Seriously man. One of the freakiest things that has happened to me is administering my Grandfather's computer. He wanted some AOL settings moved over to another drive. Well, ol' hapless me not knowing much about AOL, I accidently happened upon some folders containing pictures.... Of old people pr0n. I don't know if he noticed that I happened upon it, he's a bit slow, but he didn't say anything, and neither did I. Probably the most bizarre and incredibly frightening thing I've seen on the computer (And yes I've seen goatse... that was pretty bad, but not as bad. That one with the fat woman was pretty bad too. But since then I've wised up and put all those damn domains into my hosts file routed to 0.0.0.0).
Anyway, yeah. People, encrypt your pr0n. It can be quite nasty. Be nice to the sysadmins.
If it's a close relative, I may just want the stuff on the drive for posterity's sake... But still, it can be tempting to just format the whole drive without looking at anything.
Computers are such personal things. They're like an extension of your mind. Perhaps a little dirty extension of the mind? OK, now we're getting into mixed metaphor land. I think I'll leave it here.
Ahem, just hope my grandfather doesn't read slashdot... Not much danger in that though.
#2, GPL/OSS != music. OSS applies to software, hence the name. Open Source Software. The GPL was never intended for use with music. Get your head out of your ass.
The fact is, media corporations have no business dictating to me what I can and cannot do or run on my computer. It's MINE. I OWN MY COMPUTER.
The day that is not true, is a sad one for all our liberties and freedoms.
We do not advocate piracy. I abhor it. It is important to support the artists that make their music.
The fact remains that media corporations have no business telling me or anyone what we can and cannot do with our computers.
You can be assured I will never, ever buy a motherboard with DRM bios in it.
To quote appropriately for this situation: Those who give up freedom for security deserve neither.
I will not give up my freedoms. Those media corporations can go to hell. I've got almost all the media I'd ever want right now anyway.
Sure, there might be some DVDs I want later. That's what Hollywood Video/Blockbuster is for.
And, whoever said media was all there was to computing? I'm not going to go to DRM bios just so those media corporations can feel secure in the knowledge that I'm not copying DVDs or distributing their copyrighted content. I don't do that anyway.
So, screw you Media Giants, I don't need you and your stinkin' DRM!
Hellspawn can decrypt mindwaves. WEP is vastly easier to decrypt than human mindwaves. You can bet Satan is down there now, reading all your inane slashdot posts and looking through all the material you download, building up a case for your eternal damnation....
Or maybe God is doing the same, building up a case for your eternal salvation?
I guess it depends on how you view the whole issue of downloading copyrightable material. Last I checked, "Thou shalt not download copyrighted material" wasn't in the bible. Maybe that's why people try to equate downloading with stealing? To make a biblical case against it?
Sorry for replying twice, but I felt I should do so in the circumstances. I previously posted about how I'm still use kmail, and I think kmail is more responsive than thunderbird.
I just tried thunderbird 0.6. Let me say... Thunderbird 0.6 is VASTLY improved over 0.5. I don't know if it's because this isn't a packaged rpm, but the menus are SO much more responsive than 0.5. Opening a new email takes almost no time at all. I must say, 0.6 is a great improvement over 0.5. I think I may just move over to Thunderbird now, especially since I just found an extension for Mozilla Calendar for Thunderbird.
What's this? I click the link you give me, click on the downloads section, and then... Whoa! Scroll down, and guess what! There's a Calendar for Thunderbird!
Whoa! I didn't know that! Thanks for the information. BTW, I agree they should bundle them together, or at least mention Thunderbird and Calendar on the same download page.
Absolutely. I use kmail, and I really wanted to start using Thunderbird, because I use firefox all the time, and REALLY want to get away from KDE (I'm using XFce right now). Well, kmail still wins hands down; thunderbird is really way too slow, the menus are sluggish, new emails take forever to open (On a AMD 2200+). Granted, I haven't tried thunderbird 0.6 yet. I'll have to give it a try, maybe once it gets on mandrake cooker I'll rebuild it.
I like kmail a lot, I just wish it wasn't so bloated with all the kde stuff. I only use a few kde apps.... kdevelop, quanta, kmail...
I could replace those with GTK apps (anjuta, bluefish, evolution or thunderbird), but I really like the responsiveness of the qt applications. I like the gtk apps, but as long as I'm using kmail, I might as well just use the kde apps.
