The latency sucks rocks - bandwidth is nice, but channel changes? nope.
McAllister place is probably to far from the DSLAM or something. When higher badwidth becomes practical (like alcatel's new DSL stuff) then this won't happen.
or how an old 486 spent two years headless behind a desk running squid to give our whole tech support department's testing network access to the net through the corporate lan;-)
no, it's an argument for my grandmother to use a different _distro_. are you saying that my grandmother should not know the joys of free software? i'm sure you're not. the beauty of free software is that the handles on the tool are hot swappable, and if someone wants to make a user interface that is very consistent, predictable, and powerless, there are sure to be some users that would love it.
me? i'm just in it for the eye-candy. i can figure out any interface, although to be honest, i would rather not waste my time trying to learn how to interact with an application if i could already know that and spend my time learning to use the tools.
The biggest expense that these guys could possibly encounter would be to change something in the manufacturing process (that is, besides a bunch of geeks buying the iopener and not paying for hte service). These boxes are cranked out as quickly and as cheaply as possible to keep their cost on the box as low as possible. If you want those features, the best you could hope for would be to build them yourself - that's the hack value of the box.
problem with open source is that hackers are really going to have a hard time contributing to the i-opener since it is running QNX. the first thing any one of us would do with it when we hack it would be to install linux, or something else. netpliance is not going to switch their platform from QNX to anything else - if they did, they would have hackers around the world tweaking that 16 megs of rom to see what little enhancements could fit. they could have something like the palm, or the c64 on their hands, and i-opener could become a viable platform. but all current hacks destroy netpliances source of revenue (the ISP) and so they are not very helpful to QNX. to be worth their while they need to maintain their "system" intact on the box. good luck...
hmmm. what you have describes is known as a "laptop" or "notebook," and i beleive the market is fairly saturated with those already. $499? give me a break... it cost THEM nearly that just for the 3 year-old hardware that they are shipping in the current models.
Tried BFRIS, but the controls were frustrating (no slide side to side, and joystick will not configure properly) and i got sick of spinning around inside a funky ball pretty quickly. Parsec is "the great outdoors". Kind of reminds me of Terminal Velocity/Hellbender, without the land surface (whick I'm sure could be coded into a level - mmmmm, mountains...).
Even if BFRIS didn't bore me, it would driver me bananas tryint to steer that silly boat.
and assume that 40% of these same Slashdot readers have paying jobs, and 40% of these live with their parents and have no expenses, and assume 40% of these have not already blown their money on an AIBO or 21" Nokia iMac, then there may be enough buyers to prolong the company another few weeks beofre the enevitable bankruptcy because the things will cost too damn much.
I am so with Dave! My wife uses our Linux system at home, and she loves it with the exception of a few missing plugins. Flash has helped bigtime, but the ones that I find she misses the most are Quicktime 4 and Shockwave (she loves http://www.candystand.com). I have suggested that she write Macromedia and Apple, and that she write the webmasters, but really she just gets annoyed with me. D'OH!
It is not a fault of Linux or it's developers, it's a fault of Microsoft. They are 'embracing and extending, and innovating' wizz-bang toys that they keep closed. This is the crux of their monopolistic practises that the FTC is investigating.
i can get the intro animation, 3dfx splash logo, and it brings up the game meu (real purty) but i lose mouse support in the game and cannot do anything. it also does real weird things to my video card unless i run it on a second X server, and exit with a ctrl-alt-bkspc.
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
is almost equal to
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed may include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, if that component itself accompanies the executable.
therefore the clause does apply. (remember i said almost - i may be a BA in english, but i am not perfect...)
what is an OS? is it a kernel? or is it a distribution? i can get linux to boot with the kernel, init, and a few libs, does that mean everything else is non-essential? one could easily create a distribution that will not boot without qt.
why do we have to have levels that get switched on or off, though? all power features should be there, and easy to access, but not in the users face. that way, there is no advanced mode - the advanced user just starts a term, whereas the average user doen't know what a term is. same goes for file managers - advanced commands can be easily accessible from menus, but don't show up in normal drag'n'drop activity. if you double-click on a.conf file, it will start it's own configuration tool with teh file loaded, but the hackers can always use vi. look at Next, or even BeOS. Command prompt is there, but noone needs to use it.
This is a good article, but the author is missing one point (one that is important to me, anways) - Linux is not an operating system, it is a kernel that is used to build operating system, mostly unix clones like RedHat Linux. There will most certainly be a LFTM (probably redhat) but the different flavors are a good thing, since they maintain developer interest. Us non-developers can pick the one that is easiest to use, and eventually the LFTM will appear. I personally would like to see a non-unix-clone built on linux and the GNU tools (as a matter of fact, if someone else is interested in this contact me), but the freedom of the OS is what will drive LFTM
Slashdot Mirror
The latency sucks rocks - bandwidth is nice, but channel changes? nope.
McAllister place is probably to far from the DSLAM or something. When higher badwidth becomes practical (like alcatel's new DSL stuff) then this won't happen.
gg
I live in Canada. That's normal.
