I acknowledge that the poster might have extenuating circumstances, but in the general case to run Linux on a Mac just doesn't make sense. When you buy a Mac you are paying for the hardware + OS development + huge advertising budget + 38% profit margin (based on their most recent quarterly results). If you want to run Linux you should just go out and buy a PC - the margins are additional costs are very small in comparison.
Funny thing. I find this to be a very common response from people who voted for these clowns, when confronted with any of the endless examples like this. It sort of sounds like "it's all a bunch of crap so nothing matters". As if there aren't degrees of good or bad.
In my country, a (now convicted) businessman started a national newspaper with the explicit goal of convincing people of his political views. When you ask people whether this is really a good source of political news, they respond with a similar sort of 'nothing matters' argument: there is no such thing as objective so what does it matter.
I actually don't think you really are nihilists - I think its just an easy thing to say when you want the issue to go away.
Yes, Apple has succeeded to take market share from MS on the desktop, while Linux has failed, but you are leaving out an extremely important piece: MS was working very hard to make sure that Apple displaced Linux. Tons of evidence has surfaced in e-mails and in interviews with ex-MS people that MS saw Linux as a real threat, whereas they saw Apple as safe and even as useful (in relation to the Justice Department).
Now, MS never intended that Apple should take over digital media, marginalize WMA, etc. They miscalculated on that, but on the desktop, Apple has managed to make MS look much better. Not only can they claim that there is competition on the desktop, but now it is harder to blame them for charging too much or for promoting lock-in.
So, I think the statement that you are rupiating could be modified to "how Microsoft has succeeded in crushing Linux in personal computers." because it is Linux and open source that they wanted to crush, not innovation.
Yes, but if we are talking about moving people to OS X then what is the point of this conversation in the first place?
The easiest thing for most consumers is to just keep using Windows XP. Why would I spend any time or effort to help someone switch unless their was some kind of a value or political idea involved?
I happen to prefer Windows to OS X because it has much less lock-in and is cheaper (by way more then $50), but I really don't care too much because Apple and MS are both just companies with similar histories of nastiness and screwing consumers. Linux is something all together different.
Those that can't see that and that can equate OS X with Linux, are 'pure' consumers with no values beyond brand and product.
Don't go blaming the bureaucrats again. Typically, the bureaucrats do the sort of studying and consulting that one would hope for in a case like this, and then a political appointee overrules them.
The fault lies with the people who politicize ever increasing aspects of the government, and the people who keep money as the dominant factor in politics.
No big surprise here. This is just planned obsolescence. You aren't supposed to replace the battery, you are supposed to chuck the unit and buy the latest model.
It might sound wasteful, but it actually makes sense when you think about how these are positioned in the market. People who buy high-end fashion items are not the type to recycle them or keep them going a long time. By the time the battery is not performing well, there will be a new model that is even 'cooler' then the current one. After all, the up front cost of the item is probably small compared to the operating cost so it's not going to hurt you that much to buy a new one. This is the sort of thing that Apple is brilliant at.
nothing I watch is HD. Nothing I download is HD. And YouTube certainly isn't HD. So how is this an HD world?
I'm assuming that you (and many others) have HD TV, but this box is not meant for watching TV on.
Regarding the onboard storage, why would I want that? With USB ports and Ethernet I can add storage to the OSD in many easy ways. Built-in storage would be inflexible and would increase the cost.
I work about a block away from the main ATI offices (Leslie and 407 in Toronto), and I was surprised at how quickly all (physical) signs of ATI disappeared. ATI became AMD overnight.
These are quoted from this mornings NYT article. I think they tell us a lot:
"Some anecdotes reveal just how far outside the law some C.I.A. agents strayed. One technician was arrested in 1960 after trying to bug a Las Vegas hotel room. The operation had been requested by Sam Giancana, the Chicago mobster, who was then helping the C.I.A. in a plot to assassinate Mr. Castro.
Mr. Giancana had been concerned that his girlfriend, the singer Phyllis McGuire, was having an affair with the comedian Dan Rowan, and surveillance was ordered to "determine the extent of his intimacy" with her.
Some of the activities detailed, while lawful, would have been embarrassing had they emerged at the time. One document revealed that John McCone, director of central intelligence during Kennedy's presidency, authorized an Air Force plane to fly the Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis and the soprano Maria Callas from Rome to Athens, a favor that led to media inquiries."
In past releases by the CIA, when you look at the actual documents, you discover that 80-90% of the material is actually blacked out. It leaves you very curious and wondering what the blacked out stuff is.
