I'm not very familiar with KDE's language binding availability right now, but I know that being written in C++ would make it more difficult to provide alternate bindings. C, being the lowest portable denomiator of programming languages is simple to create alternate bindings for.
I cannot believe this tripe is modded as 'insightful'. What ignorant rubbish (both the comment and the moderation of it).
It is relatively easy (as easy as with C) to create bindings for C++. And even if it wasn't, you can create C bindings for C++, so you could simply then create the bindings for other languages using the C layer.
I suppose it is really people buying OEMs getting hosed.
Not at all. Most OEMs get it massively discounted, for something like $1 per machine. It's one of the major leverages Microsoft have had over the OEMs.
Basically if an OEM is pissing MS off by, say, negotiating with another OS inventor, then they pull on the leash and threaten with making the OEM pay the normal $45 price. $45 is a lot to OEMs who are constantly trying to undercut competitors in order to maintain market share.
Just ask Be Inc who couldn't get a single major OEM to even consider BeOS. Even IBM suffered from this as they struggled to get OS/2 onto the consumer/coporate desktop. Hell, Linux is free yet no major OEMs properly push a machine pre-setup with Linux. Or are you going to tell me there never was a desktop market for any of those (or other) OSes?
Only recently have OEMs started to flaunt a little disregard for the desires of Redmond because of all the Antitrust hoo-haa. But now that all the states have been bought... I mean, have reached settlements, things will soon return to normal.
The contract says that they only to SCO non-damaging way for them to be late with this particular filing is during a SEC investigation. Someone else should post the details since I'm a little fuzzy on those...
Audacity is a great application, but do we need announcements on/.?...part of it is envy. I contribute to a number of projects (beginplug) including kino...
Bzzzzzzzzt... wrong answer. Slashdot does not announce KDE software kos apparently it's krap. Viva la Free Software!
Well, from the sound of Eminem's going rate ($10million plus) it might be cheaper to just use the songs and then pay a smaller settlement fee. Just maybe...
Add to that all this free publicity. Looks like it's two for less-than-the price of one for Apple.
"Did you not just learn that you can't "Sex up" articles? You publish an article that makes a claim then admits it has no proof of the claim! That's not journalism! That's opinionated!
Sadly, there isn't anybody corrupt or important enough identified in the article to pin you down and beat you up about it.
The article also presents a general misunderstanding of the purpose of the virus. The purpose of the virus was not to bring down the SCO website. That is just a consequence, a minor action if you like. It actually turns infected computers into spamming tools, able to send email on behalf of a spammer.
Spammers are the people you should be targetting. They already have a bad reputation and plenty of evidence linking them with viruses and general computer-related harm.
Forming and stating baseless opinions on a global community like the Free Software [1] community is not the way to win back your reputation.
The best game ever made is David Brabens "Elite", anyone who knows anything about gaming knows that.
Yeah, right. Anybody who knows anything about gaming knows that the one, the only, the original noughts and crosses is best game ever.
It certainly outlasted everything else. Hell, I still play it with a friend from time to time in moments of boredom. I don't think I'll ever play Elite again. It makes my eyes bleed.
Ebuilds for major software upgrades have been getting a little slow lately. For example, it took a couple of weeks for kernel 2.6.1 to finally show up as stable.
Not true, 2.6.1 was there almost instantly for me. It was probably masked or in "~x86" only.
Re:Windows already comes with a free desktop
on
KDE 3.2.0 Released
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
It's included for free with the Windows kernel.
Correction, [windows desktop] is included at no extra cost with the Windows kernel. It's not free, you have to pay for it if you plan on acquiring it legitimately.
Your 'bastardisation' of the word free shows that the world of advertising has been a complete success. "Buy one get one free!" No, you get two for the price of one, but one is not free. You still have to pay. Anything which requires an exchange of something is not free.
So, technically, you're using a bastardised definition of the word "free".
Also, it's worth noting that Free Software is a term (note the capitalisation) used in relation to, well, Free Software. So the usage of the word Free in the context of Free Software like KDE makes perfect sense and is not a bastardisation of the word "free", but more alike the usage of a word describing a product. Like Windows: I have lots of windows but I never use Windows.
It's not Microsoft doing the violating, it's the people using their software.
"It's not my fault my kid shot his classmates. He was the one that used the gun I left out."
"It's not my fault that guy got addicted to heroin. I only sell the stuff."
Oh well, it's not that bad. At least MS isn't responsible for aiding terrorism like us commies. Then again, I'm reluctant to be part of an organisation that fucks the world up so I don't think the average terrorist would have anything against me. It just sucks that I live near and pay taxes to those organisations who's global terrorisation is putting us all at risk.
