None of the things you mentioned are going to be problems for John Q. Everyman for the following reasons:
1. Gateway is installing SuSE Linux on servers, not desktops and laptops.
2. Unless Grandma runs her own big-iron Web server or Folding@Home project, she'll never see SuSE Linux on a Gateway PC (at least not yet).
3. Linux IS fantastic for geeks. And it's fantastic for John Q. Everyman as well. Distros like Mandrake 9.2 make it easy for Linux newbies to get into the market; a Linux newbie does not start with Gentoo!
4. You don't need to recompile the kernel to watch DivX movies. You just need a new version of mplayer.
All in all, sir, this is a very articulate, well-written, yet very trollish post.
It probably does. You don't hear very much about Gateway anymore in the mainstream; a deal like this will not only raise their profile and possibly bring them business again, but it's also an explicit endorsement of SuSE, within or without the context of Novell itself. Either way, all three companies have a good chance of winning.
Is Gateway the first large computer manufacturer to license SuSE after Novell announced their acquisition?
It's a setup for the purists. The SEs are basically what Jackson would have released in theatres, without ANY cutting. New Line forced a 3 hour limit on him so they had to rework things somewhat, which meant that a lot of stuff that Jackson wanted to show would end up in the SEs for the "real" fans to see.
It still sUx0rzZ, though -- I like Christopher Lee as Saruman.
I for one welcome our helicopter-stealing overlords.
Besides, if this helo is so unique that no one else has ever managed to build something like it, then any attempt to sell it or trade it will definitely show up pretty clearly, right?
I never said that hard disks would definitely be replaced by flash; it was just an example of how a hard disk can be replaced by a solid-state storage device.
The hard drive issue can almost be solved with a USB 2.0 solid-state NVRAM flash disk. They've already reached 1GB on a keychain-sized device; something the size of a 2.5" hard disk could probably hold 8 times that much.
I think that despite the introduction of Serial ATA, SAS, iSCSI and all these other storage technologies, the venerable hard disk will meet its end sooner or later; probably later.
And I never said that they did. It shouldn't be too hard to copy the master filesystem into a ramdisk, increment the serial number and then push it to the stamping machinery. They wouldn't have to mess with the media at all.
Either way, though, I doubt that the ID is on the physical media.
True. Yields from the fab where they make the components would also be important. Hopefully yields will improve and thermal efficiency improve as Sony improves the steppings for the processor they're using for this beast, much like Intel and AMD do right now.
They're probably talking about disks preformatted with Sony's FooBarBaz filesystem, with the ID hiding somewhere in the superblock. I doub they could hide it anywhere else on an unformatted disk, and they probably decided on a new filesystem anyway to implement the AES support.
You have a point. But if they can fit an entire x86 system onto a single die with only I/O and memory external to the die, then Sony can probably pull a Centrino and get away with the same thing.
Hardly. Intel proved that good performance doesn't require a nuclear power plant with its new Centrino laptop architecture.
If Sony managed to pull off a similar feat, then they could get super-good CPU performance without draining the battery. I suspect the screen would be more of a power hog than anything else.
It still sucks that the media is proprietary, though.
The first two responses to the first whine make sense. That's what Jonathan Walther is up to here.
It's semi-vaporware at the moment due to Mr. Walther getting stuck in a legal quagmire, but check the list mbox and you'll see that development is proceeding along quietly.
Looks like the management at Google understand the situation. Only selling about $2 billion USD will get them the funds they need to expand, but without the risk of a hostile takeover.
Let's just hope that the voting shareholders don't defect to Microsoft. Or to anyone else.
I suspect that it's the former. In the current corporate culture of lining someone's pockets and believing that every customer is a lying criminal who only wants to warez their products, I don't think the programmers really have much of a say anymore when the managers dream up schemes like this. I'm sure that there are exceptions where the manager is not a PHB and actually listens to his subordinates (I've experienced that), but these days, that attitude seems to be waning.
I doubt the managers will get it until they stop making money. Or until they're all fired for not making money.
At least we have time to formulate an appropriate response to this. Remember, folks, Congress can move pretty damned fast when they want to (remember the DNC vote?)
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Yes! I welcome our new SuSE overlords!
None of the things you mentioned are going to be problems for John Q. Everyman for the following reasons:
1. Gateway is installing SuSE Linux on servers, not desktops and laptops.
2. Unless Grandma runs her own big-iron Web server or Folding@Home project, she'll never see SuSE Linux on a Gateway PC (at least not yet).
3. Linux IS fantastic for geeks. And it's fantastic for John Q. Everyman as well. Distros like Mandrake 9.2 make it easy for Linux newbies to get into the market; a Linux newbie does not start with Gentoo!