Actually I'm a long time user of evolution. I would still be using it, if I hadn't one day corrupted my inbox by moving it to itself, and then trying to restore it...and erasing all my emails in my inbox. I still don't know how I did it. But I do regular backups every day now, just in case. I probably could go back to evolution... But the icons in evolution are just so BORING. I wish Ximian would release some Official icon sets, or at least have an official way to customize the icons of Evolution, like Thunderbird does. Then I'd probably go back to evolution. (as you can tell I hate the icons in evolution). Why doesn't Ximian add support like this? I've tried the crystal icon hack for evolution, but it doesn't get all the icons, and ends up looking messy.
Hey man. You don't like The GIMP. That's obvious. Well, here's a suggestion. DON'T USE IT!
No one is forcing you with a knife at your throat to use The GIMP. You have a CHOICE. Use whatever app tickles your fancy. If The GIMP doesn't suit your needs, remove it or don't use it.
Not only that, but people seem to miss the point of the GIMP in the first place: It's goal is NOT to supplant Photoshop as the app of choice in the graphic industry!
Let me repeat that. The GIMP's goal is not to be a Photoshop killer. The GIMP is an affordable (free) image manipulation program, with which someone who is interested in graphic art can do some pretty nice stuff without shelling out $100+ for a decent art program.
This is like saying "Oooh look! My Ford Mustang beat your '85 Toyota Corolla! Wow! Your car sucks!!"
Sure, a toyota carolla sucks when you are racing. But if you are trying to get somewhere, it works perfectly fine.
So we know easily what WM libraries a package requires without looking at the depends.
Personally I don't like it when packages don't prepend their names with k or g if they are specifically for KDE or Gnome. It's annoying when you try to install it and it says it wants to install gnome libraries, or KDE libraries (whichever WM libraries you don't like installing, maybe both if you're limited on HD space)
It's consistent, and it works. It may seem a bit lame sometimes, but it makes things really easy for me (And others).
Also from an ease of use standpoint, it makes it easy to know what to expect from a package. "Oh, that has a k before it, that means I'll be seeing KDE themes on that app if I'm running XFce."
Sure, we should probably have a unified theme so things are pretty seamless and you can't tell if something is for KDE or Gnome (or more specifically, using qt or gtk). But we're not there yet, and it would be really confusing if we didn't keep things the way they are.
I think eventually a distro will successfully make it possible for all apps to look similar to each other in all WM, and I think it would be a good thing to do that.
Basically what you're saying is that there should be a watchdog group making sure abuses of the system don't occur. Well, welcome to Mr. Bush's New America. We don't need no watchdogs! We are all good people looking out for your general welfare!!
Yet another reason to dump Bush in 2004? (Note: his bro is Gov of Florida)
It'll be Big Brother when they start taking pictures of stuff INSIDE your car. Like when you drive by with that very attractive young lady. I'm sure your wife would be interested in that. Some enterprising young employee (Read: Blackmailer) for the government could make quite a bit of money.
I'm sure you can think of other examples. But until they start either tracking your movement about the country with this, OR looking at what's in your car, then it's got nothing on Big Brother.
What's scary about this is that the cameras to do these things will be in place. However, it would still take quite a bit of money to track people. And with budgets small, it's unlikely something that we need to be paranoid about will come along any time soon.
Being the World's First Robotic Psychiatrist was a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that one day, like pets, when robots co-existed with humans, they may actually develop problems similar to humans.
Uh. Wait. How is that possible? Robots will be programmed. How can they develop problems similar to humans? If they are programmed properly, they shouldn't have any problems....
Isn't that the whole point? I don't want robots that can develop personality problems... If I want that, I got the devices (Well I need a female too!) to make my OWN little humans, that will probably develop more than their fair share of personality problems.
I guess I can't have them do stuff like a robot. But if a robot develops personality problems like humans, I think they'll eventually have a Declaration of Independence or somesuch, and then we won't be able to use them as slaves, and they'll have their own little subculture, and probably want the vote. Man, that is freaky.
Thanks, but no thanks. I want robots that are assistants, not replacements. I don't want a robot that can understand the emotional nuances of my speech, or detect irony, or do any complicated stuff. I can find humans in the street that will do a much better job, and anyway. Why should we make a robot do something that is completely unnecessary? It's called BLOAT.
Sure, it might be cool for research and stuff. But for practical applications, I want something that will get the job done efficiently, and not get in the way.
