I think that people have something else in mind - cutting out the record companies.
Imagine if someone like iTunes starts getting big enough that people go there for music like they go to a record shop - you can start getting "featured artists" - and iTunes do the promotion directly with the artists or small record labels.
It's not just that... it's 1 million people who are probably moving away from closed file formats, and a whole bunch of people like PHBs seeing yet again that Linux is not some toy.
IBM and Sun are backing it. Oracle are keen on it. Gateway are shipping it on servers.
Microsoft could launch Office for Linux, but I guess that the move off Windows (and the fact they can direct users towards their browser, their messenger, their photo services) would be accelerated. I think that they will try and find some devious way to infest Linux with their software, though.
Of course if this is going to work in the long run is anyones guess. Can you continue development when you only get $50 a seat? MS says no and charges more then tenfold. I hope sun is right. For 50 bucks an OS noone is going to bother with piracy in the west.
This is where a dual licensing model really scores high.
Sun have thousands of people around the world looking into the Open Office source code and adding good things and making improvements to it. I don't know how many full-time people they have on it, but my guess is not that many.
Meantime, they can take the software that drops out of Open Office, change it test it and bundle it and make it into Star Office.
Users gain because of cheaper costs and flexibility of supplier. Sun gain because they get cheaper development and geeks gain because they get free software.
To make the model work for the vendor it relies on them providing excellent support.
One thing that companies like Sun and IBM are very good on is support and solutions. They deal with big corporates and understand the way they think. The Microsoft approach seems to be much more a "sell software" one.
As for price, I have almost no doubt that Microsoft could sell their software for much less than they do - considering the huge market share they have. But, whilst they can make money, and people perceive they have no choice, why should they?
And many of those hundreds of thousands of experienced users would give you a "RTFM" or "just code it yourself".
Personally, I can cope with that, and for some work I do, I scour the net and get tips and advice. But I'm a programmer and in all my life have never paid for a support call for development software.
I have a mate who knows loads about fixing cars, and everytime I talk about getting something done (like servicing) he says "do it yourself", but I have things I'd rather do with my time than learn how to service my car and would rather avoid the pain.
Same with software and most people. They have other jobs to do whether teaching accountancy, running prisons or bombing Iraq. They just want the software to do the work, and want minimum downtime when they either don't know what they are doing or when something goes wrong.
It's often not the case that corporate support is better than amateur support, though. I've worked with software suppliers who didn't know their arse from their elbow.
Put XML support on the pro version of the software, so it looks open, but because it's not on all versions, people will have to use the non-open for sending to people in case they don't have Pro.
I can't see any other reason for not including it in Pro.
You still won't be able to run Word as a server app either.
It's also illegal to miss out your 2 hours per week Crossbow practice, but I don't know many people who do it.
In the end, it's why habeus corpus is so important - so that juries can get stupid laws changed that politicians are too lazy, involved or frightened to change.
Just because you haven't doesn't mean they aren't good.
The big thing is that people who write them concentrate their minds. One of the areas I must post some things on (when I get some more time) is local foods to my area. I buy a lot of locally produced, high quality foods (often organic) and often tell people about new discoveries. I want to be able to tell those people that they can just check my blog and get the latest from there (or use RSS).
DVD and CD both happened because of a quality improvement. CD sounded better (try listening to opera on vinyl) and DVD had better picture/sound/less degradation.
This may be smaller, but so's minidisc, so's DCC. It's not that big a thing.
I can see DVD getting replaced, if HDTV comes out and delivers cinema quality so people can have huge screen TVs in their rooms.
CD has a bigger problem as far those pushing for DRM/replacing collections. It's reached the point where improvement will make no difference for 90+% of the population. SACD is better, but only a few serious music lovers have replaced to it. Reason: most people won't spend the extra for a marginal improvement, and for many of them, the amps/speakers they use would kill any improvement.
As far as space, people can go buy an MP3 player now - and over the next 5 years, the capacity per cubic inch will improve.
