Fat binaries are awesome, they're what makes Mac OS X the mainstream operating system with the most painless 64-bit transition. Whereas Windows and Linux use messy hacks to allow 32-bit apps to live in a 64-bit environment, in OS X it "just works" because all libraries are multi-architecture in a completely transparent way thanks to fat binaries. It also made the transition from PPC to x86 relatively easy, too.
I feel sorry for people who believe Linux doesn't need fat binaries. They don't understand all the advantages this system brings (and not just to non-free software).
If I'm reading you correctly, what you're saying is that because the source is available, it's perfectly acceptable to expect the end user to compile everything? I can already hear you say "no, the end user should use his distro's package manager". But the hard reality is that your distro's package manager doesn't have everything. Eventually you always end up with some program that's not being maintained by your distro. Hence the forced compiling of stuff.
The end user should NEVER have to compile stuff to use it. EVER. (except for experimental code not ready for release) People need to get that silly idea out of their heads if they ever want Linux to become a relevant desktop operating system.
Fat binaries would be just as useful for open source apps as closed ones.
Great... except having to compile an app to install it is a fucking waste of the user's time. And the performance gains from CPU specific compile flags are insignificant. Why is this a better idea than fat binaries again?
Are you a Gentoo user? I used to be a Gentoo user too. Then I actually became sane.
I too agree that this is pointless for the end user in Linux, at least when it comes to free software. Only closed binary blobs will benefit, which IMHO is not something worth putting effort towards helping. They did their design choices and accepted the reality in doing so.
He doesn't need to elaborate. Your continued narrow thinking has just proved his point. But if you want to live in denial, your choice.
I think you're not looking at the big picture here.
First up, computers are designed as general purpose machines, so any kind of locking up goes against their greater purpose (ie. be a tool that allows its owner to do whatever he wants). Yeah, we both agree on that. DRM bad, software freedom good, etc.
But when you buy a console, you are fully aware that it is locked down. Unlike the computer it is NOT a general purpose machine. Its only intended goal is to play games. The lockdown works in favor of that. It ensures the vendor that it can maintain a certain level of quality and consistency of the product, and minimize piracy. Every software that's executed is proprietary and closed source, so the openness of the hardware is irrelevent.
If anything, getting rid of the mainstream PC gaming platform in favor of consoles will only bring MORE freedom to the computing world. For example, I know many people who won't consider using Linux because of mainstream games. If they were to migrate their gaming needs to consoles, the need for Windows would be greatly diminished.
That's the great thing about consoles: they isolate closed content to a single, isolated hardware platform, freeing up our general purpose machines from that burden.
Because the moderator remembered why we're boycotting Sony? Sony is well known for using extremely restrictive DRM, to the point of installing a rootkit on Windows PCs with music CDs made to appear normal.
I don't see why the rootkits found in some Sony BMG music CDs should stop me from enjoying my Sony Computer Entertainment product. Sony is a fucking huge company, the immoral acts of one of its divisions are very unlikely to have been direct orders from the top-level board of directors. If you had ever worked in a big company you'd understand.
Even Little Big Planet is infested with DRM. Sony claims everything you make as their own, and if you've been following gaming news at all you'll know that they'll even delete your own creations if they decide they're "offensive" - to anyone. Even if you have no way of knowing that it's offensive in some other part of the globe.
That's not DRM. Stop pretending everything that makes you sad is DRM. Companies have to cover their asses from being sued. Granted they could've handled this situation more gracefully but in the end anybody who knows how things like this work were expecting this to happen. It's inevitable that whenever a company allows its customers to upload their own content on their for-profit network, content control will kick in eventually.
So, yes, the post is in fact informative if you've forgotten, or never knew, why to boycott Sony.
The only informative thing here is that you are an immature twat with a very narrow view of the grown-up world.
I can't believe how many times I hear this nonsense.
How do you expect it to work, when the SD card slot on the Wii is so unbelievably slow??
Have you ever copied a channel or save file to/from an SD card? Here's a hint: It takes like 5 fucking minutes for a 128 block file. Now ask yourself, with those godawful transfer times, would it be possible to run a channel directly from it? IMPOSSIBLE.
There will probably be a homebrew solution for backing up and restoring channels before Nintendo introduces their solution, if not already.
