I agree both with you and the original article, but...
"The same could even be said of MacOS X (in places): KHTML underneath."
Yes, you could say that, in places, but it wouldn't be entirely true in the context, or not like Lindows, not in the sense of them only doing the veneer part, not by a long shot.
Most of OS X has been developed in-house, either by Apple or by NeXT or by proprietary software companies (i.e. Emagic. Try and do Garageband with an OSS foundation...) they bought with big bucks along the way. And most of the Free Software they use they've contributed to at some point in order to make it work better for them.
So even though they use a lot more free underpinnings than say Windows, they've developed the hell out of almost everything they use.
Up to the point that *BSD users are starting to hail Apple as being their saviours. Maybe a bit tasteless, but not altogether a wrong perception.
In reality, both support one another, and it's maybe a much more symbiotic relationship than say Linux/Lindows, which seems a bit more parasitic - but without the negative connotation, just observing that Lindows doesn't seem to give back quite the same amount that it taketh...)
Spatial finder. Great. Wonderful. I don't care what.1% of the computer population, the honourable geek says, it's up to now the only proven intuitive UI there is. It would be good to include other options as well, if only to please the 99% developers contained in that.1% - and I myself don't mind using the NeXT-OS X column view.
Simplicity. KISS. Incredible how so many people who can't seem to program their VCR think a computer should be complicated in order to be fun. It's not only stoopid people who appreciate a direct and simple approach.
Takes a lot of proven mac concepts (button placements, verbing the buttons instead of making everything OK, all-right) and at the same time a few good Windows conventions (column view with explorer-like sidebar, a My computer "place for all your drives and stuff).
If Linux aspires to become the computer for the masses, something like this might do the trick. But when reading all the/. comments, I do begin to understand the advantage of choice choice choice in Linux, even though that means I get to choose between tons of "almost there" soft and environments.
OK, I am as far from an expert as you're likely to find, but why put all your time in building?
If you're not doing rocket science, if not every little bit of optimisation is needed, spare yourself and your colleagues major head-aches and make a nice, decent, easy to install package.
In general, lack of decent, simple stupid installers are what keeps a lot of OSS from the average user's computer.
As always: I'm not a developer, it's the coolest thing, people giving their time and brains to OSS projects.
Still: a major gripe:
The installation instruction page is baffling. Too many dependencies, too much stuff to be installed and set up. And what non-programming user will install developer tools?
I've dabbled with Darwin and fink just enough to know it isn't for me. In the end it was able to download and install 0 software, in countless hours of fiddling. That's when I decided I'd use my time more productively begging for binaries than re-schooling myself. You see, contrary to popular belief, most mac users aren't normally blessed with a background in UNIX/Linux;-)
But also for organisations and companies using OS X, what's the advantage of OOo when you have to depend on such a cumbersome process?
Suddenly - when including IT hours - MS Office is cheaper or at least not that expensive. Insert CD, drag and drop Office folder in your Applications Folder, done. Oops, that seems to have cost the organisation the better part of a whole minute;-)
ANSCD (and now something completely different): The Gimp 2 has recently come available, and a developer has compiled an OS X binary that's just wonderful to install. Brainless one-click totally OS X standard installation process. Meaning you can install Gimp on a bunch of macs in say one hour or less? And just about anybody could do this, not just the IT guy/grrl.
And when starting up Gimp - double-click the icon, duh! - X11 is launched in the background. Meaning that although it needs an extra Windowing manager, it doesn't distract you with this. X11 is standard in OS X 10.3 (Panther) so that made it a total non-issue for me. Sweet.
Meaning: although Photoshop is still A Better Product(tm), Gimp is an OSS package that every low-budget mac user - or organisation with few graphic needs - should, can and most likely in the future WILL consider.
OOo at this moment is not. And that's solely based on the install process. Pity, no?
Two final remarks:
1) I try to keep informed about OOo and understand it's an uphill battle for the two (2????) OS X porters. Kudos to them for turning out the update.
2) It's a myth that every mac user is loaded and loves to spend tons on software. OSS is eyed very very closely by the mac community since OS X. When - if - KDE gets its native port, you'll be surprised by the amount of KOffice downloads. I didn't get the pre-alpha to run yet, but at least installing was a no-brainer.
