Ironically, your friends in Santa Cruz had absolutely nothing to do with Darl and his foaming-at-the-mouth Linux vendetta yet now they're the ones paying the price. The silver lining is that SCO as a company is finished, so leaving the company was inevitable. Still, I know lots of people out of work and it's still very hard out there, regardless of all the "Jobs Growth" headlines in the papers.
The exploit would be a code defect instead of a configuration screw up. Also, it would be in the production product rather than the no-install, evalutation only version.
I don't think it supports VBA (my download got/. before completing) so I doubt it. I like the concept of using PacMan for Excel as a compatibility test though!!!
Or is it that they all accept deep down that MS has an interface that's hard to top?
That's got nothing to do with it, if they were to copy the best interface it would be OS X's, not MS's. They copy MS to avoid confusing Joe Sixpack MS user when he gets pushed onto Linux. Personally, my desktop doesn't look like Win or OS X, it's built around popup menus and SuperKaramba and it's better (in my mind at least) than either of the aforementioned.
lots of action spread out with no obvious focal point
Exactly why I can't understand the fascination with watching golf. I enjoy playing it and would give a kidney to be able to do that for a living but I'd rather watch grass grow than watch pros play it on TV. Regardless, there's still a mass market for it, so who knows, maybe today's PS2/XBox raised generation are the TV mass market of the tomorrow for professional video gaming.
If Sun had promoted client-side, windows, _compiled_ development back in the late '90's...
Ummm, they did just that, the problem was that devs obviously weren't willing to compromise on the early look-and-feel and memory load issues with the early Java releases and personally I don't blame them. First impressions are very important and (sadly) Java didn't make a very good first impression. The good news is that virtually all those early GUI issues have been solved, the bad news is that those old perceptions remain.
Also, the key to Java's popularity is it's cross-platformness. I doubt Java would still be around if it weren't for that single key feature. In fact, this is what's allowing Java to grow exponentially in the embedded space right now. There are even signs of a rebirth of Java applets and applications on the desktop ever since the release of 1.4 and the massive performance improvements it brought with it.
Personally, I think it'd be better for OOo to stop trying to be compatible (or at least stop advertising it,) and "do its own thing" -- people would stop judging it as a "fake MS office". You might not convert as many businesses, but you might convince more start-ups to go with it from day 1.
No man, that won't fly. As unpalatable as it is, and it's pretty damned unpalatable, compatibility with MS Office formats is *currently* a must. At the very least we need read compatibility on the OO side. That said, write compatibility could be nixed if there was something like a small OO viewer or even an OO import filter for MSO existed. I've seen it bounced around a few times but don't think anything has been written along these lines yet.
The only place where OO lags MSO in any material way is in the spreadsheet arena. The OO text editor and presentation software are very close to the full functionality of it's MSO counterparts. That that end I'd say OO is a *functionally* inferior product, not technically.
As for the parent parent post, advertising is pretty damned expensive. I think any "supporting" money would be better spent on development resources rather than preaching to the masses. The reason MS dumps so much money into advertising is to keep it's products at the tip of everybody's tongue. There's no way an open source project or even most companies on earth to buy that kind of exposure. Seriously, if you want to help, the best course of action is word of mouth. Besides, it carries a hell of a lot more weight come decision making time than a flashy ad.
That's because this place is literally crawling with Microsoft employees. Well, that and the handful of loud mouthed idiots that somehow manage to get modded up. My personal experience is that the more Microsoft-centric somebody is, the more they have bought into the anti-Java rhetoric. That said, these people are also the ones with the least experience with Java.
Personally, I think that non-GUI java is excellent, GUI java is great but limited with AWT, full featured but tricky (dll/so concerns) with SWT, and full features but heavy with Swing. That said, I'm very impressed with how 1.5 is shaping up for GUI apps. The new heap management and GC improvements have done much to improve the snappiness of Swing apps.
Funny you should mention it, I see the same thing only from my satellite feed, DVDs seem fine. It's only on the non-HDTV channels and only when I'm using "full screen" to blowup the 4:3 images to 16:9. The odd thing is that I only notice it when the image changes dramatically (ie. from sports score back to rink -or- between commericals). I'd curious as hell to know what they changed to "fix" this, maybe the new "board" adds that magical audio delay in.
Those are finished products, not components. Think plywood and sheet aluminium for better examples. The price of both of these varies a lot but the finished products homes and soda cans is relatively stable. A RAM module on it's own doesn't do a whole lot, it's just a component. The component price can vary like mad but video cards and MP3 player prices would be realtively stable. The problem is that those prices are stable, but within a rising trend.
Ah yes, the Jetsons scenario. You forgot to mention that we'll all be living on top of towers like the Seattle Space Needle and CN tower in Toronto. So bring that water on, I'm itching to do a 60 story triple Lindy!
