You remember back in like 97 when low quality Real-Audio streams were the rage and mp3 was like this new weird thing that nobody really knew about? (at least amongst me + geeks i knew) there is NO reason Ogg can't take over as the de-facto standard. especially if it really is a better format. sure, it might not be tomorrow but with the increasing ease of switching (i.e. with all this new software support), mp3 is _anything_ but entrenched and could be uprooted with half of users not even knowing what file type they are playing.
Sorry, but no 'player war' that isn't already going on is about to happen. If Real open sources some of MS's obfuscated protocol will it tick them off? Yes. But saying it would start a 'player war' would imply they aren't already competing for market share, which of course they are or they wouldn't be businesses. Furthermore, in the market share battle, being open source won't make a drop of difference, they're both free to the consumer and in the end it will inevitably just come down to prettier graphics or how much easier one is to use .
ok, somebody has to explain the reasoning behind these MS/Sony 'all in one' home media things. as far as i can tell they want to make a gaming console that will be able to surf the web, check email and play movies etc. well, can't a PC already check email + browse the web and play movies? and a PC can already play games!
as far as i'm concerned the PC already IS the media center/all in one box for the modern home, with a vast pool of development resources behind it. Why are these companies trying to reinvent the wheel?
Actually it seems to me that a lot of the drawbacks on the page can be summed up as 'incompatible with Windows', which depending on how you look at it isn't a drawback at all. For reference see points:
-Windows users need a seperate account on *nix boxes -Linux doesn't have native ASP support -Linux doesn't have native Active Directory support etc.
And this still doesn't stop some good old fashioned flaming FUD from slipping in, and I quote: 'Given the recent cutbacks and layoffs at many commercial Linux vendors, including Red Hat's recent 17 percent reduction in it workforce, it is questionable whether commercial Linux vendors will be around to provide support in the long term'
Not to mention the obligatory paragraph about why the GPL leads to anarchy. So sure, maybe it's an improvement over the old page but as expected still mostly hot air blowing...
For example, if it's illegal to view adult materials in a country, this patent covers any method which is used to determine that the client computer is in that nation, and then goes on to prevent the data from getting there.
So basically they patented a method for saving their ass by obeying the law? How novel, to think you could avoid sending out content that might piss off foreign politicians just by looking at their address...
If ad agencies made their commercials more entertaining then I wouldn't mind watching them so much.
Conversely, if the media companies made the shows more entertaining you probably would be more hesitant to change the channel in case you missed something. How often do you change the channel only to come back to the first show a little too late? Probably a lot, it happens to everyone. This doesn't mean that the ads on the first station weren't entertaining enough. What this means is that the content of the show is so unimportant to the viewer as to make avoiding ads more important than anything, even at the risk of missing the show itself. Think about die-hard fans wathcing their favorite show, or when your favorite movie is on, or it's the Superbowl (etc.), see if any one of those viewers is willing to change the channel. Not at all, they're afraid of missing anything. I think the real lesson here is that people care a lot less about Friends than the execs all think we do. If we cared about the stuff they were putting on tv then we'd be willing to watch the ads in anticipation of the show, just the way interstitials were meant to work in the first place.
my problem with your post is this: lots of people complain about things (especially software) without seeming to have any real reason to do so or without offering any help. basically this just makes life harder for other people and helps no one. if you are in are in the tech field (i assume you are) you've probably at one point had user X make vague demands of you like 'why doesn't it look better?...' (note, no _real_ suggestion offered) or other such completely subjective comments that lead to nothing getting done as we all go on a wild goose chase to make a piece of software 'better' with no real definition of what that is. in short, i found your criticism of KDE completely unconstructive.
secondly, KDE/Gnome has copied MS for a simple reason: MS etc. puts real time and money into trying UI concepts out and seeing what works. the resulting interface seems to be useful for pretty much everyone. so in MY opinion shying away from already existing knowledge in the field and chasing after a vague undefined holy grail of interface design seems like it would be the worst way to spend time for any linux desktop developer. yes, you are completely entitled to any opinion, i happen to consider what you said more akin to flamebait. if you DO come up with a new better paradigm, then i'm sure i will appreciate it along with everyone else but until that time i think you see where i'm coming from...
