Whatever happens, this will raise public awareness of OOo by some measure.
I'm not sure how you can say that, since if Dell does not include OpenOffice, which is very likly, "public awareness" via the Dell vector will remail the same, which is none.
Dell is not interested in OpenOffice. Dell is a for-profit business. OpenOffice offers them nothing. In Dell's mind, it is not a "value added feature."
Here's why. Very few Dell customers actually want Linux. Legions of Dell customers want Windows. Legions of Dell customers using Windows want MS Office because it does what they want, while OpenOffice "isn't quite there yet" (I'm mostly talking Excel users, actually.)
This is news? Do you think that maybe Dell already knows about OpenOffice? A letter is going to swing the deal? Not likely. Dell is only vaguely interested in Linux, and there are still questions about if that is just the standard ploy to get a better Microsoft deal.
By the way, I've sent Dell a letter about a little time management application I've been working on for a few years. I'm expecting a reply!!!
The most obvious [problem] is deciding which version of Linux to offer. There are more than 100 distros, and everybody seems to want a different one...
While this might seem like a proble to tha average Slashdot geek who is used to demanding the ability to "roll their own" and so on, these are not the people that Dell would be selling to. Dell would be targeting people that want to unpack the box, plug it in and boot it up and get straight away to surfing the net and running some office applications, maybe some image management software. That and maybe corporate customers with similar needs. The people that want to pick and choose their flavor of Linux on their new Dell box would be perfictly happy getting a Dell box with nothing at all on it, and loading the OS themselves from their distro of choice, tweeking the install to fit their needs. These are not Dell's customers for preloaded Linux.
Realistically, Dell need only offer either Red Hat or SuSE, both of which offer easy to support distros.
No - but generally business decisions should be geared toward producing a better product than your competition rather than looking for ways to eliminate the competition so you can sell your product no matter how bad it is.
Are you suggesting that Open Office is a better product than MS Office? That it is more functional? That it has tighter code that performs faster smother and more efficiently than MS Office code? I think virtually everyone except the most delusional Zealots disagree with you.
Why not employ unemployed qualified volunteers and also pay them to do a peer review.
So... Where do you suppose these qualified volunteers will come from? Perhaps present and former employees of companies that develop and use the kind of technology that gets patented are the people with the knowledge to make informed contributions to this Patent Wiki? I mean honestly, where do you expect they will come from? Slashdot, maybe? Believe it or not, the average Slashdotter may not actually be qualified for this type of work, and is every bit as biased as you suggest anyone working a "big company" is.
I've often wondered why Slashdot "editors" allow / write these types headline when the article clearly doesn't support them. I believe it's because it them higher pagerank in a general Google search, and often front page exposure at Google News for random unsupported crap like this. The result is higher page views which of course is more money for The Core Slashdot Team.
This is so true. And think of it from the sales person's standpoint: List three or four prices for the same item: What we advertised it at, what we would like to get, and what we will take as a last offer. All are honest prices.
I'm sure some are wondering why this is news. The US government is Microsoft's biggest customer, by far. If many agencies cut back on Microsoft purchases it will hurt Microsoft a lot.
Vista is a consumer OS. Since only last year, agencies like the Air Force standardized on a custom build of XP Pro, I wouldn't expect to see Vista for a few years. While the Government does spend a lot of money with MS on desktop OS licenses, most of their expenditures with MS are for back-end things that include for example MS SQL Server, and other server infrastructure. These things are as yet not influenced by Vista. I might add, we also are a very big Oracle customer as well.
You mean as far as Adobe-paid asstroturfers are concerned.
So, anyone who is of the opinion that Gimp is not "professional" quality is astroturfing for Adobe? You, sir, are what's known as a "fanboi". Enjoy your title.
I'm struggling to reconcile your implication that you are a professional with your username.
I am not a professional photographer. On the other hand, most of those who have chosen to make comments that addressmy basic point and are not personal attacks, agree with my basic point.