Yep, you framed the problem with the Sony "option" perfectly. There's not much of a good samaritan incentive for Sony to release an open source version of it's hypothetical gaming API for Linux.
I'm going to head off on a "perfect scenario" tangent that could lead to just that situation. First, we take the however improbable assumption that the PS3 uses Linux, Sony would need to release any kernel mods to abide by the GPL. Second, Sony takes a page from MS's book and uses code signing for it's console (it might already, I'm not sure). Since the console is still "secure" and some code needs to be released to abide by the GPL, this might be enough to convince Sony to release their toolkit to the public. In addition, it increases exposure for the Sony gaming API, giving Sony additional clout with game houses. Another (highly unlikely) benefit is that it may cause a rebirth of the garage gaming industry.
Anyhow, it's all a big stretch but it's possible in theory. What the heck, as long as we're in la-la land, MS might put out a DirectX API for Linux to stop Sony from doing exactly what I described above. I'm not throwing money away betting on any of this though!
I only use Linux and I've never believed that a bootable game CD would fly. However, your point about being unable to patch games is one of the most convincing I've seen (I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere) so I'm adding it to my smack-down arsenal. It really should be #1 on your list. I also feel that people don't want to reboot. Sure it doesn't take long to do, but it's still a pain in the arse and because of that people will resist it.
Now, as for frame rates, when it comes to OpenGL on nVIDIA cards, the Linux rates are as good as comparable DirectX rates under Windows, at least for RTCW-ET and NWN. A lot of folks bitch about the closed nVIDIA drivers for Linux but they have done one hell of a bang up job getting those drivers cooking on Linux.
Supplanting DirectX? Now that's a whole other ball of wax. I think what could help is a merging of a bunch of the "popular" gaming APIs under Linux into a coherent project like a DirectX. Things like OpenAL, SDL, etc.
Then again, DirectX's lack of cross-platform availability may be the wiggle room that allows for a new "standard" to sneak in. I think that any new standardwould have to run across Windows, a few consoles, and Linux to have a real chance. Realistically, the only company in a position to dethrone DirectX is Sony. If Sony produced an open source gaming API for it's console and versions for Windows and Linux, DirectX may finally meet it's match. Don't think I'll hold my breath waiting on it though.
The only problem is that there's no law on the books to allow this kinda thing. What we need-ED was for the anti-trust trial do what it was supposed to do and break the company up like they did AT&T. There's still the "regulate-it-to-death" approach remaining: create an FTC-like oversight body for operating system software that would force MS to open up their software. This could create a market for resellers and even competing flavors of Windows. The only problem is that the OS business would become a tangled bureaucratic mess like the communications business now is.
Personally, I'd rather the govt keep MS's bundling activities in check and let the competition invade MS's core business horizontally, at least until some kind of a competitive balance is restored. Would MS kick and scream? Of course, this is a measure designed to reduce their market share, the exact opposite of their end-all-be-all goal.
So the programmers on RedHat and SuSE's payrolls come in an do whatever the f*** the feel like doing in the mornings? There are many people paid to work on OSS projects and that makes the line you're trying to draw much blurier than you may think.
Admittedly, I have a Maxtor drives in all 4 of my boxes, arguably not the quietest drives on the market. I'm due for replacements in my primary box and am going to look into the Seagate fluid bearing models based on the Seagate love-fest I'm seeing in this thread. I'm anxious to reach whine/whir free nirvana. The rest of the box is pretty damned quiet with an Antec performance series and a Zalman heatsink. The other machines are not in my main work area. I've also got an IBM laptop who's HD sounds like a friggen air raid siren that I keep in sleep mode as much as possible.
Whatever, first off they compared Java 1.4, not 1.5 so a lot of your C# Yes's are should be in the Java column. Also, some of the categories are just plain vague and the judgment call doesn't seem right. For example, "Independent or VM" and "Direct native code gen" are essentially the same and Java is listed as a No with no consideration ever given to GCJ which provides both of those for Java. Anyhow, use whatever damned language you want, I'm sticking to C, C++, and Java like the rest of the majority.
I didn't register to "read the read of the article", I'm curious as to whether you got that $1,000 figure from the registered only chunk of the article or from somewhere else. Also, does it mention what is covered by that $1,000 and for how long?
Slashdot Mirror
Yep ... my bad ... gleem ain't in the dictionary!
Ironically, your friends in Santa Cruz had absolutely nothing to do with Darl and his foaming-at-the-mouth Linux vendetta yet now they're the ones paying the price. The silver lining is that SCO as a company is finished, so leaving the company was inevitable. Still, I know lots of people out of work and it's still very hard out there, regardless of all the "Jobs Growth" headlines in the papers.
