In the US corporations are give status as a legal 'entity' not 'entities'
Correct, and while they have similar legal rights as individuals they have a gazillion times the power. A recipe for disaster but that's a story for another day.
Is this really true? Most major games are written using pre-made engines like Unreal, which typically are cross-platform.
They might be cross-platform but they still cost 100's of 1000's of dollars to license. Game Engines top some of the most expensive proprietary software out there.
Moreso it is false to say "most major games" (my emphasis) are built from these engines. Quite a few are yes, but sometimes the technical baggage of the engine is so great - in that steers design directions - that it's cheaper in the long term for a game development shop to author their own engine in-house.
Furthermore you can't beat the freedom of being the legal author of what you use.
Even if you can afford to license an existing engine - or use a FOSS engine like QuakeIII - it's still an expensive and time consuming task to make the actual game. A good example is Half-Life 1: it was a direct architectural relative of Quake2 yet it still took years and costed millions in labour to make.
Programming and game-design aside, don't underestimate also just how long it takes to make the art.
Alright, Just got done with some testing of UT2004 between 2.6.23-rc1
CFS and 2.6.22-ck1 SD. This series of tests was run by spawning in a map
while not moving at all and always facing the same direction, while
slowing increasing the number of loops.
CFS generally seemed a lot smoother as the load increased, while SD
broke down to a highly unstable fps count that fluctuated massively
around the third loop. Seems like I will stick to CFS for gaming now.
--
Kenneth Prugh
Sayeth Matthew
My experience was quite similar. I noticed after launching the second
loop that the FPS stuck down to 15 for about 20 seconds, then climbed
back up to 48. After that it went rapidly downhill. This is similar
to other benchmarks I've done of SD versus CFS in the past. At a
"normal" load they're fairly similar but SD breaks down under
pressure.
The only other thing of interest is that the -ck kernel had the WM
menus appear in about 3 seconds rather than 5-8 under the other two.
The only chap that says otherwise doesn't post his results.
The problem with OLPC is that they currently have no plans to sell to the public. If you're not a government buying them for weapons^W poor children in lot sizes in the millions, they're not interested.
Quanta, the company manufacturing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project's XO laptops, plans to begin selling low-cost budget mobile computers for $200 later this year. According to Quanta president Michael Wang, the company plans to leverage the underlying technologies associated with OLPC's XO laptop to produce laptop computers that are significantly less expensive than conventional laptops.
If these guys could legally sell you unbranded versions of the Apple MacBook (which they also make) they probably would too..
OS/X is a great middle-ground solution for those that actually need - or think they need - proprietary software and wish to run a slick UNIX-like OS on dedicated hardware.
Increasingly however, there are those that consciously or unconsciously use free-software for most purposes, are not particularly attached to the Apple look-and-feel and don't want to pay for system upgrades. This may be aided as an OS/X user finds that many 'Linux applications' are enough for them and so realises that there's little reason to run the Apple OS itself on their (possibly aged) Apple hardware.
I've seen this happen with a couple of OS/X users (and many times with Windows users). This is widely part of the to-Linux migration strategy: porting native Linux applications to other proprietary platforms makes it easier for those people using those applications to switch.
Moreso, the blanket statement that you "can run any Linux app on OS/X" needs to be taken with a chunky grain of salt. Often getting 'Linux software' running on OS/X involves compiling, spending a lot of time in the terminal, mucking about with linkage and sorting out dependencies. On Linux this stuff is just a click away. Fink and MacPorts have a very small porportion of the software a Debian derived distribution has and probably always will. Moreso, both Fink and MacPorts are still quite plagued with dependency woes akin to those Linux users used to experience many years ago.
In short, for some there just aren't many compelling reason to switch to OS/X from Linux these days. There are however a few things about Linux that make it quite compelling for those run free-software on Mac hardware: They can
Upgrade all the software on your system at once.
Upgrade any package on the system without needing to visit websites to search for updates.
Upgrade the system without cost to enjoy the latest features and security updates
Run Linux on a wide array of computers - the OS can follow the user.
Heavily customise or simply adapt the look-and-feel to suit their tastes (they do it to their homes and our hair, why not the desktop?)
