I have never paid for a GNU/Linux distro. Back when I used Mandrake or Redhat, I got copies of the CD's from friends. Now that I use Debian, I don't even have a Debian CD, I just use the boot floppies. I'm not sure how important it is to support things financially. I contribute to the Free Software community in other ways.
I am in the middle of that very decision right now. I know of many people who have well paying, exciting, and interesting jobs that do not have a degree. At the same time, I don't have those opportunities immediately available to me. I was having a hard time finding a lot of what I was doing in school useful (i'm a junior in my computer science program) -- and in fact the job that I have right now I got purely out of the Linux stuff I have learned on my own in the last year or so.
So, it has been hard for me to decide to keep with it. But since I didn't have an overwhelming opportunity that would draw me away from school completely, I'm now working part time and going to school part time. And, until I find something different, I'll slowly work on my degree. But, in the end, I may not even need it!
Mr. Seifried chose not to review Debian and Slackware because of, "their ridiculously slow release schedules." Mind you, it has been well over a year since slink was released, but Mr. Seifried does not understand how Debian works, based on what I have read. Especially considering some of his criteria for other distributions was having a central repository to download security updates. You don't just install Debian and then let it sit! Any concious user is constantly using his favorite method (apt, or deselect) to keep his software updated. Security holes are fixed, and are more easily available. Users are donwloading security fixes without even knowing it -- whereas with other distributions, you need to go and seek out which packages need updated and do it all yourself!
I don't believe that violence is inherently caused by playing games like Quake -- being a former game player myself. But, when I was watching the news, and hearing the descriptions of what went on in the schools, to be honest that was the first thing I thought of. "This is what I enjoy doing when I play those games -- killing people, just spraying bullets everywhere" It was a scary thought. Although it may not cause the violence, to me it is now all too realistic to what could sometimes happen that I could never touch one of those games again.
At my work, we are migrating project from being OWL-based with Borland C++ 4.52 that contains approximately 50,000 lines of code to C++ Builder. I have already duplicated most of the user interface functionality of the previous version, in some cases not writing a line of code -- using the VCL -- and in other cases writing 1/4 of the lines of code. The new version is much easier to understand and to modify -- just because the older is > 4x the new certainly doesn't make it more productive!
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Here's a quick guide to three most used commands in Emacs:
Control-x c -- Exit Emacs
Control-x f -- Open a file
Control-x s -- Save the current file
HTH
I have never paid for a GNU/Linux distro. Back when I used Mandrake or Redhat, I got copies of the CD's from friends. Now that I use Debian, I don't even have a Debian CD, I just use the boot floppies. I'm not sure how important it is to support things financially. I contribute to the Free Software community in other ways.
I am in the middle of that very decision right now. I know of many people who have well paying, exciting, and interesting jobs that do not have a degree. At the same time, I don't have those opportunities immediately available to me. I was having a hard time finding a lot of what I was doing in school useful (i'm a junior in my computer science program) -- and in fact the job that I have right now I got purely out of the Linux stuff I have learned on my own in the last year or so.
So, it has been hard for me to decide to keep with it. But since I didn't have an overwhelming opportunity that would draw me away from school completely, I'm now working part time and going to school part time. And, until I find something different, I'll slowly work on my degree. But, in the end, I may not even need it!
Mr. Seifried chose not to review Debian and Slackware because of, "their ridiculously slow release schedules." Mind you, it has been well over a year since slink was released, but Mr. Seifried does not understand how Debian works, based on what I have read. Especially considering some of his criteria for other distributions was having a central repository to download security updates. You don't just install Debian and then let it sit! Any concious user is constantly using his favorite method (apt, or deselect) to keep his software updated. Security holes are fixed, and are more easily available. Users are donwloading security fixes without even knowing it -- whereas with other distributions, you need to go and seek out which packages need updated and do it all yourself!
I don't believe that violence is inherently caused by playing games like Quake -- being a former game player myself. But, when I was watching the news, and hearing the descriptions of what went on in the schools, to be honest that was the first thing I thought of. "This is what I enjoy doing when I play those games -- killing people, just spraying bullets everywhere" It was a scary thought. Although it may not cause the violence, to me it is now all too realistic to what could sometimes happen that I could never touch one of those games again.
At my work, we are migrating project from being OWL-based with Borland C++ 4.52 that contains approximately 50,000 lines of code to C++ Builder. I have already duplicated most of the user interface functionality of the previous version, in some cases not writing a line of code -- using the VCL -- and in other cases writing 1/4 of the lines of code. The new version is much easier to understand and to modify -- just because the older is > 4x the new certainly doesn't make it more productive!