I was a little freaked out when the tech support at NetGear informed me that, "we won't help you" with your technical problem. No further information was provided at that point or any point since. I asked him to repeat himself to make sure I heard him correctly.
I've since returned a total of $600 of equipment that I purchased from NetGear, with only $150 of it being the item in question. I also sent them an email detailing the experience and have received no response.
The problem wasn't difficult, the problem was one that NetGear didn't want to admit to. They were selling something that they claimed was Standards based, and it wasn't. Similarly, you can't get Tech Support to admit to a bug in the field. If they could, they might be forced to fix it. But at least I would receive some validation to the problem and maybe I wouldn't be left with the impression that I must be the one with the problem.
Similar experiences abound with the ISP's of America. They suck.
I am left to conclude that, within the tech suppport area of electronica - there is no tech support. Generally, if you need it (tech support), return it. Especially if you've already tried the usual.
On the other hand. I did have to contact a Furntiture company who was bungling some repairs on new furniture. After an extremely pleasant 15 minutes, they are replacing all the subject furniture.
Flash is just that -- Flash.
It's not informative.
It's heavy.
It's a pain on my browser.
I don't like Flash. It used to be a pretty good thing to see from time to time, but it's so annoying now with all the adverts that are FLASHING in your face all the time, I'm actually thinking of backing out of my browsers plug-ins.
If you want something that delivers information, stick to HTML.
But this is more opinion than useful information.
I've never heard of any flash products that are open source.
It is supported by Volunteers and therefore holds no Capitalistic motives (I do not mean to sound like a Marxist) in their software development cycles.
They are extremely conservative in the quality of their distribution. Generally, they have fewer bugs than the rest. This also means that they avoid the bleeding edge technology until there is a little less bleading to do.
They have a lot of packages. Possibly more.
They run on more Hardware Platforms than Mandrake.
apt-get is superior to RPM in conflict management and versioning control.
I started with RedHat and Mandrake back four years ago. Went to Slackware so I could get things configured the way I wanted them. And ended up at Debian because it was the best of both worlds.
Generally, if Debian-Stable is too slow for you, run Testing or Unstable. That will get you the very best of the bleeding edge software, along with all the bloodshed that goes along with it.
I have been running with Testing for about a year plus. Last month I was really disgusted with Debian. After looking at the other Distros out there. Debian still rocks!!!
I don't believe that any company as aggressive as Microsoft can do anything positive for any arena it gets involved in. No matter what you do legislatively, they operate much like a virus does. Embrace -- Extend -- Extinguish. I really do not believe that their involvement can result in something Good.
Second
Assuming that we have to play nice with them, the only thing that they could do and should do is to open up the API interfaces between their OS and the Applicaitons. That way, it would allow others to understand how it works. With the knowledge people would be able to synergize to create better products.
But that cannot happen. Because in many cases, there is no API Interface between the Operating System and the Application. Without that interface being clean you cannot replace any alternatives. You cannot create anything that will run as fast since Interfaces have a Cost associated with them. They just do.
Third
The best thing that Microsoft could do is to provide the following three things to happen:
Allow free software co-mingling at the Hardware OEM level. Let Dell sell Linux if they want to.
Openly publish the entire specification for all of their document formats so that others may be able to use them as well.. Alternatively, we much develop specifications that are as good and better.
Leverage to push all the hardware manufacturers to open their product API's to the general public or have an open campaign/policy of disclosure to driver developers. This would solve a lot of hand-wringing everywhere if the hardware was better understood.
ISP's provide service based on the LOWEST common denominator that they can manage. They also provide support on the LOWEST possible wage structure that they can manage.
If everyone of their clients used LINUX, then they would either be working with some bloody genius' as clients or some idiots who couldn't make toast and still can't connect to the Internet.
I think a better question would be this:
Wouldn't it be nice if there was some differing level of user an ISP could identify who would be given different considerations. Examples of this could be: I don't want your support unless I can't ping the gateway.
