I got sick of seeing it and I'm not even the guy they were targeting.
Judging by the downmods, you are now...
But you're right. Microsoft marketing drones have been gaming tech site comment systems for a while now. Any discussion of Linux, GPL3, ODF or any other topic which threatens their monopoly will be swamped with red herring and troll posts.
It's one of the more disgraceful features of the company. They're willing to undermine anything - ISO standards, US DOJ, open discussion, etc, etc - if there's an advantage to them.
I doubt it since Ubuntu is all most people know of desktop linux.
Fedora reports about 1.5 million unique connections to Yum for FC7, and about 3 million for FC6. They're getting about 16,000 new IPs a day.
Distrowatch puts SuSe ahead of Fedora in terms of popularity, while Debian, Mandriva and PCLinuxOS aren't far behind. In fact, a survey of desktop Linux users put Ubuntu as the most popular distro with 30% of the market, and Fedora at 7%, so with those numbers, we can estimate the total installed base of Linux desktops as being more than 25 million.
One more voice, this of an open (and therefore enemy) patent organization calls out the FUD.
Didn't matter then, doesn't matter now.
It does matter. By continuing to challenge Microsoft on their FUD, the OIS is establishing a non-presumptive laches defense.
Establishing good faith (asking to be told of infringements in order to comply)is one of the key steps of the defense. It will make it MUCH harder for Microsoft to claim damages from patent infringement.
After all, isn't one of the big controversies over OLPC / XO the "fear" that the technology will be used irresponsibly?
No, that's just a bunch of shills/trolls who realise this thing's good enough to make people in the developed world wonder why they're paying so much for the bloated, virus-infested crap they're saddled with.
When you see whining on the scale of the posts here, about a project with so many clear benefits, scrape a bit deeper and you'll see the usual greed and self-interest driving them.
The idea of mere users setting up something that works like Parallels on Mac is just completely out of the question with the way this stuff needs to be configured.
Credibility and you just don't get on, do you?
Virtualbox on Linux is as easy to use as Parallels on Mac.
Not to be a dick or anything, but it IS the active ingredient in peppers.
It's a language problem.
Outside the US, capsicums and chillies aren't called "peppers". Interestingly though, the piperine which makes real pepper (the spice) taste hot works on the TRPV ion channel in the same way as capsaicum, so it might have a similar effect.
I own and have paid for a copy of XP for every computer I'm running it on, but I run pirate (volume license) copies because product activation and WGA are such a pain in the arse that it's better to firewall unpatched machines than license them.
Microsoft has made pirated copies of Windows better products than legitimate versions. That's why this "initiative" is bullshit and will fail.
I didn't get much from the tutorials on the blender.org site, apart from the basic interface tutorial, mostly because they don't clearly separate learning 3D from learning Blender. If you already know how to visualize and work in computer 3D, the wikibooks manual is better. If you don't know how to work in 3D at all, I'd suggest starting with Google's Sketchup, which is an unconventional 3D architectural modeler capable of spectacular results.
once I've learned it, am I more or less productive than with the alternatives?
You'll be more productive.
The harsh comments you'll see here are from people who can't wrap their heads around Blender's hotkey-based UI. If you get used to the idea of keeping your left hand on the keyboard to command, and the right hand on the mouse to move, you'll be able to work faster than most of the alternatives. The critics are right in that it doesn't reward casual experimentation; you have to commit to learning the hotkeys. They're wrong in claiming that the experience won't translate well to other apps. It doesn't take long for any consistent UI to vanish, and your mind to drill into the modeling or animation, and Blender's UI is consistent.
Background: My very first job, in the late 70's, was as a Draftsman.
We have very similar backgrounds. I was a Surveyor in about the same era, and got into 3D modelling via mine design and surveying software (Surpac, DataMine). I started my own 3D software collection with Imagine, then Lightwave on the Amiga. I used Truespace from a coverdisk, tried C4D, and a few other packages.
I still haven't settled into using a single tool. My collection includes Hexagon modeller, Sketchup Pro, Bryce, Cinema 4D, and yes, Blender.
