The real problem is not a chicken and egg, but to get Linux users to pry open their wallets and start buying Linux applications and so on. You will then very quickly see how people will begin supporting Linux. Yet that will not happen because people use Linux because you don't have to pay! See the problem?
No, I do not see the problem. You might have a point regarding why companies use embedded Linux (to save on licensing fees). However, only a complete idiot would use desktop or server Linux just because it is cheaper. Licensing costs are tiny compared to the benefits of using the best software you can get.
I prefer FOSS for the usual reasons (trust, no vendor lockin etc.) and cost come a fair way down the list.
I even usually pay for Linux. I bought Mandrake 8 and 10, but not Ubuntu or Mandrake 9. I am currently using the download version of Mandriva 2007.1, but intend to buy a Mandriva Club subscription soon.
I have probably paid more to Mandriva than I would have paid for Windows, definitely so if you consider that I have spent the last five years in a country where Windows is de facto free (as in beer). Oddly enough, MS lets you "pirate" Windows, but IBM makes people buy licences for Notes, and Adobe does the same for its major products.
Yes you can. I have done it for a webserver in the past. It is a pretty good security precaution without chroot as well.
The only potential problems I know of are:
1) on a multi-user machine, any user can, in effect, grab the low port (by grabbing the port it is rerouted to). 2) I am not sure how to configure init scripts for this, Presumably you need wrapper scripts that do run as root. I cannot remember what I did about this at the time.
I would feel uncomfortable too, if we were talking about crimes alleged to have taken place in a country with reasonable rule of law. In those circumstances there is a reasonable chance of getting people to trial.
Dealing with places like Uzbeckistan, if you do not pay some attention to probabilities of quilt, you essentially let some very dangerous people completely off the hook. Even worse, we (people in more law abiding countries) fail to protect ourselves from the risks they post.
I think the American usage is preferable just this once:
1) more consistent, as another comment pointed out. 2) More useful: how often do you need to refer to a million million of anything?
Of course there are plenty cases where British usages are preferable: separate words for theatre and cinema, for example. Just this once, they are right.
I am quite happy to be called a geek, if you want to bestow the title on me!
I do not claim to be an average user, but there are a lot of people like me (far more than currently use Linux). A lot of non-geek users have someone of my level to help them out. If people like me switch, it will make a huge difference: unfortunately games are the problem here.
By understanding that there are multiple lixun distros, that it avoids vendor lock-in
That is more a matter of understanding finance and economics, and having bothered to think about the issue. Admittedly, I might not have thought about it unless I had a certain interest in IT. I suspect if we could get rid of the average finance person's rabbit-in-the-headlights fear of IT, we could make the business case of open source much more easily!
you (seemingly) know how to administer and secure a linux box
If you have a computer, you have to administer it. There are hundreds of millions of people admining home PCs (and a fair number of business ones as well) without a clue what they are doing. My point is that I find Linux easier: software installation is easier, as is updating everything through a single mechanism, as is not having as much security software to keep updated...
Everyone I've talked to who's used Office functionality above and beyond a simple letter, or presentation
A minority of even business users.
You can't do serious worksheet manipulation in open office
I always liked Excel, but one guy who worked for me, got used to Open Office and now prefers it to Excel.
you can't track changes in your documents
Youcan. If you save as.doc it is even compatible with the MS track changes functionality.
You can't integrate with countless applications
The only application I have seen of that is a Bloomberg terminal. Yes, if you have to have live data off a Bllomberg, you need Excel. This, again, only affects a minority of business users.
you just can't do a lot of things that people take for granted in MS Office
You are not doing well at coming up with any examples....
you also can't properly open MS Office documents
FUD
Its the countless people who parrot each other saying that an open source alternative is always better than a closed source alternative that turn people off from linux.
Where did I way it was better? I said that it does it job perfectly well: i.e. it has the functionality required.
I am no zealot. I prefer open source, but isntall closed source when necessary: although at the moment I use very little proprietary stuff (Flash and Java are about it, apart from Opera which I no longer really use).
I would have thought that the issues raised by this are a lot more important (especially given that he has shut down blogs belonging to MP's, a candidate for Mayor of London etc.), but Slashdot is too US centric to care about what happens across the Atlantic (even though you can be sued for libel in the UK, if just one person in Britain views your website based anywhere in the world - so slashdot better not libel me!).
