I suspect it's got little to do with freedom. It's more about control of the software. China just doesn't trust Microsoft / Other Countries that much, so it's worked out an alternative.
As always, it's up to the individual to choose. I've just seen too many people give baseless reasons for not dealing internationally. I think many of us out here in the world see other countries similar to the way US folks see other US states. For most of us, there's no real boundry.
I see the problem, and I think you're missing some clues about business. Everyone I've dealt with expects money up-front, and fair enough, but who's taking the risk then? The foreign party, that's who. And it's not like USians are inherently more trustworthy than anyone else. Plenty of people get ripped off within the US anyway - this article is about exactly that!
I really don't get what the big deal is - don't ship until you got the money via PayPal/CreditCard/DirectDebit. If it's big dollars, use an escroe account. If the punter says it never arrived, make sure you shipped it with tracking - if the shipping co. says it arrived, the problem is between them and buyer. If he says it's damaged, make sure you ship it insured. This isn't hard stuff, and the risk is predominantly with the buyer.
Be realistic - it's not like the FBI's gonna follow up some dude not paying for your laptop... Internationally, there are avenues for recourse of course, and if the sum is large enough, you may want to persue them, but look, if you want someone else to take the risk of your trades, good luck to you. You won't get that in the anywhere - International OR US.
The power outage would have never occured if the power distribution system was distributed and centralized.
Uh, I think Distributed and NON-centralized is a better idea. Otherwise your just giving monopolies even more power to gouge consumers and make big mistakes. If it did go ahead. we should be able to use any supplier in the world, including ourselves. Like that's gonna happen.
As a non-US citizen who occasionally trades on Ebay, I've got to wonder what's the problem? Just say your price is "plus shipping", maybe provide a link to UPS/Fedex/UPSP, and give people the option. Choose your shipper wisely - DHL might charge $100 for an "Express" delivery, while USPS might charge $20. If the replies from folks you quoted too much to hurt your feelings, then get over it and provide a competitive rate. If it's something stupidly heavy, post a note about it and give people fair warning.
I agree with AC's post. I've had dealings with people from many countries, and EU and Asia are great to deal with - they don't jack the shipping costs and are eager to sell. The US generally isn't - they'll put up all sorts of barriers to trade / payment, or flat out refuse to bother.
Sorry, mod me off-topic/flamebait, but until Linux/Unix can outperform Windows in *all categories* - as rated by a -Typical End User (TM)- ; you have nothing but a hobbyist's OS.
As rated by a Typical End User? Get real. This hobbyist's OS is used by Goverments, on Super Computers, and by assorted MegaCorps. This hobbyist's OS runs half of the Internet the Typical End User surfs for their porn on. It runs the email servers they send their grandma's messages through. Fuck, even Windows Update is cached worldwide on Linux by Akami.
Maybe the desktop isn't quite there yet (and I'd disagree with that already), but let's try to keep it in perspective, eh?
Sun's SPARC rackmounts are in this picture. The V210 is pretty comparable to the X-Serves. I'd wager it would do at least as well as the Apple in the long term plan as well.
I've just installed a RedHat box that is self-supported. Why? Aside from not being in the US and therefore getting shite support from the "big name" companies, it's got nothing to do with RedHat! It's because our vendor guarantees their product under this particular version of the Linux OS.
This is really scary. They're just begging Skynet to take over! Actually, methinks the military boys saw too many Terminator movies...
More seriously, if the military becomes heavily dependant on this kind of thing, in the near future, I can envisage being an unlicensed ter^H^H^H hacker becoming a crime punishible by an indefinite term in Guantanamo Bay.
I'm not particularly pro-status-quo, and I well remember the Amiga Demo scene and the amazing things you could fit on a floppy disk and slow hardware... BUT, the game has changed since then, and so have expectations. Assembler is madness when you've got to code a big flashy OO user-driven app. And if you don't produce that sort of thing, most folks won't buy it.
Having said that, I think there are still ARM based RiscOS boxes that this is done for. The screamin' x86 stuff just doesn't require it - the trade-off between efficiency, features, maintainability and development time dictates something more managable be used.
