The rise and fall of Netscape: from groundbreaking browser developer that lit the fuse on the internet boom to a $9.95 per month domain name email host...
Reading SCO's claims, reading SGI's responses, reading what Novell and IBM have to say on the matter, it all just makes my head swim. In any given flavor of UNIX there has to be such a mish mash of IP claims, cross licensed technologies, and copywrites that I really truly feel sorry for the judge that has to sort this one out when (if) it reaches trial. I can't see how anyone can claim ownership of ANYTHING regarding UNIX with any certainty.
Is Redhat punishable if they'r using the code supplied by IBM under the assumptiont aht it was all GPL and not proprietary? If IBM gave the code to the open source community say that it was GPL, I would think that IBM would have to pay the license fees and damages, but it seems unfair to do that to Redhat and SuSE too... Not that "fair" has anything to do with this situation.
To your first point, I agree that hardware focused development can make for some games that aren't as fun as they should (or could) be, and that's why I'mglad that iD licenses their engines. I look at iD games as interestings, pretty tech demos that are probably the simplest application of the wonderful technologies under the engine's hood. Wait about 9 months after iD ships and you'll get the GOOD games (pretty graphics with a more involving story).
To the second point, I think we have to keep in mind that Doom III is a ways off, like a year or better. And that's for the crappy (well, kinda) iD game, not the ones that we'll really want to play that get released a few months after that. By that time, you'll probably be in need of a decent graphics card upgrade, unless you card is brand spanking new and top of the line today.
Not to be condescending to them, but considering your average Mac user (and Apple) put a much higher priority on asthetics and usability than, say, a Linux user, this is a big deal feature. I'm a network / PC support consultant. Whenever I migrate a user to a new PC, the rule is this: the less tech savy the user, the more important Windows dressing like screen savers and background photos are to them. It's a major comfort issue for them. I think that your typical switcher is going to be one of the people that's less technical than a Windows user NOT making the switch, so things like background photos are a big deal in keeping the new computer comfortable and nonthreatening. It's pretty smart of them to have that feature in the migration software.
I don't know that government utilization of open source software is such an unusual idea, but exploring the idea with the intent to put it into practice is (for the most part). Yeah, I guess you could shoot down my thoughts with a " the grass is always greener on the other side" type response, but the fact of the matter is that progressive social policy gets TALKED about in the US while it is USED in western Europe. In my opinion, a democtratic government for the people, of the people, by the people has a nearly automatic obligation to explore more egalitarian ways of executing its duties and practices, if only for the fiscal value in this particular case.
Does anyone else get the impression that this will be yet another area where, yet again, Europe is going to be WAY out in front of the US. Europe and progressive social policy (or, if you live there, I guess you'd just call it "social policy":) ) are practically synonymous and the US is once again made to look like a country run by bankers... Government is a public institution. Therefore, in my mind, it makes perfect sense for a government (a democratic one at least) to setup it's IT infrastructure based around a platform created by the people for the people rather than a platform that lines the pockets of a monlithic corporation (and, in this case, a foreign one at that).
I agree whole heartedly with one astrisk. I do believe that Linux needs a unified, interoperable desktop solution but I think that the single look and feel should be left up to the individual distro. Redhat has the right idea. Being the leader in Linux distros, I think that it's brave (and required) of them to make a move like this to try and steer desktop Linux in a direction that is more concerned with usability and user experience than Gnome vs. KDE idealogical holy wars. Bravo to Redhat for putting the user first.
I've got to take issue with this. Whenever someone does something really interesting with a company's product (like the N64 emulator for example) and the "offended" company sics their lawyers on the hackers, isn't the mantra we all chant usually "hire them, don't sue them!" Frankly, I see this as Microsoft wising up a bit. They see people out there taking their base product and doing some pretty neat stuff with them. Rather than wipe them off the face of the Earth, maybe they're seeing this as an opportunity to deepen their talent pool with some people who truly do think "outside the box." Or inside the Xbox as the case may be. I fail to see why MS looking to hire these people as a bad thing...
I agree that geeks have a certain influence over the people in their lives when it comes to matters like this, but let's compare MS's marketing budget to Circuit City's marketing budget for a moment. And when we're done there, let's compare Windows's market share to Apple's market share to Linux's market share.
Talking down Microsoft's initiatives is a LOT easier said than done. Seriously, if you'd like another good example, look at.Net. 18 months after they announced it, most COMPUTER PEOPLE I know can't explain what the hell it is, myself included. I met a programmer that came close though:) The point is that.Net has been this word that MS floats around, but the definition keeps changing. Even Jim Alchins said that they don't have it fleshed out really well inside the company yet. That hasn't stopped MS from running comercials advertising.Net yet though. And whatever it is, I'm sure it will be pretty successful because MS will just keep massaging the definition and marketing until it sounds palatable to the masses.