Make it so Joe Notageek, and his grandmother, can install it with less clicks than it takes to install Windows.
What zero clicks? Most people use pre-installed operating systems. If they are installing it themselves, have you counted the clicks? Linux is pretty easy to install.
Mainstream a Linux server. Yes, I know there a lots out there, but again, only a few companies are really commercial
Almost every major server vendor will sell you server with Linux installed and supported. How much more mainstream do you want?
Open Office is quaint, but users still want MS
A matter of branding rather than suer needs. This is a problem to be solvedby marketing. I have no idea what you mean by "quaint". Open Office does its job perfectly well.
The current Linux culture responds with a few old gems
By "current Linux culture" you mean a tiny minority of idiotic Slashdot posters. can you find any major distro or OSS project leader who would endorse any of that.
I do not consider myself a nerd of geek. I use Linux because it works for me, because I avoid vendor lock in, because it is easier to admin and secure.
Most people (apart from the saintly) want money! However, most people have other aspirations as well.
The problem with the article is that is assumes that Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, therefore he represents other aspirations. Other aspirations do not count.
How pathetic to ONLY aspire to money. Why not aspire to be Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa or....
Did you switch the platform you were developing on, or just what you used as a desktop?
I imagine learning new APIs (and possibly languages) takes work, but switching from one GUI desktop to another is easy. All the more so as Linux desktops default to a Windows like config.
Getting back to the topic, changing the platform you are developing on for no good reason is a lot of unnecessary work.
Some [misguided] courts have held that because the GPL makes some "offers", the author gives up their rights to pursue copyright violations and is restricted to only pursuing the issue as a matter of contract breach
I have heard of a ruling that the Artistic License is a contract. I Are you sure you are not confusing that with the GPL?
Anyway, suppose it is ruled to be a contract. You cannot claim statutory damages. However you might be able to persuade the court to order specific performance (they are usually reluctant to do so, but if its just handing over a document they might), so they are forced to open their source.
Otherwise,the developers are entitled to damages to place them in the position they would be in without the breach. How much is that going to be? Enough to replicate any improvements to the code?
You might want to know that Konqueror was replaced by Dolphin
Konqueror remains available, and can be used as the file manager if you prefer it. I intend to try Dolphin once I move to KDE4, and see which I prefer. I will probably stick with Konq because being able to see previews in a Konq tab reduces the number of windows I need to open.
which feels basically like a Nautilus port. And KDE developers stated they wanted to cut on complexity (sounds like Gnome-speak).
I love the simplicity of Gnome. If KDE is going to copy that, while keeping the functionality I want (everything from KIO slaves to Klipper to Katapult to the moon phase applet - yes, the latter does matter), that is exactly what I want.
It is reasonably beginner friendly, but there are plenty of distros that are. IMO it is not even the best. Its popularity has more to do with brilliant marketing than anything else (which is not all bad, Linux needs good marketing).
If they want it to act like Windows they should make Kubuntu better: actually put some effort into it. KDE is flexible enough to be configurable to be very like Windows, while still letting users make it different if they wish.
The fact that you had to hunt around and make changes to make the desktop simple and sane enough to use means that KDE failed to get it right in the first place.
No, the default is easy to use: most Windows users can log into the guest account on my PC and use it straight away.
However, I also have the flexibility to customise it to be productive for me.
KDE is also more functional than Gnome. Genuinely useful panel applets, preview, tabbing and split window functionality in Konqueror, etc. are actually very useful.
I like the elegance of Gnome, so I have tried it several times. I find it less functional, and a lot of functionality works less well (compare opening a directory over sftp in Konqueror and Nautilus, for example).
Firefox isn't exactly doing much as far as UI goes
What, apart from combining a lot of functionality with a simple UI? That sounds like good UI design to me.
KDE and Gnome both have... issues
What exactly is wrong with KDE? It is the best desktop I have ever used (compared to Gnome, XFCE, Windows XP, Mac...). Highly configurable (but most distros have a default configuration that is familiar to new users) , looks pretty, a superb file manager (with complex UI elements like split screens)....
