My central point is that as someone who primarily uses Linux, even *I* would consider buying an Amiga if they manufactured cheap PowerPC boxes that Linux could be reinstalled on to.
So which part of my statement indicates I did not read the article. I just don't buy the hype.
If you read my post before firing off your lame "he didn't read the article" whinge, you'd realize I was opining more on the state of Amiga and fruitless advocacy, than the "news of the day" this submission links to.
Any system that FUNCTIONS is viable for a particular user, but if AMiga had 100 times the market share... they still wouldn't beat Apple or Linux. I'm sure Amiga will benefit from open-source software that gets ported to their OS, but even then there's only so many port maintainers, and I don't envision lots of closed source software getting ported.
Amiga could have targeted systems to Linux users,
most of whom have fond memories of the AMiga of old.
>If that's your main problem, get longer display and keyboard cables, and stick that machine in another room.
That's simply not an option in an apartment, and when I get a house I'd lose a whole room to "storage". I've already tried putting the system in the closet, but it gets too warm.:-/
I appreaciate PowerPC for other things than minimal heat. Just like some people view Linux as "free" because the software doesn't lock you into an OS vendor, I appreciate the potential for linux not locking us into *an architecture*. I am simply floored by people who don't click on this POTENTIAL... we'll never get anything revolutionary from Intel so why wear their handcuffs? I like cheap x86 parts (smp!) too, but Intel's lost there edge. The next revolutionary CPU designer will have nothing to offer if Linux apps are still chained to IA-32...
I ran PPC Linux when I had a Mac, and liked it. Sure, I'll miss out on Quake and Unreal, but Loki's porting PPC games.
One wouldn't need to compile everything if they run a Linux distro that supports apt-get. I totally love Debian now, after trying everything else first because of rumors of a difficult install (not so bad):)
It hurts the "root for the underdog" part of me, but Amiga has no momentum, and the best thing you can do with one is install Linux on it.
Well, OK, I'm overstating things a bit -- it's a viable platform for people who won't budge off it. However I don't see any NEW people moving onto it, Lightwave is gone, and most of the specialized, creative applications have since moved onto NT.
What I *really* wish Amiga had done was manufacture PowerPC-based boxes that could easily be refitted with Linux. Nothing against Apple, but I just want CHEAP POWERPC motherboards. My x86 boxes are so hot, and noisy, that I'm tempted to wear headphones in this room, and I hate headphones. I think Amiga could have made a much better run in the Linux workstation market than say SGI...
On the offchance that this gets moderated up, I'd like to THANK MOTOROLA for the lack of off the shelf PowerPC motherboards. Motorola pushes embedded Linux on [gasp!] Intel processors, their server line is Intel-based, and and you can't buy off the shelf PowerPC motherboards.
What corporate vision. They seem about as efficent as General Motors.
*sigh* Maybe my raise will allow me to get one of those G4 Cubes without wincing. They would make sweet Linux boxes.
>buy an FTP server package for Windows just to get a few files across.
That's FUD [unintentional?].
You don't need to "buy" an FTP server to get files across Win2k and Linux -- the free FTP server included in IIS is just fine, and I'm sure there's GPL stuff that's been ported also.
Aside from that, you can always ssh into the Linux box, and ftp files in the OTHER direction.
But why do anything? The FTP server in Linux works fine. I can't get the Win2K/IE 5.5 "FTP Explorer" to work with Linux (doesn't take password and there's no fucking logs to debug courtesy of Microsoft)... but WS-FTP works fine.
I use Win2k on one box, Linux on another at home. I've yet to get Samba working, though it's been more laziness than anything.
>OS X doesn't offer a command line unless you buy server or developer versions...
Bullshit.
>Linux, I don't think is running on those machines.
You meam, you suppose?? Bzzt. More bullshit.
>OS X is slower than Linux on the same platform.
Benchmarks please. No?
Twm runs faster than Enlightenment, but I know plenty of "power users" who don't run E, or any WM at all. If the benchmark difference comes out within -/+ 8%.. no one will care.
>Yes, there IS a SMP alternative to Intel- and it's called Alpha. They're insanely great machines- just insanely expensive as well.
Considering how much easier it is to buy a Linux-only box compared to a Linux-only PPC box, the Alpha community has pretty weak excuses for having less commercial software support. Loki is doing a great job at porting x86 games to PPC Linux (cept Quake, but that's up to iD..)
> G4 an alternative to Intel? Only when Motorola or IBM get off their duffs and sell SMP machines with the G4's
I think there lies your only valid point. But Motorola/IBM is not in this part of the systems field. You can buy CPU's, and chipsets from them but what will you use for a motherboard? IBM released a reference design, but no one implemented it.
What needs to happen is some enterprising company to strike a deal with LinuxPPC, to get enough orders to make production worthwhile.
I absolutely hate x86... my two boxes here have 8 and 4 fans each and they're too hot to stick in a closet.
My problem with the Mac stuff is it's too nice for my budget, not it's "too expensive":).
Linux makes ALL architectures equal (well, yeah, you need good compilers). These days, even Motorola sells Intel-CPU servers.... they consider their own hardware to be too much of a gamble! With Linux possibly taking over the market, Motorola has a chance to ride tthose coattails, if only someone at the top had some vision.
Ah yes, the unwelcome, unsolicited mp3.com spam. I sent them one email WAAAY back, right when they were making a transition from a "warez leet mp3 site" due to some problems viewing pages in Netscape (real LEET webmasters only test webpages in IE on Win98 - heh).
I never went to the site again - who needs them? But then I started getting mp3.com *HTML* spam... some of it nearly 50K. Like all scumbag spammers, no unsubscribe details were provided. It got to the point that if I didn't check my email every day like it or not, my mailbox would overflow and I would lose email. Sending "unsubscribe replies" did not work, and neither did forwarding them to webmaster@mp3.com (the same bastard who involuntarily signed me up in the first place).
What you gotta do is do a whois, and mail their Finance department and tell them what pricks they are. Be sure to hit all the "generic email lists" you can think of, such as mp3@mp3.com, sales@mp3.com, firstletter-lastname@mp3.com of any person's name on the website, and so on.
cc'ing 20 people there was probably disruptive, but hey so is spam. It worked.:)
I did get replies back from management... heh but all the replies were pure-MS Word attachments, and I couldn't read them. The spam stopped tho...
Anyone who believes these liars is a fool. Sure, validate their account details on you for $10 credit if you like - it may be a fair sale to some.
