Any doubts about that? Check out the latest wave of Linux distros and their adoption rates. The distros that have live CDs are thriving. See Knoppix and Ubuntu for examples.
The breakdown I see in this model is the companies who need the same software packages tend to be competitiors. Since they compete with each other, they don't want to give the opposition equal footing. So they would keep their code in house, everyone would duplicating the same work, and someone (like SAS) would show up to sell everyone software and we're right back where we started.
And Debian doesn't "just work"? My 5 debian boxes all seem to "just work" "just fine".
Sorry, I didn't mean it that way.
Out of the box, right after the install on Kubuntu, I can plug in a USB keychain and have it working. My video card drivers are correct and xorg.conf is working. I have a working office suite, web browser, etc. I don't have any further config files to learn, master and then tweak to get X working or my digital camera to connect or to get CDs burning. I've a good out-of-the-box functional system for what most end-users need.
To many power-users, these features are pointless fluff, but I really like having all this working when the install is done. Knoppix does this but it installs a ~lot~ of extra stuff. I just noticed a Braille TTY server (Brittle?) running on my Knoppix box last week! The Ubunutu family gives you a much thinner, but still very "end-user" usable distro. And that's what I want.
My life is so busy with work, family, two kids now, open source work, writing, that when I turn to ~any~ operating system, be it Linux, Windows, Mac or whatever, I don't want to get a bare system and tweak it out. I just want to get in and drive.
Ubunutu/Kubuntu save me hours (or days) setting up a new box. That time is worth something to me. If you have time to setup a new box, hand pick your installs, run them by hand, tweak the settings, etc and so on until the box is "your own", then go for it! That box is worth something to you. We each pursue what we value the most. There's room for both, right?
In case you are wondering, I have seven computers in my home. A MythTv client, a MythTV server and my laptop all running Kubuntu. My desktop and "server" box (web, cvs, svn, file sharing, etc) both run XP. My wife and kid are on XP. I'm sure if it's relevant, but I'm a big fan of "what works".
There are things that you can only do in Windows, like run the Shrek Match game for my kid or use Quicken to synch up with my bank, or play the latest video game.
There's a lot more you can do in Linux, but I'm not we have a compelling app yet that can pointed to as superior and an average consumer recognize it. Perhaps a free install with an operating system, Office Suite, graphics tools and a few games is a part of that equation?
Agreed. I've never been a huge fan of "plain" Debain. I used Slackware "in the beginning", then RedHat for years, more recently Knoppix and this weekend I just converted my last remaining Knoppix box to Kubuntu.
there's no reason why they couldn't pay programmers to make the software, and then give it away.
Only if there's hardware involved. I work at SAS... our software ~is~ our product. It's not like the sewage plant.
We pay ~lot~ of people money to do a lot of work. Giving away the source would bankrupt us fast.
The only place where I think proprietary stuff is necessary is games
Hmmmm... couldn't you substitute any pet area? I know a few people who might say statistics instead of games. Someone else (at a database company) might say indexing routines.
In my opinion, there's good creative ways to work in every field. There are various ways to reward people. Money is good for me, but I also contribute to some open source projects. I like to give back as well. I guess I'm a hybrid developer.:)
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think having a mix is the best way. Some people make a very good living writing software and a lot of people write software for other rewards.
I doubt that commercial software will ever actually go away, though
I suspect you are correct. However, as long as their is a Microsoft making a ton of money, there will always be open source alternatives nipping at their heels.:)
But it's not free to ~create~ software, only to copy.
I think that software companies are getting rich by exploiting this fact and people like RMS are much more fringe that they could be by ignoring it.
We probably should be paying less for software, but just like cars and sofas, someone (or a team of someones) has to create the item in the first place.
I'm going to write an aggregator-aggregator! I'll aggregate their aggregations!
As long as no one I'm aggregating aggregates my aggregation of their their aggregations, we'll be fine. Otherwise we'll take the web down in a huge recursive aggregation fireball!
ya gotta read the article... but in case it's down, here are a few of the funnier parts:
KDE e.V. board member Mirko Bohemian stated, "Following our licencing deal with BitMover, we expect our developers will be twice as productive, just as the GNU kernel developers are now." Linus Torvalds was not available for comment.
