Make that "because the wealthy have assured monopoly in the broadcasting frequencies, others could not use it". Because I don't know if you turned the dial on your radio lately, but of the 90+ possible FM radio stations, only 20+ are occupied in my city.
What Pereens is talking about is that so much of the so-called "mainstream" media is owned by a few, and it is a controlling factor in reporting. So while there seems to be much choice, in reality, there is very little. The "mainstream" media serves the interests of the powerful and the rich. Look at who owns who.
The coverage of the Iraq war should give you some insights (hint: what is not widely reported).
Documentation for linux is bad. Theres no arguing the point
That is very clear anytime when a new OpenBSD user with Linux background posts to an OpenBSD mailing list: She is not used to high quality documentation as provided by OpenBSD.
This article is trying to get accross the point that Google is targeting MS Office but in my opinion I think that Google is targeting MS Windows and fleshing out their applications suites before they push for launching a user space or OS type web project. Perhaps all you'll need pretty soon to be productive is a machine with Linux installed & merely a good web browser?
Only if you don't mind having no privacy and always need a working Internet connection to do any work.
Actually, GUI Subversion clients like TortoiseSVN can show diffs for binary files like Word or OpenOffice, using the built-in diff capability of these programs. The end result is you can double-click your binary document and get a window showing you the differences.
Tracking down changes in binary data does not mean much since it's pretty hard to understand what the diff means in the first place, and merging changes is not exactly easy either;-) As a programmer I'm used to have proper tools for version control, but when it comes to documents to be shared with non-programmes, the situation quite simply suck.
Of course, Subversion is no more your friend than CVS in this case
since neither can do proper diffs!
It's binary data for f*ck sake! Subversion handles binaries better than CVS, but not for the reason you state.
Re:UML != User Mode Linux
on
User Mode Linux
·
· Score: 1, Informative
UML = "Unified Modeling Language" - let's not add a new meaning to this acronym as it's sure to be confusing when someone starts talking about reading and writing UML on their UML workstation.
The world is filled with short lived acronyms that should is only understandable in it's context. However, UML = "Unified Modeling Language" is just hubris produced by a company that demands a shitload of money for a shitty process.
Change management already exists in so many forms it's not even funny (cvs, svn, source safe, etc), and works off the shelf with any document format.
Most version/revision control applications does not work very well with "any document format". The reason is that so many documents formats (expand this to office document formats in general) are binary, so the version control software does not understand it and must treat it like a binary blob. Of course, this makes diffing a moot point. Then we have Open Document formats that is automatically compressed, and not easily handled by either. See? The present situation really sucks, even with open document standards.
Not only are they giving their profession an even worse name (who'da thought it possible!) but they are in effect forcing him to pay for their lawyers fees when he didn't want anything to do with it. It beggars belief!
This is in USA, and this happens all the time: Justice for those with deep pockets. Why do you think that so many cave in for RIAA at the mere threat of a law suit? Note that these tactics don't work in Europe.
Frankly, it would be a big boon for the desktop market and others if linux or freebsd could use stock windows drivers... but I suspect there are some technical problems with this.
Big boon? Short-sighted users and developers may think so. It is difficult to get hardware documentation from some major vendors (NVIDIA, for instance), and embracing binary drivers certainly does not help at all.
So what does the Linux crowd do? Join OpenBSD in pressuring hardware vendors to release hardware documentation? Oh no, they sit silently on the side-line while begging for the latest binary blob.
Let's say I am a software author. I wrote some program to scratch my own itch. Now I need to write a manual for it.
...
This is why so much OSS has crappy manuals, and why companies like RedHat and Novell are so important: they pay the writers.
Those programmers that care about quality writes good documentation as well. The OpenBSD developers write very good, complete and relevant documentation. So companies like Redhat and Novell are important for Linux userland because the documentation is of such low quality.
I do believe that an introductory book ("Linux: Where's my damn Soliatire" ) that taught transitions between the Linux and Microsoft platform would be something every Linux user should read, as not all Linux users want to be sysadmins, but an alternative.
Potential OpenBSD users should read the book "OpenBSD: Why 'man 6 hack' is useful".
