I'm not sure what fate propietary browsers will face if Mozilla family continues to improve. As Mozilla Firefox (or some funny name derivative) reaches the phones, I doubt many companies will be happy to pay Opera for a browser which is less known than the free alternative (besides free-as-in-beer, the free-as-in-GNU part allows them to tinker and adapt the browser to their specific needs).
I regularly search on google for it, but no big news for the moment:-/
This seems to be the latest update (Grokdoc - A Status Report
Sunday, April 18 2004). Basically says the reaction was very good and there are a lot of hands willing to help... but no beta-testing URL nor anything like that. I really would like to redirect some happy new-converts there...
Mandrake may offer good software (it does, indeed). Novell, on the other hand, is trying to take the IBM path, in my humble view (although they are not a hardware company, methinks). When you offer an integrated solution consisting in "hardware + OS + apps + great-support-for-all-of-the-above", you may get a lot of enterprise customers happy, because they always know who to blame for a fault.
Steve Jobs thinks that Apple and OS X will be the dominant platform. Is this really news?
Reality distortion aura and all, you have to note that Apple is happy with its market share, small but stable and revenue-generating. There is no excitement around "this will be the year of Apple", nor are there governments getting involved in MacOSX development. Nor do you here equivalent statements about *BSD. There is a lot of hype around linux and open source, but the reality is that there is something moving there.
What about this? I included "web", "search", "advanced", "preferences" and "images". Do these terms sound familiar to anyone? This is the first result.
You will notice (or at least I did) that getting an ibook working with linux is pretty easy. Reason? Unlikely with PCs, there are only so many ibook models, so it's very easy to find a HOWTO someone with your *exact* configuration kindly wrote. You can get, if you are lucky (like I was) even the.config for your shiny new 2.6.5 kernel:)
Why are there always "installation and first steps" reviews? Sure, you have to install the systems, and sure, you have to burn CDs or write letters... but I would like some mid-to-long term review, including differences with Windows or Mac OS X regarding security problems, upgrades (two fields where linux should win hands down), integration of new hardware (which I suppose could be way more problematic), installation of new programs (which could be either way)...
I think long-term reviews would be far more interesting to convince people of the possiblities of the system in the long term, as a stable working environment, not just as a weekend-hobby.
Re:A great success story of Linux on the desktop..
on
Rome Moving to Linux
·
· Score: 5, Informative
In fact, the success of LinEx is being so great that it inspired other spanish communities, so that in Andalucia they've got Guadalinex. In Malaga, Andalucia, there was recently an Open Source World conference. There, about 5000 copies were distributed. Further 100.000 copies of Guadalinex will de distributed in 2004. Free software is alive and well in Spain, thank you:) We didn't get the press because Ballmer didn't visit us to offer 90% discounts.
Sorry, but I'm still not turned on to the idea of online music downloads.
Ever tried getting them for free? Yes, of course it's legal. And, while IMHO the best, it's not even the only way. If you like a band, and you feel like it, just send them a couple of bucks: what you consider they are worth, not more.
If you want to be fair, I suspect it should read "Microsoft Windows" or "Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office". I doubt there are a lot of attacks through Age of Empires, for example.
Otherwise, I am completely with you. It should read "Microsoft Windows virus" and "Microsoft Windows worm", not "computer worm" and not "internet virus". Linux, Mac OS X and the BSDs would get more acceptance, should
Microsoft OS finally get its hard earned infame.
Personally, I think they should have two seperate athletic leagues - the normal one, and an indy league in which steroids, gene-therapy and performance enhancing drugs are allowed. It would make for an interesting competition. Give the scientists an arena.
As much as I like the idea, I would tend to think that exactly the opposite situation is more in agreement with our world of today: we use to welcome our Ever-New, Propaganda-Enhanced, Lobby-Nourished, Plastic-Surgery-Optimized Overlords.
Indie movies, indie music, indie software, indie encyclopedias... are generally associated with "low budget, yet high quality" duo to the phenomenal, sincere motivation of the participants. Mainstream movies, music, software and mass media, in contrast, do not look exactly like an ideal of "fair play". Why should athletism be exactly the opposite?
