Lets hope the anti-piracy features are very successful for 2 reasons:
1) it is believed that the biggest competitor to Microsoft is not Linux or Mac OS but pirated copies of Windows. Perhaps these pirates will be locked out and the amount of spam and DOS attacks are reduced by eliminating the unpatched Windows zombie computers.
2) the world will realize free software has no pirates and maybe the internet will be a little more heterogeneous and not 95% Windows.
my 500gb raided nas uses floppy disks ...
on
What NAS To Buy?
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· Score: 1
yes... floppies!
maintainable, but a bit of work as floppies go bad every once in a while.
easy to build, the drives are relatively inexpensive. you can pick them up cheap.
you may need a bit of room, especially with a raid setup. it requires a bit of space for 500 gb or larger.
the cacophony of my 500 gb drive definitely lets me know my investment is working for me. the grinding drives settle into the background sooner than you think!
its the ultimate back up solution for my workstation!
Linux or GNU/Linux is customizable. Use what works for you. Change what you don't like, support what you do like.
These user friendliness discussions are great. Someone is taking the platform forward. Its a good thing. More people are involved.
You want to stay away from things which make the software non-free, don't install proprietary software. Not every distro or configuration of Linux is right for you. The beauty is that you have a choice, a large involved development community, several groups which help provide direction,... its all good!
Arguing this type of stuff is purely flamebait.
I was a complete GNU/Linux zelot until I was given the opportunity to install and work with a FreeBSD system. I loved the ease of taking a 1 disk download for FreeBSD 5.4 and installing a base system rather quickly. Downloading a few ports for services I needed (MySQL, PHP, Perl, PHP MyAdmin, and Apache) and having everything I needed freshly compiled on my machine without going through a ton of GUI dialogs to install what I needed (ala a RedHat-like installer).
FreeBSD is quite easy to administer.
A great thing about FreeBSD is rc.conf. One configuration file which will manage a ton of services. Not 6 init levels to manage (although chkconfig does this well). I had great luck with vinum for software raid support. We had six disks spiining in one file server and when one went down vinum made it easy to recover.
I would not like to see FreeBSD turn into a GNU/Linux type of experience. They both have their strengths and nicities. There are time when you need GNU/Linux and time you want something else. FreeBSD is a great alternative.
And well, there is that uptime holy war... (don't mean to troll) but check this out: http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.html BSD have the top 20+ in uptime. What does this prove? Well that they are easy to manage. Put the box up and forget about it. No 100 reboots and services are available.
I want to add one more thing and I will pipe down .
Notice the fierce loyaty of the Linux customer and the Macintosh customer. Their customers will fiercely defend their platform. Their customers will tell others of the Linux and Macintosh experience with great reverence. The Windows customer many times (at least in my experience) will go right along (contribute as well) with the Windows jokes (reboot... reboot...BSOD) and jabs. These success stories, or customer feedback, will help in the effort to going into new areas such as desktop dominance.
I am proud of the work that the Free Software Movement, Linux community (esspecially its leaders), KDE, Gnome, IBM, Sun, HP, countless other companies, and kernel developers have done to make Free Software a superior platform. It is their contributions which have so many fierce and loyal customers.
It's your customer which defines the OS experience. If your customer is a new computer user... the software should be intelligent enough to configure itself.
If your user is an engineer... mounting devices as drives is something the customer may know how to do so your software must be intelligent enough to do that well.
Apple... fault them if you must but... they have such great attention to the user experience. Hide the bits in an abstraction known as Macintosh, their customer does not want to see drivers and mount points. This is their starting point, that is their customer. How can we delight the user with the Macintosh expeirence, not the low level details of the O1 scheduler. I don't mean to start a Mac/Linux/Windows holy war but I do need an example here.
With Linux that starting point and customer are different. Most of the distributions which are ready for the desktop have a customer in mind who is using Windows 2000 at work or Windows ME at home. This is the user experience which they start with. I think some people here agree that is starting off a bit handicapped.