I think that it'd be a nice waste of time to take some of Dell's claims under consideration and report any false information. After all, they've been "first" in so many things Apple actually beat them to, that it shouldn't be too hard to find something to report.
I'm not especially vexed by Dell's move, Apple's claim is dubious, although I personally think they make their point: they've got the fastest personal computer you can buy off the shelve. OK, maybe not anymore, next month maybe again, etc etc, who cares, they still make the most pleasing computer afaic, and I don't mind it being fast.
I am however surprised America reacts to this type of hyperbole. Your presidents get elected on this, all the goods you buy are sold on this, your news is full of it... Maybe we should be pleased that there's at least some regulation in place.
Me, I'm still waiting for the "I can't believe it's not Windows" campaign for Linux;-)
I'm not sure what your point is. You think MS needs AAC or Apple's blessing to open a music store?
Fairplay is DRM, not a sales method, not a music store in a box.
WMA already has built in DRM capacity, much further reaching than Fairplay, so MS wouldn't need them for that either.
If MS would sell AAC next to their WMA files that would only benefit Apple, but I think something stronger than Hell Freezing Over would be needed for them to do something that stupid - from their point of view, that is.
Licensing Fairplay could result in two things, depending on the licensee and the rights granted by Apple: 1) music shops that sell iPod compatible tunes; 2) mp3 players that can play songs bought in the iTunes Music Store - or other licensed AAC Fairplay sellers.
I'm not saying Apple should do either - although I for one would like them to license Fairplay to other stores. I hate to see all those Windows-only shops. And while they're at it, make a Linux version of Quicktime and ensure Fairplay AAC works on Linux. But that's just me thinking about my priorities.
For the moment Apple has cornered the market, and I trust they'll choose their moment to either open up their format or their music player. Don't forget, it wasn't Jobs who made Apple an island.
Meanwhile, there's no reason to whip out the tinfoil hat more than is needed...
I don't want iPods to support wma and don't really care about Real - if not even one of them want to support the mac crowd, why should Apple roll over? And in the end, different DRM schemes would complicate the user experience.
But I do wish Apple would license Fairplay to others - and why not start with smaller download shops with music you don't find in those Windows-only shops?
Better yet, why not build on the next version of AAC DRM together with Sony, Philips and some others and be done with the other formats? Make it work on all platforms (Linux included) and stick it to The Man.
This said, Ogg Vorbis support would be cool too, not because I use it, but because of the nerd value. Those that want it will know how to use it and it doesn't imply any DRM hassle.
Final thought: I only know two other (very small but nice) online music shops that want Apple customers, so the talk on Apple limiting your freedom is really very warped cowdung.
I'm not sure OOO is for everybody, I'm not sure if it's there yet. Maybe in big firms where IT are prepared to do an extra effort or where some tasks are delegated to specific departments (like making powerpoint presentations). And of course in most technical environments.
But MS licenses are expensive. While it's cool to see newer versions of products, all that forced upgrading does cost a LOT. And when all's said and done, as far as costs are concerned; who cares about TCO, when you can just scrap the license cost altogether?
While I'm wary of stereotyping, it's a good experiment to have all-woman design teams and to have a naive targeting like this.
If the majority of men finally will speak out and say "Hey! We don't enjoy this technical bullshit either!" then we can wrap up the experiment and target "people who don't enjoy technical bullshit".
I like my "equipment" simple but powerful. Think women are impressed if you can only perform by waving a manual around?
eheheheh, sexual joke, eheheheheh... *sigh* man I feel old.
Re:Linux Has Travelled Far... In The Wrong Directi
on
Linus on Linux in 1994
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
yeah right, troll...
Wait till I get my next batch of moderation points, revenge will be mine!!!!
aaahahahahahahaaaaaarghl
oh, don't tell me, this is redundant, right? OKdoK
Re:Linux Has Travelled Far... In The Wrong Directi
on
Linus on Linux in 1994
·
· Score: 0, Troll
Don't care, am a happy Mac coolaid drinker and don't see the point of switching to a platform that is even more arcane than Windows. 99% of all articles going along the lines of "how the fsck am I supposed to do this or connect that" are total non-issues to me - although I do have a 3-button mouse-thingy...
But I love the effort of moving all those cute K-programs natively to OS X... and love the GPL/BSD movement, very cool, good luck and congrats on having such a great community.
