I really feel that 2.3 was turned into 2.4 because of marketing reasons, since it is obvious that 2.4 isn't ready yet.
2.2->2.4 was supposed to go faster than 2.0->2.2 took (ages). As the release of 2.4 was postponed and postponed the pressure got (too) big to give in and release it.
Well, it might be that he simply doesn't know that it could be better:
Linus Torvalds: I don't actually follow other operating systems much. I don't compete - I just worry about making Linux better than itself, not others. And quite frankly, I don't see anythign very interesting on a technical level in either.
So he doesn't follow FreeBSD much, but doesn't see anything very interesting? The filesystem and VM at least could take a look at FreeBSD. Rik van Riel had contact with some of the FreeBSD developers, but he seems to have fallen out of grace with Linus...
Once they threaten that, they're dead (in europe)
on
EU May Fine Microsoft
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I could imagine Microsoft threatening pulling out it's software, thinking it might scare Europe and have them come back at their knees.
Well, they might, just for short term tactics.
However such a move would create a shock in Europe, making everyone to realise how very dangerous the current situation is, being so dependant upon the software of a single (foreign) company.
Surely, this shock would initiate a big effort to get rid of this dangerous dependance and spell the end of MSFT software in Europe.
I can only hope they pull out their software or at least threaten to do it. It might finally open the eyes of many.
AFAIK there is no DRM system that is supported everywhere. And I think that for DRM to work it must be closed source.
At one stage the DRM 'decoder' must decrypt the stream into plain WAV or whatever. At that point having sourcecode you can divert the audiostream and thus circumvent the DRM.
And as long as it is closed source, it won't be supported everywhere.
Why not choose an island in the Pacific Ocean to constantly detonate H-Bombs on, surrounded by solar panels and other means to tap the resulting energy from?
Not very efficient, but at least it would generate more energy than it costs.
Also, containment of the plasma is no issue.
Maybe Afganistan would be a more suitable place to carry out this plan.
How ironic it is, everyone is focussing on MSFT bashing these days, and Apple, using a BSD-based (i.e. UNIX based) operating system now is often perceived as an ally in our battle against MSFT.
In contrast, it is not Microsoft that was ever opposed in particular by GNU (of course they are/were opposed by GNU just as any closed-source company is, but nothing in particular). It is Apple, because they have always had this "tradition" of militant protection of their look and feel. For many years GNU boycotted Apple because of this and forbade that any GNU software be ported to Apple (might be a reason why Apple chose BSD and not Linux as foudation for OS-X).
For pc-emulation
on
2.2 GHz Xeon
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Such extremely fast computers might be good for virtual-PC environments such as vmware. You Windows-in-a-virtual-PC always takes a huge performance hit due to emulation, so much that it isn't even possible to emulate 3D graphics hardware acceleration (direct-x) in such products.
Having an obscenely fast PC might make it possible to run Windows under Linux, and still have Windows including direct-x run with enough performance to do some serious gaming.
The evil forces have too much money and can bribe anyone and buy votes. The only thing I can think of is to start an underground resistance organization (like many occupied countries had in WW2), trying to sabotage and kill the enemy and its collaborators.
Any analogies of software to hardware are flawed
on
Software Aesthetics
·
· Score: 2
People not comprehending software keep trying to compare software to some hardware analog, such as bridges, constructing houses, conveyor belts and what have you.
I have never heard one analogy that it correct, and nothing is so dangerous and irritating as analogies that seem to apply at first glance (since they tend to suggest a wrong fix).
People, especially managers, keep being frustrating because they don't really seem to understand what their people are doing and they feel they don't have control. Then they envy the "neat and ordered" world of (e.g.) house construction, where you can see and feel concrete building blocks, have an architect making a design before etc.
What they forget is that software is endlessly more flexible, and is also expected to be so. During construction requirements keep changing, also after delivery new features need to be added. The environment keeps changing (operating systems, hardware etc). Imagine to construct a house and then halfway and afterwards keep making big changes *all the time*, while also the environment changes (hills arise, climate changes rapidly (ice ages etc), rivers come and go, sea level changes etc).
