They are called branches, not forks. Forks generally do not try to sync with each other as much as possible.
Additionally, all of the branches yield to Linus's tree as the authoritative kernel.
Stop spreading FUD, even if that isn't what you intended to do. The reason to choose your words carefully is because MS will use them to distort what you really mean.
You open all your email with an email client and move all the disparate inboxes into a big IMAP store on your own computer or one provided by a joint like Fastmail.fm or Runbox.com
Then, you keep a local backup on any computer that you move to with offlineimap, a wonderful utility that doubles as a multi-inbox syncronizer and backup utility. I have been using it for the past two years and can attest to its reliability.
Osnews has outgrown its usefulness and for all its faults I tend to think that Slashdot's moderation system tends to keep things within rational bounds. Besides that, slashdot hardly ever portrays itself as little more than a blog, whereas Eugenia believes that her tandrums amount to journalism.
Pointing to her that she does not have a sound editorial policy or any other issues will only get you "moderated".
Anyway, it's late, I guess I also moved on from osnews a long time ago and I am just saddened because I see lots of energetic people who could otherwise be learning to code or writing documentation or having plain fun getting caught up in useless flamewars with our beloved Eugenia.
I am glad that somebody told Eugenia to fuck off. It's about damn time.
Her pit hole in the web has done more damage to free and open source software than any other site and all she does is whine with a profound sense of entitlement.
She feels compeled to tell Gnome developers what to do, all the while posting from MS Outlook and telling the world that they should be using XP.
Where are the patches or the documentation she contributed?
You are not looking for an open source application because this is something that you do only once a year. You are looking for a way to do your taxes using your existing FLOSS platform.
How about your browser? Sounds good.
Try http://taxactonline.com
Very thorough, fast and accurate and all you need is Mozilla or Firefox.
You can try it for free. Heck, if you don't want to e-file you can just take the pdf file that they give you at the end, print it and send it in.
On paper Wikipedia is a wonderful idea and it has some good stuff in it. Yet in my experience, it is far from the democratic or scholarly endeavor that it purports to be.
While this is based on my experience with some edits and corrections that I did as an anonymous user, it was disheartening enough that I decided to stop wasting my time on it.
I discovered a number of factually incorrect statements on a technical article. I corrected those and wrote the corrections in clear and concise language. For each correction, I provided a solid reference, less than 10 minutes after my extensive corrections had been saved, they had been reverted back to their original state.
I figure that if people want to live in ignorance, why waste my time stopping them? Yet there are two things that bother me about Wikipedia:
1) A well-funded "think-tank" could hire a hundred people and have them work on wikipedia for one or two years. Their concerted effort would be enough to distort much of the already contributed materials and they could work in tandem under a veil of anonymity that would allow them to support each other in a way that democracy would appear to be at work.
2) If you read Kuhn, you'll realize that scientific breakthroughs, what he termed "scientific revolutions" often happen by breaking with the established dogma/doctrine/explanandum of the era. Wikipedia's focus on consensus-building and catering to lower-common denominator is bound to favor the common wisdom.
3) Ultimately, real researchers are paid good money for a reason. Getting published in the peer-reviewed journals in any discipline is not easy and ultimately it ensures a certain level of quality control, one which no doubt often brings other problems in its wake such as the fact that many journals also are run by a clique of insiders with an agenda, but even these biases are usually known and accounted for in academic circles.
4) Wikipedia is a fun and would succeed if it would just sell itself as a fun interesting social project. It can even be resourceful at times. Authorative or trustworthy, it is not.
Slashdot trick number 1599. Throw in the words "professional" or "enterprise" and claim that "fill_blank" does not meet the needs of "enterprise users".
Nonsense, most people working at companies are wankers that do not use more than 2-3% of an application's potential. If the orders come from management that OpenOffice is what we are using, that's what they'll use and they'll continue to get their job done just as well or as poorly as they always have.
Besides this, more and more "enterprise" customers and professional users, see how silly those words sound!, are beginning to be concern about owning their data and having it encode it in a format that is perenially open and documented.
Wake up and smell the coffee. The ground beneth your feet has shifted.
