1. Suse will have to lower prices, at least in the US, to remain competitive with Mandrake and Red Hat - especially after Red Hat's insanely user friendly 8.0 and it's intuitive "Red Hat Network". Not to mention that they don't provide a free download, which hurts them in the distro popularity contest.
2. United Linux will be met with very little fan fare for the forseeable future. Their entire ethic system contradicts the choir to which they preach, and in this small niche market, that just doesn't fly.
3. A more wide spread acceptance of lesser known distros (lesser known to non-long time Linux users, that is) distros like Slackware and Debian will spread. As Linux is more widely used on the desktop, casual users will start to become famailar with it, and many will yearn to have that "complete control" over their system that their guru friends keep telling them about.
I do not believe that any of the distros will ever "die", as each and every one of them has a large developer base. Now which one will turn little to no profits, well, that's another question entirely.
Microsoft has nothing to lose by letting owners of a modded Xbox use the Live! service. Microsoft has already lost money on the sale of the hardware, but they could stand to gain that money back in subscription fees. Instead, they ban the modders' outright, without refund, out of spite.
This type of behaviour is directly related to their monopoly status. Microsoft is able to deny the owners of modded hardware the "privilege" of paying them money to use their service. This can be compared to the way in which they sustain substantial losses in all of their ventures except Windows and Office.
A normal competitor would just "look the other way" and take the money. Let's pretend that Electronic Arts launched a console system comparable to the Xbox called the "Ebox". Like Microsoft, EA accepted a loss on each system sale in hopes of gaining the cash back in software sells. EA's flagship game at launch was "UO: Generations". However, alot of people around the world didn't like EA's business practices, started a movement, and ended up modding their systems to run Red Hat. After all of that, however, these people then signed up for the "Ebox Live!" service so that they could play their favorate MMORPG on their Ebox. Would EA refuse the cash from these customers? Hell no, because they could not afford too.
You guys need to pick mods better. Just because someone has a different opinion then you DOES NOT MAKE IT A FLAME, OR HIM OR HER A TROLL. Fucking cock sucker.
You could buy it and wipe it, but then you still end up paying extra for that crap OS, and you now loose support. All of that bundled software becomes an expensive liability. Basically, you buy hardware at an inflated price, adjusted by the "Microsoft tax", you fucking idiot. Think harder.
Second, it has long been known that the average Linux IT worker makes more then the average "Windows guy", do you actually work in this market? My guess is no. I make more in 4 hours of Linux networking or coding work then any of my Netware or Microsoft admin friends make in two days.
And PocketPC is faster then Palm? Tell that to the last company that I did consultant work for. They returned a whole slew of PocketPC machines because it is a notoriously bloated, overpriced, slow OS, and they were limited with their choice of software - everyone knows this. They got their money back (on two types of hand helds) and went with some Linux and Palm based PDAs.
The specs and price look really good, but then I noticed the "Microsoft..." OS. What a shame that they had a falling out of some kind with Palm. I think that Dell's OS choice is going to hurt their sales amongst the tech community. Who wants to have a PDA that can be infected with common virii, has an ugly interface, has a severe lack of free (yet still powerful and usefull) applications, and moves about as fast as my old Texas Instruments scientific calculator? I would be afraid this thing would crash on me when I really needed it to work.
1. Knowledge of how to make colored comics, scan them, and still make them look clean.
2. The ability to efficiently use or lack the of quality graphics arts tools.
Alot of people out there can make quality sketches. Alot of people out there are very witty and know how to pander to an audience. However, not many people have the resources or the knowledge to make color graphics look good on the web.
America's justice department failed. Our European brethren have taken up the fight. I applaud them.
Many people accuse me of "bashing" Microsoft because I spout dire disdain against the company. Do these people forget what Microsoft has done? Do any of these people realize how much needless costs Microsoft imposes upon companies? DOes any of these people understand how far they have set us back? Has any of these people ever had to sit across a table from a squad of Microsoft sales people and listen to them out right lie to your management, selling them "solutions" that you know will force your company to can two or three good people a year from now just to afford it?
Microsoft will go down in history as one of the great evils of our capitalistic age. Microsoft taxes the world more then the old "Trust" could have ever hoped to. Microsoft is unabashed about whose pockets they will drain againt their will, or what tactics they will stoop to in order to gain a share of a market. Just as car salesman pitches a deal that is "too good to be true" to a blue collar worker, Microsoft conceals itself in the garb of a sheep and hunts the third world with the ploy of "gifts".