Obviously this means that those nice and orderly "standard building blocks" that many hardware engineering disciplines have does not apply very well to software, and thus design methodologies, techniques etc keep changing in a fast pace.
Therefore any analogy with hardware construction is flawed and leades to counterproductive conclusions and methodologies.
What makes you think that USB(2) is easier than Firewire?
It isn't really cheaper either. The price difference is nowhere like SCSI vs. EIDE.
And, Firewire has some important property that makes it way easier from the viewpoint of many simple end-users: it can connect consumer devices directly, without the need for a computer as controller. This, IMO, shall be crucial in the demise of USB2. Firewire has a place and won't go away because of this, for the rest they are mostly the same (from a simplistic POV).
If you must have firewire anyways (because all video cameras have it or shall have it) and for the rest firewire and USB2 are almost the same, then why bother with USB2?
Since the difference between Firewire and USB2 is not only, unlike SCSI vs. EIDE, performance, but also real functionality that shall be very visible to end-users.
Whereas non-demanding end-users didn't have a real reason to prefer SCSI over EIDE (on the contrary, SCSI was a bit more complicated to set up) they do have a reason to prefer Firewire: It can function without a computer directly between electronic consumer devices. This makes USB2 more complex and less functional even in the eyes of simple end-users.
Therefore I believe that in this case, not even Intels marketing and pushing to make a computer indispensible for working with video etc. will succeed in letting the inferior solution prevail.
Plus, if you read the announcement w.r.t. the delay well, new features shall be backported from 5.0 to 4.x in the meantime.
In fact the time between 4.0 and 5.0 won't be that exceptional. 2.0 to 3.0 took 4 years (1994 to 1998). See this page for a nice overview of past releases. Note that 4.0 -> 5.0 will be a relatively large jump compared to past major releases.
Most companies that announce to partner with MSFT do so out of despair (such as SGI having difficulty in their niche market decided to go Wintel too). This provides a short-term revival, before final death arrives.
There are numerous examples of that.
I am always very suspicious of companies that partner with MSFT suddenly. Usually it means they'll be dead soon.
Once the public in general trusts their personal data, credit card numbers etc to MSFT (including politicians), sooner or later they will feel betrayed by this company (when, not if, someone steals their data and misuses it).
This might just be what's necessary to once and for all turn public opinion against this evil empire.
Re:Wow... this should piss Russia off
on
Sklyarov Indicted
·
· Score: 2
Not only piss Russia off, but also a lot of the rest of the world.
I think America is developing itself to be the new totalitarian bully of the world that everyone fears and hates (at least the free world), a role once held by the Soviet Union.
If anything, then Java.
Oracle even moves PL/SQL (which isn't bad either) to Java. I'm sure Java will be the de facto SP language in the future for Oracle and DB2 (which have more than 60% of the market together). Just drop a JVM in the database core, and write a special JDBC driver for this.
No need to implement and maintain a fully new language.
Then please let them stop inventing. This will leave a gap that others can take over.
Others will take over. Public matters such as health should not be in the hands of companies IMO. Producing the drugs can be left to companies, but inventing them is research of public interest that belongs to non-profit organizations such as universities.
That costs money, but just look at the vastly increasing amount of money that medicines take in the health budget of most nations (either privately paid as in the US or paid from tax money as in most other countries, it doesn't really matter). It would be better to save this money (of which 50% or more is spent on advertisements!) and put it directly into non-profit organizations who would make better use and be more efficient.
For years and years there have been people with fast and with (relatively) slow Internet connections. Such as those working on universities having (on their job or campus) "broadband" since 10 years or more. Call it socially divisive if you like, but the same goes for cars, houses, expensive clubs, scientific journals (not everyone can read them) etc.
