I got the news that the Finns have adopted the FFII's thoughts about this issue and will vote against SW-patents. Let's just hope that there are more people that will "get it" soon.
I tried to include the letter but the lameness filter thought that there were too many whitespaces. *sigh* It's probably somewhere on FFII's homepage anyway.
I think what most people find annoying is the technical/non techichal distinction. The EPO conciders all patents they grant to be technical patents and what the McCarthy bill is saying is, as You quoted "...it is intended to avoid allowing inventive but non-technical methods (including business methods) to be regarded as making a technical contribution and hence as patentable merely because they are implemented on a computer."
McCarthy allows technical buissness models.
Now what? Since EPO says that all their patents are techical and McCarthy-bill sais that it's OK I don't think we've solved anything.
But I could be way off here.
.haeger
Re:writing viruses shouldnt be illegal
on
Blaster Writer Caught
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Let's play "What if..."
What if I write a virus for my own education. I simply want to know if I can.
What if it accidentally infected my own computer.
It's not illegal to write viruses/worms/trojans and its not illegal to get infected, now what? I suspect one could get arrested for negligence(sp?), but really, what would happen in that situation?
Writing code should never be illegal IMHO. Just like making a hammer or a gun shouldn't be illegal. Using that code/hammer/gun to commit a crime should be illegal. Being clumsy is somewhat illegal already isn't it?
I got this letter from a representative, I've sent a few.
I've made a rough translation. Yes I know the english is bad. If You don't like it just read the swedish original. Don't complain about my bad english without being fluent in swedish please. And if You are fluent in swedish, feel free to make a better translation.
I don't really know how to respond to this letter since I can't really understand (nor have I read) the McCarthy report. Does anyone have suggestions for me on how to respond?
--------
"Hello. Thanks for your question. It looks like the voting will be prosponed and that there will be no voting next week.
We have listened to both sides in this question. It looks like we're going to support the report by McCarthy and thereby support the EU-commisions suggestion about software patents.
The large majority here in the building don't want to see a development towards the american legislation. This is why we believe that the current suggestion is a good one. It keeps the current european law (with precident from EPO in Munich) which means that software in itself can't be patented, only technical contributions/implementations.
Kind regards
Sofia Strand"
-------------
Perhaps someone else can make a better translation, letter is here: "Tack for din fraga. Det ser ut som om omrostningen om mjukvarupatentet aterigen kommer att skjutas upp och att det darfor inte rostas i nasta vecka.
Moderaterna har lyssnat mycket till "bada sidor" i den har fragan. Det lutar dock at att Moderaterna kommer att stodja rapporten av McCarthy och darmed stodja EU-kommissionens forslag till direktiv om mjukvarupatent.
Den stora majoriteten har i huset vill inte se en utveckling mot amerikansk lagstiftning. Man anser darfor att forslaget fran EU-kommissionen ar bra. Det bibehaller ju nuvarande europeiska rattslage (med praxis fran EPO i Munchen) och innebar inte att mjukvara i sig kan patenteras, endast tekniska bidrag/losningar.
Open source is bad for those who produce and sell shrink wrapped software. That is not "ALL", not by a longshot.
Most people, like me, work for a company doing inhouse development, modifying existing programs and writing new ones.
Open source is also good for "local" developers, since no program fits a company perfectly and there's always room for improvements. That's a few new jobs right there for those who want it.
Please don't try to scare the Americans with some old McCarthy'isms about socialism and communism. It's not fun and it's not doing anyone any good.
Also, if hospitals and other government agencies can pay less for software and have more money to heal people, I don't have a problem with that. The same goes for other companies, if they can cut prices by not paying license costs, I'm just happy about it.
Netcraft sais a few other fun things. Take a look at this company. They've migrated from Linux to the latest and greatest from Microsoft. I think the chart speaks for itself, don't You? The switcher
When I see those figures I start to wonder, what is the great benefit of the switch? How do one motivate it? "Yes, we've switched to something that costs more in licensing, has a bad security reputation, is rebooted daily and is a known target for hackers."