Each has their strengths. For some people, the time cost of learning the tool is higher than it's worth. It sound like that's the case for you. For me, I like being able to be productive anywhere and on any computer, and Blender on a thumb drive does that for me.
In any case, now that I'm used to it, I find there's things I can do quicker in Blender than with the other tools
Take their board of directors and everyone associated with this project, line them up, drop their pants, bend them over and insert every one of their cameras.
Whoever modded this troll should be ashamed of themselves. Many of us have observed very common abuse of online forums by commercial interests.
These sock-puppet accounts routinely appear when issues important to Microsoft are being discussed - ODF, GPL3 etc etc. There's always some aggressive shill poster who'll try to hijack the discussion.
Several other Slashdotters, including myself, have taken issue with the veracity Acrimonymous' posts, so even if you disagree with Christian, he's clearly sincerely addressing what he sees as a problem, and that's not remotely trollish.
Installing software on Linux is easier than with Windows, and an admin could change your permissions to allow software installs without the security risk of giving you administrator privileges. ...And they wouldn't even have to leave their desk to do it.
Basically, the solution is to build in an (optional) method to the mainstream Linux distributions so that users can purchase and install legitimate codecs, or get them with the distribution pre-installed.
If the network card goes down, then "apache fails" as far as 125 people are concerned and if I'm the guy who suggested we use apache, it's my fault. I'm not dissing apache, I'm just pointing out the fact that I'm the guy who will get blamed if it's not accesible
If you're not competent to set up fallover support on a webserver so it'll cope with a dying hardware component, it is your fault, and you should be blamed if it's not "accesible"[sic].
The picture I'm getting here is that incompetent admins LIKE Microsoft's unreliability because they can reflexively point to it and say "It's not my fault IIS has gone down again." Because there's a long history of Microsoft failures, that's considered a believable accusation, even if it's no longer strictly true.
As an individual in a position to make buying decisions based on this sort of thing, this is exactly what turns me off to ODF and other "community" technologies.
If you've been employed in a position to make buying decisions and you don't understand why open formats are valuable, your HR department should be sacked.
Slashdot Mirror
Judging by the downmods, you are now...
But you're right. Microsoft marketing drones have been gaming tech site comment systems for a while now. Any discussion of Linux, GPL3, ODF or any other topic which threatens their monopoly will be swamped with red herring and troll posts.
It's one of the more disgraceful features of the company. They're willing to undermine anything - ISO standards, US DOJ, open discussion, etc, etc - if there's an advantage to them.
Fedora reports about 1.5 million unique connections to Yum for FC7, and about 3 million for FC6. They're getting about 16,000 new IPs a day.
Distrowatch puts SuSe ahead of Fedora in terms of popularity, while Debian, Mandriva and PCLinuxOS aren't far behind. In fact, a survey of desktop Linux users put Ubuntu as the most popular distro with 30% of the market, and Fedora at 7%, so with those numbers, we can estimate the total installed base of Linux desktops as being more than 25 million.
It DID work.
Microsoft gave them $66 million.
Microsoft should give them another 66 million.
Didn't matter then, doesn't matter now.
It does matter. By continuing to challenge Microsoft on their FUD, the OIS is establishing a non-presumptive laches defense.
Establishing good faith (asking to be told of infringements in order to comply)is one of the key steps of the defense. It will make it MUCH harder for Microsoft to claim damages from patent infringement.
The Garvan Institute is a non-profit organisation. They do patent discoveries, but any income earned is used to fund other research projects.
As someone who has experienced a relatively minor tremor while underground, I can tell you the effect is definitely not nil
In my case, it almost resulted in needing a change of trousers.
Oh, come on!
At least link to their site. It's even got wobbly menus, for god's sake! What more could a geek want?
No, that's just a bunch of shills/trolls who realise this thing's good enough to make people in the developed world wonder why they're paying so much for the bloated, virus-infested crap they're saddled with.
When you see whining on the scale of the posts here, about a project with so many clear benefits, scrape a bit deeper and you'll see the usual greed and self-interest driving them.