The US has indeed screwed up democracy, and has always screwed with capitalism, but don't let that get you down too much.
You still have the death penalty, school children still get to greet the flag as if it was the most be-au-ti-ful thing in the world, you still have the right to bear arms and buy your bullets in K-mart, and you're allowed to vote for the most heavily privately sponsored presidential candidate money can buy so stop complaining already.
If they want to sell in France, they should pay. If not, they're not honouring the local system worked out among and for composers and musicians.
Maybe not everybody is aware of this, but France has a huge and constant outpouring of culture. Books, music, movies are just the most publicly accessible.
Apple shouldn't try to change local laws, but work with them.
I'm a total mac-head, been on cool-aid since '83 but Apple shouldn't fuck with French composers.
They emulate a piece of hardware that is so stupid simple that as a GUI it'll actually work. That's OK, not original, but not stupid either.
Apple will have no problems with that. They may have to change a few details, but as long as this is 1) only software, that; 2) doesn't totally emulate iPod's own (proprietary) software; 3) doesn't insult Apple's product... there's no legal problem at all.
The only - philosophical - gripe might be they try to run with someone else's good idea, but then again, most everybody does. That doesn't stop people from buying Windows - or rival products that emulate Windows - or downloading Linux, or buying Apple mp3 players, or...
You might have an issue with me naming linux, Apple, Windows,... but if everybody had to be 100% original in order to produce, it'd be a weird world.
Copying in it self isn't good, copying good ideas is only sensible. In the end, let lawyers and marketing sweat the details, and let us not waste time with these superficial issues.
First of all, porting flash mx means better flash player support.
Second, momentarily forgetting all the bitching about flash not being a true web standard/tool, not W3C compliant, bandwidth hogging, introducing GUI chaos on the web,... most flash developers are more techie minded than the average content/sparkle provider on the Internet. Meaning they're a better part of the population to introduce to Linux madness.
For all the negatives you can sum up, there's one huge positive: when talking about Linux Desktop, a lot of people are convinced that even more important than installers, standards, ease of use etc... are the "Killer Apps". Flash MX is pretty heavy in that category, at least for an interesting subset of computer users.
"... the ipod has helped people realize that paying a premium for an excellent piece of industrial design just might be worth it after all..."
Well yes, and they might decide to buy a HP.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put HP in the same league, but HP (arguably) holds the PC equivalent of Apple's position on that mentality: a slightly higher price-point for hopefully better design.
I'm still amazed at what PC users put up with daily. I mean, if after all this stupid virus shit you're still not prepared to even consider a Mac, you most likely won't *ever* switch.
Personal experience with HP: My wife 11 years ago bought a HP for a rather absurd (high) price, but never ever got any hardware problems, and the excellent HP software layer made up for a lot of Win 32 silliness.
I still found it a horrible contraption, but I've been inside the Jobsean Reality Distortion field since 1983 so what else is new...
"How is welfare a good investment? Unlike funding for Mars missions, we get nothing for that. "
Ahhh, the eternally young, the joyfully healthful, the for ever productive...
It's such a coincidence that (sadly too) popular US thinking goes along that line along with statistics that are the laughingstock of the western world concerning homicide, poverty, perceived insecurity, quality of life, education.
Surely this is another case of "Ask not what your country can do for you." Well, a lot of people who are now sorely in need of welfare never asked that question and willingly gave themselves for god and country.
Individualism is a great thing, but when taken to its cold, cruel extremes it can be extremely harmful both to the individual (maybe you, down the road, down on your luck, dumped by your employer, your private insurance company and banks) and the whole of a country.
And welfare is a long-time and ongoing investment in stability, happiness and prosperity. Not as in "dump all your dough in here please" but as in "there is no economical gain in letting good people slide below certain poverty levels".
I'm personally sort of a sucker for space exploration and find it hard to doubt the use of it, however subjective that may be.
There is however no doubt in my mind that good social security makes a prosperous and overall happy country. Go and look up those poor starving Swedes, or those mass-murdering Canadians shooting down their school mates or fellow workers.
And anyway, a good social security gives everyone hours of good bitching over beers on whether the money is well spent or not. The upside is that everybody involved can pay for a round.
