I've had similar thoughts, about this also ; being the reason why I havent done a lot of C coding under linux other that play about with SDL. There are so many API's and Toolkits for various things where does one start and which ones are the best to ensure portability etc
Anyway even if this Linux based Wal-Mart PC did have an internal floppy drive the likelihood of it providing a breeding ground for spreading viruses is rather slim to say the least.
I've been doing PHP for some time. There comes a time as with other server site scripting languages e.g ASP or JSP, when trying to maintain two different types of script (HTML and PHP) mixed within the same page becomes an irritation. I found myself implementing my own templating engine without really realising there were alternatives such as smarty and the like out there. Just to try and avoid mixing too much html and php within the same page.
It does make a lot of sense if you are doing sites that require more than just an email submit form etc. But it is probably an un-neccesary over head for a small site thats rarely updated. Like many questions asked on slashdot the answer really depends on the situation. A side effect of templating your site in this way it gives you a lot more power in the way you display sort and categorise content.
Anyone who thinks that a scramjet that travels at Mach 7 is going to form the basis of a future commercial airline travel is seriously deluded! Face up to the reality there are only 2 uses that this thing is realistically going to be used for and that is for Weapons/Military and maybe as a space propulsion mechanism.
How many years was concorde in service ? Came into service during the sixties (i think) and no-one but either the very lucky or the very rich ever got to enjoy the privelege of travelling over the speed of sound.
Its just going to be too damn expensive to run this thing as commercial / enterprise. Concorde has recently gone out of service , only a few were ever made and never succeeded. Commercial airline travel has taken a backwards step with the demise of concorde. So I wouldnt get too excited about this causing a revoltion in global travel for a very very long time.
(though the circular breathing takes practice, or course).
It only took me a couple of weeks with plenty of practice to learn to play. Once you've got the circular breathing though the fun starts; my fave is the bark!
I agree, although I dont own an iPod, and have yet to check out the quality of the earbuds (which tend to fall out of my big ears anyway!); I've yet to buy a portable music player with stock headphones that did any justice to the hardware into which they are plugged.
I have a pair of these which are pretty damn good.
I have a dual processor Athlon MP machine; I use this machine for my Desktop at home every day. I use gentoo because I want the latest and greatest bleeding edge and I want it to runs as fast as possible on my set-up.
Some distro's (mentioning no names) still build for 386 and I've come across distros that only utilise one processor at kernel level let alone build individual packages for multiprocessor support. I prefer to know that im using my hardware to the best of its ability.
However if im installing a server; I'd probably choose a tried and tested distro Red-Hat for a colocated machine which i may never even get to see with my own eyes; Reason being a colo shop will have in house support staff able to fix any run of the mill problems that occur.
For an in house server I might choose Mandrake or SuSe (more likely Suse) and maintain packages that way (last thing you want is to spend several days at work getting a gentoo box up and running!);however, stuff like apache / php etc i often like to compile fresh and configure how i need them. plus it makes patching that little bit easier if you have a specific set up.
Generally speaking anything mission critical I'd try to use packages that have had a fair crack at being tested well after build.
Anything personal you might not care too much about uber-stability like a desktop / research/hacking machine its generally fun to hack about with stuff and compile your own from source.
This is the source code for Apple's Chess.app Version 2.0, as shipped in MacOS X 10.3 "Panther". This project consists of two components: The Chess engine, "sjeng", and the graphical frontend.
"sjeng", contained in the "sjeng" subdirectory, is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See sjeng/COPYING for details.
The graphical frontend, i.e., all files not in the "sjeng" subdirectory (including files derived from glChess which Apple has permission to relicense under the following terms), are distributed under the terms of the Apple Sample Code License:
IMPORTANT: This Apple software is supplied to you by Apple Computer,
Inc. ("Apple") in consideration of your agreement to the following
terms, and your use, installation, modification or redistribution of
this Apple software constitutes acceptance of these terms. If you do
not agree with these terms, please do not use, install, modify or
redistribute this Apple software.
