...I thought once the Democratic cavalry swooped in and ran those corrupt Republican bastards out of town, things would be different!! I mean, we all KNOW that voting irregularities are the product of GOP meddling, right? Surely the Democratic congress is going to act swiftly to fix the GOP-rigged voting system.... right?
While I agree that freer code would allow more innovation, I still believe profit-motive drives innovation.
Say what you will about the negatives of vendor lock-in (an argument with merit), cool gadgets mean big bucks. Take away profit, and where do iPhones come from?
I had a similar experience, with a not-even-close-to-new NVIDIA 7800 video card. I couldn't get the Ubuntu (Feisty, AMD64) GUI installer to boot, and ultimately just tossed it aside as useless.
Were there alternatives I could have tried that would have gotten Ubuntu installed? Sure. But the fact that it couldn't even install properly on less-than-remarkable hardware spoke volumes of its readiness for the desktop environment.
First impressions matter, and Ubuntu failed it big time.
"Linux is growing on the desktop like wildfire. There's an estimated 100 million Linux users world wide."
If you're going to make a bold proclamation like that, you'd better be prepared to back it up. Where are all these Linux desktop users? Or at least cite something to support your claim.
"Perhaps teenagers have more time than money, but for adults, if the media is priced competitively and it isn't crippled with DRM, it is just easier and simpler to pay."
Yet both teens and adults download music with abandon, and I don't think the majority of it is a protest against DRM. DRM would be hard to justify if people stopped illegally sharing/downloading music.
It's hard to blame the RIAA for DRM when the alternative (no DRM) stakes their existence to the honor system.
"I mean how bad would it really be if the whole thing broke down, and we have a world where - for a time - you can't make money selling content."
I imagine it would be pretty bad for the content producers, which includes an awful lot of people (musicians, actors, software developers, authors, just to name a few).
I always hear people like you saying that the media industries need to "update their obsolete business models", but rarely do you have any suggestions on how they might do so in a way that benefits both the industry and its customers.
What you innocuously refer to as "information sharing" ignores the threat that file sharing represents to these industries: why would people pay for music/movies/games/software if they can easily and without risk get them for free?
Your personal views on the quality of their product is 100% irrelevant; the fact that people are downloading these songs is proof that there is demand for them.
Now if you're going to argue that the **AAs are themselves irrelevant (which isn't necessarily untrue) and aught to simply go away, don't be surprised that they don't want to play ball with you either.
"My point isn't that the religious right are evil, but that they tend to, within the United States, love HIV. They view it God's punishment against promiscuity and homosexuality."
Making sweeping generalizations based on a small (however vocal) minority makes you sound as close minded and ignorant as the very people you disparage.
The generosity and charity of developed nations is often squandered by parasitic cultures that refuse to modernize regardless of how much aid we send them.
This sort of thing is why I don't give to foreign territories; I know it's just going to be wasted.
So poor little Hodgie finally has access to porn. I really feel this project is contributing to the uplifting of global society!
I wonder if anyone is going to look back at this in 10 years and determine if charitable projects like this in the third world actually make any difference, or if it only makes rich people feel like they've done some good.
Wasn't the Patriot Act supposed to get all of us Bush-haters thrown in jail? Failing that, shouldn't the NSA wiretapping program have finished the job?
You've all cried "wolf" a few million too many times. Do you really wonder why nobody takes you seriously? Now nobody is going to listen to you, because you've thoroughly discredited yourselves with paranoid, hyperbolic, irrational, alarmist rhetoric.
Do the rest of us a favor and shut up. These sort of things need to be dealt with at face value with logical arguments, not imaginative speculation.
A 1.5 GHz CPU and a gig of RAM are plenty for running XP and running your standard everyday software. And perhaps things have changed since I was in college (not TOO long ago) but I don't recall needing any special software that required a 3+GHz CPU.
And I wouldn't be particularly worried about my kid getting sucked into Flash games and whatnot; they're hardly the timesinks that MMOG's are.
I concur 100%. If I'm going to buy my kid a new PC (big "if"), it will have ZERO bells and whistles. If he/she wants to play games on it, the upgrade costs are coming out of their pocket. As a parent who will likely be paying for their college, I don't feel obliged to provide for their entertainment.
In fact, while I'm thinking of it, this PC might be a good buy for my parents who badlu need to upgrade their old workhorse. Those specs will run XP just fine!
Even with the MS tax, can you realistically buy or assemble a full PC with those specs for that kind of price? Sounds like a good entry-level Linux box to me!
Anyway, I don't see what the big deal is. Perhaps the folks that make OO.o can learn something from this and give potential customers some kind of assurance that their product will still be around/supported/updated for the foreseeable future.
Slashdot Mirror
...I thought once the Democratic cavalry swooped in and ran those corrupt Republican bastards out of town, things would be different!! I mean, we all KNOW that voting irregularities are the product of GOP meddling, right? Surely the Democratic congress is going to act swiftly to fix the GOP-rigged voting system.... right?
Summary:
UO is better because -I- like it! And it makes me real mad that so many stupid people disagree with me!! WAAAAAAAAHH!!
Seriously, what happened to different people having different tastes? And how does this childish rant get modded up?
