I tain't sure either, but I remember at one point where they did a PA comic for some gaming site. Said site then promptly claimed they owned *ALL* PA's work, as the contract Gabe and Tyco signed said that the strip they did was a "work for hire" and that the gaming site owned all the rights to it.
It least, that's not how I remember Watchmen. The government passed an anti-masked-vigilente act and forced super heroes to no longer hide their identities, or face stiff prison terms. Most super heroes retired without revealing their identity (the governemt didn't care as long as they stopped being vigilentes). Only a few (three to be precise) were protected by the goverment, and only then because they were working for the government.
Hmm, interesting. Perhaps this is what Ballmer is actually concerned about, that Linux (Linspire) is occupying a price point market that Windows currently can't? It might be devastating for MS if Walmart and Best Buy starting do the same thing.
Seriously, this is not a troll. I just installed Debian stable about two months ago, because I wanted to see what Bruce Parens was basing UserLinux off of, and these are the thing that I ran into.
1. Cut and Paste - I realize this is getting old, and KDE is getting much better, but when I talk to developer friends about Linux, this is one of the firt things they mentioned. There are still enough old apps around that use the old style Cut and Paste that it's hard to remember what works with what, and compatiblity between old and new cut and paste is a bitch. You have to be very dedicated to want to use Linux and deal with cut and paste everywhere, not just from with in the GUI.
2. Games - seriously, name me three first run games released for Linux this yere.
3. Fonts - this is my complaint, and maybe my biggest. Font display under Debian two months ago was abysmal. Maybe I'm just used to windows, but I think font display on Linux is headed in the wrong direction. Display hasn't improved for like 4 years now, IMO, even though each release they claim it will.
4. Installation - I installed Java under Debian just a couple of days ago to use a Java app I needed. First, the instructions on Sun's web site only cover red hat and one other, not debian. Second, it didn't cover Konquerer. Third, even trying to adapt the instructions for Debian and Konquerer didn't work. Konquerer seemed to have java already, ok, but... Fourth, where was Java Web Start? It didn't install that I could see, no desktop icon, and nothing happens when I type "Java" from the prompt so there's not even a path set to it. Solution: go to windows where the install worked first time. This is what I'm talking about.
5. Applications - see above. Java on Sun's website had instructions for Mozilla and Netscape, but not Konquerer, and I couldn't get it to work. Windows seems to have abstacted this enough so it does work, or everyone just copies IE, whichever. But there's no standard apparently on Linux for every single app developer to follow, so stuff is broken.
6. Sites only working with IE - my bank, for staters. It sucks, but what can I do? My only choice is to use IE (I use Mozilla by default on windows, btw).
I'd love it if I really was wrong, but Linux just isn't where it needs to be yet to be truly mass adoptable. And it doesn't look like it will in the near future. Maybe it won't even get there in the mid-term.
If you read the article, you'd see that it's talking about how difficult it is to get drivers installed on Linux. Because Linus refuses to maintain compatiblilty between releases, everyone has to ship drivers as source, and every user needs to keep current headers on their system, and know how to compile their modules. Plus they may have to know how to insert the modules, mount filesystems, create new devices, etc. Versus just installing a binary driver, it's kinda a pain in the ass. And each upgrade, you get to do it all over again.
These are general impediments to widespread adoption. If we are going to promote Linux, the first thing we have to agree on is a list of what needs work. And the above is my list. Sorry if you disagree, but I consider myself a customer of Linux, and this customer wants these issue addressed.
I want to know why these people have such trouble building a voting machine and the occupying software? I'm sure I speak for many many/. readers when I say that we could nock up the client and server in about an hour to forkful all the specifications and then spend the next hour bug fixing and then in the third hour get a cup of hot coffee!
Yeah, right. I'm sure that Diebold told themselves the exact same thing, and look what happened.
The first thing to do would be to collect the requirements, which I think would take more than a couple of hours. It seems that this is the step Diebold missed, because a lot of their features seem tacked on like they didn't have time to implement them properly. That screams "last minute feature" to me.
Surely windows is/was a generic term. I think X-windows should be prior art enough as the name of a software package that did much the same as MS's product. And the term "windows" was in use generically in the computer community before that.
I think though that "Lindows" is just a bit too close to the common practice of refering to MS Windows as just "Windows". They should name their product Linspire Windows or something similar. Which they may be already planning to do.
You are lost in a foreign city, you don't speak the language and you are late for your meeting.
Find the nearest native, start talking and gesturing wildly. Point at a map or street sign and say the name of the place you are looking for. They'll figure it out.