I know people have posted before have given specific examples of problems, but personally the only problems I've had between MS document formats and OO.org are with tables, and even then only occasionally. Maybe that's because I'm only working with Office 2000, and avoid XP 2000 and 2003 like the plague.
BTW, it's kind of hard for OO.org to be compatible with a format which is completely closed. I think it's a marvel it works at all!
The only way it will be completely perfect is if Microsoft tells OO.org how to. And that'll never happen, because MS will want money for it.
Do you know of a way it's possible for OO.org to improve the compatibility?
Because on the off chance that we might, just MIGHT be the ones causing this change, and that there is a possibility that we can stop it.
Oh, and because the results of this just might also be catastrophic. Wouldn't you like to investigate a possibility? Even if we're wrong, perhaps we will end up understanding WHY we were wrong. Isn't that the whole point of science?
I say, better safe than dead. Cause we'll be dead if it's right, and fine if it's not. I'd rather it be wrong, but I'd hate it if we did nothing about it and it turned out to be right...
BTW what happened to people's scientific spirit?? People on here are saying "Bah, global theory = BS," but don't you think it's good to investigate and discover empirically why it is right or wrong, and thereby enhance our understanding of our universe?
You mean magically pulling drivers out of black holes?
Dude, how can you have a driver for a sound card that is (1) Brand New (2) Has no public documentation available and (3) for a platform which very few if any hardware companies support? What you ask is completely ridiculous and impossible.
Until all vendors start releasing public docs or drivers for linux, we will see much of the same. Which is, complete idiots saying "uhhhhh this thing I have doens't work on linux! Linux suxx0rs!!!"
Rule One: Buy hardware that is known to work with linux, if you seriously intend to use linux.
Rule Two: If you can't manage to spend the time researching this, go with old products. They produce the same result, and are more likely to work with linux. Soundblaster Live! is a reliable option for soundcards. NVIDIA geforce and the recent ATI cards are really the only viable video cards for linux at the moment, but most older video cards should probably work (though without hardware opengl support).
This might highlight one of the potential flaws in the Open Source community: That if people don't like doing something "unnecessary," it probably won't get done.
Most people like developing for linux as a hobby, or for fun. Rarely is it for money. And often if it is for money, they only need to get the product working. There's no golden "standard" for walkthrough-esque documentation for linux applications.
The man pages are the typical standard, but they are a far cry from what Ms. PJ is asking for (and many others as well).
Though this is a major task, I still think the reason documentation is lagging behind program development is less people find it a job they enjoy doing.
Perhaps the main reason why there aren't many who find this enjoyable, is that mainly it is the technical types who get involved with developing in linux. I don't think you'll see english majors or doc writers taking to the linux platform.
The more writers/language focused people that get interested in linux, the more possibility there will be for better walkthrough type documentation.
The linux documentation project is a great start. I think it will be able to evolve into something which will be of great use to newbie users of linux.
I may even consider pitching in; I've got tons of pointers and tips that I have written down so I don't forget them (I constantly forget certain commandline actions which I only use every month or so). I've often considered putting up a website; but as many people have posted about the linux documentation project, maybe I could just pitch in there?
I'm not a very experienced programmer (I'm still a sophomore in college, CS Major) and I do enjoy writing as a hobby. I've always wanted to contribute to linux, because I believe in the ideals the Open Source community represents. Maybe this will be my summer project =D
Nothing beats ps -A for analyzing processes. If you see something you don't like, then just kill it and see what happens.
Also, if you're really paranoid you can run tcpdump and monitor packets as they float by. If it's going to any sites that you're not connected to, then you know something fishy is going on.
Might be a little too technical, but hey. It's linux right?
Seriously, I think there should be an adware app for linux; Just for the cookie management. I manually allow/deny cookies in firefox, and that keeps a good handle on which cookies are tracking me. But of course, I don't know which cookies are REALLY tracking me or not (I usually avoid the ones that are from the Ad companies, but otherwise... It's hard to tell).
SCO claims that Linux is actually an illegal derivative of the Unix operating system, which SCO says it owns. In a lawsuit filed on March 3, SCO accused DaimlerChrysler, Chrysler's corporate parent, of violating the terms of a Unix license Chrysler signed in the 1980s -- the violation, SCO suggested, stemmed from Chrysler's adoption of Linux in place of Unix.