It's understandable that some stuff (eg. the name of an informant or agent) must be blacked out, but so much? For the CIA operations in Guatemala in the 50's, for instance, the CIA was admitting to such nasty deeds (in my opinion) in the stuff they didn't black out, that you can't imagine what stuff was too nasty to release.
Can someone please confirm whether that is the case with these new documents?
I see three different types: the political, the tech, and the fashion fanboys.
The political ones (obviously I am talking about the open source fans) love the ideas or values behind a technology or a company.
The fashion ones love the brand, or the image associated with the brand.
Both of these first two will often claim that they are actually tech fanboys, but that their tech happens to be the best. There probably are real tech fanboys, but they are hard to distinguish from the other two.
I believe that I am none of the above, but I have the most sympathy for the political fanboys and the least for the fashion fanboys. I like good technology, but I'm not going to get excited about it. Fashion I have disdain for. At least with political values I can understand people caring enough to become fanboys, though they can become bigots and harm their own cause if they go too far (I guess every movement has its crazies).
That's quite an accusation. Can you please give some sort of reference?
I mean, wouldn't Heston have sued the pants off of MM and his studio (for libel?) if they had done what you suggest?
I'm not a big fan of MM's methodology - I think he is a bit deceptive in his presentation. But I hope he isn't that bad (or stupid). Also, I'm a little surprised that your post got modded to five when it contains a big accusation with no reference.
Also, I don't buy the defense that Heston is old and it is nasty of MM to do this to poor old Heston. If Heston is old and can't give interviews then he shouldn't be the president of the NRA (or was he a director by then). It was very appropriate that MM should have interviewed the head of the NRA.
I've driven my buddies SmartCar around here in Toronto, including highway driving at about 130 km/h. I quite liked it except for one thing: the noise. In Canada you can only get the diesel engine and the engine is very close to you and not in a separate compartment, so it was too noisy for me.
I'm guessing that because it is SE they don't use the commmon types of memory cards (SD, uSD) but use the Sony type. This is negative points, but what about a standard 3.5" stereo jack? And how about a standard mini-USB port which can be used to charge the unit, and which support USB 'mass storage' (or whatever it is called).
I find it a bit bizarre that Nokia used to be terrible on this count, but has now become much better. HTC on the other hand, has gone in the opposite direction.
I don't think this service is really meant for individuals (even politicians). It's more for companies. If you company gets a bad reputation for damaging the environment, monopolistic practices, or bad products, then you call in these guys.
Companies already do stuff like this. When they get a bad reputation, instead of getting at the root of the problem that got them in trouble, they call in the lawyers and the marketing people, or hire a new PR firm. Well, these guys sell a specialty service within that industry.
We can't really expect individual companies to adopt these proposals. If these proposals have any real teeth, then they could cost the company money, and then the company will lose against competitors that don't adopt expensive do-gooder policies. Occasionally, such policies will be very high profile and the cost of the policy will be offset by the positive PR, but that is rare.
If it is really important for a company to do, or stop doing something, then perhaps the government should regulate it? I know that regulation is a bad word, but at least then it applies to all the companies evenly, so no company gets disadvantaged for its good behavior. Of course, they shouldn't create the regulation unless they plan to enforce it, otherwise we are back to the same place where the companies that ignore the regulation come out on top.
Frankly, if you can't do what you want to do, then Linux is in serious trouble.
Open source developers have created a lot of great applications, but they can't do it all. On the desktop particularly, Linux will only succeed if closed source developers feel comfortable writing software for it.
The Mac is not about free stuff. It is a high-end system for people with money. That's one of the reasons you only see it in the wealthiest countries. If you have a Mac you can afford to spend some money on software. As a developer, it has occurred to me that the Mac might be a good thing to get into. I'm currently using C++ and I've heard that OC is much better, and the dev tools are very good. But more importantly, its got by far the wealthiest users (who are accepting of high margins) and comparatively little free software available.
Lots of people are pointing out that a lot of Linux freeware can be used on the Mac, but that's only for hackers. If you want to build a real OS-X app that anyone can use then you will find that you have to write a new app from scratch. OS-X is not designed for easy software portability. It is a real headache for the cross-platform software and frameworks. Note the problems that open office and wxWidgets have had. But again, this shouldn't be a surprise. The Mac is about lock-in, not about openness and portability. These are the reasons that, in the end, I probably won't make the switch to developing for OS-X. It would be a good career move, but I really care about cross-platform and I really don't like lock-in.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing against the poeple that say that OS-X is a great OS, but it can't be everything to everyone and you have to be realistic about how it is positioned and what Apple's business strategies are.
