look around at some mac apps from small developers. they all wnat $5 or $10 and they're not very good.
Yeah, the Mac is the last refuge of independent shareware developers; this is good or bad, depending on how you look at it.
Personally, I've always thought of shareware developers as pathetic assholes; sort of like Amiga nostalgists or programming instructors who teach in Pascal.
Long ago, when operating systems were primitive, it was all about applications. And in many ways, that is still important. But it's more than that in the modern technological world we live in.
While I agree with you that GUI and driver maturity also matter, I do not agree that applications have declined significantly in importance. As the market now stands, the importance of applications is concealed by the fact that in the most widely used spaces, web browsers and office suites, there is essentially no competition.
What a lost opportunity... had they done that then, Solaris would have perhaps a similar if not better position than GNU/Linux today, provided they had good stewardship.
Let's all say it together: Debian...GNU/...Solaris
I don't see how Open Sourcing a UNIX like operating system will have much impact on the market at all, since we already have Linux and the BSDs. Open Sourcing a Java implementation, on the other hand, could have a profound effect upon the market.
=If= this is more than just noise, which I am starting to doubt, it would indicate that Sun is placing their focus on middleware.
Take the Java Desktop System: it's basically just a hook to get you to buy the Java Enterprise Sytem infrastructure package. By GPL'ing Solaris and sloughing off their chip division, they would be getting really serious about this strategy: building their business around JDS, JES, Jini, SunRay server, etc. - proprietary services running around a free kernel.
The good news for Sun is that they can survive this way. The bad news is that they won't be making cash hand over fist like in the 90's, which I think a lot of Sun execs still hold out vain hope for.
But back to the parent post, the bad news for Open Source is that Java would be the linchpin of this strategy; a GPL'd Solaris actually makes a GPL'd Java less likely.
Homer was writing about armor and tactics that he was familiar with.
For example, Homer knew that the warriors of the olden days used chariots in battle, but was confused about what they used them for. So Homeric heroes ride up to one another on chariots, dismount, and then fight on foot.
The setup screams "a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away."
Right. 10,000 years ago (12500 for us) an island bigger than Asia and Africa fought a war and lost to a plucky little Athens that just happened to have the same government as in the Republic.
"Atlantis was mentioned by more than Plato. It was in Herodotus' writings as well, and he claimed the Egyptians recorded its existence (he studied in Egypt). Among the description given was that it was populated by pygmy elephants. Surprise, surprise, but the remains of pygmy elephants have been discovered on several Cycladean islands."
Right. So which one of the Cyclades was bigger than Asia and Africa put together?
The Minoan theory about Atlantis also pretends that the Greeks didn't have any folk-memory of the Minoans. They did: Minos.
There's a whole lot of extant Greek lit. from before Plato, but no Atlantis until him. Also, he has a known proclivity for making up stories. Unless strong proof to the contrary is forthcoming, the only reasonable hypothesis is that he made up Atlantis, too.
The fact that Orwell used that word in his novel negates any prior use, right?
First of all "scientists..." in the parent is not accurate. 'Cording to his website, Robert Sarmast "studied aerospace engineering, philosophy and architecture in various US universities for years". In other words, he has no academic qualifications. Also, he's only one person.
Secondly, here's the deal with Atlantis:
The whole story comes from Plato. Plato liked to make sh!t up. You can't even take Platonic narratives as accurate representations of Greek mythology, let alone reality.
The point of the Atlantis story in the Timaeus and Critias is to make a political allegory. Trying to hunt for the "real Atlantis" is like trying to hunt for the "real Oceania" after reading 1984: it's not only dumb, it also misses the point.
Also, Atlantis was 'sposed to be beyond Gibraltar, not off Cyprus - hence the name "Atlantis", 'cause that's where Atlas was supposed to have been.
Re:we should see how business friendly these OSes
on
Gentoo Linux Musings
·
· Score: 1
This is a dumb experiment. Gentoo is not aimed at the desktop.
The story: You have to hit little one-eyed gremlins with a hammer for some reason.
"Storyline in games" is a figment in the girly imagination of gaming-press assclowns like Sam Lake and Wagner James Au. Commercial games are sucking so bad because companies actually listen to these fanboy-sissies.