I'm guessing that isn't the sales pitch to the boss, but what could be?
Another quite popular Football (soccer) game. Actually I think it's the largest online game of that kind right now. I enjoy it. Give it a try. Find it here: Hattrick.org
The best thing about it is that it runs in real time, a week in the game is a week real-time. Two matches a week (cup/training and series) and a 14 week long season. Finally a game that I can play that doesn't require me to be logged in 3-4 times/day.
You can still find traces of *nix lying around in Windows. To find one bit of it try this. Start "cmd" (that's the old DOS-windows) type: nslookup type: help
Near the bottom of that page You can see something saying "view FILE - sort an 'ls' output file and view it with pg".
While it can be argued that the 'ls' that they refer to is nslookup's ls, (as shown in the help-file) there is no such tool for "pg", hence it must be Unix "pg" as nslookup was borrowed from *BSD.
Now, does this mean that Windows contain Unix-code and if so, does this mean that SCO owns Microsoft?
I imagine McBride going on TV shouting "I 0wn j00 B1lly. Ph33r m3!". Ok, not likely, but fun if it were to happen.
You are correct, but when was the last time you heard someone refer to a Mozilla bug as a Linux bug? If there is a bug in IE, it is usually considered a windows bug (even ones where you must be actively running and surfing with IE).
Ok. As soon as You show me how to remove IE from Windows altogether as I can do with Mozilla on a Linux box I'll agree with You. A bug in IE is a windows bug since there is no way to remove IE (I don't cound win98lite) while a bug in Mozilla is a bug in Mozilla.
Secondly its annoying that it naggs you if you save in.doc format and tries to make you use its own proprietary format.
The OO.o file format is standard XML zipped. You can look at the files if You unzip it. There is nothing proprietary about it.
The "nag" about saving in.doc is just a friendly reminder that You are in fact saving in a real proprietary format that noone but Microsoft has the specs to and that they can't guarantee that it'll look the same if You save in that format.
But I agree with You that there should be some checkbox to turn that warning off.
They're actually ashamed of their CPU, and don't want to tell you what it is or how fast in runs. (Most likely.)
Not likely at all imho. SGI's use MIPS as someone pointed out. The latest ones are 700MHz I believe. Another cool feature with the MIPS processors are that they don't consume much power. I seem to remember that they about 17w or so, allowing you to put a lot of cpus together without the need for a lot of cooling.
And when it comes to specs, I'm sure that someone can point out that the processor speed is not nearly as important as the architecture of the machine. I think it was spec.org who did some test a few years ago comparing the 400mhz MIPS and a 1GHz AMD/Intel and found that the MIPS had about 70% of the computing power to the AMD/Intel, but when You put this in a multiprocessor machine (4 I think) the MIPS was 120% to the AMD/Intel and when scaled up even further(16-32), AMD/Intel wasn't even on the charts.
No, SGI has NOTHING to be ashamed of when it comes to their MIPS.
a) The OpenSource community is still a nice one. There are some people that don't play nice, but most do. Yes, companies are fighting to protect their IP. Naturally, they make money from it and they wont give that up so easily. What did You expect? The companies that You mention that won't backport their changes to the original source, well if You put a license on your code that prohibits them from keeping their changes to themselves, they can't do that, can they?
b) Yes the audience has changed. Now not only techies use linux and open source. I thought this was a good thing? Here's a newsflash for You, if You write OS software on your free time the users that You complain about can't really demand anything from You. Next time someone asks You do do something, charge them for it. If they need something done they've got to pay for it. That's the way I do if someone asks me for windows help.
c) Now if this isn't flamebait I don't know what is. There are plenty of "working, aesthetical, nice, round and standardized desktop environment with all tested tools." on Linux and other Open Source systems. Yes, a lot of people works less on Open Source now than they did a few years ago, and You know what? A lot of people works more on Open Source now than they did a few years ago. Peoples interests change, is that strange to You?
