I really don't see how this matters.. After all Phoenix/Firebird is going to become Mozilla ( http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap.html ) after a few versions. Unless of course they are ditching the Mozilla name for Firebird, but I don't see that happening.
Ooooh, IT managers just LOVE to adopt platforms where the only admins they can find are shakedown artists.
Shakedown artists? No, more like "people who are seriously interested in computers." It only helps to have Linux/UNIX listed in your resume. If people aren't educating themselves in this area, then its their loss, the industry will leave those people behind. Those who are competitive will remain.
Why are you people always talking about "free as in beer"? Is there some open-source beer around somewhere? I haven't seen any free beer in many years...
Hmmm.. well.. I drink free beer every saturday. But I tip my bartender well for providing me with it.
I think this is to clarify that is free, because there is the idea of nonfree open source software. Though I think nonfree may be considered "shared source" these days.
One advantage of using VNC over X is that with X if you break the connection, all your programs close, while with VNC the desktop keeps running...this is an important consideration with a mobile, battery-powered device like a Palm.
Good point. That is definitely one of the advantages I find with VNC and other remote desktops, you can do what you need with the desktop, disconnect, and re-connect later and everything is how you left it.
Speaking of VNC over X, I've actually used VNC in a remote X session before:)
Personally, I don't own either due to the cost factor, but I can understand the advantage of both. I would love the ability to remotely access my PC's at home, from anywhere, at anytime. Once cellular Internet access becomes more affordable I will go this route. Though, yeah, maybe I wouldn't find myself using it as much as I think I would.
Because X makes such efficient use of network resources, right?
No, because remote X allows you to open up only the particular application you want to run. This could be advantageous on a PDA, where it may have a chance of fitting on the screen, whereas, with something like VNC you get the whole desktop which may be difficult to manage on a PDA, even if the desktop is only 640x480.
who cares? There's more to life than the Internet and computers. There will always be people who don't bother. Just like there are people who don't bother to watch TV...
It looks like 3 monitors to me. The two on the sides look like flat-panel monitors. Though, I don't know, it looks like one long monitor at other times.
I agree that XBox is worthless if all you want to do is run Linux. I'd much rather spend money on a PC. What are you going to do with only 64 MB of RAM (that is shared between CPU and video card)?
I don't think this is all a big ploy by MS, but it's possible, and I'm sure they're certainly taking all these factors into consideration. I tend to be very skeptical about the stories of MS losing money on the XBox. Even if it were true, you could compare it to them not making money on Windows. People pirate the hell out of Windows, but this only benefits Microsoft by creating a larger user base. If a bunch of people start buying XBox's, thinking Microsoft is losing money on them, I only see MS benefiting from this.
With an installed userbase, MS can release some killer app or hardware that is so tempting, that even the Linux zealots buy it up. Maybe something along the lines of PVR functionality, who knows. If you bought an XBox for just Linux, wouldn't you be tempted to buy Halo? Let's say people start pirating games so MSFT no longer makes money on games in these cases. Well, this just helps the word-of-mouth factor. Someone comes over and plays your pirated games, and says "hey this is really cool" and then goes and buys an XBox and a bunch of games.
Or maybe MSFT has refined their manuafacturing process to the point where they are pulling a profit on consoles. If we have Walmart PC's as cheap as they are, why can't MSFT cheaply produce the XBox? If they are pulling a profit (which I think they are), they are probably laughing their asses off at all these people buying XBox's just to run Linux, thinking they are somehow hurting MSFT.
I personally can care less about the XBox. It's cool that Linux runs on it, but only for those people who already own one. Buy a console for only one reason: to play the games.
This takes all the fun out of massage. Give me a nice sexy woman to rub me down, and I'll rub her down too. Get some of that massage oil stuff and she'll be forced to take off her shirt... and pants if you're lucky.
It is now illegal to use your telephone, record player, computer, and PDA, in a any manner whatsoever. Thank you.
"It is now illegal to be alive. Do not attempt to kill yourself, that is illegal too. Please turn yourself in immediately, so that you can spend the rest of your life in the prison we have built for you."
But the XBOX is an x86 architecture and evidently CAN run linux, it's also comparatively cheap.
True, but if all you want to do is run Linux, the money would be better spent assembling a PC, unless you plan to use the XBox for gaming. With 64 MB of RAM, you aren't going to be able to do much. And, correct me if I'm wrong, this 64 MB of RAM is shared by the CPU and the video card, leaving you with even less usable RAM.
Maybe it'd make a decent set-top box.. but I use a PC for that purpose as well. AFAIK, you can't record video with an XBox.
