Wow, I can't believe that this got modded flamebait! The entire fsking thread gets off on a tangent about whether dropping laptops from a C5 over the Horn of Africa will cure HIV/AIDS (!), and someone pointing out that nobody in this project is suggesting that giving people a laptop will cure their hunger or disease gets modded flamebait?
Maybe we'll get it right when they post the dupe on Friday.
That would clearly be against the interests of shareholders, and makes the company liable.
Actually, that claim is a bit too quick, in at least three ways:
1. Not all companies are publicly traded. Since non-corporations use free software, your comment overshoots its mark. (Though of course many of the companies we're talking about are corporations; but your comment is about companies that use free software generally.)
2. The claim that the only interest that a corporation has is to its shareholders is at least controversial; there are other theories of corporate responsibility (c.f. stakeholder theory), and it is tendentious at best to flatfootedly assert that corporations have duties only to shareholders.
3. Even if you think that corporations only have duties to shareholders, it doesn't follow that paying for gratis free software violates that duty. If the corporation relies on free software and the donation would promote the development and improvement of this software, that seems to be a benefit to the corporation and its shareholders. That is, if such donations increases the quality and availability of the software to the corporation, then the shareholders benefit---especially if doing so increases the quality and availability of the software in a way that is more cost effective than buying proprietary software.
``I don't care if you cure cancer, if you're an ass to EVERYONE about it, you won't ever see a dime from me. "
Well, at least until you get cancer and need the cure.;)
Kidding aside, I do appreciate your sentiments about this; it is very hard to support free software projects when those in charge spew vinegar rather than honey. (Though, in fairness, I'm a fan of free software divas myself.) However, the work of the OpenBSD project does deserve support for its contributions (IMHO, YMMV).
1. Gnome is not an operating system. (And, I mean, this isn't even CLOSE---like the whole ``Linux isn't by itself an OS" thing.)
2. The main Free OSes---GNU/Linux and *BSD---can run many different window managers under X, some of which are quite innovative indeed. (See sig for my particular favorite (which is trying to do away with WIMP interfaces altogether), but there are many others doing interesting things.)
I know, I know, this post isn't innovative, it is just a copy of hundreds like it on slashdot. . . .
1. See, this is what I don't get: why is it that people think that you can make up facts about ``the average joe"? This is the kind of thing one is supposed to RESEARCH---you know, find out what people actually use. Oh, wait, I forgot: making shit up is a sport on slashdot. (My average joe ported Plan 9 to the Playstation 1 while in grammar school!)
2. If your average joe values his time and his data, he's likely better served by investing some time in learning a better OS. (Have him call my average joe, who'll help him out in a jiff.)
3. Most importantly, I wasn't addressing ``the average joe" (yours or mine)---there was a specific person asking a specific question: ``I'm interested in Linux, can I use it or is it as complicated as I thought." Would I offer this advice to everyone? No. (Your average joe can suck an egg for all I care, with his bratty rug rats, his SUV, and his crushing credit debt.) Anyway, lots of things count as rewards that people do not recognize (health, freedom, wisdom, etc.); that doesn't make them fail to be rewards.
I can't give you an authoritative answer here (in part because I've been a computer person for a long time, and I run GNU/Linux and FreeBSD systems), but let me say this:
First: Can you do this with Windows? (I mean, really just click ok and be off and running.) OR do you have to know how to do some stuff? (For example, install drivers or software for word processing, games, web browsing, security, and the like.) When they installed my department's new printer, all the windows computers had to get new drivers, whereas the guy running OS X was ready to go through rendezvous and my CUPS drivers were fine.
If you switch to a GNU/Linux system, you'll have to learn some things because it works differently---both in terms of the graphical interfaces that come with a distribution and in terms of the way unix-like OSes work. You probably won't have to learn EVERYTHING all over again (wordprocessors do function broadly the same, firefox is identical), but some things will be different.
Some distributions require a lot of hands on stuff (gentoo and linux from scratch, I'm looking at you), while others are pretty neophyte (I hear this about ubuntu, pclinuxos, and suse).
My biggest piece of advice: find a live cd distro and try that out on your hardware. Play and WORK with it for a while, see if you think it is doable.
I should add that there are some rewards to switching. Your computer will be more stable, you'll have access to a HUGE amount of free (and gratis) software that can easily be installed, and you'll be a bit more computer literate (what can I say, I'm a philosopher, so knowledge counts for something). You'll also be supporting liberty, and, let's face it, everyone knows that having a GNU/Linux sticker on your car/bike/bookbag/laptop is guaranteed to get you laid.*
Hope this helps. *Guarantee not valid anywhere. Your mileage may vary.
Funny, this was the same thought I had! They could have leveraged the muscle memory of touch typers (who, let's face it, have to be the target audience, since hunt & peck requires turning the device back and forth to find keys).
However, they don't promise that this keyboard will make you a faster typer than a standard keyboard (just handheld ones); but they promise that it frees you from your desk and reduces RSI.
Personally, I'd rather stay lashed to my desk and have pedals for the modifier keys (shift, alt, ctrl); this would reduce the number of awkward reaches my unfortunately short and stubby fingers have to make.