In turn, you provide me with the permission to run an email server and static IP address. Choke my bandwidth if you must. But take a policy of you don't F with me and I don't F with you.
The only time I would call is when I have already performed the tests described in the first four pages of your scripts. So cut me a break and send me over to the intelligent few in your ocmpany!!
Personally, I think that is great for you. And I try to do the same.
But I can't read most of what is emailed to me from a business perspective without MSFT. Heck! I couldn't even submit a resume for a job working on Unix without the document being in WORD. That's whacked.
To take it further -- I can't read Word from Linux unless someone has managed to hack out the latest variation of the DOC format.
Netscape has died as the direct result of Microsoft intervention.
Wordperfect has died as the direct result of Microsoft intervention.
Lotus is mostly dead as the direct result of Microsoft intervention.
And now through SSSCA, all GPL software stands a chance of dying too. Then you will only have Microsoft to work with and you will be labelled an enemy of the state, part of the Axis of Evil
I can hardly affect resistance.
Resistance to what? Reproduction?
Resistance only applies to things like insecticides where the animal doesn't die and then establishes an immunity to it. Kind of like MTV or RAP.
It's not intended to remove all of them. But it sure takes care of their breeding and with far fewer ill-effects than anything else we can come up with.
It's an insect worlds version of Liesure Suit Larry -- Looking for love in all the wrong places!
Actually, I like my boss. He has no clue what I do and doesn't care either. He just asks me if I can get something done and how long it might take. No demands for getting it done in 3 days...yet.
And for this, I do what I feel is a good job at it. But it's my best guess.
No job will be perfect, unless maybe if you work for yourself, --but I wouldn't know. I've tried the huge money management stuff before and it sucked canal water like nobodies business. I got fired from that job and was grateful for it.
You have to like your job for what it is and for what you put into it. Not what comes out of it or the decisions others make. Everywhere is the same BS. My wife works in a special needs school and she has a dozen kids with severe mental handicaps every day. She has days where they literally fling turds around the room and in walks the principal... And she wouldn't miss a day of that job for the world! She puts into it exactly what she gets out of it. And if she can do that -- then I can certainly struggle through converting some vague management vision into something tangible. And so can you!
I work for a company that practices draconian software at it's finest. I have to fight for weeks, nay months, to get some improvement on the tools available. And the list goes on.
Many hours are spent on something that is casually swept aside by some new marketing spin
What do I do about it? I don't care that much really. Call me apathetic, call me brilliant. But I do the work, learn some stuff and get paid for it. I am not interested in running the company and the company is not interested in what I see as important or useful. We co-exist in a symbiotic relationship with both sides agreeing not to have too many conversations. Management and Code do not easily mix. Especially in the typical management environment
I recent left a job however, that had one good manager that knew how to balance these projects out. The one's that he saw as important where prioritized, and the one's that had hype where given a somewhat longer schedule. That way, then the ship had to do an about turn, there wasn't as much mass to move.
I think it's a matter of following the important projects with more zeal than the hyped projects and leaving at all behind you, no matter what, when you walk out the door. I get paid so that I can run my own server at home and play PlayStation. I enjoy both -- but to think that my work is all that important that it won't get cast aside in a moment is folly.
I have a PC that has no xserver-common or anything else related to it. It is intended to be my firewall. I have included three excerpts from the
It is the reference to xfree86-common that is the problem
pretorian:/home/tallison# apt-get -d install emacs
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Package emacs has no available version, but exists in the database.