Enjoy better performance with Linux on Mac hardware (at some tasks).
Enjoy some vibrant, rapidy growing user communities (Ubuntu (for instance) has a lot of buzz and enjoys very rapid growth)
Enjoy some of the bestbling on the desktop today;-)
Contrary to bad press from the early days of this young OS called GNU/Linux, much of these things make it a really convenient and fun platform to run..
People I know seem to have 'switched' for reasons that are perhaps most eloquently stated by Dive Into Python author (and veteran Apple user) Mark Pilgrim:
In many ways, the tale of my switch is more of the same old story. Mac OS X was "free enough" to keep me using something that was not in my long-term best interest. But as I stood in the Apple store last weekend and drooled over the beautiful, beautiful hardware, all I could think was how much work it would take to twiddle with the default settings, install third-party software, and hide all the commercial tie-ins so I could pretend I was in control of my own computer.
So he went and bought an IBM machine.. and put Ubuntu on it.
He has also expressed what has frustrated many, that Apple's love of closed formats can result in data-loss and/or data not being readable in future.
I'm not claiming that either Free Software or open formats are a silver bullet. There are many risk factors, and Free Software mitigates some of them some of the time. There are many layers -- data on top of applications on top of operating systems on top of hardware -- and open formats can reduce the friction between some of them some of the time. They're both lubricants that help you to slide out one layer and replace it without the whole thing toppling down. Apple would prefer that I not replace any of their layers, and they have gone out of their way to increase the friction between them.
Which brings us back to John Gruber's oranges. His counter-argument -- that lock-in hasn't been a problem for me yet, so why all the fuss now -- could not be further from the truth. It's been a constant problem for 22 years. Much of the data I've spent my life creating has been lost or seriously degraded through a series of proprietary formats and forced migrations. This is why I felt so betrayed, in particular, by Mail.app "upgrading" me away from mbox format. It took a lot of forethought on my part, not to mention actual time and effort, to convert all my disparate mail archives from all those different mail programs. I finally got everything into a single archive in an open, stable format... and just 3 short years later, Apple found a way to screw me one last time. It'll be the last time they get the chance.
Naturally he can run FOSS MTA's, clients and mailbox formats on OS/X but his point is that the Linux (as a platform) is concerned with open-formats right from the get-go without any fight, tweaking, hackery or worry about the OS itself dropping application support in future. Transparency and decentralisation actually come to be things you trust over time. For this reason if one cares for the longevity of their data - in the sense of future readability - Linux is the wiser choice over OS/X. In 8 years with Linux I haven't had to worry at all about the things he (and many others) complain about above even once.
There is great comfort to be found in the Linux community's commitment to/love of open-standards and transparency and this, as I understand it, is a very valid reason to justify a switch.
Is there really room for a new player right now? With many years of Linux experience why should I look at Solaris? Curiosity only holds so much water when you just want to get stuff done.
Will it offer me a more productive development environment? Probably not. Will it give me a wider audience? Definitely not.
Favouring people that have eyes to see with and those that like to look at the device while they write, the new Apple cellphone famously does without the keypads that adorn its rivals.
The project of Minimalism always need to be taken with a grain of salt: sometimes it rides to a vain and pointless end. Contrary to aesthetically derived assumptions, less information can mean more work. Existing phones have built-in braille - the fingers do the 'seeing' so the eyes can focus on more pressing tasks (excuse the pun). An example was given by someone here a while ago: a buttonless phone meant he couldn't text his friends while at boring meetings.
This problem reminds me of an article in an auto magazine a few years ago where an engineer proclaimed this inability to hear the engine in a (particularly high-tech and quiet) model of BMW to be a terrible hazard: the cognitive connection with the machine meant the driver tended to check the speedometer far too often to guage their speed.
It also reminds me of a certain mono-buttoned mouse that required the use of two hands to achieve what other mouse do with one but I digress..
.. but failing on the desktop very unsuccessfully. More and more people are using it and now even major hardware vendors are reporting great sales results of Linux on laptops. Some even say it's the least slowest-growing desktop operating system today. Linux is so crap it can't even fail properly!
