>>> As a European, travelling internationally is not all that different than domestic travel in the US.
Please be advised that there is a vast difference between Finland and Greece, Spain and Denmark, Germany and Italy, UK and France. It has got to do with language and manners. And yes, people also look different.
>>>... a Corporal making his 14.4k a year. The next day after his EAS he started working for the Marine Corps as a contractor, billing $125k/year.... his pay-rate had over quintupled.
>>> It's like a Windows beta, except it eventually starts working right.
Correct, but why do we have to wait 3-4 months every time? The hard truth is that two significantly different releases a year cannot be achieved. The common sense consequence is to have one release every year and a maintenance package 6 months later.
Shuttleworth has relied on the fans sofar and fans need to ravel about the next version the day the current version is out. Get over it, Mark, prove that Ubuntu has asserted itself. No need for gimmicks.
KDE4 is unfinished? Another Hurd legend is getting shape. No, it is not unfinished, it is *conceptually* crap and the only sensible finishing is to dispose of it.
KDE has committed suicide but that has some positive aspects to it since it leaves just one major contender for the GNU/Linux desktop. Linus hints that GNOME is also playing deep surgery. I do hope that only means internal background workings and not wantom KDE-like destruction of the user interface.
Give KDE two years and they will have reached the distro relevance of XFCE. The practical issue is: how long will Fedora and Ubuntu take to discontinue KDE support? And how is Novell going to manage since they own both Suse (another name for KDE) amd the original GNOME authors (de Icaza et alii)?
>>> What cases? The only one that matters, SCO already lost. They do not own the copyrights that everything else rests on. >>>
No, the IBM case is not based on copyrights. SCO concedes that IBM contributions to the Linux kernel were IBM own code but they insist that IBM *needed* SCO's permission to contribute. Contractual issue.
Gnome (which I'm currently using) is the only remaining choice on X and it is tainted, avoiding Mono triggers some scepticism in me. KDE, they hung themselves up. The sundry windows managers and second tier desktop environments are not worth discussing. The only way to escape once and for all Microsoft's threats is to embrace... Well, for the moment being it is just Apple. If in 2-3 years from now Google ports Android to the PCs, you will convert to the true faith. All of which is not an argument against X, it is an argument for an alternative.
Against X and from the point of view of single users (the 900m majority around the planet): it is designed for networking and so it must have drawbacks when networking is not needed. Please don't ask me for technical evidence, I do not have it. I have been using GNU/Linux distros for about 9 years, mainly suse/opensuse, and whatever the desktop environment common applications would be slower than equivalent applications on Windows, same hardware. A matter of perception? Yes, but perception counts, especially if it gets confirmed year after year on a number of machines.
Let me honestly assert that I do not hate X. But I do long for a cosmic shift.
For about 9 years I have been using suse/opensuse. Now KDE has gone bananas and I'm moving to ubuntu. Unfortunately, GNOME is caught in the dealings between Novell and Microsoft and suffers from the patents risk against Mono. Android is totally unencumbered by KDE's weltanschaung and can heartily laugh at Microsoft, both in terms of code and in terms of approach (desktop with local applications vs. desktop with web applications). And it would imply a Linux breakthrough not in the region of 100.000 units a year but up in the millions.
I'm one of the 900m users worldwide who have a PC and a router (or possibly a dialup modem). That's my entire network, switched off about 18 hours a day. I can say nothing about X11 networking prowess except that we [the not so silent gigantic majority] don't need it.
I'm especially unhappy about the continuing effort by GNU and Linux to imitate Unix and be Unix compatible and stick to all things Unix. That might have been justified 20 years ago. Nowadays it should be the other way around: GNU and Linux go ahead and innovate and Unix follows, or maybe not, who cares.
>>>In ten years will there be any cost associated with commodity (non-custom) software?>>>
In ten years OEMs will still have to pay for Windows and so will the users (if they do not prefer to pay Apple in a bundle). And there will still be applications for the mass market that can afford high prices. Look at Adobe. Even small flies like you will be around - just with a life span of half a year.