This typically means that the package was mentioned in a dependency and
never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not available with the contents
of sources.list
However the following packages replace it:
emacs19
E: Package emacs has no installation candidate
--------------------
pretorian:/home/tallison# apt-get -d install emacs21
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libjpeg62 libtiff3g xaw3dg xfree86-common xlibs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
emacs21 libjpeg62 libtiff3g xaw3dg xfree86-common xlibs
0 packages upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 14.9MB of archives. After unpacking 48.2MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
---------------
pretorian:/home/tallison# apt-get -d install emacs19
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libxaw6 xfree86-common xlib6g xlibs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
emacs19 libxaw6 xfree86-common xlib6g xlibs
0 packages upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 7750kB of archives. After unpacking 22.6MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
I think it's a great idea that Debian has developed wherein they are able to slide distributions through different levels of stability: Stable, Testing, Unstable. This is really something that is ahead of every other Linux distro out there
One of the biggest claimed advantages that Linux has over so many other Operating Systems is that the stability is so much greater. It is for this reason that I have switched to Linux myself. But in reading the posts here, it seems that more people are concerned with the newest fad feature over stability when they speak of a computer to use on a regular basis with little acknowledgement for the need of a stable system
At least Debian gives you the option to push yourself into the newer products that are available. The only thing that is asked in return is that you provide bugreport feedback
I believe that the other Linux distros, and indeed other OSes, could gain a lot from the Debian model of software development in that they provide different tiers of advanced products wich you can select based on your desire to "fiddle" with the installation.
I do however have some issue with the bloat that Debian has been gaining in the last 18 months that I have been using it. There are interdependencies that are being forced into the installation that are getting very expensive to manage. Examples are: Apache now requires mysql-client to be installed. But it is only used if you are interested in using mysql for authentication. That's a rather heavy handed requirement for a rather specialized function. Similarly, I was very happy with emacs until they make a package requirement for XFree86 in order to install emacs. Last I checked, emacs was still a CLI compatable editing tool. This has really messed with my remote machine administration. And before you tell me to use vi, remember, it's my choice so zark off.
I think that Debian has some really great ideas in it, but I am also wary that there are some bad practices that are encroaching onto the overall distribution as evidenced by the two examples I have cited above.
I have always assumed that as soon as there is a 1.0 release, then you will see a lot of forking going on with Mozilla. Largely to address this exact problem.
My problem with Galeon is that it is dependent upon another gui library that in itself, can be rather massive. IMHO, it would make far more sense to make a browser which is X based and so will work equally well on KDE, Gnome, fvwm2, WMaker and so on. And with the options of specifying your news/mail reader of choice.
Only then will we be looking at a real browser that can compete with anything on the Net and have the speed desired.
Hey Dude!
This is the most honest, objective write-up on a desktop migration that I have ever seen. Not once do you find the phrases "Microsoft Sucks!" or "Linux Rules!" throughout the entire article.
While you might not like the fact that he points out some of the shortcomings, you should appreciate his candor. You will never find a Microsoft write up on a NT migration where they speak of the real shortcomings that might exist in the end.
Spam, Security, and Media
on
Browsing Alone
·
· Score: 1
It would be better to ask why the Internet ended up like this, rather than how it was originally thought of. I have three suggested influences that are not covered in Television
SPAM
If it were not for the fear of spam or the volume of it, many would be more willing to go to more websites and see what's there. I skip a lot of places because they want my email address. Why? It isn't required for HTTP to function correctly?
It basically comes down to the Corporate motives to steal your privacy away so that they can bombard you with the advertisements (as seen on TV). Between the 1 pixel web-bots, SPAM bots, and registration whores, there is a lot of reason not to put your name on any websites.
To fix this we need to make SPAM a crime, nothing short will do. Fines do not stop anyone. Neither does abuse@... email.
Security
If the internet were secure, or at least not so prone to the problems exemplified by Microsofts poor history records, then more would be available for people to use. There was a time when you could actually have your own email and web servers without a major violation of some contract.
Media
The News Media has been a major player in the destruction of the Internet. "Be careful out there, most of the people you meed on the internet are lunatics who will kill you with a rusty chainsaw!" Somehow we have forgotten how to judge character on our own and use moderation in responding to email, newsgroup postings and have left it to the Media to dictate who we can talk to. Lunatics exist on IM too, but you don't hear about them.
