Open source is a development methodology that aims to make better free software, but has no problem with using and even developing proprietary software at the same time.
Not in the least! While not a political movement with ideology police, the Open Source "movement" still rejects proprietary software from its definition.
Flash won't work on unapproved operating systems. Linux users don't care, because Linux is "approved". But it won't run on FreeBSD. But Linux users don't care because FreeBSD is not Linux.
There was a time not that long ago when the open source community universally decried websites that required Flash. Yet that stopped the instant Flash became available for Linux. It demonstrates just how shallow the commitment to open source principles really is.
I can learn a new langauge far faster than that, but I must still be a dumbshit compared to some of these web "developers" who claim to learn new languages over the weekend with "Learning OCAML in 24 Hours!" I guess if all you're doing is writing a webpage you can get away with it, but you're not going to be able to write quality code with a language you "just picked up". You don't have to be a language lawyer, but you do need basic proficiency. Expecting developers to crank out quality software in three months with a language they have never before used is ludicrous. Crappy code yes, as can be attested to by all the crappy software out there, but not quality code.
To a certain point you're correct. But it still depends on the company, the products, the developers, etc. I once worked for a huge multinational (40,000 developers) who standardized on Microsoft products and approved practices. Unfortunately my division was producing a embedded realtime Unix system when they bought us. Being forced to use Visual Studio and.NET was a severe hindrance to us, so much so that the product has never been finished, seven years later. That's one example. Another is what if your company produces desktop applications, web services and device drivers? No one standardized set of tools is going to be suitable.
Some other threads are correct: do not treat your developers as interchangeable commodities.
But everyone here on Slashdot said he was innocent! He was only convicted because the jury was prejudiced against geeks! There was insufficient evidence to convict! So how can he have led anyone to the body?
I'll be waiting for his book on how he would have done it if he had really done it.
Don't give the Democrats a pass! The vast majority of them rubber stamped the invasion and voted for the PATRIOT act twice. Every opportunity they fully supported funding the occupation. Hell, even the few Dems who want to get out of Iraq are arguing over which *decade* to leave!
He said he didn't, but he acted like he has hiding something. That why I said "bluff". For example, there were lots of restrictions on how weapons inspectors could inspect. I'm not claiming that the bluff was aimed at us, however. I think it was aimed at the Iraqi people, to make them think that the "strong man" was still in charge.
I do hear some petty trolls like that, but what I'm talking about are the legitimate complaints from real users. I am hearing real complaints about crashes. Crashes on startup, crashes every five minutes, crashes on shutdown. RC1 is in three days, and people are complaining about crashes! The label "beta" is unwarranted.
The other class of complaints I am hearing about is the lack of expected features. Users are expecting something that behaves like desktop they are used to. They will eventually come to love the Aaron's vision of the future, but in the meantime they want to get their work done. Ignoring them isn't winning any points.
Feature parity is not the same as bug fixes. I expect beta software to be buggy, but I also expect it to be feature complete. Jeepers Cripes! It was like pulling teeth just to get Aaron to consider adding the ability to move icons on the panel! Basic functionality like that should have been in 4.0, and not a proposal for 4.2!
As much as I *hate* to stick up for Bush, the truth of the matter is that Saddam bluffed and we called him on it. He did everything he could to make everyone believe he had WMDs.
That still doesn't justify the invasion, and it doesn't justify the continuing occupation.
Except that Qt3 and KDE3 are no longer supported. Unless there's a major bug discovered, Qt 3.3.8 is the last Qt3, and I don't really expect anything after KDE 3.5.10.
Even providing useful feedback is something you can do
Just because they don't come in the form of detailed bug reports does not being that these complaints aren't useful feedback. Even though the software is free, they are STILL your users! They may not know how to best express their frustrations, but you should try to hear what they are saying.
I am helping! I have finished porting some pieces from qt3 to qt4, I have fixed some bugs, and I am busily working on FreeBSD ports. But I am still being told, in various words, to STFU. This policy of not letting anyone criticize has no place in the free software community. If you're a user then you're told to STFU and code. If you're a coder then you're told to STFU and pretend nothing is wrong.
It is also obvious that some "complainers" are not KDE users at all.
Bullshit. The complainers are KDE3 users who want feature parity with KDE3. That demand is there, and it is real. Telling them to shut up and code won't make it go away. If we can't get feature parity, then be open and honest about it, and stop telling to wait for the next release.
Back in January we were told that the release really a developer preview, and that all the end user features would be in 4.1. Now that 4.1 is almost released, we're told that it's really a beta, and many of the features are scheduled for 4.2. This whole "rewrite everything from scratch" approach sucks. Rearchitecting everything at the same time you're porting from Qt3 to Qt4 was a big mistake in hindsight.
p.s. But I am not complaining. I have been told to STFU, so please ignore the above.
Fifteen years ago I tried AOL for a week. It sucked (duh). So I cancelled. But every month they were on my credit card bill. I got my credit card company to block them, but then they took me to collections. WTF? It finally took a lawyer and his letterhead to get them to stop the service and refund my credit card.
