Why use hosts.allow? isn't that a rather old and crufty way of doing it... How about using iptables rules to allow certain hosts instead, that way someone who isn't authorised to connect won't even see the ssh service port open and won't be able to cause load on your machine by repeatedly trying to connect.
A lot of HD satellite receivers are actually Linux based, look at the Dreambox series for example... And there is nothing stopping anyone from adding Theora support to an android device...
Now that people are starting to wake up to how encumbered h.264 is and demanding theora for html5 video, they are just delaying the royalty payments to try and lessen the criticism and discourage people from moving to an open format...
Being "better" doesn't really matter in most cases. MSOffice itself was never better than wordperfect, it was just cheaper and better marketed and look what happened there. OO is already cheaper, but it isn't well marketed right now. Start pushing it heavily and businesses will switch if only to save money.
Bikes are already banned from the sidewalks in many places, which makes absolutely no sense...
Bike hits pedestrian - mostly minor injuries or annoyance for both parties... Car hits bike - high chance of serious injuries or death of the rider... Larger vehicle hits bike - rider very likely to be killed.
A cyclist risks injuring himself if he hits a pedestrian, a car driver only risks scratching his car if he hits a bike.
A pedestrian can also react much quicker than a car, when the bikes invariably wobble around... And up hill, bikes are frequently no quicker than pedestrians... (conversely, i have encountered bikes breaking the speed limit going downhill).
Couple that with the fact that sidewalks are often far less crowded than the roads, and that cyclists usually ignore things like traffic signals and speed limits... They really don't belong on the roads.
This was always the intended use for DRM, they just didn't say so because most users would be very pissed off to know the truth. Piracy has always been an excuse used for customer-hostile actions. They know that any DRM scheme will be cracked, and that serious pirates will always pirate and won't buy anything.
Instead, they go after the people they know will pay them and seek ways to extract extra revenue out of them.
Hence the "first step"... Once you have open standards, then MS get pushed into the relatively small niche of people who need the extra features of excel and powerpoint and are willing to pay a premium for them... The rest of the "sally secretary", home user and casual user types get OO because it saves a lot of money. The only reason this isn't happening already is because of proprietary format lock-in.
I've worked at a lot of companies of various sizes, and most of them spend ridiculous sums of money to have msoffice on every desktop, yet the majority of those users use the apps to view files sent to them by others, or to type up/modify very simple letters. Most of these users would find wordpad more than adequate for their needs.
Windows CE is an entirely different OS with a vaguely similar API and interface... People who buy these do so thinking it will run the same apps as their desktop windows systems, only to find that it doesn't, so people see them as a con.
Microsoft has substantial degrees of failure on all of their products and always have... This is largely why end users have come to expect computers to be unreliable devices to the point that it's considered a joke. Most users simply ignore problems that occur with microsoft software because they have become so used to it.
An open standard is the first step, and MS knows this which is why they fight against it so hard...
OO may lag behind today, but for a large number of users it would already be more than adequate to their needs. For many of these users, compatibility with other people using MS is what stops them using OO. An open standard levels the playing field and removes incompatibility as a problem. With an open standard, you would see casual users moving to OO or other free alternatives, as well as other pay suites like wordperfect starting to retake market share. The extra users and attention would result in increased development of these suites. You would also see new players entering the now competitive market... The extra competition would also force MS to start competing by improving their product and/or lowering prices.
Also consider that many companies will quite happily use something inferior if it is significantly cheaper, that's how MS got to where they are today after all - they pushed their products which were massively inferior to Novell and Unix (often laughably so) but for a fraction of the cost.
But the GP is right, i am happy to see another government moving away from proprietary formats and i hope others do so too. Open standards are good for everyone except the owner of the proprietary system they replace... Governments should do things which benefit their people, that doing so is detrimental to MS is irrelevant since even in the US, MS is a very tiny percentage relative to the people and organisations who would benefit from open standards.
No, Sun sued them and MS were forced to stop developing their non standard version... Theirs went away because MS stopped pushing it, not because users chose the standard version instead.
What has choice done? It's given us the chaos of spam, malware, worms etc...
The average consumer should get a locked down device such as what Apple are proposing, a limited device with a closed market. And you do realise this is really no different to a games console.
Full blown computers should be reserved for those of us who know how to manage them responsibly.
