It seems that every so-called "linux backer" has an excuse for not wanting to actually do anything of benefit to Linux. If it isn't IBM not porting their Lotus applications, its HP running off with SCO promoting their latest snake oil and now we have Intel more concerned about protecting their IP than actually serving the needs of their customers.
I am all for Intel protecting their IP, and sure, if I were in their shoes, I too wouldn't want $10million or so worth of R&D fall down the drain, yet, on the other hand, they need to realise the reality of what is happening.
If Intel want to do something great, why don't they help produce an abstraction layer in which all drivers can be compiled against and no have to worry about each kernel release, 2.4.17 -> 2.4.18 (for example) breaking compatibility. Sure, some "breakage" is understandable, especially when fixing major bugs, however, breakage every release? thats beyond annoying, it is plain out stupid.
This would enable Intel (and other companies) to produce binary drivers and for users to fully utilise all the nifty features of their fancy new gizmo.
I just hope that with this new, more optimitic outlook, more developers will come on board and contribute new and refreshing ideas to the development of X.
The unfortunate thing with X is that it is so important to *NIX and yet it receives less attention than the kernel. Sure, X11 isn't sexy but it a very important component none the less.
What I hope by the end of this year is a strong cohesive X server development team/community with good links to IHVs and an active programme in place to encourage people with new and exciting ideas to come forward and discuss them.
What I would also like to see is a situation where the X specification becomes more than just what we see today. We need an encompassing standard which not only includes what we have today but flexible enough to adapt to new extensions as they arise.
Along with these extensions, the toolkit communities need to work closer together with X and each other and work towards an X11/Consortium backed HIG of which all toolkits conform to. What I am trying to get at is this, different tool kits are great, each community can concerntrate on developing the strengths of that particular toolkit, however, for this choice on one hand and the adoption of Linux on the other hand to continue, there needs to be a standard set down. Once that standard is set down and the the two, X + toolkits, work closer together and allow better interoperability, the net result should be applications which look consistant no matter what toolkit is used.
For me, I maybe lucky to watch 1hour of TV at night, and that is *if* I am lucky whilst on the other hand I would much rather prefer surfing the net, looking for news that interests me and possibly chat to a few friends.
I completely agree with the UCLA, the people I find that are the *least* socially active are those who are couch potatoes where as for me, I'm able to surf for the information I want, get it straight away then go off and do something else where as if I watch TV, I would have to sit through ads, a couple of feel good news stories just to get to the news story that I could be interested in.
With that being said, however, yes, there are people on the internet who hide behind their computer screen, too scared to face the world so instead they create a whole new persona specifically for "online communication".
Now sure, Internet is great for communication, however, like any form of communication, one has to take it in moderation. Simply restricting yourself to online friendships is neither healthy or longterm.
Now, if we all lived in isolated vacuums then I am sure it wouldn't be so bad but unfortunately these people take their anti-social leanings into work, the net result? you end up with a handful of possibly talented employees but can't work together with others to solve problems.
In IT we spend WAAY to much time worrying about skills when what the concerntration an universities and other training institutions ensuring that balanced people are graduated who not only know their "stuff" but also have the soft skills required for work that requires close colaboration.
Microsoft Customer "care": "Welcome to Microsoft how may we victimise you?"
Customer: "My system has just been hacked. What do I do? what do I do?"
Microsoft Customer "care": "Nothing my dear, YOU'RE NOT QUALIFIED!"
Link to stories relating to Perl and FreeBSD
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FreeBSD 5.2 Released
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Well, since you asked nicely, I will reply nicely.
Well, I like it from the point of the view that is is developed in the tradional way. There is good QA process, good community atmosphere which concerntrates on support users rather than giving a lecter on why their particular operating system "rocks their box".
I also like the ports system and the fact that you can sync things so easily and compile everything in a nice clean mannor. Depencies are resolved via ports, updating the core is really easy and the speed, it is great. There aren't 100s of services running when using Linux and 90% of the time I am as confused as a baby in a topless bar over which to disable, enable or what ever.
Also, the cool thing is, it isn't a cool thing. You don't have Red Hat screaming, 4 month using *NIX wantabees asking stupid questions. Sure, I used Linux for 5 years but now unfortunately, with the rise and perceived ease of use, we now have a whole new group of zealots and half witts.
Oh well, back to my quiet yet stable life of MacOS 10.3.2 and FreeBSD.