My B.S. meter is pinging wildy. This story is fishy. I do a lot of flying and I've never heard any airlineannounce that someone left their laptop. I've heard it for jewelry, cameras, purses and even shoes (wtf?). But never laptops. What's the first thing a business traveller does when getting past the TSA goons? Find an outlet and hotspot and start sending emails. They need a laptop to do that, so they're going to notice if they left it behind.
Of course, this story could be true. After all, the TSA makes you remove your laptop from its case or bag and place it all alone in its own plastik bukkit. So someone in a hurry could certainly forget their laptop. But 12,000 a week stretches my credulity to the limit.
I suspect that what makes a Stradivarius better than other violins is the same thing that makes audiophile equipment better than other equipment: the will to believe.
Higher quality makes a difference, but beyond a certain point the extra quality is all imaginary. I greatly suspect that the reputation of Stradivarius is simply due to high quality construction and craftsmanship. Beyond a certain point that reputation is name only. Trying to find secrets in the wood is pointless, in my opinion.
But what the eff do I know? I can't tell the difference between $499 and $4.99 cables either.
Um, yes it is. I don't need the government's permission to perform data recovery. It's none of the state of Texas' damned business! Occupational licensing is nothing more than a job protection scheme, little different from the medieval guild system. It's a way for established businesses to keep tiny competitors out of the market.
I used to be in the building trades. I have seen from personal experience that licensing means shit. Bonding makes much more sense if you're worried about getting scammed. I've seen the customers get screwed royally by licensed contractors, but never with bonded contractors.
And a lot of kids probably bought cigarettes from them without their parent's knowledge or consent.
Yes of course! Duh! That's not my point.
Putting video cameras on vending machines is so bloody stupid it boggles my mind. The responsibility for YOUR children rests with YOU, not the vending machine company. Don't pawn off your parenting responsibilities onto the rest of society. Don't wring your hands and tell me it's for the children! The Nanny State is nothing more than fascism with a cloth to wipe your chin when you dribble.
Why is this even news? This isn't social engineering, it's old fashioned fraud, the kind that has existing for thousands of years. Talk slick and carry fake documents, and you can make your way into the heart of most businesses. Even banks.
Slashdot Mirror
Not in the least! While not a political movement with ideology police, the Open Source "movement" still rejects proprietary software from its definition.
Flash won't work on unapproved operating systems. Linux users don't care, because Linux is "approved". But it won't run on FreeBSD. But Linux users don't care because FreeBSD is not Linux.
There was a time not that long ago when the open source community universally decried websites that required Flash. Yet that stopped the instant Flash became available for Linux. It demonstrates just how shallow the commitment to open source principles really is.
I can learn a new langauge far faster than that, but I must still be a dumbshit compared to some of these web "developers" who claim to learn new languages over the weekend with "Learning OCAML in 24 Hours!" I guess if all you're doing is writing a webpage you can get away with it, but you're not going to be able to write quality code with a language you "just picked up". You don't have to be a language lawyer, but you do need basic proficiency. Expecting developers to crank out quality software in three months with a language they have never before used is ludicrous. Crappy code yes, as can be attested to by all the crappy software out there, but not quality code.
I'm so glad I know C and C++. 90% of non-web development jobs are open to you. But on the web if you choose the wrong language you're screwed.
"I see here Mr. Jones that you have 10 years of Perl experience, 7 of Python, and 5 of ASP. Unfortunately we are using Ruby on Rails...".
Wrong answer! Run away! You're talking to candidates who will never have proficiency with a language.
To a certain point you're correct. But it still depends on the company, the products, the developers, etc. I once worked for a huge multinational (40,000 developers) who standardized on Microsoft products and approved practices. Unfortunately my division was producing a embedded realtime Unix system when they bought us. Being forced to use Visual Studio and .NET was a severe hindrance to us, so much so that the product has never been finished, seven years later. That's one example. Another is what if your company produces desktop applications, web services and device drivers? No one standardized set of tools is going to be suitable.
Some other threads are correct: do not treat your developers as interchangeable commodities.
But everyone here on Slashdot said he was innocent! He was only convicted because the jury was prejudiced against geeks! There was insufficient evidence to convict! So how can he have led anyone to the body?
I'll be waiting for his book on how he would have done it if he had really done it.
Don't give the Democrats a pass! The vast majority of them rubber stamped the invasion and voted for the PATRIOT act twice. Every opportunity they fully supported funding the occupation. Hell, even the few Dems who want to get out of Iraq are arguing over which *decade* to leave!
He said he didn't, but he acted like he has hiding something. That why I said "bluff". For example, there were lots of restrictions on how weapons inspectors could inspect. I'm not claiming that the bluff was aimed at us, however. I think it was aimed at the Iraqi people, to make them think that the "strong man" was still in charge.
