the project's controversial invitation-only developer recruitment policy
Why exactly is this controversial? Gentoo does exactly this. Just because you have an invitation-only developer recruitment policy doesn't mean that you won't accept patches from others. With Gentoo, we receive patches all the time that make it into the distribution. That doesn't make the patch submitter a developer, but at the same time we don't deny patches simply because the person is not a developer. After the person has shown their worth, they are recruited by a more senior developer on the project and trained in proper Gentoo development policy. Why would it be controversial at all to only allow people whom have shown compitence to have write access to your CVS tree? As I've said, we receive patches from people all the time. Some of them are even first time Linux users who know little to nothing about development, but if the patch is correct, we accept it without passing judgement on the person submitting the patch. I'm not sure where the idea comes from that only accepting good patches is elitist, but how would doing anything contrary make the slightest bit of sense.
Re:Offline games require online reporting = BOGUS
on
Steam Users Steamed
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
So I paid $80 for package including many excellent single-player games, but I can't play any of them without getting express consent from Valve every time. When that consent is unavailable, I can't play the games I bought. This is bogus. This is outrageous.
Yet, you still purchased the game? Did you not know this was going to happen when every gaming site on the planet was screaming about Steam? Were you not warned countless times before you plunked down $80 for a worthless pile of Valve shit?
In sum, this scheme presents spurious value to Valve, and no value to customers, while also pissing customers off. Valve is too smart a company not to realize this. Why they persist is a fucking mystery.
Obviously, they are not, or they would have seen this coming a mile away like every other person on the planet did. The truth is that they simply don't give a damn. They have your $80 and really aren't concerned with you anymore until Half-Life 3 comes out, at which point they will hype it so much that everyone that was burned by Half-Life 2 will still line up waiting for the release. Even if they lose a few customers over this, they know that their marketing and hype will more than make up for it. These ex-Microsoft employees have learned very well from their old masters. You can sell anyone a pile of shit, so much as you hype the hell out of it, and smile while you're bending them over.
Re:You (don't) get what you (don't) pay for.
on
Steam Users Steamed
·
· Score: 1
The problem is that gamers are a fickle bunch that cannot possibly give up the opportunity to play the newest trash game from a company that doesn't care about them or their wants, even if it means giving up all of their rights. On the opposite side of that coin, they will also bitch and whine and moan about every little problem with the game, then never do ANYTHING about it. I don't mean it to be insulting to anyone. It is just the simple fact of the actions of the majority of gamers.
How many of you read about all the bullshit with Steam, then still went out and bought a copy? If you read Slashdot, then I think your hand should be up, as Slashdot was plastered with stories on the evils of Steam long before the game ever hit shelves. I do not feel the slightest iota of pity for you guys that did.
I refuse to purchase Half-Life 2 because it does not run on my chosen platform and because of the Steam authentication. Now, Id Software got my money when they made Doom 3, and even if John Carmack decides to fly to Mars, never to return, I know that I will still be able to play Doom 3 until I lie in the ground rotting.
Consider that 5 years ago, the amount of software capable of running SMP was even smaller. As more and more systems become SMP or SMT, more applications are written to take advantage of this.
Also, consider that when one multitasks, the loads are split between processors. Also, these new chips aren't even marketed towards consumers just yet. Instead, they will be going into the server market and the high-end workstation market. These markets are usually the first to receive any major changes to the way computing works, as they are the first to take advantage of it.
This is not being marketed to gamers or normal home users. This is being marketed to people that need massive amounts of CPU power and need it now. This is being marketed to graphics artists and developers.
Personally, I cannot wait for dual-core chips. I run SMP currently and would love to have dual dul-core chips. The main advantage to this over simply getting a quad-CPU capable system is cost. Having dual-core chips moves more of the complexity to the chip itself, and keeps the traces on the motherboard down. This keeps the cost and size of the motherboard into a manageable range and suitable for the high-end workstation market.
As these systems become more common, software which utilizes them fully will become more common. Today's operating systems are already quite capable of using the multiple processors quite efficiently. Also, Apple has shown us that SMP systems can do very well in the mainstream desktop market. After all, almost every PowerMac being sold today is a dual-CPU system.