If Linux succeeds in displacing Windows, you will start to see non-free versions of it appear. Versions with enough modification that the "free" part is no longer the significant portion of its value. And the free versions will be obsoleted by their remnant bugs.
The way this happens is inclusion of propetiary binary drivers into the kernel, or thin wrappers around binary blobs (NVIDIA, for instance, or Intel to use wireless network cards). Then we have the NDIS wrapper so that Windows drivers might be used.
This is happening today in the Linux kernel, and FreeBSD is on the same path. Why should a vendor release hardware documentation when OS developers bends over to include their binary blobs?
>> On LinuxTag '06 the idea of a 'Blob-Award' came up...
> Wel, I would like to nominate Mark Shuttleworth, the sugar daddy behind Ubuntu, > who during his keynote speach at LinuxTag answered a question about this and > stated that they embrace as many binary contributions from vendors without > questions to offer their users the "best experience". He wanted to sign an exclusive > deal with Broadcom.
Maybe it would be good to have two different Blob-Awards. One for Vendors and one for those people who try to poison free software from within (project leaders, developers and other 'subjects' in the community which are proud of their blob-love)...
Sure you can use sudo to install applications, but then you can easily gain root privileges anytime you want. Who knows might be done during "make install" and you have root privileges?
I know offhand that OpenBSD does, and it's its own patched version as well.
Eh, the current maintainer (since 1993) of sudo is Todd Miller and he has been an OpenBSD developer since 1996. Yeah, OpenBSD has sudo;-)
I use Linux almost exclusively on the command line. In KDE or Gnome, do you really need root privileges to install any software or change your wallpaper?
If you want to use your *BSD or distro package manager, you usually have to be root. Most of the time it's much less painful to install a package than install rom a tarball.
"If you use the CVS, don't expect support." Public CVS access is great--it gives people an opportunity to try out new things and invites outside developers.
As an annectode: When OpenBSD forked from NetBSD it was uncommon to have public access to CVS repositories, and whence the Open in OpenBSD. So today we take public CVS access for granted, but was not always the case, even for open source projects.
They genuinely have a democracy and they have good representation amongst the different political/racial lines.
Do you really think that a country brutally occupied can be said to have a democracy? Iraq is no more democratic than any Eastern European country occupied/controlled by the Soviet Union. But of course, they had elections, so they must be a democracy.....
Saudi Arabia is ruled by one of the most repressive regimes on this planet, so of course they want to spy on their citizens. Incidentally, the House of Saud is on very chummy terms with the Bushes.
Our own code manages to keep ~0.5ms of accuracy within our network.
Common PC hardware can't keep a clock within this accuracy, besides, the OS is unlikely to try adjusting the clock to often. Accuracy within 30ms is more likely.
It's OK. Some of us do actually know that many Americans are perfectly reasonable, intelligent people who are disgusted by the way their politicians behave.
There are several studies showing that on many important issues the US politicians are on the far right with respect to their voters. For instance, health care/benefits is one such issue.
Conversely, take OpenBSD, its pace of development is slow and thorough and due to its comprehensive code audit (which slows development) very few security holes are found in the code.
Depends what you mean by "slow", since it's a question of scope. Apple does alot of graphical userland applications, the most visible part to most users, but that is clearly not a priority of OpenBSD (unluss you want them to develop their own "KDE" look-alike). Apple development hardware drivers are limited to the limited selection hardware they support, and the binary blobs (or surce code/docs under NDA) given to them by their partners. For an open source OS like OpenBSD, development of drivers is a very big part of what they do.
Slashdot Mirror
What Pereens is talking about is that so much of the so-called "mainstream" media is owned by a few, and it is a controlling factor in reporting. So while there seems to be much choice, in reality, there is very little. The "mainstream" media serves the interests of the powerful and the rich. Look at who owns who.
The coverage of the Iraq war should give you some insights (hint: what is not widely reported).
As it is, most of that documentation is of not of very good quality.
OpenBSD. Linux documentation is in general out-of-date, incomplete and downright buggy.
That is very clear anytime when a new OpenBSD user with Linux background posts to an OpenBSD mailing list: She is not used to high quality documentation as provided by OpenBSD.
Only if you don't mind having no privacy and always need a working Internet connection to do any work.
Thanks, this is great news.
