue with you because you've already contradicted yourself in your own post.
Your socialist utopia has nothing to do with freedom; give it up.
Is it Linksys's choice, or is the Federal Communications Commission's choice to delay approval?
Actually, it's probably neither. The driver is from Broadcom. It's mentioned in some of their online documentation. They probably haven't and won't release it, even as binary-only, because they'd rather license it to Linksys for an additional fee. I'm assuming a binary-only driver wouldn't incur the FCC regulations you're referring to.
Don't worry about.. Future Crime.. [it would be an inefficient] government program.
Wasn't it the incompetent/corrupt government fucking up the implementation of Future Crime that was the entire impetus of the film?
Re:Get your SciFi right
on
Science Faction
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Big Brother was from 1984
Everyone knows this. Perhaps you should re-read it. It is not communism's penchant for rewriting history on political whim that has a negative effect on the characters of the novel. It is "Big Brother's" invasive authority to regulate "thought crimes" that ends up as the undoing of the protagonist. Does that sound like another sci-fi story you can think of?
It's more a tale of the overzealousnes of technology than a horror report about the advance of technology What? They are both warnings of the ways that tyrranical governments use technology to infringe on individual freedoms. In that respect, I would label them both as distopias. Neither one, though, paints technology as universally bad.
I absolutely agree that Corporatism is merely a subset of Fascism. While we don't yet have the totalitarian government that Fascism requires, we have all the pinnings of one. While political power is not obviously concentrated in an oligarchy of the few, economic power certainly is. Some argue that this is a rebirth of feudalism, and that those wealthy few will never allow the government to become powerful enough to challenge their hegemony.
Those 'arbitrary' US gov't laws were only ever intended to apply to Corporations like Microsoft. The US Federal government is nothing more than a trade federation, formed to help US businesses better compete with the rest of the world. It only has the power to regulate interstate commerce and do a few other things, such as establish postal service and coin money, that further the goal of standardizing the practice of American business.
Oh, yeah, and don't forget the power to raise armies and declare war. US businesses always in need of new natural resources and cheap foreign labor.
In economics, fascism was seen as a third way between laissez-faire capitalism and communism. Fascist thought acknowledged the roles of private property and the profit motive as legitimate incentives for productivity--provided that they did not conflict with the interests of the state.
You're underestimating the threat to Linux in the server market if those Microsoft workstations suddenly start to use some new networking protocol.
I, for one, don't want to see the Samba team constantly having to reverse engineer MS protocols just to keep up.
It took a lot of work to get Linux to the point that it is today. It would be much easier to maintain that progress by keeping the pressure on Microsoft to compete fairly than it would be to constantly have to hack their products just to interoperate.
Mr. PiBB was never able to threaten the predominance of Dr Pepper, which established primary name-recognition among consumers in the "cherry-flavored" carbonated beverage market. In the 1980's, Coke realized this and formed a stategic partnership with the Dr Pepper Company which exchanged use of superior Coca-Cola bottling facilities for a share in Dr Pepper sales profits. Only in regions of the country where Pepsi or 7up outbid Coke for this right did Coke resort to the production of Mr. PiBB.
"Mandrake, have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?"
"Do you know what it is? Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot that we have ever had to face?"
I'd have to disagree with you. In fact, I think Mandrake is an odd choice for a business desktop. I was planning on buying some HP desktops and putting RedHat 9 on them, but I'll jump on this opportunity to replace the Microsoft tax with the Mandrake tax and still end up using RH9.
Slashdot Mirror
There is a WineX add-on for games.
You can download a copy at LinuxISO.org.
I'd have to say that I've tried Lycoris and I'm rather impressed with it. It seems to be somewhat picky about what hardware it works with, but otherwise it is a fast, no-nonsense desktop. There is one well-chosen app for each task you could need, and the menu layout is simple and straightforward. I think they were even using Mozilla as the default browser before RedHat was. Everything is designed to look and work like, say, Windows 98; so it is an easy transition for almost anyone. The install is also very quick and easy; this is the one that lets you play solitare while it's copying files. There aren't really any installation options; you get the default install, but it will all fit on a 1gb disk.
The only thing I can't really gauge is whether it would be as easy to upgrade/modify as a distro like Lindows that is based on Debian. Lycoris originally didn't offer development tools for download, but I think their new version has them. I would be somewhat worried, though, about the long-term financial viability of some of these smaller desktop distributions.
I also used to think their productivity pack was something like AbiWord and Gnumeric because of the goofy pictures on their site, but I read somewhere that it is a modified version of OpenOffice.org.
He's not trolling. It could be a webified, DRMified, One-Click TM, porn-downloading idiot-box for Joe Sixpack. You know MS is going to do it sooner or later; Linux might as well be first. Passwords and hard drive and everything to save your porn and keep it from the Mrs., no computer needed.
Two words: Active Scripting
I didn't even know this could be used on a website until someone enabled it in order to watch interactive baseball stats. He got a virus shortly thereafter, of course, and couldn't use his computer for almost a day; but that doesn't stop other people from complaining that their browsers don't have this 'feature'.
That, sir, is a *good* thing. It means that those who choose to learn and support Linux are the ones who are 1) intelligent and competent enough to do so, and 2) bright enough to see that Linux is the correct long-term choice. Besides, it takes less Linux admins for a given number of boxen than it does MCSE's.
OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC Features:
Support for mobile device formats like AportisDoc (Palm), Pocket Word and Pocket Excel.
That's close to what you want.
How to avoid doublethink:
Step 1) Find a definition of freedom.
Step 2) Read it until you understand it.
Step 3) Compare it to the comment above.
Regarding call centers, I've come to the same conclusion over the past few months. Desktop Linux is a great solution.
What Linux needs as a killer-app in this environment is good VoIP support. By good, I mean cheaper than Windows.
Specifically, I'm thinking it would be feasible to add software echo-cancellation to some of the sound card drivers or as a separate module. That would easily shave another $50 off the price of a typical call center desktop, and probably more than that with the way people tend to break their $100 headsets.
Does anyone know if this is possible?
Hiding a key under the mat is security through obscurity, sure. But what they're talking about is really much worse than that.
It's more analogous to using doors made of laminate plywood to protect all of your worldly belongings. Keys and locks or whatnot, anyone could just kick them in.
They may obscure the contents of your house from a random passer-by, but anyone who is actually *motivated* to violate that security will have no problem.
Good, you're listening.
Let me spell it out for you.
There is nothing in your socialist programs, other than the fact that they are merely poorly-managed, thinly-veiled methods of fleecing the lower classes, that would require them to be mandatory.
Even if there were, requiring people to participate in them would not be an exercise in securing liberty; it would be an exercise in tyrranny.
mmmm... communism... aaalllhhh...
1. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (100%)
2. Libertarian Candidate (98%)
3. Bush, George W. - US President (94%)
I think I broke your webpage.
this is no freedom issue
It obviously doesn't work to let everyone "decide" if one wants an insurance or not. Because you have the "option" not to get an insurance...
You're an idiot. I don't even have to argue with you because you've already contradicted yourself in your own post.
Your socialist utopia has nothing to do with freedom; give it up.
This makes them useless for *everyone*. Anyone who uses RH as a workstation is using 8.0 or 9. Does 7.3 even support the new KDE/Gnome/XF86?
I still use 7.3 on headless servers because it's stable as hell. What does Dell offer on their servers? RH 8.0 or 9. Doh!
I'm ecstatic that they're supporting Linux at all, but, seriously, a lot of these companies need to be hit with a clue stick.
Linksys has one. They choose not to release it?
Is it Linksys's choice, or is the Federal Communications Commission's choice to delay approval?
Actually, it's probably neither. The driver is from Broadcom. It's mentioned in some of their online documentation. They probably haven't and won't release it, even as binary-only, because they'd rather license it to Linksys for an additional fee. I'm assuming a binary-only driver wouldn't incur the FCC regulations you're referring to.
Don't worry about.. Future Crime.. [it would be an inefficient] government program.
Wasn't it the incompetent/corrupt government fucking up the implementation of Future Crime that was the entire impetus of the film?
Big Brother was from 1984
Everyone knows this. Perhaps you should re-read it. It is not communism's penchant for rewriting history on political whim that has a negative effect on the characters of the novel. It is "Big Brother's" invasive authority to regulate "thought crimes" that ends up as the undoing of the protagonist. Does that sound like another sci-fi story you can think of?
It's more a tale of the overzealousnes of technology than a horror report about the advance of technology What? They are both warnings of the ways that tyrranical governments use technology to infringe on individual freedoms. In that respect, I would label them both as distopias. Neither one, though, paints technology as universally bad.
Science Fiction is realized and the future is...
The Minority Report?
Yay... Big Brother here we come.
I absolutely agree that Corporatism is merely a subset of Fascism. While we don't yet have the totalitarian government that Fascism requires, we have all the pinnings of one. While political power is not obviously concentrated in an oligarchy of the few, economic power certainly is. Some argue that this is a rebirth of feudalism, and that those wealthy few will never allow the government to become powerful enough to challenge their hegemony.
Those 'arbitrary' US gov't laws were only ever intended to apply to Corporations like Microsoft. The US Federal government is nothing more than a trade federation, formed to help US businesses better compete with the rest of the world. It only has the power to regulate interstate commerce and do a few other things, such as establish postal service and coin money, that further the goal of standardizing the practice of American business.
Oh, yeah, and don't forget the power to raise armies and declare war. US businesses always in need of new natural resources and cheap foreign labor.
-here
You're underestimating the threat to Linux in the server market if those Microsoft workstations suddenly start to use some new networking protocol.
I, for one, don't want to see the Samba team constantly having to reverse engineer MS protocols just to keep up.
It took a lot of work to get Linux to the point that it is today. It would be much easier to maintain that progress by keeping the pressure on Microsoft to compete fairly than it would be to constantly have to hack their products just to interoperate.
"Mandrake, have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?"
"Do you know what it is? Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot that we have ever had to face?"
Them sounds like fightin' words to me...
Make and model please... What sort of "high-end" laptop could you possibly have that "isn't supported"?
Sometimes, I wonder if Linux-bashers have any experience even trying Linux.
I'd have to disagree with you. In fact, I think Mandrake is an odd choice for a business desktop. I was planning on buying some HP desktops and putting RedHat 9 on them, but I'll jump on this opportunity to replace the Microsoft tax with the Mandrake tax and still end up using RH9.