We need to knuckle up. If they win everything will continue to change for the worse. Before long it will be too late to fight, and we will all be asking ourselves "why the hell didn't we fight them when we had the chance?"
Sounds like a novel idea, too bad I have no idea what they're talking about.
Re:Weird misconception
on
Due Diligence?
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Yes. I think that services like the "Red Hat Network" will greatly benefit end users and admins alike in this respect. Having a service that organizes errata (updates) and informs you what the current security threats are, and then shows you what systems you own/administer are vulnerable is very helpful. It gives end users an almost hands-free way of keeping themselves safe (as safe as they can in terms of updates, anyways), and can point out things that admins might have missed. I really like it.
Have we grown complacent?
on
Due Diligence?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Perhaps Linux users and administators have grown overly comfortable due to the long reign of tight security and lack of virii? Until rather recently, disclosed security advisories for FOSS could be neglected for substantial periods of time without worry. The world's hackers mostly took aim at easily exploitable IIS and Exchange servers, flimsy Win32 email clients, and major routers (like AT&T backbone routers to Asia and such). Largely ignored were the hordes of vulnerable web and mail Linux/BSD servers on campus networks and elsewhere (mostly left vulnerable due to neglect, not inherent OS issues). However, the desire to orchestrate large scale DDoS attacks and an exponential increase in the use of Linux systems has caused many hackers to take interest in conquering new grounds.
All of these years of rock solid security has made us complacent. We have to remember that, while Linux and OSS may be inherently secure, and Linux's modular design works as a fail safe against complete failure, we are still just as vulnerable if we don't remain vigilant.
I use every thing from Windows 95 to Mac OS 10.2 while at work. At home I use Red Hat 8.0 for my day-to-day web surfing and emailing, and alternate between Mandrake 8.2 and BSD (various) for coding/design/testing/etc.
At work I, as are most people I would imagine, am forced to use a desktop with a Microsoft operating system, and migrate between workstations of varying OSs in order to perform certain tasks. Right now I am typing this from Windows 98, behind me about 10 paces is a Mac dual G4 with Mac OS X 10.2 for testing and graphics. Right next to that is a Novell 6 server, which sits about a foot from a Windows 2000 server. It's just the way it is - I bet alot of people find themselves in this position.
But make no mistake, I am a Linux zealot. I only use all of this other mess because I have too.;)
I am all for open and/or de facto standards when it comes to the distribution of online music, but let's face it, the labels have to at least try to protect their material. It is inevitable, since the average executive will figure that one person will pay for a mp3 and then distribute it over conventional piracy routes. You have to admit, that is a very realistic (if not certain) possibility.
As long as the companies distribute the players/decoders of their "secure" formats in a reasonable manner and for all major platforms, then I won't come down too hard on them.
Is this related? Musicmatch.com offers subscription services for BMG, EMI, Universal, and Warner Brothers. This was noted on BMG's site in their news section yesterday.
A nice announcement, score one for the team, but I do not plan on supporting that company any time soon. The content of their now infamous email correspondance is still fresh in my mind.
Alot of depressed technology workers like me...
on
The Last Comdex?
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· Score: 2
... I was hoping that the company brass would pick me to represent us at the show in the coming years. I was looking forward to racking up a few grand on alchohol and fun on the company tabs. And oh, I know that I'm not alone. Drats.
I want to know what other governments (as mentioned in the post) have submitted similar requests to Microsoft. I would imagine that this can't be an all too uncommon occurence when it comes to Microsoft. Afterall, this is a very legitimate concern for all governments (and it should also be a point of interest for all businesses that handle sensitive data).
Microsoft products should never have been chosen for government implementation to begin with.
Laws like these will force companies away from overly insecure Microsoft products and force them to actually care about security. With a more concerted effort towards IT security, our personal data will become safer, and alot of high paying security and Linux related jobs should open up. Why would anyone here complain?
Yea, I basically ignored what was said in the rest of the article. The interesting part, in my opinion, was the research concerning the 30,000 year old DNA evidence. The rest is just flim flam.
The release of new Microsoft operating system is about as exciting as watching CSPAN on a Fridy night. Should the course hold, and with a little luck, by 2005-2006 Microsoft will have been forced into about 3 other directions due to some real restrictions, Linux, and companies like IBM. News slated for 4 years into the future in the computer world means nothing.
With all of the security news lately, I am too scared to run Apache, IIS, Exchange, lpr, lprng, mySQL, PostgreSQL, Outlook, Outlook Express, map Netware drives to Win 9x clients, X11, use any program that requires glibc, or use BIND 4 or 8 or any DNS for that matter. My computer sits in a locked closet, lacks input devices, and runs only the OpenBSD kernel and nothing else.