Neat, but at this point I think I'm going to wait for PCI-E to become common on motherboards before I upgrade. Bandwidth is starting to be an issue with just regular PCI, I'd prefer to get something that isn't going to be just a throw away item in a few short months.
I tend to agree with others here. Games aren't currently holding Linux back. Someone has to make a Joe Sixpack version of Linux that does email, web browsing, OO and system configuration as easy as Microsoft, and I don't think Linux is quite there yet.
"Cart before the horse" was the best quote I saw here. I think getting Linux ready for a corporate desktop should be easier, and based on my little involvement with UserLinux (Bruce Perens' new distro), I think Linux is not quite ready yet for corporate. Close, but little things keep poping up.
OTOH, I think it's good that people keep working on Linux gaming. Parallel software development and all that. I just don't think it's on the critical path right now.:)
The good folks at MinGW.org make a package called MSYS that has most of the binutils and runs as native apps under windows. I use it a lot, it's really handy when I want to download and open a bzipped tar file on windows.
The latest version of sh.exe is 465k bytes, it sounds like you have an old version. You should upgrade it.:)
I guess I should have expected that someone would start posting bug fixes to Windows when I heard that the code was got released, but I'm still surprised that they are finding actual exploits in the code.
I guess all those advertising^W software engineering dollars that MS spent on their security inititive were not^W well spent.
Please add another vote for Enemy Territory. Darn fun, mostly cheat free and lots of servers to play on.
I have a wiki page on how to start, but the quicky version is to use spectator mode to observe what's going on. Watch what both sides so you can learn WHY they do those things.
(Spectator mode: Log on, make sure the default SPECTATOR is highlighed by default, and click ok. Use WSAD to fly around.)
Then just jump in and play. Find someone at your spawn and follow them around to learn the map, and shoot the bad guys when they pop up.
Soon you'll be noticing tricks and things that people do, and you'll start to figure out how to couter them and play like a pro.
My favorite is Freezip. It does very little actually, but it will completely decompress archives with only a double click (in Windows). That's very nice because 99% of the time that's what I want, and I don't have to touch any silly GUI interface.
I'll check out your link though, because I do need extra features occasionally. Thanks
De-facto standards and proprietary standards get started becuase no one has an alternative. If an open standard is created, I'm sure users and the market will prefer that one.
The best time to make such an open standard is before any proprietary one has a chance to get a strong foot hold.
Well, um, really, why would it be the next big thing? Technology has had the ability to produce very small exlectronics some time now, do you see a huge demand for them?
This device sounds about as big as an iPod, except that the iPod has a 4G. Now there's a cool device. Small, single function, useful, stylish and has the infrastructure support (iTunes) to make it a commercial success. (And the mini comes with a wrist strap so you can wear it while jogging. Hello, wearable.)
If you as me, this device is a "gee-whiz" technology demo for it's maker. If you have a great idea what to do with the technology, go for it. But by itself it's not going to do much.
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Gabe and Tyco almost the case, IIRC.
It least, that's not how I remember Watchmen. The government passed an anti-masked-vigilente act and forced super heroes to no longer hide their identities, or face stiff prison terms. Most super heroes retired without revealing their identity (the governemt didn't care as long as they stopped being vigilentes). Only a few (three to be precise) were protected by the goverment, and only then because they were working for the government.
Hmm, interesting. Perhaps this is what Ballmer is actually concerned about, that Linux (Linspire) is occupying a price point market that Windows currently can't? It might be devastating for MS if Walmart and Best Buy starting do the same thing.
Sorry, I know /. bangs on MS a lot, but jeeze, stop executing stuff sent to you remotely, fer chrissakes.
So maybe some people who don't need jobs anymore can retire and some people who do need jobs will get them. Sounds like a free market to me....
Oh sure, blame Canada...
1. Cut and Paste - I realize this is getting old, and KDE is getting much better, but when I talk to developer friends about Linux, this is one of the firt things they mentioned. There are still enough old apps around that use the old style Cut and Paste that it's hard to remember what works with what, and compatiblity between old and new cut and paste is a bitch. You have to be very dedicated to want to use Linux and deal with cut and paste everywhere, not just from with in the GUI.
2. Games - seriously, name me three first run games released for Linux this yere.
3. Fonts - this is my complaint, and maybe my biggest. Font display under Debian two months ago was abysmal. Maybe I'm just used to windows, but I think font display on Linux is headed in the wrong direction. Display hasn't improved for like 4 years now, IMO, even though each release they claim it will.
4. Installation - I installed Java under Debian just a couple of days ago to use a Java app I needed. First, the instructions on Sun's web site only cover red hat and one other, not debian. Second, it didn't cover Konquerer. Third, even trying to adapt the instructions for Debian and Konquerer didn't work. Konquerer seemed to have java already, ok, but ... Fourth, where was Java Web Start? It didn't install that I could see, no desktop icon, and nothing happens when I type "Java" from the prompt so there's not even a path set to it. Solution: go to windows where the install worked first time. This is what I'm talking about.
