What you're arguing is that for Linux to succeed, it needs to become something other than what it is. The whole point of open-source/free software is that there is no One True Package.
If by some Act of God, Linux were to become what you say it should, then the people who currently use and support it would instead switch to BSD or Darwin or OpenBeOS or some other open, polymorphic OS. Because that's what they want, not Linux for the sake of Linux.
The down side of freedom is that you need to make choices, and the down side of making choices is that you need to do some research. If you want a developer to do all that for you, then you should stick with an OS from company that will do that. Microsoft excels at it, and if that's a little bit too controlling for you, you should be quite happy with Mac. (Seriously, OS X is a great centrally-designed system.) But what see as "what's wrong" is what others see as "what's right". Deal.
When Apple upgraded the CPU in the Mac II to the 68030, they called the new model the Mac IIx. I was disappointed that they didn't use the same naming pattern when they put a 68030 in the Mac SE (instead calling it the Mac SE/30).
If I wanted to do a bunch of click, slide, click nonsense with a cascading menu, I wouldn't be complaining about the dozen windows that collapse into a single "GIMP" item on my taskbar. I don't mind wasting the pixels used by a taskbar; they're cheap.:)
A toolbar is very useful for single-click access to perhaps a dozen currently-open documents or apps... or at least it would be if it not for the GIMP cluttering it with buttons which are neither apps nor docs, and which serve no useful purpose there... or on a cascading menu that groups windows by application.
IANAL, but as I understand the law, this probably qualifies as parody under Fair Use. Not very good parody (i.e. it's not particularly funny or insightful), possibly fraudulent, and certainly libelous, but Fair Use nontheless.
I was hoping that it would no longer clutter up my task bar with a block for every single subwindow it creates (including palettes, controls, toolbars, etc). So I'll still have to choose between letting the GIMP take over my task bar, or collapsing all GIMP windows into a single item, so I can't select different documents. Oh well. Fortunately I have a Mac and Photoshop for when I want good usability, and I can stick to using the GIMP for convenience on my Linux boxes.
I once had to rig a replacement battery for my PDA using a pocket knife and sewing kit, in the waiting area at the gate before a long flight to Europe (which the PDA's backup battery wouldn't survive). Fortunately this was back in the blissful 1990's, and I was not subjected to indefinite secret detention as an enemy combatant.
Does the patent then cover the mechanism of desktop switching more so than the act of desktop switching?
It's for the method, not the idea. The method they describe sounds rather derivative of the pager in (to cite the examples I'm familiar with) KDE and GNOME. The only difference is that those multiple desktops are always visible at the bottom of the screen, rather than having to be called up by user action.
Interestingly, Apple's new Expose' feature in OS X works on a similar principle to what MS is describing here, zooming all the active windows out when you press a key, so you can pick the one you want to zoom back in on. But that's not necessarily a multiple-desktop scenario, so it probably wouldn't be directly affected by this.
I've always thought that multiple desktops with the ability to "zoom out" to see more than one of them at a time would be a great management tool.
Which is why the Patent Office should toss this application out. It's a method that's fairly obvious to anyone working in the field, which is one of the disqualifying tests.
Speakeasy uses Covad's network in my area, which runs on equipment in SBC's facilities, and uses the copper put in the ground by "the phone company" (whatever they were called at the time). But my SDSL is on a separate pair from my SBC phone line (no filter or frequency splitter needed on either end), so I could literally cut the pair for my POTS line with wire cutters and my DSL would be unaffected. I don't see how discontinuation of phone service due to failure to pay my SBC bill would affect it... unless someone downtown ripped out the pair that Covad is paying SBC to use.
Hynds' statement may also anger those who believe that one of the Web's great strengths is that it accommodates such a wide range of interests, free from censorship.
A method for a user to preview multiple virtual desktops in a graphical user interface is described. The method comprises receiving an indication from a user to preview the multiple virtual desktops and displaying multiple panes on the display. Each pane contains a scaled virtual desktop having dimensions that are proportionally less than the dimensions of a corresponding full-size virtual desktop. Each scaled virtual desktop displays with one or more scaled application windows as shadows if the corresponding full-size virtual desktop has one or more corresponding application windows that are active.
So right away he takes a jab at Linux by comparing it to a Diet Coke, while comparing Windows to the full meal.
But that full meal (a super-size McDonald's combo) is full of stuff that's going to turn you into a lump of lard over time, and help you to die of either heart failure or colon cancer. Meanwhile, that Diet Coke is relatively harmless and refreshing, and gives you a fighting chance at losing some weight. Sounds good to me!