"Face it, we all like to be honoured for our work, we all like to hear 'thank you' from the people outside that we spent our time working our ass off on the tools we offer." True, but that's not why I write Open Source. I do it because it's fun and to have the tools I need for my own benefit. If someone complains to me about my tool and don't bring constructive ideas, they can bite my shiny metal ass. Or they can pay me to modify it to their liking.
"Open Source is indeed a nice thing but the times has heavily changed, complaining users, demotivation, dirty play with companies, sueing of people..." I'm sorry that You feel that way and that your motivation is down, but that don't make Open Source a failure. I gave up playing the guitar because my hands hurt and my girfriend asked me to (don't ask), does that make guitar music a failure?
"Think about it, is it really worth the trouble ?" I have, and for me the answer is Yes. I get the tools I need for a job and as a bonus reward I get to use some other peoples tools that they've created to get their job done. I do get paid for my work, just not in cash in my pocket. If I can use the tools that other people write in my job to do it better, I win anyway.
Now, Mr Big Buissness that's hiding under that AC protection, I can understand that You would like Open Source to go away as fast as possible. I understand that You see this Open Source as a threat to your buisness, and it might be, if You sell programs, but for all other companies it's a winning concept. I'm sure You'll figure out how to make the most of Open Source in the future. Most people do eventually.
This should read, "All this can be fixed. But because it's open source, AND I WON'T GET OFF MY LAZY ASS AND HELP, BUT ONLY WANT TO BITCH, it won't be."
I don't agree. He/she is helping. By telling us (but better yet, the developers) what's wrong and could be improved, s/he's improving the program. Not everyone is a programmer and suggestions about needed improvements by real users shouldn't be beaten up like this.
We, the open source movement, need all kinds of people on our side. The movement might be big here on slashdot but it's not in the "real" world. So, users, translators, programmers, UI-experts, project managers and all others, your help is needed. Pick out a program that You use and contact the developers there. Tell them what You can do, I'm sure they can find something for You to do. See this as "payment" for the good program that You get.
I agree with You. I just wish someone would speak up about these things to the general public. Your analogy is good. Make up a few more that has the same simple but good point and make them known to everyone. Managers at Your job, friends, relatives, they should ALL know that the GPL is on the side of the consumer. Basically You're preaching to the choire here on Slashdot.
I speak of Linux, GPL, Mozilla and all Open Source alternatives whenever I get the chance. Do the same and perhaps we can get some mindshare of the masses.
I emailed tech support and their reply was, "we only support IE in Windows, get partition magic and install windows on your computer."
Then do what I do. Refuse to use their service. My bank didn't allow me to use Mozilla on Linux, bye bye bank. I can find someone else to give my money to. My company recently installed a time-reportin tool that requires Windows and IE, I still send my report card to a secretary since I don't have a computer with IE on it, it's either that or they can PAY me to come in in the evening to fill out those damn web-reports in IE, and I guarantee You that I will do this on high pay time.
Don't cave in. All over the world there is one thing people understand. Money. If not supporting Mozilla starts costing them money then they'll have to rethink.
I'm sure I could install windows if they like, provided that they pay for the licese, the computer, my time to install and administer the box. If they want me to run it, they'd better pay me. I don't do boring stuff on my spare time.
However, that would provide lots of scope for slashdot rantings about embrace and extend...
While I agree with You that they'd have to extend whatever open/free FS they choose, I don't think that the "embrace and extend" would be an issue.
The GPL which both ResiserFS (I think) and XFS are released under won't allow Microsoft to pull any of that old shite. The GPL was designed with that in mind. Personally I think it would be great if MS would do this, anything to enhance and improve the open standards is good in my book.
