Perhaps you never bothered to think that there are other reasons that one may use an Operating system besides its ease of use. Yes, I would be the first to admit that Windows is currently easier to use, and has better driver support.
But there are those who use Linux because they beleive in Free software, such as I. Perhaps the "Hacker Mistique" you are speaking of refers to the most dedicated developers of Linux who not only develope in their free time, but also defend our freedoms to do what we want with our computers. I guess your friend could be comparable to people who followed the leaders of the rebellion in the 1780s in America. Of course not every rebel had equally developed world views. But those who simply followed were intelligent enough to recognize that something new was happening.
Of course the development of Free Software won't save any lives as we can see it now. But hopefully it will harbor a more open society; where more will be done for the public good and in which people will be more willing to fight for their freedoms which others died for, instead of being ready to give them up at the first hint of terrorists.
Of course thats just my opinion, and for now you're free to express yours.
If you'd take a look at the current developers build of the Film gimp you would see that they are reworking the UI; and what is in the Film Gimp will probably be moved back into the Gimp. The current stated goal of the redesign of the Gimp UI is to mimic the Photoshop UI, I'm really looking forward to that.
And you forgot to mention Open Office. It is certainlly in a position to overtake MS office which costs over $500; all open office needs is word of mouth.
It looks like they just finally setup windows so people can use virtual desktops. This feature has been in any moderen window manager since I first started using Linux. And their other so called "advancment" in the Longhorn UI is moving the start menu to the Left side of the screen so it run veritcally instead of horizontally. I have had my KDE set up this way ever since I started using a Laptop with a 1280x768 resolution because a side mounted start menu is more sensible when the screen is wider. And a 3d clock!?
Yes I know you "Could" sidemount your start menu in Win98, but it really wasn't designed for it.
I was really looking forward to longhorn because KDE/Gnome usually steals any Windows UI advancments from windows, but this time around Microsoft is stealing from KDE/Gnome.
Although Microsoft can sustain their money loosing efforts in the Mobile market, Xbox effort,.Net effort, and PVR market they won't be able to do this forever. There is a limit to the amount of money they can loose. And if Openoffice manages to cut off their profit in the Office software area, then Microsoft will have lost one of their core cash cows. This would slowly cut off the needed resources to maintain their other Tech offensives.
I think Bill Gates is like Hitler, Napoleon, or Alexander the great - take your pick. He just doesn't know when to stop starting wars with new companies (countries).
Eventually he will find himself 30 kilometers outside of Moscow without a Jacket.
As for Nvidia; I'm suprised every time they release a good video card. I've been waiting for them to stop advancing their card technology and pull a 3dfx ever since they released the geforce2!
Don't spread that idea too much! Inter device communication using only VNC would be platform independent; this could be a threat to Microsoft's attempt to control every device in our house.
Have you ever tried playing quake 3 in linux and Windows? If you have you would notice that native Quake gets 3 or more FPS in Linux than Windows. Dido for soldier of fortune and the newly released Unreal tournement 2003. I dont't know why trolls today are getting the idea that windows is somehow better at running a game engine and displaying its output to a monitor.
In my opinion mswindows actually does many things wrong when playing native mswindows games. Take for example the way mswindows does a full resolution change. First it changes resolution, then resizes explorer, and then the game starts up. And it always defaults to the lowest refresh rate, which gives a miniscule performance benefit puts alot of strain on the user's eyes. Xwindows on the other hand leaves the GUI as it is, and merely changes resolution, and will always default to the highest refresh rate allowed. And the return to the desktop after exit is instant because the GUI does not need to be resized.
If you have observed a way in which Linux or X windows causes games to be un-smooth or not fast as Microsoft windows then please contact the respective developers.
Yes he is right, it is open soure. Its unfortunate though that it isn't free software. If it were free software then it could actually become a standardized package manager and be adopted by other distributions. Untill then its liscence will prevent others from adopting it. Things like this are what keep linux from having a consistent interface and codebase.
I personally love any system which makes it more difficult for people to share one cd, forcing them to buy more liscences. If this system works out, then instead of buying one $100 program for 5 friends, people will need to spend the whole $500. Things like this really make people consider just going for GNU software, because any difficulty that they have to go through getting used the the GNU version is more than worth the extra costs of using the Proprietary version. That means we get more users and hopefully more bug reports!