10 years ago those poor home-users on 28k8 or slower could not download whole directories full of pr0n that was to be found on ftp servers in those days, but those with a fast connection (mostly at work/university) could.
I do agree however that it is a shame to lock out people without reason by using large images, sounds etc. unnecessarily.
Indeed, the webserver itself is getting irrelevant. The Apache project however is more than just the Apache webserver, just take a look on jakarta.apache.org
The percentage of IIS versus Apache is soon becoming irrelevant. What is important is the percentage of Servlet/JSP versus.NET/ASP sites. Which is kind of hard (impossible) to measure using Netcraft by the way.
One of the most succesful Servlet engines now is Tomcat, which is also open source coming from the Apache Jakarta project. I don't see any indication at the moment that the number of Servlet/JSP/J2EE sites is dropping in favour of ASP or.NET. No reason to worry yet.
The windows Terminal Services, afaik, provides each user with a virtual machine containing an instance of the OS on the server. This is horribly inefficient and costs loads of RAM (I read about 20 MB per user minimum).
The reason is that Windows is non-multi user so the only way to run multiple users on a single physicle box is to instantiate Windows per user.
Most manuals of serial devices tell you to shut down the computer while plugging/unplugging. RS232 was not made for this!
In 99.9% of the time there is no problem, but the palm is typically a device that gets plugged/unplugged very often, thus the chance for damage may indeed get quite high.
Most manuals tell you not to plug/unplug devices on serial ports while the computer is switched on. Of course everyone does it (such as plug/unplug a modem while you're computer is on) but in theory every time you do it there is a chance for damage.
For palmpilots you plug/unplug them all the time by design, which actually is kind of strange and not compatible with the design of the serial port. From this POV it is not so strange to hold Palm liable for bringing such a product on the market (at least without clearly warning for the risk or telling people to only plug/unplug while the computer is shut off).
Of course with the newer USB palms, this is no longer an issue.
Not too late for Unix users at all!
on
Netscape 6.1
·
· Score: 2
Most Unix users still use Netscape, since IE simply doesn't exist and the alternatives are either still in development or not free, or simply out of habit without one established de-facto standard alternative.
So for Unix users I don't get why it would be too late. Yes it is late and it would have been nice to have a more decent browser earlier, but that doesn't change the fact that finally there is a browser (NS6 or Mozilla) poised to become the de-facto standard browser for UNIX.
Illegal or not, those companies do immoral things too, such as using the DMCA to limit users rights.
I can only hope that those evil forces are 100% robbed of their source of income via massive piracy. They must die, so that companies with better morals can take their place (if such exist).
Yes, it is robbing, but IMO it is more like the robbing of Robin Hood. Technically illegal, but not to be compared to convenience store robbers.
Slashdot Mirror
This is the stable-series kernel.
I really feel that 2.3 was turned into 2.4 because of marketing reasons, since it is obvious that 2.4 isn't ready yet.
2.2->2.4 was supposed to go faster than 2.0->2.2 took (ages). As the release of 2.4 was postponed and postponed the pressure got (too) big to give in and release it.
Well, it might be that he simply doesn't know that it could be better:
Linus Torvalds: I don't actually follow other operating systems much. I don't compete - I just worry about making Linux better than itself, not others. And quite frankly, I don't see anythign very interesting on a technical level in either.
So he doesn't follow FreeBSD much, but doesn't see anything very interesting? The filesystem and VM at least could take a look at FreeBSD. Rik van Riel had contact with some of the FreeBSD developers, but he seems to have fallen out of grace with Linus...
I could imagine Microsoft threatening pulling out it's software, thinking it might scare Europe and have them come back at their knees.
Well, they might, just for short term tactics.
However such a move would create a shock in Europe, making everyone to realise how very dangerous the current situation is, being so dependant upon the software of a single (foreign) company.
Surely, this shock would initiate a big effort to get rid of this dangerous dependance and spell the end of MSFT software in Europe.
I can only hope they pull out their software or at least threaten to do it. It might finally open the eyes of many.
