Full disclosure ensures the best security because it forces accountability. As long as companies continue to try and over up their flaws through litigation, we're ever going to be ab;e to trust their products.
Re:So... this list isn't about the content?
on
Top 50 DVDs
·
· Score: 1
I see you're point, but... what good is a Top DVD list? What kind of idiot buys a DVD just for the presentation and not the movie or program conatined on it? I guess we should have lists rating the paint jobs, sound systems, and interiors of cars while paying no heed to what's under the hood?
This reminds me of something I read in a book about designing UIs called "The Humane Interface". The author makes the point of telling you about how you board a plane that was designed by assembling together the best artists, interior designers (who pick out aesthetically pleasing and very comfortable fabrics and textures), caterers (who stock the plane with amazingly good food and drink), architects who make sure the body of the plane looks beautiful and fast, etc... There is a brochure in the in the pocket of the seat in front of you that you read which details all of the care and craftsmanship that went into making your flight tremendously pleasing. But as they close the doors to the plane, you notice in the fine print that they didn't employ any real engineers and that the plane is subject to crash a good deal of the time. He points out that the closing of the doors seems ominous at this point and you would do anything to have a seat on a rough and uncomfortable but safe plane.
If people are buying DVDs for all the extras beyond the movie, they may as well be boarding that plane. Because all the DRM that is sure to come with future DVDs is sure to make people wish for the days of VHS... Sorry, but I still don't see the point in a top DVD list if the program takes a back seat to the features. Oh well, I think we're doomed on this planet since too many people are suckered by this sort of snake oil.
So... expressing my own personal views as they relate to someone else's replies to a/. story is trolling? WTF? No surprise. I'll bet all the mods who modded me down were the moronic monkeys I spoke of.
So... this list isn't about the content?
on
Top 50 DVDs
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
OK... after seeing some the posts, I see now that this list has nothing to do with the quality of the actual films, but the quality of the package surrounding the films. And this is useful how? Sure, the extras are nice, but an educated person doesn't buy a car because it has a nice stereo or plush interior, they buy the car because it performs well in going from point A to point B. On the other hand the idiot consumer spends all their time looking that the shiny features without realizing that they are still buying a sack of old shit. So, I still don't see the point of this list. There are a few things on the list that are OK, but I'm not buying DVDs because of nice menus, extra outtakes that I may watch only once, or director's commentary. I'm buying them because I like the story line. Get a life folks.
Re:Did you have to be under 15 to vote?
on
Top 50 DVDs
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I noticed that The Blade Runner is conspicuously missing. If that movie is not on the list, then the list must be kil... err.. retired.:)
You're a fucking asshole. God I wish I could afford to leave this shithole of a country. I'm surrounded by 51% moronic monkeys who like to flip levers the wrong way in the voting booth.
...it's possible to use tax funding to do some really intensely cool stuff. The BBC has a much better grasp of production (technical as well as aesthetic) in all forms of media than any of the pay services here in the U.S. Too bad we have the sadly underfunded NPR and PBS here. It could be so much better. NPR needs a lot more dramatic and comedy programming. PBS needs more popular entertainment that they haven't snagged from the BBC. But without the funding, we're stuck with the crap on HBO and Showtime. There is a definite lack of quality in US production. The same goes for HBO and Showtime's web presence. They have nothing on the BBC.
A nightmare of workarounds and makeshift solutions barely held together with pieces of string and duct tape.
Dooood! With that one sentence, you just described the whole of the computer software AND hardware industries as they have been from the beginning of time.;P
The closest thing I've seen to a decent hardware/software combo is a pre-OS X Mac and those are pretty irrelevant today if you want to be doing the "latest and greatest" stuff. Beyond, that the PC industry has always been in disarray and always will be unless someone completely dominates bothe hardware and the software and imposes severe restrictions on the end user. Sad but true. You can't have "excellence" and flexibility in the same system. They are counter to each other.
