It's incredible to find out that Linux is finally making a difference in the world. I mean, this thing embodies everything that computing should be. It's small, compatible with lots of things (The fact that USB ports are included and working speaks volumes for scalability) and best of all, it runs Linux.
Since this thing is available, not just as a prototype, and so cheap... Where can I get me one of these? It freaking runs LINUX, baby! That rules! I can now hack the kernel code from just about anywhere!
I'm a little worried that it dual-boots 98, though, because that will give the people running it a choice to go back to Windows, which is not what I want to happen. M$ already has its fingers in too many pies, and it should keep out of this market. YMMV, of course.
Basically, this is how you cool with lasers: Imagine you have six lasers, all pointed at the same place, and all in perpendicular directions (imagine a cube with a laser pointing directly at the center of each face, but the cube is actually transparent, the laser beams oriented towards each other)
Now we put some amount of mass right at the point where the 6 laser beams cross. The mass at the center will be hit by some photons from one of the lasers (for argument's sake). This will cause the mass to absorb the momentum of the photon, as well as excite the particle. The excited particle will then emit another photon in a random direction. However, there will be some recoil from this photon being ejected. Instead of being pushed away by this ejection, the particle is "persuaded" by the other lasers to stick around, so to speak. The process then repeats, but it takes about 10 minutes. Since the particle has lost momentum (to the ejected photon) it has less energy (in the Physics department here, we call it "tired").
Eventually, the mass at the center gets so "tired" that it falls into a quantum state of relaxation, as described by Schroedinger's equation and its wavefunction. Interesting things happen when it gets incredibly cold, and that's what the article is talking about. This was a very simplistic explanation, so if you want something more, just head over to Google and search for "laser cooling".
Geez, how could time have passed by so quickly? I mean, a year since these devistating attacks happened... Where could it have all gone?
Oh, yeah. It all went back to real life, where this is no more than some offended 5kr1p7 k1dD13Z deciding to lash out. It had no influence on the world as a whole, had (as the article pointed out) no influence over the cyber-world...
This was an event that didn't shape anything. It didn't cause any sweeping changes (i.e., Columbine or the Challenger explosion), and certainly didn't bother anybody a week after it happened. I recall being astonished at the organization, having so many people DoS-ing at the same time... it gave me hope that the Internet community could bind together and fight for a common cause. Instead, it was just a trojan run by a single person.
It was a non-event of Y2K proportions. Get over it. ------
Give me a break. So what? Napster is going down. Excuse me while I cry. Does nobody remember the olden days when Napster was underground? It's only when every college kid and their roommate started using it (and I was using it long before that) that it became popular, controversial, etc.
What's going to happen? There's going to be another P2P file sharing network built. Gnutella is a start, but it's flooded and impossible to get any information from. Scour never returns any viable results for me, so that's out.
Other posters have mentioned that mojonation is having a problem because of a small user base. OF COURSE they have a small user base; they are competing with Napster, who gets all the publicity, so people think "oh, that's the only one out there".
Once Napster sells out to the big corporations, then another file sharing network will step up and take its place. If that one falls, we'll hack out another program, using a different protocol. Saying (free) music sharing is dead is like saying that because George Washington is dead and buried, the presidency is no longer worth anything. Somebody else WILL step up to the plate and take over. ------
These messages obviously are not spam. In the article, it clearly states that Hotmail, a completely free and useful service who protects your password and e-mail fervently, refuses to mark this as spam! Since Hotmail is the best web-based client around for free e-mail addresses, I would think that it would have the best filtering programs to weed out unwanted e-mails from unsolicited sources. Since the infalable Hotmail does not mark this as spam, saying "The e-mail you received was an invitation from MSN Explorer..." then clearly this was meant to be a beneficial and desired e-mail. Naysayers, begone! Hotmail would never lie to you!
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Well, what I recall is that taping a show from, say, HBO is illegal in that it goes against copyright (just like that little FBI warning at the start of all legal video tapes, that conveniently let you start dubbing right before the movie starts )
And I agree; Napster itself should not be punished for this. The users who use it illegally should be punished. It's almost as if I were to get drunk and go driving, hitting a pedestrian, and so the pedestrian sued the car maker because it allowed me to break the law. Absolutely rediculous. ------
If people stopped buying cds you can bet they wouyld cute the prices
Well, guess what? There currently exists no other way to get legal, high quality recordings of any of the latest songs without CDs. I leave out taping from the radio (questionably legal) and Napster (definately copyright infringement, if you do not own the CD).