If one reads the previous reports, there is a good reason why they have moved Perl into the ports tree rather than keeping as part of the default installation.
The people selling this stuff are not only tax dodgers, but are often taking the customers for a ride, some people often mistake these copies for the real thing and are buying in good faith, only to find out they have been ripped off by a shoddy inkjet printed jewelcase inner and an un-stickered cd-r costing next to nothing.
I completely agree. I've seen some real fine work done in Ukraine. Some even go all the way and make a box. The problem is that the average user doesn't know what they're doing is actually illegal.
Talk to your average user, I doubt they even know that the Office they're running which they borrowed off the neighbour is actually breaching the EULA. Again, the average user doesn't understand because they see it as a victimless crime.
As I have said to people, there is VERY little money made by the software company off end users. 85% of the money made are off enterprise and public service sales. The end user *may* once it a blue moon purchase a cheap $50 card making kit, however, in terms of the Microsofts and Adobes, they make little money off these customers.
Here we are in 2004, and now these companies, and rightfully so, are now demanding that customers actually pay for the software. Activation is the first step and I am sure there will be more full proof protection mecanisms on their way. The fact is, unlike the end user, large commercial customers are kept in line via random BSA audits, with end users, there is no such safe guard.
As for the movie business, the problem is that again, the end customer see it as a victimless crime. They don't see the negative spin offs hence they have no way of knowing what they're doing.
If it were just Hollywood, then I think I wouldn't worry too much, however, small independent film units are the worst hit. These organisations are on razor thin margins. They live day to day on the sales of their movies. Sure, many of these independent films are sponsered by grants from governments, however, if the government see that the money is being put into a bottomless pit then they may pull the plug.
If the plug is pulled then diversity will cease to exist and as a result, we're all worse off.
Sounds like an interesting product, however, not to rain on anyones parade but the media is still too expensive and worse still, there is yet to be a format set down which all market people can conform to. Imagine recording something then taking it to a friends house only to find that he has one from Fujisu and that it is incompatible.
What I would find interesting, however, is if they allowed users to hook up external hard drives and the media is saved in regular MPEG4 format thus allowing to watch it on the computer, possibly edit out the ads at a later date or, if the price continues to drop, have a dedicated hard drive for certain programmes you may want to archive
Slashdot Mirror
It seems that every so-called "linux backer" has an excuse for not wanting to actually do anything of benefit to Linux. If it isn't IBM not porting their Lotus applications, its HP running off with SCO promoting their latest snake oil and now we have Intel more concerned about protecting their IP than actually serving the needs of their customers.
I am all for Intel protecting their IP, and sure, if I were in their shoes, I too wouldn't want $10million or so worth of R&D fall down the drain, yet, on the other hand, they need to realise the reality of what is happening.
If Intel want to do something great, why don't they help produce an abstraction layer in which all drivers can be compiled against and no have to worry about each kernel release, 2.4.17 -> 2.4.18 (for example) breaking compatibility. Sure, some "breakage" is understandable, especially when fixing major bugs, however, breakage every release? thats beyond annoying, it is plain out stupid.
This would enable Intel (and other companies) to produce binary drivers and for users to fully utilise all the nifty features of their fancy new gizmo.
N/A
I just hope that with this new, more optimitic outlook, more developers will come on board and contribute new and refreshing ideas to the development of X.
The unfortunate thing with X is that it is so important to *NIX and yet it receives less attention than the kernel. Sure, X11 isn't sexy but it a very important component none the less.
What I hope by the end of this year is a strong cohesive X server development team/community with good links to IHVs and an active programme in place to encourage people with new and exciting ideas to come forward and discuss them.
What I would also like to see is a situation where the X specification becomes more than just what we see today. We need an encompassing standard which not only includes what we have today but flexible enough to adapt to new extensions as they arise.
Along with these extensions, the toolkit communities need to work closer together with X and each other and work towards an X11/Consortium backed HIG of which all toolkits conform to. What I am trying to get at is this, different tool kits are great, each community can concerntrate on developing the strengths of that particular toolkit, however, for this choice on one hand and the adoption of Linux on the other hand to continue, there needs to be a standard set down. Once that standard is set down and the the two, X + toolkits, work closer together and allow better interoperability, the net result should be applications which look consistant no matter what toolkit is used.