I guess if you have to troll AIM to get pussy, this is a benefit. I hereby bequeath my quota of AOL-skanks to you, my humble servant.:)
No, silly.. I don't meet these girls on AOL/AIM. I meet them in person (is that such a hard concept to understand?), and find out later that they use AOL. Granted, I've made some booty calls over AIM in the past, but this was with girls I already knew in person who lived a few blocks away from me.
But, hey, if someone's actually getting laid by meeting chicks on AOL, I say good for them. I've seen that happen too and that's definitely one of the advantages of AOL.
I hate AOL and all their users, but damn, this sounds great! Best of luck, AOL!
Well, maybe if you are hanging out with bunch of geek guys, you may form this attitude. I hang out with a lot of hot chicks, in the 20-25 age group. Some of them use AOL. They are generally not idiots, and many of them are using it because their parents have it and its free to them. Some of them have recognized that AOL sucks and have either switched to something else, or are planning on switching. Yeah, AOL sucks dick, but also, some of the chicks who use AOL suck dick too which makes it all good.
The Dreamcast turned out to be a great money maker for Sega didn't it... good thing it could play copies without mods!
Yeah, it's a shame, it was a great system (though the stock controller sucked). I don't think the fact that it could play copies without mods was the reason it failed (it would've failed anyways), though that certainly didn't help sell any games. If the Dreamcast was as popular as the PSX, for example, piracy would not have hurt Sega much. The vast majority of people don't even think to pirate games.
When I was in college, everyone I know had either a mod chip in their PSX, or used a hacked action replay. Copies of PSX games were seen in everyone's collection. Though this was college, where you have plenty of engineers soldering chips and plenty of people with CD writers. For the Dreamcast, it was a little more difficult. Getting the game off a GD-ROM disc was not that easy (until the ethernet adapter came out, but that was after Dreamcast was already dead), at least not as easy as soldering in a mod chip, renting a game, and making a copy with a CD-writer. You had to know someone who was connected, or you had to be lucky enough to find a source on the Internet (I couldn't find any copies myself amd bought all my titles). Dreamcast copies are more common these days, though.
Bah, games, I don't have time for them, so none of these companies are getting any of my money anyways. The XBox is worthless to me, even if it can run Linux. I'd rather use the money to assemble yet another x86 box to run Linux/*BSD on.
Of course, all you budding warez kiddies (excuse me again, Linux enthusiasts) need know that if you leave it bridged, your bios can be flashed at any time, like say from some joker who puts bios-destroying code in a file called "Halo 2.ISO" and uploads it to your favorite gene6 ftp.
So you should unbridge it once you are done with the flash?
Although everyone yells "warez" when they here about something like this, and it's probably true, there are some legitimate uses. Independantly written software is one of them, look at the Dreamcast. Though, yeah, the Dreamcast is well known for allowing copies to run with no mods. I own one, though I don't have any pirated games, I run Linux and other free software on it. I would have to say the PSX was the most popular machine for playing copied games.
Considering it costs about US$0.50/ hour on dialup out here(India)... $16.50 for a 24/7 connection.. is a great deal for people that just want to use it for email and stuff.
That's 24/7 connection with a 500 MB limit.
Take your $0.50 dialup, assume that you are getting 5k/sec. It would cost you $13.88 to download 500 MB if you were doing a constant 5k/sec. So yeah, you are right. This flat rate deal is better than dialup for people just doing e-mail, instant messaging, and light web browsing.
Last time I was in India, cable modems seemed to be pretty common. I wonder what they are costing? My cousin did most of his Internet access from cyber cafes, which seemed to be rather inexpensive.
Doing a quick search shows that cable modem access can cost anywhere from 1000 Rs ($20.40) to 4000 Rs ($81.63). That 4000 Rs one, was 2000 Rs ($40.82) a month if you subscribe for 6 months in advance, and that's unlimited 24/7 access but limited to one computer. I would imagine of course this varies depending on the area.
Hmmm.. I would have to say $0.50/hour is a rip off, as is the $16.50 deal. The cable modem prices I looked at are reasonable for the value, but still expensive. I'm sure these prices will go down over the next few years, as there is a huge amount of growth in technology in India.
I don't think Everquest is for geeks at all. The real geeks are spending their time and intelligence on creative projects. Real geeks are writing code, designing hardware, solving math problems, etc. Everquest is as much for geeks as The Sims is for geeks.
Slashdot Mirror
I really don't see how this matters.. After all Phoenix/Firebird is going to become Mozilla ( http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap.html ) after a few versions. Unless of course they are ditching the Mozilla name for Firebird, but I don't see that happening.
Ooooh, IT managers just LOVE to adopt platforms where the only admins they can find are shakedown artists.
