It was a parody published by either the Harvard Lampoon or the National Lampoon. I have a copy in paperback someplace, ran about 100 pages. The one thing I remember most was "Legolas" was known as "Legolamb".
Microsoft has $40B in the bank and is still making money like they have a license to print it.
The Linux vendors have fallen to beg mode, "please give us money or we will vanish" (Mandrake). VA Linux Labs, now VA Software (stock symbol: LNUX) says "We are in no way a Linux company - we are a proprietary software company". Red Hat made a $300K profit last quarter, first ever, on a market cap of about $1B, what a complete joke.
Yes, yes, we have Apache, we have MySQL, we have numerous charity cases, but there is no way in hell that this has been a "great year" for Linux. If you can't make a buck, you can't eat, and sooner or later, you will stop breathing.
In the meantime, Borg-like entities like IBM (for Christ's sake) are adopting Linux (should I say "swallowing up Linux"?) and this is somehow a twisted victory for "the cause".
... are so much pure bullshit I can't believe this guy continues to contribute/moderate "news" for slashdot.
What an ass. I assume he is about 15 years old.
Re:I was hoping they would wait.
on
New Red Hat Beta
·
· Score: 1
Yes, well with the awful RH 8.0 "Blue Wave" GUI, KDE and Gnome look just and act just about exactly like each other (which I guess was the plan), who cares when KDE 3.1 is available? RH has pretty much de-nutted their desktop anyway.
This, more than anything, has me giving RH the heave-ho and moving on to either Gentoo or just flat out rolling my own distro for my own development and use.
I always find this kind of subject amazing. Examine the realities of the situation:
(1) If the author has given the source away in the past, there is little commercial gain to be had by someone selling a compiled binary. Ergo, Network Associates can't make a go of it.
(2) If a commercial company (with money in the bank) owns the IP to a piece of software there is no (repeat, NO) incentive to release the source or the binary for free. Why you ask? Because some slimebag somewhere will sue their ass if they think (1) they've been wronged, and (2) the IP owner has money in the bank. This is less of a risk of you are selling the IP, too much risk if you are giving it away.
Are you insane? They have what is probably the most mature and complete Win32 OpenGL driver on the planet, and currently their hardware has the best bang for the buck on the Win32 OpenGL desktop.
If you purchase something from a vendor in a state where your company has a nexus then the vendor should charge you sales tax. If the vendor did not, the vendor is eventually going to get nailed for back taxes.
If you purchase something from a vendor in a state where your company does not have a nexus, most states will require you to pay a "use tax", which is normally charged at the same rate as the state sales tax. This is simply a way for states to get their sales tax revenue from "mail order" sales.
The fact that a purchase was initiated via an internet connection rather than a phone call or fax makes absolutely ZERO difference to the state tax man.
It sounds like the company in the original post was not filing a use tax return, or was exempting internet purchases from their use tax return. The bean counter should have known better.
... in the Sony store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago just two weeks ago. Very impressive.
That said, this is very much a first generation, low resolution device. It only accepts NTSC video - no S-Video or computer output. A 52" display may be the calculated virtual size, but don't kid yourself. It looks like you are watching a movie through binoculars.
That said, when the second or third generation comes around and they get this right, this will be THE WAY to watch porno flicks and play video games.
"It doesn't have install scripts or help or even comments in the code."
Anybody that develops any kind of software that does anything useful _and_ does not comment it so that should the original developer drop dead someone else might be able to understand it is either a young dumbass with no mature development skills or and old dumbass that should know better. The excuses "We're in a big hurry!" or "I'll comment the code later after it works right" are not acceptable.
Software in the Open Source movement must be BETTER than the commercial stuff in the "coding style and comments" category, because the source will ultimately be inspected by both friends and foes of the Open Source movement alike. If the source looks like spaghetti code shit, it makes the reality of Open Source software start to look like spaghetti code shit.
Now that $Linux$ is such a hot commodity, more and more commercial software companies will start releasing products for the market and hiring away open source developers.
- The software won't come with source
- The software will be expensive
- RMS and many others will BITCH BITCH BITCH
Congratulations - you wanted Linux to be popular? Well know it is, and the rules are going to change. All this "free stuff" is slowly going to start going away...
First: Miller Freeman bought almost all the PC programming magazines in the mid '90s (Dr Dobbs, Computer Language, C Users Journal, etc) then jacked up the advertising rates... many of the small shops (including mine) fled over time, and the circulation numbers became stagnet.
Second: Along came the net, and net based 'Zines (including BluesNews, Slashdot, you name it) which made a traditional magazine, with a two month publication leadtime, dead meat.