I'm really disappointed to read this from Moby because it'll get quoted all over the place by RIAA and I really don't think it's true. First week sales for bands with semi cult followings like Weezer and Moby are ALWAYS dramaticly better than week two, three, etc... because that rabid core of fans is lined up waiting for that album to hit the streets. Moby and Weezer are not radio driven artists. Hell, Moby and his manager go out of their way to point out that "Play" sold like ten million copies and they NEVER released a single to radio. It was advertised almost striclty through song licensing and word of mouth. An artist like Pink makes pop albums for teenagers that watch MTV and listen to top 20 radio. Pink is an EXTREMELY hit driven artist. If she released an album and not one single they released was able to crack the top ten, bye bye Pink. The Weezers fo the world and the Pinks of the world are sold to two totally different demographics (generally speaking). I have yet to see any evidence that Napster and CD burners have dented the music business. I've read more to indicate that, like audio cassette dubbing, they've probably done more to help spur sales than hinder them.
Just once, I would like to read an article quoting a music industry executive like this: "Well, we were really expecting Artist X's follow up to their last hit album to sell really well, but it got our on Grokster where tons of folks downloaded it prior to the release day. When they got an early listen to it, they decided that it sucked and stayed away from the record stores in droves." That scenario is more likely closer to the truth than the "digital piracy is eating our CD sales" theory.
How exactly does sawfish and / or metacity relate to Gnome? I'm having a hard time differentiating desktops vs. windows managers vs. windowing systems...
Steven B. Lipner, Microsoft's director of security assurance, responded, saying: "I'd be astonished if the open-source community has in total done as many man-years of computer security code reviews as we have done in the last two months."
LOL. Well,,fuck the open source developers for doing it right the first time. Let's take a quick opinion poll: Which is more time consuming, writing the code correctly the first time or going back through it looking for erros and REwriting it?
I was on Best Buy's web site last night investigating that same premise. They now only seem to sell Sony, Compaq, HP, Emachines, and Alienware PCs (which they don't even sell on the shelves, just on the web). That basicly leaves 3 manufacturers on the shelves at their stores and one of those is eMachines which REALLY suck ass. I think the breakout looks like this: low end = eMachines, middle tier = Hewlett Paqard. High end = Sony.
If I had a nickle for everytime in the last 18 months Microsoft has said that they were "going to get serious about security" my home computer would be a mainframe. There was an interesting quote from an article in E-Week this week. To paraphrase:
"Microsoft treats bugs like PR problems, not security problems."
Why should we believe that this announcement is anything other than more spin doctor PR crap.
Does anyone get the feeling that Transmeta massively underestimated their competition? Ever since Caruso was announced, I get the feeling that almost every other chip maker out there was like "Lower power? Bid deal, we could do that if we wanted to..." And then they all did. Transmeta went into a market that was pretty open when they annouunced and then everybody else seems to have just piled on at will, but they don't have the disadvantage of being a totally unknown manufacturer to contend with... I kinda feel bad for Transmeta. Anyone want to start a pool and guess who buys them?
...they may as well have painted a bull's eye on the box. I love it when giant software companies tout security and reliability of their products as the main selling point in their ads. It always comes back to bite them in the ass. Software companies should take the advice of the airline industry and never tout their safety records:)
With all due respect, if you're grandma can't use a preinstalled Mandrake Linux box, then you may want to consider having her retake her drivers test because she's probably losing her faculties. Red Hat and Mandrake linux are *every bit* as usable as Mac OSX or Windows to the average person who uses their PC to play a CD, use a word processor, surfer the internet or send emails. Most computer users will never have the desire or need to get very far below the hood of their operating system regardless if it is OSX, Windows, or Linux. Both of the afore mentioned Linuux distros will autodetect 99% of the hardware on your PC unless you happen to have the latest and greatest uber-videocard, which, btw, Apple computers don't. Preinstall 3 desktop computers with OSX, Windows, and Linux respectively, preinstall the most commonly used apps for the particular OS (like browsers, word processors, etc...) and plop the average computer user down in front of amy one of the them and I'd be willing to bet that given an hour in front of each machine, they'd be equally productive on any of them. Why not sell them the more powerful, less expensive computer running Linuns then?
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The rise and fall of Netscape: from groundbreaking browser developer that lit the fuse on the internet boom to a $9.95 per month domain name email host...
pitty
Chris
Reading SCO's claims, reading SGI's responses, reading what Novell and IBM have to say on the matter, it all just makes my head swim. In any given flavor of UNIX there has to be such a mish mash of IP claims, cross licensed technologies, and copywrites that I really truly feel sorry for the judge that has to sort this one out when (if) it reaches trial. I can't see how anyone can claim ownership of ANYTHING regarding UNIX with any certainty.