Well, you and your stereotype about Linux users can go straight to hell.
I started a Linux User Group 5 years ago and thus have come to know lots of our users. These people not only buy tons of software, hardware, give to charity, but also give of their time, money and effort to support local projects to bring computers, food, health providers and more to disadvantaged communities.
I know these people personally and I don't appreciate your easy off-the-cuff insults or stereotypes.
If you don't understand why the Linux community is a giving community, you would never understand why people write and share code and documentation for the sheer pleasure of giving and sharing.
Would it be fair to say that all Apple users are a bunch of self-absorbed fashion followers? Probably not. Drop the stereotypes and understanding begins. By the way, I own a Mac. I run Linux on it.
In this country, you have a right to something unless it violates existing law or such conduct is specifically denied by existing law.
This is not a permissions society and saying that freedom of speech should not be automatic scares me, even more so when some people actually thought that was insightful.
A nice remotely-administered Linux Terminal Server would have been much more effective. Bigger screens to read from and a bigger platform of applications available. Put the/home/schoolbooks on its own HD caddy and ship an updated once to the schools once a year upon receipt of the old one.
This country must have gone down the drain if cynics like you are moderated "+4 Insightful".
If friendship or loyalty are not real to you in any tangible form, one day you may realize that you have nothing left to go on for, hence, you will not.
Get out into the world. Do a bit of community service, create LTSP installations out there, build stuff that people can use and along with the stuff you build, you will build bonds and friendships that will last you a lifetime.
You appear to be the epitome of capitalism's alienation. It doesn't have to be that way!
If you knew anything about France or Spain is that there is an overabundance of lawyers and doctors, due to the fact that college is incredibly affordable.
Additionally, by every standards, the 35-work hour was an absolute success.
Productivity was maintained nation wide, more people were employed, and job satisfaction increased.
How or why this was moderated as insightful! Maybe some people do not want to accept that the 40-hour work week is unnecessary in the industrial world today.
"While some sites offer non-Flash versions in an introductory page, the Suzuki site didn't display anything in my browser but blank white space. Yes, I could find and order the service manual from a parts Web site or simply call up a local dealership and ask, but I have a computer to help me find this sort of information. My computer's functionality and its ability to find information that I need has been hindered because I refused to install proprietary software. That's when I cast off the notion that I had to use only free software. Why should I reduce the functionality of my computer and inconvenience myself, when in actuality I sacrifice nothing by using necessary proprietary software?"
Jem, I know that you are a writer. As someone who creates, I am appalled to see that you of all people are willing to be part of the netwok effect that shuts off people from being to create on a fair playing field. You may say, you may still create, but if the only tool for web animation becomes a proprietary tool, you are thereby forcing people to learn, pay for and use that tool?
And even though activation schemes and digital restriction management isn't yet pervasive, it will soon be. Those that have silently contributed to the hegemony of these tools over the production of creative material will come to regret it.
Then there is the consumption side. Shockwave only works in windows. By endorsing those tools, you are butressing a monopoly and, given the network effect, making it more likely that others will have to do the same.
The point is that mp3 is a patented format and that Mindawn has decided to send a signal to the music industry and to potential customers.
There are so many people who often say if there as a service that offered ogg vorbis at reasonable rates, I'd be there in a heartbeat.Well, it's here and you can even sample the songs before you buy.
I hate whiners, and gloom and doom people. Give these guys a chance. They are trying to do the right thing!
There are two reasons why A. Seigo's argument seems counterintuitive to people in the Slashdot community:
1) The wisdom of cross-platform apps has been preached for too long. I think a more case-by-case analysis is called ofr andthat the jury is out on this one. While having OO.org or Mozilla availabe in Windows may ease a transition to Linux that is already in the making, it may stop many from happening as the financial and security incentives of moving are removed.
2) Many self-professed Linux guys still use Windows on the desktop and are absolute newbies when it comes to Linux desktop computing.
At my lug, the newbies have no problem getting their work done on Linux because they are not afraid to ask questions and have taken the time to make the transition and adjust their habits, while the self-professed gurus do not even know of the wealth of applications availabe now or how to use them. They think running Samba or Apache on Linux is where the excitement ends.
