Yeah, that's worked well for Android handsets, most of which can't be upgraded, or if lucky maybe once!
They can all be upgraded. The problem is lazy as fuck vendors and dickish carriers that want you to buy the next phone. If handset vendors interacted with end users directly like Apple does, they'd probably be forced to offer a better experience. Unfortunately for the carriers, this turns them into dumb pipes, which they can't stand.
And Apple actually has done a fair amount of open source (including WebKit and the OS X kernel)
Anything will excuse Apple's hostility towards openness, right?
That would be annoying as hell. On top of that, it'd force the development studios to support everything beneath the game as well as on top. Rather than diminishing the support costs, you've just exploded them.
Linux is not descended from Minix. Linux was fresh from the ground up, but Minix inspired Linus to write it (after a back-and-forth with Tannenbaum.) SCO tried to argue that Linux had code stolen from Minix, but even Tannenbaum rejected that accusation.
Watch me get hate for saying this, but fuck it I got karma...its the updates!
Well, is it hate because people disagree with you or is it hate because you're wrong and being deliberately inflammatory?
can take a copy of XP RTM with NO service packs, slap it on any old bog standard P4 or other PC I have laying around, make sure all the drivers are working and then patch it to current. That is THREE service packs and probably a couple of thousand updates on top of that, what do I get at the end? It is ALL still working. The WiFi is working, the video is working, the sound, the NIC, its ALL still working.
Lucky you! I've seen one or more driver packs and updates in sequence for Windows XP cause it to be left in a shitty state that works (maybe) but is broken in some manner.
Now compare to Linux: I can take any distro that was released the same quarter as Vista, which is supposed to be the shittiest MSFT OS since WinME which I agree with, place it and Vista RTM side by side, patch them both to current...what do I get? All the hardware on the Vista machine still works, the hardware on the Linux box is fucked.
Really? How so? Oh wait, you won't give an example. Just a "Linux leaves systems fucked after updates! Linux sucks!" and we're supposed to believe you blindly. Got it.
I believe that Amazon selling eBooks for less than they pay publishers to drive out competition is more monopolistic bullshit behavior than not providing discounts.
And that's a problem to be dealt with when it arises. It's not an excuse for Apple to get together with the publishers to collude and force prices up across the industry. Monopolies are bad, so is price fixing and collusion.
I remember this guy going through and dunking his systems in Mineral oil over a decade ago, back when I was in 11th grade. You know, back with the BP6 was amazing shit and slotkets were an essential overclocker's tool.
For most people, computers are still TVs with typewriters attached.
Yes, and this is a bad thing.
People who don't know how to turn on a computer, navigate the filesystem, launch applications etc. could be considered illiterate.
And they would be functionally computer illiterate. A bad thing when so much of our lives involves these devices.
Beyond that, its like saying that anyone who doesn't know how to tune their car's engine is incapable of driving.
Driving is separate from maintenance. Someone who can't drive can't pass the test to get their license. Someone incapable of maintaining their car spends lots of money at the mechanic or ends up destroying it far earlier than it would have otherwise failed.
Knowing how to program is no more special than being literate.
Do you realize how important that makes programming? In the first world we have literacy rates well above 99% and for good reason. Anything less damages a nation as a whole and makes it unable to maintain a functional economy.
The world economy is really that bad. When I was 6, nobody had a personal computer. When I was 12, people had $2000 personal computers. When I was 14, my parents could finally afford one of those $2000 personal computers for me to write my school papers on. (Hello Word for DOS.) And today? We're grateful we can buy computers for $35, because otherwise we couldn't afford them.
Your logic doesn't work. The reality is that the cost of computing, as a whole, has dropped to the point that a fully capable system can be had for $35, give or take a keyboard/mouse/monitor. At $35 you can give each child their own unit that they can plug in and do whatever they want, rather than a handful of extremely expensive systems shared across the entire school population.
is anybody else amused that buying a keyboard new costs almost as much as buying the Pi itself?
Not terribly. There's a profit margin on that keyboard that the Pi doesn't have.
Then I demand that a full four year medical course be taught in grade school, because students will some day need to know about medicine and health care in this modern society.
This statement is so fucking stupid I can't even begin to comprehend how you came to conclude that teaching the basics of programming (and, by connection, how computers function) is anywhere near equivalent to what you just said. It's almost as if you want children to be ignorant of how computers work.
And since they'll need to know how to handle money and possibly run a business, I demand that we start with a full MBA and CPA course in kindergarten.