The internet was fine, until the rest of the world barged in. My local email list administrator was recently sued for removing someone from the list. Why was he removed? Too many ghost identities voting (vote early, vote often). This is crap! It's a mess
As things get more and more restrictive and liabelous, you will find a retreat from the internet back towards things that have worked in the past. Personally, I find myself using the internet less and less for entertainment as it usually ends in a trap of Buy, Spam, or Banner-Farm.
Recall that the first car phones where fitted to the trunk and only worked within range of the one or two towers in that city. Then they went to remote phones / early cellular that were about the size of an Army Field Radio.
With the exception of the antennae, I suspect these can be pushed down to something the size of a small PDA. The physical limitation will be the physical antennae.
Look silly. If you don't want to use.Net to pay bills there is still the method of using paper checks, stamps, and envelopes.
Reasonably secure, immune to mose virii (not counting anthrax), and does not support Microsoft.
I've been using it for years with no problems.
When I was in school I research BiRefringent materials. It was a cumbersome construction of 3D devices which would allow for light to control light switches. But I never saw it come to anything really useful since that time. That was a long time ago.
They don't go into much details of how exactly they control (switch/stop/start) this beam of light. But it does imply a static storage device would be capable.
With that, BiRefringence, and a few other goodies, we might be approaching the optical computer. Even with conventional (non-quantum) circuits we would have some impressive improvements in performance:
Very low heat build-up
Very low power consumption
Fantastic clock speeds!!!
Of course this would kind of move along the adoption of optical fiber in everyone's home... And overclockers really wouldn't have anything to do anymore.
It's pretty obvious that this letter, if it is real, was very obviously intended to leaked as part of the FUD campaign. If you think it wasn't then you are the fodder they are looking for.
It's also a Grand and Glorious Day that has arrived. Yes, The Year of Our Lord, 2002 AD will very likely be the day where the second dirivative of the Linux movement has gone totally positive and is (very likely by the end of 2002) the firse dirivative into a positive movement againt the MSFT inertia!!!
And as for Windows being easier to use and dumber people can use Windows... Let Them! I would not want to attempt to run an OS as dumbed down as the home user Windows products. This is a good thing!
SEUL.ORG has some educational experiences that they have been gathering up.
I am also working on starting one in SouthEast Michigan.
I also know of a few others in this area that have gone well. Contact me for more information if you need to.
OK, I checked out the screen shots. Looks just like my current KDE 2.2.1.
KDE is a good product, don't get me wrong. But why does it have to look just like MSFT's products?
I actually would like to work more on finding desktops/WM's that do not look like MSFT. It's interesting to see what other ideas are out there and to see who's got a fresh new paradigm on this desktop. After all, it's not really a desktop anymore.
Let me say I will be one of the first to jump on the "I Hate Microsoft" wagons. But this article is just plain wrong, as in inaccurate.
The first paragraph of the referenced story talks about how they are currently in testing for this security hole. Whereas, the poster is stating that Microsoft has no specific designs on when this will ever get fixed.
Inaccurate, Fanatical Extremism like this is only going to hurt Open Source, Slashdot, and those associated with it. While Microsoft may be wrong in this case. It doesn't do us any good to exhibit poor sportsmanship. Leave that for the politicians
I would hate to see MSFT Office show up on Linux for the simple reason of what Linux stands for philosophically.
Putting Office on Linux wouldn't be that hard to do. After all, everything they have runs off of a layer of libraries that could be simply modified to emulate the W32 environment on Linux. In essence, all they would be doing is putting all the proprietaries into what would replace WINE. Wine looses and you still have to pay MSFT for everything.
It would be far better if MSFT was required to make the File formats either Open Source (public domain XML?) or publish every nuance of the current, all all future, formats (as if it were an RFC document). That would help everyone more than Office on Linux ever could.
I have one last computer at home that is running a Windows OS. It's only there for the kids and wife.