Shakedown artists? No, more like "people who are seriously interested in computers." It only helps to have Linux/UNIX listed in your resume. If people aren't educating themselves in this area, then its their loss, the industry will leave those people behind. Those who are competitive will remain.
Why are you people always talking about "free as in beer"? Is there some open-source beer around somewhere? I haven't seen any free beer in many years...
Hmmm.. well.. I drink free beer every saturday. But I tip my bartender well for providing me with it.
Sure, linux is free, but it's not quite that simple for some people...
That's actually kinda comforting.. Because when Linux expertise becomes high in demand (which is happening), there will be a short supply.
FOSS = Free Open Source Software
I think this is to clarify that is free, because there is the idea of nonfree open source software. Though I think nonfree may be considered "shared source" these days.
isnt it ironic how most open source developers are supported by software corporations that make software for microsoft operating systems?
I guess... If you consider Java and Oracle apps to be software for microsoft operating systems..
Sorry to break this to you, but Windows is dead.
One advantage of using VNC over X is that with X if you break the connection, all your programs close, while with VNC the desktop keeps running...this is an important consideration with a mobile, battery-powered device like a Palm.
:)
Good point. That is definitely one of the advantages I find with VNC and other remote desktops, you can do what you need with the desktop, disconnect, and re-connect later and everything is how you left it.
Speaking of VNC over X, I've actually used VNC in a remote X session before
Is that a laptop in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
PDA fits in your pocket; laptop does not
Personally, I don't own either due to the cost factor, but I can understand the advantage of both. I would love the ability to remotely access my PC's at home, from anywhere, at anytime. Once cellular Internet access becomes more affordable I will go this route. Though, yeah, maybe I wouldn't find myself using it as much as I think I would.
Because X makes such efficient use of network resources, right?
No, because remote X allows you to open up only the particular application you want to run. This could be advantageous on a PDA, where it may have a chance of fitting on the screen, whereas, with something like VNC you get the whole desktop which may be difficult to manage on a PDA, even if the desktop is only 640x480.
who cares? There's more to life than the Internet and computers. There will always be people who don't bother. Just like there are people who don't bother to watch TV...
It looks like 3 monitors to me. The two on the sides look like flat-panel monitors. Though, I don't know, it looks like one long monitor at other times.
I agree that XBox is worthless if all you want to do is run Linux. I'd much rather spend money on a PC. What are you going to do with only 64 MB of RAM (that is shared between CPU and video card)?
I don't think this is all a big ploy by MS, but it's possible, and I'm sure they're certainly taking all these factors into consideration. I tend to be very skeptical about the stories of MS losing money on the XBox. Even if it were true, you could compare it to them not making money on Windows. People pirate the hell out of Windows, but this only benefits Microsoft by creating a larger user base. If a bunch of people start buying XBox's, thinking Microsoft is losing money on them, I only see MS benefiting from this.
With an installed userbase, MS can release some killer app or hardware that is so tempting, that even the Linux zealots buy it up. Maybe something along the lines of PVR functionality, who knows. If you bought an XBox for just Linux, wouldn't you be tempted to buy Halo? Let's say people start pirating games so MSFT no longer makes money on games in these cases. Well, this just helps the word-of-mouth factor. Someone comes over and plays your pirated games, and says "hey this is really cool" and then goes and buys an XBox and a bunch of games.
Or maybe MSFT has refined their manuafacturing process to the point where they are pulling a profit on consoles. If we have Walmart PC's as cheap as they are, why can't MSFT cheaply produce the XBox? If they are pulling a profit (which I think they are), they are probably laughing their asses off at all these people buying XBox's just to run Linux, thinking they are somehow hurting MSFT.
I personally can care less about the XBox. It's cool that Linux runs on it, but only for those people who already own one. Buy a console for only one reason: to play the games.
This takes all the fun out of massage. Give me a nice sexy woman to rub me down, and I'll rub her down too. Get some of that massage oil stuff and she'll be forced to take off her shirt... and pants if you're lucky.
4 GB of Compact Flash
I don't really call $100 "affordable" for 1.5GB.
I agree. Gimme 1.5 GB of flash ram for $100 and I'll be happy. But hard drives tend to be too delicate.
It is now illegal to use your telephone, record player, computer, and PDA, in a any manner whatsoever. Thank you.
"It is now illegal to be alive. Do not attempt to kill yourself, that is illegal too. Please turn yourself in immediately, so that you can spend the rest of your life in the prison we have built for you."
But the XBOX is an x86 architecture and evidently CAN run linux, it's also comparatively cheap.
True, but if all you want to do is run Linux, the money would be better spent assembling a PC, unless you plan to use the XBox for gaming. With 64 MB of RAM, you aren't going to be able to do much. And, correct me if I'm wrong, this 64 MB of RAM is shared by the CPU and the video card, leaving you with even less usable RAM.
