Here is the #1 obsitcale I think Mozilla has to overcome. If Mozilla fucks up something, what recourse does a user have? Since Mozilla is given for free, you can't sue.
Now if IE fuckes up a computer, and someone gets pissed off enough, they can sue Microsoft, saying the user PAID money for a product and trusted that product.
I know nobody that has sued Microsoft. But there is some security in knowing it came from a real company.
Look, I know this is/., but please apply a minimal level of ratiocination to what you are saying.
You know of no one who has sued Microsoft -- say, for all the VB Script virii in the world -- because YOU CANNOT SUE THEM. Read the fine print of your Microsoft EULA and take a look at their regiment of lawyers. You ain't got a flippin' hope in a frog pond.
There is no security for you in buying a software licence. Much less for anything you obtain FOR FREE.
However, if you, or other experts can look at the code, modify it, and compile it yourselves, you know EXACTLY what it does.
THAT, my friend, is the greatest confidence that you can have in the software that you use.
There's this bulletin board software that I use.
It's open source, it's popular, it's free, but it is an unsecure piece of shit. There's a security fix for it every fucking month and once I got hacked because I didn't have time to update it for like 3 days (luckily the hackers - nice of them - only defaced the home page and left the mySQL DB untouched)
Welcome to SlashDot, PHPBB user!
Despite the problems with it, it still has value. If it did ~nothing~ for you but increase the threat of attack, you wouldn't use it at all.
I think this is why people also continue to download Microsoft Office.;o)
In another 50 years they'll probably have achieved they're goal of being nothing more than a well marketed image of two opposing points of view while both parties continue to expand upon their only remaining policy: Feeding at the public trough via an ever expanding Federal government. In the meantime I'm sure they'll continue to argue bitterly and promote divsion in every media form available so that no one will notice that it's mostly bluster without substance, and that enriching themselves and their contributors is about the only action they ever really take.
In future news: Wachowski Brothers rip off SlashDot post for their next film!
But seriously...
Which is to say, it will leave the left (and right) of the rest of the world looking on in a strange mix of amusement and fascinated horror.
The future you describe is the reality today. The US looks very twisted to observers. I've travelled in the US and know there are many, many good people there, living principled, thoughtful lives. It's a big country... but a relative few are changing it into something that the soldier-philosophers of the War Of Independence would have detested.
"Fastest growing" does not necessarily mean "largest".
A positive interpretation of this is that people are growing more aware of the importance of physical fitness in a society that has for too long neglected health and failed to build communities that do not need combustion engines.
Companies don't think about the names at all when they sell it in other countries... or at least they don't do a very good job.
~American~ companies don't think about it. European companies do. Have done so for a long time.
You do a good job of it when you recognize the need to do business with people who don't speak your language.
A "longhorn" is a kind of cattle popular in US cattle country, e.g. Texas. Means nothing to anyone else... except maybe the Masai in Africa, because some of their wildebeests have big headgear too.
How many Masai will be on the beta list is hard to say.
Christians by and large consider them to be non-Christians
The above statement means little. Creationists of belief X usually consider Creationists of belief Y (where Y != X) to be lost sheep, damned, etc.
A Google search for "are mormons christians" leads to some interesting reading. They seem to consider themselves to be Christians but the bigger kids on the block would rather not invite them to play.
Every time I download a movie or software to evaluate it and then decide to buy the product, the movie or software industry owes Bram Cohen some money.
Like most people, I work hard for my money and I am careful about how I spend it. I would not steal someone else's money or possessions. I do not want to be robbed or feel robbed, either.
The movie industry established a "home library" market for movies when VHS tapes began to be marketed. Watching a movie in a cinema is a one-time experience, like a roller-coaster at an amusement park. HOWEVER... if they want me to build a library of movies for their profit, I will exercise my right as a consumer to evaluate their products. If most of their products are rubbish, it is their fault, not mine. If they give me no other means of evaluating their product, it is their fault, not mine.