Troll? How is this a troll? I was merely pointing out that this move by MS, while useful, is not good enough. If that's a troll, then I really must not understand how Slashdot works. Either that, or the moderators are clueless as usual.
This is not a design problem. Because if it was a design problem, then we should be abandoning TCP/IP altogether. The real problem is that the Internet was given to the masses while it was still in a "beta" or "release candidate" stage. One of the things that should have been in place before everyone and his brother got internet access is VPN. These cameras wouldn't be a problem if they were behind a firewall and the only access is via VPN or some other method of tunneling. Perhaps if the boxes were labelled "Use Behind a Secure Firewall" then this wouldn't be as common.
OH HELL. Disregard my previous post. I may as well be drunk off my ass and babbling bullshit right now. I was onfusing newegg.com with another site I recently visited that had a "free offers" section. I wish I could remember the other site becaue they had PII 233 cartridges that you could order for the price of shipping and handling. Anyway... it wasn't new egg.
I've been wanting to try Newegg, but when I looked at the hardware on their site, a lot of it seemed very Windows-centric. Scanners that only work in Windows. Modems, wireless NICs and printers that only work in Windows. What little there was that could be used with Linux seemed to be about the same price as what I could get at a local CompUSA. Maybe I just wasn't looking in the right places? What I actually went looking for was a good flatbed scanner from HP that is supported in Linux. But I came up empty handed. Their prices on NVidia 3D video adapters were in line with what you'd find anywhere else. Again, maybe I'm just mistaken? Anyone care to shed a little light on the Linux side of things with Newegg? newegg.com right?
One more thing. Buy nice things for my wife? She's very capable of buying things herself. Sure, I'll get her the nice gift for her birthday or christmas, but she doesn't need these things. They are a luxury. Additionally, why shouldn't I be able to do all of the above that you mentioned with a reasonable salary in the $30,000-60,000 range? Why must it be essential that I take an interest and waste copious amounts of my personal time on something as stupid as stocks or other types of investing? Sorry, but I prefer to work for my money insted of gambling or playing games for it.
And for me time is a means to an end. I prefer doing certain things myself and others I have no interest in. Why should I share the same leve of interest in money that people who follow their investments do? It's not like money is essential to living. Here is the way I look at money, it's like a toilet. Nice to have around when you need, but otherwise keep it out of sight and out of mind. I shouldn't have to manage my own retirement or get into investing if I don't have the interest. But, I do need to know how to cook, how to make my own furniture, build my own appliances, write my own code, fix my own house and car. For me that kind of knowledge is far more important than obessive investing and money grubbing. It's that same as if I ripped you for not sharing the passion that I do for the things I just listed above. There is no mandate that you MUST know these things. The same goes for being heavily involved with money.
I should add that using Windows is like eating a diet of sweets. It might be really nice on the surface compared to eating, say, fresh fruits and raw vegetables, but it's ot good for your health. Same thing with Windows. It might seem easier to use and nicer overll compared to, say, any free *nix like OS, but it's bad for your computer's health.
Going back to sugar, the fact that it's very bad for your health doesn't make people stop using it. They'd rather deal with the problems (tooth decay, reflux, irritable bowel, ADD, etc...) and use medicines to hide them than actually fix the problems by cutting sugar out of their diet. Well... those same people apply the same logic to Windows. This spyware tool is just Microsoft's equivlent to Nexium for the Windows OS. On the other hand, I don't see any spyware utilities for *nix just yet.;)
Microsoft knows what holes they have in the OS better than anyone else. They just don't bother to fix them in a timely fashion because it's not profitable The anti spyware isn't really a change in direction for them if you think about it. They are still applying a band-aid to the problems rather than a real fix.
Wow. You're either a grammar nazi, or incredibly thick. Everyone knows what was MEANT by that: "et cetera". I find it so amazing that there are people so lacking in critical thinking skills that they can't read past the text. The other possibility looms that language has evolved and Ect. is an abbr. for Etoplasm.;P But I doubt that's the case since *I* and many other people understand context. If you have nothing better to do than sit around and pick at other people's grammar, I suggest you get a new hobby.