Clear thinkers like EYEMAZE have shown that gameplay and story line are not friends.
For further reference, see everything on oldmanmurry.com, even though it's old.
Sunrays are fscking gorgeous. But then you can only run the server on a SPARC/Solaris box. Not even, I think, Solaris on Intel. Once again, Sun takes a great design and makes it useless.
Now if they'd focus on marketing SunRays, JDS, their ONE (or whatever they call it now) server stack, plus support and custom integration *on commodity server hardware* they might have a decent market. Instead they're trying to beat out Intel.
Althought the/. fanboys are all atwitter about the drivers issue, an equally important reason behind this decision is documentation. Specifically, GNU documentation.
Ya see, there's this thing called the GNU Free Documentation License, which says you have to include "invariant sections" in any use or modification of the document under question. These may be quite large.
The Debian team considers the GFDL to be =non-free=.
In other words, this decision is likely to only provoke RMS more.
This recent Sun/Microsoft grossness highlights the need for the Parrot VM. Parrot will act as a backend for the next Perl, but also Python, Ruby, Scheme and other dynamically typed languages.
Obviously this is useful for someone who does a lot of coding in one of these languages. But it has more important implications for the free/open software community and software more broadly, in that it offers a fast, multilanguage runtime that is unencumbered IP-wise and not bound by C-like syntax.
It is important because scripting-language developers have historically been a backbone of free software; extending their reach extends the broader movement's reach and developer base. It is important in a technical sense because many of these languages (esp. Python and Ruby) offer improvements over Algolish syntax. It is important because an on-time Parrot implementation could provide the new Gnome language (in Python, Ruby, what have you). Parrot will give us a platform for fast, portable free/open (and also proprietary) software development that comes out of free/open software.
>> Sometimes. The recent flamefest over "spatial >> Nautilus" is an example of where they diverge. >> Gnome's reform of the "yes-no-cancel" dialog to >> "don't save-cancel-save" is IMHO an example of >> where they converge. > > Those are pretty trivial examples.
Maybe.
>> How about this contrast: Microsoft Word vs. vi. >> How many geeks are going to fire up Word to >> edit a short document or text file?
Difficult comparison in my case. Every document I edit has to both integrate polyphonic greek and also print trivially from OS X.
Emacs with cgreek.el works for the first. Not so much for the second, unfortunately.
Anyways, back to UI questions, I personally could use a good language/font switching in mid-documnet feature, which so far exists on - as far as I know - *no* major platform. (Unicode support is good on Mac, but broken in Mac Office).
"Efficient tinkering?" What the heck is that? Tinkering is inherently inefficient.
I suppose you use ed then? Or are you an emacs or vim boy? In that case, you are obviously trying to efficientize your tinkering.
The fact is that what a geek considers "usable" is different what ATs and PHBs consider usable.
Sometimes. The recent flamefest over "spatial Nautilus" is an example of where they diverge. Gnome's reform of the "yes-no-cancel" dialog to "don't save-cancel-save" is IMHO an example of where they converge.
And most geeks dont' want to use software that has been made usable by ATs and PHBs.
IMNSHO this is mostly the product of patronizing/unrealistic/stupid ideas of what ATs and PHBs want. Take Cobol for example. In theory, readable by PHBs. In practice, readable by no one.
Personal Edition, on the other hand, is for "non-professionals" in home environments, and Novell/SUSE doesn't want to overwhelm these consumers with too many options, Schlaeger said.
Ya know, much as I'm a big gnomefanboy and all, I think this is a good choice. My girlfriend (big guineapig on all ease-of-use issues) gets freaked out when she sees two different [x] available.
Slashdot Mirror
look around at some mac apps from small developers. they all wnat $5 or $10 and they're not very good.
Yeah, the Mac is the last refuge of independent shareware developers; this is good or bad, depending on how you look at it.
Personally, I've always thought of shareware developers as pathetic assholes; sort of like Amiga nostalgists or programming instructors who teach in Pascal.
Long ago, when operating systems were primitive, it was all about applications. And in many ways, that is still important. But it's more than that in the modern technological world we live in.