BTW: I never quite understood the sentiment that if someone says that a place has some good points over the USA, they're somehow not worthy of being an American. Having a citizenry that acknowledges its country's faults makes that country a better and stronger place, since they talk about the faults and strive to correct them. Blind acceptance serves no one. 1. My country right or wrong 2. We are superior to other countries, and everyone who disagrees is a traitor 3. Anyone who disagrees in a traitor 4. Anyone who looks or acts different is an enemy
The amazing thing is that every country has people who think it is superior, and every country has people who react with hostility to criticism. They are trying to prop up their own sense of inferiority by claiming that a group they belong to is superior. It need not be a country, a race, caste, tribe, ideology or religion will do just as well.
I have to admit I am a little confused. You can take BSD code and close it completely under a commercial license, why couldn't you use the GPL instead of a closed commercial license?
Because the BSD is more restrictive of source distribution than of binary distribution. You can do what you like with the binary, but not with the source.
AFAIK BSD code can only be mixed with GPL code as a proprietary binary blob.
Why the BSD so restrictive on distribution of the source, I do not know.
have problems like in the Netherlands, or Britain; large swaths of people who refuse to assimilate, hold alien values
There are no large swathes of people who refuse to assimilate in Britain, a scattering of small communities is more accurate - look at numbers rather than hysterical tabloid newspapers.
It is a good thing. Most of the people who refuse to assimilate live in areas where the native culture and values can be summed up as having children (or being a confirmed petty criminal) by the age of 13, and then being a dole scrounger for the rest of your life.
There are lots of Asians in places like Wimbledon (where I grew up): completely assimilated in a generation or two because a decent culture is something worth assimilating with.
Incidentally, I assume you deliberately not seeing the benefit immigration has brought to Britain. A far more vibrant culture (things like books and music), "alien" values like discipline and hard work (Have you ever met an Asian chav or dole scrounger?), and even better food.
and seek to destroy the nation from within.
Do you know that there are treatments available for paranoia?
Have you ever seen a 70 year old copy of the Daily Mail (British tabloid newspaper)? At that point they were saying that the Jews would over-run the country and impose their alien values etc. Now its Muslims/Asians. Apart from the irony, the pattern is pretty obvious.
Personally I think mindless xenophobes should be deported (perhaps we would bribe some poor country to take them?) and replaced with decent people from elsewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
I prefer FOSS for the usual reasons (trust, no vendor lockin etc.) and cost come a fair way down the list.
I even usually pay for Linux. I bought Mandrake 8 and 10, but not Ubuntu or Mandrake 9. I am currently using the download version of Mandriva 2007.1, but intend to buy a Mandriva Club subscription soon.
I have probably paid more to Mandriva than I would have paid for Windows, definitely so if you consider that I have spent the last five years in a country where Windows is de facto free (as in beer). Oddly enough, MS lets you "pirate" Windows, but IBM makes people buy licences for Notes, and Adobe does the same for its major products.
Yes you can. I have done it for a webserver in the past. It is a pretty good security precaution without chroot as well.
The only potential problems I know of are:
1) on a multi-user machine, any user can, in effect, grab the low port (by grabbing the port it is rerouted to).
2) I am not sure how to configure init scripts for this, Presumably you need wrapper scripts that do run as root. I cannot remember what I did about this at the time.
You just described why I use Linux! I hate wasting time trying to get computers to work. Wasting time posting on Slashdot is another matter
I would feel uncomfortable too, if we were talking about crimes alleged to have taken place in a country with reasonable rule of law. In those circumstances there is a reasonable chance of getting people to trial.
Dealing with places like Uzbeckistan, if you do not pay some attention to probabilities of quilt, you essentially let some very dangerous people completely off the hook. Even worse, we (people in more law abiding countries) fail to protect ourselves from the risks they post.
I think the American usage is preferable just this once:
1) more consistent, as another comment pointed out.
2) More useful: how often do you need to refer to a million million of anything?
Of course there are plenty cases where British usages are preferable: separate words for theatre and cinema, for example. Just this once, they are right.
I am no zealot. I prefer open source, but isntall closed source when necessary: although at the moment I use very little proprietary stuff (Flash and Java are about it, apart from Opera which I no longer really use).
I would have thought that the issues raised by this are a lot more important (especially given that he has shut down blogs belonging to MP's, a candidate for Mayor of London etc.), but Slashdot is too US centric to care about what happens across the Atlantic (even though you can be sued for libel in the UK, if just one person in Britain views your website based anywhere in the world - so slashdot better not libel me!).