The Mac customer does not even want to know what a driver is or does.
The point I'm bearly making here is its about the customer... and what experience you want for that customer. Will Linux overtake the desktop?... Sure if the desktop really begins to abstract the fact you are running Linux and does a better job of creating the a great customer experience for more customers than everyone else.
Yet Another History Of Open Source Software Article
Please don't take this as flaimbait, but... this article tells me nothing new. Its a great one to pass on to my boss.. but come on.One more summary of the open source movement article and i'll puke.
I mean no disrespect to the author. it was written very well. There is no News for Nerds here. I don't mean to be negative. I enjoy the community and most of the articles are really good. But I just can't take another... history of open source software/anti microsoft article for the world to cut its teeth on.
I'm sorry to sound critical but I wonder how many others here feel the same way.
Hurry... hurry... hurry... Everyone... step right up... see the OS you have come to hate... 50% less functionality than your competeing free operating system with 100% of the security holes you have come to love!
We will make it so easy to switch over... no money down...lock in forever.
Yes... and over here the dog faced boy.... yes hurry hurry hurry!!!
Hey, Google is great but you still need to go out to a program and interface with it. Now enters MS with WinFS/Longhorn. It can make searches using their engine transparent (right click... Find). It will be a part of the operating environment (I imagine a bit better than previous clunky attempts like Sherlock for Mac OS)
That is what may be at stake people. Now for a few dollars more your result can come up in the search first (invisible to the user with respect to search engine).
It sounds like a great way to get advert dollars. Companies will switch....they need to pump as much into their advertising dollar and get the most for their buck. Think about it 95% of the desktops already! Do the math! They are getting hit all over for Office and Corporate productivity software.
Match that up with DRM. Now those pesky open source software binaries will have trouble getting on MS desktops (keeping in mind most people will not be as savy as Slashdotters). A pristine Windows environment once again. It may slow down GNU/Linux on the desktop.
Although the movies were great, this was probably the plan from the beginning. Get a big studio partner to start, put out some great art, then strike out on your own with a smaller partner.
I have always admired his direction.
He is pretty hands off with respect to the artists from my understanding. Just creates an environment for great art to thrive.
The reason the RIAA is so strong is that the vast majority of artists give up all their rights to sign a record deal. Its wrong.
Check out what Robert Fripp has to say and the DiciplineGlobalMobile label.
Chekc out http://www.disciplineglobalmobile.com/diary/
an excerpt:
Business imposes limitations and restrictions upon music and musicians. This is inevitable. But the mainstream music industry often, even mostly, determines and directs the music which is available to the public. Business may legitimately recognise areas of public interest which are not being addressed, but should not make musical choices for musicians. Neither should business apply pressure to make musicians conform to industry "common practices" and concerns. Industry agencies do this in a number of ways, some of which are honest and some of which involve lying, misrepresentation and threats, even corruption of the musician's better nature. Some are subtle and invidious. Some are blatant. Some are the result of an inexorable and ongoing embrace. They are rarely innocent.
We as a community have many freedoms because we are all willing to fight for them. Love him or not Richard Stallman has done a lot for this community and others like it. Someone needs to champion the music community in the same way
What is worse is the profiteering from the whole "scandal". No one is going after these pin heads but watch out for Martha Stewart!
She should be in jail... mkay. Cause insider trading is bad... mkay. We gotta put that on TV...mkay. Gotta get the message out...mkay
Linux Communiy: Well, trashing a whole software movement to gain financially is not network worthy news?
Software is too technical... mkay. Most folks don't understand why the little blond haired Linux boy is that important...mkay. We need to get Martha mkay, she's bad... mkay.
mozilla has come a long way. I began with version 0.5 and have used the mozilla browser almost exclusvely at work since. Through the "dog-food" bugs and a few bug reports, it is still my default browser and browser of choice. Mozilla has pushed the web browsing experience forward and it's current feature set is benchmark. It is this feature set which keeps gaining loyal users. Netscape's decision to open Netscape source turned a lot of heads and helped "sell" the concept of open/free software in a corporate setting.