In consideration of your agreement to abide by the following terms,
and subject to these terms, Apple grants you a personal, non-exclusive
license, under Apple's copyrights in this original Apple software (the
"Apple Software"), to use, reproduce, modify and redistribute the
Apple Software, with or without modifications, in source and/or binary
forms; provided that if you redistribute the Apple Software in its
entirety and without modifications, you must retain this notice and
the following text and disclaimers in all such redistributions of the
Apple Software. Neither the name, trademarks, service marks or logos
of Apple Computer, Inc. may be used to endorse or promote products
derived from the Apple Software without specific prior written
permission from Apple. Except as expressly stated in this notice, no
other rights or licenses, express or implied, are granted by Apple
herein, including but not limited to any patent rights that may be
infringed by your derivative works or by other works in which the
Apple Software may be incorporated.
The Apple Software is provided by Apple on an "AS IS" basis. APPLE
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THE APPLE SOFTWARE OR ITS
USE AND OPERATION ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH YOUR PRODUCTS.
IN NO EVENT SHALL APPLE BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE,
REPRODUCTION, MODIFICATION AND/OR DISTRIBUTION OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE,
HOWEVER CAUSED AND WHETHER UNDER THEORY OF CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF APPLE HAS BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Has anyone here played ICO? Its a very romantic sort of game; and kinda spiritual too. The basic premise of the game is , young lad gets trapped in castle, meets strange but beautiful ethereal girl caught between life and death. Strange asphyx like creatures hound the girl, and try to drag her into another world. ICO, must solve puzzles, some of which require the ethereal powers of the girl in order to solve.
Although not strictly billed as a love story, I felt that the young lad and the girl had quite an interaction with each other, the animation silky smooth. The characters would hold hands, if ICO runs too far away he can call the girl and she will come running, or if she cannot make her way to ICO will yell back. To be honest im waffling and not doing the game much justice.
I just wanted to mention it because despite being a great game, its the first game ive really ever played where central characters have a significant relationship / interplay from which feelings seem to emanate from the screen and into your thoughts.
I dont think this is too far fetched an idea. I've considered it myself. To an extent it does seem rather fanciful; but consider this also fanciful idea.
If Mars was once similar to Earth, and in some way,from it we are descended. There must have been a time on Mars where its inhabitants realised that the planet on which they were living was becoming uninhabitable, perhaps due to the cooling of the sun, or the inablilty to hold on to its atmosphere; Mars simply got old and cold. While Mars was going cold Earth also gerw cooler, but instead went from a hot and hostile world to a cooler more "life-friendly" planet. Maybe our hypothetical ancenstors from Mars did not come to Earth with the intention of terraforming it , but instead moved here because it was warmer and more habitable than the aging red planet had become.
Maybe many, many years from now, when the sun has cooled more and Earth become like Mars is today the future inhabitants of earth will move to a cooler more habitable Venus. By then though we will probably have mastered the universe;)
I think what is interesting is that if the earlier article regarding methane emissions being discovered on mars. If it does turn out that it is coming from some lifeform , no matter how advanced or primitive. Is it ethically right to go marching in there and changing the whole ecosystem?
Where does one draw the line?
On earth humans have caused extinctions many times over. It is only in recent years that we try to preserve waning species. If we go to another planet we should take these philosophies with us wherever we call our home; if we do decide to colonize or terraform another planet it should be done in away that doesnt destroy any life that already exists there.
I do have another opinion though; Mankind is life, a very successful form of life. It seems to me that our aging planet is not going to last forever; Man has always looked up into the stars in awe and wonder, I beleive that it is our destiny to be up their in the heavens, that is the ultimate challenge life has to face. Just because we call Earth "Home" , why should it not be the case that the universe is our "Home" ?
