A clone of the AIX mksysb bootable dvd/tape system for linux would be brilliant - pop in the dvd or tape, boot up, and after a minute or 2 you get the standard AIX install menu, with a "Recovery mode" option at the bottom. Choose it, and you can reinstall the system to the state it was when you made the mksysb backup. Handles everything from disk partitioning, to installing new drivers from the AIX CDs if you're restoring to different hardware.
It saves hours or even days when you're doing disaster recovery.
The simputer is not just hardware as you seem to assume, it's a whole interface and system, developed for use by people who have never used a computer before.
For example, it doesn't have a keyboard or mouse, and doesn't need you to know what one is.
well funny is a stretch, but in c&c red alert, it was the russians vs the americans in an alternate universe where russia had conquered europe in world war 2.
The americans had normal weapons, the russians had cool stuff like tesla coils and mind control weapons. tesla coils were the best defensive weapon in the game
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About 500US Dollars I believe at launch (sept 23rd), I guess it'll come down nearer christmas as it moves into mass production.
While you're right in that this isn't going to lead to Sony providing improvements to Gnome, if they make any alterations to the kernel, that will go back to the community, if they make any improvements to GCC, that will go back to the community.
Just because you personally probably won't see any contributions by Sony (or more likely someone like MontaVista or whoever is doing the development) doesn't mean they won't be made.
The main reason is power consumption. Dedicated hardware can be designed to run at a lower power and temperature.
I've got one of the via c3 nehemiah machines with this cle266 chipset, before this i needed a pci geforce card to watch dvds, a (relatively) large power drain.
Now I can run the machine off a 55W fanless power supply, instead of the 250W noisy fan of a P2-400, or the 400W fan of a p4-3000
He's right, there are 2 linux business operating system companies now, Suse and Redhat. If I was to ask Dell, HP, or IBM if Mandrake ran on their servers, they'd say "Maybe but don't ask for it in writing", for Suse or RedHat you get an answer of "This range of servers are all certified to work with RedHat Advance Server and Suse Linux Enterprise Server"
If I want to buy some hardware + software, the only way to get a certified setup with Linux is to buy either Redhat or Suses server products at about $1000. For people running large Oracle or DB2 databases on IBM xSeries or Dell Poweredge servers, this is what they need.
His quote carries on with "There will be no third distribution that will be supported by the large IT vendors". I saw HP were supporting Debian while Bruce Perens was there, but now looking on the HP site everywhere it is RedHat or Suse.
There's definitely going to be more desktop linux vendors, but a lot of them still ride on top of Redhat or Debian, and again a lot of them cater for specific markets.
They don't claim that each line is copied, they claim the whole of the Linux read-copy update which was given by IBM is infringing, but they accept it's not a line for line copy, just a derivative work - I read somewhere that alone is 150 files worth according to SCO, I don't know the reality though.
Big companies are already going through the portings, IBM rewriting almost everything in Java or Web services for example, SAP is being rewritten as web services, etc. All these can then be used either through a browser or other thin client, making the OS almost irrelevant.
Once that happens, companies can look at the cost of buying the next 3 year cycle of Windows+application licenses, and compare it to the cost of porting over or replacing the remaining windows only applications, and do the maths. For some it will be easy, dump windows, get in Sun or IBM to do a Linux thin-client or workstation implementation with servers doing the real work.
The main downside is the 100% vendor lock-in of the AS400 (iSeries now) range - IBM does not sell spare parts for these machines cheap, and the lack of applications. The other minor downside is its use of EBCDIC instead of ASCII, which makes it a pain in the arse to cooperate with other systems.
You do now get websphere on it, so you can run java stuff on it, and apache and various other bits and pieces have been ported, but 99% of software out there will simply not work on OS400 without major rewrites.
Just claim you're quoting the Simpsons episode where Homer gets Bart a microphone and dreams of all the things he could've done (including saying that).
dell
dell are selling a lexmark Color Jetprinter Z35 for £33 ($50?), that's cheaper than both a full colour and full black and white cartridge, but often now these ultra-cheap printers ship with a half-full cartridge to make people buy more.
Ewan
The ability to arrange a meeting by email and have it automatically appear in each persons calendar with a little reminder as they accept the invitation is a great feature for distributed offices, especially if one or more people in your company has a secretary who arranges meetings for them - the secretary can accept the request as a designated user in Exchange, and then, voila, the next time the executive checks their email they see a meeting for them to attend.
We looked at Suse, unfortunately they charge a per-user licence for clients that is comparable to Exchange, and Exchange Client access licences include the right to use Outlook, not just a web interface.
And in a 5000 user system like the guy above was discussing, licence fees are the number 1 cost by a long long way.
ntlm authentication has existed in unix for a while, fetchmail has it for example. microsoft haven't changed it thus far, and i don't suppose they will now either.
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A clone of the AIX mksysb bootable dvd/tape system for linux would be brilliant - pop in the dvd or tape, boot up, and after a minute or 2 you get the standard AIX install menu, with a "Recovery mode" option at the bottom. Choose it, and you can reinstall the system to the state it was when you made the mksysb backup. Handles everything from disk partitioning, to installing new drivers from the AIX CDs if you're restoring to different hardware.
It saves hours or even days when you're doing disaster recovery.
You still have to run X though, Xvfb being part of X...