BTW most of the insults and sarcasm were intended to shock the reader into another mode of thinking. This because merits of welfare can't be measured by simplistic thinking along the lines of "If I help a wino, he won't come back to me to help me". It's a bit more complicated than that, but one doesn't have to look too far to see examples of states with a slightly different approach and huge payoffs in overall prosperity and happiness.
I understand and don't want to imply every computer system should be accessible by everybody through the same interface.
But there is no reason why command line and graphical interface should combat.
Anyway, I don't think there'll ever be a general purpose Unix system without command line. Look at OS X, the most desktop minded of all unixes. Their flavour might not appeal to you due to the nature of your work, but it still is capable of most things you might want to do and - if you're into BSD - could be tweaked by someone like you to do most anything. All this while retaining the ability to do general purpose things through a graphical interface.
"Open source will 'only survive' if they throw off the notion that they need to pander to people afraid of shell prompts."
This is only true for Linux for experienced admins.
If you care about linux for the desktop, forget the notion that people should understand command line.
First off, the advantage of language becomes a disadvantage for everybody not suited or interested enough to learn all the commands and proper spelling/spacing/combining.
Second, what's wrong with good distro's that pander to people who aren't into command line? Why is that a threat? Why, more to the point should the mouse and command line be mutually exclusive?
Third, what's so dumb to have functionality you can set up to do the basics with a few mouse-clicks? Lots of very intelligent programmers and developers really appreciate this if it's well done and makes their life easier. If "Lusers" and "Grandma's" - these kind of names btw betray an enormous misunderstanding of average users - ask for it however, it's beneath consideration, contemptuous, and now apparently a threat to Linux itself no less.
If linux is to remain in the specialised server/embedded market, keep up the good work.
If linux wants to come to the desktop, wake up and smell the shit.
I've read a lot about KDE and KOffice, enough to try and get it to work on my little Cube (mac). For a couple of weeks I've tried a number of approaches. - First, install Yellowdog on my main machine. No Go, unless they'll get the Boot from Firewire Disk problem resolved. I'm not convinced I have the skills to install this on my main computer on the main hard-drive. - Next: installing the OS X "native" alpha, which indeed installed nicely but managed to do exactly nothing. - Finally I've tried the X11/fink route which was very entertaining (if you're into that kind of mind-numbing fun) but in the end - despite following lots of advice I didn't really get from faq/help/manuals/fora, it managed to do just the same: nothing.
Now why would I share this with a bunch of geeks who can do this with their eyes closed?
Not to be humiliated by you, I'm already quite used to "you're stoopid, zat's ze problem" comments.
But to make you aware that a no-nonsense/no command line/no "first install this, then that, then go through the manuals, then ask help" installer should be highest priority in every project that tries to bridge the gap between superhuman users and regular users.
Of course I'm stupid. But I'm also quite adept on my own platform, I've been using it for the last 20 years (god, I'm old).
Let's wrap this up and tell you what I'm now considering, and please remember that I'm not a regular patient. I'm one of those people who still wants to use something even after being told he's actually too stupid to even install it. The normal reaction - I think - would be to feel better about ones own OS and think less of the one that doesn't want to be friends with you.
My next options are: - waiting a couple of months until I can safely install Yellowdog on a Tangerine iBook I still have here, but which is still needed as backup machine for me and my wife in case our computers blow up. - waiting a couple of months until the "native" darwin version of KOffice is out. I think they take installation ease of use very seriously. Although ultimately useless, the installation process was painless. That at least is pleasantly reassuring.
What I'm not going to do: tinker and tinker until I get KOffice to work under the X11/Fink setup. It's just too much of a hassle. There's no joy, and in the end I already have everything I really *need* to enjoy my computer. Curiosity can kill some other cat.
Of course we all know OS X servers aren't worth hacking. They're only used by cutting edge, heavily sponsored scientific institutions, sensitive government operations and advertising agencies.
Now why would a real hacker want to steal from those losers... where's the money, where's the challenge.
In the same vein it really surprised me that FreeBSD - an effort to make an extremely secure environment - is so secure.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I agree both with you and the original article, but...
"The same could even be said of MacOS X (in places): KHTML underneath."
Yes, you could say that, in places, but it wouldn't be entirely true in the context, or not like Lindows, not in the sense of them only doing the veneer part, not by a long shot.