The only thing they should do, is ensure that the locked down devices and the apps on them use standard APIs and formats, so that those of us with full blown machines and the knowledge to use them can still easily communicate with the non technically literate.
Computers as they are today are simply too complex and difficult to manage for the average consumer, so you either give them something simple or you take the management out of their hands.
I got mine for the same reason, i bought a cheap "broken" xbox - broken in that the dvd reader didn't work... Chipped it, replaced the hd, borrowed a friend's to install stuff on the hd and primarily ran XBMC on it... I still use it to watch movies in bed where i don't have an hdtv.
Being popular among pirates diminishes the mindshare of your competitors if nothing else... Games consoles are often owned by kids who don't have a lot of money to spend on games, but plenty of time to spend playing them.
If the maker of that proprietary software (or a third party) runs a package repository for it then yes.
If there isn't a repository it's usually the fault of the proprietary software maker for not making one available, and having licensing terms which make it impossible for anyone else to do so. This isn't the fault of linux, and other platforms are typically in the same or worse state.
I find less after sales problems with linux (or mac) than windows... Sure there are the risks of arbitrary devices bought from stores not working, but windows has a similar risks - many devices don't advertise windows 7 support yet, and some don't work with it. Similarly some devices are lousy. I find that most people i provide support to, won't go out and buy devices on their own they will typically tell me what kind of device they need and ask for recommendations - whereby i provide appropriate recommendations. And i will go for devices which work out of the box on linux..
Someone either wants your support and respects your technical knowledge, or they don't...
AMD/ATI also have fully open drivers available, although they are not complete by any means an older ATI card running open drivers still seems to outperform an up to date Intel card. AMD are still releasing documentation for their latest cards, so hopefully the driver situation will keep improving.
Package managers can and do check third party repositories... A lot of third party developers create repositories for the big linux distros and they are easy to add. The only issue is when a given app isn't in the standard repositories and the publisher of that app hasn't made their own repository for distributing it. I try to install everything from package repositories if i can, so as to keep the system as clean as possible. Infact, on the several linux machines i maintain i don't think i have anything on them which isn't managed by the package manager.
When IE had 90%+ marketshare it was easy to target a huge number of users at once with a single exploit, now that the browser market is more competitive it's harder for malware authors to attack. They could still write an exploit for a single browser, but that would target only a percentage of users...
As a result, malware authors look for something new which is as widespread as possible... Most browsers have flash and pdf plugins, and the alternatives in these markets are still extremely rare so they're a good start. So while your victims might be running any from a handful of browsers, they will all be running exactly the same flash plugin. Find an exploit in that, and you suddenly have a 90%+ target area again.
Any single source software that becomes too widespread will be a target for attack... Having a competitive market makes things difficult for the attackers.
Not having any experience with NZ schools, but based on several schools within Europe (as well as numerous other non school organizations of various sizes)...
Windows based networks typically have unhappy users and unhappy overworked IT staff.
What you do get, a users who believe that windows problems are unavoidable... With Novell they simply blame Novell, even if the same issues would have occurred on windows or anything else.
Users have simply become too accustomed to windows problems that they're willing to put up with them now. Any other issues (and other platforms typically have less but different issues) are seen as bad because they're different.
My experience with Novell in a school environment, is that is is far more reliable than any of the MS offerings... The Novell setups i've seen in the past few years have been very stable, the only problems being when they don't have any staff who know Novell.
AC has got a point, if you just try something for a short period and don't get to know the individual advantages it offers...
People who have used linux for years and try windows for a few months typically hate it even more and find it hugely lacking.
People are also resistant to change, don't like trying anything new and won't give it a proper effort if they do. You see long time windows users giving linux or macos a brief try, where they don't try to make use of workspaces (something i find absolutely essential), or the quick mouse based cut+paste of linux (middle button to paste, much quicker than right button for a context menu, then moving down to paste which most windows users do).
Limited (ie crippled) homebrew was possible on the fat PS3 before this... You could run Linux, but not get access to the GPU which somewhat limits the usefulness of the system (ie no 3d games, no opengl, high definition media playing becomes harder and more cpu intensive, and interfaces have more lag).
The slim PS3 (assuming this has been hacked too) doesn't even allow this limited access.
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Why use hosts.allow? isn't that a rather old and crufty way of doing it...
How about using iptables rules to allow certain hosts instead, that way someone who isn't authorised to connect won't even see the ssh service port open and won't be able to cause load on your machine by repeatedly trying to connect.