I don't need your app at home. So I would never buy it in the first place. Plus, you never mentioned what app you develop. So... um... what point are you trying to make?
First of all, I don't like money so your assumption that I should have a financial package is a poor one. I don't have investments because I don't care. I let the AEtna people sort it out for me. Money is one of the least interesting and least important aspects of life to me. I'd rather let someone else handle it so I have more time to spend on what really counts: my kid, my wife and computers. Not all of us are infected with money mania. Given the choice of getting paid overtime or getting a day or more off, I'd always take the time over the money.
Next, you CHOSE to use RedHat Enterprise Workstation (god knows why) instead of thinking ahead and getting something more geared for home use. I suppose you wouldn't you are the same kind of guy who installed Windows NT 4.0 at home and then bitched about all the games and peripherals that didn't work with it? RedHat has designed the Enterprise products to be stable which means they pick and test the most stable versions of the software they package. This means that they may be a version or more behind and may not include newer programs that you are looking for or that support the program you're interested in.
Regarding KDE, I'm not inteterested in starting a flamewar. I happen to prefer GNOME but I still install KDE so I can use apps like Rosegarden or KMahjjong (I like it better than the GNome Mahjjaong) on the systems where I require it. Hard drive space is cheap these days and I have no problem installing a little more than I need if it's required to get an app working. On the flipside, I also know enoughabout Linux distributions to be able to just work directly from source which is what I prefer. RPMs are only for beginners in my estimation and they tend to really screw things up. Sorry, but I prefer tarballs to RPMs any day. Even if I have to go back and install a few new libs that aren't on my system, it's the route I use 95% of the time. Back when I was on Windows, I was the same way. I always prefered working directly in the registry and INI files to using stupid add-ons like TweakUI, but that's just me.
And before you start painting the Linux user with the broad brush of "elitist" or RTFM, I'll point out that it's not different in Windows. On the NT list I'm on at work, there will occasionally be a moron or two who will ask how to get a DOS or Windows 9x game to run in Windows XP Pro. They are usually met with the same reaction you're getting from people here. If you want to use your computer for typical home uses, then pick the right ditribution, just as you would pick the right version of Windows. Don't go bitching about it because YOU made the wrong choice. Or maybe you're just trolling? Trolling 4 Dollars perhaps??;P
...is the assumption that proprietary software license restrictions are not being enforced. While this may be true for the moment, it won't and shouldn't remain so. Lots of money is being lost by the wankers who insist that they should be allowed to install the same copy of MS Office or Windows on multiple machines without a volume license key or some other legitimate form of licensing. While I don't care at all about the money that proprietary software companies lose due to piracy, I do think it's important for there to be sever consequences for people who violate the licenses. Without consequences, the abuse will continue. If the abuse continues and idiots out there think it's OK to pirate software, then they will not become aware of or care about the issue of free software. In their minds free software is warez. That needs to change and then you will see a growing interest in free software.