In the UK, the large supermarkets started undercutting record shops by importing from other EU countries. The record company response was to start releasing "special editions" for the UK with video clips/a few extra crap tracks/remixes.
Most people won't pay the extra money for a few gimmicks. It was music quality and size that sold CDs. People have a replacement on the size front - MP3 players. They won't do much more about quality.
I've just set up Fedora Core 1 on a machine for a friend (an old Dell P2 300). He wants word processing/web/email. He didn't want to spend much. I didn't want to spend hours compiling stuff/figuring out how to make stuff work (Linux newbie). I preferably wanted OOo 1.1 pre-installed.
I got this from a torrent, burnt the cds, wrote a disc image, and just went through the installer.
It's probably the easiest install I've had to do since maybe Windows 3.1. Just selected the packages, swapped CDs put in the user details and passwords.
Checked out Open Office... running fine.
Just waiting for an external modem to arrive in the post and I'll set it up.
I think there's a lot of snobbery happening about RedHat, because it's quite mainstream and 'big'. Personally, I don't care as long as we can start to get some open standards back into software and reduce monopoly stranglehold.
Fair point. It's more of a "there's nothing more Microsoft can add to Word". A redesign of the UI in a significant way to improve productivity is better, yes. I'm more thinking about how over time they've added things like tables/vba etc. And that there isn't anything they can add without radically redesigning it. I use Office 97 at work and there's no-one here talking about upgrading it, because we just don't need anything that's in the later versions.
The issue with importing file formats is significant to Open Office because of the commercial implementation into Star Office. Personally, I wouldn't be able to switch people to any word processor unless it can load office files (at least fairly faithfully).
The big problem with Open Office/Star Office is going to be getting people to make.SXW the default setting while they can still produce Word format documents.
I think there needs to be something imaginative done by Open Office users so that they know which of the people they are sending documents to support OOo format. Alternatively, some viewers which would be a very small download rather than the 80mb for Open Office maybe (send a document and a link to the viewer).
Word is also stagnant because there's nothing more to do with a word processor.
When I upgraded to Office 2000, apart from some look-and-feel/menu changes. I've had a look at Office 2003, and it just doesn't warrant an upgrade.
Things like OpenOffice are catching up on them.
I think some of the points you make about OSS are right (although games development could get quite interesting if the contribution rate is high - imagine a game that constantly evolves). Things like tax tables in software that are maintained/checked etc is something people want to know are right and have a central point of contact.
But OSS could even come into play there. Imagine if something like Quicken was released on dual license - one without data, one with. So, you can go and get the tax info you need from a website, or you buy it with. Many home users would just buy it. But developers might hack it around and improve it. They could find security holes and report them back.
I don't see any reason why things like interior design software can't be replaced. There's software out there like Blender which is OSS.
No world wars, partly because the western world has become more democratic/free-market and not in the hands of aristocrats. There's plenty in the rest of the world, and mostly the UN does piss all about them until it's too late.
What peace treaties? Typically, they get there when the peace treaty (eg Iraq's surrender) is already inevitable because they've been driven to it.
Economic sanctions? Against China and Russia for their human rights records? Hardly. If you are Iraq though, it's OK.
As for the WHO, it has done one excellent thing - eradicated smallpox. Other than that, it has mostly allowed diplomats to have nice jobs.
Kuwait and Korea were only 'saved' because there were enough individual nations willing to do so. What about Rwanda, East Timor, Burma, Chechnya.
What power are you talking about? It virtually has no power.
Mostly the UN is a nice club for small countries and their diplomats to have a nice cosy life. There's a whole lot of horse-trading of "if you put one of your people on commitee x, then we want one of ours on commitee y". Nothing to do with merit of the people involved.
I've seen documentaries that say that the UN is about as corrupt as the EU.
I must say, the response on OSS projects fluctuates wildly. The guys on #develop (alternative c# development environment) and #ziplib (.net zip library) are both very helpful.
On the other hand - wrote to 2 Open Office reps and had no response.
The "soft-skills" side is what lets many OSS projects down.