When I got my broadband (DSL) I bought it for one specific reason. Flatrate. I want to be connected at all times. I don't live in America mind You, so the concept of telephone flatrate is a bit too hard to grasp for our ISPs. Anyway, the key selling point was that I knew what I would pay for my internet connection every month. The performance wasn't the issue. Now IF they decide to go back to the old ways of charging me per minute/MB/whatever I'll just cancel my subscription with them. I really don't mind if they cap my bandwith more, just make sure that the bill that comes every month is the same amount. Naturally I'll have to reconcider if they cap it too much and charge too much.
And yes, I am a very modest user of bandwidth.
This is what happens if economists get too much power. Bastards. .haeger
Granted, this is not something for Your home network, but CXFS looks like a good product. AFAIR the server is SGI only, but there should be clients for almost every OS out there.
Yes, I know, it's not a distributed FS, but since so many people suggested NFS, I thought I'd point at another solution.
Draksync and Unison are both included in Mandrake and will do this.
Thank You Roblimo for this information. I'm looking into it right now. However I feel that this is one problem with Linux (GNU/Linux?). There are lots and LOTS of software for Linux, much good, much doing exactly what I need, but it's hard to find that software. Or, rather, it's hard to know what to search for to find what You need.
If there is one thing that Microsoft does right, it's marketing. I feel that Linux has to be more clear about what it wants to do. Focus on an "Office-Linux" in Mandrake and show how good it is and how many nice and nifty features it has, then focus on "Devel-Linux" and push the pros there. Right now I get the feeling that Linux tries to show that it can do anything, which confuses me a bit.
Slashdot Mirror
I got the news that the Finns have adopted the FFII's thoughts about this issue and will vote against SW-patents.
.haeger
Let's just hope that there are more people that will "get it" soon.
I tried to include the letter but the lameness filter thought that there were too many whitespaces. *sigh*
It's probably somewhere on FFII's homepage anyway.
I think what most people find annoying is the technical/non techichal distinction. The EPO conciders all patents they grant to be technical patents and what the McCarthy bill is saying is, as You quoted "...it is intended to avoid allowing inventive but non-technical methods (including business methods) to be regarded as making a technical contribution and hence as patentable merely because they are implemented on a computer."
.haeger
McCarthy allows technical buissness models.
Now what? Since EPO says that all their patents are techical and McCarthy-bill sais that it's OK I don't think we've solved anything.
But I could be way off here.
What if I write a virus for my own education. I simply want to know if I can.
What if it accidentally infected my own computer.
It's not illegal to write viruses/worms/trojans and its not illegal to get infected, now what? I suspect one could get arrested for negligence(sp?), but really, what would happen in that situation?
Writing code should never be illegal IMHO. Just like making a hammer or a gun shouldn't be illegal. Using that code/hammer/gun to commit a crime should be illegal. Being clumsy is somewhat illegal already isn't it?
I've made a rough translation. Yes I know the english is bad. If You don't like it just read the swedish original. Don't complain about my bad english without being fluent in swedish please. And if You are fluent in swedish, feel free to make a better translation.
I don't really know how to respond to this letter since I can't really understand (nor have I read) the McCarthy report. Does anyone have suggestions for me on how to respond?
--------
"Hello.
Thanks for your question.
It looks like the voting will be prosponed and that there will be no voting next week.
We have listened to both sides in this question. It looks like we're going to support the report by McCarthy and thereby support the EU-commisions suggestion about software patents.
The large majority here in the building don't want to see a development towards the american legislation. This is why we believe that the current suggestion is a good one. It keeps the current european law (with precident from EPO in Munich) which means that software in itself can't be patented, only technical contributions/implementations.
Kind regards
Sofia Strand"
-------------
Perhaps someone else can make a better translation, letter is here:
"Tack for din fraga. Det ser ut som om omrostningen om mjukvarupatentet aterigen kommer att skjutas upp och att det darfor inte rostas i nasta vecka.
