Even with the released documentation, we also need a good leader like Harald Welte to bring together the OpenChrome and UniChrome developers to work on the same codebase. Right now the split effort is really wasteful.
Hardware companies care only about selling a product and keeping the customer satisfied for the first 30 days after which they can't return the said hardware. They don't care if the patches to Linux don't get upstream because as long as the hardware works fine with the version of Linux that they hacked up and pre-loaded, they're customers will be temporarily satisfied.
And when it comes time to upgrade the Linux OS in a year or two, the new version won't work, so the customers will be forced to buy more "up-to-date" hardware with more hacks and band aids. Even presumably FOSS-friendly companies like System76 change the pre-installed Ubuntu on their laptops by adding tons of hacks and then don't bother to even report them upstream, much less to develop a sustainable solution.
No-one cares outside of geekdom, really they don't.
You bet they care when they see two opened instances of IE bringing down their 3-month old computer to a screeching halt because Vista ran out of memory and is using a hard drive swap file formatted in NTFS.
KDE is being re-licensed to GPL 3+ as we speak. See the draft licensing policy. Once that is near completion, it is likely that Qt will also be relicensed to GPL 3 since Trolltech has proven to be receptive to the idea.
Another Gigabyte motherboard (Gigabyte M57SLI-S4) does run LinuxBIOS, and is one of the only desktop motherboards to do so. It would be cool if the most performat desktop motherboard in existense also ran a 100% Free/Open Source BIOS such as LinuxBIOS.
One of the key requirements for the OLPC is that all the components are open source (even the firmware for the wireless component). AMD has worked very hard to make the OLPC compatible with LinuxBIOS and OpenFirmware, which are 100% Free/Open Source. I certainly hope Intel will do the same.
Dell is paying consumers to use Windows! The exact same Dell Latitude D520 Notebook costs $48 MORE if it comes with no operating system than if it comes with Windows.
The laptop loaded with Windows XP costs $699, while the same laptop and configuration loaded with no operating system costs $747. Note that you must change the following two hardware options on the web page showing laptop without an OS so that they match the hardware options found by default for the Windows laptop: Hard drive=60GB 5400RPM and Modular Bay Optical="8X DVD".
So it seems that Windows has a negative price tag as far as Dell is concerned! It looks like Dell is still subsidizing Microsoft for every Windows-free laptop they sell. I'm getting my laptop from System76 -- they sell excellent quality Linux laptops, desktops, and servers. They also have a great support team that cares about Linux and open source.
Fedora's version of KDE lacks polish, attention
on
Fedora Linux
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The modified version of KDE that ships in Fedora 6 is really buggy and unpolished. There's been talk for two years about placing KDE in Fedora Extras so that it will be better supported by the dedicated KDE community, but Redhat seems to keep refusing the help and treating KDE apps as second-class citizens.
Some of the Fedora 6 changes (like taking away MP3 playing capability from KDE music players) are justified on a legal basis, but other changes (like using a 4-year old window decoration and widget styles) are at best the result of ineptitude or at worst a deliberate attempt to make KDE look bad and outdated.
For three releases in a row? Well that just shows how much they care about KDE, doesn't it.
What puzzles me is why Fedora can't just take a KDE 3.5 snapshot from the SVN server and leave the defaults as-is? It would be easier on themselves (they wouldn't have to make as many changes), and the vast majority of users prefer KDE's default settings anyway. But of course, Redhat wants to weave users away from KDE and stuff gnome down their throats -- that's why the default apps (even when the user has selected KDE) are annoyingly still gnome.
Fedora 6 patches to KDE are buggy, unpolished
on
Fedora Core 6 Released
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The modified version of KDE that ships in Fedora 6 is really buggy and unpolished. There's been talk for two years about placing KDE in Fedora Extras so that it will be better supported by the dedicated KDE community, but Redhat seems to keep refusing the help and treating KDE apps as second-class citizens.
Some of the Fedora 6 changes (like taking away MP3 playing capability from KDE music players) are justified on a legal basis, but other changes (like using a 4-year old window decoration and widget styles) are at best the result of ineptitude or at worst a deliberate attempt to make KDE look bad and outdated.
The OpenGraphics.org project will release a 3D OpenGL enabled graphics card with full specifications and schematics so that FOSS developers can write open source drivers for Linux and BSDs. The consumer graphics card (code-named OGA) will be release after a development board (code-named OGD1) is produced. The key step is to make enough revenue (around $2 million) from selling the multi-function development board to fund the mass production of the consumer card.