If you sell a product that people want (and people want music) and you only offer it through one medium, you're basically saying "Sorry, people, but you have to pay our price. Neener neener." When there exist no other alternatives, they can charge whatever they want (prime example: Windows 98's pricetag of nearly $100. There are no other options to Joe Luser) ------
If governments weren't corrupt, corporations wouldn't have the power to be corrupt
And exactly who corrupts the government? That's right... Big Business. If it weren't for lobbyists giving millions to Dubyuh or Gore, there might still be a shread of dignity in political elections (and I'm not exagerating; Bush has over $90 million in campaign contributions, mostly from BB, while Gore has just over $50 million)
And I'm not advocating splitting up the Fortune 500; I'm advocating restricting their influence over the government and the laws that are passed at the federal level. ------
Excellent article. It does a good job of making (subtle) references to Orwell's 1984 by mentioning the rarity of paper books, and at the same tying in today's issues of DeCSS (linking to illegal material). I also enjoyed the reference to "National Corporation".
Yes, it is a worst-case scenario. And, personally, I think that things will never get that bad. But I see things leaning that way; corporations becoming more and more powerful, the freedom of the Internet starting to be reigned in... It's scary, but what can we do (besides elect Ralph Nader).
The article leaves out a big part, though. The United States may be heading towards a terrible future, but what about other countries? Copyrights and patents could get so insane here in the USA that somebody can patent the alphabet (I wouldn't put it past them...) but those patents don't hold water in other countries. If things get too hairy here in the USA, let's all just defect North to Canada and leave behind idiotic copyright laws. Sounds like a sound plan to me. ------
Re:Shooting the messenger
on
Lawsuits Suck
·
· Score: 2
mail my congressman...hope that will be enough
I commend you for being so proactive - I personally would never spare the energy to write to a congressperson. It's not that I'm lazy (well, not totally) but because I know that it will do no good. Elected officials (most, anyways) only care about one thing: being re-elected. The fact that one or two people out of his or her district disagrees with the DMCA means nothing. So long as they promise to "restore dignigy" to their office, "cut taxes for those who really need it," and along the way smear the reputation of their opponent, they are going to get re-elected, which means another 4 or 6 years of not having to go to a job.
I agree with you, though. People in general do not do enough to make their causes known. I myself am guilty of this on multiple occasions. The difference is, I'm cynical and pessimistic enough to realize that it won't do me a bit of good to write to a congressperson (through E-mail, snail mail, or carrier pigeon) because I represent a very small portion of their voting constituency. "Please some of the people all of the time" and you will get elected; I guarantee.
On a side note: look at us now. What do we do? We post to Slashdot. We gripe to our co-workers. We refuse to take action. This is exactly what Salon was talking about, and I for one am disgusted at my own hypocracy (not enough to change, though) ------
Once again, the MPAA does all it can to throw the idea of "Fair Use" right out the window. Now, instead of attacking a new technology (i.e. DeCSS), they're attacking one of the oldest technologies out there. I remember having a VCR back in the early '80s. Whatever appeared on television was fair game for taping (well, aside from HBO and other specifically copyrighted materials).
Next, I expect to see no more radio-tape recorder hybrids. After all, the information that's being sent out through radio waves can be copied instantaneously to another media.
The MPAA has really shot itself in the foot, IMHO. Before, I could see their side of the story (albeit limitedly). A digital copy of a work (DVD, and even MP3 for the RIAA) is an exact copy. Quality is not degraded through the copying process. But now... Have any of you watched a video recording recently? I taped a TV program just last night (hope the MPAA doesn't find out about it!) and watched it this morning; the quality compared to even regular TV, much less DVDs, was terrible. Even if the feeds are coming in through digital means, VHS tapes are a horrible representation of the original.