It is my right as a consumer to try a functional software product before buying it. I have downloaded software to do this. If I like it, I buy it, otherwise I delete it. Also, when I must use Windows, I still use Windows NT 4.0 because it is fast, stable, and does not need constant security patching as do Windows versions that use Internet Explorer as the file manager. Some of the software that I need for Windows NT 4.0 is not commercially available anymore. The market has passed me by and the vendors don't want my business; downloading solves the problem.
I use FreeBSD and Mac OS X regularly. I use a lot of FOSS but I will prefer a commercial product to FOSS if it gets the job done better for me. FOSS puts pressure on commercial software to be ~better~ as well as less expensive.
I support OS X because I love the product. Did I try Jaguar before I bought it? Yes. Did I try Panther before I bought it? Yes. Did I try Tiger before it was on the shelves? Yes; I don't heed marketing hype. Will I buy Tiger? Yes. (Although, of course, the recent announcement about switching to Intel means that I have to consider waiting until I have an Intel-based Mac.)
UI standards aside, it's interesting to note that this phrase "Mac People" now also means "BSD-UNIX users of Intel-based computers... ~with~ two-button mice."
Is Bob Dylan trendy again or is he so untrendy that it's cool to like him? Or was he just cheap and available? They should have at least tried to get an 80's band.
He isn't trendy. He has never been more unpleasant to listen to. But he is part of the nostalgia of aging Boomers. And he is still alive.
When Zimmy has been interesting musically, it was mostly because of the musicians or producers around him. When Zimmy has been interesting lyrically, it was when he was trying hard to fool people or was goofing around in a creative way.
What it all comes down to is this: Zimmy never really stood for anything -- he is a performer.
So, when you see him performing for Corporate America or at the next Military-Industrial Complex Christmas Party, remember the immortal words of Bobo Dylan: "You gotta serve somebody!"
Slashdot Mirror
In fact, it is inewitabo.
Inewitabo! Inewitabo! Inewitabo!
And all this time we've been looking for Osama in a turban near a camel!
Do you want to SuperSize that, Sir?
Sir, I nominate you for the
I sincerely hope you win. Of course, you and I probably have nowhere near as much money as Mr Gates, so nothing we say could be useful or true.
Look, I know this is
You know of no one who has sued Microsoft -- say, for all the VB Script virii in the world -- because YOU CANNOT SUE THEM. Read the fine print of your Microsoft EULA and take a look at their regiment of lawyers. You ain't got a flippin' hope in a frog pond.
There is no security for you in buying a software licence. Much less for anything you obtain FOR FREE.
However, if you, or other experts can look at the code, modify it, and compile it yourselves, you know EXACTLY what it does.
THAT, my friend, is the greatest confidence that you can have in the software that you use.
Welcome to SlashDot, PHPBB user!
Despite the problems with it, it still has value. If it did ~nothing~ for you but increase the threat of attack, you wouldn't use it at all.
I think this is why people also continue to download Microsoft Office.
W for Whateverrrr.
-signed, FreeBSD
In future news: Wachowski Brothers rip off SlashDot post for their next film!
But seriously...
The future you describe is the reality today. The US looks very twisted to observers. I've travelled in the US and know there are many, many good people there, living principled, thoughtful lives. It's a big country... but a relative few are changing it into something that the soldier-philosophers of the War Of Independence would have detested.
The Edsel was (by all reports) a good car.
Some other dubious possibilities:
Windows Garfunkel
Windows Hindenberg
Windows Five Year Plan (FYP)
Windows Maginot Line
Windows Keanu
I don't know about other engineers, but I have the utmost respect for the Typing Pool.
Just in case you did ~not~ mean "annals", I am not going to click your link.
Unless your employer will gladly let you modify/clarify this passage... Run for the nearest exit.
"Fastest growing" does not necessarily mean "largest".
A positive interpretation of this is that people are growing more aware of the importance of physical fitness in a society that has for too long neglected health and failed to build communities that do not need combustion engines.
There once was a coder named Bill:
PR was his finest skill.
He certified kids,
chipmunks and squids
as part of the PR mill.