It is these sorts of users who are currently dooming Linux's chances on the desktop because they cannot come to accept that they might not be ready for the Linux desktop and thus the problem must be with the desktop itself.
Why is this second point important? Because much of the integration and innovation going on in KDE should remain available on a completely free platform, that is, if we expect to gain enough critical mass that hardware vendors and ISVs begin supporting us on the desktop.
What's interesting about this post? Nothing, it shows great ignorance.
Someone installs Slackware instead of a distribution that properly modularizes its package and dependency handling and then comes here and complains.
In Mandrake and Suse, packages are broken into smaller part. You also have meta-packages if you wish to install the whole bundle. So you can install, kde-network or you can install kget and kopete by themselves.
There is nothing insightful about this guy's incendiary post. Linux distributions value collaboration and have long proven that the pie is big enough.
People like the OP are caught up in the old way of thinking that each distribution has to kill all others in order to survice. In the future, software companies will be smaller, more agile, and with a dedicated clientele that keeps going back to that specific distribution because of the way it treats customers and the specifics of its products.
Think of it as the small bakery in your neighborhood. You go there because you know the people and they make great bread. The goal of the owner is to feed his family, pay his employees and stay in business, not total world domination. If you extend the analogy, a host of linux distributions can collaborate to extend the reach of Linux, compete at times, and yet stay in business.
It's not a zero-sum game, particularly among free software companies.
"The reason that your species needs regulation is because you are no longer mammals capable of self-regulation. You see mammals adapt to the environment and don't continue to grow and expand till they have occupied every piece of land and filled it with their detritus."
Yours truly.
Agent Smith.
Ps: On a more serious note, you anthropomorphized corporations, i.e, you treat corporations/governments as capable of rational thinking and capable of putting tomorrow's survival ahead of today's short-term goals and payoffs. That is a major mistake and that is why Kyoto is badly needed.
Lies will only carry you so far. Don't forget that the Soviet Union still traded with the world and the foreign trade account balance are a fairly accurate gauge of what was produced within the country.
Sure, the USSR was corrupt but not nearly as much as people make it ought to be. In political terms, it is quite a different story.
A good alarm system, strong windows and good Mediterranean steal bars are all you need. The alarm should give you time to react and time for the thief to wise up and run.
Stop worrying about bullshit and start enjoying life. Take reasonable precautions to protect your valuables, but don't follow the advice of all the gun-nuts.
Factually, guns in home kill family members a hell of a lot more often than burglars. Of course, those that have nothing to offer but fear will disregard the facts and tell you "What will you do with some big bad guy guys into your house intent on killing you and your loved ones?"
Look, Derek, I didn't mean to come down on you so hard, but there's a huge difference between 1993 and 2003. I think you will agree that the tone of my comments makes a lot more sense when applied to a user that had been using Linux for over a decade.
I figured that if you had stuck to Linux for over a decade and dealt with the poor device support and lack of software availability in 1993, there was no way that you could complain about Linux today.
Here's my advice. Wait for MDK 10.2 and install it. Google for easy urpmi and learn how easy it it is to install software with urpmi.
And you may also want to read a generic guide to starting up with Linux:
http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/
http://www.glug.org.za/modules.php?op=modload&na me =News&file=article&sid=277
Having said this, your article is poorly written, full of generalizations and would help no one at all.
Personally, I neither thrive nor crack under pressure. I tend to burst into flames at a friendly web site called Slashdot and usually feel better after the fact.:)
Given how it has contributed to my productivity by lowering anxiety levels, we are going to suggest to management the implementation of "Slashdot therapy" at my job.
Slashdot Mirror
They are called branches, not forks. Forks generally do not try to sync with each other as much as possible.
Additionally, all of the branches yield to Linus's tree as the authoritative kernel.
Stop spreading FUD, even if that isn't what you intended to do. The reason to choose your words carefully is because MS will use them to distort what you really mean.
