I thought I'd do something more then my usual support independent (or independently minded) artist. There are a ton of artists out there not caught up in the whole piracy debate (since the rise of the net WAY more then most people imagine). CD's at the mall are no longer safe. The industry/distribution giants that have been hand feeding us are no longer (where they ever?) interested in fair practices.
But this isn't really that big a deal, because you can just type your way down to:
And it just keeps getting bigger and better out there. Really the only thing that needs to happen is we need to get comfortable with buying online artists. Maybe Rolling Stone will do an online section? *shrug*
I pretty much would have to agree with all your points. I'm not saying the OS stigma is well reasoned (although it is still a little ways from being childs play to find reliable support) and I do believe that open source is (and will continue) finally begining to find acceptability in the mainstream business place (thanks in part to the large corperations lending credibility and in part to the OS community starting to 'get it').
With functioning DRM on the horizon and Microsoft's determination to stamp out piracy its going to continue to get a whole lot more interesting in the open source community.
Pirated copies of Office are popular for all the regular reasons.
1) Well supported through traditional (read: idiot proof) channels.
2) Reasonably well designed UI and functionality.
3) Client and customer familiararity.
4) Expected longevity (Microsoft will be around for a while).
5) If something *really* goes wrong, you've got a company to blame (why would the average PHB go out on a limb?).
The value may be there in other places for OS, but businesses will continue to be more conservative and rely on old and proven (relatively) methods.
And before anyone try's to point out the cost/open source issue: In business that doesn't mean squat. Trying to sell something for free is the wrong attitude, businesses don't want to rely on good will. Kudo to all the dual licensed project out there that have learned how to play both sides of the fence.
Slashdot is a community full of people with drastically different ideas about absolutely everything. So don't be too surprised and remember, unlike piracy (a topic which includes an amazing amount of individual debates itself) spam impacts the average slashdot (and internet) user personally.
Support your friends at ID Software. Most people that don't feel that strongly about it will already have an extra Windows computer or a Windows partition.
But I think its really important to show your support for companies that support (or generally seem to remotely care about) our community. Sierra has shown some interest (supported the porting of the last Tribes 2 patch to the now unsupported Loki port), but this is the kind of release that demonstrates where their loyalties are (or aren't).
Most be games will come with a Linux server now and those that don't give us anything back don't really get the Linux community. We may be a minority, but we are (at the very least) an excellent resource.
Good intentions by themselves are not a sound business model. Income is. Mandrake has been a progressive and remarkably loyal supporter of the open source movement. Ads? Good, because I want to see Mandrake survive for another couple of years.
I didn't see too much complaining myself (maybe I ignored some of it) but I'm sure some got hysterical about it (it wouldn't be a internet-age community without someone getting hysterical).
Anyhow, I wish them best of luck. Good idea whoever decided on this. Programmers need to get paid and I *want* my Mandrake.;-)
The biggest problem with them (IMHO) is that they *are* free (their primary market is corporate and they use the personal email as a sort of word-of-mouth advertising). They have been expanding to keep up, but from time to time they will disable sign-ups as they add capacity to their system.
Comparing it to (sorry, should have included a TMDA link for those not familiar with it) filtering and RBL's is not fair because unlike the latter two, it does *exactly* what its supposed to. I'll admit its a hack, but for the time being it is the best hack out there.
The reason I suspect you haven't used it is because you mention one of the same concerns I've had about it, mainly automated responses. Bluebottle's answer to this is in the form of a 'pending' list (which you can 'OK' emails from) and the ability to manually add specific email addresses or even whole domains.
Its really a pretty good system. I think almost everyone is clear now that RBL's are a potential nightmare and filtering only creates a new list of email to cull through (looking for mislabled email).
Like I mentioned in the parent post bluebottle supports hotmail accounts so you can transition into a new account while still checking your old account (from within bluebottle). This of course adds the benifit of the TMDA (like) support to your existing hotmail account as well.
Squirrelmail has a plugin that does this too (for running on your own server) as well as support for other existing pop accounts (I think bluebottle does too, but its based on Horde not Squirrelmail)
Instead of use bluebottle.com? They have free 10 meg accounts without MS bs or advertising and use a TMDA like system for anti-spam verification. I'll never understand why technical people would use a hotmail account (bluebottle *will* also check your hotmail account for you).
Almost all your complaints are software related, which is a little OT considering the Linux version will ship with an entirely different feature set and even the hardware won't necessarily have same (curable) drawbacks.