Just don't for a minute believe they were hacked. Oh, they're using NT servers so I'm supposed to believe their "our IT is incompitent" line.:)
This sounds too vague to be legit. Offering $10 to end users for SELLING their details is one thing - at least that is honest. This little scam makes them no different than the spammers who put "reply to unsubscribe" in their email (in order to verify an address to sell it at a higher rate).
Besides, the Linux software is better than the Windows version.:)
>You don't pull a microwave apart and put it back together then complain when you get radiation poisoning do you ? Why should this be any different ?
Shit! I installed the Linux driver for this thing, and I've got 4th degree plasma burns. You're saying I have no right to complain about such an unsafe product??
Quick - someone get me a dermal regenerator!
Heh. I don't know why you even attempted to argue against LEGAL reverse engineering... you don't even attempt to provide a solid case, just a mini-troll. Anyone can call anything IP, as they call their generic scanner product.
My best interpretation of your statement is, "you don't pull apart this scanner driver with your own, then complain your driver does not work.". To this I would say, true:) I *won't* complain to these people if the GPL'd driver doesn't work.
If anyone is smart over there, they may be reflecting on how they could have worked with the community better. UMAX does not bully the SANE people who write drivers for their scanner. Hardware drivers are the *perfect* candidates for GPL'd software... my UMAX scanner was made OBSOLETE under Windows 2000 because UMAX chose not to write Win2K drivers, suggesting instead I buy a new scanner from them (to which I say "fuck you!").
The Linux scanner driver crew SANE hey have no profit motive for screwing customers.
My favorite bit (Score:2)
by mirko (mirko@myfamilyname.org) on Mon September 04, 9:11 EST (#47)
(User #198274 Info) http://www.vidovic.org/mirko
> The project ballooned from 18 people to 50,
> and most were forced to write detailed
> specifications and white papers >>instead of concentrating on writing code. Even though reducing Mac hardware sales could have been a decisive reason not to carry on the Star Trek project, I still think it also lost much of its inertia because of such a constraint.
>Big projects usually involve lots of Quality Insurance features which have a negative impact on people's motivation
Do you do Development or Quality Assurance? I suspect the former.
I've noticed some developers look at QA engineers with the same fashion management looks at unions. That is not good teamwork. Some developers may be so deadline challenged that it seems OK to not document your process, comment your code and provide written specifications. That's just bullshit, and indicates a problem between said developer and their manager, who sets the schedules.
All too often, I've seen the results of charging ahead with unclean development and test environments, oral specifications, and all these Bad Development Practices that eventually bite the project in the ass... often after said engineer has left the company. Rapid growth without well thought out specs, QA, and code review presumably is the reason Netscape Navigator (on any platform!) is such a piece of shit. Such shittiness is so pervasive it cannot be the result of any one developer, but on the project lead for not maintaining process.
Of course, over-process is as bad as under-process. Over process is generally never an issue with standard commericial software - it's for the realm of critical stuff like medical and defense software.
Now, if Apple wanted lots of documentation from these people it's only fair: software is company property and it is not much use if an employee who knew the code left without documenting it. If the developer can't be bothered, hiring an intern to help with the little tasks may provide some relief - skipping process just dooms the project.
The reason that drugs "work" in the human body is because the the molecular structure of the drug fits a natural "keyhole" somewhere.
Basically the body has natural recepticle's for natural hormones... drugs fit those keyholes - often imperfectly. Your body thinks caffeine is adrenaline and acts (mostly) accordingly. Your body naturally produces adrenaline, and it works a hell of a lot better than caffeine.
I like caffeine because I can get a rush while still being a computer slug, but I understand the difference.:)
I suspect if we could turn on and off adrenaline like we drink coffee, the body would develop some resistance...
Well, Microsoft *did* build IE into the OS. This makes the browser lighter at the expense of the OS.
The end user never sees the difference, as the mem count is roughly the same. Windows shows only memory dedicated to the application, and I doubt it's showing *shared libraries* in that total.
Put it another way, if you could force Windows to load Gecko as a shared library during boot, then you would have LESS ram after boot. Now make a "lightweight" browser that invokes Gecko. You now have a browser that's as small as you want to fake it.
That said, the Mozilla interface is the real bloat. Galleon crashes a lot, and some of those crashes are obviously happening in the UI. I love Galleon but "random clicks" in the UI kill it - I hope they implement a stable/unstable tree.
As for Taco "wanting" to install Galleon - heh - please, we know he's playing Diablo 2 in Windows 98 all day long. Heh.
ANyone try looking at Eazel's own webpages in Eazel??
Most of them are OK, but the screenshots page flashes more than a Pokemon episode. Unlike the other pages, this one was crafted in Adobe GoLive, without IMAGE width and height attributes.. as the images expand the page reflows until you think to yourself it's time to wake up the gim.. I mean bring out Netscape.
I emailed their webmaster 2 weeks ago about this, but I'd guess since the page was done by a clueless person who needs GoLive, that person must be a manager and the webmaster is afraid to approach them or edit their code w/o permission. Heh... Dilbertisms at a Linux company. (Course, I'm stretching circumstancial evidence here, but the fact is their product and Mozilla look like shit when viewing http://screenshots.eazel.com/aug-02-2000/index.htm l)
Take this from someone who was part of a LONG project to get Java 3D working up to the level a naive person would expect after hearing the Java hype... it ain't happing.
The performance of Java 3D is abysmal. Sure, you can build a few 3D molecules, but try mapping video onto it in real-time. Uh-uh; no way. Try powering it with a big graph, oh, say 30 objects or so (*nothing* in OpenGL)... forget it. Open Inventor is not the fastest engine on the planet (not supposed to be), but it's WAY faster than Java3D.
I still hold out hope for Java. It's got a future as a replacement for CGI, or database clients, but don't even think of using it where you need performance and access to system level hardware acceleration.
>>Corel made some technical decisions to break compatability with Slink (if you were not careful).
>That is 100% pure slashdot bullshit. >>
Really? How so? What, no facts to back yourself up? THAT is "Slashdot bullshit" my friend.:)
One of the things Corel broke was KDE, because they heavily patched it with their own stuff. First of all, you imply Corel does NOT have the right to fork which everyone else seems to enjoy.
Half an hour to fix, eh? Oh, I get it... half an hour for someone to MERGE IN Corel's proprietary enhancements to a desktop Debian does *not* even support? And do this in a "released" stable distro? Please. Think before you speak. Corel's not even in a position to demand Debian do this or that to allow a class of users (newbies) that the Linux community hasn't even decided if they should be ALLOWED to run Linux (yet we call them sheeple for running WIndows blindly).
