At the end of the day, if have done anything significant to my home directory (settings changed, documents edited, programming, whatever) I run a script which nicely tarballs my home directory to a (normally not mounted) partition on a different drive. Every once in a while I burn that backup to disc as well. So I have a convenient copy on another drive should the filesystem get corrupt/drive gets corrupt/I decide to repartition.
When it comes time to reinstall my OS, I do not use an image, I get the latest stable version. Then unpack my home directory, and bang, all my desktop applications are setup as I like them. I install extra packages from ports as I need them.
This sort of antic is only going to drive off more moderate users towards the likes of Fedora (bloatbloatbloat), Lindows^WLinspire (Windows wannabe, bloat), and... well, and Windows itself. Way to go, guys.
Or it could drive them to try FreeBSD. I switched to BSD after the pain of trying to install the latest and greatest software on Debian Woody.
i'm going to 'have a little faith' and trust gosling and mcnealy.
I'll have to agree with that sentiment.
Java is not like a web browser where the users would be ignorant, and just use Microsoft's because that's what they are given. Java developers _know_ who is the authentic source for Java technology. So it's not like Java developers in their masses are going to adopt whatever idiosyncrasies Microsoft implements next.
I think that Sun should be able to keep ahead of Microsoft on the curve of giving developers what they want (history shows that when somebody implements a good idea, Microsoft copies).
I don't think McNealy would let Microsoft steer the ship. I think this is a chess match. The current move may perplex you, as it should, but the reasons why the move was made will be clear soon.
Sun is a fierce in nature when it comes to Microsoft. Don't let yourself think that they gave in so easily. How many Microsoft competitors do you know of that were able to grep a $2 billon settlement out of them?
Not sure what this means (I am not a font expert), but ever try reading slashdot on a Windows machine? The Italic font is horrible. Microsoft can't get down something as simple as anti-aliasing.
2.) automatic directX compatibility for games
Shudder
3.) one solid universal gui
It kind of goes against the grain of open source to say that EVERYONE should use only one gui. That really is more of a Microsoft thing.
Then again, Gnome is pretty much a standard gui on Unix now-a-days.
Restricting options is kind of counter intuitive to OSS. Diversity is what makes the Free NIXes good. You get to pick and choose whatever packages suit your needs.
That being said, the choice is overwhelming to nontechnical people. That's why we have Distro's like Mandrake.
Also, if you are a company deploying Linux, you would have a technician pick the best packages to suit the companies needs.
So the Council of Better Business Bureaus goes after apple for running ads to promote there product.
I've seen car ads that imply that there car is the safest ("That's why I drive a Toyota."). I can't see any reason why one brand of car would be inherently safer than another. Do Toyota's fair better in a collision with an 18 wheeler?
Then there's the Microsoft ad that implies that they make software the make your children do better in school. It implies that your child will do better. But logically, If they are helping improve every child, then relatively speaking your child cannot do better than the other children who would have done better otherwise (since it improves everybody).
One simple way to address this problem would be to replace these vulnerable "buffers" with something that will not overflow
I am currently building a library. While the application has nothing to do with providing an alternative to buffering input, I did implement a method to allow the programmer to feed data one byte at a time. The idea originated not from a security stand point, but a convience stand point. Because I would be using the library, I though it would be nice not to have to worry about managing buffers. (It's also quit nice that one of the applications is a dictionary, thus this feature could be use to scan key strokes and would be able to tell exactly when a string of characters is no longer a part of any word).
I know this does not solve the general problem, but it would be nice if more libraries came with methods that allow the programmer to avoid the use of buffers.
Funny that when the topic is the American industry and not technology, everyone refuses to adapt. Well, surprise! The economy and the industries of the world change, but Americans refuse to adapt.
I think that at the base of a lot of slashdotters Ideology is that Corporate America does not act according to the best interest of the populace in the nation they reside.
When the RIAA overcharges for CD's and bullies people into settlements, that is not in the populaces interests.