The all fail the most basic tests. They all get the hardware, for free, from the company being reviewed, and they all take ads from the same companies they are reviewing.
This gives the provider the opportunity to fine tune the product they give you, and they won't give you anything if you write too many bad reviews. Are there any sites that buy the hardware off the shelf?
I guess ads are ok if they do it through a service like Google so that there is no direct link with companies being reviewed.
Assuming that taxes are a necessary evil, an e-mail tax would be great. It could raise a lot of money extremely efficiently (in theory). The pain/cost for the average user would be tiny. Spam would dissapear in an instant.
And on a general note, I'm not sure why people think it is wrong to tax internet commerce, but it is OK to tax traditional commerce.
The idea of an e-mail tax will go nowhere. I could probably have a rational discussion of the topic here on/., but out in the real world, it is politically suicide to be in favour of almost any new tax (even if it could be used to reduce other taxes).
Basic? I'm not sure I understand. Why should I like BASIC just because I don't like C++ much?
I wasn't around when C++ came out.
Regarding the other SDK's - there are alternatives to many closed software products/platforms, but I still care what the official owner does. I'm not going to consider Mono and ignore the fact that it is really MS that owns C#, nor am I going to consider GNU Java without taking into account that it is Sun that primarily determines what happens with Java.
I am a c++ developer who doesn't really like C++, but has held back from switching for years.
I've been very annoyed at and cynical about Sun's handling of Java. If Sun had opened Java years ago I would have switched (and I'd be much happier right now).
Now, it's a bit late, but I am satisfied that they have finally done the right thing, in a real and full way. The remaining issues are understandable. Yes, they only did it because of competitive pressure, but I guess that's how it goes.
I won't be switching to Java right away, but I think the opening of Java will be the decisive factor for me when it comes to my future personal technology decisions.
The biggest contribution that I made to open source did not come from boredom at all. It was more of a political thing. Like all the people you see who donate some of their time to a cause they believe in. They do it because they believe in the cause.
Slashdot Mirror
I acknowledge that the poster might have extenuating circumstances, but in the general case to run Linux on a Mac just doesn't make sense. When you buy a Mac you are paying for the hardware + OS development + huge advertising budget + 38% profit margin (based on their most recent quarterly results). If you want to run Linux you should just go out and buy a PC - the margins are additional costs are very small in comparison.
It can hardly be called a Linux clone if it uses a different kernel.
But they can still make the OS more Linux compatible, particularly from the software development perspective.
Funny thing. I find this to be a very common response from people who voted for these clowns, when confronted with any of the endless examples like this. It sort of sounds like "it's all a bunch of crap so nothing matters". As if there aren't degrees of good or bad.
In my country, a (now convicted) businessman started a national newspaper with the explicit goal of convincing people of his political views. When you ask people whether this is really a good source of political news, they respond with a similar sort of 'nothing matters' argument: there is no such thing as objective so what does it matter.
I actually don't think you really are nihilists - I think its just an easy thing to say when you want the issue to go away.
Yes, Apple has succeeded to take market share from MS on the desktop, while Linux has failed, but you are leaving out an extremely important piece: MS was working very hard to make sure that Apple displaced Linux. Tons of evidence has surfaced in e-mails and in interviews with ex-MS people that MS saw Linux as a real threat, whereas they saw Apple as safe and even as useful (in relation to the Justice Department).
Now, MS never intended that Apple should take over digital media, marginalize WMA, etc. They miscalculated on that, but on the desktop, Apple has managed to make MS look much better. Not only can they claim that there is competition on the desktop, but now it is harder to blame them for charging too much or for promoting lock-in.
So, I think the statement that you are rupiating could be modified to "how Microsoft has succeeded in crushing Linux in personal computers." because it is Linux and open source that they wanted to crush, not innovation.
Yes, but if we are talking about moving people to OS X then what is the point of this conversation in the first place?
The easiest thing for most consumers is to just keep using Windows XP. Why would I spend any time or effort to help someone switch unless their was some kind of a value or political idea involved?
I happen to prefer Windows to OS X because it has much less lock-in and is cheaper (by way more then $50), but I really don't care too much because Apple and MS are both just companies with similar histories of nastiness and screwing consumers. Linux is something all together different.
Those that can't see that and that can equate OS X with Linux, are 'pure' consumers with no values beyond brand and product.