A lot of HD satellite receivers are actually Linux based, look at the Dreambox series for example...
And there is nothing stopping anyone from adding Theora support to an android device...
Now that people are starting to wake up to how encumbered h.264 is and demanding theora for html5 video, they are just delaying the royalty payments to try and lessen the criticism and discourage people from moving to an open format...
Precisely why they should kick them out, no company should ever have that kind of influence.
Being "better" doesn't really matter in most cases.
MSOffice itself was never better than wordperfect, it was just cheaper and better marketed and look what happened there. OO is already cheaper, but it isn't well marketed right now. Start pushing it heavily and businesses will switch if only to save money.
Bikes are already banned from the sidewalks in many places, which makes absolutely no sense...
Bike hits pedestrian - mostly minor injuries or annoyance for both parties...
Car hits bike - high chance of serious injuries or death of the rider...
Larger vehicle hits bike - rider very likely to be killed.
A cyclist risks injuring himself if he hits a pedestrian, a car driver only risks scratching his car if he hits a bike.
A pedestrian can also react much quicker than a car, when the bikes invariably wobble around... And up hill, bikes are frequently no quicker than pedestrians... (conversely, i have encountered bikes breaking the speed limit going downhill).
Couple that with the fact that sidewalks are often far less crowded than the roads, and that cyclists usually ignore things like traffic signals and speed limits... They really don't belong on the roads.
It is an order of magnitude faster, my iphone seems to run it perfectly well.
No, once you die in a car crash you could have prevented by having a manual off switch, you won't need groceries...
This was always the intended use for DRM, they just didn't say so because most users would be very pissed off to know the truth. Piracy has always been an excuse used for customer-hostile actions.
They know that any DRM scheme will be cracked, and that serious pirates will always pirate and won't buy anything.
Instead, they go after the people they know will pay them and seek ways to extract extra revenue out of them.
Hence the "first step"...
Once you have open standards, then MS get pushed into the relatively small niche of people who need the extra features of excel and powerpoint and are willing to pay a premium for them... The rest of the "sally secretary", home user and casual user types get OO because it saves a lot of money.
The only reason this isn't happening already is because of proprietary format lock-in.
I've worked at a lot of companies of various sizes, and most of them spend ridiculous sums of money to have msoffice on every desktop, yet the majority of those users use the apps to view files sent to them by others, or to type up/modify very simple letters. Most of these users would find wordpad more than adequate for their needs.
Windows CE is an entirely different OS with a vaguely similar API and interface...
People who buy these do so thinking it will run the same apps as their desktop windows systems, only to find that it doesn't, so people see them as a con.
Microsoft has substantial degrees of failure on all of their products and always have... This is largely why end users have come to expect computers to be unreliable devices to the point that it's considered a joke. Most users simply ignore problems that occur with microsoft software because they have become so used to it.
An open standard is the first step, and MS knows this which is why they fight against it so hard...
OO may lag behind today, but for a large number of users it would already be more than adequate to their needs. For many of these users, compatibility with other people using MS is what stops them using OO. An open standard levels the playing field and removes incompatibility as a problem.
With an open standard, you would see casual users moving to OO or other free alternatives, as well as other pay suites like wordperfect starting to retake market share.
The extra users and attention would result in increased development of these suites.
You would also see new players entering the now competitive market...
The extra competition would also force MS to start competing by improving their product and/or lowering prices.
Also consider that many companies will quite happily use something inferior if it is significantly cheaper, that's how MS got to where they are today after all - they pushed their products which were massively inferior to Novell and Unix (often laughably so) but for a fraction of the cost.
But the GP is right, i am happy to see another government moving away from proprietary formats and i hope others do so too. Open standards are good for everyone except the owner of the proprietary system they replace... Governments should do things which benefit their people, that doing so is detrimental to MS is irrelevant since even in the US, MS is a very tiny percentage relative to the people and organisations who would benefit from open standards.
No, Sun sued them and MS were forced to stop developing their non standard version... Theirs went away because MS stopped pushing it, not because users chose the standard version instead.
What has choice done? It's given us the chaos of spam, malware, worms etc...
The average consumer should get a locked down device such as what Apple are proposing, a limited device with a closed market. And you do realise this is really no different to a games console.
Full blown computers should be reserved for those of us who know how to manage them responsibly.
