On the other hand, does it mean they're willing to work with third-parties to provide some software like web browsers? It doesn't have to be from the Free world, they could just arrive to a settlement with Opera, for instance.
Sure, Linux is better, and I use it myself. But quite a lot of Windows problems would be solved if Microsoft would just stop shipping their own mail client and browser.
The problem with nanotech isn't just the self-replicating "grey goo" scenario. The whole concept of "printing out" matter from a molecular map is pretty fucked up, as it allows for any bizarre creation of mind to become *real*.
PHB sends Dilbert to talk to the marketing people.
Dilbert: "Dave, tell me how marketing thinks the product should be"
Dave: "It must have a 45" screen and fit a 007 suitcase. It needs to function as a phone and an air conditioner too"
Dilbert: "Hmm"
Dave: "It must cure fatal diseases and brush our teeth while we sleep!... Ha ha! And it must be capable of time travel! And have a telepathic interface!"
Dilbert slaps Dave.
Dilbert: "I can write a program that will show some fish in the computer screen"
You can always get Quantian, a Knoppix variant custom-tailored for scientific computing. It drops OOo, The Gimp and other pretty things for big-number-crunching tools like Octave, R, Gretl et cetera. It also includes a couple of LaTeX editors, plus two WYSIWYG editors that compose TeX, LyX and TeXMacs.
Sure, it doesn't have a 2.6 kernel yet, but the guy is fast, and he's prolly at it already.
What I really want is a (preferably transparent) label-less keyboard. I'm a touch-typist switching very often between ABNT-2, US-standard QWERTY and Dvorak, and key labels are just a nuisance.
(I'm kind of a showoff typist, I must confess, and labelless keys would just make my act more dramatic with the chicks:P)
Yes, apparently Linux takes the most of higher-end machines, and loses in older equipment.
While KDE 3.2 is MUCH MUCH faster than 3.0, it runs about as fast as WinXP. That's pretty much the main reason I haven't started recommending a Linux+KDE workstation to everyone I know - remember, not everyone is in America, and even in Brazil, the tenth largest economy in the world, most people are stuck with 3-4 years old machines.
Curious. After I've set up my workstation, I've never even had to mess with the control panel again.
Sure, the default setup is bad. The Panel (not the control panel, the taskbar-cum-start-menu thing) is a mess, Keramik is a classic exercise in bad taste, and I don't particularly like those icons.
I moved the Panel to the top, got rid of the taskbar - replacing it with the wonderful KTicker, who keeps me up with Slashdot news when I can't waste the time, and watches for my keywords in other RDF sources - changed the buttons to submenus with the tools I need, and added a quickbrowser.
The quickbrowser is a bliss. This should have been the default interface for browsing files since the beginning. I have my work files organized by directories (that can be created on the fly when saving'em), and gretl my way into academic fame. For text editing, I use LyX.
Did I mention I love the PIM tools? My screen's always chock full of KNote yellow-stickers, TeaCooker helps me not to burn food, and Korganizer helps me not to forget deadlines.
I mean, except for LyX and gretl, these tools are all standard in a KDE install. You can imagine what the optionals are. I'm just dropping out of an underpaid internship where I had to do some work with Windows, and it was just a pain after experiencing KDE.
Sad but true - Linux excels precisely in UI, though it loses in performance and hardware support and other things they've boasted.
I just posted this on an OpenBSD story, but it fits quite well here. I only use Linux because it's the easiest way to get myself a KDE desktop.
Really, if *BSD or a Free Solaris or anything else come up with live cd's or start-me-up installers, I might as well try them to test for performance and stability. Since KDE runs in any Unix-like system, "switching" is not quite a problem for me.
I just want the best desktop environment available today and that's KDE. What it's running on top of, I don't care.
Hey, why don't you come up with a live-cd that can be installed to hard-drive with one command like Knoppix and that FreeBSD project?
Really, I only use Linux because it was the easier way to get me a KDE desktop. I couldn't give a damn about what kernel I'm running, I just want to have the best desktop environment available today.
Grrr. What kind of chicken shit randomizing process does Slashdot use to select its stories?
So I find out a company called Forgent Networks is suing over 31 leading software and hardware vendors like Apple, Dell, IBM, Kodak and Xerox over JPEG patents, take the time to find the patent and link it, and my story get rejected. But a "boo hoo I'm stressed" story is accepted. God, I have to get rid of this shit.
I work at the brazilian equivalent of the NBER as an assistant to an economist who is researching the economic impact of climate change. I look at the numbers everyday.
