but I can't imagine what kind of "up-to-date" content the company wants to rush out to all the 5-year-olds using "learn to read" software.
C'mon. Obiously it will send the next bunch of letters in the alfabet for the kid to take on. State of the art; no installation manual needed, just what you need in this situation.:-)
I'll make no secret about it; I don't like MD at all. However; despite this opinion I did read up on the article being as open minded as possible. After all; its stupid saying that you feel something isn't that great and repeating that over and over while closing your eyes for any improvement.
Anyway; why on earth does the article only cover the X interface ? Sure its nice to know that MD, before unknown to me, did contribute something and developed stuff like their own configuration tools. But there is way more to Linux then that, and those topics were left out the article IMHO:
Which directory structure does MD use? Still the 1 on 1 copy of RedHat or did they improve it?
Are those configuration tools 'exportable'. i.o.w.; is this something totally focused on MD itself or can users of other distro's take advantage of it as well? (if this isn't the case I would have to retract my earlier remark on contributing)
Are those configuration tools also available on the commandline? A lot of people seem to forget that you really do not need a cpu hog as X when you use Linux as a server.
Last but not least; any special improvements made to RPM ? For example; some script to automate kernel compiles ?
I know, perhaps I'm to much demanding but the article does make it very clear that some distro's completely seem to focus on end-users while there are but a few who also keep the "real" functionality of Linux in mind.
And I still don't like it. Duh, I can remember when I was a kid building nice stuff with lego. My car once went over the edge of the table and that was the end of the fun for me. *boom* and back to the drawing board.
No, Fischertechnic is the way to go IMHO. In the time where lego only featured cars where the 'block wheels' got under a large plate Fischertechnic allready had geers and such to make cars which could actually steer (and I mean like a car where both wheels really turn). IMO Fischertechnic was and still is way ahead.
All IMHO offcourse but the way I see it the band which was mentioned in the article signed a contract but forgot to read the small print. The results can be read in the article and as usual the record company is to blaim.
Perhaps this is a rash judgement but IMHO it is kinda simple. Is there are indeed that much amounts of money flowing which should go the other way (read; people don't follow the rules in the contract) its time to take it to court. And with the amounts mentioned I am convinced that there are more then one attorney who are quite willing to take the case.
The simple fact that they are taking it the other way sort off proofs it to me that this is bogus. Take a blond wearing only a bra and use the latest 'hype' (in this case the whole story around Napster) to spread your complaints about your record company; offcourse blaiming them and in a way 'legalising' napster (read; telling what the 'crowd' wants to hear, at least most of 'm).
Actually this article is a two in one and I can't comment on the second part since I don't use napster myself. Napster is way to insecure for my taste since it doesn't use 1 single port for its transfers (as do dcc on IRC and some other programs). Its an easy security policy on my box and I can live with it. Besides; I don't quite understand the hype anyway. Whenever I goto Audiofind I can easily find mp3's and download them over http or ftp if I want to. And yes; this site isn't 100% to my liking as well since it tries to access port 70 for some reason. But like I said before; its one single port and since I know that there are no processes on my box listening to this port I don't really care.
I disagree. It has been a while since digital TV has been introduced and allthough a lot of people like it, there are also many who do not. Offcourse; basicly its a cheap way of using up all the bandwith you have with a picture which hasn't got the quality off an analog picture but heck; who'll notice? And the good part is you can send even more data with the same amount of bandwith. The only problem you're facing is when the noise kicks in; instead of a 'snowy' picture you'll see square blocks and a still picture.
But there are also people who can distinguish between analog & digital by looking at the screen. Not staring while searching for a square but just looking at the screen. I guess you can say that these people have good eyesight. I often hear criticism like "no still picture", "ugly quality", etc.
Now wonder what will happen if -everybody- could see this? And not just seeing it but you could see the difference as easily as you can with an orange and an apple. Heck; it would mean the end for a lot of television brands, tv stations and cable operators. People would massively demand better quality. And who could blaim 'm with an eyesight like that?
The same goes for mp3 and 'normal' music. Many people, including me, like the medium. But when I want to listen to some real music at home its either tape or vynil for me. I can hear a difference. And I'm convinced that when they develop the perfect hearing it would decrease the mp3 usage by at least one half.
Its not just the consumers, which this article focuses on, who have troubles with this new MS policy. The re-sellers also get a very nice "reward" for helping MS to reach the position they are in now by supplying MS products with the sold computers.
And things can get even worse. In the article I read about a recovery CD. Did it occur to you that some of those qrd's can also run on 1 single computer and nothing else? In other words; I payed for the license to use the software but the vendor also dictates me as to where I can use this software. Call this freedom to do what I want to do? And this isn't even the bottom; I have examples where people didn't even got a recovery CD at all. Windows was copied onto the harddisk (c:\windows\options) and all further driver installations were completed from this directory.