If this were a Microsoft or Apple product ...
The exploit would be a code defect instead of a configuration screw up. Also, it would be in the production product rather than the no-install, evalutation only version.
You have it backwards, the correct question should be:
Q> What is it with MS format files that makes it so hard to work with them in OpenOffice.
A> Total and utter lack of information on the binary file formats from MS. Everything is either reverse engineered or gleemed from public discoveries.
I don't think it supports VBA (my download got /. before completing) so I doubt it. I like the concept of using PacMan for Excel as a compatibility test though!!!
Or is it that they all accept deep down that MS has an interface that's hard to top?
That's got nothing to do with it, if they were to copy the best interface it would be OS X's, not MS's. They copy MS to avoid confusing Joe Sixpack MS user when he gets pushed onto Linux. Personally, my desktop doesn't look like Win or OS X, it's built around popup menus and SuperKaramba and it's better (in my mind at least) than either of the aforementioned.
lots of action spread out with no obvious focal point
Exactly why I can't understand the fascination with watching golf. I enjoy playing it and would give a kidney to be able to do that for a living but I'd rather watch grass grow than watch pros play it on TV. Regardless, there's still a mass market for it, so who knows, maybe today's PS2/XBox raised generation are the TV mass market of the tomorrow for professional video gaming.
If Sun had promoted client-side, windows, _compiled_ development back in the late '90's ...
Ummm, they did just that, the problem was that devs obviously weren't willing to compromise on the early look-and-feel and memory load issues with the early Java releases and personally I don't blame them. First impressions are very important and (sadly) Java didn't make a very good first impression. The good news is that virtually all those early GUI issues have been solved, the bad news is that those old perceptions remain.
Also, the key to Java's popularity is it's cross-platformness. I doubt Java would still be around if it weren't for that single key feature. In fact, this is what's allowing Java to grow exponentially in the embedded space right now. There are even signs of a rebirth of Java applets and applications on the desktop ever since the release of 1.4 and the massive performance improvements it brought with it.
Almost ... File -> Properties -> Statistics (last tab)
Yeah, but they're not shipping the DVDs in the US until May 8th according to their store.
Personally, I think it'd be better for OOo to stop trying to be compatible (or at least stop advertising it,) and "do its own thing" -- people would stop judging it as a "fake MS office". You might not convert as many businesses, but you might convince more start-ups to go with it from day 1. No man, that won't fly. As unpalatable as it is, and it's pretty damned unpalatable, compatibility with MS Office formats is *currently* a must. At the very least we need read compatibility on the OO side. That said, write compatibility could be nixed if there was something like a small OO viewer or even an OO import filter for MSO existed. I've seen it bounced around a few times but don't think anything has been written along these lines yet.
The only place where OO lags MSO in any material way is in the spreadsheet arena. The OO text editor and presentation software are very close to the full functionality of it's MSO counterparts. That that end I'd say OO is a *functionally* inferior product, not technically.
As for the parent parent post, advertising is pretty damned expensive. I think any "supporting" money would be better spent on development resources rather than preaching to the masses. The reason MS dumps so much money into advertising is to keep it's products at the tip of everybody's tongue. There's no way an open source project or even most companies on earth to buy that kind of exposure. Seriously, if you want to help, the best course of action is word of mouth. Besides, it carries a hell of a lot more weight come decision making time than a flashy ad.
I think (not know) that it has something to do with leveraging the QT framework for widgets and themes. Don't quote me on this though.
That's because this place is literally crawling with Microsoft employees. Well, that and the handful of loud mouthed idiots that somehow manage to get modded up. My personal experience is that the more Microsoft-centric somebody is, the more they have bought into the anti-Java rhetoric. That said, these people are also the ones with the least experience with Java.
Personally, I think that non-GUI java is excellent, GUI java is great but limited with AWT, full featured but tricky (dll/so concerns) with SWT, and full features but heavy with Swing. That said, I'm very impressed with how 1.5 is shaping up for GUI apps. The new heap management and GC improvements have done much to improve the snappiness of Swing apps.
Funny you should mention it, I see the same thing only from my satellite feed, DVDs seem fine. It's only on the non-HDTV channels and only when I'm using "full screen" to blowup the 4:3 images to 16:9. The odd thing is that I only notice it when the image changes dramatically (ie. from sports score back to rink -or- between commericals). I'd curious as hell to know what they changed to "fix" this, maybe the new "board" adds that magical audio delay in.
Those are finished products, not components. Think plywood and sheet aluminium for better examples. The price of both of these varies a lot but the finished products homes and soda cans is relatively stable. A RAM module on it's own doesn't do a whole lot, it's just a component. The component price can vary like mad but video cards and MP3 player prices would be realtively stable. The problem is that those prices are stable, but within a rising trend.