I will be more than a little pleased to use this as an excuse to inform them that they have 18 months to become familiar with the likes of KDE/gnome.... for their computer useage.
Of course, if the internet is still as IE specific in many areas, this will mean that a lot of the internet will become unaccessable to me.
If I cannot access certain internet websites because of a lack of browser support, doesn't that qualify me for the Americans with Disabilities Act?
Slashdot Mirror
Valid only to a point.
I was a little freaked out when the tech support at NetGear informed me that, "we won't help you" with your technical problem. No further information was provided at that point or any point since. I asked him to repeat himself to make sure I heard him correctly.
I've since returned a total of $600 of equipment that I purchased from NetGear, with only $150 of it being the item in question. I also sent them an email detailing the experience and have received no response.
The problem wasn't difficult, the problem was one that NetGear didn't want to admit to. They were selling something that they claimed was Standards based, and it wasn't. Similarly, you can't get Tech Support to admit to a bug in the field. If they could, they might be forced to fix it. But at least I would receive some validation to the problem and maybe I wouldn't be left with the impression that I must be the one with the problem.
Similar experiences abound with the ISP's of America. They suck.
I am left to conclude that, within the tech suppport area of electronica - there is no tech support. Generally, if you need it (tech support), return it. Especially if you've already tried the usual.
On the other hand. I did have to contact a Furntiture company who was bungling some repairs on new furniture. After an extremely pleasant 15 minutes, they are replacing all the subject furniture.
Flash is just that -- Flash. It's not informative. It's heavy. It's a pain on my browser. I don't like Flash. It used to be a pretty good thing to see from time to time, but it's so annoying now with all the adverts that are FLASHING in your face all the time, I'm actually thinking of backing out of my browsers plug-ins. If you want something that delivers information, stick to HTML. But this is more opinion than useful information. I've never heard of any flash products that are open source.
Debian is different in that:
I started with RedHat and Mandrake back four years ago. Went to Slackware so I could get things configured the way I wanted them. And ended up at Debian because it was the best of both worlds.
Generally, if Debian-Stable is too slow for you, run Testing or Unstable. That will get you the very best of the bleeding edge software, along with all the bloodshed that goes along with it.
I have been running with Testing for about a year plus. Last month I was really disgusted with Debian. After looking at the other Distros out there. Debian still rocks!!!
I don't believe that any company as aggressive as Microsoft can do anything positive for any arena it gets involved in. No matter what you do legislatively, they operate much like a virus does. Embrace -- Extend -- Extinguish. I really do not believe that their involvement can result in something Good.
SecondAssuming that we have to play nice with them, the only thing that they could do and should do is to open up the API interfaces between their OS and the Applicaitons. That way, it would allow others to understand how it works. With the knowledge people would be able to synergize to create better products.
But that cannot happen. Because in many cases, there is no API Interface between the Operating System and the Application. Without that interface being clean you cannot replace any alternatives. You cannot create anything that will run as fast since Interfaces have a Cost associated with them. They just do.
ThirdThe best thing that Microsoft could do is to provide the following three things to happen:
I mean really.... What kind of FLAMEBAIT is this?
ISP's provide service based on the LOWEST common denominator that they can manage. They also provide support on the LOWEST possible wage structure that they can manage.
If everyone of their clients used LINUX, then they would either be working with some bloody genius' as clients or some idiots who couldn't make toast and still can't connect to the Internet.
I think a better question would be this:
Wouldn't it be nice if there was some differing level of user an ISP could identify who would be given different considerations. Examples of this could be: I don't want your support unless I can't ping the gateway.
In turn, you provide me with the permission to run an email server and static IP address. Choke my bandwidth if you must. But take a policy of you don't F with me and I don't F with you.
The only time I would call is when I have already performed the tests described in the first four pages of your scripts. So cut me a break and send me over to the intelligent few in your ocmpany!!Personally, I think that is great for you. And I try to do the same.
