That google has recently changed their logo to their default logo. Hmm, maybe news of this reached them? That's pretty good response time.
IMO Google should institute a policy for links such as these; they should link to their own google cached versions, perhaps caching any other content such as images as well, instead of linking to the "featured" site.
The least they should do is warn the site of potential megatraffic. Anything less could be seen as slightly irresponsible on the part of google. However, it could also be they don't really realize how much power they really wield. Are there any google employees who read slashdot that can comment?
Could Lindows have made any worse choice of a name? Why did they think they could use Lindows and get away with it?
I think either:
(1) The marketing people are lazy
(2) They feel they can get a leg up by sounding more like "Windows" (3) They thought Microsoft will be nice to them. (BWAHHHHAHHAAHAA.. Aha... ha...)
Throw in the fact that Lindows looks SUSPICIOUSLY like Windows XP, and I think Lindows doesn't really have a leg to stand on.
Crossover makes apps work without playing with the config settings. I just do it because I want to have fun and learn something in the process. The fact is, Crossover runs applications easily, so that a newbie can use it. Sure, it's not 100% perfect. Does windows run 100% of linux apps? Linux wasn't designed to run windows applications, and the fact that it does is pretty amazing, considering that windows is closed source.
Also, regarding gnome...Don't use it. KDE is miles ahead in terms of usability/configurability for new users.
Also I think you're wrong about choice; there are some solid choices that any user will be happy with (Konqueror/Evolution), and you don't need to tell 'em about the myriad other options. Xandros, Lindows et. al. do a good job of being oriented towards the new user. Sure, windows may still be the easiest thing for most people to use. If that's the case, then they should keep using it. But there ARE alternatives out there. And linux has reached a point where things are very usable. I'm just glad I can run photoshop, illustrator, pagemaker, and dreamweaver on linux. These are core apps to what I do (Although I'm starting to move away from dreamweaver). Eventually these may be replaced with open source products, but until then, things work for me. And they work for a lot of other people.
They don't work for everyone, and I don't think anyone is claiming that. Is that so wrong? Do we have to be 100% to be successful?
But you'd be wise to check compatibility ratings for games on the transgaming forums and the winehq.com application database. They are invaluable for determining if your favorite games will run on linux. I have been able to get all of my favorite games running (warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights, Oni, starcraft) and I was just using normal wine, hacking the configs. There are a lot of resources for getting stuff to work under linux with wine (frankscorner.org is really great), but if you want stuff done easily, you can go with winex, and/or crossover office. At this point, wine by itself is still a real PITA to set up Microsoft products, and other windows applications (though I have successfully gotten all apps I need running on linux... Oh the joy when I got Dreamweaver MX to work without crashing!)
I don't know about how Xandros 2.0 works out in this, as I haven't used it, but I feel we're still a few months away from really good compatibility with windows apps. Most of them work now, but some upcoming changes in shell32.dll implementations will make a huge difference for a lot of apps.
Why the HELL doesn't this get more press? Good lord, reading this topic on slashdot you'd think support for versions previous to 8 and 7.x have disappeared into the abyss!
Most people associate EOL with the complete disappearance of support for the product, as the true power of open source has not fully caught on yet. Why don't we beat people over the head with this?
I feel that because we don't make a big deal about 3rd party support for open source linux distros, people form an unfounded negative perception of the community. Come on guys!
Come on, I think Real has made some really nice products when it comes to streaming audio and/or video. I still prefer.rm files over windows media files; and the low-bitrate formats which also have pretty nice sound are a really nice thing to have. You may not like it, but I am glad that there is more than one or two formats out there, so people can choose what's best for them.
When it comes to their player...I'll have to agree with you. RealOne has been a major disappointment. I hope they can raise the quality of their player. And this quality can be raised by not adding more and more bloat, but streamlining the interface so it stays out of the way as much as possible. Of course, that's my own opinion. But I think more than a few would agree with me on the bloat issue.
I think it would be interesting if they did a tv miniseries rather than a 3 hour movie. They could film with less computer generated stuff, and do more real acting, and create something that was able to express the full emotion of the hobbit (I feel this is more achievable with the hobbit than the lord of the rings). This would please me to no end. Mmmm... 6 DVD boxed set of the hobbit... (or however long a tv miniseries would be)
Neverwinter Nights. A great game, and plays great under linux with the linux client. Though the implementation of the DND ruleset leaves much to be desired, I think it's a very good and very customizable (The player created modules for it...Mmmmmm...goood... Try Twilight, a paladin module for some fun, you will never think of the paladin class the same again). NWN is still one of my favorites to play multiplayer.