If not for the WINE contribs I might have also concluded Corel was playing "Bad Guy", but I think COrel is good. Corel will in my book rank up there with Hero Companies that made really nice gestures to Linux. They don't quite have the funding say Red Hat or Caldera has either...
Most Corel users don't CARE about the internals... Corel probably picked Debian because it's simply the BEST distribution. This also means that Corel users will never even hit these upgrade to Debian problems I mentioned.
Lastly, so I am not misinterpreted, I wholeheartedly support Debian -- the best quality, the best packages, and the best people, OK? I don't always reccomend it (depends on the user), but I use it myself whereever I use Linux.
>trigger-finger-itching fence-sitters eh? I'd hate to see the Debian extremists
In that light I guess I mistyped. The spirit of what I wanted to say was:
* some people were immediately hostile even before Corel made mistakes
* Some people couldn't WAIT to pounce on them like Tigger..
* Some people are swayed by the Angry Mob Mentality... beat up on anyone who is down, even if they were being nice to you.
That said - and I *hope* this was obvious, 99% of the Debian folks are not like that any more than Slashdot trolls who have infiltrated the moderation system, represent moderators as a whole:)
I myself am very proud to run Debian. I suspect most Debian packagers are also proud that Corel selected their distribution as the foundation of a new distro. Lastly, #debian on irc.openprojects.net has to be the MOST helpful Linux channel anywhere... (much better than #linux @ EFnet where I've seen ops tolerate other ops being downright rude to newbies, overzealous kick/banning etc.).
There's some FUD about Corel these days, and the Slashdot/Linux community does not do it better when they abandon responsible journalism with slanted posts like "Corel screwed Debian". Back up your assertions, or shut up I say. Corel did not screw Debian -- screwing someone is deliberate and somethng I usually reserve for Microsoft (like they screwed Bristol, Spyglass, Citrix, Apple, Netscape and the regular user who doesn't understand they've been screwed...)
It's safe to say that Debian more than any other distro, adheres to the "Free Software" philosophy. As such, there will be factions all over the map. Some do not want ANY commercialization of Debian and those fence-sitters have their fingers on the trigger itching for any company to make a mistake. Well, Corel made mistakes. Corel made mistakes with licensing, and Corel made some technical decisions that could be interpreted as mistakes (or arrogance). I do not think Corel has bad karma like say Microsoft or Sun, or we wouldn't see tremendous GIFTS such as WINE patches, free Corel Photopaint (amazing app!), and a staunch promotion of Linux knowing this can't turn them around overnight... and then some of us feel the need to spit in their face.
These people are still working their asses off to mature a necessary part of the applications market knowing that they've got another painful amputation/layoff on the way. If Corel disappears tomorrow, I feel they have made a positive impact on Linux that is every bit as good as Red Hat's, even if they were clumsy at times.
Corel made some technical decisions to break compatability with Slink (if you were not careful). What did that give them? It gave them a clear lead over anyone else in terms of usability from a Windows-convert point of view. Sure, it's all window dressing: the Printer Setup Wizard, Samba Wizard, the neat fonts, X-based dselect clone, the flash bootup and shutdown screens that look better than WIndows, and an installer my grandmother could sail through in 20 mins (it even handles booting NT correctly). This is all stuff you won't see as GPL'd Linux tools until 2001. I ran Corel 1.1 in the office, and 3 coworkers were so impressed they copied the CD. They've never run Linux before. Me, I run Debian Potato w/ some Woody, but if it weren't for the still-awful browser landscape in Linux I'm sure it could replace Windows for MOST people rather than some people. (Yeah, I know the browser stuff is getting better... Galeon w/ Gecko has motion blur these days it moves so fast).
Leave the FUD to that computer illiterate guy at ABC News -- he'll be writing gardening advice in a few years;)
That's really funny. If I had the bandwidth, I'd script the page to re-load 100 times. I wonder if they would even notice the page hits dont match up with the ad impressions...
Adzap for Squid: http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/adzap/index.html
The script also blocks Slashdot ads, but Rob's probably got all of The Who's CD's by now...
... then WHY does Netscape still own the code to Mozilla? The NPL is halfway OK, but it still has clauses that make it incompatible with the GPL.
I had been using Mozilla nightlies for most browsing, but now I'm posting this with Galeon. At least with Galeon + Gecko I can get reasonable performance on a K6-450 & 196MB RAM. Mozilla was OK as long as I didn't cause the GUI to redraw, like using a menu or multiple windows.
I still hold hope for Mozilla, but if Netscape's NS5 code was tossed out and rewritten starting with Gecko, then I question Netscape's copyright on the whole Mozilla project. It seems a little charitable to contribute to a non-GPL'd or non-BSD type license, owned by a Multinational Corporate Entitity like AOL.
Why the hell was a REDUNDANT post (above) moderated to FOUR? This IS on topic. No offense to the poster, but I call blatant cut-and-paste of someone's post "FISHING".
Why is it lately that all/. stories have a handful of 4, 5 scoring posts and that's it?
I propose that when a moderator adds +1 to a 4-score post, they actually SPEND FIVE MODERATOR POINTS.
Why charge so many points? Because some moderators are lazy, or just want to enforce their ideology and bump up already high like-minded posts. Since these people do seem to value their moderator points, weighting the price of +1 would encourage deeper digging. Moderation is supposed to be a bell curve, and you can't get a feel for the community when you have a dozen posts ALL at 4 or 5 points when the curve looks like a "M".
I thought about posting this Anonymously, but I know only a minority of moderators would ever read a 0-score post.
The above comment was moderated down to -1, Flamebait. As the page refreshed for my reply, it's now at 1.
Can the moderatorS justify why the comment was moved down twice? Should it be as easy to moderate DOWN as it is to go UP? Moderate downs should be reviewed a lot sooner than the MetaModeration stage.There are trolls smart enough to get moderated up, and then they're eligable to be bad Moderators, and do their Troll damage that way.
If anything, the above comment is somewhat informative.
Adding to the authors comments, Adobe also has a UNIX Photoshop for SGI that could quite possibly be ported to Linux, although I suspect Adobe is afraid of good graphics apps on Linux due to their cash cow Photoshop, already cloned by GIMP.
"Now I'm all for opening driver sources, but if it came down between the choice of more driver support for Linux and Open Source code, I'd be torn."
