The Mac is the only true desktop replacement contender. When Microsoft Office becomes available for Linux, that's when Linux will become a serious contender.
I would love to sample some of that iCrack you're smoking. 1) not everybody needs or even wants an office suite. even counting "business machines" which are the vast majority of windows licenses, only about 30% have any sort of office suite installed. I can't cite a source, but my company does very large scale samplings of global business machines annually. 2) microsoft is not the only source of excellentoffice suites.
Even if you think Bush and Cheney are as good as angels, you can't seriously think they will rule forever, can you?
Considering that there was no poular revolt in this country when they ascended to power after not being elected, and have busied themselves setting up ways to indefinitely postpone US elections "in case of terrorist attack" I don't really know what's left to stop them... do you?
I wasn't arguing that point at all. I was just noting the incongruity of the rhetoric. Drawing a logical conclusion from parent's statements, if FDR was somehow-in-a-round-about-sort-of-way responsible for starting WW2, then he would also be just as responsible for the economic turnaround.
But PLEASE do tell me what else I ought to study. And, IMHO Keynesian economics is a load of crap, unless your primary concern is aggregate growth statistics. I wonder why a tax-everything style state would push such statistics so hard. Government intervention is what fscks up the system in the first place.
Re:Nice flamebait re: FDR
on
The Jobs Crunch
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Great post. You manage to imply blame for FDR for starting World War 2 through a rather flimsy connection, and simultaneously give WW2 credit for pulling the US out of the depression.
Would you be interested in a job with the Cheney administration?
yes but Slashdot will not break up with you, won't knock you up, won't embaress you in front of your friends and family. Slashdot never asks for anything but metamodding and never gives anything but modpoints.
ahh, slashdot, where were you when i was in my early twenties?
and who here doesn't use slashdot as a work substitute?
The beauty of this is, valid or invalid GPL notwithstanding, There is absolutely no question that TSG has no right to distribute IBM's copyrighted code.
Frankly I'm amazed that IBM's legal team had the patience to sit on this gem and not deliver on it sooner, but they really did give TSG just enough rope to hang themselves with. Giving them all this time to cough up *any shred* of proof that something in the kernel was proprietary IP was truly brilliant strategy. Indeed, this is the proverbial Big Stick that IBM has been walking softly and carrying.
The finnish just need to get a new research program like we have in the US, and these 'E' status soldiers will promptly be made into test subjects for the new
internet enabled super suits.
Wait, I think Microsoft got that patented, scratch that.
Microsoft may have the patent, but I thought they sold an exclusive license to SCO for this new "sue them into oblivion" technology.
In other news, MS has announced a fatal flaw in their "sue them into oblivion" technology, and will be releasing a service pack sometime in the next 90 days. seems in the current version you actuallly have to have a case.
and I still don't know why people need an hotmail address?
Ehh, where else am I going to go for a mailbox just to collect spam from all the "email required for free reg." sites I've visited?
Seriously, collecting spam is the only thing I've ever used my hotmail address for, and frankly, the service is perfect for it. I use my hotmail address for almost all my dealings on the web with sites I don't fully trust. and I get almost no spam in my work account, or my home host account.
I work in a small to medium Windows-centric office environment. I wouldn't go so far as to say OpenOffice is *BETTER* as a blanket statement. In fact, Office 2k3 has some pretty darn amazing features. But it is interesting that any time one of my co-workers has a problem with a corrupt Excel document, that the mere act of opening it in OpenOffice Spreadsheet, and saving it without modification will not only suddenly make the file work again about 90% of the time, but usually cuts the file size in half to boot!
The food and drug industry is heavily regulated, and is substantially easier to control than software because producers need to be licensed with various governmental bodies, depending upon the country. Rightfully so, as lives are at stake.
If this sort of labeling scheme is to achieve widespread adoption, it will need the same sort of tight regulations. I don't believe that the majority of developers would enjoy this at all... imagine having to have upgrade releases and patches approved by the Federal Software Administration, before being allowed to legally distribute it to the public. Throw in the fact that it would take several decades just to get a minority of the world's countries on the same wagon, and consider that most "scumware" (to generalize) comes from outside the U.S.
It's a great idea, but the execution is all wrong. More appropriate would be to grant developers the ability to have their software approved as "Popup free" or "Doesn't Phone Home" or the inverse of the many other icons that Simson Garfinkel (sounds like a joke) proposes. This legislation would prove a lot harder to fight from an industry perspective.
He compares his fight with Linux supporters to the time when his family caught thieves stealing cattle from their ranch in Utah.
I can see it now, Darl and his 'Paw, rifles trained on a few guys in labcoats, shaking test tubes.
'Paw:Whatcha doin' wit them thar cattle, boys?
Darl:Kin ah shoot 'em, Paw?
