...or create another method for users to access AOL and even more revenue streams. I think the AOL PC powered by Linux is a pretty viable idea.
You also have to remember that it's not AOL but now AOL/TW. MS just took a step into the media world with their Home Entertainment Center. And AOL/TW did the same thing into the OS world.
or could also be bad in that they wrestle linux away from the open source developers and take off with their own development of it. With that same "tons of money" that you mention, the people that have worked so hard till now will have no choice but to follow what they do.
true...but if they configure the distro for a dumbed down home user and markets it correctly..it would no longer be known as Linux.. but AOL/TW Linux. Now, if they get 40% of the install base to run AOL/TW Linux, who is going to be able to tell these users that they are not "running the real linux." At that point, AOL could change something major in the kernel, and everyone else would have to change it to match their distro b/c the majority of the users use AOL brand Linux.
Can't be done? Look at HTML standards and how at one time Netscape and IE setup their own version of the standards and eventually W3C had to give in and apply those changes as standards.
Wow, this is mind boggling. With Redhat Linux, AOL/TW will finally have enough power to compete head on with Microsoft.
This brings up another problem. Who will be the bigger monopoly five years down the road? As of now, MS controls a good majority of the OS/Business Application market and AOL/TW controls much of the content and media both online and offline. Now if AOL/TW w/ Redhat becomes a major competitor of MS, than AOL/TW would have a great monopoly.
With the AOL/TW purchase of Redhat, it would finally bring users to a linux environment. However, if you look at the general population of AOL users, do you really want them running linux? Will we have a bigger population of vulnerable computers? I mean a big problem during the mid 90s was people sending emails supposed from AOL to the users asking for CC # and a good number of them were ignorant and gave it anyways.
Just some stuff to consider...
After reading all these posts, there is one thing that I find rather humorous. When people come on here and say that the Asian countries don't respect IP laws of the US so they should not be allowed to have access to US software that Americans worked so hard to produce...but then these same people turn around and download MP3s illegally breaking the same IP laws that they claim the Asian nations don't respect. It is the exact definition of being hypocritical.
Adobe has the right and power to produce whatever product that will get the most return on investments. If they have made this decision to not localize Adobe products than [hopefully] they have put in much research into this showing that their ROI is not worth it. However, Asia, especially China, is starting to become a even bigger hotbed for technology, in terms of production and consumption. In the/. posting from last week, they want to become what India has become in terms of a service industry. By stepping out of this market and allowing another company to fill the gap, it will be even harder for them to reclaim their position later on. This is especially true later on when China totally turns around and becomes a service industry producing softwares and we become a consumer of their products.
After 9/11, the Red Cross in NYC got millions and millions of dollars in donated technology. On of the things that they have setup for the Red Cross is a Mobile Command Unit. Basically it's a truck with a pull out rack of approximately 25 laptops with Wireless LAN cards. In addition, they have a bunch of iPAQs with WLAN cards. I idea is that if a disaster occurs somewhere, the MCU could roll up and setup anywhere.
Now you can use the same idea for a mobile school. Instead of getting a cramped unventilated bus, just get a mid-sized van. Setup a pullout rack with laptops in them. [I think Dell had this type of rack for schools] Setup wireless lan connected to a server onboard of the van. It might be possible to use direcPC Satellite internet so that you are not reliant on location.
With this setup, the students can just pick up a laptop and tables could be setup or they can even go inside a building [a WLAN bridge might be necessary] and start learning.
In terms of OS, you have to remember what your primary focus is. [Not knowing that, I'm going to take a stab] It is to bridge the digital divide by educating people in technology. It should not be a battle ground in an OS-war. I would definitely setup Win2k because of its simplicity. [Hey, how many people will hack a IT Van?]. In addition, I'd setup a ghost image on the server and before or after each event, wipe the changes and ghost all the laptops to a standard configuration.
This was something that I would expect when you outsource web development to people that focus on looks rather than how it functions technically. There are hundreds and thousands of web development houses in the US. A good majority of these are focused on getting the best looking sites that fit the specs with the least amount of man hours. This is why they often take shortcuts, such as using frames and templated javascripts.