The answer is the *neither*... it will be "free software", not Open Source (still TM'd? heh). Seriously, read on until the end... you can't just open the code - or not - and expect to sit on your ass reaping the benefits forever.
I am not the pure GPL type - I bought Windows. I won't even claim to be pure Linux (unlike *some* people who recently editorialized comments about Quicktime videos and Linux. *Diablo* *cough* Ahem.)
It's pretty obvious tho that even if YOU do not care about Free Software vs. Open Source, you only have to wait around for someone else to code good free software, and then you'll use it. I appreciate what the FSF has done, but not everyone does. Fine, I guess, but when someone codes "the best software" and it's GPL'd, that's it and the competition is OVER; story at 11.
By the same token, I don't program, but I love the fact that so many UNIX users do, and I can benefit by running Linux. Microsoft and APple can do some neat things when inspired (well, Apple can anyways:) but could they do GNOME, Enlightment, and all the various free software projects? No way.. not enough people.
Back to my point, there will come a day when software is more common and stuff to power your boards will be Free Software. Maybe that day is far enough away to recoup your investment and then some, but don't expect to make it last forever. Releasing the code with too many restrictions will just FUEL some GPL'd alternative (look at Qt/KDE v. GNOME, or the FreeVM v. VMware).
Like Apple, there's a day in the future you'll have to decide if you're mostly software or hardware. Predict that day, and you can pull off any licensing you want really.
Personally I get annoyed at hardware with substandard Linux support, and I curse their management as buffoons.:) Nothing worse than buying into say a SoundBlaster Live with "Linux Support" only to find out how incomplete that support is.
Did I say Napster was *publicly* traded, or were your hehmoroids itching this afternoon? Regardless of their not being "public", they still have shareholders who are external to the company, such as the VC's.
Regarding to the comparison of the RIAA and Microsoft in "extending", I think you're just fishing with a microscope. Or, you are a really anal person. The gist of what I was saying was they are both abusing their market position to suppress new business models and competition. I don't care that things have improved since the 40s (wow, that's pretty obvious without even mentioning hollywood red scares..)
Regarding the comment about TCP/IP, I can't believe you wasted so many words on misinterpretation. To paraphrase what I said, I CANNOT WAIT until the "airwaves" (be they WHATEVER they are, dammit) are free. When that happens, just maybe the artists will be free as well. Maybe your tastes in music are completely filled by the bland bullshit served on most corporate radio, but I don't accept what is force-fed to me. I'll hunt that music down, even if the effort of doing so is like a day at the Registry (Department of Vehicles, or MS Regedit, take your pick!)
Thanks for pointing out YOU know there's a difference between a protocol, like TCP/IP, and the transport it rides in on, such as wireless. That's not even moderately on topic, but I guess nothing gets by you clever guy...
And the post was moderated up to 3 AFAIK, but who gives a rats ass? My post was on topic, while yours was Flamebait. Add more fiber to your diet.
The press on this subject makes me sick. Napster settling with the RIAA is *BAD*, for us, and the artists.
Does anyone REALLY think the Record Companies/RIAA are trying to KILL Napster? Even if they could do so, another would follow in its place, so the answer is no. Music is going digital, and the carpetbagging middlemen in the music distribution business cannon stop it. In Microsoft terms, the RIAA is playing "Embrace and Extend".
However, if the RIAA can abuse the court systems to force mp3.com and Napster to the table, then they are in a position to negotiate. MP3.com and Napster are corporations with stockholders to answer to... if they are offered partnerships with the RIAA, they'll accept. The trick is for the RIAA to do this without providing evidence that they are colluding and violating Anti-Trust laws.
Napster can offer musicians a way out of indentured slavery. It can change the music industry forever, and free artists from writing MTV-specific music which promotes brands and consumerism. We can get "albums" that were not churned out like some Metallica Load/Re-load episode, to satisfy "contractual obligations". Furthermore, when wireless TCP/IP goes into EVERY radio, we can if we choose give a big middle finger to the US Gov't and the FCC, and tune into offshore "pirate radio" in such numbers that they will be FORCED into more narrowly defining their roles into guarding the people's bandwidth, rather than auctioning it off for-profit and acting as censors.
MP3.com's already making deals with the RIAA. If we lose Napster, we are handed a setback. The best possible outcome for us is if we support the free music distributers, and if Napster, etc. make deals DIRECTLY with the ARTISTS themselves.
I am glad this is freeware, but there's some drawbacks.
Because this is "free enough" for people who don't care about freedom, there will not be enough real demand for a good, GPL or even BSD licensed 3D app. Look at the legions of POVRAY users.. although it's a good app, it's matured slowly *because* the authors are not prepared to "let go", or lead. Another example is VRML... we HAVE VRML viewers, but they're binary things and they suck. This plays right into the hands of companies like Microsoft, who every 9 months announce a new 3D format (which has yet to materialize, but vaporware still does freeze the market).
I respect people's right to choose their own licenses, but to me proprietary freeware is worst than shareware. Anyone ever look at the work plowed into mIRC for Windows? What a *waste* of time (and apparently, years of someone's life).
I'll still gladly download the new version. I hope I can actually import an ASCII camera path animation so I can attempt a real "match move" with it. It ain't Alias/Wavefront's Maya, but after Houdini this is the premiere 3D app for Linux.
And before anyone tries it, I don't care about "But I use it to preview music for my next CD purchase" arguments... all evidence I've seen is biased and anecdotal. What someone says and what they do are often two different worlds.
A difficult thing to poll, don't you think?
I use Napster a lot, but you know what? It's STILL not as useful as the binaries newsgroups. Why? Because the demographics of Napster are much more limited. Everybody has the same songs.
I do pull down music, and some I keep without buying. But it's important to understand I *hate* corporate, commercialized crap. Of the CD's I *do* buy, they are INFLUENCED by Napster and the Newsgroups. Here are some examples I bought based on Napster traffic:
King Missile (yes, they have more than one song), FrontLine assembly, some old Devo, Slade, Front 242, Atari Teenage Riot, and John Zorn (!!). Great stuff that would never pass the corporate filters on the FM...
Some artists don't mind being "not tipped", if they can overthrow their RIAA pimps and gain access to the audience at the same time. Perhaps lost sales will be recovered in new fans? See Courney's article at Salon.
After reading her article, I have newfound respect for artists who buck the system. Most of them are treated as badly as immigrant housekeepers in Southern California, and can die just as poor even if they generate "hits".