The only thing they should do, is ensure that the locked down devices and the apps on them use standard APIs and formats, so that those of us with full blown machines and the knowledge to use them can still easily communicate with the non technically literate.
Computers as they are today are simply too complex and difficult to manage for the average consumer, so you either give them something simple or you take the management out of their hands.
They must be turning a profit on the hardware by now, I believe both Nintendo and MS are...
And why not release a more expensive un-crippled version?
I got mine for the same reason, i bought a cheap "broken" xbox - broken in that the dvd reader didn't work...
Chipped it, replaced the hd, borrowed a friend's to install stuff on the hd and primarily ran XBMC on it... I still use it to watch movies in bed where i don't have an hdtv.
Being popular among pirates diminishes the mindshare of your competitors if nothing else...
Games consoles are often owned by kids who don't have a lot of money to spend on games, but plenty of time to spend playing them.
If the maker of that proprietary software (or a third party) runs a package repository for it then yes.
If there isn't a repository it's usually the fault of the proprietary software maker for not making one available, and having licensing terms which make it impossible for anyone else to do so. This isn't the fault of linux, and other platforms are typically in the same or worse state.
I find less after sales problems with linux (or mac) than windows... Sure there are the risks of arbitrary devices bought from stores not working, but windows has a similar risks - many devices don't advertise windows 7 support yet, and some don't work with it. Similarly some devices are lousy. I find that most people i provide support to, won't go out and buy devices on their own they will typically tell me what kind of device they need and ask for recommendations - whereby i provide appropriate recommendations. And i will go for devices which work out of the box on linux..
Someone either wants your support and respects your technical knowledge, or they don't...
AMD/ATI also have fully open drivers available, although they are not complete by any means an older ATI card running open drivers still seems to outperform an up to date Intel card.
AMD are still releasing documentation for their latest cards, so hopefully the driver situation will keep improving.
Package managers can and do check third party repositories... A lot of third party developers create repositories for the big linux distros and they are easy to add.
The only issue is when a given app isn't in the standard repositories and the publisher of that app hasn't made their own repository for distributing it.
I try to install everything from package repositories if i can, so as to keep the system as clean as possible. Infact, on the several linux machines i maintain i don't think i have anything on them which isn't managed by the package manager.
When IE had 90%+ marketshare it was easy to target a huge number of users at once with a single exploit, now that the browser market is more competitive it's harder for malware authors to attack. They could still write an exploit for a single browser, but that would target only a percentage of users...
As a result, malware authors look for something new which is as widespread as possible... Most browsers have flash and pdf plugins, and the alternatives in these markets are still extremely rare so they're a good start. So while your victims might be running any from a handful of browsers, they will all be running exactly the same flash plugin. Find an exploit in that, and you suddenly have a 90%+ target area again.
Any single source software that becomes too widespread will be a target for attack... Having a competitive market makes things difficult for the attackers.
Not having any experience with NZ schools, but based on several schools within Europe (as well as numerous other non school organizations of various sizes)...
Windows based networks typically have unhappy users and unhappy overworked IT staff.
What you do get, a users who believe that windows problems are unavoidable... With Novell they simply blame Novell, even if the same issues would have occurred on windows or anything else.
Users have simply become too accustomed to windows problems that they're willing to put up with them now. Any other issues (and other platforms typically have less but different issues) are seen as bad because they're different.
My experience with Novell in a school environment, is that is is far more reliable than any of the MS offerings... The Novell setups i've seen in the past few years have been very stable, the only problems being when they don't have any staff who know Novell.
AC has got a point, if you just try something for a short period and don't get to know the individual advantages it offers...
People who have used linux for years and try windows for a few months typically hate it even more and find it hugely lacking.
People are also resistant to change, don't like trying anything new and won't give it a proper effort if they do. You see long time windows users giving linux or macos a brief try, where they don't try to make use of workspaces (something i find absolutely essential), or the quick mouse based cut+paste of linux (middle button to paste, much quicker than right button for a context menu, then moving down to paste which most windows users do).
Limited (ie crippled) homebrew was possible on the fat PS3 before this...
You could run Linux, but not get access to the GPU which somewhat limits the usefulness of the system (ie no 3d games, no opengl, high definition media playing becomes harder and more cpu intensive, and interfaces have more lag).
The slim PS3 (assuming this has been hacked too) doesn't even allow this limited access.