The only significant drawback of the deal is that KDE developers will not be allowed to work on or contribute to any other source control systems as mandated by the BitKeeper license. To comply with this requirement, KDE has temporarily removed Cervisia from the kdesdk module until the CVS support can be replaced by full BitKeeper functionality.
However, like the GNU/Linux kernel repository, KDE will be available through a read-only CVS interface for anyone preferring not to use BitKeeper for idealistic reasons.
As a matter of pragmatism, the KDE project believes it is time to move forward and embrace next-generation software source control.
This approach was somewhat effective, although it tended to get stuck with a far from perfect solution, but where most small variation on that solution was worse (such as outputting 0.5 regardless of the input). This is known as getting stuck in a "local minima".
Sounds like rural West Virginia genetics at it's best to me!;)
That's about like shooting out the tires of someone that didn't know the speed limit and went over 5MPH.. "well they had to be stopped"
No, it's like shooting out the tires of the driver who is driving on the sidewalk, taking out mailboxes, trashcans and making pedestrians scramble.
Point being, intentional or not, these zombied PCs are causing problems for other people... lots of other people. Take them offline and hope it gets the owner's attention.
How about telling their ISP instead.. so they can notify the user. Sort of like giving the speeder a warning ticket..
Most large ISPs I've dealt with don't care. I've found this to be a ~very~ ineffective tactic.
It is also not reasonable to require that the average Joe understands their pc enough to not get infected
I'm not sure I agree with that statement, but assuming it's true, what's your point? So it's okay to get infefcted... how do we let someone know that they've been infected? IBMs approach sounds good to me.
In the future, the network will be just as dependable as any other public utility. When "the network is down", people will treat it just like when the power's out today.
Essentially everyone, when they first build a distributed application, makes the following eight assumptions. All prove to be false in the long run and all cause big trouble and painful learning experiences.
Thin-Client computing by another name, again. Wasn't convinced 20 years ago. Still not convinced now. I don't want to have a useless PC just because I stopped paying the $20 a month subscription to the applications.
Yes, but...
Aren't a lot of/.ers already running their email remotely (via GMail, etc)?
Not every app is a candidate for the client server paradigm, but many are. If Google can manage to serve content paid for by advertising, then this might break open the MS monopoly on desktop apps.
Can't make money w/free content using advertising you say? The television networks do.
To what "mainstream" are you referring, exactly? Does "the masses" really need cluster-based parallel computing?
About 5 years ago I started working at a bio-tech (before IBM and Sun were building clusters). We built our own clustering system and used it for nearly everything the company did. Before we introduced everyone to the idea of parallel boxes, they just wanted to buy quads and eight-cpu boxes. People were getting quotes on boxes that cost six figures and this was a pretty small start-up. We then came in and introduced them to the concept of cheap boxes running in parallel. Faster and ~way~ cheaper. But it all New Stuff to the management and board.
Not everyone would use a cluster for weather simulation. Some will run their app servers in a clustered environment. Some will run BLAST (Google it). Others will spin out statistical analyisis for their large data sets (payroll, drug development, crime trends, etc).
Not every 4-way and 8-way box out their can be replaced by a cluster, but a whole lot of them can.
If you can't think of a use for clustered boxes, I'd encourage you to go Googling and read a few white papers. It might surprise you how they can be used.
This will validate the market to the masses
on
Windows Cluster Edition
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Sure, Beowulf (and other) Linux clusters have been around for years. Mac OS/X has clustering software. And forget about those speciality implemenations like Google... But now that Microsoft has a clustering product, it will move out of the domain of the gurus and into everyone's reach...
At least, that will be the corporate management perception.
This move could put clustered computing in the mainstream.
You give several accountants access to your personal records. One of the accountants takes your bank account records to someone with a blog. This blogger publishes your personal information on the web. Your bank account numbers and PIN numbers are now posted on the web. You (potentially) lose a lot of money over this. (For Apple, this loss would relate to the time lost getting a head start on competitors in a very tight market.)
Do you think that the person who posted your records didn't actually steal the information, so it's okay? I'd want to be able to force the blogger to tell me (in court) which person stole my information so I could fire them.
Slashdot Mirror
Any doubts about that? Check out the latest wave of Linux distros and their adoption rates. The distros that have live CDs are thriving. See Knoppix and Ubuntu for examples.