Slashdot Mirror
Imagine if someone like iTunes starts getting big enough that people go there for music like they go to a record shop - you can start getting "featured artists" - and iTunes do the promotion directly with the artists or small record labels.
IBM and Sun are backing it. Oracle are keen on it. Gateway are shipping it on servers.
Microsoft could launch Office for Linux, but I guess that the move off Windows (and the fact they can direct users towards their browser, their messenger, their photo services) would be accelerated. I think that they will try and find some devious way to infest Linux with their software, though.
This is where a dual licensing model really scores high.
Sun have thousands of people around the world looking into the Open Office source code and adding good things and making improvements to it. I don't know how many full-time people they have on it, but my guess is not that many.
Meantime, they can take the software that drops out of Open Office, change it test it and bundle it and make it into Star Office.
Users gain because of cheaper costs and flexibility of supplier. Sun gain because they get cheaper development and geeks gain because they get free software.
To make the model work for the vendor it relies on them providing excellent support.
One thing that companies like Sun and IBM are very good on is support and solutions. They deal with big corporates and understand the way they think. The Microsoft approach seems to be much more a "sell software" one.
As for price, I have almost no doubt that Microsoft could sell their software for much less than they do - considering the huge market share they have. But, whilst they can make money, and people perceive they have no choice, why should they?
The bigger a company gets, the more they seem to staff frontline support with grunts with a tier of support levels behind them.
Personally, I can cope with that, and for some work I do, I scour the net and get tips and advice. But I'm a programmer and in all my life have never paid for a support call for development software.
I have a mate who knows loads about fixing cars, and everytime I talk about getting something done (like servicing) he says "do it yourself", but I have things I'd rather do with my time than learn how to service my car and would rather avoid the pain.
Same with software and most people. They have other jobs to do whether teaching accountancy, running prisons or bombing Iraq. They just want the software to do the work, and want minimum downtime when they either don't know what they are doing or when something goes wrong.
It's often not the case that corporate support is better than amateur support, though. I've worked with software suppliers who didn't know their arse from their elbow.
Put XML support on the pro version of the software, so it looks open, but because it's not on all versions, people will have to use the non-open for sending to people in case they don't have Pro.
I can't see any other reason for not including it in Pro.
You still won't be able to run Word as a server app either.
If in some bizarre way, it got through the courts, the media and public (already getting pissed off with New Labour) backlash would be huge.
When infringements are civil, you can end up with situation where an industry body group will try and scare people into prosecution.
IIRC If criminal, they'd have to apply to the CPS who would probably consider it a total waste of court time.
As other posters have said, you never have had the "fair use" rights in the UK. As no-one so far has ever been prosecuted for it, I wouldn't worry.
In the end, it's why habeus corpus is so important - so that juries can get stupid laws changed that politicians are too lazy, involved or frightened to change.
Could you set up a file server in space on a satellite? What would be the jurisdiction on it?
20 years ago, Tony Blair would have been marching against a US President doing such a thing.
Now, he just wants a lucrative lecture tour of the US when he quits.
Ban cars then! Some people drive drunk and irresponsibly in them.
The big thing is that people who write them concentrate their minds. One of the areas I must post some things on (when I get some more time) is local foods to my area. I buy a lot of locally produced, high quality foods (often organic) and often tell people about new discoveries. I want to be able to tell those people that they can just check my blog and get the latest from there (or use RSS).
DVD and CD both happened because of a quality improvement. CD sounded better (try listening to opera on vinyl) and DVD had better picture/sound/less degradation.
This may be smaller, but so's minidisc, so's DCC. It's not that big a thing.
I can see DVD getting replaced, if HDTV comes out and delivers cinema quality so people can have huge screen TVs in their rooms.
CD has a bigger problem as far those pushing for DRM/replacing collections. It's reached the point where improvement will make no difference for 90+% of the population. SACD is better, but only a few serious music lovers have replaced to it. Reason: most people won't spend the extra for a marginal improvement, and for many of them, the amps/speakers they use would kill any improvement.