5. Applications - see above. Java on Sun's website had instructions for Mozilla and Netscape, but not Konquerer, and I couldn't get it to work. Windows seems to have abstacted this enough so it does work, or everyone just copies IE, whichever. But there's no standard apparently on Linux for every single app developer to follow, so stuff is broken.
6. Sites only working with IE - my bank, for staters. It sucks, but what can I do? My only choice is to use IE (I use Mozilla by default on windows, btw).
I'd love it if I really was wrong, but Linux just isn't where it needs to be yet to be truly mass adoptable. And it doesn't look like it will in the near future. Maybe it won't even get there in the mid-term.
If you read the article, you'd see that it's talking about how difficult it is to get drivers installed on Linux. Because Linus refuses to maintain compatiblilty between releases, everyone has to ship drivers as source, and every user needs to keep current headers on their system, and know how to compile their modules. Plus they may have to know how to insert the modules, mount filesystems, create new devices, etc. Versus just installing a binary driver, it's kinda a pain in the ass. And each upgrade, you get to do it all over again.
These are general impediments to widespread adoption. If we are going to promote Linux, the first thing we have to agree on is a list of what needs work. And the above is my list. Sorry if you disagree, but I consider myself a customer of Linux, and this customer wants these issue addressed.
Yeah, right. I'm sure that Diebold told themselves the exact same thing, and look what happened.
The first thing to do would be to collect the requirements, which I think would take more than a couple of hours. It seems that this is the step Diebold missed, because a lot of their features seem tacked on like they didn't have time to implement them properly. That screams "last minute feature" to me.
...only in Quake.
Surely windows is/was a generic term. I think X-windows should be prior art enough as the name of a software package that did much the same as MS's product. And the term "windows" was in use generically in the computer community before that.
I think though that "Lindows" is just a bit too close to the common practice of refering to MS Windows as just "Windows". They should name their product Linspire Windows or something similar. Which they may be already planning to do.
Find the nearest native, start talking and gesturing wildly. Point at a map or street sign and say the name of the place you are looking for. They'll figure it out.
Sorry I just don't see this one.
Four.
Neat, but at this point I think I'm going to wait for PCI-E to become common on motherboards before I upgrade. Bandwidth is starting to be an issue with just regular PCI, I'd prefer to get something that isn't going to be just a throw away item in a few short months.
There's this thing called GTK that Gnome is based on, I hear it's pretty decent.
"Cart before the horse" was the best quote I saw here. I think getting Linux ready for a corporate desktop should be easier, and based on my little involvement with UserLinux (Bruce Perens' new distro), I think Linux is not quite ready yet for corporate. Close, but little things keep poping up.
OTOH, I think it's good that people keep working on Linux gaming. Parallel software development and all that. I just don't think it's on the critical path right now. :)
The latest version of sh.exe is 465k bytes, it sounds like you have an old version. You should upgrade it. :)
Naw, it just implies an unstable developer...
I guess all those advertising^W software engineering dollars that MS spent on their security inititive were not^W well spent.
Please add another vote for Enemy Territory. Darn fun, mostly cheat free and lots of servers to play on.
I have a wiki page on how to start, but the quicky version is to use spectator mode to observe what's going on. Watch what both sides so you can learn WHY they do those things.
(Spectator mode: Log on, make sure the default SPECTATOR is highlighed by default, and click ok. Use WSAD to fly around.)
Then just jump in and play. Find someone at your spawn and follow them around to learn the map, and shoot the bad guys when they pop up.
Soon you'll be noticing tricks and things that people do, and you'll start to figure out how to couter them and play like a pro.
I'll check out your link though, because I do need extra features occasionally. Thanks
De-facto standards and proprietary standards get started becuase no one has an alternative. If an open standard is created, I'm sure users and the market will prefer that one.
The best time to make such an open standard is before any proprietary one has a chance to get a strong foot hold.
This device sounds about as big as an iPod, except that the iPod has a 4G. Now there's a cool device. Small, single function, useful, stylish and has the infrastructure support (iTunes) to make it a commercial success. (And the mini comes with a wrist strap so you can wear it while jogging. Hello, wearable.)
If you as me, this device is a "gee-whiz" technology demo for it's maker. If you have a great idea what to do with the technology, go for it. But by itself it's not going to do much.
As in: "Somebody stuck a fork in XFree86, I think they're done." ;)
Holy bleep that's cool I'm going to check them out right now!