Seems to be pretty clearly laying out the idea of SCO suing DC over a previous Unix license signed with SCO. Doesn't give much details, but the author isn't claiming SCO sued DC solely because they were using linux. OTOH, the AutoZone part doesn't give many details on why SCO is suing; seems like lazy journalism rather than bad homework.
I also agree that quote from Egger is really misleading; it's misleading because Egger is spinning the matter to make it look more egregious than it really is. I suppose the article writer should have pointed it out, but again I think it's a case of lazy write-up rather than bad research.
You get 4 cds. The only one that's left out is part of the powerpack, which is the Commercial packages cd (trust me, you aren't missing much. Silver member talking here).
The general public gets 3 cds. That 4th "bonus" cd is basically contrib stuff.
Club members aren't entitled to 10 million cds of download. Club members are entitled to downloads before everyone else, and get the functionality of mandrakeclub (the rpm downloads are nice). But honestly, the main reason for being a member isn't to get stuff out of it for yourself, but to support a distribution you like.
If you don't like Mandrake, why don't you just say so?
Slashdot Mirror
Freak out the neighbors with your scary "EEEEEeeeee" noise, and get half the police force in the area on your butt!
Coming soon: Make your car blow up and make spectacular fireworks when you crash!!!!!
Oh wait, that comes standard anyway. Oops.
Anyway, yeah. People, encrypt your pr0n. It can be quite nasty. Be nice to the sysadmins.
If it's a close relative, I may just want the stuff on the drive for posterity's sake... But still, it can be tempting to just format the whole drive without looking at anything.
Computers are such personal things. They're like an extension of your mind. Perhaps a little dirty extension of the mind? OK, now we're getting into mixed metaphor land. I think I'll leave it here.
Ahem, just hope my grandfather doesn't read slashdot... Not much danger in that though.
You've got to be kidding. That'd be like actually reading TFA.
BTW thanks for the clarification.
#2, GPL/OSS != music. OSS applies to software, hence the name. Open Source Software. The GPL was never intended for use with music. Get your head out of your ass.
The fact is, media corporations have no business dictating to me what I can and cannot do or run on my computer. It's MINE. I OWN MY COMPUTER.
The day that is not true, is a sad one for all our liberties and freedoms.
We do not advocate piracy. I abhor it. It is important to support the artists that make their music.
The fact remains that media corporations have no business telling me or anyone what we can and cannot do with our computers.
To quote appropriately for this situation: Those who give up freedom for security deserve neither.
I will not give up my freedoms. Those media corporations can go to hell. I've got almost all the media I'd ever want right now anyway.
Sure, there might be some DVDs I want later. That's what Hollywood Video/Blockbuster is for.
And, whoever said media was all there was to computing? I'm not going to go to DRM bios just so those media corporations can feel secure in the knowledge that I'm not copying DVDs or distributing their copyrighted content. I don't do that anyway.
So, screw you Media Giants, I don't need you and your stinkin' DRM!
Thanks a lot, mr. anonymous.
"KDE rocks!"
"No it doesn't, it's bloated!"
"GTK is too sluggish and boring!"
etc. etc...
My friend, I suggest it is time for you to seek out a professional psychologist. I pray it is not too late.
Or maybe God is doing the same, building up a case for your eternal salvation?
I guess it depends on how you view the whole issue of downloading copyrightable material. Last I checked, "Thou shalt not download copyrighted material" wasn't in the bible. Maybe that's why people try to equate downloading with stealing? To make a biblical case against it?
What would Jesus think?
I just tried thunderbird 0.6. Let me say... Thunderbird 0.6 is VASTLY improved over 0.5. I don't know if it's because this isn't a packaged rpm, but the menus are SO much more responsive than 0.5. Opening a new email takes almost no time at all. I must say, 0.6 is a great improvement over 0.5. I think I may just move over to Thunderbird now, especially since I just found an extension for Mozilla Calendar for Thunderbird.
Whoa! I didn't know that! Thanks for the information. BTW, I agree they should bundle them together, or at least mention Thunderbird and Calendar on the same download page.
I like kmail a lot, I just wish it wasn't so bloated with all the kde stuff. I only use a few kde apps.... kdevelop, quanta, kmail...
I could replace those with GTK apps (anjuta, bluefish, evolution or thunderbird), but I really like the responsiveness of the qt applications. I like the gtk apps, but as long as I'm using kmail, I might as well just use the kde apps.