True... That would be really horrible if the corporations used the robots for all the work and then charged for the fruits of those labors. If those corporations in charge of the use of the robots decide to do such a thing (which is likely, given the fact that they want profits more than anything), there are going to be a lot of poor in the world...
I think now is a time when ethics and morals are really, really important in our capitalistic society. Without them, we are at the mercy of those who can develop such systems.
Perhaps our social labor structure needs some redesigning? Perhaps not everyone needs to work nearly as hard as we are?
I think the developments in robotics are going to force us to seriously reconsider our philosophy about life. If robots can do what we do now, better, what are we here for?
Personally, I'll welcome the day when robots can do all our work for us, and I can go and relax on the beach all day long.
OK, thanks for the clarification! I guess since the GPL is just a license like any other license, if it was invalid, all other licenses would be invalid. It'll be fun to see where all this goes! (It'd be even more fun to see McBride go down *crosses fingers*)
The GPL? If this case is dismissed, that will mean the GPL will still need to be tested in court. A precedant needs to be set for the GPL one day. Perhaps this time has not yet come?
SCO has been spouting a bunch of garbage (as has recently been posted here on slashdot) about what the GPL means and what the people behind the free software and open source movement stand for. Will anything come of those claims by SCO? Will they be challenged? I'd like to see some libel/slander charges brought against them, or at least some defamation lawsuits.
Isn't it possible to have maintenance bots that are utilized by the "smart" computer, and when the "smart" computer isn't able to receive or send stuff to one of the "dumb" motes, a maintenance bot or two goes out and cleans up the "dumb" motes remains? Once this idea gets really powerful, I could see this happening. (though the AI required still has a ways to go..)
Also, I think you're right about the orwellian aspect; but I figure this is going to happen anyways. Technology is powerful. There are those who wish to hold power over others. If you look at history, you'll find a hell of a lot of the buggers! And those who want power, will find these wonderful new tools, and put them to their uses. I don't like it, but I think it's the other edge of that double-edged sword called Technology.
The only solution is to (a) put into place systems to keep those people from abusing the technology or (b) wait until they abuse it, and hopefully a structure will come into place through intense struggle that will keep it from happening again.
Ack, looks like I was wrong, it seems other people have mentioned that uk.newsbot.msn.com is the ONLY site people get directed to. My bad! Sorry about that.
Not only that, but how does newsbot.msn.com track users? I did a little test, where I went to uk.newsbot.msn.com on my machine, and then tried to go to newsbot.msn.com on another machine on my network. No machine on my network had never been to newsbot.msn.com before.
The machine where I tried to go to newsbot.msn.com was forwarded to uk.newsbot.msn.com. Why was this? Do they track by IP address? I refuse to use any site run by Microsoft in the first place out of principle, but I'd be really interested to know how they are tracking users other than MSN Passport. (One was a linux machine, and the other was windows).
OK, I searched for MSN news on google news. The first thing that came up was an article in the uk. So, I dutifully clicked the link to MSN newsbot from there (I had never visited the MSN newsbot site). I went to their site, and realized it was specific to the UK. I tried deleting uk from uk.newsbot.msn.com, and pressed enter. Whoops! It sent me right back to uk.newsbot.msn.com. So, I thought there was some kind of cookie or something. I went through my cookies, looking for msn, or microsoft related stuff, and deleted a lot (Closed my browser before doing this). Well, guess what. When I typed in newsbot.msn.com, it still sent me to uk.newsbot.msn.com. There's some way they are tracking me besides cookies. I'm thinking it's IP or something.
Yes, it definitely is IP, because I just opened up mozilla and it sent me to the uk site when I typed in newsbot.msn.com. I refuse to use any site that tracks me by my ip address, or any means that I cannot control.
Also, I tried it on other machines on my network, and it did the same thing. You try it too!
Looks like I'm going to the clinker for seeing Matrix: Revolutions. I brought my Audiovisual Recording Device* to the show. I guess I should hear them knocking on my door any time now....
*The best in existence, and created by a deity: Eyes, Ears and my Brain.
I was homeschooled, and I still had to take standardized tests with #2 pencils; Back then, it was the Iowa test, can't remember the name. I had to take it to show that I completed that grade. So, yes, many homeschoolers are familiar with standardized testing. Of course, not all homeschoolers went this route; I think you can also submit portfolios of work done during the year.
However, I did stop homeschooling once I got to fifth grade, and entered the public school system.