So far, I've found free alternatives for almost everything I do with my computers at home:
1. Web Browsing? Mozilla/Firefox 2. E-mail? Thunderbird or Evolution 3. Group Calendaring? Mozilla Sunbird + Apache/SSL/WebDAV + iCal 4. Audio CD Archiving? Grip + Ogg Vorbis 5. Advanced Media Player? Xine or MPlayer 6. Audio Streaming of Archived CDs? Icecast + Ices 7. Recording of online streams for archival purposes? ALSA + ALSA Utils + Ogg Vorbis + Any required media player format in Xine or MPlayer 8. Firewall? Linux Kernel + iptables 9. Office Functionality? OpenOffice.org 10. Digital Image Editing? GIMP 11. IM Client? GAIM 12. IM Server? Jabberd 13. File sharing? NFS 14. Sane storage management? LVM 15. File compression? BZip2, GZip, or 7Zip also File Roller if you really need a GUI 16. Digital Photo Management? Gthumb or Nautilus 17. PVR? Mythtv.org 18. Video streaming? VLC (Video LAN Client) 19. X10 Home Automation? Bottlerocket 20. Remote desktop/application serving? VNC 4 21. Remote assistance? x0vncserver or the vnc extension for Xorg 22. VPN/Tunneling? OpenVPN or OpenSSH with TCP port forwarding 23. Web Serving? Apache 24. Mail Serving? Courier 25. Server Based Spam Filtering? ASSP 26. Client Based Spam Filtering? Thunderbird 27. Image Scanning? SANE 28. Audio Editing? Rezound or Audacity 29. Multitrack Audio? Ardour 30. MIDI Sequencing? Rosegarden 31. CD Burning (Data and Audio)? cdrecord + various GUI frontends 32. Simple PC Based Puzzle Games? Too many to list from both the GNOME and KDE projects 33. SpyWare/Malware Prevention Removal? None at this point since I don't use the internet via Windows
If I wanted to do all of this with a Windows based home network do you have any idea how much money I'd have to spend to buy commercial software? Sure it's not as easy to set this stuff up as it is in Windows, but that's the price I pay to get this stuf gratis. On the other hand, setting this stuff up in Linux isn't that hard either if you are determined to do it. I would have to say there are plenty of free alternatives and the list above is just a sampling. The only area where I don't find alternatives is games. But I don't play games that much, so it's not much of a deterrent. And *IF* the U.S. ever does outlaw free software, then I guess I'm headed for a life of crime. Crazy that I would even have to think that, isn't it? After all, it's not illegal to own and use a hammer, saw, wood or nails? Just equate your computer hardware with those tools open source code files with the wood and you will see why the concept of trying to outlaw free software is ridiculous.
When did freedom of speech ever come into this? Oh wait, you meant 'speach'.;P Sorry, but freedom of speech has nothing to do with putting the customers first.
Slashdot Mirror
Full disclosure ensures the best security because it forces accountability. As long as companies continue to try and over up their flaws through litigation, we're ever going to be ab;e to trust their products.
I see you're point, but... what good is a Top DVD list? What kind of idiot buys a DVD just for the presentation and not the movie or program conatined on it? I guess we should have lists rating the paint jobs, sound systems, and interiors of cars while paying no heed to what's under the hood?
This reminds me of something I read in a book about designing UIs called "The Humane Interface". The author makes the point of telling you about how you board a plane that was designed by assembling together the best artists, interior designers (who pick out aesthetically pleasing and very comfortable fabrics and textures), caterers (who stock the plane with amazingly good food and drink), architects who make sure the body of the plane looks beautiful and fast, etc... There is a brochure in the in the pocket of the seat in front of you that you read which details all of the care and craftsmanship that went into making your flight tremendously pleasing. But as they close the doors to the plane, you notice in the fine print that they didn't employ any real engineers and that the plane is subject to crash a good deal of the time. He points out that the closing of the doors seems ominous at this point and you would do anything to have a seat on a rough and uncomfortable but safe plane.
If people are buying DVDs for all the extras beyond the movie, they may as well be boarding that plane. Because all the DRM that is sure to come with future DVDs is sure to make people wish for the days of VHS... Sorry, but I still don't see the point in a top DVD list if the program takes a back seat to the features. Oh well, I think we're doomed on this planet since too many people are suckered by this sort of snake oil.
So... expressing my own personal views as they relate to someone else's replies to a /. story is trolling? WTF? No surprise. I'll bet all the mods who modded me down were the moronic monkeys I spoke of.