Unless there is a wealthy individual / corporation out there who is willing to invest in order to manufacture this card earlier. The FOSS-friendly card will surely have a big appeal in Linux circles.
I know for a fact that Red Hat employees have embarked on a FUD campaign against KDE by spreading outright lies about its licensing. One such lie that they've been perpetuating is that thrid-party companies can't write proprietary software using Qt and KDE: this is plain wrong, because a company that wants to write proprietary software based on Qt can simply play by the proprietary rules and buy a proprietary license from Trolltech (the makers of Qt). This arrangement is only fair, and it provides a financial incentive for companies to write open source software. Furthermore, revenues from prorietary development go directly into improving the Free & Open Source Qt framework. This dual-licensing arrangement is a WIN-WIN situations for ordinary users like you and me.
Now, I'd understand if Microsoft were spreading this FUD, but for a company like Red Hat that pretends to be 100% for open source to be doing this is downright hypocritical.
Kubuntu features the latest version of the ever popular and advanced K Desktop Environment, which has killer apps such as the AmaroK music player, the Kaffeine movie player, the Konqueror file manager and web browser, and the KOffice suite.
KDE is broken in the latest Fedora release, which doesn't really surprise me given the fact that Red Hat has always had abyssmal support for KDE.
I think applications like Konqueror File Manager, K3B for burning CDs and DVDs, AmaroK for listening to music, Kaffeine for watching movies, etc are a must for a desktop computer. It's a shame that Red Hat doesn't put more resources into ensuring KDE is usable on their systems.
Anyway, I'll stick with ArkLinux, Kubuntu and openSUSE since KDE actually works on those distros.
Unfortunately, neither VLC nor MPlayer can be included as libraries in other multimedia applications. Having to work with an embedded instance of VLC and MPlayer is a pain and not conducive to extending functionality in object-oriented fashion.
Xine and its corresponding library Xine-lib, on the other hand, can be used as libraries inside other frontend applications such as Kaffeine and AmaroK. This allows the frontend apps to focus on what they do best: GUI, usability and eyecandy, while the multimedia-intensive parts can be neatly accessed through an API.
How can this apparently high approval rating from a purported supporter of civil liberties be reconciled with Rep. Degette's recent anti-privacy action? Was the ACLU on crack when they scored her?
Well, the German Kubuntu team have closed their website in protest to what they claim is Canonical's disregard for KDE. Here are some of their concerns:
1) Canonical sponsors many more gnome developers than KDE developers -- just look how many more gnome-related commits appear in the Dapper commit log.
2) Edubuntu, whose education-specific programs come almost exclusively from the KDE Education Suite, runs on gnome instead of KDE. Canonical has never sponsored a KDE Education Suite developer, even though Edubuntu simply wouldn't exist without their work.
3) Canonical does not financially support the team that creates Kubuntu-LiveCDs, so they have to pay all the expenses from their own pockets.
4) Kubuntu doesn't accept community contributions (ie. contributions by anyone beside Jonathan Riddell and Andreas Mueller). A lot of volunteers wanted to contribute, but they can't because they have no access.
5) The name of the version featuring gnome is called Ubuntu, while the version featuring KDE has a K added to the front. This makes it sound like gnome is the default, standard, and KDE is some sort of offshoot. It would be more equitable to name them Ubuntu-KDE and Ubuntu-GNOME, or Kubuntu and Gubuntu.
Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu's main developer has tried to calm fears that Mark Shuttleworth is backing down on his commitment to KDE as a premier desktop system.
Instead of crying over the stolen $612.5M, RIM should have pro-actively spent a small fraction of that sum to make the patent system fair in the US. Instead, they allowed the Patent Cartel to fund this monster of a legal system, which of course rewards its creators.
Software Idea Patents are a form of legalized extortion encouraged by the US government. It was put in place in order to protect monopolies like Microsoft, who has recently threatened to sue users and developers of open-source software, including Linux. No wonder the US government intervened on behalf of Microsoft in its European anti-trust case -- Microsoft and the Patent Mafia has Uncle Sam in their pocket. Too bad Europe is heading there too.
The Free Software Foundation is already warning consumers to not buy HD-DVD or Blu-ray disks: Hollywood's plans for Digital Restrictions Management, supported by Intel, IBM, Microsoft and SONY, are an outrageous attack on your freedom. They are also an attack on free software, since free software may never be able to read these disks. Business conspiracies to restrict technology should be illegal; until they are, you should prohibit them from your home and your life.