I never used 7.x and 8.x, so I can't comment on that, but I Started with 9.0. 9.0 was usable, but barely; the MCC was crufty and a lot of it was generally crufty. When I used 9.1, that all changed; many of the wizards actually WORKED, and I was able to actually use everything for long periods of time without crashes. I'm using 9.2RC2 ATM, 9.2 final is downloading via bittorrent, and I have to say Mandrake has reached a level of refinement with 9.2. I upgraded from 9.1->9.2RC2, so I Don't know how the install process sets up a default install, but I will be trying it out on a new HD. I have been very happy with Mandrake since 9.1, and the club membership has been worth it (I love the test packages =)). However, I'm sure other distros will be fine for most people. Mandrake is nice because it is very usable now. Also, Gnome 2.4 is sooo much better than gnome 2.2, which helps us gnome users out quite a bit.
It would take too long, and cost too much (Since time is money), to transfer government workers over to a new system. It's just not feasible, and it looks like it will never happen, unless the government really has an unsolvable problem with Microsoft products (extremely unlikely). Looks like the government is going to be using MS for a while.
Even if, by some extreme (and unlikely) change of the computing environment, linux becomes the major workstation OS, and apps are targeted to it, I would highly doubt the government would move to it, as they really dislike change. They won't change unless they are forced to.
I completely agree. My experience with linux support has been phenomenal (I use the mandrake distro, and I use the free support on the irc channel), and I have never gotten a nasty message saying "RTFM."
I've always gotten either links to information about the question I was asking, or genuine help as to how to solve the problem. In fact, my "problems" have, recently, all been about tweaking. I haven't had any problems with Mandrake recently. This might be because I use ReiserFS, and the 9.1 mandrake distro is sooooo much more user friendly than 9.0 was.
Oh, and Mandrake 9.2 RC2 is much, much better. The Gnome environment that is bundled with it provides such an improvement going from 2.2 to 2.4. I couldn't wait for 9.2 final, so I just installed the RC2. It seems like a final release to me!
Side note: I also subscribe as a silver member, but I've never been forced to use the mandrakeclub forums for problems.
Slashdot Mirror
IMO Google should institute a policy for links such as these; they should link to their own google cached versions, perhaps caching any other content such as images as well, instead of linking to the "featured" site.
The least they should do is warn the site of potential megatraffic. Anything less could be seen as slightly irresponsible on the part of google. However, it could also be they don't really realize how much power they really wield. Are there any google employees who read slashdot that can comment?
I think either: .. Aha... ha...)
(1) The marketing people are lazy
(2) They feel they can get a leg up by sounding more like "Windows"
(3) They thought Microsoft will be nice to them. (BWAHHHHAHHAAHAA
Throw in the fact that Lindows looks SUSPICIOUSLY like Windows XP, and I think Lindows doesn't really have a leg to stand on.
This stinks to high heaven of a certain company trying to make itself look better by engineering a virus that is purportedly made by it's enemies.
Is SCO REALLY that stupid?
Well, I think that's kind of rhetorical, given their recent actions in court. I vote we impeach SCO.
Oh wait, we can't do that...Damn. What can we do?
Also, regarding gnome...Don't use it. KDE is miles ahead in terms of usability/configurability for new users.
Also I think you're wrong about choice; there are some solid choices that any user will be happy with (Konqueror/Evolution), and you don't need to tell 'em about the myriad other options. Xandros, Lindows et. al. do a good job of being oriented towards the new user. Sure, windows may still be the easiest thing for most people to use. If that's the case, then they should keep using it. But there ARE alternatives out there. And linux has reached a point where things are very usable. I'm just glad I can run photoshop, illustrator, pagemaker, and dreamweaver on linux. These are core apps to what I do (Although I'm starting to move away from dreamweaver). Eventually these may be replaced with open source products, but until then, things work for me. And they work for a lot of other people.
They don't work for everyone, and I don't think anyone is claiming that. Is that so wrong? Do we have to be 100% to be successful?
Oh yeah...I forgot about that, I guess I was just thinking of games I could run on linux. I meant the linux port by bioware, not under wine.
I don't know about how Xandros 2.0 works out in this, as I haven't used it, but I feel we're still a few months away from really good compatibility with windows apps. Most of them work now, but some upcoming changes in shell32.dll implementations will make a huge difference for a lot of apps.
Most people associate EOL with the complete disappearance of support for the product, as the true power of open source has not fully caught on yet. Why don't we beat people over the head with this?
I feel that because we don't make a big deal about 3rd party support for open source linux distros, people form an unfounded negative perception of the community. Come on guys!
When it comes to their player...I'll have to agree with you. RealOne has been a major disappointment. I hope they can raise the quality of their player. And this quality can be raised by not adding more and more bloat, but streamlining the interface so it stays out of the way as much as possible. Of course, that's my own opinion. But I think more than a few would agree with me on the bloat issue.