This guy wants to be a forehead whore? ;P
OK... after seeing some the posts, I see now that this list has nothing to do with the quality of the actual films, but the quality of the package surrounding the films. And this is useful how? Sure, the extras are nice, but an educated person doesn't buy a car because it has a nice stereo or plush interior, they buy the car because it performs well in going from point A to point B. On the other hand the idiot consumer spends all their time looking that the shiny features without realizing that they are still buying a sack of old shit. So, I still don't see the point of this list. There are a few things on the list that are OK, but I'm not buying DVDs because of nice menus, extra outtakes that I may watch only once, or director's commentary. I'm buying them because I like the story line. Get a life folks.
I noticed that The Blade Runner is conspicuously missing. If that movie is not on the list, then the list must be kil... err.. retired. :)
You're a fucking asshole. God I wish I could afford to leave this shithole of a country. I'm surrounded by 51% moronic monkeys who like to flip levers the wrong way in the voting booth.
...it's possible to use tax funding to do some really intensely cool stuff. The BBC has a much better grasp of production (technical as well as aesthetic) in all forms of media than any of the pay services here in the U.S. Too bad we have the sadly underfunded NPR and PBS here. It could be so much better. NPR needs a lot more dramatic and comedy programming. PBS needs more popular entertainment that they haven't snagged from the BBC. But without the funding, we're stuck with the crap on HBO and Showtime. There is a definite lack of quality in US production. The same goes for HBO and Showtime's web presence. They have nothing on the BBC.
Dooood! With that one sentence, you just described the whole of the computer software AND hardware industries as they have been from the beginning of time.
The closest thing I've seen to a decent hardware/software combo is a pre-OS X Mac and those are pretty irrelevant today if you want to be doing the "latest and greatest" stuff. Beyond, that the PC industry has always been in disarray and always will be unless someone completely dominates bothe hardware and the software and imposes severe restrictions on the end user. Sad but true. You can't have "excellence" and flexibility in the same system. They are counter to each other.
Troll? How is this a troll? I was merely pointing out that this move by MS, while useful, is not good enough. If that's a troll, then I really must not understand how Slashdot works. Either that, or the moderators are clueless as usual.
This is not a design problem. Because if it was a design problem, then we should be abandoning TCP/IP altogether. The real problem is that the Internet was given to the masses while it was still in a "beta" or "release candidate" stage. One of the things that should have been in place before everyone and his brother got internet access is VPN. These cameras wouldn't be a problem if they were behind a firewall and the only access is via VPN or some other method of tunneling. Perhaps if the boxes were labelled "Use Behind a Secure Firewall" then this wouldn't be as common.
OH HELL. Disregard my previous post. I may as well be drunk off my ass and babbling bullshit right now. I was onfusing newegg.com with another site I recently visited that had a "free offers" section. I wish I could remember the other site becaue they had PII 233 cartridges that you could order for the price of shipping and handling. Anyway... it wasn't new egg.
I've been wanting to try Newegg, but when I looked at the hardware on their site, a lot of it seemed very Windows-centric. Scanners that only work in Windows. Modems, wireless NICs and printers that only work in Windows. What little there was that could be used with Linux seemed to be about the same price as what I could get at a local CompUSA. Maybe I just wasn't looking in the right places? What I actually went looking for was a good flatbed scanner from HP that is supported in Linux. But I came up empty handed. Their prices on NVidia 3D video adapters were in line with what you'd find anywhere else. Again, maybe I'm just mistaken? Anyone care to shed a little light on the Linux side of things with Newegg? newegg.com right?
One more thing. Buy nice things for my wife? She's very capable of buying things herself. Sure, I'll get her the nice gift for her birthday or christmas, but she doesn't need these things. They are a luxury. Additionally, why shouldn't I be able to do all of the above that you mentioned with a reasonable salary in the $30,000-60,000 range? Why must it be essential that I take an interest and waste copious amounts of my personal time on something as stupid as stocks or other types of investing? Sorry, but I prefer to work for my money insted of gambling or playing games for it.