Tracking down changes in binary data does not mean much since it's pretty hard to understand what the diff means in the first place, and merging changes is not exactly easy either ;-) As a programmer I'm used to have proper tools for version control, but when it comes to documents to be shared with non-programmes, the situation quite simply suck.
It handles binaries right (unlike CVS)
Of course, Subversion is no more your friend than CVS in this case since neither can do proper diffs! It's binary data for f*ck sake! Subversion handles binaries better than CVS, but not for the reason you state.
The world is filled with short lived acronyms that should is only understandable in it's context. However, UML = "Unified Modeling Language" is just hubris produced by a company that demands a shitload of money for a shitty process.
Most version/revision control applications does not work very well with "any document format". The reason is that so many documents formats (expand this to office document formats in general) are binary, so the version control software does not understand it and must treat it like a binary blob. Of course, this makes diffing a moot point. Then we have Open Document formats that is automatically compressed, and not easily handled by either. See? The present situation really sucks, even with open document standards.
This is in USA, and this happens all the time: Justice for those with deep pockets. Why do you think that so many cave in for RIAA at the mere threat of a law suit? Note that these tactics don't work in Europe.
Big boon? Short-sighted users and developers may think so. It is difficult to get hardware documentation from some major vendors (NVIDIA, for instance), and embracing binary drivers certainly does not help at all.
So what does the Linux crowd do? Join OpenBSD in pressuring hardware vendors to release hardware documentation? Oh no, they sit silently on the side-line while begging for the latest binary blob.
...
This is why so much OSS has crappy manuals, and why companies like RedHat and Novell are so important: they pay the writers.
Those programmers that care about quality writes good documentation as well. The OpenBSD developers write very good, complete and relevant documentation. So companies like Redhat and Novell are important for Linux userland because the documentation is of such low quality.
Potential OpenBSD users should read the book "OpenBSD: Why 'man 6 hack' is useful".
The way this happens is inclusion of propetiary binary drivers into the kernel, or thin wrappers around binary blobs (NVIDIA, for instance, or Intel to use wireless network cards). Then we have the NDIS wrapper so that Windows drivers might be used.
This is happening today in the Linux kernel, and FreeBSD is on the same path. Why should a vendor release hardware documentation when OS developers bends over to include their binary blobs?
Besides, the newest darling Ubuntu embraces binary blobs
Sure you can use sudo to install applications, but then you can easily gain root privileges anytime you want. Who knows might be done during "make install" and you have root privileges?
I know offhand that OpenBSD does, and it's its own patched version as well.
Eh, the current maintainer (since 1993) of sudo is Todd Miller and he has been an OpenBSD developer since 1996. Yeah, OpenBSD has sudo ;-)
If you want to use your *BSD or distro package manager, you usually have to be root. Most of the time it's much less painful to install a package than install rom a tarball.
As an annectode: When OpenBSD forked from NetBSD it was uncommon to have public access to CVS repositories, and whence the Open in OpenBSD. So today we take public CVS access for granted, but was not always the case, even for open source projects.
Do you really think that a country brutally occupied can be said to have a democracy? Iraq is no more democratic than any Eastern European country occupied/controlled by the Soviet Union. But of course, they had elections, so they must be a democracy.....
But when other states does the same, we hear outraged yapping from US about undermining "free market". Go figure.
Saudi Arabia is ruled by one of the most repressive regimes on this planet, so of course they want to spy on their citizens. Incidentally, the House of Saud is on very chummy terms with the Bushes.
Common PC hardware can't keep a clock within this accuracy, besides, the OS is unlikely to try adjusting the clock to often. Accuracy within 30ms is more likely.
but still just a binary blob.
There are several studies showing that on many important issues the US politicians are on the far right with respect to their voters. For instance, health care/benefits is one such issue.
Depends what you mean by "slow", since it's a question of scope. Apple does alot of graphical userland applications, the most visible part to most users, but that is clearly not a priority of OpenBSD (unluss you want them to develop their own "KDE" look-alike). Apple development hardware drivers are limited to the limited selection hardware they support, and the binary blobs (or surce code/docs under NDA) given to them by their partners. For an open source OS like OpenBSD, development of drivers is a very big part of what they do.