I have sampled firebird and I am very excited on this new direction. It is a shame AOL has sealed a deal with MS. They don't really understand what they have!
Great products like this and the community surrounding them have made me appriciate free software more and more.
Thanks Mozilla
A real leap forward for folks on 386 Sx25's ...
on
GTK+ TTY Port
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· Score: 1
but also brings many real opportunities, such as remote logins where X forwarding is not possible, or remote logins over very slow modem lines.
We can not blame the users soley. For the success of GNU/Linux the architects of the system have to take the reins and make the system secure. We can not put that responsibility soley on the user. The average user not just "joe six-pack" is and should not have to be as aware of the lower level functions of the system. This is the job of an architect. We should not sit back and impose the enormous mental model of entire system on all users if we expect to gain ground as a desktop operating environment. I believe GNU/Linux is beyond a platform for engineers only. Where else but with free software do you gain so much e.g. GNU tools, open source, a community based on code quality and sharing of knowledge. I have learned more about computer science learning within this community than in school texts.
If security is our main concern our community should then form a culture around it and get everyone involved. Look at what OpenBSD community has acieved by creating a culture around security with minimal effort of the user.
Perhaps a culture around security with high availability and operability could be a win win for the community as a whole.
Lets not rest on our laurels. This community has gained so much in a short amount of time. Lets move forward once again and gain more ground.
Use Yellow Dog Linux. The GNU tool set e.g. Gimp. will give you a lot of what you may have enjoyed with Mac OS. The GNU/Linux distro will give you the power of linux. All on your biege G3 box.
This comes from someone who runs GNU/Linux on old Mac hardware (Powermac 6400 with 80 MB of RAM).
Free software will help your in the walet and provide you freedoms Apple do not provide under Mac OS.
I have enjoyed a pretty snappy OS since I moved from Mac OS 9.
If a device becomes so ubiquitous that large scale damage could be done if a flaw exists the product should not be released if this flaw is known before release. We all know that testing of products before release can not find every problem. Major problems should be found.
Imagine if a software house as a punishment for anti-trust violations (and majority market share) and broad reaching security flaws had to (by law) refund the purchase of terribly insecure software AND provide a free upgrade once all security fixes were in place..
imagine slower software release cycles by cathedral software houses....
imagine overall more secure products which still have to be easy to use...
imagine better software.
It is schedules which kill cathedral house software not QA.
One has the freedom to configure their system as they would like. To configure the system correctly one learns from going through the process. For those who are aspiring software developers, this is a rewarding challenge. Here is an opportunity to do this with a relatively easy system. For those with older workstations this is a better way to go such that you are in control of what to add to your system and how to optimize the kernel compile. It may not be twice as fast but its *your* system.
Freedoms such as this should be highly valued and praised in todays software industry.
Bravo gentoo!
Slashdot Mirror
Lets hope the anti-piracy features are very successful for 2 reasons:
1) it is believed that the biggest competitor to Microsoft is not Linux or Mac OS but pirated copies of Windows. Perhaps these pirates will be locked out and the amount of spam and DOS attacks are reduced by eliminating the unpatched Windows zombie computers.
2) the world will realize free software has no pirates and maybe the internet will be a little more heterogeneous and not 95% Windows.
yes ... floppies!
maintainable, but a bit of work as floppies go bad every once in a while.
easy to build, the drives are relatively inexpensive. you can pick them up cheap.
you may need a bit of room, especially with a raid setup. it requires a bit of space for 500 gb or larger.
the cacophony of my 500 gb drive definitely lets me know my investment is working for me. the grinding drives settle into the background sooner than you think!
its the ultimate back up solution for my workstation!