Not that I'm trying to incinuate that certain governments refuse to hold themselves accountable for training and funding dictatorships and terrorists. Not that I'm trying to incinuate that this kind of hypocritical approach is currently the root of probably all global problems related to terrorism.
One day somebody who can will stand up and say, "what is the cause of the problem and how can we solve that cause so we don't have to solve the resulting problem?" Until then, company's like Microsoft will continue to abuse their privelege and disregard human life from time to time so that they can make a profit.
My original point: don't try and trivialise nor simplify a deep and complex problem by putting the blame in the hands of the actor. Somebody has to write his lines and build his set.
Still, I suppose that the latest story is written by someone who has Clue.
Really? I was quite excited until I read:
"Linux is unique in that its code is open source, meaning anyone can look it and modify it, as long as they agree to share their changes with everyone else."
Linux? Unique? Talk about grabbing the limelight. Linux is not unique nor was it close to being the first.
I'll analogise. This article is the equivalent of a news bulletin saying, "We found a rain forrest."
Getting the public to know about Linux is the first minor step in a long haul. Getting them to understand the philosophy of Free Software and to understand that 100s of 1000s of us are subscribing to this philosophy by creating a wealth of applications - ranging from operating systems to computer games - is a whole different ball game.
I feel for RMS because, despite his best efforts and the efforts of the wise to keep him in the loop, he'll be a forgotten character of history because he simply wasn't the creator of "Linux - the first and the pure." Although he'll probably be better than to let that bother him because his ideal is slowly being realised.
In what ways do Bill and/or Microsoft impede yours (or anyone's) ability to improve software?
Well, in case you've had your head in the sand for the last 20 years, Microsoft (and hence Bill Gates as leader of Microsoft) have broken perhaps every corporate law known to man without being held accountable for it [1].
Microsoft has successfully criminally created a monopoly and has used every closed source trick in the book to maintain it. Vendor lock-in, ridiculous patents, proprietry formats, to name but a few.
If you let Microsoft have it's way, everybody who uses email will be paying them a fee for it. We would be impeded because our software will have to interact with their methods in order to communicate to anybody with a Windows PC [2], ergo we will be at the Mercy of the Merciless Microsoft. Which, in case you didn't realise, renders our software practically useless to anybody but our own small social circles.
And why must the rest of us do it? Because Microsoft has crushed every other competitor out of it's markets - they either withdrew (IBM with OS/2) or died (Be Inc with BeOS). Hell, before Linux, it was only the areas where Windows just wasn't good enough that they didn't crush the opposition. The only reason they can't crush us is because there is no single entity to crush.
[1] Don't bother with the DOJ settlement. I hear it's referred to in some MS circles as the 'Department Of Jokes'. And if it isn't, it should be, given that the consequence of them breaking the law is to donate a few million pieces of their software and make IE and Media Player uninstallable. That really stopped MS laughing all the way to the bank with $16 profits every year.
[2] 95% of computers worldwide if Google Zeitgeist is anything to go by.
I don't run Linux. I get paid to write Windows apps, I play and write DirectX stuff in my spare time, and when I'm not doing that I'm making music using Windows sequencers. Let me know when I can write and play decent games, use cubase and make a living from writing code under Linux and I'll take another look at tedious hard disk issues.
Dude, it's now 2004 not 1994. Where have you been all these years?
Is he arguing that free markets are against US ideology? Interesting take - might even be true from the point of view of some elements of congress.
What do you mean "might"?
The only freedom the US promotes is the one to make gross amounts of money. Every other 'freedom' in America is a myth that they allow you to believe as long as it suits them (the suits).
AbiWord sucks. It has sucked since the very first version I tried some 4 years ago and has consistently kept doing so.
You obviously haven't tried AbiWord recently. At all.
I have to say I was disappointed when I first tried it a year ago. But ever since 2.0 was released... wow.
AbiWord 2.0.3 is stable and polished. It only lacks a couple of features (like automated indexing and grammar correction) but other than that it is brilliant. It is also lightening fast.
OOWriter (the Ximian-ified version) takes upwards of 10s to start. AbiWord can be up in 1 or 2s. OOWriter feels sluggish. AbiWord is one of those well written Gtk apps that should be used to show that, done right, Gtk2/X aren't slow.
Seriously, AbiWord2 has matured into one damned fine word processor. Add a few more features (perhaps through the imminent ability to script?) and you'll have something equal or better to Microsoft Word on pretty much every level for all but the most advanced requirements.
You write off AbiWord at your peril. It's the best Free Software word processor by a margin if you discount the ability to save to.doc format. (And the devs will simply tell you to use.rtf!)