What's more, if I buy a Pay-Per-View event, I am paying for the rights to watch that movie/event. I am not paying for 2 hours of television time; I am buying a license, and that license should entitle me to watch it whenever I want, whenever I want. This is akin to buying a computer game, watching the media it came on disintegrate, and then "acquiring" a copy from another place (this also happened to me just recently). I pray that this will not be upheld by the FCC. ------
I guess I'm viewing it differently than you. Here's what I see. Instead of having to do find / -iname xyz*, you could just have a nice looking, pretty box that will have those options as a checkbox (search path, all files containing this text, disregard case, etc). I don't consider that to be shielding the power from the end user: I consider that a graphical overlay so that people who don't want to deal with the (sometimes) obscure command line interface. Any thoughts? Are we arguing the same points, or is there something different in your view? Enlighten me, please... ------
I said this in another post, but yours was very good as well, so it deserved a follow-up (plus, I've got tons of code compiling, so what else am I gonna do?) My original post may have come across as wanting Linux to become Windows. That's not what I want. I guess a good analogy (although a Microsoft one) would be the DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.11 duality. For the end users who wanted pretty games like *shudder* solitaire and minesweeper, and eventually Myst, Windows was great. They could think of files and directories as little folders and small pieces of paper, courtesy of File Manager (nostalgia's great, ain't it?)
But for those of us who wanted to tinker with DOS, we still could. We could hop back out to the DOS prompt, re-arrange the RAM space of all the drivers from the autoexec.bat and config.sys to squeeze just that much more memory (usually to play the latest version of Wing Commander).
That's what I'd like to see Linux head towards. Keep the same *NIX shell prompt there (for God's sake, that's the best feature of Linux!) but overlay a preferably small GUI on top of it for "all the rest" who still can't understand recursive acronyms (pine/GNU, I can't count the number of times I've tried explaining them to friends just to have them stare blankly at me). But, above all, give them a choice. If they don't like Linux, give them the option of running Windows / Mac OS X / Flavor-of-the-week. If, for some reason, Linux becomes the dominant desktop O/S of choice, I hope it retains the quality of choice.
P.S: Good analogy between evolutionary biology and the software market... A lot of parallels I hadn't thought about before ------
Point taken with respect to my remark about "leading" the industry. I was referring mainly to the fact that Windows is the most installed O/S on PCs (no statistical backing, just some common sense looking around campus here). Good analysis of stripping down the power of a machine, making it into little more than a number crunching machine. I still can't believe how fast computers are running today (over 1GHz, for God's sake!) and it still takes seemingly forever for a simple application to load up. There is a lot of untapped power inside those beige boxes...
As for your final comment about making the power easy to exploit, I don't deny that it's the primary function of a good UI to let the user do whatever they want with the tools they have. I'm not suggesting getting rid of grep with its infinite options, just managing to hide it behind some flashy graphics. That's where I see Linux in a few years: good front end for the end (l)users who were weaned on Windows, but with the same old shell that you can get to with ctrl-alt-f1 for when you need some real power at your fingertips. ------
100% agreement, aratas (am I posting like a madman, or what?) In another vein, Linux also must be dramatically better than all its competitors just to get the attention of all the pointy-haired bosses out there. Only if Linux can outperform Windows in test after test after test, then they will get the media attention that makes paradigms shift. A few years ago (has it really been that long?) there was the Linux media hype. But a lot of people and businesses I talked to said they tried it out, found out that it was severely lacking in so many areas, mainly documentation and tech support (the same stuff we hear about everyday). Also, since Linux doesn't have the monetary backing to launch a full-scale media blitz (maybe RedHat's approaching that critical mass, time will tell) and so, since they financially can't influence the media with huge sums of money, we're going to have to rely on performance. Fortunately, that's something Linux has in spades. ------
The Windows 2000 CD makes an excellent coaster for my coffee mug
And I couldn't agree with you more. Here at work, down in the guts of it, we're still running Win NT 4.0 for some of the nitty-gritty stuff, mainly so we don't have to re-train employees or re-write software. We bought Windows 2000 Professional, and tried to upgrade some of the boxes. We tried 7, and NONE of them worked correctly. One of them installed fine, but at boot up, just after it gets past the splash screens to the login prompt, it freezes. Totally. No mouse, no ctrl-alt-del, only the large button labeled "reset" on the front of the box lets us do anything. Horrible software. ------
...the reason for its commercial success is that it is the only option for most no-brainers
Oh, I'm not trying to defend their actions. I believe that they have engaged in monopolistic acts, that they've quelled any sort of small (commercial, mind you) operating system from gaining any sort of wide-spread acceptance (OS/2, for instance). But there's just this fact: Their friends use Windows 9x. Their businesses use Win9x. The best games are released (first) for Win9x. This only contributes more to the no-brainer aspect. ------
This is probably going to be marked as Flamebait or a Troll by the moderators today, but it's only because I'm expressing an unpopular opinion: Windows has its place, and right now, its place is leading the software industry.