We might also want to add that there's something so typically shortsighted and doctrinaire about a libertarian who says ``computers do not create opportunities."
Because, you know, no industries popped up around computing in the last 30 years, and the introduction of new entities (practices, artifacts, tools, and the like) don't create demand in markets. . . .
Oh, no, wait they did and they do. So that would undercut the GP's suggestion that they don't.
I mean, with all the various flames caused by standard Slashdot topics---OS Fanboydom, Browser/Editor Wars, Duplicate Postings---and the slashdot effect melting servers, I think we all need to look at ourselves and feel just a bit ashamed for our contribution to global warming.
Yeah, you misunderstand the idea of a ``thoughcrime"---which is the crime of THOUGHT. That is, the crime is merely thinking, absent the commission of any other crime. Hate isn't punished, though if it is a motivation for a crime it is an additional factor to be (or at least seen to by in current law) relevant in doling out crime.
Intentions (that is to say, a person's thoughts) are necessarily a part of the law; they distinguish the varieties of murder, for example. (Unless you don't think that premeditation means ``thought of ahead of time".) They may not make a difference in EVERY law or EVERY case, but any legal system that fails to take sufficient notice of thought's role in a crime would be unjust.
I can't speak to why others do it (though I'd bet their reasons are similar), but I do it because I use LaTeX to typeset my papers; I don't know if you're familiar with LaTeX, but it is a mark-up language that gets typset. That is, you begin with a plain text file loaded with markup commands, and then you process the file into a graphical form (DVI, PS or PDF).
In LaTeX, you type a backtick (`) to mark a left single quote and a double-backtick (``) to mark a double quote. When you spend all day (I am a writer) reaching for the backtick to open a quote, you don't tend to change habits for posting on slashdot. (Though I do get lazy and hit " rather than ''; but I have a macro that automagically converts one to the other in LaTeX stuff)
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, I can't believe that this got modded flamebait! The entire fsking thread gets off on a tangent about whether dropping laptops from a C5 over the Horn of Africa will cure HIV/AIDS (!), and someone pointing out that nobody in this project is suggesting that giving people a laptop will cure their hunger or disease gets modded flamebait?
Maybe we'll get it right when they post the dupe on Friday.
Actually, that sounded more like a recruiting advertisement . . . .
Let's get Jerry on the horn asap!
What would Jerry do?
Right: Firefox and links2
Actually, that claim is a bit too quick, in at least three ways:
1. Not all companies are publicly traded. Since non-corporations use free software, your comment overshoots its mark. (Though of course many of the companies we're talking about are corporations; but your comment is about companies that use free software generally.)
2. The claim that the only interest that a corporation has is to its shareholders is at least controversial; there are other theories of corporate responsibility (c.f. stakeholder theory), and it is tendentious at best to flatfootedly assert that corporations have duties only to shareholders.
3. Even if you think that corporations only have duties to shareholders, it doesn't follow that paying for gratis free software violates that duty. If the corporation relies on free software and the donation would promote the development and improvement of this software, that seems to be a benefit to the corporation and its shareholders. That is, if such donations increases the quality and availability of the software to the corporation, then the shareholders benefit---especially if doing so increases the quality and availability of the software in a way that is more cost effective than buying proprietary software.
Oh, you misunderstood. These are MEDICINES, not drugs!
Silly rabbit.
The good news is that at least we know that IE 7 is backward compatible with IE 6 vulnerabilities.
Dude, its because the Apple has speed holes
I guess you could just buy a damn motorcycle and not have to degrade performance to get good mileage.
``I don't care if you cure cancer, if you're an ass to EVERYONE about it, you won't ever see a dime from me. "
;)
Well, at least until you get cancer and need the cure.
Kidding aside, I do appreciate your sentiments about this; it is very hard to support free software projects when those in charge spew vinegar rather than honey. (Though, in fairness, I'm a fan of free software divas myself.) However, the work of the OpenBSD project does deserve support for its contributions (IMHO, YMMV).
1. Gnome is not an operating system. (And, I mean, this isn't even CLOSE---like the whole ``Linux isn't by itself an OS" thing.)
2. The main Free OSes---GNU/Linux and *BSD---can run many different window managers under X, some of which are quite innovative indeed. (See sig for my particular favorite (which is trying to do away with WIMP interfaces altogether), but there are many others doing interesting things.)
I know, I know, this post isn't innovative, it is just a copy of hundreds like it on slashdot. . . .
1. See, this is what I don't get: why is it that people think that you can make up facts about ``the average joe"? This is the kind of thing one is supposed to RESEARCH---you know, find out what people actually use. Oh, wait, I forgot: making shit up is a sport on slashdot. (My average joe ported Plan 9 to the Playstation 1 while in grammar school!)
2. If your average joe values his time and his data, he's likely better served by investing some time in learning a better OS. (Have him call my average joe, who'll help him out in a jiff.)