My advice? Install it now and help it be even worse at failing.
Unlike most other Linux distributions, Linspire was conceived primarily as a business enterprise. Consider this a buyout, albeit one that harms affirms FUD affecting all other distributions. Also consider how the beating that Linspire has taken from MS in the past may affect their willingness to stand strong in the face of MS threats now - however vacuous.
While I won't miss Linspire I am interested to know the future of Robertson's only real valued contribution to the GNU/Linux family of operating systems - CNR. Perhaps Shuttleworth should click-and-run with it while he still can (though Klikit looks like a pretty good fallback).
Of course, but that doesn't discount that a huge amount of research is done in the EU in languages other than English. There is a vast amount of research written in German and Spanish, the latter of which traditionally has a low level of English literacy. Spain is especially one to consider as it's a powerhouse of R&D right now.
While citation is not a perfect indicator, U.S. publications are more highly cited than those from other countries.
What language base are they using to determine such a value? English no doubt. Are they counting papers in Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, French or Chinese? English is the third most spoken language on Earth after Spanish. America, where this research was performed, is the largest English speaking country. Go figure.
There are many more people in Europe than in America and each country of which has it's own rich R&D culture. Papers that are not part of a Ph.D will probably be translated into English and published if accepted into an important conference, intended to be sold, or otherwise considered very important research. British English is considered the official language of the EU and while EU-wide R&D collaborations will often be performed in English, a huge proportion will go 'under the radar' of 'The National Science Foundation'.
It's a complete mess. The paralysis of choice overwhelms us, just like it does with the shoe, car, haircut, real-estate, literature, Fine Art and computer hardware markets.
Why people just can't work together, I don't know.
Why is this in the Linux section? What does OpenOffice have to do with Linux other than the fact it is one of many platforms this particular word-processor runs on? Ahah.. it's open-source, just like Linux, the flag-waving mascot of all things open-source.
Linux has been my preferred desktop and development environment for around 8 years. I really like Linux yet increasingly I find this Open-Source == Linux misleading and contrived - especially given the relative prevalence of FOSS in most areas of computing life these days.
I'm not the first to say it: perhaps time for a little spring-clean of/. categories?
Geez, you really have drunk the cool aid haven't you.
The more technology like these pilotless aircraft we have, the harder it will be on the terrorists.
Wrong. This will only produce more terrorists, with cleverer techniques and in countries other than Iraq. I can only imagine how this will introduce a new era in Satellite jamming and hacking techniques.
You speak of "the terrorists". You mean the ones with rags on their head living in caves with D.I.Y satellite uplinks? You really believe that FOX News/CNN crap? You do realise that no terrorist worth their weight in hatred for the U.S would actually be in Iraq right now don't you? With telecommuncations broken down in many parts, road blocks and an occupation - what international bad guy would be there? Anyway, aren't the local rebels doing a good enough job at killing American soldiers Bush has stationed there?
What these pilotless aircraft are good for are fat defense contracts, under-the-table pay-offs for careerist U.S politicians and terrifying Iraqis. Would you sleep well, Iraqi or not, knowing a remote-controlled aircraft is flying over your head carrying 14 Hellfire missiles? The Bush Administration has proved itself to be a disaster for the country of Iraq and now the world at large is in a much more fragile state as a result. This is what your children will read in books. What Bush wants is to cripple Iraq to the point of it being completely politically and economically dependent on the U.S, a sort of Sick State. They have produced a sick country and offer themselves as the only cure. Spreading Freedom?, give me a fscking break.
Continuing the Great American tradition of testing new weaponry on the battle-field. I wonder how many people will be unintenionally harmed in this experiment, this time.
It's no wonder most humans are terrified of America right now.. and that includes many Americans themselves: they might agree however, that it's better than testing on your own people.
In that case perhaps OS/X has a useability issue here.
We turn on and off services and administer other aspects of OS/X using OS provided tools in most other respects, so why not manage software in the same way? Even if a package should "come with an easy to use uninstaller" perhaps this uninstaller should be exposed to a central software management facility so it can be easily found. I say this as people typically delete the installer once the application has been installed, so the idea that users should look for the original package and use it to provide the service of uninstallation makes little sense, conceptually (why should an installer uninstall?) or practically.