Perhaps you are also wondering what will happen when there is an hardware crash and for some reason Windows needs to be re-installed? I think that this is the worst part. Being a (small) reseller of some consumer products (it isn't core business but we sell laptops and peripherals next to our normal business) this whole development scares me. We are actually being forced into a situation where we can't profile ourselfs to the full extent...
Without any attention to use this as a "commercial"; we focus ourselfs on system administration and believe me; it is very good for my business if a customer has some problem with his hard/soft -ware and when we deliver our products we can fix those as well. The result; client happy, knowing we can provide fast and quick solutions.
For example; some time ago we met someone who had small problems with his network. We checked it out and it turned out that he had no license for Windows NT. Since he wanted to expand we sold him the licence he needed and installed, before he actually had the licenses, some other workstations and in a single day (not 8 hours:)) the customer was very happy and could do even more then before.
And now I fear the future... This customer bought some more hardware from us with the knowledge that if he has a problem we can be very quick in solving it if need be. The truth has changed; when he has some software problem there is no way for us to fix this quickly since we can't grab his CD anymore to do a re-install if needed. We are not allowed to back up his pre-installed software (besides; we don't have the capacity to keep copies of *every* oem we deliver. Talking about working hours here). So basicly; the best thing we can do in situations like that is to take the machine back and send it back to our supplier. Customer unhappy because he can't use his machine for a while, we unhappy because we can't deliver the services we used to and MS very happy I guess because there is more money flowing towards their greedy little hands.
Fortunatly most customers understand this and won't blaim us. And these very same customers now also see through this lie of MS that 'they want the best for their customers' (I had a laugh after experiencing this shit and seeing billy boy talk about how bad it was that the US goverment finally took some action.
The good news... Knowing our reputation some of our customers are now also willing to give the Linux OS a try as a fileserver (for starters) and thinking about letting it grow to more specific and more critical tasks as well. So in a way MS makes his own big anti-commercial allthough this heavily depends on the re-seller. We won't put up with this shit and are also filing complains (as if this works:)) and are looking at other ways to acomplish things. But the rest? I would not be surprised if most resellers don't give a damn. For us our business still is a passion, for most it is just money.
And the answer is.... Epoc32. Allthough I must admit that the Internet connectivity isn't as clear as you mentioned here but in the overall the OS comes very close to your demands.
He's right? Then why didn't Microsoft come up with this instead of another company (Epoc was there before WinCE, another "surprise" (see an earlier post)).
Where is innovation? At Microsoft, mostly. Exercise: compare MS software in 1990 vs MS software today.
But ask yourself this; where are all those companies which invented most of this (if not all) new technology today? Consumed by Microsoft. Take the most recent example; Microsoft is now a major player when it comes to voice control in the software. Surprise, surprise; I happen to remember a company in Belgium which was (very) small but a very strong player on this market sector. And they started an alliance with Microsoft. Today that company is no more and Microsoft presents a new technology.
Innovation? Yeah right... But not in the market sector we are talking about now.
He states that the excitement, the art, of systems research is gone.
And you are truly surprised? C'mon, where lies the fun if all your hard work will be swallowed by one massive "monster" and you can do absolutely *nothing* about it? And to prove this, IMHO, very narrow minded statement totally wrong: If this were true, why is it that there are a lot of people out there who still enjoy developing stuff and actually make progress? Dunno about you guys but I call stuff like finding out how to operate DVD's (read: black boxes) pretty excessive when it comes to system research. If this was no fun, like mentioned, this could not be.
Well, we are both from Europe and on 56k at home so thats easy to talk about;-)
however the box at home has long-since been dist-upgraded to run Debian 'unstable' via another initial CD and thereafter
But is this initial CD one you bought or an ISO? I'm running 2 distro's at home; RedHat on my workstation (I started out with RH some years ago) and Debian on my BBS. My Debian installation went completely from the net through my RedHat (masq) box, even when being on 56k. Thats another reason which based my idea; even despite the 56k factor it didn't take me that long to setup the whole system using dselect. Now I do have to admit that my BBS system isn't running major stuff like X and such (its merely a fido based mailserver which also features all the handy tools of your regular intranet server (mail, web, sql, etc.) but still.. Its functional and it didn't took that much download time.
There's another use for an ISO image - if the distribution doesn't mirror easily, you can grab the whole ISO at a stroke and mount it (-o loop)
This is something on which I don't have much experience but still... I think it can be easier to locate another (faster?) mirror then to download 650Mb of stuff while there is a vast change that you could settle for 300Mb (for example).