You seem to be confused about the real issue here. You can already back up and restore channels using an SD card. What people want is a big enough storage solution to keep all of their downloaded games installed at all times, without having to swap them constantly because they are out of space.
Useful for anything? Are you serious? There are tons of Doom engine source ports out there, and if you're looking for the IWADs, all Doom engine games are available on Steam for a few bucks so it's not like they're hard to find.
Many of the Doom source modifications out there use code from the Heretic and Hexen source bases in order to create a combined port that can support all games, and support the additional engine features that were brought by Hexen in the older games.
However since the Doom source is GPL while the Heretic and Hexen code bases were not, any project doing so was actively violating the GPL, until now.
Typical twisted American logic: violence is OK if there is no blood showing!
I'm tired of that bullshit. Shooting people is shooting people. Blood happens because that's what being shot at does. Removing blood does not magically turn violent acts into non-violent acts, it only makes them slightly less realistic-looking. In the end this is still the exact same level of violence, you haven't changed any of it.
Blood is a fundamental part of our bodies, it serves as a vessel for oxygen and nutriments, but has no inherent "violent" attributes in it.
I don't see the problem here. This is a free service. They have full rights to delete unused characters. On a game with such a large userbase, the character database must have increased by several tens of thousands every day in the early years of its release.
Only the low-level parts of the code that interact with the APIs need to be Objective C. Just like you can mix C and C++ together in a single app, Objective C can be mixed as well.
And BTW this is no different from Mac OS X development. A lot of cross-platform apps are C and/or C++ with thin wrappers for interacting with the Cocoa API.
Slashdot Mirror
Fat binaries are awesome, they're what makes Mac OS X the mainstream operating system with the most painless 64-bit transition. Whereas Windows and Linux use messy hacks to allow 32-bit apps to live in a 64-bit environment, in OS X it "just works" because all libraries are multi-architecture in a completely transparent way thanks to fat binaries. It also made the transition from PPC to x86 relatively easy, too.
I feel sorry for people who believe Linux doesn't need fat binaries. They don't understand all the advantages this system brings (and not just to non-free software).
If I'm reading you correctly, what you're saying is that because the source is available, it's perfectly acceptable to expect the end user to compile everything? I can already hear you say "no, the end user should use his distro's package manager". But the hard reality is that your distro's package manager doesn't have everything. Eventually you always end up with some program that's not being maintained by your distro. Hence the forced compiling of stuff.
The end user should NEVER have to compile stuff to use it. EVER. (except for experimental code not ready for release) People need to get that silly idea out of their heads if they ever want Linux to become a relevant desktop operating system.
Fat binaries would be just as useful for open source apps as closed ones.
Great... except having to compile an app to install it is a fucking waste of the user's time. And the performance gains from CPU specific compile flags are insignificant. Why is this a better idea than fat binaries again?
Are you a Gentoo user? I used to be a Gentoo user too. Then I actually became sane.
Please elaborate.
I too agree that this is pointless for the end user in Linux, at least when it comes to free software. Only closed binary blobs will benefit, which IMHO is not something worth putting effort towards helping. They did their design choices and accepted the reality in doing so.
He doesn't need to elaborate. Your continued narrow thinking has just proved his point. But if you want to live in denial, your choice.
I think you're not looking at the big picture here.
First up, computers are designed as general purpose machines, so any kind of locking up goes against their greater purpose (ie. be a tool that allows its owner to do whatever he wants). Yeah, we both agree on that. DRM bad, software freedom good, etc.
But when you buy a console, you are fully aware that it is locked down. Unlike the computer it is NOT a general purpose machine. Its only intended goal is to play games. The lockdown works in favor of that. It ensures the vendor that it can maintain a certain level of quality and consistency of the product, and minimize piracy. Every software that's executed is proprietary and closed source, so the openness of the hardware is irrelevent.
If anything, getting rid of the mainstream PC gaming platform in favor of consoles will only bring MORE freedom to the computing world. For example, I know many people who won't consider using Linux because of mainstream games. If they were to migrate their gaming needs to consoles, the need for Windows would be greatly diminished.
That's the great thing about consoles: they isolate closed content to a single, isolated hardware platform, freeing up our general purpose machines from that burden.
Because the moderator remembered why we're boycotting Sony? Sony is well known for using extremely restrictive DRM, to the point of installing a rootkit on Windows PCs with music CDs made to appear normal.