Most of OS X has been developed in-house, either by Apple or by NeXT or by proprietary software companies (i.e. Emagic. Try and do Garageband with an OSS foundation...) they bought with big bucks along the way. And most of the Free Software they use they've contributed to at some point in order to make it work better for them.
So even though they use a lot more free underpinnings than say Windows, they've developed the hell out of almost everything they use.
Up to the point that *BSD users are starting to hail Apple as being their saviours. Maybe a bit tasteless, but not altogether a wrong perception.
In reality, both support one another, and it's maybe a much more symbiotic relationship than say Linux/Lindows, which seems a bit more parasitic - but without the negative connotation, just observing that Lindows doesn't seem to give back quite the same amount that it taketh...)
Spatial finder. Great. Wonderful. I don't care what .1% of the computer population, the honourable geek says, it's up to now the only proven intuitive UI there is. .1% - and I myself don't mind using the NeXT-OS X column view.
/. comments, I do begin to understand the advantage of choice choice choice in Linux, even though that means I get to choose between tons of "almost there" soft and environments.
It would be good to include other options as well, if only to please the 99% developers contained in that
Simplicity. KISS. Incredible how so many people who can't seem to program their VCR think a computer should be complicated in order to be fun. It's not only stoopid people who appreciate a direct and simple approach.
Takes a lot of proven mac concepts (button placements, verbing the buttons instead of making everything OK, all-right) and at the same time a few good Windows conventions (column view with explorer-like sidebar, a My computer "place for all your drives and stuff).
If Linux aspires to become the computer for the masses, something like this might do the trick. But when reading all the
OK, I am as far from an expert as you're likely to find, but why put all your time in building?
If you're not doing rocket science, if not every little bit of optimisation is needed, spare yourself and your colleagues major head-aches and make a nice, decent, easy to install package.
In general, lack of decent, simple stupid installers are what keeps a lot of OSS from the average user's computer.
As always: I'm not a developer, it's the coolest thing, people giving their time and brains to OSS projects.
;-)
;-)
Still: a major gripe:
The installation instruction page is baffling. Too many dependencies, too much stuff to be installed and set up. And what non-programming user will install developer tools?
I've dabbled with Darwin and fink just enough to know it isn't for me. In the end it was able to download and install 0 software, in countless hours of fiddling. That's when I decided I'd use my time more productively begging for binaries than re-schooling myself. You see, contrary to popular belief, most mac users aren't normally blessed with a background in UNIX/Linux
But also for organisations and companies using OS X, what's the advantage of OOo when you have to depend on such a cumbersome process?
Suddenly - when including IT hours - MS Office is cheaper or at least not that expensive. Insert CD, drag and drop Office folder in your Applications Folder, done. Oops, that seems to have cost the organisation the better part of a whole minute
ANSCD (and now something completely different):
The Gimp 2 has recently come available, and a developer has compiled an OS X binary that's just wonderful to install. Brainless one-click totally OS X standard installation process. Meaning you can install Gimp on a bunch of macs in say one hour or less? And just about anybody could do this, not just the IT guy/grrl.
And when starting up Gimp - double-click the icon, duh! - X11 is launched in the background. Meaning that although it needs an extra Windowing manager, it doesn't distract you with this. X11 is standard in OS X 10.3 (Panther) so that made it a total non-issue for me. Sweet.
Meaning: although Photoshop is still A Better Product(tm), Gimp is an OSS package that every low-budget mac user - or organisation with few graphic needs - should, can and most likely in the future WILL consider.
OOo at this moment is not. And that's solely based on the install process. Pity, no?
Two final remarks:
1) I try to keep informed about OOo and understand it's an uphill battle for the two (2????) OS X porters. Kudos to them for turning out the update.
2) It's a myth that every mac user is loaded and loves to spend tons on software. OSS is eyed very very closely by the mac community since OS X. When - if - KDE gets its native port, you'll be surprised by the amount of KOffice downloads. I didn't get the pre-alpha to run yet, but at least installing was a no-brainer.
I think that it'd be a nice waste of time to take some of Dell's claims under consideration and report any false information. After all, they've been "first" in so many things Apple actually beat them to, that it shouldn't be too hard to find something to report.
... Maybe we should be pleased that there's at least some regulation in place.