But your remark on the Stormix is indeed a good one. Guess I'm forming my ideas while I'm looking a bit to much toward Debian as well:)
I really don't see the need for ISO images for distibutions anymore. Its 650Mb of downloading software which, in most cases, is outtdated anyway. Nowadays every major distibution has options to do a download directly of the Internet so you are sure to install the latest versions of the software.
IMHO there are 3 majorly different Internet users. The homeuser, which we can divide into people who have a cheap connection (they can have a connection open 24/7 without the telephone charge (mainly US & Europeans who have Internet using the cable) and people who are on a dial-up. Then finally you have the corperate users.
The first category doesn't really have to worry about download times so why download 650Mb while you could settle for way less and have the latest version as well. Some friends say that its easier for them so they can quickly do re-installs when they have to but when you're on the net anyway I don't see the difference.
Then the dial-up users face the same problems and they also can benefit from downloading just a small portion instead of the whole ISO. IMHO it would be wiser to focus on making network installations even more easy then they are now.
I don't see why that won't be possible. I guess the only possible limitation could be the size of all the maps you need to store.
The Psion palmtops have this feature for quite some time now; with products like 'street planner' I can install maps of different regions and when I connect a GPS device to the serial port it will show me exactly where I am. The internal Psion 'disk' on my machine is 16Mb (other machines can have 8Mb) which can hold some of the mapdata quite fine (the program is surprisingly small) but I do find an extra flash module (24Mb) a bit more easier to use (ie; more maps you can store)
Further on in the thread I read that the Palm also has a regular serial port so there should be no problem where hardware is concerned.
I'm not a Palm user myself, personally I prefer Psion, but the whole idea of a movement 'scanner' does indeed sound very cool. However; I can't quite understand the part about having to modify your machine in order to allow such an external device to work.
So I wonder; doesn't the Palm have any external ports ? The Psion has a 'full blown' serial port on the back which can be used to attach nearly anything, even devices which are officially meant for PC's.
I know the Palm has been profiled to be more like an organiser then a palmtop (correct me if I'm wrong please) but I'd say that the serial port could be quite essential. Especially for stuff like this.
But offcourse. However, if you installed MySQL using Debian then this is an issue due to the fact that the DEB file holds the very large HTML. Thats why I was asking, I can understand that some consider this to be an issue in their decision on how to install MySQL.
Exactly the same here. Allthough I don't use X that often (I had no need what so ever to upgrade to 4 yet) I do like the fact that the native drivers have a much better performance then the standard svga server (running on a TNT). With performance I mean the screen handeling. I can watch TV on X when I want to and use netscape to watch some graphical sites. Thats about all I use X for; the rest is plain console.
However; even if drivers don't have to be open sourced (IMHO offcourse) I can imagine that people are complaining if some drivers don't function the way they should. But that also depends heavily on taste I guess.
Well, the overall story is true but the details are wrong. Sure; some companies did try to make new machines but take a closer look at those specs & the prices. Compare it with Intel and you'll know what I'm talking about. Only freaks would buy hardware which is much more expensive and not as powerfull as the commonly available hardware.
Maintaining? I don't think so. All the major supporting firms are dropping out even as we speak. Offcourse I don't know about the situation in England (the home of the Acorn machines) but overseas its over. The result being to much cost of ownership and almost no income from computer sales. A brave effort but with no hope.
Very interessting article if you ask me. Allthough I'm starting out using MySQL in combination with my Apache server & PHP I'm allready quite impressed with it. I am, however, wondering how other people feel about the whole implementation of MySQL within the various Linux distibutions around.
I once downloaded the Sybase SQL server, a trial iirc, because the firm where I used to work some years ago did very much with Sybase in combination with Smartstream (database program. duh, thats obvious:)) and I was curious how it would perform on my home-usage Linux machine. I was quite impressed by it. Offcourse I had no way to simulate the workload I had at work but I did like the looks and feel and also the whole installation process felt very good. Oracle on the other hand....:-)
Well, no need to tell that MySQL also impressed me. First started of trying the RPM and after that the tarball soon followed. But now I wonder about 2 things: - After using RedHat I was amazed at the ease in which Debian managed to setup my Apache + MySQL server and the PHP components. Giving this fact alone I would choose for Debian anytime someone would ask me to setup a webserver with a MySQL database. - A little minor IMHO is the massive HTML documentation. Not the size, this can never be big enough, but the size of the single HTML file. It gets nasty when reading it using a browser like Lynx:) But I guess thats also me, nothing stops me from splitting up the file for ease of use.
Back in the old days the Amiga was truly a very powerfull computer. Personally I allways compared it with my trusty c64 (which I still have) which made the Amiga look like an outstanding computer.