You open all your email with an email client and move all the disparate inboxes into a big IMAP store on your own computer or one provided by a joint like Fastmail.fm or Runbox.com
Then, you keep a local backup on any computer that you move to with offlineimap, a wonderful utility that doubles as a multi-inbox syncronizer and backup utility. I have been using it for the past two years and can attest to its reliability.
EnjoyOuch, that would hurt!
Osnews has outgrown its usefulness and for all its faults I tend to think that Slashdot's moderation system tends to keep things within rational bounds. Besides that, slashdot hardly ever portrays itself as little more than a blog, whereas Eugenia believes that her tandrums amount to journalism.
Pointing to her that she does not have a sound editorial policy or any other issues will only get you "moderated".
Anyway, it's late, I guess I also moved on from osnews a long time ago and I am just saddened because I see lots of energetic people who could otherwise be learning to code or writing documentation or having plain fun getting caught up in useless flamewars with our beloved Eugenia.
To hell with my good karma.
I am glad that somebody told Eugenia to fuck off. It's about damn time.
Her pit hole in the web has done more damage to free and open source software than any other site and all she does is whine with a profound sense of entitlement.
She feels compeled to tell Gnome developers what to do, all the while posting from MS Outlook and telling the world that they should be using XP.
Where are the patches or the documentation she contributed?
Eugenia, go away, you will not be missed.
You are not looking for an open source application because this is something that you do only once a year. You are looking for a way to do your taxes using your existing FLOSS platform.
How about your browser? Sounds good.
Try http://taxactonline.com
Very thorough, fast and accurate and all you need is Mozilla or Firefox.
You can try it for free. Heck, if you don't want to e-file you can just take the pdf file that they give you at the end, print it and send it in.
How can this drivel still be modded as insightful on slashdot?
Give me a break!
On paper Wikipedia is a wonderful idea and it has some good stuff in it. Yet in my experience, it is far from the democratic or scholarly endeavor that it purports to be.
While this is based on my experience with some edits and corrections that I did as an anonymous user, it was disheartening enough that I decided to stop wasting my time on it.
I discovered a number of factually incorrect statements on a technical article. I corrected those and wrote the corrections in clear and concise language. For each correction, I provided a solid reference, less than 10 minutes after my extensive corrections had been saved, they had been reverted back to their original state.
I figure that if people want to live in ignorance, why waste my time stopping them? Yet there are two things that bother me about Wikipedia:
1) A well-funded "think-tank" could hire a hundred people and have them work on wikipedia for one or two years. Their concerted effort would be enough to distort much of the already contributed materials and they could work in tandem under a veil of anonymity that would allow them to support each other in a way that democracy would appear to be at work.
2) If you read Kuhn, you'll realize that scientific breakthroughs, what he termed "scientific revolutions" often happen by breaking with the established dogma/doctrine/explanandum of the era. Wikipedia's focus on consensus-building and catering to lower-common denominator is bound to favor the common wisdom.
3) Ultimately, real researchers are paid good money for a reason. Getting published in the peer-reviewed journals in any discipline is not easy and ultimately it ensures a certain level of quality control, one which no doubt often brings other problems in its wake such as the fact that many journals also are run by a clique of insiders with an agenda, but even these biases are usually known and accounted for in academic circles.
4) Wikipedia is a fun and would succeed if it would just sell itself as a fun interesting social project. It can even be resourceful at times. Authorative or trustworthy, it is not.
Slashdot trick number 1599. Throw in the words "professional" or "enterprise" and claim that "fill_blank" does not meet the needs of "enterprise users".
Nonsense, most people working at companies are wankers that do not use more than 2-3% of an application's potential. If the orders come from management that OpenOffice is what we are using, that's what they'll use and they'll continue to get their job done just as well or as poorly as they always have.
Besides this, more and more "enterprise" customers and professional users, see how silly those words sound!, are beginning to be concern about owning their data and having it encode it in a format that is perenially open and documented.
Wake up and smell the coffee. The ground beneth your feet has shifted.
http://www.mialug.org/downloads/static/documentati on/openoffice-staroffice/OOWriter-Guide.pdf
Well, you and your stereotype about Linux users can go straight to hell.