;-)
I'm not especially vexed by Dell's move, Apple's claim is dubious, although I personally think they make their point: they've got the fastest personal computer you can buy off the shelve. OK, maybe not anymore, next month maybe again, etc etc, who cares, they still make the most pleasing computer afaic, and I don't mind it being fast.
I am however surprised America reacts to this type of hyperbole. Your presidents get elected on this, all the goods you buy are sold on this, your news is full of it
Me, I'm still waiting for the "I can't believe it's not Windows" campaign for Linux
I'm not sure what your point is. You think MS needs AAC or Apple's blessing to open a music store?
Fairplay is DRM, not a sales method, not a music store in a box.
WMA already has built in DRM capacity, much further reaching than Fairplay, so MS wouldn't need them for that either.
If MS would sell AAC next to their WMA files that would only benefit Apple, but I think something stronger than Hell Freezing Over would be needed for them to do something that stupid - from their point of view, that is.
Licensing Fairplay could result in two things, depending on the licensee and the rights granted by Apple:
1) music shops that sell iPod compatible tunes;
2) mp3 players that can play songs bought in the iTunes Music Store - or other licensed AAC Fairplay sellers.
I'm not saying Apple should do either - although I for one would like them to license Fairplay to other stores. I hate to see all those Windows-only shops. And while they're at it, make a Linux version of Quicktime and ensure Fairplay AAC works on Linux. But that's just me thinking about my priorities.
For the moment Apple has cornered the market, and I trust they'll choose their moment to either open up their format or their music player. Don't forget, it wasn't Jobs who made Apple an island.
Meanwhile, there's no reason to whip out the tinfoil hat more than is needed...
I'm sure OOo is suited for home users, as are a lot of other smaller, inexpensive or free office packages.
But OOo is - I think - more in the league of MS Office, and wants to be seen in the workplace.
Conversions of Office documents (not only word, think Powerpoint and access) isn't good enough and may never be perfect.
That's not their fault, and doesn't mean they don't stand a chance. I'm very very curious what the IBM and Novell influence will bring us.
But for now that's more than enough to keep it out of a lot of offices, especially those that exchange a lot of documents.
This said, I am really looking forward to the next battle of the Office packages. I'm very much charmed by KOffice.
I don't want iPods to support wma and don't really care about Real - if not even one of them want to support the mac crowd, why should Apple roll over? And in the end, different DRM schemes would complicate the user experience.
But I do wish Apple would license Fairplay to others - and why not start with smaller download shops with music you don't find in those Windows-only shops?
Better yet, why not build on the next version of AAC DRM together with Sony, Philips and some others and be done with the other formats? Make it work on all platforms (Linux included) and stick it to The Man.
This said, Ogg Vorbis support would be cool too, not because I use it, but because of the nerd value. Those that want it will know how to use it and it doesn't imply any DRM hassle.
Final thought: I only know two other (very small but nice) online music shops that want Apple customers, so the talk on Apple limiting your freedom is really very warped cowdung.
I'm not sure OOO is for everybody, I'm not sure if it's there yet. Maybe in big firms where IT are prepared to do an extra effort or where some tasks are delegated to specific departments (like making powerpoint presentations). And of course in most technical environments.
But MS licenses are expensive. While it's cool to see newer versions of products, all that forced upgrading does cost a LOT. And when all's said and done, as far as costs are concerned; who cares about TCO, when you can just scrap the license cost altogether?
While I'm wary of stereotyping, it's a good experiment to have all-woman design teams and to have a naive targeting like this.
If the majority of men finally will speak out and say "Hey! We don't enjoy this technical bullshit either!" then we can wrap up the experiment and target "people who don't enjoy technical bullshit".
I like my "equipment" simple but powerful. Think women are impressed if you can only perform by waving a manual around?
eheheheh, sexual joke, eheheheheh... *sigh* man I feel old.
yeah right, troll...
Wait till I get my next batch of moderation points, revenge will be mine!!!!
aaahahahahahahaaaaaarghl
oh, don't tell me, this is redundant, right? OKdoK
I'm a dad, not a kid.
Don't care, am a happy Mac coolaid drinker and don't see the point of switching to a platform that is even more arcane than Windows. 99% of all articles going along the lines of "how the fsck am I supposed to do this or connect that" are total non-issues to me - although I do have a 3-button mouse-thingy ...