New Zealander Anthony Jones announced the third minor release of the iRATE radio client today. iRATE radio provides users with a powerful new way to find and download free, legal music online. Users rate tracks based on their tastes. The iRATE server then selects other tracks to send to the user from a database of over 50,000 freely downloadable songs by correlating the user's ratings with other users and finding people with similar tastes.
Unlike streaming audio, iRATE saves the tracks to the user's hard drive. This means that playback is smoother, without the typical problems associated with streaming media, such as high bandwidth usage.
iRATE radio is written in Java, and is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Windows users can easily get up and running with iRATE radio using Sun's Java Web Start and Internet Explorer. For other browsers on Windows and Linux, users may need to download and install Java WebStart separately. There are also native Debian, Mandrake, and Redhat Linux packages available. Mac users will be pleased to hear that a disk image (.DMG) file for OS X will be released within a week.
This release features a new, more intuitive user interface, a refined track selection algorithm, and better download performance. Other improvements include a new icon (following the recent icon contest), tool tips, ID3 tag display, artist's website link support, playlist management, and many others.
Since the project's registration at SourceForge in March 2003, iRATE radio has gathered an increasing number of developers. The user base now numbers over 8,000 individuals. However, there is still a lot of work to be done. Jones recently made an announcement to the development mailing list detailing thirteen focus areas for improvement. These included translations, native playback (for improved decoding performance), better server-side track selection, multimedia key binding support, audio prompting, more publicity, and several others.
The iRATE radio website is at http://irate.sourceforge.net/"
I would like to test kernels from time to time, as I test linux distros. Apart fromDebian, what is the state of bulding familiar systems (with familiar package management, etc) on different kernels, e.g. FreeBSD?
Is there any possibility to get a Debian-like (or Mandrake-like, why not?) experience with non-linux kernels? I would certainly give them a try... Or are there FreeBSD live-CDs with a hardware auto-recognition comparable with that of knoppix? That would be a nice way to try, too:)
You do realise the Free Software world has been around a hell of a lot longer than when Linux got popular in the late 90s, don't you?
Yes, I do. However, back then it had no enemies of the size of this one. It was a small world, by hackers, for hackers ("Join us now..."). Now we are seeing a big world, where our aunts and uncles are using Free software, where IBM is running commercials on linux, and where Microsoft is realizing where it's biggest threat of this decade resides (hopefully, it's _last_ threat;)
I appreciate they are doing a very worthy work (and getting the slashdot crowd to a more informed talk about SCO, something necessary because the old jokes are starting to become _really_ old).
I sure would like them to go on when this SCO fiasto bluffs down. The free software world really needs an army of lawyers and paralawyers, if we want to stay long. I only can say "Kudos to you, groklawyers! Go on!"
> I think it's rather naive to say you get your news from NY Times, AP, Slashdot, etc. rather than biased >sources like Fox. ALL news sources of some degree of bias.
I tend to think that a news site which allows anonymous (as well as non-anonymous) comments, which I can read either taking or not taking user moderation into account will give me a more complete, non-biased point of view.
We have seeing easier and easier installs for distros like Mandrake, SuSE or RedHat/Fedora, live-CDs, now we are experiencing the rise of converter tools like this Debian Domination Tool and the Depenguinator (already covered in slashdot as upgrade methos to a dead OS;)...
I think we are coming to a point where migrations between platforms, may they be windows->linux, linux->linux, linux->bsd or bsd->linux will become *really* seamless, and even some funny ideas like worm-spread of succesfull linux installations may become possible;)
I would add: any distribution (including Linux From Scratch).
If you are willing to pay ("any price", you stated), you will find technicians who can take a look at the source code and do the maintenance happily for you for 8 years... or 18. You are independent from a single vendor.
The problem with closed-source is: native vendor support or *none* at all.
Slashdot Mirror
"May you love as long as you live, and live as long as you wish." (Minerva, Time Enough for Love)
;P
(I might as well have given a closer look to those "weekend viagra" commercials
I'm not sure what fate propietary browsers will face if Mozilla family continues to improve. As Mozilla Firefox (or some funny name derivative) reaches the phones, I doubt many companies will be happy to pay Opera for a browser which is less known than the free alternative (besides free-as-in-beer, the free-as-in-GNU part allows them to tinker and adapt the browser to their specific needs).
Just my 0.02 euro.