I only discovered this recently so i'm not sure how far back it goes (Im running KDE3.2)
many Kde applications can be started to display a different name. For example, if you were feeling particularly sadistic you could run konqueror like this...
That was my initial thought also; For similar reasons. Although there is a descrepancy "PC" is "PC" ubiquitous with Windows ? I still consider my computer to be a "PC" and its hard drive has never had Windows anywhere near its sectors;)
I occasionally play games on my Linux box (Vice City via wine , or Max Payne) but usually when I'm really bored and cant access the family TV for PS2. I have spent a substantial amount on PS2 games, and for me knowing that if i buy a game im going to get the same experience as any other ps2 owner and the simply "stick the disc in , switch it on" convenience is why I prefer console gaming, its also more of a social / family event because it gets you in the living room.
In reality the only reason i've got Vice City and Max Payne running under linux is to prove that it can be done and to stick my hand up my gay windows loving friends proverbial;)
I dont miss the "lack" of games on the linux platform , mainly because i never played games to any degree on my PC hardware anyway. All of the software i need is here and its free and open; stuff like KMail, Gimp, Quanta, OpenOffice it works and it does the job , equally , if not better than windows equivalents. The only thing that I really really miss about windows is the proliferation of Music compostion and Audio editing tools. I'd love to see a linux port of Octamed Soundstudio, I'd love Rosegarden to be the stable alternative to VST (but it aint there yet) There is a lot of cool stuff out there, but the music programs I need are just not quite ready yet.
I went into a local store today and passed the video games section; at least 80% of the games there were for consoles; the rest were PC games, many being those platinum titles in dvd style boxes.
The trouble with PC Gaming is the upgrade cycle, for you everyday PC habits if you buy a top notch PC today it will be fine for years to come. Heck my mother still uses a K6 350mhz with a 10gb hard drive and its fine. If you want to be playing state of the art games you need to follow the 6month to a year upgrade cycle pretty strictly or you will be left out in no time.
I see a lot of posts on here, claiming that linux is not ready for this, that and the other.
To be perfectly honest, I have been using linux exclusively for round about 4 years, im finding im needing to use the console less and less ( although i love my bash!). Occasionally my mum uses my linux box for web browsing , as does my dad. And they have no problems with it whatsoever.
Although there are issues , driver support, installing software etc. at the end of the day these issues become less and less relevant as time progresses.
A hardware manufacturer such as HP "know" the spec. of the hardware on which they are potentially shipping linux, and by definition they can guarantee that the linux distro they choose is going to work with the package they sell, at least i hope they can!
The point is that although many of us claim that its not ready for this, that and the other. Were really in just the same situation as other OS'es were in years ago.
This is a good thing, and what people dont seem to appreciate is that despite the perceived shortcomings, the more and more initiatives like this are taken, the better things will get.
Fair play to Novell, HP, IBM, Sony, Motorolla, Apple (plus whoever else!) and the list that goes on , for supporting and aiding the open source culture of the future.
The days of lock-in are numbered and the ways of freedom are going to prevail !
1) People don't choose Microsoft because they have to. 2) People don't choose Microsoft because they're stupid.
Sure , but the point about choosing Microsoft is not really a valid one. More correctly it should be
1) People don't choose Microsoft.
I say this because its handed to them on a plate, and because of the continued abuse of their monopolistic position it is what they expect. Joe Sixpack doesnt even understand the concept of an alternative because he makes the assumption that "All" Computers have this thing called "Windows".
How can you believe that Linux is a viable competetor to Microsoft some of the time, yet support government intervention against Microsoft intended to make other competetors viable?
You just contradicted yourself;Of course Linux is a competitor to Microsoft, just like several other competitors we support that; Many of us here do believe that Linux is a viable alternative to Microsoft, and in many area's it is a proven solution, Internet Servers for example.