Linux or GNU/Linux is customizable. Use what works for you. Change what you don't like, support what you do like. These user friendliness discussions are great. Someone is taking the platform forward. Its a good thing. More people are involved. You want to stay away from things which make the software non-free, don't install proprietary software. Not every distro or configuration of Linux is right for you. The beauty is that you have a choice, a large involved development community, several groups which help provide direction, ... its all good!
Arguing this type of stuff is purely flamebait.
FreeBSD is quite easy to administer. A great thing about FreeBSD is rc.conf. One configuration file which will manage a ton of services. Not 6 init levels to manage (although chkconfig does this well). I had great luck with vinum for software raid support. We had six disks spiining in one file server and when one went down vinum made it easy to recover.
I would not like to see FreeBSD turn into a GNU/Linux type of experience. They both have their strengths and nicities. There are time when you need GNU/Linux and time you want something else. FreeBSD is a great alternative.
And well, there is that uptime holy war ... (don't mean to troll) but check this out: http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.html BSD have the top 20+ in uptime. What does this prove? Well that they are easy to manage. Put the box up and forget about it. No 100 reboots and services are available.
Enough of this day dreaming ... back to the regularly scheduled revolution!
Why, because I believe in the Great Pumpkin!
Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Pepsi, Pepsi!
Notice the fierce loyaty of the Linux customer and the Macintosh customer. Their customers will fiercely defend their platform. Their customers will tell others of the Linux and Macintosh experience with great reverence. The Windows customer many times (at least in my experience) will go right along (contribute as well) with the Windows jokes (reboot ... reboot...BSOD) and jabs. These success stories, or customer feedback, will help in the effort to going into new areas such as desktop dominance.
I am proud of the work that the Free Software Movement, Linux community (esspecially its leaders), KDE, Gnome, IBM, Sun, HP, countless other companies, and kernel developers have done to make Free Software a superior platform. It is their contributions which have so many fierce and loyal customers.
Thank You.
Your solution is not a one which a good community provides its members. Constructive criticism is what a member is required to provide it's community.
If your user is an engineer ... mounting devices as drives is something the customer may know how to do so your software must be intelligent enough to do that well.
Apple ... fault them if you must but ... they have such great attention to the user experience. Hide the bits in an abstraction known as Macintosh, their customer does not want to see drivers and mount points. This is their starting point, that is their customer. How can we delight the user with the Macintosh expeirence, not the low level details of the O1 scheduler. I don't mean to start a Mac/Linux/Windows holy war but I do need an example here .
With Linux that starting point and customer are different. Most of the distributions which are ready for the desktop have a customer in mind who is using Windows 2000 at work or Windows ME at home. This is the user experience which they start with. I think some people here agree that is starting off a bit handicapped.
The Mac customer does not even want to know what a driver is or does.
The point I'm bearly making here is its about the customer ... and what experience you want for that customer. Will Linux overtake the desktop? ... Sure if the desktop really begins to abstract the fact you are running Linux and does a better job of creating the a great customer experience for more customers than everyone else.
Please don't take this as flaimbait, but ... this article tells me nothing new. Its a great one to pass on to my boss .. but come on.One more summary of the open source movement article and i'll puke.
I mean no disrespect to the author. it was written very well. There is no News for Nerds here. I don't mean to be negative. I enjoy the community and most of the articles are really good. But I just can't take another ... history of open source software/anti microsoft article for the world to cut its teeth on.
I'm sorry to sound critical but I wonder how many others here feel the same way.
We will make it so easy to switch over ... no money down ...lock in forever.
Yes ... and over here the dog faced boy .... yes hurry hurry hurry!!!
That is what may be at stake people. Now for a few dollars more your result can come up in the search first (invisible to the user with respect to search engine).
It sounds like a great way to get advert dollars. Companies will switch ....they need to pump as much into their advertising dollar and get the most for their buck. Think about it 95% of the desktops already! Do the math! They are getting hit all over for Office and Corporate productivity software.