Ah yes, the Jetsons scenario. You forgot to mention that we'll all be living on top of towers like the Seattle Space Needle and CN tower in Toronto. So bring that water on, I'm itching to do a 60 story triple Lindy!
Yep, you framed the problem with the Sony "option" perfectly. There's not much of a good samaritan incentive for Sony to release an open source version of it's hypothetical gaming API for Linux.
I'm going to head off on a "perfect scenario" tangent that could lead to just that situation. First, we take the however improbable assumption that the PS3 uses Linux, Sony would need to release any kernel mods to abide by the GPL. Second, Sony takes a page from MS's book and uses code signing for it's console (it might already, I'm not sure). Since the console is still "secure" and some code needs to be released to abide by the GPL, this might be enough to convince Sony to release their toolkit to the public. In addition, it increases exposure for the Sony gaming API, giving Sony additional clout with game houses. Another (highly unlikely) benefit is that it may cause a rebirth of the garage gaming industry.
Anyhow, it's all a big stretch but it's possible in theory. What the heck, as long as we're in la-la land, MS might put out a DirectX API for Linux to stop Sony from doing exactly what I described above. I'm not throwing money away betting on any of this though!
I only use Linux and I've never believed that a bootable game CD would fly. However, your point about being unable to patch games is one of the most convincing I've seen (I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere) so I'm adding it to my smack-down arsenal. It really should be #1 on your list. I also feel that people don't want to reboot. Sure it doesn't take long to do, but it's still a pain in the arse and because of that people will resist it.
Now, as for frame rates, when it comes to OpenGL on nVIDIA cards, the Linux rates are as good as comparable DirectX rates under Windows, at least for RTCW-ET and NWN. A lot of folks bitch about the closed nVIDIA drivers for Linux but they have done one hell of a bang up job getting those drivers cooking on Linux.
Supplanting DirectX? Now that's a whole other ball of wax. I think what could help is a merging of a bunch of the "popular" gaming APIs under Linux into a coherent project like a DirectX. Things like OpenAL, SDL, etc.
Then again, DirectX's lack of cross-platform availability may be the wiggle room that allows for a new "standard" to sneak in. I think that any new standardwould have to run across Windows, a few consoles, and Linux to have a real chance. Realistically, the only company in a position to dethrone DirectX is Sony. If Sony produced an open source gaming API for it's console and versions for Windows and Linux, DirectX may finally meet it's match. Don't think I'll hold my breath waiting on it though.
The only problem is that there's no law on the books to allow this kinda thing. What we need-ED was for the anti-trust trial do what it was supposed to do and break the company up like they did AT&T. There's still the "regulate-it-to-death" approach remaining: create an FTC-like oversight body for operating system software that would force MS to open up their software. This could create a market for resellers and even competing flavors of Windows. The only problem is that the OS business would become a tangled bureaucratic mess like the communications business now is.
Personally, I'd rather the govt keep MS's bundling activities in check and let the competition invade MS's core business horizontally, at least until some kind of a competitive balance is restored. Would MS kick and scream? Of course, this is a measure designed to reduce their market share, the exact opposite of their end-all-be-all goal.
In the FS/OSS world people do what they like.
So the programmers on RedHat and SuSE's payrolls come in an do whatever the f*** the feel like doing in the mornings? There are many people paid to work on OSS projects and that makes the line you're trying to draw much blurier than you may think.
I'm with you, heck, this technology existed wayyyyy back in 1974. Thirty years to clinical trials is a heck of a long time.
Admittedly, I have a Maxtor drives in all 4 of my boxes, arguably not the quietest drives on the market. I'm due for replacements in my primary box and am going to look into the Seagate fluid bearing models based on the Seagate love-fest I'm seeing in this thread. I'm anxious to reach whine/whir free nirvana. The rest of the box is pretty damned quiet with an Antec performance series and a Zalman heatsink. The other machines are not in my main work area. I've also got an IBM laptop who's HD sounds like a friggen air raid siren that I keep in sleep mode as much as possible.
Whatever, first off they compared Java 1.4, not 1.5 so a lot of your C# Yes's are should be in the Java column. Also, some of the categories are just plain vague and the judgment call doesn't seem right. For example, "Independent or VM" and "Direct native code gen" are essentially the same and Java is listed as a No with no consideration ever given to GCJ which provides both of those for Java. Anyhow, use whatever damned language you want, I'm sticking to C, C++, and Java like the rest of the majority.
I didn't register to "read the read of the article", I'm curious as to whether you got that $1,000 figure from the registered only chunk of the article or from somewhere else. Also, does it mention what is covered by that $1,000 and for how long?