Moderaterna har lyssnat mycket till "bada sidor" i den har fragan. Det lutar dock at att Moderaterna kommer att stodja rapporten av McCarthy och darmed stodja EU-kommissionens forslag till direktiv om mjukvarupatent.
Den stora majoriteten har i huset vill inte se en utveckling mot amerikansk lagstiftning. Man anser darfor att forslaget fran EU-kommissionen ar bra. Det bibehaller ju nuvarande europeiska rattslage (med praxis fran EPO i Munchen) och innebar inte att mjukvara i sig kan patenteras, endast tekniska bidrag/losningar.
Med vanliga halsningar
Sofia Strand"
Most people, like me, work for a company doing inhouse development, modifying existing programs and writing new ones.
Open source is also good for "local" developers, since no program fits a company perfectly and there's always room for improvements. That's a few new jobs right there for those who want it.
Please don't try to scare the Americans with some old McCarthy'isms about socialism and communism. It's not fun and it's not doing anyone any good.
Also, if hospitals and other government agencies can pay less for software and have more money to heal people, I don't have a problem with that. The same goes for other companies, if they can cut prices by not paying license costs, I'm just happy about it.
Here's comanche for You.
Don't. Use Comanche instead.
Netcraft sais a few other fun things.
.haeger
Take a look at this company. They've migrated from Linux to the latest and greatest from Microsoft.
I think the chart speaks for itself, don't You?
The switcher
When I see those figures I start to wonder, what is the great benefit of the switch? How do one motivate it?
"Yes, we've switched to something that costs more in licensing, has a bad security reputation, is rebooted daily and is a known target for hackers."
I'm guessing that isn't the sales pitch to the boss, but what could be?
The newsitem is being covered by the BBC, SkyNews and CNN.
.haeger
How appropriate.
Another quite popular Football (soccer) game.
.haeger
Actually I think it's the largest online game of that kind right now. I enjoy it. Give it a try.
Find it here: Hattrick.org
The best thing about it is that it runs in real time, a week in the game is a week real-time. Two matches a week (cup/training and series) and a 14 week long season. Finally a game that I can play that doesn't require me to be logged in 3-4 times/day.
You can still find traces of *nix lying around in Windows. To find one bit of it try this.
.haeger
Start "cmd" (that's the old DOS-windows)
type: nslookup
type: help
Near the bottom of that page You can see something saying "view FILE - sort an 'ls' output file and view it with pg".
While it can be argued that the 'ls' that they refer to is nslookup's ls, (as shown in the help-file) there is no such tool for "pg", hence it must be Unix "pg" as nslookup was borrowed from *BSD.
Now, does this mean that Windows contain Unix-code and if so, does this mean that SCO owns Microsoft?
I imagine McBride going on TV shouting "I 0wn j00 B1lly. Ph33r m3!". Ok, not likely, but fun if it were to happen.
You are correct, but when was the last time you heard someone refer to a Mozilla bug as a Linux bug? If there is a bug in IE, it is usually considered a windows bug (even ones where you must be actively running and surfing with IE).
.haeger
Ok. As soon as You show me how to remove IE from Windows altogether as I can do with Mozilla on a Linux box I'll agree with You.
A bug in IE is a windows bug since there is no way to remove IE (I don't cound win98lite) while a bug in Mozilla is a bug in Mozilla.
Choices You know...
Secondly its annoying that it naggs you if you save in .doc format and tries to make you use its own proprietary format.
.doc is just a friendly reminder that You are in fact saving in a real proprietary format that noone but Microsoft has the specs to and that they can't guarantee that it'll look the same if You save in that format.
.haeger
The OO.o file format is standard XML zipped. You can look at the files if You unzip it. There is nothing proprietary about it.
The "nag" about saving in
But I agree with You that there should be some checkbox to turn that warning off.