AFAIK there is no DRM system that is supported everywhere. And I think that for DRM to work it must be closed source.
At one stage the DRM 'decoder' must decrypt the stream into plain WAV or whatever. At that point having sourcecode you can divert the audiostream and thus circumvent the DRM.
And as long as it is closed source, it won't be supported everywhere.
Why not choose an island in the Pacific Ocean to constantly detonate H-Bombs on, surrounded by solar panels and other means to tap the resulting energy from?
Not very efficient, but at least it would generate more energy than it costs.
Also, containment of the plasma is no issue.
Maybe Afganistan would be a more suitable place to carry out this plan.
How ironic it is, everyone is focussing on MSFT bashing these days, and Apple, using a BSD-based (i.e. UNIX based) operating system now is often perceived as an ally in our battle against MSFT.
In contrast, it is not Microsoft that was ever opposed in particular by GNU (of course they are/were opposed by GNU just as any closed-source company is, but nothing in particular). It is Apple, because they have always had this "tradition" of militant protection of their look and feel. For many years GNU boycotted Apple because of this and forbade that any GNU software be ported to Apple (might be a reason why Apple chose BSD and not Linux as foudation for OS-X).
Having an obscenely fast PC might make it possible to run Windows under Linux, and still have Windows including direct-x run with enough performance to do some serious gaming.
According to the comments at newsforge, complaints should not be addressed to SUN. See these comments.
The evil forces have too much money and can bribe anyone and buy votes. The only thing I can think of is to start an underground resistance organization (like many occupied countries had in WW2), trying to sabotage and kill the enemy and its collaborators.
People not comprehending software keep trying to compare software to some hardware analog, such as bridges, constructing houses, conveyor belts and what have you.
I have never heard one analogy that it correct, and nothing is so dangerous and irritating as analogies that seem to apply at first glance (since they tend to suggest a wrong fix).
People, especially managers, keep being frustrating because they don't really seem to understand what their people are doing and they feel they don't have control. Then they envy the "neat and ordered" world of (e.g.) house construction, where you can see and feel concrete building blocks, have an architect making a design before etc.
What they forget is that software is endlessly more flexible, and is also expected to be so. During construction requirements keep changing, also after delivery new features need to be added. The environment keeps changing (operating systems, hardware etc). Imagine to construct a house and then halfway and afterwards keep making big changes *all the time*, while also the environment changes (hills arise, climate changes rapidly (ice ages etc), rivers come and go, sea level changes etc).
Obviously this means that those nice and orderly "standard building blocks" that many hardware engineering disciplines have does not apply very well to software, and thus design methodologies, techniques etc keep changing in a fast pace.
Therefore any analogy with hardware construction is flawed and leades to counterproductive conclusions and methodologies.
What makes you think that USB(2) is easier than Firewire?
It isn't really cheaper either. The price difference is nowhere like SCSI vs. EIDE.
And, Firewire has some important property that makes it way easier from the viewpoint of many simple end-users: it can connect consumer devices directly, without the need for a computer as controller. This, IMO, shall be crucial in the demise of USB2. Firewire has a place and won't go away because of this, for the rest they are mostly the same (from a simplistic POV).
If you must have firewire anyways (because all video cameras have it or shall have it) and for the rest firewire and USB2 are almost the same, then why bother with USB2?
Since the difference between Firewire and USB2 is not only, unlike SCSI vs. EIDE, performance, but also real functionality that shall be very visible to end-users.
Whereas non-demanding end-users didn't have a real reason to prefer SCSI over EIDE (on the contrary, SCSI was a bit more complicated to set up) they do have a reason to prefer Firewire: It can function without a computer directly between electronic consumer devices. This makes USB2 more complex and less functional even in the eyes of simple end-users.
Therefore I believe that in this case, not even Intels marketing and pushing to make a computer indispensible for working with video etc. will succeed in letting the inferior solution prevail.
