My guess is that the emphasis is changing because they now have a different CEO. Why would Shuttleworth let someone else run the company he built for *their* fun, even if he ran it that way himself?
I'm not a Windows programmer, or even a Windows user. How is it that so many other companies are able to support Windows XP with their new products? I mean even looking specifically at browsers...Chrome supports Windows XP SP2 through Window 7, and Firefox supports Windows 2000 through Windows 7.
Is IE in Windows 7 really so much better than Firefox or Chrome in Windows 7 that it was worth exploiting features of Windows Vista/7 that aren't available in XP?
They point out that 30 countries are working with CERN without being members, and it seems like they would like to be one of 31. I mean, why wouldn't they? Being a member sounds expensive.
"...you came up with an answer to 29 million tons of non-biodegradeable plastic being added to landfills each year, so here's 10 grand. Yep, 10 big ones. Oh, and go get yourself a bit of education."
WiMax isn't mainstream yet, satellite is the broadband service for people who have been using dial-up (the latency is terrible), and dial-up is, well...dial-up. There are many areas where comcast is the only cable internet service, DSL connections are poor (if not completely unavailable, due to distance from the CO) and anything else isn't really broadband.
"Macintosh leads the pack of Vista alternatives, with support from 28% of respondents. About a quarter said they would opt for Red Hat Linux, with SUSE Linux and Ubuntu each garnering 18% of the vote. Another 9% cited other Linux operating systems and 4% were unsure."
~25% + 18% + 18% + 9% = ~70% who want to use Linux instead of Vista. They're not saying "I want to run Windows XP, even though Microsoft can drop support for it"...they're saying I want to leave Microsoft altogether. While some of your points still apply ("important programs that are Vista-only"), you may be confused about the confuse the prevailing sentiment here and what it would portend for future application support.
One of the nice things about evolution is that it's not intelligent design, so it isn't heretical to suggest that some natural impulses aren't very useful. Obviously mouse vs. cat conflict will select for mice which have a tendency to run away, so this is a poor example, but there may be many other examples (particularly in humans, who have a record of wtfpwning nature) where "reversing evolution" could be beneficial. If it's beneficial, we might even consider it a further evolution of our species.
Regarding the fourth bullet point, I had the same thought. If Apple isn't one of those big "evil" companies, why couldn't they have expanded iTunes+ to indie labels (and to everyone, really) before Amazon gave them the "competition"? I hate to think that my iTunes purchases are actually working against my own wishes (seeing those big labels become less relevant and eventually die).
What was I talking about? You know perfectly well what I was talking about, because as you say: SuSE had to fix the problem themselves and allow you to update it post-installation.
I thought that they might do that after enough people complained (why did they do it in the first place?), but I wasn't sure that they had already because it's hard to research something that isn't widely available yet (not everyone wants to pay $100 for free software...I've been wanting to download it for weeks, checking every day, but 9.3 is only available as a live eval).
Also: "Second, updating the xine library from the packman repository and installing the w32codecs package gives you full video functionality."
Did SuSE do that for you, or did you do that? I wasn't complaining about you, I was complaining about SuSE.
You sound like a big SuSE fan/apologist and I suppose most of the moderators in this thread are too.
I think it might be going too easy on them to say that it's only a legal/IP issue. Nobody forced them to do it the way that they did. With other distributions, you install a file and you've got mp3 support. The way SuSE has done it in 9.3, you need to recompile some things and then you lose the ease of package management for a bunch of your multimedia apps (updates, etc). If it's true that the paid version includes mp3 support out of the box, then I know now why they've done it the way they did...to differentiate the products in a really crappy way. Hello Novell.
What the hell is he going to do with all that money anyway?
It's a good question, since he already has a cable news channel and a few hundred talk-radio stations. He'll probably just buy saturation advertising from everyone who isn't already on board. Hope you weren't planning on consuming any media during 2004.
I used to think that all humans were humans because of "awareness" or "consciousness", but then two things happened:
1) I started studying political science. 2) I got a dog. A smart one.
Perhaps I'm projecting "human" attributes onto (anthropomorphizing) my dog, but I believe that we sometimes make the same mistake when we're thinking about other "humans".
The fact that we're even thinking about this sets us apart in terms of "consciousness", but there are many among us who walk, talk, act and respond like humans, but still fail *critical* tests of "consciousness" or "awareness". I see in my adult dog what appears to be 3-4 year old human-equivalent intelligence. I've also seen 3-4 year old human-equivalent intelligence in adult humans.