They're actually ashamed of their CPU, and don't want to tell you what it is or how fast in runs. (Most likely.)
.haeger
Not likely at all imho. SGI's use MIPS as someone pointed out. The latest ones are 700MHz I believe. Another cool feature with the MIPS processors are that they don't consume much power. I seem to remember that they about 17w or so, allowing you to put a lot of cpus together without the need for a lot of cooling.
And when it comes to specs, I'm sure that someone can point out that the processor speed is not nearly as important as the architecture of the machine.
I think it was spec.org who did some test a few years ago comparing the 400mhz MIPS and a 1GHz AMD/Intel and found that the MIPS had about 70% of the computing power to the AMD/Intel, but when You put this in a multiprocessor machine (4 I think) the MIPS was 120% to the AMD/Intel and when scaled up even further(16-32), AMD/Intel wasn't even on the charts.
No, SGI has NOTHING to be ashamed of when it comes to their MIPS.
Ok troll, I'll bite.
.haeger
a) The OpenSource community is still a nice one. There are some people that don't play nice, but most do. Yes, companies are fighting to protect their IP. Naturally, they make money from it and they wont give that up so easily. What did You expect? The companies that You mention that won't backport their changes to the original source, well if You put a license on your code that prohibits them from keeping their changes to themselves, they can't do that, can they?
b) Yes the audience has changed. Now not only techies use linux and open source. I thought this was a good thing? Here's a newsflash for You, if You write OS software on your free time the users that You complain about can't really demand anything from You. Next time someone asks You do do something, charge them for it. If they need something done they've got to pay for it. That's the way I do if someone asks me for windows help.
c) Now if this isn't flamebait I don't know what is. There are plenty of "working, aesthetical, nice, round and standardized desktop environment with all tested tools." on Linux and other Open Source systems.
Yes, a lot of people works less on Open Source now than they did a few years ago, and You know what? A lot of people works more on Open Source now than they did a few years ago. Peoples interests change, is that strange to You?
"Face it, we all like to be honoured for our work, we all like to hear 'thank you' from the people outside that we spent our time working our ass off on the tools we offer."
True, but that's not why I write Open Source. I do it because it's fun and to have the tools I need for my own benefit. If someone complains to me about my tool and don't bring constructive ideas, they can bite my shiny metal ass. Or they can pay me to modify it to their liking.
"Open Source is indeed a nice thing but the times has heavily changed, complaining users, demotivation, dirty play with companies, sueing of people..."
I'm sorry that You feel that way and that your motivation is down, but that don't make Open Source a failure. I gave up playing the guitar because my hands hurt and my girfriend asked me to (don't ask), does that make guitar music a failure?
"Think about it, is it really worth the trouble ?"
I have, and for me the answer is Yes. I get the tools I need for a job and as a bonus reward I get to use some other peoples tools that they've created to get their job done. I do get paid for my work, just not in cash in my pocket. If I can use the tools that other people write in my job to do it better, I win anyway.
Now, Mr Big Buissness that's hiding under that AC protection, I can understand that You would like Open Source to go away as fast as possible. I understand that You see this Open Source as a threat to your buisness, and it might be, if You sell programs, but for all other companies it's a winning concept. I'm sure You'll figure out how to make the most of Open Source in the future. Most people do eventually.
All the best
...and false.
.haeger
You already have a program that is bug free, does what you expect.
Log into any IRIX or solarismachine and type "man true".
DESCRIPTION
true does nothing, successfully. false does nothing, unsuccessfully.
One of my favourite manpages.
This should read, "All this can be fixed. But because it's open source, AND I WON'T GET OFF MY LAZY ASS AND HELP, BUT ONLY WANT TO BITCH, it won't be."
.haeger
I don't agree. He/she is helping. By telling us (but better yet, the developers) what's wrong and could be improved, s/he's improving the program. Not everyone is a programmer and suggestions about needed improvements by real users shouldn't be beaten up like this.