I think it would be interesting if they did a tv miniseries rather than a 3 hour movie. They could film with less computer generated stuff, and do more real acting, and create something that was able to express the full emotion of the hobbit (I feel this is more achievable with the hobbit than the lord of the rings). This would please me to no end. Mmmm... 6 DVD boxed set of the hobbit... (or however long a tv miniseries would be)
Neverwinter Nights. A great game, and plays great under linux with the linux client. Though the implementation of the DND ruleset leaves much to be desired, I think it's a very good and very customizable (The player created modules for it...Mmmmmm...goood... Try Twilight, a paladin module for some fun, you will never think of the paladin class the same again). NWN is still one of my favorites to play multiplayer.
The best christmas present of all will be if SCO gets totally destroyed. Which looks to be very probable.
I think now is a time when ethics and morals are really, really important in our capitalistic society. Without them, we are at the mercy of those who can develop such systems.
I think the developments in robotics are going to force us to seriously reconsider our philosophy about life. If robots can do what we do now, better, what are we here for?
Personally, I'll welcome the day when robots can do all our work for us, and I can go and relax on the beach all day long.
OK, thanks for the clarification! I guess since the GPL is just a license like any other license, if it was invalid, all other licenses would be invalid. It'll be fun to see where all this goes! (It'd be even more fun to see McBride go down *crosses fingers*)
SCO has been spouting a bunch of garbage (as has recently been posted here on slashdot) about what the GPL means and what the people behind the free software and open source movement stand for. Will anything come of those claims by SCO? Will they be challenged? I'd like to see some libel/slander charges brought against them, or at least some defamation lawsuits.
Also, I think you're right about the orwellian aspect; but I figure this is going to happen anyways. Technology is powerful. There are those who wish to hold power over others. If you look at history, you'll find a hell of a lot of the buggers! And those who want power, will find these wonderful new tools, and put them to their uses. I don't like it, but I think it's the other edge of that double-edged sword called Technology.
The only solution is to (a) put into place systems to keep those people from abusing the technology or (b) wait until they abuse it, and hopefully a structure will come into place through intense struggle that will keep it from happening again.
All in all, I think it'll be a while before I'm using 8x dvd burners...
I know I don't need that insane speed. 4x, 20 mins for 4.5 gigs...These days, that's perfectly servicable.
*Pats his pioneer A06*
Ack, looks like I was wrong, it seems other people have mentioned that uk.newsbot.msn.com is the ONLY site people get directed to. My bad! Sorry about that.
The machine where I tried to go to newsbot.msn.com was forwarded to uk.newsbot.msn.com. Why was this? Do they track by IP address? I refuse to use any site run by Microsoft in the first place out of principle, but I'd be really interested to know how they are tracking users other than MSN Passport. (One was a linux machine, and the other was windows).
Yes, it definitely is IP, because I just opened up mozilla and it sent me to the uk site when I typed in newsbot.msn.com. I refuse to use any site that tracks me by my ip address, or any means that I cannot control.
Also, I tried it on other machines on my network, and it did the same thing. You try it too!
*The best in existence, and created by a deity: Eyes, Ears and my Brain.
However, I did stop homeschooling once I got to fifth grade, and entered the public school system.
I never used 7.x and 8.x, so I can't comment on that, but I Started with 9.0. 9.0 was usable, but barely; the MCC was crufty and a lot of it was generally crufty. When I used 9.1, that all changed; many of the wizards actually WORKED, and I was able to actually use everything for long periods of time without crashes. I'm using 9.2RC2 ATM, 9.2 final is downloading via bittorrent, and I have to say Mandrake has reached a level of refinement with 9.2. I upgraded from 9.1->9.2RC2, so I Don't know how the install process sets up a default install, but I will be trying it out on a new HD. I have been very happy with Mandrake since 9.1, and the club membership has been worth it (I love the test packages =)). However, I'm sure other distros will be fine for most people. Mandrake is nice because it is very usable now. Also, Gnome 2.4 is sooo much better than gnome 2.2, which helps us gnome users out quite a bit.
Even if, by some extreme (and unlikely) change of the computing environment, linux becomes the major workstation OS, and apps are targeted to it, I would highly doubt the government would move to it, as they really dislike change. They won't change unless they are forced to.
I've always gotten either links to information about the question I was asking, or genuine help as to how to solve the problem. In fact, my "problems" have, recently, all been about tweaking. I haven't had any problems with Mandrake recently. This might be because I use ReiserFS, and the 9.1 mandrake distro is sooooo much more user friendly than 9.0 was.
Oh, and Mandrake 9.2 RC2 is much, much better. The Gnome environment that is bundled with it provides such an improvement going from 2.2 to 2.4. I couldn't wait for 9.2 final, so I just installed the RC2. It seems like a final release to me!
Side note: I also subscribe as a silver member, but I've never been forced to use the mandrakeclub forums for problems.