When large corporations take out patents on very basic ideas, that s not in the populaces interests.
When the members of IT are loyal, often taking on more work than the others, and they get thanked by being outsource, that is not in the populaces interests.
What hipocracy!
What hipocracy?
And I am Canadian. So this can't possibly be a "Typical American reaction".
Seriously, they drive me mad. Everyone's got their own codec that they think is the best. I understand that they have different features and draw backs. But could we not just decide on using a hand full (each one focusing on a different niche). I'd like to see all players be able to use all codecs. I'd like to not have to download a codec for every movie. What's even more frustrating is when you download the codec and it still doesn't work.
So why don't we just get a few codecs working properly for everbody. Honestly, I am by no means a codec buff and I don't think you should have to be just to watch video. C'mon people, who cares if your codec is particularly better in this department or that. I just want to watch video with decent compression and quality.
We have one cross country highway (the trans-canada, 4,860 miles). We can't even get the funding to make it as good as an interstate highway. We have taxes that are much higher than in America. We have one tenth the population and America has more than 42,000 miles of interstate (nearly ten times the length of the trans-canada).
So of course we find out that are tax money is being divied out to large corporations through various government departments. Now it all makes sense.
We are all slaves to capitalism (that goes for Yankies too).
Oh yes! Now because a computer has super-imposed a sweater on my torso, I know that the one in my hand will fit just fine with out going to the dressing room. "I'll take two, please."
1. US Invents it 2. US then screws it up 3. Other countries improve on methods and make superior products 4. US consumers flock to the improved, cheaper products 5. US companies create something new to get people to 'Buy American' 6. Follow 2 - 6
In alot of cases it more like:
1. Someone invents it. 2. The US makes an implementation of it. 3. The US takes claim to the invention. 4. Other countries continue to improve it. 5. The product goes into it's next cycle in the US because the rest of the world forced them via competition.
I am new to FreeBSD. I just recently installed Release 5.2. I find the system to be rock solid.
At a desktop level, it is quite decent for day to day use.
I find that installing new software goes fairly smoothly. The ports collection makes it easy to install new software, and not spend hours trying to install all the dependencies. Even with the package management in Linux, be it rpm or.deb, there are often issues with dependencies.
I also find the support available to be excelent. I have always found an answer to my problems in the mailing lists.
All in all, I am enjoying my new FreeBSD install and plan to use FreeBSD as my primary OS for the forseeable future.
We need to look more at what business needs out of Open Source.
Why? We should not be writing code tailored to business. They have the big bucks. We need a job and can be payed by them to tailor software (be it open souce or writing it from scratch or whatever) to meet their business needs.
Open source should not cater to the needs of any one group. It should meet the needs of those who write it. That's what it is all about: Writing code I'll use and sharing it.
That being said, however, authors should feel free to modify code based on user requests, but let's not design our code from the ground up to be used by someone other than ourselves.
Slashdot Mirror
At the end of the day, if have done anything significant to my home directory (settings changed, documents edited, programming, whatever) I run a script which nicely tarballs my home directory to a (normally not mounted) partition on a different drive. Every once in a while I burn that backup to disc as well. So I have a convenient copy on another drive should the filesystem get corrupt/drive gets corrupt/I decide to repartition.
When it comes time to reinstall my OS, I do not use an image, I get the latest stable version. Then unpack my home directory, and bang, all my desktop applications are setup as I like them. I install extra packages from ports as I need them.
9) QoS Packet Scheduler Service (I never figured out what this even does...)
QoS: Quality of Service.
Without QoS, uploading may negatively affect your download rate because ACKs were not sent back quick enough. QoS fixes that by prioritizing ACKs.
Gnome2, Ximian Evolution, Galeon, Open Office, mldonkey, ssh, xmms, xine, ecasound and oggenc.
Admittedly, I go to bed when I start the Open Office install.
Winning mindshare means linux based systems become more of a de facto standad everywhere.
