I have to disagree with most of your points here. This is from the perspective of a Mandrake user, i.e. I'm still learning. I think that as far as my experience goes, Linux (in itself) is ready for the newbie.
from a user design standpoint, the system fails - unlike windows, 3 different Linux boxes can have 3 different interfaces - each of which confusing to the new user.
This is true. But the difference isn't as great as all that if you have a remotely intuitive display manager. If I have an account then I can use my settings.
Users can use the machine without logging in.
It's as simple as setting up an autologin from your display manager or distro installer. Surely this is done and dusted -- Win XP has a comparable concept.
Users never have to manually configure hardware
Done, with most hardware (by Mandrake at any rate).
There is one standard GUI interface across all distrubutions
Where did you get the idea that these desktops have such different GUIs? On the fresh mdk install you could hardly tell Gnome, KDE (and even AfterStep) apart. Blue wallpaper, grey taskbar, some kind of 'start' button. That's it! All the same programs lie in very similar menus. The "appearance of windows" varies only with my choice of theme, and the default ones are very MS.
The user can install or upgrade any system with a single click of the mouse.
The toughest one, but graphical frontends to rpm (etc) do exist and are documented.
I really don't think there's a tradeoff "required" here. The features for making Linux idiot-proof are in the system right now. The 'culture' of the product in fact seems much less of an issue than availability. Can I (in the UK) get a new PC with Linux from a high street retailer? Can I get a distro on the cover of a PC magazine? No. Why not?
This is a good idea. What Liberty Alliance has to set up is a set of www protocols, over SOAP / something, for everyday authentication/information issues. The harder work is to get nice and secure clientside apps to service them.
It should come down to this: I go to genericwebshop.com, buy some stuff, and tick the box that says 'yes, you can take my details from my wallet'. If I have my wallet with me (i.e. on a disk, or perhaps better, one o' them cool java rings) and an authentic session locally, then the clientside wallet app sends my details.
The protocols have to be manifested publicly, but there is no good reason, as far as I can see, for the data to reside anywhere but with me. genericwebshop.com can track me via my PGP keyid, thanks very much.
OK, so suppose you get the equivalent of mp3s at 160kbps 'CD quality' from these guys, and rip it from the decoded stream somehow. At 160kbps you're still going to have flaws and artifacts, believe me. Recompressing that into ogg / whatever will make this loss sound at least 3 times worse.
So the moral is: until someone breaks the keys on the format allowing lossless piracy, it won't be worth 10 cents a track even though you've busted the rental scheme.. For recompressed audio I'd pay, maybe, 1 cent a track?
So how is a solar power satellite going to beat this? It will stay at peak power 24 hours a day
Not so... the satellite has to be in geosynchronous orbit to beam power down, so that's around 12 hours, jusat like LA.
Not a reliable weapons system yet
on
Robots Go To War
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· Score: 1
This kind of unmanned plane seems a rather unreliable way of delivering weapons on the battlefield.
Firstly, since the Predator has only a rear propellor, it certainly can't "hover" the way the Apache does for accuracy, concealment and timing purposes.
Secondly, if the plane's major role is in surveillance then it will necessarily maintain a high altitude - meaning 10 or 20 thousand feet. This poses problems if, as this link suggests, the Hellfire is unreliable or unusable over about 2,000 ft.
Since the first tests were only done in February, what is the chance that these problems have been satisfactorily solved?
Futhermore, a remotely piloted plane has reduced situational awareness. I don't think the manufacturers (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems) would be particularly pleased if friendly-fire casualties in Afghanistan were put down to the inaccuracy of their "robot" planes.
I've been using Mandrake 7 and 8 for a couple of months now; it's a good piece of kit. I'm still a GNUbie, and I really appreciate the effort Mandrake have made to help users with the OS and the desktops while keeping things secure and up-to-date.
Having installed it from ftp and downloaded ISOs, I felt like giving something back to Mandrake's hackers (the ones working on desktop stuff like kde and hardware drivers) so I sought out their donations page. But seeing all their fancy web design, retail ads and suchlike made me realize that even if the donation I made would go straight to, say, the kernel hackers,
Mandrake pay tax on my donation
If Mandrake become reliant on the revenue from donations then their overheads from retail and marketing will effectively suck cash out of my gift as well.
So I'm following Mandrake's advice and giving $50 to the Free Software Foundation, who I expect to spend my money efficiently and wisely.
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I really don't think there's a tradeoff "required" here. The features for making Linux idiot-proof are in the system right now. The 'culture' of the product in fact seems much less of an issue than availability. Can I (in the UK) get a new PC with Linux from a high street retailer? Can I get a distro on the cover of a PC magazine? No. Why not?
It should come down to this: I go to genericwebshop.com, buy some stuff, and tick the box that says 'yes, you can take my details from my wallet'. If I have my wallet with me (i.e. on a disk, or perhaps better, one o' them cool java rings) and an authentic session locally, then the clientside wallet app sends my details.
The protocols have to be manifested publicly, but there is no good reason, as far as I can see, for the data to reside anywhere but with me. genericwebshop.com can track me via my PGP keyid, thanks very much.
So the moral is: until someone breaks the keys on the format allowing lossless piracy, it won't be worth 10 cents a track even though you've busted the rental scheme.. For recompressed audio I'd pay, maybe, 1 cent a track?
What a waste of time.
So how is a solar power satellite going to beat this? It will stay at peak power 24 hours a day
Not so... the satellite has to be in geosynchronous orbit to beam power down, so that's around 12 hours, jusat like LA.
Firstly, since the Predator has only a rear propellor, it certainly can't "hover" the way the Apache does for accuracy, concealment and timing purposes.
Secondly, if the plane's major role is in surveillance then it will necessarily maintain a high altitude - meaning 10 or 20 thousand feet. This poses problems if, as this link suggests, the Hellfire is unreliable or unusable over about 2,000 ft.
Since the first tests were only done in February, what is the chance that these problems have been satisfactorily solved?
Futhermore, a remotely piloted plane has reduced situational awareness. I don't think the manufacturers (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems) would be particularly pleased if friendly-fire casualties in Afghanistan were put down to the inaccuracy of their "robot" planes.
Having installed it from ftp and downloaded ISOs, I felt like giving something back to Mandrake's hackers (the ones working on desktop stuff like kde and hardware drivers) so I sought out their donations page. But seeing all their fancy web design, retail ads and suchlike made me realize that even if the donation I made would go straight to, say, the kernel hackers,
So I'm following Mandrake's advice and giving $50 to the Free Software Foundation, who I expect to spend my money efficiently and wisely.