As for corporate computing, nothing wrong with it, so if it comes preloaded figure business will eventually use it.
With many (most?) Enterprise computing environments, they have a volume corporate license and a "standard image" that they load on every machine regardless of what it comes with preloaded. It's a support issue, really.
Whenever people Photoshop comes up at Slashdot, people mention Gimp. But Gimp is not a substitute for Photoshop as far as professional users are concerned. Gimp is like so many OSS projects, a rat's nest of messed up code, no real road map, and half-assed implementations "features".
Wait. Don't you mean this allows an Xbox 360 user to run arbitrary code such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full hardware access on the machine they rightfully own ?
Well, yes, if you can get it to work you can run anything you want on your XBox. Has Microsoft ever said you couldn't? Did they make any legal threats? No, no I don't think so. As much as youmight want to be a martyre for The Cause, the police will not be looking for you simply because you have voided your Xbox warranty.
Because, yeah, I store all my potential copyright-infringing materials on my public web server.
Actually, that's usually how it works. Wearez and all that.
But why is this an issue? I though that the general mantra here was that we didn't pirate or otherwise make available copyrighted media we did have the right to? Isn't that what Slashdotters are always saying? So this shouldn't be a problem. No different than looking for printers publishing your book without your permission, right?
Think of it this way: You're a photographer who pays your rent and feeds your family with the money you make from selling your snaps. Should people be allowed to used your work without paying you?
Re:This is only slightly more interesting than...
on
Groovy in Action
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· Score: 0, Redundant
We recently bought $60,000 worth of hardware from them - first time our group bought from Dell, and got machines with closed source, YOU CAN'T RELOAD THE OS WITHOUT OUR PROPRIETARY BINARIES software.
I hate to say this, but did your IT guys or your procurement people do any research before you all made this $60,000 purchase? Dell has some shitty policies when itcomes to the software and drivers factory installed on their equipment, but these policies are well known and not hidden. If you buy a car off the showroom floor that has all the doors missing, you can hardly complain.
On a different note, last purchase cycle, the Air Force base where I work purchased several thousand Dell PCs (our servers are Compaq, not a lot better), but with as problems as we've had with the hardware, we've selected a different brand for our upcomming purchase cycle. Fortunately we have a custom OS and software image, so reinstalling is not an issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting how AOL is at the bottom of the list of ISPs likeliest to be hit. Who would have thought.
I'm not sure how you can say that, since if Dell does not include OpenOffice, which is very likly, "public awareness" via the Dell vector will remail the same, which is none.
Dell is not interested in OpenOffice. Dell is a for-profit business. OpenOffice offers them nothing. In Dell's mind, it is not a "value added feature."
Here's why. Very few Dell customers actually want Linux. Legions of Dell customers want Windows. Legions of Dell customers using Windows want MS Office because it does what they want, while OpenOffice "isn't quite there yet" (I'm mostly talking Excel users, actually.)
By the way, I've sent Dell a letter about a little time management application I've been working on for a few years. I'm expecting a reply!!!
While this might seem like a proble to tha average Slashdot geek who is used to demanding the ability to "roll their own" and so on, these are not the people that Dell would be selling to. Dell would be targeting people that want to unpack the box, plug it in and boot it up and get straight away to surfing the net and running some office applications, maybe some image management software. That and maybe corporate customers with similar needs. The people that want to pick and choose their flavor of Linux on their new Dell box would be perfictly happy getting a Dell box with nothing at all on it, and loading the OS themselves from their distro of choice, tweeking the install to fit their needs. These are not Dell's customers for preloaded Linux.
Realistically, Dell need only offer either Red Hat or SuSE, both of which offer easy to support distros.
Is this really true in a general sense? Obviously the "darling" FOSS projects do, but that's a very small percentage of the whole.
Spoke like a true Zealot, since in a factual way it isn't so.
Are you suggesting that Open Office is a better product than MS Office? That it is more functional? That it has tighter code that performs faster smother and more efficiently than MS Office code? I think virtually everyone except the most delusional Zealots disagree with you.