You don't actually need a native IPv6 connection from your ISP - you can get away with using 6-to-4 dynamic tunnelling, which is what I do. Infact a big problem with rolling out IPv6 naviely is that I am not aware of any consumer grade DSL routers that support IPv6, so the PC to ISP connection at least would have to be tunnelled. Of course I'm hoping most ISPs wake up soon - if the ISP I use installed their own 6-to-4 gateway (and preferably advertised it using the anycast address) then I would be very happy.
I wouldn't mind just seeing some of the bigger ISPs using native IPv6. This would allow those of us on leased lines and capable of using IPv6 to do so easily. Remember that IPv4 and IPv6 can work perfectly side-by-side. They are not mutually exclusive in any way. Also, the DSL router would not need to understand it, provided it would still pass it. It would even be possible to use IPv4 tunneling to the ISP, to avoid the limitations of the hardware. Of course, we would probably see the consumer hardware guys jump at the opportunity to be the first IPv6-enabled consumer devices to market, as it means they would get the market share while the competitors are still pushing IPv4-only devices.
Slashdot, no matter how much you want it to be, is not a legitimate news source. This is an editorial site where the editors consistently present their ideas to anyone that will listen. If you expect real news, go to another site. Slashdot does link to real news, but in itself, it is merely a discussion forum. I would not be surprised if one of the reasons for putting such comments on the front page is to generate discussion and page views.
The subject pretty much says it all. Gentoo is not speedy. Gentoo can be speedy, but generally, it isn't any faster than any of the other guys out there.
This is compounded by the fact that most of the people who claim the speed of Gentoo overoptimize their machines and end up with slower binaries thanthose that don't, but I'll leave that one alone.;]
All of the modern ILECs maybe, but the CLECs are mostly newbies on the telecommunications market. I know. I work for the largest CLEC based in the south-east and the company as a whole isn't even 10 years old.
This is one of the primary reasons for dumping IPv4 and going IPv6.
I have been working on setting up my own IPv6 network. I am even investigating the possibility of getting true native IPv6 addressing along side IPv4 from my ISP.
The real problem for us is going to be all of the jokers out there that are so short-sighted that they ignore IPv6 claiming that "IPv4 and NAT are good enough for anything you want to do."
Well, those people are simply wrong. There are lots of reasons for IPv6. Cheap, or even free, global phone service is just one of them. Let's all work to re-establish the Internet as the peer-to-peer network that it was originally, and not the client-server network where the content is provided by big business and multi-national media conglomerates.
Your Inspiron 8200 is he same as a Latitude C840. The Pentium 4 Mobile CPU in your laptop is different from a Pentium 4 only in power requirements and heat output. It performs identical to a Pentium 4 desktop processor. This means your laptop is a Pentium 4 1.9GHz. Given the fairly accurate measure of a Pentium M's clockspeed x 1.5 being equal to the equivalent powered Pentium 4 (Mobile) chip, your CPU is equivalent to the lowest powered Centrino chip, the 1.3GHz.
Now, both machines are going to be using a 400MHz front-side bus, so that doesn't change much. You might get some gains in upgrading your CPU to a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 M, which is the fastest that was sold with the Inspiron 8200/Latitude C840. Upping your RAM to 1GB (or 2GB) would help. Also, looking around for a 7200 RPM laptop drive will make a noticeable speed increase in anything that is even slightly I/O bound.
Explain to me how I build an RPM for, let's say, Nagios, from a source RPM, without editing the RPM, to pass different configure options, such as MySQL support.
You can't, can you? Perhaps it is because the two tools do not serve the same function?
In case you are wondering, besides working on Gentoo in my spare time, I work for a company that uses Red Hat, so I am required to build RPM packages pretty often. While both have some overlapping features and essentially do the same thing, they go about them very differently.
Honestly, there's little that could be improved from the way things are now. When Red Hat writes code, they release it. The same is true with Gentoo. If Red Hat decides that catalyst is the best CD-making tool since sliced bread, then there is nothing stopping them from using it. We don't have to work together in any way for this to be possible. Also, we do all work from a single code base. We both use the Linux kernel, and the GNU tools, and X.Org's X server, and...