Don't go blaming the bureaucrats again. Typically, the bureaucrats do the sort of studying and consulting that one would hope for in a case like this, and then a political appointee overrules them.
The fault lies with the people who politicize ever increasing aspects of the government, and the people who keep money as the dominant factor in politics.
No big surprise here. This is just planned obsolescence. You aren't supposed to replace the battery, you are supposed to chuck the unit and buy the latest model.
It might sound wasteful, but it actually makes sense when you think about how these are positioned in the market. People who buy high-end fashion items are not the type to recycle them or keep them going a long time. By the time the battery is not performing well, there will be a new model that is even 'cooler' then the current one. After all, the up front cost of the item is probably small compared to the operating cost so it's not going to hurt you that much to buy a new one. This is the sort of thing that Apple is brilliant at.
I disagree.
nothing I watch is HD. Nothing I download is HD. And YouTube certainly isn't HD. So how is this an HD world?
I'm assuming that you (and many others) have HD TV, but this box is not meant for watching TV on.
Regarding the onboard storage, why would I want that? With USB ports and Ethernet I can add storage to the OSD in many easy ways. Built-in storage would be inflexible and would increase the cost.
I can tell you this much...
I work about a block away from the main ATI offices (Leslie and 407 in Toronto), and I was surprised at how quickly all (physical) signs of ATI disappeared. ATI became AMD overnight.
These are quoted from this mornings NYT article. I think they tell us a lot:
"Some anecdotes reveal just how far outside the law some C.I.A. agents strayed. One technician was arrested in 1960 after trying to bug a Las Vegas hotel room. The operation had been requested by Sam Giancana, the Chicago mobster, who was then helping the C.I.A. in a plot to assassinate Mr. Castro.
Mr. Giancana had been concerned that his girlfriend, the singer Phyllis McGuire, was having an affair with the comedian Dan Rowan, and surveillance was ordered to "determine the extent of his intimacy" with her.
Some of the activities detailed, while lawful, would have been embarrassing had they emerged at the time. One document revealed that John McCone, director of central intelligence during Kennedy's presidency, authorized an Air Force plane to fly the Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis and the soprano Maria Callas from Rome to Athens, a favor that led to media inquiries."
In past releases by the CIA, when you look at the actual documents, you discover that 80-90% of the material is actually blacked out. It leaves you very curious and wondering what the blacked out stuff is.
It's understandable that some stuff (eg. the name of an informant or agent) must be blacked out, but so much? For the CIA operations in Guatemala in the 50's, for instance, the CIA was admitting to such nasty deeds (in my opinion) in the stuff they didn't black out, that you can't imagine what stuff was too nasty to release.
Can someone please confirm whether that is the case with these new documents?
Thanks.
I see three different types: the political, the tech, and the fashion fanboys.
The political ones (obviously I am talking about the open source fans) love the ideas or values behind a technology or a company.
The fashion ones love the brand, or the image associated with the brand.
Both of these first two will often claim that they are actually tech fanboys, but that their tech happens to be the best. There probably are real tech fanboys, but they are hard to distinguish from the other two.
I believe that I am none of the above, but I have the most sympathy for the political fanboys and the least for the fashion fanboys. I like good technology, but I'm not going to get excited about it. Fashion I have disdain for. At least with political values I can understand people caring enough to become fanboys, though they can become bigots and harm their own cause if they go too far (I guess every movement has its crazies).
That's quite an accusation. Can you please give some sort of reference?
I mean, wouldn't Heston have sued the pants off of MM and his studio (for libel?) if they had done what you suggest?
I'm not a big fan of MM's methodology - I think he is a bit deceptive in his presentation. But I hope he isn't that bad (or stupid). Also, I'm a little surprised that your post got modded to five when it contains a big accusation with no reference.
Also, I don't buy the defense that Heston is old and it is nasty of MM to do this to poor old Heston. If Heston is old and can't give interviews then he shouldn't be the president of the NRA (or was he a director by then). It was very appropriate that MM should have interviewed the head of the NRA.
I've driven my buddies SmartCar around here in Toronto, including highway driving at about 130 km/h. I quite liked it except for one thing: the noise. In Canada you can only get the diesel engine and the engine is very close to you and not in a separate compartment, so it was too noisy for me.
I'm guessing that because it is SE they don't use the commmon types of memory cards (SD, uSD) but use the Sony type. This is negative points, but what about a standard 3.5" stereo jack? And how about a standard mini-USB port which can be used to charge the unit, and which support USB 'mass storage' (or whatever it is called).