The way that many of these outsourced projects work is that the look and feel is outsourced to one company that focuses entirely on the graphics and the layout. Once that is done, it is sent to a implementation and backend development company. Often, these two companies are separated, but the look company has greater control because the group that hired the two is part of marketting. This often creates a problem because the looks company is coming from a paper media background and expect the web to function the same way. They often ignore web standards, such as NEVER USE FRAMES, so that it would look "nice." When it does finally hit the web, it loses a lot of the expected functionality that typical web users look for.
Secondly, to cut costs, the implementation companies often take templated code for the project. Depending on the code, it is rather inefficient and troublesome on other browsers than the ones that they focus on.
Lastly, while I was typing this, I had to exit out of the website. The javascript was taking up 40-70% of my resources (running P2 233).
example of inefficient code (from the Olympics site):
[Note: I've replaced the > and
If I were a company hiring someone to do a website, I would focus on their technical know-how rather than their artistic experience. Artistic experience is important up to and until implementation. If a site is poorly implemented that decreases the value of the artistic experience. If it is highly implemented, it often hides and shields the lack of "prettiness"
Another way, that I have mentioned in my other post, is big corporations would be the only ones to afford insurance to cover any fines or liabilities that they have. Small companies would suffer the most, in effect, putting them out of business. This creates a small number of large companies providing a majority of the software out there.
It's never a good idea to formalize issues like these into laws. Consumer preference and freedom of the market allows consumers to create a self correcting system. If there is a major problem with a product (not necessarily software), the consumers vote with their purchases or lack thereof. This can be seen in people turning away from firestone towards good year or corporations turning away from Windows servers towards Linux.
However, if corporations were to be fined because of vulnerabilities in their system, they would most likely pass the cost down to the consumers. Large corporations would probably purchase business insurance to cover these potential problems (the same way doctors have Medical insurance). However, it is the small companies that will suffer. Unable to afford insurance, the first major problem in their software could bankrupt a company leading to a small number of large corporations rather than a large number of small corporations.
Lastly, to be able to produce secure software, it is almost mandatory to understand computer science theories such as computability or complexity. This could lead to a requirement (not necessarily a law but a social requirement) for a programmer to be a licensed engineer. This is much in the same way that you need a civil engineer license to build bridges. I mean, just about anyone could build a bridge, but you need to understand civil engineering principles to ensure that the bridge functions to specifications.
What your missing is that it is not a problem of the client but of the technology behind it. As the paper discussed, there is a number of scalability problems inherent within gnutella. Unless these are resolved, any new client will inherate these flaws.
It's the same thing as saying a person building the fastest boat but only using a paddle. No matter how you design the boat, the paddle is your limiting factor
Fighting for open source is not a great idea for a campaign. First of all your target audience (the general masses) does not care about whether their elected officials use Linux or Windows. Secondly, you don't want to get into a Windows vs Linux argument with your opponent. Political campaign is not the right place for this struggle.
First of all, I think this article just feeds the fire for a lot of unnecessary bashing. A theme arising from many of the post is that NOBODY CARES WHAT OS'S OTHERS ARE USING!
Secondly, each OS has their positives and negatives. It is anti-productive to have people have to learn a new thing if their job is to write articles (per se). Does a news paper reporter overcome writers block if they are running Linux? How about XP? It just doesn't matter to him.
Lastly, a key thing in the stability of an OS is not necessarily the OS itself..but how it is configured. A XP box could be secured down and likewise a linux box could have a user open up all the unnecessary vulnerabilities. The reverse is also possible.
Note taken. But the gripe here is the fact that they have been secretly doing this. I don't mind seeing an ad here or there when I visit a website or have to register to get a service because I know where that information is going. But if they have been secretly doing this, it makes you wonder what else they have installed on your computer.
I mean, according to your reasoning, it would be perfectly ok for the developers of limewire (per se) to install a keysniffer to log your password for your online banking site without telling you that they are doing that.
Thanks for the FUD.
But in the same way, we can say that IN PRACTICE Democracy is nowhere close to the system that we currently have in the US. The US is nothing like the original framers of the constitution envisioned it to be.