For me, I maybe lucky to watch 1hour of TV at night, and that is *if* I am lucky whilst on the other hand I would much rather prefer surfing the net, looking for news that interests me and possibly chat to a few friends.
I completely agree with the UCLA, the people I find that are the *least* socially active are those who are couch potatoes where as for me, I'm able to surf for the information I want, get it straight away then go off and do something else where as if I watch TV, I would have to sit through ads, a couple of feel good news stories just to get to the news story that I could be interested in.
With that being said, however, yes, there are people on the internet who hide behind their computer screen, too scared to face the world so instead they create a whole new persona specifically for "online communication".
Now sure, Internet is great for communication, however, like any form of communication, one has to take it in moderation. Simply restricting yourself to online friendships is neither healthy or longterm.
Now, if we all lived in isolated vacuums then I am sure it wouldn't be so bad but unfortunately these people take their anti-social leanings into work, the net result? you end up with a handful of possibly talented employees but can't work together with others to solve problems.
In IT we spend WAAY to much time worrying about skills when what the concerntration an universities and other training institutions ensuring that balanced people are graduated who not only know their "stuff" but also have the soft skills required for work that requires close colaboration.
Microsoft Customer "care": "Welcome to Microsoft how may we victimise you?" Customer: "My system has just been hacked. What do I do? what do I do?" Microsoft Customer "care": "Nothing my dear, YOU'RE NOT QUALIFIED!"
http://daily.daemonnews.org/view_story.php3?story_ id=2872
http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/178
Well, since you asked nicely, I will reply nicely.
Well, I like it from the point of the view that is is developed in the tradional way. There is good QA process, good community atmosphere which concerntrates on support users rather than giving a lecter on why their particular operating system "rocks their box".
I also like the ports system and the fact that you can sync things so easily and compile everything in a nice clean mannor. Depencies are resolved via ports, updating the core is really easy and the speed, it is great. There aren't 100s of services running when using Linux and 90% of the time I am as confused as a baby in a topless bar over which to disable, enable or what ever.
Also, the cool thing is, it isn't a cool thing. You don't have Red Hat screaming, 4 month using *NIX wantabees asking stupid questions. Sure, I used Linux for 5 years but now unfortunately, with the rise and perceived ease of use, we now have a whole new group of zealots and half witts.
Oh well, back to my quiet yet stable life of MacOS 10.3.2 and FreeBSD.
If one reads the previous reports, there is a good reason why they have moved Perl into the ports tree rather than keeping as part of the default installation.
I completely agree. I've seen some real fine work done in Ukraine. Some even go all the way and make a box. The problem is that the average user doesn't know what they're doing is actually illegal.
Talk to your average user, I doubt they even know that the Office they're running which they borrowed off the neighbour is actually breaching the EULA. Again, the average user doesn't understand because they see it as a victimless crime.
As I have said to people, there is VERY little money made by the software company off end users. 85% of the money made are off enterprise and public service sales. The end user *may* once it a blue moon purchase a cheap $50 card making kit, however, in terms of the Microsofts and Adobes, they make little money off these customers.
Here we are in 2004, and now these companies, and rightfully so, are now demanding that customers actually pay for the software. Activation is the first step and I am sure there will be more full proof protection mecanisms on their way. The fact is, unlike the end user, large commercial customers are kept in line via random BSA audits, with end users, there is no such safe guard.
As for the movie business, the problem is that again, the end customer see it as a victimless crime. They don't see the negative spin offs hence they have no way of knowing what they're doing.
If it were just Hollywood, then I think I wouldn't worry too much, however, small independent film units are the worst hit. These organisations are on razor thin margins. They live day to day on the sales of their movies. Sure, many of these independent films are sponsered by grants from governments, however, if the government see that the money is being put into a bottomless pit then they may pull the plug.
If the plug is pulled then diversity will cease to exist and as a result, we're all worse off.
Sounds like an interesting product, however, not to rain on anyones parade but the media is still too expensive and worse still, there is yet to be a format set down which all market people can conform to. Imagine recording something then taking it to a friends house only to find that he has one from Fujisu and that it is incompatible.
What I would find interesting, however, is if they allowed users to hook up external hard drives and the media is saved in regular MPEG4 format thus allowing to watch it on the computer, possibly edit out the ads at a later date or, if the price continues to drop, have a dedicated hard drive for certain programmes you may want to archive