I guess the issue is that software is generally "fast enough" and that more speed is cheap. If RAM cost anything like what it did back in the day, we would have incredibally efficient (and functionally limited) apps and OS - but it doesn't so we don't.
Wasn't there a post-original-agreement letter from some Novell middle-exec giving SCO clear ownership of Novell's Unix rights? I might be wrong, but I thought that was why Novell went quiet over all this.
I have used SuSE 8.0, and I was mostly happy with it - except for YaST's incessant need to break my printer config by installing both cups and lprng (SuSE never did fix that bug...). I'd imagine 8.1 is even better, but I wanted to use RedHat 9 to keep our Jade system happy.
I'll agree that it's not yet ideal, however it's really up to the develper/packager. RedHat and others deal with dependencies when you use their distro tools as intended, but downloading a random RPM and double-clicking is not yet foolproof.
The example RPM I used was actually firestarter, and being a well behaved GNOME app, I already had the dependencies I needed. A GNOME Menu item was added automagically by the packaging script too.
Another application I installed recently is CADSoft's Eagle. The only requirements were some very standard system libs. This is a good example of "how to do it" for commercial apps, and there's no reason that more common/open binary RPMs can't link statically either.
Laptops are famous for being a pig to install Linux onto. Proprietory hardware and unhelpful manufacturers make driver support very difficult.
That laptop has ATI graphics and LCD, which can be a pain to setup manually (don't use modelines with 4.x X!). I'd start with 16 bit VESA at 1024x768 14" (or 1400 x 1050 15"?) native resolution. If possibly, use 4.3 XFree86 as well. If VESA works, then try looking at different ATI drivers, probably "radeon" or "ati", and 24 bit colour.
As others have suggested, maybe it's worth trying a different distro (Mandrake and SuSE are worth a crack) because they have slightly different kernels and different setup/config tools. They have setup options for LCD screens, so just choose a generic 1024x768 LCD, and VESA/radeon chipset.
Problems with X are unlikely to be kernel related, but the DVD might be. Maybe you need to use the ide-scsi cd driver, done with a kernel append line at boot time. I'll hazard a guess and say the ethernet is one either tulip or 8139too. I may be wrong, but try modprobe tulip and/or modprobe 8139too then ifconfig -a and see if eth0 is there. It might be something else, but it's worth trying.
Try RedHat 9 some time. Installing apps is as simple as double-clicking the RPM in Nautilus ("windows" to the uninformed). The package manager apps take it from there - 2 clicks of "Continue" and it is ready to use. The only thing I didn't like was no "It's Done!" message at the end...
Becoming "familiar" with Windows (read futzing around with non-std apps and tools) *does* involve resolving dependency issues - I'm on lists where it's common to see people say "Why does it want x.dll?", and for a while there, developers shipping dlls and libs crapped up Windows boxes due to being old versions or for the wrong OS (eg 3.1 vs NT vs 95 vs 98 vs 2K vs XP). The problem's not limited to Linux, and what's more, it's no longer an issue on Linux if you use a current distro and the tools it comes with.
Linux has its problems, but this isn't one of them.
Obviously a complete block is not going to work, but there's plenty of systems that filter traffic smartly. Leaving an IIS server open like that is just asking for trouble. I reckon I get more hits from IIS exploits than genuine web hits. You need a firewall of some kind - take a look at something like Smoothwall with it's Sort IDS, or if you're hardcore, OpenBSD plus httpf or Pound (along with Snort or Port Sentry and co.).
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, approaching in a mob with pitchforks kind of way.
I suspect it's got little to do with freedom. It's more about control of the software. China just doesn't trust Microsoft / Other Countries that much, so it's worked out an alternative.
As always, it's up to the individual to choose. I've just seen too many people give baseless reasons for not dealing internationally. I think many of us out here in the world see other countries similar to the way US folks see other US states. For most of us, there's no real boundry.