I regularly search on google for it, but no big news for the moment :-/
This seems to be the latest update (Grokdoc - A Status Report
Sunday, April 18 2004). Basically says the reaction was very good and there are a lot of hands willing to help... but no beta-testing URL nor anything like that. I really would like to redirect some happy new-converts there...
Mandrake may offer good software (it does, indeed). Novell, on the other hand, is trying to take the IBM path, in my humble view (although they are not a hardware company, methinks). When you offer an integrated solution consisting in "hardware + OS + apps + great-support-for-all-of-the-above", you may get a lot of enterprise customers happy, because they always know who to blame for a fault.
Steve Jobs thinks that Apple and OS X will be the dominant platform. Is this really news?
Reality distortion aura and all, you have to note that Apple is happy with its market share, small but stable and revenue-generating. There is no excitement around "this will be the year of Apple", nor are there governments getting involved in MacOSX development. Nor do you here equivalent statements about *BSD. There is a lot of hype around linux and open source, but the reality is that there is something moving there.
What about this? I included "web", "search", "advanced", "preferences" and "images". Do these terms sound familiar to anyone? This is the first result.
You will notice (or at least I did) that getting an ibook working with linux is pretty easy. Reason? Unlikely with PCs, there are only so many ibook models, so it's very easy to find a HOWTO someone with your *exact* configuration kindly wrote. You can get, if you are lucky (like I was) even the .config for your shiny new 2.6.5 kernel :)
Informative...
/images/filesel_save_expand.jpg on this server.
could be, if we were able to see it:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access
Apache/1.3.29 Server at sdg.agreatserver.com Port 80
Why are there always "installation and first steps" reviews? Sure, you have to install the systems, and sure, you have to burn CDs or write letters... but I would like some mid-to-long term review, including differences with Windows or Mac OS X regarding security problems, upgrades (two fields where linux should win hands down), integration of new hardware (which I suppose could be way more problematic), installation of new programs (which could be either way)...
I think long-term reviews would be far more interesting to convince people of the possiblities of the system in the long term, as a stable working environment, not just as a weekend-hobby.
In fact, the success of LinEx is being so great that it inspired other spanish communities, so that in Andalucia they've got Guadalinex. In Malaga, Andalucia, there was recently an Open Source World conference. There, about 5000 copies were distributed. Further 100.000 copies of Guadalinex will de distributed in 2004. Free software is alive and well in Spain, thank you :) We didn't get the press because Ballmer didn't visit us to offer 90% discounts.
Sorry, but I'm still not turned on to the idea of online music downloads.
Ever tried getting them for free? Yes, of course it's legal. And, while IMHO the best, it's not even the only way. If you like a band, and you feel like it, just send them a couple of bucks: what you consider they are worth, not more.
Let's just choose ugly maths for the Earth Simulation. As we already know, if their maths are too perfect, we risk being overtaked!
(In which case, of course, we, as calculations, would have to welcome our new real overlords).
If you want to be fair, I suspect it should
read "Microsoft Windows" or "Microsoft Windows
or Microsoft Office". I doubt there are a lot of attacks
through Age of Empires, for example.
Otherwise, I am completely with you. It should
read "Microsoft Windows virus" and
"Microsoft Windows worm", not "computer worm"
and not "internet virus". Linux, Mac OS X and
the BSDs would get more acceptance, should
Microsoft OS finally get its hard earned infame.
Rmrember taht one?
It will be.Just ask those guys:
-Tim Morley (timsk@openoffice.org)
-Joey Stanford (k0fcc@openoffice.org)
They are "Revising Glossary & Translating Files"
Personally, I think they should have two seperate athletic leagues - the normal one, and an indy league in which steroids, gene-therapy and performance enhancing drugs are allowed. It would make for an interesting competition. Give the scientists an arena.
As much as I like the idea, I would tend to think that exactly the opposite situation is more in agreement with our world of today: we use to welcome our Ever-New, Propaganda-Enhanced, Lobby-Nourished, Plastic-Surgery-Optimized Overlords.
Indie movies, indie music, indie software, indie encyclopedias... are generally associated with "low budget, yet high quality" duo to the phenomenal, sincere motivation of the participants. Mainstream movies, music, software and mass media, in contrast, do not look exactly like an ideal of "fair play". Why should athletism be exactly the opposite?