But, like I said, I don't really disagree with you. However if this thing can run all the basic Linux utilities (bash, ftp, lynx, ssh, rsync, ping, traceroute, pine, to name a few) from the command line with a wireless internet card at a fair price, I'd be happy (give me office software, mozilla and gqview and I'm happy as a clam..mmmm).
And the next headlines on Slashdot being about the latest crack-down on the ever-persistent internet pirates.
I'm not a fan of copyright law or really any of this legislation or the prosecution of the individuals involved. But we need an agreement, not an arms race. The harder we make it to track the harder 'they' will work to prosecute/legislate/etc.
And its understandable. P2P and file sharing in general is too important to let it get eclipsed in this battle and that's why we *need* DRM. At least that way protected files popping up on a sharing networks isn't reason enough to shut it down and it *shouldn't* be.
ADD/ADHD has become a blanket diagnosis. You'll see all manner of children pegged, some of which have serious disabilities and some of which just don't fit comfortably into the system. We are quick to designate names to disorders, but pretty unreliable at diagnosing the many gradations and complexities of these things.
This is not a rapist where talking about. He wasn't trying to kidnap your daughter.
Just happens the kid had an idea about how to do things you don't like (probably not his best idea). I agree with the parent poster that this type of crime doesn't justify jail time and I also agree with you that his 'crime' shouldn't be without consequences, but jail just isn't the answer (and probably not for most non-voilent crimes).
I understand your hard edge, but after you let out a couple of long breaths I bet you can figure out how your wrong.
IBM is most likely in this for themselves, granted. But this paradigm shift is in the software license (something we belabor so much I can see why you'd want to leave it out). This is an important difference, because for once and big company can take advantage of something like this while they are giving something back.
So lay off with the stupid college kids comments and keep your eyes open. These stupid kids will have professionally written software supported in part by one of the biggest corporations in the world, which isn't all bad.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought I'd do something more then my usual support independent (or independently minded) artist. There are a ton of artists out there not caught up in the whole piracy debate (since the rise of the net WAY more then most people imagine). CD's at the mall are no longer safe. The industry/distribution giants that have been hand feeding us are no longer (where they ever?) interested in fair practices.
But this isn't really that big a deal, because you can just type your way down to:
mp3.com
or
emusic.com
or
umbrellamusic.com
or
listen.com
or
mp3it.com
or
iuma.com
or
grageband.com
or
besonic.com
or
zebox.com
And it just keeps getting bigger and better out there. Really the only thing that needs to happen is we need to get comfortable with buying online artists. Maybe Rolling Stone will do an online section? *shrug*
they run GNUTELLA or Opennap.
Back on IRC.
I pretty much would have to agree with all your points. I'm not saying the OS stigma is well reasoned (although it is still a little ways from being childs play to find reliable support) and I do believe that open source is (and will continue) finally begining to find acceptability in the mainstream business place (thanks in part to the large corperations lending credibility and in part to the OS community starting to 'get it').
With functioning DRM on the horizon and Microsoft's determination to stamp out piracy its going to continue to get a whole lot more interesting in the open source community.
Pirated copies of Office are popular for all the regular reasons.
1) Well supported through traditional (read: idiot proof) channels.
2) Reasonably well designed UI and functionality.
3) Client and customer familiararity.
4) Expected longevity (Microsoft will be around for a while).
5) If something *really* goes wrong, you've got a company to blame (why would the average PHB go out on a limb?).
The value may be there in other places for OS, but businesses will continue to be more conservative and rely on old and proven (relatively) methods.
Kind of goes along with my point. I mean why pirate commercial software if you could use open source without exposing yourself to unnecessary risk?
And before anyone try's to point out the cost/open source issue: In business that doesn't mean squat. Trying to sell something for free is the wrong attitude, businesses don't want to rely on good will. Kudo to all the dual licensed project out there that have learned how to play both sides of the fence.
Slashdot is a community full of people with drastically different ideas about absolutely everything. So don't be too surprised and remember, unlike piracy (a topic which includes an amazing amount of individual debates itself) spam impacts the average slashdot (and internet) user personally.
Support your friends at ID Software. Most people that don't feel that strongly about it will already have an extra Windows computer or a Windows partition.
But I think its really important to show your support for companies that support (or generally seem to remotely care about) our community. Sierra has shown some interest (supported the porting of the last Tribes 2 patch to the now unsupported Loki port), but this is the kind of release that demonstrates where their loyalties are (or aren't).
Most be games will come with a Linux server now and those that don't give us anything back don't really get the Linux community. We may be a minority, but we are (at the very least) an excellent resource.
Wouldn't it be more like your standing on your porch waiving your CD at passers by?
I mean to make your Mp3's (Ogg's) available you have to do it intentionally, at least in my experience.