I see the problem, and I think you're missing some clues about business. Everyone I've dealt with expects money up-front, and fair enough, but who's taking the risk then? The foreign party, that's who. And it's not like USians are inherently more trustworthy than anyone else. Plenty of people get ripped off within the US anyway - this article is about exactly that!
I really don't get what the big deal is - don't ship until you got the money via PayPal/CreditCard/DirectDebit. If it's big dollars, use an escroe account. If the punter says it never arrived, make sure you shipped it with tracking - if the shipping co. says it arrived, the problem is between them and buyer. If he says it's damaged, make sure you ship it insured. This isn't hard stuff, and the risk is predominantly with the buyer.
Be realistic - it's not like the FBI's gonna follow up some dude not paying for your laptop... Internationally, there are avenues for recourse of course, and if the sum is large enough, you may want to persue them, but look, if you want someone else to take the risk of your trades, good luck to you. You won't get that in the anywhere - International OR US.
The power outage would have never occured if the power distribution system was distributed and centralized.
Uh, I think Distributed and NON-centralized is a better idea. Otherwise your just giving monopolies even more power to gouge consumers and make big mistakes. If it did go ahead. we should be able to use any supplier in the world, including ourselves. Like that's gonna happen.
It'll go nicely with the section I bought on the Moon.
As a non-US citizen who occasionally trades on Ebay, I've got to wonder what's the problem? Just say your price is "plus shipping", maybe provide a link to UPS/Fedex/UPSP, and give people the option. Choose your shipper wisely - DHL might charge $100 for an "Express" delivery, while USPS might charge $20. If the replies from folks you quoted too much to hurt your feelings, then get over it and provide a competitive rate. If it's something stupidly heavy, post a note about it and give people fair warning.
I agree with AC's post. I've had dealings with people from many countries, and EU and Asia are great to deal with - they don't jack the shipping costs and are eager to sell. The US generally isn't - they'll put up all sorts of barriers to trade / payment, or flat out refuse to bother.
Sorry, mod me off-topic/flamebait, but until Linux/Unix can outperform Windows in *all categories* - as rated by a -Typical End User (TM)- ; you have nothing but a hobbyist's OS.
As rated by a Typical End User? Get real. This hobbyist's OS is used by Goverments, on Super Computers, and by assorted MegaCorps. This hobbyist's OS runs half of the Internet the Typical End User surfs for their porn on. It runs the email servers they send their grandma's messages through. Fuck, even Windows Update is cached worldwide on Linux by Akami.
Maybe the desktop isn't quite there yet (and I'd disagree with that already), but let's try to keep it in perspective, eh?
Sun's SPARC rackmounts are in this picture. The V210 is pretty comparable to the X-Serves. I'd wager it would do at least as well as the Apple in the long term plan as well.
I've just installed a RedHat box that is self-supported. Why? Aside from not being in the US and therefore getting shite support from the "big name" companies, it's got nothing to do with RedHat! It's because our vendor guarantees their product under this particular version of the Linux OS.
Bah, that's no big thing. It actually sounds a lot like my ex.
/not bitter.
DOH!!
Remember kids, don't drink and post.
Pills and Jumping I understand, but how on earth do you kill yourself with Pastry?
/Imagining trying to impale myself with a Praline Riviera.
Didn't Flying Toast Man from the Wren and Stimpy series do something rather similar? Flying Toast man was cooler. :P
This is really scary. They're just begging Skynet to take over! Actually, methinks the military boys saw too many Terminator movies...
More seriously, if the military becomes heavily dependant on this kind of thing, in the near future, I can envisage being an unlicensed ter^H^H^H hacker becoming a crime punishible by an indefinite term in Guantanamo Bay.
/obligatory everything is scary post.
Slashdot: MPAA sux!
Slashdot: Oh look, a new movie!
Fucking hypocrites.
I vote for cheetahs. I want my cat-girl, dammit.
I'm not particularly pro-status-quo, and I well remember the Amiga Demo scene and the amazing things you could fit on a floppy disk and slow hardware... BUT, the game has changed since then, and so have expectations. Assembler is madness when you've got to code a big flashy OO user-driven app. And if you don't produce that sort of thing, most folks won't buy it.