Later on I got my PC and now, with a very good middle class PC, when I look back I think the Amiga was but still is one of the best homecomputers around for that time. But face it; its time to realize the era has come to an end. Sure; not for the local user groups around which still have & use the Amiga. But for the general public the Amiga is gone, yesterdays news.
Articles like this may give some of you around hope that, one day, we'll see a new model. Just like the old one with all the features of today's modern computer. It's not going to happen IMHO and to put it even more blunt: be glad !.
Before you hit that reply button: no; this has nothing to do with some 'lame' idea of mine that we should never see an Amiga again. On the contrary; I think that if we do the Amiga will truly die. Imagine this; there will be another Amiga but unfortunatly the firm which is making them uses a complete other line up then Commodore once used to do. The result being a computer you would not even let your dog get near to because if someone associates the dog with yourself your career is truly over. Do you think that will benefit the Amiga?
"It won't happen". Duh, guess again. Chances are pretty good that it will. Does anyone know the Acorn Archimedes? In its own time (around the 286) it was way ahead of its time, it did things which just became possible when the PC architecture reached 386+ and the 486. Now I ask you; before reading this article did the name "Archimedes" ring a bell?
Like I said; its an Acorn computer (British brand) which was in a later stage sold to Olivetti. The latter just used the technology (I guess) but even despite the rumours there would never be any new model. The "latest" design (few years back) was just more of the same. Period. The result; the Archimedes still lives on. Sure, not for the major public but for its fans. Heck; I've even seen Archie's running stuff like Linux & Win95 and no; we are not talking Intel based computers here. Nor DOS based and/or whatever there is out there.
The machine does not have to live up to its name. Its an Archimedes and thats basicly it. If these boys want to keep the Amiga alive they'll do the same. If they don't I'll bet it will be the end for the Amiga. Don't get me wrong here; I would not like this outcome as well.
Finally an article in which the Europeans have a little more insight views:-)
Anyway, I can't wait untill this article gets out. I have a subscription to the Dutch version of C'T (note the ', if we don't use it some lame Dutch "magazine" will think we mean them) and I buy the German one from time to time. The C'T itself is one of the more clued magazines around. It's one of the very few who are doing Linux articles (and more offcourse) which date even back to before the major hype. Personally I think you can best compare the C'T with a Byte but with less advertisement & more clued stories.
Therefore I think its only fair that they get to do such a big (guess it will be big) story about Transmeta. And be assured that if C'T does a story it will be a fair story. Stupid things will be called stupid and vica versa.
If you don't have a subscription I'd really advice you to try an issue. You won't be dissapointed. Unless you can't read German (or Dutch) offcourse:-).
Sure, its a very bad sign when blocking software (which is a good thing IMHO) like this somehow turn into tools of censorship (which can be very bad allthough blocking is a form of censorship itself).
But now I really wonder if this whole idiocy (the whole going on isn't nice to put it mildly) will have the impact this article makes us think. Sure; this software will block out sites which don't have to be blocked. True enough. But lets not just focus on the software itself but also on the people who let themselves be blocked.
I'm quite sure that people who allready bought and/or use this software won't really care anymore about articles like this. Once a company makes a certain step it can take quite some effort before they decide to backtrack and go for something else. On the other hand; people who don't use this software (yet) will care. After all; they are consumers looking for a good and dependend program. This is the real issue and these folks won't be stopped by this software to stop reading about flaws and other points of interest.
On the contrary; by pulling stupid stunts like this they are "breaking their own windows" (Dutch saying, basicly it means that they're hurting themselves more then the ones they're after).
Face it; I'm a system administrator myself. Stories like this aren't exactly inviting me to try out this garbage. On the contrary; after seeing this crap in action I put it on my personal software blacklist. The list of software I should not get & companies I should not trust.
If you ask me Corel is climbing the ladder of Linux supporting companies quite well. And I would not be at all surprised if Corel would once become a company which gives the most support to Linux in a commercial way. At this point I would even rate them a little bit higher then RH myself.
IMHO they are beginning to take Linux even more serious then they did when releasing WP 8. WP 8 was very functional and it was a very good move to release it for free. I wonder how many people actually downloaded and/or bought WP 8 for Linux.
But I guess they feel the market is big enough to release a commercial release only (unfortunatly I'm not 100% sure here due to the/. effect) which shows to me that the Linux market is indeed growing and becoming a major player.
Linux not ready for the desktop? I still agree on that point but movements like this are sure pushing it in the right direction.
I got to admit not reading the article itself (yet) because I got this eerie feeling of wasting time and reading some cheap tabloid-like article.