Now that is said, the original poster said specifically in ideals. The Open Source community is quite close to a socialist society [communism has a bad connotation to it]. In a socialist society, the emphasis is on labor rather than capital. In the same way, Linux is the result of hours of free labor provided by individual programmers, not the result of a large investment of money.
Please educate yourself in this before you start spreading FUD.
Let them make their own computer hardware and software
Ignorant fool. Tell me, where are the hardware of your computers made? Chances are the majority of the hardware inside your computer at some point went through the Asian production line.
Secondly, why would any foreign government trust any software that is currently being produced in the US. The FBI has openly acknowledged that they are using Magic Lantern and Carnivore. Who knows what the CIA is using. And a number of antivirus companies have agreed [then backtracked] on "overlooking" the FBI key sniffing applications. If you were a foreign nation installing MS Windows on a top secret site, would you be worried that the CIA had secretly asked MS to create a backdoor allowing the US to access their top secret systems? Would you be willing to allow the FBI to use an OS that was produced in Iraq? Maybe Iraq is a little far-fetched of an example, let's say France?
China in NO WAY could afford to enter open-source development where there is no income associated with the expense of software development. The western Linux community has disposable income.
This is a false statement. The Linux community more closely resembles the ideal communist system than it does resemble the western ideals. Despite what you may believe, there is money to be made in open source development. The reason that it would work better in China than in the US per se is that their cost of living and wages are lower. Would any good programmer in the US be willing to work for $50-300/month? But in China, this the average salary. But you must remember that the cost of living is significantly lower
This is the reason that the open source community is struggling in the corporate world. Corporations need to have the highest return on investment. The assets and value of a software company is the source code. If companies are openly giving it away, it cuts into their profits.
It's quite surprising to read this now. I mean, weren't they saying the same thing back when Toy Story first came out? Shrek and Monsters Inc are not trend setters or anything, they just followed the path of their previous hits.
Sorry to disappoint you, but the majority of the world uses Metric system. In fact, US and England are the few countries that use Unit system. In addition, most scientific measurements are made in metric. NASA/JPL was the one that messed up when they used unit system by mistake. I think after that fiasco, they banned unit measurements and unit measuring tools from NASA
My CS professor has been researching the same technology however, his puts the entire laser apparatus on a robotic vehicle that is completely/near-completely autonomous. He recently got a $2 million NSF grant to do the same digitization of Egypts pyramids.
Since Audio CDs that are CopyProtected only work with Windows because is uses a proprietary player, does that mean that the Copy Protected CDs are closer to Software than it is to Audio? Will we be looking for Windows Natalie Imbruglia Cd or OSX Blink 182 or Linux Metallica?
This is getting quite interesting. I wonder if there's any legal ramifications of this?
This harks back to the days of strings and tin cans from a long time ago where kids would run the string to their next door neighbors. Well, now kids will be making 10mbs wireless connection and instant messaging, video conferencing, or fragging each other in Quake...this is the Advancement in Technology in comparison...
Data speed is not like the speed that you get in a car. Basically the link is based on the wavelength of the data. So over distance, wavelength does not change.
The shift had started a few years ago...The next big internet boom is currently taking place in the far east. Pretty much a lot of the entrepeneurs that had worked on internet startups here in the US shifted their focus over to the far east. By learning from the mistakes that they made, they are able to do it more efficiently.
Windows is made for wussies who don't want to get dirty doing their work. Work is dirty. Suck it up
So you are saying that to get to work, and there's a problem with your car, you shouldn't call a mechanic. You should try to fix it yourself? Why does a newspaper reporter need to know how to install a kernel? Why does he need to learn how to configure the network?
I'm not saying that Windows is inherently better in all applications and I'm not saying that linux is inherently better in all applications. But Linux as it stands cannot be the panacea of all computer applications. Linux as it is is best suited for for server use.
However, if an IT department where they worked decided to use something different then they would have no choice
I disagree. An IT manager still has a person that he or she has to report to. In a big corporate environment a lot of cost analysis and benefit analysis must be made before something is implemented. It's not like an IT manager can go in one weekend and change every desktop OS. There's still a lot of old school politics going around
Secondly, what benefit would it be to install Linux desktop at NY Times (for example)? Chances are the reporters use MS Office to write their articles and Macs for layout. Linux isn't the final solution for all environments.