The breakdown I see in this model is the companies who need the same software packages tend to be competitiors. Since they compete with each other, they don't want to give the opposition equal footing. So they would keep their code in house, everyone would duplicating the same work, and someone (like SAS) would show up to sell everyone software and we're right back where we started.
Sorry, I didn't mean it that way.
Out of the box, right after the install on Kubuntu, I can plug in a USB keychain and have it working. My video card drivers are correct and xorg.conf is working. I have a working office suite, web browser, etc. I don't have any further config files to learn, master and then tweak to get X working or my digital camera to connect or to get CDs burning. I've a good out-of-the-box functional system for what most end-users need.
To many power-users, these features are pointless fluff, but I really like having all this working when the install is done. Knoppix does this but it installs a ~lot~ of extra stuff. I just noticed a Braille TTY server (Brittle?) running on my Knoppix box last week! The Ubunutu family gives you a much thinner, but still very "end-user" usable distro. And that's what I want.
My life is so busy with work, family, two kids now, open source work, writing, that when I turn to ~any~ operating system, be it Linux, Windows, Mac or whatever, I don't want to get a bare system and tweak it out. I just want to get in and drive.
Ubunutu/Kubuntu save me hours (or days) setting up a new box. That time is worth something to me. If you have time to setup a new box, hand pick your installs, run them by hand, tweak the settings, etc and so on until the box is "your own", then go for it! That box is worth something to you. We each pursue what we value the most. There's room for both, right?
In case you are wondering, I have seven computers in my home. A MythTv client, a MythTV server and my laptop all running Kubuntu. My desktop and "server" box (web, cvs, svn, file sharing, etc) both run XP. My wife and kid are on XP. I'm sure if it's relevant, but I'm a big fan of "what works".
There are things that you can only do in Windows, like run the Shrek Match game for my kid or use Quicken to synch up with my bank, or play the latest video game.
There's a lot more you can do in Linux, but I'm not we have a compelling app yet that can pointed to as superior and an average consumer recognize it. Perhaps a free install with an operating system, Office Suite, graphics tools and a few games is a part of that equation?
It just works.
Only if there's hardware involved. I work at SAS... our software ~is~ our product. It's not like the sewage plant.
We pay ~lot~ of people money to do a lot of work. Giving away the source would bankrupt us fast.
The only place where I think proprietary stuff is necessary is games
Hmmmm... couldn't you substitute any pet area? I know a few people who might say statistics instead of games. Someone else (at a database company) might say indexing routines.
In my opinion, there's good creative ways to work in every field. There are various ways to reward people. Money is good for me, but I also contribute to some open source projects. I like to give back as well. I guess I'm a hybrid developer. :)
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think having a mix is the best way. Some people make a very good living writing software and a lot of people write software for other rewards.
I doubt that commercial software will ever actually go away, though
I suspect you are correct. However, as long as their is a Microsoft making a ton of money, there will always be open source alternatives nipping at their heels. :)
Reminds me of a Mark Shuttleworth quote from a recent article http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/0 4/04/1859255&tid=90&tid=163&tid=160&tid=11
But YOU try motivate someone to hack on a sewerage management system in their spare time.
His point was that there are lots of projects that people ~want~ to work on, but there are many more that you just have to pay people to write.
I'm not flaming, just asking... do you really believe that ~all~ software should be free or are you trying to make a philosophical point?
I think that software companies are getting rich by exploiting this fact and people like RMS are much more fringe that they could be by ignoring it.
We probably should be paying less for software, but just like cars and sofas, someone (or a team of someones) has to create the item in the first place.
Exactly!
I'm using free software for two reasons. One, it works. Two, it's free.
If software ought to be free, then so should furniture and cars.
Cheaper? Sure! Free? No.
As long as no one I'm aggregating aggregates my aggregation of their their aggregations, we'll be fine. Otherwise we'll take the web down in a huge recursive aggregation fireball!
KDE e.V. board member Mirko Bohemian stated, "Following our licencing deal with BitMover, we expect our developers will be twice as productive, just as the GNU kernel developers are now." Linus Torvalds was not available for comment.
The only significant drawback of the deal is that KDE developers will not be allowed to work on or contribute to any other source control systems as mandated by the BitKeeper license. To comply with this requirement, KDE has temporarily removed Cervisia from the kdesdk module until the CVS support can be replaced by full BitKeeper functionality.
