This is very likely why Sun doesn't cave into demands that their Java implementation be completely converted to the GPL. If they were to do this, all of their major competitors can start doing "value added" modifications to lock in their customer bases. That would be a bad thing for Java.
In that case, it would seem to me that it is the standard that is broken, if it's really that difficult...
This is an extremely common standards pitfall. I used to work with one standard, where the documentation for one file format was thousands of pages. No suprise, every vendor implemented a different part of it to varying degrees of correctness. It sucked to no end.
Web standards over the last several years have taken a course of not so much big standards but huge numbers of standards. I'd bet one HTTP cookie that no XML expert can name all the surrounding standards off the top of their head. Bonus cookies to those who can name the ones that are even relevant and those that that aren't.
Software patents are tricky because they are so easy to work around to get a similar effect. They can't GPL it, because they put too much effort into their code for their competitors to get it all for free. In short, trade secrets are all the software industry has for protecting ideas in these cases.
The best compromise, IMO, is to use open standards for the repository, with an explicit clause in their license that any time the repository is broken by another program, BitKeeper is not liable to provide any help.
Intel is last to commodity 64-bit processors, Intel will be last to multi-core processors, Intel's top-end processors use way too much power, and Intel has apparently hit a big MHz wall. They are forced to adopt a competitor's ISA (AMD64), they are forced to retract to the Pentium M to sidestep the limitations in the Pentium 4, and there's only a handful of companies in the whole world selling Itaniums.
That inertia is probably enough to pull them through the next business cycle, but it'll be interesting to see how the landscape has changed by then.
Microsoft is in the same boat, BTW. Longhorn, when?
Actually, you should buy a computer with dollar bills instead of pennies, next time.
If I can help it, all my next computers will have ECC RAM, and generally decent components all-around. Too many people get burned by bad RAM (likely to be your problem) or fragile components that just make life a PITA.
The Opteron vs. Xeon reviews lately show AMD winning quite handily. In one review the Xeon overheated, and the author had to keep the case open to finish the tests!
I think Intel has put so many resources behind Itanium, that AMD64 and Opteron really took them by suprise. Just comparing the HT architecture to Xeon's old shared-bus architecture is really telling. The fact that Sun is jumping all over Opteron and not Xeon is also interesting.
In x86-land, AMD is now tremendously underrated, and Intel is riding on pure inertia.
Dells biggest customer is the U.S. government and corporate buyers.
Another argument in favor of AMD is that Xeons are burning holes in companies' power bills. Tens of watts spread over hundreds or thousands of computers becomes a noticable item on the balance sheets. Everyone uses flourescent lighting, so why not get better computers, too?
It probably has not hampered anything, because good change management is _very_hard_ to do well. CVS has sucked tremendously for a decade or so already, and only now do better options exist (Subversion, e.g.).
Anyone who is searching for version control software will find BitKeeper pretty quickly. It isn't like they really need to advertise--their target market will find them.
The Simpsons is a great show, but please cut back on the merchandising! It seems 10% of the shelves in any toy section of a store are Simpsons-branded games and toys. It tends to dilute any remaining value of the show.
Well, there is a challenge in making science accessible to children while also teaching them hard logic and the scientific method. We try to instill creativity and a love for many things in children, which is at conflict with the idea of a raw mechanical universe. Lots of people go into depression contemplating whether their journey through life has any meaning or if it is all predetermined, while the British handle it by making funny movies about it...which outlet is healthier, God knows.
If you consider that "groupthink" has an advantage in natural selection (grouping people with common traits, greater numbers are more defensible), then, yes, Creationism really is an amazing evolutionary adaptation. Any tendency for humans to form cliques is an example of this.
There is no defense of DOS and Windows drive letters. They are terrible. The registry is littered with them, making it impossible to move anything around easily, and they are an awkward and inefficient way of dividing storage.
So what does 2.8 Ghz in AMD mean in terms of Intel performance?
Zero, because you'd be running an AMD chip!
Given how well Athlon 64/Opteron have been doing in benchmarks, power consumption, and pricing, there really is little to no reason to buy a 64-bit chip from Intel. It's sad, but it's true.
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I don't look to my COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEM for a "political orientation", and neither should anyone.
I second that. This whole GPL debate has decomposed into a Chevy-vs-Ford pissing contest, complete with those Calvin-pissing-on-stuff window stickers.
This is very likely why Sun doesn't cave into demands that their Java implementation be completely converted to the GPL. If they were to do this, all of their major competitors can start doing "value added" modifications to lock in their customer bases. That would be a bad thing for Java.
In that case, it would seem to me that it is the standard that is broken, if it's really that difficult...
This is an extremely common standards pitfall. I used to work with one standard, where the documentation for one file format was thousands of pages. No suprise, every vendor implemented a different part of it to varying degrees of correctness. It sucked to no end.
