Same problem over here. I've got a P4 3.0 with 1GB RAM and never had any problems under Mandrake 9.2. I've been too busy to really look into it (yeah, yeah, then what the hell am I doing on Slashdot), so unfortunately all I have to contribute is a "Me too!"
I agree with the conclusion at the end of your post, but being the nit-picker that I am, I have no choice but to point out that pouring 10 times as much money into your defense (offense?) force does not make it 10 times as powerful.
A $10M mainframe does not necessarily outperform a cluster of 2,000 $500 machines.
The reason they got to give in is simply that they got too much to lose. Why would Microsoft want to operate outside the law? Don't you think that would hurt their reputation so much that many companies, government divisions and home users that are now perfectly happy to use MS products would then think twice about continuing to do so? And I'm not just talking about companies etc. in the EU.
And besides, it's not like there isn't a lot of MS property in the EU that can be dispossessed (there are probably a few copies of the source code of most MS products over here too). Local managers probably aren't too fond of the prospect of jail time either.
And even if those things weren't true, I don't think that Washington likes the idea of a rebellant Microsoft and a pissed off EU. I highly doubt they'll keep quiet about such a move.
I agree. Unfortunately, the same goes for the introduction to LaTeX I had at my university. Introducing fresh first year students, who are used to text processors, to LaTeX by handing them this document and telling them to produce the LaTeX source for it is a perfect way to have them hate the program with such a passion that they'll avoid using it for the rest of their lives.
Thank god I decided a few years later to give it another chance...
I fully agree that we don't want everything to be free. That simply doesn't work, as communism has already proven.
However, FOSS simply will not go away. There will always be students and other people who are willing to program stuff for free out of idealism. Unless you want to go the SCO route, there's no way of stopping that.
The lesson here is that you should simply be realistic and try to find a job where you either code stuff that can't be done by FOSS products (adding business logic, developing niche products, etc.), where you are actually being payed to create or support FOSS (governments, IBM, HP, MySQL AB, etc.), or where your primary value doesn't lie in the actual code, but the ideas behind it (academic career).
It may not be traditional and it may not always be easy, but there most definitely still is money to be made in a world filled with FOSS. We'll just have to adapt. It's not like we have much of a choice.
I really hope this works out. Not because "free as in beer" isn't good enough for me (it is), but because it'll help focus the Java community.
We want Java's greatest supporters on one line, so they can face the growing competition of C# instead of bickering among themselves about whose VM/Gui toolkit/IDE/Compiler is the best.
I am always amazed that Heineken has such a better reputation than Budweiser. Personally I'd much rather not drink any beer at all than drink either of those.
Well, since it's all GPL anyone can go though the code to look for backdoors. If the NSA has actually planted backdoors and they're found, then that is sure to backlash at them bigtime (nobody will trust them ever again), so I don't think they actually put any in.
However, that doesn't mean that taking a long and critical look at the modifications isn't worthwhile...
It's bloody worse. At least there is some structure to legalese. The only function of this crap is to confuse customers to the point where they loose all common sense and just buy whatever the marketer is selling.
Microsoft has done this before. Windows and the improved Scandisk and Defrag drove Norton Commander and Disk Doctor out of the market, but Norton adapted by becoming a major player in the antivirus and firewall business.
What I am really interested in is how exactly Norton will adapt to this, as I'm sure that they will find a way to do so.
Slashdot Mirror
Same problem over here. I've got a P4 3.0 with 1GB RAM and never had any problems under Mandrake 9.2. I've been too busy to really look into it (yeah, yeah, then what the hell am I doing on Slashdot), so unfortunately all I have to contribute is a "Me too!"
>[...] cow-worker [...]
Best... typo... EVAR!!!
> These are intelligent, wealthy people, and they did not get that way by filing groundless lawsuits.
Are they more intelligent and wealthier than IBM and Novell?
I agree with the conclusion at the end of your post, but being the nit-picker that I am, I have no choice but to point out that pouring 10 times as much money into your defense (offense?) force does not make it 10 times as powerful.
A $10M mainframe does not necessarily outperform a cluster of 2,000 $500 machines.
The reason they got to give in is simply that they got too much to lose. Why would Microsoft want to operate outside the law? Don't you think that would hurt their reputation so much that many companies, government divisions and home users that are now perfectly happy to use MS products would then think twice about continuing to do so? And I'm not just talking about companies etc. in the EU.
And besides, it's not like there isn't a lot of MS property in the EU that can be dispossessed (there are probably a few copies of the source code of most MS products over here too). Local managers probably aren't too fond of the prospect of jail time either.
And even if those things weren't true, I don't think that Washington likes the idea of a rebellant Microsoft and a pissed off EU. I highly doubt they'll keep quiet about such a move.
Thank god I decided a few years later to give it another chance...
I fully agree that we don't want everything to be free. That simply doesn't work, as communism has already proven.
However, FOSS simply will not go away. There will always be students and other people who are willing to program stuff for free out of idealism. Unless you want to go the SCO route, there's no way of stopping that.
The lesson here is that you should simply be realistic and try to find a job where you either code stuff that can't be done by FOSS products (adding business logic, developing niche products, etc.), where you are actually being payed to create or support FOSS (governments, IBM, HP, MySQL AB, etc.), or where your primary value doesn't lie in the actual code, but the ideas behind it (academic career).
It may not be traditional and it may not always be easy, but there most definitely still is money to be made in a world filled with FOSS. We'll just have to adapt. It's not like we have much of a choice.
I really hope this works out. Not because "free as in beer" isn't good enough for me (it is), but because it'll help focus the Java community.
We want Java's greatest supporters on one line, so they can face the growing competition of C# instead of bickering among themselves about whose VM/Gui toolkit/IDE/Compiler is the best.
Getting an OSS Java is just a nice bonus.
I'd much, much rather have a nice big glass of Hoegaarden or Celis White...
>"(nobody will trust them ever again)"
>
>Like the average slashdotter trusted them now.
Sadly(?), the average slashdotter doesn't matter as much as the average executive.
Well, since it's all GPL anyone can go though the code to look for backdoors. If the NSA has actually planted backdoors and they're found, then that is sure to backlash at them bigtime (nobody will trust them ever again), so I don't think they actually put any in.
However, that doesn't mean that taking a long and critical look at the modifications isn't worthwhile...
It's bloody worse. At least there is some structure to legalese. The only function of this crap is to confuse customers to the point where they loose all common sense and just buy whatever the marketer is selling.
Microsoft has done this before. Windows and the improved Scandisk and Defrag drove Norton Commander and Disk Doctor out of the market, but Norton adapted by becoming a major player in the antivirus and firewall business.
What I am really interested in is how exactly Norton will adapt to this, as I'm sure that they will find a way to do so.
Just follow the link near the top of the page and you'll get here, which is recruiting page from which they link to the britney page.