That wasn't up when I posted, thanks for the link! I'm glad to see the FSF isn't off blaming the end users users or something like some other company would have.
While your post is somewhat trollish, I have to agree that this is an interesting prediciment for the FSF. To save face, I hope they post a detailed account of how they were cracked, and own up to their mistakes so they can all teach us what not to do. That's the power of openness:-)
Apparently Photoshop on Windows costs $50K+$40K support == $90K
Photoshop on linux costs $15K.
Last I checked, Photoshop was around $600 per workstation. XP Pro is $200/station, and I think licenses for NT/2K/2K3 server are around $100/seat. So really, Windows ended up being the cheaper part of of the equation, at $300 per station.
Support? How is it that Windows support is $40K/yr but linux support is free? There's just as much free Windows support out there as linux.
I applaud the effort to move off Windows, and I'm glad to see that WINE is of this caliber quality, but don't justify your switch with a bunch of nonsense numbers.
What am I supposed to do with a number like that? I can't relate to it or determine how this would suit my needs. Put it into terms I recognize, like Libraries of Congress. How many Volkswagons fit in one of these? Is this still Slashdot?
I recently learned that you are a ham radio operator. I think both the open source community and ham community share very similar views on most issues. Do you see any ways the two communities can benefit each other?
Dr. Evil: "We will give you four MILLION IPs!" Number 2: "Sir, we currently have 4 million IPs" Dr. Evil: "Oh, really... Then we will give you Thirty Six TRILLION IPs!"
You're mostly trolling, but you have one valid point: Corel responded to MS pressure with crummy software and bad support.
When we had trouble with Wordperfect 8, Corel was there by our side, offering every bit of help, giving us beta service packs, and doing everything they could to resolve our problems. We finally traced it to a fux0red MFC DLL (Microsoft issued), and Corel quickly gave us a fix.
Wordperfect 9 was a solid product, mostly the result of their quickly responding developers. They fixed bugs as they found them, and for the most part didn't create any new ones.
Wordperfect 10 was touted to be the most compatible with Word XP. Tried it, they're lying. Documents with even minor complexity don't convert well. I posted several troubled docs to the newsgroup, other users who claimed XP support was there couldn't open them either. I contacted Corel support, they were friendly but not very helpful.
About a month ago I was troubleshooting printing issues with CorelDraw 11. Not only is this program not worth the upgrade, when I tried to contact support I couldn't get a good answer from anybody. The Knowledge Base has shriveled into a steaming pile of crap, and the only good support left is in the newsgroups. I was finally able to trace it to the print driver thanks to some good folks there, but Corel offered me nothing.
Probably due to layoffs, Corel has been forced to produce a lackluster product and shoddy support. Microsoft won that round, their last remaining competitor is pretty much a non-threat.
Openoffice.org has a small branch (wp.openoffice.org I think) of developers working on it. WP offers a few features (reveal codes of course) that are slowly being added into Openoffice.org.
One nice thing about WP is that the file format, AFAIK, hasn't changed since version 6.1. Create a document in WP11, open it in 7, and viola, it opens. Word can't even do backward compatibility, try opening a Word 95 doc in Word XP. It'll open, but you'll most likely have to reformat. Because o the file compatibility, the Wordperfect import filter for Openoffice.org is coming along very nicely.
Most of your points are quite valid. The big applications are covered, but it's the little ones that suck you right back in. On/., if you mention that you need application X to run, the response is "yeah, but we have an office suite that works good, so what more do you need?".
The latest version of Wine is really coming together. Your GPS software is probably a sticking point, both the hardware and software features aren't going to be duped for linux for awhile, especially to your likeing. Geneology software is going to take awhile also, because not every Grandma is on linux yet and there's not an outcry for it.
As for sound editing, I'm really taking a shine to Audacity. It's not Cool Edit (If you've seen Cool Edit 2, you KNOW there's nothing better) but it does most tasks well. The Windows port is a bit crashy, but the linux version runs stable. I do all of my editing on Audacity, for the above average audio geek it does well. I haven't noticed a feature missing that I really need.
As for 2000 and XP, I must say that MS created a very stable product. The OS itself doesn't crash nearly as much, and it does a better job of containing the system so that when apps crash (Windoze apps will always crash) they don't hurt the fragile OS underneath.
I have to ask, have you played with Cygwin? I run Cygwin on my box at work (Windoze shop) so I have KDE running right next to Windows. No dual booting, and all the goodness of linux on my desktop. If you haven't tried it, you should.
Slashdot Mirror
That wasn't up when I posted, thanks for the link! I'm glad to see the FSF isn't off blaming the end users users or something like some other company would have.
While your post is somewhat trollish, I have to agree that this is an interesting prediciment for the FSF. To save face, I hope they post a detailed account of how they were cracked, and own up to their mistakes so they can all teach us what not to do. That's the power of openness :-)
if you understand the headline
FSF FTP Site Cracked, Looking for MD5 Sums
You just might be a geek.
So much for having any integrity, Slashdot.
/. from? Is it nice there?
Which alternate universe do you read
Dude, just because your date is leaking air does not qualify as "breathing".
Q: "Why do sound techs say 'check 1, 2'?"