Slashdot Mirror
My central point is that as someone who primarily uses Linux, even *I* would consider buying an Amiga if they manufactured cheap PowerPC boxes that Linux could be reinstalled on to.
So which part of my statement indicates I did not read the article. I just don't buy the hype.
If you read my post before firing off your lame "he didn't read the article" whinge, you'd realize I was opining more on the state of Amiga and fruitless advocacy, than the "news of the day" this submission links to.
Any system that FUNCTIONS is viable for a particular user, but if AMiga had 100 times the market share... they still wouldn't beat Apple or Linux. I'm sure Amiga will benefit from open-source software that gets ported to their OS, but even then there's only so many port maintainers, and I don't envision lots of closed source software getting ported.
Amiga could have targeted systems to Linux users,
most of whom have fond memories of the AMiga of old.
>If that's your main problem, get longer display and keyboard cables, and stick that machine in another room.
:)
That's simply not an option in an apartment, and when I get a house I'd lose a whole room to "storage". I've already tried putting the system in the closet, but it gets too warm.:-/
I appreaciate PowerPC for other things than minimal heat. Just like some people view Linux as "free" because the software doesn't lock you into an OS vendor, I appreciate the potential for linux not locking us into *an architecture*. I am simply floored by people who don't click on this POTENTIAL... we'll never get anything revolutionary from Intel so why wear their handcuffs? I like cheap x86 parts (smp!) too, but Intel's lost there edge. The next revolutionary CPU designer will have nothing to offer if Linux apps are still chained to IA-32...
I ran PPC Linux when I had a Mac, and liked it. Sure, I'll miss out on Quake and Unreal, but Loki's porting PPC games.
One wouldn't need to compile everything if they run a Linux distro that supports apt-get. I totally love Debian now, after trying everything else first because of rumors of a difficult install (not so bad)
It hurts the "root for the underdog" part of me, but Amiga has no momentum, and the best thing you can do with one is install Linux on it.
Well, OK, I'm overstating things a bit -- it's a viable platform for people who won't budge off it. However I don't see any NEW people moving onto it, Lightwave is gone, and most of the specialized, creative applications have since moved onto NT.
What I *really* wish Amiga had done was manufacture PowerPC-based boxes that could easily be refitted with Linux. Nothing against Apple, but I just want CHEAP POWERPC motherboards. My x86 boxes are so hot, and noisy, that I'm tempted to wear headphones in this room, and I hate headphones. I think Amiga could have made a much better run in the Linux workstation market than say SGI...
On the offchance that this gets moderated up, I'd like to THANK MOTOROLA for the lack of off the shelf PowerPC motherboards. Motorola pushes embedded Linux on [gasp!] Intel processors, their server line is Intel-based, and and you can't buy off the shelf PowerPC motherboards.
What corporate vision. They seem about as efficent as General Motors.
*sigh* Maybe my raise will allow me to get one of those G4 Cubes without wincing. They would make sweet Linux boxes.
>buy an FTP server package for Windows just to get a few files across.
That's FUD [unintentional?].
You don't need to "buy" an FTP server to get files across Win2k and Linux -- the free FTP server included in IIS is just fine, and I'm sure there's GPL stuff that's been ported also.
Aside from that, you can always ssh into the Linux box, and ftp files in the OTHER direction.
But why do anything? The FTP server in Linux works fine. I can't get the Win2K/IE 5.5 "FTP Explorer" to work with Linux (doesn't take password and there's no fucking logs to debug courtesy of Microsoft)... but WS-FTP works fine.
I use Win2k on one box, Linux on another at home. I've yet to get Samba working, though it's been more laziness than anything.
>OS X doesn't offer a command line unless you buy server or developer versions ...
:).
Bullshit.
>Linux, I don't think is running on those machines.
You meam, you suppose?? Bzzt. More bullshit.
>OS X is slower than Linux on the same platform.
Benchmarks please. No?
Twm runs faster than Enlightenment, but I know plenty of "power users" who don't run E, or any WM at all. If the benchmark difference comes out within -/+ 8%.. no one will care.
>Yes, there IS a SMP alternative to Intel- and it's called Alpha. They're insanely great machines- just insanely expensive as well.
Considering how much easier it is to buy a Linux-only box compared to a Linux-only PPC box, the Alpha community has pretty weak excuses for having less commercial software support. Loki is doing a great job at porting x86 games to PPC Linux (cept Quake, but that's up to iD..)
> G4 an alternative to Intel? Only when Motorola or IBM get off their duffs and sell SMP machines with the G4's
I think there lies your only valid point. But Motorola/IBM is not in this part of the systems field. You can buy CPU's, and chipsets from them but what will you use for a motherboard? IBM released a reference design, but no one implemented it.
What needs to happen is some enterprising company to strike a deal with LinuxPPC, to get enough orders to make production worthwhile.
I absolutely hate x86... my two boxes here have 8 and 4 fans each and they're too hot to stick in a closet.
My problem with the Mac stuff is it's too nice for my budget, not it's "too expensive"
Linux makes ALL architectures equal (well, yeah, you need good compilers). These days, even Motorola sells Intel-CPU servers.... they consider their own hardware to be too much of a gamble! With Linux possibly taking over the market, Motorola has a chance to ride tthose coattails, if only someone at the top had some vision.
Ah yes, the unwelcome, unsolicited mp3.com spam. I sent them one email WAAAY back, right when they were making a transition from a "warez leet mp3 site" due to some problems viewing pages in Netscape (real LEET webmasters only test webpages in IE on Win98 - heh).
:)
I never went to the site again - who needs them? But then I started getting mp3.com *HTML* spam... some of it nearly 50K. Like all scumbag spammers, no unsubscribe details were provided. It got to the point that if I didn't check my email every day like it or not, my mailbox would overflow and I would lose email. Sending "unsubscribe replies" did not work, and neither did forwarding them to webmaster@mp3.com (the same bastard who involuntarily signed me up in the first place).
What you gotta do is do a whois, and mail their Finance department and tell them what pricks they are. Be sure to hit all the "generic email lists" you can think of, such as mp3@mp3.com, sales@mp3.com, firstletter-lastname@mp3.com of any person's name on the website, and so on.
cc'ing 20 people there was probably disruptive, but hey so is spam. It worked.
I did get replies back from management... heh but all the replies were pure-MS Word attachments, and I couldn't read them. The spam stopped tho...
Anyone who believes these liars is a fool. Sure, validate their account details on you for $10 credit if you like - it may be a fair sale to some.