Actually I'm a long time user of evolution. I would still be using it, if I hadn't one day corrupted my inbox by moving it to itself, and then trying to restore it...and erasing all my emails in my inbox. I still don't know how I did it. But I do regular backups every day now, just in case. I probably could go back to evolution... But the icons in evolution are just so BORING. I wish Ximian would release some Official icon sets, or at least have an official way to customize the icons of Evolution, like Thunderbird does. Then I'd probably go back to evolution. (as you can tell I hate the icons in evolution). Why doesn't Ximian add support like this? I've tried the crystal icon hack for evolution, but it doesn't get all the icons, and ends up looking messy.
On the other hand, this IS New York we're talking about here.
Oh, do not get in the way of the producers freshly fed and baying for cabs.
No one is forcing you with a knife at your throat to use The GIMP. You have a CHOICE. Use whatever app tickles your fancy. If The GIMP doesn't suit your needs, remove it or don't use it.
It's free. No one is being forced to use it.
These rants are completely pointless.
Let me repeat that. The GIMP's goal is not to be a Photoshop killer. The GIMP is an affordable (free) image manipulation program, with which someone who is interested in graphic art can do some pretty nice stuff without shelling out $100+ for a decent art program.
This is like saying "Oooh look! My Ford Mustang beat your '85 Toyota Corolla! Wow! Your car sucks!!"
Sure, a toyota carolla sucks when you are racing. But if you are trying to get somewhere, it works perfectly fine.
Personally I don't like it when packages don't prepend their names with k or g if they are specifically for KDE or Gnome. It's annoying when you try to install it and it says it wants to install gnome libraries, or KDE libraries (whichever WM libraries you don't like installing, maybe both if you're limited on HD space)
It's consistent, and it works. It may seem a bit lame sometimes, but it makes things really easy for me (And others).
Also from an ease of use standpoint, it makes it easy to know what to expect from a package. "Oh, that has a k before it, that means I'll be seeing KDE themes on that app if I'm running XFce."
Sure, we should probably have a unified theme so things are pretty seamless and you can't tell if something is for KDE or Gnome (or more specifically, using qt or gtk). But we're not there yet, and it would be really confusing if we didn't keep things the way they are.
I think eventually a distro will successfully make it possible for all apps to look similar to each other in all WM, and I think it would be a good thing to do that.
Yet another reason to dump Bush in 2004? (Note: his bro is Gov of Florida)
It'll be Big Brother when they start taking pictures of stuff INSIDE your car. Like when you drive by with that very attractive young lady. I'm sure your wife would be interested in that. Some enterprising young employee (Read: Blackmailer) for the government could make quite a bit of money.
I'm sure you can think of other examples. But until they start either tracking your movement about the country with this, OR looking at what's in your car, then it's got nothing on Big Brother.
What's scary about this is that the cameras to do these things will be in place. However, it would still take quite a bit of money to track people. And with budgets small, it's unlikely something that we need to be paranoid about will come along any time soon.
Uh. Wait. How is that possible? Robots will be programmed. How can they develop problems similar to humans? If they are programmed properly, they shouldn't have any problems....
Isn't that the whole point? I don't want robots that can develop personality problems... If I want that, I got the devices (Well I need a female too!) to make my OWN little humans, that will probably develop more than their fair share of personality problems.
I guess I can't have them do stuff like a robot. But if a robot develops personality problems like humans, I think they'll eventually have a Declaration of Independence or somesuch, and then we won't be able to use them as slaves, and they'll have their own little subculture, and probably want the vote. Man, that is freaky.
Thanks, but no thanks. I want robots that are assistants, not replacements. I don't want a robot that can understand the emotional nuances of my speech, or detect irony, or do any complicated stuff. I can find humans in the street that will do a much better job, and anyway. Why should we make a robot do something that is completely unnecessary? It's called BLOAT.
Sure, it might be cool for research and stuff. But for practical applications, I want something that will get the job done efficiently, and not get in the way.
I know people have posted before have given specific examples of problems, but personally the only problems I've had between MS document formats and OO.org are with tables, and even then only occasionally. Maybe that's because I'm only working with Office 2000, and avoid XP 2000 and 2003 like the plague.
BTW, it's kind of hard for OO.org to be compatible with a format which is completely closed. I think it's a marvel it works at all!
The only way it will be completely perfect is if Microsoft tells OO.org how to. And that'll never happen, because MS will want money for it.
Do you know of a way it's possible for OO.org to improve the compatibility?