From a more practical point of view, there just isn't a need for a new disk format like HD video. Compression formats like MPEG-4 and all its variants (h.264, DivX, XviD, etc) can fit perfectly well on a CD or a DVD. Who's going to pay $30 for one blank disk that will become useless if scratched?
DRM to be used in GNOME's multimedia backend
on
Gnome 2.14 Review
·
· Score: 1, Flamebait
the bar goes up again and the "free operation systems" are again at a significant deficit
How long do you think GNOME will remain a "free desktop", when members of the GNOME Foundation's advisory board, such as Fluendo, are advocating DRM in GNOME's audio/video backend?
If they have their way, GNOME will end up just as shackled by draconian DRM as as M$ Vista.
Re:DRM to be used in GNOME's multimedia backend
on
Gnome 2.14 Released
·
· Score: 0, Troll
...blinded with rage and flinging FUD around like mad dancing monkeys.
Heh, funny that you mentioned monkeys flinging FUD. It is the Ximian primates (yes, they call themselves that) who are spreading FUD against KDE and paying Google to display GNOME sites when people are searching for KDE applications.
Nevermind the fact that other desktops are using gstreamer, it's GNOME's (got it?) multimedia backend.
Care to name which? KDE is building a backend-independent multimedia framework called Phonon which will be ready by the release of KDE4. This framework will allow KDE-based multimedia apps:
to work well with backends such as Xine, which are GPLed and which have copyleft protection against DRM. GNOME, on the other hand, is stuck with DRM-crippled GStreamer.
Slashdot Mirror
Even with the released documentation, we also need a good leader like Harald Welte to bring together the OpenChrome and UniChrome developers to work on the same codebase. Right now the split effort is really wasteful.
It looks like Google awarded KDE the most number of projects (47 total) of any SOC participant.
Here is a mirror of the article containing the same images, but written in Polish: http://www.jarzebski.pl/read/kde-4-rev-790000.so
Hardware companies care only about selling a product and keeping the customer satisfied for the first 30 days after which they can't return the said hardware. They don't care if the patches to Linux don't get upstream because as long as the hardware works fine with the version of Linux that they hacked up and pre-loaded, they're customers will be temporarily satisfied.
And when it comes time to upgrade the Linux OS in a year or two, the new version won't work, so the customers will be forced to buy more "up-to-date" hardware with more hacks and band aids. Even presumably FOSS-friendly companies like System76 change the pre-installed Ubuntu on their laptops by adding tons of hacks and then don't bother to even report them upstream, much less to develop a sustainable solution.
See the following threads on the System76 forum:
Real Linux drivers for System76 laptops, NO thanks to System76
Merge System76 Driver with upstream kernel and HAL
No-one cares outside of geekdom, really they don't.
You bet they care when they see two opened instances of IE bringing down their 3-month old computer to a screeching halt because Vista ran out of memory and is using a hard drive swap file formatted in NTFS.
KDE is being re-licensed to GPL 3+ as we speak. See the draft licensing policy. Once that is near completion, it is likely that Qt will also be relicensed to GPL 3 since Trolltech has proven to be receptive to the idea.
Another Gigabyte motherboard (Gigabyte M57SLI-S4) does run LinuxBIOS, and is one of the only desktop motherboards to do so. It would be cool if the most performat desktop motherboard in existense also ran a 100% Free/Open Source BIOS such as LinuxBIOS.
One of the key requirements for the OLPC is that all the components are open source (even the firmware for the wireless component). AMD has worked very hard to make the OLPC compatible with LinuxBIOS and OpenFirmware, which are 100% Free/Open Source. I certainly hope Intel will do the same.
Dell is paying consumers to use Windows! The exact same Dell Latitude D520 Notebook costs $48 MORE if it comes with no operating system than if it comes with Windows.
The laptop loaded with Windows XP costs $699, while the same laptop and configuration loaded with no operating system costs $747. Note that you must change the following two hardware options on the web page showing laptop without an OS so that they match the hardware options found by default for the Windows laptop: Hard drive=60GB 5400RPM and Modular Bay Optical="8X DVD".