First off, we have a community being built: users screwed by Windows.... We're all in it together.
How the hell is 'we're all in it together dealing with a pile of crap' better than 'we're all in it together to try to build something actually stable and useful'? We should be working towards a common goal of good software, not just towards easing the pain of a common tyrant.
the problem is you seem to have pretty much already resigned yourself to not act on the advertising you see while 'supporting' OSS.
there seems to be this idea that just looking at ads generates revenue but unfortunately that model went out with the dot-bombs. cost-per-click is essentially dead, randomly clicking on slashdot banners probably doesn't generate them any revenue unless the target site can track you all the way through to a sale. likewise if vendors advertise on the redhat desktop but sales don't increase then the ads get pulled. advertising is only worth as much money as it can generate responses so in order to support OSS you would have to turn on the ad display AND respond to those ads that you saw. it's a bit of a difference...
MS knows that games are a HUGE sales driver for the desktop PC. They wouldn't do this unless they thought non-Windows/DirectX games could be in danger, no matter how small the danger appears now. And I don't mean that there are only MS/DirectX games out there now but rather there is a potential for Directx's growth in market share to be stopped. This is an aggressive move by strategists to try to neutralize potential problems 3 years down the line, THAT's when the chokehold will appear. Super slimy but completely understandable if not brilliant from a business perspective.
I'm sorry, but while what you're saying sounds good, it's completely off.
In these kinds of situations you have to fight fire with fire. Every revolution (or even minor change) is completely unremarkable if the effects are not institutionalized and systems put in place to insure that they stay around. Yes, you should call these companies and complain but do you really think that will make any difference? As an example, there are many people who write nice (or not so nice) little notes to spammers saying that they won't buy their products because they disapprove of their methods./. has linked to many of these people. Have you seen any change? As long as the _majority_ of people are complacent and go along with it, nothing will change even though quality of life is worse for everybody. Because life would not be completely unlivable if the **AA's achieve their tyrannical goals, they have a pretty good chance of making it work, unless we throw up road blocks in a language they understand and specifically on the same avenues they themselves are trying to use.
The second part of this is that we ARE dealing with government, we ARE dealing with laws, meaning pretty much no one here has any real power to fight back or change things once they're in place (DMCA anyone?). We may have an opportunity here. We need to seize it.
NO. this is NOT arrogance on the part of programmers. it's a lament from having to be up at 2 in the morning re-coding seperate versions of all your pages because some small market segment MIGHT be using a horrendously out of date browser. if anything it's arrogance on the part of the USERS who are too set in their ways to switch something that makes things better looking, can do more useful stuff and is (gasp) COMPLETELY FREE. give me ONE good reason to use NS4 over Mozilla 1.0. just ONE.
somehow i keep getting this image in my head of, 50 years from now, tina turner coming to kick my ass for fuel. not fun, although i suppose we get to wear cool jackets.
A spokesman for the Christopher Little Literary Agency, which represents her, was quoted as saying: 'This is a case which we are aware of and, as with all piracy matters throughout the world, take this issue extremely seriously.'
since when is faking something 'piracy'??? is the FBI going to look for money 'piraters' now, and can i buy a 'pirate' rolex on canal st.? this 'pirate' thing is getting completely out of hand, it seems like the new definition just boils down to: 'someone who does something a media exec doesn't like'.
excuse me while i put a patch over my eye and change the channel during the commercials...
maybe this is a firmware competitor? maybe next year sony releases an x-box OS based on linux with lots of whiz-bang features to try to get people to switch.
sure, i might be reaching but it's still possible...
Slashdot Mirror
yep. letting you look at pr0n all day would certainly increase productivity i'm sure.
but i imagine you deserve it because you _are_ special.