Right click on the Klipper applet, above "Clear Clipboard History" you should see an "Enable Actions" option you can untick.
I do not consider myself a nerd of geek. I use Linux because it works for me, because I avoid vendor lock in, because it is easier to admin and secure.
I agree.
....
Most people (apart from the saintly) want money! However, most people have other aspirations as well.
The problem with the article is that is assumes that Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, therefore he represents other aspirations. Other aspirations do not count.
How pathetic to ONLY aspire to money. Why not aspire to be Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa or
Did you switch the platform you were developing on, or just what you used as a desktop?
I imagine learning new APIs (and possibly languages) takes work, but switching from one GUI desktop to another is easy. All the more so as Linux desktops default to a Windows like config.
Getting back to the topic, changing the platform you are developing on for no good reason is a lot of unnecessary work.
Anyway, suppose it is ruled to be a contract. You cannot claim statutory damages. However you might be able to persuade the court to order specific performance (they are usually reluctant to do so, but if its just handing over a document they might), so they are forced to open their source.
Otherwise,the developers are entitled to damages to place them in the position they would be in without the breach. How much is that going to be? Enough to replicate any improvements to the code?
It is reasonably beginner friendly, but there are plenty of distros that are. IMO it is not even the best. Its popularity has more to do with brilliant marketing than anything else (which is not all bad, Linux needs good marketing).
If they want it to act like Windows they should make Kubuntu better: actually put some effort into it. KDE is flexible enough to be configurable to be very like Windows, while still letting users make it different if they wish.
However, I also have the flexibility to customise it to be productive for me.
KDE is also more functional than Gnome. Genuinely useful panel applets, preview, tabbing and split window functionality in Konqueror, etc. are actually very useful.
I like the elegance of Gnome, so I have tried it several times. I find it less functional, and a lot of functionality works less well (compare opening a directory over sftp in Konqueror and Nautilus, for example).
What exactly is wrong with KDE? It is the best desktop I have ever used (compared to Gnome, XFCE, Windows XP, Mac...). Highly configurable (but most distros have a default configuration that is familiar to new users) , looks pretty, a superb file manager (with complex UI elements like split screens)....
No one will be forced to use this software.
If you want to run a limited number of well known programs, install this. If you want to have a general purpose computer, stay away from it.
Have you tried turning off Java and increasing memory usage?
Doing that makes OO on Linux run about as well as MS office on Windows on a P4 with 1Gb (I know, I know, but its the only comparison I have).
It is still slower than Gnumeric or Lyx, which start up instantly and are never sluggish, but that is not an altogether fair comparison either.
Of course Oo are still at fault for using defaults that MOST people would be better off changing.
It does not sound like they are capable of making very good decisions, if they invest in something they do not understand.
A fool and his money are soon parted. It has always been that way, and always will be.
Yes, I feel sorry for them, but they are partly to blame too.
Because that what we always do.
I am surprised you stuck at it for as long as 2 weeks!
I am not a professional user, and my requirements are probably a lot less extensive than yours, and I gave up after an hour or two.
AFAIK BSD code can only be mixed with GPL code as a proprietary binary blob.
Why the BSD so restrictive on distribution of the source, I do not know.
- There are no large swathes of people who refuse to assimilate in Britain, a scattering of small communities is more accurate - look at numbers rather than hysterical tabloid newspapers.
- It is a good thing. Most of the people who refuse to assimilate live in areas where the native culture and values can be summed up as having children (or being a confirmed petty criminal) by the age of 13, and then being a dole scrounger for the rest of your life.
Incidentally, I assume you deliberately not seeing the benefit immigration has brought to Britain. A far more vibrant culture (things like books and music), "alien" values like discipline and hard work (Have you ever met an Asian chav or dole scrounger?), and even better food. Do you know that there are treatments available for paranoia?There are lots of Asians in places like Wimbledon (where I grew up): completely assimilated in a generation or two because a decent culture is something worth assimilating with.
Have you ever seen a 70 year old copy of the Daily Mail (British tabloid newspaper)? At that point they were saying that the Jews would over-run the country and impose their alien values etc. Now its Muslims/Asians. Apart from the irony, the pattern is pretty obvious.
Personally I think mindless xenophobes should be deported (perhaps we would bribe some poor country to take them?) and replaced with decent people from elsewhere.