It's much less memory hungry than doing a full X startup, but it has the same issues with security, reliability, etc.
My Cherry keyboard says Control, I honestly hadn't noticed till you made this post though.
For example, it doesn't have a keyboard or mouse, and doesn't need you to know what one is.
If you had read the article from Scientific American at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000454A E-7675-1D7E-90FB809EC5880000 you'd of found all this out.
Ewan
One of the parts of the simputer was that it could have a purely image driven interface, and it could teach you to read as it went.
Dell are now doing fibre channel storage area networks, and rebadged EMC equipment.
I don't think lindows runs the ssh server by default, so I'd imagine you're fine.
tesco are now doing them for 9.87. still though, 15 is the magic mainstream number for these things
well funny is a stretch, but in c&c red alert, it was the russians vs the americans in an alternate universe where russia had conquered europe in world war 2.
The americans had normal weapons, the russians had cool stuff like tesla coils and mind control weapons. tesla coils were the best defensive weapon in the game
About 500US Dollars I believe at launch (sept 23rd), I guess it'll come down nearer christmas as it moves into mass production.
While you're right in that this isn't going to lead to Sony providing improvements to Gnome, if they make any alterations to the kernel, that will go back to the community, if they make any improvements to GCC, that will go back to the community.
Just because you personally probably won't see any contributions by Sony (or more likely someone like MontaVista or whoever is doing the development) doesn't mean they won't be made.
Ewan
The main reason is power consumption. Dedicated hardware can be designed to run at a lower power and temperature.
I've got one of the via c3 nehemiah machines with this cle266 chipset, before this i needed a pci geforce card to watch dvds, a (relatively) large power drain.
Now I can run the machine off a 55W fanless power supply, instead of the 250W noisy fan of a P2-400, or the 400W fan of a p4-3000
Ewan
He's right, there are 2 linux business operating system companies now, Suse and Redhat. If I was to ask Dell, HP, or IBM if Mandrake ran on their servers, they'd say "Maybe but don't ask for it in writing", for Suse or RedHat you get an answer of "This range of servers are all certified to work with RedHat Advance Server and Suse Linux Enterprise Server"
If I want to buy some hardware + software, the only way to get a certified setup with Linux is to buy either Redhat or Suses server products at about $1000. For people running large Oracle or DB2 databases on IBM xSeries or Dell Poweredge servers, this is what they need.
His quote carries on with "There will be no third distribution that will be supported by the large IT vendors". I saw HP were supporting Debian while Bruce Perens was there, but now looking on the HP site everywhere it is RedHat or Suse.
There's definitely going to be more desktop linux vendors, but a lot of them still ride on top of Redhat or Debian, and again a lot of them cater for specific markets.
They don't claim that each line is copied, they claim the whole of the Linux read-copy update which was given by IBM is infringing, but they accept it's not a line for line copy, just a derivative work - I read somewhere that alone is 150 files worth according to SCO, I don't know the reality though.
Ewan
Big companies are already going through the portings, IBM rewriting almost everything in Java or Web services for example, SAP is being rewritten as web services, etc. All these can then be used either through a browser or other thin client, making the OS almost irrelevant.
Once that happens, companies can look at the cost of buying the next 3 year cycle of Windows+application licenses, and compare it to the cost of porting over or replacing the remaining windows only applications, and do the maths. For some it will be easy, dump windows, get in Sun or IBM to do a Linux thin-client or workstation implementation with servers doing the real work.
Ewan
The main downside is the 100% vendor lock-in of the AS400 (iSeries now) range - IBM does not sell spare parts for these machines cheap, and the lack of applications. The other minor downside is its use of EBCDIC instead of ASCII, which makes it a pain in the arse to cooperate with other systems.
You do now get websphere on it, so you can run java stuff on it, and apache and various other bits and pieces have been ported, but 99% of software out there will simply not work on OS400 without major rewrites.
Ewan
Just claim you're quoting the Simpsons episode where Homer gets Bart a microphone and dreams of all the things he could've done (including saying that).
That's exactly what I was thinking, so much for utility
dell dell are selling a lexmark Color Jetprinter Z35 for £33 ($50?), that's cheaper than both a full colour and full black and white cartridge, but often now these ultra-cheap printers ship with a half-full cartridge to make people buy more. Ewan
That would be 2 pushes of a keyboard button...
The ability to arrange a meeting by email and have it automatically appear in each persons calendar with a little reminder as they accept the invitation is a great feature for distributed offices, especially if one or more people in your company has a secretary who arranges meetings for them - the secretary can accept the request as a designated user in Exchange, and then, voila, the next time the executive checks their email they see a meeting for them to attend.
Ewan
We looked at Suse, unfortunately they charge a per-user licence for clients that is comparable to Exchange, and Exchange Client access licences include the right to use Outlook, not just a web interface.
And in a 5000 user system like the guy above was discussing, licence fees are the number 1 cost by a long long way.
Ewan
Intuitive means:
Knowing, or perceiving, by intuition; capable of knowing without deduction or reasoning.
So needing to explain the filesystem means it is not intuitive.
/opt is intuitive now? :) /etc for configuration files?
and
The unix filesystem is very powerful and flexible, but it is hardly clear and intuitive.
ntlm authentication has existed in unix for a while, fetchmail has it for example. microsoft haven't changed it thus far, and i don't suppose they will now either.