However, I would like to make one single comment. If this headline were true then how on earth can a program like PGP be as secure as it is even when they released their source code?
These guys still live in the stone age if you ask me. Back then you could hack a dBase database just by taking a closer look at the Clipper source code. Times have changed; guess its time to read up and get a clue.
Sure, more storage capacity means we can do & store more data which is good news I guess. But storage expansion also means software developing companies can use even more marges for their software sizes.
Take a look at Windows; back in the old days it was big (I crammed 1.0 onto 2 5.25" disks which made it a 'smaller' (not needed) menu) but when storage capacity increased so did the Windows environment as did other software.
20Mb should be more then enough. Heck; if you want to use a NT workstation with some developing environments & graphical applications 1Gb can be a very small space.
But did all this extra capacity really made the software better then it was before? I doubt it. Therefor I think it will be really interesting to see when the datacapacity-expansion is coming to an end.
Offcourse, there will be virus plague within the Linux community. Not in the form of software as this clueless^H^H^Hwriter describes, thats impossible for decently setup systems, but just more stories like this.
Repeat this nonesense often enough and you will have newbies believe in it. After that it will take not that long before it is a commonly accepted fact.
Therefor I believe the writer is right about this prediction since he is one of the many who is trying to make it come true.
This article gives me the impression that you can expect that everything you write could be publicly available for anyone to know.
Then I wonder how anyone can find out without violating my privacy (non-email) ? Supose someone sue's our firm and I just wrote an email (whether internal or external) to a collegue in which I describe the person being a jerk.
So? How the heck could this be a major problem for me? If the person doesn't know about the email I really wonder how he could convince the judge that this email contains evidince which is really vital for his cause and that in order to get it he should be allowed to access my computer. Yeah right.
The only way this could be a problem IMHO is in a situation where this person gets some inside information. Its the only way he can know about the existence of this valuable information.
OR I am missing a major factor; the difference between European and US laws. However, difference or not, I can't imagine that a judge will give another person access to my PC just because he thinks (hopes) to find evidence.
Slashdot Mirror
C'mon. Obiously it will send the next bunch of letters in the alfabet for the kid to take on. State of the art; no installation manual needed, just what you need in this situation. :-)
Anyway; why on earth does the article only cover the X interface ? Sure its nice to know that MD, before unknown to me, did contribute something and developed stuff like their own configuration tools. But there is way more to Linux then that, and those topics were left out the article IMHO:
Which directory structure does MD use? Still the 1 on 1 copy of RedHat or did they improve it?
Are those configuration tools 'exportable'. i.o.w.; is this something totally focused on MD itself or can users of other distro's take advantage of it as well? (if this isn't the case I would have to retract my earlier remark on contributing)
Are those configuration tools also available on the commandline? A lot of people seem to forget that you really do not need a cpu hog as X when you use Linux as a server.
Last but not least; any special improvements made to RPM ? For example; some script to automate kernel compiles ?
I know, perhaps I'm to much demanding but the article does make it very clear that some distro's completely seem to focus on end-users while there are but a few who also keep the "real" functionality of Linux in mind.
No, Fischertechnic is the way to go IMHO. In the time where lego only featured cars where the 'block wheels' got under a large plate Fischertechnic allready had geers and such to make cars which could actually steer (and I mean like a car where both wheels really turn). IMO Fischertechnic was and still is way ahead.
Perhaps this is a rash judgement but IMHO it is kinda simple. Is there are indeed that much amounts of money flowing which should go the other way (read; people don't follow the rules in the contract) its time to take it to court. And with the amounts mentioned I am convinced that there are more then one attorney who are quite willing to take the case.
The simple fact that they are taking it the other way sort off proofs it to me that this is bogus. Take a blond wearing only a bra and use the latest 'hype' (in this case the whole story around Napster) to spread your complaints about your record company; offcourse blaiming them and in a way 'legalising' napster (read; telling what the 'crowd' wants to hear, at least most of 'm).
Actually this article is a two in one and I can't comment on the second part since I don't use napster myself. Napster is way to insecure for my taste since it doesn't use 1 single port for its transfers (as do dcc on IRC and some other programs). Its an easy security policy on my box and I can live with it. Besides; I don't quite understand the hype anyway. Whenever I goto Audiofind I can easily find mp3's and download them over http or ftp if I want to. And yes; this site isn't 100% to my liking as well since it tries to access port 70 for some reason. But like I said before; its one single port and since I know that there are no processes on my box listening to this port I don't really care.
But there are also people who can distinguish between analog & digital by looking at the screen. Not staring while searching for a square but just looking at the screen. I guess you can say that these people have good eyesight. I often hear criticism like "no still picture", "ugly quality", etc.