So, there you have it. A POX on Miller Freeman's house, who screwed up the deal initially by being greedy - that's what really started the downward trend in software development mags.
Now - a question for the Slashdot hordes: what's your favorite development news website? Enquiring minds want to know!
Jesus Christ... that is a _ton_ of money for a fricking GUI library, and I say that coming from a DOS/Win16/Win32 background where we are used to spending real money for tools. $1550 is just crazy... we spent less than that for our VAX Pascal compiler back in the "good old days".
How about $295? They need to think "volume" - "discount it and they will come".
If Miguel sells his apps, he's not going to let you pass your copy on to other people. If he makes his money from sales, he can't let you do that - it ultimately destroys his revenue stream.
>>> Money doesn't come into it...
Money comes into _every_ equation, unless your planet doesn't use it. This one (earth) does.
If you sell software, sometimes with source (in the case of developer's controls/libraries) and provide free technical support, you are a commercial bad guy who doesn't "get it".
Give software away, sometimes with source, but charge $$$ for each technical support question/incident, you are a open source angel with nothing but good vibes and intentions for all mankind.
It seems like one of these business models promotes shipping stable useful code, and one of these models only makes money when users have problems.
I think you're the only person out of the whole crowd that really "gets it".
Linux may be a great server, and fabulous bang for the buck, but the desktop currently is *hopeless*, and two competing desktop GUIs will make sure it stays that way for many moons.
System Commander (about $50) will do this for you perfectly. We've got a box here that will boot all the Win32 flavors & MSDOS from one partition, and Linux (RH 6) from another partition, all via System Commander.
No, its not Free or Open Source - you have to buy it.
... which means for backups and essential archives these things are bad news. I've had several CD-RW disks get corrupted, and there seems to be no version of something like "Norton Utilities" for CD-RW media.
If you've got a CD-RW drive, then you also have a CD-R burner. At well under a USA buck a blank these days, do yourself a favor and just blow out your backups and archival datasets out to a CD-R disk, which you'll be able to read later on just about any CDROM drive on the planet.
Slashdot Mirror
It was a parody published by either the Harvard Lampoon or the National Lampoon. I have a copy in paperback someplace, ran about 100 pages. The one thing I remember most was "Legolas" was known as "Legolamb".
About 1973 I think.
Microsoft has $40B in the bank and is still making money like they have a license to print it.
The Linux vendors have fallen to beg mode, "please give us money or we will vanish" (Mandrake). VA Linux Labs, now VA Software (stock symbol: LNUX) says "We are in no way a Linux company - we are a proprietary software company". Red Hat made a $300K profit last quarter, first ever, on a market cap of about $1B, what a complete joke.
Yes, yes, we have Apache, we have MySQL, we have numerous charity cases, but there is no way in hell that this has been a "great year" for Linux. If you can't make a buck, you can't eat, and sooner or later, you will stop breathing.
In the meantime, Borg-like entities like IBM (for Christ's sake) are adopting Linux (should I say "swallowing up Linux"?) and this is somehow a twisted victory for "the cause".
I want to throw up.
That's what everyone said about Windows 3.0. The Mac would rule, right?
... are so much pure bullshit I can't believe this guy continues to contribute/moderate "news" for slashdot.
What an ass. I assume he is about 15 years old.
Yes, well with the awful RH 8.0 "Blue Wave" GUI, KDE and Gnome look just and act just about exactly like each other (which I guess was the plan), who cares when KDE 3.1 is available? RH has pretty much de-nutted their desktop anyway.
This, more than anything, has me giving RH the heave-ho and moving on to either Gentoo or just flat out rolling my own distro for my own development and use.
Got a job? No time for Blog!
Shit, I shoulda been a rappin guy!
I always find this kind of subject amazing. Examine the realities of the situation:
(1) If the author has given the source away in the past, there is little commercial gain to be had by someone selling a compiled binary. Ergo, Network Associates can't make a go of it.
(2) If a commercial company (with money in the bank) owns the IP to a piece of software there is no (repeat, NO) incentive to release the source or the binary for free. Why you ask? Because some slimebag somewhere will sue their ass if they think (1) they've been wronged, and (2) the IP owner has money in the bank. This is less of a risk of you are selling the IP, too much risk if you are giving it away.
C'mon guys, and Phil, wise up.
Craftsman is the best hardware brand, ask anyone.
Nvidia not so great with OpenGL?
Are you insane? They have what is probably the most mature and complete Win32 OpenGL driver on the planet, and currently their hardware has the best bang for the buck on the Win32 OpenGL desktop.
If you purchase something from a vendor in a state where your company has a nexus then the vendor should charge you sales tax. If the vendor did not, the vendor is eventually going to get nailed for back taxes.