>>>...will there still be a 'software industry' as it exists today, or will software simply be a by-product of the operation of other industries? >>>
Today's software industry is overwhelmingly producing custom software for the enterprise. That's not going to change.
>>> As a professional developer, do I need to fear this or feed it?>>>
You are essentially complaining that you cannot have a safe and comfortable life as fruit fly. Get over it.
>>> I don't know how much penetration Debian has in the enterprise, but if someone stepped up to provide paid Debian support, I think they could make a lot of money...>>>
Ian Murdock offered commercial Debian support in the late 90s with his company Progeny. They ceased operations in 2007.
You must try this in an editor: (1) ctrl-home to go to beginning of file; (2) end to go to end of line; (3) ctrl-right to go to next word; (4) shift-right to start marking a selection; (5) ctrl-c to copy selection to clipboard; (6) ctrl-v to insert from the clipboard what you copy from another application; (7) a single escape to cancel an operation. And so on. Aw-inspiring!
Of course, you first make sure it is not a Unix/Linux text console.
It is time to take note that Red Hat, SuSe and Ubuntu are still using legacy GRUB since the new GRUB 2 does not seem to be ready for prime time.
Legacy GRUB is not being developed any longer, even patches are not accepted. The project had no developers working on it for the past 3-4 years. The major distros have just forked it without saying so. And it is a company fork, each distro has its own conconction.
QUOTE: GRUB Legacy has become unmaintainable, due to messy code and design failures.:UNQUOTE
QUOTE: Although putting an option to disable the cashew for desktops sounds reasonable, from a coding point of view it would introduce unnecessary complexity and would break the design. UNQUOTE
No need to break it, just flush it down the bog.
I installed KDE 4.0.x with opensuse 11.0 and the main problem is not speed or stability. They have now improved in version 4.1, so what? The plasma crap is steaming to heaven. They have even managed to abolish the context menu on right click, imagine that. The problem is not speed or stability, the problem is the user interface. And in this respect we are enjoying developers who are just incompetent, ignorant and idiotic.
Let's hope the KDE fork will not be a long wait. There is already a proposal to recompile the 3.5 version with Qt 4.0.
Here are the highlights from the judgement. Keep in mind that currently, 1 Euro is around 1.50 Dollars.
1 The buyer requested the vendor to run the init routine and refuse the EULA. He left the shop with a blank hard disk.
2 The EULA did offer refund to the non agreeing customer.
3 It was quite clear that ASUS' offer of 25 Euros plus at least a week turn-around plus courier to be paid by the customer would defeat most customers.
4 The plaintiff got 100 Euros for Windows, 30 Euros for crapware, 150 Euros for handling/shipping. He did not get the punitive 1000 Euros he wanted.
5 All costs for the case are on ASUS.
Last but not least: this is not the first French judgement I read which is set up as a single sentence. You would not believe the wooden crap language they use.
Do some search for workspace issues in KDE and GNOME and you will be flooded by the excitement, enthusiasm and high praise of the feature: invaluable, essential, a godsend.
That godsend is missing on Apple and Microsoft systems and not by oversight. It has been missing for two decades and neither Apple nor Microsoft have given any hint that they are going into reverse. All they offer is workspaces as add-on, not included in the operating system.
To be sure the geek fanboys have been tempered in the course of time. With KDE 2.0 you had 4 workspaces minimum, no way to disable them. Nowadays both KDE and GNOME come with a default of two workspaces that can be reduced to one. Unfortunately, workspaces are still in the configuration tools offering clutter and confusion, binding keys and mouse clicks.
Let's be realistic. End users are still buying PCs with 512MB of memory, or even 256MB outside the rich Europe and America. They do not open 30 applications and leave them in memory. They need workspaces like they need a bullet in their head.
Here is one who is not a naive user. I have 1GB of memory and still I do not keep more than 3-4 programs running at once. Indeed, whenever possible, I run just one (and I power off my computer when I'm finished). But I have to go into KDE's and GNOME's configuration and clean away all the defaults for the workspaces, one by one.
All courtesy of the Unix dinos and their unerring instinct for the odd choice.