PING www.google.akadns.net (216.239.51.104): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=0 ttl=239 time=289.6 ms 64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=1 ttl=239 time=251.1 ms 64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=278.4 ms 64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=3 ttl=239 time=298.3 ms 64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=256.9 ms
Someone with a reputation needs to write a text explaining to the the rest of the people in the Big Room with Blue Ceiling that there are two cultures around Linux(the FS/OSS community's most noted work), one that's politically centered and sees "free software" as one of the basis of a "free society", and one that's business-oriented and thinks that open source software guarantees better market efficiency, and generally works better is has better "scalability", "customizability".
Most hackers won't fit in clearly in one or the other group, but the tension is there.
Someone neutral, but with a reputation (perhaps mr. Perens, perhaps JWZ) needs to explain where RMS stands from and what he stands for, where ESR stands from and what he stands from and so on.
Because whenever RMS pulls his bohemian/hippie/rebel act on BusinessWeek or some people with radical politics try to get Linux associated with their (perfectly fine) stances, they hurt people who are investing money and careers in Business Linux.
We can't, and we shouldn't alienate the public image of Linux from the Free Software/Free Society crowd, but we can sabotage the Business Linux public image with a few well-planned stunts. Should we? I don't think so. When you choose to be against business or military or televangelist use of Linux, you are pretty much contradicting the Free Society stance, as well as the spirit of the GPL.
And, shit, nor IBM, nor some long-haired anti-war activist should be allowed to hijack the spirit behind Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
One one hand, "HOW DARES HE SUGGEST THAT..."
On the other hand, does it mean they're willing to work with third-parties to provide some software like web browsers? It doesn't have to be from the Free world, they could just arrive to a settlement with Opera, for instance.
Sure, Linux is better, and I use it myself. But quite a lot of Windows problems would be solved if Microsoft would just stop shipping their own mail client and browser.
Slashdotters blaming someone other than Billy G or Stevie B for bad things.
In other news, Osama Bin Laden renounces Islam and donates his fortune to the James Randi organisation.
The problem with nanotech isn't just the self-replicating "grey goo" scenario. The whole concept of "printing out" matter from a molecular map is pretty fucked up, as it allows for any bizarre creation of mind to become *real*.
PHB sends Dilbert to talk to the marketing people.
... Ha ha! And it must be capable of time travel! And have a telepathic interface!"
Dilbert: "Dave, tell me how marketing thinks the product should be"
Dave: "It must have a 45" screen and fit a 007 suitcase. It needs to function as a phone and an air conditioner too"
Dilbert: "Hmm"
Dave: "It must cure fatal diseases and brush our teeth while we sleep!
Dilbert slaps Dave.
Dilbert: "I can write a program that will show some fish in the computer screen"
Dave: "Yeah, a lot of people want that"
from Microsoft Watch confirms it:
But WHO WOULD BUY A WRISTWATCH FROM MICROSOFT, for Mingus' sake?
I, for one, welcome our new terahertz overlords.
Damn, another ruined attempt at a slashjoke. There goes my karma.
oh, please. zero comments and the link is already slashdotted. Grrr.
Intel beats AMD in CPU sales.
Oh, heck, why don't any of my slashjokes work?
You can always get Quantian, a Knoppix variant custom-tailored for scientific computing. It drops OOo, The Gimp and other pretty things for big-number-crunching tools like Octave, R, Gretl et cetera. It also includes a couple of LaTeX editors, plus two WYSIWYG editors that compose TeX, LyX and TeXMacs.
Sure, it doesn't have a 2.6 kernel yet, but the guy is fast, and he's prolly at it already.
What I really want is a (preferably transparent) label-less keyboard. I'm a touch-typist switching very often between ABNT-2, US-standard QWERTY and Dvorak, and key labels are just a nuisance.
:P)
(I'm kind of a showoff typist, I must confess, and labelless keys would just make my act more dramatic with the chicks
Yes, apparently Linux takes the most of higher-end machines, and loses in older equipment.
While KDE 3.2 is MUCH MUCH faster than 3.0, it runs about as fast as WinXP. That's pretty much the main reason I haven't started recommending a Linux+KDE workstation to everyone I know - remember, not everyone is in America, and even in Brazil, the tenth largest economy in the world, most people are stuck with 3-4 years old machines.
Curious. After I've set up my workstation, I've never even had to mess with the control panel again.
Sure, the default setup is bad. The Panel (not the control panel, the taskbar-cum-start-menu thing) is a mess, Keramik is a classic exercise in bad taste, and I don't particularly like those icons.
I moved the Panel to the top, got rid of the taskbar - replacing it with the wonderful KTicker, who keeps me up with Slashdot news when I can't waste the time, and watches for my keywords in other RDF sources - changed the buttons to submenus with the tools I need, and added a quickbrowser.