If you're talking about an isolated piece of creator-owned code, you're right that only the creator's opinion really matters. But if you're talking about a combination of code from various sources, the compatibility of their various licencing terms becomes an issue.
There's no denying that the original inspiration for the name, the design of the Mandrake Linux mascot was derived from the old comics character. But Mandrakesoft has steered away from that lately, and I'd think that if they dropped any remaining references to magic in their marketing (including the star symbol), and argued the genericness of "mandrake" apart from those references, they should (by any reasonable standard) be allowed to continue using the "Mandrake" name.
Incompatiblity between the Apache licence ver 2.0 and the GPL is nothing new. The FSF cites other problems with the 1.x Apache licences. They also say that "there is no reason to avoid running programs that have been released under [the 1.1 Apache] license".
The question of GPL compatibility becomes a problem only when a package contains links directly to GPL code, as seems to be the case with XFree86. If the packages are distinct enough, any "free" licence (which is the term the FSF uses for Apache's) is OK for the two to coexist in a distro.
Based on the level of ineptitude behind so much spam of the spam I receive (e.g. "Dear USERNAME...", incompatible charsets, sales pitches so unreadable that a 1-in-6Gpeople response rate seems optimistic), I'm not sure that spammers as a class can be described as "rational" (even in mercantile terms). That's assuming a level of analysis that they don't even seem capable of.
I think a lot of the actual practitioners of spam are simply id10ts who've been duped into believing that the economics of it are in their favor. ("Look at how many people are doing it!" "They said on TV that it doesn't cost hardly nothing"). So they buy mailing lists, spamware, etc. from folks dealing in such stuff... as Make Money Fast! scams. Spammers don't necessarily last very long individually; they seem so persistent only because of the ongoing supply of suckers.
If so, it isn't the cost/benefit of spamming that keeps the crap flowing, but the cost/benefit of selling spamming. It's not the open relays out there that are the problem, but the open (slack-jawed) mouths.
If things progress as they appear to be going now, XFork86 4.3+ is likely to become a de facto standard (and perhaps "the") by virtue of its inclusion in major Linuces and BSDs. If that happens, I'd expect nVidia (regardless of whether they care about the "freedom" thang) to go where their customers are going, and start writing their drivers for that also/instead.
If you want a small, notebook-sized machine to carry around and take notes on without opening it up like a clamshell laptop, I recommend the TRS-80 Model 100. The screen's kinda small, but the keyboard is a joy, and its battery life beats the pants (and shirt and socks and underpants) off any laptop on the market. The Bill-Gates-written BASIC interpreter might make some queasy, but it's a really nice piece of gear.
Slashdot Mirror
If by some Act of God, Linux were to become what you say it should, then the people who currently use and support it would instead switch to BSD or Darwin or OpenBeOS or some other open, polymorphic OS. Because that's what they want, not Linux for the sake of Linux.
The down side of freedom is that you need to make choices, and the down side of making choices is that you need to do some research. If you want a developer to do all that for you, then you should stick with an OS from company that will do that. Microsoft excels at it, and if that's a little bit too controlling for you, you should be quite happy with Mac. (Seriously, OS X is a great centrally-designed system.) But what see as "what's wrong" is what others see as "what's right". Deal.
When Apple upgraded the CPU in the Mac II to the 68030, they called the new model the Mac IIx. I was disappointed that they didn't use the same naming pattern when they put a 68030 in the Mac SE (instead calling it the Mac SE/30).
(With that said, I think it's failing.)
A toolbar is very useful for single-click access to perhaps a dozen currently-open documents or apps... or at least it would be if it not for the GIMP cluttering it with buttons which are neither apps nor docs, and which serve no useful purpose there... or on a cascading menu that groups windows by application.
IANAL, but as I understand the law, this probably qualifies as parody under Fair Use. Not very good parody (i.e. it's not particularly funny or insightful), possibly fraudulent, and certainly libelous, but Fair Use nontheless.
I was hoping that it would no longer clutter up my task bar with a block for every single subwindow it creates (including palettes, controls, toolbars, etc). So I'll still have to choose between letting the GIMP take over my task bar, or collapsing all GIMP windows into a single item, so I can't select different documents. Oh well. Fortunately I have a Mac and Photoshop for when I want good usability, and I can stick to using the GIMP for convenience on my Linux boxes.
I once had to rig a replacement battery for my PDA using a pocket knife and sewing kit, in the waiting area at the gate before a long flight to Europe (which the PDA's backup battery wouldn't survive). Fortunately this was back in the blissful 1990's, and I was not subjected to indefinite secret detention as an enemy combatant.