While I agree that freer code would allow more innovation, I still believe profit-motive drives innovation.
Say what you will about the negatives of vendor lock-in (an argument with merit), cool gadgets mean big bucks. Take away profit, and where do iPhones come from?
Are we talking beer, speech, or herpes?
Court upholding GPL - Good!
Conviction for copyright violation - Bad!
What's a loyal drone to believe anymore??
I had a similar experience, with a not-even-close-to-new NVIDIA 7800 video card. I couldn't get the Ubuntu (Feisty, AMD64) GUI installer to boot, and ultimately just tossed it aside as useless.
Were there alternatives I could have tried that would have gotten Ubuntu installed? Sure. But the fact that it couldn't even install properly on less-than-remarkable hardware spoke volumes of its readiness for the desktop environment.
First impressions matter, and Ubuntu failed it big time.
"Linux is growing on the desktop like wildfire. There's an estimated 100 million Linux users world wide."
If you're going to make a bold proclamation like that, you'd better be prepared to back it up. Where are all these Linux desktop users? Or at least cite something to support your claim.
"Perhaps teenagers have more time than money, but for adults, if the media is priced competitively and it isn't crippled with DRM, it is just easier and simpler to pay."
Yet both teens and adults download music with abandon, and I don't think the majority of it is a protest against DRM. DRM would be hard to justify if people stopped illegally sharing/downloading music.
It's hard to blame the RIAA for DRM when the alternative (no DRM) stakes their existence to the honor system.
"I mean how bad would it really be if the whole thing broke down, and we have a world where - for a time - you can't make money selling content."
I imagine it would be pretty bad for the content producers, which includes an awful lot of people (musicians, actors, software developers, authors, just to name a few).
I always hear people like you saying that the media industries need to "update their obsolete business models", but rarely do you have any suggestions on how they might do so in a way that benefits both the industry and its customers.
What you innocuously refer to as "information sharing" ignores the threat that file sharing represents to these industries: why would people pay for music/movies/games/software if they can easily and without risk get them for free?
Your personal views on the quality of their product is 100% irrelevant; the fact that people are downloading these songs is proof that there is demand for them.
Now if you're going to argue that the **AAs are themselves irrelevant (which isn't necessarily untrue) and aught to simply go away, don't be surprised that they don't want to play ball with you either.
"My point isn't that the religious right are evil, but that they tend to, within the United States, love HIV. They view it God's punishment against promiscuity and homosexuality."
Making sweeping generalizations based on a small (however vocal) minority makes you sound as close minded and ignorant as the very people you disparage.
...and if it doesn't, simply chalk it up to the untold billions of dollars already flushed down the third world toilet.
After all, it's not results that matter, but the perception that you are trying.
This isn't theft, it's liberation! Information (including passwords) wants to be free!
I think you already know the answers to your questions. This is one of many reasons why Slashdot is barely readable anymore.
The generosity and charity of developed nations is often squandered by parasitic cultures that refuse to modernize regardless of how much aid we send them.
This sort of thing is why I don't give to foreign territories; I know it's just going to be wasted.
So poor little Hodgie finally has access to porn. I really feel this project is contributing to the uplifting of global society!
I wonder if anyone is going to look back at this in 10 years and determine if charitable projects like this in the third world actually make any difference, or if it only makes rich people feel like they've done some good.
So how much would this have cost Fox?
Wasn't the Patriot Act supposed to get all of us Bush-haters thrown in jail? Failing that, shouldn't the NSA wiretapping program have finished the job?
You've all cried "wolf" a few million too many times. Do you really wonder why nobody takes you seriously? Now nobody is going to listen to you, because you've thoroughly discredited yourselves with paranoid, hyperbolic, irrational, alarmist rhetoric.
Do the rest of us a favor and shut up. These sort of things need to be dealt with at face value with logical arguments, not imaginative speculation.
No matter how true the above may be, how many times must it be parroted here before it crosses the threshold between "insightful" and "redundant"?
A 1.5 GHz CPU and a gig of RAM are plenty for running XP and running your standard everyday software. And perhaps things have changed since I was in college (not TOO long ago) but I don't recall needing any special software that required a 3+GHz CPU.
And I wouldn't be particularly worried about my kid getting sucked into Flash games and whatnot; they're hardly the timesinks that MMOG's are.
I concur 100%. If I'm going to buy my kid a new PC (big "if"), it will have ZERO bells and whistles. If he/she wants to play games on it, the upgrade costs are coming out of their pocket. As a parent who will likely be paying for their college, I don't feel obliged to provide for their entertainment.
In fact, while I'm thinking of it, this PC might be a good buy for my parents who badlu need to upgrade their old workhorse. Those specs will run XP just fine!
....but will it run Linux?
Even with the MS tax, can you realistically buy or assemble a full PC with those specs for that kind of price? Sounds like a good entry-level Linux box to me!
But as we all know, Free Software is not the same as Open Source.
Wow, business decisions are motivated by profit?
That was both witty and insightful, my friend!!
What does Linux have to do with this story?
Anyway, I don't see what the big deal is. Perhaps the folks that make OO.o can learn something from this and give potential customers some kind of assurance that their product will still be around/supported/updated for the foreseeable future.