But I love the effort of moving all those cute K-programs natively to OS X... and love the GPL/BSD movement, very cool, good luck and congrats on having such a great community.
The US has indeed screwed up democracy, and has always screwed with capitalism, but don't let that get you down too much.
You still have the death penalty, school children still get to greet the flag as if it was the most be-au-ti-ful thing in the world, you still have the right to bear arms and buy your bullets in K-mart, and you're allowed to vote for the most heavily privately sponsored presidential candidate money can buy so stop complaining already.
If they want to sell in France, they should pay. If not, they're not honouring the local system worked out among and for composers and musicians.
Maybe not everybody is aware of this, but France has a huge and constant outpouring of culture. Books, music, movies are just the most publicly accessible.
Apple shouldn't try to change local laws, but work with them.
I'm a total mac-head, been on cool-aid since '83 but Apple shouldn't fuck with French composers.
They emulate a piece of hardware that is so stupid simple that as a GUI it'll actually work. That's OK, not original, but not stupid either.
...
... but if everybody had to be 100% original in order to produce, it'd be a weird world.
Apple will have no problems with that. They may have to change a few details, but as long as this is
1) only software, that;
2) doesn't totally emulate iPod's own (proprietary) software;
3) doesn't insult Apple's product...
there's no legal problem at all.
The only - philosophical - gripe might be they try to run with someone else's good idea, but then again, most everybody does. That doesn't stop people from buying Windows - or rival products that emulate Windows - or downloading Linux, or buying Apple mp3 players, or
You might have an issue with me naming linux, Apple, Windows,
Copying in it self isn't good, copying good ideas is only sensible. In the end, let lawyers and marketing sweat the details, and let us not waste time with these superficial issues.
First of all, porting flash mx means better flash player support.
... most flash developers are more techie minded than the average content/sparkle provider on the Internet. Meaning they're a better part of the population to introduce to Linux madness.
... are the "Killer Apps". Flash MX is pretty heavy in that category, at least for an interesting subset of computer users.
Second, momentarily forgetting all the bitching about flash not being a true web standard/tool, not W3C compliant, bandwidth hogging, introducing GUI chaos on the web,
For all the negatives you can sum up, there's one huge positive: when talking about Linux Desktop, a lot of people are convinced that even more important than installers, standards, ease of use etc
"... the ipod has helped people realize that paying a premium for an excellent piece of industrial design just might be worth it after all ..."
Well yes, and they might decide to buy a HP.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put HP in the same league, but HP (arguably) holds the PC equivalent of Apple's position on that mentality: a slightly higher price-point for hopefully better design.
I'm still amazed at what PC users put up with daily. I mean, if after all this stupid virus shit you're still not prepared to even consider a Mac, you most likely won't *ever* switch.
Personal experience with HP:
My wife 11 years ago bought a HP for a rather absurd (high) price, but never ever got any hardware problems, and the excellent HP software layer made up for a lot of Win 32 silliness.
I still found it a horrible contraption, but I've been inside the Jobsean Reality Distortion field since 1983 so what else is new...
"How is welfare a good investment? Unlike funding for Mars missions, we get nothing for that. "
Ahhh, the eternally young, the joyfully healthful, the for ever productive...
It's such a coincidence that (sadly too) popular US thinking goes along that line along with statistics that are the laughingstock of the western world concerning homicide, poverty, perceived insecurity, quality of life, education.
Surely this is another case of "Ask not what your country can do for you." Well, a lot of people who are now sorely in need of welfare never asked that question and willingly gave themselves for god and country.
Individualism is a great thing, but when taken to its cold, cruel extremes it can be extremely harmful both to the individual (maybe you, down the road, down on your luck, dumped by your employer, your private insurance company and banks) and the whole of a country.
And welfare is a long-time and ongoing investment in stability, happiness and prosperity. Not as in "dump all your dough in here please" but as in "there is no economical gain in letting good people slide below certain poverty levels".
I'm personally sort of a sucker for space exploration and find it hard to doubt the use of it, however subjective that may be.
There is however no doubt in my mind that good social security makes a prosperous and overall happy country. Go and look up those poor starving Swedes, or those mass-murdering Canadians shooting down their school mates or fellow workers.
And anyway, a good social security gives everyone hours of good bitching over beers on whether the money is well spent or not. The upside is that everybody involved can pay for a round.