Now wonder what will happen if -everybody- could see this? And not just seeing it but you could see the difference as easily as you can with an orange and an apple. Heck; it would mean the end for a lot of television brands, tv stations and cable operators. People would massively demand better quality. And who could blaim 'm with an eyesight like that?
The same goes for mp3 and 'normal' music. Many people, including me, like the medium. But when I want to listen to some real music at home its either tape or vynil for me. I can hear a difference. And I'm convinced that when they develop the perfect hearing it would decrease the mp3 usage by at least one half.
And things can get even worse. In the article I read about a recovery CD. Did it occur to you that some of those qrd's can also run on 1 single computer and nothing else? In other words; I payed for the license to use the software but the vendor also dictates me as to where I can use this software. Call this freedom to do what I want to do? And this isn't even the bottom; I have examples where people didn't even got a recovery CD at all. Windows was copied onto the harddisk (c:\windows\options) and all further driver installations were completed from this directory.
Perhaps you are also wondering what will happen when there is an hardware crash and for some reason Windows needs to be re-installed? I think that this is the worst part. Being a (small) reseller of some consumer products (it isn't core business but we sell laptops and peripherals next to our normal business) this whole development scares me. We are actually being forced into a situation where we can't profile ourselfs to the full extent...
Without any attention to use this as a "commercial"; we focus ourselfs on system administration and believe me; it is very good for my business if a customer has some problem with his hard/soft -ware and when we deliver our products we can fix those as well. The result; client happy, knowing we can provide fast and quick solutions.
For example; some time ago we met someone who had small problems with his network. We checked it out and it turned out that he had no license for Windows NT. Since he wanted to expand we sold him the licence he needed and installed, before he actually had the licenses, some other workstations and in a single day (not 8 hours :)) the customer was very happy and could do even more then before.
And now I fear the future... This customer bought some more hardware from us with the knowledge that if he has a problem we can be very quick in solving it if need be. The truth has changed; when he has some software problem there is no way for us to fix this quickly since we can't grab his CD anymore to do a re-install if needed. We are not allowed to back up his pre-installed software (besides; we don't have the capacity to keep copies of *every* oem we deliver. Talking about working hours here). So basicly; the best thing we can do in situations like that is to take the machine back and send it back to our supplier. Customer unhappy because he can't use his machine for a while, we unhappy because we can't deliver the services we used to and MS very happy I guess because there is more money flowing towards their greedy little hands.
Fortunatly most customers understand this and won't blaim us. And these very same customers now also see through this lie of MS that 'they want the best for their customers' (I had a laugh after experiencing this shit and seeing billy boy talk about how bad it was that the US goverment finally took some action.
The good news... Knowing our reputation some of our customers are now also willing to give the Linux OS a try as a fileserver (for starters) and thinking about letting it grow to more specific and more critical tasks as well. So in a way MS makes his own big anti-commercial allthough this heavily depends on the re-seller. We won't put up with this shit and are also filing complains (as if this works :)) and are looking at other ways to acomplish things. But the rest? I would not be surprised if most resellers don't give a damn. For us our business still is a passion, for most it is just money.
He's right? Then why didn't Microsoft come up with this instead of another company (Epoc was there before WinCE, another "surprise" (see an earlier post)).
But ask yourself this; where are all those companies which invented most of this (if not all) new technology today? Consumed by Microsoft. Take the most recent example; Microsoft is now a major player when it comes to voice control in the software. Surprise, surprise; I happen to remember a company in Belgium which was (very) small but a very strong player on this market sector. And they started an alliance with Microsoft. Today that company is no more and Microsoft presents a new technology.
Innovation? Yeah right... But not in the market sector we are talking about now.
He states that the excitement, the art, of systems research is gone.
And you are truly surprised? C'mon, where lies the fun if all your hard work will be swallowed by one massive "monster" and you can do absolutely *nothing* about it? And to prove this, IMHO, very narrow minded statement totally wrong: If this were true, why is it that there are a lot of people out there who still enjoy developing stuff and actually make progress? Dunno about you guys but I call stuff like finding out how to operate DVD's (read: black boxes) pretty excessive when it comes to system research. If this was no fun, like mentioned, this could not be.
however the box at home has long-since been dist-upgraded to run Debian 'unstable' via another initial CD and thereafter
But is this initial CD one you bought or an ISO? I'm running 2 distro's at home; RedHat on my workstation (I started out with RH some years ago) and Debian on my BBS. My Debian installation went completely from the net through my RedHat (masq) box, even when being on 56k. Thats another reason which based my idea; even despite the 56k factor it didn't take me that long to setup the whole system using dselect. Now I do have to admit that my BBS system isn't running major stuff like X and such (its merely a fido based mailserver which also features all the handy tools of your regular intranet server (mail, web, sql, etc.) but still.. Its functional and it didn't took that much download time.