Gator secretly installs itself (I say secretly, because the process by which it is installed is so transparent to the average user they never actually agree or disagree to anything) on your computer and then "hijacks" the legitimate, paid-for advertising of other companies with that of it's affiliates.
This web site denies Gator from performing this action. Instead, the web site insures that the data contained on their site is presented directly to the viewer. It is then up to the viewers chosen software (a browser) to display the content. The average web surfer has no idea that the ads that are popping up or being displayed are in fact not from the content provider, but rather being presented by some piece of spy ware that was installed on their system without their full knowledge or compliance.
Slashdot Mirror
1. Suse will have to lower prices, at least in the US, to remain competitive with Mandrake and Red Hat - especially after Red Hat's insanely user friendly 8.0 and it's intuitive "Red Hat Network". Not to mention that they don't provide a free download, which hurts them in the distro popularity contest.
2. United Linux will be met with very little fan fare for the forseeable future. Their entire ethic system contradicts the choir to which they preach, and in this small niche market, that just doesn't fly.
3. A more wide spread acceptance of lesser known distros (lesser known to non-long time Linux users, that is) distros like Slackware and Debian will spread. As Linux is more widely used on the desktop, casual users will start to become famailar with it, and many will yearn to have that "complete control" over their system that their guru friends keep telling them about.
I do not believe that any of the distros will ever "die", as each and every one of them has a large developer base. Now which one will turn little to no profits, well, that's another question entirely.
This type of behaviour is directly related to their monopoly status. Microsoft is able to deny the owners of modded hardware the "privilege" of paying them money to use their service. This can be compared to the way in which they sustain substantial losses in all of their ventures except Windows and Office.
A normal competitor would just "look the other way" and take the money. Let's pretend that Electronic Arts launched a console system comparable to the Xbox called the "Ebox". Like Microsoft, EA accepted a loss on each system sale in hopes of gaining the cash back in software sells. EA's flagship game at launch was "UO: Generations". However, alot of people around the world didn't like EA's business practices, started a movement, and ended up modding their systems to run Red Hat. After all of that, however, these people then signed up for the "Ebox Live!" service so that they could play their favorate MMORPG on their Ebox. Would EA refuse the cash from these customers? Hell no, because they could not afford too.
This is silly and immature.
Ok, venting done, proceed.
Second, it has long been known that the average Linux IT worker makes more then the average "Windows guy", do you actually work in this market? My guess is no. I make more in 4 hours of Linux networking or coding work then any of my Netware or Microsoft admin friends make in two days.
And PocketPC is faster then Palm? Tell that to the last company that I did consultant work for. They returned a whole slew of PocketPC machines because it is a notoriously bloated, overpriced, slow OS, and they were limited with their choice of software - everyone knows this. They got their money back (on two types of hand helds) and went with some Linux and Palm based PDAs.
The specs and price look really good, but then I noticed the "Microsoft..." OS. What a shame that they had a falling out of some kind with Palm. I think that Dell's OS choice is going to hurt their sales amongst the tech community. Who wants to have a PDA that can be infected with common virii, has an ugly interface, has a severe lack of free (yet still powerful and usefull) applications, and moves about as fast as my old Texas Instruments scientific calculator? I would be afraid this thing would crash on me when I really needed it to work.
Word on the street is that it's just rumors for now. I submitted this story four days ago.
1. Knowledge of how to make colored comics, scan them, and still make them look clean.
2. The ability to efficiently use or lack the of quality graphics arts tools.
Alot of people out there can make quality sketches. Alot of people out there are very witty and know how to pander to an audience. However, not many people have the resources or the knowledge to make color graphics look good on the web.
Many people accuse me of "bashing" Microsoft because I spout dire disdain against the company. Do these people forget what Microsoft has done? Do any of these people realize how much needless costs Microsoft imposes upon companies? DOes any of these people understand how far they have set us back? Has any of these people ever had to sit across a table from a squad of Microsoft sales people and listen to them out right lie to your management, selling them "solutions" that you know will force your company to can two or three good people a year from now just to afford it?
Microsoft will go down in history as one of the great evils of our capitalistic age. Microsoft taxes the world more then the old "Trust" could have ever hoped to. Microsoft is unabashed about whose pockets they will drain againt their will, or what tactics they will stoop to in order to gain a share of a market. Just as car salesman pitches a deal that is "too good to be true" to a blue collar worker, Microsoft conceals itself in the garb of a sheep and hunts the third world with the ploy of "gifts".