Good intentions by themselves are not a sound business model. Income is. Mandrake has been a progressive and remarkably loyal supporter of the open source movement. Ads? Good, because I want to see Mandrake survive for another couple of years.
;-)
I didn't see too much complaining myself (maybe I ignored some of it) but I'm sure some got hysterical about it (it wouldn't be a internet-age community without someone getting hysterical).
Anyhow, I wish them best of luck. Good idea whoever decided on this. Programmers need to get paid and I *want* my Mandrake.
The biggest problem with them (IMHO) is that they *are* free (their primary market is corporate and they use the personal email as a sort of word-of-mouth advertising). They have been expanding to keep up, but from time to time they will disable sign-ups as they add capacity to their system.
Comparing it to (sorry, should have included a TMDA link for those not familiar with it) filtering and RBL's is not fair because unlike the latter two, it does *exactly* what its supposed to. I'll admit its a hack, but for the time being it is the best hack out there.
The reason I suspect you haven't used it is because you mention one of the same concerns I've had about it, mainly automated responses. Bluebottle's answer to this is in the form of a 'pending' list (which you can 'OK' emails from) and the ability to manually add specific email addresses or even whole domains.
Its really a pretty good system. I think almost everyone is clear now that RBL's are a potential nightmare and filtering only creates a new list of email to cull through (looking for mislabled email).
Like I mentioned in the parent post bluebottle supports hotmail accounts so you can transition into a new account while still checking your old account (from within bluebottle). This of course adds the benifit of the TMDA (like) support to your existing hotmail account as well.
Squirrelmail has a plugin that does this too (for running on your own server) as well as support for other existing pop accounts (I think bluebottle does too, but its based on Horde not Squirrelmail)
Instead of use bluebottle.com? They have free 10 meg accounts without MS bs or advertising and use a TMDA like system for anti-spam verification. I'll never understand why technical people would use a hotmail account (bluebottle *will* also check your hotmail account for you).
Almost all your complaints are software related, which is a little OT considering the Linux version will ship with an entirely different feature set and even the hardware won't necessarily have same (curable) drawbacks.
But, like I said, I don't really disagree with you. However if this thing can run all the basic Linux utilities (bash, ftp, lynx, ssh, rsync, ping, traceroute, pine, to name a few) from the command line with a wireless internet card at a fair price, I'd be happy (give me office software, mozilla and gqview and I'm happy as a clam..mmmm).
Forfather to the internet with those catchy application names like:
pwd
diff
netstat
ls
Unix is fully to blame for the start of the abreviations and its no surprise that its translated directly into the next generation. ^_^
L8R
And the next headlines on Slashdot being about the latest crack-down on the ever-persistent internet pirates.
I'm not a fan of copyright law or really any of this legislation or the prosecution of the individuals involved. But we need an agreement, not an arms race. The harder we make it to track the harder 'they' will work to prosecute/legislate/etc.
And its understandable. P2P and file sharing in general is too important to let it get eclipsed in this battle and that's why we *need* DRM. At least that way protected files popping up on a sharing networks isn't reason enough to shut it down and it *shouldn't* be.
with google. Then its just part of the existing infrastructure.
ADD/ADHD has become a blanket diagnosis. You'll see all manner of children pegged, some of which have serious disabilities and some of which just don't fit comfortably into the system. We are quick to designate names to disorders, but pretty unreliable at diagnosing the many gradations and complexities of these things.
This is not a rapist where talking about. He wasn't trying to kidnap your daughter.
Just happens the kid had an idea about how to do things you don't like (probably not his best idea). I agree with the parent poster that this type of crime doesn't justify jail time and I also agree with you that his 'crime' shouldn't be without consequences, but jail just isn't the answer (and probably not for most non-voilent crimes).
Thanks, I hadn't seen that one before!
Of course you'd have to apply security patches that would take you up to 2.4.22. ;-)
RIAA free music. I mean its funny they complain about their numbers dropping while attacking some of their most devoted fans.
On the other hand there are lots of musicians begging for exposure that are even willing to give their music away for free.
1sound.com
www.mp3.com
iuma.com
And it just goes on.
I understand your hard edge, but after you let out a couple of long breaths I bet you can figure out how your wrong.
IBM is most likely in this for themselves, granted. But this paradigm shift is in the software license (something we belabor so much I can see why you'd want to leave it out). This is an important difference, because for once and big company can take advantage of something like this while they are giving something back.
So lay off with the stupid college kids comments and keep your eyes open. These stupid kids will have professionally written software supported in part by one of the biggest corporations in the world, which isn't all bad.