All brit's posting to slashdot have officially lost the right to make references to the U.S. being an orwellian, facist state in comparison to their own.
No, that's not true. As long as the law is not facist, measures to stop people breaking the law are not facist.
It's when we start implementing laws to, say, indefinitely impriso... detain peopl... terrorists and punis... convict them without going through normal justice routes, that's when we lose our right to complain.
I suspect their case is deeply flawed, but it does seem at least based in a reading of the law.
This would be an acceptable statement iff the BSD lawsuits did not exist.
System V from the BSD OSes is public domain. That has been decided by a court of law.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this BSD fallout all happened around the time that Linux was born. Which would make it quite logical that Linux could have taken the System V code at the time, which has since been iterated over time and time again.
Derived works of public domain code, maybe. Derived works of SCO IP? No.
They have no case. There is no reading of law basis to their case. It's something printed on much smaller sheets and, worryingly for the western world, more important than law.
Don't you know? The SCO Group and all the individuals associated with it have made a fucking fortune. And you can bet your bottom dollar they're gonna milk it for every dime they can.
Worse still, it's an identical principle to the one the US government uses. If you repeat a lie enough, eventually it becomes a truth that people are willing to accept. And then you can get away with highway robbery with their approval.
Please, by saying that "they have a case based in a reading of law" you are not only being patronising, but condoning what should be and could be a criminal act and one that they will get away with.
Well sure the ipv6 code isn't as tested as ipv4 and might be insecure at first... But did that stop the internet from being built on ipv4? It's a stupid argument against upgrading to a new technology.
Let's try some fun substitution:
Well sure the Windows code isn't as tested as DOS and might be insecure at first... But did that stop the personal computer from being built on DOS? It's a stupid argument against upgrading to a new technology.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not very familiar with KDE's language binding availability right now, but I know that being written in C++ would make it more difficult to provide alternate bindings. C, being the lowest portable denomiator of programming languages is simple to create alternate bindings for.
I cannot believe this tripe is modded as 'insightful'. What ignorant rubbish (both the comment and the moderation of it).
It is relatively easy (as easy as with C) to create bindings for C++. And even if it wasn't, you can create C bindings for C++, so you could simply then create the bindings for other languages using the C layer.
Queue the BSD is dead posts.
Why can't we all just get along??
Move along folks, just another BSD death, move along.
I had to read the sentence 5 times or so to see why it didn't make sense etc. But your english is excellent otherwise. (Far better than my swedish!)
I suppose it is really people buying OEMs getting hosed.
Not at all. Most OEMs get it massively discounted, for something like $1 per machine. It's one of the major leverages Microsoft have had over the OEMs.
Basically if an OEM is pissing MS off by, say, negotiating with another OS inventor, then they pull on the leash and threaten with making the OEM pay the normal $45 price. $45 is a lot to OEMs who are constantly trying to undercut competitors in order to maintain market share.
Just ask Be Inc who couldn't get a single major OEM to even consider BeOS. Even IBM suffered from this as they struggled to get OS/2 onto the consumer/coporate desktop. Hell, Linux is free yet no major OEMs properly push a machine pre-setup with Linux. Or are you going to tell me there never was a desktop market for any of those (or other) OSes?
Only recently have OEMs started to flaunt a little disregard for the desires of Redmond because of all the Antitrust hoo-haa. But now that all the states have been bought... I mean, have reached settlements, things will soon return to normal.
The contract says that they only to SCO non-damaging way for them to be late with this particular filing is during a SEC investigation. Someone else should post the details since I'm a little fuzzy on those...
About as fuzzy as you are on sentence structure.
Audacity is a great application, but do we need announcements on /.? ...part of it is envy. I contribute to a number of projects (beginplug) including kino...
Bzzzzzzzzt... wrong answer. Slashdot does not announce KDE software kos apparently it's krap. Viva la Free Software!
Well, from the sound of Eminem's going rate ($10million plus) it might be cheaper to just use the songs and then pay a smaller settlement fee. Just maybe...
Add to that all this free publicity. Looks like it's two for less-than-the price of one for Apple.
So, when are they going to release the BeOS version?
Shortly after they release the OS/2... I mean, eComStation version.
You mean Tic-Tac-Toe, you empire-losing no-dentist-visiting stupid-accent-having effeminate-leg-crossing tea-sipping limey.
Hey! I never effiminately cross my legs!
An annoying inferface and factually incorrect!
(Linus works for OSDL now, not Transmeta as the article would have you believe.)
Done:
"Did you not just learn that you can't "Sex up" articles? You publish an article that makes a claim then admits it has no proof of the claim! That's not journalism! That's opinionated!