But I can't read most of what is emailed to me from a business perspective without MSFT. Heck! I couldn't even submit a resume for a job working on Unix without the document being in WORD. That's whacked.
To take it further -- I can't read Word from Linux unless someone has managed to hack out the latest variation of the DOC format.
Netscape has died as the direct result of Microsoft intervention.
Wordperfect has died as the direct result of Microsoft intervention.
Lotus is mostly dead as the direct result of Microsoft intervention.
And now through SSSCA, all GPL software stands a chance of dying too. Then you will only have Microsoft to work with and you will be labelled an enemy of the state, part of the Axis of Evil
I can hardly affect resistance. Resistance to what? Reproduction?
Resistance only applies to things like insecticides where the animal doesn't die and then establishes an immunity to it. Kind of like MTV or RAP.
It's not intended to remove all of them. But it sure takes care of their breeding and with far fewer ill-effects than anything else we can come up with.
It's an insect worlds version of Liesure Suit Larry -- Looking for love in all the wrong places!
Actually, I like my boss. He has no clue what I do and doesn't care either. He just asks me if I can get something done and how long it might take. No demands for getting it done in 3 days...yet.
And for this, I do what I feel is a good job at it. But it's my best guess.
No job will be perfect, unless maybe if you work for yourself, --but I wouldn't know. I've tried the huge money management stuff before and it sucked canal water like nobodies business. I got fired from that job and was grateful for it.
You have to like your job for what it is and for what you put into it. Not what comes out of it or the decisions others make. Everywhere is the same BS. My wife works in a special needs school and she has a dozen kids with severe mental handicaps every day. She has days where they literally fling turds around the room and in walks the principal... And she wouldn't miss a day of that job for the world! She puts into it exactly what she gets out of it. And if she can do that -- then I can certainly struggle through converting some vague management vision into something tangible. And so can you!
I work for a company that practices draconian software at it's finest. I have to fight for weeks, nay months, to get some improvement on the tools available. And the list goes on.
Many hours are spent on something that is casually swept aside by some new marketing spin
What do I do about it? I don't care that much really. Call me apathetic, call me brilliant. But I do the work, learn some stuff and get paid for it. I am not interested in running the company and the company is not interested in what I see as important or useful. We co-exist in a symbiotic relationship with both sides agreeing not to have too many conversations. Management and Code do not easily mix. Especially in the typical management environment
I recent left a job however, that had one good manager that knew how to balance these projects out. The one's that he saw as important where prioritized, and the one's that had hype where given a somewhat longer schedule. That way, then the ship had to do an about turn, there wasn't as much mass to move.
I think it's a matter of following the important projects with more zeal than the hyped projects and leaving at all behind you, no matter what, when you walk out the door. I get paid so that I can run my own server at home and play PlayStation. I enjoy both -- but to think that my work is all that important that it won't get cast aside in a moment is folly.
I have tried to, but the debian bugreport application has some issues with a non-local smtp server.
I have a PC that has no xserver-common or anything else related to it. It is intended to be my firewall. I have included three excerpts from the
It is the reference to xfree86-common that is the problem
pretorian:/home/tallison# apt-get -d install emacs
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Package emacs has no available version, but exists in the database.