If you purchase something from a vendor in a state where your company does not have a nexus, most states will require you to pay a "use tax", which is normally charged at the same rate as the state sales tax. This is simply a way for states to get their sales tax revenue from "mail order" sales.
The fact that a purchase was initiated via an internet connection rather than a phone call or fax makes absolutely ZERO difference to the state tax man.
It sounds like the company in the original post was not filing a use tax return, or was exempting internet purchases from their use tax return. The bean counter should have known better.
Sorry guys ...
... in the Sony store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago just two weeks ago. Very impressive.
That said, this is very much a first generation, low resolution device. It only accepts NTSC video - no S-Video or computer output. A 52" display may be the calculated virtual size, but don't kid yourself. It looks like you are watching a movie through binoculars.
That said, when the second or third generation comes around and they get this right, this will be THE WAY to watch porno flicks and play video games.
You guys said:
"It doesn't have install scripts or help or even comments in the code."
Anybody that develops any kind of software that does anything useful _and_ does not comment it so that should the original developer drop dead someone else might be able to understand it is either a young dumbass with no mature development skills or and old dumbass that should know better. The excuses "We're in a big hurry!" or "I'll comment the code later after it works right" are not acceptable.
Software in the Open Source movement must be BETTER than the commercial stuff in the "coding style and comments" category, because the source will ultimately be inspected by both friends and foes of the Open Source movement alike. If the source looks like spaghetti code shit, it makes the reality of Open Source software start to look like spaghetti code shit.
I shit you not.
Hey Smart Guy!
It should be "You're an idiot".
Rob Malda is Yet Another Guy who made a million bucks off of Linux ...
Now that $Linux$ is such a hot commodity, more and more commercial software companies will start releasing products for the market and hiring away open source developers.
...
- The software won't come with source
- The software will be expensive
- RMS and many others will BITCH BITCH BITCH
Congratulations - you wanted Linux to be popular? Well know it is, and the rules are going to change. All this "free stuff" is slowly going to start going away
First: Miller Freeman bought almost all the PC programming magazines in the mid '90s (Dr Dobbs, Computer Language, C Users Journal, etc) then jacked up the advertising rates ... many of the small shops (including mine) fled over time, and the circulation numbers became stagnet.
Second: Along came the net, and net based 'Zines (including BluesNews, Slashdot, you name it) which made a traditional magazine, with a two month publication leadtime, dead meat.
So, there you have it. A POX on Miller Freeman's house, who screwed up the deal initially by being greedy - that's what really started the downward trend in software development mags.
Now - a question for the Slashdot hordes: what's your favorite development news website? Enquiring minds want to know!
Jesus Christ ... that is a _ton_ of money for a fricking GUI library, and I say that coming from a DOS/Win16/Win32 background where we are used to spending real money for tools. $1550 is just crazy ... we spent less than that for our VAX Pascal compiler back in the "good old days".
... no way. Let's clone it.
How about $295? They need to think "volume" - "discount it and they will come".
$1550
>>> If miguel sells his apps ...
If Miguel sells his apps, he's not going to let you pass your copy on to other people. If he makes his money from sales, he can't let you do that - it ultimately destroys his revenue stream.
>>> Money doesn't come into it...
Money comes into _every_ equation, unless your planet doesn't use it. This one (earth) does.
If you sell software, sometimes with source (in the case of developer's controls/libraries) and provide free technical support, you are a commercial bad guy who doesn't "get it".
Give software away, sometimes with source, but charge $$$ for each technical support question/incident, you are a open source angel with nothing but good vibes and intentions for all mankind.
It seems like one of these business models promotes shipping stable useful code, and one of these models only makes money when users have problems.
Am I missing something here?
This is my big hope for the 21st Century. Mustard too.
I think you're the only person out of the whole crowd that really "gets it".
Linux may be a great server, and fabulous bang for the buck, but the desktop currently is *hopeless*, and two competing desktop GUIs will make sure it stays that way for many moons.
System Commander (about $50) will do this for you perfectly. We've got a box here that will boot all the Win32 flavors & MSDOS from one partition, and Linux (RH 6) from another partition, all via System Commander.
No, its not Free or Open Source - you have to buy it.
... which means for backups and essential archives these things are bad news. I've had several CD-RW disks get corrupted, and there seems to be no version of something like "Norton Utilities" for CD-RW media.
If you've got a CD-RW drive, then you also have a CD-R burner. At well under a USA buck a blank these days, do yourself a favor and just blow out your backups and archival datasets out to a CD-R disk, which you'll be able to read later on just about any CDROM drive on the planet.