Oh, and because the results of this just might also be catastrophic. Wouldn't you like to investigate a possibility? Even if we're wrong, perhaps we will end up understanding WHY we were wrong. Isn't that the whole point of science?
I say, better safe than dead. Cause we'll be dead if it's right, and fine if it's not. I'd rather it be wrong, but I'd hate it if we did nothing about it and it turned out to be right...
BTW what happened to people's scientific spirit?? People on here are saying "Bah, global theory = BS," but don't you think it's good to investigate and discover empirically why it is right or wrong, and thereby enhance our understanding of our universe?
Dude, how can you have a driver for a sound card that is (1) Brand New (2) Has no public documentation available and (3) for a platform which very few if any hardware companies support? What you ask is completely ridiculous and impossible.
Until all vendors start releasing public docs or drivers for linux, we will see much of the same. Which is, complete idiots saying "uhhhhh this thing I have doens't work on linux! Linux suxx0rs!!!"
Rule One: Buy hardware that is known to work with linux, if you seriously intend to use linux.
Rule Two: If you can't manage to spend the time researching this, go with old products. They produce the same result, and are more likely to work with linux. Soundblaster Live! is a reliable option for soundcards. NVIDIA geforce and the recent ATI cards are really the only viable video cards for linux at the moment, but most older video cards should probably work (though without hardware opengl support).
Most people like developing for linux as a hobby, or for fun. Rarely is it for money. And often if it is for money, they only need to get the product working. There's no golden "standard" for walkthrough-esque documentation for linux applications.
The man pages are the typical standard, but they are a far cry from what Ms. PJ is asking for (and many others as well).
Though this is a major task, I still think the reason documentation is lagging behind program development is less people find it a job they enjoy doing.
Perhaps the main reason why there aren't many who find this enjoyable, is that mainly it is the technical types who get involved with developing in linux. I don't think you'll see english majors or doc writers taking to the linux platform.
The more writers/language focused people that get interested in linux, the more possibility there will be for better walkthrough type documentation.
The linux documentation project is a great start. I think it will be able to evolve into something which will be of great use to newbie users of linux.
I may even consider pitching in; I've got tons of pointers and tips that I have written down so I don't forget them (I constantly forget certain commandline actions which I only use every month or so). I've often considered putting up a website; but as many people have posted about the linux documentation project, maybe I could just pitch in there?
I'm not a very experienced programmer (I'm still a sophomore in college, CS Major) and I do enjoy writing as a hobby. I've always wanted to contribute to linux, because I believe in the ideals the Open Source community represents. Maybe this will be my summer project =D
Also, if you're really paranoid you can run tcpdump and monitor packets as they float by. If it's going to any sites that you're not connected to, then you know something fishy is going on.
Might be a little too technical, but hey. It's linux right?
Seriously, I think there should be an adware app for linux; Just for the cookie management. I manually allow/deny cookies in firefox, and that keeps a good handle on which cookies are tracking me. But of course, I don't know which cookies are REALLY tracking me or not (I usually avoid the ones that are from the Ad companies, but otherwise... It's hard to tell).
SCO claims that Linux is actually an illegal derivative of the Unix operating system, which SCO says it owns. In a lawsuit filed on March 3, SCO accused DaimlerChrysler, Chrysler's corporate parent, of violating the terms of a Unix license Chrysler signed in the 1980s -- the violation, SCO suggested, stemmed from Chrysler's adoption of Linux in place of Unix.
Seems to be pretty clearly laying out the idea of SCO suing DC over a previous Unix license signed with SCO. Doesn't give much details, but the author isn't claiming SCO sued DC solely because they were using linux. OTOH, the AutoZone part doesn't give many details on why SCO is suing; seems like lazy journalism rather than bad homework.I also agree that quote from Egger is really misleading; it's misleading because Egger is spinning the matter to make it look more egregious than it really is. I suppose the article writer should have pointed it out, but again I think it's a case of lazy write-up rather than bad research.
You get 4 cds. The only one that's left out is part of the powerpack, which is the Commercial packages cd (trust me, you aren't missing much. Silver member talking here).
The general public gets 3 cds. That 4th "bonus" cd is basically contrib stuff.
Club members aren't entitled to 10 million cds of download. Club members are entitled to downloads before everyone else, and get the functionality of mandrakeclub (the rpm downloads are nice). But honestly, the main reason for being a member isn't to get stuff out of it for yourself, but to support a distribution you like.
If you don't like Mandrake, why don't you just say so?