A: "Cause if they could count any higher they'd be lighting techs."
Q: Why should you never run over a lighting tech on a bike?
A: It might be your bike.
I don't get where their numbers are coming from.
Apparently Photoshop on Windows costs $50K+$40K support == $90K
Photoshop on linux costs $15K.
Last I checked, Photoshop was around $600 per workstation. XP Pro is $200/station, and I think licenses for NT/2K/2K3 server are around $100/seat. So really, Windows ended up being the cheaper part of of the equation, at $300 per station.
Support? How is it that Windows support is $40K/yr but linux support is free? There's just as much free Windows support out there as linux.
I applaud the effort to move off Windows, and I'm glad to see that WINE is of this caliber quality, but don't justify your switch with a bunch of nonsense numbers.
What am I supposed to do with a number like that? I can't relate to it or determine how this would suit my needs. Put it into terms I recognize, like Libraries of Congress. How many Volkswagons fit in one of these? Is this still Slashdot?
Dude, Sex for Dummies has been out for awhile.
hey, it worked for me :-)
I recently learned that you are a ham radio operator. I think both the open source community and ham community share very similar views on most issues. Do you see any ways the two communities can benefit each other?
Dr. Evil: "We will give you four MILLION IPs!"
Number 2: "Sir, we currently have 4 million IPs"
Dr. Evil: "Oh, really... Then we will give you Thirty Six TRILLION IPs!"
You're mostly trolling, but you have one valid point: Corel responded to MS pressure with crummy software and bad support.
When we had trouble with Wordperfect 8, Corel was there by our side, offering every bit of help, giving us beta service packs, and doing everything they could to resolve our problems. We finally traced it to a fux0red MFC DLL (Microsoft issued), and Corel quickly gave us a fix.
Wordperfect 9 was a solid product, mostly the result of their quickly responding developers. They fixed bugs as they found them, and for the most part didn't create any new ones.
Wordperfect 10 was touted to be the most compatible with Word XP. Tried it, they're lying. Documents with even minor complexity don't convert well. I posted several troubled docs to the newsgroup, other users who claimed XP support was there couldn't open them either. I contacted Corel support, they were friendly but not very helpful.
About a month ago I was troubleshooting printing issues with CorelDraw 11. Not only is this program not worth the upgrade, when I tried to contact support I couldn't get a good answer from anybody. The Knowledge Base has shriveled into a steaming pile of crap, and the only good support left is in the newsgroups. I was finally able to trace it to the print driver thanks to some good folks there, but Corel offered me nothing.
Probably due to layoffs, Corel has been forced to produce a lackluster product and shoddy support. Microsoft won that round, their last remaining competitor is pretty much a non-threat.
Openoffice.org has a small branch (wp.openoffice.org I think) of developers working on it. WP offers a few features (reveal codes of course) that are slowly being added into Openoffice.org.
One nice thing about WP is that the file format, AFAIK, hasn't changed since version 6.1. Create a document in WP11, open it in 7, and viola, it opens. Word can't even do backward compatibility, try opening a Word 95 doc in Word XP. It'll open, but you'll most likely have to reformat. Because o the file compatibility, the Wordperfect import filter for Openoffice.org is coming along very nicely.
You read Slashdot. You couldn't have been that close anyway.
while I check my Freedom-mail
Q: "Why do sound techs say 'check 1, 2'?"
A: "Cause if they could count any higher they'd be lighting techs."
Q: "Why should you never run over a lighting tech on a bike?"
A: "It might be your bike."
English is found to be confusing among non-english speakers.
I got a really high score on the AMD test!!!
Error 404 - Page Not Found
My general rule is that if someone is quoting statictics to you, they are lying. At least on average. :)
39% of Slashdot readers already know that.
Most of your points are quite valid. The big applications are covered, but it's the little ones that suck you right back in. On /., if you mention that you need application X to run, the response is "yeah, but we have an office suite that works good, so what more do you need?".
The latest version of Wine is really coming together. Your GPS software is probably a sticking point, both the hardware and software features aren't going to be duped for linux for awhile, especially to your likeing. Geneology software is going to take awhile also, because not every Grandma is on linux yet and there's not an outcry for it.
As for sound editing, I'm really taking a shine to Audacity. It's not Cool Edit (If you've seen Cool Edit 2, you KNOW there's nothing better) but it does most tasks well. The Windows port is a bit crashy, but the linux version runs stable. I do all of my editing on Audacity, for the above average audio geek it does well. I haven't noticed a feature missing that I really need.
As for 2000 and XP, I must say that MS created a very stable product. The OS itself doesn't crash nearly as much, and it does a better job of containing the system so that when apps crash (Windoze apps will always crash) they don't hurt the fragile OS underneath.
I have to ask, have you played with Cygwin? I run Cygwin on my box at work (Windoze shop) so I have KDE running right next to Windows. No dual booting, and all the goodness of linux on my desktop. If you haven't tried it, you should.
But it's July, so this is good news
What if it's June? Then what?
Courtesy of the wayback machine:
http://www.sco.com/offers/ancient_unix.html
Maybe "where's my 6 ft attack penguin?".
Did you notice that the author field was blank on the article? Kinda makes me wonder who the uninformed sloth who wrote this was.