So it seems that Windows has a negative price tag as far as Dell is concerned! It looks like Dell is still subsidizing Microsoft for every Windows-free laptop they sell. I'm getting my laptop from System76 -- they sell excellent quality Linux laptops, desktops, and servers. They also have a great support team that cares about Linux and open source.
The modified version of KDE that ships in Fedora 6 is really buggy and unpolished. There's been talk for two years about placing KDE in Fedora Extras so that it will be better supported by the dedicated KDE community, but Redhat seems to keep refusing the help and treating KDE apps as second-class citizens.
Some of the Fedora 6 changes (like taking away MP3 playing capability from KDE music players) are justified on a legal basis, but other changes (like using a 4-year old window decoration and widget styles) are at best the result of ineptitude or at worst a deliberate attempt to make KDE look bad and outdated.
the UI folks probably just forgot.
For three releases in a row? Well that just shows how much they care about KDE, doesn't it.
What puzzles me is why Fedora can't just take a KDE 3.5 snapshot from the SVN server and leave the defaults as-is? It would be easier on themselves (they wouldn't have to make as many changes), and the vast majority of users prefer KDE's default settings anyway. But of course, Redhat wants to weave users away from KDE and stuff gnome down their throats -- that's why the default apps (even when the user has selected KDE) are annoyingly still gnome.
The modified version of KDE that ships in Fedora 6 is really buggy and unpolished. There's been talk for two years about placing KDE in Fedora Extras so that it will be better supported by the dedicated KDE community, but Redhat seems to keep refusing the help and treating KDE apps as second-class citizens.
Some of the Fedora 6 changes (like taking away MP3 playing capability from KDE music players) are justified on a legal basis, but other changes (like using a 4-year old window decoration and widget styles) are at best the result of ineptitude or at worst a deliberate attempt to make KDE look bad and outdated.
The OpenGraphics.org project will release a 3D OpenGL enabled graphics card with full specifications and schematics so that FOSS developers can write open source drivers for Linux and BSDs. The consumer graphics card (code-named OGA) will be release after a development board (code-named OGD1) is produced. The key step is to make enough revenue (around $2 million) from selling the multi-function development board to fund the mass production of the consumer card.
Unless there is a wealthy individual / corporation out there who is willing to invest in order to manufacture this card earlier. The FOSS-friendly card will surely have a big appeal in Linux circles.
For about 7 years now, Red Hat has been badmouthing the Free & Open Source K Desktop Environment and the Qt framework that KDE is built on. Both KDE and Qt are licensed under the GPL, the Free Software license with the strongest copyleft/forced sharing protections that ensure the users' rights to control their own computers.
I know for a fact that Red Hat employees have embarked on a FUD campaign against KDE by spreading outright lies about its licensing. One such lie that they've been perpetuating is that thrid-party companies can't write proprietary software using Qt and KDE: this is plain wrong, because a company that wants to write proprietary software based on Qt can simply play by the proprietary rules and buy a proprietary license from Trolltech (the makers of Qt). This arrangement is only fair, and it provides a financial incentive for companies to write open source software. Furthermore, revenues from prorietary development go directly into improving the Free & Open Source Qt framework. This dual-licensing arrangement is a WIN-WIN situations for ordinary users like you and me.
Now, I'd understand if Microsoft were spreading this FUD, but for a company like Red Hat that pretends to be 100% for open source to be doing this is downright hypocritical.
Kubuntu 6.06 has also been released and is fully supported by Canonical. You can download it and order free Kubuntu CDs through Shipit.
Kubuntu features the latest version of the ever popular and advanced K Desktop Environment, which has killer apps such as the AmaroK music player, the Kaffeine movie player, the Konqueror file manager and web browser, and the KOffice suite.
KDE is broken in the latest Fedora release, which doesn't really surprise me given the fact that Red Hat has always had abyssmal support for KDE.
I think applications like Konqueror File Manager, K3B for burning CDs and DVDs, AmaroK for listening to music, Kaffeine for watching movies, etc are a must for a desktop computer. It's a shame that Red Hat doesn't put more resources into ensuring KDE is usable on their systems.
Anyway, I'll stick with ArkLinux, Kubuntu and openSUSE since KDE actually works on those distros.
Unfortunately, neither VLC nor MPlayer can be included as libraries in other multimedia applications. Having to work with an embedded instance of VLC and MPlayer is a pain and not conducive to extending functionality in object-oriented fashion.