Web standards over the last several years have taken a course of not so much big standards but huge numbers of standards. I'd bet one HTTP cookie that no XML expert can name all the surrounding standards off the top of their head.
Bonus cookies to those who can name the ones that are even relevant and those that that aren't.
Don't be silly, nipples aren't suitable for children.
4 out of 5 infants disagree!
Software patents are tricky because they are so easy to work around to get a similar effect. They can't GPL it, because they put too much effort into their code for their competitors to get it all for free. In short, trade secrets are all the software industry has for protecting ideas in these cases.
The best compromise, IMO, is to use open standards for the repository, with an explicit clause in their license that any time the repository is broken by another program, BitKeeper is not liable to provide any help.
Intel is last to commodity 64-bit processors, Intel will be last to multi-core processors, Intel's top-end processors use way too much power, and Intel has apparently hit a big MHz wall. They are forced to adopt a competitor's ISA (AMD64), they are forced to retract to the Pentium M to sidestep the limitations in the Pentium 4, and there's only a handful of companies in the whole world selling Itaniums.
That inertia is probably enough to pull them through the next business cycle, but it'll be interesting to see how the landscape has changed by then.
Microsoft is in the same boat, BTW. Longhorn, when?
The BBC version used clever animations with a narrator to cover the guide entries.
Actually, you should buy a computer with dollar bills instead of pennies, next time.
If I can help it, all my next computers will have ECC RAM, and generally decent components all-around. Too many people get burned by bad RAM (likely to be your problem) or fragile components that just make life a PITA.
AMD's technology is on par with Intel.
The Opteron vs. Xeon reviews lately show AMD winning quite handily. In one review the Xeon overheated, and the author had to keep the case open to finish the tests!
I think Intel has put so many resources behind Itanium, that AMD64 and Opteron really took them by suprise. Just comparing the HT architecture to Xeon's old shared-bus architecture is really telling. The fact that Sun is jumping all over Opteron and not Xeon is also interesting.
In x86-land, AMD is now tremendously underrated, and Intel is riding on pure inertia.
Dells biggest customer is the U.S. government and corporate buyers.
Another argument in favor of AMD is that Xeons are burning holes in companies' power bills. Tens of watts spread over hundreds or thousands of computers becomes a noticable item on the balance sheets. Everyone uses flourescent lighting, so why not get better computers, too?
It probably has not hampered anything, because good change management is _very_hard_ to do well. CVS has sucked tremendously for a decade or so already, and only now do better options exist (Subversion, e.g.).
Anyone who is searching for version control software will find BitKeeper pretty quickly. It isn't like they really need to advertise--their target market will find them.
But if the customer agrees to the terms of the sale, there is no problem!
The Simpsons is a great show, but please cut back on the merchandising! It seems 10% of the shelves in any toy section of a store are Simpsons-branded games and toys. It tends to dilute any remaining value of the show.
Flamebait? Slashdot has few checks against biased moderation.
Well, there is a challenge in making science accessible to children while also teaching them hard logic and the scientific method. We try to instill creativity and a love for many things in children, which is at conflict with the idea of a raw mechanical universe. Lots of people go into depression contemplating whether their journey through life has any meaning or if it is all predetermined, while the British handle it by making funny movies about it...which outlet is healthier, God knows.
It also allows animals to eat less-than-fresh fruit, increasing the available food supply.
If you consider that "groupthink" has an advantage in natural selection (grouping people with common traits, greater numbers are more defensible), then, yes, Creationism really is an amazing evolutionary adaptation. Any tendency for humans to form cliques is an example of this.
There is no defense of DOS and Windows drive letters. They are terrible. The registry is littered with them, making it impossible to move anything around easily, and they are an awkward and inefficient way of dividing storage.
Unix are beginning to get ACLs now...
Solaris has had ACLs for at least a decade and probably longer.
In other industries, Microsoft would have been pounded to dust by now by "false advertising" lawsuits.
If Microsoft tried to sell insurance or do banking, they'd last less than a year before their billions in cash are exhausted in court.
I would say that 20-30% of this problem is the developers fault, because the tools are there.
100% of the problem is the Windows culture, which is usually in a self-reinforcing destructive resonance between Microsoft and their customers.
IIRC, the way Niagara addresses this is by having multiple memory controllers and tons of bandwidth.
Zero, because you'd be running an AMD chip!
I meant it means nothing, not that the AMD has zero performance. Just trying to beat the pedant trolls at their own game.
So what does 2.8 Ghz in AMD mean in terms of Intel performance?
Zero, because you'd be running an AMD chip!
Given how well Athlon 64/Opteron have been doing in benchmarks, power consumption, and pricing, there really is little to no reason to buy a 64-bit chip from Intel. It's sad, but it's true.