Match that up with DRM. Now those pesky open source software binaries will have trouble getting on MS desktops (keeping in mind most people will not be as savy as Slashdotters). A pristine Windows environment once again. It may slow down GNU/Linux on the desktop.
It isn't just MS paranoia or is it?
I have always admired his direction.
He is pretty hands off with respect to the artists from my understanding. Just creates an environment for great art to thrive.
Bravo Pixar!
Check out what Robert Fripp has to say and the DiciplineGlobalMobile label.
Chekc out http://www.disciplineglobalmobile.com/diary/
an excerpt:
Business imposes limitations and restrictions upon music and musicians. This is inevitable. But the mainstream music industry often, even mostly, determines and directs the music which is available to the public. Business may legitimately recognise areas of public interest which are not being addressed, but should not make musical choices for musicians. Neither should business apply pressure to make musicians conform to industry "common practices" and concerns. Industry agencies do this in a number of ways, some of which are honest and some of which involve lying, misrepresentation and threats, even corruption of the musician's better nature. Some are subtle and invidious. Some are blatant. Some are the result of an inexorable and ongoing embrace. They are rarely innocent.
We as a community have many freedoms because we are all willing to fight for them. Love him or not Richard Stallman has done a lot for this community and others like it. Someone needs to champion the music community in the same way
She should be in jail ... mkay. Cause insider trading is bad ... mkay. We gotta put that on TV ...mkay. Gotta get the message out ...mkay
Linux Communiy: Well, trashing a whole software movement to gain financially is not network worthy news?
Software is too technical ... mkay. Most folks don't understand why the little blond haired Linux boy is that important ...mkay. We need to get Martha mkay, she's bad ... mkay.
The whole thing is very frustrating!
I have sampled firebird and I am very excited on this new direction. It is a shame AOL has sealed a deal with MS. They don't really understand what they have!
Great products like this and the community surrounding them have made me appriciate free software more and more.
Thanks Mozilla
but also brings many real opportunities, such as remote logins where X forwarding is not possible, or remote logins over very slow modem lines.
If security is our main concern our community should then form a culture around it and get everyone involved. Look at what OpenBSD community has acieved by creating a culture around security with minimal effort of the user.
Perhaps a culture around security with high availability and operability could be a win win for the community as a whole.
Lets not rest on our laurels. This community has gained so much in a short amount of time. Lets move forward once again and gain more ground.
This comes from someone who runs GNU/Linux on old Mac hardware (Powermac 6400 with 80 MB of RAM).
Free software will help your in the walet and provide you freedoms Apple do not provide under Mac OS.
I have enjoyed a pretty snappy OS since I moved from Mac OS 9.
Could this overall decrease the use of current energy sources by that percentage?
Could that then lead to lower energy prices due to decreased demand?
Could this lead to lowering our dependacy on foreign oil?
If a device becomes so ubiquitous that large scale damage could be done if a flaw exists the product should not be released if this flaw is known before release. We all know that testing of products before release can not find every problem. Major problems should be found. Imagine if a software house as a punishment for anti-trust violations (and majority market share) and broad reaching security flaws had to (by law) refund the purchase of terribly insecure software AND provide a free upgrade once all security fixes were in place ..
imagine slower software release cycles by cathedral software houses ....
imagine overall more secure products which still have to be easy to use ...
imagine better software.
It is schedules which kill cathedral house software not QA.
The fortune 500 company could be Dell. Why not help M$ and SCO spread the FUD. They don't want to see IBM eat into their server market anymore.
I don't want to make toys ... I want to be a patent lawyer!
One has the freedom to configure their system as they would like. To configure the system correctly one learns from going through the process. For those who are aspiring software developers, this is a rewarding challenge. Here is an opportunity to do this with a relatively easy system. For those with older workstations this is a better way to go such that you are in control of what to add to your system and how to optimize the kernel compile. It may not be twice as fast but its *your* system. Freedoms such as this should be highly valued and praised in todays software industry. Bravo gentoo!
How many sides would the 1 cent coin have?