As has been noted here many times before, linux is just a kernel, its all the tools and gui's and what have you that make it into an OS. No Linux users has ever undervalued the benefits of having competition, even proprietary competition. Open Source is so much more than just anti-microsoft, its a movement, Open Source is kind of like a political opponent to Microsoft but because of the way it works we grow stronger every day. Microsoft can't buy there way out of this war like they have done traditionally over the years. What Open Source advocates are supporting in the government here is not Microsoft competitors , its the philosophy that standards should be open; Its about trust, freedom and fair play within the market place. Something which Microsoft has never heard about.
Its an important document and those here interested should read it and post related comments/ suggestions to the email address on that page.
What they are seeking to do is support evaluate both Open Source and Proprietary solutions; whilst doing their utmost to avoid vendor lock-in ; as is the case with Microsoft bundling IE & WMP (etc) with windows.
The document is an Open Draft, that means that right now it is not set in stone, and liable for change. If anyone here reads it and thinks it should be changed in anyway I would advise letting them know.
Microsoft has been given 90 days to make a European version of Windows available without a media player and 120 days to give programming codes to rivals in the server market to allow 'full interoperability' with desktops running Windows.
Slashdot Mirror
I've had similar thoughts, about this also ; being the reason why I havent done a lot of C coding under linux other that play about with SDL. There are so many API's and Toolkits for various things where does one start and which ones are the best to ensure portability etc
Anyway even if this Linux based Wal-Mart PC did have an internal floppy drive the likelihood of it providing a breeding ground for spreading viruses is rather slim to say the least.
I've been doing PHP for some time. There comes a time as with other server site scripting languages e.g ASP or JSP, when trying to maintain two different types of script (HTML and PHP) mixed within the same page becomes an irritation. I found myself implementing my own templating engine without really realising there were alternatives such as smarty and the like out there. Just to try and avoid mixing too much html and php within the same page.
It does make a lot of sense if you are doing sites that require more than just an email submit form etc. But it is probably an un-neccesary over head for a small site thats rarely updated. Like many questions asked on slashdot the answer really depends on the situation. A side effect of templating your site in this way it gives you a lot more power in the way you display sort and categorise content.
Anyone who thinks that a scramjet that travels at Mach 7 is going to form the basis of a future commercial airline travel is seriously deluded! Face up to the reality there are only 2 uses that this thing is realistically going to be used for and that is for Weapons/Military and maybe as a space propulsion mechanism.
How many years was concorde in service ? Came into service during the sixties (i think) and no-one but either the very lucky or the very rich ever got to enjoy the privelege of travelling over the speed of sound.
Its just going to be too damn expensive to run this thing as commercial / enterprise. Concorde has recently gone out of service , only a few were ever made and never succeeded. Commercial airline travel has taken a backwards step with the demise of concorde. So I wouldnt get too excited about this causing a revoltion in global travel for a very very long time.
(though the circular breathing takes practice, or course).
..+
It only took me a couple of weeks with plenty of practice to learn to play. Once you've got the circular breathing though the fun starts; my fave is the bark!
nick
I agree, although I dont own an iPod, and have yet to check out the quality of the earbuds (which tend to fall out of my big ears anyway!); I've yet to buy a portable music player with stock headphones that did any justice to the hardware into which they are plugged.
I have a pair of these which are pretty damn good.
nick
Yep, that'd be just the kind of evil, below the belt tactic i've come to expect from McBride lord of the Sith.
...
nick
I have a dual processor Athlon MP machine; I use this machine for my Desktop at home every day. I use gentoo because I want the latest and greatest bleeding edge and I want it to runs as fast as possible on my set-up.
Some distro's (mentioning no names) still build for 386 and I've come across distros that only utilise one processor at kernel level let alone build individual packages for multiprocessor support. I prefer to know that im using my hardware to the best of its ability.
However if im installing a server; I'd probably choose a tried and tested distro Red-Hat for a colocated machine which i may never even get to see with my own eyes; Reason being a colo shop will have in house support staff able to fix any run of the mill problems that occur.