The point is that we don't have to be clones of each other to benefit from each other's work, especially as some of the main differences between Red Hat and Gentoo are cultural and philisophical, and not technical.
Actually, Gentoo is about control and choice. Only little Gentoo ricer-wannabes think it is about speed. Gentoo is also not a corporate entity. Red Hat is about one thing, their stockholders. While they may or may not be good members of the community does not matter, as they are a publicly traded company and their true master is the market. So remember kids, Red Hat isn't about anything but profit. All things they do are based around it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it is just different. It also doesn't mean that they will not be altruistic, it just means that they aren't going to go around cutting their own throats just to be nice. If something doesn't cost them anything or may have gains in the future, then they'll make sure to give it back to the community. The same can be said for things that will only produce a small loss, if there's hope that it will be regained in market share or sales.
Who cares about the packaging? Release the damn thing as source with a decent license and let the distributors themselves work out the packaging. Even when that isn't the case, there's still ways around it. Look at the ATI binary drivers. They are released as RPM-only, but Gentoo has no problem installing them. I would rather see people release something that we can use than to sit around and release nothing waiting for a world-wide group of volunteers to agree on a single interface for anything.
Umm... I've got a better idea. How about Red Hat keeps doing their own thing, and if Gentoo likes it, we'll take it and use it. The same thing can apply for Gentoo's projects and Red Hat/Fedora. There is nothing stopping them from taking our work and using it, that's the whole point of us all using the GPL. Red Hat doesn't have to "dedicate developers" to work on our project any more than we have to do so to work on theirs. If I submit a kernel patch, or a patch to hwsetup, then I am submitting it for all Linux users to use, not one distribution. You concept of how distributions work is pretty well off kilter and not at all how the developer community works.
You guys also are forgetting multi-core multi-CPU machines. This is something that I cannot wait for, myself. I really would love to see a dual-core dual-CPU Opteron box. It definitely would decrease the compile times for me, as I perform numerous compile runs (read hundreds) each release, so every little bit of extra oomph I can get helps.
I pretty much have to agree with you here. I still beleive that Windows 98 is probably the most used Windows out there. Every time I happen by someone's house that isn't very computer savvy, they're running Windows 98.
Why?
Because that is what came with the computer. Remember that to most people, a computer is just an appliance like a TV or a VCR. At the same time, I see the number of Windows 98 machines dwindling simply because for the cost of repairs on one of these machines, you can buy a brand-spankin' new Dell box with Windows XP on it and a printer.
I really believe that this is a good thing. Many people are not embracing IPv6 due to lack of a high-profile rollout showing its feasability. Also, much of the software out there does not take advantage of IPv6. Having such a large number of people using IPv6 will persuade a few more people to start coding their software capable of using IPv6 addressing.
I really look forward to the day when I can (once again) have end-to-end connectivity with peers. The proliferation of NAT devices truly has changed the face of the Internet from a large peer-to-peer network with content at every corner, to a client-server model where content is only served by those with enough capital.
This is readily apparent in the draconian acceptable useage policies of most providers.
I *want* to be able to connect to any of my home machines from work, and vice-versa (firewall permitting). I would *love* to have my own block of portable address space for me to do with as I please.
I simply can't wait for this to catch on in more places. I encourage all of you to look into IPv6 and see how much added benefit you could get from having a near-unexhaustable pool of addresses available.
Try a Gentoo 2004.3-r1 LiveCD. We have had exactly ZERO bug reports of people's USB not working with our CD, and we don't have any special USB patches added from vanilla 2.6.9, so it should work perfectly for you.
Actually, the Voodoo 2 was the first card capable of SLI and it sold like hotcakes. I remember everyone I knew had a Voodoo 2 SLI rig. By the time the Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 had hit the market, 3Dfx simply couldn't keep up with Nvidia and everyone that was serious about gaming had switched to Nvidia already.
Also, I don't remember who made it, but there was an "Obsidian 3D" card that was dual Voodoo 2 chips on a single board. I know of one person who had one of these. The main problem with those cards was finding them.
Agreed on the Dual-DVI thing. Who would make such a killer card then cripple it by having only one DVI output? I mean, it isn't like a DVI-DB15 connector is expensive enough to prohibit one being included in the box for the people on analog.