And for me time is a means to an end. I prefer doing certain things myself and others I have no interest in. Why should I share the same leve of interest in money that people who follow their investments do? It's not like money is essential to living. Here is the way I look at money, it's like a toilet. Nice to have around when you need, but otherwise keep it out of sight and out of mind. I shouldn't have to manage my own retirement or get into investing if I don't have the interest. But, I do need to know how to cook, how to make my own furniture, build my own appliances, write my own code, fix my own house and car. For me that kind of knowledge is far more important than obessive investing and money grubbing. It's that same as if I ripped you for not sharing the passion that I do for the things I just listed above. There is no mandate that you MUST know these things. The same goes for being heavily involved with money.
I should add that using Windows is like eating a diet of sweets. It might be really nice on the surface compared to eating, say, fresh fruits and raw vegetables, but it's ot good for your health. Same thing with Windows. It might seem easier to use and nicer overll compared to, say, any free *nix like OS, but it's bad for your computer's health.
;)
Going back to sugar, the fact that it's very bad for your health doesn't make people stop using it. They'd rather deal with the problems (tooth decay, reflux, irritable bowel, ADD, etc...) and use medicines to hide them than actually fix the problems by cutting sugar out of their diet. Well... those same people apply the same logic to Windows. This spyware tool is just Microsoft's equivlent to Nexium for the Windows OS. On the other hand, I don't see any spyware utilities for *nix just yet.
Microsoft knows what holes they have in the OS better than anyone else. They just don't bother to fix them in a timely fashion because it's not profitable The anti spyware isn't really a change in direction for them if you think about it. They are still applying a band-aid to the problems rather than a real fix.
Wow. You're either a grammar nazi, or incredibly thick. Everyone knows what was MEANT by that: "et cetera". I find it so amazing that there are people so lacking in critical thinking skills that they can't read past the text. The other possibility looms that language has evolved and Ect. is an abbr. for Etoplasm. ;P But I doubt that's the case since *I* and many other people understand context. If you have nothing better to do than sit around and pick at other people's grammar, I suggest you get a new hobby.
I don't need your app at home. So I would never buy it in the first place. Plus, you never mentioned what app you develop. So... um... what point are you trying to make?
First of all, I don't like money so your assumption that I should have a financial package is a poor one. I don't have investments because I don't care. I let the AEtna people sort it out for me. Money is one of the least interesting and least important aspects of life to me. I'd rather let someone else handle it so I have more time to spend on what really counts: my kid, my wife and computers. Not all of us are infected with money mania. Given the choice of getting paid overtime or getting a day or more off, I'd always take the time over the money.
;P
Next, you CHOSE to use RedHat Enterprise Workstation (god knows why) instead of thinking ahead and getting something more geared for home use. I suppose you wouldn't you are the same kind of guy who installed Windows NT 4.0 at home and then bitched about all the games and peripherals that didn't work with it? RedHat has designed the Enterprise products to be stable which means they pick and test the most stable versions of the software they package. This means that they may be a version or more behind and may not include newer programs that you are looking for or that support the program you're interested in.
Regarding KDE, I'm not inteterested in starting a flamewar. I happen to prefer GNOME but I still install KDE so I can use apps like Rosegarden or KMahjjong (I like it better than the GNome Mahjjaong) on the systems where I require it. Hard drive space is cheap these days and I have no problem installing a little more than I need if it's required to get an app working. On the flipside, I also know enoughabout Linux distributions to be able to just work directly from source which is what I prefer. RPMs are only for beginners in my estimation and they tend to really screw things up. Sorry, but I prefer tarballs to RPMs any day. Even if I have to go back and install a few new libs that aren't on my system, it's the route I use 95% of the time. Back when I was on Windows, I was the same way. I always prefered working directly in the registry and INI files to using stupid add-ons like TweakUI, but that's just me.
