Re:Liberty?? Passport??? Plan 9????
on
Passport vs. Plan 9
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· Score: 2, Funny
Yeah, really! Having a zillion different Grand Unified Logon services is totally going to make them worthless.
I mean, look at how many different 'Adult Verification Service' (AVS) accounts you need, just to visit more than one or two porn sites! AdultLogin, AgeTicket, AdultCheck, SexSentry, and so on and so on and so on.
Actually, I'd go more with ID software. Write to a real standard, make some excellent games, sell them to whoever wants them regardless of their platform of choice, and whistle a merry tune all the way to the sportscar dealership.
Sure, Carmack himself will tell you non-windows dollars are a pittance comparatively, but ID is also, through sound technical decisions, positioned to keep making cutting-edge products completely regardless of how those same percentages look next year, or in five.
(If you want to mod me offtopic, I can't complain -- I am offtopic. But I really want to say this.)
It isn't open/free alternatives that should be keeping TransGaming up at nights. It is their own business model.
First of all, they are trying to succeed where Loki failed by doing this in emulation (wine fork). What they failed to notice was... this is an old, old mistake that's been made before (ten years before) by MUCH bigger fish (IBM). Anyone remember Win-OS2? (Embedded bank systems aside,) OS/2 is dead, and (marketing failures notwithstanding) windows emulation is the smoking gun. Whatever else Loki might've done wrong, native porting was one thing they did right -- plus, we now have wonderful things like SDL and SMPEG and so on, to show for it. What TransGaming is likely to achieve is to fracture game developer mindshare the same way IBM fractured application developer mindshare, and thus damage linux. All while trying to turn a fast buck on the proposition. Gee, thanks.
If that were all, that'd be bad enough. But let's explore further. Their pricing model is subscription-based. How much wailing and gnashing of teeth have you seen right here on this very site, as regards Microsoft's subscription initiatives? As much as I have, I'm sure, and the anti-MS theme inherent in slashdot aside, I don't think they're wrong. Subscription model software exists to screw the consumer right in the backside (read: wallet) and until someone comes up with a better idea (usage-based pricing?), then I for one hope subscription dies a swift, silent, and highly painful death.
I can see the counterpoints already (filled with links to TransGaming's Own business model page. Call me cynical but you know what I read there? A group that is holding hostage the innovation of others -- "no contribution back until we get our 20,000 subscribers' worth of cash!" While I completely understand the need to make money, something about their method is odious to me, especially when in the next paragraph they tell the rest of us that we, too, are more than welcome to improve wine, too... so long as we release our code under the wine license. What's good enough for the goose, guys...
Anyway, to wrap up a rapidly lengthening post... the above is why I intend to do exactly what I as a consumer should do -- vote with my dollars. None of which will wind up in TransGaming's coffers.
What's scary to me is, those lower IQ corporate executives and marketing people are valued higher (read: make lots more money)!
And yes, that statement does imply that I actually believe you. Anyone who has worked in a corporation has seen this principle in action, all joking aside.
My own theory on that is, I think it comes down to a willingness to compromise. The more willing you are to claw your way upward, the further you'll get. And the smarter guys who like (for instance) programming and want to STAY there... well, guess what, they stay there. Paychecks and all.
The decision is this: Which will make you happier? Your dream job, or your dream paycheck?
The issue is, the same people are vulnerable to this on linux, as are vulnerable on Windows -- the people who really don't know better.
It will be difficult to believe the linux community is serious about building an OS 'that grandma can use' until we accept that grandma really might 'fall for' the idea of a virus that needs to trick the victim into running as root.
So long as experts (or at least, knowledgeable users) who are serious about security are the only ones running a given OS, of course their machines will be safe from viruses.
VisualAge for Java's insistence on doing its team repository its own way is precisely the reason my company didn't buy it.
One of the most important features for any development platform, be it merely an editor (although you can't call emacs 'merely' an editor!), up through something like Eclipse, NetBeans or JBuilder, is integration with current practices. Especially in cases where people have potentially invested a whole lot of money in the way they do things already.
As a more off-topic aside... from the IDE evaluation work I've done, to come up with that recommendation, I'd have to say that the key to that level of integration isn't even pluggability, though that's nice. It's just one simple principle: source code should always be plain text. VAJ's primary, number one sin, right there, was getting that wrong. Everything, absolutely everything, works with plain text.
Has freedom's time come and gone?
on
Fahrenheit 451
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· Score: 1
I sometimes wonder if, in the collective mind anyway, freedom is an idea whose time has passed.
When people were oppressed, they wanted freedom. But now that they (think they) have it... all they seem to want is safety.
I sometimes think the sad truth is, freedom and safety both have a price. But while freedom's price is very visible, often difficult, and sometimes hard to justify... safety's only real price is freedom.
Besides which, people seem quite willing to pay a lot more to be safe, than they are willing to pay to be free.
And once they feel safe, they won't want to risk it. They're already safe. Nothing else matters; not enough to fight for, anyway. "Let someone else protect my free speech for me," they say. "I am warm, sheltered, and fed. Anything more is really incidental. I don't have time to march on Washington. I have bills to pay."
This is why I think the battle's getting so hard; because it's turning into a battle to change human nature. And that's a lot of inertia to deal with. Or, to (roughly) quote Men In Black, "People are not smart. A person is smart. People are stupid and dangerous."
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, really! Having a zillion different Grand Unified Logon services is totally going to make them worthless.
I mean, look at how many different 'Adult Verification Service' (AVS) accounts you need, just to visit more than one or two porn sites! AdultLogin, AgeTicket, AdultCheck, SexSentry, and so on and so on and so on.