:)
:)
Just don't for a minute believe they were hacked. Oh, they're using NT servers so I'm supposed to believe their "our IT is incompitent" line.
This sounds too vague to be legit. Offering $10 to end users for SELLING their details is one thing - at least that is honest. This little scam makes them no different than the spammers who put "reply to unsubscribe" in their email (in order to verify an address to sell it at a higher rate).
Besides, the Linux software is better than the Windows version.
>You don't pull a microwave apart and put it back together then complain when you get radiation poisoning do you ? Why should this be any different ?
:) I *won't* complain to these people if the GPL'd driver doesn't work.
Shit! I installed the Linux driver for this thing, and I've got 4th degree plasma burns. You're saying I have no right to complain about such an unsafe product??
Quick - someone get me a dermal regenerator!
Heh. I don't know why you even attempted to argue against LEGAL reverse engineering... you don't even attempt to provide a solid case, just a mini-troll. Anyone can call anything IP, as they call their generic scanner product.
My best interpretation of your statement is, "you don't pull apart this scanner driver with your own, then complain your driver does not work.". To this I would say, true
If anyone is smart over there, they may be reflecting on how they could have worked with the community better. UMAX does not bully the SANE people who write drivers for their scanner. Hardware drivers are the *perfect* candidates for GPL'd software... my UMAX scanner was made OBSOLETE under Windows 2000 because UMAX chose not to write Win2K drivers, suggesting instead I buy a new scanner from them (to which I say "fuck you!").
The Linux scanner driver crew SANE hey have no profit motive for screwing customers.
My favorite bit (Score:2)
by mirko (mirko@myfamilyname.org) on Mon September 04, 9:11 EST (#47)
(User #198274 Info) http://www.vidovic.org/mirko
> The project ballooned from 18 people to 50,
> and most were forced to write detailed
> specifications and white papers >>instead of concentrating on writing code. Even though reducing Mac hardware sales could have been a decisive reason not to carry on the Star Trek project, I still think it also lost much of its inertia because of such a constraint.
>Big projects usually involve lots of Quality Insurance features which have a negative impact on people's motivation
Do you do Development or Quality Assurance? I suspect the former.
I've noticed some developers look at QA engineers with the same fashion management looks at unions. That is not good teamwork. Some developers may be so deadline challenged that it seems OK to not document your process, comment your code and provide written specifications. That's just bullshit, and indicates a problem between said developer and their manager, who sets the schedules.
All too often, I've seen the results of charging ahead with unclean development and test environments, oral specifications, and all these Bad Development Practices that eventually bite the project in the ass... often after said engineer has left the company. Rapid growth without well thought out specs, QA, and code review presumably is the reason Netscape Navigator (on any platform!) is such a piece of shit. Such shittiness is so pervasive it cannot be the result of any one developer, but on the project lead for not maintaining process.
Of course, over-process is as bad as under-process. Over process is generally never an issue with standard commericial software - it's for the realm of critical stuff like medical and defense software.
Now, if Apple wanted lots of documentation from these people it's only fair: software is company property and it is not much use if an employee who knew the code left without documenting it. If the developer can't be bothered, hiring an intern to help with the little tasks may provide some relief - skipping process just dooms the project.
The reason that drugs "work" in the human body is because the the molecular structure of the drug fits a natural "keyhole" somewhere.
:)
Basically the body has natural recepticle's for natural hormones... drugs fit those keyholes - often imperfectly. Your body thinks caffeine is adrenaline and acts (mostly) accordingly. Your body naturally produces adrenaline, and it works a hell of a lot better than caffeine.
I like caffeine because I can get a rush while still being a computer slug, but I understand the difference.
I suspect if we could turn on and off adrenaline like we drink coffee, the body would develop some resistance...
Well, Microsoft *did* build IE into the OS. This makes the browser lighter at the expense of the OS.
The end user never sees the difference, as the mem count is roughly the same. Windows shows only memory dedicated to the application, and I doubt it's showing *shared libraries* in that total.
Put it another way, if you could force Windows to load Gecko as a shared library during boot, then you would have LESS ram after boot. Now make a "lightweight" browser that invokes Gecko. You now have a browser that's as small as you want to fake it.
That said, the Mozilla interface is the real bloat. Galleon crashes a lot, and some of those crashes are obviously happening in the UI. I love Galleon but "random clicks" in the UI kill it - I hope they implement a stable/unstable tree.
As for Taco "wanting" to install Galleon - heh - please, we know he's playing Diablo 2 in Windows 98 all day long. Heh.
ANyone try looking at Eazel's own webpages in Eazel??
m l)
Most of them are OK, but the screenshots page flashes more than a Pokemon episode. Unlike the other pages, this one was crafted in Adobe GoLive, without IMAGE width and height attributes.. as the images expand the page reflows until you think to yourself it's time to wake up the gim.. I mean bring out Netscape.
I emailed their webmaster 2 weeks ago about this, but I'd guess since the page was done by a clueless person who needs GoLive, that person must be a manager and the webmaster is afraid to approach them or edit their code w/o permission. Heh... Dilbertisms at a Linux company. (Course, I'm stretching circumstancial evidence here, but the fact is their product and Mozilla look like shit when viewing http://screenshots.eazel.com/aug-02-2000/index.ht
Take this from someone who was part of a LONG project to get Java 3D working up to the level a naive person would expect after hearing the Java hype... it ain't happing.
The performance of Java 3D is abysmal. Sure, you can build a few 3D molecules, but try mapping video onto it in real-time. Uh-uh; no way. Try powering it with a big graph, oh, say 30 objects or so (*nothing* in OpenGL)... forget it. Open Inventor is not the fastest engine on the planet (not supposed to be), but it's WAY faster than Java3D.
I still hold out hope for Java. It's got a future as a replacement for CGI, or database clients, but don't even think of using it where you need performance and access to system level hardware acceleration.
Peace.
Scott
>>Corel made some technical decisions to break compatability with Slink (if you were not careful).
:)
>That is 100% pure slashdot bullshit. >>
Really? How so? What, no facts to back yourself up? THAT is "Slashdot bullshit" my friend.
One of the things Corel broke was KDE, because they heavily patched it with their own stuff. First of all, you imply Corel does NOT have the right to fork which everyone else seems to enjoy.
Half an hour to fix, eh? Oh, I get it... half an hour for someone to MERGE IN Corel's proprietary enhancements to a desktop Debian does *not* even support? And do this in a "released" stable distro? Please. Think before you speak. Corel's not even in a position to demand Debian do this or that to allow a class of users (newbies) that the Linux community hasn't even decided if they should be ALLOWED to run Linux (yet we call them sheeple for running WIndows blindly).