Linux is not a popularity contest. It is about technical excellence.
This sort of antic is only going to drive off more moderate users towards the likes of Fedora (bloatbloatbloat), Lindows^WLinspire (Windows wannabe, bloat), and ... well, and Windows itself. Way to go, guys.
Or it could drive them to try FreeBSD. I switched to BSD after the pain of trying to install the latest and greatest software on Debian Woody.
the only alternative Linux
Right, bsd does not exist at all.....
As far as drivers go, it pretty rare to find hardware that linux or BSD won't have solid drivers for now-a-days.
i'm going to 'have a little faith' and trust gosling and mcnealy.
I'll have to agree with that sentiment.
Java is not like a web browser where the users would be ignorant, and just use Microsoft's because that's what they are given. Java developers _know_ who is the authentic source for Java technology. So it's not like Java developers in their masses are going to adopt whatever idiosyncrasies Microsoft implements next.
I think that Sun should be able to keep ahead of Microsoft on the curve of giving developers what they want (history shows that when somebody implements a good idea, Microsoft copies).
I don't think McNealy would let Microsoft steer the ship. I think this is a chess match. The current move may perplex you, as it should, but the reasons why the move was made will be clear soon.
Sun is a fierce in nature when it comes to Microsoft. Don't let yourself think that they gave in so easily. How many Microsoft competitors do you know of that were able to grep a $2 billon settlement out of them?
1.) cleartype fonts
Not sure what this means (I am not a font expert), but ever try reading slashdot on a Windows machine? The Italic font is horrible. Microsoft can't get down something as simple as anti-aliasing.
2.) automatic directX compatibility for games
Shudder
3.) one solid universal gui
It kind of goes against the grain of open source to say that EVERYONE should use only one gui. That really is more of a Microsoft thing.
Then again, Gnome is pretty much a standard gui on Unix now-a-days.
This "problem" is not limited to computers.
You have to learn how to use your lawn mower, drive your car, play your guitar, use your dishwasher....
You cannot expect to get a new appliance without learning how to use it.
Actually, that same judge ruled it is legal to leave files in your shared folder.
Apparently, the Federal Court ruled that it is also legal to
Shareshare music files up here to.
From the article on CBC:
Making files available in online, shared directories is within the bounds of Canadian copyright law, von Finckenstein ruled.
Restricting options is kind of counter intuitive to OSS. Diversity is what makes the Free NIXes good. You get to pick and choose whatever packages suit your needs.
That being said, the choice is overwhelming to nontechnical people. That's why we have Distro's like Mandrake.
Also, if you are a company deploying Linux, you would have a technician pick the best packages to suit the companies needs.
So the Council of Better Business Bureaus goes after apple for running ads to promote there product.
I've seen car ads that imply that there car is the safest ("That's why I drive a Toyota."). I can't see any reason why one brand of car would be inherently safer than another. Do Toyota's fair better in a collision with an 18 wheeler?
Then there's the Microsoft ad that implies that they make software the make your children do better in school. It implies that your child will do better. But logically, If they are helping improve every child, then relatively speaking your child cannot do better than the other children who would have done better otherwise (since it improves everybody).
That's my $0.02
One simple way to address this problem would be to replace these vulnerable "buffers" with something that will not overflow
I am currently building a library. While the application has nothing to do with providing an alternative to buffering input, I did implement a method to allow the programmer to feed data one byte at a time. The idea originated not from a security stand point, but a convience stand point. Because I would be using the library, I though it would be nice not to have to worry about managing buffers. (It's also quit nice that one of the applications is a dictionary, thus this feature could be use to scan key strokes and would be able to tell exactly when a string of characters is no longer a part of any word).
I know this does not solve the general problem, but it would be nice if more libraries came with methods that allow the programmer to avoid the use of buffers.