If they want to stop it, they only need to buy their own shares for $10000-$20000 once a month since the trading volume is totally insignificant.
The shareholders still left are the original extortionists with Ralph Yarro (34%) at the helm. Or investors groups that were willing to support the scheme. They are not trading, and there are no new investors.
Delisting would do away with the embarrassing quarterly reports.
They are trying to depose Groklaw's PJ in SCO vs. Novell because she apparently knew too much about Novell's Unix copyrights claim three years ago. They cannot find her, but Novell has graciously agreed to an extension so SCO have time until end of May to smoke PJ out. If they succeed, PJ will certainly object to the summons and with good reasons. Note that they have been trying to track her down from the very beginning (Summer 2003). And failed.
They are also trying to include the hoped for deposition in the SCO vs. IBM case. Why?
- The motion with explicit reference to the
summons may do as an alternative way of
serving the summons, which would dispense with
continuing investigative efforts to find the
lady.
- They want to smear IBM, depicting it as the
hidden force and money source beyond Groklaw.
The hard-core beyond the extortionist assault
on IBM has not given up on their illusions
that IBM will settle under pressure.
- They want to accumulate more confusing
material for the jury, should the case ever go
to trial. The show would run in Salt Lake City.
Imagine a small Mormon controlled local
company against an alien behemoth. And a
mountain of tough technical and contractual
issues to flatten out any jury.
- They want to re-open discovery to hinder as
much as possible progress towards Partial
Summary Judgements (PSJ). Judge Kimball
decided early 2005 that motions for PSJ would
only be accepted after end of discovery. If
discovery is re-opened now after those motions
have already been heard, he would look funny.
- They want to hamstrung PJ as Groklaw
commentator. If she becomes part of the case,
she will not be in the position to do much on
Groklaw. Groklaw without PJ would be shrinking
to insignificance in no time.
Well, the Forbes article is essentially sober and correct, which implies that somebody filtered it for Daniel Lyons. This guy is namely totally incapable of sound research and fair assessment.
Just one wishy-washy paragraph:
Novell and SCO made a Unix licensing deal in 1995. SCO says
that deal gave SCO control over the copyrights to Unix. But
Novell says it still retains the copyrights.
Here the article is equivocating on the abbreviation SCO, used both for the current litigious company, the SCO Group, and for the old Santa Cruz Operation. Read the paragraph as follows:
Novell and Santa Cruz Operation made a Unix licensing deal
in 1995. The SCO Group says that deal gave Santa Cruz
Operation control over the copyrights to Unix. But Novell
says it still retains the copyrights.
The SCO Group has already failed in positioning itself as the successor in law to the Santa Cruz Operation.
All their evidence is vaporous, all their legal arguments are contorsions. What they are trying to do now is to disturbe and hinder as much as possible several Partial Summary Judgment Motions so as to have a large mass of indigestible issues for the jurors, should the case really make it to trial.
SCOX is not trying to change its claims against IBM. It is trying to amplify its evidentiary list submitted in December 2005 just at the imposed deadline.
The requested additions to the list are late by more than one year and would interfere mightyly with the Partial Summary Judgement motions currently being briefed and set to be heard early in March.
Not only that but the proposed additions are of the vaporous kind that lead both the Discovery Magistrate and the Trial Judge to strike 184 items from the evidentiary list.
SCOX is grasping at straws, there is nothing else within reach. I thought it was tasteless that judicial officers were taunting Saddam Hussein when hanging him. But I certainly wish to see something equivalent for the SCOX bastards some day.
Slashdot Mirror
*((char *) mempcpy (dst, src, n)) = '\0';
>>> As a European, travelling internationally is not all that different than domestic travel in the US.
Please be advised that there is a vast difference between Finland and Greece, Spain and Denmark, Germany and Italy, UK and France. It has got to do with language and manners. And yes, people also look different.
>>> ... a Corporal making his 14.4k a year. The next day after his EAS he started working for the Marine Corps as a contractor, billing $125k/year. ... his pay-rate had over quintupled.
It won't happen to you: 125/14.4=8.68.