We, the open source movement, need all kinds of people on our side. The movement might be big here on slashdot but it's not in the "real" world.
So, users, translators, programmers, UI-experts, project managers and all others, your help is needed. Pick out a program that You use and contact the developers there. Tell them what You can do, I'm sure they can find something for You to do. See this as "payment" for the good program that You get.
I agree with You. I just wish someone would speak up about these things to the general public. Your analogy is good. Make up a few more that has the same simple but good point and make them known to everyone. Managers at Your job, friends, relatives, they should ALL know that the GPL is on the side of the consumer. Basically You're preaching to the choire here on Slashdot.
.haeger
I speak of Linux, GPL, Mozilla and all Open Source alternatives whenever I get the chance. Do the same and perhaps we can get some mindshare of the masses.
I emailed tech support and their reply was, "we only support IE in Windows, get partition magic and install windows on your computer."
.haeger
Then do what I do. Refuse to use their service. My bank didn't allow me to use Mozilla on Linux, bye bye bank. I can find someone else to give my money to. My company recently installed a time-reportin tool that requires Windows and IE, I still send my report card to a secretary since I don't have a computer with IE on it, it's either that or they can PAY me to come in in the evening to fill out those damn web-reports in IE, and I guarantee You that I will do this on high pay time.
Don't cave in. All over the world there is one thing people understand. Money. If not supporting Mozilla starts costing them money then they'll have to rethink.
I'm sure I could install windows if they like, provided that they pay for the licese, the computer, my time to install and administer the box. If they want me to run it, they'd better pay me. I don't do boring stuff on my spare time.
However, that would provide lots of scope for slashdot rantings about embrace and extend...
.haeger
While I agree with You that they'd have to extend whatever open/free FS they choose, I don't think that the "embrace and extend" would be an issue.
The GPL which both ResiserFS (I think) and XFS are released under won't allow Microsoft to pull any of that old shite. The GPL was designed with that in mind. Personally I think it would be great if MS would do this, anything to enhance and improve the open standards is good in my book.
Exim does not want to be extended, it wants to assimilate everything, making the result too big to be understandable by anyone
.haeger
So, it looks like we'll have our MS-Exchange replacement afterall?
When I got my broadband (DSL) I bought it for one specific reason. Flatrate. I want to be connected at all times. I don't live in America mind You, so the concept of telephone flatrate is a bit too hard to grasp for our ISPs.
.haeger
Anyway, the key selling point was that I knew what I would pay for my internet connection every month. The performance wasn't the issue. Now IF they decide to go back to the old ways of charging me per minute/MB/whatever I'll just cancel my subscription with them. I really don't mind if they cap my bandwith more, just make sure that the bill that comes every month is the same amount.
Naturally I'll have to reconcider if they cap it too much and charge too much.
And yes, I am a very modest user of bandwidth.
This is what happens if economists get too much power. Bastards.
Yeah, nice try there Nathan. Didn't think we'd spot You?
Granted, this is not something for Your home network, but CXFS looks like a good product. AFAIR the server is SGI only, but there should be clients for almost every OS out there.
.haeger
Yes, I know, it's not a distributed FS, but since so many people suggested NFS, I thought I'd point at another solution.
Draksync and Unison are both included in Mandrake and will do this.
.haeger
Thank You Roblimo for this information. I'm looking into it right now.
However I feel that this is one problem with Linux (GNU/Linux?). There are lots and LOTS of software for Linux, much good, much doing exactly what I need, but it's hard to find that software. Or, rather, it's hard to know what to search for to find what You need.
If there is one thing that Microsoft does right, it's marketing. I feel that Linux has to be more clear about what it wants to do. Focus on an "Office-Linux" in Mandrake and show how good it is and how many nice and nifty features it has, then focus on "Devel-Linux" and push the pros there. Right now I get the feeling that Linux tries to show that it can do anything, which confuses me a bit.