I do not disagree with your point, but I am not convinced that your example is a good one.
Not only does the survery the slashdot article links to show a huge difference between Europe and the US (the only European country that is worse than the US is Turkey), but I find it very hard to believe the numbers in the survey that the BBC quotes.
I have met very few creationists in Britain, despite living these most of my life and despite many of my friends being people I met through churches and despite moving around the country doing different types of jobs and generally meeting lots of diffent types of people.
The problem of ppolice powers stems from the fact that Britain does not have a consitution so the government can do what it likes. It used to be OK because even politicians accepted that they had to be "decet chaps" and behave decently. No that has broken down....
The list also includes some very deadly organisations, which was the point.
One of the non-mulsim groups on the list has killed far more people than Al_Quaeda (tens of thousands), and they have carried out "240+" suicide bombings - but as they only killed funny coloured foreigners I suppose you think that does not count.
btw BOTH the terrorist groups that have bombed places I lived in (and came close to getting me more than once) used to raise money in the US
So you make money by re-selling other people's code with a little bit of work done on it?
I am sure it works well for you, but how well does it work for the people whose code you are using? How do they make money?
Personally, I don't think a cop should be monitored on the job any more than say, a casino dealer. Even though a cop is dealing with life, death, and the public good, and a dealer is just dealing with money.
Yes, and gambling machines have better anti-tampering measures than voting machines.
They killed an imprisoned a lot of other people as well.
And then there was Pol Pot who killed something like 2m people with hundreds of thousands of them tortured to death. The thought of what he would have done if he had run a large country.
the Protestant view is that the Roman church became increasingly corrupt
I would say that is the Catholic view as well - it is unfortunately but true that the church was corrupted.
I suggest you take a look at the Wikipedia article on the Dark ages to see some of the misconceptions and biases that people have concerning the term and the time.
The last thing most people want is to lose their nice comforting misconceptions.
You should also not pay too much attention to conspiracy theories: most museums and major libraries have stuff that is not readily accessible or on display so it is hardly surprising the Vatican does too.
The Vatican also has a bit of a problem with things like pornography with historical value: it can not display it, it can not sell it and it has an obligation to preserve it.
I can run scientific test on all the relics and books you hold
What do they have that you are so desperate to run tests on? Examples please.
That is likely to be a much less significant effect - very few people die from anything other than disease or natural death in a developed economy - and most of those diseases occur late enough in life to give you time to have children. It is certainly not enough to affect things given the huge difference in fertility rates.
Furthermore the less intelligent are likely to have children younger (much younger). I was shocked when I lived for a while in Salford (a particularly horrible part of the north of England) that it is usual for girls there to have children in their teens - often at 13 or 14.
We met one man who had several great grandchildren by the time he reached his fifties - on the other hand my father is in his seventies and only as three grandchildren (and not many of my friend's parent have much more than that).
English language is a "living" language - new words and new usage are central to that definition as "living".
New words are obviously needed. New usage is not so necessary.
Greek remained fairly unchanged for centuries (from classical times to a fee centuries AD). AFAIK modern Greek is still far more similar to ancient Greek than English is to old English - and I can not see that the Greeks are lost anything as a result.
Change also makes the body of existing literature less accessible to people. A lot of (admittedly uneducated) people seem to find Shakespeare's English difficult (I wonder what they would make of Chaucer....) as it is.
There is no such thing as "out of the box" with Linux. Every distro is different and comes with different tools
Several things wrong with that
There are plenty of things that are included with all Linux distros apart from a few specialist ones
The overlap between popular distros is huge
Even when the tools are different the functionality is often the same
If something is included in the standard install of what ever distro I use, then from my point of view it is there out of the box
if you're know what you're looking for, you can usually get it for gratis from Microsoft, or possibly another community/industry site. In either case, if you're not that familiar with the community then you're going to have trouble finding and getting what you need
I am not that familiar with the community, but I can usually find what I need by starting synaptic and doing a search.