Plus, if you read the announcement w.r.t. the delay well, new features shall be backported from 5.0 to 4.x in the meantime.
In fact the time between 4.0 and 5.0 won't be that exceptional. 2.0 to 3.0 took 4 years (1994 to 1998). See this page for a nice overview of past releases. Note that 4.0 -> 5.0 will be a relatively large jump compared to past major releases.
Most companies that announce to partner with MSFT do so out of despair (such as SGI having difficulty in their niche market decided to go Wintel too). This provides a short-term revival, before final death arrives.
There are numerous examples of that.
I am always very suspicious of companies that partner with MSFT suddenly. Usually it means they'll be dead soon.
Once the public in general trusts their personal data, credit card numbers etc to MSFT (including politicians), sooner or later they will feel betrayed by this company (when, not if, someone steals their data and misuses it).
This might just be what's necessary to once and for all turn public opinion against this evil empire.
Not only piss Russia off, but also a lot of the rest of the world.
I think America is developing itself to be the new totalitarian bully of the world that everyone fears and hates (at least the free world), a role once held by the Soviet Union.
If anything, then Java.
Oracle even moves PL/SQL (which isn't bad either) to Java. I'm sure Java will be the de facto SP language in the future for Oracle and DB2 (which have more than 60% of the market together). Just drop a JVM in the database core, and write a special JDBC driver for this.
No need to implement and maintain a fully new language.
Then please let them stop inventing. This will leave a gap that others can take over.
Others will take over. Public matters such as health should not be in the hands of companies IMO. Producing the drugs can be left to companies, but inventing them is research of public interest that belongs to non-profit organizations such as universities.
That costs money, but just look at the vastly increasing amount of money that medicines take in the health budget of most nations (either privately paid as in the US or paid from tax money as in most other countries, it doesn't really matter). It would be better to save this money (of which 50% or more is spent on advertisements!) and put it directly into non-profit organizations who would make better use and be more efficient.
For years and years there have been people with fast and with (relatively) slow Internet connections. Such as those working on universities having (on their job or campus) "broadband" since 10 years or more. Call it socially divisive if you like, but the same goes for cars, houses, expensive clubs, scientific journals (not everyone can read them) etc.
10 years ago those poor home-users on 28k8 or slower could not download whole directories full of pr0n that was to be found on ftp servers in those days, but those with a fast connection (mostly at work/university) could.
I do agree however that it is a shame to lock out people without reason by using large images, sounds etc. unnecessarily.
The percentage of IIS versus Apache is soon becoming irrelevant. What is important is the percentage of Servlet/JSP versus .NET/ASP sites. Which is kind of hard (impossible) to measure using Netcraft by the way.
One of the most succesful Servlet engines now is Tomcat, which is also open source coming from the Apache Jakarta project. I don't see any indication at the moment that the number of Servlet/JSP/J2EE sites is dropping in favour of ASP or .NET. No reason to worry yet.
The reason is that Windows is non-multi user so the only way to run multiple users on a single physicle box is to instantiate Windows per user.
In 99.9% of the time there is no problem, but the palm is typically a device that gets plugged/unplugged very often, thus the chance for damage may indeed get quite high.
For palmpilots you plug/unplug them all the time by design, which actually is kind of strange and not compatible with the design of the serial port. From this POV it is not so strange to hold Palm liable for bringing such a product on the market (at least without clearly warning for the risk or telling people to only plug/unplug while the computer is shut off).
Of course with the newer USB palms, this is no longer an issue.
So for Unix users I don't get why it would be too late. Yes it is late and it would have been nice to have a more decent browser earlier, but that doesn't change the fact that finally there is a browser (NS6 or Mozilla) poised to become the de-facto standard browser for UNIX.
I can only hope that those evil forces are 100% robbed of their source of income via massive piracy. They must die, so that companies with better morals can take their place (if such exist).
Yes, it is robbing, but IMO it is more like the robbing of Robin Hood. Technically illegal, but not to be compared to convenience store robbers.