The quickbrowser is a bliss. This should have been the default interface for browsing files since the beginning. I have my work files organized by directories (that can be created on the fly when saving'em), and gretl my way into academic fame. For text editing, I use LyX.
Did I mention I love the PIM tools? My screen's always chock full of KNote yellow-stickers, TeaCooker helps me not to burn food, and Korganizer helps me not to forget deadlines.
I mean, except for LyX and gretl, these tools are all standard in a KDE install. You can imagine what the optionals are. I'm just dropping out of an underpaid internship where I had to do some work with Windows, and it was just a pain after experiencing KDE.
Sad but true - Linux excels precisely in UI, though it loses in performance and hardware support and other things they've boasted.
I just posted this on an OpenBSD story, but it fits quite well here. I only use Linux because it's the easiest way to get myself a KDE desktop.
Really, if *BSD or a Free Solaris or anything else come up with live cd's or start-me-up installers, I might as well try them to test for performance and stability. Since KDE runs in any Unix-like system, "switching" is not quite a problem for me.
I just want the best desktop environment available today and that's KDE. What it's running on top of, I don't care.
Hey, why don't you come up with a live-cd that can be installed to hard-drive with one command like Knoppix and that FreeBSD project?
Really, I only use Linux because it was the easier way to get me a KDE desktop. I couldn't give a damn about what kernel I'm running, I just want to have the best desktop environment available today.
Of course, I _could_ use better performance.
1. I, for one, welcome our new beowulf cluster dot-com overlords.
2. ???
3. Profit!
The day Microsoft Excel for Linux comes up, I'm buying. No, really, I'm shelling $299 for it.
Spreadsheet software on Linux plain sucks. And that's the end of that.
Another piece of software that became quite a hit in academia is Gretl, the GNU Econometrics, Time-series and regression library.
It's a perfect clone of eViews, and it's free as in "just grab it"
do your users need the obscure features of Excel?
Bah, I do. I`m glad they`ve got Windows and Office at work, since my home machine is Linux.
Of course, you could always switch them to Octave/Matlab, but the training costs would be high.
... too bad, the auto-sort in threads thing seems kinda cool.
Hey, Horde developers, shouldn't you be working in copying this?
Grrr. What kind of chicken shit randomizing process does Slashdot use to select its stories?
So I find out a company called Forgent Networks is suing over 31 leading software and hardware vendors like Apple, Dell, IBM, Kodak and Xerox over JPEG patents, take the time to find the patent and link it, and my story get rejected. But a "boo hoo I'm stressed" story is accepted. God, I have to get rid of this shit.
(Ah, I love the smell of karma in the morning)
Try being a medical doctor or a financial day-trader or an undertrained soldier stuck in some war-ridden hole.
There's one Nobel laureate that thinks HIV is not the cause of AIDS.
And then there's John Nash, another Nobel laureate, who sees dead people.
I work at the brazilian equivalent of the NBER as an assistant to an economist who is researching the economic impact of climate change. I look at the numbers everyday.
This shit is for real. Seriously.
Hmmm.
# ping www.google.com
PING www.google.akadns.net (216.239.51.104): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=0 ttl=239 time=289.6 ms
64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=1 ttl=239 time=251.1 ms
64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=278.4 ms
64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=3 ttl=239 time=298.3 ms
64 bytes from 216.239.51.104: icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=256.9 ms
Someone with a reputation needs to write a text explaining to the the rest of the people in the Big Room with Blue Ceiling that there are two cultures around Linux(the FS/OSS community's most noted work), one that's politically centered and sees "free software" as one of the basis of a "free society", and one that's business-oriented and thinks that open source software guarantees better market efficiency, and generally works better is has better "scalability", "customizability".
Most hackers won't fit in clearly in one or the other group, but the tension is there.
Someone neutral, but with a reputation (perhaps mr. Perens, perhaps JWZ) needs to explain where RMS stands from and what he stands for, where ESR stands from and what he stands from and so on.
Because whenever RMS pulls his bohemian/hippie/rebel act on BusinessWeek or some people with radical politics try to get Linux associated with their (perfectly fine) stances, they hurt people who are investing money and careers in Business Linux.
We can't, and we shouldn't alienate the public image of Linux from the Free Software/Free Society crowd, but we can sabotage the Business Linux public image with a few well-planned stunts. Should we? I don't think so. When you choose to be against business or military or televangelist use of Linux, you are pretty much contradicting the Free Society stance, as well as the spirit of the GPL.
And, shit, nor IBM, nor some long-haired anti-war activist should be allowed to hijack the spirit behind Linux.