And you pile on the stupid. Teaching kids how to handle money probably would be a fucking awesome idea later in their education. But much like everything else, you have to start somewhere. Why not when they're learning to spell and do basic math?
Oh, right, because we're going to be totally ridiculous about the implications and not think at all.
Maybe, just maybe because at age 6 the brain's ability to handle abstract concepts is not yet developed?
There's no basis for this statement, unfortunately.
Teaching programming to a handful of 6 year olds who show precocious ability is one thing, imposing the same on all kids this age is beyond stupid.
Perhaps we should stop teaching basic math to 6 year olds as well? Math itself is pretty abstract, as it's all numbers and not anything physical. At least with programming they can see the results of their efforts play out before them.
We don't require all kids to know automotive design or repair
In a society as dependent on cars as the US is, that's actually a huge negative. It makes it easy for people to be taken advantage of, and makes repairs that would probably cost a handful of parts and an hour or two of labor a rather expensive ordeal.
nor manufacturing techniques for flat panel displays, nor cellphone antenna design
Ridiculously obscure.
Computers, however, cannot be avoided. They dominate modern life and the only way to escape them is to exit civilization altogether. Computer programming, along with basic finance (and the math necessary) should be baseline subjects rather than optional excursions. It's about breaking open the black box and laying its contents bare, brushing aside mystery and confusion and replacing it with knowledge.
This is, of course, contrary to the modern push to put user-immutable black-boxes in everyone's hands.
Once Comcast is told what to do by the FCC do you think lobbying will go substantially down, or up?
Considering how deep into the FCC they have their hooks already, I don't know if they could seriously do more.
If you loved the torrent throttling they tried to get away with you should be delighted with the total torrent ban in effect once network neutrality rules start allowing the government dictate how networks should be run
This is because people keep fucking around with what "Network Neutrality" should be. It's simple. Make all ISPs and all Internet connections subject to Common Carrier rules. Make it illegal for them to peer into the pipe and discriminate based on content, source, or destination. Real simple.
Otherwise, the corporations will have their way with the Internet, and when they're done you could just as well call it "iTV 2.0."
Poulsbo was a disaster even on Windows thanks to Imagination Technologies.
This type of continual ABI breakage is not seen in both the Mac and Windows worlds
They also aren't open source. That the kernel ABI doesn't remain constant is something that has held true for Linux since it was created.
Imagination Technologies is a company that, IME, is very hostile to open source as a whole. If you are foolish enough to license their core without also getting the driver sources so you can rebuild as you see fit, then you deserve the misery you incur. Nokia did this, with the licenses required that allowed things like this project to continue supporting multiple devices with a PowerVR GPU almost 3 years after release of the first.
Intel seems to be slowly learning that lesson as their SoC designs are trending towards an internally developed GPU rather than PowerVR.
so many of us have been saying that for years and called filthy names and told what idiots we are
Your maturity level has not been much higher, that's for sure.
why does Windows rule the desktop? its simply because there is software that covers every niche from inventory management to medical billing, electrical supply to salvage yards, there is SOMEBODY out there making software for it and it runs on Windows.
And as a result you have a wonderful feedback loop that reinforces Microsoft's monopoly.
When the core of the OS is constantly shifting like the sand to keep those applications running is gonna be costly as hell
Bullshit. You pick one distro and stick to it. Even then, I've got applications that run, unchanged, using dynamic libraries that function on RHEL 5.6 and Ubuntu 12.04. This imposes certain limitations, but the idea that from one version of a given distro to the next you have to rebuild everything (or even from one distro to the next) is a bald-faced lie.
MSFT has been treating their customers like crap so long they might as well put a Goatse on the box yet we still buy it because we have no choice because everything is simply in too much flux with Linux.
Nonsense. Microsoft's power over OEMs keeps them from messing too much with Linux. They're eying Ubuntu, but only distantly and usually only to get better prices out of Microsoft.
The one or two "solutions" trotted out when we point that out cost several times what Windows does, like RHEL, thus making MSFT the better deal.
Specifically in the case of Linux, does the presence of skeuomorphic UIs in some applications really matter if the user decides "hey this sucks" and rips it out at the roots and installs something more to their liking?
I don't think any evidence has been provided that shows such UI designs are better than a well laid out traditional UI, but people will try whatever they can. So long as it isn't rammed down my throat, that's fine.