For an in house server I might choose Mandrake or SuSe (more likely Suse) and maintain packages that way (last thing you want is to spend several days at work getting a gentoo box up and running!);however, stuff like apache / php etc i often like to compile fresh and configure how i need them. plus it makes patching that little bit easier if you have a specific set up.
Generally speaking anything mission critical I'd try to use packages that have had a fair crack at being tested well after build.
Anything personal you might not care too much about uber-stability like a desktop / research/hacking machine its generally fun to hack about with stuff and compile your own from source.
This is the source code for Apple's Chess.app Version 2.0, as shipped
in MacOS X 10.3 "Panther". This project consists of two components:
The Chess engine, "sjeng", and the graphical frontend.
"sjeng", contained in the "sjeng" subdirectory, is distributed under the
terms of the GNU General Public License. See sjeng/COPYING for
details.
The graphical frontend, i.e., all files not in the "sjeng"
subdirectory (including files derived from glChess which Apple has
permission to relicense under the following terms), are distributed
under the terms of the Apple Sample Code License:
IMPORTANT: This Apple software is supplied to you by Apple Computer,
Inc. ("Apple") in consideration of your agreement to the following
terms, and your use, installation, modification or redistribution of
this Apple software constitutes acceptance of these terms. If you do
not agree with these terms, please do not use, install, modify or
redistribute this Apple software.
In consideration of your agreement to abide by the following terms,
and subject to these terms, Apple grants you a personal, non-exclusive
license, under Apple's copyrights in this original Apple software (the
"Apple Software"), to use, reproduce, modify and redistribute the
Apple Software, with or without modifications, in source and/or binary
forms; provided that if you redistribute the Apple Software in its
entirety and without modifications, you must retain this notice and
the following text and disclaimers in all such redistributions of the
Apple Software. Neither the name, trademarks, service marks or logos
of Apple Computer, Inc. may be used to endorse or promote products
derived from the Apple Software without specific prior written
permission from Apple. Except as expressly stated in this notice, no
other rights or licenses, express or implied, are granted by Apple
herein, including but not limited to any patent rights that may be
infringed by your derivative works or by other works in which the
Apple Software may be incorporated.
The Apple Software is provided by Apple on an "AS IS" basis. APPLE
MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THE APPLE SOFTWARE OR ITS
USE AND OPERATION ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH YOUR PRODUCTS.
IN NO EVENT SHALL APPLE BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE,
REPRODUCTION, MODIFICATION AND/OR DISTRIBUTION OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE,
HOWEVER CAUSED AND WHETHER UNDER THEORY OF CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF APPLE HAS BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Is this Chess game one that ships with OSX ? or is it an ancient forgotton version lost in the sands of its "pre-unix" days?
...
nick
Basically I stretched an elastic band over a cardboard box.
I also used a ruler as an instrument and was able to play actual tunes on it.
Bits of old drainpipe and vacuum cleaner tubes are alse great for a makeshift didgeridoo.
Then of course there is the old paper and comb kazoo!
just make sure none of you bottles out it sounds like it could go awry if you are not careful
Hmm ... There are no options to remove SCO or Microsoft from the results :(
...
nick
Has anyone here played ICO? Its a very romantic sort of game; and kinda spiritual too. The basic premise of the game is , young lad gets trapped in castle, meets strange but beautiful ethereal girl caught between life and death. Strange asphyx like creatures hound the girl, and try to drag her into another world. ICO, must solve puzzles, some of which require the ethereal powers of the girl in order to solve.
...
Although not strictly billed as a love story, I felt that the young lad and the girl had quite an interaction with each other, the animation silky smooth. The characters would hold hands, if ICO runs too far away he can call the girl and she will come running, or if she cannot make her way to ICO will yell back. To be honest im waffling and not doing the game much justice.