There are already good projects working on this license! Just take a look at iRATE. (They even do mention our efforts at their blog).
"5 February 2004 Perth, Western Australia
New Zealander Anthony Jones announced the third minor release of the iRATE radio client today. iRATE radio provides users with a powerful new way to find and download free, legal music online. Users rate tracks based on their tastes. The iRATE server then selects other tracks to send to the user from a database of over 50,000 freely downloadable songs by correlating the user's ratings with other users and finding people with similar tastes.
Unlike streaming audio, iRATE saves the tracks to the user's hard drive. This means that playback is smoother, without the typical problems associated with streaming media, such as high bandwidth usage.
iRATE radio is written in Java, and is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Windows users can easily get up and running with iRATE radio using Sun's Java Web Start and Internet Explorer. For other browsers on Windows and Linux, users may need to download and install Java WebStart separately. There are also native Debian, Mandrake, and Redhat Linux packages available. Mac users will be pleased to hear that a disk image (.DMG) file for OS X will be released within a week.
This release features a new, more intuitive user interface, a refined track selection algorithm, and better download performance. Other improvements include a new icon (following the recent icon contest), tool tips, ID3 tag display, artist's website link support, playlist management, and many others.
Since the project's registration at SourceForge in March 2003, iRATE radio has gathered an increasing number of developers. The user base now numbers over 8,000 individuals. However, there is still a lot of work to be done. Jones recently made an announcement to the development mailing list detailing thirteen focus areas for improvement. These included translations, native playback (for improved decoding performance), better server-side track selection, multimedia key binding support, audio prompting, more publicity, and several others.
The iRATE radio website is at http://irate.sourceforge.net/"
I would like to test kernels from time to time, as I test linux distros. Apart from Debian, what is the state of bulding familiar systems (with familiar package management, etc) on different kernels, e.g. FreeBSD?
Is there any possibility to get a Debian-like (or Mandrake-like, why not?) experience with non-linux kernels? I would certainly give them a try... Or are there FreeBSD live-CDs with a hardware auto-recognition comparable with that of knoppix? That would be a nice way to try, too :)
You do realise the Free Software world has been around a hell of a lot longer than when Linux got popular in the late 90s, don't you?
Yes, I do. However, back then it had no enemies of the size of this one. It was a small world, by hackers, for hackers ("Join us now..."). Now we are seeing a big world, where our aunts and uncles are using Free software, where IBM is running commercials on linux, and where Microsoft is realizing where it's biggest threat of this decade resides (hopefully, it's _last_ threat ;)
It surely would be helpful, if we want to avoid that next case ends like the previous one...
Maybe there are even other fields where we can get some useful help...
when this SCO thing gets to an end?
I appreciate they are doing a very worthy work (and getting the slashdot crowd to a more informed talk about SCO, something necessary because the old jokes are starting to become _really_ old).
I sure would like them to go on when this SCO fiasto bluffs down. The free software world really needs an army of lawyers and paralawyers, if we want to stay long. I only can say "Kudos to you, groklawyers! Go on!"
It is always good to remember, and to be informed about the present situation.
Here you have some recent news.
> I think it's rather naive to say you get your news from NY Times, AP, Slashdot, etc. rather than biased
>sources like Fox. ALL news sources of some degree of bias.
I tend to think that a news site which allows anonymous (as well as non-anonymous) comments, which I can read either taking or not taking user moderation into account will give me a more complete, non-biased point of view.
We have seeing easier and easier installs for distros like Mandrake, SuSE or RedHat/Fedora, live-CDs, now we are experiencing the rise of converter tools like this Debian Domination Tool and the Depenguinator (already covered in slashdot as upgrade methos to a dead OS ;)...
;)
I think we are coming to a point where migrations between platforms, may they be windows->linux, linux->linux, linux->bsd or bsd->linux will become *really* seamless, and even some funny ideas like worm-spread of succesfull linux installations may become possible
I would add: any distribution (including Linux From Scratch).
If you are willing to pay ("any price", you stated), you will find technicians who can take a look at the source code and do the maintenance happily for you for 8 years... or 18. You are independent from a single vendor.
The problem with closed-source is: native vendor support or *none* at all.