I've never found Fink or MacPorts to be all that usable on OS/X else I'd certainly prefer to use these apt-like systems to manage software (especially after my recent failed attempt at upgrading to Python2.4 on OS/X 10.4 and later deciding to uninstall it..).
In my experience the task of uninstalling software is simply easier on Windows and Linux (best of all an apt-based system) than on OS/X. While Windows tends to leave files scattered around and leaves scars in the registry at least I know there is one graphical tool that is supposed to take care of the job. On OS/X I never know quite how to approach the problem - especially when I'm uninstalling software of a newer version than found in/System/Libraries/Frameworks and want to roll back.
Good point. At least in jail I wouldn't have to cook, fold my own washing or worry about which countries to visit during the summer holidays. The stress!
I don't think it's hypocritical to prefer the GPLv3. That's a fine choice,
it's just not *mine*.
.
What I called hypocritical was to do so in the name of "freedom", while
you're at the same time trying to argue that I don't have the "freedom" to
make my own choice.
See? THAT is hypocritical.
and..
In a very real sense, the GPLv3 asks people to do things that I personally
would refuse to do. I put Linux on my kids computers, and I limit their
ability to upgrade it. Do I have that legal right (I sure do, I'm their
legal guardian), but the point is that this is not about "legality", this
is about "morality". The GPLv3 doesn't match what I think is morally where
I want to be. I think it *is* ok to control peoples hardware. I do it
myself.
It's practically a cliche to assume that the pro sw-patent front is primarily MS. Here in the EU the lobbying came from many quarters but a big push was made by the Business Software Alliance. This consortium/group does include Microsoft but also Apple, Adobe, IBM, Intel and Symantec. As long as we go around telling ourselves "as long as MS isn't overtly pushing for swpat's all's well on the frontline", we're all the more vulnerable.
IBM - a much larger corporation than Microsoft and with a similarly larger patent portfolio - is certainly taking some productive steps, especially regarding 'gifting' patents to open source projects and clearing projects using open-standards from IBM patent threat. Companies like Adobe and Apple however are still very pro software patents, unfashionable as that is to say.
The Java API Processing is used fairly widely now for precisely this purpose, often taught in various UNIs as a platform for introducing computer graphics techniques and programming concepts more generally.
Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is developed by artists and designers as an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.
It's certainly nothing that takes performant advantage of modern GPU's but is important nonetheless.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder if Google will give us a shell on their new Linux phone.
That said it'll be hard for them to beat the Phase 2 OpenMoko for developer fun.
Recommended reading.
Moreso it is false to say "most major games" (my emphasis) are built from these engines. Quite a few are yes, but sometimes the technical baggage of the engine is so great - in that steers design directions - that it's cheaper in the long term for a game development shop to author their own engine in-house.
Furthermore you can't beat the freedom of being the legal author of what you use.
Even if you can afford to license an existing engine - or use a FOSS engine like QuakeIII - it's still an expensive and time consuming task to make the actual game. A good example is Half-Life 1: it was a direct architectural relative of Quake2 yet it still took years and costed millions in labour to make.
Programming and game-design aside, don't underestimate also just how long it takes to make the art.
From TFA
If these guys could legally sell you unbranded versions of the Apple MacBook (which they also make) they probably would too..
Increasingly however, there are those that consciously or unconsciously use free-software for most purposes, are not particularly attached to the Apple look-and-feel and don't want to pay for system upgrades. This may be aided as an OS/X user finds that many 'Linux applications' are enough for them and so realises that there's little reason to run the Apple OS itself on their (possibly aged) Apple hardware.
I've seen this happen with a couple of OS/X users (and many times with Windows users). This is widely part of the to-Linux migration strategy: porting native Linux applications to other proprietary platforms makes it easier for those people using those applications to switch.
Moreso, the blanket statement that you "can run any Linux app on OS/X" needs to be taken with a chunky grain of salt. Often getting 'Linux software' running on OS/X involves compiling, spending a lot of time in the terminal, mucking about with linkage and sorting out dependencies. On Linux this stuff is just a click away. Fink and MacPorts have a very small porportion of the software a Debian derived distribution has and probably always will. Moreso, both Fink and MacPorts are still quite plagued with dependency woes akin to those Linux users used to experience many years ago.