And before you start painting the Linux user with the broad brush of "elitist" or RTFM, I'll point out that it's not different in Windows. On the NT list I'm on at work, there will occasionally be a moron or two who will ask how to get a DOS or Windows 9x game to run in Windows XP Pro. They are usually met with the same reaction you're getting from people here. If you want to use your computer for typical home uses, then pick the right ditribution, just as you would pick the right version of Windows. Don't go bitching about it because YOU made the wrong choice. Or maybe you're just trolling? Trolling 4 Dollars perhaps??
...is the assumption that proprietary software license restrictions are not being enforced. While this may be true for the moment, it won't and shouldn't remain so. Lots of money is being lost by the wankers who insist that they should be allowed to install the same copy of MS Office or Windows on multiple machines without a volume license key or some other legitimate form of licensing. While I don't care at all about the money that proprietary software companies lose due to piracy, I do think it's important for there to be sever consequences for people who violate the licenses. Without consequences, the abuse will continue. If the abuse continues and idiots out there think it's OK to pirate software, then they will not become aware of or care about the issue of free software. In their minds free software is warez. That needs to change and then you will see a growing interest in free software.
So far, I've found free alternatives for almost everything I do with my computers at home:
1. Web Browsing? Mozilla/Firefox
2. E-mail? Thunderbird or Evolution
3. Group Calendaring? Mozilla Sunbird + Apache/SSL/WebDAV + iCal
4. Audio CD Archiving? Grip + Ogg Vorbis
5. Advanced Media Player? Xine or MPlayer
6. Audio Streaming of Archived CDs? Icecast + Ices
7. Recording of online streams for archival purposes? ALSA + ALSA Utils + Ogg Vorbis + Any required media player format in Xine or MPlayer
8. Firewall? Linux Kernel + iptables
9. Office Functionality? OpenOffice.org
10. Digital Image Editing? GIMP
11. IM Client? GAIM
12. IM Server? Jabberd
13. File sharing? NFS
14. Sane storage management? LVM
15. File compression? BZip2, GZip, or 7Zip also File Roller if you really need a GUI
16. Digital Photo Management? Gthumb or Nautilus
17. PVR? Mythtv.org
18. Video streaming? VLC (Video LAN Client)
19. X10 Home Automation? Bottlerocket
20. Remote desktop/application serving? VNC 4
21. Remote assistance? x0vncserver or the vnc extension for Xorg
22. VPN/Tunneling? OpenVPN or OpenSSH with TCP port forwarding
23. Web Serving? Apache
24. Mail Serving? Courier
25. Server Based Spam Filtering? ASSP
26. Client Based Spam Filtering? Thunderbird
27. Image Scanning? SANE
28. Audio Editing? Rezound or Audacity
29. Multitrack Audio? Ardour
30. MIDI Sequencing? Rosegarden
31. CD Burning (Data and Audio)? cdrecord + various GUI frontends
32. Simple PC Based Puzzle Games? Too many to list from both the GNOME and KDE projects
33. SpyWare/Malware Prevention Removal? None at this point since I don't use the internet via Windows
If I wanted to do all of this with a Windows based home network do you have any idea how much money I'd have to spend to buy commercial software? Sure it's not as easy to set this stuff up as it is in Windows, but that's the price I pay to get this stuf gratis. On the other hand, setting this stuff up in Linux isn't that hard either if you are determined to do it. I would have to say there are plenty of free alternatives and the list above is just a sampling. The only area where I don't find alternatives is games. But I don't play games that much, so it's not much of a deterrent. And *IF* the U.S. ever does outlaw free software, then I guess I'm headed for a life of crime. Crazy that I would even have to think that, isn't it? After all, it's not illegal to own and use a hammer, saw, wood or nails? Just equate your computer hardware with those tools open source code files with the wood and you will see why the concept of trying to outlaw free software is ridiculous.
They have koalas in buggered arses? ;)
When did freedom of speech ever come into this? Oh wait, you meant 'speach'. ;P Sorry, but freedom of speech has nothing to do with putting the customers first.
...are those of the consumer. That's how capitalism works. The interests of the business, come last.