Geneticist:Sir, you don't understand, we're not actually stealing your cattle, we're simply miasppropriating your trade secrets by selecting favorable genetic traits, and replicating them in our own livestock. Perfectly innocent, you see.
And this thought process is why Linux will not take over the desktop.
My point, if you look at the parent post, is that Mandrake is a vendor that went to the trouble of doing it right and making it easy for their users and that's the right way to go about it. the reason linux will "never take over the desktop" is because Linux vendors typically take the attitude that they get a free ride: a bunch of software that they can wrap and package with a shiny manual and offer telephone support for without having to do any of the truly dirty work. That's a completely ludicrus expectation.
My point is, and specifically as it applies to generic subsystems such as CUPS, that not everyone *wants* GUI config options. Why should it be put to the developers of a printing system to develop a shiny GUI for it when it is often used on devices that have no GUI capabilities? Making it "just work" and for that matter the whole issue of desktop linux acceptance is an issue for distro vendors to deal with. I honestly don't care if Aunt Tillie starts using linux. only people who stand to profit off of it should.
If you don't think complaints about poor user interface are a valid contribution, you're a fool.
Good UI benefits everybody.
I think complaints about interface are a valid contribution, to UI designers not to subsytem developers like the CUPS team. The goals that ESR espouses would be best served if one team were developing UI elements for all similar applications and subsystems, rather than each team doing it "their own way" since that's really what the heart of the problem is: different people place different priorities on user interface and have different approaches to those priorities.
That's exactly what most users will continue to do, as long as there are attitudes like yours in the Linux community.
And I don't have a problem with this. I could have just as easily said "go buy mandrake" and it means the same thing: Commercial vendors of software have an obligation to make things easy for lazy idiots. Volunteers working on technical solutions for the community have no such obligation, and shouldn't trouble themselves with it. I want good software, not easy software, or I would have gone and bought something.
Slashdot Mirror
CowboyNeal is already the premier space pimp, you Insensitive Clod!
If if a "zealot" is someone who is overly fond of an OS, what is the term for someone who is overly antagonistic towards an OS?
an AC.
The Mac is the only true desktop replacement contender. When Microsoft Office becomes available for Linux, that's when Linux will become a serious contender.
I would love to sample some of that iCrack you're smoking. 1) not everybody needs or even wants an office suite. even counting "business machines" which are the vast majority of windows licenses, only about 30% have any sort of office suite installed. I can't cite a source, but my company does very large scale samplings of global business machines annually. 2) microsoft is not the only source of excellent office suites.
Even if you think Bush and Cheney are as good as angels, you can't seriously think they will rule forever, can you?
Considering that there was no poular revolt in this country when they ascended to power after not being elected, and have busied themselves setting up ways to indefinitely postpone US elections "in case of terrorist attack" I don't really know what's left to stop them... do you?
You can recreate your family and make you[r] brother a flamboyant gay or set your annoying little sister on fire.
I did set my sister on fire, you insensitive clod!
I wasn't arguing that point at all. I was just noting the incongruity of the rhetoric. Drawing a logical conclusion from parent's statements, if FDR was somehow-in-a-round-about-sort-of-way responsible for starting WW2, then he would also be just as responsible for the economic turnaround.
But PLEASE do tell me what else I ought to study. And, IMHO Keynesian economics is a load of crap, unless your primary concern is aggregate growth statistics. I wonder why a tax-everything style state would push such statistics so hard. Government intervention is what fscks up the system in the first place.
Great post. You manage to imply blame for FDR for starting World War 2 through a rather flimsy connection, and simultaneously give WW2 credit for pulling the US out of the depression.
Would you be interested in a job with the Cheney administration?
not illegal.
unauthorised.
... who noticed the name of this thing is "No-Use"?
yes but Slashdot will not break up with you, won't knock you up, won't embaress you in front of your friends and family. Slashdot never asks for anything but metamodding and never gives anything but modpoints.
ahh, slashdot, where were you when i was in my early twenties?
and who here doesn't use slashdot as a work substitute?
Sure but you have to buy two phones.
Slashdot is my virtual girlfriend, you Insensitive Clod!
Seriously though, when I had a girlfriend, the most annoying thing about her was that she was always on my mobile phone!
The beauty of this is, valid or invalid GPL notwithstanding, There is absolutely no question that TSG has no right to distribute IBM's copyrighted code.
Frankly I'm amazed that IBM's legal team had the patience to sit on this gem and not deliver on it sooner, but they really did give TSG just enough rope to hang themselves with. Giving them all this time to cough up *any shred* of proof that something in the kernel was proprietary IP was truly brilliant strategy. Indeed, this is the proverbial Big Stick that IBM has been walking softly and carrying.
Phishing begins with an email, because we probably don't browse shady sites regularly.