It's for the method, not the idea. The method they describe sounds rather derivative of the pager in (to cite the examples I'm familiar with) KDE and GNOME. The only difference is that those multiple desktops are always visible at the bottom of the screen, rather than having to be called up by user action.
Interestingly, Apple's new Expose' feature in OS X works on a similar principle to what MS is describing here, zooming all the active windows out when you press a key, so you can pick the one you want to zoom back in on. But that's not necessarily a multiple-desktop scenario, so it probably wouldn't be directly affected by this.
I've always thought that multiple desktops with the ability to "zoom out" to see more than one of them at a time would be a great management tool.
Which is why the Patent Office should toss this application out. It's a method that's fairly obvious to anyone working in the field, which is one of the disqualifying tests.
Speakeasy uses Covad's network in my area, which runs on equipment in SBC's facilities, and uses the copper put in the ground by "the phone company" (whatever they were called at the time). But my SDSL is on a separate pair from my SBC phone line (no filter or frequency splitter needed on either end), so I could literally cut the pair for my POTS line with wire cutters and my DSL would be unaffected. I don't see how discontinuation of phone service due to failure to pay my SBC bill would affect it... unless someone downtown ripped out the pair that Covad is paying SBC to use.
Ah, that British penchant for understatement.
Of course this is nothing new for those of us who get our DSL from networks that are not telcos (e.g. Speakeasy.net)
A method for a user to preview multiple virtual desktops in a graphical user interface is described. The method comprises receiving an indication from a user to preview the multiple virtual desktops and displaying multiple panes on the display. Each pane contains a scaled virtual desktop having dimensions that are proportionally less than the dimensions of a corresponding full-size virtual desktop. Each scaled virtual desktop displays with one or more scaled application windows as shadows if the corresponding full-size virtual desktop has one or more corresponding application windows that are active.
But that full meal (a super-size McDonald's combo) is full of stuff that's going to turn you into a lump of lard over time, and help you to die of either heart failure or colon cancer. Meanwhile, that Diet Coke is relatively harmless and refreshing, and gives you a fighting chance at losing some weight. Sounds good to me!
If you're talking about an isolated piece of creator-owned code, you're right that only the creator's opinion really matters. But if you're talking about a combination of code from various sources, the compatibility of their various licencing terms becomes an issue.
Um, not that theirs is the final word or anything, but the FSF considers the following licences compatible with the GPL:
The (itty bit of) information in the linked article is presumably accurate, but the article linking to it is just factually wrong.
My fondness for 4-alarm chili and stout doesn't prevent me from also enjoying a carrot and watercress salad with white wine.
Surely they meant to mod this "Funny" rather than "Informative"?
As long as they're there and employers are posting jobs on them, you'd be a fool not to.
Mandrake the Penguin
There's no denying that the original inspiration for the name, the design of the Mandrake Linux mascot was derived from the old comics character. But Mandrakesoft has steered away from that lately, and I'd think that if they dropped any remaining references to magic in their marketing (including the star symbol), and argued the genericness of "mandrake" apart from those references, they should (by any reasonable standard) be allowed to continue using the "Mandrake" name.
Manroot!
The question of GPL compatibility becomes a problem only when a package contains links directly to GPL code, as seems to be the case with XFree86. If the packages are distinct enough, any "free" licence (which is the term the FSF uses for Apache's) is OK for the two to coexist in a distro.
I think a lot of the actual practitioners of spam are simply id10ts who've been duped into believing that the economics of it are in their favor. ("Look at how many people are doing it!" "They said on TV that it doesn't cost hardly nothing"). So they buy mailing lists, spamware, etc. from folks dealing in such stuff... as Make Money Fast! scams. Spammers don't necessarily last very long individually; they seem so persistent only because of the ongoing supply of suckers.
If so, it isn't the cost/benefit of spamming that keeps the crap flowing, but the cost/benefit of selling spamming. It's not the open relays out there that are the problem, but the open (slack-jawed) mouths.
If things progress as they appear to be going now, XFork86 4.3+ is likely to become a de facto standard (and perhaps "the") by virtue of its inclusion in major Linuces and BSDs. If that happens, I'd expect nVidia (regardless of whether they care about the "freedom" thang) to go where their customers are going, and start writing their drivers for that also/instead.
If you want a small, notebook-sized machine to carry around and take notes on without opening it up like a clamshell laptop, I recommend the TRS-80 Model 100. The screen's kinda small, but the keyboard is a joy, and its battery life beats the pants (and shirt and socks and underpants) off any laptop on the market. The Bill-Gates-written BASIC interpreter might make some queasy, but it's a really nice piece of gear.