Lastly, [now this is totally off-topic..this is the part where you should stop reading and let me rant...], but do moderators even read the entire post before they moderate. Someone gave my original posting "Troll" rating. Just because it isn't 100% positive for an Open Source-centric, Linux-centric web community doesn't mean that it is totally off-base. Ok, sorry..that's me ranting there...
Slashdot Mirror
...or create another method for users to access AOL and even more revenue streams. I think the AOL PC powered by Linux is a pretty viable idea.
You also have to remember that it's not AOL but now AOL/TW. MS just took a step into the media world with their Home Entertainment Center. And AOL/TW did the same thing into the OS world.
or could also be bad in that they wrestle linux away from the open source developers and take off with their own development of it. With that same "tons of money" that you mention, the people that have worked so hard till now will have no choice but to follow what they do.
true...but if they configure the distro for a dumbed down home user and markets it correctly..it would no longer be known as Linux.. but AOL/TW Linux. Now, if they get 40% of the install base to run AOL/TW Linux, who is going to be able to tell these users that they are not "running the real linux." At that point, AOL could change something major in the kernel, and everyone else would have to change it to match their distro b/c the majority of the users use AOL brand Linux.
Can't be done? Look at HTML standards and how at one time Netscape and IE setup their own version of the standards and eventually W3C had to give in and apply those changes as standards.
Wow, this is mind boggling. With Redhat Linux, AOL/TW will finally have enough power to compete head on with Microsoft.
This brings up another problem. Who will be the bigger monopoly five years down the road? As of now, MS controls a good majority of the OS/Business Application market and AOL/TW controls much of the content and media both online and offline. Now if AOL/TW w/ Redhat becomes a major competitor of MS, than AOL/TW would have a great monopoly.
With the AOL/TW purchase of Redhat, it would finally bring users to a linux environment. However, if you look at the general population of AOL users, do you really want them running linux? Will we have a bigger population of vulnerable computers? I mean a big problem during the mid 90s was people sending emails supposed from AOL to the users asking for CC # and a good number of them were ignorant and gave it anyways. Just some stuff to consider...
After reading all these posts, there is one thing that I find rather humorous. When people come on here and say that the Asian countries don't respect IP laws of the US so they should not be allowed to have access to US software that Americans worked so hard to produce...but then these same people turn around and download MP3s illegally breaking the same IP laws that they claim the Asian nations don't respect. It is the exact definition of being hypocritical.
/. posting from last week, they want to become what India has become in terms of a service industry. By stepping out of this market and allowing another company to fill the gap, it will be even harder for them to reclaim their position later on. This is especially true later on when China totally turns around and becomes a service industry producing softwares and we become a consumer of their products.
Adobe has the right and power to produce whatever product that will get the most return on investments. If they have made this decision to not localize Adobe products than [hopefully] they have put in much research into this showing that their ROI is not worth it. However, Asia, especially China, is starting to become a even bigger hotbed for technology, in terms of production and consumption. In the
After 9/11, the Red Cross in NYC got millions and millions of dollars in donated technology. On of the things that they have setup for the Red Cross is a Mobile Command Unit. Basically it's a truck with a pull out rack of approximately 25 laptops with Wireless LAN cards. In addition, they have a bunch of iPAQs with WLAN cards. I idea is that if a disaster occurs somewhere, the MCU could roll up and setup anywhere.
Now you can use the same idea for a mobile school. Instead of getting a cramped unventilated bus, just get a mid-sized van. Setup a pullout rack with laptops in them. [I think Dell had this type of rack for schools] Setup wireless lan connected to a server onboard of the van. It might be possible to use direcPC Satellite internet so that you are not reliant on location.
With this setup, the students can just pick up a laptop and tables could be setup or they can even go inside a building [a WLAN bridge might be necessary] and start learning.
In terms of OS, you have to remember what your primary focus is. [Not knowing that, I'm going to take a stab] It is to bridge the digital divide by educating people in technology. It should not be a battle ground in an OS-war. I would definitely setup Win2k because of its simplicity. [Hey, how many people will hack a IT Van?]. In addition, I'd setup a ghost image on the server and before or after each event, wipe the changes and ghost all the laptops to a standard configuration.