So what? Is any company required to support their competitors? No...
So... Where do you suppose these qualified volunteers will come from? Perhaps present and former employees of companies that develop and use the kind of technology that gets patented are the people with the knowledge to make informed contributions to this Patent Wiki? I mean honestly, where do you expect they will come from? Slashdot, maybe? Believe it or not, the average Slashdotter may not actually be qualified for this type of work, and is every bit as biased as you suggest anyone working a "big company" is.
I've often wondered why Slashdot "editors" allow / write these types headline when the article clearly doesn't support them. I believe it's because it them higher pagerank in a general Google search, and often front page exposure at Google News for random unsupported crap like this. The result is higher page views which of course is more money for The Core Slashdot Team.
Maybe someone kan point out the juicy tid-bits. I'm up to page 20, and I'm falling asleep.
This is so true. And think of it from the sales person's standpoint: List three or four prices for the same item: What we advertised it at, what we would like to get, and what we will take as a last offer. All are honest prices.
Well that's just grand. Not only are the Best Buy sales people stupid, they are ignorent too. Fabulous. I just want to shop there soooo bad.
Vista is a consumer OS. Since only last year, agencies like the Air Force standardized on a custom build of XP Pro, I wouldn't expect to see Vista for a few years. While the Government does spend a lot of money with MS on desktop OS licenses, most of their expenditures with MS are for back-end things that include for example MS SQL Server, and other server infrastructure. These things are as yet not influenced by Vista. I might add, we also are a very big Oracle customer as well.
Why is the parent modded "interesting"? It's complete bullshit. Typical Slashdot bias even rewards complete bullshit. Sad, very sad.
Well, well. From the graphic, it looks like the main purpose of search is music, games, and porn. Interesting.
So, anyone who is of the opinion that Gimp is not "professional" quality is astroturfing for Adobe? You, sir, are what's known as a "fanboi". Enjoy your title.
I am not a professional photographer. On the other hand, most of those who have chosen to make comments that addressmy basic point and are not personal attacks, agree with my basic point.
Have a nice day.
With many (most?) Enterprise computing environments, they have a volume corporate license and a "standard image" that they load on every machine regardless of what it comes with preloaded. It's a support issue, really.
Whenever people Photoshop comes up at Slashdot, people mention Gimp. But Gimp is not a substitute for Photoshop as far as professional users are concerned. Gimp is like so many OSS projects, a rat's nest of messed up code, no real road map, and half-assed implementations "features".
Well, yes, if you can get it to work you can run anything you want on your XBox. Has Microsoft ever said you couldn't? Did they make any legal threats? No, no I don't think so. As much as youmight want to be a martyre for The Cause, the police will not be looking for you simply because you have voided your Xbox warranty.
Actually, that's usually how it works. Wearez and all that.
But why is this an issue? I though that the general mantra here was that we didn't pirate or otherwise make available copyrighted media we did have the right to? Isn't that what Slashdotters are always saying? So this shouldn't be a problem. No different than looking for printers publishing your book without your permission, right?
Think of it this way: You're a photographer who pays your rent and feeds your family with the money you make from selling your snaps. Should people be allowed to used your work without paying you?
Funny! Mod up. Very funny!
I'm sorry, MS has a browser monopoly? No, no I don't think so.
I hate to say this, but did your IT guys or your procurement people do any research before you all made this $60,000 purchase? Dell has some shitty policies when itcomes to the software and drivers factory installed on their equipment, but these policies are well known and not hidden. If you buy a car off the showroom floor that has all the doors missing, you can hardly complain.
On a different note, last purchase cycle, the Air Force base where I work purchased several thousand Dell PCs (our servers are Compaq, not a lot better), but with as problems as we've had with the hardware, we've selected a different brand for our upcomming purchase cycle. Fortunately we have a custom OS and software image, so reinstalling is not an issue.