3. Most importantly, I wasn't addressing ``the average joe" (yours or mine)---there was a specific person asking a specific question: ``I'm interested in Linux, can I use it or is it as complicated as I thought." Would I offer this advice to everyone? No. (Your average joe can suck an egg for all I care, with his bratty rug rats, his SUV, and his crushing credit debt.) Anyway, lots of things count as rewards that people do not recognize (health, freedom, wisdom, etc.); that doesn't make them fail to be rewards.
I can't give you an authoritative answer here (in part because I've been a computer person for a long time, and I run GNU/Linux and FreeBSD systems), but let me say this:
First: Can you do this with Windows? (I mean, really just click ok and be off and running.) OR do you have to know how to do some stuff? (For example, install drivers or software for word processing, games, web browsing, security, and the like.) When they installed my department's new printer, all the windows computers had to get new drivers, whereas the guy running OS X was ready to go through rendezvous and my CUPS drivers were fine.
If you switch to a GNU/Linux system, you'll have to learn some things because it works differently---both in terms of the graphical interfaces that come with a distribution and in terms of the way unix-like OSes work. You probably won't have to learn EVERYTHING all over again (wordprocessors do function broadly the same, firefox is identical), but some things will be different.
Some distributions require a lot of hands on stuff (gentoo and linux from scratch, I'm looking at you), while others are pretty neophyte (I hear this about ubuntu, pclinuxos, and suse).
My biggest piece of advice: find a live cd distro and try that out on your hardware. Play and WORK with it for a while, see if you think it is doable.
I should add that there are some rewards to switching. Your computer will be more stable, you'll have access to a HUGE amount of free (and gratis) software that can easily be installed, and you'll be a bit more computer literate (what can I say, I'm a philosopher, so knowledge counts for something). You'll also be supporting liberty, and, let's face it, everyone knows that having a GNU/Linux sticker on your car/bike/bookbag/laptop is guaranteed to get you laid.*
Hope this helps.
*Guarantee not valid anywhere. Your mileage may vary.
Dude, biotech is SO old:
We've had agriculture for millennia, and, really, what are all those biotech startups doing that Gregor Mendel didn't already do in the 19th century?
Abe Simpson was right: the fax machine is nothing but a telephone hooked up to a waffle iron. (Mmm, waffles.)
Funny, this was the same thought I had! They could have leveraged the muscle memory of touch typers (who, let's face it, have to be the target audience, since hunt & peck requires turning the device back and forth to find keys).
However, they don't promise that this keyboard will make you a faster typer than a standard keyboard (just handheld ones); but they promise that it frees you from your desk and reduces RSI.
Personally, I'd rather stay lashed to my desk and have pedals for the modifier keys (shift, alt, ctrl); this would reduce the number of awkward reaches my unfortunately short and stubby fingers have to make.
This is just so spot on as a response.
We might also want to add that there's something so typically shortsighted and doctrinaire about a libertarian who says ``computers do not create opportunities."
Because, you know, no industries popped up around computing in the last 30 years, and the introduction of new entities (practices, artifacts, tools, and the like) don't create demand in markets. . . .
Oh, no, wait they did and they do. So that would undercut the GP's suggestion that they don't.
I haven't used floppies since the late 1990's, when I got my rev b iMac. . . .
I personally can't wait for the nasty replies to enforcement efforts to be posted on the Pirate Bay's ``legal threat" pages. . . . .
Puhleeeeeeeeze indeed! We all know that the 10x10 logitech mousepad is teh r0x0r!
Actually, if Dvorak were talking out of his ass, THAT would be interesting.
I mean, with all the various flames caused by standard Slashdot topics---OS Fanboydom, Browser/Editor Wars, Duplicate Postings---and the slashdot effect melting servers, I think we all need to look at ourselves and feel just a bit ashamed for our contribution to global warming.
Well, I guess the upside here is that none of us will survive to be around to hear you say ``I told ya' so."
Yeah, you misunderstand the idea of a ``thoughcrime"---which is the crime of THOUGHT. That is, the crime is merely thinking, absent the commission of any other crime. Hate isn't punished, though if it is a motivation for a crime it is an additional factor to be (or at least seen to by in current law) relevant in doling out crime.
Intentions (that is to say, a person's thoughts) are necessarily a part of the law; they distinguish the varieties of murder, for example. (Unless you don't think that premeditation means ``thought of ahead of time".) They may not make a difference in EVERY law or EVERY case, but any legal system that fails to take sufficient notice of thought's role in a crime would be unjust.
So what's your political motivation for this post?
I can't speak to why others do it (though I'd bet their reasons are similar), but I do it because I use LaTeX to typeset my papers; I don't know if you're familiar with LaTeX, but it is a mark-up language that gets typset. That is, you begin with a plain text file loaded with markup commands, and then you process the file into a graphical form (DVI, PS or PDF).
In LaTeX, you type a backtick (`) to mark a left single quote and a double-backtick (``) to mark a double quote. When you spend all day (I am a writer) reaching for the backtick to open a quote, you don't tend to change habits for posting on slashdot. (Though I do get lazy and hit " rather than ''; but I have a macro that automagically converts one to the other in LaTeX stuff)
Hope this helps.