This typically means that the package was mentioned in a dependency and
never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not available with the contents
of sources.list
However the following packages replace it:
emacs19
E: Package emacs has no installation candidate
--------------------
pretorian:/home/tallison# apt-get -d install emacs21
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libjpeg62 libtiff3g xaw3dg xfree86-common xlibs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
emacs21 libjpeg62 libtiff3g xaw3dg xfree86-common xlibs
0 packages upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 14.9MB of archives. After unpacking 48.2MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
---------------
pretorian:/home/tallison# apt-get -d install emacs19
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libxaw6 xfree86-common xlib6g xlibs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
emacs19 libxaw6 xfree86-common xlib6g xlibs
0 packages upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 7750kB of archives. After unpacking 22.6MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
I think it's a great idea that Debian has developed wherein they are able to slide distributions through different levels of stability: Stable, Testing, Unstable. This is really something that is ahead of every other Linux distro out there
One of the biggest claimed advantages that Linux has over so many other Operating Systems is that the stability is so much greater. It is for this reason that I have switched to Linux myself. But in reading the posts here, it seems that more people are concerned with the newest fad feature over stability when they speak of a computer to use on a regular basis with little acknowledgement for the need of a stable system
At least Debian gives you the option to push yourself into the newer products that are available. The only thing that is asked in return is that you provide bugreport feedback
I believe that the other Linux distros, and indeed other OSes, could gain a lot from the Debian model of software development in that they provide different tiers of advanced products wich you can select based on your desire to "fiddle" with the installation.
I do however have some issue with the bloat that Debian has been gaining in the last 18 months that I have been using it. There are interdependencies that are being forced into the installation that are getting very expensive to manage. Examples are: Apache now requires mysql-client to be installed. But it is only used if you are interested in using mysql for authentication. That's a rather heavy handed requirement for a rather specialized function. Similarly, I was very happy with emacs until they make a package requirement for XFree86 in order to install emacs. Last I checked, emacs was still a CLI compatable editing tool. This has really messed with my remote machine administration. And before you tell me to use vi, remember, it's my choice so zark off.
I think that Debian has some really great ideas in it, but I am also wary that there are some bad practices that are encroaching onto the overall distribution as evidenced by the two examples I have cited above.
I have always assumed that as soon as there is a 1.0 release, then you will see a lot of forking going on with Mozilla. Largely to address this exact problem.
My problem with Galeon is that it is dependent upon another gui library that in itself, can be rather massive. IMHO, it would make far more sense to make a browser which is X based and so will work equally well on KDE, Gnome, fvwm2, WMaker and so on. And with the options of specifying your news/mail reader of choice.
Only then will we be looking at a real browser that can compete with anything on the Net and have the speed desired.
Hey Dude!
This is the most honest, objective write-up on a desktop migration that I have ever seen. Not once do you find the phrases "Microsoft Sucks!" or "Linux Rules!" throughout the entire article.
While you might not like the fact that he points out some of the shortcomings, you should appreciate his candor. You will never find a Microsoft write up on a NT migration where they speak of the real shortcomings that might exist in the end.
It would be better to ask why the Internet ended up like this, rather than how it was originally thought of. I have three suggested influences that are not covered in Television
SPAMIf it were not for the fear of spam or the volume of it, many would be more willing to go to more websites and see what's there. I skip a lot of places because they want my email address. Why? It isn't required for HTTP to function correctly?
It basically comes down to the Corporate motives to steal your privacy away so that they can bombard you with the advertisements (as seen on TV). Between the 1 pixel web-bots, SPAM bots, and registration whores, there is a lot of reason not to put your name on any websites.
To fix this we need to make SPAM a crime, nothing short will do. Fines do not stop anyone. Neither does abuse@... email.
SecurityIf the internet were secure, or at least not so prone to the problems exemplified by Microsofts poor history records, then more would be available for people to use. There was a time when you could actually have your own email and web servers without a major violation of some contract.
MediaThe News Media has been a major player in the destruction of the Internet. "Be careful out there, most of the people you meed on the internet are lunatics who will kill you with a rusty chainsaw!" Somehow we have forgotten how to judge character on our own and use moderation in responding to email, newsgroup postings and have left it to the Media to dictate who we can talk to. Lunatics exist on IM too, but you don't hear about them.
The internet was fine, until the rest of the world barged in. My local email list administrator was recently sued for removing someone from the list. Why was he removed? Too many ghost identities voting (vote early, vote often). This is crap! It's a mess
As things get more and more restrictive and liabelous, you will find a retreat from the internet back towards things that have worked in the past. Personally, I find myself using the internet less and less for entertainment as it usually ends in a trap of Buy, Spam, or Banner-Farm.