What sys admin replaces hard drives in a desktop in the enterprise (note the bold, it is there for a reason)? I mean, I can understand it at some small shop with one or two IT guys, but once your IT staff gets much bigger than that, you start separating out into specific roles. I don't know a single sys admin that replaces hard drives in desktops. That job belongs to the help desk staff.
Find it completely funny that the editors decided to make sure they notified us that the opinions in the story are not their own?
I mean... we all know the editors opinions are pretty shoddy, so does this mean the story is spot on?...or does it mean the story uses a lot of 4-letter words and 'leet speak?
Man... DAMN YOU EDITORS!!
Now I am going to have to read the article... it was all a ploy, I'm sure.
Slashdot Mirror
Why exactly is this controversial? Gentoo does exactly this. Just because you have an invitation-only developer recruitment policy doesn't mean that you won't accept patches from others. With Gentoo, we receive patches all the time that make it into the distribution. That doesn't make the patch submitter a developer, but at the same time we don't deny patches simply because the person is not a developer. After the person has shown their worth, they are recruited by a more senior developer on the project and trained in proper Gentoo development policy. Why would it be controversial at all to only allow people whom have shown compitence to have write access to your CVS tree? As I've said, we receive patches from people all the time. Some of them are even first time Linux users who know little to nothing about development, but if the patch is correct, we accept it without passing judgement on the person submitting the patch. I'm not sure where the idea comes from that only accepting good patches is elitist, but how would doing anything contrary make the slightest bit of sense.
Yet, you still purchased the game? Did you not know this was going to happen when every gaming site on the planet was screaming about Steam? Were you not warned countless times before you plunked down $80 for a worthless pile of Valve shit?
Obviously, they are not, or they would have seen this coming a mile away like every other person on the planet did. The truth is that they simply don't give a damn. They have your $80 and really aren't concerned with you anymore until Half-Life 3 comes out, at which point they will hype it so much that everyone that was burned by Half-Life 2 will still line up waiting for the release. Even if they lose a few customers over this, they know that their marketing and hype will more than make up for it. These ex-Microsoft employees have learned very well from their old masters. You can sell anyone a pile of shit, so much as you hype the hell out of it, and smile while you're bending them over.
The problem is that gamers are a fickle bunch that cannot possibly give up the opportunity to play the newest trash game from a company that doesn't care about them or their wants, even if it means giving up all of their rights. On the opposite side of that coin, they will also bitch and whine and moan about every little problem with the game, then never do ANYTHING about it. I don't mean it to be insulting to anyone. It is just the simple fact of the actions of the majority of gamers.
How many of you read about all the bullshit with Steam, then still went out and bought a copy? If you read Slashdot, then I think your hand should be up, as Slashdot was plastered with stories on the evils of Steam long before the game ever hit shelves. I do not feel the slightest iota of pity for you guys that did.
I refuse to purchase Half-Life 2 because it does not run on my chosen platform and because of the Steam authentication. Now, Id Software got my money when they made Doom 3, and even if John Carmack decides to fly to Mars, never to return, I know that I will still be able to play Doom 3 until I lie in the ground rotting.
Consider that 5 years ago, the amount of software capable of running SMP was even smaller. As more and more systems become SMP or SMT, more applications are written to take advantage of this.
Also, consider that when one multitasks, the loads are split between processors. Also, these new chips aren't even marketed towards consumers just yet. Instead, they will be going into the server market and the high-end workstation market. These markets are usually the first to receive any major changes to the way computing works, as they are the first to take advantage of it.
This is not being marketed to gamers or normal home users. This is being marketed to people that need massive amounts of CPU power and need it now. This is being marketed to graphics artists and developers.
Personally, I cannot wait for dual-core chips. I run SMP currently and would love to have dual dul-core chips. The main advantage to this over simply getting a quad-CPU capable system is cost. Having dual-core chips moves more of the complexity to the chip itself, and keeps the traces on the motherboard down. This keeps the cost and size of the motherboard into a manageable range and suitable for the high-end workstation market.
As these systems become more common, software which utilizes them fully will become more common. Today's operating systems are already quite capable of using the multiple processors quite efficiently. Also, Apple has shown us that SMP systems can do very well in the mainstream desktop market. After all, almost every PowerMac being sold today is a dual-CPU system.