...said the Slashdot reader.
id Software isn't exactly strapped for cash or clout, so I don't think they care where you buy Doom 3.
unless of course you buy it out of the back of a van on a cdr.
The finnish just need to get a new research program like we have in the US, and these 'E' status soldiers will promptly be made into test subjects for the new internet enabled super suits.
then everyone gets to be happy.
Microsoft may have the patent, but I thought they sold an exclusive license to SCO for this new "sue them into oblivion" technology.
In other news, MS has announced a fatal flaw in their "sue them into oblivion" technology, and will be releasing a service pack sometime in the next 90 days. seems in the current version you actuallly have to have a case.
Ehh, where else am I going to go for a mailbox just to collect spam from all the "email required for free reg." sites I've visited? Seriously, collecting spam is the only thing I've ever used my hotmail address for, and frankly, the service is perfect for it. I use my hotmail address for almost all my dealings on the web with sites I don't fully trust. and I get almost no spam in my work account, or my home host account.
I work in a small to medium Windows-centric office environment. I wouldn't go so far as to say OpenOffice is *BETTER* as a blanket statement. In fact, Office 2k3 has some pretty darn amazing features. But it is interesting that any time one of my co-workers has a problem with a corrupt Excel document, that the mere act of opening it in OpenOffice Spreadsheet, and saving it without modification will not only suddenly make the file work again about 90% of the time, but usually cuts the file size in half to boot!
Yeah, you just described most OSX users I know.
The food and drug industry is heavily regulated, and is substantially easier to control than software because producers need to be licensed with various governmental bodies, depending upon the country. Rightfully so, as lives are at stake.
If this sort of labeling scheme is to achieve widespread adoption, it will need the same sort of tight regulations. I don't believe that the majority of developers would enjoy this at all... imagine having to have upgrade releases and patches approved by the Federal Software Administration, before being allowed to legally distribute it to the public. Throw in the fact that it would take several decades just to get a minority of the world's countries on the same wagon, and consider that most "scumware" (to generalize) comes from outside the U.S.
It's a great idea, but the execution is all wrong. More appropriate would be to grant developers the ability to have their software approved as "Popup free" or "Doesn't Phone Home" or the inverse of the many other icons that Simson Garfinkel (sounds like a joke) proposes. This legislation would prove a lot harder to fight from an industry perspective.
He compares his fight with Linux supporters to the time when his family caught thieves stealing cattle from their ranch in Utah.
I can see it now, Darl and his 'Paw, rifles trained on a few guys in labcoats, shaking test tubes.
'Paw:Whatcha doin' wit them thar cattle, boys?
Darl:Kin ah shoot 'em, Paw?
Geneticist:Sir, you don't understand, we're not actually stealing your cattle, we're simply miasppropriating your trade secrets by selecting favorable genetic traits, and replicating them in our own livestock. Perfectly innocent, you see.
'Paw:G'hed 'n' shoot 'em, son.
people come here to share their weird creations, even if all the bugs haven't quite gotten worked out yet.
Well, this "article" certainly qualifies as both weird and buggy. I guess it's better than another NYT op-ed posting.
And this thought process is why Linux will not take over the desktop.
My point, if you look at the parent post, is that Mandrake is a vendor that went to the trouble of doing it right and making it easy for their users and that's the right way to go about it. the reason linux will "never take over the desktop" is because Linux vendors typically take the attitude that they get a free ride: a bunch of software that they can wrap and package with a shiny manual and offer telephone support for without having to do any of the truly dirty work. That's a completely ludicrus expectation.
Why can't it "just work"?
My point is, and specifically as it applies to generic subsystems such as CUPS, that not everyone *wants* GUI config options. Why should it be put to the developers of a printing system to develop a shiny GUI for it when it is often used on devices that have no GUI capabilities? Making it "just work" and for that matter the whole issue of desktop linux acceptance is an issue for distro vendors to deal with. I honestly don't care if Aunt Tillie starts using linux. only people who stand to profit off of it should.
If you don't think complaints about poor user interface are a valid contribution, you're a fool. Good UI benefits everybody.
I think complaints about interface are a valid contribution, to UI designers not to subsytem developers like the CUPS team. The goals that ESR espouses would be best served if one team were developing UI elements for all similar applications and subsystems, rather than each team doing it "their own way" since that's really what the heart of the problem is: different people place different priorities on user interface and have different approaches to those priorities.
That's exactly what most users will continue to do, as long as there are attitudes like yours in the Linux community.
And I don't have a problem with this. I could have just as easily said "go buy mandrake" and it means the same thing: Commercial vendors of software have an obligation to make things easy for lazy idiots. Volunteers working on technical solutions for the community have no such obligation, and shouldn't trouble themselves with it. I want good software, not easy software, or I would have gone and bought something.