4. You don't need to recompile the kernel to watch DivX movies. You just need a new version of mplayer.
All in all, sir, this is a very articulate, well-written, yet very trollish post.
It probably does. You don't hear very much about Gateway anymore in the mainstream; a deal like this will not only raise their profile and possibly bring them business again, but it's also an explicit endorsement of SuSE, within or without the context of Novell itself. Either way, all three companies have a good chance of winning.
Is Gateway the first large computer manufacturer to license SuSE after Novell announced their acquisition?
It's a setup for the purists. The SEs are basically what Jackson would have released in theatres, without ANY cutting. New Line forced a 3 hour limit on him so they had to rework things somewhat, which meant that a lot of stuff that Jackson wanted to show would end up in the SEs for the "real" fans to see.
It still sUx0rzZ, though -- I like Christopher Lee as Saruman.
I for one welcome our helicopter-stealing overlords.
Besides, if this helo is so unique that no one else has ever managed to build something like it, then any attempt to sell it or trade it will definitely show up pretty clearly, right?
Has anyone tried this with BitKeeper?
Right now it's fairly cloudy, but hopefully it will clear up, according to www.weather.co.uk.
I never said that hard disks would definitely be replaced by flash; it was just an example of how a hard disk can be replaced by a solid-state storage device.
0 0.asp
As for slow Flash memory, how about this:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113332,
The hard drive issue can almost be solved with a USB 2.0 solid-state NVRAM flash disk. They've already reached 1GB on a keychain-sized device; something the size of a 2.5" hard disk could probably hold 8 times that much.
I think that despite the introduction of Serial ATA, SAS, iSCSI and all these other storage technologies, the venerable hard disk will meet its end sooner or later; probably later.
Will we all need an Asetek VapoChill to keep chips using these things cool?
Oh for $DEITY's sake.....
Why do they even care? Do they think that implictly allowing this really will hurt the competition?
And I never said that they did. It shouldn't be too hard to copy the master filesystem into a ramdisk, increment the serial number and then push it to the stamping machinery. They wouldn't have to mess with the media at all.
Either way, though, I doubt that the ID is on the physical media.
True. Yields from the fab where they make the components would also be important. Hopefully yields will improve and thermal efficiency improve as Sony improves the steppings for the processor they're using for this beast, much like Intel and AMD do right now.
They're probably talking about disks preformatted with Sony's FooBarBaz filesystem, with the ID hiding somewhere in the superblock. I doub they could hide it anywhere else on an unformatted disk, and they probably decided on a new filesystem anyway to implement the AES support.
You have a point. But if they can fit an entire x86 system onto a single die with only I/O and memory external to the die, then Sony can probably pull a Centrino and get away with the same thing.
Hardly. Intel proved that good performance doesn't require a nuclear power plant with its new Centrino laptop architecture.
If Sony managed to pull off a similar feat, then they could get super-good CPU performance without draining the battery. I suspect the screen would be more of a power hog than anything else.
It still sucks that the media is proprietary, though.
I for one welcome our new voted-in-by-crummy-electronics overlords.
Seriously though, why is it so HARD for people to get it right? Voting is one of those things that should be summed up with this word: KISS.
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
The first two responses to the first whine make sense. That's what Jonathan Walther is up to here.
It's semi-vaporware at the moment due to Mr. Walther getting stuck in a legal quagmire, but check the list mbox and you'll see that development is proceeding along quietly.
Amazingly, it's not. I just accessed it and Mr. Pennington's blog entry appeared lickety-split.
But did anyone notice that this sounds a lot like Avalon and DX10 in the M$ world?
I'm not flaming what Mr. Pennington is saying, but it does sound awfully similar. Although it will make the X experience a bit nicer, IMO.
Looks like the management at Google understand the situation. Only selling about $2 billion USD will get them the funds they need to expand, but without the risk of a hostile takeover. Let's just hope that the voting shareholders don't defect to Microsoft. Or to anyone else.
I suspect that it's the former. In the current corporate culture of lining someone's pockets and believing that every customer is a lying criminal who only wants to warez their products, I don't think the programmers really have much of a say anymore when the managers dream up schemes like this. I'm sure that there are exceptions where the manager is not a PHB and actually listens to his subordinates (I've experienced that), but these days, that attitude seems to be waning.
I doubt the managers will get it until they stop making money. Or until they're all fired for not making money.
Does anyone own a Zaurus? How useful are they really?
At least we have time to formulate an appropriate response to this. Remember, folks, Congress can move pretty damned fast when they want to (remember the DNC vote?)
The Nausicaa web site doesn't explain very much, and I'm not about to wade through mailinglist archives either.