I wouldn't mind just seeing some of the bigger ISPs using native IPv6. This would allow those of us on leased lines and capable of using IPv6 to do so easily. Remember that IPv4 and IPv6 can work perfectly side-by-side. They are not mutually exclusive in any way. Also, the DSL router would not need to understand it, provided it would still pass it. It would even be possible to use IPv4 tunneling to the ISP, to avoid the limitations of the hardware. Of course, we would probably see the consumer hardware guys jump at the opportunity to be the first IPv6-enabled consumer devices to market, as it means they would get the market share while the competitors are still pushing IPv4-only devices.
Slashdot, no matter how much you want it to be, is not a legitimate news source. This is an editorial site where the editors consistently present their ideas to anyone that will listen. If you expect real news, go to another site. Slashdot does link to real news, but in itself, it is merely a discussion forum. I would not be surprised if one of the reasons for putting such comments on the front page is to generate discussion and page views.
The subject pretty much says it all. Gentoo is not speedy. Gentoo can be speedy, but generally, it isn't any faster than any of the other guys out there.
This is compounded by the fact that most of the people who claim the speed of Gentoo overoptimize their machines and end up with slower binaries thanthose that don't, but I'll leave that one alone. ;]
All of the modern ILECs maybe, but the CLECs are mostly newbies on the telecommunications market. I know. I work for the largest CLEC based in the south-east and the company as a whole isn't even 10 years old.
This is one of the primary reasons for dumping IPv4 and going IPv6.
I have been working on setting up my own IPv6 network. I am even investigating the possibility of getting true native IPv6 addressing along side IPv4 from my ISP.
The real problem for us is going to be all of the jokers out there that are so short-sighted that they ignore IPv6 claiming that "IPv4 and NAT are good enough for anything you want to do."
Well, those people are simply wrong. There are lots of reasons for IPv6. Cheap, or even free, global phone service is just one of them. Let's all work to re-establish the Internet as the peer-to-peer network that it was originally, and not the client-server network where the content is provided by big business and multi-national media conglomerates.
Your Inspiron 8200 is he same as a Latitude C840. The Pentium 4 Mobile CPU in your laptop is different from a Pentium 4 only in power requirements and heat output. It performs identical to a Pentium 4 desktop processor. This means your laptop is a Pentium 4 1.9GHz. Given the fairly accurate measure of a Pentium M's clockspeed x 1.5 being equal to the equivalent powered Pentium 4 (Mobile) chip, your CPU is equivalent to the lowest powered Centrino chip, the 1.3GHz.
Now, both machines are going to be using a 400MHz front-side bus, so that doesn't change much. You might get some gains in upgrading your CPU to a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 M, which is the fastest that was sold with the Inspiron 8200/Latitude C840. Upping your RAM to 1GB (or 2GB) would help. Also, looking around for a 7200 RPM laptop drive will make a noticeable speed increase in anything that is even slightly I/O bound.
Explain to me how I build an RPM for, let's say, Nagios, from a source RPM, without editing the RPM, to pass different configure options, such as MySQL support.
You can't, can you? Perhaps it is because the two tools do not serve the same function?
In case you are wondering, besides working on Gentoo in my spare time, I work for a company that uses Red Hat, so I am required to build RPM packages pretty often. While both have some overlapping features and essentially do the same thing, they go about them very differently.
The point is that we don't have to be clones of each other to benefit from each other's work, especially as some of the main differences between Red Hat and Gentoo are cultural and philisophical, and not technical.
Actually, Gentoo is about control and choice. Only little Gentoo ricer-wannabes think it is about speed. Gentoo is also not a corporate entity. Red Hat is about one thing, their stockholders. While they may or may not be good members of the community does not matter, as they are a publicly traded company and their true master is the market. So remember kids, Red Hat isn't about anything but profit. All things they do are based around it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it is just different. It also doesn't mean that they will not be altruistic, it just means that they aren't going to go around cutting their own throats just to be nice. If something doesn't cost them anything or may have gains in the future, then they'll make sure to give it back to the community. The same can be said for things that will only produce a small loss, if there's hope that it will be regained in market share or sales.