We need to knuckle up. If they win everything will continue to change for the worse. Before long it will be too late to fight, and we will all be asking ourselves "why the hell didn't we fight them when we had the chance?"
Sounds like a novel idea, too bad I have no idea what they're talking about.
Yes. I think that services like the "Red Hat Network" will greatly benefit end users and admins alike in this respect. Having a service that organizes errata (updates) and informs you what the current security threats are, and then shows you what systems you own/administer are vulnerable is very helpful. It gives end users an almost hands-free way of keeping themselves safe (as safe as they can in terms of updates, anyways), and can point out things that admins might have missed. I really like it.
Perhaps Linux users and administators have grown overly comfortable due to the long reign of tight security and lack of virii? Until rather recently, disclosed security advisories for FOSS could be neglected for substantial periods of time without worry. The world's hackers mostly took aim at easily exploitable IIS and Exchange servers, flimsy Win32 email clients, and major routers (like AT&T backbone routers to Asia and such). Largely ignored were the hordes of vulnerable web and mail Linux/BSD servers on campus networks and elsewhere (mostly left vulnerable due to neglect, not inherent OS issues). However, the desire to orchestrate large scale DDoS attacks and an exponential increase in the use of Linux systems has caused many hackers to take interest in conquering new grounds.
All of these years of rock solid security has made us complacent. We have to remember that, while Linux and OSS may be inherently secure, and Linux's modular design works as a fail safe against complete failure, we are still just as vulnerable if we don't remain vigilant.
At work I, as are most people I would imagine, am forced to use a desktop with a Microsoft operating system, and migrate between workstations of varying OSs in order to perform certain tasks. Right now I am typing this from Windows 98, behind me about 10 paces is a Mac dual G4 with Mac OS X 10.2 for testing and graphics. Right next to that is a Novell 6 server, which sits about a foot from a Windows 2000 server. It's just the way it is - I bet alot of people find themselves in this position.
But make no mistake, I am a Linux zealot. I only use all of this other mess because I have too. ;)
The #2 in CPU's is slashing 2,000 jobs worldwide, from the Americas to Asia, in all roles and levels. The article is here at News Factor.
As long as the companies distribute the players/decoders of their "secure" formats in a reasonable manner and for all major platforms, then I won't come down too hard on them.
Is this related? Musicmatch.com offers subscription services for BMG, EMI, Universal, and Warner Brothers. This was noted on BMG's site in their news section yesterday.
A nice announcement, score one for the team, but I do not plan on supporting that company any time soon. The content of their now infamous email correspondance is still fresh in my mind.
... I was hoping that the company brass would pick me to represent us at the show in the coming years. I was looking forward to racking up a few grand on alchohol and fun on the company tabs. And oh, I know that I'm not alone. Drats.
"They will probably save a bundle too!" Probably? Homie they gonna save a lot mo' then shree fiddy, ba'leed dat.
Red Flag Linux - a beatiful thing
Microsoft products should never have been chosen for government implementation to begin with.
Laws like these will force companies away from overly insecure Microsoft products and force them to actually care about security. With a more concerted effort towards IT security, our personal data will become safer, and alot of high paying security and Linux related jobs should open up. Why would anyone here complain?
Yea, I basically ignored what was said in the rest of the article. The interesting part, in my opinion, was the research concerning the 30,000 year old DNA evidence. The rest is just flim flam.
The release of new Microsoft operating system is about as exciting as watching CSPAN on a Fridy night. Should the course hold, and with a little luck, by 2005-2006 Microsoft will have been forced into about 3 other directions due to some real restrictions, Linux, and companies like IBM. News slated for 4 years into the future in the computer world means nothing.
With all of the security news lately, I am too scared to run Apache, IIS, Exchange, lpr, lprng, mySQL, PostgreSQL, Outlook, Outlook Express, map Netware drives to Win 9x clients, X11, use any program that requires glibc, or use BIND 4 or 8 or any DNS for that matter. My computer sits in a locked closet, lacks input devices, and runs only the OpenBSD kernel and nothing else.
This is simple:
Gator secretly installs itself (I say secretly, because the process by which it is installed is so transparent to the average user they never actually agree or disagree to anything) on your computer and then "hijacks" the legitimate, paid-for advertising of other companies with that of it's affiliates.
This web site denies Gator from performing this action. Instead, the web site insures that the data contained on their site is presented directly to the viewer. It is then up to the viewers chosen software (a browser) to display the content. The average web surfer has no idea that the ads that are popping up or being displayed are in fact not from the content provider, but rather being presented by some piece of spy ware that was installed on their system without their full knowledge or compliance.