I just wanted to mention it because despite being a great game, its the first game ive really ever played where central characters have a significant relationship / interplay from which feelings seem to emanate from the screen and into your thoughts.
nick
I dont think this is too far fetched an idea. I've considered it myself. To an extent it does seem rather fanciful; but consider this also fanciful idea.
;)
If Mars was once similar to Earth, and in some way,from it we are descended. There must have been a time on Mars where its inhabitants realised that the planet on which they were living was becoming uninhabitable, perhaps due to the cooling of the sun, or the inablilty to hold on to its atmosphere; Mars simply got old and cold. While Mars was going cold Earth also gerw cooler, but instead went from a hot and hostile world to a cooler more "life-friendly" planet. Maybe our hypothetical ancenstors from Mars did not come to Earth with the intention of terraforming it , but instead moved here because it was warmer and more habitable than the aging red planet had become.
Maybe many, many years from now, when the sun has cooled more and Earth become like Mars is today the future inhabitants of earth will move to a cooler more habitable Venus. By then though we will probably have mastered the universe
I think what is interesting is that if the earlier article regarding methane emissions being discovered on mars. If it does turn out that it is coming from some lifeform , no matter how advanced or primitive. Is it ethically right to go marching in there and changing the whole ecosystem?
Where does one draw the line?
On earth humans have caused extinctions many times over. It is only in recent years that we try to preserve waning species. If we go to another planet we should take these philosophies with us wherever we call our home; if we do decide to colonize or terraform another planet it should be done in away that doesnt destroy any life that already exists there.
I do have another opinion though; Mankind is life, a very successful form of life. It seems to me that our aging planet is not going to last forever; Man has always looked up into the stars in awe and wonder, I beleive that it is our destiny to be up their in the heavens, that is the ultimate challenge life has to face. Just because we call Earth "Home" , why should it not be the case that the universe is our "Home" ?
I only discovered this recently so i'm not sure how far back it goes (Im running KDE3.2)
...
...
many Kde applications can be started to display a different name. For example, if you were feeling particularly sadistic you could run konqueror like this
%> konqueror --caption "Internet Explorer"
although something like
%> juk --caption "iTunes"
is probably more palatable
nick
That was my initial thought also; For similar reasons. Although there is a descrepancy "PC" is "PC" ubiquitous with Windows ? I still consider my computer to be a "PC" and its hard drive has never had Windows anywhere near its sectors ;)
;)
...
I occasionally play games on my Linux box (Vice City via wine , or Max Payne) but usually when I'm really bored and cant access the family TV for PS2. I have spent a substantial amount on PS2 games, and for me knowing that if i buy a game im going to get the same experience as any other ps2 owner and the simply "stick the disc in , switch it on" convenience is why I prefer console gaming, its also more of a social / family event because it gets you in the living room.
In reality the only reason i've got Vice City and Max Payne running under linux is to prove that it can be done and to stick my hand up my gay windows loving friends proverbial
I dont miss the "lack" of games on the linux platform , mainly because i never played games to any degree on my PC hardware anyway. All of the software i need is here and its free and open; stuff like KMail, Gimp, Quanta, OpenOffice it works and it does the job , equally , if not better than windows equivalents. The only thing that I really really miss about windows is the proliferation of Music compostion and Audio editing tools. I'd love to see a linux port of Octamed Soundstudio, I'd love Rosegarden to be the stable alternative to VST (but it aint there yet) There is a lot of cool stuff out there, but the music programs I need are just not quite ready yet.
I went into a local store today and passed the video games section; at least 80% of the games there were for consoles; the rest were PC games, many being those platinum titles in dvd style boxes.
The trouble with PC Gaming is the upgrade cycle, for you everyday PC habits if you buy a top notch PC today it will be fine for years to come. Heck my mother still uses a K6 350mhz with a 10gb hard drive and its fine. If you want to be playing state of the art games you need to follow the 6month to a year upgrade cycle pretty strictly or you will be left out in no time.
nick
Does this mean that HP will make the neccessary changes to Linux to enable it to be used on DRM enabled bioses? as a "Trusted" operating system ?