Yes, there are some OSS solutions out there as well, but they're not up to the same level in functionality as Outlook/Exchange
Have you heard of Ximan Evolution?
http://www.freetrade.org/pubs/briefs/tbp-019es.htm l
Yes, that looks like a particularly objective source.
Lastly, most people I know who are out of work that bemoan outsourcing lost their jobs because of their own actions.
I don't think companies started outsourcing because your friends made less than wise choices.
Funny that when the topic is the American industry and not technology, everyone refuses to adapt. Well, surprise! The economy and the industries of the world change, but Americans refuse to adapt.
I think that at the base of a lot of slashdotters Ideology is that Corporate America does not act according to the best interest of the populace in the nation they reside.
When the RIAA overcharges for CD's and bullies people into settlements, that is not in the populaces interests.
When large corporations take out patents on very basic ideas, that s not in the populaces interests.
When the members of IT are loyal, often taking on more work than the others, and they get thanked by being outsource, that is not in the populaces interests.
What hipocracy!
What hipocracy?
And I am Canadian. So this can't possibly be a "Typical American reaction".
But what do you do when someone takes your entire web site and hosts it in a foreign country?
Be flattered that somebody actually likes your web site.
"Geeze, somebody actually reads this shit."
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! CODECS!
Seriously, they drive me mad. Everyone's got their own codec that they think is the best. I understand that they have different features and draw backs. But could we not just decide on using a hand full (each one focusing on a different niche). I'd like to see all players be able to use all codecs. I'd like to not have to download a codec for every movie. What's even more frustrating is when you download the codec and it still doesn't work.
So why don't we just get a few codecs working properly for everbody. Honestly, I am by no means a codec buff and I don't think you should have to be just to watch video. C'mon people, who cares if your codec is particularly better in this department or that. I just want to watch video with decent compression and quality.
That's my 2 cents.
We have one cross country highway (the trans-canada, 4,860 miles). We can't even get the funding to make it as good as an interstate highway. We have taxes that are much higher than in America. We have one tenth the population and America has more than 42,000 miles of interstate (nearly ten times the length of the trans-canada).
So of course we find out that are tax money is being divied out to large corporations through various government departments. Now it all makes sense.
We are all slaves to capitalism (that goes for Yankies too).
Great Journalism that doesn't reflect personal biases at all.....
"It's not Linux, there for we must post a negative article about it in the main section."
By the way, I use FreeBSD.
Oh yes! Now because a computer has super-imposed a sweater on my torso, I know that the one in my hand will fit just fine with out going to the dressing room. "I'll take two, please."
1. US Invents it
2. US then screws it up
3. Other countries improve on methods and make superior products
4. US consumers flock to the improved, cheaper products
5. US companies create something new to get people to 'Buy American'
6. Follow 2 - 6
In alot of cases it more like:
1. Someone invents it.
2. The US makes an implementation of it.
3. The US takes claim to the invention.
4. Other countries continue to improve it.
5. The product goes into it's next cycle in the US because the rest of the world forced them via competition.
I am new to FreeBSD. I just recently installed Release 5.2. I find the system to be rock solid.
.deb, there are often issues with dependencies.
At a desktop level, it is quite decent for day to day use.
I find that installing new software goes fairly smoothly. The ports collection makes it easy to install new software, and not spend hours trying to install all the dependencies. Even with the package management in Linux, be it rpm or
I also find the support available to be excelent. I have always found an answer to my problems in the mailing lists.
All in all, I am enjoying my new FreeBSD install and plan to use FreeBSD as my primary OS for the forseeable future.
We need to look more at what business needs out of Open Source.
Why? We should not be writing code tailored to business. They have the big bucks. We need a job and can be payed by them to tailor software (be it open souce or writing it from scratch or whatever) to meet their business needs.
Open source should not cater to the needs of any one group. It should meet the needs of those who write it. That's what it is all about: Writing code I'll use and sharing it.
That being said, however, authors should feel free to modify code based on user requests, but let's not design our code from the ground up to be used by someone other than ourselves.