There's another use for an ISO image - if the distribution doesn't mirror easily, you can grab the whole ISO at a stroke and mount it (-o loop)
This is something on which I don't have much experience but still... I think it can be easier to locate another (faster?) mirror then to download 650Mb of stuff while there is a vast change that you could settle for 300Mb (for example).
But your remark on the Stormix is indeed a good one. Guess I'm forming my ideas while I'm looking a bit to much toward Debian as well :)
IMHO there are 3 majorly different Internet users. The homeuser, which we can divide into people who have a cheap connection (they can have a connection open 24/7 without the telephone charge (mainly US & Europeans who have Internet using the cable) and people who are on a dial-up. Then finally you have the corperate users.
The first category doesn't really have to worry about download times so why download 650Mb while you could settle for way less and have the latest version as well. Some friends say that its easier for them so they can quickly do re-installs when they have to but when you're on the net anyway I don't see the difference.
Then the dial-up users face the same problems and they also can benefit from downloading just a small portion instead of the whole ISO. IMHO it would be wiser to focus on making network installations even more easy then they are now.
The Psion palmtops have this feature for quite some time now; with products like 'street planner' I can install maps of different regions and when I connect a GPS device to the serial port it will show me exactly where I am. The internal Psion 'disk' on my machine is 16Mb (other machines can have 8Mb) which can hold some of the mapdata quite fine (the program is surprisingly small) but I do find an extra flash module (24Mb) a bit more easier to use (ie; more maps you can store)
Further on in the thread I read that the Palm also has a regular serial port so there should be no problem where hardware is concerned.
So I wonder; doesn't the Palm have any external ports ? The Psion has a 'full blown' serial port on the back which can be used to attach nearly anything, even devices which are officially meant for PC's.
I know the Palm has been profiled to be more like an organiser then a palmtop (correct me if I'm wrong please) but I'd say that the serial port could be quite essential. Especially for stuff like this.
But offcourse. However, if you installed MySQL using Debian then this is an issue due to the fact that the DEB file holds the very large HTML. Thats why I was asking, I can understand that some consider this to be an issue in their decision on how to install MySQL.
However; even if drivers don't have to be open sourced (IMHO offcourse) I can imagine that people are complaining if some drivers don't function the way they should. But that also depends heavily on taste I guess.
Maintaining? I don't think so. All the major supporting firms are dropping out even as we speak. Offcourse I don't know about the situation in England (the home of the Acorn machines) but overseas its over. The result being to much cost of ownership and almost no income from computer sales. A brave effort but with no hope.
I once downloaded the Sybase SQL server, a trial iirc, because the firm where I used to work some years ago did very much with Sybase in combination with Smartstream (database program. duh, thats obvious :)) and I was curious how it would perform on my home-usage Linux machine. I was quite impressed by it. Offcourse I had no way to simulate the workload I had at work but I did like the looks and feel and also the whole installation process felt very good. Oracle on the other hand.... :-)
Well, no need to tell that MySQL also impressed me. First started of trying the RPM and after that the tarball soon followed. But now I wonder about 2 things: :) But I guess thats also me, nothing stops me from splitting up the file for ease of use.
- After using RedHat I was amazed at the ease in which Debian managed to setup my Apache + MySQL server and the PHP components. Giving this fact alone I would choose for Debian anytime someone would ask me to setup a webserver with a MySQL database.
- A little minor IMHO is the massive HTML documentation. Not the size, this can never be big enough, but the size of the single HTML file. It gets nasty when reading it using a browser like Lynx
Later on I got my PC and now, with a very good middle class PC, when I look back I think the Amiga was but still is one of the best homecomputers around for that time. But face it; its time to realize the era has come to an end. Sure; not for the local user groups around which still have & use the Amiga. But for the general public the Amiga is gone, yesterdays news.
Articles like this may give some of you around hope that, one day, we'll see a new model. Just like the old one with all the features of today's modern computer. It's not going to happen IMHO and to put it even more blunt: be glad !.
Before you hit that reply button: no; this has nothing to do with some 'lame' idea of mine that we should never see an Amiga again. On the contrary; I think that if we do the Amiga will truly die. Imagine this; there will be another Amiga but unfortunatly the firm which is making them uses a complete other line up then Commodore once used to do. The result being a computer you would not even let your dog get near to because if someone associates the dog with yourself your career is truly over. Do you think that will benefit the Amiga?
"It won't happen". Duh, guess again. Chances are pretty good that it will. Does anyone know the Acorn Archimedes? In its own time (around the 286) it was way ahead of its time, it did things which just became possible when the PC architecture reached 386+ and the 486. Now I ask you; before reading this article did the name "Archimedes" ring a bell?