Congress has the power to mandate we buy any product of their choosing
That's not what I saw. I saw that they had the power to tax, which they do. But please, bark up and down about how they "banned incandescent bulbs" to force us to buy CCFLs, when they didn't actually do that.
It is the Media/Corporate-serving Left that has been causing most of the problems lately.
If you think that's "left" you're delusional. Everything in the US Federal Government is right of center, all that differentiates them is to what degree and how pro-corporate they are.
Like shutting-down Megaupload. Arresting & prosecuting Jamie Thomas millions of dollars for downloading 30 songs. Passing or trying to pass laws like Protect IP, SOPA, and CISPA.
I'm sure the Republican party will get right behind those same things. Oh right, they were behind SOPA/PIPA right up until the people of the country turned against it.
Forcing us to bail-out GM when it should have been left to die. Forcing us to provide Corporate Welfare for Solyndra and hundreds of other companies (most of which went bankrupt). Forcing 50 million uninsured Americans to buy product from the Insurance Megacorps (made their stock go up the very next day).
So jump across the aisle and the only thing that changes are the companies, and even then that isn't guaranteed.
I see the religious nuts as annoying, but I don't have to fear they will arrest me under PIPA, fine me millions of dollars, or force me to provide bailouts/corporate welfare/buy a product which I don't want. All that shit is coming from the left.
You should. Only they'll start ramming Jesus down your throat, cut your ability to afford medical care, give more money to the richest in the country, and cut back your rights as far as they can.
Slashdot Mirror
You've tested this I take it? Where can I buy an F-35?
They can all be upgraded. The problem is lazy as fuck vendors and dickish carriers that want you to buy the next phone. If handset vendors interacted with end users directly like Apple does, they'd probably be forced to offer a better experience. Unfortunately for the carriers, this turns them into dumb pipes, which they can't stand.
Anything will excuse Apple's hostility towards openness, right?
Considering Just Cause 2 doesn't have a Linux port last I checked, this isn't terribly surprising.
So what you're saying is that the best thing wouldn't be Linux, but Google.
That would be annoying as hell. On top of that, it'd force the development studios to support everything beneath the game as well as on top. Rather than diminishing the support costs, you've just exploded them.
You don't have to bust down doors and charge in with guns for that. Over-application of force, however, is pretty standard these days.
Wow, wrong information twice in a row.
Linux is descended from Minix
Linux is not descended from Minix. Linux was fresh from the ground up, but Minix inspired Linus to write it (after a back-and-forth with Tannenbaum.) SCO tried to argue that Linux had code stolen from Minix, but even Tannenbaum rejected that accusation.
Well, is it hate because people disagree with you or is it hate because you're wrong and being deliberately inflammatory?
Lucky you! I've seen one or more driver packs and updates in sequence for Windows XP cause it to be left in a shitty state that works (maybe) but is broken in some manner.
Really? How so? Oh wait, you won't give an example. Just a "Linux leaves systems fucked after updates! Linux sucks!" and we're supposed to believe you blindly. Got it.
Ah, Slashdot. You've entered a new age when anti-FOSS/anti-Linux trolling is marked as "Insightful."
And that's a problem to be dealt with when it arises. It's not an excuse for Apple to get together with the publishers to collude and force prices up across the industry. Monopolies are bad, so is price fixing and collusion.
Well, if all they do is fuck around all day then it would probably be discovered fairly quickly in a company as small as 300 people.
No, this feature lets people fiddle with things. An asshole would turn up a computer so loud it'd damage someone's hearing.
Not speaking for the GNOME people, but your example goes way beyond simple hyperbole and off into the land of the utterly ridiculous.
http://web.archive.org/web/19991006062047/http://www.accsdata.com/drffreeze/TestBox2.htm
Sadly, all the pictures appear to have been lost.
I remember this guy going through and dunking his systems in Mineral oil over a decade ago, back when I was in 11th grade. You know, back with the BP6 was amazing shit and slotkets were an essential overclocker's tool.
Yes, and this is a bad thing.
And they would be functionally computer illiterate. A bad thing when so much of our lives involves these devices.
Driving is separate from maintenance. Someone who can't drive can't pass the test to get their license. Someone incapable of maintaining their car spends lots of money at the mechanic or ends up destroying it far earlier than it would have otherwise failed.
Do you realize how important that makes programming? In the first world we have literacy rates well above 99% and for good reason. Anything less damages a nation as a whole and makes it unable to maintain a functional economy.