I was skeptical when following the link to the interview; I figured it was going to be full of pro-Linux statements, advocating the crushing of Windows. But, from the mouth of Linus himself, "Windows is still a no-brainer for most people." And well it should be. Microsoft got to the position they're in today by being the best of what was out there (emphasis on was) and by catering to the end user. Yes, Windows 95 is buggy, crashes a lot, has the security of a single sleeping puppy trying to guard a mansion, but it's by far the easiest O/S to manage for the home user. Again, according to Linus, both his mother and sister still use Windows or Macintosh.
That's exactly it. Linux is absolutely not ready for the desktop. I have problems running it now at work, administering only 9 boxes. NFS filesystems drop, X freezes up with no recovery, and don't get me started on Netscape. Microsoft has the end-user market nailed right now. And Linus acknowledges it.
I got a new found respect for Linus today. It appears that he has not been blinded by the bright lights of the press and their attention. 5 or 10 years, he says, until Linux is ready for the home user. I would place that a little lower right now, from the latest releases of RedHat (the install process is slick compared to old Slackware installs). RedHat is moving Linux to the masses, and they should be commended. For Linux to be true competition, we have to have both sides of the fence; server AND workstation. Server is doing pretty damn well right now. Time to focus on Joe Schmoe, the average user.
Ok, moderators, since I said pro-RedHat and, even worse, pro-MS things, I expect to lose heaps of karma. Do your worst. ------
most authors are pleased that their work has been preserved for posterity
That's an excellent point. I know that if I were to write a program for any platform, I would want to milk the most money out of it as I could (this is the USA, after all, build upon principles of greed and hoarding)
My problem is with your definition of how abandonware should be handled. You say that you put programs up on your website until the authors ask you to take them down. What if they don't know about it, and hundreds of people nab it before the e-mail hits you and you take it down? Then you've become nothing more than a w4r3z site.
A better method would be to contact each author/corporation before posting it. While being inconvenient, it's really the best way to ensure you aren't violating anybody's rights. ------
I consider this to be "News for Nerds," and definately "Stuff that matters". I agree, though, that there might be a special section for obituaries... But really, how often is one posted here? Once a month, maybe?
I think that the passing of the actor who portrayed Obi-Wan something that I'd want to know about; that's why I read/. in the first place:-) ------
People are now going to start saying "Slashdot is so terrible, how could they post something that was a hoax, who's running this crap, kuro5hin would've checked their sources, etc. etc. etc."
Hey, lighten up, people. I, for one, fell for this one hook, line, and sinker. Now that I think back on it, the graphics of the board did look a little hokey... a little too much like they were generated using the GIMP or Photoshop.
As a fan of comedy, I have to give these guys credit; they put one over on 95% of/. readers (I recall one or two saying it was hokey) I applaud them, and laughed my ass off when I saw the number of hits they got (100,000 in under 8 days, if I recall). Good work. ------
Let's compound kuro5hin's problems with DOS attacks by posting not one, but 2 links to their site on the front page of/. That should definately help them get their bandwidth back... ------
Slashdot Mirror
Since this thing is available, not just as a prototype, and so cheap... Where can I get me one of these? It freaking runs LINUX, baby! That rules! I can now hack the kernel code from just about anywhere!
I'm a little worried that it dual-boots 98, though, because that will give the people running it a choice to go back to Windows, which is not what I want to happen. M$ already has its fingers in too many pies, and it should keep out of this market. YMMV, of course.