While I agree with you that GUI and driver maturity also matter, I do not agree that applications have declined significantly in importance. As the market now stands, the importance of applications is concealed by the fact that in the most widely used spaces, web browsers and office suites, there is essentially no competition.
What a lost opportunity... had they done that then, Solaris would have perhaps a similar if not better position than GNU/Linux today, provided they had good stewardship.
Let's all say it together: Debian...GNU/...Solaris
I don't see how Open Sourcing a UNIX like operating system will have much impact on the market at all, since we already have Linux and the BSDs. Open Sourcing a Java implementation, on the other hand, could have a profound effect upon the market.
=If= this is more than just noise, which I am starting to doubt, it would indicate that Sun is placing their focus on middleware.
Take the Java Desktop System: it's basically just a hook to get you to buy the Java Enterprise Sytem infrastructure package. By GPL'ing Solaris and sloughing off their chip division, they would be getting really serious about this strategy: building their business around JDS, JES, Jini, SunRay server, etc. - proprietary services running around a free kernel.
The good news for Sun is that they can survive this way. The bad news is that they won't be making cash hand over fist like in the 90's, which I think a lot of Sun execs still hold out vain hope for.
But back to the parent post, the bad news for Open Source is that Java would be the linchpin of this strategy; a GPL'd Solaris actually makes a GPL'd Java less likely.
If Solaris were really GPL'd with no games on Sun's part, I'd drop Linux in a *heartbeat*!
I asked an archaeologist friend about Schliemann. Her response:
"It's not that you're wrong, Heinrich; it's just that you're an a-hole."
"disgruntled? Huh? Where do you get disgruntled from?"
Oh wait, you work with SunRays. Sorry: "happy Sun engineer".
"Sunrays on commodity servers? Stay tuned. . ."
You heard it here from a disgruntled Sun engineer first.
Homer was writing about armor and tactics that he was familiar with.
For example, Homer knew that the warriors of the olden days used chariots in battle, but was confused about what they used them for. So Homeric heroes ride up to one another on chariots, dismount, and then fight on foot.
The setup screams "a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away."
Right. 10,000 years ago (12500 for us) an island bigger than Asia and Africa fought a war and lost to a plucky little Athens that just happened to have the same government as in the Republic.
"Atlantis was mentioned by more than Plato. It was in Herodotus' writings as well, and he claimed the Egyptians recorded its existence (he studied in Egypt). Among the description given was that it was populated by pygmy elephants. Surprise, surprise, but the remains of pygmy elephants have been discovered on several Cycladean islands."
Right. So which one of the Cyclades was bigger than Asia and Africa put together?
The Minoan theory about Atlantis also pretends that the Greeks didn't have any folk-memory of the Minoans. They did: Minos.
You've got it all figured out, huh?
There's a whole lot of extant Greek lit. from before Plato, but no Atlantis until him. Also, he has a known proclivity for making up stories. Unless strong proof to the contrary is forthcoming, the only reasonable hypothesis is that he made up Atlantis, too.
The fact that Orwell used that word in his novel negates any prior use, right?
Eh?
First of all "scientists..." in the parent is not accurate. 'Cording to his website, Robert Sarmast "studied aerospace engineering, philosophy and architecture in various US universities for years". In other words, he has no academic qualifications. Also, he's only one person.
Secondly, here's the deal with Atlantis:
The whole story comes from Plato. Plato liked to make sh!t up. You can't even take Platonic narratives as accurate representations of Greek mythology, let alone reality.
The point of the Atlantis story in the Timaeus and Critias is to make a political allegory. Trying to hunt for the "real Atlantis" is like trying to hunt for the "real Oceania" after reading 1984: it's not only dumb, it also misses the point.
Also, Atlantis was 'sposed to be beyond Gibraltar, not off Cyprus - hence the name "Atlantis", 'cause that's where Atlas was supposed to have been.
This is a dumb experiment. Gentoo is not aimed at the desktop.
http://www.kiteretsu.jp/on/tontie/
The story: You have to hit little one-eyed gremlins with a hammer for some reason.
"Storyline in games" is a figment in the girly imagination of gaming-press assclowns like Sam Lake and Wagner James Au. Commercial games are sucking so bad because companies actually listen to these fanboy-sissies.