Citzens of every other country except the US can safely laugh at the diffrent bills being passed there. The Lawmakers in the US seem to be happy to pass bill after bill untill they have legislated all of the technical specialists out of the US and will then have only their precious media companys which are also hated by much of the world for spreading american cultural imperialism. Living in Germany and Norway I find what is happening in the US every day quiet funny for a country which annoyingly flaunts itself as some kind of leader in personal freedom and freedom of the press. Over here in germany you can pick up any linux mag and it will have instructions on how to set up your linux box to play dvds, can't say that for Linux Journal.
I personally beleive that Opressive countries are still working out the best way to control content using technology. In the future I see a world in which technology will become a commodity and be censored in the same way printed media is. The only diffrence would be that govrenments will be able to better custom tailor content to their people. Once technology becomes good enough mass survalance will be possible, it is highly probable that some govrenment will employ it. If someone like Stalin again comes in power such a situation is highly likely. For those who say content cannot be controlled, just look at china's great wall or Microsofts upcomming palladium. All that would be required for palladium to gain complete controll would be govrenment endorsment through legeslation. This legeslation would obviously be in the name of either "trustworthy computing" or "Secure computing/infestructure"
>If it becomes a big hit on Linux, ok, it is time to move to Free BSD
Dont you think this would be the goal of MS? They love the BSD liscence and hate the GPL because they cannot take advantage of the GPL.
That would be a dream come true. If microsoft made a proprietary PC format they would loose untold support because the reasons to upgrade would not be compeling enough. Most people would prefer to instead use windows 2000 or XP. Then windows longhorn would go the way of best buy's DIVX.
"A properly set up XP or 2000 machine should rarely, if ever blue screen."
My experience with XP must be very contrary to yours. The only time I tried using XP it crashed every 30mins with SCSI errors and drive corruption. At this point I had become quiet annoyed with microsoft, and the fact the IE crashed every time I entered a webpage url in the location bar. So I wondered, "I wonder if Linux would work any better." So, I went out to compusa and bought the Mandrake linux gaming edition and linux has yet to crash even once.
I find it funny that everyone is complaining about the sexism in his books, but as a child thats probably what many people enjoyed the most. Its just a book, and they are fun to read. I don't see how anything beyond that matters.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps you never bothered to think that there are other reasons that one may use an Operating system besides its ease of use. Yes, I would be the first to admit that Windows is currently easier to use, and has better driver support.
But there are those who use Linux because they beleive in Free software, such as I. Perhaps the "Hacker Mistique" you are speaking of refers to the most dedicated developers of Linux who not only develope in their free time, but also defend our freedoms to do what we want with our computers. I guess your friend could be comparable to people who followed the leaders of the rebellion in the 1780s in America. Of course not every rebel had equally developed world views. But those who simply followed were intelligent enough to recognize that something new was happening.
Of course the development of Free Software won't save any lives as we can see it now. But hopefully it will harbor a more open society; where more will be done for the public good and in which people will be more willing to fight for their freedoms which others died for, instead of being ready to give them up at the first hint of terrorists.
Of course thats just my opinion, and for now you're free to express yours.
If you'd take a look at the current developers build of the Film gimp you would see that they are reworking the UI; and what is in the Film Gimp will probably be moved back into the Gimp. The current stated goal of the redesign of the Gimp UI is to mimic the Photoshop UI, I'm really looking forward to that. And you forgot to mention Open Office. It is certainlly in a position to overtake MS office which costs over $500; all open office needs is word of mouth.
It looks like they just finally setup windows so people can use virtual desktops. This feature has been in any moderen window manager since I first started using Linux. And their other so called "advancment" in the Longhorn UI is moving the start menu to the Left side of the screen so it run veritcally instead of horizontally. I have had my KDE set up this way ever since I started using a Laptop with a 1280x768 resolution because a side mounted start menu is more sensible when the screen is wider. And a 3d clock!? Yes I know you "Could" sidemount your start menu in Win98, but it really wasn't designed for it. I was really looking forward to longhorn because KDE/Gnome usually steals any Windows UI advancments from windows, but this time around Microsoft is stealing from KDE/Gnome.
What I meant by this is that Microsoft hasn't earned any money on any of these Efforts, including Mobile phones.
Although Microsoft can sustain their money loosing efforts in the Mobile market, Xbox effort, .Net effort, and PVR market they won't be able to do this forever. There is a limit to the amount of money they can loose. And if Openoffice manages to cut off their profit in the Office software area, then Microsoft will have lost one of their core cash cows. This would slowly cut off the needed resources to maintain their other Tech offensives.
I think Bill Gates is like Hitler, Napoleon, or Alexander the great - take your pick. He just doesn't know when to stop starting wars with new companies (countries).