We give too many of them the benefit of the doubt when we assume that they're all capable of reasoning. Just because they look like us doesn't mean they can be trusted to (for instance) understand when they're being manipulated by propaganda. Sometimes they might as well be animals. I don't hate them. I'm an animal lover.
Think about it the next time you're around some complete idiot, and remember that even a parrot can talk.
"Maybe there is something about this I'm not understanding...."
I think what you're not understanding is that this is designed to be a useful way for intelligence analysts to prevent attacks. This isn't supposed to be entertainment. It's supposed to be profitable for the participants and informative for the analysts. We've got an anti-academic pro-markets administration. We shouldn't be surprised by this.
Actually, I think of the Klan just about every time I see Robert Byrd speaking on C-SPAN. The thing about Byrd is that he stayed with the Democratic party when it became home base for blacks, whereas Thurmond switched over to the party that true racists now call home. You know, the party of Trent Lott. Do you want to try to say something in defense of Trent's statements in support of classic Thurmond?
Look, my point is this: racism of the kind espoused by Strom Thurmond during his presidential campaign is really and truly almost dead in America. I believe that. It's all covert now, like pedophilia and heroin abuse. What I'm seeing is that racism has become so politically incorrect that anyone with sympathy for a guy like Strom Thurmond is ready to paint him as some sort of civil rights leader. I acknowledge that he's done some good things for blacks in SC, but if you can't look at his political career and call it (on the whole) racist, it's just PC revisionism. I suppose that today it would be difficult to call anyone who ever lived a racist and get everyone to agree.
I call the Republican party a more hospitable party for racists because I'm willing to face reality: you and I both know that those hypocrits who criticized Trent Lott (or the others who defended him, in both parties, but especially the GOP) have known how he really felt the entire time that they've been supporting his leadership. They were mad because he spoke so candidly. The one thing that dems like Daschle have going for them in their defense is that they never voted for Lott, but I don't take any of them or their words at face value, and I hope you don't either.
Slashdot Mirror
My guess is that the emphasis is changing because they now have a different CEO. Why would Shuttleworth let someone else run the company he built for *their* fun, even if he ran it that way himself?
I'm not a Windows programmer, or even a Windows user. How is it that so many other companies are able to support Windows XP with their new products? I mean even looking specifically at browsers...Chrome supports Windows XP SP2 through Window 7, and Firefox supports Windows 2000 through Windows 7. Is IE in Windows 7 really so much better than Firefox or Chrome in Windows 7 that it was worth exploiting features of Windows Vista/7 that aren't available in XP?
They point out that 30 countries are working with CERN without being members, and it seems like they would like to be one of 31. I mean, why wouldn't they? Being a member sounds expensive.
If you want to make a small fortune, start with a large one.
Right, it's just funny, regardless.
"...you came up with an answer to 29 million tons of non-biodegradeable plastic being added to landfills each year, so here's 10 grand. Yep, 10 big ones. Oh, and go get yourself a bit of education."
WiMax isn't mainstream yet, satellite is the broadband service for people who have been using dial-up (the latency is terrible), and dial-up is, well...dial-up. There are many areas where comcast is the only cable internet service, DSL connections are poor (if not completely unavailable, due to distance from the CO) and anything else isn't really broadband.
Don't worry...it was designed by Microsoft, so you know it's secure.
I agree. I watch way too much C-SPAN to think that this is good news.
This might be how they became "TopSellers."
"Macintosh leads the pack of Vista alternatives, with support from 28% of respondents. About a quarter said they would opt for Red Hat Linux, with SUSE Linux and Ubuntu each garnering 18% of the vote. Another 9% cited other Linux operating systems and 4% were unsure." ~25% + 18% + 18% + 9% = ~70% who want to use Linux instead of Vista. They're not saying "I want to run Windows XP, even though Microsoft can drop support for it"...they're saying I want to leave Microsoft altogether. While some of your points still apply ("important programs that are Vista-only"), you may be confused about the confuse the prevailing sentiment here and what it would portend for future application support.
"the USA is the best country on Earth and we should start acting like it." LOL? You don't think we act like we're the best country on Earth?
One of the nice things about evolution is that it's not intelligent design, so it isn't heretical to suggest that some natural impulses aren't very useful. Obviously mouse vs. cat conflict will select for mice which have a tendency to run away, so this is a poor example, but there may be many other examples (particularly in humans, who have a record of wtfpwning nature) where "reversing evolution" could be beneficial. If it's beneficial, we might even consider it a further evolution of our species.