In short, for some there just aren't many compelling reason to switch to OS/X from Linux these days. There are however a few things about Linux that make it quite compelling for those run free-software on Mac hardware: They can
Upgrade all the software on your system at once.
Upgrade any package on the system without needing to visit websites to search for updates.
Upgrade the system without cost to enjoy the latest features and security updates
Run Linux on a wide array of computers - the OS can follow the user.
Heavily customise or simply adapt the look-and-feel to suit their tastes (they do it to their homes and our hair, why not the desktop?)
Enjoy better performance with Linux on Mac hardware (at some tasks).
Enjoy some vibrant, rapidy growing user communities (Ubuntu (for instance) has a lot of buzz and enjoys very rapid growth)
Enjoy some of the best bling on the desktop today ;-)
Contrary to bad press from the early days of this young OS called GNU/Linux, much of these things make it a really convenient and fun platform to run..
He has also expressed what has frustrated many, that Apple's love of closed formats can result in data-loss and/or data not being readable in future. Naturally he can run FOSS MTA's, clients and mailbox formats on OS/X but his point is that the Linux (as a platform) is concerned with open-formats right from the get-go without any fight, tweaking, hackery or worry about the OS itself dropping application support in future. Transparency and decentralisation actually come to be things you trust over time. For this reason if one cares for the longevity of their data - in the sense of future readability - Linux is the wiser choice over OS/X. In 8 years with Linux I haven't had to worry at all about the things he (and many others) complain about above even once.
There is great comfort to be found in the Linux community's commitment to/love of open-standards and transparency and this, as I understand it, is a very valid reason to justify a switch.
Who switches to minor releases other than developers? Surely you'd just use the one that works and switch when you're ready, not 'Linux'.
Seems to work for a gazillion enterprises out there.
Is there really room for a new player right now? With many years of Linux experience why should I look at Solaris? Curiosity only holds so much water when you just want to get stuff done.
Will it offer me a more productive development environment? Probably not. Will it give me a wider audience? Definitely not.
I don't think enemies are fundamental to good gameplay at all; a vast mumber of games don't have opponents.
Challenges are fundamental to good gameplay however. An 'enemy' is just one of the many ways of representing a challenge.
Favouring people that have eyes to see with and those that like to look at the device while they write, the new Apple cellphone famously does without the keypads that adorn its rivals.
The project of Minimalism always need to be taken with a grain of salt: sometimes it rides to a vain and pointless end. Contrary to aesthetically derived assumptions, less information can mean more work. Existing phones have built-in braille - the fingers do the 'seeing' so the eyes can focus on more pressing tasks (excuse the pun). An example was given by someone here a while ago: a buttonless phone meant he couldn't text his friends while at boring meetings.
This problem reminds me of an article in an auto magazine a few years ago where an engineer proclaimed this inability to hear the engine in a (particularly high-tech and quiet) model of BMW to be a terrible hazard: the cognitive connection with the machine meant the driver tended to check the speedometer far too often to guage their speed.
It also reminds me of a certain mono-buttoned mouse that required the use of two hands to achieve what other mouse do with one but I digress..
.. but failing on the desktop very unsuccessfully. More and more people are using it and now even major hardware vendors are reporting great sales results of Linux on laptops. Some even say it's the least slowest-growing desktop operating system today. Linux is so crap it can't even fail properly!
My advice? Install it now and help it be even worse at failing.
Unlike most other Linux distributions, Linspire was conceived primarily as a business enterprise. Consider this a buyout, albeit one that harms affirms FUD affecting all other distributions. Also consider how the beating that Linspire has taken from MS in the past may affect their willingness to stand strong in the face of MS threats now - however vacuous.
While I won't miss Linspire I am interested to know the future of Robertson's only real valued contribution to the GNU/Linux family of operating systems - CNR. Perhaps Shuttleworth should click-and-run with it while he still can (though Klikit looks like a pretty good fallback).