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That's just the way it is
Now we put some amount of mass right at the point where the 6 laser beams cross. The mass at the center will be hit by some photons from one of the lasers (for argument's sake). This will cause the mass to absorb the momentum of the photon, as well as excite the particle. The excited particle will then emit another photon in a random direction. However, there will be some recoil from this photon being ejected. Instead of being pushed away by this ejection, the particle is "persuaded" by the other lasers to stick around, so to speak. The process then repeats, but it takes about 10 minutes. Since the particle has lost momentum (to the ejected photon) it has less energy (in the Physics department here, we call it "tired").
Eventually, the mass at the center gets so "tired" that it falls into a quantum state of relaxation, as described by Schroedinger's equation and its wavefunction. Interesting things happen when it gets incredibly cold, and that's what the article is talking about. This was a very simplistic explanation, so if you want something more, just head over to Google and search for "laser cooling".
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That's just the way it is
Oh, yeah. It all went back to real life, where this is no more than some offended 5kr1p7 k1dD13Z deciding to lash out. It had no influence on the world as a whole, had (as the article pointed out) no influence over the cyber-world...
This was an event that didn't shape anything. It didn't cause any sweeping changes (i.e., Columbine or the Challenger explosion), and certainly didn't bother anybody a week after it happened. I recall being astonished at the organization, having so many people DoS-ing at the same time... it gave me hope that the Internet community could bind together and fight for a common cause. Instead, it was just a trojan run by a single person.
It was a non-event of Y2K proportions. Get over it.
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What's going to happen? There's going to be another P2P file sharing network built. Gnutella is a start, but it's flooded and impossible to get any information from. Scour never returns any viable results for me, so that's out.
Other posters have mentioned that mojonation is having a problem because of a small user base. OF COURSE they have a small user base; they are competing with Napster, who gets all the publicity, so people think "oh, that's the only one out there".
Once Napster sells out to the big corporations, then another file sharing network will step up and take its place. If that one falls, we'll hack out another program, using a different protocol. Saying (free) music sharing is dead is like saying that because George Washington is dead and buried, the presidency is no longer worth anything. Somebody else WILL step up to the plate and take over.
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These messages obviously are not spam. In the article, it clearly states that Hotmail, a completely free and useful service who protects your password and e-mail fervently, refuses to mark this as spam! Since Hotmail is the best web-based client around for free e-mail addresses, I would think that it would have the best filtering programs to weed out unwanted e-mails from unsolicited sources. Since the infalable Hotmail does not mark this as spam, saying "The e-mail you received was an invitation from MSN Explorer..." then clearly this was meant to be a beneficial and desired e-mail. Naysayers, begone! Hotmail would never lie to you!
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And I agree; Napster itself should not be punished for this. The users who use it illegally should be punished. It's almost as if I were to get drunk and go driving, hitting a pedestrian, and so the pedestrian sued the car maker because it allowed me to break the law. Absolutely rediculous.
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Well, guess what? There currently exists no other way to get legal, high quality recordings of any of the latest songs without CDs. I leave out taping from the radio (questionably legal) and Napster (definately copyright infringement, if you do not own the CD).
If you sell a product that people want (and people want music) and you only offer it through one medium, you're basically saying "Sorry, people, but you have to pay our price. Neener neener." When there exist no other alternatives, they can charge whatever they want (prime example: Windows 98's pricetag of nearly $100. There are no other options to Joe Luser)
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And exactly who corrupts the government? That's right... Big Business. If it weren't for lobbyists giving millions to Dubyuh or Gore, there might still be a shread of dignity in political elections (and I'm not exagerating; Bush has over $90 million in campaign contributions, mostly from BB, while Gore has just over $50 million)
And I'm not advocating splitting up the Fortune 500; I'm advocating restricting their influence over the government and the laws that are passed at the federal level.
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Yes, it is a worst-case scenario. And, personally, I think that things will never get that bad. But I see things leaning that way; corporations becoming more and more powerful, the freedom of the Internet starting to be reigned in... It's scary, but what can we do (besides elect Ralph Nader).
The article leaves out a big part, though. The United States may be heading towards a terrible future, but what about other countries? Copyrights and patents could get so insane here in the USA that somebody can patent the alphabet (I wouldn't put it past them...) but those patents don't hold water in other countries. If things get too hairy here in the USA, let's all just defect North to Canada and leave behind idiotic copyright laws. Sounds like a sound plan to me.