Regarding the fourth bullet point, I had the same thought. If Apple isn't one of those big "evil" companies, why couldn't they have expanded iTunes+ to indie labels (and to everyone, really) before Amazon gave them the "competition"? I hate to think that my iTunes purchases are actually working against my own wishes (seeing those big labels become less relevant and eventually die).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_(law)
What was I talking about? You know perfectly well what I was talking about, because as you say: SuSE had to fix the problem themselves and allow you to update it post-installation. I thought that they might do that after enough people complained (why did they do it in the first place?), but I wasn't sure that they had already because it's hard to research something that isn't widely available yet (not everyone wants to pay $100 for free software...I've been wanting to download it for weeks, checking every day, but 9.3 is only available as a live eval). Also: "Second, updating the xine library from the packman repository and installing the w32codecs package gives you full video functionality." Did SuSE do that for you, or did you do that? I wasn't complaining about you, I was complaining about SuSE. You sound like a big SuSE fan/apologist and I suppose most of the moderators in this thread are too.
I think it might be going too easy on them to say that it's only a legal/IP issue. Nobody forced them to do it the way that they did. With other distributions, you install a file and you've got mp3 support. The way SuSE has done it in 9.3, you need to recompile some things and then you lose the ease of package management for a bunch of your multimedia apps (updates, etc). If it's true that the paid version includes mp3 support out of the box, then I know now why they've done it the way they did...to differentiate the products in a really crappy way. Hello Novell.
It's a good question, since he already has a cable news channel and a few hundred talk-radio stations. He'll probably just buy saturation advertising from everyone who isn't already on board. Hope you weren't planning on consuming any media during 2004.
I used to think that all humans were humans because of "awareness" or "consciousness", but then two things happened:
1) I started studying political science.
2) I got a dog. A smart one.
Perhaps I'm projecting "human" attributes onto (anthropomorphizing) my dog, but I believe that we sometimes make the same mistake when we're thinking about other "humans".
The fact that we're even thinking about this sets us apart in terms of "consciousness", but there are many among us who walk, talk, act and respond like humans, but still fail *critical* tests of "consciousness" or "awareness". I see in my adult dog what appears to be 3-4 year old human-equivalent intelligence. I've also seen 3-4 year old human-equivalent intelligence in adult humans.
We give too many of them the benefit of the doubt when we assume that they're all capable of reasoning. Just because they look like us doesn't mean they can be trusted to (for instance) understand when they're being manipulated by propaganda. Sometimes they might as well be animals. I don't hate them. I'm an animal lover.
Think about it the next time you're around some complete idiot, and remember that even a parrot can talk.
I think what you're not understanding is that this is designed to be a useful way for intelligence analysts to prevent attacks. This isn't supposed to be entertainment. It's supposed to be profitable for the participants and informative for the analysts. We've got an anti-academic pro-markets administration. We shouldn't be surprised by this.
I humbly suggest the elimination of the motivational-pointers dept.
Actually, I think of the Klan just about every time I see Robert Byrd speaking on C-SPAN. The thing about Byrd is that he stayed with the Democratic party when it became home base for blacks, whereas Thurmond switched over to the party that true racists now call home. You know, the party of Trent Lott. Do you want to try to say something in defense of Trent's statements in support of classic Thurmond?
Look, my point is this: racism of the kind espoused by Strom Thurmond during his presidential campaign is really and truly almost dead in America. I believe that. It's all covert now, like pedophilia and heroin abuse. What I'm seeing is that racism has become so politically incorrect that anyone with sympathy for a guy like Strom Thurmond is ready to paint him as some sort of civil rights leader. I acknowledge that he's done some good things for blacks in SC, but if you can't look at his political career and call it (on the whole) racist, it's just PC revisionism. I suppose that today it would be difficult to call anyone who ever lived a racist and get everyone to agree.
I call the Republican party a more hospitable party for racists because I'm willing to face reality: you and I both know that those hypocrits who criticized Trent Lott (or the others who defended him, in both parties, but especially the GOP) have known how he really felt the entire time that they've been supporting his leadership. They were mad because he spoke so candidly. The one thing that dems like Daschle have going for them in their defense is that they never voted for Lott, but I don't take any of them or their words at face value, and I hope you don't either.
Get a clue before you post your mindless ramblings and insult a dead man you have no clue about.
Gee, thanks for the clue.
Now what I'm wondering: Why do people insist on associating Strom Thurmond with racism? It just doesn't make sense.
You wouldn't happen to have any clues about that, would you?
Sure, he was a real MLK Jr.
Copying a parent gets many a child into trouble.