I do hear some petty trolls like that, but what I'm talking about are the legitimate complaints from real users. I am hearing real complaints about crashes. Crashes on startup, crashes every five minutes, crashes on shutdown. RC1 is in three days, and people are complaining about crashes! The label "beta" is unwarranted.
The other class of complaints I am hearing about is the lack of expected features. Users are expecting something that behaves like desktop they are used to. They will eventually come to love the Aaron's vision of the future, but in the meantime they want to get their work done. Ignoring them isn't winning any points.
Feature parity is not the same as bug fixes. I expect beta software to be buggy, but I also expect it to be feature complete. Jeepers Cripes! It was like pulling teeth just to get Aaron to consider adding the ability to move icons on the panel! Basic functionality like that should have been in 4.0, and not a proposal for 4.2!
As much as I *hate* to stick up for Bush, the truth of the matter is that Saddam bluffed and we called him on it. He did everything he could to make everyone believe he had WMDs.
That still doesn't justify the invasion, and it doesn't justify the continuing occupation.
Except that Qt3 and KDE3 are no longer supported. Unless there's a major bug discovered, Qt 3.3.8 is the last Qt3, and I don't really expect anything after KDE 3.5.10.
Just because they don't come in the form of detailed bug reports does not being that these complaints aren't useful feedback. Even though the software is free, they are STILL your users! They may not know how to best express their frustrations, but you should try to hear what they are saying.
I am helping! I have finished porting some pieces from qt3 to qt4, I have fixed some bugs, and I am busily working on FreeBSD ports. But I am still being told, in various words, to STFU. This policy of not letting anyone criticize has no place in the free software community. If you're a user then you're told to STFU and code. If you're a coder then you're told to STFU and pretend nothing is wrong.
Bullshit. The complainers are KDE3 users who want feature parity with KDE3. That demand is there, and it is real. Telling them to shut up and code won't make it go away. If we can't get feature parity, then be open and honest about it, and stop telling to wait for the next release.
I don't want magic ponies, I want some sort of feature parity with KDE 3.0.1.
Back in January we were told that the release really a developer preview, and that all the end user features would be in 4.1. Now that 4.1 is almost released, we're told that it's really a beta, and many of the features are scheduled for 4.2. This whole "rewrite everything from scratch" approach sucks. Rearchitecting everything at the same time you're porting from Qt3 to Qt4 was a big mistake in hindsight.
p.s. But I am not complaining. I have been told to STFU, so please ignore the above.Iran executes bloggers? There's only one solution! Send over our army to kill a bunch of people!
Fifteen years ago I tried AOL for a week. It sucked (duh). So I cancelled. But every month they were on my credit card bill. I got my credit card company to block them, but then they took me to collections. WTF? It finally took a lawyer and his letterhead to get them to stop the service and refund my credit card.
My B.S. meter is pinging wildy. This story is fishy. I do a lot of flying and I've never heard any airlineannounce that someone left their laptop. I've heard it for jewelry, cameras, purses and even shoes (wtf?). But never laptops. What's the first thing a business traveller does when getting past the TSA goons? Find an outlet and hotspot and start sending emails. They need a laptop to do that, so they're going to notice if they left it behind.
Of course, this story could be true. After all, the TSA makes you remove your laptop from its case or bag and place it all alone in its own plastik bukkit. So someone in a hurry could certainly forget their laptop. But 12,000 a week stretches my credulity to the limit.
I suspect that what makes a Stradivarius better than other violins is the same thing that makes audiophile equipment better than other equipment: the will to believe.
Higher quality makes a difference, but beyond a certain point the extra quality is all imaginary. I greatly suspect that the reputation of Stradivarius is simply due to high quality construction and craftsmanship. Beyond a certain point that reputation is name only. Trying to find secrets in the wood is pointless, in my opinion.
But what the eff do I know? I can't tell the difference between $499 and $4.99 cables either.
Um, yes it is. I don't need the government's permission to perform data recovery. It's none of the state of Texas' damned business! Occupational licensing is nothing more than a job protection scheme, little different from the medieval guild system. It's a way for established businesses to keep tiny competitors out of the market.
I used to be in the building trades. I have seen from personal experience that licensing means shit. Bonding makes much more sense if you're worried about getting scammed. I've seen the customers get screwed royally by licensed contractors, but never with bonded contractors.
Google "Julian Simon wager". Very on topic.
Yes of course! Duh! That's not my point.
Putting video cameras on vending machines is so bloody stupid it boggles my mind. The responsibility for YOUR children rests with YOU, not the vending machine company. Don't pawn off your parenting responsibilities onto the rest of society. Don't wring your hands and tell me it's for the children! The Nanny State is nothing more than fascism with a cloth to wipe your chin when you dribble.
Let me be the first to say, "well duh!"
Why is this even news? This isn't social engineering, it's old fashioned fraud, the kind that has existing for thousands of years. Talk slick and carry fake documents, and you can make your way into the heart of most businesses. Even banks.