If not for the WINE contribs I might have also concluded Corel was playing "Bad Guy", but I think COrel is good. Corel will in my book rank up there with Hero Companies that made really nice gestures to Linux. They don't quite have the funding say Red Hat or Caldera has either...
Most Corel users don't CARE about the internals... Corel probably picked Debian because it's simply the BEST distribution. This also means that Corel users will never even hit these upgrade to Debian problems I mentioned.
Lastly, so I am not misinterpreted, I wholeheartedly support Debian -- the best quality, the best packages, and the best people, OK? I don't always reccomend it (depends on the user), but I use it myself whereever I use Linux.
Scott
>trigger-finger-itching fence-sitters eh? I'd hate to see the Debian extremists
:)
In that light I guess I mistyped. The spirit of what I wanted to say was:
* some people were immediately hostile even before Corel made mistakes
* Some people couldn't WAIT to pounce on them like Tigger..
* Some people are swayed by the Angry Mob Mentality... beat up on anyone who is down, even if they were being nice to you.
That said - and I *hope* this was obvious, 99% of the Debian folks are not like that any more than Slashdot trolls who have infiltrated the moderation system, represent moderators as a whole
I myself am very proud to run Debian. I suspect most Debian packagers are also proud that Corel selected their distribution as the foundation of a new distro. Lastly, #debian on irc.openprojects.net has to be the MOST helpful Linux channel anywhere... (much better than #linux @ EFnet where I've seen ops tolerate other ops being downright rude to newbies, overzealous kick/banning etc.).
There's some FUD about Corel these days, and the Slashdot/Linux community does not do it better when they abandon responsible journalism with slanted posts like "Corel screwed Debian". Back up your assertions, or shut up I say. Corel did not screw Debian -- screwing someone is deliberate and somethng I usually reserve for Microsoft (like they screwed Bristol, Spyglass, Citrix, Apple, Netscape and the regular user who doesn't understand they've been screwed...)
;)
It's safe to say that Debian more than any other distro, adheres to the "Free Software" philosophy. As such, there will be factions all over the map. Some do not want ANY commercialization of Debian and those fence-sitters have their fingers on the trigger itching for any company to make a mistake. Well, Corel made mistakes. Corel made mistakes with licensing, and Corel made some technical decisions that could be interpreted as mistakes (or arrogance). I do not think Corel has bad karma like say Microsoft or Sun, or we wouldn't see tremendous GIFTS such as WINE patches, free Corel Photopaint (amazing app!), and a staunch promotion of Linux knowing this can't turn them around overnight... and then some of us feel the need to spit in their face.
These people are still working their asses off to mature a necessary part of the applications market knowing that they've got another painful amputation/layoff on the way. If Corel disappears tomorrow, I feel they have made a positive impact on Linux that is every bit as good as Red Hat's, even if they were clumsy at times.
Corel made some technical decisions to break compatability with Slink (if you were not careful). What did that give them? It gave them a clear lead over anyone else in terms of usability from a Windows-convert point of view. Sure, it's all window dressing: the Printer Setup Wizard, Samba Wizard, the neat fonts, X-based dselect clone, the flash bootup and shutdown screens that look better than WIndows, and an installer my grandmother could sail through in 20 mins (it even handles booting NT correctly). This is all stuff you won't see as GPL'd Linux tools until 2001. I ran Corel 1.1 in the office, and 3 coworkers were so impressed they copied the CD. They've never run Linux before. Me, I run Debian Potato w/ some Woody, but if it weren't for the still-awful browser landscape in Linux I'm sure it could replace Windows for MOST people rather than some people. (Yeah, I know the browser stuff is getting better... Galeon w/ Gecko has motion blur these days it moves so fast).
Leave the FUD to that computer illiterate guy at ABC News -- he'll be writing gardening advice in a few years
That's really funny. If I had the bandwidth, I'd script the page to re-load 100 times. I wonder if they would even notice the page hits dont match up with the ad impressions...
Adzap for Squid:
http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/adzap/index.html
The script also blocks Slashdot ads, but Rob's probably got all of The Who's CD's by now...
... then WHY does Netscape still own the code to Mozilla? The NPL is halfway OK, but it still has clauses that make it incompatible with the GPL.
I had been using Mozilla nightlies for most browsing, but now I'm posting this with Galeon. At least with Galeon + Gecko I can get reasonable performance on a K6-450 & 196MB RAM. Mozilla was OK as long as I didn't cause the GUI to redraw, like using a menu or multiple windows.
I still hold hope for Mozilla, but if Netscape's NS5 code was tossed out and rewritten starting with Gecko, then I question Netscape's copyright on the whole Mozilla project. It seems a little charitable to contribute to a non-GPL'd or non-BSD type license, owned by a Multinational Corporate Entitity like AOL.
Why the hell was a REDUNDANT post (above) moderated to FOUR? This IS on topic. No offense to the poster, but I call blatant cut-and-paste of someone's post "FISHING".
/. stories have a handful of 4, 5 scoring posts and that's it?
Why is it lately that all
I propose that when a moderator adds +1 to a 4-score post, they actually SPEND FIVE MODERATOR POINTS.
Why charge so many points? Because some moderators are lazy, or just want to enforce their ideology and bump up already high like-minded posts. Since these people do seem to value their moderator points, weighting the price of +1 would encourage deeper digging. Moderation is supposed to be a bell curve, and you can't get a feel for the community when you have a dozen posts ALL at 4 or 5 points when the curve looks like a "M".
I thought about posting this Anonymously, but I know only a minority of moderators would ever read a 0-score post.
The above comment was moderated down to -1, Flamebait. As the page refreshed for my reply, it's now at 1.
Can the moderatorS justify why the comment was moved down twice? Should it be as easy to moderate DOWN as it is to go UP? Moderate downs should be reviewed a lot sooner than the MetaModeration stage.There are trolls smart enough to get moderated up, and then they're eligable to be bad Moderators, and do their Troll damage that way.
If anything, the above comment is somewhat informative.
Adding to the authors comments, Adobe also has a UNIX Photoshop for SGI that could quite possibly be ported to Linux, although I suspect Adobe is afraid of good graphics apps on Linux due to their cash cow Photoshop, already cloned by GIMP.
"Now I'm all for opening driver sources, but if it came down between the choice of more driver support for Linux and Open Source code, I'd be torn."