Chris
"not enough like Star Wars"
:)
Maybe we only see the cool parts in the movies and that life in Lucas's galaxy is really pretty lame most days
Chris
HA! Then can we sue MS for having a command line interface that sucks ass? :)
Chris
Is Redhat punishable if they'r using the code supplied by IBM under the assumptiont aht it was all GPL and not proprietary? If IBM gave the code to the open source community say that it was GPL, I would think that IBM would have to pay the license fees and damages, but it seems unfair to do that to Redhat and SuSE too... Not that "fair" has anything to do with this situation.
Chris
To your first point, I agree that hardware focused development can make for some games that aren't as fun as they should (or could) be, and that's why I'mglad that iD licenses their engines. I look at iD games as interestings, pretty tech demos that are probably the simplest application of the wonderful technologies under the engine's hood. Wait about 9 months after iD ships and you'll get the GOOD games (pretty graphics with a more involving story).
To the second point, I think we have to keep in mind that Doom III is a ways off, like a year or better. And that's for the crappy (well, kinda) iD game, not the ones that we'll really want to play that get released a few months after that. By that time, you'll probably be in need of a decent graphics card upgrade, unless you card is brand spanking new and top of the line today.
Chris
They did create a vacine. It's called FDISK :)
Chris
Not to be condescending to them, but considering your average Mac user (and Apple) put a much higher priority on asthetics and usability than, say, a Linux user, this is a big deal feature. I'm a network / PC support consultant. Whenever I migrate a user to a new PC, the rule is this: the less tech savy the user, the more important Windows dressing like screen savers and background photos are to them. It's a major comfort issue for them. I think that your typical switcher is going to be one of the people that's less technical than a Windows user NOT making the switch, so things like background photos are a big deal in keeping the new computer comfortable and nonthreatening. It's pretty smart of them to have that feature in the migration software.
Chris
I don't know that government utilization of open source software is such an unusual idea, but exploring the idea with the intent to put it into practice is (for the most part). Yeah, I guess you could shoot down my thoughts with a " the grass is always greener on the other side" type response, but the fact of the matter is that progressive social policy gets TALKED about in the US while it is USED in western Europe. In my opinion, a democtratic government for the people, of the people, by the people has a nearly automatic obligation to explore more egalitarian ways of executing its duties and practices, if only for the fiscal value in this particular case.
Chris
Does anyone else get the impression that this will be yet another area where, yet again, Europe is going to be WAY out in front of the US. Europe and progressive social policy (or, if you live there, I guess you'd just call it "social policy" :) ) are practically synonymous and the US is once again made to look like a country run by bankers... Government is a public institution. Therefore, in my mind, it makes perfect sense for a government (a democratic one at least) to setup it's IT infrastructure based around a platform created by the people for the people rather than a platform that lines the pockets of a monlithic corporation (and, in this case, a foreign one at that).
Chris
"5) Popup blocking and *whitelists*"
Dumb question time: what's a whitelist?
Chris
I agree whole heartedly with one astrisk. I do believe that Linux needs a unified, interoperable desktop solution but I think that the single look and feel should be left up to the individual distro. Redhat has the right idea. Being the leader in Linux distros, I think that it's brave (and required) of them to make a move like this to try and steer desktop Linux in a direction that is more concerned with usability and user experience than Gnome vs. KDE idealogical holy wars. Bravo to Redhat for putting the user first.
Chris
Maybe they could use torches to cut large chunks of the methane apart and then bring it to the surface :)
Chris
I've got to take issue with this. Whenever someone does something really interesting with a company's product (like the N64 emulator for example) and the "offended" company sics their lawyers on the hackers, isn't the mantra we all chant usually "hire them, don't sue them!" Frankly, I see this as Microsoft wising up a bit. They see people out there taking their base product and doing some pretty neat stuff with them. Rather than wipe them off the face of the Earth, maybe they're seeing this as an opportunity to deepen their talent pool with some people who truly do think "outside the box." Or inside the Xbox as the case may be. I fail to see why MS looking to hire these people as a bad thing...
Chris
I agree that geeks have a certain influence over the people in their lives when it comes to matters like this, but let's compare MS's marketing budget to Circuit City's marketing budget for a moment. And when we're done there, let's compare Windows's market share to Apple's market share to Linux's market share.
.Net. 18 months after they announced it, most COMPUTER PEOPLE I know can't explain what the hell it is, myself included. I met a programmer that came close though :) The point is that .Net has been this word that MS floats around, but the definition keeps changing. Even Jim Alchins said that they don't have it fleshed out really well inside the company yet. That hasn't stopped MS from running comercials advertising .Net yet though. And whatever it is, I'm sure it will be pretty successful because MS will just keep massaging the definition and marketing until it sounds palatable to the masses.