Like I said; its an Acorn computer (British brand) which was in a later stage sold to Olivetti. The latter just used the technology (I guess) but even despite the rumours there would never be any new model. The "latest" design (few years back) was just more of the same. Period. The result; the Archimedes still lives on. Sure, not for the major public but for its fans. Heck; I've even seen Archie's running stuff like Linux & Win95 and no; we are not talking Intel based computers here. Nor DOS based and/or whatever there is out there.
The machine does not have to live up to its name. Its an Archimedes and thats basicly it. If these boys want to keep the Amiga alive they'll do the same. If they don't I'll bet it will be the end for the Amiga. Don't get me wrong here; I would not like this outcome as well.
Anyway, I can't wait untill this article gets out. I have a subscription to the Dutch version of C'T (note the ', if we don't use it some lame Dutch "magazine" will think we mean them) and I buy the German one from time to time. The C'T itself is one of the more clued magazines around. It's one of the very few who are doing Linux articles (and more offcourse) which date even back to before the major hype. Personally I think you can best compare the C'T with a Byte but with less advertisement & more clued stories.
Therefore I think its only fair that they get to do such a big (guess it will be big) story about Transmeta. And be assured that if C'T does a story it will be a fair story. Stupid things will be called stupid and vica versa.
If you don't have a subscription I'd really advice you to try an issue. You won't be dissapointed. Unless you can't read German (or Dutch) offcourse :-).
But now I really wonder if this whole idiocy (the whole going on isn't nice to put it mildly) will have the impact this article makes us think. Sure; this software will block out sites which don't have to be blocked. True enough. But lets not just focus on the software itself but also on the people who let themselves be blocked.
I'm quite sure that people who allready bought and/or use this software won't really care anymore about articles like this. Once a company makes a certain step it can take quite some effort before they decide to backtrack and go for something else. On the other hand; people who don't use this software (yet) will care. After all; they are consumers looking for a good and dependend program. This is the real issue and these folks won't be stopped by this software to stop reading about flaws and other points of interest.
On the contrary; by pulling stupid stunts like this they are "breaking their own windows" (Dutch saying, basicly it means that they're hurting themselves more then the ones they're after).
Face it; I'm a system administrator myself. Stories like this aren't exactly inviting me to try out this garbage. On the contrary; after seeing this crap in action I put it on my personal software blacklist. The list of software I should not get & companies I should not trust.
IMHO they are beginning to take Linux even more serious then they did when releasing WP 8. WP 8 was very functional and it was a very good move to release it for free. I wonder how many people actually downloaded and/or bought WP 8 for Linux.
But I guess they feel the market is big enough to release a commercial release only (unfortunatly I'm not 100% sure here due to the /. effect) which shows to me that the Linux market is indeed growing and becoming a major player.
Linux not ready for the desktop? I still agree on that point but movements like this are sure pushing it in the right direction.
However, I would like to make one single comment. If this headline were true then how on earth can a program like PGP be as secure as it is even when they released their source code?
These guys still live in the stone age if you ask me. Back then you could hack a dBase database just by taking a closer look at the Clipper source code. Times have changed; guess its time to read up and get a clue.
Take a look at Windows; back in the old days it was big (I crammed 1.0 onto 2 5.25" disks which made it a 'smaller' (not needed) menu) but when storage capacity increased so did the Windows environment as did other software.
20Mb should be more then enough. Heck; if you want to use a NT workstation with some developing environments & graphical applications 1Gb can be a very small space.
But did all this extra capacity really made the software better then it was before? I doubt it. Therefor I think it will be really interesting to see when the datacapacity-expansion is coming to an end.
Repeat this nonesense often enough and you will have newbies believe in it. After that it will take not that long before it is a commonly accepted fact.
Therefor I believe the writer is right about this prediction since he is one of the many who is trying to make it come true.
Then I wonder how anyone can find out without violating my privacy (non-email) ? Supose someone sue's our firm and I just wrote an email (whether internal or external) to a collegue in which I describe the person being a jerk.
So? How the heck could this be a major problem for me? If the person doesn't know about the email I really wonder how he could convince the judge that this email contains evidince which is really vital for his cause and that in order to get it he should be allowed to access my computer. Yeah right.
The only way this could be a problem IMHO is in a situation where this person gets some inside information. Its the only way he can know about the existence of this valuable information.
OR I am missing a major factor; the difference between European and US laws. However, difference or not, I can't imagine that a judge will give another person access to my PC just because he thinks (hopes) to find evidence.
I never looked at it like that. Hmm, time to sue ? :-)