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I commend you for being so proactive - I personally would never spare the energy to write to a congressperson. It's not that I'm lazy (well, not totally) but because I know that it will do no good. Elected officials (most, anyways) only care about one thing: being re-elected. The fact that one or two people out of his or her district disagrees with the DMCA means nothing. So long as they promise to "restore dignigy" to their office, "cut taxes for those who really need it," and along the way smear the reputation of their opponent, they are going to get re-elected, which means another 4 or 6 years of not having to go to a job.
I agree with you, though. People in general do not do enough to make their causes known. I myself am guilty of this on multiple occasions. The difference is, I'm cynical and pessimistic enough to realize that it won't do me a bit of good to write to a congressperson (through E-mail, snail mail, or carrier pigeon) because I represent a very small portion of their voting constituency. "Please some of the people all of the time" and you will get elected; I guarantee.
On a side note: look at us now. What do we do? We post to Slashdot. We gripe to our co-workers. We refuse to take action. This is exactly what Salon was talking about, and I for one am disgusted at my own hypocracy (not enough to change, though)
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this is a test of the emergency karma system.
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Next, I expect to see no more radio-tape recorder hybrids. After all, the information that's being sent out through radio waves can be copied instantaneously to another media.
The MPAA has really shot itself in the foot, IMHO. Before, I could see their side of the story (albeit limitedly). A digital copy of a work (DVD, and even MP3 for the RIAA) is an exact copy. Quality is not degraded through the copying process. But now... Have any of you watched a video recording recently? I taped a TV program just last night (hope the MPAA doesn't find out about it!) and watched it this morning; the quality compared to even regular TV, much less DVDs, was terrible. Even if the feeds are coming in through digital means, VHS tapes are a horrible representation of the original.
What's more, if I buy a Pay-Per-View event, I am paying for the rights to watch that movie/event. I am not paying for 2 hours of television time; I am buying a license, and that license should entitle me to watch it whenever I want, whenever I want. This is akin to buying a computer game, watching the media it came on disintegrate, and then "acquiring" a copy from another place (this also happened to me just recently). I pray that this will not be upheld by the FCC.
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Also of interest to note, that the site hosting the page is required to:
This is nothing but bad news for the world.
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I guess I'm viewing it differently than you. Here's what I see. Instead of having to do find / -iname xyz*, you could just have a nice looking, pretty box that will have those options as a checkbox (search path, all files containing this text, disregard case, etc). I don't consider that to be shielding the power from the end user: I consider that a graphical overlay so that people who don't want to deal with the (sometimes) obscure command line interface. Any thoughts? Are we arguing the same points, or is there something different in your view? Enlighten me, please...
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But for those of us who wanted to tinker with DOS, we still could. We could hop back out to the DOS prompt, re-arrange the RAM space of all the drivers from the autoexec.bat and config.sys to squeeze just that much more memory (usually to play the latest version of Wing Commander).
That's what I'd like to see Linux head towards. Keep the same *NIX shell prompt there (for God's sake, that's the best feature of Linux!) but overlay a preferably small GUI on top of it for "all the rest" who still can't understand recursive acronyms (pine/GNU, I can't count the number of times I've tried explaining them to friends just to have them stare blankly at me). But, above all, give them a choice. If they don't like Linux, give them the option of running Windows / Mac OS X / Flavor-of-the-week. If, for some reason, Linux becomes the dominant desktop O/S of choice, I hope it retains the quality of choice.
P.S: Good analogy between evolutionary biology and the software market... A lot of parallels I hadn't thought about before
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As for your final comment about making the power easy to exploit, I don't deny that it's the primary function of a good UI to let the user do whatever they want with the tools they have. I'm not suggesting getting rid of grep with its infinite options, just managing to hide it behind some flashy graphics. That's where I see Linux in a few years: good front end for the end (l)users who were weaned on Windows, but with the same old shell that you can get to with ctrl-alt-f1 for when you need some real power at your fingertips.