I don't see why the rootkits found in some Sony BMG music CDs should stop me from enjoying my Sony Computer Entertainment product. Sony is a fucking huge company, the immoral acts of one of its divisions are very unlikely to have been direct orders from the top-level board of directors. If you had ever worked in a big company you'd understand.
Even Little Big Planet is infested with DRM. Sony claims everything you make as their own, and if you've been following gaming news at all you'll know that they'll even delete your own creations if they decide they're "offensive" - to anyone. Even if you have no way of knowing that it's offensive in some other part of the globe.
That's not DRM. Stop pretending everything that makes you sad is DRM. Companies have to cover their asses from being sued. Granted they could've handled this situation more gracefully but in the end anybody who knows how things like this work were expecting this to happen. It's inevitable that whenever a company allows its customers to upload their own content on their for-profit network, content control will kick in eventually.
So, yes, the post is in fact informative if you've forgotten, or never knew, why to boycott Sony.
The only informative thing here is that you are an immature twat with a very narrow view of the grown-up world.
Don'tYouAgree?
AlsoAddSomeUPPERCASEWordsForBetterEMPHASISOnImportantParts
I like how you conveniently forgot to mention that they own more than 50% market share of portable music players.
I can't believe how many times I hear this nonsense.
How do you expect it to work, when the SD card slot on the Wii is so unbelievably slow??
Have you ever copied a channel or save file to/from an SD card? Here's a hint: It takes like 5 fucking minutes for a 128 block file. Now ask yourself, with those godawful transfer times, would it be possible to run a channel directly from it? IMPOSSIBLE.
There will probably be a homebrew solution for backing up and restoring channels before Nintendo introduces their solution, if not already.
You seem to be confused about the real issue here. You can already back up and restore channels using an SD card. What people want is a big enough storage solution to keep all of their downloaded games installed at all times, without having to swap them constantly because they are out of space.
If it isn't on Steam (or any electronic distribution system that's equal or looser in DRM than Steam), then it isn't worth my time and money.
So... Spore isn't worth my time, nor money, and that's it. Pretty simple.
Maybe EA will wake up one day and smell the coffee on how modern PC game distribution works.
Useful for anything? Are you serious? There are tons of Doom engine source ports out there, and if you're looking for the IWADs, all Doom engine games are available on Steam for a few bucks so it's not like they're hard to find.
Many of the Doom source modifications out there use code from the Heretic and Hexen source bases in order to create a combined port that can support all games, and support the additional engine features that were brought by Hexen in the older games.
However since the Doom source is GPL while the Heretic and Hexen code bases were not, any project doing so was actively violating the GPL, until now.
He would've been right for TMNT3 though.
I'm not sure about RB2 but GH World Tour was confirmed to have DLC on Wii through SD cards.
The 386 added 32 bit, not 16.
Aren't crappy games usually the most collectable? Since by being crappy there are fewer of them?
Typical twisted American logic: violence is OK if there is no blood showing!
I'm tired of that bullshit. Shooting people is shooting people. Blood happens because that's what being shot at does. Removing blood does not magically turn violent acts into non-violent acts, it only makes them slightly less realistic-looking. In the end this is still the exact same level of violence, you haven't changed any of it.
Blood is a fundamental part of our bodies, it serves as a vessel for oxygen and nutriments, but has no inherent "violent" attributes in it.
Maybe someome will write an app called "net-sell". and I can go to coffeeshops and rent my iphone connection to all the people in the room.
Why not?
What I use my Internet connection for is none of my Internet provider's fucking business, and if you believe otherwise then you're just a tool.
Safe handling of a gun usually excludes the act of shooting towards other people for fun.
I don't see the problem here. This is a free service. They have full rights to delete unused characters. On a game with such a large userbase, the character database must have increased by several tens of thousands every day in the early years of its release.
I was quite dissapointed that the article made no mention of that.
Only the low-level parts of the code that interact with the APIs need to be Objective C. Just like you can mix C and C++ together in a single app, Objective C can be mixed as well.
And BTW this is no different from Mac OS X development. A lot of cross-platform apps are C and/or C++ with thin wrappers for interacting with the Cocoa API.
WiiWare games are restricted to 43 MB. They'd have to cripple the game a lot to make it fit that.
Not to mention the Torque Engine is not available for Wii, at least it wasn't the last time I checked.
Word and Powerpoint formats aren't open standards.