Xine and its corresponding library Xine-lib, on the other hand, can be used as libraries inside other frontend applications such as Kaffeine and AmaroK. This allows the frontend apps to focus on what they do best: GUI, usability and eyecandy, while the multimedia-intensive parts can be neatly accessed through an API.
RIM's Chairman recently said he will work to bring an end to Software Idea Patents.
It would be great to see RIM financially support initiatives like NoSoftwarePatents.org and SWPat.ffii.org, whose aims are to stop the legalized extortion by the Patent Leeches and Patent Mafia.
Apparently Diana DeGette received 86 - 100% approval ratings from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the past 6 years, according to Vote-Smart.org
How can this apparently high approval rating from a purported supporter of civil liberties be reconciled with Rep. Degette's recent anti-privacy action? Was the ACLU on crack when they scored her?
...can I really complain?
Well, the German Kubuntu team have closed their website in protest to what they claim is Canonical's disregard for KDE. Here are some of their concerns:
1) Canonical sponsors many more gnome developers than KDE developers -- just look how many more gnome-related commits appear in the Dapper commit log.
2) Edubuntu, whose education-specific programs come almost exclusively from the KDE Education Suite, runs on gnome instead of KDE. Canonical has never sponsored a KDE Education Suite developer, even though Edubuntu simply wouldn't exist without their work.
3) Canonical does not financially support the team that creates Kubuntu-LiveCDs, so they have to pay all the expenses from their own pockets.
4) Kubuntu doesn't accept community contributions (ie. contributions by anyone beside Jonathan Riddell and Andreas Mueller). A lot of volunteers wanted to contribute, but they can't because they have no access.
5) The name of the version featuring gnome is called Ubuntu, while the version featuring KDE has a K added to the front. This makes it sound like gnome is the default, standard, and KDE is some sort of offshoot. It would be more equitable to name them Ubuntu-KDE and Ubuntu-GNOME, or Kubuntu and Gubuntu.
Jonathan Riddell, Kubuntu's main developer has tried to calm fears that Mark Shuttleworth is backing down on his commitment to KDE as a premier desktop system.
Instead of crying over the stolen $612.5M, RIM should have pro-actively spent a small fraction of that sum to make the patent system fair in the US. Instead, they allowed the Patent Cartel to fund this monster of a legal system, which of course rewards its creators.
Software Idea Patents are a form of legalized extortion encouraged by the US government. It was put in place in order to protect monopolies like Microsoft, who has recently threatened to sue users and developers of open-source software, including Linux. No wonder the US government intervened on behalf of Microsoft in its European anti-trust case -- Microsoft and the Patent Mafia has Uncle Sam in their pocket. Too bad Europe is heading there too.
One more reason why Kubuntu is Fedora/SUSE as the major community-led Linux distribution that aims to be easy to use.
The Free Software Foundation is already warning consumers to not buy HD-DVD or Blu-ray disks:
Hollywood's plans for Digital Restrictions Management, supported by Intel, IBM, Microsoft and SONY, are an outrageous attack on your freedom. They are also an attack on free software, since free software may never be able to read these disks. Business conspiracies to restrict technology should be illegal; until they are, you should prohibit them from your home and your life.
From a more practical point of view, there just isn't a need for a new disk format like HD video. Compression formats like MPEG-4 and all its variants (h.264, DivX, XviD, etc) can fit perfectly well on a CD or a DVD. Who's going to pay $30 for one blank disk that will become useless if scratched?
the bar goes up again and the "free operation systems" are again at a significant deficit
How long do you think GNOME will remain a "free desktop", when members of the GNOME Foundation's advisory board, such as Fluendo, are advocating DRM in GNOME's audio/video backend?
If they have their way, GNOME will end up just as shackled by draconian DRM as as M$ Vista.
...blinded with rage and flinging FUD around like mad dancing monkeys.
Heh, funny that you mentioned monkeys flinging FUD. It is the Ximian primates (yes, they call themselves that) who are spreading FUD against KDE and paying Google to display GNOME sites when people are searching for KDE applications.
Nevermind the fact that other desktops are using gstreamer, it's GNOME's (got it?) multimedia backend.
Care to name which? KDE is building a backend-independent multimedia framework called Phonon which will be ready by the release of KDE4. This framework will allow KDE-based multimedia apps:
Kaffeine
AmaroK
KMPlayer
to work well with backends such as Xine, which are GPLed and which have copyleft protection against DRM. GNOME, on the other hand, is stuck with DRM-crippled GStreamer.