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100% agreement, aratas (am I posting like a madman, or what?) In another vein, Linux also must be dramatically better than all its competitors just to get the attention of all the pointy-haired bosses out there. Only if Linux can outperform Windows in test after test after test, then they will get the media attention that makes paradigms shift. A few years ago (has it really been that long?) there was the Linux media hype. But a lot of people and businesses I talked to said they tried it out, found out that it was severely lacking in so many areas, mainly documentation and tech support (the same stuff we hear about everyday). Also, since Linux doesn't have the monetary backing to launch a full-scale media blitz (maybe RedHat's approaching that critical mass, time will tell) and so, since they financially can't influence the media with huge sums of money, we're going to have to rely on performance. Fortunately, that's something Linux has in spades.
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And I couldn't agree with you more. Here at work, down in the guts of it, we're still running Win NT 4.0 for some of the nitty-gritty stuff, mainly so we don't have to re-train employees or re-write software. We bought Windows 2000 Professional, and tried to upgrade some of the boxes. We tried 7, and NONE of them worked correctly. One of them installed fine, but at boot up, just after it gets past the splash screens to the login prompt, it freezes. Totally. No mouse, no ctrl-alt-del, only the large button labeled "reset" on the front of the box lets us do anything. Horrible software.
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Oh, I'm not trying to defend their actions. I believe that they have engaged in monopolistic acts, that they've quelled any sort of small (commercial, mind you) operating system from gaining any sort of wide-spread acceptance (OS/2, for instance). But there's just this fact: Their friends use Windows 9x. Their businesses use Win9x. The best games are released (first) for Win9x. This only contributes more to the no-brainer aspect.
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I was skeptical when following the link to the interview; I figured it was going to be full of pro-Linux statements, advocating the crushing of Windows. But, from the mouth of Linus himself, "Windows is still a no-brainer for most people." And well it should be. Microsoft got to the position they're in today by being the best of what was out there (emphasis on was) and by catering to the end user. Yes, Windows 95 is buggy, crashes a lot, has the security of a single sleeping puppy trying to guard a mansion, but it's by far the easiest O/S to manage for the home user. Again, according to Linus, both his mother and sister still use Windows or Macintosh.
That's exactly it. Linux is absolutely not ready for the desktop. I have problems running it now at work, administering only 9 boxes. NFS filesystems drop, X freezes up with no recovery, and don't get me started on Netscape. Microsoft has the end-user market nailed right now. And Linus acknowledges it.
I got a new found respect for Linus today. It appears that he has not been blinded by the bright lights of the press and their attention. 5 or 10 years, he says, until Linux is ready for the home user. I would place that a little lower right now, from the latest releases of RedHat (the install process is slick compared to old Slackware installs). RedHat is moving Linux to the masses, and they should be commended. For Linux to be true competition, we have to have both sides of the fence; server AND workstation. Server is doing pretty damn well right now. Time to focus on Joe Schmoe, the average user.
Ok, moderators, since I said pro-RedHat and, even worse, pro-MS things, I expect to lose heaps of karma. Do your worst.
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That's an excellent point. I know that if I were to write a program for any platform, I would want to milk the most money out of it as I could (this is the USA, after all, build upon principles of greed and hoarding)
My problem is with your definition of how abandonware should be handled. You say that you put programs up on your website until the authors ask you to take them down. What if they don't know about it, and hundreds of people nab it before the e-mail hits you and you take it down? Then you've become nothing more than a w4r3z site.
A better method would be to contact each author/corporation before posting it. While being inconvenient, it's really the best way to ensure you aren't violating anybody's rights.
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I think that the passing of the actor who portrayed Obi-Wan something that I'd want to know about; that's why I read /. in the first place :-)
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There's a complete story and bio on BBC's site now... A good read for our favorite Jedi...
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Hey, lighten up, people. I, for one, fell for this one hook, line, and sinker. Now that I think back on it, the graphics of the board did look a little hokey... a little too much like they were generated using the GIMP or Photoshop.
As a fan of comedy, I have to give these guys credit; they put one over on 95% of /. readers (I recall one or two saying it was hokey) I applaud them, and laughed my ass off when I saw the number of hits they got (100,000 in under 8 days, if I recall). Good work.
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Let's compound kuro5hin's problems with DOS attacks by posting not one, but 2 links to their site on the front page of /. That should definately help them get their bandwidth back...
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