The way that many of these outsourced projects work is that the look and feel is outsourced to one company that focuses entirely on the graphics and the layout. Once that is done, it is sent to a implementation and backend development company. Often, these two companies are separated, but the look company has greater control because the group that hired the two is part of marketting. This often creates a problem because the looks company is coming from a paper media background and expect the web to function the same way. They often ignore web standards, such as NEVER USE FRAMES, so that it would look "nice." When it does finally hit the web, it loses a lot of the expected functionality that typical web users look for.
Secondly, to cut costs, the implementation companies often take templated code for the project. Depending on the code, it is rather inefficient and troublesome on other browsers than the ones that they focus on.
Lastly, while I was typing this, I had to exit out of the website. The javascript was taking up 40-70% of my resources (running P2 233).
example of inefficient code (from the Olympics site): [Note: I've replaced the > and
If I were a company hiring someone to do a website, I would focus on their technical know-how rather than their artistic experience. Artistic experience is important up to and until implementation. If a site is poorly implemented that decreases the value of the artistic experience. If it is highly implemented, it often hides and shields the lack of "prettiness"
Another way, that I have mentioned in my other post, is big corporations would be the only ones to afford insurance to cover any fines or liabilities that they have. Small companies would suffer the most, in effect, putting them out of business. This creates a small number of large companies providing a majority of the software out there.
It's never a good idea to formalize issues like these into laws. Consumer preference and freedom of the market allows consumers to create a self correcting system. If there is a major problem with a product (not necessarily software), the consumers vote with their purchases or lack thereof. This can be seen in people turning away from firestone towards good year or corporations turning away from Windows servers towards Linux.
However, if corporations were to be fined because of vulnerabilities in their system, they would most likely pass the cost down to the consumers. Large corporations would probably purchase business insurance to cover these potential problems (the same way doctors have Medical insurance). However, it is the small companies that will suffer. Unable to afford insurance, the first major problem in their software could bankrupt a company leading to a small number of large corporations rather than a large number of small corporations.
Lastly, to be able to produce secure software, it is almost mandatory to understand computer science theories such as computability or complexity. This could lead to a requirement (not necessarily a law but a social requirement) for a programmer to be a licensed engineer. This is much in the same way that you need a civil engineer license to build bridges. I mean, just about anyone could build a bridge, but you need to understand civil engineering principles to ensure that the bridge functions to specifications.
What your missing is that it is not a problem of the client but of the technology behind it. As the paper discussed, there is a number of scalability problems inherent within gnutella. Unless these are resolved, any new client will inherate these flaws.
It's the same thing as saying a person building the fastest boat but only using a paddle. No matter how you design the boat, the paddle is your limiting factor
Fighting for open source is not a great idea for a campaign. First of all your target audience (the general masses) does not care about whether their elected officials use Linux or Windows. Secondly, you don't want to get into a Windows vs Linux argument with your opponent. Political campaign is not the right place for this struggle.
First of all, I think this article just feeds the fire for a lot of unnecessary bashing. A theme arising from many of the post is that NOBODY CARES WHAT OS'S OTHERS ARE USING!
Secondly, each OS has their positives and negatives. It is anti-productive to have people have to learn a new thing if their job is to write articles (per se). Does a news paper reporter overcome writers block if they are running Linux? How about XP? It just doesn't matter to him.
Lastly, a key thing in the stability of an OS is not necessarily the OS itself..but how it is configured. A XP box could be secured down and likewise a linux box could have a user open up all the unnecessary vulnerabilities. The reverse is also possible.
Note taken. But the gripe here is the fact that they have been secretly doing this. I don't mind seeing an ad here or there when I visit a website or have to register to get a service because I know where that information is going. But if they have been secretly doing this, it makes you wonder what else they have installed on your computer.
I mean, according to your reasoning, it would be perfectly ok for the developers of limewire (per se) to install a keysniffer to log your password for your online banking site without telling you that they are doing that.
Thanks for the FUD.
But in the same way, we can say that IN PRACTICE Democracy is nowhere close to the system that we currently have in the US. The US is nothing like the original framers of the constitution envisioned it to be.