BTW most of the insults and sarcasm were intended to shock the reader into another mode of thinking. This because merits of welfare can't be measured by simplistic thinking along the lines of "If I help a wino, he won't come back to me to help me". It's a bit more complicated than that, but one doesn't have to look too far to see examples of states with a slightly different approach and huge payoffs in overall prosperity and happiness.
Apart from welfare money, that's the best spent money in the US budget for years.
I understand and don't want to imply every computer system should be accessible by everybody through the same interface.
But there is no reason why command line and graphical interface should combat.
Anyway, I don't think there'll ever be a general purpose Unix system without command line. Look at OS X, the most desktop minded of all unixes. Their flavour might not appeal to you due to the nature of your work, but it still is capable of most things you might want to do and - if you're into BSD - could be tweaked by someone like you to do most anything. All this while retaining the ability to do general purpose things through a graphical interface.
"Open source will 'only survive' if they throw off the notion that they need to pander to people afraid of shell prompts."
This is only true for Linux for experienced admins.
If you care about linux for the desktop, forget the notion that people should understand command line.
First off, the advantage of language becomes a disadvantage for everybody not suited or interested enough to learn all the commands and proper spelling/spacing/combining.
Second, what's wrong with good distro's that pander to people who aren't into command line? Why is that a threat? Why, more to the point should the mouse and command line be mutually exclusive?
Third, what's so dumb to have functionality you can set up to do the basics with a few mouse-clicks? Lots of very intelligent programmers and developers really appreciate this if it's well done and makes their life easier. If "Lusers" and "Grandma's" - these kind of names btw betray an enormous misunderstanding of average users - ask for it however, it's beneath consideration, contemptuous, and now apparently a threat to Linux itself no less.
If linux is to remain in the specialised server/embedded market, keep up the good work.
If linux wants to come to the desktop, wake up and smell the shit.
About installation ease of use, I guess.
I've read a lot about KDE and KOffice, enough to try and get it to work on my little Cube (mac). For a couple of weeks I've tried a number of approaches.
- First, install Yellowdog on my main machine. No Go, unless they'll get the Boot from Firewire Disk problem resolved. I'm not convinced I have the skills to install this on my main computer on the main hard-drive.
- Next: installing the OS X "native" alpha, which indeed installed nicely but managed to do exactly nothing.
- Finally I've tried the X11/fink route which was very entertaining (if you're into that kind of mind-numbing fun) but in the end - despite following lots of advice I didn't really get from faq/help/manuals/fora, it managed to do just the same: nothing.
Now why would I share this with a bunch of geeks who can do this with their eyes closed?
Not to be humiliated by you, I'm already quite used to "you're stoopid, zat's ze problem" comments.
But to make you aware that a no-nonsense/no command line/no "first install this, then that, then go through the manuals, then ask help" installer should be highest priority in every project that tries to bridge the gap between superhuman users and regular users.
Of course I'm stupid. But I'm also quite adept on my own platform, I've been using it for the last 20 years (god, I'm old).
Let's wrap this up and tell you what I'm now considering, and please remember that I'm not a regular patient. I'm one of those people who still wants to use something even after being told he's actually too stupid to even install it. The normal reaction - I think - would be to feel better about ones own OS and think less of the one that doesn't want to be friends with you.
My next options are:
- waiting a couple of months until I can safely install Yellowdog on a Tangerine iBook I still have here, but which is still needed as backup machine for me and my wife in case our computers blow up.
- waiting a couple of months until the "native" darwin version of KOffice is out. I think they take installation ease of use very seriously. Although ultimately useless, the installation process was painless. That at least is pleasantly reassuring.
What I'm not going to do: tinker and tinker until I get KOffice to work under the X11/Fink setup. It's just too much of a hassle. There's no joy, and in the end I already have everything I really *need* to enjoy my computer. Curiosity can kill some other cat.
Rant over, have a nice day!
Oops, you're right. My desire to be overly sarcastic got the better of me :-)
Of course we all know OS X servers aren't worth hacking. They're only used by cutting edge, heavily sponsored scientific institutions, sensitive government operations and advertising agencies.
:-)
Now why would a real hacker want to steal from those losers... where's the money, where's the challenge.
In the same vein it really surprised me that FreeBSD - an effort to make an extremely secure environment - is so secure.