Clear thinkers like EYEMAZE have shown that gameplay and story line are not friends.
For further reference, see everything on oldmanmurry.com, even though it's old.
Sunrays are fscking gorgeous. But then you can only run the server on a SPARC/Solaris box. Not even, I think, Solaris on Intel. Once again, Sun takes a great design and makes it useless.
Now if they'd focus on marketing SunRays, JDS, their ONE (or whatever they call it now) server stack, plus support and custom integration *on commodity server hardware* they might have a decent market. Instead they're trying to beat out Intel.
No.
/. fanboys are all atwitter about the drivers issue, an equally important reason behind this decision is documentation. Specifically, GNU documentation.
Althought the
Ya see, there's this thing called the GNU Free Documentation License, which says you have to include "invariant sections" in any use or modification of the document under question. These may be quite large.
The Debian team considers the GFDL to be =non-free=.
In other words, this decision is likely to only provoke RMS more.
This recent Sun/Microsoft grossness highlights the need for the Parrot VM. Parrot will act as a backend for the next Perl, but also Python, Ruby, Scheme and other dynamically typed languages.
Obviously this is useful for someone who does a lot of coding in one of these languages. But it has more important implications for the free/open software community and software more broadly, in that it offers a fast, multilanguage runtime that is unencumbered IP-wise and not bound by C-like syntax.
It is important because scripting-language developers have historically been a backbone of free software; extending their reach extends the broader movement's reach and developer base. It is important in a technical sense because many of these languages (esp. Python and Ruby) offer improvements over Algolish syntax. It is important because an on-time Parrot implementation could provide the new Gnome language (in Python, Ruby, what have you). Parrot will give us a platform for fast, portable free/open (and also proprietary) software development that comes out of free/open software.
http://www.parrotcode.org
If it's not exactly the same as windows, it shouldn't look exactly the same as Windows.
>> Sometimes. The recent flamefest over "spatial
>> Nautilus" is an example of where they diverge.
>> Gnome's reform of the "yes-no-cancel" dialog to
>> "don't save-cancel-save" is IMHO an example of
>> where they converge.
>
> Those are pretty trivial examples.
Maybe.
>> How about this contrast: Microsoft Word vs. vi.
>> How many geeks are going to fire up Word to
>> edit a short document or text file?
Difficult comparison in my case. Every document I edit has to both integrate polyphonic greek and also print trivially from OS X.
Emacs with cgreek.el works for the first. Not so much for the second, unfortunately.
Anyways, back to UI questions, I personally could use a good language/font switching in mid-documnet feature, which so far exists on - as far as I know - *no* major platform. (Unicode support is good on Mac, but broken in Mac Office).
Happy trails,
T.
Right! Don't mention the war!
"Efficient tinkering?" What the heck is that? Tinkering is inherently inefficient.
I suppose you use ed then? Or are you an emacs or vim boy? In that case, you are obviously trying to efficientize your tinkering. The fact is that what a geek considers "usable" is different what ATs and PHBs consider usable.
Sometimes. The recent flamefest over "spatial Nautilus" is an example of where they diverge. Gnome's reform of the "yes-no-cancel" dialog to "don't save-cancel-save" is IMHO an example of where they converge.
And most geeks dont' want to use software that has been made usable by ATs and PHBs.
IMNSHO this is mostly the product of patronizing/unrealistic/stupid ideas of what ATs and PHBs want. Take Cobol for example. In theory, readable by PHBs. In practice, readable by no one.
Personal Edition, on the other hand, is for "non-professionals" in home environments, and Novell/SUSE doesn't want to overwhelm these consumers with too many options, Schlaeger said.
Ya know, much as I'm a big gnomefanboy and all, I think this is a good choice. My girlfriend (big guineapig on all ease-of-use issues) gets freaked out when she sees two different [x] available.
With Gnome 2.6 just released, that's like saying "upgrade" to the 2.2 kernel. Not only it's outdated,
You can get Gnome 2.6 by subscribing to the xd-unstable channel on RC, I believe.
They are a for profit bussiness, what did you expect?
Well YAST is going GPL now.
It's relatively painless if you do the Ximian Red Carpet install from the Ximian site.