There are Windows drivers for ext2 and ext3:
(i) Installable filesystem for Windows http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html
(ii) Explore2fs http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs
In my experience, both work very well for reading but they are not quite reliable for writing.
>>> It's like a Windows beta, except it eventually starts working right.
Correct, but why do we have to wait 3-4 months every time? The hard truth is that two significantly different releases a year cannot be achieved. The common sense consequence is to have one release every year and a maintenance package 6 months later.
Shuttleworth has relied on the fans sofar and fans need to ravel about the next version the day the current version is out. Get over it, Mark, prove that Ubuntu has asserted itself. No need for gimmicks.
KDE4 is unfinished? Another Hurd legend is getting shape. No, it is not unfinished, it is *conceptually* crap and the only sensible finishing is to dispose of it.
KDE has committed suicide but that has some positive aspects to it since it leaves just one major contender for the GNU/Linux desktop. Linus hints that GNOME is also playing deep surgery. I do hope that only means internal background workings and not wantom KDE-like destruction of the user interface.
Give KDE two years and they will have reached the distro relevance of XFCE. The practical issue is: how long will Fedora and Ubuntu take to discontinue KDE support? And how is Novell going to manage since they own both Suse (another name for KDE) amd the original GNOME authors (de Icaza et alii)?
>>> What cases? The only one that matters, SCO already lost. They do not own the copyrights that everything else rests on. >>>
No, the IBM case is not based on copyrights. SCO concedes that IBM contributions to the Linux kernel were IBM own code but they insist that IBM *needed* SCO's permission to contribute. Contractual issue.
I didn't make my point very clear.
Gnome (which I'm currently using) is the only remaining choice on X and it is tainted, avoiding Mono triggers some scepticism in me. KDE, they hung themselves up. The sundry windows managers and second tier desktop environments are not worth discussing. The only way to escape once and for all Microsoft's threats is to embrace... Well, for the moment being it is just Apple. If in 2-3 years from now Google ports Android to the PCs, you will convert to the true faith. All of which is not an argument against X, it is an argument for an alternative.
Against X and from the point of view of single users (the 900m majority around the planet): it is designed for networking and so it must have drawbacks when networking is not needed. Please don't ask me for technical evidence, I do not have it. I have been using GNU/Linux distros for about 9 years, mainly suse/opensuse, and whatever the desktop environment common applications would be slower than equivalent applications on Windows, same hardware. A matter of perception? Yes, but perception counts, especially if it gets confirmed year after year on a number of machines.
Let me honestly assert that I do not hate X. But I do long for a cosmic shift.
For about 9 years I have been using suse/opensuse. Now KDE has gone bananas and I'm moving to ubuntu. Unfortunately, GNOME is caught in the dealings between Novell and Microsoft and suffers from the patents risk against Mono. Android is totally unencumbered by KDE's weltanschaung and can heartily laugh at Microsoft, both in terms of code and in terms of approach (desktop with local applications vs. desktop with web applications). And it would imply a Linux breakthrough not in the region of 100.000 units a year but up in the millions.
I'm one of the 900m users worldwide who have a PC and a router (or possibly a dialup modem). That's my entire network, switched off about 18 hours a day. I can say nothing about X11 networking prowess except that we [the not so silent gigantic majority] don't need it.
I'm especially unhappy about the continuing effort by GNU and Linux to imitate Unix and be Unix compatible and stick to all things Unix. That might have been justified 20 years ago. Nowadays it should be the other way around: GNU and Linux go ahead and innovate and Unix follows, or maybe not, who cares.
>>>In ten years will there be any cost associated with commodity (non-custom) software?>>>
In ten years OEMs will still have to pay for Windows and so will the users (if they do not prefer to pay Apple in a bundle). And there will still be applications for the mass market that can afford high prices. Look at Adobe. Even small flies like you will be around - just with a life span of half a year.
>>>...will there still be a 'software industry' as it exists today, or will software simply be a by-product of the operation of other industries? >>>
Today's software industry is overwhelmingly producing custom software for the enterprise. That's not going to change.