Eventually he will find himself 30 kilometers outside of Moscow without a Jacket.
We already have one. Its called the EFF. The EFF fights against the bad things; the free software foundation fights for the good things.
As for Nvidia; I'm suprised every time they release a good video card. I've been waiting for them to stop advancing their card technology and pull a 3dfx ever since they released the geforce2!
Don't spread that idea too much! Inter device communication using only VNC would be platform independent; this could be a threat to Microsoft's attempt to control every device in our house.
I'm very suprised that Lindows would be put on a tablet PC. I would be very suprised if Lindows were supported as well as linux is on it.
Have you ever tried playing quake 3 in linux and Windows? If you have you would notice that native Quake gets 3 or more FPS in Linux than Windows. Dido for soldier of fortune and the newly released Unreal tournement 2003. I dont't know why trolls today are getting the idea that windows is somehow better at running a game engine and displaying its output to a monitor.
In my opinion mswindows actually does many things wrong when playing native mswindows games. Take for example the way mswindows does a full resolution change. First it changes resolution, then resizes explorer, and then the game starts up. And it always defaults to the lowest refresh rate, which gives a miniscule performance benefit puts alot of strain on the user's eyes. Xwindows on the other hand leaves the GUI as it is, and merely changes resolution, and will always default to the highest refresh rate allowed. And the return to the desktop after exit is instant because the GUI does not need to be resized.
If you have observed a way in which Linux or X windows causes games to be un-smooth or not fast as Microsoft windows then please contact the respective developers.
Yes he is right, it is open soure. Its unfortunate though that it isn't free software. If it were free software then it could actually become a standardized package manager and be adopted by other distributions. Untill then its liscence will prevent others from adopting it. Things like this are what keep linux from having a consistent interface and codebase.
I personally love any system which makes it more difficult for people to share one cd, forcing them to buy more liscences. If this system works out, then instead of buying one $100 program for 5 friends, people will need to spend the whole $500. Things like this really make people consider just going for GNU software, because any difficulty that they have to go through getting used the the GNU version is more than worth the extra costs of using the Proprietary version. That means we get more users and hopefully more bug reports!
Citzens of every other country except the US can safely laugh at the diffrent bills being passed there. The Lawmakers in the US seem to be happy to pass bill after bill untill they have legislated all of the technical specialists out of the US and will then have only their precious media companys which are also hated by much of the world for spreading american cultural imperialism. Living in Germany and Norway I find what is happening in the US every day quiet funny for a country which annoyingly flaunts itself as some kind of leader in personal freedom and freedom of the press. Over here in germany you can pick up any linux mag and it will have instructions on how to set up your linux box to play dvds, can't say that for Linux Journal.
I personally beleive that Opressive countries are still working out the best way to control content using technology. In the future I see a world in which technology will become a commodity and be censored in the same way printed media is. The only diffrence would be that govrenments will be able to better custom tailor content to their people. Once technology becomes good enough mass survalance will be possible, it is highly probable that some govrenment will employ it. If someone like Stalin again comes in power such a situation is highly likely. For those who say content cannot be controlled, just look at china's great wall or Microsofts upcomming palladium. All that would be required for palladium to gain complete controll would be govrenment endorsment through legeslation. This legeslation would obviously be in the name of either "trustworthy computing" or "Secure computing/infestructure"
>If it becomes a big hit on Linux, ok, it is time to move to Free BSD Dont you think this would be the goal of MS? They love the BSD liscence and hate the GPL because they cannot take advantage of the GPL.
That would be a dream come true. If microsoft made a proprietary PC format they would loose untold support because the reasons to upgrade would not be compeling enough. Most people would prefer to instead use windows 2000 or XP. Then windows longhorn would go the way of best buy's DIVX.
Can this type of thing be blocked from slashdot?
"A properly set up XP or 2000 machine should rarely, if ever blue screen."
My experience with XP must be very contrary to yours. The only time I tried using XP it crashed every 30mins with SCSI errors and drive corruption. At this point I had become quiet annoyed with microsoft, and the fact the IE crashed every time I entered a webpage url in the location bar. So I wondered, "I wonder if Linux would work any better." So, I went out to compusa and bought the Mandrake linux gaming edition and linux has yet to crash even once.
I find it funny that everyone is complaining about the sexism in his books, but as a child thats probably what many people enjoyed the most. Its just a book, and they are fun to read. I don't see how anything beyond that matters.
LOL People already waste 50%. At least with linux their learning something. And Linux not stable!!??! Go back under your bridge troll.