:) but could they do GNOME, Enlightment, and all the various free software projects? No way.. not enough people.
:) Nothing worse than buying into say a SoundBlaster Live with "Linux Support" only to find out how incomplete that support is.
The answer is the *neither*... it will be "free software", not Open Source (still TM'd? heh). Seriously, read on until the end... you can't just open the code - or not - and expect to sit on your ass reaping the benefits forever.
I am not the pure GPL type - I bought Windows. I won't even claim to be pure Linux (unlike *some* people who recently editorialized comments about Quicktime videos and Linux. *Diablo* *cough* Ahem.)
It's pretty obvious tho that even if YOU do not care about Free Software vs. Open Source, you only have to wait around for someone else to code good free software, and then you'll use it. I appreciate what the FSF has done, but not everyone does. Fine, I guess, but when someone codes "the best software" and it's GPL'd, that's it and the competition is OVER; story at 11.
By the same token, I don't program, but I love the fact that so many UNIX users do, and I can benefit by running Linux. Microsoft and APple can do some neat things when inspired (well, Apple can anyways
Back to my point, there will come a day when software is more common and stuff to power your boards will be Free Software. Maybe that day is far enough away to recoup your investment and then some, but don't expect to make it last forever. Releasing the code with too many restrictions will just FUEL some GPL'd alternative (look at Qt/KDE v. GNOME, or the FreeVM v. VMware).
Like Apple, there's a day in the future you'll have to decide if you're mostly software or hardware. Predict that day, and you can pull off any licensing you want really.
Personally I get annoyed at hardware with substandard Linux support, and I curse their management as buffoons.
Nice flame. Allow me to retort. :)
Did I say Napster was *publicly* traded, or were your hehmoroids itching this afternoon? Regardless of their not being "public", they still have shareholders who are external to the company, such as the VC's.
Regarding to the comparison of the RIAA and Microsoft in "extending", I think you're just fishing with a microscope. Or, you are a really anal person. The gist of what I was saying was they are both abusing their market position to suppress new business models and competition. I don't care that things have improved since the 40s (wow, that's pretty obvious without even mentioning hollywood red scares..)
Regarding the comment about TCP/IP, I can't believe you wasted so many words on misinterpretation. To paraphrase what I said, I CANNOT WAIT until the "airwaves" (be they WHATEVER they are, dammit) are free. When that happens, just maybe the artists will be free as well. Maybe your tastes in music are completely filled by the bland bullshit served on most corporate radio, but I don't accept what is force-fed to me. I'll hunt that music down, even if the effort of doing so is like a day at the Registry (Department of Vehicles, or MS Regedit, take your pick!)
Thanks for pointing out YOU know there's a difference between a protocol, like TCP/IP, and the transport it rides in on, such as wireless. That's not even moderately on topic, but I guess nothing gets by you clever guy...
And the post was moderated up to 3 AFAIK, but who gives a rats ass? My post was on topic, while yours was Flamebait. Add more fiber to your diet.
Scott
The press on this subject makes me sick. Napster settling with the RIAA is *BAD*, for us, and the artists.
Does anyone REALLY think the Record Companies/RIAA are trying to KILL Napster? Even if they could do so, another would follow in its place, so the answer is no. Music is going digital, and the carpetbagging middlemen in the music distribution business cannon stop it. In Microsoft terms, the RIAA is playing "Embrace and Extend".
However, if the RIAA can abuse the court systems to force mp3.com and Napster to the table, then they are in a position to negotiate. MP3.com and Napster are corporations with stockholders to answer to... if they are offered partnerships with the RIAA, they'll accept. The trick is for the RIAA to do this without providing evidence that they are colluding and violating Anti-Trust laws.
Napster can offer musicians a way out of indentured slavery. It can change the music industry forever, and free artists from writing MTV-specific music which promotes brands and consumerism. We can get "albums" that were not churned out like some Metallica Load/Re-load episode, to satisfy "contractual obligations".
Furthermore, when wireless TCP/IP goes into EVERY radio, we can if we choose give a big middle finger to the US Gov't and the FCC, and tune into offshore "pirate radio" in such numbers that they will be FORCED into more narrowly defining their roles into guarding the people's bandwidth, rather than auctioning it off for-profit and acting as censors.
MP3.com's already making deals with the RIAA. If we lose Napster, we are handed a setback. The best possible outcome for us is if we support the free music distributers, and if Napster, etc. make deals DIRECTLY with the ARTISTS themselves.
I am glad this is freeware, but there's some drawbacks.
Because this is "free enough" for people who don't care about freedom, there will not be enough real demand for a good, GPL or even BSD licensed 3D app. Look at the legions of POVRAY users.. although it's a good app, it's matured slowly *because* the authors are not prepared to "let go", or lead. Another example is VRML... we HAVE VRML viewers, but they're binary things and they suck. This plays right into the hands of companies like Microsoft, who every 9 months announce a new 3D format (which has yet to materialize, but vaporware still does freeze the market).
I respect people's right to choose their own licenses, but to me proprietary freeware is worst than shareware. Anyone ever look at the work plowed into mIRC for Windows? What a *waste* of time (and apparently, years of someone's life).
I'll still gladly download the new version. I hope I can actually import an ASCII camera path animation so I can attempt a real "match move" with it. It ain't Alias/Wavefront's Maya, but after Houdini this is the premiere 3D app for Linux.
And before anyone tries it, I don't care about "But I use it to preview music for my next CD purchase" arguments... all evidence I've seen is biased and anecdotal. What someone says and what they do are often two different worlds.
A difficult thing to poll, don't you think?
I use Napster a lot, but you know what? It's STILL not as useful as the binaries newsgroups. Why? Because the demographics of Napster are much more limited. Everybody has the same songs.
I do pull down music, and some I keep without buying. But it's important to understand I *hate* corporate, commercialized crap. Of the CD's I *do* buy, they are INFLUENCED by Napster and the Newsgroups. Here are some examples I bought based on Napster traffic:
King Missile (yes, they have more than one song), FrontLine assembly, some old Devo, Slade, Front 242, Atari Teenage Riot, and John Zorn (!!). Great stuff that would never pass the corporate filters on the FM...
Some artists don't mind being "not tipped", if they can overthrow their RIAA pimps and gain access to the audience at the same time. Perhaps lost sales will be recovered in new fans? See Courney's article at Salon.
After reading her article, I have newfound respect for artists who buck the system. Most of them are treated as badly as immigrant housekeepers in Southern California, and can die just as poor even if they generate "hits".