However, like the GNU/Linux kernel repository, KDE will be available through a read-only CVS interface for anyone preferring not to use BitKeeper for idealistic reasons.
As a matter of pragmatism, the KDE project believes it is time to move forward and embrace next-generation software source control.
It's twenty bucks a YEAR not a month.
http://www.msnvideodownloads.com/
The latest news, sports and entertainment are yours for a one-time membership fee of $19.95, good for one year.
Where's the list of content?
This approach was somewhat effective, although it tended to get stuck with a far from perfect solution, but where most small variation on that solution was worse (such as outputting 0.5 regardless of the input). This is known as getting stuck in a "local minima". Sounds like rural West Virginia genetics at it's best to me! ;)
The Pragmatic Progammers sell the PDFs of their books with no DRM and they seem to be doing okay. That is to say, the books aren't all over Google.
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/starter_kit/faq s/pdf_faq.html
No, it's like shooting out the tires of the driver who is driving on the sidewalk, taking out mailboxes, trashcans and making pedestrians scramble.
Point being, intentional or not, these zombied PCs are causing problems for other people... lots of other people. Take them offline and hope it gets the owner's attention.
How about telling their ISP instead.. so they can notify the user. Sort of like giving the speeder a warning ticket..
Most large ISPs I've dealt with don't care. I've found this to be a ~very~ ineffective tactic.
It is also not reasonable to require that the average Joe understands their pc enough to not get infected
I'm not sure I agree with that statement, but assuming it's true, what's your point? So it's okay to get infefcted... how do we let someone know that they've been infected? IBMs approach sounds good to me.
What's the problem? If you are participating, on purpose or not, you should be stopped.
Being subject to this form of retribution might make people aware of the problems on their machines. It seems to be a Good Thing to me.
Uh huh...
http://today.java.net/jag/Fallacies.html
Essentially everyone, when they first build a distributed application, makes the following eight assumptions. All prove to be false in the long run and all cause big trouble and painful learning experiences.
1. The network is reliable
2. Latency is zero
3. Bandwidth is infinite
4. The network is secure
5. Topology doesn't change
6. There is one administrator
7. Transport cost is zero
8. The network is homogeneous
Yes, but...
Aren't a lot of /.ers already running their email remotely (via GMail, etc)?
Not every app is a candidate for the client server paradigm, but many are. If Google can manage to serve content paid for by advertising, then this might break open the MS monopoly on desktop apps.
Can't make money w/free content using advertising you say? The television networks do.
Yup... DVDs will be gone right after the books!
About 5 years ago I started working at a bio-tech (before IBM and Sun were building clusters). We built our own clustering system and used it for nearly everything the company did. Before we introduced everyone to the idea of parallel boxes, they just wanted to buy quads and eight-cpu boxes. People were getting quotes on boxes that cost six figures and this was a pretty small start-up. We then came in and introduced them to the concept of cheap boxes running in parallel. Faster and ~way~ cheaper. But it all New Stuff to the management and board.
Not everyone would use a cluster for weather simulation. Some will run their app servers in a clustered environment. Some will run BLAST (Google it). Others will spin out statistical analyisis for their large data sets (payroll, drug development, crime trends, etc).
Not every 4-way and 8-way box out their can be replaced by a cluster, but a whole lot of them can.
If you can't think of a use for clustered boxes, I'd encourage you to go Googling and read a few white papers. It might surprise you how they can be used.
At least, that will be the corporate management perception.
This move could put clustered computing in the mainstream.
You give several accountants access to your personal records. One of the accountants takes your bank account records to someone with a blog. This blogger publishes your personal information on the web. Your bank account numbers and PIN numbers are now posted on the web. You (potentially) lose a lot of money over this. (For Apple, this loss would relate to the time lost getting a head start on competitors in a very tight market.)
Do you think that the person who posted your records didn't actually steal the information, so it's okay? I'd want to be able to force the blogger to tell me (in court) which person stole my information so I could fire them.
It's not about journalism or blogging.
It didn't occur to me that we'll finally be able to get semi-affordable dual CPU laptops! :)
drool!
And we didn't have any of this here fancy eethernet! We used Tokenized Rings! Now that was networking! And Arked-Nets!
Young kids today have no appreciation for all the hard work we did back in MY day! (humph!)