Sadly, there isn't anybody corrupt or important enough identified in the article to pin you down and beat you up about it.
The article also presents a general misunderstanding of the purpose of the virus. The purpose of the virus was not to bring down the SCO website. That is just a consequence, a minor action if you like. It actually turns infected computers into spamming tools, able to send email on behalf of a spammer.
Spammers are the people you should be targetting. They already have a bad reputation and plenty of evidence linking them with viruses and general computer-related harm.
Forming and stating baseless opinions on a global community like the Free Software [1] community is not the way to win back your reputation.
[1] http://www.fsf.org and http://www.gnu.org"
The best game ever made is David Brabens "Elite", anyone who knows anything about gaming knows that.
Yeah, right. Anybody who knows anything about gaming knows that the one, the only, the original noughts and crosses is best game ever.
It certainly outlasted everything else. Hell, I still play it with a friend from time to time in moments of boredom. I don't think I'll ever play Elite again. It makes my eyes bleed.
Ebuilds for major software upgrades have been getting a little slow lately. For example, it took a couple of weeks for kernel 2.6.1 to finally show up as stable.
Not true, 2.6.1 was there almost instantly for me. It was probably masked or in "~x86" only.
It's included for free with the Windows kernel.
Correction, [windows desktop] is included at no extra cost with the Windows kernel. It's not free, you have to pay for it if you plan on acquiring it legitimately.
Your 'bastardisation' of the word free shows that the world of advertising has been a complete success. "Buy one get one free!" No, you get two for the price of one, but one is not free. You still have to pay. Anything which requires an exchange of something is not free.
So, technically, you're using a bastardised definition of the word "free".
Also, it's worth noting that Free Software is a term (note the capitalisation) used in relation to, well, Free Software. So the usage of the word Free in the context of Free Software like KDE makes perfect sense and is not a bastardisation of the word "free", but more alike the usage of a word describing a product. Like Windows: I have lots of windows but I never use Windows.
It's not Microsoft doing the violating, it's the people using their software.
"It's not my fault my kid shot his classmates. He was the one that used the gun I left out."
"It's not my fault that guy got addicted to heroin. I only sell the stuff."
Oh well, it's not that bad. At least MS isn't responsible for aiding terrorism like us commies. Then again, I'm reluctant to be part of an organisation that fucks the world up so I don't think the average terrorist would have anything against me. It just sucks that I live near and pay taxes to those organisations who's global terrorisation is putting us all at risk.
Not that I'm trying to incinuate that certain governments refuse to hold themselves accountable for training and funding dictatorships and terrorists. Not that I'm trying to incinuate that this kind of hypocritical approach is currently the root of probably all global problems related to terrorism.
One day somebody who can will stand up and say, "what is the cause of the problem and how can we solve that cause so we don't have to solve the resulting problem?" Until then, company's like Microsoft will continue to abuse their privelege and disregard human life from time to time so that they can make a profit.
My original point: don't try and trivialise nor simplify a deep and complex problem by putting the blame in the hands of the actor. Somebody has to write his lines and build his set.
Still, I suppose that the latest story is written by someone who has Clue.
Really? I was quite excited until I read:
"Linux is unique in that its code is open source, meaning anyone can look it and modify it, as long as they agree to share their changes with everyone else."
Linux? Unique? Talk about grabbing the limelight. Linux is not unique nor was it close to being the first.
I'll analogise. This article is the equivalent of a news bulletin saying, "We found a rain forrest."
Getting the public to know about Linux is the first minor step in a long haul. Getting them to understand the philosophy of Free Software and to understand that 100s of 1000s of us are subscribing to this philosophy by creating a wealth of applications - ranging from operating systems to computer games - is a whole different ball game.
I feel for RMS because, despite his best efforts and the efforts of the wise to keep him in the loop, he'll be a forgotten character of history because he simply wasn't the creator of "Linux - the first and the pure." Although he'll probably be better than to let that bother him because his ideal is slowly being realised.
Well, I just had a quick look on Freshmeat and found:
RoseGarden
Sweep
Ardour
Audacity
Protux
DAP
ReZound
GLAME
In what ways do Bill and/or Microsoft impede yours (or anyone's) ability to improve software?
Well, in case you've had your head in the sand for the last 20 years, Microsoft (and hence Bill Gates as leader of Microsoft) have broken perhaps every corporate law known to man without being held accountable for it [1].
Microsoft has successfully criminally created a monopoly and has used every closed source trick in the book to maintain it. Vendor lock-in, ridiculous patents, proprietry formats, to name but a few.