Then again, our dollar is worth about 60 cents US.
gg
or how an old 486 spent two years headless behind a desk running squid to give our whole tech support department's testing network access to the net through the corporate lan ;-)
gg
no, it's an argument for my grandmother to use a different _distro_. are you saying that my grandmother should not know the joys of free software? i'm sure you're not.
the beauty of free software is that the handles on the tool are hot swappable, and if someone wants to make a user interface that is very consistent, predictable, and powerless, there are sure to be some users that would love it.
me? i'm just in it for the eye-candy. i can figure out any interface, although to be honest, i would rather not waste my time trying to learn how to interact with an application if i could already know that and spend my time learning to use the tools.
gg
The biggest expense that these guys could possibly encounter would be to change something in the manufacturing process (that is, besides a bunch of geeks buying the iopener and not paying for hte service). These boxes are cranked out as quickly and as cheaply as possible to keep their cost on the box as low as possible. If you want those features, the best you could hope for would be to build them yourself - that's the hack value of the box.
gg
problem with open source is that hackers are really going to have a hard time contributing to the i-opener since it is running QNX. the first thing any one of us would do with it when we hack it would be to install linux, or something else. netpliance is not going to switch their platform from QNX to anything else - if they did, they would have hackers around the world tweaking that 16 megs of rom to see what little enhancements could fit. they could have something like the palm, or the c64 on their hands, and i-opener could become a viable platform. but all current hacks destroy netpliances source of revenue (the ISP) and so they are not very helpful to QNX. to be worth their while they need to maintain their "system" intact on the box. good luck...
gg
hmmm. what you have describes is known as a "laptop" or "notebook," and i beleive the market is fairly saturated with those already. $499? give me a break... it cost THEM nearly that just for the 3 year-old hardware that they are shipping in the current models.
gg
they have already released a virus scaner for linux. Now they're just waiting for a couple good viruses...
gg
Tried BFRIS, but the controls were frustrating (no slide side to side, and joystick will not configure properly) and i got sick of spinning around inside a funky ball pretty quickly. Parsec is "the great outdoors". Kind of reminds me of Terminal Velocity/Hellbender, without the land surface (whick I'm sure could be coded into a level - mmmmm, mountains...).
Even if BFRIS didn't bore me, it would driver me bananas tryint to steer that silly boat.
gg
and assume that 40% of these same Slashdot readers have paying jobs, and 40% of these live with their parents and have no expenses, and assume 40% of these have not already blown their money on an AIBO or 21" Nokia iMac, then there may be enough buyers to prolong the company another few weeks beofre the enevitable bankruptcy because the things will cost too damn much.
;-)
save you money for Unreal Tournament
gg
I am so with Dave! My wife uses our Linux system at home, and she loves it with the exception of a few missing plugins. Flash has helped bigtime, but the ones that I find she misses the most are Quicktime 4 and Shockwave (she loves http://www.candystand.com). I have suggested that she write Macromedia and Apple, and that she write the webmasters, but really she just gets annoyed with me. D'OH!
gg
It is not a fault of Linux or it's developers, it's a fault of Microsoft. They are 'embracing and extending, and innovating' wizz-bang toys that they keep closed. This is the crux of their monopolistic practises that the FTC is investigating.
that's WHIZ-bang.
gg
i can get the intro animation, 3dfx splash logo, and it brings up the game meu (real purty) but i lose mouse support in the game and cannot do anything. it also does real weird things to my video card unless i run it on a second X server, and exit with a ctrl-alt-bkspc.
gg
teach me to code. i will. in the meantime, i enjoy wasting my time being a pain in the ass on slashdot.
gg
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.
is almost equal to
However, as a special exception, the source code distributed may include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, if that component itself accompanies the executable.
therefore the clause does apply. (remember i said almost - i may be a BA in english, but i am not perfect...)
gg
what is an OS? is it a kernel? or is it a distribution? i can get linux to boot with the kernel, init, and a few libs, does that mean everything else is non-essential? one could easily create a distribution that will not boot without qt.
btw the qt license suck. the gpl sucks less.
gg
BTW, the QPL does *not* rule out code forking. The only issue is that your source must be released in the form of diffs against the original tree.
remember minix? its license allowed forking by releasing diffs against the source tree. ALL my friends are using minix, aren't yours?
gg
easy interface + cheap = wide usage.
is that better?
gg
why do we have to have levels that get switched on or off, though? all power features should be there, and easy to access, but not in the users face. that way, there is no advanced mode - the advanced user just starts a term, whereas the average user doen't know what a term is. same goes for file managers - advanced commands can be easily accessible from menus, but don't show up in normal drag'n'drop activity. if you double-click on a .conf file, it will start it's own configuration tool with teh file loaded, but the hackers can always use vi. look at Next, or even BeOS. Command prompt is there, but noone needs to use it.
gg
yeah, but what if we (we being the open source zealots) built our own system, the same way amiga is planning, but as free software.
gg
This is a good article, but the author is missing one point (one that is important to me, anways) - Linux is not an operating system, it is a kernel that is used to build operating system, mostly unix clones like RedHat Linux. There will most certainly be a LFTM (probably redhat) but the different flavors are a good thing, since they maintain developer interest. Us non-developers can pick the one that is easiest to use, and eventually the LFTM will appear. I personally would like to see a non-unix-clone built on linux and the GNU tools (as a matter of fact, if someone else is interested in this contact me), but the freedom of the OS is what will drive LFTM
gg
Bob. Okay, you win.
gg