Your logic doesn't work. The reality is that the cost of computing, as a whole, has dropped to the point that a fully capable system can be had for $35, give or take a keyboard/mouse/monitor. At $35 you can give each child their own unit that they can plug in and do whatever they want, rather than a handful of extremely expensive systems shared across the entire school population.
Not terribly. There's a profit margin on that keyboard that the Pi doesn't have.
This statement is so fucking stupid I can't even begin to comprehend how you came to conclude that teaching the basics of programming (and, by connection, how computers function) is anywhere near equivalent to what you just said. It's almost as if you want children to be ignorant of how computers work.
And you pile on the stupid. Teaching kids how to handle money probably would be a fucking awesome idea later in their education. But much like everything else, you have to start somewhere. Why not when they're learning to spell and do basic math?
Oh, right, because we're going to be totally ridiculous about the implications and not think at all.
Woodworking doesn't have nearly the impact on your daily life that computers do.
You act as if that's the sole purpose of teaching programming. Nice myopic thinking there.
There's no basis for this statement, unfortunately.
Perhaps we should stop teaching basic math to 6 year olds as well? Math itself is pretty abstract, as it's all numbers and not anything physical. At least with programming they can see the results of their efforts play out before them.
In a society as dependent on cars as the US is, that's actually a huge negative. It makes it easy for people to be taken advantage of, and makes repairs that would probably cost a handful of parts and an hour or two of labor a rather expensive ordeal.
Ridiculously obscure.
Computers, however, cannot be avoided. They dominate modern life and the only way to escape them is to exit civilization altogether. Computer programming, along with basic finance (and the math necessary) should be baseline subjects rather than optional excursions. It's about breaking open the black box and laying its contents bare, brushing aside mystery and confusion and replacing it with knowledge.
This is, of course, contrary to the modern push to put user-immutable black-boxes in everyone's hands.
Considering how deep into the FCC they have their hooks already, I don't know if they could seriously do more.
This is because people keep fucking around with what "Network Neutrality" should be. It's simple. Make all ISPs and all Internet connections subject to Common Carrier rules. Make it illegal for them to peer into the pipe and discriminate based on content, source, or destination. Real simple.
Otherwise, the corporations will have their way with the Internet, and when they're done you could just as well call it "iTV 2.0."
Poulsbo was a disaster even on Windows thanks to Imagination Technologies.
They also aren't open source. That the kernel ABI doesn't remain constant is something that has held true for Linux since it was created.
Imagination Technologies is a company that, IME, is very hostile to open source as a whole. If you are foolish enough to license their core without also getting the driver sources so you can rebuild as you see fit, then you deserve the misery you incur. Nokia did this, with the licenses required that allowed things like this project to continue supporting multiple devices with a PowerVR GPU almost 3 years after release of the first.
Intel seems to be slowly learning that lesson as their SoC designs are trending towards an internally developed GPU rather than PowerVR.
Your maturity level has not been much higher, that's for sure.
And as a result you have a wonderful feedback loop that reinforces Microsoft's monopoly.
Bullshit. You pick one distro and stick to it. Even then, I've got applications that run, unchanged, using dynamic libraries that function on RHEL 5.6 and Ubuntu 12.04. This imposes certain limitations, but the idea that from one version of a given distro to the next you have to rebuild everything (or even from one distro to the next) is a bald-faced lie.
Nonsense. Microsoft's power over OEMs keeps them from messing too much with Linux. They're eying Ubuntu, but only distantly and usually only to get better prices out of Microsoft.
Cite?
Specifically in the case of Linux, does the presence of skeuomorphic UIs in some applications really matter if the user decides "hey this sucks" and rips it out at the roots and installs something more to their liking?
I don't think any evidence has been provided that shows such UI designs are better than a well laid out traditional UI, but people will try whatever they can. So long as it isn't rammed down my throat, that's fine.
That's not what I saw. I saw that they had the power to tax, which they do. But please, bark up and down about how they "banned incandescent bulbs" to force us to buy CCFLs, when they didn't actually do that.
loooool
If you think that's "left" you're delusional. Everything in the US Federal Government is right of center, all that differentiates them is to what degree and how pro-corporate they are.
I'm sure the Republican party will get right behind those same things. Oh right, they were behind SOPA/PIPA right up until the people of the country turned against it.
So jump across the aisle and the only thing that changes are the companies, and even then that isn't guaranteed.
You should. Only they'll start ramming Jesus down your throat, cut your ability to afford medical care, give more money to the richest in the country, and cut back your rights as far as they can.
You are utterly out of your gourd.