Who cares about the packaging? Release the damn thing as source with a decent license and let the distributors themselves work out the packaging. Even when that isn't the case, there's still ways around it. Look at the ATI binary drivers. They are released as RPM-only, but Gentoo has no problem installing them. I would rather see people release something that we can use than to sit around and release nothing waiting for a world-wide group of volunteers to agree on a single interface for anything.
Umm... I've got a better idea. How about Red Hat keeps doing their own thing, and if Gentoo likes it, we'll take it and use it. The same thing can apply for Gentoo's projects and Red Hat/Fedora. There is nothing stopping them from taking our work and using it, that's the whole point of us all using the GPL. Red Hat doesn't have to "dedicate developers" to work on our project any more than we have to do so to work on theirs. If I submit a kernel patch, or a patch to hwsetup, then I am submitting it for all Linux users to use, not one distribution. You concept of how distributions work is pretty well off kilter and not at all how the developer community works.
You guys also are forgetting multi-core multi-CPU machines. This is something that I cannot wait for, myself. I really would love to see a dual-core dual-CPU Opteron box. It definitely would decrease the compile times for me, as I perform numerous compile runs (read hundreds) each release, so every little bit of extra oomph I can get helps.
Slashdot screws up all of our stories, too.
I pretty much have to agree with you here. I still beleive that Windows 98 is probably the most used Windows out there. Every time I happen by someone's house that isn't very computer savvy, they're running Windows 98.
Why?
Because that is what came with the computer. Remember that to most people, a computer is just an appliance like a TV or a VCR. At the same time, I see the number of Windows 98 machines dwindling simply because for the cost of repairs on one of these machines, you can buy a brand-spankin' new Dell box with Windows XP on it and a printer.
I really believe that this is a good thing. Many people are not embracing IPv6 due to lack of a high-profile rollout showing its feasability. Also, much of the software out there does not take advantage of IPv6. Having such a large number of people using IPv6 will persuade a few more people to start coding their software capable of using IPv6 addressing.
I really look forward to the day when I can (once again) have end-to-end connectivity with peers. The proliferation of NAT devices truly has changed the face of the Internet from a large peer-to-peer network with content at every corner, to a client-server model where content is only served by those with enough capital.
This is readily apparent in the draconian acceptable useage policies of most providers.
I *want* to be able to connect to any of my home machines from work, and vice-versa (firewall permitting). I would *love* to have my own block of portable address space for me to do with as I please.
I simply can't wait for this to catch on in more places. I encourage all of you to look into IPv6 and see how much added benefit you could get from having a near-unexhaustable pool of addresses available.
Try a Gentoo 2004.3-r1 LiveCD. We have had exactly ZERO bug reports of people's USB not working with our CD, and we don't have any special USB patches added from vanilla 2.6.9, so it should work perfectly for you.
Actually, the Voodoo 2 was the first card capable of SLI and it sold like hotcakes. I remember everyone I knew had a Voodoo 2 SLI rig. By the time the Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 had hit the market, 3Dfx simply couldn't keep up with Nvidia and everyone that was serious about gaming had switched to Nvidia already.
Also, I don't remember who made it, but there was an "Obsidian 3D" card that was dual Voodoo 2 chips on a single board. I know of one person who had one of these. The main problem with those cards was finding them.
Agreed on the Dual-DVI thing. Who would make such a killer card then cripple it by having only one DVI output? I mean, it isn't like a DVI-DB15 connector is expensive enough to prohibit one being included in the box for the people on analog.
What sys admin replaces hard drives in a desktop in the enterprise (note the bold, it is there for a reason)? I mean, I can understand it at some small shop with one or two IT guys, but once your IT staff gets much bigger than that, you start separating out into specific roles. I don't know a single sys admin that replaces hard drives in desktops. That job belongs to the help desk staff.
Find it completely funny that the editors decided to make sure they notified us that the opinions in the story are not their own?
...or does it mean the story uses a lot of 4-letter words and 'leet speak?
I mean... we all know the editors opinions are pretty shoddy, so does this mean the story is spot on?
Man... DAMN YOU EDITORS!!
Now I am going to have to read the article... it was all a ploy, I'm sure.