Does this mean that HP will make the neccessary changes to Linux to enable it to be used on DRM enabled bioses? as a "Trusted" operating system ?
I see a lot of posts on here, claiming that linux is not ready for this, that and the other.
...
To be perfectly honest, I have been using linux exclusively for round about 4 years, im finding im needing to use the console less and less ( although i love my bash!). Occasionally my mum uses my linux box for web browsing , as does my dad. And they have no problems with it whatsoever.
Although there are issues , driver support, installing software etc. at the end of the day these issues become less and less relevant as time progresses.
A hardware manufacturer such as HP "know" the spec. of the hardware on which they are potentially shipping linux, and by definition they can guarantee that the linux distro they choose is going to work with the package they sell, at least i hope they can!
The point is that although many of us claim that
its not ready for this, that and the other. Were really in just the same situation as other OS'es were in years ago.
This is a good thing, and what people dont seem to appreciate is that despite the perceived shortcomings, the more and more initiatives like this are taken, the better things will get.
Fair play to Novell, HP, IBM, Sony, Motorolla, Apple (plus whoever else!) and the list that goes on , for supporting and aiding the open source culture of the future.
The days of lock-in are numbered and the ways of freedom are going to prevail !
nick
Why kill it , when you could GPL it (keeping existing customers happy) and make some new friends in the process?
tut tut , selfish swines!
You can easily buy a PC without Windows on it...
...
Sure, joe sixpack knows that
1) People don't choose Microsoft because they have to.
2) People don't choose Microsoft because they're stupid.
Sure , but the point about choosing Microsoft is not really a valid one. More correctly it should be
1) People don't choose Microsoft.
I say this because its handed to them on a plate, and because of the continued abuse of their monopolistic position it is what they expect. Joe Sixpack doesnt even understand the concept of an alternative because he makes the assumption that "All" Computers have this thing called "Windows".
How can you believe that Linux is a viable competetor to Microsoft some of the time, yet support government intervention against Microsoft intended to make other competetors viable?
You just contradicted yourself;Of course Linux is a competitor to Microsoft, just like several other competitors we support that; Many of us here do believe that Linux is a viable alternative to Microsoft, and in many area's it is a proven solution, Internet Servers for example.
As has been noted here many times before, linux is just a kernel, its all the tools and gui's and what have you that make it into an OS. No Linux users has ever undervalued the benefits of having competition, even proprietary competition. Open Source is so much more than just anti-microsoft, its a movement, Open Source is kind of like a political opponent to Microsoft but because of the way it works we grow stronger every day. Microsoft can't buy there way out of this war like they have done traditionally over the years. What Open Source advocates are supporting in the government here is not Microsoft competitors , its the philosophy that standards should be open; Its about trust, freedom and fair play within the market place. Something which Microsoft has never heard about.
This is completely offtopic, but dont mod me down because it is in some way related (at least in the UK)
I tried to post this article but for some reason it was rejected in favor a completely pointless article about firewire and video cameras!
Anyhow it is important and should have been accepted!
to briefly put it;
Anyone here interested in Open Source, and supporting it in UK
government should digest this document and send your support/comments/insight
heres the link with downloads and stuff.
Its an important document and those here interested should read it and post related comments/ suggestions to the email address on that page.
What they are seeking to do is support evaluate both Open Source and Proprietary solutions; whilst doing their utmost to avoid vendor lock-in ; as is the case with Microsoft bundling IE & WMP (etc) with windows.
The document is an Open Draft, that means that right now it is not set in stone, and liable for change. If anyone here reads it and thinks it should be changed in anyway I would advise letting them know.
Microsoft has been given 90 days to make a European version of Windows available without a media player and 120 days to give programming codes to rivals in the server market to allow 'full interoperability' with desktops running Windows.
What about other Os'es ?