Not that I would need any of those...
From above:
Posted by timothy on Saturday September 14, @05:18PM
I think you've got your T's crossed. ;-)
Now we coulda bought a hundred dollars worth of silly putty. And that woulda been.... a lot of silly putty.
But oh no baby. We had to go all the way. All the way home.
Now I know what you're thinkin' to yourself. You're thinkin', Barry and Levon, where did you get $800?
Shhhhhhhhh...
At least it didn't say "Emerging love: couldn't find package." ;-)
Some more ideas for 9 leftover indigos?
Imagine a Beowulf cluster...
(It had to be said. :) )
Actually, I'd go more with ID software. Write to a real standard, make some excellent games, sell them to whoever wants them regardless of their platform of choice, and whistle a merry tune all the way to the sportscar dealership.
Sure, Carmack himself will tell you non-windows dollars are a pittance comparatively, but ID is also, through sound technical decisions, positioned to keep making cutting-edge products completely regardless of how those same percentages look next year, or in five.
(If you want to mod me offtopic, I can't complain -- I am offtopic. But I really want to say this.)
It isn't open/free alternatives that should be keeping TransGaming up at nights. It is their own business model.
First of all, they are trying to succeed where Loki failed by doing this in emulation (wine fork). What they failed to notice was... this is an old, old mistake that's been made before (ten years before) by MUCH bigger fish (IBM). Anyone remember Win-OS2? (Embedded bank systems aside,) OS/2 is dead, and (marketing failures notwithstanding) windows emulation is the smoking gun. Whatever else Loki might've done wrong, native porting was one thing they did right -- plus, we now have wonderful things like SDL and SMPEG and so on, to show for it. What TransGaming is likely to achieve is to fracture game developer mindshare the same way IBM fractured application developer mindshare, and thus damage linux. All while trying to turn a fast buck on the proposition. Gee, thanks.
If that were all, that'd be bad enough. But let's explore further. Their pricing model is subscription-based. How much wailing and gnashing of teeth have you seen right here on this very site, as regards Microsoft's subscription initiatives? As much as I have, I'm sure, and the anti-MS theme inherent in slashdot aside, I don't think they're wrong. Subscription model software exists to screw the consumer right in the backside (read: wallet) and until someone comes up with a better idea (usage-based pricing?), then I for one hope subscription dies a swift, silent, and highly painful death.
I can see the counterpoints already (filled with links to TransGaming's Own business model page. Call me cynical but you know what I read there? A group that is holding hostage the innovation of others -- "no contribution back until we get our 20,000 subscribers' worth of cash!" While I completely understand the need to make money, something about their method is odious to me, especially when in the next paragraph they tell the rest of us that we, too, are more than welcome to improve wine, too... so long as we release our code under the wine license. What's good enough for the goose, guys...
Anyway, to wrap up a rapidly lengthening post... the above is why I intend to do exactly what I as a consumer should do -- vote with my dollars. None of which will wind up in TransGaming's coffers.
What's scary to me is, those lower IQ corporate executives and marketing people are valued higher (read: make lots more money)!
And yes, that statement does imply that I actually believe you. Anyone who has worked in a corporation has seen this principle in action, all joking aside.
My own theory on that is, I think it comes down to a willingness to compromise. The more willing you are to claw your way upward, the further you'll get. And the smarter guys who like (for instance) programming and want to STAY there... well, guess what, they stay there. Paychecks and all.
The decision is this: Which will make you happier? Your dream job, or your dream paycheck?
True, but...
The issue is, the same people are vulnerable to this on linux, as are vulnerable on Windows -- the people who really don't know better.
It will be difficult to believe the linux community is serious about building an OS 'that grandma can use' until we accept that grandma really might 'fall for' the idea of a virus that needs to trick the victim into running as root.
So long as experts (or at least, knowledgeable users) who are serious about security are the only ones running a given OS, of course their machines will be safe from viruses.
VisualAge for Java's insistence on doing its team repository its own way is precisely the reason my company didn't buy it.
One of the most important features for any development platform, be it merely an editor (although you can't call emacs 'merely' an editor!), up through something like Eclipse, NetBeans or JBuilder, is integration with current practices. Especially in cases where people have potentially invested a whole lot of money in the way they do things already.
As a more off-topic aside... from the IDE evaluation work I've done, to come up with that recommendation, I'd have to say that the key to that level of integration isn't even pluggability, though that's nice. It's just one simple principle: source code should always be plain text. VAJ's primary, number one sin, right there, was getting that wrong. Everything, absolutely everything, works with plain text.
I sometimes wonder if, in the collective mind anyway, freedom is an idea whose time has passed.
When people were oppressed, they wanted freedom. But now that they (think they) have it... all they seem to want is safety.
I sometimes think the sad truth is, freedom and safety both have a price. But while freedom's price is very visible, often difficult, and sometimes hard to justify... safety's only real price is freedom.
Besides which, people seem quite willing to pay a lot more to be safe, than they are willing to pay to be free.
And once they feel safe, they won't want to risk it. They're already safe. Nothing else matters; not enough to fight for, anyway. "Let someone else protect my free speech for me," they say. "I am warm, sheltered, and fed. Anything more is really incidental. I don't have time to march on Washington. I have bills to pay."
This is why I think the battle's getting so hard; because it's turning into a battle to change human nature. And that's a lot of inertia to deal with. Or, to (roughly) quote Men In Black, "People are not smart. A person is smart. People are stupid and dangerous."