Recall that the first car phones where fitted to the trunk and only worked within range of the one or two towers in that city. Then they went to remote phones / early cellular that were about the size of an Army Field Radio.
With the exception of the antennae, I suspect these can be pushed down to something the size of a small PDA. The physical limitation will be the physical antennae.
Look silly. If you don't want to use .Net to pay bills there is still the method of using paper checks, stamps, and envelopes.
Reasonably secure, immune to mose virii (not counting anthrax), and does not support Microsoft.
I've been using it for years with no problems.
When I was in school I research BiRefringent materials. It was a cumbersome construction of 3D devices which would allow for light to control light switches. But I never saw it come to anything really useful since that time. That was a long time ago.
They don't go into much details of how exactly they control (switch/stop/start) this beam of light. But it does imply a static storage device would be capable.
With that, BiRefringence, and a few other goodies, we might be approaching the optical computer. Even with conventional (non-quantum) circuits we would have some impressive improvements in performance:
Of course this would kind of move along the adoption of optical fiber in everyone's home... And overclockers really wouldn't have anything to do anymore.
It's pretty obvious that this letter, if it is real, was very obviously intended to leaked as part of the FUD campaign. If you think it wasn't then you are the fodder they are looking for.
It's also a Grand and Glorious Day that has arrived. Yes, The Year of Our Lord, 2002 AD will very likely be the day where the second dirivative of the Linux movement has gone totally positive and is (very likely by the end of 2002) the firse dirivative into a positive movement againt the MSFT inertia!!!
And as for Windows being easier to use and dumber people can use Windows... Let Them! I would not want to attempt to run an OS as dumbed down as the home user Windows products. This is a good thing!
SEUL.ORG has some educational experiences that they have been gathering up. I am also working on starting one in SouthEast Michigan. I also know of a few others in this area that have gone well. Contact me for more information if you need to.
I submitted this one YESTERDAY!!!
WTF?
I thought it was the Browser and not the OS that mattered to web sites.
OK, I checked out the screen shots. Looks just like my current KDE 2.2.1.
KDE is a good product, don't get me wrong. But why does it have to look just like MSFT's products?
I actually would like to work more on finding desktops/WM's that do not look like MSFT. It's interesting to see what other ideas are out there and to see who's got a fresh new paradigm on this desktop. After all, it's not really a desktop anymore.
Let me say I will be one of the first to jump on the "I Hate Microsoft" wagons. But this article is just plain wrong, as in inaccurate.
The first paragraph of the referenced story talks about how they are currently in testing for this security hole. Whereas, the poster is stating that Microsoft has no specific designs on when this will ever get fixed.
Inaccurate, Fanatical Extremism like this is only going to hurt Open Source, Slashdot, and those associated with it. While Microsoft may be wrong in this case. It doesn't do us any good to exhibit poor sportsmanship. Leave that for the politicians
I would hate to see MSFT Office show up on Linux for the simple reason of what Linux stands for philosophically.
Putting Office on Linux wouldn't be that hard to do. After all, everything they have runs off of a layer of libraries that could be simply modified to emulate the W32 environment on Linux. In essence, all they would be doing is putting all the proprietaries into what would replace WINE. Wine looses and you still have to pay MSFT for everything.
It would be far better if MSFT was required to make the File formats either Open Source (public domain XML?) or publish every nuance of the current, all all future, formats (as if it were an RFC document). That would help everyone more than Office on Linux ever could.
I have one last computer at home that is running a Windows OS. It's only there for the kids and wife.
I will be more than a little pleased to use this as an excuse to inform them that they have 18 months to become familiar with the likes of KDE/gnome.... for their computer useage. Of course, if the internet is still as IE specific in many areas, this will mean that a lot of the internet will become unaccessable to me.
If I cannot access certain internet websites because of a lack of browser support, doesn't that qualify me for the Americans with Disabilities Act?