I find it a bit bizarre that Nokia used to be terrible on this count, but has now become much better. HTC on the other hand, has gone in the opposite direction.
I don't think this service is really meant for individuals (even politicians). It's more for companies. If you company gets a bad reputation for damaging the environment, monopolistic practices, or bad products, then you call in these guys.
Companies already do stuff like this. When they get a bad reputation, instead of getting at the root of the problem that got them in trouble, they call in the lawyers and the marketing people, or hire a new PR firm. Well, these guys sell a specialty service within that industry.
We can't really expect individual companies to adopt these proposals. If these proposals have any real teeth, then they could cost the company money, and then the company will lose against competitors that don't adopt expensive do-gooder policies. Occasionally, such policies will be very high profile and the cost of the policy will be offset by the positive PR, but that is rare.
If it is really important for a company to do, or stop doing something, then perhaps the government should regulate it? I know that regulation is a bad word, but at least then it applies to all the companies evenly, so no company gets disadvantaged for its good behavior. Of course, they shouldn't create the regulation unless they plan to enforce it, otherwise we are back to the same place where the companies that ignore the regulation come out on top.
Frankly, if you can't do what you want to do, then Linux is in serious trouble.
Open source developers have created a lot of great applications, but they can't do it all. On the desktop particularly, Linux will only succeed if closed source developers feel comfortable writing software for it.
The Mac is not about free stuff. It is a high-end system for people with money. That's one of the reasons you only see it in the wealthiest countries. If you have a Mac you can afford to spend some money on software. As a developer, it has occurred to me that the Mac might be a good thing to get into. I'm currently using C++ and I've heard that OC is much better, and the dev tools are very good. But more importantly, its got by far the wealthiest users (who are accepting of high margins) and comparatively little free software available.
Lots of people are pointing out that a lot of Linux freeware can be used on the Mac, but that's only for hackers. If you want to build a real OS-X app that anyone can use then you will find that you have to write a new app from scratch. OS-X is not designed for easy software portability. It is a real headache for the cross-platform software and frameworks. Note the problems that open office and wxWidgets have had. But again, this shouldn't be a surprise. The Mac is about lock-in, not about openness and portability. These are the reasons that, in the end, I probably won't make the switch to developing for OS-X. It would be a good career move, but I really care about cross-platform and I really don't like lock-in.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing against the poeple that say that OS-X is a great OS, but it can't be everything to everyone and you have to be realistic about how it is positioned and what Apple's business strategies are.
The all fail the most basic tests. They all get the hardware, for free, from the company being reviewed, and they all take ads from the same companies they are reviewing.
This gives the provider the opportunity to fine tune the product they give you, and they won't give you anything if you write too many bad reviews. Are there any sites that buy the hardware off the shelf?
I guess ads are ok if they do it through a service like Google so that there is no direct link with companies being reviewed.
I'm not suggesting that your software be cross platform, but that your software should help developers who want to distribute cross platform software.
Could you support something very close to deb packages?
Could you support LLVM (http://llvm.org/)?
Assuming that taxes are a necessary evil, an e-mail tax would be great. It could raise a lot of money extremely efficiently (in theory). The pain/cost for the average user would be tiny. Spam would dissapear in an instant.
And on a general note, I'm not sure why people think it is wrong to tax internet commerce, but it is OK to tax traditional commerce.
The idea of an e-mail tax will go nowhere. I could probably have a rational discussion of the topic here on
Basic? I'm not sure I understand. Why should I like BASIC just because I don't like C++ much?
I wasn't around when C++ came out.
Regarding the other SDK's - there are alternatives to many closed software products/platforms, but I still care what the official owner does. I'm not going to consider Mono and ignore the fact that it is really MS that owns C#, nor am I going to consider GNU Java without taking into account that it is Sun that primarily determines what happens with Java.
I am a c++ developer who doesn't really like C++, but has held back from switching for years.
I've been very annoyed at and cynical about Sun's handling of Java. If Sun had opened Java years ago I would have switched (and I'd be much happier right now).
Now, it's a bit late, but I am satisfied that they have finally done the right thing, in a real and full way. The remaining issues are understandable. Yes, they only did it because of competitive pressure, but I guess that's how it goes.
I won't be switching to Java right away, but I think the opening of Java will be the decisive factor for me when it comes to my future personal technology decisions.
The biggest contribution that I made to open source did not come from boredom at all. It was more of a political thing. Like all the people you see who donate some of their time to a cause they believe in. They do it because they believe in the cause.