Credibility and you just don't get on, do you?
Virtualbox on Linux is as easy to use as Parallels on Mac.
It's a language problem.
Outside the US, capsicums and chillies aren't called "peppers". Interestingly though, the piperine which makes real pepper (the spice) taste hot works on the TRPV ion channel in the same way as capsaicum, so it might have a similar effect.
It's nonsensical.
I'm pirating Windows.
I own and have paid for a copy of XP for every computer I'm running it on, but I run pirate (volume license) copies because product activation and WGA are such a pain in the arse that it's better to firewall unpatched machines than license them.
Microsoft has made pirated copies of Windows better products than legitimate versions. That's why this "initiative" is bullshit and will fail.
Oh come on, it's obvious.
If Lassi's gone, we'll need Rin Tin Tin.
And how does what you're saying relate to my comment?
Google has an online office suite.
Microsoft wants to "fucking kill Google". That means leveraging their OS and office suite dominance to undermine any market Google ventures into.
Blender's UI was developed when it was still closed source.
That's a harder question than it sounds.
I didn't get much from the tutorials on the blender.org site, apart from the basic interface tutorial, mostly because they don't clearly separate learning 3D from learning Blender. If you already know how to visualize and work in computer 3D, the wikibooks manual is better. If you don't know how to work in 3D at all, I'd suggest starting with Google's Sketchup, which is an unconventional 3D architectural modeler capable of spectacular results.
once I've learned it, am I more or less productive than with the alternatives?
You'll be more productive.
The harsh comments you'll see here are from people who can't wrap their heads around Blender's hotkey-based UI. If you get used to the idea of keeping your left hand on the keyboard to command, and the right hand on the mouse to move, you'll be able to work faster than most of the alternatives. The critics are right in that it doesn't reward casual experimentation; you have to commit to learning the hotkeys. They're wrong in claiming that the experience won't translate well to other apps. It doesn't take long for any consistent UI to vanish, and your mind to drill into the modeling or animation, and Blender's UI is consistent.
We have very similar backgrounds. I was a Surveyor in about the same era, and got into 3D modelling via mine design and surveying software (Surpac, DataMine). I started my own 3D software collection with Imagine, then Lightwave on the Amiga. I used Truespace from a coverdisk, tried C4D, and a few other packages.
I still haven't settled into using a single tool. My collection includes Hexagon modeller, Sketchup Pro, Bryce, Cinema 4D, and yes, Blender.
Each has their strengths. For some people, the time cost of learning the tool is higher than it's worth. It sound like that's the case for you. For me, I like being able to be productive anywhere and on any computer, and Blender on a thumb drive does that for me.
In any case, now that I'm used to it, I find there's things I can do quicker in Blender than with the other tools
They did that. You can see the photos here.
These sock-puppet accounts routinely appear when issues important to Microsoft are being discussed - ODF, GPL3 etc etc. There's always some aggressive shill poster who'll try to hijack the discussion.
Several other Slashdotters, including myself, have taken issue with the veracity Acrimonymous' posts, so even if you disagree with Christian, he's clearly sincerely addressing what he sees as a problem, and that's not remotely trollish.
Perhaps you should try it before discussing it...
Installing software on Linux is easier than with Windows, and an admin could change your permissions to allow software installs without the security risk of giving you administrator privileges.
...And they wouldn't even have to leave their desk to do it.
The next version of Ubuntu does that.
I'm forty six years old and established my own company in 1998. We've been operating successfully since then.
If you're not competent to set up fallover support on a webserver so it'll cope with a dying hardware component, it is your fault, and you should be blamed if it's not "accesible"[sic].
The picture I'm getting here is that incompetent admins LIKE Microsoft's unreliability because they can reflexively point to it and say "It's not my fault IIS has gone down again." Because there's a long history of Microsoft failures, that's considered a believable accusation, even if it's no longer strictly true.
If you've been employed in a position to make buying decisions and you don't understand why open formats are valuable, your HR department should be sacked.