You remember back in like 97 when low quality Real-Audio streams were the rage and mp3 was like this new weird thing that nobody really knew about? (at least amongst me + geeks i knew)
there is NO reason Ogg can't take over as the de-facto standard. especially if it really is a better format.
sure, it might not be tomorrow but with the increasing ease of switching (i.e. with all this new software support), mp3 is _anything_ but entrenched and could be uprooted with half of users not even knowing what file type they are playing.
Sorry, but no 'player war' that isn't already going on is about to happen.
If Real open sources some of MS's obfuscated protocol will it tick them off? Yes.
But saying it would start a 'player war' would imply they aren't already competing for market share, which of course they are or they wouldn't be businesses.
Furthermore, in the market share battle, being open source won't make a drop of difference, they're both free to the consumer and in the end it will inevitably just come down to prettier graphics or how much easier one is to use .
as far as i can tell they want to make a gaming console that will be able to surf the web, check email and play movies etc.
well, can't a PC already check email + browse the web and play movies? and a PC can already play games!
as far as i'm concerned the PC already IS the media center/all in one box for the modern home, with a vast pool of development resources behind it. Why are these companies trying to reinvent the wheel?
Is it slashdotted or is that the demonstration?
;)
For reference see points:
-Windows users need a seperate account on *nix boxes
-Linux doesn't have native ASP support
-Linux doesn't have native Active Directory support
etc.
And this still doesn't stop some good old fashioned flaming FUD from slipping in, and I quote:
'Given the recent cutbacks and layoffs at many commercial Linux vendors, including Red Hat's recent 17 percent reduction in it workforce, it is questionable whether commercial Linux vendors will be around to provide support in the long term'
Not to mention the obligatory paragraph about why the GPL leads to anarchy.
So sure, maybe it's an improvement over the old page but as expected still mostly hot air blowing...
So basically they patented a method for saving their ass by obeying the law? How novel, to think you could avoid sending out content that might piss off foreign politicians just by looking at their address...
pictures of other previous Playboys? i don't think that would fly...
Conversely, if the media companies made the shows more entertaining you probably would be more hesitant to change the channel in case you missed something. How often do you change the channel only to come back to the first show a little too late? Probably a lot, it happens to everyone.
This doesn't mean that the ads on the first station weren't entertaining enough. What this means is that the content of the show is so unimportant to the viewer as to make avoiding ads more important than anything, even at the risk of missing the show itself.
Think about die-hard fans wathcing their favorite show, or when your favorite movie is on, or it's the Superbowl (etc.), see if any one of those viewers is willing to change the channel. Not at all, they're afraid of missing anything.
I think the real lesson here is that people care a lot less about Friends than the execs all think we do. If we cared about the stuff they were putting on tv then we'd be willing to watch the ads in anticipation of the show, just the way interstitials were meant to work in the first place.
my problem with your post is this: lots of people complain about things (especially software) without seeming to have any real reason to do so or without offering any help. basically this just makes life harder for other people and helps no one. if you are in are in the tech field (i assume you are) you've probably at one point had user X make vague demands of you like 'why doesn't it look better?...' (note, no _real_ suggestion offered) or other such completely subjective comments that lead to nothing getting done as we all go on a wild goose chase to make a piece of software 'better' with no real definition of what that is. in short, i found your criticism of KDE completely unconstructive.
secondly, KDE/Gnome has copied MS for a simple reason: MS etc. puts real time and money into trying UI concepts out and seeing what works. the resulting interface seems to be useful for pretty much everyone.
so in MY opinion shying away from already existing knowledge in the field and chasing after a vague undefined holy grail of interface design seems like it would be the worst way to spend time for any linux desktop developer.
yes, you are completely entitled to any opinion, i happen to consider what you said more akin to flamebait.
if you DO come up with a new better paradigm, then i'm sure i will appreciate it along with everyone else but until that time i think you see where i'm coming from...