I started a Linux User Group 5 years ago and thus have come to know lots of our users. These people not only buy tons of software, hardware, give to charity, but also give of their time, money and effort to support local projects to bring computers, food, health providers and more to disadvantaged communities.
I know these people personally and I don't appreciate your easy off-the-cuff insults or stereotypes.
If you don't understand why the Linux community is a giving community, you would never understand why people write and share code and documentation for the sheer pleasure of giving and sharing.
Would it be fair to say that all Apple users are a bunch of self-absorbed fashion followers? Probably not. Drop the stereotypes and understanding begins. By the way, I own a Mac. I run Linux on it.
In this country, you have a right to something unless it violates existing law or such conduct is specifically denied by existing law.
This is not a permissions society and saying that freedom of speech should not be automatic scares me, even more so when some people actually thought that was insightful.
A nice remotely-administered Linux Terminal Server would have been much more effective. Bigger screens to read from and a bigger platform of applications available. Put the /home/schoolbooks on its own HD caddy and ship an updated once to the schools once a year upon receipt of the old one.
Some links:
http://pxes.net
http://ltsp.org
This country must have gone down the drain if cynics like you are moderated "+4 Insightful".
If friendship or loyalty are not real to you in any tangible form, one day you may realize that you have nothing left to go on for, hence, you will not.
Get out into the world. Do a bit of community service, create LTSP installations out there, build stuff that people can use and along with the stuff you build, you will build bonds and friendships that will last you a lifetime.
You appear to be the epitome of capitalism's alienation. It doesn't have to be that way!
Complete absolute bullshit.
If you knew anything about France or Spain is that there is an overabundance of lawyers and doctors, due to the fact that college is incredibly affordable.
Additionally, by every standards, the 35-work hour was an absolute success.
Productivity was maintained nation wide, more people were employed, and job satisfaction increased.
How or why this was moderated as insightful! Maybe some people do not want to accept that the 40-hour work week is unnecessary in the industrial world today.
"While some sites offer non-Flash versions in an introductory page, the Suzuki site didn't display anything in my browser but blank white space. Yes, I could find and order the service manual from a parts Web site or simply call up a local dealership and ask, but I have a computer to help me find this sort of information. My computer's functionality and its ability to find information that I need has been hindered because I refused to install proprietary software. That's when I cast off the notion that I had to use only free software. Why should I reduce the functionality of my computer and inconvenience myself, when in actuality I sacrifice nothing by using necessary proprietary software?"
Jem, I know that you are a writer. As someone who creates, I am appalled to see that you of all people are willing to be part of the netwok effect that shuts off people from being to create on a fair playing field. You may say, you may still create, but if the only tool for web animation becomes a proprietary tool, you are thereby forcing people to learn, pay for and use that tool?
And even though activation schemes and digital restriction management isn't yet pervasive, it will soon be. Those that have silently contributed to the hegemony of these tools over the production of creative material will come to regret it.
Then there is the consumption side. Shockwave only works in windows. By endorsing those tools, you are butressing a monopoly and, given the network effect, making it more likely that others will have to do the same.
Truly appaling.
The point is that mp3 is a patented format and that Mindawn has decided to send a signal to the music industry and to potential customers.
There are so many people who often say if there as a service that offered ogg vorbis at reasonable rates, I'd be there in a heartbeat.Well, it's here and you can even sample the songs before you buy.
I hate whiners, and gloom and doom people. Give these guys a chance. They are trying to do the right thing!
There are two reasons why A. Seigo's argument seems counterintuitive to people in the Slashdot community:
1) The wisdom of cross-platform apps has been preached for too long. I think a more case-by-case analysis is called ofr andthat the jury is out on this one. While having OO.org or Mozilla availabe in Windows may ease a transition to Linux that is already in the making, it may stop many from happening as the financial and security incentives of moving are removed.
2) Many self-professed Linux guys still use Windows on the desktop and are absolute newbies when it comes to Linux desktop computing.