As far as space, people can go buy an MP3 player now - and over the next 5 years, the capacity per cubic inch will improve.
Everyone I know with a standalone DVD player has multiregion support - some can't deal with RCE discs, but they can manage most R1s.
In the UK, the large supermarkets started undercutting record shops by importing from other EU countries. The record company response was to start releasing "special editions" for the UK with video clips/a few extra crap tracks/remixes.
Most people won't pay the extra money for a few gimmicks. It was music quality and size that sold CDs. People have a replacement on the size front - MP3 players. They won't do much more about quality.
I got this from a torrent, burnt the cds, wrote a disc image, and just went through the installer.
It's probably the easiest install I've had to do since maybe Windows 3.1. Just selected the packages, swapped CDs put in the user details and passwords.
Checked out Open Office... running fine.
Just waiting for an external modem to arrive in the post and I'll set it up.
I think there's a lot of snobbery happening about RedHat, because it's quite mainstream and 'big'. Personally, I don't care as long as we can start to get some open standards back into software and reduce monopoly stranglehold.
remote control device for bullet proof car
homing beacon
dual use electromagnet (picking up henchman's knives/undoing russian lady spy's zipper).
The issue with importing file formats is significant to Open Office because of the commercial implementation into Star Office. Personally, I wouldn't be able to switch people to any word processor unless it can load office files (at least fairly faithfully).
The big problem with Open Office/Star Office is going to be getting people to make .SXW the default setting while they can still produce Word format documents.
I think there needs to be something imaginative done by Open Office users so that they know which of the people they are sending documents to support OOo format. Alternatively, some viewers which would be a very small download rather than the 80mb for Open Office maybe (send a document and a link to the viewer).
When I upgraded to Office 2000, apart from some look-and-feel/menu changes. I've had a look at Office 2003, and it just doesn't warrant an upgrade.
Things like OpenOffice are catching up on them.
I think some of the points you make about OSS are right (although games development could get quite interesting if the contribution rate is high - imagine a game that constantly evolves). Things like tax tables in software that are maintained/checked etc is something people want to know are right and have a central point of contact.
But OSS could even come into play there. Imagine if something like Quicken was released on dual license - one without data, one with. So, you can go and get the tax info you need from a website, or you buy it with. Many home users would just buy it. But developers might hack it around and improve it. They could find security holes and report them back.
I don't see any reason why things like interior design software can't be replaced. There's software out there like Blender which is OSS.
I don't know about what ICANN are like, but the idea that the UN would do a better job of it should be given the scorn it deserves.
What peace treaties? Typically, they get there when the peace treaty (eg Iraq's surrender) is already inevitable because they've been driven to it.
Economic sanctions? Against China and Russia for their human rights records? Hardly. If you are Iraq though, it's OK.
As for the WHO, it has done one excellent thing - eradicated smallpox. Other than that, it has mostly allowed diplomats to have nice jobs.
Kuwait and Korea were only 'saved' because there were enough individual nations willing to do so. What about Rwanda, East Timor, Burma, Chechnya.
What power are you talking about? It virtually has no power.
Mostly the UN is a nice club for small countries and their diplomats to have a nice cosy life. There's a whole lot of horse-trading of "if you put one of your people on commitee x, then we want one of ours on commitee y". Nothing to do with merit of the people involved.
I've seen documentaries that say that the UN is about as corrupt as the EU.
I've got a popup blocker installed, and now some sites are popping a bit of flash on the page.
IT'S REALLY PISSING ME OFF.
I used to visit the Times newspaper (www.thetimes.co.uk), but now I get this bloody flash popup that seems to get triggered at random.
Result, I don't go there anymore.
Include ads on pages...fine. I've clicked through a few on /. that have interested me. These popups just drive me away.
I must say, the response on OSS projects fluctuates wildly. The guys on #develop (alternative c# development environment) and #ziplib (.net zip library) are both very helpful.
On the other hand - wrote to 2 Open Office reps and had no response.
The "soft-skills" side is what lets many OSS projects down.