Having said that, I think there are still ARM based RiscOS boxes that this is done for. The screamin' x86 stuff just doesn't require it - the trade-off between efficiency, features, maintainability and development time dictates something more managable be used.
I guess the issue is that software is generally "fast enough" and that more speed is cheap. If RAM cost anything like what it did back in the day, we would have incredibally efficient (and functionally limited) apps and OS - but it doesn't so we don't.
Wasn't there a post-original-agreement letter from some Novell middle-exec giving SCO clear ownership of Novell's Unix rights? I might be wrong, but I thought that was why Novell went quiet over all this.
I have used SuSE 8.0, and I was mostly happy with it - except for YaST's incessant need to break my printer config by installing both cups and lprng (SuSE never did fix that bug...). I'd imagine 8.1 is even better, but I wanted to use RedHat 9 to keep our Jade system happy.
I'll agree that it's not yet ideal, however it's really up to the develper/packager. RedHat and others deal with dependencies when you use their distro tools as intended, but downloading a random RPM and double-clicking is not yet foolproof.
The example RPM I used was actually firestarter, and being a well behaved GNOME app, I already had the dependencies I needed. A GNOME Menu item was added automagically by the packaging script too.
Another application I installed recently is CADSoft's Eagle. The only requirements were some very standard system libs. This is a good example of "how to do it" for commercial apps, and there's no reason that more common/open binary RPMs can't link statically either.
Laptops are famous for being a pig to install Linux onto. Proprietory hardware and unhelpful manufacturers make driver support very difficult.
That laptop has ATI graphics and LCD, which can be a pain to setup manually (don't use modelines with 4.x X!). I'd start with 16 bit VESA at 1024x768 14" (or 1400 x 1050 15"?) native resolution. If possibly, use 4.3 XFree86 as well. If VESA works, then try looking at different ATI drivers, probably "radeon" or "ati", and 24 bit colour.
As others have suggested, maybe it's worth trying a different distro (Mandrake and SuSE are worth a crack) because they have slightly different kernels and different setup/config tools. They have setup options for LCD screens, so just choose a generic 1024x768 LCD, and VESA/radeon chipset.Problems with X are unlikely to be kernel related, but the DVD might be. Maybe you need to use the ide-scsi cd driver, done with a kernel append line at boot time. I'll hazard a guess and say the ethernet is one either tulip or 8139too. I may be wrong, but try modprobe tulip and/or modprobe 8139too then ifconfig -a and see if eth0 is there. It might be something else, but it's worth trying.
Hope some of that helps.
Try RedHat 9 some time. Installing apps is as simple as double-clicking the RPM in Nautilus ("windows" to the uninformed). The package manager apps take it from there - 2 clicks of "Continue" and it is ready to use. The only thing I didn't like was no "It's Done!" message at the end...
Becoming "familiar" with Windows (read futzing around with non-std apps and tools) *does* involve resolving dependency issues - I'm on lists where it's common to see people say "Why does it want x.dll?", and for a while there, developers shipping dlls and libs crapped up Windows boxes due to being old versions or for the wrong OS (eg 3.1 vs NT vs 95 vs 98 vs 2K vs XP). The problem's not limited to Linux, and what's more, it's no longer an issue on Linux if you use a current distro and the tools it comes with.
Linux has its problems, but this isn't one of them.
That's a pretty lame reason for bias, when the stated title of the article is "GUI Toolkits for The X Window System".
Yeh, I like QT, but I like wxWindows, GTK+, Java, and lots of others too.
Obviously a complete block is not going to work, but there's plenty of systems that filter traffic smartly. Leaving an IIS server open like that is just asking for trouble. I reckon I get more hits from IIS exploits than genuine web hits. You need a firewall of some kind - take a look at something like Smoothwall with it's Sort IDS, or if you're hardcore, OpenBSD plus httpf or Pound (along with Snort or Port Sentry and co.).