>>> As a professional developer, do I need to fear this or feed it?>>>
You are essentially complaining that you cannot have a safe and comfortable life as fruit fly. Get over it.
>>> I don't know how much penetration Debian has in the enterprise, but if someone stepped up to provide paid Debian support, I think they could make a lot of money...>>>
Ian Murdock offered commercial Debian support
in the late 90s with his company Progeny. They
ceased operations in 2007.
>>> OED 3. trans. To cause to disappear.
OED gives one single example of such usage,
a grammar-impaired chemist A.D. 1897.
'disappear' is transitiv in all English dictionaries for everyday usage.
You must try this in an editor: (1) ctrl-home to go to beginning of file; (2) end to go to end of line; (3) ctrl-right to go to next word; (4) shift-right to start marking a selection; (5) ctrl-c to copy selection to clipboard; (6) ctrl-v to insert from the clipboard what you copy from another application; (7) a single escape to cancel an operation. And so on. Aw-inspiring!
Of course, you first make sure it is not a Unix/Linux text console.
>>> That larger mathematical theory, if it exists...
Please make sure you never post again on mathematics.
>>>
Besides, this assumes that you still have to have MS Office and OO.o...
Microsoft provides a Word viewer for free.
It is time to take note that Red Hat, SuSe and Ubuntu are still using legacy GRUB since the new GRUB 2 does not seem to be ready for prime time.
Legacy GRUB is not being developed any longer, even patches are not accepted. The project had no developers working on it for the past 3-4 years. The major distros have just forked it without saying so. And it is a company fork, each distro has its own conconction.
QUOTE: GRUB Legacy has become unmaintainable, due to messy code and design failures. :UNQUOTE
Who said that? Not Microsoft, check here: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-2-faq.en.html
QUOTE: Although putting an option to disable the cashew for desktops sounds reasonable, from a coding point of view it would introduce unnecessary complexity and would break the design. UNQUOTE
No need to break it, just flush it down the bog.
I installed KDE 4.0.x with opensuse 11.0 and the main problem is not speed or stability. They have now improved in version 4.1, so what? The plasma crap is steaming to heaven. They have even managed to abolish the context menu on right click, imagine that. The problem is not speed or stability, the problem is the user interface. And in this respect we are enjoying developers who are just incompetent, ignorant and idiotic.
Let's hope the KDE fork will not be a long wait. There is already a proposal to recompile the 3.5 version with Qt 4.0.
QUOTE Now maybe if Markus has written a halfway compelling email, he would have received a more informative response. UNQUOTE
His English was flawless. But look at yours: have you ever make friends with English grammar?
Here are the highlights from the judgement.
Keep in mind that currently, 1 Euro is around
1.50 Dollars.
1 The buyer requested the vendor to run the init
routine and refuse the EULA. He left the shop with
a blank hard disk.
2 The EULA did offer refund to the non agreeing customer.
3 It was quite clear that ASUS' offer of 25 Euros plus at least a week turn-around plus courier to be paid by the customer would defeat most customers.
4 The plaintiff got 100 Euros for Windows, 30 Euros for crapware, 150 Euros for handling/shipping. He did not get the punitive 1000 Euros he wanted.
5 All costs for the case are on ASUS.
Last but not least: this is not the first French
judgement I read which is set up as a single sentence. You would not believe the wooden crap language they use.
Do some search for workspace issues in
KDE and GNOME and you will be flooded by
the excitement, enthusiasm and high
praise of the feature: invaluable,
essential, a godsend.
That godsend is missing on Apple and
Microsoft systems and not by oversight.
It has been missing for two decades and
neither Apple nor Microsoft have given
any hint that they are going into
reverse. All they offer is workspaces as
add-on, not included in the operating
system.
To be sure the geek fanboys have been
tempered in the course of time. With KDE
2.0 you had 4 workspaces minimum, no way
to disable them. Nowadays both KDE and
GNOME come with a default of two
workspaces that can be reduced to one.
Unfortunately, workspaces are still in
the configuration tools offering clutter
and confusion, binding keys and mouse
clicks.