That's what I hear, too.
Unfortunately, I haven't got far in my testing. I've been trying to install it since 1994.
Hey man, we're girlfriendless geeks here! It should be a hentai artist.
Furthermore, people who know nothing about computers ~also know nothing about Windows~. They are utterly clueless when confronted with a problem.
So, if not even Monoposoft Windows is "universally" easy, the FA's only argument is that it's what most people are using on the desktop.
Fine, that's true.
But if the above were such a great argument, that noisome fathead Ballmer would not be so worried.
~American~ companies don't think about it. European companies do. Have done so for a long time.
You do a good job of it when you recognize the need to do business with people who don't speak your language.
A "longhorn" is a kind of cattle popular in US cattle country, e.g. Texas. Means nothing to anyone else... except maybe the Masai in Africa, because some of their wildebeests have big headgear too.
How many Masai will be on the beta list is hard to say.
The above statement means little. Creationists of belief X usually consider Creationists of belief Y (where Y != X) to be lost sheep, damned, etc.
A Google search for "are mormons christians" leads to some interesting reading. They seem to consider themselves to be Christians but the bigger kids on the block would rather not invite them to play.
Every time I download a movie or software to evaluate it and then decide to buy the product, the movie or software industry owes Bram Cohen some money.
Like most people, I work hard for my money and I am careful about how I spend it. I would not steal someone else's money or possessions. I do not want to be robbed or feel robbed, either.
The movie industry established a "home library" market for movies when VHS tapes began to be marketed. Watching a movie in a cinema is a one-time experience, like a roller-coaster at an amusement park. HOWEVER... if they want me to build a library of movies for their profit, I will exercise my right as a consumer to evaluate their products. If most of their products are rubbish, it is their fault, not mine. If they give me no other means of evaluating their product, it is their fault, not mine.
It is my right as a consumer to try a functional software product before buying it. I have downloaded software to do this. If I like it, I buy it, otherwise I delete it. Also, when I must use Windows, I still use Windows NT 4.0 because it is fast, stable, and does not need constant security patching as do Windows versions that use Internet Explorer as the file manager. Some of the software that I need for Windows NT 4.0 is not commercially available anymore. The market has passed me by and the vendors don't want my business; downloading solves the problem.
I use FreeBSD and Mac OS X regularly. I use a lot of FOSS but I will prefer a commercial product to FOSS if it gets the job done better for me. FOSS puts pressure on commercial software to be ~better~ as well as less expensive.
I support OS X because I love the product. Did I try Jaguar before I bought it? Yes. Did I try Panther before I bought it? Yes. Did I try Tiger before it was on the shelves? Yes; I don't heed marketing hype. Will I buy Tiger? Yes. (Although, of course, the recent announcement about switching to Intel means that I have to consider waiting until I have an Intel-based Mac.)
Mac People
UI standards aside, it's interesting to note that this phrase "Mac People" now also means "BSD-UNIX users of Intel-based computers... ~with~ two-button mice."
Is Bob Dylan trendy again or is he so untrendy that it's cool to like him? Or was he just cheap and available? They should have at least tried to get an 80's band.
He isn't trendy. He has never been more unpleasant to listen to. But he is part of the nostalgia of aging Boomers. And he is still alive.
When Zimmy has been interesting musically, it was mostly because of the musicians or producers around him. When Zimmy has been interesting lyrically, it was when he was trying hard to fool people or was goofing around in a creative way.
What it all comes down to is this: Zimmy never really stood for anything -- he is a performer.
So, when you see him performing for Corporate America or at the next Military-Industrial Complex Christmas Party, remember the immortal words of Bobo Dylan: "You gotta serve somebody!"
"but we Brits are a bit more reserved."
Except at football* games, of course.
*"soccer", for the colonies
And the movie should have been called, "THE Batman Begins".
In protest of all you ignorant clods, I am going to put on my Bat Suit and climb City Hall!
that your fabricated lightsabre will slice limbs cleanly and not burst into flames like a fluorescent tube filled with gasoline.