Until you actually suggest a new paradigm yourself you are absolutely, most certainly, beyond a doubt, trolling.
Those in glass houses yada yada...
We're all in it together.
How the hell is 'we're all in it together dealing with a pile of crap' better than 'we're all in it together to try to build something actually stable and useful'?
We should be working towards a common goal of good software, not just towards easing the pain of a common tyrant.
actually, the problem isn't elitists saying RTFM it's not enough people realizing that TMFB or The Manual F*cking Blows
there seems to be this idea that just looking at ads generates revenue but unfortunately that model went out with the dot-bombs. cost-per-click is essentially dead, randomly clicking on slashdot banners probably doesn't generate them any revenue unless the target site can track you all the way through to a sale. likewise if vendors advertise on the redhat desktop but sales don't increase then the ads get pulled.
advertising is only worth as much money as it can generate responses so in order to support OSS you would have to turn on the ad display AND respond to those ads that you saw.
it's a bit of a difference...
MS knows that games are a HUGE sales driver for the desktop PC. They wouldn't do this unless they thought non-Windows/DirectX games could be in danger, no matter how small the danger appears now. And I don't mean that there are only MS/DirectX games out there now but rather there is a potential for Directx's growth in market share to be stopped.
This is an aggressive move by strategists to try to neutralize potential problems 3 years down the line, THAT's when the chokehold will appear.
Super slimy but completely understandable if not brilliant from a business perspective.
In these kinds of situations you have to fight fire with fire. Every revolution (or even minor change) is completely unremarkable if the effects are not institutionalized and systems put in place to insure that they stay around. /. has linked to many of these people. Have you seen any change?
Yes, you should call these companies and complain but do you really think that will make any difference?
As an example, there are many people who write nice (or not so nice) little notes to spammers saying that they won't buy their products because they disapprove of their methods.
As long as the _majority_ of people are complacent and go along with it, nothing will change even though quality of life is worse for everybody.
Because life would not be completely unlivable if the **AA's achieve their tyrannical goals, they have a pretty good chance of making it work, unless we throw up road blocks in a language they understand and specifically on the same avenues they themselves are trying to use.
The second part of this is that we ARE dealing with government, we ARE dealing with laws, meaning pretty much no one here has any real power to fight back or change things once they're in place (DMCA anyone?). We may have an opportunity here. We need to seize it.
NO. this is NOT arrogance on the part of programmers. it's a lament from having to be up at 2 in the morning re-coding seperate versions of all your pages because some small market segment MIGHT be using a horrendously out of date browser.
if anything it's arrogance on the part of the USERS who are too set in their ways to switch something that makes things better looking, can do more useful stuff and is (gasp) COMPLETELY FREE.
give me ONE good reason to use NS4 over Mozilla 1.0. just ONE.
somehow i keep getting this image in my head of, 50 years from now, tina turner coming to kick my ass for fuel.
not fun, although i suppose we get to wear cool jackets.
and lots of em too.
sheesh, for a room full of frustrated geeks you'd think this would've been obvious.
since when is faking something 'piracy'??? is the FBI going to look for money 'piraters' now, and can i buy a 'pirate' rolex on canal st.?
this 'pirate' thing is getting completely out of hand, it seems like the new definition just boils down to: 'someone who does something a media exec doesn't like'.
excuse me while i put a patch over my eye and change the channel during the commercials...
I dread the day when Palladium means I have use Microsoft Certified Bread in my toaster every morning.
Worse yet, the only certified cheese will probably be Swiss (*ba-dum crash!*).
ummmm.... ?
i think we found who stole the crack from the space shuttle...
...that's 1 degree of seperation. That's business w/
(yeah, it was low;)
maybe this is a firmware competitor? maybe next year sony releases an x-box OS based on linux with lots of whiz-bang features to try to get people to switch.
sure, i might be reaching but it's still possible...
you're talking about when you run an athlon without a fan right?