Let's be realistic. End users are still
buying PCs with 512MB of memory, or even
256MB outside the rich Europe and
America. They do not open 30
applications and leave them in memory.
They need workspaces like they need a
bullet in their head.
Here is one who is not a naive user. I
have 1GB of memory and still I do not
keep more than 3-4 programs running at
once. Indeed, whenever possible, I run
just one (and I power off my computer
when I'm finished). But I have to go
into KDE's and GNOME's configuration and
clean away all the defaults for the
workspaces, one by one.
All courtesy of the Unix dinos and their
unerring instinct for the odd choice.
Let the keyboard behave the same in text mode and X11.
Let the default keymap be the same in text mode and X11.
Allow all those combos (ctrl-home etc.) to be identifiable by default in text mode.
Get a new maintainer for keyboard/keymap issues.
Let Andrew Brouwer be happy with Tibetan characters in Unicode.
Why should SCOX fears delisting at this stage?
If they want to stop it, they only need to buy
their own shares for $10000-$20000 once a month
since the trading volume is totally insignificant.
The shareholders still left are the original
extortionists with Ralph Yarro (34%) at the helm.
Or investors groups that were willing to support
the scheme. They are not trading, and there are
no new investors.
Delisting would do away with the embarrassing
quarterly reports.
What are the SCOjones doing?
They are trying to depose Groklaw's PJ in SCO vs.
Novell because she apparently knew too much about
Novell's Unix copyrights claim three years ago.
They cannot find her, but Novell has graciously
agreed to an extension so SCO have time until end
of May to smoke PJ out. If they succeed, PJ will
certainly object to the summons and with good
reasons. Note that they have been trying to track
her down from the very beginning (Summer 2003).
And failed.
They are also trying to include the hoped for
deposition in the SCO vs. IBM case. Why?
- The motion with explicit reference to the
summons may do as an alternative way of
serving the summons, which would dispense with
continuing investigative efforts to find the
lady.
- They want to smear IBM, depicting it as the
hidden force and money source beyond Groklaw.
The hard-core beyond the extortionist assault
on IBM has not given up on their illusions
that IBM will settle under pressure.
- They want to accumulate more confusing
material for the jury, should the case ever go
to trial. The show would run in Salt Lake City.
Imagine a small Mormon controlled local
company against an alien behemoth. And a
mountain of tough technical and contractual
issues to flatten out any jury.
- They want to re-open discovery to hinder as
much as possible progress towards Partial
Summary Judgements (PSJ). Judge Kimball
decided early 2005 that motions for PSJ would
only be accepted after end of discovery. If
discovery is re-opened now after those motions
have already been heard, he would look funny.
- They want to hamstrung PJ as Groklaw
commentator. If she becomes part of the case,
she will not be in the position to do much on
Groklaw. Groklaw without PJ would be shrinking
to insignificance in no time.
Well, the Forbes article is essentially sober and correct, which implies that somebody filtered it for Daniel Lyons. This guy is namely totally incapable of sound research and fair assessment.
Just one wishy-washy paragraph:
Here the article is equivocating on the abbreviation SCO, used both for the current litigious company, the SCO Group, and for the old Santa Cruz Operation. Read the paragraph as follows:
The SCO Group has already failed in positioning itself as the successor in law to the Santa Cruz Operation.
All their evidence is vaporous, all their legal arguments are contorsions. What they are trying to do now is to disturbe and hinder as much as possible several Partial Summary Judgment Motions so as to have a large mass of indigestible issues for the jurors, should the case really make it to trial.
Thank you, Pamela, for all you teached me.
The requested additions to the list are late by more than one year and would interfere mightyly with the Partial Summary Judgement motions currently being briefed and set to be heard early in March.
Not only that but the proposed additions are of the vaporous kind that lead both the Discovery Magistrate and the Trial Judge to strike 184 items from the evidentiary list.
SCOX is grasping at straws, there is nothing else within reach. I thought it was tasteless that judicial officers were taunting Saddam Hussein when hanging him. But I certainly wish to see something equivalent for the SCOX bastards some day.