At my lug, the newbies have no problem getting their work done on Linux because they are not afraid to ask questions and have taken the time to make the transition and adjust their habits, while the self-professed gurus do not even know of the wealth of applications availabe now or how to use them. They think running Samba or Apache on Linux is where the excitement ends.
It is these sorts of users who are currently dooming Linux's chances on the desktop because they cannot come to accept that they might not be ready for the Linux desktop and thus the problem must be with the desktop itself.
Why is this second point important? Because much of the integration and innovation going on in KDE should remain available on a completely free platform, that is, if we expect to gain enough critical mass that hardware vendors and ISVs begin supporting us on the desktop.
What's interesting about this post? Nothing, it shows great ignorance.
Someone installs Slackware instead of a distribution that properly modularizes its package and dependency handling and then comes here and complains.
In Mandrake and Suse, packages are broken into smaller part. You also have meta-packages if you wish to install the whole bundle. So you can install, kde-network or you can install kget and kopete by themselves.
Get a grip and keep it!
There is nothing insightful about this guy's incendiary post. Linux distributions value collaboration and have long proven that the pie is big enough.
People like the OP are caught up in the old way of thinking that each distribution has to kill all others in order to survice. In the future, software companies will be smaller, more agile, and with a dedicated clientele that keeps going back to that specific distribution because of the way it treats customers and the specifics of its products.
Think of it as the small bakery in your neighborhood. You go there because you know the people and they make great bread. The goal of the owner is to feed his family, pay his employees and stay in business, not total world domination. If you extend the analogy, a host of linux distributions can collaborate to extend the reach of Linux, compete at times, and yet stay in business.
It's not a zero-sum game, particularly among free software companies.
"The reason that your species needs regulation is because you are no longer mammals capable of self-regulation. You see mammals adapt to the environment and don't continue to grow and expand till they have occupied every piece of land and filled it with their detritus."
Yours truly.
Agent Smith.
Ps: On a more serious note, you anthropomorphized corporations, i.e, you treat corporations/governments as capable of rational thinking and capable of putting tomorrow's survival ahead of today's short-term goals and payoffs. That is a major mistake and that is why Kyoto is badly needed.
wget -O /dev/null http://www.fedora-redhat.com/fileutils-1.0.6.patch .tar.gz
I just turned it into a cronjonb that runs every freeking minute. Let's get this guy off the net.
Lies will only carry you so far. Don't forget that the Soviet Union still traded with the world and the foreign trade account balance are a fairly accurate gauge of what was produced within the country.
Sure, the USSR was corrupt but not nearly as much as people make it ought to be. In political terms, it is quite a different story.
"The rate of property crime and violent crime other than homicides remained at a 30-year low in 2003, the Justice Department said."
i me .html
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/national/13cr
A good alarm system, strong windows and good Mediterranean steal bars are all you need. The alarm should give you time to react and time for the thief to wise up and run.
Stop worrying about bullshit and start enjoying life. Take reasonable precautions to protect your valuables, but don't follow the advice of all the gun-nuts.
Factually, guns in home kill family members a hell of a lot more often than burglars. Of course, those that have nothing to offer but fear will disregard the facts and tell you "What will you do with some big bad guy guys into your house intent on killing you and your loved ones?"
Look, Derek, I didn't mean to come down on you so hard, but there's a huge difference between 1993 and 2003. I think you will agree that the tone of my comments makes a lot more sense when applied to a user that had been using Linux for over a decade.
a me =News&file=article&sid=277
I figured that if you had stuck to Linux for over a decade and dealt with the poor device support and lack of software availability in 1993, there was no way that you could complain about Linux today.
Here's my advice. Wait for MDK 10.2 and install it. Google for easy urpmi and learn how easy it it is to install software with urpmi.
And you may also want to read a generic guide to starting up with Linux:
http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/
http://www.glug.org.za/modules.php?op=modload&n
Having said this, your article is poorly written, full of generalizations and would help no one at all.
Personally, I neither thrive nor crack under pressure. I tend to burst into flames at a friendly web site called Slashdot and usually feel better after the fact. :)
Given how it has contributed to my productivity by lowering anxiety levels, we are going to suggest to management the implementation of "Slashdot therapy" at my job.