Talking down Microsoft's initiatives is a LOT easier said than done. Seriously, if you'd like another good example, look at
Paladium could be the exact same situation.
Chris
I'm really disappointed to read this from Moby because it'll get quoted all over the place by RIAA and I really don't think it's true. First week sales for bands with semi cult followings like Weezer and Moby are ALWAYS dramaticly better than week two, three, etc... because that rabid core of fans is lined up waiting for that album to hit the streets. Moby and Weezer are not radio driven artists. Hell, Moby and his manager go out of their way to point out that "Play" sold like ten million copies and they NEVER released a single to radio. It was advertised almost striclty through song licensing and word of mouth. An artist like Pink makes pop albums for teenagers that watch MTV and listen to top 20 radio. Pink is an EXTREMELY hit driven artist. If she released an album and not one single they released was able to crack the top ten, bye bye Pink. The Weezers fo the world and the Pinks of the world are sold to two totally different demographics (generally speaking). I have yet to see any evidence that Napster and CD burners have dented the music business. I've read more to indicate that, like audio cassette dubbing, they've probably done more to help spur sales than hinder them.
Just once, I would like to read an article quoting a music industry executive like this: "Well, we were really expecting Artist X's follow up to their last hit album to sell really well, but it got our on Grokster where tons of folks downloaded it prior to the release day. When they got an early listen to it, they decided that it sucked and stayed away from the record stores in droves." That scenario is more likely closer to the truth than the "digital piracy is eating our CD sales" theory.
Chris
I know this is vaugely off topic, but...
How exactly does sawfish and / or metacity relate to Gnome? I'm having a hard time differentiating desktops vs. windows managers vs. windowing systems...
%^)
Chris
...through a hole in Outlook no doubt.
Chris
From the NY Times article:
,fuck the open source developers for doing it right the first time. Let's take a quick opinion poll: Which is more time consuming, writing the code correctly the first time or going back through it looking for erros and REwriting it?
Steven B. Lipner, Microsoft's director of security assurance, responded, saying: "I'd be astonished if the open-source community has in total done as many man-years of computer security code reviews as we have done in the last two months."
LOL. Well,
Chris
I was on Best Buy's web site last night investigating that same premise. They now only seem to sell Sony, Compaq, HP, Emachines, and Alienware PCs (which they don't even sell on the shelves, just on the web). That basicly leaves 3 manufacturers on the shelves at their stores and one of those is eMachines which REALLY suck ass. I think the breakout looks like this: low end = eMachines, middle tier = Hewlett Paqard. High end = Sony.
:-/
Not a lot to choose from
Chris
AGAIN?!?!
Please...
If I had a nickle for everytime in the last 18 months Microsoft has said that they were "going to get serious about security" my home computer would be a mainframe. There was an interesting quote from an article in E-Week this week. To paraphrase:
"Microsoft treats bugs like PR problems, not security problems."
Why should we believe that this announcement is anything other than more spin doctor PR crap.
chris
Yeah, that would be sad because I guy with his reputation would have a horribly difficult time finding work....
:)
pfffff
Chris
Does anyone get the feeling that Transmeta massively underestimated their competition? Ever since Caruso was announced, I get the feeling that almost every other chip maker out there was like "Lower power? Bid deal, we could do that if we wanted to..." And then they all did. Transmeta went into a market that was pretty open when they annouunced and then everybody else seems to have just piled on at will, but they don't have the disadvantage of being a totally unknown manufacturer to contend with... I kinda feel bad for Transmeta. Anyone want to start a pool and guess who buys them?
Chris
...they may as well have painted a bull's eye on the box. I love it when giant software companies tout security and reliability of their products as the main selling point in their ads. It always comes back to bite them in the ass. Software companies should take the advice of the airline industry and never tout their safety records :)
Chris
With all due respect, if you're grandma can't use a preinstalled Mandrake Linux box, then you may want to consider having her retake her drivers test because she's probably losing her faculties. Red Hat and Mandrake linux are *every bit* as usable as Mac OSX or Windows to the average person who uses their PC to play a CD, use a word processor, surfer the internet or send emails. Most computer users will never have the desire or need to get very far below the hood of their operating system regardless if it is OSX, Windows, or Linux. Both of the afore mentioned Linuux distros will autodetect 99% of the hardware on your PC unless you happen to have the latest and greatest uber-videocard, which, btw, Apple computers don't. Preinstall 3 desktop computers with OSX, Windows, and Linux respectively, preinstall the most commonly used apps for the particular OS (like browsers, word processors, etc...) and plop the average computer user down in front of amy one of the them and I'd be willing to bet that given an hour in front of each machine, they'd be equally productive on any of them. Why not sell them the more powerful, less expensive computer running Linuns then?
Chris