Of course, but that doesn't discount that a huge amount of research is done in the EU in languages other than English. There is a vast amount of research written in German and Spanish, the latter of which traditionally has a low level of English literacy. Spain is especially one to consider as it's a powerhouse of R&D right now.
There are many more people in Europe than in America and each country of which has it's own rich R&D culture. Papers that are not part of a Ph.D will probably be translated into English and published if accepted into an important conference, intended to be sold, or otherwise considered very important research. British English is considered the official language of the EU and while EU-wide R&D collaborations will often be performed in English, a huge proportion will go 'under the radar' of 'The National Science Foundation'.
It's a complete mess. The paralysis of choice overwhelms us, just like it does with the shoe, car, haircut, real-estate, literature, Fine Art and computer hardware markets.
Why people just can't work together, I don't know.
Why is this in the Linux section? What does OpenOffice have to do with Linux other than the fact it is one of many platforms this particular word-processor runs on? Ahah.. it's open-source, just like Linux, the flag-waving mascot of all things open-source.
/. categories?
Linux has been my preferred desktop and development environment for around 8 years. I really like Linux yet increasingly I find this Open-Source == Linux misleading and contrived - especially given the relative prevalence of FOSS in most areas of computing life these days.
I'm not the first to say it: perhaps time for a little spring-clean of
You speak of "the terrorists". You mean the ones with rags on their head living in caves with D.I.Y satellite uplinks? You really believe that FOX News/CNN crap? You do realise that no terrorist worth their weight in hatred for the U.S would actually be in Iraq right now don't you? With telecommuncations broken down in many parts, road blocks and an occupation - what international bad guy would be there? Anyway, aren't the local rebels doing a good enough job at killing American soldiers Bush has stationed there?
What these pilotless aircraft are good for are fat defense contracts, under-the-table pay-offs for careerist U.S politicians and terrifying Iraqis. Would you sleep well, Iraqi or not, knowing a remote-controlled aircraft is flying over your head carrying 14 Hellfire missiles? The Bush Administration has proved itself to be a disaster for the country of Iraq and now the world at large is in a much more fragile state as a result. This is what your children will read in books. What Bush wants is to cripple Iraq to the point of it being completely politically and economically dependent on the U.S, a sort of Sick State. They have produced a sick country and offer themselves as the only cure. Spreading Freedom?, give me a fscking break.
I think you should see this.
Continuing the Great American tradition of testing new weaponry on the battle-field. I wonder how many people will be unintenionally harmed in this experiment, this time.
It's no wonder most humans are terrified of America right now.. and that includes many Americans themselves: they might agree however, that it's better than testing on your own people.
In that case perhaps OS/X has a useability issue here.
..).
/System/Libraries/Frameworks and want to roll back.
We turn on and off services and administer other aspects of OS/X using OS provided tools in most other respects, so why not manage software in the same way? Even if a package should "come with an easy to use uninstaller" perhaps this uninstaller should be exposed to a central software management facility so it can be easily found. I say this as people typically delete the installer once the application has been installed, so the idea that users should look for the original package and use it to provide the service of uninstallation makes little sense, conceptually (why should an installer uninstall?) or practically.
I've never found Fink or MacPorts to be all that usable on OS/X else I'd certainly prefer to use these apt-like systems to manage software (especially after my recent failed attempt at upgrading to Python2.4 on OS/X 10.4 and later deciding to uninstall it
In my experience the task of uninstalling software is simply easier on Windows and Linux (best of all an apt-based system) than on OS/X. While Windows tends to leave files scattered around and leaves scars in the registry at least I know there is one graphical tool that is supposed to take care of the job. On OS/X I never know quite how to approach the problem - especially when I'm uninstalling software of a newer version than found in
Now, where can I get this Vista thing..
See for yourself.
Nothing more to see here than a ripe example of journalistic firestarting. It worked on me - here I am writing this..
IBM - a much larger corporation than Microsoft and with a similarly larger patent portfolio - is certainly taking some productive steps, especially regarding 'gifting' patents to open source projects and clearing projects using open-standards from IBM patent threat. Companies like Adobe and Apple however are still very pro software patents, unfashionable as that is to say.