Assuming that you don't have to deal with any GPL issues
What GPL issues? Nothing stops people from producing propriatary software for Linux
potential customers who are resistant to paying for software
Only because we can easily find a free (both ways) equivalent. I would have no hesitation in paying for something useful that had free equivalent.
Most of the Linux users in your market probably dual boot Windows anyway - all the Linux using gamers I have come across do - so porting to Linux will probably hardly expand your market at all.
Surely Windows must have some way of saving a user's settings for restoration after backup?
Otherwise how would people keep their settings when they buy a new PC?
I mean an equivalent of copying the config files from the user's home directory in Linux.
do you really want to control everything your child does in his life and when he/she is 18 just shove him out the door and say have fun in real life
That is exactly what most parents are doing now.
This is not just an American phenomenon. It is also happening in the UK (where children will not let children out of door for fear of paedophiles). I have also seen the beginnings of it elsewhere.
Customers might switch if they realise what is happening.
The average person is likely to think "Google does not work so I will have to use MSN"
Telecoms companies are unlikely to say "we are blocking Google" they will quietly slow it down and, if customers complain, say "yes, some customers have problems connecting to Google, try using our search partner". They will then refer you to some PPC only search engine - thats the best way to extract money out of search.
Telecoms companies have been trying to sell walled garden products for decades. That is much more profitable than just supplying pipes. Customers were not that interested, and once the internet came along they were even less interested, so replacing the internet with their own content is the best thing that could possibly happen from their point of view.
The Web is not TV, the Web is not a bitmap graphic
Firstly a lot of people want the web to be more like TV - they want audience behaviour that is predictable (and therefore easier to direct).
Secondly, designers get to design horrible Flash sites because their clients like them. The people who have to use the site may not like it - but the people who pay for it do.
Slashdot Mirror
I do not disagree with your point, but I am not convinced that your example is a good one.
Not only does the survery the slashdot article links to show a huge difference between Europe and the US (the only European country that is worse than the US is Turkey), but I find it very hard to believe the numbers in the survey that the BBC quotes.
I have met very few creationists in Britain, despite living these most of my life and despite many of my friends being people I met through churches and despite moving around the country doing different types of jobs and generally meeting lots of diffent types of people.
The problem of ppolice powers stems from the fact that Britain does not have a consitution so the government can do what it likes. It used to be OK because even politicians accepted that they had to be "decet chaps" and behave decently. No that has broken down....
I agree, but:
1) most people do not understand DRM
2) most people do not think years ahead
Terrorism gets media attention far out of proportion to its real impact - the number of people terrorist kill is far fewer than cars kill.
The best thing to do is to ignore terrorism.
The list also includes some very deadly organisations, which was the point.
One of the non-mulsim groups on the list has killed far more people than Al_Quaeda (tens of thousands), and they have carried out "240+" suicide bombings - but as they only killed funny coloured foreigners I suppose you think that does not count.
btw BOTH the terrorist groups that have bombed places I lived in (and came close to getting me more than once) used to raise money in the US
So you make money by re-selling other people's code with a little bit of work done on it? I am sure it works well for you, but how well does it work for the people whose code you are using? How do they make money?
Yes, and gambling machines have better anti-tampering measures than voting machines.
Have you got the message yet?
They killed an imprisoned a lot of other people as well.
And then there was Pol Pot who killed something like 2m people with hundreds of thousands of them tortured to death. The thought of what he would have done if he had run a large country.
I would say that is the Catholic view as well - it is unfortunately but true that the church was corrupted.
I suggest you take a look at the Wikipedia article on the Dark ages to see some of the misconceptions and biases that people have concerning the term and the time.
The last thing most people want is to lose their nice comforting misconceptions.
In other words you retain your right to free speech as long as the executive wants you to have it.
Just like the source code you need to compile a OSS software.
The Vatican vaults are largely already open even to the public. More are open to scholars.
You should also not pay too much attention to conspiracy theories: most museums and major libraries have stuff that is not readily accessible or on display so it is hardly surprising the Vatican does too.
The Vatican also has a bit of a problem with things like pornography with historical value: it can not display it, it can not sell it and it has an obligation to preserve it.