Now that is said, the original poster said specifically in ideals. The Open Source community is quite close to a socialist society [communism has a bad connotation to it]. In a socialist society, the emphasis is on labor rather than capital. In the same way, Linux is the result of hours of free labor provided by individual programmers, not the result of a large investment of money.
Please educate yourself in this before you start spreading FUD.
Ignorant fool. Tell me, where are the hardware of your computers made? Chances are the majority of the hardware inside your computer at some point went through the Asian production line.
Secondly, why would any foreign government trust any software that is currently being produced in the US. The FBI has openly acknowledged that they are using Magic Lantern and Carnivore. Who knows what the CIA is using. And a number of antivirus companies have agreed [then backtracked] on "overlooking" the FBI key sniffing applications. If you were a foreign nation installing MS Windows on a top secret site, would you be worried that the CIA had secretly asked MS to create a backdoor allowing the US to access their top secret systems? Would you be willing to allow the FBI to use an OS that was produced in Iraq? Maybe Iraq is a little far-fetched of an example, let's say France?
This is a false statement. The Linux community more closely resembles the ideal communist system than it does resemble the western ideals. Despite what you may believe, there is money to be made in open source development. The reason that it would work better in China than in the US per se is that their cost of living and wages are lower. Would any good programmer in the US be willing to work for $50-300/month? But in China, this the average salary. But you must remember that the cost of living is significantly lower
This is the reason that the open source community is struggling in the corporate world. Corporations need to have the highest return on investment. The assets and value of a software company is the source code. If companies are openly giving it away, it cuts into their profits.
It's quite surprising to read this now. I mean, weren't they saying the same thing back when Toy Story first came out? Shrek and Monsters Inc are not trend setters or anything, they just followed the path of their previous hits.
Sorry to disappoint you, but the majority of the world uses Metric system. In fact, US and England are the few countries that use Unit system. In addition, most scientific measurements are made in metric. NASA/JPL was the one that messed up when they used unit system by mistake. I think after that fiasco, they banned unit measurements and unit measuring tools from NASA
My CS professor has been researching the same technology however, his puts the entire laser apparatus on a robotic vehicle that is completely/near-completely autonomous. He recently got a $2 million NSF grant to do the same digitization of Egypts pyramids.
Since Audio CDs that are CopyProtected only work with Windows because is uses a proprietary player, does that mean that the Copy Protected CDs are closer to Software than it is to Audio? Will we be looking for Windows Natalie Imbruglia Cd or OSX Blink 182 or Linux Metallica?
This is getting quite interesting. I wonder if there's any legal ramifications of this?
This harks back to the days of strings and tin cans from a long time ago where kids would run the string to their next door neighbors. Well, now kids will be making 10mbs wireless connection and instant messaging, video conferencing, or fragging each other in Quake...this is the Advancement in Technology in comparison...
Data speed is not like the speed that you get in a car. Basically the link is based on the wavelength of the data. So over distance, wavelength does not change.
The shift had started a few years ago...The next big internet boom is currently taking place in the far east. Pretty much a lot of the entrepeneurs that had worked on internet startups here in the US shifted their focus over to the far east. By learning from the mistakes that they made, they are able to do it more efficiently.
So you are saying that to get to work, and there's a problem with your car, you shouldn't call a mechanic. You should try to fix it yourself? Why does a newspaper reporter need to know how to install a kernel? Why does he need to learn how to configure the network?
I'm not saying that Windows is inherently better in all applications and I'm not saying that linux is inherently better in all applications. But Linux as it stands cannot be the panacea of all computer applications. Linux as it is is best suited for for server use.
Secondly, what benefit would it be to install Linux desktop at NY Times (for example)? Chances are the reporters use MS Office to write their articles and Macs for layout. Linux isn't the final solution for all environments.
Lastly, [now this is totally off-topic..this is the part where you should stop reading and let me rant...], but do moderators even read the entire post before they moderate. Someone gave my original posting "Troll" rating. Just because it isn't 100% positive for an Open Source-centric, Linux-centric web community doesn't mean that it is totally off-base. Ok, sorry..that's me ranting there...