Maybe it'd make a decent set-top box.. but I use a PC for that purpose as well. AFAIK, you can't record video with an XBox.
I guess if you have to troll AIM to get pussy, this is a benefit. I hereby bequeath my quota of AOL-skanks to you, my humble servant. :)
No, silly.. I don't meet these girls on AOL/AIM. I meet them in person (is that such a hard concept to understand?), and find out later that they use AOL. Granted, I've made some booty calls over AIM in the past, but this was with girls I already knew in person who lived a few blocks away from me.
But, hey, if someone's actually getting laid by meeting chicks on AOL, I say good for them. I've seen that happen too and that's definitely one of the advantages of AOL.
I hate AOL and all their users, but damn, this sounds great! Best of luck, AOL!
Well, maybe if you are hanging out with bunch of geek guys, you may form this attitude. I hang out with a lot of hot chicks, in the 20-25 age group. Some of them use AOL. They are generally not idiots, and many of them are using it because their parents have it and its free to them. Some of them have recognized that AOL sucks and have either switched to something else, or are planning on switching. Yeah, AOL sucks dick, but also, some of the chicks who use AOL suck dick too which makes it all good.
I personally like the tin cases they have been sending the CD's in lately. The AOL CD goes directly into the trash, and I fill the tin up with CD-R's.
The Dreamcast turned out to be a great money maker for Sega didn't it... good thing it could play copies without mods!
Yeah, it's a shame, it was a great system (though the stock controller sucked). I don't think the fact that it could play copies without mods was the reason it failed (it would've failed anyways), though that certainly didn't help sell any games. If the Dreamcast was as popular as the PSX, for example, piracy would not have hurt Sega much. The vast majority of people don't even think to pirate games.
When I was in college, everyone I know had either a mod chip in their PSX, or used a hacked action replay. Copies of PSX games were seen in everyone's collection. Though this was college, where you have plenty of engineers soldering chips and plenty of people with CD writers. For the Dreamcast, it was a little more difficult. Getting the game off a GD-ROM disc was not that easy (until the ethernet adapter came out, but that was after Dreamcast was already dead), at least not as easy as soldering in a mod chip, renting a game, and making a copy with a CD-writer. You had to know someone who was connected, or you had to be lucky enough to find a source on the Internet (I couldn't find any copies myself amd bought all my titles). Dreamcast copies are more common these days, though.
Bah, games, I don't have time for them, so none of these companies are getting any of my money anyways. The XBox is worthless to me, even if it can run Linux. I'd rather use the money to assemble yet another x86 box to run Linux/*BSD on.
Of course, all you budding warez kiddies (excuse me again, Linux enthusiasts) need know that if you leave it bridged, your bios can be flashed at any time, like say from some joker who puts bios-destroying code in a file called "Halo 2.ISO" and uploads it to your favorite gene6 ftp.
So you should unbridge it once you are done with the flash?
Although everyone yells "warez" when they here about something like this, and it's probably true, there are some legitimate uses. Independantly written software is one of them, look at the Dreamcast. Though, yeah, the Dreamcast is well known for allowing copies to run with no mods. I own one, though I don't have any pirated games, I run Linux and other free software on it. I would have to say the PSX was the most popular machine for playing copied games.
Considering it costs about US$0.50/ hour on dialup out here(India) ... $16.50 for a 24/7 connection.. is a great deal for people that just want to use it for email and stuff.
That's 24/7 connection with a 500 MB limit.
Take your $0.50 dialup, assume that you are getting 5k/sec. It would cost you $13.88 to download 500 MB if you were doing a constant 5k/sec. So yeah, you are right. This flat rate deal is better than dialup for people just doing e-mail, instant messaging, and light web browsing.
Last time I was in India, cable modems seemed to be pretty common. I wonder what they are costing? My cousin did most of his Internet access from cyber cafes, which seemed to be rather inexpensive.
Doing a quick search shows that cable modem access can cost anywhere from 1000 Rs ($20.40) to 4000 Rs ($81.63). That 4000 Rs one, was 2000 Rs ($40.82) a month if you subscribe for 6 months in advance, and that's unlimited 24/7 access but limited to one computer. I would imagine of course this varies depending on the area.
Hmmm.. I would have to say $0.50/hour is a rip off, as is the $16.50 deal. The cable modem prices I looked at are reasonable for the value, but still expensive. I'm sure these prices will go down over the next few years, as there is a huge amount of growth in technology in India.
I don't think Everquest is for geeks at all. The real geeks are spending their time and intelligence on creative projects. Real geeks are writing code, designing hardware, solving math problems, etc. Everquest is as much for geeks as The Sims is for geeks.