I can run scientific test on all the relics and books you hold
What do they have that you are so desperate to run tests on? Examples please.
Other posters have already pointed out the flaws in his argument.
I would also say that he sounds like his views are based on ideology rather than economics.
Canonical does offer enterprise support for Ubuntu. That is where they plan to make their money, just like Red Hat.
That is likely to be a much less significant effect - very few people die from anything other than disease or natural death in a developed economy - and most of those diseases occur late enough in life to give you time to have children. It is certainly not enough to affect things given the huge difference in fertility rates.
Furthermore the less intelligent are likely to have children younger (much younger). I was shocked when I lived for a while in Salford (a particularly horrible part of the north of England) that it is usual for girls there to have children in their teens - often at 13 or 14.
We met one man who had several great grandchildren by the time he reached his fifties - on the other hand my father is in his seventies and only as three grandchildren (and not many of my friend's parent have much more than that).
Most religions are already open source - apart from the Scientology that is.
New words are obviously needed. New usage is not so necessary.
Greek remained fairly unchanged for centuries (from classical times to a fee centuries AD). AFAIK modern Greek is still far more similar to ancient Greek than English is to old English - and I can not see that the Greeks are lost anything as a result.
Change also makes the body of existing literature less accessible to people. A lot of (admittedly uneducated) people seem to find Shakespeare's English difficult (I wonder what they would make of Chaucer....) as it is.
When I was their age I had a ZX81 and I thought I was lucky!
Several things wrong with that
- There are plenty of things that are included with all Linux distros apart from a few specialist ones
- The overlap between popular distros is huge
- Even when the tools are different the functionality is often the same
- If something is included in the standard install of what ever distro I use, then from my point of view it is there out of the box
if you're know what you're looking for, you can usually get it for gratis from Microsoft, or possibly another community/industry site. In either case, if you're not that familiar with the community then you're going to have trouble finding and getting what you needI am not that familiar with the community, but I can usually find what I need by starting synaptic and doing a search.
Assuming that you don't have to deal with any GPL issuesWhat GPL issues? Nothing stops people from producing propriatary software for Linux
potential customers who are resistant to paying for softwareOnly because we can easily find a free (both ways) equivalent. I would have no hesitation in paying for something useful that had free equivalent.
It is also said to be the profession for people who find accountancy too exciting....
Very well paid though.
Most of the Linux users in your market probably dual boot Windows anyway - all the Linux using gamers I have come across do - so porting to Linux will probably hardly expand your market at all.
Surely Windows must have some way of saving a user's settings for restoration after backup? Otherwise how would people keep their settings when they buy a new PC? I mean an equivalent of copying the config files from the user's home directory in Linux.
That is exactly what most parents are doing now.
This is not just an American phenomenon. It is also happening in the UK (where children will not let children out of door for fear of paedophiles). I have also seen the beginnings of it elsewhere.
Customers might switch if they realise what is happening.
The average person is likely to think "Google does not work so I will have to use MSN"
Telecoms companies are unlikely to say "we are blocking Google" they will quietly slow it down and, if customers complain, say "yes, some customers have problems connecting to Google, try using our search partner". They will then refer you to some PPC only search engine - thats the best way to extract money out of search.
Telecoms companies have been trying to sell walled garden products for decades. That is much more profitable than just supplying pipes. Customers were not that interested, and once the internet came along they were even less interested, so replacing the internet with their own content is the best thing that could possibly happen from their point of view.
No, Wordpress is a CMS oriented towards blogs but which can manage small sites quite nicely.
It can manage different roles, it is not brilliant at handling media files, it can not do work flow management.
It is flexible - the site in my sig runs on Wordpress.
It is a CMS, it is just oriented towards blogs. It is not an enterprise CMS but the competition rules do not say it has to be.
Firstly a lot of people want the web to be more like TV - they want audience behaviour that is predictable (and therefore easier to direct).
Secondly, designers get to design horrible Flash sites because their clients like them. The people who have to use the site may not like it - but the people who pay for it do.
You mean use something that works, has been well tested and has lots of apps available for it?
How boring!