If you let Microsoft have it's way, everybody who uses email will be paying them a fee for it. We would be impeded because our software will have to interact with their methods in order to communicate to anybody with a Windows PC [2], ergo we will be at the Mercy of the Merciless Microsoft. Which, in case you didn't realise, renders our software practically useless to anybody but our own small social circles.
And why must the rest of us do it? Because Microsoft has crushed every other competitor out of it's markets - they either withdrew (IBM with OS/2) or died (Be Inc with BeOS). Hell, before Linux, it was only the areas where Windows just wasn't good enough that they didn't crush the opposition. The only reason they can't crush us is because there is no single entity to crush.
[1] Don't bother with the DOJ settlement. I hear it's referred to in some MS circles as the 'Department Of Jokes'. And if it isn't, it should be, given that the consequence of them breaking the law is to donate a few million pieces of their software and make IE and Media Player uninstallable. That really stopped MS laughing all the way to the bank with $16 profits every year.
[2] 95% of computers worldwide if Google Zeitgeist is anything to go by.
I don't run Linux. I get paid to write Windows apps, I play and write DirectX stuff in my spare time, and when I'm not doing that I'm making music using Windows sequencers. Let me know when I can write and play decent games, use cubase and make a living from writing code under Linux and I'll take another look at tedious hard disk issues.
Dude, it's now 2004 not 1994. Where have you been all these years?
Is he arguing that free markets are against US ideology? Interesting take - might even be true from the point of view of some elements of congress.
What do you mean "might"?
The only freedom the US promotes is the one to make gross amounts of money. Every other 'freedom' in America is a myth that they allow you to believe as long as it suits them (the suits).
AbiWord sucks. It has sucked since the very first version I tried some 4 years ago and has consistently kept doing so.
.doc format. (And the devs will simply tell you to use .rtf!)
You obviously haven't tried AbiWord recently. At all.
I have to say I was disappointed when I first tried it a year ago. But ever since 2.0 was released... wow.
AbiWord 2.0.3 is stable and polished. It only lacks a couple of features (like automated indexing and grammar correction) but other than that it is brilliant. It is also lightening fast.
OOWriter (the Ximian-ified version) takes upwards of 10s to start. AbiWord can be up in 1 or 2s. OOWriter feels sluggish. AbiWord is one of those well written Gtk apps that should be used to show that, done right, Gtk2/X aren't slow.
Seriously, AbiWord2 has matured into one damned fine word processor. Add a few more features (perhaps through the imminent ability to script?) and you'll have something equal or better to Microsoft Word on pretty much every level for all but the most advanced requirements.
You write off AbiWord at your peril. It's the best Free Software word processor by a margin if you discount the ability to save to
All brit's posting to slashdot have officially lost the right to make references to the U.S. being an orwellian, facist state in comparison to their own.
No, that's not true. As long as the law is not facist, measures to stop people breaking the law are not facist.
It's when we start implementing laws to, say, indefinitely impriso... detain peopl... terrorists and punis... convict them without going through normal justice routes, that's when we lose our right to complain.
Sadly, that was filed privately. We may not get to see it until the upcoming hearing.
Sadly!? JOY!!! There's still time for me to sell short! And I thought I'd missed the boat! Ecstacy brother, pure ecstacy!
I suspect their case is deeply flawed, but it does seem at least based in a reading of the law.
This would be an acceptable statement iff the BSD lawsuits did not exist.
System V from the BSD OSes is public domain. That has been decided by a court of law.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this BSD fallout all happened around the time that Linux was born. Which would make it quite logical that Linux could have taken the System V code at the time, which has since been iterated over time and time again.
Derived works of public domain code, maybe. Derived works of SCO IP? No.
They have no case. There is no reading of law basis to their case. It's something printed on much smaller sheets and, worryingly for the western world, more important than law.
Don't you know? The SCO Group and all the individuals associated with it have made a fucking fortune. And you can bet your bottom dollar they're gonna milk it for every dime they can.
Worse still, it's an identical principle to the one the US government uses. If you repeat a lie enough, eventually it becomes a truth that people are willing to accept. And then you can get away with highway robbery with their approval.
Please, by saying that "they have a case based in a reading of law" you are not only being patronising, but condoning what should be and could be a criminal act and one that they will get away with.
Well sure the ipv6 code isn't as tested as ipv4 and might be insecure at first... But did that stop the internet from being built on ipv4? It's a stupid argument against upgrading to a new technology.
Let's try some fun substitution:
Well sure the Windows code isn't as tested as DOS and might be insecure at first... But did that stop the personal computer from being built on DOS? It's a stupid argument against upgrading to a new technology.